Realistic or Modern Fortune Amongst Hardship - CS Thread

[RascalRoadkill]

FORTUNE AMONGST HARDSHIP
"These are the end-times,
there was no hope of survival.
This is how you died."
​

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PLAYER CHARACTERS​

I will preface by saying that this will not be first-come, first-serve. It's not personal or a strike against your writing abilities; it's just because I prefer to pick out a group of characters that I think will mesh together in interesting ways. I know my limits, and I simply can't give a ton of players and characters the time and attention they deserve if there's too many people.

Faceclaims - I will ask for no very well known celebrities. I think it'd be pretty difficult to imagine our survival scenario with, like, people with the faces of KPop stars and major actors running around. I ask for no AI generated images either. Aside from that, anything goes, I have no preference between drawn, realistic, or just plain text description. Hell, if you forget one completely, I'm honestly probably not gonna notice. The substance matters far more to me than the appearance, though it is helpful for theatre of the mind.

Character Sheets - Freeform. There will not be a traditional character sheet. You can elaborate on your character concept through descriptive writing, a classic character sheet, or a mix of both. As long as it establishes the character's concept and gives me an idea of who they are, it's fine by me.

I only have one requirement for it. On the sheet, I would like answers to 2-3 of the following questions (your choice!) regarding your character. They are purposefully vague. Consider them "pre-RP"; these aren't intended to ask about what happens to your character during the initial conflict at the start of RP.

• What selfish thing did you do for your own survival, and what were its consequences?
• Who was the latest person to die because of you?
• What was your latest sacrifice?
• Who resents you for what you did, and why?
• Why were you forced to leave your old group before Fortune?
• What is the cause of your current grief?
• What secret have you never told anyone? Why are you terrified of it being revealed?

If these questions all sound rather despondent- good! That's the intention. I want flawed characters with histories that might come back to bite them. Surviving is a matter of skill, but it is also a matter of luck.

Your escape, after all, will mostly be a matter of good fortune.

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EXTRA INFO
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I’m looking for a group of at least 4-5 players, probably maxing out at 7-8 players total. There will be only one "active" character per person (in the sense you only have one PC at a time; if they die or otherwise leave the story, you are free to make a new character). You're free to post as many potential PCs as you want, but in the end, I'll only be taking one from each player for the PC survivor group (though you're certainly welcome to bring one of them into play if your active character Kicks The Bucket later on).

Feel free to make as many backstory characters as you like- some might end up having bigger roles as NPCs. In this case, I might ask about them in the future for more detail about certain dynamics, and I will play them as in-character as possible to your vision of them, if you have any key notes in mind.

I should note that the mortality rate/danger level will be just as high for NPCs, including ones you make to be part of your backstory. For the sake of keeping the stakes where they should be, they are not bound to the same injury/death permissions as I would exercise with your PCs. Please be aware when you make these NPCs/background characters: they are likely to come up in the future, and they are likely to experience tragic circumstances, injury, or death outside of you and your character's control on a narrative basis. This is not to say that you are unable to make suggestions/pitch ideas for their arcs, plot involvement, or when you'd prefer for them to come up.

Here's a summarized list of premise reminders, or otherwise relevant info:

• You are all from the safe haven "Fortune Amongst Hardship". Its destruction will be the inciting incident of the RP. You can have been here for as long as you like; years, months, weeks- hell, maybe you only found the place an hour before shit hit the fan.
• The settlement is built into a small town in Massachusetts, surrounded by forest on all sides. It is not nearby any coastline or other towns. Otherwise, its location will remain purposefully vague to allow you more freedom in character creation.
• The apocalypse started in 1990, and the year is currently 1995. The current season is around the beginning of summer.
• Speaking of the apocalypse- nobody quite knows what caused the outbreak in the first place, or where it originated from. There was talk of a general pandemic a few months beforehand, and just about every place in the country was hit about the same time.
• I would prefer for your characters to be, at minimum, 16 years old.
• I would like answers to 2-3 of the questions above. Please mark them somehow for the sake of clarity! Otherwise, the sheet is completely freeform and you can go about it as you'd like.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them here or on the interest check thread. I do not currently have an estimate of how long these submissions will stay open; likely until we hit the maximum of 7-8, or we get far enough into the RP, whichever happens first. Still, that should be a decent amount of time. I'll end up PMing the Discord link to anyone accepted- I'll note when I start to send those out.

Happy hunting!

 

[sophiezaur]

Aubrey Patterson ✦ age ;; 22 ✦ gender ;; Female, she/her ✦ race ;; Wasian ✦​

basics
name ;; Aubrey Patterson
nickname(s) ;; none
gender ;; Female
age ;; 22
race ;; Mixed, White & Asian

appearance
height ;; 5' 6
build ;; Quite fit, not exactly super toned but still lean. Used to weigh a lot more but ever since the apocalypse started she lost a lot of weight.
hair ;; Thick wavy black hair. Usually up in a bun
eyes ;; Dark brown upturned eyes
face claim ;; Christina Chong


personality traits
abilities ;; Aubrey is a very skilled crafter, being able to make her own simple tools and utensils from wood. She got a lot of her wilderness skills from her father, who was labeled as crazy for believing in an eventual apocalypse. Although for a while she thought he was crazy too, she still loved him and learned a lot about survival living from him. She is also an alright cook, being able to whip up simple meals from little amounts of food.
flaws ;; Very indecisive, and dwells a lot on the past. Sometimes will come off as cold, but really she just gets lost in trying to figure out what to do. She used to be very spontaneous but now she tries to keep to herself, not really doing too much to help others or herself.
favorites ;; She loved movies, while she could still watch them. Will often also be singing songs that she remembered from before the apocalypse started, finding comfort in the songs that were popular while she was growing up. Loves kids, loves observing people.
dislikes ;; Mushrooms, even though they are fairly essential to a lot of diets now. She also dislikes harsh sounds, trying to stay away from any loud noises or scratching sounds, which is difficult given the circumstances. Hates shooting guns but deals with it anyways (prefers melee weapons but those don't fair too well in most situations)

character questions
What selfish thing did you do for your own survival, and what were its consequences?
When all of this shit started I had been at a summer camp, working as a counselor. The ages of the kids ranged from eight to fourteen, an overnight camp in the woods. I had been in the supply room when the infection appeared at the camp. The supply closet had two doors, one of them went to the area where the kids cabins were (this one had a deadbolt lock) and another door to the counselor's cabins, which was separated from the kids area. We had weapons locked up in the storage cabinet, so no kids were permitted in the closet. Everything happened so fast, with all the kids huddled together in their cabins, I'm sure things just spread like wildfire. I watched from the closet as chaos ensured, protected by a window and a deadbolt. I didn't move. I think I was frozen for a solid 10 minutes, watching in horror. Eventually I realized that what everyone's been talking about in the news finally spread to my life and went to grab a weapon, taking mental note of what my dad taught me about survival. While I was preparing to flee, a little girl starts running towards the door with maniac children, death in their eyes and their peers blood covering their hands starting making their way towards her. And me? I panicked. I was in so much shock that I made the decision I would think about for the rest of my life. As the little girl banged on the door, sobbing with fear, I ran out the counselor's door and didn't look back. I'm sure in some world I could have saved her. But fuck, is this not that world. I will never forget those sobs. I didn't know what to do. What if she was already bit? I take that mental image of that little girl with me, everywhere I go. That's the consequence.

Who resents you for what you did, and why?
Funny story. This whole thing started after I turned 17. I was still angsty and stupid. A couple of weeks prior to my 18th birthday, I found myself at a camp for teens, placed inside a mall intended to train us to protect ourselves with the apocalypse and everything. The place had generators that worked so there was still some power. This allowed us to have some luxuries like a VCR, which happened to be the last time I saw a movie (It was Tarzan in Manhattan. Unfortunately). Well, I was a little dumbass back then. My friend Sarah found a pack of cigarettes in the more dead parts of the mall, so we went away from the camp to smoke. From there, we got caught so while we ran back inside, we tipped over a bucket of water and poof. No more power. Who the hell puts a bucket of water next to a bunch of generators, anyways? After that, I ran. Far. A couple of weeks later I snuck back to the mall area and the camp was still there with no power. I don't know if they knew it was me who did it, but I'm guessing if they did, they hated my guts. That was the last time I was in an actual group of any sort, other than that I've been a lone survivor. I travelled for a bit with Sarah but we ended up getting separated.

 

[LadyOfStars]

Vivian Grand

Name: Vivian Grand

Nicknames: N/A

Age: 26

Gender: Male

Height: 5’10” Tall

Weight: 142lbs

Likes:
Junk Food
Cold Weather
Parties

Dislikes:
Arrogance
Greed
Bugs

What was your latest sacrifice?
When the apocalypse happens we all lose so much; hot water, friends, family. But most recently I had to say goodbye to my morals and that hurt me worse than sacrificing my dignity. But when your life is on the line you do what you have to in order to survive.

Who resents you for what you did, and why?
If my family is still alive somewhere I'm sure they more than anyone in the world have some negative feelings towards me. When this whole crap fest started I thought volunteering to help the military establish a base was the right thing to do. i didn't know that they would take us from our families and abandon for not having skills they deemed useful. I watched my family shrink in the distance, surrounded by the chaos that was unfolding while I was taken to somewhere presumably safe. They have every right to resent me.

Why were you forced to leave your old group before Fortune?
I try not to judge a book by its cover, so when raiders kidnapped a bunch of us from a military convoy I looked at them as people who needed help. But it became clear they were just avaricious barbarians spreading mayhem. They were starving us and forcing us to work to help them build a sustainable home. I was tasked with getting their garden up and running, but the soil was not viable and even the grass wouldn't grow. i knew they'd kill me or worse so I ran.

What secret have you never told anyone? Why are you terrified of it being revealed?
I started a building fire in my last group and used it as a distraction to escape my captors. I would be mortified if anyone found out because I don’t want people to see me as an arsonist or maybe even a murderer.

Skills:
Gardening - Vivian learned to garden very early in life as an attempt to bring some greenery to his family’s cramped apartment.
Medicine - Because he spends his time around plants, Vivian is familiar with some plants that have medicinal benefits and can use them to treat some illnesses or wounds.

 

[Lost Martian]

Name:
Joseph “Jojo” Blum

Gender:
Male (He/Him)

Age:
28

Height:
6’

Build:
Slim Athletic

Face Claim:
Casey Cott

Likes:
Jojo’s main love in life was comic books, having read many before the apocalypse started. Even now he will read any he comes across as there is still plenty that he has not read. Jojo also likes candy, which is good because it’s one of the foods that survived the apocalypse. Jojo also loves watching the sunrise as it just calms him down, which is useful in a world where he needs to keep his wits to survive.

Dislikes:
Jojo has had a fear of dogs ever since being bit by one when he was young. He is incredibly uncomfortable around them, even as they are viewed as an asset in this new world. Jojo has also never been much for coffee, preferring juice or even water over it. Jojo also can’t stand when it gets to cold, spending most winters indoors reading or watching television. Thankfully it is currently the summer so he doesn’t have to deal with the chill.

Skills:
Jojo put most of his effort into the arts, becoming an accomplished penciller. Unfortunately that’s not much use in the apocalypse, though he still does it when he does come across some paper and a pencil. Jojo did take mechanical courses in high school and helped his uncle rebuild an old muscle car. This practice has led to Jojo becoming good with fixing cars, which helps with whatever vehicles he comes across. The only issue is that fuel reserves are getting harder and harder to find, as now new fuel is being produced.

Weaknesses:
Jojo is unaware that he actually has bipolar disorder. Somehow Jojo had gone his entire life without being diagnosed, as he tried to avoid doctors as much as he could. As such he can go between high energy manic episodes, to low energy depressive episodes. This emotional instability can put off others. Jojo also has asthma, though he hasn’t needed to take puffers for it since he was a young teenager. However it could easily come back, Jojo getting an asthma attack at a terrible time. Jojo also has proofed to be a terrible shot every time he has used a gun. He’s lucky if one in ten shots actually hit the target.

What did they do before the apocalypse?:
Jojo, born Joseph, was born in a small town in the northeastern United States. Spending a lot of his youth at the one comic shop in town, Jojo would dream of becoming a comic artist. While he had a decent amount of skill with the arts, Jojo’s family wouldn’t have the funds to send him to college.

Jojo would then get a job at the comic shop he loved, becoming close to the owner. Things were going alright for several years as Jojo moved out of his parents’ home and got himself a girlfriend. However things would change when the comic shop owner would suddenly die. Without a proper owner, the store would soon close.

Things would also grow wrong with his girlfriend, as Jojo and her grew apart. Then the apocalypse happened. In only a few days everyone Jojo loved, his family and girlfriend, were killed. Jojo would then flee town with some of the other locals, looking for some kind of safe place for them.

What secret have you never told anyone? Why are you terrified of it being revealed?:
Two years into the apocalypse, Jojo was traveling with a decent sized group of survivors. While looking for supplies they were ambushed by a group of raiders. After killing several members of Jojo’s group, the raiders offered to let the survivors join their raiding party. Jojo would immediately accept. The few who didn’t were murdered.

Jojo would work with these raiders for quite awhile, committing several heinous acts with them such as robbing other survivors or even killing them. Jojo justified it in his mind by saying that it was all so he could survive. It would only be after the raiders killed a child that Jojo would feel remorse. Looking for a way to leave the raiders, Jojo would get his chance when a small number of infected sneaked into their camp. In the chaos of fighting them off, Jojo stole a car and fled the raider camp.

He would drive the car as far away as he could before running out of fuel. Since then he has pretended like that part of his life had never happened, never revealing his time with the raiders. Jojo is certain that others would see him as a monster if they knew what he had done to the other survivors.

Who resents you for what you did, and why?:
Following escaping the raider camp, Jojo would wander into a nearby town, looking for any remaining food. While initially having no luck, Jojo would run across a group of other uninfected humans. Fearing them to be more raiders, Jojo was surprised to learn that they were actually a family who had stuck together since the infection began. Jojo would also be surprised when the father of the family allowed him to travel with them.

For several months Jojo would travel with this family, the Rolands. During that time Jojo would grow close to the older daughter, who was in her early twenties. Eventually a relationship began, keeping it a secret from the rest of the family. One night they would slip away from camp to have sex, not fully checking the area in their rush to be together. A zombie would then sneak up on them, biting the daughter on the shoulder, before Jojo smashing its head in with a rock.

The two would then return to camp, where the daughter was freaking out about turning into a zombie. After a day of deliberation and sickness, the daughter would ask her father to kill her before she turned. The man then did the impossible task of shooting her in the head. Then the normally gregarious father turned to Jojo and asked him to leave. Jojo did so, believing to this day that the Rolands hate him for his actions that caused her death.

Who was the latest person to die because of you?:
Once again traveling by himself, Jojo would end up in Massachusetts. Struggling with depression, Jojo would consider suicide, as the world seemed so bleak and he hadn’t seen another living human in awhile. That all changed when he was standing on a bridge above a deep river. But before Jojo could jump, he heard gunfire. Spinning around he saw several humans, bulls-eying zombies in the head.

These survivors would claim that there was a safe zone to the east, and would convince Jojo to come with them. After several days of walking, Jojo and the others would be nearing Fortune Amongst Hardship. However, with the settlement in sight, the group would come across a zombie horde blocking their route. Deciding to risk it, the group went forward.

While Jojo had a gun, he was a terrible shot and not much good against the horde of undead. All around him, Jojo saw humans go down, becoming food for the infected. That almost happened to Jojo, but another man charged the zombie in front of Jojo, both of them falling to the ground. As Jojo saw the zombie rip out the man’s throat, he ran toward the settlement.

Jojo would make it into the safe zone, alongside three other people from the group. Ever since that day several months ago, Jojo has vowed that no one else would die for him. He had seen enough death.