A: Plots, Plans, Pirates and Pantoufles
Created by on Thu 3rd Oct, 2019 @ 1:08pm
(Chantal) Apologies if this has been sitting here for a while, awaiting a response. I agree; we need to bring the Dobbs plot to a close so we can expand on new, current plot threads by current players. I know Jamie created Dobbs because he had read a book called something like, 'The Psychopath Next Door'--probably not that exact title, but something in the same vein. It was written by a former military officer who proposed that there is a little bit of the psychopath in all of us, but in true psychopaths it is organic and pathological brain malformation, whereas the rest of us can turn it on and off at will as necessity dictates.
Anyway, what you've mentioned above, Jenny, pretty much sums up what I recall. I didn't remember Dobbs being the last CO of 109 before it was handed over to the FCDA; I had thought he was just a Marine assigned to the station. Of the current crew, I believe Lanis is the only one who has ever met Dobbs in person, unless Chlamydia has. Lanis and he knew each other during the pre-FCDA days when Lanis was a medic on 109 during the Dominion War.
Tasks 1. Determine where Dobbs is holed up. (Learning the answer to this will take some planning. Alegari connection? Talk to Dallas about the secret lab/base he and Victoria destroyed. Was it a Dobbs lab? If so, that would explain Dallas' prosthetic leg and the quantum transmitter. See if we can get the name of the admiral who assigned the mission to them if it was a Dobbs lab. Maybe even talk to the admiral. I believe doing that will require bringing in Suzuki, as she is the only person who has even vaguely enough rank to cause an admiral to give her the time of day.)
2. Reconnoiter Dobbs' current location. (Could be Oblivion, but I think Dobbs is a little too evil for there. I could be wrong, though. How badly destroyed is the Academy for Advanced Scientific Studies? I'm planning on at least Damion for the reconnaissance job. Could definitely bring in Grax, Fisher, Keller, Perry, or Brennan, too. I'm happy to spread the wealth.)
3. Devise a capture plan. (Thus the reason for needing so many Intelligence personnel)
4. Carry out the capture plan.
5. Outcome.
Time to roll up our sleeves?
(JL) Dobbs is currently on Oblivion. The Institute for Advanced Scientific Studies is contaminated for good. The galaxy will have finished at least one rotation before the remains are safe for anyone to board. When you tick off Doctor Death and La Llorona, stand by for heavy rolls.
As I see it, Day and Rose don't currently know Dobbs has opened another lab right under their noses. If they were to find out, they would become allies to the 109 personnel -- but would said personnel be able to overcome their own preferences and approach the pair?
(CG) Is Rose La Llorona, or is Rose the robot that takes care of her?
(JL) Oh, dear... did I let a cat out of a bag? ;)
(CG) If Dr. Day's reputation is as well-known as, say, Joseph Mengele's, then Damion would have heard of her.
(JL)He'll have heard of her. Dobbs made sure her reputation was well and truly ruined. You don't get a moniker like "Doctor Death" without publicity behind it, and Dobbs needed to blame the disaster on someone.
(JL) Otherwise, he won't be familiar with her. Elizabeth hasn't mentioned La Llorona to him at all, so the two might be completely unfamiliar to him if he meets them. (Chantal) And honestly, you have only to see Dr. Day once around people she trusts to see that 1. she isn't evil, and 2. people care about her enough to protect her. By the way, is Day the boss who ruined Zelda's life?
(Susan) To the last, absolutely not! We'll have to find someone else to blame for that. And for the ring. Day would not have had anything to do with either one, unless Jenny can think of a good excuse. I can't.
(JL) Does Day trust anybody? Hmm. Maybe Rose. Maybe. Doctor Holly Day was created to mimic the legend of Doc Holliday. Not so much the historical individual as the legends that have grown up around him. She's a gambler with cards and dice and her life, she has no real ties to anyone, and she's trying to get killed before her disease completely eats her, while at the same time prolonging the disease process as self-imposed penance for what happened.
Rose / La Llorona, meanwhile, is the Holographic AI who was assigned / designed to raise the children Perverto designed at IASS. When the PTBs (including Dobbs) decided to write off that experiment, they killed "her children," and she went a bit crazy. She contacted Day, who had thought the IASS long-shuttered after her own disasters. The two of them came up with a way to kill everyone still there, and to contaminate the station so that no living thing can ever even enter visual range of it. Rose transferred herself off the station and joined Day at Oblivion, where she has set herself to, among other things, taking care of Day, at least, as much as Day will let her.
(Susan) Yes, those are my memories, as well. His work on SB109 outed him as a rogue scientist and Starfleet officer, and then more of his past crimes came out. We did put him in a lab/ship hulk in Oblivion, and it's a perfect hiding spot because even though the majority of the people there are trying to just survive and get by, and stay out of the arms of Starfleet/Federation/government entities, they are not generally evil people. They want an out-of-the-way spot where questions are few and far between, and so are rules. That works perfectly for Dobbs, too, since no one will question what he does in his own hulk/ship. That doesn't mean there aren't those on board, such as the two mentioned, who won't be happy to end his evil existence. Death in the cause of keeping evil under control is acceptable, though it has to be pretty bad for intervention. Dobbs is pretty bad.
1. I think Dallas and Vic's lab was Cardassian and Dobbs would look down on them as inferior, so he wasn't involved in that. However, he did take advantage of the situation that came about to help Cardassia get justice (i.e., revenge) - only to serve his own ends, because he doesn't care about their revenge or needs. So that can still account for Vic's abduction, Dallas's leg and the spy bug. It may still be necessary to bring in the admiral to show that the mission was NOT connected to Dobbs.
(JL) The CMO aboard their ship who appeared and then disappeared was certainly one of Dobbs' plants. The experiment was initially to see whether a person turned into a computer, in the way that Scott Allan B-something (this is why I have to do so much research when I write -- I can never remember the names of the characters I toss out, and then later turn into something more) was, could take over the body of another individual. If so, this would enable practically immortal and undetectable black ops agents.
That particular effort hasn't worked out the way they intended, but the way it has worked out is quite interesting, indeed.
(Susan) 2. Yes, spread the undercover work around. This would be a good excuse to use the Addams family and whichever law-abiding citizens can play pirates well - or perhaps only smugglers are required to go to Oblivion to reconnoiter.
3-4-5. Let's go. =)
(CG): Our characters, however, are still at #1. Good point about the admiral. I'm sure he would definitely want it clear that he has no connection to Dobbs.
(S): Plus we have Besm festivities to carry out still.
(JL) And... what about Naomi Very Special Agent Pantoufle?
(S) LOL! Yes, what about Naomi?
(Iain): Hi all - I'm just wanting to check on a couple of plot points and plans - just really wanting to see what others were thinking about certain plot points, as well as throwing out a couple of suggestions for moving forward, too.
(Susan): Good questions, Iain!
(JL) Ditto. Nice summation of hanging issues. 8)
1) Is the plan for the pirate storyline to continue to run as a thread under the next couple of missions? i.e. We're not necessarily in a rush to receive the issues?
(S) Answering for myself only, I don't think we are.
(JL) The piracy is a complex problem, not something we can stick a pin in and pop like a balloon.
(CG) I don't see the piracy issue going away any time soon. It's a lot of little pirate groups we're dealing with, not one or two pirate cartels. Starfleet's presence has reduced the volume of attacks some, but by no means can it wholly get rid of the problem.
(S) I'm thinking like those off the coast of Africa who keep popping up, from Franklin's time to our own.
(IP) Cool - that was my assumption, but just wanted to check.
(CG) Yes, exactly.
* * * 2) Fisher & Eberstark are currently working on the idea to do with triangulating co-ordinates of pirate attacks to suggest a base of operations. Could exploring the results of that be the reason that Samurai heads out (somewhere later down the line)?
(S) That's a possibility, when it's rebuilt. I know Chantal as Ildaran is tasked with locating the base, which we've discussed as possibly being Oblivion. Some posts which have described parts of it are:
Jenny invented it, and both of us have added bits and played there in past sims. It's a great place, neutral territory.
(JL) At this point, we have a couple of pointers to Oblivion. There's the triangulation effort, the elder Addams contingent who have actually been there aboard Crimson Assurance, and....
(CG) And...I suspect La Llorona, though that is pure speculation, and only Elizabeth Anderson has any contact with her.
(S) You could be right - and she's not finished yet.
(CG) Good! I like La Llorona, and I'd love to see more from her. I presume she's the one who raised the Echoes?
* * * 3) In our previous intel. briefing we played around with the idea of a mole on the station, feeding the pirates info. Would you all be okay if we pursued that. (if I drop an NPC in somewhere for the purpose later.)
(S) I'm okay with that, and support you.
(JL) 'S jake by me.
(CG) Oh, I thought maybe Zelda was the mole.
(S) Or Tanith - even Destiny could be. She's smarter than she acts.
(IP) I think that's cool - I was thinking of her as one side of a coin, with someone from Starfleet passing her info. etc.
(S) I like that! It explains where she would get her information, and adds depth.
* * * 4) How do y'all want us to begin to bring the Alegari investigation to a close?
(JL) I'm making all this up as I go along. 8) Seriously, whatever y'all do there is jake by me, with the caveat that it should align with what has happened already. So she's got some involvement with someone who has access to Dobbsian nannites. Is that a pirate faction? Is it a motivator for piracy? Are they located at Oblivion? I dunno. I would, however, appreciate it if she were another pointer to Oblivion; she was recruited there, she ran there after the trauma which split her personality, whatevs.
(CG) The original thinking was that Zelda could lead our characters to Oblivion. That can still stand. The question is, if she will. :)
(S) Which depends on what's in it for her - all of her.
(CG) *nods* But Damion can't make Zelda any such offers. That's above his pay grade. I'm thinking, if we can get her to come clean about what sorts of things she's done, be reasonably assured that she isn't a danger to society, then maybe we could offer her help to get her personalities reintegrated and protect her from the Aenar if she'll help us capture him?
(S) That has some great possibilities for character development. Does she want reintegration? Is that idea something that Tanith has considered, and does it make her uncomfortable? Zelda wouldn't have considered it. Destiny might not like the idea. Who really is the original? And how would you ever know that she's told you everything? Would she? In a prison setting, she might well fracture into more personalities, to cope with loss of freedom. One of them might choose death over life. Lots of things to think about.
(IP) I guess, for now, one step at a time? We'll get her to examine the ring and see where we go. I guess I needed to know that we weren't writing something that was going to go in a completely different direction from the plan! I like the way that we're slowly dropping hints towards Oblivion, and what that may or may not mean for the overall situation.
(S) This has been good because it made us organize our thoughts a little bit. Thanks, Iain!
* * * 5) What's the plan for Pantoufle's involvement? Indeed, is there one, or was literally, 'throw in curveball and see what happens?'
(JL) I do actually have a plan. If you recall, our skull in the ball guest was a SCIS Special Agent who pursued someone for the theft of some gemstones, ludicrous as that theft appeared.[1] It turned out that, encoded in the crystaline matrix of these particular gemstones were the tech specs of the phase cloak[2], as far as Federation research had carried it.
"Very Special" Agent Pantoufle was the agent in charge of the office our corpse operated out of, and came looking for him. We've seen her a couple of other times on various threads of intelligence matters.
So what's she doing now? Pull her in or make contact and ask her. But did anyone at the Orchids and Jazz event actually recognize her, or was she just the Vierra trophy in the background?
(S) I reckanized her! Bunny ears, bunny ears! =) - Oh, that's me, not my character. LOL
(CG) Damion had no idea who she was. The only folks I can remember on SB109 who have met her are Eberstark and Michaels--and maybe Isabella. There's a post somewhere of several folks meeting on a ship out in the midst of nowhere. I'll have to find that to know which of our characters have met Daisy for sure. (If it turns out Damion has met her before, I'll have to do some rewriting!)
(JL) It's post 918; Susan linked it above. And no; Damion wasn't there; Kellian Michaels was, of your NPCs.
(CG) And, as Damion mentioned in the latest debriefing post, he's at least as curious about Daisy's male companion as he is about Daisy's purposes.
(IP) I'd checked too, so I've had Jason Fisher reveal her status (he did some digging because he was suspicious!) I think the plan is to follow up both her and her companion.
1) In a setting with replicators, gemstones are no more or less valuable than colored glass.
2) https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Phasing_cloaking_device
Additional notes after the deletion of the above message.
Previous parts of discussion moved to LCARS, Out of Character Mission Notes to make this further discussion more manageable. Nothing was deleted from previous discussion, just moved to LCARS until mission is complete.
(Iain) I know we're not all big fans of the big staff briefing - and I get that - but perhaps in terms of moving forward towards our outcomes, do we need some sort of 'gathering together'? I have to admit I've got a bit lost in the bigger story, and I don't want to write anything that isn't part of the plan. I've got the Intel. team doing a 'summing-up', but I'm still aware there are bits of the plot that I'm not 100% sure on. I apologise if I'm missing stuff that's already there, but I guess I'm just struggling to keep up a little bit... It doesn't necessarily have to be absolutely everyone, but perhaps a very-senior staff sharing and some distribution of orders..?
(Susan) I understand why it gets confusing. On a starbase, there are multiple things going on, and few people would be affected by someone else's doings. Hence no briefings. The CO and XO could have a general discussion, perhaps, with the Yeoman or someone else included to keep the record straight?
(CG) I actually do see value in having an occasional department heads meeting--mainly because I have never worked anywhere operating under a hierarchical structure that didn't have a regular staff meeting of some sort. They're necessary for the smooth flow of communication from leadership to subordinates--and vice-versa--and to ensure that everyone has the same understanding of what the current orders are. I would start a meeting post only after everyone is already seated and is ready for business, though, so the large JP could flow efficiently, and if I were leading that kind of meeting, I would call on specific people to give their status reports, in a consistent order. I'd probably even send an agenda to the players so they would have a roadmap.
(Susan)We're still working on the Besm story, the Zelda story, the pirate base.
(CG): It's the hell of interactive writing. A lot of times I will write solo posts, just to get something written and done. Collaborative writing is awesome when you can all write at nearly the same time, and the scene just flies, but it is rare that that can happen. It is one reason why I love Google Docs so much, because all members of a JP can write at the same time, while all are in the document.
(S) Sometimes that gets confusing and occasionally contradictory, though. I used to use Google Docs a lot, but Google has a habit of shutting down parts of itself with little warning, so I almost never do any more. It has some nice features, but I don't know how long they will leave it alone.
When I return home next week, we can start working more on the Zelda story line if Chantal is ready with school. If not, people can post Besm sightings and conversations. I'm happy to stand in for Jenny and be a Besm, though not Wildrose or the Winter Sisters, or the owners of Pearl With a Chainsaw. Those are best played by Jenny. If someone wants to interact with a Besm group, let me know, though, and I'll do my best to be another creche set.
That leaves the pirate base, and I know that Charlene and Mike have a little story arc that's going to move that along some.
Categories: Out of Character Mission Notes