Beastfolk: A Plot Role Info

[powersthatbe]

If you are not a plot infiltrator or someone with IC reasons to share knowledge available to plot infiltrators, please do not read the comments of this post.

If you ARE a plot infiltrator, please comment under your toplevel to let us know you've read it; please also pop over here to announce your plotroleishness to the game at large. We prefer that you do any confidential plotting with other plot-important folks in the comments here, rather than on plurk, and please comment no later than May 21st, May 29th, June 6th, June 14th, & June 22nd with a brief (as brief as 1 sentence; as long as you like) summary of your activity during the week & plans for next week. These comments will help the mods shape mingles and plot events to keep the story dynamic and player actions important to the outcome. Likewise, comment at any time with any questions you may have, and a mod will get back to you within 36 hours at the outside.

Comments

MYTHICAL HUMANS

[powersthatbe]

THE SHORT VERSION: Humanity has pretty much ruined Earth for hosting life, and the Beastfolk are unknowing reality TV stars. (Mostly unknowing. There are a few long-term actors among their number, many of those being plot roles.)

THE LONG VERSION: Here!

WHAT ABOUT THOSE ACTORS: Players interested in playing Beastfolk actors can find out more about how they might have gotten into that situation here!

[whatsina_name]

OK so my thought for Phillip, because how dare you present me with the opportunity to make him an actor- an 'illegal' child who was snatched up by the producers and is sent along with the actual winners for the dual purpose of essentially being a hype man and also to Keep An Eye On This Shit. Probably the first time he's been away from the producers for so long, so he could either wind up enforcing their rule as much as possible or going rogue on everyone's asses once he figures out that brainwashing is Bad. Basically my MO of 'full chaos/wildcard'.

ALTERNATIVELY he could be just blatantly there to help host, if that's something you guys need.

[insidegalra]

Why not both? The audience doesn't know actors are a thing in the Mythic Saga, so being introduced as a young actor for the company on other projects who's been asked to host would work well!

[whatsina_name]

Sounds good!

Sort of followup question: how open is information about illegal children? Do people know what generally happens to them/would Phillip likely admit to being one?

[desperate_times_right]

Ok probably we should coordinate a bit because if Phillip fucks up Chloe’s shot at fame and fortune because of “feelings” they’re going to have a problem.

[whatsina_name]

I MEAN as of start of jaunt he is the perfect little angel who's off wherever the rest of the humans are and is probably someone she could call on to Do Shit on the human side if things start to go south. Just... it's Phillip and his overlays have a tendency to throw everything to the wind. XD

which is to say yeah 'feelings' could absolutely become a problem for them

[breakaleginhalf]

oh good Phillip gets to see Gil lowkey try and fuck everything up

[whatsina_name]

Phillip just quietly watching the 'live screenings' and quietly 'wtfing' at Gil's behavior, trying not to let on that this is not supposed to happen... XDD

Re: MYTHICAL HUMANS

[thornsofmalkav]

OKAY SO. Thorn the textile worker isn't an actor BUT up until five years ago she was the head mythic designer, before getting in trouble for some highly secret reason and getting sent down with a memory wipe to become a mythic herself, so any actors who've been around that long will probably recognize her as her old identity.

[letsgetdowntobismuth]

So roughly how long does the entire conversion/surgery/training process take? Does it vary much between willing and unwilling?

[insidegalra]

In ideal cases (willing or unwilling) it takes about a year. Six months is doable, but the subject will experience aches and hunger (as their body tries to get used to the abrupt changes/energy drain) for a few days post-changes. The shorter the time, the worse those side effects are, and the longer they last.

2 weeks is the shortest amount of time, but it can leave somebody crippled by pain, muscle weakness (they kind of eat themselves to fuel the changes), and a feeling of constant starvation. These side effect can last anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months.

The willing have nerve blocks applied to prevent feeling any discomfort, and can ask to be sedated for the worst parts. Most of the unwilling are kept sedated while the change is going on, but sometimes, if the Producers are pissed off, they'll make sure the subject is awake and can feel it.

[breakaleginhalf]

Would the acting stuff come between breaks in the surgery? Or be done afterwards? Would being unwilling during the acting lessons result in disciplinary actions?

[noonesblessing]

I'm thinking that Qrow's a criminal of some kind, who accepted a deal he couldn't refuse (or didn't want to refuse). Memories are all he has of his family by this point, so he didn't want to lose those.

Any suggestions of crimes that get you in this situation?

[insidegalra]

We already talked a bit on plurk, but also answering here so others can see: Just about anything can be turned into a crime to coerce someone into an actor. Everything in the stations is very restrictive, and speaking out or not following schedules to the letter can definitely add up to a crime. Memory wiping (and reprogramming for lack of a better word) is the most common punishment for troublemakers of any kind.

And if there's a fair amount of actor's going down one year, someone slated to be an actor can actually have an extra year (or two, or three) of training!

Re: MYTHICAL HUMANS

[willyousee]

Snowdrop - formerly Francis - was an illegal child absorbed into the Producers' team of child actors. He adores them and pretty much thinks that they have never done anything wrong ever. He was dropped off on planet as a faun at about age 6, so he's been around for over a decade and is absolutely on the Producer's side.

Re: MYTHICAL HUMANS

[thornsofmalkav]

I feel like Branch/Phial briefly knew him when he was undergoing his actor training--maybe even helped out with an acting class?--and they ended up renewing their friendship when Branch showed up however many years ago.

Re: MYTHICAL HUMANS

[willyousee]

Okay! I know he vaguely recalls Thorne's face from when she was a designer. I'm cool with having Branch be a former teacher!

Re: MYTHICAL HUMANS

[desperate_times_right]

If the actors do want to call the producers, should that be posted on the human jaunt post? (a foundling just tried to set Circe on fire with magic and she wants to talk to Phillip's manager)

Re: MYTHICAL HUMANS

[insidegalra]

That should work! Just label the top-level.

[razorblade_empress]

How comparable is the technology to that of the Spark? Yukki's going to be Investigating on the human side, and she knows Spark-era Computer Programming and has access to a few pieces of Spark tech.

[insidegalra]

I'm checking on some things with the mods (since they know more about Spark than me) and will get back to you as soon as I know!

[insidegalra]

Okay, got Mod input: "I would say similar enough to allow the skill to help; different enough that it does not actually seem related"

[razorblade_empress]

Yukki has Computer Programming (Far Future), which among other things lets her do systems intrusions via Sparktech (in this case, her Infoglasses), so she might want to do some of that. She'd probably be looking for info on Orwell and the Mythics in particular.

She's also got the ability to magically read other people's perspectives thanks to Questing Country, so she might also want to do some of that, if people are up for it and she can get away with it (e.g. a visiting Arcana, if there are any, will probably notice; a normal human would not).

[insidegalra]

There's a good chance she'll get at least something before security systems are set off, especially if she works cautiously.

Orwell has been around a LONG time. As in 4 centuries is new compared to them. The Mythics have been a show for about those 400 years, and have been renamed/rebranded a few times, with 'all new' characters. Orwell has had an agreement with production company that makes the 'natural world' show that both companies need to agree before any new terraforming is started down on Earth. Previously, the two companies were fighting legally over the sole rights over terraforming.

Orwell has other shows/games, but the Saga is their mega hit, and the cash cow that they fully intend to milk for all it's worth, and if Yukki pokes in the right places, she'll discover that they've been accused of doing shady shit (and then cleared) a few times, followed by burying of the info.

Mythics as a named entity have only been around as long as the show, but some deep, deep digging could pull up stories of body-mods gone extreme, and being made 'by permit only' (and effectively illegal without appearing to be) due to "side effects" and "deaths"

Poking at people's perspectives would be cool. For PCs, I'd just ask the players! For the Very Important Person, I'm sure an opportunity will come up to get a reading. (I have no idea about range, but if she can do a reading from that far away, she's welcome to go poking at folks down on the main walkabout. The network and Liminal are separate, but all the people are literally in the same solar system. (actually closer than that, as all the stations keep a close-ish orbit of Earth)

Re: MYTHICAL HUMANS

[youandyoualone]

Answers to anything people are asking Branch in this thread would not go amiss, starting with Casper's question.