humiliatious | Amphitheater Multiverse: The Wastelands

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;;

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees it too he sees that—]

Do you… hate me, Kel…?

[Because it’s his fault. Basil’s heart pounds, coursing pitch black through his veins. Only now does it become visible, snaking up and around the collar of his shirt, past his sleeves, around his bones; fast, violent, nothing like the other boy’s slow decay.

[Only Basil’s eyes remain.]

Will you go?

[Only a moment ago, Kel was desperate to assuage Basil's fears.

[Things change quickly. Every cell in Kel's body feels as though its gone ice cold, and he stumbles back, knocking over "props" while the "part" he's "playing" continues to slowly overtake him.]

H-hey! Hey! [He doesn't mean to yell; feels like he's about to lunge.] Of course I don't hate you! This isn't your fault at all. [Is it?]

S-so just cut it out already! We're in this together, aren't we, Basil?!

[It’s overtaking them. It’s going to consume them all. And they’re not together at all, no; Basil needs to go away. He was just across a door this whole time, wasn't he? So why…?

[He stands, as if possessed. Something about this horrible affection keeps him from toppling over, much as he shakes. Basil is dead. And Kel should have understood a long time ago. If Kel lunges, he’d drag him down.]

This path… wasn’t meant for you. [It’s still Basil's voice. But he speaks like a stranger.] It’s not yours to find....

No...

[Kel's voice comes out small, pitching up too high, as if he were a little kid again.

[The second one is firmer, ragged.]

No. [It's getting hard to breathe. The edges of Kel's vision start to go dark.]

I am tired of everyone walking their own paths.

We're friends! Dammit, Basil. Don't run from me!

[It’s true. He can’t run. He couldn’t run if he wanted to. Basil looks down over the edge and pictures a step, a fall, a skull cracked open on hard ground and its contents spilling around them like tendrils. But that’s too easy, he thinks. His window isn’t high enough. He wouldn’t inconvenience anyone like that....

[Basil swallows black bile. Is he crying? He can’t tell. His hands are empty and unclean, but he can take it. Kel should be mad at him.]

It’s too late.

Why?

[Kel's voice is miserable, clawing for whatever it can hold onto. Basil only gets further away, and Kel's knees are weak. He wants to scream, throw a punch, but he'd take himself out before he ever got close to his friend.

[Black tears well up in his eyes as he coughs up and spits out some kind of clot.]

Why won't anyone just try?

[He's tried. For so long, he's tried. He sways where he stands, but he still tries. He has to try.

[His voice comes out small, so very small.]

We still love each other, don't we? It can't just be over.

[They’ve turned into something unrecognizable. It just keeps getting worse. Basil has tried to see Kel, all his friends, and it’s just black, black, black, black, black—all scrawled out.

[He should be afraid. Why isn’t he afraid? Is it because he loves him? Kel spits, and Basil remembers wanting to retch as his gut finally spilled. He isn’t sure if he did. He thinks he’s wilting where he stands. Does he stand because he loves him?

[Maybe it’s worse. He had so much time to say anything at all. But in the end, the door was shut.

[Words eke out anyway.]

…didn’t… w-want to hurt you.... [Is that love?]

B-But… I think… [Gargling on something he can’t name.] …i-if you stay with him… [He rots because he loves him. He loves them all.]

It could be okay.

Amphitheater Multiverse: The Wastelands

no subject

GODDDDDD HORROR BASIL MY KING

:)

I'M HOLLERING

cw suicide ideation, gory & generally-Not-Okay™ thoughts

cw: gross icky bodily? disease things?

godddd choice use of that icon (+ongoing suicide cw)