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: Chez
Personal Journal:

chez
Contact Info:

ochrona
Other Characters Played: Rupert Giles
Preferred Housing: N/A

Character Name: John H. Watson
Character Series: Sherlock BBC
Character Age: early or mid-thirties
Background: Canon's wiki link.

Personality:

At first glance – and especially when compared with his friend and colleague, Sherlock – John is a remarkably normal fellow. He is straightforward, practical, and generally amiable, well-versed in social niceties and content enough to observe them. He is polite when it's expected, sarcastic when it's reasonable, awkward when you or I would be. He's intelligent, but not unusually so. If you don't give him much thought, he doesn't stand out.

If you do, you'll find there's a bit more to him than that. John is recently returned from war in Afghanistan, where he served as an army doctor and was injured in battle. He had obvious difficulty returning to civilian life, not because he was haunted by the war, but because he missed its excitement. Life afterward seemed empty, and he grew anxious and distrustful of people, becoming ill to the point of developing psychosomatic pain. As soon as he's thrust into action again, all these things are forgotten-- John becomes brave, active and trusting with startling swiftness and ease. He races through the streets in pursuit of a serial killer on the word of a man he's known for only a day. He thrives in Sherlock's exciting, unsteady world.

You see, when John bonds to someone, he is fiercely loyal. Several characters comment on how ill-advised it is to trust Sherlock, or to dare count oneself as his friend; John is told repeatedly, once or twice by Sherlock himself, that the man has no friends. Still, he endures utterly ridiculous situations and slight verbal abuse with very little complaint, proving himself willing to follow the man into dangerous plans and trust orders he doesn't entirely understand the reasoning behind. He offsets Sherlock nicely, lacking the other man's staggering intellect but far surpassing him in empathy. He diligently points out when Sherlock's done something socially unacceptable, and does his best to steer him in the right direction.

Indeed, despite the detective's flaws, John frequently praises his brilliance when solving cases. This comes as a surprise to Sherlock; most are unnerved or angered by his powers of deduction, whereas John is quite open about it when he's been impressed. He runs a blog (which can actually be found here), reluctantly created at the prompting of his therapist but later maintained with growing enthusiasm, in which he records his adventures with Sherlock. Sherlock notes that he can tell when John is writing about him, because when he does, he writes a lot -- all in a relatively upfront manner, praising and condemning Sherlock's various behaviors without reluctance, despite the fact that Sherlock can read it (and does, and leaves pointed comments). Overall, he tells the story as truthfully as he can, and makes efforts to emphasize Sherlock's more human moments.

Still, there is a hardness to him that doesn't emerge often; John is quite capable in his own right, and not opposed to breaking rules when he thinks it necessary. A very early indication of this is when we see he still has his service pistol-- having been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by his therapist, and clearly noted to have trust issues, it's rather unlikely he would be allowed to possess the gun legally. When hit, he hits back hard, and cannot easily be pried away from a fight once riled -- indeed, if you touch the right subjects, his temper flares quite abruptly. And, of course, the most obvious and dramatic display of his harsher side is when John shoots a serial killer dead seconds before he murders Sherlock, John making the shot from a separate building and through two windows. He shows little remorse in the aftermath, though Sherlock notes that he waited until a friend was in immediate danger before taking violent action.

All in all, John Watson is a doctor, a soldier, a very tolerant flatmate, and a supremely loyal friend.

Abilities: Nothing inhuman or regain-worthy. He's a skilled doctor and surgeon, and a very good shot with a handgun.
Sample Entry: Here's a dear_mun entry!

Welcome to 915 Bilko Boulevard, John Watson! 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: john watson

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

Thank you!

Applications

John Watson | Sherlock BBC | reserve expired | 1/2

John Watson | Sherlock BBC | reserve expired | 2/2

ACCEPTED

no subject