Around the city
NAVIGATION
General Index | Premise | Setting | NPC List | Around the City | Events
Financial Information
Banks:
As an offworlder new to Axiom Nexus, you may come to the unpleasant discovery that, upon trying to make a purchase, you have no credit. But never fear, that's what the Bank is for! You'll be directed to the Axiom Nexus Central Bank in Zone 2. There, you'll be given paperwork (of course) to open an account. This is slightly less time-consuming than Processing ... but only slightly. Once the account is opened, your ID bolt will be modified to reflect its balance upon being scanned, much like a debit card. However, this doesn't solve the problem of you being broke.
That's where the next step comes in. The Bank is willing to issue loans, as long as your paperwork is in order. Provided it is, you'll be sent to yet another long line to discuss your loan options with a banker. Depending on your record -- and for Transformers characters, that doesn't just mean the things you've done since your arrival -- you will be issued a loan with a certain number of restrictions. The most lenient of these is quite generous, allowing you to live in Zone 3 with no difficulty, and you are given one month before interest kicks in. The most restricted gives you barely enough to pay for room and board in Zone 5 (though you can stretch this by living in Zones 4 or 6), and steep interest rates begin after the first week.
No matter which loan you get, your spending will be closely monitored, and you are expected to pay back every credit. It's wise not to take more than you need.
Jobs:
Despite the massive amount of paperwork involved, jobs are not hard to find. All Zones offer work to offworlders, though the type varies.
Zone 1: Work here are usually involves sorting paperwork. LOTS of it. This Zone is also home to high-class entertainment; offworlders are sometimes offered jobs in these places, though their main duties include standing around while being gawked at.
Zone 2: Most of the high-class offworlder business are established here. The restaurants are rather picky in choosing employees, but the farms are always looking for help.
Zone 3: Hospitals are always looking for more doctors. There are several centers to help new arrivals find housing and jobs; these centers offer their employees food and housing, but no pay.
Zone 4: Factories. Given the strenuous labor involved (not to mention the health hazards), the pay isn't bad.
Zone 5: Many seedy business make their homes here, but there are several that simply can't compete on the upper levels. From general stores to diners, this Zone has pretty much everything, and is always looking for help.
Zone 6: Cheaper entertainment. Casinos, nightclubs, bars ... think Vegas. Some of the jobs pay well, but the risk of injury runs high. Businesses here are always looking for bodyguards.
Zone 7: All businesses here are strictly off the books.
Zone 8: The residents here are too busy struggling to survive to offer work.
Zone 9 (The Heap): Unless your occupation is "mugging", there's no job for you here.
Modifications
In Cybertronian culture, it's common to have your body upgraded over time with all sorts of benificial modifications. These modifications are quite costly, and not always legal.
The offworlder population of Axiom Nexus has also begun to upgrade themselves, some of them with genetic modifications, others with cybernetic parts (just as some Cybertronians modify themselves with organic components.
Upgrades can be expensive and highly dangerous; illegal upgrades are a sure way to get yourself arrested. And some of them might be involuntary, depending on how Shockwave is feeling.
The key with any upgrade to your character is to ALWAYS ask permission first. The mods will tell you if you can or cannot have these things.
Some examples of common, safe, and legal upgrades include:
- Language Chips: These allow you to automatically speak the Axiom Nexus dialect of Cybertronian, as well as other common languages within the Offworlder Zones (Primarily the most common dialects of Cybertronian, along with English, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese.) For mechs, this is included as part of your communicator.
- Communicator Implant: Cybertronians automatically get this upon arrival - their communicator is directly hooked up to their circuits. However, if you're an organic and you'd like to mentally access your device rather than having to access them physically, this can be done.
-Repairs: If you're injured before arriving or during your stay in the Nexus, most clinics will repair you to your previous state using technology that closest resembles that of your world. Its not uncommon, for an additional fee, for slightly upgraded materials to be used. In these cases, however, only offworlder tech is utilized - doctors will never legally upgrade someone using Transtechnology, if they even have access to it thmselves.
Illegal upgrades can be found around the Nexus if you know who to talk to, or on the Black Market. It is illegal for one to upgrade oneself significantly beyond the advancements of their universe, or in ways that greatly alter their physical appearance (since you've all got mug shots on file.) Its also illegal to upgrade yourself with any Transtechnology, though there might just be options available out there if you keep an optic out...
Communicators and ID bolts
A communicator is given to you immediately upon completion of your paperwork in processing. For mechs, this is a small chip that patches easily into your communications systems and also acts as an ID-bolt. For humans, it is a device much like a cell-phone crossed with a message board, and an ID-chip is implanted separately just below the skin of your arm (in a process that takes only a few minutes.)
ID bolts are used to identify you in everything. When you apply for a loan, when you get a job, when you buy food, when you get arrested, or when you download out a data-file from the library, your ID-bolt is scanned. Everything you do is monitored through your ID-bolt to make sure that you're behaving--but, if you are, the Nexus security will be more lenient towards you. Keep an eye out, though...this also works the other way.
The Axiom Nexus Network can be accessed via your communicators, and is a huge amalgamation of all messages, posts, advertisements, and news feeds across the city. Conveniently, Shockwave's chosen experiments get their own little sub-board for interacting with each other, and messages on this board are given priority to your communicator. Still, it isn't hard to look up and find out about important goings-on within the Nexus.
Using your communicator you can post video, audio, or text, and respond in the same way. All posts to the network are considered 'real time,' so to speak, unless otherwise noted.
Hackers
Some characters are naturally just a bit better about using their communicators to get information than others. Use the following rules when posting, so that your character doesn't say something they'll regret.
-All posts made by anyone who is not a transtech are hackable, unless characters can provide a good in-plot reason as to why they are not. (We encourage you to also speak with whatever hacker you wish to avoid, in order to construct plots of maximum enjoyment. Mod mediation is available for this option.)
-Posts made with 'maximum encryption' (which must be stated in the subject of each tag) will take a clever hacker no less than one week of in-game time to break, provided they are only concentrating on that post/thread and no others. Use your best judgment as to if your character can create these locks (Mikaela would likely not be able to do so, but Optimus Prime likely could.) Characters can learn how to code maximum encryption, with sufficient training by an experienced person.
-Hackers cannot hack each others posts without permission.
-Hackers cannot hack Transtech communicators set on maximum encryption. There is currently one communicator at large in the Nexus. More of these will become available as the game progresses, though these are illegal in the Nexus. Your characters will have to be careful with them.
-Transtech Shockwave is unhackable. This includes both his posts, his handiwork (ie memory wipes,) and his person (for those lucky enough to capture him later on.)
If you're not certain whether or not you should be able to hack or encode maximum encryption, ask a mod, or head over to the permissions post for some guidelines.
Standards of Time
The TransTech timekeeping system is base-ten, meaning that the terms for the passage of any amount of time can be extrapolated from the base unit (in this case, the 32 hour solar cycle). Some of the most commonly referenced units, their equivalents in Earth time, and what they're analogous to in terms of human time-keeping are listed here.
Milli-cycle: Just over two minutes. This term is probably used primarily by TransTechs, or in official communications. In the Offworlder Zones, it's more common to hear people using terms like seconds and minutes, or their own local version thereof, since they're easier to remember and mean about the same thing as milli-cycles and the smaller micro-cycles.
Centi-cycle: Equal to about twenty minutes.
Deci-cycle: The functional hour of Axiom Nexus; 3.2 hours. Sometimes referred to just as a cycle, though this term is also applied to solar cycles.
Solar cycle: A day-night cycle; the amount of time it takes for this Cybertron to revolve once on its axis. Equal to approximately 32 hours. Sometimes referred to simply as cycle, though 'cycle' is sometimes used to refer to deci-cycles as well.
Deca-cycle: Ten solar cycles; the functional week of Axiom Nexus. Equal to 320 hours, or just over 13 days.
Lunar cycle: The time it takes for the primary moon to circle cybertron: Or about 52 days. Standard off-world adaptations also referred to this as a 'month.'
Stellar cycle: A year on this Cybertron; the amount of time it takes for the planet to orbit its star. Equal to approximately 4.7 Earth years, or between 1286 and 1287 Cybertronian days.
Mega-cycle: 1,000,000 solar cycles, or approximately 3653 Earth years. Often used in the same hyperbolic sense as humans might use eon or epoch--that is, to denote a long, long time rather than any specific measure.
Feel free to have your characters, particularly if they're new to the Nexus, keep using the units of time they're accustomed to...that is, if their canon comes with a set. (This is a particularly handy resource, especially for IDW, Animated, and Beast Wars characters.) When interacting with TransTechs, however, particularly in any capacity that involves dates or times, expect it to be couched in their terms. Inhabitants of the Offworlder Zones who've been trapped for a long time have probably picked it up as well, so these are the terms to expect from anyone who knows the ropes.
Things you'll know by...
Things Your Character Should Know by the End of the First Day:
Things Your Character Should Know by the End of the First Week:
Things Your Character Should Know by the End of the First Month:
General Index | Premise | Setting | NPC List | Around the City | Events
Financial Information
Banks:
As an offworlder new to Axiom Nexus, you may come to the unpleasant discovery that, upon trying to make a purchase, you have no credit. But never fear, that's what the Bank is for! You'll be directed to the Axiom Nexus Central Bank in Zone 2. There, you'll be given paperwork (of course) to open an account. This is slightly less time-consuming than Processing ... but only slightly. Once the account is opened, your ID bolt will be modified to reflect its balance upon being scanned, much like a debit card. However, this doesn't solve the problem of you being broke.
That's where the next step comes in. The Bank is willing to issue loans, as long as your paperwork is in order. Provided it is, you'll be sent to yet another long line to discuss your loan options with a banker. Depending on your record -- and for Transformers characters, that doesn't just mean the things you've done since your arrival -- you will be issued a loan with a certain number of restrictions. The most lenient of these is quite generous, allowing you to live in Zone 3 with no difficulty, and you are given one month before interest kicks in. The most restricted gives you barely enough to pay for room and board in Zone 5 (though you can stretch this by living in Zones 4 or 6), and steep interest rates begin after the first week.
No matter which loan you get, your spending will be closely monitored, and you are expected to pay back every credit. It's wise not to take more than you need.
Jobs:
Despite the massive amount of paperwork involved, jobs are not hard to find. All Zones offer work to offworlders, though the type varies.
Zone 1: Work here are usually involves sorting paperwork. LOTS of it. This Zone is also home to high-class entertainment; offworlders are sometimes offered jobs in these places, though their main duties include standing around while being gawked at.
Zone 2: Most of the high-class offworlder business are established here. The restaurants are rather picky in choosing employees, but the farms are always looking for help.
Zone 3: Hospitals are always looking for more doctors. There are several centers to help new arrivals find housing and jobs; these centers offer their employees food and housing, but no pay.
Zone 4: Factories. Given the strenuous labor involved (not to mention the health hazards), the pay isn't bad.
Zone 5: Many seedy business make their homes here, but there are several that simply can't compete on the upper levels. From general stores to diners, this Zone has pretty much everything, and is always looking for help.
Zone 6: Cheaper entertainment. Casinos, nightclubs, bars ... think Vegas. Some of the jobs pay well, but the risk of injury runs high. Businesses here are always looking for bodyguards.
Zone 7: All businesses here are strictly off the books.
Zone 8: The residents here are too busy struggling to survive to offer work.
Zone 9 (The Heap): Unless your occupation is "mugging", there's no job for you here.
Modifications
In Cybertronian culture, it's common to have your body upgraded over time with all sorts of benificial modifications. These modifications are quite costly, and not always legal.
The offworlder population of Axiom Nexus has also begun to upgrade themselves, some of them with genetic modifications, others with cybernetic parts (just as some Cybertronians modify themselves with organic components.
Upgrades can be expensive and highly dangerous; illegal upgrades are a sure way to get yourself arrested. And some of them might be involuntary, depending on how Shockwave is feeling.
The key with any upgrade to your character is to ALWAYS ask permission first. The mods will tell you if you can or cannot have these things.
Some examples of common, safe, and legal upgrades include:
- Language Chips: These allow you to automatically speak the Axiom Nexus dialect of Cybertronian, as well as other common languages within the Offworlder Zones (Primarily the most common dialects of Cybertronian, along with English, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese.) For mechs, this is included as part of your communicator.
- Communicator Implant: Cybertronians automatically get this upon arrival - their communicator is directly hooked up to their circuits. However, if you're an organic and you'd like to mentally access your device rather than having to access them physically, this can be done.
-Repairs: If you're injured before arriving or during your stay in the Nexus, most clinics will repair you to your previous state using technology that closest resembles that of your world. Its not uncommon, for an additional fee, for slightly upgraded materials to be used. In these cases, however, only offworlder tech is utilized - doctors will never legally upgrade someone using Transtechnology, if they even have access to it thmselves.
Illegal upgrades can be found around the Nexus if you know who to talk to, or on the Black Market. It is illegal for one to upgrade oneself significantly beyond the advancements of their universe, or in ways that greatly alter their physical appearance (since you've all got mug shots on file.) Its also illegal to upgrade yourself with any Transtechnology, though there might just be options available out there if you keep an optic out...
Communicators and ID bolts
A communicator is given to you immediately upon completion of your paperwork in processing. For mechs, this is a small chip that patches easily into your communications systems and also acts as an ID-bolt. For humans, it is a device much like a cell-phone crossed with a message board, and an ID-chip is implanted separately just below the skin of your arm (in a process that takes only a few minutes.)
ID bolts are used to identify you in everything. When you apply for a loan, when you get a job, when you buy food, when you get arrested, or when you download out a data-file from the library, your ID-bolt is scanned. Everything you do is monitored through your ID-bolt to make sure that you're behaving--but, if you are, the Nexus security will be more lenient towards you. Keep an eye out, though...this also works the other way.
The Axiom Nexus Network can be accessed via your communicators, and is a huge amalgamation of all messages, posts, advertisements, and news feeds across the city. Conveniently, Shockwave's chosen experiments get their own little sub-board for interacting with each other, and messages on this board are given priority to your communicator. Still, it isn't hard to look up and find out about important goings-on within the Nexus.
Using your communicator you can post video, audio, or text, and respond in the same way. All posts to the network are considered 'real time,' so to speak, unless otherwise noted.
Hackers
Some characters are naturally just a bit better about using their communicators to get information than others. Use the following rules when posting, so that your character doesn't say something they'll regret.
-All posts made by anyone who is not a transtech are hackable, unless characters can provide a good in-plot reason as to why they are not. (We encourage you to also speak with whatever hacker you wish to avoid, in order to construct plots of maximum enjoyment. Mod mediation is available for this option.)
-Posts made with 'maximum encryption' (which must be stated in the subject of each tag) will take a clever hacker no less than one week of in-game time to break, provided they are only concentrating on that post/thread and no others. Use your best judgment as to if your character can create these locks (Mikaela would likely not be able to do so, but Optimus Prime likely could.) Characters can learn how to code maximum encryption, with sufficient training by an experienced person.
-Hackers cannot hack each others posts without permission.
-Hackers cannot hack Transtech communicators set on maximum encryption. There is currently one communicator at large in the Nexus. More of these will become available as the game progresses, though these are illegal in the Nexus. Your characters will have to be careful with them.
-Transtech Shockwave is unhackable. This includes both his posts, his handiwork (ie memory wipes,) and his person (for those lucky enough to capture him later on.)
If you're not certain whether or not you should be able to hack or encode maximum encryption, ask a mod, or head over to the permissions post for some guidelines.
Standards of Time
The TransTech timekeeping system is base-ten, meaning that the terms for the passage of any amount of time can be extrapolated from the base unit (in this case, the 32 hour solar cycle). Some of the most commonly referenced units, their equivalents in Earth time, and what they're analogous to in terms of human time-keeping are listed here.
Milli-cycle: Just over two minutes. This term is probably used primarily by TransTechs, or in official communications. In the Offworlder Zones, it's more common to hear people using terms like seconds and minutes, or their own local version thereof, since they're easier to remember and mean about the same thing as milli-cycles and the smaller micro-cycles.
Centi-cycle: Equal to about twenty minutes.
Deci-cycle: The functional hour of Axiom Nexus; 3.2 hours. Sometimes referred to just as a cycle, though this term is also applied to solar cycles.
Solar cycle: A day-night cycle; the amount of time it takes for this Cybertron to revolve once on its axis. Equal to approximately 32 hours. Sometimes referred to simply as cycle, though 'cycle' is sometimes used to refer to deci-cycles as well.
Deca-cycle: Ten solar cycles; the functional week of Axiom Nexus. Equal to 320 hours, or just over 13 days.
Lunar cycle: The time it takes for the primary moon to circle cybertron: Or about 52 days. Standard off-world adaptations also referred to this as a 'month.'
Stellar cycle: A year on this Cybertron; the amount of time it takes for the planet to orbit its star. Equal to approximately 4.7 Earth years, or between 1286 and 1287 Cybertronian days.
- Note: Some TransTechs may use kilo-cycle (1000 Cybertronian days) instead of or interchangeably with stellar cycle, particularly if they're talking about the passage of time in the absence of dates. Stellar cycle is the official division of years, however, and used exclusively to specify dates, rather than just the relative passage of time.
Mega-cycle: 1,000,000 solar cycles, or approximately 3653 Earth years. Often used in the same hyperbolic sense as humans might use eon or epoch--that is, to denote a long, long time rather than any specific measure.
Feel free to have your characters, particularly if they're new to the Nexus, keep using the units of time they're accustomed to...that is, if their canon comes with a set. (This is a particularly handy resource, especially for IDW, Animated, and Beast Wars characters.) When interacting with TransTechs, however, particularly in any capacity that involves dates or times, expect it to be couched in their terms. Inhabitants of the Offworlder Zones who've been trapped for a long time have probably picked it up as well, so these are the terms to expect from anyone who knows the ropes.
Things you'll know by...
Things Your Character Should Know by the End of the First Day:
- Who the Transtechs are. It's likely that your character met at least one Transtech while they were dealing with the paperwork of their arrival, but even if they didn't, you don't get out of Central Processing without at least getting an idea of who the mechs who run this place are. You will know the name Transtech, and you will know that they're in charge.
- This is a Cybertron without war. This will mean the most to characters from Transformers franchises, but it will be included in the briefing that all new arrivals get. The planet you're on is called Cybertron, and it is one that was never torn by the war that marks so many other Cybertrons in other universes. You will also be informed, if you didn't know already, that yes, there are multiple universes, and yes, the one you just came from is not the one you're in currently.
- You're not going to be allowed home. Not immediately, anyway. You'll get a talk about resources and why it's not possible to turn the portal around and send you back, and be informed that they will get you home...eventually. Feel free to file for an exit visa if you'd like to attempt to expedite the process.
- How to use your communicator. All new arrivals get a crash course on this, especially organics, especially especially organics from worlds where there's not been a lot of technological advancement yet. You're shown how to use it to contact others and how to use the map, particularly, although the more advanced functions (like video conferencing) you might be left to figure out for yourself--it depends on how harried your tutor is on the day of your arrival.
- If you're a legal presence: What your universal code is, and a few other details like that about your originating universe, which you probably learned just by how many times they showed up on your paperwork.
- If you're an illegal presence: That you're not supposed to be here and what your fake identity is. You're not told why you're in Axiom Nexus, or who brought you there, only cautioned to be careful and warned about the dead universe you might very well get deported to if the Transtechs catch you.
Things Your Character Should Know by the End of the First Week:
- No, really, you're not going home. At least not any time soon. And by now, you'll probably have talked to some of the other residents who've been yanked here like you have, and they've told you the same thing the officials did. You're very likely going to be here for a long time, unless you're one of the lucky ones--or unless you cause trouble.
- Your grace period is running out. The officials who run the city allow for a certain amount of nonsense from newcomers--harassing Central Processing staff for answers or to be sent home, loitering around, utilizing charities in Zone 1 set up to help new arrivals, but they won't put up with it forever. The people you've presumably been talking to might have warned you about this, as well--you really, really need to think about settling yourself down, or you might find yourself tossed in jail for being a public nuisance...and you only get so many strikes.
- The Transtechs are serious business. Seriously. You might not have been around long enough to see it firsthand yourself, unless you came in at a really interesting time, but you've probably been hearing stories. The Transtechs really do control this place, and they're not afraid to crack down on everyone in response to a few if they have to.
- What a Cybertronian is. There's so many of them in the city, either Transtechs or fellow refugees, that your character would basically have to have hidden to have not learned at least a little bit about Cybertronians. Depending on how many interactions you've had with them, you probably at least know that there's a difference between Autobots and Decepticons, though how much you've learned about why and what that difference entails depends on who you've talked to and how much they've cared to divulge. You're also probably aware that they can transform, and that energon is pretty predominantly their fuel of choice.
- The lower Zones aren't a playground. Zone 6 is about as far down as you can go and not have to be seriously protective of your welfare, and that's when you're a mech--organics, being (generally) smaller and (presumably) weaker than Cybertronians, are considered natural prey by the unsavory types that inhabit the lower zones, and the farther down you go, the worse you stand to fare. Of course, if you can defend yourself, good for you, but it's still not something that's advised by...anyone your character is likely to talk to who's been around for a while, especially in the upper Zones.
- Get a job/apartment/loan, you bum. Chances are, your character's encountered at least some pressure by now to give up on trying to get home right away and concentrate on becoming a productive part of Offworld society. (This is especially true if you've been seeking information through official channels, or people who've already been here a while.) Which of the three you're being pushed to do will depend on who you're character's been hanging out with, and how easy it is to do any of them will depend on where you look and how marketable your skills are. And if worse comes to worse and you can't manage any of them, there's always mooching off someone else or squatting/scavenging in those lower Zones everyone's been warning you about, right?
Things Your Character Should Know by the End of the First Month:
- Seriously, there isn't a war. Now let me tell you about my politics. This Cybertron has never seen war, it's true. It's not about to erupt into war any time soon. However, there is a difference between Transtech Autobot and Transtech Deception--and it's a matter of politics.
- Transtech Security is even more serious business than the Transtechs in general. The civilian Transtechs might be willing to be lenient or cut you a break when you're interacting with them, but security? Not so much. If you get caught somewhere where Transtech security is moving in, your best bet is to make yourself gone, or to put up your weapons and do what they tell you. They're just as stressed and overworked as the rest of the Transtechs tasked with running the Nexus, but these are the guys with the guns, and their bosses are as likely to look the other way as not if they bring back a body instead of a prisoner.
- People get deported all the time. They're just not you. Just like there's a steady flow of refugees into Axiom Nexus, so is there a steady flow out. People do get deported, and the Transtechs really are working to get people home. They're just as terribly overworked as any set of bureaucrats dealing with an imperfect system, and they're way behind. This is probably why they come for the guy who lives in the flat next to you, or the mech who sells you your energon every morning, but they never come for you.
- Playing it safe will keep you out of trouble...but it won't get you home. You've learned by now that the Transtechs probably aren't going to get around to sending you home any time soon, and they're not going to take it well if you harass them about it. You're being told that your best bet is to just settle down and go along with it--get a job, find somewhere to live, do something productive while you're here, and eventually they'll ship you back. (If you live long enough for it, anyway, and even more the reason to do so if you don't.) This is the plan of action that will keep you out of trouble, and you might even be able to derive some satisfaction from it. But you won't get home until they get around to sending you there...
- There is always someone plotting something. So you might be trying to think of a way to force them to send you home, or to get home yourself, and you would not be the first. You won't be the last. In fact, you're probably not the only person thinking it right now. Very few people in the Offworld want to stay there, and more than a few of them have the intelligence and ambition to do something about it. If you hang around in the right places, chances are good you'll hear somebody muttering something. Just be careful--there are a lot of people willing to fleece newcomers with promises of expedited trips home, and even if you fall in with someone actually attempting to get out of the Nexus, a lot of these attempts are more talk than action.
- The Transtechs may be in power, but they're not "superior". They rule Axiom Nexus, yes. What they say goes. But there are greedy, conniving, and corrupt Transtechs as surely as there are greedy, conniving, and corrupt lowtechs and organics, and you can find them in the lower Zones particularly, running just as many of the casinos and businesses as the refugee entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, the Transtechs working in the Offworld in a more official capacity are somewhat less likely to be corrupt than the ones working for themselves, but if there's something you need and you happen to run into the right mech at the right time... Well, you might get lucky.
- What's really in all the Zones, and other shiny geographical facts. The map they give you with your communicator breaks down the Offworld into the different Zones and pinpoints the general kinds of services you might be able to find in each slice of the city. What it does not tell you is how much sleazier the Nexus gets as you go down, or that Zone 6 is the best place to get black market goods, or that Zone 5 is a better place to live than 4 despite being below it. These are all things that you'll have to pick up by yourself--and by now, you should be well on your way (though how much you've discerned depends on how interested you and who you've been talking to).