bargemods | TLV - Character Applications

CHARACTER APPLICATIONS

Application periods are open all month, every month.

The Final Fantasy VII Compilation cast is at cap, and FFVII Compilation apps are currently closed.

Please read all rules and guidelines before submitting an application. Be sure to check the Taken Characters list and the Retired Characters list before posting an application here.

NOTES:

After applying for a character, we ask that players allow 30 days before bringing their next character into the game. In some cases (warden or cast caps, upcoming major game events) players may approach the mod team and clear submitting an application a few days early, though it will not be approved before the 30 day mark.
If you are applying into an existing cast, please be aware that we may speak to players of characters close to (any version of) the character, and will speak to the players of canonmates of the character for which you are applying. We reserve the right to reject an application if it would render a current character or characters unplayable in the opinion of their player(s). If your app is rejected for this reason, we ask that you respect the decision.
Both samples may be taken from threads on the Test Drive Meme, as long as they are recent and match your application with respect to canonpoint and warden/inmate status. The TDM goes up once per month and is always marked on the Event Calendar. If you would prefer to write yours out and would like some inspiration, check out the Flood Event tag on the OOC community; you're welcome to write a sample based on your character's reaction after one of these events! Here are a few popular choices.
Canons (or canonpoints, in the case of ongoing series) must have been out for at least 30 days before they can be applied for.
If you're reapping a character that you previously dropped and you plan to have them retain their memories of their previous stint onboard, please include at least a few sentences discussing how their previous stay affected them, and noting any relevant changes to their personality, worldview, and motivations. The more significant the changes, the more detail we'd like.

WARDEN APPLICATION FORM - CANON CHARACTERS

User Name/Nick:
User DW: If applicable.
E-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact:
Other Characters Currently In-Game:

Warden Justification: Why does the Admiral think your character would be useful as a warden here? What do they bring to the table? Regardless of their methods and motivations, do they have the capacity to help an inmate achieve graduation?

Item: What form will your character's Warden Item take?

Abilities/Powers: Generally wardens may keep their powers in full, but anything with the potential to be gamebreaking, or anything that would render a warden more powerful than the Admiral, will need to be nerfed. If you're unsure whether or not your character's powers qualify for nerfs, feel free to contact the mods!

Wardening Strategies and Philosophies: How will your character respond to and operate on the Barge at large? How will they view their role as warden, and how will they engage their inmate in their efforts to help them on their path to redemption? What are their wardening strengths and weaknesses likely to be? What sorts of inmates would your character pair best with, and conversely, what sorts of inmates would they not be such a good fit for?

Deal: What is your character expecting to get for their effort in graduating an inmate?

History: This may be linked or written out.

Sample Network Entry: 5-10 sentences of spoken/written monologue, not including narration. This sample should reflect the character's day-to-day behavior and a distinctive voice, and must be Barge setting specific. You are permitted to link a thread from the Test Drive Meme, as long as it's recent (within 3 months of application date) and in network style.

Sample RP: 3-5 paragraphs of prose or brackets RP, with focus on both action and internal thought processes. Must be Barge setting specific. You are permitted to link a thread from the Test Drive Meme, as long as it's recent (within 3 months of application date) and in log style.

Special Notes: Anything else not covered here that you'd like us to know!

WARDEN APPLICATION FORM - ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (sample app #1, sample app #2)

User Name/Nick:
User DW: If applicable.
E-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact:
Other Characters Currently In-Game:

Character Name:
Age: This is important; characters must be at least 15, and characters under 18 will be considered only on a case by case basis. If your character is over 15 but under 18, please briefly explain why they have the skill/experience necessary to serve as a warden despite their young age.
From When?: At what point in their timeline did they agree to come onboard the Barge?

Item: What form will your character's Warden Item take?

Deal: What is your character expecting to get for their effort in graduating an inmate?

World Information: Please explain in as much detail as is necessary the reality that your character comes from, being sure to include everything that is not necessarily part of their personal history but that nevertheless still relates/applies to them: the political and social situation where they live, laws of the universe, general levels of tech and magic that your character might be familiar with (even if they're not techy and/or magical themselves), and so on.

Special Notes: Anything else not covered here that you'd like us to know!

INMATE APPLICATION FORM - CANON CHARACTERS

User Name/Nick:
User DW: If applicable.
E-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact:
Other Characters Currently In-Game:

Character Name:
Series:
Age: This is important; characters must be at least 15, and characters under 18 will be considered only on a case by case basis. If your character is over 15 but under 18, please briefly explain why they are worthy of inmatehood despite their young age.
From When?: At what point in their timeline were they brought aboard the Barge? Keep in mind that inmates must have just died, or were about to die. If your character has no canon death, or if you'd like to pull them from a point well before their canon death, you may headcanon a death that makes sense for the character/canon and doesn't require too many logical leaps or extra steps. Things like "My city-dwelling inmate was hit by a bus" or "My gangster inmate died in a gunfight" would be fine for a headcanoned death, as would "My character is in a life-threatening situation at their pull point that they canonically survive, but for the purposes of the game I'm going to say that they die instead".

Inmate Justification: Why does your character require redemption? How can working with a warden on the Barge help them achieve this? Feel free to just give a brief general overview here; we're going to ask for specifics down below.

Arrival: Was your inmate character brought in against their will, or did they agree to come to the Barge and graduate instead of dying forever?

Abilities/Powers: Remember that Inmates will have reduced powers, with dangerous, offensive (as opposed to defensive), and combat-related abilities being removed entirely. Please tell us both what your character can do when their powers are at full strength, as well as what your proposed limits and reductions for them are.

Inmate Information: Please lay out the most important things that your character's warden will need to know about them. Remember that permanent wardens will receive a file on their inmate's entire life story, and while we won't require you to write out a full history here (though we'll ask for at least a link to one elsewhere in the app), we'd like to hear about the highlights in your own words! This should include any serious crimes committed, details about the harm they've done to others, and major life events and how they were affected by them. While this wouldn't necessarily be included explicitly in the file, please also touch on their defining personality traits and behavior patterns, their general temperament, their worldview, and how they react to challenges.

Path to Redemption: What does your character need to change about themselves, and what sorts of milestones do you envision them needing to reach before they're ready for graduation? How will they react to being on the Barge? How will they react to being wardened? What sorts of wardening styles would they be likely to respond best to, and conversely, what wardening styles would likely be ineffective or unhelpful? What methods can a warden use to get through to them, and what are some ideas for things that might trigger or motivate them to change?

History: This may be linked or written out.

Special Notes: Anything else not covered here that you'd like us to know!

INMATE APPLICATION FORM - ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (sample app #1, sample app #2)

User Name/Nick:
User DW: If applicable.
E-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact:
Other Characters Currently In-Game:

Character Name:
Age: This is important; characters must be at least 15, and characters under 18 will be considered only on a case by case basis. If your character is over 15 but under 18, please briefly explain why they are worthy of inmatehood despite their young age.
From When?: At what point in their timeline were they brought aboard the Barge? Keep in mind that inmates must have just died, or were about to die.

Arrival: Was your inmate character brought in against their will, or did they agree to come to the Barge and graduate instead of dying forever?

Inmate Information: Please lay out the most important things that your character's warden will need to know about them. Remember that permanent wardens will receive a file on their inmate's entire life story, and while we won't require you to write out a full history here (though we'll ask for one elsewhere in the app), we'd like to hear about the highlights in your own words! This should include any serious crimes committed, details about the harm they've done to others, and major life events and how they were affected by them. While this wouldn't necessarily be included explicitly in the file, please also touch on their defining personality traits and behavior patterns, their general temperament, their worldview, and how they react to challenges.

History: This must be written out fully and comprehensively. Remember that, in the absence of a wiki page or a canon to refer to, this will be the only reference point that the mods or other players will have to your character. This will be especially important for potential permanent Wardens, who will receive a file detailing your Inmate's life history.

Special Notes: Anything else not covered here that you'd like us to know!

Last Updated: 07/09/2023

directory • rules • ic faq • ooc faq • setting • potential applications • requests • pairings • cabins • jobs • calendar • contact

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Personality: Welcome to Ellen Ripley's life... The same existence most proverbial 'space truckers' led. It's pretty much like working on a huge, mobile oil rig, except that it's out in space and you get put into cryogenic sleep for most of the journey.

Where her life was turned upside-down came in the form of the company she worked for, Weyland-Yutani, deciding to use the Nostromo's crew to retrieve an extraterrestrial organism without their knowledge or consent. It's not certain just how much about it they knew, but the crew were considered to be expendable. Understandably, this left Ripley with quite the paranoid chip on her shoulder and, years later, she attempted to confront superiors about those events. They denied all knowledge and, since she had no proof of the encounter, to say she felt cast adrift would be an understatement.

Step forward around two centuries later and her cloned self awakens to life in what amounts to an outer space laboratory under strict quarantine. A huge, labyrinthine spaceship called the Auriga. Ripley begins life as a physical adult and shows a remarkable capacity for adaptation and learning, far in excess of what would be typical for a human being. She is diagnosed by specialists as having "some degree of synaptic dissonance" and "difficulties caused by a biochemical imbalance, causing emotional autism."

All in all, she's a quick learner - and philosophically accepting of how human nature repeats the same old pattern of eventual self-interest leading to self-destruction. This makes her seem somewhat of a cynic, but justifiably so, considering what memories of the original Ripley she retains. Because of these, however, she can undergo a vaguely schizophrenic personality shift, especially when being confronted with how she is not one and the same as the woman from which she was cloned. To all intents and purposes, she still seems to identify with the woman she had been cloned from, but this Ripley's personality seems predatory and more casually assertive than the old Ripley's. Less prone to fear and more likely to be confrontational.

The same attitude makes her highly pragmatic: When the human Ripley found herself stranded in a prison, she used reason and leadership skills to try and convince others listen to reason. This Ripley approaches things differently, knowing her strengths and stating the truth, not seeming to care whether others agree with her or not. This, however, does start to change over the course of events, especially after finding the remains of the other clones, which triggered a hugely sympathetic emotional reaction and allowed her to experience grief.

None of this changes the nature of her Alien heritage, which is very much a part of her. She doesn't just have the impulses of a biomechanical killer, but the curiosity of one, too. When a member of the group is abducted by one of the creatures, she simply looks on: The old Ripley might have lunged to rescue them. Tried to do something, however small, to help. This Ripley, by contrast, is more like an animal. Someone who understands the nature of the beast and why they do what they do. Similarly, she seems to register the entire thing in terms of survival of the fittest - killing one is explained casually as stating it was in her way. She is how one might suspect the Alien's raw mentality might be, if filtered through the prism of a human personality.

This doesn't mean she's incapable of showing emotion. Her humour seems to be a dark one and slightly detached (growing, later, to being able to make sarcastic jokes), while she encountered sorrow upon having found the first seven clones. One of which was still very much alive and begged to be killed. This reduced Ripley to tears as she carried out the act. Then, later, she expressed empathy with the Alien nest and senses the Queen in pain.

Ripley also has a highly sensual, cat-like manner. She exhibited a great deal of touching with Call, veering between affectionate and threatening, while a greater form of this, bordering on sexual, took place between her and one of the creatures as it carried her back to the nest. It's quite possible that some aspects of the Alien's notoriously psychosexual mannerisms have entwined themselves with her base instincts, leaving Ripley as something of a fragmented puzzle, personality-wise. It should be noted, however, that as she matured and began working more with people who started treating her as an equal, that this became greatly limited, only reasserting itself when with the creatures. Nevertheless, she does seem to take comfort from it.

However, Ripley exhibited a perfectly human capacity to converse with others, once the nature of their collective survival situation became apparent. Even so, it's unclear how she regards herself; describing someone as "this human," which, along with saying she was a stranger to Earth, suggests she may not properly identify with either one species or the other.

Ripley is likely to get along well with similar predatory loners and cynics. She won't argue with someone who regards humanity as being capable of destroying itself out of greed. On the other hand, she will stand up for an underdog who's clearly being bullied. The original Ellen Ripley's personality came more to the surface as she grew and came to understand herself better, meaning that, when confronted with someone who was self-pitying, she simply told her to get over it. Being asked how she "could live" with herself being what she was, the answer was simply one of stating she didn't have any choice. For this reason, she's more likely to tell an attention-seeking personality to pull themselves together than engage them with sympathetic coddling.

TLV - Character Applications

no subject