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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
john constantine | dc comics / vertigo.
CONTACT:
HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE GAME?: Grapevine!
CHARACTER: John Constantine
CANON: Hellblazer (DC Comics / Vertigo / DC Black Label)
CANON POINT: John Constantine: Hellblazer (2019), Issue #10
BACKGROUND: John's a weird case in terms of continuity. He had a fairly consistent comic all to himself for literal decades, covered here. Then, there was another version of him with a different backstory running around comics for a while; we're completely ignoring that guy, who has very little in common with the character I'm writing besides looks. Nothing about that guy is in this app. In 2019, Simon Spurrier was tasked with bringing the original John back in a series called John Constantine: Hellblazer. Which, quick summary:
ABILITIES | POWERS:
John can do magic, which consists of spells the writers tend to come up with as the plot demands. In the interest of making this less bullshit, I'd like to winnow his skillset down to a four major areas:
→ HYPNOSIS. John's never done a day of honest work in his life. How does he pay the bills? Not with magic, that pays shitall. No, John is skilled at hypnosis, and tends to fool cashiers into giving him things for free, fool bank tellers into handing him wads of cash, and trick rich people into writing him blank checks. It's heavily implied a lot of John's more flashy magic-- lighting fires with the snap of his fingers, etc-- is actually an illusion caused by casual hypnosis. John doesn't need you to stare at a watch to do it. He just waggles his fingers at the right magical frequency, and you're hooked before you even know it.
Obviously, if this is ever used on player characters in game, I'd ask the player first and make sure everything's copacetic OOC.
→ SUMMONING. John's specialty is demonology, and he's not terrible at necromancy either. Given the right tools (see below) he can call a spirit back for a chat. He can also call up demons and make deals with them, something that for matters of practicality in-game will only be used as a reset button (this character is massively wounded, fix it for a piece of someone's soul; we fucked up this plot thing, make the demon fix it; etc). An outgrowth of this is scrying-- looking not into the future, but into the cosmos for hints and tricks, answers to vague questions.
None of these skills are John's go-to. For one thing, they also need a massive amount of prep time to work; he can't just pull them out willy-nilly. There's a cost (it will always be something dear to him or someone else, if this is used in-game), for one thing, and they're not an easy show to put on.
If John got in the game, I'd say he could only perform one summoning style spell (summoning a spirit, summoning a demon, or scrying) per mission (or arc?), and I'd always explicitly ask for mod permission beforehand.
I'd also be cool with making the objects John needs to cast these spells hard to come by, what with being in another dimension and all. A quest to get the ingredients he needs could be a fun mini-plot!
(The reverse will also be true of exorcisms and putting spirits back to rest, things John has far less experience with.)
I'm fine with the demon summoning aspect being entirely nerfed if you think it's too OP. Or the entire summoning aspect of his abilities. Whatever works best for you.
→ WARDING. John can make spells that react to certain limited parameters, sort of like a trap. This kind of spell is restricted to an area and a condition: eg, no ghosts can cross a threshold he's warded... but they can still sneak in a window, if he forgets to ward those too.
Each hypothetical house (or space ship, or whatever) would have to have special runes and such written on / around it; if that writing was messed up somehow, it would destroy the warding. Wardings cannot be made in permanent materials.
If he wanted to ward a larger area than, say, a house-- something like an entire village-- he'd have to envelop it in a similarly large sigil, which is very difficult and time-consuming. He would prefer not to... but if it ever comes up I'll make it something that requires significant time investment, maybe help from other players in a player plot, etc.
Anyway, warding. John's liable to use these to his advantage-- someone he doesn't like can't enter an area, so they have to take the long way, which is vindictively punishing. Or more directly, someone chasing him can't move once they cross into a warded area, so John is free to, say, rob them, or threaten them, or generally be a bastard. (OOCly, I'd always plan these out in advance, or make it clear in an open prompt what a character would potentially be getting into if they fall into the trap, etc.)
This is the quickest type of magic he's capable of, but the time he puts in is directly equal to how long the ward lasts. He can write wards in the air with his fingers, but they only last moments. Physically writing them down in chalk only lasts as long as the chalk isn't scuffed. Writing them in ink works unless it's smudged or the paper is torn, etc etc. Carving into wood or stone would last the longest, but take the most time, and would again be tied to a certain place. John can't use warding to make amulet or something, since warding has to do with a place, not an object.
A subtype of this magic is dispersal, which just means reversing something that is already warded in place (from another ward to a magical monster). This is only possible if John knows the magic principles underlying whatever was warded in place. It can only be used offensively if let's say a shit goblin comes at him and he knows the magical principles to draw a sigil in the air undoing this magic. It lasts a second, and it's done with. Something that kept generating would take more time, more effort, and obviously, the knowledge of the underlying principles.
In another reality, he probably won't know the underlying principles of magic, and would have to put in hard hours of study to learn them. I will ask for both mod permission and estimates of feasibility if this ever comes up.
→ BEING A NERD. John has taught himself a lot of magic, and that means learning a lot of arcane bullshit. He's fluent in Latin, Enochian, Ancient Greek and Arhamaic, has a strong knowledge of various forms of ritual and folk magic. He's also well-versed in various fields of related inquiry, like horoscopes, and mundanity, like English and French history. He's also reasonably good with pick-pocketing and slight of hand, especially when it comes to cards. He's not much of a fighter, but he's good at losing ugly.
Truly John's greatest strength is that he's sly as a weasel. He's a quick and efficient planner, and will always construct the situation to his benefit if he's any say in the matter. He always has one eye open for a potential advantage, for now or for later. He's an unbearable coward, but that doesn't mean running away from danger, just consequences.
As an aside, John is generally depicted as haunted by the ghosts of his many (many) dead friends. I'd like to keep that in game, if possible; it offers John no tangible advantage, it's just good thematic material. He'll be able to see them sometimes, and people with sensitivity to the supernatural might be able to see them as well.
LASTLY: John is a liar. Sometimes when he says he's doing magic, he's not. He's big on impressing people, and may make big promises based on the appearance of a result, rather than one in actuality. Yeah, sure, he can make that coin lucky, or whatever. (This will be noted OOCly.)
PERSONALITY:
Jonh Constantine is a bad person.
He's not evil, he's not a villain, he's not the worst person ever; all of that gives him more distinction than he deserves. John just kind of... sucks. He's a lazy coward who craves adrenaline and adulation, fears genuine emotional connection, and feeds off negative emotions.
If you need a fun friend to expect absolutely nothing of, but give everything to, John is perfect... but no one actually wants that. The latest run by Spurrier tackles this; John's feelings of loneliness and his allergy to consequences for his own actions.
See, John is lonely, but it's his own fault. His tragedy isn't that his friends always die and he's cursed to wander the earth by his lonesome-- his tragedy, if you can call something so obviously self-inflicted a 'tragedy', is that he keeps sacrificing his own friends to further his own gains. When the chips are down, John's first priority is saving his own skin. Sure, he'll try to save other people if he can, but it's not a priority. This isn't like that old adage: in a plane crash, put your air mask on first before you go and save others. John is fully capable of putting his air mask on first, no problem. The thing is, if the air-mask was powered by killing his friends? He'd still put it on to save his life.
He'd feel bad about it after, but that doesn't excuse it.
There's no amount of emotional turmoil, physical damage, or literally-being-sent-to-hell-ness John won't inflict on another to make sure he comes out okay. More than that, he'll go into dangerous situations fully aware that they might end up costing friends, loved ones and innocents serious turmoil. John is happy to use someone else as a fool, bait or collateral to get his way. He justifies it with self pity-- in the issue I took John from, John viewed his dreamscape / psyche. It was a huge cloud of eyes, all perpetually crying in self-pity. John can justify his selfishness as tragic, because he's used to it, because it fits the story he's told himself, about himself.
But he was just smacked in the face with it. Will he change? Can he? It's been decades; the constant repeats are starting to wear on him.
As an insecure child, John grew up into a conniving adult. Rather than learn to process and overcome his own discomfort in his own skin, he made a false version of himself and broadcast it so loud he's basically become it. Suave, self-assured, confident, wise-cracking John Constantine was a con he pulled on everyone he came into contact with. Eventually, he forgot how to be anything else. John's a liar's husk of a con artist, living for the thrill of the moment. He cares more about impressing someone than meaningfully connecting with them, and has a hard time remembering people have fragile emotions until it's too late.
John truly does regret his actions. But that hasn't yet stopped him. He's stuck in a sunk cost fallacy-- he's already caused so much damage, he can't stop now. What would that say about the greater, more terrible things he's done?
John is caught in a perpetual motion device of his own worse impulses. He's too excited by quick, cheap excitement, the thrill of winning and being right, and he's just not motivated to become a better person and stop hurting loved ones. That feels too much like growing old.
And he is old. He was born in 1953, and John is one of the few comic book characters who age in real time. Due to a magical mishap involving demon blood, he stopped physically aging, but he's felt the years. He's seen his friends die and die and die again.
What has he learned from this, then? Besides getting better and better at excusing his own failings and setting others up for the fall he bought and paid for... John has learned self-pity. He's literally haunted by it-- when a magician shows him the shape of his inner heart, it's a manifestation of endless eyes, all eternally weeping for himself. Not grief, not loss, just self-adulation of his own self-perceived tragedy.
John can't move on, can't stop doing this venomous shit, until he's stopped seeing himself as the protagonist of the world, stopped mythologizing his own failings. And that's... hard.
But maybe, for the first time, his canon point is letting him try.
SAMPLE: 1, 2, 3 & 4.
INVENTORY:
Big dumb trench coat, trousers, belt, reasonably clean pants, socks, stolen Time X watch from 2007, collared shirt (white), tie (red), a pack of tarot cards (Thoth style), a half-full pack of cigarettes (silk cut), a now dead smartphone, one stick of pink sidewalk chalk, and a stolen wallet with three quid in and a 2 for £7.50 chicken special coupon for Waitrose. He has folded it into an origami crane.
NOTES: ARE THERE CIGARETTES IN THIS DIMENSION
IF ACCEPTED, WOULD YOU WANT A PLOT-LIGHT OR PLOT-HEAVY CUSTOM INTRO? plot heavy pls
APPLICATION RECEIVED
no subject
no subject
— Regarding his powers — that all sounds great, especially with opt-ins. You don't have to nerf demon summons too much as long as they're not game-breaking. They come with the territory, let the man live.
— Now, since he does have experience with necromancy, be aware that he'll count as death-sensitive for us. You'll see in some write-ups that characters with that characteristic sometimes experience plot developments in a slightly different way (ex: the undead are drawn to them more, or they're more easily enthralled by the death lieges, or whatever the death issue du jour is).
— In Arc IV: Serthica, characters are mod-assigned a base location between citadel halves Eidris and Minaras and a false identity. They can still discreetly infiltrate the other citadel half, and this is mostly just to figure out where he's based most of the time. Which do you prefer for him, Eidris or Minaras?
no subject
Necromancy is more of a rarity for him, so it's something I always intended to treat with care. Good to know about the added layer of risk; thank you.
Minaras please and thank you!
no subject
Your acceptance notes in shortly.
no subject
ACCEPTED
Thank you for your application!
ADMIN
NOTES
INTRO
The Merchant contacts him and Lila Pitts with a brief assignment, facilitated by miniature transportation beacons that deliver them to the lighthouse of Ellethia — a now barren island overcome by plush vegetation that spawns fresh each morning and wilts at night. Nothing truly dies here. Formerly an academic and learning institute, the lighthouse was the first site assailed by the undead — and the tower’s interiors show numerous scars of scratches, tearing and debris. Ghosts live everywhere.
The party has previously visited here to uncover the dark past of Ellethia, leaving it a… slightly safer space in wake of their travel. Lila and John are tasked to find and retrieve one or more of the white uniforms worn by the previous workers of the institutes. The garments seem to be absent.
While inspecting the remains, Lila will run into the locked chamber of the Sleepers, where an engraving urges visitors to make a wish as their price of entry. Unknown to John and Lila, these wishes always come true, but take a turn for misfortune.
Lila is set to make a wish, which will allow both John and she to enter. You can drop a line if you also want John to make a wish, just recall the aforementioned warning. You can find several torn, but recognisable white uniforms inside. Both John and Lila can grab a few, if they so wish.
The Merchant will want them to ask the group if the ‘man in white’ observed during the U n w i n d i n g was wearing one such uniform. Lila and John can ascertain the answer is yes. You can put that in an OOC note, if you decide to make a network post about it, so other players know this is the man-in-white’s regalia — confirming the Merchant’s suspicion that the stranger is a survivor of the institute of Ellethia.
If you decide to take the post route, feel free to do that at any point over the next 10 days.
Again, to make things exceptionally convenient, assume travel to and from the lighthouse is done via transporter beacon and takes a strategic few seconds each way. Magic, man. Who needs diesel.
If you fine folks want to talk amongst yourselves about anything regarding this (or just have questions!), feel free to throw them here.