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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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Jason advised him that Hideki can be traced on nights out by following his social media. First of all, is Hideki still frequently out in public and is there a club or casino Stephen can fancy up for and follow him to to try and surreptitiously do his thing from afar?
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Unfortunately for poor Mister Doctor Strange, this is not going to be a terribly fruitful path for information. Hideki is a moron, in short, and won't be able to offer up anything telepathically for Stephen. What does his mother do? Why are all these guards around the apartment? In theory, he probably knows … the first answer … in a very shallow way of, "My mom is on the board at Giles Bell," which is public knowledge.
Finding him isn't hard because he does post where he is every time he's there on Cooltalk, but some of those locations may be hard to enter (or cost a lot of credits that Stephen doesn't have). That's going to be the biggest barrier. Hopefully Stephen doesn't spend too much money on this inevitable dead end.
Hideki can't help that he's an idiot.
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As much as a surprise nugget of revelation would've been a bonus, Stephen's actually out for more generic logistical info! So things like: when can his mom (& other parent?? I don't know his homelife situation sorry hideki) be relied upon to be out of the house, do the guards tend to go with aoi or remain around the apartment, is there ever any time the apartment is empty or are there always staff in, does the whole building have heightened security or just the apartment?
Initially he will have wanted this info to see if there's any time he can mind control Hideki into letting him or someone else into the apartment without it immediately landing them in hot water but it's the 26th century and the place is probably kitted out with other security measures so because he's less dense than me he's going to turn more toward seeing how elaborate a plan he'll need to concoct to be able to enter the building and hang out on a different floor so that he's within range to read Maeda or anyone else in the apartment's minds at some point.
He'll do his best to steer Hideki toward thinking about his mom and her schedule and the building setup (a staffed reception desk? or do guests just get in by being granted implant access?) using little intrusive thoughts about his mom and home cloaked in Hideki's own neural signature, and by latching on to any relevant thoughts he does have and amplifying them to try to encourage him to think down those lines. Then he'll just nab any clues he can from impressions he gets.
Owing to the fact that Hideki is a rich kid and Stephen lives in a basement though going into venues is probably scrapped in favour of lurking outside until he figures out Hideki's signature so he can get on with it from afar without losing all of his worldly wealth. Also if the moral of the story here is that Hideki will be too drunk or distracted to be nudged into thinking about family and home while out on a nighttime social spree that's good too! Strange'll just have to start taking risks again rather than creeping about after unknowing youths... probably a healthy swap.
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Hideki won't be able to deliver much information. Aoi and her husband don't make a habit of telling Hideki when they'll be out, as he's their clueless asshole of a child. They submit any keys to his neural implant, as well as any identifying information. He does sometimes bring home friends, so Stephen may be able to figure out the likely types to go. But Hideki is extremely … fickle, to put it mildly. For instance: while he was mad that Cain and Prompto stopped calling, he forgot them rather quickly. He was a kid raised by a live-in nanny who was directed to spoil him and keep him happy, as his parents were too busy to deal with their child. He's used to shallow, distant relationships with them. Then again, Stephen has the power to nudge things along if he so chooses, and ensure that people do get into Hideki's place if they need a new set of eyes on it.
We can add a few other pieces of information that Stephen would get: yes, the apartment is kitted out and difficult to break into, especially now. There are guards around it around the clock (he'll think of them as major pains in the ass), even more so than there were when Cain and Prompto visited back in the day. He'd be able to find out the security via a vague, shallow memory of Hideki going through clearance digitally, as if he's used to it and accustomed to it. The security is beefy and has been for some time, only following the EMP, it's also EMP-proof because Aoi Maeda is paranoid and wants to protect her home even further.
There are some ways to expose Maeda, though. For one, her guards will know her movement, as they are hers to command. While Jason did try her office once, he didn't have mind control on his side. In addition, Hideki seems to be a major asshole and goes through life untouched. That can't all be money, right? Aoi may be a distant, uncaring mother, but she does care for her son.
Depending on Stephen, he can manipulate Hideki into position to find out more or see Aoi's response time for things, utilize the guard, or even utilize a receptionist at Giles Bell. All of these run the risk of exposure for Stephen, but they are directions he can take.
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Jason's going to be looking for a guard of Aoi Maeda's that he can follow after when they're off duty to direct Strange towards, as Strange wants to try mind reading one of them to see what he can pick up.
Re: the direction of the Maeda plot -- Since Strange got involved due to his connection to Damian and Jason has (mildly successfully) been pulled into not just killing her on sight despite consequences, he's going along with info gathering for now.
To help towards this, he's asked tiny Jason to try and get back into the Maeda apartment (through Hideki, because he's not dumb enough to send himself after Aoi directly and Hideki is stupid enough) and is assisting in getting Strange close enough to the Maeda family to get some information.
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Thanks for the head's up on this. Now we have a clearer idea as to what's going on, we'll be able to better direct things. Let us know if Jason grows impatient and decides to kill Maeda. Because, well, that's completely fair.
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Is it safe to assume Jason is successful in tailing a guard home? If so and they live, travel through or regularly hang out somewhere he can somewhat surreptitiously lurk, Stephen will go and try reading them for whatever they have on Aoi Maeda and her movements in the hope that it'll give him and Jason a next step.
To give the apartment infiltration angle a bit of a boost, he's also helping little Jason to keep Hideki's attention long enough to hopefully catch his interest and get into his circle one evening via clubs and mind powers. Also probably footing the bill for Jason's entry costs so fingers crossed he can get that particular seed planted in just the one club please Hideki.
He's doing his best to take baby steps but his name and face being somewhat public domain isn't going to be enough to stop him outright for now so it's fine if there are consequences to his sticking his nose in! He's going hard on murder-free Justice 4 Batbros.
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There are two things that we want to bring up!
First, we retroactively want to say that Hideki definitely has a guard that's assigned to him whenever he goes out. We apologize for not mentioning this sooner, but in setting up a reply to you here, we realized that it was a major oversight on our parts. That means that Hideki would have a guard on him when Doctor Strange first (mentally) manipulated him, and that the same guard (or set of guards, since they're on shifts and on duty) would be able to identify the people typically around him. (He would've had a guard on him when Jason initially gambled away the dog. That man has since disappeared.) That means Doctor Strange showing up will draw attention—though there is the second thing we referred to.
Namely, we can't tell which Jason you mean! We'd like to work with you all on this, including whether the Jason in question was noticed, but we need to know more in order to tailor our response appropriately. We want to make this fun, so let us know who's doing the tailing, as well as what you'd like to get out of this. Want it to fail? Want Maeda to be on high alert about Hideki's friends? Let us know!
Otherwise, keeping little Jason in with Hideki is fine!
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I'll have a chat with Jessi and Raina about what's direction's most fun but in the meantime to clarify for you guys ahead of me eventually getting back to you - building off of Jessi's last response in this thread for context I meant big Jason for the tailing and then little Jason for the getting in with Hideki.
There's a (very old, catch me on sloth speed) thread here between big Jason and Mr Dr that helps roughly set out this stage of the plan.
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To which end, we'll keep little Jason safely in with Hideki for now if that's ok!
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They will be aware of a larger presence following them, and will alert Maeda about it. The fact that it will eventually lead to Doctor Strange showing up will be equally strange (ha ha). They will alert Maeda about Strange's presence there and earlier with Hideki, and someone will be showing up at Stephen's place of business to ask some questions. They won't be keen to bother with most of Red Wings' personnel, instead focusing on Stephen's interest in Hideki and what he's aiming for there.
In terms of information he'd get before that point, he'd learn that Aoi Maeda is always followed by a group of loyal guards. While she's expanded her workforce of guards in recent months, only the ones closest to her have earned a permanent place in her employ. The guard he follows will be just as uncertain about his future with her, and even a little afraid, too (as he knows that if he messes up, he'll lose his job). Let us know how Stephen would play with this information.
We're debating bringing in an independent, unrelated to the overall metaplot mercenary group into this as one of her guard units because we want to expand the role of mercenaries overall. However, this is something that could change the makeup of aspects of this plot, so we wanted to check with you before we went ahead with it! Let us know which direction you'd like to take this, or what interests you have!
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So whoever shows up at the bar Stephen will offer a drink and invite into the office to spin some tale about being on the lookout for influencers to collaborate with to boost his mentalist side business. He'll explain that alongside other avenues he's been contemplating stepping into the club scene for promo videos and cooltalk content and Hideki's got a sizeable enough group of friends that observing him on a night out seemed a decent way to get eyes on a few people at the same time - he'll admit that since running his own bar he's become a little more conscious of people's behaviour under the influence and wanted to get a sense of whether or not Hideki and his pals were people he could do business with without it reflecting badly on him later. Difficult to claim you care about your staff and the public if you're going to try to turn a profit elsewhere by collaborating with somebody without any respect for other people on a night out! He'll have a fairly extensive list of notes he's taken about potential collaborators that expand beyond just Hideki including new starters, middle and heavy weight cooltalkers, which he'll be happy to share.
He'll take the length of the conversation to do some snooping in this staff member's mind for anything worth overhearing too. Primarily intending to listen in on any thoughts about incoming or outgoing messages, freshly written files and considerations of who they'll be sent to, looking for any sense of staff structure or hierarchy and any names of who he's being reported on to, and whether this staff member themselves is anyone of significance to Maeda. Fortunately he always layers up at work to avoid any glowing.
If you guys have any suggestions on where to chase the info he got from the guard (would said guard have known the identities of any of her loyal guards?) and any info Stephen might get from this most recent interaction, that would be great! We're looking for ways to wrap this up sooner rather than later (this is on me for taking a month off haha) so if it's going to take a while to wind down the subtler roads I'll hand over to Jason's ready-lit fuse.
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While Maeda's guard isn't going to believe him in the least - and Stephen will know this before the conversation ends! - there will be a chance to get some juicy information. He'll know who some of the loyal guards are, how they're typically chosen by Maeda, and what someone can do to get in there. The guard is a better source of shifts, but there's the sense that anyone outside of the inner circle is expendable.
We're assuming that Stephen wouldn't be able to simultaneously push the BS he's spinning while also prying into the guard's mind, by the way!
That said, Stephen will likely come away with two impressions:
1. That he's likely going to be in trouble if Maeda isn't put in check quickly, if only because he's tested his luck one too many times. That means that people close to Stephen are in danger (so, his employees, his business partner, etc.).
2. That he can use those guards to get close to Maeda. They'll have to do some legwork to find them, but this is where big Jason can come in, since those guys will be known in criminal circles. She recruits guys who Know Their Shit, but also know how to be loyal - so it's similar to how people in the mob families end up going up the ranks and how loyalty is tested. From there, we'll let you guys decide how to do this, but let us know if you need more help!