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Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns

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Arcus said:
Hmm, so thinking about the vote, I think it's best to approach it as being about what kind of story we want to tell, for this last arc.

Basically it's asking a question:

Is Jamelia a assassin, who goes to meet her daughter knowing full well she might well end up having to kill her own child?

Is Jamelia a soldier, who packs like she's expecting a fight, who sees the world as a battlefield and knows her enemies view things the same way?

Or is Jamelia a woman, who goes to meet with her long estranged daughter, perhaps looking for some sort of forgiveness or closure?

All of these describe Jamelia to an extent, but I get the read that this vote is about which aspect we want to emphasize the most.

Or to put it another way, MJ tends to calibrate the encounters based on our votes. If we pick Soldier, he'll take that as a sign that people want gunfights with lots of explosions, while if we vote for Woman or Assassin he'll take that people are more interested in seeing Jamelia trying to track down her lost daughter, doing superspy things, playing hide-and-seek with an implacable and hyperintelligent apex predator, etc. You know, that sort of thing.
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I agree with this in general, except to say that "Assassin" is preparing for a whole lot more in the way of possibilities than "might have to kill own child". There are a great many other people in the world that she might have to kill instead, from having gotten near said child... or this could be a setup, and her child isn't there at all.

I will say that "Woman" is a particularly interesting choice because she knows better. She *knows* that going with Woman is going in underprepared for whatever happens. It is taking a completely unnecessary risk for what are, essentially, thematic reasons... and she's a mage, with a fair amount of Fate magic, and a fair amount of untechocratic heresy in her, which makes this a meaningful sacrifice. Given the number of highly charged icons floating around, it's a potentially significant working - sacrificing most of the trappings of her old life, and their protections and built-in power, and accepting a very real chance of dying as a result, in exchange for... something. It's not really clear what. It's the same sacrifice she's making following this one up *at all*, in some ways, but doubling down on it.

I'm not saying it's a good idea. It's clearly not. If it was a good idea, it wouldn't be a sacrifice. I'm not even saying I support it. I'm voting Assassin. I'm saying that it's *interesting*, and not as completely crazy as it looks at first glance, and it has some depths to it.
 
Remember, the problem isn't that bad things happen when Jamelia goes on vacation, the problem is that Jamelia tries to do work during vacations.

So maybe, just maybe, she should try not to do work and just relax for once. :V


At an IC level, going in with a duffel bag of heavy weapons may very well alert Clock to our presence if she has someone watching the airports. Even if she doesn't, Panopticon almost certainly still has a few undercover assets embedded in the Technocracy. Going in as a mostly normal tourist? Jamelia is very good at slipping under the radar.
 
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Sirrocco said:
I agree with this in general, except to say that "Assassin" is preparing for a whole lot more in the way of possibilities than "might have to kill own child". There are a great many other people in the world that she might have to kill instead, from having gotten near said child... or this could be a setup, and her child isn't there at all.

I will say that "Woman" is a particularly interesting choice because she knows better. She *knows* that going with Woman is going in underprepared for whatever happens. It is taking a completely unnecessary risk for what are, essentially, thematic reasons... and she's a mage, with a fair amount of Fate magic, and a fair amount of untechocratic heresy in her, which makes this a meaningful sacrifice. Given the number of highly charged icons floating around, it's a potentially significant working - sacrificing most of the trappings of her old life, and their protections and built-in power, and accepting a very real chance of dying as a result, in exchange for... something. It's not really clear what. It's the same sacrifice she's making following this one up *at all*, in some ways, but doubling down on it.

I'm not saying it's a good idea. It's clearly not. If it was a good idea, it wouldn't be a sacrifice. I'm not even saying I support it. I'm voting Assassin. I'm saying that it's *interesting*, and not as completely crazy as it looks at first glance, and it has some depths to it.
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I'm reminded of when it was said that Jamelia and Alice both defeated Blanc in their own ways, by growing beyond being an assassin. Maybe this is that? Choosing Vacation over Assassin.

Also this is the beach episode, right? With explosions in the background.
 
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[X] The last picture of Amalgam-451, taken after Izanagi and before the start of its dissolution. Everyone in the picture is smiling, even her.
[X] The Woman: Jamelia is mostly packing like she's actually going on a vacation. Mostly-she realizes how many people might want to take a shot at her.
 
Arcus said:
Or to put it another way, MJ tends to calibrate the encounters based on our votes. If we pick Soldier, he'll take that as a sign that people want gunfights with lots of explosions, while if we vote for Woman or Assassin he'll take that people are more interested in seeing Jamelia trying to track down her lost daughter, doing superspy things, playing hide-and-seek with an implacable and hyperintelligent apex predator, etc. You know, that sort of thing.
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I'd absolutely love it if this was a more meta vote, and the third choice would somehow help avoid getting into a firefight. But, uh, it won't. Unfortunately. There will be gunfire and explosions no matter what. And Jamelia knows this.
 
[X] A paper menu from Cafe Dar, which has inexplicably stayed open for the intervening decades after Illiyeen left its employ.
[X] The Soldier: Jamelia is packing like she might end up having to fight a war. Just like the old days in Helmetshrike. Now, most people would struggle to get this through airport security, but being a Technocrat has its advantages. She's bringing:

Let's remember Jam's current state. She's operating solo, with little backup. She is following a suspicious tip-off. And the last off-the-books meeting ended with Winston trying to kill her.

How does she know Alice hasn't been flipped? Or this isn't a ploy from Ms Clock? Or it could just be a Traditions ambush to take her off the table because... well, she's her. She's not paranoid. People and inhuman god-machines really are out to get her.

The nice thing about good quality armour and a nice gun is that you don't have to use them, but having them there opens up so many options vis a vis problem solving and not-dying. Let's end this not making the recurring mistake of not being ready for when things invariably go wrong.

Meanwhile, the menu is a marker of the past, of going all the way back to the start. It's a marker of the Illiyeen who went looking for the truth and found it and has nice thematic resonance with what Jams is up to now.
 
Arcus said:
So maybe, just maybe, she should try not to do work and just relax for once. :V
(...)
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Heresy:V

[X] The Soldier: Jamelia is packing like she might end up having to fight a war. Just like the old days in Helmetshrike. Now, most people would struggle to get this through airport security, but being a Technocrat has its advantages.
 
[X] A paper menu from Cafe Dar, which has inexplicably stayed open for the intervening decades after Illiyeen left its employ.
[X] The Soldier: Jamelia is packing like she might end up having to fight a war. Just like the old days in Helmetshrike. Now, most people would struggle to get this through airport security, but being a Technocrat has its advantages. She's bringing:
 
[x] The last picture of Amalgam-451, taken after Izanagi and before the start of its dissolution. Everyone in the picture is smiling, even her.
[x] The Assassin: Jamelia is packing like she might need to end up killing someone quietly, either up close or from a distance.
 
[x] The last picture of Amalgam-451, taken after Izanagi and before the start of its dissolution. Everyone in the picture is smiling, even her.
[x] The Assassin: Jamelia is packing like she might need to end up killing someone quietly, either up close or from a distance.

It's a choice between the menu and this picture really and I doubt either are wrong. Just that of the two I just prefer the idea that Jamelia was changed by her time with the Amalgam -451.
 
[X] A paper menu from Cafe Dar, which has inexplicably stayed open for the intervening decades after Illiyeen left its employ.
[X] The Soldier: Jamelia is packing like she might end up having to fight a war. Just like the old days in Helmetshrike. Now, most people would struggle to get this through airport security, but being a Technocrat has its advantages. She's bringing:
 
[X] A paper menu from Cafe Dar, which has inexplicably stayed open for the intervening decades after Illiyeen left its employ.
[X] The Soldier: Jamelia is packing like she might end up having to fight a war. Just like the old days in Helmetshrike. Now, most people would struggle to get this through airport security, but being a Technocrat has its advantages. She's bringing:
 
[X] The last picture of Amalgam-451, taken after Izanagi and before the start of its dissolution. Everyone in the picture is smiling, even her.
[X] The Soldier: Jamelia is packing like she might end up having to fight a war. Just like the old days in Helmetshrike. Now, most people would struggle to get this through airport security, but being a Technocrat has its advantages. She's bringing
 
[X] A paper menu from Cafe Dar, which has inexplicably stayed open for the intervening decades after Illiyeen left its employ.
[X] The Assassin: Jamelia is packing like she might need to end up killing someone quietly, either up close or from a distance.
 
[X] The last picture of Amalgam-451, taken after Izanagi and before the start of its dissolution. Everyone in the picture is smiling, even her.
[X] The Woman: Jamelia is mostly packing like she's actually going on a vacation. Mostly-she realizes how many people might want to take a shot at her.
 
[X] The last picture of Amalgam-451, taken after Izanagi and before the start of its dissolution. Everyone in the picture is smiling, even her.
[X] The Soldier: Jamelia is packing like she might end up having to fight a war. Just like the old days in Helmetshrike. Now, most people would struggle to get this through airport security, but being a Technocrat has its advantages. She's bringing
 
So it looks like Entropy 5 and Time 4 won, as did going for the Assassin kit, which probably doesn't mean that she's putting significant thought into how to murder Illiyeen's daughter.

Significant thought, that is. She's obviously planning on how to do it, because that's what Jamelia does.
 
MJ12 Commando said:
So it looks like Entropy 5 and Time 4 won, as did going for the Assassin kit, which probably doesn't mean that she's putting significant thought into how to murder Illiyeen's daughter.

Significant thought, that is. She's obviously planning on how to do it, because that's what Jamelia does.
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That's a bit strange. Wouldn't Assassin, followed by Soldier indicate more thought being put into murdering Illiyeen's daughter?
 
Shard said:
That's a bit strange. Wouldn't Assassin, followed by Soldier indicate more thought being put into murdering Illiyeen's daughter?
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Oh, she expects that she'll have to murder *someone*. That's just how her life goes. It's just that it's relatively unlikely to be her daughter (hopefully).

The fact that she's cherishing such hopes... well, she *has* been losing a bit of her edge, in some ways.
 
Is there an elaboration somewhere as though the exact means by which each convention would conquer the rest of the union, incidentally? I remember each convention except the progenitors having a plan by which they would do such a thing.
 
Shard said:
Is there an elaboration somewhere as though the exact means by which each convention would conquer the rest of the union, incidentally? I remember each convention except the progenitors having a plan by which they would do such a thing.
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And the Progenitors didn't only because their plan was So Very Obvious.
 
Shard said:
Is there an elaboration somewhere as though the exact means by which each convention would conquer the rest of the union, incidentally? I remember each convention except the progenitors having a plan by which they would do such a thing.
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ItX: Cyborgs, plasma guns, and cyborgs with plasma guns.
NWO: Disruptive phone calls and silenced weapons.
Syndicate: $$$
VE: Plasma Gun 2: Plasma Gun Harder
 
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