Demens Chosen [PL: Into the Abyss - CLOSED]

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:41 pm

Please join us in our new OOC thread: Personification Life, the Universe, and Everything.

OOC THREAD ITERATION XIII

THEY GO—
And may whatever gods they believe in
Go steadfastly with them
Into the Abyss

^{ICARCHIVE - SETTING DRAMATIS PERSONÆ}^{RULESJOIN! SITREP}

Welcome to PERSONIFICATION LIFE. You're here because you belong here, having applied and been accepted. Or you're here because you think you want to belong here, and thus you should fill out an application. Or perhaps you're here because you've seen this thing in the sidebar for several years and you've always wondered what it was.

PERSONIFICATION LIFE is a character-based, story-driven role play. New players do not need to know everything contained in the information boxes. We work your characters in, allowing you plenty of time to learn the setting as you play.

This is a combination sandbox-railroad role play. It does not have a specific prescribed storyline, although there is an overarching plot. The world is set and the PCs are free to wander where they will and find adventure where they will. There are occasions, such as when we hold a major event, where the play fluctuates between sandbox and railroad based upon need and GM inclination, railroading to move the story on when the players lose momentum and sandbox otherwise; this tactic lets the players be free when they want to be but gives them structure when they're feeling lost.

Players are encouraged to improve their writing skills, to fashion layered characters rather than 2D caricatures, and to try their hands at GMing their own small adventures. Players of all skill levels are welcome here.

...And remember to keep the Personification Life theme song in your heart whenever you play!

And steel your minds. It's real. The limited edition MLP: Personification Life collectable cards have arrived!
Willow Streaks | Sterling Venture | Rache | Mab

"The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group, cooperative experience." - Gary Gygax
"Ten points to Tiltjuice for spotting the major typo!" - Cerillium

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:42 pm

TheBasics

OP EXPECTATION

Characters are expected to work with each other for the common good. This is why "lone wolf" characters don't thrive in the setting. The structure is very basic:

Characters live at the Building
Characters are free to develop friendships/relationship with other characters
Characters may not spend all their time sitting around chatting - we aren't a CLT
Characters are expected to shoulder some responsibility

Young players tend to have their characters sit and chat. This is understandable if the characters are teenage mallrats. However, this is PL Epic and the youngest character is 18 and expected to act like an adult.

Adults seldom have the luxury of spending all day sitting around. They have to work, they have college courses, they have errands to run, they have places to go. Our lives are mostly lived in motion, and conversations warp themselves into our activities. When something is dire, we do sit and talk things out. However, we can't indulge ourselves in 24 hour conversations and expect to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table.

I expect characters to be active. I expect players to volunteer their characters for missions or involve them in other people's stories. If your character starts to turn into a dialog-heavy, drama-imbued mallrat, I'll find ways to motivate the character into motion. Threat of death is a great motivator. Sometimes the Building explodes. Sometimes something dreadful comes out of a drain. Sometimes a cultist will walk in and shoot one of the mallrats to motivate you into developing your character by having them react to splattered brains. Don't give me the opportunity to snuff your character: keep them active, have them contribute to the setting, develop their personalities through action as well as words.

PL is not an anime game. While I allow anime powers for characters, the laws of physics apply. Your ten foot long sword is too heavy for your 110 pound, lithe girl to lift. You will have the option of putting it on her wall or else selling it to a character with the mass and strength necessary to use it. I expect players to conform to the setting and the game physics, and not the other way around.

PREMISE

"I have always drawn the adrift to me. You. All of you, mortal and god alike, that we might take a final stand against the Devourers. The Greater Beings and their gods would allow all of you to perish from their own apathy. "I gather here all the forgotten things in the universe - the downtrodden, the forgotten magic, the mysteries, the lost keys and odd socks and neglected people - and house them together so that they might prove just how wrong the gods and Greater Beings are. Call me spiteful if you wish. Call me proactive in combating the Strife. We must make things right out there, and we must bring the forgotten things here where they won't be sought out by the Devourers and destroyed before they can join forces with us against the Devourers. You are not here because of serendipity. You are Serendipity, and I have chosen you to change the fate of others. Each of you. Mortal, god, or menace alike."

AND SO it was that Demens explained that he needed Residents to retrieve his Chosen. They were to utilize the Gates to enter the dimensions, though the Guardians would keep at bay anything foolish enough to try to gain access without his permission. ...to overview

CONCEPT

All characters belong to the same organization, Demens' Chosen. Comprised of gods, supernatural creatures, mundane mortals, and everything in between, the organization covertly goes into the multiverse to collect objects (or people) vital to the God War. Think of them as a resistance cell, an intelligence operation, and a combat team rolled up into mercenary unit.

Much like the Foreign Legion, Demens Chosen function as a unit whose training focuses not only on traditional military skills but also on its strong esprit de corps as its personnel come from different countries (and dimensions) with different cultures. Alignment is meaningless - all individuals work with each other towards the organization's goals. It does not swear allegiance to Demens as a god, but to the Chosen itself.

Soldiers, fighters, hunters, and military-minded people are always welcomed though their former rank is meaningless within the organization. Likewise, those with business skills, negotiation skills, or diplomacy experience, or those grounded in important trades such as agriculture, smithing, information technology, and manufacturing all serve a purpose.

And a purpose is what your character needs. That special je ne sais quoi - a quality that cannot be described or named easily - which sets them apart from the average person. It's important to keep that in mind when creating your character. School girls, skateboarders, Joe Average business man, a petty thug, or just some guy with too much money will NOT fit in well. They'll be left behind too often. You'll grow bored as a player.

Bear in mind that anyone can create a soldier. Those are a dime a dozen. Anyone can also create a soldier that specializes as a sniper - but I expect you to do your homework. A sniper and their spotter might spend hours or days set in their position while the battle unfolds around them. They're there to take the shot, but they also provide cover and serve as external eyes to keep the rest of their team advised. If you crave the glory of battle, you probably wouldn't enjoy running a sniper.

Likewise, anyone can create a diplomat. You should research a bit on how diplomats behave, and have a basic understanding of tact. One slip can cost your organization a contract, or destroy your relations with an outside agency.

This is why your characters aren't potent when you first join. I recommend starting off with someone still learning the ropes. They may have one or two potent skills, but they, themselves, are still discovering the world around them. Expertise won't help them if all they know is the dimension they come from. Chances are high that a French lawyer will have no idea how a court in Eplison Beta conducts proceedings. And chances are high that a dragon slayer will have no idea what dragons outside their dimension are capable of.

I don't care how many video games someone has played. While most games reflect a little bit of authenticity, most do not teach you how to prepare for, or engage in, combat. This is why the military doesn't take new soldiers and throw them into an assignment - Basic training teaches them how to use assigned equipment, how to work as a team, and the simple orders that will save not only their lives but the lives of those around them.

Characters are allowed to grow in skill and in power during the course of play. If you come in with a pimped out, over powered character, you leave them no room to grow. Everyone starts out somewhere in life, and their experiences shape them.

Characters do die in PL. Play wisely. Check for traps. Don't expect to win a fight just because your character is the protagonist. Stupid is as stupid does, and stupidity falls under "cause and effect". We keep continuity in this game.

CHARACTER IDEAS

PERIODS IN TIME
Your character can come from any time, be it an ancient past or the far future. Characters from time periods extremely removed from the present will be at a hindrance. The barbarian will never have seen a light bulb, whereas the person from the distant future will understand there's electricity involved but might not know how to change that light bulb. It's okay to play these characters but I expect you to take into account their struggle to adapt to the current time period's technology, customs, etc. Characters will not be able to time travel on their own.

NON-ENGLISH SPEAKERS
Not a problem. That's what babblefish are for. Your character will receive one once he checks in at the Lobby Font Desk.

PERSONIFICATIONS/HETALIA
You can run these. Bear in mind that the personification relies upon the people. Your character is completely cut off from their home dimension. Can they survive as the embodiment of their people if those people no longer exist?

SUPPORTIVE CHARACTERS
These are the botanists , chemists, machinists, researchers, medical personnel, and others that support the organization. They MUST have some skill - or be willing to learn a skill or two - that allows them to adapt to the setting and serve a purpose. The machinist excels at inventing things. The researcher has spent time in the field and knows how to quickly assess data or archives. The medical personnel specializes in triage or surgery, or pharmacology. The botanist is especially adept at breeding new strains. The chemist had working knowledge of explosives or other harmful substances and can apply that knowledge to benefit a team.

MILITARY CHARACTERS
Doesn't matter if he was a mighty general or an emperor - everyone starts off as a private here. This allows players to learn as they go.

PSIONICISTS
You can run a telepathic character.

Please note: we prefer you to use a set method when writing telepathic speech. A quoted italicized sentence signifies telepathic communication - "This is dialog". Simple italics denote thought - This is a thought. Please do not use brackets or colors to indicate telepathic thought. It confuses the reader and your fellow players.

Bear in mind that we have some potent psionicists already. A beginning character will not be able to penetrate their minds or launch an attack on them. Also, we have characters that are tied in to chaos pantheons. To tap their minds is to tap into insanity - your character will instantly go mad, no saving roll.

MAGIC USERS
Each genre has its own special magic. Fae magic is not the same as magic found in Magic the Gathering. Likewise, some things - such as the Force - are not considered magic at all. It's difficult to balance magic in an open genre setting. I may ask you to tweak your applications to allow that magic or magic ability to work. If your character's magic depends on his surrounds at home, he may not find anything to power him in the PL setting. For example, one of our players runs the Cthulhu genre. While in the setting, or when in a dimension where Cthulhu doesn't exist, his characters rely upon wits and whatever they've brought with them. They can not summon the things necessary to complete a spell.

CHARACTERS THAT ARE NOT ALLOWED
I no longer permit gods, demigods, angels, demons/daemons, daevas, djinn, dragons, ghosts, spirit characters, fae, dragons. We have too many and it's becoming impossible to maintain balance. No characters under the age of 18. No "girls turning into things" ala Upotte!. No self-inserts or "personification player". No preexisting characters - you can run a character like Captain Jack Sparrow, but you can not run the actual Captain Jack Sparrow. Likewise, you can bring characters over from another role play game but that character must not be in current use and you must nerf their abilities to match the limits in place on the application.

ANIME/VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS
I do allow these but we are not set in the anime or video game world. We also have to balance anime physics with real world physics. And, as this is a new character, everyone starts off at a low level. What does this mean for the player?

Remember Goku when he was a little kid with the monkey tail and still really shitty at fighting? That Goku can easily kick your anime character's ass.

You've heard of Alucard? You're familiar with Big Titty Police Girl? How about the bland Nazi vampires she explodes with her fist? Your character might be able to survive a few rounds with those Nazis.

Heard of Madara Uchiha from Naruto? That guy's a badasss. Cheats death at every turn, beats all tailed beasts by literally looking at them and saying a few words, solos his own war, and summons meteors that take out cities. We won't even get into wiping out two mountains just by unsheathing the sword. Your character is the guy sweeping dust out of the dojo beside the mountain. He's powerless to stop the meteors, and helplessly looking at the sky only to notice the mountain crumbling on top of him. And then someone drops a dead tailed beast on his corpse.

In other words, I'm not going to entertain apps with ungodly powerful anime or video game characters. Your character is just starting out. Leave them room to grow.

Likewise, I'm not going to allow potent weapons that destroy everything they come in contact with.

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:42 pm

Rules

Every role play has them. Ours haven't changed in years:

Hierarchy
PL's OP is Cerillium. I function as the overarching GM. CoOPs are Mincaldenteans, Swith Witherward and Tiltjuice. Our word is law. Only the OP or CoOPs are permitted to change the setting, change the city, open portals, adjust time, or insert an invincible character (PL syntax: the character is in "tool mode"). CoOPs are always available to answer questions, and to settle disputes.
PG-13/Sex/Violence
We have minors ergo our IC and OOC are PG-13. Keep it that way. I have a ZERO TOLERANCE policy. PL is not the place to act out your violent or sexual fantasies. Violence and sex are allowed, of course, but we employ a "fade to black" rule rather than expose minors to graphic content or obscene material. You can obtain further guidance here. Rape is taboo. NPCs are not there to be spindled, mutilated and torn apart unless, of course, it's combat.
Role Play Etiquette
- Godmodding and metagaming are not allowed.
- We don't use multi-colored or oddly formatted fonts for dialog. We also don't use asterisks to denote action. You must use proper punctuation and grammar; we aren't here to teach basic English.
- If you have a problem with a player, take it to TG. If that does not work, bring it to the OP or a CoOP's attention. Do not turn the OOC thread into chaos.
- Bogging down other players through lack of posts or low-quality posts without offering satisfactory OOC explanation (esp. if posting of high quality in other RPs) will earn a warning; further problems will lead to player removal from the roster.
Stories
Players do not need to request permission to run stories unless that story will impact the setting. Invasions or the creation of businesses must be authorized by the OP, for example. A story involving John and Mary searching for a magical tome does not need to be cleared. Ignoring established IC canon (concerning the government, the police, the city itself, and NPCs) in order to advance one's personal plots will earn IC consequences. If this becomes a problem, the offender will be ejected at staff discretion.
Non-Discrimination Statement and "Ban-able" Behavior
Personification Life, its players, and its staff do not nor will not discriminate against an individual based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income, political beliefs, or civil rights activity.
BANNED PLAYERS
Urran
Grand Britannia
Germanic Templars
Torsiedelle

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:45 pm

Join PERSONIFICATION LIFE

This is a mixed genre RP which allows you to play things that are near and dear to your heart, within reason; some characters concepts are no longer allowed due to heavy saturation or game mechanics conflicts. Other players may currently have characters that are part of your favorite genre... bear that in mind when you apply. Their established canon takes priority. If you sign up and are approved but don't post, your character is dropped from the roster.

Your character should have a Purpose. Please read The Basics before designing your character concept.

PL is not an anime game nor set in an anime universe. We have characters with anime images for their pictures but the setting is not hyperealistic - Sailor Moon would be dead before she could complete her costume change, Goku would be slaughtered before he finished his Super Spirit Ball, girls can not change into tanks or other mecha, and mecha itself will need a power source and replacement parts. Please be aware that anime reflects the culture it came from. The Westernized versions have stripped that culture out to appeal to a Western audience. I love anime; I do not love seeing my culture misrepresented by Westerners. That's racist.

Be sensible when running your character. He or She may have the skills and the swagger and the attitude, but they're a tiny new fish in a pond filled with little girls, waterbears, rabbits, and other harmless creatures. The only difference between your character and theirs is that the current Residents have survived invasions by powerful aliens and Cthulhu, and are on the good side of both good and evil gods. Think about it before trying to come across as cock-of-the-walk.

Characters should:

Be able to function with or without a weapon/magic/technology (sometimes they'll be cut off from it)
Be a team player
Be prepared to go through Gates (enter foreign dimensions) in order to complete missions
Have some skill or trait that will make him/her/it valuable in a paramilitary setting (nurse, doctor, researcher, soldier, pilot, botanist, pirate, ninja, journalist, politician etc)

A precautionary tale all new RPers should read:

One of Miss Gio's finest works during her illustrious tenure here. Not only entertaining to read, but packed with subtle snark and offhanded commentary. This is, indeed, how NOT to play a new character in PL. Nicely done.

Giovenith wrote:
Emperor King Lord Sir General Nuke McBadass NotHitlerButHitler Awesome the Third was very pleased to finally be moving into the intriguing Building he had heard so much about from diplomatic tales of far and wide. Being the scholarly and adventurous sort, it was obvious that he had little choice but to investigate, and was in fact sorely looking forward to taking a break from running his beloved homeland, The Unstoppable Badlands of Dictatoria, the greatest authoritarian regime the world had ever known.

Ah yes, Dictatoria. There was nothing about the fatherland that one could not pride themselves over from within or envy from afar. Every citizen young and old was enthralled in thorough devotion to their leader, himself, and, well, why wouldn't they be? Emperor King Lord Sir General Nuke McBadass NotHitlerButHitler Awesome the Third was a suave, dark, learned gentleman who was never caught off guard or perplexed, always walking about with a self-assured smile upon his lips and even had the decency to refrain from sighing whenever he calmly explained his superiority to upstarts. There was no question for which he didn't have the answer, no atrocity or battle plan with which he did not regard with total casualness, no extreme he did not see as merely an everyday reality of walking in his shoes. He was the man that Hitler and Napoleon and Stalin's bastard three-way love baby conceived in a mass grave on Halloween night aspired to be, and he looked damn good in a suit while doing it.

There was no dinner he attended that did not end in the successful invasion of the country hosted. His generals walked about with so many buttons and medals attached to their coats that he had to invest in cybernetic enhancements just so they could walk from one place to another. Men tripped over one another and punched babies for a chance to enter his eleventh official super soldier program thus far. Citizens were trained to walk in lockstep goose march everywhere from birth. His jeep had missiles that could destroy submarines. He had thirty nukes for every man, woman, and child. He had super undetectable satellite technology that spied on every household on the planet so he knew everything. He could turn into a wolf made of shadows and fire. He order genocides on ~~superfrankguy173 from steam who trolled over the chat WHAT THEFU~~ objectively impure people, because although he had never bothered to read any of Darwin's works, he had watched the Discovery channel a few times and was pretty sure they said that they deserved it for not being as strong and badass as him or something. It was science that he was better than you, you silly pacifistic crybabies! Ohohohoho! LAUNCH THE NUKES!

And all of Bielefeld was going to see that.

"Please sign here," Volker slid over the forms.

"Did I ever tell you about the time I conquered an entire dimension when I was only fifteen years old?" Emperor King Lord Sir General Nuke McBadass NotHitlerButHitler Awesome the Third asked with a smug yet calm smile, adjusting one of his medals. "They declared me the God of Fear and Destruction from their prophecies, but really, it was just a regular Tuesday testing about the newest-"

"That's nice, sir. Would you please sign?"

And so he did, loudly and proudly singing his nation's anthem as he did. Ah, finally his vacation could begin! Perhaps first he could mingle with the natives here? There wasn't a time he could remember when complete strangers weren't entertained listening to him talk for hours on end about how amazing his country was without interruption or break. Why, if they seemed nice enough, he might even let them have the honor of being intimidated with one of his guns! Everyone loved being demonstrated to how objectively less awesome than someone else they were! He had a feeling he was going to be quite the popular character here.

Not many people seemed to be out and about currently though, unfortunately, which was somewhat understandable given how early in the day it was. Listening carefully though, the leader thought he caught onto a conversation, and quickly made his way toward the source. The chatter lead him out onto the outside patio, where from his perspective, he glimpsed the backside of a little girl with white hair dressed in pink sitting at a table covered in a tea party set-up.

A sweet little girl! Those were always easy to impress. He could use a naive, charming admirer to demonstrate his fatherly side upon.

It was in walking towards the girl that something else entered his vision that made his heart stop: It was grey. It had four legs. It had wings. It had wide, expressive eyes filled with the basic calculation known only to sapience.

A ponyyyyyyyyyy...

The leader felt shooting pain fly up his legs as his knees hit the hard floorboards and he desperately tried to gag back the vomit that was building up in his esophagus. He flipped his head back and howled a great roar before punching several holes in the walls and floor around him and eating the bills that Demens rained on him. A PONY. HERE. HOW. WHAT. WHY. NO.

HE WOULD NOT STAND FOR THIS.

"And that's why I think people are just way too hard on kitsch," Giovenith wrapped up her explanation to Willow while stirring her tea. "I know we want to avoid giving too much credit to more vapid works, but at the same time, we can't assume something is vapid just because it's happy for the sake of being happy, y'know?"

"Mmmm," Willow dabbed at the lingering crumbs of chocolate cake around his mouth with a napkin. "I see where you're coming from, but you have to take into account the known effect that commercialization can have on-"

"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!!!" a savage cry suddenly captured both artists' attention. They simultaneously snapped their heads to see a strange man dressed in gaudy, overdecorated military garb marching towards them, his fists clenched so tightly veins were popping out and an absolutely maniacal grin on his face. A single finger snapped at Willow. "YOU! YOU thought you could escape me here! BUT YOU WERE WRONG! HA HA!"

Giovenith turned to give a concerned look to her roommate. "Willow, you know him?"

"No...?" Willow said, looking back at her with an equally confused look.

"Oh, you do not know me..." Emperor King Lord Sir General Nuke McBadass NotHitlerButHitler Awesome the Third hissed while climbing atop their picnic table. "But I know YOU! I've seen your smoopy-woopy-coochy-foochy-cutesy-wootsy-mootsy-slimy PATHETIC face a million times beneath my boot!" He demonstrated by deliberating smashing his foot into what was left of their chocolate cake, smearing it all over the table cloth.

"Hey!" Giovenith cried, visibly distressed.

"What the hell's your problem?!" Willow put his hooves on the table and lifted himself up slightly.

"Don't come onto me, sun-worshiping heathen scum!" the leader of Dictatoria roughly shoved the stallion back into his seat with surprising force. "I am Emperor King Lord Sir General Nuke McBadass NotHitlerButHitler Awesome the Third! Conqueror of lands, epitome of the superiority of evil over good!" He fanned out his arms in sublime pose. "And if there is one thing I hate more than democracy and vegans, it's sapient equine slime like YOU!"

Giovenith gasped but Willow just raised an eye skeptically while rubbing the place where the leader had shoved his arm.

"You picked three things out of the entire world to hate the most, and you chose democracy, vegans, and ponies?" he asked.

"Yes!" the leader smiled simply, relaxing and straightening out his posture. "Allow me to explain..." He began to pace back and forth on the table, seemingly ignorant of all the cups and plates he was smashing and knocking over. "It's a man's world out there, and as such, it stands to simple reason that those who deserve to inherit it are those who best understand what it takes to reign as the apex. HOOWAH!" He struck a pose. "FIGHTING." He struck another pose. "STEEL." He struck another pose. "And of course, the proper physique!"

Willow wiped a smear of frosting the leader's posing had kicked in his face. "What is, 'the proper physique'?"

The leader scoffed. "Well it isn't obvious! Look at us..." He gestured between Giovenith and himself, the former of whom wasn't too happy to be grouped in with him. "... and look at you!"

"What's wrong with me?"

"Well for starts," he wiggled his fingers demonstrably. "We have hands, you silly moron. We can hold things, build and use tools, oppose our thumbs! You can't even shoot a gun!"

"I can hol-"

"SECONDLY!" the leader continued. "We are much taller. We can also swim, and climb, and fight!"

"So can-"

"NO TALKING WHILE I'M TALKING! Worst of all is your simpleton species philosophies," he scoffed. "Friendship? Magic? Happiness? Wasting your lives away in pursuit of childish ass tattoos and coddling the weak, flitter-flatter on your dainty little wings and do some levitation with sparkly pink magic? LOOK AT YOU! JUST LOOK AT YOU!!! Need I say more?"

"You're really starting to piss me off," Willow pointed slightly at him, narrowing his eyes.

"Yeah!" Giovenith rose to her friend's defense. "Willow can do a lot of those things you just said! And just because him and the ponies value nice things doesn't make them dumb or bad!"

Emperor King Lord Sir General Nuke McBadass NotHitlerButHitler Awesome the Third rolled his eyes and wiggled his fingers condescendingly. "Oooooooooo, I'm SO scared of a tiny little girl and an eternal-baby horse! I didn't know I'd be facing off against Rainbow Brite and Starlight! Do you even know what I do to your kind?" he sneered, leaning in towards Willow, who sighed.

"No, but I'm sure you're going to tell us," the pony rolled his eyes and propped his cheek on a hoof.

The ruler of Dictatoria smiled evilly and chuckled. "No, I'm going to show you." His hands flew to the front of his coat and ripped it open. "BOOM, BOY!!" The entire inside lining of his jacket was made from the pelts of flanks, the once-cheery cutie marks grimly brimming back at the pony, and clacking was heard as stringed horns and wing bones dangled about within.

"AHHHH!" Giovenith cried.

"Pffft, that could be fake," Willow dismissed, ever the Scully.

"Oh my actual god, Willow," the godling growled, attention momentarily diverted from the horror scene.

"Well," Emperor King Lord Sir General Nuke McBadass NotHitlerButHitler Awesome the Third reached further into his coat. "Is THIS fake?!" And he pulled out a bigass, heavy gun of indeterminable type and aimed it directly at Willow's face.

"SWEET CELESTIA!" the male artist finally gasped in genuine fear, pinning his ears and bringing his hooves to his mouth.

"YEAH I BET YOU THINK CELESTIA IS SWEET!" The dictator grinned. "Say good-bye, sugar-shit-"

CRASH! Pink porcelain shards and searing hot tea exploded against the back of the leader's head, causing him to fall forward (assisted by the massive weight of his gun), Willow flying out of the way just in time to avoid being squished. The gun landed to the side of him with a loud boom and the leader cried out in pain as his face scraped the pavement. He quickly got up to try and figure out what had just happened.

"Wh-"

THWAP! The wide length of a heavy red purse with a flower clip collided into the side of his face. It's strap was wielded by Giovenith, who was standing above the tyrant looking about as frighteningly furious as a teenage girl dressed in pink could. Willow stood off some feet behind her, ears folded and body crouched slightly in astonishment and concern.

"You are a bad, bad man!" Giovenith yelled, nailing the dictator with the purse again. "How DARE you threaten my little pony like that! You should be ashamed of yourself!" She swiped the purse at him yet again. It knuckled into his cheek and snapped his chin to the left, leaving a dark bruise in its place.

The leader yelped in pain. "What the hell is in there?!"

Giovenith blinked, but still looked cross. "My pet rocks!" Another strike. "They're mad at what you said to Willow too! Apologize!" Strike.

"Are you insane?!" the man tried to block her strikes with his hands, but to little avail. "I'm not apologizing to some pathetic fucking- OW!!"

"You will apologize!" Giovenith added an extra arm to the strap to give her beating more momentum. "He may belong to Celestia but I blessed him with my favor! You don't touch him without invoking my wrath!" The young goddess' wrath came down again, leaving a daisy-shaped bruise against the leader's forehead.

"You won't know the meaning of wrath until I'm done with- OW, MY EYE!!" One of the buckles nailed him right in the peeper.

So this continued, with the once-mighty Dictator Among Dictators falling in classical tragedy form for his hubris in overstepping the patience of the gods. God. Five-foot-two Godling. Same deal. Giovenith may not have been ready to reign down curses and disaster on those who displeased her and molested her mortal favorites, but it was far from true that she did not have ways of making that displeasure known. And it was that fact that caused Willow to slowly stand full height again and erect his ears, slowly giving a lopsided smile as he watched true friendship prove itself once again in the most absurd way possible.

Find Help: Cerillium, Mincaldenteans, Swith Witherward, or Tiltjuice.

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:45 pm

Archive Links

To play the game, you gotta know the setting. We moved the game data to our archive thread this year. It was too much to contain in the OOC thread's first page. The spoiler below contains an index to help you quickly access vital setting information.

COMPLETE LINK LISTING
THE PHYSICAL GAME
CURRENT IC: DEMENS CHOSEN | ARCHIVE THREAD | CAST

ONE-SHOTS
Neglected Characters - Swith
Spaghetti - Swith
Chicken Soup for the Artist's Soul - Gio
The Cat Incident - Agy
Dawn - Kass
No Exit - Agy
MLP: Biology is Magic - Gio
The First Genocide - Agy
The Diary - Torsi
The Titan - Agy
The Eight - Agy
Acid Spit - Mon
Origin of Russian Batman - Bran
They - Agy
Revelation - Cer
Thanksgiving - Swith
Family - Torsi

Swith's Christmas One-Shots
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016 Festive & Not So Festive

GAME SETTING AND WORLD MECHANICS
PLVERSE
PL Terminology
PL Omniverse
Greater Beings
Gods and Other Beings
Metaphysical

GALLIMAUFRY
The Forging
Gallimaufry Dimension
Planet Gallimaufry
Zones
Gates & Gatehouses - to include dimensional travel and M-Theory
Guardians & Oracles

DEMENS' TOWERS - AKA THE BUILDING

BROOD OF ALLESIO

THE FREYWOLD
The Fae

JÉGVIDÉKEM

NORTH WARNBOROUGH
Location
Industry
Military and Peacekeeping
Districts
The District of North Warnborough Near Knoll
Please note: business directories can be found under districts.

THE OUTERMARK
Location and Description
OOC Precautionary Advice
Zones
Settlements
Districts

THE ISLAND OF NI

RP GUIDANCE
TIPS, TRICKS, LESSONS
PÆDAGOG

PRIOR THREADS
IC
IC Part I The Beginning
IC Part Deux New Building, Same Nonsense
IC Part III Island Living for the Holidays
IC Part IV Returned to Building, Oh My Gods!
IC Part V Five Golden Threads! (aka Oh My God... They're Breeding!)
IC Part VI The Day the Drones Destroyed the World
IC Part VII Return to Civilization
IC Part VII.5 The Soup Thickens
IC Part VIII Hello and Goodbye
IC Part IX A Year's Journey
IC Part IX++ //Oddsbodikins & Atomic Kittens//
IC Part XI Epic
IC Part XII Demens Chosen

OOC
Original OOC thread
OOC thread Part II
OOC Thread Part III
OOC Thread Part IV
OOC Thread Part V
OOC Thread Part VI
OOC Thread Part VII
OOC Thread Part VIII
OOC Thread Part IX
OOC Thread Part X
OOC Thread Part XI
OOC Thread Part XII EPIC

MISCELLANEOUS
PERSONIFICATION LIFE WEBSITE | PERSONIFICATION LIFE WIKI | PERSONIFICATION LIFE TV TROPES PAGE | PERSONIFICATION LIFE WMG
MAKE YOUR BUSINESS LISTING (you will need to copy the code and paste it into the current OOC thread | ONESHOTS, TRIBUTES, AND OTHER QUIRKY STUFF | HONOR WALL

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:45 pm

Dramatis Personæ

Image credit: Northwest Slobovia.

BUILDING DIRECTORY

Basement:
Bomb Shelter - (door to stairwell off main lobby) Former Nikanor Residents, off limits.
Chaos Quarters (a different door to stairwell off main lobby)
Otto Maximilian Von Klaus and Minerva Blackwater
Ogoti

G1 Rodney Bodkins (apartment off the utility corridor, access via back of Building)
G2 The Biogarden, Lab and FUBAR (off the utility corridor)
G3 Am (apartment off the utility corridor) - NPC
G4-9 The Warren - haunt of the NPC Priests, Opa, Adrastus
G10 Thaddeus Usseio

2C Marcus Usseio
2D Giovenith and Willow
2E Dora, Luce, Dia
2F Charumati
2G Cuisine and MB
2H Hanselmann "Hans" Fleischer-Schaefer and Chrysanthe
2J Brit
2K Sterling Venture
2L Sandy and Amanda Bela

3A Mezran, Son of Jag'oth, of the House of StoH'raQ
3B General Romulus Aphrodisiac
3C Macy
3D Desmond Beckett
3E
3F Myra Bones
3G Nivea A'delvi
3H Septimus Itum and Neste Trilb
3J Nick
3K Zan Kraken
3L

4A Etzic Vkayl
4B Ocho Hobart Ono and Nila Trilb
4C
4D Venla the Bold
4E Mepsidadelti "Meps" Heltamip
4F Maghrl’laundersando’tamil’reumaur
4G Rmwtyliin Fvvarniimalasaakuuliia
4H Kwa'a Bhewehg
4J Nivea A'delvi
4K Mathias Strand
4L Calani Marliten and Devine

(HOSPITAL occupies 5th floor.)

6A Oecammi Ret Ata-EE - Min
6B Sakarias
6C Deuce
6D Sigtrygg Karlsson Snjalli
6E Hectaros Varinos te Eterri Maginestim the Brave-Sworded
6F
6G Ramanbir Narindra
6H
6J
6K Naomi
6L Volker the Front Desk Cultist

7A Anais Adarah and the Guild House
7B Hunter Evans
7C Something mysterious.
7D Luxan Quarters (Primordial, Insidious, Aegis)
7E Kale Merilin
7F Sidney "Sid" Bechet
7G Henry Lawson
7H Blythe
7J Nikolai-Pietr Firsov
7K Wren Usseio
7L Colonel Fluffy

8A Dan Foster
8B
8C
8D
8E
8F

You may need to reapply if you've been dropped from the roster. Yer character might also be ded. Ded characters don't return. RIP: Astra Foriano (Saleon); Enali Archdreamer (IJ).

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:46 pm

SITREP

PL: SITREP
19 APR, 2017

CURRENT IC CONDITIONS

Time: 8:30 AM (0830 hours)
Weather: 60 °F / 15.5 °C
Forecast: Clear skies in the morning followed by evening thunderstorms

CURRENT GAME EVENTS

Hearth's Warming Eve x Umbrum Intrigue (GM: Gio)
Raiders of the Lost Book (Slo)
Operation: Last Chance of Xo'Lokako (GM: NA)
Operation: Multiversal Booze Run (GM: Min/NA)
Operation: Angels of Avalon (GM: Ched)
Fungi to Forget (NA & ?)
Future Stories:

PLAYER-SUGGESTED EVENTS

Run another Personification: Player this summer
Run "A Day in the Life of:" (This is where everyone writes a one shot on what their character does for a 24-hour period)
Return to the Antiverse
Character Swap Weekend (This is where players analyze other player's characters and run one of them for short duration)
Creepfest ("Cer, you asshole. I want to be scared!" - Swith)
Zalgofest (slated for after Easter)

OP/CoOP STUFF

Please read IC and OOC posts prior to posting. It saves confusion over time of day, weather, etc. As always, please don't advance time in your posts.
Archive: It's woefully lacking character bios. Tilt has coding them for me. I'll attempt to get them in as RL allows.
Characters tabs and apartment assignments have not been updated. This will happen after I've recorded everyone's character in the Archive.
OP Away: I will be out 20-29 April. Co-Ops can review apps as a team and approve characters. Swith said her presence might be sporadic during this time but she can be reached via Kik or email if something urgently needs her attention. She'll have the password to log into my account to request post removal, should a spammer crop up.
Stories: Players are encouraged to run their own stories via the Gates. There are a few rules for this:
1. Players may not use Gates to gain powerful things without first consulting with me. Powerful items and spells tip the balance and give an unfair advantage to only a few characters.
2. Items can not contain spirits or entities. The Gates will not allow these things through. You may use the Gates to intro your new character (the team would need to bring a tracer along for them.)
3. You may not use Devourers, Agents, or Minions in your stories.
4. No video game/movie walk-throughs. I realize we have PCs based on a genre or franchise. Do not force your players to sit through a story based on that game or script.
5. GM should plan out their game. Approach it as you would a stand-alone RP in P2TM.
6. Your gods and other supernatural beings must align with the overarching power scale. Look at your Big Bads and other NPCs and perhaps run them through a character app sheet for reference. This is because your Players are stuck using those power scales. You'll unbalance the overarching game if your NPC are Too Potent.
7. Use the OOC to plan and answer questions. This allows others to provide input. PL is a group, not just a segmented population of individual RP stories.
8. Please keep collabs to a minimum. I'd prefer short posts rather than long stretches without any posts.

A ragtag bunch of misfits on a mission to save the omniverse

To recapture the quote Cer posted, with a bit of editing:

How it changes the IC setting

It streamlines new character establishment. The process has always been in place. Now we'll have players with characters dedicated to helping people ease into the game.
It provides a structure. Nothing to do IC? Let's say your character works in the gardens. They could rally a few Residents to harvest carrots. The purpose isn't the carrots. The purpose is to allow characters to carry on conversations while they do stuff. This helps define characters, gives an opportunity for a small adventure (the carrots are being eaten by massive rabbits characters have to kill), and it gets people out of their apartments.
No more clusterfucks when danger strikes. Trained fighters are already working together in teams. Medical personnel are already skilled at setting up a triage point and processing incoming wounded. No looking for weapons when Men are tossing them to characters as they go out the door... and those characters are trained and proficient with that weapon. No more botched spells causing Resident casualties. The magic users are also working as a team. As Cer indicated, "Shit's about to go beyond epic". Think of the Fiends but on a much larger scale.
Combined goods mean everyone has access to what they need. Ingredients are there for potions. Spells can be researched in the Library.
Frequent short stories crop up as players see a need and fill it. Out of toilet paper? Guess we have to make a run to Ascalon, or Walmart in Dimension Beta X1C.
Characters that ordinarily wouldn't work together (cliques do happen) now have a chance to work with others.
Players looking to advance their characters now have a means.
Players with tough characters won't have to worry about weaker characters compromising their attacks.

How it doesn't change the IC setting

Characters are still going to have quiet Sunday brunches in the dining room.
Relationships will still evolve (only it will be over the course of time rather than sequestered in an apartment like high schoolers flirting)
There will still be zany moments. Atomic kittens get loose and characters have to hunt them all down in the halls. The boiler goes on the fritz and the water dyes everyone blue. Somebody drops container of gender-bender juice and everyone's stuck in the wrong gender until a cure is made (which makes it hilarious if they have to go out on a mission before said cure is found!)
Characters will still do things like get married, have babies, have birthdays, break up with their significant others, feel out of sorts. It is a part of life.
Characters already doing tasks behind the scenes (think of Amanda and her tank of babblefish) will continue to contribute by doing those things.

Military/Operations/Training
The objective here isn’t to turn PL into a military game. We should put a little focus on military role playing, however, and teach it to those that wish to learn. Not everyone will want to play “soldier”. Those that do (and want to take those skills to II or other nation play) should have a basic foundation to work from.

Structure
In size and structure, we’ll say we’re one of Demens’ Groups (named Demens Chosen). There might be more out there. We don’t know. All are clandestine paramilitary organizations, like our own, and each is structured a bit differently. (We are not mercenaries.)

In order to not overwhelm players (or have a bunch of NPCs filling a hundred roles), we’ll say that there are two branches within Demens Chosen that work in tandem: Administration and Operations.

Our Admin Branch are tasked with all the things that support our Operations Branch. This gives players one point of contact for their needs. More importantly, this branch gives our players with no interest in military things something to do.

The other side of that is Operations. This runs like a standard military machine. We have specialists joining the teams but the preponderance of these characters are our fighters.

ADMINISTRATIVE BRANCH
OOC: A chance for players with civilian characters to have a good purpose. Gardens, motor pool, or other Supply and Logistics roles need PC bodies. They can work in the hospital, which also needs bodies. We can add a layer by having each new character meet with Minerva to determine their assets and find them a purpose, if they come in without something clearly defined. It helps people adjust to a game with so much canon. This also puts a "face" to a department. Players don't have to keep asking Cer, "Do we have this?" Our "needs" generate our stories, in part.

IC: This is the Building stuff. This is support as well as administrative. The role is to provide support for the Operational Branch. The Building provides support already in the form of gardens (food, herbs, healing components), motor pool, engineering, personnel, medical etc. We're just defining it better here and spreading the load to other CoOPs. Any CoOP could use an NPC in a pinch.

These "Officers" don't leave the Building or go on missions too frequently. That's why they're NPCs. We might eventually funnel PCs into some of these roles so that players interested in retiring their experience character can keep them in the setting. Bear in mind that those players have to do the work behind it and become an essential part of our OOC efforts.

The Structure:

OPERATIONAL BRANCH
OOC: this is what generates our Demens-centric stories. PCs can be tasked to gather intelligence/perform surveillance, etc. They might work the intelligence section. Most will probably want to be on mission teams.

IC: This is the stuff involving the Gates and the Boilerplate location (it's been in the archive forever and a day!) We have a degree of separation because A) there's only so much you can pack into a magical building without it becoming obnoxious, and B) we need a place to store supplies, contain frightful things, and train. Plus the separation gives players something to strive for. "I want to go to Boilerplate!"... "Got to find a purpose for your character, first. What would you like to do in the game?"

The structure:

And there you have it. It looks overly structured. It isn't. Most of administrative stuff was being done behind the scenes by the OP and CoOPs. Now we have things in the open so players can better utilize it.

Stormwrath's pretty format for "Epic" Operations headers!

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:46 pm

Permissions

Personification Life (PL) and all its happy iterations, coding, apps, archive formats and fancy words
may not be reproduced without the explicit written permission of the OP.
Should the OP meet an untimely demise,
authorization is granted to Swith Witherward to create new threads.
Should Swith Witherward die, yer all screwed,
and permission to create threads goes to
Mincaldenteans and Tiltjuice.
They must fight for them
to the death
in a vat of lime Jello
while wearing nothing but chicken suits
made of crappy stuff
found under the Lobby couch.

Bawk bawk!

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:46 pm

One-Shots, Tributes and Quirky Stuff

You helped shape us. For that, I'm grateful. ~ Cerillium

Swith Witherward wrote:The evening sky on Gliese was peppered with stars. Swith, who had gone on vacation with her mate and children, slipped from bed and opened the French doors leading out to the balcony. The palace below was still in celebration. Swith's eyes weren't on them, though. She looked up at the stars and drew a shuddering breath.

It was a silent keen that traveled on a plain that no mortals could hear. It was a greeting and a goodbye wrapped in a gossamer strand that couldn't be broken by mortals or gods or even the Greater Beings. It was a patient and gentle understanding buoyed by her gratitude and admiration for a foe who had, in a sense, become a cherished entity in her world.

She stood silently amongst the sounds of revelry and joy from below, and she wept tears that were neither sad or happy. They were simply tears, and they fell from her eyes and landed on her chest without any further preamble.

"Farewell," she whispered to the stars. Her mind reflected upon octopus and pizza parlors, replicants and tea with scones. She sighed and her head tilted as she keened again. And then, because there wasn't anything left to do, she stepped inside and closed the door to block out the noise for a while.

Transgravitas Directorate wrote:The strains of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# Minor echoed throughout the darkly lit ether of Cuisine's apartment. He and Luce sat together over beers, toasting an honorable acquaintance and an enigmatic mind. They spoke of Aetherians and shards, of yachts and cars, and of sand and sea. Conversation intermingled with the hopeful beginning, haunting progression, and chaotic climax. Dim blue and green highlights from the wall panel displays gave them tranquility, however, and the hope that things would someday be better.

And finally, as the closing notes brought the piece to an end, the pair sat in silence.

Cerillium wrote:Ceril navigated the business end of the soldering iron between fine wires coupled to an old circuit board. The white hot light flared and briefly illuminated his face and the face of the servator next to him. He sighed and examined his work.

Not bad. Needs more. Possibly -

He yawned and removed the iron from the confines of the cabinet. "Needs more later. It's late as it is."

The servator, a replica of the D7-N1-X8 blinked stupidly at him. She could never replace the actual thing she was copied from. "It is late," she said.

"No shit. I just said that."

"Yes."

Ceril rubbed the skin under his optics and groaned. "Go dock, Mavis 12."

He watched the drone clone gracefully cross the workroom to join her "sisters". He'd done many things with those clones - dressing them in hula outfits or programming them to sing show tunes - but he'd never lost respect for the beings who fashioned the original Mavis.

The old cyborg checked his work a final time and walked from the workroom. His hand paused on the light switch. "Goodnight ladies."

"Good night," they replied in unison as the overhead flickered off.

Cerillium wrote:Ceril sat on a rocky outcrop and bid silent farewell to the raptors. They'd been part of this madness far longer than he. It had been his honor to track things over the years. He recalled the story of the day Neil (as NVE) first stepped into the building.

"Can I come in? I have cake!" NVE had shouted before affixing a large fake mustache to his snout. "Can sombody let me, a completely ordinary person, in? I lost my keys, not in a fire!" He just was about to move into this building because his last apartment building was vaporized by the small nuclear reactor he built.

Perhaps he would have been left out in the cold were it not for Dabfia. Dab (the normal Dab and not evil Dab) had let the velociraptor in and, after making Dab promise to not mention the initial offer of cake, the raptor had scampered off ~~to steal a stranger's~~ an occupied room in order to plot a means to own the first building thus forgo the necessity of rent payments. The most logical (for a raptor) conclusion was to build a nuclear device of some kind and use it somehow.

(*cue evil laugh*)

Sadly, the only thing NVE had available was what was available. He slipped into the basement, unfastened the heavy water heater and then ran afoul of Bones (whose room he had stolen.)

Flassshback!

Bones was staring out the window when he heard shouting. He looked down and saw a talking velociraptor knocking on the door. Dabfia let him in.

Interesting. This is something worth looking into... My, my, there's some interesting characters moving into here. He clasped his fingers together and smiled. Things will definitely be getting interesting around here... Excellent...

Bones watched the strange creature drag the water heater.

"You do realize you don't have a room, right?"

"Of course I have a perfectly legitimate room that exists. Otherwise I just stole a total stranger's room. I definately didn't not do that!" NVE replied. Of course, that is exactly what he did.

Bones wasn't convinced. "Suuurrreee... and what are you going to do when that stranger comes back and finds you in his room?"

"Ummmmm...I AM HIM! Don't you reconize me? I got a haircut and grew a mustashe!" NVE replied and pointed to the fake mustache.

"Riiigggghhhhtttt... what's your room number?"

"Ummmmm...Pi times R squared divided by zero!" NVE said hoping to confuse him. "I wasn't expecting some kind of Spanish Inquisition!" he added.

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. And that is my room, by the way."

"Oh really? Then prove it!" NVE said as he made a dash for the door and locked it behind him. Then NVE locked all the extra locks he added.

"You missed one," Bones said, pointing over NVE's shoulder. He turned around and walked into his bedroom, locking the door behind him.

"Dammit!" NVE cursed after discovering that he was now locked out.

"Fine! I'll just find another better room that doesn't smell bad! Crap, I left my suitcase in there!" he added. NVE didn't want Bones to touch his suitcase, he needed to get in there fast. NVE looked at the water heater. "BINGO!"

The velociraptor scampered outside and grabbed a car battery out of one of the parked vehicles on the street. He ran back in and wired it to the water heater, then smashed off all the safety devices with his wrench. He positioned the water heater in front of Bone's door.

"If it worked on Mythbusters, It'll work here." NVE muttered to himself.

Bones heard loud noises coming from outside his door. Looking outside, he saw that the dinosaur had positioned an improvised explosive right outside his door. Bones grabbed the water heater and dragged it inside, disconnecting it from the battery in the process. He locked the door again behind him.

"Dammit!" NVE had been thwarted.

His next course of action was to run to the hardware store where he 'legally purchased' some rope. He climbed onto the roof of the apartment building and tied down one end. With a firm grip on the other end, NVE jumped off the roof and smashed through the window of Bones' apartment.

"Ta Da!...I mean...Hand over my suitcase and nobody gets hurt!" NVE threatened and held out... his empty hands.

"Wait a second." NVE opened his suitcase and pulled out two Uzis.

"Much better," he said and closed his suitcase. "Now hand over my suitcase before I fill ya full of lead fiery death...something!" NVE threatened.

BUT......

The room was empty, save for the water heater, which had been hooked up to another battery. The suitcase was strapped to the bomb. There was a note on it:

Here's your suitcase.

"Dammit! Well at least I got my suitcase back..." NVE was interrupted by the water heater exploding.

The old cyborg's laugh was softly huffed breaths that escalated into thunderous laughter. Those were the days, my friend! Those were the best days: the salad days when everything was sparse and absolutely nothing was sacred.

He hadn't a glass to raise in toast to the raptors. He lifted his eyes to the heavens and named a constellation in NVE's honor instead.

The BranRiech wrote:Bran, simply humbled to be in the presence of his friends (And evil genius'), was already shedding tears as the Raptor's left their presence. Whether it was venturing into Neil's mind to save him from himself, or venturing up to a Moon prison to once again save them, he always knew he'd have loyal friends in them, wherever they were. There was of course, the share of bad times as well, but hell, all friends went through them. Bran had long since forgiven them for that. "Farewell, old friends." He whispered as the house vanished, Rachelle watching from atop his lap (Which she was getting way too big to be sitting on!)

Rylli too, was thinking the same things, and Natiya too.

Giovenith wrote:Giovenith was more than a little confused at the disappearance of the raptors' house and household, spinning and tilting her head toward the now-empty space, momentarily entranced by how it faded like a state of consciousness on the brim of twilight. Which one, though? Awake, or asleep? Suddenly, she felt silly for trying to guess which... of course the raptors would never allow themselves to be that simple. They danced on the edge of that which was known, in their own way. It was a rather magical thing, despite that Giovenith knew they preferred science, the smart cookies... magic, science, it was all a talent. It took talent to the spin the world round in a way you wished, to make the glass half full and half empty, or to knit riddles that were only satisfying with no answer.

Pressing both hands to her mouth, Giovenith set a kiss down in them, then stretched out her arms theatrically to send it flying on the wind toward the spot the house had once been.

"Buh bye!" she called out without sorrow, stretching one hand to wave widely at the sky. "See you soon! Love you! Don't forget to come back home and play again!"

They wouldn't forget. She didn't know where they had gone, why, or how soon they'd be back, but that didn't matter. One of the most important lessons friendship taught you was how to say good-bye, to not feel heartbreak over the sunset... and to be confident that, like sunrises, there would always be another hello. Reminding herself of this with a deep breath, Giovenith folded her hands in front of her and began to walk off from the remains of the party. She wouldn't go home just yet; sunsets were just as lovely as sunrises, especially on a place as Eternal as an island beach. The land would assist in nurturing her reflections.

Swith Witherward wrote:Swith watched Torii run off to her hut. A sense of peace settled in her chest. It was good to see spark from the girl again, and even better than she'd returned to join the group in cooking things over the fire. That's how it should be... community, family, kinship.

She nodded to Cuisine and helped herself to his thoughtful drink.

The stars were twinkling overhead now, and Swith lifted her glass of liver towards them and towards her first friend. Somewhere out there, raptors zoomed along in a House. Somewhere out there, a Velocidoctor sat in a Construct's kitchen and sipped tea. Somewhere out there, their handler perhaps sat in a quiet room and longed to return.

"It was a lovely dinner, NVE," she whispered to the sky. "It's a lovely friendship."

They'd return. She believed that in her heart. She'd hunt them down if they didn't. It would be her personal quest, of course, to bring back a bit of non-Chaos chaos to this universe. Swith chuckled.

"Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I think it's in my basement... let me go upstairs and check." She spoke the words of M.C. Escher with conviction, relishing the twist in thinking. "And rabbit holes really do lead to Wonderland, my dear. So everyone move over, get a clean cup, and if the dormouse gets finicky, just dab his nose with jam."

Swith finished her beverage and handed the cup back to Cuisine. She wanted to visit Thriller's old hut, but someone had completely redone everything and she doubted even the factory was the same. She couldn't walk down memory lane there. It was just as well.

The TAB IRC is on esper. #TAB. PL and TAB members only. Log in under a name we recognize.

Please do not park your name in chat. Log out if you intend to leave.

You can also access the chat using your mobile phone. Agy recommends HoloIRC. It's a good app. Instructions for setting it:

Highfort wrote:For everyone who wants to use IRC on their mobile phones, if you need help setting up HoloIRC (available on Android devices) please see the steps below:

1. After installing and opening HoloIRC, you will see a plus sign inside a circle in the upper right corner. This is to add a new server to your serverlist. There's a couple of defaults already to the left that you'll see that come with the app. Click the plus sign.

2. Enter the following information:
Server Title: The Apartment Block (this is for you, so you know which server to start up when you open the appl)
Server URL: use whatever Esper.net server is closest to you (for California: ranger.esper.net, for Texas: chaos.esper.net, etc)
Server Port: 6697
Nick Names: [your IRC name to show when you log in]
Real Name: [actual name, not sure what this does, but it never shows up]
Username: [your user name, in case you're a mod like Swith, Tilt, or Cer]
Password: [optional, only if you have a username]

3. Enable "Use SSL" and "Accept all SSL certificates". DO THIS OR YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LOG IN

4. Click "Auto-join channels" and click the plus button that appears in the upper right-hand corner of the new screen. Add "#TAB" to the auto-join channel list.

5. You're done! Go back to the main screen and you should see The Apartment Block added to your server list. Simply click to connect, and you'll log in automatically.

On logging out:

1. To log out from the channel but stay on the server (if, let's say, you want to log into a different channel, though that's not very relevant for Apartment Block's IRC), simply click the "Actions" button in the upper right corner of the channel and scroll down and click the "Part channel" button. This will log you off the channel.

2. To log out from the server, which is the only way to log in from any other device, swipe left and select "The Apartment Block" (you're currently in a channel if you see anyone typing away). While in the Apartment Block, you should see a bunch of links and nonsense as well as the words "End of /MOTD command". This means you're in the server, not a channel. To log out from a server, simply click "Actions" and click "Disconnect". This will log you out from the server.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you have a stable connection. If you're logging on and off constantly, it might be best to disable any options you have for automatically switching between Wifi and 4G (I always use 4G to ensure a smooth connection, and it doesn't take up that much data anyways). Any switches on network or from network to roaming data will result in you being kicked off the server and forced to reconnect under a new nickanme due to your old connection not yet timing out.

Thanks, and happy IRCing!

(Edit: Servers for those too lazy to check:

California/Southwest: ranger.esper.net
Oregon: pandemonium.esper.net
Washington: nova.esper.net
Texas/Southern Midwest: chaos.esper.net (currently down)
Illinois/Great Lakes Region: brutus.esper.net
New York/East Coast: calamity.esper.net
Florida/South: aperture.esper.net

Quebec/Eastern Canada: warden.esper.net

Norway: availo.esper.net
Sweden: portlane.esper.net
France: insanity.esper.net, anarchy.esper.net)

SYNOPSIS BY THREAD - KEY EVENTS, SETTING, CHARACTER ORIGINS
Special thanks to Tiltjuice for compiling this stuff!

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:47 pm

Gentlemen, Behold!

★ AWARDS AND ACCOLADES ★

2013 Best of P2TM Awards
Most Improved Player - The Branriech
Novelist Award (Best Writer) - Giovenith
Best Overall Role Play - Personification Life
Best Lore/Worldbuilding RP - Personification Life
Funniest Character - Charumati, by Swith Witherward
Best Fight/Fight Scene - "Battle of Avatars", Cerillium and Swith Witherward
Best Tearjerker Post - Cerillium and Swith Witherward

Second Annual Best of P2TM Awards
Personification Life and her players bowed out in silent protest of dogpiling by a specific group. The "small fry" role play groups were shattered because they would never have enough players to win votes for (in my opinion) truly deserving players, role play, and posts - it was a pissant popularity contest. Our large group stood in solidarity with these players to show our support of their talents.

2015 Best of P2TM Awards
Best Role Player - Comedy: Northwest Slobovia (tied)
Best Role Player - Horror/Thriller: Monfrox
Best Role Player - Life-Based: Giovenith
Best Role Player - Romance: Highfort
Best Role Player - Science Fiction: Mincaldenteans (tied)
Best Worldbuilder - Swith Witherward (tied)
Best OP/GM - Cerillium (tied)
Funniest RP'er - Cerillum (tied)
Best Writer (The "Novelist" Award) - Highfort (tied)
Best Role Play - Life-Based - Personification Life
Best OOC Thread - Personification Life
Most Fleshed-Out/Rounded Character - Septimus Itum, by Highfort
Most Original Character - Pippa-Michelle, by Giovenith
Best Character Death: Neste Trilb, by Swith Witherward
Best Action or "Fight or Flight" Single Post - "Requiem | Sir Gefrei de Bataille", by Warpspace
Best Heartwarming/Tear-Jerker Single Post - "Regret", by Highfort
Best Romantic Scene - "Esma and Temir", by Highfort and Swith Witherward (tied)
Best Comedy Collaborated Post - "Woolly Bowl", by the Carlisle, Northwest Slobovia, Swith Witherward

2016 Best of P2TM Awards
Winner - Community Choice Award For Favorite Comedy Role Player: Tiltjuice
Recognized by the Community for Exemplary Talent in Fantasy: Mincaldenteans
Winner - Community Choice Award For Favorite Horror/Thriller Player - Primordial Luxa
Winner - Community Choice Award For Favorite Life-Based Player - Northwest Slobovia
Winner - Community Choice Award For Nation Role Play Player - Highfort
Winner - Community Choice Award For Romance Player - Swith Witherward
Winner - Community Choice Award For School-Based Player - Stormwrath
Winner - Community Choice Award For Science Fiction Player - Mincaldenteans
Winner - Community Choice Award For Favorite OP/GM - Giovenith
Winner - Community Choice Award For Most Improved Role Player - Chedastan
Winner - Community Choice Award For Life-Based Role Play Game - "Personification Life: Epic"
Winner - Community Choice for Best Megathread Series - "Personification Life: Epic"
Best Action or Fight or Flight Scene - "Raiders of the Lost Book", by Northwest Slobovia, Primordial Luxa, Highfort, Fvaarniimar
Best Heartwarming or Tearjerker Scene - "Reflections", by Highfort, Swith Witherward
Best Heartwarming or Tearjerker Single Post - "Futility", by Swith Witherward
Best Horror/Thriller Single Post - "Duster", by Giovenith
Best Romantic Single Post - "Loss", by Highfort
Best Action or Fight or Flight Collaborated Scene - "Raiders of the Lost Book", by Northwest Slobovia, Fvaarniimar, Primordial Luxa

★ HONOR WALL ★

It's always difficult to say goodbye, especially when one has spent a long time - literally years, in the case of a series - inside a character or two, suffering and celebrating with them. -Lilith Saintcrow

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:47 pm

Roleplay Guidance

The Mincivet Animation Workshop
From the Producers of the Sesame Guild & other Children's Classics…

Note: this is text only. The formatting won't work in this post due to existing codes. You can view the entire guide here.

Everyone likes a character straight out of or inspired from books, movies, and games that become near and dear; to which we hop onto our beloved P2TM forum and app a character based off that… only to realize just how Mary Sue and generally overpowered they really are. Sadly, the hopeful character extraordinaire falls into the ‘rejected’ or ‘rarely used’ category, left to collect mothballs and virtual dust. This was an issue I had with my group of characters from Guild Wars (a then semi-popular MMORPG), known here as Dwayna's Vigilant, or “Guildies” for short. These chars were no longer used online, as the game progressed to its successor and my work and home schedule made it impossible to spend any significant time throwing fireballs and raising minions. The daunting task wasn't to let them shine (they have shiny to spare), but how to convert my MMORPG characters to a RP format without falling into the aforementioned traps. My original plan was to have all 6 characters be PCs, but after drafting the apps, it was shaved down to 3 mains & 3 NPCs; as time went on in both OOC and IC, it was further reduced to 1 main and 5 NPCs, but I kept the original plan for each character; consequently they fall somewhere in the grey area of NPCs and PCs. I also placed them in order of importance, subject to change, with the intention of developing them as intended should the opportunity - and time - present itself.

The priority went as:

Anais
Alexia
Cherry
Traxt
Erick
Reyna

I had four objectives to accomplish with each character, and each objective was/is intrinsic to the other:

Outline their personalities
Identify strengths/weaknesses and goals (whether group or individual)
Balance and adjust powers/abilities
Reconcile the MMORPG gameplay mechanic to PL roleplay mechanics

Like any game, Guild Wars already gave me a generous foundation to work from. I had lore, class specifics/specialty, powers & abilities (stats included obviously), strengths/weaknesses, gear and equipment. Since the game’s focus is to make the player the hero, my task was to take them down a few pegs without losing their significance. PL, after all, is a storytelling format, and dropping OP characters with uber stats would only get a certain badger irritated, muchly.

For this, I’ll focus on Anais. This was my breakdown:...full guide

Others:

Time-Skip How-To's

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:48 pm

Reserved for OP

by **Swith Witherward** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:50 pm

Hey, OP! Get to Work!

It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life
that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawn on you.
- Phillips Brooks

PENDING APPS:

CODE:

OTHER: Alright, I know you're restructuring, but the small link listing in the first box still takes us to the old OOC. You might want to amend that.

by **Mincaldenteans** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:51 pm

Civet Co-OP Bulletin Board

PENDING APPS:
OTHER:

UPDATES
Character Archiving!

Name:
Link:
PL App:

by **Tiltjuice** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:55 pm

Penguin's Co-OP Whiteboard

CODE

PENDING APPS

Prim's, for Archive, when he's finished retooling (?)

PENDING SHEETS - I can work on these

Calani - viewtopic.php?p=32371924#p32371924
Zan - viewtopic.php?p=32302196#p32302196

MISC

A Merry Throwback I-III - viewtopic.php?p=32258195#p32258195

STORIES!!!
Angels of Avalon
Booze Run II - viewtopic.php?p=32200482#p32200482
Mass Sanitration
Raiders of the Lost Book
Spaghetti

Commerce & Hospitality

Downtown

Market

Agricultural

Industry

Knoll Burrows

Guild

by **Cerillium** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:06 pm

As you can see, we have moved to the new OOC thread. The same old material is here. Haven't worked on it yet. But material isn't important. People are.

A lot of pent up frustrations spilled into the old OOC. Most of it needed to be be said - right or wrong, if you can't approach people and air your grievances, how can you make a situation better?

Now we resolve to go forward together, a combined group. There's no need to harp on old mistakes. People know when they fuck up. When they admit it, and then become humble and sincerely express a desire to do better by people, we do not need to continue to remind them they fucked up or add lemon juice to the wounds they're cutting into their own flesh.

This is our fresh start. Us, all. Agy, Altito, Beare, Bones, Bran, Carly, Cat, Ched, Dance, Fvaar, Gio, Min, Mon, Na, Prim, Sal, Slo, Storm, Swith, Tilt, Torro, Torsi, me and anyone else that needs or wants one. That's what family does. We've lost sight of that. We've forgotten that people are more important than role play games. We must do better. We must do right by each other.

As for the game? We have things in the works, like I mentioned in the old thread. People will still have freedom but with a bit more guidance so they don't feel lost. We have an Island holiday to wrap up, a fungus bear to assist, raiders to unleash, and an entire pony land to save. Let's get back to doing what we love best: breathing life into our characters and world.

- Cer

by **Giovenith** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:19 pm

*when you just got done writing a pointed post and the fresh start OOC banishes it to the nether* >:C

Ah well.

by **Chedastan** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:21 pm

This came out a lot quicker than I expected, my props to everyone involved! Lets make this a wonderful new start in PL, as it's a brand new year still after all!

by **Tiltjuice** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:23 pm

Giovenith wrote:*when you just got done writing a pointed post and the fresh start OOC banishes it to the nether* >:C

Ah well.

SCOTCHGUARD! *doof*

by **Highfort** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:28 pm

MMMMMMMmmmmm I love that fresh thread smell

by **Primordial Luxa** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:29 pm

I'm here and excited.
Eager to finally make a post I can feel proud about.

by **Torrocca** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:30 pm

I'm here!

by **Holy Lykos** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:40 pm

I second Ched's whatever they're called.

Feelings I suppose

by **Swith Witherward** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:41 pm

Primordial Luxa wrote:I'm here and excited.
Eager to finally make a post I can feel proud about.

Primmers, if your schedule isn't too crappy later, say spring/summer, we should do something horribly eldritch (yet properly PG13) with Aegis and Naomi.

Wait, that sounds funny in hindsight.

We should have them go on some adventure, I mean.

by **Primordial Luxa** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:57 pm

Swith Witherward wrote:
Primordial Luxa wrote:I'm here and excited.
Eager to finally make a post I can feel proud about.

Primmers, if your schedule isn't too crappy later, say spring/summer, we should do something horribly eldritch (yet properly PG13) with Aegis and Naomi.

Wait, that sounds funny in hindsight.

We should have them go on some adventure, I mean.

I would love to.
Although I still need to figure out if Aegis will be in the new thread although that does make it very tempting.
We should start some brainstorming soon. I'll have lots more time in about half a week but TG me any initial thoughts you had.

Demens Chosen [PL: Into the Abyss - CLOSED]

Demens Chosen [PL: Into the Abyss - CLOSED]

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