Re: Pandora's Inheritance OOC - Modern Fantasy RPG (Recruiting)

by Guest Sat Jul 18, 2009 12:11 pm

I haven't decided how tough the internment camps are, though I suppose that in the case of those deemed particularly dangerous, they're kept in isolation and drugged up. Of course, the effectiveness of said drugs is hard to gauge as everything seems to be conspiring to throw the dosages off.

by Igraine Sat Jul 18, 2009 12:18 pm

"... the effectiveness of said drugs is hard to gauge as everything seems to be conspiring to throw the dosages off."

mwahahahahahaha! XD

Well just let me know, if there's anything that needs to be changed in Rachel's bio, or if she's acceptable "as is." *big grin*

by Guest Sat Jul 18, 2009 12:20 pm

She's acceptable as is.

Basically, at least one character, the one I'm planning, is going to have undergone a physiological change that renders the use of medication a huge hit or miss proposition, but even a human-looking person may have suffered huge changes internally, such as liver function, metabolism and so forth that would make the use of meds chancy at best. Not that the authorities really have any idea that this would be the case yet as the authorities are, well, swamped.

by Igraine Sat Jul 18, 2009 12:28 pm

Sounds good to me. The worst of Rachel's physiological changes only happen at certain times - all other times, she simply appears to be a normal human female.

There will come a time for her to learn to control (to a point) and understand what's happening to her - it's just that at the moment, it's all new and horrifying. It would seem, she killed her own fiance in some sort of fugue state. At best, she's confused as heck, and grieving horribly, and scared to death at what happened to her, to him, and to the rest of their once "normal" society.

by Guest Sat Jul 18, 2009 1:33 pm

Yeah, it seems like most everyone's leaving powers undefined for the moment, which is perfectly alright. Everyone's essentially in the same boat of trying to figure out what it is that's happened to them. Of course, putting everyone together where they can compare notes isn't precisely the smartest thing the government could do, but governments don't always make the soundest decisions when voters are screaming "DO SOMETHING!"

They tend to go, "OKAY!"

by vitamin_kitten Sat Jul 18, 2009 1:47 pm

True~~~~ one of the few things I hate about governments. Sometimes, the best thing for a government to do is let back and let people take care of themselves, but that's the conservative in me talking. XD

by Twoface_ecafowT Sat Jul 18, 2009 2:07 pm

Name: Jacob Marinucci

Age: 32

Hometown: Vineland, New Jersey

Appearance:
Pandora's Inheritance OOC - Modern Fantasy RPG (Recruiting) - Page 2 Priest1

Normal Human: No

Bio: Born in Vineland, New Jersey, Jacob was raised as a single child by loving parents. They gave him everything they could provide within their means, and he had a typical childhood. Eventually he graduated high school and much to his parents dismay, forwent college and got his truck driving license. He was on his way to becoming a career truck driver when a trans-continental job took him all the way to Washington. It was there he discovered the great outdoors was not just some myth conjured up in a magazine, and at the age of twenty-four, saw the Cascades for the first time. Love at first sight, he quit his job and began selling camping gear while doing no small amount of hiking on the side.

Hiking eventually became mountain climbing and he spent the next four years of his life exploring and scaling some of the most dangerous mountain ranges the world had to offer. This continued until his first attempt at K2, which ended in disaster. A storm prevented him from reaching the top and on his decent he became separated from his group. Lost and exhausted, it was by a miracle alone that Jacob managed to reach the bottom alive. During his stay in a hospital, a traveling priest convinced him that it was God’s work alone that saved him from death.

Thus began the third phase of Jacob’s life. Jacob followed the traveling minister to Menomonie, Wisconsin and there officially joined the faith. He eventually became a traveling priest, spreading the word of God across the United States.

Current Status: Traveling to the Nevada Internment Camp to 'exorcise' the magic out of the Emergents being held there.

by Guest Sat Jul 18, 2009 2:53 pm

For ease of navigation around to people's bios, which I figure is one of the big reasons to scroll back into a thread's OOC, I posted the URL's for each one in a table of contents sort of arrangement.

Everything's approved up to this point.

by Kesteven Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:07 pm

Name: Euryl Keegan
Age: 19
Hometown: Porthcawl, Wales
Appearance: Euryl has a build that could be described as 'slight', although given this meek appearance, he's deceptively strong. Unlike most of his friends and family he has golden blonde hair with a slight curl to it, resulting in several embarrassing high-school photographs in which he looks like some kind of colonial merchant, and these days he tends to keep it cut quite short. His eyes are a pale green that seems to reflect light, although the right eye has a ring of hazel surrounding the pupil.

Normal Human: N

Emergent attributes: Second sight (Prophetic visions, ability to see invisible creatures)

Bio: Euryl lived his early life in relative peace, getting decent grades in school and not having any real problems socialising, although somehow he never made any firm friends, not that he minded much. After school, he travelled for a year in Australia and Europe, returning to begin a degree in illustration. He never completed his course, however, as his father died in February 2009, and the shock he suffered began a spiral of doubt and depression which eventually forced him to suspend his course.
While he was undergoing therapy, and just before emergents began to appear, he made the sudden decision to travel to the USA. After following a series of visions, he ended up involved in a supernatural incident, and was arrested on suspicion of theft and conspiracy to commit murder. When it was discovered that he wasn't a citizen and had no work visa, and was showing signs of supernatural ability, he was quickly shipped off to the Nevada internment camps.

by Guest Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:18 pm

Fundamentally, it's up to you how much you want to play the regional factor into things. Feel free to be creative.

by Guest Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:45 pm

By the way guys, you don't know Haar, because he's a new arrival, but he's the guy I collaborated with a year and a half ago in coming up with things. He's functioning as a Co-GM of sorts, as much as we'll need one, for setting questions and so forth.

by vitamin_kitten Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:48 pm

I just wanna say I'm really excited about this RP and can't wait for it to start. Any thoughts on when it might start?

by Guest Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:50 pm

Very soon. I'm essentially willing to open it up while letting a few last bios roll in. Anyone that posted here or in the intchk has a spot saved for them, essentially.

by vitamin_kitten Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:53 pm

Okieday. :3

by Haar Sat Jul 18, 2009 4:00 pm

Name: Matthew Greyson
Age: 25
Hometown: Oakland, CA
Appearance: Semi-translucent light tan skin, glowing blue eyes, light brown hair, tall, slight stature.
Normal Human: No

General Bio and how he ended up where he is now: Born in Portland, Oregon and raised in a Roman Catholic family, nature was always of paramount important in Matthew Brown's life, at least as a hobby and something to be revered as proof of the Living God. Of course, Matt was also raised to believe there was something hiding behind the veil of ordinary reality. When the seal that held back Magic was broken, it was all proven correct. Yes, there were elements in the Roman Catholic Church that went insane after magic made its resurgence back into the modern world. More liberal orders and the Western Church saw it as a manifestation of God's will and gifting of humanity to further the Word; however, others believed that it was a sign of the coming Apocalypse and the Adversary (Satan) finally gaining a firm foothold on Earth. Being raised in a household that attended a parish that belong to one of the more liberal orders, Matthew embraced the changes that were happening around the world as further evidence of God's influence. However, things were not as peaceable in the Church itself, as the Roman Catholic Church had another schism as violent as the one that had occurred around the advent of the Second Millennium that split the more conservative orders who would try to squelch any manifestations of the Resurgence. However, that was more an issue in Europe, as American orders tended to lean more liberal or moderately, outside of the most conservative strongholds of Opus Dei -- which varied, as despite what certain authors might state, was less a secret order and more of a people's prelate. The latter itself was split between the various gatherings, which tended on the more liberal end to be with moderate orders and denominations of the attitude of "Wait and See." However, the conservative elements joined in with the more hysterical evangelist and fundamentalist churches in trying to violently supress the Manifestation. This is where Matthew's life began to take a turn for the worse. Though his manifestations were relatively mild, it was obvious to keen observers that he himself had been altered by the sudden reappearance of mystical energy. For lack of better terms, he had to leave his simple apartment in Oakland in a hurry.

Education: Greyson is a well-educated man, having graduated Cum Laude from UC Berkeley with a degree in the liberal arts and had informally trained himself in various programming languages, artistic endeavors, and had a keen interest in all things philosophical, mythological, and religious. An avid reader, he is rarely seen without some form of book on his person, whether it be tech manual or pot-boiler fantasy novel.

Arrest Record: Aside from an evening in the drunk tank after a racous party, there are no formal arrest records. Unofficial arrest and escape occurred when the Via Purifico attempted to burn him at the stake. Current status: Fugitive.

Former Occupation: Mid-level bureaucrat for a medical records processing company. Easy work for easy pay. Plenty of time for books and learning.

Powers: Evident powers are not yet revealed. Passive power is eidetic memory. Other powers are still latent.

Current Status: Having escaped the Via Purificio in Oakland, he was picked up on the I-580 while hitch-hiking. Thinking he kept his identity secret, it seemed that within moments he was knocked out and on his way to the internment camps.

by Twoface_ecafowT Sat Jul 18, 2009 4:33 pm

Oooh, looks like we might have ourselves a rivalry Haar. Jacob is on the complete other side of the religious spectrum than Matthew, believing that 'Emergents' are agents of the devil.

by Guest Sat Jul 18, 2009 5:01 pm

Name: Anthony Shaw
Age: 31
Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland
Appearance: A fit, wide-shouldered African American man, with a working middle class solidity to his demeanor. Approximately 6'2, he is nonetheless lean from a daily health regimen and careful diet. He tends to keep his head shaved down bald and goes cleanly shaven.

Normal Human: No

Bio: Born to a working class family in Baltimore City, his father was a butcher and his mother was a nurse, and while they made a good living, it wasn't spectacular. Early on, he secured admission into Baltimore City College, a public preparatory high school, and was placed in the "A" program, which is considered the most rigorous track for the college-bound.

He entered the University of Maryland on scholarship in 1997 initially as a psychology major, but then took a double major of psych/criminal justice and became highly interested in a law enforcement career. Graduated Cum Laude in 2001 with a BS Psychology and BS Criminal Studies and joined the Baltimore City Police right out of school. It was a move that confused his family, who thought he'd take a shot at something like the FBI or a more prestigious and better paid sort of agency, with his grades.

The Baltimore City Police, in 2001, were undergoing considerable difficulties with constant ethics investigations and a rising crime rate under the reign of Mayor Martin O'Malley, who was often undercut by City Council in his efforts to combat crime -- several programs were investigated and shut down during the period. Despite an initial stint, out of the academy, as a beat cop, Shaw soon acquired a reputation for being ethical and was quickly put on some of the tougher units, including the joint warrant task force, a collaboration between City and County officers to serve warrants on people who didn't want to be found.

After two years of duty on the WTF, he was transferred to a narcotics task force in the Southwest, after one of the several ethics violation scandals that rocked the force required a political show of good will on the part of the new commissioner; Shaw was considered at the top of the list to lead a small detachment of officers as they worked intelligence and apprehension of various criminals and provided backup for the undercovers feeding them the information. Despite offers of promotion to other places and offers from other agencies to join their ranks, particularly with his experience and excellent record, he declined and stayed with his unit.

During this time, he married one Jill Stirling, the chef at a trendy Mount Vernon eatery, and had two children, Michaela and Catherine. While the family was somewhat mystified (she was white) they were happy that they got themselves a nice place in Glen Burnie and settled right in with the grandkids and the straight family life.

In summer, of 2009, when things started getting hairy for law enforcement, Shaw's unit was suddenly pulled into QRT, the rapidly expanding SWAT team for the City police, to handle all sorts of 'unusual' ocurrances.

During an arrest of a "supernatural" in the city as part of a Homeland Security-run task force, there was trouble. The supernatural in question caught the QRT's approach and fought back. Federal officers that actually had physical contact with the supernatural were killed by undetermined means. The QRT team came under sustained attack of some sort, what looked to be swooping apparitions that tore people apart. Shaw, when attacked, felt a hot and icy cold surge go through him all at the same time. A fellow officer's report said that he turned into flame himself; several of these dangerous apparitions were destroyed and the person the QRT was trying to apprehend was killed by a gout of 'spectral' flame.

Shaw, traumatized and in a catatonic state, was apprehended and shipped off to a Department of Homeland Security detention camp in an unspecified location in Nevada and his wife filed for a divorce and custody of the kids, which was quickly granted. He is currently held in solitary, high security confinement.

by Guest Sat Jul 18, 2009 5:07 pm

By the way, Department of Homeland Security are the big players in the federal government in trying to handle the Emergent/Manifested threat. They actually snapped up a lot of military volunteers to try and make up the shortfall in trained people to help handle the problem.

The current president and the congress and senate, for the most part, are doing everything they can to accommodate the demands of DHS, which are numerous and involve a lot of funding and secondment of military personnel to their command.

Of course, this is considered controversial and there have been a lot of firings in the DHS as bureaucrats incapable of coping are removed quickly; there is a lot of political pressure for the DHS, a newly-established bureaucracy with procedures worked up on the fly, to become much more efficient; many of the new people staffing decisionmaking positions in DHS are ex-military and the DHS has taken on more of a Gendarme sort of feel as it becomes more and more like a militarized police over the last couple months.

DHS, for its part, is wallowing in the idea that they now have a specific mandate, as they were always a bit of a fifth wheel in the government. Unfortunately, critics consider them overly eager to do their job and unnecessarily violent in cases that may not warrant it; the overzealousness of the politicians infects the DHS and the DHS higher ups pass this zeal down to their guys. There is immense populist and political pressure to bring in emergents, and this involves cutting corners when it comes to nagging issues like rights.

--

Oh, the way I see it, we should start the RP with the solitary confinement people being let out into the compound for the first time; the compound itself has been built to the spec the government thinks is sufficient to hold it. That means it's sort of like a prison, but with more firepower than a prison.

Beyond that, there is a lot of surveillance all over the place, in the dunes and by satellite.

Unfortuntately, in picking Nevada, we've fit into the stereotype of Area-51, I was thinking more along the lines of the Japanese internment camps of WWII when I worked it out, but there it is. I'm gonna roll with the plausible and let this fuel the media and internet speculation about the supernatural.

--

I think the IC will be up tonight, but that doesn't mean character apps are cut off.

by Guest Sat Jul 18, 2009 9:20 pm

The IC is UP!

Not all characters have to start like that; that treatment is for certain ones who do really dangerous shit or whatever. If you want your character to go straight to the main population camp rather than through the solitary system, that's fine.

Bear in mind that medical examinations are par for the course, and just about everyone is chilling and impersonal. There isn't much outside information coming in, so there's no way to know what's been going on outside. What people do know from before they got taken in was that a manhunt was on for Emergents, though it was subject to a lot of debate within the country itself. But out there, in Nevada, there's no real arguing.

Anyway, this is a prelude, and then things will move from there. You guys are all good RP'ers, I bet you'll make the most of everything and do quite well, so let's get this started and have fun! Smile

PS: For the camp, think combination Gitmo and Japanese Internment Camps.

by vitamin_kitten Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:01 pm

Would there be a way for a person to actually approach the camp or anything like that? I realize that the camp is probably under alot of security and whatnot, and I'll probably figure out a way to get Audra there eventually (cuz the fact that she's an Emergent is still hidden for the time being, but there's no reason that it can't become more visible throughout my next few posts). I just was wondering what I may be working against.

by Guest Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:17 pm

vitamin_kitten wrote:Would there be a way for a person to actually approach the camp or anything like that? I realize that the camp is probably under alot of security and whatnot, and I'll probably figure out a way to get Audra there eventually (cuz the fact that she's an Emergent is still hidden for the time being, but there's no reason that it can't become more visible throughout my next few posts). I just was wondering what I may be working against.

It'd be easiest if she were caught. Perhaps you can make use of the idea that there are a lot of protesters and counterprotesters outside of Nellis AFB; the base itself is within the Test Range.

by vitamin_kitten Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:04 pm

Okay, that's fine. I can actually work with that. Smile

by Guest Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:11 pm

vitamin_kitten wrote:Okay, that's fine. I can actually work with that.

A lot of these protestors are pretty up in arms and upset about Emergents, so if she, for some reason, slipped, it'd probably start a general brawl of some sort between pro-and-anti demonstrators that the Air Force Security Police and Nevada State Police would have to put down.

One suggestion, at least.

by vitamin_kitten Sun Jul 19, 2009 6:14 pm

Right, right. -is cookin' up some ideas-

by Guest Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:28 pm

Oh, I forgot to really add it into my post, but I realized...

Alpha-class types from solitary, which is to say the ones proven dangerous and carted off as opposed to the ones that just got carted off for any old reason, probably no longer have their own clothes, due to their stay in the lockup.

Orange jumpsuits and rubber-soled trainers are standard for anyone that went into solitary, you get the idea. Everyone else probably has to have an ID card of some kind with a photo on it that they show on demand. Yes, "You zere, show me your papers!"

I didn't come up with the classification system initially, but the camp has the following classes;

Alpha - Confirmed dangerous emergent with abilities that can directly harm someone.

Beta - Physically mutated. (Currently, people are still undergoing sudden changes, in the camp and outside the camp, which is to say, the process is ongoing)

Gamma - Emergent with abilities to produce apparitions or alter perception.

Omega - General Population of Emergents.

Alphas, Betas and Gammas are all monitored more carefully than the others, though this system may change as it's only started and they are learning from mistakes in handling the camp inmates. The system is designed to be open for expansion, essentially.

Emergents are allowed phone privileges and letters, but laws against wiretapping citizens, if they ever really stopped the act, are thrown out the window here, as is the privacy of one's mail; everything is censored. Attempts to give away information deemed unsuitable meets with a sudden cutting off of the call by the third party, letters that are unsuitable are returned to the sender.

It's another aspect of the camp that the mail that does come in often involves divorces and other such things. For some reason, they're letting in lots of religious junk mail, it's about the only kind of mail anyone gets. It's a mini-war between religions in the post office and the pamphlet printing press.

I won't get specific, and I'm not trying to run down religions overly much here; as Haar and ecafowT noted, there's plenty of schism going on even in denominations, and they more or less reflect the response of humanity at large.

by Lara Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:33 pm

Awesome, Abby's a Gamma!

So, your character, he's coming over from solitary to the main camp? That'd mean most of our characters are probably already at the camp, and would thus be the ones coming out of the building that you mentioned? Or did I read that wrong?

by Igraine Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:36 pm

Got it. : ) I used the Alpha designation for Rachel because, well, being found covered in a man's blood, next to his mutilated and quite possibly half-eaten body, sounds a bit... dangerous? Even if they don't know exactly what happened, or how she managed to get all those claw and tooth marks in him...

But since there has been no relapse into... whatever... since her arrival, she's as blandly acquiescent as a cooked noodle, and nothing at all in her tests seems to indicate "other than" human? *shrugs* Maybe someone screwed up along the way, or lost the paperwork or... who knows? *smiles*

by Guest Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:36 pm

Lara wrote:Awesome, Abby's a Gamma!

So, your character, he's coming over from solitary to the main camp? That'd mean most of our characters are probably already at the camp, and would thus be the ones coming out of the building that you mentioned? Or did I read that wrong?

Yeah, characters can either be arriving from solitary, have been there a while, or be new arrivals themselves.

I edited the last post with some new information regarding the camps themselves and how they run for people who are posting from here on out.

by Guest Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:38 pm

Igraine wrote:But since there has been no relapse into... whatever... since her arrival, she's as blandly acquiescent as a cooked noodle, and nothing at all in her tests seems to indicate "other than" human? *shrugs* Maybe someone screwed up along the way, or lost the paperwork or... who knows? *smiles*

That and they're releasing alphas into the general population now that they think they have a handle on the situation. Maybe she was a test case to see if they'd be controllable.

And yeah, since you decided to use the same designation, I decided to formalize it a bit.

Of course, that's one big illusion in and of itself, but governments do often like to flatter themselves with the idea that they're in control of events. Wink

by Guest Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:44 pm

By the way, there is an ongoing attempt on my part to keep the first page up front on this topic updated with a table of contents linking everyone's character info and other important items so we don't have to hunt it all down all over the thread (which I find a time consuming process.)

So I'm creating a glossary of terms here, and will update them as we go along. Basically, by doing about half a minute of linking, I think I'm saving everyone a lot of time.

Glossary

Emergent, Manifested - A nice way of describing someone who came up with powers in the last couple months, when this all really started. This is the politically-correct term for it. There are many more less flattering terms.

NPC's - Disparaging term for regular humans used by the emergents in turn. Particularly popular with the ones that have been caught and put in camps. It was a popular term among roleplayers, before roleplaying games and science-fiction novels were pulled off bookstore shelves during the last couple months of hysteria, and outright banned in certain states, as if they were the reason all this came about.

Hope this helps.

by Sponsored content