CONCORDIA, DAY :40 - :047

[onemind]

CURRENT EVENTS

     CONCORDIA, DAY :40 - :047

As far as acts of terrorism go, things have been relatively quiet in Concordia since the bombing at the Royal Gaming Parlor less than a month prior. While huge chunks of extranet broadcasts and political conversations continue to revolve around discovering the culprit behind the bombings and Public Security continues to be seen in force on the streets, it seems like the average Concordian has begun to (consciously or unconsciously) slip back into their standard routines. Though a few well rooted organizations such as Mind Life and Goram Saffit's most die-hard sychophants continue to stage protests and rallies, most social tensions have eased to the point where it seems the only people currently feeling the brunt of increased public security presence continue to be those living on the fringe of Subspace. Presumably if Ngozi's promise to uncover the bombers is the truth, there are more subtle Public Security efforts being made throughout the city blocks - but if there are, they're so subtle that the only people who know seem to be those involved.

"What's being done to track these people down, Commissioner?" asks Kalani Gostislav on a popular early morning news broadcast. "And I don't mean working over teenagers in clubs."

Ngozi, with her patented cool demeanor, answers, "With all due respect, Miss Gostislav, you and I both know that Public Security has a long reach and a lot of hands. Necessarily so, in most cases. Don't think that because we're investigating subspace right now that we aren't looking into other options as well."

"So you're saying the investigations in Subspace are just a distraction?"

"No. I'm not ruling out any possibilities." She's lying. Don't puke on your shoes, Sam Alexander.

With public demonstrations on the downswing while Concordian media continues to be (rightfully, someone might say) persistent, politicians and high-rollers move to fill the void left by the average Concordian. Meaning: we hope you're ready for some run of the mill celebrity-driven discourse! Where most Concordians don't have the time to devote their lives to anti- or pro-synthetic organization, a subset of the Concordian upper elite seem to have plenty of time on the hands and the motivation to start organizing things like charity benefit balls, fundraisers and social media awareness campaigns. Currently the most visible awareness trend involves wearing a silver bangle on the right wrist to support Shya Gafar, a young women injured in the Royal Parlor bombing who's been comatose since. Those hosts familiar with the memory data recovered from one of the androids destroyed in the bombing recognize Shya as the frightened woman swept up by the crowd.

But where Concordian's average population seems determined to keep living their lives as normally as they can in the wake of these attacks, the hosts of Bearings haven't been sitting on their hands. A number of different investigations have been posed, and it's looking like things may soon fall into place to make those happen. Thanks to the hard work during and after the Bout It Out tournament, Mind Life's Sheena Frey has provided the hosts with A LIST of political and social contacts that she either trusts implicitly, or known enemies she thinks are unlikely to be involved in H+H1. It might not be a faultless list, but it at least serves to narrow down the pool of obvious lines of inquiry and hey-- that's something.

Sheena Frey isn't the hosts' only potential 'ally' either, though the rest are significantly less clear cut. EXTRAAA is evidently lurking, watching and evaluating the hosts movements from the shadows. Ilde, Mara Jade and Sam Anders have been in frequent contact with a subspace hacker who calls herself "Y". There's also a stripped down android currently cycling through repair processes in a corner of Bearings who might have answers if he's ever conscious for more than a few minutes at a time.

With questioning piling on top of each other, it might finally be time to start racking up a few answers. That means pushing the hacker Y until she gives a few salient answers, getting close with Goram Saffit to potentially uncover his involvement with H+H1, and - despite being hugely dangerous - breaking into Public Security Headquarters to get some concrete information about what or who is motivating Commissioner Ngozi to tarnish her spotless record.

Strap in, hosts. Things might get bumpy.

     IN OTHER NEWS...

Despite every day tensions having lowered since the vigil, most public service androids continue to be extremely business oriented. In general, most androids (even public security operated androids) are very wary around strangers.

Confetti! It's a parade! The annual Arista Parade, to be precise. Nominally a part of Aristana, the celebration of the ribbons of life, it's a holiday who's origins are nearly forgotten. Nowadays it's a big, raucous celebration pretty dedicated much entirely to drinking and partying. Almost all those in attendance will be wearing ribbons tied around their hair, their wrists, off of their belts and the edges of their sleeves. Pull one off, and you will be rewarded with a kiss - on the cheek, usually. The parade itself showcases a number of performers, costumes, and moving art pieces. It's route covers a number of the main streets of town (which will be closed, sorry traffic), and it lasts from dusk till nearly dawn on DAY :040. Have fun, if it's your kind of scene.

The Royal Street Gaming Parlor's re-opening ceremony is on the Day :043. It's not supposed to be a big spectacle, but that doesn't mean it won't be. The press is expected to be there in force - possibly more force than customers, who are likely to remain wary. There's a race being televised.

One of the primary commuter train lines from Beta to Gamma block has been closed due to a large fire. Public Security doesn't expect foul play; it's just really annoying for public transit overcrowding.

Ven Diagrams has announced it will soon be releasing a new version of its mental storage chip. This model's recording interface will be activated by a pattern of eye blinks customized by the chip's user.

(Want to add something that isn't here?
Chime in at WORLD BUILD SUGGESTIONS.)

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

(Please note the weirdness of these OOC dates - these windows are to accommodate for a) us getting you relevant plotting information, and b) backtagging. Feel free to overlap, forwarddate and backtag as appropriate!)

DAY :40 (October 2) - Ilde falls into a coma.

DAY :042 (October 5-7) - Kellix holds a few conversations. (This will be posted early to accommodate as much backtagging as possible)

DAY :043 (October 8-10) Aoba and Nirad track down Ahtaliah Ven then report back; new hosts hatch on the Station and late in the evening Nirad ollies off Concordia to pick them up.

DAY :044 (October 9) The new hosts land on planet.

DAY :45 (October 11-20) - The hosts break into Public Security headquarters in an attempt to uncover Ngozi's motives.

DAY :046 (October 21) - Ilde wakes up from her coma.

DAY :47 (October 22-26) - The hosts cozy up to Goram Saffit at one of the politician's famous fundraisers.

There WILL be a log posted for Kellix's conversations. Players are invited to make logs covering any other events or plots.

OOC UPDATES

Hey guys and thanks for your patience as we've worked to get all these ducks in a row. In the comment sections below, you'll find some information resources and subthreads with plot compilation links and mission details. These are as complete as we've been able to make them, but it's (very) likely we've overlooked a few things. If you have links or information to add that we've forgotten, don't hesitate to tack them on. In general we want these subthreads to give you all the information you need to draw up and post your respective event catchall logs. Since these are primarily player- and character-driven plots, we've decided to leave the posting of logs up to you guys and poke our noses in as it seems relevant to the action. We'll be providing you with as much information as we can ahead of time, though expect some holes for player (and character) flexibility. We realize this potentially makes for a lot of reading, but please don't feel compelled to look at everything; we just want to make sure those resources are easy to find if you want them.

In general, we've done our best with this calendar to allow for a reasonable amount of time for backtagging and threading. That said, there's a lot happening here and we're faintly concerned about a pacing stall to accommodate backtagging. You'll notice the IC:OOC date correlations are a little wonky this time around in hopes of giving everyone enough time to plan and backtag. We also want to emphasize that no one's required to participate in absolutely everything happening in this calendar. We've seen a lot of division of labor in plotting posts and think that's a great way to keep some of these events running even if there's some OOC time overlap. But! If it feels like things are moving too quickly or there's too much downtime, we're open to feedback and adjustment. If you guys need more or less time to get things done, don't hesitate to chime in so we can make those adjustments.

As far as non-plot related announcements go, please remember to take some time to add a section for host vs. host ability (canon and symbiote) usage in your current permissions post! We'll be checking for these during the next AC period, so you've got a month to get your ducks in a row.

As always, feel free to use this space to plot and plan; if you have any questions for us, don’t hesitate to ask them below if they’re related to current events and plots, or on the FAQ or the MOD CONTACT posts if they’re more general!

-Abby and Donna

CONCORDIA MISSION: OVERVIEW • DAY :008 - :013 • DAY :018 - :022 • DAY :025 - :032
NAVIGATION • PREMISE • FAQ • RULES • GLOSSARY • SYMBIOTIC SKILLS • ABILITY POINTS

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

QUESTIONS?

[onemind]

Re: QUESTIONS?

[decommission]

For the parade I'm thinking of tossing up an open log for everyone and wanted to check - are their any people/groups of interest noticeably showing up on any floats or otherwise?

Thanks for putting this together guys!

[onemind]

No notable NPCs are present at the parade - at least not in any official capacity. However if anyone wants to interact with a Concordian native, feel free to make up/interact with any randos you feel like!

[decommission]

awesome ty!

Re: QUESTIONS?

[adamance]

TWO QUESTIONS

1. Would Lexa have been provided with the list directly?

2. How much would you kill me for asking for deets on literally every person (sans Saffit, as I think we've dug up what we can there) on the Enemies list? I'm asking in advance so I can figure out how to approach this, haha.

Re: QUESTIONS?

[onemind]

1— Yep. Sheena will be writing the list on paper at the meeting and handing it to Lexa and Sam.

2— We won't be detailing every person on the enemy list, but we will tell you in general the list is made up of public figures who have been fairly outspoken about their anti-android views. Some of them are elected officials, some are affluent people, some are talk show hosts. You can make up details if you like, but we can tell you any investigation by Lexa of these persons won't turn up anything especially significant (possibly with the exception of the Darkling et al's investigation into Saffit).

Re: QUESTIONS?

[adamance]

Follow-up question that is completely relevant now that the Saffit party meeting has been set: will any of the names on the list be available at the party, or the types who would be thought to be available? Lexa will be waaaay more forthcoming with her intel if that's the case. (And if this is not set in stone either way, I'd love if they could be the types that could be there!)

[onemind]

As most of Sheena's list of undesirables are notably anti-android in some way/tend to share views with Saffit, yes - some of them will be present. Janina Lennart, Leyva Roggins, and Barden Albers are in attendance. Lennart's a minor politician, Roggins a lobbyist for a scrap industry company, and Albers is a muckraking reporter. None of them are especially close to Saffit as they're mostly just the type that shows up at most benefits and parties that Saffit/people with similar opinions host.

More information about party-goers etc will be made available once the log goes live!

[snaphiss]

i have no idea if this is the right place to put this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ or if im doing it right ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ help

anyway keelix popped the question (the brent spiner question) to mara and then she set up for the ceremony (the ian flemming ceremony) with pidge.

basically, how will it go, what happens, etc. when they go to the omega gardens, what will they find? what kind of schematics will kellix be able to send? how complex will the procedure be? how would you like this to go, is there anything we need to keep in mind, etc.

[onemind]

This is totally a fine place to drop this gj

The Omega Gardens are a vast garden space at what the city knows as the 'Omega Block' where the four city blocks of Concordia meet. Generally speaking, they're perfectly pleasant, tiered gardens. They're also the grounds for the primary Concordian Memory Bank silo. WOW WHAT A COINCIDENCE.

Kellix won't be able to directly provide schematics because of his current network connectivity, but he'll be able to dictate to Pidge (or Mara) exactly how to find them on the extranet. Most of the tech he's directing them to is relatively benign: a fancy toaster, a wireless uplink, and so forth. In theory, parts of these things can be taken out and combined to create something that could override the inhibitor chip's wireless connection but the process will rely on Pidge and Mara figuring out how to rework the tech to do so. It's kind of the equivalent of making a pressure cooker bomb, except a wireless jammer and not an actual explosion (...hopefully? Up to you guys tbh.).

Feel free to make up exactly what kind of objects/tech Kellix is pointing them toward as long as it's benign. In terms of complexity - the build itself shouldn't be difficult, but the puzzle work will take some considerable time. They'll also likely want to figure out a way to test it on a small scale to make sure it does what it's supposed to and not just, say, straight up scramble some android brains etc.

In general, the big complication you might run into is that in addition to jamming the system you'll have to also figure out a way for androids to be able to clip their wired connection to their inhibitor chip in what's likely to be a relatively short window of time (jamming the signal of the chips is going to be VERY obvious to people interested in monitoring their functionality). There's a few options for this, but the most effective one is probably including some kind of transmitted programming patch alongside the wireless jamming signal. However, designing a program patch without a knowledgeable local to assist will be extremely difficult so if you guys prefer to pursue some other approach, you're welcome to! You might also want to pick your time for deploying this very, very carefully as this combined with the break in of Ngozi's office would almost absolutely get everyone in serious trouble with public security without a concrete escape plan (like 'ollie off the planet' levels of escape plan).

[snaphiss]

LAUGHS amazing, thank you

to reiterate and make sure i understand (you clearly know more about tech than i do) this is less 'reach in and remove the chip' and more 'make a specialized emp style device that remotely fries the chip but leaves the rest intact, while also having physically clipped the wire immediately beforehand', yes?

how detectable is it that an android's emotion chip has been fucked with btw? like is it based on how they act, or does it send out a pulse to the cops?

[onemind]

The tech's all pretty standard cyber-punk garbage, so feel free to [insert techno babble here] however you like in practical application. That said-- yeah, you'll want to build an EMP style device to jam the chip's wireless connection AND clip the chip's wired connection either immediately before or after jamming the wireless signal.

Screwing with an android's chip doesn't send a flag directly to PS, but it DOES send a flag to the chip's technical support division. In some cases, chips just fail and tech support has to reboot the chip or deactivate the droid remotely until the hardware can be replaced or the droid can be recovered and scrapped. That said, technical support division can call the cops just as easily as anyone else can; if they notice a widespread failure, they might notify PS immediately (...or they might not; that's a big business liability...).

Re: QUESTIONS?

[sizeofyourbaggage]

I see the "is anyone on Sheena/Lexa's list going to be at Saffit's event" question as already been asked, so a follow up to that!

If any of them are there, would Sam be able to obtain any information or possibly arrange a private meeting with them? His plan is basically to be charming and flirty and use his symbiote ability to transfer his alcohol intoxication to them so he can drink with them and stay mostly sober while they end up more impaired than planned.

If none of them will be there, are there any other party goers that might have information or be a good contact to make? (Especially if Sam coordinates with the other hosts for their observations on who to target.)

[onemind]

That's totally possible to do and you're more than welcome to NPC any of the three named NPCs (here) for your threading purposes if you like. In general, all of them are clearly pretty low on the proverbial foodchain. Albers is covering the benefit for a small time extranet publication, Roggins is mostly there to eat fancy cheese, and Lennart is enthusiastically (and painfully obviously) trying to just get support for new regulation in his district. Think mirrorverse Leslie Knope. There's a strong implication that Sheena's measure of them was more or less correct: they might not be harmless but they probably aren't building bombs in their basements either.

It's possible there will be other, more worthwhile contacts to make at the party though! In general this is a really good idea and we encourage you to pursue it! More information about the other party goers should be available once the log goes up.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

Awesome! Also I hope you know I'm now picturing drunken conversations espousing the virtues of fancy cheese.

I'll definitely pursue this and follow up with it when the party log goes up. Thank you guys!!

[sizeofyourbaggage]

And a slightly different follow up! It might not be relevant, but it occurred to me to ask if anyone from the notable corporations and Concordian elite from Ngozi's files found during the break in will be at the event? And if so, same questions re: information gathering!

[onemind]

ur a good egg, Bri.

As it so happens, yes: there are a few people from Ngozi's list in attendance at the party: Kusuma Ming, Aytac Devin, Kulap Aquila, Richards Soft, Loren Tristan and Yuroslava Quang (a co-owner of Moreno Technics) are all present at the fundraiser.

Ming is a quiet woman in her 40's in attendance with her date, a pretty younger woman in a platinum grey dress. They're clearly not interested in making conversation and will more or less rebuff any attempts at small talk.

Devin is an investor in his 50s who already appears to be pretty tipsy. He'll happily make small talk and joke around with anyone who wants to make conversation. If Sam makes him more inebriated, he'll start telling long winded stories about his family and talk about business contracts in vague terms. He can't give anything away, of course, but it's an exciting time for Concordia's economy. In general, Devin seems incredibly affable and asks lots of personal questions of whoever he's talking to. Devin is mild about his anti-android sentiments: he thinks people like Mind Life have their hearts in the right place, but it's kind of silly to try and treat a machine like a person.

Aquila is a woman in her 60's and the owner of one of Concordia's major hospitals. She's brought her (extremely gorgeous) niece along and seems to be using her for bait so she can wrangle minor policy makers to discuss new laws on the table that might benefit the hospital. She's absolutely not drinking and doesn't have much patience for small talk, but is happy to talk business. Aquila's niece is a much better conversationalist, but she doesn't seem to know much. Both are vaguely anti-android rights, but it seems to be based on keeping profit margins razor thin.

Tristan is a professional socialite in his late mid-30's. Known to be something of an unrepentant playboy, Tristan is happy to make small talk, flirt and drink copiously. He's a bit of a gossip and is happy to name drop and talk shop - as long as shop is who's making money, who's losing money and who's "not worth the effort". When it comes to anti-android sentiment, Tristan is casual. He doesn't really care either way; he comes to these things because he's bored.

Soft is a media mogul behind one of the extranet's major news outlets. He's a fast talker and has a lot of conversations with lots of different people. He's happy to chat, but gets bored easily and his attention tends to wander. He seems to be here because he's old friends with Saffit, but doesn't really have much to say about being anti-android rights. He gets sleepy when intoxicated.

Quang is a cheerful, motherly older woman. She's a bit of a gossip and probably has had one drink too many, but seems sensible and kind. Morena Technics is known for its no frills tech and is primarily used by older Concordians and basic security systems; Quang is very much what one might expect of the company owner. She's happy to make small talk, including talking about current events. She's clearly saddened by the recent bombings and resents violence against organics. She's vocally anti-android and convinced that H+H1 wasn't responsible for the royal parlor bombing. After all, hurting people would just set them back - wouldn't it?


More details about these people might become available over the course of the night. [insert googly eyes here] In general, you're more than welcome to NPC any of them for your threading needs.

Re: QUESTIONS?

[adamance]

Lexa's main agenda at the party is actually to get a read on how these people respond to Mind Life to get another perspective on the matter. In her mingling, will she be able to bring them up, and what will be the general response to the matter?

Thanks!

[onemind]

These people are largely anti-android rights. They believe androids to be nothing more than super advanced machines, so any talk of Mind Life will more or less receive the expected reaction. Some will be more adamant about how ridiculous they think Mind Life is, but in general most of these people consider Mind Life's agenda to be the equivalent of trying to give rights to a fancy toaster.

[adamance]

I have a follow up after thinking: how would they respond to the mention of Ven's name?

[onemind]

The responses vary, though everyone seems to take it in stride - Ven (the company and the man) is a common enough topic of conversation that very few people seem to have any strong opinions of him. When they do, they're mostly based on wrinkling their nose at how much of his workforce is android and how focused he is on keeping his tech inaccessible by third parties. Ven is more or less the Steve Jobs of Concordia and many of these people aren't investing in Apple. On the flip side, there's a handful of people who seem to admire his business practices (smart, the labor costs must be absolutely rock bottom) and even a few who are happy to gossip about him. He hasn't been showing up publicly much lately, but that probably has something to do with the new product release on the horizon.

In general, mentioning Ven is a non-issue for these people.

[wrackful]

Okay so this is kind of water-testing, but Murphy's onto the next stage of his brain investigations and would be intending to kidnap (and probably blackmail) a neurosurgeon to look at his brain scans and remove his symbiote.

I obviously really don't want him to be entirely successful in having it removed, and I'm totally down for him ending up in jail or other consequences! But I wanted to check with you guys how feasible or disruptive it'd be to have it happening some point post-day 47 pre-mission finish, before I started throwing specifics at you or checking if others want to be involved.

[onemind]

jesus christ Murphy


Yes, this is absolutely possible. Depending on the specifics you throw, it might make things a little hairy but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's going to be a lot of balls in the air toward the end of mission, but we're perfectly aokay with that and can definitely work something out to make this happen. Two thumbs way, way, way up.

[wrackful]

Fantastic, thank you! I'll start poking around for interest and putting details together.

RE: the neurosurgeon, I know you'd probably be cool with me making them up myself, but is it okay if I toss you a list of what circumstances/lifestyle Murphy would look for and you give me the #1 or top three candidates? I feel like that's probably where the biggest cracks in the whole thing will come from, and think it'd be better (and more fun for me/whoever else may be involved) if you guys are holding those reins!

[onemind]

Yup, that works for us!