I can hear them. Their nails claw at the flimsy, laminated balsa wood of the door I locked behind me as I scrambled into my apartment's bathroom. The second one of them puts its weight against the door instead of simply brushing curiously against it, they're through--and so I am. I was a fool to return here. I survived the outbreak, the army, the quarantines, and the firebombs...and my undoing will come on the wings of my own sentimentality. I had to come back for their pictures. I couldn't bear the thought of never seeing their faces again--or worse, forgetting them altogether. The people up North said that Ashville was mostly clear. They were wrong.
I saw them among those that pursue me, and now I will never remember their faces as anything but ghoulish.
I'll join them soon.
If you find this, get out. Get out now.
--Anonymous note found on the corpse of an unidentified male.
Discussion Thread.
THE SETTING: Melinda County, a small county in the Western US (home to about 150,000 people), the center of which is Ashville, a small city (about 80,000 people) in the year 2011 (Note: 3 years after the outbreak of Chemical Agent Z-1412.)
THE CONCEPT: If you haven’t read Necropolis, I would HIGHLY recommend you do so before considering joining this storybook. In 2008, Ashville was the site of an viral outbreak that consumed the city in a manner of hours. The U.S. Federal Government moved quickly to contain the situation, but were unable to do so. Their blockades were quickly compromised, and once the virus was in the open, it spread like wildfire across the nation. Within a week, the nation was essentially lost. Three years later, a post-apocalyptic society has slowly begun to resurface in the nation. Of particular interest to us is the developing society in and around Ashville, the center of the outbreak and where it all started.
MY PHILOSOPHY: I am God in this world. What I say, goes. If you don’t like the sound of that, or couldn’t handle having me correct you, don’t bother applying. Added 03-30-2012: I prefer to have constant contact with my writers as well as between them. If you don't have the desire to work as a cohesive unit and learn to love the people you're writing with, I don't think this is the place to be. I highly recommend having access to the chat room on a consistent basis, as well as at LEAST one of the major IM services (I think Skype is probably your best bet). My storybooks tend to have a TON of co-writing (working with one or more writers to form a post involving you characters) as well as a lot of communication in the Discussion Thread. Again, if this does not sound appealing to you (not just acceptable, but appealing), this is not the place for you.
THE NOW: Three years after the outbreak in Ashville. Characters will start in or around the Ashville area. I strongly urge you to work with other writers to find a way to have your characters meet, as writing alone really sucks sometimes.
THE CAST:
1) You MAY be military--though the government as we know it has been dissolved, it’s conceivable that a few military cells are still active and acting independently.
2) No special powers; everyone is a regular Joe or Jane.
3) All characters are to be approved by the GM (me) before posting begins.
THE RULES: (Thank you Grif)
1)No team-killing: If an active character is going to die, make sure it is thoroughly discussed between both parties involved.
2)On Writing Style: This is a Storybook RPG, so players may write in any style they please. First person, third person omniscient, it's all dependent on your personal preference. That said, I expect QUALITY writing. If you're looking for a casual storybook, you need not apply.
3)On God-Moding:
God Moding is vague. Here are the rules for it.
-- Other authors may control another author's character as long as it keeps the character IN CHARACTER. For extra help, communicate with the author of the character being god-moded first.
-- Authors have every right to determine what is in or out of character for their character. As such, any action they feel is wrong for the character can be vetoed within a few days of the post.
-- This isn't a turn-based RPG, it is a real-time RPG. That means that you aren't obligated to stop and wait for the author to reply to your character. This way, we don't wait three days for a response. Please be congizant of the fact that other people are posting in this storybook, so we don't want a flood of posts from two individuals that happen to be on at the same time. If you want to have your characters have a conversation, get together in chat or via IM or PM and co-write it into one or two posts. Please don't post more than twice a day, and do your best to let a couple people post in between yours.
4) Inactive Characters: If a character hasn't been posted for in a long time (a month) then it will go into the NPC pile. Another writer may choose to write for that character until the original author returns. If the original author returns, the character once again returns to his or her possession. If the situation calls for it, the character may also be killed off.
5) Out of character discussion is to be carried out in the Discussion Thread for this Storybook.
6) Enjoy.
7) I reserve the right to edit any post to add a timestamp or modify content as needed in order to retain the continuity of characters and plot. Please begin all posts with a timestamp in the format of name, location, day, time. Do your best to post within the flow of the timeframe--backtracking or jumping ahead really interrupts the flow of the posts. Any backtracking should be done in the form of a flashback (the difference being that a flashback takes place in the present--a memory of a past event, whereas backtracking is literally going back in time).
8) This is absolutely an adult, R-Rated storybook. If you can't handle adult content (such as violence, language, sexual content, etc.), please don't bother applying.
NAME: Kevin Scholler
AGE: 25
HEIGHT: 6'2"
WEIGHT: 160 lbs (formerly a solid 220lbs)
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Brown
PHYSIQUE: Slim, a shadow of his formerly muscular/athletic self.
NOTABLE FEATURES: Rarely without a baseball cap of some sort, formerly handsome features now sunken and beaten down. Unkempt beard and long, scraggly hair.
EDUCATION: High School grad, BS in Kicking Ass.
GEAR: Springfield XD 9mm pistol (w/ two spare magazines), Ruger Mini-14 Rifle w/Eotech Holographic Sight (w/ two spare magazines), tactical belt loaded with a tactical thigh holster and various pouches containing Godknowswhat. Utility backpack, 4" Ka-Bar open assist knife, well worn journals and pen.
PROS: Expert with firearms, handy in a fist fight. Highly intelligent. Level-headed in a crisis. Utterly ruthless, and very decisive.
CONS: Very low empathy toward the well being of other people. Self comes first, others second, if ever. Addicted to a variety of pain-killers (Demerol, Vicodin, Percocet, Oxycontin, Codeine, you name it), borderline alcoholic. Possible Schizophrenic, likely drug-induced. Injured left knee that didn’t completely heal, severely limiting his explosiveness and mobility. Walking and jogging are okay, but dead-sprints and leaping ability is greatly limited. Near-paranoid mistrust of police officers and government personnel. Utterly ruthless, and very decisive.
BEFORE THE OUTBREAK: Grew up in a stereotypical American household; mother, father, and two siblings and a dog named Woofy. Older brother was killed by police officers due to a misunderstanding, contributing to a vicious hatred of organized authority. Lived with his two best friends and his girlfriend in a small house they were renting prior to the outbreak. Was head of the boxing club at his school, and was an accomplished Wide Receiver for the Varsity team. He worked out frequently and vigorously. His hobbies were sex, sports, and, strangely, journal writing. Most recently, held down a job at a sporting goods shop, where he worked the firearms counter.
SINCE THE OUTBREAK: Survived the initial spread of the virus in Ashville, and the subsequent occupation of the city by the US Army. Allied himself with a small group of survivors, and become their de facto leader until he “sacrificed” himself to lure a group of zombies away from the group (in actuality, he was trying to run away from the survivors, preferring to fend for himself rather than be responsible for another person’s life.) He injured his knee leaping over a wall, an injury that has haunted him ever since. Eventually he reconnected with the survivors and recovered in their makeshift fortress (a repurposed Costco warehouse). When he was well enough, he left them once more, abandoning the only group of individuals that had shown him any friendship since the outbreak. Details of his life are sketchy from that point on.
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Points: 6371
Reviews: 576