The Horizon
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The sound of pen hitting table was a sound that Sandra Morrison had grown far too accustomed to over the last year. Day after day, the young woman had spent nearly every waking hour poring over paperwork. Physical documentation, digital spreadsheets, and anything in between—every piece to be checked over and signed off on, in her name. If she had been born half a decade earlier, she could have brushed this off as the result of sleepless nights working on college papers...
And, in all honesty, she wished it was only that much.
Deciding to take a break from whatever was troubling her at the moment, Sandra decided to peer out through the window of her office, the midday sun shining through, and stared at the world below.
The walled city of Tokyo, sectioned off from the rest of the land by wall after wall—and her destination for the day. With the development of the Chi-Mechframes complete, the personnel she had picked up to begin with could finally begin training.
With the world overtaken by the Warped, something like this was the least she could try doing to help right the world. Part of a government agency she was not, but maybe that was for the best.
The Warped
The Warped had first appeared roughly five years ago; experts have since managed to pinpoint the epicenter of the incident to █████████, Greece, though none have been brave (or stupid) enough to travel to the now-infested lands to confirm such hypotheses. Their explosive propagation throughout the country soon bled into other nations, and try as they might to stem the flow, the Warped seemed unrelenting in their efforts to overtake humanity.
What is most notable about the Warped (other than their uncanny imperviousness to most modern military arms) is their method of reproduction. A small parasite, now colloquially known as 'Echidna', first enters the mouth of a human before subsequently burrowing into the back of its throat. From there, it connects to its now-host's brain and spinal cord before forcing the body to mutate into the monsters we see now. The forms that the Warped take seem to, at least in some part, align with animals, monsters from mythology, and other such mythical beings, though certain regions of the world seem more predisposed to to bringing forth Warped more familiar in form to those of a land's native fauna and folklore. There are no concrete theories yet, however, so it remains to be seen as to why the Warped appear as they do.
With that said, the Warped are still almost impossible to decipher as of yet, both in terms of physiology and behavior. Their bodies, for example, are several times larger and heavier than the humans that were used as hosts, and despite the military's best efforts, many of the larger and more dangerous variants seem to be incredibly resistant to damage from most modern weaponry—including nuclear armaments. Not only that, but they also seem to showcase many abilities in line with the forms of the creatures that they take, even going so far as to create trails of flame or freeze locales near-instantaneously. With that said, they do not seem to actively target flora or fauna for the most part, and instead seem to roam about certain regions or stay put altogether and only grow aggressive in the presence of humans, who they will often attack indiscriminately (or even go so far as to release Echidna in an attempt to spread further), which has left most humans reliant on living within enclosed settlements for safety. There are occasional attacks, of course, but it seems that the more aggressive creatures seem to not actively target larger settlements. Whether this is a trend that will hold remains to be seen.
I hope that these preliminary observations regarding the Warped will provide a general understanding to the populace of how they function, and that we may begin to take back our world.
The Journal of Dr. ████████
December 8, 20██
December 8, 20██
Cores and Chi-Mechframes
After three years of chaos and with humanity's backs against the wall, a coalition of scientists and engineers the world over gathered at once in Japan—the country furthest away from Ground Zero of the Warped—and began to work fervently in a concerted attempt to understand their enemy. Taking the corpses gathered of all manner of the dead, these scientists began to dissect these creatures and found one major thing in common with all of them—the presence of pulsating crystallized matter within their bodies. Their locations seemed inconsistent—some, the heart; others, the brain—but all seemed to have one. Tests were conducted upon these objects, and the results were often inconclusive.
Until eventually, one curious team of engineers was given the okay to experiment with one—with proper supervision, of course. The results of that week of experimentation was what is now known as the first Chi-Mechframe prototype—a biomechanical suit that seems to take on the powers of the Warped whose Core it holds. Preliminary tests showed that the concept had promise. Most notable, of course, was that these suits seemed to both ignore the inbuilt resistances of the Warped that held fast against bullets and flames, and that they seemed to be just as resilient as the creatures they were made to fight at times.
But such benefits were not without downsides. Most humans, even highly-trained soldiers, were incapable of utilizing the Chi-Mechframes, almost as if the suit itself was rejecting them. However, there was one among the initial testers who that restriction that did not seem to apply—a young soldier who had initially been wounded in the chest during a fight against the Warped two years prior, during which an Echidna had managed to enter his body through said wound. Though he had been quarantined and kept around as a test subject, the young man had since recovered and, having shown no immediate adverse side effects, was allowed to remain alive (though under constant supervision). To him, the suit seemed to move about nearly weightlessly, acting as an extension of his body (or so he described it). Combat trials began soon thereafter, and the results gave those in charge more than enough reason to invest into their further development.
Of course, the problems inherent in making more like the soldier—now known as the first Frame Pilot—and the dangers inherent in having people be willingly infected by Echidna were too high to allow for by most every nation. But those that did exist were highly sought after, by nation and otherwise.
In their current iterations, Chi-Mechframes are generally modeled after the Warped that they came from to some extent, in order to better make use of their capabilities. Due to how difficult high-quality Cores are to come by (as they only can be obtained from dangerous Warped who require heavy military investments to obtain), these pieces of equipment are often both custom-made and rather absurdly expensive. However, one minor upside to doing so is that even if rendered useless, Cores can be repurposed as an alternate power source and thus sold or used for whatever other purpose.
A World Ruined
The years following the outbreak of Warped were filled with chaos. The first was marred by politics and fear. In many nations the world over, martial law and lockdowns were put into place in attempts to restrain the populace, but when the Warped showed up all the same, all hell broke loose. The second brought with it a destruction of the norm; though many larger cities were able to clamp down on the situation and begin concentrated efforts to protect the people within, smaller ones soon saw mass exodus towards places they now saw as 'safe', often bringing with them the very same parasite that they sought to flee from.
Though there was untold loss of life, the third year brought with it some small relief. The worst, it seemed, had passed, and though many were left displaced, the initial wave that had wiped out or transformed so much of the population did not end humanity as many predicted it might have. Sequestered away within these spheres of civilization, those that remained continued to rebuild. Luckily, the arrival of the Warped did not bring with it the complete destruction of telecommunications, which meant that as a whole, humanity was fragmented but not broken. Thus began the efforts to reorganize, scattered as they were; with no nation left unscathed by the Warped, though, for the next few years their efforts would be placed firmly towards themselves and none other.
With whispers of the Chi-Mechframe's development upon the wind, however, the people were given a glimmer of hope—a possibility of the return to the days since gone. To what end that hope may bring remains to be seen, however...
Word from the GM
Hello! Yes, it is me, the GM, here to speak about the RP a bit. Fundamentally, this idea draws a lot from not just tokusatsu and mecha girl series (e.g. Rangers, Kamen Rider, Symphogear, Strike Witches, and so on and so forth), but also from series like Resident Evil, Fallout, and even Monster Hunter to some extent. Ideally, I'd like the cast to fit that sort of demographic (so characters anywhere from 16-25) in turn.
I'll also state here that my co-GM for this project will be @VitaVitaAR; if you have any questions about the setting or world or whatever else, please feel free to ask.
Here's a form for everyone who is interested. With that said, this RP will be first come first served, but under the caveat that I will likely be approving characters based on how well they would mesh with the group as a whole.
This is, in essence, a reboot of an old RP I ran a while ago. I got inspired to try again recently, and hopefully with the lessons I've taken away from the last run this one should go better... Provided there's enough people on board for it.
