Cybertronian Aerial Academy (OOC + planning)

uuuuh, did you guys actually want me to read/comment on this thread? I'm guessing not but I was tagged so hiiiiiiiiiiiii!

And yes, WT is plotted mostly by me. I take input from people about stuff they'd like to have happen but I run the thing. WT is a really different animal though, it's also meant to be a game where everything's p much out in the open and players do not plot against each other.

 

Up to you! :P

I think you were tagged as a means of explaining differing group styles, in the interest of proper credit where it's due.

 

I did explicate a bit further but that's all I have to say really unless someone has a question about all that :)

 

More discord plotting:

The first semester is like flyer boot camp, they all learn roughly the same things --> basic history, strategy, flying, manuevers, etc.

At the end of the first semester, the babby fliers are given an aptitude test which determines what they will be trained to do. If you don't score high enough on this test and want to be a seeker, you'Ll have to get really creative because the system isn't going to help you out after that.

Seekers are the most prestigious class in Kaon. Their roles are steeped in tradition and ceremony. Technically any flyer can be a Seeker if they pass the test, but functionalism principals now limit the pool of candidates to jet fighters and the occasional attack helicopter. Even the aptitude test, just to get into the seeker program, is heavily weighted against other types of planes.

Flocks: the flyers often organize themselves into flocks, especially seekers (led by a dominate trine). In the academy these flocks are more informal and don't usually affect living arrangements (except with the seeker cadets in extreme cases). But it does make the academy a bit clique-y.

 

OK! We are getting close to starting this rp, could everyone post short bios of the characters that you will start playing right away? Just so we have them all In a row, feel free to copy/paste from earlier in the thread if you'very already posted them.


Topspin: a fiesty and compact aerial drone who is a few steps away from being part of the disposable class. He's very passionate, emotional, and hot tempered. He's tends to make snap decisions and has an "us vs them" mentality. He is one of 5 nearly identical aerial drones and he resents it.

Startrail: stuck up and extravagant instructor of Etiquette and Cultural studies. He is one of the advisors for the seeker cadets and he has good connections with the political figures of Vos. His altmode is a very shiny smallish jet plane.

 

Refractor of Vos: spindly, tall, black-and-gray-and-purple tripleformer with secondary locust altmode. Digitigrade legs, fangs, makes bug noises when emotional, likes to walk on all fours (especially likes to walk like that on the ceiling), cannot behave like a proper seeker candidate to save his fucking life. Naive, gentle, desperately seeks out affection and positive attention. Really really really wants to become a seeker despite all odds being against him, since he doesn't really like recon work much desite that being what he is incredibly suited for. Not quite undercover about his beastformer side (not experienced enough to be stealth) but functionist shame has already settled in. Does not really understand how to social.

Helicopter of Prax: Tactical Flight Instructor. So much social capital. To first semesters she is gentle and understanding and friendly and encourages them. This is A Lie. The second they are through the aptitude test she 180s hard and become unicron in the flesh. Sadistic about workload, mean about critiques. Uses such awful sentences as "It makes them stronger" and "Fire tempers steel" to justify her mean streak. Arrogant, controlling and unforgiving. She does however genuinely respect the seekers who survive her vicious classes and will pull strings for her star pupils and graduates without even batting an eye.

 

Starbreaker of Kaon: Aerial Combat Instructor. Outside of the academy, one of the nicest bots to meet. Inside the academy, still one of the nicest bots to meet, except now that niceness is mixed with 'OK, now that we've wrapped up that exercise, you'll have to dodge my fire for five minutes or land a clean hit on me, and if any of you get hit we're all starting over :)'. Is very concerned with her students' well-being, and fair to everyone. She's almost never seen without Raising Heart, a mini-Bot who transforms into a rifle-cannon-thing that can be mounted on Starbreaker's attack helicopter mode or used by hand in botmode, and who acts as her general aide outside of battle.

Flyby of Vos: A hot-tempered and aggressive triple-former, who loves elaborate and zippy flying, but has terrible endurance. Also a triple-former, with her first alt mode being a helicopter and her second being a hummingbird. So she's hiding it as well as she can.

 

Might make an OC for this?

Spoiler: Snippit from Discord

Petra-Today at 8:21 PM

so i might actually make an oc for that
but if i did it'd be a beautiful seeker who actually wanted to be something else
secretly just a huge mining engineering nerd or something

CodyCat-Today at 8:22 PM
awww

Petra-Today at 8:22 PM

also trans but doesn't know 'ladies' are a thing
so basically the straight a student overachieving golden boy who is neither a boy nor doing golden

 

Oh wait if femmes are a thing she doesn't need to be trans. Could STILL be, though.

 

Surge of Kaon: Colloquially known as 'Sarge', Firearms Instructor and occasional rambler on the subject of strategy. Staunchly functionist. A big old bomber with beat up paint, usually not introduced to the babies until the second semester for fear of scaring off the little'uns while they're still grooming them for Max Torment. Has a really bad habit of picking favorites (usually Seekers) and then tearing down the egos of everyone else.

Sidereus of Iacon: A jet a little on the heavier end with a higher topspeed and more upper atmosphere utility at the sacrifice of sharp maneuverability. Would probably fall on the rough side of Seeker designation, but squeak by on endurance and appearance. Deeply enthusiastic about engineering. Dreams of building a better probability engine. Is passively interested in being a Seeker, but cheerfully admits that he's a terrible renegade who thinks above his station. Good at picking up a weapon and hipfiring without much aim, less so at sniping from long range.

 

Parhelia: Seeker prospective, sleek jet, nobility. (How do noble families even work? Maybe fresh blood just gets adopted in?) She's very picture-perfect and proper, studies very hard, works hard in her classes, and absolutely hates it all. She doesn't even enjoy flying all that much. She doesn't like basically anything associated with her frametype. She likes craftwork, but a form associated with, like, another frametype or the lower classes. Sort of like Whirl was a watchmaker? Haven't settled on what precisely it is yet. But her House is strongly functionalist and she Can't Go Beneath Her Status and she's like two years from a nervous breakdown.

 

SHIT what if engineering is her Special Interest.

 

I've decided that Parhelia is strongly interested in smithing and Solus Prime, and she's the newest member of House Corona, a small noble House primarily consisting of fliers led by Aureole Corona, a vain, strongly functionalist Seeker and Point One Percenter who adopted Parhelia as her 'daughter' purely because Parhelia looks like her.

 

I'm remembering something about a big science academy in Vos. Scientist is possibly a thing that seekers can be? I seem to remember that starscream was a scientist in some continuities. Is that a thing in idw?

 

Yeah, Starscream was a scientist in the G1 cartoon that sparked everything after. I believe in IDW he was... can't remember exactly, but he met megatron through the underground fighting pits.

 

There's the science academy in Vos from G1 and the Institute from IDW that both have records of fliers with science as careers (and Pharma was a medic) but I feel like those might be special dispensation situation? Prove to the functionists that you excel in the field and you can work there?

 

That is literally how it worked in IDW with the Intellectual Class, yes. Be smart enough and you can be made alt-mode exempt so you do science for the government. Obviously miners need not apply. :B

More seriously I think disposables could only get reclassified as research assistants that way from what we know, so it still wasn't total class fluidity potentially. And when was Megatron gonna get the time to study for and take whatever qualification test they had? So likely it was available as an option but only if you already had the time and resources to make it an option, thus adding in unofficial gatekeeping to the official gatekeeping.

 

It's been ages but I think I'm gonna officially start this up before I lose my nerve again. Does anyone know how to change the name of a discord channel? I had the wrong city.

 

There should be a dropdown arrow next to the server name, and you should be able to edit it from there.

 

@Petra @PRelations @KarrinBlue @littlemissCodeless @IvyLB @Ryncoon

Discord invite:
https://discord.gg/v3k67

WE BEGIN! The thread is here
I'm breaking up the opening so that people can intro their character or react, or whatever you guys want, but the second half will have a task for the babies so that'll be exciting.

I'll try to get together a coherent rules page. but it's going to be like dramatis, but with occasional structure in the form of challenges and scenarios related to school life (we'll hash all that out as it comes).

Rp chats between characters on discord or elsewhere can be copy pasted onto the thread, just use a spoiler tag.

I'm excited guys! I'll try to stay on discord for the rest of the day so that we can plot.

For newbies, this rp is still open! Feel free to ask questions and make a character, this is a school setting so it will be easy to join at any point.