Solitude

[Jargo]

S O L I T U D E​

Why do people want so desperately not to be alone? Why is it more comforting to think that you are being watched? And why, really, does that make us any less alone? In the end, if there are others out there, then wouldn't we be... all of us... still alone together?

"There are those in this world who seek solitude, but there are none who can withstand it."

"To persevere in solitude, one must either descend to the level of a beast or rise up to be a God."

"Only in solitude, do we find out who we really are underneath... and if we can live with ourselves"

Living on the North Pole is not the most pleasant experience. No, to be correct it is one of the most undesirable experiences, despite the scientific merits that all the teams staying there have earned for themselves. Many would straightforward refuse an offer to spend a months, let alone years, at that desolate place, despite he heavy pay-checks and the academic glory that were promised.

And that is when it comes to people living together in groups of 20+! Even those who do agree to spend time in such a manner succumb to vices such as heavy-drinking of the forbidden, home-brewed spirits that are produced in every station, along with gambling and promiscuous sexual encounters. Now imagine, how would people feel about a three year long mission in a large research facility, for which one would also have to sign a non-disclosure contract. The payment is ten million for the entire period and yet, nobody in their right mind, with the right qualifications ever dared to sign up, fearing the mental scarring they would get from such a haunting experience, especially considering their would not be able to visit a therapist about it later on.

Well, almsot nobody - Dr. Prof. Alicia Keys, who happened to be something of a prodigy had signed the contract twenty seven weeks ago. She has graduated university at 16 and by 31, her present age, she has had her name in more papers than half the scientists in her field ever. Well, that kind of success comes at a price - she's never had a romantic relationship, despite drawing constant interest from men around her, she's never really had a normal holiday and there is absolutely nobody in the world she could all a friend. Raised by her grandmother, with whom she used to keep weekly contact, Proff. Keys was the perfect woman for the job.

Her base is a huge research facility with its own nuclear reactor, ability to grow its own food on a massive subterranean greenhouse and a hyper-elaborate supercomputer, which she begins to suspect is an actual functioning AI, to help her manage everything. Her contract details the six meetings with other humans that she will have in her three year stay, as well as her loose duties. Everything else is optional, as well as how to pass on time during the day.

Dr. Prof. Keys had not been worried at all, until several weeks ago she begun to sense a strange presence alongside her. Now she has to decide if she is slowly going insane, developing paranoia, or there is really a tangible something, in the station with her. And if there is, then what could it be? She is not a superstitious woman nor is she religious, but she has a healthy distrust in both the government and her shady employers who collaborate on this project.



If you think Alicia has it rough for spending so much time alone at the roof of the world, then imagine spending a thousand years alone, floating in space. With no control of where you are going, not knowing if you are even living or dead. Not knowing what has happened to you or what is happening around you. Sayazar is perhaps the last member of his particular bloodline and possibly the last member of his own race. His kind waged 117 destructive campaigns against a hivemind which took one species after another. The Sakaya, as his race called themselves, had no concept of war, though, they saw destroying the hive as cleansing a vile parasite. A race which has lived for millions of years and has no concept of good of bad, they didn't shy away from tearing holes into the fabric of space and time to swallow entire planetary systems that were controlled or even beginning to be controlled by the hive. Today, human scientists see those wounds that will never heal as black holes. The Sakaya blew up stars left and right and created what is now known are nebulae. They even set space itself ablaze with what humans would now reffer to as magic, but was merely knowledge of the laws of the universe of a different kind. Even a hive with billions of life forms in its grasp could not combat destruction of such epic proportions, the enemy was almost fully eradicated.

Yes, a race like theirs could do that, and exterminate millions, even billions of lives in the process. But, they had one weakness, which after millennia of strife, the hive would uncover - they had no concept of battle, of war, of intrigue, of distrust and of fighting amidst themselves. It was not that they had evolved past it, it was that they didn't understand it. And that is what the hive exploited. It took millennia to managed to get control over members of the Sakaya race. Millennia more, to begin to spread its network of influence throughout their society and governmental structures. But for two races, locked in eternal battle, both of which have reached a state of basic immortality, time meant nothing. Eventually, the Sakaya would realise what was happening. How could they have not seen it as a possibility? How could they have been so ignorant so as to never as much as guess the possibility of the enemy taking over THEIR bodies, just as it has absorbed countless others. Nevertheless, imagine a race that had never had to deal with distrust beginning to debate who is one of them and who is not? Terrible. The Sakaya didn't even have the concept of personal arms. They did not know any weapon less deadly than a nuclear explosion. In mere centuries, most of their worlds were blown apart from within, most often Sakaya blowing each other up, without the hive even acting. In the end, all that remained was individual escape - to cast themselves into the stars, each man for himself, taking a ship of their vast fleet. That way, they could preserve the memory and escape.

After millions of years of war, the hive had won. Some believe, the Sakaya that live now are all cleansed. Only very few members of other races have been lucky enough to actually meet one, though, since their AI ships are programmed to stray away from civilisation, should the one they carry be actually corrupted, yet those minuscule few had found a way, apparently. Even those lucky newbord species that have men a Sakaya have only learned so much from them, since those tend to keep to themselves and not involve themselves in the other races' affairs, despite their incredible abilities. The rest are all speculations, but since the hivemind they all spoke of was never seen or heard from again, many would presume it has been wiped clean by the Sakaya's self destructive cleansings. Some actually believe that was the point - a race with no concept of war, of strife, of distrust, a race that saw its enemy not as a villain, for it had no concept of villains, but as a plague, saw the only possible way to heal its infected flash in jumping off a cliff - they did not know a kinder solution. Other would assume that the last remnants of the hive are being imprisoned in those AI controlled ships, that each Sakaya was forced to, or willingly entered in, at the end. If that is true, that the newly born races of the world can only tremble for the time when one of those ships fails to contain the hive specimen it contains, and ushers in a Unification Age in space, only this time there would be no immortal race with demigod powers to stop it.

Cheating his way out of his self-imposed exile on that ship, Sayazar finds himself on the North pole and since despite his basic immortality, he can't survive the cold, he enters the first shelter he could find - a large research station, which turns out to be inhabited by only one creature. Pretty easy to avoid, for someone who can bend the shadows to his own liking. And yet, how long can this go on?

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Hi there! This is not a combat RP, this is not a romance RP (though it can technically shape up to become one), but rather a though experiment. If you would like to play any of those characters, hit me up here or in PM. I will make this thread into a "filled request" as soon as I have found a partner. Please include a writing sample when you message me and remember: both of these characters have lived in complete solitude for what each of them considers a very long period of time. How did that change them? How did it impact their personalities? How does it influence what they are, based on their background. And most importantly: how would they interact? Do they even want to interact?

Solitude.