Teenager Space Odyssey [Anime themed]

[Steve42]

~ Kylion ~

Wallpaper Kylion.jpg


Heya folks and welcome to my original Role-play based on the not-so popular comic strip Kylion!

This is basically a story about a group of teenagers on a space adventure/space odyssey that takes them on a life-long journey into the unknown. It has somewhat of an Anime touch in my head, as I'm currently experiencing a dive into that field of interest. It'd be great if you share this interest, but you don't have to turn away from this RP if you don't. Since it is all in our heads, you are naturally free to imagine everything the way you like.
Since this is advanced, I'm expecting somewhat decent writers. No worries though, I'm a relaxed guy and RPing is above all supposed to be fun, so let's try and achieve that together shall we

The comic strip I mentioned is not required knowledge to participate in this. It's even better if you don't know it, for experience's sake

Now please follow me and enjoy the following introductory Prologue by letting your brain read it out to you in Morpheus’ calm and entrancing voice.

~ Prologue ~

Mars.jpg

At the dawn of the 25th century, humanity stands united in celebration as it proclaims its two hundred-year anniversary following the exodus from Earth. Leading an era of peace and prosperity that had lasted for nearly half a millenium, mankind had abandoned their dying planet two centuries ago and claimed Mars as their asylum and new home world.

Now, two hundred years after the exodus, humanity was about to take yet another step to immortalize their existence in the universe.
At this very moment, on the threshold to the turn of the century, fifty ships of the class ‘colony’ are docked on their launching pads, waiting to set off on their lifelong mission and answer one of mankind’s most burning question
‘Are we alone in the universe?’
Fitted with cutting edge technology and containing testaments of human greatness, the vessels are equipped with fusion reactors that will accelerate them to 0.4% the speed of light within the time of a month. At the heart of each ship are six pods containing the vessel’s most valuable cargo: six embryos growing and maturing into what were to be humanity’s messengers in deep space.
As the clock counting down the time to the entering of the New Year reaches 11:45 standardized Martian time, the sound of 16 billion people cheering accompanies the roaring of fifty powerful engines starting up. The very moment the clock hits the 00:00 mark, the ships leave beams of white steam behind them as they take off, exit orbit and untangle from a mass of vessels to the single entities they are.

As they separate and take course on their individual routes, programmed into the brain of each vessel, our eyes follow a single one of these hunks of metal flying off into deep space.
All alone in the vast emptiness of space, it sets off on its journey of a lifetime.

This is the story of Colony 27.

The Crew

One ship. Six people. Endless possibilities.

Kylion Crew.jpg

So I hope the Prologue made somewhat sense to you
Basically, the colony ship each contain pods/capsules that have our six characters inside them. When our story starts, they will exit this capsules and their adventure begins! A little more detail to the whole capsule thing later. Firstly, our crew:
Each of the six crew members on the Colony 27 has a specific role, assigned to them at the time of their birth and based on their genetic compatibility with that role. Since the idea of the expeditions is to find new life, they are primarily sort of a science team, but there's also other roles that'll need to be filled. By its very nature as a Colony ship, the ratio of male/female crew members is supposed to be 50/50. So we're going to need three males and three females. No saussage fest here

The image above is a picture of the original crew in the comic strip, so that you’ll get an idea were I’m coming from.

These are the roles I had in mind:

Captain:
The captain is the commander and leader of the group. Their role is to decide the direction of action the crew takes and what decisions to make in the various situations the expedition will encounter. As they are mainly a decision maker with no profound knowledge, they will frequently consult with members of the crew who are experts in their respective fields, taking their advice into account before deciding the further course of actions.

Medic:
Doctor and biologist.
The medic is responsible for the crew’s mental and physical well-being. They are primarily a doctor, but also work as psychiatrist in observing the groups stress levels. They are a skilled biologist and responsible for locating, analyzing and caching information about the local flora and fauna. As a doctor, they have the right to prescript medications or therapies as they see fit and every member of the crew, including the captain, is required to follow the medic’s judgment on medical matters.

Navigator:
Navigator and cartographer.
The navigator works closely together with the captain in working out plans, being responsible for the practical part. They map out new terrain and are responsible for providing analysations of the crew’s surroundings as well as finding safe paths and suitable campsites. As such, they will act as a scout if need be. They have large knowledge on geology, cartography and other fields that are necessary to provide them with the skills of reading their surroundings. On a larger scale, the Navigator creates detailed maps of both the planet the crew is on as well as the planet’s location in respect to mars and the Milky Way.

Serviceman:
Soldier and strategist.
The serviceman is the military backbone of the group. They are in charge of handling and distributing all available weapons on board. Being skilled in both martial arts and ranged combat, they are responsible for the safe keeping of the crew in the event of hostile situations. They work together with the engineer on machinery, being restricted to working solely in the advanced weaponry section.

Engineer:
Engineer and hardware specialist.
The engineer is in charge of all machinery on board the ship. They are the only one allowed to operate heavy machinery and have a profound knowledge on anything running on electricity and even mechanical instruments. In case something breaks, they’re the one to fix it. Equipped with vast knowledge on technology and engineering, they can both improvise and create templates for new constructs if need be. They share their work on advanced weaponry with the serviceman.

Communicator:
Diplomat and software specialist.
The communicator is the social backbone of the group. They are responsible for keeping up communication with mars and developing translator software to decode alien languages in the event of encounter. If the engineer is the ‘hardware’ type on board, the communicator is the one on the ‘software’ side, possessing large computing knowledge and being responsible for writing any new programs if need be. As a skilled diplomat they have the most say in how to take action when establishing contact with other sentient beings.

All the things about the different roles may sound very technical, but remember, the cast are teenagers who just stepped out into the world; emotional, irrational and maybe just a little bit unready for what they’re facing.
If you have any questions or further inquiries about any of the roles, feel free to ask!

What may await our merry crew in this oh so vast universe?

The Ship

Colony 27

colony 27.jpg

The Colony 27 is a state-of-the-art spaceship of the Colony generation and is equipped with a wide array of supplies and materials the crew will need to fulfill their individual tasks. As the Colony class ships are designed to host no more than 6 people, they are comparably small, reaching the size of about two single family houses. They are built to sustain life on board after the crew wakes from their growing process, containing separated rooms with distinct functions. The living quarters are similar to how they would be found in a normal house of the late 24th century

The brain of Colony 27 is an advanced supercomputer that is one of humanities first attempts at creating true AI. It functions as both steersman of the ship as well as being the one responsible for the physical and mental development of the crew. It feeds the six crew members in their pods a constant stream of information through nerve implants in their muscles and brains. Over the time it takes the kids to mature physically, it teaches them all about mankind, their mission, and what is otherwise considered to be general knowledge. It further provides each crew member with individual kinds of knowledge, tailoring the information stream to the role they will fulfill in the future.
Through stimulation of the children’s muscles, eyes, ears and other sensory organs, they are prevented from being weak or disorientated after waking.

While they are not truly awake inside their tanks, the AI gives the crew members a sense of self-awareness to prevent the shock of waking to an existence they didn’t know they were born into. The self-awareness the children experience is akin to a dream that they are guided through by another, greater consciousness, namely Colony 27. The children’s consciousnesses are linked to a degree, so they will have certain recognition of their fellow crew members by the time they wake. This doesn’t go much farther than “I recognize this person, they are my crew member in this or that role” though and still leaves a lot of potential for character development and relationship building.

The Story

The story is in stock, ready and rearing to go.
Basically, I have a red string in my head along of which I will gently usher you, taking your characters actions and decisions into account
I will say no more about it, throwing you into cold water completely on purpose.

Adventures, fellow storywriters! Aren’t they what we really want to experience because they lead us into the unknown?

Travelers, there is no path. Paths are made by walking.
– Antonio Machado

Character Skeleton

As usual with my RPs, it's quality over availability.
So if there's more interest than roles available, I'll chose not after the motto first come first serve, but after which CSs I thought most fitting for the RP.
Just a small warning in case that happens, though I always hope it doesn't Now, onwards to the Character Skeleton!


Read everything above? If you didn't, you might've missed something important
Re-checked or sure you read it all? Good, let's get started!

Name:
Who ya gonna call? No, I mean... What are they gonna call you?
Turbulent times during the exodus to mars, borders between the different human races have been blurred. Your character can be any race and thus have any name.
Gender:
Male or female?
Age:
They are all at the age of 17 at the time of their waking. It’s a plot element, you’ll see.
Role:
Which role do you want to fill?
Appearance:
Either post a picture (I prefer Anime-ish, but that’s up to you) or describe your characters physical appearance.
Remember, they’re all teenagers at the start of the story.
Personality:
What’s your character like? Keep it on a profound level for starters.
This RP is for a large part based on how the characters develop in the unique situation they’re in.
Also, they’ve never been awake before, so maybe they aren’t too sure about their own personality themselves yet either.

Rules and Regulations

Not what you were expecting?

There aren’t many rules I want to set up. I'd prefer not to be the strict kind of GM who has to solve squabbles and petty fights, and from what I've seen so far people here are remarkably mature. I'm not the most awesome writer myself, so I'm not likely to debunk every post that's not entirely up to standards. As long as we're having a good time together and get to see decently written posts, I'm cool

The cast are all teenagers just stepping out into the world on a grand adventure, so at least in the beginning I’d like to keep things not too mature. Sure there will be drama, danger and the occasional desperate situation; a space adventure would be really boring otherwise. But I’d like the general tone of the story to be kept non-mature at least for the first half of the story. It's an adventure above all. If romance presents itself, let it happen! I'd love to see that, but I don't mean to force it.
Some gore will occasionally take place; I have set up scenarios where it will be inevitable.

That's all for the rules. Wasn't so bad, was it now


Looking forward to having a great RP with everyone!

sci-fi anime city night girl sky [Compressed].jpg

[Frenetic Raptor]

This does look like a nice starting place to participate in a space adventure. Will begin locating a couple of pictures and creating two character sheets; one for each gender. I have no issues playing whichever gender is in higher demand to balance out the roles. Provided there is enough interest to fill all of the positions, of course.

[dreamshell]

I like this premise in theory. Consider me interested.

[Anath Cypher]

I've actually never seen any of the Kylion anime, but this seems interesting all the same. When I'm not watching Naruto and can actually read it more carefully, I'll start working out a CS. Though it still seems interesting at any rate.

[dreamshell]

Okay, maybe a stupid question, but should I assume Japanese-style names are the preference since this is anime-inspired?

[Steve42]

Okay, maybe a stupid question, but should I assume Japanese-style names are the preference since this is anime-inspired?

Naw, not necessarily. If it happens I don't mind, but generally you're free to create any kind of human you like. Nationalities have never really been an issue anymore after the exodus.

Admittetly, people from different ethnic backgrounds are almost always visiually indistinguishable from japanese people in most Anime, but they still are there^^

[Steve42]

Bump. Not many takers so far I see. Huh.