Scorpionius

Diddly Do

CHAPTER 1: FISSURE

Sir Malcolm Swallow has, meanwhile, not found the road he was supposed to go to yet. It's not like it was hard to miss, though- the road in question was a dirt road, one that would lead to the paved streets. He had issues with this problem before, especially after a storm, when leaves and branches and sometimes even trees cover up the path. In fact, often it would be ruined due to heavy rain. This was not the time for the path to be gone though- Malcolm was on a mission.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind, ripping out trees in its wake, comes from ahead. Bits of bark and trunk flew everywhere, entire logs thrown away by the force.

"By Jove-"

Malcolm barely avoided getting whacked in his partially chrome face by a log, quickly jumping behind a particularly thick tree withstanding the storm. As soon as the hurricane lies down, he leaves his shelter.

"By Jove, what was that? Such a powerful storm, coming out of nowhere, seems particularly anomalous-"

Then, he saw it. In the distance, floating in the middle of the clearing it created, was a rip.

"That is-"

His aftermarket phone rang. The Knights were equipped with these after a certain incident where three Knights- namely Sir Goddard the Land Rover, Sir Neale the Interceptor and Lady Chapman the Lotus Europa- could not communicate with each other during a chase. They ended up losing the criminal they were chasing.

"Who is this?", Malcolm asks.

"Sir Swallow? This is Sir Spectre. Are you alright? We witnessed a massive, almost bomb-like explosion off in the distance. We wanted to make sure you were safe. Are you heading to London yet?", responded a voice belonging to, obviously, Sir Spectre.

Malcolm sighed as he slowly approaches the fissure. "I am completely fine aside from a few scratches. And no, I digress, I am not heading to London just yet. The dirt road may be gone again, which is troublesome. I may also have found the source of the storm, which is... Tough to describe."

Vague discussions could be heard through the phone. Sir Spectre then spoke again. "What is it like, Sir Swallow?"

Malcolm walked around the fissure, but it weirdly stayed in place as if he couldn't see the back of it. "It is... similar to a rip in the air. Its interior is completely black. It is closing, altough it is slow."

More discussions on the other end of the line. They calmed down after a bit, and Sir Spectre responded again. "Sir Swallow? King Argent demands that you investigate this 'rip'. It may be too dangerous to just leave it there. Someone else will go to London?"

"Understood", Malcolm responded. They aborted the phone call.

"Hmm. It is similar to some sort of portal. Jumping in recklessly seems like a bad idea, but I see no other way to investigate this."

He stuck his left front leg in it, but pulled it out safely.

"Good. I will not immediately die, at least."

He braced himself, and jumped in.

"Long live the King!"

Diddly Do

PROLOGUE

Thirteen vehicles were standing in a circle in a clearing in Brecon Beacons. They were oldtimers of British make. Altough the cars were, thus, rather old, age has treated them quite well: none of them suffered from any mechanical damage. Their bodywork is still in pristine shape, aside from a few scratches and dents.

The most important looking one was a silver Rolls-Royce 40/50 Silver Ghost. He gave off a royal aura, as if he was the king of these vehicles. He coughed mechanically, his bumper rattling as he does. The others directed their headlights to him. They were of great variety, a collection of Britain's greatest hits almost:

A Jaguar E-Type, black as the night.
An Aston Martin DB5, straight out of a spy movie.
A Land Rover Series I, hardened by the Great War.
A Reliant Regal, effortlessly keeping its balance.
A Lotus Europa, elegant as always.
An Austin Loadstar, the main bulk of the group.
A Jensen Interceptor, coloured in a speedy red.
A Morgan 4-4 Series I, dark blue like the ocean.
A Triumph Spitfire, half as fast as the plane but with twice the charm.
A Rover JET1, likely escaped from a scientific museum.
A Bentley 4 1/2 Litre, the racing veteran amongst them.
A TVR Grantura Series II, yellow like the sun.

Once the Rolls has gotten their attention, he spoke.

"Knights, we have a problem."

"There are... tensions between the Aeravians and the Bargish."

"As you know, they have been competing for market share for quite a while now. The Bargish, however, are slowly growing more and more popular and the Aeravians do not accept that. I am sure you heard the stories."

The Interceptor responded to him.

"Yes, King Argent. Just recently, a barge got attacked by a Cessna. It was truly a tragedy. Two crew members got killed."

The Land Rover added to this.

"Frankly, the humans are gettin' quite pissed about the whole situation. This is not doin' the image of the Aeravians any good, but people are startin' to get afraid of usin' Bargish."

"Right, and there's also the matter of Lorramals gettin' hit by them, not to mention the various tons of damaged Aplantiances-"

The Bentley interrupted him.

"The Aplantiances are the least of our concerns, they are-"

The Morgan quickly joined the discussion.

"Sir Blower, what do you mean with 'least of our concerns'? The Aplantiances are our food, and-"

The Bentley was fast to counter.

"Sir Coventry, the death of a few Aplantiances is nothing when compared to the death of-"

Soon, it was every Knight for himself and opinions flew everywhere until the King spoke again.

"Knights."

"KNIGHTS!"

The clearing turned dead silent again.

"This is a serious matter. The humans are not taking this any longer. We need a neutral party to negotiate between the Bargish and the Aeravians to make sure this does not accelerate any further."

The Aston spoke.

"I assume we will be this neutral party, King Argent?"

The King responded to him.

"Yes, Sir Spectre. So far, the Carthropods have remained unaffected by these events. It is only natural that we will negotiate, especially because we are the most common machine race- aside from the Aplantiances- and also the most powerful one."

"Who shall you choose, O King Argent?", responded the Austin truck.

The King remained silent for a few moments.

"Sir Swallow, for he has accomplished numerous missions with shine."

The E-Type lowers his front suspension to bow to his King.

"I'm honoured, O King Argent."

"Now, go. Succeed, Sir Swallow."

The E-Type converts into a mantis-like form. His hood detached to become a head, various suspension parts gather around to form the thorax and the back of the car forms the abdomen. Four large legs extended from underneath it, and two blade-like arms were formed from the front suspension. It turns around to leave for the nearest road.

---------------

Hours later, Sir Malcolm Swallow has not reached the road yet.

"How... quaint. I have not arrived at the road yet."

"Is it just me, or is the forest... different, as if I am in another place?"

"...Troubling."

Diddly Do

Character sheet written and posted, yay.

Diddly Do

Name: Sir Malcolm Swallow

Species: Carthropod

Gender: Male

Species background:
Carthropods are a race of vehicle-based monsters that can shapeshift between a Car Forme and an Arthropod Forme. Their ‘life power' is an anomalous source of energy stored within their engine. As long as the engine is intact, the Carthropod will ‘live'.

Their diet consists of whatever fuel their engine runs on, be it diesel, petrol or something else. They can however substitute their fuel by eating appliances (and thus Carthropods have been the culprit of many appliance-disappearance cases). The exception to this are electric Carthropods, who have to get their fuel by tapping off electricity.

Running out of ‘food' will not kill the Carthropod, however. Carthropod death only occurs if the engine ceases functioning. Due to their mechanical nature, however, it is possible to ‘revive' a Carthropod by repairing the engine. However, at least around 70% of the engine’s original parts must be retained. Since the life power of a Carthropod is stored within the engine, replacing the engine of a car will turn it in an entirely different Carthropod. The life power of a Carthropod allows them to slowly regenerate minor damage, such as bodywork damage.

Obviously, the most quaint ability of the Carthropods is their ability to shapeshift into arthropod forms. The form usually retains the basic shape of the car (so no fancy Transformer stuff going on here), with arthropod features added. The Arthropod Forme of a Carthropod is usually based on the engine of the car (and is thus partially based on the type of car). Vehicles with big, powerful engines tend to shapeshift into fast arthropods (such as dragonflies) or powerful arthropods (such as scorpions). Vehicles with weaker engines shapeshift into more common critters (such as ants). Vehicles with diesel engines such as vans or SUVs usually shapeshift into crustaceans or myriapods.

Humans are aware of the existence of the Carthropods and live in harmony with them. This symbiosis is useful for both parties, since the human gets transportation and the Carthropod has easy access to fuel. There are, however, ‘rogue' Carthropods that live in groups away from humans. Usually they reside in forests or scrapyards. Rogue Carthropods are usually second-hand cars that do not want to be sold like some product (since that’s still what cars are) and just left the second-hand dealership they were in. There are, lastly, also ‘renegade' Carthropods that live completely alone.

Carthropods are not the only machine-based race on this version of Earth, though. Next to the Carthropods, there are:
- Lorramals, trucks with a mammal form
- Aeravians, helicopters and planes with a bird form
- Gastromotos, motorcycles with a gastropod form
- Bargish, boats with a fish form
- Reptrains, trains with a reptile form
- Amphibicrafts, rare hovercrafts with an amphibian form
- Aplantiances, appliances with a plant form

Appearance:
Sir Malcolm Swallow is a deep black Jaguar E-Type coupe made in 1963. He is powered by a 265 hp 3.8 liter 6-inline engine. The steering wheel is on the right side.
His Arthropod Forme is that of a knight-like mantis. The entire hood of the car forms the head of the mantis with metallic plumage on the back of this head. The abdomen is formed by the rest of the car and the thorax is mostly formed with mechanical parts. Similar to the mantis, he gains six legs in his Arthropod Forme: the middle and hind legs are heavily armored and broad, whereas his front legs are made of the front suspension of the car (including the wheels). One of them is shaped like a sword.

Character background:
Sir Malcolm Swallow is one of the twelve Knights of the Spokewheel, a rogue group of Carthropods that live in Brecon Beacons, a national park in Great Britain. All of the Knights are British oldtimers (such as the Aston Martin DB5, the Land Rover Series I and indeed the Jaguar E-Type) that serve to protect king Charles Argent (who is a Rolls-Royce 40/50 Silver Ghost himself). The king ‘rules' over British Carthropods and is just as respected as the British Queen is by the humans.
The Knights have a certain ‘code of honor’, similar to the knights of the Round Table:
- Do not break the traffic rules
- Respect humans and save those in distress
- Do not resort to violence unless needed
So far, Sir Swallow has not broken this code of honor yet. Of all the Knights, he may perhaps be the most loyal to king Argent.

Also, Hokum, you're not really a God.

Much Ado About Nothing

I could basically copy Tahlko's post, but I was also introduced to this thread by a friend.

Heck, via that way I was introduced to this entire place.

Aaaanyways, from what I can make up from the intro I assume you can be anything you want. So, let's say I've got a race of vehicular entities (not gonna spill the beans here), would it be possible to use them in this RP?