The Woodland Mansion [Reboot]

You're wandering through the woods when you first notice the mansion out of the corner of your eye - an impressive building that's nestled within the barren forest. Something draws you to it. Maybe you're in need of shelter from an impeding storm, or maybe you need somewhere to hide. Maybe you even want to steal from it. But, for whatever reason, you decide to walk towards the woodland mansion. The trees around become unfamiliar, and it is only when you are on the steps of the great building that you realize you've completely lost your way in the woods.

At the very least, you've arrived at your destination.

But for a mansion as massive as this, no servants or guests roam its halls. It's abandoned, and you're unsure why. You'll eventually find other people like yourself who have wandered in from the woods, but they'll be without answers as well.

And then, without warning, you'll find yourself at the mercy of the first wave.

Spoiler

Time for a quick explanation! The waves are bursts of magic that transform anyone inside of the building. They tend to last ten-fifteen minutes. There's a twenty minute period between each wave, and this is the time where people are returned to their original forms. Clothing might change a little too, depending on what a person becomes during a wave.

Example: A wave transforms a vampire into a werewolf. In the wait period, they're turned back into a vampire. But when the next wave comes around, they find that they've become a zombie.

The things they become during the waves tend to be on the creepier side, but it's honestly up to you! As long as its something different, anything goes. The roleplay starts right after the last wave ended, so we have some time for our characters to explore and meet each other.

* The text in this first post was taken from the original roleplay - with a few edits here and there.

1. Please include a description of your character in your first post - you can throw it into a spoiler using the code down below and put it at the top of your post.

CodeSelect all

[spoiler]Put your description here![/spoiler]

2. Feel free to pick characters from whatever you want. They can be from another roleplay, a storybook, a novel or even a fanfiction of yours. The world, time and plot they're from ultimately just impacts how they interact with this roleplay, so it's really up to you.

3. You can have as many characters as you want, but there'll come a point where you can no longer add new ones because it would alter the plot too much. I'll make sure to say something when that happens, so don't worry about it for now.

4. Please don't write for anyone else's characters. It's hard to predict what someone else might have their characters do, and it takes away some of the fun for the other writers.

5. You're free to have your character guess what the plot is, but don't make any plot-altering decisions with talking about with me first. You can PM me or chat in the spoilers of our posts if you have an idea - I love scheming! I just want to make sure your schemes can be incorporated into what I'm already scheming.

(I also have a discord server for roleplay scheming! If you don't use discord or don't want to join, don't worry about it. But if you want to join in on the shenanigans, here's the invite link.)

6. Don't post multiple times in a row, and make sure everyone has a chance to get a response in. There's going to be times where it makes more sense to post back-and-forth between two people, but try avoiding it unless you absolutely have to - it prevents the other writers from getting too behind and feeling like they aren't involved with the story.

7. Have fun!

Spoiler

I'm planning on throwing more characters into this soon, but I thought this guy was a good start. Here's a description of him stolen from another roleplay, with a few little tweaks here and there.

Skull: An AU version of a character from Jonathon Stroud's Lockwood and Co series. He's somewhat tall and lean, with messy dark hair, dark eyes and an almost constant smirk on his face. His current outfit is a black leather jacket with an embroidered skull on the chest, a t-shirt, jeans and black combat boots. He's somewhere in his older teens. He's definitely good looking, but don't mention that around him - he hates it.

He's also one of the only characters I write for in first person, which should make this roleplay interesting~

I could only spend so much time with my...acquaintances before I got tired of their antics. Or, more specifically, before I got tired of them getting tired of my antics. Asmira honestly wasn't that bad, but Natty boy had been a thorn in my side the past few days.

So slipping off during the night for a midnight stroll had sounded like a good idea.

We were staying at an inn that bordered an old, creepy forest. It was the perfect kind of place for someone like me. I just slipped out the inn's back door into the woods beyond and started walking. I made sure to keep in a straight line, too - no point in ruining the night by getting lost.

That was when I saw the building in the distance.

It was some kind of old mansion, like the type that Lockwood and his little agency would have checked out on a job. I was bored, and loved the idea of intimidating some weak little ghosts, so I made a beeline for it. It was already in my path, anyways. But as I approached the front door, I came to the sudden realization that the trees around me had shifted. They had become taller and more barren. I couldn't make out a single leave on any of them.

...And where were all the animals?

Okay, maybe there was a little more to this mansion and forest than I had originally guessed. Heading back didn't make any sense. If this was a ghost thing, I'd have to take care of the ghost. If this was other world thing, I'd have to find the guy whose power was messing things up and give them a...talk.

I opened the front door. It was dark and abandoned. My kind of place. I glanced around, a certain little glint to my eyes.

"Hello," I called out, stepping into one of the hallways leading off from the entrance. My voice grew distorted as it echoed throughout the building. I took a little bit of joy in that. I couldn't feel any of the usual signs of a haunting - no temperature changes, miasma or apparitions flickering in and out of view - but my voice sounded like it came from someone long dead.

Which wasn't exactly wrong.

"Anyone home?" I asked, cupping my hands around my mouth.

There wasn't any response.

I paused, thought for a moment, and then decided to drop the whole search. The acoustics in here were great, and I just had to relive some of my ghostly glory.

I gave a low, drawn-out moan that reverberated throughout the halls. If anyone stepped inside, they'd definitely think it was a ghost who had made that noise.

Spoiler

Amy is an 18 year old werewolf! She has two forms: human and wolf, that she can instantaneously switch between (there is no stretching and growing transformation). Her wolf form is what she’s in now: a large, golden wolf with dark eyes and a shiny coat.

In her human form, she’s 5ft11in, tan and freckled, and has short, messy pixie-length golden-blonde hair. Her eyes are blue and she has a gap between her two front teeth. She’s got an athletic, muscular build and is wearing brown tattered pants, no shoes, and a plain white button-up shirt that is clearly too big for her and has the sleeves rolled up. So she looks a little uh, messy.

Amy’s head popped up from the ground. She heard a really weird noise up ahead, like someone was going “oooo” but more like the sound you might hear echoing down a cave from a haunting song. Or maybe a really weird howl?

It triggered something in her anyway. She stopped and let out a bellowing howl, on the off-chance it was another werewolf before continuing.

The sound was coming from the mansion up ahead, but it was weird. Everything about the forest was feeling more and more unfamiliar. She didn’t recognize any of the smells, or any of the plants, and even the critters seemed like a different breed from somewhere else, until they disappeared entirely. It was worrisome and unsettling, and she wasn’t sure who was living in that abandoned looking mansion up ahead, but it sounded like either a really weird singer or a dying man.

Neither were something she wanted to run into, but she didn’t know where else to go to ask for directions. All she could do was hope the place wasn’t home to a bunch of violent weirdos or something.

When she got there she could smell someone had already entered. It smelled like cow’s skin and something else she couldn’t identify. There was leather, though.

She sniffed the ground around the door before nudging it open.

She didn’t see anybody, but she could follow the scent, so she did. It led her to the nearest hall, and that’s when she saw a dude.

Something about his clothing felt weird and foreign, but wow, he had a really pretty face. Did he live here? She stared up at him, ears perked up and eyes wide.

There was a wolf in the mansion.

So that explained the howling I had heard a minute ago. Seeing a wild animal in an abandoned place wasn't exactly surprising, but what was surprising was how close the wolf was to me right now. I should have probably been a little more frightened, but it was hard to when the wolf was giving me such an intelligent look.

It was almost like I was looking at another person.

I crouched down in front of the wolf and gave it a long, hard stare. I hadn't met anyone with a power like shapeshifting - save for Toga, but she wasn't even from my world - but Nathaniel had mentioned something about a werewolf police force over on his world.

What did I have to lose? Worse case scenario, the wolf was just a wolf. I'd still get to try out something a little different with my powers. Best case scenario, I was right - and I just needed the sweet satisfaction of seeing through the wolf in front of me.

My hand brushed up against the wolf's ear.

The touch was all I needed for my power to work. The rules of my power were simple: as long as I had contact, I could possess whatever I was touching. And the contact didn't have to be for long, either - I just had to focus during it.

A second later, my body fell to the ground.

And I watched the whole thing from the wolf's eyes.

For once in my life, I didn't say anything. I didn't do anything, either. Animals didn't tend to react to my possessions - they weren't as strong-willed as humans. But considering that this wolf might have been a person, chances were that I'd feel them resisting in a matter of seconds. I didn't have to do anything; just me being in the wolf's body would feel wrong to it, if it really was a person.

Oh. Oh dear. This man was deathly ill and collapsed right in front of her! Amy immediately whimpered in concern, but suddenly found it difficult to vocalize, almost like in a dream, when she’d find her body frozen but her mind awake.

Had she collapsed too? Was this a dream? Had something affected them both?

She pushed harder, letting out a mangled sort of cry as she muscled forward to bend her neck down and sniff the unconscious man’s body and check his pulse. She rested her nose on his neck, feeling for it, and was relieved that he was still alive, just unconscious.

Spoiler

Bobby: He's a street kid, and he looks it. His clothes are mismatched and ill-fitting, worn through and threadbare in some places, and layered up to make up for that. His skin is nearly consumed by a blanket of freckles like starts, some of them only a shade or two darker than his sunkissed skin. His eyes are strikingly blue when they can be seen behind the jagged fringe that falls over his eyes. Bits of his hair stick up at odd angles, some strands being too short to lay flat, others being down to his shoulders. The haircut looks like it was accomplished with a dull pair of scissors and a weedwhacker. He's dirty, smothered by the grime of the city's hidden places and alleyways.

Gunshots echoed in Bobby's ears. He couldn't tell if they were real or if it was just his pulse hammering away at his brain. The roar of blood in his ears and the thump of his feet on pavement, then grass drowned out all rational thought. He just had to run. He had to get away, now.

He thought he heard shouting. Someone telling someone else to chase 'that kid'. Someone shouting something back.

He didn't know when he heard that, if it was now or earlier. All he knew was that he was running, and that if he stopped running they'd catch him. They worked for the Ringly's They didn't do good things to the people they caught.

Eventually, he stopped hearing the shouting, he popping of gunshots and screams that came after, and he slowed. Looked around. He was in the woods. He didn't remember how he got here.

He tried to catch his breath as he looked around. A mansion could be seen in the distance, partially obscured by the trees and not like any of the mansions and manors of the city. This one looked older. Elegant in a different way.

Hesitantly, he walked to it. He wiped the tears from his face and sniffed, fighting back the urge to keep crying.

He stepped onto the porch, up to the big oak door. Instinctively, his eyes scanned for cameras. There wasn't even a doorbell.

He took a deep breath. There had to be someone inside who could hide him. Ringly's men could still be following him, and he had to make sure they didn't find him.

With a trembling hand, he knocked on the door.

Two things happened in about the span of a single minute: the "wolf" proved my point by fighting against my control, and someone knocked on the door to the mansion.

I felt a little guilty about taking control of her (?) body, but I didn't apologize right away. I didn't even offer an explanation. I just pushed her nose a little closer to my body, switched back into it, and hopped up to my feet.

"So my guess was right," I mused, not bothering to brush off the dust on my jacket. "You are a person."

I wanted to stay and have a nice, long chat about the whole turning into a wolf thing, but there were other matters to deal with.

"Be right back," I said. Then I was gone down the hallway again, heading back towards the door. I opened it and found myself looking a boy who reminded me a lot of my younger self - covered in dirt and grime, wearing threadbare clothes that were little more than rags, and hair that was incredibly messy.

Younger self being less than a year ago, considering that I had been stuck like that for a good century.

Wherever he had come from, he looked scared. And while I normally tried to put on a carefree, somewhat intimidating persona, I knew what it was like to live on the streets.

I grabbed him by the arm and brought him inside.

"Hi," I said, giving him a grin that I hoped looked at least little comforting. "I have no idea why you're here right now, but don't worry - you're safe. Just...be prepared to see a wolf that might be a person. Still figuring out what's going on there."

Bobby stiffened the moment the man grabbed him and his breathing quickened. He froze, his mind reeling in the moments it took to process what the man was saying.

You're safe. People didn't say that when they wanted to hurt people.

"I-I'm Bobby," he managed. His heart was still thumping against his chest like it was trying to escape. Bobby was worried it would crack his ribs, or maybe that his heart would get damaged from how hard it was beating.

"I'm Skull," I offered. I wasn't sure how comforting that name would be, but there wasn't the slightest chance that I'd go by my old name.

...Then again, I didn't want to scare this kid anymore.

"...My name is technically Van," I quietly admitted. "But it's been a long time since I went by that. Skull's just a nickname."

Bobby was still trembling, inching away slowly as he decided if he was comfortable with Skull, Van. Whoever he was, he wasn't angry. Or, he didn't look angry. That was always good.

"Bobby's a nickname too," he said quietly, steadying his breathing.

Spoiler

Lavender "Lynn" is 24, stands at about average height, has a lightly tanned skin tone, dark brown eyes, and very short, nearly shaved, dark hair. Although she had been living on Earth all of her life, she has just arrived from living in the fairy realm, for probably a couple months' stay. She has learned all about different fairy tales and supernatural stories, so something like this, will be very interesting to her, for sure. Her usual attire is mostly casual stuff, jean jacket, jeans, flannels, long sleeves, and of course, sneakers.

Lynn stood, looking at the entrance of a rather charming old house. Well, it was certainly more of an overbearing mansion, almost like that Monster House movie. This one seemed welcoming, in a strange way, and she started walking towards the front entrance without thinking too deeply into the scenario.

She was, after all, at an unknown location, with curious sounds coming from inside the massive building. This day was getting more interesting by the minute! If Lynn didn't know better, she would pin some of the screams to both regular humans, and perhaps a shape-shifter. There was no better way to find out than by simply going on, was there not?

"Hello, hello?" Her excitement at seeing some supernatural creatures overriding her usually proper manners when potentially meeting absolute strangers. All an influence of the fairies she solely interacted with for the last few months. "I may just be human, but I promise I'm not scared by whomever you all might be!"

With that proclamation, that probably no else but she heard, Lynn knocked on the door. She sure hoped exciting things would happen, so that she could tell everybody back -- she swallowed back her initial word. Back at the fairy realm, she thought instead. Back at the fairy realm.

Although she knew in her heart that place would never be home to her.

Spoiler

Name:Silver Erementaru
Age:29
Clothing choice: Wears a long black cloak with a black t-shirt and black pants under complete with black dress shoes
Appearance:Human: left eye ice blue, right eye pure white, silver hair
Fox:Larger than a wolf,pure white fur
Strengths:Survivalist,Incredibly Fast, can fight very well,can fuse,spells,and magic
Height:6’5
Weaknesses: Cares more about others than himself,
Skills:Cooking,Comforting other people,Playing instruments of any kind,Singing
Forms :human, full fox, half fox(ears,tail,claws,teeth), part fox(ears and tail)

Silver looked at the Mansion,it looked familiar to him, he started to walk towards the mansion but felt a urge not to go in "hmm...interesting..." he slid his hand over the door frame,inspecting it, "might as well go inside" he pushed open the doors and cupped his hands over his mouth "hello is anybody in here?

Spoiler

I'm happy there's so many people interested in this roleplay.

Also, I'm going to post, but then we should probably wait for @soundofmind to go - we don't want her falling behind!

Unrelated, but does anyone mind if I close the roleplay now? There's currently five people in this roleplay, and I think that's a good, manageable amount.

It looked like Bobby, my canine friend and I weren't the only ones who had found this place. One person had entered through the front door. The other was lingering beside it.

I looked the two of them over.

Neither seemed especially dangerous, but moving closer to Bobby didn't really hurt.

"Hey," I said, giving a casual wave. I made sure to stand slightly in front of Bobby - my other hand just barely went in front of him. I hoped it came across that they weren't going to harm him while I was nearby. After all, I didn't know why Bobby had been so scared. Maybe, just maybe, one of these two had been chasing him down.

Bobby inched further behind Skull, eyeing the people at the door warily. The black clothes of the silver-haired boy, combined with...something else, the feeling Bobby got when he looked at him, made him seem like he might be a member of one of the major gangs. The Steelcrown's wore black a lot. But Bobby thought he'd recognize someone like him. He was too young to have silver hair, and a member of the Steelcrowns with something so recognizable would be spread around the city like wildfire.

The girl, though...he didn't know about her. She looked really normal. If she was dangerous, she worked for the Ringly family. Their people never looked like the kinds of people they were.