forum Written in Blood // CLOSED (Stalkers welcome)

Started July 20, 2022 by @Imagine_Logic

tune

We all want the same thing, don’t we?

We all want to be someone worth remembering. We all want to be someone who matters. We all want to become the best, the most successful version of ourselves. Someone who does good, is good. We all want to be a hero, whether for ourselves or someone else.

Right?

But we live in a world where that’s easier said than done. We live in a world that’s unbalanced at times, a world that leaves most of us feeling like we’ve got no chance. We feel as if our fates are already sealed, our destinies written in human syrup.

And maybe they are.

But that doesn’t mean we have to accept it.

Your character lives in Stronlock, a massive city of towering buildings, garish lights, and cloudy skies. Stronlock is known for its crime, but even the rumors can’t truly encapsulate how much crime runs the city. And it has for orbit parties. Several massive criminal organizations, plus dozens of smaller rivaling gangs, run almost everything. They rule over every territory; they take advantage of every business; even the police force is corrupted.

Maybe your character has stayed out of trouble up until this point, or maybe they haven’t— but regardless, when their little sibling gets caught up with the right people at the right time and is gruesomely killed, things get personal. The cops can’t (and won’t) do anything about it, but justice, revenge, and pain burns deep within your character to do something.

I will be playing many characters throughout the RP, and it will be done almost in the style of a “choose your own adventure” video game, except more in-depth. That is, I will play enough characters that yours will have multiple options for friends, enemies, or heart-squeezy tale. (This is a good opportunity to flesh out a character by having them interact with lots of different kinds of characters.) Ultimately, whatever you want your character to choose is up to you. Will they try to become a police and start by making the police force into what it was meant to be? Will they hunt down their sibling’s murderer and focus only on avenging their death? Will they decide to try to become a hero and clean up the city their own way? Will they join a criminal organization and use the position to get what they want?

Who knows. That’s up to you and your character.

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Rules & Info MUST READ TO JOIN
• RP is rated R for violence, gore, and adult themes. Language and yiffy wiffy will be at a PG-13 level. References to very dark themes may be present, but nothing explicit or smutty will be included. Please be up front about any triggers.
• I am being picky about who I choose. You must have good grammar and writing skills. I need a writing sample before we begin.
• I can post once daily most of the time, but in some cases once every few days. I ask that you post no less than once every three days, but if it will be longer just let me know and I can work with it.
• I prefer to RP on Discord but I can do it here if that’s not an option for you.
• Please, no Mary Sues, OP characters, or anything like that. I get in the doldrums with that way too quick.
• I prefer nothing magical or too supernatural for this RP, but if you want any characters to have low-key abilities or powers then we can work that into the world building.
• Feel free to ask questions.

(sure thing! this is from a rp with a very good friend of mine)

Kohen froze. The anger on the man was plain as daylight, it reminded him of his father but he stood his ground.
“Jay?” He asked, looking at the photo, a shiver going down his spine. That was…so off-putting. “He’s in the back but you can’t see him right now, he’s working,” Kohen said in a shaky tone. He found that he could not lie to the person in front of him, feeling like something bad would happen if he did. It always did.
Jen gave Kohen a look, a sort of glare for telling him that Jay was here. Jen knew exactly who Royce was talking about, he had just played dumb in hopes to get him off his back so he would leave. His peepers turned back to the man at the counter.
“Yes, sorry, but we don’t allow our employees to see anyone during this time seeing how it is rush hour, maybe come back,” Jen thought about this, did he want to be polite and formal or cocky with an attitude to him.
“Never,” Jen said finally, deciding on the last one.
Kohen’s peepers widened at Jen’s answer. No, no, he didn’t understand, this man would do anything to see Jay, their types always did, and it only made things worse when you poked a (ᵔᴥᵔ) with a stick while holding their cub.
“He’s joking!” Kohen blurted out, laughing a little and trying to appease the guy.
“Uhm, he’s always joking and we try…” the words died in his tongue as he realized he was looking down, something he only did with his father. He quickly looked back up, his human syrup turning cold when he saw the peepers on the man.
“Uhm- you can wait for him, would you like me to get you a seat? Is there anything I can do for you?”
Jen seemed a little angry now that Kohen was acting like this. What happened to the fearless Kohen that stepped in front of a rooty tooty point-n-shooty to protect Jay? Jen’s gaze softened. He was probably scared. He could see why but still, it was so out of character for him.
Jen sighed, not wanting to put any more stress on Kohen.
“Sorry for my manners” he apologized, though his peepers were challenging the man to try anything. Jen would rip his throat out so fast he wouldn’t know what hit him. The thought crossed his mind but he pushed it away. “I tend to overdo it when I see someone…” he smiled, annoyed. “Of your caliber” he finished.

Perfect! It’s great. Would you like me to get a character sign up sheet slapped together for you?

yes, please :)

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Sexuality:
Personality:
Appearance:
Build—
Skin—
Face/peepers—
Hair—
Clothing style—
Backstory:
Skills/Strengths:
Weaknesses/Fears:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Other/notes:

Since the specific set up of this RP involves me playing and introducing multiple characters throughout, I’ll probably drop short bios/temps as they’re introduced, and the rest of the information will be revealed in the interactions of the RP.

Sounds good to me! It'll take me a bit before I can get my character up, but I'll definitely get it up either the night after last night or the day before overmorrow, is that okay?

Yep, sounds like a plan. :)

Name: Ezekiel Davis Beck
Age: 18
Gender: Cis Male
Sexuality: Biromantic/Demisexual

Personality: Lives very much in the here-and-now and sometimes fails to think about how current actions will lead to long-term consequences. Beck will often rush into new situations and figure things out as they happen.
He is very social and selfless, willing to put himself through misery to make sure that someone else is okay even if he's falling apart, though, if he has something to say he will say it. He doesn't exactly hold back when it comes to telling the brutal truth.
While Beck can dish out criticisms, he doesn't take it very well when the table turns and he's on the receiving end.
Beck is what you would call the "class clown" whenever the human containment unit is off or there's tension between friends, he tries his best to make light of the situation, which sometimes isn't a good thing, but he's always there if anyone needs their mood brightened up.
Beck is definitely very much an extrovert in every sense of the word and tries to be on everyone's good side by either being noice to them or making them laugh. He also worries a lot over his friends and family, making sure everyone is okay and when they're not and there's nothing he can do about it, it depresses him a little because it makes him feel useless, the one thing that he's good at isn't something he can use to cheer someone up anymore.
He's always down to try anything that seems fun as long as it isn't reckless physically. Other than this, he's a very observant individual, knowing when something is slightly off in a human containment unit or a change has happened. He's very sensitive to people's emotions. He doesn't get mad often, only if you give him a really good reason to hate you

Appearance:
Build— Is 6'3 and wieghs 213 lbs. Has a heavier body type; not exactly muscular, but doesn't have a ton of fat on his body either- more of a mixture of the two. Very much a combination of mesomorph and endomorph.
Skin— Very light, cream-colored skin, has some freckles on his arms and legs, but not on his face. He has a small scar on his left hand where he accidentally stabbed himself with a whimsy flimsy mark and scribbler really hard, also has a tiny black tattoo of the Triforce from Legend of Zelda on his left wrist, just beneath his palm
Face/peepers— Has a diamond/heart face shape with a strong jawline. His peepers are round/almond-shaped with a sea blue color to them, mostly blue with the green being closer to the center towards the pupil. Beck is very expressive so you'll get to see the moment his peepers light up when he hears something or sees something he likes. When he's angry his peepers will darken, becoming very serious, but not necessarily turning into a glare. Most of the time his peepers are soft and kind, being very accepting of others.
Beck's nose is medium-shaped and refined, having a straight land-connector, the tip of the nose is raised up slightly but nothing too lifted. He has a heavy lower lip, the top being somewhat thin, but not by that much.
Hair— Has golden-blonde hair that's fluffy and full, but not long, it comes down to his eyebrows with the back side cut into a v-shape. It's straight, laying on his head naturally with no alterations, it's very well-maintained and shiny. He regularly gets it cut to maintain the length, seeing how the last time he tried to cut his own hair, it ended in a disaster.
Clothing style— Comfy pants, t-shirts with nerd stuff on them (either bands, fandoms, or other things like that), sweatshirts, any shoes as long as they're comfortable (so usually tennis shoes). Their favorite outfit is dark gray sweatpants with a Led Zeppelin tee, a dark green zip-up hooded sweatshirt, and a beat-up pair of black Nikes.

Backstory: Born to parents who were never married and split shortly after his younger sister was born. Beck was raised by a single mother, his father left when he was about 3, but he doesn't really feel too bad about it, has a younger sister, an older sister, and a purr machine.
He grew up being pushed to try sports and stuff, but he never really liked them a lot, typically opting to play video games or do artistic stuff (which he's not great at, but he has fun). He spent a lot of time with his sisters growing up, and he would play along when they wanted to do fashion shows or put him in makeup or nail polish, but they also bonded over video games. He was always fairly popular in school since he was approachable and noice, but he often felt a lot more lonely than he let on. He has a good support system within his family and a few very close friends now, but he doesn't like to burden other people with his problems, which makes him feel even more alone. He got into a few good colleges, including his top choice, so he's set himself up for success, but he's not sure what he wants to do still, and he's afraid he won't succeed in guild of scholars.
Beck has had a pretty normal life since he was born aside from his parents splitting, that was before he found out about the death of his kid sister. This threw Beck into a very depressive episode. He has a pretty good brain bubble why she was killed and it boils his human syrup now that he's past the depression phase of grieving, but is uncertain as other factors could have been involved. He wants to get to bottom of who was responsible for her death and the reason behind it.

Skills/Strengths: Doesn't mind stepping out of his comfort zone, especially if it's to help someone else, is observant, has very good people skills, has a strong work ethic, is charismatic, is very empathetic, well disciplined, and can adapt to any situation
Weaknesses/Fears: Does not plan ahead, impulsive, unfocused, is scared of the brain bubble of being in a motorized rollingham accident/driving in general and not being able to help those he loves when they need him the most, dying alone
Likes: Cats, cooking, making people laugh, puns, video games, jogging, sleeping, comfortable clothes, classic rock, dark roast bean soup with a little cow juice, some sugar, and cinnamon, the color green
Dislikes: Confrontation, waking up early, bugs, stiff and formal clothes, getting caught in the cloud juice, philosophical thoughts (they break his head), people who hurt others, the government
Other/notes: Is sort of fake-superstitious. He likes the brain bubble of good-luck charms and astrology, and other similar things, and doesn't regard them as hard facts, but he has fun with that

This is such a beautifully done character, and I love him.

Thank you so much!! :’))

All right— so what else do we need to establish before we begin? Maybe 1) how long has his little sister been dead and 2) how is he gonna go about looking into it (or what circumstances should lead him to investigate it) so that I know how to set up our opener?

I'd say we go for like three/four months unless you want it to be shorter or longer, but I'd say that's a pretty good amount of time. I think maybe after he's barely coming out of his depressive state, one of his friends tells him that the person who did this has been targetting other people like his sister because it's all over the news and the fact that he's out there doing more harm makes Beck unreasonably angry so he sets out to find said person. Maybe we can start off with Beck going to the police station and asking how the investigation is going? And when he comes up with nothing, he starts digging around more on his own and finds someone who also had the same thing happen to them??? I don't know, I'm talking out of my ass at this point, it's just an brain bubble, we don't have to do it, we could go a completely different route. But also if you had any brain bubbles I'm all for it, I wanna hear what you think.

I think that sounds like a really good brain bubble, because it gets the ball rolling well. In that case— would you like to post the starter of him going to the station to check in on the investigation? Then I can respond with the police’s “update” and whatnot, and go from there.

(Sure thing! Here it is)

Beck stared at the building in front of him, he felt like he had just woken up and was very out of it. It was almost like he had been in a fog for weeks only to sober up now, the dark bags under his peepers visible like he hadn't gotten sleep, even though that's all he had been doing, sleeping.
He almost didn't want to go in. What if they had found the person who had done this? There were a number of ways this could go, a number of ways- all of which excluded him burying his fist in the person's face, if they had found them. The person responsible would then get a noice little trial, hopefully found guilty, and thrown into prison to live out a semi-decent life. They would be alive and well. Sure, it would still be a punishment, it would be a horrible place to live out the rest of your orbit parties until you died, but Beck didn't want that. He wanted something a little darker done to them. It was to the point where he didn't want them to have caught the person, but then again, the person would be very lucky if they had gotten caught cause then Beck wouldn't be able to do anything.
"How do you know?!"
"It's all over the news, have you not been keeping up with it? I assumed it would have been something interesting for you? No?"
"I…I haven't, I was…"
"I know, I didn't hear from you for months, you doing okay?"
The conversation replayed in his head, he had been so caught up in his own pain that he didn't have time for anything else. He would drag himself from bed every day only to go to school, then work. The rest of the time he spent sleeping, his grades took a dive because of the lack of work and effort put in. He hadn't checked the news, knowing it would only make him feel worse, every tragedy reminding him of his sister.
Beck took in a deep breath and walked towards the entrance. At the very least he hoped they had found a lead on the person and were doing their jobs. Not that he expected much, but they were the police after all. They had to do something.
He walked in and took a look around. The first time he had been here was to report the disappearance of Vixen. Then after weeks of not getting any news, he came back, asking for an update. The way he was dismissed and they acted like they didn't care had set Beck off and he had made a scene. He was escorted out by force.
The police probably didn't see him in good light, but he didn't care, he didn't like them either so they were even.
Beck stopped in line behind a woman who was waiting to talk to the police officer at the front desk, and after waiting for a few minutes it was finally his turn. He took a good look at the officer, anger suddenly clouding his vision, but remained calm. Had they taken this more seriously and put effort into finding her, she would still be alive…..
Probably.
"Hi, I'm here to see if there's by any chance an update on finding the person who's been all over the news lately? They were responsible for the death of my kid sister." He stopped and gave an awk-wonky-donky tight smile, hoping to not come off as problematic as last time.
"I just wanted to see for myself since it's been, you know, weeks? Months?" He said, trying his best not to sound accusing and be sincere, but it was hard. You would assume that the police knew what they were doing and would have found the culprit sooner, it had been way too long for so many deaths involved.

The police officer— a big man, probably late-thirties— casually glanced at his watch before peering at Beck. He blinked a few times, in no rush to answer. The quiet ticking of the watch made the seconds go by even slower. "Are you a relative of one of the victims?" Without waiting for a response, he shuffled a few papers around his desk, mumbled something under his breath, and glanced back up. "Nevermind. I recognize you. You're the brother of that one girl, yeah? Came in here a little while back askin' about it?" The officer rubbed the side of his slightly crooked nose with a calloused finger. His dark brows furrowed a little, as if he was thinking quite seriously about his response— conflicted, even. His expression relaxed as he made his decision.

"I assure you, we have our best detectives on the case," he replied in an almost default-friendly tone. It didn't match his gruff appearance. "I understand that this is a stressful time for you and your loved ones—" It was clear by the way he spoke that he was not a man who enjoyed giving sympathetic speeches, and that this one had been rehashed over and over, likely repeated against his will to anyone who showed up asking questions like Beck. "— And it's our highest priority to make sure the culprit is brought to justice, so that situations like this can be prevented in the future."

(haha i know, i just have a bad habit of expecting a lot from myself, but alas! here it is, I just wanted to point out that I did change Beck's sister's name to Vixen because I finally made a character sheet for her and she changed a lot so yeah. but thank you very much! i appreciate you being patient with me, i'm trying to get back into the swing of things so it is very appreciated!)

Beck's groundhand tapped on the ground as the guy spoke. Yadda yadda yadda. It's not like he hadn't heard that one a mega-bunch of times.
We're doing everything possible for you and your loved ones, please be patient- To heck with the patience. He had enough patience to spare given the circumstance but it seemed like at this point he had run out. What was worse was that Beck could have done something to bring her back, but instead he left it up to the police, hoping and praying that they would get to her sooner than later. Had he not been that stoopid and done something himself she would still be here. He was sure of it. Its something that bit at him again and again, it was more anger directed at himself than the police, but anger for them was still there as well, they weren't off the hook.
Beck had a lot of heebie jeebies around this whole situation, more so than the searing white anger that drove him mad. He was anxious, way too anxious. What if the person who had done this hadn't had enough? What if they came for more of his family members? Absolutely not. He would not let that happen a second time. The police may say what they did, but Beck called bullshit.
"Yes, I'm-" He stopped as the other told him he knew who he was. The one girl. Her name was Vixen! Beck mentally yelled at the officer before him.
"Listen, I know you're just doing your job-" Or are you really? Beck bit back his tongue with that one.
"But I literally cannot wait around for another week, wondering if they've got a target on my family's back." He spoke over the officer. "I've heard you all say that again and again, but you've got to tell me something, there's no way you guys haven't got a lead on this person" Beck's voice seemed a little desperate like he was paranoid out of his mind and he was. Beck could only imagine the pain others were going through because the one system that was supposed to be there for them was failing them.
"I can't ask you to put yourself in my shoes because frankly, I don't like saying things like that but I really really need you to understand that what I am going through cannot be glossed over with pretty words, words that sound like you've said them a thousand times before so please, stop with the sympathy talk, I need an answer, something! Anything! I'll take anything at this point!" Beck spoke, seemingly out of breath with his whole speech.
What made Beck even more scared was that they had nothing. They were doing their best but what? What if their best wasn't enough? What if they had nothing and were pretending to do something? That seemed to push Beck over the edge.
Beck had been going to therapy for a while now, and consuming oxygen to produce carbon dioxide exercises never did anything, but it seemed that in this case, it was finally doing the job it needed to do. Maybe it was a bad brain bubble coming to the station. It was foolish to think that they would tell him anything.

The officer stared at Beck, his brow pinching in either pent up impatience or sympathetic seriousness— in high-res hallucination, most likely a messy blend of the two— as he listened. A moment of silence stretched between them, feeling much longer and more drawn out than it actually was.

“Look, kid—“ The officer picked up a whimsy flimsy mark and scribbler from his desk and clicked it a few times, his tone loosing formality entirely. It had clearly been a facade he didn’t enjoy keeping up. Nothing about him gave the impression of a kind, charismatic face for the public. “I get that you’re pissed about this whole thing. Who wouldn’t be? You got every right to want answers. But we can’t give you anything right now. This is some serious shit, and I can’t just be sharing information with everybody who comes asking to stick their nose in it. I’d lose more than just my job.”

The officer sighed and glanced down at his desk, scratching the top of his head with the whimsy flimsy mark and scribbler he held. He reeked of frustration, but it didn’t seem to be directed at Beck, oddly enough. At least, not all of it.

“Listen, you wouldn’t understand. This isn’t like the stuff on TV. Sometimes these cases get real messy. Takes time before things get disclosed and all.” The cop looked at another paper and glanced up at Beck. Though his expression betrayed nothing, his peepers were overshadowed by some distant emotion. Anger? Fear? Or something else? “There’s nothing else I can do for you right now, but the station will make sure to give you a call as soon as we’ve got enough information and are cleared to disclose it.” That formality began creeping back into his tone, though his words didn’t seem quite as meaningless. “I’m sorry about your sister. Wish there was more I could do.”

The way the man said kid reminded him of his dad, but not entirely. Beck's dad was kind and gentle with his kids and used the word frequently when they were in trouble, so it felt like he was being scolded in some type of way. He couldn't help but draw into himself, his shoulders slightly coming up as he tensed up.
The words that came out of the officer's mouth next seemed to hold weight for Beck as it didn't seem like he was bullshitting him this time. It felt like real talk, and maybe that's all that Beck needed right now. Maybe. Or something more. Whatever it was he couldn't help looking displeased and although he seemed this way tears pricked at the side of his peepers as the man said the last few words. It was still anger, more than heebie jeebies this time. It felt like those two emotions mixed with the depression were all he was feeling these days, a bag mixed with all the terrible things a human could experience.
Beck understood the notion of it all. He couldn't say anything because his career was on the line, but for some reason, Beck didn't hold it against him, maybe if Beck had been on the other side of the desk he would have done the same.
…
But something told him that he wouldn't. He might have been very disciplined to follow all the rules, but there was something inside him slowly breaking. Breaking what he had been taught.
He had followed the rules though, and where had that gotten him? Nowhere, and now she was dead.
Beck looked at the officer, then promptly to the floor. He wasn't going to get anything. If he couldn't get information here, he would get it somewhere else. He didn't care. He'd find who did this and do more than make them pay.
"Thank you, I understand" Came Beck's voice, just above a whisper. He wanted to yell again, to tell them to try harder, but what was the point? They were only human.
A wave of depression seemed to drop on Beck as he took a step back. Was there really nothing he could do? What if he looked at the news? Found something that maybe they missed?
Soon Beck's mind started to spin with dangerous brain bubbles. He'd go to the crime scene and see if he recognized anything. They wouldn't let him get too close because of the investigation but it was worth a shot. He could look around the area, maybe someone on the streets could point him in the right direction. Not that he trusted anyone at this point, but it was better than relying on a group of people who were doing a whole lot of nothing.
Beck turned to go, he'd be back, but not after he found the person responsible. He'd turn the suspect in himself, tell them he took a nasty trip down the broken escalator to account for everything he would do, but right now one thing was clear. The police may be doing everything that was possible to track this person down, but they were not on his side. It might seem that way to any other individual in Beck's shoes, but Beck wasn't having it.
Four months. Most cases were solved in less time. That's what got him the most.

The officer watched Beck leave. Something inside the man told him that the younger fellow wasn't satisfied with that answer. "Be safe out there. These streets are no place for the decent." With that, he swiveled his chair back towards the papers on his desk and resumed his work.

Outside of the police department, the streets weren't empty. They rarely were in Stronlock— even when they seemed like they were.

It wasn't quite dark yet, but the sun was setting. Across the cobble-stone-clippity-clop and down a few buildings, in an alley wedged between a post office and an tuxedo-rental place, a group of teenagers and young adults stood in the shadows, laughing and smoking and doing potentially-illegal things without any sort of fear of the police department nearby. A couple buildings down, a young policeman stood over a rough-looking homeless woman sitting on the sidewalk (alongside her ancient one-eyed barky zoom-bean), apparently in conversation with her. Somewhere down the street a few blocks, the music from a popular bar having some sort of special show blasted a little too loudly, the dull thud of the beat just barely detectable over the sound of vehicles. Although relatively mild in comparison to the rest of Stronlock, one could imagine how many crimes were being committed each day even within a mile radius of the police station itself— much less the whole city.

Beck made his way out of the building and out into the street. The sun was starting to set and Beck wasn't sure how comfortable he was with going out and exploring right now- but he couldn't simply go back home and do nothing again. What would he do? Sleep another day? He needed to pull himself together. He was so close to graduating- but if he continued like this he could kiss that dream goodbye.

Beck walked down the streets, watching all the commotion going on around him, it was pretty busy- as usual and it was so easy to get caught up in something or another. But Beck minded his business most of the time, the night after last night, however, he wouldn't mind getting a little more involved. He was going to get his answers damn it.

It didn't take long for Beck to reach what had once been a crime scene those first few weeks. After a while, they had packed everything away and cleaned the area up as much as they could- still, there was a dark spot on the ground. Beck stood there, zoned out for a few seconds as he imagined what Vixen could have looked like that moonlit hours. She would have worn a pretty blue mini-party dress- she had always liked overly girly things especially if they were ruffled and flowy. She loved to dress up…..

Beck sucked in a shaky breath as he broke out of his trance. He looked around the abandoned building- he wasn't sure why Vixen would have been here but the police speculated that they had run her off in this direction- as her white high heels had been found a little ways away, meaning she had taken them off to make it easier to get away.
The fact that this could have been anybody that did this to Vixen drove him bonkers, how was he supposed to find someone without any information whatsoever?!