Darth Wiki / Connection Established

Underwater cities. Artificial Intelligences. Sentient androids. Genetically engineered humans. Neural implants.
Welcome to life on Earth in 2327, where a wave of scientific and technological advancements over the centuries (known as the "Cyberization" movement) has created a paradisiacal, Cyberpunk-esque world rich with innovation, cutting-edge tech, and above all, constant connection to the global Network, the very pinnacle and foundation for Terran society.
But under the surface, it's clear not everything is as beautiful as it seems. Crime and corruption run rampant across the globe, with the divide between the rich and poor growing every day, and it's not long before the two sides come to blows. As well, the Network is a source of great power, and therefore temptation, as people scheme to use it for their own ends.
It's only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose. During one of the more boring days in the life, you've received a message from somebody claiming to offer a new opportunity. It seems harmless enough, just a simple invite to a simple chatroom. It almost seems tailored to you, but... that can't be right...

— The official description for Connection Established

You have all been gathered here today in this chatroom due to a message, personalized and listing what each of you desire most. You have been called because you are unique among the populace, and I require skills that cannot be found anywhere else.
Will you accept this contract?

— Eli

Connection Established, or "Connex" for short, is an IRC chatroom-based Cyberpunk RP which began on September 13, 2013. Set on an Earth that has become obsessed with scientific and technological innovation by the year 2327, the story follows a ragtag team of people sent out on various missions by their employer, "Eli", as they endeavor to complete his 'job' offer: retrieving a set of keycodes hidden throughout the world in exchange for their greatest desires being fulfilled. Of course, such things never turn out so simple...

The official information site can be found here.

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Characters

Tropes pertaining to the various characters found in Connection Established.

Canon Characters / NPCs

Eli

impartialMessenger (Eli)

The Mysterious Stranger that gathered all of Team Aestus together. They're an enigmatic figure who assigns missions to the team and passes on information about the keycode, though they speak very little about anything else.

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Associated Tropes:

• Vagueness Is Coming: Shown with his warning to Elina for the Detroit mission:
  Eli: Miss Walsh?
  Elina: Yes sir?
  Eli: A note for you in particular: take heed, because some things will come back to be found.
  Elina: That's not cryptic or vagu- I mean.
  *after leaving*
  Elina: I don't know what he was talking about I'm sorry.

Ceto

expatPrefect (Ceto)

Location: Rose Central, Aestus

The city AI of Aestus, Ceto was brought back online thanks to the team, and now is back to overseeing the running of Aestus' facilities, as well as providing more helpful information whenever necessary.

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Associated Tropes:

• Artificial Intelligence: She claims the distinction of being the first Class III AI built. Now upgraded to Class IV thanks to Toni and Jack.

Team Aestus

Jack

amiableJack (Jack Rogers)

Age: 19

Location: Los Angeles, USA

The Leader and primary "electronics specialist" of Team Aestus. He's paranoid, untrusting, and rather hostile, especially to those of the higher echelon or implanted, but he is rather playful and relaxed under certain circumstances. He has poor health due to his status as a naturalist, one of the rare people in the world with no implants or genetic modifications found in themselves or their lineage. The team often jokes about how he seems to hate all men he comes across, but in reality, it's simply a matter of clashing personalities. Honest.

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Associated Tropes:

• Disability Superpower: Easily noticeable in certain behaviors and conversations, where it becomes clear that he has several different mental illnesses. Despite this (or rather, because of it) he tends to have an extremely good memory, and an unnatural affiliation towards things others might find difficult, such as advanced mathematics and unconventional thinking.
• Fantastic Racism: Shown whenever he encounters anything and anyone involved with implantation or genetic modifications. He often uses offensive slurs when referring to people who have such things.
• Good with Numbers: Though seldom demonstrated, he's actually easily capable of calculating things in his head that others would take far longer to calculate even if they had the help of a machine.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he's hostile and can come off as downright mean, he does care for his team.
• Insufferable Genius: He's incredibly abrasive to just about everyone, but in the end he DOES possess skills that usually proven to be invaluable on more than one occasion.
• The Smart Guy: He's incredibly good at hacking and with computers in general, and is often one of the main team members who can be counted on to create a plan.
• The Strategist: It's usually Jack who devises the plans when it comes to tackling the missions they're given. He tends to be very accepting of critique and the input of other's when doing so.
• Terrified of Germs: Shown subtly most of the times, but sometimes it can be fairly obvious. He's known to get extremely upset when exposed to things that are well-known for being filled with bacteria.

Toni

aspiringCyberneticist (Antonia "Toni" Ramirez)

Age: 18

Location: Toronto, Canada

The second-in-command and one of the mechanical specialists for Team Aestus. A natural technological genius and freelance mechatronics engineer, she holds a calm, collected and friendly demeanor, though she can be impulsive and reckless (especially during combat), and reluctant in trusting other people, generally keeping information about her life privy to herself only.

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Associated Tropes:

• Amazonian Beauty: She sports a somewhat curvaceous figure and an athlete's build with rather toned and overall noticeable musculature, and is seen as attractive by quite a few people.
• Child Prodigy: A former one; she was able to build a complete working robotic rose that bloomed at set times when she was six years old in her first attempt at robotics.

• Deadpan Snarker: Quite a bit of her humor is based off wit and sarcasm.
• The Engineer: The combat version. She knows how to build practically anything, from a simple force gauge, working, customized exosuit and custom dual plasma knives, which she uses with deadly ability.
• Gadgeteer Genius: She's able to create custom transforming enhanced exosuits in a matter of days, and the exosuits to her are merely "simple, incomplete designs".

• The Nicknamer: She tends to do this to people, such as her cousin Catalina (Cat), Karuso (Ruso), and Elina (Lina).

• Only Known by Their Nickname: It's very rare someone calls her Antonia rather than Toni.
• Spicy Latina: She's an attractive Spanish-Canadian badass. Subverted in that she's no longer Hot-Blooded and confrontational... as much.
• Team Mom: She shows her caring side towards everyone on her team, to the point where it's lampshaded by Jack after the Reveal of Anansi.
  Jack: EVEN MOTHERLY, REASONABLE, SENSIBLE TONI AGREES WITH ME.
  Toni: ....Motherly.
  Jack: You're incredibly motherly. Are you saying you AREN'T motherly?
  Toni: I care for this team. That's good enough.

• Tragic Keepsake: A small, simple gold-and-ruby cross necklace her late mother passed on to her when she turned 16.

• Unkempt Beauty: Engine grease can usually be found on her. She's more focused on her work than her appearance anyways.
• Workaholic: She often loses track of time when focused on her work, to the point of forgetting to eat or sleep.

Karuso

audaciousIntent (Karuso Enelen)

Age: 17

Location: Unknown

Elina

partitiveDeuterotype (Elina Walsh/Poseidon)

Age: 16

Location: New York, USA

The combat and terrain specialist, and overall jack-of-all-trades of Team Aestus. Elina is cold and calculating, emphasis on cold. She's a shielded girl with a backstory filled with battle, strife, and loss. She puts up a guard and hides herself deep in the waves of her own head, the front she puts up one of a shy and timid girl. Quiet and judging but regimented and loyal, she's quick to take and follow any orders that are given to her for anybody she respects. She has poor health, but is the most augmented person on the team, pushing her beyond most human capabilities at the cost of most of the years of her life.

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Associated Tropes:

• Action Girl: Needless to say, her augments and extensive training have made her a complete badass.
• The Ace: She's the best fighter on the team, hands down.

• Rei Ayanami Expy: Quiet 16 year old ill girl with slightly tinted platinum silver-blue hair, yellow eyes, and pale skin who usually doesn't show much emotion, speaks in a quiet monotone and is heavily augmented due to her Dark and Troubled Past: being involved in a super soldier program before going rogue.

Maxi

acrobaticPhenom (Maxine "Maxi" Merton)

Age: Unknown

Location: New York, USA

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Associated Tropes:

• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Often loses focus and rambles onto different subject matters instead of staying on the subject at hand.
• Cloudcuckoolander: She zones out incredibly often, has a rather naive, innocent way of thinking about the world, and tends to act pretty childish.

Lyra

cybergeneticVegetation (Lyra Ying)

Age: 19

Location: Hong Kong, China

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Crane

flightlessAves (Crane)

Age: Unknown

Location: Unknown

The stealth and infiltration specialist of Team Aestus. Crane constantly wears a mask and has a tendency to sneak around whenever possible, especially for beginning conversations with other people. She seems to have some connections from somewhere, but damn if you can get any information from her about it.

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Associated Tropes:

• Cryptic Background Reference: Lives in Atlantis and has krakens help her make weapons... or so she says.

• The Faceless: Has on a mask (complete with voice changer). Never takes it off. Ever.
• Invisibility Cloak: Courtesy of the stealth module Toni put in her exo suit. Also a different device that makes her unable to be picked up on most cameras.

• Nerves of Steel: Sounds completely deadpan when calmly discussing her own death. If she sounds afraid, something is probably wrong... moreso than usual, anyway.

• Stealth Expert: She refers to herself as the stealth specialist of the team.

Anansi

glazedGossamer (Anansi)

A relatively new addition to the team, Anansi is an enigmatic individual who is not yet trusted fully by their teammates. They have yet to reveal anything about themselves and it's quite hard to get a read on them — they're always changing appearances and seem to have no real strengths nor weaknesses, either. In general, they are rather amiable, open, and warm to everyone, and are willing to try or do just about anything. But regardless of the cheery nature, Anansi's an all around suspicious fellow... lady... guy... person.

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Associated Tropes:

• Allergic to Routine: Anansi frequently touts their propensity to become bored, claiming it as the reason for their frequent cycling through their many randomly generated appearances.
• Ambiguous Gender: No one can decide what gender Anansi is, which leads to plenty of guesswork and debate amongst the members of the team. And it doesn't help that Anansi won't give any hints, either.
• Cannot Convey Sarcasm: Anansi's perpetually easygoing, joking, and smiley demeanor and lack of inflections in their speech makes it hard for others to tell when they're spinning a long, metaphorical and sarcastic tale. Additionally, it's just hard to tell if they're even expressing any other emotions at all, just because of the fact that they never seem to get upset or riled.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Anansi is rather prone to flashing these often no matter what form they take, further adding to the already-thick confusion surrounding their intentions.

• Deadpan Snarker: Combined with their strange disposition, Anansi also tends to be frequently snippy and sarcastic. It just can be hard to tell.

• It Amused Me: One of Anansi's favorite things to do is pull tricks and pranks simply for a couple laughs. They don't seem to care much about the consequences either, because hey, it's all in good fun and they're not really harming anyone.
• Jack of All Stats: Good at everything they have or will dabble in, yet excelling in nothing (except for their shapeshifting abilities), this is a huge factor in Anansi's rampant indecisiveness and frequent uselessness.

• Nerves of Steel: Anansi does not ever seem too fazed by anything, nor do they seem to have any outstanding fears. They'd rather let things happen as they come.

Marcus

opulentSuperior (Marcus Cleary)

Age: 19

Location: Sydney, Australia

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Masud

tutanKhamsin (Masud Khamsin)

Age: Unknown

Location: Cairo, Egypt

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Project Lapetus

Demeter

biochemicalInsurgent (Demeter)

Age: Unknown

Location: New York City, USA

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Associated Tropes:

• The Beastmaster: Her entire specialty is based off her natural ability for taming/training genobeasts.

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Connection Established contains examples of:

• Artificial Human: The technology to build these has improved to the point where they can breathe, bleed and die exactly like a human. Anansi is suspected as such by certain players, but naturally the answer is up in the air.
• Artificial Intelligence:
  • AIs are highly regarded and sorted into four different classes based on the multitude and complexity of tasks they can perform and how close they are to true sentience. Each category comes with certain use designations and restrictions:
    • Class I are the simplest model, and can be bought relatively easy out of all four classes (by the rich, anyways), though there are heavy restrictions on its use for personal lives;
    • Class II can usually be held by large businesses;
    • Class III may manage the infrastructure of entire cities, or used by the military, less commonly by megacorporations;
    • And finally, Class IV are the most complex unit, closest to true sentience, and restricted to federal governmental use or the overseeing of all affairs in a continental alliance.
  • The drawback to such a system is the higher the classification, the more sentience and intelligence, and therefore higher probability of going insane, though that hasn't stopped rumors in-universe about the creation of a Class V or higher...
• Artificial Limbs: Prosthetics are now incredibly realistic and work almost exactly as the real thing, and are the first option most people with missing limbs turn to.
• Biological Weapons Solve Everything: Played straight during the Cyber Wars, evident by all the genetic monstrosities that have overrun most of the world. By the time of the setting, though, everything's starting to shift towards robotics.
• Black Market: Prevalent throughout Earth, notably in certain places: Jack procures several guns through his contacts involved in the LA black market, and Lyra's cousin Xiao practically runs this in Hawaii.
• Brain/Computer Interface: A popular procedure, the majority of Earth's population have implants, the equivalent of having working computers inside the brain.

• Cyberpunk: Connection Established walks the line between this and Post Cyber Punk; on one hand, there's an increasing social divide, crime and corruption all over the place, and many Crapsack World elements, but on the other hand, Earth still has stable societies and cultures, a middle class still exists, technology is depicted neutrally, and people aren't mindless beings nor selfish creatures only focused on their own pleasure, living pretty regular lives.

• Designer Babies: Since the end of the 21st century, it's become an extremely commonplace trend, to the point where most people by 2327 have genetically modified genes, or can find such in their lineage.
• Everything Is Online: The Network. A vastly improved version of the Internet, it connects and links nearly everything in the world, and people have grown so dependent on it to the point that it's the very foundation of Terran society.

• Endangered Species: All of the animal kingdom is such due to mass hunting by genobeasts and shrinking habitats.
• The Federation: Since the Cyber Wars era, most countries have created alliances with each other, generally within the same continental area, that have developed into this by present day. There are currently three major alliances:
  • North American Association: Made up of Canada, USA and Mexico.
  • European Union
  • Asian Federation: This is the most unstable political union due to conflicting views between its members. Made up of Russia, China, Japan, Singapore, and India.

• Gaia's Lament: Zig-zagged, given that the environment degradation problem was solved (somewhat) with science and technology, and while vegetation is nonexistent in certain places, others have promoted ecological protection, integrating flora with architecture to get the best of both worlds.
• Gaia's Vengeance: Sort of; chemicals and other substances have mutated regular animals, but humans have also created monstrous genetically-modified war animals—genobeasts—that now roam wild across the earth.

• MegaCorp: Interstellar, one of the largest R&D companies in the world. Also one of the most corrupt, having made an illegal Super-Soldier program and tested out a cybernetic virus on the entire population of Detroit, turning 95% of the population into monstrous infected beings as a result— and that was what LED to the creation of previously mentioned super soldier program! Khamsin Industries can also be seen as such.

• Nanomachines: While Bio-Augmentation is still reserved for the wealthy and famous, nanotechnology/augments have relative widespread use for many different purposes, ranging from increasing the delivery rate of drugs to accelerate the healing process in the human body to giving one the ability to generate and shoot fire from their hands. The Project Lapetus members are all augmented with such, granting them various superhuman abilities.

• Police State: Many people in LA are afraid to speak up lest they get arrested.

• Ridiculously Human Robots: Played with, given that certain androids have a "limited" kind of sentience while others act nearly perfectly humanlike.
• Skyscraper City: Found all over the place; Toronto exemplifies this most of all, with glass towers spread all over the city as part of its elevated monorail system.
• Underwater Base: Aestus is located on the sea floor of the Pacific Ocean, and is now the players' HQ since its abandonment and shutdown 200 years ago.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: It turned out at the completion of the Tokyo mission this is what happened to the VR game, implied to be through the effect of the keycode installed into the simulator system.

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