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meadowlarkooc2020-08-08 01:40 pm
EVENT #010 WRAP UP
By the morning of June 4th, with the combined efforts of the Displaced, Morningstar, local police, and all the other smaller groups pitching in, the grand majority of the monsters are wiped out and the remaining numbers flee the cities in droves. Thousands of monster corpses litter the streets and buildings, leaving behind a horrible smell that doesn't seem to completely dissipate for the following week. No matter where someone is in the world, they'll have just lived through a harrowing week of constant danger and instability. Whereas New Amsterdam had always been singled out as the problem area before this incident, now the entire world has been affected by these inexplicable events.
It takes about two days after the monsters' withdrawal for the world to pick itself up enough for news reports to come out. While taking an accurate death toll is nearly impossible given the number of cities that were impacted and the disarray that the world has been left in, the initial estimate is 1 million casualties, with the possibility that the number is even higher than that. The last time that there was such a profound loss of life was during the EMP that New Amsterdam experienced back in November, when the death toll had been around 100,000. In a strange twist of fate, it's actually New Amsterdam that's in the best shape following this tragedy, given that there was so much Displaced support centered there.
Suffice to say that the entire world is now in mourning. More or less every single person on Earth has now been affected in some way, and the thought of recovering and rebuilding after such a massive wave of destruction is almost unfathomable.
Despite this, the Morningstar symbol will start to appear, painted onto the sides of buildings or even carved into the trunks of trees in parks as small acts of rebellion. This won't just be in New Amsterdam, but in a number of different megacities. Whether it's the agents themselves informing the world that the group is still present and ready to help or instead a show of support from those who've changed their minds about the rebel group is hard to say. But it's a flicker of hope among the devastation.
Ultimately, though, a statement needs to come from an actual governing body. The UN finally does enter the scene, though there will be plenty of people wondering why they weren't more proactive during the attack itself.
> UN RESPONSE
Though many among the population are upset about the UN's lack of response or responsibility during the monster attack, their response will be professional and composed. On June 6th, United Nations Secretary General Li Ju-Zheng and a small group of high-ranking staff will issue an official statement. The word "unprecedented" will be used at least three times, but the overall sentiment behind the statement will be that of the UN reasserting its position as a governing force by making use of its ample resources to spearhead the rebuilding process. They may have been taken unaware by the monster attack, as the entire world was, but now they will be funneling money and resources into helping each and every megacity get back on its feet. This will be a monumental effort, but they believe in the public's ability to contribute in some way.
◉ The statement will also emphasize that the UN wants to get to the bottom of what these monsters are and where they came from. While this wasn't the first attack given that New Amsterdam was targeted back in June 2511, that was believed to be an isolated incident and none of their research back then had led anywhere.
◉ No one had any way of predicting an attack on this scale, but the UN will be mounting a thorough investigation into the source of the monsters to ensure that something like this never happens again. This will be the promise made to the entire world.
◉ The UN will posit that this is all the result of abnormal environmental factors on wildlife and will not acknowledge any sort of supernatural possibilities (or that of experimentation).
◈ The UN will be collecting as many of the monster corpses as they can get their hands on to take into their custody and store. Though the reason given is for "proper disposal," whatever else they may be doing with them is up in the air.
◈ Much like in the aftermath of the first large monster that ravaged around New Amsterdam, there will be drop-off boxes in all cities around the globe to discard monster corpses and monster parts!
◈ Of course, the UN won't be the only ones trying to get their hands on these corpses. The underground is ready and willing to collect what they can to cycle back into the drug market, leading to a spike in the rage drug market.
◉ The Secretary General will remark on how the lack of any sort of armed force to deploy during this attack had been a gross oversight. While the UN will not exactly take the blame, they will emphasize that this cannot be allowed to continue. There will be hard proof now that the results are disastrous if there isn't a dedicated army that can be deployed in situations such as this. The world is becoming more dangerous by the month, and there needs to be an official army that can respond. Mercenary groups are not enough.
◉ The UN's promise will be to rebuild an army from the ground up, without any sort of AI influence in their technology. This will be met with some skepticism.
◈ There will be a call for new recruits, which involves reaching out to police departments but also creating a system to bring in civilians who want to join the army.
◈ In order to incentivize people, they will be ramping up the benefits (job security, stipend, etc.) as they will want to build up armed forces as quickly as feasibly possible given the potential of another disaster in the future.
> PUBLIC AND MEDIA RESPONSE
◉ There will be a mixed response to the UN's statement. A lot of people will be frustrated that the UN is only taking charge after the danger has passed and lives have been lost rather than stepping in more decisively during the crisis. While some supporters will be glad for the stability that the UN is providing in the aftermath, others will feel that they are just taking advantage of the situation while not giving them any concrete details about what happened, and that their claims seem questionable.
◉ There will also be a divide on the call for rearmament. Some will believe that if the UNA had been present during the attacks that there would have been much less loss of life, while others will see the efforts of Morningstar, the Displaced, the police, and other groups as having been sufficient and proof that they don't actually need the UNA in these situations. These feelings will vary wildly depending on megacity and how hard they were hit. Those cities that didn't have much support from the Displaced or Morningstar will feel the need for rearmament more than places like New Amsterdam, New Beijing, New Tokyo, etc.
◉ Speaking of Morningstar, the overall feeling toward them will be positive as people were able to witness firsthand how agents were putting their lives on the line to help people and keep everyone safe. This will have helped to humanize Morningstar in the eyes of the public, as the agents wouldn't have had as much reason to hide their presence and involvement from the authorities during the attacks due to everyone having larger problems to worry about.
◈ Given that their efforts were more spread between cities than that of the Displaced, worldwide support for them has definitely increased, especially given that they worked with PRESERVE and stepped in where the UN couldn't (or chose not to, depending on who you're asking).
◈ Anti-Morningstar sentiments will be unpopular around the world, and any attempts at turning in Morningstar sympathizers will be met with an outcry. Morningstar's agents were the ones who stood up and continued to try to help, even as the UN has made continual attempts at ending their efforts.
◉ The media coverage of the incident will involve a lot of discussion of what these monsters are and where they came from, especially since the UN's statement didn't seem all too convincing in terms of what they did or didn't know about the monsters' origin.
◈ Certain media outlets that sympathize with the UN will actually try to draw a link between the Displaced and the monsters' appearance. While the existence of the Displaced isn't common knowledge to the point that the UN themselves could say anything about them, the media is a bit more free to discuss what they want. These outlets will point out that both the Displaced and the monsters are strange, unexplained phenomena and that they seemed to appear more or less around the same time.
◈ There will also be a lot of coverage of the sheer amount of devastation across the world and also interviews with people about what they've lost, how they may have contributed to the fight or kept people safe in some way, and so on. These interviews won't be conducted with Morningstar agents or mercenaries, but rather with normal civilians who took a stand, and with police officers.
◉ Several news outlets in New Amsterdam begin reporting upon a series of studies that took place in Antarctica. These outlets will be reluctant to share how they came upon this research, especially since many of the scientists named as authors passed away during the unusual and tragic earthquake just days prior to the monster attack. Much of the information in these articles shows that the researchers in Antarctica were finding creatures that had similar biology to what the UN said attacked the world both in June 2511 and then May 2512, as well as some corpses that can be carbon-dated back to the 19th century that have scarification and tattoos of various geometric symbols. Once one of few surviving authors reaches out to these outlets, it will be revealed that they obtained these files from William Clayton-Queen.
> THE DISPLACED
◉ While some of the media coverage might be trying to use the Displaced as scapegoats, the social media response is a completely different story. The people in New Amsterdam in particular will be outspoken on social media about the fact that the Displaced were some of the most influential forces in fighting off the monsters.
◉ The actions of Cassian Andor, Castiel, Clarke Griffin, Dean Winchester, Eugene Hicks (and whoever assisted his rescue efforts), Julian Bashir, Scott McCall, and Stephen Strange to fortify New Amsterdam and make it safer for civilians will be called out online, with people posting on social media about how they were helped by them. Daenerys Targaryen's explosive appearance as a dragon will also be brought up frequently as a point of discussion, though her identity won't be known.
◈ If you have a character who also made a publicly visible contribution that should be highlighted here, please let us know in the questions thread below and we can edit them in! We know there's a good chance we missed something that would have been noticed by the public.
◉ On top of that, video footage will start appearing online showing clips of the Displaced engaged in fights with the monsters and possibly even using their powers, depending on how present they were in the fight. (You're free to assume that clips of your character show up if you want that to happen, and they might even end up with some additional follows on their Cooltalk as a result! Especially if they were discovered via their job at Red Wings.) This does, of course, also mean that the existence of the Displaced is becoming more and more known to the general population.
◉ Given that most of the Displaced consider New Amsterdam their home base and therefore the city actually came out of this disaster with one of the lowest death tolls, positive sentiment toward them will be highest there. They'll almost be treated like hometown heroes, and Red Wings will be viewed as a famous spot from now on! That does mean that it will now have a lot more of a spotlight on it, making its function as a safehouse a little more difficult to uphold.
◉ Speaking of safehouses, both of them (the one under the hover bike shop and the one beneath Red Wings) will be out of commission for the moment due to the heavy attacks they suffered from the monsters during the event. This means that any Displaced who were staying in the safehouse will need to find somewhere else to stay! Hopefully someone generous will let them crash on their couch for the moment…
◉ Most of the other megacities, which don't really interact with the Displaced in the same way as New Amsterdam, will be more hesitant or suspicious of the Displaced and more likely to buy into the UN's narrative about them being the cause of all of these unprecedented problems. There will even be some feelings of resentment. Why do the Displaced only care about one city in a much larger world? Why are they not using their powers to protect everyone? This is, of course, a bit unfair given that New Amsterdam is usually plagued with the most problems and the Displaced are a fairly small group all things considered, but so it goes.
◉ Something that will contribute to this viewpoint is the very clear footage of an actual dragon (aka Daenerys) with a glowing blue chest that was engaged in a fight with another dragon. If a monster as fearsome as a dragon was glowing the same way as the Displaced do when they use their powers, does this mean the Displaced are controlling them somehow? There will be speculation that maybe some of the Displaced are good people trying to keep people safe while others in their group are out for destruction, and the media and public will realize they can't necessarily treat them as a group with a single goal or set of morals.
◉ While primarily done out of the prying public eye, Yennefer of Vengerberg (known to the world as Yennefer Vengerberg) orchestrated efforts to stop the movement of the monsters so that they could be dispatched. Her actions are known to Morningstar agents around the world in helping provide advance notice, and she was instrumental in bringing this crisis to an end. Yennefer's plan already included a direction for reopening the gates when the crisis was over, so the gates are back in working order now.
We have a few ideas for directions that you can take for your characters moving forward!
◉ So, what to do about all those corpses littered everywhere?
The UN will have mentioned in their statement that they do not want people to pick up these corpses due to the inherent risk -- unless it's to take them to pop-up disposal centers which will be appearing in every city to deal with the sheer number of bodies. That won't necessarily stop people from grabbing pieces of the monsters anyway (or the entire corpse, if they're sneaky about it). There's a lot of interesting raw material that could be taken from these bodies, such as the steel from the moles' teeth and claws, the venom from the archaenae, and whatever it is that causes the illusions from the kitsune. Displaced are welcome to try and run their own experiments and learn more about these monsters by studying them. However, selling monster parts will quickly be outlawed as illegal since the UN did forbid people from taking the corpses in the first place -- which also means that getting any lab to agree to analyze the samples will be a risky endeavor.
◈ After a few days pass, the UN will also announce that early diagnostics show that the genetic makeup of these creatures is very similar to what attacked New Amsterdam in June 2511.
◈ We intend for this to act as shorthand for any samples and research that happens after the event. Simply put: they're genetic chimeras.
◉ The earthquakes in Antarctica and their connection to the monster attack. Surely it can't be a coincidence that a group of Displaced went to Antarctica, an earthquake hit, and then a week or so later the monsters swarmed. William Clayton-Queen had put in the initial steps of trying to publicize the research regarding the mutated animals in Antarctica which had been previously stonewalled, but suffice to say that there's going to be a lot more people willing to take it seriously now. Please feel free to coordinate with William's player when it comes to this path!
◉ Relief work will be needed throughout the world on a scale that the Displaced have never experienced before. They've helped to clean up New Amsterdam plenty of times by now, but now anyone who wants to help will want to look into spreading their hard work to other cities. This doesn't just have to be about altruism, either -- since the UN is spearheading these efforts, this sort of work will be very good money. Given the sheer amount of work that needs to be done, they won't be too picky about hiring either. It might be a good chance to go work in a different city for a month or two!
◉ Interacting with mercenary groups. During the attack the mercenaries would have been contributing to the fight against the monsters, and would have been easy enough to spot due to the quality of their gear and weaponry. If someone wanted to make contact with them in the aftermath, it would certainly be easier to track one of them down than it might have been in the past.
◉ Seeking out UNA soldiers. Now more than ever, these men and women are going to feel like they've been hung out to dry. They were expelled from the only purpose that they had and were therefore unable to respond in any organized way when real danger arrived. Now there's talk of rebuilding the army, but not with them -- not when their minds have been "tainted" with AI technology. This leaves them with no clear way forward, and they've also still got to walk the difficult path of reclaiming their personhood. If anyone wanted to reach out to them, now would be a good time.
◉ Something miscellaneous that we haven't thought up! The world is in flux, which is the best time to put plans into motion and take advantage of the ongoing chaos.
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We hope that you had a lot of fun with this event, and that it gave you plenty of juicy scenarios to play with. While it may feel like this one was a little less metaplot heavy, we do think there are still a number of different avenues that it opened which the Displaced can explore, and we're excited to see where that all leads!
To follow up on anything from the above – or anything that we might've missed that was a more minor action—please contact us on the Plot Engagement page. Weekly responses on Sunday will resume on August 16th as the event has ended. Thank you for your patience!
The August calendar is now also live, so feel free to go check that out.
Lexa
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