Introduction

We've officially started! Read more about it here. Character submissions are not closed and will most likely never be closed. Don't worry about being behind, as the plot is chatroom-based and free-form. Essentially, designed for easy entry.

If you want to learn more about the current happenings in Purgatory, you can read this plot post here. It is not necessary to read the post, but you might find it helpful.

Plot

Purgatory has fallen on hard times, even by Purgatory's standards. The angels have had an existential crisis and moved to the faux Heaven of a fairytale floating island, leaving the Bureau to struggle to reclaim the streets from The Fox's minions. Murder, slavery and theft run rampant. You can barely cross the street without someone trying to take over the universe. The Internet has slowly chipped away at the combined power of the mailmen, leaving their spy network completely devoid of cupcakes to deliver.

To make matters worse, people are showing up with their souls gone. Since all you are in purgatory is your soul, this is pretty bad. Victims wander the street with blank eyes and the inability to communicate. Is this some machination of The Fox? Did someone misfile something at the Bureau? Are the angels messing with some power outside of their control?

Or is this some new threat?

Citizens of Purgatory can only be sure of one thing. Someone is trying to destroy the world.

Again.

Locations

Grand City

Grand City has so many names in so many different languages that people eventually just gave up and just gave it this bland name. While bland, the name is apt. Grand City is the only city in Purgatory, and for that reason, it is huge. (If you read downward, you will find that Grand City hosts Calliope's Tavern, the Bureau, and The Fox's Den, among many other exciting locations.) Grand City is more stable in terms of permanence than many other parts of Purgatory, in that if you leave your apartment and go for a walk, your apartment will probably still be there when you return. Probably. Grand City has best been described as a really crazy cross of New York City and Hong Kong. If, you know, New York City and Hong Kong had medieval castles and time machines and gigantic statues of a ping pong ball. Perhaps better described as "anything and everything you want it to be".

Calliope's Tavern

You would think that the center of Grand City might be a huge square. Or a cool-looking castle. You would be wrong. The center of Grand City is Calliope's Tavern, a huge, sprawling multilevel tavern that is (shockingly) bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. The main room in Calliope's Tavern is an ordinary, faintly medieval-looking tavern, but the establishment has also been known to host a five-star hotel, an indoor swimming pool, a ballroom, and, of course, karaoke.

Outskirts

Believe it or not, the outskirts are even crazier than Grand City and Calliope's Tavern combined. Researchers postulate that Purgatory is formed from the mass energy/imagination of everyone who enters it, and therefore Purgatory is continually growing. They use the outskirts as their main evidence, which makes sense because the outskirts are a dizzying area where things can change from minute to minute. (In order to torture someone, people tend to strand them in the outskirts.) The outskirts are located far away from Grand City, and everyone in Grand City is thankful.

Human World

Yes, the human world is a location. So are a million other worlds/universes that link back to Purgatory. Not gonna describe the human world, because really? Really now.

The Five Powers

Even the oldest citizens of Grand City cannot remember a time when there was a single seat of power. Currently, power in the city is divided between five major groups. However, no single organization should make the mistake of thinking that they run the city. Grand City runs itself. And power is always subject to change. Especially in Grand City.

The Bureau

The Bureau is the place that gets. shit. done. No one is sure who or what started the Bureau, but it was probably someone who watched too many romantic comedies wherein the afterlife is depicted as an over-extended corporation. The Bureau is the closest thing that Grand City has to law, and its ability to impose (some semblance) of order and organization is probably why people forgive the overall hubris of the idea that Grand City can actually have a government. (Hah!) Responsibilities for Bureau members includes keeping track of everyone that enters/leaves Purgatory, keeping the peace, investigating strange phenomena (hah!), and offering second chances to dead people (provided that they reform themselves in some humorous madcap manner and kiss the guy in the next cubicle, this time.)

Location: Appropriately, The Bureau is located in The Office, which is just like it sounds. A huge office building with a lot of cubicles and fax machines that break.

The Fox

The Fox is a wily half-human, half-demon that runs the criminal underworld of Grand City. He usually takes the form of a very handsome and devilish man with a fetish for zoot suits, but he also likes to utilize his fox form for sneaking into women's baths. Very rarely, people will see him in a hybrid form, where he has ears and a tail. Why all this physical description of the man? Because not much more of his motives are known. (Also, fox-men are cool.) This enigmatic figure does not have much more of a mission statement other than: Defy the Bureau. For reasons that no one really remembers, criminals fear and worship The Fox. They often get his permission before committing the following atrocities: killing humans, running underground slave rings, upsetting the flow of time, dominating alien planets, and some funny fifth thing that kills the overall seriousness of this sentence. The Fox always approves. Except when he doesn't.

Then, you dead.

People loyal to the Fox often wear an unremovable spirit tattoo of a fox. This became less popular after people realized that this tended to get them arrested, even if they hadn't done anything.

Location: Also appropriately, The Fox lives in the The Fox's Den. Not much is known about The Fox's Den, although it is theorized to be an extension of The Fox's spirit energy because it moves around the city at will. A feared den of sin and unimaginable horror, you do not find The Fox's Den. The Fox's Den finds you. Unless, you know, The Fox invited you over for a movie or something. Then he might want you to take a cab.

The Angels

Not surprisingly, the angels are the oldest and most well-known influence on Purgatory. Make no mistake - they're still as strong as they used to be, and they could easily control the city if they wanted to. However, for existential reasons, the angels no longer want to. At some point, some rude person pointed out that these particular angels were not in heaven, did not know how to get to heaven, and actually had little to no idea how the mechanics of Purgatory actually worked. This caused a crisis of identity that all but plunged Purgatory into chaos. During this time period, The Fox rose in power and general mayhem ruled the streets. The Bureau was formed in response to the crisis. The angels and the Bureau have a fraught relationship, in that they have the same goals but the angels are kind of like a deadbeat dad who is constantly disappointed in their son and the Bureau is the son who just wants the deadbeat dad to get off the couch and pay his bills.

Angels tend to be good, pious, and loving creatures. Except when they're not. They really like peace and quiet and have been known to throw tea cups in fits of rage if someone is too loud at karaoke.

Location: Heaven. Yes, really. Okay, so no, not really. It's not really heaven, not in the way most people define heaven. But the angels decided to call it Heaven because they just really wanted to. In actuality, Heaven is a floating island that moves around Purgatory. There are a lot of shrines and temples and pretty fish ponds. You can only get to Heaven if you have the power of flight, and since angels can take a winged form, they kind of reserved the place for themselves. You will need wings (mechanical or otherwise) to access Heaven.

The Men in Black

No one remembers anything about The Men in Black. They point this flashy thing at you and then you forget. You forget. Everything.

Most likely...they are men. And they wear black.

Location: Here. Over here. Please, look at this light. Thank you.

The Mailmen

Because even Purgatory has mail. Mailmen are recognizable by the messenger bag and the biker shorts. They are not always men. Mailmen are not loyal to any particular organization, and they deliver indiscriminately from the Bureau to angels to The Fox and even The Men in Black and back again. Do not make silly assumptions such as the the mailmen will not read my mail or the mailmen will not use the contents of my mail to blackmail me. If information is power, then mailman could have conquered Purgatory about fifty times over by now. However, every mailman tends to act on their own interests, bound very loosely by a questionable code of honor (Deliver mail and Kill dogs), so they have never been able to properly organize.

Location: Everywhere. They are more likely to show up at inopportune moments, such as when the hero is about kiss the girl. The best way to summon a mailman is to get into the shower.

Logs

Logs are basically single posts where we have condensed scattered back-and-forth scenes with a lot of posts into something coherent. Most importantly, they give the illusion of plot and coherence.

In which Calliope tries to help Joseph write poetry, and Joseph abuses a wall.

Toggle Rules

Hi there! I'm a newbie to this site but I've actually done a LOT of play-by-post in the past, as well as a lot of GMing. However, I'm currently feeling a little buggered out on play-by-post. Therefore, I want to try a little experiment. I can hear everyone running away at the sound of the word "experiment", but here I go. Stay with me, folks!

I want this to primarily be a chat roleplay, so the emphasis is not necessarily on super long posts unless you really want to do one. People would typically only roleplay with each other while in chat at the same time, and it doesn't really matter that much if a scene drops out of nowhere just because the players have to leave. It's more in-the-moment roleplaying, although of course people can go back to look at the activity tab to learn what other people have been up to.

So yeah, kind of like the Multiverse except smaller and with more structure and all original characters.

My goal for this setting was to create a world that is open-ended, but also supports complex storylines. Therefore, people can join in at any level of interest and/or time commitment. You can be so embroiled in soap opera drama that it feels like a second life, or you can just log on occasionally to be that guy that throws peanuts in the back.

Disclaimer: There is no religious intent or message behind the premise of this roleplay. If I play an evil angel, it does not mean that I'm criticizing Christianity. Likewise, if I play a pious good-spirited angel, it does not mean I am supporting Christianity. Various religious mythology is used very loosely. In addition, purgatory here is treated more like an alternate dimension where dead humans from Earth go before moving on to some other alternate dimension (unspecified). Sometimes, for whatever reason, they get stuck. Hence, purgatory. But the sci fi conventions of an alternate dimension still apply and you don't necessarily have to be the undead to make it to purgatory.

1.) Have fun!
2.) Be creative! Want to play an alien princess running away from her mommy? Cool! Want to play a stereotypical vampire with a thing for teenage girls? Awesome! Want to play a mermaid who really rocks a guitar? Go for it! Want to play a psychic homeless person? Do it! Want to play, like, an actual dead person? Guess that makes sense too. As long as there's some rationale for why your character lives in and/or can travel to purgatory, then it's game. I mean, honestly, you could even play a completely ordinary human who gets kidnapped by any of the above.
3.) Be kind. Be patient. If we wanted this story to go exactly the way we planned, we would probably be writing our novels instead. Roleplaying is interactive, cooperative and sometimes requires compromise.
4.) Don't godmode. It's not much fun conquering the world if you achieve it too easily! (However, villain characters are always welcome and often quite needed.)
5.) Up to four characters allowed. That's right. Four. I am a very giving person. Also, I like playing multiple characters.
6.) If you're playing a character other than your default, make sure to indicate this. For example: [Jacob] He punched the bad guy in the throat.
7.) If you want to smex your characters, do it in private. And send me the log. (No, seriously. Don't do that.)
8.) If there's a serious conflict between you and another person, please let me know before name-calling occurs. I'll see if I can smooth it out. :) But remember to refer to rule # 2 whenever possible!

In order to join, fill out this simple character sheet:

Name:
Age:
Backstage Pass: (Basically, how they got into purgatory in the first place. For example: "Zorg the alien princess was minding her own business in her space ship when she went through a worm hole and crash landed in Purgatory." I mean, if your character is a demon or a god or a spirit, you can pretty much just say, "Is a demon/god/spirit.")
Physical Description:
Personality Description:
History: Please include a list of your character's special abilities here, if they have any. Feel free to give your character crazy powers if you want, but try to balance things out with an Achilles' heel. Like, maybe, they fall asleep right afterwards or something. (Okay, I'm using that for a character. That's mine. But you get the idea.)
Optional
Theme Song:
Quote:
Likes:
Dislikes:

I'm really not super stringent on the profiles, so try not to be intimidated. I do want to make sure that you have basic spelling ability and that you haven't over-powered your character to hell and back. I will not cap the player number here unless we get some truly ridiculous amount. I like playing with a lot of people and I've successfully run huge games in the past.

I think that there is almost limitless room for character creation here. You don't have to be in any way associated with The Five Powers unless you want to. (But you might get brownie points.)