meadowlarklogs | EVENT | the outer worlds foundation charity weekend

Entry tags:

EVENT | the outer worlds foundation charity weekend

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: New Amsterdam
WHEN: March 13-14
WHAT: A charity event
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Please see the OOC Planning Post for further details!

> THE FOUNDATION GALA & SILENT AUCTION

In early February, invitations begin to be dispersed to power players in various industries across New Amsterdam and other global megacities. From famous artistes (one of whom sadly never confirms his appearance) to CoolTalk influencers, banking moguls and scientific pioneers, anyone who is anyone receives a personalized, couriered invitation to a very exclusive event — a silent auction, co-hosted by Joseph Lynch and the New Amsterdam Events Committee, with all proceeds benefiting the newly minted Outer Worlds Foundation. Established after the first gubernatorial debate by Lynch and his campaign, the Trust aims to honor those whose sacrifices have paved the way for humanity's exploration of space by funding environmentally-savvy research initiatives and providing support to organizations devoted to providing a better quality of life for all those who work and live on the colonies.

Of course, even charities are rarely all that they seem. Political journalists and bloggers have long speculated that Lynch plans to capitalize on the social unrest stemming from the recent Mars colony uprisings, and with frontrunner Katelin Jovavich's recent debate missteps on this topic, the rumor mill has been hard at work pointing out just how timely a charitable trust like this one must be. Positioning himself as a champion of the underappreciated (read: exploited) citizens sent out to toil for the advancement of the elite is a savvy political move, and one that proves difficult to dismiss in the polls.

With such a politically-charged opportunity and the promise of plenty of media coverage, the event itself becomes a must-do on the social agenda of many of New Amsterdam's most recognizable names. Elin Zepatka and her philanthropic organizations are quick to lend their credo to the event, along with a selection of art pieces from her personal collection. (Rumor has it they're being donated to avoid having to catalogue their worth in her upcoming divorce.) Also on the guest list? Beyond host and gubernatorial candidate Joseph Lynch, his opposition Simone Durcell will be making an appearance. (Jovavich, notably, is not.) Employees from Ibis and Caudata Tech will also be on hand, the latter especially as a subsidiary under Durcell's management, despite corporate boards still throwing in with the front-runner. Most interestingly, however, is the fleeting promise of spotting reclusive Matek Kattan. The Displaced may remember this name from the recent Lunar New Year celebrations, when Pulsar subsidiary Tempo's newest VP of Marketing pitched in to run community meal programs. Clearly, charity outreach is just another ball this mystery man is capable of juggling.

The auction itself remains as exclusive as the invitations. With the large number of VIP attendees and the stressful year New Amsterdam has had, security remains a high priority throughout. Those without an invitation will find it difficult, if not impossible, to "sneak" their way in. However, with the influx of notoriously particular VIP attendees, the expectations also remain high. To meet them, companies involved in the auction begin to take on temporary workers, offering short-term job opportunities in everything from catering to janitorial work to even checking coats and bussing empty glasses. For those that are willing to undergo background checks and sign non-disclosure contracts, this is a lucrative opportunity to make high hourly rates — and potentially get their foot in the door for long-term employment if they impress the right person!

Of course, it wouldn't be a New Amsterdam event if the Displaced weren't given a particularly special way to participate. As a last-minute addition to the program, Caroline has worked with the New Amsterdam Events Committee to allow urban explorers and treasure hunters to submit rare, previously unseen artifacts from various areas of the globe up for auction. Members of the Displaced who have brought back items and artifacts from their voluntary (or involuntary) treks around the world may want to take this opportunity to make a few credits — or make a name for themselves as charitable members of the community, which may just earn them attention considered far more valuable than a few credits to their name. To sweeten the deal, each member of the Displaced that opts to present an item for sale at the auction will be provided an invitation for themselves and a plus-one of their choice.

> THE WHITE DAY AUCTION

As media coverage begins to speculate on the who's who on the guest list (and what they might donate for the cause), another event is organized to follow shortly after. Not satisfied with extending the olive branch of charitable goodwill to the upper echelons, Caroline and the NAEC begin to draft up an opportunity for all those affected by the recent crises in New Amsterdam and abroad to give back to their community, taking advantage of the upcoming White Day holiday to promote a special, seasonally-appropriate opportunity for giving (and getting) back.

The White Day Auction, as it's formally billed, isn't a new concept. Matchmaking parties and speed dating events have long been part of the New Amsterdam social scene, and while they typically are held in the weeks prior to Valentine's Day, the upcoming pressure to "give triple" (still referred to as sanbai in New Tokyo) means finding a suitable gift is still high on the to-do list for many of the city's population. For those that don't have a significant other... advertising alone would make it clear that securing a potential plus one for any auction winnings should be top priority.

To entice attendance, the event just so happens to be in a rather exclusive location — a mansion in the more upscale area of town, typically reserved for events like the recent masquerade ball to kick off Carnivale season. It's the perfect backdrop for CoolTalk selfies, making the first move on a certain someone, or impressing your date with your nouveau riche ensemble.

To ensure all are welcome and able to attend, admission is reasonably priced, and while attendees are encouraged to dress to suit the theme, there are no masks or other requirements to attend the event.

◉ In the east wing of the mansion, those with money to burn can explore the well-advertised Sanbai Selection. Here, potential purchasers can peruse a variety of couples' packages, all donated by local businesses and the occasional affluent individual. There are varying options here, with everything from the classic "dinner and a VR movie" arrangement to a full day's VIP experience at Riverstone's Dream River theme park, to even the more scandalous "Red Room Experience", offered by one of the Red Light District's most well-known brothels. Whether they offer a hard-to-beat discount — like two-for-one couples' massages or a prix-fixe menu at a recent Restaurant Week winning venue — or a rare experience, each of these opportunities are exclusive to White Day attendees. Many of the more popular options will be available for multiple purchasers to collect at lower prices, while some of the most exclusive and sought-after are sure to go quickly.

◉ For those who may not have a date, a bachelor's auction will be hosted later in the evening. Sponsored by one of New Amsterdam's newest craft breweries, the New Amsterdam Bachelor(ette) Auction offers a chance for those who may not have the funds to donate to offer up something else for charity. For those ready to bid, winning a date with one of these potential bachelors (or bachelorettes!) up for auction will grant access to a unique date experience, each tailored to the man or woman on offer's skills and interests. Dancing lessons, self-defense classes, art history lessons — there's a wide variety of options on the table! The Displaced are highly encouraged to sign up as potential bachelor(ette)s, or to bid on each other.

◉ In addition to the various auction opportunities, the evening offers a variety of opportunities for charitable giving! Attendees can visit the multiple full bars staffed by local culinary school students, purchase some of the winning food items from New Amsterdam Restaurant Week participants at reasonable prices, and pick up last minute gift ideas from pop-up shops — with all proceeds donated to the Foundation! Banners and signage all thank attendees for giving, and every so often, video messages from Joseph Lynch on VR screens profess his deep gratitude for the city's endless generosity, with a reminder that 'together, anything is possible.'

> OOC NOTES

Welcome to the party! Just a few reminders:

▸ Players are welcome to have their characters sign up for any kind of short-term job opportunity. No special arrangements are required! If your character decides midway through the night to abandon their duties and try to mingle... well, they'll just have to hope their boss doesn't spot them first!

▸ There will be opportunities for NPC interactions during the silent auction, hosted by the mod team. Keep an eye out!

▸ Feel free to go wild with couples' package options. While most of the companies participating would be from within New Amsterdam, who knows what kind of global opportunities lay out there. If you want to utilize this offer to make connections with a new destination, check in with Plot Engagement!

▸ For Displaced opting to sign up as a Bachelor or Bachelorette, please remember that no intimacy is required. Characters can, of course, voluntarily provide things like massages or dancing lessons, but no characters should feel obligated to be anything more than professionally friendly with their bidder.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

a. night two ( open to all )

[Needless to say, Clarke grew up in a socialist society. It was socialist by necessity: privilege was given out via political power and where someone lived, rather than because they had more stuff than someone else. People who had that privilege believed they could do just about anything. A great deal of Clarke's pushiness comes from that.

It's also needless to say that she wonders about truly "philanthropic acts" when people are forced to squat, forced to look for charitable goods, when there should be enough in this world to offer people jobs and a place to live. It bothers her. And, in many ways, she doesn't feel like she should be the one to break or challenge this system. It's not her fight. She's learned where she stands in all of this. But it does bother her.

Clarke doesn't come the first night. Frankly, even if she had something to sell or something to purchase, an auction isn't something that interests her.

No, the second night is when she arrives, Bellamy in tow. Clarke is wearing a long black dress that she's rented out from a boutique, along with simple gold jewelry and a small purse to go with it. She's comfortable enough, but here to be as supportive as she can.

Things she'll be doing:

a. betting on some of the Displaced up for auction. Clarke won't be angling to win, of course.

b. Mingling! Clarke will stop in and say hello to anyone she knows, though she'll always be casting a wary glance in Bellamy's direction.

c. Trying to promote Red Wings even a tiny bit! It's a small business, and she can pose as a young and ambitious entrepreneur. The problem is that Clarke is very bad at capitalism. Once someone starts talking profit margins and how much they'll grow, her forehead will wrinkle in uncertainty. Save her from her own demise?

Otherwise, Clarke will be around! As much as Clarke is opinionated, her issues with this world's economic structure won't come out here. It's not really her place.]

b. social structures ( closed to Bellamy )

[Clarke doesn't think to bring Bellamy because she thinks it'll open his eyes about this world. No, she thinks to bring Bellamy to give him a crash course in understanding how utterly different it is. Working with money at all is strange. Working with money where people can "donate" and it still doesn't solve any of the societal ills? It's a definite shock to the system. Plus, it's good to make him get out.

She rents Bellamy's suit from the same boutique where she gets her dress. It's a simple suit, but with a pocket square. When dressed in it, he almost looks like he belongs as a part of this … society. His shorter hair (and lack of facial scruff) means that he looks younger to her. It stands out. Needless to say, they had to watch a lot of videos on how to tie a tie in the days prior to the event.

Although they walk in together with her hand in the crook of Bellamy's arm, there's little that's romantic between the two of them. She leans in close and adds,] See that man over there? He's running for governor. He's the only one promising charity to his people in this city. [Of course, she's referring to Joseph Lynch. He's practically unreachable, but it's another crash course on how this world works.]

[Bellamy hates the suit.

It's well made, sure. It's certainly the nicest thing he's ever worn, but he can't move freely in it, and the tie feels like it's choking him. He's doing his best to ignore it and fight the urge to loosen the knot. Somehow, Clarke pulls off her gown much more naturally.

Maybe part of it is that Bellamy hates... all of this. There was never this stark of a class divide on the Ark, but there were still subtle differences between those who had higher social standing and those who didn't. Everyone had access to the same resources, sure, but he and his mother were looked at differently than people like Wells and Jaha.

This is that cranked up to eleven, and try as he might, he can't stop thinking about Octavia. Maybe it's because, back on the Ark, he'd screwed everything up for the chance to let her experience a party, and she would have died for one like this before everything went wrong. Maybe it's because now that he knows she was here, every fiber of him is itching to find her.

But Clarke is right, and he needs to understand how this place works. As much as this sort of thing has never been his strong suit, he's still trying to live by Clarke's pragmatic lead, like he'd promised himself he would. Her presence is grounding as always. It's enough for him to focus, eyeing Lynch across the room.]

What's his definition of "charity"?

More than what most people offer.

[Clarke's explanations of their life on the Ark and their lives afterward have always felt like they've fallen short. Bellamy wasn't here long enough before for Clarke to truly know this world and find the problems with it, and Octavia was too much of a mess to really compare notes. And Murphy was content to sit idle and let it all pass him by for as long as possible. None of it led to an understanding.

That disparity doesn't bother her. Doesn't choke her. But there is some relief in knowing she can start off at the beginning with it.]

But it's not good enough. It goes into funds and foundations. It's all based in currency rather than action. Sometimes you see things get better for a short period of time, but it passes.

[Clarke knows that it's not just the rich and everyone else. She falls in the middle thanks to what she's managed to build here.

But still. There are enough among the "everyone else."]

I've been here long enough that it should begin to make sense, but it doesn't.

[It's not really shocking. They've both learned that people have a hell of a way of convincing themselves that what they're doing is the moral thing, no matter how much damage it does. Still, something about it digs into Bellamy in a way he can't shake. All these resources, all this wealth on a scale he could have never imagined, and these people are still coming up with excuses to hoard it.

He's never been good at hiding his emotions, and so it's obvious how he feels about that answer in the way his eyes narrow and his jaw sets.]

Funds and foundations for what? How many people have they actually helped?

I don't know. [That's a double-edged answer of sorts. On the one hand: she doesn't know because she doesn't know. But also: if she had a number, Clarke knows that she wouldn't be able to quantify it in any way.]

There are billions of people in this world. I don't know where helping would begin to start to count.

[Bellamy scoffs. He tenses only slightly, but with Clarke so close, it's easy enough for her to feel.]

It doesn't matter. If they wanted to help, they wouldn't be wasting their resources on this.

[He nods to the room, indicating how ridiculously excessive he thinks this whole thing is.]

Oh, trust me. They have plenty of resources to waste. That's part of the problem. [It's not even twisted and messed up like Mount Weather, with them having plenty of food but being unable to risk living in captivity for any longer. There people would be endangered by the risk of the outside world.

There's nothing like it.]

It's a way of dressing up what they should be doing already. What they can do already. It took me a while to understand it, but now that I do ...

[It's a Problem, one that Clarke would love to be able to solve.

Easier said than done.]

[Now that she does, it's driving her nuts. Bellamy knows how Clarke is. The problem is, it's getting under his skin, too. It's not the sort of thing he can just shake off. But what can they possibly do, when they're outsiders and there are a dozen systems larger than anything they've ever dealt with propping this up?]

How long have you been looking into this?

That's the thing, [she says, looking up toward him.] Once I settled in, I didn't have to look. And even some of the people among us, they don't get why it's strange. Why this world has set itself up to fail. The problem is, I don't think I'm any better for being the person to get them on the right path. [She smiles, a bit rueful.] No, I'll say that more bluntly: I'm not. But it's important to know.

[It's an intrinsic part of this world's systems, and better for Bellamy to parse it out now than to be caught up in the complications for months like she'd been.]

[It's a strange thing he's noticed, too. Almost everyone he's run into among their group acts like so much of this—buying things, hoarding resources—is expected. It's been as much of a culture shock as the sheer number of people running around.]

If anyone can get them to listen, it's you.

[Such faith, Bellamy.]

It sounds like you're ready to be here for the long haul.

I'm not sure I'm the one who should. [It's a lesson she learned before Praimfaya. Clarke can try to change the problems in a world, can try to make them her own, but who is she to tell these people how to live? But helping them get to where they need to be—that's something she can do.]

It's not that I accept it. But—Octavia only fought for us because I tried to usurp control. I can't do that here. [For more than one reason. She would never be able to get the power to manage it.]

And ... I plan on making inroads so that we can stay here. So our people can come here, and accept the society that comes with it. There's an entire continent that I believe we could survive on, at least if we had a chance.

[The second Clarke mentions Octavia's name, Bellamy tenses just slightly. It's driving him nuts that she was here and now she's gone, and he has no way of knowing if she's back home or being held somewhere. Or worse.

He tries to focus on the conversation, but for a second it's clear he's distracted.]

What inroads are you thinking?

Beyond these messed up things? This world is struggling. Dying. [Clarke doesn't have any intention of saying the source of that here. Too many people might quirk an eyebrow even at Cassius' name.]

I think we can help it. If we help it, and show we're doing it because we care about this world—maybe we can stay. [It's grounded in hope, but it has that lovely conniving flair that Clarke always has to her plans.]

The problem is how to—manage that. I don't think we've worked it out yet.

[Conniving, sure, but also oddly practical in that Clarke way. A dying world is better than a dead one.]

It sounds like you think we need to prove to someone that we deserve to be here.

Don't we? [Bellamy doesn't have the experience with Sanctum. It turned out that they were no better. But Clarke knows how they messed with the boundaries when they first touched the ground, landing in territory that belonged to various clans.

They have to be smart.]

We have to respect the foundations of this world. And we can't ... we can't run the risk of making it worse.

[Said knowledgeably. She knows she could do just that.]

[Ah. That.]

They dragged us here.

[It comes out sounding bitter, but he can't help but feel like that lifts some of the responsibility from them, even if they don't have the greatest track record.]

We don't know that. [The typical Clarke and Bellamy disagreement. She doesn't even focus on how easy it is to fall into that step. But it is, regardless of time or anything else. It just is.]

Whoever sets us up has a lot of money, but anything outside of that—it's hard to say. It's hard to see purpose in it.

It can't be a mistake.

[Yeah, this is definitely one of those disagreements. He's not getting heated, but his tone has that certainty to it.]

We get dumped here and someone herds us up, drugs us and installs these implants for no reason?

And then what? [She has to ask. When it came to picking up Bellamy, they were even gifted the tickets so they'd know where to go. What does that say?]

You know as well as I do that people don't tend to let their prisoners go, not when they have a use for them.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT | the outer worlds foundation charity weekend

clarke griffin ( night two )

b!

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