Wushu: After the End

Premise

In the far future, the apocalypse has come and gone. In a desperate bid to survive an impending environmental crisis, a super construct, dubbed “Athana” was made. Essentially a gigantic city, completely shielded and isolated from it’s surroundings by massive walls. It was a given from the beginning that all who entered would live out the entirety of their lives within, while those that stayed out would die shortly. There are rumours that other, similar constructs have been made, but there has been no indications of outside life since the doors to Athana were shut indefinitely.

The first years inside were quite tumultuous. Power struggles and open war erupted between several old-world factions, anarchy ruled the streets and it was feared that Athana might very well become the final capstone of man. The original creator of the complex, Cytek co., won out, cementing itself as the official ruler of the entire city. Two centuries later, things have stabilized somewhat, though there are still plenty of rebel groups and insurgents at large, wanting to topple the despotic Cytek. Battles are fought less than rarely in the streets, and scarcity is the norm, as the city can only support it’s growing population by expanding further down into the corrupted soil.

Yet, people keep living their lives, trying to better their lot, enkindled by the hope that some day the earth may be made habitable again. Now, things are being set in motion and the future awaits...


Setting

Note: The setting is inspired by, but not set in, the world of Ar Tonelico 2, with a couple of other anime and video game influences. Also, the following section got longer than I meant to. You're not required to internalize it completely.

Athana:

Every single element of Athana is man-made and synthesised, from the metallic floor of the entire complex to the air you breathe. Technology is completely ubiquitous; every building has nano-technology strengthening it’s structure, every lamppost capable of surveillance and connected to the central database. Understanding of the inner workings of it all is completely obscured for most people, especially outside Cytek itself, though it’s all perfectly accessible to the layman, with speech recognition, though transfer and such. Access to Athana’s systems is so ubiquitous, there’s a quite common phobia of places “off the grid”, nooks and crannies not connected to the structure itself, though these are also popular among shadier types.

With all-powerful technology available at the fingertips, a fiercely individualistic culture has developed. Technological innovations are often driven by individuals or small teams. Some people gain almost godlike powers by tapping into the combined power of Athana, and immortality can be attained with enough cybernetic enhancements, replacing flesh with metal.

The complex itself is fashioned as a sprawling city-scape, enveloped in a dome of metal, some 50 kilometers in diameter, roofed by a transparent force field, through which mostly dark dust clouds can be seen. Space is packed with gigantic buildings of all kinds, with few open spaces for artificial parks. Flying cars roam the air, with middle sections of skyscrapers dedicated to malls and every form recreation, so the rich never have to set foot on solid ground, living their life from their penthouses. Consequently, the actual streets at ground level are ruled by various subcultures and alternative modes of transportation.

Underneath the main cities, sprawls a maze-like tunnel system, carefully dug to not weaken the structure of what lies above. First dug to extract resources, and since made barely habitable as overpopulation became a problem. The “Underground”, as it’s aptly named, is for all intents and purposes the ghetto of the city, with only the poor and the downright destitute living there, with plenty of criminal and illicit activity passing through. Official digging for expansion is slow, so space is even more packed than on the surface, and areas that are dug unofficially are often off the grid and dangerous in other ways. On the plus side, Undergrounders tend to be hardy folk and with strong communities, who fight through their hardship. The surface city above the Underground is generally just refered to as Athana, or sarcastically by Undergrounders, as the ‘overground’.

Surgers:

During the early, bloody wars over dominion of Athana, an odd power awakened. A few select individuals, Surgers, began devoloping a pwer that makes them able to draw upon incredible power and seemingly bend the laws of reality to their will. The effects of Surges wary greatly, though they’re often destructive in nature, and have an intricate relationship with it’s wielders personality: A cold and calculating Surger maybe be able to instantly freeze their environment, one of faith may summon winged beings of light to help them, and some can make their own phobias real and inflict them on their opponents. There is little coherence or consistency in the power of the Surge and what it can do, except that it’s always linked to the mind of the wielder.

Further, Surgers make use of ‘rituals’ to invoke their power. Again, what the ritual consists of varies greatly between the users. Some sing, some dance, some do head calculations, some self-mutilate, some exercise. All Surgers simply have a distinct way of bringing forth the actual Surge. Beyond that, the phenomenon is named after the effect the most powerful Surges have on it’s envirornment: Light’s and devices flicker on an off and visible bolts of electricity lash out from the grid as massive amounts of power ‘surges’ towards epicenter of the “spell”.

The inner workings of the Surge is veiled in much mystery. It is theorised that due to the vastness of the technology within Athana, there will always be a machine somewhere that can accomplish what is needed, and Surgers are subconsciously manipulating major subsystems all over the city to turn their wish into reality, but no one knows how it truly works and the effects have been impossible to replicate in earnest. It’s simply functional magic, though given the unfathomable nature of much of Athana’s technology, it doesn’t stand out as much as you would think. Nonetheless, the power is feared, in part due to it’s unpredictability. The ability to use Surges spread much like genes, often running in families, but can also spontaneously appear in any person, regardless of gender, background or age. As the power not uncommonly fall into the “wrong” hands, Cytek regulates it firmly: All Surgers are committed by law to register themselves into a public database and all stronger ones (those with a Level above 2, on a scale from 1 to 10), are more or less bullied into joining Cytek’s own ranks, often in the military, as they have little hope of a normal life otherwise.

Guardians:

The rituals of Surgers and the focus of mastery of their powers rather than military training of leave them vulnerable on the battlefield. Out of need to protect them was a born a new type of soldier, dubbed the Guardian. Equipping shields and various other kinds of defensive implements, often coupled with melee weapons, their job is to protect the Surgers as meat shields or distraction. Small squads of Surgers and Guardians working in unison, employing small-scale guerilla warfare quickly proved extremely effective within the confines of tight city scape. Just as recruiting and training the best Surgers became a priority for all military outfits, Guardians were soon equipped with the best technology and weaponry.

Today, Guardian is a prestigious title, the best soldiers in the military and a separate division from the regular infantry. The sign of an established Guardian is his or her own, unique weapon, tailored exactly to their fighting style. Cybernetic enhancement and performance improving nanomaschines are common as well. Ironically, the best Guardians are virtual one-man armies, who can level city blocks without assistance of a Surger.

Hackers:

In a City made of technology, hacking is obviously a very useful skill. There’s a huge pool of them out there, both of the regular working-man variety, tending and admistrating the massive systems within Athana, and the lone cyber-criminal sort. The best don’t spend their day sitting at their desk, writing code, but are able to hack real time, bending the technology around them to their will, while others have an uncanny ability for creating new hardware and technology. They can be quite dangerous, able to control enemy cybernetics, incoming traffic, reconfiguring weaponry and so on.

The best are so good that’s it’s popularly believed they have an innate gift akin to that of the Surgers, having a natural connection to the city. Few hackers believe this, though, having poured much effort into perfecting their skill, and many of them distrust Surgers for breaking the logic they see in the workings of technology. Where Surgers have an intuition, hackers have insight.

A hacker can generally be known by the gear they lug around. Expect them to wear Augmented Reality (AR) gear, such as glasses with information overlays and carry five different kinds of computers on their person. More secretive types may wear covering clothes, such as trenchcoats, or work the technology directly into their own body.

Cytek:

Cytek was originally a pioneer in cybernetic enhancement, turned massive, international corporation, turned contract builder of Athana. While they had plenty outside financial help from gorvernments, and muscle to do all the dirty work, the complex is ultimately based on their technology, no one understanding it as well as them, which gave them a significant advantage in the power struggles to come.

While their rule is anything but democratic, and public opinion of them is generally quite low, it would be an exaggeration to call them entirely evil. While it is commonly believed otherwise, their rule was not born as a sudden coup d’etat, but rather as retaliation against the former world powers, unwilling to share political and economical power with Cytek that they were promised from the start. Cytek simply fought back, and fought back hard, against a conspiracy against them, and stepped up themselves to fill the resulting void of power. The “co.” was quickly dropped and they became a legitimate govern, if not a likable one.

Cytek’s general attitude to ruling is “the people do not know best”. While their policies are rarely popular, they are realistic. There are many threats within and without; rebel groups, public dissent, resource scarcity, breakdowns in the city’s older systems, amok Surgers and chaotic technological growth. Cytek always swiftly, and with force, make any and all necessary sacrifices necessary to ensure the survival of Athana. They have little qualms about meeting public dissent with military force, or suspending certain freedoms for certain people. The organisation does have a fair amount of principled individuals, zealots even, that believe Cytek’s action are ultimately for the greater good. That’s not to say they don’t have their fair share of corrupt politician, more than fair, but on the overall, Cytek act as a responsible, if a harsh and slightly dysfunctional, government.

Blue Sky:

The longest lived, biggest and most notorious rebel group within Athana. They are the diametrical opposition of Cytek, opposing them at every step. Originally formed after the first democratically elected government in Athana was violently overthrown by Cytek, they have fought long and bitterly. Their primary objectives are to bring down Cytek and establish a rule of the people, as well as finding a way to recolonize the earth, although the latter has faded as a priority as the former turned out to be a task not easily undertaken.

Public opinion on Blue Sky is divided. They are responsible for much of the turmoil and unrest within Athana, their terrorist actions being the cause of the loss of many lives among both their own ranks, Cytek and civilians. However, this stands in contrast to the righteousness of their cause, and the day to day tyranny of Cytek, and their recruitment numbers remain ever high, which is the main reason they have lasted.

Ever the underdog, fighting a battle they almost can’t win, Blue Sky have their fingers in pretty much everything. Public terrorism, propaganda, assassination, information warfare, experimental weapons manufacturing, as well as the occasional direct confrontation with the military of Cytek. Their membership is a diverse sort, with people of all trades, backgrounds and motivations. Several splinter factions exist within Blue Sky as well, with various specializations and sub-goals, some of a more humanitarian sort, for instance fighting for the rights of Surgers.


Rules

Wushu is a free roleplaying game made by Daniel Bayn. It’s very light, the original rules being eleven pages in length, and very suited for forum play, due to a lack of stuff such as initiative rules and a focus on cool descriptions. Below I’ve transcribed all the rules you’ll need. If you’re interested, there’s also the original open rules (they’re quite the entertaining read)and the more throughout explained and slightly expanded Wushu Reloaded. If you read those, you can skim this section to the forum-related parts and the houserule at the end.

Generally, it’s when there’s a conflict, danger and/or risk that we use bust out the rules. Conflicts can be of any kind, be it physical (hint: combat), mental or social, as long as it’s important enough to focus on.
Conflicts run on a round structure, with me, the GM, ending and starting new ones. During a round, players post descriptions of their actions and various going on in the conflict. Each detail a player describes gives them a six sided to roll when the round ends. So, the more details described, the better, up to a cap on the maximum amount of dice the players can earn each round, set by me at the beginning of the conflict. So, “I hit him with my club” is one detail/die, while “I smirk widely / and utter in a suitably sarcastic voice / ‘Oh, won’t someone think of the children?’ “ is three details/dice. A couple of rules apply to the details:

Everything the player describes happen exactly as they describe it, when they describe it. Do or do not, there is not try. This is called the Principle of Narrative Truth. Unlike most tabletop RPGs, the dice have no influence on whether you succeed or not, only the ultimate effect of your actions. If you say you nail that guy in the face, you DO nail that guy in the face, no rolling
required. You can describe your character avoiding every blow, or getting hit by every single one, both descriptions contains details and are thus “good” for you, and you can still lose a fight even though you portray yourself as an invincible Mary Sue god. Further, details can be anything. It can be your character’s physical actions, inner thoughts, flashbacks, dialogue, scenery or weather conditions (as in, a sudden, dramatic lightning storm). I’ll generally set the scene, but players are allowed (encouraged!) to fill in the details as it fits them. You can go through an entire combat with your details maxed, without ever making a physical attack.

However, “finishing moves” should generally be saved for something called the “Coup de Grace”: At the end of a conflict, the winner gets to narrate what happens to the loser(s), in all it’s gory details. Whether it’s death or public humiliation, the winner gets to decide the fate of the losers, within scope of the conflict.

If a player goes overboard with a description, inflicts an early Coup de Grace, take too much control of other characters, or something otherwise unacceptable, they can be Vetoed. Unless the Veto is completely unreasonable, the player will then have to retract the offending description. All players have the right to veto anything, so the GM can be vetoed too. The Principle of Narrative of Truth doesn’t disallow god modding, so the only thing you have to fear when posting your details is the veto. The key takeaway is that if your description is cool, relevant and fun, if the other players like it, there’s no restrictions on what you can do.

Once you’ve done all the details you’d like for the round, covered in as many posts as you’d like (you don’t have to earn the max dice every time. It’s better to roll less than do uninspired posting), approximately count them up and designate which of your Traits you are using. You’ll see Traits in the CS section. Players roll against the number in their Trait once the time to roll the bones come. The Trait chosen should be representative of the descriptions, but just choose the one that’s more relevant or you’d rather use if more than one applies. If none are the least bit relevant, you roll against a standard value of 2. When a dice is rolled, it is compared to the trait value. If it’s equal to or lower, it’s a success, which is good for the one rolling it, otherwise, it’s a failure that does nothing.

After designating your trait, you split your dice into yin and yang dice, representing defence and offence, respectively. Each yang dice that succeeds is a point of ouch on your opponent, getting you that much closer to defeating them. Yin dice do the exact opposite, each successful yin die negating one successful Yang die. If a Yang die isn’t blocked, you lose a point of Chi instead, of which you start with three. If a Yang die goes through while you have no Chi, you’re out of the conflict; You can no longer roll any dice and might be subjected to a Coup de Grace. Chi are given back after healing sessions, time skips, climatic events or when it’s otherwise appropriate. Victory speeches and such may help your chances . Both your dice split and chosen trait should be posted in a spoiler at the end of your post. Note that your how many yin or yang dices you choose doesn’t have to be related to how offensive or defensive your descriptions were, but feel to let it inspire you, for instance narrating taking blows after having lost Chi and such.

Example: You’ve earned 4 dice and use the “Trait 4: Trickery”. You decide to split these dice into 3 Yang dice, and 1 Yin die. They roll 6, 2, 4, 1, in that order. That’s two Yang successes and one Yin, or two points of damage dealt, and one incoming blocked.

Once all players have posted their traits and splits, I do any last actions of the antagonists, and end the round. For the sake of expediency, I’ll be doing all the dice rolling and calculation and post the result, after which we immediately move on to the next round. Each round lasts at most a week; if some players haven’t posted anything by then, the round passes without them. They don’t get to roll any dice, but they cannot be attacked either, and their dice cap is raised by 1 for the next round. I’m preferring ‘brief and active’ over ‘wordy and inactive’ here, though being wordy isn’t bad by itself. Just save some for the Coup de Grace.

There are two variations of conflicts, which work slightly differently from each other. One is the Mook conflict. Mooks are the Storm Troopers, ninjas or otherwise faceless, disposable enemies of fiction. Players should feel free to mow these down by the dozen and toy with them in any way they want. The enemy might not actually be anything living, it can also be a challenge of the sort of “track this down” or “get here, within time”. The main point is mooks doesn’t get to defend themselves and players can go about the challenge how they want.

Every mook conflict has a Threat Rating. This is essentially it’s life or hp; every Yang scored against it reduces it by one, and when it’s down to zero, the conflict is over, and whoever wants to, can narrate the Coup de Grace, first come first serve. Mooks don’t get to roll dice, so they can’t defend against it, and instead of rolling Yang, they simply deal a set amount of automatic Yang successes each round to all opponents. There might also be a time limit, a number of rounds within which the mook threat must be defeated, or the GM gets effectively the Coup de Grace (kekeke!).

The other type of conflict is the Nemesis conflict. Nemeses are generally the big, bad, evil antagonists, the mid or final boss. Nemeses work by the same rules as the players, having Traits and Chi, rolling dice and describing details. Unlike mooks, they can’t be killed off or seriously maimed outside of the Coup de Grace, though describing hits, cuts and wounds are of course fine. Nemesis battles are generally fought one-on-one, for maximum back-and-forth, attack-counter action. You may want not to blow off all your details right away, but wait for the opposition to react. Other players can’t interfere with an ongoing nemesis conflict mechanically (with dice) in any way, though they can still use it as fodder for details, as they’ll likely be busy with other stuff. Who fights the nemesis is chosen internally, or will be obvious given the specific villain.

There’s one last rule, which isn’t especially important. The “Scab Roll” is a quick way to resolve a situation if it’s not important enough for a mook or nemesis battle. If you need to know if you succeed in a simple endeavor, such as arm wrestling a random bar goer, pick the Trait that’s most relevant to it and roll as many dice as it’s value (again, 2 if none). The result is the dice which rolled the lowest. If it’s 3 or below, you succeed. Lower result is better, so 1 is perfect, 3 is success at a price (for instance, you get injured while doing the task, but pull through), and 6 is an appalling bad and unlucky outcome.

This rule isn’t very important, and not very suited for forum RPing, so we’re only gonna use it to the extent it’s necessary. I may call out someone to make a scab roll they’re succeeding a bit too much, blazing through notable opposition, or just veto it, but ideally you should make your own scab roll for your actions, injected with spoiler tags, if there’s large amount of doubt to “can I do that?”. Or you think both success and failure can be interesting. Especially pulling of larger Surges outside of a regular conflict should warrant a Scab Roll, since it’s not really a reliable power. Don’t sweat the mundane stuff though: A hacker can easily hack into a standard security system, a tough guy can climb a wall, and so on. Don’t forget the Principle of Narrative truth!

Lastly, a house rule (which I didn’t come up with myself, mind) for the workings of the Traits: You can only your Trait 5 once per conflict. You can evoke the trait with your descriptions more times than that, but it only counts as a value of 4, then. Unless, you use your Trait 3. If you use your Trait 3, you “recharge” your Trait 5, so you can use it’s value again. Further, using your weakness, Trait 1, gives you back 2 Chi. It’s the kinda Trait that knocks you on your ass, but also sets you back for a come back. None of these effect Scab Rolls. This section may make more sense when you get to the character sheet.

Also, there’s a Synthesis system for making useful items, but I’ll leave that for when/if it becomes relevant.

And that’s it for the rules. Do ask if there’s any confusion.


Character Sheet

There’s not a lot of limitations on what kind of character you can be. It’d be obvious to be Guardian, Surger or Hacker, but you don’t actually have to. You can be working for Cytek, Blue Sky, a third party or be freelance. The setting elements are mainly there to provide inspiration. The only real requirement is that you’re not mundane. You should be a badass, in one way or another, and have something on your agenda. And you should be ready to kick some ass.

Name: (Use a real name, or something that sounds somewhat like a real name, no Tolkien here. Ethnicities still exist to some degree, so you may make inspired by a certain countries’ naming tendencies. Titles and pseudonyms are cool too.)

Concept: (Describe your character in a single sentence or two. Playboy billionaire by day, crimefighter by night? Lady Gaga with machine guns? It’s for you to think over who you character is as a whole, and for us to quickly to reference “wait, who was that guy again?”)

Gender: (Options other than male/female allowed only if you have a good reason for it.)

Age: (Don’t make a extremely young or old character, again, if you have a good reason to do so. As in, it ties into the whole character concept, rather than being an isolated gimmick that’s gonna get tiring.)

Appearance: (Skin complexion, size, hair, outfit, scars, smell, tatoos, trademarks and all that good stuff. You can leave the cliff notes here and do a detailed description ingame if you prefer. Keep in mind that the main purpose of this section is to give an image of your character in action in our collective heads, so be clear and distinct. Feel free to come up with whatever futuristic fashion you like, whether it’s cyber-goth or air-skating parkour punks. Or go straight-laced, formal or military, or something third.)

Traits: You have five traits total: One of each with the values 5, 4, 3, 1 and an “extra” which value you choose yourself. Traits should both describe your character’s competences, what they can do and who they are. Traits of different values represent different “catecories” of aspects of your character, detailed below. Each trait should have a name, which can be noun, adjective or small sentence, followed by as much embellishment and explaining of it as necessary.

Trait 5: (This is your strongest trait, and must be something deeply personal about your character. A stout belief, an all-important goal, a motivation, a gut feeling you live by or some such. This trait shouldn’t necessarily come into play all too often, but when it does, it should really shine. Make it something you scream while you punch the bad guy in the face, hot blood style! Or, uh, don’t.)

Trait 4: (This is the trait you’re probably going to be using most often, and varies a bit by character concept. If you are a Guardian it may be your unique weapon and what it does, your general fighting style, or just what sets you apart in combat (super fast/cybernetic enhancements/leadership abilities, etc). If you are a Surger this trait must be your Surge. Name it after a feeling or concept that’s related to your character and go into detail about what it does and what your ritual is. If you’re a hacker, it should include something about how you use your skills in combat, whether it’s having a coat full of dangerous gizmos, brain and cybernetics real time hacking or manipulating the environment to your favour.

If your character are none of these, the trait should still at least be usable in physical combat, though it may well have a wider range of application.)

Trait 3: (This trait represents one of your more general purpose skillsets. It may be training you’ve received, education, background or profession. The important thing is that implies what you else you can do, and who you know, when you aren’t busting heads and fighting for your convictions, as trait 4 and 5 represent. Example: A doctor have extensive knowledge of anatomy and sickness, is precise, smart and probably have connection in the academic world, while a thief know about breaking and entering, concealment techniques, has streetwise and may know some shady types.)

Trait 1: (A weakness. Since default value is two, this is something you’re worse at than anything else. The flaw can take any form, be it a flaw in your fighting style, a dark side of your personality, a problem with your tech, or a simple disability . When you play this trait, your character is at it’s worst. Mechanically, it’s not actually bad for you, though, so try to make it something that might come up during play.)

Extra Trait: (As mentioned, you choose which value to give this trait, though it can’t be 2. The extra trait should fit into the category of the one it shares it’s value with. So this trait could be an extra surge, or another weakness, for instance. If you don’t have any good ideas you can leave this one empty and fill it in during play.)

Chi: Current 3, Max 3. (Your buffer, your hp. It’s nice to have on the character sheet, but I’ll keep track of everyone’s Chi, so you don’t have keep track of the Current one if you don’t want to)

Personality: (First impression, charisma, social behaviour, defining feelings, aura, accent, body language, quirks, tics and all such. If there are parts of a character’s personality that are special and defining of them, you should work it into a trait. Meaning this field is less important if your traits speak loudly of who your character is.)

Background: (Where you grew up and what you’ve done and experienced in life. Like with personality, really important events that have defined the character should be worked into a trait, probably number 5 or 1, so you should only pad this field as much as you want to.)



Example Character

Name: Felix Rukin
Concept: The current leader of Blue Sky, proud and clever.
Gender: Male
Age: 32

Appearance: Felix is tall, lean and sports short, combed, raven-black hair, with eyes a shade of blue. Felix’ general looks extrude an air of both formality and approachability. He’s fair without being a pretty boy. He’s groomed without looking spoiled. He wears nice clothes without appearing rich. He looks like a man of station, without being intimidating.

Trait 5: Dispose of Cytek!
The lifegoal of Felix is the one of and the same as of the organisation he leads. More than anything, he wants to bring the despot that has ruled Athana for all these many years. The passion has practically turned to an obsession around which his life revolves. The motivation behind it have largely become irrelevant in the face of the quest itself, but it’s a mixture of both genuine anger over their actions and wanting to succeed where so many before him has failed. If one tries to argue that they’re “not so bad”, he’ll swiftly pick apart their logic and win the debate.

Trait 4: Surge: Freedom
Felix is actually a quite powerful Surger, though this comes second to his leadership responsibilities. His power is that of “freedom”, being quite litterally able to ‘set things free’ of various forces upon them. This could be ‘freeing’ an object of gravity, making it float, or freeing it of it’s current motion, stopping it dead in it’s tract. He is also able to affect the mind in this way, freeing people of certain emotions or memories or such. His ritual is making short, appropriate speeches on the subject, or quoting famous leaders. It ends up corny less rarely, speaking of freedoms in front of the enemy, but it works. It’s an interesting power with many applications and no clear boundary, but Felix himself is too busy to train it properly, and thus, hardly knows it’s limits himself.

Trait 3: Born Leader
Felix is one of the youngest leaders of Blue Sky there’s been, and it falls quite naturally to him. He’s good at rallying the troops, recruiting members, doing propaganda and the day-to-day administration of an organisation as large and unruly as Blue Sky.

Trait 1: Not the physical sort...
For guy with a very high chance of being assassinated, Felix doesn’t go to the gym as often or do as much combat training as he should. He simply doesn’t have the time, or so he claims. He’s had a fencing lesson or two, but it’s a fact he’d be entirely screwed if a competent enemy ever got up close with him. Heavy lifting isn’t exactly his forté, either. Luckily, he does have his personal bodyguard and brother, Luke, to make up for much of this...

Extra Trait: 3, Academic
Before joining Blue Sky, Felix was actually on his way to a fairly illustrious career in academics. As such, he has pretty comprehensive and broad knowledge on topics such as math, physics, basic robotics, Surge Theory and so forth. He’s a smart guy and is packed with trivia and unexpectedly useful information.

Chi: Current 3, Max 3.

Personality: There’s not much of an “true” personality to Felix; He’s always “on” in one way or the other. In public relations he’s harsh and criticizing. Internally in Blue Sky he’s friendly and polite, but demanding and quick to pick up the slack and step into authority. Let him in a room with corrupt politician and he can be surprisingly ruthless. But the private side of him, few know. When he’s not bossing people around, he really just wants some peace and quiet.

Background: From birth, Felix was part of the upper echelons of society. This protected him from suffering over being a Surger, without him fully realising it himself. His parents weren’t of a particularly societal conscious sort, so he was raised to be concerned mainly about his education and excelling in the world. Which he did, until his brother got into an incident concerning the state, which nearly cost him his life. Felix rescued him, and the whole affair brought much to light about the injustices of the current system. They both went underground for a while, before joining Blue Sky. The determined Felix excelled immensely in this environment, and has been leader of the organisation for 3 years. They’ve had much progress in this period, making them every hopeful that they might finally accomplish their goal.


Accepted Characters

Asmodai: The silent pacifist, that can teleport! Tacey

Iris: The Sarcastic Hacker. Home is where the heart lies, Erroll Vanders

Geomancer: Chaotic nihilist and orderly creator, Joseph Maxwell

Tuor: Rakish, smooth talking smuggler, Mat Calthorne

Ionix Baelgos: Marketing Rep who gets ripped and has a chip on his shoulder, Gael (Gary) Malagan

My_Little_Sister: Hydrophobic Ninja Hacker, Lucy Amethyst Wilkinson

Mastermind001: Robocop meets Transformers meets Mazinger Z, Marx Peterson

BobSagat: The gentleman thief without a shred of courage, with the alliterative name, Louis Logic

NeoWarrior7: A Guardian of the Law, Roland Stenberg

Regalus: Combat Medic, fighting for a better world, Lt. Christopher Jacob

Garethcool: Hacker looking out for number one, Samuel J. Hawken

_________________

WIP (will continue later)

Name: Lucy Amethyst Wilkinson
Concept: Hydrophobic Ninja Hacker
Gender: female
Age: 21

Appearance: She's thin and short, standing only 4'6" and weighing 89 lbs., looking only 16, though she's 21. She has light skin and no scars, at least none visible. She has long, dark brown hair, chocolatey brown eyes. She has her ears pierced and is always wearing a pair of red microchip earrings. Each one holds data that she hopes to eventually be able to use on her computer to add more weapons though she often forgets and gets lazy.
She wears t-shirts and jeans most of the time, though can be seen in other clothes. Under her clothes, she wears a thin "armor" with wires running everywhere. On her left arm is a flat computer, much like a thin laptop, and on her right arm, a laser gun connected to the back of her wrist. Her legs are covered in a machine connected to the computer and, with the push of a button, she can use it to make herself as fast as a car, though rarely goes faster than a fast bike. She also uses this to hide and get by without being seen.

Trait 5: Stronger: Since the death of her sister, she has been training herself to become strong and fast, physically, emotionally and mentally. She hates to see people get hurt and, though she hates fighting, gets involved if she sees a fight in which someone is being beat badly.

Trait 4: Rapid Analysis: She can type more than twice the average words per minute, though that is because she's almost constantly typing and trying to get faster. She often uses this in her hacking to find out a person's weakness in a fight. In her computer, she has a bio-scanner which, through a little typing, she can easily find their weakness, as long as it's physical. After learning her opponent's weakness, she can attack the spot with either her laser, built to stun, or her kick-boxing skills, which can be deadly if she's not careful, mostly because of the speed of her mechanized legs.

Trait 3: Natural Linguist: She can speak many languages, having learned them as she was growing. She doesn't need the languages but have often used them to get away from people she didn't like by speaking a language they didn't understand. It has often landed her jobs in which she would translate different languages.

Trait 1: Shiney: She is easily distracted by things that are not seen every day but not completely unusual, such as fabulous jewelry, beautiful dresses, etc. She also becomes distracted when a pretty girl walks by. Her train of thought derails often only to land on another rail. It is often caused by her hyper attitude and other times her short attention span.

Extra Trait: (3) Mind Over Matter: She is very creative but rarely does anything with her ideas other than write them down. Sometimes she'll hand them off to friends with the words, "I get some credit since it is my idea." She has seen a few of her ideas become great things from her friends, has even helped build them a few times, but she mostly works on her legs and computer, trying to waterproof them.

Chi: 3/3

Personality: Lucy's a pretty easy going gal. She doesn't like to fight and can usually talk her way out of anything. However, when fighting is her only chance, she uses downloaded kick boxing skills on her mechanized legs as well as the laser gun on the back of her wrist.
She loves to have fun and get drunk with friends, especially girls, but also takes the time to get to know people. She often comments, "If it weren't for my friends, I wouldn't be here." not knowing just how true the statement is. On more than one occasion, she had been in a spot where she could fight and hope to win or curl up into a ball and hope for it to be over soon. She had been saved by someone, half the time it was a friend, half the time is was a good Samaritan who became a friend.

She loves sugar, some would even say she's addicted to it, and can often be seen carrying multiple bottles of sugary drinks. Some people say it's the sugar that's made her so fast and hyperactive. Not the case; she's hyper with or without sugar.
She absolutely hates water, fearing she'll electrocute herself if she's not careful. She had continually tried to make her mechanic legs and arm-top computer waterproof though, so far, she has had no luck. Without her electronic components, she finds water quite relaxing, though she rarely is not wearing them. She has often veered away from the public swimming pool in fear she would be attacked and thrown in, electrocuting herself and anyone else in the pool.
She has a strong dislike of male inelegance, though has nothing against the male society. She has always found females beautiful, no matter how they're dressed, or undressed.
For the most part, though, she wants to enjoy life, have fun, and do what she wants.

Background: Lucy grew up from a young age with only her older sister. Her father had been killed before she was born and her mother died at childbirth. Her sister had been the one to raise her, caring for her as if she were her own daughter.
Other than being raised by her sister, her childhood was relatively normal. She was a smart girl who grew into a smarter young woman. Each day she found something new and, by the end of the day, she had learned, not just memorized, everything about it.
She was grateful for her sister and hated the day she was taken from her. It had been a normal day, someone was driving too fast. It all happened too fast. The sudden sound of a car trying to stop mid-air, a thunk, and the older girl was sent flying. Lucy was mortified. The only person she had ever truly cared for had just been severely injured.
"Lucy," her sister had said, "remember everything I taught you." She had been barely audible but the younger girl didn't miss a word. She was gone a second later.
Instead of driving away like most people would have, the woman, not much older than Sapphire, Lucy's older sister, got out to see the damage.
"She's dead." She said, not even bothering to look the girl in the face. "You killed her." She stayed there, holding her dead sister's hand until the police came, ignoring the hysterics of the driver going on right behind her.
She didn't know what happened to the driver, didn't even care, but she was determined to give her sister the best burial she could.

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They taped over your mouth, scribbled out the truth with their lies, you little spies - You will release your life, joining with the god-damned world of the dead and the lonely. - Я сошла с ума, Mне нужна она
Innuendo Squad's Resident Lesbian
Mother of darkness, mother of light, earth beneath us, soul in flight, songs of love and love of light, guide us to our heart.
We all come from the Goddess and to her we shall return like a drop of rain flowing to the ocean.

Looks nifty

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It sure is...

Not the setting, that shit is just your garden variety Post Apocalyptic Cyperpunk Transhumanist Sci-Fi seasoned with Fantasy elements.

Wushu, Wushu is nifty.

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I'm really curious to see how these rules will eventually work.

Question about surgers, those rituals they have to perform, do they have to do that after every time they use their ability? Or is it more ala Darker Than Black, where it is needed to perform them, but not immediately.

P.S Where's trait 2?

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At the tabletop, they work like a dream. The more you play with them, the more you realize how clever they are. No one really 'gets' it before they play it. They encourage inspire people to do awesome stuff without hindering them with modifiers like conventional rulesets do. There's a example of play at the back of the Wushu Reloaded I linked which is really helpful for understanding the system.

On a forum, though, I can't say for sure. But it's supposed to work really, really well for it. There was a thread on another forum where someone asked if there were any systems designed for forum play, with the general response being "No, but Wushu is great for it!".

As for rituals, they generally do it before or during the Surge. Think of it as like a magician says some magic words and waves his hands before casting a spell. That's his ritual. Or the tarot-ripping/shooting yourself in the Persona games. Or the "KA! ME! HA! ME! HA!!" of Dragonball. The ritual is essentially just a generalized version of the idea that you have to 'do' something before unleashing a great deal of power. You don't necessarily have to rituals at all for minor Surges and you don't have to painstakingly describe them every time either. It's merely a way to get more Details and more dices.

... Was what I was thinking, but the Darker than Black version is cool too, so I wouldn't be adverse to it working like that for a specific character.

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That answered my question perfectly

I kinda see the whole ritual thingy as one huge OCD, that gets worse the more you postpone it

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Oh, and it's mainly a hold-over from said Ar Tonelico. There, their magic is invoked by singing (or rather, the magic IS song). Which is why it's the first example.

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Theme: Optimist
Jumping: Earth

Name: Tacey
Concept: The silent pacifist, that can teleport!
Gender: Female
Age: 17

Appearance: WIP. Will probably draw something.
But the image in my head, pictures her with dark red hair, bordering on black. It's kept sort to minimize the amount of mass (more on that later). She has a short stature, which makes her quite fast in an urban environment. She has a slender build, but is quite curvy and well developed.

As for clothing, her regular clothing consists of a simple white tank top with a dark green vest over it. Stitched up denim jeans are what she wears for pants, often having many holes and patchwork on them thanks to her rather active running and jumping through the underground.



For "work clothing" she has a skin tight suit. This was made to minimize the amount of mass she was carrying, but not have her run around naked. She hates this thing, and always feels embarrassed wearing it. But in matters where one extra jump could mean the difference between life and death, she'd take the suit over regular clothing. And it provides quite the distraction if she ever was caught.

Trait 5: Pacifist
Tacey is a non-fighter. She loathes killers, and would never resort to killing another human being. Given her surge ability, it's hard to catch her, so fighting is hardly ever necessary. However, if she finds herself cornered because she exhausted her jumps, she would fight to knock out instead of killing even in the most dire situations.
If she ever sees someone kill another person, that person would fall in huge disposition. Killing is not something you can justify.

Trait 4: Displacement
Tacey has the ability to teleport herself 4 meters (around 13 feet) in the direction she is heading (i.e if she's falling, she'll teleport downwards.). This can go through solid objects like crates and furniture but she'll mostly use it for walls, floors and ceilings.
The amount of "jumps" she can make depends on the amount of mass she has to transfer. When she's on a assignment, she usually wears a skin tight suit. It's a very skimpy suit, making sure she's carrying around the least amount of mass. She absolutely hates wearing it, but it beats exhausting herself from carrying too much mass or going naked.
With the suit she can jump up to 5 times in a row, whereas if she were regularly clothed she could pull maybe 2, a maximum of 3. She has never tried to jump with another human.

Her ritual involves her clearing her mind completely. No thoughts whatsoever. Which is harder than you might think. Tacey has learned to do this in three ways.
Her first, and most effective method, is meditation. She merely focuses on her breathing to enter a trance like state. It took her a while to learn this technique.
The second, and her favorite method, this through music. Tacey loves classical music, or more precise modern classic. She just floats away during those songs, often even dancing. It's a more difficult method, because she'd awfully conscious about herself and will snap out of her state in embarrassment if someone were to catch her.
And there is a third method, but she prefers not to think about this one. And it's one she doesn't actively engage in. Lets leave it at that.

Trait 3: Tumbler
Tacey has lived her entire live on the streets, which isn't easy for a mute person. Especially the years before she met Erroll were daunting. Try finding work as a kid when you cant talk, or beg when you can make no sound. So she had to learn other ways of making due, this often involved stealing. This made her fast, agile and flexible, being able to navigate through the underground at blinding speed. No wall seems high enough to stop her.

Trait 1: A shade of green
Tacey was rescued by Erroll when she was only a young girl of 14, probably on the verge of dying. He took care of her, nourished her back to strength and even showed compassion for the mute girl. That was all about 3 years ago. She has grown to see him as a brother, a father, a friend and perhaps even a lover. Ever since, she has not left Erroll' side and is quite possessive of the man. Especially when he interacts with other woman. She will then often invade in their conversation and cling to Erroll, while giving the other woman cold stares. Which is probably why she doesn't really have any friends, or female friends rather.

Extra Trait: 1, silence is golden
Tacey was born a mute, unable to make any sound. This was probably the reason why her parents had abandoned her at such an early age. Life is hard in the underground, but harder when you have a handicap. She was bitter back then, before Erroll. Being in the underground and all, she has never learned anything like lip reading or sign language. Not that there were many people in the underground that understood sign language.

Chi: 3/3

Personality: Happy, quirky and inquisitive. Tacey is generally a fun person to be around with, if you can figure out what it is she means. But also very self aware and conscious about herself, especially when she's wearing that suit.
She's always scared of somehow embarrassing Erroll, just by being herself. So in the beginnings she usually just keeps quiet and hides behind Erroll. This makes it hard for people to really get to know her.

During assignments she tends to be somewhat of a coward, especially when it concerns confrontations. Not in the least because of that suit she has to wear to conserve energy, but also because she's actually afraid of hurting people. She'd still fight if she's ever cornered, but never to her full potential.

Background: There's a lot of her past that Tacey just wants to forget. Or more specifically, everything before she met Erroll. But alas, the human mind is not a hard disk you can just delete files from, as Erroll would tell her.
She has absolutely no recollection of her parents. Not that she wants to, they abandoned her when she was a kid, so screw them! Life was so horrifyingly tough when she was a kid, she couldn't find a job anywhere thanks to her disability. And begging also wasn't brining in much. Every day was a fight for survival. A fight she was slowly losing.
By the age of 14, after spending numerous years on the streets, she already knew how to navigate around without being noticed. But her body was slowly starting to tear itself down, she didn't have the energy anymore to fight it. It was around this time that her surge ability started to manifest, a teleporting ability, most likely formed from her desire to leave this wretched place.
Figuring she might as well die with a bang, she started to jump around the city like crazy. Until the jumping had exhausted her so much, she collapsed in someones living room. Luckily for her, this particular living room was owned by Erroll.
He took her in, nourished her back to health and actually took care of her. The gratitude she felt towards this stranger was something she couldn't have worded, even if she could speak. From that moment, the silent, bitter girl grew into a more quirky woman, enjoying life at it's fullest again.
Thanks to the newly gained confidence she managed, with the help of Erroll of course, to land a courier job with an organization called Leaf. It has ideals very similar to the ones Blue Sky used to have, wanting to recolonize the earth again. Leaf however takes a more peaceful approach, never really engaging in confrontations with Cytek or any of the other rebel groups. It's still a small organization, consisting out maybe 20 people and so far it's mostly a delivery service for the other rebel groups. The way it usually goes, is that Tacey can go to the HQ and receive a assignment, telling her were a package needs to be delivered. It's a fast paced business, with many other similar organizations on the prowl to take down the runners. Given her surge ability, she is among the best of the runners Leaf has, so far achieving a perfect delivery ratio. She never knows whats in the packages though, and prefers to keep it that way. It makes her job a bit easier.

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Huh. Interesting. A pacifist AND a mute. You're sure not making things easy for yourself. I'm not talking about your character, I'm talking about RL you, specifically. You're going to have to conduct all your communication in body language or through a proxy and you're gonna have to fill out combat details in non-obvious ways (obvious being dead-on violence, of course).

Both are doable, however, so I'm cool with it, as long as you realize this is not gonna be an especially easy character to play. Both traits are very interesting, and certainly appropriate as traits, though it's "interesting" as in, "boy, this is gonna make our lives interesting" .

I'm missing a piece of the puzzle, though. You mention "missions"; Who is she working for? What does these missions consist of? Blue Sky is hardly above fairly callous murder, so I wouldn't assume she throw in with them.

I'm gonna reserve ultimate judgement until the sheet of this Erroll, Iris, I assume, lands, but other than the comments above, it's looking good.

BTW, is that parkour I'm smelling? I luuuv parkour in RPs, delicious, delicious Detail fodder.

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I know, I think I just created the most difficult character to RP as
Hmm oh yeah I added missions in there, but I kinda decided to remove that later on... but forgot to edit that. I'd love to have her work as a messenger of courier of some sort, but who'd hire a mute and renegade surger? And she wouldn't leave Erroll alone. So I'll edit that later on

And yes, thats parkour. I've been playing Assassins Creed Brotherhood and Brink. And I still absolutely love Mirror's Edge. Parkour is beautiful, and it works so well with her surge.

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Who, indeed? You tell me. Really, tell me. Come up with something, don't think too much about whether it makes sense broadly. It's a big city, weird shit happens.

The reason I mentioned Blue Sky is because they'd hire her. But she probably wouldn't let them. Perhaps a similar, but more principled, rebel group?

To begin with, I assumed it was Erroll that had got her a job, and that she worked through him. Perhaps that could be a lead.

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There we go, added a small group called Leaf. Mostly courier work, but could also do other things behind the scenes that Tacey isn't aware of. She's just a courier after all.

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BTW, here's a couple of pictures of vanguards from Ar Tonelico. That's where the Guardian/Surger concept comes from, so that's what we're talking about when it comes to guardians. Perhaps not the exact same aesthetics, but half-armors, cybernetics and big weapons.

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The history may need a bit of 'cleaning' but overall I'm happy with it. Give me a shout if you want me to alter anything Vegedus.


Name: Erroll Vanders

Concept:The Sarcastic Hacker. Home is where the heart lies.

Gender: Male
Age:20

Appearance: Erroll is of the average male height, barely making the 5”11 marker with a slight muscular tone, his short, messy black hair and brown eyes further aid him in blending into the crowd. For this Erroll is thankful, it’s the only thing he’ll thank his parents for.
His features are marred however by the bags under his eyes which has been caused by his constant tinkering and his worry. To hide this flaw, Erroll occasionally uses sunglasses as he walks through the busy and crowded streets.

Erroll’s clothing is rather torn up and reflects his social status. It consists of dirtied jeans or the oddly patched up trousers, a somewhat greased up shirt, a grey hooded sweat shirt and some worn out sneakers. Even his equipment appears to be ‘hand-me-downs’, his Neural-interface module attached to his spine are outdated, his wrist mounted 'N.I.R-modulator' is somewhat damaged, his knockoff digital wrist watch and his large headset that he wears around his neck probably should be replaced.
To power all this technology are four cylindrical Bioelectrical-batteries. These batteries are charged up through the user's daily intake as well as taking up unused energy or 'waste' energy found in the body.

The Neural-interface module is what allows him access to networks, broadcasts and other forms of media, it appears to be a set of three small triangular studs along his spine.
The N.I.R or the Neural Interface for Repairs is his tool kit for when on the job. The name earned the irony award upon it's creation. It was also suspected the man in charge of the naming department was drunk and subsequently fired. Regardless the N.I.R stores a variety of micro-tools as well as data banks that hold common repair programs.



Trait 5: Cynical but caring.
Erroll is a fairly cynical man and his remarks tend to use sarcasm. Caused by a sense of paranoia, distrust of the authorities as well as his parents, have left him with minor trust issues. While his actions can be kind or helpful, Erroll’s comments are anything but.

He despises the Cytek government but the rebel factions have yet to earn his trust due to the fact he has to look out for Tacey, if they were caught then she’d likely be thrown into the military or worse. While the rebel’s intentions may aim to improve the lives of those that dwell inside Athana, the risks are great and Erroll must carefully consider them for both himself and Tacey.

When he fights for Tacey, Erroll's cynicism comes into play often talking as he delivers a beatdown. From pointing out the inconsistencies of a person's job, to sarcastic congratulations for sharing what he had for lunch, Erroll will gladly point out these facts. Such is his bravado that he himself has stated that in the event of his death, someone should clearly tell him he has died, just so that Erroll's spirit could backhand the observer. Course this is merely a theory.


Trait 4: Subterfuge and decoys.
Some hackers can turn the city into their personal play ground, others can turn weapons against their masters, some use dozens of high tech gadgets to see them through the day. Erroll believes that those are the ones who’ll get caught in a moment of carelessness. Knowing that the chances of getting caught is constantly rising he began specializing in creating decoys and subterfuge. While his equipment appears to be damaged nigh on useless, they are only small fragments of a greater puzzle.

His very clothing is part of a intricate virtual suit that he utilizes to hack systems to gather information or simply to observe actions. His sunglasses are in fact augment reality for the wearer, they allow him to create a virtual keyboard that only he can see. This keyboard’s positioning is determined by the wrist watch which allows Erroll to hack without raising too much suspicion due to the fact it appears as if he’s merely fidgeting. The Neural-Interface module, N.I.R modulator and even the headset have been altered so that once they are in close proximity of one another he’s able to hack rather efficiently.
For instance he can use the N.I.R to cycle through which program he wishes to use to hack a certain mainframe, use the Neural-Interface’s networking connection to remain online and prepared to alter a system’s memory and so on. While the headphones appear to more for aesthetics the fact is that Erroll has in fact added a variety of micro-technology into the ear pieces to allow him house his programs. In the event he's discovered the 'chips' can erase the programs and giving the headset the appearance of a wireless inbuilt music player.

His specialty is creating diversions through the combined use of misinformation and the city’s holographic projectors to create ‘threats’, sending the police to chase ghosts and shadows without endangering the lives of others. Much like Tacey, Erroll disapproves of senseless violence and does his best to avoid involving those whom he perceives as innocent.
Because of his job as a general repair man, Erroll is able to ‘fix’ objects, replace or help install new equipment, all the while he secretly alters small fractions of files, adding in his own temporary files so that he can easily backdoor into the less secure networks.

However should he fight, Erroll uses the city's holographic projectors to aid in his fighting styles by having them overlap him and create decoy attacks often making it appear as if he's split into multiple beings during a single strike. Another technique he uses is creating multiple holographic images and uses them as decoys until the moment is right to strike.


Trait 3: Tinkerer by nature.
Erroll has always had a knack with his hands, from fixing automatic doors to more complex machinery, the young man has shown in his studies that he is attentive and willing to learn something new.
Yet he cannot keep his hands still, when a piece of hardware is newly introduced to him, Erroll eagerly pulls it apart to learn how it operates, taking his time to bit by bit gain an understanding. Although his current social position is rather low, his skill as a ‘handyman’ have given him an on and off again job at the local repair facility. When one of their workers is unable (or unwilling) to fix a broken screen or speaker in the slums, it’s normally Erroll who gets the grimy task.

However few know that he is also competent with coding, Erroll goes out of his way to display ‘amateurish’ understanding of how coding works. In fact it’s known to his ‘employer’ that he doesn’t even have a computer in his single room home.
Once again because of his trust issues. Erroll isn’t fond of displaying his hacking ability openly with others, in fact he uses an alias that is completely fictional when he hacks. Complete with holographic image and name; Harvard Cold. A businessman-like appearance with short blond hair, deep green eyes and a pale complexion.

Trait 1: Never ending thought-cycle.
Everybody has thoughts, even if to others they are incomprehensible, it's only natural after all to reflect on one's past or future. Erroll is normal in this regards save for one fact, he can't stop thinking. In fact most times he is over-thinking, while it aids in his preparations before a mission or a job the fact his mind constantly wanders at times may cause him to lose focus on the present.

To elaborate; when you're every day slob thinks about his day, he may eventually wonder what tomorrow will bring. Erroll's thoughts run a gauntlet inside his brain, chaos runs rampant as his paranoia takes into consideration of who might be trying to find him or Tacey, perhaps an over-zealous rebel faction believes they are the key to the city's freedom, maybe a Cytek rogue assassin has discovered it was Erroll who altered his orders and is now out for his head. It's conceivable that his boss is fed up with the fact Erroll does a better job than most of his full-timers, thus giving him a promotion, creating dissatisfaction between those who've worked in the business far longer than him.

Even in his sleep these thoughts go through his mind, in the early hours of the day he wonders if he's still dreaming after all with the state of the city he might as well be. Waking up with a kind thought jealous companion... how can this not be a dream? When did he earn such companionship?


Extra Trait: Trait 4, Preparation is key
Remaining calm in the field even under pressure if a trait Erroll values, those who show this earn a couple points in his books. Remaining flexible is even more impressive.
Because the situation can change in an instant Erroll keeps multiple ideas in his head just in case something goes wrong, always hoping for the best but is prepared for the worst... he hopes.


Chi: 3/3


Personality:
Erroll’s main problem is the fact he doesn’t give people his trust easily, the fact Cytek constantly observes Athana’s populace has made him hesitant to do so fearing that should they be discovered, they would take Tacey away. He’s also obviously known for his cynical personality, preferring to banter with those around him more for the intellectual humor than simplistic praising. Yet for all of his words and dysfunctionalities, Erroll remains a caring person to those whom he trusts.

Due to Tacey’s inability to speak or use proper sign language, Erroll normally translates her gestures and looks to those speaking to her, often adding his own quips as well.
As a hacker Erroll prefers to remain flexible and informed, on the occasion where he’s had to hack into a system for whatever reason, he tries to leave a small ‘door’ floating about so that he can access it at a later stage. Naturally he attempts to keep it as minimum as possible and only does it on less than secure items.

Background:
Originally he was born to a middle class family, owners of a small but well of retailing business, his parents would often take advantage of the scarcity of certain goods gladly taking behind the counter deals or increasing the price make profit. The elder of two sons, Erroll showed at an early age his intelligence and tendency to ‘fiddle’ with broken appliances. He also showed great interest in more advanced technology. From computers to the holographic images on the streets that advertised. As years rolled his studies kept him occupied and at first he showed much promise but his time studying slowly began to alter his perceptions, the city of Athana was in a state of stagnation and there was virtually no space for growth in the future. Society would inevitably grow more and more desperate, the underground was proof enough. The more he thought about it the more he became aware that his actions in the end would be fruitless... Frustration built within him, frustrated at his own reflective nature, frustrated with his parent’s way of business, frustrated at the fact in the end his actions past, present and future would have little impact.

Perhaps he was too smart for his own good, perhaps he thought too much into such events... for a teenager whose motivation once lay in curiosity turned to disappointment and a sense of hopelessness. His desires to learn vanished and with that gone, Erroll left the school at the age of 16, to those around him it appeared to be another ‘drop out’ case. Unwilling to study or work for his parents Erroll was able to secure a rather shaky deal with a small private repair business, allowing him to work on the occasion earning him a small income where he could live off. It didn’t take him long before he choose to leave home, much to his annoyance his parent’s influence got him a small apartment room which simply consisted of a small kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom.

During the day he worked on repair small electronics, while during the nights he began to expand on his skills hacking mostly for his amusement, he kept his actions small, interrupting small advertisements, maybe alter some messages here and there. Just small stuff at first, of course what begins small slowly grows, while he did not hate the Cytek government he felt no obligation to them either considering their laws. He began to experiment with other bits of technology he came across, already having figured out that doing anything too suspicious would put him in hot water, so he patiently waited, taking the time to familiarize himself with what was given to him. Bit by bit his knowledge grew and his hacking grew bolder, he began to take a sense of enjoyment of his actions. If the world was going to crumble why not have a bit of fun before you snuff it?
Yet after a year and a half something interrupted his daily routine, while working on repairing a damaged cleaning-bot a rather emaciated girl suddenly ‘popped’ into his life. She didn’t barge in through the door, she wasn’t from work, she just ‘poofed’ into his bedroom and then crashed into the opposite wall. At the time, Erroll simply shrugged it off as him suffering a hallucination after all he hadn’t slept in two or three days now, besides he had seen stranger things during these episodes... course after thirty minutes he decided to ‘confront’ the illusion and to his shock he realized that this was in fact real... His neighbours thought his shouts were a sign of frustration or a difficult task so they didn’t assume anything though they did request that he keep his curses to a minimum.

It took him a couple minutes to calm and compose himself, it’s not every day that a surger just jumps through a wall and into your life, let along one that was utterly exhausted, filthy, dressed in rags and rather emaciated. It took him even longer for him to get the girl to eat something, it annoyed him to learn that she was a mute and it appeared she did not have any way of communicating with him. Part of him wondered if he should just report her to the authorities and get her out of his hair. She was clearly a surger after all and by law she was to be registered. Yet his conscience told him otherwise, the girl was too weak and most of all too frightened.
The first few nights were rather uncomfortable and awkward considering there was one bed and since she was injured, Erroll sarcastically offered that she sleep in his bed, course her being a mute meant there was no witty response... not one that he could understand anyway.

Three years passed and the two have forged a strong bond with one another. It started with him giving the young surger her name; Tacey. From there on their understanding grew, Erroll began to understand how she communicates, what the gestures meant and what kind of personality she had behind her shy nature.
When ‘Tay’ found a place in the rebel movement known as ‘Leaf’ Erroll was hesitant but in the end relented, while he knows the risks involved he’d rather take them on with Tay rather than let her go on her own, not until she’s ready.

Although he's still cynical, Erroll has silently admitted he might have found his motivation to keep trying to find a way to improve the future now.

Themes: As he hacks; Mind Heist- Inception
His daily life; Holiday- Green Day

Name: Marx Peterson
Concept: Robocop meets Transformers (Head Masters) meets Mazinger Z
Gender: Male
Age: 35

Appearance:

In his new body, Marx Peterson has a height of 6 feet. His head is octagonal shape with two antennas sticking where the ears are. His eyes are a complete blue visor, with an actual mouth and nose. They also seemed to have attached on a black mustache and a pointy beard on his chin. The hands and forearms, are huge and oval shaped with long and thin fingers. The legs are long and pointed like scythes .


The Big Body, is a hover tank with thrusters on the bottom, sides, and the very back of the tank. It has three huge cannons with two automatic gun turrets on the sides of the tank. Where, Marx Peterson sits is within a pod in between the two rotating double cannons, from here, he can control the cannons, and program the turrets on the tank. The pod, also is able to eject Marx straight into the air for him to transform into his huge robotic form, that stands 15 meters tall. When in giant robot mode, two cannons rest on the back until it needs to be used, then it will rest on the shoulders, while the third cannon is housed in the chest cavity. The face is similar to Marx Peterson's face.

The

Trait 5:

~It wasn't his choice~

They removed the spine cord, brain, digestive system of a mortally wounded Marx Peterson and transferred into a mechanical body. All done without his consent as he was simply the best candidate for conversion due to his service, and psychological and medical records. Now he's treated more as a product than as a person.

Trait 4:

~Guardian Prime Unit 01~

-Main Body- Head Master

The main body is where Marx's organic material is housed in. The armor shell was made tough enough to handle huge explosion and penetrate buildings. It had to be tough for not only did have Marx's organs, but various chemicals weapons and gear. The right hand is able to retract into a sprayer that sprays a gas that alters any material's crystalline structure, to make them as brittle as glass while the entire right arm transforms, becomes a flame thrower. The left hand retracts into a launcher that fires quick drying clement, that allows him to capture enemies alive while the entire left arm transforms into dual chainsaws. Inside the right and left side of his thighs are two double barrel plasma handgun. Also his entire body can transform into a giant head that attaches to the BB, his ride.

-Big Body-

Big Body, BB for short is Marx's ground transport and the second body. Once the main body transforms into a giant head, the BB vehicle transformers into a headless giant robot. Both are able to combine into a giant machine, that wields a pole ax with an energy blade and a ray-gun, that is the size of a rifle, that melts things. On the shoulder's and in the chest, are cannons that fire missiles and explosive shells. While on the forearms of the giant is turret guns.

Trait 3:

~Training from Hell~

Marx, before he became a cybernetic monster, he was a solider. He was trained to be best of the best. To think outside the box, and be creative in a combat situation, the proper way of handling and maintain of weapons, and to survive virtually anywhere, using limited supplies. Psychologically taught to keep calm and be level headed in a crisis. So that when in Experiential mode *(Bullet Time), he could overcome his natural instincts and use his training .

Trait 1:

~ Reprogrammed ~

Marx Peterson's greatest weakness is that if an enemy downs him, renders him offline, he can be easily reprogrammed. An experienced hacker can transform this mechanical killer into a bumbling idiot or switch his loyalists from Cytek to the Hacker. However, given Peterson's training and combat capabilities, its not an easy thing to achieve.

Extra Trait:


Chi: 3/3

Personality:

Reliable as you can could always count on Marx to help, whether he's asked to or not. He can be a leader and a follower as he knows when to follow orders and to give them. His loyal to Cytek and his company can be stronger than Titanium as long as their is no reason for mistrust. He would gladly take a bullet for a friend and his lips are tightly secure if given secrets. When on duty, Marx Peterson on the best of his ability, will often attempt to follow an order to the letter, and do it with the most quality.

Background:

Marx Peterson, proud solider of Cytek, graduated at the top of his class and has held a clean, no nonsense record is killed on a routine transport mission. It was like any other mission in the beginning, open roads with no enemy sight until it came crashing to a halt as one of the lead vehicles was hit by a rocket. A firefight broke out against the soldiers of Cytek and one of the rebels, to control the contents of the transport. With their captain gone, Marx Peterson took charge of the surviving members of his team to form a defensive perimeter against the oncoming rebel attack. However, did Marx in was his bonds to his form company as one was them was wound on the battlefield in between a crossfire. He risked his life to save that member, getting fatally wounded as he was practically shot everywhere.


The last thing, he knew, he was on a surgery table and in the corner, near the enterance was the superior that assigned the mission having a discussion with the rebel leader that staged the ambush.


Notes: *- Check out the Time Manipulation section of Five superpowers your body is hiding from you

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"Fate smiles on the strange. So its a good thing, I'm the strangest of all." - William Livingstone, Cirque de la Nuit

Interesting setting and rules, Vegeta. Considering a Guardian, if anyone's got a Surger.

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I'll create a surger once my inspiration gauge reaches full.

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Final Fantasy IX was the best Final Fantasy game ever and if you think otherwise you are WRONG!

My fanfiction account. Comments and criticisms are very welcome.

@Iris:

First up, this may seem a lot of fuzz over a pet peeve, but:

These things do not exist. This is the far, far future. I'm deliberately a bit vague on the timeline, but it's at least 300 years from the present, in which there's been rapid technological developement. The Blackberry brand is long dead, probably along with every electronics manufacturer that exists today (even if Apple existed in the year 2100, I wouldn't let them into Athana ). The MP3 format isn't used anymore, because computers no longer work remotely like they do today.

Generally, the technology is learner, smarter, cheaper and more powerful than ours in every way and in every facet of life. If you like the aesthetics of these things, that's fine, you can keep them. I mean, headphones are cool, so they still exist, even if I'd think there'd ought to be thought-controlled-inner-ear-audio-transmitters. As long as they're not Samsung headphones. Similar for the other stuff. Instead of a black berry smartphone, you might have a *made up brand name* cleverdevice. Make up your own buzzwords. The overall idea of the different components making up a stealth hackers outfit is cool, though.

The main idea is that, well, this isn't our world. Too much have changed. Nothing is the same, except the struggles of man.


Your trait number 5 could use a bit more "oomph". It shouldn't just be a personality trait, it should be a defining part of their being. When the chips are down and shit hits the fan and moral dilemmas abound, it's this trait that the character acts according to. Note how the trait 5 of the two other characters is a life goal that motivates his every action, and a unbreakable principle, respectively. Erroll needs something to live, or die, for.

I'd suggest taking either taking "cynical" or "caring" to it's logical extreme: Either Erroll is a downright "Nihilist", that wouldn't even bother to dodge a train if he couldn't be bothered. Or, nothing matters more to him than his renegade Surger and will do anything to "Protect Tacey". The latter is probably preferable, because I nihilist character is going to be very passive to play.

Your extra trait is a bit vague. I think it's essentially that Erroll always has a crazy MacGuyver-esque idea appropriate to the situation, which works as a Wushu Trait, but I can't quite tell by the wording.

The backstory is cool. I like'd the "meh, this place is doomed, screw it" and laughed at the incident with a random girl poofing into his house.


Lastly, and most critically though... I was kinda hoping you'd pick up some of Tacey's slack, but Erroll's just as much an non-combatant as her. Both of you seem to be more geared for running away from fights than anything. And this RP will have combat. Sorry if I've not made this clear. I'm gonna have to meditate more on this to see if I adjust to this, and I'm not going to force anything, but you'd be doing me a favor if made your characters a bit more kick-ass. Refer to the first part of the Character Sheet section. The non-killing is fine, that's only gonna complicate your lives, not mine, but it'd be nice, if say, Erroll also used his illusions to distract people while he sneaks up on them and knocks them out, rather than just lead them away from him.

I can imagine doing some cool chase scenes with your characters, but you can't spend it all running.

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Coool. I was hoping we'd get at least one. I hope you won't mind making him bad-ass.

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Righto, I'll be editing so that I'll be picking up on Tay's slack then as well as the other edits. What kind of tech would be readily found on one's person then? Or is that the point that we're so far now that everything is easily concealable?

Edit: As for the MacGuyver thing, you're more or less right. Would that be an acceptable trait?

Actually, kinda sounds like a neat in game thing, learning that you can't keep running away from all your problems, but maybe I've seen too many movies.

I'll see what I can do.
Trying to think of a good weapon, especially that would go with a shield. Speaking of, are there energy shields? What's weapon technology like?

Only other problem I'd have is traits, especially on a fighter. It's a bit of a new idea for me, really. Not really sure where one should end and the next start.

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@Iris:

A hacker's tech isn't necessarily concealable, since he needs computing power proportional to the stuff he's breaking into. But they have their ways of concealing, as cybernetics or your example.

Normal, everyday tech, yeah, it can be as miniaturized as is practical. Most people (well, middle class and up) always carry an, uhm... Unicom (just made that up) on their person, which fulfills the purposes of most things you'd put in your pocket: It's a computer, phone, ID, credit card, multimedia center, and connected directly to any other computer device you might own. Oh, and it's form is malleable.

Feel free to fill in any other details yourself, as long as it's sci-fi. Hypothetical tech videos like this one ought to get you in the right frame of mind, just think even more futuristic.

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Yeah, I've thought of that. Which is why it could work, I just need to know if I can make it work in the context of the RP.


Energy shields? Yes. Laser, plasma, forcefields, the whole shabang. Actual, physical, knight-like shields are used too, though, but of course made of some seriously hard allows and with various tech integrated in them.

As mentioned, there as certain focus on melee weapons among Guardians, though not to the exclusion of firearms. Since each guardian has his own weapon, they tend to be fairly unique, with various gimmicks. Examples are a rocket-powered lance, twin shields with sawblades along the edge, and a blade made of nanomaschines, who repairs it and infest whoever it slashes. Warhammer 40K isn't a bad source of inspiration either, with it's Chainswords and what not.



Playing a fighter, or having having stats for it, or what do you mean? The recap of the traits is that 5 is something personal and important about the character, 4 is a combat style, weapon or power, 3 is an everyday, handyman skill, and 1 is any kind of weakness. Something the character isn't good at.

I'll probably have another example character up tomorrow.

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I've edited most of my tech, traits 5 and 4, I'll finish on working trait 1 tomorrow when I wake up. I'll fall back to having sever trust issues. Is there anything else I may need to change Vegedus?