World On Fire: Shadow Ops [OPEN] (OOC/Fantasy WW2)

[WolFina]

Everyone who was interested but who hasn't made their app yet is graciously invited to do so, unless you want Alisteir Crowley to slap you when you'll show up late to Baker Street HQ.

Alright, I'm working on it.

- 6 months later -

Const: how's it feel? Who's waiting for who to post now?

[Rupudska]

Alright, I'm working on it.

- 6 months later -

Const: how's it feel? Who's waiting for who to post now?

Only months?

[Agritum]

- 6 months later -

Const: how's it feel? Who's waiting for who to post now?

Only months?

Decades.

[WolFina]

Only months?

Decades.

If you take that long to post in WoF, be aware that we have a bomb & briefcase standing by.

[Latznavia]

Does this sound like a good set of weapons for Anatoly?

- One PPSh-41 Submachine Gun;
- One TT-33 "Tokarev" Pistol;
- Three F1 Fragmentation Grenades;
- One NR-40 Scoutsman Combat Knife.

[Agritum]

Does this sound like a good set of weapons for Anatoly?

- One PPSh-41 Submachine Gun;
- One TT-33 "Tokarev" Pistol;
- Three F1 Fragmentation Grenades;
- One NR-40 Scoutsman Combat Knife.

It's pretty normal.

[Latznavia]

Does this sound like a good set of weapons for Anatoly?

- One PPSh-41 Submachine Gun;
- One TT-33 "Tokarev" Pistol;
- Three F1 Fragmentation Grenades;
- One NR-40 Scoutsman Combat Knife.

It's pretty normal.

I am trying to come up with a Soviet armor and some weapons...

[Malshan]

Boys Anti-Tank Rifle


Winchester M70

Figured I'd find something for Markus. Being a werewolf, long-range really isn't his thing.

[Monfrox]

Good news, everyone! Turns out work shift wasn't as arduous as I predicted, and I may end up heading home after 2100 because my teeth are kinda sore and I really don't want to go out to eat, so I'll be able to post when I get home.

Also, I suppose an addition could be made for the Minuteman Arsenal. I'll take a crack at it after CAP tonight.

[Agritum]

While I write the IC, enjoy my first character app.

Player Character App (Shadow Ops Operative)

Name: Abraham "Abe" Van Helsing II
Gender: Male
Age: 25
D.O.B.: 10th February 1917
Physical Description and/or Picture: Redhead.
Species (if Human, specify if Mundane, Mage, Witch, Minuteman or Esper): Mundane Human
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Anglo-Dutch
Religion (if any): Roman Catholic, in theory.
Powers/Magical Specializations (Only if Mage, Witch or Esper): N/A
Bio: If you're deeply embroiled with the occult and have never heard the name Van Helsing, it's probably time to re-evaluate your knowledge of the other side of the Masquerade. A generational clan of vampire hunters, the Van Helsings hold their heritage in the Netherlands, where they had been in activity since the 17th Century. The vampire-hunting tradition of the Helsings first started when patriarch Jan Van Helsing, an esteemed military leader in the independence war against Spain, in which he fought in spite of his Catholicism, witnessed disturbing happenings on the battlefields which eerily resembled the unsettling folkloristic lore and tall tales he had heard from Bohemian and Russian merchants back in the day: after particularly bloody battles, shadowy individuals would descend upon the abandoned battlefield, and seemingly feast on the blood of dead soldiers and peasants, biting corpses on their neck, some of which proceeded to stand up and shamble away in the distance. Troubled and obsessed by such horrific visions, Jan and his men eventually recovered a cache of ancient books from a captured Spanish stronghold, which included several secret texts made by the Inquisition which detailed encounters with and attempts to exorcise or interrogate these beings known as "vampires". Using the knowledge gained from the books, Jan and a maniple of trusted soldiers seeked out the lairs where the nocturnal voltures dwelled, and when they came in contact with their sleeping forms, Jan himself staked their hearts and cut off their heads before burning the remains, as he had learned from the book.

After the war had been won, Jan returned home and began to discreetly but stubbornly try to divulge his discoveries, only to be thought of as a madman or as a veteran who had suffered from too much shellshock in his career. Not refusing to back down in his personal crusade against the creatures which apparently preyed on men while hiding in their midsts, Jan began training his sons and some trusted friends and colleagues in the vampire-killing arts. In the ensuring years, Jan's descendants generated a small scale exodus of vampires from the zone, tacitly welcomed by the Magi Lodges of Batavia, which covertly aided the efforts of the hunter clan. The Van Helsings also entered the service of the Catholic church for a sizeable period, protecting its influence in the Netherlands from supernatural threats. Even then, the clan became influent only in Holland itself and in neary provinces.

The start of the Enligthenment age would however gradually weaken the influence of the clan: with less vampires to hunt, and with the public and the establishment growingly becoming hostile to superstitions and the belief in the supernatural, the Van Helsing's own credibility began to dwindle, up until they retired from any hunting endeavours in the last quarter of the century. Their hunting records and knowledge locked in the family vault, the Van Helsing would resume being an upper middle class, mundane Dutch dynasty, up until the late 19th Century, when it lived an absurd resurgence thanks to the incident known as the "Harker Affair".

In 1892, English solicitor Jonathan Harker was unknowingly tricked by Count Vlad Dracul A.K.A. , recognized as one of the most ancient and influential Vampire Counts of Europe, into travelling to his castle in Transylvania to negotiate his acquisition of a sizeable estate in London. After taking Harker prisoner, Dracula travellled to London, planning to silently take over Britain by creating a numerous net of vampire children to infiltrate in the British high society. In doing so, he became entranced with Harker's fianceè Mina Murray, and in an effort to get closer to her, the Count vampirized Murray's close friend and confidant Lucy Westenra. Lucy's suitor Arthur Holmwood, worried about her quickly decaying health followed by her sudden disappearance, called in the help of an old mentor: Dutch professor, doctor and lawyer Abraham Van Helsing.

Relying on the arcane knowledge contained in his family vault, Van Helsing quickly recognized Westenra's condition and sudden apparent death as the symptoms of a vampiric embrace. After taking down a vampiric Lucy, Van Helsing succesfully led a returned Harker and Westenra's former suitors into a campaign to destroy the various lairs and vampiric offsprings which Count Dracula had disseminated in London, and eventually chased him and a kidnapped Mina to Vlad's castle in Romania, where after a pitched battle against Dracul's ghouls and terrifying wives, Van Helsing finally put him to eternal rest with the aid of Jonathan Harker and the American Quincey Morris, who was mortally wounded during the confrontation.

News of Dracula's death sent a ripple through the occult underground of Europe, as the vampiric covens descended into power struggles to take up the void left by the demise of the Son of the Dragon, and the Great Lodge of Albion approved to Helsing's actions, eventually making contact with him and offering him support in other endeavours of his fledgling vampire killing career. Embarking on an half religious, half-political crusade against the most fearsome and ruthless Vampire Counts of Europe, Van Helsing travelled the whole continent accompanied by his young adult son Robert, while training him into the skills of a perfect hunter, just like his ancestor Jan had done to his sons. After Abraham's death in the late 1900s, a grown up Robert would continue his father's enterprise, while toning down their scope by a bit (Abraham had attracted the ire of various vampires with his all out campaigns of purge). Partially transferring his home estate to Britain, Robert would go on to travel around the entire world, this time exerting a much more moderate brand of anti-vampiric justice, hitting only known vampiric murderes and also conducting paranormal research in various exotic localities. He would be soon joined by his child Abraham II, who would tag along with him since an early age.

Abe lived a lively if a bit too dynamic childhood, which was sharply ended when his father sent him to boarding school in the UK after growing too much worried of the risks of bringing his young son along for dangerous adventures. Abe's stay in Britain would be also charactized by his first encounters with the Grand Lodge of Albion and his members, which had always been quite close to the Dutch-borne Van Helsings. He would soon be joined by his adoptive sister Elektra, the daughter of the prestigious Von Himmeltor family of German Magi, famous for their mastery of gate magic and their open dissidence towards the growingly pro-Nazi Germania Lodge, who had been sent to the Van Helsing family as a protegè. After ending school, Abe would join his father again in the Netherlands, receive further training and depart in other voyages to exotic places, only to understand that he probably preferred finishing his studies rather than keep up grandpa's legacy and lifestyle of vampire hunting.

After graduating in Biology at Cambridge, Abraham was eventually invited to work in a Lodge Albion Academy as a researcher and adjutant professor in Cryptobiology and Occult History, partly due to his merit, partly due to the importance of his family, and partly due to having to accompany Elektra in her further magical studies. However, Abraham's period of bliss would soon come to be marred by the rapid precipitation of hostilities in Europe, which ended with the annexation of the Netherlands and the loss of Abraham's ancestral estate, and the mysterious disappearance of Robert Van Helsing during an expedition to Tibet, allegedly on a mission for SoE. Left alone in Britain with Elektra, Abraham was clueless on what to do.

Soon, SoE came knocking on the door for him too. The Baker Street men told the new de facto head of the Van Helsing family that his expertise and knowledge of the supernatural and of vampires in particular was vital for the allied war effort, and that he would've fared well into one of the newly created Shadow Ops teams. Elektra too was enrolled by the program, with the promise that, unlike Abe, she would've never been deployed on the frontlines.

Grudgingly understading the situation, Abraham couldn't do anything but pack up and go to London.
Psychological Profile: Abraham is a tranquil, or some would say meek, individual who certainly prefers intellectual pursuits and an humble but wise lifestyle to a life of costant peril and the excitement deriving from it. Even then, his loyalty to his family and friends is unquestionable, and it is capable of unleashing his usually hidden bravery. Due to his peculiar status as a mundane who is almost perfectly integrated with the world of the occult, Abraham has got quite unique, progressive perspectives on the mutual co-existence of the species of the world, including a fairly tolerant of vampires and werewolf that is much uncommon among hunters. He understands that violence is necessary to win the war, but prefers to take cautious approach both before and during an armed struggle. Sometimes, Abe can come off as a bit of an eggheaded geek.
Why do you fight?: "Dad once said to me: 'The good Lord gives us his gifts, with which we can either bring good of evil upon his earthly realm. If one takes the former path, he's giving his talents and will in service of something that, as vain or fruitless as it could seem, is the essence of the Christian spirit'. Now, I'm not as practising as he was but I can certainly....share the message, I'd guess."
Defining Quote: "I shouldn't fear those things. Dad trained me to fight them, I studied how they live and die in university, and Elektra would probably make fun of me if she discovered how...scared I currently am. Oh, gosh."
RP Sample: Well...

[Agritum]

So I'm about halfaway done with the IC (keeping in tone with the RP, it's very, very big-ass). Tomorow morning I'll ultimate it.

[Malshan]

So I'm about halfaway done with the IC (keeping in tone with the RP, it's very, very big-ass). Tomorow morning I'll ultimate it.

Dammit, Agri! Here I am, biting at the bit.

Oh well, it's worth the patience. ^_^

[Agritum]

So I'm about halfaway done with the IC (keeping in tone with the RP, it's very, very big-ass). Tomorow morning I'll ultimate it.

Dammit, Agri! Here I am, biting at the bit.

Oh well, it's worth the patience. ^_^

I know how to hype you up well

[WolFina]

Dammit, Agri! Here I am, biting at the bit.

Oh well, it's worth the patience. ^_^

I know how to hype you up well

I didn't know you were a fan of sausage, Agri.

[Latznavia]

I might now be able to post tomorrow, as I will be driving down to Vegas, but I will try. I promise.

[Reverend Norv]

It's pretty normal.

I am trying to come up with a Soviet armor and some weapons...

The Soviets didn't use body armor during the Great Patriotic War.

[Latznavia]

I am trying to come up with a Soviet armor and some weapons...

The Soviets didn't use body armor during the Great Patriotic War.

Huh, did not know that. Thanks for that

[Rupudska]

I am trying to come up with a Soviet armor and some weapons...

The Soviets didn't use body armor during the Great Patriotic War.

Capitalist armor is sign of cowardice and lack of belief in the Motherland?

Or did they just not make one/have the money for one?

[Altito Asmoro]

The Soviets didn't use body armor during the Great Patriotic War.

Capitalist armor is sign of cowardice and lack of belief in the Motherland?

Or did they just not make one/have the money for one?

Soviets needs no armor as long as the patriots of Motherland still alive.

Perhaps they just didn't spent their money on body armor.

[Monfrox]

I am trying to come up with a Soviet armor and some weapons...

The Soviets didn't use body armor during the Great Patriotic War.

Actually, they did

[Mnar Secundus]

Capitalist armor is sign of cowardice and lack of belief in the Motherland?

Or did they just not make one/have the money for one?

Soviets needs no armor as long as the patriots of Motherland still alive.

Perhaps they just didn't spent their money on body armor.

They used their fallen comrades as shields. And catapult projectiles. And food vital resources. A true Soviet serves the Motherland even in death!

[Lunas Legion]

The Soviets didn't use body armor during the Great Patriotic War.

Actually, they did

Yup, this thing.

[Reverend Norv]

The Soviets didn't use body armor during the Great Patriotic War.

Actually, they did

Huh. Once again, I had never heard of that. I suppose it didn't make as much of a historical impact because it was a throwback to WWI-style steel armor rather than a preview of later synthetic body armor. But thanks, Mon; that's quite interesting.

[Nature-Spirits]

I have completed my app. Agri, I've taken some liberties in describing the occult community of (specifically Eastern) Canada in the bio; if you have any issues with anything, please let me know.

[Agritum]

Player Character App (Shadow Ops Operative)

Name: Adrienne Lapierre
Gender: Female
Age: 37
D.O.B.: June 28, 1904
Physical Description and/or Picture: Image (approximate). Adrienne has long, wavy dark brown (almost black) hair (which she frequently wears up), and dark brown eyes with flecks of green. She has angular features and high cheekbones, with fairly pale skin dotted here and there with moles (notably the one on the side of her chin). She has a thin frame, but nevertheless has enough fat to protect against the cold and make many parts of her body (as well as her cheeks, to a lesser extent) rounder and fuller. She has a sizeable bust, though it is not disproportionately large in any way. Adrienne is about 5' 3". She often wears wool dresses in the colder months or cotton dresses in the warmer months, and prefers the colour brown and the colour grey, though she occasionally enjoys colourful embroidery on her clothes. She occasionally wears her pointy Witch's hat, but uses it mainly as a bag for storage of small items. She also usually wears a stylised crucifix on a string of dark wooden beads -- not quite a rosary, but stylistically (and, to a small extent, functionally) equivalent.
Species: Human Witch
Nationality: Canadian
Ethnicity: French (predominantly), English, Scottish
Religion: The Québec Coven (as well as most of the other francophone covens of Canada) follows its own peculiar brand of syncretism of Catholicism and the ancient Witch Cults, revering nature and spirits alongside the Virgin Mary (they still believe in Christ and God the Father, but they see Mary as being the go-between).
Powers/Magical Specializations: Malediction: Adrienne has the unusual, and highly potent ability of placing curses on the target of her choice. With this ability, she can cause any number of bad things to happen to her target; bad luck, injury, death -- she can do it all. However, there are certain limitations. Curses require a fair bit more ritual than conventional spells, and the worse the effect, the more time she needs to cast the curse. Additionally, she requires a connection to her target: she needs to be able to see the target or picture them clearly in her mind, or otherwise needs something of theirs that has been in contact with them for a long time (a hair, a fingernail clipping, a piece of clothing worn many times, etc.); failing this, she can make do with sending her familiar to the target, but this method leads to less predictable results -- she has far less control over the effects, and sometimes the curse misses and affects a nearby bystander. And, unfortunately, she does not always have complete control over the fashion in which her curses manifest: after cursing someone to die, their death might be sudden and highly unusual (i.e. their heart exploding in their sleep) or seemingly of natural causes (i.e. falling down the stairs), and its effects may sometimes spread to those around the target accidentally (i.e. the target dies in a car crash that kills several other people along with them). It should also be noted that curses only have an effect on people who have done some sort of bad deed in their life (which nevertheless includes most people). Also, due to the nature of curses and the amount of ritual required, they are practically useless in direct combat; in such instances, Adrienne must rely on more conventional spells. As such, Adrienne is a chiefly behind-the-scenes operative, though she can handle herself in combat somewhat capably.
Fire: Adrienne has minor control over fire. The most she can create is a fireball about the size of her fist, and she cannot maintain her fire for long without fuel (i.e. wood) that allows it to burn independently; additionally, it drains her magical reserves quicker than in someone who truly specialises in elemental magic, so she cannot create fireballs continuously for long periods of time. She only has very limited control over fire (either hers or from a natural source), and doing so beyond causing it to flicker or move quickly in one direction, or forming it into a fireball requires noticeable concentration.
Bio:

The Québec Coven is a large and powerful one, the oldest Witches' coven in Canada and one of the oldest in the Americas. Based in Québec City (though most of its members live outside of the city proper, for the most part on the Île d'Orléans), it effectively dominates the occult community of Eastern Canada: it has (generally smaller) sister covens in Montréal (the Ville-Marie Coven, based on a magically concealed island in the Hochelaga Archipelago), in the Québec-du-Nord region (the Nordique Coven, far from any particularly large group of mundane humans, and difficult to trace), and scattered throughout Québec, Ontario, and Manitoba. Though the small Acadien Coven and the (more numerous) anglophone covens of Western Canada and the United States fall outside their scope of influence (and, in fact, their magical traditions differ a fair bit given their different ancestries and histories), they are on generally good terms with all. They do, however, have numerous disagreements with the local Magi, and have been working for decades (along with the other major covens of Québec) to restrict the territory of the Wendigos living east of the Great Lakes (which means, of course, occasional deadly clashes, mostly when the Wendigos get too close to the Saint Lawrence River -- not out of any sort of hate, but rather simply due to the fact that historically, most Wendigos have had no reservations about eating humans, and even though since the turn of the 20th century they have begun placing restrictions on such, the Coven nevertheless sees them as a threat to their territory and livelihoods).

Adrienne grew up on the Île d'Orléans, along with most of the other Québec Witches. She was not without friends in her early childhood, and though she was not the most charismatic of the children, she nevertheless was well-liked by most.

Until, that is, she attained puberty -- and never displayed any magical skill. Her mother was renowned as a highly skilled charmer, so she never made Adrienne feel adequate, always pushing her to reach and surpass what seemed to be impossible standards. She began to be bullied mercilessly by the other young Witches, and thus had few friends her age -- those she did have were mundane, and she would often spend her free time in empty fields, playing with flowers and grass and insects. Her only true friend was her familiar, Papi, a black and grey butterfly. Her mother did manage to teach her how to fly -- a skill she was introduced to as soon as possible -- and she became quite adept at it. As she matured, she managed to gain some respect among her peers by attaining the status of the fastest flyer out of all the children (as well as -- when she was taught how to handle a rifle -- having the best shooting aim while flying), but she nevertheless displayed little skill in proper magic -- the most she managed to do was light candles and make the flames flicker, an ability that first manifested when she was as old as 14.

Then, when she was 15, something happened. One of the slightly younger Witches had begun bullying her by magically attacking and verbally assaulting her, sending Adrienne over the edge. She flew away, off of the island, away from the city, to a tiny island somewhere in the Saint Lawrence River. And she cried. She cried for hours, until she couldn't cry any more, cursing the other girl's name. And then she slept.

When she returned the next day, she found out that the girl had fallen from her own broomstick and was seriously injured, and though she felt somewhat bad for the girl, was nevertheless grateful for the coincidence. That was all she thought it was at the time: a coincidence. But then it happened again, this time when her mother had been pushing her too hard and they had a fight; her mother's magic blew up in her own face (quite literally on several occasions) for the next week. And again: she was being bullied once more, and shortly after the bully began crashing into things every time she flew.

These sorts of incidents became more and more common, before the Council (the Coven is less democratic than their southern neighbours, though more so than their cousins in Europe, and the Council -- in addition to its executive role -- also acts as a sort of clergy with parallels in the Catholic Church) realised what was going on: Adrienne was inadvertently casting curses. So, when she was 16, they began putting her in rigorous training to hone this ability -- partly because they saw enormous potential in her, but mostly because they were afraid of what she might do if her magic went unchecked.

For the next few years, they had her practise on mundane criminals, and she became rather skilled at it. Then, out of the blue, one of her targets died. The cause of death: spontaneous combustion. And she and the Council realised that she was capable of killing people with curses, too.

So they tested her abilities in the field. A small group of Wendigos (probably solitary) had recently moved into the vicinity of the Saint Lawrence River, an area the Coven had explicitly made clear was off-limits to them. Usually, in such a scenario, they would send a small group of Witches to attack them from the sky, but this time, they merely sent her to examine them, and later that day, she cursed them all to death. They all died within the week.

When she was 23, she was considered fit to be given a position on the Council herself -- something her mother (who was originally thrilled that her daughter had turned out to be powerful after all) begrudged her, given that she herself had always aspired to sit on the Council but had never been offered a position, and this drove a wedge between them (though their relationship had been shaky in the first place). Of course, Adrienne had little power on the Council: hers was a mostly ceremonial title, and she effectively had little more power in the Coven than any other witch. Her new position, however, made others more trepidatious regarding her, and she found that she was respected more than ever before. And for the first time in years, she felt free.

Things continued on as usual for years. When the war began, she and the rest of her Coven thought little of it. That was before word reached them of the Masquerade being broken, and soon after, of the horror that was Walpurgisnacht '39. Not long after, the government made contact with the Québec Coven requesting volunteers, and Adrienne felt that, given her skills, she should assist in the war effort, especially considering the global scale of the conflict. As such, she enlisted and was sent off to Europe.

Psychological Profile: Adrienne is pragmatic and self-assured. She has a somewhat bitter exterior, and holds no compunctions about killing or harming those who pose a threat; but once she has a chance to open up, people tend to find that she is kind-hearted, carefree and flirtatious. She is an introvert, and absolutely loves spending time in nature; large crowds, on the other hand, can make her nervous, especially when she is tired or stressed. She does not like to be rushed. She can be quite vengeful, and sometimes takes slights too personally. She also cares quite a bit about sin (mostly due to her main magical ability revolving around, essentially, punishing people for their sins) -- ironic, considering that she is an incurable sinner herself, a fact that she tends to ignore except in confession. She does not truly see werewolves as people (seeing them as animalistic and barbaric beings eternally embroiled in sin), and has little respect for vampires (whom she also sees as in an eternal state of sin, though she recognises them as people) and Magi (whom she simply dislikes as a general rule). She's not quite sure what to make of Minutemen and Espers. She sees mundanes, meanwhile, as helpless sheep, though deserving of more respect than werewolves (for one, she views them as actual people, though she recognises the sinner in each of them). She is also a fan of hard liqueur.
Why do you fight?: Duty.
Defining Quote: "Forgive me, Mother, for I have sinned."
RP Sample: lolnope

Accepted.

Pretty good. Just needs more misandry.