Plot post for July 30!

[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 I 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.

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Events occurring currently;
• The Vermini swarms have disappeared for the most part, and there's no sign of Vermedi either. Some characters may glimpse hairy figures in dark alleys or in sewers, but the creatures always disappear as soon as they are spotted.

• There are an unusual amount of police patrols out and about in the city. Any suspicious activity will be noticed, though there are no immediate IC consequences.

• We also have two super secret event opportunities that have not been claimed. Two commenters to the thread below will be randomly selected for this plot.

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Events occurring in the immediate future;
• Beginning Friday, August 2, there will be something in the water. Drinking any tap water will result in occasional, uncontrollable fits of laughter, along with re-experiencing previous Echoes, especially memory Echoes. One Echo per 8oz glass of water, and the beginning of its effects can be delayed for up to an hour. Within six hours it'll be out of the character's system completely.

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Events potentially occurring;
• If PCs wish to investigate Thunder Corp this week, comment to the thread below with a general idea of how you plan to get in and what you plan to do once you're there. Details will be forthcoming on a case-by-case basis.

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Potential Echo Opportunities:
• Drinking the tainted water will grant one new Echo (and only one, no matter how much water is drunk) in addition to any re-experienced ones. Uncovering any secret information about Thunder Corp will also grant an Echo. Canon parallels are a constant.

Comments

OPERATION: INVESTIGATE THUNDER CORP

[theearth]

[vanisland]

So. Cyberattacks, yea or nay?

Because that's her plan. If she can coordinate with an on-site team and be Mission Control, all the better. She's been (off-screenly) poking at and analyzing their (and the police's) network security for most of the past month so she's reasonably prepare.

She'll also be poking around their financial documents and looking for anything that doesn't add up - money talks (and they'd try to sweep any shady deals under the table, of course) and some people will do anything to try to keep the cash boat floating.

[theearth]

She and her team will discover large sums of money going to contractors, architects, and construction agencies. There are other sums of money that simply seem to vanish.

She will also discover lots of maps of the Dead District: the surface buildings as well as the infrastructure, power lines, and sewer plans.

[vanisland]

I should probably clarify that "the team" means "whoever on the numbernet is going there in person". As long as I can get them to agree, of course.

[doomedtheworld]

Hmm... Vanessa's going to be on the bench for big adventures for a little while, but depending on when this goes down burglary and the like are her jam. If she's not in shape for directly infiltrating she can at least help out with the planning and do some mission control work for anybody who does go in.

[hopediesalone]

Raul here will be all over this. He'll be down for direct investigation and infiltration.

[theearth]

So he plans to go into the company physically?

What does he do, when he's there? Does he look into their computers, just explore, where does he search?

[acequeen]

Anything that involves Regina infiltrating the corp/doing some kickass espionage/information leakage? I'm totally down with that. Maybe she can disguise herself as an employee or something...

[theearth]

She's welcome to attempt infiltration, but once she's in, where does she start looking? Computers, poking around basements, how does she approach it?

Re: OPERATION: INVESTIGATE THUNDER CORP

[reapsthewind]

Chris currently works at Matthew Brillion's company (Cleared with the mun; he dropped but Chris still has her job there)

She's under contract with them, but given that they're both tech corps, might there be a possibility of a partnership between the two companies, such as just a tech contract, or whatever? If not a current one that Chris can muscle her way in on, then a past one that Chris can investigate as a way to get in-roads into their systems.

If that's not possible, GOOD OL HACKING. I assume I get the same things as Miranda does then.

*edit* IS there any data that could be obtained from aerial surveillance?

Re: OPERATION: INVESTIGATE THUNDER CORP

[theearth]

There is a tech contract between the two companies. On the surface it just looks like software, but if Chris digs deeper, she may discover that Thunder Corp is having Brillion's company construct military aircraft. The planes have not changed hands yet, but all negotiations have been completed and construction has begun.

Hacking gets the same information as Miranda, yes. However, aerial surveillance yields no new information, yet.

[skycutter]

... I must be crazy but okay. If Miles doesn't get into the super mystery plot, I could have him here instead.

Maybe he'd go under the guise of checking out potential employers or internships since he's becoming a senior in the next school year? And he is in fact going to take up comp.sci when he gets into college. Thunder Corp is on the lookout for geniuses and the best employees, right?

[theearth]

Indeed. Would you like to have him employed by Thunder Corp?

[carolinesays]

While Caroline isn't invested enough to seriously participate in what's going on, she'll be making some minor inquiries. The things she'll be looking at would be mostly public information, stuff that turns up for a normal person doing marketing research.

Possible topics she might dig up: Any key events in Thunder's history? How have their profits been doing in the last couple of years? Approximately how many employees do they have? What kind of advertisements or promotions have they been running lately?

Orrr, here's a possibility: I think Thunder's offices are in the city, but is it known where their manufacturing plants or similar facilities are, if any?

If their locations are known, this could let other characters go do sneaky spy stuff, do surveillance, look for suspicious activity, stuff like that.

/brainstorming

[theearth]

Jimmy Won is CEO of Thunder Corp. No one really understands how he got to be CEO -- he comes off as a buffoon, and everyone knows he's a mediocre businessman. However, his immediate superiors always failed at something important at a critical moment, leaving a spot open for Won's promotion. Nothing has ever been proven.

Their profits have never been good: they've struggled for a long time, but over the past two months, their profits have shown marked, rapid improvement. As of the beginning of July, this increase leveled out, but they're still doing better than they were. Suddenly, everyone wants to buy Thunder Corp merchandise. This is strange, since they don't seem to have changed their advertisements at all.

They're a fairly small company, certainly local, and their manufacturing plants/warehouses/etc. are all just outside Locke City. Their locations are not a secret.

[formermagicalgirl]

Tamara would also be up for trying to hack their systems, especially seeing if she can gain access to the emails of any of the bigwigs. Considering that she's especially experienced with going after accounts, she knows how to use social engineering techniques to try and gain passwords if she can't use her virus. Of course, she'd also be more than happy to try and infect all the computers as well.

[theearth]

She would get the same result as Miranda: ThunderCorp is planning to build something big, and they're buying more things under the table, but the paper trail for those is as of yet untraceable.

Does she attempt to infect all of Thunder Corp's computers?

[shortspoken]

HELLO TINY THUNDER CORP EMPLOYEE HERE SUP

Is there anything I should know with regards to Annabel's security guard job there? Like will she be given any increase in shifts or asked to guard something that the reincarnates might be interested in? 8Oa

I'm also potentially up for having her be on Thunder's side of one of the in-person infiltration thingummies - I'm assuming her uniform will have a helmet or mask so she won't get potentially recognised, is this okay?

[theearth]

Recently, she has been asked to guard a warehouse full of equipment she's not seen before. There are huge vats full of fluid, and trucks that look like modified gasoline tankers come and go. No one will tell her the purpose of these things, and asking questions at all is discouraged.

If she tries to look inside one of the vats, or get a look at the fluid at all, she'll notice that it's clear but gives off a faint pink glow.

As for being involved in an in-person infiltration, wearing a helmet with a visor is permissible.

[earnedmystripes]

idk if kotetsu would go on his own but if someone posts on the network about it he'd be up for tagging along. /o/

[searchforpeace]

I'd like to send Audrey in but I can't imagine she'd go alone either. Would you like to cook up something together, maybe invite some others?

Re: OPERATION: INVESTIGATE THUNDER CORP

[hawaiianheir]

Depending on when this happens, Mac might be investigating anything and everything in the industrial district because he's a delinquent who hangs out there a lot. Are there any former Thunder Corp warehouses that they have abandoned that might be identified/worth investigating? Alternatively, he might be the one to take this on, just because him accidentally falling face-first into this stuff is pretty much totally in character with his preincarnation.

[theearth]

Any unused (and unguarded!) Thunder Corp warehouses have been cleaned out thoroughly; they can certainly be investigated, but will yield little.

Stumbling into their current warehouse operation, though, is completely permissible.

Re: OPERATION: INVESTIGATE THUNDER CORP

[needsmorezippers]

Ok, two questions (both of which should have occurred to me earlier......)

1.) Neku is at the reservoir plot and stuck it out until the truck arrived- would he be able to get any info off of reading their minds?

2.) He hasn't done this yet, but Neku may go hang out by ThunderCorp buildings/employees to see if he can get anything off of mindreading them.

In both cases it IS just surface thoughts, so I know he's likely to get a lot of nothing and then maybe a few little interesting facts. If I need to be more specific on when he's listening I can be!

Re: OPERATION: INVESTIGATE THUNDER CORP

[doomedtheworld]

So, yeah, if somebody were to break into the house of one of the Thunder Corp employees named in the email what work-related stuff might there be to find that they've taken home with them?