Operation: Mario

[initiates]

HERE IS THE UPDATED PLOT POST, save yourself some time and read that first! The information on this page is now secondary and optional reading material.

Dear Exsilium, we hope you’ve had a good vacation from pain and suffering, because Catsovi and the United Earth are teaming up to bring us back to our regularly scheduled broadcast.

To kick things off, beginning today on August 30th, Catsovi will be selling out to the UE friends, acquaintances, and people he’s never even met before, like the charming fellow he is. That means that this is most definitely a chance to sign up for that plot, but first, details!

After Nightcap’s death on August 3rd, using his mind control ability to gain +1 spiffy metal bodyguard, Catsovi took off with Vanadi-the-cyborg for UE territory. Vanadi returned on the 19th, freshly hacked and controlled by the UE, and Catsovi resurfaced in Exsilium on the 21st. Since then, Vanadi has been looking for people with unusual powers. If he's talked to your character about powers, or seen them in action, consider your character noticed! That does not mean you have to participate in this part of the plot, though; it's entirely possible your character fell through the cracks. It also isn't necessary for Vanadi to have ever spoken with your character before to make them eligible! Unless your character's powers are their deepest secret, there's a great variety of ways that Vanadi or Catsovi could have learned of their potential use to the UE. Additionally, if you play a powered character and would rather opt out of this part entirely, that's fine too.

Catsovi (with some help from Vanadi) will be covertly controlling and sending away people with unusual powers from August 30th to September 12th. Under his control, they’ll be walking themselves out of the city and to the coast, where smugglers have been paid to pick them up and deliver them into the waiting hands of UE border patrol across the water. From there they’ll be whisked away into laboratories unknown.

Prior to their self-delivery to the UE, Catsovi is also more than happy to take those who have fallen under his control and make them turn against or strain/ruin their CR.

Catsovi’s mind-control can manifest in your character in one of two ways:

1) Your character believes they remain in control, noticing nothing wrong about themselves, and carries out the tasks Catsovi wants them to as if they themselves decided to do those things -- think Inception!

But what if Catsovi wants your militantly pacifistic character to gut their roommates? There is probably no way that your character would ever consciously do that, regardless of how much external sneaky psychic prodding they receive. In that case, there’s option 2:

2) Your character is straight-up hypnotized to carry out Catsovi’s will, with the character’s actual conscious self knocked-out and unawares. This option is used when Catsovi requires your character to do something so wildly OOC for them that subtlety of option 1 would never work.

Note: Those chosen for being mind controlled, causing havoc, and shipping themselves off will be chosen by a random lotto, and sign ups will be screened. If you’d like to enter your character, we suggest clearing it with their close CR first, or at least warning them!

If you're interested in having your (powered) character fall under Catsovi’s control and mysteriously disappear between August 30th-September 12th, this post here is where you can sign up! However, once they leave Exsilium, they will be gone and entirely out of communication until at least mid-September, so be prepared to have them out of commission for a bit. (It won't exempt them from AC though, sorry!)

This all comes to a head during the party that Vanadi mentioned, on September 15th. Catsovi will be using his mind control powers to cause general mayhem and chaos, and then send off the last batch of signed-up powered people to the UE all in a final wave. Additionally, the strange giant wheel that showed up in Exsilium with him and has been rolling around in the Outlands will arrive to crash the party, nulling all powers in the area (except for Catsovi's, of course), and generally running people over while crying corrosive acid blood. (See this open log for more details on its powers; note that at the party, instead of just power dampening, it will unleash a full power null that affects anyone within a mile radius.) It's going to be a party to remember!

(Note, this will all take place after 10 PM, so if you'd like your character to show up, have a lovely time, and not be traumatized, just make sure they head home before then and you've officially opted out of this part of the pain-and-suffering plot.)

Now, what does this mean for non-powered people? Well, someone is going to have to mount a rescue for the friends and comrades lost in the UE. Badass normals and regularass normals, strap on your batgear. The hunt for Catsovi will end in his death on the 17th (the final confrontation is claimed by Adrasteius, but anyone else can have a swing up until then) while the Initiative scrambles to fix all this, and then comes the search and rescue mission in UE territory, along with quick last-minute missions in time to make things a little easier against insurmountable odds of UE security.

The missions via Transporter will be hitting up the holding facilities at various points in time in small groups (mod-arranged, unless you have requests), and completing various objectives to result in the holding cells and security being weakened enough to be broken into in the present day. Those on the mission closest to the present day will also discover that the UE has already developed a security system to block power usage, meaning that powered people cannot join the present-day rescue mission without setting off all sorts of alarms. However, powered people will be needed to create a diversion! The present-day mission will be split into loud, noisy, powered people drawing UE attention, and non-powered people sneaking in to jailbreak those caught up.


The sign-ups that we're looking for:
BEING CONTROLLED & SENT AWAY: Aug 30th - Sept 12th, with the final wave on Sept 15th.
Sign-ups for this can be found on this page.

MISSIONS IN TIME: Missions to weaken the UE's holding cells for the rescue in the present.
Use this form to sign up:
<b>Character name:</b> <b>Journal:</b> <user name=""> <b>Character skillset:</b>

MISSION TO THE UE: Big damn heroes, busting into the UE for the final rescue.
Use this form to sign up:
<b>Character name:</b> <b>Journal:</b> <user name=""> <b>Character skillset:</b> <b>Is your character playing diversion, or on the (no powers) sneaking rescue team?</b>

Last minute edition!
KIDNAPPED BUT NOT MIND-CONTROLLED: For anyone that would like their powered characters to be taken to the UE without mind control, the mods will find a kidnap-buddy for you.
Sign up in this thread right here.

Note: Characters may participate in both missions, just remember to sign up for both! Those signing up to be captured will be very thoroughly detained until after the rescue on the 19th, though. Additionally, it is possible to have your character remain uncontrolled, but forcibly kidnapped by a controlled character, if you'd still like them to end up in a lab.



The tl;dr version:
Catsovi is capturing powered people and marching them off to play Princess Peach in the UE, to be rescued by a collection of sexy Marios.

Aug 30 - Sept 12: Signed-up people get controlled and sent off by Catsovi.
Sept 15: Vanadi’s catastrophic party, and the rest of the sign-ups are controlled/captured.
Sept 15-17: Encounters with Catsovi, and a series of missions in time to help the UE rescue.
Sept 19: The UE rescue mission, and everyone is returned to Exsilium.


As always, feel free to use this post for plotting!

Comments

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS

[initiates]

[clario]

Power nullification: would that mean Initiative granted weapons also lose special abilities?

[hostage]

yo what if your power is to block powers then can you help block others from the alarm for powers or do you set off the power alarm!!

[erewhile]

If your character is already in the UE on a mission, what are/aren't they seeing in regards to Transports trickling in? Mostly because I don't want to blow this at all!

[koufukuriron]

Enhanced items (weapons) count as having powers? Which means that Ayano would need to leave her scarf behind to count as nonpowered?

[highfrequency]

Two insane questions:

First-Many things about this plot could lead to one of Raiden's controlled rampages. Is this doable or would it be a bit too much with everything else going on?

Second-Not sure how power nulls would affect Raiden! His weapon is his body and all of his powers (superhuman speed, strength, etc) are summed up as "the power of being a cyborg".

[velveteened]

question! would it be possibly allowable for us to create npc ue personnel to thread with for this event?

[dragonlordbight]

Question as to power nullification:

I assume it only restricts and nullifies actual powers not natural abilities i.e. a 140ft dragon is still a 140ft dragon rather than baseline human? And if in human form would revert to true form due to nullification of magic?

Also is it possible to have been noticed but unable to have been mind controlled? Due to protective measures and such. Bit difficult for a large dragon to slip notice >.>

[wilder]

For the power nullifying wheel at the party thing, what happens to characters who, uh, sorta need their powers to survive?

SHOULD THEY JUST...GO HOME EARLY?

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

How exactly do Catsovi's powers work? I'm considering offering Nate up (he has a very unusual skill set, and some potential power he hasn't reached yet), but he does have some defenses against telepathic-based mind-control, so I want to make sure it makes sense ICly *g*

Re: QUESTIONS/COMMENTS

[quackery]

So weapons from the Initiative lose abilities - I'm assuming this means that the effects of magical items from other worlds will be nullified as well?

this is a riku account

[aheroipray]

so

1) a character is possessed by another character--is catsovi able to manipulate/hypnotize both of them?

and 2) if a said character is canonly really good at breaking possession/mind control, is it possible to have moments of slipping in/out of it, or is this a 'nope you're fucked' thing

Re: QUESTIONS/COMMENTS

[inafadingcrown]

Okay, just for clarification, when you say "and then send off the last batch of powered people to the UE all in a final wave." You mean the last batch of people who signed up, right?

So then the remaining powered people within a mile radius of the party have their powers nullified. Is the Hold/apartments within a mile radius? Is the chaos going on in that area just going to continue none-stop until Catsovi is killed on the 17th? Could powered characters like....walk a mile away and be fine or is it a once you're nulled, you're nulled until Catsovi is gone, thing?

SORRY FOR SO MANY QUESTIONS. I am not as smart as my character.

ETA: OH ALSO. For psychic characters who we would not sign up, would they be able to tell that something was going on with the people under mind control? /cries about playing an overpowered elf

SIGN UP: MISSION IN TIME

[initiates]

[fishnetted]

Character name: Dinah Lance
Journal: fishnetted
Character skillset: Canary Cry, super badass martial arts.

SIGN UP: MISSION TO THE UE

[initiates]

[stonewall]

Character name: Snow Villiers
Journal: stonewall
Character skillset: PUNCHING THINGS also magic I guess, he'll be running over bad guys on his motorbike and freezing things with his ice magic.
Is your character playing diversion, or on the (no powers) sneaking rescue team? Diversion!

[bloodspeaker]

cracks knuckles

[scornful]

sir

[gevurah]

slaps catsovi

i want my stick guy back

[scornful]

you can't have him i crushed him under the heel of my boot

[stonewall]

SO PLOTTING TIME

Both of mine (Snow here and Sayaka/fortissimos) will be on team distraction! If you want a loud moron or an equally loud blue loser I'm cool with it — Snow will be riding around on Shiva and freezing things, Sayaka will be mad that she can't help save people directly and channeling her anger into fighting.

They'll both be at the party, too, if anyone wants pre-trauma things! (pre-pre trauma for Sayaka I guess since she'll be updated right after this.)

[destinedwaters]

So I heard there were distractions.

I only have Aqua here, and I'm likely to throw her at the party because what is need to make all the CR and Friendship Is Power clause, but she is definitely up for distractions. Need a warrior-mage for either of yours?

[hostage]

As mentioned here, Jesse has the power to take away powers so if you play a powered character but you want to be on the badass normal mission, hit me up here or on plurk (pana) and I can make that happen for you. He's an honest guy. You'll get your powers back at the end.

[replicates]

Hello! So Rep. here will most likely want in on the badass normal mission and I definitely would not mind if Jesse went and took away his powers temporarily. If he's being sneaky about it, Rep probably won't even notice it at first. If you have any questions on his powers or even his character in general, please let me know and I will be happy to answer them!

[highfrequency]

Raiden won't be losing any powers since he doesn't really have any to lose (his special ability is being a cyborg). This means in all phases of the plot he'll be trying to protect people.

Also, for characters who are mind controlled and end up being so violent that they are a threat to others Raiden may try to kill them and feel bad about it afterward. So if getting jumped by a cyborg ninja/samurai who swings swords with his feet is something you'd be interested in playing with, let me know!

During the rescue mission he will be in the stealth team but will probably find a moment once he knows the prisoners have been or will be freed to sneak around and try to scout out extra info on the UE, if anyone wants to join him. He'll frown over it but he won't have much of a choice.

[khajidont]

As briefly discussed here, Jaime is going to be a part of the disruption team, but as to not draw too much attention to himself, is going to stick to mostly punching and maybe minor use of his low-key weaponry. However, as I want to keep things open for future hideousness, I'd like for him to be forced to go a step beyond that to pique the UE's attention. The best way to get him to disregard the Initiative's tips (because he has a healthy attachment to his own skin) is for that to happen while saving someone else's ass. He's pretty durable, after all. So yeah, if anyone is interested in that sort of thing, lemme know 8)

[legal_eagle]

OKAY SO Sonya, during this event, is going to be fighting during the party to try to keep the path clear for others to escape, getting captured, and then hopefully getting rescued unless everyone decides she is a big asshole and should just be left there (which is a comprehensible response, because she is an asshole). SO if anyone would be willing to plot with me on any of the following:

1. Your character being mind-controlled so that Sonya can fight them by hitting them with her high heels and possibly pepper spraying them
2. Your character fighting alongside her against NPC'd bystanders
or
3. Your character helping her out of captivity--

I would love you until the day I die thanks you all are beautiful

[highfrequency]

Raiden would definitely be there to fight alongside her and/or help her out of captivity.

BUT, she'd see him fighting! And he fights like a crazy person because he's a crazy person. Fight next to/get rescued by a possibly cackling cyborg Y/N?

(I think other people will be involved in a rescue too, of course)

[maddeninghatter]

Break is going to be on the sneaking rescue mission, but it's going to go south in a hurry. There will be no way to avoid recapture by overwhelming UE forces... except to get killed. Because dying means you resurrect and wake up in the Initiative labs, thus "escaping."

What I'm looking for is:

1) People who have been kidnapped who are willing to get "rescued," that is, killed by Break.
2) People on the rescue team who are willing to be "saved" in the same way. Teamwork.
3) People who can witness or perhaps stop this nutjob, even though there's method in his madness.

His victims, I mean rescued people can be anyone, but bonus points if they are small and cute, for maximum trauma all around.

[have_hat_will_travel]

So, this Pidonus here, she happens to have a few mind-manipulation powers of her own. I have mod confirmation she can break control on certain people. Since this would lead to their not being kidnapped, I am looking for volunteers who are Not on the mind control and kidnap volunteers, or who were NOT Selected to be on the kidnappee list, or just end up getting controlled twice with the second time being a kidnapping for Pidonus to actually be useful for once.

Any interested people? :3

[kilimanjaro]

What if we want our characters to get killed by the giant rolling thing of death? Can that happen?

Also could you tell me more about said rolling thing of death? All I got was it crushes people.