Ellri

World of Darkness (Boston)

Pretty sure RP is still taking in people. But So far as we've seen, the Garou faction is full.

World of Darkness (Boston)

Eilwen is not going to take on jobs from someone for a no-good reason. She can, after all, remember the time before the Camarilla, and she's not interested in membership in said sect. But of course, she doesn't like the Sabbat or garou, let alone upstart kine like Leopoldians.

World of Darkness (Boston)

We think we can figure something (in)convenient out after navy posts...

Oh, and noxxi's post was pretty nice.

Extragalactic Exploration Expedition: Survey Team II

The trip through the Gateway had been rather uneventful. Morven had no idea just how long it took. Safety precautions had had them all in stasis both for the trip itself and for a short while prior to and afterwards, so for all she knew, anything from minutes to days, weeks or even years could have gone by without them noticing anything. It quickly became apparent that it was closer to the first than to the latter, though. She did not have much contact with any of her family while training for the job, nor did she see any reason to seek them out. They wouldn’t. or couldn’t, understand the reasons she had for joining the EEE. She did not mind overmuch.

~| Several weeks prior, supply shipments and berthing selections |~

Jason had been lugging his duffel bag aboard the vessel not long after he’d completed the training required to join the crew. Upon his acceptance, he’d been so eager to set up his workspace and claim his stateroom that he’d hardly seen the shorter being. His duffel bag, a long ancient leather-made thing of more sentimental value than of great use, had blocked most of his vision when he’d nearly bowled whoever over. Setting aside his bag, he was a bit peeved about the unforeseen obstacle.

“I’ll need you to make way, important crew trying to get on board this fine vessel,” Jason drawled in a tone identifying him as one of the many pace-side aristocratic. entitled. Some of his tone was prideful of the vessel, but there was a hard underlining of impatience to it. He was interested in seeing the inside and wanted to get around whoever’d been in the middle of the p-way (passageway).; so far he’d only seen holographic vids and pics of the vessel which might only give illusion of spacious quarters.

It was only in a double take that he realized the person was a female though given her clothes he couldn’t make sense why another scientist might be lingering about the entrance to the vessel. [He’d actually bumped into her.]

Morven didn’t much think for people trying to make her get out of their path. She never had. That was at least part of the reasons she’d joined the MWEC back in the day, to stay away from most of the more pushy folks. When the stranger spoke to her, she turned around, her pale lavender eyes rapidly taking in the scene, instantly calculating the width of the corridor and how much she had been using. “There is ample space for you to get by here.” Morven saw that he was probably a few years older than her, but not many. He was also somewhat taller and more heavily built. The occupation tag on his flight suit read that he was a cartographer, communications specialist & a programmer, so she just as quickly figured out his worth to the mission.

“You are not as critical to the mission as you think. Useful, but not critical. Without knowing what to put on the maps or to report back, you won’t have much to do. I will be taking care of telling you that.” Her voice was pretty smarting when she said this, but not really overflowing with emotion. Probably because several of her hormonal glands had long since evolved to be radically different from human glands. She still felt the same emotions, she just didn’t express them the same way.

Huh. A female as part of the crew? Clearly they’d drawn the short straw for this one. It’ll just gum up the works with some feminine presence aboard. “Everyone’s expendable including the middle man who might think they’re in charge of my position. Now if you’ll get out of my way I’ve things to take care of for prep,” he had an equally bored tone comparable to hers, but his was fashioned of years of cultural levity. Of course he’d comprehended her response - she apparently thought she’d be telling him what to include hereby asserting herself as part of the crew, but he seriously doubted this. Likely she was just trying to rub off some of his self-importance onto herself. Perhaps she wanted to rub elbows with him to feel important as well. Whatever the cause, he knew his importance and didn’t need some slip of a girl to tell him.

Heaving a put-upon sigh, he tried to move past her, uncaring if he physically jostled her as he did so. His vision was clearly obstructed and he’d made clear his intentions. Be it far from him if she would rather chatter about her position aboard the ship rather than heed his succinct message.

Morven pondered whether to react to his apparent indications of personal overestimation, but she fairly quickly realized that would be pointless. His kind, while fairly rare, would not easily be shaken loose from their outdated opinions. Especially not after a single conversation. She had encountered his kind in the past and had found the only reliable way to change their views, other than brainwashing (which was the province of the military), was to prove them wrong. In other words, it’d take time. When he pressed past, she was somewhat tempted to do something to embarrass him, but managed (barely) to restrain that urge. Besides, she herself had work to do too. Less than half the sensor packages she wanted had been loaded so far. Whomever had loaded them had no real experience in exoplanet processing & identification.

~| Several weeks later |~

By this time, Morven had met most of the crew. Other than the pesky attitudes of the communications officer, in which she showed her irritation through discoloration of the scales on her stomach (which was invisible to others), they were a nice enough bunch. Despite the massive size of the vessel compared the the typical MWEC ships, it would only hold a crew of five people. Should a target galaxy not hold sufficient planets of worth, that would mean less lives sacrificed, a decision she had no problem accepting. But then, Morven knew well how unlikely it would be for their target galaxy to be unprofitable. The biggest issue would be the massive effort for building a gateway on the other end and linking it to the Milky Way Gateway (MWG).

She slipped through storage section seven, marvelling at how the Government had chosen to build parts of the ship without artificial gravity, a feat she considered particularly impressive. Of all the ships she had been on, they were either ancient freighters without any gravitic generators or equipped with a gravitic generator array that engaged gravity for the whole ship at once, never just for parts of a ship. It did make sense to have it that way for the storage section, for it eliminated a lot of the need for extra powerful machinery in there. Even a child could move a crate in Zero-G that would in normal gravity weigh several tons. Though it was years in the past, she could still vividly recall a demonstration of just that.

Because she could, Morven elected to take a few somersaults in her journey through the massive chamber, which was still fairly empty. Later she knew it would be filled up with raw materials for the food fabricators and several other systems. Till that was loaded, the chamber was a nice place to practice ZG maneuvering.

Extragalactic Exploration Expedition: Survey Team II

we got started on a Collab with Kessa. That appears to have broken the ice on our post block.

World of Darkness (Boston)

That situation sounds like ouchies, Noxious...

We're looking forward to see what happens at the Camarilla meeting. We're most certain that our character also looks forward to it. No idea what she'll do, though.

World of Darkness (Boston)

We'd collab with ya, navy_Vet, but we got a personal policy of wanting at least two posts from other people between each we're involved in.

World of Darkness (Boston)

The death of the prince, a malkavian like herself, came as a bit of a surprise to Eilwen Ferch Gruffydd ap Llywelyn ap Gruffudd ap Rhys ap Ellis ap Dilwyn ap Taliesin, or Eilwen Ferch Gruffydd, as she went these days. She did not like such surprises. The prince, while annoying at times, had still been useful to have around. If nothing else, he kept the camarilla controlled. Eilwen did not have much liking for the obsessively controlling elements of that sect, but that is always better than the chaos that the Sabbat were always trying to stir up. She did not like them. Her preferred mode had always been to remain distanced from the sects. Her old Sire, whom she had not seen for centuries, taught her that was best. Of course, he was born centuries before they formed, so his opinion might have been affected by that. She personally could no longer recall much about the time before the Camarilla or the Sabbat. But then, she hadn’t even been embraced for a century before that happened. She had been but a child. Still blind to the true nature of her kind.

The whispers comforted her thoughts, speaking of how Malkav’s will would continue to be advanced even without Quentin King III. They also spoke of wrapping oak trees in cat guts and a score other things like that, but Eilwen had long known how to tune out those particular whispers. Many of her kin were quite deranged in their minds. They had their purpose, but oft were their words lacking in sense. She realized she might have to take a more active role in events. It would not serve the plan to have the camarilla, or worse, the kindred in general, lose control over Boston. As such, she pondered whether she should stop by the meeting of the Camarilla. After a few minutes of thinking, she decided that would be wise. Information is always useful to have. While her Nosferatu associate gave her good information, his price was steep at times, and multiple sources are always good to have.

~| Thirty-seven minutes later |~

Eilwen approached the meeting place of the Camarilla. As per her habit, she wore a dark green, hooded robe, which concealed most of her features, all without restricting mobility. She did not acknowledge the guards outside the hall. She moved as if she belonged, so they did not challenge her. The fools. “No wonder he died, if guards never challenged people if they looked like they belonged.” she muttered beneath her breath. Of course, the fact that he had been felled by mere mortals had proven that already. It was honest enough to be killed by one of the werewolves. They were truly vicious beasts. Real threats. Humans were cattle. Most of them could not even comprehend the idea of the supernatural existing. Fewer still knew anything useful about it. These days, more than half those who believed in the existence of her kind attributed all the wrong traits to them. Not that she minded one bit. If they were wont to use garlic as protection, then that was only convenient. Better for her food to use useless defenses than reliable ones. The chamber, when she entered, was mostly empty. She took a place along the wall near one of the exits, in a nice bit of deeper shadow. She would monitor the events, but she would not intervene without good reason.

Extragalactic Exploration Expedition: Survey Team II

we figured we'd put up the character sheet / concept here, simply so that its available.

Character sheet

It had started innocently. Seven years ago, Morven Buchanan had joined the Milky Way Exploration Core (MWEC). She had, like most others joining, been eighteen years of age, finished with general education but not yet joined a breeding program. Even back then, there had been hundreds of colonies, some of them even large enough to be self-sufficient. Others were entirely dependent upon regular supply runs, like mining colonies. Shortly after joining, Morven had been sent to explore the deep reaches of the galaxy. First to asteroid fields and to map star systems, then later to the planets themselves.

Few who joined the MWEC tended to end up settling in one place long. In centuries long past, they were the ones who always had to see the far side of that next ridge, the tops of mountains, what lay beyond the horizon. Of course, today that horizon had been replaced by distant stars, but the wanderlust was the same. Morven had always been intrigued by deep space. During her education, she had focused towards that, so it came as no surprise to her family that she did as she did.

When she first heard of the construction of the gateways, she did not know what to make of it. Large sections of the Milky Way remained unexplored, so why explore other galaxies? Still, a small part of her found the idea of a different galaxy intriguing. But it would be years yet before even a single gateway was finished. The things were massive, the ships launched through them only a little smaller. Compared to the regular explorer vessels, they were behemoths. But then, from what she’d heard, those ships were one-way trips, so they had to be far more self-sufficient.

Morven thought the idea of such huge vessels strange. Fascinating, but strange. She was pretty much satisfied with her life currently. Her job took her all over the Milky Way, letting her explore all sorts of planets. Some were barren rocks where she only performed quick mineral analysis, others were lush with vegetation or molten volcanic spheres or frozen balls of ice. Few had the diversity of the Origin. She did not know when it happened, but seeing as she had been on countless different planets with more than thirty unique ecosystem types, it could have been many places. She did not even notice it when it first appeared, let alone give it any thought.

No matter how many precautions exoplanetists like her took, cross-planet contamination was never completely unavoidable. The precautions needed on one world were not the same as on other worlds. Early on in the history of the MWEC, many worlds had been left barren because of contamination. A seemingly innocent and harmless organism carried from one world to another by accident, only to overwhelm the ecosystem of its new home. She only noticed it when it had spread to cover about a third of her right upper arm. A faint, weblike purplish rash. She thought nothing of it, taking a nanite restorer just to be safe. But after a month, the rash hadn't disappeared. In fact, it had only grown. Output data from the nanites claimed that there was nothing to fix. Morven thought that to be a bit strange, but decided that since she did not feel odd and the nanites claimed nothing wrong, then it probably was nothing. She chose not to give it further thought. Besides, she usually wore a sleeved uniform day and night, so she rarely saw it.

About three months in, the rash had subtly spread. A thin webbing of purple veins along the inside of the arm. Nanite injections denied anything wrong and she still did not feel any different, so she continued more or less ignoring it. Company policy always stated that anything infectious or otherwise compromising was to be reported, but since none of the others on her explorer showed the rashes and she wasn't weakened, she had figured it did not qualify for either of those. Besides, reporting such would mean being taken off the duty roster.

Nine months in, the webbing, still faint, had spread over her upper torso and left arm. The skin on the inside of her right upper arm had begun to darken faintly, becoming slicker. Scans still indicated that nothing was wrong with her. She kept it concealed from everyone, not knowing what to make of it, but fearing that others would take it wrongly if unveiled. It had been centuries since anyone in her homeland had considered different to be a good thing.

Two years in, the change was even more noticeable. Her arms were covered in minuscule, slick purple scales and it was slowly spreading over her torso. For some reason, it kept away from her extremities and most of her head, but the webbing was faintly present along her neck and much of her lower torso and thighs. But even now, the scanners and nanites still found nothing different about her, and she did not feel any different deep down. If any different, she might have felt a little stronger, that analyzing things was a little easier. Not much, but enough to be noticeable to her.

Four years in, the changes covered most of her torso and upper halves of her arms and legs. A webbing of purple veins spread out from the edges of the slick purple scales, but not far, and it had not progressed noticeably for nearly a year. The only change that she had noticed as visible to anyone else so long as she was dressed, was how her irises had turned from pale blue to pale lavender, and she had stopped needing sight correction implants. Not that they had ever needed to correct her sight much. Inside, she felt perfectly ok, but scans she had done using a custom-built scanner showed some oddness to her internal organs, as if they too had changed. Similarly, the bones of her torso had grown odd. She maintained the same outwards shape, but her skeleton was from what she could see quite different. Overlapping vertebrae, a web of cartilage between her thirty ribs and things like that. But whenever she tried to run nanite scans, they all showed that she was perfectly normal. It was perplexing to say the least.

She was just as flexible now as before, but her computer simulations all indicated that her chest was practically armor-plated inside. Morven knew without a doubt that she was different, yet all the advanced technology she could access claimed otherwise. Only her own, jury-rigged scanner showed anything even remotely out of the ordinary, for humans that is. The abnormal growth within her body showed up on the scanner as very natural-looking. The only difference was that it did not match human biological patterns. So long as the nanites claimed nothing was wrong, she saw no reason to have it checked up further at a medical center. The nanites would have found anything life-threatening, so since they did not find any, she figured it was nothing to worry about.

For some reason, perhaps due to a subconscious impulse or somesuch, she had decided that she did not want anyone to realize her changes. She knew deep down that she was no longer truly human, but she also knew that several governmental programs would find her very interesting to study. Too interesting for her comfort. Other than her enhanced skeleton and her scaly, purple skin, she had not yet noted any differences that were worth mentioning it. She did find complex calculations to be considerably easier take in her head and she knew she was a bit stronger than before, but neither of those were major things. Computers still beat her on the topic of calculations and robotics could still lift far more than she could.

When she was dressed, as she usually was, nothing of her changes showed. Nothing that could not be found in normal humans. Though taller than many, she was not abnormally tall, and her weight was fairly normal. She was considerably leaner than most her weight, but she knew well that much of the extra weight came in the form of bone rather than flesh or fat. Seven years after she had first noted the changes, she thought she was more or less finished with them. At least nothing had changed overtly recently. Her hands, feet and head remained human, but essentially every other part of her body had been covered in purple scales. Her bones had strengthened, in some ways partially overlapping in the joints, and her rib cage was a flexible, but solid cage of bone and cartilage. She was somewhat scrawny, but not so thin as to look unhealthy. She had by this time adopted a wardrobe solely of clothes that ensured none of her changes were visible.

Shortly before she chose to join one of the Extragalactic Explorer Crews, her family had started pressuring her to join a breeding program. Apparently her parents wanted grandchildren. Morven had no interest in children at the time, so she looked for ways to avoid just that. Besides, joining a breeding program would mean that someone else would see her changes, and that she could not allow. Also, some part of her biology informed her that it was not time to reproduce. It soon became apparent that joining an EEC was the only viable solution to get out of participating in the mandatory breeding programs. Thus, that is what she chose to do.

Name: Morven Buchanan
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Height: 168 cm
Weight: 63 kg
Eye color: Pale lavender
Hair color: Brown
Skin color: hands, feet & head is pale northern European, rest is slick purple and scaled.
Blood Type: E, nanite minimal. Her blood is distinctly inhuman, but scanners not calibrated to detect such (which is pretty much all scanners) will detect it as AB+ (universal recipient)
Bodily modifications: She has no technological upgrades/implants of note, but her biological changes can to a large degree be defined as modifications. Most known vulnerable points in the human body are better protected, either by bone, cartilage or scales, or a mix of these. Her internal organs function better than those organs do for humans. Not much better, but a little.

Clothes: Morven dresses in clothes that conceal her skin, but mold her body well, permitting freedom of movement. Sometimes uniforms, other times jumpsuits or similar. With her changes, she doesn't like displaying her bare arms or legs.
Occupation: Exoplanet explorer/surveyor.

Thoughts:
Thinking that she has exerted some subconscious control on whatever caused the mutation to prevent changes to visible limbs and parts of body. In time, that resistance may be worn down and the changes to her body could perhaps complete. The exact nature of her changes is a bit vague.

World of Darkness (Boston)

We made a list the other day too, Noxious... Not as clean or detailed, though.