OPEN PLAYER PLOT: OPERATION LOST BOYS

[forcevisions]

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.

Comments

[ex_dictator317]

[ It sounds like an excuse. Octavia infers it as one, a weak justification, strictly on self-projection. She had offered Bellamy the same explanation, in her own way; violence had become all she had known, callousness a mask impossible to remove, but it had merely been her defense mechanism against a world that had left her bereft. That had failed to grant her the happy ending she had wanted.

Her answering grunt is noncommital, working it over in her mind. ]

Sounds like a dumb decision from someone who told me we should be working together. [ There's no sugarcoating it. Rubbing salt into an open wound isn't her intent, but neither is softening how she feels about Rey's logic. ] Or does that philosophy only apply when you're not the one who needs help?

[forcevisions]

I wasn't planning to need help.

[ She wasn't planning anything. That's the problem. Octavia is entirely right that it's a dumb decision in the context, but Rey had just finished explaining that she wasn't used to this context. To that end, she tries to shrug Octavia off now, too, rejecting the help in making her way to the supplies that the Morningstar agents in New Prague have laid out for them. ]

[ex_dictator317]

That's enough of an answer.

[ Not directly, but it speaks for itself all the same. Rey is good at offering that philosophy, but not quite taking it herself. If there is a lesson to be learned from her capture, all of Rey's stubborn wriggling — another attempt to push help away — proves to Octavia that Rey has yet to absorb it fully. Prideful, to the very end.

But she won't offer help where it isn't wanted. More the point, holding onto a partially drugged just-escaped-interrogation person doesn't make for a good look. Octavia releases her without hesitation, despite the urge to dig her fingers in and continue on their way, and steps to the side, pointedly out of reach. ]

[forcevisions]

[ Rey falls.

So abruptly, in fact, that it surprises even her. She makes it one step before she realizes she's still weak, still foolish, still dazed from being in the same stiff position for so long. But she doesn't moan about it when she's down. Rather, she starts trying to pick herself up.

No. It's not just that she hadn't planned on needing it. Rey is terrible at asking for it — not just help, but for anything, from anyone. Her own warped self worth, resulting directly from parents who had seen her as worthless, refuses to allow her to see it as deserved, warranted, or even possible. ]

[ex_dictator317]

Not planning on needing it isn't the same as knowing when to accept it.

[ Which is a different breed of reliance, in Octavia's mind, for how similarly unwilling she is to ask for help. Demand it, yes, too used to rallying those around her. But Octavia has never been well-adjusted, criticizing others for exhibiting the same traits that had birthed Blodreina.

On a personal level, she isn't willing to investigate how insulted she feels — undervalued, undermined. Like her contributions have meant nothing, the same way Clarke and Bellamy have overlooked her participation, given Rey's unwillingness to lean on her.

Even after she's risked her ass for a cause she doesn't believe in. It lends itself to the cruelty of allowing Rey to fall to the floor without intervention, purposeful in remaining out of her reach, simply to prove a point. She needs the help, whether she's willing to address it or not. Without it, Octavia believes her likely to end up just like her.

In the end, Octavia justifies it as cruelty designed to be kind for what it teaches. After a few seconds of watching Rey struggles, she swoops in, hefting her up beneath the knees to settle her in her arms. She's stronger than she appears, after all — compact, stocky muscle beneath the shroud of her jacket — and she suspects Rey is too weak to do more than wriggle if she's going to take an issue with it. ]

You needed help. We came. Consider this a lesson.

[forcevisions]

[ The side effect of Octavia picking her up is that their chests bloom blue, and all the repression and terse anger and chuffed disappointment at being undervalued bleed over into Rey, giving context to the way Octavia hefts her. It's not the same as memories, not in the slightest, but Rey still inhales sharply as she's lifted, the intensity flooding her.

In exchange, Octavia receives a powerful dose of Rey's shame and disappointment with herself. Disappointment for not being able to look after herself, but also for not looking around at the people who had only tried to be her friends. ]

I appreciate it. [ She says quietly, stubborn rather than reassuring. Defensive, even. Then after a beat, ] But it's different. You offering it, and me asking for it.

[ex_dictator317]

Right.

[ It isn't clear what she's responding to, but Octavia stubbornly refuses to clarify the reasoning for her flood of disbelief pouring into the shared connection. Notably, she hastens the few final steps to their supplies, and sets Rey down on her feet. Carefully, yes, but there is no denying the hurried nature of getting her from point A to point B.

The less they're privy to one another's emotions, the better. Octavia hasn't established any healthy habits of processing her own; sharing them demands too much of her, and feeling the weight of another's when she can do nothing to unload them — it's a disaster in the making. ]

There's a difference, yeah. The difference is that asking for it means I know when to give it and when you want me to back off.

[ To Octavia, it's solid logic. She is not in the habit of checking up on others, assessing when they need her support. Rey doesn't strike her as the type that would appreciate that hovering and prying, regardless. ]

I can't offer help if I don't even know that you need help. [ Now is not the time to be discussing this, anyway, with Rey in the state that she's in. Octavia realizes that belatedly, making a disgruntled sound. ] Just forget it.

[forcevisions]

Alright.

[ The reluctant conclusion to their conversation comes a few moments too late to sound natural. Rey tries so hard to get out more than that. To explain that she cannot bring herself to burden anyone, lest something drive them away. Her mistakes aren't anyone else's problem. Nor can she explain that it would hurt too much to ask for the help and be denied, and have to confront that she wasn't worth it.

It all cuts too close to the failure of her parents to make her feel worthwhile.

Rey hides from it instead of confronting it, sublimates it instead of giving it voice. She turns away from Octavia, holding onto the shelving unit on which the clothes are stacked. Rey sifts through them, looking for something close enough to her size. They're all dingy and faded, but it doesn't bother her. She just gathers some into her arms.

When she has a set gathered against her chest, she looks at Octavia. As if extending an olive branch, she asks, ] Will you help me back to the cot?

[ex_dictator317]

Sure.

[ For all that she harbors resentment, allowing it to seep into her blood like an infection, Rey's attempts at peace are blatant. Much as Octavia doubts the message has been absorbed — her own paranoia at work, a festering entity — she won't begrudge her that. Not when an effort to placate has been made.

Not when there is little point in dragging it out. Rey has had enough consequences for one day. But first: ]

I thought you wanted to change first.

[ Maybe not everyone is comfortable with stripping down in an occupied area like Octavia would be. It's a reminder, curiosity, more than any judgment; Rey might stink, but Octavia remains unfazed by it. The stench of a dying planet is far worse. ]

[forcevisions]

After I shower.

[ She mumbles it almost shamefully. To that end, she doesn't reach out for Octavia right away. She doesn't want to share that — it seems juvenile on some level that she is concerned about showering not to get the feeling of the facility off, but because she knows that Ben cares about that sort of thing.

It matters to him. And he's going to be back.

Unfortunately, that point comes with an unfortunate admission: ] I don't feel ready to yet.

[ Her legs are unsteady, and she'd spilled on the floor the minute Octavia had made her walk on her own. She clearly needs some more time to rest. So she'll take another break for an hour or so and try again after. ]

[ex_dictator317]

[ As a creature of privacy, she doesn't push. Nudity is meaningless to her, but to consider shirking her dignity to be bathed by unfamiliar hands —

Octavia isn't so certain she wouldn't slice off the offending appendage in question. With a nod, she acquiesces without complaint — and without much warning beyond that, scooping Rey back into the band of her arms. ]

Hold on.

[ The warning is too little too late. Still, she doesn't want to make an absurd grab for any clothing that might scatter from Rey's fingers onto the floor. Once she's certain she has her secure, she moves to retrace their steps back to the cot. ]

[forcevisions]

[ Rey makes a quiet noise — surprise, protest — when Octavia hoists her up. She does, though, keep the bundle against her chest with one arm and loop the other around Octavia's shoulder. It means almost huddling against her. Marginally a laughable sight, given that Octavia is smaller than her by some.

She certainly seldom looks it. Octavia has a presence in a way that Rey doesn't see around herself.

In any case, the empathy bond shares what Rey has too much pride to correct aloud: she had clearly intended for a hand in walking herself, not being picked up. It's too late to argue now, but Rey sets her chin on Octavia's shoulder to avoid looking at her all the same, and she's markedly relieved when they reach the cot again, and Rey can stack the bundle of fresh clothes at the foot of her bed and settle back down onto it.

She sits, rather than lays. She needs to be on her way up. ]

Thanks. [ Hard-earned gratitude. ]

tmw you forget to write a concluding tag

[ex_dictator317]

[ Don't mention it, Octavia nearly says, but hadn't that been the point? She waffles awkwardly at the end of Rey's cot instead, looking as indecisive as she feels as she shoves her hands into the pockets of her jeans. A bad attempt to appear casual, all things considered.

As it turns out, wanting acknowledgment is easier than accepting it when it's offered. ]

Like I said, he'll be back. [ Eventually, she settles on that. It should bring some comfort, if nothing else, and her job here is done. Before she steps away, she adds, ] Let me know if you need anything.

[ She can't exactly trust that Rey will, but the offer is there and on the table. ]