CFC.COM, the MES/NES: A Second Chance

[Milarqui]

If Honda did survive it would be his only option to continue as part of the crew of the CFC.com till the end. I'll get it done tomorrow.

The survivors of the first CFC.com crew were "retired" and given new lives in the Hub or in other worlds. You could write a story about how you chose to apply once more for joining the CFC.com.

 

[JohannaK]

Yeah, that's a good idea.

 

[Optical]

Fixed Lemta's health to reflect it being 50+END+STR/2 rather than 50+STR+END/2

 

[Popcornlord]

Spoiler Story :

"...what are you doing, master?"

"Palermo! I though you were in town."

"The road is flooded. This isn't..."

"Magic? Indeed, it is. I've been studying the German texts. The whole things quite fascinating, you see..."

"That's blasphemous! Heretical! Have you gone completely mad?"

"I would advise you to watch your tongue, Ario."

"If the church were to find you..."

"Damn the church, think of the lives we could save! All that life, wasted on the battlefield. We could recycle it, Ario! Give it to the sick, the dying!"

"..."

"We will take some of this life force, this Vitae, from the dungeons where it will not be missed. And then, secretly, only used when we need it, we may be able to save a life."

"And the soul?"

"You will do as I say, Ario. You do not understand how horrible death can be. If you do not, I could just leave you back on the streets where I found you. Do you understand?"

"...yes sir. I will help you practice your magic."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Cardinal Della, to what do I owe this privilege?"

"Please sit, Palermo. I will cut straight to the point; is true that you were the apprentice of the late Sirtoni?"

"Yes, Your Eminence, but I have already explained to the inquisition..."

"Forget about the inquisition for second. You will not be tried for anything you say here."

"I am a God fearing man, Cardinal. I have not lied."

"Listen, Palermo. The Pope fears a coming war. Many say that it will be quick, a lovely little skirmish against the pagans. Most don't realize exactly how powerful these Germans are. They will use all of their magics, they will bend life, take it from our soldiers and give it to theirs. The Pope has given it much thought and prayer, and believes it may be necessary to use some of this magic against them."

"You think I know how to do that? That I would remember after all these years?"

"Sin takes hold of the body, and once it has gained its grip, it will not let go. The Pope is willing to pardon you, so long as you support the Christian forces. And, if you can, train a few men as well."

"...Very well."

"Excellent. The Holy See has assembled a few promising potentials. Some are ex-heretics, others seem to have stumbled upon the magic accidentally. We will give you an escort to Rome, and from there you will have almost complete freedom to do as you wish. Good luck, and do not dance too close to the devil. Remember how far Icarus fell."

"Yes, Your Eminence."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Somebody, bandage this man up! We need to stop the bleeding from his chest. I'm about to transfer in the Vitae, so don't interrupt me!"

"Doctor..."

"Sit down, you idiot! You're letting the Vitae pour out of you!"

"Doctor, I've died nine time this bloody war. Artillery, gas attack, gunfire. I was even run over by a tank once. Every time, I hope I wake up in heaven, see an angel smiling down at me. And every time, I wake up to see some freakin' doctor, and I know I'm going back to the front lines again, back to kill and be killed. So doctor, please... just let me die already."

"Doctor, his heart's failing!"

"...sorry."

*Hack*, *Cough* *Hack*

"You filthy piece of scum. Couldn't even give me that much. I hope you experience hell one day, cause I've already lived it, one too many times."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They say your life flashes before you every time you die. And it does, all of it. A few scenes, though, stand out from the rest. Times where everything seems to change. Not only you surroundings, but your perception of the world. As I laid in the pool of my own blood, feeling the bullet suck my life away, I noticed how nice it was to not have any Vitae left. You never notice how heavy it is until its gone.

The last moments on my old life, I wondered who I would see waking up. An Angel, or a doctor? What I did not expect was the strange, new world I was about to enter.

Name: Ario Palermo/Popcornlord
Origin: TL-4929, 1916, Holy Kingdom of Italy, Medic/Wizard
STR=55, PER=70, END=55, CHA=70, INT=75, AGI=65, LCK=60
HP=133/133, MP=25/25, CP=17
Abilities: Rifle Lvl 1, Sorcery Lvl 1, Vitaecraft* Lvl 1, Medicine Lvl 1, Fast Learner Lvl 1

Spoiler Spells :

Still thinking on these.

Disabilities: Fanatic (Christianity/Catholicism), War Weary (Has experienced enough of war, and will avoid combat unless completely necessary)
Weapons: Carcano M91 Rifle, Crucifix (Used as a Magical Focus)
Armor: Brodie Helmet, Medic's Unform, Leather Boots
Other Items: First Aid Kit, Glass Bottle Filled with Vitae-Containing Amber, Gas Mask, Notebook filled with Magical Stuff
Injuries: None

*Vitaecraft is the art of the transfer of life, from either person to person, person to object, or object to person. The practical aspect would be to enchant weapons so that they can steal Vitae (HP) from someone else, or take the Vitae from those weapons to heal someone. It could also be used to directly transfer Vitae from one person to another, but there must be no resistance. I'm not sure whether you want this as its own skill or as one of my mystic spells. I'm also not sure whether this counts as a combat skill or not.

 

[Seon]

Name: Leon Alexandros
Origin: TL-1111111111112 England Underground
Primary Stats:
Strength (STR):50
Perception (PER): 75
Endurance (END): 75
Charisma (CHA): 25
Intelligence (INT):75
Agility (AGI): 75
Luck (LCK):75
HP: 150
Magic Points (MP):25
Chrono Points (CP): 20
Abilities: Handgun Mastery Lvl 1. WILD MAN MAGICK. MacGuyvering Level 1. Flight level 1 (this character can fly). Scouting Level 1
Disabilities: Pixie: This character is a pixie and stands out like a sore thumb, having two butterfly wings and being 4 feet tall. Heavy two handed melee weapons and heavy weapons are difficult to use.

Black and White Morality: The bad guy dies. No compromise.

Weapons: .50 cal Revolver (6/30). Laser Sighted, Explosive Bullets.

Absurdly sharp wooden knife.

Armor: Longcoat with bulletproof armor underneath.
Other Items: Painkillers X1. Napalm Contact-Grenade x2. C4-Explosive x1
Injuries:

Spoiler Introduction :

Leon is a young (100 years old) pixie from a world where magic more or less became a fact of life a long time ago. Born and raised in the slums of the Metropolis, London, Leon saw the destruction of the human (and near human) soul, rampant crime, and despair first hand.

He enlisted in the police force in order to combat this and, seeing corruption even within the law enforcement, quit to form his own private detective agency. Soon after that he was acting as a vigilante, gunning down the people of the city in a crusade to purify the city in blood and hail of explosive bullets.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Honestly, Alex is really easy to trap. I mean, he's very arrogant naturally, and the suit just adds onto that. Secondly, it's basically like a tank: slow but powerful.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

The abducted near death moment:

Alex walked down the packed street, listening to the thunderous cheering of the crowd. It was Harperday, the day they celebrate Alex's victory over the Acebees, and Alex was taking part in the annual parade. Marching down the street, Alex relived those moments, blow after excruciating blow. He had forgotten much of the momentous battle, his mind wishing to block out the nigh insurmountable pain the Acebees' blows had inflicted upon him. He was no hero, merely a man who had led hundreds of his comrades to their deaths. Their weight still pressed upon him, all the deaths and all the pain, all of it caused by his weakness.

But he hid such thoughts away, deep inside of him, as he had every challenging day since then. He did what was necessary, and powered through his horrifying burden. As he reached fifth avenue of New York, he saw someone approaching. He watched this man come nearer, seemingly intent upon Alex. Suddenly Alex felt a tap on the shoulder, and he whipped around to come face to face with the barrel of a gun. Just as he began to move his arm to snatch the gun away, he heard a scream in the distance: "Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!" And then there was crack of a gun, and everything went black

He woke from his faint, and found the man from the crowd standing over him. "Sorry about that swearing back there, I thought I lost you. That would have been bad news: even we can't get people back from a shot in the head."

Alex pulled himself up, looking around in shock. Everyone seemed to be frozen, not a single movement could be seen. "What the hell? What's happened?"

"I've frozen you, Alex. See that bullet?" Alex looked with shock at a bullet, suspended in air in front of him. "That would have been the end of you. I saved you, and you should sure as he'll be thankful."

"Thanks, I guess? But what are you helping me?"

"Because, Alex, I want your help in return. You know what they say, quid pro quo. And we need a helluva lot of quo," he said, chuckling.

 

[Nintz]

Oooh. This looks interesting. Now I regret missing the first one. Anyway, character up as soon as I get a chance.

 

[Milarqui]

Messrs Ario Palermo and Leon Alexandros, you may join the crew of the CFC.com!

Arrow Gamer: Good story!

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Thanks.

When will this start?

 

[Milarqui]

As soon as Nintz and JoanK finish their characters. Which, hopefully, will be soon.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Please, please, please, pleeeeeeaaaaaasssssssseeeee finish your characters soon, Joank and Nintz.


Please?

 

[JohannaK]

No.

 

[Nintz]

Finished last night.

I spent ~2 hours working on the TL and stuff, so hopefully it works.

-----------------------------

Author's Note: This was originally designed with a male character in mind, but given the male:female ratio, I changed it. The character itself was vague enough that I think it still works to some degree, as the TL backstory was where most of my thought was put. Essentially, the dystopian world defines who this character is, and further development will come via the story progression. Imagine. The world will literally kill you if you don't conform to society correctly, you cannot show independence, you cannot show yourself to be opinionated, or you will suffer greatly. Over time, the character should gain these traits as she learns that is not the case on every world. If it still seems a little off, just imagine a tomboy-ish emotionally scarred and abandoned young woman and you should get the basic idea.

--- Info ---

Name: Sancha Rodrigeuz
Origin: TL 28486 - Moon Crashed into Earth, 2472 A.D., Cloak & Dagger Collaborative Commonwealth Inc., Carbon-Based Life Form

--- Primary Stats ---

STR: 70
PER: 70
END: 60
CHA: 50
INT: 50
AGI: 75
LCK: 75

--- Secondary Stats ---

HP: 145
MP: 20, though irrelevant
CP: 25

--- Abilities ---

Blademaster, Sancha is trained in numerous techniques relating to dirks, daggers, knives, and all standard weapons of the sort. She has a basic knowledge of longer swords as well.
Rifle Mastery, Sancha knows her way around almost any gun, but rifles in particular.
Acrobatics, Sancha is capable of rare and unusual feats of agility and speed.
Stealthy, Sancha is tougher than most to detect in almost any environment.
Bird's Eye View, Sancha's eyes are just plain better than others, her years of training and use have resulted in a vision that can see farther and better than other peoples, as well as under worse lighting conditions.

--- Disabilities ---

Self-Preservation, Sancha cannot be counted on to do anything unless it serves her in some way. If it is dangerous or risky, she had better get something from it. This is from the world in which helping others will mean that you starve yourself.

"Ends Justify the Means", Sancha does not care that much about collateral damage so long as the net positive outweighs the net negative for her. In a world where people are objects, and commodities even, humanity is simply not valued the same as in other worlds, and collateral is even expected. If you need to get ahead, someone will suffer for it.


--- Weapons ---

Unidentified military-grade assault rifle, battered and worn, it has clearly been through a lot. One war for sure, two most likely. Even three could be feasible based on the wear. The make is similar to that of a WWII or Cold War era gun, and ammunition is both plentiful and cheap on this world. If you know where to look.

Steel Dirk, kept sharp and polished by Sancha, this one weapon is her classic fallback.

--- Armor ---

Tough leather boots, though worn and rough, they protect the user.

An odd jerkin of some sort that is a mix between leather and futuristic metal plating. The idea is to provide some degree of protection while maintaining complete flexibility and a lightweight frame.

Leather pants. Self-explanatory.

A fur hat that looks vaguely Russian in origin, commonly seen among the poor beggars of the world.

--- Other Items ---

A set of tools that can be used to pick and break simple and archaic locks, though all electric locks are beyond this set's capabilities, as well as Sancha's.

A long nylon rope that is strong and in one piece, though clearly old and weakened from its original state.

A series of minor satchels, pouches, pockets, belts, and more designed to conceal and carry small items on the user.

Extra Rifle ammunition.

--- Backstories ---

Spoiler :

Timeline Backstory: The moon crashed into Earth. Ridiculous. Yet, not. What happened was that a small meteor, was set to pass by Earth sometime in the B.C. era. and continue on its way. A handful of rogue patterns meant that the path was just slightly off, enough that it hit the moon in a glancing shot. This permanently changed the orbit of the moon. It drastically affected tides and others things on Earth, but life more or less went on as normal. However, every cycle the moon got slightly closer until about 1400 OTL or so, in which the moon cratered right into Europe. This understandably changed history drastically, as not only did every major nation get vaporized overnight (England, France, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, the Ottomans, and most Russians were all caught in the blast) but the entire northern hemisphere was thrown into a cloud of smoke and ash for years and years. The only Europeans to survive in even small numbers were Norwegians in Iceland, who escape to Greenland, and a few early Spaniard colonists in the Canary Islands, who managed to sail farther south and set up an African nation. The immediate effects were large and obvious. However, many long-term effects also came out of this. First, we have the New World. Because the moon hit right at the start of the era of exploration ,the new world was not colonized in at all the same way, nor nearly as quickly or cohesively. The Canary Islander Spaniards did set up some early Brazilian colonies, yet their numbers were far to small to expand into the Amazonas of Brazil. Morocco, which survived (albeit scarred and wounded from fallout) eventually colonized some remaining shreds of Iberia that were inhabitable, but also were the primary colonizers in this TL, taking vast tracts of N. America for their own. Much later, these lands and peoples united to throw off the Muslim rule, though could never unite themselves, as each desired to rule his comrades. Most of S. America was simply not colonized, as these tribal societies adapted far quicker than in our TL to a far slower colonial effort, resulting in new nations existing. The continent is fractured by and large. The Middle East never fully recovered. The Timurids, without their Turkish rivals, managed to conquer all of Arabia and India before Timur himself died. Hi children squabbled, but ultimately resulted in three different states existing. Arabia and Persia were one, India another, and the central steppes the third. Egypt survived as well, though they too suffered from massive damage and fallout. Asia thrived in parts, died in others. India was conquered, but managed to then unite. The Timurid successor state went on to unify the different Indian peoples politically, but also culturally and religiously. N. China and Mongolia were subject to terrible weather storms and patterns that destroyed their nation, as was Japan. S. China and Indochina united into a new nation in time, and went on to colonize all of the Pacific Islands left by Europeans, including everything from Australia to Hawaii. Africa itself remained divided. The north was experiencing problems of its own, and the few Spanish settlements near OTL Liberia went unnoticed as the petty kingdoms continued to squabble.

How did the world develop? Well, philosophy was drastically different. The ideas of absolutism dominated more than ever before, with China and Timurid successors the primary powers. Liberalism never developed en masse socially, not to even mention economically. The issues seen and described by socialists and communists in OTL came to pass worse than even they could imagine. As merchants grew wealthier, they expanded business. As business expanded, new markets were required. When new markets were required, who better than the kings to open said foreign markets, by force if necessary? When you control 98% of the nation's wealth, will he stop you? Doubtful. Eventually, the kings became figureheads. They acted as their corporate paymasters demanded. Eventually, these kings simply ceased to exist. Why not? No one cared anyway. Now the world is ruled by corporations big and small, who effectively control everything. They fight and argue, but at the end of the day, they realize that they are in a precarious situation. Should their position fall in one nation, all would crumble sooner rather than later. They ensure that does not happen, no matter what.

And the moon. It is still stuck in Europe. The Earth's atmosphere has extended to many parts of it, which now host nations of their own, after effectively becoming an extension of Earth. The outermost parts are still desolate, but many seek to actively change that. The Earth also has an irregular orbit, traveling in more of an ellipse than circle naturally. It is slight however as the orbit has gradually corrected itself over the years.

Spoiler :

Sancha Backstory:

Survive.

Live.

Don't Die.

That in and of itself in enough.

In this world, simply adding the wrong change at the convenience store can make you, your family, your friends, and their families vanish without a trace. Sancha hadn't had that happen. She lived. She stuck to the wilds of her corporation, Cloak and Dagger in Spanish Brazil, and ensured that no one had reason to think her smart or intelligent. To some degree, she wasn't, but she realized that she couldn't be either.

Scavenger. Mercenary. Thief. Bodyguard. Clerk. Driver. Athlete. Hunter. Hunted.

All this and more she had been. At one point, one time.

She had no lifestyle, no career. That is traceable and predictable. You never want that to happen in this world. No friends. No family. And she LIVED. She was still in the same town (or at least general area) she was born in, yet no one else was. Everyone had vanished, or gone through "forcibly-assisted relocation". But not her.

She lived.

But that isn't enough. This world is gone beyond hope. It is despicable at best.

But others?

Maybe, just maybe, Sancha could save them from themselves. She hopes so. She's counting on it even.

If she can't, than what hope is there?

 

[Arrow Gamer]

No.

@Nintz: That timeline is awesome, though I'm pretty sure the moon crashing into the world would destroy it. However, a comet or asteroid might be workable.

 

[Nintz]

Well, I figured that if the moon sort of glanced into the Earth rather than full force impact. It destroyed Europe alltogether, and made much of N. Africa, the Middle East, and Asia uninhabitable for years, in some regions to this day.

If it really seems too unrealistic, I could change it to a massive meteor though.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

I don't know. Maybe if it glanced it.

I'm no astronomer, so I might be totally wrong and the moon makes sense.

 

[Nintz]

Also keep in mind that history slowed down by almost 500 years since then, as we are using mostly 1940s-1950s tech despite being in the 2470s by now. I figure that could make up for any minor discrepancy, that the people who did survive had to rebuild over massive amounts of time.

 

[talonschild]

This is totally off the current topic, but I don't really understand all the magic systems. Beastmaster, Missionary, Mystic, Shaman, and Vancian I understand.

Summoner I do not understand brom the blurb. Sorceror I'm even less clear on; right now it's blurring with Technomancer on one side (the "understanding and using components" side) and blurring with Wild Man on the other ("magic is part of the nature, including yourself, and you know how to gain access to it, but it is not completely within you" compared to "magic is a force of nature that you can control with your word and will. The spells you may cast can get out of control easily"). Could I get this explained?

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Summoners just summon spirits to serve them, Sorcerers see magic in the world around them and manipulate it subtly. They tweak it, while the Wild Men force it to change at gunpoint.

At least, that is my take.