Things did not go as you had planned... True, this happens occasionally anyway, but in this case it defied logical probability as your ship's vanished from the familiarity of Rapid transit, The warp around it shredded apart before your eyes, the ship's sensors panicked frantically like something was squeezing the hull, suffocated the engines and preventing control of motion, even 'flood' warnings popped up.
There was no visible sign of what was doing it though, every external view showed only stars, darkness and... why was there a giant 'train' engine puttering by in open space on a trail of steam and fire?! What madness was this? Why were there Nebulae scattered around in impossibly close proximity and... Was that a Giant flower growing out of thin air in the distance? Why was there a 'mountain' in space?!
Perhaps more urgently, why was the ship being propelled towards a huge bundle of Rocky Spheres that was being orbited by a tiny Sun and moon?!
You might have been preparing yourself for what seemed like inevitability in this crash, when that tiny sun elected to Blow fire over your ship... or, at least it seemed that way, how backwards was it that 'space' was trying to destroy your ship, yet a bath of fire calmed the sensor and seemed to have warded of whatever was trying to kill you... Granted, it was still too late to even pretend to get the engines functional enough to avoid crashing.
Aren't you lucky though? another surprise came as the 'surface' you'd been barreling towards gave way like a thin later of water... was 'anything' out here what it appeared to be?!...
Could you really afford to assume the suddenly normal space, and crash-course with the continent below, was fake too?... This would actually be a perfect opportunity to start breaking out those Escape pods, at least, if they still work... oh dear.
Today XD... Sorry, I meant to have it done yesterday, but I got surprised with work I didn't expect, and by the time I was done I was barely concious, so I kinda just face-planted in bed XD
Also, Sparky sounds fun too XD given the sound of the backk-story, does he have a ship too? XD
Here we go XD finally a CS, now i'm gonna go get on the OOC ;3
Also, forgive the word-vomit, i just can't help myself sometimes XD
Image:
[Disclaimer: Not my image, but it fits the character idea perfectly.]
Name: Chryssocolla Species: Changeling Age:3[33]
Source: MLP [Specifically more Fanonically elaborated interpretations of Changelings, since the ones in canon are practically undefined beyond being love sucking bug things XD]
Appearance Description:
At roughly Five feet tall he's considerably taller than average stallions, and even greater contrast to his own kind who are usually shorter than a mare. Though he looks sleek and smooth, it's actually very short black fur made of an enhanced form of Keratin that's tougher and shined more easily, it often instinctively 'fluffs up' in some circumstances. His mane and tail are made of more jell-like Sea-green strands, a color that is mirrored in his eyes, wings, shell, stomach, and even his tongue.
Otherwise, He lacks the excessive volume of holes that most changelings seem to have, Has a shell along his back to protect his wings, which are comprised of a quartet of longer, sleeker wings compared to his species' norm. His stomach is actually a set of see-through bands of green around his middle, luckily there's no freaky organs visible to gross people out.
While his eyes appear featureless at first, there's a subtle light behind the green layers to hint at where he's looking.
Personality: He's a bit of an enigma to his own kind, though they tend to vary in their own beliefs on other species or how to survive from hive to hive, He is adamant in the belief that he can prove his species doesn't need to survive like parasites who must hide what they are, or to simplify it tremendously, adamant in defying millenia of history.
That aside, he's a shameless prankster, using ignorance of his species and shapeshifting or illusions to play pranks and entertain strangers to create a more harmless reputation for himself. He's notoriously playful and mysterious, though he's not afraid to be up-front and honest about things, it usually requires a serious situation or accurate questions, otherwise it's hard for him to willfully put aside the thrill of confusion and pranks.
Backstory:
In honorable changeling fashion, as a rogue, he will not speak of any details that can be used to identify or track the hive he originates from, for all intents and purposes acting as if they did not exist... at least, that's his reason for refusing to give any clear information on them.
For himself though? He'll happily claim to be born and bred to make others smile with glee or scream in terror, rebirthed in his old hive to give him advantages while trying to survive 'without' a hive. He has successfully eluded or escaped authorities all around Equestria for Three years and counting, he always seems to find a way to evade or escape restraint, whether physical or magical in nature... and yet, whenever he escapes they just find him again in a new location playing pranks or telling jokes.
Otherwise, he is frustratingly unclear about his actual origins or even solid information on himself or his plans for the future... for all anyone knows, he could be plotting to conquer the kingdom and nobody'd see it coming!
power section- I have a habit of being 'too' thorough with things like this when I describe them XD I tried to keep it 'down' a bit to avoid over-working myself, and also to leave some things deliberately ambiguous so they can be discovered IC :D ... I might also inadvertently make things seem grander than they really are.
Skills:
Stealth, Espionage, Infiltration: Such skills are common to changelings as a species, and quite literally a primary source of survival for them for countless generations.
Emotional Recognition and Manipulation: A species that 'lives' off of emotions can easily boast unique skills related to reading emotional beings as well as influencing them, not unlike experienced farmers and their cattle.
Unusual learning potential: It's not precisely a superior learning capability, as it is a different one, a hive-mind, even made up of countless individuals instead of blank drones, learns in different ways from life-long unconnected individuals, not the least of which is the ability to combine the mental capacity of multiple minds over great distances for intellectual pursuits.
Advanced Biological knowledge and Medically applicable Experience: Not 'technically' a medical specialist, but part of imitating another species is knowing how their bodies function, without that any disguise will fail eventually. More importantly, knowledge of a changeling's own biology, as well as it's malleability and how to manipulate it are Required knowledge in the hive. Much of this understanding can be applied in some fashion to learning the biology of new creatures.
Traits:
Strange Biology: Due to the high abnormal biology of changelings compared to... 'most' species actually, they bear immunity to some things that are common threats to those species, such as lack of oxygen, spells or poisons targeting specific organs or fragile biology, and such, while other's may only be resisted better, such as crushing or over-heating. They also have a somewhat tougher hide than an average pony's with more flexible joints, and a special quality in their hooves for climbing most surfaces, as well as their biology being optimized to work well with both their Shape-shifting and Bio-alchemy, necessary both for imitating other species as well as altering their base form... As a side note, for a changeling, a stomach is more for storage than for dissolving foody things.
- Refined Buzz-Flight: Though capable of a high level of forward momentum, A changelings wings are especially optimized for rapid changes in direction without sacrificing speed, up to a certain thresh-hold at least, the range of motion narrows with increased momentum. Chryss' wings in particular are refined for far higher speeds than an average changelings, but this makes his wings much louder, like a buzzing hornet, or more draining when magic is applied to boost it.
- Emotivorous: Changelings do not subsist on solid foods like other species, though they 'can' eat and enjoy them, and can stave off the 'feeling' of starvation for a while with it. Their primary Dietary Requirement though, is Emotional energy, put off naturally by other species who 'feel' things, which is used to power their bodily functions, magic, and even higher brain-functions... Starvation is not pretty, food poisoning though... depends on the food.
- Bio-Alchemy: Not quite shape-shifting, so much as Biological manipulation, their Body-mass is specially crafted to be influenced by the art of Bio-Alchemy, letting them tweak their base forms in a variety of ways, but it is far slower, more costly, and above all more 'permanent' than shape-shifting is, but has been used since their origins to ensure that each generation had a higher chance of survival than the last. It uses a variety of special reagents and facilities though, so it is not prudent to use in places that aren't a more permanent structure.
- Changeling Senses: As a changeling, one of the primary sensory differences from other species is inherently available empathy, every changeling can feel, and indeed 'taste', the emotions of other creatures. Their more common senses are more protected than others, such as the screens over their eyes allowing them less disruption from dust and debris, while they can 'shift-away' their nostrils or mouth to avoid gases or smells. In particular, they are refined to see well in the poor lighting of hives and to recognize scents that could either be signals, or evidence of intruders.
Powers:
Shape-shifting: A Changelings Primary tool of survival, concealing their natural appearance to blend in with their prey, able to take on the form of nearly any creature of 'near' size with minimal cost to their mana and negligible upkeep once applied, they can push it farther for greater cost. It can be used to alter their insides to imitate other species as well, for greater integrity of disguises, though it is always characterized by a colorful flash of fire=like magic, and can be disrupted by sufficient trauma to the head or mind in particular, but great enough trauma to the body can disrupt it eventually as well. On it's own it's not too great a boon in combat aside from disguises, but it can be used to tweak the body's other capabilities so long as disruption is avoided.
- Hive-link: Arguably one of the greater powers of changelings as a whole, the Hive-link connects all the minds of the hive in a sort of Hive-scape, allowing them mental possibilities that other species simply don't have. The most prevalent being communication, a hive is always greater than the sum of it's parts, a changeling can broadcast things to anyone else in the hive, allowing the sharing of information, sensory data, ideas, and so on, though experience can only be shared in-part as physical practice cannot be handed of. It is also used to create forums of interaction, allowing many minds to share their mental capacity towards intellectual pursuits, such as research or analysis. In a way, it can also provide an escape from physical or mental trauma, allowing a changeling to escape from various forms of torture or crippling pain by dispersing it.
- Combat-Shifting: A more intensified application of Shape-shifting, additional mana allows for more solidified transformations, which while they don't require up-keep once completed, are not as fluid or well integrated as Bio-alchemical changes, so while it can be used to make armor, it's usually less refined in 'some' way, similar for weapons it can make. Often Combat shifts are specialized in one way and inferior in others. It can also be used for some internal things, such as thickening the hide, or producing venom glands. While these changes aren't 'disrupted' in the same way as normal shape-shifting, they can be 'broken' in a more literal sense, which carries potential back-fire for the user.
- Magic: Magic! What a wonderful thing! Flexible, Variable, Dangerous or helpful! It can fulfill so many purposes!... But only if you know how to make it perform a certain way, and have the power necessary to carry it out. For changelings, magic is less difficult to learn new methods than other species, with the benefit of the hive-link to share data and teachings, a Changeling can learn a new spell from another's memory in record time, and easily develop and impressive repertoire, though given their dependency on the same power to 'live' they can also burn extra to enhance their body or enhance other natural functions... The catch? Over-using magic can prove more fatal than for ponies, their magic is powers by their internal energy, which is also what keeps their body's healthy and maintains higher brain functions. Even more so, it is what keeps the 'hive' healthy and functioning, and no changeling should be willing to sacrifice the hive for a mere power-boost... supposedly.
- Illusions: Chryss's specialty in particular, He has spent a great deal of time practicing with illusion magic, using it to entertain or terrify ponies into giving him tasty snacks. It has countless uses for the experienced, from befuddling an enemy, to entertaining an ally, Making a fancy entrance, or simply confusing people in general. His preffered combat style, when forced to, is using illusions to make the enemy paranoid and make it impossible to tell which 'attack' is imaginary or real, great for escapes or getting at weak-spots.
Equipment:
Big surprise, changelings don't carry much equipment XD They do however often carry a few unique little tools around, small enough to swallow.
Stomach Contents: Lock-picking set, water-proof of course. 3 x Emotion battery gems, small 3 x Builder Drone eggs 1 Communication Gem
I was thinking of something similar my group is trying to escape the reaper threat and when they use the local relay something happens and sends them into pony (crash)land with no fuel. Also @Shoryu since this is kinda sorta (but not really) based off of sunless sea/ sunless sky are you going to have other weird phenomena happen?
Oh absolutely! :D It might not be very prevalent in the beginning, since we're not 'out there'. The weirdest stuff will likely be discovered out in the big space between World-fragments... I should actually come up with a name for it that fits the setting... Like 'The Infinite Rift' or 'The Ztar Zea' pr 'World Zea' [cause for some reason they replace S's with Z's in names XD]
But yes, strange events and creatures should be quite common out there >w> there's liable to be periods of interaction while in transit as well. And of course as the RP progresses there will be some escalation of strangeness >w>
I agree, it's likely that a good portion of the crews would be dead. But there would still be enough people to work together. Especially since the UED ship would have SCV's, which would help a lot. For how they got there, I was imagining that each ship had some sort of FTL-related mishap (for example, I was thinking of having the UED ship enter an emergency FTL jump with no coordinates to escape from some Dominion ships that were chasing them). The crews and the locals could have all sorts of interactions, too. I'd imagine Twilight would love to check out all the fancy new technology.
I was imagining something not too different, though likely with some comically timed inter-universal phenomenon that actually results in their FTL jump being directed there... heavens though, if it's an FTL crash, we got some real damage coming XD hahah.
This would also be a good excuse for me to throw in a little force of locals to explore with them 'on behalf of the crown' to fill out the crew a bit more. [Pony SCV incoming! MUWAHAHAHAHAH!]
I have played StarCraft 2. I chose an older era marine because 1. I like the story of the first StarCraft more than StarCraft 2, and 2. because I like the original design of the Marine armor. Also because the UED are cool. The time period he's from is the time between StarCraft 1 and 2.
I do like the idea of separate ships from separate universes crashing, and everyone being forced to cobble together some sort of abomination of a ship from the wrecks. Will there be NPC's onboard the ships that the players will control? I'm thinking of it being set up so that each player has a group of NPC's they order around, basically making each player their own little faction.
Ahhh, interesting to know... it's been so long that I don't remember much about the UED aside from Destroying them as the Zerg... and Alexei is one of my favorite commanders in Starcraft 2's co-op mode :D Maybe I'm just too into the over-engineered detailed stuff from the second one XD
That's not a bad idea, I was thinking something along those lines... granted, we 'are' talking crashes, it's entirely probable half those crews get kinda wrecked from the crash, poor buggers.
Ahhh, interesting, a UED era marine >3> Just out of curiosity, have you played Star-craft 2? >3> I find myself curious why you went with an older era marine. I mostly wonder on the difference in their power armors over the time-periods.
That said, he seems fine to me :D It oughta be funny to see him encounter changelings >3>... given that I tend to operate my Changelings as a bit 'zergy', heheh.
Ahhhh, weapon over-heat... Those were the days!... I remember when I figured out how to mod my weapon to pretty much never over-heat and just keep laying on the daka XD
Anyway, he looks fine too :D
Aaaand, I shall go finish up mine, and I should have the OOC organized and up sometime tommorrow, hopefully the last couple who showed interested pop up again soon, it's always a bit sad when there's a lot of attention in the first day, but activity dies off after that D:
Evenin peepes! I'm in the process of reading the new CSes and touching up my own here, but an idea came to me while I was thinking about things... in particular the 'back-stories' and 'crashing first-contact' plot device, as well as the general way this psuedo multi-verse functions >3>
Originally, I'd been thinking of one ship crashing that'd need fixing to progress to other worlds... but what do you guys think of different ships from relevant character's settings crashing... granted, it would mean some additional separation when starting, but then, they could also need to cannibalize eachother's ships to fix up something that would work again, given the lack of such technology on the world they're crashing in :D
I have a few ways, with that idea, that I could handle introducing the characters to the wider-verse between their various world's. one being friendly, and the other hostile XD
Rothurage
Nallore
Riddles