[OOC] Spiritum Aeternum; or The Ramshackle Monster Hunters

[Juice]

Sorry I've been so quiet, been pretty busy since school's started. But I'm here, and alive and well, and a little behind.

[The New Yorker]

I'm going into the collab now so that we can post this thing in a timely fashion. I ask anyone available to join me there.

[Raid]

I'll be on TP tonight round about 10 pm EST for anyone else interested in finishing this collab and moving on.

[The New Yorker]

I'm about to get on there and write something now. I hope you won't mind me moving us down to the dockyard. You can fill in what Esra and her children think along the way, of course.

I'd like to hear from Awful, Juice, iKo99, and cider. Either concerning your individual posts or your participation in the collab.

I believe Hellis is waiting for the collab to go up, which should be up by tomorrow.

[Juice]

Won't be participating in the collab. Guess I'll be doing a solo post.

EDIT: I have not started on an individual post and will not until the weekend. That's just my schedule.

[The New Yorker]

Good to hear from you, juice. You seem really busy, and I'm certainly not going to fault you for that. I appreciate your response.

PS I'm looking forward to the weekend now, moreso than usual.

[Yorg]

I apologize if this is out of bounds, but are you by any chance still accepting new players? I just joined the site today and was disappointed to see that you'd already begun. I'm not really a history buff, but I'll be happy to do some research and come up with a fitting character.

[The New Yorker]

The time for a new character is narrowing as we approach the end of the week. Of course, I'll have to decide, ultimately, whether your character is fitting, but I'm looking forward to what you come up with.

[Yorg]

Thank you so much! Here is the character I've made. The only section I left blank was Secular Affiliation, as I was unsure of what to enter there.

Gaspar Teixeira Albernaz

Name: Gaspar Teixeira Albernaz

Age: 17

Gender: Male

Birthplace: Almoçageme, Portugal

Religious Affiliation: Catholic

Secular Affiliation:

Level of education: Better than the average for boys in his area, due in no small part to his own academic endeavors.

Social status: Low, though not entirely poor thanks to his late father's station.

Occupation: Historian's Apprentice

Appearance: As a rather wiry lad with a frock of curly black hair and a mousey countenance, Gaspar would look not look out of place in a humble congregation of monks. His grey eyes are wide and often staring. He has thin lips and a disproportionately wide nose, set atop an angular jaw and cheeks that perhaps appear a little more sunken than is healthy. Though the color of his skin had been dark through his youth, recent years of indoor hobby have allowed for a slight pallor.

Personality: Gaspar is a gentle soul; spirited and intelligent but faint of heart. His love of learning has bred the beginnings of an adventurous longing, one that is tempered by practicality and no small amount of timidity. In social interactions he is shy, but honest to a fault and willing to help if there is a need.

Skill set: Gaspar is skilled in reading and writing for the most part, as well as arithmetic and some small cartography. He is an amateur astronomer, and is familiar with horseback riding. Though he did at some point in his childhood cherish the romantic notion of being a noble warrior, he has no violent inclinations and possesses no fighting skill to speak of.

Languages: Portugese (native), Spanish (fluent), some English, some French, and a purely academic understanding of Latin.

Bio: Gaspar was born in Almoçageme, a small seaside village near Sintra, to Jorge and Eduarda Albernaz, in 1649. His family was not rich, but they made a stable life for themselves through Jorge’s work and the help of relatives. Gaspar and his four siblings grew up happy, for the most part, enjoying long afternoons on the beach and frequent trips to the Sintra markets. They spent much of their time outside in the woods and fields, and Gaspar in particular was interested in discovering the lay of the land.

Jorge Albernaz worked as a bookkeeper in Lisbon for Ciríaco Moreno’s trade business. He was a practical man with a shrewd mind, and always stressed the importance of knowledge to his children. He took his own time to teach them all to read and write, and to count money. Of his knowledge of the world he bestowed upon them as much as he was able.

In 1657 Jorge died, under unclear circumstances, in Lisbon. Uncouth rumors circulated about Don Moreno, but the wealthy merchant’s company paid the Albernaz family a stipend and so they did not push the matter. They still had the money Jorge had saved, and the support of their close relatives. Unfortunately, only a year later both of Gaspar’s older brothers were killed in the Siege of Badajoz.Gaspar was only nine at the time.

Stricken with grief, Eduarda forbade him from joining the war effort, though pressure from his peers would grow strong in the waning years of The Restoration. Instead she fostered his interests in the literary arts, and around the age of 11 began allowing him to stay many days in Sintra with Adalberto Silva, a resident scholar and teacher. Under the old man’s tutelage Gaspar learned the finer points of authoring and publishing. He wrote a short set of books himself as soon as he was able, mostly on the subject of culture and history in the area he grew up. An interest in history eventually grew into a love of records; particularly journals, of which he kept many.

1665 was a year of luck for Gaspar. Firmin Leclair, a french historian from Rome sojourning in Portugal due to the war, came on holiday to Sintra. Young Gaspar wasted no time in making Leclair’s acquaintance, and the two soon became friends. In July of 1666 Leclair accepted the boyas his apprentice. This came with the news that, as the Restoration War was nearing a foregone conclusion, he would be returning to Rome at the end of September. Gaspar could not be more thrilled at the prospect.

Notes:

[The New Yorker]

Wonderful CS, Yorg. He is accepted without condition!

As for the secular affiliation, perhaps Leclair is a member of a historian guild that Gaspar might now have connections to. Or perhaps because of his father he has benefits in Portuguese merchant guilds or something. Though, he is only 17, so he might not have any at all.

Either way, feel free to post in the IC at any point. Very interested to see what becomes of this character.

Announcement: The first of the collabs is posted. cider and Kissshot are going to have to post their separately. I'd like it if that happened tomorrow, so we could accommodate that comment I made earlier.

[The New Yorker]

.

[Yorg]

Ok, I've posted!

[Juice]

I believe a collab is in order, New Yorker! I think some interaction between Emilio and Sergei would be pretty interesting.

EDIT: Outstanding post, btw, Yorg.

[The New Yorker]

Go start something in tp, juice. I don't have an issue with that.

Edit: Very nice post, Yorg. You're clearly comfortable with your writing, there's an abundance of sophistication, especially in your timing. I wish I was that confident. Glad to have you!

[Raid]

Heads up: I have a big event coming up on Wednesday that leaves me with too little time, so you might not hear from me until that fiasco's over.

[Peik]

I'll write something about Abdulhayy Mahmud coming on the ship soon. Also, you've got some mad writing Yorg.

[The New Yorker]

I'm on TP and will be for the next hour or so. Kissshot, cider, and Juice, drop by at your conveniences.

[Yorg]

Thanks, you guys! Hopefully it'll be a hot minute before I have to write another post that lengthy. By the way, what's TP?

[The New Yorker]

Yorg said
Thanks, you guys! Hopefully it'll be a hot minute before I have to write another post that lengthy. By the way, what's TP?

Titan Pad, it's the place where we write collaborative posts. It's like google docs. There's a link to our pad on the first page of the OOC, in the OP (Opening Post).

[Yorg]

Cool! I hope I get to do some collabs soon, it looks like fun.