larkers | PLOT ENGAGEMENT (ARCHIVED)

PLOT ENGAGEMENT (ARCHIVED)

> 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

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Hi Tona!

With regards to bounty hunters, we're going to say that they don't exist in the way that you're thinking. Most people who perform similar duties - such as taking out an opponent on the other side of a deal that went south - would act as enforcers for mob families. That would be their "job." There wouldn't be a position for competing interests. The path is much the same as we indicated in the previous link!

As for mercenaries, they do exist, but are extremely illegal (which may not be surprising). For a point of where mercenaries exist in the world, they are actually hired on as the guards to take care of Displaced during drop offs, and they're the ones who were involved in the gunfight with Morningstar in the very first log a year ago. (These were never UNA soldiers, but they do utilize much of the same tech!) Getting in with them is a lot harder given the types of people they're hired for (and the sensitive information contained therein).

Mercenaries tend to exist in under the radar mercenary companies that are then contracted by corporate powers. Given the utilization of high-grade military tech and the fact that they often work as enforcers for people with a lot of money - thus being the more "corporate" side of this coin, if you will - it's hard to catch their eye, or even know where they are.

That's not to say that Dutch can't join up. She absolutely can, but given this angle's potential to uncover large plot details, we'd like you to propose a plot in exploring them! Obviously, there are the drop offs, which can be tracked for the times they're more likely to take place. The DIsplaced have enough information to track these, and Caroline (

gasping) works with the events committee and can act as a resource. In addition, V (

verselet) has met these mercenaries outside of the drop offs.

You can have Dutch safely assume that the guards aren't UNA thanks to the Morningstar/Displaced correlation (as they would seemingly know better) and they aren't the cops (since the cops also know nothing).

And if that angle doesn't work for you, we'd be happy to help you with another one!

Hello Mods!

Just a couple questions for you:

1. Is it possible for the displaced to put up the equivalent of a 'do not disturb' message or otherwise make it very apparent to other parties that they are ignoring their communications?

2. As part of the background that was arranged by Cassius upon Carol's arrival (mother was NAPD and then subsequently UNA), would it be feasible for her to pursue a career in law enforcement? If so would she have any sort of leg up above say any other people who would've presumably enrolled into the future equivalent of the police academy?

My intention isn't for her to have any sort of significantly higher importance role or become a detective, but rather a uniformed officer who handles mostly routine calls. clocks in and clocks out and mostly just patrols NA on a hoverbike or squad car with or without the overbearing precinct assigned partner

if rey tries to get her robotics team helping out with the city's plumbing disaster by proposing unmanned drone style robots to move through the city's plumbing and clear the pipes of roots/etc. and reseal the holes bored in them by roots digging in, how long would a project like that take to get going and how receptive would riverstone be to an idea like that? she recognizes it's maybe outside of their purview because it's at its core philanthropic, but it could also mean government contract if they sold them to the city, so ...

thoughts?

Edited 2019-09-19 03:55 (UTC)

Hi mods! This is amazing — I'm not sure Dutch joining up with the mercenaries as described here would fit where she's at, but she's definitely at a point where she's sick and tired of being jerked around by whoever or whatever brought them here and to Zerzura, so she'd like to take some kind of action.

Having her put together a team (or teams) to stake out locations for potential drop-offs and then try to track the mercenaries that drop off newly displaceds after the drop would be an amazing plot and just the kind of thing she'd be inclined to do. I'm crazy busy with work atm, so I don't feel like I'm in a place to run this kind of plot rn, but once work calms down (late October, early November), I would LOVE this, if that's an option.

This would also negate some of the need to get dutch a more involved job than security at a bar/fighting in the fight rings, since she'd be able to take action this way.

OKAY, SO. Going into this with the understanding it might not lead anywhere at all other than Roxas maybe getting some weird looks.

Ever since his arrival, Roxas has been very concerned that there might be other monster hospitals out there—not actual hospitals filled with creepy beasts, per se, but other Displaced that came into the world a long time ago and are being held unknown to others, like his arrival group was, and that his friends might be among them. Accordingly, along with general getting-to-know-this-world exploration, he's living up to his Organization training and doing as much recon as possible as well as possible without dark corridors to sneak him around.

Obviously he will not locate a hidden cache of unconscious Displaced, but in his explorations, are there any happenings in New Amsterdam he might find odd/worrisome/generally notable? Let's assume for his dignity that he's decent at going unnoticed since he's had practice, but he's no Assassin's Creed-level stealth master. I'm also cool with him catching consequences for being a nosy parker, though I'd like to have an idea of what they'd be before committing.

Thanks mods!

Hi MJ!

1. They would need to manually set this up for all of their communications, perhaps setting it so that responses from that person would be filtered and responded to in a certain way. This would only work on inboxes or communication outside of the Morningstar network.

2. She would definitely be able to be set up in this direction! Training would still take three months to complete, but she would naturally stand out to anyone training her and would have an easier time transitioning into the workforce once she's done (specifically: without a partner breathing down her neck). However, we do know there are a couple of other players looking into law enforcement for their characters, and we could probably set up an arrangement where this acts as a CR connection for you and them.

Training itself is paid - so Carol wouldn't need to get another job. This would mean she's done by the end of IC March, but she would have the opportunity to begin to network and set up connections within the precinct. There are a couple of hanging plot threads with the police force, such as building a connection with Detective Satou to look into the mysterious people springing the Displaced from captivity, as well as any strangleholds the UNA (or anyone else) has on the NAPD when it comes to UNA actions and who might be aware of these. There are a few other plot avenues that you can readily take if you're interested - so beyond these idle opportunities, we're ready to tailor anything to what you'd like to do. For instance: there are a lot of untapped directions from the plot we ran in June. Even if Carol wasn't there, she would quickly become aware of them once she passed her exam and started training.

So, yes: it's a go! She would still need to complete the required training, but that would still put her in touch with a lot of the force and her background would inevitably impress people enough to start opening their mouths around her.

Hi Tifa!

Chances are that the government is probably already on top of dealing with the plumbing issues since it would have impacted so many people, but Rey and her robotics team might be able to contribute by offering to repair drones that are already being used in the clean-up effort. This could earn her some government connections and good will, although chances are that Riverstone would be expecting any work contributed to be pro bono, AKA their workers volunteering out of the goodness of their hearts.

Again, this might at least put Rey into someone's good graces within Riverstone and the government, if she's willing to put in that extra work. If she can convince coworkers to contribute too, even better! Otherwise, we also suggest that Rey look into preventative action with the drones or trying to find the "root" - haha - of the problem, since this plant issue won't go away with just patchwork in place.

Hi Tona!

This is perfectly fine! We understand needing to hold off until time is better for you. Just hit us back here so we can get you started, and we recommend setting up a plotting post on the OOC community or CR meme to loop others in!

Hi Jaina!

We're going to need a little more detail in order to properly answer your question. It would help us if you can give us some specifics on the sorts of places that Roxas would be frequenting and sneaking into. You can refer to the Setting and Location pages if you need some guidance on where to start, but we're also always open to fleshing out another part of the city if there's a specific aspect of the meta plot that you want to delve into more.

Given that he's trying to track down places where other groups of Displaced might be held, try to consider where he could look around within New Amsterdam to try and get that information. Once we have a better idea of what Roxas' approach would be, we can give you some more info.

Thanks!

Hi There!

Thanks for the update. Peter is currently very unhappy about the noise that is filtering between shared walls in his apartment that he shares with Marcos (and Bobbi) and I figured it might be one of those little things that other players might enjoy knowing.

As for Carol, I would happily welcome the opportunity to branch out on the CR front and make those connections with any other players looking to have their characters involved with local law enforcement.

Carol has ICly expressed desire to know the forces responsible for their release and in the aftermath of her arrival and subsequently the events in Zerzura, she has some major concerns that the Kree are somehow involved so there's a personal interest for her here even if there's no connection whatsoever. She would definitely be keen to get in touch with Detective Satou regarding any information he could provide or leads he may have.

hello hello hello!

i'd like caroline to get started (or have already gotten started) on pursuing more gang-related / crime-related employment. i know in previous plot engagement threads it was mentioned that members of different families might reach out to her for enforcer gigs or other opportunities, and i'd like to move forward with that if i can!

she would, if at all possible, prefer to work alone rather than with members of whatever criminal family wanted to hire her — and while enforcer gigs would be a good foot in the door, caroline would indicate that her strengths and preferences would both lean more towards the bounty hunting or independent muscle type of thing (tell me who to get, or tell me who to scare, and i'll do it vs i'll accompany you and make sure you don't get hurt kind of jobs would be her preference). she'd also broach the subject of inviting someone "on her level" (ie hope) to either take her own jobs or work with her — two supernaturally strong cute girls is better than one, right?

i'm sure i'm forgetting something or not thinking of some plot line but i hope that helps to start!

Hey guys!

1. I want to get Clarke working in a medical capacity around the city. A few ideas I've cooked up are:

- Working as an intern/on the job trainee for medical assistant work
- Working with PRESERVE to continue to help people who need medical assistance
- Generally something else that's more hands on?

This would, in theory, help benefit her medical training that she's been working toward since she started in the game a year ago. My thought is that she definitely has the background to go through some online courses rather quickly, and would want to add more hands on work to her resume.

I'm just not sure if any of this is viable. This is my last comment on this for reference.

My other thought is that maybe she can get a job with PRESERVE helping them with efforts in New Amsterdam? I'm spitballing here to see if you (... other mods ...) can help.

2. To work on Akechi's in-game plot, he's going to be looking into the following:

- Jovavich's campaign's overall sentiments toward their key opponents
- How they think of Gill-Jade
- Their views on the Mars rebellion
- Their views on Morningstar's recent actions
- Why Jovavich is pursuing a political career despite her deep interest in human exploration and science - I assume this part is answered in an interview, but Akechi wouldn't take whatever answer there was at face value.

Edited 2019-09-24 01:26 (UTC)

Rey will put in some pro bono work to repair the drones the gov't is already using. Since as discussed her work during contract hours at Riverstone will be sometimes inconsistent, she'll try to sneak in some of this during otherwise idle work hours (much to her boss' chagrin, though she'll be discreet after that becomes obvious) but she'll also put in some hours outside of the normal day.

I'll do what I can with brainstorming about the root of the issue. 🤔

Hi MJ!

There is a plot that was put into motion in May where Detective Satou spoke to V about the Displaced, though she doesn't have all the pieces together for that. This thread happened here, and the follow up among the Displaced was here. Unfortunately, game events put a strain on that, and Riko has once again lost a Displaced contact! We intended to have V and Dick work together - one inside, one outside - to see how Riko can help (while protecting her from Gaby's secret double life). As you can see on the second link, this directly ties to the mystery about where the Displaced came from. Right now, Riko is aware that there are people like the Displaced who show up and then mysteriously disappear, but is lacking a lot of the big details.

We've spoken to Gee about getting Stephen to rope Carol in - which may happen here, though we don't know how much contact Stephen and Carol have had (outside of being castmates). This would inevitably lead to Stephen or Gaby looping Carol in about Riko knowing what's going on, allowing you to pick up that hanging plot thread! Let us know if that sounds good to you.

Hi Jenna!

First off: will Caroline be continuing her job with the event planning committee in New Amsterdam? We've directed someone else to her recently, so we'd love an update on this considering this turn in plotting! She can easily do both if you'd prefer - especially considering the stipulations below.

As we've established before, there are no traditional bounty hunters or independent enforcers in New Amsterdam. A lot of this has to do with the surveillance and the fact that these crime families have maintained their longevity by being careful about who they trust. You're right that they would be very interested in Caroline's services, but her demand that she works independently would put them off. However, their demand for her services may lead to a bidding war between the Petrov and Riverside mob groups, which could offer her more independence. She would still be beholden to that group's ideals and expected to work for them without turning against them.

The inclusion of Hope would be a difficult factor, as we're fairly certain that she doesn't have any activated supernatural abilities in game (aside from her healing blood). They know what Caroline is capable of, but wouldn't want Hope to be included unless she can demonstrate that she's on the same level. None of the bidding wars would be likely to make an exception for Hope. Feel free to correct us on this if we have the wrong idea, but the families would already be touchy about Caroline's extensive demands, and it is very possible that the expectation of Hope's inclusion would be going too far. We're happy to work with Ashley to get her on this path, however!

Hi Alison!

Both the medical assistant and the PRESERVE ideas are viable, but if she's going to want to actually make a living, the medical assistant option is probably her best bet. She would need a certificate that she could get through online courses in order to be hired, with on-the-job training then following. Obviously schooling of that nature would take at least a few months in reality, but you can say that she's taking an accelerated course if you want to bump up her timeline.

PRESERVE would be primarily volunteer work so it wouldn't pay well, but they aren't going to require as much from her in terms of schooling and will be (due to desperation) more willing to get her hands-on sooner.

She can do both, depending on how much time she's willing to commit!

2. - Jovavich's campaign's overall sentiments toward their key opponents: Their thoughts on Lynch is that he's too soft and therefore not good politician material. On the other hand, they have suspicions that Durcell could be appealing to outside help (that is, criminal elements contributing both resources and elements of protection/blackmail to their campaign).

- How they think of Gill-Jade: Externally, they would speak of her as a good and effective governor who fell on hard times. Internally, she'd be seen as incompetent and unskilled. A good chunk of Jovavich's campaign revolves around improving and having contingency plans in place where Gill-Jade failed.

- Their views on the Mars rebellion: Externally, they would view the rebellion as a cause of concern given that Jovavich believes the future of humanity is in space. Internally, it's viewed as an inconvenient distraction that ultimately won't amount to much. In other words, they're not actually that worried about it.

- Their views on Morningstar's recent actions: It's all just further proof that Morningstar is a threat to the stability of society.

- Why Jovavich is pursuing a political career despite her deep interest in human exploration and science: As mentioned above, moving humans out into space and colonizing nearby planets is what Jovavich believes is part of humanity's future. Going into politics is Jovavich's way of seeing to it that those goals can actually be carried out. The campaign would seem set on maintaining this belief, even if Akechi were to go digging/eavesdropping/etc.

hello it's me as promised!

upon returning from zerzura, octavia is even more determined to get her gang progressing (as discussed here) and has thrown herself more fully into the underground, including hiding in that shady area (because discussing your feelings is hard). i'm wondering how much progress she could have made, and what things she could have feasibly gotten up to in the last month and into this month, etc.

Hello modlies!

It's been a few months since Dany started schmoozing her tracker friend, so she is going to start pressing a little harder for a facility tour with the goal of networking with some staff, seeing just how big of a focus the research projects are, what sort of focused research is being done.

She'll also be asking Aramis specifically (and anyone else in the facility who appears warm to her presence) what they think of the animals roaming around.

Hi Eliana!

Can you let us know which tactic she's employing during this time? We need a little more information to know which direction she's focusing on. We'll get back to you faster than our usual turnaround time so you can get moving. There were a few covered in our previous thread, so we'd like to know which one she's employing.

Thanks!

Hi Kay!

At this point, given that Dany's had some time to warm up to Aramis, she would be able to charm her way into a tour of the facility where they work. This would be the kind of tour that is offered to a member of the public rather than a fellow scientist, however, so she wouldn't be allowed to see any of the ongoing research up-close. It would be more along the lines of being shown lab spaces from a distance (with a glass wall between her and the work area, for instance) while her tour guide (probably just Aramis) gives generalized overviews of the work being done. As Aramis' tracker work suggests, the scientists here are taking samples of mutated animals that have been found, both in Antarctica and elsewhere, and trying to determine how they evolved or mutated into their current forms.

When asked about the animals roaming around the city, none of the other researchers would say anything about it, but Aramis might show her some footage they took themselves -- off the record. They'll be brief videos of some of the gold creatures that Aramis found while searching around New Amsterdam, mainly from a distance as they wanted to observe their behavior first before trying to capture them.

They will say that they've managed to get their hands on some of them, and have noticed that many of the animals' features don't necessarily make sense in an evolutionary way. For example, he'll show a video of a reptilian creature that has the eating habits of a mammal - which is absolutely unusual. Reptiles, especially in the cooler temperatures around New Amsterdam that are currently present, tend to have slower metabolisms that require them to eat far less food. Aramis' biologist friends are doing some further experiments on the creatures, while also trying to sustain them on a diet that includes some of the greenery from around the city (which they've observed does, in fact, prolong the golden-eyed creatures' lives, even if they are typically carnivorous-seeming creatures).

slides back in two months later, hi mods, sorry for the delay... vacations and work oh my. yells more, belatedly! i feel like this isn't the most progressive comment for this plot but i'm slow chugging.

1. i would prefer a different way in! but he will be taking his time with riverstone and would investigate the company itself for a while before trying any kind of means to get inside. specifically, obviously, he is more interested in their cyberkinetics work and how closely they work with giles bell, and if there are any significant people/figures associated with riverstone cyberkinetics to start. also, do they have offices in any other significant cities? like, new oslo perhaps?

2. yes i have seen it! i'm excited to see where it all goes! :D

3. are there any more interesting wild conspiracy theories? even if it's not relevant, this is just me being curious, but also cassian would probably read them all haha.
3a. have the fault lines changed any from the current earth? if cassian looked into the actual scientific possibilities, would there be a pattern in the fault lines to back up the public explanation?

5. i think he would work on becoming friendly with some of the receptionists first, which is evidently turning into his MO in new amsterdam. i'd like to say this is what he was doing while i was on hiatus in august, starting pre the zerzura event!

6. new question! running off his conversation with el, cassian will be looking more closely into overlap between the big three corporations, such as significant business deals or public image of how they cooperate, and potential big blow ups/disagreements. this also ties into riverstone, he would look into what connections to any of the other big companies it has, or any joint projects.
6a. babies!! that is, el brought up cyberkinetics before implants in infants with birth defects, so cassian would look into how common this is, if there are public stats. but he is more interested in how much effort giles bell puts into it and if they work with any other companies and/or specific people who might be attached to this kind of technological development. what makes it different from regular cyberkinetics and who has their toes in that pool?

hi mods! sorry to have two plotty questions/comments in such a short frame.

i should have followed up with this sooner, oops my bad what is time, but i'm just wondering about whatever happened with any of the bugs cassian tried to plant in various offices during the EMP disaster etc. i think the ic time has passed now for most of them to have gotten swept, except the one in gill-jade's home. what would he have gotten from them?

i double checked where he managed to place them:
pulsar conference room
giles bell conference room
vyonation conference room
katelin jovavich's office
gill-jade's office/governor office
gill-jade's apartment

thanks!! c:

Hi Tomato!

Just a quick follow up on this note that Veronica was handling most of the maintenance and plotting behind this one and she's out of the country, so it might be a little bit before we get back to you! We wanted to let you know so you aren't left hanging, and never worry about being "late" on this stuff! There is no late!

Edited (clarifying meaning of delay haha) 2019-10-07 23:09 (UTC)

please forgive me, i'm a dumbass that wrote that late at night and then belatedly realized the clarity of it was ... not good.

octavia's primary focus has been recruiting from the disorganized (thanks to jason) crime groups and capitalizing on those weaknesses, using displays of her power and her position as one of the displaced to inspire others to her cause. for the most part, however, octavia's main recruits come from those that feel misplaced, lost and forgotten themselves, so: petty criminals, street urchins, other gang rejects, etc. while it's mostly an angle to recreate blodreina in a way and clinging to that persona, using that unity and sense of belonging to gain a foothold in power and feel more in control of herself, the objective has been to target corrupt individuals (low-tier, for now, so think morally skewed employers, minor drug lords, etc) and those who are the targets of personal vendettas among the members/octavia. it's also likely she'll be using her cooltalk to bring some attention to this like some kind of wannabe revolutionary, but i'm not sold on that approach just yet.

i talked to jessi a bit about the underground stuff and while we did mention jason might give octavia an id scrambler and begin a trade of information of sorts, it hasn't quite gotten off the ground just yet! octavia's engagement took a backburner due to the setting switch which is fine, but leaves me a bit confused as to where to move from here.

i hope that was coherent. let me know if you have any other questions and i'd be glad to answer them!

Hi Eliana!

No worries about the lack of clarity—that's why we're happy to ask and get back to you quickly. ☺️

One more point of clarity before we hit the drawing board: would she be threatening these corrupt individuals (and thus potentially beating the snot out of them) or killing them?

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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PLOT ENGAGEMENT (ARCHIVED)

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