“The bronze behemoth hung glittering against the clouds, like a second sun of bright metal plates and swooping propellers and huge patched balloons. You couldn’t look at it and say man was never meant to fly.”
–Rainbow*Storm
Now forming. This sounded more like an RRR ( Round-Robin ‘Riting) on the Suggestion Box thread, but that’s up to you.
Wow, this sounds awesome… maybe I should join, and try to keep posting on it for longer than 3 days…
Count me in!
((YES! Yes! Thank you so much GAPAs; I am forever grateful!
So, to recap: We’re on the “test flight” , if you will, of an airship. (Are we professors, scientists, or a sort-of astronaut mix, or a mixture of such?) Some antagonistic people are on board undercover as well, and they are going to try to sabotage the flight because they think the technology is a threat. Is that correct?
Is this going to be more of an RPG or a RRR, and if it is an RRR, is there anything in paticular that’s extremely different from an RPG (aside form the obvious, that is.)?))
((Sounds solid. Are we making our own characters?))
I was hoping for an RRR (by the way, double ((‘s are not needed before the action starts.)
Anyway, I was thinking that we should decide mor thoroughly on a setting first- what kind of steampunk do we want this to be? I personally have identified 3 types:
Past Steampunk- A rousing Victorian tale of adventure. Takes place before modern day, and is written as if it was written in the 1800’s. (Think the Museion)
Present Steampunk- Many parallels to today, and similar ideas and ideals, though powered by steam and a few Victorian callbacks.
Future Steampunk- Think Diamond Age. To elaborate, Victorian ideas and ideals, and some similar aesthetic choices, but using futuristic technology (nanobots, electricity…) to simulate a steam era look and feel, but much more reliable.
My personal favorite type is future, and I think that that’s what it should be.
I never end up joining RRRs or RPGs at the right time. Maybe this time will be different.
With regards to Enceladus’s post–I’d rather it not be Past Steampunk, simply because we have the Museion for that sort of thing and I’d like to get the Collaborative Story there going too.
I have no idea what Diamond Age is, or what it would entail, so I feel I’d be at a bit of a disadvantage for anything involving Future Steampunk. I’m not exactly opposed to it, per se, but I do feel I’d need more information on exactly how the background technology and worldbuilding work.
It doesn’t help that I’m imaging something reminiscent of Hayao Miyazaki or the Edge chronicles in my head.
If you set it in the future, you’ll have to throw out the airship (already invented).
In any case, you shouldn’t let the Museion cramp your science-fictional style. I’m afraid it’s rapidly becoming, well, a museum.
Oops.
I vote for present steampunk, because I do rather love the airship idea. *purr* Hey, is Diamond Age a book…? If it is, I really need to read it.
Yes, it is. It’s amazing. (It’s by Neal Stephenson.)
I’m afraid that airships were invented more than 150 years ago and were a flourishing industry before World War One. Have you heard of dirigibles? Zeppelins? Those are they.
Perhaps I’m misunderstanding, but do we really have to throw out the airship just because it’s already been invented? If the steam power continues, wouldn’t the airships, too? Perhaps…
Oh, not at all. You can certainly have a present or future with airships.
I’m sorry if I caused confusion. I thought the planning on the Suggestion Box thread focused on the first airship, but I probably misremembered or misunderstood.
Oh. My confusion is no more.
I think it was, too, but what if we had a new kind of airship, or something?
I vote Past Steampunk. It’s really what makes sense with the plot, or from what I’ve gathered thus far.
I feel like a n00blet asking this but what’s the difference between RRR and RPG?
RRR: Round Robin ‘Riting. People write 1 story from 1 viewpoint, taking turns.
RPG: Role Playing Game. People write many stories from many viewpoints, taking turns.
Reasons why I think it should be future: I think it’s the coolest looking. :\
Thanks!
Diamond Age is a book by Neal Stephenson that is sitting in front of me. He also wrote Snow Crash and the Baroque Trilogy and Cryptonomicon and Anathem and his books are amazing. They tend to focus on technology and math in a way that I think is really fascinating – Alan Turing is a character in Cryptonomicon, Anathem presents math thought puzzles as part of the plot, etc. Plus I swear that Captain Jack Sparrow has to have been based off of Half-Cocked Jack from the Baroque trilogy.
Those of you who have read Diamond Age may have noticed that Muse, MuseBlog, and the Museion are all propaedeutic enchiridions.
Yay, thanks GAPAs!
I vote for present steampunk. Maybe it’s an alternate universe where we still developed technology, but no one ever thought of/was able to build a flying machine until now?
Idea for a character: A reclusive inventor who spent his whole life building the airship and recruiting volunteers for the maiden voyage. He was going to accompany them on the flight, but died in his sleep/of a heart attack/ was mysteriously murdered/whatever a week before launch. The inexperienced young airshippers must now make the journey without their mentor-person. Also, it’s rumored he built secret rooms and features onto the ship without telling even the crew.
What do you guys think? No one would need to RP him since he’s dead, but they could maybe find his journal or something.
I vote present steampunk.
Anyway, couldn’t we have it be sort of like the lamented MuseBlog Fanfiction, where people have their own character which they mostly control, but it’s a story in third person?
Yes! It would combine the fun of having your own character with the ease of writing in third person. Also, if we ever wanted to edit it into a cohesive story later, it would be more like “third-person omniscient” tha “choppy series of rehashing monologues”.
So I guess it would be a RRRPG? A Round Robin Role- Playing Game?
So, instead of making/PP-ing my character and writing like “I walked to the store” it would be “En walked to the store”, right?
I’m not sure I see the advantage of changing the pronoun, if that’s the only difference from an RPG.
(continued) The main advantages of an RRR, it seems to me, are that characters don’t all have to be equally important, and they don’t all have to be “on stage” all the time. There’s also more room for scene-setting (like Rainbow*Storm’s vivid sentence cited in the introduction to the thread) and exposition. But the key isn’t just that it’s written in the third person and the past tense. It’s more a matter of balance.
I like the RRR idea as well, it seems like it’d work better with the story. I’ll work with anything really.
Well, perhaps multiple scenes could be worked on at once? I dunno.
We should finish up the voting soon and start making characters, or this thread will die before it’s even started. So far we have:
RRR: 1
RPG: 0
Combo (RPG, but in third person): 2
Past steampunk: 1
Present steampunk: 3
Future steampunk: 1
So if you want your favorite idea to be used, vote soon! (Maybe once we get 5 or 6 votes on an idea, we use it?)
I vote for:
RRR
Present / Future Steampunk
Idea: Even if we go with present steampunk, we can use this
The technology for flying is well used, fairly old. However, this ship is not just any airship, it is powered by a very new technology (Electricity if present steampunk, antimatter or something like that if future), and those on the ship who want to destroy it are afraid of what it will do to them.
I like that idea! But the airship isn’t very steampunk if it isn’t steam-powered …
Steampunk isn’t really necessarily steampowered, it’s more of using Victorian ideas and ideals in non-Victorian situations.
14: I vote RRR. Also, could I change my vote to Future Steampunk? I only voted for present because I didn’t want to have to throw out the airship idea. (I think the antimatter sounds really good.)
I think Future Steampunk and RRR. Antimatter!
I’d prefer an RRR. I just don’t see how a combo would work, and if we tried it, I feel like it would quickly morph into an RPG-in-third-person.
As for the technology level, perhaps we could do some sort of combination? We don’t need to restrict ourselves to the way technology progressed in our universe.
Mmm… I’ll join!
Really anything’s fine with me. I just notice we tend to get main characters even on RPGs, most notably BA:TOS (ZVX and Aggie, n/of). It’s inevitable, but I’ll put out a tentative vote for RRR-RPG and RRR. My worry about RRR is how different we’ll see the characters, is all… and RRR-RPG sounds fun, just… yeah.
Actually, I’ll out no votes out for anything; I like all the options. :3
Different in what way? And why would that necessarily be a disadvantage?Just curious.
I vote RPG, because I already have an idea for my character. Plus what Zinc said about people interpreting the characters differently in an RRR.
May I join in? I think I have a character…
I’m still in, though I don’t really have any big preferences that are shouting at me right now. I think I would like my own character, and I guess I’d lean towards RRR-RPG. I think there is a disadvantage to different character interpretations because it can make the character seem bipolar. That’s a very inelegant way to express things, but I feel that it might be frustrating as a writer to want to do something with a character but can’t because it’d be OOC, or you do it anyway and end up with the bipolar problem and no one knows what a character is actually supposed to do or they all become flaming Mary Sues or something. Or maybe I’m just a control freak. I think we can work in scene setting like Robert mentioned if we actively try to do so.
I like Rainbow*Storm’s idea (12), but if we use Enceladus’s idea in 15…yeah, Future might work. I’m not opposed to it, and as it seems as everyone else is leaning towards it anyhow, I will follow the crowd for once.
I’m going to use this to get myself to go back on MB over spring break. >.<
I vote for RRR, mostly because we don’t have a lot of those, but I think it would be interesting if we had two perspectives that we all shared. It wouldn’t quite be an RPG, because anybody could write for both characters whenever he/she pleased. I vote for future steampunk, but we can limit the kind of technology we want to use.
So we’ve agreed:
RRR, Future Steampunk, Antimatter powered Airship?
FF- Perhaps regarding the “people don’t know what characters are like” issue, we could create character sheets to explain what the characters are like?
Yeah, sounds good! So, should we start to figure out characters?
Sure thing! How are we gonna do this?
How about we just post our character profiles?
This isn’t an RPG, we should agree on what characters we have first.
(( Could somebody make a huge post that has the plot and RRR or RPG and steampunk past, present or future?
We’ve decided it’s going to be RRR, future. The plot only has a few vague ideas about there being people on board who want to destroy the airship (powered by anti-matter) because they are afraid that the technology will be dangerous.
In an RRR, what exactly would we do about the various characters? Wouldn’t we have a random amount regardless of the amount of writers? Or are we fusing RPG and RRR still?
I personally think it should be just RRR, because of Robert’s point: “The main advantages of an RRR, it seems to me, are that characters don’t all have to be equally important, and they don’t all have to be “on stage†all the time. There’s also more room for scene-setting (like Rainbow*Storm’s vivid sentence cited in the introduction to the thread) and exposition.”
Now, the big drawback to RRRs is that they require cooperation. In RPGs, each writer creates and controls a character. In RRRs, by contrast, writers agree on a cast of characters, and anyone can control them. You can’t complain if somebody else takes “your” character in a direction you hadn’t considered, because the character isn’t yours. It’s more of a joint writing project.
That’s how it works, and if it’s not what most people want, then you should try something else.
I think that sounds like a nice alternative to the usual. I also think, however, we should specify the characters as good or evil before we get started so that nobody completely flips their personality.
How about we use the D&D classification system, with Good, Neutral, and Evil on one axis, and Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic on the other?
So character who always followed the laws in ways that helped people would be a Lawful Good, but a person who followed laws in ways that hurt people would be Lawful Evil. If they just value law above all else, then they are Lawful Neutral.
If someone doesn’t really have trackable behavior patterns like that, then they’re True Neutral.
That sounds good. Now, how many characters are we going to have?
Rainbow*Storm posted the idea for the original inventor at #12. He’s offstage, but he would probably have a protege on board. We need a captain, a first mate, navigator, technicians and engineers, a cook, other random personnel, maybe a useless rich person who funded the entire thing and insisted on tagging along. I like that idea. And we need bad guys. Neo-luddites, as it were.
I have this idea for the leader of the ‘evil group on board’. En’s not evil so much as a well-intentioned extremist who is convinced that antimatter engines, if used, will backfire and destroy the world. (Antimatter works as a power source by reacting with matter, right? And we’re made out of matter…) There can be other evil guys who do things for other reasons–corporate spies who have infiltrated the ranks of the anti-tech organization, and a really evil second in command who’s just in it for kicks…My imagination is running away with me, at least with regards to the evil characters. Because they’re interesting , hehe.
Now obviously not all of the characters need to be as well developed, and there may be more that we need. But we need to get started writing sometime.
Those ideas sound great.
Antimatter will provide power by reacting with matter. But we need a better name for it… Any thoughts?
I have an idea for a female technician, probably Lawful Neutral.
I don’t see why we can’t just call antimatter antimatter. We don’t need an especially cool name for it, and ‘an antimatter engine’ describes the airship’s fuel source perfectly well.
I have now written a character profile for the Neo-luddite leader. I will post it and hope that other people will post character profiles as well because I just listed a whole bunch of people we need and just because I have four characters floating in my head doesn’t mean I should hog the entire thing. Though I would of course be totally glad to post my ideas for the Neo-luddite second in command, the main corporate spy, and the useless rich person. …Do we even write character profiles like this for an RRR?
Now that I’ve committed to this story I’d hate for it to die before it even begins…The Medieval Fantasy RPG has more action going on right now than this thread.
So. Character profile.
Name: Ashley Wrightsworth (Ashely was originally a male name, and in a steampunk setting I’d figure a guy named Ashley wouldn’t be too out of place)
Position/Alignment: Leader of the Neo-Luddites (Officially known as the Front Against Anti-matter Engines, but that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, so when they first began their vigilante action the newspapers just called them the Front, or the Neo-Luddites for the more insulting) He probably thinks he’s lawful good, his enemies claim he’s chaotic evil.
Appearance: Tall, solidly built, which makes crawling through air ducts on the airship the slightest bit difficult. He usually leaves the acrobatics to those more limber than he. Brown hair, brown eyes, tanned skin. Looks like an Average Joe, to be honest, but with an air of command about him.
Skills: Wrightsworth is a fairly skilled orator and charismatic leader, able to capitalize on peoples’ fears and gain support for his cause. He is somewhat less skilled at strategy and tactics, but he’s learning under the wing of his sadistic second-in-command, who has a great deal of prior military experience. Also a fairly good shot with a gun, particularly rifles–he’s a hunting man.
Personality: Very blunt and plain-spoken, when he’s not giving a speech. Focused to the point of obsession–he’s like a pit bull that never lets go. His current obsession is the destruction of the antimatter engine, because he believes it poses an inherent threat to humanity and anything else made of matter. And he is willing to go to any lengths to succeed in that goal.
Can’t think of a good name for a antimatter reactor that isn’t stolen from star trek, but I do have some cool ideas for plots and characters, and other machinery in the ship. I think that the ship should have lots f cool mini ships, from lifeboats to scout type ships. I also think that any decent steampunk needs a variety of cute robots and bizarre animals, or combinations of both. Also, it needs an intricate series of maintenance pipes, secret passages, and other such concealed tunnels to travel around the ship secretly. These could have interesting things living in them. If this is an RPG, or if we’re each writing characters, I would like to play a sailor type person who gets to go up on the top of the ship and run around the rigging as well as fly it. maybe I’m an underage sailing volunteer with a secret mission of her own…
(31) – The plot ideas sound good, but I believe we’re going with RRR, so we all have to agree on characters, and we all will be playing them.
(30) – He’s going to be an interesting character! *rubs hands together and cackles menacingly* He should have a troubling past, perhaps involving extremely strict, FAAE-oriented parents who taught him to get what he wanted at any cost.
Could we have some sort of semi-romantic love plot, or would that be too clichéd?
Oops. SFTDP. (This is rather minor but I need to fix it.) Subplot not love plot. Something that is barely hinted at, and probably comes to nothing, but is very amusing nonetheless.
Count on it! I was thinking something subtle between the rich donor and a lesser character, like a cook or navigator or something. It’d make for drama if necessary.
Sure, I have no objections to romantic subplots…
That’s good, but we need someone to come write profiles for the rich donor and the other character then.
…Exactly how are characters approved, anyhow? I just went ahead and wrote mine, and no one objected…
I’ll do both!
Idea for Airship Captain (We need a name for the Airship as well… Volatilis Machinamentum? (I was using Google translate, any Latin Speaking MuseBloggers/GAPAs here?)
James S. Januson
Position: Airship Captain
Alignment: Lawful Neutral: He does what he is told by his superiors (Generally considered Law Making Good). Yes, he is concerned with the safety of the Airship, but that is because he wants to be viewed in a favorable light by his superiors.
Appearance: Short, with blond hair that is always neatly combed. Not very muscular, but certainly healthy. Pale skin, from sitting inside the cabin of aircraft most of the time, shielded from UV light.
Skills: Adept airship flyer.
Personality: Goes out of his way to perform orders, almost too much. Stony, generally seen as uncaring. If there was a baby abandoned on the train tracks, he would pick it up and save it, unless there was a danger to himself, or it conflicted with his orders. He only does stuff if he believes he needs to, or has been told to.
((I’ve drafted up the rich donor and his ship-worker minor love interest.))
Name: Jesse MacMurphy
Position: Rich donor, and the main funder of the project. His one condition in donating a large part of his vast inheritance was that he would be brought long on the ship’s maiden voyage, partly for leisure and partly to make sure his money has been invested into something worthwhile that might gain him more fame.
Alignment: Neutral Good (He has no stance except when it comes to defending his money and what he’s invested in, so he’s not a bad guy per se.)
Appearance: Jesse is tall, slender with a muscular build that is deftly concealed by his pricey waistcoats and evening jackets. He has wavy blond hair, sharp grey eyes and light skin. He appears to have never worked a day in his life. He is about 22 years old.
Skills: Jesse seems rather daft at times, but he is actually quite clever when need be. Other than that, he’s only useful for snide comments and gets in the way frequently.
Personality: He was raised to believe that he can have whatever he wants. Naturally, the development of a new flying machine attracted him because it seemed to be a good way to exercise his power. He is bossy, bold, calculating and clever, as well as snotty a great deal of the time. However, he does have a soft side.
———————————————————————————————–
Name: Alice Bronsby
Position: Technician, works mostly on the upper deck.
Alignment: Lawful Good
Appearance: A tall girl, with strong arms and long legs, good for rushing from deck to deck when something needs a quick fix. She has rusty red hair that is always tied in a tight knot, wide forest green eyes, and pale, freckled skin. She frequently wears overalls over tunics, laced boots and work gloves, as well as circular goggles.
Skills: Alice is a deft mechanic, very able-bodied and has as much skill as any of the male workers. She is well-versed with the workings of machinery, especially with how the airship works.
Personality: She is outspoken, loud and uninhibited, but in a polite way. She has a deep value for authority and loves to learn. Alice is particularly invested in the airship and her job because it involves a means of escape from the restricting society where she spent the vast majority of her life, and where society treated her like just another girl, fit for school and bearing children and not much else. She does not appreciate when people treat her delicately because she is a girl.
33, 34–great profiles. However, I notice that we have 3 guys and only one girl. We need to even out the gender ratio a bit…
I may have a few ideas for that. (mostly the aforementioned corporate spy embedded within either the actual crew or the FAAE) Because I like villains, and well, why not?
Idea for navigator.
Name: Eleanor Ventros, nickname Ellie
Position: Navigator; ever since she was young, she had an obsession with the stars–now she will get to fly. It’s basically a lifelong dream of hers, to navigate an airship; she hopes to captain one one day. She jumped at the opportunity to fly on this ship–she needs experience and a bit of fame. She has yet to establish a position in the airship community, as she has only been flying for a few years. This will be an interesting experience, and she is looking forward to it.
Alignment: Chaotic good. She is, essentially, a good person, and wouldn’t hesitate to do the right thing, but she doesn’t care too much for authority. She can follow orders fairly well, however.
Appearance: Ellie has shoulder length blond hair and light green eyes. She usually dresses in leather boots, light, billowy pants, and white blouses, sometimes vests. She has clearly defined cheekbones and a high, commanding face. (Although she doesn’t do much commanding).
Skills: She can navigate and has a really good sense of direction. She can also fly an airship at a reasonable skill level. She can be a leader, but she usually chooses not to–her dreams of being a captain will not come true, she knows, unless she works hard at what she has now.
Personality: Focused, hard-working, and fairly pleasant. She tends to get extremely nervous before flights, and she has a variety of nervous habits, such as biting her nails. She enjoys interacting with other people but sometimes says the first thing that comes into her head, which isn’t always the best idea.
This sounds good.
As far as I can tell, these are our current characters and profiles:
Ashley Wrightsworth- Leader of Neo-Luddites/The Front (Post 30)
James S. Januson- Captain (Neutral) (Post 33)
Jesse MacMurphy- Rich Donor (Neutral) (Post 34)
Alice Bronsby- Technician (Upper Deck) (Post 34)
Eleanor Ventros- Navigator (May I recommend that she is the protagonist?) (Post 36)
And as for my own…
Name: Atticus Moroney
Position: Cook- He’s been training at the prominent cooking school (named simply The Cook Institute) for four years, but when he finds himself out of work in a world slowly transitioning to mass-produced meals, he agrees to prepare meals onboard of the ship, where the prepared meals don’t cook well at high altitudes.
Allignment: Chaotic Evil- While he goes on the ship expecting very litte and being a generally law-abiding citizen, once he finds that he can help bring down the “modern thinkers” (who he connects with the people who invented mass-produced meals), he’s willing to do anything to exact revenge, including poison.
Skills” He is a great chemist (the first year of the institue is devoted to chemistry), and consequently very good at making an implementing poisons. He’s very coordinated, but he has a helper (Harry Immer– True Neutral) who does any lifting for him. Harry is very intellectually challenged, so he becomes a minion.
Personality: At the beginning of his revenge, he loves it with no doubts, but as he goes on he feels increasing guilt. It’s up to the writers to decide whether or not he will turn good at the end, or simply feel horrible about what he’s done.
SFTDP (although it’s been a few hours)
I feel like we have a great starting cast, and if we don’t want this thread to die we should begin. Naturally, the first sentence should be:
The bronze behemoth hung glittering against the clouds, like a second sun of bright metal plates and swooping propellers and huge patched balloons. You couldn’t look at it and say man was never meant to fly.
Okay, that sounds like a good plan. (Just one sec.)
(Also–(37) “Who he connects with the people who invented mass produced meals.” <3 )
Captain–Check. James S. Januson
First mate–
Navigator–Check. Eleanor Ventros
Technicians and engineers–Semi-check. We have Alice Bronsby. I think, however, we could use an engineer and maybe another technician; although they could just be background characters, we at least need a name, alignment, and maybe appearance.
A cook–Check. Atticus Moroney.
Useless rich person who funded the entire thing and insisted on tagging along–Check. Jesse MacMurphy
Leader of Neo-Luddites–Check. Ashley Wrightsworth
So, we essentially still need a first mate, another technician, and an engineer. Perhaps a few more members of the crew, as well–though we don't want an extremely large amount of characters, we should probably have a few sentences. We don't want to end up having several first mates, etc.
Quick background lurking character profiles:
Member of the Crew # 1
Faith Hervenok, member of the FAAE. Female. Disposition: Dull. Eyes: Gray. Hair: Brown. Alignment: Lawful good. (But she believes that she is doing good by destroying this new technology. Also, when I say “lawful” I mean that she obeys her superiors, aka Evil McEvilpants.)
Member of the Crew # 2
Nimrod Alderdice. Male. Strong. Rather lazy, although he’ll follow orders and get the job done–most of the time, anyway. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he understands more than people give him credit for… Eyes: Brown. Hair: Brown. Alignment: Lawful Neutral. He follows orders but doesn’t really want to make the effort to be good, unless there’s something in it for him. On the other hand, he would back out of any evil plans someone had–pure laziness.
Did I kill this thread? T.T
THIS THREAD IS TOO YOUNG TO DIE!
ANYONE WHO COMES TO THE STEAMPUNK RRR THREAD WILL BE GRANTED ONE WISH. ..please don’t die…
I wish it was summer already.
I’m pretty busy this week but will try to help you get this RRR rrrestarted.after things at work calm down a little.
I’m willing to help restart it, but be warned–I’ll only be here for a few days before I lose internet access for two weeks.
So, to answer a few of oobatooba’s questions. When I came up with Ashely Wrightswroth, I figured the FAAE came from him, and a few other like-minded people who think that anti-matter engines will cause the end of the world. Sort of like the people who thought that the world was gonna end last Saturday, actually. When they saw the news about antimatter airships being developed they decided to take extreme action. I figured the FAAE had to have something on the ground, but it was always more of a “let’s meet in seedy back rooms and member’s houses” type organization than one with bases. They’re riding everything on this venture.
I was under the impression that airships already exist, but ours is the first antimatter engine, which probably confers benefits like being faster, more powerful, more energy-efficient, etc.
I do have an idea for another villain, a corporate spy bent on stealing the airship plans for her company. I think I’ll post the profile late, though.
I think that we need a second antagonist to give us some good subplot options, perhaps a jealous rival? I haven’t thought out that character yet, but I do have these ones:
Anikka Breianson
Head Engineer person
Appearance: tall, intimidating. Brown hair, piercing grey eyes. Very neat, tight appearance.
Personality: (Lawful something non-evil?) VERY bossy. Likes to blame people. Quite fussy about messes, especially involving her and her machines. her favorite machine being broken could probably bring on a psychological breakdown… Apart from that, she’s a brilliant engineer.
Brendon Smith
Stowaway
He definitely doesn’t belong here. His entire getting on the ship was an accident, but he is worried about what will happen to him if someone finds out about him. He tries to act like he knows what he’s doing so he isn’t found out, but he is constantly confused by the ship, and his bewildered efforts to help could get everyone into trouble at some point.
Also, we should consider the setting a bit more. We have the ship figured out, but we should think about what the rest of the world is like. Why are we suddenly deciding to try to fly? What are the politics of the world like? Where do the FAAE come from? Do they have a base back on the ground?
I LOVE YOU FOREVER
I think the world is sort of in a state of technological progress. For example, this is definitely a groundbreaking achievement. I’m not sure what the politics would be like exactly, but since this ship was not funded (mostly) by the government… At least, I think that’s correct. (Agrrrfishi?)
FantasyFan, I was wondering: what does the leader of the FAAE do on board? That is, what’s his cover?
38 (TFATF42)- Yeah, we should definitely start with that. Are we going to write just as the ship is leaving? (This is a question for everyone.) Who should we start with, or, rather, where should we start? We could describe, perhaps, the Captain as he prepared to leave-or the leader of the FAAE. Are we going to start out by having our readers know that certain members of the crew are evil?
I believe we just have the first mate left, and then we have all the characters covered. (FantasyFan, did you have any specific ideas on how your spy was going to get herself aboard–that is, what would she be masquerading as?)
Might sound a little stupid, but a was actually thinking that the leader is hiding in the bowels of the ship like a stowaway and occasionally forcing himself through small tunnels to get where he needs to go. Mostly he leaves the crawling around to his minions, though. He might have got on board as a boilerman or something, but he abandoned his post pretty early on and only shows up to ‘work’ as his cover if he needs to.
The spy is posing as an ordinary crew member. Secretly, however, she’s a member of the FAAE spying on the captain. Even more secretly, she is a corporate spy just waiting to get her hands on the ship blueprints. Then she plans on standing back and letting the FAAE do their work. After the ship is destroyed, her company will be in the perfect position to enforce a monopoly on antimatter airship designs. (Girl’s got her fingers in a lot of pies. She better hope her perfectly laid out plans don’t backfire on her.)
Name: Veronica Sanders. At least, for this mission. Nicknamed “Vinny” by the rest of the crew, a fact which highly annoys her as she had no control in picking the name out.
Alignment: Neutral evil. She’s only in it for her own benefit, and only loyal to the company because of her hefty paycheck.
Position: One of many, many crew members who swarm the deck and tend to the basic needs of running a ship.
Appearance: She is, of course, skilled with disguise, as befits a spy, but currently her appearance is of a relatively plain woman in her late twenties with hair so blonde it has to fake.
Skills: Sneaking, lockpicking, breaking and entering, disguise, making it seem like she’s not listening to a conversation when she is–typical mandatory spy skills.
Personality: Outwardly cold and calculating. Inwardly cold and calculating too, but she depends very heavily on everything going just the way she planned it. If it doesn’t, she get a tiny bit upset. Then a tiny bit berserk. Can you say OCD? This happens more frequently than she’d like, as she is what some people would term “too clever for their own good”.
It also occurs to me that I didn’t write a profile for the FAAE’s second in command. Not much you need to know, except that he’s a sadist with prior military experience. He helps out mostly with beating people up and teaching the boss guerilla and terrorist warfare tactics and strategy.
45- (FantasyFan) No, that doesn’t sound stupid! I was just wondering; thanks for clearing it up.
We still don’t have a first mate. Does anybody mind if I put this profile out there? We don’t have to use it.
Name: Morris Holloway
Alignment: wavering; he’s somewhere around neutral evil
Appearance: Short, dark, almost brown blond hair, gray eyes, stocky build
Position: First mate
Personality: Normally, he’s a law-abiding, all-for-progress person who is behind James 100%, but lately he’s been beginning to wonder if this progress is such a good thing after all… He’s not sure if he should be working for James, but since he’s Not Sure, he’s going to keep being a good first mate…for now.
He hasn’t contacted the FAAE yet or anything, but he knows about them, and knows they’re on the ship. He hasn’t told anybody.
So. Shall we get started?
All right guys. I’m ashamed of you. I was gone for two weeks and I expected something to have started in that time. Thanks to Mikazuki for being the only person to post after me.
…Shall we get something started now?
YES WE SHOULD. …I don’t really know what we should do though? I’ve never participated in an RRR before, and I know how it works, but…I’m kind of unsure what to do.
Hopefully, things will speed up when school gets out for everyone.
Cake, it’s lightning-ing here so I’m going to make this flimsy excuse and get off before I get electrocuted or whatever happens when you stay on a computer during a lightning storm. I swear I meant for this to be a longer post…
This is what we are going to do. Just start writing, and worry about everything else later. We have our characters and a basic plot outline. Let’s go.
___
The bronze behemoth hung glittering against the clouds, like a second sun of bright metal plates and swooping propellers and huge patched balloons. You couldn’t look at it and say man was never meant to fly.
Workers scurried to and fro loaded with boxes. Engineers made the final tweaks to the engine. A proud Captain Januson stood on the deck and surveyed his new domain. Being appointed captain of the first antimatter airship was a great honor, and he intended to see his mission out to the best of his ability.
An annoying, cultured voice cut through his reverie, “It is a magnificent ship, isn’t it? I have done the world a service in building it, don’t you think?”
Captain Januson snorted. “Her. A ship is always female, Mr. Macmurphy. I owuld have thought you’d know at least that after bankrolling the entire endeavor.”
“I see. She, then. I shall be sure to treat her with all the respect due a lady.” Jesse Macmurphy, billionaire rich boy and main donor to the ship, said, grinning slightly as though he had just made a hilarious joke.
This time, one of the technicians fine-tuning the navigation instruments snorted.
Jesse’s eyes snapped up towards her. “Did I say something?” he asked, still grinning.
“Nothing in particular,” the technician said. Her nametag read Alice Bronsby. “But you should respect the ship because she’s been made well, and has good people piloting her, not because she’s…”–her mouth twisted slightly –“a lady.”
“Of course I will. I give everyone their fair due, milady.”
Teh title could not have been coincidental. The technician shoved a few strands of red hair out of her face in annoyance. Her respect for authority and plain-spoken desire to tell the man in front of her off for his sexism warred with each other. Respect won out, and after clipping a few more wires and greasing some gears she turned to the woman next to her and said, “That should be all, Navigator Ventros. If there are any more glitches, please contact me or the head engineer, Anikka Breianson.”
“I will.” Eleanor Ventros laughed. “After all, we can’t have the ship crashing now, can we.”
“I’ll be off, then.” Alice Brosby said, and walked out, carefully avoiding looking at the well-dressed man she had spoken to earlier. She had work to be doing, after all. The were any number of small glitches to fix before takeoff, and Alice would swear that for every one fixed, another three popped up. It was all very odd. She walked past the galley to the boiler rooms, puzzling the phenomenon out.
Behind her, a shadow shifted.
___
The bronze behemoth hung glittering against the clouds, like a second sun of bright metal plates and swooping propellers and huge patched balloons. You couldn’t look at it and say man was never meant to fly.
Yet some people did. Ashley Wrightsworth was one such, and he glared at the ship in the early morning sun. His gaze was similar to that of the captain standing far above him, but while the captain marveled, Wrightsworth only had eyes for the destruction that such a deceptively beautiful thing could wreck. He was unsure of how long his cold gaze fell upon the airship, but it hardly mattered. His height and muscles ensured that he went unnoticed among the many workers present, and he had taken the forethought of wearing a stolen uniform to better blend in. Unfortunately, this did not prevent him form being bumped into. He cursed loudly.
“Sorry. mate,” the other workers called cheerfully over his shoulder, intent upon his destination.
Very well then. He, too, had a purpose. Wrightswroth strode to the ship. His brethren would even now be wrecking petty havoc upon the delicate machinery inside. The antimatter engine–curse the thing for even existing–wasn’t powered on yet. They weren’t risking destruction of all known life at the moment. But every small delay counted.
Wrightsworth hid among a group of dockworkers entering the ship. With this many people moving in and out constantly, he hardly needed to worry about security. But after all, better safe than sorry was his motto.
…particularly when applied to explosive antimatter engines. Wrightsworth moved through the ship, lower and lower, where a base had been prepared for him. A technician walked by, and he wedged himself behind a cluster of pipes. After she passed by, he tried to wiggle out. Then he frowned. Wiggled some more. Drat. He was stuck.
His feet scrabbled for purchase on the floor and sweaty fingers grasped at the bars. One resounding kick and an almighty clang later and he was free, descending into the belly of the beast.
____
Sooo…what do you think? It’s long, isn’t it? Inspire any creative juices of your own? I didn’t introduce all the characters yet, and some, like, Ellie, got barely any screentime. Come and help me get this ship off the ground, please.
Captain Januson turned away from Jesse, slightly annoyed by his arrogance. He sighed, though the sound was barely audible over the noise of the crew as they prepared to lift off.
“Just a little while until we leave, huh?” Jesse managed to disguise his question as an assumption.
The Captain nodded. “Alice is going to check over the boiler rooms, make sure everything is ready, and then we’ll fire up the engine.”
Jesse gave a refined snort. “Will she be able to handle it?”
“What do you mean?” The Captain asked, turning to face him. “Alice Bronsby is one of our best technicians.”
“Well, she seemed far too bold to me. If I were you, I’d get rid of her.”
“Jesse…” Captain Januson sighed again, not appreciating Jesse telling him how to run his ship.
____
Down in the boiler rooms, Alice checked over everything with a hawk-like eye, checking off things on a mental list. She ran a grease-stained hand along the wall almost absent-mindedly, and smiled; it didn’t appear that anything had gone wrong with the engine. Stepping out of the room for a few seconds, she snagged a nearby crew member, a stocky boy.
“You,” she told him, sounding unintentionally slightly stern; she needed to talk loudly to be heard, “Would you go tell Captain Jamuson that the engine’s ready to be fired up? He’s up on deck. Tell him I sent you…” She trailed off, not knowing his name. He nodded nevertheless and raced off.
((I hope I got that right…a boiler room is sort of unnessecary on a non-steam-powered-boat, at least I think so, so it would be where the engine is…right? If I’m wrong, which I have a feeling I am, then just pretend she was in the engine room. ))
NO EXCUSES PEOPLE
Hey! Everybody! Remember when we had an RRR beginning here? Remember when it was going really well? Remember when it was active? Remember when it wasn’t over a month ago since someone responded? The storyline’s not hard to pick up; you only have to read two posts. This is an RRR, anyone can write. You can read summaries and character bios further up the page. Please come back
((Hi, I’m jumping in here with a character.
Name: Dan Orrias
Alignment: Neutral. He is kind and helpful, but an opportunist and self-helper to the extreme.
Appearance: Slight and short, with bushy red hair and twinkling blue eyes. Somewhat grimy.
Position: Stowaway.
Personality: Kind to people he likes, and eager to help. He came from an impoverished family and is always looking for money. He stowed away in hopes of striking it rich and sending money to his widowed mother and six siblings.))
As Alice fiddled with a dial down in the engine room, she caught a flash of movement. “Who’s there?” she demanded. A sheepish figure emerged from behind a tangle of pipes. “I’m, um, Dan Orrias. Brendon, we’re discovered.” A second person stepped out. Alice sized them up, and was relieved to see that she was taller than both. “Who are you?” she asked. Dan replied, “I stowed away here hoping to find some coin, either working or stealing. Brendon was being chased, and he ducked into a nearby building and hid in the airship.” “Stealing?” “Yeah, whoever built this contraption must have wanted it to be a private home, ’cause there’re a few passages through here,” replied Dan. “I thought I could sneak through them and find your quarters.”
((Good luck.))