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: Everett
Character Name: Arcade Gannon
Canon: Fallout: New Vegas

Age: 34
Occupation: Medical researcher
Appearance: Tall blonde guy with glasses, wearing a long white coat that somewhat resembles a lab coat. Voice acted by Zachary Levi.

About:

Arcade Gannon is an American medical researcher coming back from a research conference. He's a bit dry and sarcastic at times, but genuinely compassionate and wants to make the world a better place. He tends to deflect questions about himself and tries to make himself stand out as little as possible.
In his original canon, Arcade's father was part of the Enclave, an organization dedicated to upholding "the old America" and a facsimile of its pre-apocalypse government. You can imagine this organization was pretty bad! It was eventually dissolved by military force and other external threats. Arcade doesn't care for it at all, but is still somewhat fond of the individual people who helped raise him. He tries to keep this aspect of himself a secret, but I'm talking about it OOCly so I can garner some ideas.

In the AU, I'm thinking about making his father a part of a politically influential academic think tank before he died. Arcade was raised by other members of that think tank before they were eventually forced to dissolve by uhhh...I dunno, either crime lords pushing back on them or government intervention??? I'm still mulling on the specific details of this. Maybe they were planning an insurrection or something. Maybe it's more criminal in nature than academic. I don't know! If you have any thoughts I'd be willing to hear 'em.
Because of his familial ties with this organization, Arcade has tried to distance himself from this legacy by diving wholeheartedly into things like medical research and being determined to help other people.

Looking For: Friends, rivals, and enemies alike! Arcade really works best when he's got some friction with other people. He's an idealist who is never really satisfied with the current state of things, always thinking they can be improved. Maybe your character has encountered him in the past through his medical research, or perhaps even been acquainted w/ him as a student. Maybe they even know a little bit about his familial ties...? Most people would have an overall negative impression on the organization his father was a part of. Toss me some ideas and we can chat!!!

Additional Notes:

Edited 2022-11-04 17:07 (UTC)

Player Name: Rook
Character Name: Laerryn Coramar-Seelie
Canon: Exandria Unlimited: Calamity

Age: ??? Looks to be in her late 20s or early 30's, this one is still up in the air bc right now I'm thinking of keeping her a high elf but that could change to human
Occupation: Engineer
Appearance: Laerryn is a black, elven woman with gold eyes and long, dark hair. Like all elves, she is an effortlessly stunning beauty, which is fortunate because she doesn't spend much time on her appearance outside of special occasions - and even then, it's usually just to accent what she already has going for her. She's a big fan of gold and purple. I imagine her approach to fashion has been to treat it as something practical for her work or something that's trying to break physics with no in between.

About: If asked, Laerryn would simply cite what she does for a living is 'engineering' because most people do not need more of an explanation and she is often too impatient to give it. No one really knows exactly what Laerryn does because the truth is she wears the hats of many fields of engineering - civil, mechanical, production, etc. - and is always working even when she is, ostensibly, not at work.

This last part has put enough friction between her and her husband, Loquacious Seelie ( a radio news anchor and talented voice actor/impressionist ), that the two are currently separated, though of course Laerryn has her own opinions on this. England is where Laerryn calls home and Quay is from Ireland, but the both of them have ties to New York, mostly through Quay's connections as he is definitely more the schmoozing influence type.

Laerryn for her part often has very little patience for other people, especially ones she deems incompetent. She is an ambitious go-getter and extremely prideful about her work, though she doesn't court accolades or praise for those things. This trip for her is one part research, one part business, and mostly a sweatbox for her projects with a scenic view. Hopefully someone can convince my girl to have a little fun before the murdering happens. Those who are in the know for engineering or 'the biz' with Quay as a connection could be privvy to the fact Laerryn is responsible for the layout of this world's modern London Underground, a project that is ongoing as far as the implementation goes but is finished so far as her involvement is concerned. Onward and upwards! If I get any personal contacts that would be working with her, I'll share more with them on some of the things she's currently working on, or we can work that out together for a group project.

Looking For: Clever friends (doesn't necessarily have to be in her field), business partners, people who know Quay, assistants (maybe even an automaton of some sort?), rivals, enemies, associates, fellow science buddies! I am open to affairs, though that would be a complicated matter since she still has feelings for her husband. I would even tentatively be open to having one of the other characters being her separated spouse if they could possibly be social enough to have gotten her the connections she needs for her business/invention ventures.

Additional Notes:

Edited 2022-11-04 19:27 (UTC)

Player Name: Icki
Character Name: Fleabag (*I am not sure about an AU name! I think I would like to keep her as Fleabag because she's technically an unnamed protagonist in the source material).
Canon: Fleabag

Age: 32
Occupation: Cafe Owner
Appearance: Standing at 5'10" in her rattiest ballet flats, Fleabag is a slender, lanky woman with a bobbed haircut and a birthmark hidden under her sideswept bangs. She is almost always in a simple Parisian inspired ensemble, with red lipstick stuck to her teeth and a cigarette on hand.

About: Thanks to being from a close to real world canon, I'm pretty sure I'll be pulling her directly from the events mid season one of Fleabag with little changes!

*Fleabag is the owner of a struggling guinea pig-themed cafe that she opened with her friend who is no longer alive, and she lost her mother two or three years prior to the game. She is still grieving these losses in addition to her own cynical uncertainty regarding her future, and uses a variety of coping mechanisms to distract herself from the emptiness inside of her.

*That coping mechanism is sex. Also alcohol and cigarettes, but mostly sex. She is canonically bisexual though!!! Um, if that's any consolation...

*She has a strained relationship with her remaining family members- Her father is distant and is dating the most viciously passive aggressive woman one could possibly imagine, and her sister is a successful lawyer with an asshole of a husband who Fleabag despises.

*Fleabag is quick-witted, sharp, and willfully outrageous- She is always trying to weasel a laugh out of everyone and seems to somehow end up in the most ridiculous of situations, mostly due to her own poor choices.

*Despite seeming friendly, and even flirtatious, she's rather manipulative and isn't above leading others on for the sake of her own malicious entertainment.

*She frequently refers to herself as a "bad feminist," and is even quoted wondering if she would care so much about womens' rights if she was blessed with bigger tits.

Looking For: Fleabag is Very British, specifically a posh Londoner from an upper middle class family, and she is absolutely running her cafe into the ground so honestly! She is probably looking for a reliable loan. As of current, she has no friends and is pretty lonely, being the black sheep of her family and all!

Additional Notes: plz help me keep fleabag from plowing through the train's of age potential hookups

i swear it's not good please watch the show I'M NOT EXAGGERATING,,, SHE IS MAXIMUM HORNY??? PLZ HELP

no thots yet but how funny would it be if every time someone tried to reference fleabag's name it just got conveniently obscured somehow

Edited 2022-11-04 21:51 (UTC)

YES!!!! I AM ALL FOR IT, I WAS ACTUALLY GONNA PM U ABOUT THIS LAKSJFSAJDF

PLEASE. IT'LL BE FUNNY

Player Name: Sam
Character Name: Anne Boleyn
Canon: SIX The Musical (i play six as if the performers are reincarnations of the queens come back to life to throw a pop concert and rewrite their own stories. so they may have the herstory of the historical figure, but their personality is v much that of their stage persona. since this is the au most of the influence will come from the stage show-- but im too much of a tudor freak to not throw in some references from the real woman)

Age: 33
Occupation: Socialite | Singer
Appearance: pb andrea macaset, who is 4'11. loves to wear green. her lipsticks red.

About: - lived abroad in france (oui oui bonjour)
- came back and let her arranged marriage fall through-- all the british dudes lame (epic fail)
- she's just trying to have some fun
- constantly in the gossip rags and may have broken up a marriage or two (but she didnt mean to hurt anyone)
- has OPINIONS about religion (everybody chill its totes gods will)

Anne's a fun-loving gal, with high ambitions. The middle child of an old-money family of high prestige, Anne's parents have always expected greatness of her-- greatness that her time abroad was supposed to help flourish. Instead, she got some really bold ideas re: feminism and religion during her vacation, and came home fiercely independent and ready to cause some trouble. I'm going to leave WHAT trouble she's been up to pretty empty, but y'all can guarantee that she's made it into papers nationwide with her antics.

She loves to be the life of the party, believes that any attention is good attention, and tries to use that attention to further her own desires and ambitions. Anne believes she's going to change the world. She just doesn't intend to do it the same boring old way her family wanted her to do it.

comes off as really dumb and airheaded but every now and then she'll just quote some academic theory and make everyone stare at her like "wtf"

Looking For: everything.

Additional Notes:

Edited 2022-11-04 23:12 (UTC)

Player Name: Nick
Character Name: Eva Ushiromiya
Canon: Umineko No Naku Koro Ni

Age: 48
Occupation: Aspiring Head of the Family
Appearance: Eva is a middle-aged fair-skinned woman. She has ginger hair that forms a straight fringe over her forehead and is tied up in a high bun held by a purple hairpin. Eva's family conference outfit is a dark purple dress reminiscent of the Chinese cheongsam/qipao, emblazoned all over with the Ushiromiya family crest: the One-Winged Eagle. She also wears two gloves, a long right one and a shorter left one, which reveals the One-Winged Eagle tattooed on her arm. She also wears a pink bracelet, white pants and black shoes. Eva carries a maroon hand fan with her, which she sometimes opens up.

About: The Ushiromiya family name probably will ring a bell. If you're not very knowledgeable about the world of investing and business, at best you will remember hearing about the name before, but not able to pinpoint what they do. Those who would know, though, would be aware how infamous they are. The Ushiromiyas don't stray from legal stuff, but they would be known for being...forceful and shrewd.

Eva doesn't hold any position of power but her ambition is widely known to the point she's distrusted and disliked by most with some awareness of the business world. One would say cynically that she's just waiting her turn to be in charge.

In the original canon, Eva is the aspiring heiress of the family, (rightfully) jealous of her older brother's position as head of the family, and eager to toss him away from that position because he's very incompetent and is doing some really shady stuff with the family money. One thing lead to another and she and the rest of the family are in a murder mystery canon mixed with fantasy. In other words, generally she's not too different from canon.

In general the main difference is that the Ushiromiyas are infamous and therefore Eva should be distrusted right away.

Looking For: Not looking for anything in particular but I sure welcome anything that involves the Ushiromiya Group screwing over someone your character knows, or even your character directly. Even though it's impossible for Eva herself to have done it, just the fact she's an Ushiromiya may be enough to poison the waters a little.

Additional Notes: I can't think of any additional notes right now!

Player Name: Haylen
Character Name: Artemy Burakh
Canon: Pathologic

Age: 27
Occupation: Surgeon(?)
Appearance: A 6'3" bear of a man dressed in muted, earthy tones and sensible boots. He has dirty blond hair, sharp eyes, and angular features. Were he less of an overwhelming presence, one might expect him to blend easily into a crowd.

About:

A gruff, enigmatic man with a thick Russian accent claiming to be a surgeon. In truth, Artemy is something more akin to a medical student, and one who is travelling abroad from his small village to receive a proper degree and license to practice medicine. His sentences are either too blunt or too verbose and cryptic, he wields a scalpel more like a murderer than a surgeon, and he loves children and animals.

Seeing as how his own canon is set within a similar time frame, I'll actually be changing very little about his background to fit the AU! Pathologic is ostensibly set in the late 1910s to early 1920s in a rural Russian town, wherein Artemy is one of a small handful of doctors trying to stop the outbreak of a deadly disease.

As far as the AU goes, instead of returning to his hometown on a train as is the game's opening sequence, instead his itinerary has him travelling far, far away from it. He has no issue discussing the town, its customs, or his upbringing, although he speaks very little about the outbreak.

Artemy is a workaholic who averages probably 4 hours of sleep a night. He has absolutely no filter whatsoever on anything he says, meaning he will say things that are blunt, outright rude, or complete nonsense. He refuses to spend any money he absolutely does not have to -- so he's the guy to go to if you need a hole in your socks patched up. He can often seem numb to the horrors of life, responding to them with deadpan snark or indifference.

But don't let his harsh exterior fool you, Artemy is a deeply caring and loving person, with gentle hands and a soft heart. Near everything he does is out of selflessness, believing that good comes from sacrifice and that people must look out for one another.

Looking For: Everything!!! Go wild!! I will say that most people are likely to at the very least dislike him -- babygirl he is so strange and off-putting. But if you'd like to get along with him, he enjoys learning about medical and scientific research but can also talk your ear off about folk medicine. He's also a good cook, a solid drinking buddy, and he's got pretty good bedside manner if you happen to have sought him out as a doctor (WHY???? HE ISN'T ONE BTW). But also I'm open to ideas :3c

Additional Notes:

Linhardt is a part of the 'academia' scene and potentially a fellow rising medical researcher because why not. But he is perhaps one of the most irritating ones, constantly going against the grain, shirking manners or expectations resulting from others, and seeming half-hearted in his appearances with others in the field in discussions. He is very blunt, opinionated, appearing lazy unless interested (falling asleep in the midst of people's conversation so Arcade can observe that too lol), and such.

Rich too, to boot, thanks to his parents.

Also a point of interest for him would be Arcade's ties to that organization. He'd consistently ask about it or poke around into his business bc knowledge is power. Maybe that can be a source of tension/annoyance for them so they end up somewhere between enemies/rivals even if he is not interested wholly in the rival aspect?

Anyways, Lindy could have potential met Anne at some point. He has no liking or cares for high society, but he is doubtlessly a member of it here and so it's entirely possible it could be at some kind of high-profile or low-key "rich people get-together" he was forced to go to thanks to his parents/family...

Maybe one of her academic theories got him mildly interested, depending on the topic (if it is unusually Out There or something...like about origins of people) Or a segue from it or a "hey let's escape the party and do whatever we like" though seeing as she is life the party that is likely not to happen. There is also the option of 'very unenthusiastic when dragged along things party member' option, with variations of them getting to know each other but because they are just Themselves about everything, it is a funny dynamic of sorts.

OH BOY. arcade would definitely view him as a rich brat who never had to work or care abt actually helping others (even if not necessarily true) so this is tasty as hell. I'm down for that!! maybe they met as students once and arcade was like "I've had enough of this dude" but they kept running into each other over and over again?

Player Name: Jeff
Character Name: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Yeah we're keeping it.
Canon: Fate/Grand Order

Age: 29
Occupation: He's still a composer, but since opera's less contemporary he dabbles more in musicals and mixing classical influences with the emerging jazz stylings. Out with the orchestra, in with the big band.
Appearance: So he's not as dressed up as usual in his Servant self...but still very flamboyant! His hair is down and he wears a nice purple suit, basically this outfit.

About: Mozart is, obviously, no longer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but he's still a prodigal musician and pain in the ass. Born in Germany his father cultivated his talent, and he became rather well known even when still a child. He left early to seek fortune across other countries, travelling and playing music, landing gigs and contracts and commissions where he can. Unfortunately, the money coming in is never more than the money going out, which he likes to spend on luxuries he can't afford. His wife's taken a retreat due to how broke his ass is and probably because of the extramarital affairs.

He's got his sights on the USA, despite the current state of the economy and the critics' rather...divisive opinions on him, in hope that he might be able to get his big break there.

That's about as much as I've got and is subject to change -- he also definitely met a young Marie-not-Antoinette when he was a kid and has been in love with her since. And there's a Tony Salieri out there in NY who hates his ass.

Looking For: Friends, fans, enemies, rivals, ex-lovers, what have you...I'm pretty open for anything! He's travelled a lot and is very social, plus has been involved with ~~nobility~~ powerful and wealthy families (maybe he taught someone you know the piano?) so there's a chance to know more about him than just his music.
Additional Notes:

bats eyelashes at you........she's a singer and socialite they GOTTA know each other

sorry im losing my mind at the thought of someone in a heavy ny accent yelling HEYO TONY and its famous musician Antonio Saleri.

yaaay laerryn!!! although their fields of expertise are different, it'd be neat if arcade and laerryn had run into each other before, maybe in passing? arcade would likely admire her for her breadth of work and knowledge (and mildly intimidated), though it would probably not be the same for laerryn.

i love u sam. know this

There’s nothing that making Salieri a New Yorker doesn’t improve

Hello Fellow Individual Who Has Ties To A Shady, Powerful Group. the one difference between the two being that the enclave (i guess im sticking w this name) was dissolved due to external pressures. idk if i have any relationship ideas right now but regardless it will be cool to see how these two interact 👀 maybe arcade's father once did some crossdealing w/ the family?

idk if these guys would know each other in any capacity before the train but the idea of them interacting is so.

Player Name: Kat
Character Name: Mildred Bacon
Canon: OC

Age: 25
Occupation: Nuclear Chemist
Appearance: a 5'2" wimpy looking young adult. Her face is almost always neutral. Looks stern and serious but she is just really bad at talking to people outside of her own interests. Her hair is almost always in a messy bun and she looks like she hasn't slept in days.

About: - Mildred Bacon is a Nuclear Chemist who is very cagey about the details of her work, and yet most of her time is spent working on it. Even outside of shifts she frantically writes notes

- There is a longstanding rumor about her that she blew up an unrequited crush in anger. She will neither confirm nor deny this when asked.

- Her past beyond that is a complete mystery. She straight up denies ever having parents and seems to have no other relatives.

- She's a little prickly about the idea of friendship, and only warms up when the topic of science is involved.

- Despite that, she will happily talk to people in terms of asking if they want to help out with her experiments. It might be a bad idea to take her up on that offer

- She regularly works herself to the point of passing out. This is her main way of sleeping.

- Perhaps the only things she seems to enjoy that's not science related is drinking and movies. She absolutely enjoys watching the latest flicks and is fascinated by the technology of it all

Looking For: I would love some science buddies/enemies for Mildred w the cast here! Otherwise I am totally up for people hearing the various rumors about Mildred and her being a mad scientist.

Additional Notes: God help me this is my first real attempt w an oc in a game

if i had a nickel for every blond, freakishly tall, almost-doctor with a shady history on this train i'd have 2 nickels. which isn't a lot but it's weird that there's two of them

mildred my friend mildred.....has mildred written any scientific papers before?? you think they might know each other only thru research papers because that would be really funny to me

Player Name: Yew
Character Name: Kotoko Iwanaga
Canon: In/Spectre

Age: 20
Occupation: heiress, university student
Appearance: A tiny <5' doll of a lady who favors fluffy dresses and berets. She carries a cane, although she doesn't seem to need it for any purpose beyond poking people. She's well aware that she generally looks young and she's a little sore about it.

About:

What I've got currently: Kotoko is the only child of a very wealthy family who do some manner of nebulous Business internationally. While not completely oblivious to where her money comes from—and with a passion for gossip and an all-purpose nosiness that keeps her abreast of various Business World goings-on—Kotoko's own interests are a little bit more eccentric. She has a love of the occult and all things strange and inexplicable. More consumingly, she has a love of being in love. Kotoko fell hard and one-sidedly for Kuro Sakuragawa, disregarding the fact that he was already romantically entangled, and came to study at his university to get a little closer to her target. She's currently a student of literature and focuses on mystery and detective fiction, particularly the kind that touches on the supernatural. She's bubbly, brash, and frequently off-puttingly blunt; depending on the context, she comes across as somewhere between cutesy and calculating, and probably like she needs to be scruffed by the back of the neck for the good of everyone around her.

What I'm still fiddling with: what to do with the blatantly supernatural parts of Kotoko's backstory/setting. In canon she was abducted by yokai at age 11 and gained the ability to talk to spirits as a result. That's not a factor here, and I'm leaning towards cutting it entirely to not make her setup unnecessarily complicated. But if someone wants to build off of this I'm open to ideas.

Looking For: Literally everything! Some possible hooks here:

Kotoko is from Japan, but I'm intending for her to study somewhere internationally and have travelled around a fair bit. Her name might be familiar to other Japanese or Business (yes I'm going to capitalize it every time) characters. Also open to anyone who wants to be an extended family member or something like that.
Friends/foes/just exasperated acquaintances from university, either fellow classmates or teacher types. I'm going with literature for her background but there's wiggle room for her to have poked into other things.
Any science type academics who publish... if you want to have received annoying correspondence from someone going "but have you considered as an alternate theory: ghosts?"
I'm using her canon love interest/rival by default, but if anyone wants to get in on that mess, the ideal potential love interest (any gender) would be like a goat, the ideal love rival would be any.

Additional Notes: Pour one out for the time period scuppering Kotoko's most deeply-held dream bc thermochromic paint wasn't invented until the 70s

Oh my god, hell to the yes, that would be absolutely HILARIOUS

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Disorient Express AU Brainstorming

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