Autumn Valley OOC

[Nordican]

Not sure if you guys were still looking for people but I find the idea of the thread quite interesting and wanted to try out some stuff her on LE.

Name:Sigmund "Sig" Iron

Age:32

Appearance: Standing around 6'1 and coming in at about 218 Sig is a lean muscular man with short cropped black hair parted to the left and greyish eyes with just a hint of orange hue to them. His nose looks like it's seen a few breaks and speaks to a history of getting into a spot of trouble here and there. A single scar trails along the right side of his jaw and occasionally flashes orange when he gets agitated by events around him.

Personality: Generally Sig is fairly reserved but fast to act. He warms up to people once he gets to know him though seems a bit aloof sometimes, almost as if he feels nervous about being near other people imbued with magic. When he takes time off to enjoy a drink or two his attitude is jovial if not a bit surly and he has been known to make a wager or challenge to drinking partners.

Background: Sig has enjoyed his tenure at Autumn Valley thought it was clear from when he came a year or so ago that he had was not a man used to the small town environment so he has largely stayed out of the lime light while occasionally being seen at the Black Cat or in one of the restaurants off Cherry Tree. The truth known only to a few of the town's denizens thus far is that while during his youth Sig traveled the world looking for adventure and new places and while in Germany he encountered a spirit of the forest that fused itself with Sig. The spirit used him as a vessel for a time Sig found himself moving through forests and mountains occasionally driving people back or scaring them off somehow.

(spirit is a shade of Eckhart from German folklore who warns off people of the Wild Hunt. figured it'd be an interesting blend.)

Eventually after a time Sig was driven to Autumn Valley though he was never driven to warn of any doom or attack but Sig has come to enjoy the life he has made in the town while working as a handy man while occasionally trying to learn more of exactly what happened to him when he traveled to Germany.

 

[DrStein]

My main question would be, do you as the writer know where you'd like to go with this? A common pitfall I see with characters like this is... Well, let me paraphrase one of my favorite comedians. "Some people are mysterious because they don't tell you anything. Some people are 'mysterious' because the don't know anything."

 

[Wyck]

Appearance: Standing around 6'1 and coming in at about 218 Sig is a lean muscular man with short cropped back hair parted to the left

Hi Nordican. I can't speak for the character as that's Dr. Steins domain. I just wanted to point out this typo that had me rolling.

 

[Nordican]

The main thing would be eventually perhaps just in being around more people like him or just the magic in the area eventually tweaks something in his connection or he just happens across and old book while being in town that gives him some new perspective. Eventual goal for him would likely be break the curse or just come to grips that this is his life and he cannot change it if that makes sense.

Like I said I'm fine changing him up a bit but that was just the some sort of ancient artifact giving him power was just idea that popped into my head. I blame to many unknown armies games where we fight the modern version of merlin haha.

 

[DrStein]

Okay, we can work with this. The big thing is that to keep a consistent tone in this thread, I want to keep the magic to a folksy sort of ambiance. If you've ever read Ray Bradbury, that's a good example. The works of Neil Gaiman are more of a stretch, but they still work. The movie Kiki's Delivery Service also portrays magic similarly to the way that I imagine for this thread.

Does that help explain the tone we're going for?

 

[HotKittygirl]

Maybe instead of an artifact or relic it's some kind of spirit he doesn't understand, can't communicate with that kinda uses him like a parasite. Then he'd have to find some way of communicating or at least co-existing peaceful.

Just an idea.

 

[haremfaery]

For Jagged/DrStein:

There are Brownies and other 'little ones' who are faeries who are helpers and mischief makers. Jagged and I were talking about this offline. They like shiny things and like pulling pranks, so along with generally being helpful, they would also take the blame for things, like "Where did I put my car keys? They were here a minute ago." And perhaps they like to hide under the stairs so they can look up ladies' skirts, or steal their undies off the clotheslines."

Also, I'll put some feelers out to some women writers to see if I can get a few more. I'm also planning on playing an faery nymph or two and possibly some of the girls at Sophia's brothel. I'm sure the women already on board can jump in and play some more chars as needed.

 

[Nordican]

Alright I can tweak it back down. Actually like the spirit idea and I'll tweak it that he hasn't been around as long as originally planned. Still have him only having been in the town for a little while if that's cool.

 

[Wyck]

For Jagged/DrStein:

And perhaps they like to hide under the stairs so they can look up ladies' skirts

I may be a Brownie myself

 

[DrStein]

There are Brownies and other 'little ones' who are faeries who are helpers and mischief makers. Jagged and I were talking about this offline. They like shiny things and like pulling pranks, so along with generally being helpful, they would also take the blame for things, like "Where did I put my car keys? They were here a minute ago." And perhaps they like to hide under the stairs so they can look up ladies' skirts, or steal their undies off the clotheslines."

Am I the only one who thought that could make a hilarious running gag with Fiona?

Also, I'll put some feelers out to some women writers to see if I can get a few more. I'm also planning on playing an faery nymph or two and possibly some of the girls at Sophia's brothel. I'm sure the women already on board can jump in and play some more chars as needed.

As a standing policy, I generally encourage people to flesh out the town with background characters to make the setting feel more alive. And if you get attached to one of those characters and went them to join in the "festivities" I'm sure we can pull that off too.

Alright I can tweak it back down. Actually like the spirit idea and I'll tweak it that he hasn't been around as long as originally planned. Still have him only having been in the town for a little while if that's cool.

That works. Autumn Valley only acquires a new resident from the outside every few years, but they do come.

 

[HotKittygirl]

Oi. I can see that call for Fi. They stole your panties again? Stop hanging them on a clothes line for fucks sake.

 

[HotKittygirl]

Am I the only one who thought that could make a hilarious running gag with Fiona?

Obviously you are not. Hah.

 

[DrStein]

Obviously you are not. Hah.

Even funnier if they're known to deliberately antagonize her. On that note, I've decided that this exchange from our PM converations:

The last thing you need is a drunken werewolf on the night of the full moon or a bunch of faeries making bets to see who can hit the most targets in the town square not with water balloons, but with maple syrup balloons.

...is canon to the thread. At last year's harvest festival, some of the local faeries assaulted the crowd in Mason Square with maple syrup balloons on a bet.

 

[Nordican]

Made some changes, dug a bit into German folklore and hope that its still keeping within the nature of the thread. Reading up on KDS and Bradbury as well to get more of the feel but I hope the changes are a step in the right direction.

 

[DrStein]

I like it. As if he came to Autumn Valley because it was one place he'd never have to worry about the Wild hunt.

Welcome.

 

[Nordican]

Thank you very much. Eager to create some cool stories with everyone here.

 

[lusciously]

If you're still looking for female bodies, I'd like to throw mine into the mix ... wait .. that sounds terribly wrong.
I'm loving the inspiration, and I seem to be gravitating towards these sorts of group threads. Also, love the mix of mystical and rustic Americana.

Name: Allison May
Age: 23, give or take a century or three

Appearance: Allison looks much like a normal girl in her early 20s, with curly golden hair and a lovely, creamy complexion. She has an hourglass figure, and tends to flaunt it, wearing tops with low necks and fitted bodices. She has not gotten used to the idea that women can wear pants, and is much more at home in skirts, which doesn't stop her from climbing trees, though it often should. While she is invisible to some, most people can see her to some degree, and many of Autumn Valley's residents consider her an excellent measure of a person's receptivity to magic, though some powerful mages have never seen more than a shadow and others have seen her plain as day and never manifested any power whatsoever.

Personality: Mischievous, friendly, frisky. Allison's life was cut off in her youth, and while she has lived on these past centuries, and learned a great deal, she hasn't matured much. She entertains herself with largely harmless pranks, but when she takes a liking to a person, she can be quite helpful. At times, she has puzzled over her situation, as she is an aberration among ghosts. Most have some issue or problem that anchors them in the world, and when it is resolved, they go on to the next, but there is nothing keeping Allison here, that she knows of, but she has never felt any pull to go on. She has a powerful appetite for living lovers, and more than one young man has met a pretty young stranger and after a night of passion, woken up bewildered in the old part of Raven Hill Cemetery.

Background: Allison was one of the first children born in Autumn Valley, when it was a tiny village at the fringe of the British Colonies. During her short life, the town grew from a small collection of farms to a proper little town with its own church and a store. She grew up steeped in the peculiar mix of puritanism and paganism that has always characterized the town, and like so many others, she was born with a gift. Or a curse.
She could see the spirits of the dead. In fact, she could hardly tell the difference between them and the living until she was in her teens. She was more inclined to wonder why she couldn't walk through walls than why they could, and once it became clear what her gift was, she was welcomed into Autumn Valley's hidden community.
Her first romance was with a ghost, and there's no telling how long it might have lasted, if unrequited love weren't what kept him here. Once he had loved and been loved, though, he went on, and she never saw him again. She could hardly resent him for leaving her in the circumstances, though she was lonely.
By the time she was 23, the colony had become a state. She had been married briefly, but widowed by the war. For reasons unknown, her husband had not returned as a spirit, but had moved on without her, and she could see a pattern developing.
She drowned during the spring flood of '91, but found that, just as death had meant little to her in other's lives, it was little more than a bump in the road of her own life. Unlike many ghosts, Allison has kept up with fashion and style, reading the latest literature and following the theater closely. Cinema has been her passion the past few decades, and many of the ghosts in the Benton Theater have become her friends.

 

[DrStein]

I love the idea of one of the town ghosts being a player character. Also has some of that tragic, New England folk story feel to it. God, the Puritans were so dour they make Germans look like a rerun of My Little Pony.

I think this would be a really colorful addition to the cast.

 

[Wyck]

Welcome to the group Nordican and Luciously.

 

[Nordican]

Thanks Wyck

 

[Jagged]

We can definitely work with this. If possible, is there some kind of folk creature you can conjure up other than imps? We can still work with that, but if you can find any folk legends from New England or the Old Country that have more of a... rustic flavor for lack of a better phrase, that would be even better.

Thank you for your approval...at least in general. I'm open to other creatures though I'm fond of Imps...

 

[lusciously]

I love the idea of one of the town ghosts being a player character. Also has some of that tragic, New England folk story feel to it. God, the Puritans were so dour they make Germans look like a rerun of My Little Pony.

I think this would be a really colorful addition to the cast.

The spooky thing is when I started writing her, she was just a girl who dated ghosts. And yeah, I figured there had to be a nod to Salem in Autumn Valley, but it's up to someone else to work out HOW pagans and puritans coexisted back when.

 

[haremfaery]

I suspect paganism was the town's dirty little secret. But perhaps the pagans were useful for keeping the faeries and other creatures under control so they were tolerated.

And I can see the Puritans being like my Catholic relatives when they found out I read tarot cards. "The Bible says fortune tellers are going to hell--Read my cards!"

 

[TellMeAStoryGuy]

I would be interested in writing two characters, one a local (but I don't know who/what I would want him to be so I'll skip him for now); and the other an outsider, described below:

Name:

Carson Lee​

Age:

36​

PIC and Description:

• 5'8", 175; lean and fit.
• Long, wavy, dark brunette hair; thin mustache that he wears only because he'd never been allowed to have one.
• Hazel eyes with prominent gold flecks that have been described as mesmerizing.

Personality:

• Quiet, introverted, until he gets to know you.
• Can be very charismatic, charming when comfortable.
• Suspicious of strangers, but rarely remains strangers long (with the reasons further described below).

Background:

• Just days out of high school, he joined the US Navy as a photojournalist.
• Was given an early discharge -- "General Discharge Under Other Than Honarable Conditions" is what it read -- after he released some embarrassing photographs to the internet. He could have gone to Federal Prison, but he still retains most of the photos in an internet file no one can locate.
• Couldn't find anyone who would employ him as a Photojournalist. (He thinks it's because of his discharge.)
• Having come from a small town, he decided to strike out across the state and write a book he plans on entitling, "Almost Grand: Towns Under A Thousand Souls"
• I will include more as it is posted in the IC.

Direction for the Character:

• Carson will immediately fall in love with Autumn Valley.
• He will find the inhabitants interesting ... then eccentric ... and finally unbelievable.
• The writer in him will see a story, but the cautious introvert in him will realize that anything he publishes could harm the town ... and, of course, if he is suspected of potentially harming the town, he's likely to get harmed himself, so he'll be cautious with his pictures and text.
• I see Carson as a way for other writers to delve into their characters with more exposition; Carson will ask lots of questions, of course, as it is his nature. I am eager to see if he gets any answers, and if he does, what they might be. (I will coordinate with any writer whose character Carson "interviews" to see what direction they want to take the interaction.)

 

[HotKittygirl]

Glad to see more females! Welcome aboard all of ya'll. I'm still working on another one to get her involved.