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

[voicelog]

just an addendum to the above, but tony is strongly against the idea of the tests overall. what is the likelihood they can negotiate with riverstone to have the exchange of information for something else? ex. rather than participate in tests, an offer of services etc instead.

[larkers]

Hi Laws! Because this event was also designed as a way to bypass some resource issues for the Displaced (letting them get test results for ongoing questions, for instance), they won't agree to any services in place of experiments. Obviously, this is more an OOC reason than an IC one, but they would tell them that they don't require any services from the Displaced that they can't manage themselves. This may not even necessarily be true given some of the access the Displaced have to the world, but that would require the Displaced to reveal what they know about the gates, fast travel system, and more. We figure this would also expose more than any of the Displaced would like.

[evasives]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[voicelog]

yes, that's fine! i figured it was gonna tie into the upcoming event. tony is gonna try his darnedest anyway, but if riverstone doesn't budge, then he will at least insist on a detailed contractual agreement re: all of the points tifa made above. he also wants to know if representatives for the displaced who've volunteered can be present during the tests for accountability purposes.

[lifetothefullest]

Sorry the delay on this augh.

1. Sounds good! It'll be a fun little nerd vacation, at least. And I will definitely keep an eye out for bird stuff~

2. Ooooh this is all super interesting! I'll definitely message Ana about that potential lead re: Henries, especially since Lance and Drake are friends so I've got plenty of ic excuse to get into that conversation.

Similarly, Lance knows Jack so I think I can probably figure out a good way for this icly to come up! Jyn also just mentioned to Lance that Johann has clones so I'm presuming that's another interesting bit to this plot?

As far as the lack of info on Henries goes, that's definitely something Lance will notice and so I'm going to think about some more potential avenues for looking into that further and get back to you on it when I have some more time for it. c:

Re: unaging dude, also very interesting! Same as above; I definitely want to think about more potential things to try to explore with this, I just haven't had any time lately, alas. So I will for sure be back with more questions about all of this, especially once some of the ic threads play out a bit more.

Thank you! <3

[larkers]

Hey Gee!

As noted before, the best time for the announcement will be in November, so we'll touch on the reaction/outcome of that later! As for the rest:

- Because PRESERVE worked so closely with the Displaced (and Clarke specifically) during the monster event, this seems like a natural extension of that and they'll be all for it. With the city in its current state, they need all the help they can get. Red Wings and the Displaced are some pretty useful allies to have!

- As for the training center, Clarke and Stephen will definitely find businesses willing to back them up. Since the city was essentially left to defend itself during the last event, many business owners will view this as a way to safeguard against further structural and financial damage if anything else happens. After all, if the population can protect itself, maybe things won't go so badly, and it'll make the businesses look good to back this sort of community project. Some of the owners and employees may even ask to be included in the training center project.

In return, the businesses will ask for Clarke, Stephen, Glimmer, Lexa and Castiel to promote their training center project on community network pages, forums and CoolTalks and other social media. This can be through little videos (think TikTok), images with blurbs on their progress, or calls for membership. This will fully start when the training center is up and running, but a few may be excited to play their part as it's being built up! They'll want to know how their money is being used, and how it promotes their own businesses! As a bonus (or not, perhaps?) this'll also raise the follower count of those involved.

Some businesses will be willing to pitch in purely for philanthropic reasons, so Clarke and Stephen will be able to raise not just money, but also donations for some of the things they might need. They will have to prove to the businesses that they're making progress, however! Those that aren't interested in the marketing aspect want to know their communities are well taken care of. Other businesses will disagree with the project, and think that teaching anybody off the street to fight is a little questionable, so some community townhalls may have the beginnings of a few grumbles here and there. However, largely the effort will be met with a lot of public support.

[larkers]

Hi Jay!

1 & 3. We're answering these together because they're semi-related. Just to clarify, everything underground in New Amsterdam is in heavy use. They're essentially underground streets and buildings, and don't lead out of the city. The tunnels we believe were referred to in Clarke's plans were the ones made by the monsters, and so they're not in particularly great shape. They'll need to be expanded and fortified to be utilized for anything useful, such as evacuation routes/monster transport. The group will have to contact Cassian for this, as he's already been tapped to do this sort of work! It's possible that he's already begun this work, but you'll want to touch base with Tomato.

2. After the disasters New Amsterdam has undergone, manpower is severely limited. In general, focus has been on monitoring the underground sections of the city that are inhabited, so the monster tunnels haven't really been touched by anyone but the Displaced.

4. Blueprints won't really be necessary here! They can simply use a GPS app through their implants to determine the best routes in and out of the city. The tunnel system hasn't been mapped, as it's all been made by the monsters. Linking the tunnels into underground areas or with each other will be another thing Cassian can help with.

As for Cas' birdwatching questions, both spinetails and meadowlarks do still exist! A "spinetail" can refer to a bird from two different generas (swifts and ovenbirds) and dozens of species, so their range varies as does their conservation status. Some of those species are known to migrate through Siberia, while many European spinetails retain their original migration patterns.

Meadowlarks are new world birds, but climate change has pushed them largely into Russia and Europe. Their migratory patterns also bring them into parts of Africa. It's incredibly rare to see either meadowlarks or spinetails, as they all live outside the walls of the megacities, and so they aren't often even photographed. There will be one or two pictures that Cas will find re-used a lot if he does an internet search for them.

While the avian life is different outside of the wall, there are still small groups of urban birdwatchers that would be delighted to entertain potential new members! Their deal is finding secluded and unusual places to catch glimpses of larger bird migrations throughout the year, as well as common urban birds found in the city. They'll head to rooftops, skyparks, and even "secret" places by the river to catch glimpses of different bird life around the city. While they'd know about meadowlarks and spinetails, they'd admit that there haven't been any sightings of those two types of birds within the city walls. However, one enthusiastic member is more than willing to send Castiel his photo series entitled Urban Birds Eating French Fries. Here's a sneak peek. Enjoy that, Cas.

[larkers]

Hey again Jay!

1. Foam shouldn't be too hard to find. Roy will definitely have the ability to make practice weapons, especially because most of the parts (including the foam) could simply be 3D printed, which would be the most easily accessible method.

2. Internships in this world are full-time jobs, so Roy has two options here:

- He can drop his Tactus internship and get a new one. Vyonation is the big name in cyber security, so they'll be his best bet. For the most part, Roy will simply need to do some catching up to update his knowledge base to the technology level the world is at now. A lot of this can be done online through his own research/classes.

- He can do it the shady way and try to learn more about cyber security by using the Hi-Jacks, a hacking gang. They have high standards, however, so he'll need to impress them before they'll take him under their wing. Usually, the best way to do this is by pulling off some high-level hacks himself. They'll obviously be looking at these skills from a different perspective than Vyonation—how to beat security systems rather than build them up. Then again, there's something to be said about understanding how to make something stronger by breaking it first.

[larkers]

Hi Tifa!

Let's go down these questions, shall we?

What is Riverstone's interest in the Displaced?
It's actually more convoluted than Rey first believed in her post. The Displaced are unique because of their powers and strange appearance in the world, but also because they helped disrupt the simulation. Their emphasis will be on this disruption. Riverstone seems to be very focused on what it is about the Displaced that allowed them to cause those momentary disruptions within the simulation. After all, several Riverstone employees were able to report back that this took place. How are they able to disrupt AI technology like that? Given the reveal of Judas' return to the world, they seem concerned about protecting civilization from another eruption of war between humans and AI. Judas is still out there, after all!

Obviously, the Displaced have played pivotal roles in other arenas, but they seem single mindedly focused on the simulation disruption.

What will this data be used for? Who will have access to it? Can the Displaced negotiate an NDA of some kind?
The data will be used to help the Displaced have access to information about what they are, first and foremost. From there? Riverstone admits that they want to come up with means to combat any AI attacks, as well as any of the monster attacks since they do seem uniquely connected to the Displaced, though they won't be able to answer how the information they gain will be applied. They know about the curing in the first monster-sickness event, as well as the most recent one (again, via Riverstone employees, which they'll reference).

As for who will have access: the Displaced who sign up, as well as certain Riverstone employees.

They do not appear to be interested in selling this knowledge, or the findings.

How can the Displaced be assured that they will be allowed to leave the Riverstone labs once entering, either once testing is done or because they saw the test descriptions on the consent forms and changed their minds?
Riverstone has thrived for centuries upon their integrity and interest in helping out human kind. Capturing a bunch of people and not letting them go would be ludicrous. Obviously, they only have their word. They will be a bit curious as to why the Displaced are so paranoid, though they'll add that they assume it's because of what Rey went through.

How can they be assured that Riverstone will not introduce more tests that were not agreed to once the Displaced are vulnerable and in custody?
Again, this is based on their word and little more. That said, Riverstone intends to speak to the Displaced about what they can do and they can decide which of the tests they want to take. Right now, Riverstone doesn't know a whole lot about the Displaced powers, but we'll add that Riverstone has the means to do things with the empathy bond and some sleep studies if people reveal those abilities to them. This will depend upon what players have their characters reveal, though they wouldn't be able to say "we have sleep studies available" until … you get the gist.

How do the Displaced know Riverstone has any information about the people who dropped them off? They will want evidence before signing up for anything.

Does Riverstone know who kept Rey out of jail, and will they share that information?
We're answering these together because they go together. They have their suspicions about who helps set up the Displaced and who releases them, as well as who's been intervening, because they're one and the same. This is someone who's working outside of the jurisdiction of the United Nations and has flouted the rules for far too long.

They'll add that they believe the Displaced's presence and power is connected to an incident that occurred out in the Mariana Trench in September 2510. Numerous Riverstone employees were killed as a result of this experiment, and they want those dead employees to find justice. They'll appeal to Rey's sense of righteousness here.

Request that other Displaced be present for procedures?
This is granted!

Finally, all contracts and so forth!
Riverstone will be confused by the fact that they're asking for NDAs and additional contracts since that would've been included in the consent forms. These Displaced are mighty paranoid! (Okay, they don't put it that way.) But they will have already planned to draw these up, as they, again, need to adhere to their own integrity and being The Good Guys.

That said … they are a sketchy corporate entity that we loosely based on Disney. OOCly, we'll say that these contracts will probably be meaningless if Riverstone (or those affiliated) decides to do anything they want to do because they can do whatever they want. But ICly, the contracts will be airtight.

No Displaced will be harmed in the making of this event, however, and they will be let go when the procedures are done.

[larkers]

Hi Tomato!

1. For his spine, he'd need to determine who can either erase a serial number or get the spine before a serial number is added. Basically: would this spine have been changed in some way so that it wouldn't be traced back, or did someone get one that had never entered the system? Given what he now knows about the Displaced being at Project Meadowlark, he could make assumptions that whoever runs or backs this project may be able to bypass many of the typical procedures. And if they are able to do that, what else can they do? What kind of person has this capability? And if they have the capability, who do they have connections to that helps build cybernetics of this scale?

2. For the dreams, you can have him reach out to the cultists here! We know you were on hiatus for the month, so feel free to hit this now if you'd like. That said! They won't be able to help with the Project Meadowlark-related parts of the dreams, but may be able to tell him a bit more about god touched people sharing dreams and experiences, which will link back to our first dream event and its dreams. It's unlikely to link back to Cassian's particular dream for his investigation, but he'll have some deets about the greater mythology of the group.

As for the hole it fills: his spinal surgery had to take place because he was in a medi-unit when they attempted to extract the blue stuff from one of the Displaced in the facility, which led to everything—including his powers—going haywire and shutting down. When this happened, the facility rumbled due to his powers. That said, the collective powers, mindlinked freaking out, violence on the workers there in the facility (as implied by one of our very first shared dreams) led to the power being shut off. When this depowering took place, Cassian required traditional surgery where a medi-unit normally could have fixed him up.

So, basically, it was the attempted extraction of the blue stuff that made it necessary for the surgery to take place, not Cassian himself. We did make the dream purposefully vague so that we preserved whacky dream tones and also to make way for some discussion of What it All Means. We do apologize for the whacky dream prose making things a little vague in places!

3. He'll find disturbingly little about it. Since the New Omsk facility was largely funded by the UN, someone had the ability to help shut it down and cut away any information that came out of there. Now, who seems to have connections to facilities around the world and can cause problems with them? We'll say that Cassian is free to assume that Johann may had a role in this cover up, which then would beg the question: how powerful is Johann? What is he capable of doing?

We'll add that this dovetails neatly with the findings in Antarctica, namely what William Clayton-Queen was able to dig up (covered here under hacking interlude). Unlike with New Omsk, which was a UN-funded and run facility, the facility in Antarctica wouldn't be able to be controlled the same way so they had to go through other means to stop information from getting out. Of course, William released all of that information at the end of the monster event, showing the cover up. Cassian can, again, feel free to make the connection between Johann's nearby lab and this one and whatever information Johann was trying to find. It's one part "what is Johann doing" and one part "how is he able to do it."

Let us know if you'd like us to answer any other questions or point you to more content you might have missed! We assume you like doing some of the digging yourself, but there's … a lot … so we're happy to help where needed!

[forcevisions]

THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THIS, MODS. I may have more questions but for now I just have one: is Meredith Ling related to Ricky Ling?

[larkers]

Yep! We're unlikely to use the same names without there being a Reason because it's hard enough to remember our NPC names as it is.

[stagethreeclinger]

Thanks a bunch for the answers, guys!!

Re: internships and cyber security, i think i want to go with option 2 there, and have roy pull a high-level hack at some point to try getting on their radar. Would it be safe to say he could hear rumors or vague street whispers about the Hi-Jacks through hanging around the black market places and sketchier bars? Beating security systems is more of Roy's interest in general, anyway.

[larkers]

Hey Jay!

Roy could easily learn about the Hi-Jacks because of his current connections to Jason's (former?) gangs. So, less complicated! They do tend to do some mercenary hacks (so to speak, not actually as mercenaries) in that they're hired, so they've done some work for Durcell. Durcell does not run or manage them, however!

[stagethreeclinger]

oh, okay neato, that works!! ok, so for the actual hack attempt to try getting their attention, roy needs to start trying to info-dig anyway.

i'm going to throw some ideas out, and i guess if you guys could let me know if these are doable or not, that'd be awesome? Since he knows Durcell (sort of), maybe he could try to bork with some of his less intense security? roy likes to steal data and replace it with dumb videos of dancing penguins or crap like that, so his hack would probably be something along those lines. If there's any official files on Red Hood, Jason's or Loki's gang connections on police databases (if they're low enough level y'all think Roy should be able to access them), he'd definitely go for those. If the Maeda nonsense is still going on, that's another person he'd go after, because he's still pissed about Damian's arm. Umm, alternatively, he could do something that's basically shitposting and maybe hijack a news feed and replace it with mocking anti-propaganda? what would really be cool is if he could hack Riverstone to try to get some more info on this testing stuff, but i'm assuming they have a really serious cyber security system going on that would be above his current level.

idk if any of that helps or is feasible, sorry guys, i'm a little lost and don't want to overstep anything on what roy should be capable of.

[wittingly]

hey mods,

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

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

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

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

+ an amendment from stephen

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

[unwings]

Hi hi! Thank you guys for the write up, it's super helpful!!

1 & 3. Oh oh oh, okay, thanks for clarifying that about the monster tunnels, I don't think I was on the same page for that (I am easily confused, pls forgive). One of the group can get in touch with Cassian/Tomato to talk about tunnel fortification and expanding.

2. Awesome, thank you! About how safe are the tunnels from cave-in right now? Does Dextiela need to be worried about construction on tunnels causing issues for the inhabited parts of the city?

4. Cool cool, they can bring that up with Cassian as well. Is it okay to handwave, once the fortifying starts, that they're down there enough to map out that area and get this GPS/mapping project taken care of?

RE: BIRBS - Thanks for the bird info! Castiel will absolutely accept this generous donation of Urban Birds Eating French Fries, thank you, what quaint and lovely art. he'll go ahead and join this birdwatchers club since 1, they're really nice and 2, he wants to keep an ear to the ground on this bird related stuff, and these seem like the most informed people around at the moment. please can cas be a bird nerd.

[larkers]

Hey Jay! Just a quick reply to say that 2 will need to go to Tomato, too. It depends on whether he continued the fortification after the event!

[unwings]

Oh, okay cool, I'll put that on the list to talk to Tomato about. Thank you!

[realists]

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

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

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

[evasives]

1) ok so re: spine things, he's greased some wheels over his time here between a cyberkinetics specialist at the new amsterdam riverstone office (Kell Bärna) as well as a specialist doctor (Adeline Tiras), both of whom are listed in his network, and he's done tons of digging all around in general already. he would ask Dr Tiras about the pre surgery process and the prosthetic supply lines. he will also look into the process of start to finish: who designs a spine, who orders it when necessary, who/what positions have access and oversight, how airtight is the security. riverstone and giles bell are the leading developers for cyberkinetics, but what kind of people are involved in the between period for development and insertion? where does the serial number come from? he knows his is scrubbed, so who and/or what corps have the technology for this?

basically he will investigate the supply lines and any medical connections to outside labs (ie: non hospital orgs) that have ties to riverstone or giles bell. will johann turn up here too??? a mystery.

2) thanks for the clarification on this! i think i had definitely gotten the gist, but i was afraid to run with it in case i interpreted it completely wrong. (also, reached out to the cultists on the linked post, so shuffles away from that on this post)

3) ok so time for cassian to start poking a little more about mr. johann! are there any characters in game who have more info about him? where would be a good place to start drawing some johann strings together? cassian already has feelers in the big four corporations, are there any patterns cassian would notice about resources that would follow prior known areas johann's involved in? he's sort of... everywhere as a figure, so cassian will start looking for more concrete stuff. is there any information on how long the lab/facility in antarctica has been around?

4) can i make up a contact who currently works at riverstone, but came from/previously worked at new omsk? (i have a cool name for her and everything: safia chernogorova). i feel like she could be a good resource for a couple different prongs, and presumably those workers ended up somewhere. (unless... they didn't????) what would happen if cassian tracked them down? if she can exist, i would like cassian to find this woman.

[stabsbooks]

Hello, would Riverstone allow (and/or pay for) people who are not taking the tests to tag along with their babysitting charges friends who are?

[larkers]

Hi Buttercup!

We're putting up a mini-event plotting post on October 14th! That will include guidelines for this, but Riverstone did give the go ahead for this, yes! They won't be paying for their trip over, or any of their other expenses.

[stabsbooks]

Thank you!

[voicelog]

one more question! would tony be able to gain access to information on the layout of the facility that riverstone is going to be performing their tests?