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Post by HHDeception on Aug 31, 2014 21:15:45 GMT -6
Exogenesis: cyoa-verse.boards.net/thread/210/lotus-exogenesisExogenesis Concept: cyoa-verse.boards.net/post/33336/threadCharacter Database: cyoa-verse.boards.net/thread/200/lotus-exogenesis-character-databaseOriginal RP: cyoa-verse.boards.net/thread/118/lotus-space-colony-rpOriginal concept:The year was 20XX. Humans made first contact.What was it like? Nobody alive today knows. What we do know is that it was made in secret. We know that we made an exchange. They gave us their technology. We gave them our biology. There were so many people on Earth, who would notice if one day a few people disappeared without a trace?The year is now 2XXX, human calendar. The Earth is an uninhabitable nuclear wasteland, made that way by its previous inhabitants. In the last days of the last war on Earth, our cosmic compatriots came to our rescue. Now we live aboard city-ships, floating through the inky darkness of space alongside our saviours.Our hosts were kind enough to let us live in the manner to which we have become accustomed. Aboard the ships there are seas and skies and cities not unlike the Earth in its prime. Resources are abundant and pollution is no issue. The climate is temperate and weather is artificially optimised. Culture has continued to thrive and technology has reached its pinnacle. Biomedical science allows every person to live without illness until they are 100. Government is run in to each city-ship’s tastes, in partnership with the others.The truth was revealed when the first LOTUS was found. They gave us technology, we gave them biology. And with this biology they did whatever they wanted, and what they wanted…were weapons of mass destruction.Maybe we’re not so different after all.Stranded in space, humanity has to cope with the fact that maybe, just maybe, they’re simply being used. Even within our own colony there are rumblings of rebellion. While the fate of our species is unknown, it is quite clear at this point that the LOTUS will determine it.Welcome one and all to the LOTUS RP, a space colony sci-fi story. Who are you?
You play a LOTUS. A human randomly extracted from the present day, turned into a biological super-weapon, and awoken aboard a space colony over 100 years later. LOTUS is an acronym, but in an alien language. If translated, the acronym actually turns out to be profanity, but that’s beside the point. The last thing of present day Earth you would remember is being abducted by aliens. Readjustment would probably be incredibly difficult, but you can start RPing after that period if you like. You don’t have to start with your Awakening. The Colony has been harvesting LOTUS pods for the past few months, and the governments currently insist that the LOTUSes attempt to secretly integrate themselves into the colony as regular citizens (under surveillance of course) until further notice. The fact that these LOTUSes are being found is public, but who they are is not. You may all be familiar with each other though since you’d be examined in the same alien lab. As a LOTUS, you will have extraordinary powers derived from both biological tampering and integrated cybernetics. These are totally up to you, but I would start by thinking in terms of Shadowrun cyberware and bioware. There are no magic or psychic abilities. If you want to shoot fire, you’ll need a flamethrower, which could be conveniently installed in any part of your body you want. You should be able to sum up your powers thematically, and preferably justify them in the sense that you were made as a super weapon. Your control over these powers is shaky. You didn't come with an instruction manual, although Colony researchers are there to help you understand yourself better. Whatever your powers are, you now also need materials to fuel them or else you starve. This could be radioactive rocks, sulfuric acid, sunlight, or just plugging yourself into a generator. With practice you should be able to increase your control. Without it, you might end up destroying a city block when angry. Appearance wise, you will probably look like a mutant cyborg, but in order to fit into society you have a hologram projector to look normal (Using holograms to augment physical appearance is commonplace, but Draxan military-issue ones can't be easily cancelled like store-bought varieties). Feel free to describe both. Humans are not the only alien species out there, so if you want to look part alien then that’s fine too (note that you wouldn't be a half-breed, just a human with alien parts grafted onto them). I have some species outlined below, but they aren't limiting. Please fill out Name: Gender: Age (ignoring time frozen): Appearance: Home District (see below): Bio: Abilities: Energy Source: Theme Song (Optional): There is no fixed battle system. Everything should run as narrative, like in Nova or Austur. There is also no overarching conflict (yet), so if you want to be evil for some reason then go right on ahead. I do have plans for villains though, but I might not use them if the story doesn't need them. If there’s any uncertainty about what’s allowed tech-wise then I’d prefer that what you want happens and I’ll do my best to make it work in this setting, rather than for me to limit you.
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Post by HHDeception on Aug 31, 2014 21:16:18 GMT -6
The setting in more detail:
The aliens that humans first met are called the Draxan. They are reptilian silicon-based life forms. This means that all aspects of their biological structure are much closer to living crystal and glass, but nowhere near as fragile. Their view of carbon-based organisms (such as humans) is similar to how we would see a life form made out of pure energy. The team that received the first human samples was a black ops weapons division that immediately set about pushing the limits of human biology. This was called the LOTUS project. As it turns out, these were illegal and incredibly dangerous experiments that they ultimately couldn’t control. To hide the evidence, they froze the test subjects and jettisoned them out into space.
A more civilized team later came to the human species’ rescue, and carried off a small fraction of the population to save us from extinction. Humans have now been living on these ships for 100 years. This is the Colony. Thousands of light years away from home, reinforcements from Drax are impossible to obtain for at least a few years, and so the Colony must deal with any conflict on their own. The current MO of the Draxan-Human Space Colony is to locate all of the LOTUS, and then return to the Draxan home world to figure out what to do with them all. Their secondary MO is to find a new inhabitable planet for the human species.
The DH Space Colony is made of two ships. Humans live on a massive city ship simply called New Earth, with a city core, suburban living areas, and an artificial coast with a bit of forest park as well for recreation. There are three districts in this ship, each of which is about the size of Manhattan Island. They are named America, Britannia, and Sakura. The names of these districts are purely historic and don’t really say anything about their occupants. Each one is a city in their own right, although their personalities differ like any human cities would. America is more residential in nature, Britannia is more economic, and Sakura is more recreational. They are run and governed like a typical ideal metropolitan centre on present day Earth. The other ship is where the Draxans reside and is based off their home. This ship is about the size of New York and is called the Fantasia. This is where all the alien labs and things are. While there are still cities and suburbs and such, the wilderness areas are more cavernous and volcanic. The air there is breathable to humans, but very humid. These ships each have all the infrastructure and resources to survive independently in space, but they travel together for security. They are capable of FTL travel, but it still takes days to move from one star system to the next. They all have fleets of Enterprise-like starships for shorter expeditions away from the Colony. The two ships have teleports to allow access between the two.
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Post by HHDeception on Aug 31, 2014 21:17:21 GMT -6
Alien species highlights:
The Draxan have jagged scales in the place of hair, and the average one is 8-feet tall and built like a pro-wrestler, but they are otherwise proportioned similar to humans. Their skin colour ranges from red-orange to dark brown. No tails. They do not wear clothing but have bands around the less pointy parts of their bodies for the sake of fashion and functionality. Their scales are often styled in the way humans style hair. The recent “in” look has been based off of the earth creature the Dragon. Females are lighter in tone than males, and are also usually larger. As the Draxan are silicon-based life, their biology is completely foreign to us. No human understands how they reproduce for instance, although it has something to do with a type of nuclear fission.
The Draxan have taken encountered other species from other planets over the years. These species DNA were infused into humans for the original LOTUS project, but are now either just lab specimens or pets.
Miran Ocelot. These are cat-like creatures from the planet Mir. Mir has only a slightly higher gravity than Earth and has a diverse ecosystem, making it a possible candidate for human relocation. In addition, the rainforest was especially intriguing. The Ocelots were notable and captured for one reason: their fur is a stunning shade of hot neon pink. Why? It turns out that life in the rainforest evolved a quirk its optic nerves. Every organism worth mentioning in the forest cannot tell the different between pink and green. And so through a freak mutation, the Ocelots became more camouflaged as they turned pinker. They were instantly snapped up and domesticated and only the strongest of conservation efforts stopped them from being overhunted. The planet they originate from has no intelligent life on it, and so Mir has been deemed off limits ever since.
As no other animals besides humans were recovered from earth, these are the most popular pets in the human colonies. Their enhanced strength, agility, and reflexes were exploited in the LOTUS project to give the experiments a massive increase in physical capabilities.
Ragnese Osprey. These are birds of prey from the planet Ragnan. The curious thing about Ragnan is that it doesn’t rotate about an axis, so half of the planet is always in day and half is always in night. The weather patterns caused by this phenomenon have resulted in the only inhabitable land on this planet to be centered on the meridian bands that lie in continuous late-afternoon to the west, stretch to a permanent sub-tropical evening, and eventually stop at an endless summer night in the east. Beyond this, the planet is very Earth-like and, if it wasn’t for the greatly constricted living space, it would be the premier choice for a future human settlement. The Ospreys are among the top predators of this environment, having the vision of a hawk even in darkness, coupled with the auditory prowess of owls. Their feathers are monochrome, but are both water-proof and insulating, allowing them to hunt underwater in both the day and night oceans. These species were not of much interest to the Draxan, save for their use in the LOTUS project to give the experiments greatly enhanced senses.
Setian Orca. These are one of two forms of life found on the planet Seti. Astoundingly, Seti is a completely gaseous planet. Small plankton-like creatures manage to live through photosynthesis, and the consumption of water vapour while being tossed around on air currents. Setian Whales are giant green slow carnivorous mattresses of creatures that feed solely on Setian Plankton. Their density is low enough to float on the air currents and they direct themselves through internal vacuums that also allow them to feed. They are also partially photosynthetic. Their skin is amazingly light, but also very durable and elastic. The most miraculous thing about it is its regenerative properties. Since a single puncture could sink the Orca, the innate healing factor of the skin is incredible. This property combined with Draxan manipulation has achieved invisibility, photovoltaic conduction, radioactive saturation, resistance to practically all temperatures, and the illegal infusion of intoxicating substances. Needless to say, these creatures were even harder to push conservation efforts for. The Colony keeps a few specimens aboard the Fantasia, but that is all. The properties of their skin and bones were grafted into the LOTUS experiments to allow them access to super-human durability and energy storage.
Babel Fish. For this I defer to a much greater source of information: “The Babel Fish is small, yellow, leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the universe. It feeds on brain wave energy, absorbing all unconscious frequencies and then excreting telepathically a matrix formed from the conscious frequencies and nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain, the practical upshot of which is that if you stick one in your ear, you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language: the speech you hear decodes the brain wave matrix.” – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Needless to say, neither Draxan nor Human fully understands how they work, but they’re used by everyone in this RP to explain how we all speak the same language. They are kept in breeding pods and used as a resource. The LOTUS project infused these fish into the experiment`s brains, allowing them to not only understand every language easily, but also to think much faster than any ordinary person.
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Post by Golurkcanfly on Aug 31, 2014 21:56:34 GMT -6
Name: Manhattan
Gender: Male
Age (ignoring time frozen): Unknown
Appearance: Standing slightly above 8 feet, his cybernetics lay underneath a solid dark pale green husk of a suit with a dry, earthen texture. His head is covered by a rectangular helmet that allows him to scan objects to determine a somewhat accurate molecular and physical analysis of them, complete with any relevant information. The helmet itself is a solid metal object of a slightly darker tone than that of the rest of his body and has two orange strips at about eye level used for his optical display. He also has metallic boots that grant him excellent traction. On his right arm he has a large metal gauntlet that can shift into an arm cannon for basic projectiles. A black metal spine is visible on his back along with a disk below the neck that can detach and fly freely. This disk also serves as a companion AI named Heimer to keep Manhattan company during his solace, and can only communicate with him.
Appearance (Hologram): A well-aged fifty-year-old human male with dark grey hair who stand at about 6'4".
Home Ship (see below): Britannia
Bio: Unlike most of the LOTUSes, he retains no memory beyond programmed information before his transformation. After his reawakening, he floated aimlessly in space until he managed to attach himself to a small shuttle that came to Britannia before finding his way onto the ship. He tends to drift around the maintenance areas where there are few people because he constantly emits radiation. Not enough to quickly give someone radiation sickness, but prolonged exposure is dangerous. He hopes to just stay away and observe as life goes on.
Abilities: His arm cannon can fire high-power particle beams, enough to destabilize large chunks of raw materials and melt tungsten-steel. It does take a while to charge up and he can't expend too much energy at once without risking destabilization, which causes him to have to release any excess energy from his suit along with exorbitant amounts of radiation. He can also do this at will and has to do so every so often to help maintain proper energy levels. Manhattan also has thrusters built into his boots which allows him to jump long distances and propel himself slightly in space. The base of the spine functions as both an energy shield and kinetic barrier generator, allowing Manhattan to take ridiculous amounts of punishment. Heimer can also deliver low-power electric shocks and small-arms ballistics.
Energy Source: High density radioactive materials
If you need me to make changes, I'll be willing to.
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Post by HHDeception on Sept 1, 2014 2:27:25 GMT -6
Name: Anthea Corsiva
Gender: Female
Age (ignoring time frozen): 20 or something like that
Appearance:
Generally still a short female humanoid, but streamlined like a toboggan. Pink skin that seems polymer in nature. No long hair or any other bits that could detract from motion. Ears that retract into her head. Nose smoothed into her face. Screens over her eyes and mouth to leave a polished surface. Her joints seem mechanical and can be seen rotating beneath her skin at times. Small retractable jets can appear all over her body to assist in high-speed movement.
Hologram: An average 5'1" girl dressed as per the trends to fit in. Shoulder length black hair.
Home Ship: Sakura
Bio:
The very first LOTUS found and awoken. It was unexpected how calm she was. She wouldn't talk much about it and it was impossible to make her. Instead she demonstrated a few of her powers and gave the Draxan the directions to finding more information about the LOTUS project. Afterwards, she identified the locations of many other LOTUS pods and insisted that they are collected as soon as possible. Special warning, they will likely not handle awakening as well as she had. With invaluable knowledge about them, she is now part of a special LOTUS response team made of both Draxans and Humans, trying to suppress a could-be crisis before it happens.
She spends her downtime pretending to be a college student in Sakura.
Abilities:
A large part of her abilities are based in quantum mechanics. Insanely advanced cognition speed allows to her significantly slow down her perception of time to where it effectively stops. The rest of her body is mechanically optimized to be able to act at a speed to fit her current perception of time. In short, in her view she's an able gymnast that can stop time. To everyone else around her she's the Flash. She has enhanced senses like most other LOTUSes, and a healing factor to match. She also has a bit of precognitive ability. It's unknown so far how she achieves that.
Beyond that, her augmentations do not include weapons. Instead she equips herself with a small teleporter that can bring her weapons to her at will.
Energy Source: Ethanol/biofuels
Theme Song: Female President - Girl's Day
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Post by The Big Cheese on Sept 1, 2014 8:12:46 GMT -6
Name: A.M. Card, false ID: Jonathan Harkness
Gender: Male
Age: 46 at death.
Appearance: A mechanical humanoid made mostly of titanium, whose mobile joints are visibly connected by thick black pipes which pump fluid throughout his system. His only facial features are glowing red eyes, which can detect every spectrum of light and process the information received as fast as any equipment of the age. In disguise, he looks about like your ordinary grease monkey, with shaved brown hair, some rugged stubble and oil stained coveralls over a white t-shirt.
Home Ship: America
Bio: A genius programmer who perfected the technology to replicate human consciousness or transplant it into machines. He was kidnapped in 20XX and forced to take part in the earliest LOTUS experiments, which unfortunately resulted in his death. However, he had already succeeded in recreating his conscious mind and for the next 90-some years he lay dormant in a super computer at the heart of MIT. That is, until he was rediscovered by a team bound for Home Ship America, who had mistaken him for a sophisticated AI. Through this team, he learns more about LOTUS and how many of the people kidnapped for it had died. Including himself. Swearing revenge against the race responsible, he deceives the team into believing that he was created to organise operations during the war but was never used, and is brought along to the colony. There, he's sold to a Draxan black market arms dealer who uses his program to attempt to recreate the LOTUS experiments in secret using fully cybernetic subjects. The experiment was a complete success, but the Draxan arms manufacturers would never know. A.M. Card killed them to the last, disappearing into Home Ship America under a new identity.
Abilities: Equipped with state of the art nanomachines that can recover any damage he receives so long as their maintenance core where his heart should be remains undamaged. Although his AI is reliant on the CPU in his brainpan. He has various ballistics attachments which can be put on his arms, including a machine gun, a railgun, a miniature missile launcher and a close range power saw. Boosters on his back allow him to travel through space and fly, but it consumes a much greater amount of energy than simply operating normally. Because of his cybernetic nature, A.M. is state of the art and more powerful than many LOTUSes, but with a hard limit to his power which can only be passed with technological progress and not personal struggle.
Energy Source: Requires electrical energy to survive.
How's that?
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Post by Golurkcanfly on Sept 1, 2014 8:17:02 GMT -6
Am I the only one planning on having my character start out fairly low-power before traveling around the spaceship getting upgrades ala Metroid?
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Post by The Big Cheese on Sept 1, 2014 8:19:45 GMT -6
Am I the only one planning on having my character start out fairly low-power before traveling around the spaceship getting upgrades ala Metroid? His body is meant to be state of the art robotics, but because he isn't biological he can be surpassed with little recourse to catch up. Plus, he can't exactly go around missiling large buildings since he's in hiding and his ultimate goal is killing the Draxan, which he knows needs to be accomplished subtly. |
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Post by Golurkcanfly on Sept 1, 2014 8:33:32 GMT -6
Wait, how did the MIT people know about the LOTUSes? Aren't they too secret?
And is the existence of LOTUSes currently common knowledge?
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Post by The Big Cheese on Sept 1, 2014 8:37:59 GMT -6
Wait, how did the MIT people know about the LOTUSes? Aren't they too secret? And is the existence of LOTUSes currently common knowledge? The OP says that people know of them, but not who they are. And the MIT researchers are essentially the human elite who were probably let in on a lot of secrets because of their intelligence and ability to investigate the phenomenon. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2014 11:32:48 GMT -6
I would sign up HH, but I'm not feeling it. Maybe it was the cybernetics thing. I never took an interest in playing a cybernetic hero.
Maybe I'll join when my mind says do it.
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Post by Golurkcanfly on Sept 1, 2014 11:36:13 GMT -6
Well this is the only science fiction on this site.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2014 11:39:51 GMT -6
Actually, I thInk I will sign up. Having trouble with appearance though. Do we have to be a LOTUS, or can I be a Miran? I have the oddest feeling to be one...
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Post by Golurkcanfly on Sept 1, 2014 11:43:12 GMT -6
I don't think Mirans are intelligent.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2014 12:15:34 GMT -6
Aw man, that sucks! Guess I gotta make a heavily armored dude! Then again, I wanna main a female. Almost forgot to try that.
Here goes nothing!
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Post by Golurkcanfly on Sept 1, 2014 12:26:25 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2014 12:30:57 GMT -6
Alright, lemme post the last update for TOE:EC, and I'll see what I can do.
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Post by SwordMasterEX on Sept 1, 2014 13:32:16 GMT -6
Must..... resist urge.... to join.... still gridlocking.
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Post by Golurkcanfly on Sept 1, 2014 13:36:33 GMT -6
Abilities?
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Post by Golurkcanfly on Sept 1, 2014 13:55:09 GMT -6
Seems kind of generic and non-descript.
It lacks a theme.
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