PLOT ENGAGEMENT (ARCHIVED)

[larkers]

> PLOT ENGAGEMENT (ARCHIVED)

What is Plot Engagement and how does it work within Meadowlark? This is the page where players can come discuss with us how to facilitate plots within the setting. However, there will be occasions where a plot doesn't work within Meadowlark's world, and we'll suggest alternative routes. For small worldbuilding or gameplay details, please direct your question to the FAQ. If you're ever not sure if you're at the right page, don't worry—we'll help you get it sorted out. We know we have a load of info!

WHEN WILL YOU HEAR BACK?

◉ All Plot Engagement answers go out on Sunday, except during events.
◉ The deadline to submit a question and ensure you'll hear back from us on Sunday is 11:59 PM UTC on Saturday.

PLOT ENGAGEMENT INCLUDES

◉ Player plots! If you'd like your character to become a mafia boss, this is your place to start. Typically, this involves anything that could impact the setting or other player characters.
◉ Character career advancement that gives the character additional power or status within the setting.
◉ Metaplot exploration and information! We plan all events to give characters something to explore after the event ends. This is the place to do it!

SUBMISSION TIPS

◉ Specify what your character is looking for when they're investigating. What questions are they asking and what angle are they trying to explore?
◉ If you have a specific goal in mind but don't know how to reach it, please let us know.
◉ If you link a thread to us, please summarize it! That helps us process the plot in question.
◉ Don't worry about not knowing the setting like the back of your hand before you submit the plot—that's up to us! We're here to help you with any adjustments to get you on the right track.

NOTES & THINGS THAT YOU CAN HANDWAVE

◉ Characters always start out in entry level positions. Characters can update their skill sets to the 2512 standard through paid apprenticeships or internships.

◈ If a character is advancing within a major corporation (as noted on the Setting or Locations page) or one of its subsidiaries, we will need to approve this advancement.
◈ If a character becomes a supervisor at a local bar or other small business, we do not need to approve this advancement.

◉ Joining the police force within a city requires three months of IC training (six months OOC).
◉ We'll approve whether someone has social media fame, but we will not be providing social media follower counts. Once you have a plot for how to use those followers, that's where we step in!
◉ All Morningstar business goes on our Morningstar page. Please feel free to discuss specific plots here (including joining), and go there for signups and anything else.
◉ Characters getting jobs, finding apartments, participating in the fighting rings, getting married, making workplace friends, the creation of minor NPCs, etc. do not need to be run by us. Please let us know if these expand into player plots or other plot bits!

QUICK LINKS

◉ FAQ: For small worldbuilding or gameplay details.
◉ Setting: Our setting page! We'll update as needed.
◉ Jobs: A reference for who's working where!
◉ Locations: Both major and minor locations within New Amsterdam, as well as outlines for other megacities.
◉ Mod Contact: For wider game concerns.
◉ The Story So Far: Gamewide plot events up to current (your CTRL+F best friend!).
◉ NPC page: Includes NPC blurbs and inboxes.
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> NAVIGATION

Comments

[fossils]

Hi mods! I've been having Steve helping out with PRESERVE throughout the last event and the aftermath-- I realized I should've asked here first but in one of my logs I had him helping out at a pop-up food pantry, I hope that was okay!

I've been wondering how to get him a little more involved with PRESERVE, and if they might be the group to approach re: trying to set up more disaster prepared-ness initiatives/classes to help regular citizens be ready for another massive attack, maybe also with gathering what they learned about the individual monsters and decimating that information more widely if it already hasn't been done + offering to help with local self-defense classes (with a focus on how to assess your situation and know when to fight versus retreat, in the same vein as disaster prepardedness)

idk if this makes sense or if is feasible but tldr he's looking for ways to use his skillset to help out regular folks!

[preseance]

Hey folks!

Just wanted to float the idea of an open-to-city residents/civilians support group to deal with the mental and emotional fallout of the monster attacks. Gene might look at running it through PRESERVE with use of their resources but if that falls through he'd also just do it on his own and get the word out, probably either through his job or maybe through digital fliers or something of that nature. he lowkey wants to involve some other PCs in this (tho that might end up handwaved, no one wants to play out round robin trauma discussion in a big group lmao) as a way for the Displaced to offer outreach and support to New Amsterdam citizenry and really focus on giving back to the community. maybe he'd try talking to gaby about it??


+ he's also starting to look at the possibility of getting involved with local volunteer chapters that are in a position to help drug addicts get into detox facilities or situations, sort of the same thing as above where if there aren't places that will accept volunteer help he's willing to do community outreach himself to get involved on a street level. I don't know what the level of resources available for addiction at, say, a homeless shelter versus a detox center versus any of the other methods The Future possibly uses, but I'd like an avenue to get him involved if possible!


help this man and his wild ptsd and inability to sit still literally ever find things to do in his downtime pls + thank.

[wittingly]

IDK if it's necessary or not but I figured I'd pop it on here just for posterity

Ian's going to spend his weekend and evenings doing the following in roughly this order

-fixing up the garage
-soundproofing it
-implementing holding cells or containment rooms (I'm envisioning a concrete room surrounding smaller individual cells reinforced with rebar + concrete but with thick steel openings because sadly you can't really make functional doors out of concrete)
-fixing up the red wings safehouse
-fixing up the other safehouse
-then inquiring a little further about what it is clarke and stephen want from him re: those tunnels

[selfimage]

Hey other mods, very stupid question.

If Loki hangs around Red Wings (and Pulsar) and tries to make the phrase "crazy chicken" a thing, would it catch on? Could it catch on? Kind of like the new "fetch."

[ofmyth]

HELLO!!

Being back in game I'm keen to have Thor get back into the fighting rings, especially with an eye to Make Money (because some brother of his spent all the money he'd saved up last time).

So I'm curious about how 1: Thor will be received coming back into the rings after winning the championship months ago, especially missing both an arm and an eye. He's not especially keen to explain where he's been, but he can probably come up with some excuse if pressed.

I'm also interested in 2: what opportunities could come up in that setting for making money. He's less willing to work his way into saving money again like he has before (being impatient), so Thor is open to people approaching him for one-off chances to be hired for things in exchange for $$$$, though he's unlikely to take the job if he judges it to be against his values.

[lifetothefullest]

HEYA I return with more stuff. As mentioned in the event idea post, I had a few things I wanted to look into that were more narrow in focus, and so seemed better here.

1. Lance and Nate are planning to go hit up some of the ruins! This is both because Lance wants to see them and because they plan to look for any other bird motifs that may have been missed while people were focused on more important stuff (like solving puzzles.) From what I saw it looked like there were bird god themes at both Everest and Cairo, so Lance and Nate are planning to check out Oslo and Rio to see if they also fit the pattern. Lance is also pretty fascinated by the color-coding sort of thing, so he'll be looking for anything else related to that too.

2. Lance is also particularly interested in the James Henries mystery. As far as he (and I) understand, it seems like James Henries exists/existed in ML-world (not just Zerzura) and was the CEO of Giles-Bell, but that it was too long ago for him to still be alive if he had a normal lifespan. However, there's also the stuff about the mystery guy who shows up over the span of a hundred years without aging.

So I'm thinking the first place to start is looking into what history does exist for James Henries as CEO of Giles-Bell, and try to just get a general idea of the basics about him. This includes trying to find any pictures of him; if he was CEO of such a big company, hopefully there might be pictures (and if there aren't, that's interesting to know too!) If there are pictures, he'll then want to try to compare them to the pictures of the unaging guy, just in case there's a reasonable resemblance there that indicates a lead worth pursuing. If not, he's interested in the idea of facial recognition for the mystery guy if that's a possible thing.

So yeah! I have some other ideas of stuff to look at, but these seem like the easiest to get going on right away. c:

[rehandle]

Clarke and Stephen intend to go public about being Displaced. They’ll do this with a video message posted to both of their personal cooltalks and the Red Wings cooltalk. The video will include:

- Introduction, w/ names and as the owners of Red Wings.

- Clarkeian post-disaster pep talk for the people. Saying they got through this one, and they came out stronger for it. There will be more struggles in the future. Being afraid of them isn't the way to go.

- A little about what they and Red Wings were doing during/have been doing following the recent crisis and that going forward they intend to build on that work to provide a community base and point of contact for introducing individuals to community initiatives, as well as providing food and shelter for those struggling.

- Confirmation that they will be providing organised shelter and medical aid in the event of any future crisis in partnership with PRESERVE.

- Announcement about the fact that they want to help the people of New Amsterdam to protect themselves. They're working on helping get a project off the ground to get people trained and ready, and that there will be announcements in the future about it.

- Coming forward as members of the group with the glow, and they found one another through the glow because they realized that when they touch (showing an example) they react to one another.

- No proven knowledge of where the glow comes from, but the only explanation that they've heard is that the powers are a gift from a god. It's not something they know if they want to buy into, but it's literally the only explanation they've received.

Before this announcement, Clarke will reach out to PRESERVE and:

- Offer a donation to set up a PRESERVE outpost at a location close by to Red Wings.

- Say that there are numerous people from their group hoping to help out with training and giving first aid during crises.

- Be ready to have that outpost and Red Wings work in tandem during crises.

- Create a working partnership with PRESERVE that doesn't force PRESERVE outside of its comfort zone.

Finally, the self-defense project:

- Stephen acquired a warehouse from Jason Todd during the previous monster event, which was quickly converted into a safehouse for PRESERVE.

- Moving forward, Stephen and Clarke will be reaching out to contact New Amsterdam businesses to see if they will be interested in sponsoring a self-defense center, a place where people can learn to protect themselves in a fight, as well as draw up evacuation plans. Is this something that will work out? Will anyone be interested in sponsoring this effort? Let us know if this is an unreasonable plan, and we'll have our characters go back to the drawing board.

- The center will need a gym, mats for training purposes, a place for people to shower, etc.

- They specifically won't be training people in weapons. This may change in the future!

- We believe that Lexa, Castiel, and Glimmer will be spearheading this project. Stephen and Clarke will be training Glimmer in the business aspects, but Clarke and Stephen will be working on getting sponsorship and money going.

When this goes live:

- We'd like for this to go live on October 5, 2020 (OOC), but we understand if this needs to be factored into the monthly calendar since it's a big deal.

- We're happy to have this big post part pushed back while they work on the business and negotiations behind the scenes, so let us know if that works better for you/the game.

Thanks!!

[unwings]

Hello hello!!

Castiel, Lexa and Dean are taking a field trip into the tunnels beneath New Amsterdam to explore, with a few goals in mind to assist with some of the projects Clarke and Stephen put forward. These are the main focuses they have:

1. Explore viable evacuation routes that they can use to lead civilians out of the city and towards safety. Are the tunnels in a safe condition to take large groups of people through? Are there any places within the tunnels that are particularly safe and secure? Do the tunnels lead somewhere that could be made safe and secure and away from the city streets?

2. Morningstar use. Are the tunnels monitored by anyone else? Are there any kind of animals or monsters down there that need clearing out? Could lights be installed for easier travel? Is there any evidence of other recent traffic through the tunnels?

3. Monster transport. Do the tunnels pass the city walls, allowing them to travel to the areas outside the atmospheric grid? Could they feasibly drag a monster back through if they're able to incapacitate it first?

4. Blueprints/check points. Team Dextiela The Explorer(s) will be taking a patrol around the outer edges of the city to look for places they could indicate as checkpoints/safe places for civilians to gather before evacuating in groups (safety in numbers!!). Ideally, they'd like to get blueprints for both the city and the tunnel system, so they can create maps for civilians to follow during emergencies. Is there anything like that they could procure from El, Cassius, Gaby, or any publically available city archives? It would also be cool to try to build some entrances into the tunnels from those checkpoints, but that would be a new project entirely.

And one last question that's just for Castiel's own shit - do Spinetails (the birds) still exist in this universe, and if so, are they common/endangered, and what regions of the world can they be found in? Same re: Meadowlarks. If Cas were to go digging up random bird trivia focused on these two types, would there be anything interesting readily available through the Implant or other local New Amsterdam sources? He would be willing to visit a bird watchers club (do THOSE still exist??).

[stagethreeclinger]

hello i have more questions

1. Foam - is it easy to get/create if you know the chemistry behind it? Roy volunteered to try making foam practice swords/knives for the civilian training project and I want to make sure that's a feasible thing first.

2. Cyber Security/Surveillance - This was something under in Roy's skillset back home and I'd like to have him try to get at least a little more up to speed with it in here, though I know this one's going to be difficult with how intense cyber security is. Is there a company Roy could intern with for this field (in addition to the Tactus internship)?

I thiiiink that's it for now. thanks for all your hard work, guys!!

[evasives]

slams back into this post. i definitely fell off the wagon with this plot but i am BACk

cassian has done a lot of research into his spine and other branches that have come up! i'm starting a new, fresh thread, but trying to keep the old stuff connected in an easier trail for me. i would really like to start making more headway on this mystery 👀

1) in this, the subject of serial numbers came up. i would like to say cassian discovered these numbers existed a while ago and has been working on greasing wheels with several related people in his network as well as speaking to El, and knows now his spine does not have any. myyy next question is: what can cassian do to look into the origins of his particular cyberkinetic spine? (this ties into parts of my part two somewhat, as i'm unclear how on how the serial numbers might relate to his dream.) through his various connections and resources, what would he find about who has the ability to erase a serial number, and would he able to find the original number for his? his ultimate question on that front is: whomst made this fake spine!

2) in relation to the dream he had here! cassian's new assumption is that his own powers may have necessitated his spinal surgery WHOOPS! he spoke to jyn and clarke and both of them suggested ball and his followers - my question is would cassian be able to make contact with any of them? (jyn is on a lot of shrines, he could go through her? he's accidentally also gotten some notoriety himself helping out new amsterdam, or a third option if need be, clarke may be able to facilitate it?) and would they be able to help him suss out some dream deets? or at least give him another perspective on what he saw in it? if he can reach out to them and explain his dreams, what would they offer?

also in relation to the dream, it was supposed to fill in a gap but i... don't know what the gap was?? unless it was the part about the powers + the facility, and making cassian's new theory that he/the displaced caused the incident?

3) if cassian started digging into the funding for the facility at new omsk where the 2510 earthquake was noted, what would he find? who was connected to it? who cut off the funding and got it shut down? even though he has a new theory about why for his spine, he's still interested in the earthquakes + spinetail and that part of this web.

[wittingly]

hey mods,

Ian's going to start the process of contacting and interviewing law firms to represent the displaced that are adamant about participating in the study

here are the things he's going to ask them to help draft a contract on / the issues he wants them to represent for them:

-clear terms that all harvested organic material is the property of the participant of the study, but granting permission to Riverstone to complete a pre-approved list of tests they communicate in advance
-any genetic material has to either be returned or destroyed upon completion of the testing, and what exactly completion means
-PII needs to be considered confidential and shouldn't be stored by Riverstone beyond a specifically allotted time period after testing, with the exception probably being people still employed with the company
-we'd need some kind of statement on their security policies or data maintenance in the event that they're conveniently hacked
-we'd need an airtight nondisclosure agreement that includes our interests, not just theirs
-maybe some kind of declaration of intent with the stipulation that anything outside of the specified use cases be approved by all parties involved
-an agreement to release all findings to the participants of the study, or a specified list of contacts in the event that participant can't be located

He's made a post hoping to take up donations, but he's also willing to pay what he needs to initially to put someone on retainer. he's also going to shop around until he finds someone he feels like he can trust & who is competent.

+ an amendment from stephen

The negotiation of a requirement of written confirmation that they have evidenced information prior to any agreement to participate

[realists]

so jyn and (comics) tony have the audacious idea to, you know, text johann.

based on this email snippet supplied by, presumably, cassius, they know jpg has a network id and they figured that they could just send him a message! but first we have a couple questions before we get into the nitty gritty

1. is this possible lmao
2. if it is, would it be possible to create a fake identity for the purpose of messaging jpg, similar to the way gaby has a separate morningstar id she uses for the morningstar network, either by tony's machinations or cassius/el's help

[malta]

hello chums i am back! a few questions, mostly job related

1. i would like to get joe set up with a job as a docent at an art museum! i know he is lacking in art history from the last 500 years which he will endeavor to learn, but perhaps he can give tours in galleries dedicated to reproductions (or vr duplications) of medieval to early modern art as he is very knowledgeable in that niche 800 years.

2. on that note, are there still art publications where joe could submit essays about like how art was created in lean times when supplies were scarce or how revolutionary art is a tool for liberation and get published and thus boost his standing in the field?

3. i know physical art supplies are expensive and hard to come by so i assume physical graffiti is less common than like the ar/vr nature of the shrines (i am Unsure, if you can't tell), my question is whether it is illegal/policed or not.

4. i know baseball is a thing but has european football survived into 2512? would decent footballs be available for sale? can one immortal family pls catch a break and play football in the street.

[variate]

Hey other mods!

I wanted to drop this by plot engagement quick because it has to do directly with Jason's disappearance.

Loki and Roy are going to be keeping an eye on the Outlaws. Neither of them really have the same resources that Jason did, but they will be reaching out to some of Jason's right hands that were (at least) familiar with them.

They'll want to keep in touch, if that's possible! There’s only a few things that they might be able to do to help, but they’d want to hear what the right hands had to say. Both Loki and Roy would want to stay connected, if possible. They’d also be able to confirm Jason's disappearance.

On that thread, Loki would want to know what the right hand (or right hands?? Left hands?) think of Durcell.

There's another question that I have about the dreams!

There's been some chatting about training in dreams and I'd like to bring up again, how would the Displaced go about training their dreams to impact the world? What would those steps look like and how would they know?

Thank you!

[impede]

Hi mod friends!

I'm finally following up on Akechi's plot with the political stuff. After getting back from New Beijing, Akechi will be asking for a meeting with Amabel Delafield-Chapin, citing her previous meeting with Cheris (obviously known as Tsera) and Ren. If this doesn't work, he'll submit an application for various positions in her department, showing his interest in working there no matter what.

The point is that he wants a job there, and he's willing to help. He'll mention the Riverstone arrangement with "his group," saying that the UN is expressing interest in trying to control them (by his best estimation) and that it would be good to have one of "his" kind in their offices in NA.

Would he be able to get a job? He's willing to do some menial-seeming work by title as long as he's getting paid more than that given what he can provide for both Delafield-Chapin and Lynch. He would even advise that he's even given a less than satisfactory-seeming position, but I understand if he needs to prove his worth for a while.

Anyway, let me know if you need more information!

[notathreat]

Sliding right in to re-ask this guy heeeeere:

I've scouted around and found paint/ink/canvas are still available but a little costly- Ellie started working as a bouncer in a bar live-music bar, which presumably doesn't pay super well. How out-of-budget would this stuff be for her?

Additionally, she'd ask around about any community groups that might be into this sort of thing, for the purposes of supply-sharing and if she can get in on the local gossip about the creepy murals around town, all the better for... reasons.

As for the questions she'd ask, she'd try to keep it very vague and open ended and frame it as an art-based curiosity/interest in it, since it seems like it's what's "popular" these days and Ellie herself has a genuine interest in painting/art. But she'd try to get these particular pieces of info:

1. She'd first look into online blogs to see if she can find the information, before she asks in person. What's the subject matter? When did they start showing up? Are they increasing in frequency? Have there been any notable fluctuations in frequency? Are there any blogs that have compiled pictures of the murals/noted locations? Are there particular members of the Displaced that show up in the art? Any repeat appearances?
2. In person she'd comment offhand about private collectors taking bits of the shrines/murals for themselves, and have the genuine opinion of that being a shitty thing to do with street art. Any notable people/organizations taking those pieces?
3. She would try not to seem too overly into it/excited about it, just interested in 1. the art itself and the quality of it (how'd they do it? what materials?) and 2. how crazy it is that they did it without getting caught (and if she leans into the teenagery aspect of admiring some light vandalism for the sake of art, that's genuine)
4. She'd be interested in the wild mass guessing and conspiracy theories but mostly not try to stoke that, just listen/lurk online where she could.
5. Has the city tried to remove any of the murals/graffiti? How'd that go?

I realize that this is kinda broad in scope, but I'm still kinda catching up setting-wise, so hopefully this isn't retreading too much old ground.

[personalwar]

Hi again, fellow mods!

As discussed ICly with Cassius over yonder, Jack is trying to arrange for him and Dean to travel to the facility that was the setting for the 12th arrival log to see if they can dig up any more information about the monsters, find samples, or learn anything else that might have been overlooked during the first trip. Especially now that they've had additional run-ins with monsters thanks to the recent event, the hope is that they'll have more insight into what the heck was going on there.

If you could lay out how this would play out, that would be great, and we'll see about maybe threading out their field trip as well. If you need more information about what their approach would be once they get inside, I can check in with Em and get back to you, but a general idea of what state the building is in and what they may or may not find there (are they going to get swarmed by a horde of experimental monsters?) would be great!

[rehandle]

Howdy mods!

Some Laura-focused questions -

1. Will she have or be able to regain access to her money from the first time around?

She used to be fairly well-off thanks to gang involvement, she ran general admin as part of Jason's Gang Team if I remember right. I could actually happily go in either direction - either having all the money or at least enough so she can survive on her own for a while without help from Morningstar, or having little to no money and needing to scrounge around to make some. The latter would end in her using powers in the fighting rings to rig matches in her favour so if it's a no on the money could you also let me know whether she'd be able to go undetected for power use or not now that the city is so switched on to the Displaced? (... actually can I have an answer to that anyways please for potential future reference, lmk if you need some more info on exactly what she'd be doing.)

2. Can I assume that old world-native friends and acquaintances (or people who saw her in action any of the times she subtly powers-rigged some ring fights before) from the fighting rings and the gangs would still recognise her if she found her way to the fights or hunted down old connections? Just to check if she'll still have some kind of social foothold or is starting completely fresh




And a non-Laura related question! this won't be relevant until January now but might be useful to help jump start further IC discussion and planning in advance of the event whipping them off into an AU so -

Is the alley with the drop offs directly next to Red Wings? If so, and they set up a security camera out there connected to the Red Wings CCTV network, would the mysterious drop off powers that be still be able to rig and wipe it or will the Red Wings (😏) be able to use it as a drop off alert or to record footage of the drop off similar to how to Morningstar cam picked up the car delivery that one time?

Also just noting here that I'm interested in getting Stephen involved with a delivery intercept in any capacity so I'll be back to this in the future when I know who else wants to play - if you already know of anybody already working on this can you let me know so I can hit them up to chat about it some more? I did a cursory glance of the comments here but didn't spot anything

[realists]

with jovavich dead and thus her campaign suspended, jyn would want to make sure lynch kept up the tree planting project as governor because despite the insane greenery in new amsterdam. how would she go about contacting him/the governor's office since she can't cheat and use her work directory lmao

[nonscriptum]

Hey mods,

We talked about sorting out some potential consequences for the paper theft, so I'm posting here so that we can hash stuff out! :D

[apathet]

No rush on this as we're in the middle of eventing, but! Before the event Laura reached out to Cassius and ended up asking his help to start unfucking her Judas fuckup, and he said he'd get back to her about it after his move.

The thread is here for context, checking in so we can start digging down this road when the time is right!

[wittingly]

Ay fellas! In light of the recent celebrity status of some of the displaced, Ian's got an idea for his next project & I wanted to run it past ya'll first.

Basically it's using the same tech that projects sporting events or tv or whatever to people's implants, except it's a personal use future-mask that projects a different face over top of your face. It obviously wouldn't hold up to touch or intense scrutiny, and if people know it exists they could turn it off in their own implant the same way they turn off Implant TV or whatever we call it. Something temporary and scrappy for them to use to navigate through a crowd without getting swarmed on the sidewalk.

What's the word bird

[ishotyouuu]

Hello mods!

Wade's getting a little bored of his Red Wings job and wants to look into more "off the books" type work. I saw on one of the aftermath posts that mercenary jobs would be more accessible due to the sudden downturn of public opinion of the Displaced (I can't find the specific log now, so apologies if I've gotten this completely wrong), so I was wondering how Wade would go about finding a lead to his potential new occupation. Would he have to do something special to catch the attention of a specific person? Or could he just contact an NPC directly with his intentions? I'm open to plotting out anything!