powersthatbe | Beastfolk: A Plot Role Info

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!

Edited 2019-05-12 04:04 (UTC)

Bio:
General Information:
You stumbled out of the desert, ill and injured, a little over two weeks ago. The Beastfolk rescued you and helped you recover, and you have something to tell them.

Unfortunately, this is all you currently know;
1: You're here to help...somehow.
2: Your equipment is what let you get through the desert alive, but it's damaged and incomplete. You don't know where the missing pieces ended up.
3: Two pinprick wounds on the back of your neck are why your memories are missing, but somehow you kept whatever it was from taking everything, including basic skills like eating and walking.
4: There's a way to restore missing memories, and you know (knew?) how to do it. You just have to remember how again. Somehow.
5: The visual flashes of some other place are important, and you have to get back there. Also, the lines of numbers and letters burned into your mental eye but that make no sense are a key to something. To what, and how to use them, you've lost with everything else.

Important Background Tidbits:
You used to be Chief Technician in the Memory Erasure and Alteration department. Your job was to alter memories of troublesome individuals to keep society stable and productive. That was fine, but taking people, subjecting their bodies to extensive modification, and then wiping all memories but the most basic of skills and language… that was less fine.

You endured for a while, but then you started plotting how to make things better, or at least return the Beastfolk's memories. You joined up with Neonate Seer to bring an antidote that would start wearing down the memory wipes down to the Beastfolk, but you were both caught. In desperation, you tried to go down yourself, and were hit by a remote-drone with the most thorough memory wipe nano-bot injections. You were able to use your one dose of the antidote to forestall the worst of it but couldn't save most of your memories.

NOTE: None of these memories will be accessible at beginning of the jaunt, but one flash of them may be obtained each week until/if a full memory return is achieved.

Observable motivations: To help the Beastfolk and return their own memories

Hidden motivations: to return everyone's memories, and find a way not to be killed

Applicable relationships:
NEONATE SEER: something about them is so familiar! (with memory unlocked: accomplice, and perhaps friend. Definitely in it together)

RESTLESS SEER: this one is pestering you with questions you can't answer. You'd like to, but you can't, and that's incredibly frustrating.

Unique Skill: Memory Wiping and Restoration-with the proper equipment/drugs you can drastically alter a person's memories by wiping everything, or even just a select few, and you can also restore those wiped memories after the fact. With this extensive knowledge you've stumbled on a way to keep bits of wiped memories from being entirely lost, and how to use triggers to create a spontaneous restore of selected memories. NOTE: this skill is not usable until memories have been returned

Bio:
General Information:
You arrived with a group of foundlings a while ago, and have long since found your footing, but there's more out there than just Home, and you know it. You want to learn everything there is to learn, and see new places, and discover new anythings. The other seers sort of understand, but none of them feel as strongly as you do. Then two weeks ago the Strange Creature arrived, and you knew that this was it! Being able to go beyond the desert would satisfy your need, and help the Beastfolk expand and take the pressure off the fields and fishermen to feed everyone. This is more important than even the upcoming harvest, and you need to get others to listen!

Important Background Tidbits:
Each seer has visions that improve the lives of the Beastfolk considerably, if only they can figure out what the visions mean and how to implement them. Your visions were of an improved irrigation system which was easy to make work, and ways of treating the mildly poisonous river water and even ocean water to be properly drinkable. That one was much harder to understand, and required things that should have been impossible at first glance, but you managed to figure out the missing pieces and work-arounds after a lot of hard work and brainstorming. Most of your time is (or should be) spent overseeing and running repairs for those things. You spend a lot of time trying to encourage new visions to come to you, instead.

Observable motivations: To learn all the things! To find out about anything and anyone new.

Hidden motivations: To leave Home, and probably not come back.

Applicable relationships:
STRANGE CREATURE; they are fascinating! You know they're the key to getting out of here and learning new things, but they don't remember and it's so frustrating. You may have (read: did) secretly made off with some of their strange clothing to figure out how it repelled the desert. If it can be duplicated, it's the key to expanding your world!

NEONATE SEER: You're looking for the seer(s) in the new group with the intent to take them under your wing. Seers have to stick together; no one else understands the unique burden of the visions and making them reality.

Unique Skill: Instinct for Exploration-the ability to spot avenues/opportunities for acquiring new knowledge and brainstorm ideas about how to pursue those avenues/opportunities, but not necessarily means to do so without assistance from others.

Bio:
General Information:
Everything hurts, and it's a struggle to move at even the most sedate pace, much less do more than that. You're also starving constantly. You don't know why because you just woke up today and were immediately struck by visions. These visions include flashes of water moving wheels that move other things. Incongruously, you're also having visions of a drawn picture that suspiciously resembles the place you woke up in, a voice saying "You have to remember," and lines of gibberish numbers and letters superimposed over those and a shadowy, distorted room with a feeling like sticky water all around you. Those things are terrifying, but you need to figure them out, somehow. The place you woke up in probably has some answers.

Important Background Tidbits:
Before all this, you were very accomplished at programming (and hacking, not that the powers that be approve of that sort of thing), and got involved with the Strange Creature. You agreed to assist with getting an antidote down there to recover their memories, but the plan went pear-shaped and you were caught. You were subjected to a much accelerated transformation into a Mythic, guaranteed to leave you crippled by pain, weakness and hunger for a month or more, but that gave you time to attempt a few tricks the Strange Creature taught you about retaining bits of memory after a memory wipe. You've managed to tie some recent, important memories to keys within your mind so that they can be recovered. The trick will be discovering what the keys are.

Observable motivations: To figure out what the terrifying visions mean

Hidden motivations: To recover everyone's memories and stick it to the powers that be as a bonus

Applicable relationships:
STRANGE CREATURE: you know that voice! That's the voice telling you that you must remember something. But what? Maybe they can help you figure out what's going on.

Unique Skill: Hacking mastery-the ability to break into, gain control of, and then employ, or extract information from, advanced electronic systems. Does not include avoiding detection, or prevent the actual owners of the system from gaining back control later (Note: cannot be used until that memory is recovered)

Bio:
General Information:
You’re one of the eldest of the Beastfolk, and your body is failing fast. You no longer have the strength and mobility to assist with most of the tasks the Beastfolk need to complete to keep surviving. For over a year now, you’ve been “encouraged” to offer yourself back to the gods on the Day of Farewells, so that you can be remade and returned in a new, younger body, but without memories, of course. You’d like to argue that you wouldn’t be you without your memories and experiences, but you know how to choose your battles. While your body is failing, your mind is still going strong. This is why you’re sure not going to leave on the Day of Farewells, unless you’re actually dead. You clearly remember more history than most of the others your age, and you’ve lived through plenty of disasters, both natural and resulting from stupidity. That’s why you have to stick around, so you can slow down the eager young seers and their “progress” and figure out how to put a stop to the youngsters claiming they’re the protectors of history when you should be.

Important Background Tidbits:
You’ve lived through more than one instance where the fever for new marvels described by the seers ended up in starvation and death when untested things failed, or the Beastfolk just neglected working on crops and fish in order to construct or help operate them. The reason so few Beastfolk can read and impart their words on the clay tablets is because of one of those follies. Too many Beastfolk eager to learn left the fields underworked, and a particularly fierce drought season left everyone starving. Reading is an important skill, and one you’re happy and able to still teach, but slowly, and only to one or two students at a time. The desert and ocean are unpredictable enough, and you don’t want the youngsters to live through more tragedies because of their own eagerness.

Observable motivations: To stubbornly stick around in spite of not contributing anymore, and interfere with the progress of the seers.

Hidden motivations: To protect your people from repeating mistakes that no one but you seems to remember correctly anymore, even if it makes you hated by them.

Applicable relationships:
RESTLESS SEER: Their passion is admirable, and if they could just learn to slow way down and think things through, they’d probably be an asset to the Beastfolk’s future. As things are, though, they need to be stopped before they get people killed by leading them into the desert wholly unprepared.

STRANGE CREATURE: You know what “humans” are, thanks to a half-mad seer from your youth. You used to think they were a myth, or had died out, so finding out there’s apparently some still living beyond the desert is a big surprise. You feel sad that they’ll never get back to their people, but it will be safer for them and the Beastfolk both if they live the rest of their lives with you. If they recover their memories, you’ll take them down on a clay tablet personally, so that Beastfolk in the future will know, and use that knowledge to brave the desert someday. But only when they’re ready for the challenge.

ORAL HISTORIAN: This youngster pisses you off! How dare they claim to know history better than you, especially when they’re wrong so often. You’re pretty sure they’re doing something to get the other elders to agree with their version of events, but you haven’t been able to catch them at whatever it is. They have to be stopped and put in their place before their ‘cleaned up’ versions of past tragedies end up killing off the Beastfolk for good. You’ve been sneaking around when you’re able, to take accurate clay tablets away to be hidden, and know which ones have been changed so you can make new copies.

Unique Skill: Unconquerable Mind-the ability to notice and resist subversive attempts to alter one's memories, ideals, and/or thought patterns. Post Jaunt, this skill must be consciously activated in order to work and each activation lasts for one hour per week.

Bio:
General Information:
You don’t believe that the gods are real, and you definitely don’t believe that the old, infirm, or ill left on Gods’ Isle on the Day of Farewells are healed and returned in new, healthy bodies. You don’t know what happens to them, but you’re determined to find out, starting with the mystery of the Gods’ Isle itself. You’re a skilled fisherman, and you’ve taught yourself to navigate your boat at night to explore Gods’ Isle, and out beyond. Once, you stayed out until dawn, and got yourself very ill, but you managed to spot a strange tower that looked almost like Gods’ Isle in the distance. You’ve never been able to sail out that far since, without getting too dizzy or ill to continue.

Important Background Tidbits:
When you were young(er), you and your lover managed to achieve the rare blessing of having a child together. That child was born badly deformed, like most born children, and you left them on Gods’ Isle on the Day of Farewells that year, hoping desperately to have your child returned to you in a new healthy body. No one even kind of resembling your child was ever returned to you among the Foundlings, breaking your faith in the Gods. You’ve used that grief and rage to fuel your determination to find out what really happens ever since.

Observable motivations: to continue living quietly, fishing and providing for the Beastfolk.

Hidden motivations: to find the real truths about the gods, Gods’ Isle, and what really happens on the Day of Farewells.

Applicable relationships:
UNCOMPROMISING ELDER: You support their decision not to leave on the Day of Farewells, but your position among the fishers means you haven’t gotten to talk to them often. Maybe you should take some time to get to know them during the Ancestor’s Festival.

Unique Skill: Communicable Incredulity- the inability to take things on faith or on someone else's word, and the steadfast pursuit of facts/hard evidence to determine those things one way or the other. Also includes the ability to convince someone else to temporarily feel the same way about a single issue. Can be used once every two weeks.

Bio:
General Information:
You are an actor, following the orders and suggestions of the producers to keep The Mythic Saga reality show interesting and fresh. As an artist, you are of course creative enough to do this, but the producers seem to like it when you play a dramatically lazy bum, which is frustrating. You're not that lazy! You just prefer not to get dirty or exhausted unless you have to. You would do some work if not for the producers, dammit. Oh well, sacrifices must be made for true art. You’ve decided that now that you’re stuck here for the rest of your life, you’re going to find a way to introduce the Mythics (and you really have to start thinking of them as Beastfolk in your head or your slip-ups will start getting suspicious) to true art and improve their lives as a result! And yours, of course.

Important Background Tidbits:
There are several different general options for someone to become an actor that the player may choose from and tailor to the needs of their character. The Tortured Artist was written with one of the more willing options in mind, but the coerced/unwilling options can also be tailored to work with the role. Regardless, the Tortured Artist has full memories of a very highly regimented human life, and knows that the Beastfolk are constantly recorded and broadcast to humans as a mash-up between reality show and nature documentary, and that the producers make mega amounts of money selling bundled, themed remixes of the footage, tailored to various tastes (drama, mystery, adventure/disaster, …porn and etc). Actors all have means of communication with the producers and act on their orders to create storylines and situations that will net the necessary footage.

Observable motivations: To be an overly-dramatic, lazy layabout, nattering on about useless things.

Hidden motivations: To show the Beastfolk art and creative expression, and help them learn to do it themselves to improve their lives.

Applicable relationships:
ORAL HISTORIAN: You think they’re an uncaring asshole, but they’re the senior actor and the producer’s favorite, so you are willing to play a little kiss-ass to keep your own position secure. You’d secretly gloat if they got comeuppance for the way they’re stealing actual history from the Beastfolk though.

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE: You know this one is a new actor, but they’re an unknown. Are they acting like that because the producers want them to? The prickly-ness really does put a barrier up between you and them, and you might not put in the effort otherwise, but you’re kind of desperate for a friend who you don’t have to keep secrets from.

STRANGE CREATURE: Shit, shit shit! The producers have wiped out the whole population of Mythics to start over before, and an unmodified human, here? That sure sounds like a reason for that kind of extreme action to you. You really don’t want to die, so as much as you hate thinking about it, you might have to… get rid of them. Somehow. You’re hoping someone else does it first so you don’t have to. Maybe if you delay a little longer…

WALLFLOWER: Also an actor, but so shy and jumpy that you haven’t been able to bond with them. That… and associating with them too much is probably on the dangerous side. You can guess what disasters the producers have planned for them, and you feel really bad that they’re going to be put through that kind of awful, but at least it’s not you in the emotional frying pan. Maybe you can find a way to make things better for them without getting your ass burned in the process…

Unique Skill: Creative Leaps-the ability to take seemingly disparate things and figure out how to put them together to create a harmonious whole. Usually done with visual elements, but can be done with facts/logic, and stories too.

Bio:
General Information:
You are an actor and you love your job, even with all the risks and drawbacks. You take great pleasure in seeing the producers’ plans come to fruition, and having your fingers deep in the pot of managing and reshaping the Abominations’ “history.” Keeping yourself in the producers’ good graces will be your ticket back home and to a life of leisure as one of their number someday, you’re sure of it. Even though you can never have the modifications done to reshape you into an Abomination in body reversed (so you’ve been told, which you doubt), it’s not like you care about being out in public, and it’s not like all the technology back home would fail in making sure you’re comfortable when you return. It’s a perfect plan! So you’re perfectly content to outwardly play the part of the devoted ‘worshipper’ of the Elders, and get out of the back-breaking work that the rest of the Abominations have to do, because it’s so “important” to preserve and care for the Elders and “your” history. You've perfected the facade of a good listener, and made sure you're well-respected among the Abominations as insurance in case anyone gets wise to what you're doing. You're confident that you'll be able to discredit and be believed over (almost) anybody else, but it never hurts to remove threats before they manifest.

Important Background Tidbits:
There are several different general options for someone to become an actor that the player may choose from and tailor to the needs of their character. The Oral Historian was written with either willing or coerced options in mind. Regardless of origin, the Oral Historian has full memories of a very highly regimented human life, and knows that the Beastfolk are constantly recorded and broadcast to humans as a mash-up between reality show and nature documentary, and that the producers make mega amounts of money selling bundled, themed remixes of the footage, tailored to various tastes (drama, mystery, adventure/disaster, …porn and etc). The Oral Historian has played hard-ball, even sabotaging their fellow actors in the past, in order to become the primary link and communication between the producers and the actors, as well as the de facto leader of the group. They see to it that the producers’ plans are carried out with an eager will, and make efforts to anticipate plots and necessary actions in order to earn the producers’ attention and approval.

Observable motivations: devoted to helping the Elders, even when their bodies are failing, and gathering and preserving the history of the Beastfolk.

Hidden motivations: to become one of the producers, by whatever means necessary. Also screwing with the Beastfolk is fun.

Applicable relationships/opinions:
ATHEIST: poor sad sack. You'd feel bad if you cared at all. Not a threat, but could potentially stumble onto awkward things with their nighttime wanderings. Must exercise caution.

UNCOMPROMISING ELDER: They don’t know, of course, but you know that they suspect. They’re too stubborn to submit to your creative editing of history, and too clever to be left alone. They need to be put down, and if they won’t willingly go be recycled on the Day of Farewells, you’ll have to arrange for an accident. You might need to arrange an accident before then, if they start getting more vocal about things. Once they’re gone, you’ll have complete control of the Abominations’ history to mold and twist as you will.

RESTLESS SEER: A buffoon, and the producers don’t consider them a threat, but you’re keeping a close watch anyway. If they convince audience favorites to go kill themselves in the desert, ratings will drop, and if ratings drop, you will lose face in the eyes of the producers. The fact that they took "visions" that were supposed to fail and be a wild goose chase and figured out how to make them actually work is more than enough reason to be cautious.

STRANGE CREATURE: The actual threat, and you know that this memory technician was planning on restoring the Abominations’ memories. The producers were supposed to have taken care of it with a complete memory wipe, but somehow they made it here and still have basic skills intact. It’s your new task to figure out how so it can’t be repeated. And then to make sure they disappear, literally, and from history.

TORTURED ARTIST: What a ditz. You hate working with them, and their way too obvious sympathy for the Abominations, but they’re not a threat to you, and at least take orders and instructions well. Maybe you’ll sabotage them anyway, just for laughs.

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE: Wonderful, now you get to ride herd on this contrary ass. If they don’t shape up fast, you’ll have to demonstrate just how much power you have over them to bring them to heel.

WALLFLOWER: They’re fulfilling the role the producers brought them in for almost perfectly. You’re looking forward to the ratings spike and the praise that’s sure to come your way when the Wallflower finally has the spectacular breakdown from dealing with disaster after tragedy, and losing everything they care about. Unfortunately they’re having such trouble forming relationships that you might need to help a little. Maybe you’ll try your hand at matchmaking them with someone, or making sure they’re made the “family” of a Foundling.

Unique Skill: Converting History- the ability to slowly convince people that your version of events is what actually happened, even when it isn't. Done through casting doubt, and inserting of slightly different events through other people's accounts, and being the one pulling the strings behind a game of "telephone." The faster this is attempted, the more likely it is to rouse suspicion. Psychic Protection will also afford Travelers a defense against this skill.

Bio:
General Information:
You’re an actor, and you hate the producers. You don’t want to work for them, but you really don’t have a choice. You’re trying not to care that you’re lashing out at everyone because of that, but you do. A little bit. So if you take opportunities to give good advice to make up for it, who could blame you? You don’t have any ideas how you’ll fit in with the Mythics yet, and to be honest, you don’t really care at this point. What you really want? To see the producers get theirs. If a chance comes along to get back at them without sacrificing yourself, hell yes, you’ll take it.

Important Background Tidbits:
There are several different general options for someone to become an actor that the player may choose from and tailor to the needs of their character. The Rebel Without a Cause was written with one of the more unwilling options in mind, but the willing options can also be tailored to work with the role. Regardless, the Rebel Without a Cause has full memories of a very highly regimented human life, and knows that the Beastfolk are constantly recorded and broadcast to humans as a mash-up between reality show and nature documentary, and that the producers make mega amounts of money selling bundled, themed remixes of the footage, tailored to various tastes (drama, mystery, adventure/disaster, …porn and etc). Actors all have means of communication with the producers and act on their orders to create storylines and situations that will net the necessary footage.As a newly arrived actor, they’re being given time without direct orders to establish themself and their “role” as suggested in a pre-departure meeting. But they were also left with a warning that emergencies might necessitate orders being issued

Observable motivations: Jerk with a well-hidden heart of gold, cast adrift without a purpose in the world.

Hidden motivations: To fuck over the producers. Also to keep surviving.

Applicable relationships:
ORAL HISTORIAN: The producers’ crony. You just met them and you hate them on principle.

NEONATE SEER: You were told how to spot people who were left with memories to make them “seers” and you don’t feel sympathy for the amnesiac’s bad reaction. You don’t. Really. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have one sort-of-friend here, if it doesn’t blow up in your face once you two get to know each other.

Unique Skill: "Rage Against the Machine": the ability to, through the use of passionate speech, spread your righteous indignation at an injustice to others. However, guiding things once that blaze has been ignited will be difficult at best.

Bio:
General Information:
You are an actor, and you're also a spy. You've been carefully trained and molded for this opportunity for a long time, and you have every intention on telling the rebel cell you're working with everything you can about the producers and their plans, with the ultimate goal of freeing the Mythics from their sham existence and help them create lives free from meddling. What the producers are doing to these poor, innocent Mythics in the name of entertainment makes you sick, and it must be stopped. To do that, you'll have to stay under deep cover with no slip ups. The persona you've created as your cover is painfully shy, gentle and caring, only wants to help people, and has social anxiety. The first three points hit a bullet list that caught the producers' attention for a storyline they want to sell. The last is your defense against being dragged along that storyline too quickly. If they get to the part where they attempt to break you by putting you through trauma, tragedy and losing everything you care about, it will interfere with your ability to do your real job, and you don't want to get anyone else killed to maintain your cover, if you can help it. With the arrival of a human, you know that time is running out. You have to do something fast.

Important Background Tidbits:
There are several different general options for someone to become an actor that the player may choose from and tailor to the needs of their character. The Wallflower was written with one of the more unwilling options in mind, but the willing options can also be tailored to work with the role. Regardless, the Wallflower has full memories of a very highly regimented human life, and knows that the Beastfolk are constantly recorded and broadcast to humans as a mash-up between reality show and nature documentary, and that the producers make mega amounts of money selling bundled, themed remixes of the footage, tailored to various tastes (drama, mystery, adventure/disaster, …porn and etc). Actors all have means of communication with the producers and act on their orders to create storylines and situations that will net the necessary footage. However! Everything about the Wallflower's life, from their education (public and secret), to their job, to the personality everyone who ever knew them saw, was building up to this. They made every decision with the knowledge that they needed the producers to recruit them as an actor in mind. They also endured risky extra surgeries to add extra tech to scramble the producers' tech, and allow them to communicate with their rebel cell, and do their best to make up for the side-effects. (poss. Side effects to choose from: balance issues, partial hearing loss, nerve issues, wildcard!) They're willing to die for the cause, and have prepared for that too. What they haven't prepared for is...surviving all of this, especially now that they're one of the Mythics.

Observable motivations: To help! If you can get some direction with that. (to other actors: to do a good job for the producers...if you can stop having "stage fright")

Hidden motivations: To end all this and set the Beastfolk free with your rebel cell

Applicable relationships:
ORAL HISTORIAN: The enemy. The moment you can drop your cover, you will personally make sure they pay for their crimes. You're pretty sure they enjoy all this. But for now, they are your de-facto 'boss' so you concentrate on projecting harmless and shy and anxious, but wanting so much to do a good job, really!

TORTURED ARTIST: Not a bad sort, for an actor. Your cover makes it difficult to get close, and you wonder if they know what's in store for them if you two did embark on a friendship. Still, you can use them as a buffer between you and the Oral Historian to give you more space to do your actual work.

STRANGE CREATURE: A human! A rebel? You have no idea but you need to know. Getting close to them without blowing your cover will be the hard part.

Unique Skill: Double agent-the ability to hold a role within a role indefinitely, and achieve secret goals for one group without arousing suspicion in the other. Includes some resistance against tech, talents and skills that detect lying/falsehoods.

Ok since we were talking about it, would it actually be feasible to get the producers to create a second child for Ike using stored gametes? Like not “is it a good idea” but can they do it.

Okay lmao as this is looking increasingly possible, if Circe dies doing this does Chloe end up in the human liminal or the beastfolk liminal.

Okay, but what are Humansona's garments actually made of? I'm assuming at least part of it isn't natural fiber, but I have no idea what else.

MYTHICAL HUMANS

THE STRANGE CREATURE - JACKIE

THE RESTLESS SEER - JAINA

THE NEONATE SEER - DANEEL

Uncompromising Elder - Stone

Atheist - Hajime