IC Summary

My dear friend,

You have been invited to spend a month at the luxurious, seaside mansion of Walter M. Astwood, Jr. Enclosed in the envelope are plane tickets for a round trip to the private Pacific island owned by the Astwood family.

This offer, I assure you, comes with no strings attached. This is at no charge to you and you are under no legal obligation, regardless of your choice. Whether or not you choose to take advantage of this generous offer is entirely your own decision.

I regret to add that I will not be staying on the island with you during your trip.

Sincerely,
Walter M. Astwood, Jr.

The letter is short and surprisingly to the point. In the envelope are two sets of plane tickets (each with one commercial jet flight to a nearby, public island, and then a ticket to hire a smaller, private plane to fly them to the island itself) and a map of the tiny Astwood Island. There isn't much - the beach house, which is really more of a beach mansion, a small tropical forest, a tiny meadow, a river dividing the two, and a lot of beaches.

Ten letters were sent out to ten strangers. None of them had ever met each other - or this mysterious Mr. Astwood - in their lives.

The water at the beaches is safe, but a sharp rock outcropping leaves the area too dangerous for boats. The only way onto the island is by private planes.

The planes are coming in one at a time, and one by one the puzzled guests who chose to accept are getting ready for a month on Astwood Island.

OOC Summary
Ten complete strangers have been invited to stay on a private island, owned by mysterious billionaire Walter Astwood. Nobody knows why they were invited.

Each stranger is carrying with them a secret - something they must work to keep concealed while spending this mysterious month together.

Summary ♥ Rules ♥ Application ♥ Characters

Rules

Gonna keep these pretty simple.

• Characters must be human, and that means more than just physical traits! Your character is not invulnerable nor superhuman, and they must abide by the same limits all mortal human beings do.
• This is VERY important to the roleplay: even though everyone's secret is posted on the front page, your character doesn't know anyone else's secret!!! If they're told, that's one thing, but please. Don't give your character an unrealistic advantage, and don't make up your own hints. For instance, if someone ELSE says their character is a heroin addict, don't bring up skid marks on their arms unless the original RPer mentions them.
• Roleplayers must control their own character and ONLY their own character
• Distinguish OOC text from IC text. For instance, write it ((like this)) or [like this] or something.
• Roleplaying is in paragraph form. I don't want to see any actions in asterisks or something. Write it all out.
• PG-13 at the highest please. This means no sex and no guts.
• Don't try and find loopholes around the rules. The fact is that I have the right to remove you from the roleplay (and from this thread) if I feel the need.
• This RP is all about character development. Please focus on a unique and truly HUMAN character. More on this in the application post.
• Ignorance of the rules is no excuse
• Use common sense. Just because I didn't make a rule against stabbing other characters in their sleep or otherwise trying to ruin another RPer's experience, doesn't mean I won't bust you for it.
• Look at the map below. Please try to stay accurate to it.

The Island / The Mansion

Yes, this map is lame, please stay accurate to it nonetheless. The living room is not separated from the foyer by a wall, but is just a lowered room - as in, there is a step down to enter it.


First Floor, Second Floor.
X: Spiral Staircase
1: Dining Room
2: Kitchen
3: Foyer/hallway
4: Living room
5-14: Bedrooms
15: Balcony
16: Hallway
17: Workout Room
18: Library
19: Media Room
20: Party Room

I didn't draw it, due to I am a lazy bum, but each bedroom has a tiny patio. Thus the doors in each room.
Bedrooms:
5 - Aiko


Summary ♥ Rules ♥ Application ♥ Characters

Application Form

READ THIS FIRST:
NOTE ONE- This roleplay is focused on character development. This means that your characters should be unique, flawed, and innovative! I don't want you to bullshit your way through the flaws. Things like "naive" and "temper" may seem like character flaws at first, but it's easy to turn those things into lovable traits or quirks. Give your character flaws that are actually problems!
NOTE TWO - Each character must have a secret. These secrets must be serious, persistent problems. For instance, if your character killed someone five years ago, that's dramatic, sure, but how does that affect their life now? Secrets should be something that affects even the small choices they make - addictions, disorders, diseases, something that they have to work hard to conceal.

Application-

[COLOR="Lime"][SIZE="4"]APPLICATION![/SIZE][/COLOR]
[B]Name:[/B] ----
[B]Age:[/B] ---- 
[B]Physical Appearance:[/B] ----
[B]Personality:[/B] ----
[B]A Bit of Backstory:[/B] ----
[B]Secret:[/B] ----

(text or pictures are both okay for appearance)


Summary ♥ Rules ♥ Application ♥ Characters

Accepted Characters

Name: Aiko Kimachi
Username: Febreze
Age: 19
Physical Appearance: 5'5", very slim, with long, permed hair bleached blonde. Wears trendy outfits with short skirts and high heels and always has her hair and makeup done!
Personality: Shallow, preoccupied with appearances, but bubbly. A little emotional.
A Bit of Backstory: Aiko did a lot of moving as a child, and never really learned how to form strong emotional ties to friends.
Secret: Biologically a boy ;)

Name: Heita Renzo
Username: Chrono Gala
Age: 18
Physical Appearance: Stands at a mere five foot two inches, her hair so long it reaches her the mid of her back, it's color a bright red. Her eyes a shining blue that sparkle in the sun, lastly her skin is dark, brown like chocolate ice cream.
Personality: Though her looks are that of a model, her mind is that of a book worm. She is the shy kind pereferring a nice book over the interaction of people. Though she would like to make some friends, she doesn't because she feels like she would screw up majorly. This is what drover her into turning to books for companionship. A loner in everyway, except for the fact that she does not wish to be.
A Bit of Backstory: All of her life she has only ever lived with her father, her mother had died while giving birth to her, and yes her father has made sure to point that out everyday of her life. Of course this constant mental beating had caused her to close off to most people, and has made her feel like a screw up. Who wouldn't when they were basically told that they killed their own mother? This brow beating had another effect, it has made Heita turn off men completely, though she has not been with another female she does hope that one day that wish could be granted, that day could come sooner than she thinks.
Secret: Is into girls. Has hidden this from everyone especially her father.

Name: Alana Negri
Username: Leda_et_al
Age: 21
Physical Appearance: Alana is an albino, which comes with it's share of trials. Her eyes are pale blue grey and everything else is paper white. Her hair is cut short about 2 inches long with two long bang pieces. Nearly always has some sort of hat. She's about 5'5 and tends to dress in confortable worn in clothing. Many call her a hippie which embraces her style as well as her mentality.
Personality: Alana is mellow. She tends to be paranoid about the outside, just because many a nasty sunburn is in her past, and spends more time inside with her video games and crafts. So she's a geek who is slow to anger and quick to laugh. If there's a party she's there, though. She's always where the people are.
A Bit of Backstory: Alana is an only child. She moved out early after her mother died and got a job at the local whole food store. She lives simply with a few roomates just outside the suburban sprawl. She rarely speaks with her father and it doesn't concern her.
Secret: She's an addict. Put a drug/booze in front of her and she's got to have it. And then have more.

Name: Coyan aka Coya
Username: Shadowedfire_Wolf
Age: 18
Physical Appearance: His skin is golden tan all year long, with turquoise colored eyes. He's got the body build of a basketball player. He's tall...about 6' even. He has a scar running down from the back of his jaw curving down to his upper shoulder. He also has a tattoo on the inside of his elbow of the Eye of Rah and on the other a symbol of Set-ma
Personality: He's quiet, calm and sometimes said to be your typical jock. Only his style and way of thinking is more punk-rock delinquent. He keeps a protective, maybe over protective eye on his 2 minute younger twin sister but he'll leave he alone to go and have a good time if he thinks it'll be worth it.
A Bit of Backstory: They're family moved from Cairo, Egypt to America. His father became accustomed to the life quick while their mother never liked it. Coya became very protective of his sister when they were sent to a foster home because their father had been killed. Their mother they never knew where she was because she left them as soon as they turned 5. He became a delinquent as soon as he turned 11 when he fell into the wrong group at one of his schools. As soon as they got into high school he joined the basketball team and began to calm down, turning to playing the guitar as a form of keeping himself happy and out of trouble.
Secret: His secret is something he didn't even tell his sister. It wasn't a random house breaking that went wrong, he killed his father to keep him from hurting him an

((Open! :D))

Aiko watched the plane take off again, as nervous as she had been since she got the letter. This was, by far, the craziest thing she had ever done. But she had been living in her current apartment for a bit too long, and it was time to head on to another city anyway - this trip, however bizarre the circumstances were, was an excellent transition period. She'd moved out of her apartment, and her furniture and most of her belongings were tucked away in a storage facility she'd rented.

A cost-free month on the beach with absolute strangers... she grinned, adjusted her wide sunhat, and began pulling her suitcases towards the giant beach house. What could possibly be better?

"Hello?" she called out as she walked through the front door. Her shout echoed a bit, but nothing answered. "Is anyone here?" There was still no reply, and she shrugged. In front of her was a sitting room with a few couches and comfortable chairs. To her right she saw two doorways - through one, a large kitchen, and through the other, a fancy dining room. There was a spiral staircase next to the doors. On the left she saw a hallway.

The first door she looked through in the hallway was a bedroom. The floors and walls were wood, with a diamond-shaped white rug juxtaposed across it at an angle. The bed had a bamboo headboard and white pillows and sheets, and a bright blue, green, and brown quilt on top. The other furniture - a dresser, a chair, and to her delight a vanity - was all white, decorated with tropical blues and greens and browns. Tiki masks, pineapples, and beach landscapes decorated three of the walls - and the fourth had a large glass sliding door that led to a small patio, and beyond that, a gorgeous view of the beach.

"A beach themed room, how original," she said quietly to herself, though she was charmed by its coordination. She pulled her suitcases in, setting them next to the closet - she'd unpack later, she supposed - and set her other bags on top of the bed, effectively claiming the empty room. She stepped out onto the patio, seeing several others to the sides of her room - every bedroom probably had its own little balcony or porch - and taking in the view. The beach was breathtaking - the sand was white, the water was that turquoise she thought it could only be in postcards. Palm trees dotted the beach in either direction.

She hummed happily to herself and headed back inside the house, taking a seat on a comfy white sofa in the living room where she could watch the door. Her apprehension forgotten, she decided to wait for someone else to enter.

((can i join?))

((Of course, just post an application! :D))

Name: Yamashita Ayumu.
Age: 21.
Physical Appearance: 5'4, alittle masculine, with brown short hair. Often dresses in baggy clothes.
Personality: Quiet, but answers when someone talks to her.
A bit of backstory: When she was 20, her parents divorced; info later.
Secret: None.

APPLICATION!
Name: Heita Renzo
Age: 18
Physical Appearance: Stands at a mere five foot two inches, her hair so long it reaches her the mid of her back, it's color a bright red. Her eyes a shining blue that sparkle in the sun, lastly her skin is dark, brown like chocolate ice cream.
Personality: Though her looks are that of a model, her mind is that of a book worm. She is the shy kind pereferring a nice book over the interaction of people. Though she would like to make some friends, she doesn't because she feels like she would screw up majorly. This is what drover her into turning to books for companionship. A loner in everyway, except for the fact that she does not wish to be.
A Bit of Backstory: All of her life she has only ever lived with her father, her mother had died while giving birth to her, and yes her father has made sure to point that out everyday of her life. Of course this constant mental beating had caused her to close off to most people, and has made her feel like a screw up. Who wouldn't when they were basically told that they killed their own mother? This brow beating had another effect, it has made Heita turn off men completely, though she has not been with another female she does hope that one day that wish could be granted, that day could come sooner than she thinks.
Secret: Is into girls. Has hidden this from everyone especially her father.

APPLICATION!
Name: Alana Negri
Age: 21
Physical Appearance: Alana is an albino, which comes with it's share of trials. Her eyes are pale blue grey and everything else is paper white. Her hair is cut short about 2 inches long with two long bang pieces. Nearly always has some sort of hat. She's about 5'5 and tends to dress in confortable worn in clothing. Many call her a hippie which embraces her style as well as her mentality.
Personality: Alana is mellow. She tends to be paranoid about the outside, just because many a nasty sunburn is in her past, and spends more time inside with her video games and crafts. So she's a geek who is slow to anger and quick to laugh. If there's a party she's there, though. She's always where the people are.
A Bit of Backstory: Alana is an only child. She moved out early after her mother died and got a job at the local whole food store. She lives simply with a few roomates just outside the suburban sprawl. She rarely speaks with her father and it doesn't concern her.
Secret: She's an addict. Put a drug/booze in front of her and she's got to have it. And then have more.

(is it alright if I join and also....can we only have one. I'd like to use my twin characters for this one...if that's alright...i'll still follow the rules ^-^ *crosses fingers*)

((Oh wow! I forgot to subscribe to this thread so I didn't notice things were happening! Let me look through all the applications...

Alex_Menewsha- Sorry, but secrets are required for this roleplay. If you come up with one you're welcome to join!

Chrono Gala and Leda_et_al, you applications sound good, I'll add you!

Shadowedfire_Wolf, twins are fine! I'm interested to see whether they'll share a secret, or whether it will be things they're hiding from each other.))

Name: Coyan aka Coya
Age: 18
Physical Appearance: His skin is golden tan all year long, with turquoise colored eyes. He's got the body build of a basketball player. He's tall...about 6' even. He has a scar running down from the back of his jaw curving down to his upper shoulder. He also has a tattoo on the inside of his elbow of the Eye of Rah and on the other a symbol of Set-ma
Personality: He's quiet, calm and sometimes said to be your typical jock. Only his style and way of thinking is more punk-rock delinquent. He keeps a protective, maybe over protective eye on his 2 minute younger twin sister but he'll leave he alone to go and have a good time if he thinks it'll be worth it.
A Bit of Backstory:They're family moved from Cairo, Egypt to America. His father became accustomed to the life quick while their mother never liked it.Coya became very protective of his sister when they were sent to a foster home because they're father had been killed. There mother they never knew where she was because she left them as soon as they turned 5. He became a delinquent as soon as he turned 11 when he fell into the wrong group at one of his schools. As soon as they got into highschool he joined the basketball team and began to calm down, turning to playing the guitar as a form of keeping himself happy and out of trouble.
Secret: His secret is something he didn't even tell his sister. It wasn't a random house breaking that went wrong, he killed his father to keep him from hurting him and his sister in a drunken stupor

Name: Caira
Age: 18 and 2 minutes younger than her brother. (he likes to rub it in)
Physical Appearance: Caira's hair is natural golden blonde with natural baby doll spiral curls. She has turquoise colored eyes like her brother. Her body is more lithe. She's got the type of a body built that most would consider a dancer's body. She has bout 4 piercings in each ear and always wears a black ribbon as a choker around her neck.
Personality: She's bubbly and happy. The type to easily love or easily hate. She made friends with everyone and very few enemies. She's also loud and loves music. She's not a party girl but she can't sit still. She's as physically active as her brother and loves sports.
A Bit of Backstory: She barely remembers anything from the time of her father's death. She cannot remember a darn thing. And also refuses to. When she entered high school, she joined the swim team and joined a dance class.
Secret: She's a major cutter. She's addicted to it and can't seem to cut it out (hahahah). She carries a box cutter with her everywhere and keeps a safety pin somewhere on her clothing, telling people its a fashion statement just so she keep her secret. Her brother has no idea because she cuts where people can't see a lot of the time.

(hope this was ok Febreze)

((Hmm... I preferred not to have dark pasts as secrets, but because someone close to him is there that sort of gives it some relevance so I'll say okay to that one. Also, you made a lame pun on Caira's secret and it made me laugh. xD))

APPLICATION!
Name: Tira Holls
Physical Appearance: Straight red hair, hazel eyes, narrow face, a dancer's body. She wears tight clothing under airy layers, because she loves the way they flow as she moves.
Personality: She's a dancer with dreams of being a ballerina, but has lost her love for the art along with her supposed "death". She treats everything like a dance - movements, conversations, friendships.
A Bit of Backstory: She tried to comit suicide after realizing she was in love with her older brother. Her uncle found out, and said that she could live with him until she gets her life back together. As her father and uncle are estranged, and never speak, her uncle doesn't know that the rest of the family thinks she's actually dead.
Secret: Her family thinks she's dead, and she's still in love with her elder brother.

((WASSUP Finitedreams :D

Umm...for the record, once people are accepted they can feel free to start posting. Since the planes will be arriving at random times, you can arrive whenever you want.))

((Yo~ *coughs* so I discovered I get gold for playing Tetris. I... may not get an intro post done very quickly. ^^;; ))

((NO YOU DON'T IDK WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT...go post))

The flight over to the island had not been pleasant. Tira had never enjoyed flying... If she was in the air, she wanted to know the ground would be there, ready to support her after the leap was over. Of course, planes were perfectly safe. Physicists everywhere could prove that the numbers worked, that the only problems that would besiege the normal passenger would be airsickness and boredom.
Tira was never bored while on a plane. She spent the entire time clutching the armrests, counting the moments until she would be on earth once more.
If she had remembered just how horrible flying was, perhaps she wouldn't have come at all.

That was silly, though. Uncle Jordan couldn't put up with her forever, and a nice vacation would undoubtedly help clear her mind. Maybe she'd meet a cute boy on the beach, and they'd fall in love on the spot!
Hmm, impossible dreams...

She chose a oriental-themed room, admiring the changing screen that was presumably there to make up for a lack of actual curtains, and the dragon motif on the vanity. She didn't have much in the way of clothing - a bathing suit, some general shorts and tops, a nicer formal dress - but she took the time to put it all away in the closet. A few other effects were removed from the suitcase and placed in various locations; books went by the bed, a blanket was tossed over a chair, and a few pictures were arranged on the dresser.

She hesitated at the last picture, then left it in the suitcase, face down, and hid the suitcase under the bed.

The view from the balcony was amazing. Tira shivered in awe, and quickly turned her back to it.

She hadn't seen anyone upon entering the house, but she hadn't looked very hard either. Maybe she could make some friends..?

A one piece swimsuit that might have also been a leotard was chosen, and a wrap to artfully drape about herself, and so armored, Tira set out to meet her fellow guests. She'd try the living room first.

Aiko hated sleeping on flights - not only was it a great time to get things done, but quite often, she met interesting people on the plane. And with all the moving she did, she spent a lot of time in planes, trains, and buses.

The downside to this was that she ended up pretty tired after a long flight, which this had been. And while waiting in the living room, leaning back on the big, comfy sofa, in the warmth, with only the waves to listen to, she had fallen asleep pretty quickly.

A door shutting woke her up. Someone must have arrived without noticing her - she'd probably been silent, she had been sleeping pretty hard. This was made obvious by how hard she found it to open her eyes again - her furniture was cheap, as she'd had to replace some key pieces after losing them to a bumpy moving van ride. Compared to her bed, this couch was heaven.

She almost fell back asleep, happily imagining how wonderful the beds must be, when she heard a door shut again, this time followed by footsteps. Whoever she had heard before was leaving their room and walking down the hall towards her.
Her hands flew to her head, carefully checking her hair. Finding no issues with it - had she moved at all in her sleep?! - she watched, suspense rising, to see who would step out of the hallway.

Tira came in carefully, footsteps light. The house felt empty, like it was waiting for something, and it put her a bit on edge.

There was someone else in the room. A girl, sitting on the couch, looking like she had just woken up. Tira's hand flew to her mouth.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, did I wake you?"

Aiko blinked a bit to wake up, and smiled. "Oh! Yeah, but I didn't mean to be asleep in the first place."

She stood up, crossing the room quickly to the other girl. "I'm Aiko. I take it you got one of those weird invitations, too?"

"Oh! Yes, aren't they strange? Who on earth would fund such a thing, and not even be around for it?" She paused, then smiled and held out her hand. "My name's Ti-Tiffany. Tiffany Brown."

She... she couldn't use her real name. What if someone was from her area, had seen the entry in the paper for her "funeral"? It was a cold thought.

Tira quickly changed the subject.

"I was thinking about exploring the place, care to join me?"

Aiko shrugged. "Eccentric old men. You know how they get. ...in movies, anyway. Maybe that stereotype came from truth." She laughed. "Exploring! Absolutely! In the map we were sent it looks like there's not much to this island, but that just makes exploring all the easier!"