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Eclipse Phase (Private)

The Peculiar Taste of Silence
Scirocco's Workshop​

Initially happy to see the squad enter, Yasmin's smile becomes strained to see the state the squad is in; Scirocco, for his part, opens his wings out as Abby rushes for a hug, then lets himself be scooped up into Abby's arms, head and eyes darting around in the neo-avian way. Yasmin looks to Scirocco for an explanation, but all Scirocco can offer is a shrug.

"What can I say?" Scirocco croaks in french, "the ladies love a dashing raven."

Yasmin rolls her eyes on the way to glancing at the door, then at something on her entoptics, before clearing her throat and addressing the room: "yes, very well, now that we are here - our colleague here is in the unfortunate position of sharing an identity with a thoroughly unpleasant person."
"She only ever calls the worst sorts of people that," Scirocco points out.
"I believe he qualified," Yasmin says. "Now then, from the aggregate of our data, we believe that Mach - the one sent here by his employer from Extropia - is going to make a determined effort to seek out the Mach here in this room. Such contact must be prevented for any number of operational security reasons: however we do it, we must ensure that Mach's fork is unable to make contact with Mach, or else a great deal of work toward keeping this one away from entities hostile to us will be for naught."
"Tracking his indentured fork shouldn't be too difficult," Scirocco adds. "He made quite the fuss out in the microgravity zones earlier: I suspect he could be acquired on the local mesh."
"As well, any activity on the local mesh networks couldn't be too hard to track down. Those of us with ties to Guanxi could perhaps ask around on discreet channels, see if anyone is willing to talk about Mach's activities?"
"Finally," Scirocco says, gently wriggling out of Abby's grip and climbing with care until he is perched on top of Abby's head, either leg on each shoulder and two small cyberlimbs resting on either side of her skull for balance, "we already have him in the room - or at least, one with insight into how he might proceed."
"True! The clearer overall picture we have, the better our chances at countering whatever move he might make," Yasmin says, looking to the security borg in the room: "how do you think your fork will proceed?"
 
"If you had called ten minutes earlier I could have snapped his neck like I wanted to-" Vidar explained, he gestured at mach 2.0 "Full offense. He acused us of tampering with his muse and all he did was yell." He kept a hold of Abby loosely by the elbow as he spoke. "He's so paranoid that I think we can get way with just saturating the local mesh with wrong information and lead him around in circles. He's desperate. You have acess to his profiles right? Give him the old Disney-Pizza-hut -- Just order him 20 pizzas. Watch him scream- if the wonderkind wasn't blitzed out of her mind we could probably troll him into a frenzy from a safe distance ." He tapped two fingers against her head affectionately. "But I did remember him saying he was going to ask the "security people" wich-- um-- okay we all know why that's funny, but I happened to get in contact with a guy who trolls the cameras constatnly for fun earlier-- so I'll start there."
 
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"Alright, got him." Vidar says altogether too quickly. With the help of some of the team's muses it's child's play to flick through the cameras till he's found what he's after- two minutes tops. He tacts up the location on the tacnet. He includes a little clip of mach storming around the bar as running in the 90's comes with the words"Anime tiddies located" flashing over it. Penny was a gift and he thanked her profusely for her contributions to art and society as a whole. "I got the sousveillance gremlins considering to blacklist him for intel, didn't take much. Give them a few more minutes to come to a consensus."
 
The Peculiar Taste of Silence
Camera Feeds​

Mach's fork is shown on the feeds storming around the bar, his Guard's expression angry and searching out the ones responsible for the choice of music and heckling. He just about gets into a fight with a group of scum bargers before two neo-gorillas have to intervene, the tension clear over the feeds. The scum bargers leave, while Mach gestures angrily toward them to the neo-gorillas, neither of whom seem impressed with what they see. One of them says something that sends Mach storming out of the club, the uplifts following him out to half a block down the drum-corridor before breaking off. Switching to the corridor camera feeds, Mach seeks out the nearest wall to lean on and does so, his attention focused inward - likely onto his entoptics. Over a period of a half hour, his anger cools into what looks like melancholy, staying there for a good ten minutes before abruptly shifting toward a grin. His smile fades a touch, but remains there for the remaining ten minutes he leans against the wall, eyes on his entoptics. Eventually, he steps off the wall and looks stern-ward down the corridor, then starts walking toward an unknown destination.
 
Mach couldn’t help but feel a little awkward about the other Mach. But he found his words eventually.
“Yeah, my fork is kind of an ass. I’m sorry, all I can give you is intel and a promise that I won’t be as much of an ass as he is. Especially in that. Jesus, that morph by itself could drive him over the edge... it’d bring me damn close. But if he’s alone again, he’s probably looking for some Guanxi boys. Probably non-local, maybe Ego hunters, since they’d have the tracking and combat skills he doesn’t. He’s made it pretty clear he mostly wants to talk to me, but I’m pretty sure he’ll want to settle the score first, since I convinced Gray Xu he was an autonomist spy. So he’ll probably try to snag my stack and set us up in a simulspace room, if he can. Aside from that, I don’t have much useful information aside from the fact that I would be running like hell if I could right now... He’d expect me to be gone already. In fact... Maybe it’s good that this is a morph shop, I got an idea. Anyone here know how to puppet a morph remotely? We could swap me into something else, make sure this morph keeps broadcasting ‘SpeedmachZX’, and have it send him on a goose chase while we cast out or something.”
He said, looking around and hoping that this team’s hacker wasn’t too high, like that girl playing with the strangely consenting Raven morph... She was outta the gravity well at this point, just way out there.
 
"Let's see what folks have to say, then," Devin said, and went snooping for more on other Mach.

"Okay, so it looks like he's found some real mercs this time, with the works. All synth morphs. Going for a stack grab. Apparently these guys are connected to a singularity seeker group called 'the Network,'" Devin said, making air quotes. "They keep a real low profile, and a lot of people think they're made up."
 
"Oh great. Do we want to get some where secure before we poke this beehive? I still think we can lead him on a wild goose chase- the remote morph is a good idea. If you sent him a message we could probably manipulate him into moving in on what ever location we wanted." He said to New Mach. "Keep in mind- I've got the sousvaliance gremlins attention on this one. So they're watching him too and if we jump in, we're gonna have eyes on us."
 
Yasmin and Scirocco follow the group’s words in attentive silence; Scirocco has to keep his balance on Abby, but Yasmin is still and quiet in contemplation, taking in the ideas and listening for the situational updates. Upon hearing about the Network, Scirocco’s head twists to one side, the neo-raven qorking low.

“I don’t know if i’ve worked with these specific fellows, but i do know i’ve worked with their sort before,” Scirocco comments in reference to the Network. “They give me very interesting projects, but it must be said that they are- to borrow my colleague’s turn of phrase - a thoroughly unpleasant group.”

“If Mach’s fork has recruited them, then it sounds like direct confrontation ought to be the last resort,” Yasmin says.

“We may not have the means to take them down in a-“

“Wait!” Yasmin exclaims, crossing to a corner of the workshop - where the weapons locker used by Gray Xu’s thugs has been moved to, its doors hanging open. “I don’t know if it will be enough, but we at least have the armaments taken by the thugs from earlier, so we will not be entirely unprepared.”

“Let’s try to avoid that option as much as we can, hm?” Scirocco suggests, wings out for stability. “Mach’s security borg ought to have a puppet sock implanted, and so it could be teleoperated or jammed remotely. Any one of us could do it.”

“The operator would have to remain behind, would they not?” Yasmin asks.

“Not necessarily, although the operator’s own morph would have to be looked after, likely carried around if we needed to stay mobile, as their sensorium would be severely limited during jamming the borg.”

“Would the morph choice matter?”

“Not as long as it has functional mesh inserts,” Scirocco answers.

“There is still the matter of the sousveillance gremlins,” Yasmin points out, borrowing Vidar’s charming turn of phrase despite the rough translation. “Mach’s fork might be getting locked out, but calling attention to even a jammed security borg with Mach’s rep profiles could create unforseen problems.”

“Which strengthens the case for making sure we don’t have to face them in the first place,” Scirocco says. “Leading them on a merry chase is a good start, whether by a teleoperated catspaw or by remote suggestion; I recommend we have a strategy of our own for dealing with this errant fork and his mercs.”

“That is a good point,” Yasmin says. “I have yet to receive word on securing egocasts out of here, so any bid to escape is constrained to jumping between the ships for now. Do we lead them on a merry chase in order to put distance between us and them while we await extraction, or do we bait them into some kind of more conclusive trap?”
 
"Synths can be hacked," Abby says simply, then seems to wait for a response.
[She means to ask if anyone knows where she can buy some programs. She apparently has a plan to distract them? Talking to her like this is hard]
"Look," Abby begins, then seemingly gets to distracted to continue.
 
"Why am I the only one who knows how to do a crime?" Devin asked. He looked at Abby, still holding onto Scirocco with a dreamy look, and then ticked through who wouldn't be an asshole to her, and was left with exactly one option.

th3R4tK1ng: Raph, my buddy, my guy
th3R4tK1ng: I need a favor.
magnetowasright: Don't you ever just text to say hello??
th3R4tK1ng: I'm a busy man
magnetowasright: ):
th3R4tK1ng: Also last time I visited your boyfriend threatened to break me in half? And that's sexy, but he did not mean it the fun way
magnetowasright: Coward
th3R4tK1ng: ): ): ):
th3R4tK1ng: I will come bother you as soon as I get the chance, okay?
th3R4tK1ng: I have a hacker buddy who needs some programs. Can I patch her in to see what you've got?
magnetowasright: You trust her?
th3R4tK1ng: She's saved my hide at least 3 times now, so yes.
th3R4tK1ng: She's also uh
th3R4tK1ng: v high on buzz rn
th3R4tK1ng: please be gentle
magnetowasright: LMAO
magnetowasright: patch her in, I'll play nice

"Okay, Abby, I'm gonna patch you in with my buddy Raph. He writes all kinds of programs, he should have what you're looking for," Devin said.
 
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Magnetowasright: Hello new friend!
Magnetowasright: Devin tells me you’re looking for something in particular
Magnetowasright: How can I help??
Manicpixiecybehacker: Hi!!! I am looking for a scorcher! I need to fuck someone’s day.
Magnetowasright: Hi!!!
Magnetowasright: Oh boy, I can help with that! My favorite!
Manicpixiecybehacker: I was hoping to find Nightmare? Cuz if he’s gonna complain about me and my friends getting a little high, we’ll see how he likes a bad trip.
Magnetowasright: ahahhaha
Magnetowasright: Devin I like her
Magnetowasright: I have just the thing
Magnetowasright: I’ll give you the friends and fam discount since Devin gave you the referal
th3R4tK1ng: You’re going to hold that over me for weeks, aren’t you?
Magnetowasright: rude
Magnetowasright: of course tho
Manicpixiecybehacker: :D :D
Manicpixiecybehacker: What a nice person. I’d be happy to do business!
Magnetowasright: <3 <3 <3

Abby instructed Proxy to send the nice fellow money, and let her know when the file transfer was done, and settled in to wait. The text was swimming, which was fun to watch but if she had to message anyone any more she might get a headache.
 
"I got an idea," Vidar says with the sudden intensity. but then didn't follow it up with anything spending another moment or so on his mesh, "We need to get somewhere public- somewhere lowkey, but with a large group of invested people not afraid to throw hands if their event is interrupted- Like I don't know one of those children card game tournaments?"

[Some kind of MARGs event, boss?] Penny asked.

Oh fucking boy, yes he thought back and pulled up the options for the swarm.

He was almost overwhelmed, it was certainly a subculture to parse and not one he had any experience with. But after a moment, he thought he found what they needed; A Fantasy MARG called Wyrmwood. A rival to War of Wizards, wihh vidar had actually heard of before, fucking incredible, and was the largest MARG with mil- lions of subscribers to a high-fantasy world that features a mishmash of old Earth cultural myths and legends. Wyrmwood he found was grittier, more historically influenced high-fantasy setting that offers what its adherents call a true grimdark fantasy experience. And swarms game had recently had drama. Big drama. Wrymwood had a nautical/piratical flavor to it and there was a recent falling out between the wizard-pirates and the vampirates when one of the wizard-pirates turned in a whole crew to their bitter rivals and ended up disrupting the balance of power in a way that the crews are just now recovering from- most importantly it caused a spike in mesh traffic and non-trivial mesh lag for the week that it happened. It was just what they needed. Innsmouth Nights and Starfleet Command looked more interesting and were also options but their communities are relatively more relaxed due to their games being a lot more Player Versus Environment rather than PvP enabled Wyrmwood: Stranger Tides

Vidar laughed he as he posted the sign up information and the program installer for the AR. "The good news is I found the perfect things, the bad news is for it to work we're going to have to have a good time. We go, play, wait for them to show up- we play it straight, no offense mach but other you really doesn't seem to grasp how anarchist communities work- so we let him make a scene. Maybe hit him with abbey's scorcher and hope he causes enough chaos that this very loud LARP community has the social clout to get them thrown out of the swarm. We might never be able to play MARGs again on the swarm though but like- I'm not gonna cry over that. Might need a bit of a distraction to buy us time to get there- they have a play space down in one of the drums. It's got gravity. But I can't stress this enough in order for this to work we really need to sincerely enter the game. We could still lead him around on a wild goose chase with the remote morph idea, give Abby a chance to burn of her blitz, but I don't think we're going to be able to stay ahead of him for what the forty eight hours its probably gonna take to set up our ego casts?"
 
“That...is a remarkably good plan,” Scirocco commends.
“Is it?” Yasmin asks, visibly out of her depth.
“It is,” Scirocco answers. “I know people who play that game! They might be role-players, but they’re also scum bargers. A few of them do their part for the swarm by helping train and organize militias - this is how they use their talents recreationally. Given that they’re scum, their real weapons are never far out of reach; anyone looking to cause trouble will find more than they bargain for.”
“I see” Yasmin says, scanning through the material collected and posted by Vidar…

Ahoy!

Hello and welcome to Stranger Tides, an open-sourced hack of the multiplayer augmented reality game Wyrmwood! If it’s adventure on the eldritch seas, dishonor among thieves, and an ongoing struggle against the great powers that would lay uncontested claim to dominion over the waves that you crave, then you’ve come to the right place. We’re a band of blackguards and scallywags out for plunder and power on the high seas, and we’re always looking for more to join our crew.

About Us

We come from all over the swarm, from all backgrounds and walks of life, and we’re passionate about our game and our stories. We’ve put a lot of work into jailbreaking and reconfiguring the MARG (which is to say scrubbing out all the consortium bullshit) and making it fit within the confines of a scum barge, and we’re all quite proud of what we’ve accomplished! Our play space is located toward the stern of The Peculiar Taste of Silence, in a cargo hold we’ve converted into a modular space and programmed to respond to the needs of the game for any environment we need. We run a hybrid narrative/pvp game run by our admirals and our facilitators (our term for gamesmaster+moderator+tech support) and strive to balance intrigue and tone with fun to make sure everyone is respected and having an adventure! If you’d like to join up, you’ll want to fill out our form, read over our code of conduct, and download our AR suite in the link below.

The code of conduct reads over like a fairly standard set of rules for ethical behavior in a live-action role-playing game, calling for treating fellow players with respect, making very clear that harassment or violation of consent will not be tolerated, and laying out a set of guidelines for how to handle situations that arise in game, as well as what to expect in the course of play. This being a scum barge, the rules for behavior are quite libertine provided all parties consent to the in-character action and that such actions don’t break the flow of the game. The position of facilitator is listed as the first person to bring complaints or bug reports to, as it is their role to ensure the game proceeds smoothly on overwatch; disputes will be mediated by the organizers on a case by case basis, or escalated to the group to decide collectively if no resolution can be reached. Finally, provisions for emergency situations - such as stores of armament for hostile action or emergency supplies for life support failure - are laid out, and the facilitator and organizers will issue directives as to how to proceed in such situations. It takes a few minutes to scan through and is fairly clear-cut, written in several languages and translating easily to suit the reader’s needs.

The Crews

While we have crewmates from all over the eldritch seas, they have gone on account beneath the flags of two fleets - those of the vampirates and those of the free mage corsairs.

The vampires are lead by admiral Cheng I Sao, captain of The Dragon’s Shadow, and her dark companions, captains Burke Black of The Exquisite Dread and Katrina Hallow of the Darling Revenant. The vampiric captains of Cheng I Sao’s fleet are ruthless, dabbling in the lore of undeath and of the deeps to supplement their skill at arms and further their pursuit of prey. Beneath their tattered sails that still catch the wind and their shrouds of evernight that shield them from the sun’s deadly light, the vampirates are infamous across the seven seas, defying all of the great powers and even death itself.

The free-mage corsairs are lead by admiral Khyar ad-Din Barbarus of the Heart of the Tempest and his cunning allies, captains Anne Bonnie of the Vixen and Gunnhild Ravenmoore of the Helheimr. Having amassed crews of renegade mages beneath their flags, the corsairs have a formidable arsenal of magic to combat their mortal enemies in the imperium and foil bounty hunters - as well as rival pirate fleets. Strong in powder and steel as well as in magecraft, the corsairs have sailed the world, buying their freedom in blood and gold alike - and with no intention of slowing down.

Looking to Join?

If you’d like to join us, whether for a short while or for a longer adventure, you’ll want to follow a few simple steps!
1, be sure to download our AR suite and install it on your mesh inserts; it’s a series of keys and files that will let you run on our hacked version of Wyrmwood, along with providing you with a custom set of sounds and graphics for use in and out of the game!
2, read over our code of conduct and make sure you understand it; you will be asked to verify that you did so on our form. we’re not hardasses about rules, but we do want to make sure we’re running a safe and fun game, and these guidelines help us do that best.
3, submit a request to join up, including the number of players in your group if there’s more than one, rep-net handles we can use to run a quick background check, and descriptions of the characters you’d like to play, including skills and origins. Our facilitator will get in contact with you and let you know how to join up from there!

Character Creation

Faction: this covers your character’s background, not necessarily where they are now. There are five to choose from, described below:

-Free Mage Corsair: A renegade mage, on the run from the lorekeepers of the great powers and a natural user of magic, able to use lore from across the schools of magic in powerful ways.
-Vampirate: A vampire, revenant, or meeresgheist that has gone on account as a pirate, employing dark magic along with their skills for piracy to fulfill their dark hungers.
-Mekanix: A construct of steel, brass, and wood, given animus by magic and a mind either by transference from its creator or imbued with one written for it; powerful in battle and effective engineers.
-Sarkimancer: Fleshbenders from the mysterious and secretive shaper cults of Siberia, having plundered their secrets and fled for their freedom. Able to reshape their bodies, offer healing and augmentation, or even inflict ghoulish harm on their enemies.
-Privateer: A pirate chartered in service to one of the great seagoing powers - either the coalition of serene republics, the glorious imperium, or the continental company; a privateer walks a fine line, her word carrying weight and with the backing of one of the great powers, but at the price of service to a greater master.

-Crew & Role
-Are you joining up with one of the two well-established crews, or are you looking to form your own and join our game? If the former, you’ll probably be starting as an able-bodied sailor, but if you have your own crew you’ll want to elect a captain and assign the roles for quartermaster, master of sailing, gunnery master and so on.

-Nautical Skills
-We recognize that not everyone who comes to play knows the finer points of golden-age-of-sail navigation or rigging, so we instead encourage you to summarize what skills you do have so we can customize your experience to suit your needs and make sure you shine! Our AR graphics can guide you through some of the finer points, or we can assign AI crewmates who know on your behalf so you don’t have to worry!

-Martial Skills
-These being the eldritch seas, everyone will need to know how to fight - even if swordplay is a lost art! we can provide similar graphics for how to use swords or guns in case you don’t know how to use either, or be given combat magic to use instead! List your primary and secondary means of combat here (choose one for primary and one for secondary: guns, swords, combat magic)

-Name
-once you’ve got everything else, spin up a name for yourself! we prefer world- and game-appropriate names (or even just broadly pirate/fantasy/grimdark) but otherwise you can be as scum as you like ;-) once your sheets are done and you've verified you've read our code of conduct, send them in with a rep-net handle and we’ll go from there!

Difficulty Ranks

Choose difficulty level for nautical (ie non-combat skills) and combat skills. You’ll be given tasks and matched with opponents on an appropriate level.
(Note: please be sufficiently skilled when listing yourself as able to perform the duties that will he asked of you without experience; there’s no shame in not knowing your knots or rigging, but it will help the flow of the game if you’re honest about that ahead of time)
Level 1 (novice): nautical is handled on behalf of the player by AI crewmates or the player is given simple tasks to contribute to the ship; combat is simplified, player is paired with other novices
Level 2 (apprentice): player given AR instructions or AI crewmates to assist while they learn the ropes; player is matched with equivalent level opponents in combat, with AR coaching
Level 3 (capable): player given no instructions, able to handle most nautical ABS tasks on their own or with minimal AI assistance; combat is also handled similarly, with appropriate rank matches
Level 4 (authentic): player will be able to handle any task given to them in realistic setting for an authentic experience; combat will be as realistic as can be simulated without doing physical harm to morphs.
Level 5 (expert): player will be given challenging tasks that will call for skill and moxie; combat with blades and guns is LIVE FIRE and while we have medics and safety team standing by at all levels, morph injury or death is not out of the question.


“It’s funny: looking at all this, you wouldn't know they were at each other’s throats a few weeks ago,” Scirocco remarks. “Suppose at least some of this is to prevent a repeat of all that.”
“...you know, i’ve heard of similar such games on Venus,” Yasmin muses. “Never thought to try them before now.”
“Perhaps it ought to do you some good - maybe see if you can find yourself in the quarters of that dashing admiral Barbarus~”
“Scirocco, really!” Yasmin exclaims, blushing bright; the neo-raven has a good croaking laugh at Yasmin’s fluster, having to steady himself on Abby’s head to keep from falling off in the spin gravity of the shop.
“So, ah, are we in favor of to this plan?” Yasmin asks, tripping over her words in her fluster. “We should ensure our distraction is in place, to buy us time to get processed and immersed, if so.”
“I will stay behind, i think,” Scirocco says. “You’ll need someone to mind the other squad, and MARGs were never my cup of tea to begin with.”
“Teasing me about the dashing captain only to duck out of seducing maidens on the high seas?” Yasmin jabs back.
“I’m doing you a favor; I will personally call in a mob to keep them off of you if it means you get to bed that Khyar.” Scirocco counters; Yasmin takes a sharp breath, looking from the raven to the rest of the squad.
“Right then, are we in favor of this plan??”
 
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Abby attempts to dig through the mesh to find Mach, without much success. The raven on her head and the talk of MARGs keeps distracting her. Eventually, though, she thinks she has the right lead! It just took a while. She turns around, slowly as to not disturb her new friend, and points directly at the one person in the room who she hasn't talked to yet.
"THERE HE IS!"
[Abigail that is not your target.]
"Oh. You're right. He's not wearing a tiddytank morph. UNLESS-"
[No]
"Fine. Okay. So we're gonna be pirates? WAIT THERE ARE VAMPIRATES?"
[oh no. oh no no no]
 
"Has anyone told you you're a genius?" Devin asked Vidar, seriously. "I love this plan. I can't wait to be a pirate. I'm gonna get us some breathing room and see if I can get somebody to go annoy the evil twin Mach while we're getting sorted."

The little crew sleeved in Jenkins took some convincing to go and make trouble, but in the end, Devin managed it.
 
Vidar puts one hand on their cheek as Abby points out the Mach in the room.

"Oh honey," He says.

He fills out his character sheet quickly, tying his 2sday @rep to it and names his character Ti Knivfar. He hopes quietly that everyone will get his various puns, and also quietlyl hopes no one will give him shit for them. He goes with a Meeresgheist build and a sword, specifies on the application that he is very very good at swords. He also specifies in their group application that it is his daughters birthday and that she is a little blitzed and that they are very excited to play and also vouched for Mach, including the sentence "He's a tourist but he's family whats a Goblin to do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯".

"It's a clever ruse, I swear to god I'm a real certified idiot," He told Devin.
 
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"So... We're hiding in a Pirate MARG? I get that other me's gonna trip over himself and get in trouble somewhere, but... Pirates?... Okay, I guess I'll sign up."
[Dude. You can be a robot made of wood. You could be Woodman.]
"... What?... WHAT?... That's-... I-... I have some serious gripes with the guy who designed these character models. The only wooden machines still in use are ancient-as-hell wind-or-water mills out in who-the-fuck knows where, and these guys... UGH. At least I can import my own... Gimme a minute."
He said, grumpily going through the character creator and trying to rip a model from a game that actually understood how to make watertight automatons. Mach, unfortunately, did have to use the game's character creator due to the models he found being less than perfect... But once he saw a few specific accessories and large hex-patterned metal... he got an idea. Even if it did mean being partially wood.

@-Rep Handle: MarcusSpeedyboi
Character name: Myeongnyang
Crew/Role: TBD/Gunner?
Faction: Mekanix
Martial Skills: Heavy Guns/Combat Magic
Difficulty Level: Nautical 2/Combat 4

Mach's model was reminiscent of a diving suit, massive and bulky with a single port serving as a massive eye. However, the large metallic hexes his main body and back consisted of, covered in spikes, brought to mind the mighty Turtle ship. Furthering the illusion were a pair of cannons attached to his arms. It wasn't his usual style, but there was a cool factor about it...

"If we're playing this for real, we should pool resources and spring for a legit Turtle Ship. After all, China's not too far from Korea, and that was Cheng I Sao's turf..."
 
"Yes, I love it-- but like counter point? Viking long ship?" Vidar said with all the enthusiasm of a man who knew he came from viking stock.

Name; Viddy X (Tuesday)
@rep: 2sday
Character name; Ti Knivfar
Crew/role: captain?? Hes spearheading this idk
Faction: vampirate; ghost build
Martial skills: blades/combatmagic
Difficulty level; nautical 1/ combat 5
Description; a rough and tumble looking lady type who is possessed of a viking sea ghost. Blue bandana, blue lipstick, pinstripe everything; giant hat feather.
 
"It's historical fantasy, they didn't actually have robots in the Age of Sail," Devin told Mach patiently. "Read a book."
[Master and Commander doesn't count :/] the Grim said.
[Whose side are you on? It totally counts]
The Grim did not answer, but instead pmed Penny directly. [His name is knife dad?]

Name: Devin Murphy
@rep: the Magpie
Character name: Devin Murphy
Crew/role: The Salty Swallow/sailingmaster
Faction: free mage corsair
Martial skills: guns/combat magic
Difficulty level: nautical 1/ combat 3
Description: Devin looks mostly the same, minus about 90 pounds of sequins and with a big hat. It's got a feather.
 
“Very well, that seems to be everyone - are you sure you don’t want to join us, Scirocco?” Yasmin asks.
“I’m quite sure, thank you. Someone needs to keep an eye on this one’s evil twin,” the neo-raven responds, a wing indicating Mach in reference to evil twin.
“Very well, sending my information now…”

Player name: Yasmin al-Rundi
@-Rep Handle: EamaliatMutanaghima
Character name: Sidazi al-Qadash
Crew/Role: The Salty Swallow/Quartermaster
Faction: Free Mage Corsair
Martial Skills: Guns/Combat Magic
Difficulty Level: Nautical 2/Combat 4
Description: A Free Mage Corsair from the Moroccan coast dressed in opalescent robes and well-fit trousers, with a tricorne hat over her hijab, holsters for her guns, and an amber amulet to channel her magic through.

“Right, that should be everyone!” Yasmin proclaims, assisting Vidar with the message before submitting it to the Stranger Tides facilitators. “Before we go, let us ensure we are synced up on TacNet…”

It takes a few minutes for the TacNet’s defenses to authorize the onboarding of Mach and Yasmin as well as re-verify everyone else on the network, but the integration is soon completed without a hitch. The time needed to perform the integration is apparently the time needed for the facilitators to look over their application, as a message arrives that Penny automatically forwards to everyone on the TacNet.

[Ahoy! Your timing couldn’t be better, we’re just getting everyone set up for the latest session! We’re still looking over your group’s rep profiles but at a glance, you’re looking good! Come on down to the playspace, we’ll have one of the admirals greet you and get you all situated.] - @PeicesofEighthFrame

“Scirocco, I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought to come here and shake down your shop looking for answers - are you going to be alright?” Yasmin asks.
“Oh, I don’t intend on being here for that,” Scirocco answers, an uncertain treble to his voice as he looks around his shop. “Hopefully they don’t decide that ransacking my workshop is a good use of their time.”
“What about information security?”
“There’s nothing on here that will help them find you,” Scirocco says. “Besides, my encryption will take more time then they have to break, even if they manage to nick files from me.”
“Very well, call if anything comes up,” Yasmin says to him.
“Back at you,” Scirocco replies.

[This guy does sound like a real prick. Don’t like how armored he is, but if he’s as high-strung as you say he is then he could make for an easy mark. Give me half an hour to get the boys together, then however long to track anime tiddies and his crew down. We’ll be sure to give ‘em a proper welcoming to the swarm. ;-)] - @ronnierotthroat

Fifteen minutes of traversing the Peculiar Taste of Silence brings the team to the coordinates of the play-space where two bargers await them, one dressed in a postmodern take on pirate garb that blends late-Qing Dynasty with golden-age-of-piracy fashions, and the other sleeved in a Sphere with chameleon plating done up to give it the illusion of wood grain and gold plating. The pirate takes a few steps toward them, her skin ashen and her eyes black with red irises, her smile revealing a pair of sharp fangs.
“Ni hao,” greets the one introduced by her rep profiles as Liao Xinya in her native mandarin, also known as admiral Cheng I Sao. “You must be the group looking to join our game?”
“That’s them,” answers the sphere on behalf of the group in hindi, identifying as Eighth Frame, “their rep profiles are a match.”
“How are they looking?” Xinya asks.
“Everything’s checking out,” the sphere answers.
“Good,” Xinya says, her smile widening as she looks everyone over, her gaze lingering for just a second longer than most on Abby. “Come along, we’ve got a lobby space set up where we can get you set up. Make sure to run the Stranger Tides graphics on your AR if you haven’t already - it’ll add to the experience~.”

The ‘lobby’ is a combination of lounge, costume shop, and armory, with fanciful weapons, body armor, and costume pieces hanging off of racks. Even without the AR graphics, the lobby is styled to appear done in wood paneling, the lights all coming from carefully simulated lantern-light to create the idea of a coastal evening; with the AR skinning, the illusion comes alive, adding the sounds of squawking gulls, waves beating against the docks and the ships moored to them, shanties sung in drunken voices, the smell of sea salt and a chill from the evening breeze that mingles with the leftover humidity from a tropical day. The door out to the rest of the Silence is shut, appearing in the reskin as a wooden door rather than the usual doorway befitting an immense spaceship. The graphics in use are top notch, transporting the group into the fantasy world of Wyrmwood: Stranger Tides.

“We’ll be joining the game in progress shortly, but I will say you’ve come along at the perfect moment,” Xinya says. “I’ll do this bit out of character with our facilitator here, to help you get situated.”
“Since most of you chose nautical level one - no shame in that, sailing’s a lost art in these times - you won’t have to worry much about working the decks, and will instead be assigned AI crew to carry out your instructions,” Eighth Frame explains, “so it becomes a question of judgement rather than skill. Mach and Yasmin, we have sailor’s kits with all the basic equipment you’ll need-” the sphere pauses, rolling over to one end of the room where two small wooden chests are sat on tables -“here.”
“As for combat, I see you’ve all gone for a more…exciting spread,” Xinya continues. “Combat works by separating each difficulty level into different areas of the play space to ensure everyone has the best and safest time; with the exception of level five, all harm or damage is simulated with AR skinning. You’ll be teamed up with crewmates and fellow players in your appropriate level - which means that Yasmin and Mach will be in the same group, since they’ve both chosen level four. Our prop weapons are remodeled guns and swords, which can be toggled between safe and live in most cases.”
“-the exceptions being full prop weapons such as hand cannons,” Eighth Frame adds. “We had some prop weapons made for you, Mach, in order to give the graphics something solid to reskin, but unfortunately the hand cannons are just props.”
“They’ll do what they need to do in the game,” Xinya says. “You’re all free to keep your actual weaponry, provided safeties are on.”
“We’ve had time to process your costume requests and program them, either as smart fabric or AR-reskin data that you could load up or as costumes that you can put on,” Eighth Frame says, rolling over to stands of mannequins with the costumes for those who need them - including what looks like a hardsuit. “We, ah, had to get creative with Mach’s costume. We found a working frame, only it’s older gen so it doesn’t have a lot of the bells and whistles that come with modern hardsuits. Still, it’ll keep you alive in an emergency - and it’ll give your AR skin something to latch on to!”
“Eighth Frame will get you set up, I have a crew to run,” Xinya says, making her way to the door. “Eighth is the best facilitator you could ask for with this sort of thing. Once you’re all done up, just step through this door-” she opens and passes through, turning back with a gleam in her eye and a change in her demeanor- “and then the game begins-” before admiral Cheng I Sao exits with a laugh, singing a shanty that fades into the soundscape of Stranger Tides.

Yasmin follows Eighth Frame over to the costumes, where she sees only a few extra articles of clothing rather than a whole costume: the smartfabric of her suit begins to shift and change, becoming the opalescent robes and trousers she described in her profile. All else is included on the mannequin, which she takes off and dons in good time. Going from there to the weapons table, Yasmin inspects the swords on offer - but proceeds to the guns, all of which are done up in fantastic gold inlay and wood grain.
"These are our weapons?" Yasmin asks Eighth Frame.
"Yes! They're set to game-safe mode right now, which means they won't fire a real bullet with the pull of a trigger. They're loaded with flux ammo, which can switch between plastic and regular ammo modes; these weapons are synced to my control unit, and for safety's sake I've got them hard-set on plastic mode, so Vidar and anyone playing at level 5 will be shooting plastic rather than regular ammo, but that could be switched back into lethal rounds in an emergency."
"Have you ever had to do that?" Yasmin asks.
"...once or twice," Eighth Frame answers.
Yasmin avoids the obvious follow up question, taking a "flintlock" pistol with fanciful scrawling in the manner of Free Mage Corsair art: "may I keep my assault rifle?"
"Sure! It wouldn't even be difficult to reskin. I'll send you some files to load it on, make sure to update the firmware so we can keep it safe."
"Done," Yasmin says: anyone with their AR graphics active could see her weapon transform from a modern assault rifle to a game-appropriately fantastical version of itself.
"There you are! Once you and your compatriots are ready, you need only step through the door and out to Blackguard's Cove to join the game! Just remember to get into character on your way out - everyone else will be. You can ask for clarification here, or ping me on the mesh for any OOC questions you might have - I can answer them either way."
"Thank you, Eighth Frame," Yasmin says to the sphere, before looking back to the squad: "Ready when you all are!"

As the last preparations are made before stepping out into the game, any muse monitoring Mach’s fork would alert their operator to Mach arriving to an out-of-the-way corridor out in the hull, pulling himself along in microgravity to meet with the merc squad that awaits. The meeting is taking place well out of anyone’s way, and on the opposite side of the massive ship from where the Annora Arabella was docked. Sure enough, the four mercenaries Devin learned about from his contact await him: one of them, a guard, is done up to look like any other scum barger, but the liquid steel, fierce kite, and the armored-up slitheroid make no effort to conceal their natures. Mach’s own fork’s hands go up in a ‘don’t shoot!’ expression, and there is a terse conversation had between Mach and the squad before they collectively fall silent - lapsing into mesh or TacNet chat.
 
Despite his best efforts, the peculiar taste of silent's mod community and mesh at large had no idea who Keira Knightly was. So his dream went un-realized; though he admits its for the best that some things didn't deserve to survive the fall. He gave up once they arrived, but had managed to lodge the pirates of the Caribbean theme song into one unused corner of his mind on loop. He had yet to open up candy crush and was waiting for the hot pressure behind his eyes to ease up before he did.

[ you can keep with the theme song stuck in your head but I don't think its gonna help.]
That's not for you. That's for me.
[Okay. Boss.]
Don't judge me.
[Oh I wasn't judging you. I can judge you- playing a literal ghost. You really think that's a good idea for you?]
No. but it's fun.
[You're really going to play this game on 5 to boot? are we trying to recreate the first time you died or something. Should I tell Arpita your interested in exposure therapy finally.]
This is going to be great. And I need to get the most dangerous mother fuckers to like me as fast as possible for when Mach shows up.
[It's all fun and games until your brain convinces you your dead.]
Penny I'm a 900 year old ghost now its fine-- I'm pretty sure this is actually the lotr theme I can't remember the pirate one.
[Confirmed.]
Oh so THAT made it to 2130. Christ. Of course it did.

Vidar did his best to not show any sign when Eightframe mentions they've had to use deadly force before. Part of him is terribly excited to fight any one in regular gravity. There is some part of him that is always very excited to fight-- like its a game, and luckily this time it really was. Excited as if he doesn't hate pain or dying. Some underlying self destructive force is still at play at him and had been since he was young- and getting a cortical stack in 209X had really only exacerbated the problem until he'd eventually bled out in an alley. He had spent his youth with a dueling app open in one window and grindr in the other. That's back when apps had windows and apps still existed.

He liked to show off and he liked to win. But something deep and ugly in his bones thought it wasn't as good, now that nobody would stay dead. This was a complicated brain worm and not one he was ready to tackle. The brain worm he was willing to tackle was feeling like he was some sort of Norwegian themed ghost possessing a girl and at least that was funny? That stated, he was really ready to duel some pirates. He hoped some of them were as good as Eddy and Puck.

"Man you guys really make joining up easy, I really appreciate it, And I hope you got some good blade guys cause I am ready to have a good time," He said picking out and attaching a cutlass to his belt. He knew enough mixed European martial arts to have basic grasp on the cutlass-- not really his thing ever. Def not an NKF weapon. But really he just had to take the guard into consideration-- so he probably was not going to be doing tricks with it. But if he was going to be pirate he wanted a cutlass. It was just the right answer. He put penny on the job of setting up the skins the group had pulled up for them.

The AR skin they'd cooked up based on his desire for blue and pinstripes was classy and a bit tacky. Something about it said 2127 luna. But Vidar didn't have an eye for that nor did he care (Penny did though and made herself known.) The Blue lipstick was very blue and matched the ghostly cyan eyes the sea ghost class had access to. He also had Penny skin up the vibroblade he was already packing. He did a lap of the room, as his boots made a satisfying wood on wood clack as he walked around the lounge, and decided that yes his head felt well enough to turn the candy crush back on.

"Abby, what do you think?" He asked, keeping her close. The idea that he will have to leave her be to do the level five combat gnaws at him.

heliotrope;[I'm going to do my best to ingrain myself with the very srss pirates, so some one is going to have to mind Abby while that's going on. She's my daughter now. ]
Heliotrope; [Also does anyone want to be my character's host's partner cause I think that'd be some wild plot.]
 
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hara: [only if we're married.]
hara: [I will watch our beautiful daughter while you kill a man]

Devin had an AR sword, because it was cool, but let the the Grim skin his gun into an absurd blunderbuss, in case anime titties showed up and they had to really shoot someone. "Viddy, show me a stance," Devin said, gesturing at the sword. "I want to look cool, and not like an idiot."
 
"I think you could pull off both just fine, babe," Vidar said, but pulled him aside and showed him how to put his feet. "No- like this- Devin please use your feet- You know how they work right?" He said in the process. "And then if you wanna be spicy you put one hand on your hip and try to look like you've never been stabbed. Maybe that's more true for you than me."

Heliotrope; [No no we're engaged. I left you at the alter and got possesed by a ghost. And I only speak old norse now and you hate that. ]
 
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