Dixie Fiend

From Stardust, To Stardust

So far, there's a lot of very human-like species in the RP so that alone is a shocking coincidence already. To clarify though, I don't think it's a problem at all -- and so I don't think it's a problem for someone to play other humans, as there's a lot of people(including myself) who are pro-human.

Although the likelihood of humans developing on a different planet with a completely different ecosystem and with completely different catastrophic natural disasters(ice ages, stuff like that)... Is really improbable. I think it's fair for a small part of humanity to disappear from Earth during their space fairing age to go their own separate ways. The only issue is you'd be extremely far back in population numbers, and well.. You get the picture.

From Stardust, To Stardust

It took me a while to post because figuring out a character to follow was, well... Extremely difficult. But, my next post shouldn't take long at all as I have a clear idea of where I'm going with Domn.

Short for Dominic. I was playing a game when someone had "Domn" as their username while I was writing on the side. Amazing where inspiration can randomly come from.

From Stardust, To Stardust

| The Mantle -- Acheron, North-Eastern Hemisphere |
"-- sounds good. I'll see you then." There was a momentary pause, nodding, then he spoke again. "Mm. Yes, goodbye." There was a tone to his voice that made him seem robotic, and blank. One of those tone's that you use to be polite when you're speaking to an acquaintance, or co-worker. Someone you haven't exactly clicked with. Yeah, it was one of those conversations.

Domn stood beside the floor to ceiling windows in his office. It was sleek, and 'retro modern' if you could get past the slight contradiction of those two words. Retro-modern. But very white and neutral to the point that it was annoying, and made him feel like he was working in solitary confinement or something. His only solace was this little red lava lamp his nine year old son gave him for his birthday some years ago, the lamp didn't seem to work though.

Reaching up to the corner of his face, he slid off his glasses, blinking several times thereafter. Domn's eyes adjusted as the heads up display no longer filled his vision, and he began to see things as they were naturally. Outside was a tumble -- no, that's not right -- a jungle of shimmering lights, skyways, noise, and steely skyscrapers which hugged the outer districts of the great Mantle. Domn tucked his glasses through the collar of his regulars, and folded his hands against the small of his back as he gazed out.

For more than a kilometer in diameter stretched the maw of the Mantle, a giant gap cut into the center of the city in the shape of a three pointed star with rounded edges. This was the bay, as his colleagues had adequately named it. It was even more stunning with the inner partition that wrapped around the bay, separating it from the city that hugged around the Mantle. It was a wall flush to the ground about a hundred feet thick that became a marvel of engineering. They didn't want it to be completely ugly though, so with some landscaping the city officials put a tiny park along the length of the wall that you could walk through. Nice touch.

But, even if you tried to surround it with beautiful trees, sidewalks, and fountains.. It was still a giant hole. A distracting giant hole too, in both the good and bad ways. While absolutely stunning as it was, there was a constant buzz of drilling and construction echoing from the depths of the Mantle. A metallic hum of ships coming and going from the bay area, cranes and hydraulic platforms hauling and groaning, a constant flickering of flashes and sparks.. It was definitely not prime real estate, at least not now. Deep down though, the inner kid in Domn exploded with excitement over the thought of watching the first caravels descend from the stars upon the Mantle -- and disappear into the veil of a Jump Gate, off to discover whole other star systems. Wouldn't that be a sight?

Domn thumbed a glowing console at the waist of the window, bringing up a small display before him. He flicked through an option or two, checking recent emails that were being imparted from his desktop computer. He glanced at the time, and was disappointed at how slowly the day was going by. It was late evening, and the last light of the sun was finally disappearing from the edge of the sky.

A small alert came on-screen in front of him, and with an indicative wave Domn activated it. Domn's mouth dropped and he reached for his glasses as he read the briefing; it was a critical subpoena from his project manager, summoning him to head down to the bay. With consecutive 90 hour work weeks, it was supposed to be his day off.. But then Domn saw it out of the corner of his eye. A decorated Confederate Flagship cruising over the city. He knew who's flagship it was. This was why he hated politics.

. . .

From Stardust, To Stardust

Thanks Duck,
I'll start on a post sometime soon or later in the evening.

From Stardust, To Stardust

My Incoherent Attempt at an Application if it were hit by a truck twice

Name of Nation:
The Bornstellar Confederation, of Athion Primeus.

Species:
The Cordiant.

To start, the Cordiant are a ghostly looking people. They are incredibly similar to humans in appearance, but there are quite a few notable differences. While being typically slender for their height of nearly six feet, most Cordiant can be broad and bulky. Very rarely do they exceed two meters in height due to the gravity of their home-planet, which is two times stronger than earth. However, some research regarding Cordiant born in the colonies suggest that it is possible for a maturing Cordiant to grow a little taller than their average.

They bear a facial structure similar to humans, however lack of some features make them quite alien. For example, their faces are much more narrow and angular, with sharp jaws and flat chins. And they lack a human-like nose, and instead it stops with a broad nasal-bridge between their cheekbones and slightly below the eyes -- a nose which connects into their forehead and smooth's inward. Their nostrils are ovular and defined instead of round, and are set in at an acute angle facing the ground.

Their cheeks are sunken, with peculiar and lanky cheekbones that pronounce each side of their face. A Cordiant's lips are wide, and thinly, with two rows of teeth bearing double the incisors of a human but.. Incisors that are relatively smaller than a humans, suggesting a reliance on more powerful jaws for chewing.

A Cordiant's eyes represent that of an average human's, set in laterally on their face with short eyelashes -- and sharp, thin eyebrows. Their iris's are slightly larger, with finely tuned pupils evolved to see better in low light. The dominant color of a Cordiant's eyes is a steely blue, with hazel and brown being uncommon. A Cordiant's hair does not grow very long for a male, and only slightly longer for a female Cordiant; the color of their hair is predominantly a brown or ash brown color, with reddish hues and some neutral colors being uncommon.

Tucked against the sides of their heads, Cordiant's have two sets of small bat-like ears with one set closest to the top of their heads being slightly larger than the other. These angular ears when perked strangely resemble fins, but they are usually at rest against their heads. A male Cordiant's cranium is squarer and more rigid, while a female's is rounder and has softer edges.

A Cordiant naturally has a broad torso and set of shoulders to accommodate a wider diaphragm. The Cordiant have two sets of pectoral muscles instead of one, which appears to give them their beefier build -- which enabled them to exert more energy over longer durations of time, which was critical to their evolution as both a species and as an early civilization(carrying, rowing, swimming, etc). Their wider diaphragm is a result of a second heart, both of which work in a series as one closed vascular system. Each heart has four chambers, but the second only uses two except when chasing prey at elevated speeds. This second heart halves the stress on their bodies and allows them to exert more energy for longer periods of time.

The Cordiant have slender limbs much like a human's, although only slightly bulkier in proportion to their broad torsos. Their quadriceps are most notably beefier. The Cordiant's skin is covered in small/unnoticeable fine hairs, and they are exceptionally pale creatures. The color of their skin is typically a steely or ghostly white. Sometimes when exerted the Cordiant's skin may look bruised, which is a result of the bimetallic hemoglobin in their blood -- which is cobalt+iron based instead of solely iron, which gives their blood a navy/indigo looking color instead of a human's crimson red color.

Description of Government:
The Cordiant are broken up into different country's each with their own identities on their home-planet Athion Primeus, but these countries are all united by an international joint government known as the Bornstellar Confederation; which was founded more than a century ago when the Cordiant began to form an interplanetary empire, and came to the realization that the politics and economics of their home-planet alone was just scraping the surface of what was to come. The newly born colonies across their solar system were only the beginning of their space-faring legacy as a people and as a species.

While each country on Athion Primeus has its own system of governing which have all transitioned into some sort of elective republics and democracies, the Bornstellar Confederation is an entirely different beast. While representatives of the Confederation may be elected, the major structure and hierarchy of the Bornstellar Confederation is strongly bureaucratic -- with the inner workings of its operations not nearly as transparent as they should be.

Nevertheless, the Bornstellar Confederation remains the front of a united effort in nearly every subject regarding the advancement of the Cordiant as a civilization. It's broken up into dozens of sects, departments, and agencies which are backed by universities, private corporations, and entire countries. It's an efficient living breathing machine in its own nature, and will remain the superpower that it is long into the foreseen future.

Description of Military:
The Bornstellar Confederation's military is separated into two important branches: the Athionian Navy, and the Athionian Armed Forces. The Navy inherits a number of different sects and smaller branches of its own, but is simply recognized as being the 'armada' itself of the Cordiant. The Athionian Navy controls and is responsible for all space-stations, satellites, cargo transports, etc whether they are government, military, or commercial.

The Armed Forces is a straightforward branch consisting of a mainly 'infantry' driven concept of military doctrine. However, like all other branches it still is home to all kinds of careers involving engineering, communications, medicine, aeronautics, sciences and more -- and is not solely thumbed as a branch of just infantry and soldiers. Most of the serving Cordiant that are noted as "active military" are Military Police, which are responsible for protecting the colonies from catastrophe and civil war. The Military Police doesn't answer to any one country, but the administration of the Bornstellar Confederation itself.

The Primeus Program as it is nicknamed is a smaller branch of the Confederation's administrative system/military structure that serve a multitude of uses and operations. They represent the leading departments of science and technology funded by the military. They are teams, individuals, and agencies pulled from all over the world/colonies that are able to reach specific goals set by the Bornstellar Confederation.

Firepower -- the Cordiant are exceedingly low-tech when it comes to military might as a whole, and still rely on ballistics and explosive propulsion-based weaponry. While their ballistics firepower is still relatively primitive, it is obviously better than today's weaponry; with high caliber weaponry and explosives capable of packing big holes pretty fast into things that lack shields/armor.

In addition to that, weapons powered by electromagnetic energy such as railguns are the cutting edge of the Cordiant's naval arsenal.. With smaller railguns, handheld railguns that are leaving prototype stages in the coming years.

Still, the Cordiant overall are low-tech when it comes to military firepower. This is heavily impacted by the Cordiant's history which is marked by religious genocide and bloodshed. It's very important to mention that the Cordiant are only naturally capable of having one child, rarely two or three, in their entire lifetime(a lifetime which is slightly longer than the average human). Because of this, the Cordiant have come to realize that they as a species are at risk of going extinct in the event of civil war. This haunting mindset has driven the Cordiant to be relatively neutral people.

Technological Overview:
Exploration -- the Cordiant are an exceedingly proud and domineering people with great interests in the expansion of themselves as a civilization/species. In the most recent century alone, the Cordiant have taken leaps in technology regarding the exploration, discovery, and colonization of the universe around them. While they still have failed to develop a practical FTL Drive and so-far have remained only an interplanetary civilization.. The Cordiant have created dozens of space-stations, satellites, refueling docks, mobile mining dregs, and developed extensive colonies and outposts all over the inner belt of the solar system.

At the same time they have developed a wide variety of unmanned vehicles such as probes, landers, and rovers which they've deployed even outside of their solar system. Although, communication obstacles have made it so probes sent outside of the solar system are practically incapable of contact back with the Confederation.

Transportation -- while they may not have any sort of working FTL Drive, the Cordiant are still capable of getting around their solar system in decent timeframes with the use of efficient Helium-3 fuels mined in abundance from the many moons around Athion Primeus and the surrounding colonies. These Helium-3 fusion reactors produce groundbreaking amounts of energy to power ships, satellites, and space-stations all over the innermost solar system.

Coupled with that, the Cordiant are somewhat developed in cryogenic technology which allows them to sleep through any lengthy cruise times between destinations across the system without aging. But, it's still obvious that these methods of transportation are not practical in the long-run. And while they may have failed to produce working FTL technology, the Cordiant has been prototyping other ways of getting around.. Such as 'Jump Gates', which are capable of "teleporting" matter from one place to another in an instant(if there's a receiving gateway). The first of these gate technologies is being constructed in the 'Mantle' Project.

Bio Suits & Exo-Skeletons -- the Cordiant home-planet Athion Primeus is two times the size of earth, and has an exceedingly stronger electromagnetic field that protects the planets life from harmful radiation. The Cordiant are especially susceptible to harm when exposed to UV rays and radiation to the skin, and by nature are primarily nocturnal(longer days and longer nights due to slower rotation, however the years are shorter as their sun is many times smaller than the earth's sun and Athion Primeus is closer to its sun than the earth).

Because of this, the Cordiant have developed advanced bio suits to protect themselves from UV radiation. This is especially helpful while traveling through space where the Electromagnetic Shield Projection devices that surround Cordiant ships is weaker than that of their planets', and is vulnerable to the wrath of solar flares. Most of these bio suits are civilian type, which are slim and designed to be fashionable in the colonies. Other bio suits issued to military personnel are slightly bulkier, and designed to look intimidating and absorb bullets.

There are also many commercial exo-skeletons that are designed for civilians in the colonies, which allows them to lift more and do more depending on their job -- but these exo-skeletons are also needed medically, as they have modes of resistance enabled by high-tech hydraulics in order to simulate the 'weight' and energy needed to 'do work' on their home-planet. Basically, the exo-skeletons are work-out machines to help keep the Cordiant healthy and fit in space/colonies on planets/moons with lower gravity. The exo-skeletons have proven to be unreliable and unwieldy in combat situations, making them impractical for military use so-far. I should also note the helmets that go with exo-suits that have visors that simulate low-light during bright daytime. Sunglasses by nature, if you will.

The Mantle -- the 'Mantle' is a large-scale project that the Bornstellar Confederation has been developing for decades now. It's a massive superstructure bore into the planet Acheron, the Cordiant's closest planet to Athion Primeus(basically the Mars to our Earth). It serves dozens of different functions such as a dredging platform, the capital city of Acheron, a planetary harbor, etc. But the most important function is the construction of the first Jump Gate.

The purpose of the 'Mantle' is to harness the churning core of the planet and the electromagnetic energy that it provides, and to enable those massive amounts of energy to be used by the Cordiant; as a working Jump Gate requires power equal to the mass energy of a planet.

Cultural Overview:
The Cordiant are an imperialistic, but neutral people. They do not seek war, but actively seek the advancement of themselves as a civilization. The best word to describe them would be "indifference", regarding their personality as a whole. The Cordiant have a history marked by genocide caused by religion and inner conflict. Over time they've slowly come to reject the idea of religion. Like humans, "they are natural born scientists" with an ever growing sense of curiosity and wish to understand the universe around them.

But at the same time, in the back of their mind.. The Cordiant are absolutely terrified of who else may be out there. For they fear the unknown more than anything else they've known in their entire existence. They are a reserved people that reverence in isolation. However, if you were to look at the social workings of their culture you'd see that they pretty much mirror modern day America(if politics was removed from the equation).

History:
Can I use a 'get out of jail free' card and say to refer to the other parts of the app...? xD

Other:
I'm a big fan of the Bungie universe, so anything that involves Halo or Destiny. While there is inspiration from that universe, in no way shape or form am I trying to replicate it with this application or when I RP; so don't worry too much about fanboy syndrome, I'll be avoiding that. And don't worry about other sci-fi stuff because well... The only thing sci-fi I know is the Bungie universe. Not even a Star Wars/Star Trek nerd, sorry.

BUT I LOVE SPORE IN CASE ANYONE WANTED TO KNOW!

From Stardust, To Stardust

I had sunk in a good several hours of writing as well as research into an application early yesterday morning, only to completely forget to save my work -- went to post, and got an error page. :/

But, I've cooled off a bit and I'm looking forward to starting on an application again. I'll post it sometime this morning, I look forward to getting back into Forum RP again.

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

Every post cheap_thrills has made has been the highlight of my late nights :3 Great reads.

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

Mark

Mark shifted uncomfortably over the bed sheets, turning his neck awkwardly as he rested his head in a new spot to try and keep his face cool. Waking up wasn't an elegant scene for Mark. He groaned as he realized he wasn't going to get any more comfortable, and made an effort to crack his eyes open. Immediately, he was blinded by the California late afternoon light as the sun beat through openings in the curtains with heavy rays. He sat up slowly, and brought his knees in almost cross-legged for balance as he hunched over; rubbing the corners of his eyes with his knuckles.

At some point in the night he must have moved into the bedroom unknowingly. Wait, he remembered now. The Heineken bottle lay empty next to him now on the bed, as well as two cigarette stubs whose ash now stained the white sheets beside him. Mark glanced around the room, cluttered with strewn about clothes among other things at which were likely the result of a few raids by other survivors searching for something useful. He was surprised he got any sleep in the state he was last night, and at that he slept quite a long while, but he felt the anxiety he had previously now returning.

Mark reached for the pack of cigarettes on the night stand, and drew one from what remained. Hastily, he lit it with the tiny amount of juice left in the lighter tucked in a wrinkle of the bed sheets.

Within a couple of minutes he felt better, and slipped out of the bed effortlessly. He paced around the room for a few moments, taking a drag or two before he tossed the burning cigarette aside onto an uncluttered space of the hardwood floor - and pulled his navy long-sleeved shirt off, and threw it to the side of the room. He stepped over an empty adidas bag and went digging through the nearest pile of clothes. Mark didn't intend to be picky, but there was no way he was going to wear one of these V-necks..

It didn't take very long before he lifted a crumpled t-shirt and briskly slid it on over his torso. It was a simple solid gray tee. Luckily the guy was a size small like Mark. However, as the weeks went by of Mark barely keeping himself together and alive throughout the outbreak he had come to feel very uncomfortable with his arms exposed. It felt dangerous, seeing as those corpses would turn you by a bite or scratch. He wanted his skin covered, even if an extra layer would cook him... Although Les Stroud would always say if you sweat, you die.

Mark browsed the closet for something appropriate. There were only a few jackets he could find still hanging up, but one stood out. It was of a brand very popular in the southeast, one his older brother wore religiously - a Carhartt. It was a dark, almost chocolate brown Carhartt chapman jacket. He retrieved it from the hanger and put it on slowly, testing how comfortable it would be if he found himself bleeding sweat like a sprinkler at any point. It didn't feel too reliable, but whatever right? Oh gosh, Mark was actually being picky.

He stepped out of the closet, rolling his shoulders before straightening the collar. Briefly, he padded at the arms and forearms of the sleeves to check how durable they were. They were fairly tough, he thought to himself; rough more than tough.

Mark strode out from the bedroom now, the door creaking open with a wide swing as his 'goober' boots, as his JROTC instructor called them, thudded heavy steps over the floor into the hallway. He had a new cigarette between his lips now, smoke falling from his nostrils momentarily after a long drag. He looked sidelong into the living room, hesitating a step as he saw that a walker was shuffling around on its knees near the sliding glass door. It had gotten on the balcony during the night. It saw Mark now, and began growling and pushing itself into the door - not realizing what was in front of it. It was relentless.

He roughly guessed how many were out in the courtyard from what he got a glimpse of last night, and he was in no mood or ability to try that route out of the neighborhood. Mark hoped the main street through the rows of condominiums would be safer, plus he was relatively close to the gate entrance right off of the road.

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

Last few posts were a good read, nice guys <3

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

FLOKI! <3

EDIT: Floki is a character on the History channel series, "Vikings".