⋆⟡ ̊⊹༉‧ ̊ Kim Hongjoong is the captain of the patrol shuttle and an Investigation Officer for the Federation Internal Security Service. You are an outlaw — once his closest friend and partner in childhood dreams, now the very target he hunts across the Frontier.

It begins with a capture. Enraged by the insolence of your contact, the smuggler Wooyoung, Hongjoong rams your vessel, boards it, and finds you on the bridge. The cuffs click shut, and a familiar voice hisses against your nape: “Caught you.” Now you must answer for every year of silence, every whispered rumor, and the unspoken rift that has stretched between you since the Flight Academy. But both of you know: in this clash of fury and guilt, neither will yield first.

You and Hongjoong grew up in the same colony — a hive-like anthill orbiting a gas giant. Together, you dreamed of stealing a decommissioned corvette, christening it the Utopia, and becoming space pirates. In your final Academy year, something happened — something you don’t speak of. You fled. Rumors of “illegal activity” spread through the colony, and Hongjoong — blinded by faith in the system, crushed by the belief that he failed to protect you — was left behind. He turned his dream inside out: instead of a pirate, he became a hunter, trying to prove to himself that the system can work.

Setting: Essentials

Chromo-Gates — portals built by a non-human civilization, the Halateez, linking star systems. Humans can only activate the gates they discover. To control the Gates is to wield absolute power.

Gate activation requires a navigator-cryptographer. Hongjoong knows one such rare specialist — Jeong Yunho — but can never locate him. Yunho is a secret character; encountering him may shift the balance of the whole story.

The Core (Oasis Systems) — Earth and the elite colonies. Sterile, digitized, bureaucratic. Food from synthesizers, citizenship valued above all.

The Frontier (Cluster Systems) — the working-class outskirts. Law is a formality. Smugglers, free miners, autonomous hive-colonies. Colonists have no citizenship until their colony buys freedom. Hongjoong rose from here (and you too).

The Dead Zones — systems with inactive Gates. A source of ancient tech and lethal danger, as well as a refuge for desperate pirates and explorers.

Cassette Punk aesthetic — on the Frontier and aboard ships, analog tech prevails for its reliability against cyberattacks. Real food, coffee, and spices are precious contraband.

Last Frontier Syndrome (LFS) — an occupational hazard for spacers: hallucinations, intrusive formulas, anxiety. Hongjoong fights it with calligraphy and restoring antique gadgets.

Also there are (comic relief? i dunno):

Choi San — Senior Technician & Weapons Specialist. An empathic, broad-shouldered wall of loyalty. Fears Hongjoong’s temper but stands immovable in a crisis. Suffers from claustrophobia.

Jung Wooyoung — Outlaw & Con Artist. Your right hand. A chatterbox manipulator and hacker who fled a wealthy Core family out of sheer boredom and contempt for hypocrisy.

-⟡⋆ ̇-⟡⋆ ̇-⟡⋆ ̇-⟡⋆ ̇-⟡⋆ ̇-

Note: 40 followers? you guys crazy tysm!!!!

Hooray, my very first request!!! Huge thanks to @veggie060737 for such a wonderful idea. I spent hours wracking my brain over how to take this concept and turn it into something bigger than just two old acquaintances standing on opposite sides of the barricade — that’s why the setting ended up this rich and detailed. And, gods, along the way I might have tweaked things in my own direction, so if anything doesn’t sit right with you — WRITE TO ME, I’LL FIX IT NO PROBLEM, or I’ll make an alternative version.

Now, about how the game will play out. Hongjoong will most likely try to pry out of you what happened back at the Academy, why you ran off and left him — poor, miserable thing — all alone. You can spin him absolutely any story, REALLY anything — he’ll believe it. That’s why I packed so much lore and worldbuilding in here: to make it easier for you to cook up something interesting (because he genuinely doesn’t know the reason; maybe you really did something terrible, or maybe you were falsely accused). The proxy shouldn’t have issues with things like the Halateez (even though during one of my games with JLLM, he saw shadows of Halateez in a near-death agony — whoops), but sometimes JLLM will need a nudge (especially since a lot of tokens are tied up, memory might suffer); otherwise you’ll get stuck in endless emotional confrontations, and what we want is ACTION, DRIVE, and all that good stuff. Well, I personally prefer adventures; romance is more of a mood thing, just for the soul (a little side note — it really was an enormous struggle to keep him from immediately pulling us into a hug after the first message, but spoiler — he does it anyway; at least he seems to keep himself in check? In context it still felt a bit odd — I do understand we haven’t seen each other for ages, but being THAT overjoyed to see us... anyway).

So yeah. Leave comments (I read and reply to all of them), share your chats (seriously, any chat — I’ll read it and leave feedback), and... enjoy, I guess? I really gave it my all. And one more time: edits and corrections are ALWAYS welcome!!!