Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Affiliated Forums:
Plagued Artca.de
Welcome to The United Literates, or TUL! We hope you enjoy your visit!

We're an all-genre, all-literate forum on the Zathyrus Networks, and we'd love to have you join! Our roleplays range from the fun to the mature, and are all member-run and created; they extend from Fictional roleplays set in the past and future, to Real-Life and Fan-Fiction categories. In addition to roleplays, TUL also has a vibrant community of artists and writers, featured in The Cafe section of the website, who also love to do things out of character through our Lounge area.

Right now, you're viewing the forum as a guest, which means you only have limited access to the board and its features. To join TUL and start roleplaying with us, all you have to do is click the link below, register, and pass through our brief application process. So what are you waiting for?

Welcome to TUL! Register today!

Once you've created an account, please head to The Application Center and follow the instructions to become a full member.

If you're already a member, please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Hindsight is 20/20; If I'd known when I first joined what I knew now...
Topic Started: Apr 28 2011, 08:34 PM (233 Views)
Walking Softly
Member Avatar
Old-Timer
OOC Information

Name: Walking Softly or WS work well enough, but I'll answer to Tristan.
Gender: Male
Who were you referred by? What site were you referred from?: Waaay back in 2006, White Fox dragged me on here bodily, and I haven't really left since!
Age: 21
Contact: glassfalcon at sympatico.ca, tristan_the_short on Skype. A PM on here is good, too.
Role Playing Experience: I started with spoken roleplaying when I was 15 and quickly got into post-by-post writing like this. I guess that makes six years, then, unless I can't subtract no more...


IC Information

Role Play Sample: (No less than 300, and no more than 1000 words. We're looking for a sample, not a short story, please.) [It's maybe 1100... nrr.)


"I don't CARE!"

crash

"Orrin! Getting angry won't solve anything. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, kid, but she's... gone."

It didn't matter whether his father was in the next room or right in front of him. It didn't matter if the light was on or not to sparkle in the smashed shards of glass, or glare off the exposed photograph inside. It didn't matter if it was morning or night, weekend or weekday, sunny or rain, because the tears he fought so fiercely back fell from eyes sending signals on an empty line. A few drops glistened in unkempt red hair, traitorously, and salted his nose and cheek as he dropped sideways onto his pillow, but he'd never see them again. Perhaps there was the faintest glimmer to discern his open window, venting his frustration into the street just as it let illumination in- No. It was nearly ten at night, and he knew full well there was no streetlight out there. The weak glow was just his imagination.

So would be everything else he'd ever see. So, too, would be Alice Faraday's voice, her touch, her smile, her presence at all. She was as snuffed out as his vision.

"If she's not coming back, then I'm going too!" He yelled it, temper flaring once more, then, frustrated, turned his head to the side and shouted it again, this time unmuffled by a mouthful of bed. "I mean it!"

"Orrin Matthew Faraday!" his father snapped. The young teen was perversely pleased to hear that he'd struck a nerve. "I never want to hear that again! If your mother heard-"

"That's the POINT! She won't! She can't hear me, she's dead! Done! Dead as a doorknob! Passed on! Kicked the bucket! Shuffled off this mortal coil! Extinguished! Disassembled! Bought the farm-"

She was dead! Dead! His mother was gone! All because some- some idiot in a Dodge Ram wouldn't get off his blasted cell phone in the midst of a traffic tangle! They'd had a heavy bin of camping gear in the back seat beside him, and when they'd been rear-ended, it had- This was just report; he himself had been struck in the back of the head, knocking him out for four days and ruining the visual processing in his occipital lobe. Five of his father's ribs had snapped against the steering wheel, and Orrin had had both legs broken, but his mom... She was just done. She'd had it, it was over, that was it, he'd never see her again... He felt himself getting caught up, but he was as powerless to stop it as he was with every part of this moment. It could sort of be expected of anyone who had recently experienced a loss, but this was... different. This happened sometimes, over much smaller problems, and as irrational as he knew it to be, he'd just end up stuck over-reacting - a broken record, a computing error - until something came along to break it. His father knew this very well, and Orrin's painfully sharpened hearing picked out his hasty footsteps as his own string of synonyms turned towards hyperventilation.

"Hey, kid..."

The comforting weight of Andrew Faraday, his father, settled painfully onto the creaky mattress, denting it down and deflecting Orrin gently towards the centre. The pair had only been released from hospital a week ago, and this whole thing had started today because the home care nurse had accidentally shifted around a few pieces of the teen's extensive collection of framed family photographs without letting him know. It was another thing of his: nobody moved his stuff, nobody except his mom, and some stranger coming in to check healing rates and mobility progress had no right! No right, not allowed, she couldn't-

"Orrin. Shh. Stop, you're still doing it."

He sniffled against his dad's chest as the slender man wrapped him carefully in a bear hug. "All right, Orrin, I need you to do something for me," the elder Faraday said softly. "For me and for your mum. She took care of both of us, she did, so now she's not here, we're going to have to look after each other. Do you know what I'm saying? We... we're both hurting, and we can't hit each other for it. It wouldn't be fair. I'm going to need help keeping this place together by myself, and you're going to need help getting around - so we'll do it together. One step at a time. But you have to stop getting angry. It will not make her come back, it will not get trucks or cell phones outlawed, but it will make you feel like a right dolt when you've broken every picture you own. Okay? We have to do this together, and we both have to stay calm. Please."

Still choked up, Orrin swallowed hard. "No more throwing things?"

"Please not, son."

"Or yelling?"

"I'd appreciate it."

"So no more crying and getting upset."

He could almost hear his dad furrow his brow. He could see it in his mind, the fair skin on his father's forehead wrinkling into great hills and valleys whenever something took a turn he hadn't intended. "That's not entirely what I meant, Orrin-"

"No, it's all right. I get it, dad." Swallowing one more time, Orrin closed his eyes - for concentration purposes if nothing else - and willed it to all go away: the anger, the tears, the bitter rages and mind-numbing frustration. He might still feel it, of course, but if his dad said that it wasn't appropriate behaviour, the teen would just have to figure out a better, quieter way to deal with it. Pulling in a deep breath, he raised his head and forced himself to smile a little. "You're right, we don't have time for this. I promise I won't do it again."

There was a pause as the older man hesitated. "...What, precisely, aren't you going to do again?" he asked with concern in his voice. "It's okay to cry, Orrin, it's natural. It's just that the-"

"It's okay, really. It's bothering you, so I won't do it. When can I start learning Braille?" he asked hopefully.

"...You're sure you're okay, Orrin?"

"Perfectly fine. Shoo - somebody's got to make dinner, and it's not going to be me, dad."

There was really no reason for his dad to worry. He'd needed him to stop getting upset, so he'd never do it again - not if it killed him.

It was just the way he worked.



The Genres: 'Normal' life is an old standby - sticking people in different situations in this world we live in and seeing what happens - although I put stress on the quotation marks. I thrive at the edges of things, off the set of that sun-soaked Wonderbread commercial; I routinely throw in variant gender identity or sexual orientation, health problems/disability, mental health issues, or abnormal home situations to add flavour.
Medieval fantasy I will never shun. Sci-fi of almost any description is also nifty (I have a weakness for X-Men-esque mutants). I do not do any anime fandoms, but beyond that - try me. I once roleplayed a fandom with someone for two years because she insisted I try it, even though I had no clue about the premise for the first several months!
~Burn the land and boil the sea,
You can't take the sky from me
~
Long Live Firefly

The Battle Arena - participate and vote! Seriously, click on it.

My signature shall never again include reference to pole dancing.
Offline Mini Profile Top
 
Dr. Locke
Member Avatar
Trust your Doctor.

Posted Image

I'd like to welcome you to the TUL community and hope your stay with us will be thoroughly enjoyable. If at any time you find yourself stuck, confused, or in need of answers; please PM an admin or post in the Shout-out board. We will be more then happy to answer what ever questions you may have.

If you'd like an in-depth review of your admission, please contact the staff member that accepted you.

Be sure to keep up to date with our Broadcasts as the information posted will effect your experience here on TUL.


Check this out!
Here is a list of some features to check out on your stay here. These are not all the features we have, but some of the larger ones.


  • The Arts: Open to all members of TUL, the Cafe is a location to post your out-of-character works, where you can have them reviewed by your peers.
  • Our Lounge houses games, chats, welcome boards, and places to decompress and unwind.
  • Last but not least our role playing boards are located on the main page. There are many different role play genres and types to chose from. Nothing you like? Feel free to make your own board! Or you can team up with a buddy and do a one x one.


Please be sure to read the rules before proceeding, for they will prevent you from being eaten by our cat spies getting into trouble.

So, without further ado, welcome to The United Literates! Enjoy yourself!

Posted Image
The Storyteller Chronicles

Prologue: Weaving Webs
A Short Story About Love - Coming Soon
Deadly Sins - Coming Soon
Until She Wakes - Coming Soon


Offline Mini Profile Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Accepted Applications · Next Topic »

Skin originally created by Nicola, converted by Arianna and Lydia of ZetaBoards Theme Zone