OOC: Swallowed in the Sea

[Twist_of_Fate]

Casting Call: Swallowed in the Sea

Swallowed in the Sea​

A roleplay in the theme of Lost...​

Before you read on, be warned: If you're looking for a thread where you make an introductory post, and are bleating like a wild thing in the next; you're in the wrong place. I intend for this to be a lengthy, in-depth thread with highly developed characters and a dynamic storyline. To put it clearly, story and characters will come first, and sex second or third. Sure, we'll probably be bleating like wild things sometime, but realistically. Well, maybe not completely realistically...

* * *​

United Airlines Flight 381 was scheduled to take off at 11:20, Eastern Time, from Miami, Florida. Its destination was Madrid, Spain, and the approximate flight time was projected to be a little under seven hours. The plane was delayed by a problem with the fuel, and left Miami International Airport an hour after it was supposed to, at about half past noon, and was reasonably full: about 3/4 capacity.

At 2:00 PM in Madrid, local time, a flight control operator informed his superior that Flight 381 was late coming in. He was told that that flight had been late going out; give it a little more time. Three hours later, the missing flight was headlining news around the globe.

Search teams were sent out; it was revealed that contact with Flight 381 had been lost about four hours into its flight, and also that it had flown into a violent Atlantic storm. Analysts and experts on every station and in every language all predicted the same theory that most people felt to be true - Flight 381 had crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. After a few weeks, the search was abandoned. The families of passengers onboard grieved, but eventually moved on. Flight 381 and all the people aboard had been, for all practical purposes, swallowed in the sea.

But they were not yet dead.

* * *​

That's the hook. Flight across the Atlantic never reaches its destination, and is given up on by the outside world. In fact, the plane crashed into an island, a supposedly desert island - but nothing is as it seems.

This is a roleplay in the theme of Lost (the television series) - allow me to explain. The premise is similar (people stuck on an island where very strange thing happen, there seems to be no hope of rescue, and there's the lingering feeling that their crash was not an accident), but this isn't Lost. It's a different island with different people and a different story, and a very different reason behind it all.

How will this work? The traditional roleplay style, for starters. Posts, characters (interesting ones, and good ones, though), the usual. But the progress of the story will be directed by me in NPC "deus ex machina" kind of posts; making things happen to characters, directing you places, etc etc. It won't be heavy-handed, don't worry about that. I won't be telling you what to think. It'll be more like, you get to the top of the cliff after that long climb, and I'll tell you what's on the other side.

So what's next? Come up with a character - an interesting, well-rounded person who will be able to contribute (negatively or positively, constructively or just dramatically) to the plight of the stranded. Give him or her and interesting back story, their reason for travelling from Miami to Madrid - the forces that caused them to step foot onto Flight 381. Get creative; incorporate your story into someone else's too. The more intricate our weave, the better the design. Post your questions or comments here, if you don't quite understand something about it, I'll try and flesh it out for you.

If you want to join, be ready for an interesting, mysterious, and most of all, fun experience!

Note: You do not have to have any knowledge of Lost to be able to participate in this thread - in fact, if you don't, you'll probably enjoy it more!

 

[shadowoftheheart]

I like the idea .. Will work on a character.

 

[Twist_of_Fate]

Glad to have you.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Messalina Bishop

She had been named for one of the "uppity wimmin of herstory" -- as her father liked to say. Never quite living up to the reputation of the wife of the Emperor Claudius of Rome, Messalina Bishop had had a wild youth but finally settled down in her twenties and hit the books (much to her parents' relief) -- ultimately earning a doctorate in Art History/Classical Archaeology and a minor in cultural anthropology.

EDUCATION:

Phd. in Art History/Classical Archaeology from the University of Virginia
Masters from Rice University; Summa Cum Laude.
BA in Ancient Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University; Cum Laude.

***

Messalina, needing a break, and with a passel of things on her mind has decided to take a side trip to Madrid to get her personal stuff together. From there, she'll travel to what she believes is her ultimate destination: The site of the Aedui oppidum, Bibracte, at Mont Beuvray, France.

 

[Black Thunder]

Jacob Wilder
205
6'1
black hair(kept in dreadlocks) brown eyes
muscular

Jacob was on a very important mission for a very important man.Jacob was moving a large amount of cocaine for a high-level dryg dealer in Miami.His job was to take the drugs to Madrid and then hand them off to a person who would transport the drugs to Barcelona.In reality,Jacob was a very nice guy if you got close to him.He wasn't so nice when drugs were involved.He was once rumored to have shot a man and both kneecaps and made him crawl to a safe an get the money that was owed.

 

[LadyOfThorns]

Melanie Vaughn

Age: 18
Height: 5' 4"
Eyes: Green
Hair: Short Cut (neck length), Red
Weight: 120
Nationality: American
Identifying Marks: Red Dragon Tattoo on back of right shoulder

Having just finished High School, Melanie is a champion Track and Field star for her high school team, as well as very accomplished in Archery. Having been on her High School team since she was a Freshman, Melanie has more than several medals and awards to show and prove her success. Although she does not gloat over them as every star or champion can fall just as easily as anyone else. Coming from a fairly rich background, Melanie was seen as one of the popular girls in school..if not for looks then for money. But she was never one to put anyone down because of it. Having recieved her acceptance letter into Harvard University as a Business Major, Melanie first though a vacation was in order. And so for her graduation present, her parent's purchased her a ticket to Madrid..and two days later she was on the plane.

 

[Steiner]

Doctor Franz Weider-Chase
Age: 34
Height: 5 feet 11 inches
Eyes: Ice Blue
Hair: Blonde, shoulder length
Nationality: Dual German/American citizenship.

Privilige had touched Franz from the earliest of ages. His entrance into one of Germany's most prestigious academies, his study of medicine at Harvard and Cambridge univirsities (for his Graduate and Doctorate work) and then his internship at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford. He'd quickly chosen surgery as his field and was now close to the top of his field.

The conference in John Hopkins hospital a very successful one for him. He'd impressed the man in charge of residencies and Doctor Weider-Chase would soon be relocating from Mainz to John Hopkins as a senior surgeon. Perhaps soon to be chief surgeon?

For those and many other reasons, his cursing of their faulty aircraft was among the most vehement as it lost altitude.

 

[Twist_of_Fate]

Thanks for all the interest.

I'm going to sleep on the idea of my character and put him up in the morning.

I'm very much looking forward to this!

 

[clan_destine]

Terry McGinnis

Terry's the type of guy that annoys parents and eductors. His grades weren't great or terrible, just what one would get with minimal effort. He spent eight years in various colleges (his Zonker Harris days) with nothing more to show for the time and money than a simple liberal arts degree, and nine unfinished declared majors. He was a true dilletante, jumping form interest to interest in a matter of moments, not finding one thing in academia that captured his heart.

Of course, it took something from the world beyond the classroom to catch his imagination. A noted author and comic book artist came to speak at the school, and Terry found himself looking into a world of his imagination. Once out of school, he ran to a comic company he liked, and pressed for a job. When he proved that he really did understand comics and the heroic writing styles, he started assisting some of the big names in the business. A year later, he was writing and drawing his own underground comics. A year after that, his comic line was purchased by a major company, and he was working for a decent salary, doing something he loved for some real money.

Once in this job, Terry went wild. He had imagination to spare, and realized that there were many avenues for this talent. He not only wrote and drew a comic line, he was writing the screen plays and novelizations for other comic titles, as well as working up the storylines for video games and heading out on speaking tours. Having hardly spent any time preparing himself for real life, he had become an overnight success.

Of course, everything isn't always rosy, and he suddenly found himself facing corporate reality, as bigger conglomerations bought out the comic company, the publishing house, the movie studio, and the computer companies that he was working for. Within three months, he was relying more and more upon the money from the speaking tours, as the regular work being sent his way was slowly drying up.

Luckily, if America is crazy for Japanese animation, Japan is just as crazy for oddball American creativity. Terry was invited to a massive convention in Japan, and the timeline would allow for a quick stop over in Madrid, to visit his parents. (Providing they're still speaking to him..)

 

[Maid of Marvels]

I heard a rumor that a certain Sir Reginald Trowbridge (followed by a bunch of fancy shmancy letters) will be joining us.

 

[Vikingstone]

Submitted for your approval

Sir Reginald R.H. Trowbridge, former British Intelligence, now primarily intoxicated. No american alcohol of any kind, except a quality sour mash, EVERYTHING else is fair game. *hic*

40, in shape (except for the drunkeness), irrepressibly charming, rugged good-looks, knowledge of everything from explosives to piloting a helicopter. Utterly fearless, resourceful, highly intelligent and totally unreliable. He's got that ethereal and annoying, for those who don't have it, thing that the gals dig. They'd never marry him but for flirting and dancing and a bit more... His license to kill was revoked a decade ago but he can still be frighteningly ruthless, given the right scenario. If he thought it was necessary, he'd kill you without thinking twice. Think Bond, with a couple of scoops of Bad Santa thrown into the mix. He's retired for the most part but has been known to take obscenely over-paid security/personal protection assignments for the kind of people who need to be absolutely certain of complete discretion. Simply put, Reggie has all the skills and can be depended upon to keep his mouth shut. Forever.

Reggie is on the plane in a strictly recreational capacity. Having spent a quiet month in Palm with some stupid-rich friends from the old days, he's rested and ready for futher adventures in the realm of irresponsibility. He has more than enough money to benefit his favorite charities and drink himself to death on the finest alcohol. He travels and drinks and enjoys the company of "the beautiful people" around the world.

 

[Twist_of_Fate]

Welcome along everyone. Now, for my own fellow...

* * *​

Scott Ceridwen was an affable, smiling man of 24, who seemed - on the surface - to know exactly who he was and where he was going. He was good-looking but not a model, and had a reasonably good sense of dress, all with a very upper milddle-class air about him. Unremarkable except for his wit and opinions, he may not stand out in a crowd but you probably wouldn't forget him.

He was raised by a foster family, his true mother having put him up for adoption for reasons he neither knew nor wanted very much to look into. In high school he had a small group of loyal friends, and studied hard but played harder. Scott graduated near the top of his class, and went on to attend the College of William & Mary.

In the March of his first year there, he dropped out of the university. With no explanation for any of his actions, he severed ties with his foster family and brother, all of his friends, and collegiate associates. He cancelled all his bank accounts, insurance policies, and memberships to any organizations; he disappeared.

For the next four years, Scott held jobs ranging from bartending to stand-up comedy, never staying in one place long. He has his own reasons for travelling out of the States to Madrid, though whatever one he tells you probably won't be the truth.

* * *​

Note that I'll also be playing a host of NPC characters, to move the story along.

 

[Vikingstone]

International Man of Mystery

Sounds spooky Mr. Twist.

 

[Twist_of_Fate]

Why thank you, Mr. Viking. And Trowbridge sounds delightfully drunk. ^^ I'm loving all of these characters.

We just need some womenfolk!

 

[Elzeothis]

Marissa Vandyke

Marissa Vandyke, at the age of twenty seven, was finally doing something completely unpredictable and unforeseen.

Marissa and her sister, Melissa, were completely identical twins – well, at least genetically. This meant that her sister and she had, from the moment of their conception, had identical DNA, down to the smallest allele. Unfortunately, due to individualism, they had varying phenotypes that came out incredibly different. Most of it was related to simple things like their adult weight and height or their fingerprints. Some of it, though, was related purely to personality.

Their senior year in high school, Marissa was listed in the book under ‘Sweetest person, most likely to be a saint’. Melissa was prom queen and valedictorian, listed ‘Most likely to be the first female president’. Marissa had spent seven years in college, changing her majors every three semesters or so before finally dropping out – filled with trivial information and still itching to understand what the heck she wanted to do with her life. Melissa graduated Summa Cum Laude from Cornell with an MBA and immediately leaped into their family business. Like most East Coast families with deep roots, the Vandyke’s came from old money and even older business interests. When Melissa went to Europe representing the family interest in the wining section of their business (already fully fluent in French, German, Italian, and Latin, thank you very much), she fell head over heels in love with a money-poor but lineage-rich Italian who was descended from noble lines dating back to the times of Rome.

A year later, Melissa and Alessandro were expecting their first child, and, sighing and rolling their eyes, the Vandyke pater and mater familias furnished their struggling daughter with a passport, a wallet full of American Express traveler’s cheques, and a set of plane tickets to her sisters villa in Naples.

Fed up with living in the shadow of the ‘perfect’ girl while knowing she was the imperfect one, Marissa traded the tickets in for a ride to Istanbul (via Madrid) instead, where she planned to hop onto a liner coasting its way through the Greek Islands for two weeks before finally ending up in Rome, where she planned to finally make her way to her sisters estate.

Marissa was tired of being second best – to anyone in everything she tried. Granted, she was not the tall, willowy figure with platinum hair and dancing green eyes her sister was, but she was still a person worthy of something beyond contempt, wasn’t she? While only five foot six, and not the muscled athlete her sister was, there was a kind of lush, ripe beauty in her full figure that was all hips and bust and little muscle. Her own hair tumbled in spun golden curls to fall below the curve of her ass, and it was probably her single and only vanity. Despite what her family thought of her Marissa was neither a bad nor a selfish person – just a rather singular individual who had been pretty lacking in love. Almost all of her boyfriends had used her as an excuse to get close to either her sister or her money, and Marissa had long since given up on that area of life.

Instead, she had learned to live for the day, to revel in the blessings and goodness life could share if given the opportunity, and that the more happiness she spread around, the more happiness she got back.

 

[Elzeothis]

Just FYI, if you're looking to get a lot more players, (or at least more women), I would consider posting an ad in the thread at the top of the forums entitled 'Threads that need players'; normally that really helps as most people don't look into casting calls/oocs unless they know people need players.

*^_^*

 

[Twist_of_Fate]

Ah! I had been recommended to do that, but forgot. I'll do it now; thanks.

And welcome along! With you, Maid, wrytersyren, and me, CD, Steiner and Viking, we only need one more lass before we can get started!

 

[Pywakit]

Ooh! Pick me! Pick me! I'll be your "one more lass!"

I'll post a character in a bit, soon as I come up with something cool...

 

[Pywakit]

Jessica Rowen

Age: 19
Height: 5' 8"
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black and wavy, just below shoulders in length
Weight: 130
Nationality: American
Pierced ears, nose, and lip; tattoo of a coiled snake on lower back

Jessica Rowen never really had a real childhood. A daughter of high society, an American raised in England, she was expected to be every bit the proper lady as she grew up. Dance lessions, music lessons, and horseback lessons filled nearly every non-school hour as her parents groomed her to excell. Yet Jessica quickly grew to resent their overbearing manner, and even though she rather enjoyed the violin in particular (at which she was a gifted artist), by the time she'd reached the age of 15 she'd bloomed fully into the model of rebellous youth. She fell in with the goth crowd, intrigued by their mantras of alienation and gloom, got several piercings and a sizable tattoo, and after she was caught smoking pot in her abusive stepfather's library, a fight broke out. Her stepfather struck her, and she retaliated with a blow of her own. Unfortunately for him, her blow caught him off balance and he slipped and fell, striking his head on a low marble table. Horrified and convinced she'd killed her father, Jessica fled home at the age of 16, and with the aid of a credit card stolen from her mother's purse, bought a ticket and flew to America where she worked odd jobs until finally a private detective caught up with her. He'd been hired by her mother to bring her back home to face punishment for her misdeeds, but in the airport she gave him the slip. She stole a boarding pass from a woman who'd fallen asleep in the waiting area and managed to sneak on board Flight 381, bound for Madrid. She thought she'd managed to avoid trouble by escaping the detective. She couldn't have had been more wrong...

 

[crynsanthum]

Laurel Sulliven

Laurel sat on the plane, attempting to concentrate on the stack of papers she stared at through her glasses that she feels she aught to have read for the academic cenference she was about to attend.
During her high school years she had discovered a love of nature and became an environmentalist. This led her to activities involving hiking, climbing, and generally being out in nature. She loved learning about the intricacies that abound in the natural world and so started studying biology as her life transitioned to college.
She spent her time in college trying to avoid the attention she got from men; those men who she did take to generally ended up feeling intimidated by her for various reasons. First of all she was taller than most of them at 6', which combined with her physical recreation, made her stronger than the frail nerds that she generally fell for.
Then there was her strong headed, opinionated, and pragmatic attitude. She often seemed to many of her friends to be far too cold, and would often argue for positions which seemed to lack a healthy respect for the emotional imact it would have on people. Also she rarely would back down in an argument, and would generally only change her mind on a matter for which she was clearly wrong after a few days of reflection.
Lastly there was her devotion to her studies. It's not that she was boring, as long as you were interested in talking about cell mitosis. She never really got the hang of small talk, and most of her boyfirends resented feeling like they were always second place to her latest scintific obsession. (which they usually were.)
She got mediocre grades she managed to get into an Ivy League by publishing a paper about the effects of lawn grass on wildlife. So she got into Cornell and decided to study chemistry, as she felt there was no new principles for her to learn in biology, and that chemistry was going to be more relevent to her interest in environmentalism. Despite finding chemistry abhorently dull, she got a PHD in Environmental Chemistry.
She then went on to do post-doctoral work in Climatology. She and a group of peers had recently published a paper outlining a new variable for climate change that she was to be presenting at a conference in Madrid tomorrow, and she hoped afterwards to spend a few days in Morocco writing in her Journal.

A flight attendedant interupted her study with some polite question that Laurel didn't really hear, but she assumed must be asking if she wanted a beverage. Just as she looked up to answer, the plane shook.

 

[crynsanthum]

Oh, Pywakit appearantly posted twice without me realizing... in fact we were typing at the same time...

!

?

 

[Twist_of_Fate]

Welcome!

When Wrytersyren posts her character, we'll be ready to go!

This filled up much quicker than I thought it would. Looking forward to writing with you all...

 

[Steiner]

I'm sure nobody's going to kick up a fuss about an extra writer...

Quite the opposite!

 

[Twist_of_Fate]

Well, I'm gunna go ahead and start up the thread. It's going to start in the airport/boarding... feel free to post your introduction as soon as you feel inspired.

As of now, the line up is:

Scott Ceridwen played by Twist_of_Fate
Dr. Franz Weider-Chase played by Steiner
Terry McGinnis played by clan_destine
Sir Reginald Trowbridge played by Vikingstone
Messalina Bishop played by Maid of Marvels
Marissa Vandyke played by Elzeothis
Jessica Rowen played by Pywakit
And someone else played by wrytersyren when she shows up...

And the good thing about this premise is that we're not the only people on the flight, so if we need anyone else to join for whatever reason, they can just be one of the people who before were in the background but have risen to greater prominence; or if it's much later, they could even be from a seperate portion of the plane.

Edit: Thread is up, located here.

 

[Twist_of_Fate]

Thanks for posting, everyone who has.