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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
Sansa Stark | Alayne Stone
CONTACT: Plurk!
HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE GAME?: Returning player! I played Merrill for a hot minute.
CHARACTER: Sansa Stark (Alayne Stone)
CANON: A Song of Ice and Fire
CANON POINT: After A Feast for Crows (If her chapter from the preview of Winds of Winter is permitted, so she knows she's to be engaged again.)
BACKGROUND: Too much history for a 13-year-old-going-on-30.
ABILITIES | POWERS: Highborn lady skills like needlework, singing, playing the harp and bells, writing poetry, etc. She can ride a horse but not as well as her sister. She's growing to be skilled at observing and utilizing people's expectations to work in her favor.
PERSONALITY: Sansa’s story was meant to be a fairy tale. Born to a proud and honorable house, she was rarely found wanting in comfort or in love, and enjoyed the luxury of hot baths and soft clothes in a rugged, northern climate. Even her direwolf reflected her delicate traits, fittingly named Lady. Far more interested in dancing than she was in horseback riding, Sansa was happy to live out this fairy tale right into a dream-like engagement to a prince. Such constant assurances of her place in the world did little to humble the girl, instead centering her thoughts on mostly her own well-being and future. Sansa rarely found reason to give much thought to others, except when they intersected somehow with her ambitions, be it positive or negative. In this, she was quick to judge anyone depending on how they were utilized in her goals. They were friend if they supported her, and enemy if they did not. It was a simple world for Sansa Stark, one full of promise and hope.
It didn’t take long before disillusionment crept in, at the cost of others’ lives, but even then she was slow to learn...this wasn’t going to be a fairy tale, after all. Lady’s death could have opened her eyes, but she couldn’t yet accept that her dreams wouldn’t come true, and so she redirected her blame and anger like she often did. Her father did the deed (to be kind), and it never would have happened if her sister Arya didn’t act like a barbarian (in Sansa’s eyes), and so she blamed them, when everyone else could see that the blame lied with the Lannisters. Sansa was special, though, she had to continue believing that the Lannister cruelty would never extend to her, or else what was the point? She would have lied...for nothing.
Unfortunately, she did lie for nothing. The only weapon she had, her courtesies, had been mishandled, and the price had yet to be fully paid. That time would come when she again miscalculated, all in pursuit of her own survival over that of her family’s. Despite seeing the dark nature of Joffrey and Cersei, Sansa tried again to secure her future by betraying another family member--this time her father. Though swiftly manipulated by Cersei into denouncing her father, in a situation where any child would have difficulty holding their own, she had been the one to seek out the Queen and bring the situation to light. It was a mistake that would cost Sansa her entire family, as well as her innocence. She had ignored the warning signs, and she wasn’t the only one that would pay the price.
Sansa’s selfish nature did not dissipate, but it changed with the new and true feeling of hatred, as well as guilt. She could no longer hope to live magnificently, she could only hope to live. Suddenly she understood that every day could be her last, or the last for her loved ones. Better not to love, then, isn’t that right? And yet she still so desperately wanted a friend. She wanted to trust, but every lesson revealed why she couldn’t. So Sansa watched and listened, and eventually she learned. She learned to sharpen her courtesies. It’s important to note that ‘courtesies’ don’t only mean manners; They are courtly manners and social conduct, from understanding the history of royal houses and their bannermen, to discussing politics and religion, to knowing how to dine, sing, speak, and walk, and much more. Courtesy is a lifestyle, or philosophy. It’s a multifaceted weapon, and Sansa eventually honed hers into sharp blades through painful lessons learned at King’s Landing.
There was no shortage of teachers, from someone as decrepit as The Hound, up to the vicious Queen Cersei herself, oft-times through discourse that was helpful as it was venomous. All of these relationships were precarious, but Sansa learned to balance as she walked that path of thorns. Margaery was the rose amongst the thorns, but even her gentle lessons couldn’t protect the realities beating at the Stark girl’s door every day, and this reality came to light with the death of King Joffrey. Again, she had to think for herself before others, even knowing the danger her husband Tyrion Lannister would likely find himself in. He had been kind to her, as well, but he was still a Lannister. He still looked at her with the same eyes as everyone else. Even those who were kind to her wanted to use her in some way, and she knew this.
Although Sansa escaped the Red Keep, she did not survive whole. So much was stripped away that it became easy to find a different role, and to remember Sansa Stark’s life as that of the nightmare it was and nothing more. Alayne Stone was born of Littlefinger, but given life through the death of Sansa’s dreams. She was no longer merely ‘repeating the words they taught her’ as The Hound had once accused her of, but connecting dots and making plans. She had shown a spark of this ability even in King’s Landing, when rescuing Ser Dontos through a quick wit, and Littlefinger nurtured and encouraged this skill by allowing her to feel included in his scheming. She understood that he couldn’t fully be trusted, but she couldn’t deny that he treated her as a woman who deserved respect. Now, she understands well how to control someone by giving them exactly what they think they want, even utilizing these lessons against Littlefinger in her carefully worded responses to him. She does not merely agree to do the thing; she skips right over that step and does the thing.
At thirteen, though claiming to be fourteen, Alayne Stone has all but abandoned her identity as Sansa. Even living as a lowborn bastard seems better than the memories Sansa Stark suffered, and the Stark name is a doomed one now. After a jealous betrayal via her Aunt Lysa, there was nothing of the Tullys to draw her loyalty, either. As a bastard, she can create a new life, and Littlefinger proves that even lowborn can reach high. Not that she wants to reach so high, anymore… She doesn’t think of fairy tales anymore, as those are for pure maidens. Now she thinks of security, which no longer means lemon cakes and laughter, but knowledge and power. Courtesy was once her armor; her defense. Now it is her sword; her offense.
Sometimes the dreams of the young Stark girl will drift in to catch her off guard, such as a longing for a carefree dance or the pleasure from a burst of rare citrus on the tongue, but she is certain they remain only dreams from someone else’s life. Alayne's reality is that dances are a tool for ambition, and too many lemoncakes will only make you ill.
SAMPLE: AU encounter with Five! I won't be treating this as canon if she's accepted, we just included Lady for fun.
INVENTORY: A dark blue and grey dress made of silk and wool, matching cloak, gloves, and boots. That's...it!
NOTES: She'll want to get her hands on some chestnut-colored hair dye before long, somehow without making it obvious. I'm fine with her failing at this, though!
IF ACCEPTED, WOULD YOU WANT A PLOT-LIGHT OR PLOT-HEAVY CUSTOM INTRO? Whichever works best for your narrative! I'm totally willing for plot heavy intro, but no pressure if it doesn't work. Can always sneak her in through the cracks.
APPLICATION RECEIVED
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To avoid the need for further samples, let's try the following — answer the below with a short (really, don't worry about more than one-three lines/question) summary of what you think Sansa's reaction would be to each scenario:
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Should it die before it can even reach her, I believe Sansa would be too shocked to even scream and draw attention. Initially, pity for the creature might creep in once the shock settles, but it wouldn't override her fear and wariness. If she manages to get close to someone, she might seek help from that person to dispose of it, but given her history of betrayals, I suspect she'll do her best to keep it to herself, wrap it up and take a few minutes to figure out how to proceed. After all, how is she to know that one of her supposed allies didn't send it after her?
Of course, moving a body or digging a grave isn't easy for a 13-year-old girl to manage, so if it's too big for her to move (likely), she'd have no choice but to let someone know, and claim she discovered it that way. She'd be certain to pick the most sensible member of the group. The last thing she'd want to do is appear scared or weak to the group.
ii. The group must decide between saving the lives of innocents, or that of one acquaintance, who has sought shelter among them. There is sadly no third option. What's Sansa's instinctive vote on what to do?
This one is tough, because I think it's dependent on who the 'innocents' are and who the 'acquaintance' is, and how long she's been with the group... So I'll knock out a few branches.
If this is while she's still new, then no matter what she'll be keenly aware of any decision that could turn the group against her, and she'll wait to see what the majority will vote before leaning towards that, regardless of how she feels.
If the acquaintance is someone who is incredibly useful to the group in a field that is rare, like a healer or leader, and Sansa has had more time in the group, then she would instinctively attempt to convince the group of that person's importance, and that they can't do anything to help the 'innocents' if they themselves die trying to help too many people. She would attempt to use what she knows about the group members to let them arrive to the conclusion themselves, focusing on who tends to have the biggest sway, reminding them that together the pack survives. I think her heart would hurt no matter what, but Sansa/Alayne doesn't let her heart rule her decisions anymore.
If it's a case where the 'acquaintance' hasn't contributed much to the group, and helping the majority of innocents is completely within the group's power, she would consider this the more pragmatic approach, because that would gain them the most allies and help the most people...but again, she would be hyper aware and afraid of turning the group against her, and wouldn't argue her points of it seemed like it might only endanger her position. She wouldn't be happy sacrificing anyone, but she's accustomed to not being happy.
ACCEPTED
Great, thank you so much for that — that helps glean the rest of your portrayal!
ADMIN
NOTES
Sansa awakens in the sorcerers’ district, crowded by the distressed witches of Bessis, who do not speak her tongue. They seem intent to apprehend her. To her luck, Sansa is rescued by the sorceress Karsa, an employee of the party’s Merchant benefactor who is currently journeying with the group. She gives Sansa a translation and communication device, along with the full rundown on her whereabouts and on the story so far.
Later, Karsa can also explain the piazza — a style of communicating to the city at large, with an eye to influence public opinion.
As part of the electoral espionage team divisions, Sansa is assigned to serve Macaluso Spina. She will reside in her patron’s wing of the Palazzo of the Doxe while in Taravast.
Sansa is introduced at court as the illegitimate daughter of don Urbano — a prominent witch of the Bessis, who have historically supported Macaluso. Don Urbano recently died in the dragon disaster at the tower of the Bessis — mere hours after announcing his betrothal to party member Wen Qing, as brokered by her ‘uncle’ Beitang Moran. Sansa will be, of course, presented to her ‘step relatives.’ The players have been advised of Sansa’s role OOCly. Our Wen Qing player is currently hiatused, but both are excited!
Sansa is brought before the Bessis as a ‘fire-kissed’ child — a young daughter dedicated to the witches' primordial fire element, who has volunteered to burn alive when she formally becomes a woman of twenty summers. Because of her great upcoming personal sacrifice, she is considered holy, marked by the palms she must dye red each morning. She receives special consideration among the witches of Bessis, who open their doors to her freely and sometimes give her gifts of coin, in light of her calling or in the memory of her father.
The witches of Bessis insist that her sainthood and the purity of her heart could even coax the demons of sickness from don Bonaccorso’s body, and request a special audience with the Doxe. Sansa is received by the Doxe at any point of your choosing during the lockdown event (before 19 October), in Bonaccorso’s private quarters. She finds the old man stranded in his sick bed, physically frail and depleted, consumed by fevers and glassy-eyed. A very strong smell of cloying incense envelops the room — if Sansa comes near enough to the old man, she can smell blood from him and also his sheets. Only a few spatters on the floor, furniture and carpets betray the spillage — the rooms are otherwise extraordinarily carefully cleansed.
Don Bonaccorso will speak to Sansa to the best of his ability: he never knew his good friend Urbano fathered a daughter, but he is not surprised that he kept her from court. It is no place for children. His own offspring perished because of court treachery, he says, leaving behind only his greatest treasures: Vannozza and Macaluso, who now quarrel to inherit Bonaccorso’s title. Throughout their audience, he asks Sansa to read from one of his books a long, favoured poem over the cruelty of time, the pleasures of youth, the fleeting fool’s hopes of reincarnation. He also asks her to sing or tell him court gossip.
On her way out of the Doxe’s wing, Sansa may notice the groups of healers who rush into Bonaccorso’s rooms with various instruments, theories, books and medicines. She can also spot the sentries, who slither out of the Doxe's apartments with a great weight bundled in curtains — shaped eerily like a small, covered corpse.
Consider sharing some of this with the class at some point!
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