Roleplay / Destiny Drive Third

Whatever happens, I will protect CACHE... everyone, no matter what. It is we who drive destiny, so I won't sit back as everything crumbles.

—Cornelius Hawking in the opening post

Destiny Drive Third is a Play-by-Post Game, hosted on TVtropes and created by Kkutwar. The plot centers around humanity's (and some other victimized species) attempts to deal with the Eldritchian menace, genocidal monsters that go around wiping out any species they encounter. Though the dangers brought by the Eldritchian menace is more than just the beasts themselves, ranging from people who can't handle the terror the creatures bring to those wanting to exploit the chaos and even people trying to use Eldritch means to influence the world.

Everything was once normal in this world, proceeding just like others similar to it. However, come 1940 strange meteorites crash land on Earth, containing advanced technology and knowledge. Throwing humanity into a revolution, their world could almost be considered perfect... Until the arrival of the Eldritchians threw everything into chaos. Now having to regularly fight these unnatural creatures, humanity strives to survive them no matter what.

However, why do the Eldritchians hunt other species? Why are they so intent on finishing off the Skyblazers, strangely humanoid aliens? How far will the Altens go in retaliating against the abominations? Finally, why were the Twin Meteorites drifting through space? Will these questions ever be answered, or will the reigns of destiny have to be taken?

The Original

• Signups
• Discussion
• Roleplay

The Reboot

• [[Signups]]
• [[Discussion]]

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Tropes applying to Destiny Drive Third:

• All There in the Manual: Plenty of detail is provided on the first page of the Signups, with more random information scattered through the Signups and Discussion.
• Alternate History: Everything on Earth was progressing the same way as ours, until the Twin Meteorites crash landed on Earth in 1940. Now humanity is superior to our own technological capabilities despite sharing the same year.
• A Mech by Any Other Name: In Destiny Drive they're commonly referred to as Armors, which is actually short hand for Mechanical Armor. Thus Mech and Mecha do see usage, though Armor is the prime term. There's also names for specific types of Armors, such as Gigan (Biomechanical Armors that serve as power amplifiers for Skyblazers) or Seelie (Armors derived from Eldritchian research to use their powers against them).
• Animal Motifs: Einmal, more specifically their leader, uses the Unicorn to symbolize their objective of purifying the universe from the Eldritchian menace.
• Artificial Human: The primary kind of Artificial lifeforms made.
• Artificial Intelligence: Known as AGIs (Artificial General Intelligence) to most, the first was accidentally created by CACHE in 1950. Having since been introduced to the public, there are a variety of Artificial Intelligences, ranging from complete beings like CACHE's Acrobats (so named for their learning capability) to Pseudo-AGIs used to automate machinery. Nonetheless, they've become common enough that AGIs are used to make more advanced games, employed as actors for shows, and even used by companies to give life to their mascots.
• Combining Mecha:
• Creating Life: The technology discovered from the Twin Meteorites have allowed humans to create everything between artificial organic beings and intelligent mechanical beings. However, creating General Artificial Intelligences from scratch is trickier, causing humanity to instead copy existing ones and develop a means for them to "reproduce". The act of creating life has become common enough that slang (Arts for generally any) has developed and there's currently two billion artificial lifeforms in total.
• Eldritch Abomination: The aptly named Eldritchians, which frequently possess abilities and biology no normal creature should have. While CACHE has been extensively studying the Eldritchians, not much is actually known about them overall and every new clue just brings up further questions. The Eldritchians do seem to have an understandable enough system to classify them by ability (Physical/Bio/Elemental/Psychic), and some of the more physically impossible Eldritchians are actually manipulating their bodies to achieve that status. However, their behavior is the truly odd point, as many captured Eldritchians will seamlessly transition into passivity despite rampaging prior.
• Elemental Hair Colors: The powers of the Skyblazers are connected to their hair color, which governs WHAT power a Skyblazer has, for example red hair equals fire (for example pyrokinesis), pink equals mind (for example creating illusions), etc.
• Enemy Mine: The world is (mostly that is) at peace peace now sice all have the common enemy in the Eldrichians (there still is some fighting between the Major factions but when an Eldrichian appears this ceases at once.)
• Fantastic Racism:
  • There's been racial tension between Humanity and Skyblazers ever since they first met, not helped by accusations that the Skyblazers are responsible for the Eldritchians finding Earth. Their cultural differences are also a problem, as Skyblazers look down on human adults that don't pilot whilst humans see them as deviants since their own marker for maturity is successfully piloting a Gigan.
  • There's also the CAAL Act (Crimes Against Artificial Life), which was established due to the notable abuse artificial lifeforms receive. Many artificial lives have to put up with people that see them as things or property, and the owning of intelligent digital or mechanical beings has been called slavery.
• Flawed Prototype: The Generation One Fae frequently looked inhuman or had trouble actually using their abilities, resulting in individuals with unpredictable Eldritchian mutations or abilities that required them to harm themselves to activate amongst examples. Generation 3 Fae, if considered the prototype for Synthetic Fae, can also be considered flawed prototypes as the modification to their Eldritch biology resulted in them being mad or bestial.
• Food Pills: Specifically called Food Alternatives, they can easily replace a standard meal and are even regularly used for efficiency. Nonetheless, because of habit, the majority of people still prefer ordinary food.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • CACHE stands for Creating Advanced Controlled Humanoid Entities, covering everything from their AGIs to Armors and of course the Fae.
  • Seed Esper has VESTA which stands for Variable Energized System Transformative Armor, reflecting both the Transforming Mecha and Meta Mecha nature of their Armors.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Prior to the arrival of Eldritchians, humanity was only capable of working with what was naturally possible, and thus these "Gene Mods" were used for designer babies than trying to warp grown humans. However, with the odd genetic bridging capabilities of Eldritchian biology, what could be done radically increased. The common use for Gene Mods however is preventing deliberating genetic defects, with the second most common use being fairly cosmetic or minor things like increased tolerance to harmful materials.
• Half-Human Hybrid: With the arrival of Skyblazers and Eldritchians, humanity has been able to produce hybrids between species. Notably, save for Blazers, every hybrid has to be artificially created. The prominent type of hybrid in Destiny Drive however are the Fae, artificial attempts at humanizing Eldritchian biology. Then there are the Natural Fae, noted as a technical possibility to be naturally conceived between Eldritchians and another species.
• Human Aliens: The Skyblazers, elementally themed Psychics, are nearly identical to humans save for their bizarre hair and eye colors. The color of their hair actually tie into their abilities, the potency of which is also affected by how much organic mass they have. Though, bizarrely Skyblazers are able to interbreed with humanity, making people wonder what's actually going on.
• Humongous Mecha: Though originally built as war machines for World War II, Armors quickly found uses outside of war, to the point they were severely underdeveloped to actually fight Eldritchians initially. Though with both technology's ever constant growth and the fear caused by Eldritchians, Armors are commonplace enough that nobody is really surprised by them.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Most of the advances in technology can at least partly be accounted to this.
• Interservice Rivalry: CACHE and Einmal don't get along due to their conflicting stance on Eldritchian biology, with CACHE wanting to study it whilst Einmal wants to destroy every scrap.
• Lovecraftian Superpower: The abilities of some Eldritchians are especially twisted, such as the Spatial Render's capability to completely manipulate the electrical bonds of its body. Fey Touched commonly acquire abilities as their biology become warped, and it isn't uncommon having asymmetrically mutated Fey Touched.
• Mildly Military: CACHE was originally just the UN's division for studying the Meteorite Technology, which required some more open minded individuals to actually experiment and use the technology involved. Even as an established peacekeeping force, CACHE is still ultimately about the research.
• Mundane Utility: Many of the more amazing technologies, such as the VARnet upgrade or AGIs are used to improve common matters. Seed Esper is also notably interested in Fey Touched so they can turn the useful mutations into Gene Mods, and even design technology to take advantage of an individual's unique ability (such as bikes for telekinetic Espers for example).
• Mutants:
  • Psychics are individually afflicted by bizarre mutations, replacing segments of their bodies with organic features enabling their psychic powers. Thus Psychics frequently suffer form psychological or physiological defects, with the intensity increasing the stronger their abilities are. The strongest Psychics are thus incompatible with life, and the actual reason for these psychic mutations is unknown.
  • Those exposed to liquid Eldritchian matter will find their bodies mutating, adopting the Eldritchian's abilities and biology. The intensity of these mutations depends entirely on how much Eldritchian matter they were exposed to, and the mutations generally take place in the area affected. Called Fey Touched by CACHE, the well off one is depends extremely on the source Eldritchian and where the mutations took place. For example, while an infection from Eldritchians like Rage Diver or Spatial Render would leave one normal enough, a strong enough infection from Eldritchians like Inferus Dreamer or Hell Hawk will cause the growth of brand new limbs.
• Nicknaming the Enemy: Each individual Eldritchian is given a name describing their abilities and or behavior, in order to convince the public they're understandable beings. In fact, its common for CACHE to assign names to enemies they don't know.
• Powered Armor: Known as Powered Suits or Personal Aegis to avoid confusion with Armors, the largest a Powered Suit can be classified is five meters. Anything above that is firmly treated as an Mini Armor, though Powered Suits will commonly use scaled down Armor technology or be required for certain Mundane or Icarus units.
• Rule of Three: There are three Destiny Drives (00, 01, 02), three main organizations that deal with the terror brought by Eldritchians (CACHE, Einmal, Seed Esper), three major types of artificial humans (Fae, Seekers, Espers), three prominent classifications of Armors (Mundane, Icarus, Super), three well-known Armor variations (Seelies, Wunderwaffen, VESTA), and finally three known alien lifeforms (Skyblazers, Eldritchians, and Alten)
• Superior Successor: Espers for Psychics, as they can manage stronger psychic abilities for less lost. There's also the Generation 2 Fae for the 1st Generation, being physically stable where as the 1st Generation often ended up as humanoid Eldritchians or incapable of their powers. Synthetic Fae also succeeded Generation 3 Fae in the goal of customizing and modifying Eldritchian abilities.
• Super Prototype: Basically the entire idea behind construction of Seelies, being units that freely use Eldritchian matter and commercially-forbidden technology in comparison to their mass production models. The Zeroth Fae Evelyn can also count, being one of the most powerful Fae currently and from who the entire Artificial Fae Program was started.
• Technicolor Eyes: The powers of the Skyblazers are connected to their hair and eye colors, while the hair color tells what general power one has (for example illusions) the eye color specifies the power, for example it may show that the user can use his ability better in a dispersing fashion (in case of the above example be better at creating illusions that affect multiple persons).
• Transforming Mecha: The Variable System is an established nanomechanical design allowing machines and items to have various forms. The Variable System is actually rather common, being employed by vehicle manufacturers and Armors. Seed Esper however is the most famous user of Variable Armors with their VESTAs, though with the need to program set forms the Variable System isn't often used in Armor design.
• United Nations Is a Superpower: The United Nations in this reality was directly created to moderate and study the Meteorite Technology, which eventually warranted the creation of Elysium & having equipped soldiers just to properly meet said task. Even their freedom to control Elysium is ultimately just an extension of their base objective, allowing them to test new technologies on Elysium first before releasing them to the general public.
• Uniqueness Decay: Armors were once seen as incredible tools that only the truly great got to use, but as Armor technology improved it quickly saw increased usage. Thus Armors are just barely higher than cars in terms of coolness, and most people who gush over them are typically just highly interested.
• Uterine Replicator: Originally developed in 1980, the technology quickly found itself being installed into gynoids to maximize their ability to be "human". However, with the backlash from Life Dolls, the spreading of the technology became stilted. Still, the technology will commonly be found being used for women who can't safely handle a pregnancy.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: There is a lot of prejudice towards artificial life, non-normal beings and alien life forms. There's a fair deal of people who treat artificial lifeforms as things, and many who view the Fey Touched & their children as abominations. However there's also a good deal that sees them deserving of the same level of respect.

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