[center][img=http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs25/i/2008/039/9/e/Falling_Star_by_Alharbiseye.jpg]
[i]“They said I could be anything, so I became everything.” [/i] [/center]

[hider=Opening]The boy sat atop the cliff, his legs hanging over the edge of the world heedless of the danger. The moon rose huge in all its silver glory beside the boy, silhouetting him on his perch. The boy looked up at it. He was fond of the moon’s gentle light, one of the few timeless constants of the world. So long as the Earth turned in space, the moon would be waiting to rise each night. A small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. The starlight was even more of a constant, surviving far past the end of the Moon and the Earth. When the Sun died, the stars would still be there. The boy would count them.

Cracks appeared in the dark sky, brilliant white light streaming through from some other place. The boy’s face showed no reaction at all as the world around him shattered apart. The face of the moon split and fell away, and the boy was in that other place. His cliff was gone, and the Earth below it, but the boy sat as he had, his legs hanging off the edge of a massive column of what appeared to be white glass. If anything was below the column, it was hidden by clouds that drifted in an unbroken mat many miles below. Despite how high it appeared to be, the boy felt he could breathe normally.

“Who are you?” The boy turned his head.

If the man standing atop the column was startled by the boys question or lack of fear or confusion, nothing of it showed. He was tall, rugged without being muscular, with a mess of white hair and a white beard, and wore a white robe that looked as if it had seen better days. The man’s skin was white as well, not Caucasian but true white. The boy was unsurprised by that though, as everything in this place was white. The column, the clouds, the sky, the man, the tables and chairs that sat atop the column behind the man, all were pure white, cast shadows being the only mark of depth.

The man nodded respectfully to the boy. “Ah, I am Aryan. I’m glad I was able to find you so quickly. I’m cutting it close as it is. Oh, my apologies, would you like a drink?” The man, whom the boy now assumed to be quite old, ran over to the table, a simple but elegant thing that sat in the perfect center of the column, and lifted a white pitcher to pour two glasses. The glasses and the drink were both as white as everything else in the place.

The boy declined the offer and asked again, “Who are you?”

The old man pressed his hands together. “I am a scholar. This place you see is my home and my prison. It turns out that there are things one should not study, and doing so got me here. Still, it could be worse. I could –“

The boy interrupted him. “How did you find me and bring me here? I assume you are going to send me back, correct?” If the man had thought his guest one for conversation, he was mistaken. That one could find him and lift him from his world so easily disturbed the boy more than he would ever say.

“Yes, yes, of course! You aren’t actually here, you see. This is more a place inside the mind than a physical place. I just waited for the barriers to become loose and then I reached out until I felt a something different.”

“Different?”

“Yes, like how it feels. Most people’s minds are smooth and small, like an eggshell, but yours is huge and feels like a mass of worms or snakes. It’s definitely nothing like anything else I’ve felt.”

The boy looked back out over the endless expanse of white sky and clouds. “Oh.”

“Well, I found you and thought that you might be able to help me, so I kind of pulled your mind into here with me. You aren’t physically here, just your mind.”

“Does that mean that you aren’t really here either? That your body exists in some other place?”

The old man sighed. “No, my body is long gone. My mind should probably be gone with it, but it isn't, I’m still here.”

The boy didn’t ask any more questions down that path, instead asking the one that truly mattered. “Why did you bring me here then?”

“I need your help with something,” Aryan answered. “Tomorrow,” he scrunched his brow in thought, “in the morning I think, something will land in your world…”

***

The boy opened his eyes, and he was back as he had been, sitting on the edge of the cliff, legs hanging over, moon rising beside. The moon hadn’t risen any higher than it had been when he’d watched it crack, so no time must have passed when he’d been in the old man’s prison of white.

The boy looked from the moon’s face to the lights of the nearby city. It looked as though he would be staying in the area for a while after all. He’d better get started then. The boy pushed off from the cliff, and the Earth rose up to meet him.[/hider]

Hello and welcome to this RP, “A New Generation of Gods”. This RP is the first section of a long series of stories I have written that revolve around a “thing” which is referred to as the H.O.P.E. System, with the characters eventually working to discover what the H.O.P.E. System and its various pieces actually do, what they’re meant to do, the purpose of them, and who or what created the System and its various Engines. None of that will likely matter for this RP, as it would have to go on for quite some time before any of that is ever touched upon as more than a passing reference. This first story focuses on the Creation Engine of the H.O.P.E. System and the consequences of its functions. If you want, just ignore that and go in thinking “superheroes!” you’ll still be fine.

The scene opens in a mid-sized city in New York state (please suggest a name if you want, of I will for the IC), and on the outskirts of this city is a complex of schools. An elementary, middle, and high school sit next to one another, with a small college just a short distance away. Ten in the morning on a Tuesday, modern times, a bright light fills the sky. A falling star streaks over the city, crashing to Earth right in the middle of the school complex. But it doesn’t. There is no sign of it. It, and over a dozen individuals who had just been going about their day in and around the schools, has simply vanished.

The taken find themselves lying on their back in the middle of a small clearing surrounded by trees. Those with watches can see that no time has passed from when they were taken to when they find themselves in the clearing. Only one person seems to know what’s going on: a boy who couldn’t be old enough to be a teenager wearing a strange green cloak. 

It isn’t long before those taken exhibit impossible new powers, no two the same. The boy encourages them to learn to use these powers, training them and watching them. He is their teacher and their abductor, keeping them captive and keeping them safe. But he won’t always be there. Will these new gods be ready for the world, and will the world be ready for them? Conflict is inevitable, between gods and gods and between gods and man.
---
So if you want the short and concise version of what this RP will be, it’s basically a superpower RP with some twists. Though I call the characters gods, they are still mortal, and they can be killed by just about anything that would kill your average Joe. Besides their power, they are completely normal. They feel pain, get tired, are as strong and fast as a regular person, and don’t suddenly become smarter.

Your powers begin simple and weak, but they will grow and evolve as you use them. A note to keep in mind is that though your character can control the power, the power is separate from the character. An example of what I mean using telekinesis as the power: If the power was solely controlled by the character’s mind, and surprise attack would easily incapacitate or kill the god. But with the power acting without its god’s input, it will often react on its own. Say a telekinetic superhero was on the wrong end of a sniper’s scope. Bang, no more telekinetic. Same situation but with a god, that bullet is stopped before the god even knows he’s been shot at. The powers’ first instinct is to protect their god. In this way, the god less controls their power as asks it to do what they want it to. Situations may arise where a power refuses to do what it’s willed to do, and I will get involved at that time. I don’t foresee it happening often, so as a player you can simply play god with your power and not worry about it. Should this RP survive into the second story arc, this distinction will be expanded upon.

Everyone begins the first day a normal person doing normal things that end with them somewhere in or around the school complex at 10:00 AM when the shooting star hits. There will be an event shortly after that where the majority of the cast will first see their power. It’s possible that your character won’t show any power right then, but I’m sure my character, the boy, will force it out soon enough. On that note, I will be playing the boy mainly, and a few other characters like him. Individuals that are powerful enough to make the player-controlled gods pee themselves will only be controlled by me and will be used to move the main story along in the background of what the gods are doing, in addition to occasionally keeping the peace when things get out of hand, the word peace being used very loosely in this context. There will be a list of these characters updated as information about them comes out.

In the beginning, all of the god characters will be confined to a large underground bunker as the boy teaches them about their power and just observes them. This will be the time to interact with each other and make friends and enemies. Keep in mind though, you are being held against your will at this time. How long your character will be confined can change depending on how fast people post and how fast I can advance the days, but I expect it to be a little while as this time sets up for the entirety of the rest of the story. I may PM individuals on things I would like them to influence, so keep in mind that I am trying to steer events at most times from behind the scenes. There will be two storylines going on, the character-driven one following the gods that will take up 95% of the RP, and the background story about the origins of said gods. How often these storylines become entangled depends on you and your gods’ actions. 

Once the gods are released into the wild and my overseer conveniently vanishes for a period, things will become more violent. (You're free to attempt to kill each other or yourself even before then, but my character may intervene then.) Tiny disagreements can turn into reality-warping battles between two gods, and the military will get involved as the gods are seen and become known. Maybe you go visit your family that you couldn't see because you were abducted and thought dead by the world, only to be ambushed by fighter jets and tanks, or maybe an enemy god is there waiting for you. Shit will really hit the fan when word gets out that so many gods existing at once is causing reality to break apart. Is that incentive to go on a killing spree I see? Why yes, yes it is. It’s also one of the incidents where the two storylines become overlapped.

In this RP, you can die. I fully expect many characters to die. For that reason, I will allow people to have multiple characters, probably three max to begin. Death isn't always final for gods. Some gods, should they die at specific times or in specific ways, come back as something different. These are special cases, and if you find yourself in a situation where this is an option I will make you aware of it. There will also be a point in the second arc, should the RP make it that far, for new gods to be introduced. I would ask those already involved in the RP to fill those roles before opening it up to some new players.

It's basically a character-driven super RP where everyone slowly becomes OP or dies off. PMs and collabs would be used to give each player information specific to their character and deepen interactions, and any direct conflicts between players would be done in collab with me overseeing the power creep. All I have left to say is probably the most important thing for those who think they might be interested in joining: You make your character, but you don't choose your power. I will look at your character and accept or deny them, but you won't know what power they have until the event where each character finds out at roughly the same time. If you are uncomfortable with that not knowing or the possibility that you might get what you see as a "useless" power, then thank you for reading and I'm sorry to see you go. Not all powers will be created equally, and some will be more offensive or defensive than others. The only influence you have over what powers your characters get is two sections that will be on the CS where you list the top three powers you think would go with the character and the bottom three you think wouldn't go at all with the character. They may influence what power is given, or be read and ignored.

Here is a list of some of the possible powers, and no, I will not explain what they involve. I’ll send that information to the power’s owner in a PM. If you think of a power you want added to the list, feel free to PM me your idea, but I will not give that power to your character and it must be able to be summarized with one word for simplicity’s sake.
[hider=Possible Powers]Heat
Water
Electricity
Wind
Vacuum
Telekinesis
Light
Death
Shockwave
Gravity
Kinetic
Void
Mind
Perception
Senses
Rewind
Animate
Barrier
Fix
Sound
Emotion[/hider]

Here is the basic CS template, just delete my instruction/commentary. Please post your completed sheet(s) here, and I’ll let people know if they are accepted all at once.
[hider=CS]
Name: (Full real name, nicknames can be added if you choose.)
Age: (I want a range of ages, so a maximum of two characters with the same age will be accepted, and they can't be from the same player. The more characters of the same age are submitted, the less likely it will be that yours gets accepted. I'm looking for slightly younger kids and some adults as well, so not just the usual angsty teenagers please.)
Gender: (Please don't give me a headache with this one.)
Appearance: (Image is fine, but I also want a written description with it. The picture can be anime or IRL, so long as it gets the idea across and isn't too outlandish.)
Personality: (I usually prefer this to be crafted IC, but I need to know how they might act in order to assign powers. This doesn't need to account for unusual situations that the character would have no experience dealing with, such as abduction and imprisonment by an enigmatic child.)
History: (I more want to see how you write than what you write. Please nothing unnecessarily stupid or grimdark.)
Top Three Powers: (optional) (Put up to three powers you think would fit the character well)
Bottom Three Powers: (optional) (Put up to three powers you think wouldn't fit the character at all)[/hider]

Ideally I'm looking for give or take four other people each playing two or three characters, but I'm not going to force myself to stick to that. I consider myself a pretty loose GM, and I'm very open to the ideas and suggestions of others. If I do something that you don't like, please, call me out on it. As always, I look forward to RPing with you in the past, present, and future.