NO MAN's LAND: the THAW - a Survival RP (OOC/On Hiatus)

[New Grestin]

No new posts in the last few hours?

Let me put some exposition in the oven. It takes a few hours to bake.

[Peppermint Plotwist]

Made my first post today. Hope the quality isn't too low for all of you veterans.

[New Grestin]

Made my first post today. Hope the quality isn't too low for all of you veterans.

[New Grestin]

Posted that, finally.

[Tayner]

Made my first post today. Hope the quality isn't too low for all of you veterans.

Didn't you already use that GIF Grestin? You must be running out of Internet if you can't find a good GIF that you haven't already used.

[New Grestin]

(Image)

Didn't you already use that GIF Grestin? You must be running out of Internet if you can't find a good GIF that you haven't already used.

Perhaps I reuse GIFs. Perhaps I don't.

You'll never know for suuuurreeee.

[Beiarusia]

Tomorrow I will push ahead to the next day IC. Too many people with nothing to do at the moment. The only downside is the conflict in the Salida ruins, so if you can try to wrap it up. Want to get things rolling now that the intro is basically done. Co-OP's, if you get a post before me feel free to change the date if needed.

[True Refuge]

Tomorrow I will push ahead to the next day IC. Too many people with nothing to do at the moment. The only downside is the conflict in the Salida ruins, so if you can try to wrap it up. Want to get things rolling now that the intro is basically done. Co-OP's, if you get a post before me feel free to change the date if needed.

Do you mind if me and NW stay back for a little bit? There's two posts (one each) that has to be done to help with upcoming events in Walsenburg and all that.

[Beiarusia]

Tomorrow I will push ahead to the next day IC. Too many people with nothing to do at the moment. The only downside is the conflict in the Salida ruins, so if you can try to wrap it up. Want to get things rolling now that the intro is basically done. Co-OP's, if you get a post before me feel free to change the date if needed.

Do you mind if me and NW stay back for a little bit? There's two posts (one each) that has to be done to help with upcoming events in Walsenburg and all that.

Thinking about it it shouldn't be too much trouble for people to backtrack as needed (so long as they catch up at some point). Feel free to take care of business.

[Derelldia]

Apologies for not getting a post out. Internet has been down in my house over the weekend. Like, it just works for a bit then stops working for a while. It's weird and mostly annoying. So currently this is being typed at my college... I'll try and get something done here... Maybe

[Beiarusia]

Apologies for not getting a post out. Internet has been down in my house over the weekend. Like, it just works for a bit then stops working for a while. It's weird and mostly annoying. So currently this is being typed at my college... I'll try and get something done here... Maybe

That's not a problem. Just want to get other people posting as well.

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EDIT: Roster has been updated.

[Sarejo]

Living is still a part of my repertoire, however I have not been able to find sufficient inspiration to write a post until the next RP day.

[Beiarusia]

Living is still a part of my repertoire, however I have not been able to find sufficient inspiration to write a post until the next RP day.

That should be happening sometime tonight. Will push the IC day forward. Mercer, Striker, Wes, Absolom, and the four guys will be heading north. Unless you want to start in Raton and then head out I was just gonna have them all already be on their way.

[Sarejo]

Living is still a part of my repertoire, however I have not been able to find sufficient inspiration to write a post until the next RP day.

That should be happening sometime tonight. Will push the IC day forward. Mercer, Striker, Wes, Absolom, and the four guys will be heading north. Unless you want to start in Raton and then head out I was just gonna have them all already be on their way.

Fine by me.

[Beiarusia]

That should be happening sometime tonight. Will push the IC day forward. Mercer, Striker, Wes, Absolom, and the four guys will be heading north. Unless you want to start in Raton and then head out I was just gonna have them all already be on their way.

Fine by me.

Got some things to do after class but I'll get a post up sometime tonight.

[Partially Blind People]

Post ETA sometime soon. I'm not too inspired but I'm not putting it off again

[Partially Blind People]

Post ETA, tomorrow. I got hugely sidetracked by an essay

[Camicon]

Name: Alya Iravani
Birthplace: Alberta, Canada
Ethnicity: Iranian
Age: 28
Pic/Description: Alya stands one-hundred and eighty centimetres tall (180cm/71in/5'11"), and weighs in at seventy kilograms (70kg/155lbs).

Occupation: Foothills Confederacy Mountie
Equipment

• Marlin Model 1894C
• Smith & Wesson Model 66
• .357 S&W Magnum (x90)
• Bowie knife, 9.25in
• Lariat, hemp, 50ft
• Leather backpack
• Flint spark lighter
• Waterskin, bison bladder, 1L (x3)
• Pot, kettle, and utensils
• Saddlebag and tack
• Assorted pelts and skins
• Assorted medicinal herbs

Immunity: GIFTED (TE-13)

Personality: Alya cares little for social niceties, and tends towards dismissive sarcasm regardless of who she is talking to; which isn't to say that she dislikes people, per say, more that most people dislike her. While Alya is used to, and comfortable with, other people relying upon her, the inverse is not true. For this reason, she prefers to keep her own company, relying on others as little as possible so as to never find herself in such a position.
Skills: As a Mountie, Alya knows how to ride and care for horses and other livestock, and has been using a lariat for as long as she could throw one. Fending off infected and raiders has made her an excellent shot with both her firearms, though she has no experience with anything else. She is also well-versed with a number of different frontier skills, including the hunting and butchering of animals, general utilization of various animal parts (tanning hides for leather, using stomachs in water skins, braiding hide into rope, etc.), a general knowledge of which flora is edible or has other health benefits, and emergency first-aid procedures. Her natural abilities are enhanced by the TE-13 virus strain in her body, which manifests most strongly in her vision, sense of smell, sense of taste, agility, and reflexes. Alya has also learned how to throw her voice, and play stringed instruments such as guitars.
Likes: Alya enjoys games of skill: darts, knife throwing, roping, horse shoes, etc. Really, anything that can be played with whatever happens to be on hand, that can be wagered on, and that she is good at. She also enjoys people who are irreverent and quick with their tongue, able to banter back and forth with them for hours at a time. She also enjoys putting on performances, whatever kind, though opportunities to do so are infrequent for most of the year.
Dislikes: Alya hates pre-war technology, anything involving computers or overly machined contraptions that you need expert knowledge to understand, let alone maintain or repair. Urban environments in general feel alien, and Alya finds them thoroughly unwelcoming. She also dislikes horses, oddly enough, believing them to critically hamper her ability to travel unnoticed; she tolerates them only because of their general utility, particularly how they allow her to carry more supplies then she would otherwise be able to. More than anything, she hates having to depend on other people.
Fears: As to her own safety, Alya fears being crippled, a fear which stems from her intense dislike of relying on other people. Knowing nothing but hard and difficult labour for the entirety of her life, the thought of not being able to fend or provide for herself terrifies her. She believes death would be preferable to a long life, half-lived. Stronger than the fear of being crippled is the fear of losing her family, be it to raiders, infected, illness, or accident; indeed, the latter two are greater causes of concern, as Alya is no doctor and accidents will happen regardless of what kinds of precautions are taken.

Bio: Abbas and Farah Iravani were political refugees from Iran who arrived in Canada roughly a year before the outbreak. They were re-settled in Calgary, Alberta, where Abbas had been hired by the university to teach political science courses; Farah, heavily pregnant with Alya before fleeing Iran, gave birth a few weeks after arriving in their new home.

When the outbreak swept across the Americas, Alya and her family were swept up in the panic, and attempted to flee eastward to the Pacific; however, the passes through the Canadian Rockies were bombed before they were able to pass through. Lacking Canadian passports, and knowing that the American military would turn them away at the border if they tried to go south, they took refuge in the town of Frank, eventually joining a number of other refugees in Blairmore.

Lacking any particularly useful skill-set for survival in the post-apocalypse, Abbas and Farah were taught how to hunt and farm by some locals. A few years after settling in they had a son, Kazem, followed by twin girls three years later, Saba and Safa. Over the next decade the community of survivors at Blairmore would slowly grow, contact would be established with the more northern communities of Canmore and Jasper, and in Alya's sixteenth year the Foothills Confederacy would be formally established.

With the Confederacy formally established, there was a need for a unified and centrally directed defensive force. Taking the colloquial name of Canada's former federal police force, the Mounties established a headquarters and dedicated training facilities in Banff, previously a vacation resort just west of Canmore. The Mounties, in turn, were given their own colloquial name by the citizens of the Confederacy: the BAMF's, a play on the mispronunciation of 'Banff', also referring to their quickly established and well-deserved reputation for succeeding in the face of overwhelming odds. Alya was a member of their inaugural class, required to join the Mounties alongside anyone else found to be gifted.

During the first season she spent away from her home in Blairmore, her mother and father fell severely ill. Weakened as they were, Abbas and Farah were unable to fend off a Brute that strayed too close to the town; it ended up killing them both, alongside Kazem and Safa. Alya was crushed when she heard the news, and relocated Saba to Canmore, so that she could stay with her sister while continuing with her duties as a Mountie.

The Mounties are responsible for fending off what few raiders stumble into the Confederacy, and more often for killing any infected within sight. In preparation for the growing season they clear out the arable plains surrounding the foothills, and also conduct the buffalo stampedes which are responsible for maintaining the bulk of the Confederacy's food stocks. More recently, despite the Confederacy maintaining a policy of isolationism since it's creation, it was decided that the Mounties should begin scouting the surrounding areas for any potential threats. Alya was chosen to follow the Rockies southward, and report back in a year with her findings.

RP Examples

DO NOT REMOVE: 4242564

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I'll be finishing the bio tonight.

Done. And here is some additional (and some repeated) information on the Foothills Confederacy, if it strikes your fancy.

When the infection first swept across the United States, Canada was slow to close it's borders. Given the close relations and extensive cross-border family ties, Canada's fortunes closely followed those of it's southern sister. However, lacking the overwhelming military force which the United States possessed, he federal government was unable to enact a strict quarantine on it's citizens; a mass exodus occurred, with people flooding to the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines, emptying out the centre of the country. In an effort to protect those individuals on the Pacific coast from external threats, so that the military could direct all of their efforts towards the eastern half of the country, bombs were dropped into all known paths through the Canadian Rockies; this triggered massive rock slides, filling the valleys with hundreds of millions of tons of impassable rock.

Those people who were travelling east to the Pacific were forced to detour south, through the United States, though a small number of individuals settled in the various towns which sat at the base of the mountain chain. A majority of these individuals were locals, though a few came from the neighbouring provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Despite the harsh winters and short summers, these individuals found a niche which allowed them to eke out a hard, though reliable, living. Eventually, these settlements banded together and called themselves the Foothills Confederacy.

The Foothills Confederacy now consists of roughly fifteen-hundred citizens, concentrated in four major settlements: Blairmore, Jasper, Canmore, and Banff. The southernmost community, Blairmore, has the longest growing season and flattest surrounding terrain; thus, it is responsible for most of the Confederacy's produce and livestock. Jasper, the northernmost community, is also the smallest; in spite of this, it contributes the largest number of recruits to the Confederacy's defence forces, the Mounties. Canmore, located between Jasper and Blairmore, is the largest community, and boasts the highest percentage of pre-outbreak experts; they utilize their knowledge to maintain pre-outbreak machinery and infrastructure, organize agricultural activities, and coordinate defensive forces.

Banff is dissimilar from the other three settlements, in that it does not grow anything of it's own and relies largely on the other three for it's food. Banff is a community dedicated to training and maintaining the Confederacy's defensive forces, the Mounties, and also produces and maintains ammunition and firearms for the rest of the Confederacy. All citizens of the Confederacy are required to spend at least one winter season in Banff (upon arrival in the nation, or between the ages of fifteen and eighteen if they were born there) to be trained how to use firearms and ride horses. Only a small force of Mounties spend the whole year there, and those individuals rotate at the end of each winter season. Gifted individuals are required to serve in the Mounties, and are normally given the longest and most dangerous assignments.

During the winter season very few individuals venture outside of the established communities, and only ever during chinooks to expose foliage for the livestock, as the snow falls too heavily for any significant travel; much like the bear, they hibernate through to spring. April is when the Hillsmen wake, and venture from their communities to prepare the outlying farms for growing. Mounties are the first line, clearing out any infected or raiders, and ensuring the civilians will be able to work in safety. The growing season lasts until October, when the crops are harvested, processed, and sent to each community.

The real reason why the Foothills Confederacy has been able to survive is because of the resurgence of the buffalo, whose population exploded without any natural predators to constrain them. Even before the outbreak a buffalo could weigh upwards of two-thousand pounds, and after the various mutations they have undergone even Brutes are wont to avoid them; anything short of a .50 caliber bullet is unlikely to take them down. However, their increased size brought with it a pitfall, quite literally; the Mounties, much like the First Nations centuries before them, stampede the buffalo and run them over Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. After falling to their deaths, the buffalo are butchered and processed into a variety of products, most notable among them being pemmican. High in caloric content and able to be preserved with little trouble, the Foothills Confederacy is able to keep a large stock of preserved meat products on hand, ensuring a significant food supply that can be kept in reserve and subsisted on for years.

The Foothills Confederacy maintains a policy of isolationism, as all of their efforts over the past decades have been devoted to staying alive through the long and arduous winter months. Only recently have they begun sending scouts out beyond their borders, and only then to identify any threats that might be encroaching on the Confederacy.

[New Grestin]

DO NOT REMOVE: 4242564

I'm already on-board because of the "From Canada" thing alone. Looking forward to the finished App.

[New Grestin]

Also, regarding the conflict in Salida. Let's just assume that the Dominion got bored hunting for the survivors and went back to taking a smoke-break or something.

That fucking town just grinds everything to a halt the minute anything happens there, so out of some misplaced superstition, I'll be avoiding it like the actual plague.

[Wallenburg]

Also, regarding the conflict in Salida. Let's just assume that the Dominion got bored hunting for the survivors and went back to taking a smoke-break or something.

That fucking town just grinds everything to a halt the minute anything happens there, so out of some misplaced superstition, I'll be avoiding it like the actual plague.

I don't think you'll mind then if I time-skip forward a couple hours?

[New Grestin]

Also, regarding the conflict in Salida. Let's just assume that the Dominion got bored hunting for the survivors and went back to taking a smoke-break or something.

That fucking town just grinds everything to a halt the minute anything happens there, so out of some misplaced superstition, I'll be avoiding it like the actual plague.

I don't think you'll mind then if I time-skip forward a couple hours?

By all means. Whatever gets me out of the filler-post hole.

[Beiarusia]

Also, regarding the conflict in Salida. Let's just assume that the Dominion got bored hunting for the survivors and went back to taking a smoke-break or something.

That fucking town just grinds everything to a halt the minute anything happens there, so out of some misplaced superstition, I'll be avoiding it like the actual plague.

I don't think you'll mind then if I time-skip forward a couple hours?

Since Grestin wants to avoid Salida then go for it. Honestly you could jump to tomorrow IC. Day 2 is when things tend to pick up.

[New Grestin]

I don't think you'll mind then if I time-skip forward a couple hours?

Since Grestin wants to avoid Salida then go for it. Honestly you could jump to tomorrow IC. Day 2 is when things tend to pick up.

Indeed. I've got all my external and internal conflicts established. I don't really need anymore set up time, because I think people get the gist.

I can only write so many posts reinforcing that my characters are terrible people.

[Beiarusia]

Since Grestin wants to avoid Salida then go for it. Honestly you could jump to tomorrow IC. Day 2 is when things tend to pick up.

Indeed. I've got all my external and internal conflicts established. I don't really need anymore set up time, because I think people get the gist.

I can only write so many posts reinforcing that my characters are terrible people.

But they could be more terrible.