It's not as though you were never warned. You were. We all were. But then, maybe you just weren't listening. The stories they told you, the things that sleep during the day always feed at night, you know. And oh, what things feed in these nights.
When you were a little, wide-eyed and credulous under the armor of your covers, even without meaning to, someone tried to warn you. Storybook open in his or her lap, the stories soothed you to sleep, or perhaps gave you nightmares. At the time, you asked for a different book the next night. Maybe something sweeter. Cinderella. A tale so saccharine any meaning it once held fell away. Unintentionally, you weakened your own armor. You began reading to yourself. Doing research projects. And one day you asked the questions to find out it wasn't real. There is no San De Klaas. Witches don't prowl with their black cats. You don't have to be afraid of the dark. Your shield broke over your own curious back. Sometimes, it's true. That myth doesn't exist. Reality is much worse.

And you forgot to be afraid.

Curfews broke. The days of frightened leaps over the gap so the monster underneath your bed wouldn't get you were forgotten. People came out of the closet, rather than tiptoeing around it. You were fearless, and why not? Nothing remained to fear. In this doctrine of faith in yourself, you looked askance at the tall men with slanted eyes, roaming the street. You thought you could see the predators, the only thing left to hunt you a danger of your own species. We taught you to think you owned the world, that hunters' eyes face forward. No, darling, that's carnivores. And even we get eaten.

Admittedly, it's not all your fault. Anyone would have done the same. What kind of monster abandons a little girl, an innocent, as you once were, by the side of the road? I don't know what time it was, where you were, or what the lighting was like. I don't know if you were drunk or stone cold sober. I don't even know what you were wearing. But I know what happened.
You were coming home. By yourself, walking. I don't know why you were out, and I don't need to. Maybe you're still young enough to be sneaking out against your parents' wishes. Maybe you were visiting your cemetery plot. It doesn't really matter. The light wasn't great, but not terrible, either. You could still see. Not that you needed to. She made sure you could have found her blind.
Delicate, beautiful, and maybe five years old, if that, she sat by the edge of the road, crying. Wailing really, a heartbreaking, friendless sound. Obviously, there was no one around to pick her up, to hold her, to tell her it would be okay. She'd either been abandoned or gotten lost. So, really, what else could you do? Leave behind a lost child?
The sun came out behind her eyes as you walked over to her, and she stretched out her hands towards yours, begging for comfort.
Now, what real child would cry audibly into the night? None would, because those children remember, a cry is a call. Every sob begs someone to answer, and children know exactly who - or what - that someone will be. Then again, she knew someone would answer, too. But you can be excused for forgetting. We all did.

And you took her hands.

Humans are not alone in the universe. That is to say, we share our metaphysical space with four other existences which, overwhelmingly, we never encounter. The barriers keeping us apart were meant to be impenetrable. But, of course, they weren't. The quality of even the strongest armor is measured by the cracks in it. And the Creator little more than threw these walls together.
Evidence of the other worlds litters our past. Heaven, Hell, and Vaer, corrupted to Faerie by human translation. Mythology, scriptures, fairy tales for children. At one point, we knew there were monsters. But we have grown blind to their cries and insensate to their predations, inundated in our own perceived success. And so, unchallenged, the Vae folk prey on humanity, fulfilling their needs and glutting their desires on our lives. To maintain this, though, they're subtle. Every day, people go missing, and no one notices, the great steamroller of society paving on.
This time, though, is different. Eight humans have been kidnapped, all at one time. Rather than paying attention to subtlety, the Vaer went only for the "magnetic", that is to say, humans with an aura as attractive as lodestone. The reason for this? There are many different classes of Vaeris, and they are all warring. Perhaps not actively, but none trusts another, and the air of dislike is thick enough to cut. Long, long ago, the metaphysical plane of Vaer was nothing but an enormous battleground, strewn with corpses and dislike. The Undin against the Dhampyris against the Anima against the Neryd against the Ell against the Nixi against the Sylph against the Nachtmaer. They tore each other apart with neither empathy nor hesitation.
Watching over the four worlds, the Creator realized that ze did not like what was happening with the major races of Vae. And so Lucifer, denizen of Hell, emissary to Vaer, was sent to create peace, by whatever means necessary. A two-month cease-fire and many talks with the head of each faction resulted in anger and raised voices, but they came out of it with the saving grace of their peoples. The Treaty of Hiroch.
After those months of utterly failed negotiation, coming out of it just as badly off as they began, Lucifer realized that, unlike Earth, Vaer would never have a peaceful transfer of power. Instead, he went with the only solution he could see as plausible, the one outlined in the treaty that forever changed Vaer. Rather than having an elected regent, the Vaeris would send the heirs to their personal throne to Earth, where the heirs would select a human for whom they experienced "magnet" (nothing to do with attraction, sexual or otherwise) and return them to Vaer by means of a “lure”, a special group of children who, for whatever reason, are not impacted by the borders between Vaer and Earth. The eight would then be imprisoned and tested while one was selected to be the Vaeris Regent until violent death took them. The other seven would get to be consumed during the coronation feast.
This iteration, the king was doing fine. Because of the absurd shortness of human lives, Lucifer gave the Regent the gift of Relative Immortality. That is, the ability to live forever, until life is cut short by poison, blade, or other “unnatural” means. This is the second death of the Regent since the system was implemented, and an acrid and uncertain air swirls around the re-election. With rumors of suicide, murder, accident, or an attempt to take over by one of the heirs filling the Court, and the confused desperation of the humans wrenched from their reality, domino effect, and Vaer is falling into chaos.
Maybe you can survive. Maybe you can’t. But trapped in a house of falling cards, do you even know how to get out?








The Smoker --- Played by Kveria
A Canadian addict, she got hooked on cigarettes in her early teens and hasn’t been able to completely quit. She knows it’ll give her cancer, but she’s only been able to cut back. Neither a chain-smoker nor a lesbian, she smokes one or two cigarettes a day, and consequently didn’t have any on her when she got taken. She hasn’t felt the effects yet, but just wait a few days.

The OCD
Things bother her. They may seem little, but to her, they can become the world. Can’t see the forest for the trees, y’know? Or in this case, can’t see the clean room for the lopsided book on the bookcase. Things like that. She’s not crazy, she just likes things… right. And when they’re not, can she be blamed for wanting to fix them?

The Innocent - Dark Rumours
It’s not that she doesn’t have experience with the world – she does, as much as someone her age can. It’s just… Maybe she never took off those rose-colored glasses. Maybe the world just came to her rose-colored. Credulously, she hasn’t learned much of the hard knocks yet, but her glass castle just shattered underneath her.

The Animal Rights Activist
Didn’t you hear? Vegan is the new black. And, y’know, pink and blue, and definitely green. She, more than anyone, knows that those who can’t speak deserve a voice, too, and she is dead set on getting it for them. Be the change you want to see in the world, right? And she definitely knows how she’d like things to change.

The Dancer
When’s the last time the first thing she asked for on a holiday wasn’t pointe shoes, shorts, or a leotard? Maybe even she doesn’t know. What she does know is that her years of practice and dedication were finally paying off, when some terrible little child snatched her away to another world. But here there are worse things to worry about here than simply crushed dreams.

The Gentleman
Whoever brought him up did it right, or at least enough that his concept of chivalry actually meshes pretty well with the original definition. No, he’s not holding the door open for you to be ironic, he actually means it. Sure, sometimes he takes crap from feminists, but it’s not that he isn’t polite to men, too, he just tempers it. Sometimes, they really take it wrong.

The Painter
If everyone else sees colors in ROY G. BIV, he views them in such a spectrum that an acronym would be unpronounceable. Sure, recognition tends to be sparing and perhaps even condescending, but unlike most artists, he has a true gift for the visual eye, to the point that he could probably communicate completely fine as an illiterate deaf-mute. Unbeknownst to him, the day after he vanished, his talent was finally recognized.

The Shoplifter - Eskay
It’s a miracle he’s never been to jail as an inmate. He’s not a kleptomaniac, but you might think he was, the way it seems to be a compulsion for him to steal things. But compulsions aren’t a source of income, and this habit definitely is. With such deft fingers, some of his friends have joked that he could actually catch a fly with chopsticks. They’re not wrong.




The Undin
Prince of the creatures humans call fairies, he is nothing like an innocent flapping creature. Full-sized, the Undin are the dark side of human imagination. Carnivores who live in the wreckage of cities, Undin are sharp-toothed and sly. Their skeletons and internal organs disarticulate, allowing them to fit through any hole that their head can get through – so in this culture, a small head is considered a sign of good breeding and beauty. Confusing creatures, they have the ability to camouflage themselves, anytime, anyplace, so you wouldn’t know one was there unless you noticed his or her shadow. Most plants are poisonous to the Undine, and so they can’t eat the stomachs of their prey. Feminine form is Undine.

The Dhampyress
Equally carnivorous, the Dhampyris are blood suckers. Their spit prevents wounds from clotting, and all of their prey dies. Dhampyris are communal feeders, with as many of them as can fit crowding around a single victim to suck it to death together. They need to eat about monthly, more if they venture out into the sun, and not much, so the “wasting” of a victim may result in ostracism, as they’re already disdained by the Vaeris at large for needing to eat anthropomorphs, preferably humans. Like vampires of myth, the Dhampyris are strongly associated with shadows, and can physically transubstiate through them, but are much weakened by exposure to sunlight, as their body doesn’t store much water and they’re all albino, the Princess particularly. The male form is Dhampyr.

The Anima
The Anima, often known as the were-wolf, is a species of shape-shifters that, while highly affiliated with wolves, due to the pack hierarchy very similar to that of the Alpha/Alphae system of the Anima, is in no way limited to that. Their very genetic coding is malleable, and they have the ability to turn into any creature, as limited by the laws of conservation of matter and mass. That is, a 120 lb Anima would have to become a 120 pound mouse or an 120 pound elephant. They can neither share matter nor take it, another reason for the wolf preference, as they’re useful, with fairly analogous size. In addition, the physical re-formation of their body is incredibly painful, though it gets easier with age. Anima are naturally carnivorous, often eating the bodies that the Dhampyr leave behind, as it’s too much of a hassle to transform into an herbivore/omnivore to eat. Female form is also Anima.

The Neryd
Like the dryads and naiads of Greek Mythology, the Neryds are nature-creatures. Totally herbivorous, they are the only Vaeris who do not consume any of the human sacrifices during the coronation, instead taking the hair to make their nests with. A small, but proportionately human people, they are also the only flying species, made possible by their brittle, hollow bones and the fact that 5’2” is practically giant for them. In addition, Neryd children hatch from eggs after a two-year gestation, and though their lives are as long as any other Vaeris species, they spend proportionately less of it in childhood, maturing in just ten years. Female form is Nelyde.

The Ell
A tall, slender and graceful people, the Ell are physically astounding, in both the strength they pack in their lithe, compact bodies, and in their endurance and speed, particularly in running, climbing, and fighting. The most androgynous species, it can be hard to tell the males from the females, as long hair is a sign of status with all, and slender frames and hips abound. Busty is not a word one could use to describe an Ell. Their eyes have the capacity to hypnotize, making them very dangerous to look at too long. Among the higher class, who have greater power, even a glance can ensnare you if he or she has recently fed. They, too, partake in human feast. However, the Ell consume not flesh but minds, consciousness, which they can pull right out of you with hypnosis. Female form is also Ell.

The Nixine
Seductive water sprites, a favorite, if rather malevolent game among this species is to lure anyone nearby to his or her death with their siren song. The Nixi are not strong swimmers, rather, they live in bodies of water no more than ten to twelve feet deep and rely on their gills and waterproof skin, which to an extent actually repel water. Because the Nixi cannot talk underwater, they communicate by projection of thoughts, and can actually take thoughts directly from a person’s head if both are in contact with water. The reason their song is so enticing is because, as it’s projected, it conforms to exactly what the person in question desires to hear, becoming in a sense, the ultimate weapon. That does not preclude them from speaking normally, however. Though Nixi can easily leave land, and it does them no harm to dry out, their skin will feel slightly sandpapery when dry. They eat sensation and feeling, which they pull out of the body via sucking on the eyes of the corpse. Male form is Nixi.

The Sylphe - Jane Storm
The Sylph are only partially existent. Occasionally called emissaries of Hell, because of their diet of souls, which they must suck out while the victim is alive, the physical bodies of the Sylph are only ever present by choice. Pale, ghostly creatures, their molecules are held together more loosely than those of regular physical beings, and are more bound by the soul than by the body. Consequently, the Sylph can, and do, simply vanish, partway, mostly, or entirely. What they’re doing is not strictly vanishing. Actually, the Sylph simply siphon off excess cells into the atmosphere, to float off and re-form wherever the Sylph wishes without any inconvenience. Because of this, it’s easy for them to do things like hide or lose weight, because that tree, for example, wouldn’t mind gaining some extra cells, either temporarily or permanently. Male (and plural) form is Sylph.

The Nachtmaer
Literally nightmares incarnate, the Nachtmaer can see a person’s deepest fear with only a single look. The most confusing and least understood of the Vaeris, they have the startling capacity to procure whatever it is that a person fears, and can command sleeping minds; altering dreams or even seizing control of the body. They consume imagination, and, too, require live victims, often feeding off of the nightmares of anything they happen to be around, as, rather than damaging the victim, it only amplifies their nightmare. However, the Nachtmaer are most prone to psychotic breaks and can themselves neither sleep nor dream, making their extensive lives appear even longer. Female form is Nachemaere.





Don’t worry, just a bit more to go. I seriously commend you for making it this far. I mean, that takes some skill – I know long things can be off-putting. If you didn’t read all of the characters, that’s okay. You’ll probably want to, so you can work out which you want. If you did read all the characters, good for you! Go ahead and reserve one.
Now, here’s the next part. You should have a pretty good idea of plot by now. So it’s simple. This is where things start.
The eight humans wake up, each at different times, with a four-foot length of chain attached from their right arm to the wall. This room is octagonal, and none of them can touch each other. They have never seen this world before, but three moons hover outside the window. The only thing they remember is taking a child’s hands. The goal: escape, get free, get home, whatever.
The eight Heirs sit, in a council room, arguing. They cannot come to a decision about how to decide which human should be picked, or if there is a bias. But they know they must make a decision before their world falls to anarchy… unless that’s what they want. The goal: prevent Vaer from falling to conspiracy, anarchy, rampant fear. Keep the world together. And, of course, rule.
That’s it. Now, off to your profile! Character Sheet below! Oh, and character sheet first person, posting third person. Thanks, loves!

Code: Select all

*Delete this. Your name-space should have your name in it. Description space should bear a quote from your character, doesn’t have to be salient. I /do/ want a display picture.*
[b][size=180]FIRST NAME [center][color=#Character color]MIDDLE NAME[/color][/center][right]LAST NAME[/right][/size][/b]

[center](picture here, media irrelevant, no black and white)
[size=90](link theme song here… yes, I do want one. no, this is not negotiable. Personally, I can understand a character better if I have a multi-media comprehension of them.)[/size]

[b][size=140][color=#Character color]~Me On Paper~[/color][/size][/center][/b]

[b]My name is:;[/b] [color=#CC]Name[/color]
[b]But they call me:;[/b] [color=#CC]Nickname/First name[/color]
[b]I’m practically [i]ancient[/i]:;[/b] [color=#CC] Age[/color]
[b]And I’m getting even older:;[/b] [color=#CC]Birthday, year not necessary[/color]
[b]They told me I’m:;[/b] [color=#CC]Gender, as defined in the character selected. However, if you’re a male, you could be just male, post-op FtM, or pre-op/no-op MtF, though transsexuality is discouraged. So long as you’re physically the gender I said you are.[/color]
[b]Which is probably why I like:;[/b] [color=#CC]Sexuality. Say it creatively, please.[/color]
[b]Do Not Crossbreed the Animals:;[/b] [color=#CC]Species.[/color]
[b]On stilts, I’m the tallest:;[/b] [color=#CC]Height[/color]
[b]Well, that’s a rude question:;[/b] [color=#CC]Weight[/color]
[b]We’ve all got scars:;[/b] [color=#CC]Physical deformities/flaws[/color]
[b]I did this myself:;[/b] [color=#CC]Body modifications (piercings, tattoos, etc)[/color]
[b]Not like I can go naked:;[/b] [color=#CC]Dress style[/color]
[b]Lumps and bumps:;[/b] [color=#CC]Anything else about him or her physically?[/color]

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[b][center][size=140][color=#CC]~We R Who We R~[/color][/size][/center]

One of a kind:;[/b] [color=#CC]Personality. Be detailed and creative. [/color]

[b]Ooh, my favorite:;[/b] [color=#CC]Likes. Instead of giving a list, write it as a paragraph.[/color]
[b]Yuck:;[/b] [color=#CC]Dislikes. Same instructions as likes.[/color]
[b]Oh my god, get it away!:;[/b] [color=#CC]Fears. These can be as simple as spiders, or as complex as being locked in a box in a purple submarine exactly 12.6 feet under the surface.[/color]

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[b][center][size=140][color=#CC]~You Can’t Take it With You~[/color][/size][/center]

What do you mean, not everyone carries around a katana?:;[/b] [color=#CC]Your character’s equipment. Keep in mind their situation, if human, when they were kidnapped. If Vaer, you have a little more leeway, but do you really want to be carrying the broadsword around a diplomatic headquarters?[/color]
[b]Gimme more:;[/b] [color=#CC]Something he or she really wants[/color]
[b]Ooh, shiny:;[/b] [color=#CC]Powers. Humans can have one, very mild. Vaeris have whatever is specified in their species description, as well as a few extra (one large or a couple small) that go with their species. A Dhampyr would not be able to have fire-power.[/color]
[b]Don’t wanna take [i]this[/i] with me:;[/b] [color=#CC]Weaknesses. Not fears, weaknesses. Vaeris, species description will help. Humans, come on. Everyone has weaknesses.[/color]

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[b][center][size=140][color=#CC]~Once Upon a Time~[/color][/size][/center]

How it all went down:;[/b] [color=#CC]History, past, all that’s happened to you, those go here. I mean, I don’t have a set length, but I’m going for at least around two paragraphs, so we really get an idea of your character. Scar history? Siblings? Rivalries? How would you tell your history, it wouldn’t just all be tragedies. Theirs isn’t either.[/color]

[b]This was awesome:;[/b] [color=#CC]A story of a success, a fun time, or just a point when the character was happy. [/color]

[b]Talk about things to forget:;[/b] [color=#CC]Conversely, a failure, something the character is ashamed of, upset about, or just doesn’t like to share.[/color]

[b]Shh, don’t tell:;[/b] [color=#CC]Your character’s secret(s)[/color]

[b]Anything else?:;[/b] [color=#CC]The questions don’t always cover it all[/color]