like an outCASTE

[noematic]

Thank you, everyone, for your thought-provoking involvement in this chapter!

And with the most recent conversation of Lachesis, the New Vesuvius chapter of the overarching modplot has come to a close. Logs and posts are still ongoing of course, and character direction may still evolve from such.

Now, every chapter has had a purpose, specifically a question, that was answered. And back to the question that themed this chapter: Why? Why is it important to fight? We have seen that Vulcanus is gunning for domination over imPorts, even if it might benefit the rest of humanity. But as some characters inquired: how can any utopia exist at the horrific expense of other citizens? Isn't that unjust? How can this terrible possibility that was New Vesuvius be eliminate?

Let's begin some discussion on what you, the players, might want to do to organize your characters into action! It doesn't have to be literal super-heroism (though those antics are always welcomed!), and you can involve plots or arcs that you've already been working with (for example, many imPorts interact with the Phantasm, and maybe you'd like to run with that vein). This is also a good place to outline how you envision the fallout of recent events, in regards to your characters. We're looking for structural advantages that can found new plot angles that you might want to take. This is an open discussion for brainstorming, talking, or hardcore organizing. It's a stepping stone to set you in a fun direction. There is no wrong way to do this.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them here for me!

Comments

[gevurah]

My brain is melting in this heat so I hope this even makes sense.

(post ) plot wise Gil is going to look into the names they were given about the key holders back in New Vesuvius to see if any of the names will lead him to these people here since the president's name turned out to be a teacher, iirc. Oh, Kytha's comment reminded me Gil will likely take the names to Bobbi and co. and see what they can gather together.

Kate would likely want to look into Vulcanus' activity again but I'm not sure where to start there exactly. Brainstorming is welcome.

[topslug]

This isn't so much a plot as a direction I wanna take her in, but Yako's going to want to continue following up on research on Vulcanus! Nothing too specific in that direction, but she'll want to continue working with Tony Stark, Archer, Hank McCoy etc if they're amenable/have the resources to spare.

Also, she doesn't have much current involvement in the Phantasm/Red Death plot, but exploring the question of how exactly they got their powers and wany possible links to Vulcanus is something I'd be interesting in.

I had a lot of fun with the plot that took Yako out of the City, and I think it would be fun to see more plots that involve locations out of the City in general -- something that's more of a necessity, given the unlikelihood of Vulcanus being located where they would be easily discovered.

[magicalworld]

Some ideas!

-What do we know about the state of New Vesuvius after this plot? Is a re-empowered Clotho wreaking terrible vengeance on her masters, or is the UNV still looming on the multiversal horizon with a Porter under their thumb? If they're still in power, is Clotho going to provide new or resurrected ImPort doppelgangers for the caste system, or is their utopia fresh out of slaves?

-It's been strongly hinted that there's another Porter in the Cityverse, Lachesis' other sister. Mordin and Peter previously developed a sensor technology for recognizing a specific energy Lachesis uses to do Porter-y things. Maybe if a jumbo version of that was mounted on one of Tony's satellites or something, characters could get a bead on its location...

-Nick Fury's team is already investigating the Red Death undercover, and thanks to Sherlock's mishap it's known they have connections to Vulcanus. Maybe someone should pay a visit to Colorado and commit some 'crimes' to provoke a confrontation and get more information on their capabilities.

-There are still Vulcanus Skrulls in high-power positions around the world, more operations aimed at exposing them could be helpful.

-ImPorts just generally need more allies to offset the fact that Vulcanus has an entire planet to work with. Diplomatic and vigilante characters establishing closer cooperation with the Phantasm could gain ImPorts much-needed cannon fodder support in case of a full conflict.

-Our characters have more evidence against Vulcanus than ever before: a turtle with a penis and the location of the sinister underwater lab that spawned it, the location of a clock tower in Belfast with eldritch technologies, a tome from another world describing a time-travelling apocalypse, an exposed Skrull in an ImBargo-supporting government, and over fifty people who could testify that Vulcanus' New World Order is fucking terrifying.

Maybe it's time some characters with persuasive skills or government ties took all this to the media or global authorities, clued in the NPC population about Vulcanus being a threat to multiple universes. After the hit Vulcanus' reputation took post-Venzuela, governments might be a lot more receptive.

some thoughts

[recurve]

- IIRC, there have been at least two major volcanic eruptions in game since 2010 (actual Vesuvius in 2010 and a second in Wyoming in 2011.) It'd be interesting if someone were to look into any connection between those natural disasters and the rise of Vulcanus.

- Would it be possible to get an OOC post summarizing major reveals from the logs? I feel like there's been a lot of great information to come out in this leg of the plot, but much of it seems difficult to wade through and access, as it's sometimes buried paragraphs into a post.

- It might also be beneficial to provide the players with a summary of the story so far, that way newer players/those who were on hiatus/those who perhaps sat out a leg of the plot can have an idea of the entirety of the saga. If this info is all condensed someplace, then disregard, I may not have seen it. But I think it would be really beneficial to fill in the gaps a little bit, since some of those OOC summary posts are buried back on LJ and are difficult to track down again, especially since the mod plot is now in it's third summer.