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Lies

Lies

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Believe nothing and trust no-one. In Colony 3, everyone has their own motives.

1,678 readers have visited Lies since Village Alchemist created it.

Introduction

You are walking by a building with a large plasma screen embedded into its wall. As you pass, a handsome man in a business suit appears on it and begins to speak above the ever-present sound of smooth jazz.

"Welcome to Colony 3, the latest of Smicht-Goldston's extra-solar commercial compounds. Please be aware that leaving the Safety Dome is highly dangerous and strictly prohibited."

Across the street, you can clearly see to outside the transparent dome. Beyond it is a verdant landscape of rolling hills covered in exotic trees and flowers. A six-winged reptile the size and color of a robin flutters over the dome.


"Colony 3 is Smicht-Goldston's most technologicaly sophisticated facility yet. When it has reached optimal capacity, it will house four-hundred-thousand people in our comfortable 'Flexi/Happi'-brand family housing units. State of the art air-filtering technology protects our tenants from the unhealthy microbes that infest the atmosphere of planet Artemis.

Our state-of-the-art Agri-Towers provide enough healthy food for everyone in Colony 3, and your family is protected from crime by advanced Titan-brand security drone technology.

All this brought to you by Smicht-Goldston Inc., a publicly-traded American company invested in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, computer technology, renewable energy, space development, and public defense. Smicht-Goldston was listed as number-one growing company in Profit Magazine for 2159, and is the only industrial supplier trusted by the United States Armed Forces!"

The man disappears and is replaced by the logo of Smicht-Goldston.
ImageA mechanical-sounding female voice speaks loudly but gently: "Smicht-Goldston! Humanity is our business!"

Some time later, you try to use a radio in your home. As it has been for the past twenty years, however, all but one station is static. People have tried to set up new radio stations on Artemis, but something somehow always interferes with them. The one frequency your radio can pick up is providing the same kind of rambling as always. A deep voice, echoing with power, booms from the speakers.

"...race not welcome here. You have all overstepped your boundries. It is time for your punishement. Your quarrels and your philosophy and your lives mean nothing to me. Fire will not stop raining down from the sky upon your colony. It falls at my command. You still live because it amuses me for now. Have no illusions; you are nothing. I created you. I rule you. I control your souls. I am your Lord. I hate you."

You turn the radio off and go outside--not outside the dome; that would be suicide. You are heading to the Financial Complex to recieve your paycheck from Smicht-Goldston for the week. Then, while you are there, you will pay rent and your utility bills to Smicht-Goldston, which will leave just enough money to buy a week's worth of food from the company Agri-Towersβ„’. Hardly anyone lives here in Residential Complex 29C yet. However, more settlers are turning up every day and filling the empty prefabricated apartments.

You pass by a housing unit on which someone has drawn graffitti.

D EAT H TO THESM I CHTS! DEAT H TO THE GOLDTNS!
THe ROGUES KN O W T HETRU TH!


Life in Colony 3 stopped making sense a long time ago.


----------

Welcome to "Lies." This roleplay takes place in a science-fiction future where space is being colonized by various privite companies, the largest of which is Smicht-Weston Incorporated. Hundreds of thousands of people are leaving an overpopulated, war-torn Earth to colonize nearby solar systems with the promise of adventure, discovery, and profit.

For most people, the only way off of Earth is on spaceships owned and operated by one of a dozen "colony corporations." The price for a one-way trip to the colonies is extraordinary. Very, very few people can afford it on their own, but the colony corporations will lend you the money as long as you promise to pay it back by working for them once you arrive in the colonies. However, the colony corporations also own everything in their respective colonies--the means of production, the transportation, the power plants, the water systems, the buildings, the shops--and intentionally arrange prices for goods and services in such a way that it is very difficult for most colonists to ever pay back their debt. As such, most colonists are in a state of perpetual indentured servitude to whatever company runs their colony.

There is, however, a rumor, only whispered by colonists when they are out of sight of security cameras, that an underground movement exists known as the Rogues. Who exactly the Rogues are or what they want is not widely agreed upon: some say they are heroic freedom-fighters who will destroy the colony corporations and bring democracy to the colonies. Some say they are bloodthirsty madmen bent on sowing discontent and destruction. Some say they are simply thieves. Some say that there is really only one Rogue, and he pretends there are more in order to frighten his enemies. Some say the Rogues do not exist at all. Some say they are agents of the Lord.

The Lord is the name adopted by an alien entity hostile to humanity. The Lord appears to have some understanding of human spirituality, and claims to itself be God. It also claims to be in command of the obviously-alien vessels which occasionally bomb the colonies. No-one has credabley claimed to have met the Lord, but he constantly transmits untraceable radio signals to the colonies, boasting about his unstoppable power and explaining his motivation for harrassing humanity: "Because your suffering amuses me." The colony corporations continually improve their colonies' defenses against this threat, but a bomb or two always manages to get by and cause damage.

Oh, and it should be noted that humans have no access faster-than-light travel or communications, although the forces of the Lord apparently do. As such, it takes several years for any information or goods from Earth to reach Colony 3.

You are a space colonist living in a world where nothing can be trusted. Be careful what you choose to believe.

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-Absolutely NO OUT-OF-CHARACTER TEXT IN THE POSTING AREA. That's what the OOC thread is for. Failure to follow this very simple rule will result in a ban.

Browse All » 4 Settings to roleplay in

Artemis

Artemis by RolePlayGateway

Artemis is the second planet orbiting the star 36 Ophiuchi B.

Colony 3

Colony 3 by RolePlayGateway

Welcome to Colony 3, the most advanced extrasolar living complex in the galaxy, presented by Smicht-Goldston Incorporated!

Jaydon's Joint

Jaydon's Joint by RolePlayGateway

The smell of alcohol and grease fill your nostrils and the clinking of gambling machines fill your ears as you step into Colony 3's most popular lower-class hangout spot.

The Story So Far... Write a Post » as written by 3 authors

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"I heard the Rogues got seen in Colony 1. You heard of that, S?"

Artemis Stevenson, otherwise known as "S," (There were too many young women on Planet Artemis with that name.) shrugged. "Don't matter to me what's going on out on the plains. Just, uh, just as long as I don't get blown up, you know?"

Both she and the slightly older man, Jackson, spoke in whispers. S glanced over at the large robot standing vigilantly in the corner of the cramped room. The robots were called "Decentralized Armed Drones," or DAD's for short. No-one ever commented on the acronym being amusing.

Jackson was an idiot. You never talked about the Rogues in public, and certainly not when there was a DAD in the room. Fortunately the robot did not seem to be paying attention to them.

This time of the evening, Jaydon's Joint was packed with customers. Most of them were lowest-class laborers for the company; hunched, hard people who came in after a day's work smelling like garbage and chemicals. Whenever S looked over the crowd, she quietly reflected on how lucky she was to be in her position. Being one of the Joint Girls (or, as the company preffered to call them, "Recreation Stewards.") was pretty easy compared to most jobs available in Colony 3. Just look pretty in uniform, remember which customer ordered which drink, do not let anyone beat the house at the dice tables, and stay out of trouble. Sure, between this and housework she only got about an hour-and-a-half of sleep each night, but in S's book, that was a decent tradeoff.

Not like Jackson here, who worked in the power station on five-hour shifts, but would probably die of radiation exposure by the time he was thirty.

"Hey," Jackson interrupted her thoughts, "You gonna' spin the wheel or what?"

"Sorry," muttered S automatically. She leaned over the dice-table and spun the segmented wheel at its center. Jackson rolled a twelve-sided die into the spinning wheel.

It landed on a two. "Two. You lose," said S bluntly.

On either side of the table was a small keypad with a screen and a stylus attached to it. On her screen, S could see how much credit Jackson had bet on that roll. She pressed a single button, and the number disappeared, the credit vanishing from Jackson's bank account into some mysterious Smicht-Goldston maintained region of cyberspace.

Poor Jackson seemed convinced that he had a chance of winning his fortune at the casino. He must know--he must, somewhere deep in his mind realize--that the games were unwinnable, but he refused to believe it. S did not know what kind of pay he got at his job, but between utilities and what he blew at the dice tables, she had her doubts that he would be eating the next day. His loss.

"Another round, Jackson?" she offered.

Jackson rubbed his face with his hands. "Nah, forget it. I'm done tonight."

S turned on her heels and went to attend to other customers.

The setting changes from Jaydon's Joint to The Future

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#, as written by Mr_Bama
The transports made loud noises as they slowly screeched off to carry Minerals here and there. Everyone was loading the Minerals they had as fast as they could, after all, as soon as all the Minerals infront of them were loaded, they were set free. That would be easy if the crews didn't continually bring the Minerals and drop them off in to piles infront of the workers. Mazak had slowly let his attention span snap so that he wasn't even aware that he was loading Minerals right now, though he still was because he wasn't going to slack off on the job and risk getting fired, there was no way that he would allow that to happen. His mom still worked at Jaydon's Joint and he wasn't going to let her down by making her work off most of the money that they had to pay for their debt, no, that wasn't in his nature. He had to make money in his father's place.

The boss of that area, who most just simply called Boss, wobbled down a ramp that lead up to an office near them. It was cooled even more than anywhere else in this Colony, yet he was sweating when he reached the bottom of the ramp. Mazak believed it would be quicker for Boss to travely if he just layed down and rolled where he needed to go, after all he was round enough to make a round trip. He smiled to himself at the little joke he had just made. Boss was short and stout and wasn't the best at anything really, it was shocking that he was even in a leadership position. When he made it to Mazak the light hit his face just right so that Mazak could see all the patches of hair that Boss had missed when shaving, it didn't help the man look any more business like. Mazak figured that if he was going to miss so many spots, hell, why shave at all?

"Humaine!" Mazak snapped to attention and looked at Boss, he was irritated, that wasn't going to be good for Mazak. Boss rubbed his chin and stared up at Mazak, "Hey! Look right here! No, no! I said right here. Right. Here." Mazak looked down and let their eyes connect, Boss nodded his head, slightly satisfied, "You see, now thats better. It wouldn't kill you to show some respect everynow and then, I mean come on, for Lord's sake." Mazak then had a brilliant idea, well, it wasn't as great of an idea as it seemed to be in his head, but that didn't stop him. He thought it was going to be funny, "Which Lord? Earth's Lord, or the Lord here?" Boss glared at Mazak's smirk as Mazak turned around and began to load Minerals again. Tapping the clipboard as he walked around Mazak to the other side so that they were facing each other again, a devilish idea came to his head.

"That isn't funny at all Humaine. You should know better than to speak like that, maybe you need a couple days off, you know, maybe you need more than that. How about you take the rest of your time in this Colony off? Huh? How does that sound?" Mazak dropped a load of the Mineral in the transport then stopped and froze. He stared at one of the tubs that contained some of the Minerals as he felt a cold sweat composed of fear and panic slowly slide from the back of his neck, down between his shoulders and to the pit of his back, following his spine it seemed. "Sir, please don't. I'm sorry, I spoke out of line, you know I need this job, man. Please, Boss, come on, I don't slack off like the other workers... Please... Please..." Boss looked up from his clipboard that he was using to hide his face, the biggest grin was slapped across his face making Mazak laugh stupidly for a few minutes at what he had fell for, "Boss, you know, you really had me going. I thought you were serious."

Boss shrugged, "I was just proving my point that all jokes aren't always funny. There is a right time, and a right place. Though sometimes that right place, and that right time never exists. Remember that." Mazak nodded then picked up his last tub, it felt extra heavy, it felt like his arms had gone dead. His muscles finally decided to give in to this arduous task. He closed his eyes then loaded it, happy that it was infact his last batch of Mineral to load. He tapped the side of the transport and the Robot inside of it flicked a switch causing the tailgate of the transpart to raise so that the Minerals wouldn't slide out from there. Then it pressed another button and a cover slid from the back window to cover the minerals so none would fly out or be lost somehow. Then it slowly schreeched away as smoke flew from the cover and the tailgate connecting. Mazak laughed and shook his head, "Man, they really need to get new Transporters."

Boss wobbled around the area talking to the others about lost transcripts, shipment orders, and equipment usage and such. Trying to act like he was actually thorough and really did care, one of the top Supervisors must be around and watching him. Other wise he would have sat back and played with anything that could entertain him in that office. Mazak was making his way to Jaydon's Join to see his mom and maybe to grab a bite to eat, after all that was his hang out place and almost everyone knew him. Life seemed simple sometimes here, though he knew that was a lie. Nothing was simple here, everything had some treachorous web tied in the background somewhere waiting for an ingenous fly to land in its web and wait ignorantly for the hungry spider of corruption to move to its meal to suck the life from it, then toss it back to walk as nothing but a corpse. Mazak shrugged off the thought and wandered in his mother's place of work, and wondered if anything interesting was happening.

The setting changes from The Future to Jaydon's Joint

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At the bar, S caught her sister arguing with a customer in whispers.

"You can't have anymore, Sir. There isn't anymore," explained Stella Stevenson.

"Bullshit!" declared the old man, albiet in a low voice. "I-I've heard this here before, kid--"

"Look, I'd help if I could, but I can't."

The man stood up. Although he was old and frail, he towered over Stella. "Bullshit, bullshit. I don't wan' any of this 'I've had enough' nonsense."

S sighed. Whatever the problem was, her younger sister was not handling it very diplomatically. She pushed a customer out of the way and inserted herself between Stell and the old man. "Sorry about my sister," she said, "What's up?"

"She's saying there's no beer."

S looked around, hoping to see her manager, but Jaydon Aviv was nowhere to be seen. "Hang on," S urged the customer.

She ran to around the bar and came up next to Stella. "Stella," she asked, "let me see."

Stella gestured to the shelves benath the bar, commenting, "See for yourself."

S looked. The transparent plastic jugs that would normally contain beer were all empty. "Hang on, I'll check in the back."

As she turned to do just that, another old man came up (a friend of the first's?). "What's goin' on? What's she checking?"

"They're saying there ain't no more beer," explained the first one.

"No more beer!" shouted the second one at the top of his voice. Suddenly everyone in the room, even the DAD's, stopped at looked at the Stevenson sisters. For a silent moment, the two young women returned the stares, then S grabbed Stella by the arm and pulled her into the employee's-only back-room. "Stay here," she commanded the younger girl.

S grabbed the handle of a small, wheeled table, upon which rested a huge metal keg--the size of a small person--with a spout sticking out the end. She pulled the thing out into the front room.

Seeing it, the patrons cheered and shouted. A few of them crowded around. S pointed to another Joint Girl who had been standing in a corner chatting up some young man. "ChloΓ«!" she shouted, "Deal with this!"

ChloΓ« ran up and began to ration out drinks while S returned to the back room. Stella was staring down at the floor, saying nothing.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" demanded S. "You can't just--you gotta'--" she gestured vaguely to the pantry next to them. "Okay?"

Stella looked up at her, uncomprehending. She ran out the back door, out of the building. S shouted Stella's name and ran after her.

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#, as written by Mr_Bama
When Mazak walked in he immediantly heard commotion all around him. He twirled looking around trying to find the source, confused as to what exactly was occurring. His eyes, searching the area rapidly, found the source. The bartender it looked like. People were grumbling and looking at each other in what seemed like panic, two girls were standing there and staring back at the crowd who were staring at them. Then eventually what ever they wanted must have been brought out because everyone began to cheer which left him confused even more than when he entered. So instead of trying to venture through the crowd he looked around for his mother, he saw her quickly laying down items at a table and walked briskly to her.

"Hey, how are you dear?" his mother asked when she saw him out of the corner of her eye, he shrugged simply, "Tired. Like always, what time do you think you are getting off tonight?" she looked up and her eyes were glazed over, she seemed lost. It was like she didn't know where she was, but then she blinked a few times to clear her vision and then looked around as the memories of recent events all came flooding back to her. She scared Mazak a lot lately, it seemed like she needed to stop working and see a doctor or something, she wasn't anything close to healthy anymore, her health dropped dramatically when his father died, it seemed like everything went down hill because of that.

"It doesn't look like I am getting off anytime soon." Mazak snapped out of his thoughts at his mother's voice then frowned, "Late night huh? Do you mind if I hang out then?" his mother looked around her place of work again, seemingly close to falling back in to her glazed over mind frame, but some how clinged on, "Maybe for a little while. I don't know if the manager will be okay with it. I'm sure if you pay for service and such it couldn't hurt for you to stick around." with a nod Mazak walked to his normal table, slid in to the seat and began to relax, what a day. He almost felt himself fall in to sleep's grip, that was desperately trying to pull him down and hold him there. Maybe it would happen, maybe it wouldn't, it all depended on how long he wanted to fight the sensation pulling at him. A kind looking girl walked over to him and told him that as soon as someone was avaliable they would wait on him, and then she began to apologize continually about the delay he would have.

Mazak shrugged it off and smiled at her saying it was no problem, he was in no rush. After all, he wasn't. There wasn't anything to rush, his mom was busy so he wouldn't be trying to go home anytime soon, not until everything died down and he was ready to take her home. Then he would start up the conversation about her health, and try to get her to quit saying he was still young and he could take on a few extra jobs to cover his mother's expenses, and of course she would say that there was no need. Then in a polite yet commanding voice tell him to stop with such thoughts, after all they never had screaming matches like a lot of the other parents and kids did. No there was mutual respect there. The conversation that he played in his head was easy to imagine, because they have had it every night. He has wanted nothing more than having his mother relax like she needed to and try to perserve as many years as she could, but she was a worker.

She loved to earn her own money and her own things, she hated to have someone pay for her all the time. He looked up at the ceiling and sighed then talked out loud to himself: "Oh mother... When will you give up and just try to live calmly and peacefully? You deserve it and you need the rest. Everyone knows that after father's death you have been working yourself too much, it is almost like you are trying to hurry to the after life to meet him." he froze as he said that last line, then looked over to where his mother was hustling around trying to get all the tasks that she needed done accomplished. Then he whispered something that was barely audible, a prayer, that is something it could be considered in a way. It was more like a plea though, something he was silently asking, no, begging his mother to do. Please tell me that isn't what you are doing... Please tell me that the stress isn't going to drive you to death... Mother... Please... Don't follow father...

The setting changes from Jaydon's Joint to The Future

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#, as written by Mr.Moot
It began, as always, with the dome shattering. He was not sure how or why, but so it was that the first thing he became aware of was a tremendous cracking noise and the reverberating impacts of the transparent barrier as it fell onto the colony, destroying the Smicht-Goldston headquarters as it did so. The spectacle of it was tremendous to behold. As the dome crumbled into fragments, the second act took off as he suddenly felt himself leave the ground of the city square, accelerating upwards as the fragments fell past him. The cool touch of real air gently cascaded over his face, bringing with it a fragrant, crisp smell he had never encountered before. The sensation of it was completely alien and yet felt undeniably natural and pleasant. It seemed cleansing, as if all the dirty, foul things that clung to him fell away with the dome. He looked down at the remains of Colony 3. Not one building over a story high seemed to be left standing. Their rubble, along with that of the dome, formed a patch of debris from the heights of the sky; a blemish of gray upon a green face.

What happened next was nothing short of the most breathtaking scene his eyes had ever witnessed. Stretched out in all directions, far, far below him as he floated in the sky, was a landscape of colour and radiance beyond anything he had ever seen. Tall, thick forests of green trees and vast expanses of florid meadows covered the surface of the world below him. Colossal, towering mountains soared far above him in the distance, reaching easily past the clouds and seeming to surpass the sky itself. The sight of it all was beyond incredible. Most impressive of all, however, were the things that accompanied him in the sky. Reptiles of every size and color soared below, above and around him. Some were as massive as the dragons he had often heard about in medieval myth and some were no larger than the smallest of birds. None of them seemed to take any notice of him. They darted and dived through the sky with impossible grace and agility, leaving streaks of their color in his vision that seemed to thread together in a rainbow like vortex, of which he was the epicentre.

But the most wonderful part of it all did not lie in its visual splendour, but in its raw sense of bliss. The life and beauty around him held a force of its own. It had always been there, penetrating and binding the whole universe together, but only now, free of the dome's containment, could he experience it himself. The essence of it all coursed through his being like a river, washing away all that was once awful, depressing and hopeless. He felt nothing of the loneliness, fatigue, distress or fear that was the status quo of his former life. It was renewal and rebirth. It was escaping from a terrible nightmare. It was the most wonderful thing there could ever be.

It was at this moment of perfect happiness that he felt the pull of something below him. He looked down, but all that met his gaze was the gray scar on an otherwise flawless landscape. He felt it again, more aggressive than before, and he thought the scar grew bigger. Suddenly, the air was rushing past him again, only it came from behind rather than before him. The flying reptiles that were one moment encircling him in their display were now well above. The ground swallowed the sky as the horizon shrank away. The feelings of elation and happiness were quickly replaced by those of panic, and then dread. He was falling.

He looked down once more. The expanse of gray was growing at an alarming rate in his vision. It seeped out like a poison, engulfing the verdant foliage around it. The world around him was disappearing into the rubble and ashes of a barren sea below, spreading ever further over the land. As he accelerated ever faster toward it, the familiar afflictions of his mind came flooding back with painful ferocity. The sensation of being trapped closed on him like a vice, suffocating his mind of all but the most grievous of thoughts. He felt like a mouse in a maze.

As he sank ever deeper into the ruin he had longed to be free of for so long, he cast a final glance at the disappearing world above. The colourful vortex spiralled away as the gray slowly swallowed it. Just as the last of it disappeared from vision and hope, a powerful, deep voice reverberated into the void, echoing more in his mind than his ears:

"That land will never be yours. Always you shall look on it in longing and despair. Paradise is lost to fools. Lost to you."


Hugh sat up in his bed with a jolt. He panted sporadically, shivering in a cold sweat. His eyes darted to and fro, searching and not searching for something that was and was not there. The room was completely dark, save for the green glow of a digital alarm clock that rested nearby.

Taking a deep breath, Hugh calmed the erratic thump, thumpthump...th-thumping of his heart. He looked to the clock. The time read 3:00 am.

On Artemis, days were 30 hours long; AM hours lasted from 15:00 am, midnight, till 15:00 pm, noon. Being familiar with uncommon hours of wakefulness, Hugh was well aware that the Earth equivalent of 3:00 am Artemis time was 2:15 am. He had gone to bed only an hour before and now knew he would receive no more sleep that night. He was never able to sleep after a dream. Especially that particular one.

Hugh let out a long, exasperated sigh. He had not slept the night before and was hoping to make up for it tonight. In a vain effort, he tried to go back to sleep. He sat awake in bed, turning occasionally to find a more comfortable position and flipping his pillows over when they became too warm. After a while, he opened his eyes and looked again at the clock. It now read 4:36 am.

β€œWell,” he said aloud. β€œI gave it an honest effort at least.”

With that, Hugh sat up once again and spun around so that his feet and legs slumped over the side of the bed. After a slight grunt of effort and a small heave, he was standing on the carpeted floor of his bedroom. It was hardly two and a half metres in either direction. The bed was cleverly built into the wall so that one would not have to move their own in oneself, which would be likely impossible. Originally, the room did not have a window. After a year of practically begging, Hugh managed to convince his landlord to allow him to have one installed. It was framed opposite the bed.

Hugh looked out of the window into the world beyond. The city was aglow with its usual night time lights and neon signs. Smicht-Goldston did not enforce a curfew (profits came from late night shoppers, pub goers and gamblers), but the drones were more active than ever at this time nonetheless. Buildings taller and smaller than his own stood all around, but none as impressive or as grandiose as the company headquarters, which loomed above the whole city like an exalted deity king. Beyond the city was the dome. Beyond the dome were the rolling landscapes of Artemis. Above all was the night sky, with its three moons and countless stars casting a soft, white glow upon the planet.

Before he lived in this particular apartment, Hugh had been residing on a far lower level of the building from which he could see none of this. Instead, he had a less than savoury view of the back alley, which consisted of little more than masses of refuse, garbage disposal chutes and the endless shifting of cleaning men and droids. Needless to say, when a room on the top floor had become vacant at last, he had wasted no time in acquiring it. Though the living quarters themselves left something to be desired (especially in terms of size), the view on the higher levels was extraordinary compared to those below. Before the bedroom window was installed, Hugh would often try to sleep on an armchair in his living room just to get a look through its window now and then. The bare darkness of his bedroom at the time was suffocating and made it more difficult to sleep than even sitting upright. As far as he was concerned, Hugh had reached the peak of his apartment life with a top floor apartment with a bedroom window.

Apartment life, however, was not much of a life in itself.

The glow of the moons and stars illuminated the world beyond the dome. Tall, thick forests of green trees, vast expanses of florid meadows and colossal, towering mountains mingled beyond the transparency of the impenetrable defense. Hugh gazed at them for a very long while.

Suddenly, the radio of the alarm clock blared loudly in the dark, causing him to jump in surprise. The time read 6:00 am, which was the que for the alarm to go off. Hugh did not have work that day and realized that he must have turned on the alarm before bed subconsciously. It acted less as a means to wake him up on time and more as a method of letting him know he had to leave to work soon, as he was usually awake when it went off.

The radio acted as the alarm of the clock. As always, the voice of the Lord echoed from its speakers:

β€œThat land will never be yours. Always you shall look on it in longing and despair. Paradise is lost to fools. Lost to you.”

Hugh turned off the alarm and sat down on his bed, a million thoughts of nothing at all going through his mind.

He had already confirmed that the voice in his dream belonged to the Lord. That was not a surprise. The tone of condescending superiority was always a clear giveaway. What was slightly troubling was the fact that the radio now echoed the exact words he used in the dream. It seemed a premonition of sorts, a glimpse of the future before its arrival. Of course that was absurd; Hugh was no prophet or fortune teller. It was far more likely that the Lord had said this line previously; he had been known to do so from time to time, especially on the subject of human inferiority. His mind had simply taken it into his subconscious and deemed it an appropriate element of the dream. Pure coincidence.

"Probably," said Hugh.

The setting changes from The Future to Colony 3

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S chased her sister through the streets of the Commercial Complex. "Stella, wait! Where are you going?"

Stella weaved in-between two passing DADs. "Hold up, citizen!" they said simontaneously in their mechanically-accented voices, "What is the trouble?"

Stella ignored them and kept running. The DADs turned on S, standing in front of her and preventing her from following the younger girl through a narrow alley. "Provide identification," demanded both of them at once.

"Okay, uh," S stammered as she pulled off her laniard, which had her employee tags hanging on it. "Artemis Stevenson," read the tags, next to a mugshot of her, "Recreation Steward. Age: 19. Hair: RED. Eye: BRO. # 10923." She handed over the laniard to one of the robots.

"Please," she pleaded, although she knew it was pointless. The drones did not understand such things. "That's my sister."

"Identity confirmed," said the DAD, who returned S's tags to her. "You will wait here until a security officer arrives."

Two more robots appeared around the corner, surrounding her. All four had the guns which passed for their left arms pointed directly at her.

That part did not worry S. The DADs possessed a very limited ability for moral judgement, so whenever they suspected you might be a criminal, they were programmed to keep you still until a human officer could show up to assess the situation. Good programming, she thought, as it prevented unnecessary deaths and kept people from feeling like they were living in a robot-controlled dictatorship, but it was in her way at the moment.

She looked up and saw with surprise that Stella had climbed the building to her left and was standing on top of it.

"You brat!" shouted S, "Get down from there!"

S regretted the words as soon as she spoke them. "You brat," indeed. S loved Stella with all her heart, she was just bad at saying such things--especially when she was upset.

"Why?" called Stella back, her voice echoing in the alley. "So you can yell at me some more? Or so I can keep working and working for nothing at all, then go home and sleep then wake right back up and go back to work where you can treat me like your little bitch?"

"Please do not raise your voice at night," commanded one of the DADs in a hypocritically loud, but as always totally emotionless voice, "as this may disturb the sleep of other colonists."

"Even the machines here think I'm worthless!" cried the child.

"Stella," demanded S once more, "Get down here now!"

Stella, standing at the very edge of the roof, let herself fall.

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Welcome home, Promethean. Here, you can manage your universe.

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Artemis

Artemis by RolePlayGateway

Artemis is the second planet orbiting the star 36 Ophiuchi B.

Colony 3

Colony 3 by RolePlayGateway

Welcome to Colony 3, the most advanced extrasolar living complex in the galaxy, presented by Smicht-Goldston Incorporated!

Jaydon's Joint

Jaydon's Joint by RolePlayGateway

The smell of alcohol and grease fill your nostrils and the clinking of gambling machines fill your ears as you step into Colony 3's most popular lower-class hangout spot.

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View All » Add Character » 3 Characters to follow in this universe

Character Portrait: Artemis Stevenson
Character Portrait: Mazak Humaine
Character Portrait: Hugh Lowry

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Character Portrait: Hugh Lowry
Hugh Lowry

A feeble, meek man with nervous tendencies and a gambling addiction.

Character Portrait: Mazak Humaine
Mazak Humaine

A hard worker who is only really concerned with doing what is needed to get his family out of debt.

Character Portrait: Artemis Stevenson
Artemis Stevenson

A grim-faced young woman.

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Character Portrait: Artemis Stevenson
Artemis Stevenson

A grim-faced young woman.

Character Portrait: Hugh Lowry
Hugh Lowry

A feeble, meek man with nervous tendencies and a gambling addiction.

Character Portrait: Mazak Humaine
Mazak Humaine

A hard worker who is only really concerned with doing what is needed to get his family out of debt.

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Character Portrait: Hugh Lowry
Hugh Lowry

A feeble, meek man with nervous tendencies and a gambling addiction.

Character Portrait: Artemis Stevenson
Artemis Stevenson

A grim-faced young woman.

Character Portrait: Mazak Humaine
Mazak Humaine

A hard worker who is only really concerned with doing what is needed to get his family out of debt.


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Artemis

Artemis by RolePlayGateway

Artemis is the second planet orbiting the star 36 Ophiuchi B.

Colony 3

Colony 3 by RolePlayGateway

Welcome to Colony 3, the most advanced extrasolar living complex in the galaxy, presented by Smicht-Goldston Incorporated!

Jaydon's Joint

Jaydon's Joint by RolePlayGateway

The smell of alcohol and grease fill your nostrils and the clinking of gambling machines fill your ears as you step into Colony 3's most popular lower-class hangout spot.

Colony 3

Artemis Colony 3 Owner: RolePlayGateway

Welcome to Colony 3, the most advanced extrasolar living complex in the galaxy, presented by Smicht-Goldston Incorporated!

Jaydon's Joint

Colony 3 Jaydon's Joint Owner: RolePlayGateway

The smell of alcohol and grease fill your nostrils and the clinking of gambling machines fill your ears as you step into Colony 3's most popular lower-class hangout spot.

Artemis

The Future Artemis Owner: RolePlayGateway

Artemis is the second planet orbiting the star 36 Ophiuchi B.

Fullscreen Chat » Create Topic » Lies: Out of Character

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Most recent OOC posts in Lies

Re: [OOC] Lies.

This is just the kind of dystopian drama I've been looking for. I feel very fortunate to have found it before it became overwhelmed with characters and posts. I hope my character profile suits your needs, Village Alchemist.

Re: [OOC] Lies.

Mr_Bama wrote:This seems like it will be fun. And awesome. Maybe awesomely fun?

Maybe crazy-fantastic. Posting has begun.

Re: [OOC] Lies.

This seems like it will be fun. And awesome. Maybe awesomely fun?

Re: [OOC] Lies.

Just what's on the form. You can add your own extra stuff you want, but I'm not asking for it.

Re: [OOC] Lies.

Hum...

Looks interesting! =D

Before I go and make a fool of myself, is there any special character info you want, or just what's on the form?

[OOC] Lies.

This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Lies."

If you have anything to say out-of-character, say it here!

Ideas and critisims of the roleplay are welcome.