MAY PLOTTING MEME

[returnjourney]

MAY PLOTTING MEME

Welcome to the Return Journey's plotting meme!

In plotting memes, we share what we're doing next, our dream storylines, and any gentle workshopping on tricky subjects or character choices — essentially a CR Meme with an optional smidge of How's My Driving.

These memes are not mandatory, but they are highly encouraged because it's a place to plan CR and communicate your character arc in a way that can get others involved with yours. They're meant to be low pressure and high yield. When in doubt, ask questions!

Every month, we offer a few different prompts or character-building questions. These are entirely optional; you can absolutely just fill in the base form if you want.

<b>Player:</b> <b>Contact:</b> <b>Notes:</b> Time zone, speed, and/or any other habits you want people to know. What do you like or frequently talk about? <b>Character:</b> <b>Canon:</b> <b>Status:</b> Warden or Inmate <b>Info:</b> Give us a brief rundown on your character! What kind of CR do they offer? Plot hooks? <b>Plotting:</b> What have they been up to? Any plans? Recent open posts or threads? <b>Goals:</b> Do you have any goals in game? Topics you want to explore? Desired CR? <b>Etc:</b> Anything else!

Monthly Prompts

This month we're asking questions themed around motivations.

What is your character's core motivation for being here? If they're resistant to being here, what meaning could they find aboard the Peregrine? Is there any CR you'd like to drive that kind of revelation?

What would motivate your character to grow, for better or worse? For inmates, how could a warden get through to them or do the opposite? For wardens, how could an inmate play them to their advantage or give away their intentions?

Are there any scenarios you'd like to put your character in? What would make them react? What would the consequences be? Are there certain kinds of events or CR that could facilitate this?

Comments

MOD FEEDBACK

[returnjourney]

This thread serves as a general area for mod feedback, commentary on recent game events, any questions you might have about this meme, and so on. You can also drop a comment on the Mod Contact if you prefer.

ellie | tlou.

[goty]

Player: pel
Contact: gambeson, johnny dangerously#5780.
Notes: I'm CST. Add at will; I'm not crazy active on plurk but I do read everything like a weird lurker. Ditto for discord.

Character: Ellie
Canon: TLOU
Status: Inmate
Info: Ellie is from a post-post-apocalypse world that is currently in the slow process of rebuilding, not that she's really helping or is particularly good at it. While she used to be a more trustworthy citizen, a little trauma and a lot of bad choices have lead to her becoming a bit unstable! She prioritizes her ability to survive rather than, uh, live, but we're working on that.

Plotting: Ellie recently got into a fight with Amanda, and spent a little while in solitary. Since then she's been moping, because she's, uh, sad about it. I'm working on getting her to be more social again; she's mostly been in that weird loop where you're sad so you avoid people and then get lonely which makes you sadder. In 2022 I provide only the most #relatable content.

As a general warning, Ellie reacts weirdly to people trying to 'adopt' her due to uh some... mixed feelings she has about past experiences. She won't always react negatively! Just, yk. It's complicated.

Goals:

CR ELLIE CAN PROVIDE:

• BITCHY FRIENDS. The mode of friendship Ellie is most comfortable with is a slightly aggressive form of friendship where you constantly dunk on each other until shit gets super real and then you both collectively pretend you don't have emotions but you super do. This is a normal and healthy way to experience things.
• A STALKER. Ellie can easily become overly attached / obsessed with people, especially if Weird Shit happens between them in events, but also in general. She has a lot of feelings and is no longer good at articulating them in normal ways, and worries a lot about whether or not people are safe, leading her to checking in on them... and then not saying anything about it... and avoiding being seen... basically things don't have to be adversarial for her to tail you.
• BEING GENERALLY WEIRD & INTENSE. This is the prelude to stalking, apparently.
• SURVIVALIST FREAKS. Ellie's Special Interest is survivalism, which she prioritizes as her major skill and possibly the only thing that makes her worth knowing. Exploring how this information could be shared, how the way she was taught it was weird as fuck (she would not be a very gentle mentor, at least not initially, but if you're down for that so am I), how other people interpret that very particular set of skills... would be cool ngl.

CR I WOULD LIKE ELLIE TO HAVE:

• SPORTY FRIENDS. She is a very physical, kinetic person and could probably benefit from using the gym more, especially in a social environment, instead of hiding like an emo kid in her weird little capsule hotel all the time. In general, positive outlets for physical energy might be good.
• ARCHERY PRACTICE. Ellie is an unreasonably good archer, but she's a bit out of practice since showing up here, plus she needs to re-learn the skill a little after losing some fingers. After recently beating somebody up, I don't imagine she's on the short list for 'let's trust her with a potentially lethal skill', but under supervision + with blunted arrows, she'd be safe. IDK, it's a long-term thing.
• INSOMNIA BUDDIES. She doesn't sleep much. Frequently wakes up gasping and shaking, though she's very good at not, yk, shouting. (If your character would have noticed that in the inmate dorms lmk, though I imagine she's probably not the only one lmao.)
• GUITAR HERO. Ellie is itching to get back to playing / re-learning how to play guitar. RIP the pinky and ring finger on her left hand, but it is still possible to play guitar with only two fingers. This would actually be a very emotionally healthy way for Ellie to spend her time. Unsurprisingly, she hasn't told anybody about it! But she's not keeping it a secret or whatever, it just hasn't come up; she needs to think of herself in less of a 'my only worth is survival' context and this would, uh, help.

Etc:

[reek]

YES HELLO Theon is also an unreasonably good archer! He hasn't wanted to demean himself enough to ask a warden to supervise him so he can practice, but it could perhaps be means for fun future CR. 👀

[oinks]

Can we kiss and make up

[theartofmadness]

Insomniacs should start forming a club, honestly. But Jason wakes up the same way and I've been itching to do something with it, would be happy to fulfill that craving with you!

[doppleman]

aksdsjf okokok though that is basically the ONLY type of friendship timothy understands and there's a gigantic gaping Intense Lesbian Survivalist-shaped hole in his life these days SO I MEAN...

also i heard he might be in good company if he starts trying to ferret out hiding spots in the guts of the ship, pls confirm/deny 👀

[shiftedshape]

I feel like bitchy friends could happen eventually, but rn I'm amused at the thought of Ellie being annoyed at Loki not needing (because he's not human) or not thinking about needing (because he's spoiled) things related to survival. He's maybe better at being aware of it for humans in a, uh, paternalistic kind of way, but I could easily see there being a situation where Loki fails to consider basic needs or stupidly puts himself in the line of fire when he shouldn't and someone who had to live as rough as Ellie going "what the fuck is wrong with you"...

Just a thought lmao

[lessandmorethanhuman]

Player: Lin
Contact: shinotenshi22 on plurk or pm this journal
Notes: EST time zone, but I also work from home so can somewhat tag during the day. Sometimes I can boomerang, often I try to not let tags sit for more than a day--but life has been a bit busy. It's only going to get busier come July, before it calms down again. Please feel free to poke me though, I don't bite.

Character: Alex Mercer
Canon: Prototype
Status: Inmate
Info: Alex is a recovering sociopathic virus-in-human-form. The sociopathy was mostly because of how the real Alex Mercer grew up and was raised, along with some natural tendencies. Alex, as he is now, is taking baby steps to start reaching out to trust others. He had a nervous breakdown post-simulation, and is now trying to figure out who he is. He's quiet, and generally not prone to trouble-making unless there's a good reason for it. He makes a good movie-buddy, and he misses real books.

Plotting: I believe Loki has plans to make Alex socialize more, as part of his whole 'figure out who you want to be' goal. I am definitely interested in this--as Alex needs to learn to actually get close to people. He's highly intelligent, and bored easily. He might borrow Theo's chess set (or try and get one of his own) and have people play that with him. I might have him branch out to do more movies besides just with Travis. He also wouldn't mind a work-out buddy or two. All safe and easy ways to branch out, but expect potential philosophical conversations.
Goals: Alex's main goal is to graduate so he can clean up the mess in NYC. I, personally, would love to see him come back as a Warden. Right now though, his goal is figure out who the hell he is and who he wants to BE. That latter being the more important goal, and not an easy one. I definitely would like philosophical CR and for him to actually make proper friends.

Etc: Please feel free to poke me? I'm bad at these kinds of memes.

[shiftedshape]

I'm going to try and take advantage of the long weekend to get some new shit started, and that includes SETTING UP INMATE PLAYDATES. Anyone in particular you want me to have Loki poke?

amanda saw

[oinks]

Player: Cadence
Contact: blisters or blis#2121 on discord
Notes: I'm GMT+12 so I can't rrreally do boomeranging cept on weekends... but feel free to add me wheremstever. I use plurk for talking about women ig

Character: Amanda Young
Canon: Saw (canonpoint is ass end of Saw III)
Status: Too Cute To Be A Warden ✌
Info: Amanda is an emotionally volatile character, currently taking her sweet time coming to grips with what happened to her in canon. She frequently feels misunderstood and underestimated (sometimes this is a good thing and sometimes this is a bad thing), and will lash out over very little provocation. Underneath this perfect storm of shitty behaviour is a misguided, rapid-fire guard dog loyalty and a childish mindset.

tldr; she loves calling people names, making them uncomfortable and generally being a little shit head (until she gets punched for it) (or gets obsessed with you)

Plotting: Recently she has been hit by Ellie and she's about to be hit by Jason so she's having a good one. By that I mean she's currently spending most of her time lurking and keeping her hands to herself for once but this is resulting in spying on people, questioning her existence, and desperately clinging to the very tenuous connections she's already made (apologies to Viktor)

Goals: Amanda is very snarky and playful with people she is on the same team with so I'd love to get to this point with some of the other inmates. A bitchy coworkers style relationship, one which could result in getting stabbed in the back by her at literally any moment just to keep it interesting, keep it fresh. Am also interested in finding Amanda a blorbo, because she's feeling extremely wayward without John and the best way to deal with that is to examine why she felt like she needed a guy who put her into a torture device and told her it cured her fill the John-shaped hole with the first person that even half-way fits the mould. Currently she's playing russian roulette w who she gets a weird obsession crush on but if you'd like to volunteer to go under the microscope hit me up

As always I love it when Amanda gets a chance to actually talk about what went down in her canon (you know...) and somebody goes "uhhhhhh" in response, so if you want to Get Into That I am keen.

Outside of dealing w her extensive emotional damage other hooks include: a hearty interest in engineering (get this bitch a hobby), could easily be corralled into pulling pranks (with the bonus option of taking them way too far!), and wanting to yarn about death and dying. But like, casually

Etc:

[omniavincit]

I'm huffing and puffing and working on insanely old backtags but 1. I think she's neat 2. she and William have a TON in common, which could be helpful or...not...regardless I would love to get into it!!

totally cool if this isn't your jam/isn't ic, but william does have a copy of his old inmate file on his commlink and I'd be down for amanda to get ahold of it and try to use that info in some way (though full disclosure: he's pretty open about a lot of his shit, picking away at his personal relationships/family stuff would probably yield more than a straight-up blackmail attempt)

OR also happy for amanda to come menace him for getting into a fight with one of her blorbos or something

[sanctus_dei]

Player: Lan
Contact: hellglass
Notes: EST, but I'm early to bed/early to rise thanks to work.

Character: Theo Crawford
Canon: Original
Status: Inmate

Info: Theo's been here since day 1, and it's been rough. His crime is monumental and weighs on him so heavily that he's convinced himself he's beyond redemption, and that he was brought here by mistake. Theo has a terrible temper, acts defensively and lashes out when he feels angry or cornered, suffers from some paranoia, acts without thinking... But he's also someone who really does want to be better and do good, like he dreamed of as a kid. He just wants attention! He just wants to be loved! He just will go about it in the worst ways.

Theo loves magic above everything else, but his obsession with it only made everything bad about him even worse. Convincing him of that will be very tough. Theo is very book smart, hard working, and once he gets into something, very enthusiastic and dedicated. First, though, he needs to learn better to work with others, forgiving himself, and making amends for what he's done. Which, by the way, was murdering a whoooole lot of people with necromancy and raising the dead.

Plotting: Right now, Theo is suffering from some ego-death thanks to his failed escaped plan. It's given him a lot of perspective and he's feeling more alone than ever. Maybe this is true, maybe it isn't. He's more depressed than ever since arriving, but he's also realizing that the only way he's getting off the Peregrine is by graduating, so he's going to try and behave a little more. "Try" being the operative word here. Without magic in his life, he doesn't know what to do with himself, but some wardens are trying to steer him to something more productive. He needs more of that! Let's rebuild that ego into something better!

At the current moment he's less trusting of inmates and more of the wardens since arriving. He feels like the the inmates left him swinging as the only one in the escape plan, convinced that it would have worked if they would have stuck together. He's always seen wardens as the enemy, and he still sort of does, but there are a few that are growing on him...

Goals: I want CR with everyone. No really. Everyone!! Please tag me! Good and bad CR, I want it all. Mostly I want to work on him learning to trust someone, anyone here, even just one person. Hey how about you tag this post?

CR you can get from Theo: a book smart cohort, an easy target for bullying or fights, a chess opponent, someone willing to learn whatever it is you're willing to teach him.

Etc:

[sanctus_dei]

What is your character's core motivation for being here?
If you asked Theo this, currently, he wouldn't know. He thinks he was brought here mistakenly. Up until this past month, he just wanted to escape by any means necessary, but that obviously isn't going to work. So now what he needs is to be steered towards something productive and some positive reinforcement. Most people constantly shot down his attempts to study magic, so he's not used to encouragement with his goals and hobbies (except from his brother).

What would motivate your character to grow, for better or worse?
Attention! Depending on how he gets it, it doesn't matter if it's for doing something good or bad, whether they like what he's doing or not. So long as someone is paying attention to him, acknowledging his existence, and praising him, he'll keep up whatever good/back actions.

[theartofmadness]

Mm, so Jason is by large and far not the bird who has a lot of book smarts, comparatively. He is a hyper-observant person and really good at recognizing emotions, though. If you need someone to point out a bunch of shit and churn those feelings, I'm happy to provide.

Rhys Strongfork | Borderlands

[smugreport]

Player: Tam
Contact: weirdtakoyaki or DM
Notes: EST, I'm shifting into intermediate crunch periods as I get ready for con season and have to get items into production before certain dates, so if I'm a little AWOL for 3-5 days in a row that's why! I'll do my best to respond to messages to at least let people know I've seen them.
Character: Rhys Strongfork
Canon: Borderlands
Status: Inmate
Info: Although Rhys came in here holding himself like he was above the system and anyone else in it, at this point he's had a chance to be somewhat humbled (emphasis on somewhat) and is at least not as condescending as he was on arrival. He's still an asshole, and still primarily looking out for his interests though. He's just taking some more approachable methods at this point now that he's come to terms with being here for the long haul.

Plotting: Rhys's most recent impactful action was turning around and ratting on another inmate after learning about their escape plans in an effort to get into some wardens better books. This has paid off, in his opinion, so he'll probably continue to try and straddle the line between trying to win the respect and admiration of the inmates (difficulty: impossible) which he craves, and the perks of being liked by wardens and the advantage that will grant him. Would love for this to eventually blow up in his face somehow in a way that would have consequences he'd care about (someone he likes getting genuinely hurt or dying? Uncreative example but it's all I've got atm)

Other than that he is HYPE for robot lab and will remain on decent-good behavior because he doesn't want to miss out on getting into it ASAP. He has declared he's going to start a club for the other engineers/coders on board.

Etc:

[theartofmadness]

Player: Calix
Contact: yikes#4009 / viletongue
Notes: EST. Festival season is ramping up so I'm more sporadic than usual. Tend fo keep my plurk to RP with a bit of IRL here and there.

Character: Jason Todd
Canon: Titans
Status: Inmate
Info: Jason is a street kid who was "adopted" by a Billionaire and trained to be a weapon against crime in a crime-riddled shithole known as Gotham. Through various past traumas, he struggles with abandonment, impulse control, and addictions (mainly alcohol). He cares a lot, and deeply, but often has an erratic and sometimes inappropriate (re: violent) way of showing it. Jason also typically uses the shit-nosed teenager act as a defense mechanism to keep people from seeing a deeper and more vulnerable side of himself. I shall not wax poetically, because it's hard to concisely describe a character that's so sporadic and contrary, but those are good things to know lol.

Plotting: Jason's offered to help fix Claire's Pinto so it doesn't, yanno, explode. He struggles to stay still and is a very physical person, so he's often found doing something bizarre like hanging off of things to do crunches, making a punching bag from random things he can find around, running down the hallways, actually flipping tables like they were tires and all sorts of other nonsense when he can't get access to the gym.

POSSIBLY FIGHT CLUB?

He is on team insomnia and wakes up semi-regularly in a cold sweat, occasionally he might mumble, gasp, or sound distressed and occasionally it turns into a full-blown panic attack. I'm in the midst of writing a Punch Amanda thread, so I'm not 100% sure what his punishment for that will be at the moment.

Jason also did some pretty terrible shit in the sim that he's quietly wrestling with. I'd love to dig into that more, though I'm working on that with Grace at the moment! I don't think anyone knows just how violent he can be yet (except for Travis who's fought with him already), so I'd be interested in having that be exposed or even if someone HAD seen him in the sim, and working with how that changes their dynamic.

Goals: He was permanently paired to Claire recently and I'm very excited for it. I do eventually want him to graduate and possibly return as a warden, but he has a lot of world views that are so intensely and stubbornly baked into him that it'll be a struggle to get him to see a different view of things. Also, I'd love for this dipshit to relapse which he certainly will anyway but the angst that might come with that could provide some delicious CR material.

Things on offer:
- Casual trouble-making & a variety of thievery skills
- Sparring & Fighting and/or training & artful violence
- Insomnia pals, especially those who suffer nightmares
- Car talk, any sort of work on machines (though he knows cars and motorbikes best)
- Very heated political discussions lmao
- Friendship that's very intense, sometimes cute, and sometimes hypocritical
- Friendship that he completely misreads and gets way too attached to
- Enemies, I genuinely love antagonistic threads
- Casual banter, we love banter in this house
- Marksmanship practice, but not with archery that shit's for Ellie & Theon lmfao
- Talks about guns, explosives, and all sorts of weapons & distraction tools
- Drinking buddies, even though he shouldn't lmao

Etc:

Theon Greyjoy | A Song of Ice and Fire

[reek]

Player: Hannah
Contact: muttonchops, PM this journal
Notes: I’m on hiatus right now, but I’m coming back in June! MST, no real set tagging speed or times, will backtag forever.

Character: Theon Greyjoy
Canon: A Song of Ice and Fire
Status: Inmate
Info: Theon comes from a pseudo-medieval world and family of pirate-vikings (and one uncle who is a pirate-viking-wizard but we don’t talk about him). He was taken from home as a political hostage when he was a child and was held for ten years before his best friend finally decided to send him home. He is a walking identity crisis.

He’s proud, stubborn, and very, very sensitive. Anything you say to him, he’ll take personally and hold onto the wound forever. He internalizes everything and is very heavily guarded. He has a creepy little habit of laughing and smiling at things that shouldn’t be laughed or smiled at. It’s a self defense mechanism. He is also a horse girl.


Plotting: Nothing much has happened this month due to my hiatus, but the simulation really affected him and just upped his paranoia all that much more. HOW DO WE KNOW IF THINGS ARE REAL NOW, GUYS?

I have no real plans for upcoming months because I’m very much a play it by ear type of person, but here is what Theon Greyjoy can offer you:

-General negative or positive CR
-Someone you can tease!!! Look at him, he’s begging for it.
-Someone who is easily manipulated
-An old timey person who has trouble with electronics and is naive to the modern world
-Someone skilled in riding horses, archery, hawking, swordsmanship, sailing, etc.
-The one person on the ship who probably listened to U2’s Songs of Innocence on the commlink and cried because Every Breaking Wave was too relatable.

Goals:
Dude probably needs a friend because he doesn’t really talk to anyone unless he’s forced to or has something cruel or funny to say. Also CR with everyone else of all sorts.

Etc:

Please clap tag.

[theartofmadness]

I can't wait for Jason to find out about Theon's love for U2 and make fun of him for it. On a more serious not, though, he'd be happy to show Theon his way around a cellphone lmfao.

[spanning]

Player: nix
Contact: leitmotif @ plurk, ask for disco
Notes: tagging speed and times are all over the place. a rare plurker bc i forget about it a lot, but it's good for pinging me. contents are mostly rp and fandom shit, with the occasional dash of rl (birds).

Character: aki hayakawa
Canon: chainsaw man
Status: warden
Info: overly serious and intense dude who only comes across as stoic bc he's put his expressions on the backburner. extremely blunt, to the point he will probably say shit you don't wanna hear at least once (fwiw: turnabout is fair play). cr with him will likely be complicated, contradictory, and vaguely antagonistic... but he is very easily attached to people, like just existing in his space is enough for him to give a shit. he just, uh, sucks at expressing it outside of fraught situations.

Plotting: aki's april-may temp was in stasis for most of the month (which is freaky shit), so he stole someone else's inmate bc he tends to focus on his job/goals to the exclusion of all else. this is just how he deals; it's better than sitting around thinking about depressing shit. and thus despite having no involvement whatsoever in what went down, he got to write a report about ellie getting into a fight with amanda, to his deep, enduring sighs. and now he's paired with amanda, lol. other than that, i only have his bhujerba top level (sorry for being slow w those tags btw and ty for the patience), so waves my hands around.

Goals: just some plot hooks for now
— SPORTSBALL AND YOU: aki likes physical activity, simply bc it's familiar and he's good at it. he spends a pretty fair amount of time in the gym and uses it to test how well he's adapted to having one arm. he also now has a sword that he's out of practice with, so he's been dedicating time and effort to getting his skills back up to par.
— WARDEN ACTIVITIES: helps out w heightened security, so if other wardens get stuck with him for a shift...i'm sorry. he's also willing to contribute tickets to the warden ticket pool, if you ever wanna peer pressure him into a dumb purchase.
— DRINKING (IR)RESPONSIBLY: sometimes he gets beers from warden command and drinks them in public spaces. if any inmate ever wanted to try to steal one, idk. fair warning he can see a bit into the future and doesn't ever drink enough to get public drunk tho.
— READING RAINBOW: while aki is sharp and picks up on stuff quickly, he tends to only focus on nerdier pursuits when it has practical application. but this means he spends a shitload of time reading nonfiction about other worlds. maybe one of them is yours. (fun fact: if anyone actually learned enough to look into aki's world in particular, they'd be able to find his death bc it aired on the news. 🤪)

Etc: aki's role in csm in a nutshell until he becomes the antagonist

[omniavincit]

dude I came so close to suggesting wardens get that truth deodorant...keeping my eyes peeled

BUT YEAH sorry I suck, I'm gonna tag you more!! (also travis asked william to send him a pic of "the coolest sword you can find" in bhujerba...he could potentially send a pic of aki with it...)

Luke Skywalker 🌣 Star Wars (Legends) 🌣 Warden

[blackclad]

Player: Takhys
Contact: Bootknife on plurk, Bootknife#7474 on Disco.
Notes: I alternate between boomerang and glacier.

Character: Luke Skywalker
Canon: Star Wars: Legends
Status: Warden
Info: Something something Hero's Journey. For hooks, he's likely working out, running laps, tinkering with anything that holds still.

Plotting: Life was a bit much lately, and my brain has been way slower than I would like for words. So, uh, /jazz hands? /jedi mind trick?
Goals: I want to settle him into some CR - either positive or negative. Come at me? Challenge him, be annoyed by his mellow ways, ???, profit?

Etc:

[lessandmorethanhuman]

I most definitely want CR. No great ideas other than that, but yes plz give-to-me!?!?! Alex actually might get along well with the 'mellow'ness.

[shiftedshape]

Player: Kels
Contact: aninkywisp
Notes: I'm on Eastern time. I've been slower for a couple reasons this month, which I apologize for. I got COVID and was knocked out for a week, and then my apartment hunt got abruptly very dire, so I've been very stressed out. Things are looking up, but I'll still probably be less active than I would like thanks to stuff related to moving (and working extra hours to save up money for moving). I may lean towards easier tags most days, not out of any sort of preference for characters or players so much as lack of energy. I'm *hoping* that I'll have more energy and focus on days I'm not actively busy from here on out, but we shall see.

Character: Loki
Canon: MCU
Status: Warden
Info: 🗡️ Adopted space viking princeking
🗡️ Sorcerer and shapeshifter
🗡️ Queer but kind of a dumbass about it
🗡️ Knifes
🗡️ Kind of insecure about his ability to be an effective warden
🗡️ Gets attached very easily and then regrets it when that attachment means people can hurt him or he can disappoint people
🗡️ Tall, can reach high shelves for u

Plotting: Loki got knocked out by one of his temp inmates last month and has been anxious about his ability to warden effectively since. He's less worried about Alex acting out, but that doesn't make him better at his job. That said, he thought Theo was cool. >:T Maybe nobody is cool. Maybe he should be a hardass. (He will not manage to become a hardass.)

BUT this "setback" can drive him towards something that came up a WHILE ago and I kinda forgot about. Loki had discussed maybe figuring out a way to magically track where folks are. I'm thinking something like a Marauder's Map but it's not constantly updating, but I haven't run it by the mods yet. Since he picked up some of that magical whatsit in FF Town, he might experiment with using that as a power source for that kind of magical working. If anyone wants in on this-- or has ideas for a way it could work that isn't totally going to prevent people from hiding --I'm open to whatever!

As far as motivations go, he also needs to get thinking about what his windfall could be. His goal is to do something to protect his people from Thanos, and if he can do more than that...cool. But lol it is very difficult to come up with something that doesn't feel like too much. Maybe talking it out with folks might help him (and me) come up with a strategy that might actually work.

Goals: I do want to play with his girl form some more. I don't have any particular plans for what to do with that but. It's on the docket.

Also, more action-y stuff, maybe? I haven't been active enough to do a fight scene but. Maybe. Someday. I'd particularly like some opportunities for him to protect people. I think I'd rather lean away from it being him putting himself between two passengers, though. Some kinda monster something something, y'know?

After him managing to screw up pretty spectacularly (at least in his eyes) twice so far, he could use a win. It'd be nice to have him find a way to step up and do the right thing and realize he's done so out of instinct rather than calculation. IDK if that makes sense. I just like the idea of him leaping into action and realizing later that he wasn't selfishly motivated in any way. And also that he was successful at something.

Etc:

[lessandmorethanhuman]

Fwiw, I loved that first thread on the TDM with them versus the blob monster. So I'd love to do more actiony tags with Loki and Alex too. I also really have enjoyed how Loki's kind of helping Alex through his own breakdown. But I can chatter at you on disco or plurk if you want.

Bottom line: more Loki and Alex pls?

claire fraser | outlander

[nineteenfortyfive]

Player: Fudgey
Contact: continuing
Notes: I'm in PST, so often by the time I get off work and eat dinner everyone is going to bed!! Sometimes work destroys me and I need a few days but I love backtagging and discussing threads if they need to be resolved for things to flow smoothly. Plurk is mostly yelling about work/RP/whatever I'm into at the moment.

Character: Claire Fraser
Canon: Outlander
Status: Warden
Info: Ship (grand)mother. Has an inmate but that will not deter her from keeping an eye on others at the same time. Hangs out in the infirmary a lot and jokes about something happening to her and the Auto Doc taking over but it's not really a joke :') Time traveler, not a witch, likes learning about others while not sharing too much about her own self and feelings unless they are that of disappointment. Despite this, quick to bond with others. Here because after traveling to the 1700s to be with her one true love her daughter found their obituary in like 1970 and read Claire and Jamie died in a housefire on a Sunday. Except the exact date was smudged ;( Claire would like to avoid that thanks. Come to Claire for ye olde adoption, instant medical CR, or c o n f l i c t because that's fun. I live on people disliking her and I mean it!

Plotting:
- Got permapaired with Jason. Teenage vigilantes are fucking wild and so is this Batman guy.
- Got drunk with William, please let me know if you want your character to have encountered that mess in some manner.
- The commissary gave her a Ford Pinto! She's going to let Jason fiddle with it so maybe it doesn't explode. Down the road I want this car destroyed and/or some Fast and Furious nonsense.
- Pending mod approval (and me writing things up), Claire will be going home to attend to some matters and come updated to the end of season 6 next week. She's slipped from the throne of Lady Who Looks Like She Has It All Together and has some issues to work on regarding substance abuse and uhhhh hallucinations and hearing voices when stressedd. Unraveled a bit there, but I think it will make for some interesting dynamics between her and inmates and fellow wardens.
- god someone let her teach you medicine she's been working on the material please she talks to the auto-doc so much

Goals: Right now (esp after canon update) I'd like to focus on deepening CR and getting her in with those she hasn't crossed paths with too much yet :) she'll be a little sore because someone she adored turned on her without explanation (usually it's her doing that shit haha) so that's probably a thing she needs to work through.

Etc:

[oinks]

I've been meaning to toss Amanda at you more often! I think she'd be interesting in an infirmary setting bc she was losing an important person in her life to cancer and she did a lot of reading up on his diagnosis + treatments and medicine etc etc so they could find some common thread over that

But hey the last doctor Amanda interacted w was 'the reason that she died' so she's also inclined to be outwardly hostile toward Claire for no good reason. If you're into things going in that direction they certainly can! I also love complex negative CR

[rank1]

Player: Jenn
Contact: victoryfanfare on plurk
Notes: Ya girl has been doing 50+ hr weeks for [stares into space] a month??? I don't know!!! I'm on the last week of it (theoretically) but suffice to say you have my apologies for my absence.

Character: Travis fucking Touchdown
Canon: No More Heroes, specifically between NMH2 and Travis Strikes Again
Status: Warden or Inmate
Info: Travis is an eccentric, foul-mouthed punk with a perverted streak and a thirst for blood, known for greatest hits like "will fight anyone who is down for it (or pisses him off enough)" and "foam wife" and "that one ATV joyride that left a warden beaten." He has recently been paired with William and down to clown for general mayhem. Ask him about his taste in video games!

Plotting: Travis has been zoning out thinking about how he missed Bhujerba because he went a little cray-cray in the previous port and contemplating how hard it is to look cool when The Powers That Be know exactly where to prod in your inner workings. Planning to do an open post in the next week or two.
Goals: I want this motherfucker to be a good dad, actually, and become basically anything but a murderer who isn't making other people rich by ruining other people's lives.

What is your character's core motivation for being here?
Travis has no problem being here. While it's not exactly ideal –– he'd rather be free, thank you very much –– he's got some responsibilities back home he's not too hasty to get back to, and "retirement" on the Peregrine is a lot easier than "retirement" in backwoods Texas. He's getting tired of what feels like takeout but it sure beats, um... child support? Bending to his wife's demands for him? Killing people for profit? He'll take his time, thanks.

That said, Travis doesn't particularly think he has anything wrong with him. Sure, murder is wrong, you don't gotta tell him twice, yadda yadda, but as far as he's concerned, he's dealing pretty well with the hand he's been dealt in life, and he's not like other murderers. He kills people who kill people. It's fiiiiine. (It's not fine.) But since he doesn't think anything in particular is wrong, he's without much in the way of direction on how to close that chapter of his life and keep it closed.

For this, Travis could use some patient CR willing to tease out the hows and whys of being an assassin and what makes it different (or the same) as other forms of m u r d e r. He also needs to develop some productive ideas of what to do with himself in the future that aren't bloodbaths; right now that looks like video games and beer and road trips, but some more concrete picture of change being possible and what potential might be out there would rule.

What would motivate your character to grow, for better or worse?
Things are effective on Travis:
- Manipulation –– look, it's not good for him, but it's effective. He doesn't think things through or question things much, so he's easily swayed. Carrot-and-stick approaches work pretty good too, especially from wardens; he's likely to just kill/brutalize an inmate who tries to go "stick" with him.
- Real emotions. Travis has some strong feelings about people who want everything to be logical, pragmatic, efficient, robotic, etc; he's big on Feelings, even if he doesn't like to show it. Being around people who can be genuine and earnest and emotional –– regardless of what the emotion is! –– inspires him to open up a little more. He'll match what he gets, basically.
- Fighting. Some real ugly shit gets worked out in fights, to his experience. He does learn from it, especially with follow-through; people who fight him can get a lot out of him by following up.
- Be nice to his stupid foam cat, and be nice about kids. (Actual kids, not teenagers. Y'all are old enough to make bad choices.)
- He's got some pretty intense feelings about capitalism, gentrification, corporations, Disney-style conglomerates, and all sorts of things, but he doesn't really act like it, much less apply it. He's got baby-revolutionary shit going on but has never really given it the time of day because he's too busy melting his brain with chiptune music. Exploring what he could actually do with those things would be good for him.
- Just keeping him busy and engaged. A bored Travis is a Travis who is causing problems or settling into some lone-wolf-sad-sack shit.
- Food lol.

Things that don't work with Travis:
- Soapboxing or being lectured; he thinks it's a little cringe and is likely to tune it out.
- In the long run, Travis does not care if people are rude to him or combative; he actually kinda likes it because it's genuine, and he will come back for more! People who shy away from hard feelings or confrontation will frustrate him, and he's not likely to take anything they say seriously.
- Ignoring him. Check out on him and he's just going to assume he has carte blanche to do whatever he wants.

Are there any scenarios you'd like to put your character in?
I'd like him to kill someone!! Very cool to have to confront someone he killed, normally they, you know, stay dead!

william | westworld

[omniavincit]

Player: Carolyn
Contact: smugfrog, kavalier#7118@disco...I've started blocking social media for chunks of time in an effort to get more tagging done, so if I suddenly disappear on you that's probably why
Notes: I'm a delivery driver, so I 🤙 work weekends 🤙 and occasionally weekday nights—I'm trying to get better about tagging over the weekend, but 12 hour days aren't unusual and I'm driving most of the time. That said, it's pretty easy for me to shift my schedule around as long as I have a lil advance notice, so if you ever want to set aside a day to go full speed ahead on a thread, it's probably doable!

I'M ALSO VERY SLOW atm, trying to get faster but if I'm ever holding you back, please feel free to nudge/request a handwave.

Character: William
Canon: Westworld
Status: Warden
Info: William is a graduated inmate and certified weirdo from a near-future world where humans have, among other things, developed hyperrealistic robots and then forced them to dress up as cowboys so they can shoot (or fuck 😔) them. (Did William fall in love with one such robot? The answer will NOT surprise you!)

He stays in the inmate dorms, regularly works out with Travis (lol I know) at the gym, and also visits the loading bay at least once a day—forever hoping one of his dead inmate friends will show up. He's orbiting Viktor's lab-in-progress and very protective of the cleaning bots.

Also his (ex-)warden is here so you can fact check him.

Plotting: William just got paired with Travis and proceeded to go on a mini-bender (mostly notable because he almost never drinks) that you can still tag here!

I'd also like to make better (any) use of his commissary purchases, which include: A Sleep Zapper I Accidentally Decided Was a Gun So It's A Sleep Gun Now (lmk if any of you insomniacs want to do something with that—he'd offer it to everyone in the dorms but I don't want to singlehandedly destroy everyone's late-night chats) (or if you just want to end a late-night chat thread in the most hilarious way possible...) and this marvel (which I have vague plans for him testing out in the gym/inevitably injuring himself with, but I welcome other notions!).

Do you want to get your hands on his shit? He keeps most of his valuables in his cabin, but there are a few things he stores in a trunk in the dorms—I'd be more than happy to come up with a list of grabbable stuff (though he'll most likely realize it's missing).

I WANT SOME SIRE THREADS, William's not super interested in it because he's a VR snob but please...drag him in there

And I am always always always down for conflict, though I like it to follow an arc of some sort (rather than sniping without any development etc)!


General hooks: he is a CEO-cowboy-dad who loves robots, simulations, and stories. Very sympathetic toward inmates in general, but also people in the throes of an existential crisis, people with memory loss and identity issues, people who are balding, and people who are just plain weird (see: Travis Touchdown). He's also available for all your former inmate/graduation questions (although his answers may be confusing/unsatisfying...). He's an average pilot and excellent marksman and could potentially give lessons in either flying or shooting (if you are a warden)(probably).

Goals: I'd like to dig more into his personal stuff—there's a lot of shit he simply hasn't brought up that'll take some time to get into (his family situation, owning a fucked-up robot theme park), but aside from that I'd love for someone to ask him about his relationship with Misty (as his WARDEN, wow) or his past simulation experiences or inmate friends 🥲

I'd also like to...inch toward...him getting comfortable relying on people (both wardens and inmates) and/or asking them for advice—though he can be harsh, he's forgiving of mistakes when someone's heart's in the right place and unused to people standing up for him (YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO LIKE HIM FOR THIS CR AHAHAHA). I'd also love to see more warden group discussions in general—whether it's philosophizing, sharing advice, or just being like “what the fuck is up with this inmate?”

(And extremely minor goal but I want to get him a new hat.)


Etc:

OTHER QUESTIONS COMING SOON

[sanctus_dei]

I can't even explain it but somehow William is good at getting Theo to talk. He's a Theo Whisperer. I wouldn't go as far as to say Theo trusts him, but he doesn't mind talking to him even if he's weird. That's okay. Theo's weird too.

Also if you want someone to rummage through his stuff, Theo generally gets bored and curious enough that he might try

[shadowsran]

Player: Raven
Contact: PM, plurk @ tadcooper, discord on request
Notes: EST, I aspire to at least one pass at everything every day or so (but life is Relentless). I am a simple soul, I like dead and/or angry girls and sitting through multi-hour video essays about things/canons I don't even go to. Plurk presence is largely just rp/sometimes things I'm watching.

Character: Misty Day
Canon: American Horror Story: Coven
Status: Warden
Info: Misty is from a modern setting with a horror tint (haunted locales, demons, deities, magic, cannibal mutants, many flavors of vampire, etc - NOT that she has interacted with all of these personally or is even aware of them), and between coming from a horror canon and having spent the last few years of her life living in a jamjar, she's unsurprisingly coming with Some Baggage. Generally she aims to present herself as Amiable, Helpful, And Inoffensive — so as to not make an ass of herself and benefit her weird community, but also to weed out who bothers to look deeper vs who accepts it at face value. At her core she's a very sweet, very harsh, very intense weirdo who life kind of just keeps happening to, and she'd like to buck that trend.

Plotting: She's been very quiet! There's some residual shellshock from the last few years and the circumstances of her boarding the Peregrine she's still trying to work through, so she's largely kept to herself. I shot myself in the foot a little by sitting out the sim, but she was out for port and quite enjoyed herself, a much needed refresher even if she had to fight off a goofy escape attempt. 8/10. I have no hard plans myself, other than to try and get her out there/shore up general cr across the board.

Goals:
— Acquire cr deep enough she can comfortably get into all her own bullshit
— The judgmental inclinations are there to stay but could probably stand some tempering - she'd benefit from seeing people actually change for the better/improving an initially poor relationship/things in that vein, being forced to acknowledge positive change or an initial misread. Combat underlying cynicism about how likely meaningful change is.
— Talk a temp into overboarding with her!!! she did this with William all the time and he clearly came out great!!! please she really misses it but will look irresponsible if she does it and just abandons her inmate :(
— All she really does at present is chill in the warden theater, read, and swim, she wouldn't be as hard a sell on moderately stupid experiments to combat boredom as she'd hope.
— Backseat wardening, a specialty. Part of this is that she thinks it's weird to only focus on your inmate (be they perm or temp), but also her experience has very much been "gel with someone and keep at them and then down the line you end up paired anyway", and given she's very dead atm and very concerned about undoing that she does want to get a ball rolling there.
— She's also very freaked out by this whole replacement body/SOUL thing, and like, I'm not saying she's out there wanting to yank hers out just to know it's real or marvel at what feels like a gross technological achievement, but if the opportunity arose........or if someone else was gonna do it.......eyes emoji
— it's a very weird thing that will go nowhere but [past bullshit] has her determined to make a (useless) wizard staff, what I'm really saying is "chop down a tree with her in port sometime"
— [embarrassing photo of william at the christmas party] (by which I mean she'll enjoy chatting about him but won't offer anything especially illuminating out of respect for his right to deny exposition)
— friends who hate the same people...concepts taped to her vision board
— she wouldn't volunteer but she has graduated people before and is available to hash out wardening shit with anyone who might hit her up about it!

Misc things she'll reliably jump on: Death, symbolic rebirth, being uncertain things are real, isolation, abandonment, paranoia, m u s i c, she enjoys working with her hands but she's more woodwork than robotics/tech, SIMULATIONS AND ALTERNATE LIVES (THINGS THAT SHE LOVES), magic (she may not contribute but she will be Listening Very Very Closely), relationships of convenience (derogatory), ~purpose~, justice and punishment and all that good shit (she has fed people to alligators and she'd do it again - very much a warden down with murder if it feels earned), uh she can smell souls but I'm an absolute idiot who still hasn't made the permissions post so I'm ignoring that until I do, Southern/Cajun accent ripe for picking on, fashion ripe for picking on, learned violence, critters

Etc: