meadowlarklogs | OPEN PLAYER PLOT: OPERATION LOST BOYS

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OPEN PLAYER PLOT: OPERATION LOST BOYS

WHO: Anyone
WHERE: A research outpost not far from New Amsterdam proper
WHEN: November 28
WHAT: The Displaced arrive to save the captured Morningstar agents, including one of their own.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Violence, mentions of interrogation/torture, etc.

> DEPARTURE BY TRAIN
Early in the day on November 28th, Prompto and Poe will conspire to get an out-of-service train car onto the same tracks where the Displaced were guided by Cassius earlier this month. By all measures, the train car doesn't look operational. There are telling dents in the side, and it does not appear to be powered on. Yet those involved in the rescue operation already assembled are climbing on board like they know that this is their ride.

Inside, the train is fairly battered. Some of the seats on the far wall seem to have been damaged when the train collided with something during the EMP, and the rattling of the crash took out some of the internal handrails as well.

Once everyone is settled, though, the car begins to move. At the front of the car, Poe uses his power to move the train car on the tracks and out of the city. As they hit a checkpoint, the car doesn't slow down to be inspected; instead, it accelerates and blows right through the barrier, which makes for a pronounced jolt for all the passengers inside.

Once the train is rolling outside of the city limits, the Displaced can grab scrambler masks that have been provided by Morningstar for use in infiltrating the outpost when they arrive. It is imperative, El suggests, that they don't allow their identities to be compromised. They will also remind the Displaced to keep this project under wraps, lest Morningstar as a whole has its operations compromised.

This is a good time to solidify any plans about what to do when the outpost is reached. The train ride won't be especially long, but long enough for some tension to settle over the car.

> INFILTRATE THE OUTPOST
The outpost they arrive at is a less grimy version of what the Displaced saw earlier in November. The interior is almost identical to what was present there, with some wings repurposed as jailing sites. There are bright, fluorescent lights with white walls and a sterile smell throughout. Even cleaned up, these labs do not recognize any of those that the Displaced may have seen in their dreams.

The description below is borrowed from the arrival log for reference:

The building is six stories tall. The first floor has a lobby/waiting area, a cafeteria, and some office spaces. The second floor is the dormitory floor, which is where the employees would usually sleep if they chose to stay at the facility while working rather than returning to the city in between shifts. This is where the new arrivals woke up. Floors three through five are dedicated to lab spaces, which is where the actual research work is usually done. Most of these laboratories are going to be locked, but that won't stop Displaced from breaking into them if they want. Some of the lab rooms also have exam rooms. Displaced will be able to swipe lab equipment and medical supplies, such as syringes, vials/beakers, first aid supplies, scalpels, bandages, multi-lens microscopes, etc. The top floor is dedicated to offices for higher-ranked scientists, so think of it as the C suite. All floors also have bathrooms, of course, and the dormitory wing also has showers.

✦ Notably, this outpost is also empty of scientists. However, stoic soldiers stand guard at every door. These well-armed warriors are with the UNA, who has taken over the outpost. These soldiers are not an easy fight. In the fights with UNA soldiers, PCs might die and need to be revived in New Prague by Morningstar.
✧ DISTRACTION: Some of the PCs may choose to deal with the UNA by attempting to distract them using wit, charm, or apparent helplessness. PCs may search for a way to draw attention away from some of these doors to let others sneak past.

✧ INFILTRATION: Those who sneak past will find the jailing areas similarly guarded, and eventually, stealth and quiet infiltration is no longer an option. Rey and the other Morningstar agents are being held in well-secured cells, and UNA soldiers must be engaged in order to get past them.

✦ Inside the jailing sites, they find the missing agents in terrible shape. These Morningstar operatives have gone through extreme interrogation, and if they can get persuaded to talk sense--or talk at all--they might impart on their rescuers that the subject of that interrogation was most recently about the blue technology. However, most are catatonic, seemingly unaware of who they are or where they are, and some react negatively and violently toward anyone who displays the blue glow in front of them as the result of a conditioned response.
✧ Agents from the September raids will explain that Rey's arrival worsened the interrogation. Some of these agents may admit to confessing that Morningstar started helping a new group that emerged. It was clear in their interrogation that the UNA was not involved in the June firefight because they only then put together that the Displaced were involved in it. They're only aware because they were tasked with cleaning up after it.

✧ Some of the agents taken during the raids will still be resentful of the Displaced, and this will help convince the UNA that the Displaced are separate from Morningstar.

Once the agents are freed, the Displaced can make their way back to the exit of the outpost, where Poe Dameron waits in an armored truck liberated from the UNA. This flying truck is meant to transfer large numbers of UNA soldiers for load-outs, so despite the Displaced and rescued agents' numbers, it will be sufficiently spacious to fit them all. Though it flies, it's smarter to stay low in the interest of staying off trackers on their way to New Prague, where they can hopefully wait out the heat of pursuit by the UNA.

> NEW PRAGUE
When they arrived in New Prague, El contacts local Morningstar agents to escort them to a safehouse. Notably, El will warn the Displaced that no other parts of Morningstar know about zeir identity as an AI. El is hoping that the Displaced will keep their secret, but is more concerned with helping than with keeping them separate from the New Prague Morningstar chapter.

These Morningstar agents will bring the Displaced to an abandoned chain convenience store at the edge of town, Zesco. The convenience store is located near the edge of the city, and it's meant to be a temporary stop. The upper part of the store is just an empty space, though there is a wall where it's clear that there were once icee machines. All of the Morningstar agents will be held under an abandoned convenience store.

✦ The inside of the safehouse is like most safehouses, but since it's meant to be temporary, there aren't any clothes or food in place to help someone out. There will be Morningstar agents who come in to supply these things throughout the stay, showing up about an hour in to help out.
✧ It will be apparent that this safehouse is not one of the ones that's typically used in New Prague, but instead one of the miscellaneous ones that they've had around. Unlike New Amsterdam, most of the safehouses in New Prague weren't compromised. Of course, there is a high likelihood that this safehouse will be decommissioned after all of this.

✧ Notably, the New Prague agents are all quite impressed that the missing New Amsterdam agents were able to be saved at all—previously, NPC Morningstar cells had believed rescue to be impossible.

✧ Anyone who kept their scrambler mask on during the infiltration of the outpost is allowed to leave the safehouse and explore New Prague. Anyone else … can do that if they want, but it's not a good idea! The safehouse won't be fun, but jail will be worse. Please reach out to the mods if you do this.
✦ Beyond the safehouse, New Prague is a large, beautiful city housing around 30 million people. Unlike many of its brethren, it pays homage to the "Old" Prague in a number of ways: there are impractical cobblestone streets, and the architecture adheres to an older, gothic style throughout the city. In fact, there are ordinances that demand the city continues to look as if it harkens to an older past and time. Above all else, New Prague is very green: there are trees everywhere.

Throughout the city, there is a large, man-made river that cuts through to the underground, causing there to be beautiful falls underneath the main city itself. This river is called the New Vitava River, once again paying homage to the Prague of Old. The New Vitava River is maintained to the degree that there is no littering in it, and there are strict local rules about doing anything lewd in it. (That includes using it as a toilet. Don't do that!) There are bridges all over the city to easily cross from one side to another, and all public transit has been constructed to adhere to the river and also offer its citizens views of it on the regular.
✧ The weather here is just as extreme as it is in New Amsterdam, so anyone who's not been checking the news will find that the world really was screwed over by Cassius.

✧ Food throughout the city is just as eclectic as it is anywhere else. Visually, it looks like they want to remember Prague, but culturally, it's just as varied. This isn't an Eastern European city in anything but aesthetic.

> THE RETURN
The train ride back to New Amsterdam will resemble the ride to and from New Tokyo, but it is a considerably shorter trip. There is no stop for the train at New Amsterdam, so they will need to devise a way to get off the train without dying in the process - this will be difficult, but not impossible. This should not be too much of a surprise, as some of the New Prague Morningstar agents will join them on this train ride, and will explain the situation.

Once they're outside the city, these agents will get them back into the city, as they've done this rodeo before. They can sneak in easily through the opening made by Cassius earlier in the month, which if it has been found, has not yet been addressed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( he doesn't flinch ㅡ and while there are several retorts poised on his tongue, he settles merely for tilting his head, watching her as she picks over the pancake in her hands. )

You're deflecting. ( flat. matter-of-fact. she will not derail this conversation by bringing the first order into it, but he will also not deny that she would have not faired much better if she had remained in their custody. that even if he had wished to spare her that, it would have been difficult. required sacrifices ㅡ and that in the end snoke would have used her against him just as he had used han. )

Tell me what you remember from when they took you.

[ She's suppressing. It's what she does. Rey does not feel ready to confront what the UNA did to her. So she hides it away, the way she does with every other terrible thing she has experienced. She should have known that Ben would not allow it. He never has.

Buying herself time, Rey stuffs the piece of potato pancake into her mouth and chews it over. ]

I was just off work. Heading home. [ Wait. ] No. Not home. To your place. I wanted to check on your plant. I never saw who grabbed me. Just black, and then I woke up in the outpost. I never saw any scientists. Everyone there was UNA. And they started referencing videos I'd made, talking about how the UNA lied. They started asking how I was connected to Morningstar.

( oh, he caught that slip. they’ll be circling back to it at some point, but for now, he’s left to wonder if this means that his apartment is burned. hers almost certainly is. they’ll have watched her. learned her schedule. catching her in transit like that was a bold move, but a practical one; it bought them time.

doubtless, they’d have covered their tracks, but it might not hurt to look. He makes a note to message daisy about this at some point. )

I'm going to have Dameron pack up your things. ( whatever he hadn't grabbed himself when he'd blown into her apartment earlier, demanding to know where she was. her doll, her clothes. her tools. )

And deliver them to the safe house when we're back in New Amsterdam.

I should tell him, first. That I can't go back.

[ It will make a modest difference, she thinks. But it doesn't feel right to let other people do everything for her. She needs to do something for herself, just to feel like she still has control over her own life. As grateful as she is to everyone who came for her, she still struggles to accept outside help. Particularly when it feels within her capacity. ]

He'll take it better from me.

[ This goes without saying. Rey digs her heels in, saying it because she knows Kylo will fight her otherwise. ]

I want you to stay with me.

( for, admittedly, purely selfish reasons. there is every chance that bringing her back to his apartment will place her in as much risk as her returning to her own, but. it would set his mind at ease, certainly. knowing where she was. )

At least until something better can be arranged.

( the alternative is her returning to the safehouse or staying with daenerys or daisy ㅡ the former might be easier to sell her on than the latter. they had not discussed jyn erso since rey had first broached the subject, which had been it's own sort of telling. )

I can stay at the safehouse.

[ He doesn't need to put himself at risk just to keep her safe. The responsibility for her safety doesn't belong to him. Of course he wouldn't see it that way. He'd never see it that way. Rey sighs. ]

It's not just going to be a few days. I'll need to empty my old accounts, have El move the money around. Then I'll need a new job before someone else will rent to me.

[ Such are the ridiculous trappings of society; they make people dependent on the system, and it all falls apart if even one thing slips. Regardless, he surely won't insist upon the offer knowing it could be weeks. ]

I'd rather you didn't.

( it's important, his phrasing. the impulse is to push on, to insist, because that is what he would usually do. so certain in his belief that his way was the right way.

it was also what had gotten them into this mess. fitz and peggy might have encouraged him, but it had been his plan ㅡ and his inability to act when the time had come, to tie up those lose threads ㅡ that had placed them all in danger.

he could insist.

he should insist.

but he won't. ) I want you with me, where I know you'll be safe.

There's no way to know I'll be safe.

[ Not as long as they're in Morningstar. Not as long as the UNA has power. She stuffs the last of the greasy potato pancake into her mouth. This, at least, is simple. Kylo could try to control everything about their environment and still never know with complete satisfaction that she was safe.

That doesn't mean she can't take reasonable steps to assuage him. He isn't asking much, really. Sighing, Rey relents a little. ]

I'll split rent. For the time I'm there. [ And take the couch. It's only fair. It helps her feel like she's not a burden. ]

( it doesn't matter that she's right, and that at best he is deluding himself with the thought that somehow they are better together than they are apart ㅡ before new amsterdam, perhaps, but before new amsterdam they wouldn't have been quite such sitting ducks.

apparently, this is a hill he's ready to die on, if necessary. though she spares them both the awkward declaration to this effect when she concedes, if begrudgingly, to his request. )

Fine.

( given his unexpected absence, it's entirely possible that he'll need that assistance. he has enough put away, at least, that things shouldn't get too difficult for some time yet. long enough to find another job, if necessary. )

And we'll split the bed.

Edited 2019-08-05 06:59 (UTC)

The couch is fine for me.

[ The bed at his place isn't even that big. Several nights, or even weeks, of sleeping on it together will cause them problems. Or at least cause him problems, since he's so old he's probably falling apart already. ]

We'll split the bed.

( though, he clarifies since he can guess where the misunderstanding might be coming from: ) We each get a night. One night on the bed, one night on the couch.

It's only fair.

[ Rey puts the lid back on the dill soup then. ]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. [ Which is to say, she's sleeping on the couch every night. ] We can worry about all this when we make it back to your apartment. [ There's a lot between here and then. And she doesn't have the energy to argue, and she knows it. ]

All right.

( it's a begrudging concession. she's getting ready to dig in her heels over this and while an argument of any kind might be cathartic, it'd also be unwise.

the new prague agents don't need to play witness to kylo ren's love of airing dirty laundry. they'll revisit this conversation at a later date. )

How is it?

( an awkward segue, perhaps, but it's accompanied by him pushing off from the counter and joining her at the table. )

The best thing I've eaten since I landed on Takodana.

[ Starvation has that affect. Rey spies the commonality. Her enjoyment of the food is beside its objective quality. It's a function of her hunger. That doesn't change anything though. Maybe he won't enjoy it as much and maybe he will, but he deserves to hear regardless how much she enjoyed it.

She hands a potato pancake to him and slides over the soup. ]

Thanks for this.

I tried to think about what I'd want in your place.

( which no doubt explains a lot. ) Freeze dried rations can really only do so much to satisfy the itch for something ... ( lifting the lid off the soup and setting it aside on the counter, he begins to break the pancake into pieces. the batter smearing grease over his fingers. ) satisfying.

And it seems like the people here are considerably less enamored of insects as a cheap form of protein.

( or they're simply better at concealing this fact from their patrons. )

[ Rey laughs as she sucks at the grease and crumbs still stuck on her fingers, savoring the flavor. Any other day, she might have taken his insistence on what's satisfying to have some innuendo to it—not because he'd injected it purposefully, but because she wanted to hear it.

Today, she's too tired. ]

Everyone complains about the insects. I don't mind them.

[ Y'all are prissy. But mostly, she latches onto this for the feeling of normalcy it provides. This conversation could be happening in his living room just as easily. ]

Edited 2019-08-08 00:32 (UTC)

That's because you're fearless.

( they'd actually had this conversation before, months earlier, though instead of insects it had been about ciri — a girl so much like rey it had been almost jarring, at least at first. rey had been wary of the compliment, then. looking for a catch.

perhaps she'd be more willing to accept it in the spirit it was given, now. )

Though I could do with more of these pancakes, I think. I wonder if they have somewhere that makes them in New Amsterdam.

( the implication being that they clearly should look into it when they get back, because they will be going back, and life as they've come to know it will eventually settle back into something approaching normalcy. )

There are plenty of things I'm afraid of.

[ She points this out a bit stubbornly, but it's a soft kind of stubbornness. The resilient kind, which says that she accepts that she may seem fearless if only because she fears so few things that others would fear. She's also happy to put that line of conversation to bed. ]

Without the soup, though. There are better soups. [ She makes a face. ] Don't you think?

Something warmer, perhaps.

( the dill soup isn’t even close to the worst thing he’s eaten lately ㅡ that dubious honor belongs to the pickle brine dick pop he’d choked down during the harvest festival ㅡ but the texture isn’t really winning him over as it chills. )

Like tomato.

( something sharp and tart to off-set the greasy flavor of the pancakes. A pleasant contrast. )

Perhaps I’ll make some when we return to New Amsterdam. You can see how you like it.

You'll make it yourself?

[ Her nose crinkles. Just a little. It's hard to picture something so domestic surrounding Ben Solo, even now. ]

It can't be that difficult.

( he says, a man that's never attempted to make soup in his life. but there's something appealing to the thought. the idea of setting a challenge for himself and then meeting it.

and soup is great so it's a win-win situation. )

Finding the vegetables would be the biggest challenge. ( there's at least one fair to decent market in new amsterdam. the people that sold their wares during the harvest festival had to do so somewhere, after all. )

Tomatoes we could grow in the apartment. Hanging, you know? [ She gestures. ] I read about them for my study group.

[ 'We' she says. Like they'll stick around long enough to see tomatoes grow to maturity. Then again, though neither of them has realized it, they could speed that process along a bit.

She yawns unexpectedly, tries to mask it. She doesn't want to be put back to bed. ]

I'd like to hear more, later.

( as expected, the exhaustion has begun to creep up on her. and just as expected is the fact that she's fighting against it.

stubborn till the last. )

But I'm tired. ( it's not even a lie. )

Do you think they'll mind if I use one of their beds?

I have been.

[ Obviously. He must have been the one to put her there, right? ]

I think that's why they brought us here.

[ To overnight it. To rest up and be ready for tomorrow's return. For the best, really. Even if Rey wants to stay awake desperately, she has to recognize that the people who came to get her are also exhausted. It's just hard when she hasn't even really been awake again for that long. Her body just has a lot to make up for.

The food will help. She grabs another piece and stands away from the kitchen table. ]

I'll help you find one. [ Near her bunk, of course. So he's easy to locate. ]

Stay with me.

( a request. one that costs him ㅡ though it's a price he's willing to pay if it means that she'll be there when he wakes up. be there, always.

the two of them fitting onto a cot together is a laughable notion, but then so had been the two of them sharing his bed. )

I'll sleep better knowing you're there.

OPEN PLAYER PLOT: OPERATION LOST BOYS

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