Welcome to Gaia! ::

To find out my current roleplaying status - whether I am available for roleplays or not - check out my Barton Town OOC thread. Right at the top is a short note about my availability.

I am a busy person - real life keeps me very occupied - so when it says that I am busy, it's really true. I really won't have time for new RPs.

Luckily, so many people are so flaky and just abandon RPs they start, that I can usually find space, so keep watching my status to see when I am available. 3nodding

I like literate, long-term yuri roleplays. Because I'm so busy, I don't usually have the time to do a quality post per day, so I aim for two a week minimum (although I don't require that of you, if you are busy, too).

I don't want smut. If you just want to get your jollies off, go somewhere else. I want deep, intricate and meaningful (at least in the context of the roleplay, not real life of course) romance and interaction.

I want beautifully crafted worlds with intricate scenarios and characters with personalities that are subtle and deep and just beg to be explored. That doesn't mean that you take a stock character, add some horrific trauma in their past, and suddenly you have a complex character.

I am not picky about setting or story, and I do not have a number of ready-made stories or pairings all set to go. I can work with any settings or stories you have ready-made. However, I am more than willing to provide a setting or a story based on what interests you if you have none already made, and if you like I would be happy to work with you to create an entirely new scenario just for us.

Oh, but one thing I should mention............. I do not like doing roleplays based on movies or series or anything of the sort. I do not mind taking the concept from a series or movie and starting a new story based on it.......... but I am not interesting in re-enacting people's favourite TV shows or movies, or even "updating" or "improving" them.

This is from a very old roleplay, from back in the days when it was possible to run a high quality roleplay in the Barton Town forums and have it last for months.

The story is that in the year 1770 in Japan, a group of young women aged 15-25 were cursed by a necromancer to remain fixed at their age forever. Eternal youth and beauty........ combined with the eternal loneliness of having to watch friends and family age and die.

Now it is 1870, and events have been set in motion that threaten to reveal the secret of these cursed women.......

The profile

Character Name: Akane Sagara (goes only by Aka, or "Red" )

Age: 19

Cursed?: Quite cursed

Occupation: Travelling clock maker/fixer, European languages tutor

Appearance: Aka is tall at 5'8", and well-built with long, well-muscled arms and legs, but with only slight curves and small breasts. Her skin is tanned a light brown by constant exposure. She has very dark, violet eyes that look black in most light and are usually narrowed in warning, dark red hair that untied would fall all the way down her back, a small nose and thin lips. She usually dresses to pass as a man, although her feminine features and slender body foil the illusion. Aka carries a European satchel slung over her shoulder, and two katana swords strapped across her back, one with the handle up and one with the handle down.

Description: When the curse fell on Aka, her villiage turned on her family and murdered them. Aka barely managed to escape while her father sacrificed his life for her. She wandered Japan for a decade, stealing, begging and doing whatever it took to stay alive, until she found the remains of a samurai duel which had no victor. She buried the bodies, but took both swords, teaching herself the art of the sword by spying on various kendo schools, in order to protect herself. She challenged her first dojo in 1827. She defeated her first dojo in 1829.

In 1837, she left Japan, and for the next 30 years she travelled all over Asia, then Europe, then America. She learned several European languages, such as English, French, German and Dutch, and as much as she could about metallurgy, and later clock-making, which fascinated her. In 1856, a clock-maker named Matthias Hohner made her her most treasured possession - a harmonica.

Upon receiving word in 1868 of civil war in Japan, Aka rushed home, but when she got there found that she did not support either side in the conflict. The Japan she had known had changed, and she felt like a stranger in her own country. When the Meiji restoration began, she decided that she would spend some time reaquainting herself with her homeland, so she became a travelling clock-maker, teaching languages when clock-making work was scarce. In exchange for teaching him the secrets of Western metallurgy and for introducing him to a foreign supplier of high-quality iron ore and other materials, she convinced a master swordmaker to fashion for her a pair of blades that she hoped would have no equal in Japan. And so, she wanders, working as a clock-maker and tutor where she can, playing sad tunes on her harmonica as she walks, trying to get reaquainted with her changed homeland in order to fill the emptiness in her lonely soul.

Favourite food: Sake, unfortunately. Aka loves the drinky, and often drinks to the point of passing out.

Passtimes: Playing her harmonica while relaxing alone with nature. She plays religious hymns from Western churches, Negro spirituals she learned in America, and traditional Japanese melodies, as she pleases.

Dominant/Submissive: Submissive, and quite shy.

The first post

The sweet smelling grass was her bed, the shade of a tree her blanket and the endless sky the dream she lost herself in, as Aka lay on her back playing a sad song on her beloved harmonica. It was a tune that almost brought a tear to her eye, taught to her by a slave in America who had not lived to see the day of freedom she had wished so dearly for. Freedom came to her people finally, but in the rush to bury the horrors of slavery in the graveyard of the past, many of the old songs whose melodies recalled the most painful memories were buried along with the pain they recalled. But Aka remembered. She remembered the melodies and the name of the woman who had taught them to her, even if no one else did.

Ah, Aka-san, she talked to herself in her mind as she played, Why do you insist on recalling the pain of days past? The years pile on, Aka, and each year brings new pain to burden yourself with. With enough weight, even the strongest bamboo eventually breaks. You will break too if you continue to accumulate painful memories as you do.

Perhaps, she replied to herself, long years of lonliness having forged this habit, But memories cannot simply be erased, they must be replaced with more powerful ones that eclipse them. I have known such great pain, Aka-san, that I do not know if it is possible to find happiness powerful enough to overshadow such darkness. It may be my destiny to break as your bamboo would.

Aka finished the tune, and lay still for a long time clasping the harmonica to her heart, looking towards the heavens. Then, abruptly, she murmurred, "But not today," and sat up, gathering her pack together and putting her tatami sandals on.

She stood up and brushed the grass from her grey hakama and kimono, checked that her hair was properly tied, then slung her swords and pack over her shoulders and set out to rejoin the road into the town. Her heart was still heavy with the memories of the melody she had played, and she started humming it unconsciously as she walked to the town. A taste of good sake will warm my heart, for a time at least.

And is this to be how you will live your life? With no purpose but going from one drink-drenched escape from your pain to the next?

Shut up, Aka.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my ad! heart If you'd like to ask me any questions, or you'd just like to get to know me better, feel free to ask away in my thread below. 3nodding I don't answer PMs from complete strangers (except roleplay requests if and only if I am available) and I certainly don't accept friend requests from complete strangers, so if you want to get to know me any better, you will have to start here. I'll be checking back often!