groundrules | 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

His firehouse, the 118, is his family, and he would do just about anything for them. This is a common recurring theme among the other members of the 118 as well. In addition to his team, he's also fiercely protective of his sister, and invites himself on a police mission to save her once she's kidnapped. He is determined, and stubborn, and the other characters know that once he has his mind set on something, it's set in stone.

However, sometimes the amount in which he loves can be damaging. Because of wanting to be on his team and his desire to work as a firefighter, he sues the department when he's forced into medical leave for his job back, not realizing that the lawsuit will cause him lots of interpersonal issues. He works well under pressure, but master tactician he is not. In fact, while being questioned by the police over a possible heist that the 118 might be involved in, he gets easily confused by the plot. He also tends to misjudge social situations from time to time, and generally isn't the best at reading a room.

Though he is not the wisest member of the team and often requires an accompanying, more rational team member by his side, he is very knowledgeable and likes to learn from a wide variety of topics. This mostly works well for random trivia, but he does love to share the odd fact with his teammates.

Buck tends to be kind of a goofball, and it really shows in particular when he babysits Christopher, who is his best friend Eddie's kid. They play videogames together, he helps build Chris a skateboard, plays with his dino toys and draws him cute pictures. Maybe it's because of his own missing pieces of childhood that he seems to be drawn to making kids in particular happy - he's also great with his niece, and is generally just comfortable being silly and hanging with kids.

A very open individual, Buck is not often hiding his feelings, his face is extremely emotive and he is both a terrible liar and also terrible at playing poker. When he does try to hide his feelings, he tends to space out, and the other characters usually know immediately that something is up with him. He's straightforward and honest for the most part, though there is the glaring exception where he got drunk, cheated on his girlfriend, and asked her to move in with him because he has copious abandonment issues. That is definitely the most unforgivable thing Buck has done.

Buck also is into self-improvement, which is actually the meaning behind his username. In the beginning of the show, he deems himself Buck 2.0 due to deciding that he was no longer going to be a playboy and pursue more lasting, meaningful romantic relationships. When he becomes Buck 3.0 he decides to be kinder, and gentler, and seeks therapy. Although there was a marked difference between 1.0 and 2.0, there hasn't been much of a difference in 3.0 in my opinion. However, 1.0 was hypersexual, and he even self-diagnosed as having a sex addiction. Although he is still a very sexual person, he did lose a lot of his frat-boy, player archetype that was displayed heavily in the first season.

Despite the bravado and emphasis on sexual aspects of a relationship, Buck is and has always been heavily romantic. At advice from his captain, he showers his girlfriend with the grand romantic gesture of taking her on an air balloon date. When she decides to leave the country, he stays in her apartment and considers her his girlfriend several months after she ghosts him completely. He also drops everything to fly halfway around the country to emotionally support another girlfriend. He can be a little over-the-top.

Although Buck always goes above and beyond for the 118 and his sister, he also is shown to be kind and compassionate to strangers. Again, often to excess. He has a soft heart, and he's easily moved to help someone or support them in a time of need.

SAMPLE: He's a bit of a new muse so I don't have any meaty introspective tags for him yet: this thread but if that's insufficient I've written up a sample in the setting of the last TDM:

He's pretty lost from the get-go, but he's also on a completely new planet in a completely different type of environment than he's used to, so honestly, he's just playing along in hopes that he wakes up soon. Things have been kind of weird for Buck lately, but he does have his anchoring points to which he moors himself. In his fever dream, there had been no nighttime, and so, he's waiting for the sun to go down and for the land to cool before he even starts to consider that any of this is real.

"Seven guilds? Look, that's impressive I guess, but uh, I'm actually just really not interested in fighting a war. Even back home. Not really cut out to be a soldier, but you know what," he tries, clapping Mazyar on the arm before he realizes that he might be royalty or something and seizing his hand up and dropping it to his side. "I, uh, appreciate the opportunity."

He tries to hand the pendant back, since he already has a phone and though he doesn't think he gets reception here, he doesn't really want whatever this is. He certainly doesn't want it as a form of payment, or a contractual agreement. "And no offense, but I just had to decide what the most important thing to me was, and that's being with my family and my team at home, so good luck with your war, but I really don't think I'm the right guy for the job."

Somehow, he doesn't think that the guy who kidnapped him to conscript him into battle is really going to take no for an answer, but he thought he'd at least try. And, well, this isn't his first kidnapping and he'll wait to see what sort of threats this guy has up his sleeve and whether or not Buck can square with them.

INVENTORY: Basically just phone/wallet/keys, watch, probably a picture Chris drew for him in his wallet.

NOTES: N/A

IF ACCEPTED, WOULD YOU WANT A PLOT-LIGHT OR PLOT-HEAVY CUSTOM INTRO? No strong preference/whichever is easier or more fun for the mods!

Heya! The app is fine and accepted — bear with a few more days until applications officially close for your formal acceptance note. It's just to get a sense of the preferences of the broader applicant batch when it comes to arrivals, and to assign intros from there.

Re: time point — two options: Google Fu says that ep 12 was due out 20 March, which is a tiny bit on the recent side. Ideally, the material showing his latest canon point would have come out at least a month ahead of the time of the application. So, two options: either we go with your alternative canon point or if he can somehow avoid mentioning his coma until 20 April. Not 100% sure how workable that is on your side, but definitely have a think and give a shout here with what you'd rather.

Taylor moves in with Buck and he confesses to her that he cheated on her by drunkenly kissing another girl, she feels trapped but forgives him. (I really hate this storyline, sorry)
Yeah, this doesn't sound like the best :(

I'll just go with the alternative canon point! He can always be updated later, thank you!

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!

Alternatively, a CR meme and the plotting post of our next log event will be up tomorrow, 31 March.

All game updates are posted on

lostcompass, but you can also follow

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

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 — feel free to customise at will!

Your character is exempted from activity requirements this month!

NOTES

That sounds great about the canon point!

Your character receives a shiny new pocket watch pendant with a mirror inside, which serves as a translator and communicator for written, video and audio interaction.

INTRO

Since quite a few folks in the application batch wanted or were open to a plottier intro, we’ll have a part in the upcoming travel Arc log that’s exclusive to new entrants, covering their arrival. Stay tuned!

applications

2/2

APPLICATION RECEIVED

Re: 2/2

no subject

ACCEPTED