Entanglement (Mods)

This post is to help keep everyone abreast of what's happening! Everything written down here is considered current. If someone's done something that affects the station as a whole, comment here and we'll add it to the info.

Ansible communication:	Currently open to Antivesuvio, Xestsemon and Geldeheim. Feel free to open a communication to either planet. Just put "[character name] calling [planet name]" in the subject line in an <user name="entangleme"> post.
Current Destination:	To be decided by vote.
Current Location:	In orbit around Bhor and Planck
Department Heads:	Currently all NPCs. Contact mods to have your character run for office.
Engineering/Maintenance:	Enterprise saucer nearly completely destroyed by Fay'lia attack. Holodeck   memory banks being moved to regular computer network.  Babel Fishes phased out in favor of shabby magitech machine translators that imitate their design. They go in your ear and are reprogrammable with a little remote control wand. They're a cheap ripoff of the design Fay'lia officials use.
General Supplies:	After an initial accident making it only produce twinkies for a short while, the station's alchemical food-creation array has been augmented with arcano-machinery that produces food based on the dreams of the people on the station. A backup supply of canned and boxed food is filling in for when the system comes up with undesirable results. Sealant, wires and other repair items are running short.
Entertainment:	Campy movies in Serenity lounge. Drinks available at The Bucket. Crappy video games (Superman 64, for instance) available for play in Serenity lounge. Spacesuits available for checkout for spacewalks. Swimming pool available in aquatic habitat. Shuttles going to and from Antivesuvio.
Fay'lia:	Normal state of searching for station, portraying station as terrorists, aggresively expanding empire. Currently at least three (player character) spies on Fay'lia payroll on board station. One Fay'lia ambassador and possibly two guards killed by stationites in recent conflict over the kidnapping of Tavros Nitram. Dozens of stationites and allies also killed.  In <a href=http://entanglement-rp.dreamwidth.org/82944.html>current log</a>, meeting with Fay'lia artists sympathetic to resistance.
Ongoing Plots:	The second episode of Freedom Deliverer Robin, the station's propaganda magical girl series is being produced. Actors and those with technical skills are needed.  Meteo Spiderbeam is dead, apparently killed in the Fay'lia attack. Investigation will reveal evidence that he was lured to a high risk area though. The station, especially those who were on the mission to Cat Planet, has been called up as witnesses by the MHB (Fay'lia secret police), for a trial set to begin soon. Should the stationites honor their agreement with the Fay'lia, even though it was made under duress?  Fay'lia sympathizers wish to meet with members of the resistance on <a href=http://entanglement-rp.dreamwidth.org/82944.html#comments>Planck</a>. Unfortunately they're obnoxiously arty hipsters. There are agents among them. Can you tolerate them long enough to get any useful information out of them?

Reply here with the character or type of characters you want to see in the game.

1984
Winston Smith, Comrade O'Brien, Julia

Ace Attorney
Any, especially Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth, Franziska von Karma, Quercus Alba

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The Cheshire Cat

Azumanga Daioh
Chiyo Chichi

A Song of Ice and Fire
Any Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen

Banner of the Stars
Auronn Saicspennir Spaurh, Samson, Seelnay, Ekuryua

Bas Lag
Isaac Dan Der Grimnebulin, Jack Half A Prayer, Lin, Bellis Coldwine, Uther Doul, The Brucolac

The Boondocks
Uncle Ruckus, Huey Freeman

Code Geass
Lelouch, Suzaku, any Black Knight, Jeremiah Gottwald

Doctor Who/Torchwood
Any, especially Ianto Jones

Dune
Duncan Idaho, Scytale, Leto Atreides 2, Darwi Odrade, Bellonda, Murbella, Jessica Atreides

Earl Cain/Godchild
Jizabel Disraeli, Mary Weather Hargreaves

The Engineer Trilogy
Ziani Vaatzes, Veatriz Orsea

Fire Emblem
Blazing Sword: Florina, Matthew, Nino, Serra
Sacred Stones: Ephraim, L'Arachel, Lute
Shadow Dragon: Chainy, Marth

General
Doctors, Lawyers, people who can do utterly mundane things, Dolphins and other cetaceans, cats of all kinds

Gundam
Mobile Fighter G-Gundam: Domon Kasshu

Homestuck
Any troll, any kid, Jack Noir

Kuragehime
Tsukimi Kurashita, Kuranosuke Koibuchi

Megaman
The Protomen: Any

The Newflesh Trilogy
Shaun Masons, Rick Cousinsm, Mahir

Phantasy Star Online
Rico Tyrell, any of the playable classes (as OCs)

Pita-Ten
Misha

Planetes
Any Technora employee

Sailor Moon
Artemis, Usagi Tsukino, Ami Mizuno, Rei Hino, Makoto Kino, Luna

The Simpsons
Lisa Simpson

Stargate
Any member of SG1, Urgo

Star Wars
Any Solo

Touhou series
Keine Kamishirasawa, Aya Shameimaru, Hijiri Byakuren, Cirno

The Wicked Years
Elphaba Thropp, Liir Thropp, Triism, Candle

Every mod decision in Entanglement can be overturned by vote of all the players. This includes app acceptance/rejection, banning, plot decisions...Anything. Mods may also be removed from modship by vote and new mods may be elected.

All decisions require a simple majority to overturn, except for bannings and the decision to impeach or elect a mod, both of which require 2/3 majority.

Rules of voting:

1. DO NOT screw around with the system. Attempting bribes, threatening or harassing other players in order to get them to vote your way will result in immediate expulsion from the game.
   
   
2. In order to begin a vote on a decision, the person bringing the issue to a vote must make two posts in the OOC comm. One post will be for the actual voting and must have VOTE in the subject line, followed by the topic. The other will be for discussion and will have DISCUSS in the subject line, followed by the topic.
   
   
3. Once the vote has begun, voting will remain open until 11:59 PM ET, seven days after the voting post was put up.
   
   
4. Players on hiatus may vote. Players removed from the game may not.
   
   
5. Please be clear whether you are voting FOR or AGAINST in your subject line. Votes may be changed until the end of voting by deleting and reposting your vote.
   
   
6. Once a vote has been made, the subject may not be brought up for a revote until 31 days after the original vote has ended.
   
   
7. Voting is not anonymous. Sorry, but that's the only way to make it work. All VOTE and DISCUSS posts, however, must be friendslocked.
   
   
8. Electing a player to modship is handled the same as any other vote.

( Previous Votes )

---

FAY'LIA

Physiology:

Fay'lian are a humanoid race, with large eyes and generally pallid skin. They are tall, with long limbs. A set of fleshy, gray protrusions sprout from their foreheads, looking much like antenna. Their eyes tend to be either very dark or very pale colors, looking from far away as if they have no pupils. This is an optical illusion, however, and closer examination will show that they merely have colored sclera.

There is little difference between castes save that the higher classes tend to be taller. Lower caste Fay'lia, if they shaved their heads, could be mistaken for "grey" type aliens.

Society:

Fay'lian society is an extremely efficiently layered, caste-based society. Within it, everyone knows their place. You will probably be born and die within the same caste.

Castes are divided not by profession (as in most caste-based societies) but by the individual's relationship to their work.

The castes are:

• The fer'diagul, who are individuals who are in debt slavery, prisoners, those deemed mentally unfit and others who are at the very lowest end of the economic scale. These are individuals who have absolutely no control over their work. Unique among the castes, an individual has a good chance of rising out of this caste without passing an exam.
  
  
• The ther'nlia, which covers those who are ostensibly free to work where they please, though bound by migration laws and their station. Essentially, they are proletarian wage slaves. This caste includes peasants, regular troops in the military, lay clergy, street level police and common laborers.
  
  
• The creeria, who are artisans who are bound to a place or person. Any artisan whose family is hereditarily employed by a noble house, priests bound to a specific church and military specialists are included in this caste.
  
  
• The aurian'i are artisans who are not bound to a place or individual as well as individual traders. Traders with no or few employees, architects, freelance magitechnicians, mercenaries and most computer specialists fall into this caste.
  
  
• The thau'ia are those who make their livings commanding or 'managing' others. This caste includes military commanders and managers of all kinds. Friendly local elites of newly conquered universes are often inducted into this caste.

The fay'lia kisharn (proper/authentic fay'lia) lend their name to the empire. The politicoreligious caste, they predate the caste system, having ruled the empire since its existence. Fay'lia kisharn are expected to know the ins and outs of the empire's political system and the tenets of the official state religion by the time they hit puberty. They will spend their whole lives as leaders of others. Fay'lia kisharn are the empire's nobles and royals and take immense pride in tracing their lineages back to the First Contact Era.

The Fay'lian also have two classifications for those who aren't imperial citizens: semaiful, "friendly barbarians", covering uncontacted peoples, allies and the ordinary citizens of dimensions where the Fay'lian are not public knowledge, and gler'aiful, "hostile barbarians", covering pirates, rebels, terrorists, enemies and uncaught criminals of all kinds.

For an example of how this works in practice, an imperial regiment would consist of:

• fer'diagul suicide/shock troops.
  
  
• ther'nlia grunts
  
  
• creeria specialists
  
  
• a thau'ia command staff
  
  
• a fay'lia kisharn political officer/commisar
  
  [fay'lia military]

Fay'lian Intelligence:

Fay'lia Intelligence:

Formerly Fay'lia intelligence was handled by three separate agencies: The Vithiles (police), handling domestic intelligence, The Ministry for Betterment of Barbarian Stars (BetterMin, the agency tasked with subjugating conquered worlds and bringing them into line with Fay'lia policy and demands) and the Meliar'th hi Basthton (needle within the staff of authority), the secret police/spy corps that reports directly to the Infinite Hierophant (Fay'lian head of state). Recently the Infinite Hierophant has brought all intelligence under the command of the MhB and ordered the agency modernized.

The ambitious young commander responsible for this task is Cethialos Ha'ali, princeps of a small, out of the way universe and the only publicly known member of the MhB. He has revamped training of the spy corps, brought all three agencies into the fold, forced them to at least pretend to work together, and most shockingly, studied and even imitated the methods of barbarian (that is, non Fay'lian) intelligence agencies. There are rumors he has even hired barbarian special agents, experienced only with solving intradimensional missions, to help instruct his spies.

Fay'lia spies use all the tactics of their profession, including breaking and entering, clandestine recruitment, entrapment, etc.

The MhB is always looking to find the current location of the station and to place agents upon it.

[loyalist groups]

---

THE RESISTANCE

The United Front In Resistance To Empire, AKA The Resistance is a Popular Front organization. That is to say, it unites, officially, almost all the organizations and governments opposed to the Fay'lia Empire.

Most of these organizations keep in touch only textually (via Ansible), excepting when they send delegates to the semi-regular clandestine meetings.

Obviously since the only requirement for joining is an opposition to the Fay'lian Empire, vastly different groups, many of whom dislike each other or are even in states of warfare with each other are brought together under the banner of the Resistance. These groups span the spectrum of politics, strategy and tactics. They are left and right wing, pacifist and militant, true freedom fighters and opportunists hoping to forge empires of their own.

A few operatives for the shadowy organization known only as "The Blades" head front groups under the Resistance's banner.

Following are some of the groups under the Resistance banner:

Ekumen:

The Ekumen originated from the Hainish universe. After uniting most of the worlds of their universe, they independently Awakened (discovered the existence of other universes) and began sending NAFAL (nearly as fast as light) ships to other universes, expanding their peaceful league of worlds on the spinward edge of the Hub.

Unfortunately for them, the Quiet Nebula Incident happened while this was going on, prompting the 2nd Expansion. The Fay'lian had no patience for what they saw as a rival power, nor were they keen on anyone that might be harboring Proteans.

The poor Ekumen. They were sent fleeing through the hub, begging shelter from whoever would take them. Their pacifism prevented them from fighting the Fay'lian...not that it would have made a difference. Many were captured, many of those executed. A few Ekumen NAFAL ships can still be found in the hub, but they are skittish.

The only good thing for them out of the affair was that the Fay'lian never found the gate for Hain.

Senburu-Trati'salan Democratic Collective:

That's you, buddy. It's the official name of the station your character calls home base.

[More to come about Resistance groups in this space]

---

OTHERS

The Blades:

This shadowy organization seems to have cross factional membership. Very little is known about them. What is:

• Their symbol is (natch) two crossed blades. This symbol often shows up on the cryogenic pods quite a few new arrivals to the station are picked up from.
  
  
• A foreigner who rose to the position of Promise Chief (an elected tribal leader) on Iksilar was a member.
  
  
• Their symbol was also found encrypted inside data-crystals inside the wrecked ship in the Quiet Nebula.

Calibration of Harmonious Order:

A mysterious group that rarely sends out representatives, though all indications point at it being a species, or an organization of species, that works very hard to maintain that secrecy. It's unclear where they stand in relation to the Fay'lian, but information they let slip occasionally suggests that they may have spies among the Fay'lian themselves. (Of course, espionage work being what it is, this itself might simply be a ploy...)

• The Outline
• New Arrivals
• Housing and Necessities
• Infrastructure
• Transportation


• Other Locations


• History
  
• Command Staff

---

THE OUTLINE

A sketch of the largest parts of the station

The general plan of Senburu-Trati'salan (Noble Ship reposing in Peace/Leadership), AKA The JunkStation is like an abacus. Two superdense objects from the universe of Quarlm-112 provide gravity on either side of the station. All other permanent fixtures of the station are strung on superthick carbon nanotube ropes between the two objects, like beads on an abacus. The closer one gets to each object, the higher the gravity becomes. The closer one gets to the equidistance between them, the less gravity becomes until one reaches the center, where there is no gravity. Travel past the center and gravity slowly starts to reverse, going in the other direction. Get it?

The general state of repair of ships and objects on Senburu-Trati'salan is terrible. Everything is beat up to some degree or another. Most suspended starships are completely nonfunctional. Those that are (barely) functional have many nonstandard, scavenged parts.

Accidents are frequent, so watch out.

Objects suspended:

• Most of Enterprise's saucer (contains holodeck, holodeck is fritzy, may not officially be used for masturbation, often booked a day in advance, frequent sight of sensitivity training, military maneuvers) [Star Trek, 2/3 G]
  
  
• BSL labs habitats sections 2 through 5 [Metroid, pre-X infestation, 1 G)
  
  
• Spacing Guild Navigator's tank and station. This is the most important part of the station, providing the ability to 'jump' away from danger at faster than light speeds. Thus it is sorrounded by protective chaff, which is both armor and camoflauge. Due to the difficulty of getting inside, few visit this place.
  
  
• battle room [ender's game, no gravity]
  
  
• Ansible station, capable of receiving and transmitting text only. The Station Counsel sends Ansible probes to succesfully contacted, unconquered universes, allowing instanteneous communication. [The Hainish Cycle, 1.5 G]
  
  
• Half of Serenity, used as a lounge. There is a large projector showing a 2d version of normally 3d Fay'lia broadcasts round the clock. Typical programs include Comedies (of manners), Dramas (also of manners), dramadies (you know what kind) and newscasts. If the Resistance is mentioned at all in the newscasts, it is not favorably. There are also a couple of functional ancient arcade machines wired for unlimited play, including such 'classics' as ET, Catfight, Daikatana and Superman.[Wheddonverse, 0.5 G]
  
  
• Space capsule, filled with gym equipment and used for truly hardcore workouts [DBZ, 3 G]
  
  
• Yucca Mountain markers in a large capsule. Only when you dig, it's actually filled with delicious candy. [real life, 1.5 G]
  
  
• Classic raygun gothic rocketships, hollowed out and used as bunks [every scifi novel published from the 40s to the new wave, varying G]



• Parts of the Nostromo, used as corridor and utility segments [Alien, varying G]
  
  
• The bridge section of the Event Horizon [Event Horizon, 4 G]
  
  
• The engines and thrusters of the Norad II, part of the station's emergency-use-only crude Newtonian propulsion [StarCraft, varying G]
  
  
• A classic car showroom, armored but not vacuum-seamed, with the cars strapped to the floor; rather handy for sources of land transportation [real life, 0.5 G

Objects/starships/whatever stored and functional:

• A wing each of Death Gliders [Stargate] and assorted Ugly starfighters [Star Wars], used for debris-interdiction, close defense, and space-to-ground transport duty; both are kludgy and poorly maintained enough that even a conflict with modern atmospheric fighters would be of questionable odds
  
  
• The XGP15A-II, its systems crudely brute-forced to operate without needed vital components as a repair boat [Outlaw Star]
  
  
• A single functional Queadlunn-Rau that nobody can use because nobody's big enough; likely to be stripped for spare parts soon [Macross]
  
  
• A handful of functional (overused, undermaintained) T-280 space construction vehicles [StarCraft]
  
  
• A few EVA Pods, used for basic repairs and quick transport between station segments [2001: A Space Odyssey]
  

This isn't even nearly everything that's on the station—just an outline. Have an idea? Tell us here!

---

NEW ARRIVALS

New arrivals are taken to the holodeck on the Enterprise's saucer, where the history of the station and the war they're fighting is outlined to them in detail, as well as all the aspects of daily life onboard. They are then issued their emergency backpacks. These are sleek little affairs that fit over the shoulders. Inside is a plasticine material, a small tank of compressed oxygen and a distress beacon. When the wearer activates a switch under their armpit, the plasticine material inflates into a bubble around them and the distress beacon is automatically activated. Inside the bubble, there is enough oxygen for about two hours of normal use. The distress beacon may also be activated independently.

Adults are not required to wear their emergency backpacks but really you'd have to be kind of dumb not to.

---

HOUSING AND NECESSITIES

A number of hollowed out, classic scifi style rocket ships serve as quarters, although technically you can bed down wherever you want as long as you're not in anyone's way. Those accustomed to sleeping more wild places can camp out in the BSL habitats.

Standard issue food is organic matter run through an alchemical array, converted into a strange and broad array of different foodstuffs by a bolted-on assembly of arcanomachinery. This is based on the dreams of the station residents, and so what results can be anything from normal food to slimy eels on a stick or fried grass-flavored ice cream.

The backup food supply alternates between canned or boxed food and bricks of...stuff, which, while adequately nutritious and certainly edible, is bland and crumbly. The cooking staff is in a never ending battle to make dishes which are tasty, but as often as not it tastes like spiced, fried or boiled bricks.

Those seeking after tastier fare can go hunting in the BSL labs habitats, although they may encounter resistance from intergalactic hippies (annoying) and the creatures themselves (dangerous).

Lavatory facilities are scattered throughout the various structures, and are usually pretty awful. Whoever manages to set up a plush, marbled bathroom will turn a tidy profit in the station's informal barter economy. There are also a number of (rather sexist) piss holes that someone set up in the walls of most of the structures, the urine exiting directly into space, there freezing and adding to the station's protective coating of debris.

Generally new arrivals have the clothes they were wearing when they were taken, although sometimes in the case of those taken through the dimensional plucking machines, they arrive naked. If so, the new arrival will be given a set of functional clothes. These clothes may be of any style, fit, material, and may have holes or sleeves designed for nonhuman limbs. There is no guarantee this clothing is at all comfortable.

---

INFRASTRUCTURE

The difficulties of cross-universe hardware compatibility have lead to some truly terrifying kludges to get the many different systems of the station to work together properly. In some places adapter is layered on adapter on adapter, all connected to cables or tubing tucked through internal hallways; in others, just out sight, waits poorly-maintained connections that would give any reasonable engineer conniption fits; and in even more cases than the first two, things are put together in such a horrible mess that if it weren't for the number of people the station sustains, anyone reasonable would rather tear down the entire thing and start over.

That said, there's certainly some quality of genius to all of it: the station's engineers, with a minimum of time for proper preparation and maintenance, have managed feats of jury-rigging and looking-at-things-at-an-odd-angle solutions that would make a knowledgeable hacker (in the classic sense) have to change his pants. By now, though, it's all such a strange mix of interdependent components that there's only a handful of people at best left on the station who even have a clear grasp of the entire system, and so most people simply build outwards on top of what's already there instead of replacing anything, for fear of cutting the wrong wire or pushing the wrong button and accidentally overloading or destroying some vital system. For the most part, though, things do work as expected... even if sometimes certain airlocks fail to function properly on alternate Tuesdays, or some doors refuse to open between 11:23 and 11:59 A.M., or for some long-forgotten reason anyone who falls asleep in some small parts of the station is woken up by prerecorded rooster crowing after less than an hour. Mostly, these strange quirks have been noted and posted attached to—or directly written on—walls of the appropriate sections. Mostly.

The computer systems are even worse, with only the barest connections possible between most of them for the fear of the viruses, spam-mail neural nets, hyper-trojans, and general nasty infolife of thousands of advanced worlds congealing into system-devouring superentities. One particularly terrifying example of this syndrome is a connection between two of the central life support systems of the station. To prevent the observed glitches in each from affecting the other, one very well-protected part of the station has a sealed airtight room: within that room is a speaker connected to one of the systems (with a text-to-speech mechanism), and a microphone connected to the other (with a speech-to-text mechanism). This kind of thing is why most of the station's terminals are text-only; most of the ones that aren't, like those used for recreational purposes, contacting the outside world, and so on, are specially-isolated units, and the most efficient way to transfer large files between parts of the stations is by sneakernet (eg. carrying them there on a flash drive or hard disk).

---

TRANSPORTATION

The small but constant stresses and movements of different parts of the station, affected by different gravitational levels, rotational stresses, and the tidal effects of the two supermassive objects the station is built around, makes continuous solid connections between all the parts of the station completely infeasible. Instead, transportation between different segments of the station is accomplished by way of inflated segments with layers of flexible radiation and micrometeorite shielding, inside of which are most commonly simple spiral staircases or ladders. None of these are very large or long, intended as a way to connect close-in segments of the station while avoiding stress fractures, not as any primary living space. The material has self-sealing layers in case of a small breach, though in any major incident someone inside would be best very quickly getting to the small airlocks at one end or the other of the connection space.

For quicker or emergency transportation, it's usually best to use one of the crude "elevators" attached to the outside of the station. Each one is just a small space capsule (all from a variety of different worlds and timelines) with most of the interior stripped out, but left space-tight and with an air supply. A system of pulleys and motorized winches moves the capsules "up" and "down" (usually requiring at least one transfer or a somewhat laborious decoupling and recoupling of connections near the station's zero-G "center"), as operated by one of the external-maintenance EVA workers constantly trying to keep different parts of the station in working order; at their start or end points, the capsules have to be manually coupled or decoupled with the appropriate airlocks.

For a situation that has absolute priority, the station's rough command coalition (whatever it happens to be at the time) will usually commandeer one of the station's handful of operational EVA pods or other spaceworthy, passenger-carrying craft.

---

OTHER LOCATIONS

There are various smaller rooms within the station. Most of these rooms are made from abandoned shipping containers, with any leaks patched by quick-expando-foam. They may also be converted from existing rooms, such as the ones inside the wrecked Enterprise saucer. Some of these rooms include:

• The White Room: A conical shaped room. White, noise canceling carpet is attached to the walls/ceiling. A popular spot for meditation.
  
  
• The Library: Roughly square shaped, the station's library is a large room with a largely unsorted array of books, holobooks, 8 tracks, direct to mind upload programs, eldritch tomes, and other pieces of obsolete or schizophrenic technology. Like the rest of the station, the items here are often out of date or in poor condition, and even the best stuff is sometimes simply unviewable due to the correct piece of equipment not being there.



• The Cafeteria: The cafeteria is remarkably similar to a public school cafeteria, right down to the grit. That is because most of it is exactly that, recovered from a world that had suffered some kind of apocalypse. The tables are formaldehyde and the lunch lady rules all with an iron tentacle. In the back is her kitchen, which is constantly busy as she spends hours every day applying her considerable skills to turn the food bricks from "disgustingly bland" to "mediocre" even "good" when she has the right ingredients.
  
  
• The Bucket: A seedy-seeming bar that is, in fact, as unseedy as these things get on the dilapidated scrap-pile that is this station, The Bucket carries a variety of drinks from any planet and plane the surly barkeep, Charlie, can get to. His chief brew is brickquer, liquor made, naturally, from the foodbricks, in a process that would make a West Virginia moonshine bootlegger blanch. The more you drink, the more "favors" you owe him, unless you feel like paying him. He sometimes has high end liquor too. Expect to pay out the nose for that, or owe him "big favors". And he will call them in.
  
  There's also a window or two, which would be rather nice if the rest of it didn't seem made more of rust and filth than anything else.
  
  "It's The Bucket! Drink from it, puke in it, doesn't make a difference to us!"
  
  
• The Xoan Embassy: A storage container outfitted with copious amounts of pillows, curtains, and salvaged furniture that acts as the temporary embassy of the nation of Xoan. Also the private residence of Sandoval, the ambassador of Xoan. If you are looking for a place to hang out in the most literal sense, Sandy's place will keep your balls warm. While Sandoval is there, a low level heating/aphrodisiac spell is almost always running.
  
  
• Cain's Laboratory: A junked piece of what used to be a passenger starship, all that is salvageable has become Cain's toxicology laboratory. It's in pretty bad condition, but he endeavours at least to keep the inside as tidy as the state of disrepair will allow. There is an impressive collection of different chemicals and poisons solidly locked in cabinets (mostly so that children and idiots don't drink them), and an assortment of bartered-for, salvaged, and legitimately bought scientific equipment for the study and synthesis of such substances.
  
  
• The ChiCycle: Taking over one of the hallways on the "north" side of the station, this is the station's exchange store. Put an item in, get an item out of equal or lesser value, if you wish. While on paper this system is entirely fair, a hierarchy quickly emerged, with those able to give the most elaborate contributions (for example, those who came to the station already rich) rising in the station's pecking order.
  
  Some truly weird shit can be found here, completely overlooked.

---

HISTORY

Senburu-Trati'salan started life as a squat in the uncharted wastes of the hub. In the days where the Empire had not yet consolidated its hold on the multiverse, it was a destination point for both desperate refugees and slumming alien bohemians, a place of both terrible poverty and amazing parties. It wasn't named anything at the time, because if you had to ask what it was called, man, you shouldn't even have been there.

Nevertheless it was one among thousands of such junkyards and hundreds of such squats. It wasn't until the first great War of Expansion, when the Fay'lian used the so-called 'Quiet Nebula Incident' as pretext to bring great swathes of the multiverse under their control, that the squat became radicalized. Dissident students began fleeing there, the disaffected youth of the conquered dimensions. Secret meeting houses were set up, illegal protests planned there. The ubiquity of such squats in the multiverse protected them from Imperial attention...for a while, anyway.

The Second (some call it the 1.5th) Expansion soon followed, and the Fay'lian crushed the Ekumen's forays into peaceful organization. The Imperials were sweeping the forgotten sectors of space, looking for the 'Protean Berserkers' they'd encountered in the Quiet Nebula.

Tension was high. All too slow, counsels were formed and a slow, clumsy democracy began to take shape. There were a million ideas about what to do and none of them gained momentum.

Help arrived just in time in the form of a Guild Navigator, whose craft teleported in next to the station. The Guild had, inexplicably, sided with the rebels. The Navigator's only condition was that his tank and pod be left alone, a restricted area.

Naturally this sparked massive debate and consternation. Restrictions on information sounded too much like the empire they were fleeing to the station's Bohemian inhabitants.

Weeks of debate were undercut by the sudden arrival of an Imperial scout fleet. The navigator cut the talk short by folding space, taking them out of range at faster than light speed.

It was voted on and passed immediately that the station would wander the HubVerse, spreading dissent and contacting as many universe as possible before the Fay'lian got to them. This was a time of heroism looked at in an almost legendary light by the station's current inhabitants. The names of that time are still revered by modern dissidents: Quengual, the Zentraedi deserter who gave the station its name, Hadrasherlish the Vodyanoi entertainer, Cretzen of the Plated Tongue, Jack's Little Choirboys...

Attrition took its toll though, and the station's legendary status was starting to become a burden rather than a blessing. Many of the strong personalities that held the crew together were killed, captured by the Fay'lian or wandered away to other projects, as itinerant revolutionaries are wont to do.

Senburu-Trati'salan lay fallow for several decades. With the Second Expansion having wound down, the sense of urgency motivating them was gone. Worse they were starting to encounter worlds that liked being imperial subjects, enjoyed the technological upgrades and other advantages of membership in a teaming multidimensional empire. The loyalist universe of 24Ho-t'iep was a particularly bad adventure, leaving many dead.

But as the tide of multiversal opinion swayed again towards the rebellion, a new generation of dissidents made their way towards the wrecked station and began rebuilding. There they met the stubborn ones who'd stayed behind and kept the station barely functioning. And they met Kelred the Navigator again...

Several new missions were attempted, and the 'awake' dimensions welcomed them as heroes. A counsel system, modeled on the one used during the station's old days was hammered out.

At this point is where your character comes in. The station is under the general command of a bunch of bright eyed idealists and stubborn old hippies...and you.

---

COMMAND STAFF

As befits its ramshackle nature, the station has a less than coherent command staff. It's currently all NPCs, but that could change with time.

• Acting Temporary Commander with Immediately Recallable Authority Given Provisional Trust (station commander): Enitan, Griot of Novaport (NPC).
  
  
• Director of Temporary Violent Activities While in an Emergency State (military commander): Vercybertrix (NPC).
  
  
• Recallable Director of Engineering Projects (chief engineer): Zamfuter The Eldritch (NPC).
  
  
• Recallable Director of Magical Affairs (chief magician): Mikael Sczynskir (NPC).
  
  
• Sentient Responsible for Effective Communication Between and Coordination Of Magical and Engineering Projects (engineering and magic coordinator): Takeshi Yamashiro (NPC).
  
  
• Coordinator of Nutrition with Special Emphasis Given to Nonstandard Dietary Needs (chief chef): Glr'Brrrnglorp (NPC).
  
  
• Recallable Curator of Crew Feeling (director of morale): Throgdan, Magnar of the Black Plains (NPC).
  
  
• Recallable Head of Spreading the Truth of our Glorious Cause (director of propaganda): Efraim Claugh Tinstype (NPC).

SETTING

Where are we?

You are on Senburu-Trati'salan AKA The JunkStation, a space colony made out of junk. You're the last great hope for freedom in the multiverse. You're traveling through a hub-universe which links itself to all the myriad universes via gates. Some of these universes are aware of the existence of others. Most aren't.

Your job is to be their first contact, before the Fay'lian get to them. Convince them of the threat these imperialists pose and rally them to your cause. Where you're from could be next, after all.

Well, that's one way of looking at it anyway.

Another is that the station is a collection of desperate refugees, perpetually fleeing the most advanced empire the multiverse has ever seen, vainly seeking allies and shelter, always wondering when the hunters will close in next.

Or you might say you're a collection of dirty, multidimensional hippies and terrorists, who either need to be sent back to your overindulgent alien parents or put in front of a laser squad.

It's all a matter of perspective.



What happens to my character upon arrival?

Upon arriving on Senburu-Trati'salan, your character will receive a small backpack containing the following items:

1. A bottle of very well compressed oxygen and a capsule containing a thin, quick drying, plasticky substance, both attached to the backpack with the nozzles sticking out. Upon pulling a cord that sticks out of the backpack, the substance and oxygen will both squirt out, enveloping the wearer in a bubble of about an hour's worth of oxygen, an hour and a half if you breathe slowly. This is to be used in case of oxygen escaping or you being knocked into space.
   
2. An emergency distress beacon
   
3. A leaflet with instructions on using those items, the station network and vital services
   
4. A remote control for the translation device that now resides in your ear canal; it's best to wear this at all times.

And how do we accomplish our noble mission?

That varies. Sometimes it means going down there in one of your blinking spaceships and awing the local yokels. Sometimes it means secret meetings with the leaders of that place. You may have to aid a pro-resistance faction against loyalists, overthrow a Fay'lian controlled government, destroy a garrison, or participate in other, more bizarre social rituals that have no equivalent in your home 'verse. Basically, you have to do whatever it takes.



How did we get here?

That also varies. There are several options for how to bring your character in.

1. Your character stumbled on the secret of other dimensions in their homeworld and left independently. From there they made their way to Bohr where they were contacted by a Resistance agent and privately spirited away to the station.
   
2. Your character was contacted by a Resistance agent in their home universe, told the truth about the multiverse and signed up there.
   
3. Your character encounters a boarding party from the crew during a mission and insists on going along with them.
   
4. There are strange machines scattered around the Hubverse which reach across dimensions and pluck people out, depositing them in cryogenic sleep pods. We found your character in one of those pods. This is particularly good for characters who would be otherwise unwilling to help.
   
5. Your character appears to be one of the above options but is actually an Imperial agent. Oh yes, we do allow traitors, although they will probably eventually meet a Bad End.
   
6. None of the above. If you have an alternative idea for how your character ended up here, contact us! We can't guarantee we'll accept it, but we'll at least listen.

Can my character leave?

Certainly they can leave the station. The quasi-anarchist political system and frequent arrivals and departures makes stopping them difficult at best. But they can't go home, not just yet. Once a character is removed from their home universe, returning to their universe may cause permanent damage to that universe's integrity. It's not guaranteed to happen but it's risking the lives of millions, billions, even trillions, so majority vote has passed this into one of the few hard and fast laws on Senburu-Trati'salan. If your character does attempt to return to their home dimension, the other characters will stop them.

The Fay'lian know a way to prevent this from happening (which is one of the temptations they hold out to potential traitors) but they're obviously not sharing.



But my character doesn't want to help the rebellion!

Well, simply by showing up on Senburu-Trati'salan, your character is now a terrorist in the eyes of the Fay'lia Empire. And they control most universal gates.

Of course if your character is greedy, overeager to get back home or believes the Fay'lia are the correct side to support, they may waive the charges of terrorism in absentia by spying for the Empire. If you want your character to do that, contact a mod.



What did my character come to the station with?

Generally only the clothes on their backs and what they could carry. If your character made their way through the hub-'verse after escaping their own reality, they can have whatever they could reasonably smuggle past the Imperial checkpoints. If your character was picked up by one of the displacement machines, parts of their sorroundings are often brought with them. That means if your character was piloting a mecha at the time, they'll arrive in their pod with most of the cockpit.



My character is rich in canon, are they still rich on Senburu-Trati'salan?

To an extent. If they showed up in a pod, they come with whatever money/credit cards was on their persons at the time. Although basic services aboard the station are free, money is still accepted. When on certain missions, it will be possible to exchange money for Fay'lia solaris, the most universally accepted currency. The exchange rates are exorbitant.



What if my universe already has knowledge of other universes (such as XXXholic/Tsubasa, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, etc.)?

They retain that knowledge but it may not provide the whole picture. Sometimes several universes get smushed together while still retaining their boundaries. The inhabitants of these universes, upon breakout, may believe that these are all the 'verses that exist. The Fay'lian may have also deliberately suppressed information about the larger multiverse, something they tend to do to universes they feel aren't "ready" for the whole truth.



What's the premise/feel of the game like?

Entanglement is a cynical space-opera, in the tradition of the new wave of science fiction. That's not to say it's all serious, all the time but the humor tends to be of a rather dark and snarky variety.

Works which influenced the creation of Entanglement:

• Ursula K Leguin's Hainish Cycle
  
• The Dune Books
  
• Infinite RYVIUS (for the handling of everyday life as a space-refugee)
  
• GURPS Infinite Worlds
  
• China Mieville's Bas Lag Novels (for the fully realized social system in a fantastic setting)

My character has superpowers/magic. Can they use them here?

Yes, with a few small limitations. The hub universe is a very young, malleable universe. Individuals who immigrate there generally bring the physical laws of their own universes with them.

Characters that obviously distort the fabric of reality or otherwise do exceptionally "impossible" things will find that at least some degree of their power was tangled up with the nature of their home universes, leaving them less powerful elsewhere. Examples of such characters include Haruhi Suzumiya (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya), Wanda Maximoff/the Scarlet Witch (Marvel Comics), the more fantastical applications of the powers of the Flash or Superman (DC Comics), Goku during much of his continuity (Dragonball series), Father or Hohenheim (Fullmetal Alchemist manga continuity), the Doctor (Wildstorm Universe), and so on. The degree to which these sorts of powers will be reduced will generally be judged on a case-by-case basis, with an eye towards allowing players to do interesting things with their characters without allowing deus ex machina solutions to problems to be easily accessible, and keeping in mind that player characters will be underdogs in many of the game's plots.

When characters who come from different universes with different physical laws fight in ways that directly invoke those differences (e.g. an Avatar: The Last Airbender waterbender fights a Harry Potter wizard), when combat begins, in addition to the physical fight, there is a mental clash too, a clash of distinct ways-of-seeing, willpower, and mental integrity. The loser of that clash then has a fair chance of temporarily losing their powers, of having them strangely affected by the difference in physical laws, or so on (we'll leave that up to you how long that lasts). This can also sometimes affect conflicts that are entirely mental to begin with, such as telepathic battles, if the physical/metaphysical laws being invoked conflict with each other.



My character can shoot laser beams out of his ass. Can't he just blast these fey-whatevers to kingdom come?

Oh, you can try. But here's some things you should know about the Fay'lia first:

1. Their weaponry is very advanced. Suspiciously out of sync with the rest of their society advanced. However strong you are, the Fay'lia at least approach that level when armed as individuals. As a group, in a direct military confrontation (that is, anything that doesn't involve doing extremely sneaky things like planting bombs in their cars or poisoning them, assuming you can even get that close in the first place), you stand no chance. And there are a lot more of them than you.
   
2. Colonial reserve armies (that is, local loyalist forces in conquered dimensions) may be somewhat less difficult to take on, but there's still a lot more of them than you.
   
3. Assuming that in this attempt you aren't killed, you can look forward to being tortured for information ingeniously (and horribly), then either living the rest of your life in a gulag for political prisoners (horribly) or being publicly executed (guess how).
   
4. There is only one arena where you can hope to defeat the Fay'lia, and that is the arena of public opinion. Their military-law enforcement-industrial complex is staggeringly huge but it isn't big enough to stop them if even a third of all the conquered universes rise up in rebellion at the same time and while their propaganda is everywhere, it's also pretty laughable and easily countered by any angry kid with a bottle of space-spraypaint. Your job is to make sure that such a rebellion happens.

My character has an injury/disability/disease. Will they still have that here?

They will still have the condition when they arrive. The medical technology on board is advanced by the standards of 21st century earth but the waiting list for treatment is long. It could take months before they are treated. If the condition is life threatening they will be bumped to the front of the queue, though.



Can I apply a much larger than average character here?

That depends on where they could stay. A character that can exist in vacuum (eg. a Transformer) is welcome to stay on the outside of the station. Other characters that are too big to fit in the EVA pods may have to be confined to the BSL habitats until a special habitat is built for them.



How do characters communicate if they're in different parts of the ship/on an away team/out of shouting distance in general?

On board there are plenty of computer consoles, though most are only capable of sending text and small files Upon arrival your character will be issued their own username and password for the central network, allowing them to send and receive messages both private and public. (It's entirely possible a character might find an out-of-the-way computer that isn't network connected or doesn't run any usable software, though.)

There are a number of cobbled together communicators on board but not nearly enough for everyone. They're valuable items for barter. Technologically skilled characters may build some of their own out of all the spare parts/junk.



What happens if my character dies?

They are well and truly dead, unless they have some kind of regenerative power, and thus become unavailable for reapplication. Please consult with the mods before killing a character!



Who's in charge around here?

The ship is a rough democracy, with bimonthly elections for all staff. More info is available in the post about it.



What is the policy on canon puncturing (AKA can my character know other characters are fictional?)?

Throughout the multiverse, particles run freely, sometimes containing information. When these particles strike others in other universes, they are sometimes written down as fiction. That is how characters who are real in one universe can be fictional in another. If such transmissions are frequent (IE the canon is popular in the 'receiving' universe), this may provide an opportunity to open up a universe to universe gate.

Please do not have your character puncture another character's canon without the permission of that character's mun.



How do all the characters understand each other?

Upon arrival, everyone is issued a Babel Fish to put in their ear or equivalent structure. However these fish, having been on the station for generations with a tiny gene pool, are defective. Shrunken and uglier than normal, they are only able to translate the speaker's primary language. This means that multilingual characters still have a slight advantage, as in life.

APPLICATIONS

What characters can I apply for here?

Entanglement accepts fandom characters and original characters, both from fandom and original universes.

In the case of original characters, we will be scrutinizing your application closely for Mary Sue/Gary Stu-type traits. If your OC is accepted into the game, we still reserve the right to take action against Sue/Stu-ish playing. Fandom OCs may not have a close relationship with the main cast of their fandom written into their history.

You may not apply for mythological characters that are not part of fiction. So for instance you could apply for Mr. Wednesday from American Gods but not Wodin direct from mythology.



Can I app an alternate universe version of a character if another version of that character is in the game?

You may if the character is significantly different from their "main" canon. You may not however app the same character from a different point in time in the same universe. So for instance you could app Cloud from Kingdom Hearts if there was already a Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 in the game but you could not app Cloud from Advent Children.

In the case of characters that are reincarnated/cloned multiple times, such as Doctor Who or Duncan Idaho, please contact the mods so we can decide this on a case by case basis.



How many characters may I apply for?

The current character limit is five, although we may grant exceptions if you prove crazy enough to be able to handle more. Also you may only app up to two characters from the same fandom and they may not share a close relationship.



What happens to dropped characters?

Any one of four things may happen, which are generally up to the castmates and muns of the characters the dropped character had CR with.

• For those characters who came from a pod, neurological damage (and its electronic equivalent) is a common side effect of waking from one. This usually takes the form of episodes of intense pain, followed by frequent fainting, followed by a coma state and then, if not replaced in a pod, death. The cure rate is unpredictable and the pod itself seems to have something to do with it. Sometimes, those who have been sent into the pod are spontaneously awakened, although their short term memory is sometimes harmed.
  
• The character fades into the background of the ship's society. Basically, they're still there, just fading from the foreground for a bit.
  
• None of the above. Got an idea for how to handle things with a dropped character you had CR with? Run it by us.

But seriously: How does podache work? If [character] were ill, wouldn't the first thing to do would be to take her to see [doctor]?

Good question! Podache is the sickness that explains long absences or character drops. Podache is a fast-onset sickness that causes in the body of the infected an excruciating ache and perhaps one other very recognisable symptom. In the interest of reducing the amount of pain the afflicted person suffers, any medical staff is qualified to re-check them back into their pod, where, upon proper re-configuration or some such, the afflicted person's vital signs allow for the pod to be opened again. In this way, it can be said that since it's so very easily recognisable, the need to have it diagnosed was next to zero, and the treatment was simply "Stick them back in the pod."

It's caused by premature opening of the pods before the body of the afflicted has properly adjusted to the partocular environment of this reality.

Thus, the re-entry into the pod would finish the acclimation, explaining the necessity to return thereto, and giving you a convenient, legitimate excuse for your character's lack of presence for some time. Or forever in the case of dropping.



What's the deal with the NPCs?

Here's the deal: The NPCs are actually the majority on the junkstation. This may change as the game grows but for now, yeah, that's how it goes. There's an onboard political/social system already set up, although it frequently devolves into characters hating each other, being manipulative, abrasive, passive aggressive and just plain aggressive towards each other. Noble intentions they may have, but they're only human. Mostly.

This means players are encouraged to make full use of the NPCs in your own logs. Your character's charismatic? Have him or her gather some fanboys/girls. They're an asshole? Make them disliked. You aren't required to have the mods play these NPCs. As long as you don't use them to powergame, it's all good.



Can I have canon characters as NPCs?

You may not have named canon characters as NPCs. For instance there may be Clone Trooper NPCs from the Star Wars 'verse but none of those troopers may be one of the troopers from SW: Republic Commando. There can be a maximum of three NPCs from any particular fandom per character.



I hear you can retcon in things?

Sort of. You may retcon in your character's presence on the ship and CR with other characters. You may not, however, retcon in anything which effects the ship as a whole. That is, no political appointments, engineering projects, channel messages, etc. If you have a question about something you'd like to retcon in, contact us.