mayfield_ooc | Applications

• Please read over all the rules and information before applying in order to minimize any confusion before joining.

• If applying for a character that has already been dropped, it would be a good idea, though not required, to know something of their previous interactions. You are also free to pick up a dropped character with no memories of their previous time in Mayfield.

• All content for the personality and sample entry in your app must be written or roleplayed by you; for the personality section in particular, we do not accept copied text from wikis or other sources. Obviously, you may not copy your app from other players, whether in Mayfield or other games. Application plagiarism will result in a ban from the game.

• If you wish for your character to be placed in a specific house, please mention this in the relevant section of the application and specify that permission was obtained by the PCs already residing in that house. We will be operating by the Honor System for this, and there is no need for others to comment their permission in this post!

• Other special requests would also best go in the beginning of the application. Remember, grammar and spelling are important -- if your app contains errors, you will be asked to revise.

• Please post all applications or canon updates in this post; posting them elsewhere and linking to them from here may cause them to get changed later. Posting them here keeps us from having to save them.

When Applying, Fill Out the Following:

Name: Not the character's name, but yours or however you'd like us to refer to you.
Personal Journal: If you have one; a journal on another website is fine.
Contact Info: Any other way of contacting you. IM screen names, e-mail address, etc. AIM appears to be the common link between most players, so having a handle on AIM is preferable.
Other Characters Played: Any other characters you play at Mayfield, if applicable.
Preferred Housing: We encourage random matches, but if there is a particular house you want, you will need to contact every person in the house for permission. Please post your app AFTER doing this. If you cannot get in contact with any one person, please wait a week after contact and we'll accept it as a good faith effort. It is not necessary for those you received permission from to comment; we believe you! If you have no housing preference, simply put "N/A".

Character Name: Names, nicknames, whatever is applicable. In western order, please. If the character has no last name (adult males especially), you are free to either make one up or let us do it.
Character Series: 
Character Age: 
Background: We will accept copy/pastes or links to Wikipedia or another source, provided that the source reasonably explains the canon. This section is necessary, so if you can't find an explanatory source, you'll have to write something up yourself.
Personality: The more detailed here, the better. This lets us get a good feel for the character. Please try to back up your details with canon examples when you're getting past their basic character and more in-depth. Generally, we want to see at least four good-sized paragraphs.
Abilities: This section may end up being optional for you. If your character has any abilities or powers, such as magic, they'll be taken away upon arrival in Mayfield. These will come back over time, though.
Sample Entry: Please write as if you've already been accepted and writing an ordinary post from your character during their stay in Mayfield. Using an "introduction" post is fine, but we tend to discourage it, as the typical "who am I where am I what is this crazy place" format doesn't really give us a good grasp of how your character will behave on a daily basis. If you have trouble writing sample posts, we allow links to museboxes or other RPs to demonstrate as a sample. However, you'll want to post with the account you'll be linking to in that situation. Please make sure that your app is written in first person (!!!), as that's the format that will be used in the roleplay. Generally, we want to see at least five sentences, if not more. Prose log style samples will not be accepted. If you're confused about the distinction, we will be happy to explain. Remember, we're looking for FIRST-PERSON format; prose narration is fine, but it cannot make up the bulk of the entry.

When Applying for an Original Character, Fill Out the Following

Name: Not the character's name, but yours or however you'd like us to refer to you.
Personal Journal:
Contact Info: Any other way of contacting you. IM screen names, e-mail address, etc. AIM appears to be the common link between most players, so having a handle on AIM is preferable.
Other Characters Played: Any other characters you play at Mayfield, if applicable.
Preferred Housing: We encourage random matches, but if there is a particular house you want, you will need to contact every person in the house for permission. Please post your app AFTER doing this. If you cannot get in contact with any one person, please wait a week after contact and we'll accept it as a good faith effort. It is not necessary for those you received permission from to comment; we believe you! If you have no housing preference, simply put "N/A".

Character Name: Names, nicknames, whatever is applicable. In western order, please. If the character has no last name (adult males especially), you are free to either make one up or let us do it. 
Character Age: 
Background: For OCs, we require a detailed background to be fully written out. Please make sure to describe both the character's specific, personal background, and the world the character is from. If it is exactly like the real world, you'll still need to describe the location and the specifics of the society the character lives in (also please note here that we no longer accept 'Canon OCs,' so if this world is not one invented by you, the character is not appable).

This section will need to be somewhat long; there's no specific length we want, but we want to have a very clear feel of the character's backstory, so that we can compare it to the personality section.
Personality: This section is probably the most important. We're looking for at least six or seven paragraphs, but what's more important is that this be comprehensive and detailed. We want to see what makes your character tick, and we want to see that you understand what makes them tick and have fleshed them out as a character. Some things we will need to see include their important relationships and the major events in their lives and how these have shaped them, how they tend to interact with others and the world around them, their strengths and weaknesses, and what motivates them, among others.

If we do not have a strong sense of personality or it doesn't seem to match up with the background or sample, we will not accept the character even if your writing is strong.
Abilities: This section may end up being optional for you. If your character has any abilities or powers, such as magic, they'll be taken away upon arrival in Mayfield. These will come back over time, though.
Sample Entry 1: We're looking for a first person sample here; prose or action log format is not acceptable. If you write a sample, please write as though your character has already been accepted and is in Mayfield. You may write an introduction or first post, but we tend to discourage this, as the typical "who am I where am I what is this crazy place" format doesn't really give us a good grasp of how your character will behave on a daily basis. You may also use a link to a post in a dressing room, another game, or a musebox. We're looking specifically for a clear sense of character voice; spelling and grammar are important, but showing strong voice and characterization is more important than anything else. Remember, we're looking for FIRST-PERSON format; prose narration is fine, but it cannot make up the bulk of the entry.
Sample Entry 2: In this sample, we'd like to see a different side of your character than we saw in your first sample. This sample also needs to be in first person, but you may do a sample heavily based on introspection and action as long as it shows us a different side of your character and your first sample was strongly focused on speaking voice. For this sample, we will ask you to write something out as though your character is already in Mayfield. Please do not link to a sample elsewhere or use their first post/waking up in Mayfield here. That can go in the first sample instead.

• Before applying, please look over any applications that were recently accepted to get an idea of what we're looking for.

• If you apply for a character that has already been reserved, we will inform you and ignore the application until the reserve runs out. You may not apply for more than two characters from the same canon. For the sample entry, you may write your own entry, or use a post from a musebox, dressing room, or other game. We recommend testrun_box if you prefer the latter!

• After you're accepted, please follow all of the instructions given. You will need to reply to the acceptance, post your journal to the friend add page and your canon post, join the communities, and use the friend add page to update your journal. Once you're accepted, please introduce yourself on the community when you're ready to play.

• If your app is "Pending", do not freak out! This means that we need you to make some revisions, and does not mean you're rejected. We generally give players a chance to revise before rejecting them, but we will reject apps that do not address the concerns stated when we asked for a revision. If you have been rejected, our reply will clearly state this to be the case. If we have not gotten back to you yet, under no circumstance does this mean you are rejected. If it has been over a week since our last reply, it would be a good idea to contact us with a reminder, otherwise, please be patient!

• If you have received a "Pending" notice, you will have one week to supply us with your revisions, or your reserve will be considered expired and that someone else is free to apply for the character.

• The typical wait for a reply on apps may be anywhere from a day to a little over a week. If any part of your application requires a pending, it may be another week after your reply to that before we can get to you. We process a high volume of apps every round, so please be patient.

• If you have not heard back on a pending for over a week after apps close, please send a PM directly to the mod account.

APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Name: Del
Personal DW:

elalmadelmar
Contact Info:
[email] neko.adela@gmail.com
[AIM] Nekosame
[Plurk] Oceanica
Other Characters Played: None!
Preferred Housing: N/A

Character Name: Haku (Feel free to slap a last name on him, he doesn't have one)
Character Series: Naruto
Character Age: 15
Background: Haku @ Narutopedia
Personality:
With as dramatic as Haku's genderbending -- and the apparently very distinct dual personae that go with it -- is, it might seem counterintuitive to say that it really isn't his primary personality trait. A fun diversion, and some insight into the way he views himself, yes, but central to the core of Haku is his reliance on others and his loyalty to those he considers his.

Haku's time living in the street taught him one very important thing -- alone, on his own, he was nothing. He was a patricide, a street child, and the future he faced was filled with uncertainty and risk. He was small, young, and pretty, which left him very vulnerable, and he carried a gift he didn't understand, one that simultaneously granted him some ability to defend himself and put him at a great deal more risk, as any demonstration of a bloodline limit would lead to a repeat of the violence that killed his mother and forced him to kill his father. But when Zabuza took him in, Haku gained much more than a home. Suddenly, he had a direction, a purpose. His life meant something, because he was useful. Zabuza turned his bloodline limit from a curse into a blessing, turned his entire existence from a miserable joke into something that he could be proud of.

As a result of those early formative experiences, Haku defines his internal sense of worth very strongly by the worth he believes others find in him. Deep down, he himself actually does not believe in his own value as a person; so far as he's concerned, he only matters if someone finds a purpose for him. It's a harsh outlook, and one that leaves him very vulnerable; as seen in canon, when he believes he has failed Zabuza and is no longer a suitable tool, he simply gives up and asks Naruto to kill him. Why bother living when he's shown himself to be useless?

The flip side of that is his intense loyalty. In canon, it's reserved for Zabuza; in roleplaying, of course, that may well change, although he'll need time to open up to someone enough to attach that loyalty to them. In short, living for someone else's use means being completely trustworthy to them, so that he is the most valuable. Who trusts a tool that breaks easily or that turns in their hand? once someone has shown him that they need him, he'll do anything they ask, and it would take some massive act of treachery or evil on that person's part to shake Haku's devotion, once offered.

And so far as his genderbending is concerned, it's easy to look at Haku the quietly competent shinobi and Haku the sweet and innocent young... girl? and see someone who is fundamentally divided, perhaps even to the point of mental disorder. It's not hard to see where someone would get such a notion; the differences between his two distinct personae are so marked that it requires someone with keen observation or better-than-normal senses to even see that Haku-the-girl and Haku-the-ninja are in fact the same person. But while neither persona is false by any means, they are only a superficial difference; the same fundamental person lies beneath the different mannerisms and appearance.

Haku the sweet and innocent, his "girl" appearance, inhabits a hazy place in his mind that is really neither a lie nor completely a truth. When he's in this persona, which occupies most of his recreational time, he carefully hides any trace that he is a shinobi, or that he's male, although he doesn't have an enormous investment in being mistaken for a girl -- ie, he won't make up elaborate lies to protect his "secret" or anything like that, although he more carefully conceals his ninja nature. For him, gender is not an identity issue, it's just something fun to play with. He presents those facets of his personality that are the most civilian in nature, and enjoys being treated like nothing more than a pretty young thing. If you meet this Haku on the street, you'll see nothing more than a cute schoolgirl -- albeit one who is very, very aware of the world around "her." Shinobi alertness doesn't go away just like that.

In truth, the feminine persona is Haku's way of living out what he would have liked to be like if he hadn't become a shinobi. Robbed of his innocence at a very young age by the murder of his parents, he enjoys his time in the civilian role as a way of ducking out of the hard life of violence and death that has plagued him ever since. Not that he doesn't enjoy being a shinobi, but it's intense, and sometimes, it's a relief to slip away from it. And besides, people's reactions when they learn that he's not at all what he seems tend to be hilarious.

Because Haku, for all his sweet nature and tough upbringing, does have a strong mischievous streak. It may well be nourished, in fact, by his appearance and the assumptions people tend to make about him, but he loves tweaking perception, and sometimes, it can be very hard to tell whether his feminine persona is completely naive or is in fact cheerfully trolling everyone. (Hint: probably trolling.) When Haku and Naruto met in the woods, for instance, Haku allowed Naruto to spend the entire conversation addressing him in blushingly feminine terms as they engaged in a deep, philosophical conversation, and then casually tossed the revelation of his actual sex over his shoulder with a laugh, leaving Naruto to freak out and possibly question his sexuality. It's funny like that. In terms of Haku's actual gender identification, he does refer to himself as a boy, but appears to have almost no investment in that identity, making him most likely at least a little genderqueer. He simply doesn't care what people take him as, except for the question of how much amusement he can get out of the whole matter. Manly pride? Not this kid!

Abilities:
Haku possesses the abilities common to most ninja in the Naruto world: by controlling the chakra, natural energy of the body, he can make himself stronger and faster than normal, can walk on water, up the sides of walls or trees, as well as stand upside-down (on ceilings, the bottom side of tree branches, etc.) and can stand on ice or other slippery surfaces without sliding. He can move briefly at speeds so fast that he appears to flicker from place to place, and by controlling his chakra through the use of various hand seals, he can shape the chakra into genjutsu (illusory techniques, such as creating a duplicate of himself for limited tasks or to act as a decoy) and ninjutsu (ninja combative techniques, such as creating a wave of water or blast of air to direct at his enemies.) Additionally, he is talented in the use of many ninja weapons, with a preference for senbon (long metal needles that can be thrown or used for stabbing.)

In addition, he possesses what's called a kekkei genkai, or bloodline limit: in this case, the combination of the Water and Wind elements to create Ice. With his Ice Release, Haku can use Ice, as well as the elements that make it up, as a combative weapon, with certain specific applications he prefers, although he can shape ice in other ways as well to fit the immediate need.
- He can create senbon out of ice, meaning he has an essentially limitless supply, and that they will naturally melt after use.
- He can form large "mirrors" of ice and move between them, almost a form of teleportation; one of his favorite techniques is to surround an enemy with them and dart between them, attacking as he goes, all too quick to be followed or counterattacked. These mirrors are almost indestructible -- normal fire cannot melt them. Haku's chakra power must be completely overwhelmed to break or melt the mirrors, or he must voluntarily release them.
- As well as attacking, his ice can be used for defense by forming a shield; like the mirrors, the shield is virtually unbreakable.

Sample Entry:
My test run!

Additional roleplay sample:
This thread in Gilgamesh's testrun post, to get the more fight-y side of Haku's personality.

Welcome to 1646 Albright Lane, Haju O'Brien! Please reply here with your character journal. Once you've done that, complete the following:

• Join

mayfield_rpg,

mayfield_ooc,

mayfield_logs, and optionally

junefield
• Add your info to your canon post
• Add your info to your household! Use the street list to find your house.
• Make sure to tag your first post with the !intro tag, as well as your character's personal tag: c: haku

Go ahead and introduce yourself in the main comm and tell people where your character will be living!

The game will be open for new entries on January 16th

Yay! Thank you, I'll get right on it!

Applications

Haku | Naruto | Reserved

Haku | Naruto | Reserved

ACCEPTED

Re: ACCEPTED