Plotto times!

[glorifiedtrash]

I'm just prefacing this with: Zelos is an asshole.

Moving on! On Sunday, Dec 1st Zelos is going to be announcing a few things at a party being held for Starlit Stage members, sponsors and the media. Which I think rules out most PCs being there, but I don't know if you really want your character to be there hit me up. His announcement is going to be as follows:

1) Starlit Stage and Starling-Chandler School are throwing a charity benefit to help those displaced by the recent bombing of the Dead District. It'll be in the form of a public show where ticket prices will be whatever audience members care to share for those in need. The show itself is going to run Dec 14th-26th.
2) The sponsor for this benefit is Thundercorp who will kindly be lending the PR offices in their HQ
3) This benefit will be Zelos's last show meaning it is going to be a Big Deal around town. He is stepping down from the stage to take over his father's massive global hotel business.
4) As the new head of said business he is looking forward to a close working relationship with Thundercorp from now on and he believes they can make a difference in Locke City so he's asking the public to lend Thundercorp their support.

: All of this will hit the internet the night of December 1st and be covered by major news outlets over the course of December 2nd. Zelos himself is probably not going to throw up a post on the network about it unless people sound like they want his head on a stick or something.

This leads me to like three different plots here that it would be awesome for people to get in on and I'd love to hear suggestions/improvements/volunteers/idk stuff.



INFORMATION GATHERING
Zelos is working with Luci (ladyofluminosity) on getting some insider intel. Luci's player is going to have a plot post up later with more about that, but everyone in her intelligence group is already in on all this (which I think is the mission control group from the TT expedition, Banagher, Naomi, the Luteces, the Doctor and Brittany). Things we already have on the table to do:

-Tap phones and set up a surveillance network
-Zelos specifically is going to give the Thundercorp employees sketchy behavior that suggest he might Know Things because he wants to see who reports it back to higher ups/security/the police/questionable places. His ultimate goal is to find some Thundercorp employees who are in on things at least a little bit so the NC can search their houses and see what they can pull up.
-Search computers/files/question employees on the sly to get more information about Thundercorp

: Other things I was thinking of was maybe hacking Thundercorp's computers, but Zelos and Luci don't really know that much about computers. So if you're in on Luci's information network and have some ideas for Things You'd Like To See Happen (up to and including sneaking people into the Thundercorp building to do shady things) drop a comment and we will plot this out!

Alternatively if you are NOT in on Luci's intelligence group and want to be in on all this, drop a comment and we will find a way to work you in. Also for everyone in general: we have a list of things to look into, but if you have any specific topics you want investigated/your character wants answers to list them here and we'll see what can be found out! Just keep in mind this is about Thundercorp, not the police, so we probably won't find out whether Sherman is a boxers or briefs kind of guy.



INCREASED DANGER
On December 2nd Ray (synonymouswithdookie) is going to give Zelos's name to Sherman per that deal they cut in interrogation. It's going to be mighty hard to just arrest Zelos now that he's some big wig so he'll be fairly safe from kidnapping and interrogation unlike most other people. Unbeknownst to everyone even Sherman Zelos has been secretly reaching out to Sherman on his own though.

From December 1st onwards if your character discusses plans for action against Thundercorp/the police on the network or Zelos catches wind of it somehow he may tip the police off.

Anyone who's played Tales of Symphonia knows he's the laziest doublecrosser ever, but for those who haven't basically he won't hand over names. What he WILL do is say where the NC are going to be. So if a group decides they're going to raid Thundercorp's warehouses on December 10th he might tell the police that a group of Numbered will be showing up at the warehouses on the 10th and the Numbered might find opposition or a trap waiting for them.

Zelos isn't looking to get anyone killed and he's going to continue accompanying on all possible missions himself. So how he gives information to the police is going to depend on what he thinks the group going can handle. Essentially he might tell the police days before hand or he might tell them twenty minutes before the Numbered meet up or even after they're already mission in progress. He'll also try to help out in mission planning to keep the NC protected (e.g. suggest they split into two groups on a mission and then tell Sherman there's going to be only one group). So don't feel your character has to get caught/hurt/stuff, Zelos is going to do his best to keep the NC and the police evenly matched.

Zelos won't be tipping off every mission, but if you specifically don't want a mission to be leaked or if you specifically do want one to be, PM me or PP me at mintchocolatechip. I'd prefer Zelos didn't get found out at least for December, but I'm not going to act like he screams TRUSTWORTHY either so if you feel he does or says something that makes your character suspicious hit me up and we will work something out.



GETTING INTO TUNING TOWERS'S BASEMENT
Who is tired of this goddamn buzzing? Zelos is tired of this buzzing. And he just wants to know what the hell they can possibly be keeping down there. So to that end he is going to be working to find a way down there. Later in the month he'll throw up a post about it if no one else beats him to it (probably around the 10th depending on how my schedule plays out). What I'm looking for here right now though is a list of characters who would be interested and ideas for how they could possibly do this since some plans might need a lot of IC preliminary work and some might be a everyone gets together one night and bam kind of thing.

Ideas I have for getting into TT so far are:
-Bust in through the wall of the basement underneath TT.

-We emulate a Mission Impossible movie. Tracking down building blueprints, hacking the security network, possibly mindcontrolling and/or mindreading TT employees to get information about the obstacles to the basement and have any necessary keys/access cards/etc left in places the NC can pick them up, making up a distraction to get the police out of the way, insert other stuff people could help out with using their awesome powers and break in after probably a month of preparing and shenanigans.

-Alexander (amberhearted) can assist with hypnosis

-Jeffrey (saiyanscholar) can get the TT blueprints

-Octavia (drama8om8) can assist with mind control powers and as a police distraction


: Anything anyone has I'll list up here, it doesn't have to be a complete idea. If you just want to offer up an ability or scenario you'd like to use for your character without having any actual plan that's cool too we can piece it all together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Comments

[cava]

YES HI HELLO highly trained and experienced programmer here from the mission control group with a love of breaking into systems. He's absolutely on board with the info-gathering.

[glorifiedtrash]

Sweet sweet, would he need Luci or Zelos to do anything? I know nothing about hacking, but if he needs them to place a piece of equipment somewhere, run a program on a company pc or even sneak him into the building they will work it out.

[amberhearted]

RE information gathering: a small group of Numbers led by Vanessa did obtain the laptop(s and other misc things?*) from two thunder Corp executives' homes. ICwise, the booty was handed over to a hacker that has since been dropped. I'm not sure if anything came of that, so if nothing did, then maybe we can retcon and/or work out a way for those items to get into the hands of a PC who CAN extract information from them?

*i can double check when I get home.

RE getting into tuning towers' basement: OOCwise I'm open to throwing Alexander at that if you think you could use someone who can hypnotize (basically glamour) people/animals. ICwise he's used the hypnosis on animals before, but not people, and it isn't a skill he's advertised, though he's used it in front of a few PCs.

As an aside, I've been entertaining the idea of Nick arresting him so that Alex can be in a position where he might be able to glean infos via hypnosis.

[glorifiedtrash]

I don't know too much about the break in. I heard about it, but not anything about the details. If there was no verdict about what was on them though I think a retcon would probably be good.

RE TT, that's pretty useful! He could hypnosis people for information about the basement/how to get into it or get some of the police/sniffer dogs to leave when things actually go down if either of those sound good to you.

And that might actually be a pretty sweet thing. Totally Nick's player's call, not mine, BUT I AM NOSY SO would he try to hypnosis Sherman or just the police in the station he encountered in general?

[mood2wiingiing]

soren is at least kind of friends with luci and wants to help with things, and now that he's decided that doing it by going exploring is probably too dangerous he would definitely be interested in helping with info gathering as well as he can, if his age isn't an issue! he would also maybe be able to get davin in if they're interested and he's a computer guy. so yeah!

[glorifiedtrash]

Age is definitely not an issue at all! I know Luci has a few things she's trying to get down computer wise. I think it's something like making a secondary encrypted network the NC can use and store data on, set up some sort of network to monitor the phonetaps so no one has to actually listen to them in real time and...I think there is totally something else, but I am forgetting it.

If Luci doesn't approach Soren about it I can have Zelos do it. I'm guessing Soren spends a lot of his time in school on the computers/some sort of computer device?

[metalbent]

aria icly mentioned to luci that soren's brother was a computer guy and she'd ask him about it I FOR...GOT

[flamberge]

Best worst traitor ever, big bro.

And I keep on flopping over whether or not Karl might/could get involved with the basement thing. He would probably want to help, but he might not be able to. 8|a /PONDERS THIS SOME MORE

[glorifiedtrash]

If you get yourself hurt a second time he is never forgiving you lil bro. Also that icon is killing me, so beautiful!!

He could just do things like get them the police rosters for who's going to be working security on TT the day they decide to make a go for it if that sounds good to you? Things like numbers, what they're going to be armed with, general patrol areas, etc would all be good.

[saiyanscholar]

Did someone say building blueprints? This guy right here is an architecture student and his dad is pretty high up at a major architectural firm. He'd probably be able to get ahold of stuff like that without a lot of suspicion. As long as he's in more of an informational role, Jeffrey is totally willing to help out. Because it feels like a much safer way to be involved, as far as he's concerned.

[glorifiedtrash]

Zelos is totally okay with people just passing along information. I think this would work out awesome, if we end up going in on this mission impossible style (what it's looking like at the moment) Zelos will definitely have to hit up Jeffrey for this.

[drama8om8]

DID SOMEONE SAY MIND CONTROL

Octavia isn't as good at it as she thinks she is (she can't actually make people commit suicide. Yet), but she'll likely be able to force guards/employees/etc into giving up information/leaving keys/locking themselves in cupboards/etc. AND SHE'LL BE MORE THAN WILLING TO DO SO, OBVIOUSLY

She could also be used as a distraction - she's floated the idea of her being incredibly effective bait for the police before, and she'd be thrilled to be able to fly around the city making them chase after her. So many choices. Basically, she's in if you'll have her! 8V

ALSO. My other character, Ellie (shortspoken, Annie from Attack on Titan) is an employee of Thunder Corp. She's not important/in the loop so she won't be very helpful, but she really wouldn't want to be outed to the network. She's not loyal to the company at all, but her early network activity makes it pretty obvious in retrospect that she was once planning on selling everyone out.

TL;DR if Zelos were to discover she's one of the numbered at any point, she would be a perfect candidate to be blackmailed or something IDK I'M JUST MENTIONING THAT IN CASE IT'S OF INTEREST sob

[glorifiedtrash]

Zelos is pretty sure there would be like no way to keep Octavia out of this even if he wanted to so...she is in, yes. Not that he wants to cause, what a useful cutie-pie she is!! She will probably get to do at least one if not both of those things depending on the plan.

And ohman, that is beautiful. We should do this... Zelos can run into Ellie at Thundercorp HQ and recognize her if that's alright? He did read through the network pretty thoroughly at the beginning of the month and he's good with faces.

[von_uberwolf]

Just the one question: Would Zelos tell the bad guys about things like the location of the safe house and our other gathering spots?

[glorifiedtrash]

Nope! He will only hand over information about missions and maybe the NC's general disposition (remarking that everyone's afraid/on guard/disorganized/etc). Everything else Sherman/the police are going to have to figure out on their own so that depends more on who, if anyone, they're able to capture and interrogate in the future.

[lackinginfaith]

Eee awesome. Kari tends to creep on people and Tessa tends to fail, but I keep meaning to get them into actual combat more than just once every two months, so I'm glad to toss them into things.

[blastiaobsessieanonymous]

Britany Ruff will be looking to tap/hack computers. She has been quietly gathering bots and scripts (along with a couple custom bits of code), and has figured out a way to toss certain kinds of file directly onto the network. Direct access is ideal, but if she can slip onto the network she may be able to do things remotely as well.

Resulting acquired data can be slipped into a few different places when she gets the chance. However, unless she needs to go on-site for a goal, she will not be telling anyone what she is doing - taking tips and maybe or maybe not taking them. She's got teenage paranoia going on.

Also, if Luci's bothered to tell him or he looked into her himself: Britany doesn't know that she's an heir to an old-money fortune. That could be useful for some scheme of his I'm sure.

[ladyofluminosity]

Luci would not have told this information to Zelos, because quite honestly it's not his or her business. She's actually done her best to ignore the heiress thing because, again, it has nothing to do with what she was looking at and isn't her business. That's for Britany to sort out herself.

To be fair too, she's a bit uneasy actually letting her spearhead the network thing given how young she is, hypocritical though that may be. Likely Brit will be answering to Cain, since he's actually got experience and credentials with this kind of thing.

[scramasax]

And ah course offering this lad~! He's reasonably bright but has got access to nothing outstanding for the purposes of the intelligence group and I've got not a clue what he'd be allowed to do if let into things in the Tuning Towers mission - but consider 'im available all the same.

[healspec]

The sewer expedition run by Ravi actually did get into the Tuning Towers basements by phasing through the walls of the sewer at the closest point to the building walls. The source of the buzzing is inaccessible from the basements, though--it's literally a mile underground with no access route. (It's that big pink rock that Danny posted about.)

Not trying to harsh your buzz (hah.) but yeah, the 'stop the buzzing' goal has been explored and the basements won't get you there.

However a general exploration of the basements for info has not been done yet, so if that's the angle you want to take, Ravi can offer some advice re: how he managed to get his expedition team in there.

[glorifiedtrash]

The expedition team went inside the actual building? I know the they went underground via sewer/subway and stopped outside the basement walls from where Danny (I'm guessing?) phased down and found the rock. Brooke and Danny are supposed to be going back for the rock as far as I know, but Zelos wants to get into the actual building itself.

Zelos was on that expedition so I'm a little confused what we actually found now. If they got into the basement inside the actual building he definitely would have cased the place and I'm assuming others would have as well considering how the police are acting about the place.

[acequeen]

Not sure how I'd add Regina in this plan, but she's good for intel-seeking and ass-kicking, so idk. I'm up for suggestions!

[skycutter]

Miles is an employee so he can get more exposure to Zelos! Unfortunately he's not that high up in the ladder because. Well. he's a kid. He has however managed to let Regina into TT to grab some stuff so he's willing to do other stuff.

He can also assist with actual busting of walls because his water spell is that destructive and he's had a lot of experience with it by now.

[originaloddcouple]

The Dians are pretty much useless at everything BUT DISTRACTIONS, THOSE THEY CAN DO.

They also can appraise items and such to tell how old they are or in what condition they might be in. If that's helpful.

[espigeonage]

Huh!

Well, Jules was with the info gathering group, to start with. He's not hacker material - Yuuya is, but I don't think that's happening for a while. He does have the material for being very useful for sneaking around or breaking in, though! Provided it's not dark.

[stagnantair]

Heyyyyyyyyy there Gavin here was part of the sewer mission and is a logistics and strategic genius (in his past life, he's getting there,) so he's definitely always available to help with plotstuff.

[wirsinddiejager]

Alan would definitely be interested in getting involved, especially if Octavia is getting into danger! He's pretty handy in a fight but doesn't have much else to offer by way of special skills.

[synonymouswithdookie]

five bucks says people blame Ray if someone finds out that information is being leaked to Sherman

which is 100% fucking fantastic and Zelos should run his filthy mouth at all times

[metalbent]

OKAY. Sophie can assist with seeing things with her feet. :|a That. Might help with the basement thing?

Aria would like to assist with info gathering, and otherwise has telekinesis at your disposal.

And Sierra might actually like to possibly help gather information, too.

[tenaciousc]

Michelle is part of the info gathering group already. It'd be fun to get her involved in the basement thing, but she doesn't have anything useful to it yet (normal human, doesn't have her portal gun, doesn't even have hacking skills) so that's probably out.