There's Something In The Water Plot Post

[espigeonage]

[obligatory]

Word of Mods:
There is a reservoir out in the country, which is the primary water source for Locke City. There are several aquifers that supplement this, but 75% of the water comes from the reservoir.

The water is contaminated before it goes into the treatment plants, which fail to detect/remove the contamination. The source of the contamination is the part of the reservoir where the water is taken: Julien will see that the water is cloudy, like something's just been dumped into the lake.

If they keep watch on the area, they might be able to catch a tanker coming up to the water and dumping its payload of glowing pink goop into the water. They are also welcome to attempt to stop the tanker.

A few days ago Julien posted about tracking down the source of the contamination, and several characters expressed interest in helping out. Some volunteered to find out whatever they could. We could handwave those discoveries and some of the planning setup, maybe even finding the dumping site and keeping watch on it, and go right to shortly before the tanker shows up.

Julien wants two groups - one small sneaky group to investigate, which will include him, one more combat-oriented group hanging back a little to try and help the stealth team if they're caught. He's not a leader and no leader's come up to take charge, though. Whether the fighters stay too close or too far, whether people in or between groups work well together is entirely up to them. Julien would prefer to just mark the tanker's plates/follow it, but he won't be able to stop someone from going and interfering.

So, plot with me! Questions? Thoughts? Do you have a character who'd come along? It's okay if they haven't responded to his post. What group would they prefer? Would they care to lie in wait around the bushes and try to stop the tanker? Combat-oriented characters could do that too, Julien can't stop them.

Comments

[wordsgate]

Oh man, I really want Sam to be involved with this but I'm not sure how realistic it'd be with him having a broken leg right now. So maybe he found one of those pieces of evidence? Like...he learned about the reservoir, and other people were able to dig up the additional information?

EDIT: another idea is that, since they'd be pretty far away from the city, Sam could hang out near the back and listen for things with his powers as a sort of watch dog. He'd probably be able to tell, say, when the tanker is closing in on the reservoir, since I'm sure a vehicle's noises would stand out around the various nature/Numbers Club people walking around noises.

[espigeonage]

Sorry, Sam. ^_^;;

Those both sound pretty plausible! Julien would worry about his leg but if Sam can get around at all it'd be like, okay... And with the network it's pretty easy to have him be able to alert everyone covertly.

[amberhearted]

I would like to get Alex involved as well! He'd go along with whatever group looks like it needs more people and bring his rifle with him, but he would not actually be willing to kill. In fact, he'll be hard pressed to shoot another person, enemy or not.

He's also probably gonna pitch the idea of code names. Sorry in advance.

IF the tanker is stopped AND Alex is nearby when it happens, he may try to hypnotize information out of the driver(s), but very heavy emphasis on 'may'. That's not an ability he wants to do in front of others. Of course, I would love to see if there are any negative reactions/wariness/etc if someone witnesses this, so I'd love to hash this out if this does, indeed, happen!

[espigeonage]

oh no, Julien loves code names. They should reflect role, so the sneaky people have a theme and the others have their own.

Heh. Cool, cool.

For people who want to come but aren't sure what group... okay, if there was anyone like that who was really sort of meek or struck Jules as not good in danger he'd rather they didn't come with. Alex doesn't strike him that way so... I guess Julien would want to see how he moves through terrain and ask him to join one group or another once he knows how many people are going.

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura supports the use of codenames! He has at least two~

[caosgo]

Emmanuel offered to drive, haha. He's also useful in a close combat situation in a pinch, but other than that he's sorta useless, sadly. He can be included in either group.

[espigeonage]

Hooray!

I guess Julien would want to see if he's hesitant/super obvious going through the woods? ...Super-obvious to someone who isn't him, I mean.

If he is Jules might ask Emmanuel to stay with Sam at the back and try and protect him/help him move around, but really Emmanuel strikes Julien as more defensive than offensive, so if he's not too obvious he could be with stealth team.

[elfstoned]

Aaron won't be going -- he doesn't have the time to spare, and trusts that Julien will tell him what is discovered/call for help if he needs it.

Mamoru's also mixed up in plotstuff already and I don't want him involved in every single investigation. So as much as I would love to have my characters along on this,neither of them can. ):

[espigeonage]

Alas! Julien is not aware that Aaron can outdo him re:going unseen or there'd be some wheedling. (Jules can just go silently and not rattle things much or get snagged, he's got no instinct on not being visible) Maybe not too much wheedling, he does understand. But a little. ...tell him to cover his hair/wear something inconspicuous, sir?

[doomedtheworld]

Depending on when this goes down Vanessa can probably be on the sneaky team if she's had some healing time. Probably not much for the combat team unless things go seriously bad.

[espigeonage]

I think it'll be within the next couple days. Maybe forwards-dated slightly.

If she's mobile and really wants to come Julien won't stop her, but he'd rather she didn't if it's still really affecting her.

[iaijutsu]

Oh. Oh. Pick me.

Hajime's probably better suited for the combat group; he did some spy shit in canon but it's not where he really shines.

[espigeonage]

Okay, sweet!

[formermagicalgirl]

So Tamara gained this really neat power to summon familiars. They actually are able to do some semblance of spying and scouting, though limited since they are butterflies and she only can summon one at a time right now. But at the very least it's likely to not be noticed.

Still, she could probably help with checking things over in advance to get an idea of how many people tend to be around and stuff like that.

Otherwise, yeah, she's not much for stealth.

[espigeonage]

Heh. That does sound like it could be useful!

She could hang back to make sure nothing goes after Sam and have a butterfly out on... out on the scout team? Do they report back to her, does she see through their eyes...?

[edhwierfan]

Aeron probably won't be able to go on this, but he'd be glad to look up information on the reservoir/water source for Julien before this all happens, as well as supply anything that the two groups need.

Including weapons and stuff.

[espigeonage]

Heh. Sounds good! I... don't really know what would be needed beyond "weapons" and maybe "some kind of camera for if the stakeout thing goes too long".

[detectivetroll]

Oh, man, I'd love to get in on this! Nick's a detective, so he'd probably be decent on either the combat or stealth team. He'd probably want to go on whichever one has the less amount of people, just to even things up.

He wouldn't want to kill anyone or try to stop the tanker, either, he'd definitely be for the 'mark it and try to track it' camp! If they get a glimpse of its license plate, if it has one, he'll try to run it to see what information he can get that way. Though he might use another police ID than his own

[espigeonage]

We seem to have a dearth of potential rescuers so far, so he might end up in that group! Cool.

[chalicejoker]

This Hajime would be up for being one of the combat-ready people waiting in the wings. He turns into a giant death-bug and has super strength; he might as well make some use of that.

...and I do harbor the terrible mental image of what might happen were Arthur to fall into this source water and breathe some of it in. (Someone else would have to drive the school bus home, probably.)

[espigeonage]

Excellent! Yes that could be useful. |D

oh dear. XD Julien would rather Arthur didn't come along because he's the opposite of subtle, but he wouldn't stop him. Might ask for him to be in the rescue group and thus far back, but reservoirs are big and they'll end up waiting around for a good while before the truck shows.

[seriallylucky]

Oooooh, yes. Fred's in. Combat team all the way; sneaky's not really his forte.

I'm pretty sure he could ICly do leadership stuff, but I'm not sure I'm OOCly up to it; my tagging is on a bit of an ebb at the moment.

/goes hunting for a good sword icon; despite the rocks being an early regain, he's better as a melee combatant

[espigeonage]

Cool!

That's fine, he might not be at his best.

[extricated]

sneaky nor combat, sadly, are things this guy is especially good at, but! his most recent echo was the ability to communicate with (most) animals, so he can ask them to help tail the tanker :>

[espigeonage]

Cool! Maybe he can be in hiding/watching.

Julien's becoming an animal, albeit an uplifted one. I'm having him be weirdly drawn to a language animals understand.

[lightedprincess]

All three of mine are interested, but I'm pretty sure no one would let Phillip go so he's out. Kairi could do either, but she's probably better suited to combat, while Neku can be a sneaky mind-reading person.

[espigeonage]

...yeah, even Julien would manage to put his foot down re:Phillip. |D

Cool. We do need more combat types. And Julien will probably want the sneaky ones spread out.

[icy_heavens]

Yeah, Toushirou wants this to stop, man. Not only does the water potentially identify them to the enemy, but it makes him look like a giggle moron. (Priorities, you see.) He'd insist on coming.

As to which group? He's actually much more suitable for the combat group; the fun will be if anyone tries to stop him from that one. :D

[espigeonage]

...I think Julien would hesitate a lot but he'd remember that Toushirou was in the mines and didn't die, and ask "You can really fight?" and... really just say okay, fine, and rationalize it by saying that if it comes to that Haijime will probably draw most of the danger and oh god this could go so wrong.

Jules has trouble saying no to people. If Toushirou acted more like a child/didn't have a history he'd probably manage in this case.

[eras]

Aria would be up for helping (sneaky side; she is not a combtant with her current memories) if Julien contacted her/the other people who offered to help, since she was one of the interested/annoyed at drugging parties. She's not involved in anything else currently.

[espigeonage]

Cool!

[recollection]

Thalassa would probably be interested in investigating, since she's curious about the water due to Julien's eyes. She's really... not good at combat, so even though she's got no special skills, she can sneak around with the Investigation Team.

[espigeonage]

Julien would ask if she's sure, since he doesn't know Thalassa or how she reacts to things going wrong, and he doesn't really even have an impression of her. But he sucks at saying no to people and wouldn't stop her.

[ursoreckless]

Ahhh so late BUT Shou can get involved with driving people out there or help with getting any kind of extra supplies that might be necessary. He's not at a combat level yet, though he has some really freaky reflexes geared for combat.

[espigeonage]

Cool! Yeah, that could be useful.

[allinvein]

I am super late to the party, but uh.

I would like to have John involved! Somehow or another. Sadly, I haven't actually given him any useful echoes yet, so he'd probably be best suited to being part of the get-away party or something. (Gosh, that SUV of his is seeing a lot of action.) Failing that, I could probably try and figure out a reason to echo back the use of a rifle (and bayonet!?), but. Yes.

8|a

[amberhearted]

What iiiiif John noticed the rifle in Alex's backseat in their current log and the topic of learning how to shoot came up? If the topic itself isn't enough, they could go to a shooting range. Would that be sufficient for a parallel Echo, you think?

[purplepants]

Well Bruce isn't very good at either thing sob. But if Julien needs people to go through the results, then Bruce would be happy to help out with that as a scientist.

[espigeonage]

Heh. Julien could... idk, bring back samples if the whole thing doesn't go totally to shit!

[grimmopedia]

Monroe sort of knows how to fight and he'd be willing to hang around with the potential rescuers. Mostly he'd go because other people were but at least he's got enough sense to keep his head down.

[espigeonage]

Awesome.

[soulsborderline]

I am extremely late, but Asuka is still up for "helping" investigate. And by helping I mean being an insufferable tagalong kid.

I'm underselling this aren't I? But really, she'd just be so jazzed about sneaking around and being a secret agent she might even remember how to do something useful. At the very least, she'd like to be involved.

[espigeonage]

Aww. XD

Well Julien will want to ask if she's sure, he doesn't have any impression of her and how she handles bad situations, but... he sucks at telling people no. Maybe if she's... in the back...

I'll get to tags tomorrow, it's late now!