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applications

applications

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.

APPLICATION FORM & INSTRUCTIONS

EXISTING / RETURNING PLAYERS

NEW PLAYERS

PLAYER NAME: 
CONTACT:
REFERRED BY: Who invited you, please? c:

CHARACTER: 
CANON:
CANON POINT:

BACKGROUND: written or linked history both fine. Bullet points also a-okay. If no information is available in English, please write this out in short.

ABILITIES | POWERS: Include any relevant power restrictions, so you don’t break our playground.

PERSONALITY: make sure this ties back to the character’s time point and background.

SAMPLE: one or more samples to showcase the nuances of your character’s personality. Submit at least one prose sample of five comments or more. You can link memes, PSL or other game threads, provided they took place within the last 12 months. You can also write a single prose sample in the game or character canon setting, if you think you can cover good introspective ground that way, or a top level with enough variety to show how the character engages in various scenarios. 
 
INVENTORY: No world-breaking items. For living or magical beings, or anything colossal (think... Gundams...) please let's talk beforehand!

SUITABILITY: Eastbound is a plot-heavy game that typically features sleuthing, action and the undead. How is your character likely to deal with all that (and the game bear)?

NOTES: Are there any particular accommodations your character will need? How do you propose to handle that?

APPLICATIONS CLOSED

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ABILITIES | POWERS: Some borrowed from the wiki.

☓ it is thee and me ☓

✺ medium; While she is a perceptive individual on her own, her clairvoyance is a deep part of her. She can divine someone's past, present, or future. Much of what she takes in is subconscious, understanding it on an innate level before she absorbs and translates. Sometimes she has trouble translating this ‘input’; it can be situational. Touch strengthens it. The closer someone is linked to the forces of the dark or the light (middle ground is boring), the more she’ll be able to understand. (Player discretion; permissions post) Her visions can also come unbidden, and often do. She can have trouble telling them from reality. Her ability to channel spirits means that she can easily be possessed by ghosts or demons, but it also means her will is strong enough to overcome them, in theory... If her fragile body can survive the torture.
✺ daywalker; As a hedgewitch, or Daywalker, she's learned much about divination methods like the Tarot or tea leaves. She's well versed in herbalism, though she doesn't advertise this to just anyone. Her occult knowledge is vast given the time she's from, and she knows about tools like fetish dolls and blood totems (her own being that of a scorpion).
✺ verbis diablo; The No-No Latin, Words of the Devil, or Devil's Tongue. She's used this to to expel a pack of ancient witches, to overpower Lucifer and Dracula, and to turn a pack of dogs on their owner and maul him to death. She's quite fluent by now, especially having memorized a lot from the Poetry of Death.
✺ book smarts; Vanessa has a keen aptitude for literature and high learning that was born from solitude, but fed by her need for knowledge. She loves books and poems. Her memory is keen enough that she can easily quote entire passages of poetry from memory that are apt for the situation, like a nerd.
✺ marksmanship; Technically she has a natural skill for firearms, able to shoot moving targets on her first try. She doesn't particularly like guns, though, so she won't be looking for one to carry.

☓ babalon, o mother of abominations ☓

✺ by the pricking of my thumbs; As an incarnation of the Mother of Evil who is prophesied to usher in the end of days, Vanessa's dark powers are...loud to certain types. Throughout the series, she's shown to attract night creatures of all kinds (at times they are mesmerized by her; other times they want to lovingly nom on her). Any who don't serve Lucifer or Dracula may not consciously understand who/what she is, but may still be attracted to her at the player's discretion. Demons, witches, or anyone who is supernatural-adjacent may have the ability to sense her even if she's far away, and it may be unpleasant but their mileage may vary (night creatures may love the feeling, but an old and powerful witch called it terrifying). At the player's discretion. I'll put up a permissions post.
✺ something wicked this way comes; Vanessa's body is completely mortal and can be injured or killed as easily as anyone. Her spirit, or part of it, is the reincarnation of the primordial goddess Amunet, and it is heavily implied that her incarnation has also existed in different cultures (just as Dracula and Lucifer were once one, they were also Amun-Ra). The Egyptian and Biblical connections are the most blatant references (Amunet and Lilith), and she may also be representative of other dark Goddesses in various mythologies (Mara, Hella/Hel, etc.). Whatever the incarnation, she carries creation and death. Characters who may have reason to be connected to any of these myths/incarnations or rely on ancient magic are welcome to sense something ancient or evil in her, or make specific connections to the goddesses themselves. Also at the player's discretion, will include a permissions post.

PERSONALITY:

Even as a child, Vanessa struggled with her own contradictions, and it's gotten no easier as an adult. She was afraid of the dolls she had to play with ( “Those eyes staring at you, just waiting to come to life. Who thinks that's healthy for a child?” ), and yet grew to appreciate taxidermy as an older girl and young woman ( “I put mirrors behind the glass eyes, so they would spark.” ). Such attempts to turn her fears into a strength are common for Vanessa, but they rarely pan out the way she intends. Her inner conflict runs too deeply, down to her soul.

It would be difficult for the average passerby to notice any such conflict, however. Vanessa carries herself with a very specific poise, controlling everything in her life that she can: fashion, posture, diction, and who she allows to get close (the latter is often a failure). She uses this control over herself to an intentionally obscure degree, knowing that the mystery she can present will draw certain types in. When necessary, she can use this to manipulate them to her own ends, as with Ethan Chandler and Dorian Gray both. ( Dorian: You have exceptional composure. [...] Poise, I mean. | Vanessa: Control. | Dorian: Yes. What if you were to abandon it? | Vanessa: I couldn't. ) The illusion of control also helps her cope with her inner demons, both psychological and real.

She knows the dangers of losing control, that she risks her soul whenever she gives in to her primal, often sexual urges. It keeps her afraid enough to place most people at a distance, but she still wants. For all her perfect fashion and poise, Vanessa desires touch; to be loved and known and accepted. She'll go so far as to not wear gloves at parties (scandalous!), hinting at the desires beneath. She denies herself the sexual urges as much as she can, but she still seeks out stimuli. Exciting ventures, yes. Friendship...risky, but yes, how she wants that, too. She can love deeply, and wants love in return, but she doesn’t know if she can trust what love does to her. Her love lingers with her guilt, as she continues to write letters to Mina that she will never see. She will hold her friends, kiss and comfort them; she will tease them with a twinkle in her eye as they blush and both laugh together, but no matter how dear her friends are, there will always be just a sliver of distance between their spirits. It’s a trace of enigma that she's reluctant to let go of, save eventually around Sir Malcolm or Ethan Chandler. With others, she uses the mystery innate to her presence, enforcing an illusion of control over people as much as herself.

Once someone has her love, though, she will do anything for them. She will risk her life for them, she will kill for them, and she will kill them if it's the kindness that they need. As much guilt as she feels over betraying Mina and sending her down her path of unholy torment, Vanessa doesn't seek her forgiveness; she's ready to kill her beloved Mina to free her from Dracula's embrace. As much as she resents Sir Malcolm for being the one to trigger the darkness within the young Vanessa, she loves him with a ferocity that sends her with murderous intent into an ancient witch cult. Her love can consume her, it never truly leaves her, and so she's reluctant to hand it to just anyone.

Raised as a Roman Catholic, she’s well acquainted with religion and believes that God has a plan. Unfortunately, she also believes that darkness will never stop following her, because it’s in her very soul now. She’s sinned to the point of murder, her essence tainted by Verbis Diablo, and part of her resents that despite all of her prayers, God never seemed to listen. Outwardly, she will preach God’s word and openly defy the Devil even while acknowledging her dark path, but within there is turmoil. She knows herself, claims not to fear it, but fear it she does. She wants God, but some part of her wants the Devil more.

That part of her manifests in selfish or even vengeful behavior at times, especially when she has a goal in mind that she deems far more important than anything else. Others haven’t suffered like her; they don’t know and so they can’t begin to understand. She doesn’t think herself a martyr, because she has not yet been taken, but she does believe that her suffering is solitary, and that when it manifests in its full force, these resentments towards others are unleashed. When possessed, it isn’t all Lucifer or Amunet; it’s also Vanessa unleashing a pain that she buries too deeply. When the others engage in torturing a young vampire for information on Mina, Vanessa does nothing to stop it. She will do what needs to be done to achieve her own ends. ( “We here have been brutalized with loss. It has made us brutal in return.” )

At her best, she can show incredible empathy towards those who suffer or seem lost, in part because she can see herself in them. On her own, she doesn’t seek out good deeds, but when guided towards them she will feel glad for any kindness offered to others. Part of that is selfish, too, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t kind; just that her kindness is difficult to shake from an ever present melancholy. She is forever in her own world─in the demimonde─and she often doesn't have any room left in her thoughts for the every-day concerns of most people.

Vanessa claims that her soul belongs to God, but at the same time admits that her soul is lost to the night. Which is it? This is her need as a human versus her want as an old god, and she’s unable to separate them or understand from which soul these desires come from. It's both her shame and her desire manifest. The truth is that she doesn't want a normal life, even while she envies those who revel in normalcy. She wants to want it, she knows it's what she should want, but in certain moments she can’t deny the Demon within. Just as a priest reminds her, the glory of suffering is uniquely hers. She’s not so quick to let go of her twisted divinity.

SAMPLE: ONE (prose) | TWO (network to action)

INVENTORY: Dress; coat; cross pendant; rosary. Dressed to the nines.

NOTES: She smokes weed for her anxiety and such. Would she be able to source more cannabis plants, or discover something like it, so she can continue to roll her own joints? It's the safest release she permits herself.

IF ACCEPTED, WOULD YOU WANT A PLOT-LIGHT OR PLOT-HEAVY CUSTOM INTRO? Dealer's choice, I've got the time and energy for either! If her vibe sparks any plotty ideas I'm super down for that. Perfectly happy with plot-light, as well. Trouble will find her, regardless~

Thank you for your application!

ADMIN

When you have a second, have a last read through the game rules and comment to the TAKEN LIST.

Join

eastbound,

lostcompass,

westwhere. Feel free to make an OOC intro post on

lostcompass, if you want, or wait for the intro/CR meme due up on 31 July!

All game-relevant updates Iwill be posted on

lostcompass, but you can also consider following

eastbound. There is an informal optional game discord server — you’ll get a private message with an invite, once you comment to the Taken List.

Like it says on the application page tin — you can have a maximum of three characters in the game, and you can invite one new person in per month or cycle.

If you’re not already served on that front, we have some custom codes to help you set up a character inbox or permissions post. Both are entirely optional, and feel free to customise at will!

Your character is exempted from activity requirements in August.

NOTES

As a heads up, Vanessa’s medium abilities and the ease with which dead things possess her may leave her more vulnerable to the undead and the deathless lieges here. That said, you’ll typically have the ability to opt out of such instances.

Sure, she can find a weed equivalent, although the continents seem to favour stronger opiates. Any such expense will have to come out of her own pocket.

Your character receives one of the shiny new Arc IV pocket watch communicators, allowing written, video and audio interaction. It contains an inevitable clock portion, whose beat seems to get louder as time ticks towards 6:00 and 18:00. A sharp, tinny alarm rings at these times.

Vanessa’s pre-assigned username is headless ragdoll.

INTRO

There’re two options on the table — have a think over the next day and answer here which one you’d rather.

i. Wake up at sea

This is the lighter plot option: your character would be one of the many rescued from the grips of the dark and magically perturbed Crossing Seas after a stretch of time in the stranding region. We can give Vanessa a few puzzle clue observations or aftermath symptoms, and he can be dragged aboard with the rest of the crew.

PROS: Vanessa immediately joining the rest of the pre-existing character squad and can interact both physically and by network.

CONS: less active plot than option 2, more of a slow-burn approach.

ii. Serthica

Vanessa is recruited by the Merchant and sent with other newcomers in the Mouse House — the impoverished outskirts of Arc IV location, Serthica. Here, the small group will have to work together on a few quests to smuggle the remaining party — which comes later by sea — into Serthica.

Note: we’ll need at least three of the newly accepted characters to pick this, or else we can’t run it — you’d have too small of a gang to run with and get bored. If Serthica is chosen, you will get a setup and quests write-up for newcomers on 1 August, giving you about nine days to play things out.

PROS: hit the ground running, play a pretty significant role in how the party sets up in Arc IV.

CONS: Vanessa can contact the party members at sea via network and inboxes, but she won’t meet them physically until the seaborne travellers also join Serthica ( this will be around 11 August ). Vanessa would get a list of the names of the people coming by sea, if that helps.

I am absolutely down for her being a bedrock for undead drama! Would any of the undead be particularly drawn to her in this world like they are in hers, as well?

I think she would want to avoid the stronger varieties of opiates, but will work with what she can.

This all sounds awesome. I'll go with option 2, Boss!

That will probably end up the situation, though we'll do it case by case!

Serthica it is!

You got it, Boss.

Following a sadly failed beacon exit attempt in Arc IV, Vanessa has now been updated to end of the Penny Dreadful Season 2 finale (2x10: And They Were Enemies)!

As of 17 August, Vanessa is updated to the end of episode 9 of season 3, The Blessed Dark.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

applications

vanessa ives ☓ penny dreadful (2/2)

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