welcome to
the collected nations of struxta.It will happen at random- you could be asleep, or wandering the Temple, or a variety of other options. It will feel a little strange, like a sudden warmth spreading across your skin, and then your bracelet will light up. When you blink again, everything has shifted - changed, developed, like in that blink of an eye you have advanced thousands of years into the future. Around you is a city, a technological marvel. Buildings rise up from the dirt and through the clouds, figures of all shapes and sizes buzz around you. They seem to pay you little mind - a quick glance, maybe a pause, and then they will continue on their away. Ahead, there is a low rumble of thunder, a dim flash of light. It doesn't seem to be raining, but there is an electric hum in the air. A NOTE FROM YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD WITCH
But before anything too weird can happen . . . your watch flashes again, beeps once, and on it has a new message, a hologram-sparkly image with a young woman who (to some individuals!) looks a fair bit brighter than she did a few weeks ago. To those who are new, you will recognize the voice -- Astoria, the guardian of the Temple (or, if you're a bit more pessimistic, your effervescent kidnapper).
 "Hello, my beloved travelers ♥ and new ones, too! My name is Lady Astoria the Witchess-san." The way she says it, though, it is very clearly something of a joke. "I'm so glad you are settling in, adjusting to your new powers . . . I apologize for not coming forward and greeting you all like last time. But I am feeling much more like myself, and ready to send you to a new world ♥
This one is named Struxta . . . Struxa? No, I think it's Struxta. It's very metal. I'm not sure what's wrong in this world . . . but I can feel something building. Pulsing, it's very chaotic. I'm afraid I can't be more detailed than that, I did have a headache earlier . . . Akira told me I was fine ♥" And, again, you can likely guess that Akira definitely did no such thing. Astoria clasps her hands, her bright blue eyes shining, with a bright smile. "Now! Please be safe, and please mind your manners, and tell me all about it when you return! I'll see you soon. ♥"
And, just like that? The humming in the air grows louder, you feel an odd tug in your stomach, and before you can properly adjust yourself to the sensation of being cast across the universe . . . you find yourself in Struxta. (Astoria, it seems, did have it right the first time.)
 THE HOSTELJust as it was in El Minha, it appears that upon arrival, each character is outfitted with a room at one of the largest, arguably most impressive skyscrapers in the city. Nearly two hundred stories tall, and with each floor containing nearly sixty rooms. Every floor, every room, every door is of the highest tech and the more advanced security. The watches that Astoria has given each of the Circle Members act, in many ways, like a key, a credit card, an ID, and any other form of identification the players will need during their stay.
The rooms themselves are simple - one bed, roughly full sized, with a light, a desk, a chair, and a variety of plugs and buttons. Characters are welcome, if they are able to find the appropriate plug, to charge any and all devices they may have. There is a TV of sorts in the room as well, with access to all manner of shows and news stations.
The bottom floor of the building is almost as large as a city block. It is open, sleek, and clean-cut. A kind of open meeting room, which has - upon inspection - been modified to include what appears to be a restaurant. Which, given the fact the group of Circle members who have arrived in the city are the only natural bodies around? Includes the fact you are the only members of the city who have to consume food and nutrients. Upon even closer inspection, the technology used to make the food seems a few decades behind that of the rest of the city, but it still works, and the food can still be produced. It might taste a little weird and turn out to be some sort of glorified goop, but it has some nutritional value.
The rest of the floor has a variety of seating arrangements and places to sit and chat with your other Circle members, but beyond the Welcome Committee, who is set up on the far northern corner, there doesn't seem to be many of the natives walking through.  THE SUPER CENTERHave you ever wanted to go shopping in the most technologically advanced superstore possible? Here is your chance! It appears that if you use your watch, you have been given a moderate amount of credit to buy clothing, toys, electronics, items, and anything else that might suit your fancy. You will not have enough to buy anything significant, such as limbs, organs, advanced computer technology, etc. But you are more than welcome to find a job to help collected more credits! Many of the stores within the Supercenter are hiring - greeters, cashiers, manual labor, errand runners, and everything in between!
The Supercenter is attached, as most of the buildings seem to be in this city, by a roadway of interlocking bridges and stairways- to a point that you could, if you wanted to, move about the entire city without stepping foot outside. There are bridges on every level of the Supercenter, as well as a network of pathways and semi-roadways within the center itself.
There are no restaurants or bars, but there are plenty of areas to relax and people robot watch if you so desire. Otherwise, shop, explore, find weird mechanical devices of the likes you could never imagine back home. There are all manner of stores, some art galleries, music centers, arcades, and more here. There is no limit to what you can find and what you can experience.
Everything is automated, but there are still helpful employees of various appearances at each of the stories to help you decide and browse- small, flying blocks that speak in primarily beeping noises that (thanks to Astoria's wonderful watches) you can somehow understand, completely human-appearing androids of the utmost style and elegance, and everything in between. Take your time, do a little shopping or go to work, and enjoy the pique of futuristic capitalism.  THE RACESIn the south-eastern district of the city, a large section of the city has been modified into a multi-level, vast, complicated race track of sorts. Think Tron, meets Speed Racer, meets a type of racing that is something all their own. It's fun as hell, fast as hell, and dangerous as hell. Sounds great, right?
What is simply known as ‘Racing’ here in Struxta is complicated, but at its heart is exactly what it says: it is a race. A race of cars, bikes, and everything in between through an obstacle course of everything you can imagine. It seems to all be linked, electronically, to a motherboard that decides - each race - what the drivers will find. Each race was drastically different, with dangers galore. One day you might find that the road is full of spikes, the next it might be slick as oil, there could be loops that defy gravity and breaks in the road that seem to be impossible to cross, but that's what the modifications and specialists in the garages are for, right?
The rules are simple: if you have a vehicle, and you have a driver, you are allowed to race. First one to complete the track, wins.
Surrounding the main track is an entire industry of shops, stores, garages, meeting places, lounge areas, and viewing rooms. There are robots who make entire livings on the industry surrounding the Races, without ever having to step food onto the course. Some of the areas will be cleaner, like the rest of the city, while others may air on the side of back-house garages. While there won't be any dirt or natural life forms, for the first time you might catch sight of rusted metal, oil slicks, broken down previous versions of what's out on the road. There are some practice tracks, some experimental safety sections to test out new additions, etc.
The one thing that holds everyone together, here, is the excitement around watching. The excitement around the competition. There are Races every five days, so that gives you just enough to get settled. And maybe find a car.  THE LIBRARYAs many have already come to hear, there are plenty of libraries and museums all across Struxta. However, there is one that is known as The Library, which archives anything and everything in the history of all of Struxta, spanning back its entire history, over thousands and thousands of years. The building itself is as large and impressive as The Hostel, nearly two hundred stories tall, possibly more, and as wide and long as a city block. But where in the Hostel each floor had been made up of rooms, each of these floors are large, open areas, with dark, imposing servers held behind tight, clean cabinets.
No one else seems to be here, which gives the impression that The Library is not open to just any native of Struxta, and that in fact - as members of the Circle you are being given special access to what would normally be off-limits.
In the middle of each floor, there is a small collection of tables, with large screens. These touch-screens will be your access into the Library archives. And that is the thing - you will have access to everything, but as it turns out, everything really means everything, and with backups spanning the course of thousands of years in the past, it will take a lot of time and a lot of energy and a lot of research determination to find anything of use. Not because it is difficult, just because it is so massive and so overwhelming.
The only natives you will find will be on the first floor, as a kind of secretarial position for the building. They are more than happy to try and help guide you through the search process, but they will not follow you up to any of the other floors, and there is a distinct feeling of being entirely alone when you do go up to begin your search. Alone, but watched, somehow.
Remember- if there is something that you wish to look up specifically, please ask over on the world interactions post so we can be sure that the correct information is shared! The best way to go about finding something in the Library will be going at search terms in teams, as there is so much information there is no way one person will be able to wade through it all. Additionally, please feel free to write up and work with your own prompts! These are presented as jumping off points for your characters, not limitations. The idea of this world- as with all the others- is to explore. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask them back on the mod questions thread back in the OOC post from before! And if you have any ideas regarding how your character will interact with the world, also feel free to check back into the world interactions comment from the OOC post from before, as well! From this point forward, the Circle has become involved with the Collected Nations of Struxta. What your character finds out, decides, and does from here on out will affect the future of this city- one way or another! But what you do is completely up to you. What you discover, explore, and uncover will be yours to discover, explore, and uncover. Who knows what you might find? :) |
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acatalepsy_logs2018-07-11 12:02 am
no subject
He resumes his pacing, ensuring they’re not really facing each other when he speaks again, his voice more subdued this time. He’s starting to understand why Catherine seems to find it easier to have conversations when she’s looking at a computer. Or is a computer. ]
What about you guys? Does death even exist? When you get too damaged, they just put you in new bodies, right?
no subject
9S isn't feeling inclined to start correcting him about it, though. It's easier not to, especially with someone like Simon. ]
Yeah. We were synced up with a server so we could make frequent backups of our personal data. As long as we had that, it didn't really matter what happened to our bodies, so... I don't really know if getting killed out in the field ever meant actually dying.
[ He's still not sure it counts when his data had been wiped clean so many times, either. He's still here, after all—and that wouldn't be possible for a human. ]
no subject
Simon stops to pick up something else, one of the many undefinable hard-drive-things in the vicinity, and when he’s back to pacing he’s barely conscious of the fact that he’s still carrying it. ]
What if your backup was uploaded into something else? Like a ‘machine’. Would it matter then?
[ He’s not expecting the personal relevance of this question to slip past 9S, but it’s not leading or pointed in the way he asks it, either; just earnestly curious. ]
no subject
[ He responds like kneejerk, adamant. ]
No android is stupid enough to think uploading another's data into a machine is a good idea.
[ Is what he says, but... the ones here may as well be doing so with this "Mass Subconscious" of theirs. It's none too different from the same type of hivemind network the machines back on Earth were connected to, and frankly, 9S hates it. But at least he can continue stubbornly believing he's above it, while staring down the partial remains of what was, once, "just some machine" with an air of contempt. ]
no subject
What makes you so sure you have nothing in common with machines?
[ ITT: man who’s distraught about being robotic in any capacity judges robot for seeing some other robots as inferior. 9S’s perspective seems ridiculously closed-minded to him, but his own is steeped in organic human hangups. More robot-friendly, but, unbeknownst to him, no less biased. ]
no subject
Simon, don't.
[ It's more of a plea than it is a demand. 9S wouldn't know where to begin arguing this; he's never had to. Androids always understood that they were different from machines, and machines understood they weren't the same as androids. Simon may not be quite as human as most others these days, but the idea that someone with a human mind would try to break this worldview right in his face hurts 9S more than he'd care to admit. ]
no subject
But 9S was made to fight in a senseless and unfair war, and Simon’s gotten an idea of the turmoil he and 2B experience trying to unlearn their programming. He should really know better than to ask that in that way. And yet. ]
No... I just mean—
[ it’s feeble from the start, though, and he looks away a little regretfully, absently tapping the CPU/some-ex-robot’s-brain against his leg. ] Yeah. I won’t mention it.
no subject
So that's the end of that, for better or worse. The silence is left to linger as 9S likewise turns away, pacing elsewhere only to end back up at one of the numerous heaps of rusted, old metal; he nudges at a tangled mess of cables nudged somewhere at the base with the toes of his boot. ]
What're you looking for in this mess, anyway?
[ ya know, movin on. ]
no subject
He might be getting careless about remembering that.
When 9S breaks the silence, he seems a little startled, jarred from his thoughts.
moving on, all well-adjusted and shit, as usual ]
I dunno. Nothing, I guess. I’m just trying to make sense of it.
[ Amazingly, 9S’s explanation actually made an impact in that regard. Sure, it’s still a perspective Simon is utterly unable to relate to, but they treat dead robot bodies like broken tools to scrap and replace because that’s what they are, for everyone on the planet. Vehicles for their brains. That’s easy enough to parse. ]
Did your Earth look anything like this place? [ he glances around to indicate he’s not just referring to the robot scrap pile. ]
no subject
He ends up only shaking his head. ]
Maybe... it had, once, but not anymore. [ Who could say, really. There never were a lot of records that survived the test of time in regards to the old world. ] The planet hadn't been inhabited by humans for thousands of years—all we had left were the ruins of everything they left behind.
no subject
[ Of course YoRHa androids kept the remnants of mankind’s presence where they were — they practically worship humans, and anticipate their return to Earth. Sure, that whole relationship is freaky and appalling for moral reasons, but Simon’s pretty damn ambivalent about the opposite end of the spectrum. It’s... extremely eerie. It wouldn’t even be as eerie if their tour guides had just said there never were humans here that anyone remembers. ]
And this Mass Subconscious stuff doesn’t sound like something a human would come up with.
no subject
It isn't. The machines on Earth had a network just like it, too.
[ Only... they relied on it for the war, and the ones who had enough of fighting disconnected themselves from it when they pursued a pacifist life. There is no war here; why did they need it? ]
I guess whoever created these guys decided their loyalty to humanity wasn't necessary.
no subject
[ Granted, humanity’s interest in extinct species and cultures is kind of a “Whoops we killed it, well here’s what it looked like” relationship a lot of the time, but hey, that counts as collecting knowledge.
looking out over the sea of dead robot debris, he adds: ] Maybe the network’s run by something that’s suppressing it. The WAU was doing something like that, too. Kind of.
[ For as “mass” as a Mass Subconscious on an Earth with almost no people can be, anyway.
At any rate, for one thing, Simon does not buy that there just so happens to be no one, not one single person, native to this giant city who takes issue with not being allowed in the two-hundred-story library. That part is just borderline offensive. He’s a law-abiding citizen, but he would be in robot jail. ]
no subject
[ Because a lack of curiosity, in all the thousands of androids and machines alike they pass by, feels so unfathomable to 9S. And it's not just because he's the walking embodiment of "nosiest brat this side of the universe". ]
What was the WAU doing?
no subject
[ he stops, tapping the hard drive against his palm in agitation; whoever this belonged to, the borderline fidget spinner treatment Simon is giving what might be some android’s brain probably looks ironic coming from somebody who likes to tell 9S not to be machine-racist. Simon’s high horse is powered by dead robot parts. And human ones. ]
I don’t know. Maybe the robots here really are just happy being in this Mass Subconscious thing, even if it doesn’t make sense to us.
no subject
Speak for yourself. [ He comments airily. ] Both are a possibility, but if there really is anything suppressing—I dunno, something in there... The other androids don't deserve that.
[ who cares about the machines tho :/ ]
no subject
Yeah. No one does. The robots here seem pretty decent... they’re peaceful, at least.
[ He can’t compare the androids to machines; they’re just hurt by the analogy. But ‘hey, these non-androids are nice’ feels like a decent compromise. ]