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

[forcevisions]

1. Thanks for the supplemental info, mods! I think it makes the most sense if Rey does have a violent self-defensive outburst of her power when probed in the way the interrogation described. She would try to hold off using her powers until it was forced out by instinct to defend herself basically, or through anxiety and fatigue, because she doesn't want the UNA knowing about their powers. However, once it manifested, the UNA would have to find a way to keep her moderately sedated enough to not use it while trying to interrogate her after that because she'd throw stuff and try to suffocate them so she could escape on her own once the cat's out of the bag.

2. She'll go with Kira Solo in that case.

3. Thanks! I will probe at non-mechanic stuff in all likelihood. I've got some ideas.

[larkers]

Great! Anyone involved in the rescue and aftermath will likely be able to gleam some of these details from the agents, though they're not going to be talkative.

When you're ready, please reply to our taken list with the necessary updates!

We're looking forward to seeing where you take Rey after all of this. Thanks for running with this great plot!

[forcevisions]

Oh, one more question!

When you say Rey Nolo's accounts will be cleared, will El be able to help her get access to what money she has in them and transfer it to her new ID, or no? Rey has a pretty sweet job and basically spends zero money so she's been slowly saving.

[larkers]

It can be transferred to someone else and then passed back afterward!

[forcevisions]

Ok sweet, thanks. I'll figure out who to at some point. I'm sure I will be back with more questions later.

[forcevisions]

1. I assume since the caves hideout is "pretty nice" and stocked with food and has been used before that there are like ... beds? Cots, at least? Are there showers? Is she gonna come back a smelly gremlin?

2. what would it look like for Rey to become the pilot of one of the shuttles between Earth and the Mars colony? I assume there might be a ladder to climb there, but is there an accessible position for Kira Solo in something related or a filter job?

[larkers]

Hi Tifa!

1. There are cots and places for limited washing! The key point would be to not attract attention by using too much water at an unsanctioned location, so it would be strict. She wouldn't come back as a gremlin! It's probably pretty familiar to her from her life on Jakku when it came to cleanliness.

2. It would take a really long time, and it's not something that they can fill in a background for. We covered a bit about this here. While the atmosphere of the game has changed, the time constraints and limitations haven't, so we'd advise you to pick something more Earth-based for Rey!

[larkers]

Belatedly getting back to this! His aspirations are fine, especially since he's been good about it! Gaby would be happy to reach out to some buddies who run catering companies once she's back in business (or if he brings it up when he pays her a visit at work - let us know which one you'd prefer).

[forcevisions]

Thanks for the info on the caves, and double thanks for the clear limitations re: Mars shuttle.

Are any of the companies who were leading the charge on AI developments pre-war still around and in the tech/robotics business?

[larkers]

You're welcome!

We need to internally discuss that question, so we'll get back to you on our normal plot engagement day!

[998]

he wouldn't mention it while she's at work, but when she gets back he'll be 100% more dedicated and invested after the Rey Plot so it would be a good time for him to start spying for real!

[reneger]

Hello!


Just to verify: given the assistance of Kovacs, Caroline(+Marcos), and Laura--is a headcount of seventeen victims alright? Five for Jay, five for Kovacs, seven for Caroline with Marcos--and Laura helping with quick transports.

[larkers]

Hi Jessi!

That sounds fine. Thanks for the follow-up!

[dragonwarder]

Hi mods!

I sent a PM regarding a couple options for NPCs. Please let me know when you get a chance which option you think would be best to pursue, if any.

As far as the samples go -- would Morningstar have resources to break/splice the samples down to discover what they had originated from (and if they are purely organic)? If so, that would be her angle -- if Morningstar would be able to break them down, but not have the resources to tell her specific information about them, she would ask that be done and hold onto the samples until she found someone who could.

[gasping]

no worries!!! ♥ to make it easy for y'all (and keep you from having to read the entire thread) we've recapped the Important Details by date below:

november 20
— marcos was kidnapped off the street / a local alleyway. he attempted to fight back, and was knocked unconscious for his troubles before being transported. he awoke in a nondescript room, tied to a chair, in the middle of interrogations. over the course of the first day, he was slapped, pistolwhipped, kicked, and punched enough to have significant injury (a broken jaw, a concussion, and various aches and pains) and subsequently passed out for the remainder of the evening. it is unclear where he was held or what position they kept him in, but he does believe he was kicked around or otherwise abused in his sleep.
— caroline was kidnapped off public transit (what little was working post-emp) and knocked out before she could fight back. she was too distracted by marcos' sudden silent treatment during his initial unconsciousness to notice anyone approaching her -- and we are playing off her being knocked out as the gang members wanting to avoid a round 2 of a morningstar agent trying to fight their way out of capture. caroline also woke up in a nondescript concrete room, tied to a chair; in this room, she was subjected to interrogation at similar levels, but she was more likely to cry and beg than to throw up.
— though caroline and marcos do communicate via implant messages, it is sporadic and not always clear. they make the assumption that they must be held in the same place based on nothing but the fact that they're both being subjected to garbage treatment. they are very lucky to make this educated guess.
— marcos is experienced in interrogation on an ic level, and was more conscious in choosing not to respond / not to engage. he did message jyn intentionally to advise of what was going on, though he was not very coherent in his responses.
— caroline, having only been subjected to vampiric torture once icly (so far), was less experienced in more traditional interrogation methods. while she answered, her answers were honest and panicked: she wasn't an agent of morningstar, she didn't know who was in charge, she couldn't make anybody do anything. she did tell them that she worked as a party planner. in her panic and fear, she sent a few unintentional video or audio recordings through her implant (not via the morningstar network) to jyn, klaus, hope, and prompto.
— while marcos passed out after unknown hours of interrogation, caroline did not; she was taken to a small holding room overnight.

november 21
— marcos wakes up in the same room he'd been held in previously (though he's not sure if it's the same room or just another nondescript room for torture), but finds he is now flat on his back, tied to a board, where he is treated to a round or two of waterboarding.
— caroline wakes up in her holding cell to a gang member coming to take her to day two of Fun and Games. after encouragement from jyn and after realizing what kind of treatment marcos has endured, caroline opts to fight back. she snaps the neck of the gang member and leaves his lifeless body in her cell (to be discovered later by someone, probably)
— at caroline's instruction, marcos screams her name (tropey, we know) which allows caro to use her heightened senses to find him in the building. she's confronted by two gang members overseeing marcos' interrogation; the first one shoots her in the stomach, and she retaliates by biting his neck and draining him dry. a boost of energy AND some fun murder terrifies the second thug, who winds up shooting her in the leg before attempting to flee. (he does not flee. caroline digs the bullet out, chases him, and kills him. because he shot her in the leg, okay, and that's cheap.)
— they escape to the streetside space outside of the building without any further casualties, thanks to caroline's enhanced speed, and marcos hotwires a car to get them out of there. unfortunately, they are approached again by gang members attempting to stop them (why can't they take a hint???)
— thug #3 attacks caroline, who promptly kills him via swift neck snapping action. no muss, no fuss, just a dead body on the ground. thug #4 is run over by marcos in his car after it finally comes to life.
— thug #5, however?? decided to use heavy gunfire in a last ditch attempt to stop them, which left caroline riddled with enough bullets that she should very well be dead on the ground. instead, she crawls into the car, and marcos drives away. this leaves one gang member as a direct witness to her own supposedly impossible strength/resistence and possibly more as witnesses to the wreckage and bodies left in their wake.
— as follow up to the harvest festival log where caroline & marcos took advantage of the no-questions-asked nature of the brothels (i'm really not going to link this thread) AND in taking advantage of the room damon arranged with one of the high-end brothels to offer a "vampire experience", they... went to one of the nicer brothels to claim a room. caroline rents the room for two weeks to start, because they are both adamant that they cannot return to the safehouse or they'll risk endangering every other person there.
— marcos is nearly dying so caroline feeds him her blood, which takes what little energy she has out of her. this is mostly to avoid having to go to a public location to use a medi-unit, since the safehouse is out of the question.
— they sleep a lot?? they probably need it tbh

november 22 and onwards
— over the course of 24 hours, the majority of marcos' major injuries are healed thanks to caroline's blood donation. he is still left with a mild concussion and soreness, but he's not dying or suffering from any broken limbs. he will, however, continue to suffer from the mental impact of torture, including water trauma
— caroline herself gets a blood top off from poe, who then takes her to the clinic where el has arranged for her to get regular blood bags. she goes through a week's supply in one day, like an idiot.
— since jyn knew the extent of both persons' injuries and caroline's vampiric status, she offered to contact caroline's boss to report her illness. caroline misses approximately three days of work before heading back in, and though she doesn't look like someone who's been under interrogation, she's definitely a little weaker than usual and a bit less perky as a result.
— marcos definitely loses his job :C but he's working on getting a new one!

short edit: trace wanted me to mention that, while the interrogators had marcos unconscious, they collected some of his Weird Glowing Blood into a vial. what they do with it / why they wanted it is up to y'all!

i think that's everything!! if there are any follow-up questions or clarification needed, we are more than happy to advise!

[forcevisions]

While Rey is IDless is she allowed to comment anon on the MS network like newbies or is her situation more complicated?

[larkers]

Hey Tifa!

1. Most of the records regarding ties to AIs have been scrubbed. It's reasonable to assume that all three of the companies headquartered in New Amsterdam have ties to AI development in the past, but they did a good job of working with the other corporations of the world to clean up that history. As a result, most past AI development is squarely left on Xelkov's shoulders. The only exception to this is Riverstone, which is based out of New Beijing and has a couple of small satellite subsidiaries in New Amsterdam. However, their stance has always been anti-AI. We wrote up a bit about Riverstone here. Most of their New Amsterdam presence is related to special effects and set production, with some emphasis on helping with the cybernetics production.

2. She can have a temporary ID set up to eventually evolve into her real one. So, she can begin to go by [Bad username or site: kira @ solo] as soon as she's out of New Prague and going into hiding! El will work out the back end particulars like he did with the most recent wave of newcomers.

[forcevisions]

Thanks for the ID news! So to clarify: she'll be good to use network functions, but still should stay in the caves until ~Dec 7 right while the backstory stuff gets fleshed out?

Would Rey be able to get a job working on robotics in New Amsterdam satellites with Riverstone, or is that New Beijing exclusive?

[larkers]

Hi Kay!

We read over the PM and are open to either the first or second options, so feel free to go with the one that appeals to you most! Just let us know what you decide on.

At the moment NA's branch of Morningstar doesn't have any access to lab tech resources, so they wouldn't be able to help with that right now. But Dany could definitely hold onto the samples and make it a goal of her to find someone who could help with the splicing/analysis!

[larkers]

Hi Tifa!

She'll only be able to use the Morningstar network during that time!

As for Riverstone, that wouldn't be done in New Amsterdam! She could look into getting a job with their cybernetics branch in New Amsterdam. This is closely associated with Giles Bell, but it's unlikely that she would cross paths with anyone she did work with or for before.

[realists]

on jyn, clarke, & prompto's camping trip during the emp aftermath, jyn took the time to collect a number of samples including soil, water, a number of plants (the bleeding tooth mushrooms and ghost flowers specifically), and some of the insects she murdered at night, plus a stray spider, which as clarke pointed out is not a bug. :) she would also grab some of the dead animals just off the street to look into their golden eyes.

when things start to calm down a little (after daisy and cassian are called in for secrets), jyn would bring the samples to work and ask around for someone to look into them for her since while her interests lean toward natural sciences she doesn't have the technical know-how to look at shit under a microscope and notice anything that might be awry, especially things from this world. she will not admit that she went outside of the city but say she collected the samples from the animals that had come in during and after the emp chaos. (she will not waver from this even though it seems absurd that an animal could lug in intact plants or enough water to supply a sample.)

my question is two-fold: 1. will she be able to find a scientist willing to help her, with the consideration that she is a hard-working employee who does her job well and may have a good reputation for being a smart cookie even if she grumbles about the absurdity of the idea of terraforming gas giants while she works and 2. if that is possible what, if anything, would she find out about the samples and the creepy golden eyed animals. she is under the impression that it's some kind of effect of the climate change??? but she has no idea which is why she wants to look into it.

curiosity killed the jyn.

[evasives]

hello again mods every single comment just gets me more and more excited.

the riverstone stuff is so interesting! does new amsterdam house any buildings connected or owned by riverstone? like, do they have any branches in the city?

thanks for the history info! i am definitely interested in having cassian make a visit to new oslo! should i be on the lookout for that, or do i need to talk to any pcs/npcs?

he would also definitely start digging more into the power outage in sept 2510 if more of that information is available, ie: what the public explanation is, versus how much damage it was against the latest EMP. how long were the power outages? what specific areas of the cities went without power? if only the new amsterdam info is accessible, he'd just focus on that.

the power outage stuff is especially interesting because cassian suspects it might give him a potential timeline for his surgery and recovery, running off the theory that he was in a medi unit during a power outage. even if it wasn't that september - just how long it could have feasibly taken for him to go through the whole process of medi-unit -> surgery -> medi unit again for it to be successful, that's his angle.

quick side note: how long would it usually take a medi unit to heal a broken back?

as for the patients, would it be possible to get into medical records at a hospital? he could get in the building through his maintenance job, and if necessary bring a hacker with him, unless it's more easily accessible as something he could do a search through on his own. he wouldn't immediately approach anyone he found, and if this method isn't possible, he would try something else! (which i will get back to you about lmao)

[forcevisions]

I think I'll go with apprentice engineer in cybernetics with Riverstone, if possible! It's a sidestep for her into something she's less familiar with, so she won't have the self confidence to try to do it on her own immediately. But a brief introductory period as an apprentice or entry level Engineer I should help her transition.

It'll probably take her a week or two after getting her ID fully set up to arrange interviews and all that, so she probably wouldn't start until like Dec 21 say?

Also: does their cybernetics research include implant tech? Basically, what kinds of cybernetics would she be working with?

[dragonwarder]

Hi mods!

Dany will be charming a tracker named Aramis over social media, with the goal of getting them to agree to give her a tour of a facility and the work they are doing. She would have spent at least a month just diligently commenting on their posts until they noticed her interest in their work, at which point she would slide into their dms to wriggle a tour out of them.

As for the samples, she will hold onto them and search for someone to help down the line -- maybe her new research friends, when she levels up her trust with them.

[realists]

HEY I AM BACK to add another thing about jovavich and her campaign!

once jyn notices the saplings showing up -- she loves them like her babies, she would shoot jovavich an email politely thanking her for following through (polite because cassian helps her word these emails and he is slick af). she would also suggest some other things to get people involved in helping their fellow man: clothing and food drives, food pantries like community fridges, or even lunch bag drives like #hashtaglunchbag that could involve the community children and emphasize, you know, giving back to the community and your neighbor, healing together, etc etc.