Aberrant: 200X - [The Crush] Who, Why, and WTF?

[GDP_ST]

There's been a lot of discussion recently in chat about the Crush. Who did it? Why did they do it? What did they stand to gain?

I have some ideas. So I'm going to propose them here, and if people like the plan we can run with it for the story arc of the investigation. Thankfully, this should involve everyone from Utopians, to indy's to Terats, all for different reasons.

Here's the story:

Pedro Santiago is a precog. A brilliant precog, a powerful precog. His mind is capable of viewing and processing millions of futures, a gift that is wasted mainly because the poor fellow is frozen with indecision, suffering from Cassandra Complex lest he inadvertently make the wrong future happen. So he records his millions of prognostications, stores them safely and securely away so that he can try to build an overall picture of what will come, what may come, and how to decide which path to take. He's careful and patient to the point of paralysis.

Not everyone else is.

Marcus Delorimier is an opportunist. A manipulator, a Judas (we all know it OOC), and a sycophant to Mal who derives all of his personal greatness from his 'god'. But a lot of the more serious, weighty members of the Pantheon are muttering now. Where was Delorimier during the fight at Bahrain last year? Why did he claim Caroline Fong was murdered, when Mal rescued her Chrysalis from the Utopia facility? Of course, he claims now that he must have been wrong, that everything happened so fast... But you can't fool all of the people all of the time. He's getting desperate.

So he sets one of his Cultists to steal copies of Santiago's records. Maybe Pedro knows, but he doesn't want to interfere in case the wrong result comes about. Maybe this is supposed to happen - the Mathematician cannot tell. So he steps aside and feigns ignorance. The Apostle pores over the thousands of predictions, trying to find some future that he believes will catapult him to new prominence.

He finds one future, containing a nova that was never a baseline. ( ) A nova who could bring great growth to the Teragen... If the future events fall into alignment. The nova will be 'born' in a disaster that may or may not come to pass - only now it will, because Delorimier considers it, and the more he considers it, the more attractive the symbology is to him. A nova born from the destruction of baseline society. A nova who never was human, has no direct experience of their frailty to humble and grant perspective. His own terrible angel, shining and perfect.

It takes work. He moves slowly, never letting any one of his followers see the whole puzzle. Minion, that poor fractured genius, can build the gravity bomb. Others supply materials. With all the attentiveness of an augur consulting the heavens, Marcel sets the detonation chain of events in motion. Somewhere in Victoria, an unwitting baseline is about to be obliterated as though they never existed, and in their place will rise a nova.

And the nova is born. He's a blank slate, tabula rasa. But he develops fast - too fast for the Utopians' and the Apostle's liking. A little prod here and there, and the Utopia staff at the Vancouver Facility recommend that 'Sunshine' be placed in a baseline school for integration purposes. Delorimier smiles, though. He knows that the child will only end up feeling more isolated, his otherness only able to be accepted by the One Race.

Of course, as Pedro can tell you no future is perfect. Maybe Sunshine will become a terrible Terat at Marcel's side. Maybe he won't. The Apostle believes he will, and that was enough for him to kill 200,000 people in order to birth Sunshine.

I'm proposing this story idea for several reasons:

1) Terats can get involved. Perhaps the whispers are out on the grapevine - Delorimier isn't as smart as he thinks he is, and Pedro could easily drop a few words in the right ear to see that another faction besides the Cult of Mal approaches Sunshine. Enemies of the Cult within the Teragen, or just enemies of Delorimier, would seek to use his crime for their advantage. Other Terats with a longer view would try to cover the Apostle's tracks for him, after all the last thing Orzaiz wants is "The Teragen bombed Victoria" all over the news.

2) Utopians, independants and everyone else all could have reasons to get involved chasing the trail of stolen supplies and tracking down Minion's last haunts.

3) I'm putting Sunshine forward as the cause of all this mayhem simply because I think it would be a fun idea to put him through the wringer. He's a happy, uncomplicated soul right now. Finding out that the Crush happened because a wackjob wanted *him* to be born for some prophetic reason would definitely be a kick in the nuts and add some darkness to his life.

[Akin B'in akin]

Hah. Brilliant. That'd sure mess him up...only thing is, once this becomes public, wouldn't this start an actual war? Maybe "the War"?

And also, what will happen when Donighal/Mal finds out about this? How'd he react?

[Eingar]

Originally Posted By: Akin B'in akin

Hah. Brilliant. That'd sure mess him up...only thing is, once this becomes public, wouldn't this start an actual war? Maybe "the War"?

Maybe. Maybe not. It depends how much is revealed and how the news is presented, as well as what the PCs do during the investigation. "A faction within the Teragen movement was responsible for the Crush" might touch off a war, or it might just make the Teragen an offical terrorist organisation, drive them underground, and ratchet up the tensions about 50-fold. That would serve the interests of groups like the Primacy, the more extreme of whom want to polarise the situation, make the issue of Us versus Them, eliminating the vapid middle ground of all the Pandaimonium fanbois and wishy-washy Casablancas.

Pretty much everyone other than the ones who want a war will be against that, though. And I plan for the ultimate moral decision to be down to the PCs, in a very Watchmen sort of finale.

Do you tell the world the awful truth, even though you know its going to make things worse all round, maybe even touching off a war humanity isn't ready for (it took China years of the Aberrant War, even with 2040+ tech, to get ready to issue the ultimatum, and they were only able to do that due to their numbers of novas and by keeping their heads down). Do you deny them the truth, even though there is a 'right' for them to know? Does the world even have a right to know something that would plunge it into war? How far are you prepared to go to support your decision? Dr Manhattan/Rorshach far?

Quote:

And also, what will happen when Donighal/Mal finds out about this? How'd he react?

Ultimately, Mal is irrelevant in such plans. He is THIS guy:



"We shall let this play out to it's natural conclusion."

He'll do what he's going to do for a little while longer - watch and wait, let his followers decide which path they want to take. As he says himself, whichever path they take, they'll find him down there waiting for them. (In other words, be really sure which way you want the ball to roll, because once it starts Mal's gonna pick it up and run with it, and the ball won't be yours anymore.)

However, this event could well kick off the Night of Long Knives. The more moderate Teragen members might well try to eliminate Marcel and the other warmongers at an attempt at self-preservation. Even Shrapnel doesn't want outright war yet - she believes the Primacy are nowhere near ready for that - but you can bet your ass the Confederate will be pushing for it, and so might the Harvesters under Leviathan. Mathematician will be trying to steer the whole situation with nudges and third-party manipulations, maybe even getting some non-Terat novas involved specifically to assist the moderates, in the process helping the way Terats in general are perceived. If Marcel's outrages become known, Scripture might step in and deliver a long overdue smackdown to his errant pupil after realising how far off the deep end the Apostle has gone, how close to disaster he's brought the One Race. The sight of Scripture actually flexing his node for a change would likely be enough to cause Confederate and Leviathan to back down, and would change the dynamic of the Teragen.

Basically, it could go a number of ways. Depending on the PC's actions, this story arc could lead into Night of the Long Knives, or it could lead to Scripture replacing Apostle at the head of the Cult of Mal, which would greatly change the dynamic of the Teragen.

At any rate, one of the high points of 200x is that canon, whilst being an important guideline for inspirational purposes, is not a rule. If this story is better for people that write and play here, then why not do it? It's our game, belonging to all of us.

[Fahrenheit]

I believe this proposal would be a good opportunity to get Fahrenheit involved - Do you have a general outline or is this open ended as in - it can have any possible outcome depending on what the PCs do?

[Eingar]

I do have a proposal for a general outline, though I have to stress that this is mutable to the actions and desires of the PCs who take part.

Phase 1

Non-Terats: This starts with someone trying to investigate the Crush. Naturally, if no-one wants to do this then non-Terat PCs probably won't get involved at this stage. Utopia, the Directive, and the Canadian authorities will all want to get to the bottom of the mysterious disaster, and it's fair to say that, given the ominous note found promising more of the same, a lot of governments around the world will be interested. Obviously, this lends itself to the cerebral/meta-sensory type novas more than the ass-kickers and mega-socials, but any nova who wants to find out why could still be in an interesting position, RP-wise, learning investigative skills and how such things work as they go. The trail will lead to the luckless Minion being associates with a number of low-key Terat hangers-on in the Pandaimonion and Cult of Mal.

Terats: Phase 1 for Terats will revolve around rumor chasing. Someone in the Teragen wanted the Crush to happen, but who and why? Moderate Terats will want to find the culprit and stop them before they start the Aberrant War. Hardline Terats will want to find them and rein the culprit in, so the war doesn't start before they're ready. The philosophically minded will want to know 'why?'. What purpose does it solve, and won't it do Teras more harm than good? As with the non-Terats, Terat investigators will find that Minion, the very definition of a socially deprived nerd with a node, hung around on the fringes of the most 'social' and numerous Teragen sects. In addition, he was known to be friendly with several Harvesters and Primacy members, who cultivated him for his technical skills. So who did the brain-job on him to push him into this act? There's some obvious suspects, but the question remains why..?

Phase 2

Non-Terats: So the trail seems to lead to the Teragen. Great. Now what? Start kicking down the door to the Blackburn and shout "This is a bust!"? Arrest Orsaiz and make him talk? Confront Narcosis in a 'Basic Instinct'-style interrogation scene? (...Actually, that might be fun)

None of those are particularly subtle and low-key. And might get your face broken by Geryon. In fact, if there's anything likely to bring the sprawling, sleepy monster that is the Teragen into sharp, united focus, it'll be ziplickers attacking them. For the good of dental bills and property values, it might be an idea to avoid a war. Remember, whether you agree with them or not, these nova's don't acknowledge baseline law. Flashing a badge and demanding answers will get you ignored or snickered at, and that's if you're lucky.

So you need to talk to them. Utopia's boogeymen. The novas who revel in their inhumanity. A loose collective of anarchist free-thinkers with nodes in the best light, a fanatical Brotherhood of Evil Novas at worst. You need to find the reasonable ones and try to convince them to work with you for the common good. Good luck. Yer gonna need it...

Terats: All roads are leading to the Cult of Mal. And that means Delorimier. But the question still remains "why?". What did he hope to gain? Confronting him directly would be unwise - even without his own personal power, the Apostle has fanatical novas around him who will kill at his whim. So it's sneaky secret agent time, doing a Mission Impossible into the Paris temple of the Cult. Or consulting with the Mathematician, who may be unusually approachable right now, maybe even getting Orsaiz to broker an introduction between himself and the PCs. By this time, the non-Terat PCs will have been approaching the movement quietly, trying to find out what's what. Yes folks, its the classic team-up between opposing sides.

Phase 3

This phase really depends on everything the PCs have done so far, so I'm not going to outline it. There's possible scenarios ranging from the Apostle's death and the shift of power in the Teragen, to World War 3, to a quiet coup and cover-up. You guys are gonna have to decide what to steer for, and how you'd like the Aberrant setting to change.

Thoughts?

[Fahrenheit]

Originally Posted By: Einherjar

Terats: Phase 1 for Terats will revolve around rumor chasing. Someone in the Teragen wanted the Crush to happen, but who and why? Moderate Terats will want to find the culprit and stop them before they start the Aberrant War. Hardline Terats will want to find them and rein the culprit in, so the war doesn't start before they're ready. The philosophically minded will want to know 'why?'. What purpose does it solve, and won't it do Teras more harm than good? As with the non-Terats, Terat investigators will find that Minion, the very definition of a socially deprived nerd with a node, hung around on the fringes of the most 'social' and numerous Teragen sects. In addition, he was known to be friendly with several Harvesters and Primacy members, who cultivated him for his technical skills. So who did the brain-job on him to push him into this act? There's some obvious suspects, but the question remains why..?

Fahrenheit would probably try to investigate this out if several reasons. The most blunt being Scripture asking her to (since he has his suspicions but needs confirmation).

Aside from that Fahrenheit herself would be interested in the event as such. Most of all the question if it can be reproduced (and if so how much control is possible) and who has the necessary resources to pull through with it. This would automatically lead to the question who did it and why.

If all clues point at a war she would probably seek out Orzaiz and Scripture but her own stance on this possible outcome would be prevention (although she'd be ready to fight if it is inevitable).

It would interesting to see others investigate the Crush and maybe form unusual alliances. I really like the setup of this, sign me up for it.