When the Seagulls Cry ~Umineko Roleplay~

[Knightmare]

Hello everyone, I've decided to create a roleplay based off of an excellent sound novel I've been reading as of late called, "Umineko no Naku Koro ni". Excellent supernatural murder mystery story, full of all kinds of greatness. This roleplay will not have deadlines on posting due to the amount of heavy thinking that might need to be done.

Anyway, without further ado here's the game!

You may play as either a member of the Ushiromiya family, a servant serving the Ushiromiya family, a witch, or a servant of the witches.

A leader for the human side must be chosen, and a leader for the witch side must be chosen.

Those two be involved in a game of logic where the witch leader must explain a supernatural occurrence back in the real world with supernatural terms, and the human leader must present it from the stand point of it not being magic and just clever trickery. If the human leader cannot explain a supernatural thing realistically and admits to the existance of magic, then the humans lose as the lead witch is resurrected and slaughters the rest of the humans, starting with the leader. The witch leader has to be both in the real world helping cause incidents, and in the meta-world having a logic battle with the human leader that she will abduct into the meta-world (where the two leaders duel) at some point during the story. If the witch fails to logically defeat the human leader after two days, the witches lose and the humans escape Rokkenjima with their lives (or at least what humans are left).

Now, to introduce the various kinds of text.

Red Text can be used to present a subjective fact that has a multiple interpretations. For example saying, “[color=#FF0000]When I speak the truth, I will use red.[/color]” is subjective because the truth could be any number of things because truth can be a subjective idea. What is truth to one person may not be truth to another.

Next up is Blue Text. Blue text must be used to counter logical arguments made in red. If a red statement goes unanswered in blue, the human leader will lose the game. An example of a Blue Statement would go thus, “[color=#0000CD]Truth is a subjective thing because what is truth to one person may not be truth to another! Therefore, speaking in red makes you barely any more credible than when you speak normally![/color]” In that way, you defeat the witch's logic forcing her to present a new challenge.

In the meantime, the island of Rokkenjima will become a survival battleground for the humans who must survive against the witches and their servants. Be fair, the witches and their servants are more powerful than humans so don’t overdo it, and humans must be fair by not dodging everything and acting as powerful as you realistically would be.

The game’s events take place over the course of two days, but it may be repeated as often as we desire with as many different scenarios and characters as desired.

This all takes place in and around a large manor in the forest, so keep that in mind. There is known to be a guest room, a kitchen, a dining hall, a study, a boiler room, a rose garden, a tool shed in the garden, a guesthouse, a servant’s room, an entry room, and a long hallway lined with doors that lead to bedrooms.

Feel free to add anything you like to this within reason, of course.

If something makes no sense, please tell me; this was a bit of a jumbled mess to write.

The storyline will require a short bit of exposition involving reaching the island manor, and perhaps a short bit of time inside the manor before everything starts to go to hell and magic and witches are everywhere.

[align=center][size=medium]Sign-Ups[/size][/align]

[align=center]Full Name: (If you are a member of the Ushiromiya family, your last name is Ushiromiya by default.) [/align]
[align=center]Class: Ushiromiya Human, Human Servant, Witch, Witch Servant) [/align]
[align=center]Physical Description: (As much detail as possible please.)[/align]
[align=center]Weapon: (Humans, be realistic please.) [/align]
[align=center]Powers: (Witches and Witch Servants only) [/align]
[align=center]Personality: (The more info the better.) [/align]
[align=center]Backstory: (A more complex character is infinitely more interesting.) [/align]

If there are any particular holes in my idea that I didn't see, please point it out so that I may fix it.

[-J-]

Absolutely brilliant idea. While it's admittedly extremely obscure, that's what I love about [i]your[/i] character Knightmare. You have quirks, and you can find them everywhere. Well that and this kind of strategic RP is right up my allies. LOVE games like this, and the bit of a supernatural Japanese theme you have going on is fairly pleasant as well. Gotta look for those novels later. [i]Mrmhrmrmrhrmrhmrrmrm![/i]

Full Name: Takuya Minamoto
Class: Ushiromiya Servant

Physical Description: A nicely-built, golden-tan Japanese man with a good amount of muscles [he has a six-pack]. He's often seen outside of his "servant" clothing due to his being well-liked by the Ushiromiya family, and likes to wear things that show off his young age or his muscles, including but not limited to tight, white tank tops, and some of the typical Japanese street fashion. Though, when he does wear his servant's clothing, as he usually does while actually at work, he looks just as refined as one could ever imagine. With his mid-length hair slicked back and his facial hair properly trimmed, Takuya could be described as the perfect servant. His looks precede his wits, however, and he is often underestimated logic-wise when he is actually quite smart.

Weapon: An extremely well-crafted steel rapier-like sword with a white-and-gold-colored silk hilt. Given to him by his father at a young age so that he may practice the "finer ways of the blade", i.e. fencing.

Powers: N/A

Personality: As stated above in Takuya's Physical Description tab, he is often dismissed as a "meathead" just for being, as females in our day and time may put it, "hot", though he is actually very well-off brains-wise. He lives as much off of logic as any human possibly ever could, and time and time again has proven himself a servant worthy of the Ushiromiya family's crest. It's particularly hard to "read" Takuya, as he can constantly change his own person in order to survive almost any situation, though for Takuya, it's often easy to "read" others. With no experience in warding off supernatural powers, however, it should be interesting to see how he can handle himself in front of witches.

Backstory: Takuya decided to work with the Ushiromiya family as a servant only "part-time", perhaps as an "internship"-type job. His family was already well-off, having taught him the proper way to "be a man" with finesse and style. However, upon his mother becoming afflicted by a great sickness, his father's bills skyrocketed. This saw Takuya to work full-time with the Ushiromiya family, practically becoming one of them himself, so that he may be "fully-paid", though the pay isn't much, so that he may assist his own family and see his mother back to health. To his knowledge, he is one of few servants hired from outside of the family's original servants' families in almost fifty years.

[Knightmare]

Excellent! Glad you like it. Umineko is fairly obscure, but it definitely has a big following. The original novels are really, really good. The art takes some getting used to, but the story is really good, the music is excellent, and the cast is extremely large and varied. I'm not one for murder mysteries, but Umineko changed my mind.

Anyway, here I am, joining my own roleplay. Since the idea may be a little bit complex, I decided that I'll join in as a Witch so that I can help guide things along.

Full Name: Cecillia (also known as The Witch of the Garden)
Class: Witch

Physical Description: Cecillia is a relatively tall figure (about 6 feet 2 inches) whose outfit makes her seem like a large and dominating force. She wears a large light green dress typical of Victorian era ladies, complete with all the frills and furnishings one would expect of such an intricate, regal, and dignified piece of clothing. She also wears a large similarly colored sunhat with flourish and style similar to that of her dress. Her clothing all has vine designs over it, with her hat having sunflowers around the top part of it.

Weapon: Cecillia, being a witch, will not confine herself to mere human weapons. She carries around a small white flower which, despite its appearances, is actually what allows her to preform her nature themed magic. As for an actual physical weapon, she carries around a fancy light green folding fan covered in flowers. Knowing her powers, you'll see why this is deadly.

Powers: Cecillia can control weather, plants, and animals. Her sunflowers on her hat are not exempt from this, so she uses them as murder weapons. She thinks the idea of a large sunflower planted into a human's forehead is a hilarious idea. Hyahyahyahya...

Personality: Cecilla is, for the most part, a gentle soul. For a witch anyway. A gentle soul for a witch means that she doesn't [i]constantly[/i] act like a jerk to humans, just most of the time. Like all witches, she enjoys a good game of chess over a cup of tea and some cake. If you so much as step on a blade of grass, however, she'll be she sure that the offending leg is removed. While it used to be a genuine concern to her, she generally just treats it as big sadistic game. "Oops, you seem to have stepped upon the poor blade of grass... How would you like it if that grass stepped on you? Hyahyahyahya..." I pity the fool who messes with her rose garden...

Backstory: As a child, Cecillia was abandoned by her human parents in the forest on Rokkenjima because of the "unholy way she twisted nature to her will". She was forced to survive alone on the desolate island; a feat she didn't quite accomplish. She was starving to death one day as she was unable to find any food, but to her luck, she found the Ushiromiya manor. She entered the manor and walked into the guest room and upon finding other people, asking for a bite to eat. A guest there at the time took the child outside and killed her for even so much as daring to drag her filthy forest dwelling body into the esteemed Ushiromiya manor. He was the only one who felt this way, and was promptly killed by the head of the family who was disgusted with the man's brutish and irrational actions.

Rokkenjima is a supernatural place, and the whole scene was observed by the witches of the meta-world. They took pity upon the girl; a rare thing for a witch to do. They resurrected her as an immortal witch and set her to take revenge on the house that allowed her to die as she did. There were no survivors.

It's much, much later now, and she's forgotten about her past due to thousands of years of existence. Whether that is unfortunate or not is up to you.

[The History Buff]

[sounds very interesting. Sign me up]

Full Name: Ushiromiya Isamu

Class: Ushiromiya Human

Physical Description: At 33, Isamu is built fairly strong, and it is evident that he exersizes reguarly. He has dark hair and eyes that are characteristic of many Japanese peoples, and he sports a light tan. He will often appear at the family meeting wearing his full dress uniform.

Weapon: SIG Sauer P220, Standard Side arm for members of the Japan's Self-Defense Forces.

Personality: A millitary man, Isamu tends to thing strieghtforward and logicaly. Although his temper can be short at times, he cares about the people under his protection more than they may think. Since the death of his wife, he has not been as open to anyone.

Backstory: Ushiromiya Isamu, born Yamashita Isamu to a millitary family, he was constently pushed by his father to be better and better. The weight of his distant reletive, General Yamashita Tomoyuki, and his exploits in the second wolrd war gave him and his family both pride from his accomplishments, and dishonour from his war crimes. Isamu joined the Japanese Self-Defence Forces at the urging of his father and quickly rose to the rank of captain. The Yamashita family had lost most of it's money in the war, particuarly the famed "Yamashita's gold" [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamashita%27s_gold ] and had a dificult time finding there way. When Isamu met his future wife, Ushiromiya Margret, they shared stories about the treasures of there respective families. Isamu swore that he would help Margret find the Ushiromia Gold, and Margret swore to help find the Yamashita Gold. On January 21, 1979, they got married on Rokkenjima, and honeymooned there. Margret insisted that Isuma took her family's name and he complied, much to the horror of his father. On August 17, 1981, while searching for the Yamashita gold in Indochina, Margert stepped on a landmine left over from the Vietnam conflict. Isuma has never been the same since.