MaNiKin: the new world [PG-16]

[parallelzero]

MANiKiN: the new world
signup and ooc

what was red? was it the sky or the ocean? I'll never know. maybe it was both?
the red was everywhere, the crimson of blood. my blood, my sister's blood.
and from there the story was no longer happily ever after...

An EXTREMELY ambitious experiment on my part, I've decided to bring over an RP I made on Gaia a while ago that never took off due to inactivity! I don't know how you guys will receive it, but I figure I might as well give it a shot. The layout is certainly... long, mostly because of the pre-set character roles. Obviously, we won't fill all of them, so I'll end up making something work with what we get. Keep in mind you can also adjust the general profiles I give if you run it by me first! Usually on PC you just make your character completely by scratch, but I like having general roles set out like that from the get-go.

we sing as if the song never ends
for if we stop, we will succumb​

☈ Like every tale, this one has humble beginnings. It all began twenty years ago, in a small farming village amidst the state of Texas. There lived a young girl there, a young girl who did nothing but lock herself in her tiny attic room and played with her dolls. She had many kinds of dolls, ranging from antiques to paper dolls, and she loved every single one of them. Unfortunately, it provided this girl, Anastasia, with little-to-no real friends. On the rare occasion she attended school, she was ridiculed to the point of fighting back, which often lead to severe injury. Her parents became concerned, and tried to take her dolls away from her, but eventually Anastasia became smart, and locked herself in that room permanently.

☈ It was here that the young girl of ten realized her greatest and most selfish wish: she wished that everyone in the world, including herself, would just become a doll. Nobody knows quite what occurred after she made this wish, but when the firemen finally broke into the small attic room to drag the girl out, she was nowhere to be found, along with her dolls. It was troubling, to be sure, but her body was never found, and after several years she was assumed to be dead by the government. After a while, the story was forgotten by everyone other than those it directly affected, and the doll obsessed girl, Anastasia, faded into nothingness.

☈ Ten years after the girl's disappearance, it seemed as if her wish could potentially become a reality. Many scientists (with apparently nothing better to do) began to do research in the field of human transformation, with one of their earlier experiments being changing humans into a living dolls, with the same hard body and joint systems of the real thing. Unfortunately, nothing successful came of the project, and it was eventually trashed until eight years after that, when it was picked up again by a man by the name of Dr. Schrodinger. The man, hailing from Germany, was a genius with his mind set on perfecting the doll transformation experiments. Why? He had a daughter who loved dolls, so he wanted to do something that would impress her. But, nobody could predict that such a simple notion of love would lead to something so horrible.

☈ What occurred in Schrodinger's lab that night, Schrodinger himself probably couldn't even explain even if he was with us today. The bottom line was that something went horribly, horribly wrong, and one of the experiments went out of control, breaking free of it's confinements and attacking the scientist. He survived, narrowly, and made his way home quickly after having the lab quarantined. By the time he made it home and sat down on his couch, he was already feeling weird, the strange feeling stemming from a flesh wound the experiment had given him. Thinking little of it, he drifted asleep. He awoke again to the sound of his twelve year old daughter, whom had come in to see her papa. But, the usual warmth he felt from the girl's presence seemed to be gone, and he rose from the couch with a glass-shattering shriek before striking his daughter with an inhuman hand. It was seemingly porcelain, with doll-like joints, and it didn't take long for him to clue into what had happened, as well as realizing what he had done to his daughter, who was now laying on her side on the opposite side of the room, a notable wound in her body. He rushed over, initially to aide her, but something took hold of him again, and he bit her. And then he knew - she'd soon be like him, and he was content.

☈ What happened from there on was nothing but a chain reaction. From the Schrodinger household, the two MANiKiNs emerged, spreading the disease across the country, on over the course of two months, the entire world. No place became safe from the virus, or curse, or whatever it was. nobody knew for sure what was causing it, but most people were focused on staying alive to worry too much about how the hell it all worked. In only those two months, 98% of the world's human population had succumbed to the MANiKiN threat, with the remaining 2% meeting at an oceanside city in the US, known by the survivors as Utopia. The gave the rest of the world the name Dystopia. Survivors continued to assemble at Utopia, building a community from the feet up in the time of desperation. Those who were able to fight were given the task of protecting the city from MANiKiNs, while others did more remedial things like maintain stores and gather food and the like. The city was far from clean of the monsters though, as they lurked left and right amidst the large domain.

☈ Eventually, a government was established around a man known as Jean Parks. He promised to protect the citizens of Utopia from the MANiKiNs, which were now simply referred to as Dolls. He began to stay true to his promise, introducing STRINGS, a group of anti-Doll warriors that were handpicked from the few who could still fight. But, as a result of this forcefully formed government, many people began to distrust it. Very strict rules were put in place, such as not staying out after sunset or else you'd receive a cruel punishment, or paying ridiculous taxes that supposedly funded STRINGS. As a result, a rebellion group rose from the complaints. It was named CARDS, and they were intent on protecting the people as well as bringing down the clearly corrupt government. There wasn't even a vote to office, it just kind of happened!

☈ As the remaining humans continued to fight each other, the Dolls began preparation for a counterattack. While most of them weren't intelligent, a small group of them had seemed to retain their personalities and memories after transforming. This group referred to themselves as the Marionettes, and they were resolved to bring the remaining 2% of humanity down to their world. And, with Dolls seemingly beginning to evolve and grow more intelligent, that may just happen...

without important g u i d e l i n e s
all c i v i l i z a t i o n s will quickly fall​

a c t i v i t y is key
☑ My first and most important rule is that if you join, you stay active. Everyone needs to post, and more than once a month, since if a character drops off the map in the middle of something, then we're pretty much screwed. Make sure you interact with as many people you can, as well, or else we'll have a bunch of loners doing loner things. D=

r a t e d PG-16
☑ Considering the nature of this RP, you can assume there will be mention of blood and the like, maybe even a small bit of nudity. You've been forewarned!

g o o d posts, please
☑ Follow the posting guidelines for the forum. That means I don't want to see one or two liners. It should be hard to pump out a paragraph or so of something meaningful, and I'm going to try my best to try and keep all characters actively involved!

p e r f e c t i o n is imperfection
☑ No mary-sues, please. There's nothing worse than a character that can do no wrong and is absolutely flawless in every way. Nobody is perfect, everyone has problems. And, in a world that has just by shaken by doll-like monsters, I think most characters would have more than just a few issues to deal with.

sometimes the many p l a y e r s
are more i m p o r t a n t than the actual story​

STRINGS
STRINGS is the defense squad formed in Utopia consisting of anyone with experience fighting their name for the MANiKiNs, Dolls.
They are ranked like in Chess pieces.

♚ THE KING ♂ taken
☇ The leader of Utopia's defense division, STRINGS, he who holds the rank of King enjoys sitting back and letting everyone else do all of the hard work. He feels that he deserves to be lazy, seeing as over the past two months he's racked up way more Doll kills than anyone else on his shoddy team of misfit fighters. While he prefers composing strategies over actually fighting, he by far has the most power behind his combative ability. When it comes down to it, though, King is a good guy with strong morals, even if he does have a habit of picking on his subordinates.


♛ THE QUEEN ♀
☇ More or less the Lieutenant of STRINGS, the woman with the rank of Queen can be characterized by her strong will and blunt conversational tactics. Like the King, she is ranked so high because she has demonstrated her power time and time again, against both Dolls and human resistance towards Utopia's government system. She follows the King's orders without any doubts or hesitation, and looks down upon the lower ranks as unworthy with her uncaring attitude. Despite her rough demeanor, she embarrasses easy, which people have noticed as one of her only emotional weaknesses.


♜ THE ROOK ♂ taken
☇ On the chess board, the Rook is the unit mainly responsible for offense, and in STRINGS there are no changes there. As a warrior, he prefers to fight in close quarters as opposed to long range, so obviously he uses a melee weapon. The only thing stronger than his raw power is his thick skull, which must cut off the blood flow to his brain since he can never identify when to run and when to fight. Actually, fighting is his first assumption in almost every combat scenario, and he does so without a strategy. As a result, he often disobeys the King's battle plans, placing other units at risk. Overall, though, the Rook is a carefree guy who seems to think that no matter what, everything will turn out for the best.


♝ THE BISHOP ♀ taken
☇ The Bishop is a girl who places priority on long range attacks, so she specializes in long range weaponry such as bows or guns. She places such a priority for one very important reason: she cannot stand to see the faces of those she kills. Monsters or not, the Dolls were once human, so their efforts were borderline homicide. Though that raises very important questions. Why does she fight? She probably has a good reason, but she's not about to share. The Bishop is a very shy person, often having problems letting her feelings out, especially to strangers. However, once you befriend her, she will treasure you to the fullest.


♞ THE KNIGHT ♂ taken
☇ A warrior with a heavy responsibility, the Knight is burdened with keeping the Pawns in check. He's more or less their bodyguard-slash-babysitter, making sure they follow the orders given and making sure their "conditions" are exploited to the fullest in the Doll hunt. He isn't particularly happy with his role, but he'll live, he guesses. More of a slacker than anything, the Knight doesn't see it fit to attack unless attacked first. He specializes in both melee and long range attacks, which means squat when faced with a female opponent. He has a soft spot for the ladies, and won't hesitate to try and pick one up if he can.


♞ THE PAWNS ♂ ♀ taken
☇ There are two Pawns in STRINGS, one male and one female. They hold the lowest rank for a reason, and that's because they're more bait than anything. You see, the Pawns are two of the few humans that are in the midst of undergoing MANiKiN transformations ridiculously slow. This means they retain their humanity while their body changes, and still having your humanity after a couple of hours, let along a couple of months, is impressive. The cause of their slower transformation cycle is unknown, but because of it they live almost every day in fear of it overcoming them. Since Dolls are drawn to the scent of Doll in the midst of transformation, they make good bait for enemy Dolls. Thankfully, they've been trained to hold their own in combat, and while not as powerful as the Knight that watches over them, they are pretty tough.





THE CARDS
The CARDS are an anti-Utopia government group that disagree with the self-elected government party and the heavy restrictions they place on the citizens of the city. They've been known to aid the STRINGS in emergency, but are otherwise in conflict with them.
They are ranked by card suits.

♠ THE SPADE ♂ taken
☇ The Spade is the first of the big four in the CARDS group. While not entirely opposed to the views of the reigning government, he feels that people should be able to move around freely whenever they please, and not be severely punished if caught doing so. He is motivated to move against the government by an incident where his younger brother was killed during the whipping punishment for being caught out past curfew, which the government denies having occurred. While generally calm and rational, he uses this calmness to mask the thirst for revenge he possesses. No human, and no Doll will get in his way, and he has resolved to eventually resort to extremes if needed.


♦ THE DIAMOND ♂ taken
☇ Not particularly fond of his more feminine-than-not title, the Diamond is the kind of guy who could really care less about the situation with the government. He's just around because he gets to kill a lot of stuff. He is by far the most sadistic human in all of Utopia, finding joy in the screams and cries of his victims, Doll or not, which tends to put some distance between himself and other CARDS members. Aside for his sadistic nature, he's just nuts pretty much all around, often seen talking to himself or inanimate objects, which begs the question as to how he obtained such a high rank in the organization. One theory is that he killed the previous holder of the title...


♣ THE CLUB ♀ taken
☇ The sworn rival of the Rook, the Club takes a lot of pride in her combat skills and looks for any chance she can get to show them off, even if it means abandoning a task she's working on already. Sick of fighting Dolls and weak soldiers, the only reason the Club is even a part of CARDS is because she is seeking someone who can give her a good run for her money, which explains her obvious affection towards the battle-happy Rook. Like two peas in a pod, really. She often leaves dealing with small fry to the other members of their little group, which often leaves them overwhelmed when dealing with a large number of "nuisances". The Club doesn't strike anyone as a bad person, as she is for the most part well-mannered. She just tends to lose herself in battle is all.


♥ THE HEART ♂ taken
☇ The only pacifist in the big four of CARDS, the Heart is a passive person who doesn't fight unless he feels shedding blood is the only way. He's been known to take pity on his enemies, often treating their wounds after bringing them to their knees. He's a member of the resistance because he feels too many people are injured both physically and mentally as a result of the reign of Utopia's government, and that they should at least be shown the error of their ways. Of course, he sees talking as a better way of accomplishing this, as opposed to violence like everyone else in the group wants to use. He's a really nice guy, he's just kind of a... wimp.





THE MARIONETTES
The Marionettes are a group of Dolls that have somehow retained some sense of humanity even after their transformations occurred. Out of spite, they plot to end the reign of humanity and plunge the world into a world of MANiKiNs.
They are ranked by Ba gua symbols.

☰ HEAVEN ♀ taken
☇ The leader of the Marionettes and self-proclaimed ruler of all Dolls, the one who refers to herself as Heaven is a very relaxed being with a very sadistic side to her personality to whom she only shows her enemies. Torture is her specialty, and she has no qualms with ripping a human off of the street of Utopia and using it in some mad Doll experiment. Her interest is particularly piqued by the Pawns, who's transformation seem to be ludicrously slow compared to those of the average person. She feels no need to engage in battle herself, but if she does she does it long range, as she has a frail body.


☱ LAKE ♂ taken
☇ The Marionette with the rank of Lake is not someone to be taken lightly, that much is for sure. He acts as Heaven's personal bodyguard, and thus has the required strength to fulfill such a role. While not protecting his mistress physically, he has a tendency to do remedial work for her so that she rarely has to leave her throne, such as getting her nourishment. He doesn't complain about his position, in fact, he doesn't talk much at all. However, he doesn't particularly like the other Marionettes, as they all seem to have their own agendas that do not coincide with that of the Heaven.


☲ FIRE ♀
☇ Fire is probably the most selfish of all the Marionettes, not particularly caring for their opinion or what they're doing. All she wants to do is look as pretty as she can be in her Doll-like body. A fashionista in her human life, she quickly found problems wearing normal clothes while making them look good when her joints were in the form of ball joints. As such, she searches for the perfect outfit that will make her look absolutely gorgeous, and if any humans or other Dolls get in her way, she has no reservations with forcefully removing them from her sight. After all, they totally weren't worthy enough to be in her beautiful line of vision.


☳ THUNDER ♂
☇ Thunder is, to be quite honest, ridiculously loud and obnoxious. If he ever had to be stealthy EVER in his life, he would fail miserably from the get-go. In his opinion, Marionettes, despite their hard skin and lack of overall humanity, were far superior to any regular human, and as such they should just all bow to him and his fellow Dolls and accept defeat, where they'd all be killed. He wants to perform a genocide on humanity, a people who never treated him right in his human life. His obnoxious behavior is further fueled by his big vocabulary, since he likes to throw big words around loudly and leave people confused. He gets along well with Fire, but only because they're both ridiculously stuck up.


☴ WIND ♂ taken
☇ The kind of guy who likes to go with the flow, Wind is one of the two Marionettes Heaven refers to as "misfits" due to their relatively happy personalities. He's cheery, and supportive of other members in his group in ordeals that don't involve killing. Really, he's only with them because he feels he wouldn't be accepted anywhere else. He has reservations about harming humans, and if rubbed the wrong way would probably betray the Marionettes. Out of fear for this, Heaven placed Mountain in charge of watching over him, under orders to kill Wind if he showed any resolve of fighting against his own kind. He also has a slight crush on Fire, not that he'd ever admit it considering her personality.


☵ WATER ♀ taken
☇ The other "misfit", Water is a bubbly girl that seemingly lacks the ability to predict the repercussions of her actions. She's a naive thinker, thinking that if she follows the orders of Heaven everything will work out for the best, all because Heaven feigns a friendship with her to keep her in check. Water has a strong friendship with Wind due to their personalities which are both kind in nature, so Heaven fears that if Wind does something, he'll take Water with him. Water is very reliant on other people, especially in combat as she doesn't much like fighting. She thinks death is sad, and questions why she needs to fight people when they were once people too. However, as long as she believes in the words of Heaven, her actions will never waver.


☶ MOUNTAIN ♂ taken
☇ Mountain is the elder brother of Earth, so he feels he needs to set a proper example for his younger sister in this new world ruled by Dolls. He's troubled by the transformation they'd both undergone, but with his parents both dead he decided that taking care of his younger sister and holding her hand through this new world was the best thing he could do. He resents the humans for being able to retain their humanity, and as a result he feels the need to make them all Dolls too, so that his sister could learn to accept her fate instead of dwelling on her human past. Long story short, he has a sister complex. He's really a gentle person overall, who'll only fight if necessary, but in any scenario, his sister comes first.


☷ EARTH ♀ taken
☇ Earth is the younger sister of Mountain, although sometimes she wouldn't like to be, considering how much he smothers her. Despite her younger age, she's got a very tough personality that helped her bare the loss of her family and friends, and the resulting transformation she had undergone. She bears no ill will against those who remained human, since she knew that her condition was none of their faults. However, she just couldn't leave the Marionettes, or else her brother would have a fit. He seemed to think that being with those killers was the safest place, which was just ridiculous. Her personality is pretty sweet outside of missions, though, when she isn't off thinking about things... hopefully alone.

find the signup thread here!​

 

[parallelzero]

September 23; 6:45pm

Was there a God in this world? If there was, it had disappeared long ago. As a naive child, the girl had often wondered why things like diseases and death existed if a God was watching over them. She had doubts of it's existence. And, recently, she'd abandoned the idea of one ever existing at all.

"Alicia, Lucas. They'll be on your position in just a moment, so be ready." A gruff voice spoke out of the girl's communicator. The King, barking his orders as usual. The girl had nothing against Wyman, the man of thirty-nine that held this role, but he'd be a little bit more bearable if he wasn't such a lazy ass. There was no doubt the other members of their organization were laying nearby in wait - around both her and the other piece of Doll bait, Lucas. They stood in the middle of what was once an intersection, remnant, destroyed cars all around, and skyscrapers with ruined windows towering high above them. It was the very edge of the city, far to the East. It was the farthest point to which they could let the Dolls pass.

They never approached from the West, seeing as it was all ocean and they creatures couldn't swim, which begged the question as to why bait was really needed in the first place. According to Wyman, however, the Dolls seemed to be attracted to the two Pawns as a result of the ongoing transformation placed upon them. They could smell the incompleteness and wanted to finish the job, or some crazy speculative theory like that. No matter the reason, it didn't change that their very presence brought all the Dolls to one place, which made disposal very convenient.

The sound of footsteps grew nearer, the echoes of shoes on pavement growing louder with each second. The setting sun cast an eerie glow on the surrounding scenery. Movement down the street suddenly caught Alicia's attention as a group of what appeared to be people began to turn around a nearby building. They looked like people from a distance, yet the moved stiffly, almost unbalanced, suddenly. A closer look would reveal their faces, twisted into the mockery of a human face, hard as a rock with eyes as dead as the pale moon. Blood decorated the faces of some of them, as their mouths were allowed to move slightly in order to feast upon human flesh. They were hungry, that's why they were here.

The blond haired girl backed up a bit, her ponytail bobbing as she did so. She needed to create more space as they drew nearer, and motioned to Lucas to do the same. They backed off until they were clear of the intersection, and the Dolls slowly entered the area they had once occupied. There had to be at least thirty. Less than usual, luckily. Now all that needed to happen was for the signal to be given, and the higher ranking officers would dispose of the enemies while she and Lucas would try to retreat.

"NOW, ATTACK!" The gruff voice bellowed through her earpiece again, a message all of the members of STRINGS would hear.


---


The small girl stared in a very uninterested manner at the company at her table. It was very rare she could get all of her underlings together for tea, yet none of them looked particularly interested to be there. Her neck rolled on a ball-joint as she looked around at the group. What strange company they were. It was a little depressing that Arune, Lake, was off preparing food at the moment, since she was seldom left alone with these people. She always got the vibe that most of them didn't like her. She brought the cup of tea up to her lips with a porcelain hand - her lips strangely functional, much unlike the rest of the Dolls. She had granted these sane Dolls more... human forms as payment for staying with her. It was amazing what she could do just from screwing around with the stupid things!

"So... how's everyone?" Celia broke the awkward silence, looking around at the others. They were all in a broken down office building not to far from Utopia. The stupid humans never ventured out to see things, nor did they yet know of Marionette's existence, so it was the perfect base. "Does anyone have anything to report regarding the human filth? I sent out some scouting units earlier, but have any of you gotten off your butts to look around yourselves?"

Such a pleasant person.

 

[Oathkeeper(:]

Not too far away from the action, a young pale girl stood, shielded by little, her short blond curls blowing gently in the soft breeze. She spied the lowest members of STRINGS through a pair of binoculars.

"So...those are the infamous Pawns." She said to herself as she watched.

This was just one of the many reasons Mikaela disliked the entirety of the group responsible for "protecting" Utopia. While she was a bit wary of the Pawns, and their eerily slow transformation, for the most part, they WERE still human. Just standing here in the middle of an intersection. Bait. Attracting an untold number of Dolls to their location. This kind of stuff happened frequently. The only thing Mikaela didn't understand was why, exactly. To lower their numbers? Though she didn't much care. She was up for a good fight.

As the sun was setting, Mikaela lowered her binoculars at the sound of "thumping". The porcelain sound of those...monsters coming towards the bait. Same old, same old.

From afar, she was safe. No need to draw attention to her position unless absolutely needed. She reached down and drew her twin guns from their holsters, cocking them as she began preparing for anything. With those things, you could never tell what was going to happen.
​

 

[Fan_the_Flames]

Alex sat at the table around his peers, a small frown on his face as he turned his jointed neck left and forth across the table. Tea, what a great way to be spending the night. Surrounded by a bunch of animated puppets that had the same goals as he. Well, he probably wouldn't go that far; the other Marionettes didn't seem to be interested in the complete and utter annihilation of the other kind. No point making that known...yet at least. Alex coughed gently, issuing attention to him and breaking the damned silence.

"Ciela, if you must inquire into my escapades the past few days, I believe I could have some intelligence of worth."

He felt the eyes of the entire table on him now, the glares of either contempt or scorn at his vocabulary. That brought a small smile to his face. As long as they didn't call him by that pseudo-name, he would be fine.

"As many of you have realized by now, I am a man with the aptitude to gain an extreme amount of knowledge. This time, I have found something that could bring about the end of not only STRINGS, but the entirety of Utopia as well."

Now Alex saw he had everyone's attention. The eyes had changed from contempt to interest, something Raban loved to see as long as it was directed at him.

"STRINGS has been becoming more and more aggressive in it's quest to force the Dolls to extinction. Each time I go out I see them bringing more and more of our kind into a demise. Now, many of you would say 'They are expendable, for every one Doll STRINGS destroys, a dozen will be created'. Indeed, this is true, but what of morale? Allow Utopia and the humans to continue this wanton desecration of the Dolls, and they will one day decide for a full out strike against us."

Raban stood up, it wasn't like him to stay sitting. He pulled out one of his porcelain chakrams, smiling as he saw his own reflection in the deadly point.

"But what if Marionettes fathomed all there was about the STRINGS, and by an extension, the Utopia defense system itself? I may have just found the solution to that problem. The Pawns, my brethren. Let us ponder this for a second; why are the STRINGS such an effective killing force for Dolls? They use the Pawns as lures, trapping their prey in small forces for mass destruction. It is their greatest strength against us..."

Suddenly, Alex threw the chakram across the room, seeing it embed just over Ciela's head. The whistling sound was always one of his favorite sounds, it was the sound of death to him.

"...yet also their greatest weakness. What does that pathetic motley troupe have on the Marionettes, and Dolls in general, if they lose the lure that keeps them safe? All in my opinion, but if we are able to destroy the Pawns, or more beneficial, turn them to our alliance before the final transformation, we shall have the ultimate advantage on those pathetic humans. Nothing will be able to overcome us!"

His smile grows wider as he walks back to his seat, sitting down daintly. Alex unsheathed his claws once, before taking a sip of the tea in front of him.

"Ciela, this is scrumptious, thank you dearly."

 

[Swolligator]

Apathy was not the emotion Ivan wanted to convey at this point in time but nonetheless it was one of only several expressions he could use since his transformation. He also didn't particularly want to be around any of these… things, things that were like him in more ways than one. Except Claire whom Ivan shared much in common with. And of course he couldn't forget Sarah, but that was for entirely different reasons altogether. Yet he found himself in the same room much less sitting at the same table as these… things. Out of the corner of his eye he carefully watched Amell who was sitting next to, more like guarding his younger sister. Ivan knew that one step out of line and Amell would come down on him like a ton of bricks so he leaned back in his chair; mulling over the words he was going to use, choosing carefully.

Celia had summoned them all here to this deserted, rundown building to 'talk' but Ivan felt that she had called them all here so that she could check up on them. Ivan despised Celia but knew that one false move and she would not hesitate to send Amell to deal with him and also that out there, there were no others like him; this was only place he could be truly accepted, to a degree. He sipped cautiously at the tea; not that he thought it was poisoned but because of the pure fact that he disliked tea which was all Celia ever gave them. He made sure that he took a decent enough sip as to say: "I'm still with you"; not that he particularly wanted to.

"So… how's everyone?" Celia was the first to break the silence and Ivan smirked on the inside; "I was right!" but Ivan's smirk was short lived as she continued with: "Does anyone have anything to report regarding the human filth? I sent out some scouting units earlier, but have any of you gotten off your butts to look around yourselves?"

"Of course," he thought, "All she wants is to know when she can wipe out the human race, like she actually gives a toss about how we are."

He turned his attention from inwards to what was happening in the room, as Alex began to talk. Ivan decided not to pay attention as he knew exactly what thunder was going to talk about; "Death to the humans, Dolls dominating the world." It was all the others ever talked about and was very, deeply depressing. They themselves had been humans once; "and what I would give to be human again; when life was not a matter of life and death." But Ivan knew that that life went out the window the minute he had turned into a Doll.

He snapped back to reality just in time to hear the end of Alex's speech.

"...yet also their greatest weakness. What does that pathetic motley troupe have on the Marionettes and Dolls in general, if they lose the lure that keeps them safe? All in my opinion, but if we are able to destroy the Pawns, or more beneficial, turn them to our alliance before the final transformation; we shall have the ultimate advantage on those pathetic humans. Nothing will be able to overcome us!"

"Of course, no sentence would go to waste without having to use 'destroy' in it." Ivan thought critically. He noticed Alex's chakram imbedded in the wall only millimetres above Celia's head. It was a bold move but the 'doll dictionary' did get his point across. Ivan watched Alex return to his seat and sheath his claws and take a sip from his tea cup.

"Celia, this is scrumptious, thank you dearly."

"cough, suck up, cough" Ivan thought, frowning at his criticality today; it was very unlike him.

"I second Alex's motion; we should turn the Pawns to our side." Ivan raised his cup in salute and took a swig of the foul liquid, cringing as it slid down his throat. "You're playing a dangerous game, Ivan," he thought to himself, "but it is the best option; the one with the least fatalities in it."

 

[Yuukihime]

Claire wasn't one for these 'meetings'. She always thought they were horrendously boring. It was just going on and on about how they will manage to destroy the human race which Claire wasn't all that interested in, Claire really only attended for two main reasons. One being the fact that Celia was her friend and the other being the food. She loved drinking tea and eating with everyone, it made her almost seem human again.

Claire let out a yawn and shifted position. Another reason she hated these meeting is there were always so many awkward silences. Claire was just waiting for the food to arrive but Arune was still preparing it. Just thinking about the food made her mouth water.

"So... how's everyone?" Celia broke the awkward silence, looking around at the others. They were all in a broken down office building not too far from Utopia. The atmosphere was ridiculously dull, Claire's mind wandered to how she could spruce it up. She imagined the room filled with many different teddy bears and flowers. Celia's harsh tone snapped her out of her thoughts, "Does anyone have anything to report regarding the human filth? I sent out some scouting units earlier, but have any of you gotten off your butts to look around yourselves?"

While it was true Claire had took a look around, but not to look for humans. She went looking for flowers but she'd better not let Celia know that. A mad Celia was a scary Celia. This is when Alex stood up and started going on about a plan about turning the PAWNS to the opposing side..Either way, Claire didn't really care what a walking book had to say.

As Alex went into a long speech about ways to dominate the human race Claire's mind wandered. She was thinking about what food Arune was making. Was it something sweet or was it something sour. Maybe it was salty...Claire sipped her tea and thought of what different foods Arune could be making.

Her face smiled at the thought of any type of sweets but at the thought of any type of bitter food she frowned but what if was something strange like..CARAMEL COVERED ROACHES?!

"...yet also their greatest weakness. What does that pathetic motley troupe have on the Marionettes, and Dolls in general, if they lose the lure that keeps them safe? All in my opinion, but if we are able to destroy the Pawns, or more beneficial, turn them to our alliance before the final transformation, we shall have the ultimate advantage on those pathetic humans. Nothing will be able to overcome us!"

Alex took his seat and complimented the tea. Claire's thoughts were still on all the strange foods that Arune could be preparing. Roasted spider legs, pickled frog eyes, snake soup, frosted fish scales.

"EW!" Claire yelled and then noticed she had said the declaration aloud and in a quick effort to save herself from a lecture Claire managed to stammer out, "I mean I...uh....I completely agree!"

 

[Castiel]

"So... how's everyone?" Celia asked, the silence now broken. "Does anyone have anything to report regarding the human filth? I sent out some scouting units earlier, but have any of you gotten off your butts to look around yourselves?" Sarah laughed in her mind. Of course, the question was directed at anyone in the room but Sarah was obviously not all gung-ho about finding things out about humans. Or doing much work at all, for that matter. She'd leave that to the people who were really interested.

She sat at the table looking far from interested. She rolled her hand, examining it with a bored expression, waiting for this meeting to end. She had little interest in fighting, no matter how much she detested humans. She fought when needed, of course. Despite her hatred of humans, when she was human, clothes just looked so much better. And there was a wider variety!

Alex stood up, going on with what he had found. He was much more enthusiastic about destruction of humans, compared to Sarah. Sarah was, in either arrogance or some sense of optimism(maybe even realism!), sure the humans had no chance against the dolls. They were plenty out numbered, and with dolls advancing, the dolls had most of the advantages. She didn't see the point in doing so much planning and talking. In her mind, this war had already been won.

It wasn't just her disinterest that made her itching to get out. It was the setting. Just downright plain and maybe even depressing. Not that Sarah was a happy, fun-and-rainbows kind of girl but there could have been somewhere better to talk, even if there weren't too many standing buildings to be in. She didn't voice her opinion on that matter. Maybe some other time. Or never.

Sarah tuned in to hear Alex and flinched just as his weapon hit the wall.

"...yet also their greatest weakness. What does that pathetic motley troupe have on the Marionettes, and Dolls in general, if they lose the lure that keeps them safe? All in my opinion, but if we are able to destroy the Pawns, or more beneficial, turn them to our alliance before the final transformation, we shall have the ultimate advantage on those pathetic humans. Nothing will be able to overcome us!" He finished. Alex sat down, taking a sip of tea and throwing a compliment at Celia. Sarah drank her tea as well, and heard Ivan agree. The room was silent for a short moment before a loud shriek of 'EW' interrupted the silence. Sarah looked up, eyes in the room on Claire.

"I mean I... uh... I completely agree!" The girl stammered.

A corner of Sarah's lips twitched upward. She looked down into her cup of tea, her reflection just barely there in the dim light of the room. "Such an interesting meeting," she said dryly. She had nothing more to add to the conversation or plans of destroying. The length of these meetings sometimes varied. All she wanted to do was get out. Sometimes she wondered why she even arrived. Some days, like today, she had nothing better to do. It's only when she gets to the meeting she realized that anything could have been funner. Mental note: remember that. Sarah drank from the cup again, anticipating another awkward silence.

 

[Yamagi Sosuke]

We hid in the background as the STRINGS and MANiKins came closer to fighting. We planned on being their encase they weren't strong enough to handle them by themselves. Although the STRINGS are our enemies, we must protect Utopia if they happen to fail.

The area was quickly becoming a battleground, with the doll like bodies of the MANiKin rising from the streets. I figured the STRINGS would be able to handle this small number of them with out help from us, not to mention that I don't want to help those dogs unless I absolutely have too.

I turned towards the other CARDS members behind me " Alright guys things seem to be going alright for them. So they most likely won't need our help. We'll stick around anyway just encase they mess it up. " I grabbed the binoculars and looked towards the direction of the conflict, the binoculars was quickly tossed from side to side as i conveyed the situation.

Until I caught a glimpse of the two pawns, hurrying away from the mob of MANiKins. Those two had been in my thoughts recently, why work as bait, just to attract those disgusting , disfigured , dolls. On top of that they work for those wolves and sheep's clothing. I softly spoke to myself " Hmpp...I bet those bastard STRINGS force them too do this " I could tell that my expression had become drenched in my anger for the STRINGS organization, I let go of the binocular's and allowed them to drop on the ground. Both of my fists cleaned tightly, I wanted nothing more than to attack the STRINGS, right here, right now.

I kept my back towards the other members, I hated showing my feeling to them. I sat there criss cross, thinking about my options and the outcome. Thinking wasn't exactly my forte, but i was gonna give it a shot this time.

 

[Kogenta]

◊

In the intense yet gradually dimming light of the sun, the members of STRINGS prepared to meet a wave of Dolls in combat. As the Pawns backed out of the usual trap and the higher ranks started to close in, the CARDS leaders watched from a distance. Standing behind Spade and Club, the Diamond impatiently spun his knife between his fingers, levering the flat of the blade against his skin. His lips were pressed together slightly, revealing his frustration at not being in the fray--or at least ready to charge into it. In fact, according to his leader, the presence of the CARDS at the scene was likely unnecessary. Maximilien twirled his weapon faster at the thought, causing it to become a grey blur.

Attempting to distract himself from the irritation of a lost chance to battle, Maximilien turned his attention to his teammates. To one side, a girl readied her firearms. She was familiar enough to the Diamond by now, but names were always difficult. So many names to remember, and new ones every day, even if some people did not acknowledge others . . . sometimes he suspected the other suits could not see the figures at all. For a brief moment Maximilien observed Mikaela; then the word "Club" entered his thoughts. Right, that is her name. Or maybe title. Yes, title. Her name is Mikaela. And this one, Spade. The fighter's pale eyes shifted to one side, taking in the figure of a young man sitting on the ground. He was murmuring to himself angrily about STRINGS. That was no surprise. Everyone in the organization knew about his grudge. Maximilien caught his knife by the hilt, glanced at Heart in the blade's reflection, then picked up the binoculars from where Spade had dropped them. He gazed through their lenses quietly, watching the fight between STRINGS and the Dolls begin. Unfortunately, this did little to ease his agitation. Sheathing his weapon with his right hand, Maximilien lowered his left and dropped the binoculars where he had found them. "Here . . ." Name. It starts with either a 'k' or an 'r', I think . . . Julian.

Folding his arms, the Diamond continued to gaze toward the faraway, ant-like figures crowding and dancing. I can't believe I came all this way to not kill anything.

 

[Yamagi Sosuke]

If we attack, I'm pretty sure we're going to be used by STRINGS, I can't risk anymore of the CARDS becoming infected with MANiKin virus either. On the other hand if we don't attack that's an increase chance of the enemy breaking through them. Plus some of CARDS seem to be getting restless.

The sound of someone breaking the silence in my mind, brought me back to reality. I looked back and saw that Maximilien was handing me the binoculars I had dropped awhile ago. It seemed that Maximilien was becoming quite irritated with the waiting. I grabbed the red nylon material on the hilt of Leona. I pulled it out the loops of my jacket and placed it in my lap. I grabbed a napkin out of the inner pockets of my jacket. I begin to wipe the black blade until I saw my reflection. It seems like everybody wants too fight. Maximilien was twirling a blade, a sure way to know he wants to tear something up.

Ok I've made my decision. I crouched around and turned the towards CARDS members.
" OK guys....We all seem to be a little antsy, I say we attack, but as you know we're a team. So what do you guys want to do. Should we wait until we're needed or go all out and attack now. " My eyes stared intensely at the other CARDS members.

 

[Jack O'Neill]

Eastern Utopia (formerly Riverside, California)
23 September 2010, 1845 hours

Riverside, like much of the other towns and cities that made up the Inland Empire, had obviously seen better days. While the Inland Empire was technically a part of Utopia proper (as defined by Jean Parks and the other ruling elites), its rehabilitation had been postponed in favor of fortifying Utopia's core regions of Los Angeles and San Diego. As such, the entire region had fallen into even greater disrepair; damaged buildings were left as they were at the time of the pandemic, and much of the infrastructure was left to decay. Despite Riverside being one of many possible avenues of attack for a mass Doll invasion of Utopia, actual Utopia defense force presence there was at a bare minimum; this lack of any real authority had the result of turning Riverside and the rest of the Inland Empire into a haven for criminals, terrorists, ne'er-do-wells, and other less savoury elements of Utopian society. The STRINGS special forces unit often found itself called out all over the Inland Empire to investigate Doll sightings and occasionally put down out-of-control criminal elements; today's mission seemed to be just another straightforward Doll hunt, though it always had the potential to escalate into something else entirely.

"Some 'Utopia' this is. Ah, the irony," J.D. Ramirez said to himself as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel of his Humvee while waiting for the order to attack. "That bastard Parks can't provide for us all, so he dumps all the so-called 'undesirables' out here in this Godforsaken wasteland, leaving them at the mercy of each other and the damn Dolls. No wonder they're all turning to crime."

While the King and Queen stood far away from the action in a Stryker command vehicle, J.D. had to personally ferry the Knight, Bishop, and Pawns to the designated area of operations in his Humvee. After dropping them off, he parked his car near the intersection and waited for the Dolls to come for the Pawns. While he could not hear the Dolls' approach amidst the rumbling of the idling diesel engine and the thumping of the bass on the sound system, he could certainly see them limping slowly yet surely towards the intersection; he stopped drumming the steering wheel and brought up a pair of binoculars in order to get a better look at them.

By J.D.'s count, there were approximately thirty or so Dolls; a typical Doll incursion could easily involve numbers twice that much. They were too few in number and too far spread out for him to try his usual "tactic" of plowing the Humvee through them to thin out their numbers; however, he still had the M240 mounted on the roof, which he could use to cover the Pawns' retreat while waiting for the surviving Dolls to get in close enough to have some real fun with them. J.D. set down the binoculars and turned off the ignition; as he crawled out of his seat to man the machine gun, he could see a few of the Dolls off in the distance abruptly dropping to the ground, an unmistakable sign of the Bishop's handiwork. "Just don't kill them all before they get to me," he said to himself as he pulled the bolt back on the M240 and looked around for a good target to start the slaughter in earnest.

After a second of scanning the surroundings, J.D. set his sights on a group of three Dolls towards the front of the loose formation and peered through the C79 optic mounted on top of the M240 in order to line up a good shot. "Just keep moving towards me, and I'll put you out of your misery soon enough," he whispered just before he pulled the trigger. The targeted Dolls all collapsed in a spray of blood and porcelain shards. J.D. grinned as he adjusted his aim and fired off another burst at another approaching cluster of Dolls. Even if there wouldn't be any left for him to beat up on at close range, it wasn't too big of a loss; there would certainly be more opportunities to go Doll-bashing later on.

 

[GrifSpark]

Lucas pulled his revolver from its holster and swung out the cylinder. 5 rounds, he pulled a sixth from his pocket and placed it in the empty chamber, then slammed it back into position. He had no idea how many Dolls he'd be fighting today, and wasn't about to risk another bite. He thought back to that day, but it was mostly a blur, but he sure knew what the result was as his examined his right arm again; it was just as stiff and uncomfortable as it had been, and still made of porcelain, no change there then. Lucas turned to the only person he could even consider a friend, Alicia Edmund. She too was one of the few people who were victims of a Doll bite and were still conscious for a few minutes let alone a couple of months. Some people referred to them as 'lucky'. Lucas laughed to himself; he couldn't count the times he wished he had died that day. While some thought of them as survivors, others weren't so friendly, they knew just as well as he did that he would soon succumb to the attack, and be just another Doll to be shot or crushed.

Lucas stepped forwards and heard the crack of a bottle underneath his feet, just more wreckage among the endless heaps of broken cars, electronics and all the other crap that was useless now.
"Alicia, Lucas. They'll be on your position in just a moment, so be ready." Lucas nodded to himself once he heard this. He knew the person talking wouldn't see him acknowledge the order but he didn't care, it was just to assure himself.

"Just a habit…" he murmured to himself, but he wasn't sure if it was…

Lucas turned around to the West, and gazed out at the endless rows of skyscrapers. It wasn't just him and Alicia at this intersection, he knew the remaining STRINGS were hidden around, both on the ground and dotted inside the buildings, leaving the two Pawns as bait. It wasn't an unusual job for the pair; it's all they had been doing since they found the Utopia.
Lucas turned back to the East at the sound of footsteps, the very thing they had been waiting for. A large group of civilians shuffled from around a nearby building, and began to make their way towards Lucas and Alicia. The Pawn sighed in relief, but tensed up again as he gained a closer view on what he first thought were ordinary people.

The crowd's faces were twisted, and disgusting. And many had blood dripping from their jaws, and were made from the same material as Lucas's arm. A pack of hungry, bloodthirsty Dolls, and they looked hungry. The story of how they came about was a long and tedious one, but it didn't matter anymore.

Alicia motioned to Lucas to back up, and he replied with a small nod, and began to take a few steps backwards. He soon turned around and began to speed up the pace of his walking, until they were clear of the intersection, and came to the designated area. As they swarm moved closer he noticed there were only around thirty, an tiny group compared to what they usually came across. It should have been a good thing, Lucas could probably take twenty Dolls by himself, and the whole STRINGS organisation was with him, minus the King. Possibly the laziest arse Lucas had ever met. Lucas waited for the signal.

"Now, ATTACK!" Came another yell from across the com-link, but this time, all the STRINGS would hear it.

"The signals a little blunt..." Lucas joked as he prepared to flee, and waited for the sound of gun-fire.

 

[Cirrus]

It was the beginning of autumn. A late afternoon touched a little by the first signs of the frosty seasons ahead. STRINGS was laying yet another ambush-esque trap, designed to decimate Dolls in large quantities by using the two Pawns as bait. Cyril didn't really like his job, the way some people liked doing theirs; he was aware that it was a necessary post, and also that he was lucky to have a paying occupation at all in the first place, but it was not something particularly liked. He would have rather spent his day reading and sleeping intermittently, leaving his home at nighttime for more interesting activities.

Today, they were hiding themself - excluding the Pawns, who were acting as bait - near an intersection of a broken-down metropolis, preparing to fire some tens to possibly a few hundred rounds into the next swarm of Dolls that came along. They had been ferried to their current location by the Rook's vehicle, with the Monarchs staying behind as usual.

He could sense their approach a little. The Dolls' heavy footsteps, so different from human ones, were rife with murderous intent. In response, he gripped his assault rifle a little tighter in his hands, and released the safety, his index finger resting a small distance away from the trigger. By force of habit, he glanced down at his belt, where his titanium-coated steel blade was situated, and made sure it was still there, even though he could sense its weight perfectly well.

And now the Dolls were almost upon Alicia and Lucas. The two Pawns were pretty young, only about 16 or 17 years old maybe. He couldn't recall all their details, although he was sure this had been told to him. They were also rapidly retreating from the small swarm of Dolls moving towards them.

"NOW, ATTACK!" The King's voice reverberated through his ears.

He would act now, and think about everything later. He would have time. He took aim at a Doll, its porcelain form lumbering forward, and fired a few times. It collapsed in a pile of shards of china and bleeding flesh, briefly spurting out blood. He blinked, to see if the Doll was truly destroyed (though killed would probably be more appropriate...), saw that it was so, and moved on to the next.

 

[Oathkeeper(:]

Mikaela lowered her guns and looked back at her fellow CARD members. She pondered the Spade's question. While seeing how she matched up to the STRINGS would be quite fun, drawing attention to themselves really didn't seem like the best idea.

"I don't think we should attack. It doesn't look like we're needed at the moment. But, of course, we don't have to reveal everyone. If you guys want to fight some dolls, you can go on ahead." ​

 

[Swolligator]

Ivan reeled back into the room of the rundown office building from the trance he had fallen into. Next to him Claire exclaimed loudly; obviously she had been in the same sort of trance that he had fallen into, and now proceeded to agree with him. Like a heater, Ivan felt heat begin to radiate from the place that once held a heart. It felt good to have someone backing him, especially if it was Claire. They had much in common, mostly personality wise.

Across the table he heard Sarah dryly add "such an interesting meeting."
"Maybe you have some input, Sarah?" He retorted, "If you're so quick to comment on the meeting then you must have something to add to our discussion."

"So Celia, now that we have had an interesting offer, what are your thoughts on Alex's idea?"

Ivan sat back down into his seat; not remembering when he had actually stood up. He turned his head from Sarah to Celia; awaiting eagerly for her response.

"That was a brave but stupid move Ivan," He pondered, "but what is necessary is necessary. I just need to tip-toe carefully around this situation. One false move and He will come down on me like a ton of bricks."

 

[Kogenta]

Reaching over his shoulder, Maximilien grasped the hilt of the Gemini Sword. The edges of his mouth pulled to the sides, and his lips parted into the start of the maniacal grin for which he was infamous. "Is that question really necessary? We attack--and if we don't start soon, we'll miss out on the Doll slaughter." Diamond's eyes glinted as they shifted to one side, fixing pointedly on Spade. "Though of course, if we miss that, we can just take on STRINGS." His smile vanished as his impatience regained control. With a slight snort, Maximilien unsheathed his sword and gave it an experimental swing while Club gave her input. The fine edge split the air, producing a soft tone. He sheathed his weapon with a sharp movement. "It's not like people don't know about us, and who cares if we're really needed? There are things to fight and kill over there. So what are we waiting for?"

 

[Yamagi Sosuke]

I looked towards the other CARDS members and begin to speculate their expressions. Some of them didn't won't to fight and others mainly Max did. I thought about the cons and pros quickly deciding that I wanted to see some action. I grabbed the hilt of my blade and pulled it out with one swift movement. I looked at Max and was pretty sure he knew my thoughts. " Ok guys if you want to stay then stay....If anybody wants to join us then be my guest. " I stood up and begin to walk towards the onslaught. This would be an excellent way to vent my anger at the STRINGS. Plus some of the other members were a little intimidated by the danger and that's Ok. I pick each of them for a certain reason. Each of them had their individual talents.