Bridgeport - How to Join

Bridgeport - The Monster Collab

Welcome to Bridgeport, a group-effort collaborative story/project, brought to you by Sfé/sfemonster and Jenny/JeyBarnes!

The Gist:
The story revolves around monsters- vampires, werewolves, demons and all manner of sorts that go "bump" in the night.  Taking place in a West Coast city called Bridgeport (think Seattle or Vancouver but much smaller) the setting is primarily a working industrial harbour, west coast rainforests, underneath piers and in foggy, murky inlets rank with the smell of low tide, slick with seaweed and crunchy with barnacles.  Somewhere in amidst abandoned warehouses and railroads is a house- a halfway home, if you will- run by a werewolf named Marlene who provides a cup of coffee and a moment of rest to all manner of drifters in the darkness- freshly bitten vampires, lone werewolves bereft of a pack to call their own, and monsters of less than favourable description.  The operation is neither public, nor is it widely known about, but for those aware Marlene has invented a simple code, and it's to those in the know that Marlene extends her hospitality.  Basically things work on a Fight Club basis- the first rule of Marlene's halfway home is that unless you're of the monster persuasion, you do not talk about Marlene's halfway home.

The Code:
It's pretty simple- playing cards serve as both a password and a species calling-card.  While this specific code isn't entirely well known or widely used in the "afflicted" community (partly because there isn't anything you'd really call a "community" in the first place) it's easy to remember.  It works like this:
Spades - Demonic possession
Hearts - Vampires
Clubs - Werewolves
Diamonds - Wildcard/"other"/thing Marlene doesn't recognize.
Other similar codes exist (for example: in England the monster code is based on dominoes, while other parts of Europe use a code based on Tarot cards) but in Bridgeport playing cards form the working, best known language.  

The Guidelines:
Basically this is a free-for-all monster collab.  As always: the less cliche Hollywood, Anne Rice and Dracula, the better, but feel free to go nuts! Vampires! Werewolves! Boogie men! This isn't exactly a calling for unicorns and fairies, but if you can think of a dark and freaky way to pull it off then by all means, GO NUTS.  The key here is secrecy- those "afflicted" with a form of monsterism are trying their best to deal with it, disguise it and slowly work their way back into "normal human" society.  Characters can be any age, any race, any gender and any profession- there's basically endless room to create! What we really want to achieve with this is collaboration.  Let's get characters interacting! Knowing one another! FORMING SOCIAL CIRCLES.  I imagine a lot of these folks are loners by nature but working towards socializing is part of faking "human" and I figure that's a goal for a lot of these people.  WORSE COMES TO WORSE THEY CAN ALWAYS SIT AROUND PLAYING CARDS AND DRINKING, MIRITE?

Character List:
<a href="bridgeport.deviantart.com/blog…</b> to go to the up-to-date list of Bridgeport residents and monsters!

Joining In:
Once you've got an idea/created/named a character/drawn a character sheet/etc. SEND US THE  LINK.  Either note this community, Sfé/sfemonster or Jenny/JeyBarnes and we'll add you to the master-list, then it's your job to INVENT, DESCRIBE AND FLESH-OUT.  This isn't technically a RP but we'd love to work out/talk about how all these characters get along and know one another.  AIM/Notes are ALWAYS a good way to talk and if there's enough interest we could arrange a chat-session or what-have-you.  Feel free to pair up, partner off and GET IN THE GROUP SPIRIT.  Collaborations mean EVERYONE IS INVITED.

Spreading the Word:
You can advertise Bridgeport using this stamp or by simply posting the icon to the community in your journal! Feel free to spread the word! SPREAD THE LOVE.  MONSTERS WHOO.