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

Background: "I don't know what I'm writing, what I'm doing. I'm not even writing, I'm thinking these words, stray thoughts scribbling out to you. I don't know what this is. I don't know. It's a life story, by me, age eighteen... the important parts anyway."

To elaborate, Lost at Sea's narrative is a bit odd. It takes place from Raleigh's point of view, but she elaborates in a very strange way. It's as if she's having a conversation with the reader rather than telling story, and she's simply trying to come up with the details off her own head. Events are told out of sync, and Raleigh has a way of explaining things in the vaguest way possible. Regardless, she does have a background, albeit very vague.

Raleigh's story does not begin with her being born, or with her parents. According to her, she was born a very normal child. She does not talk much about her parents, or even mention their names for that matter. They divorced when Raleigh was in middle school. Her mother is a woman who worries about her image, and although Raleigh lives with her she has no idea what she does for a living. After the divorce, her mother went on to find a very successful job and became very financially successful. The only time she mentions her father is during a flashback. Raleigh describes him as an "emotional hobo", and that he was a better father than he was a husband.

The story begins, supposedly, with her best friend. Her name was Claire, and they met during the third grade. Raleigh doesn't remember how they became friends. Claire was everything Raleigh wasn't. She was confident, faster and stronger, a leader. They would always play outside with their "boy activities". Claire would always leave, and Raleigh would always follow. They were both from two different worlds, but Claire never resented Raleigh. She accepted her. And Raleigh was always willing to tag along.

Things were weird for Raleigh back then. Around the same time, the people at the school took her out of class and told her that she was gifted. They put her in the class with other kids, ones that the teachers told her were put there in order to make her feel better. They met once a week, and she states that it was probably her favorite class. It really put her in a weird frame of mind. She thought she was special, and it took her a long time to see how much it "totally fucked her up."

Her childhood was simple. By middle school, however, things started to fall apart. In grade six, Raleigh was put into another gifted class. However, this class was much larger. And there were real gifted kids this time, no fake ones. Raleigh wasn't special any more. What could have been interpreted as a new way to interact, a way to relate to others, Raleigh saw something else. She was resentful. Age eleven and she was completely disillusioned.

Grade eight came. The marriage between her parents was falling apart, and worse of all Claire had to move away. Raleigh has never truly forgotten about her former best friend. While she has a terrible memory, she somehow manages to remember just how long it has been since she's last seen Claire.

The marriage was over by the following summer. Her father moved to California. Her mother was at an impasse. During the summer before high school, Raleigh's mother took her on a trip to Mondestro, California, to stay at her Aunt's. Once they came back, things began to pick up. Her mother found a new job and financial success. She paid for a new house, a new Mac, everything. More importantly, it put Raleigh in Sturton Academy, a private school.

Raleigh found that she had broken from her old life almost overnight. The friends she had at the time were cut off. Raleigh stopped talking to them, and soon she fell out of contact. Raleigh went through Sturton Academy, quiet, unnoticed, with few friends. That was until her eleventh grade English teacher told her to visit a writing forum on the internet.

Everything changed. And that's when she met Stillman.

Raleigh never divulges much about Stillman. She says that he's a couple years older, in university and American. She met him from that very same forum she was told to use. They started to talk, both on the internet and on the phone. They talked about everything, and Raleigh didn't have to worry about messing up. Raleigh felt safe. They were talking for over a year before it happened. Raleigh was graduating, and Stillman had invited her to stay over with him in California. And Raleigh, trusting him fully, agreed.

So Raleigh lied to her mother and told her she was going to see her father. She bought a ticket. Raleigh thought her time there would be perfect.

And it was. It was perfect. Everything was perfect. From the moment she got there to the Up until when she had to leave, where Stillman dropped her off at the train station but couldn't stay because he had to work. Until she found a letter in the bag of her suitcase, addressed to her from Stillman. As she found it, Raleigh found herself crying, sobbing so hard that she completely forgot about her train. That letter threw her out to sea without a life preserver.

Applications

Raleigh / Lost at Sea / Not Reserved