emptynesters | TEST DRIVE :003

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test drive

TEST DRIVE :003

WELCOME to the test drive and thank you for your interest in Station 72! To allow players to experiment with game mechanics, flexibility and to account for the fact that our TDMs tend to span a number of months to make up for our low player turnover, we've put together a game-themes random scenario generator for you to play with. Mix and match prompts at will, pick your own broodmates, experiment with abilities and specializations, talk to each other and maybe make up some pre-established CR, and generally play around however you like.

This test drive is not game canon, so take this chance to go nuts! Current in game players are also welcome to make top levels here and aren't beholden to their in-game characterizations (so if it makes more sense to be a broodmates of a character test driving, feel free to do so for the sake of these threads).

For the full experience, we strongly encourage players to write up a short blurb about what their fellow characters might know about them either through shared time on the Station or through the Nest mental link. Handy links can be found at the bottom of this entry if you have any questions and APPLICATIONS are always open if you decide you'd like to jump into the game proper. If you're having trouble coming up with a symbiote ability for your character for use in either the TDM or for your application, we have an ability workshop post located HERE.

(Mix and match these prompts at will to create your own TDM scenario - there's no obligation to use something from every category. Feel free to make up anything that isn't covered in the prompt if it lends to your playing.)

     THE PLACE

1. STATION 72 consists of massive, alien sprawl. While large sections of the Station might be mistaken for a Station manufactured for use by humanoid beings - the hangar is relatively standard other than its massive size, the Life Support deck with its series of living quarters seems normal enough (if you ignore the part where none of the rooms have doors on them), and there's even a Jai Alai court -, beyond the most well trod paths the Station quickly cedes to the utterly bizarre. Corridors twist and loop back in on themselves, great verandas overlook massive empty rooms, ramps because stairs which lead to dead ends. It's easy to get lost if you don't have a destination in mind. Strangely enough, if you do know where you want to be, the Station's twisting paths will eventually get you there as long as you keep your goal firmly in mind. Knowing that is another thing entirely.

2. THE MELTED WORLD was once beautiful. Then again, maybe it's always been a toughened old rock, but at some point the planet called Ojan was glassed in the throes of a brutal war. The planet's entire surface has become a twisted, mirror-like substance by whatever super hot biological weapon was poured into it. The material isn't actually that horrible, consuming black; it perfectly reflects the empty, quiet space that surrounds Ojan: a foreboding testament to a war long forgotten. But what lies below the surface of the desolated world?

3. THE SCEPTRE is a fabulous building structure suspended from an asteroid in orbit around a planet. The Sceptre pierces down through the atmosphere of the planet below and over the course of the asteroid's orbit, The Sceptre has an opportunity to pass through every habitat and climate the world below it has to offer. The Sceptre is sleek and beautiful (or it is? Maybe it's fallen into disrepair and only ghosts remain) and its massive windows look out onto a varied, verdant world (or do they? What state is the planet below in, exactly? Has it been so thoroughly paved over that the atmosphere is the only place left to build?).

4. PENTARA PRIME is the ancient, meandering capital of the lush garden world of Pentara. Unlike most cities, it is a large, verdant sprawl, made up eighteen clustered centers - groups of low, elegant stone buildings, strung together by winding roads populated with quietly humming pods moving people from spoke to spoke. The capital is built around leisure, not production and there are far more gardens and orchards than there are buildings. The sun is heavy and low, and the air is still and buzzes with the sounds of fat-bodied insects. It’s so still, so calm. It seems empty and there is something unsettling in the quiet. --Or is it? Maybe it's bustling with energy, just as vibrant and delightful as it seems on the surface.

5. CHORIUS is not quite a planet. Not anymore. Once long ago it was, but over time it has changed - been stripped clean of every valuable mineral, every scrap of rare metal, and eventually even of atmosphere. The core has cooled perceptibly and now even its rotation period has slowed dramatically. Now it is a made up of shaped carbon and steel that bridge over the stripped surface of the planet, pulsing with energies, shielded from the harshness of the sun by a webbed dome that keeps the electric scented air from escaping into the space around it. Here nothing is wasted. Everything - everyone - is recycled and reconstituted into new forms. Every one of the cities changes daily, reformatted to meet new goals and new needs. It is a dead world filled with the living. But whether it is thriving or dying is hard to say - and what the newest change will bring with it is even more difficult to guess.

6. SPACE, THE FINAL FRONTIER. There's a lot of it in every direction.

     THE PEOPLE

1. THE OUTLANDERS consist of small bands of settlers and explorers who have quested out into the unknown, the remote, and the dessicated parts of this galaxy looking for either new opportunities or forgotten mysteries. They are mostly upright though only vaguely humanoid, remnants of a civilization driven from their own failing world, each group is bound only by their own codes and personal laws. They're traders and nomads, largely peaceful but wary of the harsh, dangerous environment and beings they've crossed paths with. Don't cross a deal with an Outlander - they'll make you regret it.

2. A VERITABLE MELTING POT, the beings of this metropolis are as vibrant and diverse as is imaginable. These are a people developed by a myriad of cultural influences, technological insights, overlapping interests and clashing societal norms shaken up and spit out into something that more or less works as long as there's a whole lot of bureaucracy to keep it in order. And boy is there a lot of that. Mind your p's and q's - someone might haul you in for questioning if you cause too much of an uproar.

3. A RUINED GHOST is all that remains of this ancient civilization. Once there were people here leading brilliant or lives, or quiet ones, but all that's left are their ruined structures, old half-functional consoles and signs of lives abruptly arrested. What destroyed these people is initially unclear, but their extinction appears to have been absolute. --Or was it?

4. THE COURT is elegant and beautiful and perfect. Every being is shrouded in delicate, gauzy fabrics layered so densely as to obscure their elongated squirming bodies from head to toe. Each step sounds like a bell ringing from the the small metal plates at the bottom of their soft slippers; every gloved finger glints with small golden threads. The queens sweep through their secret insect gardens and their royal technomancers walk the halls with the glitter of hologlyphs sparkling at their fingertips and in the wake of their sweeping robes.

5. THE GREAT MILITARY is larger even than it’s name suggests. Every member of their civilization plays some part in it, every person has a rank, every family an insignia. The structure is rigid and inflexible and all-encompassing, and it has made them into ferocious enemies. They have been at war for as long as they have been a people, and their battle will never end, because if it did, they would go with it. The harshness of their life is painted on the sharp planes of their grey faces, but there is an indomitability and a pride to them that is hidden by their stern, unchanging expressions.

6. SCUM ALWAYS LIVES at the edge of the universe. Beware the dark of the space and the seedier underbelly of cities or the shadows of forgotten planet - pirates make their living there and these are desperate times, friend.

     THE OBJECTIVE

1. GET UP from where you've fallen. Or get up from the nesting deck pod where you've just woken up on the Station. Or get up to Level 672 where there's a ship waiting for you. Or get up from the knee you've taken before this alien queen. Get up.

2. THE RESCUE might be saving a city from a disaster engineered by an enemy force, playing bodyguard for a government official, or liberating a rare artifact from a crumbling structure.

3. IT'S A RACE AGAINST TIME to collect the relic you've been sent to retrieve from the collapsing ruin. Or to make your way free of the military blockade. Or to make your escape from a crumbling world.

4. THE MASQUERADE is all a cover - for an assassination. For a heist. For a political coup.

5. INFILTRATE you know what you need. And you know who has it. With a little help you’ll be able to break into the place no one is supposed to go. You could sneak in… or smash in. Or maybe just talk your way past every little problem.

6. COME ON AND SLAM and welcome to the jam. It’s a ritual or maybe it’s just a pastime, but whichever it is there are rules and there is a goal. There’s probably even points. If you’re lucky, you just might score one. Avoid the spiky pits? Or maybe the thrown fruit. Or perhaps just the other team...

6. EXPLORE and uncover the secrets this place have to offer. There’s a mystery here if you know where to find it. And all you have to do is look.

7. DON'T DIE is easy to say and hard to do when you're under the guns of an armada. Or when you're trying to outwit spies. Or when the ground is literally crumbling under your feet.

     INSPIRATION

NAVIGATION • PREMISE • FAQ • RULES • GLOSSARY • APPLICATIONS • SYMBIOTIC SKILLS • ABILITY POINTS

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[OOC: Asuka's a very traumatized, very bitter teenager, with a lot of history. She lost her mother at a young age (this will likely be picked up on; the exact how and why likely will not be). She used to be some sort of robot pilot and has been in combat. She's also dealt with injuries and she doesn't trust easily. She's abrasive, angry, and likely to lash out if she feels she's being pushed. Has an eyepatch on her left eye. ]

Wake Up

[ Asuka wakes up. There's not quite a scream on her lips, but there is an audible gasp as she comes out of the darkness. She finds herself sitting up in the pod, trying to draw deep breaths of air. She's shaking; a nightmare that she can't remember. There was the beach, that hideous, red sea and the disembodied head looming on the horizon like some sort of sick, alien moon or sunrise. Fingers on her throat, the feeling of being pursued, an offer-

And here she is. She doesn't know how long it's been or where "here" is, but she's alive. That's the important part. Even if her left eye and arm are still covered in bandages. She winces and runs a hand through her hair. There's something tugging at her attention, whispers and voices and emotions at the edges of her head that seem to want to grab at her attention or threaten to force their way into her head. Stuff that she can't quite identify or place as her own (although they feel like they could be hers). She winces and reaches back to free herself form the tube (this feels strangely familiar) and levers herself over the edge of the pod.

Her legs fold under her as she hits the deck and she goes down with a flurry of cursing in German. It's loud in the enclosed room. Probably loud enough to attract attention, if the 'thud' wasn't. ]

Ghosts

[ The station is eerie. An abandoned spire in a slowly decaying orbit over a dead world. They're supposed to find something here. She's not sure what. A weapon or a device or something that's supposed to help them in their never-ending fighting against... whoever it is they're fighting. At least the Angels were a little more clearly defined. Then again, humanity lost that war in the end, so who gives a crap? Asuka sure doesn't. Or she tells herself that and buries her emotions as deep as she can, because like Hell is she going to think about the world she left behind.

It's hard not to draw comparisons though, especially as she picks her way through the dust. The oxygen scrubbers are still working away, somewhere in the bowels of the massive structure, so at least they can breathe. There are hull breaches here and there, though, so getting too comfortable isn't really advisable. But she's stopped here, amid the debris and wreckage of a civilization that felt the need to build this thing, so she can stare out an observation window. Below them, the planet continues in it's never-ending turn, the surface burnt brown, the oceans turned to dust. Something happened. Maybe that's why they're here. She stares for a long moment and anyone passing nearby catches a flash of red sea and sand and a giant, staring head of white flesh and crimson eyes, rising above the horizon like the sun.

Then she turns away with an angry snort and the moment passes. ]

What are we even supposed to be looking for? There's nothing here but dust and run-down machinery!

[ She kicks a piece of debris and it goes skidding down the hallway into shadow, the sound echoing in the empty station. ]

What a waste of time.

Wildcard

[ You know the drill. ]

[Geez, it's creepy here. Utena takes in the dismal, dead atmosphere without fear though, with a fascination that is open and innocent. It was like something out of a movie, some long abandoned place left to fester, grown dilapidated. Forgotten. Utena passes through the wreckage with the light-footed grace of an athlete, only to skid to a stop near Asuka.

At a respectable distance. Since they'd started this creepy mission, the other girl has been dismissive at best and aggressive at worst. Utena lets her rage roll off her back like water off a duck, though. She is too self-assured, too comforted by the notion (however false) that this is a strange dream, or some weird temporary pass-through before she returns home, to be upset.

Besides, she makes friends easily, and so takes this skill for granted. She leans forward, propping her arms on the dusty sill of the observation window to regard the fallen majesty beneath them. Whistles, low and impressed.]

Even so, it's kinda cool. I wonder who built all this stuff.

[ Utena's laid-back cheerfulness and apparent disregard for... well, anything out of the ordinary have frustrated Asuka. Nothing much seems to phase the girl. There's a languid sort of calm that seems to seep out of her and it threatens to encroach on Asuka, thanks to the symbiote living in her head. She taps a finger against her forehead with a low sigh of frustration. The last thing she needs is this. ]

Who cares? They're all gone now. Probably dead.

[ Her voice is harsh and it's a bit louder than she meant it to be. But she's always had a hard time reigning herself in. ]

Just like their whole planet.

Mm, I dunno. I think it's worth knowing.

[Utena turns her back for a moment, though it's just to lean against the sill again. If she is uneasy, it doesn't show — save the idle clenching and unclenching of her fist. On one finger, a ring glitters. She is trying, so hard, not to think of death. Death unsettles her, one of the few things that does. It's the period at the end of a sentence, an ending from which there is no return, nothing happy.

The thing that had taken residence in her head now picks up on this, this current of anxious unhappiness, but Utena's easy posture doesn't change.]

Maybe if we knew, we could figure out where we're supposed to go.

Knowing who built this or why wouldn't tell us anything.

[ Asuka's voice is a snap that echoes in the stillness. She doesn't have much patience, even at the best of times. So this conversation doesn't really do much for her. Still, she's supposed to work with these people, right? No where else to go. ]

We've been through at least two or three levels already. Are we just going to climb this thing all the way down?

[ Her gaze slides to Utena and her expression hardens. ]

You're awfully calm.

You think so? [Phrased like a question, not an argument.] I guess...

Ah, gee. We don't have much of a choice but to climb, do we? 'Til we find what we're looking for. [She rubs at the back of her neck, not knowing how to deal with Asuka's needling aggression and suspicion but not really having the patience for it either. Utena does what she does best: she ignores it.]

It's pretty easy, right? [No reason not to be calm, as far as she was concerned (if she thought too much, she'd freeze up, and that was no good. Move, don't think). There was a problem, and it would be solved easily enough.] We just keep looking until we find it, then we can go.

Edited (sorry for all these edits i just didn't want to split up her responses too much lol) 2017-04-05 03:32 (UTC)

[ Asuka is becoming more and more determined to find a way to get under Utena's skin, if only so she can have the vicious joy of having done so. She pushes off of the railing and takes a few cautious steps, picking her way over the deck plating. ]

Going down's the easy part. We're gonna have to come all the way back up to get out of here, remember?

[ She sounds almost happy to be reminding Utena of this fact. Then again, Asuka is going to have to do it, too. Maybe she runs off of schadenfreude. ]

This stupid thing better be worth it.

[The reminder gets a groan that's more lightly exasperated than truly frustrated.] Aw, man...

[She kicks a little at the ground, but then follows, careful, lightfooted, prepared to leap to safety at any moment.] It's gotta be important, if we have to go all this way.

You'd think. But they could just as easily be sending us down here because we're expendable.

[ She says that with a certain amount of relish, as if she enjoys crushing all of the optimism out of the room. ]

Who'd miss a couple of kids anyway?

[ OK, there's definitely way more bitterness than sarcasm there. She's got issues. Nay, subscriptions. ]

Asuka Langley Soryu | Neon Genesis Evangelion

ghosts

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Wake Up

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WAKE UP. this is terrible and i'm not sorry

never apologize

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