Satanic Nightjar
reach for the stars and don't settle for the moon
[crackling can be heard through the radio, obstructing the weak voice of a man carrying through the speakers. despite the interference, the pure, unadulterated terror in his voice was evident. his vocal chords trembled as he recorded his message.]
This is Thomas Harvey, transmitting from outpost 17 in Ohio. If there's anyone out there, please respond. I repeat, if there's anyone out there, please respond. I've been alone for days - well . . . devoid of human presence, anyway. There's nothing human in Their eyes. Goddammit, anyone!
[a long pause ensues, the only audible noise that of his panicked, labored breathing. eventually, he clears his throat, presses into the transmitter one final time.]
This is Thomas Harvey. If there's anyone out there, please respond. The apocalypse has begun.
[end transmission.]
That was seven days ago. The final transmission of Mister Thomas Harvey was received four hours after the initial recording, and he is presumably dead in present time. Aside from his extraordinary understatement in what we can only assume were his final words, he holds no grand significance in our story. Onto business.
Precisely one year ago, in March, a mysterious virus overtook our planet, with no identifiable point of origin. So remarkably sudden - and not to mention deadly; the horrid affliction had a death rate above seventy-five, and showed no discrimination between any certain age, gender, or other factors - that it didn't take long for humanity to begin pointing fingers (of course, at that point in history were were completely oblivious to the fact that the virus was in fact a bio-weapon engineered by alien intelligence and sent to Earth in an attempt to obliterate the majority of our kind in order to make us easier to conquer, and eventually our lowly planet easier to terraform into a place inhabitable to them). We are a remarkably volatile race, world leaders were arguably just waiting for such an opportunity to present itself. Tensions rose, debates grew heated, and the death toll grew ever higher, until it came to a climax...
Long story short, we went to war. And then, Just to make absolute certain that our planet was completely uninhabitable for the next phase of catastrophe to ensue, we went to nuclear war.
Entire countries were obliterated. Citizens fled their homes, leaving ghost towns that were eventually converted into smaller, heavily fortified military outposts. Allies were pitted against each other, while infected soldiers collapsed on the front lines, fighting each other because they could not defeat the invisible enemy that was slowly winning an entirely different war.
And then, things seemed to turn around, when despite the raging chaos, doctors had discovered a vaccine for the increasingly deadly illness. It was mass produced - admittedly at a delayed rate - and in the sense of collective victory, a cease-fire was called. Needless to day, not everyone abided by the waving of the white flag, but no longer were the fatalities all but doubled by the endless fighting.
That was one month ago.
How did things go so horribly wrong, so, so very fast?
It's rather a twisted turn of events. In their haste to develop a vaccine, they had, in simplest terms, fucked up extremely badly. The day the vaccination was released to the population at large, millions of people received it - and then, the following day, several more millions. It was under-tested but in record high demand. Side effects were bound to cause a problem to arise, but nobody predicted the reality of what occurred.
In the week that followed the initial vaccinations, things began to change. Living family members began to see a disturbing change in their loved ones. Physically and psychologically. Their skin became pale, clammy, dry and peeling, their hair fell out, their eyes glazed over, their lips became cracked and bloody. They looked as if on their way to death's door, but perhaps most frightening changes were beyond their appearance. They first became increasingly volatile, then seemed to spiral into insanity, utterly lost in the depths of their own minds. Reduced to basic instinct, and a deep, unexplainable anger. Possibly, it was rooted in the long months of fear and conflict that had preceded their descent into madness, or possibly the emotion itself came from whatever had been pumped into their veins. Either way, it did not take long to escalate. Forgive me for being so crude, but that was when shit hit the fan/\.
Murderous, inhuman, empty bodies rioted the streets, in some places resembling a tidal wave of what could only be described as zombies, in some places only a few, that were quickly neutralized. But there was no recovering from this final phase of horror. Over fifty percent of the population had died in the beginning, followed by seventy-five percent who were vaccinated. The remaining millions were spread out across the planet, in separate countries that were still, technically, at war.
Not to mention the aliens who want us dead.
If you've stuck around this long through such a chaotic collision of every sort of destruction: howdy, let's be friends!
This particular mess of an idea was born from a combination of supreme boredom, a burning desire to write, and a perhaps unhealthy love for all things apocalypse. If it gains enough interest, I'm pretty sure it's going to be an absolute blast to GM and write.
At present, I'm going to set a limit at eight players, and we're going to need at least four. This won't be first come, first serve, so once the character applications are open I will set a deadline, and when that time comes around I'll announce our cast.
I'm not going to be making Discord a requirement for this roleplay, though we'll most likely end up having one available. Personally, I don't like relying on it, but if the majority of our players would prefer to do plotting on there I'm open to that. Speaking of plotting, I'm going to ask everyone to pitch into the story, we can all throw ideas into the hat. This roleplay as I'm envisioning it is going to be wild, adventurous, and gritty, so plenty of plot twists and turns are not only welcome but encouraged!
If anyone has questions (and I'm sure there will be plenty with a plot such as this), feel free to PM me, drop a reply, or ask in the OOC once I have it in place!
-peace-
This is Thomas Harvey, transmitting from outpost 17 in Ohio. If there's anyone out there, please respond. I repeat, if there's anyone out there, please respond. I've been alone for days - well . . . devoid of human presence, anyway. There's nothing human in Their eyes. Goddammit, anyone!
[a long pause ensues, the only audible noise that of his panicked, labored breathing. eventually, he clears his throat, presses into the transmitter one final time.]
This is Thomas Harvey. If there's anyone out there, please respond. The apocalypse has begun.
[end transmission.]
+++
That was seven days ago. The final transmission of Mister Thomas Harvey was received four hours after the initial recording, and he is presumably dead in present time. Aside from his extraordinary understatement in what we can only assume were his final words, he holds no grand significance in our story. Onto business.
Precisely one year ago, in March, a mysterious virus overtook our planet, with no identifiable point of origin. So remarkably sudden - and not to mention deadly; the horrid affliction had a death rate above seventy-five, and showed no discrimination between any certain age, gender, or other factors - that it didn't take long for humanity to begin pointing fingers (of course, at that point in history were were completely oblivious to the fact that the virus was in fact a bio-weapon engineered by alien intelligence and sent to Earth in an attempt to obliterate the majority of our kind in order to make us easier to conquer, and eventually our lowly planet easier to terraform into a place inhabitable to them). We are a remarkably volatile race, world leaders were arguably just waiting for such an opportunity to present itself. Tensions rose, debates grew heated, and the death toll grew ever higher, until it came to a climax...
Long story short, we went to war. And then, Just to make absolute certain that our planet was completely uninhabitable for the next phase of catastrophe to ensue, we went to nuclear war.
Entire countries were obliterated. Citizens fled their homes, leaving ghost towns that were eventually converted into smaller, heavily fortified military outposts. Allies were pitted against each other, while infected soldiers collapsed on the front lines, fighting each other because they could not defeat the invisible enemy that was slowly winning an entirely different war.
And then, things seemed to turn around, when despite the raging chaos, doctors had discovered a vaccine for the increasingly deadly illness. It was mass produced - admittedly at a delayed rate - and in the sense of collective victory, a cease-fire was called. Needless to day, not everyone abided by the waving of the white flag, but no longer were the fatalities all but doubled by the endless fighting.
That was one month ago.
How did things go so horribly wrong, so, so very fast?
It's rather a twisted turn of events. In their haste to develop a vaccine, they had, in simplest terms, fucked up extremely badly. The day the vaccination was released to the population at large, millions of people received it - and then, the following day, several more millions. It was under-tested but in record high demand. Side effects were bound to cause a problem to arise, but nobody predicted the reality of what occurred.
In the week that followed the initial vaccinations, things began to change. Living family members began to see a disturbing change in their loved ones. Physically and psychologically. Their skin became pale, clammy, dry and peeling, their hair fell out, their eyes glazed over, their lips became cracked and bloody. They looked as if on their way to death's door, but perhaps most frightening changes were beyond their appearance. They first became increasingly volatile, then seemed to spiral into insanity, utterly lost in the depths of their own minds. Reduced to basic instinct, and a deep, unexplainable anger. Possibly, it was rooted in the long months of fear and conflict that had preceded their descent into madness, or possibly the emotion itself came from whatever had been pumped into their veins. Either way, it did not take long to escalate. Forgive me for being so crude, but that was when shit hit the fan/\.
Murderous, inhuman, empty bodies rioted the streets, in some places resembling a tidal wave of what could only be described as zombies, in some places only a few, that were quickly neutralized. But there was no recovering from this final phase of horror. Over fifty percent of the population had died in the beginning, followed by seventy-five percent who were vaccinated. The remaining millions were spread out across the planet, in separate countries that were still, technically, at war.
Not to mention the aliens who want us dead.
+++
If you've stuck around this long through such a chaotic collision of every sort of destruction: howdy, let's be friends!
This particular mess of an idea was born from a combination of supreme boredom, a burning desire to write, and a perhaps unhealthy love for all things apocalypse. If it gains enough interest, I'm pretty sure it's going to be an absolute blast to GM and write.
At present, I'm going to set a limit at eight players, and we're going to need at least four. This won't be first come, first serve, so once the character applications are open I will set a deadline, and when that time comes around I'll announce our cast.
I'm not going to be making Discord a requirement for this roleplay, though we'll most likely end up having one available. Personally, I don't like relying on it, but if the majority of our players would prefer to do plotting on there I'm open to that. Speaking of plotting, I'm going to ask everyone to pitch into the story, we can all throw ideas into the hat. This roleplay as I'm envisioning it is going to be wild, adventurous, and gritty, so plenty of plot twists and turns are not only welcome but encouraged!
If anyone has questions (and I'm sure there will be plenty with a plot such as this), feel free to PM me, drop a reply, or ask in the OOC once I have it in place!
-peace-
