Vox

Vox

Birdlike beings.

- Breathe only Nitrogen

- Given a Nitrogen tank at round start to accompany this

- Cannot wear hardsuits fit for humans

- Special Vox language, :V

- Costs 45 Karma

- Spawns with Vox Boots, essentially magboots with no speed reduction

- Cannot use custom names, must use one of the premade Vox names every round, which come from the names used for Vox Traders

Lore

Names - Unintelligible strings of shrieking and jabbering. Heavy on the i's and a's. Kikakarat, Hitakhaatiki, Yahakata. Language - They can understand common fairly well but speak it poorly. They tend to creel or shriek as punctuation. KHAAAAK! SCRAAAAHK! (their laughter sounds like 'kikiki')

Raider crews - one to three warriors and one or two engineers. Engineers also double as medics. The leader of a vessel of any size is called the Quill. Civilian crews - no staff roster, just families. If a ship has no families that work a certain trade they will try to exchange families with another ship or ark.

Ships - Ramshackle and crude-looking but very quick and very hard to hit. Their weaponry is universally stolen from other species and is generally several years behind the curve.

Common insults - humans are 'meat', unathi are 'rotten' (due to their colour). Skrell are 'leaking' or 'slippery'. Tajarans are 'mouldy'. Vox tend to jeer a lot about how their victims are treeless, that their lungs are full of dust, and such. People usually have no idea what the Hell they're on about which is fine because the vox don't put much thought into it either.

Vox will never willingly surrender unless the only other alternative is death. HOWEVER, they will happily fake surrender if it puts them in a better position to escape. They lie as easily as they breathe and appear fearless despite their propensity for running like the clappers at the first sign of trouble.

A vox will never willingly stand and fight if running is a viable alternative, EXCEPT if it's a challenge from another vox in front of their crew.

A lot of their tech is traded from the Syndicate or alien races.

Nobody has ever gotten a straight answer out of the vox but their arkship groves are really important to their culture. Vox who are too long away from the groves tend to get sick and die - but it's not clear if that's withdrawl, or some other factor.

They quite like darkness and hiding in lockers.

Vox have two tongues - one large one for swallowing and tasting, and another in the roof of the beak for vocalizing softer/subnotes within vox-pidgin. Vox-pidgin itself is bewilderingly complex and defies any concerted study by linguists.

It would be impossible for a human (or humanoid) to speak vox-pidgin without drastic and disfiguring throat and facial surgery.

Vox bones are light, porous and very flexible. Vox can turn their heads almost a hundred and twenty degrees to the side due to their long necks. They tend to sway when interested in something, or anxious, and shriek at glass-fracturing volume to drive off attackers.