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I saw the price and ended up playing Starbound & Subnautica instead. 
Definitely the kind of sci-fi sandbox thing I'd go for, though... so now it's been a while and things have maybe been updated even further, is it a Recommended? 
Or is it yesterday's jam by now? 
 

Star Maker by william olaf stapledon 
 
nothing like 1930s science fiction ey 
 
the concept is an interesting one- i mean it's basically an excuse for Elaborate Worldbuilding in terms of alien planets and lifeforms and cultures and i am such a sucker for that kind of thing. 
there's also a LOT of philosophical/spiritual/hypothetical discussion though, the kind that can go on for pages and pages. 
 
like five pages describing a group of bodyless explorers' consciousnesses all merged together and going over the subtleties of "we" compared to "i" in terms of describing oneself as part of a melting pot of different beings' experiences and knowledges and using that collective to attain higher planes of mental acuty but still being aware of one's own self... 
stuff like that, and at times i'm sitting reading it with a load of question marks floating through the back of my mind all with the magic roundabout music playing in the distance. 
i'm at a bit like that now where he's talking about intelligent life on planets enduring the struggle of ending violence and power grabs in exchange for altruism and self-love, to avoid destruction and achieve a utopia (but also risking a mental addiction to curiosity and telepathic spiritual travel of the universe which leaves their bodies to stagnate and die??? or something???) and um well this is a good bit to read at night tbh, it helps me to drift off. 
 
though reading makes me tired anyway, blame years and years of habitually reading in bed before i sleep and having the pavlovian response to it, SIGHS. 
 
 

uwururghh what day is it?? where am i? whose trousers are these 
 
i've been almost productive lately which is almost exciting. painted the bathroom and also hand-tamed a tiny rooster, who will crow in exchange for grapes. wow my life is exciting. 
 
sighs i need to start exercising again (read: do half-arsed press ups or something) now that my collarbone is pretty much healed. 
although my back still hurts ridiculously, but i don't think it's worth bothering a doctor about it, nothing's broken. 
 

sigh, my first popular tumblr post of the year and some americans are lacking in chill man
[looks directly in to the camera like on the office]

this post works great with your signature. 
 

i've just been rewatching the disney Atlantis cartoon, and both of those seem to be a bit themed towards it, so I APPROVE. 
(i like that kind of colour theme/design so woo) 
 

spent yesterday in hospital after falling off my tiny motorbike and lying in a ditch for two hours due to the ambulance strike. a nice (and very posh) man sat with me and kept the rain off me with an umbrella. 
it was very exciting, i got strapped to a board and got free drugs and an ambulance ride, although they did cut all my clothes off which was a bit rude. 
 
only broke my collarbone, but wow my back hurts and it feels like i've been beaten up. by a hedge. did i mention that i did a backwards somersault off my bike and into a hedge? amazing. 
 

the vorwerk chickens we hatched a few months ago are friendly i'm really happy about that <3 
i hope they stay friendly and interested, all wandering over to see what i'm doing when i'm outside sighs. 
the aracunas we hatched are just super jumpy. i turn the heatlamp on and they jump about a foot in the air and run around in a panic like the little idiots they are, bless. 
 
chickens? chickens. 
 

After a brief struggle with the shellfish thing, Ruben settled for holding it at arm's length. It jittered about in his hands, threatening to wriggle free, but he did his best to hold on. At least it didn't seem to be trying to hurt him in any way after all, and it didn't really seem right to drop it or throw it away. 
 
He turned his head, glancing over at the other people who had gathered around. Luckily most of them seemed to be to preoccupied with the rainbow assortment of monsters to have commented on his B-movie-actress scream from before. And at least he wasn't completely alone in the world after all, although nobody else looked particularly confident about what was happening. The words "weird" and "what" were background noise by this point.
 
Still holding the purple shell critter out in front of him, Ruben carefully turned to get a proper look at the others, narrowly avoiding stepping on the black watch-machine that he'd dropped in his surprise. He ignored it for the time being, as it hadn't done anything yet other than make the situation worse. At least the creature he'd been saddled with wasn't setting fire to anything. 

"Look," Ruben said to nobody in particular, "Whatever this is, I didn't agree to it. Someone just tell me how to make it stop, and what the hell I'm supposed to do with this. Shouldn't it be in water or something?" Preferably a safe distance away. Even if it wasn't out to hurt him, the licking was creeping him out.
 

it was the late 90s ok

lbr that doesn't explain our university dress styles. 
 

short skirts are fine as long as you're wearing tights; the only real rule is that midriff can't be exposed which is probably a bit odd seeing as it's all girls anyway but i'm not all that fussed tbh

tbh most school uniform regulations are to try and Prepare You For A Work Environment or Make The School Look Respectable rather than because children must not be Exposed to the horrors that is another human being. 
hence the regulations not just on ~exposed skin~ but on low trousers, multicoloured hair, facial hair, inappropriate slogans, or whatever the particular school's Dress Code is, some are bigger killjoys than others. 
 
obvs if they're giving the It Distracts People spiel then they are being silly and kind of rude. the exception being if you're wearing a police siren as a hat or something. 
like ok if they don't want accusations of "you were looking at my child inappropriately" (same as how teachers aren't allowed to physically touch students on the shoulder or whatever, or why loads of schools have clear panes in the door so that there's less chance of teacher and student being alone) but yeah. one-gendered dress codes are silly and dumb, although i don't know how many would ban girls in hotpants but be fine with boys wearing them. i never wore hotpants to school.
 
Everyone Must Be Neat dress codes are... kind of fair enough though. as in, it still sucks, but it's part of the whole school thing to prepare people for Being An Adult (groan), along with the whole doing work and working five days a week and life skills and all that jazz.
 
maybe i'm just dulled to the idea of dress codes because at my sixth form we had to wear Actual Suits. i had a look around and i'm fairly sure that nobody looked more ridiculous in a suit than i did. 
and i didn't even get an award for it??? wow rude. 
definitely prepared me for the workplace though. 
/laughs because i've never worn a suit to work 
 

my oldest friend is getting married??? they've set a date for it and everything, this is actually happening, they're younger than me oh god i'm at adult age aren't i. 

yeah sorry that was my bad D: 
i've had to sort some stuff out in "real life", whatever that is, hence the lack of activity. 
 
bUT pokemon have been allocated! everyone has been accepted! the post has been made! we are off!
if anyone has second thoughts about this RP (given that there's been a massive gap and some people may be going back to school and things), then please just let me know/post here. 
 
one day i will master the art of non-rambly posts. but not today.

let's do this thing!!! finally.

pokemon have been edited into the first post. go and have a look, and maybe wish that you'd picked another number (too late now).
you can however put them in your form if you'd like, and give them a name and other sorts of things to flesh them out.



It took Ruben a few moments to decipher the chicken-scratchings on the note, which revived a terrifying memory of trying to revise for exams in years gone past. On the occasions where he'd used his own notes, anyway. It-- somebody-- he himself wanted him to meet up with somebody, or something, in the park. Of course.

He gave the watch-like device a glance, held in his other hand as though he was trying to figure out which of the two objects made the least sense. At least the little machine didn't seem to be doing much to unnerve him. Aside from popping into existance in the first place.

Decisively, Ruben crumpled the note into a ball, but kept a hold of it. Really it was the only guide he had as to what was going on, and could even lead to an explanation. If it didn't, he was going to be annoyed. More so than he was already getting. The black watch gizmo went in one pocket-- for some reason he didn't trust it enough to wear it-- and the ball of paper went in the other.

Locking the door on leaving was probably optimistic. Every bend and crossroad in the street prompted him to stop and look around, as though he might spot somebody else after all, but that only confirmed the quiet, and gave his brain ample time to run through explanations. Maybe there had been a flooding of toxic gas, or a disease that he'd managed to miss completely. There could have been an evacuation. Maybe he'd slept for years.

He had just managed to think the word "zombies?" when he reached the park, but there still seemed to be nobody about. He walked a little further forward just to be sure, able to see buildings crowding around the grass on almost every side. Starting to shake and needing something to occupy his hands, Ruben reached in his pockets for a cigarette and lighter. The pack dragged out the watch he'd put in and forgotten about, and it fell onto the grass before he could catch it.

The knock to the ground turned the device from "useless" to "weird", lighting up and beeping like an alarm. Trying not to drop anything, he picked it up and started pressing buttons, but nothing happened. Instead, a small map showed up: that green shape had to be the park where he was now, a little black dot almost in its centre. And the other, different-coloured dots moving closer were...?

Ruben looked around, and by the time he had glanced back a small, red X had appeared, close by to where his marker was. And the other dots were still closing in on him, so he started walking.

If he had been expecting something grand, like a podium, beam of light, or maybe even a nice focal point like the park's fountain, he would have been disappointed. Luckily, he didn't know what to think, and so Ruben's only reaction to the small, frankly pathetic-looking sapling which was apparently the reason for all this fuss was: "What."

The little tree was maybe five foot tall, with a few skinny leaves and weak-looking branches, sagging under the weight of its fruit. If that even was fruit: there were eight of them, all different colours, and wait that one near the top was growing and didn't look anything like any fruit at all, white and black and metallic and getting heavier until it snapped clean off, dropping to the ground and splitting open in a flash of white light.

And then something materialised in his arms, and it was licking his face, and he actually, horrifyingly, screamed.

there is no need to feel anxious about having so many posts. just look at raven or liam or any of those other Sad Sacks with 10k+ posts wow look at those losers. 
/casually leans in front of own post count 
 
amongst all the other nonsense that's been going on (and having to reconsider pretty much everything i want to be doing with my life), i completed my basic bike training. 
i'm now legally obliged to whiz around the roads on a tiny tiny motorbike, which is exciting. particularly because i now have TRANSPORT which isn't a bus. 
 

[Name:]

/gasps

yes that is five (5) forms accepted out of five! confetti for everyone. 
and also i enjoyed reading them, which is a good sign.

gimme the pink number 9

worth pointing out that #9 is the white one, though. although it is a bit pink i guess, it might be my laptop. it's less pink than the pink one though. which was taken already. maybe you had a lucky escape.

(I'm really dumb and have just realised that I'm going on holiday tomorrow but I'll be back on Wednesday so if I'm inactive for a bit once you start it's not because I'm physically unable to commit to something for more than an hour, it's just because I'm dumb)

why i outta /shakes fist 
nah it is fine, i have no idea what speed this thing will move at so we will Agree to make a group effort to bundle Nancy along with us until you return, instead of leaving her in a tree or something. 

((Can you save me a spot plz Mark? I'll get my form done later tonight or tommorow.))

yes i will Allow that, partly because i managed to be a whole day late with the character form for my own RP thread, which is slightly impressive. 
 
speaking of which, a Form i shall post now. 
excitingly, it looks like we will have TWO gingers. i think that's a bingo.



Name: Ruben Leger
Age, gender: 21 and male

Looks: Pretentious and ginger. Appears to style himself like some kind of artist, with his beard, piercings, cigarettes and dark clothing. Unfortunately his freckles somewhat ruin the effect, as well as the fact that he has no artistic talent whatsoever. He doesn't even have green eyes to match the rest of his colouring, just blue ones, although he is pale enough that he looks like he'd burst into flames in the daylight.
Ruben's of medium height (5'11") and build, having that weird shape where somebody is skinny and flabby at the same time, and has several tattoos, most of which are covered by his black long-sleeved jacket or fingerless gloves.
Along with those he wears a (black) newsboy cap, jeans which have seen better days, some unassuming shirt (red today) and trainers which have worn down to an ambiguous grey. In his opinion, his hair clashes with any more adventurous colours, even safely restrained under his hat (expect remarkable hat hair to lurk beneath).
I have an image of him, for added excitement. Ha ha nerd.

Personality: So not an artist, but melodramatic enough to be one. Ruben tends to curse his bad luck even before something bad happens to him, ready to get a head start on panicking about things. Paranoid is too strong a word, but he's certainly suspicious of people and things, particularly if they're new. He's the sort of person who enjoys horror and urban legends, while at the same time getting easily terrified.
On the plus side, he's quite dynamic. Even with the lack of artistic ability, he will still give things a go, and doesn't give up easily. Expect obstacles to be ploughed through, so long as he can complain about it while doing so. And also complain about everything and everyone else, because it's anything but his own fault when his methods are ineffective.

Pokémon: Shellder
Intro post is all the way down here.
 

[Plot:]

Your radio crackles into life on the stroke of midnight. Gentle music plays, and you wonder if you're dreaming.
"Yes, it's a problem."
Suddenly you're alert. The music was quiet enough for you to ignore it, but this voice is familiar. It's yours.
"Things have split too far, I'm sorry to say. But we managed to get on the right side of the divide, and not a moment too soon. Now we can make a difference. A new life. A new start. What I've always wanted."
The sky outside begins to lighten: somehow it's morning already, and it takes you a while to realise how quiet it is. Moving to the window, it's obvious that the familiar streets are empty. There are no cars on the roads, no people milling about, and the houses stand still as though evacuated. The radio gives a content sigh, leaving one last message before switching itself off.
"It's going to be a beautiful day in my neighbourhood."

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

Plot: Since that announcement on the radio, it's as though your character is the only person left in the city, maybe even in the world. Everything is as though it had been abandoned the night before, with no explanation given. On a table in their home is what looks like an over-elaborate watch. No, wait: it's like some kind of... is it a pokégear? Like from the video games? That definitely wasn't there before.
Next to it is a note in their own handwriting: Meet us in the park.

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

Yes, your character is from "our world", where pokémon aren't (weren't) real, WHAT A TWIST.
No, you don't get to decide what your starter pokémon is, just what number poké ball it's in. I tried to mainly get a selection which aren't used in RPs so often, but in my attempt to get a nice mixture of types some of them might be more popular.
Yes, I'll let you know what it is before we start. So you can edit it into your form, and give it a nickname and a gender and a stylish hat if you want to. I'll have a quick ref of characters/pokémon in this post as well.
No, you can't change what pokémon you have after it's ~revealed~ what they are. Even if you hate it so much that it gives you chronic gastritis and you have a sick note saying so.
No, Not all of the pokémon have to be picked. I'm hoping to only have about a half dozen people joining in, otherwise it will be Too Complicated for my small brain. We'll see. But eleven would probably be overkill.
Yes, you can catch more pokémon. But you'll need poké balls first, so hold them there horses.
Yes, please be literate, use some punctuation, double-space your paragraphs and all that jazz. Also, please write in the third person (so your character as he/she/they, not I/me).
Yes, be engaging and interactive and have fun! I'll nudge the plot along at various times/offer delicious exposition, but feel free to go up to things and poke them with sticks, and basically have the RP move along in a direction you think would work. Interact with other characters, particularly if they're trying to get involved, and make sure you respond to interactions towards you! I guess the "have fun" is optional, but encouraged.

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

Characters

User	Name	Pokégear		Pokémon
echo	Brandy Padilla	Grey		Nosepass
Shrub	Nancy Thropp	Pink		Exeggcute
Bad Wolf	Checo Mendoza	Yellow		Makuhita
Shaymin	Quinn Brewer	White		Swirlix
Inferna	Skye Logan	Green		Spinarak
Danatales	Toby Kozlov	Orange		Slugma
Hahex and Oshawott	Luke San	Purple		Drifloon
Sebastian Moran	Ruben Leger	Black		Shellder

for the purposes of this RP all pokémon will evolve by levelling up and have similar total power/levelling points.
not that we're sticking to rigid Level Up and Movesets anyway.
but i trust you all to be sensible when it comes to moves. no fire blasts and hyper beams to start off with, because i am a killjoy.

how could that be making you happy he murdered an unnarmed teenager. he shot him six times whilst the kid was on his knees with his hands up i literally am sickened by the thought people are giving him money for shooting a kid. his report was bogus; michael didn't steal anything from the store. the store didn't call for the police. his only crime was walking in the street and being black

worth pointing out that he DID steal from the store: his friend who was a witness to him being shot also admitted that he stole the cigars, so either both of his statements (the shooting and the robbery) are believed, or neither are. 
he was also apparently stopped because he was jaywalking, so for a minor crime rather than for no reason. bUT neither was he stopped because of the theft, because wilson wouldn't have known about that (IIRC the store didn't call the police, no). brown had no previous convictions either.
obviously his race (and his gender/age/build) was part of why he was stopped too, and likely determined the outcome. 
as in i'd be really surprised if it wasn't, given the racial attitudes around that part of the country. 
 

Has there actually been definitive proof of what happened yet? All I've had is a mumble jumble of different stories from two extremes and I'm still trying to understand it.

there is a list of known facts here about what happened, and some speculations, clearly marked as such. 
 
however, either way it was excessive force. if the charge (as far as wilson was concerned) was jaywalking and then attacking a police officer, then he should have been arrested, not shot. he was unarmed. IMO the shooting was not necessary, but the truth should still not be twisted in either direction. 
there's also the fact that there IS a lot of institutionalised racism amongst the (mostly white) police force in (mostly black) neighbourhoods. there's the fact that the police used tear gas and wooden bullets against (and arrested) protesters, including peaceful protesters, including reporters, including children, including before even approaching the crowd, including before the curfew. 
this isn't saying "everything the police did was overkill and nobody in the community was at all violent ever", just pointing out that in regards to the looting, the media usually follows the violence. there are also the people in the community stopping the looting and the excuses for violence, at the people carrying out peaceful protests or providing milk and water to aid people hit by tear gas. 
 
basically ferguson is a media circus right now. and although nobody can know for sure WHAT happened (who wasn't there), this isn't an isolated incident... there's clearly a bigger problem of this nature. and i'm not sure that so many guns are a great solution, but it's a deep-rooted thing that will likely take a long time to change. 
 

goddamnit, i wish you told me this a lot sooner

are you kidding, i already got over five hits on the youtube.