PLAYER PLOT:

[totallytrustworthy]

CIVIL WARS ARE HOW YOU GET THINGS DONE

At approximately 3:00AM on November 16th, a group of Transports led by Charlie Cutter alittlesweptup and Chloe Frazer totallytrustworthy will sabotage key systems of the moon base and take possession of the Transporter room in order to wrestle away what little control remains in the Initiative’s hands and put it in the collective hands of the transports.

Over the course of the next four days, the mutiny will serve to spark a community wide conflict that affects the base as a whole. Lines will be drawn in the sand. Relationships will be forged and broken - do you side with the mutineers and help them from them outside? Do you support regaining the transport room and helping the Initiative take back control of the base? Do you choose to remain neutral? This is the place where everyone gets to pick sides, to wage small wars with or against people you understood to be your friends, your family. That inter-community conflict is the main focus of the event; taking the transport room only serves to light that spark.

In order to deal with the mutiny itself - but not necessarily to resolve the wider social conflict that occur as a result -, randomly selected teams of characters will work together to get the base’s systems back online and to eventually retake the Transport room from the mutineers.

EVENT CALENDAR There are three main elements in this plot. All three run concurrently from November 16th to November 19th. All the relevant logs will go up at the same time; back-dating and forward-dating is encouraged. COMMUNITY WIDE EFFECTS (Nov. 16th - 19th (and beyond?)) While randomly selected teams will be the ones to actually deal with the mutineers themselves, characters are encouraged to engage with the distractions and network with fellow players in order to enable or deter those teams from fulfilling their goals. Are you supporting the mutineers and trying to sabotage any attempts to retake the Transporter room from the outside? Are you trying to help the teams reach their goals so they can fix the base’s systems and re-take the Transporter room? How this plays out, not to mention the future of Initiative - Transport relations, depends heavily on what choices the community makes during this conflict. Given the scale of this event, it’s important to note that there are minor and major conflicts available to anyone willing to participate regardless of whether or not they sign up for specific tasks. Player characters can defect at any time, they can choose to sabotage or support one another in the chaos. They can struggle with the system malfunctions or assist any others also suffering through them. We also absolutely want to encourage everyone in game to examine their current CR and consider alignment and/or how it might affect them on an IC level. Even characters maintaining neutrality are vital for keeping the peace, preventing escalation and even (in more extreme cases) injury or death. You do not have to sign up to prove vital to the cause on either side. DISTRACTIONS (Nov. 16-19th) Small teams of mutineers will be taking down key systems of the moon base from outside the transporter room in an attempt to both cover the initial takeover of the Transporter room and to create blocks to keep the room from being liberated. Key systems on lockdown are: main lighting (meaning there will be emergency lighting only), door systems (meaning at first player characters will only be able to access housing, the cafeteria and restrooms until this lockdown is overridden), gravity control and the network (meaning no use of network functions until it’s restored). There will also be a program piggybacked on the AI to monitor its actions in case Transports try to use it against the mutineers. While the mutineers won’t be able to stop the AI from doing anything, they’ll at least be aware of its processes. Randomly selected teams will have to deal with these distractions and get some or all of these systems back online before anyone can reach and re-take the Transporter room. TRANSPORTER ROOM (Nov. 19th) A small team of mutineers (led by Charlie and Chloe) will be taking the Transporter room proper and barricading themselves inside until ousted either by diplomatic or forcible means. Further, members of the mutiny will be holding positions in the Observatory to keep lookout for Transports meaning to reach and re-take the Transporter room at bay. A randomly selected team will eventually get past the Observatory and into the Transporter room. The characters will be tasked with either negotiating or apprehending (or worse) the mutineers holding the Transporter room. Note that some or all of the distractions will have to be dealt with before any team can get this far. TEAM SIGN-UPS In an effort to keep everything fair, the characters who DO end up dealing with the mutineers themselves (as opposed to engaging with the technical and social difficulties that arise as a result) will be randomly selected. To put your character’s name in the hat, please comment to the appropriate thread below. We’ll randomize final team selections on Sunday, Nov. 10th at 5:00pm PST. When signing up for team selection, please be aware that mutineers are armed. While many won’t attack your character on sight, their first priority is to hold the Transport room until their goals are reached. If the team you’re on chooses more violent means to deal with their assigned problem, it could very well beget more violence. Depending on how you handle the circumstances, your actions could be fatal for yourself or others. On that note, your character does NOT have to be a fighter to prove valuable to these teams; thinkers, tech specialists and diplomats are just as valuable as someone who can swing a sword or throw a spell. Furthermore, while we want to make sure everyone can be involved in this player plot, please be aware that having your character on a team will require you be around to play and be as active as possible as it’s vital that conflict resolution happen in a timely manner. If circumstances change that make you unable to participate as fully as you’d like, please notify us so we can cycle someone else into your slot. DISTRACTION TEAMS It’s important to note that sign up teams are a means to an end and not the focal point of this plot; teams will therefore be kept small to ensure that the resulting clashes aren't overwhelmingly time consuming to log out. (Teams responsible for getting the following systems back online:) NETWORK 1. Shelke Rui 2. Barbara Gordon 3. Sollux Captor LIGHTING 1. Asch 2. Peter Parker 3. Chrysos GRAVITY CONTROLS 1. Tenth Doctor 2. Pascal 3. Soldier Blue DOOR SYSTEMS 1. Stephanie Brown 2. Jaime Reyes 3. Kate Kane TRANSPORTER ROOM FINAL CONFLICT - (characters responsible for dealing with the mutineers holding the Transporter room proper) 1. Koltira 2. Kang 3. Barbara Gordon 4. Ella Ellis 5. Lightning Farron 6. Kate Kane 7. Hitsugaya Toushirou 8. Raiden THE MUTINEERS Currently the group led by Charlie and Chloe consist of about eight other player characters. It’s a rag tag group made up of people largely dissatisfied with the Initiative from the get go, who are unhappy with the current state of affairs on the moon. While we need to keep numbers limited for the sake of both IC discretion and OOC wrangling, if you want to join the mutineers prior to the plot’s start, you can toss your name into the hat for that as well. Slots will be limited and you must be willing to backdate a quick log to establish pre-existing CR. Because backdating CR is necessary, the time limit for signing up for these slots is shorter than everything else (so we can get those logs out of the way before the rest of the event kicks off). Slots will be randomized for mutineer positions on Wednesday, Nov. 6th at 5:00pm PST. Not all mutineers will be present for the final conflict. Some focused teams with be disseminated throughout the base from the beginning of the event to serve as distractions (as taking the base’s systems offline largely can’t be done from inside the transporter room). Please note that it’s not necessary to be a part of the original group to choose to affiliate with the mutineers. If you character wishes to sabotage Transports that are working against the mutiny from the outside to support the movement, you are absolutely free and highly encouraged to do so! AFTERMATH How this player plot ends is defined by the actions the community takes. Is the resolution a peaceful one? Is it one colored by violence? What sorts of dividing lines are drawn, how relationships are repaired, how amends are made and what’s ultimately done with the mutineers is entirely up to the community at large. Actions, big or small, have consequences. Whether you’re part of an established team or participating in the base-wide conflicts, your character’s actions determine both the outcome of this immediate conflict and the shape of things to come. So be careful and thoughtful; keep your friends close and your enemies closer. OPT-OUT Don’t want to be involved in either side of a space mutiny? On hiatus and can’t participate? You can either have your character stay in the housing unit of the base, or you can send them on a mission prior to the mutiny! Please note that any characters away on a mission will not be able to return until the transporter room is retaken. Questions? Please ask in the separate comment for questions below! EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that the motivations here for the mutiny aren't all that specific, which was an oversight on our part. Chloe and Charlie want the transports to have more of a presence in regards to the way decisions are made in Exsilium. They want more equal footing and less restriction, and the only time to really strike with a mutiny is while the Initiative is weak; taking transports to a base riddled with infection and a lack of resources was the last straw - the transports deserve control. Furthermore, we want to stress that while this isn't the most diplomatic method the mutineers could've taken to accomplish these goals, the want to avoid causing as much bodily harm as is possible. Their goals are not to harm the transport OR initiative population on the moon base, but rather to forcibly facilitate a reorganization of the leadership in the base. They will be as peaceful as they can while still trying to accomplish their goals and safeguard their bargaining position and will only resort to violence if that's something the transport community escalates first. Q&A response RE: motivation and goals can be found here! EDIT II: Mutineers have been selected! This is the list of characters in association with Charlie and Chloe that kick off the event; you do not have to be on it to be pro-mutineer or even a mutineer, but these characters will be involved in facilitating and maintaining the transport room lock in. Chloe Frazer totallytrustworthy Charlie Cutter alittlesweptup Tempest hyanaimne Sevillia Brightwing miscreant Luke Skywalker taggingwomprats Max Kearney motherofnemesis Han Solo pilot Tess justgo Victor Sullivan hellosailor James Bond doubleoohbaby Ryoji Kaji reversemole Sokka originalgaangster Syllona lexiconning Connor | Ratonhnhaké:ton skennen Kaniehtí:io | Ziio onen Maria Thorpe givetheslip Altaïr ibn La-Ahad theflyingone Helena Bertinelli | Huntress crossbearing Finn the Human the_human Dick Grayson | Robin pixieboots Giovanni Auditore deadlybanker Roy Harper shotup Johnny D'Amico charming_jerk

Comments

Q & A:

[totallytrustworthy]

Q. Wait, so what can I do if my character doesn’t make it onto one of the action teams?
A. Firstly: Interpersonal conflicts are just as vital as more action oriented tasks! The fractured community allows opportunities to pick sides. Make new, weird CR and ruin or reinforce relationships your character already has. Try to cope with the technical difficulties caused by the base’s systems being offline. Help your neighbors, help your friends-- find out that your friends are on the other side of lines drawn in the sand from you. But not everyone will want to be passive: take the opportunity to create or quell more chaos (just because there’s a small group of mutineers to begin with doesn’t mean more splinter groups can’t form in the main population and wreak even more havoc).


Q. Bleh. How do I opt-out of this entirely?
A. The easiest thing to do is to take a mission/say your character is away on a mission. Any character on a mission at the time of the mutiny will not be able to return until the transporter is retaken and the Initiative staff can access the equipment again.

Q: Will my character know what the mutiny is about when the event starts?
A: Yes! A V for Vendetta style broadcast will be going up just before the siege/ network blackout and the mutineers will make an additional broadcast for demands once the Initiative hostages have been taken. They will be stressing the fact that they don’t want anyone hurt, but that drastic measures need to be taken for the sake of both the transports and exsilium itself; they are, after all, only trying to help…

Q: Will a log be going up for the people not signing up for specific tasks?
A: Absolutely. We can’t stress enough that this plot is all about fallout and feeling out what that means for your character, and we’ll be setting up logs for all the fun, gritty interactions that follow. Alternatively, if you want your throwdowns or showdowns to sit in their own separate logs that is entirely up to you!

[the_array_team]

Main question... is it going to be an armed mutiny or waiting until your NPCs are away from their station/potentially asleep at their station. I know you've mentioned hostages.

[totallytrustworthy]

It is an armed mutiny for sure; Chloe and Charlie might believe they have everyone's best interests at heart, but let's be real: they're professional criminals. Their goal is to get in and hold both the transporter and any available technicians hostage for leverage before there's time for any interception. Obviously we'd love to have the NPC team on board for threading this out, but we understand if you don't have time for it and would prefer to handwave or bow out so please let us know what suits you!

[commentboxtroll]

I believe my biggest concern with this are whether or not the people who mutiny are going to accept the In Character Consequences of this, whatever they might be. Depending on how bad this gets, they might be severe.

Is that something that's going to be assumed with sign-up or enforced OOCly at all?

[totallytrustworthy]

It is going to be strictly enforced when it comes to sign ups! Anyone involved with the main group must be willing and prepared for their character to follow through what comes of it, and that's something we'll tackle individually on an OOC and IC level once we have a list of names picked up. If anyone changes their mind or decides that won't work for them we'll be happy to let them drop off before things go down, but once it happens it's definitely a done deal.

[crocodilesmiles]

When it comes to the hostage situation, would one or more hostages be able to be removed through combined outside efforts before the final confrontation goes down? (I can spin out an exact scenario, but it would not be an effort to reclaim the Transport Pad, instead to get out potential hostages to cut down on worries about bloodshed in the final resolution.)

[totallytrustworthy]

I think it's entirely possible for that to happen so long as it comes at more the tail end of things! Not necessarily the last moment but there are all the delays and distractions that need tending to (splinter groups etc), and it's something the three of us could discuss and plan out in advance so that it fits in without negating anything.

[jackanope]

What exactly is the ultimate goal of the mutineers here? To send everybody home? To continue to fight the UE without having to be under the Initiative's thumb?

[totallytrustworthy]

More the latter than the former! It's essentially a ploy for putting an end to a lack of control on the transport end of things. They want a voice-- or at least more of a compromise scenario where transports aren't resources to burn without a say in what goes on. Their hope is to get in, use hostages to negotiate a peaceful compromise, and probably take a hit on the chin for what they've done in exchange for a better system being set up.

Whether or not they'll succeed relies on what plays out in the plot itself.

[bumbles]

I was just wondering if you had thoughts on how this might effect the clinic - so, say if the mutineers will want to control that because of the resources, taking any clinic staff as hostages, etc! Just out of potential plotty interest and also in case that'd be a factor for any clinic staff in whether they support the mutiny or are just "YOU GUYS PLEASE"

this is a gently incoherent question, I'm so sorry

[alittlesweptup]

no sssh it's perfectly coherent

The mutineers will not be taking control of the clinic (or the agricultural wing, cafeteria etc). It WILL, however, be blocked off by the door mechanism problems involved in the 'distractions' part of the mutiny. That said, once y'all get the door issues back under control, characters will once more be able to access the clinic. (So it might be a good idea for Donny and other clinic staff etc to make a point of pushing the importance of getting the door mechanisms back online so everyone can be more secure/comfortable.)

[crossbearing]

Are there any options in terms of characters who join the mutineers and would betray them?

To be a bit more specific - Helena could either sign up with them earlier, or be someone who joins in with the mutiny, and she's be brutal about it, too. Very compelling fighting, not afraid to take people out in the name of being convincing (on the side of the anti-mutiny, that is) because she's not afraid of alientating herself in the name of GOOD etc. it's basically what she does best :'|

She and Oracle are close enough that they would be able to improve the communication to get the message between them, I think! But basically Helena could be all over this and would try to gather as much information about plans etc as possible until it was determined how much support they had/how well planned it was, etc.

[alittlesweptup]

THIS AN AN EXCELLENT QUESTION HIGH FIVE TWO FOR YOU.

But okay-- anyone joining the mutiny has the option to defect and/or backstab. We ask, for the sake of keeping the plot on the rails on an ooc level, that these conflicts arise later in the calendar, but infighting is absolutely a thing that can happen (it'll just need a little more networking on the ooc level than skipping along happily might). We really want to stress that if your characters decide that they're pro-mutiny or pro-intiative at the start of this plot, that doesn't lock them in for the duration. They can change sides. They can reconsider their choices.

The mutineers themselves are likely going to be doing a lot of that; for example, Charlie and Chloe knew this wasn't the most diplomatic way of doing things, but they likely didn't expect it to spiral out of control as quickly as it probably will (especially given they're now going to be dealing with Initiative hostages etc).

In an effort to keep things running smoothly, we'd ask that anyone who wants to take advantage of this (so in this case, say Helena ends up working with the mutiny) talk with Avali and I to see what we can do about not hamstringing the entire ooc system we've got set up. Betrayals can result in wounding the mutiny as a whole, but it can't entirely cripple/finish it outright as, for the sake of fairness, we'd like to leave that in the hands of the people who get selected for the final team. That said, anything helps to cause as a whole and if Helena was to sabotage something on her way out the door (so the team coming in would just have to trigger a trap already laid) or knock someone out of fighting shape (so the team coming in would have less people to deal with etc), that would definitely aid the people coming in to retake the transport room. Keep in mind however that depending on how betrayal plays out, it may make the mutineers more hostile in the long run.

(Also, fwiw, just because you sign up to be part of the mutiny doesn't mean you can't also put your name in the hat for the teams who retake the transport room/deal with the technical issues in the base.)

gonna put this here so you guys see it

[controlledvariable]

As soon as Steph finds out about them taking the Transporter room, she's going to casually teleport in and try to beat the shit out of everyone in there.

Betsy offered Max to ensure this doesn't work and ruin your plot in like two hours. So basically if Max is in there (and she probs should be unless there's another way to neutralize a Bat who can teleport), she's going to empathy-fuck with Steph to make it so she just really doesn't care anymore, and can be convinced to just, you know, leave. Because it doesn't matter! Whatever, guys, have fun!

My question is this: would anyone else in the Transporter room let her leave, knowing that she'll just try again once the effect of Max's empathy wears off? Or would they want to keep her with them so she can't just come back with bigger metaphorical guns? FTR I am totally okay with either option!! Up to and including Steph being non-fatally injured to keep her from screwing with their plans, though ofc that option would have an impact on CR since Steph has. friends that hold grudges.

But yyy whatever is good for you guys!

ALSO: This could likely be the start of how the anti-mutineers eventually get into the Transporter, since Jeses can neutralize powered folks and they have telepaths on their side that coule trick Max. But. first things first, yes.

blahblahblah tl;dr

[alittlesweptup]

So I just have a quick question for you as well: I'm pretty sure Steph got her teleportation abilities from Jesse who...took them from somewhere else and gave them to her? I think I've got that right, though correct me if I'm wrong. Is the teleporting magical in origin? What kind of character did the powers come from, etc? I'm asking to get a more clear idea of what's going on there because we have some failsafes to deal with this kind of thing with the character roster we currently have for the mutiny and I just want to make sure I'm not undermining anyone before I give a final answer.

That said, from what I've got so far there's a couple of things I want to address first and foremost being that the mutineers aren't going to be broadcasting their plans to the community as a whole. There will be some one-way communication from the mutineers to the base as a whole, but it's going to take some spying and recon/fixing some of the technical failures the mutiny caused to figure out what exactly they're doing/that they're in the transporter room at all. So keep in mind it may be a day or two before anyone is even 100% sure what's going on, depending on how quickly that end of things work out on an IC level.

Moreover, in addition to Max being present to do the empathy thing, a few other characters are capable of magical/supernatural power shielding/sabotage and some of that may come into play as well as the mutineers will be safe guarding against powered characters as much as they're able to. Again, depending on how teams take out distractions and one off mutineers, these fail safes may begin to fail toward the end of the four days. If those safety measures begin to fail and enable Steph into the room where Max could get at her, they wouldn't allow her out of the room - not so much to be maniacal cackling kidnappers, but because if she was allowed to walk out there'd theoretically be nothing stopping her from popping back in and causing more havoc.

Also be aware the violence begets violence. The mutiny is, by and large, trying to do things as peacefully as possible - they're not taking the most diplomatic course of action, but from the offset their intention is not to cause bodily harm to anyone if it can be avoided. However, that may change if they're being threatened physically so keep in mind that there could be potentially wide-reaching consequences for that (which isn't inherently a bad thing from an ooc standpoint, I just want to reiterate that).

But yeah, if you could give me a few more details and that sort of thing, I'm happy to talk about this some more so we can get something hammered out that doesn't undermine the ooc systems we've got in place to keep everything running smoothly while still giving you some leeway and opportunities for how to engage in the plot. :>

[pixieboots]

OKAY SO a quick character specific question to help me tease things out!: Dick is unhappy with the Initiative and has been stewing in it for a while, and thus he is pretty likely to fall in with the mutiny early on on an idealistic level. However he also holds to a strict no-kill policy and is ultimately a lot more loyal to people than ideas, and for that reason he's a high-risk for a late defection back to the anti-mutiny crowd once he sees it hurting his friends and/or turning violent (should violence occur). Possibly he could bring important information back with him! tl;dr is there a place in this plot for this type of character and/or what type of IC consequences could Dick expect if I tossed him in with something along these lines in mind? :|b

[alittlesweptup]

For the most part I'm going to go ahead and direct you here as I think that will answer a big part of your question. But the tl;dr answer is: yes, there is absolutely room for that kind of plotting so long as you're cool with a lot of ooc conversation with us so we can figure out a way to facilitate that without completely undermining the team selection stuff that we have in place to keep everything fair.

[highfrequency]

Raiden is strong enough that he'd probably be able to brute-force his way through the barricade. He wouldn't be able to stop the mutineers single-handedly but there's a good chance of him breaking in there.

Would this be a problem? Should I have him sit this out?

[alittlesweptup]

We definitely don't want to discourage anyone from participating in this plot based on their character's abilities! What we DO want to stress is that there's a reason the mutineers aren't going to be broadcasting their location from the get go; distractions such as the base's basic systems failing, keeping the network down, and tracking the AI are all meant to serve as a distraction from where the mutiny is actually occurring. For a majority of the plot - until many or all of these distractions are dealt with -, characters will have very little idea of what specifically is going on or how to deal with it beyond fixing the problems that are immediately apparent (power failures, gravity field issues etc).

I want to encourage you to put your name in the hat of the team signups wherever you think Raiden would best qualify as there's a likelihood you'll be selected and then - to an extent - we're more open to smashing through locked hatches and barricaded doors so players can face off with the heavy hitters of the mutiny. Further, while it might not seem vital at first glance, but without gravity powerful pro-Initiative fighters might have trouble keeping pace, and without lighting spies will struggle to keep track of what's going on behind the scenes. Every aspect is important for its own reasons and Raiden could prove to be a huge asset if his skills are put on the board for it: especially in areas that have low sign ups as those groups might wind up facing off against uneven odds. Obviously you should do what you feel suits you best, but definitely consider all the options before crossing yourself off the list for this event!

Re: Q & A:

[iciclerain]

What do we do in the instance of being interested in multiple roles? Specifically, I'd prefer to have Asch signed up for the final confrontation, but I would also be happy to have him take on one of repair teams, and ICly he would prioritize low-manpower teams over joining the definitely-going-to-be-full attack team.

Would it be better if I signed up for all of the rounds I'm interested in now, or waited until closer to the shuffle date to pick just one?

[alittlesweptup]

I'd go ahead and sign up for anything you're potentially interested in now. If you somehow get randomly drawn for multiple teams, we'll probably just end up asking you to pick where your priorities lay and go from there!

Something to keep in mind is that this is definitely one of those instances where resolving distractions such as the door systems and gravity field issues will make other things (life, getting to the transport room, recon etc) easier on everyone, so you may want to consider which lists are currently short staffed when looking at what to put your name in for.

[mathematician]

So, since Lowell is the Transporter Guy, and I talked over it with Liz already, I'm assuming he's going to be first guy kidnapped by the Mutineers group. But just confirming with you guys that he's going to be their transporter lacky for the duration of the plot, right?

Re: Q & A:

[bodilesswarrior]

Babs has been working on making transceivers for a while - would it fuck up the plot for her to give them to a few people?

[gevurah]

oh, never mind!! i see someone asked above.

[mallarkey]

ANSWERED nevermind this comment!!