The Underpass is a fantasy roleplay taking place in Salem, Massachusetts. In-universe, the roleplay begins in June of 2025. You play as a character aged 18-21, who has been kicked out of their home at some point.
Player rules:
- You must be 16 years or older. There is a three month “grace period” where if you will be turning 16 in the next three months, you may still apply.
- You need to understand that this is rated 16+ for a reason. Underpass will have heavy language, and crude humor. It is NOT for children.
- This will likely run at least two months, though it could easily go for longer.
Character rules:
- Characters must be aged 18-21.
- They must be LGBTQ+
- Your character must have been kicked out of their previous home, or currently homeless.
- They MUST have a Familiar.
- Characters are allowed to have ONE pet, but it is not required. Pets are different from Familiars.
- Your character must be at least 65% of one of the base OVERWORLD races. This means Humans, Elves, Changelings or Faries.
- If they are a Hybrid, they must be 35% or LESS. They can be any hybridization that is allowed or shown in previous posts.
- You MUST include a backstory for your character.
- The application sheet MUST be filled out for your character. I WILL NOT be accepting applications that don’t have them filled out.
A Familiar is a creature that’s heavily bonded with your character. They can be younger than your character, but they CANNOT be older. They have to be from the previously posted list.
Applications for The Underpass will be open until June 12th at 10 pm EST! To apply, either post your character with the tag #underpass rp or #underpass application. You can also DM them to me if you’d rather! I look forward to seeing all of your characters!
My application for The Underpass, a roleplay hosted by @fireflythenightlight (and which I found through my dear friend @validwofjobs). Legacy is a mostly-human, slightly-pheonix girl who loves planning ahead, making new friends, and her two identical pet giant geckos, Lychee the pet leachie and Guinep the familiar leachie-salamander. The rest about her can be found in these incoming walls of text under the cut!
Legacy grew up with an older and younger sister, the treasured “only son” of her parents, especially her father. Her name, before she realized she wasn’t a boy and chose a new name for herself, was Terrence. Her family lived in an apartment above a pet reptile store, run by her father. She got her familiar, Guinep, as well as her beloved pet, Lychee, when she was 8. She bonded with Guinep especially as her familiar, but the identical Lychee received plenty of love too, and in the first few years she had trouble telling apart the identical and closely bonded New Caledonian Giant Geckos by anything other than their temperament- Guinep was very calm, but Lychee tended to be a lot more snappish. Lychee followed Guinep’s lead in warming up to Legacy quickly, but remains a little aggressive towards strangers.
Legacy was almost 15 when she finally admitted to herself that she didn’t think she was really a boy, after two years of suppressing and refusing to believe her own feelings. She began to grow her hair out, and stared longingly at the girl’s section of stores, but didn’t dare to expose her identity to her parents, whose reactions she couldn’t predict in the slightest. After about a year and a half of planning and psyching herself up, she finally had the guts to come out to her parents. The fallout didn’t come to the extremes she’d read many a horror story of online, of physical abuse or conversion therapy, but her parents still refused to acknowledge her preferred pronouns or name, and began to threaten homeschooling her, to keep “their only son” away from “the influence of those queer friends of yours.” She refused to be homeschooled, and her parents responded that, if she insisted on this, then they wouldn’t be paying college tuition for a daughter they didn’t have. Upset to say the least, she haphazardly packed the belongings she thought of first and could fit in her backpack, and left. It was the largest decision she had made in her life, and it was completely unplanned.
Her grandma on her mother’s side lived in a small house halfway across the city, and Legacy hoped her parents hadn’t shared the news with her about her identity, because she couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. It came as a surprise not that her grandmother knew, but she actually accepted Legacy, scoffing and asking her to “give me your real name, girl” when she introduced herself grudgingly as Terrence. For the next few months, she lived there happily, upset about some of the belongings she had forgotten to bring but definitely not willing to go back to her parents, who didn’t bother to come find her (after her grandmother had sternly told them over the phone not to come unless they were going to treat their daughter right). Her grandmother bought her real girl’s clothes, and even helped her dye her hair a bright shade of bubblegum pink she’d had her eyes on for months. She finished highschool a semester early, something she had already been planning to do since before coming out. Her grandmother, unfortunately, was starting to decline in her old age. She was in stage 4 of Alzheimer’s disease, beginning to get to stage 5, when she was finally deemed no longer able to care for herself and was placed in an elderly person’s home to be cared for. By that summer, Legacy was back on the streets, preferring them against going back to her parents.
She took a job as the sole member of the “Maintenance Crew” of a cafe/coffee shop in a slightly busier part of the city in order to pay for her own living necessities and her leachie’s. From age 17 to the start of rp, Legacy worked there, cleaning up spills, keeping tabs of what sanitary supplies needed restocking, and keeping the rest of the shop sanitary. She made use of the keys she had to the shop, coming in before dawn, and definitely before opening hours, to clean the shop and then to clean herself, and fix her hair to look presentable. On particularly cold nights, she would spend the night there, more to keep her beloved pets warm than for any other reason. Though her high body temperature was usually enough to keep herself and the leachies warm, she didn’t want to risk any of them getting sick on especially stormy or windy winter nights. Most nights, she would instead find a friend happy to lend a couch for the night, or a fellow homeless person she trusted enough to watch her back while she slept next to, for safety reasons.
Legacy is a generally cautious and consistent person. She sticks to her daily routine and her plans rather than acting spontaneously without thought. Unexpected changes and surprises are strongly disliked, because she hates being unprepared for something and sometimes has trouble dealing with surprise changes to her own plans because of that. Besides not being a big fan of practical jokes, she tries not to act outwardly uptight or prissy in social situations, even if her careful organization, tidiness and plans may make her seem like it. Most people wouldn’t pinpoint her as a homeless kid if they saw her, because she dedicates a considerable amount of time and money to making herself look very clean and neat. Half of the backpack she wears is filled with two other outfits, which she mixes-and-matches often. When she feels like a fashion change is in order, she’ll donate some clothes and buy new replacements for them at a local clothing exchange store.
Her careful and well-put-together nature stems from a deep fear of making mistakes. Legacy hates the thought that she might make some mistake, do something wrong that could ruin her life as it is now, or change it beyond recognition (even if the change was for the better). So instead, she chooses inactivity. Though she could probably find a permanent place to live if she got a second job and saved carefully, she doesn’t, and instead spends most of her paycheck on unnecessary things like new clothes when she no longer needs it to buy food and water for her and her pets. She waited and planned for over a year to come out to her parents, and it still didn’t end well, so now she just tries to avoid taking any risks like that again (besides hiding her gender- she’s definitely done doing that. She presents as female and uses her real, chosen name. Most people don’t even realize she wasn’t born a girl). Legacy prefers to be a follower in social situations, rather than a leader. That way, she’s less likely to take the brunt of the consequences if a wrong decision is made. Safer. She prefers being safe, and right now her routine and life is safe and predictable, so she doesn’t see a need to change it or plan to end up anywhere else in her life.
Her caution about life decisions and other areas doesn’t quite extend to the social side of her life, however. Legacy’s a people person and a definite extrovert. She likes to surround herself with new friends at any chance she gets, and has a great memory for faces and personal details. Since middle school, she hasn’t forgotten a friend’s birthday or favorite color. Stranger’s opinions generally don’t have the power to change your whole life around, so with that low-risk assessment of friendship Legacy goes at making friends with a sort of wild abandon. Her charisma isn’t exactly impressive, but that doesn’t matter when she can just walk away and try again with someone else if the first person doesn’t seem to like her all that much. Even though she could listen to details about a person she barely knows for hours, and loves to learn new details about anyone, she’s dismissive of people’s opinions, especially if they’re about her. Few people have ever managed to become such an ingrained part of Legacy’s life as to earn the title of “Friend I actually care about and will make an effort not to lose.” Legacy shows up at many a party, flitting between groups for a while usually before finding someone she likes enough to hang out with for the rest of the night or couch-crash with, but refuses to get any farther than slightly tipsy even if the drinks are free. Being drunk is far too risky a thing for her to ever have attempted, even as tempting as it sometimes was. Party-going and friend-making are a few items on the short list of things she rarely, if ever, plans for.
-She is, by a small percentage, a Phoenix hybrid (1/8th, or 12.5 percent to be precise) by her great-grandmother on her mother’s mother’s side. She doesn’t have the identifying wings because of her lack of more phoenix-hybrid ancestors, but does have the noticeably higher body temperature and small flame-producing ability. She doesn’t have a ton of control over the flames, and they’re likely to appear, purposefully or not, when she’s feeling strong emotions.
-her favorite color is, by far, pink. Second is light green.
-Partially because of favorite-color influence, partially because of its sweet flavor, her favorite food is watermelon.
-She isn’t a vegetarian, but she generally doesn’t like meat very much.
-She wishes she had the spare money to afford an instrument. Legacy used to play the flute in her middle school band, and loved it, but she left it behind in her parent’s house.
Here’s my application for @fireflythenightlight‘s rp: The Underpass! Meet Leonas (Leo), your local changeling punk with a penchant for making potato-based foods, partying too hard, and making questionable life choices.
Big big shoutout to @wofuckery for drawing their reference, full ref and personality below the backstory and the cut ^^
Leonas grew up mostly sheltered from other people for most of their childhood. With an overly-protective and very distrustful family considering of their mom, dad, and 3 siblings, most of their education was home-schooling (read: being turned loose with a bunch of books) and sparse meet-ups to see other, pre-approved families and their children. With their family being well-off and with enough books and entertainment to go around, Leo’s early life was comfortable, if isolated and slightly boring.
As they got older, they began to get restless about being cloistered away, getting more and more annoyed and bored. After a good year of campaigning and pleading, at the age of 16 they were switched to public high school, much to their parent’s reluctant agreement. It was a good mixture of overwhelming and exciting for them, being able to be around other people and actually explore their personality/identity. They were unused to the deadlines and actual work though, and even as they got to making new friends and going to new places, their actual academic performance slipped, their grades and attendance sinking further and further.
Leo was having the time of their life, but their parent’s got more and more frustrated and mad. With them barely passing their sophomore year, their parents gave them an ultimatum for junior year: Do this year better, or get put back into home-school for the forseeable future. If this was meant to incentivize them to get good grades, all it did was push Leo further towards resenting their parents for keeping them away from the rest of the world/micromanage their childhood. During this time, they also started getting more popular, learned bass guitar (badly), put a word to their gender (non-binary), and started spending more time sneaking into bars, and clubs, partying, and generally just becoming a complete hedonist and having a good time. They made it barely through junior year, and their parents were absolutely pissed.
After a summer of yelling and arguments and sneaking out, their parents tried to force them back into their isolated property, the final straw that broke the camel’s back. Grabbing their clothes, a sleeping bad, their familiar and a few precious items, Leo took off to their friend’s house.
After that, it was basically a slow sliding decline through senior year, until, finally out of high school, they began to try to make their way in the world. Crashing from friend’s house to acquaintance’s floor to comfortable alleyway to club bathroom back to friend’s house, they continue to make their way through the world, working odd jobs and cooking potatoes. Whether or not this is their best life remains up for debate, but they can’t really think of any better way to spend their time.
BONUS PERSONALITY + FULL REF + TIDBITS UNDERNEATH THE CUT
Their familiar is a phoenix in the shape of a large, slightly fat blue-jay, lovingly named Gnocchi
They are a genius with potato-based recipes, and absolutely no other part of cooking or baking (the one exception is popcorn)
Growing up primarily around other changelings has made them extremely casual about shapeshifting: when they’re bored, they’ll often “pull” fingers out of the flesh on their hand and squish them back down, or mess around with their face/eyes
They have a natural aptitude for picking up small skills, things like origami or braiding, and have very good muscle memory: one they learn the actions of something, they rarely forget it.
They draw and sculpt for fun, sculpting especially!! It’s not uncommon to see them fidgeting with a mound of clay in their hands, making little pinch pots when they’re nervous. Both those, and the braids are things they sell to make spare money
PERSONALITY THUS FAR:
At first, people are inclined to assume Leonas is more of the introverted type. With a calm way of speaking and a laid-back, relaxed attitude, they tend to exude a warm, friendly, and welcoming energy, a vibe that is, for the most part, well-earned. Leo is relatively open-minded, they tend to wait before passing judgement on a person completely, and are always ready to make new friends. One of their biggest talents is being social: Leo has learned how to switch from zen best friend to loud fun party animal effortlessly, and both versions of themself bring them joy. They’re energetic in a way that isn’t overpowering or annoying, and relaxed in a way that doesn’t come off as dismissive or spacey. They always hold a space for their friends, and while maybe not the best advice-giver, are exactly the right person to go to if you want to watch some television and cuddle and maybe cry and rant a little bit.
That said, Leonas is a lot of talk without much show, while they’ll follow through a bet any day, actually finishing a chore, cleaning their space, or holding down a steady job elude them. They work in spotty bursts of motivation, creating interesting art and creations but that they can never follow up on or recreate again. Leo is intensely stubborn to the point of denial: if they don’t want to believe something, they will twist facts, intentionally forget critical details, and generally do everything in their power to feel like they are in the right. It takes them a long time to get their mind completely made up, but when they do, trying to change it is like trying to clean away the sand in a desert. They’re garbage at apologies as a result, as nothing is completely their fault in their head. Either their apologies are just them trying to get the person off their back, or something like “I’m sorry you feel that way” that refuses to take responsibility for what happened.
Leo cannot be in the wrong. They refuse to be proven wrong, to be shown that they made an error or at all need to correct what they’re doing. Leo’s entire sense of self and identity is pinned on being right, on never being incorrect one. The idea that they could mess up, that they could’ve made the wrong choice, terrifies them to their core. They’re acutely aware of their own mortality and limited time on this earth, and the idea they could’ve wasted it or missed an opportunity is too terrible to ever indulge. This intersects terribly with substances, Leo may not have an addictive personality, but their refusal to admit when they’ve drunken too much, or that they feel sick or gross, leads to them pushing their limits to an unhealthy amount. While not a fully fledged alcoholic, their lifestyle certainly isn’t doing wonders for their liver. They have no self-preservation instinct, no understanding of when to back off and relax, and it continues to come back and bite them in the ass time and time again.
APPEARANCE:
description:
Leonas has choppy, thick, wavy black hair reaching down just below their chin, usually tied up into a small little ponytail. They have pale skin with a smattering of freckles across their cheeks, ears, and shoulders, and a round face and slightly chubby cheeks. Their body is on the shorter and chubbier side (endomorph body type) and their body shape is relatively square/rectangular, with semi muscular/thick arms/legs. Their fashion sense is basically camp counselor kidnapped by a punk band, and their default outfit is a black jean vest with a handful of colorful pins/patches, a thick/long red/pink/orange tacky knitted scarf, a rainbow tye-dye shirt, and jean shorts with sturdy black, slightly scuffed combat boots.
reference (by @wofuckery):
Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom, hope you love them like I do !!!! I’m so excited for this roleplay, you have no idea. I hope to see forms from all of you too !!!
Heyo! Here’s my charcter applicate for @fireflythenightlight ‘s Underpass Rp!
I’m Anna, I’m turing 16 in 3 months so I fit within the grace period given.
My character is a human, gryphon hybrid named Vielliot, she has a Woomie named Chester( I have owned rodents in the past). Vielliot was born in London to a pretty harsh houshold. She was often at her grandmother’s home as she didn’t have the best relationship with her parents. Her grandma taught her how to crochet, knit, and sew, skills that Ellie uses to make dolls and clothing to sell. Her gandma even helped her bond with her familar Chester. She had a wonderful relationship with her grandmother, but that changed when she passed away when Vielliot was 16. Since then she’s been staying at her parents and locking herself away in her room. To cope she made a lot of dolls to sell. Her parents told her to get an actual job if she was gonna stay in their house. She refused, and that was final straw for them. Her parents kicked her out as soon as she turned 18. She took her saved up money she made from crafting and somehow ended up in Salem after a year of being homeless and on the road. She has developed anger issues from this experience and used crafting as a way to cope. She can get a little creepy when it comes to her doll making though. She has a hardened shell, but has a soft and old soul within.
Application for @fireflythenightlight’s Underpass RP!
Here is Shaw, the lesbian herself!
Backstory: Shaw is a changeling with mixed familiar ancestry. Her familiar is a little dragon named Runestone, and her pet is black leopard griphon named Rugius (from the Latin rugiet, meaning roar). As a child, she was mostly able to hide her familiar features from her parents, but it became more difficult as she grew older, which eventually lead to her purist changeling parents kicking her out. She traveled around a lot on Rugius, and her familiar ancestry led to her attracting local animals that would occasionally help find food or hunt. Shaw ended up in Salem around a year ago, and spends a lot of time helping out at animal shelters, which the staff there aren’t entirely sure what to do with. When she has the money or finds scraps, she makes little trinkets to sell for extra cash.
Physical: Shaw has a rather athletic build. She has dark, short hair, and dark grey ears and horns. She also has dark blue dragon wings with scales that can flex open and closed depending on her mood. Shaw has a tail, usually appearing as a dragon tail or a long cat tail when she lets it be visible. She wears a lot of athletic and practical clothing, and patches them up for years before getting new ones.
Personality: Extremely guarded. Often connects better with animals than most people she meets, though if you break into her shell she’ll protect you to the death. Very loyal.
