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groundrules) wrote2021-01-08 03:30 pm
groundrules) wrote2021-01-08 03:30 pm
Entry tags:
applications
Eastbound is primarily an invite-only game — each existing player can currently invite up to one person per month, or get in touch about further invites. Existing players can hold two characters in game. A third character can be applied, if players can prove they have met activity requirements for two consecutive months with their existing two characters and have stayed engaged with the game. If you don't have an invite, somehow stumbled upon this neck of the woods, and you’d like to stay, drop the mod journal a line — we'll try to figure it out.
As of Oct. 1, cast/game caps are off. Please note, as of Dec. 1, Eastbound only has 3-4 months of gameplay left.
WHAT CHARACTERS CAN BE APPLIED?
YES: canon and original characters, if they have a solid and consistent personality and background. Characters brought in after they've died are a-okay. For characters taken from a time point just as they're in the process of dying, please read below on meeting medical requirements.
NO (at this time): real people, original characters set in a canon environment, characters from canons or canon instalments that have been released for less than one month, characters with imported development from other games (CRAU), alternate universe, or gender-swapped versions of canon characters.
Children or characters with very specific medical/magical/environment needs: appable, but please make a note of how your character will ICly meet their requirements and stay alive. Likewise, if you are applying for a character taken just as they're dying, provide a suggestion for how they can be kept alive on arrival (this might be easier in some app cycles than others). You can bend the world a little to make miracles happen (ex: a substitute for the medication your character needs to survive can be found for a high price at certain apothecaries, etc.)
Characters that were dropped or swept by activity checks: yes, but they’ll come back without their previous memories, if they are applied in by a different player.
APPLICATIONS CLOSED
→ NAVIGATION MENU
Marcos Diaz (aka Eclipse) | The Gifted
CONTACT:
HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE GAME?: Current Player
CHARACTER: Marcos Diaz (aka Eclipse)
CANON: The Gifted
CANON POINT: End of Series (after Clarice tells them to follow her through a portal into an unknown hellscape... that's literally what they decided to do to us)
BACKGROUND: Wiki (I'll expand on this in the personality section.)
ABILITIES | POWERS:
Marcos is a mutant able to absorb and emit photons of light, heat and energy in a variety of ways.
Photogenesis: Marcos can generate and project light from his hands. He prefers to use powerful flashes to stun in a fight, but used in close proximity they can (and have) blinded his targets. He's also used his powers to project a beam of light as a signal, visible for miles. His powers are tied to his emotions, and while he has tremendous control over them, his hands will glow in his fists if he's angry enough.
Photokinesis: He can also manipulate the light from his hands as powerful laser-like beams. They're extremely hot, can easily start fires and have been shown to cut through cinderblocks. When used outside of combat, Marcos has taken a fondness for welding metal for practical and recreational uses. (ie - he's a decent mechanic and at one point made a very ornate rattle out of metal for his kid.)
Energy Absorption: Marcos is able to absorb all of the light in a given area to submerge a space in absolute blackness. This requires a great deal of concentration and the larger the area the harder it is for him to maintain. If someone were to shine a light in the darkness he created, it's physically strenuous and can tire him quickly. Generally, this technique is only useful to cover a handful of people who are standing close together for a few minutes at a time.
Super-Heated Luminescent Blood: Marcos has one major drawback from his powers (though it looks cool). When his blood is exposed to air it is extremely hot and glows. It burns his own skin and can eat through clothing, and it has a very difficult time clotting. At one point after he was shot, Marcos wrapped duct tape around his wound because it would eat through bandages and had to be stapled shut. However, once it's dried and cooled off it looks like any other blood.
Limitations: Like many characters with light-based powers, he can run out of energy in very dark places where there is no light to absorb. In those cases, he would only be able to fuel his powers until whatever he has in reserve runs out.
PERSONALITY:
Marcos' story isn't all that unfamiliar for mutants. His powers destroyed his life. He was disowned at 13, the very day his powers appeared, and had to find a way to survive on his own on the streets of Colombia. His own mother was a mutant who died from repressing her powers, and his deeply religious father thought they were a sign of the Devil. As a young man, his powers and vulnerable situation made him a prime target to be swept up in the Cartel, and he spent years trafficking drugs and being used as muscle to enforce their territory and torture their rivals. He accepted that as his lot in life until his paths crossed with the Mutant Underground.
Despite the condemnation from his father, his faith remains a source of strength and comfort for him. He was raised as a Catholic, and he kept some rosary beads to pray with whenever he's faced with a difficult trial. He's also shown to sometimes carry the a medallion of Santa Muerte, the patron saint of death, for luck and protection. He would wear it often when he was working with the Cartel, and it remains one of the few possessions he held onto.
Along with faith, family and the need to belong are his biggest driving forces. Before he developed his powers, he had a different path ahead of him. He was the oldest child of a wealthy estate, meant to carry on the family business, and never knew his mother was a mutant until after she died. He wasn't prepared to be out on his own, and he had a void in his life when they abandoned him. In the Cartel, he gravitated towards the family bonds that held them together. It was the first place that accepted him, and he eventually became romantically involved with the boss's daughter. It wasn't the family, but the business that he had a hard time with. He was expected to marry her up until he abruptly left to join a cause that was greater than smuggling drugs. Once he had the opportunity, he used his connections and dedicated himself completely to helping mutant refugees who were fighting for their survival in a world that doesn't understand them.
It wasn't long after he joined the Mutant Underground that he fell in love with Lorna. They became his new family; his best friend John, who supported him like a brother, those he helped rescue, particularly Clarice and the Strucker family. When Lorna became pregnant with his child, he saw a glimpse of the life he always hoped for, along with everything he had to lose.
His turning point may have come when he left the Cartel, but it was Lorna who gave him something to believe in. His entire life he wondered what he did to deserve being a mutant and have to live like they live, but Lorna taught him not to hate his powers. For the first time he met someone who said that she wouldn't change what she could do for anything. She convinced him that his past didn't matter and he could still do a lot of good.
So he was devastated when she stopped believing they had enough power to change the world; that he couldn't protect her or their child. He was plagued by self-doubt and terrified that the war that was brewing would tear his family apart.
Marcos is often described by those who know him as the 'emotional' one. He's deeply empathetic, and particularly sensitive to the hardships other mutants are faced with. He's likewise quick to anger, especially when it comes to the issues he feels strongest about, and prone to shouting matches to get his point across. Some of the most heated arguments he has are with Lorna. He never stops loving her, but he worried that they disagreed on their morality at a foundational level when she became willing to take more aggressive stances against humans. That especially seemed true after she left him to join a more extreme and better funded mutant terrorist organization (first the Hellfire Club, later usurped by the Inner Circle). When they were able to compromise, it usually came as a result of him bending and agreeing to support her rather than convincing her to see things his way. Part of that comes from his willingness to understand where she's coming from, and part of it has to do with his realization that he's in no place to act righteous.
With a past like his, he doesn't consider himself a superhero by any means. Although he goes by the moniker 'Eclipse' and the name is widely known in their network, he never introduces himself by it. He carries tremendous guilt for what he did in the Cartel, burning and blinding people to get them to talk, and now would do anything to avoid having to hurt someone. Part of his guilt comes from the rush he feels when he uses his powers to burn things, even when he knows how destructive he can be. When possible, he'd much rather not go down that road and prefers to intimidate without having to do more than flash a glowing palm.
There are some things that he swore he would never do again, but that line gets blurred if he cares enough. He did everything he knew to do to keep Lorna with him and he still couldn't. He was so afraid of losing Lorna for good, that he nearly went against everything he knew was right. After his daughter is born and he was finally able to meet her, he asked if he could stay and join their cause just to be with them. It was Lorna who refused to let him, because she knew it went against his beliefs, and she didn't want to see him become something he couldn't live with again.
When he isn't being reckless, he's often the one in the group pointing at the risks in their plans. He's watched too many of his friends get killed to believe that there won't be sacrifices with every move they make. The X-Men who helped to found the Mutant Underground disappeared, leaving them with limited resources and a dream that they could build a better world. He wants so badly to believe in that dream, but compared to the network the Cartel has and the strength and resources of the organization Lorna joined, he's resentful that they were abandoned to figure it out on their own. He starts to disparage the name of the X-Men, believing that they were set up for failure.
Although Lorna eventually has a change of heart when the Inner Circle crossed a line and she learned how far they were planning to go to create a mutant homeland, the experience left him with some deep uncertainties. Marcos forgave her when she owned up to how much her actions hurt him, and together they helped destroy the organization from the inside out, but not without some heavy losses.
He had his family. His faith was shaken but not broken. They were finally together, but they were starting over from nothing.
In game, he's being pulled from the end of the series not long after he's reunited with Lorna and his infant daughter. They were gathering to talk about rebuilding when someone they thought was dead appeared and insisted they come with her. He decides to follow her with his friends through the portal, not realizing he would be choosing to leave his daughter behind.
SAMPLE:
TDM with Lorna-babe
INVENTORY:
- Santa Muerte medallion
- One (1) burner phone
- The clothes on his back
NOTES: Nothing starting out. As long as he can keep from bleeding profusely when there isn't any duct tape around, he's fairly self-sufficient.
IF ACCEPTED, WOULD YOU WANT A PLOT-LIGHT OR PLOT-HEAVY CUSTOM INTRO? He came in during the TDM but if there's anything you want to add to my soap opera X-Men fantasy you have my express permission always! Throw him into plot rolls to get him acclimated as you like.
APPLICATION RECEIVED
no subject
ACCEPTED
Thank you for your application!
ADMIN
NOTES
Please consult the Lorna player, but answer here on your side, and I’ll confirm with them in their own acceptance note. Thank you!
Re: ACCEPTED
no subject
no subject
Marcos will be joining the team following latest test drive event.
He will be taken in by the sorceress sorceress Karsa, an employee of the party’s Merchant benefactor who is currently journeying with the group. She can give Lorna the full rundown on his whereabouts and on the story so far.
Marcos will be deployed to serve Vannozza Spina, and he will take residency in her wing of the Palazzo of the Doxe. He will come in as a contractor that Vannozza assigns to serve the witches of Attaryl — whose former enemies, now allies (the witches of Bessis) were recently found to have knowingly held captive undead Attaryl witches. This has (re)stoked the Attaryl's need for vengeance, and they want the Bessis publicly shamed — a need Vannozza is happy to facilitate, as the Bessis have long supported her cousin and rival Macaluso.
As a result, Marcos must (publicly) pursue ways to defame the Bessis, and to sabotage the Public Relations efforts of Lorna. He'll benefit from a budget of 35,000 coins and three attendants, along with unimpeded access to the courier halls.
Separately, Karsa can also explain the piazza — a style of communicating to the city at large, with an eye to influence public opinion.
no subject
no subject