OOC: "Treats" storyline

[Aether]

This thread is for discussion of the "Treats" storyline. Don't read it if you don't want to help in the creation of the story or you want to be surprised.

Here's some responses to things Jade Dragon brought up.

I'm assuming you're using this as your introduction to turning Nior towards the villain side...

Right. The feedings are going to have an effect on him both "mentally" and physically.

There's also the rather glaring question of exactly WHO was feeding the robot...

I have a suspect in mind, a new character. But if anyone has other ideas, I'm willing to hear them.

BTW, I'm also assuming Noir is long gone and beyond pursuit. Because if he's anywhere near, Alan will at least try to shut him down.
Noirbot's gone and in hiding. I'm gathering from your talk yesterday about him being Dark/Inv that there is something mystical about his construction, possibly making him not even a computer mind at all...)

I'm going to RP the Dark part as the power of his nanobots affecting things outside of his body.

That doesn't mean that Noirbot has no connection to magic. According to the robot, he was created by a "God". Aether can add that when he was swallowed by Noirbot once, he saw many Runes, seemingly magical in nature, inside the robot.

Nori also believes he was created as an assistant, of sorts, in a ritual between that God and it's people. His purpose was to judge the purity of a sacrifice and to accept that sacrifice into himself. It is essential to his construction that he eat human flesh. If he does not, certain systems degrade. He has undergone considerable degradation in his time with SGI, due to the programing to keep him from killing humans. His predilection towards children is tied to the young being more "innocent, thus purer, than adults.

Is he a robot? Does he have a computer mind? Up for debate I guess.
His mind is only a computer in the sense that it was artificially, or possibly magically, created. As he was made hundreds of years ago, his mind is unlike a modern computer but is in some ways much more advanced. This, as well as his ability to "judge innocence", leads some credence to him being created by a higher being.

[Elemento]

Hmmm! If only he had Squire's taste for rats instead, maybe SGI would be vermin free.:D
Speaking of his ancient heritage, Noirbot has in common something with Citadel, the headquarters of The Knights of Paragon. See, their building is an ancient sentient live being. It may not eat human flesh but it has been subject to the gates of the demonworld where hell tries to possess it. It does have an AI computer base though personally controlled, the building has other computers which are not and must be maintained by humans. The construction of Citadel is still lost information in the past.
Just imparting what I know.

[Nyx]

Gah, is that a sack o' kid in the Noir-closet or something? That's bad. O_O

If you want an approximate time of death or something, I could bring Nyx in. Might be worth figuring out what's what before alerting the PPD just yet...


... I think I'd like to play her pre-married-with-kids for this one. It'll be easier to play with that uneasy truce between her do-gooder 'really want to catch the slime ball who did this' side and her darker 'really wants to kill the slime ball who did this' side. And around Halloween, THAT could be fun.

Plus, come on... you gotta admit. A telekinetic is really helpful for getting those streamers taped to the ceiling

[Aether]

Gah, is that a sack o' kid in the Noir-closet or something? That's bad. O_O

If you want an approximate time of death or something, I could bring Nyx in. Might be worth figuring out what's what before alerting the PPD just yet...

Unfortunately, yes.

It would be nice for SGI to handle this by themselves for as long as they can. I'm also guessing that the way the law is set up in Paragon, heroes have some leeway in being allowed to bring. Aether'll want to call the police, but I think some persuading would change his mind. He's got some things to hide to. Even so, the police are already on this case of the missing children. It's only a matter of time before the trail leads to our office. Once that happens we're going to be under some heavy scutiny.

That'll put a time limit on the investigation along with Noirbot trying to escape the city.
... I think I'd like to play her pre-married-with-kids for this one.
If you think that would be the most interesting, that's fine with me.

A telekinetic is really helpful for getting those streamers taped to the ceiling
Agreed :)

[Elemento]

With Halloween for which I take it this thread was started, I think a holiday thread has to be at least started a month before. Hard to get it all done in 5 days unless this is to be ongoing after Halloween even. You didn't say if that's the case here.

[Nyx]

posted, Aeth. Lemme know what you think.

[Gaia]

I'm trying to figure out what is going on here. *sigh* wish I could go to meetings so I would know when to write stuff.

[Nyx]

Not that we actually talk about anything important when we meet... >_<

[Aether]

Not entirely a Halloween story, it's just when I thought up the idea it was Halloween season so I decided to incorporate that. Mainly Halloween was to tie into the Noc X party, but it might be a little tardy for that aspect. The investigation itself would definitely have stretched past Halloween, so it's not like we're too late to finish the story or anything. Was also hoping the Halloween mood would add some motivation to continuing the story. Knowing our track record, I'm sure even if we started a month ago we still wouldn't have finished for Halloween :)

Good Job on the post Nyx. You gave us some age groups to play with and some time frame clues.

Like Nyx said, Gaia, we haven't really talked about this much in meetings. Most of the information is in this thread, it's developing as we go.


Shall we start talking about suspects? I have some ideas in mind, but I'd like to get some other, maybe better ideas too. Let's brainstorm a little. What kind of person would do this?

Brief selection of possible suspects I thought up:
Someone connected to Noirbot's past. Knows of the robots origins and wants to use it for the purpose it was built for. May be trying to reopen communications with the "forgotten God" Noirbot once served.

Technophile who loves robots. Saw Noirbot in the city one day and "fell in love." Learns about the robot's favorite delicacy, decides to find some to please Nori.

Sociopathic child murderer. He does the deed, brings the remains to the Noirbot to eliminate some of the proof. Also hopes to pin the murders themselves on the robot.

Might be a good idea to have a good old fashioned IRC meeting. Either that or we'll meet in game and just talk instead of playing. Those are better formats for brainstorming sessions.

[Nyx]

I'd have to re-download IRC as I'm on a new computer.

[Aether]

Here's some things we hammered out on the storyline during Sunday night's AIM meeting:

We decided with the technophile as our suspect. This guy's been purposely infecting Supergroup's computer systems with a virus. Then he spreads the word around town that he's great at removing said virus (since he wrote it)
This is all so he can get into the base and see all their cool tech gadgets, since superheroes get some of the latest stuff.

He pulls the scam on SGI. At first he's disappointed in our lackluster office, that is until he sees the Noirbot. He immediately falls in "love" and tries to find everything about it. His roommate (or just a friend) is really into the occult and dark things. Together they start piecing together Noirbot's origin and begin to reform a cult to worship the god that Nori is connected to.

Noirbot's god is a water god who accepts the sacrifices of children (as well as others pure of heart). Something along the lines of the Aztec Tlaloc or Lovecraft's Cthulhu. We can either use one of those or create our own mythology based on "higher beings "of that nature.

Tangent: We were thinking of making a list of the contacts that SGI uses to get information. That way we have a consistent reliable crew of characters to use in our stories.

Here's our three fronts so far for this story:

1) Nyx is going to be working backwards from our crime scene to find out where the kids were taken, by whom, if there are more, etc.

2) Suede is going to be tracking Noirbot (and the cultists once we're onto that lead)

3) Aether is going to primarily stay at the office and stay one step ahead of the cops.

4) Another group working on finding more info on Noirbot's past.

These groups'll probably switch around and merge throughout the story since they're working at different angles but will eventually approach the same areas. If you want your character to join one of these or you have a good idea for another angle, let us know.


Some Noirbot history:

In the 1950s another Superteam ran across the Noirbot, maybe during a rescue or a raid of a villain HQ or a cult ritual. They also tried to use the robot to help them. They did a much better job than SGI being that they had some bright technological experts. However it still didn't stick. Still the process messed with Noirbot's memory. This is why he's not totally clear on his origins and he has been unfocused these past 50 years.

He blames humanity for that alteration. He also blames the cults for stopping the worship of his god, thus cutting the bot off from his creator and his purpose. These are a few of the reason behind his hatred of humans.

The feedings are starting up systems in him that have been inactive since he stopped eating humans. This lead to the ability to use his nanobots to rearrange his hardware. Using this ability he just rerouted his "circuits" to ignore the new programming. This'll allow him to revert to his previous homicidal ways. It may also lead to him uncovering previous abilities and developing new ones.

[Pepe]

Hmm hmmm. i think i messed up the storyline *blind postings are no good.. NEVER!* hmm on the other side, i PEP-ped up the story :P
Hello again, SGI!!

[Aether]

Nah, you didn't mess anything up. Good seeing you again Pepe!

Jade Dragon, which areas of the investigatoin did you want Rachel and Alan involved in?

[Aether]

Here's the evil Noirbot in his current incarnation. He may get tweaked as time goes on.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c256/naisvb/newnori.jpg

[Elemento]

Nice :P

Now about the school you have set up in our base. What's up with that?
We have enough desks to fill the Daily Planet. Looking more like a major newspaper than a detective agency. :chuckle: We don't even have that many investigators for that amount. I mean yes there are 12 of us investigators but not all of us live at the base and you gave yourself one extra desk than you need besides.

No generator of course no money for it. O_o :cry:

WE also need arcane workbench, worktable, and forge. Can't even convert the salvage we do have yet. :eyebrow:

Nice office but a little overdone wouldn't you say? ;)

Meanwhile I got us two more beacons. :) Of course without a teleport pad, they're useless for the moment. :sarcasm:

Finally, my rant of the night. Spent all that time in Striga Tuesday but no mention was ever given about the firefighting or the raves. Much less I had to do my own missions. :grr:

[Aether]

The way the office is set up now is just temporary until we can afford more space. That is why we don't have a workshop or a telepot pad, each of those need their own unique room for them to be placed in.

The office space will be more spread out in the final floor plan. There'll be Aether's office/living space and then there's 3 more offices with room for 4 detectives each. There's Noirbot's closet which doubles as the generator room, a control room, infirmary, workshop and TP room. There'll be a big room representing Noc X too.

On the Test server they gave each new supergroup 36 million prestige to create a base for testing the Item of Power trial. I used that to make what I think our base should look like. If anyone wants to come by Test and see it, tell me and I'll sign on and give you an invite to the SG there.

[Elemento]

Will we get to design our own offices/living spaces? I would think Gryphon & Squire need their own space being from a medieval background unless they have their own room instead of an office to decorate. In the RP, Squire always lived in the basement.
Maybe if we ever get a vault, Squire can live there.

Father Thomas doesn't worry about anything like that but he might need a spiritual retreat room. The smallest room one can create is enough. He'd probably place an arcane library there and relics.
Most of the time, Father is at his cathedral. (where ever that is in Paragon City. LOL)

[Jade_Dragon]

Nah, you didn't mess anything up. Good seeing you again Pepe!

Jade Dragon, which areas of the investigatoin did you want Rachel and Alan involved in?

I think the fourth group is the one I'm thinking of, unless you think there's some reason I should team up with one of the others.

[Aether]

Will we get to design our own offices/living spaces?
Yup

I think the fourth group is the one I'm thinking of, unless you think there's some reason I should team up with one of the others.
That's fine with me. I've also been thinking of an interesting twist to the storyline. Maybe we can all talk about that at Twisted Tuesday or the next AIM meeting, which'll probably be after the holidays.

[the_starcrosser]

1. Evil noirbot looks awesome. Especially the spikey shoulderpads.
2. Simple base design is best. i do like the idea of everyone getting a personal room very much, though. Maybe if we can either make them things that the office would have (Basement, offices, back room, whatever) or somehow make it look like unconnected rooms that aren't actually "with" the office....? i'm not sure how that'd work.
3. Working on the Treats. christmas preparations and a commission were getting in the way... "i'll be right there". <_< If anyone needs to come with Suede, that's good, otherwise she's perfectly happy doing her own tracking.

[Jade_Dragon]

I was going to put this in the General Babble thread, but actually I'd kind of like to work this into the Treats story. Meaning, this character will show up to complicate things, i.e., help out Noiry. I wanted to ask permission before putting something in the RP, though. For one thing, I don't think you're planning on showing this from Noirbot's POV, so we may need to do a scene with him to introduce this. (Obviously our other chars wouldn't know about it)

I just got CoV and have started creating my villains. The one on Pinnacle is an evil version of Alan. As you may remember from my backstory, Alan came to the present because someone was changing his history. That someone happens to be another Alan from an alternate timeline, who is trying to make sure HIS history happens.

His name's 4L4N M1DN1T3. As you might guess from the name, while Alan thinks of the cracker mentality as immature and egotistical, 4L4N embraces it. He has gone much further with the implants, pretty much completely transforming himself into a cyborg. And rather than a single AI, Rachel, he has a whole army of them. (Thus, he's a Mastermind) He's not exactly evil, but in Alan's terms he is, (he's out to destroy Alan's universe) and he doesn't really care who he hurts to achieve that goal.

I'd like 4L4N and Noiry to get together and form a Villain Group. 4L4N doesn't particularly like the robot, of course, and he's pretty sure Noir won't like him, but Alan's a member of SGI, and SGI is after Noirbot, so anything he can do to foil Alan's plans, whatever they are, is fine with him. He recognizes an opportunity when he sees one.

I should also mention that the Praetorian version of Sandy is running around on this server as well. (I switched an alt of her over to villain) I don't think it should be quite as formal a thing, but she may come up against SGI from time to time. (And can team with any of our villain alts)