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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)
Nahla~
Holly looks around with scared eyes. "No, it really isn't. I've never seen this wall, actually. When I went into Citali, we took an airship, so I haven't been out here before. And I come from west of Citali, not east, so I don't know this land."
Around us, the ground is still tiled with the same ceramic tiles that make up Citali's roads, but offroad the soil is a jagged black glassy substance. Obviously this land is pretty barren.
Darius helps Allarie up from where she's sitting, finishing her bandage. "Come on, guys. We've got a long way to go."
I look around at our bikes, in a heap on the obsidian ground. Mine looks fine, but Holly and Nadya's tandem looks pretty scratched up from the ground and from being hurled through the door. Lena helps me get the bikes back up the right-side-up, and we all mount on and continue. As we cruise along the path, I ask Darius, "Why did Rhyker open the door for us?"
He shakes his head, wondering as much as I do.
(March 14, 2015 - 1:43 pm)
We bike toward the mountains, not really having any other choice of where to go. As we cruise along the tiled road, we occasionally pass a run-down house. Sometimes, we see people outside, but they just stare at us coldly with sunken eyes, exactly the opposite of Citali's citizens
Suddenly, a woman lying in the middle of the road comes into view. We brake our bikes abruptly.
"Is she...?" Allarie's voice trails off.
I get off my bike and take a closer look at the woman. Yes, she's definitely breathing.
"She's alive," I say. "But we need to get her off the road and into one of these houses."
Nahla helps me lift the woman off the tiles road and set her down gently on the obsidian ground. I look around for someone who can help us, but all the houses around are seemingly deserted. "HELLO? IS THERE ANYONE HERE?" I call out. I hear nothing but the echo of my own voice.
Suddenly, the woman's eyes snap open, causing me to jump back in surprise. "They... they took everything!" she gasps.
"What? Who took everything?" I ask.
(March 14, 2015 - 6:00 pm)
Nahla~
Holly comes up behind me and sits on the ground next to me, Darius, and the woman. "Who are you?" she asks gently.
The woman takes a deep breath and pushes herself to sitting, keeping her hands on the obsidian like she's drawing strength from it. "Caljera Scinner. From Fortis?"
Holly gasps. "I'm from Fortis! Miss Scinner, what's happening there?" She bends over the woman, anxious.
"There were men. They came when everyone was sleeping, and they were quiet as mice -- no one heard them. They came and took everything, everything except the beds and the houses themselves and the clothes we wore." She shivers, remembering.
Lena frowns. "We have to go. We have to find out more. Holly, can you lead us to Fortis?"
Holly gives a grim nod, but then turns back to Caljera. "How are we going to bring her?"
Lena gives a smile, unfolding metal out of her bike's huge front crate. Soon, she's made her bike a tandem. "Miss Scinner can ride with me. Now. We have to hurry."
(March 15, 2015 - 11:15 pm)
Darius~
I put a hand on Holly's shoulder. "Is Fortis towards the mountains?" I ask. "Because if it's not, we have a LONG trip ahead of us."
It was true. The only things visible on the horizon were the mountains ahead of us, and Citali to our backs. Any attempt to bike over obsidian for miles and miles would certainly end in massive exhaustion. And what if we didn't solve the Rhyker case once we got there? Would it be worth it? Is any of this really worth it?
(March 16, 2015 - 4:55 pm)
Nahla~
Holly bites her lip. "It... Fortis is over the mountains," she says finally.
Lena's eyes widen. "That's like... a day and a half of biking straight!"
I look at the supplies we have packed. "We can make it... barely."
We all look at Darius and Allarie. This is really their mission, their city.
Allarie says, bracing herself. "We need to catch the Rhykers. And if we have to bike for a week, we'll do it."
We all nod, though Nadya looks more than a little hesitant. But she agrees in the end.
"Okay, guys. Let's see if we can cover some more ground today. And Nadya, since you're on the tandem, can you do some research while we're going?" As Nadya nods, I wire my laptop into the pedals to give it some signal boost, since its source is city center in Citali -- more than a little far off. Nadya takes it and starts logging into the news feeds as Ramae steadies the bike and sets off, following Holly.
(March 16, 2015 - 9:00 pm)
Ha, we've been the only two posting.
(March 17, 2015 - 5:42 am)
Trying to find a place to wiggle Ramae in.....
(March 17, 2015 - 4:16 pm)
Sorrysorrysorry I haven't posted in FOREVER!! No time to do it right now though; I may write later.
(March 18, 2015 - 7:57 am)
Nahla~
We bike the whole day and half the night, everyoas we all relax on the ground in our sleeping bags and blankets until clouds cover the full moon and we absolutely can't go any farther. We gather our bikes around us like a wall and light a fire on the obsidian ground with some wood Lena's brought in her cargo bike's huge crate. The fire reflects off the mirrored black surface, casting weird light all over the ground. I hand out energy bars to everyone as we all relax on the ground in our sleeping bags and blankets.
I look over at the mountains, which look barely closer. "How much farther to Fortis?" I ask.
(March 18, 2015 - 11:13 pm)
~Lena~
It is in my nature to pack well for a trip, especially a trip with such uncertain conditions as this one. So, naturally, it was I who brought firewood, space blankets, and homemade chocolate chip cookies. All three are well appreciated (although Allarie decides against a cookie, and she is the kind of person whose decisions you do not question). We camp for the night in the obsidian wasteland. I can see Citali in the distance behind us: a cluster of lights on a lone mountain, green and gold and blue. I can hardly see the skyline in the dark, but it's a mixture of treetops and skyscrapers and whimsical-looking spires. For a moment, I am overcome with homesickness.
Nahla brings my attention back to the quest by saying, "How much farther to Fortis?" Darius makes a noncommittal noise, but Holly replies, "If we go straight up between those two peaks, it should be about...three days' ride. If nothing goes wrong. I don't suppose Lena brought any spare tires?" I shake my head.
Sorry it's so short.
(March 21, 2015 - 5:14 pm)
Nahla~
I rub my fingers over the obsidian ground as we all sit around the fire. The pattern I'm tracing just comes to my fingers... until I realize I'm tracing a map around Citali from Mr. Rhyker's house, to the library, to Darius's office, to Ramae's house, to the entrance to the treetop district, to the golden wall. They all make a map around the city, around and around like a spiral. I miss Citali already.
Everyone seems to share my thoughts. Lena's looking back at the bioluminescent lights of Citali, Darius is drawing, Holly's just munching her cookie looking thoughtful, Allarie is oiling her bike, Ramae is reading, Nadya is twirling a stick in her hands and looking into the flames.
"Come on, we should probably go to bed... or sleeping bag," I amend. If we've got to bike as far as possible in these next days, we should get some rest.
They nod, and all of us climb into our sleeping bags. Nadya splashes some water onto the fire and the flames go out, though some embers still glow. I lie on my back, looking up at the silhouettes of the bikes and the stars in the sky.
(March 21, 2015 - 5:52 pm)
Don't die, post, don't die!!!!
(March 20, 2015 - 11:26 pm)
Yes! TOPTOPTOP!! No thread dying allowed!!!
(March 21, 2015 - 5:15 pm)
Ramae~
I squiggle into my sleeping bag, but I can't sleep. I'm not good with sleeping bags.
My friends' heavy breathing is swallowed by the night, so different from nights in Citali. I sigh and get up, thinking about getting my book.
"Hello," I hear someone say. I jump.
"Someone's far from home," says the voice again. I look around and see it. A silouette by a tree.
"What and who are you?" I say quietly, picking up a poker.
"A bounty hunter," says the person. "That's all you need to know."
(March 22, 2015 - 8:37 am)
Nahla~
I feel something pressing against my head. I blink my eyes open and it's Ramae's shoe. Okay, I think, that's weird.
I'm about to sit up when I hear a rough voice. "What are you doing out here with all your friends?"
Ramae's voice is quiet. "Just... biking out."
"You're from Citali. Inner Citali."
The voice is dangerous -- it's not a question, it's a statement.
"Yes," says Ramae, biting her lip. Her foot presses on me again. My hand, outside the sleeping bag, inches towards a sharp obsidian shard on the ground.
(March 22, 2015 - 8:50 pm)