MISSION CONCORDIA: OOC INFORMATION POST

[onemind]

MISSION: CONCORDIA

     INTRODUCTION

Mission: CONCORDIA will begin on DAY :000 (May 16th). With the beginning of this mission, the clock resets. We hope every Host who wanted to keep track of time is making tally marks on their bedroom walls, because officially we're in a new time zone and who knows if it'll pick up where we left off when life on the Station resumes. All characters will receive a MISSION BRIEFING and a series of associated files and dossiers on their databanks, along with a warning to keep their databanks in offline mode at all times while on the planet. This is absolutely vital; in fact it's the only additional direction Prince and Cathaway have to give.

On DAY :000, all hosts attending the mission will find transport has been arranged for them on a small ship currently in the hangar. Neither Prince or Cathaway will be driving this time though; today the pilot is a stranger: a cheerful young woman who informs the hosts they'll be rendezvousing with her partner on the ground. She explains that the ship has cloaking technology that keeps it undetectable by local sensors, but that for the duration of their time on the planet it will have to be in orbit to avoid someone or something literally running into it. Don't worry, it'll pick us up when we're done, she says.

When will that be? Well, your guess is as good as hers.

MISSION BRIEFING

     CONCORDIA

PLANET: Opia
LOCATION: Opia System, Red Sea Galaxy, Universe Atta-Teluda 5467.7
DESCRIPTION: Tucked away in the vastness of Atta-Teluda 5467.7, there is a system where life is on the cusp of becoming something different. That corner of the otherwise quiet universe is the planet Opia in the Red Sea Galaxy. From a top down view, Opia is one of very few planets in the universe known to harbor sentient life and it is the only planet out of the six found in the Opia System to. As far as the lifeforms of Opia are conclusively aware, they’re the only intelligent life known to be out there.

And they are intelligent - and varied. Though a homogeneous species (and so humanoid as to be indistinguishable from your run of the mill Earth resident - in fact, your translators will automatically translate whatever the universe appropriate phrase is into ‘human’), they make up for it with richly varied cultures, tastes, colors and... components. Further, while their space travel is limited to slow, long intra-system travel, tech is absolutely flourishing on the ground. Synthetic and organic life are closely intermingled here - cybernetic augmentation is not just common, it’s the norm. Every individual has their own implanted digital storage bank, identification and operational personal wifi hub. Everyone is very personally connected with technological systems - digital connectivity is not merely a lifestyle, but a global foundation block. Digital space is a very real concept here; alternate reality massively multiplayer online games are common pastimes and there’s a booming ‘Extraspace’ community for connecting with friends, family, educators and employers on a worldwide level; it’s totally possible on Opia to live a rich almost entirely digital life. While medical technology has advanced to the point that the average local lifespan tops out somewhere around 180 years, there’s a comfort to be found in the fact that because so much of life is being recorded, digitized and logged on a literal personal level. One day the stored data of humanity might have a significantly more long term future. That ‘one day’ might in fact be very soon. With the advent of what could be considered “true” Artificial Intelligence technology in combination with massive advancement in robotics, the people of Opia are moving closer and closer to a singularity point - the moment where organic life and synthetic existence are no longer two different things.

The world of Opia itself clearly reflects this tech forward perspective. Though the landscape and climates across the planet’s sixteen continents are as varied as its people, the planet is primarily characterized by its numerous sprawling cityscapes. And though the natural world hasn’t been forgotten - ecobuilding and revitalization is now an absolutely vital part of keeping the planet sustainable -, most cities are still reflective of a time when that wasn’t entirely the case. In a place like CONCORDIA, one of Opia’s four megacities, subcities and neighborhoods are a mish-mash of new, old, and retrofitted. Old brick and stone buildings are flanked by those with sleeker, cleaner lines; apartment block towers exist in the shadow of corporate super structures.

Concordia itself is broken into four major subcities (also called ‘zones’, ‘quads’, ‘blocks’ or, jokingly by teenagers trying too hard, ‘platforms’). They are: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. The point where these four subcities meet is colloquially known as Omega Block, though it has no official designation. Each subcity technically follows all the same laws and regulations, though the natural infrastructure each have made the subcities fairly distinct from the other. Alpha Block is known for its corporate strongholds and setting the trend in ecobuilding. It’s home to not just magnificent skyscrapers, but also sweeping palatial gardens; Beta Block is largely the commercial and entertainment sector - here you can buy, trade or sell a variety of goods and services in the physical world; Gamma Block is the industrial subcity where products are made, technology is being implemented and factories manned by fleets of robots are churning out both mundane items and luxury ones; Delta Block is the oldest part of Concordia and houses most of the city’s government buildings. There are residential areas, local markets, and all the necessities for living - high class lives or otherwise - in each of the four subcities. Though travel between the four blocks by high speed bullet train is simple and accessible, most people spend a large part of their physical existences in the same subcity unless required by their profession or certain personal predilections to explore elsewhere.

While the subcities share many common traits, the most noticeable similarity which spans them all are the large, refractive glass towers. These towers stretch high into the sky, but have a very narrow footprint. Even from a great distance you can see the inner spoke of the tower moving, covered in spiraling horizontal windmill like blades that turn slowly and gracefully day and night. There are three in each subcity and one primary silo at Omega Block, totaling thirteen towers all together. These silos are the city’s data storage facilities, commonly known as ‘Memory Banks’. In essence, they are massive server bases where every individual’s data is stored for their lifetime-- and beyond. As technology and digital recording has progressed, these memory banks have become digital histories of people’s lives - their thoughts, their feelings, their internet search history. When a person dies (usually at the end of a long, productive life!), their amassed datastream is saved as a digital copy of that person. Given advancements in medical, cloning and synthetic technology, Concordia and cities like it are leading the charge toward the ability to quite literally copy a person into a new body.

However in counter to this has been a rise of anti-synthetic sentiment, the spearhead of which is the organization known as ‘Humans + Humans 1st’. This anti-synthetic movement asks questions like, is cloning and body jumping really ethical? In combination with a working environment being rapidly whittled down by androids (who have no citizen rights and aren’t recognized as individuals) and the rising disparity between rich and poor, there’s a notable biochauvanism movement rising from the lower and middle class that believes memory banking for the sake of mental reproduction and the continued growth of the android workforce will cause the Concordia (and Opia’s) soul to be destroyed. Can a life be contained in data? Are they destroying everything that makes themselves unique? What makes them individual? What makes them people?

Despite all this, the biochauvanism movement in Concordia wouldn’t have been able to make much headway against the heavy lean of science, fear of mortality, and what amounts an all too inevitable rise of Artificial Intelligence personhood if it weren’t for the fact that the ranks have recently been swollen by a whole new class of dissenters, Motivated by the simple fact that as human consciousness becomes nearly indistinguishable from artificial consciousness, the line between the two blurs, a certain selection of the very rich have begun to lean on biological supremacy ideals as a means of maintaining control over a large, unpaid workforce. If human minds are close to being placed in android bodies and if a synthetic organic mind is made, who is to say the opposite is impossible? And those resultant people, who are becoming what society has up until this point considered property as opposed to individuals, would bring about inevitable policy change. Once human and artificial consciousnesses become indistinguishable, what becomes of that huge, silent workforce off whose backs the super rich have made their fortunes? Suffice to say, not all of the powerful fear change as much as they embrace the idea of functional eternal life, but some do.

Even with these two forces operating to undermine advancement, it seemed that Opia’s future was clear. However, Concordia now has a problem that shouldn’t exist: recently, and without any real explanation, the biochauvanism movement has become bigger, more organized, and more efficient. Frankly, it’s become a whole lot more dangerous. Thanks to some very odd local and global power shifts, the grassroots organization known as ‘Humans + Humans 1st’ now has access to money, resources and tools to fight the good old anti-synthetic fight. Chief among these resources is a new weapon that’s capable of wiping out digital data storage on a massive level. This weapon bypasses all of the safety precautions that their world has developed in the hundreds of years they’ve been perfecting information technology and storage. It’s the belief of the Nest agents currently on the ground in Concordia that this biochauvanism movement is being subtly guided by extra-multiversal entities who have a vested personal interest in making sure that Opia’s population never reaches full synthesis.

YOUR MISSION is to work with Nest agents pre-established in Concordia to get Concordia’s path to synthesis back on track. It’s the belief of the Nest agents that the best way to accomplish the goal is to rout Humans + Humans 1st (H+H1) efforts to sabotage Concordia’s synthetic infrastructure and data storage. By doing this, Nest agents hope to help initiate the Artificial Intelligence personhood movement.

What you ACTUALLY choose to do? Well, that’s up to you - isn’t it?

PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS

     PERSONS OF INTEREST

CARATA - serenae - An agent of the Nest and one of the new host’s primary contacts while in Concordia. Carata is a petite, lithe woman, with a sweet voice and pleasant demeanor who would seem younger than she is even without the Nest’s extended lifetime. She’s human, or at least makes no attempt to be anything else, with rich brown skin and large, darker brown spotting across her cheeks and up into her browline. She is friendly, open, and quite outgoing, quick to physical affection. She seems well tied into the Nest, but not to the level of Cathaway, and there’s something oddly distant about her despite her warm nature.

NIRAD - nirsighted - An agent of the Nest and one of the new host’s primary contacts while in Concordia. Nirad is more or less human in appearance, though maybe if you spend a long time squinting at him you’ll notice something faintly off about his proportions. Nirad is largely soft-spoken, but he isn’t quiet. In fact he seems to have very little filter between his mind and what he says or does; he’s prone to wild mood swings at the worst of times and seems off balance and strange at the best ones.

Once they arrive in Concordia, dossiers will be provided to the hosts detailing on a number of Concordia locals. For OOC purposes, we've provided a brief summary of each. Detailed dossiers are available upon request.

DR. FEDELMID ARAN - The head data analyst of Omega Block’s memory bank. Dr. Fedelmid Aran of the Barstori has a strong history of biotechnical research and development and close ties to leading wetware corporations currently working on synthetic mind development. Reported to be something of a family woman in her very slim spare time.

SEONG-HYE NGOZI - Local Security Commissioner in a megacity is rumored to be quite literally an impossible job, and yet Ngozi has been managing to not just do the job (reasonably) well but has been re-elected time and time again. She has a seemingly iron-clad reputation and since taking the job, local and subcity physical crime has dropped by %2 each year. Digital crime has more or less stayed the same, but that’s fairly typical. In general, most people seem shockingly happy with the job Ngozi does but there’s always rumblings about corruption around any die-hard cop.

AHTALIAH VEN - A digital and physical darling of corporate Concordia (and beyond), Ahtaliah Ven is known for his good temper and common business sense. His competitors find him a little cutthroat and he’s laid off a significant number of bioworkers in favor of a synthetic workforce, but to offset that he makes a point of funneling massive profit percentages into philanthropic works. It isn’t personal, it’s just business. Ahtaliah Ven is on a number of company boards with a slew of ‘diversified interests’, but his family company, VEN DIAGRAMS, is a forerunner in personal technology gadgetry. Roughly 15% of Opia’s personal implants are designed and manufactured by Ven. That’s a lot of brains.

SHEENA FREY - Sheena is a fighter. She’s been a fighter since she was a kid-- literally, having dedicating her early life to Sarsalla, the most popular form of martial arts in Concordia. She won multiple continent-wide fights in her age and weight class, and it seemed like she’d be set for life until she was seriously injured in a practice match at 17. While multiple surgeries eventually allowed Sheena to regain the ability to walk, for the two years of her life that she spent bedridden, in and out of the hospital and physical therapy, she was cared for by one of the state-provided assistance androids - nicknamed “Pal”. Her injury and the isolation she faced in the aftermath of her injury left her with plenty of time to get to know Pal.By the time they were separated, she considered them a friend. When Pal was decommissioned less than a year later, its body scrapped and mind gone, she took it personally. Sheena has spent every day of her life since using her name, her accident, and her drive to push for Android rights and representation. Sheena holds no official place in the government, but she is the major representative of the Mind Life organization - the most prominent of the AI rights organizations.

REPRESENTATIVE GORAM SAFFIT OF THE LARANN - The public face of the biochauvanist movement. Not that he calls himself that. This aging representative of the Delta block is nominally a ‘Patriot’, and he made his name by standing for a strong moral background, for good ol’ fashioned beliefs, for family and for humanity. His rhetoric is veiled enough, and he condemns the acts of violence performed by ‘misguided people who have nothing to do with the movement or it’s ideals’, while at the same time using the unrest as proof that the public is angry, and that they need to be heard.

EXTRAAA - A rumored circle of hackers (yes, seriously) who are rumored to be behind some notable but ultimately harmless digital pro-android digital terrorism. Most of EXTRAAA’s “attacks” are small time data scrambling and digital defacement (think: rewriting wiki articles and posting conspiracy theory videos to youtube).

HUMANS + HUMANS 1ST - The biggest, best funded, most organized of the biochauvanist movement organizations. The members are faceless and anonymous, there is no known leader, and those of them that have been captured seem to know very little about the true power and structure of their own organization. They have committed acts of terrorism for the past thirty years, but in the past year they have become more organized and more deadly. There are many copycat groups, but Humans + Humans 1st were the first and remain the most deadly.

KUN ADETOKUNBO - Affectionately called 'Kun-Kun' by his fans, Adetokunbo is the favorite to win the upcoming BOUT IT OUT championships. He, along with three other top competitors have been making appearances around Concordia in preparation for the big fight and large holograms of him promoting the bouts can be found at many street corners.

[Additional dossiers will be added as they become ICly available.]

     MISSION KIT & EQUIPMENT POOL

PERSONAL MISSION KIT

• DATABANK
  (Loaded with mission briefing information and associated materials including a brief history of Opia, cultural information, a travel guide to Concordia, a user's guide to digital currency exchange and a children's television show about how to stay safe on the Extranet. REMINDER: KEEP YOUR DATABANK IN OFFLINE MODE.)
  
• INTERFACING DEVICE
  (This small, slightly curved, slightly warm device fits over the curve of most Host’s ears, and it acts the same as the implants most people on Opia have. It will allow Hosts to mentally access the net, to store their memories, and to interface with the technology on the planet. It also acts as a translator. Google glass - for your brain! It also serves as a disguise tool. The entirety of Concordia is monitored at all times and this device will make your face appear subtly different and make it untraceable to Concordia’s security systems. You will be seen, but not recognized. It doesn’t fool flesh and blood humans though, so don’t consider it a foolproof disguise if you get yourself in real trouble!)
  
• FAKE ID
  (Your identity is tied to your interfacing device, so be careful not to lose it! The ID has a record of your name, occupation, education, personal history, all of your physical and mental augmentations and modifications (enough to explain away any non-human appearance), social media accounts, where you’re from, who you’re from-- everything. It’s all fake except your name, of course. You’ve never been to this planet in your life. Still, it’ll pass almost any inspection. Just try not to catch the attention of any of the advanced level hackers or investigators. According to the ID, all Hosts are part of a brain trust developing new Extranet scenarios. Any other incriminating details are up to the player’s discretion.)
  
• CREDIT CARD
  (It’s a credit card. It’s full of credits. Don’t abuse it, because there is a limit, but it will allow you to ride public transport, eat, and buy a reasonable amount of clothing and local tech. If you go over your limit, expect to have to explain yourself -- and possibly end up with a card that will only allow you to spend a certain amount each day before you’re cut off.)
  
• "UNIFORM"
  (Your away clothes this time are composed of a pair of dark pants, a tightly fitted undershirt, a slightly looser long sleeve shirt with an asymmetrical hem, a belt, and a pair of running shoes. There is a short synthetic leather jacket to accompany it. All of them are slightly different but are of a similar design (you look less culty that way…). They are, much like the previous clothes, resistant to dirt, water, and minor tears. However, feel free to mix and match with items acquired locally. Go nuts. Buy some souvenirs.)
  
• TASER GLOVES
  (Another taser... This one is smaller than the last and takes the form of a pair of fingerless gloves that will trigger none of the weapons scanners on the planet. To activate it, you press your opposite thumb to the wrist of your glove and hold for three second. The next person you touch who has a different genetic signature than your own will receive a jolt strong enough to drop them. WARNING: will not work on artificial intelligence, however it will momentarily scramble the electronics of a cybernetically enhanced human.)

SHARED EQUIPMENT POOL

• SPY FICTION
  (Are you ready for some spy gadgets? Because Cirata and Nirad have a small stockpile of locally sourced tech. You can borrow anything you want, just try not to lose any of it. :( )
  
• SUBLIGHT ELECTRO PISTOL
  (A (very) small handheld weapon. While nominally designed for anti-android safety at the advent of robotic introduction into the workforce, these pistols have since been outlawed and are no longer in vogue. This one is very illegal and very dangerous. NO. NONE OF YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE ENOUGH FOR THIS. You’ll have to secure your own horrific blackmarket weapons technology.)
  
• COMPANY CAR
  (Personal vehicles are a rare luxury, but you’re all part of a cool fictional brain trust so you get to share a company car. This one is black, posh and seats 5. (It drives on wheels; flying car permits are way harder to get.) It’s a rental, do not crash it. They didn’t opt for the extra insurance.)

NOTE: Again, don't lose anything or Prince will make you fill out some paperwork.

     NOTABLE LOCATIONS

BEARINGS - Your home sweet home for your time in Concordia. The Bearings is a small short term apartment complex on the 18th level of the much larger Benna Building in the Beta Block. The Nest has bought it out for the extent of your stay. It is a shared housing situation, each corner of the floor is occupied by clusters of rooms with shared restrooms, and the center is occupied by the shared living space, the kitchen and the social room. Consider it a large dorm - although the rooms aren’t really that much larger than the ones on the Station. Each room contains a bed, a table, a small closet, and a panel on the wall that allows you to personalize your room, allowing you to change the wall colors and the lighting scheme. It links with your implants- or it would, if you had one. As it is it links to the device the Nest has provided you, and through that you can program all of those things as well as an alarm, a notification panel, bring up a screen to watch entertainment, interface with the Extranet, and surf the net somewhere beside your own mind.

EXTRASPACE NETWORK - The Extraspace Network is the major digital zone of Opia. Think a combination of Facebook and Second Life with a heavy dash of virtual reality/tourism. Extraspace is, for the most part, heavily monitored and regulated by its official administrators and moderators. Extraspace is a global super power of its own right, a very real second platform for life and experience. Experience dinner with you spouse half a world away; make a major business deal; pretend to be something you aren’t in Extraspace’s roleplaying venues.

I&D INC. - Intelligence and Design is one of the foremost wetware companies on Opia. Though it has a strong digital platform, it’s head offices are located in Concordia’s Alpha Block. Public tours are available on a very basic level, but most of the company’s research and lab functions operate behind tightly closed and monitored doors.

CAVANAUGH HALL AKA “THE OPERA HOUSE” - The Opera House is one of the primary entertainment houses in the Beta Block. A live theater and performance hall, a certain percentage of its yearly performances are open to a digital audience but a large portion of its events are strictly physical attendance only.

SUBSPACE - All cities have impoverished areas; Concordia’s largest slum is a district colloquially known as ‘subspace.’ Undesirables of all type seem to gravitate to the subspace; crime here is common, as are visible technological augmentation. Where biotech in Concordia is typically vaguely discreet (for example, prosthetic limbs are typically made to resemble flesh and bone), impoverished people must make do with shoddier, more visible tech. It’s rumored that the right people in subspace can get you a ticket into Concordia’s mysterious underground.

PLATFORM TWELVE - A bustling shopping center on a raised thoroughfare. Almost anything legal to own in Concordia can be acquired here in person or ordered from here via digital distribution if you don’t feel like doing the pickup in person.

BOUT IT OUT - Sort of an arcade place, but there are holographic spheres where the projection of you/your avatar fights inside against your opponent. You can do so by linking up your interface, though unless you've already got your avatar stored it's just going to show a generic pic of whatever you look like, and that's so not cool. Then it's a matter of punching it out left and right. You can do the movements physically and have them translate into the holograms for show, or just concentrate really hard and have them happen anyway. Which is not as entertaining to the people watching and cheering. There are practically no limits to what you can do in these fights. Jump, fly, blast them with telepathic powers, whatever. It's the ultimate make-believe fighting game where your imagination is what's most likely to help you win over any actual technique. The city is currently gearing up for a major championship event. (Inspired by The Island; ty Noodles)

GREAT CONCORDIA MENAGERIE - A zoological park in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred. Includes aquarium and aviary, some of which are synthetic representations due to extinction. (ty Vee)

PSYCHIC FAIR - A weekly market on the cusp of the subspace where the more spiritually minded of Concordia get together. While many of these eclectics have sympathies with HH1, there are others who are peace with both synthetic and organic life within their beliefs. Much of the wares are useless knick-knacks, and the services provided are obscure and pointless occult rituals, but you never know what you might encounter... (ty Vee)

SUBSPACE DRAGSTRIP - Illegal racing on iffy jerry-rigger machines, built from scraps and modified with interesting functions and some minor AI of their own. Vehicles take all shapes and sizes with races handled as free for alls or by weight class, but mostly anything goes. Please think cyberpunk trash Speed Racer. Very dangerous, both to drivers and spectators, but has a strong cult following and gambling bookies attached to it. Lots of street food as well as bartering for junk parts. (ty Vee)

ELSEWHERE - Looking for something? Concordia is a sprawling city, a massive hub to a menagerie of cultures - low tech, high tech and everything in between. If you want to explore a location or venue that isn’t listed here already, feel free to recommend locations in the appropriate subthread. Approved locations (etc) will be added to this listing.

     CULTURAL NOTES

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING - While cybernetic augmentation and digital implanting is the norm on Opia, extensive biological modification still earns some sideways glances. Most synthetic equipment is designed to interface seamlessly and invisibly with the biological - prosthetic limbs look like the limbs they were meant to replace, personal electronics are often invisible when not in use, etc., etc.. A certain level of cosmetic and stylistic adjustment based on personal preference is more than acceptable, but odds are someone’s still going to be weirded out if you make yourself look like an eight foot tall dragon. Still, like anywhere else, there are people who break these rules, and among the youth and performers you can find some truly strange things. Extra limbs, extravagant piercings and subdermals, dramatic facial reconstruction. It’s all possible, even if it’s not really acceptable. If you’re not human, do your best to look a little more human, because you’re going to stand out even if people just assume you’re a weirdo.

VICE... WITHIN REASON - Almost everything is a little bit legal in Concord (except the big no-nos like murder, assault, etc etc). Drugs? Sure, but they're carefully regulated. Prostitution? Everyone's well vaccinated and documented. Gambling? Hell yeah. Moderation is the key to a happy lifestyle and vice, both physical and digital, is a carefully maintained entertainment sector. Yes, there are underground networks outside the law that are significantly seedier and definitely more dangerous but in general no one's going to look at you sideways for partaking of a little Stim here and there. Just don't bring it to work or drive under the influence.

SECOND LIFESTYLE - Digital life is a very real thing on Opia, but most people still manage a healthy physical existence as well. That said, reality based entertainment and hobbies are largely very much the pursuit of the upper middle class and above. While children of wealthy families may attend physical schools with traditional seeming classrooms, most others will attend extranet charter schools. The internet is cheap; real space is a luxury. As such, lower income homes/restaurants/etc tend to be very small and very economical about space. You can bet that the bigger a room is, the richer the person who owns it is.

FAMILY AND FORTUNE - The population of Concordia is wildly varied and certain neighborhood and groups may have their own values and belief systems, but commonly, the historical Concordian family structure has been as such: A single family unit is made up of grandparents, parents, and their children. The oldest child stays in their parents’ house into adulthood; whoever marries them moves in with them to take over their parents’ place when they die. They inherit everything from name, to titles, and property. The primary power in a family unit has always been the parent whose family owns the house. Gender discrimination is less common than the discrimination of second (and beyond) children. Their family may still monetarily support them and usually still expresses their love and affection them, but they are in inarguably a less socially advantageous position. They can build their own fortune, make their own name and pass this on to their own child, but it is a lot more difficult. However, this family structure has been experiencing a steady decline. With parents living far longer than they used to, the pressure of inheritance has both grown in a theoretical sense and lessened in a practical one. If you are even the first child of a family whose great, great grandparents are still alive, you know you’re never going to take your family’s name, title, and property. Most children simply leave home. If they’re feeling bitter, they disown themselves and leave the names they have the right to carry. There are whole generations of ‘New Names’ as a result of this disillusionment. Meanwhile, those who do manage to inherit keep a death grip on their names, titles and properties. Many young individuals - both those benefited and disenfranchised by this culture of inheritance - laugh at the outdated system, but because the older generations are still firmly rooted in society it still has powerful sway.

A log will be posted for the initial arrival on Concordia, but players are more than welcome to make their own posts during the duration of the mission. Characters are welcome to speak and interact with members of the native population; feel free to handwave minor interactions, but be prepared for the possibility of threadjacking by mod-controlled mission specific npcs or events should certain criteria be met.

Further, this OOC Information post provides only the starting information for Concordia. This post may be updated to track player discovered information or world changes as characters interact with the setting and plot!

If you have any questions, please direction them to the questions thread below!

NAVIGATION • PREMISE • FAQ • RULES • GLOSSARY • SYMBIOTIC SKILLS • ABILITY POINTS

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[circumspector]

Spins around Disney Princess style through the digital fields.

I can say for sure that in the interest of keeping the brood safe she'll keep moving her IP constantly, and be accessing from different terminals where she needs to and trying to keep to her siren mojo using more than one terminal at once / on the move so it's hard to pin-point her to any one device as often as can be. Granted that's probably going to leave a weird presence in its own right but hopefully too weird to be easily to understand for a bit.

With the scrambling and being wanted, would it be alright if I use her hecking up an AI - Android fellow with that being what tips her over to being a la Wanted Criminal? Or would that happen earlier in the line? Because I am so down with this biting her in the butt even if from just her own curiosity.

Oh and after that what will be ... safely able to access without messing it up for everyone. Edts: basically would I be able to have her throw herself at the ‘Humans + Humans 1st’ accounts to see who is funding and giving them resources once she's written herself off as being useful so no one else has to screw themselves finding this out fdsafdsa

[onemind]

Just to cover our bases so we're all on the same page, a quick note!:
Angel will not be the top dog hacker of this planet. Disregarding the Siren mojo - which we will talk about in a second - this planet is seconds away from the singularity point. It is a very technologically advanced society. They've essentially funneled all their science and development into the tech industry and digital realms are opposes to, say, space travel or cool teleportation terminals. This place is advanced and the network here will use different technology and different ways of approaching programming than Angel is used to. There's definitely a learning curve. She can figure it out and she can hack it, but she won't be intimately familiar with their particular system right away. This is one society with one focus, and the need to protect their digital lives across the board has led to a far more unified and defended system than what exists in Angel's universe. So she can definitely do it, but since she doesn't know the system her efforts may be thwarted at times and she will be somewhat of a bull in a china shop.

If she pokes around too much she's going to draw attention, and quite likely the first attention she draws will be from EXTRAAA. They'll contact her and revel to her exactly how shoddy her fake identity is under hard scrutiny. Because it is. If Angel gets to the point she is actively wanted for cyber crimes by the legit authorities, she will almost definitely found. Roughly fifty percent of Concordia's security force is dedicated to tracking and stopping cybercrime and once some human element is involved, the interfacing device's facial cloaking tech won't be good enough to protect her. If actively on a wanted list, it's highly likely that Angel will be ferreted out. We're not going to spill to you exactly what will/would happen, but if Angel pursues this particular avenue she'll definitely receive plenty of warnings that she's walking a dangerous path.

As for her Siren Mojo - while it makes it easier for her to commune with devices, it is definitely tailored to her own universe and will ping the Concordian systems as weird and unnatural. It'll mean she can fly under the radar as a system anamoly for a little bit, but it won't go unnoticed forever.

Hecking up an AI actually probably won't be what gets her pegged as a dangerous wanted criminal. That's far more likely to happen as a result of personal data mining etc. To be quite honest, this society values the lives of androids far less than they value their own selves and their money. No one cares about an AI losing its sense of identity as long as it still does its job. Unless it was an incredibly valuable android with incredibly valuable information in it (likely it would be the private property of some megacorporation), her essentially killing it wouldn't matter to most people. You wipe a sanitation droid and maybe a 'WANTED: information about vandal' poster goes up on some of the holo-boards, but it'll probably get pegged as just simple kid stuff. Do it more than once, and she might draw attention as a serial vandal/possible member of Humans+. If she scrambles an incredibly valuable android, it's more likely she'd just get hunted down by a personal security force as opposed to Concordian city security.

If she does get added to the wanted list, literally nothing will be safe for her to access. She'll have to ditch her interfacing device and live essentially 'off the grid' entirely and hope someone doesn't notice that she's invisible. She won't be able to access public services (no more public transit) and her purchasing power will be effectively zero. As for Humans + Humans 1st, they don't have accounts that will be easily found. They're a very secret organization and in fact have shockingly little on the net about how they operate, what they're doing, etc. Most readily available mention on them is either official city security reports or likely heresay/conspiracy theories. There are whole cyber task forces looking for them and they've found very little for all their looking. Start digging and see what Angel can find, but she won't be able to dig very far on a digital level is she ends up on a most wanted list.

[circumspector]

Ah shit, I am so sorry if I overstepped by getting 2 hype with my plans but thank you so much for the clarification about the hard limits of this! I will keep this all in mind, and as ever I really do not mind if this comes back to bite her.

So I guess that leaves me with two things, either way she'll probably end up flagged, she uses this stuff too much it'll be a good lesson for her, and her way of using it would read as weird as hell because she'll use three or four public terminals at once to do so, and likes to settle herself at the bottom of the proverbial lake and see what swims by without too much interferance as her primary form of intellgience gathering. With that in mind, what will she be able to find out if she very very slowly starts digging and filtering towards the other hosts?

And secondly, since I know she will poke an android and inevitably break it, would she be able to repurpose it to do her evil bidding idk keep it??? or maybe use later?? I just know she wouldn't leave the poor thing stuck with just its basic functions.

[onemind]

Hey, please don't worry or apologize! We just realized we weren't being as clear as we really needed to be in terms of setting your expectations etc etc; we're sorry if we startled you or some of the wording was a little clunky on our part! That definitely wasn't my/our/whatever intention and seeing y'all get excited and plot stuff out is part of the fun. Thumbs up!!

As for your questions:

1) Accessing multiple public terminals at once will result in a minor flag on the security network (just because accessing more than one at a time is usually the kind of thing someone does when they're about to do something shady), but won't actually get her into any kind of trouble. As far as sightseeing from that position goes, Angel will largely be aware of a constant stream of data travel and trade. There is a TON of information transactions being made in Concordia for every microsecond. As stated previously, there's very little to dig up about H+H1 in the digital sphere; there are a number of blogs written/recorded/transmitted by anonymous radicals who claim to be part of the organization, but they all kind of sound like teenagers desperate for attention and none of them have their facts 100% straight so either they're bluffing, or H+H1 is really good at keeping some of their people in a 'need to know' capacity. She'll also be able to find all the public security records detailing the investigation into H1+H1; it seems a month ago H1+H1 claimed responsibility for temporarily shutting down a number of tramway lines and associated bomb threats. No bombs went off (or were found) and no one was injured, but it seems like it was a big inconvenience all around. Most disappointingly, no arrests were made. The tram lines that were stopped were secondary and tertiary routes moving through all four subcities. A few copycat crimes followed the bomb threats - mostly suspicious network activity on transportation network servers and minor explosive devices in facilities housing public works androids (cost of property damage: $757,495,986) and a few arrests WERE made from that. The arrested criminals names are: Enitan Khorshid, Darby Beverly, Efe Claude and Mies Rayyan.

If Angel is looking at anything other than H+H1 mentions or you have any follow up questions about this information, let us know!


2) Someone owns that android that she broke and while personality wiping an android isn't really more than an inconvenience to most people, it's still technically damaging someone's private property. Assuming she doesn't just steal the android (.........), if she wanted to approach the owner for purchasing the robot that would technically be possible... but also a little suspicious, so it might be better to attempt to purchase through a proxy. If she successfully manages to buy an android, her credit card will be maxed out and she'll be put on a bare bones budget for the rest of the trip.

As always, if you have any additional questions just holler!! And again, no need to apologize! <3

[circumspector]

Thank you so much for all of this, it is wonderful as always ahhh.

BUT UHM. MORE QUESTIONS. Does H+H1 have any calling cards to make people know it was them? c:

[onemind]

THEY MIGHT. But as of right now, it's unclear if they have a particular symbol or a pattern of behaviors that they subscribe to.

winky face.

[circumspector]

TIME 2 FAKE IT TILL U MAKE IT. tyty