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Applications
APPLICATIONS
Since the game is in the closing process, applications are permanently CLOSED.
Reserves are currently CLOSED.
Please be sure to review our FAQ, rules, and taken page!
Player Cap: 38/60
Please note that reserves only hold the character for you to apply with. Should all player slots be filled before the end of the scheduled application round, applications will close at that time. Due to the limited number of player slots, revision requests will be given a 24 hour window for re-submission.
To submit your application during an open round, copy and paste it directly in a comment here. If your application exceeds the character length, please only use one top-level and reply to it with as many comments as needed.
Please title your comments in the following format:
CHARACTER NAME | CANON | RESERVED/NOT RESERVED
Player
Name:
Age:
Contact:
Preferred Pronouns:
Other Characters: If this is your second character, please list your first here.
Character
Name: Please include any known aliases as well.
Age:
Memory Option: (1, 2, 3 -- see HERE for more information).
Established Status: Y/N. If yes, please state for how long (up to five years, more information can be found here) and detail briefly what they've been doing since they've come to Overjoyed. Please note that no memory regains will be possible prior to game-start: this option is only available to allow you to better establish your character and their potential organizations/business/etc.
Canon:
Canon Point:
Citizenship: Please review the settings guide and job guide, as not all characters will have citizenship. This will be very important for plot events and will not be easily changed once accepted, so consider your options carefully.
Job: See our jobs, FAQ, and culture pages for more information. Who they work for--whether it's The Company, The RAC, or another option, will have a significant impact on their daily lives. The most important thing to bear in mind is that the job should make sense for the character--we probably wouldn't have Gundam Wing's Heero become a pastry chef (though that would be its own level of awesome), and likewise, Ash Ketchum probably isn't suited for biomedical engineering.
* Level: For characters who are applying as members of the RAC, please state the level you believe is the most logical starting point for them. Keep in mind that no one begins higher than a level 4.
Abilities: For an overview of how your character's canon powers can translate to Overjoyed, please review the FAQ, powers guide and/or hit up the brainstorming meme where a mod will be happy to work with you. In short, we will only be nerfing those abilities deemed game-breaking, but will require that magical abilities translate into more scifi iterations of themselves. Additionally, you will need to classify your abilities between minor and major and explain why you chose that classification. Minor abilities will be available from day one, but major abilities can only be regained through AC purchases.
This section should also include any standard physical or mental abilities that are noteworthy about your character.
Personality: We expect this section to be thorough and as comprehensive as possible. While we understand that the nature of an AU-bending game will skew a canon personality, we ask that you refrain from heavy use of headcanon and, in the instances where you do use it, provide your logic and reference canon to back it up. Things to consider in this section: How do they react to conflict? What are their strongest traits and their weakest points? In their worst moments, what are they like? How about when they're at their best? We want to see well-rounded characters--no one is perfect and no one is completely flawed.
CRAU: Yes or no. If yes, please provide a brief summary of the world setting they're coming from, the developments and/or formative experiences that occurred during the time they were there, and a link to the game's main navigation page.
AU History: This is the section where you will blend the world setting with your character's original history. Because we realize that this isn't the easiest task, we want to make it as painless--and as fun--as possible. If you're struggling for ideas, please don't hesitate to hit up the brainstorming meme. Your history does not need to mirror canon precisely--some things just won't translate well at all, but try to stay as true to the original path as you can. The people tasked with rewriting your character's memory would try to align it as closely to true experiences as they could.
Original History:
If canon: A wiki link is sufficient as long as it covers the pertinent details and pertains to the specific universe in which you're pulling your character from (anime, manga, game, etc).
If OC: Please provide a detailed account of their life and general world setting of their original universe. If possible, try to limit this section to no more than 1000 words, but know that this is more of a general guideline for your moderators' sanity than unbending rule (so if you feel that you need to write more to convey important details, we understand).
Inventory: Items that your character had on their person at the time of leaving their universe will be permitted, though some may change form when entering Overjoyed to suit the environment (i.e., if you had a magical pocketwatch, it would probably look slightly different now.) For application purposes, please list any items within their possession at the canon point you'll be taking them from, and describe any changes the items will undergo.
Samples: Please provide either (A) a sample written within the game verse or (B) two threads, only one of which may be network, wherein at least one is set within game verse (i.e., tdm).
Miscellaneous Notes: Is there anything you would like the mods to consider that didn't quite fit into the above sections? For original characters, please note your PB here. Otherwise, feel free to add anything pertinent that didn't quite fall into the above categories.
Vaughn | Borderlands | Reserved
Player
Name: Alison
Age: 21+
Contact:
Preferred Pronouns: She/her
Character
Name: Vaughn
Age: 27
Memory Option: 1 - AU Memory Deterioration
Established Status: Yes - four years as a Company lackey
Canon: Borderlands
Canon Point: End of Episode 4
Citizenship: Leith
Job: Accountant, The Company
Abilities: He's good at math? That's really about it.
Personality:
Yeah, Vaughn's a bit of a weirdo. Virtually no one in Tales from the Borderlands could really pass as normal, but Vaughn's... quirky, to say the least. From getting ridiculously excited about finding an old (pardon me, vintage) watch-calculator, to idly poking a former coworker's dead body with a stick, to sudden outbursts of loudly-proclaimed confidence (as seen in the quote above), he's definitely a lot more than just the nerdy sidekick. The story is primarily about Rhys and Fiona, the two main characters, but it's also very interesting to see Vaughn go from an excitable but panicky and insecure accountant to a leader as he adapts to life on the unforgiving planet Pandora.
The game introduces him as Rhys's best friend, "the money man." He's babbling enthusiastically about the promotion Rhys is about to get (supposedly), how they're moving up in Hyperion's ranks, how he's going to buy a gun—one of the things about Vaughn that you learn early on is that he's very chatty. He talks when he's excited, when he's nervous, when he's totally grossed out, when he's pretty sure he's about to die (which is pretty often in a place like Pandora)... really, it's when he gets quiet that you know something's off. He also has a strange tendency to get really excited when he survives danger: in the scene the above quote comes from, after breathlessly recounting all the crazy things he and the others have lived through since arriving on Pandora, he starts screaming up at Helios (the Hyperion space station he and Rhys live and work on) that he's not afraid... only to be immediately spooked by the sound of Rhys receiving a call. So much for that.
Needless to say, Vaughn's kind of an insecure guy, at least for the first three episodes. You get the feeling that he's fully aware he's a nerd. He's pretty short, made worse by the fact that his posture is usually slouched forward, and yet when he and Rhys get separated from the girls on Pandora he takes his shirt off and ties it around his head, revealing that he's... surprisingly ripped. When questioned, he waves it off that he had an exercise bike put in his office. While it's possible he simply wanted to get in better shape, it also seems likely that his decision to try to bulk up may have been motivated by insecurity. He also tends to point out when he does something even mildly impressive, hoping to be acknowledged ("This is so cool, right? D-did you guys see me? I mean, how cool I was?"). A lot of this comes from comparing himself to Rhys, who's been the Cool Friend at least as far back as college. This isn't to say Rhys isn't himself a giant dork; the difference is that Rhys looks like he might be cool, whereas Vaughn's look pretty much screams "nerd." Back then, Vaughn was often left out of things (like parties) that Rhys had no trouble getting into. At one point in the game he actually approaches Rhys about this, afraid he might end up being left behind:
He's a loyal friend, but his loyalty does come into question once early on when it's revealed that he went in on a deal to sell Rhys out. Vaughn vehemently denies that he would have gone through with the deal, claiming it was only to get Vasquez off of them. Whether Rhys believes him (and whether he forgives him) is dependent upon player choice, but it seems likely that he was telling the truth based on his past dedication to helping Rhys achieve his dream of running a company (which apparently involved some unsavory things—he makes an offhand comment about it "haunting his dreams"), and the fact that he doesn't show any sign of disloyalty throughout the rest of the game.
The chaos at the end of episode 3 marks a turning point: he's either absent or mostly absent depending on player choice for episode 4, and that's the last you see of the nervous and insecure Vaughn as he had been. When you meet him again in the final episode he's a new man: the leader of a large group of Hyperion refugees called the Children of Helios. As the only one among them with any actual experience surviving on Pandora, Vaughn quickly assumed the role. Deep down, he's still the chatty, friendly guy he's always been, but he finally seems confident in himself. It's some really satisfying character development, to say the least—a transformation, perhaps, into the kind of person he always wanted to be but was too weighed down by insecurity and a tendency to exist primarily in Rhys's shadow. The faithful number-crunching sidekick finally steps into the spotlight as a capable leader of a group of people who look to him for guidance in their new home in a dangerous land. It's really pretty heartwarming.
Also, he really likes hugs.
no subject
Vaughn was what one might call an "accident." Born to an aging Leithian couple living on Qresh in service to the Kendry family, he was an unplanned (though perhaps not unwanted) addition to a family already consisting of two grown children, both of whom had long since set out on their own, and parents who were in no position whatsoever to be raising another child. Retirement was still years away, and after two long stints working hard to serve their employers, they weren't exactly excited by the prospect of spending it taking care of a kid. It wasn't necessarily that they didn't love him (though he would spend many idle moments wondering about that later), but work came first, mostly out of necessity. Between that and a certain degree of unspoken resentment, he would never be their first priority.
Fortunately for his parents, a golden opportunity fell right into their laps when another branch of the Kendry family put out a strange request: a contracted, live-in "friend" for their own child. It was perfect—they'd be compensated heavily, gain more favor with the Kendrys, and solve their little "problem," who just happened to be the same age as the Kendry child. They offered Vaughn immediately and without any sort of family discussion, and within a week he was gone, with only a couple of half-assed hugs as a send-off.
The Kendry kid's name was Rhys, and he was kind of a brat.
Having both experienced life thus far with significantly negligent parents could have been a bonding point early on, but it wasn't. Rhys's response to his parents hiring someone to be his friend was mostly anger, because it was his parents themselves that he wanted attention from, not some random servant kid. With the AI who looked after Rhys as their only other company, Vaughn took the brunt of Rhys's loud indignation and not-so-subtle classism. Unsurprisingly, he spent much of the first few weeks crying, which only annoyed Rhys even more. Their relationship was tumultuous at best, and remained that way for some time. But the contract was for ten years—a fact neither of them were privy to until one day nearly a year later when, during one of the rare calls from Vaughn's parents, his father finally admitted it to him in a brief moment of guilt. At that point, upon sharing the information with Rhys (who was furious, of course), he proposed a kind of truce: they still had nine years left together, so trying harder to get along was in both of their best interests. They didn't hate each other, so why not attempt to avoid having a mutually miserable childhood? Eventually, Rhys reluctantly agreed, and they started over.
...Sort of. Rhys's self-importance and disdain for the lower classes were both deeply ingrained, so even after they finally graduated to actual friendship, he often treated Vaughn poorly. Trying to ignore it was Vaughn's main method of coping, but sometimes that didn't work. One night years later, after a particularly volatile argument, he snapped and walked away from the estate, too angry to even realize that he wouldn't make it far. This turned out to be even more true than he could have known when he was kidnapped.
It wasn't long after blacking out and waking up on a strange ship that he realized the whole thing was a mistake. A pair of masked men had abducted him under the impression he was a child of one of the Nine, hoping to make a fortune in ransom money. It took the entire night and most of the next day before their intelligence (for some definition of "intelligence") finally backed up his frantic assertions that he was, in fact, "no one." During that time, he tried to escape—a plan he immediately realized was flawed, on account of them being on a ship. Despite his failure, he felt strangely exhilarated by the attempt, so he went on to try and fail two more times, spurred on by a rush of adrenaline that he'd never felt before in his short, extremely sheltered life. Between the sheer annoyance of his continued (though ill-advised) escape attempts and the fact that he was probably worth nothing anyway, he was finally dumped unceremoniously in an area not far from where he'd disappeared from. From there, he managed to find his way back to the estate; reunited with Rhys, he recounted the entire story with bizarre enthusiasm, flushed with excitement despite Rhys's surprising distress in reminding him he could easily have been killed. A search party was quickly called off, and his abductors were caught not long after in another, similarly-incompetent attempt at kidnapping a rich kid.
His unlikely awakening as a thrill-seeker aside, things got better after that. With the hopes of becoming something other than a servant someday, he started to study accounting—he was always good at math, and he'd been handling financial matters (something Rhys was above doing) for years, so it made sense. Their friendship continued to be imperfect and sometimes even strained, but it grew stronger as the years went by, and by the time they were teenagers they were virtually inseparable. Despite an extremely rocky start, they had become best friends. Still, some of the same problems remained, and soon enough the contract was at its end. They were both technically adults now, and while Vaughn's status on Qresh was very low, he was nevertheless free to go. But with no desire to go home and a friendship bordering on codependent, he initially decided he'd stay—until another night and another argument, that is. They fought over the same things they'd always fought over before, but this time it was different: Vaughn decided he'd had enough for real, and finally told Rhys in no uncertain terms that he was leaving. He had no idea where he'd go, but he did know he didn't have to be treated that way—they'd keep in touch, maybe, but he was done. It wasn't until the day he meant to leave that things hit a permanent turning point: Rhys, in a show of emotion that completely shocked him at the time, begged him to stay. Rhys always got what he wanted, he knew, but this was different. There was a sincerity in his friend's words that he'd never really heard before, and it was enough. To Rhys's great relief (and, admittedly, his own), he decided once again to stay. Things were never really strained between them again.
Soon, with the helpful influence of his parents, Rhys got a cushy job at the Company, effectively moving him to Leith. This left Vaughn alone (and lonely; he couldn't remember the last time he was alone) in a giant house that wasn't even his for a little while, but only long enough for Rhys to pull some strings of his own to get him a job in accounting. Elated to escape his status as a servant and to reunite with his best friend, he left the estate on Qresh to join Rhys on Leith. It'd be perfect, he thought. After actually starting the job, though, he rapidly realized he was naive to think so—he wasn't a servant anymore, but many of his new Company coworkers knew that he was, and that was all it took. It was the same behavior and attitude he'd experienced from Rhys in the beginning: generally, people looked down on him, and not just because he was almost a foot shorter than some of them. Fortunately, he'd endured enough of that growing up that he got over it fairly quickly, choosing instead to ignore the looks and the condescension like he did in the past. It wasn't a good way of dealing with it, but just because Rhys had changed his mind about him didn't mean the Company at large ever would. He had a normal-person job, and he got to work vaguely alongside his best friend, so for years he couldn't complain.
Not until Rhys, in a feat of incomparable stupidity, implicated himself with the Resistance. Then there was some complaining.
Most importantly, it meant Rhys was constantly putting himself in danger. Vaughn had come to the perplexing conclusion that danger was fun at a young age, sure, but that was for him. It didn't apply to Rhys, especially when he wasn't even there with him. Thus began a strange amalgamation of emotions, ranging from fussy to envious. How could something be so terrible and yet still kind of awesome?
Envy sometimes overtakes him, especially when he's sitting at a desk crunching numbers and not doing something more exciting—literally anything, for instance. Fussiness usually wins in the end, what with his best friend's safety always at risk now, but for the most part the two exist together.
Both of them would probably get him into just as much trouble someday.
CRAU: N/A
Original History: Game wiki with full plot summary
Inventory: 1 pair of weird enhanced math-glasses, 1 totally awesome (not really) "Atlasio" watch, 1 bowtie that also plays music for some reason
Samples: TDM, Non-TDM
Miscellaneous Notes: None!
ACCEPTED
Congratulations! You've been accepted into Overjoyed.
We’re so excited to have you join our community. Before we can get started, please do the following:
- Request to join the following communities: Logs · Network · OOC · Memes
- Friend the mod account, thenine, and respond to the player contact page.
- Reply to the taken page.
- Fill out the job registry.
- (Optional) Follow the mod plurk here to stay up to date about upcoming plots, community discussions, and more!
- (Optional) Put your application, IC contact/inbox, and permissions post in your journal, then introduce yourself to the OOC community!
- Third Round Applicants: Chapter 3 will launch on February 11th! In the meantime, feel free to create pregame CR or play with the current timeline/setting of Chapter 2 (found here) until the next plot installment!
All characters will start with a balance of 100 bonus HP. This balance can be used towards AC bank purchases, but may not be used for satisfying monthly AC requirements.If you have any further questions or comments, please don't hesitate to reach out to us by PM or on the contact page.
Once again, we’re so happy to have you, and thanks for joining us!
Yours,
Overjoyed Mods