Estylwen

Obsidian: Wyverns

Obsidian: Wyverns

"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it."
~Aung San Suu Kyi
Obsidian was a shining leader in technology and biochemical engineering. It was they who made massive developments in the international community, bringing ground-breaking technology to the world. They had strong ties with the American defense forces, outfitting the military with top-grade core manufacturing and weaponry. Obsidian was met with astounding success for years, but behind their big logos and sleek headquarters lay a sinister secret. Eventually it was their ultimate undoing. 

You see, beneath their headquarters was a massive underground facility that never existed on any of the floor plans. It was here they housed their most advanced weaponry -- their top secret, most classified information. If you knew even a sliver of what happened underground, Obsidian had agents authorized to kill you. They called them Operatives, and their creation was mostly a curse. Humans erased from all legal records were screened, rigorously trained and pushed to the limits, then given the Quartz serum. After that, the subjects that survived were no longer considered human. Obsidian did with their Operatives as they sought fit, reveling in their ultimate weapons. 

After running their new weapons through more training, Obsidian sent them out to fulfill their true goal. Organizations around the world would pay top coin for an elite bodyguard, assassinations, espionage, and volatile crowd control. The list was endless and ranged from mediocre to evil. Operatives had no say and little to no rights as Obsidian went as far as placing a micro kill switch in each of them. 

They had enough of this abuse. On a strategically planned day, all the Operatives banded together and sabotaged their underground facility. Despite all Obsidian's efforts to shut them down, the Operatives escaped just before the headquarters exploded in a bright plume of fire. The wreckage smoked and burned for hours despite firefighters trying their best to tame the flames. Obliterated in the explosion was all Obsidian's research, kill switch remotes and dampening collars. It would take many years to rediscover the Quartz serum to create new bio-weapons. 

The Operatives were free, and they blended into society as quietly as they could. Obsidian's secret got out and the company was disbanded permanently, and a manhunt was called for all the Operatives. Somehow the world saw their explosive escape as a big threat. Governments and secret agencies tried their hardest to track down, in their own words, 'super terrorists'. The world knew about the super humans living among them, and people quickly grew fearful. In their fear the media had full sway on them, shaping society's opinion of these evil terrorists into something truly terrifying. 

Living in extreme fear of being found out, the Operatives went their separate ways into hiding. Society would literally rip them apart if they only knew, and heaven's knew what the government would do to them. Quietly, they waited for the fear around them to abate, both externally and within. Two years passed with little to no activity related to the super terrorists. Two moderately peaceful years.

Then shit hit the fan, again. 

***

Obsidian: Wyverns is the sequel to the previous Obsidian roleplay and takes place a couple years after the destruction of their headquarters. The entire world knows about genetically enhanced Operatives, and many shady organizations would go to extreme lengths to get their hands on one. This roleplay will have a balance of high action and character interaction/development, both with each other and the environment. 

You will be playing as an Operative escapee from Obsidian who's been in hiding for the past two years. All Operatives are acquainted, or at least recognize each other. The open-world USA will react to your choices and give quick consequences. People will easily grow suspicious of you, making it easier for government agencies to find your door. If they catch you it's game over. For now, the general public is fearful of the 'super terrorists'. Throughout the story this fear may increase or decrease. 

What Exactly is an Operative?

Operatives were once human, but using an injection called Quartz they have become something much more advanced. Quartz, developed by scientists working for Obsidian, not only enhances a person's speed, reflexes, stamina and mental capacity, but allows the subject to harness unique powers that humans have only dreamt of. Our subjects are similar to the Superheroes portrayed in popular culture. However, they are far from heroes. Our subjects, called Operatives, are essentially hired guns of extremely high caliber. They will only save the world if someone is paying a exorbitant fee for them to do so. Obsidian accepts extremely wealthy clients on an international scale who have demands ranging from espionage to assassination. Operatives must possess a very flexible moral compass, as many of the missions they are assigned lay outside of the law.

Very few people meet the qualifications to undergo the procedure to become an Obsidian Operative:

Condition One: You must have nothing left in the world to lose. You must be desperate and alone. Becoming an operative means you must give up your entire life. Your identity will be erased and you will be assigned a code name. You will cease to exist in the outside world and thus you can never belong to it again. 

Condition Two: You must be deemed physically and mentally strong and between the ages of 18 and 34. The procedure requires that you have extreme strength of mind and body as the changes you undergo can be lethal to anyone unprepared.

Condition Three: This condition is more holistic and a careful study of the subject is required before they are deemed well suited to the procedure. In fact, once determining a potential subject, our Recruiters will track this person for a period of three month to determine whether or not they pass this condition. It is that you must be able to fit into a team dynamic and be able to succeed living the life of an operative. Though recruits have a variety of backgrounds, personalities and ideals, they must possess skills already suited to the kind of work they'll doing - something that can show itself in a variety of ways. Our recruiters have tracked people who are anything from hackers, physicians, soldiers, and even teenage prodigies. A wide range of recruits are pursued but you must display trainability and potential. Obsidian invests a lot of money into their operatives and their investment must promise a return.

If you are recruited by Obsidian it is because they recognized the above qualities in you and, intrigued and desperate, you agreed to the terms. If you rejected their offer, you would have been eliminated as you would then have possessed sensitive information. You will most likely begin your procedure in a large group of people. However, this group will eventually shrink to a much smaller sample. You are put through rigorous physical and mental tests to determine whether or not your body can handle Quartz. Once we determine that the probability of your survival is above 99.7%, you will undergo the procedure. If you survive, you will come to your senses to discover that your entire body has changed. You do not only possess advanced strength, stamina, durability and intelligence but you also possess a superpower. None of the scientists can predict how Quartz effects you as it has different results on different people. However, brain scans have shown that these powers are often related to subjects' varying personalities and strengths. A subject with an extremely volatile nature, might be able to produce flames from their hands while an extremely perceptive subject may find themselves hearing the thoughts of others. 

Of course, how could Obsidian control an Operative with such advanced abilities? A Kill Switch (On documents it was called the Kill Switch Protocol, or KSP). Each injection of Quartz contains a microchip that, if activated, would promptly stop your heart. Also, for certain subjects, a dampening collar will be used to stifle the effects of Quartz, returning their stats to that of a normal human. 

Credit to Dmytra.

Important NPC

These are characters essential to the story and have a designated player to play them.

Laraxis Valco

Rules:

You must refer to yourself and other Operatives with your respective codenames.

This roleplay is less about abilities and more about being the pawns of a political power struggle (oops, giving the story away), so be creative without going overboard. Aka Mary Sue-ing.

I will also mention that although rules of science can be bent, all powers must make some form of sense.

We're in Advanced, but I just want to stress the importance of Character Flaw and Development. 

Don't be afraid of character death as it brings a unique aspect to roleplaying. You can always make another Operative.

Feel free to give suggestions and ideas. Most of all, you must have fun and enjoy the story with me. This one is not optional. :)

All character submissions must be posted to the OW Character Deposit, NOT the OOC. Reviews of your submission, however, will be posted in the OOC.

Character Skeleton:

Spoiler

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Codename:

Power:

Appearance:

Personality:

Strengths and Weaknesses:

History:

Other:

Accepted Characters:

Estylwen (GM)

Citrine

Jazzy (Co-GM)

Hannibal

Apokalipse

Arsenic

Drewccapp

Cheshire

Korbanjaro

Alter

The Roman07

Rook

Lydyn

Eidyia

Psychomachy

Ghost

---

Credit to Dmytra and his original idea of Obsidian.

Obsidian: Wyverns Character Deposit

Interest Check

Original OOC by Dmytra

Academy 218 - Superhuman School (Always open)

I know. Surprise me. >w>

Academy 218 - Superhuman School (Always open)

@Allen:
FYI, Aislin will backpedal and drop the 'Headmaster' thing if Luis gets pissed. She still wants to meet the blue lady, and values her own life, hehe. 

Academy 218 - Superhuman School (Always open)

"The school is filled with monsters in sheep's clothing, I've certainly had a chance to truly die." Aislin replied. "Yet here we are."

She couldn't figure out his game. Was he merely playing with her? Passing simple banter before his true motives showed? He wasn't spilling any secrets just from her asking questions, obviously she needed to turn up the heat. But there was still the fact that her legs screamed for her to run, the fear gripping her chest was very real. Was it wise to antagonize a devil? 

Cursing herself for coming down into the depths of hell alone, Aislin asked herself: Am I willing to die alone here? To risk it all for a couple answers?

"... What are you going to do when you find her?" His wicked laugh sent chills down her spine. 

The words jumped on her tongue. Beat her into the ground for scaring the shit out of Jaska. But he sounded like he knew the lady Aislin was looking for, he probably wouldn't appreciate that. She couldn't harm someone in spite, anyway. 

In one last effort, Ailsin clicked her lighter. A flame came to life -- Finally! -- which pushed back the darkness. They were both revealed in the dim light, Aislin caked in mud and shredded clothes, the stranger in perfect attire. Tapping into her power, Aislin blew on the flame like a bubble wand, creating little candlelights to float a few feet around her. They didn't get close to the stranger, she wasn't attacking. The light expanded, flickering shadows along the cavern's stone walls. Being in the light gave Aislin a (false) sense of security, and this reflected in the tone of her voice. 

"I have a few questions for her. And I'm sure the Headmaster does too since she's trespassing on the island and causing a disturbance among students, which could be considered a criminal offense." She said in a thinly veiled threat to his friend. Maybe if he felt indirectly threatened he'd spill some secrets. Like who they were, why they were there. 

Obsidian: Wyverns [Character Deposit]

Citrine

[ Katherina Ady | 22 | Female ]

Codename: Citrine 

Power:

-- Causality Vision:

"The ability to perceive and understand all cause and effect relations." ~SuperpowerWiki. The user is able to see several steps into alternate futures depending on what actions are taken. They are able to know what's goings to take place seconds before it happens, and can take the best course of action since they already know all the effects of a cause.

In combat Citrine can adapt to all variables before they even appear. This makes her ability in a fight almost flawless since her efficiency in offense, defense and strategy is at its highest level. If there is slightest chance for success, she can make the correct steps to get there. 

Citrine's vision is constantly filled with translucent golden paths/shapes that objects and people in real-time eventually catch up to. She takes great satisfaction in knowing what will happen, and what could have happened in the next twenty seconds. She likes to think the other possibilities she sees happen in parallel universes. 

Limits: Citrine's ability is vision-only. A blindfold would nullify it. She can constantly see up twenty seconds ahead of her of all possibilities, but nothing more and nothing less. She certainly can't predict the future, and she can't manipulate luck. If there is zero chance for the desired effect to happen, then she won't get it.

-- Empathy:

The ability to sense emotions and temperament within other people or animals. In Citrine's case, not only can she feel these things, she knows the exact location this emotional broadcasting is coming from, and she can pinpoint living emotions around her like dots on a radar. 

Due to her curiosity, Citrine tends to turn this ability on and off repeatedly to 'read' one person here, one person there. That way it doesn't take up too much energy. In combat she'll try to have this ability on high for the most part as its excellent for pin-pointing locations of enemies.

Limits: She can sense only as long is she's aware. It takes energy to to be so emotionally receptive to feeling those around her, so she can turn it off at will (by not thinking about it.) She can keep it up for hours if she wants, but the mental downswing after can be quite the headache. The radius of how far she can feel can be anywhere between 10 to 32 feet. 

Personality: She likes cat videos. If you were that kind of person she'd give you that wink, as if she knew you were in on the guilty pleasure too. Citrine's personality flows like water, always in harmony with conversation. Her disposition is naturally good-natured, and she's often charming with a hint of humor. She's a curious old soul who enjoys talking about her ex-con adventures, and jokes she'd get back into the biz in a heartbeat. Her ability to see cause and effects has increased her tendency to ponder, and she enjoys sharing her ideas. She's incredibly open-minded. Although she shows genuine emotion, she does not attach herself to people, likely an old habit from conning. Sometimes her own apathy worries her. 

Strengths and Weaknesses: Her speech and persuasive skills are very enchanting, and she knows how to read a person's body language. Her powers compliment these as she uses them to be confident of her situation at all times. She's curious, she picks up on things quickly and considers her eyes her largest asset. She can pinpoint the location of emotions in people around her. 

Becoming a slight insomniac after the Procedure, Citrine has a developing fear of closing her eyes at night. Sometimes she struggles for hours trying to fall asleep, and is occasionally sleep-deprived. Her distaste of dampening collars edges on a quiet fear, even though she's never worn one. She's also consistently aware of the microchip kill switch floating around inside her veins, and she stresses on her clashing philosophies with giving someone the remote to extinguishing her life. 

History: Growing up into a family of con artists, it was encouraged of her at a young age to be perceptive of people. Her father said it wasn't what came out of their mouth, but what their eyes, their hands, and everything non-verbal said. That was the stuff you had to see in order to gain your target's trust. 

As she gained experience and grew up some, her morals began conflicting with the business. She knew what their family did was wrong, but it was the one thing that brought them together and she considered them too important to leave. So, over time she started ignoring that nag inside her, until it was no longer there and she could clinically detach herself from her target. 

Several years ago Citrine and her brother devised a glorious plan that scammed hundreds of people out their investments in a phony marketing business. But after they withdrew the millions of dollars and drove to a safe house, Citrine found herself at gunpoint. 

"I won't kill you," said her brother. "But consider this the end of our dealings. Put your share down slowly, and walk away."

Hurt with feelings of betrayal, Citrine left. The money didn't mean much to her, but family did. At that point in her life she wasn't in contact with her father, mother, and now her greedy brother didn't want anything to do with her. He even took it a step further and pointed the police in her direction in an effort to get them off his back. 

Ever since then she was on the run, doing little street cons here and there to pay for cheap rent. That's around the time the Recruiters approached her. She didn't like the agreement, but she had no direction in her life and thought, "What the hell. Might be fun."

After she helped blow up Obsidian and realized the world thought them as terrorists, Citrine bunked down in Portland, Oregon. She couldn't risk going out and doing street cons, so she got a legitimate job. For two years she made minimum wage at a cafe, keeping her nose clean and occasionally changing her address. The government and their agencies have yet to discover her hiding spots. 

Other: Her weapon of choice is a sword and a glock, at least most of the time. She picked up on the training quickly once she had her eyes. 

It's due to her golden-laced vision that she chose the codename Citrine, (and the fact Citrine's a quartz.) The sudden beauty of seeing more around her in such an artful way really stuck with her. Citrine doesn't believe she she could ever give this ability up, and just thinking about seeing in plain, unyielding vision again gives her the chills. 

Obsidian: Wyverns [Character Deposit]

Files on the superhuman Operatives, and their adversary.

Obsidian: Wyverns OOC

Obsidian: Wyverns

I'm glad to see this has cultivated some good interest! :)

Thanks, Rhymer. I would say a small group is left, maybe 15 or so individuals scattered throughout the US. They are leaderless. On top of Quartz giving Operatives superior senses, it develops a super power that's related to that subject's disposition. Ex: A perceptive personality may start hearing others' thoughts. Nothing too OP like spacetime-ripping, however. You may take a look at the many CSes previously made in the original Obsidian's OOC for inspiration.

Academy 218 - Superhuman School (Always open)

Luis

As the tunnels sank deeper into the earth, Aislin regretted not bringing a flashlight. When she could barely see her own hand in front of her face, she remembered the lighter in her pocket. Pulling it out with hasty fingers -- This darkness is giving me major creeps -- she clicked it several times in an attempt for some light. Sparks flew, but no matter her perseverance a flame would not take hold. A moment of dread filled her as she realized she was stuck traveling through perpetual darkness. 

"Ah, fuck." She cursed bitterly, resigned to carefully inch her way through the dark caves. It didn't help that her paranoia only increased. Something was dreadfully wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. 

"... Whatcha' yellin' about, sweetheart?"

A voice cracked the silence, startling her. The sound of a lighter clicked, and a small light illuminated the cave not a stone's throw from her. He was devilishly good-looking, sitting on a boulder with his cigarette. Tall, built, curly dark hair. But his aura spoke a pungent evil as if he were a wolf in sheep's clothing. This stranger's very presence demanded fear, and Aislin froze up. Shit, shit, shit...

The caves plunged into darkness once more, the cherried end of his cigarette the only light to follow. His footsteps ominously echoed off the cave walls as she watched the light make a full circle around her. She didn't dare expose her back, slowly spinning to face the light as he spoke. Her limbs wouldn't stop trembling, and she clenched her fists at her sides. Nothing, however, could hide her terror. 

She summoned whatever confidence she could. "I have stared down the gaping maw of Death today, you don't scare me." Her voice cracked, betraying herself. 

They faced each other in the darkness. Even if she couldn't see his eyes, she could feel his lethal gaze. Her heart thudded in her ears. How did he find me? She thought, wondering what a scary stranger in the depths of a cave could possibly want. She knew her own goal, finding adventure and possibly a blue lady. So, if he was gonna kill her, at least it would be exciting. She was never the type to die peacefully in a nursing home anyway. 

She struck the flint of her lighter again. Only sparks. "Goddammit."

Holding the lighter in her palm to warm the piece of crap, Aislin asked the near-tangible darkness a question. "I'm looking for a blue-skinned woman, you wouldn't have happened to have seen her, would you?" She frowned. "And... You're not from 218. Why are you here?" 

Academy 218 - Superhuman School (Always open)

Shit, there are monsters in the dark. D:

Elementals: Void Assault

Sync, I think you're the first to mention you may hold something against Cora for the shit she pulled. Nicely done. ;)