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

[larkers]

Hi Veronica!

1. Loki can definitely transfer over, though he won't be a senior business manager. There will be talks of a potential promotion to this position, but they'll want to see how he creates and carries out a project to better protect the subsidiary. This subsidiary's name is Tempo, by the way! Any of his familiarity with their security flaws won't be looked at in confusion, simply because it'll make sense that he was resourceful.

2. Katelin Jovavich is a pioneer in a lot of ways - she's been working for Pulsar since she was 18, having come in through the front doors of the company with a project to help improve terraforming efforts based on her own research. Through a family friend, she had managed to bribe and cajole her way into getting the appropriate files so that she could come up with a better plan. While that family friend was quickly demoted and disgraced within the company - if not fired, then forced to go back to entry level - Jovavich was quickly brought onto the team.

One of the big things that Loki will hear is that Jovavich gets what she wants once she sets her eyes on it. The biggest hurdle she's faced is that the UN government is opposed to releasing scientists into space to improve terraforming efforts, instead choosing to use people who are disposable and willing to take the government subsidy to live out their lives in space. Jovavich is opposed to these efforts, believing that their colonies are performing poorly because they don't have high-end engineers and scientists on board to help expand to space.

Her goal to become governor seems to be based on changing this. Jovavich never intended to enter politics - her goal was always to keep moving up within Pulsar to change their direction. However, she profiled well with the establishment thanks to her ambition and her tendencies as a visionary, so they began to prepare her as a politician. Jovavich started to be fast tracked following Gill-Jade's failures.

As for Jovavich's familial background, they're old money - though Jovavich is actually adopted! No one knows the reason behind her adoption, though her family was more involved in the business side of the corporate world than the science side. It seems that Jovavich's ambition and intelligence comes from her biological family, though she's never mentioned them.

Jovavich herself is unmarried - and her former employees joke that she's "married to her job." That's … quite true.

3. This is all good! Go forth and pitch it to us and we'll get back to it ASAP. We're thinking it can go up next weekend, if that's good for you guys!

4. Thanks, Loki. She'll say she's passing them to El, since she … doesn't have much use for them.

5. They have to go through a government-run driver's program. Because of the danger associated with hover cars, there are a number of hours expected for someone to have completed. For anyone new to the game, they can work with El to bypass this process - but someone needs to know how to pilot a bit in addition to just driving.

[chocolateries]

sliding in here for a question re: cassian's bugs & relevant to his upcoming info dump

once he listened and heard jovavich's repetition of marianna, larkin, johann, and soto at pulsar, jyn would delve into looking them up for him (since you know, she works there) and searching through the directory and probably enlisting pearl (the receptionist unknowingly in cassian's network) for all the gossip, if there is any.

to note, jyn has been learning earth specific hacking with daisy since returning from new tokyo and settling into their sweet mtv cribs pad (so roughly oct 20 which puts her at approx four months), so if any info or gossip stalls out she would seek to unearth it that way, as well.

[evasives]

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

is it possible for cassian to find the actual earthquake epicenter? like is there a map out on the big old internet? the outage wasn't global, but did the earthquake itself have ripple effects? or was it more several earthquakes at once?

re: new oslo, this is the first mention i've seen of them being prepared too! is that something he'd be able to find out more about once they make that trip to new oslo, or would he pick up hints on it through digging in the medical records?

i have been enjoying this a lot, mods! i'm excited to see where it goes and to take this angle a little more publicly.

[larkers]

Ahhh whoops, quick note: New Oslo was not prepared! We were trying to show the distance between those locations in our example, rather than state that New Oslo was ready! As in, "it's weird for any seismic forecasts to predict that New Beijing and New Oslo would be hit with the same earthquake, but people in New Beijing were certainly prepared." Sorry for the lost meaning there, that's our bad!

We'll hit you back with everything on our usual plot engagement day, we just wanted to clear this up since we know there are threads in progress!

[interminably]

Hi mods! One question + a query/idea

Kol is no longer in the city, so Klaus would like to have his hands on his Cassius earnings and apartment. Obviously, Klaus and Cassius did not see eye to robot eye and things did not go... well. Klaus has what Kol provided temporarily but not the full amount of wealth. Aimee said we can hand wave Kol could have given Klaus an in to the account.

Now, if Cassius dicks over Klaus, how would that look, and is there something funny that could happen. Something black-list-y or just a general nuisance.

OR, in order to get his money, would Cassius maybe have something Klaus might need to do to get his hands on the money. An errand, or something? Ultimately, I want Klaus to have that access and the apartment -- but maybe at a cost.

ANYWAY, those are my thoughts, queries, and ideas.

[selfimage]

Sounds good! Sorry I'm a bit late, it's been A Week.

During the Carnivalentine's festivities Loki will be seeking out cult members to send a message back to Ball! It'll basically be a call for some bankrolling after the whole Judas thing. While Loki won't be entirely specific, he'll want to extend an invitation as a means of connection between Ball/cult and the Displaced! He'll explain that they have a few new faces, and it might be good to get their mingle on. He'll suggest the underground caves because it's a great way to make sure that no one who shouldn't show up doesn't.

Loki won't mind using some of his own funds and doing the planning along with Klaus and Diana.

And this weekend sounds fine.

[larkers]

Hi Tomato!

The reported epicenter is just off the coast of what was once the state of Washington. The details surrounding this earthquake are surprisingly vague, and the facility that reported the seismic activity at the time – based 100 miles east of New Omsk – closed down the month after the report was released due to retracted funding. If Cassian compares this report to other reports of seismic activity, he would find that the details are lacking. The report itself theorizes that the Juan de Fuca plate, located near what was once a populated part of the North American continent, collided with other tectonic plates surrounding it. However, there is little information confirming this, especially when seismologists are generally better at tracking these plates and helping with reports in advance. There were questions on this event that are left unanswered, though the report itself seems to go unquestioned.

[larkers]

Hi Emma!

Through digging in, Jyn would find out about the following people:

Marianna Webster-Doyle is Jovavich's executive assistant, and attends to her every need. She's a mousey shy woman who wears glasses as if she's trying to fit a long-forgotten stereotype (and this is a fashion statement in Meadowlark's world: no one wears glasses for the sake of wearing glasses anymore).

Olivia Larkin is Jovavich's second-in-command at Pulsar, and the one expected to succeed Jovavich if she's elected as governor of New Amsterdam. She's sharp and hardworking, though not as naturally talented as Jovavich. Some people think that Pulsar may look externally to take over Jovavich's position rather than ask for Larkin to step up, but this would be a move that would go against Jovavich's wishes (as she and Larkin are quite close).

Johann doesn't turn up any names, information, or gossip! Pearl will mention that she has a neighbor named Johann, but that's it. (No, this isn't the Johann you're looking for.)

Hanzo Soto is the Chief Marketing Officer at Pulsar. He and Jovavich regularly work together in order to best "sell" the world on their projects in space.

We're assuming that Jyn got this information through Pearl and looking into the Pulsar directory. However, if you'd like Jyn to dig in via hacking and see if she can find out more, let us know! There may be some consequences, and it could possibly end her career at Pulsar, so we didn't want to go ahead and assume she did that without your go ahead. Noodle over what you'd like to do and let us know!

[larkers]

Hi Brandon!

Rather than going to Cassius, we would recommend that Klaus goes to El (zeir inbox is here, though we see you're in there for another thread already!) to have him added to Kol's accounts. Right now, Cassius is too busy with Other Things to notice this changeover immediately, so it'll go unnoticed for now. This could change in the future depending on other player decisions, so hit us up after the next couple of events to check in on the status of this! For the time being, Klaus has access to the income of a single month's stipend.

[larkers]

Hi Veronica!

This sounds fine. We see that it's late in the weekend, so let us know if next weekend works better for all of you!

As for the bankrolling, can you clarify this request for us? Would he be asking for bankrolling for the party or for other Displaced activities?

[realists]

DAMN THAT IS SOME EXCELLENT SLEUTHING, pearl is the mvp.

jyn will be satisfied for now with pearl's hot gossip, 3/4 is not bad at all and cassian will caution her about going further so for now this is great! i will let you guys know is she seeks more via hacking later.

xoxo thanks mods!

[warfares]

hello modlies, i hope you guys are having an excellent christmas eve and getting a ton done before the big day!

quick question: if kylo were to look into the four birds from the first dreamscape, would he be able to determine their species? if so, what are they and what additional info could he uncover?

[forcevisions]

Just to confirm: it's ok if I make a network post with Wei Wux and invite all the Displaced to explore locations New Oslo and Everest in OOC January right? That won't throw off any mod-level plotting?

[realists]

if jyn looked into it would she find that the second child kidnapping and selling to rich people who want children a world wide thing that is happening in other cities or was it mostly new beijing due to the set up of their vast lower levels?

[heliophilous]

hello mods. i apologize for any missing details or anything in this plot engagement as i am hella tired right now. i have two things i'd like to ask about.

1) first thing, marcos (and i) have started to dig into the whole 'help those who can't help themselves' thing that he's been trying to get going. he hasn't joined morningstar (yet but i know he has to) but i was wondering how he should approach the next few things. he's done a lot of scouting in both new amsterdam and new beijing into places that could be used as safehouses. he's reached out to people in new amsterdam and did some 'networking' in new beijing as well.

would he have been able to make any noteworthy connections in either city? he's not a well known entity (unless you count his dalliance with the gangs awhile back lol) but he's also been out there, doing the legwork. would anyone have taken notice of his asking questions and such?

once he joins morningstar, would it be difficult to get himself into one of the abandoned buildings to start outfitting? he's not rich but he's not above taking what he needs either. ideally, once he does that, he'll take some time to fix it up (with help) and then make a network post just to let people know and then slowly start making his move as far as finding people that need his help and getting his name out there.

anyway, this is all rough and just me trying to get things rolling.

2. in cassian's post, he mentioned drug trials that giles bell is conducting and that they might be using human subjects. marcos suggested maybe getting himself in the trial. would it be difficult to do so, if giles bell is conducting trials on humans? he has a previous connection with giles bell as katelin, his former roommate, worked there so he knows of the company.

would it be overly dangerous to do so or would it be something he can recover from? and maybe jumping ahead but would anything useful come of volunteering if he did? obviously that last one's moot if he can't get himself in the trial but i'm covering all bases.

[gasping]

hi y'all!

i'd like to put together a game-wide event that all the displaced can take part in, utilizing caroline's position at the new amsterdam events committee. she's been talking to jyn a lot about the trees initiative and how positively jovavich responded to it, as well as to marcos about the push to do better in this world if they have the ability to.

i'd like her to suggest to her superiors at the events committee a charity event with proceeds benefiting the current environmental movement, and to follow jyn's suggestion of reaching out to jovavich in the hopes of perhaps getting her to add support/awareness and/or bankrolling the initiative. to make the event more special, she'd be aiming to host it on the leap year (feb 29) as it only comes around once every four years. possibly also looping in some members of the displaced with followings or celebrity status (lottie & her cooltalk followers; kovacs being lowkey banksy; strange and his magic?? there are others i'm forgetting i'm sure)

if it would still be information accessible to her, caroline would also point out the historical relevance — as the united nations decreed in 1954, "The Conference, recognising the need of arousing mass consciousness of the aesthetic, physical and economic value of trees, recommends a World Festival of Trees..." (i'm not sure if this is... the same UN? if this kind of information would be available online still?)

as far as game-wide participation beyond the noted above, my thought for the actual charity event would be two-parted — one being a more traditional silent auction, upscale event, something that could be done as a political event should jovavich opt to take part in it. think black tie, fancy dress, political and economic power players all trying to out do each other for the good pr of donating tons of money to a currently Hot Button issue. the other would be more aimed at the general populace, a date auction for bachelors and bachelorettes of the city (perhaps playing on the "did you miss out on having a date for valentine's? now's your chance) where high bidders get to enjoy nature-themed experiences and all the money raised goes to the same charity output.

i'd like to aim to have the event go up around mid-february, if possible, with ooc signups and whatever plotting post necessary in later january after brain surgery stuff has mostly concluded?

let me know! i'm down to workshop this, i just wanted to get the ball rolling

[watcherless]

Just to confirm: the construction happened to GUT the warehouse from Nov 2510 - April 2511? Or construction was happening to BUILD this facility during that time, and then it was gutted hastily a few weeks into July?

[larkers]

Hi Mal!

Sorry for not making this clearer at the time, but all four of the birds were the same bird – which would be more readily be identified as a spinetail if he looked them up now.

[larkers]

Hi Tifa! That will be fine and shouldn't throw anything off, so definitely feel free to go for it! This plot will be written into the event, so you can feel free to note that in any OOC notes if you decide to attach them to the post!

Thanks for checking with us.

[larkers]

Hi Emma!

As a heads up, we're afraid that something may have been lost in translation, but this was not a plot involving child kidnapping and selling them off to rich people. We wanted it to show a more ruthless take on Child Protective Services, where the kids are perceived as living in a scenario that isn't healthy for them, and they're adopted by families ready to take in a child. The family would have to have been previously approved (and these families often have more money) by the government. We refer to this a bit in our setting:

Population control has been adopted system wide, with individuals needing to seek out governmental approval before having a child. Retroactive approvals are sometimes granted on accidental pregnancies, but otherwise, should the pregnancy be carried to term, the child will be taken in by the government for adoption to an approved family.

The reason why the children are not found sooner is because of the often forgotten cases for families in the lower levels of New Beijing, so the ruthless version of it is unique to that city.

That doesn't mean that it's morally right or okay, of course. But this is definitely not a case of children being sold on a black market or semi-legally by the government. If there's something that still piques your interest here let us know!

[larkers]

Hi Trace!

1. Yes, people will notice! Gaby will say that he's done some good work, but he can't move forward until he official joins the Morningstar organization. That said, once he does, a few more doors will open for him to utilize his contacts. He will have made some noteworthy ones, and they'll be willing to put some effort into helping to rebuild some of the necessary infrastructure. In both New Amsterdam and New Beijing, he'll definitely have made contacts - we'll leave the creation of these NPCs up to you, unless you'd like us to help! None of the New Amsterdam contacts would be Morningstar affiliated (yet), while the New Beijing contacts would likely be a mix of Morningstar agents and sex workers. The agents would be reluctant to help him out until he named Gaby, and the sex workers would appreciate his efforts and would be open to helping him out. This could also create ins for Marcos with the sex workers in New Amsterdam if he wants to look into creating a system like the one in New Beijing (where the sex workers and Morningstar work in tandem to protect people).

That said, El would most likely take the forefront in funding the safehouse operations, and as a wider plot, Marcos' contacts from out of town would head in to come help him begin to fix up these pieces of property. He wouldn't be in this alone! You're free to make a network post, but you'll be getting some outside resources on this front, too, as more Morningstar contacts will be coming into town and helping out in our January intro. We'll cover more details there.

Let us know if there are any questions here, or if you need anything else cleared up!

2. There's definitely no secret about the trials themselves (just the circumstances of those trials, as the message illustrates), so it would just take a little internet searching for Marcos to find the current drug trials being held by Giles Bell. Much like today's trials, trials in 2512 are still double-blind studies that require test subjects to determine the efficacy and side-effects of the drugs released before mass circulation. He'll be able to get in without much fuss, but he will be subject to a screening visit which involves a physical including blood work, an app placed on his neural implant to monitor his status, and he'll need to check in frequently to the clinic that the testing is being held. On the up side, he'll receive a stipend for his time and a chance to make some contacts.

The drug itself was quickly designed in the past few months to try and help combat the sickness from the July 2511 virus (or what they have defined as a virus). As many of the Displaced know, the drug likely won't do what it's advertised to do, as they're the only ones who can cure it. But that doesn't mean that the Giles Bell scientists are aware of that, and their researchers are doing whatever they can to try and solve the problem. While the drug may not accomplished its intended purpose, since it's an antiviral it does come with a host of possible side-effects (which may be worse in some participants than in others), including insomnia, hallucinations, and manic episodes. To be clear, Marcos would be informed of these potential side effects when he gives informed consent to join the trial. How you want to play with this for Marcos is completely up to you! We do want to mention that this isn't tied directly to the metaplot, but does have potential for Marcos to gain some resources and to have a bit of fun, if you're interested.

Let us know how you'd like to move forward!

[larkers]

Hi Jenna!

We're really into this, but we have a few suggestions that would make it more compliant with our world, as well as what we've established with our political NPCs.

Jovavich won't be willing to partake in this. We're not sure if Caroline would be using the Events Committee to reach out or if Jyn would be reaching out, but she's caught up in other work and won't be interested in helping out with this particular project. We've alluded to the fact that Jovavich paid lip service here, so whether it's Caroline or Jyn, she isn't terribly interested in doing right by this kind of initiative.

The other members of the Events Committee would instead suggest Joseph Lynch for this purpose! Lynch has been behind a lot of charity initiatives in the city. For some more reading on Lynch:

◉ June calendar mentioning his running. His charity work compelled Jyn to write Jovavich in the first place, and it will be established that he's more amenable to these things.
◉ Ellie had Peggy look into Lynch here. All of this information is publicly available.
◉ This nugget of information got released by Cassius during the EMP, and added to this post.
◉ Lynch's philanthropy is mentioned on the August and September calendars.

So we're going to go ahead and say Lynch is the one bankrolling this function!

It can't happen on the leap year because that would happen in January OOCly. We're sorry about our confusing ass calendars. We're going to suggest a nod to White Day, making it so that it falls on your planned calendar and within one of our "off" event months.

We're happy to provide some upper echelon NPCs for this purpose! However, we would need a plan for how many of them get involved beyond Lynch's encouragement (since he would naturally bring in some via his involvement). Remember Geoff Bozos? His estranged wife Elin Zepatka would also be helping because of her long friendship with Lynch. But that would be tapping into the more philanthropic parts of the city, and we'd like to see a plan for how to get people from other walks of life. This can be determined through plotting, of course! We suggest you bring this to the playerbase as a whole through an IC post of some kind, illustrating that there's some additional help that's needed (with a potential OOC post for further planning).

Depending on how that plan goes, we can see a path for the mob families and Simone Durcell to get involved. But a lot will depend on the rest.

Finally, yes, it's the same United Nations!

[larkers]

Hi Tifa!

It's the latter! Built between those dates and then hastily gutted in July!

[gasping]

neat! thanks for some ideas, i'd like to try and formalize it a little more before i put an ic/ooc post together.

• instead of white day (or perhaps in combination with white day), would it be possible to use arbor day, which is celebrated in march historically in the netherlands? i don't know if arbor day would still be celebrated so perhaps white day is more culturally appropriate? but it would tie in with the trees?

• lynch is a great alternative and i love the public info from peggy's investigation! would it be possible for caroline to try to meet with lynch at some point (even informally by stalking him to his preferred morning cafe or something, vampire hearing being what it is) — i'm okay with this and would prefer it to be after the event itself, as she'd like to try and convince lynch to bankroll another more personal charity endeavour. ofc she might not succeed at all

• as far as immediate npc & city area outreach, here's what i've got noted
— philanthropy through elin zepatka & joseph lynch
— banking and finance through dennys behrs (jyn + co's very friendly neighbor)
— art world through takeshi kovacs
— social media advertising / influencer sphere through lottie person
— extend invitations to keynote the event to all three big companies (if the event is tailored to white day, specifically to medea & meredith ling, focusing on the work they've done and the incredible role models they are as powerful women in the economy??? spitballing here but white day is very cool from my ten seconds of google searching)
— i don't think caroline would outright tell her mob family boss about her day job but she wouldn't deny/hide it either? so i'm wondering if there's some way to make that connection as well?

and then just a clarifying, functional question: does it make sense to split the event into two parts, with the silent auction vs the bachelor(ette) auction for the general public, or is that taking on too big a thing to balance?

[overrate]

hi guys! i hope this isn't preempting anything since he's kind of going off this on his own, while not explicitly engaging with any particular faction just yet.

1. he's been tailing the UNA soldiers, seeing what he can learn about their tactics, training and weaponry. basically, he knows they're brainwashed, but how good is their training? are they quick to jump to use of force if challenged, or are they basically chill?

2. he'd also be researching the structure online. looking up information on how the UNA is set up based on public records. so would he be able to find anything about a chain of command? a compositional makeup of the forces? (% by country, gender makeup, any notes on air and sea forces, as well as reserve forces... the type of thing that's typically publicly available back in 2019)

and would he be able to find any documentation on funding at the very least, if not spending? and if he found that would he be able to notice any irregularities?

3. finally, are the UNA/Police stations public knowledge? and would he notice them having other, not public hangouts?