[R] Extrasolar - OOC
Finally, I've made it through. The trick was getting lathered up in grease I found seeping from machinery. Though it was cold to the touch, it helped me slip through the gap I found up in the rafters. I was worried, of course, that it would let me slip into the mesh of pipes just enough to then lodge me in place. I fantasized, morbidly, screaming into the metal void around me never to be heard. Left to starve and die alone, in the dark. No one would come to look for me - I told nobody. I got lucky.
When I finally slipped through the gap, I crawled forwards blindly. I banged my head a few times against a low hanging pipe or a protruding console - before falling headfirst down a shaft. After sprawling with my hands, fruitlessly to grab or hold onto anything, I landed hard onto a metal grating. The sizable drop knocks the wind from me and sends a red jolt of pain through my vision. My left arm cracks under me, probably dislocating my shoulder. I still see nothing around me. I scream and the echo is wrapped around me instead of fading off into the distance. I assume it travels up back into the shaft I dropped from. I use my right arm to prop myself up, hearing an audible pop from my old bones protesting at me. I stand, alone in the inky blackness.
My left arm, useless and throbbing hangs limply at my side. I reach out into the black and claw at nothing. I keep my arm forwards and walk, shortly greeted by a cold metal wall. I start feeling around, blindly, hand feeling around the edges to paint a picture in my head. Minutes pass of me feeling the room, and my fingers stop at what feels like a button. I push it and a sickly white flicker overhead ignites the caged light bulbs.
My heart soars. I can see three, orange-colored SCE suits hanging against the wall. I couldn't have made a better find. I quickly inspect them, elated that I was riding a huge wave of luck. I take one off the hangar and slip into it, the feeling of rubber a sensation I hadn't remembered in a long time. It seemed a little bulky on me, but I was a beggar and by extension - not a chooser. I opened the locker door now revealed by the empty space my suit previously occupied and found the accompanying helmet. It was in relatively unused condition, a smooth, shiny black sphere that I placed onto my head.
It encapsulated me and clicked into the SCE's collar. The helmet had no visible front or back - any distinguishable features from the outside, really. I was, for a moment, in complete pitch blackness again before I heard a small chirping sound. A small red dot appeared to the right and swam across my vision until it centered, then split into two. After the two dots split, I saw the pitch blackness pixelate until I could see the room I was in again. If I hadn't put this helmet on myself, and simply woken up in it, I wouldn't have known I was wearing it. The picture was remarkably clean, and I reached up a gloved hand to touch my face only to have it smash against the helmet.
There are two doors in this room. A small, skinny one that had somehow turned to thick unmovable rubble over the passage of time, and a wider door at the opposite end with a lidded console next to it. I had no interest in the small, impassable door and headed for the console. This could be it. Finally. I clench my teeth in anticipation.
I open the lid and see two buttons, a green colored one and a red. I pressed the green, it lighting up from a dim light inside of it. I hear a loud, moaning sound somewhere above me. The sickly noise of metal creaking against metal. A deep, hollow sound.
Then, I hear a loud buzzer from overhead. The sheer volume of it makes me jump inside my own skin. The door suddenly caves in and is whisked away from me into the void. I sail towards the edge and smack, hard, against the edge of the door. I'm sucked through before I can even fully grasp what's happening, and I see the other SCE suits flying out with me. I'm turned towards the room I came from, sailing away, further and further out as I'm sucked into space.
A scary, red exclamation mark inside a red triangle pops up in my vision. "INTEGRITY FAILURE" it says, "PLEASE SEE A SUPERVISOR IMMEDIATELY". A digital timer pops up below, a number counting down how much oxygen I must have left or something. I must have hit the door frame just hard enough to tear or smash something that matters. I curse, and then sigh inside my helmet as half of my vision on the right side starts to pixelate and flicker out. The small red dot is back, pulsing, a small warning underneath reading "FEED LOST". I can still see the left half, a jagged black tear running down the center of what vision I have left.
I'm sailing away from the large black mass I came from. Being on the wrong side of the sun, all I see is the small light of the airlock getting smaller against a black backdrop. After a handful of seconds, I can see stars at the edges of the station. I'm surprised by the size of it, the large, black rectangular shape blocking out a huge chunk of stars.
As I get further and further away, I see more and more stars spilling over the edges. The timer ticks down and down. I'm shaking, scared. I only hear my own breath, and a slight hissing noise. I think about how it would feel, being crushed by space. I think about how the suit will crunch together under the pressure, squeezing the life out of me while my blood boils and my eyes pop out. Would it be quick? Or would it be just slow enough for me to feel it?
At least I made it. I never thought I would. It's beautiful, really, as I float away into the stars behind me. I got out. I made it out. The timer ticks down to zero, and flickers for a little before the last of my vision goes away, leaving me back in the darkness. I still hear the hissing.
It won't be long now. Any moment and
EXTRASOLAR
>Synopsis
Out of sight, out of mind. Extrasolar X, the space station far beyond the Solar System where you sent those that you wanted to forget about, is a prison installation. It's location was largely unknown and out of the way - purposefully yet unofficially intended as a one-way trip for the inmates and even the screw up soldiers serving as the wardens.
After shuttles stop arriving with new inmates, and contact is completely cut off, the guards have largely abandoned their posts. With the first sparse ships stolen by early deserters to seek help or leave, the rest have mostly taken up to control or otherwise integrate with the remaining prisoners.
Though some keep scanning for any kind of signals or transmissions, the circulating rumor is always the same: "There is no one out there". Unknowing to the mysterious event that's happened outside it's failing metal walls that seems to have left them completely alone, the residents of Extrasolar X struggle to survive, attempt to co-exist, control each other or even escape - even if it's simply out into the cold vastness of space.
>You Are The GM
In Extrasolar, each player that joins will have an equal responsibility to manage the story for each other.
What I mean by this is: Say Player 1 makes a post in which, towards the end, their character is clinging to the edge of a pipe for dear life. Bit of a cliffhanger, is it not? Player 2 is allowed to swoop in and make a decision about the result of this. For example, Player 2 decides that the pipe suddenly comes loose and Player 1's character plummets down to break his arm.
In the past, I've adopted a certain type of game play with my RP's, in the form of a text-based adventure. This would look like so:
Player 1 - Steven tosses a penny into the wishing well, hopeful.Me - The wishing well rejects your wish and spits your penny back up at your sad self.
This is an example of how each player interacts with the world and environment, and it's up to the "Game Master" to then decide how said environment reacts to the player. The GM is also, in effect, supposed to decide the outcome of challenges of different kinds. Kind of D&D style. Sometimes I have used dice to determine this stuff too, which you aren't required to.
I, in a social story-building experiment, am deciding to also allow this divine power to each of you - the potential players with the following stipulations:
- That you are careful to make decisions based on either reasonable random chance (if a character is eating food and you roll a d20 and it comes up as a "1" or "critical fail", it's unreasonable to have it explode as a bomb and kill everyone. Instead, maybe a piece lodges in someone's throat and they start to choke on it) OR make decisions based on what you think is truthful to the integrity of the story.
- That you don't abuse such power to "Game of Thrones Style" kill everyone else off.
- That you are respectful to each other's decisions and try to work together to make the story.
- Are aware and accepting that I will be policing and moderating each of these decisions to ensure at least an atmosphere of fairness.
I'm trying this out for several reasons. First, I trust you guys. I'm curious to see how this will work, and it could be magical or disastrous. Parallel to the theme of Extrasolar X, you will all be trying to coexist, while also having an impact on each other. Second, while this might look suspiciously like laziness, it's not. I'm not always as active as I should be (I mean geez, look how long it took me to actually update this thing) and that's not fair to you guys, if you actually join. I've got school, work, a decent social life, and the story shouldn't stop and hold up because I'm face down in a ditch drunk off my rocker. I want to keep the story going, and I don't want it to slow down solely because of me. Plus, I think the added fun of everyone being able to affect the game down to the core might be an added layer of intrigue.
>Rules
(My Usual Set)
The Following is the list of my standard rules, that you agree to upon submitting a character to this RP. Same with guest appearances.
1. Standard RPA Rules apply.
2. Be respectful towards all other participants.
3. While I'm allowing everyone to pretty much be a GM, MY word is ultimate and supreme within disputes and such.
4. Read and take special notice of the "Player Agreement", listed in the section underneath this one.
5. Please do not join if you cannot expect absolute commitment from yourself. No hard feelings if you have too much going on.
6. No "God modding"
7. The phrase "Help! I've been bitten by a centipede and I need to see the doctor!" needs to be written at the bottom of your character sheet, as proof that you've read through the rules.
8. Please give me notice of any absences that may hinder or otherwise impede your ability to contribute to this RP. I can work with you when we communicate. I'll be upset when we don't.
9. While I do have a general story sort of mapped out, I of course welcome plot twists or elements or ideas from the group. Speak up! Your thoughts and ideas are what will make this RP great. Heck, even argue with me about things! I won't murder you. Maybe your character, though.
>A Couple Notes On The Setting
It's worth noting that the setting of Extrasolar, is in fact aboard a failing prison station. However, the system of prisoner / guard control is pretty much abandoned. Cells are - for the most part - open all day. While their might be tension between inmates and the remaining guards, essentially the setting is everyone just trying to stay alive and survive inside the station. Think shanty-towns filled with the worst people ever.
Player characters in Extrasolar are human only. I'm also going to suggest that all characters are either previously inmates or guards, more-so inmates. I'd think that administration is automated and previously remote. I'd be happy to admit a staff character, like maintenance or something if you give me a good one. But remember, you don't exactly get a paycheck anymore.
Another major point about this setting - while I have a lot of ideas myself, a lot of things are completely open to player creation. By that I mean, since I've given (almost) equal GM control to you players, you will also be able to suggest and implement, your ideas about how Extrasolar X works, lives and breathes. Do you have a cool idea for a Prison Guard-run cell block, where the remaining guards have declared themselves king and the inmates their slaves? Do you really like the idea where the remaining food is just processed sewage? I don't care for that last idea, but if you pose it and the rest of the players agree with it - bam, your idea has transcended to life and become part of the game world.
Essentially this means that we build this world and it's inner workings, together.
I may implement some kind of a voting system for some major decisions like this.
>Who Are You?
Good question. While I can't speak for exactly who you are or how you got here, there is one thing you all have in common: You are stranded here, aboard Extrasolar X. You could be an inmate who's been incarcerated for a long time, you could be a prison guard who's found a way to integrate within the prison population and live among them. This choice is up to you, as I can't - and shouldn't decide it for you.
>Player Agreement
A standard agreement that I have in all my RPs, meant solely to maintain the integrity of the RP and it's story.
Spoiler: Player Agreement
>Character Sheet
Every RP Has Em.
I have three versions below, all the same. The First, a copy/paste-able sheet inside a PHP code box, if you want to easily have my bbc code tags and such. The second, the same thing but HTML Code, since sometimes HTML doesn't work or is hard to see. The third, a regular text version to easily read or whatever. All in spoilers. Pick your own adventure, I guess.
(Delete the paragraphed fields)
Spoiler: PHP Code
Spoiler: HTML Version
Spoiler: Text Version
This RP is rated "R" for potential uses of:
- Violence
- Alcohol and Narcotic Usage
- Sexual and/or Suggestive Themes
- Language
Bookmarks