Ruby

*POSITIVE* LGBT++ hangout, anybody? *CIS/STRAIGHT WELCOME TOO* :D

I'd rather join something else...but sure, hands.

I need a teacher of sorts.

Didn't know where to post this, its a little embarrassing. I want to become a better roleplayer. But can't seem to improve.

If anyone has tips, way to improve, or able to Tudor me, please tell me.

@Chaotic Chao

You're more than welcome to PM me any questions/posts you want feedback on; I'm a long time writer/roleplayer that's been on a few "Best writers on the Guild" lists with a history of helping others improve. Currently assisting writers do this IRL with writer workshops.

But in general, two tips:

1) You experience your world through your senses; your characters do the same. In every post you write, keep this in mind, approach your writing from the viewpoint of sensory details first and exposition second.

Exposition?

("Exposition?" you might ask. Ripped from Wiki: "Narrative exposition is the insertion of important background information within a story; for example, information about the setting, characters' backstories, prior plot events, historical context, etc."--not to be confused with sensory details.)

2) There's no shame in getting "beaten" by the masters, and you only get better when you expose yourself to writing better than your current level. So if you stick in the same writing/RP circles that you're comfortable in, you won't grow. Won't expand. Won't improve. So never feel embarrassed if you're in a game and you feel like you're out of your depth--so long as you're trying. And if someone's petty to you...send 'em my way.

Good luck!

Retrogarde [Fantasy Noir]

@Kingfisher CS for your approval. A bit WIPish.

Agent Whyte

Name/Nicknames: Special Agent Hector Whyte

Race: Human

Age: 42

The Bureau comes to Santa Somabra

"...you have no idea what He has planned. You're in over your head, pig fuck."

"Am I?" asked Agent Whyte, cracking his big, easy ain't-this-fun? grin. It was a smile that was hard to argue with, even if you were on the wrong side of an interrogation. Flashing those pearly whites and twinkling baby blues had gotten Hec Whyte on the good side of more than a few hostile witnesses and suspects, not to mention secretaries, waitresses, stewardesses, housewives...

The smile had its limits, though. This customer here was sure as hell not buying.

He was a stringy little man with an even stringier little mustache, in cheap dark slacks and a yellowing, bloodstained guinea-tee. Which was funny, 'cause this fella was no guinea. He was a Hanged Man.

"In the kingdom of the pigs, butchers rule," the little man said, spitting out a mouthful of blood and a few teeth- Special Agents Wild and Harker had worked him over a bit in the course of the...well, wasn't exactly an arrest, legally speaking, was it? Kidnapping? Abduction?

"Cute poem," said Whyte, who sat down in the chair opposite the one the little man was handcuffed to. They were in an old warehouse out near the Dump, rain drumming against the sheet metal roof and pattering through creases and holes into the dim room below. Wild and Harker were prowling back and forth in the gloom, menacing pug-faced counterpoints to Whyte with his Rat-Pack looks and lopsided smile, "You may have noticed, pally, that we're not in the precinct, are we? Or the F-B-I offices downtown? So you might wanna think about who's the butcher here and whos gonna end up pork chops if they don't play along. As the kids say, can ya dig? Are you picking up what I'm layin' down?"

The little man spat out another tooth. Whyte's smile didn't fade, but it did stop going all the way to his eyes.

"Now then," said Whyte, "Let's start with the charming little movies your boss is putting together."

"Our Art," said the little man with a sly smile. Blood bubbled in the corner of his mouth.

"Art is it, cutting the throats of junkies on camera?"

"You don't see it yet, but you will. The beauty. The Truth in the films."

Whyte pulled out a pack of Chesterfields and lit one.

"His Truth is in the blood."

"I'll take your word for it, haven't watched 'em myself, I value my sanity," said Whyte, "But I have taken a look at the film stock he's using. Was made about fifteen years ago...in Germany. Same type that Riefenstahl broad used. Where are you boys getting that kinda film? FBI's official position is that we found and destroyed it all, though no doubt Uncle Joe and the Ruskies pulled their share of it out of the ruins."

The little man began to laugh quietly. Whyte stood up and removed his jacket. He took his time rolling up his sleeves, cigarette dangling from the center of his mouth.

"I know you're one of the buyers," said Whyte, "Tell me who your contact is. Russian? A German of Argentine extraction, perhaps?"

"In the kingdom of the pigs, butchers rule," whispered the little man quietly, and Whyte broke his nose.

It went on like that for some time, until the little man's face didn't look much like a face anymore, and Whyte's pressed shirt was speckled with blood.

He got a name though. One he recognized.

Then he drew his sidearm and put a round through the little man's forehead.

"Should we get rid of the body?" asked Agent Wild.

"In this city? Why bother?" said Whyte.

@Flagg

I'm stupid excited to write with you again. <3

Retrogarde [Fantasy Noir]

Posted her. Bon appétit.

Retrogarde [Fantasy Noir]

"...let me seduce you, let me play in your head..."

Name/Nicknames: Varaceli 'Vara' Rosa Mendoza (Actual: Varaxes)

Race: Human (Actual: Dragon)

Age: 23 (Actual: Still working this out.)

Personality:

An independent minded girl; determined and free spirited, that appears to be living the ultimate "fuck you" to the Mexican Catholic environment that produced her on the border towns and American fruit farms in which she was raised. Drawn to Santa Somabra by the confluence of Kerouac, greaser culture, and the glamour of showbiz. Sweet and selfless to those in need, fearless and vicious to those who would victimize the defenseless--or those she treasures. All of it under a charming, pretty, surface that belies the ancient, mythical, creature hiding impossibly far under that surface.

Infinitely curious, a hoarder of secrets, and adores games of nearly any kind; she can often be found playing chess with the disabled Vets at the various veterans centers all around town. Likes to poke her nose in where it doesn't belong, damn the consequences.

In a reverse, the whore chooses the clients--not the clients choose the whore.

Bio:

There are times, even often times, that the great beast gets lost in the facade. Unbridled power lost in the flames of history, allowing even the biggest bird in the sky to get caught up in the dreams of sparrows. It started in what seems like a close yesterday to Varaxes; a crime of desperation and impulse perpetrated by one ancient magical beast to another. It wasn't a close yesterday, it goes back further than that, into pre-history where history and legend interwine like lovers. While her self exile has long since outlived her crime, the myth of the great dragon hiding in the lives of the most insignificant took on a life of it's own--and became an addiction.

Varaxes has been undercover so long, she's lost track of which direction is up. This quirk of fate and personality manifests itself in a creature that's so buried under the layers of the life of a young Mexican American girl, the vast majority of the time it's as if the beast never existed, only the girl. Not the bright burn of magic, not the dark arts of torture, could force the truth to the surface at this point. She's as lost as those trying to find her, and at this point, doubtlessly more so. Shaken out of her dreaming by the recent world shaking detonations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, finally half aware of what she really is for the first time in milennia.

No one can point to exactly when Vara Mendoza showed up in Santa Somabra. Her presence started out as gossip between women of the night and the men that indulge in them--noise that only got louder, and louder, the more she appeared from soup kitchens to the Mexican dance halls to veteran centers to gilded night clubs where only the wealthiest and most powerful frolic. By the time it was clear she was a simple whore with an alarmingly unsimple clientel, and a show stopping beauty, she'd become a vexing mystery to the creatures of the night that control the market. A mystery that has since turned into a full fledged problem:

When the vampires finally tracked her down to demand tribute and subservience, she was already out of their reach, armored from them by the secrets she gathers from every imaginable source and sect of society. Protected by the leather bound and lupine Wild Hunt, by the law and their political masters, in exchange for a taste of her secrets...and sometimes for a taste of her trade.

The short game of Vara appears relatively elementary; a free spirit trying to spread love and comfort to those in need of it, and keep the defenseless from being used and abused. The scattershot of her actions, coupled with the apparent simplicity of her motivations, would lead one to assume there is no long game at play here. An assumption that couldn't be further from the truth.

All Vara cares for is the long game of Santa Somabra, for it's growth and the evolution of this region of the world she's come to call home...a region that has precious few of those mythic beasts like her secret self that she hides from. A region so untouched and underdeveloped, it even sparks dreams in the girl of one day revealing her ancient self for all of Santa Somabra and the surrounding country to be inspired by so that a brighter future could be possible for all.

Other: I'd like to avoid Vara going "nuclear"--that is, ever going full dragon. Where would the fun in that be?

Retrogarde [Fantasy Noir]

Nobody stone me when you see my CS.

It's not a sin if you have permission.

Retrogarde [Fantasy Noir]

I'm interested in this. I do intend to read the past games but depending on when the OOC goes up, will any intimate knowledge of the past games be required?

@FitzEmpress

I hope not. I'm pretty ignorant myself.

Retrogarde [Fantasy Noir]

Yes, please. ^_^

Gotham City: Shadow of the Bat

@Ruby, for a second there, I thought you were gonna end the RP.

Also, don't worry about us. You take care of real life stuff. That's obviously a priority. We'll somehow survive until you get back.

@Krot

Oh, I am, honey.

I wish I wasn't, but I just don't see a better option right now other than just kinda re-start it.

Which might work, but partly up to those players still active and interested.

Gotham City: Shadow of the Bat

Or, not.

As much as I do not want to do this, as I've already said I wouldn't, real life is forcing my hand here. I'm just too busy right now to run this game. It's killing the game, as anyone can see, and something needs doing. As soon as my real life sorts itself out, I'm sure I'll jump back into things.

I'm so sorry, folks.