Children of Adlivun: A Survival/Horror RP-AC

8:26 AM, CHINESE STANDARD TIME
SHANGHAI, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

The first reports are emerging from the Pudong District following a series of explosions at Lujiazui Station around 7:00 this morning, in an attack which officials are saying may be the deadliest act of terrorism since 9/11. Details are as of yet unclear, but authorities indicate that multiple devices of an as-of-yet unknown nature were detonated at the station during the peak of the morning commute. The Pudong District is one of the largest financial centres in the world, and the...

Abruptly, the transmission cuts out, and is replaced by a black screen and white text:

BADYSH AND YABASH ARE COMING​

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Welcome to Children of Adlivun, my next game. I'm running this one as a sort of a hybrid between an AC and an RP, and figured IOT was a good place to host due to player base and thread activity reasons.

This game will be a character-driven survival/horror game following the stories of one or more teams of reporters and journalists (of which players will be the members) seeking to uncover the mystery behind a deadly terror attack and the cryptic message which followed.
While I am keeping both the backstory and many aspects of the plot under wraps for what I hope are evident reasons, the story will have aspects toeing the line of fantasy and sci-fi, invoke what will at least seem like god-like beings, and references numerous different mythologies, legends, and urban folktales.

How this works:
This game will have two main components - a social group here on CFC, and a series of chatango chat rooms. The plot will progress across both of these, and in PMs on CFC. More details on how these work will follow as players begin to join, but suffice to say that even those in strange timezones and with limited schedules will be able to participate in SGs and PMs (and, indeed, all players will need to in order to properly understand the events).

This game is heavily reliant on several premises; major emphasis is placed in particular upon communication. Players are strongly encouraged to communicate between each other, and indeed, it will likely be extremely difficult to follow the plot if people fail to share and read what they have learned. There's an extremely broad system of cross-references in the backstory, and no one player will have all of the information required to piece the details together at once. On the other hand, it is explicitly noted that you must refrain from sharing details your character could not; violations of this rule will result in your termination from the game. This thread will be available as an OOC speculation/discussion thread, away from the IC of the group, but it is expected that you only discuss publically available information here for the same reasons.

Secondly, this game is survival, horror, mystery, a bit of adventure - but it is not a fighter, and it is not a comedy. While your characters will likely be able to defend themselves in some very impressive ways as the game progresses, you will usually find escaping to be much more advisable, especially since injuries are tracked and remain without you throughout. Additionally, the tone of the game is rather serious, and while I do want you to enjoy yourselves (of course), a character intended as comic relief is more likely than not just going to die the first time it gets into trouble.

To join, please provide a character, including the following:
-A name
-A physical description
-A profession - you are playing as part of a media/journalism team; you can be a reporter, a journalist, or someone who might otherwise be reasonably associated with their staff
-A backstory, including your profession - characters with military/law enforcement/other combat background are banned, as are characters with mental illness, for reasons of past player decisions. You may PM details to me if you wish to keep them secret from other players. Please keep this reasonable; you are part of a *respected and qualified* team, and should fit the setting as such.
-ALL languages your character can speak; these should make sense with your backstory
-Any other notable skills

I will not approve characters that do not meet minimum standards - specifically, those deemed to either be powergaming, trolling, or inconsistent with the guidelines placed above.

You may now post
Feel free to submit sign-ups and questions.

Name: Ryan Bancroft
Physical Description: Wavy blonde hair, with well defined physical features. Very conventionally attractive. Around 6'1". Blue eyes, long legs, and an athletic build.
Age 35
Profession: Anchor (lead face guy)
Backstory: Ryan Bancroft, a conventional looking guy with unconventional ideas. Ryan was kicked out of University after numerous drug related offenses (cocaine) and failed classes. However, Ryan was not stupid; he just chose a different path. Determined to pursue a life-long fetish for Asian woman, Ryan moved to the newly capitalist minded People's Republic of China and worked numerous "white face" jobs for Chinese companies seeking to gain legitimacy. His smiling face appeared on numerous advertisements, products from cars to sodas and anything in between. A quick knack for picking up on things, Ryan eventually joined a news team as an "American correspondent" in an effort to boost ratings, and soon became a featured part of the staff. Though he is not the most traditionally intelligent, his ability to quickly read and understand situations can come in handy.

Ryan has a crippling Asian woman fetish, a heavy alcohol dependency, and enjoys fine cigars. His cocaine addiction is mostly under control.

Languages: English (Fluent), Mandarin (Fluent) Cantonese (Pillow talk) Japanese (Pillow talk) Korean (Pillow talk)

Other Notable Skills: Incredibly smooth talker, calm in intense situations, quick learner, runs frequently for exercise, good with dogs and other animals.

Name - Jana
Physical Description - East European, with short flaming red hair, 5'8"( which is occasionally referred to as almost 6, aided by the use of suitable sandals.)
Profession - Pharmacist.
Back story - Initially she wanted to be a doctor. However, that was not to be. Based on her educational scores and the exam results, she was offered a Pharmacy degree which she took up. While the graduation flew away in a haze, she got a chance to work as pharmacist in a hospital. In her part time, she tends to write an online blog about the recent improvements in the medicine industry.
Jana used to have an affliction for "meds", but its only the good old natural stuff now, that too once a week with old friends.
Language : English (Fluent)
Other skills : A little knowledge of medicine and bandages.

<nuke> said:

Name: Ryan Bancroft

Ryan has a crippling Asian woman fetish, a heavy alcohol dependency, and enjoys fine cigars. His cocaine addiction is mostly under control.

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Pushing all the boundaries, here, eh? playing FAR from home.

-Jayne Lombardi



-Black Hair, Tall, Leggy, Attractive
-Reporter
-A long time colleague and correspondent of Bancroft, she studied Journalism at Concordia University in Montreal, before getting a PHD in International Relations at Rutgers. Jayne Started her career reporting on archaeological digs in the middle east and Levant, before being transferred state side and assigned to congress as a correspondent. Jayne's refusal to let go of a scandal caused her reassignment to the China Bureau. Ambitious and driven, Jayne won't let anything get between her and the truth.
-English, French, Cantonese (Conversationally), Arabic (conversationally), Mandarin (Rudimentary),
-Can Juggle, cook.

Name: Lauren Poulain
Born: 9 August 1986, Beaumont, Puy-de-Dôme, France
Profession: Columnist at NHK World, hobbyist novelist and screenwriter
Languages: Lauren speaks French and also Japanese - but is complicated to her and sometimes may sound weird. Due to her job involving news, Lauren had to learn English fluently. Unfortunately when speaking she holds an exaggerated french accent that even the french countrymen would have trouble to understand her.
Other Notable Skills: Skilled novelist, pretty, truth teller, clumsy and asthmatic.
Backstory:
Lauren Poulain was born in the commune of Beaumont in France. Being the youngest and only girl in the family she grew up overprotected by her four brothers. Lauren had an unusual childhood as her family always entertained her with books, feeding she more and more with a love for literature. Yet she always found time to escape the protective wings of her parents and brothers, sneaking out in the nights to enjoy the young life style - in the least conventional manner. She used those escapades as a way to feel free and in the course of her teenage years she dated boys and girls, almost fell into alcoholic coma twice and acquired an odd taste for whiskeys, not to mention the arrests for vagrancy with her "gang".

Because of the problems she had caused herself, her parents thought it was best to send her to live with her aunt in Japan, in the hope that new life style would quiet down the willing spirit she had. In pursuit for a better life she found writing as a hobby by creating a blog called I Own the Time, in which she posted short stories and drawings. Eventually her blog caught the attention of NHK World who hired her as columnist.

Luis Gálvez
- Average height, thin, recently shaved head (receding hairline is noticeable)
- Cameraman
- Spanish (perfectly), English (basic), Russian (fluent), Mandarin (intermediate)
- Amateur runner, short temper, patient.

Name: William Blackgrave

Profession: Specialist War Reporter

Age: 75 (Birth June 10th 1945)

Appearance: He is average height at 5'11 and he is relatively stocky for 75. For 75 in fact he is fit and he looks 10 years younger even though his lifestyle would lead you to believe he should look like death. Tanned skin, short gray hair, piercing blue eyes and a weathered face.

Background: He grew up in the Deep South of the USA to a mostly military family. This family could trace its military roots back to the French and Indian war, and allegedly back to one of William the Conqueror's closest friends in 1066 that crossed the channel with him, if you believe the stories. However this lineage continued through the Civil War and his parents both participated in WW1 and WW2 as an artillery officer and a nurse respectively. He was born when they were reunited in 1945, a few months before the Pacific War officially ended, becoming a part of the infamous baby boomer generation. He should have grown up to a fantastic childhood in a suburban neighborhood and followed in his father's footsteps along with his four younger brothers and 2 younger sisters. However, something went wrong.

When he was 9, 1954, his parents both retired from the service and they settled down. However the war still haunted his father, and his father began to drink heavily. The latter half of William's childhood was one of abuse and cruel mistreatment. It did not help that although his father's favorite past time was hunting, William couldnt handle a gun. At all. The one thing that his father could take pride in was that William became the Alabama Lightweight Boxing Champion his senior year of High School in the fall of 1962. The following year after graduation he entered the military as per his father's wishes...and was dishonorably discharged four weeks into Basic training due to disobedience. It was this that caused his father to commit suicide, which scarred William for the rest of his life.

Yet at his father's funeral William swore he would find a way into the military. A year later, out of options, he decided to travel to Vietnam where the war was heating up. He first went to Australia, took a series of boats through Indonesia, and smuggled himself into the capital of South Vietnam, and began to try to find a way to join a military unit there. Although he never joined the military, he was offered a civilian job as a Press Secretary for the military.

Through a series of unforseen events, William was eventually hired by a Vietnamese radio network to be a war correspondent, and so he was able to follow the 21st battalion of American Infantry through Vietnam. This was 1965, and he followed them for the next three years, enduring ever hardship that the infantry did, except that he wasnt able to shoot back. he did get regular updates back to his sponsoring radio station. In 1968 after the Tet offensive, William traveled back to America and began to spread the word of how bad the war was. He was one of the first men of the press to push for an end to the war as he told personal stories of atrocities that he had witnessed done by both the Viet Cong and the American military.

He thus began a career as an esteemed War Reporter, eventually going on to work for CNN, BBC, and numerous other world famous news outlets. He covered the war in afghanistan for the Soviets, the Iraq-Iran war, the atrocities in Cambodia and numerous conflicts in Africa, and the Gulf War, the Kosovo war, etc. In 2015 he was undercover in the middle east to investigate ISIS when he was pulled out to be sent into China as part of a Crack team of reporters and journalists for what could be his most horrific story yet.

At this point though, William Blackgrave was as depressed as his father was at his death. He had simply seen too much death, too many atrocities. He knew too much of the world and how evil it was. As his father before him, he took to drink, and as such William can rarely be found without his Vodka and Whiskey in his pack. But he has a job to do, and there is nobody else to do it. As despicable as the truth is, somebody has to find it. Whether the truth should be released to the public is another story. William recognized now that it was in part his actions that hurt the troops in Vietnam in the later stages of the war and he regrets those actions every day...some truths of war should simply not be passed on.

It should also be noted that William is the last of his line. He had 4 brothers and 2 sisters, and all of them were younger. His four brothers all served in the later stages of the Vietnam war, and they were killed to a man, increasing William's bitterness about the war. One of his sisters was killed by a serial killer in Kansas. The other died giving birth and the child was born stillborn. His mother died shortly after the last child was out of the house. William himself has had 3 illegitimate children in various countries, and to his knowledge two of them have been confirmed dead and he lost contact with the third. But it doesnt matter. The third child took his mother's name. William is the last Blackgrave. Sometimes it seems as if the family has been cursed ever since William was born.

Language: English, Broken Arabic (From extensive reporting in the Middle East), Intermediate Spanish (from covering drug cartels),
Other Skills: Boxing Champion, Lying, Listening, Perceptive Questioning, Long Distance Runner, decent scavenger, doesnt scare easily, can smell alcohol from a mile away.

Just a couple notes based upon questions/things I've noticed here or in chat (most related to languages):

1) If your backstory doesn't warrant it, there is no requirement that your character has to speak English or any dialect of Chinese. Languages are based off of your backstory

2) Similarly, you don't need to speak a million languages - in fact, it's one of the few ways I can imagine to powergame. If there's no logic to a language in your backstory, I'll probably ask you to explain or remove it; I would expect most characters to speak 1-3 languages unless under extenuating circumstances.

3) You do not strictly speaking need to be in Shanghai the day of the attack (which occurs in May 2015). You may be if you wish to be so, though.

4) There are a lot of reporters, but not many characters behind the cameras/working with written media at the moment. I would encourage more of those


Also, for specific people:
-Nuke: Given your character appears to be an Anglophone American who flunked out of uni, his speaking 3 languages from regions he doesn't seem to have ever lived (Cantonese, Korean, and Japanese) is a little weird. It's really hard to pick those up just on vacations/dates/hookups...

-Bonefang: I hate to do this because, but the game does have you as affiliated with the media in some way, so a pharmacist is a bit out of the scope... sorry...

-Thomas, Defacto, and Arya, I've already spoken with you guys; thanks for the cooperation
-Joan, you're all set
-Reus, waiting on backstory

Again, feel free to ask any questions!

I would note that my flunking out of uni is mostly due to the drug addiction, not to any stupidity on my character's part. I had also thought that Cantonese is the language spoken in Shanghai, if not I will revert Cantonese to "pillow talk" material only.

Nah, Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong and regions down there. Shanghainese and Mandarin are spoken in Shanghai, but Shanghainese is mostly spoken by the elderly and in rural areas surrounding the city; professionally/daily life, you'd probably just get Mandarin.

Otherwise, works.

Name: Zaynab Bayanouni
Birthdate: 4 Sans-culottide 196 (20 September 1988)
Birthplace: Kabylia, Algeria
Description: Professional Japanese Translator
Physical Appearence: Shorter than average; wears large glasses; slightly heavy-set; medium-length dark hair
Personality: Calm, unassuming, and intelligent
Languages: Arabic, French, Japanese
Other facts: Likes writing poetry; likes romance and spy novels; is not at all religious, but still holds some Islamic holidays and traditions out of respect for family

Backstory: Zaynab is the eldest daughter, and second child, of an Algerian cafe owner, who decided to relocate his family to Marseille in 202 (1993), in order to escape the growing power of radical Islamists amidst the backdrop of the worsening Algerian civil war. Though life was not always easy in France, she did, unlike many of her kin, ultimately come to feel at home in her adopted country. Thanks to her natural intelligence, she excelled at school, and she gained admittance to Panthéon-Sorbonne, one of France's most prestigious humanities universities. There, partly inspired by her exposure to anime as a teenager and a creeping wanderlust, she decided to study Japanese.

Following university, she decided she was going to go abroad for a while. Helped by the fact that Arabic had been her first language, she quickly found work as a translator for the Tokyo-based Asian correspondent of a Lebanese-based, Arabic-language international news agency. That has lasted fairly steadily for over half a decade now, and she can't dream of another life. She loves living in Japan. Since the aforementioned correspondent was responsible for all of East Asia, he frequently took side excursions to the Asian mainland, either for pleasure or for work. It was during one of those sidetracks that he has gone missing in the Shanghai terrorist attack. As the nearest person and fearing the worst, Zaynab has been directed by her superiors in Beirut to go to Shanghai to find him.

In retrospect, media alone is kind of narrow.

If your character is already in Shanghai for their line of work (as some sort of business; no government officials or stuff like that), then that should be ok, too.

Apologies for the change.

-Lê V&#259;n Ph&#7909;ng
-Short, thin, short dark hair, slightly deformed left arm
-Reporter for Vietnam Television
-Lê V&#259;n Ph&#7909;ng is a Tay who practises the Then religion, which is heavily influenced by Taoism and Chinese folk religion. Although his family is from a rural background in Cao B&#7857;ng Province, Northern Vietnam, he moved to Hanoi when he was a child after his parents were involved in a familial dispute. He grew up in Hanoi, and graduated from Vietnam National University in Journalism. Lê V&#259;n Ph&#7909;ng has worked for Vietnam Television for the past 6 years and was sent to Shanghai to cover this story.
-Languages spoken are Tay and Vietnamese.
-Lê V&#259;n Ph&#7909;ng is a highly talented cook and has unusually high alcohol tolerance.

Expect a character here.

I will be setting up and adding players with completed and approved characters to it shortly. That portion of the game will probably start shortly, and it's possible that there will be a chance for the chat component to start this weekend, as well.

If you haven't completed your character or expressed interest yet, I highly encourage you to do so, even if you have doubts about time - though it will be possible to join later if you so wish.

In addition to sign-ups, this thread can serve as a place for OOC questions about rules/logistics/etc and speculation/discussion about the plot/backstory using publically known details - which, for now, is just the OP. If people want to get started on this, they can go ahead and do so.

Generally speaking, I won't tend to confirm or deny things about the plot unless there's a direct question for me to clarify something that was supposed to be clear.

Name: Ivana Ivanova
Physical description:


Birthdate: 7th of August, 1994
Profession: An intern of the famous journalist Dmitry Dimitrov working for the RusNews, whose rise to fame began after his story about a Moscow restaraunt using dog meat.
Backstory: Born in Odessa to a family of Bessarabian Bulgarians, who moved there recently to seek fortune, she was a nice child. Her first years were that of happiness and endless summers by the Black Sea, but as she matured, Ivana soon saw what life was: misery, poverty, corruption, pettiness. As the world of the East slowly collapsed, someone had to show it all.

With those thoughts, she entered the University of Odessa to study journalism. It was in the second semester when an offer that one just couldn't refuse - an internship with the famous Dmitry Dimitrov in Shanghai! A thrilling expose on the ways China isn't working...

...written by him as she brought him the yet another cup of coffee.
Languages: Russian (fluent), Bulgarian (relatively fluent), Ukrainian (fluent).

Where is the patronymic? Lack of patronymic in a Russian is unacceptable!

She's Bulgarian. It's the only way to shoehorn Bulgarian and Russian in one without actually being Russian.

also get on IOTChat