Position Vacant: Soul Reaping, Part time.(OOC: ON HIATUS)

[Atlannia]

Soul: The embodiment of a human spirit or life force…

…Demon: An entity that devours souls

IC

Theme Song

“--A great deal of ink has been spent speculating as to the true nature of the afterlife, or indeed, whether there is an afterlife at all and what precisely is the fate of the human spirit after death. For any curious individuals the answer can be found to be a loose parallel of the destiny of its corporeal form. Just as after death the body is broken down, decomposed and consumed by various organism in order to provide nourishment to the greater circle of life, upon separating from the body the soul to is consumed by certain organisms and expelled as loose particles which will eventually join together again in the formation of new souls, thereby furnishing in their death, life anew.
The organisms that consume souls and consequently provide for the creation of new souls and new lives are known to humans and refer to themselves, as demons.--”

-Ludwig Bactravier, Metaphysical Biology, an introduction

“—Of particular importance to the cycle of death and rebirth are the demons that inhabit the physical plane and are called in demonic parlance reapers. Charged with collecting the souls of dead humans and sending them to Hell to be refined and distributed by the demon lords among their favoured subjects, Reapers perform a vital role for both human and demon worlds. Nevertheless they occupy one of the lowest rungs in the militaristic, feudal culture of demon society, the positions of wealth and influence being occupied by powerful warrior class demons who fight to expand the territory of their lords within Hell.
The main duties of the reaper are twofold. Firstly as stated above they must collect the souls of deceased humans. Despite great strides made in automation thanks to the invention of the magical construct known as a psychopomp, deaths that occur unexpectedly or in great numbers at once normally need the direct intervention of a reaper. Secondly it is the duty of a reaper to slay any monsters that develop within their territory.
An unreaped souls will eventually seek to re-attach itself to its body or, failing that, any other available host. Of course it is impossible to restore someone to life that simply and what is birthed in the attempt is known in human parlance as a monster. A monster, like demons, requires human souls to sustain its existence but unlike demons they are mindless, ravenous beasts who do not patiently wait for humans to die before consuming their souls, they attack anyone they can get their hands (or other appendages) on, endlessly feeding and growing stronger until they are killed.--“

-Mathew Clarke, infernal power structures, a study of modern demonic society

“--Of late however some mysterious phenomenon has affected the period known colloquially as the drift, the period of time a soul can safely float free of its body before attempting to find a new host. While in 1958 the average drift for a soul was 29 days and the lowest recorded drift was 14 days, in 2015 the average drift time has decreased to 15 days and drift times as low as four days have been noted. This alarming trend combined with the exponential growth of the human population and accompanying spike in total deaths has left the reaping industry unable to cope. Reapers in all sections are heavily overworked and failing to account for all souls in their areas of responsibility despite logging unprecedented levels of overtime. With the option of diverting more demons from our standing military force into the human world to assist with reaping being untenable given the current strategic position of our kingdom and the situation in the mortal realm rapidly deteriorating we are forced to consider somewhat unorthodox methods for responding to these developments.

Living humans, strengthened via an infusion of demon blood should prove capable of manifesting a scythe and performing the basic duties of a reaper on a part time or casual basis. With every currently operating reaper able to supervise several ‘part-time reapers’ at once if this plan is implemented on a wide scale the overall capacity of the industry should increase by three or fourfold, easily enough to cope with current levels.

-Xalthuzaahr, Chief Executive Reaper to Lord Groar of the thirteenth kingdom, A proposal regarding the state of the reaping industry.

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You just wanted a part time job that’s all. Its summer right now and you could definitely use a little extra cash in your pocket, whether you’re saving for a car or just want to buy the latest clothes, games or music when they come out. Or hell maybe you don’t care about any of that stuff but your parents have been on your case about getting a job and you know if you don’t they’ll never leave you alone long enough for you to properly enjoy your holiday. It shouldn’t be too hard you reason, all your friends have gotten part time or summer jobs after all. But maybe because all of your friends have jobs already nobody seems to be hiring. Sunset Gates isn’t that large a city after all and with three high schools in the city there’s a lot of competition for those sort of jobs.

After a long, miserable day of unsuccessful applications, interviews and enquiries you have begun trudging home, taking an obscure back alley you had hoped was a shortcut. It wasn’t and now you are lost, but as you stop to take stock of your surroundings you notice and odd, run-down café that you have somehow never noticed before despite passing through this way a few times before. Well Sunset Gates is sort of that kind of a city, stores or buildings sometimes feel like they pop up or disappear overnight and every now and then you’ll swear you saw something odd out of the corner of your eyes, especially while walking home at night.

Putting these thoughts aside you can’t help but notice the sign posted rather lopsidedly in the window. Actually it looks more like a newspaper clipping than a sign, as though someone ordered an ad in the classifieds and then couldn’t be bother drawing up a sign as well. Squinting a little and leaning forward to get closer, you give it a read.




What? What kind of a job listing is that, Soul Reaping? It has to be joke.

It has to be.

You turn around to leave, starting to remember how to get home from where you are when you hesitate. It’s almost certainly a joke, some idiot having a laugh at the expense of people like you who just need a job. You turn to leave again and get few more steps away before hesitating again.

What if it’s not though?

You really want a job and you’ve been to almost every place in the city that might hire you already. Maybe it’s some kind of a code or something? Maybe there was just some kind of mix up with the sign? After all this looks like a pretty normal café for the most part, even though it’s so dark that you can’t really see inside. In fact you probably would have assumed it was closed if it weren’t for the sign hanging limply from the door knob saying ‘OPEN’

You should go. There’s a few more places on the outskirts you haven’t tried yet and maybe you could ask the careers counsellor at school for some advice if that doesn’t pan out. You don’t want to be the butt of some dumb prank.
Still though those places on the outskirts are nearly a half an hour from your place going by bus, schlepping out there every other day would be a major pain and the school counsellor is a notoriously unhelpful person, being more interested in counting down the days until he can cash out his pension than actually doing any work.

You take a deep breath.

You open the door.

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Soul Reaping for Fun and Profit: A Beginner's guide

A small, rather dusty handbook you managed to dig out of the store room. It's somewhat dubious looking and some of the pages have been stuck together by reddish brown stains you fervently hope are tomato sauce. Despite its unassuming appearance you may find some useful tips here.

Greetings and congratulations on passing your interview! By doing so you've taken your first step into the exciting world of Soul Reaping! Despite being a fulfilling and lucrative career Soul Reaping is not without its risks however so it’s important that you prepare for your new job by reading through this handbook and referring to it occasionally for revision. Remember: A prepared Soul Reaper is a Soul Reaper who won’t have to be scraped off the pavement after a horrifying, incredibly painful death!

While full-fledged demonic reapers perform a number of services as representatives and agents of their lords on the mortal plane, as a newly inducted part time reaper you will almost certainly be restricted to performing the two main functions of a soul reaper. As you may have supposed by now, one of those is collecting the souls of the deceased. Though great strides have been made in automating this process via the magical constructs known as psychopomps, unexpected deaths or a high volume of deaths occurring all at once can overload a psychopomps guidance systems, necessitating a manually performed reaping.

Doing so is quite simple, it requires manifesting one's scythe (refer to section two below for more details) and striking the errant soul with it. This will destabilise the soul into raw spiritual energy which can then be collected by a psychopomp as usual.

It is important that this process be performed during the period known as the drift. The drift is the length of time between when a souls is first separated from its original body to when it attempts to bond with a new host, forming a monster. The average drift time is around thirty days but can be as high as two months or as low as two weeks. In the event that a soul does become a monster then the reaper’s duties expand to include dealing with the threat and retrieving any souls the monster has managed to eat, a process that is again performed via liberal application of one's scythe

The personal weapons of demons and the most important tool in the arsenal of any reaper. Scythes are created by crystallising some of the soul energy stored within the demon’s body into a physical form. Scythes are a reflection of the souls Demons have devoured, and those that have devoured many can manifest their scythe in almost any form they please, fluidly altering it to suit the tactical situation as needed. Part time Reapers on the other hand have to rely on their own souls to furnish them with a scythe and hence their weapons have only one form, each scythe being unique to its owner. Despite being many times weaker than a true demon scythe a part time reaper’s scythe is still capable of performing its most important function of sending souls to Hell and is a powerful weapon in its own right. Scythes operate on the principle of soul wavelengths, the fluctuations of energy that control the flow of raw spiritual energy inside a soul and in living organisms help to synergise the soul with its living host. If a being can be likened to a computer then its soul wavelength is somewhat like the code that tells it how to operate. Scythes share the wavelength of their owner's souls so when a scythe cuts into a souls its own fluctuations interfere with the normal operation of the soul, destabilising it and causing it to break down. To continue the metaphor they are somewhat akin to computer viruses that attack a computer by forcibly inserting their own, incorrect code into the system's normal operations.

Although scythes are all unique and possess an untold number of forms, the vast majority of them can be placed within three broad categories.

Striker: The most common and arguably reliable kind of scythe, strikers operate by injecting their wavelength directly into an opponent’s soul, making them by necessity melee weapons. Popular forms include swords, spears, knives and of course actual scythes. Compared to other forms strikers are usually the most powerful in terms of the damage they deal relative to the amount of energy required to wield, their sturdy forms are also useful for blocking or parrying enemy attacks, making them versatile weapons for both offense and defence. The obvious drawback is that their low range leaves one exposed to counter attack or in the case of ranged or flying enemies sometimes unable to attack at all.

Emitter: The second most common type of scythe. Emitters, as their names suggest, operate by emitting a blast of spiritual energy imprinted with their wavelength, They can effectively deal damage from a distance but the trade-off is that every shot costs a certain amount of their wielder's energy, when fired too often they can leave a reaper exhausted and unable to fight. Popular forms of emitters include bows, firearms, crossbows and throwing weapons such as knives or javelins.

Familiar: The least common and arguably most unusual scythe. A familiar is a kind of magical construct similar to a psychopomp (Indeed early psychopomps were developed with familiars as their inspiration) but optimised for combat. Usually taking on the form of a kind of creature, familiars can respond to telepathic commands from their wielders and can attack enemies independently. They normally attack at close range in a manner similar to a striker type scythe but some familiars have been observed with emitter like abilities as well. In terms of sheer power, familiars lag behind both strikers and emitters as it is theorised their extra sophistication requires additional energy. However their unique utility makes them tactically useful and they have the advantage of leaving their user's hands free, a benefit of especial use to aspiring mages, who frequently require both hands free to perform more powerful spells.

The bane of Reapers everywhere, who regard them as farmers regard rabbits, monsters are inconvenient at best and outright dangerous if allowed to grow out of control. A monster is created when an unreaped souls tries to reattach itself to a host and its form is determined by the type of host it takes over, meaning there are millions of different forms possible however a few of the most common types are as follows:

Zombies.
Also known as ghouls, revenants and dozens of other names in other languages, zombies are by far the most common type of monster as they are formed when a soul reattaches itself to its dead body, which is usually the closest empty vessel available.
Fortunately zombies are also one of less threatening kinds of monsters, although resistant to most normal forms of damage, immune to pain and strengthened by the lack of mental limitations, zombies are inhibited by their decomposing bodies, which limits their agility and senses.

Beast.
Another extremely common form of monster, beasts are responsible for many of the myths and legends of the human world. Beasts arise when a human soul reattaches itself to a living animal. The resulting fusion increases the creature’s strength significantly but the two souls are constantly warring for supremacy, making the creature highly erratic and violent. The kind of creature possessed by the soul can greatly affect the strength of the resulting beast but generally speaking a beast is quite manageable for even part time reapers.

Golem.
Notably rarer, a golem occurs when an unreaped soul can find no suitable living host to possess and must turn to inanimate material, normally moulding it into a roughly human shape. Golems can be quite dangerous, as they are highly resistant to most forms of damage and can be quite strong without any of the resulting lack of agility zombies normally possess. Taking on Golems can be challenging even for experienced part-timers and it is recommended to use a team of at least three or four people.

Poltergeist
An odd cousin of the golem, a poltergeist forms when a soul possesses an inanimate object but, for reasons not entirely understood do not reshape the material but instead possess it in its original form. This means poltergeist can vary wildly in strength, a possessed set of keys for example, is unlikely to be much of a threat to anyone but there are stories of larger objects or even buildings being possessed and giving even experienced Reapers significant trouble.

Twilight Folk
Perhaps the most unusual of all monsters, the twilight folk refer to monsters that have devoured enough souls to acquire a new kind of sentience, through a process not entirely dissimilar to how demons give birth. A highly diverse group, the Twilight Folk are responsible for the legends of such figures as vampires, werewolves, the fae and other such stories, they are highly reclusive and have their own society. Diplomatically the Twilight Folk are on poor terms with demon society, although all Twilight folk develop a method other than outright consuming human souls to feed themselves many demons see them as little more than the monsters they originated from and many demons openly hunted them until the outbreak of the Twilight war and then the signing of the Treaty of Odense. Now demons are obliged to leave the Twilight Folk in peace unless they kill humans, thereby endangering the demons’s food source.

Demonic society is stanchly militaristic and hierarchical, one's position within is determined almost entirely by combat strength and the rank of a demon is a good rough indicator of their power level. Demons establish picking order by constant struggles for dominance, using every ounce of cunning and raw strength they have to secure and defend their position.
Note that as Reapers dwell within the mortal realm they are generally not counted among the normal rank structure, most tend to be relatively weak, preferring to make their living via honest work rather than war, there are a few notable outliers however.

Husk: The lowest position within Hell. A husk is effectively an unemployed demon who has no duties or position. Consequently Husks receive no souls from a liege and are left in constantly starved, weak and near delirious state. In large scale warfare, husks are rounded up and herded in the general direction of the enemy, partly to serve as cannon fodder and partly just to keep their numbers down. Those few that survive are fed and promoted to the next rank. Husks appear as desiccated, corpse like figures usually marred by deformity and bizarre posture.

Grunt: The foot soldier of Hell. Grunts are employed in all sorts of menial tasks and form the bulk of demonic armies. They are fed infrequently which makes them aggressive and difficult to reason with but also relatively less powerful and strangely loyal as they are incapable of puzzling out alternative means of acquiring souls making them utterly reliant on their masters. In appearance Grunts appear as healthy and muscular humanoids but often with notable deformities or animal like features such as horns or snouts.

Reavers: The first rank of demons to be roughly of human intelligence. Reavers occupy low ranked leadership positions, generally charged with supervising packs of grunts as squad leaders or foremen. Reavers appear almost entirely human apart from a dominant feature from their time as grunts, often a pair of horns or a tail but more unusual features such as a forked tongue or scaled skin are possible as well, this appearance will generally solidify until the very upper ranks were demons start becoming monstrous once more. At the Reaver level demons first start exhibiting the self-interest and individualism demons are famous for, always on the lookout for schemes or corruption that they can turn to their own advantage. After all it is by scraping together through lying, stealing and treachery enough power that they can ascend to the next level.

Knights: The first level of the demonic nobility. Knights are accorded numerous privileges and are tasked with leading medium sized forces in war or enterprise. In addition Knights are normally granted a small portion of their liege's territory as well as the lesser demons inhabiting it. With these resources Knights are free to attack their fellow knights and raid into enemy territory to increase their holdings, a process the demon lords actually encourage to eliminate weak or stupid vassals. Knights do not change in appearance from Reavers although an air of menace is usually detectable by nearby lesser creatures.

Counts: Counts are somewhat unusual in that a Knight isn't promoted as such to Count, rather the process happens organically. When a Knight expands their territory through guile or conquest to the point where administering it becomes inconvenient or outright impossible they normally react by granting portions of it to unlanded demons in exchange for loyalty, creating new knights and making the first demon a count. As only the most powerful knights survive long enough and defeat enough enemies to become a count they tend to dangerous opponents indeed.

Dukes/Duchesses: The ambition of Demons never stands still however. As Counts demons may continue expanding their territory, often relying on their knights to do it for them however once they reach a certain threshold they are normally contacted by the Demon King whose realm they dwell in and expected to swear loyalty, becoming sworn vassals to the King. As Dukes and Duchesses demons are expected to provide the bulk of the King's army by levying their own vassals and are generally forbidden form waging full scale war with one another to avoid depleting the realm's manpower excessively. Dukes may however duel each other to settle disputes and negotiate between themselves to transfer territory or vassals between each other. Thriving as a Duke is therefore as reliant on diplomacy and cunning as it is on might and those Dukes who relied on brute force to attain their position often do poorly, sometimes even being reduced back to a count by losing territory and being forced to swear loyalty to another Duke. At the Duke/Duchess rank demons gain the ability to change their appearance at will and generally appear human although most tend to stay with one form for long stretches until something else becomes more fashionable.

The Sins: Another unusual rank, the sins are the seven dukes or duchesses within a kingdom's border understood to be the individually most powerful. Upon accepting this honour a duke or duchess relinquishes all of their land and vassals and serves the King as a personal retainer in exchange for glory and incredible wealth. Named for one of the seven great virtues by which demons prosper and grow strong (wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and glutton) the virtues serve the King as advisors, generals, bodyguards and most importantly as champions of combat.

Reaper: The name given to the demons who dwell in the human realm and collect human souls to feed the inhabitants of Hell. Reapers are looked down upon in demon society as cowards who avoid war despite their importance. Reapers must be at least Reaver rank as the task is too intellectually demanding for grunts but nominally a demon of any rank may elect to become a reaper and occasionally a higher ranked count or even duke may be ordered to become one as a kind of punishment.

Though magic is not the primary weapon of a reaper it can nevertheless be an effective tool. In addition, reapers often rely on the local magic community for vital exchanges of goods and services. Consequently a firm understanding of both the basic principles of magic and the people who practice it can be valuable for both the aspiring and experienced reaper alike.

Basic principles
Magic is essentially the principle of using the highly malleable energy known as mana to manifest some kind of noticeable change in the physical world, this process is what is typically called a spell.

More precisely each spell can be broken up into several stages, each of which is vital for a successful spell casting. In order they are:

The source
The source is where the mana that will power the spell is drawn from. Mana occurs naturally in a variety of places and can be artificially stored in others via the application of certain processes but the most reliable and readily available is typically the soul of the person casting the spell. Other favoured sources include naturally occurring minerals and plants and less commonly the souls of other people. Mana can also be granted by magical beings such as spirits and deities though typically stringent conditions must be met or certain services performed before such beings give out their mana. Demons are also capable of lending mana to humans and did so in the past however forming contracts with humans is now illegal in all of the demon kingdoms. Rumours of illegal contracts abound but remain unproven.

Drawing
Drawing is the act of extracting or drawing out mana from the source and preparing it for use in a spell. Usually this requires physical contact with the source (although advanced mages have displayed the capacity to remotely draw). The mana is pulled out of its source and concentrated in a small area, most typically the palms of both hands, where it appears as an eerie light that grows in intensity as more mana is drawn out until the spell is cast. The precise colour and other qualities of the mana can be indicative of both the source used and the quality of the spell about to cast and so analysing the drawing of one's opponent can be a deciding factor in magical duels.

Drawing is the first stage at which a mage's natural qualities start to tell as every living being has a sharply defined capacity for storing active mana. More mana must be drawn out at one time to perform more powerful spells however the penalty for exceeding one's capacity, known rather quaintly as mana sickness, can be quite severe ranging from dizziness, headaches and tiredness up to brain and nerve damage, insanity and death depending on how far the mage exceeds their capacity. Capacity can be increased via training however the disparity between natural capacities can be so great as to require decades more training focused exclusively on improving it meaning most mages refuse to take on students who do not have impressive natural capacity, indeed the difficulty in finding students with sufficient capacity is perhaps the primary reason for the declining numbers of mages and exceptionally powerful mages in modern times.

Drawing has often been compared to the process of a reaper manifesting their scythe and indeed they bear certain similarities. The key difference is that when a reaper manifests their scythe the energy they draw from their souls is converted directly into a weapon rather than first becoming mana, circumventing the need for a lengthy incantation required to form mana into a spell but losing the versatility that makes mages such dangerous opponents.

Incantation.
Once the mana is drawn out it must be shaped into a usable form, this is accomplished by incantations. Despite the name incantations can also be performed via physical movements or written symbols, technically any method of transferring information should be theoretically capable of being used to perform incantations. The renowned American warlock Dean Newicker performed several successful incantations over radio waves and telegraph services however experiments into electronic communications methods such as email or internet streaming have produced only puzzling and rather spectacular failures. As mentioned previously the purpose of an incantation is to shape raw mana into a useable form or phenomenon by essentially instructing it, telling it to form a certain shape or act in a certain way when certain parameters are met. However because mana has almost no structure to begin with and intense amount of information is required to properly shape it, leading to the primary limiter on spell power, incantation length.

Incantations are typically measured in tomes, a standard unit of measurement which describes an incantation written down in a large book. A tome is not entirely precise due to high levels of secrecy and the lack of cooperation in the magical community but generally speaking a tome is understood to contain around 360,000 words and to take an average person about twenty hours to recite aloud (most mages can usually reduce this to about ten through training and practice.) Even the most basic spells that are likely to be of use in combat, hurling a basketball sized fireball or summoning an normal bat to harass one's foe for example, usually require about one tome's worth of incantation and more advanced spells can require tens, hundreds or even thousands of tomes' worth of incanting. Obviously if even the simplest of spells required ten hours to cast magic would never be of any practical use in combat and would likely never have been studied to the depth it has. This is where the next step, compression, comes in.

Compression.
If a spell is to be used in practical situations something has to be done about the length of incantations, this process is known as compression and it is perhaps one the most important and poorly understood aspects of magic. Simply put the first time a mage uses a new spell they must recite its incantation in its entirety however once they have done this they can begin shortening the incantation by producing new words that represent or stand in for multiple words of the original incantation, thereby heavily reducing the amount of recital needed to cast the spell. With repeated readings and castings of the spell the process of compression can be repeated on the shortened incantation, shortening it even further. With sufficient study, recital and practice with the spell a lengthy, twenty hour long incantation can be shortened down to a short sentence or even a single word. One of the most popular and oldest methods is known as primacy, the first letter of each word in the incantation is taken and the results are strung together to form new words. What the new words precisely look like is up to the inclination of the mage in question and so even mages using the same method of compression on the same spell will end up with different compressed incantations.

It's important to note that while compressing a spell once takes only a single recital of the spell, subsequent compressions typically require multiple readings and lengthy meditation sessions, the time required to compress is exponential so the first compression which might turn a ten hour incantation into a five hour one will only take several hours of reading whereas the 49th compression which turns a five second incantation into a two point five second incantation can take months or even years of study and meditation. Despite this case of diminishing returns many mages do compress their spells to this level, especially combat focused mages as the scant few seconds can often be a case of life or death in battle.

While Compression is an acquired skill rather than a natural ability its also true that some mages acquire and master it more rapidly than others. A talent for compression is the second factor after mana capacity for deciding a mage's raw power and some schools of magic which emphasise rapid use of less powerful spells value it even more than capacity.

Targeting.
Perhaps the easiest to understand part of a typical spell, targeting is simply the process of designating what the spell in question is going to attempt to affect. Different spells have different targeting requirements, some need a trajectory or vector for a projectile or beam to travel across, others target a section of the ground or another surface while others still require designating a specific object, creature or person as the target. Targeting can be performed via a number of methods, pointing fingers or simply focusing the eyes are common methods but some spells require marking the target with some kind of symbol or designating an area with a magic circle or other device. Anticipating where a particular spell will land by reading the movements of a mage as they target it is an important factor in combating mages.

Execution
The final stage of casting a spell and the most passive from the perspective of the caster. During the execution phase the spell can no longer be altered or cancelled in any way, its effects simply play out as in accordance with the spells' incantation, fireballs fly through the air, golems assemble themselves out of any nearby components, magical snakes pursue and attempt to devour their prey. The precise length of the execution phase varies according to the precise nature of the spell in question and environmental factors can play a role. For example if the target is further away and the spell cast produces a projectile that must travel towards the target than the execution phase will naturally take longer, especially if the target is an opponent who takes evasive action. Because of the lack of direct control during this phase, the execution phase is the most vulnerable to counters, that is methods of dealing with an enemies’ spell, such as evading its effects or blocking or disrupting it with a spell of one's own.

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Employee Notice Board


Announcements

A word from your Employer

Hey, Hi? What's up? Welcome to Soul Reaping: Part Time my latest creation/ abomination in the eyes of man and God. In case the wall of text above was a little obtuse or a little long winded for you the basic premise of this RP is that you all will be playing as teenagers hunting for a part time job. What you think is a rundown cafe looking for wait staff turns out to be a front for the underworld (the literal Underworld not the criminal one) and suddenly a bunch of clueless teenagers are entrusted with the important job of collecting the souls of the dead, battling monsters and a whole host of other problems way above their pay grade that I won't spoil just yet. This is a very anime-y shonen-y kind of a thing, influences include stuff like Bleach, Soul Eater and Lith's TKAG SO there'll be plenty of opportunities to have massive fights, train under mysterious sensei's learn a little something about friendship and maybe even something about love too. If you're still reading at this point I can assume your self-preservation instincts haven't kicked in, HAHA! You're mine now! Get your butt down to the application form and get ready for the wildest part time job of your life!

*For returning players you might notice Sunset Gates is referenced a few times, that city is indeed the setting for this RP as well although the two stories won't really intersect. It's just the sort of city where all sorts of weird stuff can happen.

Position Vacant: CO-OPing: part timecasual

Currently I'm looking for a buddy or two to help out, handle subplots and various other duties/privileges etc. The only real qualification is spare time, some RPing experience and the ability to put up with my BS on a regular basis.

We are probably good on co-ops for the time being, I'll let you know here if that changes as things widen in scope.

Acting Supervisors (Co-Ops)

The Templar High Council

The Theme Song has been Selected!

Hello Sleepwalkers won. It was tied for first place with Grim Grinning Ghosts but I threw my OP tie breaking vote behind it so there we go.

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Sinner's Rest Employee Application Form

Code: Select all

[b][u]Application[/u][/b](delete everything in brackets)
[i]profile[/i]
[b]name:[/b]
[b]age:[/b](15 or above)
[b]gender:[/b]
[b]appearance:[/b] (You can use a picture from somewhere or describe them, whichever you prefer. Please ensure written descriptions are reasonably detailed.)
[b]Scythe type:[/b](Is your scythe a striker, emitter or familiar? If you don't know what any of that means refer to the handbook. If your scythe has other unique properties you should detail those here as well.)
[b]Scythe appearance:[/b] (A picture or a detailed description as above)

[i]background[/i]
[b]Education:[/b] (Which one of Sunset Gates's three high schools is your character attending. Refer to the welcome to sunset gates section for more details if you aren't sure.)
[b]Relevant experience :[/b] (Your Character's biography )
[b]personal strengths and weaknesses:[/b] (should be fairly self-explanatory)
[b]Goals[/b] (What motivates your character? What do they aspire to?)
[b]theme song:[/b] (strictly optional, note that those who do not select a theme song will be assigned a random track from one of my shitty playlists.)
[b]RP example[/b] (Post to an RP you've been involved with before, if you have nothing you want to link to then just write something, if you have no idea what to write about make it about dragons. If I've RP'ed with you before you can probably skip this.)(ALSO: Please post links to a specific post rahter than just a thread! It's a pet peeve of mine to have to dig through some old IC and find your posts.

Employee Roster

SUPERVISORS / EXECUTIVES

Proprietor: Atlannia / Kay Deckheart

NIght Shift Manager: The Templar High Council / Hayate Kurosawa

PART TIMERS


North Arkana / Aria Kristov

Protestant England and Germany / Mitchell Blair

Sindrya / Matthew Hutcherson

The Unhallowed City / Lucie Aureux

Yytuskia / Patrick Ryan Kennedy leave of absence

Imperial Northern States / Yriel Murteigh leave of absence

Hetland 2 / Tabitha "Tabby" Parish

Raktio / Elisabeth Young leave of absence

Shyluz / Tuesday O'Cullen leave of absence

Lavan Tiri / Jack Chill leave of absence

Videssos / Kaede Tsuchiya leave of absence

Saleon / Asha Stride leave of absence

The Burning Sun / Wilhelm von Scheiss leave of absence

Kerzacistan / Keith Hammon leave of absence

Faal Lot Himdah / Alek "Chrono" Spring / Ajax Lysander

The Flame Dawn / Fayus Porelore leave of absence

Ameriganastan / Seamus Hannigan leave of absence

Charlia / Charlotte Noble leave of absence

Tracian Empire / Alexander Meisner leave of absence

Manager: Charlia / Samuel L. Oth leave of absence

Employee guidelines

• Maintain a polite and warm attitude towards customers and fellow employees. (No flaming or excessive rudeness to each other)
  
• Communicate with fellow employees to ensure efficient flowing of information. )If you guys have a problem or need to work out how a scene will play out then talk to each other, don't be afraid to set things up in advance via tg or whatever.)
  
• Respond promptly to direction from supervisors. (The usual OP and CO-OPs are gods clause. Pretty unimpressive Gods by most standards but Gods none the less damn you.)
  
• Feedback and suggestions to go in the employee feedback box. (If you have ideas, especially for your own characters. Let me know. Want a figure from your mysterious past come back to haunt your character? Want them to face a heart wrenching moral quandary that will leave them forever scarred? Want an opportunity to show off their wicked sousaphone skills? I’ll try and work personal arcs and moments in where I can. Although I can’t promise everything will fit with what I have planned you lose nothing by asking.)
  
• Always Wash Hands after using restroom. (Keep it PG 13 folks)
  
• Always come to each shift with a smile on your face! (Have fun)
  
• There's no substitute for quality service (If you guys need help expanding your posts TG me and I'll walk you through some simple ways to flesh them out. This isn't going to be a super fast rp and you aren't going to get left behind by taking some time to polish your work a little.)

[Atlannia]

Visitor's Information Centre

Welcome to Sunset Gates!

"It is, in every sense of the word an average city. It is of average size and population density and neither a surprising number of, nor significant deficit of notable landmarks. In terms of historic incidents there were two large fires, one 47 years ago and one 156 years ago, both resulting in significant death tolls as employees appeared to have been trapped in the Welkynde building where the fire began. Sunset Gate's baseball team, the Sunset Angels, is currently ranked fifth in their regional league, which they have won three times, the seventh most out of the thirteen teams that participate. The city council has just this year earmarked a not insignificant sum for the improvement of the main street, which the residents hope will attract more small businesses. The city has perhaps slightly more cafes than one might expect for a city of its size, although it has only one really good Italian restaurant and its three Chinese restaurants are all mediocre at best.”
-A happy citizen-

Districts
Sunset Gates is divided into to four large districts, each with its own unique charms and facilities.

• Shining Hearts Park. An amalgamation of most of Sunset Gates suburbs and development projects, Shining hearts is a residential area that houses over 70% of the city's population. To support the families that live there Shining Hearts is home to two high schools, The well regarded but affordable J.R Valinwood High, named for the city's third mayor and the oldest school in the city. On the western side of the park is Western District High, an underfunded public school that houses lower income students and often accepts expellees from the other two schools, its students are frequently regarded as delinquents by the more conservative bodies of the populace.
  
  
• The business district. The bustling, beating heart of Sunset Gates, The business district plays host to several important company buildings, including the headquarters of the Welkynde group, the city's tallest building. The business district is also home to Main Street, a charming road that runs along the river and houses many delightful restaurants, cafes and specialist retailers. Whether its a shopping spree, a night out on the town, or just a bit of people watching and gossip, Main street is the place to be! The Grand Civic Theatre is also in the business district. Although no longer operational the theatre has been protected from redevelopment by its heritage listing and local pressure groups and remains an impressive example of art deco architecture.
  
  
• Arlington The second of the city's residential areas, Arlington is more upmarket, featuring plenty of beautiful riverside houses and several gated communities. It also plays host to the Welkynde manor, the celebrated private residence of Sunset Gates' wealthiest family. The manor is a draw for architecture enthusiasts and pictures can be taken from the entrance. Visitors are strongly urged not to enter the estate itself however as the Welkynde family do not habitually host guests. The city's only private school. The prestigious and highly ranked Werthords Academy, is located in the centre of Arlington. Originally an all-boys school, the academy became co-ed only 32 years ago, it enjoys a proud tradition of success in academic, athletic and extra-curricular pursuits.
  
  Just outside Arlington is Victor Welkynde University, a small but well regarded private institution founded in 1873 by member of the wealthy Welkynde family who was prominent in academics. To this day the Welkynde family is a frequent and magnanimous patron to the university. In recent years the university has begun accepting state funding to expand its programs to include more practical degrees and cater to lower income students, with a range of grants, scholarships and student loan assistance programs that have been mostly successful, although there is a certain amount of cultural tension between the traditional, wealthier students and the newcomers.
  
  
• The industrial zone Although now in decline, Sunset Gates once maintained a thriving manufacturing industry. Much of the city's industry has shut down or moved to cheaper locales however the zone is still host to a few small factories and a state of the art power plant, jointly owned by the state government and the Welkynde group. As large sections of the industrial zone are abandoned and in disrepair rumours abound that local hoodlums use it as a makeshift training ground, honing their combat skills for inevitable skirmishes with other gangs.
  
• The Rits Not a true district of the city. The Rits is the two blocks that stand between RItters Street and Sunset Gates' Chinatown, Peking St. Distinctly low market as compared to the rest of the business district, the Rits is somewhat shabby and the lower rent prices allow more exotic and cheaper businesses to flourish. Many contend that the vast majority of these businesses are fronts for illegal activity and its certainly true that the majority of drugs, vice and organised crime busts made in Sunset Gates occur in or around the Rits however its defenders argue that it is a unique cultural melting pot that lends the city a much needed dose of authenticity. It’s certainly true that, as long as you don't mind the smell of cigarettes the Rits is far and away the best place to indulge in foreign cuisine, with restaurants and eateries from Eastern Europe, India and Thailand and Vietnam all vying for customers alongside each other. Attempts to enforce the cities no tolerance policy towards smoking in restaurants and cafes has proven wild unsuccessful.

Transportation

Most citizens and visitors opt to take advantage of the well-developed road network and get about Sunset Gates by car. However an able bus network also serves the city, buses can be taken to and from most places in the city and one of the new mayors earliest policies was to extend their running times from 9:00p.m until 3:00 am, allowing safe and cheap transversal of the city at all hours. Taxis are also available at all hours from the Sunset Taxi Company and boating up and down the river remains a popular leisure activity.

Uncertain.

---

[Atlannia]

RESERVED

[Imperial Northern States]

Tagity-tag-tag

[Tracian Empire]

A big tag over here

[Charlia]

Application
profile
name: Charlotte Noble. Suckers.
age: 17
gender: Feeeeeeeeeeeeeeemale
appearance:

Scythe type: Gives us a familiar!
Scythe appearance:

background
Education: Werthords, of course.
Relevant experience : Yeah, you wish. Psh, you already know this stuff anyway. Either that or you haven't been paying attention. Not our division.
personal strengths and weaknesses: She's quite the intellectual, and pretty creative, but unfortunately not very strong. Also, her people skills are... shall we say... terrible.
Goals Heheh, goals. Those tricksy things, so hard to explain... She wants freedom. Freedom from herself. That's really the only way I can put it.
theme song: Gives us Demons, by Imagine Dragons. Too lazy to find a link right now.
RP example HA!

[Atlannia]

Where is this 'welcome to Sunset Gates', I can't find it. Pick the most prestigious one, she can get into it.

It's not up yet, because I didn't expect anyone to app at the freakin speed of light Charlia, I'm working on it now, will be up shortly.

[Charlia]

Where is this 'welcome to Sunset Gates', I can't find it. Pick the most prestigious one, she can get into it.

It's not up yet, because I didn't expect anyone to app at the freakin speed of light Charlia, I'm working on it now, will be up shortly.

I am Sonic. Woo.

[The Flame Dawn]

Tag!

[Sonitusia]

It's not up yet, because I didn't expect anyone to app at the freakin speed of light Charlia, I'm working on it now, will be up shortly.

I am Sonic. Woo.

uwotm8

[Atlannia]

It's not up yet, because I didn't expect anyone to app at the freakin speed of light Charlia, I'm working on it now, will be up shortly.

I am Sonic. Woo.

Yeah yeah, the Welcome to Sunset Gates bit is up, including the map. THe most prestigious school would be Werthord's Academy though so you probably want that.

[Atlannia]

ALSO: Charlia is a Co-OP now. Tremble and know despair mortals!

[Charlia]

Application
profile
name: Charlotte Noble. Suckers.
age: 17
gender: Feeeeeeeeeeeeeeemale
appearance:

(Image)

Scythe type: Gives us a familiar!
Scythe appearance:

(Image)

background
Education: Werthords it is, then! Nothing less for my little genius.
Relevant experience : Yeah, you wish. Psh, you already know this stuff anyway. Either that or you haven't been paying attention. Not our division.
personal strengths and weaknesses: She's quite the intellectual, and pretty creative, but unfortunately not very strong. Also, her people skills are... shall we say... terrible.
Goals Heheh, goals. Those tricksy things, so hard to explain... She wants freedom. Freedom from herself. That's really the only way I can put it.
theme song: Gives us Demons, by Imagine Dragons. Too lazy to find a link right now.
RP example HA!

I am Sonic. Woo.

uwotm8

...Sonic.

I am Sonic. Woo.

Yeah yeah, the Welcome to Sunset Gates bit is up, including the map. THe most prestigious school would be Werthord's Academy though so you probably want that.

PRIVATE SCHOOL GIVE IT TO ME

ALSO: Charlia is a Co-OP now. Tremble and know despair mortals!

EHEHEHEHE

[The Flame Dawn]

What are the three academies?

[Charlia]

What are the three academies?

Werthords, best school prestigious highly ranked private school.
J. R. Valinwood, boring normal school.
Western District, delinquent school of expelled people.

[Atlannia]

What are the three academies?

Werthords, best school prestigious highly ranked private school.
J. R. Valinwood, boring normal school.
Western District, delinquent school of expelled people.

^ this, Sonic strikes again.

[Charlia]

Werthords, best school prestigious highly ranked private school.
J. R. Valinwood, boring normal school.
Western District, delinquent school of expelled people.

^ this, Sonic strikes again.

I'm accepted right?

[Atlannia]

Just fix up the education bit so it doesn't confuse anyone looking at the first accepted app for an example or anything.

[Charlia]

Just fix up the education bit so it doesn't confuse anyone looking at the first accepted app for an example or anything.

Ba-done-tsh!

[Atlannia]

accepted then, welcome to the exciting world of soul reaping for fun and profit!

Still working on that TG for you, trying to get my ideas organised to the point where they are intelligible to people apart from me.

[Charlia]

accepted then, welcome to the exciting world of soul reaping for fun and profit!

Still working on that TG for you, trying to get my ideas organised to the point where they are intelligible to people apart from me.

Woo!

...I know that feeling. A lot of times when I'm talking to someone about an idea, it comes out sounding like 'I know half of you half as well as I should like to, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve' or however that quote goes. Anyway, I get the same sort of looks he did. It all makes sense in my head, but when I try to say it? Gibberish.

[The Flame Dawn]

Application(delete everything in brackets)
profile
name: Fayus Porelore
age: 26
gender: Female
appearance:

Scythe type: Striker
Scythe appearance:

background
Education: Western District
Relevant experience : Fayus Porelore was born an orphan and was taken in by a local orphanage. Her life was lackluster and the only highlight was when she attended the Western District, the only school she could get permission to attend. While attending the academy, she learned a variety of underhanded and dishonorable techniques that gave her an edge. After her graduation she ended up living on a street corner near by J. R. Valinwood, offering help to anyone who wanted an edge in life in exchange for learning about topics she knew little about. Upon finding the advertisement, she took advantage of the offer and applied.
personal strengths and weaknesses: Fayus Porelore learned a variety of cheap and dirty tricks to give her minor edges in combat. Her weakness is her lack of knowledge on most topics.
Goals Fayus is determined to prove herself a competent reaper, even though she came from such a poor and low end school.
theme song: Theme Song (I may have used this for another charactor but I may have changed it, not sure.)
RP example https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=26032622#p26032622

[Faal Lot Himdah]

Tag....

[Charlia]

Tag....

o7 Yo.

[Shyluz]

Will work for chocolates and $$$

Standby.