Plot post for March 23rd / Season 2 kick-off!

[theearth]

This format of plot post is designed for players to ask questions and find ways to influence the plot. Be bold and ask what you can or can't do; the worst that can happen is that we will say no. As plots in Save the Earth are not self resolving nor on a time limit they can evolve in many ways. Although some potential outcomes are given, they are little more than suggestion and can be changed by character action. What role you take is up to you.

The post is also open for players to plot and coordinate between one another.



• First off, thank you so much for making the Season 1 finale a success! We ask for your continued patience as we enter the new territory of Season 2.

• With the dawn of Season 2, we’ve updated the FAQ! We encourage old, new, and potential players alike to check it out here! Additions and edits have been marked.

• The Application has two new additions: Current characters in the game and Starting Location. If you or someone you know has already begun their application, please make the necessary edits! Characters who have already been accepted into the game do not need to retroactively add these sections to their applications.

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Events occurring currently:

• Thanks to the accusations thrown among the information reincarnates have publicly shared, the FBI have started an investigation into the alleged corruption within the Locke City Police Department. They have dismissed the sex scandal as baseless. However, their investigations have so far led to one boon for the reincarnates – they’ve found no evidence lending credibility to some of the charges against Alan Hunter (wirsinddiejager), Alexander Varista (amberhearted), Octavia Serket (drama8om8), and Ray Zimmerman (synonymouswithdookie). As such, all false charges have been dropped. These reincarnates are free to return to their normal lives.

Or what passes for ‘normal’ now.

The FBI’s investigation is on-going.

• Amidst the buzz around apparently superpowered people, the city is still recovering from Wise Snake’s rampage. The number of dead has reached several hundred. The situation is stable enough for the National Guard to have pulled out, leaving space for reconstruction efforts to begin. Despite allegations thrown their way, Thunder Corp is spearheading reconstruction in the Business District with their advanced technology. They’ve partnered up with Rain Enterprises to make new buildings more sustainable – after fixing the underground structural integrity and the roads, of course.

School has since reopened.

The body of Wise Snake still remains where it fell, taped off and guarded by FBI agents now. They’ve relieved the Locke PD from that duty. On the plus side, hotels are seeing a slight rise in business thanks to gawkers flocking from every which way on the globe to see the gigantic stone snake in person. Rather than remove it wholesale, there is talk of keeping part of it where it lays and constructing a memorial around it, wherein the lives lost on the ninth will be carved into the stone.

Overall, the city’s mood appears to be recovering from the tragedy.

• From various sites, like Reddit, Imgur, and other forums, comes a group of people united in their fascination with the reincarnates and their existence. Right now, they have a thread on Reddit wherein they’re taking name suggestions for what to call themselves.

The thread is pretty well-known.

The question is: will any reincarnates infiltrate their group and add a suggestion of their own?

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Events occurring in the immediate future:

• On the morning of March 23rd, a pink light will shoot up into the sky much like the first pink light in Locke City, nearly a year ago. This light, however, is coming from Las Vegas, Nevada.

That’s right, folks. Your next location is Sin City. More information about this new addition to the setting can be found here. We’re going to try something new: updating changes to the location in the location’s post. You may want to consider tracking it for updates.

With this new location, new characters can now be applied for as starting in the Echo boundaries within Las Vegas or Locke City. The pink light may also be used as a Las Vegas-hailing character’s First Echo.

• On March 29th, Locke City will be invaded… by a conglomerate of unusual pests and threats. See:

- Several iPods that blares songs on shuffle that varies depending on the owner’s iTunes library. Every time a song ends, the iPod transports to a random area within Locke City. Its charge is replenished by the ire of the people.

- A child-sized eraser and an adult-sized pencil that erasers traffic lines and draws new lines that make no sense. They also have the ability to draw doors onto anything and escape through them.

- Several sets of at least five keys on a keyring that can unlock secrets from their victim. These keys force the victim to blurt out a secret about: first key: their friendships; second key: their love life; third key: their job; fourth key: their desires; fifth key: their greatest guilt. If there are more keys, they don’t do anything. The keys sneak their way into pockets and purses, gobbling up the original keys and assuming their form to deceive. Secret-blurting happens when a person makes skin-contact with a key.

- A brush monster that entangles victims with the loose strands of its previous owner’s hair. It “eats” victims – more specifically, it eats the hair on their heads – and spits them out bald. With each head of hair eaten, it grows larger and more powerful.

- Several normal-sized lighters that scurry around starting fires.

- A child-sized Tokidoki keychain figure that throws Altoids into well-populated areas. When the mint hits a surface, it explodes in a disproportionately large powdery mess of peppermint that causes irritation to the eyes, nose, and throat, the effects of which lasts roughly 24 hours. Definitely not stuff you want to breathe in.

- A compact mirror that has taken the guise of an existing citizen in Locke City. It randomly assumes a new form – always one of an existing person in Locke – and acts in a manner completely opposite that person.

- Angry toothpicks bitter about their destiny wielding other toothpicks as swords. They range from adult-sized to actually-a-toothpick-sized. Their swords are extremely sharp. Don’t underestimate the toothpick-sized toothpicks. You don’t want to be pricked in the foot by them, do you?

- Gum strips that fly through the air like Aladdin’s magic carpet. Upon “randomly” choosing a target, they increase in size, wrap around the victim and stick them to walls, floors, ceilings, street posts… Anything, really.

Why is “randomly” in quotes? Well, though all of the monsters above attack both normal folk and reincarnates alike, they seem to be attracted to reincarnates more…

As the days go by, the number and types of pests will slowly increase. They will always be based on items one may find in a backpack, a purse, a wallet, a pocket, a vehicle, etc, and possess an ability or two that are related to that item, no matter how absurd. Using this as a guide, players are free to design their own monsters, too!

These monsters can be taken down by reincarnates! However, we ask that you do not rush to kill them all at once. There will be a new development within one to two weeks.

The local police force will aid in controlling these pests and threats, as well as the FBI already stationed in Locke City (and there are, at present, quite a number of them). You can expect the Locke PD to be on good behavior.

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Potential Echo Opportunities

• Seeing the pink light in Las Vegas (either in person or through a video recording) will grant one plot Echo.
• Interacting with one of the monsters beginning March 29th will grant one plot Echo. Only one Echo can be gleaned from these monsters regardless of how many monsters a character interacts with and it will always be from the first interaction.
• As always, canon recurrences grant related Echoes!

Please direct questions regarding these plot points to the thread below and not the post in general.

Edited 3/23/14 to specify potential Echo opportunities as plot Echoes.

Comments

Doyle/Dinosaur guy

[umbrael]

So, until he gets his human form back (which will require an echo and an item he has in his home), Doyle's not going to Vegas any time soon, unless it's part of a sigfried and roy-style show, ha ha ha actually wait that would be hilarious, who wants to do that


Also he's been mostly out of the loop for those intermission weeks, so he's not aware of the change in echo-border restrictions. Currently, he thinks he's going to turn into an ordinary human with no memory of everything that happened, which sounds great but 1. all of his stuff is still in Locke city and 2. his clothes didn't transform with him, so Doyle figures that if he suddenly found himself outside of Locke City with no clothes on and no clear memory why, he'd try getting back to town where he'd just turn back into a dinosaur and yeah.

Though it should be noted he's not trying particularly hard to test this or work around it, though. One part he's pessimistic and lazy, but maybe, deep down, he doesn't mind being stuck like this. Hmmmm.

aaANYway this means he's in Locke City for the immediate future. He will figure out how to connect to the network again at some point, and he might put in a request for some people to get some stuff out of his apartment for him. Or, if he's feeling very, very generous, and trusts some of you jerks idiots fellow reincarnates, he could offer it up as a place for people to stay until he figures out how to be a human again.

I need to double-check his living arrangements but wherever he is, he's away from the city but still in range of the echo area. He's kind of wary of staying closer than that, because he doesn't think it'd be easy to hide in the city. But he's open to suggestions!

HOWEVER, if anyone finds themselves in need of a big dinosaur that can move shadows, maybe as backup against toothpicks or if they need a ride, he'll make an appearance. The whole 'being stuck' thing is starting to make him feel useless and he'd like to do something about that.

[espigeonage]

Bird people and dinosaurs have got to meet sometime, don't you think?

[umbrael]

yessss

I mean if you think about it birds and dinosaurs are basically the same thing... (example this icon is a cassowary claw because cassowaries are IRL raptors and also terrifying)

Actually this is funny to me, because some silly personality quick of this guy's pre-incarnation is an irrational annoyance/bitterness towards birds for some reason (his underlings theorize/joke about it being because they're what dinosaurs evolved into and Umbrael is just jealous/a sore loser/something), so getting his reincarnation acquainted with a bird person could be the recipe for something hilarious! Or for one of the most useless echoes Doyle's ever gotten. XD

Whether or not that's a trait I stick with, I'm down with Doyle meeting more not-exactly-human-anymore characters! We just got to get these two to meet. :/a

[espigeonage]

They are the same thing! I bristle when people talk about dinosaurs being a failure or apply the Dead Clade Walking thing to them. They're here now, thriving, flourishing on each and every continent, echolocating into deep caverns and flying high above Mount Everest. whoops you've found my great passion

Lol. Julien met up with Ravi who echoed back harpyphobia and now has to stay away from them...

Cool, cool! Hmm. There's always Julien going walking somewhere away from the busier places.

[umbrael]

Well yes and no - as a whole, yes, birds are dinosaurs, but if I'm recalling right (I'm not a biologist or paleontologist by any means) they're only a type of dinosaurs. Maybe Umbrael had his money on Ornithischia

And wow who could call dinosaurs failures for going extinct? I mean if you believe the asteroid theory like there's not a lot they could do about that.

I'm more riled up nowadays when people get all whiny over velociraptors and t-rexes with feathers. Like, yes, I think scales are cool, but your precious theropods aren't ruined forever by having feathers, geez.

Fortunately Umbrael doesn't have a phobia, exactly, he's just really passive aggressive about it. Though, Umbrael and his kind are based more on theropods than anything else, which makes that whole thing even sillier!

Hmmm yes... Last place I have Doyle being is Rarity/Cinderella's place, would he go out there?

Alternately, they could meet if Doyle takes a trip to the city? Where does Julien usually hang out?

[espigeonage]

Much more yes than no! I'm a paleontology fangirl. Every source I follow says they are dinosaurs and doesn't waffle about it. Dinosaurs aren't extinct, it's just that only one small grouping survived to branch out again. Modern birds are so very like them.

Feathers are cool! And immensely useful. People whining that dinosaurs are ruined baffle me. I like this article trying to figure it out. Actually, the scales on the feet of modern birds are now thought to be from feathers - reptile scales are entirely different.

Either could work! I'm not sure about visiting the pony, but Julien likes going out into the country. Or into parks, where there won't be too many people. It's cold.

[umbrael]

Yes they're dinosaurs! I just meant they're under theropods and less directly related to say, sauropods, or to the other popular dinosaurs outside of saurischia like stegosaurs and tricerotops, etc. But those guys were losers, anyway!

Also people who say feathers are lame clearly haven't seen bearded vultures. Or been attacked by a goose.


Anyway! Going out to the country could work - since he's really big now, Doyle might feel like wandering a little more when he needs to stretch!

Alternately we can just see what comes up in the next week. \óuo/ His situation might change though, once he gets back in contact with the network. (he was having trouble figuring out how to write with his new claws...)

[espigeonage]

Let alone a swan. ahaha, I'm saddened by how fiction has swans and doves as just all peaceful and lovey. Swans have killed people! Pigeons try to blind each other and love fighting!

Cool, cool! I'm inclined to sooner rather than later but I'm not unhappy either way. Julien knows and likes to use Elvish, which animals can understand - would Doyle?

[umbrael]

I actually kind of like it, one part for an element of 'they'll never see it coming', and another part because I think ~beauty~ and ~adorable love symbolism~ and being absolutely brutal aren't necessarily mutually exclusive! I'm one of those people who like cute things that mess you up, heheh ^^:


Hmmm, that's a good question. There aren't elves where Doyle's old self is from, but his old self is an ancient spirit type. But idk if he's the spirit type that would have gotten along with elves, either, heheh. I'm going to lean towards no, but it's not really an issue for him right now since it's still Doyle's mind in there and he can still understand english. It's just speaking it that's the problem, with his new lizard-mouth! XD

[espigeonage]

Yeah, but I want stories where they're gorgeous and lethal. Where if you turn people into them you are doomed, and if you have boats pulled by them you're someone to be feared.

I have Julien understanding it because Yuuya's an uplifted pigeon as smart as any human, but only about a century of unnatural development removed from a normal animal.

I think Julien seeing if he might be able to fly could be a good excuse for being out there somewhere. Should goofy monsters come up?

[radiantchicken]

Torin wants to hang out with the dinosaur more. His canon, the dinosaurs were everywhere. He can helpfully spout things about dinosaurs and bravery and samba. (Okay, he hasn't echoed that last one back yet, but soon...)

[umbrael]

Yessssss! I actually really want our characters to talk again because Doyle just echoed back his memory of how his past self made it through the extinction event in his world. :) So that's something else to talk about!

(Related - would riding on a dinosaur thing give your character an echo? It's been a bit since I checked the wiki for his series but I think his dinosaur-thing - well it wasn't a vaguely theropodish thing like Doyle is, but they both had long necks, that has to count for something, right? 8D)

[radiantchicken]

Yes! Because Torin remembers the extinction event, and he knows he had to modify dinosaurs into robots in order for them to survive. 8D

(It might! Torin's partner, Bragigas, was a brachiosaur, so he might get a sense of "okay, this is similar but different...")

[umbrael]

Ha ha Doyle's pre-incarnation here was more boring with his approach - he just slept through it. (But, fun fact, he used to have brothers and sisters, and they were the one that sort of helped life survive the big extinction events by giving up their essence! But not Umbrael, he chickened out and I guessed used his powers to hide through the worst of it. So maybe there's an echo there that'll make him remember that, hmm...)

Also re: bragigas - excellent! I ask in case it comes up in our wise snake thread, but otherwise gosh it would be adorable to have a parrot riding on this dinosaur's head in general. ;u;

[radiantchicken]

Ooh, that should be interesting. (And hey, with enough echoes, Torin could actually be like "Hey, you want to be a Voltasaur?" so hey, if Doyle ever decide he wants a career change to "giant robot"...)

Yes, that would be adorable and I approve of this. X3

[umbrael]

I was cleaning my inbox and reread this and I remembered that Doyle's past self is legendarily bad with technology, to the point where his own brother jokes about it being another power of his so

turning him into a robot would be hilarious and also probably disastrous XD (but probably going to pass on that but man the mental image is great)

not much else to add to this though other than restating that parrot and dinosaur should hang out.

[radiantchicken]

Somewhere, there's an AU of an AU where horrible decisions were made.

They should! Dinosaurs make Torin feel right at home.

[umbrael]

if there's ever something in saveyourbrain that allows for this we should play this AU of an AU just saying

[adaptivemanipulation]

So can Alan yell at Doyle over the network or over his cell phone or something and be like "hey man where the hell are you and your dumb tech support?"

And then maybe he discovers Doyle the Dinosaur and they start their own kids' show

[umbrael]

yes! yes he can, and doyle will have flashbacks to his college years.

Maybe when/if Doyle the Dinosaur makes his way in town... Otherwise text messages will be answered in the messiest writing like 'soRRY i cAnt do computeRs RN' dang i gotta make a network post soon

oh my god what a show that would be. Hey kids, doyle the dinosaur and alan the computerman here! Today we're going to learn about healthy outlets for our anger!

[adaptivemanipulation]

Awwww snap! That sounds fun okay. This is a thing that needs to happen. The texting and such, yes. And the flashbacks.

oh my god I need to draw this now I am laughing so hard

[umbrael]

Would he specifically private message doyle's network number or however that works on the network? (if so Doyle's IC inbox is here!) (though that's probably the best bet because doyle's not answering his phone or anything else because well dinosaur in the woods)

this is extra funny to me because Doyle's past self is super bad with technology and is the ultimate cranky old person about it. 'Back in my day we scratched trees at territorial borders and common paths to leave messages to each other and we liked it!'

[adaptivemanipulation]

Yeah I guess he could do the private message thing :|a I think he'd try the phone first because that's the more familiar method, but after not answering he'd try the network.

Oh my god and yet he's a computer guy in his reincarnation this is hilarious

[umbrael]

right! Boy what a conversation that's going to be

'oh hi old professor can't talk kind of a literal dinosaur'

rIGHT? it's one part irony and one part karma, since old-Doyle had a personal tech support person and naturally made his life hell, so now he gets to see what that's like.

Also after the way he treated people in his past life, he gets to be put into a sort of customer service because that's pretty hellish

fun fact I was thinking about echoing back a lack of knowledge when I apped him and having him lose his job that way but IDK if that'd work out

[adaptivemanipulation]

LMFAO oh my god yes I can't wait. My hiatus is up tomorrow so I will get on this.

That sounds like a fun echo and if you ever decide to pursue it... I would be happy to help.