believe us to be born into a path straight and narrow

Playlist

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 08:59:42 GMT

Full Playlist
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Spotify
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Peter Bradley Adams -- The Longer I Run

Tell my brother please not to look for me
I ain't the man that I used to be
And if my savior comes, could you let him know
I've gone away for to save my soul

Gregory Alan Isakov -- Second Chances

All of my heroes sit up straight
They stare at the ground, they radiate
Me, I'm mumbling in the kitchen for the sun to pay up
Lonely as a ring on a cold coffee cup

I'm all bloody knuckles, longing for home
If it weren't for second chances, we'd all be alone

The Avett Brothers -- Head Full Of Doubt / Road Full Of Promise

There's a darkness upon me that's flooded in light
In the fine print they tell me what's wrong and what's right
And it comes in black and it comes in white
And I'm frightened by those that don't see it

AWOLNATION -- Guilty Filthy Soul

Cause you gotta look her in the eye
And you gotta love your way of life
Cause you got a guilty, filthy soul
Don't you know it's out of your control

Young Dubliners -- If I Should Fall From Grace With God

If I should fall from grace with God
Where no doctor can relieve me
If I'm buried 'neath the sod
But the angels won't receive me

Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry

Fountains of Wayne -- Cemetery Guns

Granddaddy, oh
Bled hearth and home for oiling the company gears
No rest for the errant ones
Godspeed their reckless sons
Who evermore play their forefathers' hands
On the foreign sands

Dawes -- When My Time Comes

So I pointed my fingers and shouted few quotes I knew
As if something that's written should be taken as true
But every path I had taken and conclusion I drew
Would put truth back under the knife

And now the only piece of advice that continues to help
Is anyone that's making anything new only breaks something else

Right Away, Great Captain! -- Oh No, I Tried

What if you could touch my hand
Through the deep sweat sweating
For a guilty, guilty man

And oh no, I tried
I tried

Blind Pilot -- Half Moon

And I chalked a line south down the coast
Going where my thirst was open
For the things that I don't know
Going where I wasn't paying
For the hurt that I owe

So hold high, have faith your reasons
Don't you forget you come from nothing
That wind is calling my name
I won't wait, or I'll never get on

Joshua Hyslop -- Nowhere Left To Go

So never say it’s unfair
Confidence is not there
For everything I know is everything I’ve sown

Father, give me freedom
Providence and wisdom
For when I am alone, when I am alone

Cheyenne Jackson -- Mr. Lonely Boy

Mr. Lonely Boy, why you runnin' on so far
Mr. Lonely Boy, why you tear yourself apart
The smoke, it clears, it always does
So suck it up, why the fear?

Steve Moakler -- Beginning of the End

There's a right way and a wrong way
To walk down a lonely highway
And I've been on both sides of the road

And it's not fair where I'm standing
And it's nothing like I planned it
The hand holds on while the heart is letting go

The Lumineers -- Nobody Knows

Nobody knows how to get back home
And we set out so long ago
Searched the heavens and the Earth below
Nobody knows how to get back home

Mumford and Sons -- Hopeless Wanderer

I wrestled long with my youth
We tried so hard to live in the truth
But do not tell me all is fine
When I lose my head, I lose my spine

The Northern Folk -- St. Philomena

So baptize me, oh cleanse my soul
Forgive me for the hearts I stole
It starts to take a toll as you grow older

Deliver me out of the hands
Of wolves in wool and sinners' plans
Eternity’s a burden I can shoulder

Passenger -- Feather on the Clyde

Well I would swim but the river is so wide
And I'm scared I won't make it to the other side
Well, God knows I've failed but He knows that I've tried

I long for something that's safe and warm
But all I have is all that is gone
I'm as helpless and as hopeless as a feather on the Clyde

Joshua Hyslop -- Do Not Let Me Go

From the moment I was born I have been dying
Yeah, we walk along towards the great unknown
Is it love if I have given up on trying?
Singing "oh my God, don't leave me alone,"
Singing "please, oh God, do not let me go"

AWOLNATION -- Handyman

I’m not brittle, I’m just a little
Scared of your temperament
I’m not brittle, I’m just a little
Scared of my government

I’m not brittle, head hurts a little
Staring up overhead
I’m not brittle, I’m just a riddle
Born of white, blue and red

The Brevet -- Moving Mountains

Mold my soul
Into something to uphold, a book untold
So won't you unfold these pages now
Oh, 'cause they're crying
And they're calling out saying "hear me now"

The Gabe Dixon Band-- All Will Be Well

All will be well
Even after all the promises you've broken to yourself
All will be well
You can ask me how, but only time will tell

Gregory Alan Isakov -- The Stable Song

Remember when our songs were just like prayers
Like gospel hymns that you called in the air
Come down, come down sweet reverence
Unto my simple house and ring, and ring

Ring like crazy, ring like hell
And turn me back into that wild-haired gale
Ring like silver, ring like gold
And turn these diamonds straight back into coal

Cold War Kids -- Royal Blue

Why would I stick around? Oh, why would I?
Why would I get burned out? Oh, why would I?
Oh, whoa for me I'm always waiting in shadows
Oh, whoa for me I'm always looking for a way out

From now on with the sky as my roof
From now on let the risk lead me to
From now on somewhere I never knew
From now on call me royal blue

Birdtalker -- Nothing's Right

Tell me again what makes a good man
Is he free of blood on his hands?
Does he only say what anyone can?
Is he clean lines and Puritan?

Tell me again how you can talk to God
And how he tells you what to do
And how you're sure it's not your own damn voice
Disguised as something absolute

Keane -- Perfect Symmetry

Write page after page of analysis
Looking for the final score
We're no closer than we were before
Who are you? What are you fighting for?
Holy truth? Brother, I choose this mortal life
Lived in perfect symmetry
What I do, that will be done to me

Colm McGuinness -- I Wanna Be in the Cavalry

I want a horse in the volunteer force that's riding forth at dawn
Please save for me some gallantry that'll echo when I'm gone
And I beg of you, sarge, let me lead the charge when the battle lines are drawn
Let me at least leave a good hoof beat they'll remember loud and long

Radical Face -- Servants and Kings

Through rolling hills and many miles of blood
We slept in the rainfall and marched through the mud
And you were not like anyone I'd known
You spoke with impunity, had nothing to atone

And quiet evenings you told me what you thought
About servants and kings and how everyone is bought
And how no one's hands are bloodier than God's
And I won't be judged for doing as I ought

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Visuals

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 06:02:49 GMT

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HMD

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 02:24:50 GMT

Questions? Concerns? Extravagant praise? Throw it here!

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Aefenglom App

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 02:17:38 GMT

Character Information
Name: Simon Ashlock
Canon: World of Warcraft
Canon Point: The beginning of the Battle for Azeroth expansion.
Age: 33
History:

Detailed here!

Personality:

Paladins are often stereotyped as humorless, moralizing buzzkills, and Simon doesn't always do a lot to prove that wrong. The problem is that he doesn't like his fellow paladins any more than secular folk do, and the constant game of one-upmanship and being literally holier-than-thou gets exhausting. He always has the feeling that other paladins are judging and mocking him for not being as pure and lofty a paragon as he's supposed to be--and to be fair, some of them are, though not as many as he thinks. He feels caught between two worlds, not holy enough for the paladins and too holy for the laity, and so generally keeps to himself when he can, preferring to maintain few social ties so that he can travel as he likes.

He feels smothered at the very thought of having to settle in one place for the rest of his life, or even for more than a few years at a time. His wanderlust and commitmentphobia have caused him a lot of far-reaching grief. He knows he's not the only paladin who struggles with the expectation of chaste self-discipline, but most of the others had the good sense to get married young, which didn't work out well for Simon when he tried it. He doesn't really blame his ex-fiancee anymore for choosing his brother, though, when she would have hated the traveling life, and he would have hated staying in his tiny hometown and raising a family. The thought of being a father makes him squirm, and he can't help but feel like that's another failure of morality on his part, though there's no specific "go forth and multiply" commandment in the scriptures of the Light. He likes children just fine, and adores his nieces and nephews even if they do remind him of his brother's betrayal, but all he really wants is to be free to pick up and go exploring, and he couldn't do that with a family to feed.

He wonders sometimes if he wouldn't have been happier as a secular soldier, without having to worry constantly about upholding a paladin's moral code, but he can't truly fathom what that would be like. His entire identity is wrapped up in being one of the Light's chosen warriors, and if it were to abandon him, as it does with inconstant and sinful paladins, he wouldn't know himself anymore. His devotion to his faith is unquestionable, and he takes his vows to uphold its Three Virtues--compassion, respect and tenacity--very seriously indeed. The first two are always difficult, seeing as they're meant most of all to be applied to one's enemies, and he's been fighting in one war or another for his entire adult life, like his father before him--but every paladin on Azeroth struggles with the same dilemma, so at least he knows he isn't alone in that. His evangelistic zealotry in his youth nearly got him caught up in a dangerous and violent cult, but by the time he escaped its clutches, he'd thoroughly learned his lesson. Though he still maintains that the faith of the Light is the one true religion, and all other valid religions have elements of it, he doesn't preach about it or try to convert anyone by the sword anymore. He's capable of finding beauty in religious traditions that aren't his own.

He's self-conscious about his intellect, concerned that people see him as all brawn and no brain. While he has a solid theological education and a respectable level of tactical prowess, he's a man of relatively few words and has no patience for pretension or dense philosophy. As a commander, he's practical above all else, no-nonsense and unwilling to take risks with the lives of his soldiers, always thinking from the perspective of the grunts he once numbered among. No matter how far he's promoted, or how much his brother insists that he's putting on airs, Simon still thinks of himself as a country boy who made good.

Abilities & Skills:

-- Ability to project a near-impenetrable energy shield around his body for about ten seconds at a time, with a half hour or so needed to recharge.

-- Limited ability to heal wounds by laying on hands. He is terrible at this and prefers not to try.

-- Passive resistance to poison and disease.

-- Ability to stun adversaries at some distance with Really Angry Prayers.

-- General magical ability to make people feel like they've been hit with a hammer before he has actually hit them with a real physical hammer.

-- Also good at hitting people with a real physical hammer.

Inventory/Companions:

--Well-crafted breastplate
--Blue-and-gold tabard of the 7th Legion
--Real physical hammer

Choice: Monster (Vampire)

Reason: I wasn't quite clicking with Witch, and I think the lack of internal conflict was a factor--I realized it would be more enjoyable to play him as something he wouldn't be perfectly content to accept right off the bat, and there's a ton of rich material to be explored with the idea of him becoming the specific kind of monster he's spent his life crusading against. (At the same time, however, he has undead friends and has already done some personal growth on the subject, so it wouldn't break him to the point where he would become difficult to play.)

Second Choice (if necessary): Monster (Merrow)

Reason: I think there's another fun avenue of internal conflict to be explored if I can take things he really enjoys (singing, swimming) and give him reasons to feel weird about them (e.g., singing becoming a weapon or method of deception when he's used to thinking of it as a wholesome religious thing.)

Sample: Here!

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Inbox

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 04:00:46 GMT

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First Impressions / Basic Info

Tue, 08 Oct 2019 17:05:19 GMT

Nutshell: A paladin from World of Warcraft, though he exists in many AU forms as well, and I love adapting him into different settings. Practical, earnest, honest to a fault, and deeply devout. Lawful good by default, but always skirting the edge of neutrality with his general distaste for authority. Chronically doubtful of his own worthiness to do just about anything, and has a whole lot of hangups about sex.

Appearance: Simon is a big ol' 6'4" brick shithouse, with a very broad chest and ginormously muscled thighs. He has dark hair and very pale blue eyes, and somehow manages to give an impression of being clean-cut despite the fact that he hardly ever bothers to shave. He'll generally be between 30 and 35 years old depending on canon point.

Voice: Clear, deep, and very loud. He doesn't mean to be a human foghorn; he just kind of can't help that his voice carries so far. If he's in a crowd and his vocal cords are moving at all, you'll be able to pick him out. Sings like an angel, though. Accent-wise, he sounds like the cheese-curdiest Wisconsin farm boy that ever there was.

Clothing: If he's not wearing plate armor and a tabard, he'll be in flannel and suspenders and workboots. He splits his aesthetic time pretty equally between "12th-century crusader" and "party like it's 1899."

Demeanor: Reasonably polite (if deadpan) by default, veering into judgmental and snide if provoked, and then usually contrite and apologetic for that and back around to polite. He tries.

Sexuality: Bisexual, leaning fairly heavily toward women.

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Background at a Glance

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 12:19:26 GMT

Simon Ashlock was born on the planet of Azeroth, in a small town called Lakeshire, in the human kingdom of Stormwind. The son of a blacksmith, he dreamed of someday becoming a paladin like all the great heroes in the stories, and spent his adolescence in an abbey making that happen. He then pledged his service to the holy order of the Silver Hand, serving with them in peacetime and as a commander in the army of the Alliance (the international faction to which all Stormwinders belong) during wartime. After Simon's fiancee decided to marry his brother instead, a military career that would keep him far away from his family at all times felt like a good idea, and he's proven pretty good at it.

Now that the war between the Alliance and its perennial enemy the Horde is at its most intense, Simon has been recruited into an elite special-ops force called the 7th Legion to help further the Alliance's diplomatic goals. It still involves as much stabbing, hammering and praying as his job ever did, so he doesn't feel too far out of his comfort zone.

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Extended History

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 12:06:24 GMT

( History in much more detail. )

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Permissions

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 11:59:33 GMT

CHARACTER NAME: Simon Ashlock

[OOC]

Backtagging: Yes please!
Threadhopping: Won't complain.
Fourthwalling: Sure!
Offensive subjects: I'm not super comfortable threading anything involving rape or domestic violence, but I'm game for pretty much anything else.

[IC]

Hugging this character: Simon gives the best hugs. Your character would be missing out not to take advantage.
Kissing this character: Yes, though he'll be flustered and will protest without relationship development first.
Flirting with this character: Oh sure. He may not always be receptive, and if your character is undead or demonic, he'll be downright hostile, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. (This applies to the above two questions as well.)
Fighting with this character: Yes! Simon never gets a chance to kick any ass.
Injuring this character: Anything short of permanent disfigurement is cool.
Killing this character: If there's another character around who can bring him back, yes, but if not, please don't.
Using telepathy/mind reading abilities on this character: Sure!

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Character Survey

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 11:58:00 GMT

( Character Survey of Doom, now mostly finished! )

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