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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
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no subject
Viktor is generally unassuming; a soft-spoken person with a reserved temperament who actively eschews attention. He seems every bit a fussy academic: professional, emotionally guarded, and a little icy. Much of this outward demeanor is a function of being an outsider–he’s well aware of his tenuous position within Piltover’s rigid social structure, and conducts himself accordingly, at least on the surface.
This all falls away fairly quickly as soon as he meets a like-minded individual in Jayce. Exhibit similar moral convictions, and he becomes much friendlier, though not without a dry sense of humor and penchant for taking egoists down a peg. He is passionate, intellectually curious, and excited by the prospect of scientific innovation, appreciative of forward-thinking, results-focused mindsets. Viktor is quietly ambitious, adamant that he did not become a scientist to be someone’s assistant and expressing a desire to spearhead positive change. He is highly self-reliant and independent, having learned from an early age that he is the only person on which he can depend, and he approaches most roadblocks accordingly. If nobody is going to believe in him, whether that’s due to his Undercity origins, his disability, or lack of resources, then he’s just going to have to believe in himself. This bootstraps mentality is what secures him a place at the Academy, and being consistently underestimated and overlooked affords him the ability to take substantial risks for high reward. When an opportunity presents itself, he takes what he wants. This involves, more often than not, a flagrant disregard for rules (and, later, in a more dire situation, basic safety procedures): Viktor steals research notes, breaks and enters, trespasses, smuggles illegal substances, and eventually conducts dangerous experiments on his person.
None of this is without reason, at least. Viktor is a highly empathetic individual who firmly believes that the purpose of scientific advancement is to end (or at least mitigate) human suffering. This is personal to him–he’s actively succumbing to a degenerative illness brought about by the polluted living conditions of his childhood, and wants to ensure that his work prevents these kinds of tragedies in the future. He walks out on his first mentor when he encounters an unethical vision of progress, rejecting amorality at a young age, and as an adult, is an idealist and pacifist who speaks out against the potential weaponization of technology while others around him waver. Viktor holds fast to the precept that his work is meant to “improve lives, not take them”, insisting that “there is always a choice” when it comes to enacting violence. Even when crossing the lines of scientific ethics, he only ever intends to harm himself.
This is a noble aim, but it speaks to his naiveté. Viktor believes that his work is what’s important, and that its benefits are self-evident, in the process rejecting most interpersonal relationships and the quid-pro-quo under which Piltover operates, even when indulging both might help further his goals. He is so thoroughly disinterested in political machinations and social games (perhaps believing he has no chance to navigate them) that his efforts to enact real change are continuously sabotaged and stymied by various special interests. When his health declines, he is forced to grapple with how much effort he’s wasted by trying to act within the confines of a society that doesn’t care about him, and after years of watching his vision of progress hindered by people who only want to enrich themselves, he despairs about his lack of legacy and what he perceives to be fleeting contributions that will eventually be rendered meaningless by an impenetrable status quo.
This brings out the worst in him. Under duress, Viktor is an obsessive workaholic with no patience for a cautious approach and little thought for his personal needs, chasing after advancement at any cost once he’s run out his clock. Faced with his impending death brought about by the very living conditions he once hoped to change, Viktor’s reckless tendencies only compound as he withdraws into his research, disregards basic safeguards, and meddles with unknown forces he doesn’t understand and can’t control. As selfless as he believes himself to be, he is afraid to die, and as a result conflates curing his illness with his larger vision of societal betterment in order to justify his desperate, dangerous actions. Unable to cope with his failure to fix the system from within it, Viktor barrels towards an event horizon, willing to further ostracize himself and sacrifice his humanity in a bid to leave some kind of lasting mark.
SAMPLE:
[one]
[two]
INVENTORY:
NOTES: Viktor is shown to have used a cane since childhood to compensate for his right leg. At his current canon point, he uses a crutch, leg brace, and back brace, but seems to be fairly self-sufficient: working (more than) full-time in his lab, disappearing for days at a time on various errands, making solo trips down to the Undercity, etc. As long as he’s able to hitch a ride in a cart or something when the PCs travel I don’t anticipate needing huge accommodations for this in particular (unless an event has no non-combat options or the entire world is made of stairs). He’s also fairly resourceful and it’s not out of the question that given in-game means he would figure out ways to defend himself in more action-oriented scenarios.
The more pressing issue is the terminal illness, which presents as basically The Consumption/lung cancer brought about by prolonged chemical exposure as a child, but the show avoids outright stating how much time he has left (literally, he asks and the scene immediately cuts away). Although I do plan to play out his continued deterioration, I may need to be a little hand-wavey about the exact timeline, especially if he’s actively seeking medical attention (if available) or otherwise exploring his options. He’s fairly desperate to stay alive and is about to start experimenting on himself in order to do so, and in the absence of the Hexcore will continue that work in-game with whatever else he can get his hands on. So, maybe he will improve, and not die! Maybe he will do bad things to himself with forces unknown (I would like to do this maybe)! We will see. I hear we have a whole contingent of terminally ill friends around these parts, so probably he’s in good company.
IF ACCEPTED, WOULD YOU WANT A PLOT-LIGHT OR PLOT-HEAVY CUSTOM INTRO? Plot-heavy will be cool but I am flexible!
APPLICATION RECEIVED
no subject
On a serious note: re Viktor's incapacitation. I can offer the following options, and you can have a think and follow up regarding what you think works best for him.
1. play it by ear: hitch a cart ride, get a royal steed, a helping hand with transport on an as-needed basis. I'm happy to equip him with a donkey or an especially considerate NPC who can be his caretaker in Ke-Waihu. Yes, he can boss the NPC and probably abuse them for "off-the-books" research purposes.
2. Instant cure: we have some healers in Ke-Waihu, including some... very dodgy witches, and they could help a fellow out, for a not-so-modest fee. The con here, in my books, is that you are playing what seems to be a very raw character, and you'd be crippling his motivation.
3. Cure dosages that delay or partly or transiently heal his sickness: again, see above healer and witches. We have some great PCs too! He'd be dependent on continually taking doses to Stay Alive TM and therefore he'd retain the hunger to persevere and work hard and... do all this really shady stuff he seems to like doing.
4. Working out a longer quest that would require him to gather research or cure elements and fixing his own cure.
Pros: he's personally involved, it's research, his jam, loving it.
Cons: he'd need to keep on top of it, it could sometimes put him at odds with some of his team mates who have... more pressing survival priorities... and you'd still need to probably give him a temporary cure dose of some kind, now and then, while he's working. So you're looking at a combo of 1 and 3, too, basically.
Anyway, you have a think and come back whenever on this. The application is otherwise accepted. Now, please pick from of a list comprising pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony/drunkenness, wrath and sloth/indifference:
— two sins that will form the basis of his ancestral curse inherited from a villager of Ke-Waihu
— the sin you think he is guiltiest of
Please try to choose different sins.
...and for God's sake, he can have a second handkerchief.
no subject
1. This is so funny. I'll probably play it by ear just for flexibility's sake (he's adaptable) but for Kei-Waihu the offer of an especially considerate NPC sounds good (if only bc it will make him really mad). Fair warning if you give him an animal he WILL name it something unkind that is only funny to him
Jayce2 - 4. Agree that a combo of 3/4 is the best option here with regards to, like, a character arc, or something, so that's what I will do, and I can be in communication with you about what he's doing in the meantime (help from PCs, etc.) including but not limited to various nefarious science activities (sorry to everyone else). The ultimate goal is to find a permanent solution so I will work towards that and have him use stop-gap methods in the meantime.
Ancestral Curse: Wrath, Greed
Guiltiest of: Pride
Thanks again for such a thoughtful response, and for being so flexible! Really looking forward to doing Bad Science here.