realitymods | The Hosts

★ The Hosts

The people who maintain the Machine and this experiment are all mod characters. Some are helpful, some are misguided, some are cruel, and some are dancing to a higher power's tune. While they can change and may appear with varying frequency, there are some constant influences.

★ The Shop

The shop is a quaint wooden cottage that happens to be perhaps a bit futuristic on the inside. It's run by Jhil and Roen and the double jokers on the gaudy sign make it hard to miss. They're all too happy to sell characters the things they need - even information - for the right price. Can they afford their prices? That depends on what they have to lose. On the plus side, their employer wants them to hire new employees. As long as those employees don't try to get into the back room, behind the purple curtain... Oh, and don't even try to attack them. The door has a trigger to detect harmful intent, and you really don't want it to go off.

Though NPCs can see the shop, whenever they try the door, it is locked. They may, if they are lucky, catch a fleeting image of them in the window, but they won't be allowed in. Regardless of what they try to use - magic, technology, or explosions - they will not be able to get into the shop. The door will open only when player characters are alone (or alone with other player characters).

★ Main Hosts

Wolf ☆ Unlike Derogative, Wolfgang Albrecht is actually a completely normal human. Well, mostly. Hailing from a world where dimensional paradoxes are common, he searches for a way to save his home before it succumbs to instability and is swallowed forever. Though he dresses and sounds like he's from Britain, he'll be the first to tell you that he has no idea what Britain is.

Clumsy, well-meaning and earnest, he's a departure from the old manipulators of the Plane and he's in a class of his own. Like you, he's desperate for answers and unutterably alone. Wolf might be the only friend you have.

Recently he's acquired something of a following, and is one of two powers vying for control of the Machine.

Jhil ☆ Somewhat mysterious to lay eyes on, she's a woman with long red hair and two distinctive black horns curling back around her ears. She dresses in dark armor made of leather and mail even though she spends all her time working in the shop. She has a sharp tongue and is somewhat cranky, but if you want information, she's got it.

Roen ☆ A short man with chin-length black hair and two small black horns that curve forward slightly. He dresses in gray cloth armor embroidered with gold thread in various patterns. Unlike his cousin Jhil, he's generally very hospitable, if not a bit nervous.

Da Tian ☆ Wolf's former doctor and friend turned traitor. He is tall and striking, hawkish features and black hair braided down his back, as well as yellow eyes. He raised the 'angels' and released them on people just to see what would happen.

Shaman ☆ A little girl who works on the Machine. She dresses like a butterfly cocoon and talks in riddles, much like Meredith before her. It's rumored that she is actually upwards of a thousand years old.

★ Former Hosts

These people no longer can be contacted, but their info is here for reference.

Raymond ☆ Raymond Keys works for a man named Jed, and that's all he has to offer on that situation. He looks stunningly average, brown hair, brown eyes, average height, dressed in greys and like he can't decide between business or casual. His stature and appearance always seem like he's just barely tolerating being there.

And when he says you make him sick, he means it. He comes from a long line of people with the ability to sense the inhuman, but no one has ever had it as strong as him. He has no problems treating you with utter contempt and disgust, but will at least play at being nice to get his job done.

Jacob ☆ Jacob Kross seems to be a normal sort of guy; a bit of a jock who is into cars. Short blond hair and an average height, frequently dressed in jeans and t-shirts. He has a friendly demeanor seems to mean well- just don't mention keys around him.

Oh, did he mention it yet? He's looking for a key. A specific key. It's very important. If you happen to find it, please, he needs it.

Rita ☆ Rita Blake is clearly more refined than her boyfriend. Black business suits and classy, serious glasses are her attire of choice, and her long black hair practically blends in with them. She's a bit odd though, in her way. She always seems familiar to men- she always reminds them of someone they've met before.... Maybe in a dream?

'Grey'/Charlie ☆ Dead. As it turned out, he was host to something quite terrible. Who knew?

Derogative ☆ Derogative is an insufferably cheery, usually asleep, new addition. When dealing with most humanoid beings, he tends to take on a human form; a man in his early forties with short, messy brown hair, bright green eyes, and usually dressed in jeans and a black leather jacket. Though when in the shop, he tends to prefer his natural form: a giant canine-like animal with a golden ankh on his chest.

Most of the time he does odd jobs for whoever needs him for anything, he takes his role as Guardian seriously, but it would be best for everyone if he just remains as doofy and scatterbrained as he allows himself to seem.

The Twins ☆ The Twins are comprised of a girl and a boy - Lapis and Lazuli respectively - who look shockingly young and like perfect, pale porcelain dolls. Everything about them is sheet white and neat, wearing old-fashioned clothes, cropped hair and generally seeming quite delicate if not rather unsettling.

Don't be fooled. The Twins are sly, amoral business types. Everything has a price and nothing is sacred. They appear to have ties to everything corrupt - the mafia, crooked cops, etc - as well as everything good - heroes, orphanages, whatever - and keep their cards close. People tend to end up in debt to them but if you have what they want, they might just be your best friends.

Also, they have a creepy tendency to talk in unison, as if they share a mind. The only way to tell them apart is Lapis's slightly higher voice and the fact that they each wear a braid but on different sides of their heads. (Lapis wears hers on the right, Lazuli's on the left). If you listen closely when they move, the sound of gears can be heard.

Roe ☆ Not much is known about this woman. She fixed the Machine after it crashed from misuse, then disappeared. She seems to be irritable, because she very much is. Recently she has appeared again in glee at character suffering and annoyance that they were getting a vacation. She's a bundle of joy.

Meredith ☆ Meredith Sault represents what she simply refers to as 'the Order.' It has a real name, but she doesn't think that you need to hear it. There's something distinctly eerie in her mannerisms, from the distant voice to the fluidity of her movements. Her robes hide her eyes in shadow, but her lips, often curled in amusement, are always visible.

Meredith is not your friend, but she is not your enemy, either. She will not be bought, coerced, convinced, or made to care, for she values little and considers everything to be transient. She will not attempt to trick you, but she often speaks vaguely - or else callously offers shattering information, a small smile the only hint at her reason for doing so.

Laith ☆ Dead. Laith Kolter seemed like the usual harmless research slave right up until she showed her true cards as a master manipulator. Notable for controlling a long-term peaceful Plane resident into slaughtering half a dozen people and hampering the investigation. Ruthless, unfeeling, and willing to put her own life on the line for the sake of making a new world, Laith took the secrets of the Machine to her grave.

★ Contact A Host

In this post, you can ICly contact a mod character. You should leave a comment of whatever your character is doing to get attention - going into the shop and so on - as you would with normal tagging. If you have a preference for what character you get, give their name in the subject line. For the purposes of this post, the characters that can be contacted at any point are Wolfgang and Jhil.

However, if you do not specify which character you want, you may receive messages from others involved in the workings of the Machine.

Sounds like Rita knows what she's talking about.

[She takes the key with a nod.]

You'll have nothing to regret. I doubt I'll even be long. [And she makes a beeline for that case! She's actually pretty excited, but she is, of course, trying to hide it.]

[Kross nods and goes back to making faces at his papers thoughtfully.

The glass case has a small wealth of various collector's items in it, some in box, some out of, carefully arranged and posed. But we're not here to hear about the other things in this case, now, are we? Jacqli is here for those dolls.

The three are posed together; two girls standing almost back to back with a boy lounging between the two. All three with black hair. The girls with gold eyes and elegant dresses - designed and painted almost exactly the same, as if to appear to be twins. The boy with silver eyes and in a suit.]

[At first, she doesn't even open the glass, looking through at the dolls instead. They're beautiful, just like what she's read about, just like the pictures she's seen.

She's incredibly careful when she opens the glass, and she even hesitates before she finally reaches to gently pick up one of the girls.

She calls to Jacob without looking away from them.] I'm almost afraid to ask, how much are they? Are they even part of the sale?

They're for sale.

[He folds his hands on the counter.]

Alright, how about... you make me an offer, I see where we can go from what you can afford?

[She nods, placing the doll gently back in its place before turning her attention to him.]

A doll like that, in my world, would be worth nine thousand leaf, give or take. If you want me to check that, I could. Since they're on sale...

[She thinks for a moment... then nods once.] I can offer fourteen thousand for two of them.

[Now that he has an idea of things - he doesn't know the prices of things in other worlds or what currency people know, so...]

I'll make it better. Ten thousand for the two. A little under half off what you'd pay back home.

[She's honestly surprised at his generosity! ... And then immediately suspicious. Because that's how she is.]

That's pretty nice of you. At that price, what if I wanted all three?

[She's not sure if she really does, but it doesn't hurt to ask.]

That'd hike it up to fifteen thousand. Which is, of course, over your original offer of fourteen, so you might not wanna go there. But maybe you do. Maybe you were playing auction house and lowballing a price only to find yourself with an even lower price.

Hmm, that's about what I expected.

[She looks at the dolls again...]

I'll take two. The girls. I may come back for the boy later, even if the sale has ended.

[You know, if she can get the rest of the Leaf from the party without them noticing~]

Alright. Get your girls, give me my key, pay me, and they're officially all yours.

[She smiles, faintly, as she carefully takes the girls off the shelf. She closes the case, locks it back, returns to the counter.]

Nice doing business with you, sir.

[Here. Have your key, and ten thousand leaf.]

Enjoy your dolls!

[He puts the ten thousand leaf in the register. He will figure out what 'leaf' is equivalent to in dollars later.

Enjoy your dolls, Jacqli.]

(If Jacqli listens closely at night, she will hear the dolls whispering to each other. If caught, they shut up immediately. If she's not caught listening in, she'll eventually catch on to the fact the two girls are gossiping about the next day's events.)

The Hosts

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