Silent Showers — Roleplayer Guild

Alright! Yes, hello! Nice to meet you! As per usual, this is the obligatory not so interesting administrative stuff to set expectations.

"Requirements" (more a polite request really)

- I can go anywhere from a few paragraphs to a multi-paragraph megaposts, it just depends on who I'm writing with and how I'm feeling about the story. But I usually hover around a leisurely low advanced and beyond depending upon inspiration. As of late I seem to be throwing down longer posts than not so that's something you should take into consideration.

I don't say this to be rude, but if the very best you can do is a small handful of light "paragraphs", we may not be meant for one another. 3-5 good meaty paragraphs is probably going to be the bare minimum here.

- Please be at least 18 years of age. This is a thing of comfort (and legality). Considering the themes I enjoy and the overall adult nature of my ideas.

- If you're done or don't wanna continue that's fine, I won't hold it against you if you happen to vanish into the æther.

- Don't ask me to play a Canon character from a fandom. I won't do it and I won't entertain the idea.

-Be prepared for 18+ content, sex, drugs, violence, foul language ect. Fair warning I like to smut as much as a lonely housewife reads trashy romance novels.

-Romantic pairings will be MxF however I'll happily play a platonic MxM pairing though I do typically main male characters but can play female characters just as happily. But, in this specific case I'm not looking for strictly platonic relationships as a whole here.

-PLEASE contact me via PM, it's the easiest way for me to keep track of people and it's where I write my roleplays as well.

That's about it!

Okay, the meat and potatoes. After leaving up an absolute wall of text and not having a TL;DR for what the idea is, I'll be putting the "narrative introduction" in a hider for those interested in reading it. 

So, the jist of my idea is this: - Modern day, humanity is discovered and contacted overnight by a massive galactic coalition type government of many different alien species. Turns out magic is real and fueled by a naturally occurring energy called "Mana". Of course these aren't what they're actually called in the wider galaxy but it's the closest approximation that humanity as a whole can understand the phenomena. 

For one reason or another earth and our section of space is a "mana deadzone", meaning there was little reason for the Hegemony, (the previously mentioned interstellar governing body) to explore the area leading to us going undiscovered and uncontacted for thousands of years. An interstellar natural disaster nearby ends in our being discovered and brought into the fold of our benevolent alien overlords. Their first order of business? Conscript humans with the ability to manipulate mana. That is more or less where our story begins! 

A Joe Shmoe is taken off the streets and whisked away to be trained as a space wizard soldier thing within the Hegemony military (not exactly forced conscription but in many ways not really optional). Once recruited, he becomes a "Cadet Adept", an adept being an individual with the aptitude to wield magics of all kinds for the benefit of all. Adepts are rare and thus valuable to the Hegemony, being the only ones with the power to avert planet destroying disasters by closing unstable rifts in space-time. This is their primary duty.

Their duty however is not one they face alone. Alongside each adept is a team of the best mundane soldiers the galaxy has to offer, each being given the very best in training and pay for this demanding and in many ways most honorable of roles. Together, they go into these rifts in space to battle with the otherworldly monstrosities that inhabit them on their way to find it's core to put an end to the impending disaster and loss of life they represent. Think; going into a dungeon to keep the planet from imploding and ending all life. No pressure, right?

That's the most distilled version I can really make it, so hopefully this gets your attention enough to explore the supplemental material I've provided below.

I'd like to think I'm something of a "known quantity" here in the 1x1 intchk section as far as my general interests are concerned for stories of this type, but the details will be discussed in PMs if I get anyone to bite.

AHEM..

"Mom was right, I should have gone to college..." Groused the young man as he checked his laughably empty bank account. 

The harsh glow of the ATM's flickering screen was yet another soul crushing reminder of his mediocrity, being so hard up that he couldn't even afford the payments to get himself a smartphone like everyone else around him seemed to have.

"I'd give just about anything to- GHAH" He cried out, shielding his eyes from the blinding light now washing over him from his right hand side.

"John, John Smith?" Asked a gruff male voice, even going so far as to state his exact address down to the apartment number. John adjusted his hand ever so slightly to block the powerful beam from the man's flashlight. 

It was a cop; two of them in fact, both squared up with their hands on their sidearms like they were expecting a fight. John swallowed hard and slowly rose his hands into the air as he turned to face them. He didn't have a history with the law, everything about this felt completely off to him and he didn't want to risk escalating the situation when the uniformed peace officers already looked so on edge. 

"Y-yeah...? That's me, uh, officer." Replied the nervous young man uncertainly, wondering if he'd been inadvertently acting shifty at the ATM. 

"You're coming with us, please don't resist." Commanded the cop, his tone leaving no room for argument as his partner advanced on John, handcuffs already in hand. 

John's heart pounded in his chest as the cop yanked hard on his arm and twisted it behind his back to slap the cold metal around his wrist. Panic and fear were quickly twisting up his insides, the nervousness of the policemen doing nothing to alleviate his own while he was restrained and hauled out of the ATM booth toward their cruiser. The biting chill of the winter air sent shivers down his spine as he was shoved into the back of the patrol car, his arresting officers not saying a word to him as they both slammed their doors shut and exchanged a look. The driver picked up the receiver of the car's radio and keyed it.

"Dispatch, car seven. We found him. En-route now." 

What, en-route? To where, the station? Why wouldn't he just say that, what's up with the secrecy? 

John's mind raced, any and every worst case scenario flashing by in a blur as the cruiser's lights lit up and it's sirens began to wail. Apparently they were in a rush because the officer behind the wheel peeled out from his parking spot and shot down the mostly empty road like a missile, swerving around anyone and everyone who didn't pull to the side. The cops shot John an occasional glace in the rear view mirror but still refused to speak to him, only deepening the bizarreness of this entire ordeal. Now that he took a moment to think on it, they hadn't searched him, nor had they read him his rights or even stated why he was being arrested. 

Oh God have I just been kidnapped?!

The panic he'd been feeling spiked as even worse scenarios than before started to flood in, causing the twenty something year old minimum wage worker to start hyperventilating. He was going to die tonight, he knew that had to be it. These guys were going to take him to some out-of-the-way spot outside of town and harvest his organs or something equally as macabre. His irrational panic soon gave way to a blinking confusion as they began to slow down next to the airport. 

"What the fu-"

Even as he mouthed the words, John was struck speechless by the commotion he saw on the airfield. Cops and what looked like soldiers were running every which way, some directed traffic, others stood guard, and a significant number seemed to be setting up some kind of field base. It was a pair of geared up soldiers who opened the maintenance gate for John's ride, allowing the cruiser to pass through unobstructed as it pulled out onto the tarmac and raced towards one of the many aircraft hangers off in the distance. It looked like something big was happening, but he couldn't see any obvious indication as to what that might be. No burning airliners, no explosions or gun battles, nothing. He didn't even see any commercial aircraft on the flightline, only military craft like helicopters and transport planes, all of which seemed to be offloading troops and equipment. 

The hell was going on?

John had so many questions but was still too afraid to ask. Whatever was happening was probably way above these beat cop's paygrade, so the young man just waited in silence as they finally began to slow and pull up to a small administrative building far removed from the main facility of the airport. Not even bothering to shut off the engine, the cops stepped out of the cruiser and pulled John out of the back, one on each arm as they all but carried him into the building. From the looks of it he'd been taken to some sort of airport security building, that much became obvious as the cops brought him to what seemed to be an interrogation room complete with a metal table and chair. Silently, the cops uncuffed John and forced him down into the chair before they wordlessly exited the room, leaving the confused man very suddenly alone. He wasn't alone for long though as less then five minutes later a woman in a very official and expensive looking navy colored pinstriped pantsuit stepped through the door.

"Good evening Mr. Smith, I'm Agent Rebecca Collins from the U.S. Department of State and I'm sure you have a lot of questions. Rest assured you aren't in trouble and I apologize for the rather heavy handed way you've been treated in an effort to get you here tonight." Her tone was professional and her apology seemed genuine. The combination kept John at a loss for words as the woman sat down across from him, her blonde bob cut hair framing a pretty enough face and serious looking green eyes. 

"Uh, evening, ma'am?" John greeted lamely, not sure what else to say in the moment. 

"None of this is going to be easy to process, so I'll get to the heart of the issue Mr. Smith. You are here on behalf of the U.S. government and humanity as a whole." The DOS agent began, her sharp green eyes boring into his as she spoke. "It turns out that we are very much not alone in the universe. Less than four hours ago the governments of the world were approached by a galactic conglomerate of sentient alien life called 'The Hegemony'. They're a coalition government made up of, as far as they've told us, dozens of unique alien species." The agent paused to give John time to digest this information but she didn't quite give him enough to start asking questions. "The U.S. government was specifically contacted about you. They requested you by name. Even provided an exact address and social security number, which has troubling implications for our cyber security capabilities but that's not something you'll need to concern yourself with." 

He just stared at Agent Collins, mouth agape like a fish out of water as the gears in his brain tried their very best to keep turning. Was this some kind of wildly elaborate prank? Was he being taken for a literal and metaphorical ride right now? 

"All they've told us so far is that Earth and humanity will from this day forward be folded into this all-encompassing galactic community. We're expected to provide personnel for mandatory military service but at this time it's limited to very specific individuals they identify as 'Adepts'. What this means, we aren't entirely sure yet but they've assured us you are one of them. Congratulations Mr. Smith, you're being drafted as the United State's very first member of the Hegemony's interstellar military."

As if the entire encounter had been rehearsed beforehand, the door behind Collins opened to admit a frighteningly tall figure that was easily six and a half feet in height if not more. John's chronic case of fish-mouth only intensified as he stared up at the thing standing before him. The sharply creased, light blue, military-style dress uniform it wore looked comically out of place on its gangly, almost frail looking body. The creature was all arms and legs, with distinct avian features that made it look like a technicolor rave harpy once it flexed it's massive wingspan, an action that startled the stupification out of John. It's skin, hair, and feathers were a mix of iridescent greens, blues, and golds that reminded him of a peacock. It even seemed to shift colors with shimmering streaks of purples and turquoise as the light refracted off of it.

"Holy shit!" Surprise quickly turned to curiosity as the creature began to make a sing-song chirping sound that reminded John of a cross between a raven's caw and a giggle. Brain working again, the stunned John stood from his chair and was now able to really process the woman that stood before him. He hadn't noticed it before, but the alien had strangely familiar physical tells that were decidedly feminine in nature.

"I am instructor Y'szmeni Serdrath'na from the Academy Ship, Duty's Oath." She said simply. Her expression was unreadable to John as she inclined her head towards him in greeting. "I apologize for the sudden nature of this meeting, John Smith. The Academy runs on extremely tight schedules and too much time has been wasted trying to locate you as is. The Academy does not wait for anyone however, and our shuttle to it will be leaving the system within the next four hours and we need to be on it before it leaves."

"Wait... What?" John gaped at the tall bird woman. Y'szmeni's face became sympathetic as she stared down into John's eyes. "I'm not surprised you're confused, John Smith. We do not have time to answer all of the questions I'm sure you have for me. The most succinct explanation I can give to you at this time, if a bit incomplete, is that you were identified by the Academy's scanners as a potential adept. You are not the only one we found on your planet, but you were selected to be the first seeing as you're at the ideal physical age to begin training. All adepts are required by Hegemony law to board the Academy ships for training. I don't expect you to understand how much of an honor this is, nor the gravity of being chosen as the first of your kind to attend, but you will soon come to learn what will be expected of you. First, however, we must complete your testing."

John.exe stalled out once again and he didn't have a task manager to reboot his floundering mind, so Y'szmeni waited. When it became clear he wasn't going to break out of his spiraling mental meltdown, the alien woman waved a hand at him to get his attention. John blinked and finally came back to the present and fixed his gaze on Y'szmeni's colorless black eyes.

"Do I have a choice?" He asked cautiously, not really thrilled by the idea of being a space conscript for a bunch of alien overlords. The bird-like woman just smiled at him, her thin lips pulling back to reveal rows of sharp, triangular, shark-like teeth that made his skin crawl. 

"Yes, of course. We will not take you against your will. All candidates must consent to being trained despite adepts being required to attend. I will be required to take certain measures should you decline to come with me."

"Then I-" he began, but the Y'szmeni rose a long fingered hand to stop him.

"If you refuse, I will have to administer a procedure to neutralize the gene expression that would allow you to become an adept; for your safety and that of everyone around you. Once completed, I would proceed to the next candidate from your nation. Duty's Oath only has room for one Terran student at this time and, as I stated before, time is short," she explained with that chirping bird-like inflection of hers. 

For whatever reason her insistence on stopping him from deciding on the spot gave John pause; enough that his brain was beginning to catch up. What had she kept saying, 'adept?'

"So, 'Adept'. You've said it a few times but I'm not quite sure what that's supposed to be and how it's relevant to me. What does it mean?" 

It was Y'szmeni's turn to blink as she considered his question with pursed lips, clearly taken aback by the request to explain what it meant. 

"Well. There is quite a bit of context that we simply don't have time for at the moment, John Smith, but the simplest answer I can give you is this. An adept is one who has the ability to absorb and manipulate mana in order to produce an uncountable number of unique and fantastical phenomena. The most important of which is the ability to tame and subdue Rifts, which, incidentally, is what brought us here and lead to the discovery of your species." 

"I see." He did not see, not one bit. 

Y'szmeni giggle-cawed at him again.

"I believe your people would call it 'magic', John Smith," the bird woman said with a hint of amusement in her voice.

She muttered something under her breath that John couldn't quite make out and a bright ball of green flame swirled to life in the palm of her right hand. It floated there, like a miniature sun that slowly rotated clockwise and occasionally spit out a fading crescent of flame from it's surface.

"Mana is a naturally occurring substance that permeates most of known space. A notable exception being your Sol System, as you've come to call it. Your system has been outside the fields of mana for thousands of years. A natural disaster in nearby space drew the mana away from this sector, and that fact is what led to your people spending so long outside the fold of the Hegemony. Not just that, the trajectory of your system continued to plunge you further into a sort of 'dark zone' where mana is unusually thin. No one thought to look here, as species whom develop without the influence of mana is exceedingly rare. Tell me, were there any mass extinction events here on your world? Think cataclysmic planet wide events."

John thought of a few right off the rip and told Y'szmeni as much. "There, that meteor impact. It's very likely it wasn't a meteorite at all, but a Rift collapse." She informed him matter-of-factly, completely confident in her assertion. John took her word for it as she closed her hand on the little sun she held, snuffing it out in a puff of acrid smoke. "It's a wonder your planet is still intact. Even a small rift collapse tends to crack worlds open. Though, it does explain why you're in a mana starved region of space." Y'szmeni seemed to be talking to herself now, her attention not completely focused on John anymore as she thought. Just as fast as the distraction had come, it seemed to go, her eyes returning to his.

"So. If I'm pickup up what you're putting down, just through contextual clues here, magic is real and you're here because I might be genetically built to use it?" He asked her with much skepticism in his eyes.

"Potentially," she replied while taking a few steps in his direction. "That is why I need to administer the test, to see if you truly do have the aptitude to become an adept. Though, I strongly suspect it to be the case." Her words were accompanied by a knowing smirk that made John frown. 

"Why is that?" Instead of answering his question directly the bird woman just pointed above his head. Following the direction of her motion with his eyes, John yelped in surprise and flailed at the little green streaks of celestial flame that were lazily floating above him. Y'szmeni's laugh filled the air as the wisps vanished like smoke in the face of his panicked waving.

"John Smith, do you consent to testing?" Head spinning as he considered everything he'd been told up to this point, John took a long internal look at where his life here on Earth was headed, namely the complete lack of direction or prospects he seemed to have. It was an easy decision for him to make. 

"I do." The answer held conviction and the confidence behind it made the strangely beautiful alien woman smile as she conjured a whirling cloud of multicolored energy in her hand. Holding it out towards him, the instructor locked eyes with the Terran before her.

"Okay, take a deep breath. As you inhale, focus on drawing in everything around you. The most basic element of what an adept does is drawing upon the ambient mana around them for later use. Without the ability to do this, you are but a mundane human no different from the rest and will not be able to harness the power that mana provides to us."

Nodding, John furrowed his brow and tried to do as she instructed, breathing deep as he focused on the dancing light show in her hand. As his chest expanded and his nostrils flared, he was surprised to see thin strands begin to reach out from the cloud. 

"Good, I see you can feel it. Hold onto that feeling and try to draw it deep into your lungs. If you cannot draw onto the mana that's fine, there may simply not be enough in the environment to start the reaction." Y'szmeni said reassuringly. "Truthfully, there's unlikely to be enough mana between myself... and... the..." Y'szmeni trailed off as she watched John with mounting surprise, his next deep breath getting a reaction from the mana she was offering.

Concentration wrinkled the man's forehead as he stared down the flickering tendrils of light that struggled to free themselves. Another breath, another tiny jump, he could feel... Something. Like the faintest wiff of smoke that barely registered and you had to focus on to find. With that visualization his head head John felt a sudden blocking in his sinuses that felt akin to the beginnings of a runny nose and he gave a hard sniff out of reflex to relieve the sensation. To his astonishment, those little tendrils shot out towards him the instant he felt the blockage in his sinuses clear which prompted the instructor to bark at him.

"Don't stop John Smith, continue to draw it in." Her voice was sharp and commanding, like a Drill Sergeant from those boot camp videos he'd watched on the internet. He did as he was told and took in another lungful of air which felt as though he had just opened the door to a furnace before taking the breath. He didn't stop, not when he could see and feel the energy being offered to him pour from Y'szmeni's hand and into his lungs where it spread through the rest of his body, much like the warmth of a stiff swig of strong alcohol.

"Woah," he began woozily, very nearly losing his balance until the alien woman swooped in to steady him, a wide, very carnivorous looking smile splitting her green face.

"Don't worry, I've got you John Smith, keep breathing, don't stop." Unable to do anything else in the moment, John complied, drawing in a few short hitched breaths as he focused on the ball of light she still held in her other hand. After the initial struggle had passed, he continued to take the same deep breaths he had before. Feeling that warmth turn into a low burn, John fought his instinctual urge to stop, afraid he might lose whatever it was he'd been able to get ahold of. His chest ached, like he wasn't getting enough oxygen despite taking such deep breaths and he finally couldn't take it anymore. Coughing violently, the young man doubled over in Y'szmeni's arms as he clutched at his chest. 

"What you are feeling is the beginning of the dynamo that will fuel your future mana cache," the bird woman told him gently. "But you certainly have the aptitude to become an adept, that much is abundantly clear." Helping him stand up straight, Y'szmeni took a step back and snapped into a smart military 'parade rest' like position. "John Smith, you are hereby drafted into the Hegemony Military and will be trained aboard the Honor's Oath. Your term of training will be a minimum of two years and no more than five. Once you have completed training and have assembled the minimum number of personnel for your personal guard, you will be transferred aboard another ship or station in two year intervals for a term of service that will be no shorter than ten years. Once your service is complete, you will be granted full Hegemony citizenship and be free to do as you please from then on. Welcome aboard, Cadet Adept."

Alright! Now that you've (hopefully) been hooked, here's the real pitch. 

I intend on playing our John Smith here who while training to become a cool ass military sci-fi space wizard, slowly picks out and builds a team of non-space wizard alien monster girl soldier badasses to the tune of between 3-7 at a minimum and maximum. Making the smallest size of the team be 4 and 8 max respectively including him as the center of their formation as the adept. 

Their job will be to fight as a team to close Rifts as they pop up all over the galaxy, preventing untold destruction and loss of life. I need you, the reader, to bring that team to life as I orchestrate the wider world around us.

There will be action, adventure, romance, steamy encounters, drama, laughs, sobs, and all manner of tomfoolery! If you enjoyed the read and this interests you in the slightest, bring any and all questions to my PMs and I will more than happily fill you in on anything you'd like to know.

There's a whole lot of context into the whole shindig that I have yet to dump into our laps but a quick and dirty is this.

An important note is gender dynamics. Earth is unique in that we have an almost 1 to 1 split of mem and women. The rest of the galaxy however, due to life on all other plants being laughably safe compared to earth, is very heavily screwed female in most cases. The MOST generous split aside from humanity is 1 male to every 5 females. That species is also an outliar, just like Earth. It only gets more extreme after that, with some of the more common species in the galaxy often having numbers reaching well into the mid-high double digits. Because of that, what we see as gender norms is in many ways flipped on it's head. Namely courtship and relationships. Men in the Hegemony are the prize and the ones who get pursued, considering they're kind of spoiled for choice no matter where they go or what they do.

This, however, results in men facing many of the same problems women traditionally do in our mind when it comes to social interactions with many women ending up objectifying and generally treating them like a piece of meat to be enjoyed. But, as a result of them being relatively rare and of high value in many ways, they're also afforded greater protections and crimes against men, especially those of a physical and 'intimate' nature, are viciously punished; although that's a two way street. They do not hesitate to remove people from the gene pool.

So, all that said. Adepts themselves are something of a privileged class and many, many, lengths are taken to protect and preserve them when they are not deployed to suppress rifts. One specific example is adepts, despite being themselves a weapon, are required by law to be armed at all times in public. This is a privilege absolutely none other than security personnel are afforded. If you get into an altercation and the other party is an adept, if they are not egregiously in the wrong, you are. 9 times out of 10, the security forces and law enforcement in the Hegemony are going to side with an adept and their guards. Especially if it appears the individual is going to end up being a person of import in the future. 

On to how the picking of guards works. It's a sort of bidding system and the adepts get to choose their guards to an extent.

The bullet points;

-Big list 
-List shows all candidates
-List shows all their training metrics
-Important information about the candidates' skills and training certifications
-Mugshot
-Any notes from instructors (mertis, disciplinary marks, ect.), and their preferred gear as well as style of fighting. 
-Finally, they have special notes at the very end of their profile for miscellaneous things such as "Was an accomplished chef before service, certified deep tissue massage therapist" ect. 

Adept manually reviews ALL the candidates in their current rotation. They have a bid, like a little vote and they get 5 for that selection period and depending on how fast the adept puts in their vote, the guard candidates will see who bid on them to be on their team and they accept or deny. It's a mostly permanent arrangement, so there are very few takebacksies other than when there are significant and irreconcilable conflicts of personality or other such problems.

Naturally, the system kind of favors John just for being a dude AND the first one of a brand new species (an arrangement that would be a huge deal socially for the girls who get chosen) Guy would be able to choose just about anyone off the list and get them to accept, as far as this is concerned.

That, however, doesn't mean he can't or won't get stuck with an angry fiercely loyal guard that wants him to do better. Another thing of note. The first pick doesn't get an interview, and they're essentially the "captain" of their adept's guard, making it doubly prestigious to be the first pick of an adept considering they'll be the one who's essentially been with their space wizard from the very start.

Just to make sure it's clear, additional guards can and probably will be slow rolled in after the first to facilitate good relationship building between everyone and get them established before adding new people into the dynamic.

I hope to see some of you soon!
Silent Showers Member

Friendly Neighborhood Secret Policeman

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