Sign Up Life After Death [PG-VL]

[BlueMoon]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=Navy]The Afterlife. Ahh, a nice, peaceful place, right? Finally released from the sufferings of the living realm, souls are free. No cares, no troubles, just that promised, glorious eternity of rest until you?re reborn again.

Or not.

For the realm of the dead, things are quite active. Qin Shi Huang and his Terracotta Army have been restless as, well, as the dead. Not content to simply rule over China with other emperors, Qin Shi Huang has allied himself with the Chinese Gods and is slowly conquering the Afterlife. His army and land grows by the day and with the Gods on his side, no one seems to have the power to stop him.

As can be imagined, not many are pleased with this. While many Gods are defending their lands or ignoring the problem, some have decided to fight back. The Egyptian Gods and Pharaohs, tired of Qin Shi Huang?s attacks, have launched their own military campaign. The fate of the Afterlife is caught up in these two power hungry armies, with no clear end in sight.

Yet all is not lost. The Greek and Norse Gods have started to set their own plans into motion. Instead of declaring all out war, they?ve been recruiting and arming the souls of normal humans to fight the two vicious armies. Ares, Athena, Thor and Odin have been handpicking these individuals for greatness. These people are being trained to go into these foreign lands and stop the very Gods, Emperors and Pharaohs that stand in their way. It is no longer a quiet life for them. It?s a life full of danger, where the very existence of one?s soul is threatened. You want peace? Tough, you?re going to have to fight for it.

Welcome to the Afterlife. Enjoy your stay, it might be awhile. [/SIZE]

-------------------

Welcome and hello! In this RP, you?ll be taking sides on the war for the fate of the underworld. You?ll be playing as one of the mortal souls that?s been chosen by their respective Gods to fight in the war, either against the armies of China and Egypt or, if you play as them, against everyone else.

For the sake of the RP, only Norse, Chinese, Egyptian and Greek Gods are participating. Other Gods are trying to stay out of it. The Gods themselves will be NPCs. You may pray to them and interact with them like NPCs but try not to go overboard. Gods may approach you for special missions sometimes and it?s a good idea to give sacrifices to them when you can. Remember, these are Gods, so show some respect (even if it?s grudgingly, depending on how your character feels about them).

Your role is up to you. Are you an assassin working your way towards Qin Shi Huang himself? Are you a spy for the Egyptians fooling the Greek Gods? Are you just out of luck and trying to find a peaceful solution? Maybe you?re even a bit bitter. Try to be creative and get involved with the world.

One important aspect is the belongings system. Although players will be given goods by the Gods and can make offerings to them to receive new items, you generally start out with what you were offered at your funeral. Some people may only have the clothes on their backs and some jewelry. Others may have a burial mound or a pyramid full of stuff. Therefore, if your character has only recently been recruited by the Gods, he or she may have fewer things than someone who has been in their service for years.

As far as geography goes, the afterlife is much like our own world, except a bit darker and more barren. There is a perpetual mist that hangs over the world. This mist is cleared up in the temples of the Gods and cities. Buildings of the living are not visible in this place, although alters to the dead like pyramids, burial mounds, graveyards and the like are around. There are many ?ghost towns? where people live. These towns are sometimes actual ghost towns but usually just versions of current cities that have been changed. For example, the New York of this world maybe be a ghost of the New York of ours, being from perhaps the 1920?s rather than 2007. Different towns age differently, so some may seem older than others. This also means your characters can be as recent or as old as you want, really. Just keep time period in mind when creating your character, as it may affect what jobs they are best suited for and their attitudes.

[B]The Alignments: [/B]

Chinese Gods are somewhat divided on the issue of the war. Most have thrown their support to Qin Shi Huang. They?ve taken nearly all of Russia and India now, edging dangerously close to Middle Eastern and Nordic lands. Although the Gods are helping in the fight, make no mistake here: Qin Shi Huang is the one in charge. He?s crazy, paranoid and ready to take over.

Egypt, in contrast, is mostly being led by its Gods. They?re currently fighting China in the Middle East having joined forces with, and in some cases outright defeated, the Gods there. The Pharaohs stay mostly in their pyramids and palaces. It?s the war generals to be wary of.

Greek Gods have been edgy ever since Egypt joined the fray. Of course, since they?re Greek Gods, they have no problems gathering the common souls together to fight for them. They have chosen not to have direct parts in the fight, staying to their temples and simply following their hero hopefuls around for moral support. They worry mostly about Egypt but fear China almost as much.

Norse Gods, however, are ready to fight. They not only pick their humans but train them and fight along side them. As such, these Gods are very busy and wandering all across the world, fighting the good fight to protect their lands. Their biggest concern is pushing back China right now.

Reapers are neutral or at least they are supposed to be. This class of people is different from Gods and humans. Reapers are human souls trapped in limbo. They collect taxes on property owned in the Afterlife, eventually earning enough money to be released and reborn again. But, hey, with a goal like that over your head, it?s natural that a few are helping the war efforts on the side, for a small fee . . .


Now then. What I need from you is the following:

[B]Name:[/B] [Please fit the area your character is from]
[B]Gender:[/B] [Fairly obvious]
[B]Age: [/B] [Anything above 18 for RP purposes, please]
[B]Alignment:[/B] [Either Greek, Norse, Chinese, Egyptian or Reaper. You may also state here if a certain God has shown favor to you. It doesn?t have to be a war God. Maybe the Goddess of Music likes you. Have fun with it]
[B]Appearance:[/B] [Written, Picture, or Both]
[B]Personality:[/B] [What is your character like?]
[B]Background: [/B] [What is the history of your character, both in life and since their death? If you?re a Reaper, try to explain why you?re in limbo and why you?ve entered the war]
[B]Belongings:[/B] [What do they own in the Afterlife? Remember, this will reflect their status, such as wealth, and time period. And of course, the Gods that favor you have probably given you some nice things, so go with it]
[B]Snippet:[/B] [Give a sample writing of your character. Preferably at least three paragraphs]


So that?s all! If you want to know more about the Gods, I?d suggest looking them up on Wikipedia. It has nice, detailed pages on these sets of mythology and the Gods involved. Anything else can be asked at the Underground thread, which can be found [URL=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=56665]here[/URL] . I?ll pretty much be accepting all apps that I think are good, so just relax and make a good sign-up.

I look forward to seeing what you guys can do! [/COLOR]

[4815162342]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=DarkOrchid][b]Name:[/b] Kesi ([i]Egyptian:[/i] Born of a troubled father) Wynne ([i]English:[/i] Friend) Sands

[b]Gender:[/b] Female. Decidedly female, thank you.

[b]Age:[/b] 23

[b]Alignment:[/b] Egyptian, cats! And [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis]Anubis[/URL] has shown her his favor, she?ll have you know. Nyah.

[b]Belongings:[/b] A set of clothing from the era of her death, a speak-easy where she can entertain newly-dead and well stocked liqueur cabinets. And that is all she will ever want.

[b]Appearance:[/b] [URL=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/DeSotoDiceFreak/Kesi.jpg]Kesi.[/URL]

Five foot three inches in her silk-stocking-ed feet, and five foot six when she gets a chance to wear her beloved patent-leather heels; she has a facial structure like a china doll?s and her features are all small and delicate.

Her dark walnut-colored hair is cut into a bob that ends just beneath her ear lobes. She is always, [i]always[/i] dressed in a flower-patterned flapper dress and silk stockings, though she is [i]not[/i] always wearing her shiny heels or her hat.

Kesi walks with a slinking, overly seductive gait and smells of whiskey and lilies. Her voice is somewhat slurred at times, but always perky and somewhat babyish.

[b]Personality:[/b] Kesi is rather hedonistic, and loves all vices from drinking and gambling to canoodling. She speaks her mind, and is always on the lookout for a nice bit of juicy gossip she can spread around.

Her personality also lends itself to being a good listener, and every now and then you can actually count on her not spreading your secrets from Cairo to Athens.

She lives for excitement and thrills, and is most pleased when she?s given the chance to go on some adventure or another. Kesi loves any adventure, and if she gets to act while she?s off on one? That?s all the better, then!

[b]Background:[/b] Kesi was born to an English father and an Egyptian mother living in NYC in A.D. 1903. She had a childhood that lacked nothing as her socialite parents didn?t think anything was too much for their dark-haired angel.

She attended the best schools that money could buy and lacked for nothing any child would want ? in fact she had many things a child shouldn?t have, and in many ways that spoiled her and helped shape her into the woman she is.

For, indeed, as seen on the silver screen as Alyona Serebriakova, she [i]was[/i] without a doubt [i]very much[/i] a woman, and other women all over wanted to be like her. To kiss the dashing young men she did and to go off on adventures.

But soon she left Hollywood and her film career behind under the shadow of scandal ? polite young women did [i]not[/i] become raging alcoholics and they most [i]certainly[/i] did not got caught in bed with a man who was not their husband!

Soon in Hollywood her name became nothing more than a name written on dusty film rolls.

But a life of being invisible just wasn?t feasible to Kesi, and so in Egypt ? her mother?s homeland ? she made herself famous for a new reason. And in only one year, too; quite an accomplishment!

Now she is known as the woman who drank too much and died in a fiery crash while participating in a race against a Hollywood chum who had been visiting her.

While some would say that was the end of a self-destructive life, for Kesi?for Kesi it was only the [i]beginning[/i]

---

Kesi has taken the Afterlife well in stride, enjoying it to its fullest. She has a nice, steady job working with Anubis to greet the dead, though she draws the line when he starts talking about anything even remotely related to embalming.

She?s opened a speak-easy ? with her Lord Anubis? permission of course ? where she entertains the newly dead and loosens them up and puts them at ease with her liqueur.

If at first she first thought that the afterlife was boring, she doesn?t now, what with the excitement of a war brewing and all. She?s kept busy enough gleaning what she can from those that frequent her speak-easy ? it?s amazing what one can hear from lips loosened by a fine whiskey.

[b]Snippet:[/b] She was nekkid. She looked down at herself with a slight snicker of amusement; in death nakedness didn?t matter, did it?

Kesi heard an answering snicker and looked up. And up. And up again ? right into the eyes set deep in a somewhat familiar face. Her lips pouted slight as she tapped a finger against them, lowering her eyelashes demurely.

?Mind telling me your name?? She batted her eyelashes, completely comfortable it would seem. ?I don?t think we?ve been introduced before, or I would know you.? She lifted her hand, holding it out towards the man with the head of a Jackal.

The Jackal-headed man?s hand was cold as he took her pale fingertips in his dark ones and raised them to his lips. ?Anubis, at your service, Kesi. My daughter and I have been waiting for you.? He smiled and inclined his head back at the snake-headed woman who was seated serenely beside another, clothed, newly arrived dead. ?Welcome to the Afterlife.?[/COLOR]

[COLOR=DarkOrange]Finished![/COLOR][/SIZE]

[konske]

Name: Zerus Anithos

Gender: Male

Age: 22

Alignment: Greek, He is favored by the god Zeus

Appearance: [URL=http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q196/griff189/?action=view¤t=guys204.jpg]Zerus Anithos[/URL]. He is tall, around six foot three, but he only weighs one hundred and seventy pounds. He may be light, but the weight he does have, is pure muscle, and he knows how to produce more energy out of what he has, then normal people do that are four times his size.

Personality: He is kind hearted. He loves the outdoors and does everything he can to try and protect it. He enjoys the sunlight, and can tell when something bad is on its way. He is a peaceful one, never really liking the whole fighting scene, but knows that there is nothing he can do to get around it.

He is bound to help, being who he is, and he knows that. He is not one that would object to anything when he is given an order, and will try and carry it out with the best of his abilities. He would never think of refusing an order, or not doing what he was told. He hates it when anyone does this, no matter how high they are in ranks above, or below him.

Background: He is not of noble birth. He is the son of a common sculpter, and teacher. His mother, a widely known sculpter, taught him that if he wanted to be successful in life, to be able to use his hands. To not be afraid of anyone that will try to shoot him down, and to be proud. To not taunt those that are lower than him, but rather, help them to be better people.

His father taught him to be smart, to use his mind to get around objects. Nothing can stand in your way if you can learn to over comethem. You should not look down on others, but mearly learn from their mistakes, get to know them, and learn how to not be them. His father was a bright man, always looking at the world as if he was looking into something, not looking out of it.

A little while after he turned 22, his country went to war. He had been taught how to use a sword, but he felt as if he was not the one to decide who shall live and who will die. He refused to fight, and was eventually killed, by an enamy. All he did was stand there, looking at the man. He smiled as he closed his eyes.

The man swung his sword once, creating a scar that ran from his right eye to his lower chin. Zerus fell to his knees where the man cut his head off. Zerus died right there, on the battle feild, refusing to fight.

When Zerus opened his eyes once more, he was looking up at a throne. There were clouds all around, and people laughing and talking. He stood and then started walking twards the throne. As he reached the top, he turned around and then frowned. Underneath him was the battlefeild that he wa just at. It was clear as day. There were people dying, and others taking lives. This angered Zerus, until a deep voice came from behind him.

As he turned around, he saw a god in front of him. He got down on both knees and then bowed, he was before the god Zeus. As he rose, he was rewarded with a sword. He was praised for not taking a single life in the midst of battle, and was honnored with a meeting with the god Zeus.

When Zeus finished talking to him, he was give a task. To help Zeus in anything that may need to be done. To do his work, so he could watch over his people, making sure they were treated with the respect they were needed. Zerus agreed, and from that day forth, had been working for the gods, helping in any way he possible could.

Belongings: He is not one of much possesion. He has enough money and wealth to last him many lifetimes, but he really doesn't care. He would rather travel around, eathing the fruits of the planet.

He does have one sacred item. When he came before Zeus the first time, he was given a blade. One that will never dull, no matter how much it it used, no matter how much it is heated. It is something he cherrishes more than his life. It has been named the[URL=http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q196/griff189/swords7.jpg] Cleaver[/URL]. And is something that has been told in fairy tales, but has never been owned by, but one man, Zerus.

Snippet:
Zerus walked into the hallway, fingering the hilt of his sword. He looked around, a frown on his face. There was something in the air, and he had a bad feeling about it. He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew that it was bad, and what ever it was, would be there soon. He also knew that there was nothing he could do to stop what ever it was.

He stopped next to a door and then knocked. As he walked in, there was a single man sitting in a chair the size of a small elephant. No, to call this person a man would be insulting. He was a god, and one of the stronges gods to have ever been. He was Zeus.

"Zeus, might you have time to answer a question I have been pondering over for some time now?" Zerus bowed in front of his ruler and then raised agian. He dared not look the god in the eye, but mearly looked at his feet.

"Zerus, what is it that is troubleing you?" The god Zeus stood and walked down steps that lead to the lower floor that Zerus was on. Slowly, Zerus lowered his head and took two steps back.

"I have been getting the feeling that there is something foul in the air. I am not sure what it may be, but I have a feeling that it will reflect onto us, and I am wondering, if I should be worried on this matter?" Zerus did not raised his head, but mearly looked lower as Zeus passed him and walked out onto his balcany that looked over the land below.

Zerus fallowed as Zeus raised his hand and signaled him to. "It is not that you should be worried, Zerus, but that you should be willing to give everything you have to try and stop this. It is a war, but not of normal mortals." He turned and looked at Zerus, who kept his head down. "You may raise your head, do not lower it for me, not now." Zerus did as he was told and looked at the god.

"I am sorry, but I do not understand what you mean. How is it not a war between mortals?" Zerus took a step forward, confusion written on his face and in his words.

"It is a war between gods and the dead. There will be no mortals involved in this matter, as far as I know. All I can really tell you is that this war, will determine the outcome of the world as we know it." He turned to Zerus, a little hint of anger in his voice. "So, if you are willing, will you help us?" He asked, smiling.

Zerus nodded, a smile on his face. "Anything you wish, I shall do. You need but only ask." He bowed as he turned to leave. As he was leaving, he fingered the hilt of his sword. It had been so long since Zeus had given it to him, he had forgotten the time. He only knew that he owed his soul to the god, and intended to help him in any way he could.

[Deadpool]

[color=darkred][size=2][font=book antiqua][b]Name:[/b] Ashen Luthos

[b]Age:[/b] 22

[b]Gender:[/b] Male

[b]Alignment:[/b] Greek, favored by Hadas

[b]Appearance:[/b] [url=http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d41/whitewolf_fang/?action=view¤t=Rei02.jpg]Ashen Luthos[/url] Likes to wear loose clothing to throw off his enemies and give them false confidence before they find the true meaning of pain. Don't be fooled by his front he will trick into doing his bidding without you knowing it.

[b]Personality:[/b] Very manipulaitve and likes to trick people into thinking he is weak until they hit him. A true pyro at heart he likes to sit and watch fires burn. He can be nice at times if he feels like it and loves to flirt. He has one rule never trick or harm a women and respect them always.

[b]Background:[/b] Born of a wealthly class with quite a bit of money. Though he didint care for his family and started his own life when he was just 16. He joined the Greek army and quickly rose through the ranks and becoming on of the richest men in Greece.

[Inuyasha Fandom]

Name: Xen Cso

Gender: male

Allignment: Reaper

Appearence: Cloaked in a loose, billowing robe, he has an aristocratic look about him, and even an ominous look when his long silver hair billows in the wind. Seldom does he wear the hood attached. Underneath, he can't come across as a more different person. A pair of black pants, with a glowing neon blue strip going up the sides,with a matching shirt. A techno goth. On his face, he wears not but black lipstick.

Personality: While generally seeming docile, he has a vicious underside. He's generally cool, but has a short fuse. Often, people can't read him because he shows so little emotion. He has a passion for the finer things in life, as well as flowers. Those who earn his trust can rely on him always, but those he harbors grudges against know the truest meaning of the term 'living nightmare'. He will help those in need, but he will shy away from alliances.

Backround: Once the propretor of a public garden and an art galery, he made quite a name for himself. But he was murdered, along with his life partner. To this day, he is unable to forgive such acts.

In life, he was a kind and generous person, and loved flowers. He was happy, and loved to goof around with freinds. He was a scholar, a musician, a painter, and also had a talent iin drawing.He met his end due to a hate crime, and he and his boyfreind were beaten, and held prisoner, all the while tortured, and thus finally, Xen watched helplessly as his love died. And even still, Xen was not able to hold the love of his life as he slipped into the next world. His heart broken, he was still tortured, untill shot to death. Now those feeling make his what he is, bitter and untrusting of others.

Now, he has taken this new look to suit his forelorn longing, his sorrows, and his pain. He knows he looks like the earthly conception of the grim reaper. And thus, he has accepted death.

He sides with no one, only careing about his lost love. All that matters to him is finding his Derrik. He helps those who need it, but will soon disappear, wandering the vast world. If he is offered information about the whereabouts of his lost love, he will aid the person, if only in the desperate hopes he can find Derrik.

He is a wanderer, but once in awhile, he can be found within the ruins of his art gallery and garden, gazeing at his precious treasures, looking like a lost soul within a long forgotten past. If he is disturbed within his sanctuary, he will attack, viciously cutting people down who dare disturb him.

Belongings: He owns several gemstone flowers, once given to him by his love, and given to him again on entering into the afterlife. He also carries with him ciggarettes.

[Astdis]

[B]Name[/B]: Herja

[B]Gender[/B]: female

[B]Age[/B]: 29

[B]Alignment[/B]: norse, one of Oden?s valkyries

[B]Appearance[/B]: 5?6?, green eyes, long dirty blonde hair
[IMG]http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/luckywrit/VALKYRIE.jpg[/IMG]

[B]Personality: [/B] she?s a warrior, plain and simple. By mer chance, she has never loved anyone beyond her family and comrades (in other words, she never wed nor has she had a lover). As the position of valkyrie, reserved for the female warriors for which Oden had the most respect in their lives, she?s extremely proud of her position and fiercely loyal to Oden.

[B]Background:[/B] She was born on one of the roughest rocks the Vikings inhabited. Unlike other cultures they encountered, women were allowed and even encouraged to fight along side their fathers and brothers if they wished to. From a young age she fell in love with the waves.

At 15 her father gave in and took her on a raiding voyage. That was it, she was hooked. She spent most of her life on the sea, filling the lust for battle and the joy of comrodery with the other fighters. She was killed avenging the death of her father in a raiding battle. Her older brother gave her a Viking hero?s funeral, in a long boat aflame on the water.

Oden himself met her at the gates to Valhala. As one of his valkyries, she was granted a comfortable lifestyle in his great hall. When the gods of foreign lands started meddling with the balance of things and making vicious power plays, Oden called together the Viking gods and declared war. Half the valkyries were left to guard the hall. The other half, including Herja, were sent into battle with the gods.

[B]Belongings:[/B] Oden rewarded her loyalty and prowess in battle by presenting her at the gates with leather armor edged in sliver and a sword engraved with the raven of Oden. Also, as a Valkyrie she has use of one of the flying war horses to traverse all levels of the after life and allows a valkyrie to go down to the mortal realm to retrieve the souls of warriors.

[B]Snippet: [/B]

You live by the sword here. I always have, we all have. The battle songs of minstrels ring through the great hall, stories of valor and honor after every dinner told by the greatest skulls that ever walked the land below us. I often would slip away in the evenings to listen to the tales being told by the skulls still in the moral realm. Around the warm flames of a camp fire in a Viking camp, in the high branches of the trees I?d listen to their tales and feel the old shiver of the thrill of glory and strength in my veins. Oden would shake his head at me when I returned, but he indulged my whims.

Until now. The doors to Valhalla have been closed tight. No one comes or goes. Warrior?s souls are stuck in limbo for there are no valkyries to free them. We?ve been given a new task.

We rode with Oden and Thor all day and night to reach mount Olympus. There we were told of the full problem. Oden had assumed we?d have the support of these so called gods to fight off the threats against us, but to no avail. Oden was furious and Thor hit the mountain so hard with his hammer that it cracked.

In the end, it seems these greeks have appointed souls to fight for them as Oden had us. I?m to go with some Spartan and Athenian warriors into the far eastern other world and stop them. One of these is a warrior called Ashen Luthos, a privileged man but with notable fighting abilities characteristic of Sparta. The other is called Zerus Anithos. A much more personable character, but I sense that his heart is not in the fight as much as in the idea of it. Athenians are not known for their fighting abilities to my knowledge, but we shall see.

[Funny Girl]

[COLOR=Magenta]Name: Haruhi Fuijioka

Gendar: Female

Age: 21

Allignment: Greek. She is favored by the god Apollo

Appearance: [URL=http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g172/Just_Be_Yourself/m44251477.jpg]Haruhi Fujioka[/URL]

Personality: Haruhi has the sense of being carefree and vulnerable. But those looks just decieve her opponents and others as well. She can fight like everyone else in the war and can be just as tough too. She had a very soft side that she expresses to almost everyone and she loves to have fun and live it to the fullest.

Background: Haruhi wasn't all the rich and not all that poor. She is middle class and had a hard time trying to get into high school. Her parents were both dead before she entered Jr. High. Overall, she had many difficulties with money and getting through school.
Before her parents death, they taught her how to sing and write poetry. Ever since then, she loves to write what the world throws out at her and sings to those that love to listen.

Belongings: Haruhi had the gift of singing and the clothes on her back when she died. Now that she is in the afterlife, she can still sing but she was left with a pendant that has incredible powers when her parents were buried.
[/COLOR]

[Ozymandius Jones]

[COLOR=DarkSlateBlue][B]Name:[/B] Nils Broderick Ivarson.

[B]Gender:[/B] Male

[B]Age: [/B] 30

[B]Alignment:[/B] Norse, favored by [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hl%C3%ADn]Hlín[/url], argued over by Odin and Loki, a fact he is none too pleased with.

[B]Appearance:[/B] [url=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/OzymandiusJones/Nils2.jpg]Nils[/url]. Tall and lanky and blonde, with bright blue eyes and a lazy smile.

[B]Personality:[/B] Peaceful, bookish and somewhat irritable. He was confidant (until he died) and quiet (until Hlín dragged him out of his afterlife), now he's not confidant - perhaps he's even a little clumsy - and not quiet, tending to protest, bluster and complain [i]all the time[/i]. All he really wants is to relax - he was murdered saving a student's life, isn't that heroic enough to earn him a little relaxation? Apparently not.

[B]Background: [/B] Nils Ivarson was a high school professor of history in a little no-name town in Norway during the 1970s. He was a quiet man, content to spend the evenings tamely, sitting near the fire with a book. His one true love was teaching, and that's what most of his time was devoted to. He adored myths especially, and his students often reported that the classes he taught on myths and legends were his best.

As can be gathered from the above paragraph, Nils was a very...uninteresting gentleman. Right up until the week he died. It was only in the last week of his life that anything Interesting happened to the poor man.

The town he worked in was much like him: a quiet, sleepy, harmless little place, nothing exciting. Again, right up until the week when he died. That week, there were six murders - one each night. The town was left shocked. Each was one of Nils' students, the younger children, fourteen and fifteen...the town went into lockdown mode; curfews and buddy systems put in place, and school cancelled.

Nils was locking up his classroom when he heard screaming. He rushed outside to the aid of a student who had thought it'd be safe to walk home on their own, not thinking about calling the police. He also didn't think before he tackled the assailant, who was a good six inches taller (and close to a hundred pounds heavier) than him.

His student got away. He didn't. The killer threw him to the ground and strangled him with his bare hands. And that was the end of Nils' career as a living human being.

--

His afterlife began on the wrong foot.

Since his death was by strangling, Odin claimed him as his new servant. Or tried to. He was interrupted by some obnoxious little creature who seemed to jump between yelling at Odin and attepting to wheedle Nils' loyalty to himself. Somehow.

Having just died, Nils was a bit on the dazed-and-confused side, but he was able to tell that he wanted no part in any of this. His attempts to sneak off resulted in Odin being amused, and Loki being annoyed and attracted to attention of Hlín, who managed to ward off both of the others by stating she was protecting Nils, who wouldn't - she swore - like fighting [i]or[/i] tricks.

Unfortunatally for Nils, this left him still in a gods (in this case a goddess) debt. She has yet to collect, so he's still pretty poor, but his discovery of The Library has made it so he doesn't really [i]want[/i] anything. Odin still comes around to huff and puff and complain about how he was strangled, so that makes him [i]his[/i], not some pushy godess's, but Hlín is usually not far behind to shoo him on his way. Lightening is so bad for library books.

He still fears [i]she's[/i] going to come around to collect one of these days.

He's going to complain the whole time.

[B]Belongings:[/B] One second-hand bell-bottom suit, neatly patched at the elbows, two cents and a pack of cigarettes.

[B]Snippet:[/B] The afterlife was brilliant for books, and brilliant for time. Thirty-five years had gone by in the blink of an eye, and he'd had a new book for every day of every one of those years. Sometimes two, if he'd been engrossed of the book was short. And - even better - he was still on the first shelf of the Library's first floor. Promising. Very promising.

Nils Ivarson sat in a musty, green-leather chair in a little nook in one of the corners of the massive Library. He'd claimed the nook as his soon after finding the library. It was cozy enough, and the rats that pranced through didn't come near him anymore. They'd taken a disliking to having his sandles flung at him.

Those very same sandales rested on the back of his chair right now, with his cigarette, his lighter and his reading glasses. Someone up there - down here? Whatever it was - had a mean sense of humor. Why else would he suddenly need glasses after he was dead?

Something rustled across the floor, and he sighed, opening his eyes and sliding his glasses back on. "I know you are there, don't make me throw my sandles again..."

He wasn't expecting a response. Even in the afterlife, rats didn't speak. But he got one, a woman's voice deep and hearty -

"Don't you throw your sandles at me, boy." She sounded as if she was laughing. "I won't scurry like some rat..."

Hlín. Nils' heart sank. Her next sentance made it sink even further.

"I've come to claim a...favor."

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