Saturn (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
electrotoxic) wrote2025-03-28 08:47 pm
electrotoxic) wrote2025-03-28 08:47 pm
Entry tags:
>karteria://application
OOC INFORMATION
Name: Daekie
Are you over 18?: Yes
Contact:
Other characters: Siobhan Chark, probably
Permissions & opt-out: Permissions & opt-out
IC INFORMATION
Name: Saturn
Canon: Heaven Will Be Mine
Age: 22
Gender: Transgender woman
Species: Enhanced human
Appearance: Saturn is a tan, freckled South Asian woman of middling height (5'7"). She has cool black hair in a messy wolf cut; her bangs typically cover her left eye (which is perfectly normal). She wears too much eye makeup, and often dresses in comfortable athletic wear. Her back has several cybernetic ports for wires, needles, and IV drips.
Canon point: Post-Cradle’s Graces ending
History: Wiki is here, fan-collated timeline here; a lot of Saturn’s details are in chatlogs and ingame scenes, so below I’ve collated that. Spoilers’d for length. Some of this is direct quotes from game dialogue, I swear it’s not plagiarism. Content warning for grooming and for briefly mentioned transphobia.
Saturn grew up on Earth in the alternate 1960s. As an adolescent (which I’m hallmarking personally at ~11ish, nee Ender’s Game) she was accepted into the space program and began training as a pilot, though none of the generation threes ever saw combat with anyone; she was an overachiever, a teacher’s pet go-getter, and she quickly became disillusioned with the Existential Threat’s weakness and nobody recognizing her talents. And then Iapetus took interest in her.
Alongside fellow G3 pilot Mercury, she became Iapetus’ pet project. The man aimed to artificially jump-start extreme tidal sensitivity, believing if the body was ready to pilot, the mind and soul would follow. Mercury and Saturn were his primary candidates for piloting the Ship-Self he intended to have built. (Iapetus was in relationships with them. They were teenagers at the time. He would leave his fingers on her shoulder for just a moment too long to be casual, in front of everyone -- it made Saturn feel so smug every time. They were his special projects, and everyone knew it, and they were dumb teenagers and they were in love with him. These days they both regard him with unfathomable disgust and hatred.)
A Ship-Self isn’t a weapon. It’s a body, which a pilot can express with like their own body. They’re designed in the image of toys, to turn war into something else: nobody dies in space. There are other forms of conflict. (Read: mecha anime.) Any given Ship-Self has a variety of prescribed functions, otherwise known as its Intent, which can make the ship seem as if it has its own consciousness: that’s projection and inaccurate metaphor. The most important part of piloting, therefore, is resonating with the Ship-Self’s tidal reactor, to harmonize your intentions with its own. Iapetus created pilots who were following the intent of the Ship-Self, rather than teaching those pilots to express themselves.
Saturn, in particular, was “intensely loyal. Like another pair of hands and eyes for Iapetus”. She was the biggest overachiever of all generation three pilots, basking in Iapetus’ attention. She accepted all his intentions perfectly and followed him without question... which meant she had no will of her own, and was useless for tidal conflict. So Iapetus tossed her aside because “he realized in the end, he had created someone as boring as he was”. He tossed Mercury aside because Mercury was a trans man and Iapetus sucks as a person..
Anyway, stuff happened, see the linked timeline. Saturn and Mercury joined the Celestial Mechanics when it splits from the Memorial Foundation, believing in the eversion project: if completed, they’d embrace the idea of ‘humans in space’ as ‘aliens’ and sever relations with Earth, making themselves into something new entirely.
Since she was discarded years ago, Saturn’s spent the time slowly developing her tides, the concept of who Saturn is; she is a hellion, a rebel, and a brat, and Mercury is her bestie (he reciprocates this but she’s going to give him an ulcer). And she’s not allowed to test pilot the “existentially horrifying” secret prototype mech the String of Pearls, as Iapetus has very specifically benched her, despite the fact she’d be an incredible candidate.
So: right before the String of Pearls goes out for her first test drive, Saturn leaks the existence of 1. the hidden lab it was constructed in & 2. the ship-self itself to everyone in the solar system, knocks out the test pilot and shoves her in a locker, puts herself in the mech, and hacks the String of Pearls’ OS so she can insert herself as an approved pilot. The game starts here.
Over the course of a week, Saturn repeatedly engages with opposing pilots Pluto - the princess of Cradles’ Graces who obliterated the spacegoing Existential Threat singlehandedly - and Luna-Terra, the ace of the Memorial Foundation and one of the very first pilots - as all three factions converge on the Moon, fighting for control over the Lunar Gravity Well and the fate of humanity in space. Also, she makes out with girls. Not just these girls. Strongly implied offscreen girls. Girl gets busy.
In this timeline, Saturn betrays Celestial Mechanics for Cradle’s Graces, letting Iapetus know that no, she doesn’t necessarily think what comes next is going to work out well - but more than she believes in Pluto, she herself is spiteful. Spiteful enough to spurn what Iapetus was convinced she’d do - reject humanity completely - and to help create a world he hates but can do nothing about.
Pluto then declares war on the Earth, influencing the Gravity Well enough to create a world where autonomous drones can’t survive in space: if Earth wants them back it’ll have to fight on her terms, with its own Ship-Selves, in a war between humans where nobody dies. A world where there’s enough Culture in the solar system that, slowly but surely, the planets are changing.
Like Pluto always said, this future no one wanted is the only future that leads somewhere. A future she couldn’t hold, and still can’t hold, but she doesn’t need to. We are holding it with her. We are holding it together. All together, we can hold this future.
Earth isn’t ready to accept us, and we’re not ready to forgive Earth. That’s okay. We don’t have to be. Let’s just fight about it. Let’s fuck over it. Let’s break up and get back together again over it. If we lose, we lose on the terms we set, and that proves our point, so haha, we win. If you hate that logic, and think it’s stupid, come over here and mess me up about it.
Come here and make out with me about it!
Alongside fellow G3 pilot Mercury, she became Iapetus’ pet project. The man aimed to artificially jump-start extreme tidal sensitivity, believing if the body was ready to pilot, the mind and soul would follow. Mercury and Saturn were his primary candidates for piloting the Ship-Self he intended to have built. (Iapetus was in relationships with them. They were teenagers at the time. He would leave his fingers on her shoulder for just a moment too long to be casual, in front of everyone -- it made Saturn feel so smug every time. They were his special projects, and everyone knew it, and they were dumb teenagers and they were in love with him. These days they both regard him with unfathomable disgust and hatred.)
A Ship-Self isn’t a weapon. It’s a body, which a pilot can express with like their own body. They’re designed in the image of toys, to turn war into something else: nobody dies in space. There are other forms of conflict. (Read: mecha anime.) Any given Ship-Self has a variety of prescribed functions, otherwise known as its Intent, which can make the ship seem as if it has its own consciousness: that’s projection and inaccurate metaphor. The most important part of piloting, therefore, is resonating with the Ship-Self’s tidal reactor, to harmonize your intentions with its own. Iapetus created pilots who were following the intent of the Ship-Self, rather than teaching those pilots to express themselves.
Saturn, in particular, was “intensely loyal. Like another pair of hands and eyes for Iapetus”. She was the biggest overachiever of all generation three pilots, basking in Iapetus’ attention. She accepted all his intentions perfectly and followed him without question... which meant she had no will of her own, and was useless for tidal conflict. So Iapetus tossed her aside because “he realized in the end, he had created someone as boring as he was”. He tossed Mercury aside because Mercury was a trans man and Iapetus sucks as a person..
Anyway, stuff happened, see the linked timeline. Saturn and Mercury joined the Celestial Mechanics when it splits from the Memorial Foundation, believing in the eversion project: if completed, they’d embrace the idea of ‘humans in space’ as ‘aliens’ and sever relations with Earth, making themselves into something new entirely.
Since she was discarded years ago, Saturn’s spent the time slowly developing her tides, the concept of who Saturn is; she is a hellion, a rebel, and a brat, and Mercury is her bestie (he reciprocates this but she’s going to give him an ulcer). And she’s not allowed to test pilot the “existentially horrifying” secret prototype mech the String of Pearls, as Iapetus has very specifically benched her, despite the fact she’d be an incredible candidate.
So: right before the String of Pearls goes out for her first test drive, Saturn leaks the existence of 1. the hidden lab it was constructed in & 2. the ship-self itself to everyone in the solar system, knocks out the test pilot and shoves her in a locker, puts herself in the mech, and hacks the String of Pearls’ OS so she can insert herself as an approved pilot. The game starts here.
Over the course of a week, Saturn repeatedly engages with opposing pilots Pluto - the princess of Cradles’ Graces who obliterated the spacegoing Existential Threat singlehandedly - and Luna-Terra, the ace of the Memorial Foundation and one of the very first pilots - as all three factions converge on the Moon, fighting for control over the Lunar Gravity Well and the fate of humanity in space. Also, she makes out with girls. Not just these girls. Strongly implied offscreen girls. Girl gets busy.
In this timeline, Saturn betrays Celestial Mechanics for Cradle’s Graces, letting Iapetus know that no, she doesn’t necessarily think what comes next is going to work out well - but more than she believes in Pluto, she herself is spiteful. Spiteful enough to spurn what Iapetus was convinced she’d do - reject humanity completely - and to help create a world he hates but can do nothing about.
Pluto then declares war on the Earth, influencing the Gravity Well enough to create a world where autonomous drones can’t survive in space: if Earth wants them back it’ll have to fight on her terms, with its own Ship-Selves, in a war between humans where nobody dies. A world where there’s enough Culture in the solar system that, slowly but surely, the planets are changing.
Like Pluto always said, this future no one wanted is the only future that leads somewhere. A future she couldn’t hold, and still can’t hold, but she doesn’t need to. We are holding it with her. We are holding it together. All together, we can hold this future.
Earth isn’t ready to accept us, and we’re not ready to forgive Earth. That’s okay. We don’t have to be. Let’s just fight about it. Let’s fuck over it. Let’s break up and get back together again over it. If we lose, we lose on the terms we set, and that proves our point, so haha, we win. If you hate that logic, and think it’s stupid, come over here and mess me up about it.
Come here and make out with me about it!
Personality answers:
3. Your character must live with only one sense for a year. They are allowed to choose. What do they pick? Why? How do they cope? Touch. Who needs sound when girls can trace their words onto your skin? Who needs sight when she’s still got hands? A body is a world unto itself. The idea of having no sense of touch entirely is -- repellent, to her; she describes things primarily in terms of textures, of feel, she's a very hands-on person. Of all the senses she inherits from the String of Pearls, including the ones humans don't have, the ones she describes most viscerally -- the ones that really warp the narrative with how she experiences them -- are the physical ones. String of Pearls gets shot, and Saturn inherits that physical sensation to the degree where she thinks she's dying.
She'd put on a brave face about it, regardless, but she'd need someone with her who she trusted. At least for the beginning. She hates the idea of being helpless, and living in a mute, black world is... it's not helpless. But if she went through the entire thing without someone to help her at the most trying points, she'd struggle horribly.
4. What does your character think about physical appearances? Are they the sort to meticulously primp themselves, or could they not care less? Saturn has a specific vibe she’s going for, but she’s also just not happy with having a human body a lot of the time, so to some degree she tries to avoid really focusing on it (though she takes care of basic hygiene, she's not that miserable that she'll actively make her experience of Being A Human With A Human Body worse, not usually). She does almost exclusively prioritize appearance aspects that she likes, especially if others might find them offputting or tacky; she spent years dressing and looking exactly the way Iapetus liked, so her look now is For Saturn By Saturn TM.
She knows other people put a lot of thought into it, though, and she pays a lot of attention to what other people wear. There's a lot of things that can be learned about someone from how they dress themself and how they present themself: consciously or not, that's the persona they're presenting to the world at first glance. She knows what her persona is in that way. Do you?
5. What is your character most afraid of? Saturn is most frightened of - sterility. Being static. Uniformity. Even as it sometimes brings her pain, she takes pride in her otherness, in being weird and transgressive and a little gross; this is her, this is who she's made herself while free of Earth's gravity. Always changing, piece by piece by piece, even if it's in tiny little ways; if she couldn't change as a person at all she'd lose her mind.
6. What would your character say is their best trait? What is truly their best trait? According to Saturn, her best trait is probably her spite. If pressed on this (because what kind of an answer is that??), she'd say spite is a motivator. Spite makes her take action: spite gets her moving, makes her refuse to settle for what everyone else says she's owed. Fuck that. She's a lab girl, a thrown-out girl, and fuck everyone who wants to pretty that up or hide it away; she is as irrepressibly obnoxious as she is because this, who she's built of herself, was built of a foundation of spite.
As much as she comes off as - and genuinely is! - a bitch, Saturn's actual best trait is her loyalty and her love. She cares, deeply and fiercely, and she'll move heaven and earth if she thinks the situation is unfair to the ones she cares about: one of the very few times she's ever seen being genuinely, no-jokes no-smiles serious in canon to the point of typing with correct grammar is when she wants to make it clear to Mercury that he's her friend, she loves him, and no matter what it takes - no matter what happens to her after what she's about to do - she'll walk with him until he gets what he wants, the same way she's about to.
Inventory: Space Estrogen (like normal HRT but made in space in 1980), (stolen) novelty coffee mug emblazoned MEMORIAL FOUNDATION SPACE PROGRAM, box of makeup, sticker-covered laptop
Powers/Abilities: Saturn, like most other ship-self pilots from the space program, can read the story -- she can perceive the narrative in some way, and is aware of what it does or does not describe during her scenes, to the point of directly commenting on it (CTRL+F Saturn's surprised that's true.).
With strong enough will, one can realign the narrative with one’s intent; when in her mech, Saturn is capable of “tearing a scar through spacetime” to get rid of the bullets from a kill attempt without enough lethal intent behind it. She explicitly calls this ability ‘fucking with the narrative’. This doesn’t give her any specific advantage in anything, reality in Karteria doesn’t work the same way it does back home so she can’t actively push or rewrite things (plus she wouldn’t be able to do any of that on Earth anyway), but she’s aware of non-dialogue text in posts by her account & can kind of get the vibe of what someone else’s narration is doing in threads with her. Her getting anything meaningful out of this will always be explicitly opt-in, but the above link shows what it can look like (albeit Pluto, the other character involved here, is so good at interfacing with the narrative that she retroactively wrote her deadname out of existence).
[Objectively this is only A Thing because the rules of reality are Weird in the WGGverse, but I think it makes for a fun ability, and without her mech’s tidal reactor she can’t exert enough influence on the narrative to change how events are occurring.]
She’s also an extremely talented hacker, capable of hacking the OS of her ship-self / mech in order to gain access, routinely intercepting other people’s emails during the game, and pulling out data from encrypted servers in order to access records she shouldn’t be able to touch.
As a third-generation pilot, Saturn has had some cybernetic enhancements in order to keep up with earlier pilots; she has a cybernetic spine, along with several ports that she can use in order to connect to her ship-self’s wires and other such things. She’s all sorts of aug’d up!
Samples: TDM thread & TDM toplevel (network post)
Goals: I haven't played Saturn before and I think she'd be a lot of fun here -- especially with the transformative aspect, given her transhumanist bent. She doesn't want to be human like this. What she wants is to be human like that. Outside of the mental changes, she's going to be fucking thrilled re: her corruption traits manifesting, and having a character going HELL YES I LOVE THIS seems like it's... probably going to be a rarity re: the corruption transformations, ahaha.
Soul Choice: Golem
NOTE: If needed to be changed to metal I can do so, but I’ve been writing her Golem-type traits as actually being plastic for her inorganic material? A repeated theme through the original text is that she can’t stand being human, can’t stand her body, and being in her (stolen) ship the String of Pearls is so euphoric for her dysmorphia she says she’ll have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of it. It’s her body more than her body is. Her faction ending, as well, involves actually fusing with her ship and becoming something so inhuman that humans could never even imagine it -- she could be metal but it’s incredibly thematically resonant for her to be plastic. Like a toy.
