Reading

inbox activity permissions kinks misc link

HIATUS

Neocephalos does not require activity proofs for characters to remain active, only a check-in every month. As such, hiatuses are only available for one month at a time, but you are free to declare one at any point up to midnight of the last day of that month. During a hiatus, your character's Prestige status cannot change, and you cannot earn Privilege points.

Characters can go on autopilot, but if you would rather, assets are prone to occasional bouts of coma. In this case, if you wish for your character to be comatose for the month, you will need to arrange for them to be sent to a medical centre or otherwise kept stable and looked after with the appropriate medical assistance and therapies.

If you wish to hiatus your character, comment with the subject line "Hiatus" and use the form below.



<b>PLAYER NAME:</b> <b>CHARACTER:</b> <b>HIATUS MONTH:</b> <b>STATUS</b> [autopilot, coma, or secret third option]

DROPS

When a character is swept or dropped from the game, that character will enter a permanent coma. Their unconscious body will be taken away to a facility for monitoring for, ostensibly, the rest of their natural life.

In the event that player wishes to app that character back into the game and retain their Neocephalos memories, then their character will wake from this comatose state and rejoin the city without going to the Show Room.

If that player wishes to app that character back into the game without these memories, or a new player apps that same character into the game, then that character will go through the usual arrival protocols. The original body of that character will simply stay in stasis, although the original player is welcome to notify mods that they wish for their character to perish.

Players can also drop characters by having them die in the course of RP, and skip this aspect entirely.

Currently, there is no ability for characters to be 'retired' and slip into the background.

If you wish to drop your character, comment with the subject line "Drop" and use the form below.



<b>PLAYER NAME:</b> <b>CHARACTER:</b> <b>STATUS:</b> [coma to keep the door open, coma-and-death to close it, or in-game death, also permanent]

ARRIVAL

It's a hard cut in your memory. Mid sentence, mid breath, mid action, and then a sliced edit without flicker, blur, or blip.

A discontinuity: your eyes were closed, and now they open, and you are not where you were.

Cool light greets you, reflected off surfaces of metal, concrete, soft white. You find yourself laying on some soft furnishing on which you are comfortably posed. If you were injured before this moment, you no longer are. If you were dirty, you are now clean. If you were exhausted, you feel well rested. If you were clothed, you are now naked, but at least the temperature of the air is comfortable against your bare skin.

How you respond is up to you, but sooner or later, you will explore your prison, a series of plain rooms of ascetic greys and whites, hard surfaces broken up by soft furnishings. Light sources are soft and flattering, substitutions for the lack of windows and, indeed doors. Here, you may find others like you too, who have awoken, confused and unsure, but after a few long minutes, you will hear a voice from everywhere and nowhere:






When your character arrives in Neocephalos, they first wake not in physical space, but in a specialised and contained virtual reality Show Room. Here, they will spend anywhere between three days or two weeks, depending on their own actions and decisions. As implied, they will find themselves in an extremely spartan environment that is nevertheless quite comfortable, and devoid of all belongings (save for medically necessary devices) and clothing.

Besides each other, they will be first greeted by a disembodied and genderless voice which belongs to a simple AI, which introduces itself as Qareen, capable of answering any question they have. This AI will not lie to them, and although it will allow the character to guide the conversation as much as possible, it will be sure to convey the following information: that this character has been brought from another world into this one, that they are currently in a virtual environment and will be released in due course to join the city of Neocephalos, and that they are in no danger.

Characters, through further questioning, are also free to learn that they will be released after a period of behavioural assessment and once one of three corporations lays claim to them. They will learn that they will be given the opportunity to experience and contribute to the pleasures of the city by way of their skills and desires. They will learn that they are unable to go home.

While in the Show Room, characters are free to interact with characters outside of the Show Room via their CORD, aka, the network. The AI will be happy to instruct them in how to access this ability.

What is called 'behavioural testing' would be more accurately described as an introduction of your character to the Neocephalos population. Because, indeed, the Show Room is more like a Big Brother house, open to 24 hour surveillance for anyone who wishes to tune in. Qareen will be happy to tell characters this if it somehow comes up in conversation, but characters from outside the Show Room are permitted to inform them too. Otherwise, this does not at first seem obvious due to an absence of physical cameras or other monitoring devices.

But for the next three days at least, the characters will be given commands, and told that compliance will lead them to more control over their situation. These commands might be something like answering a series of personal questions out loud, posing in provocative ways, or performing sexual acts. More elaborate requests will show off the malleable nature of their environment, manifesting a small fitness space to use, a hot tub to enjoy, or a predicament self-bondage set up to put themselves in. All of these things are informed by audience feedback, so for your reference as a player, imagine what the ravenously curious and indomitably horny audience of Neocephalos would collectively like to see.

In return, the characters will find they have some minimal control over their environment. For instance, they can now manifest simple clothes! They can change the shape of the enrivonment to some degree, such as creating their own separate room, or summoning items like a plate of food. Or a knife! Whatever you like.

After three days, compliance will translate into freedom. For those that stubbornly resist, they will be kept in the Show Room for upwards of two weeks before being forcibly ejected.

Either way, before they leave, they will be informed that a corporation has agreed to take them on as an asset. Congratulations!

Once free of the Show Room, assets will wake up in small capsule rooms in Cephalon Heights, dressed in simple garments, something like soft sweatpants and a T-shirt and slip-on shoes. They will find they have an implant port installed in the base of their neck, just to the left of their spine, which at the time of waking has a cord jacked into it extending from a port in the wall nearby. They are free to remove plug from jack as easy as any electrical device.

From here, no more handholding, no more Qareen. It's sink or swim. Ask around, learn the ropes, and figure out how to make use of the preliminary fame you've been granted.

Besides the first opening event of the game, there will not be regular arrival logs. Players should feel free to review the above information and RP out what they would like to do, coordinating with other characters on your current arrival cycle or networking with characters outside of the Show Room. Alternatively, you are free to handwave this process entirely and dive right in!

MEGABUILDINGS

An unyielding fortress in the middle of Neocephalos, Cephalon Heights is as wide as a city block and rises 120 floors towards the fickle sky. It is by far one of the most populated megabuildings in Neocephalos, offering readily available Tier N housing and some Tier 1 amenities, making it a perfect location for any new asset who finds themselves waking up in Neocephalos.

From the outside, Cephalon Heights is an unforgiving looking structure of steel and concrete. Like all megabuildings, it is equipped to withstand harsh weather conditions, and does so by having very few windows and points of failure, and what points of failure exist have automated steel shutters that can come down in seconds. Its main access point is a ground level entrance and lobby on all sides, as well as underground parking and upper level parking for aerial vehicles. All of these can be instantly sealed in the event of emergency.

The first 20 floors of Cephalon Heights are dedicated to commercial spaces, a mix of Tier N and Tier 1 services and distractions. Much of the appeal are the architecturally wide open common zones, bright with false windows and fake skylights, in which citizens can wander and congregate. Mall spaces are filled with Tier N Neocephalos-specific vendors and services, providing simple clothes and foods with very minimal variety, and clinics with that provide baseline healthcare or medically necessary cyberware. If you need it for baseline survival and dignity, you can find it here.

A scattering of Tier 1 services and entertainments break up the monotony. You may find a cinema complex, a strip club, a simple bar with simple beer on tap, and some stores on massive scale that sell more individualistic if mass-produced fashions, chain-type restaurants with more exciting offerings than protein packs, and vending machines that offer simple recreational inhalers for various forms of pleasure.

And all the while, there are screens and light strips advertising alternatives—the neon darkness of Night Spire, the vibrant energy of Octavian Plaza, the promised greenery and peace of the Blindstar Pyramid—as well as all the higher end products and consumables beyond the walls of Heights.

Check out the arrival page for more information on what assets can expect when waking up in Cephalon Heights.


ACCOMMODATIONS:

All accommodations in Cephalon Heights are Tier N, which means they provide just enough shelter and comfort to sustain human life. The residential floors are in groups of ten stories each, with a communal level or two in between, and the apartments themselves have two available layouts.

You can choose a capsule room, which is the size of a single bed with a small shelf for belongings, a VR port, and the ability to control temperature and light. The single door has a glass inset with a customisable opacity. Once you have claimed a capsule, no one else can make use of it.

Alternatively, there are larger dorm-style rooms that accommodate sixteen people each in strict bunk bed layouts, although this does necessarily have some square footage of common space. As long as there are free beds, anyone who requires a place to stay can freely enter this arrangement, and access only becomes restricted once all sixteen bunks are spoken for.

Neither of these arrangements have private bathrooms and changing areas. Instead, every floor has several communal bathrooms. The only true privacy in these spaces would be the toilet, as showers and baths are open, with locker room set ups for stashing any personal belongings and clothes.

There are no kitchens, but the floors between residential levels have a variety of cafeterias serving simple foods (usually heavily processed but nutritionally valuable), and there are vending machines located throughout.


For the directory of individual services available, and to add your own, click here.

A glittering tower of silver and black, 111 floors and rising to a narrow peak, Night Spire is a tribute to 24/7 night time hedonism. With exception to a handful of high-end penthouses and open balcony bars and restaurants, much of its glittering interior makes no effort to provide even false natural lighting whatsoever. Like any megabuilding, Night Spire has the technical infrastructure of a self-sustaining arcology, if less ambitious in population than some, but opens its arms to any citizen of Neocephalos who wishes to stop by and have a good time. At least, anyone with at least Tier 1 access.

To walk through Night Spire's first several levels feels a little like moving through nighttime city streets being overrun by pedestrians all on their way to somewhere exciting. Just don't look up and notice the dark industrial rafters if you wish to maintain the illusion. These broad yet winding corridors host brightly lit storefronts, a mix of Tiers and pleasures, a sleepless hyper-Vegas collection of luxuries, from sex toys to car showrooms, from boutique fashion selections through to 6-hour cosmetic surgery clinics. Cocktail bars, nightclubs, and arcades vie for attention, as if the brighter the neon, the better the experience.

Climbing the levels, you'll find bigger and more ambitious entertainment spaces, like raves, fetish clubs, and performance venues that can accommodate patrons in the hundreds, and more dedicated Tier 3 offerings like exclusive brothels for bespoke experiences, or the public-facing accommodations of well known sex workers with a six month waiting list.

Night Spire is also the location of Cosmic Dreams Management HQ, taking up a decent chunk of real estate by possessing restricted access to levels 69 through 78. Here you may find Gillian Halo's office (if you have an appointment), studio spaces of all kinds, lavish bedrooms for reasons, dressing rooms and beauty stations, dance studios, photography and VR creation studios, and everything you need to make your (or someone else's) cosmic dreams come true.

Residential levels begin somewhere in the middle, the lesser Tier rooms mingling with commercial spaces, but become more exclusive to residents as you go up.


ACCOMMODATIONS:

Starting from the top, Night Spire's Tier 3 luxury penthouses are the envy of every megabuilding, or at least, those that live there certainly think so. These dominate whole or half-floors, with private elevators, sleek interior design, floor to ceiling windows, private bathrooms and kitchens, fitness rooms, entertainment parlours, and just about any service one could hope for—private chefs, yoga instructors, escorts, hair and makeup assistants, you name it. These penthouses are also easy to turn into party mode with in-built sound systems, lighting, and in-house catering (food, alcohol, recreational drugs), and its furniture is ideal for hosting a spontaneous or pre-planned orgy with broad surfaces and soft (moisture-proof) textures.

Tier 2 are pristine suites, generously proportioned, offering a high-end hotel experience more so than the kind of bespoke luxury above them, but you could get a window view if you're lucky. Night Spire offers reliable dry cleaning and room service, as well as comfortable common spaces, rare semi-public peace and quiet with only a few screens with looping advertisements. While you share a floor with many others, these floors are only accessible by citizens with Tier 2 and over access.

Tier 1 apartments are modest in proportion, reliably clean, flashy in design, but not as well soundproofed. These rooms typically share floors with clubs, bars, brothels if not literally as a part of a brothel themselves, and are often used for temporary overnight stays to sleep off the damage of a good time. These rooms don't provide more than a comfortable and private space to live with its own bathroom and kitchenette, and offers no extra services or window views. But there's probably a mirror on the ceiling, so that's something.


For the directory of individual services available, and to add your own, click here.

Broad enough at the base to span four city blocks, the Blindstar Pyramid rises to a tall glittering peak. It appears as though it is made of glass, in which every practical and sometimes impractical surface is a window. Its defenses against external danger are more internal, willing to sacrifice the outer layer of chambers and balconies to the elements in the event of disaster and repair them later.

Inside, the air is cool and the spaces are generous, and there is even the occasional scent of organic matter. Greenery is cultivated here in controlled measures, vines that crawl up metal lattice, hanging gardens, water features that range from simple zen-like pools through to ambitious waterfall installations that send up mist into the air. The first few lower floors have nothing at all in the way of commercial utility, instead offering a gallery of architectural simplicity, artwork, and occasionally the erotic display of human bodies.

The rest of the levels, besides the apex peak, contain a mix of commercial and residential. Like any megabuilding, all fundamental needs here can be met, but its brick-and-mortar entertainments tend to be a little thin on the ground, catering mainly to artworks, meditation chambers, gardens, and fetish clubs catering to a certain zen-style, spiritual atmosphere and energy.

The most common and sought after offering are, of course, Blindstar's virtual reality suites in which users can access the Blindstar exclusive virtual reality, Exodus, exclusive to Tier 3 users (and assets of Blindstar and anyone they invite). These suites have several different experiential offerings, from sensory deprivation pods to additional sensual physical service while the user is in virtual reality, from suspension bondage through to specific guided meditation that dips in and out of the real and the digital, and combinations of all of the above. There are also "long stay" VR rooms, in which users who wish to stay immersed for days at a time, and sometimes even weeks, can have their physical body looked after by Blindstar acolytes through the appropriate therapies.

As implied by the name, the Pyramid belongs to the Children of Blindstar, and so their utilities are diffused throughout the whole megabuilding, albeit only accessible by themselves and their assets (and those they bring with them). These include average workspaces, isolation chambers, rooms of rest and relaxation, worship halls, auditoriums for public speaking events, recording and broadcast studios, baths, and private VR services. The Hieorophant occupies the pinnacle of the pyramid, which is never open for casual visitation.


ACCOMMODATIONS:

Blindstar Pyramid offers accommodations on all tiers, but they have a unique quirk—all residences have at least one purely transparent wall.

In the case of Tier N offerings, rather than capsules embedded into a wall, these are more like human-sized glass cases, visible from all sides, situated in moderately public spaces but thankfully soundproofed. As with most Tier N residential offerings, there is an available locker room and bathroom, and shared cafeterias.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 are mostly identical in terms of space and comfort, sharing a translucent wall with their neighbours and a translucent wall where the front entryway exists. These are typically studio set ups and so only the bathroom is truly private from view. What differentiates these tiers would be the extra services that Tier 2 receives in terms of room service, cleaning, and the quality of food and decor.

The Tier 3 penthouses reserve for themselves the highest floors with the grandest views. Their inner facing transparent walls will lend them a view into their neighbours' main living space, and views into their own, but there are plenty of closed off rooms for them to enjoy in private. There is an ascetic luxury and artful minimalism to these rooms, calm neutral tones, broad windows, balconies, pools and water features, in which luxury is space and silence for its own sake. These residents also have the acolytes at their beck and call for just about anything they desire.


For the directory of individual services available, and to add your own, click here.

Octavian Plaza is a sprawling mega-mall structure with several interconnected features. Although the bulk of it is a mere seven floors in height, it spans several city blocks, and includes a twenty-story octagonal tower, the Octavius, for residential purposes. Like all megabuildings, it is fully protected from the elements, but indulges in some open air courtyards and strip malls that can be closed with electric steel roofing that takes about twenty minutes to close fully, so it is recommended to vacate these areas in case of emergency.

This megabuilding, like Night Spire, views itself as a luxury, and so its services and entertainments are Tier 1 and over only. It provides everything necessary for sustained living and luxury, featuring massive food courts, rows of stores, glowing escalators, and augmented directories to assist in your 'shopping' experience. Every service here has the gloss of mass manufacturing in contrast to the individualistic artwork one could encounter in the Pyramid or the mercurial back-alley vibe of Night Spire, with more in common with Cephalon Heights with added joy and luxury. While Night Spire is known best for its nighttime pleasures, Octavian Plaza is not without its share of hotspots, karaoke bars and strip clubs.

More than these conveniences, the Plaza prides itself on being a place of events, with three distinct stadiums for entertainment purposes, sporting events, music festivals, and so on. There is usually something going on, some massive show nearly every day, distant bass or sheering crowds thrumming through the air wherever you go.

Entertainments here trend towards the adventurous and the physical. Rock climbing on moving surfaces, full combat sparring pits, electrified laser tag mazes, augmented reality hunt-and-chase games (sometimes opt in, sometimes not) that see participants tearing recklessly through the brightly lit corridors. Neoceph citizens tend to play rough, and fortunately, Octavian Plaza is also home to the largest medical facilities in the city, with sugar bath treatment available 24/7 to anyone who needs it, only to send their patients right back out again for more.

Octavian Plaza also hosts the HQ of Apex Legacies, which provides private amenities both to its assets and public ones to citizens who wish to make use of them. This includes massive gym spaces, dojos, shooting ranges, physical therapy baths, VR booths, cage fight spaces. However, even the private spaces intended for assets is not fully private, in that citizens can watch on from the mezzanines above and catch a glimpse of their favourites at work and play. There is no central office for Vic Von Vektor, just his penthouse in the Octavius, but most assets understand they are being monitored continually.


ACCOMMODATIONS:

The Octavius is a twenty story octagonal building that rises up out from the Plaza, a dedicated residential building that nevertheless provides enough amenities so that those that live there don't need to venture out into the plaza for the basics, with common area floors dividing the different tiers.

Tier 3 penthouses divide floors into massive quarters, with expected floor to ceiling window views and open spaces. These are optimised for peak physical efficiency, smart AI installations running diagnostics on the resident's physical profile and meeting any detected need, whether that's booting up the in-suite medbay, adjusting the lighting and temperature, providing the most immediately required nutritional need in the automated kitchen area. Services that require a physical presence are done by drone.

At Tier 2, one can expect these same amenities, just on a smaller scale in studio-sized apartments.

The first few floors are dedicated to Tier 1, motel room sized offerings without the responsive analytics or private fitness areas. However, these contain their own kitchen corners and bathrooms that have sugar bath functionality, and one can verbally request their needs and expect to receive them.


For the directory of individual services available, and to add your own, click here.

CALENDAR

The below calendar tracks IC and OOC events, including application periods, activity check-ins, and plot posts.

The calendar runs on the mod's timezone, NEW ZEALAND TIME (GMT +12:00), so please make sure to check both the time and the date if you live further afield. World time convertors like Time.is are a good way to translate any times and dates depicted below to your timezone.