Aberrant: Stargate Universe - Table Talk - General OOC Thread.

[Ryan Hawke]

Ryan is loyal to the SGC, but he does realize the awesome power of the machine. He's very much against the IOA, and as has already been seen will generally back Cam and the other PC's. He does not however see a reason to go off the reservation though.

[Mr Fox]

Cam is torn between loyalty and a dread of how the machine will be used and what will happen to the PCs.

Actions have been taken that have consequences.

1) We took the device without permission. That alone will result in disciplinary action though if they come back with a working machine it would be very very minor. If they don't come back with the machine at all, or with it broken the discipline could be severe. Might possibly be offset by bringing an asgard ship with them.

2) Coming back with a working machine likely would mean it would get used in ways the characters wouldn't approve. Although Cam can program the machine to minimize the negatives.

3) The machine has been used successfully and under control. The character will be forced to either lie or give a fully functioning machine to the IOA. Or not return the machine at all, but doing so after successfully using it will make the IOA very angry possibly resulting in the PCs losing their positions in the SGC.

Finally, we need to have this discussion IC'ly, but I would like everyone OOC to state their feelings so that I the ST know what direction to go.

[Aradia McConnell]

...

*goes to get caught up so that she can make an informed response*

[Yseult Sierra]

OOC, I don't care that much, but I do think splitting the PCs into two camps will vastly change the tone of the game.

IC, Yseult just got back with her family and would never consider leaving them. Fleeing to another planet to use as a base would take some major convincing. About the Device, Yseult would much rather destroy the thing - as much good as it could possibly do, she believes that it would cause even more trouble. One of the major ones being that humanity isn't prepared to deal with all the consequences it would have yet. The Asgard ship will be more than enough.

[Aradia McConnell]

Okay, all caught up, so I can answer now.

This is going to be complex for Aradia. She's devoutly loyal to Olivia and Wakiki on a personal level. But at the same time she's not really loyal to the SGC because of the limitations, and resents being forced to work for them and the limitations on her freedom (whether real, exaggerated, or imagined). In essence, she feels a bit like a POW of her own government. She sure the hell doesn't trust most of them, most especially not the IOA. Also, there's going to be whatever the fallout from the Girl's Night Out fic to deal with, and that may possibly affect what happens concerning Aradia in this particular situation.

She would, like Yseult, be in favor of destroying the machine, though if that results in her getting tossed in a brig somewhere or something then she probably wouldn't resist escape. But she doesn't trust it as far as she can throw it. So.. I suppose what I'm saying is that I'm not quite sure how to answer this. It might have to work it's way out in actual gameplay for me to figure it out. Sorry for the vagueness of the answer.

[Charlie Cole]

Guys, I hope you haven't forgot this: Area 51.

Lest I'm mistaken about the timing, Nice Genes precedes Area 51. Therefore, Declan and Kyria's going AWOL would contradict their presence in Area 51.

Just something I thought to mention. I could be wrong about the timing but...

[Rorx]

Giving the IOA access to a fully functional Device is a no-go. The IOA is known to be factionalised by countries trying to get what they can out of it, it's past record (Hatchins and the missing specialists) is atrocious and it's known to be infiltrated/influenced by the Gou'ald controlled Trust.

Although Gwyn has no such doubts about the SGC command, the fact that it is legally controlled by the IOA is a problem. Most of the time that isn't a problem, but where the Specialists and the Device is concerned it has obviously been becoming more and more of a problem.

At this point Gwyn would be in favour of destroying the machine, perhaps with the story that they left it with the Asgard to solve their problem. Howevere, he would want to have enough informaiton from it first in order to be able to work on more specialised devices in the future. The aim of these would be to be programmed or hardwared limited to curing a specific condition such as MS, cystic fibrosis, spina bifada, cancer? etc.

Given the charisma factor of several of the Specialists it should be possible to at least temporarily get around the IOA about the device by bringing in the Asgard ship. However, it is allmost certainly going to be temporary before they make some other move against the Specialists. Regardless of the decision Gwyn will be putting his own backdoors into the Asgard ship so they can get back in later if they need to.

[The Red Man]

Destroy the machine. Don't bother to lie about it. Dec's reasons are thus:

It's served it's purpose, it's gained Earth valuable allies in the Asgard and access to yet more tech that the packrats of the IOA can hoard for themselves and not share with the population of Earth at large. They should be ecstatic.

Why did we destroy the machine? Simple - you don't let children play with a loaded gun. Under the control of the IOA, it's a matter of When, not If, they'll do something god-damned stupid with it. Like trying to create more Specialists or rewrite the IOA council's DNA to make them unaging.

Dec is pretty much at his tether's end with the hidebound way the Earth authorities treat and employ the Specialists, and doesn't particularly care what punishment they try to enact. If they fire us, great. If they try to lock us up or kill us? Yeah, not happening.

To make it clear, he's not quite to the point of armed insurrection yet. But he genuinely believes that destroying the Device will be objectively better for Earth in the long run.

[Mr Fox]

Ok, let's move this conversation IC. We keep throwing out reasons the characters would or wouldn't do stuff which they should be saying themselves to each other.

[Aradia McConnell]

Just a question - is this conversation happening in "Nice Genes"? I didn't involve Aradia in that fic primarily because I was very busy at the time, and to be fair no one asked her about it specifically and I thought it was going to be a tech issue exclusively, wouldn't wouldn't have been suited for Aradia to go along with anyway. It's not big deal if she's not there, she'll just be relieved to hear that the thing has been destroyed - I was just curious if it was happening there or somewhere else.

[z028 Riley]

Fox - What just happened in Nice Genes?

Kyria wouldn't have stood there silently and not spoken to the Asgard when given the chance. I didn't post in the thread because we were discussing things OOCly here, but I feel rather strait-jacketed with my character at this point because there would have been a great deal she would have been doing between the end of your post yesterday and meeting on the ship hours later. Is this just not being allowed as a possibility?

If you're going to railroad some of the story right now (not necessarily a bad option given the rut that the game seems to have fallen into over the past few months) that's fine, but a heads-up would be nice so that we as players don't have an expectation of free movement in the thread when that's not going to be an option. I don't mean this rudely, I just would like to know what's up so I don't have a major discontentment between what I expect to be able to do in the game and what's going on right now with you as the ST to get the game to where you want it to be.

Reading this over I can see how it can come across as bitchy. I'm not trying to be, I'm just too homework fragged to be able to type it out more smoothly.

[z028 Riley]

Okay, so I've been talking with Aradia and Livy and we have an idea:

Let's get the Device out of the game at least mostly permanently, and get everyone back to Earth. Fox- Would you be willing to say that when the specialists get back they find that there's been a huge purge of the IOA and major change in policy for the specialists?

The idea would be that the specialists are offered contracts and the actual actual -choice- of working for the SGC. This would take the IOA out as the major bad guys/antagonists of the game, give a much more "good guy" feel to the SGC/Earth. It would resolve a great deal of conflict that is making the game less entertaining at the moment and let us go back to doing missions as team. I think more of a team focus in game for a while would help revitalize the game and get characters building up strong(er) relationships amongst them.

Would this be interesting/helpful to everyone? Do people like the idea of getting back to doing SG-1 like missions?

[Rorx]

Sounds fine with me, although I don't know how you're going to fly the purge of the IOA when they wouldn't do it after we had evidence that they were infiltrated/influenced by the Gou'ald controlled Trust?

Mission stuff would be nice to get back to in some ways.

[z028 Riley]

Don't they have Higgenbottom at that point?

[Yseult Sierra]

Kyria's idea appeals very much to me. Only other thing that I'd think would be a good idea would be maybe slowly revealing the StarGate to the rest of the world, and starting to share some of the tech. Especially new, safer, more efficient power supplies, which I hope we can manage to reverse engineer from the Asgard ship. Once we have power (for everyone), other changes can be handled.

[Rorx]

Yeah, we caught him, and got that evidence. Also got the ship that some of the Gou'ald in the Trust came after him in. So we had him, and proof of the Gou'ald being involved in the Trust, and the Trust having their hands on a number of IOA officials. However, being international SGC/President couldn't do anything to guarantee the purge of the non-US IOA officials and a number of them were still in place last we heard.

[Rorx]

Gwyn would be happy to look at improving the output of the Naquadrah generators they currently have. And could also look at hardware failsafes so that they couldn't be used as bombs for those more dubious countries around the world.

(Int 5, M-Int 2, Analyze Weakness, Engineering Prodigy, Science and Engineering of 4+ each)

[The Red Man]

Okay, so we should present this lot as demands to the SGC and the IOA for our continued cooperation. *grins evilly*

As for the purge of the IOA, why not have the Specialists involved? With the Washington mission's success including all the info Higgenbottom had *and* a captive goa'uld who can be interrogated both verbally and telepathically, we have all the leads we need to start shutting down the Trust, as well as some Specialists who would be ideal for that sort of black ops war.

[Guest Anonymous]

I was in a big hurry this morning. I'll edit and move that conversation to a new thread. Should have put it in one in the first place. Just don't want all the good discussion happening ooc and not happening ic.

[Mr Fox]

Alright, moved the post for IC discussion of what the characters plan to do next to a new thread: "Where to?"

Now you may respond to the Asgard as you like.

[z028 Riley]

Okay....thank you for opening that back up, but we still need to know your stance on what's been discussed OOCly and if Where To is being left as is, then the continuity issue with Nice Genes still remains. Depending on what is decided OOCly, there might be several people missing from the conversation in Where To or it might be that things have happened between the end of Nice Genes and when that meeting would have taken place that would mean that that conversation -wouldn't- be happening.

So, as ST, what do you think of the ideas for game direction that's been discussed? What direction do -you- want the game moving in?

[Mr Fox]

My plot works either direction so as ST it doesn't matter to me which way you guys go with it. You could even do both. In fact I would very much enjoy having a group roaming around the galaxy getting into trouble.

When the game originally started, I had planned for some characters not wanting to stay part of the SGC and go out into the galaxy more freestyle. My only concern with that was and still is that it might lessen the interaction between the PCs. If you guys can figure out a plan to allow for separating from the SGC while still maintaining ties that would really be best from a game perspective. That way you can go out into the galaxy and do your own thing and still have the back home interaction. Double win!

Also, about the idea of the SGC going public on the Stargate, that is in the works, and is something I had planned for. Livy's career as a book writer is part of that. It's something Dawn and I discussed a while back. It's coming closer.

The IOA shakeup will have effects. As someone mentioned above, they have been somewhat cleaned up at least from an American perspective. Here's an option. When we get back have Kyria offer to scan the foreign delegates for ties to the Trust. The President might just take her up on it since it would allow him to exert some influence. If they refuse then he claims they are suspect and declares that the US will have Veto power over any decision the IOA makes regarding the program. A very unpopular thing for him to do, but something he could probably get away with given the new Asgard technology that will suddenly be in his hands, especially if the Nova's back him.

More mission time... if a group of the characters goes out to the stars then that will mean a reorg of the people left behind. It would cause more cohesiveness among the group back on Earth as characters form new bonds. However, that said, I've got lots of Mission plot mapped out, but so far, the actual missions seem to be the least popular part of the game. With the exception of SG21 the mission threads seem to tend toward stalling out unless I constantly push players to post. Not the most fun thing for me. Granted, some missions are less exciting than others, but missions come in great variety in terms of challenges faced. How do people (the ones that want to remain with the SGC) feel about them?

Here's another option, one that could possibly bridge the gap. Cam has backing with both the SGC and IOA (because they don't realize that he doesn't feel obligated to them). He could be the bridge between the two groups. Using the Beta site as an official base of operations the Pirate group could call that home with the tacit agreement of the IOA. It would be free of their influence and only those approved of by the Novas would be allowed there. But in return the Pirates would agree to provide Earth with any technology they acquire and would agree to come to Earth's defense in the event it was attacked. That allows for continuing diplomatic ties.

In return the Novas are allowed to come back to Earth any time they wish so long as they abide by Earth laws while at home and agree to maintain secrecy of the program until such time as it is revealed to the public. That way there can still be fun threads between the characters in the two groups set on Earth and at the beta site.

Hmm... did that address everything?

Oh, I'll remove that Where to thread for now and see what develops.

[Ryan Hawke]

The Space Pirate idea works, and I like the idea of the President standing up for the Specialists effectively. I like the missions, but I agree they tend to stall.

I guess what this really comes down to is this. Who's gonna stay on earth, and who's gonna roam the stars?

[The Red Man]

"YAAARRRRR!"

Need you even ask? Back home, Dec/Red is a dog on a chain. Out there as a privateer, he'll be in his element.

[Rorx]

Hmm, I'm a bit tirn with Gwyn. I'd love for him to be out there making use of his powers and his knowledge/langauges in the field. On the other hand there are also things I think he could be researching that would be of help both to the frontline guys and to the people of Earth in general.

Of the two I think his past experiences and training etc would lead him more to the former than the later. I guess there is nothing stopping him from setting up a couple of labs at the Beta site and/or whatever ship(s) we grab so that he can do both

[z028 Riley]

Kyria will go with Declan, for obvious reasons. If this is the direction the game is headed in, then I think we'll need to hash out how it's going to come about mostly OOC and then just put it into place with posts ICly. Kyria's pretty skittish about going back to Earth at this point, and while she loves the idea of being able to safely transition peopel into novas she doesn't at all want to see the AD in the hands of the IOA (or really anyone other than the novas she trusts at this point, learning and experiencing the Earth of this timeline has been rather traumatic for her sense of faith in humanity).

[The Red Man]

The obvious reasons Kyria speaks of include Dec's belgian waffle recipe.

That's all I wanted to add.

[Rorx]

Is that the one with 70% Cocoa Chocolate sauce and double cream?

[z028 Riley]

Mmm....waffles.

[Yseult Sierra]

Fox - that sounds like a reasonable compromise. Yse will be staying with the SGC/Earth, since she just got back with her family and she can't see asking them to move off planet - not a particularly good environment for children to grow up in. Besides, in theory, she should have access to more extensive facilities at the SGC then anywhere else. So far I'm assuming the Asgard ship is staying with Earth, since it represents too much technology to adapt and learn to risk going to play Space Pirate.

As for the Ascension Device, Yse would prefer it being destroyed than in anyone's hands. It's just too powerful to leave in the IOA's hands or the hands of a select few. Especially if it gets captured by the Goa'uld.

Not sure about offering to have Kyria scan the others though. Besides looking for 'Trustees' they would have no reasonable guarantee that anything else that Kyria found out - these are still sovereign nations with national secrets of their own - would be used purely for the advantage of the US. I'm there are completely upstanding politicians that would be willing to undergo the scan, but I'm equally sure there will be others that believe it is their duty to refuse.

Yseult would love to make the SGC public, and would want to spread the technology they have gathered as widely as possible for everyone's benefit. As long as it is mostly safe, of course.

[The Red Man]

As far as Dec is concerned, if the Earth governments want his cooperation in any way, shape or form, the scan is non-negotiable. Kyria has no interest in promoting the U.S. over any other Terran power-base, and with a bunch of monomaniacal, genocidal and just plain unrelenting extraterrestrial threats out there, to be concerned that Kyria might learn about their secret chemical weapons program or the Australian PM's predilection for Thai ladyboys is just plain old fashioned REMF stupidity.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Livy stays on Earth. I am just not sure that the Beta Site thing is a realistic compromise. It seem more likely that the specialists would establish their own 'planet' and we can visit them as we like. Kind of a friendly ally, but with Declan's waffles.

[Mr Fox]

That's what I had in mind for the Beta site. It would be entirely under the Novas control.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Hmm, let me be more clear. The SGC has pumped resources into the place, so why would they just give up that site to the Specialists? I don't think it's realistic; plus, it means that you can't do a 'find a good home' plot. However, it's your game, and if you say that's what they'll do, then that's what they'll do.

[Mr Fox]

One, they haven't really done that much to the place yet.

Two, they know where the beta site is, and that is worth the sacrifice of a few hundred thousand dollars. Letting the specialists go off to some completely unknown planet means that they lose any potential for mounting any kind of offensive should they choose to in the future. That's why they would do it. By knowing where the place is and keeping a hand in it they maintain some tiny semblance of control no matter how small or illusory.

The reality is that the novas can defend themselves in ways the IOA still don't fully comprehend, so knowing the location of the planet isn't really that big of a deal.

However, you do have an excellent point. Finding a good home would be a fun plot line.

So ultimately it's up to the PCs. I'm just offering options here for ways they could maintain relations with the SGC while going off to do the pirate thing.

[z028 Riley]

Kyria would be up for finding their own homeworld. Taking the Beta site would feel like theft or like sloppy seconds from Earth; neither has appeal to her.

And I think that kind of plotline could be interesting.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

I think it would be fun, too, but Livy wouldn't be interested in it. She's a homeworld-body.

[Aradia McConnell]

I think that would be a super-fun mission, and would love to be involved as a player. From an IC perspective, I think it would put Aradia into a tough position as far as whether she should leave (what she would really want to do, she doesn't like being under the thumb of the IOA/SGU/anyone really (carnies = modern day gypsies, pretty much!). However she'd have to deal with the idea of leaving Livy (not as big of a deal assuming there's still interaction going on) and Wakiki (bigger deal, considering how close they were already and how their relationship has been developing).. of course, if there was some way to pull him into the storyline as far as offering the option of bringing normal humans into the story that could be really fun (hint, hint..) and would probably be really enjoyable to deal with from my perspective (and poor Dawn, if she's willing to do that with me since she's been playing Wakiki, LOL!).

Anyway, that's kind of my take on the whole deal - I would be okay with beta-site but also think the process of finding an area would be a really fun story to run.

[Forge]

Since the post was lost to the site going down, I'll say it again.

I'm retiring Vin from SGU. He's not in any threads aside from LotL and he's been left behind to guard the gate.

As I figure it, when and if they go back to get him, he can be a bloody smear.

[Mr Fox]

Ok folks. Been a week now. I know people are busy, but lets try and get some postage in Nice Genes so we can move the game forward.

We also need some love in LotL. The Priests want to hear your pitch on why they should allow their golden egg to be taken away.

Incidentally, Katalyst is coming back to the site and would like to rejoin the game. I am waiting until we figure out where things are heading IC'ly before giving him the go ahead to start posting again.