Steampunk Weekend!

[furnaceface]

Remember Soap Opera Weekend? Remember Noir Weekend? Well, pull out your parasols, crimp your cravats and grease up your gears, because on the weekend of August 4/5th, and with thanks to Zed for the kick in the butt to make this happen, the island will be gearing itself up for its very first Steampunk Weekend!

Just like all themed AU weekend events in the past, if you opt in to having your character change, you'll find yourself playing with those steampunk tropes that make the genre so appealing. Everything electrical on the island will be replaced by clockwork, steam-powered, or geothermal alternatives, and the aesthetic will pull a major switch from Fandom's 'come as you were' aesthetic to Victorian and Edwardian sensibilities with a clockwork twist; everything from full flouncy dresses and dapper tailcoats and cravats to jodhpurs and jungle-explorer chic. Streetlamps will become gaslamps, the seaport will become the location of one of series of metal towers around the island where enterprising captains can dock their airships. If you're uncertain about what tropes to lean into for this event, consider the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. There's a pretty impressive list of examples of steampunk in popular culture over here, as well as a good write-up on what makes the genre in the first place, and for further ideas of what to do with your characters or the surroundings they live within, consider poking at the tabs of the steampunk index here!

As with all other crazy themed weekends, the clockwork sky is basically the limit. Embrace your character's darker inclinations toward mad science and experiment with power and chemicals to create a man... or a monster. Attack your neighbours from above as fearsome sky pirates sailing aboard grand airships. Catch a mechanical, spider-legged rickshaw across town in order to attend a ball thrown by the island's social elite, only to run afoul of a raging automaton. What becomes of our fair island will be largely up to whatever steampunky shenanigans you want to bring to the table, and if you want to have your character lean into cattle punk or gaslamp fantasy, could anybody possibly complain? No matter where you take this, as always, don't worry; everything that happens on the weekend will revert back to normal again on Monday morning!

It'll be structured very much the same way Soap Opera Weekend is, with OCD neatly tucked into this very post for you to all noodle about your characters' backstories, and what's going to change about the island you all know and love.

Brainstorming and question threads are all posted within for your convenience!

Comments

Character Brainstorming

[furnaceface]

This is for letting the world know what steampunk history your steampunk steamy steamer steams like!

It's my birthday, I don't have to be coherent, here. But go on and throw around some ideas for what you'd like to do with your pups here!

Re: Character Brainstorming

[deaddadsclub]

I call mad scientist for Cristina!

Who wants a clockwork heart?

Re: Character Brainstorming

[spectre_alenko]

Steampunk military, just for the outfits. I will have to do a pastede head but so what.

Re: Character Brainstorming

[vdistinctive]

(and now that I know he'll be around for it)

Eliot will be an automaton, or at least part-automaton. Built out of the remains of a dead solider from "the Wars" (which war? who knows? specific wars are not the steampunk way), with, you know, Feelings about what it means to be human and all that.

Re: Character Brainstorming

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan Jarrus has no past. He prefers it that way, as a matter of fact. Ever since the day he strolled into town, a gun on his hip, it's been clear that he's got something he wants to leave behind.

That something was a war, a religion, an entire identity. Caleb Dume never knew his real family; he was surrendered to a religious order of peacekeepers in his infancy, and went to war against the automatons when he was still quite young. When the war ended, Caleb found that his entire order was no more, their entire way of life made illegal by a government wary of a possible rival power, and he disappeared into a life on the run.

By the time Kanan Jarrus, a mysterious gunslinger of no small skill, appeared in the world, Caleb was, if not long forgotten, at least long given up for dead, the victim of an airship accident that had left dozens dead, including, incidentally, the officers who had been trying to take him in for questioning in the first place.

... I didn't actually really have to change anything but the aesthetic to make this work, help.

Re: Character Brainstorming

[era_two_triangle]

So... is anybody in the market for a tiny green automaton with an all-too-literal mind and a penchant for Doing a Science?

Re: Character Brainstorming

[furnaceface]

Jonothon Starsmore came from the disappointing branch of the family. The Starsmores, after all, were old money, members of a secret society with a history spanning back generations. And that society had power. They weren't afraid to use an unholy combination of technology and dark rituals to bring forth a monster to lead them, and while that monster is long gone, put to rest generations before Jonothon's birth, the effects of his power still ripple through the family today.

In Jonothon's great-granddad, that power manifested in a gift for observation that made him one of the greatest detectives of his time. In Jonothon himself, a sense of intuition that makes some suspect that he might be capable of reading minds...

The trade-off is that the power, whatever its source may be, has always led to ruin in the Starsmore line. With his great-granddad, it was the addiction to opium that dragged the family into ruin even in spite of their connections. With Jonothon, a good century later, it was the accident that tore deep into his chest, leaving him with little but his intuition, his fondness for music, and a life that stubbornly (and rather mysteriously) refuses to quit, in spite of the extensive damage to quite a few of his internal organs.

Re: Character Brainstorming

[puppy_fair]

Zack never thought much of letting them alter his body to turn him into a super-strong mechanical soldier. So what if he was part automaton? If he did his job well, serving the government without question, he could still prove his worth as a hero, after all.

He should have started to question his worth to that government around the time they started using him to hunt down and exterminate other clockwork soldiers like him.

It really shouldn't have been a surprise when the same doctor who had initially operated on him took advantage of the fallout of a bad encounter with one of his marks to experiment on him further. Now he's not certain if he's more man or machine, and frankly, he doesn't want to know.

What he does know is that there's no way they'll ever take him back again.

Re: Character Brainstorming

[battlewithstyle]

...anyone need a samurai bodyguard?

Re: Character Brainstorming

[sharp_man]

Clearly there needs to be a Mysterious Nobleman in town, possibly hiding from things best not spoken of, possibly on the lookout for things to do (shady or otherwise).

Anybody want to have connections?

Town Brainstorming!

[furnaceface]

For figuring out what kind of changes we'd like to bring to our fair town!

Folks who currently own or manage a business can ping in here and decide what changes, if any, are going to affect their shops. They may end up becoming something completely different, staying the same, or keeping up a similar front for all kinds of nefarious (or very classy totally appropriate Victorian-esque) activities. NPC stores are moddable as usual, though any active PC employees should have the final say. A list of businesses can be found in the directory comm!

Re: Town Brainstorming!

[deaddadsclub]

Good news! The clinic will still be a clinic. With actual walls and everything, and not a hospital tent like my brain first wanted to go for.

Bad news! It'll be an old timey hospital style clinic, ala The Knick, including an operating theater with stadium seating, uncomfortable/vaguely creepy pipe-framed metal patient beds, and all the creepiest old timey doctor instruments. And it'll be run by a mad doctor who really REALLY wants to try putting her latest clockwork inventions in people, anesthesia optional. . . .

Re: Town Brainstorming!

[spectre_alenko]

Hm. Possibly some sort of Aetheric communication shop or cablegram station.

Re: Town Brainstorming!

[vdistinctive]

Okay, so I deleted Eliot's character brainstorm for now because he miiiiiiiiiiiiight be off-island that weekend (I'm waiting to hear back). BUT.

Luke's will be a cattle-punk-y western saloon. Complete with swinging doors in the entrance. Haven't nailed down all the details yet, but the freezer WILL still be there, entirely taken over by tentacle monsters wearing gear-covered top hats and monocles. . . .

Re: Town Brainstorming!

[spin_kick_snap]

Dite's will still be Dite's! However, there will be a lot of clockwork, uhh, devices. And, of course, will carry the finest of corsets, stockings, and related underthings!

Re: Town Brainstorming!

[myownface]

Look, I'm not saying Spark entered into some kind of unholy pact with a demon in order to secure a respectable place in town with a decent way of life, but he did grow up a street urchin with nothing to his name, and now he does happen to own a clothing store of no small quality. It's just basic math.

At least he isn't shy about it if anyone asks. It's right up there with all of his other tall tales, really.

Shop at Demon Marcus for only the finest in top hats and cravats and such.

General Noodlings!

[furnaceface]

Ideas, thoughts, plans, suggestions? For everything that doesn't slot neatly into the categories above!

Re: General Noodlings!

[heroic_jawline]

Well, clearly Tony and Steve must be throwing another party that never, ever gets to be normal, huh?

Re: General Noodlings!

[intotheout]

Do a bunch of students want to get together and form a street urchin gang, ala Dickens? (I feel like the Fagan part would be optional.)

Classified Ads

[furnaceface]

Want to do something very particular but don't quite have what you need to make it happen? Let people know here and maybe they'll leap in to help you out!

Questions!

[furnaceface]

Have we missed something? Is something unclear? Here's the place to poke us with those burning questions you might have!
Question 1: What about the supernatural? I'm a witch/mage/mutant/alien/whatever! How will this affect my character?
Answer: However you want! While steampunk doesn't necessarily have any supernatural elements in it, there's no hard or fast rule against it (and some excellent stories out there combine the two to great effect). We're leaving powers and the like up to your discretion. Whatever you think works best for your character is A-okay.

Question 2: Is there a deadline to get our characters in/sign up?
Answer: No way! This stuff here is to help you come up with ideas and whatnot. If you know what you want to do (or are even just have a few nebulous thoughts), this is a good place to expand and solidify. But it's just here to be helpful. Participation is, as always, voluntary and on your own terms.

Anything else? Ask us here!

OOC!

[furnaceface]

I used a lot of 'we' in this ocd considering it's just me BUT WHATEVER YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

Re: OOC!

[1000yearstoolate]

Noooo, I'll miss this! :(

Re: OOC!

[vdistinctive]

I am already having so many flashbacks to my time working on Steampunk Magazine. . . .

Also you've inspired me to finally hunt down/reread my favorite post-apocalyptic/steampunk/circus-punk/body horror novel, Mechanique. Which comes highly recommended for anyone who looks at that mini-description and doesn't back away screaming.

Re: OOC!

[firstofitskind]

*snickers* "gearing itself up"