Amphitheater Multiverse: The Wastelands

[pantheraliam]

Amphitheater Multiverse

The Amphitheater is a mysterious place. It's in the space of a blink that you appear outside one of its many entrances. You're beckoned inside, taken to the center, where the showrunners assign you a role. Another blink, and you're no longer surrounded by rows of crowded seats. The crowd and cast have disappeared. Whatever role you were given, that is your life now, even if only for the duration of the performance. Be careful, though. It's easy to get lost in the role you were given. It's not uncommon for performers to forget who they are.

Performance: The Wastelands

It's a scenario which has fascinated since the very inception of story-telling: What happens after the world ends? It seems that's what's occurred here. Shops and houses are left empty of life, looted of supplies. Strange, mutant plants grow wrap around buildings and overtake forests, which infected animals slip out of to attack. Towns are less so towns, and more so guarded fortresses which only allow certain individuals in and out. Supplies are scarce, and trade has devolved into a bartering system. Camps of survivors are scattered throughout the countryside and abandoned villages, with some bigger groups splitting up into factions. Infighting is common, as well as altercations between groups. The world has become temperamental, anxious, everyone always prepared to attack. Those affected by the mutation find it even harder to survive every day, met with a whole host of biological and social obstacles. Everyone's goal is to survive. What role will you play?

Dramatis Personae

scavengers & survivalists

Scavengers and survivalists survive on their own as best as they can. They are loners who travel from settlement to settlement, trading supplies they've found before moving onto the next place. Some prefer to live off grid entirely, and only interact with others when passing in their travels. Others hide away in cities and towns, away from the eyes of the factions that govern them, stealing what they need. Generally, these types believe that others will slow them down, and are concerned more with their own survival than anything else, which makes them poor companions.

leaders

The world as all knew it may have ended, but so long as there are people still alive, they will need leaders. One might lead a small settlement with only a handful of people, merely interested in surviving. Instead, one might be the leader of a powerful faction in a major fortress city, with hundreds at your command. There are religious leaders, as well, which devotees follow faithfully in all that they do. Whatever the case may be, the leader is, at the end of the day, someone responsible for the wellbeing of the many others that depend on them.

traders

Traders are apocalypse-made merchants who survive by collecting and selling items between settlements. Some of these merchants travel, moving from settlement to settlement and providing goods for travelers on the road, and some reside in settlements, providing goods for the town. They may sell anything from rations to weapons to medical supplies, and generally tend to have good relationships with leaders, due to their many connections. They are good salespeople, exceptionally clever with words, and may convince you to leave with something you don't need, or give them something you do.

the affected

No one is quite sure what caused animals, plants, and people to all start changing - why some are affected, and others aren't - but some strange mutation took hold after the world came to an end, rendering some something between human and beast. They are not mindless, and they are not hungry, but they have been known to attack - transform into monsters which blindly lash out until their prey has been disposed of. This only happens when they are provoked, however...

hunters

Some believe that the affected must be disposed of, studied, or otherwise detained until an explanation for their condition can be found. There are a few leaders, both religious and otherwise, who claim to be researching a cure for the strange affliction. They hire hunters to find the affected and bring them to their headquarters. Other hunters have more personal reasons for wanting to seek out the affected and dispose of them.

devotees

In times of great crisis, such as these, people find themselves desperate for a guiding light to follow. Devotees pledge themselves to leaders, objects, gods, etc., and follow them dutifully no matter what they're asked to do. Some religious factions condemn the affected, while some celebrate and welcome them, and others still that want to research them; likewise, there are some factions that welcome anyone, some that only welcome allied factions, some that welcome no one. It all depends on what one has decided to devote themselves to - the point is, they're devoted.

OOC

Hello! Welcome to Amphitheater Multiverse, inspired by former game 7Dead's AU/amplitheater premise. Essentially, characters enter a magical amphitheater that is holding a performance (this time it is "The Wastelands," a post-apocalyptic story), and they are cast in roles. This transports them to the setting of the "play" - essentially one big collective AU you can TL and play in (your characters can either be aware they're in a play, completely lost in their roles, some combination thereof, etc.). You can play out multiple roles/enter & exit the amphitheater more than once.

Please follow basic DWRP etiquette, don't be a jerk, use CWs in subject lines/read them. Play anyone you want - canon characters, OCs, fandom OCs, AUs, CRAUs, etc., etc. This event is open for anyone to play. You do not need to know me or be on my plurk list or anything like that. If you have any questions, please direct them here, or hit me up on plurk at pantheraliam (just note that I don't add people unless I know them). Have fun, be safe o v o;;

Comments

hello nephew <3

[letonerip]

[That dodge is unexpected, but it doesn't throw Kenny off. He doesn't lose his balance, landing like a cat, his stance defensive, as his experience and instinct tell him this is a worthwhile opponent, not one of the usual ones who die in seconds—often before they've realized their under attack. It's a quick death, at least.

This is different. That impossibly fast evasion. Those blades—and then that name. It's the name that throws him off balance, figuratively speaking. There's something very familiar about it. About all this...

If Kenny were in a frame of mind to pause and consider, what's happened so far would have been enough to make him do so—but currently, lost in the strange haze that's been affecting the populace, the only thing on his mind is killing. His technique isn't affected, though. He lunges forward, swift and precise, movements flowing like water, blades lashing out.]

[theirmemory]

[Kenny doesn't bite back. That immediately strikes Levi as strange. He doesn't believe for a second that the man who raised him (if you can call it that) doesn't recognize him, nor does he believe that he'd be able to resist the temptation to start launching insults the second he saw Levi's face.

[Something's wrong. Levi dodges away again, then backs up another two leaps.]

Feeling under the weather?

[He won't have much time before he has to fling himself in a new direction. He won't let Kenny take him down; knows the two of them can play this game for a long time.]

You do remember your own name, don't you?

[letonerip]

[It's rare—even impossible—for someone to survive his attacks for so long. Yet as strange as the fact that Levi's still breathing and moving is, Kenny feels like he knows those leaps and dodges, their rhythm like a song he's heard before. None of it makes any sense, contributing to the overall contradictory sense of sense of familiarity paired with oddness.

Part of him: the relentless, animal part of his mind, urges him to keep going, go faster, keep striking, until the annoying little brat jumping around and yapping at him stops moving and shuts the hell up—

—that brat—

—so familiar—

On the verge of lunging again, Kenny, instead, hesitates. The mutation coiled inside his body protests, but Kenny's sheer stubbornness is able to fight off the insistent killing urge—for the moment. At last, he speaks. His voice is low and guttural, but understandable.]

Shut your damn mouth, brat.

[theirmemory]

[There he is, and something is wrong. Levi's been hunting for quite a while now, and he knows an affected when he sees one. He also knows how to handle them, that aggression only provokes more aggression. When Kenny hesitates, he should go in for the kill, take him out before he really gets vicious -

[He doesn't. He stops where he is and crouches down, blades poised in front of him, defensive. Kenny is a stubborn bastard healthy. If he wants to kill Levi, then he'll keep trying, whether the trance breaks or not. Levi knows this...

[But if he can get him to calm down, to just talk--

[Damn a monster that can still be reasoned with. Levi calls out.]

Is this how you want to go out? Have some dignity.