Opposition

𝒟𝒪𝒪𝑀𝒮𝒜𝒴𝐸𝑅𝒮 - Opp's Adventures in Meta-Land

@Opposition Thank

Will we have real faceclaims or art?

@Ghost Note

I'd prefer art as was mentioned. Stylistic choices beyond that are up to you.

I actually already asked, Opp said it was ideal for it to be art based but you can have the picture be of a specific outfit or even more conceptual.

Edit: Also, could we get the code with the pre /pre box?

@BlackBlood

If you hit the raw button in the top left of the second post, you can see the whole post with formatting. The sheet is at the bottom.

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I'm glad we've gotten a sizable amount of interest. The OOC is underway, but I'm making some additions regarding NPCs, character creation clarifications, as well as giving a sample character sheet to help you with the more abstract section. That should be appearing in the coming week.

For those of you still looking at the RP, I encourage you to apply and ask me any questions you might have.

𝒟𝒪𝒪𝑀𝒮𝒜𝒴𝐸𝑅𝒮 - Opp's Adventures in Meta-Land

Interested.

@Ghost Note

Glad to have you on board. Let me know if you've got any questions.

Goddammit, now I have to choose between this and Futility.

@Commander Bork

No cars allowed in Doomsayers.

𝒟𝒪𝒪𝑀𝒮𝒜𝒴𝐸𝑅𝒮 - Opp's Adventures in Meta-Land

Lore

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High John’s House of Saints:::

Reach through the static attacking your head. How did you end up here?

High John’s House of Saints is an establishment shrouded in mystery. With patients that are never quite sure how they ended up there and a faculty of specialists and esoteric clinicians, the true origin of the House of Saints’ funding and mission are unknown. The asylum itself is built in a forest grove with a backdrop of volcanic mountains isolated in high elevations presumed to be somewhere in the American northwest. Arranged as a compound array of structures, there is great variance in the House’s buildings, but the main structure in which the patients are housed is a large brick structure with innumerable towers and crenellations. No patient has successfully mapped its labyrinthine passageways. Dare to explore further around the compound, and you might find esoteric lab spaces or training barracks.

While each patient’s experience is unique, most of the tests that take place are reminiscent of cold war fringe scientific experiments that leave patients impaired, dessicated, disoriented, detached, and with lapses in memory. While keeping track of time can be difficult in the House, most imagine that experiments happen sporadically, sometimes days apart, sometimes weeks apart, sometimes hours apart. In a sense, most patients come to believe they’re losing pieces of themselves with each new experiment, and often the only thing that remains in place of the lingering emptiness are flashes of hallucinogenic imagery. Inhuman creatures, impossible geometry, and unlawful physics—a world on the other side.

The Land of the Dead:::

You’ve heard it in the whispers in your head. Its messages call you to the desolate. Feel your inherent connection.

The Land of the Dead is a space where everything lost inevitably ends up: a limbo beyond all things, the precipice—at the edge of the void. Believed by the researchers at the House to be a sort of drain from which all dimensions are sucked into, the Land of the Dead is perpetually suspended in time ‘at the edge’, frozen moments before apocalypse. There are a number of factors that play into this. From the fragments of observations that have been collected and documented of the Land of the Dead, speculations have been made that claim the very fabric of its universe is shaped like a constantly collapsing double-helix spiral. There are no planets and no stars. The fabric of the Land of the Dead is warped and constantly shifting and falling further into its own void. Thus, the laws of physics are completely skewed and the limits of possibility are entirely speculative.

Chaos reigns above all else in the Land of the Dead, but that hasn’t stopped civilization from rising and falling back into the flames. While the landscape is extremely varied and you can never quite be sure of where you are in the Land of the Dead, layer upon layer of the remnants of ancient civilizations are built up and crumbling all alongside each other. In one second, you may see endless cities stretching on as far as your eyes will reach. In the next, fantastic cliff formations and torrential rifts bisect the land.

The Land of the Dead is far from empty. The Dead, shadows of creatures estranged from their past lives, fill its urban landscapes. They say when you’re ready to cast it all away, The Big Man Downstairs will come and take you. Cross the river and you’ll arrive at the Gate. In a place where there’s no need to survive, all you can do is try, but the empty-handed dead wanderers from beyond are not alone. Gnarled beasts await to usher you into this interim. Cartels of Devils and rabid Demons lurk the streets, demean, depress, and devour the Dead who can’t quite jive in the new world. When the Dead denizens have no motive, no goal, no hope, what’s left?

Inhabitants of the Land of the Dead:::

►The Dead

When an entity loses all connection to this world, and nothing but the calling void remains, chance may have it that they find themselves stripped of their identity. In one second, the anguish evaporates. You’ll cross the river and the Gatemen await to let you into the Land of the Dead. Memories, final remnant possessions—don’t count on holding on for long. The Gatemen will demand their due, lest you dare to dance at the river in limbo into eternity.

The Dead make up the majority of entities existing in the Land of the Dead. While there is great variance in their masses, the Dead are typically identified by their ‘husk-like’ appearance. As the Land of the Dead begins to take them, their bodies will further eschew their human form and give way to desiccated shells with skin like stone and bright yellow eyes. To join the dead is to become one with the end, but even in the eyes of the hollow creatures there is something left: the Hunger.

The Dead carry an insatiable appetite right alongside the Land of the Dead spiralling in on itself. The hardy creatures are known to eat anything and everything, from solid matter to other creatures. Managing the Hunger until the prospective End tends to become the sole focus of a Dead husk. Societies of the Dead have risen and fallen based on this premise, but no group has emerged to unify them. Thus, the Dead all have their own fleeting purpose in the Land of the Dead. Everyone needs to find something to pass the time.

►The Doomsayers

It’s a strange fate—stuck upon the interim, at the edge of the disk—on the outside looking in. No one knows quite why, but there are a rare few cases of those who have seen into the interim and come back. At the edge of this world’s connection, the so-called ‘Doomsayers’ can see the end. It often comes first in hazy memories misplaced, as though the Doomsayer were always there, lurking in the Land of the Dead.

The Doomsayers play a bit of an esoteric and chaotic role in the Land of the Dead. While its Dead inhabitants have mostly resigned attitudes towards the acceptance of the End and the oppressive forces of their strange homeland, the Doomsayers are known to invade the Land of the Dead with the drive to shape the world around them. Because of this, the Doomsayers are omens. While they are a rare sight, Doomsayers are often held in a spot of contempt, distance, and reverence all at the same time.

Doomsayers enter the Land of the Dead through parallel-but-altered versions of themselves in reality. Each Doomsayer that wanders through the Land of the Dead is different, with a completely different set of strange abilities to distort the very dimension itself. Each of these unique individuals tends to be the embodiment of their own doom prophecy that intersects their own reality and the Land of the Dead. They are often known as the only creatures in the Land that are able to oppose the great Demons and Devils.

The Outsiders:::

The Land of the Dead is itself so distant that we can hardly understand the bounds of its black void—a pandaemonium. Lurking within it, creatures seem to have emerged in primordial times to occupy the once craven space.

►The Devils

The End’s Greatest Machinations...

Some believe it was them that weaved the Land of the Dead out of the emptiness. The Devils, creatures made of the darkest shadows, have spread like a virus across the Land of the Dead. Intelligent, physically-attuned to the strange circumstances of their twisted world, and revering hierarchical order above all else, these outsiders have been responsible for the great creation and undoing of many great civilizations throughout the Land of the Dead.

With each devil owing allegiance only to another in their many orders and substructures, their desire to exploit the environment and its Dead inhabitants are almost uncontained. The Devils are known to set up elaborate factions that the Land of the Dead’s inhabitants can’t help but utilize, striking dangerous deals with the Outsiders in the process. More than anything, the power of the Devils is propped up by the innate fear they strike into their foes with the overwhelming order of their Dread Courts.

Having developed a fine control of their own evolutionary process over aeons, Devils are a very diverse species. While they are all made of the same basic composite that amounts to a sort of flesh-armor over their form, the shapes that Devils take are based on their specific position in the greater order. Common phenotypes include abilities like cell regeneration and augmentation, manipulation of the laws of physics, and psychic connection to other entities in the Land of the Dead.

►The Demons

Believed to be the first primordial spawn of the void, the Demons are creatures that haunt the shadows of the Land of the Dead. They are governed only by chaos and pandaemonium. Since there is seemingly no bound or pattern to the spawning of Demons, they irregularly amass around the Land of the Dead, preying on any creature they find. Most know them as terrors that will level cities or devour the Dead.

Much like their counterparts in the void, Demons have incomprehensible evolutionary processes, but the diversity of Demons is far higher than even the Devils. It is believed that each Demon is evolving and mutating beyond the greater species, and often this can occur through a ‘rewriting’ process during the creature’s life rather than at its genesis.

►The Vestiges

Pandaemonium is full of forces and energies unseen. Their interaction, their sentience, their influence are all mysteries. The Vestiges are the reflections of these mysteries. Researchers at the House have yet to prove the existence of Vestiges, but accounts pulled from the minds of Doomsayer counterparts of interaction are hypothesized to be caused by microscopic life that unify into greater entities to create a sort of collective consciousness. These Vestiges manifest throughout the Land of the Dead seemingly at random.

The Doomsayer Loophole:::

Watch your step amongst the Dead. It’s said that the moment a creature enters the Land of the Dead, they are stuck there until its end—bound by contract with the Big Man Downstairs, but there exists the Doomsayer Loophole. A small subset of the populace in reality, often wayward and lost, can abandon their human connections and enter the sensory world of a projected counterpart in the Land of the Dead.

Doomsayers can be quite unlike their counterparts in reality, but their interaction is nonetheless a subject of wonder for any House researcher. Measured signatures across both planes seems to indicate that both the Doomsayer and the counterpart take actions independent of one another. While almost always unaware of the Doomsayer, the counterpart can be manipulated into trance-like unconscious states wherein they see into the Land of the Dead. It is hypothesized that the connection between Doomsayer and counterpart goes much deeper.

Consistent observation over several experiments has provided marginal information on the Doomsayer and its relationship with its counterpart. Scientists have since come to a few conclusions, though much greater study is required. Firstly, research notes that the role a Doomsayer plays in its interactions with the Land of the Dead is highly variable depending on its counterpart. Counterpart personalities, beliefs, and feelings can change the course of the Doomsayer in powerful fluxes. Second, the more a counterpart undergoes observation tests, the greater the connection to the Doomsayer and the Land of the Dead becomes. Counterparts may show greater aptitude for connecting and influencing the actions of their Doomsayer avatar, but this development can manifest in strange ways in base reality. The most common effects on the counterpart include gaps in memory, disconnection and distance from the material world, and ‘emptiness’.

There have been documented—but unverified—cases of gaps in existence upon one plane, wherein a counterpart disappears from House observation for stretches of time only to reappear in a completely different place than the original loss of contact. These tales should be held in great scrutiny before the Doomsayers are falsely represented in official reports.

As a Doomsayer counterpart grows more connected to their Doomsayer, there is a threshold that is reached wherein the counterpart receives an apocalyptic prophecy of the End of the Land of the Dead. These prophetic tales of death have provided the House great insight into the individual identity of each Doomsayer, their counterpart, and the motives of the pair.

Character Creation

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The character creation process for Doomsayers is a bit intensive and abstract compared to the usual character sheet for Guild RPs. In a sense, you’ll be creating two entirely different sheets (don’t worry too much; both of them are short). One side of the major sheet involves outlining your character in reality while the other side describes the mysterious Doomsayer that your character will be uncovering right alongside you.

In the Land of the Dead, Doomsayers are one of the closest things to any sort of ‘magic’. Your Doomsayer will be able to employ a variety mystic abilities that shape the world around them, but rather than specifically outlining your abilities, we will be relying on an abstract approach based on the concepts and themes of your Doomsayer. Thus, you’ll be able to employ this sort of ‘magic’ onto the world when it works well for the story, almost as if the Land of the Dead shapes to the Doomsayers rather than the Doomsayers exerting their influence on the world.

With that said, there will certainly be limits on what you can accomplish when inhabiting your Doomsayer. The thematic concepts that are at the center of the sheets (Virtue, Vice, Quest, Doomsayer Prophecy, etc) will determine what your Doomsayer is able to do. Keep that in mind as you write, as your limits and abilities will be bound to your creative ability rather than any arbitrary external factors. When writing these crucial elements of the sheet, particularly those detailing actual writing samples of your Doomsayer, you do not have to omit their mysticism entirely, but it shouldn’t be the central focus of any section. Explore as much as you’d like.

Character Sheet

[picture]

P r o j e c t :: [[[Doomsayer Paragon]]]

[[[N A M E]]]

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Layer 01:::

Patient Profile:::

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”Character Quote”

Name:

Gender:

Age: [[[How long?]]]

Classification: [[[“What sort of creature are you?”]]]

Physical Description: [[[“Why do you look so strange?]]]

Psychological Profile:::

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Trait | Trait | Trait | Trait | Trait | Trait

Patient Observations::: [[[“What makes you think you’re at the House of Saints for?”]]]

Deepest Desire::: [[[“Tell of what hides within you and burns your soul.”]]]

Quest::: [[[“And what is it someone as lost as you is striving for? We all have a goal in our circumstances. What is it that you must accomplish, even in death?” Each character will have self-perceived purposes that will motivate and drive them to action throughout the story. This is where you will start. Take inspiration here from your Doomsayer Prophecy]]]

Virtue::: [[[“What ultimate virtue lies inside you? We are all paragons in our own right.”]]]

Vice::: [[[“What ultimate vice eats at you? We are all our own greatest poisons.”]]]

Likes::: [[[“What mundane things keep you connected to this place?”]]]

Dislikes::: [[[“What pushes you closer to the edge?”]]]

Oddities::: [[[“Tell me a secret…”]]]

Background Information:::

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“Character Quote”

Wisps of Memory::: [[[“Do you remember who you once were? You won’t for long.”]]]
Tell me about your life before the House while you still can.

In the House of High John::: [[[“What is your life like in High John’s House of Saints?”]]]
This is your chance to establish your reputation among other patients and staff, your day-to-day life, and how you cope with the fog.

Fragments and Connections::: [[[“Do you have anything left? Is there anything that drives your desire to stay connected to this wicked world?”]]]

Layer 02:::

[[[Inspirational Picture?]]]

[[[DOOMSAYER:::YOUR PARAGON]]]

Description::: [[[“Your Doomsayer… What is their banner? What does their image impose upon the watching Dead?”]]]

Doomsayer Paragon::: [[[“Tell me what title have your actions in the Land of the Dead earned you?”]]]
This is the most crucial factor to your Doomsayer’s identity which should run parallel or complementary to your Virtue and Vice. Your Paragon should be a grand concept that represents your Doomsayer in an abstract way. From it, you’ll derive how your Doomsayer will influence the Land of the Dead as well as their counterpart.

Doomsayer Prophecy::: [[[“What have you seen in the Land of the Dead? Tell me, Doomsayer—tell me of your end.”]]]
Every Doomsayer has seen their own vision of the End. This occurs when counterparts reach a certain threshold in terms of connection with their Doomsayer. How does the Land of the Dead reach its end in your Doomsayer’s vision? If you don’t have any ideas, look to your Paragon, Virtue, and Vice for inspiration.

A Legend::: [[[“Doomsayers are mythic figures among the Dead. Do you know what they think of you?”]]]
This is your chance to establish whispered reputations of your Doomsayer in the Land of the Dead. It’s important to note that this isn’t meant to be a place for you to establish your skills, crazy fighting ability, etc. Tell me something about your Doomsayer’s unique approach to their role in the Land of the Dead. Some embellishment is encouraged and you are able to exhibit your Doomsayer’s mysticism to a degree. Remember that most of your Doomsayer’s life is still a mystery to your counterpart. A few paragraphs max.

A Sighting::: [[[“As much as we’d like to be invisible, the Dead are always watching. Surely, they’ve seen you too.”]]]
Similar to the Legend, but use this as a more concrete example to establish the personality of your Doomsayer. Tell a short story about them being sighted among the Dead. A few paragraphs max.

𝒜 𝒞𝑜𝓃𝓉𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉 𝒲𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓉𝒽:::
[[[Sign your name on the dotted line...]]]
For those of you who want to be more involved and have more at stake in the world of Doomsayers, sign a contract with Death. With this in mind, I will readily challenge you to avoid death, for if you sign you should be prepared for your character to prematurely reach their end. This does not mean you no longer have a spot in the RP, but rather that you'll have to make up a new character. This is done moreso to encourage toying with character arcs than as a punishment. Those of you who opt to sign the contract may find more options available to them should they fall victim to that cruel fate. Once we are more established in the Land of the Dead, other types of characters will become available.

Interactions Table Template

Character name	Relationship
[Name of other character]	[Write out your character's opinion and relationship with the character in question.]

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With that said, once again welcome to Doomsayers! I know the lore is a lot to take in right from the start, so feel free to drop questions below and contact me as necessary. My discord tag is mentioned in the rules if you'd prefer to contact me there. So, who's interested?

𝒟𝒪𝒪𝑀𝒮𝒜𝒴𝐸𝑅𝒮 - Opp's Adventures in Meta-Land

𝒟𝒪𝒪𝑀𝒮𝒜𝒴𝐸𝑅𝒮

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[[[Hey. Have you ever felt forgotten? Have you ever felt your memory decay? Maybe you’ve seen it in others. While drifting through life, little pieces of you that exist in others deteriorate, like they’re chipped away.]]]

[[[Have you ever felt a connection snap? Like, some fake red string gets scissored, snipped, and that’s it. What once was is gone, and you can choose to move on. But often, I find that we get lost. We chase the shredded, shedded string and grasp at its frayed edges. Just like that you’re off course. In a misguided attempt to save a single inkling of something you once thought would carry on, and you’ve tumbled off the path. Maybe in your frantic wandering more strings snap.]]]

[[[Some of us are down to our last.]]]

[[[Our connections to this world are maintained by only fragments of fabrics. You’d think most people would want to hold on, but at the edge you feel this switch in perspective creep up and infect you. Maybe it’s the Big Man Downstairs plucking your last strings, asking for a dance down below. All it takes is one misstep and just like that, you can forego all the ill-fate of the everyday. Take a trip to some sort of sick and twisted basement. He’s down there waiting, but that’s his trick. In the blink of an eye, no goodbyes, what came before recedes into the inky black and what’s next is all that’s left. Don’t glance back. You can’t. Sign the contract.]]]

[[[But what’s even worse is being stuck on the edge.]]]

[[[Welcome to the Land of the Dead…]]]

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Welcome to Doomsayers! This will be a surrealist urban fantasy roleplay in which you will each take on one character with many roles: an inpatient in a strange and mysterious asylum experiment, a peregrine outsider in a surreal parallel world, a counsel to devil, demon, and the dead. Will you live up to your reputation, Doomsayer, and bring about an end in the land of all endings, or have you another goal buried in the mental fog? Maybe remnants of your attachments to that strange place—that life you lived—remain.

Our Roles:::

Each player will maintain one character who has been willingly or unwillingly taken into High John’s House of Saints Asylum, where a society with close ties to the American Government conducts a variety of studies on patients who have little recollection of quite where they are, how they got there, and what they’re doing there. Through the mental fog, you will discover you can’t ignore your tie to another strange world: the Land of the Dead, where storybook creatures reside and no common law from your world applies. Will you find out what your connection to this world means? Will you be devoured by the disorder or reclaim it as your birthright?

Our Goal:::

Doomsayers will be a very involved project that demands a lot of each writer taking part. As such, I will be looking for people who are interested not only in developing an interactive complex story that integrates both a variety of player motivations and world lore, but also players who are looking to use the project as an outlet to seriously draft, practice, and improve their writing.

Because of this, I hope you will bear with me through the expansive content of the lore so that we can work together to develop an interesting, multi-layered narrative. The character creation process for Doomsayers will be rather intensive to ensure that we have a powerful and motivated cast that can dedicate themselves to this collaborative performance.

Our Rules:::

Rules

►Follow all of the Guild’s rules and don’t metagame or powergame. Working cooperatively with other writers’ characters can be challenging, but as you learn to give and take without overly modifying another player’s experience, you’ll find unexpected new opportunities arise. That being said, I expect all players to respect the actions of other characters and realistically interact with the world.

►Doomsayers will be an advanced RP, as I want to adhere to certain quality standards. While quality is greater than quantity, I’d like each writer to substantially contribute in each of their posts. Focuses here will be to aim for around 3-5 developed paragraphs, regular dialogue interaction, and balance of action and reaction. If you are ever struggling to create a post or come up with an idea, I am willing to help work through ideas and I imagine our other writers will be as well.

►Be friendly and respectful to the rest of the group. If any sort of problem comes up, hash things out respectfully. Unnecessary OOC arguments will bring no positive benefit to the players. Don’t be afraid to bring up issues that may arise so that we can talk through things and solve any problems. I’d prefer us all to be on a friendly page.

►This story necessitates heavy participation, discussion, and active pursuit of personal character development alongside main story plotlines. What I’ve found can be the most important aspect of collaborative roleplaying is how deeply players choose to interact with the story, other characters, and themselves. Please do your best to regularly include and interact with the players you are in scenes with, and please try to actively pursue storylines as they emerge and interest you.

►While I would like everyone to be posting on a semi-regular basis, I understand that issues may arise and we all get busy. I tend to run a game that can get slow at times. My main intention is to keep Doomsayers going regardless of what roadblocks we all hit. If you need to take a temporary leave of absence and can’t post, please let the group know. That being said, if you are unable to post for an extended period of time, I will likely control your character as an NPC until your return so we can continue the story moving along.

►This story will have 18+ themes. Themes of mental illness, alienation, and the forsaken may be heavy at times. Violence and descriptive combat can play a large role in portions of the roleplay. Please keep that in mind. While you don’t have to go into graphic detail, expect rattling violence from ruthless aggressors. Due to the above, I expect all players to be adults and approach these topics with tact and respect.

► Nothing is ever the perfect immortal. Not even in the Land of the Dead. Expect your actions to have consequences. While you will have a lot of freedom of choice in Doomsayers, options will open and close both for individuals and for the group as decisions are made. Please understand that the actions the players take will not be forgotten by the world around them.

►This roleplay will run a Discord server for communication, though I hope you all will actively use the thread to keep Doomsayers relevant and alive. If you would like to be added to the Discord, add me at Opposition#4407.

What To Expect:::

►Doomsayers will have a heavy focus on the practice of writing as the players create the story. As such, I’m looking for players that want to use the RP as an outlet to improve their writing. I encourage workshopping ideas together, providing feedback, and cognating on our own writing throughout your process. As an employed writing advisor, I’ll also be offering unique critique sessions to each player as well should they want greater feedback.

►When writing scenes, you should be prepared to interweave the perspectives of your Doomsayer and their counterpart. Certain scenes will take place in reality while others entirely in the Land of the Dead. It is important to note that these two perspectives are separate and won’t have the same experiences, memories, and personalities.

►Doomsayers will have a focus on conceptualization and surrealist imagery rather than any hard magic system or skill system. Rather than writing a character to fulfill a niche role, or building a strategically useful and powerful character, I encourage you to explore your own creativity in a new direction. You will get out as much as you give in to Doomsayers.

►All players should be ready to establish your characters in both worlds with open goals that can be strived for as well as interfered with by the plots and NPCs you encounter. Regular interaction and intertwining of your personal subplots with those of other player characters is also necessary to move the group forward.

►I have not established a hard limit on the number of characters as that will depend upon how much interest the RP gets and how many people can put together sheets, but I will be deciding and capping the cast around the principles established here. Those who push creative boundaries and are looking to experiment with their writing will be given precedence. I am currently looking for at least 4-5 players minimum, but could go much higher depending on the application pool.

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↓Lore Below↓

𝔽𝕦𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖 - Cyberpunk Political Intrigue Roleplay

𝔽𝕦𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒t 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖

Shiver Me Timbers, The Boombox Plays

“Come on…”
“Come on!”
“We all knew it was going to be this way…”
“Tricked as kids…”
“You grow and you see the light…”

“Or the dark…”

“You realize that’s all there is…”
“She called it 𝔽𝕦𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪 Entropy…”
“No.”
“No. I call it disorder...”
“You harness it or it destroys you...”
“Nowadays, I’m always watching it happen. Can’t escape it…”
“I’m like its harbinger…”

𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕣 ℂ𝕠𝕣𝕡𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕖 ℤ𝕠𝕟𝕖"𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℙ𝕝𝕒𝕪𝕘𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕"

ℝ𝕖𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕚𝕞 ℤ𝕠𝕟𝕖, 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕥𝕙 ℂ𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕊𝕡𝕣𝕒𝕨𝕝
𝔸𝕡𝕣𝕚𝕝 𝟚𝕟𝕕, 𝟚𝟘𝟞𝟝 :: 𝕆𝕟𝕖 𝕕𝕒𝕪 𝕓𝕖𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕖𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕚𝕞 ℤ𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕕𝕖𝕓𝕒𝕥𝕖
[𝟜𝔻 ℂℍ𝔼𝕊𝕊] 𝕀𝕟𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘...

Quiet… Classically too quiet. Was it always that way? The GCZ had to be a bustling place of back-breaking labor and profit margins as dangerous as a razor. It didn’t seem like it though. The place was the sort inhabited by ghosts—a playground for spectres and dead factory inspectors. The Pirate Queen wouldn’t be surprised if she found the remains entombed in the rubble. That was the sort of booty that pirates would go digging for here. Memories. Fragmented dreams.

But maybe there was more to the fate of the Pirate. She thought so. This sort of bounty was different. Those around her didn’t think so. She knew that much. But they didn’t know her.

“ Is there anything I should be worried about during this deal, maám? Just curious. I'm being hired to know when I need to drive you away and when I don't.”

“Y-yeah.” They caught her stumble. Or maybe they didn’t. “It’s uh— It’s going to be dangerous.” The inward cowardice was replaced by homebrewed courage, or apathy, or facade, or disorder.

“Stay strapped...” Petrukov showed a classic smirk, and bannerlord reacted with a grand cheer in his deep, resounding voice while pumping his fists into the air.

“We’re with you to the end, Serena.” Bannerlord flexed to show that he was, in fact, strapped. A thick riot shield was velcroed to his arm. Only he ever called her Serena. She turned back towards Keah as he was joined by Kay and the omega-strapped Johnathan. Bannerlord started to curl the bags of rather suspiciously labeled “Pirate Gear”, admiring Johnny’s exosuit in a totally respectful way.

"𝙷𝚎𝚢 𝚀𝚞𝚎𝚎𝚗, 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚖𝚘𝚟𝚎?”

Petrukov slapped her hands together and rubbed them up and down like some sort of evil genius. “Friends, romans, privateers, today is our greatest election prep yet. We’ve got a meeting with some of our dear friends in Portland. I’ve made a deal with them. A quick exchange of resources.” She nodded to Bannerlord. He unzipped the duffel and dropped it on the ground. A few golden coins clinked against the ground. Gold. Pure, physical, untraceable Bitcoins. “Then we’ll be out of here.”

“Prepare accordingly.”

"Sounds legal to me.” The Scrap-God (Law Goon status = OFF) huffed as he picked up one of those big boy coins looking them over before giving them back.

Kay raised an eyebrow at the sight of real physical money, gold at that.
”Is this gonna be a thing with you? The gold, the flag, et cetera. Should I be on the lookout for a sailboat?” she asked sarcastically.

"But, we’re pirates.” Johnny simply mused.

“Bannerlord,” Petrukov interjected, “take that down. We’ll be needing a sailboat for future… Escapades.”

Even Keah couldn’t help but take a closer look. Physical currency was a rarity in this era, mere curios for curators and hagglers in the black market. The money didn’t worry him. “ Hmmmm….,” Keah tapped the side of his helmet, taking note of where the Jury Rigg was on his GPS display before sending a signal for it to move slightly closer to the compound. It wouldn’t help to be cautious. “ And who would be willing to accept that” he pointed towards the pile of coins, “ as payment?”

At first, Petrukov just smiled. She went to speak, but the resounding sound of metal grating against metal from the opposite side of the warehouse drew her attention. Somewhere in the bowels of The Playhouse’s opposite end, something had arrived. Petrukov turned back to the pirates. “They will,” she said. “The Lords...”

“Take your positions, my friends.”

As the final door grinded open, they came in tight formation. First, two-by-two, four men emerged and found their places along the sides of the room, each with their own heavy body armor and light machine gun combo on display. A spearhead formation followed with another heavily armed trio at its point. They, and their further colleagues surrounded those tasked with guiding a mechanized cart stacked high with the sort of ominous crates that could only hold ominous goods. When each of the gangers—which appeared more like military men than gangers—had taken their position, one exosuited-up individual pushed forward and loomed over his subordinates.

He held his helmet in his hand, his weathered face and ragged white beard exposed from the edge of his power armor. He looked to Johnny first, then settled his gaze on Petrukov.

Johnny went to take a cool-guy position nearby, his hands on his Screamer in case he had to make any of these big fat idiots scream. He was close to the Pirate Babe/Queen in case he had to make a mad dash and take her crazy ass out of the derelict warehouse of the ever-hell. He eyed the man who was wearing the exosuit, some vet of many wars fought perhaps? Lovecraft wouldn’t let his guard down, not even near a hot babe or an old man.

Today was just getting more and more interesting. Keah didn’t like interesting unless it involved watching an under-race in Detroit. Interesting meant complications and complications meant potential obstacles. Whatever pool Petrukov had dipped her hand into, it had big fish, bigger than the ones he saw in the aquaponic tanks of Suraiboshen. He stood a little while back, keeping an eye on the location of the Jury Rigg, whilst his helmeted face projected no emotion towards the newcomers.

And perhaps it was a glitch…

For the briefest moment the Jury Rigg’s positioning system vanished from the Iconoclast. But it came back. Unmoved. Whatever waves rolled and crashed in the digital fabric were never quite monitored— never quite understood.

“ Hmmmmm…..” Keah murmured, the Iconoclast electronically distorting his voice before whispering quietly as he could to Kay. “ You know these guys by any chance, since you’re, you know, a black hat?”

Kay swallowed hard at the sound of heavy, booted feet and tried not to think about just how many firearms were within literal spitting distance from her. Keah proved a welcome distraction. As she leaned over to whisper back.
“Why would I know mercenaries? I fuck around with computers, not whatever they get up to. Even if I did, I wouldn’t know their faces or their real names.”
Such was the nature of her work. It was infinitely safer for everyone involved if they couldn’t identify their co-conspirators to law enforcement or worse even if they wanted to.

Not quite nothing…

Did Kay notice it too? Even away from her array, her Rosetta Stone Receiver received a single ping from the Labyrinth’s changing landscape. One glance, though, and nothing was different. In terms of presence in the cyberscape, things were quiet. Blank?

Dead static.

“Miss Petrukov,” the veteran started as he performed marginal stretches in his thick steel carapace. “You followed my advice… Came armed…” He looked to Johnny Lovecraft at the Pirate Queen’s side. “Brought a real weapon this time even, so long as its operator doesn’t trip in that suit.” The servos of his own exo whirred to stabilize the extra weight as he shifted from one foot to the other. Undoubtedly the speaker of the “Lords” was weighing in somewhere above refrigerator but below old-world automobile.

“And Herald, youuuuuuuuu—” Petrukov dragged out the syllable to give her eyes time to trace over each of her adversary’s armed reinforcements. “You came paranoid. As usual.”

“Any esteemed political piece in this Twin City game must understand the nature of the business. When a new client suddenly requires our services...” Herald didn’t look back, simply bringing a hand up to eye level and closing his fist. “Our product,” he interjected, and on queue a pair of coffin-sized sealed crates emerged from his rear guard firing line in the hands of two pairs of men. “You can’t help but wonder what changed their approach to ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’.”

“Turns out the Lords had things figured out.” Petrukov gestured with her gun still in her hand, finger coincidentally still on the trigger. “These things are far more useful in a debate than ‘evidence’.”

“So what have you got for me?”

“Quite the deal,” he said. “If you brought something for me.”

Petrukov smiled. She shifted her sunglasses as though adjusting them for some ethereal movie camera—always one to play the part. “Bannerlord, unleash the coin!”

Bannerlord’s shield didn’t hinder his hoisting in the slightest. Hoisting was one of his many specialties. Really, he was the chief-hoister for the Pirate Party. One of the bags of ‘Pirate Gear’ smacked the ground with a jingle in front of Herald. Even just kneeling down, the Warlord caused the concrete to jitter with vibrations. He unzipped the bag, met Serena’s smile, and brought himself back to his feet. The Pirate Queen had taken to helping Bannerlord in the meantime. While he threw his bag, Serena soon found that hers must have been heavier. She dragged the gold forward until the bag was sort of in between her and Herald.

Again, the Lords seemed to fill in any gap Herald took with exactly what he required. Before he even finished turning and taking those few sluggish steps to the crates, one of the gunmen placed a crowbar into his hand. He leveraged the crate’s nailed-down lid off with one hand in one swift stroke.

“AK-12s. Quantity: ‘a fuck-load’, just as specified.”

“Just like the movies.” Petrukov paused, adjusted her sunglasses, and looked towards Bannerlord. “Just what we needed.”

A sound. Metal against metal. Rising.

Herald’s lieutenant got his hands around one of the rifles and swung back towards his clients. He kept his finger on the trigger by default—warlord habit—but it didn’t matter. The laser was only visible as it glinted against the kicked up dust from ‘The Playhouse’s’ new inhabitants. You might have thought it was a harmless trick to the eyes until it melted a perfect cylinder straight through the lieutenant’s brain.

The Lords of War had a habit—for better or worse—of ‘clearing the room’ before bothering too much with assessing the situation. The warehouse resounded with a dozen overpowered guns rocketing off streams of lead in succession. Herald assessed only after he dove back and threw the crate upright in front of himself. He caught only a glimpse of the beady electronic eyes behind the shaky hand that held the weapon— concentric circles surrounded a metallic rod that still glowed green in the aftermath of its ray. He helmeted up. The close quarters of the warehouse provided no room for mistakes.

Another of the warlord lieutenants skidded across the ground straight for Serena as though on wheels with a blade that telescoped from his hand. Perhaps the cruel spike would have connected, but the lumbering Bannerlord had a quicker reaction time than he appeared. He clotheslined the lieutenant with enough force to bounce the goon’s skull off the ground. Five more panels on the wall opened up on a catwalk above, and an array of shadows with the same beady, glowing eyes began to take shots.

"Somebody save the boombox!" Serena had no fear. She couldn't see bullets, but what she could see was the prized, oversized musical console in harm's way.

“Get her to cover!” the Bannerlord yelled before stabilizing his shield against a shotgun blast that sent him back a few inches. The order itself was a bit futile, considering how few standing pieces of cover existed in the empty space save for a few heavy machines and columns that held up the crumbling ruin just barely.

She hadn’t been ready. She wasn’t a fighter. Petrukov drew up her weapon to unload her mag again, prepared to jam the trigger into oblivion. She didn’t see it coming—a shotgun blast from the Lords’ back rank. How could she detect its shrapnel? Its spread? No invincibility, no heroes, no black flag. Just the shrapnel headed straight for her. Damn near 2000 feet per second.

The Night Shift - Gas Station Horror Simulator (OPEN)

𝕾̷̻̲̳̈́̀̈́𝖍̵͍̻̖̳͎̜̻͚͎̖̰̲̠͐̋̅̆͜ͅ𝖊̵̧̙̦̳̹͉͖̱̺̼͎̙̼̯̮͋́̌̋̏̈̊͑̃̀͒̒͘͠ ̸̧̞̜͍̬͙̝͔̦̥̖̘͐̓̀̃̈̍͂𝖈̸̺̲̳͈̺̓̈̊̀̓͋̊̏͋͆̆͠͝𝖔̵̡̜̮̥͕̟͓̫̂̎𝖒̸̡̗̜͎̝̖̝̠̖͎͚͈͓̤̏̍̈́́̈́̈́̕ͅ𝖊̶̧̘̫̈́͐́͌̊͂͑́͒𝖘̴̘̭̀̓̎̀

The Alienist

"Through Eldritch Winds..."

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Name: Gwen Dantalia-West

Gender: Female

Age: 21

Physical Description: Gwen is strikingly unassuming in appearance, and always looks like she’s missing the point. She has short brown hair that lays straight and dusts her shoulders. Often crooked upon her face are a pair of oversized circular spectacles with a thin wire frame. Gwen has a tendency to wear anything but a uniform on her shifts, opting instead for a cozy jacket and skirt with yellow work boots. Her eyes seem perpetually tired, dead, but still hold some sort of deep far off wisdom of something unknown, creeping, coming...

Applied Position: Ť̸̡̝̿̃̓̀̚͝͝ͅh̸̡͈̺̼̙͉̫͛̏̆͒̔̀̽̎̃̉͊̂̚̕̚e̵̡̧̨̢̛̮̖̤̪̭̊͂̀̄͗̏̎͑̑̑́̓͗͜͠ ̶͓̣̜͕̮̹͂̈̌̈́͆̋̍̀̀͌̀̉Á̸̧͓̣̳̗͖̺̱͈͈̳̀̓̎̿͊̚͜͜͝ḷ̴̨͖͖̓͆͐͋̉͑̆̒̾̽̾͝ǐ̴̹̔̈́̎e̷̞̦̠͕̯̮̜̾̾͘n̶̪̻̘̮͖͚̹̓́̐̊̈̓͒̚͘ͅͅi̴̘͙̬̭͉̔̈́̓̍̉̐̉ͅͅs̵̮͓̻͎̹̱͙͕̺̺̹͚̣̗̓̈́t̶͔͙̦̑ Stock Clerk

BUCKET LIST

REASON FOR EMPLOYMENT:
It’s never been quite clear why or how she got the job, but considering what Gwen seems to get away with, most of the Night Shift speculate that she’s the daughter of a friend of a friend of a f̸̧̛̙͇̞̪̼͕̺̜͔͓̪̹̿̉̊̈́̈́̿͌͊͜r̸͇̠͕͙͕̘̱̭̦̎̆̈́̑̅̽i̶̧̨̧͍̜̼̹̭̗̘͖̦͍̺̳̒̏̃͑̇́͒̅͠͝ḝ̵͍̗̮͓̩̺͇͚͂̏̂̑̓̒̃̚͝n̵̡̛̳̠̤̭͆͛̓̌̾̋̓͑̊̐̽͠d̸̢̛̟̩̮͍͚̰͇̗͙͙̍̈́͐̀͝ of the Manager. Others assume that Gwen took the job because of her “classes”.

BUDGETING:
While paying for her classes seems to be an ever-encroaching problem, Gwen usually spends her paycheck instead on useless trinkets, momentary pleasures, or just loses it before she spends it. She has a tendency to hide parts of her ‘fortune’ in strange places around the Gas Way, such as inside the cash register, above the ceiling tiles, or underneath the Snickers bars. One could infer upon meeting her that Gwen would be more content to distract herself with the esoteric miscellany she picks up off of the side of the highway than she would with anything she could purchase herself.

LIKES:
►Gas Way
►The Night Shift
►Esoteric Eastern Occult Archaeology
►Staring Wistfully Into The Darkness
►Soda
►Them
►Gas Way

DISLIKES:
►Outsiders
►Entropy
►Food That Doesn’t Come From Gas Way
►Them

TRINKETS:
Gwen has a habit of picking up random sticks, rocks, and other assorted junk on her way to work to give to her colleagues or leave around the store. On one such venture, she turned up at Gas Way with a strange amalgamation of some unknown metals merged with wood and wrapped with ancient bands of cloth. Together, the talisman forms an incomprehensible symbol. She doesn’t know what it does.

Gwen also has a habit of bringing old dusty books with her to read on her shift. The book varies based on the day, but archaeology, occultism, and cryptozoology are recurring themes.

BACKGROUND CHECK

The applicant is The Eternal—has always been and will always be. She has seen the Alpha and the Omega, an agent of the infernal with the sole goal to bring chaos unto this plane.

Gwen Dantalia-West’s employee application file has been replaced with an old World War II military document detailing the psychological profile of some mysterious soldier and a collection of small animal bones. Most seem to think that Gwen is a local girl who takes classes towards an Archaeology degree in her spare time. No one quite knows where she lives, but at the end of the shift, she has been seen just walking into the endless expanse of sand. Maybe she lives somewhere out there?

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Expert Doctor Professor West, PhD ► While Gwen certainly doesn’t look like the sort that has much going on inside her head, she has been known on occasion to come forth with forbidden and terrifying eldritch knowledge of the unknown. Most seem to think that it all comes from her archaeological studies.

At The Mountains of Madness ► Staring into those eyes… It’s like gazing directly into the piercing v̷̨͙̻̹̯̦̭̯͎̣͔̝̱̌̉̈͊͆̓̀̅̍́͌͘o̴̢̫͇̼̩̻̮͉̙̲͉͚͚̔̔ͅi̶̧̜̟̹͚͇̙̦͇̠͕̻͆͋̓̽̎́͛̋̀́̚d̸̤̺̞̍͑̀͒̄ͅ. Gwen doesn’t scare (or feel) easily. She’s got that sort of demeanor that other bully school children can only describe as what would happen if ‘a beast from the unknown had crawled inside the skin of an innocent girl’. Most might think it’s the armor of stupidity, but whatever it is, it seems to work well for the happy-go-lucky employee. Everyone and everything is on an equal plane with her in her head.

The Curse of Endless Labor ► The story goes that the one and only time Gwen ever did an overtime day shift at Gas Way, she was cursed by an old wizard for impulsively mixing every available flavor into his slushie. Now she is unable to complete any task. Gwen is more often seen rearranging the shelves in strange patterns than she is actually stocking them. She does not mix well with hard labor.

The Night Shift - Supernatural Horror Gas Station Simulator

What if I have more questions?

Simply post them in this interest check so I can rectify them.

@Commander Lazer

What is that strange creature standing in the shadows of pump #1?

What unholy force hath dimensionally-shifted all of the Mars bars?

𝙿𝚕𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝙸𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚢 - 𝚆𝚊𝚛, 𝚂𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚏𝚎, 𝚁𝚎𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗.

Hmm...

Interesting.

𝔽𝕦𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖 - Cyberpunk Political Intrigue Roleplay

>>>𝔻𝕦𝕞𝕡 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔽𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕙 𝔻𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕣𝕕 𝕆ℂ 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕞𝕪 𝕝𝕠𝕪𝕒𝕝 𝕗𝕒𝕟𝕤.

>>>𝕀 𝕜𝕖𝕖𝕡 𝕞𝕪 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕪𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕓𝕣𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕕 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕞𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕜𝕖𝕖𝕡 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕞 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕖𝕟𝕥.

_{Bork's low effort contribution to the cause}

The Protectorate: A Legal Interest Check

Very interesting concept with quite a bit of crossover with my field of study. I'm tentatively interested.