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Aberrant: Stepping from Eden - Stepping from the Chamber...


Rorx

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  • 2 weeks later...

The original thought is that I may be posting some stuff for what the psion characters did before this assignment to Earth with the Novas came along, as some of the characters are those that were got tgether before the Exodus of the Upeo. Thus there could be whole sections that are semi-IC semi-OOC for the psions that have no relvenace to the Novas, and indeed in some places comments by the Nova players would be inapropriate.

That was why I thought two OOC topics might be needed.

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Well all I was trying to say is that it is going to be one game with one group. There is no right way. For example, several STs here have gone witrh multiple threads, Titan and Lead use several threads for both chapters and individual PCs (though still one TableTalk thread) and still others go chapter by chapter.

I was only saying its helpful and elegant to have one "tabletalk" thread for players to ask questions and engage in chatter. A single meeting room if you will, regardless of what is going on IC.

Im not horribly attached or anything. Just speaking from experience.

EDIT: Just saw Heru's post where he was confused on whether its one game or two...that's the sort of thing I was getting at...

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Yeah, I first saw the game under Trinity and then read over that. Then I found a game under the Aberrant column. I wasn't sure which game was the 'real' and current game.

But I'm guessing that in the end the two games were united as one - players can be both Psions or Novas. And that I think is cool and causes a dynamic twist that might be very fun, if I join and am accepted. :)

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Man, am I the only one playing a psion here (NPCs not included)? You know it always bugged me how much more popular Aberrant became over Trinity, like a kid brother who grew up more successful/popular than you. ::angry ::tongue

Anyway, hi everyone; I'll be playing Liam, your friendly neighborhood Dark Psion™. Since my character is complete, should I mention a few things here perhaps that the other(??) psions would know since we've been working together for a couple of years now?

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You'd be welcome Forge as long as you reckon you could post a couple of times a weak. The only other thing is that all the Nova places are full now so it would have to be a Psion.

The original Psions were all members of the Upeo, although of a variety of Aptitudes. They were part of the Exodus in 2114 and have been kicking around the colonies, Eden and Qinshui ever since.

I think that Kingofdreams and BertJammin were also going to play Psion. There is a chance we could see the return of Snackula and/or 32767, but I wouldn't count on it. In any case there will be two NPC Psions.

Instead of an Upeo you could be a Psion of any Aptitude who works directly for the UN.

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You'd be welcome Forge as long as you reckon you could post a couple of times a weak. The only other thing is that all the Nova places are full now so it would have to be a Psion.

The original Psions were all members of the Upeo, although of a variety of Aptitudes. They were part of the Exodus in 2114 and have been kicking around the colonies, Eden and Qinshui ever since.

I think that Kingofdreams and BertJammin were also going to play Psion. There is a chance we could see the return of Snackula and/or 32767, but I wouldn't count on it. In any case there will be two NPC Psions.

Instead of an Upeo you could be a Psion of any Aptitude who works directly for the UN.

I was figuring on a psion with all the above discussion, I will PM you later with my idea :)

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Character generation is standard plus 50xp. Abilities, backgrounds and modes can be taken over 3 with xp.

I will be using the expanded skills and backgrounds, as well as the merits and flaws from the TPG, but not the freeform Psi rules.

Since I like them you may have Auxilliary Modes, and with a highish Psi from multiple Aptitudes. Opportunities to learn further Auxilliaries may be available during the game.

That was how they were to start the 2113 game, since it is now ~10 years later you will get another 20 Bonus pts (NOT XP) to spend as well.

Enjoy! ::biggrin

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Anyway, hi everyone; I'll be playing Liam, your friendly neighborhood Dark Psion™. Since my character is complete, should I mention a few things here perhaps that the other(??) psions would know since we've been working together for a couple of years now?

You can do if you want Alistaire. You have worked on Eden off and on for about 8 years, so you would be familiar with a number of the Novas as well, although they may not understand the problems that some other psions/people have with you and/or your powers.

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You have worked on Eden off and on for about 8 years, so you would be familiar with a number of the Novas as well, although they may not understand the problems that some other psions/people have with you and/or your powers.

Ah, they're bright people, some of them anyway. I imagine that the idea that modern humans are terrified of the aberrants and have somehow transferred that fear to the chibs due to the similarity in powers is not hard to understand. Now, what would be is why the violent reaction to them? Were they up to no good, and if so, was such a reaction justified? If not, then what the heck really did happen? Yeah, that'd be the hard part to understand.

Which I imagine is something that has really been chief on Liam's mind since his excape/rescue. The fate of his collegues, friends, the order that gave him so much, as well as the proxy he was so enchanted with (as many psions are due to the proxy's natural psionic "aura" of presence) is something he simply isn't going to let go of. Those were, after all, the best three years of his life.

But on to his life, what do we know about this strange little man? Born on Luna, joined the Chitra Bhanu at an uncommonly young age (it was early enough then that QKs were hard to find, and aside from his lack of education, he seemed well suited to the order). Worked as a QK mode development junior researcher for some months before the Purge. Good thing for him too, since now he has no one to learn more powers from.

He was "rescued" during the purge by an unknown party, interrogated for weeks, then kept in solitary confinement for (five years is it?), and under the influence of a psi-dampening device. He was rescued by psions mostly made up of Upeo/Starcrossed (some may be in this party I imagine), and included two childhood friends of his (Rorx has already written about this earlier). I imagine the first little while after that he had to spend "adjusting" to life again, as that long in solitude will crack anyone's noodle. Perhaps an Upeo mentat might have expidited the process (or even made it possible), how fast depending on how good they were. He would have been quite distrustful of the Upeo at first, seeing them as complicit in the Purge and only giving them minimal trust due to the fact that they rescued him, although he couldn't entirely be sure that they weren't the ones that put him there in the first place. Over time, since its been so long, I think that he's relaxed on them somewhat due to the friendships I'm assuming have formed in the meantime. This should probably be worked out with any other psion PC/NPCs in advance as who to trust and not to will likely be a strong issue with him for quite some time yet.

Once he was able I imagine that he was dead set on finding out what happened to his family and girlfriend at the time. Upon meeting her (probably against the wishes of his new cohorts), he found her not able to handle his return into her life. This made Liam quite despondant, and he decided not to do the same thing to his family, at least not until the whole Purge mess was sorted out and the Chitra Bhanu exonerated.

So was the Chitra Bhanu really innocent? I imagine that everyone who meets Liam (and doesn't run in fear) would ask him about that. Frankly, he doesn't know. He worked in QK research, not on abbies. He did know of a "Project Harmony" which was said to be working on a cure for Aberrant Syndrome, but whether or not there was anything sinister going on there he couldn't say (although he hates to think that there was). Right now his best guess is that someone misinterpreted the phrase "they're working with aberrants" as working alongside them, rather than as one might say "they are working with computers and beakers," and somehow everyone went nuts after that.

Powers-wise his expertise back at the Institute was in the Enhancement mode, partly for his natural talent in it, but also for the terrible fact that Liam is a cripple. Born in the poorer sections of Olympus' Downside, his family had no gravity while his mother was pregnant with him, and thus Liam was born with LAO. Growing up he spent some time in programs designed to exercise elgees to improve their health and lifespans, but five yers wasting away in confinement has more than destroyed whatever progress he had made. Today he can use his powers to compensate for the deficiencies that it causes, but that carries with it the slight risk of nearby psions detecting small amounts of taint in him. He has the backup "excuse" of suffering from a taint-disease, but any VK would be able to see through that, so he doesn't use it unless he has to.

Since his rescue he has focused even more on his Enhancement mode trying to increase his survivability. While not in actual danger of psionic dysfunction, he really isn't that far from it having left his other modes relatively underdeveloped. Still, over the past 8 years he's become the psionic equivilent of a "brick". While not as hardy or resiliant as a nova, he can be impressive in his own rights. But when his powers are off, he's still more fragile than the average human, and thus needs protection. He'll be this group's "dirty little secret".

So Rorx says Liam's been dealing with novas off and on over the past few years. While initially skepical (as anyone would be, especially in his earlier paranoid state), Liam's scientific mind would find the idea of taintless aberrants facinating. He knows that novas started out sane a long time ago (a secret shared among people at the Institute), but nothing as to why they all went insane, or why the novas on Eden didn't. Not only does that present an interesting line of research to perform in itself, but so does the idea of simply researching how their powers work. No one is in a better position to research how quantum powers truly operate than a QK, since their psionic powers are already tuned to those effects. A big possible implication of this research could be perhaps finding a way to apply the nova's "taintless" techniques to reduce the taint incurred in QK effects, and therefor mitigate the high psionic power cost of QK powers. This all very much excites Liam.

Another issue that I am sure has come up already, either when Liam's group first arrived if not before, is if there are any psionic latents on Eden. Only psions would be able to detect them (presumably), so if there are any, what to do about them? Did the Upeo offer to trigger them in their chamber? How would the elders of Eden feel about this? This would be as much an issue to be brought up in the upcoming diplomatic contact with Earth as would be the "controlled" triggering of the appropriate nova candidates from Earth. Of course this brings up the scientific question of are psionic and nova latents the same or not? Are they two different genetic strands, diverging from homo sapiens? Or are they the same genetic strand, only being triggered differently? Yup, Rorx has some decisions to make in the scientific field all right. These questions will all affect how things go diplomatically between the two worlds.

And while we're on the matter, what of Process 418? I think the game starts after it, does it not? If so, I guess we'll all need to know what happened, and how it affected psions. My impression was that it was supposed to really shake up the Trinity Universe in preparation for the All New Trininty Version 2. With all those weirdness effects going on through space, psions may find their powers working differently in different places, and maybe novas too. I don't know, just speculating.

Back to Liam, while in humanspace he no doubt would be detected as a psion by other psions. His "cover" is that of being an electrokinetic, since he can produce electricity (although secretly many other things as well). He just has to say that he's not very good at it though, because electrokinetics can produce effects at a distance typically, while he can only "shoot" the stuff. EK's have much better refinement over electricity than QKs do, naturally. He could have gone with PK, since he can produce heat and kinetic force (again, just not at a distance), but he hardly looks like a likely candidate for the Legions, being an 35 kg weakling and all.

Well, that seems like a lot for now. 8 years is a lot to cover though, so it seems like not enough. Perhaps I'll write more in another post, or answer questions if anyone's got 'em. I hope you guys like him. ::smile

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Thanks guys! I thought I'd add a few more notes on here about Liam, since this forum seems to be lacking in activity (although I did plant a conversation seed or two in my last post; hint-hint). I'm also waiting to see any other psions in the group. I hope that Liam's not all alone. ::sad Again, this is information that would likely be known by those who've known him for years, as due to his situation he's become quite cautious in relating anything about himself or his past.

Recreationally Liam became interested in computers after spending a summer vaction (during his Chitra Bhanu years) in Nepal, the computer center of the east. He hasn't had much time to pursue it, but does like getting the latest gadgets whenever he can. Living in Bombay for three years also got him interested in the Anima scene, since that is pretty much where it started. Everything from the music, the clothes, the philosophy, and of course the people reminded him of his first choice in psi orders: ISRA, which he would have joined were it not for his strong tendency in QK. So Liam likes to listen to both anima music and muzzien bang, which gives him the closest experience he can get to having clairsentience.

On a more practical note, when Liam is not kicking back wearing his anima clothes (when he can afford them that is), while on "missions" he typically wears a jacket altered from the straighjacket he wore while imprisoned. Just a reminder to him of what he's lost, and his ultimate goal to find out what happened and vindicate his former order, and perhaps see them rise again. He knows that there is no chance of that now that their chamber is destroyed, but maybe someone will unlock the secrets of triggering psions and he can work towards that again. To him, QK offered so much to the world that it is a sincere tragedy that it has been lost. Perhaps there are even other survivors out there like him, but he doesn't get too hopeful about that either.

He often doesn't carry around much, but one item he keeps is a piece of stainless steel usually in the form of something innocuous and useful, like a mug, or cooking pot. I say usually because he has the ability of "reshaping" it into whatever he needs, such as lockpicks, small pry-bar, solid hand-cuffs, or even a bladed weapon. Sometimes he's had to ditch a particular piece (like when using it as hand-cuffs) and reacquire another one later. He'd really like to get his hands on some olaminium; that could be really useful! Incidentally, he largely seems unconcerned about being captured by normal (read: non-psion) authorities since he can easily escape any handcuffs or prison cell they put him in, for as long as no one is looking. Thankfully psi-collars aren't common yet so he should be fine there too.

He uses his metal blade to practice the martial art he learned while in India, Kalarippayattu. One of the oldest martial arts in the world, Liam was convinced to take it because the beginning levels of it stress excersizing the muscles for strength and flexibility, to help counter his condition. The northern style that he practices also makes use of full-body oil massage, also to help tone the muscles. Based on principles similar to the ancient Indian art of Ayurveda, this adds not only an additional practical medicinal bend to his training, but also a mystical one, blending spirituality with practical exercise. This is very much in keeping with not only Liam's anima bent, but also the blending of those two concepts that was favored by his former proxy Bhurano in her style of research. Back in the day all these elements came together into a cohesive and complimentary "whole" (which is also very anima) that made Liam's life seem quite fulfilling and complete. Hence you can see why losing all this was even more tragic to him, and why he yerns to get it back, somehow. Maybe not the exact same things, but definately that sense of "wholeness". Of course, being that it was the other orders who took this away from him, Liam now sees the whole world as lacking this wholeness, being "broken" as he calls it, and thus it needs to be healed.

Of course, any benefits Liam received from his training and massage were destroyed by his five years in captivity. He still practices what little of the art he knows, but the massage must be done by a master. Liam is still in contact with his former master (known in the art as "gurukkal"), who doesn't believe he was capable of the things his order's been accused of. He is Liam's only non-psion "ally". Also, the reason Liam uses a blade in his training is because in Kalarippayattu, you are trained with weapons first, Only after you have mastered all the traditional weapons are you taught empty-hand combat. Anyone who has seen the rare times Liam has had to fight (without using more overt psi-powrs that is) would have noticed this.

Another small note on recreation was that in his last year at the Institute, Liam was also pursuing a career in acting. Living in the world's capital of movie entertainment ("Bollywood") had an affect on him, and he found that he had a gift for it. His condition was not a major hinderence since by that point he was able to counter it with his psionic abilities. Indeed, it could even enhance them at times, when he needed it. Bollywood is also the biggest employer of psion actors in the world, so they were happy to have him. This is also where Liam met his first girlfriend who was also an apsiring actress. Of course, both her and his acting career hopes have been taken away from him, along with everything else. Liam is a very bitter person, but I'm sure that after eight years he's softened up somewhat, at least to his new friends.

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I'm not sure exactly what Rorx had in mind for this game, since Liam was originally designed for his previous concept where it was when the Upeo were first contacting Eden, but I've come up with him posing as an electrokinetic psion, since he can produce electricity. He had just not do it too often in front of other psions or there is the risk of them picking up taint in his power use. Or a real EK who may notice the difference in how the power manifests, not that he'd suspect 'chib' right away, but still may make him/her more curious than Liam would like. Posing as a nova might help cover his use of powers, especially the ones that help him walk, but OTOH any psion would pick up more easily that he is a psion (+1 diff on Attunement for detecting either an average power psion or moderate (3 or 4) level psi power use vs. +2 to detect taint when he is using his walking power).

Any thoughts Rorx?

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Alistaire is correct about the Attunement difficulties. At +2 diff his walking power is one of the easiest for other Psis to detect, but that is still going to take a Psi 6+ to even have a chance. Also it would easily be overlooked or explained while he is travelling with a group of known Novas.

Only 2 psi latents have been detected on Eden and neither of those met the high requirements for either a T'porter or a Qk. It has yet to be decided what their fate will be.

Process 418 occurred about 6 months and Atwan has made a point of rotating everyone through the effected area so that all the psions are acclimatised to the new environment. What it does to the Novas will be discovered when you get there! ::biggrin

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yay! Another psion! ::happy

Well....not technically. ::blink

I am playing a psiad more or less. It is entirely possible that we could be friends on some level, since with my Attunement ability, I could easily figure out what you are after spending some time around you, and I would love to be able to tell someone what I am, not to mention my interest in being able to learn what you can do. ::sly

My write-up is almost done, just working on the generic background, already done with the UN and such.

Might be worth doing a chat of our meeting or something...?

Side Note: It will be interesting to find out what 418 does to either of us...if anything ::scared

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I am playing a psiad more or less. It is entirely possible that we could be friends on some level, since with my Attunement ability, I could easily figure out what you are after spending some time around you, and I would love to be able to tell someone what I am, not to mention my interest in being able to learn what you can do.

Close enough. At least Liam would be able to relate to him better than all these world-stomping novas that'll be hanging around. ::tongue

So is he 'natural' or triggered by the new psi order? Either way, Liam would be interested in him to, since he'd represent a break in the Doyan monopoly (nothing worse than dealer lock-in ::wink ), and thus fits with his agenda of bringing the Chitra Bhanu back, at least in some form. Yeah, he'd love someone to 'geek-out' about all this with. Any noetic training?

My write-up is almost done, just working on the generic background, already done with the UN and such.

So will he have been known Liam then from his days working with the Upeo and Eden? Or will this be a more recent acquaintance?

Might be worth doing a chat of our meeting or something...?

Certainly! ::smile

Side Note: It will be interesting to find out what 418 does to either of us...if anything

From what I understand, nothing. IIRC, it mucked up our abilities for a while and then we got used to it and adjusted, so now we're fine. Too bad; the New Chitra Bhanu could use a new proxy. ::devil

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So is he 'natural' or triggered by the new psi order?

Natural, the child of a proxy and a psion.

Yeah, he'd love someone to 'geek-out' about all this with. Any noetic training?

He has a couple of dots.

So will he have been known Liam then from his days working with the Upeo and Eden? Or will this be a more recent acquaintance?

Well, he is only 18 and was born in 2105, so I suppose it depend slightly on your timeline of events, but I would imagine that he is a relatively recent acquaintance.

Certainly! ::smile

PM me with when you are usually free and what method you would prefer, I have MSN, OpenRPG, and RPG Post (N Prime) has a chat room as well, or, if nothing else, I suppose pbp would work.

From what I understand, nothing. IIRC, it mucked up our abilities for a while and then we got used to it and adjusted, so now we're fine. Too bad; the New Chitra Bhanu could use a new proxy. ::devil

Hmm, that has me thinking...what about a Psiad Order? ::cool

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Technically speaking, anyone triggered IS a Psion. Psiad refers specifically to naturally occuring psychic manifestations with a human. So by definition he is natural.

I know that, but I wasn't going to assume that he was necessarily being as strict with his definitions, and I could imagine someone defining 'psiad' as any psi user with more than one aptitude. IOW, I was just making sure I knew what I was dealing with.

You will find out once I get my background up, RL is slowing me down. (Wife is 9 months pregnant) However I should be able to get it done within the next couple days...should...

Here's hoping for a psiad! ::wink

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Technically speaking, anyone triggered IS a Psion. Psiad refers specifically to naturally occuring psychic manifestations with a human. So by definition he is natural.

Not to be a annoying putz, but I do believe there is a significant distinction, as laid out in the APG. A psion is triggered in a Prometheus chamber, and is limited to the modes of the order that triggered him, whereas a psiad is triggered naturally (like an eruption, but fewer changes to the body) and is therefore not limited to one set of modes, but will never get as a good as a psion, since there's a cap on mode dots (I think it's three). They use their powers the same way, but their origins dictate the relative strength and range of modes they can use. Because of the differences, the two different classifications exist.

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Not to be a annoying putz, but I do believe there is a significant distinction, as laid out in the APG. A psion is triggered in a Prometheus chamber, and is limited to the modes of the order that triggered him, whereas a psiad is triggered naturally (like an eruption, but fewer changes to the body) and is therefore not limited to one set of modes, but will never get as a good as a psion, since there's a cap on mode dots (I think it's three). They use their powers the same way, but their origins dictate the relative strength and range of modes they can use. Because of the differences, the two different classifications exist.

Psiads can use quantum powers as well, and the mode restriction is raised to 4 at Psi 9+ for their Primary Aptitudes.

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