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Vox Angelis
The Stargazer
Part 1 : The New Fantasy
Up until the 1800s, the world, our world, was as it has always been. Humankind was at the top of creation and we kept evolving, always finding new technologies to make life simpler, or to wage wars between ourselves with ever increasing effectiveness. You could consider that until then, the world was progressing normally, with everything that could eventually be explained scientifically. Then monsters appeared out of nowhere. Just like that. They popped into existence, monsters of pure fantasy that were only written in children's books, fantastic tales of heroism and other works coming from a human mind. Dragons flying high above in the mountains, fairies fluttering deep in the forests, phoenixes arising from great fires, you name it. It seemed like whatever the human mind could possibly think of, it existed somewhere on the planet
Of course, the world was shaken by the sudden emergence of monsters. Nations worldwide called for the state of emergency and took up arms to meet this seeming threat that just appeared on the world stage. And yet, for all the ruckus humanity made from seeing real life monsters, there was no cause for alarm. Monsters, no matter how horrific or savage they looked, kept to themselves in peace and solitude, away from human settlements. Whether they were ignoring humanity, bashful, or simply unaware of their existence on earth, these creatures never made a move against humans, never made any threatening gestures, and most importantly never harmed anyone. As a matter of fact, they never even retaliated against attacks made towards them. Monsters simply let themselves be struck down, whether it was with mere peasant tools, bullets or bombs. Some monsters proved impossible to kill with the current weaponry during this era, but it didn’t change the fact that those invincible monsters didn’t strike back No matter how many monsters were killed in an attempt to rid the world of this new “pest”, it seemed more would appear elsewhere in the world, following the same patterns of being docile, harmless and secluded.
Then, as technology developed into better ways to communicate information, the world slowly began to understand the cause behind the appearances of these monsters. Multiple sightings claimed of seeing a tall monster, almost human in appearance but completely white, blank like a canvas, was floating and roaming areas previously uninhabited by monsters, far from human civilization. Like any monster, this fragile-looking creature never showed signs of hostility and was peaceful. However, it actually acknowledged the presence of human beings, turning its faceless head towards onlookers before disappearing. The few attempts that were made to harm this recurring entity have all proven useless, it seemed impervious to damage, contrary to the usual monster. Furthermore, for every area it was sighted, monsters would soon begin appearing.
This creator of monsters, a name was finally given to it. The Dream Eater, for it was as if the creature was consuming the dreams, nightmares and imaginations of humankind to base its creations from.
So it was with skeptic acceptance and curiosity that the world settled in on this new anomaly. Earth populated with monsters soon became the new reality to live in after decades of peaceful coexistence. Scientists throughout the globe frantically looked for the origins of these creatures, but had yet to find a logical explanation for these appearances other than “reality anomalies”. Some even dared compare these monsters to prehistoric dinosaurs, explaining that this event could explain the presence of such colossal beasts in the far past.
The world kept on going in coexistence with the monsters. Humanity continued to expand and even managed to make use of some of the otherworldly creatures to help in the process. The world kept on looking out for the Dream Eater, where it would appear, what it would create, when will it ever stop? Its goals, its origins, all was still unknown even after a whole century of trying to figure out what it was doing on earth.
As if the Dream Eater seemed to run short on ideas of what to create, it turned to something entirely different, a revolutionary event. In the 2000s, the Dream Eater was reported to have appeared in Washington, right in the middle of the streets, floating amidst the crowd and taking in its surroundings before it vanished after a few minutes of sight-seeing. That was the first time the Dream Eater was seen venturing into a massively populated area, as it usually preferred to wander the outskirts of villages and other abandoned or less-frequented areas. But the most curious aspect of this visit was the report of a teenager who could fly. According to his parents, they were present when the Dream Eater manifested in the city. The day after, the kid would be seen levitating in the familiar living room as he was preparing to go for school.
This event was reported a dozen times throughout the world. For every incursion in populated areas, a kid would be found with newfound powers. And with each visit, the powers granted grew wilder, as if the Dream Eater began to read into the more modern human stories. It was simple at first: levitation, telekinesis, elemental control, etc. But then the teenagers began to develop powers like shooting lasers, controlling gravity, healing, shapeshifting, creating magical objects and even creating monsters just like the way the Dream Eater was initially doing. By 2010, the official count of magically gifted teenagers was 10 throughout the world. The internet forums were ablaze with discussions about the magical teens, desperately trying to find a reason behind these “chosen ones” and get in contact with them, trying to figure out what made them so special.
And as anyone would expect, just like in any story, the government in each of the kids’ respective countries took them into custody, to ensure safety both to the kids and their entourage, and to study how these powers came to be. Fortunately, every single one of the teenagers went in willingly. From what people could gather, it seemed the Dream Eater favored adolescent human beings with a good heart. And while the governments put those kids under tests and works where their powers might benefit society, all the while keeping an eye on them for any sign of abuse, thee kids were true to the speculations. Years went by and none had a misstep, their records clean and they even showed incredible signs of humanity. The world would soon view and even call them “superheroes”.
Between gifting kids with powers to help humankind and creating docile creatures seemingly for pure entertainment, the Dream Eater was seen as some sort of god-like entity that graced the earth. Variants of different existing religions began to incorporate the Dream Eater into their beliefs, believing it must have been a divine herald, if not a deity itself, made real. Soon enough, religion was starting to become popular once more. Seeing the gifted teenagers were good-natured, people started to act better in general, ushering years of life simply becoming better for everyone. Of course, there would always be the skeptic few who would see this unknown entity as a threat, too early to trust completely, but they were largely ignored. No one really knew why the Dream Eater made all of this so far, but it seemed as if most were quite happy with how everything turned out.
Part 2: The Calamity
While everything was looking up for the best, everyone was caught completely off guard when disaster finally reared its ugly head. In 2012, sightings reported the Dream Eater making an appearance, its 13th, in Aksaray, Turkey. Instead of looking around, as it usually did, the alien being was seen clutching its featureless head, seemingly in pain. As people started gathering around it, the Dream Eater glowed brightly of a white light and shot up straight into the sky, leaving a white trail of solid light in its wake. Telescopes tracked it going as far up as the stratosphere, where it finally stopped and crumpled on itself to form a metallic sphere all around it. When the sphere was completed, a thread of light shot up further into the sky, until it exploded into space. A pulse generated from the explosion could be felt by everyone throughout the world that day, felt by both humans, animals and monsters. White light began covering the planet before it faded, faint but still noticeable by telescopes. It covered the entirety of earth.
And while people began to formulate theories on this sudden turn of events, they would not have much time to think as the Dream Catchers’ monsters began acting violently. Once docile and peaceful creatures, now these monsters were acting according to their true nature - savage beasts hellbent on destruction and violence. Dragons began swooping down from their mountains to engulf towns in flames. Leviathans rose from the seas to bring havoc to coastal villages. Ghouls and all sorts of undead rose from the ground to consume the living in the large cities. The United Nations declared Eurasia to be Ground Zero for the outbreak of monsters and ordered evacuation of the countries, advising them to seek refuge overseas. Tukey and its surroundings were utterly devastated from the monsters’ sudden assault.
Suddenly seeing the Dream Eater in a new light, the world decided that everything related to it was deemed dangerous and needed to be put down. As such, the initial 10 gifted humans who were given powers by the Dream Eater were now detained by the government and set to be executed. It was the president of the United States who stepped in to stop the madness, claiming that these gifted individuals were their only chance at fighting off the hordes of monsters. They had proven themselves in the past, and they would prove themselves yet again in this crisis. But while negotiations of how to handle the superpowered humans against the monsters were underway, reports of newly emerging people with superpowers began surging throughout the world. This time, however, no one could predict to whom these powers would be granted. Criminals as well as the ordinary joe were granted powers, from kids to the elderly.
This outbreak of magical individuals caused yet another crisis to deal with, as some would use the chaos of this event to abuse their powers. Now the government not only had to fight monsters, but magically-empowered maniacs who would soon band together to form rebellions, cartels and even cults. Years passed and the world fell into chaos between trying to handle the monsters and the people who would rather live their ambitions rather than rot away in a cell. Too many people died to the monsters and to the whims of the villainous super-powered humans.
Eventually, after many countries were lost to the monsters and global resources began to plummet, the governments tried to consolidate their strengths into specific metropolises and leave both monsters and rebellious superhumans to fight each other for control over abandoned cities. They would also force a mandate concerning every magically-enhanced individuals, based on the decision taken by the UN about the first 10. Every person with abilities would be detained and forced to serve into military service. Whoever refused to cooperate, they were to be eliminated.
And so governmental institutions would be built to house these enhanced people. Not only would they detain any of these people, they would conduct background and psychological checks to assess the risk one individual posed to society. The more promising teenagers would be provided education and preventive measures to help the government keep a close eye on these people. These institutions would not only serve as military schools, they would serve also as headquarters to deploy these magical soldiers into battle to hold struggling frontlines. Normally, sending children to battle would be a terrible violation against human rights, but with the world in shambles after years of suffering from the horrors of this monstrous outbreak, the world seemed to turn a blind eye to this. As a matter of fact, people actually hoped that both creations of the Dream Eaters would kill each other off in this war.
For the moment, as long as the young superhuman soldiers proved their usefulness on the war against the monsters and the maniacs out there, the world was willing to tolerate the presence of magical children. And while some of them could pose a real threat to society if they decided to turn on the government, these kids were still humans. A bullet to the head would do the job just as any other human, for most of them at least, and the magical kids were still outnumbered by consolidated national armies. But it would be a shame to dispose of them so quickly. After all, the monsters out there weren’t as easy to deal with…
Premise:
So here we are, in 2024. It’s been 12 years since the Dream Eater went up in the sky and morphed into a silvery sphere. The world is still waging war on monsters. Most people fled the middle world and went overseas, at the far end of the crisis, to places such as the Americas, Japan, Australia and so on, to consolidate their strengths while war was waged on the frontiers of these countries. There are now only a handful of metropolises left in the world, and these cities are massive, for it is all that is left of humanity. People are rationed to make sure food is enough for everyone, while the wealthier enjoy luxuries from having taken advantage of the early stages of the crisis. In a standard metropolis, people are living their day-to-day lives as we would live our lives today, with the worry of the war against the monsters present like an afterthought. But for the world to survive and carry on, the people must live on and work, while the soldiers on the frontlines fight to keep this peace.
You wake up one morning after a rough night to find out you’ve just been granted powers, whether you wanted to be one or not. Fortunately, unlike many other fools, you’re quick to realize that submitting to the whims of the government meant you were not going to get a bullet put to your skull. You're but a teenager, and while the world would usually sympathize with you, you are met with scorn from basically everyone. Your only saving grace is how useful you will be to humanity. So you’ve been enrolled into the United Nations' Military and Research Academy for the Supernatural (UNMRAS) to continue your studies and train with your newfound powers to fight monsters. The academy is tailored for both high-school and college students, completely renovated from the Harbor College of Los Angeles. These institutions are rather new and their main purpose is to control and use the emerging supernatural kids as best as they can for the benefit of mankind.
Whether you went to the government willingly or by force, the army finding you surrounded by corpses because you didn’t know how to control your powers or simply walked up to a police station and submitted yourself to authority, is up to you to decide. Either way, the Dream Eater gave you powers, and you are smart enough to know the world will only tolerate you for how well you can deal with monsters and do what you are asked to.
There is however one important thing that no normal human being knows. Every Dreamer was visited by two dreams on the night before they woke up with powers. You saw a vision of what your magic was capable of at its limits: unimaginable power serving for what the common people referred to as “the greater good”. And after that vision, you were visited by a nightmare, a twisted version of your first vision where you would tear down anyone standing against you and your plans to dominate the world with powers beyond human comprehension.
At the end of both visions, a hazy pathway was presented to you, splitting into two separate ways. One path leads to somewhere bright and dreamy. On the other path, the ‘you’ from the nightmarish vision extended its hand to you with a devious grin, whispering “Oh trust me, this will be even better. The fun we will have!”
You chose one of the two paths. Going down this path, you could feel you have completely rejected the other. And for that, you felt a surge of emotion rushing through you from the other side, something you could only describe as pure hatred.
For the people who chose the first path, you’ll wake up with a white silver sphere imprinted on your right hand.
For the ones who have decided to take the nightmare’s hand and follow them down the other path, you woke up with a black brand on your left hand. And with a bonus. Falling into temptation, the nightmare gives you a deadlier version of your power with an equivalent deadly cost that all those branded by the nightmare experience. The worst day of your life, your deepest shame, your most terrifying secrets, the things that annoy you the most in the world, your worst nightmares, your biggest remorse, they would all play in your mind on repeat without cease. The emotions you felt, the sounds and images of these memories, they would become more vivid the more time passes. You can feel madness clawing at your soul for reliving such things constantly. Fortunately, doing something (it depends on your character) will distract yourself from the maddenings thoughts, and doing something destructive to people or objects will relieve you for a moment. But the thoughts always come back… eventually.
Will you manage to survive these chaotic times, or will you succumb like many other Dreamers out there?
Your decisions and your will to carry on will decide your fate.
"Hey folks, Angel here! I’m admin to this forum for Dreamers. I’ve stickied some topics that would serve as annexes for the newbies who have many questions about themselves or the others. Please read them carefully."
First of all, normal humans call us “The Freaks”, but that doesn’t mean this name needs to stick when we talk about ourselves, right? Remember there was a time the first people picked by the Dream Eater were super popular and had various nicknames? Mages, Sorcerers, Superhumans, there were tons of ways to describe them, but I think the one that stuck with the popular media was “Dreamers”. So even after everything went to shit, people all over the globe who got powers started to adopt this moniker and it began to be what we call ourselves.
But don’t let a simpleton know about it. Just nod and accept being called a Freak, because otherwise they might think there are more to us than simple kids cursed by the Dream Eater. We really don’t need the normies to give us more reasons to be at our throats. Eventually, we’ll get rid of the monsters and deal with our problems with humans later.
I’ll get to the different intricacies in being a Dreamer, but I think I should explain about The Dream first. Or you can just skip to Annex 3 if you feel like you don’t need to know about it.
But don’t let a simpleton know about it. Just nod and accept being called a Freak, because otherwise they might think there are more to us than simple kids cursed by the Dream Eater. We really don’t need the normies to give us more reasons to be at our throats. Eventually, we’ll get rid of the monsters and deal with our problems with humans later.
I’ll get to the different intricacies in being a Dreamer, but I think I should explain about The Dream first. Or you can just skip to Annex 3 if you feel like you don’t need to know about it.
So you know about it, the visions we were visited by the night just before we awoke with powers, yeah? Dreamers simply decided to call this phenomenon “The Dream”. Apparently, the visions differ for everyone. The way I heard about them, they sound very intimate, very personal. So no, I don’t want to read or hear about any of yours. Better to just keep them to yourself, if you ask me, unless you want to share your privacy to the one you trust the most with your life or your kids, if you even get there some day.
So the Dream always comes in two parts. I can’t be sure if it’s true for even the first Dream Eater picked a dozen years ago, but all new Dreamers I’ve spoken to relate the same story. It’s your classic tale of Good vs. Evil, or at least it does feel something like that. Pick the good path, and you’ll be given powers and a white sphere mark on right hand. Easy right?
Follow the nightmare dude and you also get powers, but instead of a sphere on your right hand, you get a black symbol that looks kind of a black sun? Heck, I guess we can say the “good” guys got a white full moon? Anyway, I digress. So yeah, not only you get even stronger powers and a black brand, but you also get what we Dreamers call a Curse. Imagine it: the worst day of your life, playing on loop over and over again in your head when you sleep, when you do nothing, and even when you do something, unless that something is destroying shit and hurting people.
I’ll get into more details about the two types of Dreamers in the next annex but I feel like I should close this annex with something.
YOU ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT SPEAK ABOUT THEM TO THE NORMIES. We’ve got enough of them hating us simply for being chosen by the Dream Eater, we don’t need to give them more reasons to pick on us. Seriously, I mean it. We don’t need them to think we’re lunatics on top of everything else. We’ve got enough of those anyway.
So the Dream always comes in two parts. I can’t be sure if it’s true for even the first Dream Eater picked a dozen years ago, but all new Dreamers I’ve spoken to relate the same story. It’s your classic tale of Good vs. Evil, or at least it does feel something like that. Pick the good path, and you’ll be given powers and a white sphere mark on right hand. Easy right?
Follow the nightmare dude and you also get powers, but instead of a sphere on your right hand, you get a black symbol that looks kind of a black sun? Heck, I guess we can say the “good” guys got a white full moon? Anyway, I digress. So yeah, not only you get even stronger powers and a black brand, but you also get what we Dreamers call a Curse. Imagine it: the worst day of your life, playing on loop over and over again in your head when you sleep, when you do nothing, and even when you do something, unless that something is destroying shit and hurting people.
I’ll get into more details about the two types of Dreamers in the next annex but I feel like I should close this annex with something.
YOU ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT SPEAK ABOUT THEM TO THE NORMIES. We’ve got enough of them hating us simply for being chosen by the Dream Eater, we don’t need to give them more reasons to pick on us. Seriously, I mean it. We don’t need them to think we’re lunatics on top of everything else. We’ve got enough of those anyway.
So first I want to preface with a popular theory among the Dreamers. While we know next to nothing about the Dream Eater, there had been a pattern before it went flying to put itself in a sphere. And after that, it just went batshit crazy and chaotic. So it’s only logical to assume there is a second actor at play here. Something that might even be more powerful than the Dream Eater?
I’m putting that here because the First Ones were all kids of a good nature, but then we get people who are actual murderers and bad guys with powers now. And with the two paths in our collective Dream? It’s clear something is conflicting with the Dream Eater. I’ve mentioned previously something about Good vs. Evil. I’m pretty sure the Dream Eater and whatever is the other thing that baits us with more power is a thing of evil.
So for the people who picked the “right” path, we call those people the “Hopefuls”. I mean, despite knowing the world went to shit, we can dream of a better tomorrow by using our powers, right? We get a white sphere on our right hand to symbolize the Dream Eater that went up there.
Our powers generally tend to be stable and grow steadily over time as we use them. The fact there is no downside to our powers, I guess we’re more like the First Ones, who were hand-picked by the Dream Eater. It would make sense that our powers are aligned with it. I just wish we knew what the Dream Eater wanted of us instead of dropping all these enigmatic dreams. I’d like to say we are the good guys, but we all know human nature is more complex than that.
So it brings me to the other type of Dreamers. The guys who decided following a nightmarish version of themselves was a good idea. Look I don’t judge but…
We call these people the Nightmares, because really what the hell? These guys get cursed to live their life while constantly being reminded of the worst fuck-ups they’ve had. And let me tell you, I’ve met a lot of them and they seem to constantly be having a bad day. I have no idea what this black sun mark on their left hand symbolizes. Their powers are absurdly strong and they seem to grow stronger even quicker than the Hopefuls, especially if they keep using their powers to satiate their Curse.
Like I mentioned before, their Curse is basically anything that they feel ashamed of, and it constantly replays in their mind at every moment of the day. Think of it like the song you hate the most that keeps playing in your head, and it gets louder and louder in your head until you can’t take it and want to just completely destroy the jukebox playing it. But then it reappears some time later, and it replays it over and over until you destroy it again.
So yeah, don’t wonder why the Nightmares always seem on the edge, who wouldn’t in their shoes? If they haven’t satiated their Curse, you can tell they’re just about to punch walls and kick down doors, so don’t bother them. If you know or if you’re actually someone with calming powers, you’ll be doing them a huge favor.
I did say there’s more to human nature than just Good and Evil, yeah? All I ask is not to pick on the Nightmares for the poor choice they’ve taken in their Dream. It’s not like everyone necessarily knows right from wrong, and there might be a reason why they followed the nightmare.
After all, we’re all in this together. We gotta fight to survive and rely on each other to live on. They may act like assholes, but I’m sure we can be more tolerant than the normies are towards us Dreamers.
I’m putting that here because the First Ones were all kids of a good nature, but then we get people who are actual murderers and bad guys with powers now. And with the two paths in our collective Dream? It’s clear something is conflicting with the Dream Eater. I’ve mentioned previously something about Good vs. Evil. I’m pretty sure the Dream Eater and whatever is the other thing that baits us with more power is a thing of evil.
So for the people who picked the “right” path, we call those people the “Hopefuls”. I mean, despite knowing the world went to shit, we can dream of a better tomorrow by using our powers, right? We get a white sphere on our right hand to symbolize the Dream Eater that went up there.
Our powers generally tend to be stable and grow steadily over time as we use them. The fact there is no downside to our powers, I guess we’re more like the First Ones, who were hand-picked by the Dream Eater. It would make sense that our powers are aligned with it. I just wish we knew what the Dream Eater wanted of us instead of dropping all these enigmatic dreams. I’d like to say we are the good guys, but we all know human nature is more complex than that.
So it brings me to the other type of Dreamers. The guys who decided following a nightmarish version of themselves was a good idea. Look I don’t judge but…
We call these people the Nightmares, because really what the hell? These guys get cursed to live their life while constantly being reminded of the worst fuck-ups they’ve had. And let me tell you, I’ve met a lot of them and they seem to constantly be having a bad day. I have no idea what this black sun mark on their left hand symbolizes. Their powers are absurdly strong and they seem to grow stronger even quicker than the Hopefuls, especially if they keep using their powers to satiate their Curse.
Like I mentioned before, their Curse is basically anything that they feel ashamed of, and it constantly replays in their mind at every moment of the day. Think of it like the song you hate the most that keeps playing in your head, and it gets louder and louder in your head until you can’t take it and want to just completely destroy the jukebox playing it. But then it reappears some time later, and it replays it over and over until you destroy it again.
So yeah, don’t wonder why the Nightmares always seem on the edge, who wouldn’t in their shoes? If they haven’t satiated their Curse, you can tell they’re just about to punch walls and kick down doors, so don’t bother them. If you know or if you’re actually someone with calming powers, you’ll be doing them a huge favor.
I did say there’s more to human nature than just Good and Evil, yeah? All I ask is not to pick on the Nightmares for the poor choice they’ve taken in their Dream. It’s not like everyone necessarily knows right from wrong, and there might be a reason why they followed the nightmare.
After all, we’re all in this together. We gotta fight to survive and rely on each other to live on. They may act like assholes, but I’m sure we can be more tolerant than the normies are towards us Dreamers.
The United Nations’ Military and Research Academy for the Supernatural, or better known as UNMRAS, is the place where all of us Dreamers are rounded up by the government when they find out about our existence. Due to some Dreamers going bat shit crazy with their powers or had an accident involving magical abilities, the UN isn’t taking any chances anymore and arrests anyone suspected of having powers. You’ll be cuffed with some sort of techno-magical cuff and brought to Los Angeles.
At the academy, there is an analysis wing at the entry blocks where the new arrivals are taken and subjected to a lot of tests to evaluate whether you’ll be a danger to yourself and the others. More often than not, new arrivals are let in even if they are a bit cuckoo, because the world needs cannon fodder and are desperate to find some. Only the far out lost causes are executed instead.
So if you ever get arrested, pass the psychological tests and green-lighted to enter the academy, you’ll find yourself in a huge school populated with a lot of your fellow Dreamers.For the campus grounds, you’ll find UNMRAS to be huge. There is a baseball field, a football stadium, a big swimming pool outfitted even for diving competitions, a tennis court, a whole-ass gymnasium, a basketball court and even a golf course. You’ve got dorms a five-minute drive south. The classrooms are all bundled up in a huge facility to the west wing, the library and computer rooms are located not too far away from the dorms. There’s a park with a rather big lake at the far-end west of the campus for those who enjoy fishing. The offices for the teachers and the military folks are at the northern wing of the academy.
The thing is, while we are being teached discipline, training with our newfound powers and carrying on with our studies, we’re not being “completely” oppressed here. You’ll find that out when you visit the cafeteria on your first day. There’s food for an army, you can eat all you want, and to much surprise the food ain’t even bad. The reason is, there are actually Dreamers who have food-related powers, so they can cook up some very decent food all day long for everyone at the academy. So rejoice, food lovers, your nightmare of eating dogshit prison food has not yet arrived. Just make sure the cooks don’t die early.
Alright, enough with the pleasantries, I sound like I’m trying to sell you the idea of how comfortable your stay at UNMRAS will be. For sure, it’s leagues better than being with the normies constantly trying to mug you for being different, but it’s still a military school and you’ll be sent to fight on more occasions than you’re going to be comfortable with.
You know all the paperwork you filled during the testing stage? Well, they compiled the data and your answers and placed you in an appropriate school year. Besides all the serious military guys wandering around the school premises, classes are pretty much the same as your regular classes back when you were a normie. You still have your regular semesters, classes are mandatory and you better not miss them without having a good excuse, a terribly good one at that. You get good grades, you graduate onto next year's level of classes, if you live this long. Oh, and the teachers don’t play favorites. They might actually hate every single one of their students. They are normal, civilian people brought in by the government to teach us, with an added bonus I assume.You’ll rarely find one teacher to sympathize with us Dreamers. If you actually find a teacher who is chill with us, god bless them and you are one lucky bastard. If you loved PE in school, boy I don’t know whether you’ll be ecstatic or sad, and same for those who hated it. They basically replaced PE with various training modules, ranging from ability training to tactical training. UNMRAS really is trying to nail down the “supernatural soldiers'' thing. If you don’t want to end up in isolation or with a bullet to the head, you’ll do just that and become a soldier eventually. That’s the shared fate we Dreamers have within the institute, so better settle in and start being minded that you’ve just enrolled in the military.
Fortunately enough, a good friend of mine talks to machines (that’s his power thing), so he secretly made this forum for us to communicate without the government intruding on our life. Because you better get used to it, you’ll be monitored 24/7 without rest. All the letters sent to you, they will be read before you get them. All the packages you bought on Amazon, you bet they will arrive opened and inspected by the military before they get to you. Every phone call, they are tapped and recorded. There really is only this place where the government has no reach.
As for who run this place, let me give you a quick tour. You generally won’t ever speak to them directly, and you bet they’re the most hated people in UNMRAS. Director Lang is in charge of this place, apparently a former high-ranked member of USA’s intelligence division, perhaps even CIA or FBI, but I don’t know for sure. She doesn’t give a damn about the Dreamer, she just uses us as living and breathing weapons to fight the monsters out there. She has no qualm about sending anyone who can fight up on the front lines. She’s strict, merciless and doesn’t tolerate lack of discipline. If you’re going to be a trouble-maker, you probably have a single chance to change your attitude before going to the chopping block. Fuck around too much, Lang won’t let you live long enough to see another sunset.
Ironically enough, she is seconded by a Dreamer, a Hopeful by the name of Casey. He is way more altruistic than Director Lang, but don’t mistake his good demeanor for trust. He’s here to maintain order and will use his absurd telekinetic powers to make you behave if you’ve caught his eye. From what I know, he advises Lang on the current Dreamers situation for her to make sound decisions.
There are a few high-ranking military dudes that I don’t bother recalling, but I know they answer to the Director only. There are also a few staff members who are Dreamers as well, but you can’t talk to them, and they’re not allowed to talk to you either. Most have non-combatant powers. They are more technical and help with maintenance of the academy and such. They live in comfortable apartments and never go out on missions, for being submissive. Usually they are guarded by one or two guards at all times whenever they are going around campus.
Speaking of apartments, the dorms are split into two wings. One wing is reserved for the Hopefuls. Because you know, since we are more stable in our minds, we get to live with a roommate or two and share a suite. It’s basically a 3-room mini-apartment, complete with a bathroom and a kitchen, but the living room also is used as the bedroom. Better forsake your privacy. There are Nightmares who have a good hold of their Curse who also share a loft with other like-minded Nightmares or Hopefuls in this wing.
The second wing is reserved for the less-stable Nightmares, since their mood swings don’t make them great roommates. Each Nightmare has its own room, but they have communal kitchens and restrooms on each floor.
And to finish with this annex (sorry if it’s so damn long, there’s a lot to cover about the academy and I’m pretty sure there is some stuff I even forgot to put), there’s the cuff you wear around on one of your ankles. This is no ordinary house-arrest apparatus. Remember the staff Dreamers I spoke of earlier? Well, there’s this one secret Dreamer who can infuse magic into objects. The cuffs are not only tracking you, listening to everything you say and do, give you a stunning shock if you misbehave, monitor your vitals and basically everything you could expect a government to spy on you, but they also are impervious to any kind of damage and can completely shut down your powers. Insane right? Once you get cuffed, you’re basically at the mercy of the government, and that’s the reason why you never heard of an uprising in UNMRAS. You’ll get shut down and shot down before you can even make a move.
Oh shit, I knew I was forgetting something. Last thing, I swear. For the Nightmares who need to vent safely, there is an abandoned landmark at the far end south of the campus. We call the place “Havoc Town”. It’s a mock village, with buildings and “people” (they’re not real people, but they almost act like normal people, if everyone were mentally at the level of a zombie). It’s run by a staff mage no one has ever seen. Every night, the town resets back to its original state, no matter how run-down it was made by the amount of Nightmares who went there to blow up stuff.
At the academy, there is an analysis wing at the entry blocks where the new arrivals are taken and subjected to a lot of tests to evaluate whether you’ll be a danger to yourself and the others. More often than not, new arrivals are let in even if they are a bit cuckoo, because the world needs cannon fodder and are desperate to find some. Only the far out lost causes are executed instead.
So if you ever get arrested, pass the psychological tests and green-lighted to enter the academy, you’ll find yourself in a huge school populated with a lot of your fellow Dreamers.For the campus grounds, you’ll find UNMRAS to be huge. There is a baseball field, a football stadium, a big swimming pool outfitted even for diving competitions, a tennis court, a whole-ass gymnasium, a basketball court and even a golf course. You’ve got dorms a five-minute drive south. The classrooms are all bundled up in a huge facility to the west wing, the library and computer rooms are located not too far away from the dorms. There’s a park with a rather big lake at the far-end west of the campus for those who enjoy fishing. The offices for the teachers and the military folks are at the northern wing of the academy.
The thing is, while we are being teached discipline, training with our newfound powers and carrying on with our studies, we’re not being “completely” oppressed here. You’ll find that out when you visit the cafeteria on your first day. There’s food for an army, you can eat all you want, and to much surprise the food ain’t even bad. The reason is, there are actually Dreamers who have food-related powers, so they can cook up some very decent food all day long for everyone at the academy. So rejoice, food lovers, your nightmare of eating dogshit prison food has not yet arrived. Just make sure the cooks don’t die early.
Alright, enough with the pleasantries, I sound like I’m trying to sell you the idea of how comfortable your stay at UNMRAS will be. For sure, it’s leagues better than being with the normies constantly trying to mug you for being different, but it’s still a military school and you’ll be sent to fight on more occasions than you’re going to be comfortable with.
You know all the paperwork you filled during the testing stage? Well, they compiled the data and your answers and placed you in an appropriate school year. Besides all the serious military guys wandering around the school premises, classes are pretty much the same as your regular classes back when you were a normie. You still have your regular semesters, classes are mandatory and you better not miss them without having a good excuse, a terribly good one at that. You get good grades, you graduate onto next year's level of classes, if you live this long. Oh, and the teachers don’t play favorites. They might actually hate every single one of their students. They are normal, civilian people brought in by the government to teach us, with an added bonus I assume.You’ll rarely find one teacher to sympathize with us Dreamers. If you actually find a teacher who is chill with us, god bless them and you are one lucky bastard. If you loved PE in school, boy I don’t know whether you’ll be ecstatic or sad, and same for those who hated it. They basically replaced PE with various training modules, ranging from ability training to tactical training. UNMRAS really is trying to nail down the “supernatural soldiers'' thing. If you don’t want to end up in isolation or with a bullet to the head, you’ll do just that and become a soldier eventually. That’s the shared fate we Dreamers have within the institute, so better settle in and start being minded that you’ve just enrolled in the military.
Fortunately enough, a good friend of mine talks to machines (that’s his power thing), so he secretly made this forum for us to communicate without the government intruding on our life. Because you better get used to it, you’ll be monitored 24/7 without rest. All the letters sent to you, they will be read before you get them. All the packages you bought on Amazon, you bet they will arrive opened and inspected by the military before they get to you. Every phone call, they are tapped and recorded. There really is only this place where the government has no reach.
As for who run this place, let me give you a quick tour. You generally won’t ever speak to them directly, and you bet they’re the most hated people in UNMRAS. Director Lang is in charge of this place, apparently a former high-ranked member of USA’s intelligence division, perhaps even CIA or FBI, but I don’t know for sure. She doesn’t give a damn about the Dreamer, she just uses us as living and breathing weapons to fight the monsters out there. She has no qualm about sending anyone who can fight up on the front lines. She’s strict, merciless and doesn’t tolerate lack of discipline. If you’re going to be a trouble-maker, you probably have a single chance to change your attitude before going to the chopping block. Fuck around too much, Lang won’t let you live long enough to see another sunset.
Ironically enough, she is seconded by a Dreamer, a Hopeful by the name of Casey. He is way more altruistic than Director Lang, but don’t mistake his good demeanor for trust. He’s here to maintain order and will use his absurd telekinetic powers to make you behave if you’ve caught his eye. From what I know, he advises Lang on the current Dreamers situation for her to make sound decisions.
There are a few high-ranking military dudes that I don’t bother recalling, but I know they answer to the Director only. There are also a few staff members who are Dreamers as well, but you can’t talk to them, and they’re not allowed to talk to you either. Most have non-combatant powers. They are more technical and help with maintenance of the academy and such. They live in comfortable apartments and never go out on missions, for being submissive. Usually they are guarded by one or two guards at all times whenever they are going around campus.
Speaking of apartments, the dorms are split into two wings. One wing is reserved for the Hopefuls. Because you know, since we are more stable in our minds, we get to live with a roommate or two and share a suite. It’s basically a 3-room mini-apartment, complete with a bathroom and a kitchen, but the living room also is used as the bedroom. Better forsake your privacy. There are Nightmares who have a good hold of their Curse who also share a loft with other like-minded Nightmares or Hopefuls in this wing.
The second wing is reserved for the less-stable Nightmares, since their mood swings don’t make them great roommates. Each Nightmare has its own room, but they have communal kitchens and restrooms on each floor.
And to finish with this annex (sorry if it’s so damn long, there’s a lot to cover about the academy and I’m pretty sure there is some stuff I even forgot to put), there’s the cuff you wear around on one of your ankles. This is no ordinary house-arrest apparatus. Remember the staff Dreamers I spoke of earlier? Well, there’s this one secret Dreamer who can infuse magic into objects. The cuffs are not only tracking you, listening to everything you say and do, give you a stunning shock if you misbehave, monitor your vitals and basically everything you could expect a government to spy on you, but they also are impervious to any kind of damage and can completely shut down your powers. Insane right? Once you get cuffed, you’re basically at the mercy of the government, and that’s the reason why you never heard of an uprising in UNMRAS. You’ll get shut down and shot down before you can even make a move.
Oh shit, I knew I was forgetting something. Last thing, I swear. For the Nightmares who need to vent safely, there is an abandoned landmark at the far end south of the campus. We call the place “Havoc Town”. It’s a mock village, with buildings and “people” (they’re not real people, but they almost act like normal people, if everyone were mentally at the level of a zombie). It’s run by a staff mage no one has ever seen. Every night, the town resets back to its original state, no matter how run-down it was made by the amount of Nightmares who went there to blow up stuff.
- Your usual RPN rules apply here. No exception.
- Also your usual RPing rules apply. No godmodding (making your character invincible and more powerful than they should be), no metagaming (using OoC knowledge to control the narrative or give a character an advantage or disadvantage), no bunnying (taking control of another player’s character without their consent) and no autohit/autokill on NPCs and monsters unless I give the approval.
- Also also the usual etiquette rules. You know, no bullying, no drama, be respectful to your fellow players. I trust we can be adults and resolve our issues in PM. If both parties can’t find an agreement, talk to me, please.
- I plan to have a “one post per week” pace at the beginning, but it can be subject to change depending where we are in the story. If you can’t meet the deadline, I encourage you to warn me so we can work something out to advance the plot without too many delays.
- Likewise, if you’re no longer interested in continuing this story, please warn me so I can remove your character from the story. Ghosting will make you end up on my blacklist of people I will not RP with or accept in future RPs I might host later.
- One character per player for the moment.
- Romance is allowed, but make sure everyone involved in such relationships agree to it. Soft gestures of love (kissing, hugging, hand-holding (*GASPS*)) are acceptable, but anything friskier needs to fade-to-black. Anything under the age of consent is completely forbidden.
- Have fun !
- The above rules all apply here.
- If you have questions about how one power interact with another, don’t hesitate to call on me to clear it up. I get the final say in case a heated argument needs resolving.
- For fighting etiquette, I trust people to be reasonable and handle their interactions properly. Attacks that connect, injuries sustained, etc. will be handled by the involved players. If unsure, refer to the rule just above. Communication is key so make sure to talk to your partner(s) of your intentions and how well you can set up this fight.
- If circumstances prevent you from contributing to your fight for a long time, first try to find a common ground for how the other partner(s) could write in the moves and reactions. You can also refer to me to take control temporarily of your character.
- Be mindful of powergaming. I know it’s tough to admit defeat, but every character has limits that can be pushed in battle but not to unreasonable levels. Know when your character is done for. A simple solution to this is, again, communication. “What do you think about this?” opens a lot of interesting solutions and saves a lot of troubles. Remember, we’re writing together to make for an interesting story, not to compete against each other over who is stronger.
- I don’t believe in writing limits. Write as much as you want. There is no post order, as long as it flows and mesh together well. That being said, I don’t want quick-fire one-liners. If you engage in a conversation with another character, I suggest sharing a google doc, going about it in PM, or any other kind of collaborative writing app, for interactions that are heavy in dialogue.
- Quality over quantity. While quality often goes hand-in-hand with quantity, feel free to write as much or as little as you want in response to a post. Everyone has their writing style and should feel at ease roleplaying in a manner that is comfortable to them. That being said, as mentioned above, avoid the one-liner conversations, bring that into a collaborative post. I’d rather have a few lines true to a character than having entire paragraphs of filler simply for the purpose of bulking up posts. If you’re the kind of person who likes to write a novel for each post, don’t feel bad for doing so or feel the need to trim it down to meet your partner’s style. I expect everyone to respect each other’s writings.
- I don’t mind swearing, but please don’t abuse it.
- The main goal is to have fun and create an interesting story together. If there’s something that irks you, please shoot me a PM so we can talk over this. I’m quite flexible and am very open to feedback and opinions.
Name: Hurrdurr, herald of murder
Age: Between 14 and 21
Appearance: A picture is appreciated, even more so with a small description if you have any physical peculiarities that you need to share. Pictures can be semi-realistic, an illustration, a portrait, a drawing, anime even. No real people’s pictures please. High quality if possible.
Personality: Quirks, habits, likes/dislikes, pet peeves, triggers and the likes. How has gained powers affected your character’s mentality? If you intend to play a Nightmare, I expect your Curse to play heavily on your character’s mind.
History: You don't need to tell me your entire character’s backstory. You can reveal it in-character if you want to. What matters the most to me is how your character found themselves at UNMRAS. Everyone starts out new at school, unless you intend to do a character closely oriented to the lore of this story (PM me about it).
Dreamer Type: Hopeful or Nightmare? Hopefuls are more stable, while Nightmares are unstable but stronger.
Magic: Given the nature of the story, I strongly suggest you PM me with your ideas before you post your character sheet so we can discuss and make something interesting out of your ideas. Pitch me your special concepts and we’ll work out on a power with some limits. Don’t worry if your powers feel underwhelming at first, you’ll grow freakishly more powerful. You’ll need to be if you want to fight monsters.
Age: Between 14 and 21
Appearance: A picture is appreciated, even more so with a small description if you have any physical peculiarities that you need to share. Pictures can be semi-realistic, an illustration, a portrait, a drawing, anime even. No real people’s pictures please. High quality if possible.
Personality: Quirks, habits, likes/dislikes, pet peeves, triggers and the likes. How has gained powers affected your character’s mentality? If you intend to play a Nightmare, I expect your Curse to play heavily on your character’s mind.
History: You don't need to tell me your entire character’s backstory. You can reveal it in-character if you want to. What matters the most to me is how your character found themselves at UNMRAS. Everyone starts out new at school, unless you intend to do a character closely oriented to the lore of this story (PM me about it).
Dreamer Type: Hopeful or Nightmare? Hopefuls are more stable, while Nightmares are unstable but stronger.
Magic: Given the nature of the story, I strongly suggest you PM me with your ideas before you post your character sheet so we can discuss and make something interesting out of your ideas. Pitch me your special concepts and we’ll work out on a power with some limits. Don’t worry if your powers feel underwhelming at first, you’ll grow freakishly more powerful. You’ll need to be if you want to fight monsters.
