#original setting: freerunners

[aggravateddurian]

Freerunners!! for wip game

Thanks for the ask!

Freerunners is an original speculative fiction universe devised and written by me!

Freerunners is set in our future (approx. 2470), in a galaxy where humanity fell into a dark cyberpunk age, but managed to pull itself out with the unlocking of a future among the stars. It shares a timeline with my other original speculative fiction universe, Subsurf.

The story blends elements of cyberpunk (notably: cyberware, evil corporations ruining peoples' lives, vexes: a technology similar to braindances, but more inspired by BTLs from Shadowrun, and the whole high tech, low life feel of the universe), moderately hard science fiction like The Expanse and makes concessions towards unrealistic tech like jump drives for the sake of the story.

Full detes below the cut:

The story itself follows the crew of the Independent Contractor high-endurance courier ship 'IC Isthmus' as a simple cargo mission to deliver a replacement rocket engine to a Capellan intelligence officer (Moses Marcellus Booker, who I have always imagined as being played by Idris Elba, so screw you CDPR I thought of it first!) drags them into a complicated series of interweaving and competing interests and designs between the galactic powers.

The crew of the Isthmus comes from a variety of backgrounds. Some have clear inspirations, others are completely original creations.

Captain Connor 'Truck' Pearce - a war veteran and the captain of the Isthmus. Fiercely protective of his crew, and dealing with PTSD after losing his arm during the war. He's a native of the United Arcturian Colonies.

Zoe Alvarado - a former scrapyard techie from the ass-end of the resort planet Paraiso, who learned to fly from her grandma before being recruited by Truck. Chief inspirations: Avril 'Scrap Queen' Mead (Ace Combat 7) and Judy Alvarez (Cyberpunk 2077). Citizen of Paraiso, a free planet under Arcturian protection.

Jaidyn Armas - a webcrawler (net specialist, think netrunner or decker) from Paraiso's largest city, New Emerald. She worked as a net technician in New Emerald's biggest brothel for a while. She joined Truck's crew when Truck and Zoe helped her escape a deadly situation. Jaidyn and Zoe are in a relationship. Chief Inspirations: Valerie Ocampo-Gonzalez (Cyberpunk 2077 OC). Citizen of Paraiso.

Noah 'Chief' Rodriguez - a loadmaster, and a former Warrant Officer in the United Republic Space Force. He was Truck's first crewmate, having joined him after working a stint with Truck for Transstellar Spaceways. Noah is in a relationship with Cory Morgan, another crewman. Citizen of the United Republic of Earth Colonies.

Cory Morgan - a space nomad. He's a webcrawler, or at least, has the cyberware to be a webcrawler, but his true speciality is in astrogation. When he's not keeping the FTL computer running, he's arguing with Jaidyn about nerd shit. Citizen of the Commonwealth of Capella.

Isiah Larson - a former Capellan Navy medic who joined the crew on Terra Nova. Larson is a snarky, quippy man, who uses humour to put people at ease, a talent he picked up during the Capellan war with the Star Rakers, a large nation of pirate space nomads.

Slate - Slate is... Slate. She's a 6'7" beast, equipped with state of the art combat cyberware and has been bioengineered for peak physical performance. She is known for her husky, monotone voice, and her freakish combat performance. Only Truck could accidentally recruit a supersoldier. There's one problem, she can't explain how she got the way she was, or even who she is, because her memories are sealed behind some kind of neural lock technology. Isiah believes that she might be a corporate weapons experiment, given much of her cyberware is produced by Kagiyama-Soryu.

Chapter 1 'Disengage' is finished, but is stuck in editing hell. Chapter 2 'Replacement Parts' is about 10% finished. I'll be posting these soon.

All things Freerunners can be found on by sideblog @durianwritesoriginalfic, or by following the original setting: freerunners tag.

[thewidowstanton]

Christopher Thomas, Cyr wheel artist, Simple Cypher, Young Stage International Circus Festival

Cyr wheel artist Christopher Thomas graduated from the National Centre for Circus Arts in London in 2016. While training there he took two years out to perform at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi and in Baía dos Piratas in Portugal. As part of his degree he appeared with leading Australian circus troupe Circa in Depart at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park during the LIFT Festival. Christopher set up the Cyr/hip hop company Simple Cypher with fellow graduate Kieran Warner, having been runners up for the Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Enterprise and winners of the National Centre of Circus Arts Business Plan Award.

In 2016, Simple Cypher took part in Breakin' Convention at Sadler's Wells and this year they appeared in the Resolution season at The Place and headlined at Move It. Having been unable to accept the offer of competing at the European Youth Circus Festival in Wiesbaden in 2016 because of other committments, Christopher will now be taking part at the 9th International Circus Festival Young Stage in Basel from 12-16 May 2017. He chats to Liz Arratoon about his route to success and explains how he has never let being epilepetic hold him back.

The Widow Stanton: Is there any showbusiness in your family? Christopher Thomas: No, but my six-year-old niece, Meeka, has been inspired by me. She's training at a gymnastics club and I hope to guide her into the circus life.

How did you start out? I took GCSE dance for a bit of a joke… because it was easy. There was never ever a plan with it, it was just something I grew into. I got into hip hop dance and trained at the Youth Dance Academy Urban. The urban course was a new platform based in Swindon, where I'm from. There was a six-week introductory course and then the next year it got set up as a full course and we'd go in on weekends, like, Sundays, and during school holidays. Their job was to get young people into further education and into hip hop dance. That's where I met Kieran. We went back and performed there not too long ago. It was people who've moved on in their careers going back.

How did you get from hip hop dancer to the NCCA? I spent some time training at ballet and contemporary school but I didn't feel there was a future there for me. It was fun at the beginning but it wasn't me; it wasn't the same vibe. Circus school was recommended to me by Youth Dance Academy Urban and by my teacher at college. At first I had that stereotype image of what circus was: jugglers, clowns, lions and all that but I came up to London to an open day, to have a look and that's when my mind was really opened towards it. I saw Billy George training on the Cyr wheel and as soon as I did I was like, 'I want to be a part of that'.

Did you and Kieran go together? We didn't. I was the first member of the Dance Academy to come up to circus school. After my second year I had two years out and I worked in Abu Dhabi for a year and then in Portugal in the pirate show, Baía dos Piratas. During those two years, Kieran came up to the NCCA and when I returned we were in the same year.

How hard was Cyr to learn? I thought it was going to be a lot easier than I anticipated. There's so much more to just the skills; like learning how to combat the dizziness, your hands blistering, your spatial awareness. The most important thing was learning how to bail safely enough, like, the wheel can throw you out a lot of the time, so for me learning how to bail was one of the most important things.

What is the hardest thing you do? [Laughs] I'd say probably holding down a routine. [Laughs] I improvise a lot. A lot of my best material comes from that; even when I trained as a hip hop dancer I'd be pushed to the back of the routines and then be out front when it came to throwing down a free style. When I came back to the third year at school that was when I was really focused on creating my final-year devised piece, really focused on setting material instead of just relying on improvising and having fun.

Are any of your moves unique to you? Yes. Probably one of my signature skills; I call it Dolphin Dives. Other people are trying it but I think they're missing a step. It came when I was at school from never being able to land a backflip. It would always be around the side. And one day I really went over my head and my foot connected on to the outside of the wheel and I was like, 'That was really good. I'll just keep going with that', and that developed into being able to take a hand off and being able to hold my weight upside down on the foot. There are a lot of variations that have developed from that, like playing around with hooking my feet on the outside of the wheel.

When I think of how Cyr wheel skills have moved on from the early days, it's gone crazy. It's good to be a part of that. Wanting to be a part of specialising the wheel has helped me. Coming from a hip hop background it's frowned upon to copy other people's moves, we call it 'biting' and that's stuck with me throughout my circus training; I always try to be original with my skills or least make my own variations on tricks.

What did you do at Ferrari World? It's a theme park with a resident 35-minute circus show. I was part of that cast. I used to do the pre-show, coming out to do a clown/juggling number, then I'd perform a Cyr wheel routine and on Sundays I got to come out for the finale driving an electric Ferrari, so that was fun. It was funny because my mum could never remember the name of Cyr wheel. When I got the job at Ferrari World she was saying 'steering wheel' instead of Cyr wheel, and I was like, 'Mum, have you been telling people I'm doing 'steering wheel' in Ferrari World?'. [Laughs]

How did The NCCA prize help you? We got £10,000 from the NCCA and £1,000 as runners-up in the Deutsche Bank award. When we did the Deutsche Bank interview we thought we were really on point. We thought we'd got it. We were so close… but then getting the NCCA couldn't have been better. It helped us set up the company and really gave us the confidence of ‘This is not just a plan, it is going ahead'.

And someone thinks you're really good… It's a weight off your shoulders and it gave us a lot more belief that it was actually happening and becoming reality. We've been very fortunate so far. We got a lot of support from different places, like Jacksons Lane… Swindon Dance has given us space, so right now we're doing very well in terms of our budget. We are being supported by various organisations.

What do you like about working with Kieran? I think having a relationship from our dance career and coming into circus together, we're both able to combine those two things and work well together. Since I've got more into circus, I did fizzle out of hip hop dancing, but Kieran's definitely remained at the frontline of hip hop, going to the battles, judging, competing, teaching, so we complement each other.

You've done amazing things: Breakin' Convention, Resolution and Move It… Yes, that was great. We did four and half minutes, which was very short compared to Resolution, which was 20 minutes. Move It was the first big dance thing I ever saw when I was getting into dance.

How have you handled being epileptic? I know when I'm going to have a seizure and I've never had one while I'm performing.

What would you say to others in your position? This is something important to me. I have epilepsy. It was a difficult thing to talk about but as I've matured it's become a lot easier. I've become a lot more open about it and it's made it a lot easier to manage. It is there but it hasn't in any way prohibited me from having a successful career in circus. It has made it difficult with some employers and I understand their fears. It does bring a risk to the company but my thoughts are that circus wouldn't be what it is without risk. There's more chance of a performer breaking their leg onstage than of me having a seizure. Fortunately I have warning signs in advance and I only have two to three a year.

With communication and understanding it is completely manageable. I've been involved with Young Epilepsy, a charity promoting awareness of epilepsy and I think there's still a need for awareness. In the UK there are more than 600,000 living with the condition; there are 40 different types. When I say I have epilepsy and I'm a performer, I always get the same question about whether flashing lights affect me. But photogenic epilepsy only affects a minute number of people with epilepsy.

What are you doing at Young Stage? Time's ticking down… I'm showing my degree piece that I developed from having epilepsy. It was my inspiration point. I'm excited to be performing it again. It had been a year since I performed it but recently I did it at the Extreme Convention in Antwerp.

Do you hope to achieve anything in parricular by being there? I'm really enjoying performing at festivals and my main goal is just to continue doing that.

Have you had a career highlight so far? I appreciate the smaller things, you know. It's the story behind a stage or a company that makes it special. Working with the pirate show in Portugal, Moliére Productions, it was a very small thing, which grew massively. The couple running it were given this opportunity and went out and found a group of parkour freerunners and were like: "We're gonna give you a job, we're gonna make a show." It was just an idea that blossomed. I loved performing in Rotterdam at Open Stage because of the story behind it; a group of like-minded people had this amazing space and decided to use it, like, beg, borrow everything to make it happen, then it grows.

What are your ambitions for the company? I'd like Simple Cypher to grow into a full show, which is bigger than just me and Kieran. We'd like to create a platform for dancers from Urban to come to. It's nice seeing students following in our steps. There's Pete [Shirley], who's in his final year at the NCCA now – he came from Dance Academy Urban as well – so we're trying to start something small that will grow.

Christopher Thomas takes part in the Young Stage International Circus Festival in Basel from 12-16 May 2017. Simple Cypher is hosting Cypher Stories, a hip hop and circus-themed evening, at Jacksons Lane in London on 21 July 2017.

Picture credits: Mark Morreau; Wes Ryan

Twitter: @SimpleCypher @YoungStageBasel @youngepilepsy @National_Circus

Follow @TheWidowStanton on Twitter

Read about straps artist Lj Marles, who is also taking part at Young Stage

[weworldnewsforalllove-blog]

Rubbish landing! #Freerunner's leap over 12ft wall ends in humiliation when he falls head-first into a wheelie bin The free-runner is filmed scaling a 12ft wall of a building on a quiet road At the top, he turns around and shimmies about halfway down the other side He springs away, lands feet-first on a bin lid but is propelled to the one next to it By NICK ENOCH FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 10:04 GMT, 20 March 2019 | UPDATED: 10:05 GMT, 20 March 2019

A #parkour fan experienced an epic fail when he fell headfirst into a wheelie bin while trying to perform his routine.

The footage begins with the freerunner, who appears to be in his twenties, effortlessly scaling a 12ft high wall of a building, Cafe Jeux, next to a quiet road.

Once at the top, he turns around and shimmies halfway down the other side - within leaping distance of several wheelie bins.

He springs away from the wall, lands feet first on the nearest - and closed - bin lid... but then accidentally propels himself headfirst into the open bin next to it.

The parkour fan sees a wall outside Cafe Jeux and decides it's the perfect spot for some practice. What could possibly go wrong...?

He scales the 12ft wall with ease and, once at the top, twists around to begin phase two of his masterclass in freerunning

The athlete springs away from the wall with the intention of landing on the nearest wheelie bin

s his feet comically stick out the top of the bin, which appears devoid of trash, a voice can be heard saying, 'Oooh!'.

The clip ends with his friend who is filming rushing over to his aid.

Neither the condition of the freerunner nor the location of the incident are known.

Although he lands feet-first on the lid as planned, it then all goes horribly wrong

The momentum from his landing propels him headfirst into the open bin next to it - with his legs sticking out

Parkour, or free running, originated in #France and has become popular in the last decade.

It is a philosophy which includes the physical practice of traversing objects in both urban and rural settings.

The goal is to move from one point to another as quickly and efficiently as possible - ideally without falling headfirst into large bins.

Share or comment on this article: Freerunner leaps over 12ft wall and falls headfirst into a wheelie bin

[aggravateddurian]

Freerunners!

Thanks for the ask!

Freerunners is an original speculative fiction universe devised and written by me!

Freerunners is set in our future (approx. 2470), in a galaxy where humanity fell into a dark cyberpunk age, but managed to pull itself out with the unlocking of a future among the stars. It shares a timeline with my other original speculative fiction universe, Subsurf.

The story blends elements of cyberpunk (notably: cyberware, evil corporations ruining peoples' lives, vexes: a technology similar to braindances, but more inspired by BTLs from Shadowrun, and the whole high tech, low life feel of the universe), moderately hard science fiction like The Expanse and makes concessions towards unrealistic tech like jump drives for the sake of the story.

Full details below:

[aggravateddurian]

WIP Wednesday Part 1/2: Narrative Developments

I've split up WIP Wednesday into two posts this week, lest you all have to endure walls of text and pictures.

Narrative Developments (Original and Fanfic)

BROTHER'S SHADOW

I am actually working on the next few chapters of Brother's Shadow. Here's part of an upcoming chapter. People who've played Act 1 of the game would understand the timeframe this chapter will take place in.

FREERUNNERS (working title) - ORIGINAL SPECULATIVE FICTION SETTING

“Move without limits. Push the limits.” - Motto of the Freerunner Society

I've been having a great deal of fun writing the story encyclopedia for a new speculative fiction setting, set around 600 years in the future, where humanity has taken to the stars. I have some soft limits, and some hard limits on what does and does not fit into this new universe.

Soft Limits (may be included if they fit with the general lore and intent):

Advanced aliens (comparable or slightly more advanced than humans)

'Primitive' aliens

Ancient alien civilisations (will probably be long extinct, comparable or slightly more advanced than humans)

Hard Limits (will not be included):

Highly advanced alien civilisations

Reaper-esque BBEG alien enemy

Mysterious alien artefacts

Time travel

Multiverse travel

Freerunners borrows some elements from my hybrid SF/Fantasy Etherite universe (etherite being the reason why humans are able to travel FTL), some elements from popular science fiction (warp drives and stuff), and incorporates some cyberpunk elements (cyberware and bioware will be making appearances in Freerunners).

I won't lie when I borrowed heavily from Night City, and a little from Neon (from Starfield) when I came up with the idea for this place:

I've made the bold (and some may say cringe) step to have (versions of) Val and Trey appear, with some modifications.

If you're interested as I develop Freerunners, follow the hashtag #original setting: freerunners.

[aggravateddurian]

WIP Whenever: "I Owe Todd Howard My Soul" Edition

Westie Hale and her dog on the road, circa 2287

I was tagged by @wanderingaldecaldo. Thank you.

I'd like to tag @olath124, @byberbunk2069 and @gloryride. As always, no obligation to respond.

There have been numerous developments in the aggravateddurian world since I was last tagged to do one of these something like two months ago.

Things Done Changed

Firstly, I'm taking an indefinite hiatus from Cyberpunk 2077, having exhausted my passion. I may come back to it one day, but for now I'm considering that chapter closed.

My Cyberpunk OCs are either being left in stasis, or versions of them may make their way into my original science fiction universe Freerunners, which I have been writing the fully detailed universal encyclopedia of. Whether that gets released, God knows.

Secondly, I have made progress with a story I'm calling Iron Guardians, a fanfic set in the Fallout universe around the same time as Fallout 4.

But War, War Never Changes

Iron Guardians is set in both the Commonwealth and the northern state of New Hampshire, and follows an ensemble of characters united by circumstance from all walks of life: an idealistic pre-war soldier frozen by the Enclave, a caravan-owning Canadian ghoul trader and his one-eyed sniper compatriot, a jaded Minuteman defector who fled the Commonwealth to save his life, and last, but not least, a Vault Dweller from the West and her trusted, combat armour-wearing canine companion.

The tone of Iron Guardians may shift between lighthearted and grim depending on the chapter. After all, the wasteland is a harsh and unforgiving place, and places like the Nashua Free City are the few sanctuaries, islands in a sea of ruin and despair. But sometimes, the wild wasteland can be a wacky place.

I'll be keeping story stuff related to Iron Guardians on my Fallout sideblog @iron-guardians, but any Fallout 4 VP I take will appear here. Doing VP in Fallout 4 has been made significantly harder with the Next-Gen Update (thanks Todd), but I'm doing my best.

OC: 'Westie' Hale

She kinda resembles Val, because she was originally my attempt at making Val in Fallout 4. However, she's her own character now, so that's good.

"Westie" isn't her real name, it's a nickname applied to her by wastelanders upon learning this intrepid Vault Dweller hails from Vault 53, located in the Midwest. Per the official Fallout Bible: Most of the equipment was designed to break down every few months. While repairable, the breakdowns were intended to stress the inhabitants unduly. The constant hardship caused by the poor reliability of the equipment instead made the Vault Dwellers experts at adapting and making do. For Celia, this is represented by her high Intelligence statistic and her perks:

Scrapper (Level 3)

Hacker (Level 2)

Gun Nut (Level 3)

More of Westie to come, as well as lore about Iron Guardians on the sideblog, including the reason why it's named Iron Guardians.

Thanks everyone.

[aggravateddurian]

WIP Wednesday Whenever: Pain and Suffering Edition

I was tagged by: @shivsghost @ouroboros-hideout and @gloryride for WIP Wednesday, which I am doing on Friday. You'll understand if you keep reading.

I have been fairly inactive this week...

I have aged approximately six weeks in three days. I've been working long days 8am-4:30pm in nonstop meetings, workshops and other activities at work. As such, coming home leaves me with little energy to do a lot. I take a few photos, maybe write a little bit of stuff, but otherwise I haven't been terribly active, so far as creative stuff is concerned.

Virtual Photography

I've got a President's Lady (Vega x Rosalind Myers) set coming out tonight. Otherwise I've got nothing in the VP space.

CyberNoir is on hold, alongside my fics, until after I've recovered from the psychological toll the past three days have put on me.

Writing

I've put a pause on writing my main fics this week because I've been so busy at work.

I finally published Chapter 1 of my original Science Fiction piece 'Freerunners' (via Tumblr for now, until I find a suitable hosting site). Check it out!

I've also published a short story about Vincent Gonzalez (my Male V) and his (very very short-lived) relationship with Panam, called 'Repulse'. Check it out here.

I'm going to tag @wanderingaldecaldo, @streetkid-named-desire and @olath124. Sorry if you've already been tagged, and of course, participation is completely voluntary.

Thanks everyone.

[aggravateddurian]

WIP Whenever

I was tagged by @chevvy-yates for WIP Wednesday. To be frank, this is going to be very short.

Cyberpunk Hiatus

I am taking a break from all Cyberpunk stuff for a little bit. I've been feeling burned out and I've found that I'm not really enjoying it as much.

That means that this blog will primarily be reblogging for a while. I'm hoping to come back, but I'm making it a policy to not set deadlines for my fanfic/VP in 2024 to more properly enjoy the process. Call it a New Year's Resolution if you will.

Original Fiction

During my break, I will be posting various tidbits from my original speculative fiction project 'Freerunners.' I will eventually work up to a short story set in this original setting.

I can't say there will be a lot of visuals. I'm looking at commissioning concept art to help illustrate this world, as well as the crew of the Isthmus, our protagonists in this story.

If you like moderately hard science fiction, hate corpos, enjoy your space stories infused with some cyberpunk high tech/low life, and you thought James Holden getting stuck in the middle of fifteen different political plots was peak literature/television, maybe 'Freerunners' will be for you.

While it's rather barren at the moment, you can check this all out at @durianwritesoriginalfic.

That's it, folks. Thank you for your continued support, and see you in 2024.

[aggravateddurian]

I've seen bits and pieces of some of these, but Freerunners or Subsurf? 👀

Thanks for the ask!

Subsurf is an original cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk universe devised and written by me. It is primarily set in Crystal City, which is built on what used to be Monterey, California. It's a Special Administrative Region, like Hong Kong, which has special rules that make it very attractive to the megacorps of the Subsurf universe.

Subsurfers are the universe's equivalent to Edgerunners or Shadowrunners. The term 'subsurfer' started appearing in slang around 2025. The term referred to mercenaries and punks who used the disused Los Angeles Subsurface Transit (LAST) Network tunnels during the Third Continental War (also known as the First Intercorporate War) to traverse the city.

It also had the connotation of being associated with underground culture (e.g. punk) culture. It is therefore accurate to state that the term 'subsurfer' is synonymous with the term 'cyberpunk.'

Subsurf exists in the same timeline as my other universe Freerunners. Subsurf is set in the later half of the 21st Century (2080-2100) whereas Freerunners takes place in the 25th Century (~2470).

For further information, check out my sideblog @durianwritesoriginalfic. At the moment, there's only Freerunners on there, but I will eventually start putting up Subsurf lore.