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mai's home for abandoned characters [f for f/nb]

Started by mai, July 30, 2014, 05:02:01 PM

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mai

Group games are hard to get right. They depend on a bunch of strangers coming together and finding a combination of posting schedules, ideas, and chemistry that lead to a lasting RP. Many group games fail for any number of reasons, and often even if a game succeeds, some players drop out, or move on, or something like that.

This thread is a home for characters I made for games that either didn't get off the ground, or that I withdrew from for any number of reasons (usually lack of time to post or difference of vision/lack of chemistry with other players), but who I'm not quite ready to let go of yet. I'm putting them here in hopes that some of you might also be interested enough by them to want to help me find them stories of their own outside of their original contexts. Because many of these games took place in complicated worlds, I'm including an extra little blurb (if necessary) before character sheet to explain concepts that might be invoked in passing, but were explained in general worldbuilding. The character sheets of course differ, since each was unique to the originating game.

I should also note that these characters aren't set in stone: while I want to keep the general concept (and probably some details as well), if we find something interesting I'm more than willing to tweak things in the service of a good story.

Li Yan - the diplomat

Li Yan was developed for a game where the golden age of sail took place in the sky, thanks to airship technology. She's very much a creature of her time, but she could be easily adapted to stories that actually take place on the waves instead of in the clouds. Her basic concept is a skilled diplomat who might not be taken seriously due to her youth and gender, but who has more than enough pride (and the power of a vast empire backing her up) to make up for it.

Name: "Lia" Li Yan (Li being her family name, Yan her given name, and "Lia" a westernized name she adopted for dealing with foreigners unable or unwilling to pronounce her real one)

Here's a photo, although she wouldn't be dressed so formally most of the time

High Concept: Silver-tongued Emissary to the West - Li Yan is skilled as a diplomat, she has a way of talking to people, learning their language and earning their trust. However, she is still aware of her heritage, her loyalties and affiliations, and how obvious it is that she serves a foreign (and, in her mind, greater) power.

Trouble: Plum Blossom Amongst Weeds - Li Yan is tied to her homeland in many ways, most of which aren't exactly an asset in the far West. Some treat her with suspicion, after all, she's openly the agent of a foreign power. Other times, people with previous relationships to the Empire or its enemies will expect things of her or oppose her on the basis of her affiliation. And not only that, her appearance and manners mark her as something Other, an exotic treasure in the midst of her foreign companions, or, metaphorically speaking, a plum blossom, strong in the midst of adversity. The plum blossom is of particular significance, since her mother gave her a pressed flower in a pendant as a reminder of who she is when they first left the Middle Kingdom.

Backstory: The daughter of a minor noble functionary from the city of Shenyang, Li Yan accompanied her father as part of the retinue of an embassy sent West by the Wanli Emperor. Although she's a young woman now, she hasn't seen her homeland since she was a young teenager. She still remembers it fondly, if not terribly clearly after many years. On the trip, Li Yan distinguished herself by showing a keen eye for observation and a quick facility with languages. However, not all has been at peace since they left. The death of the Emperor and the capture of Shenyang by rebel forces has left the embassy on shaky ground, and so Zhong Wei, the ambassador, has decided to hedge his bets by extending his stay in the West indefinitely and shrinking the size of his retinue (by, for example, hiring out his functionaries' children to privateer ships). Secretly, he plans to gather as much valuable information on the rapidly expanding West as he can, so as to have something of value to present to the Emperor (whoever that ends up being) when he returns. Aspect: Zhong Wei's Eyes in the Sky

First Adventure: Li Yan hires on to a French ship, bound for the American colonies with the hope of taking a valuable artifact uncovered by an English expedition. Unfortunately, another privateer got to it first, and Li Yan is sent to negotiate with him in order to arrange a purchase and/or theft of the artifact. She manages to talk him into a drinking contest, wagering the ship (which wasn't hers to lose) against the find. Although Li Yan somehow manages to emerge victorious, she also comes away from the ordeal with a dangerous new affinity for the bottle. Aspect: Holds her liquor, as often as possible.

At one point I considered adapting her for another game (which, again, I never really ended up posting in), that sheet's below the cut here:
Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide
"Lia" Li Yan
by mai
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Orientation: Opportunistic
Appearance Details: Li Yan is pale, and the sort of slender that comes from a well-used body rather than an atrophied one. She appears healthy, and usually wears her long dark hair in a bun, held in place by two long ornate hairpins, which are decorated with a stylized plum blossom.

Position: Initially a captive, Li Yan took the opportunity to talk herself into the pirate crew. She fills a sort of fluid role. In port or in meetings with other ships, she puts her diplomatic skills to work, negotiating cheaper rates for supplies, preferential treatment, higher pay for jobs, or whatever might need acquiring. At sea, she uses her rudimentary medical training to function as ship's doctor (or assistant, should anyone more qualified happen along). She can stabilize a wound and do basic first aid, but she's not going to be doing any surgeries anytime soon.

Personality: Li Yan is skilled as a diplomat, she has a way of talking to people, learning their language and earning their trust. However, she is still aware of her heritage, her loyalties and affiliations, and how obvious it is that she serves a foreign (and, in her mind, greater) power. With her crewmates and comrades, she's friendly, if a bit reserved, and observant. With people she needs something from, she's happy to wear whatever face she thinks will best get what she wants. She also has a bit of a drinking problem. She can hold her liquor quite well, but does so perhaps more often than is wise (or economical).

Biography: Li Yan (Lia, to foreigners who can't pronounce her name properly) was born to a family of minor nobles in Shenyang, at a time of revolution. Her family were servants of the Shunzhi Emperor and loyalists of the ascendant Qing dynasty. As a reward for his service, Li Yan's father was appointed to a role in the retinue of an embassy sent to the West in order to learn more about the increasingly-encroaching Western powers. The journey West was an educational one for Li Yan, who discovered her talent for languages and diplomatic work, and distinguished herself amongst the less important members of the abassadorial retinue. In this role, she was sent as a messenger aboard another ship headed towards the English colonies in India, with the overt goal of delivering word to an old contact there, and the secret mission of trying to learn more about the scope of British naval and colonial power. However, before she could, her ship was taken by pirates, and she was captured. Deciding that a pirate ship is a better place to spy from than a carefully monitored official mission, Li Yan decided to talk her way onto the crew, and see what she could find out.

Weapons/Equipment: Li Yan hides small short knives around her clothes in vairous places, and is never without a blade if she needs to stab someone. Even when disrobed, she's able to employ the sharpened tips of her hairpins, although she prefers to negotiate out of trouble before things get violent. She probably wouldn't be much good in a more open fight, but she can aim and fire a gun if she has to.

Character's Ons: She likes people she can sort of push around, or otherwise wrap around her fingers. She likes control, and she likes sex for the pleasure of it, when she lets herself.
Character's Offs: degredation, submission, violence, overly large men.
Player's Ons: I'm interested in Li Yan's use of sex as a tool in her diplomatic arsenal, either to get things, to make someone vulnerable, or just to enjoy herself. I'm also interested in exploring her attraction to women, but there probably won't be much opportunity for such things in a man's world on the ocean.
Player's Offs: rape, excessive violence (a bit of roughness can be ok sometimes), anal, bathroom play, animals, pedophilia, etc.

Zoé Laurent - the weapon

Zoé was developed for a game of high-society maneuvering and drama. The concept was, initially, that the heirs of several major families were to be married off to each other through a series of complicated schemes, but that's not important. What's important is that Zoé will be at home in a setting among the rich, (maybe) famous, and morally stunted.

Character name: Zoé Laurent

Age: 18

Gender: female

Appearance:


Nationality: French, American

Family business: Her father is a casino magnate, but he also has his hands in real estate, construction, and international trade.

Background: François Laurent is a ruthless and shrewd businessman with very little use for other people. He built his empire through any avenue he could, even when they weren't necessarily ethical or even legal, although his high-powered team of lawyers will ruin you if you ever suggest that in public. He never really cared for anyone but himself until one of the women he slept with got pregnant, which he saw as an attempt to tie him down.

In retaliation, he made sure that he was given custody of the child, and he raised her with love and care to be his heir. Zoé grew up with her father as the only constant in her life, their international lifestyle meant she moved around a lot, and her father's womanizing ways meant that she never really had any serious adult women as a presence in her life. Her father was also something of a taskmaster, forcing her to work on herself, whether it was improving her physical abilities (she was taught to defend herself and keep fit) or her academics, she was always working to become something he would consider a worthy heir. Boarding school was her first real chance to be something else, and despite her capability she was something of a shy girl at first among her peers, though eventually she opened up to people she learned to trust.

Personality: Zoé is reserved at first, with an undercurrent of tension and violence. She values competition, and is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure she comes out on top.

When you get to know her, she does have a compassionate side, but she only lets it show to the people she trusts the most. For someone who's proven themselves worthy, she's a fiercely loyal ally and friend. Still, she has something of an edge, giving the impression that she's only barely hiding a fierce cutting edge, no matter how much she tries to come off as friendly or nice.

Likes:

  • Sexual- Power struggles, dominance, strap-ons, using hands or fingers (on herself or others). She also has a submissive side, but she doesn't know it, it'll take someone to draw it out of her.
  • Non-sexual- Martial arts, high fashion, electronic music, being something of a tomboy.
Dislikes:

  • Sexual- anything anal, pain, group sex
  • Non-sexual- people who have an unwarrented high opinion of themselves, hangers-on, men or women who want to attach themselves to rich or successful people instead of succeeding on their own merits, animals (except cats, who she makes an exception for), seafood.
Extra information:
Zoé is athletic, but doesn't really much care for organized sports, preferring simply to keep in top physical shape for her own sake.

A few months ago her mother won the right to contact her, and has sent her a few letters, none of which Zoé has read.

Lily Rodgers - the good girl

Lily was developed initially for a much smaller game, but I still had her in my characters folder and thought there might be something more to do with her. She's a gay girl in a small world who yearns for something bigger, but has a lot of internalized shame, self-loathing, and denial to deal with. She might meet someone who can help her through that, or maybe someone she can project it onto, but whatever happens there are going to be parts of it that aren't pretty.

Name: Lily Rodgers

Appearance:


Age: 19

Height: 5'3"

Weight: 110lbs

Background: Lily was born to be a good girl. Her father was a businessman (owning a couple of local car dealerships) and a deacon in the Grace of God church in their mid-size southern city. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom and a charity volunteer. They were of that rare species that was actually as righteous as they pretended to be, and they expected and planned for their daughter to be just as upstanding as they were.

And for the most part she was. Lily played the role laid out for her with grace and amiability. She did well in school, participated in the church youth group, did all the right extracurriculars, cast flirting glances at the right boys (but never more than a glance, it wouldn't do to be improper). But there was another thing about Lily, one that she knew she had to keep a secret: she was gay. Ever since her early teens she'd known, when she started to realize that the ones she really wanted to kiss, the clothes she wanted to see under weren't the boys her friends talked of, but the other girls she knew.

Of course something so shameful had to be kept a secret, and so Lily did. But her realization of her own difference from what she pretended to be prompted her to look deeper into herself and discover some of the other things she'd been repressing. In the end, she's still conflicted about being someone who everything she's been taught says is wrong, a dilemma which she mostly solves by projecting her own issues onto the objects of her desires. Lily wants to explore but has a lot of shame to work through. Particularly, she has issues about receiving pleasure from her partner, since on some level she still thinks her own desires are shameful.

Elvira Blackcrest - the Witch

Elly was developed for a game where she was part of the Blackcrest family, a prominent old coven of witches. She's young, driven, and pretty weird, and will work well with all sorts of monsters, inhuman folks, or lady vampires.


Character Name::. Elvira Blackcrest (handle-name: ELLY)
Age::. 24
Gender::. Witch
Race::. Human
Sexuality::. When it comes to humans and human-like things, she prefers women, but her real interests are mostly in the sort of creatures for whom gender has no meaning.

A little about me::. Elly is driven, determined, and independent. She has something of a fascination with monstrosity, with the grotesque things that hide from the light and can be summoned, if you're brave enough, by arcane rituals (or sufficiently specialized electrical circuitry). She's somewhat awkward in person, but when her communication is mediated by technology she's friendly and supportive, and helpful to the best of her abilities.

We all come from somewhere::. Elly is going to modernize the Blackcrest family. Too much time has been spent reading ancient grimoires over candlelight and brewing potions under the moon. A modern witch, with an internet connection and a chemistry lab, could show everyone what real power looks like. But things aren't necessarily so easy for the third and youngest daughter of the main Blackcrest lineage. Her older sisters don't seem to have much sympathy for reforms, and the coven elders only care enough to be worried that it's dangerous. Dahlia, particularly, seems convinced that Elly's going to get them all killed.

Morgan - the speedster


They Call Me::. Morgan Cohen
I was Born::.  female
I Look Great For My Age::. 22
It So Happens I'm Into::. people (men, women, whatever)
And I was Labeled::. Gamer Nerd

Sometimes I can be::. Morgan loves to go fast. She talks fast, moves fast, lives fast. She's not exactly impatient (one can't speedrun if one is), but she doesn't really care much about social maneuvering or having friends. She's got her communities (with other speedrunners online, and other biking enthusiasts locally) outside of the school and her (fairly wealthy) parents' social circles, and she doesn't really care about fitting in with her classmates. Because of that, she can come off as somewhat abrasive, but she really thinks of it as just being true to herself. For Morgan, absolutely nothing can compare to the thrill of speed, whether it's a new personal best in a video game, or the wind against her face on a bike.

We All Have Family::. Morgan was born to a power-couple of a doctor and a lawyer. Her parents never really had a lot of time for her when she was growing up, but they made sure she was well-cared-for and provided with whatever she could want. She fell in love with bicycling at an early age, and liked computer games pretty casually until she discovered speedrunning. The idea of perfecting one's play in order to complete a game in the minimum possible time appealed to her greatly, and she dove in to a level that surprised even her. Not many people who know her offline are aware, but she is one of the (if not the) fastest Super Metroid players in the entire world.

Just Their Smile::. Allison (but sssh: it's a secret)
This Is My Jam::. That speedrun song that guy sang in the middle of Super Return of the Jedi or Reclimb
I Love These::. everyone knows red is the fastest color

I think that's it for now. If you're interested in one of these characters, please send me a PM with details and such, and we'll try to work something out.

mai