This page is for existing characters who would like to make adjustments to their character or achieve specific goals through the 2020 timeskip.
A timeskipped character is any character that was in play on String Theory between 2018 to Present and is continuing into Volume 3 of String Theory Aftermath.
The 2020 Timeskip covers the span of time between the end of Volume 2 (February 29th, 2020) to the beginning of Volume 3 (September 1st, 2020).
If you do not submit a timeskip request for a character prior to posting Volume 3-set scenes for that character, you forfeit the ability to make a timeskip request later.
You may submit a Timeskip +request starting Monday, July 27th
Wiki Policy
Do not enter any timeskip-related information for your character on the wiki prior to approval.
Timeskip Fusion Abilities
You are not required to submit your Fusion Character request at the same time as your timeskip. You may submit a Fusion request at any time, but you must otherwise abide by the rules outlined in the Fusion Character Guidelines.
The +Request
When submitting your 2020 Timeskip +request, please include the following information:
A 1 to 2 paragraph breakdown of what you would like your character to be doing during the timeskip. These details should only include relevant events that would normally require staff approval or review, such as skill upgrades, faction changes, interactions with NPCs, or other major milestones.
Then add a bullet point list of the precise items you would like to change. An example 2020 Timeskip request would be:
Avi spends the months following Volume 2 struggling to keep Wolfhound afloat. He organizes a sale of the Bunker compound in Rochester and consolidates Wolfhound's operations into the Safe Zone now that the city has the infrastructure to support the company. He will use the money from the Bunker sale to purchase the entire block that the Bastion currently sits on and renovate it for Wolfhound's purposes. He will also be renting space at Floyd-Bennet Airfield to park the Tlanuwa. During this time he will also be traveling with Devon and Julie in search of Emily and looking for a way to undo her transformation.
- Sell the Bunker
- Buy the block around the Bastion
- Renovate Bastion
- Rent space at Floyd-Bennet Airfield for the Tlanuwa
- Find whoever turned Emily into a tree and shoot them in the face after they fix her probably
If you are going to request ability or skill upgrades, you would also do so as a part of your Timeskip request.
What happens if I don't submit a Timeskip Request?
Nothing! If you don't submit an app and want to just get into Volume 3 when it starts, you're assumed to have just sort of lived the same life you were living and that nothing unusual or extraordinary happened in the intervening months! It's the safe option if there's nothing you would like to change about the character (faction placement, skill or ability upgrades, etc).
Not that even if you don't submit a Timeskip Request, Volume III will still not be open for players until after the Volume II finale as posted so everyone gets to start off together.
How will we be handling Timeskip scenes?
If you were here for our return in 2018, timeskip scenes will be handled just like the 2012-2017 time period, where you can post backdated scenes at your leisure, should you desire to. You can find the timeskip logs page here. We will make an announcement when timeskip scenes can be posted.
What will have changed in the Safe Zone and beyond by the time Volume III starts?
Below you will find a synopsis of events leading up to and during the timeskip.
What a Year It's Been
At the end of February 2020, the United States was thrown into chaos. Praxis Heavy Industries, a leading manufacturer of cybertechnology and robotics, seemingly launched a military offensive targeted on the city of Detroit. A fleet of z-12 Qingniao aircraft arrived in Detroit on the morning of February 28th and deployed a private military force and military robots into the city streets. The US responded immediately by scrambling civil air defense which were shot down in a brief aerial combat over Detroit. News footage of this attack was spread wide across international media, and suddenly all eyes were on the US once more. In the first half an hour of the assault, fears were raised that this was a resurgence of the Civil War. But the situation proved far stranger.
Shortly after the US civil defense was shot down, a broadcast emitted from the aircraft by known international terrorist Adam Monroe who delivered the following ultimatum to the world:
"To the people who have persecuted my kind for hundreds of years, to the frightened and pathetic among you who orchestrated a genocide and escaped your justice by hiding yourselves in the current American administration… Today we say no.
"Today is the last day of humanity, when the ashes of your civilization will grow wet with the blood of traitors and cowards alike. Today marks the day when the Children of the Eclipse rise up to take their rightful place as heirs to the world."
"Today your world burns and from its ruin we will build a better one!"
"Humanity had its chance. They wasted it.
Shortly after this message was broadcast sporadic fighting broke out at a downtown church and a plaza near the Raytech Renaissance Center downtown between what appeared to be unrelated Expressives and Non-Expressives, among which was international terrorist Baruti Naidu and former Ferrymen celebrity Eve Mas. Footage of this conflict is incomplete and without context, though it appeared to be a confrontation between Naidu and Mas, culminating in Mas' death at the hands of a Praxis Heavy Industries strike force.
During this confrontation, one of the Praxis Heavy Industries aircraft over Detroit exploded from the inside. News media would later reveal that Ferryman hero and former Company agent Benjamin Ryans sacrificed himself to destroy a cruise missile intended to deliver and deploy a biological weapon in Detroit. Estimates suggest that tens of thousands if not millions could have died had the biological weapon (which is believed to have been a derivative of the nerve agent Gorgon developed by the Mitchell Administration during the Second American Civil War) been successfully deployed.
The event in Detroit culminated in a strange phenomenon originating from the conflict between Baruti Naidu and Eve Mas, when a combination of Expressive abilities appear to have created a shockwave that harmlessly passed through the city of Detroit and reverberated through the ionosphere, traversing the entire circumference of the globe. The energy discharge, of unknown origin, knocked out broadcast feeds and satellite communications worldwide for roughly 4 minutes and also created an aurora borealis that persisted over Detroit for several hours.
The remaining Praxis Heavy Industries fleet attempted to flee to the west but were met by US Air Force interceptors from Kansas City and were shot down over Western Michigan.
Benjamin Ryans' heroism is lauded in the media in the months following the attack while news media revealed that the United States had gotten wind of the impending Praxis Heavy Industries attack a short time before it happened and launched a joint strike on their US headquarters in California to attempt to prevent the catastrophe. War hero private military company Wolfhound led a surgical strike to the island of Praxia in the California Safe Zone and disabled Praxis Heavy Industries war efforts, opening the way for a full US military intervention leading to thousands of arrests.
In the months that followed, Praxis Heavy Industries collapsed as a global corporation and the revelation that their board of directors had secretly been co-opted by an international terrorist was a blow the already beleaguered company was unable to survive. Faced with allegations of human rights violations, terrorism, and outright acts of war the corporation collapsed and the fate of the California Safe Zone fell into question. With no corporation to continue the repairs on the city and no formal agreement with competitors to reclaim the reconstruction efforts, the tens of thousands of citizens relocated to the California Safe Zone were effectively stranded.
The California Safe Zone quickly fell under US Military rule while law and order is restored, but this cannot become a permanent solution and tensions within the region are at an all-time high.
Further complications to the scope of these events came to light in March when the State Department revealed that a joint effort by federal agencies in late February led to the disruption of a terrorist organization operating on American Soil. Shedda Dinu, a violent pro-expressive extremist group was revealed to the public as having operated out of Rochester New York. Thanks to the heroism of local and federal authorities, Shedda Dinu was toppled and their ties to Praxis Heavy Industries and the events that unfolded in Detroit earlier in the year were also brought to light.
The emergence of such a powerful and financially-backed pro-expressive terrorist group into the international stage sent shockwaves around the world. Nations that had already strongly advocated for Registration and took hardline anti-Expressive stances doubled down and dug their heels in, beating the drum of intolerance and fear harder than ever before. Violence against SLC-Expressives reached an all-time high worldwide in the four months after the Detroit incident and anti-expressive extremist groups like Pure Earth saw violence carried out in their name grow exponentially.
In response to these violent times, Mazdak (a powerful and influential pro-Expressive extremist group in control of the nations of Iraq and Syria moved to expand their operations into Saudi Arabia and Yemen, sparking new waves of violence across the Middle East.
In June of 2020 a report published by the International Science Council (ISC) indicated a massive surge in reports of SLC-Expressive manifestations and registration numbers since the start of 2020. In the United States alone a staggering 245,000 new manifestations occurred between March and June of 2020, a shocking 14% increase in total SLC-Expressives nationwide in a matter of 3 months. Furthermore, the ISC reported several of these manifestations reported multiple Expressive abilities. "Mosaics" or people able to possess more than one SLC-Expressive ability were less than .001% of the Expressive population, though that number appears to be increasing.
Scientists are uncertain if this sudden boom in Expressive population has to do with the energy field that traversed the Earth at the end of February 2020, but governments worldwide are preparing for a paradigm shift the likes of which hasn't been seen since the revelation of people with superhuman abilities in 2007.
Safe Zone Upgrades
Outside of major events, the NYC Safe Zone is undergoing a renaissance. The city is rapidly improving with expansions including Roosevelt Island and Staten Island now joining the city's neighborhoods. Existing neighborhoods are seeing infrastructure changes such as reliable power thanks to the reconstruction of the Ravenswood Generating Station.
We encourage you to check out the Safe Zone page on the wiki and take a tour of the neighborhoods to see the large number of changes that have taken place. Furthermore, you can find additional information regarding the Safe Zone here.