Horror Thread planning

[+Sorana]

Thanks a lot!

[kenod]

So I have a couple of questions about this. They won't affect anything, they're just things I've been wondering about.

First of all, why was Hellbent slashing at the tower base? Sure, he's a murderous sociopath (I think), but I'm not quite sure why he'd just go and try to destroy the whole place, it seems kind of a stupid thing to do, especially since if he did it to kill the others, since just stabbing everybody would be a lot easier and more effective. There's also the fact that he previously decided not to kill anybody because of how he'd probably need their help surviving, which makes it even weirder.
Basically the only idea I have for him doing it is him being somewhat insane, not just a sociopath. Is that correct?

Second, why does the shardblade bring the place down? Given that the cuts created by them are rather thin and really clean, it doesn't seem like the type of thing that can do real structural damage to the tower, not without a lot of cuts in multiple different places.
Personal head-canon, the whole dimensional transit had already weakened the tower, and it just collapsed on its own, and what Hellbent did didn't actually affect it, or the damage Hellbent did was the final straw that brought everything crashing down.

[I think I am here.]

1 minute ago, kenod said:

So I have a couple of questions about this. They won't affect anything, they're just things I've been wondering about.

First of all, why was Hellbent slashing at the tower base? Sure, he's a murderous sociopath (I think), but I'm not quite sure why he'd just go and try to destroy the whole place, it seems kind of a stupid thing to do, especially since if he did it to kill the others, since just stabbing everybody would be a lot easier and more effective. There's also the fact that he previously decided not to kill anybody because of how he'd probably need their help surviving, which makes it even weirder.
Basically the only idea I have for him doing it is him being somewhat insane, not just a sociopath. Is that correct?

Second, why does the shardblade bring the place down? Given that the cuts created by them are rather thin and really clean, it doesn't seem like the type of thing that can do real structural damage to the tower, not without a lot of cuts in multiple different places.
Personal head-canon, the whole dimensional transit had already weakened the tower, and it just collapsed on its own, and what Hellbent did didn't actually affect it, or the damage Hellbent did was the final straw that brought everything crashing down.

I second all of this.

[Lunar Blessing]

12 minutes ago, I think I am here. said:

I second all of this.

I third it (is that a thing?)

[Silva]

6 minutes ago, Blessing of Potency said:

I third it (is that a thing?)

Fourthed.

@Ark1002, are you trying to kill people?

Also, Aderet is also in the basement, but I don't have time to write a reaction right now.

[Fatebreaker]

@kenod

That’s a valid point. There were two reasons for me for it to happen. The first is that the tower was already structurally unsound, and wild repeated slashes to the base added enough stress points for the weight of the tower to cause things to shift, aided by the leaning as well. The second was that Voidus and I want actions to have consequences in this story, and that was the consequence that first came to mind. The tower was going to come down soon anyway, but the actions taken sped up the process.

Please never hesitate to ask questions. If Voidus or I miss something, we want to know!

[kenod]

1 minute ago, Fatebreaker said:

@kenod

That’s a valid point. There were two reasons for me for it to happen. The first is that the tower was already structurally unsound, and wild repeated slashes to the base added enough stress points for the weight of the tower to cause things to shift, aided by the leaning as well. The second was that Voidus and I want actions to have consequences in this story, and that was the consequence that first came to mind. The tower was going to come down soon anyway, but the actions taken sped up the process.

Please never hesitate to ask questions. If Voidus or I miss something, we want to know!

No problem, I like the fact that actions have consequences.

Also, how much will we be adhering to standard horror tropes? I sort of want to create a predictive list of who will die in which order.

[Fatebreaker]

That’s more up to Voidus than myself. The story we have loosely sketched out this far has a lot of flexibility, but events might not always be so forgiving.

[Gancho Libre]

I hope you guys don't mind what my character is doing. She'll just kinda hang around, her Talent keeping her mostly hidden from you guys, and she'll just make trouble until... either she dies, or she snaps out of it. I dunno. Either are fine with me.

[+Ark1002]

2 hours ago, kenod said:

First of all, why was Hellbent slashing at the tower base? Sure, he's a murderous sociopath (I think), but I'm not quite sure why he'd just go and try to destroy the whole place, it seems kind of a stupid thing to do, especially since if he did it to kill the others, since just stabbing everybody would be a lot easier and more effective. There's also the fact that he previously decided not to kill anybody because of how he'd probably need their help surviving, which makes it even weirder.
Basically the only idea I have for him doing it is him being somewhat insane, not just a sociopath. Is that correct?

Well, while he is somewhat insane.

But his reasoning was to try and discover what the light was, and what would happen.

[Fatebreaker]

@Ark1002 I just want to clarify one last time that if Hellbent doesn’t run for it he will be crushed by the falling tower.

If that’s what you’re going for, cool. But I don’t want to kill anyone off unless they’re prepared to lose the character. At least, to a certain extent.

Edited April 17, 2019 by Fatebreaker

[+Sorana]

7 hours ago, Fatebreaker said:

But I don’t want to kill anyone off unless they’re prepared to lose the character. At least, to a certain extent.

I love this wording

[Gancho Libre]

I'm fine with dying.

Tis will be a worthy sacrifice.

[kenod]

So here's a list of all the characters, since I got really annoyed with having to go through the whole thread every time. Also, can someone (@Voidus) add them to the OP?

Sorana (Lizanne Farmer):

Spoiler

Name: Lizanne Farmer

Age: 17 (maybe, she isn't sure about that)

Investiture: none

Skills: Amateur Scholarship (farming/ animals) (20), Intelligent (30)

Physical: brown hair, straw like texture; brown eyes; back, legs and arms covered with scars; torn cloths; almost painfully thin, large eyes

Weaknesses: limping, can't run (-20); deeply afraid of being chained/ trapped (-15); paranoid (-20); will follow a command directed at her blindly (-10) (I'll start strong and would like to soften that one a bit over the time, so don't rate it too high)

Character: has a hard time to trust anybody, usually looks at the darker side of a situation, can be loyal, strong-willed, likes to improvise

Family: two brothers, a sister, parents (all: location unknown)

Homeworld: Sel

Guild Affiliation: none

Backstory: Lizanne grew up on a farm. One day slavers came by and kidnapped her entire family. Lizanne lost track of them, when she was sold on a market.
She isn't sure how many years she spent working for her new master, and can only guess her age. At the beginning she had a rebellious streak, that was beaten out of her systematically. Over the years she learned to keep her head low, although she never stopped plotting how to escape.
Mostly she worked in the fields, as she made sure to obscure her features and look ugly. She is able to recognize some edible plants and has some basic knowledge how to handle animals, like how to milk a cow. One day she had the opportunity to run away, and it was only because of the kindness of some strangers, that she managed to stay free. They hid her for days and organized a trip away from Sel. Her journey took her first to Roshar, but as she never felt safe she fled that planet as well and arrived at the Alleyverse. Here she felt safer, as many different cultures mixed with each other and she wasn't standing out that much.
She spends her time begging in the streets, or if she is lucky, is able to find work for a day or two.

ZincAboutIt (Renata):

Spoiler

Name: Renata

Age: 20

Investiture: None

Skills: Intermediate Scholarship (literacy, scribe duties, shorthand), Smart, can run quickly

Physical: Black and red hair (Veden with Horneater in heritage) cropped above shoulders, dark grey eyes, thin build, oval face with minor freckles, has a tattoo of her own name on the inside of her left forearm, wears glove on her safehand

Weaknesses: Does not usually like being touched, absolutely cannot stand to have her hair touched or stroked, trouble sleeping, has to remind herself of who she is at times (hence the tattoo on her arm)

Character: Inherently suspicious of kind people, curious, adaptable, can be ruthless if needed, somewhat aloof/distant, lonely but scared

Family: Mother and brother dead 

Homeworld: Roshar

Guild Affiliation: none

Backstory: Renata worked as a scribe in the household of a minor lighteyed Veden lord when the civil war broke out. Her older brother was quickly conscripted and killed, and then the war came to her own doorstep. The majority of her household was killed in the fighting, and Renata and her mother escaped to a more rural portion of Jah Keved, hoping to find shelter. They took up residence in the household of an older brightlady who lived alone up against the foothills of the Horneater Peaks. At first, Renata and her mother had a good life away from the war, with her mother helping with household chores and Renata taking up scribing duties for the brightlady. She had lost her own daughter, and took a liking to Renata, saying she reminded the woman of her daughter. Things began to get strange when the brightlady started calling Renata by her dead daughter's name. Months went by, and soon Renata was being forced to play the part of the woman's dead daughter. She was not allowed to see her own mother, or speak about her real life. Every night, the woman would brush and braid Renata's long hair, then lock her into her daughter's old room. Eventually, Renata was able to outwit the woman, locking her in the room instead and escaping. She found her own mother dead, and fled up into the Horneater Peaks. Renata was picked up, half-frozen and almost starving, by a group of world-hoppers heading to the perpendicularity. They managed to get through and Renata decided to stay in the Alleycity as they passed through. She cut her hair too short to ever braid again, and now works as a message courier and scribe.

ITIAH (Wilhelm Wendigo):

Spoiler

Name: Wilhelm Wendigo

Age: 31

Investiture: None

Skills: Killing people with knives, tracking people by smell and footprints, skilled in making animal traps to catch things in.

Physical: Shorter than average, thick arms and legs but a big bony stomach. In some places he’s thin enough bone can be seen and in some places he’s fat. Black hair and a single right brown eye, which he can pack a lot of emotion in. Left eye is covered in a brown eyepatch. Teeth are all crooked and sharpened and around his mouth and hands are caked in blood which he tries to wipe off. Frost in hair and eyebrows.

Weaknesses: Is a recovering cannibal, and has to constantly resist urges, has major health issues due to cannibalism and doesn’t have one eye. Hates his life.

Character: Worried and concerned. He tried distancing himself from others so he doesn’t lose control and he tries not to make any connections with others. He’s a cannibal, and sometimes is mostly animal than human. His psyche is already a little off.

Family: Disowned him when they found he was a cannibal and were executed anyway for birthing him.

Homeworld: South Scadrial

Guild Affiliation: none

Backsetory: Was a normal kid in the Fallen nation of South Scadrial. Fallen were mocked and discriminated against. One time, an allomantic airship crash left him and his crew isolated in the tundra. Out of desperation he ate them, to survive. He was rescued but the experience permanently broke him and he began craving human. He was attacked numerous roles and his health deteriorated, he lost an eye and survived on trapping villagers to eat. They called him the Wendigo, or whatever the South Scadrian equivalent of that is.

At one point he started to realise what he was doing and regretted, but knew no nation would ever let him back, so he still survives on rabbits and occasionally human, really tries to keep himself in check.

Silva ( Ashira Celeste Blanche Addington):

Spoiler

Name: Aderet Celeste Blanche Addington

Age: 21

Investiture: Cadmium Misting

Skills: Talking, embroidery, fashion, a blood-curdling scream

Weaknesses: Physical activity. She is afraid of many things.

Appearance: Platinum blonde hair reaching past her waist, bright blue eyes, a slim figure, and manicured nails. Aderet will almost never be found out of a dress, typically floor length, with her safehand covered (also concealing some spare vials of cadmium).

Home Planet: Scadrial

Family: A younger brother (Timothy, age 18) and father. Her mother died when she was eight and a Vorin governess took care of her for nine years.

History: Aderet is the heiress to her family’s business. They’ve been running it for centuries, some even date it back to the Final Empire. A recent break off from the DA caused them some loss in investors, so now her father is working to marry her off in order to form an alliance that will save their company while still being sided with TUBA. She’s spent her life learning how to navigate social situations and being a proper young lady, never spent much time refining her Allomancy.

Theme Song: Lavender’s Blue

Guild: None

Ark1002 (Hellbent-Son-Palm):

Spoiler

Name: Hellbent-Son-Palm

Investiture: Shardblade

Skills: Shardblade fighting, hand to hand

Appearance:

Height: Seven feet (~2.1336 meters)

Build: Muscular, broad shouldered

Eyes: Violet

Hair: None

Skin: Dark

Clothing: Leather Pteruges (Weird leather skirt thing)

Backstory: Hellbent-Son-Palm was born to a Scadrian-Alethi mother and a Darksider father. They had been running from enemies, and moved to Roshar, hiding among the Shin, where no one would suspect them of living. He grew up among them, and was the child who was a soldier. He eventually ran away, killing his mother and taking her shardblade while he did so. He, as a lighteyes with a shardblade, had high rank, and used it to gain training. He tired of this after many years, and went back to the Shin, making his father (Who didn't know he'd killed his mother) tell him how they got to the world. He became a worldhopper, exploring the worlds.

Blessing of Potency (Arundhati):

Spoiler

Name: Arundhati

Meaning: “not restrained” (loosely) also name of Star

 

Gender: Female

 

Investure: N/A

 

Skills: Very detailed knowledge of the night sky and astronomy

 

Physical appearance: dark skinned with long hair, usually braided along her back. Average height and a hourglass body shape.

Age: 20

Personality: very easily distracted and will go off on random trains of thought. When she actually latches in to something however she is very single minded, almost to the point of tunnel vision. The only thing she’s ever been able to focus on for long amounts of time has been the night sky. She loves to go camping away from the light pollution with her telescope and just look at the stars.

Kenod (Lisa Waite):

Spoiler

Name: Lisa Waite

Planet of origin: Random earth, one where no weird things would ever happen (right?).

Age: 21

Gender: Female

Appearance: 5'8'' tall. Looks relatively plain, with long brown hair and grey eyes. Is nearsighted and wears larger, round glasses. Tends to dress rather conservatively.

Investure: N/A

Skills: Decent scientist with a lot of knowledge of physics. Bad at more practical applications though. Fast runner. Has a decent amount of experience with horror movies, so knows the tropes.

Personality: Soft-spoken and introverted. Dislikes horror movies, and hates jump scares. Gets scared and panicky easily. The type that when frightened by something hides in a corner with a candlestick, only to brain the first person to try and help her because she confuses them for something scary. Very curious when coming across new things, when they're not scary at least, and she has finished panicking.

Weaknesses: Scared quickly, and tends to either panic and run or crawl into a corner when scared. Has difficulty saying no to people.

History: Originally living in new england, she had a number of friends who really liked horror movies, and always dragged her off to see new ones, with her being unable to say no even though she didn't like the movies. After graduating, she went on to study at the Miskatonic University, aiming for a degree in physics. However, at one point something bizarre happened, sucking her into the alleyverse. When she finally managed to stop panicking she found out about magic and (after another panic attack) decided to go and study it to see how it figured into the normal laws of the universe.

Kidpen (Tishyl):

Spoiler

Name: Tishyl, goes by Tish.

Investiture: Chromium Ferring

Weakness: Compulsive desire to always be storing and never to tap. It's gotten to the point where it is a nervous tick, so sometimes she will increase the rate of storing when she gets nervous, which is often. It would take a very exceptional situation to bring her to tap any of it, probably one where she had to help a friend.

Age: 15

Appearance: Short and dark haired. She carries dozens of chromium minds all over her body. She wears traditional Terris attire, which I forget the specifics of.

Personality: Very shy and careful. Generally doesn't like getting too close to other people.

Backstory: She was originally from one of the Terris villages in Era 2 Scadrial. She lived a peaceful life there, storing and tapping chromium normally. However, one day, she was out in the city with a close truesoul friend when she wasn't supposed to be. She was carrying metalminds, but had recently used up her Fortune doing some light gambling. They decided at one point to take a shortcut through a backalley to a bar. As they walked, a shady man walked up to them, eyeing the couple of Aluminum metalminds her friend was carrying. And, to a lesser extent, hers. She didn't realize this, but he was a DA operative (do the DA do this kind of stuff? Just a freelance crazy hemalurgist if not) who was looking for powers to harvest. He kidnapped them and took them to the Alleyverse. Tish managed to escape before he could get the spikes he needed and take her powers, but she didn't bring her friend with her. Since that day she's been unable to go back to her village out of shame of what she did. At some point she went to the Keepers, but they consistently just pitied her and didn't really know how to deal with her. At some point she saw the missive for the expedition and thought it might serve as a fresh start for her.

Beantheboy12 (Zib):

Spoiler

Name: Zib

Gender: Male

Investiture: Willshaper of the 1st ideal

Skills: Can play the snare drum so incredibly well, he will blow your minds. He can literally blow one's mind if he hits you with his drumsticks. He can throw the drumsticks with perfect accuracy, and swing them so fast that the eye can barely notice them.

Equipment: A snare drum and carbon fiber drum sticks. Each drum stick has infused gemstones along the length of it. 

Weaknesses: Is a little too curious and is very weird. He sometimes whacks people with his drumsticks for no good reason.

Appearance: Extremely short. 4'10". But he doesn't notice/mind. Ocean Blue eyes, Blue hair, Blue eyebrows, and dark tan skin. 

Theme song: The Flash

Backstory: He was a Rosharan musician from Alethkar, but didn't care what other people thought of him so he just went along banging random things with his drumsticks. Drums, trees, people, etc. He was a social outcast and eventually was kidnapped and sent to live at the peaks so he wouldn't bug people he was around anymore. There, he bonded his spren and eventually, made the terrible mistake of whacking the leader's bottle of horneater white. He was tied up and thrown into the springs and ended up in shadesmar, then here. 

Snipexe (Jack Overchild):

Spoiler

Name: Jack Overchild

Physical Characteristics: Short, Stout, Male, 30 years old

Investiture: Drab

Skills: Expert level Card Player, Expert Sligh of Hand, Expert Gambler and Pathological Liar

Equipment: Various Decks of Cards from different planets, and games

Weakness: Pathological Liar, Nearly a Compulsive/Addicted to all forms of gambling (including with his own and others lives), If someone tries to fight or attack him in anyway he will freeze up, unable to react (see backstory for explanation)

Family: 2 parents, living a fine life on Nalthis

Home Planet: Nalthis 

Backstory: Born on Nalthis to a kind couple, who weren’t rich but weren’t poor. However an Idrian Terrorist killed his parents right in front of him when he was 6. From that point forward he had to live on the streets. He sold his breath early on, and has never gotten a new one. This was when he began to do card tricks and gamble to survive. He got good, a little too good. He was playing in a high stakes street tournament at age 15 and lost everything. He was chased off Nalthis, only saved by accidentally entering Edgli’s perpendicularity, after which he made his way to Alleyplanet. He then made a career being a professional gambler, he’s moderately successful, and is able to afford an apartment in the slums.

Guild: None

Personality: Gutsy, Scarred, Not willing to Trust

Gancho Libre (Fah'Loofah Smedry):

Spoiler

Name: Fah'Loofah Smedry

Investiture: Smedry Talent: Is a complete fool.

Appearance: Looks exactly like a jester. She thinks it's fashionable. Occasionally, she'll smear her red lipstick to far up on her face, and she'll look more like the Joker. It's fun.

Fears: The most irrational things.

Skills: She spent ten years perfected the art of playing the kazoo with her nose. Other than that, however...

History: She lived a life of complete bliss before one fatal day when she changed her name from Lucy to Fah'Loofah. Ever since, things haven't always gone her way.

Other Notes: She dips her french fries in ice cream.

1

 

[Voidus]

Phew, so I'm all caught up again and should be available once more, though I will continue to be sharing the duties of world-description with @Fatebreaker depending on which of us can reply first / who wants to take point in certain sections of story.
 

On 18/04/2019 at 6:00 AM, kenod said:

No problem, I like the fact that actions have consequences.

Also, how much will we be adhering to standard horror tropes? I sort of want to create a predictive list of who will die in which order.

We'll probably be pulling a few when appropriate but not going to be too consistent with it since it kind of ruins the point of horror if you can predict everything that is about to happen. So expect the occasional straight trope, some trope reversals, and some to just be something else entirely.


I've also added the character list to the OP for ease of reference.

[+ZincAboutIt]

Are everyone's spheres out of stormlight by now @Voidus? Or do some still have light?

[Voidus]

Some of them would still have light in them, most of the spheres in the building were crushed so that's why they were all pretty much dun, but any you had on your person would still be okay.

[Fatebreaker]

@Ark1002 can you give your reasoning for Hellbent going down into the cellar to stab the wood covering Kidpen’s character, specifically someone called for help? Or at least Hellbents reasoning?

[Kidpen]

11 minutes ago, Fatebreaker said:

@Ark1002 can you give your reasoning for Hellbent going down into the cellar to stab the wood covering Kidpen’s character, specifically someone called for help? Or at least Hellbents reasoning?

It seemed to me like Fah'Loofah moved the wood, considering she tried to pick up Tish.

[Fatebreaker]

Ok, that’s reasonable. I read it as she tried to move the shelf but failed, which is why she called for help.

[Voidus]

Also just a note that character death is a very real possibility, stabbing everything he sees is going to have consequences.

[+Ark1002]

Yes I'm very aware of that possibility, and very aware of Hellbent's death being a likely outcome.

[Voidus]

It is a pretty common horror trope
As long as you're aware then all good, plenty we can do with it narratively.

[Gancho Libre]

6 hours ago, Kidpen said:

It seemed to me like Fah'Loofah moved the wood, considering she tried to pick up Tish.

I wasn't aware she was under the floor, but that interpretation works.

[+Ark1002]

Mhm