forum Frozen in Time // Sci-Fi OxO // Closed

Started December 21, 2021 by @ElderGod-Icefire

tune

"Darlin', can you hear me?"
ksssshhhhhhh
"I'm not comin' home."

He never did return from space.

James Alexander Baros holds a record for being the first human who died outside of our solar system. Everyone knows his name. The first manned lightspeed mission ended in failure, with a final transmission that almost everyone has heard by now. Its famous last words have been quoted and requoted, and are some of the most well-known ones out there now. They are etched on his tombstone. Even as humanity finally spread to the stars and discovered aliens and all sorts of other things, even as they colonized and spread and grew, James Baros was remembered, sometimes in humor, sometimes with sadness, but always with some degree of reverence. He was seen as a hero, for his bravery and resolve when he realized he would not be coming home. He and his ship, the Kairos, have been immortalized. Neither has ever been found.

(Name) is a crewmember aboard the Avadora, which is a…well, a ship that rather dodges the law. They are a crew of smugglers, and one day, a run takes them out to a system that isn't inhabited. There are a few unmanned stations, but no humans or aliens live there. So it comes as a surprise when the Avadora's sensors pick up another ship. Strangely, the ship doesn't answer their hails. They come closer to it, and see that it is a floating derelict, caught in orbit around the sun, near the system's large asteroid belt. They can see that it is ancient, the metal worn and damaged, though it seems to still be largely intact. They study it for a few minutes, and are about to decide to just leave it when (Name) spots the name of the ship. It is worn and battered and nearly illegible, but it still unmistakably reads "Kairos".

The news sends the humans aboard the ship into a state of shock, while the aliens aboard know vaguely what this means, but they do not care about it nearly as much. For many of the humans aboard, the story of the Kairos and of James Baros are stories that they've idolized and revered. There is a new discussion that takes place now, and it is what to do with the Kairos. They all know that it likely contained James Baros's remains; the question is, do they put the Kairos in tow? Do they stow her in the Avadora's hold? Or do they simply throw out an emergency beacon and leave, knowing that the authorities will eventually find her?

They want the credit for this find, and so they must decide what to do. They worry that putting the Kairos in tow will deteriorate the ship's condition even further, but that putting it in the hold and exposing the ancient ship to pressure would be even worse for the deteriorated metal. The Avadora is not a scientific ship geared towards preservation, and they would need scientific equipment to safely put the Kairos in the hold. So they decide they will have to just put it in tow, and hope that the acceleration into jumpspace does not damage the relic. First, though, they enter the derelict, wearing spacesuits to protect themselves.

What they find inside is the stuff of legend, for the humans aboard. Ancient tech that seems clunky and strange to their eyes. At each turn, they prepare themselves to find a skeleton. When they come upon the medbay, though, they are surprised to find that the door is shut, and the panel…still works? Somehow, this one portion of the ship has retained rudimentary power. They open the door, and inside find a cryo pod. This pod is ancient-looking; it must have been experimental, as at the time the Kairos was launched, cryo technology did not work yet. The cryo tube, shockingly, is still in working order, and inside…inside is the man whose words have been immortalized, and whose final days have been written about and sung about and turned into stories uncountable, as no one knows what really happened.

Now the crew of the Avadora has a choice: unthaw James Baros (they have the technology to do it) or leave him there, knowing that if they leave him there and the Kairos suffers any further damage, he will be lost forever?

You will be a crewmember of the Avadora. Your character will need to be at least half-human, so that they actually care about James Baros and what happened to him. I will be playing the rest of the crew of the Avadora, as well as James. This RP will probably feature romance in some way, but definitely family dynamics (the crew of the Avadora are all close and it's very much a found-family dynamic between them all). Idk should be interesting.

Rules:

• andrew (Our Supreme Lord and Overseer)'s rules apply
• Smut will be taken to PMs
• Three sentences per reply minimum, please
• I would prefer you to be 16 or older
• Triggering content may or may not occur
• I reserve the right to say no

(Ayup.

The lesson was over within the next hour and, for once, Julian had done much better than his previous lesson, more of the subject finally sticking with him. He'd inwardly groaned in annoyance when he spotted his father heading out the door with his briefcase in hand a few minutes after Shen had gone, but he didn't dwell on it. Once Ms. Alani left, he ran upstairs and went into his room, finding it tidier than when he'd left it. He smiled and flopped onto his bed, then fished his phone from his pocket and checked the time. 5:40. Sighing, he sat up and went into his calendar, looking through to see that he only had one more thing to do for the day, then he could relax…as much as his father would let him, at least. Likely, he'd end up getting some busywork to do; "You can be unproductive during your weekend." the man would say.

From another one-on-one.)

Name:
Nickname(s):
Age: (Between 20 and 25, please)
Gender and Sexuality:
Species: (Again, preferably at least half-human)
Role on Crew:
Looks:
Brief Backstory:
Personality:
Songs: (optional)
Other:

Name: James Alexander Baros
Nickname(s): Jay; Jamie;
Age: 23 (biologically; chronologically is way older)
Gender and Sexuality: Cis man, he/him. Pan
Species: Human
Role on Crew: N/A
Looks: James is what is usually labeled "Classically handsome". He is 6' tall, with a well-muscled form. He is white, and rather pale from being in the ship for months before going into cryo. He has hazel eyes, with tones of green in them. He has warm brown hair, with curtain bangs, which is slightly wavy. There is a scar cutting through his left eyebrow, and another one on the right side of his chin. He is clean-shaven. When he smiles, slight dimples appear on each side of his mouth. He has rather sharp, high cheekbones.
Brief Backstory: James wanted to be an astronaut ever since he was a little kid. He was good at math, and a quick thinker. He had two younger siblings. His parents were neglectful for much of his childhood, as they were druggies and more focused on their next hit than on their three children. So he often was the caretaker for his siblings, and his eyes always remained fastened on the stars. He would borrow books from the school library about the stars, and could soon identify most constellations easily. When he was in middle school, he and his siblings were placed with their paternal grandparents, and he was able to focus on himself more. He excelled in school, and was an accomplished athlete as well. As a result, he got a full-ride scholarship, and attended Harvard, where he double-majored in Engineering and computer sciences. While he was in college, he got his girlfriend pregnant. While they did eventually break up, they maintained a good relationship and had shared custody of their daughter. Once he had finished college, he applied at NASA. A year later, they were asking for volunteers for the first manned lightspeed mission to leave the solar system. There had been lightspeed missions before, but never outside the solar system. This mission would be highly dangerous; if anything went wrong, it was highly doubtful that anyone would be able to get to you in time to save you. James and one other man volunteered for the mission. They were given six months of nearly non-stop training, and then they were sent up in the Kairos. This was not James's first time in space, nor even his first time to the edges of the solar system, but this was different. As they left the solar system, the other man began to get shaky and irritable and anxious, fidgeting and shaking and terrified. This was later termed "Space fright"; at the time, though, James had no idea what to do. He tried to calm his fellow passenger, but the man's condition grew worse and worse. One night, while James was asleep, the other man, Isaac Dillinger, threw himself out of the airlock. James awoke alone in the Kairos. After that, the mission began to get worse. The small, routine issues that needed fixing were far more difficult to fix alone, and it was only a few days later when James realized he would never be going home. So he radioed back to Earth; mission control knew what had been happening, and had known he likely would not return. He asked if he could speak to his daughter one last time, as he was quickly reaching the edge of communication with Earth; beyond a certain point, transmissions would break up to the point of illegibility, and that point was growing closer. They brought in his daughter as quickly as he could, and his words to her are considered his "final words", as he reached transmission break soon after saying them. Those are the famous "Darlin', can you hear me? I'm not comin' home", words that have been immortalized. After that, no one really knows what happened to him. It was assumed that he continued on, only to eventually die from equipment failure. (this was…not brief. Sorry lmao)
Personality: James is a kind, gentle person, for the most part, and very calm and easy-going. Highly unlikely to lose his temper, though when he does it can be frightening. Loves his daughter (who is now dead, obviously; she lived a good life, got married, had kids. He actually has descendants currently alive, who are quite proud to claim his lineage). Never wanted to be famous or in the spotlight; he just wanted to reach the stars.
Songs: "Wake Me Up" by Avicii. "Pompeii" by Bastille
Other:

(Note: I just made this sheet because Murph is going to be my secondary character)
Name: Murph Connelly
Nickname(s):
Age: 32
Gender and Sexuality: Trans man, he/him Biromantic, demisexual
Species: Human
Role on Crew: Captain
Looks: Murph is 5'10", and stocky. He has dark hair and olive toned skin, along with a short beard. His eyes are a dark brown tone. There are burn scars from his wrists to his elbows, and assorted other scars flecked around his body.
Brief Backstory: Murph comes from the Commonwealth of Istarmin, which is notorious for being an awful, awful place to live. He does not talk much about his past, nor about the scars on his arms.
Personality: Serious, but a good person. Very protective of the Avadora and his crew, and the kind of person you could probably come to about anything and he would listen.
Songs: (optional)
Other: the ship's cat technically belongs to him; her name is Jinx, and she is black, with a white tip to her tail and white paws.

(Heyo, my bad! I've literally been asleep all day-)

Name: Marchosias "Marcus" Well
Nickname(s): Marc, Sparky (somehow only ever called that by parental figures and he both loves and hates it)
Age: 20
Gender and Sexuality: Cis man, He/Him, Gay
Species: Xulga-Human Hybrid (Xulga are short electricity-based aliens who work best in groups. They're humanoid, but their skin comes in shades ranging from blue to orange, and they have 1-3 antennae protruding from their heads)
Role on Crew: Engineering Technician
Looks: Marcus is 5'2" with a slender build, like most of his kind. He has fair skin tinted pale green, neck-length blonde hair with cyan highlights, and light green eyes that glow in the dark or if a light is shined on them. His back-length antenna has a cyan-colored bob, which he can use as a light, and he has a tail with plug-like prongs at the end. He has paled scarring along his left shoulder to his elbow from an incident with some bullies a while back.
Brief Backstory: His parents, both members of a planetary scouting group, disappeared during a mission about a year after he was born, and he went to live with his two best friends and their mother. Alongside his natural inclination towards technology, he developed an interest and subsequent love for all things interstellar. He joined an academy to train for space travel when he was 15, and the next thing he knew he was 18, packing up for his first official trip with his eyes set on the last planet his parents visited. His ship never made it there, however- it was attacked by another and looted, while the crew, all those who failed to hide anyway, were killed. He sent out a distress beacon that ended up being answered not by any authority like he'd hoped, but by the Avadora.
Personality: Timid, patient, and is often the first to attempt to talk out a situation. Despite being part of an arguably shady group, he does his best to avoid conflict.
Songs: Ruler of Everything by Tally Hall, Thunder by Imagine Dragons
Other: He likes to bake when he has the time and resources.

(Is this okay?)