Multiple Settings A Summer of Ghost-Hunting [Updated]

[Krill]

Tags:

coming of age, high school, summer, teens, nostalgic, ghost hunting, little adventures, vignettes

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The days are long, and it still feels like the summer will be, too. Next year is a distant future, last year is already a fading past. We want to live in the now, while we still can.

We weren't friends, but you knew my name, and I knew your face. The string that's drawing us together won't last, but it's tight right now; let's run with it.

When we're on the cusp of something, we can feel it. But I don't think we really know what it is - and I don't think we need to. We tell ourselves we're hunting for ghosts. But maybe by the time we've found them, we'll have figured out what we really need.

Maybe we'll forget this summer of whispered conversations in a rotting old school house and a rusting pick-up. Maybe we'll even forget each other's name and face. But how we change this summer won't soon be undone.

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• Plot
• Themes/Aesthetic
• Genre Options
• Pairing/Dynamic
• My Character
• Your Character
• Vague Media Inspiration

• 
  
  Our plot follows two high school students who connect at the start of the summer. Despite being relative strangers to each other, something compels them to together to explore some old abandoned building, maybe looking for ghosts. It feels like a summer thing to do, maybe, and they're not in the mood to waste this summer while it still lasts.
  
  The summer progresses. Other dramas unfold - the unfurling of old friendships, the kindling of new loves, the struggles of family and farewells. We use the ongoing narrative thread of these two teens hanging out to explore abandoned places to create vignettes which serve to reflect on other issues in their lives, and to catalyze the personal growth that this reflection can result in.
  
  The summer ends. And with it, so does the roleplay. But the characters live on.
  
  
• 
  
  
  • A story of self-discovery, and the realization of who we want to be. This is the real core of the nostalgia I'm chasing: the sense in which we truly grow as people and solidify into our own selves at this time in our life when we're finally finding the freedom to be independent, and through that independence becoming dreadfully aware of the world we're going to live in so much sooner than we'd like.
  • Our story is about a summer of embracing a sudden passion, with no certainty about what that passion will yield or how long it will last. I think this passion can take many forms:
    • The passion of the relationship (platonic or something more) between our protagonists.
    • The passion of a sudden interest in something (here, ghost hunting) and exploring how much that passion is really tied to the activity itself, or to the context which surrounds it: the friendships, the moments, the promise.
  • An adventure where our characters feel like they’re teetering on the cusp of something bigger and more meaningful - something with the promise of escape from the tiresome, draining problems of their own world. But in the midst of these feelings of grand importance, they’re making little moments in the golden hours of the afternoon, or at 3 AM in a Dairy Queen parking lot, which they’ll reflect on and cherish with more wisdom and more fondness in ten, twenty, or thirty years.
  • I think our story can end with a less than satisfying conclusion - with places unexplored, quarrels unresolved, conversations unfinished - because life goes on.
• 
  
  I'm open to taking this RP in a few different directions. We can lean into any of these that you would like.
  
  • Supernatural Investigation - Maybe there really are ghosts, or something equally preternatural, in the old haunts around town. We'll spend late nights in the library. Sneak into the public records at town hall. Take strange trinkets from the places we explore. Wonder if that shadow in the corner of our room was always there, or if something has followed us home from old St. Agatha's. I don't know if we want to answer these questions, or not. What do you think?
  • Romantic/Platonic - I'm not opposed to romance between our leads, but I also don't think it's necessary. I would prefer that we make our characters first, and then learn through those characters - and the roleplay - whether there is a romantic link between them.
  
  
• 
  
  They're people who knew each other by name and at a distance before, but something brings them together this summer to form a bond that would let them greet each other as old friends if they only ever met again in their 70s.
  
  The only key feature of our pair is that they're students who don't run in the same circles. I'm open to any pitch beyond that.
  
  See "My Character" for more information about my character, and for some inspiration about how the two of us could fit together.
  
  Platonic or Romantic. See "Themes/Aesthetics" for more of my thoughts.
  
  I am extremely welcoming of LGBTQIA2S+ characters in my roleplays. If you want to play a character with a love interest other than my character I am happy to take on that love interest's role for you.
  
  If you PM me, I will share some more ideas for pairing dynamics.
  
  
• 
  
  The character I want to play is someone who was part of the ‘popular circle’ until the end of this past year, when something disconnected her from that group.
  
  This summer is a time of soul searching for her, a time where, free of the old familiar people and relationships she used to exist within as a matter of routine, she’s discovering things about herself and her place in the world that she never had time to question before.
  
  I can tell you more about her when we chat in PMs, and there are many things about her that we might change to better suit the dynamic between our leads.
  
  
• 
  
  I’d prefer to discuss your character with you, based on your ideas. I can give some of my own if you'd like, but I think this is best if you make a character you're really invested in.
  
  One idea I would like to offer: your character might already be interested in ghosts/the occult/the supernatural. This would facilitate the explanation for why our leads are exploring abandoned buildings.
  
  
• 
  
  
  • Stand By Me - an event in the summer catalyzes a story about coming of age
  • Stranger Things - an investigation in a mid-sized town is the backdrop for stories of growth and change
  • Super 8
  • The Outsiders
  • X-Files
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  
  

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Other:

1. I'm not a stickler for post length. Quality over quantity, always.
2. If you need to disappear for a little while, you do you, and know that so long as I'm still around when you return I'll probably be happy to jump back into the RP. Ghost-friendly, as they say, but what did you expect from the title?
3. I am open to exploring dark themes in this RP. Let's discuss them before we start, and be ready to change course at any point if we get uncomfortable.
4. OOC conversation is good.

Please reach out via PM if you’d like to discuss this idea some more. When you send me a message, give me some details on the character you’d like to play, and then any other thoughts/feelings that feel appropriate. Also, please ask whatever questions you want.

 

[Krill]

Bump

 

[Krill]

Bumped and revised.

 

[Krill]

Bumped and HEAVILY REVISED.