[ january i ooc info/mingle post ]

[barrayarmods]

welcome to barrayar.
It's the dark of night when you come to in the foothills. Snow on the ground, chill winter wind whistling. A steep mountain range towers just ahead, its peaks illuminated by the light of two moons. Whatever you last remember, it isn't how you got here, and you feel oddly jetlagged, slightly queasy.

And you're not alone. There are seven other people close by, all looking equally lost and confused. But before any of you have a chance to figure out what's going on, the soldiers arrive.

Welcome to For Barrayar! We are so very excited to kick off this game with such a fantastic opening cast. The game will open on January 2nd, when the intro logs are posted. In the future there will be only one log per event, but just for the opening, there is a separate intro log for the Barrayaran and Cetagandan sides each.

For now, you can take a look at the opening status quo, which lists the weather conditions and status of resources on both sides for the month of January. There will be a game update like this one posted every month. And if you haven't had a chance to look at the culture pages and want some extra reading material, those go into more depth about the Barrayarans and the Cetagandans. (The Barrayaran page is almost done, I promise!)

Also, please note the tagging system -- all of your characters should already have tags (and if they're missing, please let me know), and there are also location tags for the guerilla camp and the Cetagandan base, so please use those for your logs too!

Feel free to introduce yourselves and meet your new fellow players and get hype for game launch. We're also happy to answer any questions you might have. Mingle away, my friends.

Please also check out these SWEET ATMOSPHERIC PLAYLISTS that Ammay made for the game:

Barrayar ⚔ Cetaganda ⚔ The Invasion

ETA: I realized there were certain parts of the game that weren't made clear in the game info and it got lost in the mad rush of me being sick and running through the first app round, SO! It was also partly because until reserves, I thought only people I knew would be joining and they'd been privy to some of the info as we were developing the game and asking for feedback. And then reserves happened a whole bunch of people I didn't know joined, which was AWESOME, and I only just realized today that this wasn't clear to everyone, so firstly, I apologize! And I will also be updating the FAQ & premise with this information. But here are some things that I don't think I made explicitly clear in the game info:

The metaplot has an endgame. This is not an indefinitely-running jamjar; this is more meant to be a short, plot-heavy game that will run less than a year (the goal is around 6-8 months, but, given how DWRP goes, may run a little longer).
Part of the metaplot is about finding a way home. This is the endgame. The WAR!! stuff is absolutely a large part of the plot -- it is one of the major driving forces behind it -- but the endgame you're working toward is a way home (although if your character decides they'd rather stick around after the end of the game, then they are absolutely free to do that). This is going to be discussed in more detail in the next plot post, but WORMHOLE BUSINESS is the root cause of all this, and both the Cetagandans and Barrayarans have their own agendas and incentives for getting to the bottom of it. How it is investigated, and how the solution comes about, will be very much influenced by IC action. The endgame is about going home, but the way that happens is halfway in your hands, folks. After the first month of the game, this will be a very present concern ICly.

This means there will be plenty else to do for characters who aren't inclined to fight, especially for those with more Science-y pursuits, HOWEVER! I don't want you to think this means there will be LESS options for wartime fightytimes than previously advertised. There will still be tons of opportunities for that. It just won't be the only kind of opportunity available to you. But the goal isn't to help either side win the war, because otherwise we'd be here for another ten years, and let's be real nobody wants that.

ANYWAY, I apologize again for the lack of clarity. I'm going to update all the relevant info pages, and if you have any questions, by all means, please ask!

Comments

QUESTIONS

[barrayarmods]

Let us know if you have any questions here!

INTRODUCING MYSELF

[vorrutyer]

HI HI HI, I'm Hope! I know...relatively few of you...so please be kind and generous and thread with me robustly and stroke my hair and tell me how much you love me and also give me things.

I'm bringing in Byerly Vorrutyer, who will be known to those of you who are canon-familiar. For those who aren't, Byerly is a shitty drunken Vor town clown who likes scoring cheap points off people with cheap quips. By has never done an honest day's work in his life. He has, however, done many days of DISHONEST work, because he is secretly an informant for Imperial Security who gets paid to pal around with the other Vor and then pass along their secrets to the Emperor's spymasters.

Because he's secretly a patriotic asshole, he'll be working hard for Barrayar's side, trying to get sensitive information that'll help them win the war and trying to sabotage all of y'all who ended up on Cetaganda's side. So if there's any sensitive information about your character you want passed along to the Barrayaran higher-ups, let me know and we can figure out some way to get By to find it out. Also, By considers himself a one-man honeypot and so will try to seduce anyone and everyone (especially if they have some info) and so let me know if you are/are not comfortable with your character being aggressively flirted with.

[pigsfeet]

hooope. i remember you from mom, i played ronan and edgar o/

i look forward to threading w you, i'm pretty sure our characters will hate each other

again

sigh

[dendarii]

why are you here, byerly.

Just why.

[mirrortide]

YOU EVER TRIED FLIRTING WITH THE ENEMY

[infailtration]

I am intrigued by these seduction attempts and will enjoy watching them.

[vorbratta]

shamelessly looking forward to sonia and by's CR before he scoots off to do his spy business

[pigsfeet]

hello! i'm pel & you can reach me @ wehwalt! i'm really excited for this game and can't wait to get my hands dirty

i'm bringing in daryl dixon from the walking dead. yes, it's the zombie show. if you're not familiar with his canon, daryl is a generally surly, uncooperative asshole who might maybe have had a feeling once, but no one was around to see it so it doesn't count. he likes hunting and being left alone and is definitely super tough and strong stop questioning him.

i'm looking forward to kind of pulling daryl out of his comfort zone in this game, so i hope to throw him against characters who will make him question his values and how he interacts with the world. barrayar is in his mind paradise compared to georgia (even though it's stupidly cold, jeez) and he will Judge anyone who thinks otherwise. he'll mostly be trying not to get close to anyone here because, let's be real, you're all going to die

all of you

what can you do 🤷

[vorbratta]

diya will have to wear 6" platform heels to get the correct angle of looking down her nose at daryl

[infailtration]

Hi everybody! I'm Ana, coming in with York here from Red vs Blue. He's with Cetaganda and usually very chill but doesn't have his AI/best friend/constant in-brain companion so everybody there should be prepared for his having an immediate if reserved breakdown upon arrival. It'll be fun!!!

York's a space marine without any of his superpowered gear, so while he's an excellent fighter and leader and still an asset, combined with the above this is going to be a rather epic adjustment period. Still, he makes friends easily and I look forward to threading with everyone possible.

I'm on plurk as cuddlebug and love new friends. :3

[mirrortide]

what up ceta friend how are you doing in this fleshy meat body

[dendarii]

SUP EVERYONE my name is Rho! I will be playing this little maniac and/or bad decision maker. For those of you not canon familiar, Miles Vorkosigan is a really short, delicate dude with issues who likes to get into trouble. A lot. Seriously, whatever trouble you were thinking about just now, double it. That's Miles. He will be slightly more subdued in game due to trying not to fuck up the timeline, but that won't last forever. He's on Barrayar's side, which is good because holy shit he could not stay on Cetaganda past a half second.

I also play Miles over at Mask or Menace along with Nico di Angelo. I'm also a big ECATS alumnus! Former games include CFUD, Sabra, Aather, Thusia, etc. Two years at MoM has gotten me well into the swing of prose tags though, so don't be shy. I enjoy both!

Everyone is more than welcome to friend me at katoptron! Looking forward to playing with everyone.

[infailtration]

WE'RE GONNA BE RPING AGAIN 8D

[mirrortide]

Hello! I'm Yak and you can find me on plurk at yakule.

I'm bringing you a shitty blue former space rock. She's now very squishy and has all the parts required for human living beyond the colour. She's still going to have a damn rock stuck in her back too.

Lapis is Ceta side, and is going to be irritating and grumpy and thrown way out of her comfort zone. She'll probably be extremely unpleasant to deal with, but you're welcome to try. She doesn't care about the war in the sense it's war, she cares about the war in the sense that she wants to be a space rock again and she's sure with all the tech that Ceta has SOMETHING can be done. Eventually.

Anyway, please get her some warm clothes and some shoes. She will need them.

[infailtration]

'Sup former space rock, have a former space marine. Also on Ceta and is basically the opposite of irritating and grumpy! He will get you warm things.

[vorbratta]

I GUESS I SHOULD MAYBE INTRO MYSELF ALSO???

HELLO EVERYONE IM UR MOD MADI you can hit me up with pretty much any concerns any time, your best bet is pping me at runawayballista or going thru the mod feedback post (please don't pp the mod plurk, we mostly just use that for announcements). please feel free to add me on plurk, i am so pleased to meet all of you!!

i know a lot of you already but there are folks i DON'T know and i am very excited to mod/play with you! i am playing the NPCs SONIA (this one), PIOTR (oldvor), and DIYA (eugengineer). and yes i do have an actual set of real people dice i use for (most of) the RNG in this game

don't make the mistake of thinking your head mod is cool

[mirrortide]

im ready to fight a geneticist

Ree | Vlad Tepes

[theyfear]

Hello! I'm Ree and I've brought in Vlad Tepes, former Prince of Transylvania. He's on the Cetaganda side. I thought he'd be an interesting fit for the game with all his war/battle experience, with the added bonus of depowering him after living so long with all those fancy abilities. If anyone wants to know more about him, doesn't mind canon spoilers, or wants to opt-out of anything, I've added those links below. He'll still have his bloodlust, thought it's more of a mental thing versus something his body actually needs.

Links: Information | Permissions

I can be found on plurk at barebone or on discord at commontypes#9719.



Totally unnecessary costume porn.

[infailtration]

eeeeee hi Ree! we're on the same side!

[sibearian]

hi i'm jabbers u can add me on jabbers i like robots and sometimes video games

zarya here is a giant 6ft 5in woman from russia and she has big muscles. she hails from the popular anime "overwatch" and tfw you go from fighting one war to another

[mirrortide]

what the fuck why does barraryar get a quartz

[startpoint]

hi everyone! I'm Jen and I'm bringing in Agent Carolina from the series Red vs Blue. She's just your average extremely badass space soldier who is used to having an asshole AI riding around in her head. She's on the barrayaran side of things which she's good with because siding with the scrappy underdogs in a planetary invasion is... pretty much canon for her. She's coming from the time between the end of season 12 and the start of season 13 of the show and is honestly in a pretty good place mentally speaking. I'm sure realizing that she's got dead friends on planet with her will fix that tho



You can add me on plurk at blackskymetro or on discord at blackskymetrp#3175

[infailtration]

Caroliiiiiiiiiinaaaaaaaaaaa

[littlemissfutility]

yES HELLO THIS IS DOVE

Anyway, hello, my name is Dove! (My name is not actually Dove.) You can reach me by PMing me or hitting me up at prettydoes.

I'm going to be playing Beth Greene, who is a deceptively cute teenage girl coming in with artistically placed facial scars and bloodstained clothes. She likes ponies, music, children, doodling, and living through the zombie apocalypse (which is something she's not so great at lately). Beth comes from The Walking Dead, which is the premiere nighttime soap opera if you enjoy the zombie apocalypse (and even if you, like me, actually don't really because there's lots of violence and you're a wuss).

Anyway, she'll be on the Barrayaran side of things, trying to convince people that she can be useful and enjoying not being dead. Shit should be pretty fun, and I'm looking forward to playing with you all. ♥

[vorbratta]

i want sonia and beth to be friends so badly

[standsentinel]

Hello everybody!

I am Wyn, and I bring you one Major Kaidan Alenko, from the Mass Effect series of games. He's turning up right after the credits roll on the extended cut of ME3, so basically his plans to go home post-Reaper War, find out what the hell happened to Commander Shepard and maybe go drink celebratory beers on some surviving bit of Vancouver waterfront have been abruptly derailed by... waking up in the middle of another war.

He's a mid-30s futuristic soldier-type, and while his freaky biotic powers are offline he's got enough tech skills (and is kind've a giant nerd) to make himself useful on the Cetagandan side... at least until he starts learning more about the situation they're in and moral conflict starts ensuing.

Hit me up on Plurk at minor_ramblings!

[eugengineer]

i will not even lie to you wyn i am HELLA looking forward to diya and kaidan interacting in-game

[shri]

Hey friends,

I am Lily, and I am bringing you Lakshmi Bai from the Order: 1886, that one absolutely gorgeous video game movie thing about immortal knights who are fighting werewolves with the help of magic juice called the Black Water. Lakshmi... doesn't super have a lot to do with them due to Plot Reasons ( namely she's opposing them most of the game) But Lakshmi's an actual historical figure who in real history, was the queen of a small kingdom called Jhansi in Northern India. She had a cute husband and a cute kid and then they both died and everything went to hell because even though her hubby declared her regent the British and the East India United India Company were like nah, that's ours now. She ended up being a leader of the 1857 Independence War and heroically died outside the fortress of Gwalior in a battle that went for five days. AND THAT'S... pretty much the same except replace "British Empire and the East India Company" as being "secretly run by Actual Vampire Lord Jack the Ripper" ( i am not even kidding ) and helped out by his loyal friends "Them Pesky Werewolves of London" and the major battles she fought as being against swathes of both of these on their orders. After faking her death she's spent every moment since then fighting them, she's now a sprightly nearly 60 and doesn't look a day past her mid twenties.

Lakshmi is pretty goddamn reckless and prone to ridiculous acts ( the legends say she rode a horse off a fortress and this canon is that ridiculous she probably did ), and whilst she still has to drink the blackwater ( it's now like the shittiest addiction ), she's back to being a regular person and won't realise it until she goes and gets herself seriously wounded. SO THAT'LL BE FUN.

Her hobbies include tormenting grumpy serious people, laughing at really shitty situations, causing massive public destruction, and pretending she doesn't have feelings about stuff. If your characters would know anything about her, I am totally okay because her legend is pretty intense. She'll be like SHH SHUT UP NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO KNOW.

If you'd like to get in contact with me, I can be found over at aenia, and I am super here for everything. I ALSO APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE FOR MY TL;DR. I HAVE MANY DEER AND THEY ALL SEEK TO ROAM FREE.


"how to deal with being told you're not allowed to kill people, feat. sir galahad's grumpy moustache"

[pigsfeet]

new phone who dis

[asafepairofhands]

EYYYYY, READ HERE, I'm on plurk at readimusprime and on discord @ readimusprime#4978 please feel free to add me

I will be bringing a five-million-year-old rude tired robot doctor who is suddenly not a robot and will be thrilled by this development. He is here to fix people's injuries and try not to appear upset by normal bodily functions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you want to thread either of these things, or anything else, I am HELLA DOWN.



at least he's hot i guess

[pigsfeet]

please patch up mr reckless redneck

he could actually have a lot of interesting convos with a doctor especially if mr robot isnt clear on what tattoos are

[traitorous]

hello fellow kids

i'm chels and i'm perpetually late to every party so Get Used To It, i guess. i'm bringing in agent maine from rooster teeth's red vs. blue, the future ~big bad~ of the series. he's from before he's gone completely off the deep end (mid-season 10, just as an fyi to his castmates), but for those not familiar with the series maine is a hella volatile supersoldier with a short temper and a bad habit of throwing his friends off cliffs. he's also HELLA HUGE (re: 7') so if you ever need a piggyback ride he's your man.

he'll be kicking up a storm with those pesky rebels over @ barrayar. i'm totally open to any and all cr, whether it be positive or negative. maine can fly off the handle if he's pissed but when he's not pissed he's p chill and laid back. HOWEVER, just as a heads up, he can't talk due to a nasty throat injury, so there'll be a lot of awkward writing and/or gesturing on his part to communicate.

here is a quick info write-up, here are his permissions (and an opt out, if you'd rather not interact with him for any reason whatsoever). i can be contacted via pp @ turncloak or with a pm to maine's journal.

[vorbratta]

i am so thrilled to have your maine in game and also super looking forward to throwing both the hardass general and the prankster princess at him

stumbles in 15 minutes late with starbucks

[changeth]

hiii! i'm z, and also the latest of the late. i'm bringing in arthur pendragon from bbc's merlin and he'll be on the barrayaran side. he's a nice guy, except when he's being spoiled or supercilious or trying to be like his father. he is also That King Arthur, and feel free to confuse him by fourth walling lore! like that joke about merlin being a wizard, ridiculous. ha ha ha. he also has serious hang ups about magic being evil, on that note, please fight him about it. i'm looking forward to all and any kinds of cr, so come at me.

feel free to add me on plurk at ~tintagil which i'm still setting up bear with me. i might be slow on the adds and commenting around for a day or so but i'm really stoked about the game and writing with all of you!!

[shri]

OH BOY I AM SO eXCITED FOR THIS.

Because she spends all her time fighting the knights of the round table kind of?? and they're a giant pain in her side??? and most of them want her dead??? but no one knows about actual King Arthur at all anymore. Except Nikola Tesla maybe????. So she is going to side eye him to hell.

BASICALLY, I am super hyped about this.

ALSO HI I AM LILY forgive me I get so over excited fdjasfkd

[protocol]

i wasn't even that late to the party, i got here early i just lurked in the background and didn't post until now when it's literally half an hour to the new year WOOO

hello everyone, i'm rocket and i'm bringing you this bundle of issues by the name of Agent Washington from my personal hell, red vs. blue. for those un-canon familiar, i uh wish i had a good info post to list you but i'm really lazy, but essentially he's an experimental spec-ops supersoldier who once found out about how fucked up said experiment was via inheriting first-hand memories of torture from an AI fragment. it was pretty bad, he went insane, and he's more or less better now and he even kind of learned to make friends along the way maaaaybe? maybe.

i can be most reliably contact via journal pm or on discord @ valonqar#1048, i'm in the barrayar group just @ me and i'll see it! give me all of your cr and all of your things, i love weird cross-canon cr and i will throw my boy at anyone who will take him and/or kick him in the face, whatever.

[vorbratta]

I'M VERY EXCITED ABOUT WASH IN THIS GAME

i hope he's ready to deal with scientists with lofty ambitions and obscure methods ALL OVER AGAIN

[threemoons]

Hello from the lightening round! My name's Lex and I'll be bringing in Darkstalker from the children's book series Wings of Fire which is all about matriarchal dragon societies and warfare and child soldiers and the like.

Darkstalker is basically Tom Riddle, if Tom Riddle were a drama student and also a dragon. He's an angry teenager a few clicks away from full supervilliany, but Luckily for everyone here he has lost pretty much all the magical powers he uses to do things like force everyone to think he is amazing, make himself immortal, and generally try and take over the world (obviously the everything would be way better if he were in charge). He's actually going to having a pretty though time with that because he has always been able to read people's minds and see the future so he's going to be a little at a loss.

He's fighting for Cetaganda, so enjoy your grumpy dragon.

You can reach me on plurk at talianora, discord at talianora #7723, or even just a PM to this journal. I'm super excited to play with everyone and am looking forward to the game immensely!

[mirrortide]

HELLO. I just bought the first book literally like two and a half hours ago so im excited to play against you knowing nothing???

I hope to play my space no longer a rock off of your giant lizard.

[prorenataa]

Hello!

I'm Lae, also coming in from the lightening round and I am bringing an original character, Doctor Adrien Arbuckal to the game. He is also a CRAU (which honestly just makes him a little easier to live with) and his information can be found on his application here. I have been seeing people talking about this game on my timeline, have been investigating it but decided to pull the trigger when I saw the lightening round announcement today!

I am REALLY excited to be here and looking forward to the opportunity to write and plot with everybody.

The short version would be, he's first and foremost military who got railroaded by life and duty into becoming a doctor, which he hated. He's got survivor's guilt in spades, is a classic introvert, has a horrible bedside manner and is better at murder than he is at holding hands. He's also a work-a-holic, who passes the time playing with puzzles.

He is with the rebels on Barrayar which will cause him a very dry sense of amusement. The good news is, he's spent the past year plus living, fighting and doctoring in this sort of insane survival situation, so he's at least used to that mess.

I have an HMD/OOC Contact post Here if you need/want to use it for any reason. I'm on plurk @ Laekhund and discord at arbucks #6824. PMs to this journal are probably the quickest way to reach me as well.

[pigsfeet]

LAE i missed being in a game w you!! it's pel, i played fiona in cdc a million years ago.

[starsneverpay]

Hello all!

I'm somewhat late to this intro but I'm still very excited to be here! My name is Jenni and I've come to play this lovely(????) older lady named Elsa Mars from American Horror Story's season 4: Freakshow.

Elsa comes from 1952 Jupiter, Florida. She's the owner and ringleader of a traveling carnival called Fraulein Elsa Mars' Cabinet of Curiosities which, well.. is full of different kind of "human oddities." While Elsa herself can comes across as charming lady she has awful, narcissistic and exploitative nature. She takes advantage of others and uses them to paint a better picture of herself.

She has been set on Barrayar AND OHBOY. That's going to be a ride. Elsa is more open minded that general public in the fifties but damn, does she still share some of that problematic worldview. Idk who's going to suffer the most.

Anyway. Elsa will definitely be interested meeting the local "freaks." Meaning people who don't fit in the given norm. People with crazy hair, overly tall or muscular, small and fragile. And ofc those who aren't human at all. :)

The last but not least: Elsa is secretly disabled. Both of her legs are prosthetics but this is something you don't notice unless you come and try to feel up them or have an x-ray.

I NEED TO RUN OFF TO WORK BUT. I CAN'T GET TO PLAY WITH YOU ALL