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: Ena
Personal Journal:

ena
Contact Info: AIM: luthienabler / Plurk: enabeans
Other Characters Played: Cain Knightlord, Alphonse Elric
Preferred Housing: 339 Brady Lane (have got permission from housemates)

Character Name: Nabuca
Character Series: Now and Then, Here and There
Character Age: 14
Background: Here
Personality: So much of Nabuca's personality has been dictated and shaped by his 'conscription' into the Hellywood soldiers. He has forced himself to shut off his emotions and much of his morals in order to survive - he follows orders, that's all he does, and he does it exceptionally well. A casual observer might think that he's almost content with his life as a soldier; he never complains, rarely hesitates before giving or carrying out a harsh order, and keeps order well in the small unit that he oversees. However, there is far more under the surface than he allows others to see easily. The driving force behind all his actions is the naive belief in the promises that he will get to go back home to his village once the war is won, promises that all evidence says are complete lies. It's a desperate belief that he feels he has to cling to, or else he has no reason to carry on and, worse, he has no justification for the things he's done.

Near the end of the series, after being confronted by Shu as he's trying to kill a group of unarmed children, he loses his composure and starts to rant about the things he's done, with an almost childish need to be told he has done the right thing and will get to go home. This belief in the lies of King Hamdo is indicative of his stunted emotional growth - he's been thrown into a horror story from a young age, and effectively shut off his emotional development in order to survive. Having nobody to rely on, and having to commit atrocious acts just in order to not be executed himself, this promise of a return to what he had once is something he keeps very dear to his chest. It's only through clinging to this promise that he's able to carry on, and even inspire other members of his fighting unit (most notably Boo) to do the same.

Even before the climax of the story in Zari-Bars, there are a few moments in the story that show how much the war is effecting Nabuca under the facade of a perfect soldier. When he is explaining to Shu that escape is impossible and he should just get used to his life serving Hellywood, he tells how most of people of his village attempted to desert. He, along with other recruits, were given the choice to assist in killing them for this crime of desertion, or join them in getting shot. Feeling he had no choice, he helped to execute people from his home. This was also most likely the time when he retreated into the defensive mechanism of obedience, and when he properly believed the only way to get back home alive was to help King Hamdo win the war. Again, the more human side to him that shows his pain and regret comes when the soldiers are sent into a new village in order to capture more recruits for the war effort, he describes the mission to Shu as something 'worse than killing', and sees himself in the screaming of a small child begging not to be taken away or hurt. However, once the children are 'conscripted', he firmly believes that they all have a duty to fight and help end the war in order to get home. He tells Shu that 'consent doesn't matter' and that he agrees with Tabool that people who refuse to fight shouldn't be allowed to drain the resources of water and food for those who do, and he is only giving him water so he doesn't collapse and become a burden later.

But perhaps the most telling of all is his relationship to Tabool, the last remaining member of his village to still be in the Hellywood army. He tells Shu that Tabool used to be smiling and happy, and there is real regret and grief in his voice as he does so, and it's obvious he still holds hope that the two of them can go home together. It shocks him visibly when Tabool laughs at the notion, showing that he has seen through the lie about leaving long ago and actually wants to be in the war, not even seeing the knife that eventually kills him.

Nabuca is quite a prideful character, who hates to be in anyone's debt. When Shu saves his life at the start, he is embarrassed and furious with himself at having been saved by an enemy. He snaps at the members of his unit when they bring it up, and tells off Shu for bringing it up as well. When Shu is trying to escape with Lala-Ru and Nabuca is the one to find him in the desert, he refuses to turn him in or run away with them (even though the offer is clearly tempting him until his superior's voice is heard calling him), stating that he's only allowing them to go free to clear his debt to Shu. Overall, Nabuca is still just a frightened child that has been taken from his home and damaged, hiding behind the front of an obedient and efficient soldier.

Abilities: Excellent fighter with a knife and hand-to-hand, as well as an accomplished shooter.

Sample Entry: [Phone: Filtered to Children]

[Nabuca doesn't often use the phone, he doesn't feel the need to engage in the idle chatter that most of the people here indulged in. It was like they didn't even realise they were fighting a war sometimes, like they could forget the battles waged just because people didn't always stay dead.

That wasn't a good thing in his opinion, death was a release and a rest well earned at the end of the fight. And this was a fight. Everyone here had become soldiers whether they wanted to be or not, consent was unimportant in the end, they were here now and everyone had a duty to fight or they'd never win.]

You need to stop hiding behind the adults for protection, you are all capable of fighting yourselves. The faster we win this war, the sooner we will be able to return home. If you think you are too weak to fight, arm yourself with that thought.

Welcome to 339 Brady Lane, Nabuca Hatch! 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: nabuca

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

Here!

Applications

Nabuca | Now and Then, Here and There | Reserved

ACCEPTED

Re: ACCEPTED