[Monsterhearts] Iphigenia's Children: Recruitment/OOC Thread

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hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

hexwren fucked around with this message at 10:50 on Oct 10, 2016

# ¿ Sep 29, 2016 07:54

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 00:31

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

gently caress it, let's roll these dice.

Tybalt "Ty" Ward-Lawson, The Neighbor

EXCERPT - PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION (SECOND SEMESTER) - DR. AIDAN IZAC posted:

Some cases slip through the cracks. You can sit there with your degrees on the wall and all the notes in your lap, and you can just watch them fall into a hole that you can't pull them out of. That you're not ALLOWED to pull them out of. For example, the young Mr. Ward-Lawson. Since the unfortunate accident in Sector Six two orbits ago that claimed the lives of Dr. Lawson and her team, I have been forced to watch the light die in the eyes of this formerly-bright, quite probably career command-track youth...but as he's clearly neither a harm to himself or others, my hands are tied. I can provide him with every ounce of counseling might my two doctorates and fifteen years of working with colonists can provide. I can beg, plead and cajole. I can and have had a number of discussions with Dr. Ward about the topic of her son, and I trust her when she tells me she's equally at loose ends. I suspect that this story is going to end not in the worst possible way, but in the most banal. Not a blackout---a brownout.

Have you ever 1ooked at your life and found the expiration date on the bottom of the package? That was me last orbit. I mean, look at me. I'm a prime specimen of youth. I am Walt Whitman's solipsistic wet dream. And I'm gonna die just like my mom did. It's not going to be peaceful. It's not going to be surrounded by family. It's going to be in some half-flooded tube twenty-six levels down where entropy conspires with human fallibility to produce the new wonder of the age, another inescapable deathtrap. So, yes, if you're going to ask me if I've given up, yes, I have. I get up. I go to school. I don't cause trouble. I come home, let myself in. I maybe see my mom, depends on if she's working another double-crit on Reactor Nine. I go to sleep.

I dunno if I'm ever going to be happy. I doubt it. I'm past that, though. What I want is something new. For the love of gently caress, I can't stand the same bland everything every bland day. Everything is replaceable down here. Swap in the spare parts and keep the power flowing. If someone, anyone can just show me one thing that is singular and precious and new...baaah.

I need something to tell me...no, something to prove to me that it's worth it. If there's something out there in those endless tunnels, something pure and true and good, maybe it'd be enough to take me out of myself. If I can't, I think I might just explode. Or collapse. Or explapse.

quote:

Hot 1 [ ]
Cold -1 [ ]
Volatile 1 [ ]
Dark 0 [ ]

Look: stilted, averted eyes
Origin: latchkey kid

Strings Taken On (By NAME):

Strings Taken By (Against NAME):

Carry Forward:

Conditions:

Harm: 0/4

XP: OOOOO

Backstory:
* You live next to someone; your bedroom windows face. Choose:
-you watch them through the blinds and they've noticed, each gain 1 String on one another;
-you leave your blinds up while you change, each gain 2 Strings on one another.
* You made out with someone a while ago. Gain a String on them and give them 2 Strings on you

Neighbor Moves:
* Mixed Messages - When you're alone with someone, decide if you're attracted to them or not.
-If you are, tell them why you can't be together and roll to shut them down, adding 1 to the roll.
-If you're not, tell them all the things they've got going for them (to let them down easy) and roll to turn them on, adding 1 to the roll.

* Nap Fan - As soon as you fall asleep somewhere, choose two below for the MC to detail. The MC will tell you when you wake up, and then tell you the details.
-something has been left for you,
-someone unexpected is nearby,
-someone's been trying to contact you,
-something happened at home,
-something has been canceled,
-something has been broken,
-you had a nice dream.

* Lucky I Guess - When you remain oblivious to troubling or supernatural occurrences, carry 1 forward.

Sex Move: When you scream out someone's name during sex, gain a String on them.

Darkest self: You feel... you feel like a monster. What kind of monster do you feel like? A werewolf, a vampire, a ghost, a queen... it can be anything you can think of. Tell the MC, and they'll hand you that Skin or the closest thing to it. It can be different each time. Read their Darkest Self: you are drowning in metaphor. Choking on it. Your body isn't supernatural, but you're gonna take it right to the line. You become that Darkest Self.

Advancement:
O)Take another Neighbor move.
O)Take another Neighbor move.
O)Take a move from another Skin.
O)Take a move from another Skin.
O)You've started a Special Interest Club.
O)Add 1 to Hot (max 3).
O)Add 1 to Cold (max 3).
O)Add 1 to Volatile (max 3).
O)Add 1 to Dark (max 3).

MONSTERNOTES

quote:

1. What's your favorite place in Iphigenia City, and what's a place you can't stand to go?

Let me just go to the gym. I don't have to talk to anyone. I can just work in peace. Just me and the iron. Me versus gravity. What I can't deal with, though? The movies down at the rec halls. Yes, I want to be made to sit still and quiet in a dark room while a screen shows me stories about people who have lives that matter. Maybe I'll slam my nuts in the nearest doorjamb while I'm at it.

quote:

2. Who's someone you know something weird about? Conversely, who's someone who knows something weird about you?

Dr. Izac clearly knows some poo poo is up with me, but that's because everyone in the school system has to have evaluations every marking period. At least, that's what they tell me. I hear some kids talk about their evals, but it's never, like, announced when they're happening. Weird. What's also weird is Bingo D. What's his real name? Bing O'Dell? Something like that. He lives a flat down from me and mom, and he's clearly sneaking out to go somewhere at night after curfew. Because of how my room backs against the side of their place, I'd hear this weird noise every night while I'm tryin' to sleep. I didn't put it together until mom went over there one night to borrow a spanner. The O'Dells' front door puts sag on the ventilation circuit in my room, so the induction fan in my room spins up at the wrong speed. I knew those electrical engineering courses would be good for something. Anyway, yeah. Every cycle at just about 0035, there goes my fan again, and there goes Bingo. I have no idea what he's up to, but it's definitely him.

quote:

3. All high-school students in Iphigenia City have "vocational education" in their afternoon: a few hours of apprenticeship, internship, or other training in a job the city requires. What's your voc-ed assignment? Did you pick it yourself, or was it assigned? What do you think of it?

Electrical Engineering. I'm probably going to end up a mid-level supervisor or a science team lead somewhere, but I liked the idea of being able to cope with little things when they broke, without having to submit a ticket and wait for some other guy's schedule to line up. L-Mom would be proud. She always wanted me to be self-reliant.

quote:

4. They're saying Iphigenia will be open for colonists in about twenty-five years, and inhabitants of Iph City will get first priority on colonist spots, if they want them. Do you want to be one of those colonists? If so, why in God's name do you want to stick around? If not, where would you rather be instead, and how do you think you could get there?

Maybe. We got to see the Upstairs once---such as it is---on a field trip a few orbits back. I wouldn't mind being somewhere I could be outdoors. Maybe I'll get a company job on some world where they already finished work. Maybe it'll work out and I'll raise my kids Upstairs and this'll just be a few sentences about how hard I had it when I was their age. Yeah, and maybe I can pull a rabbit out of my rear end.

quote:

5. (Optional) Any OOC notes you have for me. This can be anything you'd like me to know as I consider the application: boundaries/content issues as mentioned above, some element of the character that didn't come through in the backstory, or whatever. Basically, this is free communication, if you want to use it.

nah

hexwren fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Oct 9, 2016

# ¿ Oct 2, 2016 07:45

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

Antivehicular posted:

Questions, Round 1, Part 3

Tybalt "Ty" Ward-Lawson, the Neighbor:

When you say "singular and precious and new," what kind of thing do you mean, exactly?

I have no idea. If it was something I could put into concrete words, I would have. If it was something that I knew existed, I would go get it myself. I'm not incapable, I just can't see if there's anything out there that's worth it.

quote:

How has your mother come through for you since L-Mom died, and how has she really let you down?

Dub-Mom is trying, I know. She goes out of her way to stick close. There's always a note for me when I wake up, if she's not there. At least once a night, if she's home, she'll knock and try and see how I'm doing. She cares. But I think she let me down by being just as vulnerable as me. She's hurting. She can't help me because she can't even help herself.

quote:

What questions on your evals do you expect aren't standard?

I don't think there's anything really non-standard showing up on mine, but the questions are getting more intense. A lot of Ministry of Truth poo poo, a lot of trying to get me to narc on somebody. I dunno what or who or why. Is it Bingo? Can't be, even with his running around at night, he can't be the only kid out after lights out.

quote:

What EE project are you happiest about completing? What hobby have you managed to keep up with even now that nothing really matters?

These go hand in hand. I've always been interested in machinery, and as a kid I built models out of stuff as I could. Obviously I wasn't going to waste important machine shop time by getting custom parts made, but cast-off plastic and metal scrap, sure. They got more elaborate as I got older. Last one I built was one of the orbiting electrostatic projector probes orbiting this hunk of rock, 1/100 scale, so it's about 8 centimeters across. I've been using my EE kit stuff to put in the lighting in and keep it blinking accurately. It's not important. It's not even very difficult. But it was nice. It was real nice.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2016 06:20

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

Antivehicular posted:

Four days to get your apps in, if you're still working!

"Questions," Round 2, Part 2

Tybalt "Ty" Ward-Lawson, the Neighbor:

You're having that nightmare again: the one where you're dying, in the exact way you know you'll die. Just what's happening, and how are you dimly aware this is a dream?

It's Sector Six again. I've read the reports so many times that I'm just going to live them until I don't. The fissure running perpendicular to corridor A535, the prefab grating giving way due to corrosion and microvibration, dumping a ragged, approximately 3-meter-cubed section of hallway down into what amounts to an open vat of sludge. The jagged metal catches on my environment suit, tearing it a hole the length of my forearm, and I'm bleeding. Your suit fills feet-first, in situations like these, dragging you down even faster. It takes more than two hands to hold the rip in the fabric closed. The water gets in, carrying the radioactive silt. The dirt will be what kills me. Particulate matter. A bloody wound---hell, my whole body---soaking in cold radioactive mud. I can't swim, I'm still trapped in the steel wreckage of the hallway. My oxygen apparatus will continue to operate long after I've been irradiated so badly that I won't even be allowed a funeral. My corpse will be listed as an unrecoverable asset.

quote:

However, this time you're not alone. It's not just the faceless co-victims of your normal dreams; this one is someone you recognize. Who?

Junebug Schect, the preacher's daughter, my next-door neighbor when I was eight. Her family got transferred to a different division that year. I've seen her since then, but in here, she's still eight. The sludge is up to my neck, and fills my suit to my waist and more. It's cold. Colder than you'd think, but that's my body shutting down.

quote:

"I can stop this," your -- friend? Fellow traveler? -- says. "We can stop this together. I just need you to believe me." They lean in and whisper an unspeakable secret into your ear. What do they say?

"This isn't your blood, but it will be on your hands. Again."

quote:

"C'mon, Ty. You can do this. Just trust me." Why is it a terrible idea to trust them? Why is it a terrible idea not to?

The orange-brown mud rises up over my head, and I can still see her in the fishbowl reflection of my helmet's collar-mount LEDs. There is no hope down here. There is no call to drag an innocent down into death. But...what if this isn't what's meant to happen? To save myself, will someone else have to die?

quote:

Meanwhile, doom bears down on you -- you have perhaps ten seconds to make your decision and act. What do you do?

I'm raising my hand, reaching for anything to climb, to grab onto, to cling to. All it gets me are some scraped knuckles and an early wake-up call when I smack the shelving unit above my bed, and stir myself awake in a frantic sweat. Cold sweat. Just like every night.

e:

hexwren fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Oct 9, 2016

# ¿ Oct 9, 2016 11:54

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

Ferrosol posted:

Backstorys I'm interested in.

I'd quite like the Neighbours watching each other change Backstory assuming it's ok with Allen

quote:

* You live next to someone; your bedroom windows face. Choose:
-you watch them through the blinds and they've noticed, each gain 1 String on one another;
-you leave your blinds up while you change, each gain 2 Strings on one another.

That's fine. I'm not entirely sure how that one works when you're all living in pods/housing units/etc. Also, I'm not sure about the wording here, is it specifically just Ty perving on Eve and not vice-versa? Give me some thoughts on the matter vis-a-vis windows and such and we can sort out the strings.

Frgrbrgr posted:

Kieran Stone

Somebody refused to come to you for help in the past. Give them a String.

This could probably be anybody that is closed off or would dislike Kieran for some reason.

Ding ding ding.

In related news,

quote:

* You made out with someone a while ago. Gain a String on them and give them 2 Strings on you

Ty made out with someone. Who?

# ¿ Oct 10, 2016 10:55

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

Shogeton posted:

Peter might have done it. If only to start stuff, to provoke people, or because he can sense that Ty is also looking for something new and enchanting, and the doomed aspect about him appeals to Peter. But he's mercurial, so who knows whether it really means something? And well, Peter definitely acts unique, so maybe Ty thinks he can find something there?

As second thought. While Peter can be a bit of a firestarter, he prefers to be audience then participant, so he does not get in the middle of the things himself. So it could very well be that Ty took the initiative, and Peter is a bit shook because of that, since he likes to be the one who starts all the messes.

Ty, when he's not busy wallowing in his own self-inflicted miseries, is certainly not above taking advantage of a moment and distracting himself with hot makeouts. Youths, amirite? Book it, done.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2016 02:30

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

Shogeton posted:

Sounds good. Who do you want to be the initiative taker? I kind of dig the idea that the one who so likes to start fires and messes just got totally blindsided by Ty at one point.

That is completely what I'm thinking.

Ferrosol posted:

Hmm I always read it as they were both perving on each other. Or at least that they were aware of you perving and didn't care. In this case I would say it's the latter. Eve just wouldn't care right now if someone was watching her when she was changing so I'd be up for the two strings option. As for the windows situation maybe Ty's been using his access to the electrical systems to do some unauthorised hacking and "just happened" to hack into the internal security camera in Eve's room. Of course given Eves semi-benevolent AI guardian she probably knows about it but doesn't care if she's been watched. Because why should she? she's been watched all her "life". One more person isn't going to make a difference.

I actually chatted with Anti a bit on this, what say it's a communal shower/changing room thing? Ty's not so much a computer nerd (any more than anyone else will be in The Future) as a circuits-and-wires guy. We could also go they're both perving on each other, that doesn't bother me at all. Either way, probably two strings both ways.

hexwren fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Oct 11, 2016

# ¿ Oct 11, 2016 03:02

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

Tricky posted:

pre:

[Bingo D.] [   ] [   ] [   ]
[   ] [   ] [   ] [Ty]
[   ] [   ] [Ellen] [   ]
[   ] [   ] [   ] [Betsy]

Would we want to compile a sort of directory of NPCs, or is that generally not done?

Additionally, I don't have any particular content boundaries worth mentioning.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2016 04:52

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

Toph Bei Fong posted:

Sargent-at-Arms for the student government.

wait what the gently caress does this mean

# ¿ Oct 17, 2016 19:46

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

Toph Bei Fong posted:

The Sargent at Arms is responsible for maintaining security, order, and decorum during meetings.

In ye olden dayes, they would literally beat folks if they spoke out of turn, drag folks out screaming at the whim of the king, etc. Nowadays, even in modern governments, they'll carry around big ceremonial maces as a reminder of what the position used to entail.

It's a more dignified position today, involving no actual violence. Instead, they are called upon to help enforce the directives of the chair, calling out someone speaking improperly, raising their voice, insulting another member of the student council, and dealing with breaches of etiquette. They are often also in charge of any funds collected before they are passed over to the treasurer, greet visitors, and take care of other sundry details.

student governments have these?

# ¿ Oct 18, 2016 05:08

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

I don't know what Kieran's deal is, but I have a feeling he's a lot more Volatile than he lets on.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2016 19:41

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 00:31

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

Fade is probably best, connections are easier to shake over a longer period of time.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2016 19:08

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