Saturday, June 6, 2015
As the first week of the broadcast of the sixth version of Survival of the Fittest drew towards completion, it seemed the world could not be more saturated with news about the program. On Saturday, June 6, this was proven incorrect as the Spanish government announced that it had welcomed surviving members of a paramilitary force that stood in opposition to the terrorists responsible for the attacks. This news did not receive the unambiguously warm welcome that might have been expected. President McAllister expressed sympathy over the reported damage inflicted upon the group by the terrorists, but also condemned their propensity for independent action.
"In 2008," McAllister said at a press conference, "the organization known as STAR was widely lauded for its intervention in the fourth major external terrorist attack against an American high school. The organization managed the assassination of the terrorists' leader, and effected the rescue of twenty-nine of the captured students. This was generally considered a positive outcome.
"However, the group took it upon itself to act as judge, jury, and executioner, condemning victims of circumstance to death for actions taken under duress. Furthermore, the organization was small, its reach and resources limited. Many say that twenty-nine students survived who would not have without STAR. I say that fifty-six students, at a bare minimum, died who not have had the group approached and cooperated with the United States government.
"More than that, while the terrorists were hindered, they were not destroyed as they might have been by a coordinated assault conducted by an actual military force. Their attempt led to the terrorists tightening security and holding the remaining students hostage in more direct fashion, allowing the terrorists to escape to threaten our security and freedom once again. Indeed, the incident currently being broadcast occurred because the opportunity to put an end to the terrorists once and for all was squandered, either through some misguided attempt at heroism or some uneducated lack of trust in the government to perform one of its primary functions.
"So it is that I am saddened yet unsurprised at the fate of STAR. Fighting these terrorists is the role of the military, not of amateurs, and I urge anyone with any information whatsoever to come forward with all haste, rather than risk making the situation worse through independent action."
"That's bullshit," Jaxon Jeremiah said, not in a broadcast statement but to the assembled remnants of STAR gathered around the bed in the safe house hospital the Spanish government had located them in. "If the US was in any way competent, there would've never been a STAR—would've never been more than one abduction in the first place. They leak like a sieve. They're just trying to push off the blame for being given the slip year after year, instead of looking inwards to figure out how the AT always knows they're coming."
Morale was low, though boosted somewhat by the arrival of Torrie. Yun and Quinn remained with the V3 survivors, but communication had stabilized. After almost a month on the run, they had finally come to believe that the AT was in all likelihood no longer actively seeking them out, though tensions still ran somewhat high. The public announcement and discussion of STAR's fate had come as the result of much discussion and planning, and still nobody was particularly pleased with it.
This was doubly the case when, a few hours after the announcement, the Chinese government in turn announced that a foreigner arrested a week prior while attempting to enter the country in possession of a large amount of illegal weaponry had been tentatively identified as one Nathan Caudle, an otherwise-unaccounted-for surviving member of the group. Details were scarce, with Chinese officials insinuating both that Caudle was being held for his own protection and that he would face some sort of consequences for his crime, and at the same time claiming that he was in full cooperation with the Chinese government.
The one concrete announcement from the Chinese camp, however, was that they had learned both that STAR was largely comprised of those kidnapped in one of the test runs, and that its numbers had included students rescued during the 2007 attacks, probably between five and a dozen, most or all of whom were thought to still survive but whose identities had not yet been confirmed.
This again drew the attention of President McAllister, who suggested that the Chinese should relinquish Caudle to the United States government, invoking both his safety and his status as a United States citizen. It was clear to all involved, however, that nothing would happen quickly; this was the beginning of months, if not years, of political discussions and negotiations.
And all the while, the broadcast and surrounding media frenzy continued. If other events drew attention briefly from it, it was only due to the way they told new sides of the story, shining some new light, however faint, on the fates of the students of Cochise High School.
Monday, May 11, 2015: Undisclosed Location
Tracen's morning had been interesting to say the least. It had started off normal enough, but then one of the students had decided to set a whole building on fire. So, he'd had to go to a meeting with Greynolds and they'd outlined the plan moving forward. It wasn't a completely unexpected occurrence; ever since that one girl had tried to smash her own head in, the teams monitoring the island had been instructed to watch out for suspicious behaviors in regards to fires. In the end, they had reached a conclusion they had decided was satisfactory and that had been that. It had also seen him finish off two coffees already, so after a cursory read through his pre-written notes he felt confident enough to begin."Good morning everyone. Now I know what you're all thinking. 'Urgh, Mondays' but remember that if you're hearing this, then yet again you have survived to see another day."
Tracen smiled to himself.
"First up today, Maria Cucinotta thought she could just rant and rave to Alessio Rigano about how all killers in our game are monsters. The result of this shouldn't be surprising to all of you. It was quite obvious really."
"We can safely say that Astrid Tate did see Isabel Ramirez coming. Figuratively and literally as Isabel blinded her and then let her try to escape before slitting her throat. Such needless cruelty, keep it up."
Tracen's eyes scanned over the joke he had written down for the next death and quickly considered a new one that had just appeared in his head. After a split-second of thought he went with the new one.
"I've heard of bringing a knife to a gun fight but Travis Lynch decided to bring fists instead and Jeremiah Fury showed him how stupid an idea that was but shooting him to death. So luckily reality stays intact another day."
"Arthur Bernstein met with some foul luck when he ended up being shot by Coleen Reagan. His own ally."
Tracen clicked his tongue dramatically, the shaking of his head was something the students could all imagine.
"Just goes to show you that you can't trust anybody."
"In an...I think I should say interesting decision Junko Kurosawa attacked Jeremy Frasier for 'giving up'. You can insert your own finger quotes as needed. Ironically, this awakened Jeremy's desire to survive and he shot her in the chest to do so. Well done Miss Kurosawa, that worked out well for you."
He looked down at the next death on his list and chuckled to himself.
"It seems we have one of these every day, but sometimes people just aren't cut for life I guess. Today it was Natalie Winters turn after she sat on a particularly unsteady part of the slopes which gave way, causing her to fall to her death. Sometimes you provide the comedy for me kids and for that I thank you."
"We have to say goodbye to someone who had a lot of potential to go far in our game now since Scout Pfeiffer shot Alvaro Vacanti to death. A shame, he seemed like he was going places, now he's just going to the birds I guess."
"Good news to all of you budding killers out there as even more space has opened up. As after a brief conversation Nancy Kyle was stabbed to death by Kimiko Kao. Disappointing but at least Nancy can be remembered for the memories she gave all of us.
Tracen took a quick sip of water and looked over the final two deaths on his list. It had been a good day.
"We're into the home stretch now and it looks like we have a duel, a one-on-one fight to finish, two men entering and one leaving, you get the idea. To cut to the chase, Michael Crowe and Alex Tarquin had a fight and Michael lost."
"And finally today we have quite the messy one as Eliza Luz met Isabel Ramirez on the beach, and we all know how this story ends. Apparently it ends with your own cousin trying to put you out of your misery. Maybe next time you try to do someone a favor Lily Caldwell, you actually do them a favor. That'd be more help."
"Our danger zone today is a pretty simple one, the Staff Social Areas are off limits to all of you. That's the gym, library and pub for those of you that struggle with reading a map."
"Of course no announcement would be complete without the announcement of the Best Kill Award and today's winner as voted by the cafeteria is Jeremy Frasier. Your prize can be found in the gym, try not to walk past it in the dark."
DAY SIX: MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015
Weather: The sky has remained clear and the sun has even made an appearance but temperature has steadily fallen to 46 degrees f, 8 degrees C. The wind has leveled out however and only a light breeze is present travelling across the island. It's six days after the full moon. The fifth announcement will come at 9 AM on May 12.
As is tradition with these announcements we need rolls and here they are:
1. Alba Reyes (Laurels) - Nadia Riva (Laurels, Swap card used)
2. Kaitlyn Greene (D/N)
3. Coleen Reagen (MK Kilmarnock) - Will McKinley (Inge, Hero card used)
4. Kimiko Kao (Deamon) - Lucilly Peterson (Bikriki, Hero card used)
5. Alex Tarquin (Grim Wolf)
Then the three days for cards...
And the seven for deaths...
Finally, congratulations go out to CondorTalon for the death of Nancy Kyle. We'll get the quote nomination thread up shortly.
And, a brief OOC discussion. The first section relates primarily to the handlers of surviving V3 characters, and outlines their usage in Meanwhile as promised in the V6 Meanwhile Rules. The second section briefly addresses metaplot direction and handler participation moving forward.
V3 Handlers:
With STAR in shambles, the V3 students are left in a difficult position, yet one full of opportunities. As the world has finally become aware of their survival, they are now able to reemerge if they so desire. At the same time, while the terrorists have no real intention to hunt the V3 survivors down, they have of course not shared that information, leaving remaining in hiding a perfectly logical and viable choice for the characters. What your survivors do is, in general, up to you. There are only a few restrictions, as follows:
- Eight characters were slated to survive the V3 escape attempt. The list of these characters may be found here if you were involved in the plotline; if not, you won't get anything by clicking that link. The survival of four of these characters (Maxie Dasai, Brad Kavanagh, Matt Wittany, and Neil Sinclair) has already been confirmed by their presence in the V3 Epilogue. The remaining four characters are in limbo, as their handlers never posted to that thread with them. These four unconfirmed characters may be confirmed alive at any time, at the discretion of their handlers, and may be used in Meanwhile and/or the V3 Epilogue as desired and appropriate.
- However, until such time as their handlers post with them or make an official statement regarding their fates, the unconfirmed V3 survivors are canonically in flux—their handlers could, if they so desired, come back and declare that their characters actually died during the V3 escape, or at some point thereafter. As such, if you are using a V3 survivor in Meanwhile, please do not make comment on the death or survival of the four unconfirmed characters. This restriction goes away for a character once their handler confirms them as dead or alive, or gives permission to note them as such to you (in which case, please forward that permission to the staff team). Characters who are not on the survivor list remain canonically dead, though please exercise discretion and courtesy when referring to them such that you respect the wishes of their handlers, given that many of their stories were left hanging due to the method of resolution of the V3 escape plotline.
- The V3 survivors were, by default, spirited away to a safe location during the STAR operations of V6. If you would like something else to have happened with/to your V3 survivor, chat with staff. Staff wants to work with you, and if it's vaguely reasonable (your character was in hiding elsewhere, having abandoned STAR some time before, say), it should be totally fine. Your character cannot have been part of one of the STAR operations themselves unless they died in said operation, since the list of survivors of those operations is catalogued and small.
- V3 survivors cannot surface to the public before June 6, 2015. At that point, however, you can do whatever you want with them, within the confines of regular Meanwhile rules. V3 survivors can easily join the other STAR remnants seeking asylum in Spain, can reveal their personal survival and return to the US or go to some other country, or can go to ground with a fake identity—STAR retains just enough resources to help them into hiding if they so desire. If you want to do something that might push the realism situation (refounding a new STAR or equivalent organization, say), please chat with staff. The V3 survivors are in a unique situation, and that does afford them certain opportunities other characters might lack. Staff just want you to communicate if you wish to pursue these options, to make sure that they are handled in a way in keeping with current site standards.
- If you want to detail periods of your character's time with STAR, either prior to the V6 operations or during the time between them and the revelation of the survival of V3 students to the public, please run your work by staff to make sure there are no continuity tangles.
One thing staff is very clear on, however: if you have a character who was supposed to survive, the only one who can change that is you. SOTF is a game about the deaths of characters, but that is only inevitable in the context of the island (and, perhaps, on an extremely long time scale). During a game, staff will sometimes mandate character death through rolls, danger zones, and inactivity. Outside of that, the only ways staff will kill one of your characters without your direct and explicit approval are if that character happens to have been created in the line of staff duties (a terrorist, government official, STAR member who was not a V3 survivor, or other plot-important character) or as a shared NPC (a teacher who's not, say, the parent of one of your characters) or if their death is the only possible realistic result of a course of action you choose to have them pursue (jumping at Danya with a primed grenade held in their teeth), in which case staff will endeavor to inform you of such and offer you the opportunity to change course if you so desire. This isn't necessarily a stance that has been made explicit in the past, but here it is now.
All Handlers:
STAR has historically been a driving force of resistance against the AT and the SOTF program. With its general crippling, it is no longer able to serve in such capacity. This does not mean that the world of SOTF is 100% bleak, that there is no possibility of pushback or damage to the terrorists. It does, however, mean that such is likely to come either from those organizations with real world analogues typically responsible for such things (the assorted military, police, and intelligence organizations of various national powers; Interpol; etc.) or as the result of handler choices and actions.
This does not mean that staff wants or will allow handlers to immediately create a group of professional terrorist hunters in Meanwhile to step in where STAR left off. As always, rules of realism and established facts about the SOTF universe apply. However, we are committed to support the continued evolution of the SOTF story, and as always the actions and interests of handlers are key to shaping that.
If your writing in any way brushes up against STAR or the metaplot, we ask that you consult with staff throughout the process and respect all staff decisions. Various characters have made attempts to contact or investigate STAR previously, and the current situation has opened new avenues of information in some respects for such endeavors, particularly with the possible return to visibility of the V3 survivors. The surviving members of STAR itself are generally neither willing nor able to meet with anyone, but again, staff are always willing to listen and consider. However, at the same time, please be aware that Meanwhile and other non-island RPing represents a fairly low staff priority, and thus responses to queries, especially during busy times of the game, may be quite slow.
Please contact staff if you have any further questions or concerns. Thank you for your time and attention, and have fun in Meanwhile and the rest of V6.
