[The Dark Between]

[Madrox Saavedra]

Elevator Pitch: A spacefaring cruiseliner lost in unknown space and subject to horrors within and without. Sort of like Avenue 5 with alien passengers crossed with things like Alien, Event Horizon, Nightflyers, etc. A collaborative thing like the Hotel what-if.

Basic Concept: The G.F.S. Xavier, a state-of-the-art luxury liner on its maiden voyage, emerges from hyperspace to find itself in a black expanse devoid of stars. Most of those aboard are missing, the ship's systems have no record of why, and something deadly is lurking the corridors.

-------Character example-------

Name: Hospitality Android "Madrox" MDRX529
Race: Android
Role: Crew
Age: <1

Physical Description: Resembles a human of Hispanic descent, but with the silver eyes and markings of an android.

Personality: Madrox was designed to be subservient to all aboard and to simulate a friendly, empathetic demeanor. However, something is stirring genuine emotion in him, making him seem unstable.

Abilities: Fluent in all known languages, connected to the ship's vast databanks, stronger than any human, and can mix any beverage one desires. Don't challenge him to chess.

Background: Activated shortly before departure, he has little history to speak of.

[Will Stanton]

Just checking for tone -- Avenue 5 is a comedy, right?

[Toshiro Narumi]

It is. This isn't. Though it shouldn't be grim all the time, at the beginning at least.

[Will Stanton]

Gotcha -- I'll think about the best sort of character to work in this, then! Just had to figure out the tone.

[Robin Stanton]

Assuming "luxury liner" means a cleaner, more TNG/5th Element kinda vibe to the ship itself?

But the biggest question I got is probably the horror element. The Hotel What-If had a lot of the collaborative bits come from characters having a personal issue that manifested into supernatural stuff but this seems more like a concrete threat of an alien creature stalking the halls? Or is the central premise more "Something is causing strange aliens/other sci-fi horrors to erupt around the ship"?

[Toshiro Narumi]

1: I'd say more Fifth Element than Star Trek.

2: That latter bit, yeah. Sorry for not being clearer.

[Toshiro Narumi]

A little poorly written world-building:

The year is 312 GS (Galactic Standard, Earth year 2430). Ending in GS 297, The Gene Wars ravaged frontier space for over a decade. A newly encountered race known as the Muto loosed genetically enhanced slave races against the Galactic Federation in a bid for conquest. The bloody conflict ended billions of lives and left biological horrors behind to continue spreading carnage in frontier space.

The surviving Muto fled to parts unknown, leaving the Federation to sort the victimized sentient races from the monsters. And to exterminate the latter. The Federation can only hope to never encounter the remorseless Muto again.

[Will Stanton]

Name: Will Stanton
Race: Human
Role: Crew

As this is a cruiseliner, the ships' guests demand to be in constant luxury. That's where Mr. Stanton, a galaxy-class pâtissier and boulanger, comes into play.

Mr. Stanton prefers to be on a planet; this whole intergalactic galivanting paradigm is not his speed.

Mr. Stanton does, however, enjoy the large paycheck that has been sent his way.

[Robin Stanton]

I've been trying to brainstorm ideas, but honestly, there's just not much to go on for what exactly you have in mind. The Hotel What-If had a pretty clear "1940s but vaguely time displaced Hotel that people can't leave" which establishes a lot of baseline things. For a Sci-Fi setting you are open to a million world-building questions. How common are aliens? How friendly are aliens? Clearly FTL travel is common enough for leisure but what other technology levels are we talking about? Is there an Event Horizon type hell dimension that's causing horror shit or would there just be a bunch of unrelated horror scenarios playing out for whatever reason? Sci-Fi by nature tends to be very specific with it's horror because it's (loosely) enabled by science or a particular weird Space Thing.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Aliens are common and those in the Federation are friendly enough, though the races formerly enthralled by the Muto are often still viewed as the enemy. For some, the feeling is mutual. A less utopian Star Trek with some bio-horror at the fringes.

Techwise... maybe retro-futuristic computers like in Alien or any other 70s/80s scifi, energy weapons exist but aren't common among the civilian population, medical tech somewhere between Star Wars and Star Trek, gene modding exists obviously but is newly-illegal outside of treating genetic disorders. Am open to tweaks/suggestions.

As for why horror stuff is happening, I'd say they've been pulled into a place where fear and trauma are given life. A variety to the horror that way, so have an idea what frightens your character. Not sure how the android fits with that though.

[Leo Eskandari]

Name: Skandar Janwari
Race: Imera
Role: Passenger

Physical Description: A large feline humanoid resembling a lion, but with a prehensile tail and bits of carapace spotting his body where his genetic alterations persist.

Personality: The traumas of war and servitude make him wary of authority, but he's trying to find his place in Federation society even if his hot warrior-race temper sometimes gets in his way.

Abilities: Like all of his people he is big, strong, and agile for his size. Little education to speak of.

Background: He had just been selected by his Muto masters to be given the "honor" of becoming one of the elite commando units the Federation soldiers had dubbed manticores, and been given the first gene mod procedure when a Federation unit liberated his village. They removed his control chip and, with his new found clarity of thought, aided them in taking more of his home planet from the Muto. He has been granted Federation citizenship for his service. Though haunted by what he experienced, he has earned enough credits doing security work to take a relaxing vacation.

[Basil Benson]

Here you are my dear.


Name: Basil Spencer
Race: Human
Age: 38
Role: Hired Entertainment
Physical Description: 6'3, but otherwise, see right, then add nearly 20 years of drinking, smoking and occasional hard drug use.
Personality: Upon first brush, Basil seems like a cool operator, the sort that makes ladies and gentlemen alike swoon (Or jealous, depending on their own persuasion). Sticking around long enough will cause one to recognize the reality: he's jaded with life, and the only things that bring him even a modicum of joy at this point are cheap thrills. It's difficult to pinpoint whether he is an absurdist or a nihilist given the day of the week and how deep in the pit he is currently.

Strangely enough he's not entirely unpleasant to be around, though the only one who has experienced him with any consistency thus far is the android who tends bar in the lounge he's assigned.

Perhaps due to the lack of enthusiasm for anything that doesn't cause a temporary high, he seems to be one of the least effected by this 'Lost In Space' scenario, psychologically speaking.

Abilities: A pianist, vocalist, and practiced in the art of bar fights and the effects of different prescription drugs. Those last two probably shouldn't be probed too much.

Background: His smash hit " A Void of Falling Stars" shot him from mediocrity to stardom faster than light, but these days he's a washed up one hit wonder, traveling the galaxy on the leisure liner circuit and plunking out his small personal playlist along with old standards for a paycheck.