Avatar of aladdin_sane
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  • Old Guild Username: politicalmind
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    1. aladdin_sane 12 yrs ago

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8 yrs ago
Back after an extended hiatus.
2 likes
10 yrs ago
Come on let's bunker down.

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@aladdin_sane Read my CS please, we might be sharing a certain interest or something.


Alright just finished reading your character sheet and color me impressed. I like the idea of a shared history and the prospect of a "rival" whom Pierre needs to associate not just because they inhabit the same social class, but because Nathan is a figure that draws popular support. Despite his political clout Pierre is seen as too intellectual, chill, and secretive by the general populace, while Nathan even with his general non-association with those inhabiting lesser classes and his own intellectualism is admired for his good nature, charm, and work-ethic...people hold Nathan as an a prime example of an "American Gentleman" molded by the so-called "American Dream".

Reading your CS I could not help picturing a scene from sometime when Nathan was first enrolled in boarding school; during his first tentative year young Nathan is made aware of a local school legend that just graduated one Pierre Athene. Naturally Nathan is perhaps curious, competitive even and wants to meet this person everybody was so infatuated with; months go by and by happenstance Nathan's aunt is hosting a party the Athenes will be attending, so Nathan socially obligated to be at this event anyway makes a commitment to confront the nineteen year old Pierre. While meeting would be a brief one, it would forever sour Nathan towards Pierre; it is even doubtful that Pierre remembers meeting Nathan. After the formal introductions are over Nathan talks to Pierre and while their exact conversation is lost to history, Nathan is left unimpressed which came as a worse blow to the young boy than if Pierre flat out refused to speak with him; with his critical eye Nathan managed to peer behind the facade perpetuated by Pierre to reveal that this "local" hero was no Apollo. Instead Nathan saw a boy who was forced to manipulate his image as he generally did not connect to people; a pale and neurasthenic boy was not the make of school legends...it was clear that Pierre gained popularity through cleverly concocted lies and used the actions of others as a way to make himself more important, this repulsed Nathan who put a lot of emphasis one's own abilities and social skills. While there is no doubt that Pierre is an inspiring orator and a master manipulator; if one sees the true him they are confronted by the perpetual outcast.
If for some reason someone wants shared history with my character, I am cool with it. Seeing as he was hosting a political event at Yellowstone and is one of the country's elites it would not be a stretch that some of the more politically connected characters know him on some level
<Snipped quote by aladdin_sane>

That is a 'very' thorough list! I don't even know what half of those brands and such 'mean' other than 'rich people wear this'.


To be honest I just took most of clothing off of a luxury website (mrporter.com), and for the rest I just searched "luxury <insert item here>". The only thing I knew beforehand is that I wanted my character to smoke Gitanes Unfiltered because it is a French Import brand.
Name: Pierre Athene

Born: 20 February 1977 (age 44)
Residence: Brooklyn, New York
Occupation(s): Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Lobbyist
Religion: Catholic
Net Worth: 31.8 billion USD

Brief History (Pre-Incident): The youngest son of wealthy French immigrants whom fled France for New York City in the late 1960's to escape the period of civil unrest incited by ardent leftists Pierre was an anomaly; though he never experienced life in the homeland of his ancestors, Pierre realized he could never fully embrace American culture due to his foreign family and thusly remained an outsider observing the ways of his adoptive homeland. Much to the chagrin of his family Pierre recognized at a young age that he possessed an intrinsic ability to manipulate others into carrying out his bidding and derived great joy in pitting his siblings against each other; this antisocial behavior coupled with his intelligence and unbridled ambition was a constant source of strife between young Pierre and his parents (his father in particular, who was under the impression that Pierre's nature pointed to him being a child of an illicit affair). Pierre grew to resented his parents' bourgeois lifestyle not because he believed in wealth disparity, but because his parents squandered their fortune on worldly pursuits and not on buying political influence; by the time he was eighteen his parents' savings was whittled away and they both would die in severe poverty. Allegedly Pierre was secretly siphoning money from his parents accounts for years, but there is no concrete proof of this only rumors. After graduating from Yale with near perfect marks and a degree in Political Science, Pierre entered the free-market determined to gain both wealth and power; he accomplished this by profiting off of various projects his more technically inclined classmates were working on as...he made millions as an investor and is credited as helping bringing the world into the "internet-age" while the true inventors of these ground breaking technologies were relegated to obscurity. His frequent bipartisan lobbying efforts caused the New York Times to nickname him "the shadow-president"; politically he is known to be non-committal on major issues and able to hide his real intentions. Many speculate his philanthropy is a ruse to garnish public goodwill and his efforts to expand Yellowstone National Park have been lauded in the press as a cheap ploy. He is set to make an address at the aforementioned park in order to bring the expansion issue to the so-called "court of public opinion" as legislation related to the matter has stalled in Congress due to debates over government spending.

Post-Incident: The strange magic that encompasses the earth has transformed Pierre from a politically questionable statesman into a changeling (an insect-like equine) that feeds off of ambient emotions in order avoid starvation and in Pierre's case to also retain his humanoid form; the irony is that his vice of negatively manipulating others emotions to best serve himself has become his curse. A man who once forged a political dynasty from the shadows has become an alien in his own kingdom; once thriving on hate and mistrust, he needs love and compassion to live.

Abilities, Traits and Powers:

Psychic Navigation - Changelings are natural empaths and therefore can sense the presence of others through their emotions...it is possible that this is an evolutionary trait as Changelings require ambient emotions to survive; it is speculated that a fully nourished high level changeling can locate prey hundreds of miles away. However, Changelings like Pierre can only detected beings in their general vicinity. Changelings can also feed off of these distant emotions they detect (as long as they are ambient), though this can be a solution to fight short term hunger, distance usually dilutes the potency of the emotions and it is also hard to judge if the target is going through a state of emotional flux. The later aforementioned effect is why Changelings shapeshift and infiltrate a foreign society as an observed target's emotions are easier to judge and possibly manipulate.

Exoskeleton: Due to its bug-esque genetic makeup a Changeling's hide is almost triple the thickness of a regular horse's.

Flight: While in its base form a Changeling can use its wings to fly short distances; longer distances require a Changeling to be fully nourished.

Emotion Drain: As previously mentioned Changelings feed off of the ambient emotions (Happiness, Joy, Love and so on) produced by other sentient creature. While it is not particularly dangerous if a Changeling feeds off of your emotions for a short period of time, long term (or if one allows a Changeling uninterrupted feeding over the span of a few years) it can be detrimental to one's health. The side effects of short term feeding range from a brief period of nausea to unpleasant thoughts and/or dreams; the effects of long term feeding are crippling depression, suicidal thoughts, a strange feeling of hollowness, loss of energy, and eventually a permanent paralyzation that results in one's death. Some report developing a dependency on the emotional draining process and required outside assistance to save them from and untimely demise. Certain types of magic can be effective in blocking a Changeling from feeding on you; for the non-magically inclined it is suggested that one attempt to quickly incapacitate Changeling by putting oneself in a negative state of mind or by severing the horn of the creature if it is foolish enough to openly attempt a feeding. Individuals who have regulated their emotions through years of stoic rituals (ex. meditation) are less likely to be incapacitated by this process and can in some cases mentally ward off a Changeling. Though it is rare that a Changeling will put aside subterfuge and attempt to drain one's emotions in an attack (as negative emotions such as fear can be toxic or even deadly to a Changeling) a severely malnourished creature is also a desperate one and like a rabid dog will lash out in an attempt to gain a temporary reprieve from their suffering. Subterfuge is a Changeling's greatest asset and most people would not notice their emotions being drained; as long as the Changeling in question does not overindulge. It is suggested that without a hive an individual Changeling could potentially develop a particular taste for a certain ambient emotion in lieu of pursuing the certain emotion favored by the Hive's central leader.

Shapeshifting: This is the trait Changelings are most know for and obviously where the species name derives from; Changeling's can take the form of any individual they have seen in order to blend into a foreign population. Keeping up a guise drains a lot of energy and it is not practical for a Changeling to stay out of base form for long.

Clothing/Equipment/Accessories:

A Lutwyche Navy Puppytooth Super 170s Wool Suit & Pants
One Bironi Pink Cotton Shirt
A Turnbull & Asser Ribbed Navy Silk Tie
A pair of Church's New York Leather Brogues
A gem encrusted American Flag Pin (Made in China)
One pair of vintage Ray Ban Aviator Sunglasses
A S.T. Dupont Diamond and Gold Plated Lighter
An Aurora Diamante 30 carat pen
A Rolex Yacht-Master II Gold and Yellow Watch
A Swiss Army Knife
Keys to various cars and properties.
A Porsche Design BlackBerry Smartphone (No Signal/ No Internet Connection)
A Pack of Gitanes Brunes Non-Filtered Cigarettes (25 Individual Cigarettes)
An American Alligator Flask (filled with Cognac 1921 Mori)
An Authentic 1968 New York Jets Super Bowl Ring
A Gresham Collection Money Clip Wallet [Containing]
* $2000 (or 20 hundred dollar bills)
* Driver's License
* American Express Centurion Card
* AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard
* Business Cards

Weapons:

1 Heckler & Koch MP5 (formerly belonging to a recently deceased member of his private security team)
hider]

__________________
Sorry about the seemingly useless gear, but considering it is only day one after the disaster people would generally not throw away things they were carrying before hand as there is still denial about being rescued.
<Snipped quote by aladdin_sane>

Love that fleshing out XD and yes it has exploded.

On a side note, and i'm just mentioning these as ideas i've seen, not pushing you to use them, I've seen some interpretations that essentially benefit from feeding on positive emotions, while negative emotions can range from unhealthy to poisonous depending on which one and it's intensity. In such a case, 'in your face' feeding could be detrimental to said Changeling's own health from someone naturally directing their aggressive emotions towards a target.

Another considered the element of 'feeling' the emotions in the air, pretty much the empathy you mentioned, cept with passive feeding and that enough ambient emotions could range from annoying/agitating to unhealthy [probably requiring more positive feeding to counter-act] or of course ranging from calming to 'healthy'.

I've also seen yet another that went into the idea of different hives, or lacking hives because of this setting, different breeds I guess, who naturally lean towards a specific emotional range, while it's not restricting them from others, they get more nourishment and preferencial 'flavor' from certain ranges, like entertainment, types of love, comraderie/adrenaline, and so on.


These are great interpretations and I appreciate that you shared them with me; I am totally going to incorporate some of these into my character as I personally do not mind taking suggestions from people regarding character building.

Not a critique, but it is merely intriguing that many of the characters suggestions share similar threads such as:

* The ironic (or karmatic) properties of the magic.
* The loss of something the character particularly valued...a key facet of their existence; political power, faith, sanity, wealth, and so on.
* Becoming the personification something the character hated or revealing the true nature of that particular character.
* The changes come with unfortunate negative consequences that must be stopped (or at least forestalled as long as possible).

In this group thus far someone who benefited from and is happy about their changes would be the outsider.
Alright, managed to flesh out some of my character's powers as evidenced by my updated sheet...pretty good for a guy bedridden with the flu. Also interest in this has exploded!!!
<Snipped quote by aladdin_sane>

I totally understand the mobile issue, I have a few friends with similar issues to deal with.

I actually like this, though many RPs would bring up the argument of 'what the hell are you thinking trying to get a character in here who's essentially a modern day 'king' with his loads of money and political skills'. Ironically! This RP is perfect for this in a way, all of that power comes a crumblin down and now he's gotta deal with it, and I can totally approve of the ironic 'now you need love to survive' situation.

The only thing I see potentially needing a change might be the birth-date or age [one because of the other possibly], and only because I haven't decided exactly which year to place the RP in and-... wait, I miscalculated, curse you drowsy midnight brain. that'd put us at 2021, which strangely enough I was actually considering to be the year of use for the RP, coincidences are crazy. Granted, a whole new year system will probably come about because of the Cataclysm.

On a side note, even now this roster is shaping up to be all kinds of interesting... a priest, a politician, and the antichrist!... No not actually, I'm joking, but I can guarantee my primary character is going to be skeptical about both of em [though I'm saving fleshing him out for after I get done making the OC] I foresee great things in this RPs future!


Yeah, I thought it would be rather intriguing to play as a character who was on the cusp of achieving unlimited power only to lose it all in the blink of an eye; also when thinking of a character I was struck by the possibility of playing a "red-heron" type character who is initially blamed for being the cause of this mess by NPCs and player character's alike...who better to fill the role then a Washingtonian insider. I figure that the natural response after a disaster of this magnitude would be mistrust of any major political figures left alive; emotional responses would range from "what made you so special, to survive this catastrophe while so many others perished" to "that divisive political figure is still living, must be a conspiracy." However, I digress as I am still working on my character sheet and will flesh out a few things such as post-incident powers and add some pictures, while making those changes you mentioned.

[WIP; done on phone so forgive spacing and the like. Please review, constructive criticism welcome]

Name: Pierre Athene

Born: 20 February 1977 (age 44)
Residence: Brooklyn, New York
Occupation(s): Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Lobbyist
Religion: Catholic

Brief History (Pre-Incident): The youngest son of wealthy French immigrants whom fled France in the late 1960's to escape the period of civil unrest incited by ardent leftists Pierre was an anomaly; though he never experienced life in the homeland of his ancestors, Pierre realized he could never fully embrace American culture due to his foreign family and thusly remained an outsider observing the ways of his adoptive homeland. Much to the chagrin of his family Pierre recognized at a young age that he possessed an intrinsic ability to manipulate others into carrying out his bidding and derived great joy in pitting his siblings against each other; this antisocial behavior coupled with his intelligence and unbridled ambition was a constant source of strife between young Pierre and his parents (his father in particular, who was under the impression that Pierre's nature pointed to him being a child of an illicit affair). Pierre grew to resented his parents' bourgeois lifestyle not because he believed in wealth disparity, but because his parents squandered their fortune on worldly pursuits and not on buying political influence; by the time he was eighteen his parents' savings was whittled away and they both would die in severe poverty. Allegedly Pierre was secretly siphoning money from his parents accounts for years, but there is no concrete proof of this only rumors. After graduating from Yale with near perfect marks and a degree in Political Science, Pierre entered the free-market determined to gain both wealth and power; he accomplished this by profiting off of various projects his more technically inclined classmates were working on as...he made millions as an investor and is credited as helping bringing the world into the "internet-age" while the true inventors of these ground breaking technologies were relegated to obscurity. His frequent bipartisan lobbying efforts caused the New York Times to nickname him "the shadow-president"; politically he is known to be non-committal on major issues and able to hide his real intentions. Many speculate his philanthropy is a ruse to garnish public goodwill and his efforts to expand Yellowstone National Park have been lauded in the press as a cheap ploy. He is set to make an address at the aforementioned park in order to bring the expansion issue to the so-called "court of public opinion" as legislation related to the matter has stalled in Congress due to debates over government spending.

Post-Incident: The strange magic that encompasses the earth has transformed Pierre from a politically questionable statesman into a changeling (an insect-like equine) that feeds off of ambient emotions in order avoid starvation and in Pierre's case to also retain his humanoid form; the irony is that his vice of negatively manipulating others emotions to best serve himself has become his curse. A man who once forged a political dynasty from the shadows has become an alien in his own kingdom; once thriving on hate and mistrust, he needs love and compassion to live.

Abilities, Traits and Powers:

Psychic Navigation - Changelings are natural empaths and therefore can sense the presence of others through their emotions...it is possible that this is an evolutionary trait as Changelings require ambient emotions to survive; it is speculated that a fully nourished high level changeling can locate prey hundreds of miles away. However, Changelings like Pierre can only detected beings in their general vicinity.

Exoskeleton: Due to its bug-esque genetic makeup a Changeling's hide is almost triple the thickness of a regular horse's.

Flight: While in its base form a Changeling can use its wings to fly short distances; longer distances require a Changeling to be fully nourished.

Emotion Drain: As previously mentioned Changelings feed off of the ambient emotions (Happiness, Joy, Love and so on) produced by other sentient creature. While it is not particularly dangerous if a Changeling feeds off of your emotions for a short period of time, long term (or if one allows a Changeling uninterrupted feeding over the span of a few hours) it can be detrimental to one's health. The side effects of short term feeding range from a brief period of nausea to unpleasant thoughts and/or dreams; the effects of long term (or uninterrupted) feeding are crippling depression, suicidal thoughts, a strange feeling of hollowness, loss of energy, and eventually a permanent paralyzation that results in one's death. Some report developing a dependency on the emotional draining process and required outside assistance to save them from and untimely demise. Certain types of magic can be effective in blocking a Changeling from feeding on you; for the non-magically inclined it is suggested that one attempt to quickly incapacitate the Changeling either through a surprise attack or by severing the horn of the creature. Individuals who have regulated their emotions through years of stoic rituals (ex. meditation) are less likely to be incapacitated by this process and can in some cases mentally ward off a Changeling.

Shapeshifting: This is the trait Changelings are most know for and obviously where the species name derives from; Changeling's can take the form of any individual they have seen in order to blend into a foreign population. Keeping up a guise drains a lot of energy and it is not practical for a Changeling to stay out of base form for long.
Tentatively intrested.
Tentatively Interested.
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