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

[revlon]

Hi mods! Thank you so much for all the fantastic info and sorry for the delay — I was brainstorming on how to best proceed with Peggy given these details and insight. So here's what I'm thinking, and please let me know if it's workable and what I can/should tweak!

2/3/4. Peggy in canon is extremely proactive both in the field and in the office, often completing important paperwork and tasks days ahead of schedule and before being asked to do so. She would show the same diligence in City Hall from the get-go, even if she's only been working there for a month. Peggy's been keeping up with the (digital) paperwork and memos coming in/out of meetings (covering general local gov't business and current projects; she goes where she's needed), taking minutes, preparing and distributing agendas, and doing follow-up on actions and directives (which are all within her purview as a deputy city clerk). Her demeanour throughout would be notable as being charismatic, hardworking, and discreet with a sincere desire to help the people of New Amsterdam*. Her skill at a polite turn of phrase is notably well-suited to diplomacy. In meetings, she'll show (and has already shown, at least once) she has a head for government matters. If her opinion is asked for in an offhand sort of way while taking down minutes, she'd offer a sharp, perceptive insight and would easily jump into the discussion more fully.

My specific idea in taking steps to advance herself is this: in the wake of the two border guards being killed sometime in July (with Morningstar named as the culprits), a small committee was pulled together to address customs and border protection policy. If it's cool, I imagine one of the junior members of that committee was a Morningstar operative who never returned to work after the UNA raids (and was involved to keep an eye on travel regulations). Because she's been up to date and in the room doing the duties mentioned above, Peggy would be diligent about picking up the slack left by that absence. Given the rumours flying around about why people were arrested, they wouldn't fill the position immediately and the committee would ask Peggy on board more fully as an extra set of hands and someone who knows the ropes rather than looping in someone new and catching them up.

More long-term: given that the UN embassy regulates travel between the megacities and this quiet little committee is tackling their local border issue (and that deputy city clerks are sometimes passport agents), I imagine there is communication between the two. And Peggy's duties do involve communication between departments, handling the documentation of the project, and maintaining records of appointments, should those meetings between the UN and City Hall take place. She'd be glad to accompany a City Hall official to those meetings or go in their stead if their schedule gets in the way, if only because she has such a keen memory for the details. This would be her point of contact with the UN embassy and she'd work on that connection from there. Tl;dr she's a Grade A secretary and liaison between organisations (it's not dissimilar to what she did back home between US and British gov'ts and military).

On a broader scope, Peggy had expressed an interest in inter-city travel during her first conversation with Gaby in the safehouse, so this is something she'd be especially keen on — particularly now that they're working to move MS agents out of town. This is what I have so far! I'll be glad to work with you on adjusting it wherever necessary since I don't know what plans you may have in your back pocket!

5. AND FINALLY re: Morningstar moving forward after the arrests... Peggy and Fitz have been talking and will approach Gaby saying they know Morningstar's presence won't be the same in the city but that they do believe in the group's mission and want to contribute beyond where their goals align (solving the mystery of the displaced, etc). How would this offer go?


—
*And beyond, like New Venice and New Oslo, which is a a detail that will be further fleshed out pending an answer on the event aftermath post! But no rush!!

[mercurio]

hey again!

prompto's working on some research homework regarding the clones situation in new amsterdam. he would look into the online libraries's databases, any physical libraries (if there's any?), and if the UN office has any records available to the public about it.

he would be looking for specific information. what would he find, how much would he be able to find, and how much would be available for the public, based on these points:

1. instances of full-human cloning - was it ever practiced.
2. the history of cloning: full-human cloning and organ cloning. how it came about, was it first attempted on animals, for what purposes (medical, research, scientific, military, exploitation), what cities were endorsing this.

whether he finds answers for 1/whether 1 has any evidence of having been done:
1a. at what point did full-human cloning become illegal, and what spurred this legislation
1b. is there any evidence pointing to any corporations or individuals backing the projects (giving financial aid to research labs, the like)? if the names are censored from any transcripts, would there still be evidence that there were financial backers who invested in full-human cloning?

3. could he find any information on cloning legislation in the cities of new oslo, new venice, and new amsterdam? nothing too detailed if it's too much to ask for - just a confirmation that cloning took place in those three cities, even if it's just the legal organ cloning or the dismantling of the full-human cloning industry/research.
4. organ cloning is legal! would he also find information that shows that animal cloning exists/is still being practiced? or would that also fall into illegality?

he's going through the legal venues to find out this information, so only stuff that is public. if an article or report is blocked due to lack of credentials or the like, he wouldn't push for it (although maybe take a screenshot of where he found it at). so this is merely looking for stuff that is already and willing available to the public!

[isherarmor]

Hello mods! I was thinking about the possibility of Sansa becoming employed with/around clothing in some manner. She took commissions/repairs for her own enjoyment and learning in her previous games, and also as a way to contribute to the communities she was in. Is she able to secure employment in any kind of entry level way and/or would she be able to just take commissions on her own provided she could access supplies and build a small portfolio?

Also! Since she's ...a little unsure about her exact age due to previous game events, would she be able to say she's eighteen on her upcoming identification?

[motivation]

hi mods!

since dutch works security in a bar that probably has the occasional shady individual and also just in general, i was wondering whether she'd hear any chatter about the morningstar versus una event at all, or whether it's not a topic at all/been successfully kept out of circulation?

[strove]

Hi mods!

Clarke and Kate are going to look into how people join the UNA. Are there known practices in how people join, or is it all murky and mysterious? How much of this information is public knowledge? They'd use the internet for their research, but they'd also try to get a read on "joining" via their respective jobs (medical receptionist and barista). Does anyone know anyone who's joined if there is a front for "joining"? Essentially, they want to get an idea of the type of people in there and will even be checking social media outlets to see if any of the soldiers have their own accounts, or if they're basically invisible.

[evite]

hi mods! this is very backdated questioning that i forgot to submit while on hiatus, please forgive me.

daisy and rey will be following up on what became of the morningstar agents who were not recovered.

first, they will have made good faith attempts to talk to / question the rescued morningstar agents who are being moved out of the city, trying to find out if they knew those specific agents who were lost, if they had any similar purposes within morningstar, etc.

then, they will return to the homes of the now-abducted agents. rey will stand watch while daisy tries to hack into any of their home's tech and figure out patterns in routines, look for surveillance bugs, or anything of the sort. in addition to this, daisy will be trying to hack into their electronic history via cloud. she's looking for transaction histories, private messages, etc. to a) track their movements before abduction, b) look for signs of how they might have been spotted, c) look for patterns in how targets were chosen.

any information on what they would experience or find out in this would be appreciated!

[saviorexe]

HELLO AGAIN and thank you for this!! I'll likely have more thorough follow-up questions once I get Markus on-track with some of these leads, but at the moment, inquiring minds want to know...

Is the wine safe to drink if someone... decides to do so? Is there anything special about it, other than the markings? Or is it just ordinary wine?

[larkers]

Hi again, Ellie!

This plan sounds great. It would take a few IC months to pursue, and you can come to us with other plot opportunities related to it as things evolve in game. As a note, this is extremely thoughtful and well done, so thank you!

As for the second question - Gaby will make it clear that certain members of the displaced led to Morningstar believing that they could no longer rely on them to help meet Morningstar's goals. She won't name names, but there was the sense that a more equal partnership could be gained if they bypassed the need for people to join and treated it as a relationship that involved both giving and returning. She'll welcome additional assistance from both Peggy and Fitz, however - they can take on a lot of additional assignments and see if there's anyone else who's of a like mind to help out.

[larkers]

Hi again!

Sounds like a good plan! Let us know if Jason plans on doing anything else to get UNA attention.

[larkers]

Hi Kira! Thanks for bringing these questions to us.

We're going to answer every question you have, but a lot of it links together, so if you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask!

Cloning was done by the early 21st century with people's pets. Those with the financial means would pay large sums of money to have their pets cloned, though they found that their pets weren't the same. Essentially, the call of nature versus nurture (in the way of nurture affecting nature) came in here - could a pet reproduced by cloning really be the same pet as the one someone lost? There were a lot of ethical concerns that came with it, but not as many as there would be with humans. In the early 21st century, scientists around the world - sans the United States - began to look into editing the genomes of human embryos. As editing these embryos was several steps off human cloning, there were a lot of ethical concerns raised. Still, countries like China and Russia continued to push research forward, undaunted by public concerns (unless their research went public - but much of that would be swept under the rug by 2511). Needless to say, early research into cloning was also limited because of religious concerns that are no longer relevant by 2511, though Prompto would come across references to the moral and ethical concerns related vaguely to "god" in his research.

Around the same time, scientists separately developed procedures to clone human organs. Cloning organs is an entirely different process, independent of cloning humans/animals, perfected by the 2050s. It was, however, extremely expensive, and there were still a lot of ethical debates, largely coming back to whether it was socially acceptable to clone human organs and how that related to humanity? What makes a human? Should humans be looking to prolong their own lives in this way? There were also financial issues, as universal health care was not yet a thing by the 2050s. Still, organ cloning was a way to approach many of the concerns and ethics in human cloning without creating an actual conscious life. A baby, even with the same genetic code, would not have the same life experiences as the man or woman that was cloned. With the process to clone organs perfected, it was time to streamline it and make it available to everyone.

All this culminated alongside the production of fully sentient AIs. While humans played god with human embryos, moving toward developing clones, they did the same with AIs. As far as anyone knows, no humans were cloned before the start of the AI war in 2095. Whether that's true or not is unknown. Any records surrounding it wouldn't be publicly available, as well as any of the corporations that would have funded the research. Most of this research would have been done at universities and privately funded labs, there is very little evidence that remains in an effort to erase the ugly history of humans playing god.

In fact, the information Prompto would come across would be about these debates behind human cloning and whether humans should be cloning anyone - human or animals - and how this debate evolved over time. The belief that organ cloning is a separate in practice from human cloning (and most animal cloning, for that matter) would be the general consensus. Life is precious and should be preserved, and organ cloning was perfected because it would no longer utilize developing organs inside of animals (as has been explored in our modern society). The perfection of these techniques involve knowing that the body wouldn't reject the newly transmitted organ because there would be no risk inherent in needing medication for immunosuppression. Animal cloning was halted alongside human cloning because of the same inherent consciousness, as well as the fact that this would involve bringing a life into the world. Not only would the creature need to live and breathe, but they would need to develop within the cloning process (and cloning, even in the future, still requires any kind of animal to develop in the standard way for its biology - any "speeding up" physical development would only cause problems with their biological makeup). That said - while animal cloning has been "halted," a lot of fish used for food in the world are a result of genetic engineering.

Many of these debates came to a climax by the mid-2100s a couple decades after the AI war ended. After outlawing AIs, legislators turned a more discerning eye to whether humans should continue to play god with cloning and other methods of biological replication. Was it ethical to bring a copy of a human life into the world? With the development of the neural implants, it was further considered questionable, as various (now unknown) companies attempted to develop technology through which human consciousness could be transferred.

By the early 2200s, human cloning was ruled illegal by the United Nations. The issue was that the early law was very broad: all scientists were told to halt any and all genetic engineering and reproduction. That involved animals, human organs, and more. Lobbyists pushed for a more clearly defined policy, which meant that they wanted to look at how this legislature couldn't prevent the perpetuity of human life. Ultimately, legislators agreed that genetic engineering and editing of the human embryo during early stages could be done to ensure that the life at the end would not carry now preventable genetic diseases. In the same turn, they approved limited animal cloning - fish and little else - and reopened the doors for opportunities involving organ cloning, which is now common by 2511.

As for the different cities, all of the laws would be the same. Mandates like the AI or cloning would all be passed down through the United Nations. Prompto would find nothing different around the world.

[larkers]

Hi Aeri! Thanks for the question.

Sansa could definitely work as a seamstress in New Amsterdam! These locations would be attached to shoe repair shops and laundromats - though much of the work at these locations is done by droids. Her help would be needed for projects that require more hands on work from a human, or when that particular care is requested. She may even learn a thing or two about robotics while she's there.

Finally, you can definitely just have her say she's 18! That would make it easier for everyone else involved.

[larkers]

Hi Tona! Thanks for the question.

Generally, mentioning Morningstar is avoided, even in shady places. People might mention the raid in vague terms - given the scale, it's not a secret - but there's the sense that while this raid was more aggressive than usual, it's not particularly surprising. One of the reasons people avoid bringing Morningstar up is fear of drawing UNA attention, and that feeling will be particularly strong after the raid.

[larkers]

Hello Tona! Having a set up like this is fine.

Blood from the UNA soldier will come back as being completely normal, human blood.

[larkers]

Hi Alison! Thanks for the questions.

Most of the public practices involve two venues: they recruit from local law enforcement in various cities, and they recruit young men and women who show physical promise and discipline, often between the ages of 16 and 18, but never exceeding 24. The promise of joining involves job security, a place to live, and an opportunity for family and unity that they might not be able to find elsewhere. Scrutinizing the latter information will find that the efforts increase for low income parts of cities - where many people grow up without a promise of a home, have trouble finding a job, and often lose family to sicknesses and addiction because of their poor living conditions and struggling incomes (free health care has its limits when someone can't remain healthy because they have nowhere to live).

From their jobs, Clarke and Kate would learn that a lot of people might know someone who joined up. In Clarke's line of work, it would be someone whose family likely shouldn't have been approved for a child (they received retroactive approval) or a teenager whose family was frequently brought in for care. For Kate, it would be rarer at that income bracket, and most likely to be known among her coworkers. There would be the occasional customer who'd know of an officer who got brought in to the upper echelon, so to speak.

A UNA assignment is for life, so people joining up don't have a life outside of that. That means no social media, no contact with their families, or anything else.

[larkers]

Hi Jenna! Thanks for bringing this plot to us.

As always, we'll address the different scenarios in order.

1. If they ask any of the Morningstar operatives/contacts before they leave the city, they'll find that the individuals that were taken had a number of different roles. Truthfully, the impression that they'll get was that the few who were successfully taken were either a) the victims of bad luck or b) were priority targets because of their positions in the city and that's why they were taken out first. One of the people successfully taken was, for instance, the junior member of the committee that Ellie referred to here for Peggy's plot. As a result, you'll likely want to connect with her as you have your characters investigate this! There was also an assistant to a bank's vice president, the bank itself largely manages the secure and encrypted funds for the major corporations around the city. There will also be a janitor at the UN Embassy. That won't seem like much, but they were there for years, and were also a long-time member of Morningstar as one of its most veteran members in the city.

The other captives are victims of bad luck and timing, being in places that weren't far from the homes of the previous three individuals. If Rey and Daisy look at the mapping that Daisy herself set up, they'll easily realize that certain sectors were more easily accessible to the UNA's early onslaught. There was a method to the eventual madness, so to speak.

There would be no sentiment among the rescued operatives and contacts that they felt followed or tracked in any way leading up to this attack. There would be the sentiment that there wouldn't be the need for that given the government's widespread surveillance and accesses around the city if they chose to utilize them.

2. None of the homes will reveal anything, largely because the real estate market in New Amsterdam moves swiftly. Some of these apartments will already be rented out, with people moved in, and it'll be very difficult to get inside unless they hack their way in. Even then, they'll want to make sure no one's home!

Otherwise, they'll want to start early on any of the cloud information because - as always - most of it has been scrubbed. If they started early, they'll see instances of normal social media use, though a couple of them would've been cagey about it, using it minimally because of their double life. There won't be any Morningstar communication as that's all done on a separate and thoroughly encrypted network, though there will be the occasional instance where they were clearly communicating with other Morningstar agents as friends. Gaby, Casper, and El won't be among these people, likely confirming that they're either very careful or their names are aliases (and by now, Rey would know from her time in doing jobs for Morningstar that it's the latter).

Any other cloud use would involve information about their lives: pictures, favored music and television shows, and a lot of what someone might find on someone's Google Drive. Transaction history and banking history would only be found as encrypted files leading back to someone's banking institution - none of this would be readily available, and would be considered "hard mode" for Daisy.

All of this information will be scrubbed within days of the initial attacks, seeming to almost erase these people as if they never existed. Social media posts including these individuals will vanish. The actions will be very thorough.

[larkers]

Hi Jen!

That's right, it's ordinary wine with a slightly smoky aftertaste. It's from a out-of-city hydroponic vineyard that's pretty trendy right now, but there's nothing special about it.

[retravel]

THANK YOU MODS for the deets and advice!

Just dropping a line to say I’m gonna liaise with Roni/Loki and get back to you on looking into the mysteries of Pulsar, etc. In the meantime, I wanted to talk through the potential of Fitz working his way up the space biz ladder following the Morningstar/UNA raids:

In line with Fitz’s goal to eventually get into multiversal travel (and his MS assisted backstory of being an aerospace engineer), his current job at Pulsar focuses on the physical science of space travel and sits within Exploration Science (ES) Division. His current research interest is focused on the development of concept designs and feasibility studies of science instruments and engineering experiments to be flown on robotic and human spacecraft missions (basically instrument and spacecraft development), working on optimising efficiency for space travel across the triple-bottom line (as was touched on in the mod reply to Sniper). As a recent transfer, Fitz has been quick to learn the ropes and adapt, working in a support capacity to shadow and better understand each member of his team while helping build and test others’ designs.

Between designing aircraft/spacecraft and analysing alien craft designs (laughs @ marvel) for SHIELD, he’s well-equipped to have a unique perspective on the practical work and brainstorm inventive fixes for a team of people otherwise trained in a similar manner (presumably by the mix of online engineering courses and practical apprenticeships at Pulsar). His jack-of-all-trades expertise in instrument design/fabrication, computational/experimental modeling, system engineering tests, and actual instrument construction have also served him well in this lower level and varied role, capable of filling any gaps or assisting anywhere across his team.

Following the Morningstar evacuation, there have been a few openings at Pulsar, including one at the head of a team like Fitz’s own. IF IT’S ALRIGHT WITH YOU MODS, this Pulsar team leader/MS agent didn’t die during the raid but was rescued by one of the displaced — and is available for a brief chat about their broad work and aims in the role while Fitz patched them up in medical. In speaking to them and subsequently striving to move up at Pulsar, Fitz can both serve his own ends and help fill the new holes in MS’s web of operatives. It fits with how he and Peggy want to work with Morningstar (and encourage others to join them). And even if the agent can’t or won’t share much, Fitz will be open about his intentions all the same!

Everyone in that team has moved up to compensate for their leader going missing, leaving open a more mid-level, clearly defined engineering role with input on designs. With Pulsar reluctant to advertise openings immediately in the purposefully quiet fallout of the event, Fitz has offered to step-in and help trouble-shoot (quietly) in the interim, working toward taking the role full-time over a period of a few IC months (with the aim of building up the credentials and designs to nab a leadership role in the more distant future).

BASICALLY HIT ME WITH ANYTHING for how this could be feasible/workshopped to get more into some sweet space science!!

[revlon]

Thank you so much, mods!! I'm excited to work on this moving forward and will definitely roll back in here as the game develops. I really appreciate you being so flexible with all this, you're the best.

Re: the second point, this is great to hear! Laura or I will bring any further questions or ideas we may have to you at a later date, but for now, it's safe to assume both Fitz and Peggy will start actively passing their government/corporate information in reports to Gaby. And if there's anything specific she'd ask of them, please let us know!

Also on a more personal note, Peggy would ask how she's doing because, you know. Shit sucks.

[isherarmor]

Thank you!

[batricide]

i'm weeks late on this but the name that's been decided is cooltalk, formerly sgoods.

[larkers]

Hi again, Ellie!

Gaby will primarily want to make sure that the lesser fortunate people around the city are getting food and clothing. Morningstar can't give all of them better lives, but they do participate in a lot of charitable acts. Delivering food to boarded up buildings full of people squatting will be a priority for her, and they'll learn that when she's not babysitting the displaced, that's where she's often lending an extra hand.

Otherwise, she knows that they're going to have to recreate their network of information in the city. Having it done with the displaced may help, so trying to figure out the connected dots may be a good way to go about things. They have no way of knowing who might need Morningstar's help, outside of a few remaining projects where they wanted to reach out to corporate and government targets. If Fitz and Peggy take on these projects, they'll be directed to pull them in to one of the other safehouses (one that was set up and established after a certain string of Morningstar agents joined, since they were left alone). It's the best they can offer. Gaby will say that while the displaced set up their own safehouse, another new one will be needed for other people. Any of the three locations not used will likely need to be set up for NPCs who need assistance in the future. That said, some of the people marked for "assistance" will already be dead and scrubbed away - it'll be something that Gaby and El are eager to share, all to give perspective on how Morningstar was actively saving lives apart from the displaced.

As for Gaby: shit does suck. She's stressed out and barely sleeping, and barely going home. While Morningstar has always credited her for her diligence and dedication, she never asked to be in charge of operations like this one. It's not in her wheelhouse. She'll admit that anything she emphasizes will be narrower in focus, partly because she's more small picture than big picture. The big picture when it comes to New Amsterdam was left to many other agents, and she was happy to be a cog in the system.

We're interested in seeing what the PCs do with Morningstar's current status, but we'll repeat something we're also telling Laura: the original agents and contacts outside of Gaby will be wary of leaving behind or passing along any information to the displaced. There were rumors of the displaced feeling as if they were entitled to better positions and trust despite seeming as if they don't care for this world, and that spread among the New Amsterdam Morningstar people. Now is the time for the PCs to prove that they aren't just concerned with getting home. This is, of course, a fair concern: they were taken from their homes and all of Morningstar's contacts sympathize with what happened to them. But that doesn't make them entitled to special treatment, and some of them will exit with the impression that Gaby and El are giving them too much leverage in their absences. Gaby believes things can change, but doesn't want to force anyone to feel as if they have to further Morningstar's goals unless they have to. In fact, it was her decision to change things up, and stop asking the displaced to join up to get assistance from Morningstar, when they can use one another instead.

That's not to say that things won't change, and Fitz and Peggy approaching her is encouraging. Gaby knows that her setup is not enough to help as many people as they need to be helping, or even undermining many of the human rights abuses that happen in New Amsterdam thanks to the large corporate presence. She'll give them leeway and encouragement to draw other people into their plans.

[larkers]

Hi Laura!

Unfortunately, the Morningstar agent - let's call her Ingrid - will have heard about Fitz from Ishani, believing that Fitz is more self-interested than not because of the angle that he took with Ishani. This is a belief propelled by rumors among the Morningstar agents that while the displaced saved many of their lives, they were only doing it to help themselves. While taking Ingrid's job is a part of Fitz's aim to overall help Morningstar, she wouldn't be keen to give Fitz much information about her position so that he could gain leverage. The only thing she would say is that Pulsar isn't a meritocracy and buttering up the right people is essential. She got the position herself because she played the politics game.

Ingrid will tell Fitz that if he proves that he's not only interested in protecting his own people, and is interested in helping the world he's landed in, Gaby may be able to provide him contact to her down the line. We're very interested in expanding Morningstar activities in game via the PCs, and believe our current world status is perfect for it. But the previous agents are understandably wary after their worlds were torn apart by the UNA.

For now, this position will be given over to someone else on their team (let's call him Jose). Jose is good at his job, but he definitely got the advancement through playing the politics game himself. He knows how to butter people up, and while he doesn't put in extra hours, his wife is best friends with one of the members of Pulsar's Board of Directors. The more annoying part is that Jose is smart. In fact, he's downright brilliant - and he would not be eager to give much mileage to Fitz if he shows that he's looking to advance himself. He had been eyeing Ingrid's position for years, and this new guy wants to prove that he's more worthwhile? The fact that Fitz is undoubtedly just as - if not more - qualified for the position will be seen as a threat.

All that said, Pulsar's executive board loves competition within their ranks, and would encourage both Fitz and Jose to prove themselves. There will be opportunities for Fitz to advance, but he'll need to eye the position as Jose's second in command before he can take that job for himself. In the meantime, Jose is going to give Fitz a lot of mediocre jobs - the stuff that would be beneath someone of his talent. Frustrating, but that's corporate New Amsterdam at its finest. And unfortunately for Fitz, he has to both show off his skill and get these easy jobs done at the same time, as he wouldn't want to look like he's slacking.

[ofmyth]

Hello mods, I have missed you! I am here to ask about the fighting rings since it is Championship Time.

Thor has been involved since he arrived and would definitely want to try to be involved in the fights (and try to win, ofc). 1. How hard is it to find out what's going on/get his name in the contest, 2. how hard are the fights likely to be, and 3. what (if any) are the prizes for whoever wins the contest??

[culver]

hello!

1. nill is a crau from a game where intergalactic travel was made possible through the use of a portal called the ingress. she assumes she was brought to this place in the same manner, but she would try to reach out to morningstar for confirmation. would they tell her anything about how people arrive in new amsterdam?

2. portals like the ingress have been a part of nill's life for the past year and a half. she wouldn't think twice about talking about it openly on the network. is this something morningstar would reach out to her about or would it be ignored?

[forcevisions]

most of the actual hacking follow-up on this would be with daisy, but for morningstar follow-up:

would el and gaby be willing to share with rey who in morningstar would have access to a membership file with this kind of information if she wanted to turn the investigation inward? it seems highly unusual to their usual operating procedures that somebody could just get a list of real names if they're consistently using aliases even with one another, so they'd have to be high up. she'd try to leverage that she's been actively advocating for morningstar's goals from very early on (including robin hooding supplies around the tent cities) to get them to trust her with morningstar hierarchy info. mostly she's looking for the names of other possible morningstar agents who might have been compromised into becoming a leak.

relatedly, she might suggest/question if maybe the junior committee member, the bank VP's assistant, or the embassy janitor would have had access to it because those — especially the bank VP assistant — seem like high profile targets who could have been found out sooner and let to the reveal of the others.