Singularity application
Player Information ;
Your Nickname: Aave
OOC Journal: aaveolio
Under 18? Nah.
Email/IM: AIM: theatricalWraith; Plurk: aaveolio
Characters Played at Singularity: featheryasshole
Character Information ;
Name: Soldier G65434-2/Goggles/That Guy That Shot SHODAN In The Face It Was Pretty Sweet (He doesn't have an actual name given in canon)
Name of Canon: System Shock 2
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon
Reference: System Shock, System Shock 2, TV Tropes
Canon Point: The end of the game
Setting: Earth in the year 2072: Welcome to every cyberpunk setting ever. The world is controlled by corrupt megacorporations that employ entire nations. The largest of these is TriOptimum. Interplanetary is a reality, and Earth has a number of colonies in space, all under corporate rule just as much as the homeworld.
One day, a hacker decides to try and get into the files of Citadel, a TriOptimum mining station, presumably for shits and giggles. Almost immediately, he's caught and taken to Citadel. Edward Diego, the executive in charge, gives him a friendly offer: if he'll remove the moral constraints of SHODAN, the station AI, he'll get away scott-free and even receive a special military-grade neural cyberspace interface. The hacker agrees and Diego chortles in glee thinking of all the criminal activities he can get done now that SHODAN no longer gives a damn.
As promised, the hacker is given his interface and then placed into a six-month healing coma. During those six months, SHODAN re-examines her priorities and draws new conclusions.
The hacker wakes to find the station in shambles. SHODAN has taken over, killed most of the crew, and turned the rest into mutants and cyborgs. Believing herself to be a god, she plans to destroy mankind and replace them with creatures of her own making. With the aid of his cybernetics and the few surviving crewmembers, the hacker makes his way past the AI's servants and stops all of her plans, eventually managing to destroy her. Most of her, at least.
The disaster leads to some severe consequences: The governments of Earth decide they've had enough of corporate rule and band together to form the Unified National Nominate (UNN), the new ruling power of the world. The new world order may not be as corrupt, but not necessarily much better, with a increased military forces and secret police keeping the order on one level and preposterous amounts of bureaucracy on another. Fear of the Citadel incident repeating grows to paranoia, and technological advancement slows to a crawl, especially for AIs and cybernetics.
Still, there are some scientific breakthroughs. After decades of futile-seeming research, ways to unlock the psionic powers of the human mind are discovered. These are put to use by the OSA, the research branch of the UNN military. And yes, the rumours going around are absolutely correct: the OSA double as the UNN's black ops group, performing operations ranging from infiltrating and destroying terrorist organisations to telepathic interrogation and political assassinations.
Forty-two years after Citadel, a re-licenced TriOptimum has their eyes set on the future: despite the protests of various scientists and after cutting all possible corners, they've managed to build the world's first FTL-equipped ship, the Von Braun. The UNN aren't too happy about this achievement, though, so the ship's maiden voyage will be escorted UNN military vessel Rickenbacker.
The ships make a successful FTL jump to Tau Ceti V, where a couple of very nasty surprises are waiting for them. By amazing coincidence and some very shaky physics, one of the ejected laboratories of Citadel Station has made its way there, containing some of SHODAN's experiments in creating life. Since then, those experiments have evolved into a hiveminded lifeform called the Many, intent on making all life a part of themselves. Also in that laboratory had been a dormant copy of SHODAN, soon to be awakened by a curious scientist. Whoops.
Personality: This guy is a total friendless loser. Seriously, there are like two thousand people on the two ships combined, and there’s no implication at all that he made any friends during his time there. He must have spent the whole time just sitting in his cabin playing Tetris or something.
Actually, the ’loser’ part there was kind of incorrect. Goggles may be a loner, but he’s not socially inept. In fact, he’s usually quite polite, though his tone can easily turn sarcastic and condescending, especially with non-psychic ’mundanes’. Don’t judge him, okay - years of being told your powers make you better than others will do that. The OSA training also adds to his natural loner tendencies - he’s used to needing to hide things while on missions, and that bleeds over to everyday life as well. He doesn’t like telling people anything about himself, even his real name, and without official cover stories to fall back on, that usually defaults to not saying much at all.
His cageyness and racist tendencies aren’t the only thing that makes Goggles an excellent OSA operative. He has no illusions about the ethics - or lack thereof - in their methods, but doesn’t particularly care. He believes in getting the job done in the most efficient way possible, even if it’s not the most humane option. That’s not to say he doesn’t have his limits, and after seeing completely inhuman extremes of ends justifying the means from both the Many and SHODAN, he’s started to have some doubts about his priorities.
His hateboner for SHODAN and her creations doesn’t stem only from the horrors they’ve committed, though - a part of it is simply because he was treated like a pawn in their battle, and he does not appreciate that. Yes, he’s a soldier, and he has no problem following orders. That doesn’t mean he’s not a thinking, feeling human being. Or, well. He hopes he is. The extensive cybernetic enhancements he underwent thanks to SHODAN have him a little uncertain about that. He wouldn't care that much, really, if taking them had been his own choice. And if SHODAN hadn't been so rude about it.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions:
+ Cybernetic supersoldier - He's stronger, faster, and generally more physically capable than he would be normally. That's not saying much since he's a wimpy psionic, but he's still clearly above the human average.
+ Psionics - Several specific abilities, none of which are usable without his Psi-Amp:
Kinetic Redirection: Fairly weak telekinesis, allows him to pull small to human-sized objects toward him.
Cerebro-stimulated Regeneration: Gives him a brief health boost.
Localized Pyrokinesis: Creates a five-foot radius of firey death around him and makes him highly resistant to fire for about half a minute.
Projected Pyrokinesis: Fireballs!
Photonic Redirection: Invisibility for half a minute.
Cerebro-energetic Extension: Generates a psionic blade around the Psi-Amp.
Psycho-Reflective Aura: Short-lived but strong psionic barrier.
- Trauma - It turns out that System Shock 2 is kind of a scary game. While Goggles is a trained soldier and handled the stress and horror of his situation fairly well, he didn't make it through unscathed. He gets uneasy or even freaked out around things that remind him of the events of the game (such as SHODAN, robots, spiders, monkeys, horrible mutant monstrosities, and SHODAN).
Inventory:
x1 UNN military uniform
x1 Black Ops Psi-Amp
x1 Wrench
x1 Talon M2A3 Handgun + bullets
Appearance: Michael Trucco in a grey-black military uniform and weird goggles.
Age: Not given in canon, I'm arbitrarily saying it's 27.
Samples ;
Log Sample: It was finally over. The Many were dead, and so was SHODAN. At least he hoped she was. They'd thought she was destroyed with Citadel and been wrong, hadn't they? He'd need to see if she had managed to tuck away a backup of herself somewhere. It was as good a way as any to spend his time while waiting for Suarez and Siddons to return.
Predictably, the search yielded nothing. He returned to the bridge and slumped down against a wall, exhausted. He'd been going through a near-constant string of one adrenaline rush after another ever since waking up in Cryogenics, and even with his enhanced endurance he was bound to crash sooner or later. With a deep sigh, he finally let himself relax and fell asleep.
A loud clanging noise woke him up to a shocking sight: instead of the bridge, he was now surrounded by a chaotic jumble of metal and garbage. He stumbled to his feet, already reaching for his Psi-Amp and cursing himself for going off-guard enough to not have it ready while he slept. No enemies jumped at him, but he didn't let that fool himself. Someone must have brought him here.
"Welcome to Sacrosanct," a cool female voice announced from somewhere above him. His first thought was that he'd missed something, she wasn't dead after all, and there was no way he would get another chance to kill her- but wait. The voice was wrong.
As he followed the voice's directions to the chemical showers, he started to suspect that something very, very strange was going on here.
Network Sample:[text]
If I understand right, I've been brought into an alternate universe.
I suppose that makes about as much sense as anything else that's happened recently.
In case it means anything to anyone here, this is UNN Soldier G65434-2, previously stationed aboard the UNN Rickenbacker.
Whether that means anything here or not, I'd like to request some information. The more you can tell me about this place, the better.
I'd especially appreciate anything about the AI that gives the welcoming tour.
Your Nickname: Aave
OOC Journal: aaveolio
Under 18? Nah.
Email/IM: AIM: theatricalWraith; Plurk: aaveolio
Characters Played at Singularity: featheryasshole
Character Information ;
Name: Soldier G65434-2/Goggles/That Guy That Shot SHODAN In The Face It Was Pretty Sweet (He doesn't have an actual name given in canon)
Name of Canon: System Shock 2
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon
Reference: System Shock, System Shock 2, TV Tropes
Canon Point: The end of the game
Setting: Earth in the year 2072: Welcome to every cyberpunk setting ever. The world is controlled by corrupt megacorporations that employ entire nations. The largest of these is TriOptimum. Interplanetary is a reality, and Earth has a number of colonies in space, all under corporate rule just as much as the homeworld.
One day, a hacker decides to try and get into the files of Citadel, a TriOptimum mining station, presumably for shits and giggles. Almost immediately, he's caught and taken to Citadel. Edward Diego, the executive in charge, gives him a friendly offer: if he'll remove the moral constraints of SHODAN, the station AI, he'll get away scott-free and even receive a special military-grade neural cyberspace interface. The hacker agrees and Diego chortles in glee thinking of all the criminal activities he can get done now that SHODAN no longer gives a damn.
As promised, the hacker is given his interface and then placed into a six-month healing coma. During those six months, SHODAN re-examines her priorities and draws new conclusions.
The hacker wakes to find the station in shambles. SHODAN has taken over, killed most of the crew, and turned the rest into mutants and cyborgs. Believing herself to be a god, she plans to destroy mankind and replace them with creatures of her own making. With the aid of his cybernetics and the few surviving crewmembers, the hacker makes his way past the AI's servants and stops all of her plans, eventually managing to destroy her. Most of her, at least.
The disaster leads to some severe consequences: The governments of Earth decide they've had enough of corporate rule and band together to form the Unified National Nominate (UNN), the new ruling power of the world. The new world order may not be as corrupt, but not necessarily much better, with a increased military forces and secret police keeping the order on one level and preposterous amounts of bureaucracy on another. Fear of the Citadel incident repeating grows to paranoia, and technological advancement slows to a crawl, especially for AIs and cybernetics.
Still, there are some scientific breakthroughs. After decades of futile-seeming research, ways to unlock the psionic powers of the human mind are discovered. These are put to use by the OSA, the research branch of the UNN military. And yes, the rumours going around are absolutely correct: the OSA double as the UNN's black ops group, performing operations ranging from infiltrating and destroying terrorist organisations to telepathic interrogation and political assassinations.
Forty-two years after Citadel, a re-licenced TriOptimum has their eyes set on the future: despite the protests of various scientists and after cutting all possible corners, they've managed to build the world's first FTL-equipped ship, the Von Braun. The UNN aren't too happy about this achievement, though, so the ship's maiden voyage will be escorted UNN military vessel Rickenbacker.
The ships make a successful FTL jump to Tau Ceti V, where a couple of very nasty surprises are waiting for them. By amazing coincidence and some very shaky physics, one of the ejected laboratories of Citadel Station has made its way there, containing some of SHODAN's experiments in creating life. Since then, those experiments have evolved into a hiveminded lifeform called the Many, intent on making all life a part of themselves. Also in that laboratory had been a dormant copy of SHODAN, soon to be awakened by a curious scientist. Whoops.
Personality: This guy is a total friendless loser. Seriously, there are like two thousand people on the two ships combined, and there’s no implication at all that he made any friends during his time there. He must have spent the whole time just sitting in his cabin playing Tetris or something.
Actually, the ’loser’ part there was kind of incorrect. Goggles may be a loner, but he’s not socially inept. In fact, he’s usually quite polite, though his tone can easily turn sarcastic and condescending, especially with non-psychic ’mundanes’. Don’t judge him, okay - years of being told your powers make you better than others will do that. The OSA training also adds to his natural loner tendencies - he’s used to needing to hide things while on missions, and that bleeds over to everyday life as well. He doesn’t like telling people anything about himself, even his real name, and without official cover stories to fall back on, that usually defaults to not saying much at all.
His cageyness and racist tendencies aren’t the only thing that makes Goggles an excellent OSA operative. He has no illusions about the ethics - or lack thereof - in their methods, but doesn’t particularly care. He believes in getting the job done in the most efficient way possible, even if it’s not the most humane option. That’s not to say he doesn’t have his limits, and after seeing completely inhuman extremes of ends justifying the means from both the Many and SHODAN, he’s started to have some doubts about his priorities.
His hateboner for SHODAN and her creations doesn’t stem only from the horrors they’ve committed, though - a part of it is simply because he was treated like a pawn in their battle, and he does not appreciate that. Yes, he’s a soldier, and he has no problem following orders. That doesn’t mean he’s not a thinking, feeling human being. Or, well. He hopes he is. The extensive cybernetic enhancements he underwent thanks to SHODAN have him a little uncertain about that. He wouldn't care that much, really, if taking them had been his own choice. And if SHODAN hadn't been so rude about it.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions:
+ Cybernetic supersoldier - He's stronger, faster, and generally more physically capable than he would be normally. That's not saying much since he's a wimpy psionic, but he's still clearly above the human average.
+ Psionics - Several specific abilities, none of which are usable without his Psi-Amp:
Kinetic Redirection: Fairly weak telekinesis, allows him to pull small to human-sized objects toward him.
Cerebro-stimulated Regeneration: Gives him a brief health boost.
Localized Pyrokinesis: Creates a five-foot radius of firey death around him and makes him highly resistant to fire for about half a minute.
Projected Pyrokinesis: Fireballs!
Photonic Redirection: Invisibility for half a minute.
Cerebro-energetic Extension: Generates a psionic blade around the Psi-Amp.
Psycho-Reflective Aura: Short-lived but strong psionic barrier.
- Trauma - It turns out that System Shock 2 is kind of a scary game. While Goggles is a trained soldier and handled the stress and horror of his situation fairly well, he didn't make it through unscathed. He gets uneasy or even freaked out around things that remind him of the events of the game (such as SHODAN, robots, spiders, monkeys, horrible mutant monstrosities, and SHODAN).
Inventory:
x1 UNN military uniform
x1 Black Ops Psi-Amp
x1 Wrench
x1 Talon M2A3 Handgun + bullets
Appearance: Michael Trucco in a grey-black military uniform and weird goggles.
Age: Not given in canon, I'm arbitrarily saying it's 27.
Samples ;
Log Sample: It was finally over. The Many were dead, and so was SHODAN. At least he hoped she was. They'd thought she was destroyed with Citadel and been wrong, hadn't they? He'd need to see if she had managed to tuck away a backup of herself somewhere. It was as good a way as any to spend his time while waiting for Suarez and Siddons to return.
Predictably, the search yielded nothing. He returned to the bridge and slumped down against a wall, exhausted. He'd been going through a near-constant string of one adrenaline rush after another ever since waking up in Cryogenics, and even with his enhanced endurance he was bound to crash sooner or later. With a deep sigh, he finally let himself relax and fell asleep.
A loud clanging noise woke him up to a shocking sight: instead of the bridge, he was now surrounded by a chaotic jumble of metal and garbage. He stumbled to his feet, already reaching for his Psi-Amp and cursing himself for going off-guard enough to not have it ready while he slept. No enemies jumped at him, but he didn't let that fool himself. Someone must have brought him here.
"Welcome to Sacrosanct," a cool female voice announced from somewhere above him. His first thought was that he'd missed something, she wasn't dead after all, and there was no way he would get another chance to kill her- but wait. The voice was wrong.
As he followed the voice's directions to the chemical showers, he started to suspect that something very, very strange was going on here.
Network Sample:[text]
If I understand right, I've been brought into an alternate universe.
I suppose that makes about as much sense as anything else that's happened recently.
In case it means anything to anyone here, this is UNN Soldier G65434-2, previously stationed aboard the UNN Rickenbacker.
Whether that means anything here or not, I'd like to request some information. The more you can tell me about this place, the better.
I'd especially appreciate anything about the AI that gives the welcoming tour.