Teknopathetic

Emergence

Name
Maximilienne Barrande

Hunter Type:
Senior Knight of the Order/Supérieur Chevalier de l'Ordre

Age
38

Appearance

Appearance

Nothing about lady Lienne is reserved, masked or even somewhat obfuscated, especially when it comes to the looks of a brunette clearing the six foot mark with the posture of a woman of twice that stature. Nailing down her age would be something of a challenge were it not for gentle facial lines betraying the wear of the passage of time, considering features that are undoubtedly feminine but caught in the lurch of adulthood transitioning to yet another decade while the rest of her tries to catch up. Her cheekbones are pronounced, face slightly rounded, hair a wavy and curly chestnut mess that sees more time bobbing in a ponytail than flowing free; this plays a nice contrast to off-green eyes, lingering laugh lines, and the faded white marks that suggest well-aged scars.

Chasing witches and upholding the tenets of her order has required fairly vigorous exercise and diet, leaving the tall Frenchwoman well-built on top of her properly proportioned frame. Models might be prized for being gifted with long legs, but Lienne's have been put to a more divine purpose of running and scaling low walls judging by the tightly-corded muscle she puts to good use. On the other hand, wide shoulders are not quite so highly regarded. The feminine features of her face can only counteract so many prominent details scattered her and there, after all. As if just to take her another step towards a life of tattooing and manual labor, her close calls with the magically-inclined sections of the population have left her with a body-spanning latticework of scars, burns, scrapes, discolorations, and enough lost skin to last several lifetimes.

Making up for it all is her sense of dress, which is both well-suited to her frame and conservative enough that she does not draw too many glances of an inappropriate nature on any given day. Her entire wardrobe might as well consist of button-down long-sleeved blouses, color-coordinated vests, dress slacks, and ties in a spectrum of reserved shades – if only because catching her in another state of dress is something of an unsightly miracle. While not top-shelf merchandise she has not yet stooped to knockoff brands or chain megastore swatches, watches, or semi-dress shoes that allow for healthy sprinting speeds under cases of blown cover or extreme duress.

Some might say this makes her look like a bartender. Bartenders, however, at least have the sense to work in a profession where tips are expected.

Personality

Personality

With bold looks come bold personality. Perhaps by design, perhaps by happy accident, but wholly a product of her environment as surviving in primary schools while towering over classmates either requires a gruff and hateful exterior or a sense of humor that allows for the deflection of hateful schoolyard taunts. Thankfully, she has chosen the latter route. Every story is carefully exaggerated, every friendly interaction is joyously celebrated, and every private moment of soul-searching met with a rousing speech or a quippy anecdote about the state of the world they live in. She is brash, she is up-front, and how she manages to retain such a chipper outlook on life while hunting humans for a religious sect is up for top psychologists to discuss at length in the near and uncertain future. Everyone's second-best friend, it could be argued, and would not be at all incorrect.

While professional, shades of her larger-than-life persona – be it genuine or an act – carry through to her work. An unerring sense of fair play and honesty leaves her at a disadvantage in a world so seeped in secrecy and political backroom deals. Engaging a witch or warlock in anything less than a formally-announced duel would be nothing but an unsightly blemish on her pristine record of avoiding taking a bullet through the eye, no matter how much danger this invites directly upon her person. In the worst of cases, this makes her appear as an arrogant die-hard; at best, she shares a very special sort of beloved rival status with those she hunts despite her full understanding of just how serious the stakes are every time a sword is raised and names are called.

Bio

Order Biography: Maximilienne

In accordance with long-running standards and practices set by The Order, an abridged history of Squire Barrande has been compiled and all relevant historical facts have been verified as correct in the year 532 of our sect by Knight-Bishop Arrisance.

Lady Maximilienne is blood to the Barrande family, long-standing and known magic users entirely situated in the Auvergne region of France. As further detailed in their appropriate files, the Barrande family have been blamed for almost every unsightly blemish of history plaguing Auvergne including the particular horrors of the Wars of Religion endured in the 16th century, on to the economic and social hardships of the following centuries. Their exact involvement is lost to the annals of time but not believed to be anywhere near as overblown as ancient Order records of hearsay might lead us to assume.

The first Emergence she was capable of taking part in fell close to the end of her teenaged years, her precise age unknown due to errors in her birth record, but she was not chosen to participate for reasons further unknown. It was during this time that the family's availability of witches and warlocks swelled to exaggerated proportions and a plot between several families to drive France into a state of temporary anarchy for the sake of planting family interests in places of political power. We were made aware of this through extensive interrogation and questioning of known magic users, confirmed by Maximilienne's first-hand account when arrested for minor charges after an incident in a local nightclub in which she staffed; it is only due to her testimony that we were able to dismantle said plot with further cooperation from Squire Barrande.

It is at this time that she showed interest in assisting the Order rather than continue down the self-destructive path of heresy following the collapse of her family's clan and the loss of most key power-players. After extensive background-scouring and interview, we concluded she was of particular use due to family connections and her comfort level with playing a public face while working behind the scenes for a grander purpose. We have assigned her to the tutelage of Knight Lecroix and await reports of her progress.

Addendum, Year 543, month of July: We have clarified errors in her profile and add the following:
Knight Barrande is at this time confirmed to be 31 years of age. She has been officially promoted to Senior Knight and works with the new recruits, mostly in the way of swordplay. The archaic arts seem to be her strongest suit outside of social graces. With proper training, she might have the makings of a spin doctor for Order operations gone awry.

Addendum, Year 545, month of November: Due to continued strain with the remaining few members of the Barrande family, we are hereby officially transferring Senior Knight Barrande out of France and to an undisclosed sect of the Order where she will not be further harassed following the death of her husband and disappearance of her daughter. As soon as she has left the country, we will be enacting the Scorched Earth order against the Barrandes. While psychologically cleared for further operations, Knight-Bishop Arrisance questions the depth of her devotion to the cause at this time and recommends close supervision in the coming years.

Weapons
Lienne is a classically-trained swordfighter and duelist but has found that strolling down main street with a kite shield attracts the sort of attention that might blow the Order's cover. As such, she reserves the longsword for proper hunts while instead carrying only a modest caliber handgun and defense knife, with access to a small cache of Order-sanctioned weaponry should the need arise (including sub-machine guns and assault rifles; she does not hold fondness for them, however, and their use is only considered in states of extreme country-wide emergency.)

Other Information
Lienne's prior sect of the Order operated on a fairly straightforward knight-based hierarchy. If any Knights, currently in the order or otherwise, wish to play as if she were their trainer it is entirely possible and wholly endorsed by myself even if tutelage took place outside of her home country. Furthermore, as the veteran of many hunts inside and outside of France, it is entirely possible that she already has rivals and known targets in the witching world.

At this point she has spent several years outside of France and has more or less worked through her accent while simultaneously assimilating into her proper adopted culture.

(I should note that I am more a wordsmith than a picture-huntress; should anyone have a suggested image for Lienne's looks, I would be very appreciative.)

Lunacy C-9 [Sci-fi survival horror]

"You are but a s̔̽p͉̙ͯ̉͌ē̺͔̙͍͆̅ͅc̓̂ͥ̇͏ķ͓̲̝͒̾ͦ.̶̥ An infinitesimal waste of cosmic dust pressed into a humanoid figure and given breath, e͈̯̫̱̯̼ͤ͆x̛̝̗͕̖̞̙ͬͨ̓̅͌ṗ̘̲͑ͥẹ̟͍͈̗͛͢l̊͗̅͂͏l̓̋ͤ̉ͭ҉e̥͙̙̟̲d͙̈̊̈́̃ͩͥ into a world you cannot begin to fathom and left to toil until your fleshy shell decays into the dust from which you came...
Yet even the most insignificant of spanners can stop the works of a w͍̲ͬ̋̉̇e̷̟̖̦̳̣̓̈̍l҉̻͈̲͈͓̯l̳͑ͩ̉͂͆̿͌-̩̰͖ͦ̈̍o̵̟̫̱̘̳íͮ̈̏ͤ́̈҉͇l̥̜̮̽̅ͪͥ̓ē̢͊ḍ͍̭̤̈́̔͒́̈̍ ̙̜͈̬̺̫ͯ̿̒ṃ̵͓̳̮̪̘̇͗ͦ̚ͅa̗̼͇̫͉ͥ́ċͩ̾̐̕h͑ͫi͉̫̻̾̄ͥn͕̬̘̭̯̹̊̀̾̌͘e̘̺̜̜̲ͨ̉̅̄ͭ͜.͔͕͈̗̣̺̉"

-I0-N4, 159th termination cycle

What is Lunacy?

Wonderful question, strawperson roleplayer. Thank you for your input.

Lunacy C-9 is an idea for a roleplay. I've fished around for interest elsewhere, but it's come up fairly flat and I've moved it to similar but distinct pastures to give it another go, so bear with me. This is where its similarities to most roleplays comes to an end, for better or worse. There is no tavern to meet in, there are no long and twisted backstories to dump on your fellow adventurers and there is no kingdom to save. Instead, the focus is on discovering where your character is, what path to take in terms of survival, and how to best avoid being turned into a puddle of chunky salsa and shot out of the nearest airlock in the style of popular survival horror games mixed with tabletop roleplaying and a healthy portion of action-adventure. Drawing inspiration from sources like Paranoia, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, System Shock, Myst and Dead Space can make for a very interesting mash-up of motivations and plot elements.

Most people aren't particularly fond of the idea of losing a character they've worked on for hours on end, which is why that will be taken out of any player's hands almost entirely. Players will be given a chance to state what gender they wish to play as and a general direction they'd like their character to take -- "Someone in a position of power" or "Someone with a working knowledge of the sciences," for example -- and are then twisted around, run through a random component generator, and spat out as a shiny new character for you to play. The specifics are up to you, but clones and matter creation are not perfect. Your character's first body may be a muscled security expert, only to catch a stray gauss gun slug through the skull and end up an asthmatic engineer. Of course, individual descriptions after the randomization are still up to the player and it is their job to portray the new form as properly as possible, but there is plenty of wiggle room for individual quirks, habits, and personality.

Your character will remember their past life, of course, but it doesn't mean they'll know how to act on what they've learned in a direct way. It'll take teamwork and planning to keep your bodies together in whatever strange immaculately-scrubbed complex they inhabit, between mechanical mishaps, roving robots, and cosmic creations with an affinity for [expunged record].

STOP WITH THE CONFUSING TEXT AND GIVE US A PROPER BLURB

Let's break this down, then. This roleplay requires of you:
- A working imagination
- Willingness to lose your character at any time
- Further willingness to play a randomly-minted character with various attributes, looks, pros, and cons
- Familiarity with roleplaying concepts
- A love of psychological horror, blood, guts, intrigue, conspiracies, insane artificial intelligences and sci-fi in general
- A very strong grasp of the English language
- Enjoyment (or willingness to attempt) posts in irregular formats ("10-NA is only accepting queries in the form of a 1980s adventure game parser," for example)

Optional elements up for debate:
- Specifics of the character randomization process (Maybe you want randomized genders, or maybe you want to be able to have a little more control over individual jobs)
- Statistic-based systems (Not a fan for proper roleplays, but it's on the table)
- Amount of psychological tomfoolery (But it's still going to get weird)

There won't be much hand-holding; even the OOC will not truly be OOC, as I won't answer any plot questions there.* Everything will be parsed as if the roleplay's friendly neighborhood AI were responding to a query, which means you're going to have to wade through lies and twisted programming to find whatever scraps of truth might or might not exist in the first place. The AI functions as the handler for the roleplay as well as the main antagonist, but will involve many other non-player aspects that you'll just have to meet yourself. On the other hand, my co-GM will be playing a helper of sorts should your characters need a friend in their most desperate hours.

The setting is left intentionally vague, but know that it is wholesale science fiction in a technologically advanced station of some kind. Starting off with characters fresh out of brain-scrubbers, you have to figure out who you are, first and foremost, then meet up with other workers (or survivors, or horrific mutants) to escape from the prison (or workplace?) you have become stranded in -- and why the heartless station monitor is flash-growing new bodies for the rising stack of corpses stacked in the maintenance closet.

Third-person posts. Elements of horror and survival. Death. Confusion. What's not to love? That's for you to tell me.

*i will clarify hazy posts on request, unless there are mind-altering substances being used on your character**
**10-N4 will not tell you if you are under the effects of mind-altering substances***
***10-N4 would never drug you