LorelleQuips

Dead Roleplay, Ignore

And as far as inserting ourselves, by the way, I wondered if we all wanted to put our heads together to talk about the Wasteland settlement and what that's lkke since I'm going to have Toby and Spire pop there. What characters are regular visitors there to trade/any of them who live there/what The general ambiance and culture is of this particular settlement beyond usual dusty, desperate, scrappy Ash style.

Dead Roleplay, Ignore

But she would know by touching them that their intentions are murderous, sillywilly.

@bmxbrat484

Ahaha yeah, thus she's welcome to go for it on TRYING to seduce them.
Not that it would get very far. Toby knows Gifts so he would know that touching=cover blown.

Dead Roleplay, Ignore

Haha, true, though most people wouldn't recognize Toby and Spire by sight.

Dead Roleplay, Ignore

Whichever will take her, but probably the more murdery one because he'll probably be the most.. vicious? _{She's more than a bit of a masochist}

@bmxbrat484

Either one will take her.

To a secluded place to murder her.

One of them would just be a lot less smooth and a lot more apologetic about it.

Dead Roleplay, Ignore

After catching up I think I might have Toby and Spire be temporarily established in this Wasteland settlement people seem to be like to congregate around.

Probably in the process of trying to keep trust with the people there while picking them off one at a time.

Eira might try to sleep with your murdery serial murderer xD

@bmxbrat484

Which one? The more murdery one?
She can go for it.
I am sure that will end well. :)

Dead Roleplay, Ignore

Wow. I'd been reading along, then I blinked this week while I was busy with a show and now there are a million posts.

Hi again!

I incidentally also have more characters from this setting to add and will look for good places to introduce them when it aids the plot and action. :)

As far as Toby and Spire go...
I'll work on that.
At some point I would like to see the murdery serial murderies all interact tbh.

Dead Roleplay, Ignore

Toby Schippers

Full Name: Tobias (Toby) Schippers

Nicknames/Aliases:
Known in Erubesco as one of the "Ashland Slashers," or occasionally "The Grim Brothers" (according to a few tabloids fond of puns).
Known in Liberty as "Class 8 hostiles" - in other words serial killers, or simply "The Schippers brothers"
Various Wasteland settlements have names to reference Spire and his brother - "Humanity's Avengers," "Blood Brothers," or the "Lennie" to Spire's "George" (based on relative intelligence assumptions which Toby does not really appreciate).

Age: 22

Gender: Male

Gift: Toby can sense others' abilities, down the nuance and intensity. This ability also allows him to identify approximate location/distance of Gifted.

Loyalty: His brother, Spire. The fallen human race.

Description: Pleasant, gentle features. Dimples. Wavy mouse-brown hair. Tall, lean. Often seen in argyle sweatervests. His most memorable feature is not visual, but auditory: his crippling stutter.

Personality: Mild and unobtrusive. Quiet, largely due to aforementioned stutter, which makes him come across as a shy, simple-minded guy. Quite the contrary. Toby's mind is a lot quicker than his tongue, and he loves reading old, human-written literature. Pretty nice guy for a serial killer, honestly. Though far from squeamish, he takes no particular pleasure in bloodshed; killing is only a duty for him. This conflict of lifestyle and disposition (not to mention an underlying belief that as one of the "Cursed" Gifted, he is inherently evil) leads to bouts of melancholy.

Skills: Decent hand-to-hand fighter. Deadshot with virtually any firearm. His ability to predict the approach of other Gifted, as well as identify their nature, makes him a valuable strategic asset. Additionally, Toby has some medical training, though his apprenticeship was interrupted when his tutor was killed, and much of his subsequent knowledge came from books or the trial and error of the various wounds he and his brother have picked up.

Weaknesses: Well. Toby's Gift isn't exactly a show-stopper in combat. And then there's the part where he can't carry a conversation and spends a lot of t--a lot of time t--trying to avoid saying any plosive palatal c--consonants.

Brief History: (See Spire's history)

Other:
Hel loves Spire but...doesn't exactly respect her "Uncle Toby."
Toby is pretty much terrified of her 80% of the time.

Though both factions have retrieved security footage of both brothers' faces, and while many people would have heard the nicknames of the killers (especially in Erubesco, where they love their sensational news), Toby and Spire are not so well-known as to be recognized on sight by citizens or even many military personnel

Spire Schippers

Full Name: Spire Schippers

Nicknames/Aliases:
Known in Erubesco as one of the "Ashland Slashers," or occasionally "The Grim Brothers" (according to a few tabloids fond of puns).
Known in Liberty as "Class 8 hostiles" or simply "The Schippers brothers"
Various Wasteland settlements have names to reference Spire and his brother - "Humanity's Avengers," "Blood Brothers."

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Gift: Causes others' Gifts to rebound upon the user. Spire must have eyes on the target and sufficient concentration. (In other words, if Spire uses his ability on someone who can light people on fire, they're gonna catch on fire.)

Loyalty: His brother, Toby, and more recently, Hel, the child who ended up in his unlikely care (played by VitoftheVoid).

Description: Pearl gray eyes, angular features, longish dark hair, stubbled, tall. Fond of peacoats with lots of pockets for lots of blades.

Personality: Sadistic, manipulative, superficially charming, and sarcastic. Killing may be a duty for Toby, but for Spire, it's a pleasure.

Skills: Strong, with street-smart combat experience. Very handy in a knife fight, decent shot with a firearm. Due to his Gift, the stronger the opponent, the more violent the taste of their own medicine... the more virtually unbeatable he becomes in a one-on-one match, turning the tables on usually devastatingly powerful Gifted.

Weaknesses: Offensively, must have sight of and attention on a single target, making group fights problematic. His fondness for cutting things can also put him in dangerously close quarters with Gifted he might more safely take down from afar. Additionally, weak or nonviolent Gifts will not be as affected by Spire's ability, again flipping the tables - weak Gifted will usually fare better against him.

Brief History: Growing up in a system of bunkers in the Ash among some of the last humans, Toby and Spire's non-Gifted family raised the brothers to believe in a cause: the inherent evilness of the "Cursed" after the genocide of the human race. Spire's abilities manifested when he was very young. The violent and antisocial precursors he had exhibited as a child suddenly made sense to the humans; it wasn't his personality, or some trick of brain chemistry - he was simply one of Them. If his predisposition loaded the chamber, his environment from then on pulled the trigger. Despite the mistreatment and disgust of the humans, they let Spire stay - and they let him fight, honing his taste for blood.

When the younger Toby began to show signs of a sensory Gift ("Curse"), Spire, surprisingly protective, kept the child's a secret to protect him from the mistreatment. Outside Gifted later killed off their family. For years, Toby and Spire were mission killers. At least they could be monsters who took down other monsters, picking off Ashlanders and occasionally venturing into Wasteland settlements--blending in for more extended stays--or even faction towns with the IDs taken from the corpses of previous victims.

On a venture into a settlement, Spire went after an Erubescan experiment-handler and gave him a good stabbing capped with a nice deep slash to the throat, all in front of the experiment, a tiny but dangerously powerful red-headed girl named Hel.

Gratitude wasn't exactly the reaction Spire was expecting from the kid. He'd evidently done her a favor. Additionally, she had psychically seen an event from a long time ago that led her to believe Spire was someone to befriend: she saw her mother free Spire from handcuffs and give him a weapon (and Hel conveniently missed the bit from just before, when Spire was smooth-talking the rashly courageous woman into taking him in a fair fight, or the bit right after, where Mom snapped his arm like a pencil and he stabbed her in the abdomen. Or when Toby shot her in the head. She didn't catch that bit, either).

Basically, things went "Ignore it and maybe it'll go away." "Okay it's not going away."

She was a Cursed, even if she was a tiny one, and they couldn't kill her. (Toby had shot a little kid once, a long time ago, and had fallen into a worse depression than usual, and even Spire didn't stomach that whole ordeal well.)

That was about a year ago. By now, Spire has stopped pretending not to care about the girl.
They make an odd family.

Other: Though both factions have retrieved security footage of both brothers' faces, and while many people would have heard the nicknames of the killers (especially in Erubesco, where they love their sensational news), Toby and Spire are not so well-known as to be recognized on sight by citizens or even many military personnel

Dead Roleplay, Ignore

Toby Schippers

Full Name: Tobias (Toby) Schippers

Nicknames/Aliases:
Known in Erubesco as one of the "Ashland Slashers," or occasionally "The Grim Brothers" (according to a few tabloids fond of puns).
Known in Liberty as "Class 8 hostiles" - in other words serial killers, or simply "The Schippers brothers"
Various Wasteland settlements have names to reference Spire and his brother - "Humanity's Avengers," "Blood Brothers," or the "Lennie" to Spire's "George" (based on relative intelligence assumptions which Toby does not really appreciate).

Age: 22

Gender: Male

Gift: Toby can sense others' abilities, down the nuance and intensity. This ability also allows him to identify approximate location/distance of Gifted.

Loyalty: His brother, Spire. The fallen human race.

Description: Pleasant, gentle features. Dimples. Wavy mouse-brown hair. Tall, lean. Often seen in argyle sweatervests. His most memorable feature is not visual, but auditory: his crippling stutter.

Personality: Mild and unobtrusive. Quiet, largely due to aforementioned stutter, which makes him come across as a shy, simple-minded guy. Quite the contrary. Toby's mind is a lot quicker than his tongue, and he loves reading old, human-written literature. Pretty nice guy for a serial killer, honestly. Though far from squeamish, he takes no particular pleasure in bloodshed; killing is only a duty for him. This conflict of lifestyle and disposition (not to mention an underlying belief that as one of the "Cursed" Gifted, he is inherently evil) leads to bouts of melancholy.

Skills: Decent hand-to-hand fighter. Deadshot with virtually any firearm. His ability to predict the approach of other Gifted, as well as identify their nature, makes him a valuable strategic asset. Additionally, Toby has some medical training, though his apprenticeship was interrupted when his tutor was killed, and much of his subsequent knowledge came from books or the trial and error of the various wounds he and his brother have picked up.

Weaknesses: Well. Toby's Gift isn't exactly a show-stopper in combat. And then there's the part where he can't carry a conversation and spends a lot of t--a lot of time t--trying to avoid saying any plosive palatal c--consonants.

Brief History: (See Spire's history)

Other:
Hel loves Spire but...doesn't exactly respect her "Uncle Toby."
Toby is pretty much terrified of her 80% of the time.

Though both factions have retrieved security footage of both brothers' faces, and while many people would have heard the nicknames of the killers (especially in Erubesco, where they love their sensational news), Toby and Spire are not so well-known as to be recognized on sight by citizens or even many military personnel

Spire Schippers

Full Name: Spire Schippers

Nicknames/Aliases:
Known in Erubesco as one of the "Ashland Slashers," or occasionally "The Grim Brothers" (according to a few tabloids fond of puns).
Known in Liberty as "Class 8 hostiles: serial pair" or simply "The Schippers brothers"
Various Wasteland settlements have names to reference Spire and his brother - "Humanity's Avengers," "Blood Brothers."

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Gift: Causes others' Gifts to rebound upon the user. Spire must have eyes on the target and sufficient concentration. (In other words, if Spire uses his ability on someone who can light people on fire, they're gonna catch on fire.)

Loyalty: His brother, Toby, and more recently, Hel, the child who ended up in his unlikely care (played by VitoftheVoid).

Description: Pearl gray eyes, angular features, longish dark hair, stubbled, tall. Fond of peacoats with lots of pockets for lots of blades.

Personality: Sadistic, manipulative, superficially charming, and sarcastic. Killing may be a duty for Toby, but for Spire, it's a pleasure.

Skills: Strong, with street-smart combat experience. Very handy in a knife fight, decent shot with a firearm. Due to his Gift, the stronger the opponent, the more violent the taste of their own medicine... the more virtually unbeatable he becomes in a one-on-one match, turning the tables on usually devastatingly powerful Gifted.

Weaknesses: Offensively, must have sight of and attention on a single target, making group fights problematic. His fondness for cutting things can also put him in dangerously close quarters with Gifted he might more safely take down from afar. Additionally, weak or nonviolent Gifts will not be as affected by Spire's ability, again flipping the tables - weak Gifted will usually fare better against him.

Brief History: Growing up in a system of bunkers in the Ash among some of the last humans, Toby and Spire's non-Gifted family raised the brothers to believe in a cause: the inherent evilness of the "Cursed" after the genocide of the human race. Spire's abilities manifested when he was very young. The violent and antisocial precursors he had exhibited as a child suddenly made sense to the humans; it wasn't his personality, or some trick of brain chemistry - he was simply one of Them. If his predisposition loaded the chamber, his environment from then on pulled the trigger. Despite the mistreatment and disgust of the humans, they let Spire stay - and they let him fight, honing his taste for blood.

When the younger Toby began to show signs of a sensory Gift ("Curse"), Spire, surprisingly protective, kept the child's a secret to protect him from the mistreatment. Outside Gifted later killed off their family. For years, Toby and Spire were mission killers. At least they could be monsters who took down other monsters, picking off Ashlanders and occasionally venturing into Wasteland settlements--blending in for more extended stays--or even faction towns with the IDs taken from the corpses of previous victims.

On a venture into a settlement, Spire went after an Erubescan experiment-handler and gave him a good stabbing capped with a nice deep slash to the throat, all in front of the experiment, a tiny but dangerously powerful red-headed girl named Hel.

Gratitude wasn't exactly the reaction Spire was expecting from the kid. He'd evidently done her a favor. Additionally, she had psychically seen an event from a long time ago that led her to believe Spire was someone to befriend: she saw her mother free Spire from handcuffs and give him a weapon (and Hel conveniently missed the bit from just before, when Spire was smooth-talking the rashly courageous woman into taking him in a fair fight, or the bit right after, where Mom snapped his arm like a pencil and he stabbed her in the abdomen. Or when Toby shot her in the head. She didn't catch that bit, either).

Basically, things went "Ignore it and maybe it'll go away." "Okay it's not going away."

She was a Cursed, even if she was a tiny one, and they couldn't kill her. (Toby had shot a little kid once, a long time ago, and had fallen into a worse depression than usual, and even Spire didn't stomach that whole ordeal well.)

That was about a year ago. By now, Spire has stopped pretending not to care about the girl.
They make an odd family.

Other: Though both factions have retrieved security footage of both brothers' faces, and while many people would have heard the nicknames of the killers (especially in Erubesco, where they love their sensational news), Toby and Spire are not so well-known as to be recognized on sight by citizens or even many military personnel

Welcome to Marchand!

Yeah, I think most of us are still around, just sorta stopped up. Could we role call who is still here?

Welcome to Marchand!

Tatia was on her way to what she was pretty sure was the girl's dorms when she heard speech from behind a closed door.

“I can handle it, K. It won't happen again.”

Tatia slowed down as she passed, catching hint of the buried urgency in the tones and catching a bad case of curiosity as she did so.

"I will bother, though I'm not sure why I do at this point. We've got an operation to run here Byrne. You need to keep this under control before someone ends up getting hurt."

An operation to run? Interesting choice of words for a schoolteacher. Tatia had come to a full halt by now, and had inched toward the door.

In a brief lull, Tatia thought she could hear something rattle like large beads in a maraca. Tatia couldn't think of many other objects that made that noise. And since none of the professors looked like they moonlighted in a mariachi band, Tatia guessed a pill bottle.

"I don't need to remind you what we've got to worry abou-"

When the voice of Professor Kovalenko cut off, followed by quick footsteps toward the door, Tatia nearly fell over in her haste to assume a casual, just-walking-here retreat down the hallway. Damned idiotic of her to try to eavesdrop on literal actual witches. She half expected the door to bang open behind her and one of the professors to shout her down, but nothing happened and she found her room without incident.

Something, evidently, was up with Professor Byrne. Something that could get people hurt.

Huh.

In case things weren't weird enough.