Lost Carnival Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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livinglot2017-05-17 02:20 pm
ringleaders) wrote in livinglot2017-05-17 02:20 pm
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⇨ New Location: THE TOURIST TRAP
| PREPARATION↴ Events leading up to this location will be as normal. After Mainframe, the carnival will go into its usual travelling/transitional period for a few days, with no particular warnings or expectations. Normally this would be where I explain how the characters will entering the setting and what they will immediately see, but this is not a normal occasion. Mostly because no one will have any idea how or why the carnival entered this universe - in fact, they may not remember entering anywhere at all. SETTING↴  Portland, USA is similar to the one of our modern earth in many ways, even if some of those are purely superficial. Importantly, it is the urban fantasy equivalent, meaning that standard city life is underlain with a complex civilization of 'supernaturals,' whose actions have the tendency to shake the world in unseen ways. It's a common formula in the multiverse, and some carnival workers may even come from a world much like it. The major difference here is this world in particular has managed to pull the carnival into its snare in an unprecedented way. From the start of this visit an onward, the carnival will be rewritten into this world's rules - and in more than just a superficial sense. On day one, your characters will find themselves having awoken into completely new lives, with potentially no memory of anything that came before. How exactly this transition took place will start out unclear, and this will be a plot heavy narrative centered around investigation and the discovery of what has happened, and how those trapped here can leave. Twenty five years ago, this world underwent a process sometimes know as "the Severing", in which a magical ritual of great power was used to severe the ties between earth and a number of otherworldly realms that had been cross-inhabiting it. The realms of faerie, heaven, and hell were disconnected entirely, stranding many of their members on earth with no way of returning home. The details of this ritual and its purpose are elusive, but its effects have spanned the globe. Most supernatural stuff in this world is simply referred to as "magic", which is built upon an animistic reality in which all living creatures and all objects have some essence of "spirit" that can be interacted with. Casting and ritual magic is primarily centered upon esoteric means of interacting with these spirits in order to invoke various effects, while the magic of many supernatural creatures are considered to be innate traits of their species. NOTE: This is a setting where magic is basically a "known secret", in that many people are factually aware of the supernatural, but it doesn't get talked about in public. Most people have probably seen something weird at some point in their life, but the supernatural is not officially recognized in society. Most of humanity does its best to try to pretend it doesn't exist, in order to avoid gaining the wrong kind of attention. So, you couldn't talk about doing magic on live TV, but there are a lot of places where you could get away with people seeing your supernatural traits if you keep to the 'underground.' MEMORIES↴ Upon entering this setting, every character will be mentally and physically inserted into the world, as if they've always been there. Bodies will be changed to something appropriate to the setting (which may or may not be the most similar to what they already have), and history will be rewritten to accommodate their presence. However, this rewritten history will not always be the most complete, or the most resistant to actual scrutiny. It's a patch job, and so some facts may not line up, and many details of past events may seem vague or incomplete if the character manages to think about it seriously. Locals memories of your characters will be similar - you have been inserted into their lives, but they may not be able to recall when they actually met you, or they could be missing large pieces of your childhood together. Everyone will compulsively feel the desire to ignore these inconsistencies, but the spell is not strong enough to keep them from examining these gaps if they are alerted to their presence. There are three different ways you can handle your character's memories:
How long it takes your character to regain memories is purely up to you. You can allow their amnesia to affect them until the bitter end, or having it clear up after the first week. Either is fine. This event will be running for 1-2 OOC months, and so pace accordingly. The Patrons section below is filled with both the kinds of people the world is inhabited with, and also what kinds of people your characters might become. NOTE: The magic causing this will not create new humans or other creatures from scratch in order to fill backstory blanks. Any roles you need filled in your characters new life will have to be taken by either another carnival member's new identity, or by a local who was here before you arrived. That said, if you want to have locals that have odd similarities to characters from your real backstory present, that is fine, but they won't be total dopplegangers and will have lives of their own. You will be free to NPC them, however. PATRONS↴  ► HUMAN: First and foremost, you can be a regular ‘ol human. They represent the vast majority of the actual population. Their lives are the typical modern experience, except for all the places where the supernatural tends to stick its head out and wag its tongue on occasion. Many humans have had supernatural experiences in this world, but most of them aren’t commonly believed or discussed. Talking about the supernatural too loudly and too publicly tends to result in attracting the wrong sorts of attention. Both government and occult coverups have been a thing in the past. Of course, not all humans are born precisely “regular”, either. Sometimes, a human will be born already imbued with the essence of magic, resulting in a wide range of potential powers, such as psychic abilities or even things like pyrokinesis. These are most often mentally focused abilities, usually a form of ESP, but not always. Humans with these abilities can also sometimes be created with outside tampering, but that can become a nasty business. Common Features: normal human stuff, minor physical abnormalities. Potential Abilities: ESP, minor psionics, spirit medium. ► MAGE: Theoretically, any type of person can be a mage, but humans were the ones that made it popular. While other species tend to rely on inborn magical skills, being a full fledged mage is built upon a foundation of secret knowledge and ritual skills - actively learning how to bend the etheric energies of the world around them instead of simply using magic in the ways they were born to. Classically, this tends to result in a mage having less overtly ‘powerful’ but more diverse skillsets. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t spend your time learning almost exclusively how to blow things up. Knowledge is something that can be hoarded, however, which means that mage culture tends to be secretive and elitist, with ancient societies keeping a lot of the really good shit to themselves. Newer, more freeform mages are left with a few choices: to join these old covens and follow their rules in exchange for secrets, to steal that information from said covens, or to research and discover their own tricks from the world around them. It’s a tough world out there for the aspiring spellcrafter. Actual spells tend to be comprised of ritual acts, recitation of words, and other formulaic interactions with the world. If you’re good enough at a spell, then you will eventually be able to find shortcuts that allow you to ease its casting. Common Features: normal human stuff, minor physical abnormalities. Potential Abilities: ESP, psionics, ritual and casting magics of any kind. ► WARLOCK: Sort of a mage, sort of not. These humans use magic by channelling energy from a powerful supernatural entity. Demon worshippers and fae servants, and are good examples. They tend to be looked down on my “real” mages because it is considered a reckless shortcut to power that ensures that the individual is under the thumb of a supernatural creature with most likely dubious intentions. Common Features: physical abnormalities related to their supernatural patron. Potential Abilities: any kind of power that can be gifted by their patron. ► CHANGELING: When the world was cut off from outside dimensions, it left a number of fae stranded in this reality - and they have been making it everyone else’s problem ever since. While most true fae hide themselves away within their own twisted sections of reality, they also have a nasty habit of branching out from their territory long enough to create fae-human hybrids. This can happen a number of different ways, but all of them tend to be referred to as “changelings” regardless of the specifics. The classic example of a changeling is when a fae steals away a human baby, leaving a fake replacement long enough to instill their essence into the real child. The length of time they keep the baby could be months or years, but eventually they tend to give the child back to its parents, with the intent of demanding the services of that changeling once they have reached adulthood. On some occasions, that child is never returned and the magical replacement will die an early death due to nebulous illness. In other cases, a changeling child can be conceived by literally breeding with a mortal. This is more hands on than many fae like to get, but it still happens frequently enough to be a known phenomenon. Sometimes that child is taken back to the fae parent’s realm afterwards, or sometimes it will be left under the care of the mortal. The context of these situations vary wildly, since it usually depends on the relationship between the fae and mortal, and what the intent of the birth was. If the child is left with the mortal parent, it isn’t uncommon for them to be called upon by their fae parent for service once they have become an adult. Otherwise, a changeling can be any mortal that has been “corrupted” enough by the fae to become one. All forms of changelings tend to be treated with fear and disgust by other supernaturals, as true fae are not well liked in a general sense. Most fae in this world are apparently of “the Summer Court.” Common Features: pointed ears, non-angelic/demonic wings, elemental traits (plants, fire, weather, light in particular), strange eyes, strange auras. Potential Abilities: lesser versions of powers within their fae parent’s domain, usually fire, light, nature, growth, glamour, enchantment or transfiguration focused. ► ANGEL: Fae weren’t the only extra-dimensional travellers to become stranded when the Severing happened - there were hosts of angels and demons present as well, all of which were prevented from returning to their homelands of heaven and hell. In the angels’ case most of them had been on earth for benevolent reasons, moving among the local populace as guardians, psychopomps, and warriors fighting against their counterparts, the demons. Suffice to say, reactions at having been cut off from heaven have varied. Some angels have seen it as a betrayal, coming to resent the humans for trapping them here, gradually falling away from their duties and instead focusing on enacting their will upon the world to whatever capacity they see fit. Others have simply carried on, believing that ultimately this is better than the earth being constantly under siege by demons and fae. Some were completely left without direction, utterly lost in a world without heaven. Angels vary in power depending on their rank, and while some of the higher tiers are still on earth, most are from the lower ranks - guardians and soldiers. Before the Severing, angels would help to guide souls to their destination or earth (primarily to keep them away from demonic clutches), or would occasionally award particularly virtuous souls a free pass to join heaven as an angel. That, of course, is no longer possible. Common Features: angelic wings, halos, auras of light - angels are spirits and can shape their forms in various ways, though most have a human visage that is seen by those without magic sight. Potential Abilities: holy magic, light magic, healing abilities, regeneration, purification, smiting, high speed flight, invisibility and/or intangibility, spirit guiding. ► DEMON: Demons were on earth for more nefarious reasons than angels, attempting to drag lost souls down to hell or, at best, just partying on earth as destructively as they liked. Hell isn’t that fun in the long term, after all, so many saw it as an opportunity to expand their interests and claim territory. This is bad mostly because a lot of demons are straight up assholes. When the severing happened, it prevented them from continuing to take souls to hell - of course, a lot of demons didn’t even really care about that, as they’d mostly been doing that on the orders of their Demon Lords in the first place. With no hell to return to, many demons were just pleased as punch to to continue living out their immortality with reckless abandon. Meanwhile, some of the more powerful demons were enraged to lose the resources and control their kingdoms in hell had afforded them, and have made it their mission to drag as many of the lesser demons into their services as possible, in order to recreate those kingdoms on earth. Demonkind has been in a bit of a civil war, between the demons that want to assemble as an army, and the ones that just want to be left alone to their hedonistic ways. Though, it would be easier to just chill if the angels weren’t still trying to kill them. Common Features: horns, demon wings, fire, scales, various predator traits, tails with or without blades - like angels, most will have a human visage that is seen by mundane humans. Potential Abilities: hellfire, dark magic, mind control, super strength, soul stealing, corruption, seduction. ► UNDEAD: This covers any creature that is primarily a dead thing still inhabiting the earth. Vampires, zombies, and ghosts are all forms of the undead in this word, and in most cases magic has somehow been used to keep them “living” despite being technically expired. Vampires are of a more classic Dracula-esque variety. They are actual living corpses that may or may not develop bat traits over time. They are kept living by a contagious form of blood sorcery that was started thousands of years ago, and has been mostly propagated by the act of sharing blood with an existing vampire. Presumably bats had something to do with the original magic, due to the traits vampires will sometimes pick up. Holy objects and the sun risk dispelling the blood magic that keeps them alive, meaning that exposure will hurt and possibly kill them. They tend to sleep during the day as a result, but aren’t required to. They require the blood of the living to continue extending their lives, and though animals besides humans do work, humans are by far the most delicious and nutritious. Common Features: sharp fangs, stone textured skin, red eyes, bat features. Potential Abilities: super speed, super strength, regeneration, hypnosis, turning into a bat and/or growing bat wings. Zombies are more or less just corpses that are still inhabited by the soul of the person whose body it is. There are various magical ways of attaining this status, but it isn’t a particularly fun or glamorous one. Zombie bodies don’t heal, and while additional injuries won’t kill them (obviously), they can make it nearly impossible for the zombie to function without being repaired. Sometimes mages will become liches, which are especially powerful zombies that have enough magic that they can maintain their dead bodies more effectively. Most mages abhor liches though, because people who practice necromancy tend to be pretty awful. Common Features: rotting, visible injuries, being a corpse. Potential Abilities: remaining active despite catastrophic injuries, being repaired like an object, replacing body parts with artificial ones with no loss of dexterity. Ghosts are just the souls of the dead, who haven’t passed on for whatever reason. Usually it is on account of some lingering attachment to the world of the living. Some ghosts will be nearly as present as they were when alive, but others will corrupted or obsessed from having died, and lose many aspects of their true personality. Even the most stable ghosts tend to become more imbalanced and irrational with time. Since the Severing happened, there has been a notable uptick in lost spirits, mostly due to the relative lack of psychopomps to escort them to the afterlife. Common Features: being dead, being intangible, monochrome, scary ghost mutations. Potential Abilities: intangibility, invisibility, “poltergeist” telekinesis, possessing stuff. ► WEREBEAST: Any human that can turn into a particular animal, and has the abilities or traits of said animal in day to day life. This can be pretty much any creature, though it tends towards predators. (Or, at least, those are the ones that survive.) Werebeast’s souls are at least part animal, which allows them to change their forms and draw on that spirits true power. This transformation is usually voluntary, though certain stimulus can make it happen compulsively, such as being in a great state of stress or the various equivalents of a “full moon.” While the triggers of a werewolf are the most commonly known, they are definitely not the only ones out there. The beast form of a werebeast tends to be a larger or slightly more humanoid version of whatever animal they share a spirit with. The physical nature of a beast form will vary from individual to individual. Common Features: minor animal traits while humanoid, major animal traits when transformed. Potential Abilities: super strength, super agility, animal senses, traits specific to their animal spirit. ► ETCETERA: Though these are the main categories, there is room for some edge cases. If you have a particular idea, ask the mods and we will see what we can come up with. Things like half vampires, half angels, and half demons do exist, and what they take away from their heritage can vary. These cases are rare but not unprecedented. DANGERS↴ Even if you don't remember coming from the outside... some of the people here may notice something odd about you. This has the potential to bring the carnival members a lot of attention, from both friend and foe alike. Be careful of which locals you trust, because everyone's got an agenda. CHANGES↴ All characters will be physically changed to fit their roles as soon as the event begins, which means you can have them look any way that is reasonable for Portland's native species. They can also be somewhat younger or older than they usually are, within reason, if it works better for your concept. (This isn't a de-aging event though, so no making your characters kids just for the sake of making them kids.) Participation in this event will allow them to come away with at least one uncommon change. Exceptional participation and success in unraveling the plot will allow for some rare changes to be kept as well, by individuals who have played key roles in progressing the narrative. How exactly this is handled will be a surprise at the end, but let it be know that your participation will probably affect how much you get back! Beyond that, this is a PLOTTING POST, which means you can use it to make plans! The game chat is also a great place to discuss plots, so we welcome you to pop on in if you haven't already! A mingle log will be posted this weekend. |
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CARLY
Aslla Piscu and Carly Nagisa enter as a pair; in terms of what Carly knows, Aslla was a demon of shadows, with whom she forged a bond with on her deathbed in order to be with the one she loved. Ironically, hazy events caused that someone to 'vanish'-she won't be able to say if he died or what if she dwells, but she doesn't want to dwell in the first place after all.
And Aslla Piscu will take advantage. Despite knowing nothing about the world around them, he's able to glean more than enough from Carly's habit of muttering to herself-what he learns from her, he uses to form a plan.
And that plan is to take advantage of the obvious fact that the Ringmaster is somehow...unavailable. Obviously he can't plan anything enormous. He has no idea how he got here in the first place! But what he does do is start to point Carly in questionable directions, searching into more power and more things to benefit him-and if it comes to it, that will include souls.
While Aslla Piscu lies within her shadow still, it can't do more than speak this time around-though he can also manifest in Carly's reflection, albeit only if he really wants it.
And now we come to Carly herself!
Carly, in this world, is more or less of the same cut from canon. Growing up just a hair away from being on the street, she swore to do whatever it took to never go back there, but her kind heart stil drove her to stick with what she felt was 'right'. She decided to, for naive reasons, become a reporter-and ended up knee deep in the investigations of a massive gang war in the very slums she grew up in.
Among the ones she came to meet in this gang, there was someone named 'Jack' (not That Jack, obviously. Just 'Jack'. It's a common name yo.)-she fell in love, and began to go out of her way to try and help him despite having her duties to her job...and then she got herself and Jack in a bit of a bind.
That's as much detail as she has; now, she's still investigating on her own time on what was going on, which leads her to focus her searching at Dignity Village...
As a Warlock, Carly has a fair bit of power, and there's something 'not quite right' about her as well. Nothing obvious; but there IS a strange triangular birthmark on her cheek that seems as red as fresh blood. Her eyes also glow when she uses magic. Which, in this case, focuses largely on Hellfire, a fire that burns with all the might of the unholy!
Aside from Hellfire, she could possibly even steal a soul for her dear partner-albeit with a fairly complex and time consuming ritual that can't really be done on the spot.
Re: CARLY
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Aslla Piscu is meant to be a rather strong demon, but not so strong that it's odd. He'd be considered powerful, but it would make sense that he included 'also i use your shadow as my transport' as part of things
Also, he'll probably figure that Aslla would be quicker to straight up inhabit this 'jack' person than bring him back, but since Carly's vague enough that he could well be dead, more than likely the assumption will just be 'shadow demon on a joy ride but i guess carly is happy???'
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SOUL STEALING TAKES TIME AND RITUALS so it'd be super easy to run in on it oops
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WALKS RIGHT THE FUCK BACK OUT
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Re: CARLY
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GONGENZAKA - VAMPIRE
> HE IS....Turned at 14. Still a damn GIANT of a kid however, and in terms of actual age is roughly 180 years old. NICE. Being turned at 14 however, he is sort of frozen at that point of development, so as mature has he could be for his age, he still shows his age sometimes.
> Why was he turned? Who knows~ Gon actually doesn't, it kind of just happened after a day's work with his dad, he got bossed around through some weird foggy haze, and then suddenly the lady he'd run into That One Night was gone. And also his dad was dead, and everything was Super Different.
His best theory now that he knows a bit more is that his sire hoped for ~dumb hot muscle~ but got a Very Not Dumb Kid (with Muscle). Sire most likely ditched him in part because they were stuck trying to focus on some heavy mental work on someone growing a bit of resistance...and also because that someone was really only good for a few tasks and nothing they actually hoped for OOPS.
She would've figured he'd be dead in a week from then since. There wasn't really a transition period from 'WHO ARE YOU??' to 'You're a Vampire' (whoops, he Didn't Die). There goes any chance of him hooking up with Vampire Society...
> CURRENTLY though, Gon lives on his own-in a small basement level apartment, complete with new puppy now that he's found a lil pup that doesn't IMMEDIATELY COWER in his presence (hi Suzu). Since he doesn't have as solidly Japanese a background here, Suzu goes by 'Belle' though. Because translation puns.
> NO MORE 'I, THE MAN'...but he does speak like an Old Fart. Which is a shame because he's trying Really Hard to sound normal :[[ This will instead manifest with things like using the word Reckon and such. (And also with weird ideas of social norms) He managed to pick up a thing or two over the years, but he's noooot quite at the current generation oops.
> Since Gongenzaka still has his morals despite not having much of any memory At All, he took the following Food Path; Humans while under the Sire, Animals while crying over being a Vampire, and then after about a century of that when blood banks were established he crunched down on assimilating into society enough to -ahem- Secure A Stash.
> THAT MEANS HE HAS A JOB which explains the apartment, since you can bet Gongenzaka wouldn't cheat on rent. That job is....waste disposal. The unfortunate thing about being a Vampire is that (especially now) it's not really a well liked form of Undead-or at least not one to be open about if you want to stay alive-SOOOOOOO there is One Thing that he gives himself leeway on and that is stealing from the Red Bag Waste. Because that's where the blood is. Delicious. (Yes he could go for animals but it takes a Lot of animal to sustain the poor guy, and he really doesn't want to cause a drop in the deer population when there's fresh bloody Things in here)
Doing that kind of sucks though; fortunately for Gongenzaka, that was where Sherlock stepped in. When Gongenzaka first started out at the place Sherlock in particular worked at, he-being a mortician and Also Undead, AND a detective...caught him. From there, eventual job ties and connections were forged, and now Gongenzaka can get his blood from Sherlock. ...Probably at the expensive of doing a few things for Sherlock, whoop.
SO GONGENZAKA HAS A JOB, SOUNDS LIKE AN OLD FART DUE TO BEING A KID LIKE...165 YEARS AGO, AND HAS A PUPPY & AN APARTMENT. But now the Other Important Stuff.
> Now that he's a Vampire, he's obviously humanoid again (standing at 5'10'' without shoes on), and looks it. He has fangs, and red eyes, which generally stay hidden by way of contact lenses and straight up not opening his mouth. (Before that, there was a lot of Sunglasses At Night) He does...however have a bat tail. It's weird, he doesn't talk about it, but it's there OH WELL. There's some light velvety fur going up his back too but HEY not like he's going shirtless right? Oh and if you actually tried poking his skin it'd feel like a rock. That's a thing. Outside of work uniform, he'll just be sporting the jeans and t-shirt combo... And no headband. A true shame. (Still rocking the pomp though. TOLD YOU HE WAS BEHIND)
> GON'S ABILITIES! Naturally he has the speed and strength. These are unsurprising things especially since he was kind of a tank as it was. He has mild regeneration (Mild, needs a good sleep), but none of those...Other things. I mean maybe I'll give him a weird raging bat state if that's allowed but he'd have to be in a rage first. That said.
Some time ago give or take a few decades when the regeneration cropped up, he initially wondered if it was a Magic Thing. Gon being Gon, he'd rather know how the heck that works, so he's been trying to do some reading up on magic on the sly ever since. It's hard. Really hard, those mages keep shit well closed up >:[ BUT! He did manage to learn a bit about one spell, which stems off of the stuff he should be practicing before coming in.
> THAT SPELL IS! More of a focus than anything. Since his new ability that he's likely to be learning to use prior the event is basically 'chakra control, naruto style', the resulting spell in his AUMind is straight up sensing for unique energy. At the cost of, y'know, making his own energy pretty much flare RIGHT up and catch the eye of anything sensitive to it. So while he can feel out for say, a holy presence...that holy presence is probably going to be just as aware of him. HE IS PRACTICING OKAY.
This of course works for empaths, psychics, etc etc...Basically anyone even slightly in tune with the abnormal is going to catch the ping, he basically sets off a beacon.
> Personality wise, he's a little more open to jumping into things and learning things, since AU Gongenzaka lacks the background of the 'Gongenzaka Dojo' (Instead, human!Gon was probably just due to inherit a smithy. SO MUCH FOR THAT) . On top of this, his honor and morals are a little less rigid in a number of ways; stealing blood waste is allowed because 1) it's getting chucked, and 2) if he doesn't do that, Worse Things happen, for example. Also, dying is not an alternative, so that's another thing. Conversely, he's a little awkward in some of his social ways IE holding doors for people, etc etc. ...He's also FAR LESS HUGGY-WEEPY, on the other hand. Gotta keep that shit underwraps!
Also he likes dogs. A lot. Can't figure out why though...
As noted above, Gongenzaka is very much NOT in touch with the Vampire Society, which is...probably a shame since they'd probably have been his best support over all. (I mean it's that or they're assholes and he'd have died but hey)
The alternatives aren't likely to be very fond of him after all, and chances are the only reason he's not dead yet is because his spare time is just rushing to check out books at the library and then reading at home. (And now you can see why he's still so Odd Sounding, Oops) And also because he has the sense to practice the Beacon in a very secluded area before skedaddling. (And also he learned how to avoid churches Very Fast those first few years away from the Sire, so)
SO THAT'S GONGENZAKA. Now WHO WANTS TO PLOT (Also for those wondering, Suzu looks like this.)
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