BBeast

Sanctuary

Gamer, I do hope you can satisfy the GM's and get in. While you're doing some thinking about that, I have some comments about your character and specifically the engineering you have written that she has done. Of course, these are mostly rather trivial and technical details, but such details would probably help more-realistically shape the character of highly-skilled mechanic.

One thing I noticed was time. She's only 22 years of age, yet she's already created highly advanced pieces of military machinery? Her apprenticeship started at 16. That would last at least 2 years, or probably 4 because this core-mechanics is a complex thing. That leaves 2-4 years between exiting her education/apprenticeship and the present day. She and her team must work fast, then. Something like a weapons-grade laser would take a long time to make practical, as you'd be hard pressed to find a practical way to cool it that doesn't limit it to a few shots (I imagine that some cold cores, which I presume exist, would either have to be very big or replaced every couple of shots, neither of which are good options). Something like a blade made of whizzing dust held together by kinetic cores would take a long time to make it work at all, and even longer to be practical enough to be useful. And this being military contracts you wouldn't get away with jury-rigging something together, so R&D for a single invention would take time.

That's not saying Ewera couldn't have done all that in the given time. She'd just have to have been working very, very hard, or she's some kind of prodigy. Perhaps the shortage of time explains why her Hallowback is so unreliable.

On a scientific note, electricity doesn't work in such a way that you can specify both the voltage and amperage for a source of electricity. You can create a definite voltage, but amperage is determined by the resistance of the path it must take. Do also note that it takes 10,000 V to arc across 1cm of dry air. A 1200V lightning bolt is nothing. By comparison table-top Van de Graaf generators can produce a hundred thousand volts. Yes, if you held a wire with a 1200V electric current running through it you'd probably die, but if you attempted to fire that at someone you might make their hair stand on end if you're lucky. Your voltage at the target, which is what you would care about, would vary by distance and atmospheric conditions, meaning saying 'it has 300V at this mode and 1200V at this mode' is hard to support. Perhaps omitting the voltages and currents of your lightning turret would avoid this issue, meaning you can say 'it just works' and leave it at that.

But do not fret. Such details are not vitally important. Stuff like grammar and power balance are much more important, as the GMs above have mentioned, so put fretting into those if need be. I just wish to help you construct a more realistic character by putting out a few points of consideration.

Sanctuary

The Red Zephyr said
At this point, Weston is more of a dishonored soldier, but yeah "honorable soldier" works. Will post tonight or tomorrow night for sure.

He works hard to maintain his own honour. This is why he has been 'dishonoured' by the military, as the military have abandoned their own honour. At least, that's how I see it.

Now add a forthright mechanic to the list.

Sanctuary

Good to have you here, Gamer. I hope you enjoy.

Lost in my Mind said
I feel special that I was listed first ^^. All warm and fuzzy. Also I have been loving all the descriptions I have read that people have used with Iktomi, both OOC and IC.

To be honest, I did them in the order in the CS thread. Except for Samuel. I moved him next to Vates as I wanted to juxtapose the two information brokers.
P.S. Sorry to break your mood, Lost.

Sanctuary

A sign, once colourful, stuck out from a pile of broken concrete. The area was mostly a clearing, as it had mostly been carriage parking. There had only been one building in the area, a supermarket. The front wall had caved in, leaving the inside open to the air, although the roof was still mostly there to protect it from the weather. As it was late in the day, the city was already very dark as the tall Wall prevented the city from receiving any direct sunlight for the majority of the day, a condition to which inhabitants had managed to adapt to. Due to the darkness, the interior of the supermarket was veiled by shadows. Zachary, curious of what laid inside, took out and turned on a light core from his backpack and stepped into the darkness. His light revealed the scene inside, which was one of disaster much like anywhere else in the city. Shelves which had been full of stock had toppled, sending their contents sprawling across the floor. All this was covered in a fine layer of plaster dust from the ceiling. Many of the lights which had been hanging from the ceiling had fallen. But there was one thing which stood out from the mess, and that was the smell. It was indescribably horrid: a concoction of rotten meat, off milk, bad eggs and mouldy fruit which was an assault on the nose. Zachary retched at the stench and used his spare hand to pinch his nose.

Recovering from the smell which had attempted to turn his stomach inside out he took a closer look at the goods which had been spilt. Using his foot to nudge aside the covering layer he found a thin layer of sticky sludge covering the floor under the food. A year of rotting had left this disgusting residue across the ground, and it was probably the source of the smell. If Zachary were to recover any food from here, it would have to be canned food.

Suddenly he heard a rustling noise from behind him. Turning, Zachary saw the silhouette of a man crawling through the rubble with the light flashing off his eyes, circling around him at a distance and blocking off his escape. Should have just grabbed a trolley from outside and been done with it, remarked Kaa'is in an I-told-you-so tone.

The man, although his proportions had been distorted from what could be considered humans, snarled at Zachary, the light revealing his sharpened teeth. "So, the prey has entered our nest. We shall eat well tonight." This Conduit unnerved Zachary, but then again so did many Conduits who wanted to kill him. Perhaps it was their combination of an animalistic and sadistic natures. Zachary realised that as Conduits went he was a very lucky one.

Zachary, get ready to fight! Kaa'is instructed. Zachary drew back into a longer stance just before the Conduit charged, his long limbs covering the ground between them like a lion charging after their prey. Quickly Zachary grabbed a can of food telekinetically and hurled it at the Conduit at great speed. It struck with a crunch and the Conduit reeled back in pain, the now-ruptured can clattering on the floor. Zachary pulled up another one and launched it again, but this time the Conduit jumped aside with unnatural speed. Zachary hurled two more cans this way, his eyes now streaming as he was no longer protecting his nose from the miasma which filled the building, and the Conduit avoided the projectiles both times. Without warning the Conduit retched and vomited up a slimy projectile which flew towards Zachary. The vomit projectile was mostly reflected by Zachary's kinetic shield, splattering around the ground in front of him, but a few drops drops got through to his shirt where they hissed and steamed.

Zachary looked down in disgust at the powerful acid which was slowly eating through his shirt, but Kaa'is immediately screamed out Zachary's mistake. You're not watching him! Unfortunately their opponent was too swift and just as Zachary looked back up the Conduit was upon him, knocking him to the ground and pinning him there. The claws which had replaced his fingers attempted to slash at Zachary, but were deflected by his kinetic shield. Up close Zachary could see in detail the man's features. Something dark and dried, perhaps a mixture of blood, vomit and rotten food, was smeared around his mouth, which was filled with a set of sharp teeth. The man also did not wear clothes, with only body hair filled with grime covering him, and his breath stank almost as bad as the food. But this was no time to analyse, as Zachary could not rely on his kinetic shield alone. Already he was grappling with this monster of a man to hold him back from biting him. Thinking mostly by instinct, Zachary used his magnetic powers to pull his wind cannon out from underneath him and hold it up facing his assailant. The Conduit was about to hurl up another acid ball into Zachary's face when the wind cannon fired. The sound was like a drawn-out gunshot, and the blast of air rushed over Zachary and struck the Conduit square in the chest from almost point blank, knocking him 6 metres away.

No longer pinned down, Zachary quickly scrambled to his feet and held the air cannon with his hands. The Conduit was about to jump at him again when Zachary knocked him down and away with another pulse of high-velocity air, this time slamming the Conduit against a wall. Growling, and reluctant to surrender, he tried again, taking a couple of strides towards Zachary before he fired again, but this time the Conduit side-stepped, avoiding the pulse, and then lunged at Zachary. Strike! As the Conduit came towards him into melee range in mid air, Zachary swung out with the butt of his air cannon. As he did this he found that the air cannon moved faster than how he would normally be able to do so, as Kaa'is was using his powers to move the air cannon as well. The air cannon struck the Conduit's head with superhuman force, and the Conduit fell with a crack, clutching his bleeding head.

This is your chance, Zachary, Kaa'is said, Put this beast out of its misery, make the world a safer place and stop being a wimp.

Zachary looked around and saw that there were numerous heavy metal things he could use to crush this beast's skull and kill him. Then Zachary realised what he was thinking and caught himself. Before Kaa'is could do anything more Zachary fired the air cannon at the Conduit, bouncing him across the ground and out of the supermarket building. "Go on, get out of here!" Zachary shouted after him, and the Conduit, ready to admit defeat, picked himself up and scampered away.

Kaa'is tutted in Zachary's head. Should have killed him when you had the chance. Now he's probably going to hunt down some poor defenceless family and eat their children.

Zachary sighed. Kaa'is often found a way to make hard choices seem more painful. "Come on, let's get out of here," Zachary said, picking up his dropped light and walking out of the supermarket into the fresh dusk air. He noticed his heart's thumping slow down as the adrenalin in his system started to wear off, and his breathing was returning to a normal state. Finding and taking a shopping trolley that was mostly intact, he added, "For the record, there aren't any defenceless families in Sovereign nowadays." Touché. "Now let's get home. It's getting late."

Sanctuary

So, I read through the character sheets quickly, and I think I can make a quick summary of who we have as player characters. We have a cold-hearted underworld overlord, a quiet vigilante, an overconfident thief, two mercenary brothers, a charismatic islander, a curious young lady, a sorcerer, a bitter orphan, a businessman-like information broker, a schizophrenic information broker, an introverted rich girl, an inquisitive engineer, an honourable soldier, and a fatherly mafia boss. And that's before all the kages came by.

I'm not quite sure what we get out of that. I suppose we have some quick comparisons and an overview of existing characters. Of 15 characters, 4 of them are soldiers of some sort, 4 of them are underworld figures (OK, 3 of the 4 soldiers are owned by one player, so that would skew it a bit, but the underworld figures are all separate).

Sanctuary

Zachary walked through the streets of Sovereign, searching for parts for his latest invention. The streets had chunks of rubble scattered around them, but not nearly as much as one would expect. The flood which had raged through the city during the cataclysm had washed a lot of the stuff in the streets away, carrying it either out of the city or banking it up against the Wall or in low-lying areas. Large debris like chunks of buildings mostly remained in place, but lighter things like vehicles were washed away. Mostly intact buildings could also be searched and possibly give good yields if you go to the right places, but they are generally rather dangerous as intact buildings make good bases and lairs, which means they are quite likely occupied. In searching the streets one inevitably comes across other people who have also braved the streets, but the majority of people in these ruins are sensible and avoid strangers so Zachary didn't have a hard time walking.

After just short of an hour of searching Zachary found something on his list: a skyway unit. It had fallen from the building above, which was now little more than a pile of concrete chunks and mangled steel, and was sticking out from the rubble. Not seeing anyone else around, Zachary approached the machine. He strained against a slab of concrete on top of it and slid it off with the sound of rocks grinding, more fully revealing the machine. He laid a hand on it and an image of it assembled itself in his mind's eye. Skyway units are heavy-duty devices, housing enough polarity cores to hold heavy traffic in mid-air continuously for weeks. They are also sophisticated machines, capable of projecting a stable winding energy-based road. Overall they are extraordinary devices, however in this form they are also much too powerful for a single carriage. What Zachary wanted was a few key components which he would modify. The magnetic attraction part is the main feature he needed. He would also need some of the projection. He also needed the polarity cores from it. Through his mind, he analysed the machine and found all that he needed to be there and intact, and accessible by plasma cutter. He just needed a way to carry those parts home, as even taking just that would be much more than can be carried by hand.

I say kill a kage, take their spirit and use that power to carry everything home as if it were light as a feather, Kaa'is suggested sarcastically, receiving dismissal from Zachary. "We need something with wheels. If we had something with wheels we could just put them in it and roll it home. But of course everything floats in our age, or at least they did until they all broke." Zachary racked his brain for something with wheels that he could use, and he lit up like a metaphorical light-bulb when he remembered. "Shopping trolleys! They're perfect. A simple machine designed for carrying loads, they are reasonably sturdy so they wouldn't have all gone bust and if they have then they can be easily fixed, and there are lots of them in known locations."

So we're off to the shops, are we? I think it's past five, so they'll probably be closed, Kaa'is joked. Zachary laughed a little, which was a rare response from him towards Kaa'is' words. He then nodded, found his bearings, tried to remember which way the shops were, and then began walking towards that part of town.

Sanctuary

Zachary entered his base, sat down at his workbench, pulled out a dirty sheet of paper, something reminiscent of a pencil and a bite to eat and began planning his design. A carriage is what he wanted, a small one capable of carrying a person and some cargo. It would need a conventional carriage engine to provide movement across the horizontal. It would also need another engine to attract it to vertical metal walls as if it were a skyway. Even if he didn't use it to scale the Wall he could always use it as transport, for him and a crateful of tech and supplies. Holding him and supplies would best be done if the cabin was enclosed. The cabin would need some reinforcement so it continues to hold stuff in when on its side and upside down. The driver interface would perhaps be the most technical part of the build, as typically that relies on electronics, which are difficult to jury-rig together. An analogue system may be necessary, even if it's a bit out-dated. To keep other people from driving off with it he could disconnect a vital internal component using his powers, such as the battery.

Zachary fleshed out his design and ran some calculations to determine how much power his engine would need. Then he started thinking about where he could find what he needed to build it. He could take the chassis from an existing carriage and modify it to his specs. He could also take a carriage engine. The apocalypse may have left no functional vehicles left in Sovereign, but that doesn't mean all the engines are beyond use. However, finding a fully intact carriage engine would be difficult, as any scavengers looking for kinetic cores would find them in those engines. But Sovereign was a bustling city, so there are many vehicles to be scavenged. For the climbing up walls functionality he could take and modify a skyway core unit. They ran on polarity cores, and polarity cores aren't particularly useful in a post-apocalyptic wasteland without specialist knowledge so they would not have been heavily scavenged. Perhaps the hardest part would be getting everything back to his workshop, as these components would be rather heavy.

If we had more power you could just carry them back, Kaa'is suggested. Zachary didn't give Kaa'is a reply, and tried ignoring him. Perhaps if he found a carriage in close enough to working condition he could repair it on the spot and drive it back. But not straight to his workshop, as a running carriage in a silent city is in no way discrete and would attract unwanted attention. He'd have to find a secondary location to work on it and stash it, not too far from his workshop.

"OK, time to go scavenging," Zachary said to himself. He packed his bag with useful supplies- food, water, a few choice tools- checked that his kinetic shield and air cannon were in working order, and departed.

Sanctuary

My character's going to go scavenging for cores. If any of you want to meet him, let me know.

Sanctuary

Zachary left the Wall and headed back into the city. He couldn't do much down by the Wall without more preparation, and how one prepares to get past an unbreakable wall was beyond him. How about getting more power? Kaa'is asked, receiving a feeling of disgust from Zachary. He knew that in order to gain power people need to die, and he was not at all comfortable with that. At the same time he also knew that Kaa'is had a point, and he despised his situation because of that.

Zachary started to brainstorm possible methods of escape. He could go either through the gate, break through the Wall or go over the top. The gate would be very heavily guarded, so doing that alone would be near suicide. The Wall itself is virtually indestructible. And to get over the top would need a way to penetrate the aerial barrier. But he explored the possibilities further, going over each of them in detail in his head.

-The Gate. A heavily militarised zone. Getting in would either need the utmost stealth or incredible strength. Considering the likely soldier density, invisibility would be the only way for him to achieve the necessary level of stealth, and an invisibility device is much too complex to assemble in these circumstances. Even with a team of top engineers an effective invisibility cloak has thus far remained fictitious. Besides, if they were smart they would have probably thought about invisible kages. And the Gate would not simply be left open, and opening it would almost certainly attract attention. The alternative to stealth is strength. Zachary has the engineering knowledge to create some very powerful weaponry even from simple parts. Yes, do that Zachary. You know how quickly we could be free if you did that. But he was loathe to think he could kill hundreds of people in a single blow. But think, Zachary. It is not just us who would benefit. The entire population of Sovereign could be free- free to feel the weather, free to travel again, free from the oppressive grasp of the military. You would be heralded as a hero! But at what cost? The deaths of hundreds of people? The military are people too. Barely. You know their atrocities. Who is not to say they won't kill us once we get outside anyway? They clearly have military on the outside. If they have an exterior base as well as an interior base then the Gate will merely be a choke-point and we'll all get massacred. Speaking of which, who is to say the Gate doesn't open only from the outside? Jail cells can't be opened from the inside, so why would this be able to? In that case the Gate would merely be an easier point to break through.

-The Wall. Virtually indestructible, although anything can be broken if you try hard enough. A brute force approach is futile, and such resources would probably be better directed at cracking through the Gate. With enough spirit we could possibly disassemble the Wall from the inside, rendering to be nothing more than an ordinary wall. Maybe, but again at what cost? No cost, only gains. We'd have to murder people to do that, and I'm not willing to do that. We don't actually have to murder people ourselves. We could search for dying people instead and consume their spirit when they die. That's almost as bad. But it isn't as bad. So far there exists no known technology which can get us through the Wall without breaking it somehow. I don't know how to make any ghosting machines or teleporters. Perhaps we could tunnel under it, but that would involve venturing into the unknown. We don't know whether it's unprotected if we go deep enough of if its foundations seal off the entirety of Sovereign.

-The Aerial Barrier. This is almost as unknown as travelling under the Wall. It is currently too far away to analyse. From what he could see from down here it appears to be some form of kinetic shield. It's so high up that this box is large enough to have its own weather systems. As it is clearly not built from solid kinetic core, it would likely be much weaker than the Wall itself, but its awkward position makes tampering with it more difficult. He would need to get a closer look, and that would mean somehow scaling that height safely. A small shuttle could do it, and he definitely had the ability to make one of those, although that would have the disadvantage of drawing a lot of attention from the entire city, and quite likely the cannons of the military as well. Another more novel approach would be to scale the Wall. Being made of steel he would attach himself to it magnetically using Polarity Cores. At that altitude, without high-altitude training, he would need to have some form of breathing apparatus, but that would be easily obtained. He was liking this idea. Perhaps a set-up similar to a carriage on the old skyways. I still say we blow up the military and waltz out of the gate. For an onikage whose powers revolves around machinery, you have such little appreciation for the elegance engineering. I just don't appreciate taking such a round-about way of escaping. The aerial barrier will probably prove to be just as futile to break through without the spirit of a hundred kages. There's no way to know until we look, now is there?

By the time he had finished this brainstorming Zachary had made it back to his base. Before entering, where he would be able to start designing this carriage which climbed up steel walls, he checked around to ensure that nobody was watching. It had become routine, as he knew that he could not afford to let his base, a cache of technology, become known.

Sanctuary

The Red Zephyr said
So, I'm not trying to make any assumptions about where we're going with the RP, but I'm just gonna urge you not to rush anything Kish. You alluded to "something big" in that collab, but there's still plenty of plot and development to be had right now in Sovereign. In the original, lots of people were forced to rush development to keep up with you sending the military full-force. Don't start killing off important people and initiating any final battles or anything dude. Chapter one needs time to get things going for real.Just me being paranoid. I have stuff I wanna do with Weston and would rather not rush it.

I agree. Rushing unreasonable force against the players is a sure-fire way to get satisfaction to plummet.