Either Needed Tales of the Ringworld

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Either Needed Tales of the Ringworld

birmie

birmie

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Tales of the Ringworld
The Codswallop Galaxy, named after its completely nonsensical shape, is a vast expanse full of all types of alien races and cultures. Radiating from the center of the galaxy, one interstellar dominion holds power over its entirety with a greasy, iron fist. The one escape that the galaxy's inhabitants have from this wicked power is halation. But even halation is held in the crooked grasp of the dominion, who control the means of its production and exclusively export to affluent parts of the galaxy populated by the upper-class.

Halation is a commodity to the poor, sought throughout the entire Codswallop Galaxy—especially in the lawless outer rim. Made from starlight, its effects can be described as "feeling like you're in a movie." Users of halation will see a foggy halo around their vision, feel nostalgic, uplifted, and warm, and won't be able to resist a second toke.Especially because if they do, the withdrawals are agonizingly fatal.

This drug is produced by ringworlds, most of which lie in the outer rim; a hive of scum and villainy, and the breeding ground for the worst sort in the galaxy. Due to the high prices of planetary housing and the upper class's penchant for segregation, ringworlds are predominantly populated by the poorest of the poor. Ringworlds are much cheaper to live in, as the side effects of halation production are toxic to most lifeforms of the galaxy. Life expectancy is severely reduced among ringworld inhabitants, most not living past the age of fifty.

There is one ringworld that is particularly wrought with nefarious affairs. Orbiting the star Petroleum VI, it is affectionately called "The Gas Station" by its locals. This is in part because of its location being suitable as a rest stop for travelers, but also because of its wretched smell.

Though most ringworld societies are based heavily on class, The Gas Station may be the worst of them all. Conditions in the slums are dreadful. Going out for a nightly stroll is the same as inviting anyone in your housing block to rob you.If you somehow go a few minutes without being mugged, you will be treated with the glorious views of shattered windows and abandoned apartments, and be able to hear the dozens of murders and other illegal activity that occurs on a nightly basis. At the very least, you will always have good old halation.

The local government does nothing to help the people in these ghettos, though its not as if they could even if they wanted to. The Beckett Syndicate and Lockmore Cartel are really in charge here. Selling halation has led their coffers to grow to heights rarely seen in the outer rim.

Though the Beckett Syndicate has been the driving force of the halation trade in The Gas Station for many years, the Lockmore Cartel arrived with a bang, assassinating the great Leon Beckett who had led the Syndicate for decades. The plot has left the Syndicate in shambles as they scramble to find new leadership. This has allowed John Lockmore to buy his way into the pockets of dominion officials on the Gas Station that once were under the thumb of the Beckett Syndicate.

This conflict has barely begun, but it is becoming clear that the Lockmore Cartel is here to stay. However, in the outlaw space of the outer rim, only time can tell what will happen to The Gas Station.

Rules/guidelines
1) The ring world is a hive of scum and villainy - everyone must be scum. Or villainy. Or just poor enough to be associated with those two like lower class basically
2) Robot technology is not very advanced yet - cyborgs aren't a thing, with only the rich being able to afford cybernetic enhancements of any value. Pretty much every robot is a servant and only able to complete the basic tasks - cleaning, cooking, etc.
3) The galaxy is large, and its population is diverse. While there are of course humans, there are many other races to be found among the stars. Be creative.
4) Please stay on the ringworld; while space is huge, this is "Tales of the Ring World", not "Tales of the Ring World and Everywhere Else".
5) While you're not forced to be in either the syndicate or cartel, you shouldn't expect to escape their grasp. Or something.

Character Sheet
Name:

Age:

Gender:

Affiliation(cant be the dominion):

Appearance:

Bio:​
 
Name: Ganu Gal Ganak Ganu or "Gaga"

Age: Ganu Gal Ganak Ganu has survived for 34 galactic standard years. Considering he's spent most of his life living on ringworlds, he can be considered to be nearing the end of his life. Because of this he often disregards his health/safety.

Gender: Ganu belongs to a species which, in their native tongue, has an incredibly long name full of the letter "g." Many inhabitants of the Codswallop Galaxy, even those belonging to his species, refer to them as "G"s. Members of the species "G" are sequential hermaphrodites, and can embody either sex/gender depending on what is necessary for reproduction. Ganu, as do many members of his species, has and will most likely continue to spend his life in a male orientation.

Affiliation: When the first signs of his body being poisoned by halation production appeared, Ganu decided to throw caution to the wind and pick up a halation habit. Having spent the majority of his life involved in criminal activity, but never making it rich, it didn't take long for him to be unable to afford another dose. He resorted to taking the worst jobs, finally committing an atrocity the Interstellar Dominion couldn't overlook. Fleeing justice, he arrived on The Gas Station as a member of the Lockmore Cartel. Adopting the name "Gaga", he's worked his way up the ranks and become one of John Lockmore's top enforcers. Now, he oversees part of the gas station's halation production and export, manages some lower-ranked underlings, and works to spread/maintain the rule of the Cartel throughout the slums. As far as he's aware, no one catches on to him skimming some of the product off the top of every shipment.

Appearance: The "G"s are a race of humanoid, gelatinous creatures. They're more solid than many other "gooey" lifeforms of the galaxy, and are not particularly translucent, but are gelatinous nonetheless. Once they've grown and adopted a proper shape, their ability to reform is reduced and will require extreme amounts of energy expenditure and biomass intake. However, minor adjustments to body parts are doable in the right circumstances. The "G"s are found in a multitude of different colors. The color of a member of the "G" species is said to be related to their ancestry, which, according to "G" priests and scholars, can be traced far into the past. Whatever religious undertones or heroic tales are related to specific colors of "G" are a story for another day. Besides, most of those legends are only known to well-educated "G" and "G"s who haven't moved away or been born outside of "G" populated worlds. Ringworld "G"s like Gaga are often ignorant of the nature of their own species, but feel a strong solidarity with others of their kind, especially of the same color.
Gaga's body is a deep blue. Characteristic to his species, he has six eyes which float beneath the surface of his shape and can be slowly shifted to any location on his body. His eyes have purple irises, and a yellow tint to their sclera. He is a tall "G", standing at a sharp 5 feet tall. His shoulders are quite wide, but he has a slender build. He tends to present all six of his eyes on the front of his face, arranged like a diamond, but has the peculiar habit of hiding a number of them when he is nervous. He wears the crimson-red clothing of the Lockmore Cartel, which he often begrudges as clashing with the color of his body.

Bio: Ganu Gal Ganak Ganu was born on a "G" populated planet a large number of star systems away from that of Petroleum VI. "G"s are mostly native to the outer rim, although some offshoots have roots towards the center of the galaxy. Like many "G"s, he was sent away from his home planet upon reaching maturity, at ten years old(considered a late bloomer compared to most). As a missionary, he was tasked with a specific objective. Unfortunately, as "G"s tend to be severely forgetful, he was one of many "G"s to forget that objective. Now, he only vaguely remembers even the location of his home star and planet.
Drifting from star system to star system, he frequented many ringworlds in the outer rim. At the start of his journey, his personality was carefree and easygoing. Unaware of how the world works and of things like the dominion and the nature of the galaxy's other inhabitants, Ganu had not been tainted by corruption. He was naive and trusting, often working for less pay than he deserved and putting faith in employers who were only taking advantage of him. However, inside he had a deep drive to keep moving. He often felt as though he was looking for something, and could never settle down for long. As the cost of living a spacefaring lifestyle caught up with him, and time passed, the feeling inside him dwindled and eventually vanished. He settled down on a ringworld relatively close to the gas station. By this time, he had been away from his home for ten years. There, he met a man who introduced him to stealing to supplement his income. Soon, he had completely been immersed in a life of petty crime. It didn't take long for him to realize he excelled at skulduggery. As the memories of his youth and homeworld had faded, so too did whatever pretenses he held to a moral compass.
After five years of living on that ringworld, his body began to show signs of damage caused by proximity to halation production. Like many of his peers, he then stepped into the world of halation addicts. By now he had had many run ins with the law, and had never held an allegiance to the dominion in the first place. Never having purchased halation from official sources, or even had the money to consider doing so in the first place, he was already beginning to feel the burden of poverty. Despite the criminal escapades he was involved in, he still couldn't afford his habit. After his first experience of the devastating withdrawals of halation, he crossed a line and became a monster.
Ganu began to rob whoever he could, and didn't hesitate to murder. Before long, he was carrying out hits on people for money and endangering the lives of many. He was living good for a year, but then he took a job he shouldn't have. After the horrifying results of his actions, the Dominion swarmed the ringworld he had been living on. His mentor, the man who brought him into the criminal lifestyle, the man who made him a true ringworld resident, uncharacteristically sacrificed himself to allow Ganu time to flee. He ended up on the Gas Station, where he used his reputation and few remaining connections to convince John Lockmore to bring him into the cartel.
On The Gas Station, he has free reign to maintain his halation habit, and has become a prominent figure among the criminal population there. The extreme conditions aboard The Gas Station let people like him flourish, and Gaga has things he'll try to get done before he succumbs to his sickness.
 
Character Sheet
Name:
Cara Baker

Age:
37

Gender:
Female

Affiliation(cant be the dominion):
A mule for the Beckett Syndicate

Appearance:
Tall, and slender. Perhaps behind her paper white, slick skin there was once a girl of beauty. Maybe her now cracked and graying hair that barely reaches past her shoulders used to shine like the rays of the sun, flowing like the tides of the ocean. It's possible there was a time her misty and sullen eyes were blue like the sky and vibrant, full of life. But Baker's years of halation usage has left her a shell of her self. Despite the decay of her physical appearance, she does still do her best to dress well; she wears well fitted and well kept suits, and her shoe game is surprisingly impeccable, something she takes great pride in. She is surprisingly well bathed. The most recognizable thing about her, though, is her perfume; it is so unique that there is nothing to compare it too, the best being a mix of an oceans breeze and of a forest.

Bio:
Cara Baker's youth was one of privilege and comfort. Her father was the chief treasurer of a core planet. He passed on his keenness for mathematics to his daughter, though also passed on his dreadful speaking skills. In Cara's adolescent years she was the most promising cadet in the Dominion's pilot academy. Indeed, she passed every test with flying colors(except for the one on Trous Prime, but ask Baker and Trous Prime might as well not exist). Ahead of her was a path of adventure, whether she chose to join the Dominions navy or travel on her own.

Unfortunately, while on an academy sponsored trip to one of the few ringworlds in the core sectors, one of Cara's peers(fuck you, Dale) introduced her to halation. Cara doubted what she had been told about the substance - surely it could not be more addictive than the freedom of drifting the stars in a ship. Two days later, when she felt herself becoming dangerously ill, she would just begin to realize the extent of her misdeed. Her parents were upset, but understanding, at least for the first two years.

But after spending countless amounts of money to attempt to rehab her, Baker's parents quit, leaving her with enough money to have a tenant apartment for just a month in the core worlds. But Baker knew that at the age of nineteen, she would be forced to fend for herself, and that a halation addict could find no well paying job in the core worlds. She purchased enough halation to sustain her until she could get some funds, and also a ticket straight to the outer rim. There she would find many people willing to pay a pretty penny for her piloting skills. Most importantly, she knew there she would find the primary producers of halation to fuel her addiction.

Upon arriving at The Gas Station, Baker was quickly introduced to the Syndicate through a businessman she had met at one of her father's meetings at an inner ringworld. They shared drinks and may have participated in some activities that would be all but destructive to his career, activities of which Baker may or may not have had proof of. Turns out the businessman was eager to unite Cara with his connections in the Syndicate, and she impressed quickly. Her piloting skills quickly made her one of the great mules of the Syndicate, transporting the organization's cargo in exchange for credits and, of course, some precious halation.

However, with the assassination of Leon Beckett and the concurrent weakening of the Syndicate, Cara now questions her allegiance to the drug empire. Her stay in the Gas Station has all but assured her death is nearer than her birth, and though she does enjoy the adrenaline of it all, she does not want to live without returning at least once to the core worlds. But it is not easy for one to go from the outer rim to the core worlds, and she still does not have nearly the fortune required to do this.

For now, though, she has more pressing matters, for as she peers out of her obsidian black speeder, she sees four men in crimson red suits huddled at the corner, eyes locked on Cara Baker...​
 
I'd like to join as well, if possible!
 
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