Power Chip Liberation: Plotting Post

[etcircenses]

Heads up, players! The following plot, though instigated by District Thirteen, will affect and include characters in the Capitol as well.

As you might be aware, characters' superpowers are kept in check by the chips implanted in them. Every (former) Tribute has these chips, as they monitor other functions as well (for example, tracking and memory retention), although D13 will have disabled the tracking function. D13 has had hackers working on disabling the security systems that protect the manufacturing plant where the control tower for these chips is located, owned by Gowan Stevens in District Six. Once the hackers - who will have their own IC prompt - have disabled security, D13's soldiers will storm the plant and remove some of the restraints on people using their powers.

Unfortunately, the science behind the chips is imperfect, and D13 hasn't had enough time to perfect what it is they're trying to accomplish. D13 command has put emphasis on taking control of the powers, but the Capitol has implemented a failsafe: D13 will not be able to control who receives their abilities back, and anyone with a chip - Tribute, offworld Mentor, or even NPC Peacekeeper - will suddenly have access to unfathomable powers. And some of these powers are incredibly volatile or uncontrollable.

If your character has a chip in their arm, please comment below with whether your character has superpowers/magic in their canon, and I will RNG:

- for non-powered characters, a randomly-assigned selection of powers for this plot only.
- for powered characters, a description of any 'hiccups' or difficulties your character might face using those powers. These might include physical pain at using the abilities, difficulty controlling them, an intense mind-addling adrenaline high or more.

Gamebreaking powers will be capped. If you are unclear on how your character's powers should be capped, ask in the Questions thread. Please bear in mind that even characters who would not have had a chip (Panem natives) can still participate in this plot, but just won't have superpowers.

At the conclusion of this plot, powers will be turned off, but it's now D13 that has control over when they are allowed, not the Capitol. Powers being turned on becomes the nuclear option, as turning it on for one side means turning it on for the other. Both sides, naturally, will be working behind the scenes to try and figure out how to allow their soldiers to have powers while the other side can't.

Please go to the sign-ups below and plot! You may choose one prompt for your character to respond to; I have left them vague intentionally, but let me know if I have not provided you enough information to adequately plot out some character beats. In the IC post, there will be a lot more scene-setting and direction, and if the responsibility for NPCing for that prompt falls on the players, I'll provide enough information and leeway for you to throw Peacekeepers and civilians at your characters to your heart's delight.

The IC post should be going up on the 22nd or 23rd.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[etcircenses]

Re: QUESTIONS

[steepled]

Will hostages be able to participate in the powers rng?

[pythianjudgment]

Should we include a description of the powers in the RNG form if 'yes', or just the simple 'yes/no' on whether they do have powers?

[bravelyplucked]

Would a Panem native who has participated in the Games have a chip? Or would they have removed that when they were done with their Arenas?

[the_marshal]

What's the speed expected to be for this? I'd like to participate, but it's also Christmas and I've got plans from the 23rd through the 25th so I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to tag.

[somebiblicalshit]

I plan to have Vivi participate in helping out civilians also, but what's to stop D13 people from yoinking him back to their side? (I believe it's something Daryl and Rick would try to do.)

Overall, I'm just trying to figure out what a hostage character can do for the duration of this war.

Re: QUESTIONS

[crabmunicator]

Two questions here. First one directly for the event: Would Karkat count as powered or non-powered? He's very normal in troll terms - no psionics, no visions, no special Knight of Blood stuff - but he's also different than a human just by reason of physiology. I did mention his fraymotifs in his app, but these are just fancy attacks of some kind and his are never shown or described in canon, so I have no idea what they would do.

Second question, more relating to the item retrieval mission that happened earlier: Porrim was kind enough to retrieve Karkat's sylladex and strife deck during things and (though we need to thread it out still) she will have returned them to him. Since they're essentially fancy, RPG-style inventories (despite relying on cards to function), would they be stuck "closed" and unusable, or would Karkat have access to their contents and be able to put things in them again?

[ka_sera_sera]

Roland's got a power but it's very very vague future sight which just gives him vague impressions of what the best course of action might be, which is pretty much unplayable. Do I mark him as powered or unpowered?

[talltaleteller]

For the Capitol-side of the event, where NPC Peacekeepers are getting unexpected powers, I take it those NPCs are the ones that have had funky offworlder top secret stuff going on with them? Felicity's father is a Peacekeeper in the Capitol and has mostly existed off-screen, but would he have power problems or would he be exempt?

Re: QUESTIONS

[biiowiired]

Is the hacking post restricted to just hackers, or can interns other people bring coffee or provide security or whatever?

[shieldofrohan]

What's the status of hostages who might use their powers to try and break for freedom? Like, is that allowed, or should we be trying to stick to the letter of the prompt?

POWERS RNG

[etcircenses]

Please comment here and let me know if your character has canonical powers. If yes, I will RNG a side effect or challenge for them. If no, I will RNG a power set for them to use for this mission.

Re: POWERS RNG

[yoknapatawpha]

Bayard Sartoris, non-powered in canon.

Re: POWERS RNG

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi Pyrope, powers in canon.

Re: POWERS RNG

[occasio]

Phi, powers in canon.

[steepled]

Vivi Ornitier, he has powers in canon.

[infinitemayonnaise]

Kousuke Nitou, powers in canon.

[rictator]

Rick Grimes, non-powered in canon.

[earthborn]

Jane Shepard, powers in canon

[futilecycle]

Sigma Klim, powers in canon.

D13 HACKERS

[etcircenses]

D13 hackers, sign up here. I will be NPCing a security system for you to use as your jungle gym.

Re: D13 HACKERS

[biiowiired]

God help anyone who has to work with Psii lmao. He's crass and irritable on a good day, and with terrible things happening to friends, he's been stressed out since he arrived in D13. The upside is, he's an incredible hacker.

"Psiioniic's handicap is that he will have difficulty controlling his powers. His telekinesis will be clumsy, lasers fire at random, and future visions will be intrusive and potentially inaccurate." THIS RNG IS EVERYTHING I COULD HAVE HOPED FOR. Who's up for tweaked-out optic blasts? I also would really love to do something with the death visions, particularly with another character deciding to use Psii to invite calamity (for good or ill).

"MONSTER"

[etcircenses]

A single NPC Peacekeeper stationed at the D6 manufacturing plant has gained horrifying powers, and is both fighting D13 combatants and attacking innocent civilians and factory-workers. Characters must team up to combat this terrifying monster. I will NPC the monster.

Re: "MONSTER"

[yoknapatawpha]

Signing Bayard up for this! He has seismic powers so he'll be causing earthquakes, and probably will stop early in once he realizes how dangerous that is to others.

"DREAM"

[etcircenses]

As we hinted years ago, the Capitol has been experimenting on its own Peacekeepers with genetics from telepaths that they've brought in from other worlds. In this prompt, you must pair with another player and your characters will face their worst fear to break free of the psychic influence of a Peacekeeper NPC. Players will be in charge of coming up with their character's worst fear and playing that out.

Re: "DREAM"

[crabmunicator]

Guess who needs to work through a fear? This guy. This guy right here. Karkat will be lucky enough to have received Harry Potter-style magic so long as he can get something vaguely stick-like to cast it with, but in the meanwhile he'll be having to battle his fear of the Initiate actually recovering enough from his avoxing and gaining enough power to gain his own throne as the Grand Highblood did on his planet. Thanks to various circumstances, that is definitely the biggest one on his mind right now.

So hey, who else wants in on this part of the event? What's your character's fear? Someone else's fear is probably a lot easier to handle than one's own.

"PUNCH-OUT"

[etcircenses]

Realizing their mistake, D13 has ordered its soldiers to go deeper into the manufacturing plant and find a way to disable powers again, but at D13's whims. There's a MacGuffin failsafe in the plant, which CEO Gowan Stevens pocketed as he ran from the scene of the trouble and deeper into the plant. This is a high-powered chase/superhero-style punch-em-up prompt, where D13 characters will be chasing their quarry while fending off attacks from Peacekeepers who can now throw fire or shoot lasers or so on.

If you would like to be involved in the death of Gowan Stevens, let me know when you sign up for this prompt. I will NPC Gowan.

Re: "PUNCH-OUT"

[biiowiired]

(wrong journal but) Death! It's been too long since Altaïr's ganked someone, and he's an assassin who specializes in chase scenes. He also has one power, a sixth sense that can pick out people and color-code them according to their alignment. This could help tell mind-controlled allies from actual enemies and instantly pick out the CEO. However, activating it will cause extreme pain, and he won't be able to speak for up to thirty seconds.

CAPITOL

[etcircenses]

NPC Peacekeepers are running amok with insane abilities that they can't control, jeopardizing Capitolite civilians. This is a damage control prompt, and your characters should be rescuing Capitolites from debris, fire, and other hazards, or trying to subdue unruly and uncontrolled Peacekeepers. Players are in charge of NPCing.

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi will be doing damage control! She's willing to rescue innocent Capitolites, since that's kinda her shtick while she's a prisoner of war. Maybe it'll earn her some good favor, and also people don't have to die. She's also willing to help take down the rogue Peacekeepers, though she'll probably still be unarmed. Don't need a rogue Offworlder in the Capitol, when they're already dealing with rogue Peacekeepers.

With powers on, she'll have a tactical advantage of predicting the unruly Peacekeeper movements--which helps in both aspects of damage control. On one hand, she can relay movement and intent to those trying to stop the Peacekeepers; and on the other hand, she can pull any potential victims out of the way before they end up maimed/dead. Let me know if you wanna mess with this ability! I really love playing with it.