Emodriver 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 Septenber 26th, October 4th, October 12th, October 20th, & October 28th 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

THE AURIGAN PRINCEPS - ALLURA

[powersthatbe]

Your Imperial Highness was told that your beloved Consort was killed by the humans on Mars. You are certain that this is false. They were captured, not killed. They're still alive, in EDF custody. You have to believe this, that the dreams you’ve been having are a cry for help rather than a trick of your mind.

You spare human lives both because excessive bloodshed does not become an Emperor and in the hopes of finding some clue to the whereabouts of your beloved. If the humans were just to return them, and make formal amends, the war would be over.

Instead, they spread their morale-destroying bioweapons and feign ignorance. Until such crimes are redressed, your Imperial fleets will fight for the Empire, for honor, and for your lost beloved Consort.

Plot skill - Noblesse Oblige: Grants considerable plot armor when fighting on behalf of the people you are leading.

[reallymean]

This is just too perfect.

Questions

[reallymean]

1) Am I correct in assuming that Allura wasn't on Mars when shit went down, or was she just separated from her Consort in the fighting?

2) Can I have a brief run-down of what's solid Jaunt-canon about the Consort, and what I have freedom to come up with?

Week 1 check-in

[reallymean]

Alta has mostly spent the first week doing what she can to keep up morale and taking the temperature of the troops, both new and old, regarding the progress of the war. She's currently still determined to bring it to a close without losing too many of her people, and without excessive slaughter of the humans. She doesn't have confirmation yet that her wife is still alive; that may or may not change how she proceeds, depending on what she does eventually find out.

I have a couple of questions going into next week:
1) What is the general content of the dream communication (?) she has with the Consort?

2) What do the Imperials know about the spread of the X-pressure virus in the humans? Have they managed to capture any infected human soldiers prior to Jaunt start?

this is Admiral Caine's icon mule

[weallgettogohome]

your highness can we talk

i found your girlfriend asleep in the tub what do i do

Week 2 check in

[reallymean]

This week, Alta argued with Hacet over the self-destructs, joined the battle on Mars, managed to briefly contact the Consort and got herself infected without realizing it, found out that not only is her Consort still alive, she's being used to power one of the humans' war machines, and visited a captive Nina Mars on the Aurigan quarantine ship.

Speaking of the quarantine ship, she would have locked it down and revoked access from anyone she doesn't personally authorize, which would be medical staff and people she's personally vetted (so PC-wise, Juni, Aura, and herself), which would go into effect end Week 2/beginning of Week 3. Her reasoning, which she would share with the medical staff and vetted guards, is that in the wake of Hacet's speech she's concerned that people might take "better dead than infected" to heart enough to harm or kill the people who've been quarantined. Because these things happen when there's fearmongering afoot.

Week 3, she'll be organizing a public ceremony to add the names of those fallen in the most recent battle to the wall of the fallen kept at the heart of the Imperial station. She will also at some point (depending on when the human admiral actually contacts her) declare a formal week of mourning for those who have so far been lost to the war, leaning on old Aurigan tradition to effect a ceasefire. It's dishonorable to add more names to the book of the dead during a mourning period, after all, unless it's in a formal duel.

She will, of course, make use of much of this time to begin planning a rescue mission using the positional data and information on defenses around the Philia Core that Dusty provided, as well as any information the ground troops might have recovered from AEGIS or any human military installations hit during the attack. Dusty's a good operative, and she generally trusts his judgment, but she doesn't trust the humans as far as she can throw a dreadnought, and is prepared to act if they don't come through in the time she's given them.

She's also going to try for an hour each night to contact her Consort telepathically, focusing on the dreams and trying to follow any psychic threads they've woven back to the source. If she's successful, she'll try to acclimate to the sensory feedback now that she has an inkling of what it is, in hopes of helping the Consort take control of what's been done to her in case they can't break her out immediately. If she's not successful, she'll...keep trying.

BTW, what would the Aurigan forces have been able to get from AEGIS/other Martian entities?

Week III check in

[reallymean]

This week, Alta attended funerals, attempted to contact her wife telepathically, and made contingency plans with one of her loyal squad captains against the possibility of the human admiral betraying her trust after getting the ceasefire she requested.

Week 4, she will hopefully be getting her wife back. She'll receive the human ship on one of the quarantine vessels, which she will lock down ahead of time to prevent interference by more militant elements. The only people she will allow in the docking bay with her will be a medical team and contingent of guards, both of whom will be telepathically vetted for loyalty.

Assuming she is reunited with her wife, she'll assign her a guard contingent that is likewise telepathically vetted and personally loyal to her. After his whole "better dead than infected" stunt, she doesn't want Hacet or any of his people near her beloved.

She will also be sending encrypted messages with a biometric key back to the Empire proper through whatever relay system they have through the wormhole (preferably physical and transmission-based for redundancy), advising that the Sol system be blockaded for reason of quarantine, as the dominant species in that system has a highly-transmissible disease that bypasses species barriers entirely, and standard infection control protocols cannot be relied upon. She'll include several recommendations for commanders, and a compiled report of Hacet's insubordination and reckless disregard for the well-being of their troops as reason for why he should be recalled rather than stationed near Sol in command of any quarantine.

THE AURIGAN GENERAL - THACE

[powersthatbe]

If it weren't for the meddling Princeps, by now Earth would be a colony and you its satrap. The Princeps is far too concerned with aiding and comforting the enemy for their own good. And if they find out their Consort is alive, a piece of intelligence you’ve been guarding closely, it could ruin everything.

Your task is to eradicate all resistance by any means necessary - including use of the human's "X-pression Virus" bioweapon - and prevent that little tidbit from getting to the Princeps until it's too late. If necessary, you're contemplating mutiny - the assumption of total command of the Aurigan forces. You're months from the Emperor, if it comes to it. If the Princeps were to be declared "killed in action," who would contradict you?

Plot Skill - Knives in the Dark: Increase the psychic shock of a betrayal such that the victim cannot retaliate this scene.

Re: THE AURIGAN GENERAL - THACE

[insidegalra]

Commander Sendak I mean, General Hacet reporting for duty.

Questions

[insidegalra]

So, what does Hacet know about how the battle of Tharsis went down?

Also how does Hacet know the consort is alive?

Week 1/week 2 + questions

[insidegalra]

So Hacet's been quietly planning/compiling what he (and his spies) know, and suchlike in week one I plan to get that toplevel up today /cough

And the payoff should be in the battle that's supposed to happen in week 2. He's been working hard on finding means where the Aurigan fleet can pull a surprise victory in spite of smaller numbers on the EDSF. He's been looking into flanking maneuvers, surprise attacks, faking a loss to drive the Earth forces into a position where they can be attacked, laying traps and etc.

I need to know what he can work with. Are there places where he could hide ships/troops (disguising them as wrecks on the front lines/perhaps)? Can he arrange for the battle to take place somewhere particular? Can he plant some kind of mines or other weapon to be activated at the right time? Is there a way that he could mess with sensors to encourage friendly fire? (Or does he have ships that could get the enemy into position around them and duck out of the way fast enough that friendly fire happens anyway?)

Regarding intelligence, I'm assuming he's figured out that there is some new weapon at the very least (he has had issues with misinformation (thanks Kinji) but he's almost certainly gotten accurate info too). He'd like to lure it out before it's finished testing if he can, in hopes of exploiting bugs that haven't been worked out yet. He's totally willing to sacrifice people to sabotage things too.

Week 2/3 plans

[insidegalra]

Hacet made a speech, made suicide switches available for pilots (and some got used too), and organized a grand battle. While the battle was a loss, he made his real goal of causing significant losses of troops on the human side and getting some info.

He also made plans to insert some prisoners to feed the humans false information, curried favor with a new mechanic (Chloe), got chastised by the Princess for his suicide switches, chased a turncoat (Prompto) and spoke with a new pilot (Shiro) in a kind of "can I use you as a spy?" way. Which nicely dovetails into a backup plan of "make him the one who orchestrates the peace", if, you know, that looks like the option with more prestige attached.

For Week 3:
He's putting into motion several different plans of course he's the Xanatos Gambit guy:
PLAN ONE: Hacet is ordering the spies to plant their Evidence of Suspicious Behavior/expose already planted stuff. It's not necessarily 'working with the aliens!' evidence (although some of it probably is), but it is stuff that will hopefully make people suspicious of each other and start infighting.

PLAN TWO: Moving most of the fleet to somewhere hidden. Publicly, this is to give the fleet a chance to regroup and recover, and to lull the humans into thinking they won by a far greater magnitude than they did. Privately this is to incite attack, should the false information fed by his prisoner-spies be believed.

PLAN THREE (yes this is a plan, not just him being a decent guy): make himself sympathetic to the fleet. He is going to attend every funeral service, personally visit the squads of the dead, and perform a Xiul vigil/ritual (it may or may not involve ritual substitution of a part of himself for the lost body of the dead) for each of the suicides.

PLAN FOUR: spearheading rescue operation planning! Part of this plan is to tell his spies to find all the captives (and he hopes, the consort) and get that information back. The publicly known part is asking for Brave Volunteers to risk infection to sneak in and get them out. (If he's organizing an attack in week four it's probably to cover for this operation... publicly. Privately it might be for... other secret plans)

...and he may or may not end up with X-Pressure, but that's not in his plans at all.

THE DISPASSIONATE RESEARCHER - SENTO

[powersthatbe]

If it weren't for your more unusual talents, you'd be a footnote rather than a respected scientist. If you have seen far, it is because you have stood on the shoulders of giants.

Whether they know it or not.

Using your mind-reading powers and your ability to feign emotion, you've stolen countless secrets you used to build up AEGISCorp - including the uncomfortable truth that the Imperial Consort was alive. And now, the Consort is in a black box of your design, worked into the beating heart of the Phileon. Without the consort's unique dreams as emotional fuel for the Philia Core, the project would be impossible.

Now, you just want to see how well your creation does in battle.

It's purely scientific curiosity.

Plot Skill - Smile in a Jar: Using S-tech, you can falsely emote, projecting emotion that you are not actually feeling!

Re: THE DISPASSIONATE RESEARCHER - SENTO

[carbonatedscientist]

THIS IS GOING TO BE A DISASTER LET'S GO

[carbonatedscientist]

Actually I just realized I've got a question, with the mind-reading powers, is he an Aurigan or am I missing something? it is late and I have been up far too long

Re: THE DISPASSIONATE RESEARCHER - SENTO

[carbonatedscientist]

And checking in after Week 1/before Week 2 and really all he's done is get pissy with anyone trying to get a look at his work or get into his lab. (Dusty got the only genuine S-Tech emotion he's used so far, amazing.)

[carbonatedscientist]

SO I HAVE REALIZED SOMETHING TERRIBLE

Tl;dr I watched the Build Final Stage Show, which takes place midway through the final episode, and it explains away that yes, Sento still has the Genius Fullbottle at his current canonpoint (which hasn't come up before now, since he just used existing research when the Stricken disease was a thing). This is important, because in canon, it's essentially a plot device any time anyone gets poisoned and just automagically cures people of poisoning. If Sento brings that into play, would that assist his quest to cure Aurigans of X-Pression?

THE AMBITIOUS CEO - YAKUMO

[powersthatbe]

The Phileon project is going to make you the most powerful individual on Earth.

Sure, it's powered by the brain of a forsaken child, but let's face it: that's not the worst thing you've ever done to promote AEGISCorp and its former competitors. Hell, you're already in the lucrative field of weapons manufacturing.

If you play this right - and, of course, assuming you're not all bowing and scraping to a blue space elf tomorrow - being the CEO of the fine people who brought you the Frame that won the war could make you the Federation's Minister of Defense. Then, who knows? Maybe the President Prime Minister of a United Earth.

Until then, smile, shake lots of hands in the EDF, and keep on selling folks on the need to kick those pointy-eared bastards right off of Jupiter.

Plot Skill - But Wait, There's More!: You can bafflegab people with a little S-tech into at least considering what you're selling (take this metaphorically).

Re: THE AMBITIOUS CEO - YAKUMO

[cloudpotter]

he's no Zed or Taako but Yakkimort mkIII will do his best

THE BRILLIANT ENGINEER - THORNE

[powersthatbe]

The Phileon is a gorgeous machine. You wish you could understand how the Philia Core at its heart functions. All you do is build the damn thing, stress test it, and liaise with the EDF to make sure they can fly it.

But you've been noticing some things that don't add up, and have no idea how it can get the amount of power it consumes. All your attempts to find out have been stonewalled.

You think you're being watched. Someone has broken into your hangar, opened your files, looked into what you've looked into. Either you're being paranoid or you've stumbled onto something that someone doesn't want you to know - and you're in danger.

Plot Skill - Science and Visions - You can use S-Tech diagrams and models to keep yourself in an inspired state for a limited time, bringing back brilliant and elegant designs.

Re: THE BRILLIANT ENGINEER - THORNE

[thornsofmalkav]

HERE AND READY TO BUILD SOME ROBUTTS.

THE EDF'S RISING ACE - JAINA

[powersthatbe]

Your job is simple: beat the Impies. And when you're in the Phileon, you feel like you can do it all on your own. You can avenge your older sibling, like you've wanted to from the start.

Your life up to this point has been tests and tests and more tests, punctuated by stealing time at the Civilian Idol's concerts (you might have the tiniest crush) and promising the Brilliant Engineer that you're not about to crash their baby. But soon, very soon, you're getting moved to the front - transferred to the Valiant, and into the thick of it.

You cannot wait for your first real battle!

Plot Skill - S-Tech Psychokinesis: You can use appropriate S-Tech effects as psychokinetic effects. This is like, but more powerful than, Burning Passion and allows attacks at range!

Re: THE EDF'S RISING ACE - JAINA

[forcechanic]

I'm sure she won't do anything impulsive at all

THE IMPERIAL SPY - KINJI

[powersthatbe]

By order of the Princeps - and their order alone - you have been embedded into deep cover within the EDF fleet, and have worked your way into the Phileon Project's test squadron. The human "X-Pression" bioweapon has some... useful side effects that you used to aid your infiltration.

You used that position to break into the Engineer's files - and you suspect that the Phileon itself has clues to the location of the Consort. You are now certain the Consort is still alive.

But you weren't the first one to search for those files - the Engineer seems to be looking for the same, and forces within AEGISCorp were trying to stop them.

Trust no one but yourself and the Princeps. Protect the Engineer, and the Phileon - and the Phileon's pilot. It's possible if you succeed that the Ace won't have to die, and of late you would... very much prefer that.

Plot Skill - S-Tech Masque: You have S-Tech that gives you a human form (from any nonhuman one) as per Tiresias Syndrome, which post-Jaunt does not necessarily resemble your normal human form if you are normally human; additionally, your Alien form (which can be Aurigan or a subject species) is free.

[ninjayeehaw]

I'm so pleased that Kinji is a benevolent spy.

Just to check: do I announce that I have this plot role?

THE EDF ADMIRAL - SARA

[powersthatbe]

You've seen enough war to know it's a nasty business. It seems of late that business is good.

AEGISCorp's hand is everywhere, it seems. The EDF would barely be holding out without them. And you're a shrewd enough logistician to know that's a point of weakness. The CEO is doing a naked grab for power. You'll gladly protect the Earth; you'll be damned if you'll fight a war to fill AEGISCorp's pockets, or to show off their latest toy. Your soldiers deserve better than that - you were there when they started to use weaponized S-Tech, when they started sending in teenage or Ganymede pilots. You didn't like it then and you don't like it now.

You'll use the Phileon to win the Aurigan War, since you have to. But you've been fighting your own war against AEGISCorp. A war that already has casualties, on your side - the Veteran's wingmate should have survived their last battle, but you privately suspect sabotage.

Such people should not be at the helm of the world.

Plot Skill - S-Tech Gravitas: You may project calm, assured command using S-Tech, protecting those in the same room (like the CIC) from fear or emotional turmoil.

Re: THE EDF ADMIRAL - SARA

[otomechapilot]

Icon name relevant.

Let's get this show on the road!

THE SEASONED VETERAN - STONE

[powersthatbe]

You've fought on Mars and Ceres and Venus and everywhere on Earth. You lost your wingman and closest friend (lover?) in the Battle of Tharsis, where the fighting was fiercest; they pulled some stupid hotdog manuever and they didn't survive it.

You did.

Now the EDF Admiral has you looking after the Ace. Your old friend/flame's younger sib. Who's just as reckless as your wingmate ever was.

You're not going to let them earn a Darwin Award like your old friend/flame did. You're going to drill the stupid out of them before it kills them, and you don't care if they'll hate you for it.

Then maybe, just maybe, you'll both see the end of the war.

Plot Skill - S-Technological Empathy: You can sense the metaphorical emotional state of machines, your mecha in particular.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Oh my god that skill is so useless for Stone-the-Raksura, so I'm totally taking it anyway XD

Anyhoo, checking in. This is gonna be perfect.

THE CIVILIAN IDOL - PHILLIP

[powersthatbe]

In your Ganymede form (or Tireseas or both, your choice) you're the most popular musician in cis-Martian space! You've been performing for Earth and the EDF for years, and it never gets old!

Lately, you were asked to do a concert for the Phileon pilots... and got caught up in something way out of your depth. You stumbled on some people rifling through something they shouldn't have. If it weren't for a handsome, mysterious stranger, you would have been killed for knowing too much.

The safest place you can be right now is with the Phileon project, and you've figured out that your mysterious champion is the Imperial Spy. You've also realized they genuinely want... something... that will let them call off the war.

But the people who pay for your concerts work for AEGISCorp, and if you're going to help end the war, you'll be in even more danger...

Plot Skill - S-Tech Alarm: You can use S-Tech to let out a distress signal that can be heard across a usefully long distance.

[whatsina_name]

COOL he's gonna be hella confused.

Clarification: is this a situation where his real form is unknown to the public and the Tireseas (that's probably what i'm going with) form is the public idol?