Recently, you have been having a number of nightmares. You do not always remember the details of the nightmare once the morning comes, and the intensity of the nightmare varies. But you can’t shake the feeling that someone—or something—knows you, and is digging at the parts of you that you most want to keep hidden. Certain emotions from the nightmares nag you during the day, tending to surface at the worst possible times and bringing out undesirable parts of yourself that you never knew existed. So far, you have managed to keep your life as normal as possible, but you begin to get the feeling that things will become much, much harder in the days to come.
Not long after you begin having these nightmares, a strange package arrives in your mail from a company called Enterprise Obscura. You open it to find a compact and light handheld electronic journal with the words “CosmoJournal” written in silver across the black casing. Inside, there is a built-in miniature keyboard on the left half of the journal and a monitor screen on the right half. Tucked neatly in a groove in the center hinge is a stylus. You notice a power switch on the side of the device, so you flick it on. The monitor hums to life with a cheery little digitized tone. The CosmoJournal title flashes on the screen, then fades away to a message...
Welcome to CosmoJournal!
You have been chosen randomly from a pool of names to be among the first to try out this exciting new device! The CosmoJournal is more than a journal—it’s a multi-functional technological sensation!
Feeling thoughtful about your day? Type up your musings so you don’t forget that brilliant idea you had! Want to vent? Scribble madly on the screen with the stylus! Spot an interesting sight that you want to remember? Take a picture of it with the camera!
These are just a couple of great features that the CosmoJournal offers. But if you want to know what else the CosmoJournal can do, you’ll have to discover those things for yourself!
This CosmoJournal comes to you with no charge and no obligation; you are free to do with it as you will. If you decide that maybe the CosmoJournal isn’t for you, that’s completely okay—there’s no consequence for taking that route. But if you do decide to make use of it, we hope you enjoy your experience with the CosmoJournal!
Regards,
the Enterprise Obscura team
You are suspicious (and more than a little creeped out), so you do a quick Net search on Enterprise Obscura. Much to your dismay and confusion, no hits come up. Still, this looks like a pretty expensive device to just throw away. You decide to keep it for the time being. Maybe you can sell it on wheeBay later for some quick cash. Or, you know, maybe you can try it out just once...
The real-life equivalents of the CosmoJournals are your character LJ accounts. You will be posting 1st-person entries from these into the main comm (
aleajactaest_rp) as the character you are playing based on things that either happen in the main comm, or things that you think your character might have been involved with outside of those events, or anything like that.How and What You Can “Post”
CosmoJournal entries take three forms:
i. Typed entries. Nearly identical to LJ entries. This is the “default” mode to be reading the entries in (that is, you assume that the character entries are typed unless stated otherwise). *actions*/::actions:: are allowed here, but keep in mind that your character isn’t actually doing those things—like I said, these read like LJ entries. Strikeout text is readable.
ii. Written entries. These are things that are either handwritten, or scribbles that the characters decide to do. Handwritten text may or may not be readable, depending on how good or bad you decide someone’s handwriting is. Strikeouts/scribbleouts also may not always be readable, so be sure to specify if they are or not. (Example: "{a heavily scratched-out line of text}") If you decide to have a character handwrite something, be specific in describing how it looks. Something like "{in handwriting that looks rushed and hurried}" or "{in neat handwriting}" will do. Alternatively, you can open up Microsoft Paint, choose a handwriting font, type up your entry there, then save as a JPEG and upload to your character LJ. As for doodles, you can either just describe what the doodle looks like, or you can whip out the ungodly Microsoft Paint again and draw something there that you can then show off. :]
iii. Photo entries. The CosmoJournals have simple camera and photo storage capabilities, as well as a good amount of storage space. If a journal entry has a photo in it, you will attempt to describe the photo as best as you can. Characters commenting on the photo are then free to interpret that photo however they choose—you don’t always have to take the description at face value, and in fact it could produce some interesting developments if you just use your imagination a little. I would recommend not using actual photos, since the world of Bomberman isn't exactly realistic, but if you're inclined to draw something, you can draw the "photo" and then label it as a photo in the entry so that we don't confuse it with a random handdrawn doodle.
CosmoJournal entries can be a mix of these three. If you decide to have a combination of these posting styles in your journal, make sure you designate which parts are which styles as clearly and specifically as you can. Feel free to get as creative as you want. :)
The Filtering System
One of the features of the CosmoJournal that the welcome message conveniently forgets to mention is that, if you write/type something in your journal and then save it to the journal, everyone with a CosmoJournal can read what you write/type...unless you filter it for certain groups or individuals. When you are first starting out RPing and writing in your character journal, it is important to keep this piece of information in mind. Your characters are going to be mightily creeped out upon finding out that text from other people is appearing on something that they thought only belonged to them, and are going to react differently based on their personalities.
In addition, you’re not going to know who everyone on the CosmoJournal is at first, making things even more spazflail-worthy. Anything the characters post will initially be tagged with some sort of 6-digit serial number. Characters can eventually fiddle with the settings on the CosmoJournal so that they can replace the serial number with their name, but that’s not going to be for a little bit. Because of the nature of the characters in this RP, they’ll probably be able to figure out who’s who after a few exchanges, but they’re still not going to be able to use the filters without some experimentation.
With that said, here is how the filters work.
[Filter: Bomberman] – Addresses a specific person.
[Filter: Elemental Knights] – Addresses a group of people. This only works if the group can be objectively quantified somehow, such as in the case of the Elemental Knights or the Quartet that runs Bomber Base. Doing something like “[Filter: Stupid people]” won’t work, but could lead to much hilarity, so feel free to have your character try this out. :D
[Filter: Private] or [Filter: Self] or [Filter: Me] – Something that only your character can see.
You don’t have to use this exact format for the filtering to work, especially if characters are just starting to figure out the basics of it. Other forms include:
To So-and-So
Ooh, So-and-So can see this! But no one else can. Woe. No one else will even know this message exists.
Locked to This Person
Again, This Person can see what’s written here, but no one else can.
For What’s-His-Name
Ad nauseam.
Another thing to remember is that these filters are not actual LiveJournal filters. We will all be able to read these OOC. However, you will have to keep track of what your character can and cannot see. In addition, if you reply to a post IC, you may want to think about using a filter in the subject header of the comment box or at the top of your comment. If there’s a specific group of people you’re filtering something to in a comment thread (i.e., Bomberman, Pommy, and Kuro), you’re going to have to constantly change the comment header if you want to make sure what you’re talking about IC is visible only to the intended audience. For example, if you’re playing as Kuro and you’re talking about something you only want Bomberman and Pommy to see, you’d filter your comment using [Filter: Bomberman and Pommy]. If Bomberman replied to that and still wanted to keep everything between him, Kuro, and Pommy, he would filter his comment using [Filter: Kuro and Pommy]. (I swear this isn’t as hard or complicated as it sounds! It just looks that way because I want to make sure I’m covering all bases.)
One thing to note: you cannot add filters IC to something you’ve already posted. Thus, I should now mention that forgetting to filter certain entries or comments on purpose may produce some fascinating results... :’)
Sample Entry: Lilith
[Filter: To self]
Hmm. Ruk’s been annoying me lately. I really don’t want to go see “Attack of the Bishounen” with him tonight. Even if Titus Grandion is good-looking and a great actor.
{a photo of a movie poster featuring an attractive young man with blue eyes and messy brown hair, smiling}
{scribbled hearts all around the photo}
[Filter: Rukifellth]
What time are we catching the movie tonight? I keep on calling your holophone, but you’re not answering. Also, are we still going out to that restaurant afterwards?
[Filter: Bomberman]
Hey, are you free tomorrow night? I seriously need to get out and away from Ruk for a while.
