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Futuristic/solarpunk/Sci-
Futuristic/solarpunk/Sci-fi RP
So if you don't know I'm a sci-fi nut and one of the new, cool aspects of sci-fi that I really like is solarpunk! It's basically a cross between steampunk and sci-fi. In solarpunk, the world is literary, yet sciencey. People work to solve their problems, instead of being totally reliant on tech. It's a future that happens after an apocalypse of some sort, so there are old buildings, but amazing tech and culture growing out of it.
You can imagine homes with architecture like a library from the 1800s with wrought iron balconies and domes that tower above, but with touch screens and solar panels, but the walls are wood, the solar panels look like stained-glass windows, the light is cozy and bright from multicolored paper lanterns, there are books everywhere, and cozy bean bags and rugs crowd a nook from which you can see a huge tree which creates a stairway that you can climb to visit your friends, who live upstairs.
Doesn't solarpunk sound awesome! I just think it's cooler and more fun to write about a cozy future than one controlled by some technocratic dictatorship. And rebuilding a world based on books and science after an apocalypse? Awesome!
So I wanted to make a solarpunk RP! I kind of did some worldbuilding, and this is what I set up for the RP.
All the characters live in Citali, the capital. Citali is the center of solarpunk-y-ness, with the best architects, writers, scientists, gardeners (I'm not sure how to put this job exactly), and artisans. The problem that they have to solve is that they have to make the settlement bigger, and they'll work together to do it. However, they find evidence of the apocalypse as they build.
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Name: Jocasta Tamar
Job: Writer/reader. She's a librarian.
Age: 14, but she's pretty mature.
Appearance: Amerasian, black hair, brown eyes, tan skin. Wears a hoodie and jeans with a charm bracelet that has book, pen, orchid, and sun charms.
Personality: Loves being part of a team, like being second (not first, but she has some good ideas and loves doing her job to help). Pretty experienced with science considering she's a librarian.
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Name: Nahla Alain
Job: Messenger. Works with all the leading artisans/scientists, knows everyone. Lives in this house in the dome of one of the older buildings. The dome is iron with glass filling in the gaps and Nahla has this gigantic tree growing from the floor to the top and its leaves just fill the 20-foot ceiling and make everything dappled. The dome is on top of the city center, so she knows everything going on in Citali.
Age: 15
Appearance: Brown hair, green eyes. Looks a little like Hermione Granger (third-year-ish). Wears brown leather army boots and carries a backpack all the time. Fidgets a little with the backpack straps.
Personality: Super friendly with everyone, has about 5 pet cats who are all different colors.
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I'll write soon!
submitted by Air
(February 20, 2015 - 10:48 pm)
(February 20, 2015 - 10:48 pm)
Ramae~
"Why did you steal my stuff?"
Well, I didn't need to ask that, of course. Theives, they're in it for the money.
"How do you know it was me?" the guy asks. His brown eyes are kind of hypnotizing.
"Well," I begin, "that necklace has been in my family for generations. Right there, engraved on the diamond-"
"Is that what this is? Wow, classy!"
"You're not getting money from it," I say, and I yank off his backpack. My laptop and my necklace.
"Now, my radio..."
"You're not getting it back without money."
"I have money," I say, and show him fifty bucks. "And that's more than you deserve, street rat."
With that, I shove the money into his palm, snatch my radio, and leave. Running.
(February 22, 2015 - 9:50 am)
Lol, Mel's a girl.
(February 22, 2015 - 11:06 am)
Oops, sorry!
(February 22, 2015 - 2:56 pm)
I greet the customer and suddenly see a girl running away from a nasty-looking fellow. I run after the man, and, when I'm sure no one can see me, tackle him.
"Young man," I say calmly, "I am the Head Librarian."
He stiffens in fear. He knows that as Head Librarian, I'm also the head of the secret police.
"What do you want?" he asks.
"The girl's money, scum," I say.
He shoves it into my hands and runs.
I track down the girl. "I retrieved your money," I tell her. She looks surprised.
"I'm Alarie, Head Librarian," I say. "And you are?"
(February 22, 2015 - 1:52 pm)
Ramae~
"Oh, thank you so much," I say to Alarie. "I'm Ramae, but just call me May. Everyone does. I work for Kidzco."
She smiles. "Right. I've seen a few workers in the library at times."
"Please," I say, "Take this. It's a reward."
I hold out my fifty dollars.
"No," she says, "I couldn't."
"Take it," I say.
"No."
"Please."
"No."
"I'm serious. Come on."
_______________
I don't know what your charrie would say, Brookeira....
(February 22, 2015 - 3:25 pm)
Nahla~
I pull up my bike in front of the old house. It's a town home, three stories high, painted light blue, though the paint is fading. The house has a garage still, but it must be used for storage -- no one has cars anymore with the advanced streetcars and the powered bikes. I chain my bike to the streetlamp post outside the house and walk up the steps to the front door. I ring the doorbell and wait, rocking from side to side a little nervously.
Mr. Rhyker opens the door. "Hi, I'm Nahla Alain," I tell him, "and I'm a messenger, and I've been sent to talk to you."
He frowns. "Okay," he says. "Come in."
He leads me up a set of carpeted stairs to the third floor and into a room that must be his study. There's a wooden desk, and he points me to a hard wooden chair as he sits on a leather rolling one. "So why are you here today?" he asks me. I turn around and take the folder out of my backpack.
"There's a man who runs an architectural firm. He says..." I open the folder. "Here, take a look."
He leans over the desk to look at the pictures. "Not bad," he mutters.
"Darius -- that's the architect -- wants your house to connect to this grid," I tell Mr. Rhyker. "He'll do it nicely, and it will just look like fresh shingles. But he needs you to say yes."
Rhyker frowns. "There isn't any other house he can use?"
"No. The fact that it's your house is important."
(February 22, 2015 - 12:13 pm)
I sigh. "All right, I'll take half," I say, knowing she won't back down until I take some. She seems satisfied and we start to walk to the library, talking.
When we arrive at the library, I happen to notice that the thirty-foot, solid oak doors happen to be missing from my library.
"REGINALD!" I yell.
(February 22, 2015 - 5:21 pm)
Nahla~
Mr. Rhyker frowns again, shuffles through the pictures again. I pull out the brochure too.
"He's done a lot for this city, Mr. Rhyker. He needs your help. Please."
Mr. Rhyker flips through the plans. He sighs. "I think I'll probably regret this, but tell your architect yes," he says, "if he sends me a report of how long it will take, and I also want his blueprints. I need him to be done quickly. I'm a busy person."
"Yes, Mr. Rhyker." I'm so excited, I didn't think it would be this easy! "I'll have him send you the information right away. Thank you so much, Mr. Rhyker. This is very important to him."
Mr. Rhyker leads me to the door. "Tell that architect he's lucky to have you," he tells me. I smile and wave, heading down his front steps.
When Mr. Rhyker closes the door, I pull my phone out of my bag and message Darius.
>He said yes!
Darius replies remarkably fast. He must have been waiting for the reply.
<Great job, Nahla.
>He says he needs you to send him a report of how long it will take. And blueprints.
<That'll be easy, Darius responds. <Great job.
>No problem, I tell him. >If you need me to deliver the reports, just message me again.
<Thanks, Nahla. I should have them ready for you by tomorrow or the day after, actually.
>Okay, I'm always ready.
I close my phone and hop onto my bike again to head home. I need to charge my phone, and I might have some other messenger jobs to carry before the afternoon's up.
(February 22, 2015 - 5:30 pm)
Ramae~
"Uh oh," I say, looking at the library. "That happened to me too. My door disappeared."
Allarie sighs. "It's probably my employee Reginald."
"How could he move a door?" I ask.
"No, no," Allarie repies. "It's just that he's not very good at guarding. He was in charge of watching the Codex, but it disappeared."
"That's bad," I say. "Tell you what. I'll call Nahla Alain. She's a messenger."
'What will she do?"
"She could get an architect to build a new set of doors. I could help pay for it."
With that, I take out my phone to call Nahla.
(February 22, 2015 - 6:28 pm)
@Brookeira You should probably raise the age of your character a bit, since she's 12 AND she's the head librarian AND she called a 15 year old 'young man'...
(February 22, 2015 - 7:01 pm)
I've decided to discard Jocasta as a character mostly. Like I don't think I will be writing with her at all. So if anyone wants to take Jocasta, go ahead!
Anyway, back to the story:
Nahla~
I run up the stairs from the city center to my house and drop my backpack on my bed. That was a lot of biking today, though I've had worse. I collapse into my beanbag chair by the window and push open my shutters. I'm about to close my eyes when my phone dings loudly.
I get up and walk over to my backpack. I pull out my phone, where a new messager ID pops up: Ramae Sentisete, writer.
>Hello, I type. >This is Nahla Alain, messenger.
<My name is May Sentisete, her message says.
>How can I help you?
<The library needs an architect to design new doors.
>I'll be right over, and we can talk.
I close my phone, walk downstairs, and get on my bike again.
I don't bike too far this time -- just to the corner of the block, where a streetcar pulls up. It's worth the extra dollar to save me about fifteen minutes of biking -- the library is pretty far uptown. I hop off the streetcar and take my bike off its stand in front of the library, where two girls are standing. Both look about three years younger than me, but only an inch or two shorter. One has blonde hair and teal eyes, while the other's black hair is pulled up in a ponytail, out of her green eyes.
"I'm Nahla," I tell them. "Is one of you the head librarian?"
The girl with teal eyes steps forward and puts out her hand to shake. "Alarie Marx, head librarian."
"I'm May Sentisete," says the other girl. "I messaged you."
"So what's the problem?" I ask.
Alarie points with her chin towards the entrance to the library. I bite my lip -- the doors have disappeared! "Someone just... took your door?"
"I know, right? It's pretty crazy. And apparently it's happened to Ramae too," says Alarie. "We're trying our best to find this thief, but in the meantime the library needs doors. We need an architect."
"Hm... how fancy are you thinking?"
"The library is one of the pillars of Citali," says Ramae.
Alarie nods. "Best architect you can find."
I grin. "Darius Gamma."
Twenty minutes later, Darius hops off a streetcar. "Hi, Darius," I tell him. "I've got you another job."
He cocks his head. "What's the problem?"
Alarie explains. "The library needs doors..." mutters Darius. "I can do that. In fact, I can make up plans now and get started in just a few hours. Can I come in?"
"Oh, yes," says Alarie. She leads me, Darius, and Ramae into the library.
(February 22, 2015 - 9:07 pm)
Could I add a character? I am a hige Steampunk/ Victorian fan!
Name: Nadya Rosewood
Job: Gardener and greenhouse worker
Age: 16
Appearance: Tallish with dark brown hair, a slightly big nose, and very big feet. Has a lot of what are either very big freckles or very small birthmarks all over her face, arms, legs, neck... everywhere. Like tick sized.
Personality: Very diplomatic, but likes to be alone. Has a slight tendency to self pity and doesn't like herself much for that, or the fact that she's friendless. Doesn't like herself much at all.
~
Roses, roses. They had been so popular just a century ago, but now Nadya spent all of her time pulling the beautiful things up. She never had the heart to kill them off, and two of precious three greenhouses were filled with roses in every color. As she stared at the prick marks on her hands, an idea struck her.
Most of the houses in the neighborhood she ended up in were old, but very nice. So she was surprised when she found a house with only a worn canoe for a door. That was the first stop. That house got yellow, her favorite, a big bunch of the roses tied up in pink ribbon. Hopefully they would appreciate them and not toss them out right away.
The next stop was run down, and the next ordinary, and nothing seemed amiss until she came to the last stop. It was a big, intricately made building that took her breath away, and she placed a few greenish, genetically modified roses on the step. As she turned away, she noticed that the curtains were pulled from the window. Inside, two big double doors were missing, and plans for new ones lay on the floor. Strange. Was being doorless a trend now?
(February 23, 2015 - 6:57 pm)
I waved to Darius and Allarie as I leave the library, and I set off on the path home. It's cooler now, and I'm shivering, but I'm OK. At least I have my stuff back.
As I leave I see someone walking up the path. Isn't that the old gardener? Her name's Nana, I think. Nyanya? Hm.
When I reach home I see a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my doorstep. So that's why Nana (I think) was walking around! I smile and sniff them. They stil have a sweet scent. I take a green vase, fill it with water, and put the flowers in it. It looks nice. I must remember to thank her.
I pick up an old book I''m editing and flip to the page I'm on. I go out onto the porch and sit there, enjoying the air. I look up when the crunching of leaves startles me.
"Oh! Hello!" I call. It's Nana. She gives me a halfhearted smile.
"Thanks for the flowers," I say. "They're beautiful."
She gives a thankful (I think) sniff and continues walking. I sigh and turn back to my book.
Then I hear it. Someone is coming up behind me. I'm paralyzed with fear as their hands go around my throat.
"Say night-night."
__________
This is no one's charrie! Just a new... gangster (or something)!
(February 23, 2015 - 8:47 pm)
Oops, didn't see your post when I posted... I guess actually it works. Nadya starts at the greenhouses, goes to your house, goes to the library, talks to Alarie, Nahla leaves the library, Nadya leaves the library and walks by Ramae's house, and then Ramae gets attacked. Kapesh? :-)
(February 23, 2015 - 11:29 pm)
Welcome to the RP, Book Wizard! Haven't seen you in a while, actually...
Nahla~
Alarie leads Darius to one of the wooden tables low to the ground, and both of them sit cross-legged on floor cushions as Darius draws out his plan for the doors on a big sheet of paper he produces fron his bag. "I think maybe some stained glass solar panels... yeah, yeah, that's great... The doors should be bamboo, don't you think? ... Exactly, it's sustainable but still so beautiful... What do you think of these motifs?" They chat away, bantering back and forth, trading ideas from architecture and literature.
Ramae pulls up a cushion at a table near them. She spreads out a pile of papers on the tabletop and gets out her notebook, writing, flipping through her papers, and occasionally leaving the table and coming back with a book from one of the shelves, paging through it as she walks back to her spot.
I lean against one of the bookshelves, looking up every few minutes or so at the library entrance. A couple of people trickle in every so often. They head straight for either the front desk or the bookshelves -- nothing strange there. I'm a little worried about the lack of the door. Ramae said her house got stolen from and her door also taken just a little while ago. The library holds so much that is so important to Citali -- books, tech -- knowledge. If anyone comes in who looks like a thief -- I'm going for them.
A tall girl, probably a year or so older than I am, with dark hair steps in the door. She seems unsure, like she hasn't been here before, which is surprising -- in Citali, the library is almost as important, maybe more, to the people as the city center or the roads. She carries a burlap-wrapped bundle in her hands. Hm...
I walk up to the girl. "Hello, my name is Nahla. I don't think I've seen you here before -- welcome!"
She smiles a little shyly. I can see her face is extremely freckled -- she's probably a gardener or a messenger, but probably a gardener -- if she were a messenger, I probably would know her already. "Hi. I'm Nadya, Nadya Rosewood. I work in the greenhouses, and I'm -- just visiting." She unwraps the burlap to reveal a bunch of lime-green flowers I don't quite recognize. I'm not too good with plants.
"They're roses," she tells me, reading the confused look on my face correctly. "The greenhouse is getting rid of a lot of their roses, so I've decided to just -- deliver them. So they won't be wasted."
"Wow, that's cool!" I say. "We can go ask Alarie -- she's head librarian -- where you can put them. They're really pretty, and I think she'll want them on the front desk." I take her hand and lead her to Alarie and Darius' table. Nadya gives a little "mm" -- she seems unsure.
"Um, Alarie?" I say. "This is Nadya, she's a gardener. She's delivering these roses to the library, and was wondering where to... put them?"
"Oh, hi!" says Alarie, standing up and shaking Nadya's hand. "Nice to meet you, and nice of you to bring these over. Wow," she says, looking at the flowers in her hand, "these are really nice. The're a bit out of date, aren't they? They're really pretty though. And the color... are they genetically modified? I don't think I've really been keeping up enough with the greenhouse programs... what's the new flower that they're clearing the roses for?"
Nadya and Alarie go off into a chat about flowers and botany, Nadya loosening up a bit, talking freely.
I walk over to Darius, who's still sketching. "Are you going to start building tonight?"
"Yes. I've got the plans almost done, and I just need to bring over a couple of my workers and some materials from my storage warehouse, and then I can start building. Actually..." Darius taps the end of his paper against the edge of the table thoughtfully. "If you're not working --"
"Nope, I'm good."
"--then can you bike over to the warehouse and bring over a box of stainless steel handles and finials? I'd like to have a lot of options for Alarie to look over."
"Yeah, definitely! And I've been to the warehouse before, so I'm good," I tell him as he opens his mouth to give me directions.
"You are amazing, Nahla," Darius tells me, grinning. "I'll see you back, then," he says as I head for the door and my bike, chained to the tree in front of the library.
(February 23, 2015 - 9:52 pm)