War for Genesis: A Cyberpunk RP (OOC/Open)

[Haedros 92712]

Intro/Rules/Roster

I have come to realize that in times like this, times of war, humanities worst traits show through with a frightening clarity. Greed, hate, fear, rage. It is indeed terrifying to see mans true capacity for these emotions, and yet, mesmerizing all the same. I don’t know what is worse. The fact that human beings are capable of incurring this kind of terror, or the fact that I cannot avert my gaze.

-Dr. Markus Empireo, 2093

The year is 2095, the new era. Technology is at an all time peak, and humanity strives to achieve more. And yet, even in the midst of advancement, a Great War prepares to consume Earth and it’s colonized celestial bodies. Three factions vie for control over a recently discovered moon, titled Genesis, and it’s mysterious, powerful energy source, Ichor, named after the blood of gods. As tensions reignite after a previous 6 year war (a war with no decisive victor), blood will shed again, as Genesis is the ultimate prize to claim, and the world will stop at nothing to take it.

This is a character RP, in which you take control of a character involved with any of the three factions in the Genesis war (or a faction of your own), and fight to claim wealth, power, fame, or maybe just to have a little fun (if war is your ideal fun). The RP will mainly be open world, with a few RP wide events that you can choose not to take part in. Of course, there is a few rules to consider here.

1. Firstly, I am the OP, and my word has absolute power here. While I don’t want to be controlling, what I say goes around here, unless the higher powers (Admins/Mods) say otherwise. This also applies to any Co-OPs I may appoint.
2. Basic NS etiquette rules and such. You read them... right?
3. Please, don’t godmod or metagame. I really want this to be a fun RP for everyone involved, and I don’t want Metagamers and such ruining that.
4. Don’t be mean in the OOC. If it’s ICly, I don’t really care if your character is a jerk, but don’t bring fights into the OOC. Resolve them by TG or other means, otherwise I will break you up and you will receive a strike.
5. On the subject of strikes, you receive three, and then you are out. First strike is a warning, the second time I’ll ask you to take some time off the RP, and third, I’ll have to ask you to leave the RP for good. If you try to use puppets to circumvent this, I will eventually find out, and I will have to request for a moderator take action.
6. Character death. While avoidable, it can happen. Don’t worry, I won’t kill you off for no reason, and I will always check with you to see if your okay with it. However, if I kick you from the RP, your characters will be killed off and the story will proceed without them.
7. While I won’t limit how many characters you can have, I will kindly request that you don’t absolutely fill the roster.
8. Lastly, please, have fun!

Roster

To be Added

[Haedros 92712]

Applications

So... in order to RP, you obviously need to apply. There are a few apps you can make. There is the character apps, first and foremost. There’s also a faction app, in order to make a smaller faction that can be affiliated with one of the Big Three (or not, your choice, really). I’ve also decided to make a technology app, as I like to leave the tech open ended enough to where people can get creative with it. So, without further ado, here are the apps.

Character App

Code: Select all

[b][i]Basic info[/i][/b]
[b]Name:[/b] (Self explanatory.)
[b]Age:[/b] (How old is you?)
[b]Sex:[/b] (Biological, if you please.)
[b]Appearance:[/b] (Picture appreciated, but if not, detailed description.)
[b]Personality:[/b] (The basis of a character. 2 full sentences or more is required.)
[b]Sexuality:[/b] (Completely optional.)
[b]Bio:[/b] (It doesn’t have to be long, but if it isn’t, I want expansion upon it ICly)

[b][i]Character info[/i][/b]
[b]Equipment:[/b] (What does your character carry on their person)
[b]Faction:[/b] (Who do they work for?)
[b]Abilities:[/b] (Any special powers to be known of?)
[b]Skills:[/b] (What is your character good at?)
[b]Weaknesses:[/b] (What does your character suck at?)

[b][i]Optional info[/i][/b]
[b]Theme song:[/b] (Whatever you want.)
[b]RP sample:[/b] (Needed if you ever want to Co-OP)

Faction App

Code: Select all

[b]Faction name:[/b] (Self explanatory)
[b]Alignment:[/b] (Whose side are you on? Are you on a side at all?)
[b]Faction goals:[/b] (What does your faction hope to accomplish)
[b]Faction history:[/b] (When did it begin? Why did it begin?)

Technology App

Code: Select all

[b]Technology Name:[/b] (What’s your tech called?)
[b]Design:[/b] (What does it look like?)
[b]Function:[/b] (What does it do?)
[b]History:[/b] (Who invented it? When? Why?)

[Haedros 92712]

Encyclopedia of Genesis (W.I.P.)

Alright, so for the sake of clarity, I have created an encyclopedia of important concepts and such in this world, and alphabetized them.

-(The) Conquest: A militant faction originating in South America, and eventually consuming the whole of South America and expanding eastward to consume the westernmost part of Europe. Their main base of operations is located on the colonie Ares. They intend to use the Ichor to make powerful weapons in order to conquer the other factions.
-Colonies: Celestial bodies that humans have successfully inhabited and colonized. Colonies include:
The Nexus: The main compound of the Seshat, a large cluster of mechanical cities located within the gas giant Neptune. Heavily fortified, and filled to the brim with all forms of experiments, both ethical and not.
Ares: A very large, man made cluster of cities within the gas giant Jupiter. Within the cities are multiple military compounds containing massive warships with massive guns and heavy ammunition.
The Market: A very large, man made city within the gas giant Saturn. Main base of operations of Mercury’s Coin. The Market is actually considered neutral territory, as it’s actually the largest center of commerce in the galaxy.
Eden: The pinnacle of technology, a large space station powered by Ichor obtained by the first people to land upon Genesis. This station is a neutral territory located above the third moon of Genesis, going by the same name.

-Eden: The third moon of Genesis, and the largest. This moon is well known for housing a neutral territory in which people of all nations live together in peace, as a form of protest to the revolving around their moons planet. Eden also houses Ichor, though this fact remains hidden to the rest of the galaxy.
-Energy weapons: A recent technology, energy weapons utilizing a superheated gas compound to create a powerful plasmalike bolt of energy. These weapons typically use a lot of power to fire, and thus are usually equipped to vehicles with large batteries that could sustain such power.

-Mercury’s Coin: One of the three factions. Named for the Roman god of commerce, Mercury, this faction is very heavily trade oriented. They’re main base of operation is The Market, located on Saturn. They intend to use Ichor as trade material, distributing Ichor based products in order to increase economic flow.

-Seshat: Named for the Egyptian goddess of wisdom, this organization is one of the three main factions of the war. Originating in Egypt, but later expanding into much of Europe and Asia, this group is well known for its obsession with knowledge, science and technology. Their main base of operations resides in the Nexus. They intend to use the Ichor of Genesis to further science and innovation.
-Starships: The basic Sci Fi concept of interplanetary traveling ships, fighters and such. These combat based ships are typically divided into such categories, each with its own characteristic.
Fighters: Small, one to four person ships with dog fight oriented weapons such as shorter range energy weapons and long ranged missile based weapons.
Bombers: A larger, mainly ground assault based vehicle that is capable of storing and delivering powerful explosive based attacks. They typically carry very little energy based weaponry.

[Haedros 92712]

While I’m not exactly finished with the OOC stuff yet, I might as well make this open to the public before it fades into obscurity before I ever get done with it. So, I hereby declare this OOC open!

[Greater Socialist Albania]

Tag.

[Eodor]

Tagging

Are cyberpunk cartels allowed or no?

[Haedros 92712]

Tagging

Are cyberpunk cartels allowed or no?

Yeah, that’s cool. Would you be independent, or would you work under one of the main factions?

[Eodor]

Tagging

Are cyberpunk cartels allowed or no?

Yeah, that’s cool. Would you be independent, or would you work under one of the main factions?

Possibly more of a guns for hire sort of deal, but mostly independent

[Haedros 92712]

Yeah, that’s cool. Would you be independent, or would you work under one of the main factions?

Possibly more of a guns for hire sort of deal, but mostly independent

Alright, cool.

[Ihury]

Now this looks good. I shall be getting a couple of apps up in an hour or two.

[Haedros 92712]

Technology Name: Biomechanics
Design: While there is no set design, Biomechanics always appear as machinery installed into a living being.
Function: Biomechanics, the practice of using machinery to enhance one or more physical or mental aspects of a living creature. These enhancements can be practically anything, from increasing physical strength to granting someone or something a genius level intellect.
History: We have the glorious Seshat organization to thank for biomechanics. With the concept having been thought of for many years prior, what with the ideas of cybernetically enhancing individuals (for example, Robocop or Cable) it was only reasonable that Seshat would dabble in this field. With a lack of scientists willing to grab a gun and fight a war, these selfsame scientists decided to create creatures who would fight the war for them. This resulted in an influx of horrifying machine-beast hybrids. Now biomechanical creatures are the main part of Seshats combat force, an almost unlimited supply of mechanical monstrosities, waiting to be unleashed.

[Ihury]

Characters

Basic Info

Name
Tomohito (智仁)

Officially The Eikō Emperor (叡光天皇)

Age
20
Born 28 May, 2077

Sex
Male

Appearance
(I’ll add a picture here if I can find a suitable one)
Height: 173cm
Weight: 62kg

Emperor Tomohito is a man of youthful, boyish appearance, standing at a rather average height of 173cm. He has a slim, athletic figure, from his active practice of martial arts, and has a head of short, thick, rather fuzzy black hair that resists combing. Since 2093, Tomohito wears a pair of frameless oval glasses to correct his myopia. His eyes are noted to have a distinctly fierce, vengeful quality to them, not unlike one seeking to start a fight.

On official occasions, he either wears a traditional kimono bearing the chrysanthemum mon of the imperial family or a typical western suit, with a preference for pinstripes. Even in informal situations, Tomohito prefers to dress in smart casual, at the very most rolling up the sleeves of his dress shirts and/or wearing summer colours as compared to black and white.

In his official portrait, which hangs alongside that of General-Secretary Yasuo Ōe in all government offices, schools, and public buildings, Tomohito is seen wearing a military uniform reminiscent of that worn by his great-great-great-grandfather, the Shōwa Emperor.

Personality
Emperor Tomohito is one of the most outspoken emperors since the Meiji Restoration. Unlike his predecessors, Tomohito is known to use his influence to speak up about issues he deems to have been overlooked, including those of a contentious political nature, and is unafraid of offending the powers that be despite his status as Emperor being (ironically) largely ceremonial.

Despite his formal manner of speech, Tomohito is known to be a scathing critic both of other factions in the world and elsewhere as well as of the NOFK Government, which tries to simultaneously silence the vocal Emperor while maintaining the illusion of his support for the NOFK Government. He is prone to outbursts, especially in private, and has a flowery, eloquent way with sarcasm reserved for those whom he perceives to disrespect or oppose him.

Nevertheless, Tomohito does possess a more affectionate side, particularly toward his family (particularly his widowed mother and his two elder sisters) and his close friends, using a more informal tone of voice with them and even, on special occasions, allowing himself to get tipsy in their presence. With his close male friends, he can be rather touchy, expressing his affection for them in a more openly physical manner. This is a side of him that Tomohito himself is often afraid to show, being somewhat paranoid of the socially ultra-conservative, reactionary government’s prying eyes.

Sexuality
Homosexual

Bio
Born in 2074 to Crown Prince Kazuhito (皇太子和仁親王, 2040 - 2089), Tomohito was raised in relative comfort for the first nine years of his life, sheltered from the emergence of the ultranationalist Nippon Ōsei Fukko Kai.

Kazuhito, however, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the young age of 47. When Emperor Hisahito died in 2089, Kazuhito was crowned Emperor, but ruled for only six months before succumbing to his illness. Thus, on 17 October 2089, the 15-year-old Tomohito was crowned Emperor of Japan, ushering in the Eikō Era (叡光世代). At around the same time, the NOFK under the racial supremacist Yasuo Ōe had established itself as the governing body of Japan, implementing a state of totalitarian organisation and claiming the mandate of the Emperor as its legitimising factor.

As the last surviving male member of the Imperial family, work began in 2090 to find a wife for Tomohito, such that the line of succession could continue. Tomohito, however, turned out to be homosexual; he showed no interest in any of the girls introduced to him by his court officials and by the envoys sent by NOFK boss Yasuo Ōe, and on the night of his 17th birthday in 2091, a groundskeeper found Tomohito making out with another boy in the palace bath. The incident was suppressed by the palace staff, who wanted to protect Tomohito and the rest of the royal family from the wrath of Yasuo Ōe, and the boy whom Tomohito had been cuddling in the bath was subsequently enlisted as a member of the palace staff, but delegated to the kitchen, where he would likely not meet with the Emperor.

For what it was worth, Tomohito saw no need to please the dislikable Ōe, believing him to be a reactionary, but was powerless to oppose him, despite being Emperor. On 2 May 2092, just four months before the invasion of Hokkaido by the communist Mu Lambda II, Tomohito delivered a speech from the Imperial Palace calling for the influence of the NOFK to be curtailed; In response, Ōe sent the Kenpeitai secret police to the Imperial Palace, confiscating Tomohito’s official seal, thus relinquishing the Emperor of the right to issue any official statements independent of the NOFK.

Enraged, yet powerless to act against the rapidly growing NOFK, Tomohito could only watch as Japan was invaded by the communist insurgent group known as Mu Lambda II, and as Ōe, in a bid to stop the spread of communist influence, openly pleaded with Mercury’s Coin to intervene and sponsor the NOFK. Now, as Emperor, the 20-year-old Tomohito is torn between staying in Japan as a powerless figurehead to show solidarity with his people against an invading force and escaping to Saturn, where he could make contact with Mercury’s Coin before Yasuo Ōe and, as such, establish a government-in-exile with a realistic chance of ending the tyranny of the NOFK. This is on top of the increased pressure on him from both the NOFK and from his own people to find a wife and bear children such that the imperial line of succession may be continued.

Character info

Equipment
None- though he is trained in iaidō and jūdō Tomohito relies largely on his bodyguards for protection. His bodyguards, a privately contracted and trained force independent of the NOFK, consists of thirty men armed with katana and wakizashi, on top of the Japanese-made NR-6 ichor-powered assault rifles and NPG pistols.

Faction
Publicly allied with the Nippon Ōsei Fukko Kai; publicly opposes Mu Lambda II, and Seshat

Privately opposes the Nippon Ōsei Fukko Kai, Mu Lambda II, and Seshat; privately considers seeking asylum in Mercury’s Coin-controlled territories.

Abilities
- Though he is not a military man, Tomohito is, nonetheless, trained in the Japanese martial arts of iaidō and jūdō.
- One of the most vocal emperors since the Meiji Restoration, Tomohito is noted to be exceptionally good looking and charismatic, possessing a sharp mind and ability to speak eloquently off-the-cuff. He is fluent in Japanese, Mandarin, English, and Russian, and is a prolific poet in Japanese and in Chinese.

Skills
(See above)

Weaknesses
- Politically, Tomohito is stuck in a difficult situation, where any option he chooses has a high chance of ending in a lose-lose situation both for himself and for the welfare of Japan.
- His opinionated tendencies, along with his willingness to speak up, has often been a source of political contention, as Tomohito, being unafraid to speak his mind, has alienated a few of his close political allies in the past, shooting his own political aims in the foot.
- As a leader, Tomohito is known to be dismissive of the opinions of advisors and subordinates, preferring to stick to his own preferred course of action. While his affinity for political manoeuvring more than covers for this, there have been instances where Tomohito’s headstrong approach to his opponents have cost him points, such as his direct confrontation of the NOFK.

Optional info

Theme Song
This Game [piano]

RP Sample
I don’t think I can commit to being a Co-OP, but here’s an RP sample anyway.

Los Angeles, CA
United States of America

‘The Furious Four’, was what the colourful group of performers who operated around the Santa Monica pier called themselves. The crime rates in the area were far lower than in other parts of the city; unsurprisingly, the tourist presence in the area was far more prominent, as were the Angelenos who went about the area for leisure or other activities. Consequently, there was a fair number of people there to earn money through their skills and their crafts, of which the Furious Four was one such group.

There was Eduardo Garcia, a 27-year-old capoeira practitioner who had been training in the martial art since he was 7; Anthony Lam, a 19-year-old former statewide gymnastics junior champion who had retired to go to college and performed on the street for extra pocket money; Shiro Kamii, a 24-year-old break dancer; and Yuri Muratov, a 21-year-old former USSR citizen who had moved to the USA and, to make a living, performed wushu and Cossack dance with the other three near the Californian beaches. It wasn’t particularly easy money, especially considering the mere pittances the average tourist was willing to give to a street performer; nevertheless, the novelty of seeing an acrobatic, multiracial group consisting of a half-Japanese half-black, a Latino, a Russian, and a Chinese performing a wide hodgepodge of styles was enough to set apart this particular group from the others and, in turn, rake in just enough money for the individual four to enjoy some amount of luxury in their daily lives.

Yuri in particular, seeking to understand the country to which he had only recently moved and to improve his English (which was fluent enough for all purposes, albeit with a slight Russian-Georgian twang), spent a lot of his free time reading newspapers of all sorts and with varying degrees of journalistic integrity and professionalism.

“What does this word masturbate mean?” he once asked Anthony, back when he first joined the other three. Though he had already learned some English prior to leaving the USSR and after arriving in the USA, that odd word he found in a rather questionable men’s health magazine was alien to him.

(The response he received convinced him that to expand his vocabulary as fast as possible was a very much important task.)

Yuri, finding very much in common between himself and Eduardo, Anthony, and Shiro, quickly began to fit in both with the rest of the group, who saw him as an indispensable contribution to the diversity of the Furious Four, and with the culture of the sunny, image-conscious Angelenos. His new group did, in fact, achieve some degree of small-time celebrity in the Santa Monica pier area, drawing sizeable crowds at every one of their twelve or thirteen performances every time they performed as a whole group.

Such a life, pondered Yuri, was far preferable to life as a member of the political elite, as he had been expected to be.

...

“I knew that man.”

One evening, Yuri found Shiro peering over his shoulder at the large words on the front page of The L.A. Times.

“The Bullet? Who was he?”

“A friend of my old instructor”, Shiro replied. “I met him once before.”

“You knew a former hero?” Yuri felt his stomach lurch, a sensation he described as “a shrinking of the testicles”. “What was he like?”

“I know for sure he didn’t kill himself. The feds must have done him in.”

Gorbachev could not protect the hero industry from itself. The provisional government does not dare to touch that law. And the fat drunkard cannot even keep his own balance...

Listen to me, Iuri Iosebis, if you ever get involved with these people... If you ever involve yourself in the affairs of the vigilante underground, or if you use your power...

There were a thousand questions Yuri meant to ask Shiro, but he chose to let the matter rest. His friend had a look of pure dread in his eye that Yuri had only seen twice before; once in his mother’s eyes, the last time she came back home alive before her body was found in a fountain, and once in the eyes of Gennady Yanayev as he declared the State of Emergency that was to lead to the collapse of the world’s oldest communist nation.

...

Watching sports on the rickety old TV he had bought at an auction was how Yuri spent the time in his apartment. There was only so many times he could reread the handful of books he had on his shelf, after all, and when nobody was visiting, things tended to get rather boring.

“Yuan Wenqing scores a mind-blowing 9.88 at the China National Wushu Championship! He’s only 23 years old, but his affinity for changquan is unlike anything we’ve ever seen!”

Yuri chuckled to himself. The American commentators were sometimes a little too enthusiastic to take seriously.

He couldn’t exactly remember what Soviet television was like, seeing as he had never really had access to the television in the first place. Life under his father’s watch was a constant cycle of military regimentation, consisting mostly of studying and of “discussions” about the merits of the Soviet system.

Once, he had asked his father, “Who is Solzhenitsyn?”

The reply he received was nothing short of explosive. Solzhenitsyn, he was told, is a dangerous man who wants to poison your mind.

“My role as your father is to protect you, and I will do whatever it takes to-“

Bullshit.

“Your father is full of it”, Yuri’s grandfather on his mother’s side had once told him. The rickety old man had seen the days of the October revolution and survived the times when the invisible eyes of Lavrentiy Beria peered into the houses of every last man in the nation. “Here’s some advice: don’t believe everything he says. I can see it in his eyes. He’s not a man who says what he really thinks.”

Now that’s a man I can get behind.

Yuri hadn’t really appreciated his grandfather’s gruff, bear-like personality until the day the old man died: 16 February, 1990. Down to the last minute and hour he remembered, numbers that he would never forget. The death of Pavel Andreyevich Muratov at the age of 88 was to haunt his grandson forever; in fact, beside the Macintosh LC 520 he had bought at the same auction as the ancient TV, Yuri kept a portrait of his grandfather. It was a portrait of a 48-year-old man, wearing the uniform of the NKVD, the feared internal ministry that controlled the security forces before the birth of the KGB; a portrait of a man that Yuri did not even know, but whom he had, following the years after his death, come to love like no other man.

“I’ve got blood on my hands”, he had told Yuri some time in 1989, when the boy had gone over to the old man’s modest khrushchevka apartment to visit. “I’ve seen the inner workings of this machine that your father is so proud of being a part of. He thinks his own shit doesn’t stink. He can piss off for all I care.”

Mine does too. And as for you...

“Blyat”, Yuri swore to himself. He had noticed some time ago how agitated his thoughts often made him, and would swear at himself to snap himself back to reality. “Yuriy Iosifovich Muratov, ty uzhe v SSh Amerika. Papa, eto ne vashe dyelo!”

The room became unusually silent. Perhaps his outburst had shocked the neighbours into silence. That is, if there had actually been neighbours in any of the other three rooms on the third floor. All the other tenants lived on the second floor, and the landlady herself lived on the first floor.

Adjusting the garter of his white pyjama pants, Yuri climbed out of the chair, stretched his bare upper body, and shuffled over to the kitchen area to make himself a glass of hot cocoa before he went to sleep. Though it was only 8:15PM, he felt it would be good to sleep a little earlier that particular night. He’d performed, along with the others, a whopping sixteen times that day, making full use of the hordes of tourists from the People’s Republic of China stopping over at the pier. That was bound to tire anybody out.

“The phone’s ringing?”

Of course the phone’s ringing. What are you talking about?

Yuri quickly stirred the 2-in-1 chocolate milk powder into the hot water, before rushing out to pick up the phone.

“Yuri, Shiro‘s in the hospital. He’s been hit by a car.”

...

The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre was completely silent by the time Yuri had gotten there. It was a short trip from his apartment block along 601 Westholme Avenue, but made slightly longer by the surprisingly heavy traffic. Decked out in a pair of wushu trousers, a loose grey sweater, and a pair of slippers, Yuri burst into the room that Anthony had given him over the phone, only to see him and Eduardo standing sullenly and greyly outside, the latter handing him a paper.

Shiro Kamii
Cause of death: cardiac arrest
Time of death: 8:36PM

“You’re five minutes late, Yuri”, said Anthony, barely able to hold back the involuntary choking that his throat had begun to force him to go through. “The fucker in the BMW tore him in two...”

As Yuri stood silently, staring blankly at the document, Anthony slammed his fist against the wall, leaving patches of broken skin on his hand. No longer could he contain himself.

“Gaisi!” He wept, his voice crumbling in the waterfalls of unsolicited grief. “Ni zenme keyi name kuai jiu paodiao...”

Stop crying, Iuri. You don’t deserve to cry. You were the one who didn’t want to listen to instructions. I should be the one crying, you know. As your father, your shortcomings reflect on me too...

Yuri swallowed so hard it seemed as if his Adam’s Apple would trickle down his oesophagus.

I know for sure he didn’t kill himself. The feds must have done him in...

“Excuse me, please”, said Yuri to Eduardo and Anthony. “I’m... going over to his house.”

Neither Eduardo nor Anthony replied.

...

Shiro’s apartment had been thoroughly ransacked by the time Yuri got there. Somebody had kicked the door down; considering it was an extremely heavy door, and that only he, Eduardo, and Anthony had the keys besides Shiro himself, Yuri deduced that somebody with a battering ram had entered the house.

The wardrobes, in particular, had been torn apart, clothes strewn all over the floor. Slowly stepping through the paraphernalia that had been eerily left lying on the parquet, Yuri fought hard to maintain his composure; the last time he openly cried, his father had smashed his intestines out of him. Walking through the violated house of his now deceased friend was the last place that Yuri wanted to conjure up such memories.

A picture frame sat on the bed table: it was Shiro as a ten-year-old, surrounded by his father, a stereotypically Japanese man in a polo-tee who looked like a more kindly version of Fumimaro Konoe, and by his mother, a muscular black woman with curly hair that could easily challenge Oprah Winfrey’s glorious locks. The eyes of the two parents gazed into the camera, out of the shattered glass of the picture frame, into the crescent moon that lit up the midnight sky. Yuri could not bring himself to look at any one component of the picture for longer than ten seconds; those innocent smiles belied the subconscious knowledge that something was about to happen. The smile of his mother as she left the Endronikashvili family’s luxurious Moscow dacha in the dead of night, a fateful smile to futilely assure her son of his uncertain future, slowly came to permeate the crawling darkness of Shiro’s room.

You think you can supplant this system with your tongue, Iuri? Listen to me. I am your father. I was born in 1946. I know this world better than you do. You’ll never survive outside this dacha unless you do exactly as I say.

Stepping over the bed, however, Yuri was suddenly reminded of a little detail in the house’s layout that the hasty searchers would likely have missed.

“There’s a little trapdoor under my bed”, Shiro had once told Yuri and the others while drunk one day, as they were celebrating his birthday. “I keep some good shit there.”

Sure enough, as Yuri pushed aside the bed that had already been pushed aside, there was one particular plank of parquet that seemed to be a slightly different colour from the others. Indeed, it wasn’t parquet at all, but a curiously textured plastic that bore more scratches than the orange wood surrounding it. Pressing on one end of it revealed that it was hinged; in other words, a handle for a trapdoor.

Never be afraid to seek, Yurachka. People like your father want to cover up the other side; that’s why they claim their story to be the Truth, with a capital T. The Way, the Truth, and the Life. Yurachka, you should run like Hell from people who say these things. They want to hide their agenda by scraping their half of the story across a hole that’s too large.

The voice of his grandfather became stronger and stronger, as his father’s slowly dissolved into the peaceful darkness.

Cracking his knuckles, Yuri gingerly pulled the handle of Shiro’s secret safe. A significant chunk of the surrounding parquet followed it up cleanly, revealing a little hole no deeper than a bedside dustbin.

And, Yurachka, you must never forget... every coin has two sides. Every story has more than one storyteller. Never be afraid to ask questions, even if it means you get in trouble...

Inside the little hole was a revolver with a little pack of bullets; a bundle of US$100 notes; another slightly smaller bundle of Singapore dollars; and a military field ration, still inside its pristine plastic wrapping.

And a cape and mask. A hero’s garb.

The cheap Casio watch on his wrist beeped cutely. 1:00AM.

His hands trembling, Yuri lifted the cape and the mask out of the box. Now, he could no longer fight back the force of the river’s lachrymose water. The dam had been broken. He wept uncontrollably. The ghost of his grandfather had dragged every last fragment of his father’s voice into the deepest basement of the Lubyanka.

Beneath Shiro’s costume was a note.

Eduardo, Anthony, and/or Yuri, if any of you find this note, I just want to set the record straight; I have been, since 1989, a hero. A vigilante. I have broken the law of my own will to uphold justice, and it is a decision that I will never regret.

Mummy, if you are the one who found this letter, I just want you to know that I love you. I have tried so hard to be a good son, and I hope you will understand why things may happen the way they do.

Yuri flipped the note over.

お父さんへ、

この国は、善と悪の区別がわからない。だから、僕は正義のために戦いを続ける。もう大丈夫。大船に乗った気で心配しないで。

来世で会おうよ。

志郎より

Again, the watch beeped.

...

——————

Factions

Faction Name
Mu Lambda II
(Μυ Λαμδα II / Му Лямбда II / მუ ლამბდა II / Մյու Լամբդա II)

Alignment
Allied with Seshat; opposed to the Nippon Ōsei Fukko Kai and Mercury’s Coin

Faction Goals
Global Collective: Founded on a Trotskyite brand of Marxism-Leninism, Mu Lambda’s first leader, Spiridon Zhigunov, sought to establish a worldwide communist regime, having been greatly affected by the corporatism he perceived during his travels and through his experiences as a military officer. Due to a lack of resources and support, Mu Lambda’s goals are confined to Earth, with any plans to expand their operations into space largely canned after the expansion of Seshat into Europe. With the collapse of the original Mu Lambda, however, this objective has been put on hold, with new leader Anton Nikiforov in favour of first establishing a reliable base of operations in a single country rather than attempting larger scale propaganda movements.

Establishing a government in Japanese territories: Following the invasion of Hokkaido in 2092, Mu Lambda II has decided to capture all of Japan, with the aid of Seshat, their objective being to secure a reliable source of manpower and resources in the Japanese territories through the establishment of a communist puppet government in Japan. As a result of this goal, Mu Lambda II has been at war with the imperialist Nippon Ōsei Fukko Kai for three years, with the northern half of Japan ravaged by constant fighting.

Faction History
In the face of ever growing oligarchy in the Russian Federation, Mu Lambda was founded in 2044 by Spiridon Anatolyevich Zhigunov (Спиридон Анатольевич Жигунов • 1999 - 2072), a former military officer and entrepreneur who, disillusioned with the widespread inequality he had observed during his travels around the world and within Russia itself, chose to revive the original communist ideologies of the old Soviet Union, starting with twenty six other people in the basement of a pub.

Mu Lambda (an acronym in Greek alphabets for “Marx” and “Lenin”) quickly gained traction, its radical ideas becoming far more popular than the watered-down centrist-left ideas of the old Russian Communist Party. The organisation, which stockpiled weapons obtained through the black market and made use of underground communication networks to transmit messages within the organisation and to common people as propaganda, reached its peak in 2068, when the Russian Federation had become little more than an oligarchic puppet; with almost five million members, Mu Lambda engaged in intense guerrilla warfare on Western Russia, fighting off pro-government forces and the private armies of the oligarchs.

When Zhigunov died in 2072, leadership of the organisation fell to his son, Dmitri Spiridonovich Zhigunov (b. 2046), who proved to be an inept and ineffective commander with a rudimentary grasp of political science and economics. Unwilling to be led by the inept D. Zhigunov, a brigade commander of Mu Lambda, Anton Sergeyevich Nikiforov (b. 2032), staged a coup against the younger Zhigunov, only to find that half of Mu Lambda still supported Dmitri for his upholding of Trotskyite principles of global collectivism, as compared to Nikiforov’s espousing of a conservation of resources. The organisation, thus, split into two factions: Mu Lambda Zeta, which supported Zhigunov, and Mu Lambda II, led by Nikiforov. The latter, observing that Mu Lambda Zeta was quickly succumbing to the attacks of a powerful group originating from Egypt, shifted eastward, abandoning their original base in Donetsk and travelling across the tundra by train, before finally reestablishing themselves in the Kamchatka peninsula. At around the same time, in 2086, Mu Lambda Zeta suffered monumental defeats in Eastern Europe at the hands of Seshat, effectively dissolving the Trotskyite half of the organisation.

In 2092, Mu Lambda II, now with a membership of 2 million, invaded Hokkaido, intending to capture the northernmost territory of the now weakened State of Japan in order to mine it for resources; however, facing intense opposition from the Nippon Ōsei Fukko Kai, a conglomerate of imperialist think tanks and militant factions which sought to restore the Empire of Japan, Nikiforov decided to seek the aid of Seshat, which had destroyed Zhigunov’s half of the faction, in destroying the Japanese imperialists and establishing a communist state in Japan.

...

Faction Name
Nippon Ōsei Fukko Kai (NOFK)
(日本王政復古会, lit. Society for the Restoration of the Japanese Imperial Government)

Alignment
Allied with none; directly opposed to Seshat and Mu Lambda II

Faction Goals
Restoration of the Japanese Emperor: As their name suggests, the NOFK’s primary goal is to restore the Emperor to his position as the head of state of Japan; to this end, they have enlisted the support of multiple imperialist militaries throughout Japan, for the expansion of the imperial territories and for the protection of the incumbent Emperor, 20-year-old Tomohito (also known as the Eikō Emperor 叡光天皇). Ironically, however, the Emperor himself possesses little say in the matters of the government and the bureaucracy, and is largely marginalised in favour of NOFK senior members.

In addition to their main objective, the various constituent groups of the NOFK have their own socioeconomic objectives, ranging from the promotion of Shintō as a state religion to the elimination of elements of societal elements deemed to be undesirable, including but not limited to communists, Caucasians, homosexuals, and those with genetic defects.

Faction History
The exact date of formation of the Nippon Ōsei Fukko Kai is a subject of debate, given that it was formed through the slow conglomeration and merging of various ultranationalist, Japanese supremacist, far-right Shintō, and yakuza organisations; the declaration of the organisation’s name was in 2081, at a conference of 56 ultranationalist groups. The then leader of the Nippon Kaigi, Yūji Mutō (武藤雄治, 2019 - 2087), was proclaimed the General-Secretary of the newly formed organisation, and promptly set out to increase its powers. Unable to suppress the NOFK, the ruling government was overthrown in 2086, and its members either executed or forced into exile in Korea.

Having succeeded in its goal of overthrowing the old administration, the NOFK soon shifted its sights to the invasion of Korea. Upon the death of Yūji Mutō in 2087, the organisation was helmed by Yasuo Ōe (大江靖夫, b. 2034), a prominent proponent of Japanese racial supremacy. Seeking to expand Japanese territories and influence, Ōe implemented mandatory conscription to increase the numbers of the NOFK’s military, executing and imprisoning prominent dissidents and advocates of democracy such as the journalist Tenya Arai (2060 - 2089) and left-wing political theorist Isamu Magurogawa (b. 2049). The latter was to become a prominent symbol of the Japanese communist movement upon the invasion of Japan by the communist movement Mu Lambda II.

In 2089, Ōe launched an invasion of the Korean Peninsula, fighting a drawn-out war with local Korean warlords Lim Hyo-jun (b. 2055) and Hwang Duk-gi (b. 2050), but was forced to withdraw in 2092 when Hokkaido was invaded by Mu Lambda II, the anti-Trotskyite splinter of the original Mu Lambda that had established itself in Vladivostok. The marginalised Emperor Tomohito, who had on one occasion expressed his disapproval of the NOFK regime, had now been largely silenced, kept mainly as a figurehead to legitimise the operations of Ōe’s administration; as Mu Lambda II continues to make headway in its war in Hokkaido with the support of the Egyptian militia Seshat, the slowly withering NOFK under the mentally deteriorating Ōe seeks to lodge a request with the Saturn-based Mercury’s Coin, a staunchly free-market organisation, to aid in the war against Mu Lambda II’s brand of communism and in the entrenchment of the NOFK’s totalitarian, “imperial” regime.

[Ihury]

I’ve had some unforeseen circumstances on my end, which is why my apps took a little longer to get up than I had expected.

I’ll be writing applications for one more character and a tech application soon.

[Haedros 92712]

*Snip*

This is excellent! 10/10 and Accepted!

[Ihury]

*Snip*

This is excellent! 10/10 and Accepted!

Thanks

[Ihury]

How many people do we need to get an IC started?

[Haedros 92712]

How many people do we need to get an IC started?

I’d say around 5-6, possibly more.

[Eodor]

Character App

Basic info
Name: Nikolai Turachevsky
Age: 31
Sex: Male
Appearance: 6' 3" tall

Personality: An mentally unhinged, maniacal crime lord more obsessed with setting things on fire and murdering people than money. It is believed he has some sort of personality disorder, one moment he can be calm and aloof and the next minute screaming at a severed head for ignoring him. Suffice to say, he's the guy you see at the pub every Saturday night stumbling around and swearing loudly.
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Bio: Nikolai was born in Sharyporo, a town in Siberia to only a 20 year old mother. Barely six months after he was born his mother died of tuberculosis and he was inducted into the local orphanage. Due to the fact he had no one to teach him morals, he never really learned any and so by the time he was sent to school he was often unnecessarily, and excessively cruel to other children. This caused him to be mostly ostracised and as such he began developing mental health issues, these were compounded by his lack of friends and carers. Nikolai dropped out of high school to peddle drugs and various illegal substances on the streets, at age 13 he was arrested for the possession of drugs with intent to supply and for the attempted murder of a customer of his. Due to his age, Nikolai was released after 4 years. Nikolai eventually fell in with a Russian gang based around Novosibirsk with a branch in his home town. At first, he simply performed basic courier jobs before he travelled to Novosibirsk proper to meet with the gang's leader. He promptly shot the man in the head on meeting with him, declaring himself the new gang leader. It is also believed the skull he carries with him is the skull of that gang leader. [More to be expanded on later]

Character info
Equipment: Switchblade, modified Kalashnikov and 9mm pistol for weaponry, human skull attached to a leather belt.
Faction: The White Skulls
Abilities: None
Skills: Melee and intimidation
Weaknesses: Diplomacy, stealth

Optional info
Theme song: This
RP sample: I haven't done an RP for ages now so I don't really have one that'd actually be of use.

Faction name: The White Skulls
Alignment: Loyal to the coin / Independent guns for hire
Faction goals: Wealth, boundless wealth
Faction history: Originally a small Russian criminal gang, the White Skulls made a living from selling various illegal substances and smuggling low-level contraband. After their takeover by Nikolai Turachevsky they evolved into a much larger operation, absorbing several other small gangs around central and eastern Russia before advancing westwards. The White Skulls are an all-rounder organisation, everything from smuggling to drug dealing to high-end mercenary work; if you need something not-so-legal done then you go to the White Skulls. The White Skulls do not have a specific number of people working for them, with law enforcement officials never able to acquire dossiers or personnel lists as well as never being able to track down the few members they have discovered over the years. After their emigration to Eastern Europe, The White Skulls began receiving attention from both law enforcement as well as from other criminal organisations. In 2087, the White Skulls made international news after the hijacking of a Chinese cargo ship travelling to America and managing to extort a ransom worth 2.6 billion US dollars from the Chinese government. Later, the White Skulls began offering their services as mercenaries to those who pay enough; given that many members of the White Skulls are former soldiers they are a rather formidable force. Now they are one of the biggest and most powerful criminal organisations in the Solar system, with their mercenary forces often a go to for billionaires and even small nations for protection or combat troops.

Alright that's all I got.

[Ayvalon]

Recommendation: Considering we're focusing on 3 major power-players of human society (if I'm reading this right) It might be a wise move to have them more readily accessible outside the encyclopedia so readers aren't having to rifle through every entry to get a feel for who they want to back.

That being said, applications incoming

[Haedros 92712]

Recommendation: Considering we're focusing on 3 major power-players of human society (if I'm reading this right) It might be a wise move to have them more readily accessible outside the encyclopedia so readers aren't having to rifle through every entry to get a feel for who they want to back.

That being said, applications incoming

Oh don’t worry, I’m writing up faction apps for each of them. Factions will appear in the roster for everyone to see.

[Andsed]

Tag would a sort of UN inspired peacekeeping faction be ok?

[Haedros 92712]

Tag would a sort of UN inspired peacekeeping faction be ok?

Yes, but it would be heavily opposed by all three factions, who would all individually see the peace keeping force as a threat to their goal of gaining complete control of Genesis.

[Andsed]

Tag would a sort of UN inspired peacekeeping faction be ok?

Yes, but it would be heavily opposed by all three factions, who would all individually see the peace keeping force as a threat to their goal of gaining complete control of Genesis.

Understood.

[Danceria]

Tag. So many options...we've got a maniac, and a ghey boi emprah. I'm not sure how a hacker could be a part of this, maybe as a Hacker? Some kind of Not!Shadowrunner? Somebody needs a splicer.

[Haedros 92712]

Tag. So many options...we've got a maniac, and a ghey boi emprah. I'm not sure how a hacker could be a part of this, maybe as a Hacker? Some kind of Not!Shadowrunner? Somebody needs a splicer.

You could probably make some kind of hacker Corp faction that works independently, as like hacking for hire.