Welcome to Gaia! ::

Now, for some info. I'm sorry if any of this is offensive to anyone in advance, because it does touch on the ever-so-sore topic of religion.

When they die, people can become what they assume they will be. There are a few categories they fit into:

Gories: These are the people that have just about no imagination, and often are religious. They can look exactly as they did when they died, in which case they continue to decay, or as they did normally or when they were younger. They decay slower, but that lack of imagination eventually catches up with them. They age, then decay. In other words, the Gories are no fun. A lot of the time, because so many are religious, they are grumpy that things haven't gone the way they thought it would. They sort of remind you of that old guy who yells at the kids to get off his lawn.

Cheeries: These are the people that have slightly different beliefs. They can look almost any variety of ways; reincarnation believers might be an animal they liked, or some famous dead person they thought they might have embodied. Ever seen those little Mexican calacas? Some even look like that. Here's where you can get crazy. They look like just about anything the person may have thought they would end up. The Cheeries don't so much mind being dead. It's something of an adventure to them. A lot of them were optimists in life. They don't usually suffer from decay.

Ghosties: Yes, even in the afterlife, there are ghosts. Sometimes, they're people who couldn't get a replacement body in time and were left to wander, unseen by their friends and neighbors. Other times, they were people who had no idea what would happen. Some of them didn't care at all, figured they'd see when the time came. Now they are only faint glimmers and chilling moans, mostly unseen and rarely heard. Every now and then, one makes their way back to life, in hopes that someone might see them. Small children (both dead and alive) can usually see them or something of them. Ghosties are the sad sacks of the afterlife.

Accepted Characters:

User: Tyne Serapis
Name: Titch
Appearance: Titch is a Cheerie; he can't remember what he was in life, but now, his skin is black and a cartoony skeleton glows softly white against the backdrop. His hair is black as well, and sticks up as though he's just awoken. He usually wears naught but tattered pants and simple sneakers.
Bio: So far, he's remembered that he was in college before he died. He thinks it was a car accident, but isn't too sure on that one. He knows he left behind a girlfriend, but a face and name escape him, and it sometimes weighs rather heavily on him. He tries not to dwell on this too much, though, and therefore doesn't remember new things often.
Personality: Though he's a Cheerie, he isn't exactly happy. He is, however, plenty of fun. He likes pranks and people, and once you get past the snickering, strange exterior, he's really a nice person.
Misc.: When courting a lady, he is a gentleman, and even remembers to wear shirts. He has a strange love for orange Skittles. (note: he is not a staff member.)

User: Ashiken Kiora
Name: Mue Shell
Appearance: Mue's a Cheerie; she is fantastical, to say in the least. Horns, pointed ears, yellow eyes... sounds pretty classically fantasy, except for the fact that she doesn't really look fantastical other than those small features. She doesn't really remember how or why she got freckles, however; she hates them. But she loves her nails; they're incredibly long, but they never break, no matter what.
>click for image<
Bio: Mue remembers vague areas of her previous life, and a few distinct memories, such as her tenth birthday party. She knows she used to be a strong Catholic, and loves the fact that she's not a Gory. She thinks it was because Catholics are not quite sure of what happens after death, but they have an idea. That allowed her to imagine what would happen to her in heaven. Mue has a strong childlike (and sadly wrong) faith that someday she really will go to heaven, and see God face to face. She thinks she died before she turned 30, but she's not sure. She has such a bouncy personality that she became a staff member. Mue's full of energy and gets things done.
Personality: Mue is very lively and is almost never put out by anything. She doesn't really get mad, but she'll pout or cry if she's upset. She's really nuts, and can't be held down by anything. A little bit of a tomboy, too; she runs with the guys, no problem. She's really acrobatic and can do most any feasible trick.
Misc.: She happened to embody her favorite character of a series (what that series was, I have no idea). The freckles came from nowhere, though. She loves hugging people and jumping flips. She has a strange love of physics friction problems as well, hence the name Mue.
Staff position/Uses: Mue is employed as a sort of handy"man" or gopher. She can get anything done, find anything fast. She's sort of a jack-of-all-trades, yet master of none. She loves her job because it's constantly new and different.

User: lele_lapin
Name: Zaida
Appearance: Zaida has pale skin, freckles, and red-blonde-orange hair. Her height varies by at least a couple of inches a day, but she remains standing at about 5'5". She's a Cheerie, along with many others, and she usually keeps her dress simple; torn jeans and a tee-shirt. Her eyes are a stunning blue, and she's pleased at the way she turned out; she had no expectations.
Bio: Zaida remembers just about nothing from her previous life. The only thing she knows is that her personality has remained the same, and that she was used to being surrounded by many people. (Why?)
Personality: Zaida's been a Cheerie for a long while, but she remains the same for the most part. Zaida sort of just happened to be a Cheerie. She has open eyes and a wide imagination, but she takes the weight of reality too personally. She knows that nothing in the world really matters in the long run of anything, because everything she knows has only been here for a very short time and she's gone anyway. She is somewhat rebellious, for it really doesn't matter to her. She loves black humor and pranks. Zaida can be polite when she sees the mood as appropriate.
Misc.: She loves Indie, Alternative, and Rock music. She hates oranges and she occasionally smokes marijuana. Sometimes she drinks alcohol. She's not a staff member.

User: ember1116
Name: Kitty
Appearance: Kitty looks a lot like her 'name' would suggest. She's small. She's cute. She's got pointy, furry ears and a tail. She appears to be about 17 years old, but she doesn't even know how old she was when she died. Despite some common misconceptions about women with cute furry ears and tail, she is flat-chested and lanky. A normal outfit for her everyday life might include a pair of white-washed jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers. She's not much one for fashion. Her hair is short and brown... at least, sometimes. It has a mind of its own. sometimes it's long, sometimes it's short, and its color changes by the hour, sometimes by the minute. She's got retractable claws, like any good kitty has, but she rarely unsheathes them unless she's using them to climb.
Bio: Kitty doesn't remember a lot from her past life... in fact, Kitty isn't even her name; she can't remember her name. She knows she used to have a pet cat though; Gilbert was his name. She doesn't know if she had him as a child or later on in life, but she remembers loving that cat as much as she loved herself. Other than that she doesn't know much about who she used to be. She thinks she died in a train crash that killed fifty.
Personality: Kitty is basically always cheerful. She's easily amused, easily distracted, and just as easily excited. She's actually a bit scary when she's hyper; you never know what she'll think of next. Some people might even call her psychotic, but she doesn't care because she's lovin' her life after death. She often finds herself drawn to high places; in the canopy of a tree, on a roof under the night stars, up a ladder in the middle of the room, you name it. She likes to climb. A lot. And the claws are a big help there. All in all, she acts like a cat.
Misc.: Unlike most cats, she's fairly clumsy; most of the time she lands on her bum rather than her feet. This is a bit of a problem, what with her love of climbing, but she's a tough cookie. Even if she does fall, she just springs right back up.

XXXXXXMue bounced -- literally, bounced-- out of bed, ran to the mirror, and quickly, routinely, automatically braided her long chestnut hair into its usual thin whip of a tail. She grinned at her unusual appearance in the mirror and giggled as she turned a random cartwheel on the way to grab some food. She didn't eat it, she just grabbed an apple from the fridge. A honeycrisp, her favorite. She tossed it into the air, watching as it frantically spun, and caught it behind her back. Tossed it again, shortly, and it landed in her other palm in front of her stomach. She gave a spontaneous little shimmy at her antics and made the sign of the cross on the way out the door. She locked it behind her and skipped down the stairs of her apartment complex, reciting her morning prayers with her usual sunshiney cheerfulness. She just finished them with another sign of the cross as she minced out the main door into the bright sun of Bone-Creak. She closed her eyes, spread her arms wide, took a deep breath, and stepped off the front porch--BAM!
XXXXXXMue was knocked right over, landing hard on the seat of her soft, worn leather breeches. Her golden eyes snapped open with a small "augh!" of surprise and beheld: Titch, running, it seemed, for his metaphorical life. She bounced right back up again and glanced down the alley curiously. When she saw the huge Russian spirit barreling down the way, here eyes widened and brow shot up in alarm. But all was still right in the world of Mue; she stood in front of Titch (or at least where he had disappeared) and called out in classic chipper Mue style that no one seemed to be able to resist: "Hey, Alec! How ya doin'? Great day today, hunh?"
She stood right in his way, just enough in the center so that he couldn't get past her without shoving, and she was sure he was just gentlemanly enough to keep from doing that. She grinned and waved, rocking gently on her soft moccasined feet, the other hand fidgeting inconsequentially on her thigh.

Mue gave a squeak as she was bodily lifted and moved like a large doll. She instinctively spread her arms to keep her balance and frowned at Alec's back in a spacey, disapproving way. She followed the pair inside her own apartment building, curious as to where this was going. On the way up the stairs, she heard someone behind her and glanced back, brow raised. It was Natalie, Titch's assumed sister and Alec's girlfriend. Mue grinned at her amiably; such a pretty girl. And she was so nice.
The girls reached Mue's apartment just in time to see Alec haul Titch out from underneath Mue's bed. The horned Cheerie flushed slightly to think of two boys in her apartment, much less under her bed. But, seeing the circumstance, it was definitely understandable, and could stand to pass.
'Thank goodness I keep my apartment clean,' she thought. She slipped into her room, feeling ironically out of place as Alec was pulled off of Titch by Natalie. As the couple left, Mue stepped up to Titch and asked brightly, "What was that all about? Sounded like you were in some pretty deep trouble there!"
It occurred to her that she hadn't pulled a flip in the past five minutes, so she backflipped smartly on the spot, waiting for an answer with quiet impatience.

[[It's not a problem. They're mostly non-players, so they can be shuffled around until they're important.]]

Titch sighed, his left side jerking with a loud crick. "Just a joke gone wrong. You know how Alec is. Doesn't have a funny bone in his body, he doesn't." He sighed and looked around, sitting on Mue's bed. "You know, don't think I've ever been in here before. "Your digs are pretty nice."

He looked up as the door opened, though, and waved. "Hey, Kit. Just almost had my afterlife ended by my sister's boyfriend, and Mue here helped save my butt. Normal Tuesday morning stuff, right?" He twitched again and continued, "'Sup with you? Just wake up or somethin'?"

Mue turned with surprise as Kitty came into her room. She had never had so many people in her room in the space of five minutes before. She waved hello and answered, "Yeah, Titch was being Titch again! But I don't need to report for work for..." --she checked the wall clock-- "another half hour or so. Thanks, Titch. I try. So tell! Whadja do to make Alec wanna kill you? Well, not really kill... you know."
She grinned and sat next to Titch on the double bed. She glanced at Kitty and almost fell over as the girl climbed her dresser. A c**k of her head and a question were quick to make themselves known.
"Comfortable, Kitty? Just don't knock anything over!"

Titch frowned. So many girls in a small space just didn't seem like a god idea to him. What if they started talking about shoes? He wasn't sure he could survive that.

As Kitty started with her shenanigans, Titch stood up and started to walk out. It was then, however, that a large black Something caught his eye out the window. It was swallowing another, though less important something up. Titch then realized that the less important something was Natalie's house.

He ran outside as fast as he could, shouting at the big Something, but it seemed to have no ears or brain, or much of anything aside from its status as a Something. Alec stood nearby, watching helplessly, his eyes wide. Titch ran over and stood near him. Time seemed to slow down near the Something. There was nothing they could do.

[[Pardon any spelling mistakes; using my PS3 to do this, and there's no spell check! I make a lot of typos most the time.]]