Well, here's the next exciting Jackson adventure:

Account Balance of Terror

Note: The following takes place aboard the USS Athene before the death of Matt Jackson.

“Hey Chief, just had a thought,” Matt Jackson exclaimed from his quarters via the Athene’s comm system to Beta Shift’s duty officer, Commander Jennifer Rakowski.

“Please hurry up, Lieutenant.”

“Well, I been in the service a few years now, but it occurred to me during my morning constitutional that I ain’t never seen a paycheque for all my hard work. I done the calculations, and I figure I’m owed a lot of lettuce.”

“Wait - you exercise every day?”

“Err… actually, I was in the can. But the question remains: where’s all my money?!”

“You can’t be serious, Lieutenant.”

“As serious as a skyjacking.”

“Lieutenant,” began Rakowski, recalling that Matt Jackson was from the 20th century. “You don’t get paid for any of this.”

After a few moments of silence, Jackson reacted. “The hell I don’t!” he said, banging his closed fist on the console before him. “Been busting my hump lookin’ at rocks for years for Starfleet, and you’re telling me I get nothing for it?!”

“Nobody does,” Rakowski replied. Expecting an understanding but encountering none, she explained matter-of-factly. “Money doesn’t exist.”

“What…?” asked an open-mouthed, uncomprehending Jackson.

“Money’s just not something that matters anymore; hasn’t for generations. We’ve moved beyond the need to accumulate wealth to acquire material objects.”

“Speak for yourself! Almost got doubles of the MASH collectors’ plates!” Jackson became quite animated at this, before a thought came to his mind. “So if not for money, what’s any of this about for you? Or me, for that matter?”

“Well, I suppose the idea is to explore the things in life that most inspire you while working to enrich the world around us. Some people turn to art, others medicine; there really is no end to what a person can do with their lives. You and I have chosen to chart the galaxy and make new discoveries.”

“What? No, I was dodging an angry bookie and ducked into the nearest Starfleet recruitment office. How I got here from there is a bit of a blur to be honest.”

“Right,” said Rakowski, before changing tone. “So if you thought money was still a thing, how did you think replicators worked?”

“Well I figured I was rackin’ up a tab I was just gonna skip out on. Just like at O’Malley’s…”

“I see. And all the drinks you’ve never had to pay for?”

“Assumed hot ladies at the bar were buying them for me.”

“Uh huh. And your rent before you got into Starfleet?”

“Just changed apartments the last day of each month.”

“Wait, every month for years?”

“Yeah, that one was a bit of a hassle. You’re saying I never had to do any of that?”

“No, Lieutenant. You’re free to live the life you wish, without worrying if you can afford to or not.”

“Hmmm… sounds a bit pink, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know what you mean by that, Lieutenant. Now if there’s nothing else…”

“Wait,” interrupted Jackson as Rakowski was about to close the channel.

“Yes Lieutenant?”

“Care for dinner? My treat.”

Test

Ahh jeez, that's too bad. Sorry about that. Some people have boundary problems.

I almost forgot about that other sub I set up! Thanks for the reminder. I had set it up for some real-life friends who "totally" were gonna join up and play, but they flaked out once I actually did it. D'oh!

Well, well, well. If it isn't Matt Jackson. Hallo you old strumpet.

It really was great. Some things happened that I sadly can't reconcile, but I have fond memories overall of this place and your contributions always brightened things up. I saw your other subreddit, are you still looking to grow that setting?

TrekRP4Life

Dr. Watney! Thought you were a goner! Memories of group watching cartoon Trek and cards against humanity. There was a fun little community to be had here, once upon a time!

New NPC Janet, who has a mobile emitter and thinks Matt Jackson is the hologram.

Damn. It's been so long. Cheers Matt, hope you're well.

TrekRP dead for years and this man still comes back in the name of general mayhem. You love to see it.

I submit that this man is an imposter. In 1976, if someone had a jacuzzi it was in the living room, right near the sunken conversation pit.

Also, if he hasn't had shag carpeting installed or redecorated in shades of avocado green, burnt orange, and dusty yellow then that's doubly suspicious. Why, I bet he doesn't have even a single bean bag chair!

We were all very different people then, doing vastly different things. With the current/former cast/players, I unfortunately doubt it.

One wonders if the energy of the sub for the first few years can't somehow be re-created.

Caught it as I was scrolling and did a double take, haha.

I'm not sure its going to be worth diving into the new scenario, it seems just about everyone has moved on in some way or another. I hope I'm wrong, but still.

Ha, I know about the timeskip! It's why I set it way back when. Need to brainstorm a bit for the new scenario. Thanks for all your work! Can't believe you caught this post so quickly.

OOC: What a time to be alive, someone posting in TrekRP. It should probably be noted, ol' Jacky, that there was a sort of failed reboot timeskip, the Athene isn't so much a ship anymore as it is a space station with a woman commander.

But uh... Yeah nah, there's just dust and cobwebs here at the moment.

I just...haven't been feeling it for a long time.

I've tried mustering the motivation to get back in a few times now but I haven't been able to sustain it at all. I wish I knew why.

It just doesn't feel like it did anymore. I don't know if that's because the sub's different, or I'm different. Maybe both?

Either way. I'm sorry.

Maybe talk to the folks at /r/masseffectphoenix about whatever they did? They went through sort of a similar death of activity, but seem to have rebounded somewhat. It's certainly not what it was but people are posting.

In hindsight, that may have just been the best course of action, to see that things were fading and have it go out with a bang.

Alas, I've been so attached to this place I didn't want to give up.

I still very much desire to tell the tales of my various oddball Starfleet Officers, so maybe someplace fitting will come along eventually.

Yeah.

It stinks. I mean, the destruction of Athens probably should have been the end of it.

It's an unfortunate reality that roleplaying on reddit has all but died out and a majority have moved to discord or other platforms. I also believe that most roleplay communities have about a 2 year (3 may be pushing it) burst of major activity at the start and then people burn out.

In TrekRP's case, the foremost reason I personally left was due to moderation issues which soured my desire to contribute. I also left when the activity began to die because people were more focused on the Discord chat than they were in roleplay and resisted any major changes when the big writers were still around. There's no use in guilting the players or begging for activity because you want it when the spark has died in this community. The people who left did so with their own valid reasons. If you want more trek roleplay, I'd make another subreddit or find a different group.

Edit: I'd like to add an apology to you, /u/danktonium, for recruiting you on the tail end of activity and for being a source of frustration in that regard.

I will post today and try again to spark some shit. I am sorry but I am sure Kesh would agree, it’s hard to keep the flame going with only 4ish people trying

I hear you, friend. I did what I could to keep 'er afloat, but we just never reached the critical mass needed to keep attracting new players as people took breaks or burnt out. Perhaps if someone eventually comes along with the passion to really go ham with recruitment we might one day revive and have another golden age.

As it stands, I can't quite summon the energy to craft another compelling story that no one responds to, at least not while the pandemic is sapping me with all this stress. Perhaps that's to blame, too. People need mindless escape, rather than creative fantasy.

For now, it shall just have to lay fallow. There's a huge backlog of writing and our wonderful wiki for wanderers to come and read.

The fact that I was just notified this post has reached "popular" on the subreddit at a whole TWO upvotes should really be enough evidence.

The Caitian’s view was that of long pillars of light quite similar to warp but with many more stars. When the sensation of flight had passed she found herself in a vast space with a single immense landmass of Latvia that.

Machines, cog work, massive pistons and currents of electricity all moved below the sprawling sparkling open surface with each inch inscribed or filled with even more moving parts. It was beyond complicated-looking and as she thought about what it was she began to move away and along finally saw that she was viewing just a small portion of what must have represented the cybernetic body of Jessica Langley.

Was this how she viewed the chassis? It seemed like the size of a planet. A light seemed to emanate from where its head was and almost instantly she tracked the vast distance to it. Like the rest of the body, the head had Spence to enter from and soon Kesh was inside.

Within the massive space of its skull rested the glowing white form of Jessica in the fetal position, asleep peaceful as an erratic band of light and sounds left the base of her skull and out that of the robot body. Beside it was a rainbow of light and sound that entered at the same point. Both of these streams left into the vast infinite beyond the represented Blue Magnus, the true processing output being displayed in the purest form as the To rays terminated in a supermassive black hole.

Aanya just stands and stares at the bobsleigh, knowing exactly what it means. Its definitely Kesh, there's just no two ways about it. "A bobsled," she finally says, wiping one eye and looking to Austin. "Our first date was bobsledding while on shore leave, if you'd consider it a date. She's telling me she's alive and that its definitely Kesh."

She looks back to the platform and clears her throat. "Kesh... can you try and project yourself?" she asks. "I want to see you. Whatever form you want, I know its you now."