The Lovebot of Lady Blue
My friend Sam, has been posting some material regarding Stars Without Number. His work reminded me of an idea I had a while ago for a scifi world and an adventure to be had there.
Enter the Freehold of Atlas. The Freehold is an ultra-libertarian super society. Sounds fun right? Its inhabitants seem to think so. The gene-forges of Atlas produce all kinds of incredibly advanced biomechanical goods. Freeholders zip amongst the stars in ships made of muscle and chitin. They create android servants, ala Blade Runner replicants. They manipulate their own bodies into all kinds of outlandish colors and shapes. More often than not, Freeholders make themselves incredibly beautiful, dye their skin, and implant bioluminescent cells into their bodies that dance across them as though the whole planet is constantly engaged in a freakish rave of movie stars and supermodels.
Their aesthetic is the love child of a threesome between lava lamps, coked-out raves, and Finding Nemo. Everything is organic in appearance and often in reality. Buildings rise from the planet like coral. Hovercars swim through the air like fish. Fleshy orbs shed multicolor light onto every street. People ascend buildings in elevators that look like lava lamps, lifting up their occupants on bubbly cushions. Parties are happening all the time. Drugs are being sold by the megaton. Everywhere you look, there is an exuberant celebration of everything fleshly and bright.
Not all is neon and bright, however. Sometimes, things are neon, bright, and morally ambiguous. There is some debate over whether the androids created as servants are truly human. Are they sentient? Should they have rights? On top of that, the merits of this libertarian system are hotly contested. Most inhabitants are patriots, but other planets are always watching for signs of human rights abuse or corporate tyranny due to the nonexistent regulations.
The adventure would have our party summoned by a Freehold resident only known as Lady Blue. They call her Lady Blue because her skin is almost always dyed an electric blue color. The party has likely worked with her before, doing quasilegal activities to bypass the bothersome regulations unjustly imposed by other planetary governments. She sits in her lava lamp chair, wearing a revealing dress of white gold thread, spotted by round bubble-like gems of purple and blue. Her hair bobs atop her head in a shape only made possible by hover nanites in her skull. Her irises are imprinted with drifting neon bubbles. Her pupils are shining like stars with their diamond implants. Floating diamonds rotate slowly near her earlobes, acting as earrings. Rings of light expand and collapse across her azure skin, like ripples in the sea.
One of her androids has been stolen by someone on the Freehold and she wants them to take it back. This, despite appearances, turns out to be anything but a simple task.
Can romance bloom on the World of Love?
Can humanity thrive on this planet of frenzied capitalism?
Find out in The Lovebot of Lady Blue!
I am actually probably going to run this adventure at some point so I dare not say more. Thank you, dear reader, and enjoy a complimentary dose of Faerie Web. I'm telling you, man, this stuff will have all your neurons firing in the best of ways!
Enter the Freehold of Atlas. The Freehold is an ultra-libertarian super society. Sounds fun right? Its inhabitants seem to think so. The gene-forges of Atlas produce all kinds of incredibly advanced biomechanical goods. Freeholders zip amongst the stars in ships made of muscle and chitin. They create android servants, ala Blade Runner replicants. They manipulate their own bodies into all kinds of outlandish colors and shapes. More often than not, Freeholders make themselves incredibly beautiful, dye their skin, and implant bioluminescent cells into their bodies that dance across them as though the whole planet is constantly engaged in a freakish rave of movie stars and supermodels.
Their aesthetic is the love child of a threesome between lava lamps, coked-out raves, and Finding Nemo. Everything is organic in appearance and often in reality. Buildings rise from the planet like coral. Hovercars swim through the air like fish. Fleshy orbs shed multicolor light onto every street. People ascend buildings in elevators that look like lava lamps, lifting up their occupants on bubbly cushions. Parties are happening all the time. Drugs are being sold by the megaton. Everywhere you look, there is an exuberant celebration of everything fleshly and bright.
Not all is neon and bright, however. Sometimes, things are neon, bright, and morally ambiguous. There is some debate over whether the androids created as servants are truly human. Are they sentient? Should they have rights? On top of that, the merits of this libertarian system are hotly contested. Most inhabitants are patriots, but other planets are always watching for signs of human rights abuse or corporate tyranny due to the nonexistent regulations.
The adventure would have our party summoned by a Freehold resident only known as Lady Blue. They call her Lady Blue because her skin is almost always dyed an electric blue color. The party has likely worked with her before, doing quasilegal activities to bypass the bothersome regulations unjustly imposed by other planetary governments. She sits in her lava lamp chair, wearing a revealing dress of white gold thread, spotted by round bubble-like gems of purple and blue. Her hair bobs atop her head in a shape only made possible by hover nanites in her skull. Her irises are imprinted with drifting neon bubbles. Her pupils are shining like stars with their diamond implants. Floating diamonds rotate slowly near her earlobes, acting as earrings. Rings of light expand and collapse across her azure skin, like ripples in the sea.
One of her androids has been stolen by someone on the Freehold and she wants them to take it back. This, despite appearances, turns out to be anything but a simple task.
Can romance bloom on the World of Love?
Can humanity thrive on this planet of frenzied capitalism?
Find out in The Lovebot of Lady Blue!
I am actually probably going to run this adventure at some point so I dare not say more. Thank you, dear reader, and enjoy a complimentary dose of Faerie Web. I'm telling you, man, this stuff will have all your neurons firing in the best of ways!
Very cool! I especially like the visual details. I notice that some of your work seems to have a slight political current, from the libertarianism in this to Aphenaeus's concern for the poor. That's cool too. I'm personally a bit scared of doing stuff like that, so good for you!
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