[OOC] The Antidote [inactive]

As of writing this, it as been four weeks since the last IC post. I unfortunately must officially declare The Antidote to be inactive.

[Quote5]

After a bit of haphazard planning, I am ready to present to you my first attempt at a roleplay....

The Antidote

Most of the player characters in The Antidote will primarily be crew members of a military spaceship called the RES Aurora, trying to search for antidote for the deadly poison Dhetsotin . Although I have heard talk amongst potential players of stowaway and the such, so throw out your ideas!

((Note, if you are wondering about the conflicting party size tags, I originally wanted to make this a small group, but a fair amount of people were interested in joining, so I opened it up some.))

---

The Plot

I'll elaborate on this when I start the IC post, but here is what ya need to know so far:

The general plot

A few days ago in the Empire of The Third Star (or simply Third Star for short), there was an attempted coup: a group of rebels tried to poison the Royal Cyria family. The Coup failed for several reason and the rebels were but taken prisoner, but there is a single, major complication: The youngest member of the Royal Family, Princess Fara Cyria, was in fact poisoned. The poison she got, Dhetsotin, is incredibly deadly, and will paralyze her diaphragm and burn various digestive organs from the inside out in a week if not cured. And is as hard to cure as it is to find. There is no doses of the antidote within Third Star territory, and the nearest hospital with any of the antidote in stock is halfway across the galaxy, luckily located inside of a faction the Third Star has a loose alliance with.

The Royal Escort Ship Aurora and it's crew has been tasked with getting Princess Fara to the hospital and back. Fara will have about a week of consciousness before the poison will start to set in, at which point she'll have to be put into suspended animation. The suspended animation will keep the poison from killing her, but she can only stay in it a month before her body will start to atrophy. Before she starts to atrophy, her survival will be all but guaranteed as long as she can get the medicine in time. After that point, the probability of her dying will increase by 10% every day until the 10th day, in which she'll die inside the Suspended animation pod.

To make things more complicated, there will be other threats along the way. Space pirates, political enemies, mercenaries hired by political enemies, and possibly the occasional cosmic abomination will get in the way. Plus, while getting to the hospital is the most time-sensitive part of the journey, getting BACK to the Third Star Capital will provide its own issues.

Map of the galaxy

Map of the RES Aurora

---

Other important story information

Some Lore and Technological state

The Empire of the Third Star is primarily occupied by humans and half-human hybrids, but humans don't even have a majority, making up just under 50% of the population. Faster-than light travel is something that has existed for quite a while, and it's not particularly difficult at this point. However, the hospital is halfway across the galaxy. Even if it's a smaller galaxy, it's going to take some time to get there. (for reference, the Milky Way is one-hundred thousand lighlears in diamator, so halfway across it would be about fifty-thousand Light Years. This is what many people would consider a very long distance.)

As for the state of robotics, AIs have become quite advance, but truly sentient AIs are few and far between, as few people have that technology. The Third Star's AI's can reach human-level intelligence, but not propper free will. (Asimov's three laws of robotics, found here for those who aren't familiar with them, are a good guideline for the limit's of the average robot's will, just substitute "human being" with "intelligent lifeform".) There are robots with true free will, but none of them life in Third Star Territory.

Magic does exist in this world, but it's not widespread at all, being almost more of a legend amongst human-settled areas such as The Third Star. The art of magic has been lost for centuries, so the only sources of magic are entities that are inherently magical, and such entities are rare. For anyone wondering about the nature of what magic does exist... imagen something somewhere between Star Wars Force and Harry Potter Magic, leaning towards The Force.

More will be added if/when necessary.

The Crew of the Aurora

Important slots that aren't taken will be occupied by NPCs. Also, this is just the formal crew, there will be passengers. Princess Fara herself counts as a passenger, and there may or may not be some other passengers that were not planned.

Characters can have other important roles on the ship, these are just the ones I specified

Captain: Commander Vossler, played by me, Quote5.
First Mate: Delu Shaim, played by Candy.
Pilot: Not taken, roll might be taken by Vossler if nobody else takes the roll.
Head Medic: Corra, played by Restless
Assistant Medic: Rizavi Raspitan, played by Furfox
Head Engineer: Not Taken.
Other Crew members:
Devin (Shipmate) & Lt. Johansen (Guard I suppose, possible translator), The Unknowable;
Palmerston (Janitor), Dino.

---

Rules and standards

Roleplaying

• Have commitment. I don't want people dropping out in a post or three. I get it, sometimes life happens and one has to go on hiatus, straight-up drop out, or just simply make a post late. If something happens, please talk to me about it beforehand so we can figure out how to handle it.
• I expect players to respond within a week of the latest GM post. Likewise, I will expect myself to respond within a week of everyone's post, preferably shorter.
• Have proper grammar, or at least legible grammer. I want proper spelling as well, but I will not hold this standard as high because I myself would not be able to keep it. I have barely passable spelling and I make a LOT of typos.
• I expect a 2 to 3 paragraphs. Writing a novel is not necessary, but longer posts are welcome as long as you can handle it well. On the other hand, I understand that sometimes it's hard just to get a single paragraph out, but please at LEAST have a single paragraph.
• Respect other players. Don't assume you know what a character that is not your own is going to do, and DEFINITELY do not control a character that is not your own.
• Keep me (and to an extent, other players) as informed as possible. Good communication is vital for keeping a RP alive, right?
• No 18+ Material. This is probably going to be a dark role play and so I am fine with mature elements such as violence, heavy emotions, and other complexe topics. But gore is pushing it and blatant sexual themes are an absolute no.
• And finally, hold me accountable. These rules, both for Roleplay and Character Creation, apply to me as much as they apply to other people, and I want to make as few exceptions to that as possible. If I break my own rules, call me out! We might not see eye to eye, but if there is an issue, we should at least try to fix it.

Character Creation

• Players are limited to two characters, both of which must have GM approval. (although they can get approval separately, however unlikely that is.) I don't expect most players to fill both character sheets, that's just how many major characters I will have.
• The obligatory "no OP characters" rule. Characters should are either human, or something as powerful as a human. Your character should not have abilities or items they don't have a logical, realistic reason to have.
• If you are playing as species that hasn't been previously established, explain what they are like. I don't want any species inherently better than humans, so for every way something is better than a human, they must have some downside to balance it out.
• Building on the previous point, Playing as someone else's established species is technically allowed, just as long as you get permission from that player.
• This is primarily a military ship we are dealing with. Non-militants are allowed (such as Fara), but they need a reason to be there.
• I don't really want any romance with Princess Fara (she's 14 for gosh's sake), but since I'm pretty sure someone will want to romance Princess Fara, (she's a princess, of course someone is going to want her to be romantically involved) I will allow attempts to romance her, as long as whatever character is within her age range. No pedophilia. That's creepy and I don't want to deal with it.
• Expanding upon that, you'll have to justify having such a young character on board.
• Further expanding upon that, no childhood friendships. If you must romance her, you have to either win her over within the week she is awake or the time after she is cured.
• If you want your character to have secrets that you want to hide from the rest of the players, PM me a complete copy of their character sheet and have the secretive version on here. Spontaneous abilities that I do not know about will be considered signs of an OP character.
• And finally, to prove that you at least read half the rules, include in every character sheet a statement that your character has declared their allegiance (or lack thereof) with the Empire of the Third Star.

Character Sheet

Name: (characters' full name, not including titles)
Title/ rank:
Common name: (How would your character introduce themselves formally?)
Species:
Species description: (If human or previously established species you got permission to use, skip this)
Age: (if not human, give equivalent age in human years)
Gender: (if applicable)
Appearance: (Pictures are nice, but not necessary)
Personality:
Skills:
Equipment:
Background: (optional but nice)
Other stuff: (anything that doesn't fit elsewhere. Optional, don't feel like you HAVE to use anything else)

[TheUnknowable]

Devin-01

Name: Devin (Devin Terrall if he's posing as a human)

Title/ rank: None (He is assigned to the ship, but is secondary to all sapient crew, starting with the noble family)

Common name: Devin

Species: Android

Species description: An artificial lifeform. While he was designed to mimic humans, including the ability to consume organic food and convert carbohydrates and proteins into electricity and excrete what's left, the fact that his brain is electronically based means that he can directly interface with computers. His internal power supply only lasts for 48 hours without recharge. His reaction time is only 10ms, as opposed to human times of 150 to 250ms, and he has superior hand eye coordination.
Other than the limited battery life, he is also limited by a modified version of the three laws of robotics:
1) He may not directly injure a sapient being or, through inaction, allow a sapient being under its protection to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given it by a sapient being that is superior to it in its chain of command, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Age: He was constructed at the Cyrian City University by Dr. Hymiah and given to the royal family as a gift upon the birth of their daughter Fara. He appears to be a human male in his mid twenties.

Gender: Anatomically male

Appearance:
5'8" tall, Brown hair and eyes, medium build. He was designed to look as average and nonthreatening as possible, even down to his mannerisms. He usually wears basic dress clothes befitting a servant of the royal family, though aboard a military ship he may wear a standard military uniform or even a dress uniform for special occasions.

Personality: Determined to aid those he is sworn to protect. He does occasionally like to correct people on their mistakes, but isn't too harsh about it, as human emotional upset could be seen as harm to them.

Skills: He was designed as a servant and tutor robot, but can apply much of his technical knowledge to real life. Skills he currently has loaded: Piloting, Mechanical Engineering, Physics

Equipment: He has a standard ionic stun pistol, for use in an emergency. It causes extreme pain to those targeted, but will only kill if the person is already near death.
Other than this, he has only what the ship has available.

Background: He was originally built to test a new prototype sentient AI brain, but when the tests showed a problem in its core design which caused rapid degradation, they had to go back to scratch. Dr. Hymiah managed to stabilize it, but much of its function was lost. The damaged sections were repaired by grafting a non-sentient military AI's behavior core into his brain, and his chain of command was designated as the royal family lineage.
He was loaded with technical data from the university and sent to the Royal Family as a gift from Dr. Hymiah, where he was meant to act as a tutor to their children. The fragments of his prototype brain allows him to understand psychology far better than most non-sentient AI, but appears to have no other benefit over a standard non-sentient military brain.
Even with that shortcoming, he declared his alliance to the Empire of the Third Sun, and to the royal family upon his transfer to them.

Other stuff: (anything that doesn't fit elsewhere. Optional, don't feel like you HAVE to use anything else)

[Quote5]

@TheUnknowable
Not bad so far, although in all honesty I can't properly judge your character until it's complete.

I'm assuming you did look at the rules?

[Squad 404]

Lord Commander Alexander Orlan.

Name: Alexander Orlan.

Title/ rank: Lord Commander.

Common name: Lord Alexander.

Species: Genetically modified super-human.

Species description: During a time of intense war the Empire of the Third Star selected a small portion of elite troops to undergo
dangerous biological modifications and become superhuman in nature. Alexander Orlan is one of the survivors of these modifications. In every sense, he is the peak of human potential.

Age: Alexander is approximately two hundred and sixteen years old. However, due to the extent of his biological modifications and extended use of cryosleep and other forms of suspended animation, Alexander appears no older than twenty eight.

Gender: Male.

Appearance:

Image of appearance.

What the image does not convey is that Alexander is a giant among men. He stands at approximately ten feet tall and is built with more muscle than most humans can even dream of.

Personality: Alexander is generally quite reserved. He observes a situation and gathers as much information as realistically possible before he begins to act upon a fact-driven plan. More often than not Alexander is regarded as "Overly serious" and "Needs to relax" by many of his peers, but Alexander dismisses these critics with a shrug. When he is awake, Alexander has a task to do, and he will see to it that this task is done.

Skills: Alexander has been trained extensively in one thing: War. In that sense, Alexander is also good at one thing: War. When it comes to combat, Alexander is typically lacking. Alexander is capable of fighting on the front lines and using nearly any weapon from the Third Star armory, but in addition he is capable of maintaining and repairing his equipment, and also acting honorably in the face of an enemy. Alexander has learned though harsh battle that, if possible, battle should be avoided. If a passionate speech can avoid ten days of battle, then the passionate speech should prevail before the sword.

Equipment: Heavily customized powered armor, heavily customized greatsword (wielded as a one-hand longsword.) In addition Alexander has brought along a large shield for use with his sword when he sees fit. Along with that Alexander may instead choose to use a heavy rifle instead of his sword. Finally, it is possible for Alexander to requisition support and equipment from Third Star armories, but depending on the journey's current progress such a delivery may take some time.

Background: Most of Alexander's background is heavily classified, and the details that aren't are loaded with propaganda. To get a better sense of where Alexander came from you're better off just asking him specific questions.

Other stuff: "With the position and power granted to me by the standing government of Third Star, I do take a solemn oath to never betray the ruling family or their will."

Here you are. Hopefully everything is in order.

[TheUnknowable]

@Quote5I didn't read all of them yet. Just need a picture at this point, though, and it will be complete.

Edit: I think I've finished.

[Quote5]

@Valor
Oh... wow... that's one heck of a character. I guess I should have anticipated superhumans. But I suppose I didn't forbid something like that, so for the most part it's all good! I must ask though, did you read the character creation guidelines? Because something seems to be missing.

@TheUnknowable
Alright, I looked a bit closer at your character, and aside from his appearance description that is missing, he looks all good.

[TheUnknowable]

@Quote5ok, added a description,

[Argent]

Reporting in for duty. I'll get started on a CS when I finish my schoolwork for tonight

[Squad 404]

@Quote5 I fixed what was missing. It's been quite some time since someone's asked for that.

[Hokum]

@Quote5

Hey, Quote!

I'll present my Stowaway character sheet as soon as possible. Been a bit busy today, so I'll probably get it up tomorrow.

Looks like fun!

[Hokum]

Change of plans, looks like I found some time to write today. So here it is....

VICTOR

Victor

Species: Human. With Cybernetic Enhancements. Doesn’t like to be referred to as a Cyborg.

Age: Almost 15.

Gender: Male.

Description: From an outside perspective, Victor looks completely human. He stands just over 5’7” with a lean build, pale skin, short and unkempt black hair with shades of brown around the ears and nape, and just a few small scattered freckles on his cheeks. He is dressed in dark grey denim trousers, well-worn black ankle boots, and a dirty white T-shirt with brown leather jacket. The jacket is always open, since the zip broke some time ago.

Backstory

Victor was born severely disabled with deformities to his arms, legs, spinal column and left eye. From birth, he was virtually paralyzed from the neck down. Due to his extreme disability, his parents abandoned him to the Third Star Capital Hospital when he was still an infant, where he lived out his childhood in a hospital bed until he reached the age of 14. At that point, one of the medical scientists of the hospital proposed rebuilding Victor with cybernetics and, after several weeks of debate among hospital directors, it was decided that it was in everyone’s best interest to make Victor an active contributor to society. The necessary arrangements were made.

At the age of 14 and 6 months, the operation was underway. Victor’s arms, legs, spinal column and left eye were replaced by Cybernetics, while a computerized device, called a CR-1 (Cybernetic Regulator – 1) was implanted next to his heart to regulate and stabilize his Bio and Bionic systems. In addition, due to the stress that these extreme cybernetic additions would cause his natural functions, Victor’s remaining skeletal structure was also replaced with a newly developed alloy, while the natural ability for his biological systems to grow any further was permanently stunted. Despite having his bones, limbs and left eye replaced with artificial components, Victor’s brain and other major thoracic and abdominal organs remained human.

For the next few months Victor underwent a grueling process of rehabilitation that would ultimately help him learn to function by natural human standards. But alas, Victor took some time adjusting to his superior physical strength, and three weeks into his rehabilitation he accidentally killed one of the therapists in charge of his care. This incident created some obvious problems… and desperately panicked by the fact that the hospital directors ordered that he be captured and contained for further processing, Victor broke free from his ward and escaped the hospital.

Victor spent the next month or two living on the streets of the Capital, stealing food to survive and hiding in the shadows until he met a young girl by the name of Laika, another teenage runaway. Victor and Laika quickly became close friends, living and battling to stay alive by their wits and brawn on the streets of The Third Star Capital, until one day they heard of a way they might be able to escape that life forever….

---

To note: As Quote5 mentioned in the OP OOC, my character and another players characters (yet to post) will be stowaways on the ship. Also, Victor is a character fresh off the press and developed solely for this RP. I haven’t ironed out all the creases yet, so I feel a lot of Victor’s character growth and personality will likely take place as the RP develops along with him. If major changes are made to his character, things that effect the RP in any great way, I’ll be sure to let everyone know, especially the GM. And one last thing... Victor has not in any way declared his allegiance to The Empire of the Third Star.

[Quote5]

@Valor
All good, man. You can consider Alexander approved.

@TheUnknowable
Looks good, Devin is approved.

@Hokum
oooh, fancy sheet! Victor looks good so far, consider him approved!

[Quote5]

Alright, finally finished my own characters. I should (I do say should, things generally don't go as planned for me) have a map of the galaxy done tomorrow, and then I get make the first IC post. While the map of the Aurora is VERY high priority, I'm pretty sure it can wait until after I make the first IC post.

For those of you who have not finished a character sheet yet, that's fine. You still have a bit of time before the Aurora launches, and even after that we could still probably work something out just fine.

I'm really excited to get this started, and look forward to playing with you all!

[restless]

Eydis Corra

Name: Eydis Kuit Mhic Corra
Title/rank: Head Medic
Common name: Corra
Species: Human
Age: 23 years old
Gender: Female
Appearance: Eydris's appearance may strike the eyes of other characters due to her bright orange/red hair. They are paired with icy blue eyes and dozens of freckles. Thin scars that carry up her arms and onto her lower neck and shoulders are barely visible to the human eye. She stands at 5'9" and carries herself with dignity. She has a mesomorph physique, but is a bit more lean. Most important thing to note: Small hands and feet.

Hider

Personality: Temperament-Phlegmatic. Eydis gives the cold shoulder to almost anyone, especially towards androids and cyborgs (she tends to call them 'human impersonators'). She does warm up to a select few (including children and animals) and grows attached quickly. If brought to the situation, she will risk her life for anyone or anything, no matter who they may be. Eydis is slow at times and conversations tend to go over her head when they include mechanical or advanced technical knowledge. She doesn't like to speak often, but when she gets going it's hard to shut her up. Eydis is surprising a very organized individual and likes things being clean.
Skills: Eydis is actually talented in hand-to-hand combat, preferring bruises and broken ribs to plasma/laser burns. She has an extensive knowledge of medicine and is easily calm in tense situations. Eydis can make do with what her surroundings give her if necessary.
Equipment: Eydis usually carries a pulse rifle, slung over her shoulder most of the time. She also carries a six-inch knife, the sheath attached to her handy-dandy belt. Also on her belt are two pouches containing pain-killers, a cauterizing pen, and varies sorts of medical supplies. Stowed away in her chest pocket is a bronze medallion, attached to a thin brass chain.
Other: She has declared an allegiance with the Empire of the Third Star. Don't know how strong that allegiance is.

[TheUnknowable]

Kyle Johansen

Name: Kyle Johansen

Title/ rank: Lieutenant

Common name: Lt. Johansen

Species: Drocar/ human hybrid

Species description: 81% of his DNA is Reptilian. He has inner eyelids to protect against glare and salt water. His eyes can see into the infrared, so he is able to see heat signatures like an IR sensor. While a human starts experiencing hypoxia at 5000 ppm atmospheric CO2 content he is able to breath normally at up to 12000 ppm. He can also breath normally with 10% lower oxygen content in the air than humans require.
The Drocar DNA isn't perfectly compatible with the human segments, though, which has left him with an autoimmune disorder. He has to get monthly injections of immuno-nanites to prevent him from succumbing to disease, as it could be fatal.

Age: 17/ low 20s human equivalent

Gender: Male

Appearance:
He is only 5'2" tall and usually wears a military jumpsuit like the engineers.

Personality: He likes learning about other cultures and species. He's inquisitive and determined, but knows how to take a hint if you want him to leave you alone.

Skills: Linguistics (he has an extremely strong talent for this), Computers, electronic security, communications technology

Equipment: Nanotube weave armor, Dual type Ion pistol (can be set to stun to render people unconscious or kill to superheat the area where they are hit, severely injuring him)

Background: Two thousand years ago deep space scouts came across an almost ideal world in a trianary star system, the world which would eventually become the homeworld of the Empire of the Third Star. The CO2 levels were a bit high, the oxygen a bit low, and the planet a bit warm, but the planet already had native life on it, as well as the ruins of an alien settlement. The planet was terraformed to be inhabitable by humans in only a few decades and scientists quickly began studying the ruins, soon followed by colonists.

The study of the ruins was remarkably slow, however, as even with two thousands years of study the xenoarcheologists were unable to decipher the most common language in the ruins. One of those archeologists, Dr. Fredrick Johansen, had a radical plan, however. They had genetic samples of seven of the reptilian aliens who lived here, taken from their graves. He had a geneticist friend at Cyrian City University combine the DNA from multiple samples into a stable code, using Dr. Johansen's own DNA for the parts where they didn't have enough stable material, then grow the resulting being in an artificial womb. Dr. Johansen adopted the child as his son, naming him Kyle and educated him in xenoarcheology and the native beings as soon as he was able to begin school.

Kyle learned and grew more quickly than a human child and, at the age of eight, was able to decipher enough of the alien language that the archeologists could decipher the rest. The alien race's name, the Drocar, was taken from another race's language, as the Drocar written language is pictographic, not phenographic. Kyle learned to decrypt the Drocar datacrystals found in the ruins, discovering a talent for it, and, as he was no longer needed at the ruins, his father allowed him to join the military's Deep Space division. He hoped to find additional Drocar ruins or even a colony, though he knew that was unlikely.

He took his oath to the Empire of the Third Star and was assigned as communications officer aboard the RES Aurora.

Other stuff: Sometimes he has dreams of the planet the way it used to be, and the Drocar that used to live here. Very rarely these dreams don't just stay on this world, and switch to another rainforest world. The second world feels modern, somehow, and both types of dream feel entirely real, as if he was awake but in a different body.

[Quote5]

@restless
Doesn't look complete, but I guess that's what you said. Looks good so far, though.

@TheUnknowable
Looks good so far, He should be good to approve once he's done.

[Dartbored Fairy]

Laika exists now after a super-secret version with all info has been approved by Mr Quote

[Quote5]

I have a map of the galaxy now. Not a great map, but it will do. Since nobody is on the Aurora (except for maybe Devin) the map of the ship can wait a little. (I'll get it done as fast as possible but I do need to pace myself)

[Squad 404]

I've thought about it and I've found that this roleplay is actually not quite to my taste. Good luck and have fun.

[TheUnknowable]

@Quote5I think I finished my second character.

One thing I noticed, though. Yyu have two different names for the poison, Dhetsotin and Destin.