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

[Igraine]

You're welcome, Lara. Even if you didn't use a thing, I'm just glad that whole "block" thingy is gone, and you were able to get a post up!

And... seems we have a rebellious little girl marching straight toward the two scariest people in the yard?

[Lara]

Oh hey, I actually hadn't meant it like that. But if you want to take it that way, be my guest. :p

[Igraine]

o.O Oooooops... sorry, Lara. My bad!

[Lara]

I don't mind. :p Rereading, it does sound like she's stalking off to talk to them, doesn't it.

Like I said, if you want to take it that way, you certainly can. If not, 's cool too.

[Lara]

Kesteven, that was most excellent! I loved how you did that last part of your post.

Just wanted to say.

[Igraine]

I don't mind. :p Rereading, it does sound like she's stalking off to talk to them, doesn't it.

Like I said, if you want to take it that way, you certainly can. If not, 's cool too.

I'm so glad I didn't, because then it would have stepped all over Kesteven's post, when Cero's finally "outted."

*returns to waiting turn nicely* hehe

[[Soma]]

Name:Jericho Baal
Age: 23
Hometown: Ireland( but lived in China for a few years)
Appearance;(follow the - )
-Hair Color:Blond hair that is usually seen poking out of a party hat.
-Eyes:green
-Height: 183cm
-Weight: 69kg
-Personality:Jericho is a man of many faces, and these faces can change within a blink of the eye from the happy-go-lucky, funny guy to the super serious, don't-mess-with-me man.
-Clothing:
-Samue
A loose-fitting cotton kimono-style top and trouser set. The Samue has been worn for centuries by artisans and priests. Being light-weight, they are ideal for lounging about.
-Haori
The Kanji He wears over his Samue a Haori, or a mid-length light coat.
-Geta
He wears his raised sandals, or Geta sandals, which go click-clack as he walks.
-Hat
Green with white stripes (or white with green stripes, whatever), this hat resembles a party hat of sorts. By wearing this hat, a shadow is cast upon his eyes, making him seem a bit scary because of one's inability to see his eyes, which are a vital way of sensing what another is feeling.
- Cane
Shikomizue ("prepared cane") is a Japanese concealed sword disguised as a cane or walking stick, similar to the sword stick.


Normal Human: no, Jericho will end up learning the following.
-Telekinesis, being able to move objects with ones mind. (just simple stuff like chairs, parking meters and any other small stuff. The heavier object will take time to learn.)

-Psychic, being able to tell some ones aura, and certain events.(again starting out small with fortune telling. Like a birthday or any small amount of information that might betray a person. Major events would be seen as fuzzy pictures or a blur and only certain things would appear normal.)

-Telepathic, being able to speak to another persons mind. (speaks for it's self)


Bio: My name is Jericho Baal.
I am a wander of sorts, a lost soul as you would.

I am writing in a journal that was given to me recently, I have decided to write down my thoughts and experiences in hopes it will some how help others know how to live like a free person. Hopefully those who pick my journal up will not be subjected to censorship laws. So this is my story in this world.

Life began in a blinding light for me, or like the same way we all came to this material world.
I was born and raised in Ireland, in a city name Dublin. As a child I was sent to a catholic school for boys, this is where I learned to do simple things. School was easy, the simple things in life I was shown. Like fighting other boys, sneaking out of school to get my first kiss. Who was my first kiss, well her name was Basia Cossel. She was a interesting girl in grade school, always running around and teasing us boys. It was almost like a nightmare, a unrealistic dream.

My High School years where just as fun, driving around in my 1949 Chevrolet truck. It had two seats in the cab, and had a large bed in the back. I would take off from the middle of the school and pick my darling girlfriend up. Remember that girl named Basia, well yea we ended up in a relationship in High School. I took her every where, from the city to the shoreline. We where inseparable, or so we thought. I trust in you the readers to keep my life story a hidden secret as I continue this story.

It was a Friday night, and Mick and Janet had gotten a hold of a keg. We where on our way to meet them at hangars cave, when we where pulled over by the police sergeant. His name is Johnny, he is Basia dad and he doesn't like me at all. As I sat in the drivers seat I awaited the sergeant to approach my vehicle. Like all cops he walked up to us on my side and at a steady pace. His right hand was on his gun, Johnny looked mad."where are you headed Jericho, and with my daughter" said Johnny the sergeant. I had to come up with a answer fast if I wanted to get out of this mess. " Just a small drive to the coast sir" I spoke back to the officer. I won't get into details but there was a quarrel and some one was dumped in to the ocean.

Now I reside in china, and I'm loving life. I love these small people but now I'm traveling to America, to a place called Nevada. I have this feeling or better yet being pulled to it, as if there is some thing there that I need to do! So during the present time I'm now on a plane. I will continue writing in my journal for later purposes. When I am done with it I will try to get it published, to show the world how I lived in a chaotic life style. There are things about me that are unexplainable, that you would not believe. But continue to follow my story and all will be released.

(I added some more to the Bio)
(Edit)

[Lara]

So I'm not a hundred percent certain that I like the post I just made, but I do feel much better about it after tweaking it a bit. Wasn't the direction I originally intended on taking it, but hey, that's what posts do sometimes.

[Igraine]

Hmmm... Not really sure if I'm supposed to be waiting on Heysuess or not, so I'll give a bit more time for you to say yeah or nay, before making up whatever comes to the top of my head? *grins*

[Guest]

Sorry, I'll be on things tonight. I just needed to clear other things off the deck first. This shouldn't take too long.

[Guest]

Name:Jericho Baal
Age: 23

I hate doing this and I'm bad at it, but I don't think that character is at all a fit for the setting. I'm very uncomfortable with the whole character concept. I talked this over with Haar and we both fundamentally felt the same way.

[[Soma]]

It is all right, what would you guys like me to change about it to fit the setting?

[Guest]

Hmmm... Not really sure if I'm supposed to be waiting on Heysuess or not, so I'll give a bit more time for you to say yeah or nay, before making up whatever comes to the top of my head? *grins*

Okay, next post up. Sorry about that, I was handling a post on another board for the last two days. It wound up being like four thousand words, and that can take a while when you're trying to get it right.

[Kesteven]

So I'm not a hundred percent certain that I like the post I just made, but I do feel much better about it after tweaking it a bit. Wasn't the direction I originally intended on taking it, but hey, that's what posts do sometimes.

Looks OK to me! Out of curiosity, what direction were you thinking of taking it?

[Lara]

Originally, Abby was supposed to continue what she started and get all excited that Euryl could see Cero. >.> But the more I think about it, the more this fits better anyway.

'sides, this path sparked a fun idea for Cero to visit Euryl in his sleep and threaten him. Dunno if that'll happen, but it was a fun idea.

Edit: Kesteven, I'm afraid I had a bit too much fun with the post I just made. Please let me know if there's anything you'd rather I change, since it might be taken as godmodding...

[Igraine]

My apologies for not replying sooner - for the past day and a half, I have been completely unable to pull the FOG forums up. Don't ask me how or why, I don't have a clue - all I kept getting was "can't connect" messages for the domain. I should have something up by the end of the day.

[Lara]

So sad. ): I've got Cero's part written out beautifully, just finished with it, but now my head's swimming 'cause I'm so tired, and I won't be able to write Abby's part. I was trying so hard to finish the post before going to bed, too...

I'll see what I can come up with when I wake up.

[Guest]

I'm in the same boat. I was going to write out a snippet, like a transcript, of a CNN show where all the talking heads get together and have a verbal catfight, but I honestly can't work out the details. So I'm shelving it.

[Kesteven]

Well, if there's anything specific you're stuck on, we might be able to help? Although I suppose with this sort of thing it's usually just lots of bits and pieces.

[vitamin_kitten]

Oh man, I'm so behind. ^^;; I thought for sure I'd get more emails for each response after mine in the thread, but apparently FOG only sends a notification out for one reply or something. Looks like I've got some catching up to do. 8D;

[Lara]

Oh, no, last night wasn't a matter of not knowing what to write, not exactly. I was just mentally and physically exhausted, since I had gotten up around 5:30 that morning, and only had, like, three hours of sleep before that.

I won't be able to finish the post now, though, either. So sad, because I have to go in to work with my mom for an hour or so before leaving for my own job 'till 4. However, I'ma send what I have so far to myself and see what I can do, again.

In related news to that, I very nearly just had to cry. Why? Because my computer, despite the fact that I didn't shut it down last night, x'd out of everything except a word document I have open (for some reason). I had realized that meant Firefox was closed, but my brain just wrapped around the fact that I had WordPad documents open, and that said document was my Pandora post. Luckily, I had enough sense to copy it to another document before going to sleep, and saved it. 'cause otherwise I'd seriously probably be in tears.

[Kædai]

Hm....I would be very interested, if you would have me. I'm a bit busy at the moment, but I'll ave time in a bit to post up a character. A question though, if I may...Wat is the military doing through all of this mayhem? I have yet to read the IC, which is a fault on my part, and it may be explained there, but I don't believe I've seen anything about the military's role in all of this.

~K

[Lara]

Hmm, not entirely happy with Abby's part, but I guess it says what I want it to say.

Hi, Kae! Hmm... I'm not all that sure what they're doing right now, honestly. Seuss probably knows, though. The way I think about it, the military are the ones guarding the camp and (possibly) rounding up the stray Emergents. That might just be the police, though...

You definitely should read the IC. :p It's awesome.

[Kædai]

I think I'll do that now.

[Kesteven]

Yeah, the impression I got was just that the military was being used as the executive wing of the DHS, doing what they do best, i.e. waving guns at people and following orders, although a large proportion of them would probably still be engaged in training and foreign action. It's a modern setting so the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are probably still going though forces would conceivably have been pulled back to address the situation at home.

I'm not sure if there's an official martial law in the U.S. at this point, but there probably would be in a few other countries, especially ones that can't afford a roundup operation.

It's all Heyseuss' call really, though. I suppose this is the sort of thing that his 'talking heads' piece would address.

[Guest]

Yeah, the impression I got was just that the military was being used as the executive wing of the DHS, doing what they do best, i.e. waving guns at people and following orders, although a large proportion of them would probably still be engaged in training and foreign action. It's a modern setting so the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are probably still going though forces would conceivably have been pulled back to address the situation at home.

I'm not sure if there's an official martial law in the U.S. at this point, but there probably would be in a few other countries, especially ones that can't afford a roundup operation.

It's all Heyseuss' call really, though. I suppose this is the sort of thing that his 'talking heads' piece would address.

Okay, so before I go further, I'm just going to point the following out: This isn't really a commentary on any given party's politics as much as an observation of the system itself. But as the justification for the following IS rooted in reality, I'm giving the disclaimer; I am biased, but I tried to build the model for why it's the military and DHS and why they're so heavy-handed based on facts rather than imagining this stuff out of thin air.

That is, besides imagining MAGIC out of thin air. It is fiction, after all.

There is martial law. But at the same time, the military is not being used to go after emergents unless the firepower is necessary. So law enforcement are the front line and the military winds up being the support; they provide the aviation, transportation and so forth when there are shortfalls.

This would be my read of it too, and based on the following information; in 2008, the federal government was training the 1st Bde, 3rd Infantry Division for domestic operations. For fictional purposes, I am stretching this mandate, and it's plausible, to assume that they may well be employed against emergents, particularly as things get nastier, and that crash training is already being done to the military to get them prepared to deal with it.

Here's a link to at least one of the articles on the whole thing, though I think this program has quietly gone away since then, as no real news came back about it, since.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/

I am operating under a certain assumption here, and that is that the military is following policy and orders from the government, for better or for worse, just as the police were. The military, as an institution, generally has had deep reservations about getting involved in civilian law enforcement, even when permission is given from congress consistent with the Posse Comitatus Act, which is the prohibition of the use of the military in the US. I'm assuming the case remains the same here, that elements of the US military are deeply disturbed by this.

At the same time, there have been enthusiastic users of the military against civilians as a law enforcement tool, such as the Bonus Expeditionary Force in 1932, when Hoover ordered MacArthur to put down the marchers, and MacArthur did it flagrantly and happily (Mac wasn't shy about his feelings toward the 'great unwashed.') There was also Kent State. Military abuse and police abuse are, regrettably, a reality, and this storyline deals heavily with that aspect of things because the Emergents are the sort of thing that'd generate public hysteria and mostly unquestioning support for the use of excessive and lethal force. Sad but true.

In this case, DHS is calling the shots. As DHS is a newly founded bureaucracy with little institutional experience (and a record of fail) they are eager to go the extra mile to 'get the job done' but aren't entirely sure how to go about it.

I admit, my perception of DHS as an institution colors this; their job was being done by other government agencies, and more effectively (or those agencies continue to do it, like FBI's counterterrorism branch.) Organizations with broad and vague mandates like DHS tend to look for a job to do and a pond they can piss in. That troubling lack of direction, brand new bureaucracy that is still finding their way through how they handle their own paperwork, much less real jobs and the disturbing mandate that touches on domestic security all scream 'clusterfuck' to me.

I've written that into the account accordingly. DHS is a redundant organization, and eager to prove they're players like the guys whose jobs they're trying to grab. The Emergents represent an opportunity to justify their existence, and like many government offices, they want funding. Politicians, by contrast, want someone to 'do something' to reassure their voters that they're dealing with the problem. Like Nixon at the Saturday Night Massacre in 1973, where two AG's got fired/resigned, they're looking for someone that'll just do what they say.

Politicians aren't very concerned about ethics beyond getting caught/prosecuted, as a rule, and agencies like the FBI are institutionally concerned with procedure and getting it right. DHS is much more of a newcomer, amateurish and somewhat cowboy, reflecting, perhaps, the president who created it and the people the president who put in the people to staff it. None of those guys ever really gave a shit about constitutionality beyond covering their ass. With the Emergents, covering their asses might be an even lower priority.

So yeah, that's my reasoning. It's rooted in bureaucracy and public hysteria as well as electoral concerns on the part of politicians. The military is in the unenviable position of providing muscle for DHS.

That's a lot of explanation, but I hope that explains where things stand. As of right now, the political consensus, uneasy as it is, supports using the military to keep a lid on the Emergents, nevermind rights. Some constitutional lawyers are making the case that Emergents aren't human, which renders their rights null and void. After all, there is no 'sentient beings' clause in the Constitution; the 14th amendment specifies 'person' and the definition of that is a human being.

Yes, lawyers are figuring out that since Emergents are obviously not 'human' anymore according to them, they aren't people in the eyes of the law. On the other hand, a lot of other people are arguing that the constitution was written when this wasn't an issue, and that women and blacks weren't considered people either...but you get the idea. The hottest debate in the country in this setting is the rights of Emergents, but with so many scared people, the anti's are winning.

That's a lot to chew on, but I hope it clarifies where things stand.

PS. I'm adding this to the front page, at the start of the thread, so it can be referenced for later. Here's a link to said front page.

[Lara]

I made a thread for it, but I just wanted to mention that I'll be away this weekend, camping. Kesteven, I wanted to write up one more post for you before I left (and there's still the tiny chance that I will be able to, but I'm not all that optimistic about it), but I didn't get around to it, between being busy and not really knowing where it's going anymore.

I have this thing about idle chatter that goes on for multiple posts. It feels almost as if their conversation isn't going to be going anywhere else after another post or so. Do you get what I mean? I'll see if I can think of anything... Dunno, maybe bring Rebekah in after a while or something. Will think more when I can focus.

But if I don't get around to another post before disappearing, I'll do my best to get one up the moment I get back! Sorry if I end up keeping you waiting. ):

[Guest]

I made a thread for it, but I just wanted to mention that I'll be away this weekend, camping. Kesteven, I wanted to write up one more post for you before I left (and there's still the tiny chance that I will be able to, but I'm not all that optimistic about it), but I didn't get around to it, between being busy and not really knowing where it's going anymore.

I have this thing about idle chatter that goes on for multiple posts. It feels almost as if their conversation isn't going to be going anywhere else after another post or so. Do you get what I mean? I'll see if I can think of anything... Dunno, maybe bring Rebekah in after a while or something. Will think more when I can focus.

But if I don't get around to another post before disappearing, I'll do my best to get one up the moment I get back! Sorry if I end up keeping you waiting. ):

I may put in a post to help prod things along over the weekend, but there's no pressure to immediately respond to it. I'll be doing it strictly to give us all something more to work with. What I'm primarily concerned with is not letting things go uberstale. I think I have at least one overall development that should push things forward a bit, but we'll see what goes. It's written down at least.

[Kesteven]

I made a thread for it, but I just wanted to mention that I'll be away this weekend, camping. Kesteven, I wanted to write up one more post for you before I left (and there's still the tiny chance that I will be able to, but I'm not all that optimistic about it), but I didn't get around to it, between being busy and not really knowing where it's going anymore.

I have this thing about idle chatter that goes on for multiple posts. It feels almost as if their conversation isn't going to be going anywhere else after another post or so. Do you get what I mean? I'll see if I can think of anything... Dunno, maybe bring Rebekah in after a while or something. Will think more when I can focus.

But if I don't get around to another post before disappearing, I'll do my best to get one up the moment I get back! Sorry if I end up keeping you waiting. ):

Well, if you don't mind then this might be an acceptable point to just do a tv-style cut and handwave the rest by putting something in my next post about bringing Abby back to her mother. That would avoid getting stuck in dialogue and allow me to keep posting over the weekend.

[Lara]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean; just the part about the 'tv-style cut'. But I think I get the jist of it, so sure, I don't see a problem with that. After all, I'd hate to have to keep you from continuing to post.

Now that I've been granted the hours during which I was originally supposed to be working, I'll just try to get something up, and then we can go with your suggestion.

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