dressingrooms | Disorient Express AU Brainstorming

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episode 1

Disorient Express AU Brainstorming

Welcome, dear players, to Grief Street! You've joined us for tonight's episode, The Disorient Express, a murder mystery aboard a train with secrets and inter-character drama galore.

Given the nature of the game and application, we've provided a collaborative space for you to brainstorm with your fellow players about your AU'd characters. This is where you'll be able to figure out who they are, what they're doing here, and also what relationships they might have to other characters on the train. Relationships can be as simple as "Character A and Character B are gossip buddies", or as spicy as "Character A is having an affair with Character B and is plotting to help kill their spouse". Have fun with it!

Remember to be respectful of each other's ideas! If you have any questions or want to talk about something you want to keep secret, feel free to reach out at

wolfnoir or on Discord at wolfnoir#4990.

Player Name: That's you!
Character Name: You can also add their AU name here, if you're changing their name.
Canon: If they have one, that is.

Age: How old is your character?
Occupation: Describe what they do for a living!
Appearance: A brief visual description of your character, if you're changing the way they look/dress/etc.

About: Write a few sentences about your character's AU. This doesn't have to be finalized in the slightest, but it'll help give people an idea of what your character's vibes are! It can be in paragraph or bullet point form--whatever gets the point across.

Looking For: What sort of established relationships are you looking for? Family, friends, enemies, rivals, etc? You may also want to discuss are potential relationship hooks (occupation, country of origin, habits, etc) to help others collaborate with you. You're also encouraged to integrate other player characters into your own character's secrets!

Additional Notes: Anything else you want to put down!

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Player Name: Eric
Character Name: Nathan Mahler
Canon: Blood+

Age: Looks to be late 30s and will introduce himself as such! Even though he is actually an old-ass vampire.
Occupation: Opera producer
Appearance: A man in his late thirties with short wavy blond hair; usually has a relaxed smile on his face. I'll have to find some outlandish '30s fashion for him to wear to replace his canon outfit since he will not be rocking leggings and cowboy boots here... will almost definitely feature purple and foofy trim, at least.

About:
I might change some of the Goldsmith stuff up if I come up with more interesting ideas, but for now—

Like in canon, he's an opera producer based in New York!

He also is still a chiropteran because I just think this train having a secret ancient vampire whose vampire status is completely inconsequential to anything would be really funny. He comes off as a totally normal modern guy.

He's a member of the wealthy Goldsmith family who own a winery in France, though no one is sure exactly how he's related to any of them. The family also has some shady ties to pharmaceutical companies and funds some of their research projects.

He's spent a lot of time in Europe, especially France and Germany, and is fairly well known within the performing arts circles there.

Has an adopted daughter who's an impressive singer and often features in the shows he produces.

Looking For: First and foremost, theatre and music connections!! He's very flashy and very social, so most people in the performing arts sphere in New York would probably know of him, and a lot have probably met him. Could also be interesting if there are any researchers/etc. who may be related to the pharmaceutical company his family does business with, since they'd probably know at least something about that connection and would have reason to be skeptical of him.

Exes would also be really fun — he can be very tiring to deal with and the idea of someone being stuck on this train with him and just constantly exasperated is hilarious to me. Also they'd probably know something about the shadier side of his life, which could be fun to work with. (Men only though because he is extremely gay.)

Additional Notes:

this could be you

Hm! Eva likes to travel, really. It would be plausible for her to have known about him through the performing arts circles, perhaps send monetary support after a particularly interesting show he produced. While they probably never met face to face, Eva could be aware of his existence and proclaim admiration towards him for his work.

Yeah, that works for me! I'm sure he's also well aware of her family, especially since he's from a questionable rich family too lmao. Where's the Ushiromiyas' business based out of?

Japan, really. Some of the other Ushiromiyas have companies in places in America and areas in Europe, but most of their wealth is focused in Japan.

Also I'm sorry for the delay in replying, I was busy these days.

It took me just as long to reply the first time so don't worry about it, lmao. But okay, that's cool! Maybe the two families have both had dealings with some of the same other companies but haven't directly worked with each other... and Nathan's totally uninvolved with all of the business stuff anyway, so he wouldn't really be competition or anything even if they were operating primarily in the same markets. So being amiable arts acquaintances sounds reasonable!

artemy knows next to nothing about performing arts (in fact, his small town's theatre was most recently put to use as a hospital, so. that about sums up his opinions on the matter LMAO) but he would likely be very familiar with the pharmaceutical company that nathan's family has ties to!!

althooooouuuugh we could always go the arts route for some history between them!! he could have produced a few shows in russia, maybe they've even been performed in artemy's town's theatre before it was shut down, who's to say? :3ccc

omg rip to that town... i thiiink since he's not, like, a gossipy new yorker lmfao that artemy probably wouldn't know ahead of time about nathan's personal connection to the company since he has a different name and doesn't publicize the relation? but yeah, it could come up if they ever talk about that stuff (even though it is very much not nathan's own wheelhouse)!

i like the arts route though! the family does have connections to russia in canon (because of course rasputin was a vampire lmao) so it's definitely feasible that he could have done some stuff there before!

god it would also be kind of hilarious if he'd interacted with some ancestor of artemy's when he was there 70 years ago or something and makes some confusing offhand comment about it

OMG HELP I THOUGHT I REPLIED TO THIS SOONER. WELL.

but absolutely yes to all of this! artemy will probably know of the company in question yet know nothing of nathan's connections to it -- just a funny little coincidence he may never learn about.

and it would be hilarious if nathan adressed artemy by, like, a grandfather's name, much to his confusion. he's used to being mistaken for his father and brother, but NEVER that, lmfao. cue a potential "ahh, i remember that town! total shithole" and artemy can't help but agree

LMAO yes i will totally do that, give me a grandpa name and i'll make it happen

Yo! Laerryn here has a husband that's got to be tied to the performing arts between Europe and New York since he is a news anchor/radio performer and would likely be mingling in that world since it is full of upper echelon people who visit. Maybe they have met each other through one of his shows? Maybe Quay (her husband) has even performed in one before he moved out of theater into reporting/broadcasting?

Part of me even wants to offer something a little messy and even suggest maybe Nathan and Quay were old flames or a fling that Laerryn may or may not know about. Just because either tension or someone to mutually be catty about could be fun. Quay is very much an attention hog and flamboyant personality that covers over a more keen and politically savvy mind. He may or may not have a fae background (originally he's a changeling in his canon).

Laerryn for her part is also an elf and thus immortal and you are right, it is funny that is probably entirely inconsequential to this story.

immortal high five!!

Yeah, we can definitely say they met through a show before! And LMAO honestly I am all for there being a past fling there, Nathan like... never interacts with anyone who isn't a stick in the mud in canon so I'm realizing I don't even know how he'd get along with someone that similar to him, but I think they'd have a good time??? And would probably be completely insufferable for anyone else to deal with.

Hahaha Quay is definitely a good time! He likes parties and schmoozing, pretty much the exact opposite of Laerryn. She's the stick in the mud in the relationship. I imagine he was very much a lush, 'love them and leave them', carpe diem type of capricious person before they married, which is kind of just stereotypical theater life experience for you. He's an incredible character actor, though with the technology of the time he can really only broadcast his voice now.

I'm sure most people looked at Quay and Laerryn as a couple and have gone "Him/Her?" depending on which of the pair they liked better since they are polar opposites.

I guess my question now is do you prefer that she know Nathan but not yet know about that history, or do you want her to know?

I'm totally fine with whatever you think would be more fun to play with on your end! It seems like it might be fun for her to know for the sake of creating some awkward tension from the get-go, but if doing a reveal while they're here would be more interesting I'm good with that too!

THANK YOU FOR GETTING MY REFF

Her knowing is fine and would definitely start off with tension. I don't think she cared when she first found out, but now her relationship is on the rocks she's more sensitive and I pre-emptively apologize for any upcoming stink-eyes or whatever Nathan probably doesn't deserve coming from her. I imagine she will try to avoid him at first, but it's a train... there's only so far you can go, especially once murder happens.

Hu Tao comes from a long line of funeral directors and I for one think it would be hilarious if they were acquainted with long-lived vampire dude (does he want custom coffins to sleep in) (I kid, maybe), but we can also totally just yeet them at each other as never-having-met-before I just think this CR could be funny in general.

lmfao THEY ARE VERY MODERN VAMPIRES WHO USE NORMAL FURNITURE and since they don't die they don't have funerals so sadly I think coffin deals are out... but yes, I think it could be funny as fresh CR too!!

I forgot to mention that in canon she chases undead around trying to cremate them because she considers them abominations of nature so EITHER WAY WE WILL HAVE A GOOD TIME I'M SURE. :D :DDDD

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Disorient Express AU Brainstorming

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