AU ROLE CALL↴
Now that you've had a week to plan, this is the official role call post for the AU. Please reply to whatever header your character is included in with a summary of their role in Portland, with your character's name in the post subject. You can just copy and paste summaries used in the plotting post if you like, though for the same of mod plotting I would ask that you name and bold any of the following in your descriptions:
- Organizations: If your character is in a group or organization of any kind, please bold it! This will be important for the dispensing of IC clues and NPC attention.
- NPC Connections: If your character has a powerful NPC of any kind that they are connection to, please list and bold them. The mods will be writing some of these NPCs into the metaplot, and we can't do that if we don't know they exist!
- Meetup Points: If your character runs or is affiliated with anything that could be considered a supernatural hangout, it would be useful to make them easy to find, for the sakes of people who want to know what kind of places will be available in Portland for their characters to hang out.
Confirming your concepts in this post is not mandatory, but I would super appreciate anyone who does. If you do not reply to this post, your character will not be tied into the metaplot. Additionally, I will give everyone who does reply a +2 AC point bonus to their next activity check, per character they reply with.
Concepts are due May 31st. |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ringleaders) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
livinglot2017-05-24 01:43 pm
⇨ ORGANIZATIONS
HELEN MAGNUS | THE SANCTUARY NETWORK: PORTLAND
Abnormals.
When there are dangerous Abnormals loose, the staff of the Sanctuary are on hand to forcibly secure and contain them for the safety of the Abnormal in question and to preserve the safety of Abnormals and Humans city and indeed worldwide.
This helps keep what peace the Sanctuary can between the two delicately balanced worlds.
But for the most part, if they're well-mannered, everyone who comes to the Sanctuary is allowed free run of the place. The Sanctuary Network itself was created by Helen sometime in the late 1800s to early 1900s and is currently run by the very same woman. Helen, in this AU, is angel guardian-warrior, who also does both those things in addition to her Sanctuary duties. Any and all of the supernatural beings in this world are welcome at the Sanctuary be it for safe haven or other reasons including to learn about their powers in a safe place, or if dangerous, need or choose to be contained.
Helen has also set up, over the period of time she's been running the Sanctuary, various safe houses and refuges for people who might not be comfortable going to a place full of other Abnormals or might not get along with certain other species. There are, admittedly, those who might not be comfortable in her angelic presence, though that, like a great deal in her life, does little to dissuade her from her goal of aiding.
She also has a program set in place to aid the Changeling Network that consists of an outreach and intake/placement program. She provides food, clothing and bedding for anyone in need and regularly does runs herself or has other staff do so on her behalf.
Allen Walker | The United Order
It doesn't matter what flavor of strange you are; everyone is welcome. Their leader is a homeless changeling named Allen -- just Allen. His home base is Destiny Village, and it's there that he conducts many of his business meetups. He holds group meetings -- therapy, gossip, whatever you want to bring with you -- at the water park and Renzo's club, Crossroads. One-on-one meetings are typically done at a cafe or Destiny Village in Allen's tent. Or cardboard box. It varies.
He's currently looking to enlist warrior types. The rebel side of the Order is looking to expand.
Connections --
If any homeless supernaturals need supplies -- food, clothes, shelter -- Allen advises them to drop by the Sanctuary. If, for whatever reason, they don't want to deal with them, Allen will borrow supplies himself and hand them off.
Allen himself uses his own homeless network in order to gain fresh information off the streets. He peddles this information to the Sanctuary (through Helen), the Changeling Network (through Axel), Pearl's biker gang, Greg the Rose Queen's pet warlock, and the demon that hardly anyone knows as Psi. All in return for information and mutual favors. Sherlock comes to Allen for information every now and then when he's working a case, and Allen requests news on missing persons and murder cases for supernaturals in return.
Allen has his hands in a lot of pies.
So come join the Order. Because he's probably already harassed someone you know about it.
Lambert | Toe Beans Cat Cafe
The place has both permanent cats and a rotating list up for fostering or adoption; glamour shots with the cats' names are pinned on a bulletin board in the back. There's both an area for eating and mingling with the cats, and an area behind a glass partition so people can watch the cats being played with (or the people playing with them, if you're that kind of creep) and where orders are taken and drinks prepared. The staff are mostly human with a tolerance for weird shit happening and not asking questions, which is good because half of the cat population just disappears at night (stepping home to their owner via enchanted catflap) while the others are kept in kennels at the back or picked up by the shelter they're on loan from.
The cafe's owner is commonly rumored to be a cat shapeshifter or faerie, but it's actually just a quirky witch named Magdalena who specializes in transfiguration magic and really likes cats. She particularly loves gossip and rumors, and will happily trade them with patrons -- though she naturally makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or quality of the information she shares. What does she look like, an information broker?
Since Magdalena's about as fickle as a cat herself, she doesn't hold any loyalty to any particular faction. While she's happy to cause low-level mischief, she does place a great deal of work into making her establishment a neutral venue. This means no fighting or harassment of other patrons will be tolerated on the premises ... unless, of course, one desires to spend an indefinite amount of time on all fours. The cafe is warded with a charm to to transform any individual attempting to cast hostile magic or attack someone else on the premises into a cat, though 1. it's only reliably effective against normal humans (meaning anyone else might just get stuck with cat ears and tails), 2. effects only last a day. Also, you'll automatically be banned from the premises for the rest of your life, so have fun with that.
Pearl | The Renegades
Pearl formed this group, but it doesn't actually do much in terms of influence. Mostly it's there as a support group and is usually only about 10-20 members. The rest they send on to The Sanctuary or other places that take in others. She tries to keep them out of her personal Summer Court business as much as possible. Think of it a bit like Robin Hood's merry men...
CROSSROADS NIGHTCLUB
The club itself is open to all, good and evil, living and undead, entirely plain jane human and supernatural creature alike, and more often than not the patrons visiting the club are in the know or, if not before, soon will be. Crossroads is geared towards the supernatural population of Portland and Renzo only asks they follow the very basic rule of "If you're going to fight or kill or eat someone, please take it off the property first". For those not willing to follow something that basic, Renzo employs a band of lesser demon and warlock thugs who are more than willing to show you the door. For those who are, there's something there for everyone, be it the awesome jams of some weretiger DJ to blood on tap. How this place keeps its doors open while providing things like the latter, well, you're better off not knowing, yeah?
And try not to let anyone from Torchlight in...
Changeling Network
Sunflower Station
THE COLLAPSE & MISTER KNOTLEY
It's common knowledge that the ritual actually succeeded, and now the group is more or less enslaved and in debt to the demon they summoned. It's a classic case of just desserts, and would probably be way funnier if the group wasn't so financially and supernaturally powerful. The humans pull the money around, the demons pull the humans around, and if there's something white-collar and shady going down it's likely that The Collapse is involved somewhere.
There is tension between the human and demon sides of The Collapse, but the humans aren't stupid-- they know who owns them. They get sore if their obvious whipped status is pushed in their faces.
++
Mister Knotley is the original demon summoned by The Collapse. All in all, he's not a totally bad guy to be under the thumb of-- unless you're his warlock in which case you're extra special and doing all of his errands both legal and illegal, normal and supernatural. He has a special team of warlocks who he tasks with luring people into the collapse or convincing them to sign deals with his fellow demons. He swears there's no quota, but everybody knows there's a quota.
He's the eerily calm type-- he's been around the block more than a few times and isn't terribly interested in getting into drama with anybody. Unless they're trying to take his warlocks in which case he will throw down and throw down hard. But still calm and classy. He likes gin and tonics, matching his pocket squares to his ties, and pointedly taking a roll call at every mandatory meeting of The Collapse and noting loudly who is absent. He doesn't like that stupid trend of having mismatched dishware, people interrupting him, and (surprise surprise) angels.
Features Visible by Non-Mundanes: six small horns, two pairs of canine teeth, scales on the sides of his face, talons
Abilities: Mind control, super strength, corruption, hell fire
⇨ HUMANS & HUMAN MAGES
Ashleigh Mischief
In many ways she is revolutionary in her approach to magic, relying heavily on technology -- digital libraries for cross-referencing and searching, math and graphics programs to calculate spell circle diagrams, even repurposing a Roomba to actually DRAW a spell form instead of laboriously doing it herself.
Most of her history has been all about either studying magic, or pursuing personal relationships that taught her more about the supernatural in general. All of her relationships, friendships, and associations are primarily self-serving -- but Ashleigh is not a fool, and is careful to make sure others gain from associating with her as well. She didn't get her position from a power-grab, but because people knew she could DO it.
Ashleigh has her fingers in a LOT of pies. She is keeping tabs on other supernatural beings, engaging in diplomacy with organized factions of them, watching threats to her organization, and balancing her duties to maintain power.
Zecora
And simply accepted the knowledge.
Zecora treats all manner of beings, discretion guaranteed, and happily uses supernatural charms and remedies in her work when she can. Moreover, she is quite willing to adopt a sliding scale and accept payment in what forms it can be offered, making her a popular doctor among those whose natures or supernatural activities would otherwise push them to shy away from getting the care they need.
Yuya Sakaki
Bob is a government lawyer, who unofficially focuses on legal matters relating to supernatural people, such as rights and civic and criminal crimes. He's either a blessing or a curse for supernatural people depending if he's prosecuting or defending them. He's of moderate power and wealth (like upper middle clasS) but a normal human himself, and an opportunist who took Yuya in to see how far his abilities could actually be controlled/trained. He just has a couple researcher accomplices that swing by his house to help with that.
Yuya himself is otherwise just a "normal" 15 year old in Portland, attending public school for the first time. He stops by the Sanctuary every so often and frequently goes off at night to find places and people who are also supernatural where he makes friends and doesn't have to worry about pretending said abilities don't exist. He's pretty moderate in control and strength of his ESP and mostly has used it up until now for mundane things. Like moving the bag of chips from the counter to the couch.
Scout
However, her thorough and detail-oriented nature means she's really good at the magic she does. Scout manages to live reasonably well off of tedious slow-to-perform magic, particularly warding; she's got rent paid for half a year thanks to a spell that banishes vermin. Still, she always wants to do more. She keeps going back and forth on if she wants to apprentice under Ashleigh, as has been offered, and does a lot of independent study. Tallisibeth found an old spell for summoning a probably-angelic flaming sword! Her white-and-gray cockatiel Thranta is her familiar and goes with her everywhere.
She knows a little about most things, but largely keeps to her research. Her magic is always signed "Scout", but outside of the mage community, everyone calls her Tallisibeth.
JONATHAN STRANGE
Strange has taken a bit of an unhealthy interest in the fae and the Rose Queen's court, to the extent of interrogating changelings and other magical beings to tell him what they know about her. He's tailored his magic more towards summoning beings and binding them to his will, but he has gotten good at various miscellaneous spells such as scrying, location spells, and revealing illusions. Elemental magic is so far beneath him (it's CHANGELING magic, gross) but he knows the bare minimum. He's especially stuck up with regards to mage magic compared to other magic and can be a teensy bit prejudiced and dickish to other supernatural beings.
He's so up his own ass that and obsessed with finding out more information about the fae, that he bound John Childermass to be his faerie servant (well, changeling servant) and regularly sends him on dumb errands and bugs poor Childermass for information on the Rose Queen, faerie and, in a super pathetic manner, his ex-wife because Strange is a sad loser divorcee with no sense of boundaries. Surely Childermass is not taking advantage of this in the slightest, no sirree, why would he do something like that?
Strange is Not A Nice Man. He's a member of the Circle of Enlightenment, and has been for over ten or so years. He's been working his way up the Circle, kissing butt, practicing spells, and throwing as many people under the bus as he can (sorry Pearl) to gain access to even more powerful summoning spells and even more knowledge about what Faerie-the-realm and faerie-the-race were like before the Severing. Part of that kissing butt involves Strange being a terrible suck-up to Foster & Amethyst's mage parents and being forced to check up on Foster & Amethyst every now and then as a result. That being said, he's only about middle influence with the Circle and, because of his tendency to be a bit weird about faeries and look into creepy warlock-ish summoning spells, it's unlikely that he'll get any higher. He doesn't have many friends in the Circle, with the exception of the now dead Bob the Mage. They played pool together. He's pretty pissed at Elsa for Bob's murder because dude, he can literally count his actual friends on one hand, what the hell Elsa?!
Strange's day job is another middle influence job, but this time in politics. Unfortunately, he's just in accounting, helping to balance the budget of the justice department, but don't mind him as he casually suggests that someone launch a raid on Crossroads oh no wait you're not taking that suggestion are you, well shit. He thinks he has more influence than he actually does because Jonathan Strange being full of himself transcends universes.
On a needlessly pedantic note, Strange looks pretty much the same as he does in canon because he's a boring human. The main difference is that he's American, actually wears things that show his arms for once, is marginally more sane, and has a sensible, short haircut.
LAMBERT WOLFE
Raised in Seattle
a.k.a. the less magical version of Portlandwith Miko and Peridot, Lambert began to manifest weak precognition at sixteen, able to sense disaster before it was about to occur. The ability was spotty and unreliable enough that he could dismiss it as coincidence. He eventually aged out and started college on a scholarship, with little clear idea of what he wanted to do. The first significant incident with his precognition was when he first came to visit for a break: it pulled him towards Peridot, who'd just manifested her were form for the first time and was terrified out of her mind.The incident drove Lambert towards trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Unfortunately, this isn't so easy for someone who doesn't already have a foot in the supernatural world already, and searching for information mostly led to the really shady websites. Ultimately, he ended up pursuing a history degree with a minor in Latin, on the reasoning that it gave him the ability to actually read and understand more of the original source material instead of some conspiracy theories on the internet.
Regrettably, the more he tried to research about things like 'transformation' and 'becoming a werebat' the more he kept running up into weirder and more esoteric shit, most of which seemed like things that would get him locked into a mental institution if he ever spoke about it out loud. Also some of these things seemed really stupid, like making deals with demons, who does that?
And then his senior year he found out his other foster sister turned out to be a different kind of werebeast altogether! So. That was fun. In any case, everything he'd read up to this point pointed to the idea that he'd get better answers to his questions in Portland, and Peridot and Miko ended up coming along for the ride (once Lambert managed to successfully apply to be her guardian, anyway, with special considerations given).
All of this means Lambert has a lot of random supernatural knowledge but very little practical experience of it. To make things worse, his abilities have evolved over the years -- in the past year or so, he's started to regularly catch glimpses of things that he knows aren't human. Or maybe it's just because Portland really is as weird as it tries to be?
While he's 'aware' of the supernatural goings-on in the city in a broader sense, he hasn't made much of an attempt to reach out to any of the various factions around, being painfully aware of being human as hell. Lambert's also starting to suspect the "research project" he's working on -- the re-translation of an old Latin text -- is not so benign in nature as it appeared at first glance. He's dragging his heels on making progress on that and avoiding his advisor (a mage) as much as possible.
In online forums, where he's a little less reluctant to engage, he's been posting under the handle veni_vidi_verti (I came, I saw, I turned around) for about the past four years. There's been a definite uptick of activity from him in the last year or so.
Miscellaneous crap: he's been wearing glasses since he was seventeen, has a giant rescue cat called 'Pig' that is mostly feral and roams away from the house, he uses a shitty secondhand moped to get around, and his sense of fashion outside his cafe uniform is limited to slouchy jeans and hoodies, because he ain't got no time or money for fashion that he can't just pull on. Still reasonably fit because he runs and hikes and does krav maga.
Tanyuu Karibusa
Tanyuu is somewhat ostracized from both sides--the supernatural community wary of her for her high-profile family, and her family and organization looking down on her for her 'radical' thought that maybe supernatural people are still people. She can be found often at the tea shop Ginko works at, or otherwise enjoying the various parks and gardens around the city. For such a low-key person, it's pretty easy to recognize her--not a lot of young women in wheelchairs going around with lovebirds on their shoulder (say hi, Haruki).
no subject
Mostly, she's just a completely normal regular vanilla human who is trying to save up, get her degree, and get the hell out of portland because of all the weird shit that keeps going down in her life. Apparently she's some sort of supernatural magnet or something, because they just keep ending up in her life.
Sora (Pu'uwai)
While his foster parents aren't terrible, they are on the neglectful side, and basically only made sure Sora was alive and relatively healthy. Sora was mostly left to take care of himself, and was thus mainly raised by his guardian angel, Joker. Joker has been around for literally as long as Sora can remember, so he's rather attached.
Sora also has the ability to see into the future, though it's very random and honestly not very useful. 90% of the time it's something lame, like someone walking by his house ten minutes before it happens, although the other 10% of the time could be something that could save a life or help someone. It's pretty obvious when he's having a vision, as his eyes will go out of focus, and he'll probably drop anything he's holding. He also has the ability to see the supernatural, and can see past casual glamours on changelings and fae. Most of the time, he keeps these abilities to himself, having been bullied and called a freak for it more than once in his childhood.
Currently, Sora lives in a college dorm with Snake, his roommate, and Tamaki, the ghost who won't leave. He has a cat called Sparky, who's just a cat. And nothing else. Joker is around most of the time, too. Their dorm room seems to be a hub for the supernatural, as they keep getting visited by other supernatural beings as well. His major is still undeclared, but he is on the university soccer team.
He's not involved with many supernatural organizations, due to Joker's protectiveness keeping him away, but he wants to help anyone he can, and would never turn away anyone in need.
Hinawa
⇨ WARLOCKS
GREG DEMAYO
Over the years their relationship became more intimate, and eventually resulted in the birth of their son Steven. Greg took on raising the changeling, and his involvement with magic waned over the years as he focused on bringing up Steven. He hoped that this mercy of letting them stay together was proof that the Rose Queen's affection was genuine.
Unfortunately it was not to last, as Steven was taken away once he turned ten, and nothing Greg could do or say would convince anyone to get him back home. Arguments, begging, and threats were to no avail--Steven was by rights hers, and if Greg thought to steal away what belonged to her then she'd take back everything else of hers and leave him without magic and with no remaining connections to where his son was being held.
So, while Greg's continued to work under the Queen and keep his head down, he's been trying to build up connections in other facets of the world to better aid in getting his son back someday. He volunteers frequently at The Sanctuary, spends a lot of time in cafes and bars around Dignity Village, and lives in an apartment that houses an unusual number of magical beings. He generally avoids using magic when not specifically on tasks for the Queen, just in case she can sense his attempted rebellion, and keeps a small dog who has a tendency to know when nature spirits are drawing near.
CARLY NAGISA
DOLL
PAPYRUS ASTER
⇨ CHANGELINGS
STEVEN DEMAYO
As such, he's spent the last 4 years or so enslaved by his mother, trapped within her twisted gardens and physically changed to her wishes. This has caused him to develop some more overt changeling traits, including thorns that grow on some parts of his body and tend to multiply when stressed, leafy ears, and small wings that have leaves and rose petals instead of feathers. He also gained the natural ability to grow, communicate with, and control plant life, and eventually an immunity to thorns.
Considering him spoiled by his gentle human upbringing, his fae mother was strict with him, punishing him cruelly for his multiple, desperate attempts to return to his father. After a lonesome few years left isolated in the gardens, being subjected to a number of trials intended to strengthen him, Steven eventually discovered that he had become immune to the bite of his mother's thorns, enabling him to fight his way through the rose vines separating her gardens from the human world. After a long, exhausting struggle, he finally found his way back into the real world, with his clothing and meager supplies all lost to the thorns.
The terrified child was eventually stumbled upon by Ginko, another changeling, who then brought him back Axel's apartment to allow him some rest. News of his escape was passed out through the Changeling Network, and not long after he was brought to the safety of the Sanctuary, still struggling with memory problems from his stay in faerie.
Axel
RITA MORDIO
Allen
Pearl
JOHN CHILDERMASS
ZIM
GINKO
⇨ ANGELS
SANS
Due to his listlessness and growing malaise, he's pretty shit about properly sticking to his duties, and spends a lot of time dicking around with mind altering substances and human media. He sort of half lives in Demon Psi's apartment despite not paying rent, and is basically just a terrible mooch. He also hangs out a lot in the local Cat Cafe, Crossroads, several local bars, and drops by the Sanctuary occasionally to share the Hot Goss with Helen.
The rest of his time he spends stalking people who are soon to die, which he can pick out with his angelic death vision. He doesn't know exactly how they'll die, though, so he mostly just follows the doomed around until it happens, so that he can guide their souls to the afterlife before they can become lost/get eaten by a demon or something. This also means that he's just sort of inherently a dick to vampires and zombies, and generally speaking he won't hesitate to tell them that they should really just let him take their souls to the afterlife instead of letting them become corrupted by dark magics/bloodblust.
He's got a softspot for undead that were killed before their time however, and will often end up shirking his proper angel duties to try to give them a break - choosing to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't become a nuisance rather than taking the more truly angelic path of just smiting them and escorting their souls with or without permission. He's not a warrior and thus not built primarily for combat, but he can still be pretty deadly with a combination of speed and cleverness.
His angelic form is basically his usual skeleton self but with wings made of light and more eyes that necessary. He's got eyes in his ribcage for fuck's sake. He doesn't teleport, but he can move extremely quickly by wing, and can also turn invisible/intangible.
HELEN MAGNUS | GUARDIAN & WARRIOR
Yugo | Guardian
Joker
Julien
Zangetsu
⇨ DEMONS
Elsa
She doesn't have much regard for human life (or any life) and feels she can do as she pleases. She lives in a high-end loft in the Pearl District by thralling the landlord into letting her live there for free. She spends the majority of her time there, although at nights she also goes to Shima's supernatural-catering night club, usually to drink and listen to music in the VIP section (assuming Shima's player is still going with that idea, otherwise she hangs out at Generic Nightclub).
Sometime before the start of the plot, a mage named Bob attempted to summon Elsa to do his bidding, but because of a faulty binding spell, Elsa got loose. Annoyed that this human mage dared to try binding her, she killed him by freezing him from the inside out, and dumped him unceremoniously in a back alley. This has gotten her in some trouble with the Circle, as well as with the angel Joker.
THE PSIONIC
RENZO SHIMA
Madhuri
Re: Madhuri
Rin
Taako
Blue
⇨ WEREBEASTS
Foster van Denend
He's also a Warlock, which made picking which of these to reply to kind of hard. He's made a pact with a Demon (the Psionic) and his powers include magical gaslighting (single-target memory erasure, aka, I totally didn't do this thing, what are you talking about) and the conjuration and control of fire at-will. Tragically for everyone, he can also do these while in the form of a several hundred pound bear.
He and Amethyst live in the same apartment building as Lapis Lazuli, with whom he shares a wall.
I have probably over-used the bold here, but oh well.
Will Zimmerman
Snake/Sean Reo
YAMATO ISHIDA (MATTHEW DURAND)
Amethyst van Denend
Peridot Wolfe
MIKO WOLFE
⇨ UNDEAD
Tamaki
When he gets lonely or agitated he tends to throw things around and make a big mess to try and get people to pay attention to him, so rumors that the dorm is haunted have probably spread even among normal students. He especially likes to knock things off shelves in the kitchen, since he's bitter that he always feels hungry but cannot eat. Other than throwing things, he cannot directly touch or hurt people.
Occasionally he is visited by psychopomps like Sans who try to get him to move on, but he very stubbornly does not want to. He would rather stay in this world, where there are plenty of other people, even if they can't all see him.
Maybe at some point Lambert will let him possess a pudding plushie and then he can travel around to more places, but for the start he is tied to the dorm.
Noboru Gongenzaka
Jimmy
Sherlock Holmes
Lars