Azure Wyrm (PM me to join)

Viirin

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Jul 30, 2011
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In Earth's mid 21st century, pollution had reached an all-time high. After 1970, no 'green' movements took hold. No city beautification acts were passed. Water pollutants, improperly dumped garbage, hazardous chemicals and other waste had caused widespread sicknesses and diseases in most previously virgin environments such as forests, deserts, and even the first few miles of most shorelines. It was generally believed that some sewers were more hospitable to native life than more obvious locales due to the water runoff through the trash did not connect to the sewer systems.

This by no means meant that the world resembled a gargantuan trash barge; it did however have potent biohazard and chemical pollutants that easily affected approximately five times the space that the hazards physically took up. No place was pristine, but no place was completely destroyed, either.

The job to clean it and save more species from extinction was left to the geneticists. In order to cut cost, so the governments of the world would complain at least slightly less about funding, a single creature- made of genetically engineered enzymes- was created with a heavily instilled instinct. The instinct, of course, was to consume plants and animals from the environment it was placed in order to adapt to that area, and rise up the food chain. It would gain the evolutionary benefits of the organisms it consumed; such as it could gain wings from a bat, scales from a fish or reptile, horns from a goat, etc.

Whether the plants or animals were alive or not meant nothing. As long as the amount of mass was within 40%-120% of its own current size, the entirety of the new DNA would be available for its own use. To begin with however, the engineered enzyme was a single cluster of stomach-acid bearing cells, closely resembling ravenous clear slime. If the slime consumed less mass than the aforementioned percent, it would only 'unlock' some of the organism's traits; if it consumed over the percent, its body would concentrate on growing in size, and not on 'learning' what it absorbed. The slime's great weaknesses, however, was that it was highly likely that diseases and toxins would affect its entire body, its unstable DNA replicating and transmitting its newly discovered chemicals through each cell, before it could generate a venom or bacteria sac. It's other weakness was that whenever it grew, it would get hungry from using up mass. As it regenerated, which it did quickly, it would become hungry as it used up mass to heal. It would also get hungry as it used up mass to change its form, even slightly. All its additional hunger was in addition to becoming hungry anyway, as a matter of course.

The scientists were fearful that a single slime dropped into an environment on its own may die easily, and so it was given four additional skills that no plant or animal has.

One- each slime, while still kept in its ID coded canister, was given a small piece of DNA from a difficult to obtain, endangered, or simply out-of-place species. An example might be that Venus Flytrap [http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/images/facts-about-venus-flytrap.jpg] leaves could be fed to a slime meant for the ocean; as it is a species guaranteed to not be encountered there. A handful of fireflies [http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2010/06/fireflybug.jpg] could be given to a desert slime, abolone shell [http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2377/2008103837_4bae407274.jpg] given to a forest slime, or even whale [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_W90V87w3sr8/TT63x6kn_ZI/AAAAAAAAApA/-egcHRyskaY/s1600/blue-whale-pictures_3.jpg] given to a slime meant to be released in the sea- ensuring the slime would not have to bother hunting such a large thing later on.

Two- the slime may evolve into anything, but the scientists would need to know which creature was theirs if they needed to retrieve it or study it further. In order to ensure they always knew if a creature was theirs, no matter where it was released or how it evolved, they hard-coded the slime to eventually evolve into a creature that represents the unquestioned ruler of any food chain but does not exist in nature, which causes it to stand out easily- a dragon. The scientists knew that dragons could be many shapes, from Chinese, to wyvern, drake, dragon, linnorm, land, ampithere, sea, or wyrm. A slime could become any of these, and decide for itself its colors, patterns, skin types, etc, but it would clearly be a dragon to any who look upon it; though it would only use traits of plants and animals it had consumed in order to tailor its looks.

Three- to fill out a dragon's ability list, guarantee benefits over all other life, and help with diseases and cures, the slime could gain elemental powers from chemical agents, and could replicate any medicines, poisons, or diseases it encountered.

Four- if the slime found a deceased human, then the slime could consume the human's brain to learn at least most of what they knew. This was meant as a possible environment save, since the human would SURELY had died due to toxins that they released themselves and the slime would have to find how to counter it. Surely.

With all that planned in scrutiny, the slimes were ready to be released in order to do their four jobs- 'rise to the top of the food chain they are introduced to', 'quell the numbers of overpopulated species', 'deal with' infected or diseased organisms, and 'become a dragon'.

A safeguard was put in place to make sure that the slimes would only be in the area demanded of them, making sure they stayed out of each other's territory, and within the area of most dire need of their services.

But one test had to be run first at the main facility in Southern California. Three ants [http://www.eurospiders.com/red_ant_1242.jpg] were placed in a seperate container with a slime that had not yet had its first meal. The slime was uninterested. Considering the slimes to be a wasted effort and failure, they were disposed of in a completely irresponsible manner, out of spite. The scientists acted like angry poorly-behaved teenagers and they stole the canisters of various slimes, smashing the canisters open as they threw them out the window of their vehicles while joyriding. The synthetic territory marker chemicals were left at the lab, unused. The slimes were free.

CHARACTER SHEET
Name: (remember, your character will not recognize itself as having a name yet, but you should still come up with one for us to recognize you as)
Bonus DNA: (the name or link of a real life, non-extinct species of plant or animal you want abilities from. I will unlock 100% of this species' DNA and powers for you)
Starting location: Choices are suggested to be desert, forest, beach, swamp, or sewer.
Description: a small, fist-sized clear slime (everyone starts this way, but it changes probably before the third post)
Equipment: (just a placeholder until you start finding DNA and special abilities, which is likely the second post)

--CHARACTER REFERENCES--

I constantly update the character sheet with unlocks, senses in use, location, and event information here [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SwBNVto5v51-B-R_d_M6UMhuTlEQBt9VSsX32ZB7K90/edit?usp=sharing].

Also, due to request, I bought a voice chat server from TeamSpeak. The server address is:
t304.darkstarllc.com:10252
 

Viirin

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Jul 30, 2011
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(accepted character list)

nuba km as Wrecker
Khedive Rex as Bosque
mcpop9 as Ish (retired) and Luna
Shanaar as Arq
ThreeWords as Sheol
Dragonhatchling as Sevak
Inkblot Royalist as Saarg
Erana as Eltanin
jffinch as Havoc
Headsprouter as Ravager
ChaseTheDreamer as Bleak
illuminatus-shadow as Maculun
booksv2 as Nathair
Coryn02 as Escar

FAQ:

Q: Is the game full? Can I still join?

A: It isn't full, no. I can always let new people in without ruining the story for anyone.

Q: I wanna start in a certain area. Can I?

A: The starting zones I have listed are just suggestions, new ones can be suggested at any time, though if it is a geographical location I have inferior knowledge of, I probably won't use it.

Q: When do we get the abilities of the creature whose DNA we selected to have at the beginning? Does it appear gradually over time or do we get it in addition to our first consumption? Or do we have them now?

A: You've already got 100% of the species unlocked right off the bat. However, to make use of any of it, you've gotta find some biomass to repurpose, like plants or animals to absorb. You'll undoubtedly get more DNA this way, too.

Q: Do we choose how the slime changes in form or would that be you?

A: You do. But remember what is said above- every change you make to your body makes you hungry (you used up either what's in your stomach, your own mass, or both to make the change). You also won't go from pure slime to 'fully formed' in a single shot.

Q: do the slimes need gills in order to survive under water?

A: Once you develop a respiratory system suited to breathe air, then yes you need gills to breathe underwater. If you don't have the ability to breathe yet, then you can go wherever. This also counts backwards- if you grow a respiratory system suited for underwater, then you'll need to find something amphibious or air-breathing in order to leave that environment.

Q: You made a description into a link, but I don't know what that is still.

A: I make sure every image URL I use has the name of whatever it is in the URL itself so you can google/wiki it.

Q: You said I unlocked _____, does that include _____?

A: Yes, when a specific creature/plant is stated instead of one or some of its parts, you not only unlocked the creature's body in full, but you can choose certain parts. An example might be you unlocked both "bat" and "fly", but you want fly's eyes and bat wings. That isn't just possible, its encouraged. Say you also unlocked 'fire ant' and 'iguana'. You can have scales as skin from the iguana, but turn them red since that's the color fire ants are. In addition to this awesomeness, fully unlocked creatures also give you their instincts. This way people with less knowledge in biology can reap the full benefits of the creature by just concentrating on the creature's instincts, and I'll let you know how it would act in the given situation and you can decide for yourself if you bother or not.

Q: There's all these starting zones, but are we ever going to meet?

A: Yes.

Q: If we're all going to meet, why all the starting zones?

A: You'll see...

Q: Can I find new DNA, eat it, and make use out of it in the same post?

A: No. You can eat something without knowing what it is right away, yes. That's highly encouraged! But using its biomass to grow parts you unlocked through your bonus DNA, as an example, is not something you're allowed to do as soon as you eat it. Reason being is you need to digest it first so its mass can be repurposed.

Q: Does changing colors take time or mass?

A: No. As long as it is a color or combination of colors you unlocked, you can just turn whatever part/s whatever color/s you want whenever you feel like it.

Q: How fast can I grow?

A: Think of it like a snail. A snail stretches its tail out pretty far, but it's also comparatively weak at that point since it's usually denser when pulled closer to its body. Well, that's why a slime has to eat a lot after growing, and takes a lot of food before growing too. It doesn't stretch as quickly, but it has to remain dense (or quickly make up for it).
 

nuba km

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Jun 7, 2010
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looks interesting, let me get this right we start of as a slime and over the course of the rp we develop into dragons and we can pick 1 animal, plant, or fungi species that our slime/dragon will have abilities similar to the selected species but enhanced?
 

Khedive Rex

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Jun 1, 2008
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Highly curious.

I haven't played an RP in forever and I tend not to like them on the escapist but I might try my hand at this. I'm assuming its very free form?
 

Viirin

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@nuba km: Yes, any plant, animal, insect, fungus, crustacean, avian, reptile, etc etc. Try not to think of a species as a single part- get the image of a pine tree in your head. Then think of a dragon- some have spikes on the end of their tail, or along their spine [http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/002/0/a/batanes_island_spike_dragon_by_arilou-d36aody.jpg]. Well, you don't have spikes in your genetic repertoire, but you do have pine needles [http://media.maangchi.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/pineneedles1.jpg]. See where I'm going with this idea?

@Khedive Rex: Not as free-form as others might allow, but mostly for the purpose of making sure the game follows its own rules. I had someone before (playing elsewhere) that started autoing and godmodding insta-kills, and deciding what species they found and what they did with them. Another thing someone else did wrong before, was attacking humans in crowds, even in front of live news cameras; and actually expecting that it wouldn't start a panic or put the other players in danger. I mostly want to make sure none of those things happen this time around. I also like describing the scenarios or specific things to players as the character would see something. Like I would not say 'you are in a cardboard box', but 'you find yourself in a square container made out of a soft wood-like material', at least until your character knows what it is.

Once the game starts, non RP posts will be removed to keep immersion high.
 

Viirin

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Jul 30, 2011
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@mcpop9: "Equipment" is all your accumulated DNA (such as the name of the species), status abilities (medicine glands, poison glands, disease glands, etc), elemental abilities (fire breath, sandstorm breath, etc), special abilities or information gained by eating people (most of these I will only barely hint at when applicable), and other genetic unlocks such as 'red', 'feather', 'dragonscale', 'black widow pattern', or abilities that can only be gained by merging multiple different things into a single ability, like the 'restoration egg'.

Nope, won't hint even in the slightest of how to get true Dragon quality body parts, or how to gain the Restoration Egg skills, just in case anyone was going to ask.
 

mcpop9

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Jan 27, 2010
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@Viirin awesome, cleared up allot of things, one more question. would you be able to pick up human traits like a bi-pedal form from consuming them?

note: will post a sheet later today.
 

Viirin

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@mcpop9: Nope. Reason why is the only 'superior' adaptations I find humans to have is their opposable thumbs and intelligence. If anyone gets detailed enough, then I'd say you can swipe eye and hair colors (since human red hair can be that much more vibrant than that of any other mammal, same with a higher variance on iris coloration) though.
 

nuba km

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Jun 7, 2010
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Name: wrecker
Bonus DNA: male white rhinoceros
Starting location: forest
Description: a small, fist-sized clear slime
Equipment:
I hope this is ok
 

mcpop9

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Jan 27, 2010
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Name: Ish
Bonus DNA: Komoto Dragon
Starting location: forest
Description: a small, fist-sized clear slime
Equipment:
 

Khedive Rex

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Jun 1, 2008
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Name: Bosque
Bonus DNA: Hummingbird.
Starting location: Forest.
Description: A small, fist-sized clear slime.
Equipment: ...

Will this do?
 

Viirin

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Jul 30, 2011
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@nuba km: you are accepted, wrecker.
@mcpop9: accepted your character, Ish.
@Khedive Rex: that works, Bosque.

Got all 3 forest dwellers, but no one asking for somewhere else yet. I'll start the game off tonight, and I was gonna clean the thread, but there are some valuable questions asked, so I won't.
 

Viirin

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Jul 30, 2011
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The lead scientist was driving home with three canisters of engineered slime, drunk out of his mind.
He drove at speeds much higher than would seem logical or safe, caring only for the feeling he got as he quickly swerved to keep from going over the road whenever it bent.
Ahead, he saw a stop sign that appeared to have been hit with rocks or damaged in some other similar way. He picked one of the canisters out of a backpack he had on the passenger seat, looked at it in disgust, grunted an apathetic 'pssh', and threw the canister at the sign, where the glass shattered upon impact.
Not entertained sufficiently, he picked up another one and tried to throw it at a boulder sticking out of the small cliff face on the opposite side of the road as the sign, but he dropped it due to a huge belch that almost made him sick. The container fell on the road and broke on the asphalt; apparently it wasn't as durable as it seemed.
The final canister fell out of the truck on its own when the scientist scraped the side of the truck against a large tree, which ripped the passenger door off. With nothing to hold the canister on the seat, it fell out and rolled slightly down the hill before breaking on a sharp rock.
 

mcpop9

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Jan 27, 2010
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Ish had no conscious recognition of itself, it moved down the sign and made its way to the ground. the slime creeped into the forest in the hunt for more DNA to fill itself with. it made its way to a small clearing and waited for something to pass it by.
 

Khedive Rex

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Rough, innert and inorganic. The feelings of the smooth, cool, inorganic container were much preferable to the feelings of the big space it had discovered. But feeling was only rough and inorganic in one direction, and there was so much more direction now. So it felt forward, and then more forward; some might have said it was pensively assessing its surroundings. Really it was only curious to find the edge of the new cage. But it never quite came, even as the feeling of rough, innert, inorganic gave way to the feelings of sandy, loose and moist. It was a better cage. The best cage yet.

1) Appropriate format? I figured our creatures would have no sense beyond touch at this moment, not having eaten anything with sensory glands and otherwise being a blank slate. If its overly confusing I can move to something more conventional. As a kind of cheat sheet: it feels the asphalt, prefers the glass it used to occupy and then moves off the road onto the soil.

2) When do we get the abilities of the creature whose DNA we selceted to have at the begining? Does it appear gradually over time or do we get them in addition to our first consumption? Or do we have them now?
 

nuba km

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It felt like it was bend around a solid non organic object. After gathering itself back into it's normal blob shape, it start consuming the organic material on the ground (the grass) as it started moving randomly around looking for more organic material.
 

mcpop9

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Jan 27, 2010
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Ish was still waiting when a chipmunk ran by. feeling the vibrations in the air, Ish reached out and snagged the small rodent. it was slowly dragged in and processed.
 

Viirin

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I would like to ask you to wait until I post a response before posting again, so I can make sure everyone gets updated at the same time. I also humbly ask that you don't specify specifically what animal or plant you see, but describe it instead. There's almost a guarantee of getting more out of it if you do. As I stated in the opening post, please do not insta-kill stuff. I'll let it slide this once, but I would like to ask you to rescind (unpost) similar posts in the future. Thanks!

@Wrecker: The slime bumped into an organic obstacle with many very soft protrusions. Though the soft things did not hurt at all, something from the same obstacle stung it. It felt hundreds of tiny spikes stick into it in the direction it had bumped into the thing, whatever it was [http://planithealthier.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/stinging-nettle.jpg].

@Ish: The slime had only waited mere moments, but the furry creature [http://www.njnwcoa.com/images/chipmunk.jpg] that was luckily grabbed face-first and pulled into its ooze was almost as easy a meal as the sample it was given [http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/005/cache/komodo-dragon_599_600x450.jpg] was. The lucky break was cut short, however, as the slime learned that the chipmunk had been attempting to run away from a large flying creature. Instead, the flier, whatever it was, picked up the slime, pulling it off of the suffocated and faceless rodent. Seeing that it caught the wrong prey, the flying creature let go immediately. The slime fell through the few feet of air it had attained, and landed in a small pile of thin, crunchy, organic things [http://www.tanyaeby.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/leaf-pile-324x205.jpg] near something extremely tall and hard, but also organic.

@Bosque: The moistness of the ground quickly increased, as the slime found that it was next to a small body of water that had sat undisturbed for quite some time. Undisturbed by anything other than the large number of small flying things [http://www.umaa.org/images/mosquito.jpg] bumping into it every second, of course. The water was cool, but felt disgusting, as though it had its own skin, and the bottom of the shallow water felt even slimier than itself.