simon
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We're all liars here
Posts: 73
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Post by simon on Jan 8, 2013 9:06:25 GMT -5
Colleen O'Halloran, the Selkie
mussed, far away eyes
like grandmother
Hot-1 Cold+2 Volatile-1 Dark+1
Outer Skin: When you wear your pelt you look like a seal. Without it, you can swim like a human, but with it you can breathe underwater and swim like the dickens, and, if you want to, return to The Deep Kingdom. If you do return there, it’s for good, so make a new character.
Their Word: People can steal your pelt, but never destroy it. When someone withholds your pelt and demands you do something for them before they’ll give it back, carry 1 forward to doing that. If they don’t return your pelt, take a String on them.
Ocean's Breath: When you feel homesick, roll with cold. On a 10 up, choose one:
- the ocean brings forth something that it thinks will make you feel better,
- the ocean takes away something that it thinks is bothering you.
On a 7-9, choose one of those options above, but the ocean doesn’t understand the human world very well and causes serious or unexplainable damage in the process The myths that the people in the empty air tell about the selkies are truthful enough, in that bland and generic way all tales end up being after enough time. selkie comes to land, selkie is bound to the dust for a time, selkie returns to the ocean. There's variations, here or there - their pelt was stolen, they fell in love, they returned to be with their true kin, or to save their earth-bound lover - but in the end, they always come back to the water's embrace. Down to the place where your human body is useless, an artifact of a time that is gone now, dead, done. Colleen's grandmother didn't come back, though. None of the kin know why, nor has the ocean shared its secret knowledge of the reason, if it had it to begin with. She abandoned her partner, her child, and never came back to the deep blue sea. Unheard of. So Colleen left the deep kingdom, her family, her entire world behind to discover what she could about the world above. Rose up through the water, breathed in that emptiness, felt her limbs be clumsy and awkward, uncoordinated, incertain of how to exist without that ever-present resistance from the blue. She came to find out about the world above, how it works, what could possess anyone capable of being in the freedom of the ocean to stay here. So far, she's found some things she likes - music, dance, art - but she's still unfamiliar with the bright world's customs and social manners. She's confused by many things these dust-dwellers say and do, and often wonders whether it's all worthwhile. Whether she should just put her pelt on and go back to the water's edge, back to her true home. But she still doesn't have all the answers nor understanding that she seeks, so she'll stay. |
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jt
Junior Member
Posts: 63
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Post by jt on Jan 8, 2013 11:59:39 GMT -5
So she's looking for her grandmother? Interesting. Also I like how so far all our chars are cold as fucking ice.
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simon
Junior Member
We're all liars here
Posts: 73
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Post by simon on Jan 8, 2013 17:45:39 GMT -5
Kind of! I think it's become less of a tangible quest to find her lost grandmama and more about understanding why anyone would leave the deep kingdom forever. Of course, if Alfred wants to do something with the grandmother thread, I'd be down.
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jt
Junior Member
Posts: 63
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Post by jt on Jan 8, 2013 17:55:03 GMT -5
That makes sense, and could get pretty interesting.
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simon
Junior Member
We're all liars here
Posts: 73
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Post by simon on Jan 9, 2013 2:27:04 GMT -5
Minor name change, realised that Halloran was actually a given name, and therefore her surname would have to be of Halloran.
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Post by alfred on Jan 10, 2013 10:42:24 GMT -5
QUESTIONS MOTHAFUCKA:
Who the fuck-ass are you staying with? Anyone? Are you Homeless Colleen and all the girls make fun of the way you smell like low-tide?
Tell me about whoever you're staying with, if there is anyone, and tell me if they took your pelt.
Tell me something that air-breathers do that is wildly different from how things are done in the Deep Kingdom (the way they date, talk, fuck, eat; hobbies like singing or writing or any of that shit) and why you noticed it.
Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior?
Friends at all, Colleen? Anyone?
What's something the ocean took away from school to make you happy, and why is everything worse now?
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simon
Junior Member
We're all liars here
Posts: 73
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Post by simon on Jan 10, 2013 18:45:14 GMT -5
Colleen spent the first few days of her life above water's edge on the streets. But I guess this town is too small to live unnoticed like that - she got picked up by the cops, and then placed in something called "foster care" until something could be figured out for her.
So she lives with her keepers, Mike, Chris, and Jackie, in their house. There used to be another kid there, Brad, but he ran off a few days ago. Mike and Chris seem content to let Colleen open up to them on her own time, but Jackie's always trying to get some answers out of the bedraggled girl. Oh, and Jackie's the one who has her pelt.
Pretty much all art is different between the Deep Kingdom and the empty-air, so of course that comes to notice. Things are solid in the blue, carved and held in place for centuries. Everything up on the surface is so... impermanent. Art, friendship, love, attention, these things all disappear in the blink of an eye. Nothing lasts as long as it should, as it would at home.
Junior or Senior, I guess? I'll make a decision on this once some other folk have firmed up.
A few friends! They're really nice people, from the drama and art clubs. Colleen joined those groups as soon as she figured out how she actually did that. They're a neat little bunch of folk, tight as a kelp-knot. Except they do like to talk about each other behind each others backs, but that's just one of those air-dweller things, isn't it?
I say that Brad ran off, but the ocean took him. He was always in Collen's face, mean, pressing the hostility at school. So Colleen wept, and the ocean answered her by taking Brad when he was out on a moonlit beach walk. Now the police are all over the place, questioning, investigating, and things aren't feeling much better than they did before.
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simon
Junior Member
We're all liars here
Posts: 73
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Post by simon on Jan 13, 2013 8:30:46 GMT -5
Actually, I might assign the pelt to someone else - the book does say that you should only give strings to NPCs if there's too few PCs available. Probably be cooler for story purposes if another PC had the pelt, anyway.
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Post by alfred on Jan 13, 2013 13:15:32 GMT -5
Is whatever on that front! Both work!
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