TBC: OOC Discussion

[Solar]

Presenting an Inception

“You remind me of someone... a man I met in a half-remembered dream. He was possessed of some...radical notions.”


and a The Dark Knight

“A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed, or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely.”

“Which is?”

“A legend, Mr. Wayne.”

Roleplay

Prologue
[In the beginning]
[There was an idea]

Gotham and Batman. A city and its protector. A symbiotic relationship.

Neither can live without the other anymore

The Batman is dead.

Long ago, an idea besieged a man. It infected him, thrumming through his mind, body, and spirit. It was a dark hope. It was to incarnate another idea, an interpretation of an age old story; justice. It was to be vengeance, but not a selfish one (if such a thing exists). To make amends for a failure and to ensure his fate never befell any other sentient being if such was in his power. To become something more than a man, to transcend chains and bonds humans set upon themselves. His life thus far had been leading to one sentence, one simple sentence for all of it to begin. It was not chance that the beast crashed through the window that night, no.

“Yes father, I shall become a bat”

He conquered every weakness he had. He wrestled with any doubts left, he killed any insecurity in the dark corners of his mind. He went through death, tasted it, just so he could no longer fear it. Bruce Wayne was a man, but the Batman wouldn’t be, could not be just a man. And eventually, as all men, he had to die. But Batman?

[Solar]

The Inc. Period

You fight the idea of crime with the idea of Batman. The battle for Gotham’s spirits does not occur in the odd street or alley, but in the hearts and minds of those who undertake the challenge of making it home. With the advent of Batman Inc., the very idea of Batman spread from one city to another like wildfire ushering an age where innocent men and women and children could sleep a little easier and the criminals lie waking, fearing the moment their eyes closed, he would be there. If the Batman never existed, if he was only a ghost, a monster, a shade, a ghoul, a terror, a legend, a story then they would have to invent him.

[Solar]

The Plot

But not all happiness nor satisfaction can last, big or small. And so came to be Batman RIP.

Not soon after these events, Bane led and planned a mass-breakout of Arkham, directing many of Batman's rogue gallery to personally attack him. Weakened by the past few weeks of his life, Bane attacked Batman at his lowest point, his last battle cultivating in both his and his enemy's death. Chaos is on the verge of breaking out, only rumors and the instillation of a legend keeping the scum of Gotham from realizing the truth.

But while the Batfamily argue over the successor, whether Batman needs a successor, the government puts their plans into action. They have long monitored the activity of Batman and realize how valuable Gotham and Batman Incorporated is. In the event Batman should decease, he had planned a back-up (of course he knew the men in black were monitoring him, he's, or rather was, Batman). He had picked the man most likely for his successor and hidden away his plans among his oldest legal son, Dick Grayson. Now, a leading team of extractors, the only known to have successfully executed Inception must venture into the subject's mind to give him an idea, one very simple idea that changes everything, an idea that once possessed Wayne.

The Bat is dead. Long Live The Bat.

Rules and Regulations

1) Totalitarian as this sounds, I am the creator and manager of this Roleplay. You will adhere to me and my rules or you will not be a part of this.

2) I can accept and deny any templates. If I reject yours, please trust my judgment and do not take it personally. I do not require explaining myself to anyone.

3) Regular KHI RP rules apply. Please refer to this thread, and this one.

4) Respect me and your fellow Roleplayers. No disrespect or bickering please. Discourse, debate, discussion, critique, and alliteration are all allowed.

5) This includes humour.

6) lol

7) But on that note, your english and writing must be legible.

8) Post on a timely manner, explain absences, and at least conjure up enough effort to provide an excuse if need be. Also, posts must be minimum of two paragraphs and a maximum of seven.

9) Post 'Long Live The Bat' on top of a complete template to indicate you've read these rules.

10) Romance is allowed, even encouraged so as long as you do not become too explicit. We don't need you to demonstrate your lemon writing skills, subtlety is always the key.

11) On that note, I should warn this will be a mature roleplay. Dark discussions on sanity, identity, violence, and all the like will be imminent and you should post accordingly to that

12) Please have a minimum grasp of Batman and Inception, preferably having watched at least Inception. If you need help, please feel free to consult me or our Roleplay's members. Here is a handy Glossary of Terms

13) God-modding and power-playing are mostly banned but this is also an Inception Roleplay. If you need to conjure environments and characters to suit your back-story, so be it and minor-power playing is allowed. I.e if someone says they're going to run in their post, in your following post you can have them running. Again, ask permission of the character's creator if you're unsure of something.

14) Adhere to my rules or don't join. But I'm not an inflexible prick so please feel free to talk about any of these aforementioned points

15) Have fun. Don't be intimidated by me, these rules, anyone.

16) Remind me if I forgot something.


Template Skeleton

Name(s)/Alias(es)/Title(s): What do people call you? What do you want them to call you? Fake names? Real name? They call you 'The Night' too? Put it here.

Age: not how old you look like or feel like but how many earth years have you lived for on this planet? No aliens or immortals allowed. Including you, Big Blue Boy Scout

Gender: self-explanatory and not be bigoted, but stick to your anatomy and either go with male or female

Appearance: What do you look like? Apparel? Features? Body structure? A picture is acceptable but most be followed by at least a paragraph of description. Two or more if you don't have one.

Abilities and Skills: Not those of within the field of extraction (though they might relate to it). To put simply, what can you do that's any sort of unique and/or what you are good at.

Role: what do you do, what can you do, and what do you excel at within Extraction? You can make up a role if need be. Again, look at the glossary of terms.

Personality: two paragraph minimum but I daresay we'll find out so you can be relaxed here if need be.

Biography: you can choose where to start or how much you put but again, two paragraph minimum

Example post: please put this in a spoiler box and once again, a two paragraph minimum and a four paragraph maximum.

Other: anything that doesn't really belong here (themes, miscellaneous facts, etc)

The Team

Cameron Scotts (Leader)
Daniel Deslions (Theosurgen)
Jason Clarke (Engineer)
Daniel Finch(Supervisor)
Charlotte Audrey (Forger)
Ray Sutton (Extractor)
Harlow Fallen (Architect)
Dominic Volokov (Doctor)
Deacon and Bishop (Point Men)
Nigel Hawkes (Puppeteer)

[Ordeith]

From me, be expecting either an Analyst-type character (as described in the first thread), or a wily Forger.
Ohoho, if templates are submitted from even half of the people who've shown interest, this will still be grand.

[Relix]

I have an intriguing character in mind that I'll put up in the next few days. Hope you'll like. This is definitely something I'll be interested in. Philosophy and psychology at its best.

[Orion]

Expect me to have made up an awesome original role by the time I return :3

[Solar]

I'm so hyped up for this, I know you guys can totally deliver :3

The actual RP will be up a day or two after everyone's been chosen.

[Hidden]

to The Batman: I seem to be having trouble sending you a PM, and can't at all send a Visitor Message. Any idea why this is the case?

[Solar]

VMs: contacts only, feel free to add me

PM: works just fine to my knowledge, I got yours and sent you one in reply

[Hidden]

Long Live the Bat

Name: Cameron Scotts

Age: 39

Gender: Male

Appearance: At 5’10” and 160 pounds, Cameron Scotts does not cut an imposing figure, a fact he has found useful in infiltrating the subconscious minds of his targets. His hair, auburn in color, is cut fairly close to his head, and he keeps a trim goatee that has begun graying over the last year.

His attire in the dream world of course depends on the circumstances of the dream and dreamer, but in the waking world he'll often wear loose fitting dress shirts and trousers, in which he's most comfortable. He had his left ear pierced a lifetime ago in a rebellious fit of teenage protest, but he rarely wears any ornamentation there now; only occasionally will he put in a small gold or silver stud that keeps the piercing open.

Abilities and Skills: During his time in the Army, Cameron Scotts was trained as a medic, and can practice field medicine under high pressure situations, a skill he has found invaluable at many points in his career. He is also an eloquent speaker, having studied Oratory at Harvard University and practiced in politics a few years of his life.

Role: Inception team leader. He puts together the team, arranges payment and conditions of success, and organizes strategy. In the field, he has final word on the continuation or termination of a mission.

Cameron Scotts has extensive field experience in extraction and inception. He was a member of the first team to successfully complete an inception, as well as at least three prior failed attempts, all classified.

Personality: Inception and extraction agents cover a wide range of psychological profiles, in part because of the necessary versatility of their skills. Of those who work most deeply in the field, however, almost all show a marked tendency towards introversion and even self-willed isolation, perhaps as a defense mechanism to preserve their own ego in the radically self-effacing environment of the subject’s unconsciousness. Thus, it was not marked as out of the ordinary that Cameron Scotts, once a vocal and sociable politician, became reserved and secretive upon entering into his new life as a trespasser in other people’s minds.

There is another psychological marker, however, that is more peculiar to his case. At one point in his life, Cameron Scotts was a pacifist. Though he has been trained and practiced extensively in destroying the subconscious projections in the minds of hostile subjects, he has never killed another human being. Because of a personal tragedy, what was once a point of pride for Cameron Scotts has become a source of shame. He entered into the dream-sharing program hoping in part to overcome what he saw as a weakness in himself, but privately he still believes that he is incapable of taking a life.

Biography: At the age of 18, Cameron Scotts was drafted for the war. This despite the fact that, at 5’9” and 130 pounds, he barely passed the physical examination. This despite the fact that he had been accepted only a month earlier to Macalester College on scholarship. This despite the fact that he was a pacifist.

But he passed examination; the government had ended undergraduate deferments the year before; and he was only a part-time pacifist, the intellectual and abstract kind, who didn’t qualify for Conscientious Objector status. So, on August 11, at the age of 18 years, six months and two days, Cameron Scotts went to war. He served as a medic and by all accounts comported himself well. He even got a medal for uncommon valor, for a rainy night on the banks of a cloud-covered river where he had crawled out under artillery fire to administer first aid to a soldier whose left foot had been blown out from under him by a rebounding shell. The soldier survived, and three years later Cameron Scotts returned home from the war, a changed man.

What a lifetime of influence from his neo-liberal parents and his own vague political idealism could not accomplish, three years at war did. He was now a staunch and outspoken pacifist, pushing for draft reform and stronger gun control laws in his own country. In three years at war, he had never fired a gun at another human being—in truth, the prospect still terrified, sickened him. He had seen and done enough in the war never to want to see another gunshot wound in his life. He went back to Macalester College; he pursued graduate studies at Harvard University; he married and went into politics on a strict gun control platform, raising a good deal of support and money along the way. His political campaign was marred only by the report of one investigative journalist, who discovered that, despite his famously strong stance against concealed firearms, Cameron Scotts himself still owned and often carried his .45 caliber pistol, standard Army issue—“as memorabilia” Scotts explained. His critics jeered.

However, two months after that report came out, tragedy struck. Scotts was out at night with his five year old daughter, Maurice, shortly after a political rally, when a figure came suddenly and unsteadily up to them. His dark eyes were fixed on Cameron, but the revolver in his hand was pointed at Maurice. “You Cameron Scotts?” the man asked simply. Cameron found he couldn’t respond. By instinct, his hand fell to the small of his back where his .45 pistol lay, but the moment he even touched the hilt he was hit by a wave of nausea and blind panic, choking off will and thought. But the man had seen Cameron’s hand fall behind his back, and he, without hesitating, pulled the trigger as it was aimed at Maurice’s tiny chest and then pointed the gun at Cameron as he backed away. The shot hit Cameron in his right shoulder as the man turned and fled, and he fell down beside his daughter and promptly lost consciousness.

Two years passed as Cameron’s life fell apart around him. His wife left him, unwilling or unable to forgive him for the death of their daughter. He had left any political aspirations far behind, and was surviving now on his army stipend and donations he had received during his brief but bright run for office. According to most everyone, including Scotts himself, Cameron Scotts was a dead issue.

And yet, somewhere from on high, a military official found and contacted this former soldier turned political pacifist. It seemed they had a radical new technology, ‘dream-sharing’, that allowed people to enter into each other’s dreams. The military was using it as a training program, allowing soldiers to shoot, stab and strangle each other and then wake up; to hone their killing instinct safely, without consequences. They only needed willing volunteers to test it. Scotts leapt at the opportunity with ferocity.

Four years later, after the military had scrapped the project due to prohibitive costs and psychological side effects exhibited by a number of their test subjects, Cameron Scotts entered the private sector. Dream-sharing technology had spread beyond the military into realms of corporate espionage. New ‘extraction’ teams were being formed, and people with Scotts’ unique skill set were in high demand. Besides that, it was the only work he found himself fit for anymore, and so Cameron Scotts quit the waking world for the dream.

^There are obviously some issues with the sample post, such as Scotts revealing the dream world to the subject (codename: Terry) and possible power-playing with that character (I'm unclear however on whether Terry will be player-controlled or not at this point). But it's a sample.

Also, I apologize for the long biography, covering almost one half of my character's life--I thought it relevant to his character development, but perhaps I over-extended.

[Solar]

Not long at all Hidden. Everything seems tip-top, nice in order. Accepted.

[Solar]

I should add:

CANON CHARACTERS FROM THE BATMAN UNIVERSE, THOUGH NOT THE INCEPTION ONE, ARE FINE.


Just no one too major or anything that might put a damper on our fun.

[Prophet]

Long Live the Bat

Here you go. Can be altered as necessary, I just wanted to get it up.

Name: Reverend

Real Name: Daniel Deslions

Age: 47

Gender: Male

Appearance: If the world is a dream, then Reverend is a nightmare. He has a bizarre figure, standing at 6’4” with an intense posture that makes even the laziest of slackers straighten unconsciously. He is very slim, his body lying somewhere inbetween lean and emaciated. His tightfitting, often custom-taylored black clothes only accentuate this fact. His hands are large and spindly, like pale spiders the size of dinner plates, with fingers that look two long to be natural. He holds his head high, with authority and purpose. His gray eyes are constantly focused with intensity, shining like polished silver. His skin is pale, and his sharp features make it seem like his face was carved out of an ancient mountain.

He is most often clad in simply dress clothes; a set of dark pants and a button-up shirt. Occasionally, he will wear his preacher robes, complete with a large brimmed, ebony black preacher’s hat. It makes for an intense look, one which often makes people swallow nervously before forcing themselves to be busy with something else.

Reverend’s voice is perhaps what attracts the most attention. It is gravely, yet somehow appealing. Deep, like rocks crumbling at the bottom of an ocean trench, it manages to permeate the very soul of whoever he is addressing. It is not comforting. It is not wise. Yet, it is somehow enthralling and dangerously pleasant.

Abilities and Skills: Reverend, while somewhat psychologically intimidating, does not have much physical presence. His body is practically skeletal in its stature. However, his defense lies in his incredibly accurate observations and his equally dangerous speaking ability.

Reverend can read people like books. He can observe a person and discern their motives, goals, current mood, and many other crucial subtleties. He can gleam what people need and why they do what they do. He will often speak openly of their motivations, offering a grave assessment of their actions before giving them to the solution.

Role: Theosurgeon. Reverend has been hired because of his expertise in a specific, unique area of dream invasion. Reverend engineers religious experiences. Hired for a variety of noble and nefarious purposes, Reverend will remain on the primary level of the dream and influence the deeper levels from there. He actually influences the projections of the subconscious, which in turn, has surreal and bizarre effects on the deeper levels. Reverend calls this theosurgeory, for he literally inserts traces of thought into the deeper levels of the dream. It helps the Subject break from previously established patterns in light of a profound, surreal experiences. For this specific project, he has been hired to try and help simulate the pseudo-religious experience needed commit the subject to the ideal.

Personality: Some describe Reverend as a sociopath. Others, as a sage. He himself would prefer intellectual. Reverend is obsessively curious. He cannot stand not understanding the workings of a human mind. He likes to contain this obsession behind monotonous critique and a steely gaze, but in reality, he loves to think he is enlightened above all others in the room. He enjoys dissecting a person’s morals and motives, and like a biologists cutting into a frog, he pries open the people around him. However, his motives aren’t clear. For every poor soul he manipulates and crushes, he builds up another and offers them a solution. Judgment with one hand, wisdom with the other.

Reverend views God as a product of the mind, and in his logic, since the brain is responsible for the perception of reality, God is as real as anything around us. In the dreamspace, God is as real as the mind believes him to be. Reverend views his work as an extension of this; providing a tangible and meaningful affect of God on a person. After all, shouldn’t we all be blessed to have such a cosmic interaction? Somewhere in between a mad scientist and an agent of an incorporeal God, Reverend’s work is motivated out of some sort of sick curiosity rather than financial incentive.

Biography:

Sample Post

Other- This is just a way to think about Reverend's role. He is like a special effects director; remaining in the primary level and having affect on the deeper levels. He will interact with the projections and influence them, much like a virus can affect white-blood-cells. This in turn will have affects on the Subject in the deeper level. Shades will begin to appear in these deeper levels; unconscious projections of the Subject as a result of Reverend's manipulation. This external, subtle influence, helps separate the Subject from normal thinking and makes emotional choices stronger. Simulates a higher calling. It will work in tandem with the rest of the team's efforts.

His totem is the crucifix he wears around his neck. The weight of the silver and the intricate positioning of Jesus on the cross is unique from Reverend's view.

[Solar]

That template was nothing short of excellent. Wow. Really appropriate for this Roleplay, definitely useful.

Didn't detect anything off or wrong or something like that. You're in.

[Orion]

Name/Alias:

Jason Clarke/Archimedes

Age:

36 Years

Gender:

Male

Appearance:

A figure of medium height and build, Jason's 6'2", skinny-but-athletic body is hardly intimidating, nor very well performing. His physique is kept as it is to keep Jason in good health, nothing more - running a marathon is still an impossibility for him. What he lacks in physical strength and endurance, he makes up for in physical and psychological dexterity and agility.
His head is crowned with a short, dense and spiky mess of dark red hair, which frames low, narrow forehead. Sitting below is an angular brow, between which rest a hawk-like nose, the tip curved slightly downward. Either side of Jason's thin nasal bridge rest his two-toned eyes - golden brown inner iris, dark hazel outer - often darting about, absorbing every visual detail of wherever Jason finds himself. The structure of Jason's entire face is extremely angular, filled with unusually sharp lines and edges, his general appearance bordering on gaunt.
His typical garmentation consists of lightly patterned long-sleeve business shirt with sleeves rolled up; dark blue denim jeans; grey, heavy-soled shoes; and a black jacket of dense fabric, its lowest point brushing his thighs.

Abilities and Skills:

Spatial memory and awareness - While Jason's typical memories can rather loosely follow reality or be easily forgotten, his ability to recall and orient himself in any given location is phenomenal, making him virtually unable to become lost in a location he has passed through before. Similarly, his grasp of an incomplete area is typically enough for him to greatly extrapolate further details from it, and - provided line of sight or some other method of surveillance - Jason can follow with ease the random movements of a few dozen subjects in a familiar environment. A final facet of this skill is his acute ability to comprehend intricate physical systems and properly construct or take them apart, the most common example of which would be small mechanical devices.

Role - Engineer:

The role of the Engineer in the dream is to provide their team with weapons and equipment not originally planted by the Architect, or in situations where pre-placed equipment is out of reach. Engineers are unable to directly alter the landscape or architecture of the dream, though are able to manifest objects in theoretically any area, though to do so in open areas - be they seen or unseen doing so - is very likely to have the Engineer quickly noticed by the dreamer's subconscious projections.
A remedy to this is to summon items in concealed locations, out of site: be they in a cupboard, a trash can on the street, or other places. Because some dreamscapes can be relatively devoid of convenient locations, Engineers typically carry on them some kind of sealed container to summon items into. In the case of Jason, this container is a metallic briefcase of a utilitarian, futuristic appearance - a result of the briefcase's capabilities to expand to almost double its standard volume to accommodate somewhat larger objects.

Personality:

Jason is a man almost constantly caught up in his own works of imagination, design and creation, and slightly less regularly immersed in delusions of grandeur. His real- and dream-world occupations reflect this, and he takes a paradoxical stance on any work he produces: A quest for perfection in design coupled with definite deadlines typically leads to Jason considering many of his final products to be of poor quality, although at the same time he will still consider it better than the work of others. When working with others in closely-related or identical roles, he becomes fiercely competitive, to the extent that he will attempt to sabotage the work of others, provided it does not detract from his own work. This produces a double-edged sword that, for the most part, is very helpful: When creating something in the real- or dream-worlds, he will work to make it superior to anything else present. Conversely, he is virtually unable to work alongside other engineers, and is more likely to harm them or their work than cooperate with them.

When working with others of different disciplines, Jason is beyond amicable. He understands perfectly well that the best objective-oriented group is a multidisciplinary one, and greatly respects any person skilled in their respective field. To improve the cohesion of the group, he tries - on a mostly artificial, though sometimes genuine level - to bond with the members of the team, to gauge their strengths and weaknesses and to estimate possible tools they might require. His attempts to inspire heroic efforts in others can often lead to conflict within a group, as others perceive Jason as demeaning their skills and work.

Biography:

Jason's family history, childhood and adolescence are sedate and relatively un-noteworthy, only in his very late teens do significant events in his life begin to unfold: Jason's grasp of mechanical and spatial systems was noted by a variety of research and development groups - government, corporation and military. Many groups - vying for his prowess in their endeavours - essentially funded Jason through an accelerated, master's double-degree in mechanical and electronic engineering. In the end, it was the company based most strongly in his own city that would come to possess his great skills: Wayne Enterprises, research and development.

Jason's complex work escalated quickly as his value to Wayne Enterprises grew, ultimately requiring more creativity and time than Jason truly possessed. Driven to maintain his position and continue his own quest of creating technological perfection, Jason turned to a still-emerging field of experimental psychology. Jason is one of a new generations of artists, designers and thinkers utilising their dreams and subconscious to further his work. Every few days, Jason sedates himself and enters into a heightened, lucid dream state akin to that brought about in the processes of extraction and inception. Within, Jason has days to consider and plan his work and even simulate its properties and functions, massively boosting his productivity and the quality of his work. Unbeknownst to him, much of his work contributed to the technology that would aid and in some cases facilitate Batman Inc, and it was because of this link to Bruce Wayne's work and his own experience in the dream world that Jason became entangled in the events surrounding Bruce's death.

Other:

Wears a modified mechanical clock ring that measures time as it is in reality or the dream level above the current one. In addition to this, it functions as his totem - a certain configuration of hours, minutes and seconds, viewed from a particular position, indicates whether Jason is in reality, a dream of his own, or someone else's dream.