You all know Penny. She was a kid that lived up the street. She rode her bicycle past your house every day as she came home from school. Blonde pig-tails and a bright smile - she always waved and said ‘hello’.
The night before an ambulance came, its rotating red lights drawing you from your perspective slumbers. In robes and pajamas you stood on the sidewalk or your porches and watched as the girl was brought out on a stretcher with an oxygen mask held over her mouth and nose by a paramedic.
Penny’s Aunt and Uncle stood in the doorway of their house, watching as the vehicle swallowed Penny and drove away. It wasn’t normal - the way her guardians behaved. They acted in no way like anything was out of the norm. They shut the door, and in a moment the lights in the house were extinguished.
You considered following the ambulance to the hospital, but you hesitated. As friendly as the girl seemed, the family was a strange lot. It was more appropriate to return home and await news through the grapevine.
When sleep resumed you had the most vivid dream. You stood in a perfectly flat field with a rutted, dirt road stretching as far as you could see in either direction. There were others along the road too. One to the left, or perhaps one to the right. They looked very familiar.
Behind you a grove of trees marred an otherwise even coating of tall, yellow, flowering grass that waved in the breeze. Something was creating a fuss in the grove, though you could not see what it was.
In the distance a wagon appeared, wobbling urgently along the packed, uneven trail. As it neared you are astonished to see that its driver is a skunk. In some respects it was a typical animal; it had black fur with a double white line from the top of its head to the tip of its tail. But in most respects it was anything but typical; it was larger than any skunk you’d ever seen, it boasted a rounded belly, and it sat like a person holding the reigns of a mule in its paws. It spoke when it came within distance.
“You look ridiculous,” the skunk said loudly to ensure you heard him. He raised an eyebrow and inspected you from the feet up with a not-so-polite gaze.
Involuntarily, you looked down at yourself. At first, you believed your clothes had gotten larger, but then you realized, it was you who had gotten smaller. You were a child - no older than eleven or twelve.
The skunk brought the wagon to a complete stop and asked very seriously, “Have you seen a girl named Penelope? It is of utmost importance that I find her.” The creature straightened his paisley patterned vest and adjusted a feathered hat in a way that was more habitual than necessary.
Before you could speak, assuming you were capable of answering, the source of the commotion in the trees was revealed. A ragged crow flapped its wings wildly and ended a short flight by ‘crash-landing’ in the bed of the wagon. After righting itself it said, “Watch out for the…”
You didn’t catch the rest. You awaken in your bed, rousted by the sound of a loudly cawing crow from outside your morning, sun-lit, bedroom window.
‘That was odd’, you might have thought to yourself as you went about your morning rituals of readying yourself for your drive to work. You made your way to your car in the driveway, but before opening the door, your next door neighbor, who happened to be retrieving garbage cans from the curb, greeted you by mentioning a dream they had just experienced…
“…there was a talking skunk, and I was a kid. There must have been onions on the pizza…”
As if that was not bizarre enough, your neighbor in the house to the other side overheard your first neighbor. “…I dreamed it too,” they said with widened eyes.
Three neighbors having the same dream - did everyone on the street have it?
It raised the hair on the nape of your necks.
…..
It is a small cast for this game - it will cap at three.
I am approaching this differently than I have in my previous attempts. The sub plots will play a greater role in the game as they will represent the ‘you’ in reality. I will be playing a part in your chosen sub plots (likely not a good one) and those sub plots may evolve in ways that are out of your control (just like real life).
Because of this, I can’t prepare some things until I know what the cast is going to be and what sub plots are in play. I have created ten along with nature, strength, and weaknesses to choose from. I will accept player created cards as long as they meet the spirit of the game.
Please write in past tense, with present tense dialog. Display that in your character backgrounds too so I know you understand that. I just don’t care for the present tense posts - no other reason - it’s just my preference.
You are regular people, in a regular neighborhood, with regular lives, facing issues that regular people face. You could be single, married, have children, or you might even be a grand parent. For a living you could be a stay-at-home parent, a salvage collector, a bank executive, a musician, to anything you can think of.
Some of the story is known to me and I will build in that direction. Most of it, however, is where it is taken by you. One thing that will happen - it will get strange. Perhaps not immediately, but the longer the story goes, I anticipate that the less control I will have and the more influence the cast will have. I will do my very best to incorporate your creativity moving forward.
You can only move NPC’s when you have strong control of a scene. But - there will be some NPC’s that you cannot control at anytime. Those characters will be marked.
This is a normal paced game which means you should be posting 3 or 4 times a week. At the risk of sounding like a jerk, I am sick of playing in games that are abandoned, thus I will joyfully write your death and replace you if you go quiet. That grace period will be aggressively short. I want to narrate one game and plan on playing in one, and only one. I will not sacrifice my own enjoyment, or the active players’, to accommodate ‘non’ participants. That’s as blunt as I can be. Please don’t join if you aren’t going to pay ample attention to it.
How you build (or plan on building) and describe your character is the main consideration, but I also pay attention to how many games people are in. If you are in a lot of them, then it’s hard for me to imagine you will devote a fair amount of time to this one. Perhaps you have that kind of time on your hands - I sure don’t. But maybe you do. (I wish I did 8P).
I appreciate you taking the time to look this over. Please ask anything you want in the thread, I’ll answer it at my first opportunity, but as previously mentioned - I am a busy lad and sometimes don’t see things immediately.
Peace!
(PS: Please post in the Looking For Players Thread if you haven’t already in addition to submitting a character. I’d like a chance to meet you… in a posting kind of way).
Hosted and narrated by:
Bouzouki (Bouzouki)
Started 06/26/14.
Scenes played: 10
License: Community License
