The Chaos Hour Well into the future, the internet has evolved. Instead of merely looking at web sites on a computer screen, a special helmet wired to the computer allows you to enter a virtual world, where you can go to theaters, get music, and do almost any activity short of eating and drinking. It's become a virtual version of the real world, known as "The Com". However there are dangers to this virtual reality. People have been put into comas if their virtual self is killed. As a reult, the government was forced to step in and create a special Safety Commision to govern the use of the Com. Now the kind of enviroments and what can be done have been strictly limited, even the number of hours. However for many, the Com is the only thing worth living for, and for many more, the limitations are too much. A special disk known as a "Key" has been passed around. Not only does this allow a user to stay in the Com for as long as they want, but they can bipass the mainframe into an entirely new virtual world. This is what is known as "The Chaos Hour", known as such because the original programming could only last an hour(now it can last for an infinite amount of time) Within this Chaos Hour, the person is granted abilities other Com users aren't, super powers that depend on the Key they obtained. In this Chaos Hour, they can also access the main frame, forcing it to reoperate and can even manipulate it. There are three kinds of people who are in the Chaos Hour. The people who just want to have more freedom, the people who want to manipulate the main frame for their own ends, and special Com agents investigating the Chaos Hour in hopes of putting a stop to it. World: The actual Chaos Hour is a near void space with nothing but endless road and flashing skies. Everyone starts in the Main Frame, which is like a downtown area. All of the following buildings are available in this portion that the game takes place: Theater Music Store Bank Work Out Center News Station Apartment Although none of them are actually open for their intended use, you can go inside of them. As for going to the "Chaos Hour", see "Character" section below. Characters: There are three types of characters you can play as:Neutrals, Lurkers and Spots. Neutrals-The Neutrals have no real agenda. They aren't a group by nature, they come to the Chaos Hour for their own reasons. However they know the kind of danger they put themselves in and accept it. Neutrals don't have to work together but they're allowed to. The goal of the Neutrals is to survive, whether by killing the lurkers and spots themselves, letting them destroy each other, or if the Spots alone are eliminated. Lurkerss-The Lurkers want to manipulate the main frame for their own purpose. Remember, the main frame is the Com the general public visits, and so much of the world is focused in the Com that being able to manipulate it could give near inifinite control of the real world. However until the Spots are rid of, they are afraid to make a move. The goal of the Lurkers is to eliminate the Spots. The Neutrals are not their target, in fact they can team up with Neutrals if such an alliance is agreed upon. Be careful however, you never know when you have a spot in disguise. Lurkers have an ability they can use once per player to "Jack Out" to the Chaos Hour at any point. However after use, they must go back to the Main Frame withi the next post. Spot-There is a vague idea of the Chaos Hour's existence to the government but nothing concrete. The general public is entirely ignorant. Although Spots are around during regular Com hours, only a few can access the Chaos Hour to see what's going on. Since the only known way to get to the Chaos Hour is through the Key and holding such a thing is illegal, Spots put themselves at risk holding them. The goal of the Spot is to eliminate both the Neutrals and the Lurkers at all costs, even if it means losing a team mate. Spots are granted one special power that they can only use once:to entirely eliminate another character's powers. However after one use the power is gone for ALL Spots. Rules 1.I will assign who is a Neutral, who is a Lurker, and who is a Spot via PM. That means when the game starts, you will not know what role the other players have. 2.A character's death is at the discression of it's owner like most Roleplaying games. However when a character dies, they must write at the botom of their post whether they were a Neutral, Lurker or Spot. You can write in a way that looks like it's impending doom for the other player, but ultimately they must make the final decision hether to die or not. 3.I will follow the game and if need be make a story post to shake things up and move things along, however I cam counting on you the players to develop things and move along. I am giving you open space to develop a story yourselves,within reasoning. In other words, you can't bring in other characters yourself(you control your character and that's it) or introduce some mystical object that can turn the tables but in terms of characterization, interaction, development and overall outcome, the ball is in your court. 4.No God Modding, which means making your character invincible. What is god modding and what isn' will be at my disgression. I will give two warnings, after that I will make a plot post and kill your character off. 5.Please don't PM the other players and tell them what your position is. I can't enforce this but it really just ruins the game. Character Template: This is the template you should follow for creating your character: Name:Obvious Age: Gender: Backstorylacing it here is entirely optional. If you wish to just develop it through the story so be it. Powers:This should obviously not include any Lurker/Spot predisposed abilities. All characters should have another power of some sort, even Neutrals Once an appropiate number of players have been gathered I will begin the game.
Name: Alethea "Ali" Mackenzie Age: 23 Gender: Female Backstory: (To Be Completed When Role Is Assigned) Powers: Basic manipulation of Com physics; allows her to perform extraordinary feats of agility and strength.
I'm not sure that I have all understand but I want to participate ! Name:Leïla Age: 19 years old Gender: Female Backstory:Leïla is a young independante girl. She doesn't need help. Her parents are dead when she was 8 years old and she learn to live alone. Powers:she can have premonition when she see or touch someone. Sometimes her premonitions are on the past and sometimes on the futur. You can tell me if you don't understand my strange english
Name: goes by Magus Age: 20 Gender: male Backstory: coming soon... Powers: teleportation... the ability to make decoys of himself... electric blast...
I'll take a spot but could do with a discussion thread to talk about it. Name: Simon Bental Age: 25 Gender: Male Backstory: Simon led a dull life. He wed early only to find out his wife was having an affair. The divorce was brutal and he was left with little. Seeking an escape from his life he sold what little his wife hadn't managed to take from him and used it to buy a key from illegal street dealers. In the Chaos hour he has a chance to escape from the reality of life becoming something more than he was ever capable of. He relishes his new found power and his resentment for others and mistrust has only grown in the solitude of the chaos hour. Powers: Telekenesis.
Name: Nine Age: appears to be in her early twenties Gender: male Back story: to be developed in game play Powers: Chameleon, can alter appearance drastically to suit environment. However the subject he forms into must be a biological being.
Name: Ellin Age: 19 Gender: Male Personality: Shy, fantastical, odd Backstory: The odd kid who sticks his nose into every little bit of information he could get in to. Spending almost 8hrs online RPG games like WOW and Warhammer. He reads a lot of fantasy and horror. Powers: Whatever he reads, depending on the emotion he feels, becomes real.
Name: Samus Porter Age: 24 Gender: Female Backstory: To be developed in game Powers: Stasis - ability to slow moving objects for a limited time.
Name: Drake Bruce Age: 21 Gender: Male Backstory: (To be added when race is decided) Powers: Wind Walk: Makes him invisible and walks faster. When he attacks anyone he is visible again. While breaking invisibility he does double damage Mirror Image: Makes false images of himself. Clones cannot attack.
Name: J.J. Pierce Age: mid-twenties Gender: F Backstory: J.J. had an average upbringing. She's highly ambitious and excels at whatever she puts her mind to. She doesn't like to lose. Power: electric shocks (basic lightning-y powers) it's something that's always a little bit on, meaning that people get unintential shocks when they touch, easily attributed to basic static though.
Only about 17 more hours before I PM roles and let the game begin. If anyone else wants to join, they still can before that time comes.
Name: Jarek Sandor Age: 23 Gender: Male Backstory: TBD Powers: Jarek can download skills i.e. martial arts, piloting etc.
Name: Cain Malcolm Age: 19 Gender: Male Backstory: TBA Powers: Hightened senses and agility; gunmanship.
I hope you don't mind if I double... Name: "Cthulhu" Age: 12 Gender: Male Backstory: Just happened to overhear a conversation about the "Key" not long after the Safety Commision put up all their big bad restrictions on the Com. Cthulhu's not exactly the "hacker" type - most of his Com time is spent playing games and hanging around the message boards - but he passed on what he's heard to his twin brother, "Rorschach", and soon forgot about it. 'til Rorschach got his hands on a Key, anyway. Powers: Can detach parts of his body (arms, legs, head, y'know) and bites. Hard. Name: "Rorschach" Age: 12 Gender: Male Backstory: The "computer wiz". He heard about the Key through his twin, and went through hell to get one. Rorschach is more soft-spoken than his twin brother, but meaner - when he wants to be, anyway. Most of his Com time was spent in the News Station, learning about weird animals, physical deformities, and the paranormal, but now he and Cthulhu are "experimenting" with the Chaos Hour, to see if there really is no limit to what it can do. Powers: Invisibility and superhuman speed EDIT: I'm not gonna be able to post until tomorrow - tonight's a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show If I'm not here when the thread starts, try not to go too far ahead without me, 'kay?
The story may now begin. Since you are 99.9% in control of the plot(as opposed to 50% like in the usual RP), there's little sense in writing much of an opening. Refer to the OP on areas where you can start. PM me if you have any questions, concerns, or need me to write something in to get a slow plot moving. Have fun.
J.J. - mainframe's bank lobby J.J. waited anxiously in the lobby. She hoped her nervousness didn’t show. As her thoughts wandered on what would come next, her lips curved upward. Catching herself in a daydream, J.J. shook the thoughts and returned to her stoic outward appearance. She glanced at her watch. He’d be here soon. J.J. put her elbow on the counter and leaned her chin on her palm. The seconds clicked on the wall clock behind her, a louder click for a minute’s hand. A man paused beside her, and laid his newspaper on the counter while he fumbled through his bag. J.J. paid him no attention though, because she knew who he was. When he came up with his id card, he zipped the bag and proceeded onward, leaving the newspaper, and the present inside, for J.J. She didn’t wait for his footsteps to disappear before she slid the paper closer to her and unfolded it. Between its pages was the item she was waiting for. “Hey,” she said in a hushed voice. J.J. turned in the direction the man had left, but he was long gone, a much quicker walk than she thought possible. “This doesn’t look much like a key,” she said to herself. She turned the medallion over in her palm. Words in a language she couldn’t read circled the edges of a picture of a bird engulfed in lightning. J.J. folded the string around the medallion, then pocketed it and went on her way, leaving the newspaper open on the counter.
"Are you kidding? Batman and Robin were so porking." The male sitting across from him shook his head firmly. He appeared to be at least 16, but he was obviously younger in the real world. Cthulhu guessed 9 or 10. "No," he shot back, "Robin is Batman's sidekick. They're not gay, unlike you." Cthulhu rolled his eyes. "Ooh, internet tough guy." "**** you, mother ****er, I can kick your ****ing ass!" "Yeahhuh." The preteen leaned back in his seat. He glanced around the room, partly to make a show of not caring about Mr. Internet Tough Guy and partly to see if any other threads were opened. He was in the Comics/Cartoons Board - a wide room, decorated like some cyberpunk cafe with shiny metal furniture and walls like blue glass. Aside from the always-crowded Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends and Watchmen tables, the only threads opened were either DisneyChannel-related or about some comic he'd never heard of. Thanks to the new Safety Commision, all the game sites had been closed about an hour ago. Cthulhu sighed. It looked like he was gonna be stuck here 'til seven in the morning. Unless he went to bed or some crap. Cthulhu propped his legs up on the table, admiring the yellow-and-black diamond-checkers on his phat pants. There had to be some way to get these in the real world, he thought vaguelly, he should go ask around the Fashion board. Despite how grammatically incorrect that sounded. The other two people in this General Batman Discussion thread had rage-quitted kind of a while ago. Cthulhu thought it'd be fun to stay and bother Mr. Internet Tough Guy for a while, but his constant unnecessary F-bombs were getting old. The little maggot. Cthulhu glanced up at the boy, who was still ranting about what a "****ing messed-up ****ing faggot" he was. He considered asking him if he'd talk that way in front of his mommy, or shoot just as many F-bombs and baseless accusations right back at him, but he settled for a melodramatic "NO U". Internet Tough-Guy stopped. The look on his face was a cross between furious and flabberghasted. Silence fell over the General Batman Discussion thread for just a moment, neither boy was sure what to do or say next. But, as if on cue, "Cthulhu!" Cthulhu twisted his head back towards the Comics/Cartoons board entrance. Rorschach wasn't hard to spot - aparently he was the only person on the US West Coast who felt like jumping in at about ten-thirty. Something about that almost made Cthulhu sad. Almost. Rorschach and Cthulhu were identical twins in the real world, but you couldn't tell on the Com. While Cthulhu was all cyberpunk'd out, Rorschach's "avatar" was kinda classy-looking. White dress shirt and slacks with black suspenders and a black bowler hat. It didn't look nearly as nerdy as that sounded. Cthulhu raised a biker-gloved hand in greeting. It was weird for Rorschach to venture away from the Paranormal board, but not uncommon. He came looking for him every now and then. But something was different. His eyes were wide and excited, his mouth stretching and twitching into a nervous smile. He grabbed his brother's arm without any kind of "hello", and said, "Log out." Cthulhu cocked his head, his thick, yellow headphones clicked against the back of his chair. "Ehheh?" Rorschach tugged at his arm. He giggled bashfully. "Log out," he said, "I got you something." Well, this was new. Rorschach never gave Cthulhu anything unless he asked for it, and Cthulhu hadn't asked for anything lately. Random act of kindness, maybe? In spite of Internet Tough-Guy's nagging protest, Cthulhu logged out without a word. "Rorschach" burst into their bedroom just as "Cthulhu" was yanking off his headset. He locked the door behind him and shrugged off his backpack. "Cthulhu" swivelled his swivel-chair to face him. "Rorschach" thrust an unlabelled CD case into his hands. "What's this?" His brother nodded to their PC. "Put it in."
Cain Malcolm pushed the button and the door swung open. He headed into his room, his fortress of solitude, where the portal to the Com sat on a steel desk. He was always excited whenever he went into the Com, a world where the limits of life where taken away, where one could do whatever they wished. But this time was different. Cain reached into his pocket and retrieved a disk. He stared at it with a mixture of admiration and curiosity. He didn't know if it would work. It was always possible that it was a virus, and those who used it would be in comas forever. But his curious side began to take over. He had to know about the Chaos Hour. He booted up the computer and inserted the disk. Grabbing his helmet, he placed it reverently on his head and leaned back in his wheelchair. Now, to finally discover what lurked in this new world.
bank lobby Jarek sat cross legged at the table with a novel in his hands. To the people in the bank it looked like he was reading but really his eyes were elsewhere. He eyed a girl that seemed to be nervous. Her eyes flicked here and there as if she was expecting a late guest. A man seemed to come out of nowhere and dropped a folded newspaper in front of her. Jarek's curiosity was perked. The girl grabbed the paper and opened it. A recognizable metallic flash caught Jareks eye. "How careless" he muttered under his breath. When she started to walk away he closed his novel and followed. When they were out of public sight he grabbed her shoulder and said "You know you should be more careful. The eyes of the law are everywhere."
A Walkabout Ellin was just walking around the place. He got excited when it came to virtual reality places. The only problem was this was real virtual reality. There were no dragons or trolls, just people. And people made him nervous, excited, and at the same time angry. He played WOW and Warhammer to get away from himself and from people. He was just weird and mumbled stuff to himself. But this place it got him all excited. The internet was becoming a community, the computer was more of a community with this nifty piece of technology. He loved it. He love the way it made him feel. There was so much to explore, he better get ready.
Politics... Politics. Bureaucracy. The System. They ruled the world. And even though now, it was a new world, the principles behind these things hadn't changed. Alethea Lyon Mackenzie strode into her office. Nobody even ten years ago would think she was a security officer. Her manner of dress suggested a casual office job, as did the room in which she now walked. Absently, she fingered the small device in her pocket. The principles behind government hadn't changed, and never would. Always there were secrets, loopholes, and underhanded dealings. And she was now the result of such things. The Key she now held was obtained from an agent, who was told nothing about its use. His commanding officer was fired after obtaining it, and someone else had stepped in to take his place. That someone was Alethea's most trusted friend in the organization. And he had now given her the power to do her job more effectively. She walked into her office, closing the door behind her. She withdrew the Key, and slid it into the port as she began the Launch program. She slid the helmet onto her head, and let out a breath. Closing her eyes, she flipped down the eyepiece. She found herself standing in a large room, filled with everything under the sun. Clothing of a hundred different styles hung about everywhere. One wall was dedicated to weapons. Another held a massive bookshelf. Time to customize her avatar...
Simon shifted uneasily in the alleyway. He was extremely conscious of the large amount of money in his wallet and this wasn't the place to be if you liked holding on to it. He had the look of the classic door to door salesman in his cheap suit and short tie. His boots were well polished something he took pride in his facial appearance also reflected this with his gelled hair and clean shaven face. Two men came down the alley and his nervous blue eyes met their gaze. "You Bental?" questioned one of the men. He was all too aware of the fact that the man's hand was hidden in his pocket no doubt gripping on to a knife or a pistol. Truly he was in deep with these people; they weren't exactly his usual clientele. He dealt with the average family and their 2.5 children not the criminal underworld. "Yea, did you bring it?" He'd learnt how to sound confident thanks to selling a series of shoddy products via his business but despite his voice his body language betrayed him. "Let’s see the goods" He gingerly produced the money and thrust it out as the man approached. It was a wordless exchange they took the money, they didn't need to count it. It was assumed you wasn't stupid enough to screw around with these guys. He replaced the money with item he had just given up everything for. They carried on walking at this point exiting the alley from the other way. He was alone once more but didn't bother to inspect the product he wanted to get the hell out of this place and back to the safety and comfort of his own home. No he thought to himself, comfort was not an accurate description if it was he wouldn't be giving up everything to escape into another world now would he. Upon arriving home he locked the door and booted up the device he ran through the instructions he had memorised on how to activate the key and entered the mainframe. He was no longer her play thing. Now he would be the one in control. The mask covered his face hiding the sadistic smile that played over it as he allowed his mind to be occupied by the guilty thought.
((Hope I'm not getting too control-freaky with this - I just wasn't sure how the Chaos Hour was supposed to look. I'll delete this if the GM doesn't like it.)) Flashes and swirls of green and blue and white. Numbers numbers everywhere. Ones and zeroes, ones and zeroes. Rorschach reached for his brother, but he couldn't find him. He couldn't see. A click, and whirl, and it began to settle. He felt the virtual ground beneath him. The familiar buildings of the boys' "homepage" - the News Station, the Theatre - materialized around them. The other users came into view. But it was different. The users' colors were dull, their avatars faint. Everywhere else the colors were bright. Reds and purples and blues, even the greys looked more vibrant. And they were connected - streams of color crisscrossed between buildings. The users didn't see them. They passed through the wires like they weren't even there. The boys slumped to the ground, suddenly dizzy. Rorschach rubbed his temple, his avatar's long, purple hair falling into his face. His colors were still bright, his avatar hadn't faded like the others. When he glanced at Cthulhu, he saw that his hadn't either. "OK?" he asked. Cthulhu nodded, shutting his eyes tight. When their diziness wore off, he asked, "What not." Rorschach looked around, not sure how to answer. He'd heard of the Chaos Hour, sure, but no one ever mentioned what it looked like. Was this right? Or had he been fooled, and gotten them some kind of terrible virus? He thought of the horror stories he'd heard at the Message Boards, of users getting viruses and lapsing into comas, and began to feel nervous. A teenage girl in a skimpy goth avatar stepped through him without a word. The other users couldn't see them any more than they could see these strange wires. Rorschach couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He stood, and reached for an orange stream running just over his head. He expected it to pass through, but his hand made contact. It felt like some kind of warm thread. Rorschach turned to Cthulhu, unsure of what to do. His twin pushed himself to his feet and grabbed a red stream in front of him. Rorschach watched him pluck it like a guitar string. It bent then snapped back into place, like an ordinary string. When Cthulhu leaned into it, it held his weight, and the Music Store window it was attached to wasn't effected at all. Cthulhu hopped up onto the stream, sitting on it and holding a nearby green stream for support. He turned to Rorschach. "Is this right?" he asked. Rorschach shrugged and climbed up onto another stream. He stood on it, holding onto another stream to keep from falling. This wasn't having any effect on any of their surroundings, so maybe...
