Hello, everyone~

[simondsareforever]

 I'm Sean. I found this place scouring Dreamwidth for interesting original character games. The idea of a society governed by the rules of a deck of cards had appealed to me before (though my idea for it admittedly was an Illuminati-alike), so when I saw this I pretty much had to apply. 

I bring to you a (the, until we get another one) Three of Diamonds, Simon Joshua Thompson. His arrival in the Deck can best be described as a combination of boredom, happenstance, and dumb luck six months ago, but he's doing his best to make a go of it in a world he didn't know for sure existed, but is still more entertaining than the one he left behind.

He's a good, fun-loving sort with a tiiiiny bit of an authority and formality problem (no, he wasn't drunk when he became a Diamond, he really thought it would be a good idea, I swear!), and a whole lot of trying to find his place in the world for the first real time in his life. 

He's also about to start Ambassadoring to the Hearts, so there's that. He'll get a day job at some point once he figures out what to do with his BA in English. :(

I wrote a whole, WHOLE lot of words about it, most of which you can find here: simondsareforever.dreamwidth.org/327.html . Yes, I know there's a way to shorten that somehow, but I'm new to Dreamwidth (and wasn't very LJ/IJ literate when RPing THERE, either), so please bear with me as I make an idiot of myself for a bit in the beginning.

I look forward to writing with you all, making far, far more puns than any man should, and coming up with ludicrous, LUDICROUS challenge ideas in my spare time that will never be used. Nice to meet you all!

Comments

[maskofhearts]

Hey, hey :). I am EJ! Welcome to the game. Also excuse how brief this is, I am tagging this from my phone while at lunch.

I have five kidlets here, Hadyn (this one), Nine of Hearts. Clive, the King of Spades. Leona, a six of Clubs. Jack, a two of Clubs. And Victor, a ten of Spades.

Hadyn's an actorish person, or was. He is currently acting as ambassador to the Spades for the Hearts, and the PA for the Ace of Hearts. He dates Elisha, the King of Clubs. Probably the one Simon will talk to most often.

And everyone else- leona is pretty social. Victor isn't and he is the Head of Security for the Spades. Clive is also pretty social but unlikely to talk much to Simon just because of the suit differences and rarely being over at Crystal Palace. Jack, however, is likely to have run ins as he and another Diamond are doing a secret investigation of the deck and trying to build a case for the outside world about this place... And have not been caught just yet.

[onlytolerable]

Hi, Sean! I'm Song. Simon sounds really interesting. I love his user name. I had a character who went from 2-3 in a game of Battleship and another who did the same thing with jacks. Would it be giving away anything if you told us how Sean made his money? No reason other than I'm horribly curious and nosy.

I play Sophie Berthier | onlytolerable | 8 of Diamonds here. Currently she's in charge of the Diamond library and its staff. She also runs the archive, preservation and restoration side of things. She's from an old Deck family, but (like Simon) doesn't have much of a poker face. Her deep, dark secret (okay mine) is that she adores puns and wordplay. She's also looking for someone to take over the management of the library as she plans to challenge up and will be forced to take on more responsibilities.

Gideon Pryce | belowcastle | 4 of Clubs, is another Deck-born character. He serves as the Clubs' butler. Simon probably won't meet him during the regular course of business unless one or the other visits the other castle. He is known to go on the occasional bender (something he attempts to hide or gloss over). He's also something of an amateur naturalist and likes to sketch the wildlife he encounters on his walks.

Katya Krylenko | maidenthespade | Queen of Spades, came from Outside a few years ago. She's Ukrainian (though some believe Russian). She doesn't talk much about her life before, though most people probably suspect she was in the military at some time or other. She took over as Queen when the last queen left the Suit. Katya's friendly, gregarious and prone to push her horilka on people. Most things--and people--amuse her. She'll converse with anyone of any rank unless she's in her office and working.

Drew "Monty" Montgomery | threecardmonty | 5 of Clubs - Monty's the person who challenged in Jacks. He's from the States (Montana if anyone asks) and landed on the Deck a few years back. He's a friendly guy who'd prefer to shoot the breeze with friends instead of work. He spends a lot of time avoiding the King of Clubs, who has a deplorable tendency to find jobs for him. He finally challenged to Five because of said King. He took over the running of the Club stables when he did so. It's possible he's a spy for Elisha. (Okay, probable, but that's meta knowledge.) He was a con artist before he found the Deck, though he's only ever told two people. He'd probably get along with Simon.

Tess Bowen | grrranimals | 9 of Clubs - Tess is another Deck baby. Her bio dad (Marc Bowen) is a Diamond. I'd have to look up his rank. She was raised by her mother and stepfather as a Club. Her grandfather (Morgan) is a veterinarian. Tess followed in his footsteps, apprenticing and later attending Vet School Outside. The Bowens have a horrible tendency to breed like bunnies. Tess jokes you can't take a step without bumping into one of therm. She has 7 half brothers/sisters sired by Marc that she knows of. She gets all over the place because of her work.

That's all the people I play. I look forward to threading with Simon.

[simondsareforever]

How Simon made his money is, alas, a plot point.

I do hope to entertain you with his various (false) explanations until then. :)

Simon'll definitely have to stop by to visit Sophie bare minimum sometime soon!

[fiddlerjohnny]

Hiiii. I'm Ana and I already said hi to you in chat but you know, hi again!

I've currently got. Uhm. Five characters.

This one is Johnny, he's a Four of Hearts with no inclination to move further up. Originally from Georgia, he came to the Deck about elevenish years ago with no memory of his former life and only the clothes on his back and a damn shiny fiddle. (I thought The Devil Went Down to Georgia provided an interesting idea for a character okay.) Mostly he flirts, plays music, travels around off-Deck whenever the whim strikes, and drinks. Pretty gregarious, it's possible Simon will get to know him.

Up next is Justin (alwaysmessedup), a two of Hearts. He came to the Deck well over a year ago now, but was originally in the Spades, recruited by the then-Ace of Spades to be his lackey, basically, for his skill at picking pockets. Lots of hardcore physical training later, Justin still sucks at weaponry and got stabbed in the hand by Victor (EJ's boy up there). Apparently that was the last straw for him and he escaped to the Hearts briefly before leaving the Deck for a while and making his way in the world. Or trying to. Just came back like a week or two ago because large men with guns were on his trail. Generally has an authority problem and pretty much says whatever's on his mind.

Then there's Julien (I have a thing for "J" guy names, okay) (theacethatmatters). Up until like. Two days ago. He was the Ace of Spades and had been for like...fourteen years or something ridic like that. He has quite a winning personality (don't mind the people laughing hysterically, they don't know what they're talking about) and is quite skilled with blades. Basically came to the Deck determined to become Ace of Spades and got there in probably something like record time. Used to be the right hand man for the previous Queen of Spades until she dumped him, basically, and left the Deck and he was heartbroken (or something) and tried to kill the previous King of Spades. It didn't go well, he carried on with a slap on the wrist, but just now got in trouble for picking a fight with the Queen of Diamonds. (Long story about how that happened. Long, long story that I won't bore you with here). Upshot is that as punishment he was stripped of his title and knocked down to Nine, sent to the dungeons for about a month, and will have to do a lot of groveling for forgiveness from the Diamonds, among other things, after he's allowed back among people again. So Simon isn't likely to meet him any time soon, but he's probably heard stories.

Elani (the_songbird) is the Jack of Clubs. She's very sociable and friendly, though she's kind of been run off her feet lately because of the whole Face Card thing and the Deck kind of being in an uproar. Likes singing, dancing, and periodically sitting on Castle walls to watch the world go by. Teaches Eileen (the Ace of Clubs) in music and dance. Is dating Alasdair (one of Muzy's). Uh. Was born on the Deck and...I don't know if she'd know Simon already, but she'd be happy to meet him.

Lastly is Diane (a_sudden_change). She's another agent investigating the Deck (though she's in the Spades) along with Jack and Peter (one of Muzy's also). She's from the CIA and is basically here apparently because the US gov't wanted in on the operation. She's pretty disgusted, personally, by a lot of things the Deck treats as a matter of course (like people dying in weapons challenges and nobody except the person's family seeming at all bothered by watching someone die in front of them). Also the part where you can enter the Deck from just about anywhere on the planet and step out of it just about anywhere you want to. She's got visions of armed troops popping up on the White House lawn or something. However, for the most part, she's also fairly sociable as a person and likes to flirt, even if she's thinking in the back of her mind about how somebody really needs to carpetbomb the Deck.

And I think that's it.

[cutslikeaspade]

We spoke in chat, but OFFCIIALLY--Hi, I'm Emma. XD

I have three kids here so far, working on the fourth, but those current are:

Juliette (jokeswithknives) who is one of the Jokers, or those oddballs who sort of run around doing their own thing and don't have any allegiance to any of the Suits. Her history's a little...rough, thus she's a little "off" and has an affinity for apples, sharp pointy things (ie: knives) and is absolutely head over heels in love with her horse, Dutch. She drifts from Castle to Castle, stealing apples and whatever leftovers she can filch from the kitchens, but all in good fun, really.

Theo (holdsmyheart) is the recently appointed King of Hearts. He was a Ten of Hearts previously, born on the Deck, but educated Outside in medicine, only to return after losing his family and became the Suit's medical practitioner. He's an EMT as well as King now, and is basically everyone's big brother ever. Although the Kingship is bringing out the "daddy" aspect of his personality, I'm noticing. Simon will probably have the most interactions with him, as an ambassador from Diamonds to Hearts.

Ethan (this account) a current Seven of Spades and the Suit's weaponsmaster and combat instructor. He's also the former Spade King's (David) adopted son, as well as foster brother to Amy Sinclair (bitchwithabite), a Three of Spades. He was born into the Deck, but has spent a boatload of time Outside as one of David's assassin's/operatives, and almost left for good last year when On-Deck events led to the estrangement of their relationship (and Ethan's mental breakdown, more or less), resulting in him leaving the Deck for about a year, only to return and take over the armory. He still has the reputation of the "Black Sheep of the Spade Suit", which is rough, considering all the Spades are insane anyway. He and Avery (the Diamond Ace) are good buddies, but other than that, he doesn't have much affiliation with the Diamond Suit. He does, however, have a house in Town, and sometimes frequents The Four Suits and Ben's place, so he and Simon might have a passing acquaintance.

Welcome to the game! Oh, and if you have any sort of coding questions or HTML problems, hit me up. I'm usually around evenings CST. Glad to have ya!

[cipherspeak]

Hello, I am Muzy with 8 characters. (I am so sorry)(I'm just going to introduce the Diamonds and name off the others.)

Avery | uncutclarity | Ace of Diamonds: She's atypical Diamond to the extreme and prefers jeans to Armani. You will, in fact, never get her in Armani.

Ben | intotherough | Five of Diamonds: He owns the bar that Simon isn't working at it's cool, because it's only been open two months and he can't afford a bartender yet. Mackinnon's is sort of a blue collar pub, tends to be mostly frequented by Spades due to it's lack of shininess. He may jokingly refer to the Four Suits and Simon as "the enemy" XD

Peter | wherethewild | Two of Diamonds: Peter is an MI-5 analyst stuck on the field assignment from hell with Jack and Diane, but he's masquerading as the head of IT for Diamond Castle. He pretty much snarks professionally.

My other characters, really briefly:

Elisha | (this account) | King of Clubs: Israeli-American, visual artist, ex-Israeli military intelligence. He knows something about everyone (but not everything, because where's the fun in that?

Briony | civilizedpoison | Nine of Clubs: Briony is the only surviving legitimate daughter of a psychotic ex-Queen of Spades named Medea. She's the town pharmacist, mostly keeps a low profile, and is nice to people who aren't scared of her dead mother and transferring the fear onto her. XD

Alasdair | dreamsofwords | Six of Hearts: Alasdair teaches English in town and is, to all appearances, a failed novelist. Secretly he publishes potboiler trashy mystery novels but he aspires to literature so he hasn't admitted that to anyone.

Jordan | falsepretences | Seven of Spades: Jordan was born in Spades, shunted over to the Hearts at the age of 12-13, and recently switched back after a year of drama and intrigue that's worn him out. Most of the Hearts hate and distrust him because he's from an old Spade family (despite the fact that part of the drama was he and his brother Hadyn saving the former King of Hearts from their mother's murder plot) which is why he went to the Spades.

Zoe | headfollowheart | Six of Spades: Zoe is another former Heart, as you might tell from the username. Apparently I've cornered the market on Hearts that run to the Spades. She transferred as a Four a year ago in January, challenged to Five last fall and just successfully made it up to Six. She's the Assistant Head of Finance now, under the Jack, and is getting married to Victor in a little less than a month. She's also Hadyn's half-sister because we are all about the drama, really.

[a_sudden_change]

and is nice to people who aren't scared of her dead mother and transferring the fear onto her. XD

Except for Julien. :|

[cipherspeak]

Julien is the exception that proves the rule.

Because he's an asshole.

[a_sudden_change]

He's a cute asshole?

/ducks

[uncutclarity]

Pretty doesn't make up for some levels of personality defects, Julien.

[old_dog]

We spoke very briefly in chat but I'm Scy and I play all the fathers three older male characters, Michael Brennan (Jack of Spades), Iollan Chives (Two of Spades) and Caleb Caustello (Eight of Clubs) who each happen to be fathers to other people in the Deck (wild coincidence, I know).

I will probably post to you most often with Nicholas Lancaster, my only Diamond. Long story short, he is a psychopathic shrink, but no one knows about the 'psychopathic' part and he appears to be quite friendly even if he frequently asks those annoying questions that shrinks like to ask.

[ishineon]

As I said in chat, I'm Yin, playing Säde here (Q♦), her ward Leigh (2♦/allthesamemask), Iggy (5♥/sirforawhile), Annie (5♠/oneirophiliac), and Raphael (4♠/messire_messer).

He'd obviously know Säde. She just recently got into a brawl with the now-former Ace of Spades. If someone were to point her out to him right now it would be 'the tall blonde over there with the black eye'. She mostly takes more notice of cards higher up but will tend to look kindly on those who are polite and observe the proper protocols (read: are obsequious). He would ask her or Silas for permission to challenge. He probably also asked her for permission to become Ambassador, which she would have taken time to consider. Probably also she would have requested he have trained a bit under the previous ambassador first.

Leigh is her adopted daughter whom she found Outside. She's fifteen and goes to the public school while training to be a baker. Despite her guardian, she's not a typical Diamond and doesn't try very hard to be. She's face-blind, so it takes more of an effort to remember the people she ought to. I doubt they would talk much unless he's trying to ingratiate himself with Säde through her.

Iggy works as an accountant for his family's local publishing firm, but also for Heart Castle's accounting department when they need it. Also he babysits his six older siblings' twenty-seven kids, several of which moved into the castle because of the tremors that only recently stopped. Simon might run afoul of either Iggy or kids while ambassadoring.

Annie is the Spades' ambassador to Hearts, so it's probable he'd meet her in the course of it. She's also the Spade exterminator, and in the warm months she tends to cart around a snake or two. Generally she's the happy-go-lucky kind, though her sleep cycle is rather off to the point that she takes naps in bizarre places. (Also she just got engaged to the Spade butler after two months of dating. Go figure.)

Aaaand I don't know that he'd know Rap, but Rap is an artist who's all over the place in his work. He likes performance art but keeps that to a minimum when it's cold. He'll be out and about in the town then.

[thecutdiamond]

Hi Sean! I am finally properly saying hello :D I am Drea and I've got three kiddos:

The one Simon is most likely to know is Rachel Caustello, this gal here. Formerly the Queen of Diamonds, she got into an altercation with the Magician during the Arcana plot and ended up getting seriously injured from it, so she left for a hospital off-Deck around the time when Simon arrived. He probably heard about her, but didn't see her until she came back in December. She's a Ten now, but she tends to interact/try to know at least by face other Diamonds so they've probably spoken or are likely to speak in the future /o/

Next most likely is Rowan Maclean (gotyourheart). She's the Queen of Hearts, so he'll interact with her as the ambassador to the Hearts. If she doesn't think people are doing their job well she gets a bit judgey, so as long as he does okay they should get on just fine.

Finally, I've got Teresa Robledo (hey_sexy_latte), a Four of Clubs. She lives in Town and works in a coffee shop called Cafe Cocodrillo, so if ever he gets a hankering for coffee, they'll probably run into one another. She also likes going out to party a bit, so probably she'll see him at the Four Suits at some point \o

And I think that's it. Welcome, welcome, welcome!