Thrashers (Supernatural)

[Matryoshkka]

Hello! This is a character info/planning thread for writers interested in the Thrashers prompt listed in the original group request thread. Please see the original thread here for info.

The plot idea: A bunch of skaters/older teenagers (18-19)/young adults live in a super boring, strict town where they struggle to express themselves. It's super Gravity Falls style but even darker where they hang out in the woods and skate down old abandoned sewage pipes and go urban exploring. A lot of strange things start happening, though. Like they accidentally trespass or go somewhere the supernatural world doesn't want them to be. The town suddenly becomes dangerous and a bunch of kids who had no previous aspirations in life are suddenly thrust into a paranormal battle against something beyond their realm.

Essentially, the premise for characters are young adults who are struggling to find a purpose. They could be college drop-outs, delinquents, outcasts, you name it. Whatever their label, they are stuck in a very small, traditional, dead town where they are largely looked down upon by other citizens for not being quiet and proper. Which is why the forests, skate parks, and abandoned structures are their escapes. (And they y'know something happens and uh oh supernatural stuff!)

I'm not really going to include a bio template unless that would be preferred. Otherwise, name, age, gender they identify with, maybe a small description of their appearance (or face claim if you'd like), and a fairly detailed backstory would be sufficient.

I don't have much plot developed so I'm very open to suggestions, ideas, etc.! :]

@Petrichor.

@Just-A-Lesbian

 

[Petrichor.]

Thanks for putting this thread up!

Not sure if mine is too little or too much detail, but I hope this is okay. Here's my lad Mitch. (There was definitely some inspiration I took from Sally Face, as well as possibly Chloe Price from Life is Strange)

Do we think superpowers for our characters down the road could be possible? Definitely nothing crazy but for example, something like the powers from Infamous Second Son. Or do we want to keep them as ordinary humans who go on to acquire tools with which to fight the paranormal? Perhaps even something in between?

I'm completely fine taking this in whichever one of these directions, so I'm curious to know what we all think!

 

[Matryoshkka]

Thanks for putting this thread up!

Not sure if mine is too little or too much detail, but I hope this is okay. Here's my lad Mitch. (There was definitely some inspiration I took from Sally Face, as well as possibly Chloe Price from Life is Strange)

Do we think superpowers for our characters down the road could be possible? Definitely nothing crazy but for example, something like the powers from Infamous Second Son. Or do we want to keep them as ordinary humans who go on to acquire tools with which to fight the paranormal? Perhaps even something in between?

I'm completely fine taking this in whichever one of these directions, so I'm curious to know what we all think!

Click to shrink...

Hi! Wow, your character sheet is great! Mitch sounds like a really cool character! Personally I wouldn't mind the characters developing some sort of power maybe later on in the story. Especially like a creepy sort of disturbing set of powers would be cool. Or even a curse of some sort? I'm okay with powers or no powers as well. Both sound like really interesting plots!

 

[Petrichor.]

Ahh thank you! I was a bit worried, thinking maybe there was a lot going on in his character design lol. Creepy powers would definitely suit the plot really well, and I love that idea! A curse would be cool too—maybe it's a curse in that it's a realisation of each individual's fears and/or triggers. With Mitch his curse-like power could be, say, something physical/mental that's hard to control.

Anyway, I usually don't go for group rp's but this plot's got me super stoked! It sounds like just the right amount of urban exploration + paranormal activity, with a lot of opportunities to explore all kinds of teen angst as well. Can't wait to see the other characters. Hopefully more people join us, though I reckon 3 would still work just fine too. Hell I'd be happy to write Mitch's sister in to make it 4 if we need more characters haha.

 

[Just-A-Lesbian]

Hello! I'm so excited for this plot, thank you for putting the thread up! And Petrichor, I adore Mitch, I think this is going to be a fun little group roleplay!

Spoiler: Cy

Name: Cyprus Escarra
Age: 19
Gender: Non-binary
Pronouns: They/Them
Occupation: Cashier (illegally a sex worker)
Sexuality: Pansexual
Mental Illnesses: ADHD (undiagnosed)
Appearance: Cyprus has a thin rectangular body shape. Their face is cut of sharp angles and tan skin, while their eyes are a dark brown and often have purple circles under them. Their hair, naturally nearly black, had been bleached and dyed a bright yellow with orange at the routes, giving them an almost fiery appearance. They stand at 5'6, though they often wear heels that seem to give them more height and a greater presence, added to by their general energetic demeanor.
Personality: Cyprus is constantly bubbling over with sarcasm and witty comments on everyone and everything that surrounds them. They love nothing more than pressing people's buttons to try and get a funny reaction, though most of the time they know where the line between teasing and genuine harm lays. Generally they're apathetic about most events, taking very little interest in a majority of topics or events, having a mentality best described as nearly nihilistic. This can lead to them seeming disconnected and flippant with other's issues, meaning they're horrible with other's emotions and often make things spiral downwards without intending to.

Despite their issues with serious emotion, they do tend to make friends on sheer humor. They often exaggerate or act dramatically to get a laugh, and often break physical boundaries for a bit. Cy has very little issue getting extremely close to someone or taking the classical game of teenagers jokingly flirting with one another to the extreme. Overall, they're generally chaotic and unmanageable, someone most people wouldn't mind being at a party with, but not someone to bring on a date to a calm, serene park.

Backstory:
They were born seventh of an eventual total of nine kids to their mother who did not have the space nor care to take care of that many children. Out of all of their siblings seven of them were half-related to them as their mother had a tendency to move on from boyfriends at lightning speed, spending the child support on hospital bills and alcohol. Of course, most of them was told to them later in life as they were taken by CPS from the home at the age of five and have very few memories of their early childhood.

Cy was nearly put in the foster care system when their paternal grandparents stepped in upon finding out their son had two children, and they were displaced once again to live with perfect strangers. Their grandparents did attempt to raise them as best they could at their old age, perhaps too stern as is common for the older generation, too rough, not enough affection, and too high standards for the young child.

Their older sister who had moved with them thrived in this environment, fulfilling every role asked of her, especially those within the church, of which their grandparents were very fond. Cy took a much more rebellious route as they grew, becoming loud where they were told to sit and listen, and latching onto anything they were told was wrong. As a result their teenage years were full of screaming matches at midnight and straight C grades simply because they refused to give anything more than the most minuscule effort.

They were disowned at eighteen for this behavior, kicked out just as soon as they could be. With nothing to their name but their phone, the clothes on their back, and a few thousand dollars, which they had gotten from odd jobs across the years, they scraped themselves together and moved in with three roommates in a rather small apartment. Their cashier job couldn't make ends meet, and so they began to sell themselves, finding quite a market for it, and in exchange for their pride and dignity they managed to secure a one bedroom apartment for just themselves and enough food to live off of.

 

[Matryoshkka]

Yay! Glad y'all are excited! I am as well, I'm really happy this plot sparked some interest! :]

Here's the character I intend to use- Mi boi Wendell

If you guys want we could add more characters/double up, but I think 3 is an alright group.

Oh also- what location and time period would y'all want this to take place? Are we thinking like small American/European sort of town? I thought about maybe having this take place in the 80s, 90s, or early 2000s, but then there's the option of it being modern. I'm totally cool for either of those time-periods. (I don't want it to reflect Stranger Things too closely haha but Blair Witch Project aesthetic is kinda cool so idk)

 

[Petrichor.]

Amazing characters! Cy and Wendell both have super interesting backstories! I love the diversity and really look forward to seeing how well our characters would be getting on with one another (and of course, all the conflicts and teen angst too lol). It'll be heaps of fun. And I don't think I've seen google slides being used for a character sheet before, and I love that! I'll have to give that format a go myself in the future.

It is quuuite cliché and overrated but I did think the states would make for a good backdrop to this story. But I certainly wouldn't mind something more European as well.

That's fair ahaha, perhaps we could have a mix of time periods? Maybe even sort of come up with our own era that doesn't neatly fit into a specific time period but does have some recognisable characteristics from certain periods. For example the smaller/more stigmatised scale of the skating scene from the 70s when it wasn't as popular, and/or the lesser LGBTQ+ and non-conforming individuals' visibility from the 80s, etc.

These are just some random ideas, I'd love to know what y'all think x

 

[Matryoshkka]

Ah thank you haha! I just thought the aesthetic of your bio was cool and took inspo from that lol- Also I LOVE Cyprus!! They're such an interesting character!! So excited for this!

Hmm well- America does have the vastness but Europe also has a lot more history. I wouldn't mind either- I'm more well-versed on an American setting, but I wouldn't mind writing in a European setting. Both could be spooky in different ways. For the time period, since the town is meant to be very traditional in their ways, it could be a modern setting but a little behind on the times. Like you mentioned, Petrichor, just being a lot more close-minded to diversity sort of thing. Orrrrr if we want to make it more weird/supernatural, we could have the town be like physically stuck in a different time, like almost a different dimension and when our characters accidentally get too close to discovering this rift or crossing the boundary, that's when strange things start happening?

I don't really have a set idea on the cause of the strange happenings so there are a lot of ideas there! It could also just be a paranormal force that doesn't like them trespassing/they get too close to something paranormal? Maybe they make a mistake and mess with a paranormal force or take something from one of the abandoned places they're exploring and then get punished by a supernatural force for it? I was kind of thinking less ghost/haunting sort of thing and more like the adversary is literally like the spirit of the forest (but like evil?) I don't know haha so much to consider. What do you guys think?

 

[Just-A-Lesbian]

Thank you! I'm also very excited to engage with both of your characters, its promising to be an extremely interesting roleplay thus far, and I'm looking forward to it.

I was leaning more towards an American setting as the States tend to have firmer laws against sex work, and that would create more general drama and secrecy for Cyprus, but honestly I'm not against a European setting. After all, if we follow along with the traditional route the laws or ostrization will likely be similar if not the same, though I admit I haven't really looked into it much. I'll make sure to dig in on laws and general events once we settle on a time period and setting.

Speaking of which, I like the town stuck in time idea, but I think I prefer the general 90s/80s sneaking around and getting into some supernatural entity. I feel the only real way to finish out the stuck in time idea is to have them get out and experience the modern world, which could get zaney rather than dark and supernatural, though if you have a different route I'm still totally fine with that!

I think perhaps all of them deciding to crash in an abandoned building or home of some sort, each for their own reasons perhaps outside drama or home issues, which could serve to trigger some sort of entity.

Thoughts?

 

[Matryoshkka]

Okay maybe we can confirm an American setting. We also don't really have to pick a 100% specific place- we could make up some random-ass mountain/rural town lol- up to you guys how realistic we want this to be. We could pick a general region to take aesthetic from.

Yeah, actually I have to agree with you- I think I would also prefer more of a heroes journey structure where like it starts off in the normal world and then things go haywire and the goal is to return things to normal. That would also open up a whole other plot-line and world that we would have to build which would definitely complicate things haha.

They could be crashing in some abandoned building, or maybe trespassing on some forbidden area of the forest- or even disrespecting it in some way. Like idk graffitiing it or leaving some rubbish behind. Although I like the idea of the adversary just being totally evil and unworldly- like not just angry cuz the characters did something- just being angry with their presence. Something totally evil and dreadful. Not sure what exactly that entity would entail though lol

 

[Petrichor.]

I'm all good with that! Especially since there are aspects that would benefit more from an American setting, like what Just-A-Lesbian was saying with the laws being stricter on sex work. Since the story is more geared towards supernatural phenomena more than real-life stuff, going with what we're a little more familiar with would probably lessen the burden of research & allow us to focus more on building our own world. Totally cool with making one up too. Could be something like the fictional mountain from Until Dawn, or if we want some more spooks, we could do what the makers of Silent Hill did by basing it off one of the actual ghost towns in real life.

That makes me think, what if initially these things happen in a predictable manner, with noticeable patterns and hints that allow our characters to recognise that an entity's been triggered and the world has become a bit 'off', but then as time goes on it becomes harder and harder to tell the difference between 'real life'—the world they come from—and the distorted/warped version of it (borrowing Matryoshka's alternate dimension idea which I like). Basically them slowly losing their minds the more they're put under the entity's influence sort of thing? Which I reckon could be reversible (or not) once they find their way back to their world, depending on what we want.

But it could also be that they never actually left their world in the first place....but were instead in some sort of an in-between world the whole time where the entity could exert its influence. I don't know, I hope that makes sense. Definitely not writing this at 3 in the morning. Happy to clarify if anything's unclear lmao.

And that works well! I do think it'd be freakier if the entity was inherently evil and not getting pissed off by a bunch of teenagers pettily acting out against the world (at least in its eyes) lol

 

[Matryoshkka]

Alright cool- American setting confirmed. Would you guys want to just like pick a general region of the U.S. to kind of base it off of? For example, Gravity Falls is based in Oregon so there are lots of foresty, camping, mountain-town sort of themes. We could pick a more snowy or more humid region and then make up a town there? Ooo I like the suggestion of basing it off a real ghost town. I'm not too well-researched on urban legends like that, but if you have anything in mind, Petrichor, that sounds really cool!

Oooo I kind of like that- like they recognize how different everything is, but then they start kind of getting more confused and forgetting what's reality and what isn't? I was thinking that nobody else in town recognises what's going on- just our three characters so maybe there are some themes of them maybe questioning whether it's real, whether they're dead, whether they're in a different world, or whether they smoked a crazy blunt lmao- but then of course it is reality, it's just distorted.

Yeah- sorry to keep referencing other media lol- there's this movie (that I actually haven't seen lol) but I think it's about some guys who get lost in a Scandinavian forest and there's just like a presence fighting them but it's not like a monster or a killer, just a natural, unknown thing and I think one of the biggest themes of the movie is just the fear and dread of something totally unknown to humanity- I'll see if I can find the title lol I only read like the blurb for it and was like 'wow that's sick! It would be so cool to write a story like that!' and have kind of been letting my imagination run that direction lol

 

[Just-A-Lesbian]

For setting I think perhaps the general area of the Midwestern United States might work, its known for having quite a bit of empty states with few inhabitants, which could play into our story quite well. Specifically perhaps Iowa, Wisconsin, or North Dakota are all options I was looking at as options for the setting. I'm not familiar with towns in the area, but if either of you are please do suggest! Otherwise we could perhaps make up our own town in the area, somewhere small with a low population is what I was imagining, but please give me your thoughts on the matter.

I also agree with the idea of only our characters noticing the differences and more dangerous environment, especially if they're already mentally strained, questioning young adults it could make for some extremely interesting psychological background to the whole affair. Speaking of which, did either of you have specific examples of events and changes we could sew in once they disrupt whatever is present? I'm imagining a slow start that gradually gets worse and more distorted as time goes on, like the saying of boiling the frog in a sense.

 

[Matryoshkka]

I like the idea of North Dakota- it seems to have some thick forests. We could even have our characters in like a bit of a small but tourist town- like their town is known for one very niche and particular thing so there are very few residents and even fewer younger residents. Rarely are there new folks and when there are they just tend to pass by briefly.

Honestly I really haven't thought of many events haha- I was kind of thinking of uncanny valley sort of vibes where it's hard to notice at first, but the residents get stranger. Oh maybe the animals could start acting strange and noticing something weird, the weather could get stranger- just like generally very odd events like a ton of fish getting beached on the banks of a river which has never happened before. Maybe there are weird noises coming from a cave nearby that the characters have explored several times and this has never happened- there's a random massive blood-stain on the ramp of a skatepark- like things seem normal but then there's a kind of quiet but completely strange thing that has happened that's totally unexplainable. And none of the other residents seem to notice or generally care when our characters try to tell them. What do y'all think?

 

[Deleted member 7778]

My post was ignored in the Group RT thread so I guess I'll ask here:

Are you still looking for more members?

 

[Matryoshkka]

My post was ignored in the Group RT thread so I guess I'll ask here:

Are you still looking for more members?

Click to shrink...

Hi.

I've been very busy lately so I haven't checked my notifications recently, sorry. I'm open to more players, but it's up to the others.

 

[Deleted member 7778]

I understand. I'm sorry for the way my post came off.

I'll wait for the others' responses. Thanks for touching base with me.

 

[Just-A-Lesbian]

If you submit a character along the guidelines we set (you can look at our previous sheets) I wouldn't mind you addition, though I request your read through all our planning as well to get caught up to speed please!

 

[Petrichor.]

Hey folks, sorry I've been a little quiet these days. Recently got back from a trip abroad and damn has time really flown by since then. Hope you've all been doing well!

Going back to our discussion, I'm cool with the town being located somewhere in North Dakota. I can definitely vibe with the forested touristy town atmosphere. I've been having a look at some of the real life ghost towns in the US, either in ND or relatively close to it, and even though this one's on the border between MT and ID so not quite close to ND I thought it had some interesting architectural features we could possibly draw ideas from.

It's called Bannack and I like it as it's described as "extremely remote, it was connected to the rest of the world only by the Montana Trail". There also used to be rumours about how a gang of road agents was responsible for the murders that took place there and the neighbouring regions. Something like this could be used in our story to explain why the other residents would remain blind to what only our characters would become aware of; they'll think that it's just 'what happens when you live out here in the middle of nowhere' and dismiss the weird supernatural phenomena away by putting the blame on the highwaymen, freaks and the like.

While ND is said to have many ghost towns the Wikipedia list/entry of them often had one image per town so it was a bit hard to single one out to use as a more region-appropriate example, but I thought Churchs Ferry is also quite interesting in that the lake in the area, Devils Lake, rose and destroyed a lot of the homes there. Pretty fitting for our theme. Wheelock is another one in ND, check out the part I've highlighted in the link. The fact that this ghost town's tracks are still in use today's got me thinking it'd be cool to incorporate it into our plot somehow. Like what if something changes each time a freight passes through the town? Perhaps the entity in question is able to manipulate the kinetic energy of the freight to traverse into/interact with their world? (Definitely not thinking of Back to the Future...I too am quite guilty of chronically referencing other media lol. You're all good, Matryoshkka.)

Just throwing some ideas out there I guess!

 

[Matryoshkka]

Hi! Hope you had a great time on your trip! Happy holidays to those who celebrate!

I love the idea of basing it on a ghost town! That would be an especially good argument for why the townspeople won't believe our characters lol. It could even be like a dying town- like it's slowly wasting away and becoming more abandoned as tourists don't take interest in it anymore and the few children born there move away the second they graduate. Like maybe the economy is struggling so much that the adults are too stressed about keeping the flame alive that they don't listen to the characters. We could base some of the supernatural events on true events in those ghost town histories- like the Devils Lake one. Maybe the supernatural entity doesn't seek revenge on just the characters but also the entire town or even all of humanity lol- it just seeks destruction and vengeance over everything.

Oooooo I'm especially fond of the idea based on Wheelock. I'm a HUGE sucker for trains and railways lol- that could definitely set up some events like the train acting strange (going eerily slow past our characters, or even speeding up to a ridiculous speed at a certain point in the tracks and crashing and killing the conductor/damaging the cargo. Maybe one day a bunch of forest weeds/vines mysteriously grow over the train tracks, forcing our characters to be trapped in the town?)