[OOC] Atop the Pale Steed: A Story About Sick People

[Shamitako]

A young woman in black kneels before a grave. She hasn't brought flowers or memories, yet she still holds sorrow in her heart. She never knew the man beneath the dirt, but she knows how he died. He was one of many, one of many who had died because of her weakness. Cautious footsteps approached her from behind. "Hello." A woman's soft voice called to her.
The woman in black rose to her feet and turned to face the visitor. "Hello." She said curtly.
"Did you know Mike?" The visitor inquired.
The woman in black cursed inwardly, she hadn't wanted to hear his name. "No, I didn't." She said, "He just felt a little lonely. Since he has a visitor I'll take my leave."
"Oh." Was all the confused visitor could manage.

"Life is fleeting." The woman in black said, touching her hand to the visitor's shoulder as she passed, "I'm sure he would want you to cherish what you have left."

A wisp of pink momentarily tethered her fingers to the visitor's shoulder as she strode away. She rushed towards her car, staring at those fingers as she broke into a run. Tears formed in her eyes as she mourned another victim of her weakness.

 

~General Info~

 

Hidden from the public eye are a group of people who possess great and costly powers. Capable of extending their own lives in return for leeching the lives of others. Known to the few who discover their existence as Incubators, they gain their power from those who suffer and die from disease and sickness. Each Incubator wields the power of a sickness, gaining supernatural abilities for each person currently suffering of that sickness. When someone dies as a result of that sickness, the Incubator attached to it gains some of this power permanently as well as having their life extended by a fair bit. The more infamous a disease is, the more power and life its Incubator will gain.

 

There are several ways of Contracting with a disease and becoming an Incubator. One may be born into it, simply having an innate attachment to a sickness. An Incubator can transfer all of their power to a new host, dying in the process. And in very rare cases one may become an Incubator by being a sufferer of an Uncontracted illness, this is most likely to occur in the case of the Incubator being the first human to be afflicted. In the cases where an Incubator Contracts their illness unknowingly, as most cases are, it can often be some time before they learn what they are. Some longer-lived Incubators have taken to searching out new Incubators to help them learn to understand what they are and guide them into Incubator society.

 

Historically, Incubators often clashed with humans and one another. But in modern times there exists a tenuous peace between loosely allied Incubators and world powers. So long as Incubators don't cause massive outbreaks of their diseases or try to hinder research into cures, they are largely left to their own devices. In a few cases Incubators have even been known to assist in research to cure their attached sickness (they were, of course, very closely monitored to ensure they weren't secretly interfering). A joint effort between cooperative Incubators and world powers is being made to maintain a list of known Incubators and contain those with malicious intent.

 

~Factions~

 

It should come as no surprise that Incubators are not a totally unified front. They often disagree on what relationship humans and Incubators should have. Three factions have formed around the three major opinions about this relation.

 

Curists: Believe that Incubators should avoid killing humans whenever possible and try to help humans find ways to fight illness. They assist in research and help hunt down harmful Incubators. Generally neutral towards the Coexistence Coalition, actively at war with Freedom Fighters, and known to confine or kill Loners that they perceive as possible threats. The Curists have no proper leader and are instead directed by a human representative from the UN.

 

Coexistence Coalition: Believe that Incubators should avoid causing undue harm to humans, but also believe that Incubators should be allowed to exist and use their powers as it suits them. Generally avoid interacting with world powers unless absolutely necessary. Generally leave the other factions alone and only fight in self-defense. Led by the Incubator of the Plague, an extremely old and powerful Incubator.

 

Freedom Fighters: Believe that Incubators should be allowed to do whatever they wish, whether this be killing or helping humans. Largely composed of Incubators who wish to be allowed to kill freely, as most of those who wish to help humanity are Curists. Known to actively seek to recruit or cull members of the other factions with a "with us or against us" attitude. A small group with few enough members to make decisions based on group vote.

 

Loners: Incubators who have yet to encounter other Incubators or otherwise refuse to choose a faction for one reason or another.

 

~A Couple Notes~

 

Discord: https://discord.gg/nzBhsNE

 

The power of a sickness is attached more closely to the name and emotions of it than the actual cause. So, for example, the common cold would be one sickness. However, if two sicknesses have the same cause (E.G. the Spanish flu and Swine flu) then they would share an incubator.

 

Mental illnesses may be used (sparingly and with discussion), but genetic disorders may not. Mental disorders cannot kill directly, so an Incubator will not be able to extend their life using them and will only gain power from those alive and suffering.

 

Since it's never directly stated, yes, the setting is indeed modern day Planet Earth.

 

All alliteration is accidental

 

~Rules~

 

• My word is final. If you really have an issue with a decision I make, please bring it up privately and we can discuss it
• Be respectful to one another
• Uphold standard RP etiquette. No metagaming, powerplaying, etc
• Expect your actions to have consequences
• This RP is very sandboxy, so trying out new things is encouraged
• To the above end, you can have two characters if you want

~Character sheet~

 

Spoiler

 

Name: [What your character's name is]
Contracted Illness: [What sickness your character is attached to. The Plague and Cancer are reserved for NPCs]

Contract Method: [Innate, Inherited, or Infected]

Faction: [Curists, Coexistence Coalition, Freedom Fighters, or Loner]

Personality: [What your character acts and thinks like. Aim for one or two paragraphs]

Appearance: [What your character looks like]

Powers: [What powers your character gains from their Contract. You're pretty free to do whatever here, so long as you can justify it's connection to the illness if I feel like asking. But please try not to go overboard]

• Spread: [The first power you'll want is the ability to spread your disease. It is not a required ability, but probably a helpful one. Mental illness cannot be spread]

 

~Inspirations~

 

A lot of the stuff in this RP pulls ideas from the following, feel free to check them out if you're interested (someone remind me to add links here later)

Spoiler

The Ebola Files

Vampire Knight

Shiki

X-Men

Madoka Magica

Of Shadow and Flame (by Adamance Ascendant/King Murdoc)

Emerging

 

And credit to Empiricist for the name

 

[Shamitako]

reserved

[Shamitako]

~NPCs~

WIP

 

Black Death, Incubator of the Plague

Spoiler

Name: Unknown, referred to as Black Death by others. But never to his face, he hates being called that
Contracted Illness: The Plague

Contract Method: Infected

Faction: Coexistence Coalition

Personality: BD is a very passive and quiet man. In his extended age he has become one to listen quietly and only offer comment when he feels it absolutely appropriate. This isn't to say he doesn't express his opinions often, as his facial features can be very expressive, particularly when expressing disdain or annoyance. His temper is known to be legendary, but he is rather patient and rarely reveals this side of himself. He generally believes that people should strive not to interfere with one another, and includes that Incubators should avoid interfering with humanity beyond what is necessary.

Appearance: [What your character looks like]

Powers:

• Spread: Infects humans with any of the three forms of Plague by biting them
• Weaken: BD's glares inflict crippling weakness in those caught by them
• Fatigue: Puts humans and weak Incubators to sleep
• Rat Swarm: Splits into a swarm of rats under control of BD's consciousness. BD can reform only once all living rats are back together. Each rat killed will make BD physically appear a little younger upon reforming but otherwise causes no adverse effects
• Gasp: Chokes the air from a target and makes it hard for them to breathe
• Bloodletting: Prevents blood in a wound from clotting, causing it to bleed more heavily
• Hemokinesis: BD can manipulate blood once it's outside the body
• Necrosis: BD's hands cause tissue to turn black and die when he touches things

Audrey Peak, Incubator of Cancer

Spoiler

Name: Audrey Peak
Contracted Illness: Cancer

Contract Method: Innate

Faction: Loner

Personality: A wandering soul full of regret, Audrey hates killing humans but fears her own death. She always seems sad, and generally has something morbid running through her mind. She hates Incubators, especially herself, yet she also understands them and can't bring herself to fault them for what they do. She does her best to stay away from others of her kind, and generally they try to avoid her. Crossing paths with her is a dangerous endeavor. Depending on her mood she may let an offending Incubator go, or kill them. Those unlucky enough to be sent to recruit her into the factions universally return in pieces. In recent years she seems more likely to spare lives, particularly of younger Incubators, suggesting her sense of compassion is overcoming her hatred.

Appearance: An average height female with dull blonde hair and blue eyes. Wears a short, durable dress, tall leather boots, and a wide-brimmed hat; all in black.

Powers:

• Spread: Causes cancerous tumors to grow in humans on touch
• Rot: Forces nearby plant matter to rot. The area's size may be controlled but everything within it will die
• Corrupt: Slowly corrupts an inanimate object, taking longer for larger objects, a fully corrupted object falls under Audrey's control, allowing her to manipulated it telekinetically
• Grow: Audrey can manipulate her body to reinforce herself and even create various protrusions or even extra limbs. This doesn't work for changing her facial appearance or bone structure and cannot be used to create anything that could not naturally occur in a human (no feathers, for example). It's also rather slow process, particularly for more complex changes.
• Regenerate: Using a simplified version of the above technique, Audrey can rapidly repair parts of her natural body to their standard state

 

[Twinwolf]

Interested in this, if there would be more players. Got a few diseases in mind - Tuberculosis, cholera, smallpox, common cold, malaria... Not sure what abilities to use for them, but the ideas are there.

 

((I did make sure the game was still recruiting with the GM via discord and am not just resurrecting a dead thread )

[Yours Truly]

Probably going to make a character sheet for a loner who had made a contract with Rabies at some point in the not so distant past, since they seem to be a fun character to play, and while I honestly don't know if combat will be in this RP at all, his physical powers will probably have obvious yet slightly more subdued uses.

[BillyBob]

Interested in this, although I'm new to roleplay. Gonna check out this discord and see if this is beginner friendly and if i can get a tad bit more info  

[Shamitako]

On 8/5/2017 at 5:04 PM, Twinwolf said:

Interested in this, if there would be more players. Got a few diseases in mind - Tuberculosis, cholera, smallpox, common cold, malaria... Not sure what abilities to use for them, but the ideas are there.

 

((I did make sure the game was still recruiting with the GM via discord and am not just resurrecting a dead thread )

Yoy Twin. If you have any of those you're particularly attached to, I'd be happy to help you work through their powers a bit

On 8/8/2017 at 11:12 AM, Cronos5010 said:

Probably going to make a character sheet for a loner who had made a contract with Rabies at some point in the not so distant past, since they seem to be a fun character to play, and while I honestly don't know if combat will be in this RP at all, his physical powers will probably have obvious yet slightly more subdued uses.

We've talked plenty already so I don't have much to say here but I'm saying something anyways

6 hours ago, BillyBob said:

Interested in this, although I'm new to roleplay. Gonna check out this discord and see if this is beginner friendly and if i can get a tad bit more info  

This isn't necessarily geared towards beginners, but I'm sure you'll be fine. I'm happy to work with you and help you get into RPing ^^

[Yours Truly]

Tentative sheet that is still work in progress

Name: Alexander Pierce ((Has a much older name that he never uses and has pretty much forgotten about by this point))
Contracted Illness: Rabies
Contract Method: Innate
Faction: Loner (Alexander feels that joining the Curists is tantamount to committing suicide, and that the Freedom Fighters are generally amoral extremists who are too dangerous to be around. The man has no real thoughts about the Coexistence coalition. Although he technically agrees with their whole 'No Undue harm' spiel. In essence Alexander wants to just live out as long and as fulfilling of a life he could get while the disease he is contracted to still exists in this world)

Personality: Alexander is a cheerful and boisterous man of indeterminable age who is best described as being the sort of person who has forgotten more than most people will ever learn in their lifetime. He treats other incubators with the respect and dignity they deserve, although he is extremely rude to people who try to recruit him, and quite frankly I don't think that I need to go into detail about what his reaction to a person trying to kill him is, as it should be quite obvious. He does this for one simple reason, because he is on vacation right now, and he doesn't want it to end anytime soon.

Appearance: A tall man of African descent who is often seen in a cliched looking dark red great coat that he wears whenever it would be appropriate for the weather. He sometimes tries to hide his watchful dark brown eyes underneath a pair of aviator shades. His curly black hair is kept short and neat, with a little bit of a widow's peak styled into his hair for some reason or other.

Powers: 
Spread: Infects humans with furious rabies by biting or scratching them
Primêre haat: Able to enter a hyper aggressive state of 'berserker rage', which causes him to grow lengthy claws where his fingernails would be and jagged teeth, rather unfortunately this causes him to start foaming at the mouth and causes his thoughts to be muddled by an ever increasing sense of sheer hatred, and paranoia.
Aggression: Grants super strength that is enhanced even further when Alexander is experiencing a berserker rage (and the toughness that is required to survive having and using said super strength. I mean what is the point of having the strength to lift heavy objects if all of your bones break while doing so)

Push the weak mind: Alexander has a very limited amount of mind control over rabid animals that allows him to point them at things he wants them to attack, or to ignore. It also causes said rabid animals to not attack him and generally ignore his presence. This power is weakened if Alexander enters his berserker state, causing his suggestions to seem less credible, although they still won't attack him out of a sense of overwhelming fear.
Red Fog: Alexander has the ability to try and affect the minds of others to try and cause them to make irrational and often violent decisions by causing them to feel paranoid and beligerent if succesful. This power is triggered if Alexander or a rabid animal manages to draw blood while the target can see them.

Terror: Alexander has the ability to cause others to feel an overhelming amount of terror while experiencing a berserker rage and is able to be seen by them. This power is strengthened if the targets have seen Alexander draw blood recently or if they have been affected by this power before.
Debilitating Spittle: The foam that develops in Alexander's mouth during his berserker rage can cause the target to feel disoriented and weakened if it enters an open wound.
Irrational Fear: All targets who can see Alexander and is currently swallowing or is about to swallow something liquid will be afflicted by a painful and distracting bout of choking if Alexander is raging.