<span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Setting Details</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: times new roman;">The setting of this story is a town in a nondescript English speaking portion of the world in the somewhat distant future, year 20XX. Technology has advanced pretty far, but most people don't know that androids/gynoids move among them, and 'hard-light' technology exists (though it is expensive and rare). Magic is also found in the world, but only in secret. Witches, demons, angels, ghosts, can all be found, but all of them can blend in or hide from the gaze of humans.<br/><br/>The setting is vague, and the city should never be referred to by name. Areas are just referred to as 'the city', 'downtown', 'the suburbs', etc. While posting in any of the public threads, post your specific location in each post to keep things from getting confusing. So each post will start with something like this:<br/><br/><strong>Casey's Apartment Building, Laundry Room</strong><br/><br/>Followed by the rest of the post.</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Major Areas</strong></span><br/>(http://info.rentnet.com/property/19/554619/floorplan/554619.f02.gif)<br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 8pt;">(This is the setup of Casey's apartment, and any on his floor)</span><br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li><strong>Casey's Apartment Building</strong> - Casey lives in a reasonably sized two-bedroom apartment with a living room, kitchen, and bathrooms for each bedroom. The apartment overlooks the city, and is in a reasonably nice part of town. Casey lives here with his caretaker, who sleeps in the other room. The place isn't particularly lavish, but it's comfortable and clean. Casey's apartment is on the fourth floor (in a building with a ground floor and five upper floors), quite close to the top, which he enjoys. The top floor has a few studio apartments, and the lower floors have three and four bedroom places (the latter of which are a little cramped).<br/><br/>(For clarity, there are 7 floors, B G 1 2 3 4 5. No apartments are on the Ground floor, but the Laundry room and mailboxes are there.)</li></ul><br/>(http://www.maxeyhayse.com/images/Franchise_Design.jpg)<br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li><strong>The Café</strong> - A nice little restaurant outside Casey's apartment, where Echo works. It's reasonably priced, but has a nice atmosphere, and serves a number of different dishes. All in all, Casey enjoys it because he can sit peacefully by himself, or come with a few friends and be quite comfortable. There are a few screens around which show the menu, as well as weather, time, some headlines.<br/><br/>Technically not a Cafe, 'The Café' is the actual places name. It does serve many different kinds of coffee, espresso, etc. and is said to have very good quality coffee (partially the reason for the name).<br/><br/>The owner of the place is a guy named Maxie, who generally isn't seen much by non-employees. A reasonably nice fellow, he has strange ideas, including hanging a sign saying 'Welcome All Paths of Life' to attract a 'Mixed' crowd. Other notable employees are Dan, the main chef, and a waitress that works with Echo often, named Lilly. The Cafe is open from 10AM to 2AM most days, later if there's enough business (generally on the weekends).</li></ul><br/><br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Setting Details</strong></span><br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li><strong>Religion</strong> - I want to avoid religion being a big deal, so I'm gonna make a little deal about it here. The setting, at this point, has all kinds of religions, but at this point, agnosticism is most common (especially among 'magical folk'). I feel like Sci-Fi and Near Future stuff often goes with scientific progress leading to atheism, but I feel agnosticism is more realistic (especially in the near future). So for the most part, no one knows if a god or gods exist for sure, but most people accept the idea that it could.<br/>       Most notably, angels and demons do not believe in a good or evil god or gods, but rather accept the idea that one God exists that created both sides. No one has ever communed with this being to any angel or demon's knowledge, and neither side generally believes that it favors them. Their beliefs range from the 'God' being completely neutral (maybe not even sentient) and just creating them, or an entity that sees the necessity of good and evil and insists the two continuously conflict to even one another out. Sometimes there is a belief that this being 'favors' one side, such as an angel thinking 'God' created angels to protect people, and demons to test them, but even this accepts that demons are an important part of the equation.</li></ul><br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li><strong>The Nature of Angels and Demons</strong> - Angels and demons are otherworldly beings each from a world with many names. The angels call their world Heaven, Paradise, Eden, Avalon, etc; while, demons refer to their world as Hell, the Underworld, Styx, the Abyss, and much more. Neither creature has to be good or evil, but angels have a tradition of healing and protection, while demons are destructive and seductive. The most important difference, however, is how each side survives. Angels are symbiotic, helping creatures (most notably humans) thrive and become stronger, while absorbing strength from their souls. This makes angels very gregarious, as they feel healthier when there are more souls nearby (they never draw enough power from a single soul to weaken it drastically, unless someone offers them the energy). Demons, on the other hand, destroy people to take their souls (usually through Faustian pacts, demonic contracts for the creature's soul). Demons are parasitic, which drives them to evil acts, sometimes against their own desires.</li></ul><br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li><strong>The Nature of Wizards, Witches, and their Familiars</strong> - Wizards and witches (two sides of the same coin) are born with the gift of magic. Able to manipulate the world around them, Wizards and Witches need totems to perform more than minor tricks. One of the most notable totems is the familiar, a small animal that is attuned to the Witch or Wizard. The animal is made sapient, and can take on a human form (with some bestial features), but only while still connected to the witch or wizard. They may gain some minor magic as well, and are empathically connected to their 'master'. In return for all this, the familiar guides, helps, and protect the witch or wizard, often learning the art of combat in conjunction with its natural agility, strength, speed, or other animal traits that it retains in its human form.</li></ul><br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li><strong>The Nature of Ghosts</strong> - Ghosts are very strange entities in this world. A ghost is capable of having many forms and many powers, so only a few things are always true of ghosts. First, a ghost cannot normally be seen, only those capable of manifesting can be seen purposefully. Second, ghosts have few physical boundaries, unless they place them on themselves. They can pass through walls and float, but many ghosts cannot get past their belief that they must be connected to the ground or that walls are limitations, and for ghosts, belief makes those things true. A ghost may look like themselves at the time of their death, or as ideal versions of themselves, or may not even appear human at all, though this doesn't matter unless someone can see them.<br/>       Very rarely is someone simply capable of seeing ghosts, as this would overwhelm the senses. People die constantly, and have been doing so for millenia, and if even 1% or 0.1% of people become ghosts, there would still be a drastic number of ghosts. So, there are two ways ghosts are seen. First, by magic, which usually allows an individual to sense spirits, and then, if they focus or know a ghost is there, they can see it (this is how Jude's sight and Willow's spiritual senses work). Second, someone with a strong connection to the ghost may sense it, even catch glimpses of it. However, if that individual is magical or has a strong magical sense, they eventually become able to see the ghost at all times.</li></ul><br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li><strong>The Nature of the Kindred</strong> - The Kindred are a strange, very broad group of individuals that practice blood magic. Originally all a very tight knit group (which is known as the 'Family'), many branched off to use darker practices (which led to things like virgin blood sacrifices and other cult behaviors). The core Family has done its best to keep this from happening, putting many rules and practices in place, but the occasional rogue Kindred is still an issue.</li></ul><br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li><strong>Gun Laws</strong> - Guns have become quite an issue in the world, as they have only improved since the early parts of the century. Eventually, it became common practice for guns to require special training and much more complex licensing laws. Most civilians are only able to carry Class 0 guns, which mainly include pistols and limited hunting rifles. Anyone owning even a Class 0 license must be fingerprinted, have an up-to-date photo ID, and all their information stored in a database. Private security and bounty hunters may use Class 1 weapons, which allows a much broader set of weapons, including more modern handguns (which are light, quick, relatively quiet, and resistant to jamming/misfire), but nothing with burst or automatic fire or any kind of heavy munitions. Class 2 includes law enforcement, which as a subset of Class 2S (for SWAT-level weaponry). All classes beyond this are military only.<br/>         Notably, some of this tightening of restrictions has to do with corporations that have been pushing for their advanced technology to be kept out of the public's hands and knowledge more and more.</li></ul>