It seems like a lot of people are lost, confused or afraid to say anything. (Quotes below serve as evidence, bolding mine)
I've honestly just lost track of the plot a few dozen updates ago.
I know this is humorous, but like...
You have here a
tremendously complex quest with a ridiculous number of moving parts (like
@NonSequtur, I actually
cannot track everything that's happening right now) that is highly reliant on a specific set of posters who provide incredibly lengthy write-ins, deep insight, etc. With those people not as active for their various reasons, things are going to slow down dramatically. I get that it's sucky when posts drop and voters don't discuss things - I hate it when it happens in my own quests too - but in this case you are expecting a lot more than is reasonable from your readers.
Yea p much. I have to third the statement that this quest has gone above and beyond the average quest in terms of well... everything.
Don't get me wrong. That's a really good thing. It's just that nobody wants to stick their hands into this really complicated grandfather clock when they have no idea what is going on anymore.
This quest is absolutely amazing and I love reading it. I also never vote because while Mage enables absolutely amazing stories, the powers are even more complicated than the social interaction, and I can't handle the second of those, let alone the first. There not really anything besides those two topics that get voted on, since combat tactics rely utterly on what the person in question is capable of.
I like stories like these even though I have have lost track of everything going on because I trust that the author will wrap it all up in the end and along the way remind me of all the lose threads. There's a certain joy to that, "Oh yeah! I remember that part! This has totally been in the works the whole time!" feeling.
Now, I'm often slow on the uptake. But I also just finished reading this through, like, a couple months ago I guess. And I don't know where any of the characters are at who have not been recently mentioned, including the protagonist who is my favorite character in this story. I have no idea how people who experienced the stuff written a year ago a year ago keep track. I figure they've got notes or they're just better at things like that.
For, you know, whatever the words of Johnny-come-lately are worth.
I do really enjoy this story. It's got me feeling like running Mage again, something I've only done once in the past decade. And I do look forward to the conclusion.
Pretty much given up on being involved in the planning for most of a year already. I've little idea why we wrote ourselves here or what we intend to do next anymore.
The
last time I got involved in the actual how and why of the quest, I got fucking banned.
I'll stick to dumb jokes, please and thank you.
I haven't been actually useful for hundreds of pages now.
If this is actually the last arc, I'm now doubting stuff like will we ever see Alice meet Jamelia and/or Harlan (on-screen) again. (Or even that she has any real confirmation that Serafina is okay after Mexico.) Or, hell, that Serafina will ever realize her best friend turned out to be her boss's daughter.
Discussion is necessary for me to actually write the next updates because even if your specific votes don't win, oftentimes the tone of the discussion will shift the options and the plot. It also helps keep this quest active and engaging for me, which is important.
Newsflash. My write-ins often involve stealing and prettying-up other people's ideas. Talking about things gets me persuaded in your direction. Just making Shinji Wank jokes doesn't help one goddamn bit.
The main Authors want people talking to get moving. So the meta problem is: How do we get people talking when no one knows what's going on? If I might be so bold, I have a suggestion. I think people should start asking questions about what they are unsure about and we'll utilize the collective wisdom of the thread to answer them. If you have a question, probably someone has an answer. I'll start by answering some myself. (feel free to add corrections, insight, and more questions. Me, and hopefully some other people will try and answer them.)
1.) Who is here and how did we get into this situation?
Answer: Rose is a combat construct, specifically made through the EXEMPLAR program. The EXEMPLAR program was designed to bring back famous figures in the Union's history by cloning them, and giving the clones the closest memories to the originals that was possible. Rose was considered a "failure" when she failed to exhibit the personality of Reina Lior. Reina Lior was in charge of the International Brotherhood of Mechanicians (IBM). IBM was like a proto-Iteration X. Reina was heavily involved in the creation of the Computer. The Computer became in charge of Iteration X, and was possessed by a spirit from the planet Autocthonia. No one noticed this because Iterators are bad at Spirit/Dimensional Science. Rose later developed a personality of her own. Serafina and the other EXEMPLARs looked after Rose. To the other EXEMPLARs Rose was like a younger sibling. To Serafina Rose was like a child.
Serafina worked on this project at some point after she left Damian. Damian is a Technocracy school that Serafina, Alice, and Alicia went to. Alicia is Serafina's Avatar, who first appeared as an imaginary friend when Serafina was alone and needed to get out and do things. Alice is Jamelia's daughter, and was taught at Damian to be a Psycic NWO agent. I forget the name of who taught her, but it was a senior NWO agent personally grooming her. The 3 got into trouble at Damian. Serafina made a boyfriend for herself. The boyfriend's name is Cross, and he is now in a senior position in Damage Control. Damage Control is a Progenitor agency that goes after Progenitors messing with things they shouldn't. Alice ran away from Damian. Serafina's parents found out about Alicia, and decided she was a problem. They enlisted neurosurgeon Leon Gregor to help fix this "hallucination". It mostly succeeded and it would be years before Alicia would resurface.
Eventually, Gregor was enlisted by Control. Control was in charge of the Technocracy, in some form or another, for most of it's entire history. In 1999 the Techocracy killed an ancient vampire called an "Antideluvian". An organization known as Ragnarok Command was formed to deal with the vampire. (General Starborn is currently in charge of Ragnarock Command) This Antideluvian had godlike powers and ultimately required spirit nukes to defeat. These spirit nukes caused a massive storm in the spirit world/other dimensions. This storm was known as the Avatar Storm, or the Dimensional Anomaly. In this storm Control (and many other members of the Union) were stranded from the rest of the world.
Control had largely become out of touch with the rest of the Technocracy because it was so far away from the Earth. Also, in the man made spirit worlds Control lived in, they could control the environment to allow for science not possible or feasible back on Earth. That level of control over their environment could sometimes also contribute to being out of touch with the practical limitations of Earth.
It's not healthy to be trapped in the Spirit World, especially when the Avatar Storm is occurring. This lead to a process known as Void Adaption, where Control basically became spirits. Spirits are a lot less flexible than regular humans in how they operate, and are prone to falling into extremes and stereotypes of their former forms. The spirit form of Control became known as Threat Null. Threat Null believes themselves to be the rightful leaders of the Union and wants to return home to be in charge of the Union's affairs.
In Threat Null, the Progenitors became the Transhumans. The Syndicate became the Residents. The NWO became the Agency. Iteration X became the Autopolitans. The Void Engineers became the Subjugation Corps.
A woman named Catherine Nichols, who left the Union back after the challenger disaster, created the Nichols Relays to keep Threat Null at bay. The Nichols Relays perpetuate the Avatar Storm/ Dimensional Anomaly. The Void Engineers lost their Star Trek-like leadership in the Dimensional Anomaly and ended up becoming paranoid Space Marines to fight Threat Null.
The other Conventions also changed after the Dimensional Anomaly. The Syndicate lost a Methodology (a Methodology is a subdivision of a Convention) known as the SPD. The SPD or Special Projects Division was in charge of R&D in the Syndicate. The SPD subcontracted most of this R&D out to a company known as Pentex. Pentex was formed in a merger between Proctor Investment house and Premium Oil. Proctor Investment house was founded by Proctor, a Syndicate bigshot who was instrumental in the organization of the modern Union. Premium Oil was secretly run by a powerful corruptive spirit with a hatred for Werewolves who specifically promotes pollution and immoral behavior. Pentex's true leadership went undiscovered by the Syndicate for over a hundred years (because
again the Syndicate doesn't really have people who know Dimensional Science aka Spirit). Pentex's corruption was finally discovered by Donald Sykes.
Donald Sykes was a member of the Cult of Ecstasy. The Cult of Ecstasy is a member of the Traditions (an ancient cabal of magic users and science the Union cast off) dedicated to sex, drugs and rock and roll. The Cult of Ecstasy is supposed to be about using these mediums to look at the world through different perspectives to transcend barriers of space, time, and the laws of physics in hopes of reaching higher levels of understanding of the universe (Enlightenment, aka Arete).
Donald was tired that the Cult of Ecstasy claimed high ideals of Enlightenment, but in practice mostly sat around played music and consumed drugs. This came to a head when the guys Donald hung out with tried to summon a Spirit abomination of some kind. Donald decided then to turn his back on everything and everyone he knew to join their hated enemies, the Technocracy. The Technocracy has the personnel and resources to actually make a difference in the world. Donald alerted the Void Engineers about the spirit abomination and requested to join the Technocracy.
In the Technocracy, Donald was placed into the SPD and, from his experience on the other side, discovered the spiritual corruption others had missed. To shut him up, he was promoted to a position in the Financiers as a CEO.
Someone else should probably explain Henriette, Jamelia, and Kessler.
Also I'm still a little confused as to what this was supposed to mean:
"Robert Yi. Born San Francisco, California 1946. Died 1969. Former SFPD officer and Reality Deviant. Confirmed KIA in Eureka, California, by HELMETSHRIKE Operation ARGENT PAPERCLIP. Classified ORCON/VIGILANCE. Officer in Charge: Director Julius Butcher.
Can someone go through and try to make sense of the references? I think there's supposed to be a reference to General Aleph of Panopticon in here and I remember that HELMETSHRIKE and VIGILANCE have something to do with Jameila, but I don't remember the details.
Someone else should probably go over the above in more depth, but at least it's a start to understanding what's supposed to be going on in this vote.
WARNING. By committing to this action you will initiate the endgame. All sidequests and secondary missions will be canceled.
Interrogation, Part 2:
Donald knows he has to be part of the assault. At a distance, anyways. He will manage to get there by...
[ ] Convincing Rose that he needs to be able to help, and just because he's gotten hurt again and again is no reason to keep him from helping this time.
[ ] Convincing Cross that he's undermanned and underequipped and needs all the help he can get.
[ ] Wildcard Write In Option: Win Piero's respect? Talk to General Starborn? Who knows? Well, you do.
Reunion:
Serafina is coming back. How is she going to react to Rose? To Donald? To everything that's happened that they can tell her? Discuss.
[ ] Discuss.
PS: Who exactly is Piero again?
