Welcome to Ichikuji High
About the School
Ichikuji High School's construction was completed just finalized before the start of the current academic year (early April). It is considered one of the most well-built and modern schools in the region. It is a technological highpoint, with modern classrooms, layouts that allow student circulation, ease of access and good social and recreational areas as well as well-equipped computer-rooms and offices, and it is overall considered one of the prime designs in its field.
What few know however, is that the school has been built on top of an old Shinto shrine. The shrine was little frequented and was in the name of an obscure and little-respected god. On the death of the last active priest in the 1920s the buildings were cleared to make room for an industrial complex. This served as an industry during World War II. Following the war the factory was badly bomb-damaged and the site was cleared. Eventually the land was bought by the Japanese government to build a new school.
The construction workers who had built the new school claimed that they felt an unaccountable slight unease working on the location. None could specify what it was they were feeling, or why, and as they weren’t able to prove what it actually was, but merely mentioned a sense of unease, these rumours were quickly shrugged aside as nothing important.
Now however, it is a beautiful spring, unseasonably warm and the new academic year has just started. Seeing that a lot of the other schools in the region were filled, students were invited to transfer over to the brand new school to fill the upper classes, while the first grade was filled with students from various middle schools in the province.
The first few weeks went by without anything unusual happening. Nobody experienced anything out-of-order, and overall everything was great. Eventually however, the spirits of the old shrine, seeing themselves tired of just waiting it out and no longer getting the recognition they were due became at first bored, then mischievous. They decided to play a game. They would pick a select few out of the large number of students and faculty, and they would swap around whose mind and personality was in whose body, moving the souls of the unlucky few over to different bodies. This is how the nightmare started for those who were involved.
How will this work?
Nothing will be known in advance about the swappings to begin with. The characters have yet to encounter with anything other-worldly, so they will have to rely on observations made as they suffer these new and shocking experiences. The swappings don’t seem to have any particular pattern, and both who is picked and who they are swapped with don’t stick to any form of schedule. The shortest swaps last roughly half an hour, while the longest last several hours.
As an extra notice, should you want to be excluded from a swap for something like a character-arc, then do give me a notice and I’ll make sure your character isn't picked for a swap. If you’re unwilling to transfer into the body of a character of opposite gender, then that too will be respected, but do notice that it doesn’t prevent the opposite gender from entering your character's body.
All personal knowledge (Aka. personality, academic knowledge, person-recognition etc.) remains with whoever is switched. This means that if my character moved over to another character’s body, (s)he would still keep the knowledge she has without gaining anything extra by switching.
Any person not involved with the swappings will be unable to process it completely. All unrelated parties are simply unable to understand it as an extra safety measure set by the spirits to ensure that their game isn’t ruined.
Rules
- All of E’s rules apply to this game.
- Standard RP-rules. This means no god-moding (being the unbeatable perfectionist, controlling other people’s characters without permission, giving your character knowledge he/she shouldn’t have, etc.)
- No hazardous comments in the OOC. Feel free to socialize, but don’t let it get sour. We don’t need any unnecessary drama. Either work it out by PM or preferably keep it to yourself.
- I don’t think this is something that should have to be stated, but IC-activity does not reflect back to OOC. This means that even if one character endlessly shames another character, it doesn’t mean that it has anything to do with you as a player.
- It is expected that all participants can post at least once per week. Of course, sometimes things happen that make you unable to post for a while, but in that case please tell us so we are not left hanging.
- This last bit will be regarding so-called White-Knight activity. If you are unfamiliar with the term White-Knight, it is essentially when you immediately locate character-flaws and solve them within a few posts. Character-flaws are what define a character, so keep in mind that some might want to keep them for a bit longer. If it has been agreed by PM, then it’s fine, by all means, but don’t force-clear them just because “It’s the right thing to do.”
Application sheet
After I thought about this for a while I decided that both staff and students will be permitted as player characters. All participating characters must be involved in the mind-swapping. Due to the games' main focus being on student interactions a student character will get more opportunities for scenes than a teacher character. The setting is contemporary Japan, students are aged 16 to 18 (first, second and third years. Alternatively a year older should they have dumped a year), staff should be aged about 25+, senior teachers would be 30+, the principal would be in his or her 40s.
Please therefore use a reasonably modern, realistic image for your character – no weapons, cat ears, leather straps, dick-girls, very outrageous hair (Colors can be justified, hairstyles that are very unrealistic can't), etc. This is outwardly a normal school filled with normal students who have your average expectations, worries, hang-ups, hopes and fears. Thanks.
LBGT characters are welcome.
Characters will be Japanese for the most part. I may allow characters of other nationalities who are exchange students or the children of foreign parents based and working in Japan, but these will be few so please be prepared to change your character if I ask you to.
Each player will preferably have only one character initially. Once the game has become established and players are seen to be loyal and supportive to the game, I will then consider second characters. For players playing faculty, this rule will be a bit softer but will still stand.
I highly suggest looking over pre-existing sheets to make something of your own. It will be a lot more fun if every player did their own thing, seeing it would definitely create a lot more drama, comedy, and whatever else you might want to throw into the mix. Variety is key.
ALL PROFILES ARE TO BE SENT TO MYSELF (Reaperdouble0) by PM. When approved, you're free to post the sheet in the characters thread.
Example sheet (empty)
Name: (If Japanese please give family name first, then given name)
Age: (16-18 for students, 25+ for staff)
Nationality:Physical Description: Anything your image doesn't display
Sexual Orientation:Are you willing to swap minds with a character who’s gender is opposite of your own?: yes/no
Personality: Keep in mind that character flaws are what define a character, not their strengths. Nobody are perfect, so keep it in mind when building up the personality.
Background: Make sure to focus a lot on the present since it'll be important for whoever is switching bodies with you. If your character has a very bad living situation, it's important to put it down, just like with any other situation. Family situations, part-time work and so forth should also be put down here.
Ons: Please put down a few without just linking to O/Os
Offs: Please put down a few without just linking to O/Os
Ons/Offs thread: Not obligatory.
Code for sheet[floatright][img height=250 padding=4]http://Image of character clearly showing their face. Please use artwork, not a photograph of a real person. Anime artwork is preferred but western or CGI art is okay too[/img][/floatright]
[b]Name:[/b] (If Japanese please give family name first, then given name)
[b]Age:[/b] (16-18 for students, 25+ for staff)
[b]Nationality:[/b]
[b]Physical Description:[/b] Anything your image doesn't display
[b]Sexual Orientation:[/b]
[b]Are you willing to swap minds with a character who’s gender is opposite of your own?:[/b] yes/no
[b]Personality:[/b] Keep in mind that character flaws are what define a character, not their strengths. Nobody are perfect, so keep it in mind when building up the personality.
[b]Background:[/b] Make sure to focus a lot on the present since it'll be important for whoever is switching bodies with you. If your character has a very bad living situation, it's important to put it down, just like with any other situation. Family situations, part-time work and so forth should also be put down here.
[b]Ons:[/b] Please put down a few without just linking to O/Os
[b]Offs:[/b] Please put down a few without just linking to O/Os
[b]Ons/Offs thread:[/b] Not obligatory.
Major thanks to Haibane who looked over and made some last-second fixes here and there <3
