Destiny Drive, Anything Goes Mecha RP

To start off, this is a more lighthearted successor to The Humongous Mecha RP (which none of you probably know). While set in the year 2015, events diverged from our reality during 1940 when two "meteors" crashed into Earth containing advanced technology, knowledge and resources. Thus the first mecha were literally bipedal tanks.

Besides that, the UN eventually gained way more power and became the main authority on mecha. Taking what hadn't already been claimed from the meteors, an artificial country called Avalon was made center to all the continents as neutral ground and the UN's home turf.

While there are commercial mecha, they're not at all designed for combat (along with strictly being real robos unmodded). To pilot a battle mecha legally, you need to obtain a license from Avalon and pass a test proving you wouldn't go on a mindless rampage. Of course having a license isn't at all a requirement to join.

Finally, while there'll be an aggressive alien race later on the roleplay will mostly be driven by the antics of the players. Plus, like the title, basically anything you can justify for a mecha will work. Furthermore, besides the aggressive alien race there are also others (most predominantly the Sky-Blazers, elementally powered human aliens who fled from their homeworld's destruction). There's also plenty of cybernetics and genetic mods laying around for you to play with, plus cloning and artificial humans.

Now then, the application format!

• Name:
• Race: (Pretty much anything you can justify)
• Appearance:
• Inventory: (Again, whatever you can justify)
• Mecha: (List anything important and not-so-important about it here)
• Backstory: (Include any powers you have here)

By the way, if everyone could start at Avalon that would be great.

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

Name: Walter Cameron (Wally to most who know him)

Age: 28

Race: Human, more or less. Sort-of cyborg. Wally has implants in his brain which affix directly to his optical nerves and other sensory processing centers, allowing him to slip into a dream-like state in which he plays assorted videogames in virtual reality, experiencing them as though they were completely real, for as long as desired. Warning lights naturally interrupt gameplay when bodily functions such as sleep or food become critical.

In terms of actual physical appearance and characteristics he is completely human.

Appearance: Nutrition pills can effectively substitute for a steady diet of junk food, but Wally has been too lazy to invest in the skeletal implants necessary to compensate for his muscular atrophy. Years of playing games in VR eighteen hours a day have left him "healthy" in the sense that he will live a long life without disease, if left to his own devices, but is exceptionally frail in any sort of physically stressful situation. His bones break easily and he cannot do much in the way of physical activity. His mecha suspends him in an elastic counter-stress harness consisting of some special kind of alloy that he doesn't know anything about, allowing his body to avoid feeling the otherwise fatal amount of G's when pulling off sick maneuvers.

In keeping with his physical state, Wally is not much to behold in-person. While relatively tall at 6'2", he is more or less a stick, any "normal" human can beat him in any sort of strength competition, as his limbs are unnaturally thin and spindly from a near-complete lack of use. He is extremely pale and dislikes sunlight, with a dusting of brown fuzz on the top of his ball-shaped head. Hair is more or less unnecessary to Wally's lifestyle, so he keeps it trimmed down to nearly-bald. He has no facial hair and no other remarkable features.

Inventory: A laser gun of some sort, license and ID.

Mecha: http://s1372.photobucket.com/user/wjc36881/media/raidenstarfighter_zps379c634e.jpg.html

Ground mode:

Picture◊

Except, you know, not drawn in 2 seconds in MS paint for the legs. The ground form is the same as the normal form except with 8 legs extended for all-terrain surface movement. It's basically a walking starfighter.

Ugly formatting but photobucket and this site don't like each other so meh. A picture to represent the shape of the legs since lord knows I can't draw them out:

Picture◊

Wally's mecha, the Raiden X-class combat craft (or arachno-fighter as he prefers to call it) is simply a modified starfighter. Taken from a line of products originally designed exclusively for space use, Wally used the funds from countless victories in extranet VRG (Virtual Reality Gaming) leagues to have a set of eight robotic legs fused onto the original craft, along with a number of other custom modifications (allowing the "mecha" to, among other things, enter or exit low-orbit above the planet).

The vehicle's robotic legs are not optimized for combat, and the original craft was not designed to support such structures, so it is fairly slow and awkward-moving on the ground. While it still possesses the firepower expected of a mecha, it would be hard pressed to win a fight against one if both were grounded. In the skies, however, Wally's craft can retract its poorly-functioning legs and fly as it was originally designed to, using blistering speed and maneuverability to overwhelm its opponent. It remains rather fragile if one does manage to hit it with something, however.

When flying, whether in-atmosphere or in space, the eight legs fold up underneath the fighter craft to provide space for cargo or passengers. When the eight legs are folded together under the craft, they form a very cramped but workable living space, complete with bunk, food preparation device, waste disposal terminal, and extranet jacks. In this way Wally uses his mecha as a mobile home of sorts, preferring it to his official UN-provided lodgings in Avalon.

Backstory: The onset of supremely advanced technology in the twentieth century quickly made it not only acceptable to indulge in electronic forms of entertainment, but actively encouraged in some cultures. Even taking this into account, Wally was seen as a nerd by his peers. While others his age took trips to Mars or the moon, or dove miles beneath the ocean to see the deepest parts of the Earth, Wally expressed no such interest. He turned down every possible pleasure offered to him save one—the glory of the online combat simulators.

By sixteen Wally was already one of the few, the elite, the cream of the crop who played the sims all day every day and really lived for nothing else. He won tournaments in single-player sims, won tournaments with numerous different teams in squad-based combat sims, learned how mecha were designed and won awards in mecha-construction sims. When it was all said and done, Wally decided that something was missing—real consequences. He was tired of unplugging from the net every day and looking out his window to see a pristine lawn with no signs of battle. It was jarring to experience a war-torn landscape in utterly convincing detail, only to "wake up" to a peaceful world and know that it was all make-believe. Wally wanted his battlefield to be real.

He knew the controls already. He knew the physics involved in maneuvering machinery of this size. He knew the specs on the weapons, which laser cannon could penetrate which kinetic barrier. All that was missing was a real control panel. And so Wally signed up with the UN.

edited 24th Jul '14 9:49:24 PM by CATS3688

How are you, gentlemen? All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction.

Hmmm... Do I retry Samuel Doppler or Magnus V. O'Malley first?

"The Stick has sentimental value. It's like an enormous, hideous teddy bear we can kill things with." -rikalous

Well, said aggressive alien race is basically the Eldritichians and there's a couple advance troops (though that's mainly in the form of half human hybrids). Though regarding basically everything, just go all out with whatever ideas you think are cool. I do have to mention Avalon sees mecha scaled guns as a horrendous waste of resources due to all the replacement parts and ammo needed on a regular basis. So mecha by the UN are either melee fighters or use less wasteful ranged attacks, like a laser system or a stake launcher as example. Other mecha can use standard kinetic guns if desired however.

By the way, the specific branch of the UN that deals with mecha is called CACHE (Controlling Advanced Cybernetic Humanoid Entities) and they have a force of androids/gynoids/artificial cyborgs for a number of reasons. The force's exact name is pending, I was thinking something to reflect the fact older models and specific designs have doll joints.

edited 17th Jul '14 11:43:21 PM by Kkutwar

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

Oh cool, so lets say I want to make an android/gynoid that sort of body hops between the mecha and his/her "civilian" body, would that be cool?.

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

Yes, and I even had a similar idea once (the hopper was officially the pilot's charge and copilot/coordinator though). Pretty much the only thing I won't accept is anything unjustified in-universe, and for the most part I'll allow "imported alien technology" & "too advanced to be understood" excuses since the only reason there's mecha is because of extremely advanced alien knowledge.

Oh, and there's likely some space colonies closely orbiting Earth. Mainly happened for testing dangerous or environment unfriendly (mecha) technology. In addition, I would say there isn't any blatantly magical stuff and psychics are those mutations that enable them to manipulate reality in some way (like telepaths reading the brain's electrical impulses or kinetics manipulating electrical attraction).

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

I'll try a character sheet soonish. I'm thinking maybe a mutant human...

“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”

Edited my post to fill it out. Basically, my character would be aligned with the UN, and be happy to carry out whatever their goals are so long as they point him at something to blow up. Let me know if anything needs to be changed, I took a bit of liberty with the background and such since the setting is so vague.

How are you, gentlemen? All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction.

Well, there would be a difference between mutants and psychics. Mutants are those who have come into contact with gooey Eldritichian biology like blood or severed chucks of flesh. The result is any number of physical mutations, usually with some sort of superpower (which does possibly include psychic powers) as a result. Psychics are humans with freak genetic mutations but for the most part otherwise normal, though they can be affected by Eldritichian biology as well.

For the most part I'll allow anything for the backstories, and I'll make it clear when something won't work. Regarding pilot items, it all depends on what it does or how the mecha works. Pilot suits aren't required for CACHE's Mass Production Seelies for example, but custom/employee Seelie might use a gauntlet as part of the weapons interface if its motion capture or use a specialized suit for backup life support among others. Oh, and all pilots would need their license and identification. Otherwise CACHE will deal with them since its illegal to pilot death machines without a license. Much like a cop pulling you over, just with more fisticuffs and explosions.

Anyways, he is accepted. Though how long has he worked with the UN and any friends/family worth bringing up?

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

This looks kinda awesome. I'm in! Now I just have to decide if I want to make a new character, or revive a long unused one that would fit it quite well. Either way, I have a long weekend, so I'll be away from a computer for a few days.

Kirby is the best because he goes "Wark wark wark"

Oh yeah, with the first appearance of Eldritchians twenty years ago Avalon has become a go-to dumping grounds for super criminals. The Eldritchians mainly came to Earth because they were following remnants of the Sky-Blazers' race. In addition Avalon is something of a refuge for survivors of other races, with the majority of Sky-Blazers grouped there (they've intergrated mostly well, biological compatibility and similarity helping out). The Eldritchians won't actually destroy planets though, so they might of visited our system before to genocide species on the other planets. In all I would say Avalon is an entire country of adventure with a thing for Celtic folklore.

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

• Name: Samuel Doppler
• Race: Cybernetically-Enhanced, or "Legacy" Humanoid
• Appearance: Silver hair, deep blue eyes, wears a greatcoat. Has a cybernetic arm in place of primary arm because, "it looks cooler when I rock out." Cybernetic eye to replace one lost in an incident involving a fencing foil, a tomato, a honey badger, and 12 pounds of duct tape.
• Inventory: Guitar, holo-device (for accessing interwebs), replica S2 Engine
• Mecha Name: SHK-14, "Eternal Symphony"
  • Design: Transformers The Fall Of Cybertron-Era Shockwave. Instead of purple as its primary color, it has a purplish-gray, with pale blue energy lines. The main eye is a vibrant red color.
  • Loadout (Weapons and Misc gear)
    • "Grand Orchestra" Sound Cannon
    • "BATMAM" Guitaraxe — Giant axe that is also a guitar. That is also a thermal laser.
    • "Take 2" Back-up Artillery array — Big Ol' Guns stored in Symphony's back. Pun not intended.
    • "Stand Tall" Amplifier Pods x2 — Shoulder-covering amplifier pods for Symphony's sound based weaponry. Resemble an Eva's shoulder towers when fully powered.
    • Draco Drive — Allows Symphony to temporarily enter an overcharged state. Attacks are more potent in this form, but consume much more engery. Symphony can only spend 1 song (about 6 minutes and change) like this.
    • 4 Terabyte hard-drive — For muzaks.
    • Motion-Capture Pilot Uplink System (Drivesuit Included)
• Backstory: Samuel, a long time musician and music fan, and longer-time nerd always wanted to push the limits of "How long is it going to take before the universe just flat-out rejects this thing?" Needless to say, his fascination with mechs and guitars led to an... interesting fighting style when he was presented with the base for Eternal Symphony. Symphony's AI seemed to find Samuel to be able to snark just as well as it, so the two were decided upon as a combat-ready pairing.

BAM, done.

edited 18th Jul '14 6:56:27 PM by OmegaShadowcry

"The Stick has sentimental value. It's like an enormous, hideous teddy bear we can kill things with." -rikalous

Now that you bring it up, the advanced technology starting in 1940 and the creation of Avalon and CACHE would greatly affect future media. Though since Sky-Blazers would of arrived in 1994 or early/mid 1995 Neon Genesis Evangelion likely exists in a warped form. I'll be hoping you guys explore that on your own, though for the most part books/games/movies/etc shouldn't be too unrecognizable from our version. Public and commercial reactions should certainly be affected though.

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

Anyways, he is accepted. Though how long has he worked with the UN and any friends/family worth bringing up?

I added an age of 28, so I would say he's worked for the UN since age 25. His mom and dad are alive and well somewhere but they're not particularly close. His friends are primarily his fellow UN pilots, who consider him rather strange, but respect his piloting skill.

edited 18th Jul '14 8:57:25 AM by CATS3688

How are you, gentlemen? All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction.

Is he officially a CACHE pilot or just someone aligned/associated with the UN? Official CACHE pilots get hooked up with a Seelie (occasionally biomechanical mechs they developed from researching the meteors contains and alien lifeforms), while it seems more fitting that he would be a freelancer since he's only there because he gor bored with VR sims. Anyways, as a general rule guys, please mention any friends or family that might be important. Well, here are a character I intend to have pop up in the roleplay.

• Name: Edward Rosenberg
• Race: Augmented Human
• Appearance: Pretty much your standard handsome young man, with brown hair, a green eye and a golden one, along with some notable scarring and lines indicating where flesh had been fused.
• Inventory: Wallet (contains ID, license, money, and a picture of his daughter)
• Mecha: Essentially a combination of this and an RX Gundam with a primarily black color scheme, a Gespent II left arm, and the stick legs being picks on its back. Built into the feet is low grade hover tech, and the picks on it back are detractable boosters. In conjunction the Neon Ravager uses these to gracefully float about without causing property damage with each step. Its left arm generates energy to be used in three ways: as small rapid bursts from the prongs, a focused destructive laser between the prongs, and when the shield plating is slid forth a hyper destructive short ranged sphere of energy.

In addition to using its shield on its left arm as a weapon and using the picks to explode pierced objects its right hand can extend into a larger claw. Tipped with potent enough energy to tear through standard crafts, it can also focus that energy into a single beam. In addition the hand is connected to twenty yards of magnetically controlled cable, allowing it to a limit extent to pursue faraway targets or stiffen it into shapes. Both of its hands are also dexterous enough to use external weapons. Finally, when it builds up enough energy it can enter a super state where it becomes a full fledged super robot.

• Backstory: Born twenty four years ago on the orbiting space colony Oberon, Edward was practically raised to become a pilot due to his parents' profession as researchers for the UN. Working hard to first become an intern and then a real employee, he was stuck doing simulations/repairs/tests because his parents didn't want him risking his life as a pilot. However, something went very wrong when he acted as test pilot for their newest mech five years ago. Once rescued from the machine he was in such a dire state that immediate medical attention and body replacements were needed to save his life.Though once recovering he displayed such extreme amnesia that he was a child again in mentality, requiring an extensive period of reteaching. While being retaught everything he forgot, it didn't quite click with him. Eventually he was officially made the pilot of the Neon Ravager once it was stablized, gaining the right since it wouldn't work for any other pilot.

Three years since that event, Edward has been an international CACHE agent who has recently been assigned to Avalon to be an instructor for newer and younger pilots in addition as security for a few upcoming mecha activation tests. Having been provided a condo for him and his two year daughter, he's mostly just been wandering around Avalon for the past week. Resulting from the operation that saved him, up to seventy percent of his body had been replaced with brewed cloned parts. The replacement mass is much better at repairing itself, almost like rubber springing back into its correct shape. However like rubber it can't repair slicing and piercing damage.

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

Yea a freelancer who just signed on to do whatever they need him to makes more sense than anything else, since he would prefer to be able to maintain and modify his mech at his own discretion, rather than having a mass-produced unit issued to him. Whatever you decide the UN would have him doing is what he's doing, basically, since you're the showrunner and the setting is pretty bare-bones thus far.

How are you, gentlemen? All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction.

Its less bare-bones and more character driven. I actually got the final boss figured out and somewhere like halfway into the roleplay the real Eldritchian invasion of Earth commences (signaled by a space gateway suddenly appearing just outside Earth's orbit). Besides that, CACHE is actually heavily developed. Though its just like I said, this is more character driven.

The UN would probably just sic him on unauthorized pilots, people wrecking mayhem, and the occasional Eldritichian or psychotic robot. Speaking of, I intend for there to be a flawed psycho prototype to pop up not too long in the roleplay. Besides that there's also an (half) Eldritichian who looks human but can summon a gigantic organic body who controls it like a mecha.

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

Man, so far the lot's been not-full humans. I'm gonna have to change that.

Maybe.

Probably.

Later. I'll think on it.

Here it is, finally:

• Name: Isa 'Kruisstuk' Van Waalwjik
• Race: Mutant (Eldritician)/Psychic
• Appearance: Isa is in her mid-twenties with a youthful appearance and demeanor, albeit her normally light skin is botched with occasional scaly, green-blue patches. However her most noticeable features are far more ostentatious - her exposure to Eldritician biology has left her with an additional pair of longer, bony arms protruding from her back with dexterous fingers. Growths of sharp bone appear prominently on her limbs and otherwise human, muscular body. Isa's eyes, all five of them, are pitch black and slightly smaller to compensate for their number though her face is open and friendly apart from this, even pretty in an odd way. Her hair is dark blonde, mid length and usually pulled back into a neat pony tail. She is nearly 6 feet tall, relatively average for her part of the world but considered tall in most other countries.

Isa tends to wear loose, dark blue cargo pants and a custom cut red and white striped tank-top to accommodate her extra limbs, typically also wearing fingerless leather gloves. Perfers not to wear shoes as she finds them uncomfortable and has a strong Dutch accent.

• Inventory: Wallet (Money, cards, keys and a family photo), repair tool kit, ukulele (usually stashed away in her mech)
• Mecha: Something like this◊

The 'Kruisstuk-2'battle mech, designed by Isa herself is largely grey with orange strips. Its multiple arms are capable of melee combat in addition to firing fast but less powerful lasers, that is in comparison to the rest of the weaponry.

Dual, triple barreled guns are mounted on arms capable of firing if most any direction with explosive shells and a long range, gigantic cannon faces forward from the right shoulder. Despite its great size and array of limbs the mech is fast and nimble on the ground, connections with its psychic pilot giving it great responsiveness. However, while it does have a number of back mounted rockets for short jumps the machine is unable to achieve high altitudes or sustain any finesse in flight. Its hull is sturdy and well reinforced with its many joints being the main weakness.

• Backstory: Isa Van Waalwjik lived a relatively normal life in a small town of The Netherlands for the first few years of her life, her family known to have many 'psychics' but otherwise unremarkable. However when the first Eldritichian attacks came twenty years ago, Isa being only 6 years old at the time, everything changed dramatically. A great, spider-like Eldritich monstrosity had attacked their country but UN forces had managed to drive it to a less populated area. Though the people were instructed to take shelter indoors Isa was curious to see the battle, hiding in a tree outside nowhere near far enough away.

The creature was eventually slain but its collapse crushed many houses as well as the tree she was perched in, thrusting the child into the flesh of the beast but miraculously not killing her. It took three days and nights of hacking into the corpse to make any progress in moving it, not expecting to find anymore survivors by this point - it was then that Isa was discovered unconscious but alive amid the inhuman remains. She was rushed to hospital but identification took longer than expected due to her dazed and... alter state, already suffering from some dermal mutations. Nevertheless her family was simply happy to find their girl alive, rejecting any warnings about potential further mutations due to such lengthy exposure.

As Isa grew so did further and worsening abnormalities in her biology, activating her latent psychic abilities first - The reading of others minds and a sort of empathy with Eldritich creatures. A second set of arms painfully emerged from her back and her eyes were replaced with five black orbs, growing to be stronger than most humans and more enduring. In spite of this her family made sure she always felt accepted somewhere, if only at home, encouraging her to take up engineering. Becoming quite skilled in mech design Isa was recruited by CACHE and eventually also moonlighted as a pilot in her own custom machine.

“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”

Well, given the fact this universe's Neon Genesis Evangelion would take some influence from the Eldritchian attacks... Wonder what she thinks of it as a result. Besides that, the Eldritchian empathy will certainly be interesting to see in action. Though specifically how does her Telepathy work and how powerful/limited is it? It does need some basis in biology or physics, though the "electric impulse reading" version would be one of the better ones to design a mecha around. Finally I would say part of the reason she was recruited is her mutations, and by being with CACHE she has more people she can interact with. Overall CACHE is an actually pretty friendly and good organization, only (violently) keeping secrets that aren't bad but would result in negative opinions anyways (such as the usage and creation of artificial humans to be pilots). I'll make a few sheets for immediately important CACHE NP Cs later, but the Avalon branch's head of PR is a woman in her late twenties named Melissa Winters. She's a bit cooky as will be seen later on, and she writes & draws (uncredited) adaptions of CACHE events. She's not credited because reasons, as sales would likely drop if those familiar with her older work noticed.

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

I'd say it would be the "electric impulse reading" kind of psychic. She needs to be reasonably close to people to get any clear idea of what they are thinking - the further away, the less 'loud' they are and less complex in terms of information/depth. She can't transmit thoughts, however, only receive and it would be stronger with Eldritichians because of the biology she's gain from one of them.

Any idea when we'll get started properly?

“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”

I'm waiting for the others who showed interest to make their applications. Though I'll make the discussion thread later today. Oh, and for future characters, the severity of mutations depend on how much Eldritchian biology you're exposed to. So a quick sample would at worst change the nature/color of the skin that made contact, while practically being rained on resulted in a fair deal of mutations. They're also focused around where contact was made, unless you actually eat Eldritchian biology.

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

This is of interest to me, I'll probably have a sign up done later today.

I'll put in my sign-ups later too, when I feel up to writing.

Tempting. Might have to use a Zoid design because seriously Zoids are animal-bots.

Curse the ill fortune that led you to me.