Heart of the Beast (Sign-up)

Near the end of what our timeline knows as the Second World War the nation of America dropped a powerful weapon, the nuclear bomb, upon the nation of Japan in order to break the spirits of their enemy. In our timeline this attack destroyed two cities and is citied by some to be a point where the war started drawing to an end.

But in another timeline the results of the explosion were more destructive, ripping holes in the fabric of reality. These massive holes, now dubbed 'Gates' by the various research groups lead into an alternate reality, one which contained giant creatures that utterly dwarfed human perception. At first the destruction was limited to the nation of Japan, but soon more 'Gates' opened around the world, leading to a spiral of disasters that challenged mankind's dominance over the planet.

After fifty years of struggle humanity withdrew to safe locations where they might be able to build a new life. The largest human settlement sits within the body of a Super-Massive class creature known as 'Foundation', a massive turtle like creature. After the beast was harvested its shell became the location for 'Eden', with some parts of its body being left over for use by the city. However the corpse that humanity made its home in attracted other beasts to it, seeking to feed from its flesh. Thus a countermeasure against the creatures was started, leading to the creation of 'Project Darwin'.

It was discovered through various tests that those who faced mutations due to proximity to creature residue could 'sympathize' with the tissue of other creatures. Using this knowledge and the full force of Eden's research team the 'Kaiju Slayers' were eventually created, Bio-mechanical 'suits' that Next-Humans can enter and control. Using a mixture of biological weapons and mechanical enhancements these creatures could take the fight were normal humans couldn't. And through devouring their fallen foes they could evolve.

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Welcome to Heart of the Beast, a Bio-punk style game where players take the roll of 'Next-Humans' piloting 'Kaiju Slayers' in order to protect the last bastion of humanity from massive organisms referred to as 'Kaiju'. Beneath are a list of terms needed for the game, and beneath that a character sheet example for use.

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Terms

• Kaiju- The term used to refer to creatures that came from the Gate's around the world. They are divided into 'Large', 'Giant', 'Massive', and 'Super-Massive'. However even the smallest being from the 'Large' group can stand upwards of 20 feet.

• Next-Humans- Those who have had their biology changed due to proximity to Kaiju fluids and residue, or have been genetically modified on purpose to become such. Changes can result in both internal and external changes to the human body. N-Humans are also known to be physical stronger, healthier, and more resistant to pathogen then the average person. However due to an imbalance of chemicals they are also prone to acts of aggression or depression, through both can be managed safely with modern medicine and proper counseling.

• Kaiju Slayers- Biomechanical creations designed to be piloted by Next-Humans. Created by growing flesh from fallen Kaiju around a mechanical frame. Most stand at only 10 feet, much smaller then the average Kaiju. By consuming defeated Kaiju they can undergo an 'evolution state' and gain characteristics of that which it has consumed.

• Chamber of Yaldabaoth- The pilot area inside of a Kaiju Slayer, contaning a number of flesh like tubes that act as control points for N-Humans. By plugging them into the skin N-humans can control the Kaiju Slayers as if they were part of their own body. However bio-feedback tends to bring out aggressive/depressive tendencies over long periods of contact, thus the 'safety window' for a pilot is two hours. After that the system will manually detach itself from the pilot.

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Character Sheet

• Name:
• Age:
• Backstory:
• Personality: (The core of your character, how they think and feel)
• Appearance: (What your character looks like.)
• Kaiju Slayer: (Either a description of what it looks like or a picture.)
• Kaiju Slayer Weapons: (Any weapons, biological or mechanical)
• Kaiju Slayer Equipment: (Any subsystems such as flight, digging, etc)
• Etc:

Edited by Kingxana0 on Dec 14th 2021 at 6:24:00 AM

• Name: Lania Yelena Abernathy
• Age: 28
• Backstory: Lania is a curious organism even amongst her fellow N-Humans, perhaps because it's debatable that they even are her fellows. Her papers are all in order, and she (very strangely) states with pride her origin that she was born out of wedlock between a biologist and a lady of the night—the latter of which she is on an apparent continuing search for. All of this is most uncertainly false, and the idea that she is descendant of the invading beasts themselves is ambiguously wrong on every level also. Nonetheless, she holds a doctorate in biology and engineering somehow, and she has the smarts to back it up judging by the Kaiju research papers she's published over the past few years. As of recent she's decided to venture into the field, having conceptualised already a design of Kaiju-Slayer that would suit her and eager to get up close and personal to one of the colossal nightmares themselves.
• Personality: Lania is best described as a rather seductive, mischievous sort who revels in her own esotericism; seeming to enjoy the discomfort she instills in others simply by being around them. Simultaneously, her playfulness in first meetings does not overshadow her seriousness in regards to her career, and she despises any obstruction towards her research and position based off of bigotry—one of the only ways to get her to snap and yell in an everyday scenario is by threatening her papers or work using her monstrous features as a justification. To a certain extent she understands the urge from others to treat her as something other—and as previously mentioned does get some enjoyment out of it—but when the chips are down her only concern is to get the job done; personal hangups be damned.
• Appearance: Lania stands at 6'5" tall,◊ and is immediately identifiable as some kind of severe human mutate or descendant of beasts. Her movements audibly click as if bone is grinding against gone, and her seemingly eyeless face nonetheless follows the subjects of her attention as flawlessly as it would with ordinary sight. Her skin is of a strange reddish hue and pulpy to the touch; like interior flesh turned inside-out. Her teeth are irregular and of a yellowish colouration, but they knit together eerily well with no visible gaps left behind.
• Kaiju Slayer: Devonica◊ is a 15' tall, four-armed bulky construction intermingling fleshy musculature with thick layers of armour. Powerful build, designed for heavy lifting as well as heavy striking force. The cockpit's translucent film can tint itself to a deep red so as to obscure the pilot from exterior view, or become fully transparent in case they need to see more clearly.
• Kaiju Slayer Weapons:
  • Skull Tickler: A two-metre long, ribbed tentacle lined with blood-red thorns of keratin on every third ring. Sprouting from the palm of the lower right hand, this pronged appendage can twist itself into exposed flesh or bone like a drill before secreting an agonizing venom directly into its victim's bloodstream (or brain matter, as its name implies). The tentacle can regenerate itself within an hour if severed, but it is only useful in scenarios where the enemy is slow enough to be affected by it.
  • Keratin Bucklers: Forearm-mounted shields permanently affixed to the Slayer's right limbs. It leaves the wrist free enough for the hand to function fairly normally, but provides an easy parrying and bashing option for when Lania is caught otherwise weaponless. The keratin is layered thick enough to be comparable to a large Kaiju's most calloused segments of hide.
  • Keratin Blades: Retractable, gauntlet-mounted swords stored within Devonica's two left forearms. These blades are of tough bone wrapped in the same keratin as the buckler, sharpened as much as one can possibly file down a nail without it breaking. These are Lania's preferred weapons while inside her Slayer.
• Kaiju Slayer Equipment:
  • Climbing Talons: Much like Lania herself, Devonica possesses long knifelike talons on its toes and fingers in order to scale sheer surfaces with little effort; with the only difference being that Devonica's claws are retractable. These talons are designed to puncture and support the weight of the Slayer as a whole, meaning they're too bulky and blunt to be used in most combat scenarios.
  • Grapnel Line: A long, durable rope of knotted red flesh can be either unravelled or shot out from Devonica's upper-right wrist, fitted with a sharp spearhead of bone at the tip and able to lodge into most surfaces in order to attach things to the Slayer or winch it up/down to different elevations. In contrast to the Skull Tickler, this tendril can extend up to 80 metres in maximum length before snapping, in which case it will have to be manually rewoven or replaced. Due to having no muscular systems or rigidity unless pulled taut, it is typically useless as a weapon in Kaiju fights.
• Etc:
  • Is left-handed.
  • Lania's two lower-arms sometimes suffer fleeting spasms whenever she's flustered or in a panic. This is unfortunately sometimes reflected in her Slayer as an odd trembling amongst all four limbs, due to a shortcut in programming linking them closely together in order to prevent potentially costly processing delays.
  • Does, in fact, have eyesockets beneath her bony headpiece. Whether she has eyes actually in them is another matter entirely.

Edited by Enirboreh on Dec 15th 2021 at 12:42:49 PM

• Name: Deren "Hazmat" Hardcastle
• Age: 30
• Backstory: Deren's grandfather fought in the Last War, piloting for the Allies and then when the Gates emerged across the globe he continued to fly planes to combat the threat until it no longer became viable to put up a united military front. Said grandfather survived his tours of duty, and survived well enough to see a grandson raised in the shadow of a dead Kaiju. That grandson was Deren, who grew up during the establishment of Eden and in his youth he saw some of the worst years until the Next-Humans started to appear and the Slayers were established. Deren could have chosen a civilian profession or embraced alteration, but he walked a third path after finding a sponsor that shared his burgeoning distrust of advancements derived from Kaiju. Deren entered the service of the Slayers without the mutations or biomechs that others bore; he wanted to show that the old human tools of metal and ingenuity were still valid, still able to protect humanity against the untamed darkness.
• Personality: Deren always wanted to help. The call of heroic action against the enemy was something that always appealed to him from his grandfather's war stories. And yet, at the same time the very clear vision of Kaiju as the enemy means he finds the fact that so much of the protection of humanity being driven by things derived from the Kaiju to be almost dangerous. He tries to be careful about speaking up about it though; as much as he wants to raise concerns he doesn't want to appear as someone who hates the Next-Humans simply for being different. He just wants you to consider the implications of sending those touched by Kaiju and piloting living machines derived from Kaiju biology to fight those very same Kaiju in humanity's first and only line of defense.
• Appearance: Were it not for the context of being amid those touched by the mutations of being a Next-Human, Deren would be considered pretty normal. As it stands in that context he stands out for two reasons, the first is that he's entirely baseline human. Sure he's got the muscles of someone who has put active effort into training for a combat profession but ultimately he often looks tiny in both height and width compared to most Next-Humans. The second reason is that in practically every situation where there's a reasonable chance of encountering the mutagenic material of the Kaiju, Deren wears a kind of customized and combat-ready hazmat suit.
• Kaiju Slayer: [Bunker Protocol] is a dead mech, bearing no pulse nor breath nor hunger. It was designed that way, built to specifications to skirt the definitions of what a Kaiju Slayer can actually be. It does have biologically-derived components, however they are not alive and are used mostly as the exterior pieces of weapons and armor. These are things like scale plates as rigid armor (with tanned hide covering joints and other areas subject to movement such as the treads for locomotion) or keratinous horns or teeth used to effect on weaponry. However, all these pieces are still dead, cleaned and processed to remove any regenerative or mutagenic effects before installation. It's controlled not by direct linkage to the brain of the pilot, but by an obsolete and cramped cockpit full of controls (a joke among the engineering crew that it is a "Chamber of Mechan" carries meaning that Deren himself cannot understand) that can never hope to match the signal speed of thought into neurons. Its power source is also limited; a well-tuned but ultimately inefficient reactor and battery setup that provides about the same amount of prime combat time as the Chamber of Yaldabaoth provides active connection.
  [Bunker Protocol] is outmoded military technology cloaked in the ossified remains of dead Kaiju and is plagued with limitations. It cannot evolve in the field, it cannot act on any manner of instinct, all its actions must be routed through the manual activation of mechanisms and the sluggish hydraulic muscle-analogues. This was all by design, because Deren does not trust the ways of the conventional Kaiju Slayer. To his eyes the limitations are fair cost for the benefits: [Bunker Protocol] has no mind of its own and can never evolve in the field to obtain one, therefore it can never betray himself or Eden. [Bunker Protocol] is piloted by abstracted controls rather than mental linkages, so Deren never exposes his mind to bio-feedback and potentially 'alien' thought. [Bunker Protocol] is cold metal and sanitized hunt trophies, a thesis statement for someone who wants to help but cannot accept doing it on the terms others take for granted.
  • Kaiju Slayer Weapons:
    • Spine Launcher: This multi-barrel metal box is currently loaded with long, slender keratin spines and is capable of flinging them forth as forcefully as the Kaiju they were harvested from.
    • Hardshot Cannon: The main cannon of this tank-like mech functions on the same principles as its precursors used before the advent of the Kaiju. The difference being that it is roughly double the diameter and fires munitions tipped with bone or keratin or practically any material harvested from Kaiju corpses that seems hard enough to make a respectable bullet.
  • Kaiju Slayer Equipment:
    • Fossilplating: [Bunker Protocol] is heavily equipped with armor plating made of scales, bones and tanned hides harvested from the scraps of slain Kaiju able to be dragged back to Eden after the living Slayers have had their fill.
    • Modular Loadout: Due to the nature of mechanical linkages, the weapons of [Bunker Protocol] are easy to disengage for either easier repairs or full on replacement with a different armament. To a similar degree broken and torn segments of armor can be unbolted and replaced. The caveat is this can only be done with the proper equipment at Slayer headquarters.
• Etc:
  • Deren doesn't like using the term Next-Human, he takes a bit of offense to the implication that they are the next step forward. Often he uses the term "Hybrid" and silently hopes that the public doesn't start considering it a derogatory term.
    He does have a counter-argument in mind if someone does try to claim that it is, noting that the official term is often abbreviated to something that really can't be pronounced in a way that doesn't evoke the word 'inhuman'.
  • Deren occasionally mentions a vivid memory concerning him and his grandfather. According to him there is (or was) an old Last War airfield somewhere away from Eden that he and his grandfather used to go to. There the two worked on picking scrap from the abandoned military machines and talking about how it felt to fight in the war.
  • There's this dive bar in the lower reaches of the city that Deren frequents between missions. The other patrons act as something like a support network for emotional strain that crops up from his duty.