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    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Ashen Lilies's Avatar

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    Default Skyside 7: The Big Pizza in the Sky

    A bustling trade city famously situated atop a high-tech array of anti-gravity generators that give the flying city its name, Skyside has seen better days. Once a booming, futuristic metropolis with a strict legal system and formidable state-supported economy, the collapse of Skyside's monarchy has blown the city's political system into a state of literal anarchy. A plague of change and opportunity has infected the city at all levels, from the nobles and other persons of substance jockeying to to fill the political void left by the collapse of the old system, to new immigrants attracted by Skyside's new lack of taxes or restriction. The markets of Skyside's Tempest Row, once tightly regulated, are now open to all kinds of vice and debauchery unseen in the more stable cities of the Nexus, including a growing slave market.

    While the forces of the remaining nobility and the presence of the Royal Guard generally stops widespread fighting in the streets before it gets too out of hand, violence on a smaller scale is still common, and people who cannot protect themselves (or hire others to protect them) are often beaten, killed or kidnapped to be used in experiments or sold into slavery for those with lower standards.

    In general, visitors and residents of Skyside learn to stay on their toes pretty quickly. Even the safest and most affluent areas of Skyside are vulnerable to some amateur mad scientist's latest giant robot or genetic abomination running loose and causing havoc, or a temporal anomaly rolling through and causing a street full of people to suddenly age several weeks in the space of a few seconds. The city can be chaotic, and often times dangerous, but there is potential for great wealth here, if someone has a talent for spotting opportunity and grabbing it. Whether with their own hands or the remotely controlled mecha hands that they designed in their attic is highly dependent on the person, of course.

    History

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    Coming soon!


    Factions
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    With no ruler or central government in Skyside to maintain order and uphold the laws, political power in Skyside has broken down into dozens of individual political factions with differing goals and operations. Some seriously look to the palace, seeking to claim Skyside's throne and restore the city to its former position. Others are factions merely of convenience, providing certain protections and services in exchange for loyalty or money. Others may have their own goals entirely.

    Any player can make any number of factions, with any form of political goal in competition with the other factions. Weaker factions might slip under the radar, but more powerful factions might be the target of other player based factions, who might seek to sabotage or undermine other factions in order to achieve an advantage. Of course, that's not to say that the target faction can't fight back...

    Please remember to be courteous to other players though, and don't force conflict if it's clear that it's not wanted. On the other hand, please don't create a faction if your plan is to make them untouchable and stonewall everyone's attempts to try and interact with or compete with your faction. This is a collaborative thread, everyone have fun!

    Please PM if you want a faction added to this OP.

    House Sky (player: AshenLilies)

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    Formerly the rulers of Skyside, the royal lineage is now held hostage within their own palace, barred from entering politics by the Royal Guard for their own safety. A king or queen of Skyside hasn't been crowned for almost a century, however the most recent and last remaining Skyside heir, Princess YoonJi, has been a little unusual in her seeming immunity to assassination plots. Countless attempts have been made on the life of the princess (scarcely into her teens) and yet all assassins have either been caught, died under mysterious circumstances, or been involved in sudden romances with palace servants, eventually settling down to become simple farmers.


    Skyside Royal Guard (player: AshenLilies)

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    The chief line of defense for the city and the crown, the Skyside Royal Guard remains a formidable fighting force, despite their reduced numbers and seeming lack of political involvement. The primary duty of the Skyside Royal Guard is to protect the Sky family, and as such they are rarely seen outside the immediate surroundings of the Sky Palace Tower, unless something happens in the city to attract their notice - or incur their wrath.


    BrightStar Corporation (player: AshenLilies)

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    An old company name dating from the monarchy days of Skyside, BrightStar Corporation seems to have taken full advantage of the chaos in Skyside to emerge as one of the largest corporate powers. Their flourishing in this new lawless environment has led to rumors of them actively working to maintain the status quo, including murdering promising Skyside heirs, or sabotaging any noble house or political force that looks like it may become too powerful and restore order back to the city.


    Tempest Spaceport Commerce Guild (player: AshenLilies, in theory - though anyone is open to play a member of the guild)

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    A small conglomerate of mostly Ferengi and Hutt partners that run the Tempest Spaceport. The Commerce Guild provides security to the spaceport and its immediate surroundings, as well as collects a light tax on spaceport business and trade, but are otherwise pretty chill dudes, and uninterested in wider Skyside politics.



    City Defense

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    Though effectively lawless, some semblance of peace in Skyside is maintained by both the private security forces of the various guilds and factions that operate within the city, as well as through the overwatch of the Syside Royal Guard, who protect the Sky Palace Tower and also the city as a whole from foreign invasion. Oeioke raising too much of a disturbance should expect to draw attention from any number of concerned parties, who may have an interest in keeping their business running smoothly, as tumultuous as the political situation may be.

    As a whole city, Skyside's defenses against aerial and ground assault are dedicated and formidable. As uninvolved as they are in local politics, the Royal Guard has no desire to see Skyside fall to any foreign invasion or interference, and does not slack off in its duties when it comes to city defense, even if they are a total non-presence in Skyside's day-to-day order.


    Zones

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    Old Skyside/"The Raindrop District"
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    The historic city nearest to Skyside's Sky Palace Tower, what's come to be known as the "Raindrop District" by newer generations of Skysiders is a place of incredible change.

    The older estates, temples and monuments, abandoned by all but the most stubborn of Skyside's old order, are being demolished, replaced by new residential growth of various types, from the absolutely dismal to the actually-pretty-nice. Some of the more novel developments in housing include ad-sponsored houses, and other low-cost developments for moderate quality housing. In between the housing developments come all the small businesses you'd expect from Skyside's fastest-growing residential sector, including corner stores, fast food, laundromats, and all the other handy spots that let people get everything they need without having to travel far.

    The Raindrop District is relatively safe by day, especially in the parts of the town still held on to by the old Skyside elites, nearer to the Palace Tower, but generally is more dangerous at night. Especially in the more ramshackle parts of the Raindrop District, the back alleys tend to be frequented by muggers and the like, and break-ins are very common during the day when the occupants are likely out working. The wise Raindrop District inhabitant keeps good locks and a trusty firearm close at hand, at the very least, and some shell out for more, opting to rely on protection from mercenary and security firms that provide added safety... for a price.


    The Cloudtops

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    The wealthiest and most glamorous section of Skyside, the Cloudtops form the new fortress of Skyside's new elites: an incredibly tall, shiny fortress, dominated by tall skyscrapers of glass and steel, covered in bright lights and connected by paved roads and elevated walkways galore.

    The Cloudtops is home to Skyside's richest residents, and Skyside's biggest businesses and corporations. The Cloudtops is also Skyside's safest district, kept such by the forces of countless taskforces of well-equipped private security teams.


    Tempest Row

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    Depending on who you ask, Tempest Row is either a vibrant, colorful area full of exotic wares and noisy taverns where ale flows freely, and the barmaids are very accommodating; or a raging, screaming drunk who will drag you into a back alley, beat you over the head with a stick, and run off with your valuables. Or both at once.

    Housing the main airship docks and largest spaceport zone, Tempest Row is the nickname for the bustling market and entertainment district of Skyside. With the constant traffic in and out of the city, Tempest Row is home to countless taverns, bars, clubs, and brothels of various sorts, providing boisterous and often debauched entertainment for Skyside's visitors.

    With its large crowds and large numbers of shop guards, Tempest Row is relatively safe from violence, though the odd scientific anomaly or experiment-got-loose may amble through occasionally. Visitors in Tempest Row should instead keep a closer watch on their valuables rather than their safety, keeping a close eye out for the pickpockets, scam-artists, and cutpurses of various sorts walking through the crowds, looking for easy money; or the gangs of street toughs roaming the back alleys, waiting for someone too drunk to put up a good fight to stumble along.


    Thunderhead

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    The constant black smoke belching from the sprawling jumble of towering smokestacks and open smelting furnaces gives this area its name among the locals. Thunderhead is the main industrial area of Skyside, filled with factories, smelteries, warehouseries, and a whole array of other varied monuments to urban squalor. Everything from airship construction to weapons manufacture takes place here, and accidents can sometimes happen, especially with the more unscrupulous employers who care little about what happens to their factory workers, whether they be paid workers, slaves, robots or the mutated fishmen your mad scientist donor kindly granted you.

    Thunderhead is among the most dangerous of the districts, with vicious gangs and supervillains hiding out in the mysteriously abandoned warehouses (seriously, Skyside is short on space, why are all there all these abandoned warehouses?), and gangs frequently forming among the poorest of Skyside's communities: the underpaid factory workers and industrial chattel that fill row upon row of unmaintained tenement housing and ruined apartments. Most good factories have guards to protect their workers (or keep them from escaping), but among the houses of the working poor, the streets can turn into a danger zone at any point, with very few people willing to stick around and bear witness.


    Groundtown

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    For those who couldn't get onto Skyside proper, one can always live in its shadow. While Skyside once was a mobile city, moving place to place for safety and resources, since its collapse it has remained stationary, allowing secondary development under and around the city. Located directly under and around the floating city, Groundtown is a small, but growing settlement of improvised buildings and pre-fab housing blocks, populated largely by Skyside's poorest and most unfortunate workers, poorer even than Thunderhead's inhabitants, commuting morning and evening to the city above by way of hanging basket-lifts and small flying skiffs.

    Located outside even Skyside's limited bubble of security and order, and utterly ignored by the Royal Guard, Groundtown can be truly hellish at times. Fighting on the streets between warring gangs is an all too common sight, and even the heaviest of personal weaponry cannot always guarantee personal safety. Residents of Groundtown lock their valuables up tight and keep their gun under their pillow, and visitors should always keep their eyes peeled for thieves and muggers. What little safety can be had in Groundtown comes from the powerful gangs who do their best to control the disorder within their own territory, and the superpowered and/or costumed vigilantes who can be found patrolling nightly, unwilling to let Groundtown fall apart and be consumed by darkness.



    Locations
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    Please PM the thread creator with a description if you want a location added to this index!

    Sky Palace Tower (Player: AshenLilies, Raindrop District)

    BrightStar Spaceport (The Cloudtops)

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    The second largest spaceport in Skyside, the shiny new BrightStar Spaceport, owned by BrightStar Corporation, is a chief connection between Skyside and the great final frontier. Frequent shuttles and cargo ships make trips between this spaceport and various space-stations close to the Nexus, including Salmagundi station, and there's talk of BrightStar Corporation expanding the spaceport to include a space elevator between the spaceport and Salmagundi station.


    Tempest Spaceport (Tempest Row)

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    Larger than BrightStar Spaceport, Tempest Spaceport is a little less well adapted for big business and heavy shipping, as Tempest Spaceport is not actually just one spaceport, but a loose connection of spaceports and associated businesses, all run by members of the Tempest Spaceport Commerce Guild. The Tempest Spaceport is a favorite stop for independent spacers and smaller shipping industries, being a cheaper, if less glamorous alternative to the BrightStar Spaceport in the Cloudtops.


    Attila's Cantina (Player: Tempest Row)

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    Located within the Tempest Spaceport complex, Attila's Cantina is a bar run by an enterprising Hutt named Attila, who caters mostly to the pilots, captains and crew of starships stopping at Skyside. A large variety of food and beverages can be found here, with a special emphasis on items resembling what can be found from Attila's home galaxy, making it especially popular among those who have been sucked into the Nexus from said galaxy. People who know to ask can purchase small quantities of rare Spice from Attila, and he has a wide variety of contacts among Tempest Row traders and dock keepers, making him a good source of information for people looking to know what's what in the area.

    The Cantina is relatively clean and bright, though noisy with the constant chatter of alien species. The ubiquitous Bith space-jazz band plays on a raised stage to once side, along with Twi'lek dancers (free and well payed) and vocalists. A few heavily armed guards dot the edges, and Attila himself keeps his powerful blaster shotgun clearly visible above the bar (along with a larger, even more powerful blaster hidden under it) in order to dissuade troublemakers.


    Atlas Park (The Cloudtops)

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    Located in the midst of the Cloudtops, Atlas Park is a little bit of an anomaly within the urbanized city center. Atlas Park is covered by a transparent dome, keeping out any pollution from the city, while allowing the climate inside to be manipulated to a fine degree. Atlas Park is home to some very attractive landscaping, exotic plants, a small lake, and in general is just a very nice green space for people to relax away from the buildings and bustle of the rest of Skyside. A massive statue of the titan the park is named after stands proudly in the middle of the park, carrying aloft a sphere covered in stars and constellations on his shoulders in reference to the original myth. Oddly enough, though, anyone who manages to get a close look at his face might note an odd expression carved there, which, combined with the slightly odd tilt to his shoulders vaguely suggests an image of Atlas shrugging.

    Entrance to Atlas Park requires payment of a moderate fee to keep the park running, though membership cards can be purchased to allow free access over a period of time.


    Tinkertown (Thunderhead)

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    A small sub-district located in between Thunderhead and the Raindrop District, Tinkertown is an odd district full of warehouses that have been mostly rented as labspace for the large cohort of mad scientists and visionaries who call Skyside home. As such, Tinkertown tends to be even more chaotic than Skyside at large, home to a wide variety of technicolored explosions, noxious gas outbreaks, and half-fish abominations wandering the streets, looking for their mummy. The non-Mad Scientist population of Skyside usually knows to stay well away from Tinkertown, though some find themselves drawn to the noise and excitement, or the glamorous (and occasionally lucrative) occupation of being some up-and-coming supervillain's henchman, hunchbacked assistant or attractive mistress.


    Temple to Pazuzu (Player: Earl of Purple, Tempest Row)

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    One of the buildings here, an overhanging pub with a novelty glass floor that quickly went out of business due to one short gunfight and a very long drop, has been taken over by a new group.

    They've put up a sign outside depicting a red vulture with wings and talons outstretched superimposed on a silver cloud. Beneath that is a sign proclaiming this to be the Temple of Pazuzu, and on the other side is a list of the dates of various religious celebrations.

    Outside, it still resembles the other taverns, being a three-storey building with a flat roof to dock smaller aircraft. Inside, there's an altar at the far end with a cage suspended over a hole in the floor next to it. There's a central aisle with rows of pews on either side, most suited for winged individuals.



    OoC Notes and Rules
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    1. For we are not Gods, merely Men. Godmodding is not permissible! As stated in the rules in the FFRP Central Thread,, godmodding is generally not allowed without permission. If you're shaky on what might be, and what might not be godmodding, please follow the above link.
    2. An interior decorator is you! Remember the curtain! It is accepted that there will of course be some inter-PC relationships, and that romance and certain physical interactions (commonly known as sex) happen. However, please be courteous to others and curtain any scene that you wouldn't be willing to write with your parents watching. This is so you can stay within forum rules, as well as letting those uninterested in the scene pass by without having to glimpse your poorly written and anatomically impossible erotica. Thank you.
    3. It's probably a Nemesis plot.
    4. I can save this planet! “My character is an escaped slave who became a paladin and hates slavery! She's going to attack every slaver she sees and singlehandedly tear down Skyside's slave industry!” Since everything is legal in Skyside, it's inevitable that some less well-looked upon industries, such as slavery, will find a foothold there, which more morally upright characters may take affront to. However, always be mindful of the consequences of a random paladin trying to attack slavers in the streets, burn markets down or knock down doors and bash in heads. Even in a lawless city, slavery is still unpopular, and any slavers brave enough to be operating in the open are likely to have lots of guards to protect their interests. Also, Skyside does still have some factions interested in public order, as well as the Royal Guard, who will try to stop any fights that start spreading and disrupting safety and order in a large area. Someone who consistently acts very aggressive and randomly assaults people and property in the open is likely to find themselves in a lot of trouble, very quickly. Also, not everyone wants to have to constantly respond to every Joseph McHero and Sally Superwoman who wants to pick a fight with them. If you plan on having a character take action and take down a specific store or organization, please be courteous and ask the players involved if they're willing to RP it, and remember that there are more subtle ways to take down an industry than kicking them in the teeth.
    5. Our words are backed by NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Remnant/Riverside/Orgs hunting down supervillains hiding out in Skyside: Go ahead. In general, it's perfectly alright to carry out retribution against any criminals trying to hide out in Skyside, as long as the force sent is relatively discrete or small scale enough to avoid notice from the powers-that-be. Large numbers of troops or powerful strike forces will generally draw negative attention from the Royal Guard, though, unless they have been informed of the operation beforehand and approve (though they probably won't). Gotta protect that independence, yo.
    6. 3 EDGY 5 ME Please do your best to avoid excessively dark or disturbing roleplay. Skyside can be a den for cruelties and evil of all sorts, however, some situations are simply too dark for this forum. Try to avoid roleplaying or alluding to scenarios that could be disturbing or potentially triggering, even if it may be realistic or showcase how awful your character is.
    7. Long Live the Queen! Princess YoonJi is immortal. Period. You can try to kill her and dismantle the Sky dynasty. You will fail.




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    Last edited by Ashen Lilies; 2022-02-07 at 12:09 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Magtok
    She’s graduated from child soldier to unstable teen sorceress, way to go.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Orc in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    Quote Originally Posted by 5a Violista View Post
    Smuggling Route Dropoff

    "People don't go into propaganda for the direct profit," Seraphina says, contesting that idea. "Controlling how people think is much more valuable when you already have the basics, especially when everyone else is busy working on the basics."

    She leans back, and shrugs.
    "But it's their group. They can run it however they want, I suppose."

    Actually, leaning back was a bad idea.
    Seraphina leans forward so that she can actually look out at all the things. She doesn't want to miss the whole ride up.
    Smuggling Route Dropoff

    "Well, maybe. But, well. Propaganda's tricky. Works best from a position of power, an' none of the gangs have supremacy here. They try printing propaganda, an' nobody'd read it. They probably already print some stuff for themselves, anyway." Or they could offer their services in printing propaganda to others, but that's the kind of thing one would want to keep in-house, isn't it?
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    Troll in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    Shivernight Manor

    Ophelia is too weakened by constantly feeling like she's drowning to do much resisting. When she finally gets her voice back, she keeps cursing Bluefoot under her breath in between struggling gasps for air. When it's all said and done, Bluefoot shou have her measurements, but also have endured a lot of cursing and wrathful stares. If the serpent ever got used enough to feeling like she's breathing water, she might be very dangerous.
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    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    [Smuggling Route Dropoff]

    "You've got it backwards," Seraphina claims. "It's not that it works best from a position of power, but rather that it's how you get to a position of power." Mixing up cause and effect, and all. "Doing stuff just for themselves would be ineffective, anyway. Would work best if they got others to come to them."

    She turns away from the window, back to the guy-with-the-daemon.
    "I've never been on a thing like this before. It's pretty fun. Closest I've got to it was a barge crossing a river, but it's totes different."
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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Meowmai View Post
    [Fi-nding the Purrson of Interest]

    "Well... that's the problem. Usually this would be easy for me, but she's not exactly active on social media. And I haven't exactly got the right stuff to track her phone, she's got damn good cybersecurity. I do know where she works, but I don't know her schedule and I haven't found a spot close enough to hang out around there without looking [fudging] suspicious. Once again, they've got extremely good security and I really cannot afford to be caught. Again. The area where I started following you... uh, that's the closest big public space to her work building. I was kinda just hoping I'd spot her there at somepoint."

    Elizabeth started tapping at a band on her wrist, bringing up a holographic screen displaying a large building. "This is it. The company she works for, called Securo Corp. Lame name, I know. But yeah. That's why she's been so damn difficult to track, she works for a bloody security company."

    Getting Help From a Private Fi

    The knifefighter raises her eyebrows in surprise as the catgirl brings up the futuristic display so casually. Skyside has plenty of fancy and wild tech out there, but it doesn't make things like this any less of a surprise. "Oh. Uh, gotcha." She blinks. This is, um, a- a bit out of my field, but... maybe you can set up a camera or something in a spot like this? There's programs out there that can identify faces in videos, right?"
    "Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
    ~Welcome to Night Vale

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    Quote Originally Posted by SliiArhem
    Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.

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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    Shivernight Manor

    That's why, once the measurements have been taken, Bluefoot takes the bottle of breath out of the water and dries it off. Ophelia's left to herself in the cell whilst Bluefoot's away, getting the restraints, and when she returns, the process of breaking Ophelia begin. She'll be incapacitated by having her breath put back in the water, and strapped to one of the tables. She'll stay there for the foreseeable future; Bluefoot won't trust anything she says about wishing to serve Sapphira, and she's too dangerous to move willy-nilly. The torture curtain will fall, and some of it will be physical. More is not; interrupting her sleep, eating in front of her whilst she's being denied anything, playing strange and discordant music all the time, and some weirder things just to make her concerned and worried. Her temples are rubbed with magnets, and so on.

    One of the things Bluefoot does is rub Ophelia's face and eyes with sliced raw onions, aiming to catch any tears in the bottle that once contained Ophelia's voice.

    Smuggling Route Dropoff

    "Don't matter how good your propaganda is if you're not in a position to get people to listen to it. Very few people in Skyside are in that kinda position." The helicopter's quite a bumpy ride, certainly nothing like a barge over a river. It jerks up and down, sways side to side, and one point there's a ding as somebody tries shooting them down. Fortunately, the bullet was underpowered and didn't penetrate the hull. "I've been here before. Not in charge of a caravan like this, though. Well, not much of a caravan, since it's just two people." They'll land again next post.
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    [Smuggling Route Dropoff]

    "If you can't get anyone to listen to it, it's not as good as you think it is," is probably Seraphina's last statement on the topic.

    She goes back to looking at the outside.
    "Were you in charge of the group you were with before?" Seraphina asks. "Actually, better question, were you with everyone who was there? Or was it more of a 'just traveling in the same direction' sort of thing?"

    They land.
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    Shivernight Manor

    Eventually, Ophelia will cry, but more from frustration and rage than the onions. She spends much of the early torture screaming obscenities at Bluefoot and at Sapphira (though she's not there). But partway through, there's a surprising change. She becomes stoically silent, not responding to anything done to her. She seems be focused on something no one can see, occasionally muttering curses at it.
    Of all the tortures, depriving her of food and eating in front of her seems the most effective. Judging by her appearance, she was probably somewhat malnourished even before she was captured.
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    Smuggling Route Dropoff

    Ziyad doesn't have a response to that about propaganda. Skyside's all quite hostile, the gangs don't get on with each other.

    "No. Me and Svipul weren't in charge. We were the newest members of the company, replacing somebody who got crippled by dinky little people with wings. Dunno why they did it. We all got a cut of the profits of the big stuff, like this printer, but we're encouraged to have smaller stuff as well, so long as it don't take too much weight. Weight is fuel, and that cuts into profits. All three vehicles were in our convoy, but one of the dead people was the guy who lived in the cabin and maintained the campsite. He got paid by everyone who stayed there, and it was the safest stop between Inside and Riverside." Now, well... there's more profit to be made, since the campsite's not taking a cut, but it's more dangerous, too. Especially since nobody knew how the guy kept the campsite safe.

    Shivernight Manor

    After Ophelia stops screaming and shouting obscenities, and her reactions change, the tactics change a little, too. When Bluefoot leaves to get her supper and sleep, she sends one of her maids down- Applesniffer- who looks nervous and cautious, because she was told to- and she's carrying a pillow. She climbs onto the table and smiles sadly at Ophelia, before pressing the pillow down. It's not intended to smother the snake-lady; just make her think she's being smothered, and by a seventeen-year-old halfling in next to nothing at that. Ophelia's chained to the table, so she can't do anything, but Bluefoot interrupts quite deliberately, and Applesniffer is pushed aside, hitting the floor quite hard and not surfacing again. Bluefoot will smile at Ophelia now, stroke the side of her mask and whisper in her ear. "Life is hope. Life can always get better, and Sapphira will let you live and that is hope. Obey her, and be rewarded, and life will continue getting better. Understood?" With that, both halflings will leave, until morning; letting Ophelia sleep soundly, if she can bound as she is, and the whole thing might seem like it was a dream.
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    [Smuggling Route Dropoff]

    Seraphina looks out the car windows and sees the other groups getting ready to disembark.

    "And the thing you brought was the purses and things, as your 'smaller stuff'," she concludes.

    "Well...I'm sorry I wasn't able to help those other people you know," Seraphina says. She rubs the back of her neck.

    To be honest, the guy probably had a pet robo-dinosaur that patrolled the woods to keep it safe.
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    Shivernight Manor

    Ophelia seems decidedly shaken by this incident. Her resolve wavers just a little. She knows better than to deal with devils...
    But Bluefoot is right about one thing. It might be her only hope. A powerful fiend could extract her... Passenger and restore her to normal.
    You will never escape me. I am part of you now.
    No, I'll find a way. I will.
    You are in my body. Eventually, I will wear you down. Soon, you will fall.
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    Smuggling Route Dropoff

    "No, these handbags were all bought off an Inside fence, they've been stolen over the last year or so. I'm still new enough to the smuggling game I don't have the contacts for anything in Inside. Was planning on grabbing some stuff up here to take back with me. Easier to get that kind of stuff here than in Inside." No crimes in Skyside mean it's easier to find stuff that would be illegal elsewhere, which is good in the smuggling business. "I didn't know any of them very well. I'd only known them a week or so. A friend of a friend recommended me." The helicopter touches down on one of the landing pads, and the rear doors open. The mechanical horse leaves first, followed by the slavers in their three-wheeled lorry, and then Ziyad starts to reverse out too.

    Shivernight Manor

    When the night ends, and Bluefoot returns, the first thing that happens is they'll wash the captive snake. From now until the ritual, Bluefoot will alternate between torturing and taunting Ophelia, and praising and applying healing to the captive inquisitor. There's little warning between Bluefoot's shifts in behaviour, either. She's still not trusting Ophelia to freedom, though at one point she loosens the belt about Ophelia's waist- only to tighten it again two hours later, tighter than before. Ophelia also sees a few more bottles being used; her sense of taste is placed in a bowl of curry that Bluefoot then eats in front of the serpent, her hearing is placed in a soundproof box, so she can't even hear her heartbeat or breathing.
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    Shivernight Manor

    The shifts in behavior bewilder Ophelia. This must be part of the torture tactic, but she can't see how it would help.
    She wants to help you see the truth.
    I know the truth. She is a vile servant of darkness.
    But the internal voice has a little waver of doubt in it. This cruel and capricious woman might be Ophelia's only hope.
    The other torments, such as allowing Ophelia to taste food that Bluefoot eats, provoke some response. Ophelia longs to fill her belly, and to be given a taste is... Tantalizing. Taking away her hearing makes her feel strange, an alien in her own body, unsure if she's alive or dead. You are no longer human. Why should you constrict yourself to their silly rules?
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    Shivernight Manor

    Bluefoot rinses the bottle containing Ophelia's taste in the pot of water. She doesn't wash it, because that would require soap, and Ophelia would taste it. Then, Ophelia might find herself feeling very disorientated, as her point of view is removed from her eyes and placed into a bottle; she can look around at herself like this, or at Bluefoot or the room. Sylvester's peeking from his cell, and Ophelia's body has bruises and lacerations from prior torture, that haven't been fully healed yet. Then Ophelia's sense of smell is placed in another bottle. Ophelia's hearing is put in front of a speaker linked to a microphone. Bluefoot blows into the microphone, then puts it next to the speaker. Applesniffer is given Ophelia's point of view, and puts it in a dark room before surrounding it with lamps and turning them all on, so there's light in every direction. Like the bathroom, this room is covered in mirrors, reflecting and amplifying the light; unlike the bathroom, this chamber has no furniture. Ophelia has water slowly dribbled into her mouth, but the bottles containing her senses of taste and smell are both put in a basket lowered into the cesspit.
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    [Smuggling Route Dropoff]

    Seraphina nods.
    She looks back too, as if that would somehow help backing out. (It doesn't.)

    "Oh." Still sad, though. Either means a friend-of-a-friend was there, or a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend.
    "So you know where to go?" she asks. Because Seraphina has no idea at all and would be no help.
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    Shivernight Manor

    The new sensory onslaught is hard on Ophelia. Her vision is filled with blinding light, and she twists her head from side to side trying to escape, but of course she can't. Her ears ring with the feedback from the microphone, but of course she can't drown it out. She gags and retched as the water, which to her tastes completely foul, crosses her lips, but she forces herself to swallow it, and feels a little better, but also much worse, sickened as she now is. But at least her stomach isn't quite so empty. In between stomach-churning expressions, she finally speaks to Bluefoot. "Enough. Bring your misstressss back here. I will sspeak to her."
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    Smuggling Route Dropoff

    "I have a rough idea. Svipul is better with directions than I am." At the words, his daemon climbs out of his pouch and Ziyad puts her on the dashboard. Friend-of-a-friend was there, yes, but actual friend wasn't. They'll be more upset than Ziyad, who is mostly still thankful he's alive.

    Shivernight Manor

    At the words, Bluefoot smiles and turns off the microphone. She'll have to work on doing all the others; they weren't done simultaneously, as the bright room and the cess pit aren't too close to each other. She will restore Ophelia's hearing, however. "I am glad to hear it." She breathes deep and nearly takes off her shirt, before remembering that Sapphira doesn't need her nudity to come. Mistress, the snake is asking for you. I'm working on restoring her senses right now, but I won't unchain her until you tell me to. Missive sent, Bluefoot leaves and shouts for Silkyfinger to pull up the basket from the cesspit whilst she fetches the snake's sight from the room of lamps and mirrors.
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    Shivernight Manor

    Good, you are making progress. But she is not yet ready. Restore her senses, feed her. Then wait a time, take her swords, and touch them to her bare skin. Tell her, "remember what you are." Do this three times each day. Then she will be ready, and I will come to her after the ritual is complete. Sapphira sends back. She doesn't explain why any of this needs to be done. Hopefully Bluefoot obeys unquestioningly.
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    Shivernight Manor

    Bluefoot nods her acceptance of Sapphira's comments, and does as bid. Ophelia won't be unchained, however; she'll have taste and smell restored, along with sight, and then spoon-fed by Bluefoot and Silkyfingers working in concert; a bowl of soup. Silky looks a little pitying of the chained serpent, but won't let her free- she's too scared that if she releases Ophelia, she'll kill Bluefoot, and then none of the girls will ever talk again. It's not just Ophelia that Bluefoot uses the 'life is hope' line on. Once the bowl is emptied, Bluefoot takes Ophelia's swords with some difficulty and presses them to Ophelia's body, one to her chest and the other across the tail. "Remember what you are." She watches with interest to see how the inquisitor reacts to the blades.
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    Shivernight Manor

    Ophelia tries to twist away from the blades, but obviously can't move. She screams in pain and the weapons grow brightly. When they're taken off her, they have left blackened, burnt patches of flesh where they touched her. She squirms and hisses at Bluefoot, but can't do anything about it.
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    [Smuggling Route Dropoff]

    "Okay," Seraphina says.

    She looks at the daemon.

    Unsure what to ask, she says, "So...Svipul? What's it like being a daemon?"
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    Shivernight Manor

    When the blades are removed, Bluefoot's eyes widen slightly. She was not expecting the effect to be so... notable. She tries not to let it show, however, and puts the sword down. Since by this point it's quite late, she'll leave to go to bed. There will be two more days of this torture, with occasional healing and kindness mixed in.

    The sword trick, and the words, will be repeated every day.

    Smuggling Route Dropoff

    "What's it like being... whatever you are? It's the same question. I've always been his daemon, and he's always been me." It's an interesting relationship, in Ziyad's homeworld, between daemon and human. They're two halves of the same soul, almost literally. If one dies, both do.
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    Shivernight Manor

    By the day of the ritual, it's clear Ophelia has been broken completely. Just seeing her swords is enough to set her sobbing (and Bluefoot can collect more tears if she wants). She seems afraid of everything, jolting in her restraints whenever a shadow crosses her vision. She seems to know that Sapphira will be returning very soon.
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    [Smuggling Route Dropoff]

    "Same question back?" Seraphina says, making sure that is what the daemon replied with.

    She takes a few moments to think about her answer. Then, she leans back (as far as you can in a car seat, anyway). "Yeah, it's pretty fun being a human," she says. "Legs are pretty great. Really exciting to run on. Adrenaline's pretty nice, too, I think. Also, fingers. Probably the best invention since sliced bread."
    She holds a hand up and moves her fingers around, so that the daemon can see. "Four stars, would recommend. Pretty useful."

    She 'hmmmm's. "Yeah, pretty nice, overall. Hair's a little annoying, but it's can be useful, sometimes."
    "Okay, your turn now."
    Since the daemon didn't actually answer her question, but just avoided it by turning the question back.
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    Smuggling Route Dropoff

    Ziyad looks over curiously when Seraphina says she's human; he's been assuming she isn't, because she doesn't have a daemon*. "Well, the legs aren't great, but I'm far from the only daemon that needs carrying most of the time. Sometimes I miss Ziyad's childhood, before I settled. This isn't the shape I thought I'd settle into, but it feels so right now. I was always going to be a hedgehog. I just need to keep Ziyad sensible, really. That can be tricky. You say you're human? Hmm. Before Ziyad came to the Nexus, he'd never seen a human without a daemon. Or seen a person who wasn't human, for that matter. Are you fully human?"

    *All humans- and probably human-like people- have daemons, in most worlds however they're internal.
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    [Smuggling Route Dropoff]

    "Yup, fully human," Seraphina says. She pulls her hood back a little and twists her head, so that if someone looked, they could see her ear. Very normal, human ear. "See?"

    To be honest, Seraphina isn't really sure if ears is a good metric to judge humanness. But...elves and all sorts of people have pointy ears. And that one lady had deer-ears. And there's probably webbed ears, too. And all sorts of different ears. And if you were half-elf or half-dragon or half-whatever, then that'd probably change your ears, right?

    She lets go of the hood and lets it fall back to a neutral position.

    "So...hedgehog. Interesting," Seraphina says, mostly focusing on looking out the car windows so that she can get a better feel for this city. "So you can roll into a ball, then, right? Is there, like, any benefit to rolling up?"
    Last edited by 5a Violista; 2021-02-21 at 01:16 AM.
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    Smuggling Route Dropoff

    "The place I come from, that world? Called Earth. Every human has a daemon, there. I thought you weren't human, since you don't have one." Ziyad adds to the conversation, as he drives to the territory of the gang he wants to sell the printer to.
    "It's comfortable to sleep in. And it might keep me safe from other daemons if Ziyad got in a fight with someone who had one." But hedgehogs aren't particularly aggressive shapes, and Ziyad isn't a particularly aggressive person. Daemons are linked to people, and symbolically represent things about that person's personality.
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    Default Re: Skyside 7

    [Smuggling Route Dropoff]

    "Earth?" Seraphina says. She laughs.
    "That's a ridiculous name for a planet. Almost makes it sound like it was made-up."

    After thinking about it more, she realizes she can't stop laughing about it. "Might as well call your star 'Fire' or your moon or another planet 'Rock' or 'Water' or 'Ice' or whatever, while you're at it."

    It's okay, though. She believes them. People do sometimes give things weird names.
    "So do lots of people around here have daemons, then?" Seraphina asks. Should she start pretending to have one? is what she wants to find out.
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    Smuggling Route Dropoff

    "It... is, yeah. Quite common from what I hear, though." Ziyad drives some more. "No, not that I've seen. Nobody else on the convoy had one, but... I thought they were all only part-human, not that they didn't have daemons." He chuckles a little at Seraphina's joke about the naming, and decides not to inform her that Earth's moon is simply named 'Moon'.
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    [Smuggling Route Dropoff]

    Just wait until Seraphina finds out that some places named their moon 'Moon' from someone else from Earth. She might just have to mercilessly tease them for that.

    "Oh, that's a relief:" Seraphina says, "If I just tell everyone I'm part-human they won't question it, then."
    Now, the new question is, what part-human should she claim? Can't be part-deer, that part-deer lady she met was way too obvious. Half-elf would be obvious from the ears. Half...cat? But then wouldn't people wonder where her tail is? Well, she is wearing a cloak but what if she has to take it off for some reason?
    "Hey, um." She bites her lip, trying to decide what question to ask and how to word it. "Part-human. Does it only come in, like, halves? Like, half-human? Or quarters? Or is there more granularity? Or, like, is it common to just be so mixed that I could just claim to be pardo and only have to think about more specific words if someone asks on a census or something?"

    It's an important question.
    "Like, okay, if I claim to be 1/64th catgirl and 1/32nd mermaid and 1/256th elf and 1/48th cow goddess and 1/128th deer centaur thingie, then do you think that would be believable? Or would someone try to ask me to prove it?"
    Last edited by 5a Violista; 2021-02-22 at 11:26 PM.
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