Sunday, May 1, 2016

To find a man named Zigg

This is the current project I am working on, it will be geared toward Alpha Blue, Machinations of the Space Princess, and OSR. Right now, the narrative is geared toward Alpha Blue, but as I work on it, it will include more setting neutral narratives as well.

And I'm busting up my brains for the words...

Drinking away the blues...

Most journeys begin in one of two ways:

A big mouth, in a small bar...
A crew-mate leaning forward, suspicious gaze sweeping the room, whispers over Black-Hole Brew in an Alpha Blue dive...
Best friend's brother's friend of a friend has seen IT out a hull window.”
It? You mean?”
Yeah. Zigg's kingdom. The Church of Mad Rapture.”
Nah, old spacer's tale. Somebody seein' stuff. Probally tweakin' on Acid Meth.”
Nope, got pics. See?”
Damn... Where is this? Is that a black star?”
Yup. Got the coordinates right here too. Wanna go for a ride?”

A dangerous book in eager hands...
You finally got it, damned if you can retrace the steps back to the start, though.
Years? Months? Weeks? Days?
Doesn't matter, drugs make the mind work and time just slides on by.
Really dangerous now, gotta lay low.
The Blackstar Gospel, written by Zigg himself.
It's all here: Kelob's coordinates, the final words of Brahma Christos the Aeon Sattva, the secret of The True Ecstatic Rapture, the path of Enlightenment Through Pleasure, the secret of the keys, and the history of Zigg the first homosupreme.
Better move fast, damn knights want this thing too. White, black, and blue. All of them want it.
But it doesn't matter, they can't have it. You'll die before they get their damn hands on The Gospel.
You got a ship, cash, and nothing to tie you down.
You're good to go...

Kelob, the black-star itself.
I'm a blackstar, way up, oh honey, I've got game...
It's a tall tale told by space-truckers and spacers getting on in years. A Shangri-La of sex, drugs, neon, and enlightenment. A place to rest your bones when they've become too brittle for the re-entry G's. The Church of Mad Rapture, or The Church of Mad Love. An one ship kingdom. A neon space cathedral. All of it ruled over by Zigg, the king and pope of a religion of sex and drugs. It's a secret church, preached by old trucker-junkies on their way toward that last long haul. Supposedly the knights, doesn't matter which color, are looking for it too. More than likely they're too busy fighting each other, or picking up busty waitresses in the case of the blues.

The church is a massive structure, almost the size of Alpha Blue, but Alpha Blue will always be the biggest thing in the galaxy. Alpha Blue is the size of a LSD dream, and those go on forever. The Church of Mad Rapture is a mass of statues, lost TV's from seedy motels, and the neon signs from every dive-bar that ever has been or ever will be. The statues commemorate: Catholic and Orthodox saints, Hindu deities, Muhammad (his face obscured by the dust of centuries), the Buddha in all of his (or her) various and enlightened forms, gods that were forgotten, goddesses that never were, and deities that might have been if they were given half a chance. The TV's play reruns of crooked game-shows and porn from the late 1990's. All the sets are old CRT models, their pictures flickering and rolling in the silence of the void. Finally, the neon signs. It's impossible to see each sign individually, they've been layered over one another by the millions create a single sign that spells out, 'REST YOUR SOUL – LOVE YOUR BODY – EXPAND YOUR MIND' and below that 'VACANCY' without an unlit 'NO'. There is always space at Zigg's place. The only parts not festooned with flickering anachronisms and holy idols are the docking ports. They're universal ports, capable of accepting the biggest warship or the smallest one-man skiff. There is always an open space amid the thousands of abandoned spacecraft.

It orbits the fabled Kelob, the star God stood on when he hacked Earth out of His nicotine soaked lungs. Supposedly, God took note of this strange piece of flesh he birthed, then flung it out to orbit Sol before going back to figuring out how to kill Himself. Right before He committed suicide, turning Kelob black, he considered humanity for a moment, then shot himself. These divine last thoughts are the undead audio that Kelob echoes in the radio whine of stars, disregarded by most as a religious telethon from a long extinct alien species.

Supposedly Zigg was the first to find this place, and to take note of the black star's radio cry. From within the Church, Zigg composed The Blackstar gospel based on his translations of God's last thoughts about humanithy. The Church is really just a bit of God's Amygdala that escaped Kelob's gravity well, carried out the side of God's head along with the Divine Bullet. As to it's physical shape, perhaps God's brains were much different than humanity's, or Zigg shaped it into something that could recognized. Now it orbits the black star Kelob, waiting for those faithful spacers who are now in on the big secret.

The Man and The Mystery.
I'm the great I am (I'm a blackstar)...

The identity and history of Zigg is difficult to nail down. The information he gives about himself in The Blackstar Gospel is contradictory. In the end, most just choose one of the identities he presents as they head toward The Church.

Who is Zigg? – 1D6
1) Major Thomas Freecloud: The first documented homosupreme in the Terran Aerospace Force. He disappeared during the maiden voyage of Earth's first hyperspace capable ship, The Space Oddity. The ship was using a prototype version of a now obsolete engine call the Eno-Berlin Triad Drive.
2) Guy Stardust: Minor world celebrity and economics prodigy who grew tired of life on Earth. Before leaving Earth, he was THE supreme real estate tycoon, owning roughly 90% of the Earth. The night before he boarded his ship, The Mars Spider, he sold the world to a homeless beggar for 1 credit.
3) Aladdin Sane: A highly talented musician and artist who suffered from schizophrenia. His mental illness was exacerbated by his near endless tour schedule, days spent painting without any sleep, and a serious addiction to Acid Meth and Pink Floyd. In a drug induced fugue he stole a ship belonging to a now forgotten movie star, though the ship is remembered as The Prettiest Star. Before blinking into hyperspace on a random trajectory he transmitted, “Who will love Aladdin Sane? Millions weep a fountain, in case of sunrise.”
4) Thomas Jerome Newton, Duke of Stations: A neo-aristocrat from Earth's first orbital habitat cluster, known for a thin romantic veneer over an emotionless void. He quickly squandered his inheritance on a Space Cocaine that grew to near legendary levels. In order to curb his habit and 'get his head together' he boarded his ship, the TCV 15, and blasted off to parts unknown.
5) Jareth King: One of the earliest dons of Terra Nostra, Jareth refined the act of kidnapping and ransom into a true art. For decades he ruled from a labyrinthine extra-dimensional complex, increasing the power and influence of Terra Nosta by ten-fold. It was during a internal Terra Nostra power struggle (i.e. a shootout) that he was mortally wounded. Jareth King was last seen stumbling aboard his ship, The Goblin, right before it blasted off to parts unknown.
6) Screamin' Lord Byron (a.k.a Vic Bluejean): A washed out rock singer who's music never evolved from the defunct genre that spawned it twenty years earlier. Before his widely publicized disappearance, Screamin' Lord Byron / Vic was playing state fairs and festivals. After years of abusing his body with every drug he could get his hands on, had to be carted in a wheel chair with an oxygen tank by the time of his last show at the Alpha Blue Annual Swap Meet. His motivations remain unknown to this day, but what is known is that he stole a rusted out ore-hauler named The Freak Factor minutes before he was to appear on stage. A police chase ensued, during which he announced that he was renaming the ship 'Dream' and he was going to go find 'a screamin' new star jam sound' deep in the galactic core. Soon after his announcement his ship slipped into hyperspace, pointed in the exact opposite direction from the galaxy's core.

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