LegionPothIX

Rites Of Passage (a High Fantasy/Forgotten Realms Adventure)

@LegionPothIX
It looks mostly good but there are a few points I would like to change...

As you are clearly familiar with d&d I will say we are using AD&D 2nd Ed as the base with many many home brewed things thrown in to form it into its own story driven adventure.

@Astarael42

This character was originally designed as a PF character, and was quite challenging to "scale down" to 3.5e. I can't imagine scaling it down to AD&D, as every edition farther back you go, takes a piss out of magic. Especially since AD&D hates magic. Gary Gygax openly admitted to having a raging hate boner for the very concept of magic, and his Co-Author Dave Arneson had to fight tooth and nail just to get the few magical components that made it into D&D and AD&D.

If you're familiar with PF you might know how... generous it can be with class skills, since in that edition this character would have Trap Finder, Child of the Streets, Unlearned Flaw (Knowledge: Nobility), and Bandit. She'd also be a Human with Fey Magic and Focused Study Alternate Racial Traits. And, she'd have all of that before level 1.

The amount of skills per level she would get would still be fairly limited which means she wouldn't have ranks left for literally any other skill than the ones specified. No knowledge Arcana or Planes, no spellcraft or UMD, making her basically as described: a rogue who uses magic instead of precision dice, rather than having any semblance to what a spellcaster is thought to be.

The fact that none of that exists in 3.5e was a really difficult transition, and I don't know that I can, or should, play a AD&D based character since I've only played AD&D once.

1.) You have many skills that are not listed but according to your story related comments you possess and we are keeping close track of what people can do and what they try to do. As we progress we are watching what skills you develop to give you proficiencies in those things. At this point in the game you can add another 3 class skills and 2 life skills to your list to bring you in skill level along with the other players. I would suggest whatever weapon you prefer (or barehand fighting type) to be at least one of your class skills. Also it's a free skill but I need to know what language you speak.

I know this is an AD&D thing but I have literally no idea how it works, or how to implement it. The character was originally designed as a Blade Adept Arcanist but that doesn't exist in 3.5e, let alone AD&D, and so there's no reason for a caster to have a weapon. They have shit BAB (or god forbid THAC0) and all the important magic requires free hands for Somatic Components.

2.) If you are actually supposed to be a sorcerer your rogue skills will move to non-class skills (for now its fine considering your background) as you focus on your magical talents. You may find yourself leaning more towards roguishness too which would reverse this so at the moment I'd like to leave it vague as to what class you actually are developing (what you want to be when you grow up remains the same, kids always have dreams)...You have your character built in such a way that she might find herself evolving as the adventure progresses. I'd like to leave your class type listed as an "OR" until she gets a firmer grasp on herself.

I'm going to admit this sounds like an AD&D thing that doesn't actually make any sense to me. In 3.5e your class skills were admittedly tied to your class, but you didn't have to activly practice magic to "get gud" at magic. Magic was something you knew how to do. The more you explain this to me the less sense it makes and that's frustrating. Just from the OP and this followup I don't understand either character creation, or how that character creation is supposed to translate to roleplay.

The characters here seem like they're 1/10th of the person they'd actually be in the Forgotten Realms universe, and that's somehow intentional. The problem with that is this is a RP focused medium and you just can't cut out 90% of a character and call it good, when 60% of what's left is mechanics that don't directly translate to play (if you're keeping score you're left with 4% of the original).

Being a "class skill" doesn't mean shit if you RP it well. Being able to perform a certain skill only in a certain terrain doesn't make any sense, which is why it's been abandoned in every edition since. Being forced to choose between magic and skills is ridiculous, that's why casters have class skills. "Just because" is not a reason to be arbitrarily bad at something. When a character has a fixed amount of perks and chooses to be good at something, at the cost of not being good at something else (like the thing people expect you to be good at), they should be good at that thing. Even in AD&D you could have a stealthy wizard if you wanted one.

I don't mean to denigrate your game, I just don't think I can play in it for these myriad of reasons that required being stated.

Rites Of Passage (a High Fantasy/Forgotten Realms Adventure)

Name: 嵐は子 (Arashi ha Ko, or "Hako" for short)
Age: 13
Gender: F
Race: Halfling
Class Type: Rogue
Class Actual: Sorcerer (see below) (Level 0)


Brief Biography: Tell us where you came from and how you were raised.
Raised on the street--and presumably born in a gutter--Hako lost her mother to malnutrition and exposure when she was six years old, leaving her with more questions than answers about her origins. A daughter born to a convert of faith saw this Child of Storms uprooted from her nation of origins and sent with her mother to where there were battles to be fought and a war to win.

While her mother was once a paladin of Selûne, and friend of Mystra, the Time of Troubles shook her faith to the core. Like so many of the era she was left with no goddess to turn to, no temple to seek refuge in, and became yet another displaced war veteran. This would not be the life for her daughter, and the duo panhandled for money to send Hako to a wizarding academy. Unfortunately for 原墓 (Hara Haka) she no longer had the benefits of her faith to subside her as hunger set in. Being well trained in discipline she set her own physical needs aside to scrounge and scrimp and save the money required, which led to her untimely death.

Hako was unfortunately unable to initiate the wizard training they could scrape the money together to get. Since then Hako spent five more years on the streets, learning them and becoming one with them, before she could be capable of setting out on an adventure. Hako's unusual upbringing gave her an appreciation for skills she might not otherwise have if she were born into more amicable circumstances, and has become very proficient in both getting into, and out of, trouble because of this.

Though "just" a child, Hako is far from childish, as surviving life on the streets tends to strip away that luxury in short order. She can be brash and impulsive when looking out for herself, and she can also be curt when dealing with those uneducated in the true nature of the world. Aristocrats, government officials, and guards will gain no love from this rambunctious elementalist who knows how fickle the winds of fate can be. With nothing holding her down, and having completed what training she could, Hako decided to set out and see the world. To be carried where ever the four winds might take her.

Having learned many of the behaviors, and skills, of a rogue it should not come as a surprise that she behaves like one. Though lacking the armor training, and precision damage, this caster still prefers to strike from the shadows to shock her opponents. With no particular training for the disabling of traps, she tends to take a very goblin-esque approach to the problem, in that there's no problem a sufficient amount of exploding can not solve.

Due to the high cost of discipline, as taught by her mother (and her mother's god) it should come as no surprise that Hako rebelled against this catastrophic consequence in an attempt to draw out as much power inborn in her as she could. A slave to circumstance, and naturally gifted in the elements of air, Hako found her mongrel lineage was no stranger to indentured servitude. Pulling forth the Primal Elemental, and Orc bloodlines Hako relished in the power their arcana fed her, but could not dismiss the loving sacrifices of her mother so easily, and took the lesson of self-sacrifice to heart.

What you want to be when you grow up?
An Areomancer, and expert thief. While most sorcerers desire to be respected in the manner that wizards are, Hako has no time for that aristocratic nonsense. She is a child of the streets and that is where her future will take her.

Who is your mentor? N/A
These mean streets. Hako is a born cut-purse, and follows the traditions of the thief-acrobat rogue though not the class thereof. She's self taught in the ways of sleight of hand, hide/move-silently, and bluff. She substitutes elemental damage for precision damage, and pretends it's a sneak attack.

What person(s) of interest do you know where you are from? Who all do you have a relationship with?:
No one specific jumps to mind but in general fences and shopkeepers and all manner of traders of ill-repute. She may be known to local priests of Selûne or Mystra but does not rub elbows with them. She may also be known to local law enforcement as a petty criminal (a street urchin) but has no outstanding warrants. The kind relationship where they know she's doing something illegal but don't know either exactly what it is, or don't have proof enough for a Tyrian trial (which she would absolutely demand if arrested). All in all her brand of vagrancy is benethe the notice of larger cities, and not particularly illegal in smaller towns.

Equipment: As a child, you don’t have much aside from a few tools of your trade and perhaps some knickknacks that have special sentimental value. Nothing magical, those things must be earned.
Having only the clothes on her back, which are now rags from hard living, and a few empty purses cut from the wastes of others Hako has little in the way of actual possessions. With her cantrip requiring no material components to perform she spends her days instead trying to fill her belly rather than a rucksack. Any money she finds in her possession typically go to greasing the hands of a city's underbelly. Well, what's left after of course splurging on whatever food she can't steal.

Class Skills: (What skills do you possess? Can you play an instrument? Pick a lock? Remain hidden in the shadows? Can you swing a sword? Draw a bow? Perhaps you’re even studying the magical or divine arts and know a few basic cantrips that you can list? Most of the skills your mentor taught you should be listed and described here. Please limit yourself to no more than 4 skills [NOTE: each cantrip/spell/orison counts as one skill])

• Bluff
• Sleight of Hand
• Hide/Move Silently (commonly combined and referred to as stealth)
• Cantrip: Prestidigitation

The key to telling a good lie is not necessarily to have within it a kernel of truth. It's the same key as doing anything else well: giving yourself lots and lots of practice. In this regard getting direct answers out of her may prove more challenging than expected, and her life on the streets has taught her to blend lines between fact and fiction, as easily as she blends the line between "theirs" and "hers".

Hako is presently objectively awful at most other forms of direct confrontation skills however, and seeks to hone her latent natural talents to compensate. As a hobo going unnoticed was essential to survival, especially after collecting lightening another person's load. These romps through the city center don't always go well for Hako, and occasionally result in needing to make a quick get-away.

Life Skills: (What special things have you learned just growing up in general? In your day-to-day life? Can you read? What about write? Has your training as a blacksmith taught you how to repair metal equipment? Has farming taught you how to tend a garden or animals? Have you spent your life running from bullies so you’ve gotten very good at hiding? Maybe your mind is sharp and you can instantly recall names and faces after a single meeting? Your life and profession skills should be listed here. Please limit yourself to no more than 4 points of knowledge.

• Pass for Human - Hako has directly mixed lineage and a knack for pretending to be things she's not when the need arises, and so has learned to prey on the expectations of others, while exploiting her humanesque figure to misdirect and deceive.
• Life on the streets has taught Hako to assess not necessarily what things are worth, but rather what she can get for them, and who she can pawn them off on. As such she has a fairly accurate sense of what items are thought to have value, even if she doesn't value them herself, and knows how to spot and engage a fence as well as how to tell them apart from an undercover guard. (I'm counting this as two. Variants on appraise and knowledge respectively.)
• Being commonly engaged in illegal activity has taught Hako to be very mindful of her circumstances and the situations she finds herself in, thereby training her perception (spot/search).

Since it's not specified that Hako knows how to read or write, I'm just going to assume she doesn't know how to do either, and she will pretend (badly) if pressed on the matter. Literature is a gateway drug to Aristotelian aristocratic self-importance.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

Vital Statistics:

• Player Name: N/A - See Special Note (below)
• Character Name: Lt. Raquel Rorq
• Character Age: 47
• Character Gender: F
• Nationality: Martian Confederacy
• Race: French Anglo-Saxon
• Position:
  • Command PASS Coordinator (CPC)
  
  Also referred to as the Coordinator in Command (Engineering), or the Co-Chief Engineer [second only to Chief Engineer Calhound]

Reference Description:

Hider

A once lithe frame built up to withstand the rigors of military life. Rorq is a woman who has, until recently, aged with incredible grace. Her rigid disposition belies a stony interior, and her stern face has few lines from little emotional reinforcement (either positive, or negative). Her hard gait and oppressive gaze indicate the prescience of a life-long military officer, while her deep eyes reveal a tepid soul.

image

Background:
What history does your character have in this universe?
The colonization of Mars, and its status as a state, and various other sensitive subjects surrounded the upbringing of this native-born denizen. For many Mars was viewed as the a pioneering frontier despite being settled decades earlier. For the Rorq family this meant opportunity. Like many who worked the land that meant mining. For others, it meant military. For Raquel, it meant both.

Note: in SFC Calhound's opening post he made mention of her pending promotion review scheduled in three months time.

Historical Profile:

• Biography

  Like many humans of Lt. Rorq's mid-life years, she actually lived two distinct and separate lives. Lives of which one ended the day of the Citadel Station attack. As a product of the culture of "revolutionary settlers" it was Raquel's dream to help rebuild the planet, and expand its territorial control with the humane design and material processes that Earth's industrial revolution lacked.
  
  What separated her, even from a young age, was her commitment to everything that entailed. With a small crowd-sourced fund from her local community Raquel was able to return to Earth to attend university with the Nagasaki Conglomerate. With a dual major in both Geology, and Structural Engineering, she studied all the mechanical processes of humane design. Her time was well spent as the collective ten years of dual majorial studies resulted in her leaving the university with a Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degree in both fields.
  
  While most may attribute her success to some level of super human intelligence, Raquel Rorq herself attributes it to intense passion for the subject material, and drive to succeed to enrich the lives of her very-extended Martian family. Upon returning home she marched ever diligently into the ceaseless fray of the corporate cut-throat world of industrial mining and manufacturing where she was a paragon of the martian success story.
  
  A woman with passion and drive, who enjoyed her work, and the challenge it presented. The total package that no superior could deny, and no underling could resist, soon even found suitors falling under her sway. Despite the term being in the martian blood the word "settle" was nowhere in her own vocabulary, and while quickly married Raquel and her husband put off having children and starting a "proper" family until at least a minimal amount of their aspirations had been realized.
  
  After attaining a high-ranking position in the corporate world, both the wedded Rorqs were frequently sent on prestigious, and exotic assignments. Hers was a geological viability survey of Io, one of Jupiter's most interesting moons, while his was to Upgrade Citadel Station's manufacturing plants.
• Profession: Navy Command-Engineer

  Citadel Station changed everyone. All for the worse. Delusion was perhaps the greatest motivator of change. The delusion that Earth still had a chance. There is an implicit question regarding humane design that one tries not to ask themselves. Tries not to think about, nor nary entertain for a moment.
  
  "I work so hard to build things that harm nothing. How much damage could I do if I really tried?"
  
  Like so many others Raquel Rorq enlisted in the navy at an office formerly known as the Martian Malita Forces of her home province. With her extensive university training she was able to enlist in the officers program, and quickly addapted to the new rules of life on the corporate military ladder.
  
  Having wholly committed there was nothing she wasn't willing to do. No assignment to hard, nor task too outside her comfort zone, as to not find some way to tackle. Throughout her enlistment she gained a rather ruthless image she had no qualms about feeding, and no intent to dispel. She was the job as much as anyone could be and she be the damned best at it.
  
  Throughout her years of service she cross-trained in every field at her disposal at every opportunity. From this she gained a level of command accumen unprecedented for one of her rank and rose time and again into leadership roles. Though her reputation and stigma often followed her she was at times able to use it to motivate her men, and at others, quell descent in the ranks further inflaming her apparent cruel disposition.
• Special Projects: ASPECT

  Lt. Rorq is the type of person who excels in the on-paper assessment, and then puts the on-paper assessment to shame with live performance. That initial paper version of oneself in conjunction with a particular strength lead to the creation of the Advanced Shift Prioritization, Exchange, and Transfer system used to match employee personality to proposed sift trade color-coordinated by professional and personal synergy. The software also does a great deal to automate the transfer process to ensure highly qualified people are, at all possible times, working to the best of their ability with like-minded individuals.
  
  This technology, while developed for her own mining company, has been updated and implemented ark-wide and is one of the chief reasons Rorq was asked to join the Vitae. Every department on the ship utilizes Rorq's system, but the unassuming nature of the implementation of trademark, copyright, and patents render the casual observer unaware of ℝ, and its connection to Rorq.

Psychological Profile:

• Strengths

  • Overclocked Engineer
  • Material Science / Advanced Geology
  • Command Training

  
  
  Overclocked Engineer:
  While some engineers may specialize in the miracle worker legend of yore, studying total mastery of principles of design has proven more in line to Lt. Rorq's personality and style. While working with a system that is designed to perform the task at hand Lt. Rorq can push that system or machine well past its recommended safety limits and tolerances without incurring mechanical failure. A process she is so adept at she can identify the limits before she even begins to exceed them.
  
  This high level of efficiency, and responsiveness to a very demanding operator, often leaves lesser engineers in awe at the raw force of will that these systems bend to in order to accommodate her.
  
  This strength is directly responsible for her Cruel & Calculating weakness.
  
  Material Science / Advanced Geology
  The innate understanding of structure and materials makes all the difference in the world when designing a tool, or improving a machine. Much like the performance of a task is subjective to the operator, the raw nature of being is subjective to the builder. While her doctorate education in mineralogy, and life experience as a geo-scientist itself is impressive, in the context of engineering it allows Lt. Rorq to understand the nature of materials and their impact on design.
  
  While building, modifying, upgrading, replacing, or repairing machines Lt. Rorq can do so with far less materials than even the best engineer on the ship. This is something of a combination of her understand of design, and of efficiency, as the application of the science is within the context of the task that equipment is designed to perform.
  
  While they work perfectly within their recommended usage, many such modified devices fail to meet safety standards for any... secondary adaptation the Vitae's Chief of Engineering or other reckless engineers may have in mind for them.
  
  For her a tool is defined by its purpose and is designed to fulfill it.
  
  It is this mentality that is responsible for her Aged & Reputation Weakness.
  
  Command Training / Extensive Cross-Training
  While not the jack-of-all-trades the name implies, Lt. Rorq has a basic understanding of many diverse leadership styles, and disciples outside her own. The main take-away from this is her ability to motivate systems of people to the same effect that she does machines.
  
  While working with personnel under her direct command, and extended command by chain-of-command proxy, she can both drive their efficiency to near super-human levels by means of various coordination methods, to balancing inspiration and fear.
  
  Operations and departments under the management of Lt. Rorq do not suffer any ill-effect from being undermanned, as her machines require less to function well. Also, the members of her staff can be pushed to exceed their own limits during their performance, much the same way machines under her care can.
  
  This experience and longstanding tradition is directly responsible for her Career Officer weakness.
• Weaknesses

  • Cruel & Calculating
  • Aged & Reputation
  • Career Officer

  
  
  Cruel & Calculating
  A more apt personal description might be "efficient" and "thoughtful" but no one who interpets Lt. Rorq's nature through observance of her actions would see them that way. Lt. Rorq is a widow and has been hurt in a way, and a place, that she still can't really understand. While once sweet and friendly, life has been a bitter pill that has done little to temper her critical nature.
  
  The most noticeable aspect of this shift has been to observe how manipulative the lieutenant can be when pursuant to her goals, regardless of what those goals might be. When people, or machines, fail to meet her expectations she tends to be rather cutting with her lack of restraint when telling them just how they failed.
  
  Aged & Reputation:
  Less than a hundred years ago the mid forties were considered a woman's sexual prime. The last hurrah for the hoo-ha before the baby-factory shut its doors for good. That isn't the kind of age that afflicts the this particular engineer. Its the existential age of having two lives. Two careers. Of outlasting one's family while still having another fifty plus years to go.
  
  Like that of her age, Lt. Rorq's reputation is an equally mounting collection of minor things, and wild stories about a wounded animal seeking retribution. Most of them are untrue, and even the ones that are true tend to be grossly exaggerated. Its difficult for outsiders to get an accurate sense of just who Lieutenant Raquel Rorq is since she makes no effort to clear up these misconceptions about her. Her reputation is a tool to be used, but more often than not, she's cut by its dual blade.
  
  Career Officer:
  When one lives for their job they have difficulty functioning outside of it, or turning it off when they go home. As much as it is a calling, passion, or driving force it is also an excuse. More than that it has become a crutch by which she busies her mind to escape reality, or excuse herself from social gatherings. By assigning an arbitrarily higher level of importance to her job, than her personal life, she can escape all manner of unpleasant experiences through an easily understandable "out".
  
  While, on the other hand, Lt. Rorq might be a basket case for reasons related to her personal life, and history, this weakness of hers helps keep that crazy in check with a more noticeable brand. As a member of her own manipulable system her Career Officer drawback indicates that she is usually manipulating herself with her own Command Training.

Psychographic Profile:

• Totems/Personal Effects

  Few things adorn Raquel Rorq's cabin, the most notable of which is the rock garden that spans the entire surface area of the floor. Zen does not even begin to describe the nature of it, as each rock was hand selected by the mineralogist, and imbibed within it some special significance. On the wall a weathered note scrawled in crayon the following poem reads:
  
  

  Rock.

  You are a rock.

  Gray.

  You are gray.

  Like a rock.

  Which you are.

  Rock.

  
  
  Aside from the 'garden' within, many of the features and effects found within Rorq's home are dualistic in nature. Some are artifacts from her pre-war civilized life such as a large and luxurious bed, while others seem only to exist to haunt her with ghosts of the past; as to never forget what drives her forward. Citadel Station memorabilia adorn a small shrine wherein her husbands dog-tags are laid to rest. A shrine which is featured prominently in the first section of her quarters. A locale that is unmissable in her daily preparations for work.
• Motivations

  Despite her brutally ridged military life, and discipline, there is something for which her passion still burns like an ember at the bottom of a burned out campfire. While outside the confines of her job as an engineer, Rorq takes pleasure in simply geeking out over geology and geological processes.
• Aspirations

  Building a better life is a simple goal that never leaves one. For a time, that may appear as hurting those who oppose that goal, but it always comes down to the building. The building is what makes Rorq an engineer. She looks heavenword to find a new perfect planet, to build a new perfect civilization, away from the horrors of what humanity was and was subjected to.
• Doubts

  Much of what Rorq was is no longer who she is now. A shift so massive she considers it tectonic, and as a result reasonably fears any potential similar aftershocks associated with such shifts. However, as a "high-powered" cooperate, and military life person, these fears are hardly ever evident; if even motivational at all. They are existential concerns she often finds herself too busied by being a Carrier Officer to address.

Special Note:
While extremely detailed here, Lt. Rorq is for the use of anyone who wants proxy control of an engineer, while giving the Engineering department a permanent face and voice. An alternative voice to SFC Calhound who's player (me) may or may not always be available to interact with (due to intense scheduling). While her history and profile is incredibly detailed for an NPC, the intent behind that is to build some solid consensus about what this character is and does so that everyone who chooses to use her can have some standard of expectation as to how she will behave, and interact with their character.

She is a largely professional person, and it is unlikely that any player's character may know her personal side. But, that isn't to say she doesn't have one, and that it doesn't motivate her actions. Though that is not to say she can't be written outside of that environment, if one follows the general personality outlined here, which is in turn why such personality notes were mentioned.

Her expansion in this form is intended to encourage players to give some consideration to how all the characters are intertwined in one singular complex story by giving them direct control of an NPC with player-character levels of development.

Trivia: For those not in the know, Raquel Rorq is named after a specific miner: the Rorqual and was initially conceptualized as its personification within this universe.

Code Word

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

Edit: Pretend this is a flashback post as I didn't realize we jumped when I wrote it, and it doesn't directly affect anyone else's actions.

---

SFC Calhound

There was an eerie and unerring calm about the Chief of Engineering as he stepped back into the locale of his title's namesake. Humanity had officially come to an end--save but for a few hundred thousand individual souls--everything about his race had been washed away in a baptism of fire. Despite this he seemed almost at peace in the midst of the ensuing chaos being well orchestrated by his co-chief.

Humanity had been dying for a long time. Longer than the existence of the devastators was revealed, through one means or another, it had efficiently set itself upon a course of early extinction. Though gruesome, it brought with it a sense of finality to that which the singularity started. An end to the existential, and in all to many cases, very real suffering wrought by humanity's reaction to it. However it, being the devastator's destruction of Earth, also set the small remnants of humanity on the path of war and revenge. A restless path for any who walk it. And walk it they would.

Not wishing to interrupt his co-chief in the performance of her duties Xaith refrained at the door frame silently as he arrived. As the situation in engineering escalated, and the cyborg exploded out of engineering, dashing right past him with security hot on her trail, he could only look to Lt. Rorq for answers. The lieutenant whom was fuming when she shouted at the either over stressed, or under-intelligent civilian technician who had piped one of their co-workers.

"YOU!" she shouted, and all of engineering trembled before the fury for which hell hath nothing like, "SECURITY. NOW." To which the civilian technician dropped the pipe and proceeded to perform the walk of shame to the civil detainment cubicle and await the security lockouts before presenting himself for adjudication. "Everyone else listen up! We're in the middle of a goddamn space battle and I expect some fucking professionalism!"

The Chief watched the orchestration of the masses be excited with a level of precision--that he simply lacked the care to evolve--while the Lieutenant barked orders. "Push those shields to 120%. Compensate for the heat by re-routing coolant, and shunt power from the evacuated sectors of the Hub to boost the gain and confinement." Management and providing direction was what she was hired to do, and she did it well when there wasn't a distractions impeding the order she maintained. For the Sargent First Class it was all very tiring to watch, and he instead busied himself with more interesting things.

"Administrator..." the word was not spoken, but came through the Xaith's EEGARD heads up display trough a priority channel. "A development has occurred in the Ark's electro-spectral analysis of the ongoing combat." Xaith acknowledged the call with merely a glance in the direction of S.A.S.H.A.'s hail, and pushed the thought to her to proceed through electroencephalographic detection matrix. After a report was produced he understood just what 'development' meant. He did note the complexity of the armoring and structural design as shadowed in the wake of the kinetic, eletromagnetic, and atomic castoff patterns that dispersed from the impact; but couldn't readily identify the primary material it was made of. He had an expert metallurgist on staff whose panties would get wet just thinking about it.

When the Lieutenant finally reigned back in the chaos in her own house, did she notice the chief standing by, and did he take a moment of her time. "Rorq," Xaith called over in a surprisingly non-judgmental tone since the situation was hers to manage. "There's something you need to see." SFC Calhound said as he slid his glasses down his nose while Lt. Rorq leaned in for inspection. "That's impossible..." she said at the cross comparison to mineralogical and histologist examinations that Noah had run, at S.A.S.H.A.'s request, with Xaith's clearance codes.

"Obviously not," countered Xaith, who was in turn countered by Rorq, "We don't have time for this." The Sargent pulled rank as Chief Engineer. "You will make the time Lieutenant. Tensions are high, and even though we're in the middle of a battle, a majority of these systems run themselves, and now at peak efficiency thanks to your tireless dedication. I will take over engineering while you take this data to medical." To the lieutenant's exasperated protests Xaith realized what had just happened. "Your shift ended hours ago, and it's starting to show. Go home. This can wait 'till tomorrow."

In a huff, and with a puff, the big bad Rorq blew out of engineering. "Noah," Xaith said to the engineering's central imaging system, "Call up the errant signal detection grid in the corridors surrounding engineering and locate this aura." The term wasn't a technical one, but it wasn't unknown in the profession either. With the specifications inserted into the computer it identified the electromagnetic resonance frequencies associated with the various levels of modification. Of interest was the one of that cyborg.

While he was locked out of security systems for obvious reasons, he wouldn't be much of an engineer if he couldn't figure a way around such mechanical trivialities. Specialist's Iron's aura, the electrical inference pattern that indicated her presence, could be seen pacing in an electromagnetically sealed section of the corridor.

"Now..." he mumbled to himself as the large holoimage went largely ignored by the hard-working staff whom Lt. Rorq had set on a prescribed path of perfect productivity. He continued to mumble under his breath as he watched the aura pace the breadth of the equivalent of a shoe-box filled with regret, before it stopped and propped itself against the door. "Do we become what the Devastators made us," Xaith mumbled to himself while the whole of engineering continued whirring like a Swiss watch behind him, "or do we find our own path? Our first official act as a whole new people..."

---

Lt. Rorq

If the body was a bio-chemical machine, as her only supervisor in the department once posited in his doctoral thesis, then it was one that she hoped all her parts served their function admirably. It was for this reason that Lieutenant Rorq came to be unnerved by the presence of doctors. That was for she knew all too well how machines could be cobbled together from bits of rust, and duct-tape, and be said to function 'perfectly normally'. Lieutenant Rorq liked her parts. She liked having them, and she did not like being in sent to the place where they were maintained. She hesitated for a moment before stepping into the transit system, and then sat humbly on the tram.

She was not in engineering. There were no airs to maintain. No systems to analyse, no crewmen to mange, or cyborgs to chase. She clutched a datapad to her breast as she let out a long sigh of relief. It would never cease to surprise her just out of her league Sargent Calhound made her feel. And, for once, it was not in a bad way. Thanks to this report she had the briefest sensation of something she thought impossible. For a moment, she felt as if she were going home.

Not the doctors office, of course, as that would be silly. But, home to her life before Citadel.

A life that humanity seems to have forgotten could even exist.

As she embraced the mineralogy shadow-report she allowed a moment of carefree elation to wash through her vital insides, as weapon-fire washed over the deep black space outside the Vitae. Tomorrow's another day, she thought before considering how best to unwind. "Officer's lounge," she ordered the computer, before thinking better of it. No, she had been given a gift she intended to indulge in "Cancel that. Habitat level: section J," she instructed the computer once more as she began perusing the resonance analysis. "Huh," she muttered as the tram engaged. "Who is this 'Sasha'?"

OOC: S.A.S.H.A.

S.A.S.H.A. is not yet available to other players for interaction. Even when she is (later), she will call no one other than Xaith "administrator" or any variation of the term. There's a reason for that. Furthermore, as S.A.S.H.A. becomes more integrated into the Vitae's systems (of which she presently has no direct access, relying on interlink feeds from Noah) her personality will develop more and radically shift from time to time.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

@sep So I went and created a page on the wikia for my character, and was coming back to do it today, and it got deleted. So, I guess that I'm not supposed to do the wikia and I'll just create Rorq's NPC sheet and post it here in OOC for approval.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

<Snipped quote by Sep>

@Rawk

Foodfight?

Foodfight!

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

@Sep I'm gonna have to do another post soon, like, today-soon. But I haven't the time right now.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

Main Engineering was abuzz with the blue-ball busting that was the sea of orders from the acting Chief of Engineering. "Alright people, get back to work! Anyone who can't perform their duties will be reassigned to waste reprocessing." She shouted at the group gathering around a monitor. "You! What the hell are you doing? Can't you see the gauges?!" Lt. Rorq barked at a flow regulation technician. As the pipe burst the lieutenant's frustration overwhelmed her momentarily, "Who - Who the hell are you?" she gasped at the technician's incompetence. The Vitae hadn't even been targeted yet and already the systems were being damaged.

From a managerial standpoint the situation was a complete embarrassment and needed to be reigned in before the Chief of Engineering returned. Now was a time that demanded firm leadership, which included a full dressing down of Specialist Irons. When it became clear that the specialist was ignoring the lieutenant, Rorq ordered Irons out of engineering. "We have a job to do Irons, and intentionally or not, you're actively sabotaging this ship and you will get the hell out of my Engine Room."

From there Lt. Rorq went back about reorganizing the jump drive emergency response teams for the possibility of the jump core being damaged in an impending fire-fight while undergoing the pre-jump sequence, and ensuring such a possible outcome didn't spell the deaths of what was left of humanity. She did so, knowing that Specialist Irons would leave on her own accord, or security would be called to escort her to the brig for the remainder of the engagement.

---

Meanwhile... in the Hanger.

As the last fighter launched from the hanger the Chief of Engineering patted the shoulder of the Commander of the Air Group. A gesture of "well done" that was apparently interpreted as insult, as the CAG Officer shot daggers at the Sargent in retaliation. "The ball is in motion, sir." Xaith said, with general disregard for formalities "I will take my leave." He withdrew his hand from the CAG Officer's shoulder and scratched the back of his head as his EEGARD analyzed the deployment combat HUD.

"That's it?" The Commander asked in a demanding tone, as if there was some confusion about what role Xaith had in events to come.

"Yes," the Sargent First Class replied, and pointed to the heads up display, "I'm the engineering consult, and my job is now done." He shrugged, and picked up his displaced tools. "The situation that is developing requires a battlespace tactician. A situation which I leave in your and your crew's very capable hands." As he made his way to the exit, he noted what his vector analysis told him. "You're soon to have a fight on your hands, sir, and you don't need me getting underfoot for that."

---

As Xaith stepped into the transit system he called down to engineering. "How's it all going down there, Lieutenant?"

To which Rorq immediately responded, over the sound of the coolant teams being dispatched, "Fine sir. Didn't even notice you were gone."

Though he couldn't be seen doing so, Xaith nodded. "Good, then I'll take a detour on my way back to Engineering as to relay the results of our initial assessment to the Captain."

"The captain, sir?"

"Yes," Xaith acknowledged. "Undoubtedly he has more than one person making such analysis, and so I will make our engineering report available to be forwarded to them." He closed the comm lines as the transit system reached the section his quarters were found in, and he returned home for a brief stent. Once inside he was greeted by a voice that was not yet familiar to him, but not entirely estranged either.

"Greeting, Sargent," the Adjutant stated in acknowledgment of his entry, "Diagnostics complete. Awaiting new instruction." It was never Xaith's intention to activate S.A.S.H.A's avatar without actually installing her into it, as it was only able to operate on base code in its current state, and fulfill only rudimentary commands. But, on the other hand, he simply hadn't had the time to fully test all the capabilities of her soon-to-be material form which required the adjutant's activation.

"Status of analysis," Xaith ordered from the machine.

"The data provided has been patterned, and collated in the manner requested for the integration into Sasha." The rudimentary interface reported through the cold mechanical frame it had been given to operate. "But interpretation of information is a task outside my programming."

"Acknowledged." Xaith acknowledged as he brought down the baby toys cardboard box from the top shelf and pulled the drive from it. "Execute AI porting interface module and prepare for receiving S.A.S.H.A."

"Understood." The avatar stated as it initialized an internal shut down and total system clear. The basic program that operated the metal avatar was a sophisticated mechanical diagnostics program, whose sole purpose was to test all of the mechanical aspects of the avatar, but the code was not intended to be integrated at this time. After every single bit was scrubbed from the system Xaith began to upload XYI-001 into her avatar.

The upload would take some time, and so Xaith began personally analyzing the data correlated from the Engineering teams and forwarded a copy to the bridge for further distribution. His EEGARD flashed once more as he stepped out of his quarters and made his way back to Main Engineering. In his periphery streamed all of the relevant sensor logs and data organized by his adjutant. It would take some time, and some multi tasking, but he would crack at least some portion of the Devastators' capabilities.

When he stepped back into the transit system he also stepped into his own little world and the doors closed behind him.

Interactions

@Peaceless,@vietmyke,@Draken

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

@vietmyke Xaith is still standing by in the hanger if necessary.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

@AdamantiumWolf The internet's primary selling point is that it operates at the speed of convenience.

So too do all things on the internet.