Frequently Asked Questions

[animusmods]

What's the time scale for this game?

This game runs in real time. One day in real life is one day in the game.

Are original characters allowed?

Original characters are allowed. They will have to fill out the OC application, and will be judged more closely than canon apps because of the increased level of flexibility in original characters.

Are canon-based OCs allowed?

No. If the character doesn't exist in the canon, you can't apply for them in Animus.

May I transplant a character from another game?

This is allowed; there is a game transplant application on the application page, and there are a few more questions included that center around the previous game.

My series has multiple versions of one character!

We will allow this within reason, provided the characters are indeed separate characters. Cloud Strife from Kingdom Hearts can be played alongside Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII, and the various Links and Zeldas of the Legend of Zelda series may be apped alongside other versions as well, provided they are not from one of the direct sequels (Link to the Past Link may exist alongside Majora's Mask Link, but Ocarina of Time Link cannot, because he is Majora's Mask Link). We do reserve the right to disallow certain characters from being apped if we feel we are getting too many of them for the current size of the game. When in doubt, ask.

So how do the AUs work?

Currently we allow there to be one three versions of a character played at a time--one OU and two AUs. AUs we will allow are those which place the character in a different situation, setting, or body in a way which is significant to the development of that character; while they should be recognizable as a version of whichever character they are, an AU is not an excuse to simply play a taken canon character.

So what about genderswaps?

Genderswaps are allowed provided you explain how this changes the way the character develops/interacts with the world.

I want to apply for a character that is already reserved or was applied for but is not yet accepted? Can I do that?

Sorry, we don't allow challenge applications. Please wait until the reservation has expired.

When do you review applications?

Applications work on an application cycle. Reservations will be open the last week of the month and last until the second of the next month. Applications will be open the first week of the month.

How many times can I apply for a character?

If you have been rejected for the same character three times, you will no longer be allowed to apply for that character. You may still apply for a different version of that character as long as it is obviously different. If you were rejected three times for an AU, you may not apply for other characters within that AU.

Do we use our journals in this game?

You do not post directly on your journals in Animus; it's entirely community-based. Along these lines, feel free to use a journal that you are currently using elsewhere.

What's the level of technology in the tower, anyway?

While various levels may seem to be from various periods of time, the tower itself is very high-tech, to the point of something out of science fiction.

Are there language barriers within the tower?

Characters can all understand each other unless otherwise noted--they will be hearing and reading everything in their primary language. However, if a character intentionally speaks in a certain language, only characters who know that language will be able to understand it.

What happens during a collar checkup?

There will be an announcement over an intercom system of the color due for checkups on the day it happens. When a character shows up for their checkup, they will wait in the infirmary for a short amount of time, until one of the retrieval units calls them into an examination room.

The character will have a tube hooked into the back of their collars. This tube is connected on the other side to an IV bag filled with liquid of the same color as the character's collar. The old liquid in the collar will be filtered out of the collar, and new liquid will be placed inside.

If the character at any point resists, retrieval units will hold the character down/knock them out as necessary. If a character does not show up for their collar checkup, they will fall unconscious the following day and will be brought to the infirmary for their checkup by retrieval units. They will not regain consciousness until they have had their collar checkup.

What's the policy on fourth wall breaking?

We have nothing against it, but don't expect anyone to believe your character, and please respect the wishes of the player before bringing up the fact that any of the characters are fictional.

Can I bring things from home?
Characters may bring up to six objects from home in a trunk. This trunk is three feet wide, two feet high, and one foot deep. Nothing that doesn't fit in the trunk may be brought, with some exceptions for playability. An animal companion that does not fit in the trunk may be brought within reason (a dog, for example), provided the trunk is empty. Computers and cell phones may only be brought into the Tower if they are rendered completely and permanently incapable of wireless or wired communication. Characters may not bring and sort of bag of holding--that is, anything that is smaller than the box but fits an infinite number (or very large number) of items.

My character really needs to have something that won't fit in the trunk, can I bring it?

If it's something the character needs to live or something you wouldn't feel comfortable playing the character without, we will usually allow it. Just ask a moderator first.

My character takes regular medicine. What can I do?
Characters will find the infirmary stocks any sort of medicine they might need.

My character has a different gender from their sex/does not have a gender or sex/generally does not fit along binary gender lines. Which room are they placed in?

In this situation you would be allowed to pick which room you wish for your characters to be placed in, whatever is comfortable for you.

Are our characters' worlds really destroyed?

Yes.

What are our characters' destroyed worlds like?

Everything living has been killed. Anything sentient but nonliving has also been killed, such as sentient AI, deities, or non-organic aliens. Anything that relied upon something alive to function will cease functioning and may vanish entirely if it required something alive to keep it in existence.

Moons and stars still exist, unless they were alive/something alive was keeping them there. Bodies decompose very slowly because all living and organic means of decomposition have stopped functioning. Something is at work on them, but it's difficult to tell what, and it seems more likely to result in mummification than anything else. They should remain more or less recognizable, if the character knows who they are.

Can my character die on their destroyed world?

No. Characters do not age beyond the point they were taken to Animus, even if they have aged further in the Tower itself. They do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe, and any wounds they suffer will vanish after being inflicted. Things like suffocation and drowning do not induce unconsciousness. They can sleep, however.

Can my character bring things to/from their destroyed world while they're there?

No. Because only the soul is transferred to and from their homeworld, objects do not carry over. Similarly, pets cannot be found anywhere, even if they were in the Tower. Similarly, characters do not have their collars while they are on their homeworlds.

My character is dead at their canonpoint. Do they cease to exist when they go home?

Your character will be able to roam their dead world as a ghost--floating, semitransparent, and resembling the form they had in life. This will be true even if the world they are from doesn't have ghosts like that.

Comments

[wrigurun]

This is a little bit of a specific question, but in the in-fighting event Wriggle received a can of bug spray that returns to her room after she tries to throw it away. If the can was destroyed through other means would it still return to her room or is it only after it's been discarded?

Also if for whatever reason she actually used up all the chemicals inside the can and then threw that away would the empty can be returned to her room or would it be full again? Or would it just not be returned?

[animusmods]

It will return to her room no matter how it is destroyed/thrown out. It will refill each time it's thrown out/destroyed, but if she uses it up and doesn't throw the can away, it will remain empty.

[technologic]

Is there anyway to hide the countdown to power failure clock that appears on the terminals, or to make some sort of coding to hide it?

[animusmods]

It would be possible to make it smaller/do the equivalent of making it show up only in the taskbar, but not to hide it completely.

[doctor_dismemberment]

Do the retrieval units make it a point to take back every piece of a person's body once they die? For example, if someone were to, say, keep an organ in a jar after killing the owner, would the units take that too, or would the character be permitted to keep it? If they do take it, would they insist upon getting it back immediately, or would they just wait until the organ is unguarded and then take it back?

I need to know for. Completely. Scientific reasons. Yeah.

[animusmods]

They wouldn't take organs, but would attempt to take limbs.

[warriorscribe]

So if someone kills and skins a monster and tans their hide(up to this point, real material) using a solution made of tower materials(obviously glamoured), if the glamour goes out, is the finished product still real leather, or rotting, untreated hide?

[animusmods]

It would remain hide for a day, but by the next day would be made of film. It would be impossible to tell when the change was made.

[jeweloftolbi]

With AU character applications, is it acceptable to write out an AU background for up until the pull point, or is it best to outline the events that occur past their pull point?

[animusmods]

You don't need to include information from after the pull point unless that information is relevant to how the character will be played.

warning for spoilers for grimm if you haven't seen to the end of season 2?

[makelove]

OKAY so two questions since I totally have an app for Adalind Schade from Grimm ready...

1. If a character is pregnant at the canon point you want to take them from (not yet showing, but definitely pregnant) and not a good person and only wants the kid so she can sell him anyway to get her powers back, what would happen to the child if she was brought to Animus? Would it just terminate or would she have to have the baby or what? (I'm fine with it terminating and she would ICly be okay with it too, but I wanted to check on that.)

2. As stated, at the canon point that I want to take her from (the most updated one we have), Adalind is still working to get her powers back (deal made in exchange for the child she conceived to find a way to regain them). The last episode aired literally had her and another character gathering ingredients to do it, but it cut off at a cliffhanger. If I want her to have her powers back but want to take her from that canon point, is there a way to have her regain her powers here in Animus? I'm assuming it will succeed considering that in an interview the actress discusses that she has to think about what kinds of cravings she would have because of the type of powers she has, but would that be okay to assume or...? I really have no idea what to do here.

I would take her from a much earlier canon point but she's changed quite a bit through the series and would be able to function much better personality-wise at this canon point.

[animusmods]

1. The pregnancy would either be frozen or terminated, up to you!

2. What process did she need to go through to get them back? If the ingredients are literal objects she might be able to have them in her trunk.

[warriorscribe]

As there are a few different interpretations of the Incubus/Succubus myth, I have to ask which the ones in Animus use - do they kill their victims when they're done(via energy drain or anything else), do they just take some energy and leave them there, or do they just plain leave them vulnerable somewhere? Or is there something I haven't even thought of?

aka hi guess who rolled one for a post prompt and then this idiot failed his will save

[animusmods]

They will kill them via their draining process.

[rebornfromice]

I don't know if this has been answered yet or not, but I'm debating applying for this character here.

Since Savalia's a death knight (third generation) and her runeblade is pretty integral to not just her powers, but her very being, would it be able to come to the tower intact and could she bring an additional six items to the tower? Since I don't think most people would appreciate a living corpse smelling up the tower...

Also, since a death knight can raise the dead and summon a legion of ghouls/gargoyle (in game, it has a 10 minute cooldown [3 minute for gargoyle], but I'm not sure how you'd like to interpret this with tower mechanics), would she be able to do that?

Finally, since a runeforge is pretty integral to Savalia's abilities, could she either have one in the tower on one of the floors or be permitted to build one herself, provided she can have the materials necessary or find them in the tower?

Sorry for question extravaganza, mods!

[animusmods]

1. If it's necessary for her survival, yes.

2. If you mean raising the dead as in what would be a revive in a video game, then that's generally not allowed unless cast pretty much the moment the other character dies. If you mean raising the dead as in zombies, that's allowed within context of a player plot but not in general. Summoning creatures is generally limited to smaller numbers of them but usually isn't impossible, though it will depend on the specific manner she does it.

3. She wouldn't be given one, but may be able to build one/request materials, though requesting materials isn't a guarantee. What would be required to make one?

[sacrament_of_blood]

Here're some morbid questions!

Firstly, you mentioned in the answer to another question that the retrieval units would come for a person's limbs and the like. Would they also come for a head?

And what about monster heads or limbs? Would they come for those?

Secondly, how about long would it take for blood writing on the walls to get cleaned up?

Thirdly, what would happen if for some reason someone hid inside a monster corpse?

Fourthly, what would happen if someone tried eating other people or monsters?

[animusmods]

1. They would come for a head, but limbs can be hidden from them in general because they're lower priority so if a character is really clever about it that can be kept.

2. They wouldn't come for monster limbs, though if left overnight they'll be replaced with nanofilm versions (like all the other items in a character's trunk).

3. Writing on the walls tends to disappear when no one's looking.

4. They wouldn't be stopped (unless someone ICly stops them) though some of the monsters might be poisonous/have repercussions for eating them mentioned in their bestiary entries.

[uki_la_maid]

I've been reading around, and I think that's an OK thing to do based on the FAQ and replies here, but I want to ask just to be sure: are sentient/living robot characters, like for instance, Transformers, or C3PO, or Ershin from BoF 4 acceptable characters to be apped? And if so, do they retain their original form or are they "altered" to fit the setting? (aside from obviously being shrunk down if they happen to be too big)

[animusmods]

Sentient machines/living robots are acceptable characters! Aside from being shrunk down if necessary they will retain their original form.

[warriorscribe]

Does the nineteenth floor library include any books on psionics (general knowledge), or are psionics a subset of a missing section?

[animusmods]

Sorry for the late reply! There are no psionics books in the library, though if they were part of another missing section is unknown.

[mostremaining]

I'm pretty sure this has been asked before (possibly by me, to boot- so, sorry!), but do backtagged tags that occurred within the space of the activity period could for activity check? Like, let's say... a post was started the day before the last activity period expired. However, most of the tags within said post are from within the current activity period. Could that post/those tags still be used for the current Activity Check?

[animusmods]

As long as the tags are made within the AC period, they do count for AC!

[stitchedupbodyguard]

I'm been seeing these posts about "regains."

Could you possibly explain that to this un-informed mundane please?

[animusmods]

Regains are items from home that a character may find in their trunk after an event, the details of which will be posted in the event wrap-up post in the OOC comm. For this most recent event, all characters that were trapped in rooms or helped to fix the tower regained one item from home, so long as it wasn't a weapon.

[ninjainviolet]

About the six items Sheena can bring. Would her cards be considered one item, or would each Elemental Card be one thing? (They usually come in pairs).

The same question applies to her seals, but these can be easily made by her if she can't bring them--if she can find some paper and ink. :)

[animusmods]

Sheena can being two pairs per item slot, so four cards for each one trunk item slot. Her seals would count similarly, but she can also remake them in the Tower if you wish.

[hatesliars]

I'm considering apping Elize Lutus from Tales of Xillia next month or the month after. However, before I do, I have a question, considering her friend Teepo. In case there is a mod who doesn't want to look at ToX spoilers:

Teepo is floating doll who talks and fights alongside Elize in battle. It is revealed in the game that he is actually not living (or seemingly not living)- he is a doll often voices Elize's thoughts that she can't say or is afraid to say. However, as he seems to have a personality of his own and it's debated in fandom whether or not he's actually alive or just a mechanical doll that seems to have a personality.

The reason I'm asking this is if Elize gets apped, then would she be allowed to bring Teepo along or would he be a separate character and therefore someone else would have to app him? Especially as Elize doesn't seem to be able to fight without him.

[pressxtojodie]

I have kind of a weird question.

I'm thinking of bringing in a dude who's a ghost. In canon, he has no actual physical appearance and most of his powers are due to him being a ghost or spiritual entity, even though if he were alive, he would still have a couple of other powers that other spiritual entities in his canon don't have.

I guess my question is, if he were in Animus and put into a "body", should he be treated as if he were alive? (can't phase through walls, do telekinetic shit, possess or force choke people, mess with televisions and lights, but can interact with people and physical objects like a normal human being)

edit: or maybe he could "go ghost" like danny phantom or some shit, i dunno, i'll have to think about it but anyway yeah

[animusmods]

He would be able to do a lot of his ghost abilities, but he would not be able to possess people. He will be able to interact with people and physical objects normally. He will be able to phase through things to a degree, but not through areas where powers are disabled, not into the elevator shafts, and not into places that have been locked by the admins.

It's up to you if he has to eat or doesn't eat anything at all.

[firstnothing]

What happens to a person's collar if the person themselves are vaporized?

[animusmods]

The collar would be vaporized along with it.

[mostremaining]

Hello, silly question time. Am I still in the game (with Prussia, Sephiran (who will probably be dropped), and Sephira)? I think I was on hiatus for activity check and I didn't see any of my characters on the warned list, but I wanted to double-check.

[animusmods]

You're still in the game, yes! Since you were on hiatus you didn't have to do the activity check.

[no_longer_a_king]

Just seeking some confirmation:

Winning the game on the network terminals just nets you a "you win!" message, right? Or would there be other consequences beyond extreme paranoia?

[animusmods]

The ending for the Slender game is the Slender Man catching you, but with 8/8 pages collected. It doesn't have consequences beyond extreme paranoia.

[warriorscribe]

Does returning to a dead world via hiatus and then coming back to the tower result in a new body with the original collar fluid, or will they still have the new fluid?

[animusmods]

They'll still have the new fluid.

[mostremaining]

This is going to be a weird question, but since I just dropped, when is the soonest time I'll be able to re-app? And will I have a penalty from my unfulfilled second chance?

[animusmods]

You could reapp this coming app cycle if you wanted to. There's no penalty, though if it happened repeatedly we might restrict your ability to reapp.