meadowlarkooc | MORNINGSTAR

HELLO MLARKY, Laura and Ellie (Fitz and Peggy!) are coming to you live from New Amsterdam with a Morningstar player plot turned player party, with IC sign-ups and information within the cut. The story so far:

— Way back in February (IC September), we chucked an initial plot engagement regarding how Fitz and Peggy would express interest in helping Morningstar rebuild both their relief/outreach and information networks after the raids as longtime fans and first-time callers, which saw Gaby handing off multiple projects to them, including an NPC safehouse, relief and outreach work, information, and the chance “for the PCs to prove that they aren't just concerned with getting home.”
— Then at the start of March (IC October), in response to this, Fitz and Peggy ran an IC recruitment post and asked what other PCs want to do with Morningstar, where they received a strong response with PCs interested in aid, informing, and active missions.
— Finally, in IC October (prior to dream plot), Fitz and Peggy approached Gaby and El regarding rebuilding Morningstar with these PC aims in mind.
— If you’re interested in Morningstar for your character, we recommend reading through this post in its entirety.

NOW LET’S GET INTO THE RESULTS!
Essentially, Fitz and Peggy’s IC aim was to keep the Morningstar organisation active and firing on all cylinders in New Amsterdam after their ranks were severely depleted by the UNA raids. Their conversations with Gaby, alongside the efforts of their fellow Morningstar PCs in the recruitment post and beyond it, have made this mission a success: Operation Morningstar Rebuild is a go, with various avenues for providing relief/outreach, gathering intel, and running resistance missions back on the table and more open to PCs than ever!

The Morningstar cause, as phrased in their IC recruitment is this: For over 50 years, Morningstar has fought to restore human rights, dismantle the influence of corporate conglomerates, fight government corruption, and save lives in this world.

As ever, characters can join Morningstar as agents or contacts. Characters can also transition from contact to agent at any point, as suits them and you, the player. Copy and paste the textbox deets in the SIGN-UP TOPLEVEL for ease. If you’d like to list character occupations, specialities or expertise, feel free to do so, but you don't have to! This could help give us all a better picture of the Morningstar network at present and link up for plots.

— Agents must be interested in actively furthering the Morningstar cause, nurturing trust with Morningstar. On plot engagement, the mods have been directing PC characters to Fitz and Peggy to join up. Don’t feel like you have to play this out or get our permission OOC — anyone can join at any time just by commenting to the sign-up with character’s name and journal for tracking purposes.
— Equally, if you want to play out/handwave recruitment or talking through joining/fielding questions, we’re very keen on all things Morningstar and happy to join you on the ic road to agent status c:
— It is important to note the mods are still in charge. If you have an idea for a mission, go right ahead and check in with the mods on plot engagement as always!
— Fitz and Peggy have been ICly tasked with guiding the NA Morningstar rebuild/restructure efforts with both NPCs and PCs and managing PC recruitment after showing initiative and earning trust with the NPCs — with Gaby and El specifically handing off these projects to them/nudging them into running point.
— Contacts, as outlined by the mods, “would involve [characters] coming to them first with useful information — Morningstar would not be proactive about approaching [them] with anything.” This was, however, the old Morningstar! So given that Fitz and Peggy (and Gaby!) know the Displaced well, there may be more flexibility on this in that, say, if your PC is a Morningstar contact who has expressed interested in sourcing information, they may be asked about certain topics or events!

Agents and contacts can both impact the RELIEF / OUTREACH and INFORMATION aspects of the revived Morningstar immediately. Agents alone can also access TRAINING opportunities and lead RESISTANCE missions (click! those! links!). We’ve set up headers on this post with notes on each strand of work from every step of our plot engagement, subsequent mod replies (indicated by quotes), and the IC post to compile all the deets in one place for easy access and save this from being the longest OOC post ever. These headers are just here to give you guys all the piping hot deets in a centralised location and list the various hooks for involvement (including some mysteries that need solving). We start each header with what the (successful) IC proposal was and then move to paraphrasing or quoting the mod reply therein.

Again, no permission is needed to take part in these activities (except where agent status is a prerequisite, for training and resistance, as outlined by the mods and below)! This is strictly an open information resource for Morningstar activities.

A NOTE ON AGENTS

— At present, El has granted Fitz and Peggy access to the Morningstar Toolbox detailing all NPC agents and potential/past contacts of the NA Morningstar chapter (some of whom are unaware they’ve assisted Morningstar at all), so they can help brainstorm how to fill gaps in the network, take over old agent jobs, and reference useful contacts.
— On this note, the mods have said: “Our primary OOC aim is to give the PCs opportunities to setup a network around the city. They can call upon these old contacts, or even choose to dismiss them and set up a new one. We're not putting any hard limits on these except that they can't be in the government (Peggy would now fill that role) and we believe there are enough PCs in roles at the corporations to fulfill those ties. Otherwise, the sky's the limit - and we feel this would be a fun place for people to make up NPCs. Sometimes these connections could just get them into a building to get into another building - it doesn't need to be directly tied to Morningstar efforts.”
— “The key thing is that trust will need to be built. We won't be tracking that ourselves, and we'd prefer for this to be more of a plotting opportunity for characters who have joined Morningstar. They don't need to go through you two, either - that would expect way too much work! If you want to copy and paste this swath of information, please feel free!”
— So, here, your PC Morningstar agent can do investigations/jobs/sneaky sneaking just by doing what we’ve always done in this fab game: Hitting up the ol’ Plot Engagement. Fitz and Peggy can help with IC brainstorming for this, if it’s wanted, but again: The sky is limit, and you can do whatever you want, with or without us!
— Some examples of what you can do with Morningstar in progress: Kylo Ren is investigating a potential rescue operation for kidnapped agents, Keith is forming a strike team with Kaldur to be prepared for more active missions in future, and Rey is looking into the Morningstar leak and has been long prior to these developments.

Finally, Peggy and Fitz are in the process of proposing a neat-o headquarters for Morningstar ops to Gaby/El/the mods. More on that as it happens.

This post/sign-ups are open in perpetuity. Throw any QUESTIONS at us here!

EDIT 5/2: Added in a note re: changing from contact to agent at a later point; another note and edits surrounding the nature of agent status.
EDIT 5/3: As Morningstar is but one piece of the massive plot pie of Meadowlark, any information uncovered by Morningstar relating to the big game metaplot will be brought forward to the network/CR meme plot deets headers and/or the IC group info-sharing meetings the same as before.

Threaded | Flat

Edited 2019-05-02 08:21 (UTC)

— Any character can assist with the ongoing efforts to help New Amsterdam recover from various unnatural and natural disasters, as well as aid the less fortunate.
— Within this strand, Sansa Stark and Nill presented the idea for donations and clothing repairs, with Peggy and Fitz updating their network post with this information. Going forward, Peggy and Fitz intend to maintain this, with a specific focus on preparing for the upcoming shifts in weather to the rainy season and working on more permanent infrastructure to help anyone “displaced,” not just by the multiverse but by the ongoing political and economical struggles in New Amsterdam.
— Much of the work with relief involves making sure that people who are squatting get food and clothing. “There are several "hot spots" around the city that need help. Morningstar going dark means that Gaby is taking on some of this herself. She's asked Caroline to use her vampire speed to help out.” It’s worth noting that relief/outreach work is Gaby’s passion project.
— There is the other part of relief efforts, however: helping people move out of the city. “Some people piss off the wrong gang, corporation, mob family, or even just their neighbor with connections. These people need protection as they leave their homes and temporarily settle down in a safehouse. Peggy's connections in the government will be able to smooth over these transitions to help people get out. However, they still need to move through the city safely in the meantime, so trained individuals will be needed.”
— Gaby will be able to assist with these efforts (THANKS GABY!). “Gaby will know about some contacts herself, but the supplementary file given to Fitz and Peggy will help fill in the rest of the gaps. She knows a lot of the good paths through the city, and in helping someone get out.”
— “One thing that will be abundantly clear is that no one knows where Morningstar brings people after they leave the city. If someone needs to go - and they try to de-escalate things before they get to that point — it's left unknown. Even Gaby doesn't have a clue, and she's helped multiple people get out throughout the years.”

— Training is needed to help move people out of the city: “Training for those who help people get out typically involves firearm training, as well as hand to hand. They can do some limited "lock picking" — IE breaking circuit boards to get inside, or tapping in and letting IT do the rest of the work.”
— “While Gaby in particular is reluctant to actually pull her gun, she'll do it if needed — but never shoot at someone. She knows there are others who took this job who were far more willing.”
— With Peggy’s training with the SOE and work with resistance groups in Nazi-occupied Europe during WWII, she intends to structure New Morningstar and its fledgeling information network similarly. She will also train less experienced recruits in the art of fieldwork, self-defense/combat, and espionage should they require or request it. (She has already begun to do this with some PCs.) She would also encourage recruits to look into the sessions offered by Daisy Johnson (powers training) and Damian Wayne / Hafid Al’Ghul (combat) — both are listed in the Welcome Guide.
— Similarly, Fitz has become a nudgy nudger, helping others identify the occupations in New Amsterdam that suit their skillset and serve the needs of the Displaced community, which he’ll continue to do, with the new aim to establish a network that serves Morningstar’s (and, y’know, the planet’s) present needs. He’s also been coaching various PCs in scientific and technological endeavours alongside the old school espionage work, so he’ll continue to open that to recruits.

— Both willing contacts and active agents can contribute to Morningstar’s need to understand the ever-shifting environment and work to acquire intelligence to the benefit of the organisation as a whole (with information-gathering a never-ending operation, when they hope to anticipate corporate and government moves before they occur; as well as the active effort to identify and dismantle corruption across sectors).
— This will include passive intel-gathering and targeted operations to solve mysteries and get deets on corporate and government targets, scooby gang.
— There is a Morningstar chapter in every city! Liaising with other chapters must go through El. Peggy and Fitz have limited access to a list from New Budapest and New Prague for Morningstar construction work, which is, uh, niche.
— Many Morningstar Pulsar and Giles Bell lab contacts survived the raids by remaining undercover and, thus, can fill in the gaps for any scientific know-how that the PCs won't be able to fill. Reaching out to them will only be possible through El (via Plot Engagement) but they can be called upon this way whenever suits.
— These agents want to help and are super curious about the Displaced. The agents have also liaised with many of the contacts listed in El’s file (that Fitz and Peggy have), “so there’s room to play with that being useful or causing problems.”
— “Most of the cooler sentiments toward the PCs was because they were blamed for the major upheaval in New Amsterdam — and recent information pointing elsewhere has definitely changed things.”
— Peggy and Fitz communicated with New Tokyo Morningstar to begin rebuilding international relationships and get the word out about the PC effort and surviving NPCs in New Amsterdam: “Liaising with New Tokyo and getting the word out that they're (tenuously) starting things up again will help. Some chapters will take a "wait and see" approach - New Tokyo will have to be among them in part because they need to take care of their own city, and they're pretty far from New Amsterdam (for 2511, anyway).”

— For dedicated agents with firmer links to Morningstar as a whole, Peggy and Fitz are keen to do their spy thing and support the rebellion with field missions.
— “These can begin with the networking ventures, or people can go big and break into Gill-Jade's office right away. Obviously, actions have consequences, but we're just as interested to see this at work.”
— “We recommend these [missions] being player organized and according to their own player plots. We love expanding on the world according to PC actions, and are eager to keep at it!”

Edited 2019-05-02 21:18 (UTC)

Questions! If we can’t answer em we’ll bring em to the mods! (You can also bring any questions or concerns directly to the mods as per their request, but given this was a giant infodump, we figured this could be a good place for some Q&A too).

Edited 2019-05-02 23:12 (UTC)

SIGN-UPS

(frozen comment) RELIEF / OUTREACH

(frozen comment) TRAINING

(frozen comment) INFORMATION

(frozen comment) RESISTANCE

QUESTIONS