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let's set d o w n some ([personal profile] groundrules) wrote2021-01-08 03:30 pm
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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



APPLICATIONS CLOSED


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vestments: (Default)

marc spector, marvel comics

[personal profile] vestments 2023-05-30 11:44 am (UTC)(link)
PLAYER NAME: laura
CONTACT: [plurk.com profile] spandex
HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE GAME?: waggles eyebrows hi

CHARACTER: Marc Spector ( Steven Grant / Jake Lockley )
CANON: Marvel Comics
CANON POINT: Vol 9, issue 9

BACKGROUND: Wiki

ABILITIES | POWERS:
Marc does not have any powers per se — he is a human in mostly great physical shape, who tends to push his body as hard as he can. He's acrobatic and a skilled boxer, proficient in multiple martial arts and a decent marksman (ex-military!). He's broken near enough every bone in his body, doesn't sleep anywhere near as much as he should, and generally has a lackadaisical approach to the concept of 'self-care'. Look, it may not be a traditional ability but, please, give the man something.

He speaks multiple languages with a high degree of fluency outside of his native English: Hebrew, Arabic, French, and Symkarian.

For the sake of transparency, Marc has been stated to have had powers before — strength that waxes and wanes with the phase of the moon, but as with everything with Moon Knight, the subsequent rewriting of this has been: Marc (may have just) believed he had strength that waxed and waned with the phase of the moon, and pushed himself more or less accordingly so. The only other supernatural ability that Marc has been stated to have is the inability to die, but even this is less an innate ability and more a reliance on Khonshu to bring him back from death.
NB. irrelevant to the here and now, but (the real) Khonshu is presently imprisoned on Asgard and as of present canon, is stated to be limited in his ability to resurrect his FISTS. Marc doesn't know this.

BUT as Khonshu will not be present (outside of any delusions or hallucinations Marc may have), this ability outside of game mechanics will be null and void.

The big deal in terms of Marc and quote-unquote abilities is in relation to telepathy and psychic powers: though Marc has precisely none of his own, as the revelation of Khonshu being a REAL BOY has come to the fore, so has his effect on Marc's psyche. That is, whilst Marc does suffer from DID, depression and has a debatable and tenuous grip on reality, like, most of the time, Khonshu has made precisely none of that better. Whilst Marc, therefore, has no ability to prevent mind reading or mental manipulation in and of itself, what he does have is a terrifying mind that is utterly unpleasant for anyone/thing else to experience. Even esoteric, man-eating houses.


PERSONALITY:
As a by-the-by, given the nature of Marc's character and the medium of superhero comics as a whole, Marc's history and experiences have been rewritten and retconned a handful of times, however in the specific context of Moon Knight (as compared to, like, Spider-Man or whoever), these retcons and changes in personal experience are generally attributed — in canon — to Marc's incredible tendency to be a very unreliable narrator. What he believes he experiences is not always reflective of reality, and his acceptance/not of this is a consistent thread throughout the character's run.

Anyway—as the WE DON'T TALK ABOUT IT MCU adaptation of Moon Knight so succinctly put it: Marc Spector is a troubled man. He's difficult, abrasive and single-minded. He's ruthless, reckless and generally considered a liability. He's dramatic, irritable and angsty! He avoids dealing with his problems in favour of punching (not always) bad guys and yelling at an Egyptian god that only he can see. (Or, occasionally, a statue of said god. The god does exist, but it's Complicated. Half the time, Marc is just yelling at delusions and externalisations of his Problems.) He has a questionable grip on reality!!

Marc's early history can be summarised as: challenging. He had a tempestuous relationship with his father (this forming the bulk of his #daddyissues, which feed into his relationship with Khonshu both perceived and real) — their disagreements and Elias' subsequent disowning of Marc were ultimately about pacifism vs violence, and how the former was a stronger tool in the face of anti-semtisim and bigotry than the latter. Marc disagreed and frequently (read: always) chose violence as a reaction to almost anything he perceived as problematic in his life.

Elias himself has been described — by Marc — as the opposite to Marc: kind and gentle, deeply committed to his faith and his people. By contrast, Marc holds the firm belief that there is nothing kind nor gentle in himself, and is fully aware that he gave up his religion and his people at the merest possibility that he might not die. Marc — in contrast to his beliefs as a young adult — has reached the conclusion that he's weak, and deeply regrets almost every choice he's made.

(The very short version of this is that Marc deeply, deeply hates himself. That's it, that's the personality section. Marc "is it any wonder I developed DID? I'd prefer to be anyone other than myself" Spector.)

Prior to death ("death"), Marc was a mercenary, very happy to work for absolutely whoever employed his services for as long as it meant he got paid (he is a war criminal...). Over time, he admits he "grew a conscience", something that led to his death and subsequent rebirth (as it were) as Moon Knight. Whether Marc did die or not is ultimately irrelevant: his belief that he did was the turning point in him being a completely awful human being to becoming a less awful human being. From Marc's perspective, however, nothing he has done since has ever been able to make up for his past, and he's continuously striving for redemption — a process not as fluid as Marc would like given his propensity for violence and making the worst choices.

(It's worth mentioning that Marc has precisely zero hobbies outside of doing Moon Knight stuff. It's not, then, that any non-vigilante hobbies are being glossed over — Marc just really, genuinely doesn't have any. He hasn't even had an actual job since his mercenary days. The man's life is singular and, frankly, sad.)

His dedication and determination to serving Khonshu and what he perceives to be his debt and duty are entirely unwavering, but his methodology raises questions (as he would point out, known FUCKING VIOLENT ASSHOLE, Frank Castle, considers him crazy) and has served to make him an incredibly unpopular superhero (debatable term) within New York. Marc is unpredictable and unreliable, prone to erratic behaviour that very few others can make sense of and he's not aided by his staunch refusal to ever elaborate or communicate to any worthwhile level (he literally burned his Avengers ID card). The few times that Moon Knight has been tolerated to any large degree, Moon Knight has either: not been Marc, or has been Marc pretending to be someone else (Jake Lockley, as opposed to like, actual Jake Lockley. I'm sorry, comics are wild. At least I'm not playing Spider-Man anymore.).

Marc ain't okay, man.

While he wants to be a good person, he has a tendency to go off the rails, to need to be pulled back and reined in by others and, unfortunately for him, he doesn't always listen. Marc's mental state is typically fragile, even early on in his career as Moon Knight — he placed great importance in the presence of Khonshu's statue ("liberated" from Egypt) and had an identity-based breakdown (look...) when he believed it to be smashed to pieces mid-battle; through to years later in his career, having defeated his nemesis, Raoul Bushman, but finding himself rapidly hitting rock bottom in the process (carving off Bushman's face, taking it home, wearing it, branding criminals with a crescent moon if he doesn't outright kill them — behaviours that are generally frowned on, you know?); and then, later still, helping to take over the world and steal the powers and abilities of his colleagues because his moon god was like 'yeah, no, it's the best course of action, please believe me, bro'. ACTUAL PHRASING MAY HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT.

Marc is very good at not questioning what he should or should not be doing until it's generally far too late and he's in the middle of something awful. The conscience he great at, like, 30 or so? Yeah, it's there but Marc is also very easily manipulated and weirdly, for someone that has lingering issues with authority and authoritative figures, really good at following orders.

Marc's self-loathing and self-hatred is consistently funnelled into 'Marc Spector' rather than any other identity he wears — Moon Knight and Mr. Knight, for all else that Marc is and does, do help people and are capable of good things, but Marc doesn't consider any of his positive actions to be the result of Marc Spector (he occasionally talks about himself in the third person, too). He has an unhealthy tendency to separate and partition his life: Mr. Knight is the superhero who protects his local community, who is capable of working alongside the police and who does not commit horrific acts of violence. Then there's Moon Knight, the less sanitised and people-friendly superhero ("superhero"), who does commit questionable actions. And then there's Marc Spector, the guy who fucks up every single aspect of Marc/Moon Knight's lives by being an awful person at all times.

Canonically, he's diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, but it's not used as an explanation for Marc's frankly terrible life choices at any point. Those, canon is keen to point out, are all Marc's doing, even if Marc's acceptance of his DID1 veers between healthy and himself blaming all of his problems on that rather than acknowledging that it's him, he's the problem.
1 Marc's DID is canonically stated as presenting atypically — comics!! — on account of his brain's structure being irrevocably changed after being touched by a god. That is, Marc battles with mental illness and has head his messed with.

Steven Grant and Jake Lockley are the two other alters part of the Moon Knight system. As of his canon point, he's in the process of wilfully and deliberately suppressing them for two reasons: one, his desire to be "normal"; and two, his belief that Steven and Jake are better people than Marc is and that the people he cares for will leave him for Steven and Jake if he allows anyone to meet them. (Or: Marc needs to feel in control of his life, even if he is not actually in control of his life.)

This current status quo is a direct reversal of how Marc is first met in canon — then, Marc was vehemently denying his DID in favour of asserting that 'Marc Spector', 'Steven Grant', 'Jake Lockley' and even 'Moon Knight' are alter-egos (who was considered to be the 'real' identity at this point? A bone of contention—). Despite everyone around Marc knowing Marc as Marc first, 'Steven Grant' was the "alter-ego" seen the most — an urbane, charming, millionaire investor who hated Marc Spector as much as Marc hated (still hates) himself, whilst Marc was mostly seen as Moon Knight and just Moon Knight.

Steven, whose opinion of Marc often mirrored Marc's at this point in time, repeatedly stated that Marc was unneeded, an unnecessary reminder of [their] past, whilst Marc himself insisted that he died in the desert and viewed himself as a ghost (healthy). This was the closest Marc, Steven, and Jake have come to co-existing for any real length of time...

Marc, whilst not meaning to, tends to get incredibly and wholly wrapped up in his own issues and matters of self that he doesn’t always (read: rarely ever) stops to consider the impact of his actions on anyone else. The positives, though, are that he's incredibly protective, loyal (admittedly, not always to the right people or causes), determined and resourceful (again, not always in the right way, but An Attempt Is Made).

His actions have led to a life of reclusiveness and isolation he's trying to get over (kind of), have led to his long-term partner deciding 'fuck this' and skipping the country with their daughter (who, for obvious reasons, Marc rarely sees), and his one (1) friend also deciding 'fuck this' — after a decade plus of their companionship, Marc has reached the conclusion that their decisions to leave him are reflective of his ability to do nothing but hurt others around him. That is, he's ultimately very good at self-sabotage, but compared to where he used to be, he is better.

Basically: angry and sad man uses violence as a poor coping mechanism to deal with his life, is then SHOCKED to discover it's a poor coping mechanism and hates how the violence makes him feel... All the while continuing to be an angry, sad, violent man.

SAMPLE: psl, tdm.

INVENTORY:
suit (white suit with crescent moon details, fam.)
crescent darts (five) — these are literally just throwing darts shaped like crescent moons. the man has a theme and he's sticking to it.
truncheon — this. it can function as a club (nice), nunchaku, and grappling hook. it's white (because it can't be moon shaped). he's very fond of it. after his crescent darts, it's his second favourite weapon.

NOTES: No...

IF ACCEPTED, WOULD YOU WANT A PLOT-LIGHT OR PLOT-HEAVY CUSTOM INTRO? gimme what u got (by which i mean, like, whatever works out best balance-wise given workloads!)
Edited (ugh x2 (or: don't look at me)) 2023-05-30 14:08 (UTC)
groundrules: (Default)

APPLICATION RECEIVED

[personal profile] groundrules 2023-05-30 03:07 pm (UTC)(link)
groundrules: (Default)

ACCEPTED

[personal profile] groundrules 2023-06-03 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)


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 [community profile] eastbound, [community profile] lostcompass, [community profile] westwhere. Feel free to make an OOC intro post on [community profile] lostcompass, if you want — or wait til the CR meme of 5 June.

  • All game updates are posted on [community profile] lostcompass, but you can also follow [plurk.com profile] 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

  • You’ve guessed it: Khonshu’s revival tricks of Marc mean that Marc’s now one of the happily death-touched of Eastbound, which also number necromancer, dead, or undead characters. He’ll be thrilled to experience advantages and/or drawbacks during some events, which will be noted when applicable.

  • As we have two plot-linked moons in Arc VI, drop a line if you’d like Marc to experience oddities linked to the second moon, given his lunar connection.

  • Your character receives a shiny new village pendant with a mirror inside, which serves as a translator and communicator for written, video and audio interaction. It can read out translated messages of any written content your character sees in local tongue. Your character’s assigned username is dam it to well.


    • INTRO

    Since quite a few newcomers are interested in a plot-heavy approach, there’ll be a special scenario exclusive to you folks in the upcoming event. Stay tuned.

    If you can, please shout here over the next 48h if you’d like your character to get a mod-assigned:
    1. …job while in Yancai? (Alternatively, you can invent your own!)
    2. …housing?
    3. haunting? If so, please describe in no more than two sentences one of his biggest regrets.

    vestments: (Default)

    [personal profile] vestments 2023-06-03 08:28 pm (UTC)(link)
    second moon oddities, yes please and ty!
    1. no job,
    2. housing, yes!
    3. haunting!! becoming the FIST OF KHONSHU. it has "done absolutely nothing [good] for his life and cost him everything", and he hates everything about it and what he's done as moon knight. (and yet.)
    Edited 2023-06-03 20:29 (UTC)
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