Scouting Group for Winter Wonderland

[initiates]

The results are in, and after a trip over to Random.Org the following 25 names have come out on top. Congratulations!

Abbey Bominable
Asch the Bloody
Belle
Carlos
Caspian
Chris Pratt
Christopher Chareau de Red
Cross Marian
Elissa Cousland
Elmer C Albatross
Hitsugaya Toushirou
Irisa Nyria
Joy P Buckhead
Kallen Kouzuki
Kili
Leaf
Mai
Merrill
Nathan Sumers
Noh-Varr
Oerba Yun Fang
Raiden
Rinth Ghostshot
Travis Marks
Zelos Wilder

You all have the dubious honor of scouting out the situation Earth-side, and reporting back what it is you find to the people up at the Moon Base. You leave 11/27 0300, arriving planetside at 0800. Gotta love that trip back down.

All those on the scouting mission will need to scavenge supplies beforehand from the Moon Base. They will be told about the temperatures, and as of tonight, the AI has successfully hacked some of the satellites in orbit around Earth to get good imagery of what the ground looks like. Based on heat signatures and taken images, the AI suspects they're dealing with snow, and smaller numbers of people living in scattered groups, centralized around one large, city-like group it plans to land the scouts.

Mission objectives are simple. Locate the Initiative and begin a dialog. It's suggested everyone make use of the holographic technology still maintained on the Moon Base in order to blend in with the locals. Be warned, the holographs don't hold up under actual touch, and they don't change what your footprints look like outside of immediate physical range.

Any and all non-humans will be met with fear, up to and including violence.

Be careful, and be on the lookout. This iteration of the Initiative works on the extreme keep their heads down side. Talk to everyone, and be as subtle as you can be. That's the best way to flush them out of hiding.

Plotting and questions invited below (questions to the questions thread only, please, to not be missed!). The game at large will go down to Earth the first week of December.

Edit: The Scouting log is now up here!

Comments

[crocodilesmiles]

Wait who are you...?

1) "Who knows, that's ancient history, are you one of those history people? Dangerous, be careful around there, the ground's as likely to drop out under you as anything else. Not much to scavenge! Mostly empty husks of buildings, sometimes we take stone and reuse it in our buildings." Anything along those lines! It's not recent, those ruins, and no one appears to be actively interested unless they're a creative mind, in which they'll spin all sorts of silly possibilities with Cross.

2) Sure! They'll be happy to talk him to death, as long as they don't need silence for some purpose related to what they're researching!

[aequivoci]

Thank you!!

A Plan: Doing It Like It's The Prohibition

[inhumanity]

as per this

Basically the plan: find some smugglers, stalk some smugglers, convince the Initiative to like them when we get there.

THIS PLAN CANNOT BE DONE ALONE. We need:

1) People to find smugglers. Wheedle info out of people, read minds, stalk people, WHATEVER.
2) People to intercept the smuggling/stalk it. Fighting is an option here. Talking very nicely is also an option.
3) People who can sweettalk the Initiative. Or at least Make An Attempt. I'm not exactly putting my money on this team, is what I'm saying.

So please! COMMENT HERE if you want your character in on one or more of these stages! Multiple stages is great too! Let's greet the Initiative with a bunch of people who can flirt and stalk but suck at actual genuine human interaction! Whatever!

My plan is to get at least two people for each section and send them off in little paired threads to play out info gathering. I can ask the mods about what they want us to do for 2 and 3, if people are interested in this!


ALSOOOOOO Christopher isn't organizing this. He is not suited for that sort of thing. He would just suggest they go through smuggling channels. SO! If any character wants to take charge that'd be awesome too! We can thread out them plotting things, or we can not, depending on what people feel like.

[revolutionized]

This is Fang's player under another account!

She'd be well suited for stages 1 and 2. 3 not so much.

[mynameonyourpanties]

If flirting counts as sweet-talking then I'm game. >.>

Re: A Plan: Doing It Like It's The Prohibition

[highfrequency]

I SAID THIS UP THAR BUT...

Raiden can absolutely be of use for steps one and two with his robo eyes, scouting abilities and ninja skills. Don't let him do the talking, though. He doesn't always rage at people but he tends to say the wrong things more often than not.

He can also take charge of the operation if someone else comes up with the idea buuuut that would probably guarantee failure. Poor guy isn't exactly great with foreseeing the consequences of his actions for various sad reasons.

Re: A Plan: Doing It Like It's The Prohibition

[heartstorage]

This is Zelos's player on another account!

And he is...mostly useless! But #2 is possibly one he can do without horribly ticking off someone by accident. Though #3 can work if flirting is...a way to get the Initiative to do what they want.

He's a good contribution to the mission

Re: A Plan: Doing It Like It's The Prohibition

[ready_to_bloom]

Caspian might be of some use in #3! He's been gathering info on his own, and is trying to get into one of the better parts of town to see if he can get Initiative contact there.

[yourdistraction]

Merrill might be good for options 1 and 2, but only 3 if there aren't like...better options. Because humans, what do? Not that she doesn't have plenty of questions, and she can be very polite and is hiding her ears and all. But really get someone better.

hello modness my old friend i've come to talk with you again

[inhumanity]

as per here, it seems we have

1) some people for getting info
2) some people for intercepting the smugglers
3) ...adequate talkers who might need to roll, like, a seven maybe to success?? I don't know. It's possible but also they're a bunch of screw-ups.

So anyway! If this is cool with all y'all (??) I suppose what we might do is get two groups going for getting info (one for time, one for place?), and then split up into two/three groups for intercept the smugglers (one for taking out lookouts, one for getting to the smuggled goods themselves?? and... an extra one?? who knows), and then Efforts on making contact with the Initiative.

Is this plan okay? What do you need us to do? What can we do? Do I really just like asking questions? Yes.

Re: A Plan: Doing It Like It's The Prohibition

[iciclerain]

Asch will be good for all three stages, but will be particularly useful for stage 2, and somewhat useful for stage 3!

More importantly, Asch can also competently lead this operation! Or at least, reasonably competently. He may be the only non-flirt on the team that can reign in his bad social skills long enough to actually hold a conversation with potentially hostile strangers, at least. And absolutely no team will be as much as a nightmare to work with as his team from back home...

rolls in the darkness like a warm blanket

[crocodilesmiles]

YES GO FOR IT!

The rest I can answer soon but know that GO FOR IT first, and what can we do is a bit too broad -- tell me what you guys want to do, I can let you know how well it works/if anything needs revising!

Re: QUESTIONS

[ringthenoise]

NOW THAT WE'RE DUE BACK

-Raiden's AR vision can see structures beneath the snow and ice (if any) but not in detail. Would he see anything?

-What sort of environmental details can his visual analyzers pick up? (IE average temperature over their time there, unusual chemicals or substances in the ground/ice/air, etc). If there is nothing particularly unusual other than a cold climate that's fine!

-What do you suppose the endgame for this is, when we find the Initiative? DO we find them? We have a lot set up right now but it'd be useful to know this!

-Remember the holographic data chip in Raiden's left arm? What if-WHAT IF-he showed this Initiative that data (it records most of Raiden's work-related shenanigans since his canon update up through events on the moon).

SMUGGLE PARTY THE SEQUEL

[inhumanity]

Stage 1: (info gathering) Fang, Raiden, Merrill, Asch
Stage 2: (intercepting) Fang, Raiden, Merrill, Asch, Kaneis, Christopher
Stage 3: (talks) Travis and Caspian, kind of Asch + potentially Kaneis, Merrill, Raiden, Christopher

Because time is short, getting all our OOC stuff as worked out as much as possible! Long story short, Asch has decided to take over and lead this band of misfits (you're not worse than what he's used to, really) and has done all the organizing and coordinating. Perhaps your character was roped in by him, or perhaps by another (Merrill guess which terrible 'mentor' asked you to join? he loves you) but the point is they are here and now we all have JOBS TO DO!

Headers below for each stage with more info!

STAGE 1: Info Gathering

[inhumanity]

This team has been split off into pairs: Fang + Asch, Merrill + Raiden.

You guys get to find out your information however you want. Hunt people down, listen to the wind, interrogate strangers with tickle torture—work out what you want to do in your team thread. Then hop over to questions with the mods, say what your characters plan on doing to get info, and ask 'em if there's anything else needed from you.

FANG + ASCH

[inhumanity]

Whatever this pair does, it needs to come back to us with information about the time when the smuggling will go down.

MERRILL + RAIDEN

[inhumanity]

Whatever this pair does, it needs to come back to us with information about the place where the smuggling will go down.

STAGE 2: Intercepting

[inhumanity]

This team will be split into two or three teams, depending. This is Fang, Raiden, Merrill, Asch, Kaneis, and Christopher.

For this team, one team is going to get any lookouts along the smuggling route, and the other team will directly intercept the goods. If we need an extra team, we can have them doing wider perimeter.

For this, because of time sensitivity and the busy time of year, please tell us if you are really busy and would like to handwave this portion of events. So everyone, please check in! The number of people handwaving (odd or even etc) will determine if we have two or three teams. Everyone mention what your characters bring to the table for dealing with potentially hostile smugglers, and I will link the mods to this thread and ask them for their all-clear on it. Then we can thread out whatever else we need to.

STAGE 3: Thank Goodness Someone Has Diplomat Stats

[inhumanity]

For this, we're going to have Travis and Caspian, possibly with Asch, handling the main parts of the talking. (Travis, use your flirting powers.) These will be the actually legitimately serious talks of trying to get in with the Initiative.

Anyone else who wants to stick around is free to! Asch wants to have at least one heavy hitter in each group, just in case things go badly, so they've all been briefed on exit strategies and all the rest. For the rest of the people sticking around, if there are people around from the Initiative who they can talk to (outside of the main talking going on between Travis+Caspian(+maybe Asch) and the Initiative's main people on-site) they are encouraged to do so and give the random members of the Initiative a good impression. (A good impression, guys.)

And if it all goes really badly then they fight our way out and apologize a lot when they meet up with everyone else. Whoops.

Travis, Caspian, Asch

[inhumanity]

Two things we need here:

1) To know how well we Travis and Caspian are at talks, generally, and how they're going to try to get the Initiative to trust them even a little.
2) To know how combat capable Travis and Caspian are. Because things might go badly, Asch doesn't want to leave them alone if he doesn't think they can fight their way out of it.

EDIT: Something to keep in mind! Psi dropped a few questions for the mod and the answers may be useful for y'all!

EVERYONE ELSE

[inhumanity]

Check in if you're sticking around for this part! Also, please give us a bit of an idea of how your character might smalltalk other NPC Initiative people hanging around.

[inhumanity]

For reasons of why, life, why??, I myself am going to have to ask to handwave my part of this.

However, Christopher will be bringing to the table a cheerful and friendly demeanour and an unhesitating ability to attack and disable. Strong, fast, violent, and Baccano! erratic, Christopher will handle himself well. He will refrain from killing people for this (but can if it is needed).

[inhumanity]

Christopher will stick around! He wants to enjoy the show. If he gets the opportunity to chat it up with Initiative members, he will tone down the aggressive friendliness and take more of the serene, gentle angle. Less on the erratic jerkitude, more on the agreeable, approachable friendly guy.

He may still try to talk to people about flowers though. Sorry. He can only control it so much.

[transgressed]

I'm fine with threading this!

As for what Fang can do, she has like potentially violent and also nonviolent methods of dealing with hostile smugglers. She is a skilled combatant and also a decent offensive magic user, but she also knows what are referred to as 'debuffing' spells — she can slow, freeze or daze anyone long enough to keep anything bad from happening.

[ringthenoise]

This is Psi in the wrong account (I play Raiden).

I can play out (perhaps slowly) or handwave, whatever ends up working out for people.

Raiden is a military-grade cyborg and as such has stupid amounts of strength and agility. He can disable hostiles or kill them outright if necessary, as well as use visual analyzers to pinpoint weaknesses they might have (physical ones, like a bad knee) from a moderate distance.

As a trained ninja and scout he can also find ways around lookouts without having to engage them.