[ENROLLMENT] Donovan Blackwell - Urban Spectre ~ accepted

[Manda]

AMITYVILLE ACADEMY ENROLLMENT FORM

Status: Ready but still very much accepting crits!

Name: Donovan Blackwell
Nickname: Don, Hey Kid, You With the Headphones, Are You Even Listening?
Gender: Male
Age: 17

Faction: Ghost
Race: Urban Spectre - These denizens of large cities have come into being fairly recently, born from the fear of "those kids". You know - the ones who are always out too late, causing trouble. Setting fires, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes under overpasses with music pounding from headphones stuffed into their ears. These vagrants are generally faceless, no one you know and no one you want to know - they lurk in the darkness of the city streets after the sun has set, roaming about with nothing good in their heads. Any decent citizen of the city knows that "those kids" are trouble and also knows deep inside that a large enough group of them gathering in one place can cause some serious mayhem. Urban Spectres are the very epitome of that fear, usually living in large clans or packs and roaming the cities of the world, sometimes alone and sometimes with others, to gather FEAR. Their hoods hold nothing but shadows and the headphones stuffed into their ears pulse with the bass beat of their hearts as they hunger for the vibrant life of the city.

In Halloween, they are born and gather in cities that are fairly close to the human equivalents, making it easier for adults to adjust to acting and looking human at a distance in the human world. Much of their FEAR gathering requires them to get fairly close to humans and be generally creepy as well as being able to understand concepts such as cars and technology. So their Halloween cities have become quite close to the human equivalents with the obviously notable exception of having humans in them. Donovan hails from a Halloween city that more or less mirrors the human city of London.

Natural Ability: Melodic Empathy - Normally the music playing in Donovan's headphones matches his emotional state - slow and calm when he's relaxed, upbeat and fast when he's excited, etc. But if he concentrates upon a particular person, the music will instead change to reflect that person's emotions. This is useful to adult Spectres in judging at a distance how susceptible to their scares a human might be. The only being the ability does not generally work on is another Spectre, because their own music keeps him from getting a good "read". It is rumored that there are a few Spectres born who, with enough power, can consciously adjust their own music and even spread the effect to those near them in the pack, gaining a measure of control and leadership within the group.

OOC'ly, I will probably ask RP partners to choose a type of music or song that he hears if he uses the ability and they can be specific or vague, depending on how much they want to reveal, and on each character's age/level.

In Amityville:
Y1 level - Donovan can generally read other students his own age without too much trouble, unless they are specifically trying to hide their emotions. It gets a bit harder then. The music that plays is open to interpretation and he doesn't always get it right.

Y2 level - Can read other students his own age and younger, possibly some of the more open NPCs or professors (permission will be asked first). He's gotten a bit better at interpreting what he hears.

Y3 level - He can now read other students his age and younger, as well as more NPCs and professors, though they require more concentration since they are still older then him and likely have more experience hiding their emotions. At this point, he is fairly accurate at interpretation, though some can still stump him.

FEAR Ability:
Y1: The Eye, Bass Beats - The music pumping from Donovan's headphones seems to permeate the ground and air around him, disorienting and keeping his opponents off-balance so that his attacks hit easier.
Y2: The Eye (Y2 lvl); Battle Cry (Y1 lvl), Sound Blast - Donovan ups the volume of his headphones and projects the sound outwards in a punch of sound that knocks opponents to the ground.
Y3: The Eye (Y3 lvl); Battle Cry (Y2 lvl); Barrier (Y1 lvl), Heartbeat Shield - The beat of the music that powers the Spectre's heart extends out in an invisible barrier that deflects attacks against him.  

[Manda]

Physical Description:

Eye Colour: Black and grey swirling shadows
Hair Colour: Black
Hair Style: Short stubble on the sides of his head with a mohawk on top. He also has a goatee
Skin Colour: Pale/white
Body Type/Posture: Thin and angular, with wiry muscle and long-fingered hands. Basically human-looking other than his coloring and odd eyes. Donovan usually slumps in one place, preferrably against a wall or other solid surface, hardly ever actually standing up straight. His hands are also perputually stuffed into the pockets of his hoodie, supposedly fiddling with whatever device plays his music.
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 145 lbs
Clothing Style/Colours: Faded and ripped blue jeans, old grey torn-up sneakers, a too-big hoodie (dark-colored, usually black), sometimes one with a design on the front in slightly faded dark red - like the color of old blood. The more powerful he gets, this color will seem brighter whenever he uses his FEAR abilities. He usually wears his pin on the pocket of the hoodie.
Extra: In his natural form, the hood of the hoodie is ALWAYS up and there is nothing inside it but the swirling black shadows that fill his eyes while he has his pin on. In either form, there are headphones either in/on his ears or hanging around his neck that cannot be removed. He switches styles of headphones day to day and seems to have an endless supply - everything ranging from earbuds to huge studio headphones to Skullcandy style. The wire from these headphones snakes down his front and into the pocket of the hoodie. However, if his hoodie was removed, one could see that the wire is able to more or less phase through the hoodie and then disappears inside his chest. His heartbeat typically matches the bass of the music pumping from those headphones, which is faintly audible to anyone standing close to him.
References: One here, another!

Feel free to take artistic liberties, make him a bit less human, add more Halloween-y things, whatever. Pick some fun headphones to give him~ It really doesn't matter, except that as adults, Spectres are supposed to blend in with humans especially at a distance but NOT QUITE. They look just different enough to be super creepy XD  

[Manda]

Personality:
Ambitious
For the most part, Spectres are perfectly content growing up in the pack and simply learning from older members what to do and how to scare. All they could ever need or want is provided, and stepping outside the mold is not encouraged. Donovan, however, has always found himself wanting ... more. He wants to see what exists outside of their small corner of the world, perhaps see if there are other packs out there, find new scaring techniques and even meet other Halloween creatures. His ultimate goal is to learn enough to come back home to his pack and emerge as some sort of leader - though such a thing happening is pretty rare.

Lazy
Despite his lofty goals, Donovan doesn't seem to be in any kind of hurry to reach them. Just getting into school is enough for now, right? When it comes to classwork and practice, he's not likely to take the initiative - most likely having to be encouraged (dragged) to go to classes. He's the same way in much of his habits, failing to eat, excercise or generally do anything beyond laze around and smoke. He's fairly quick to jump onto bandwagons and join others for group activities so long as he thinks that he can easily get something out of it but if things get difficult he's more likely to give up than press on. So far as things look at this point in his life, he doesn't seem like much of a leader-type.

Loner
Though he grew up in a pack, the Spectre never really had "friends" there. Such a concept is a foreign one to him, as every member of the pack is fairly similar in looks and attitude. It's a bit difficult to make friends with someone almost exactly like you, after all. In the same way, there is no one in the pack that he's enemies with - hard to hate someone so similar to yourself. He's also always been just a little different from the other members of his pack, actually questioning how things work and whether there might be something else out there. With no one else interested in such things, he's taken to spending quite a lot of time alone. He doesn't really expect that to change once he gets to school and so has no expectations so far as friends or enemies goes.

Loyal
The exception to the rule of laziness comes into play whenever Donovan is with his pack or with others that he considers a type of pack. If or when he does end up making some friends, they will essentially become like a secondary pack at Amityville. These people will be the few that he is loyal to, willing to make an effort for and listen to.

Callous
Being able to concentrate upon and read others' emotions does not at all mean that he's careful of said emotions. Donovan will quite simply not think before he speaks or does something a lot of the time, uncaring if his actions hurt someone else. The ability to read the painful emotion isn't the same as feeling it himself or caring that something he did may have caused that emotion. This ties back into his laziness... he just really can't be bothered to give a s**t, honestly.

Quirks
- Whenever he's inside (especially the dorms), Donovan generally won't wear shoes
- He doesn't wear socks or a shirt
- Donovan smokes about two packs a day, and hates having to put out a cigarette early. He actually smokes less when he's stressed or upset about something
- He speaks with a faint British accent and tends to use expressions from that general area of the human world - as his pack is fond of London and elements of that city have bled over
- Ghouls are a mystery to him - most troubled kids are stereotypically seen as male, so every member of his pack is male
- Whenever he's standing around doing nothing (which is a lot of the time) and not smoking, he tends to fiddle with the cord of his headphones, rolling it around in his fingers, tangling it up, looping it about itself and so on
- Said headphone cord seems to be longer than it appears, allowing him to play with it and pull more cord out of his hoodie pocket than should be possible
- Donovan likes fire and smoke ... any kind
- Being a "city boy", in a way, a lot of weeds/grass/hay etc make him sneeze
- For the most part, he thinks owning minipets is stupid ... mainly because he's too lazy to take care of them. If he ends up with something fairly self-sufficient and somewhat useful he might change his tune

Why are they enrolled in Amityville Academy? Despite his fairly lazy attitude about life (or unlife, as it were), Donovan actually has a deep-seated desire to somehow stand out from the crowd. Though the Spectres don't often have leaders, he wants to be the one from his pack to eventually be able to gather more FEAR than the others, and possibly bring in new ideas and ways to scare. So he wants to enroll to learn so he can go back and be awesome... at some point.  

[Manda]

Open for crits~ :3  

[Manda]

Bump? crying  

[Aazhie]

Manda

Bump? crying

'

No more tears, working on some crit... <3

My only big contention here is that underage students aren't really suppose to have been out in the human world at all and it seems to be a point the mods will want you to edit. I REALLY like the concept! It won't be hard to adjust, maybe there's already a London-mirror city in Halloween that is pretty close to the human version that he bums around. I like that you have his personality traits as opposing aspects and that you've given thought to how they define him as an individual... he's got interesting enough quirks that it will be cool to see him interacting with different people!  

[Manda]

Ooh yay thank you!  

[kuropeco]

Manda

Hey there~!

Nat ability > A very curious and interesting idea. I think it's mostly okay, but it just needs a bit of tweaking. Does this ability work with humans? With professors and NPCs? Does he know exactly what emotion every single piece of music refers to, or is it just a general assumption that xyz music usually can be related to a more negative emotion - i.e, a more broad observation rather than an exact one? I think it just needs a bit of limitations to prevent it from being too overpowered, especially at Y1, but it's a creative idea, I like it a lot~

FEAR > I'm only going to look at Y1 FEAR, since the other two aren't usually looked at when still a quest. Y1 FEAR seems pretty straightforward, so I think it's okay~

For the most part, things look pretty good~ good luck!  

[Manda]

Aazhie

Oooh yea, I meant to change that actually. It's more like the Halloween-equivalent of London. He's heard stuff about the human city but never been there. He did peek through a portal, once, when he wasn't supposed to be anywhere near it but... XD That's it so far as him and human world goes. Thank you so much for the crit! Do you have a Quest thread up? I'd be happy to lave you a crit in turn whee

kuroopu

Aah I see what you're saying about his natural ability, it is kinda broad right now. I was thinking that it's more subtle and/or he doesn't always know how to interpret what the music means at a younger age. Right now it probably doesn't work as well (if at all) with anyone but others that are his age. I would assume that professors and older NPCs would have more experience keeping emotions under wraps so it wouldn't be so easy to pick up on them. But I could also see there being exceptions like in someone is OBVIOUSLY REALLY ANGRY his music would change no matter what if he focused on them. I think I'll edit the write-up for it and try to put this stuff in there, maybe put specifically what he can get at which years.

Thank you so much for the crit!  

[Manda]

Ready to go!  

[lizbot]

BASIC CHARACTER KIT WHAT DO I DO NEXT

Welcome to This is Halloween!

Congratulations! Your character has passed the enrollment process and you're cleared to begin playing. Essentially, this means you can get your art certed, make your character's journal, and most importantly start RPing. If you're a little lost then don't worry, this guide is here to point you in the right direction.

gaia_crown [ Art Check! ]:

- Do you have your character's art? Great! Move onto the next crown.

- If you do NOT yet have your art, you may now contact your artist and let them know that they may now start on creating your character!

gaia_crown [ Certs & Emblems ]:

- If your character is a STUDENT, you may create a customized student pin for them. This is entirely optional (but fun!) special badge that is unique to your character's design! You can find more information about pins (also known as their emblem) here.

- Hallowen characters (Students & Horsemen) may bet their character certed here!

- Hunters may get their certs here!

gaia_crown [ Creating a Journal ]:

- A journal is a thread where you can keep track of your character's accomplishments, RPs, progress, relationships, etc!

- All HALLOWEEN characters (Students & Horsemen) may create one here!

- All Hunters may create one here!

gaia_crown [ Let's RP! ]:

- Don't be shy about RPing! As soon as your character has been enroll approved you can start! Check out this awesome information about The World of Halloween and Amityville Academy. All students start off in Amityville academy. Need more things to do? Check out this whole subforum! Anything labelled Activity is open for you! Occasionally GMs will promote and open CLASSROOM orps. These usually happen in the classroom subforum. All students are invited to participate!

- If you are a Hunter, you will want to read the Hunter Newbie Guide Occasionally GMs will promote and open MISSION orps. These usually happen in the main Deus subforum and be followed by a guild announcement. All Hunters are invited to participate!

- If you are a Horsemen, please refer to here and the handy links in the first post as well as the other posts for concurrent and quest information! Need more things to do? Check out this whole subforum! Anything labelled Activity is open for you! Occasionally GMs will promote and open CLASSROOM orps. These usually happen in the classroom subforum. All Horsemen are invited to participate!

gaia_crown [ What's happening currently? ]:
- We try to keep all important things happening regularily updated in the ANNOUNCEMENTS THREAD. This goes for ALL FACTIONS. Have a question? Ask it in the Q & A !

gaia_crown [ Still feeling a little lost or overwhelmed? That's okay! ]:
- Check out what was just mentioned in FULL DETAIL HERE! Don't be too overwhelmed, there's time to sort everything out. For now, just enjoy some simple RP!

gaia_crown [ Finding RP ]:
- There's a bunch of ways to find RP. You can just contact a friend or any shop regular OR one of our available GMS for help! Otherwise, there are a lot of people looking to plot with YOU in their plotting threads! You can even make your own and advertise in your sig/ in the main thread/ etc etc!

- In addition any thread marked ORP is open for you to join!

- If you ever feel lost as a newbie, our many GMs are more than happy to one on one RP with you to help your character get acquainted. Send a PM to WE ARE HALLOWEEN and we can get you started this way as well. Otherwise, enjoy immersing yourself in the many RPS in TiH! It is all about discovery after all!

 

[Nio Love]

Manda

"Shh, we're havin' a seance." The entire office was dark, save for the light of flickering candles.

"But I didn't bring my seance music. We can't have a seance without my seance music!"

"Isn't the point of a seance to call forth the dead?" A third gnome timidly asked. "We have an entire dorm filled with-"

Both other gnomes turned quickly to him screaming, "SHUT UP!"