One x One The Dark City

[OverconfidentMagi]

THE DARK CITYchat

Story || Chat || Characters


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A desolate wasteland, burnt charred ground and fiery toxic sky stretching as far as the eye can see. And towering above it all is a massive black tree, its bark as withered and cracked as the ground it has pushed aside to make room for its expansive roots. A figure stands just on the edge of this ancient tree's cast shadow, so that none of the sun's blood-tinted lights touches him. He is tall and covered from head to toe by a long black cloak that drags across the earth, but two long narrow horns can be seen rising up from within his deep hood. He leans down closer to the ground. Somehow, impossibly, there is growing a tiny blue flower out from the red infertile dirt. He surrounds it with his hands, thin and sharp and bony things... and then he pulls his hands back and takes a seat on the ground next to the little impossible flower. He leans back with a sigh, his dark hood slipping off of his head. "You know, I'm not really feeling it today," the figure says to the crimson sky.

"Do you want anything?" He's speaking to the flower now. "Sorry, that's out of my power. Water? Yes, I can give you that." The figure reaches over and pokes a single finger into the dry dirt next to the flower, and after a few seconds the hole begins to fill with water that is quickly sucked up by the parched ground. He shakes his head. "Don't thank me. I owe you this much." The horned figure sits with the flower for a long time, speaking of various things and listening for silent responses.



Everyone on this site knows what an OOC chat is for. Anything not involving characters and canon events within the story belongs here.

WELCOME TO

THE DARK CITY​

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

Some1
Time for the first character creation. He's a bit old, but not outside of reason. Generally the inhabitants of the city are quite young, anywhere from 8ish to 25ish.

Get rid of the clothes. New arrivals have only their dagger and the white robe they appear with. Actual clothing is extremely rare within the city, and 99.9% of the inhabitants will only ever wear the robe they came with.

Also if any part of his physical description is a result of injury or sickness it's out. Physical imperfections don't exist within the city. At the very least this means his teeth are back to pristine condition.

 

[Some1]

Those parts have been removed. Does his hair also need to be done?

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

Hair does what hair does. I'm not going to worry about that specific detail much. Though getting a good mohawk going may be out of the question.

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

I found the old FAQ page from last time I ran this story as a group RP. There's a lot of information in it that might help you get a feel for the setting, so I'll copy it here with a few minor changes for tings that no longer apply.

Why doesn't my character have a name?

Your character arrives in the city with no memories at all. The lack of memories works like this: if your character hasn't seen it or been told about it, they don't know it or the word for it. If your character hears signing, they will be able to say "that's a song" without having known what a song was before that moment. They know what they see. Names are the same. Characters don't even know they are missing one until they're told they need one. This means most people in the city don't have a name until someone else feel the need to give them one. When asked to identify something, they suddenly know the words, but when asked to describe something they've never seen they cannot. That isn't to say words for things that don't exist in the city aren't floating around. Minnow is an example of a word that's been repurposed to describe something else, in this case fresh arrivals into the city.


What's in the Dark City?

Countless simplistic buildings that all look similar, made of the same dark stone that makes up the ground and daggers everyone carries around. But unlike those things, the buildings aren't nearly as indestructible. Aside from the buildings the only things in the city are the people with their robes and daggers. Anything else in the city must have been made by one of the Kings, in most cases the Gold King. You might notice that basic things like plants, food and water aren't on that short list. Those things do not exist in the city, yet no one dies of hunger or thirst. The only way to die is to be killed it appears.


Okay, but what is there to do in the Dark City?

Jack and shit. Mostly people in the city just waste time or try killing their peers, but there are some things to do in the city that many do flock to. There's <redacted list of various things I'm just gonna let you discover for yourself>. But yes, the point is that there's a lot of people trapped together in a limited space with very little to do and nothing they really need to do. So with the slightest motivation most eventually reach the point where they just take part in game of killing. That's why I help you find a storyline to grab onto at the beginning, so keep you from getting too terribly bored.


What are the Kings?

Super-powered anime protagonists. Next question! Joking joking, but not very much. The Kings are the most powerful and influential people within the city. Most of them have been around longer than anyone in the city can remember, before they arrived at the very least. Some of the Kings - Red, Green, Yellow, Orange, Black - have claimed pieces of the city for themselves. Others just wander, like the Gold King. Each has an incredible power that sets them apart from even lesser power users within the city. <Redacted list of some of their powers>


So... powers?

Yup, there are supernatural powers at work within the Dark City. If your character survives long enough they might even begin to show signs of having some of their own.


What is this Reset thing?

Everything in the Dark City is an a locked state. Once it is not being observed, it resets back to how it was originally. That means that buildings that get destroyed are eventually simply fixed back to how they were. This applies to the people in the city as well. Any injury that isn't fatal can be made like it never happened by having the person sleep unobserved. When they wake up they will be in the exact same condition as when they first entered the city. This keeps anyone in the city from aging as well. The only things that don't follow the Reset is things made my a king's power. Those stay until damaged to the point where it no longer fulfills its purpose as whatever it is and loses its identity, at which point it simply disappears.


But is there dirt?

No, there is no dirt. The floor of the city is smooth black stone, undentable and unscratchable. There isn't any dust either, in case you were wondering. The reset wipes away dead skin and all that junk that would usually be left floating around. Of course there will be dust and that when buildings are destroyed, it's just the nature of demolishing things and the rubble left afterwards. It cleans itself up as soon as its allowed to reset though.


Magi! My character got killed! Do something!

*slaps you* Yeah, I told you it would happen. You probably made a bunch of very stupid decisions that got them killed, either that or they were just very unfortunate and stumbled onto the beginning of a particularly dangerous plotline. Good for them, those are the fun parts.

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

You're free to start posting in the story thread whenever you want. No matter what I expect I'll end up clarifying a bunch of things from it and the post will probably go through some revisions as I continue to explain the rather complex setting of this game.

 

[Some1]

I have attempted an introductory post. It is kind of all over the place, but I hope it at least makes a little bit of sense.

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

Everything's good. Now you need to pick a direction and set off. The dais is in the exact center of the city, with paths leading off in very direction. It's hard to call them streets though, since the buildings are arranged so irregularly, with buildings often just sitting in the way of roads. It's easy to get lost if you don't know the layout of an area. Every direction is identical, so the decision is pretty arbitrary from the character's perspective. Right now the red star is at 9 on the map, over the red district. It orbits counterclockwise, so it'll be slowly moving towards the Black.

A Basic Map of Each King's District in the City (Red, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Black)

Your character is intimidating enough that no one's going to try and attack him right away. Few inhabitants of the city hang around the center. Whichever way he goes he'll eventually come across people, in the streets ad buildings. The general reaction to a newcomer approaching is hostility, warning him away with their dagger. If he goes towards the black district there will be less people than the other districts.

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

Do you plan on continuing?

 

[Some1]

Yes, I do. I am sorry. Exams got in the way. I'll post something today.