let's set d o w n some (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
groundrules) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
westwhere2022-09-03 10:17 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2022-09-03 10:17 pm
plot roll | lights out
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LIGHTS OUT | MINARAS
Critical systems at various military, academic and medical institutes in Minaras malfunction, suffering anything from brief but recurring glitches to complete breakdowns. They require urgent, expensive and sophisticated repairs linked to gears: cogs, wires, keys, grease and steampunk microsystems. Corrosion appears to be the main culprit.
Unfortunately, the industrial barons of Minaras are unenthusiastic to donate the necessary repair resources. In a public message, high councillor Arabella and other government officials subtly encourage good citizens to liberate the supplies, alluding that light crimes committed in the process will be pardoned.
Careful: the barons didn’t make their wealth by leaving their assets unprotected…
✘ OBJECTIVE: Barter, win or steal parts from reluctant industrialists and study the repair areas.
- ■ Characters working at Minaras public institutions notice a sudden spate of operational errors: lights go out completely or temporarily, while watch ship communication systems are frequently disrupted. Civilian clockwork droids stop moving or fleetingly refuse to acknowledge citizens (this does not apply to droids assigned to the party). Several factories suspend work.
■ Brief light outages strike residences and public areas. Citizens stumble or drift on unlit roads — a few approach you mutely with unshed tears in their eyes, catching your hand to drag you to their homes. If you go, you will find nothing amiss beyond the eerie quiet, while your hosts pointedly stare at you as they enter their beds and silently weep. This stops once lights come back on. Citizens cannot explain what they were doing and remembering their own actions in a haze.
■ Characters with access to the military may overhear that basic production services have not been performed in Minaras for some time. Some say the current outages were inevitable: lubricants, routine parts and processed coal are in short supply, with the army considering whether to requisition.
■ Eager to turn distress into dance, the wealthy aristocracy hold several candle-lit parties. Here, characters can overhear Minaras’ industrial elite has long felt the brunt of the government’s fixation with medical progress. Much of the processes that keep the city running have been relegated to private suppliers, and the barons feel pressured to sustain Minaras. Some favour rebelling against the high council, with a few admitting they have been contacted by Remembrance terror group leader Chrichter.
■ Those affiliated with medical units make dark discoveries: in the absence of light to support cryogenic conditions, several living and dead subjects seem to rapidly deteriorate. The dead show signs of internal rot, while the living cough blood and develop high fevers. They are swiftly isolated.
■ At the government’s behest, public service buildings, formal bounty hunter abodes and several taverns offer pamphlets, maps and instructions to steal repair parts. The government will not pursue this theft. Read the fine print: this pardon does not extend to major crimes (permanent injury, murder, the annihilation of a baron’s home or factory). You can trade parts in for a handsome 30,000 governmental coins.
■ The pieces needed are: specialty factory cogs, pipes, high-density fuel — a precious handful of which can power an entire watchtower — and product or recipes for efficient lubricants.
■ If you enlist to hunt parts, shady bounty hunters will share loose maps and observations on the basic daily patterns of the barons’ factories or households, to help you infiltrate. You will also receive basic weapons and a stiff drink.
■ Some of the items you seek sleep in safehouses, others in the barons’ own homes, while some are in factory warehouses. Most parts are secured with codes you can learn by following your targets, or receive from government sources. You may need to pretend to be a factory worker to enter work spaces, or a servant to infiltrate a baron’s home.
■ Beware droids, guards and berserk watch ships. You’re safe if you’re trapped and turned in with public authorities, who will furtively release you — but you may need to break yourself out, if barons take justice in their own hands.
■ Those with technical ability can also offer to conduct repairs once parts are secured, gaining access to one institute of their choice: a watch tower, a medical unit (pick between academy or care centre) or a factory. Pair up for this one, and ask up to three specific questions!
■ Report in with your liberated goods. No pressure, but we will need at least three parts recovered by 20 September to return Minaras online.
NPC ACCESS: ARABELLA
no subject
Then she sees him, and she steps out of the shadows with a wave. )
Hi.
How'd it go?
( She has no idea what he was up to while she was doing all of the rest. )
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I've just realized, when I texted 'meet me at bounty hunters' I must have sent that to a different friend entirely. My mistake!
[ Though he's been stroppy at times when those around him haven't done what he's said, it's different this time. There's no actual frustration in his voice because there was no imminent danger. He would have been more on edge about her safety if that had been the case.
When he gets closer, he'll reach out to lightly tap her nose, if she'll allow it, accompanying it with a soft smile. ]
All told, that was some of our best work yet! It'll go a long way to helping fix what's been going wrong here. Hopefully, in any case.
[ He slips his round, red glasses off, tucking them into his top pocket. It hasn't occurred to him to ask for his coat back yet, as they walk. Whoops. ]
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I wasn't sure if you knew which bounty hunter's place. There are like several of them. I went to a couple before finding one that would even talk to me.
( And she starts after him when he goes, leading the way so they can make it back to the right one. She'll just keep wearing the coat until he notices or realizes. It's heavy with parts, but she is part Cerberus so she doesn't really notice. )
Definitely less emotional than the first time.
How'd it go inside?
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Oh, he passed the audit with flying colors! Harold – that was his name – good fellow. Don’t think he deserves that place. I mean, they don’t deserve him. He deserves better. Told him he should think of going somewhere else. He said he’s wanted to for a long time, I think he just needed some encouragement. [ Yes, he did in fact, have a long and in depth conversation. To the Doctor, sometimes, things like this are more simple, and black and white than they can actually be in reality. Harold deserves better so he should, naturally, just go out and get something better. He’s not oblivious to the reality of their surroundings here, and it would be particularly challenging in Minaras, but life should be lived, not just survived. ]
I did mention he should ring his superior to tell him he’d passed the night audit. Would have clued the baron in on something amiss and then Harold looks the hero.
[ If he did actually do that, they’ll be far enough away shortly for it not to matter. And his face was the only one actually seen. Red should be safe from any potential retribution if it comes.
His glasses slip from his top pocket suddenly, and he catches them, moving to stuff them into his coat pocket, only to at last realize that he doesn’t have his coat. ]
Oh! Yes. Forgot. Sorry, sorry. You should yell at me next time. Yell anything really. Silly Old Doctor, Oi! You!, Bowtie, Pickled Peppers, something of the sort.
[ That said, he reaches out to take the coat now. ]
no subject
How does your brain even work like that?
( Picking up every little detail, thinking of all the potential angles, she's- Well, she's more likely to run straight forward into a wall than anything without thought .
Then she snorts laughter as she pulls the coat off and holds it out to him. )
Just wanted to see how long it'd take you to realize. It's a damned, nice coat. ( And now they've made it to the bounty hunters. She leans against the wall as she reaches down for the handle behind her, ready to turn it and open it. )
Ready, Doc?
no subject
Comes in handy, too. The busy brain and the coat!
[ Would that he could give her a coat like this. The TARDIS could provide. Of course, if the TARDIS were here at all, they'd not be standing here now.
He slips the coat back on, adjusting it, fixing his collar and bowtie, then rubbing his hands together just briefly, clearly enthused. They've done well! Lots to be proud of. ]
Let's rock and roll, as the kids say!
no subject
Rock and roll. ( Red sounds lightly amused though. She's fond of him. She's likely ultimately older than him though she's forced into this mentality of a teenager. It's all complicated, but they're both really messy individuals.
And it feels like that is shared.
So it helps.
She eases the door open, and they go in to deliver their goods, and save a portion of Minaras in the process. )