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poly_tldr2010-06-08 10:00 pm
laszlo-jamf.livejournal.com) wrote in poly_tldr2010-06-08 10:00 pm
Oh Yeah, He'll Blind You With Science
Prof. Dr. Laszlo Jamf is bored of your antics. He's tired of being a paperpusher. He's fed up with triplicate forms in pretty colors. He disliked these aspects of academia. He packed up his lunchpail and went to work for Yoyodyne over that one, back in the days before he started hating covalent bonds.
Laszlo Jamf wants to do science.
And he wants to do science on your character.
The Nature of the Residents of the City: A Proposal for On-Going and TL;DR Experimental Studies
Hypothesis
The people of the City are a mass of apparent contradictions and psychological peculiarities. They seem simultaneously powerful and weak, connected and isolated, alive and dead. These apparent contradictions can and should be harnessed and explored for the sake of science, the greater use of the City, and the City's population at large.
(In other words, this is a BS hypothesis that will let Laszlo do whatever the hell he wants, but read on...)
Methodology
ICly, Laszlo Jamf will be kidnapping/snatching/taking/grabbing one (1) character and using him or her in a series of ethically questionable (to say the least) experiments. (Note: if this goes well, and I hope it does, there's a good chance that he'll take more than one character at a time in a later experiment. We're starting with one, but only starting.)
OOCly, in order to make sure everyone who wants in on this plan will have a fair shake, I'm going to be making good use of online random number generators. I know these random number generators aren't really "random" in a statistical sense, but it should provide enough randomness for this use.
1. Each player who volunteers his or her character(s) will be randomly assigned a number between 1 and the total number of volunteers (x) with no numbers being repeated, using an online random number generator. I will be using the number of players rather than characters to make the odds more even for everyone involved. This way, someone who volunteers one character has the same odds as someone who volunteers two characters.
2. I will then use an online random number generator again to choose a number between 1 and X. I'll then notify the winning player (the character might disagree on the "winning" part) on the organizational post. If the player plays more than one character, he or she can then choose which character will be involved, and we'll talk plots.
3. I don't have a set series of IC experiments for the character to endure in this plot because I'd like to build it up around what you, the player, would like and whatever interesting things there might be in the character (magic powers, peculiar psychology, a rebellious streak, particular intelligence, &c.). So, for all one knows, maybe Laszlo had his eye on your character for some time now...
4. If you'd rather not participate after being chosen or after volunteering, that's fine too, but please let me know. I'll renumber the list and rerun the method described above.
5. Likewise, I'd love to run this plot more than once, but not so often that it becomes stale, obvious, or predictable. I've got lots of variations in my head (two characters at once, a captured character naming another one in his or her place, three characters at once, Lord of the Flies survival trials, City!dead characters in particular, &c.).
Plots
So. Now what? Well, now Laszlo or one or some of his NPC assistants come upon your character in a method of your preference: a chase, a midnight snatch-and-grab, an unfortunate meeting, a little chloroform, a trap, a lure, a deity trade gone bad, whatever you'd like (and I'm glad to throw out ideas). Either way, your character gets caught by one Prof. Dr. Laszlo Jamf and is now Subject Number 1 in one of his famous experiments.
The character will be carted off somewhere and messed with. Maybe they're made to relive a particular memory over and over again. Maybe they're put in a maze and made to escape. Maybe it's good old Pavlovian bells and shocks. Maybe it's the Milgram Experiment all over again with the screaming in the voice of their best friend (in the City or not). Maybe they're told that if they kill their way through a crowd of NPCs, the door at the far side of the room will take them home (the door is a lie). Maybe they're made into a spy or a snitch for the deities. Maybe they're made into a human weapon. Maybe it's far more elaborate than that. We can play it as you'd like, but know that I have a whole stash of horrible and ethically unsound things I can think of and am willing to toss your way. It won't be a pleasant experiment. Hallucenogens may or may not be involved.
But wait, there's more: Your character is more than welcome to keep his or her own Network device throughout this ordeal, steal Laszlo's network device when the opportunity presents itself, find a telephone, manage to get on a computer, rig an intercom to connect to the Network, &c. In other words, being involved in this will by no means knock a character out of play. At all. Desperate, gasping, terrified posts to the Network are always exciting. And they'll alert people to one's predicament, won't they?
Yes, that's right! Escape attempts, rescue parties, old-fashioned detective-work, and successful ends for all of the above are more than welcome. So get yourselves organized! You've gotan experimental subject a friend to locate and save! (Also, if you have a character who, for whatever reason, might want to help Laszlo rather than rescue a fellow citizen, that's fine too--drop a line, and we'll talk plottage and plans and generally act twisted.)
And where is Laszlo, after all? Maybe he's in his labs at the office building? Maybe he's in the underground? What about the City Labs? Or what if he's in the Shadow City? Look high and low, watch for clues, pay attention to what those desperate Network posts might say or hint or show in the background. Or, you know, just go pounding on doors. Whatever your method is, of course. Laszlo himself will be making Network posts during the duration of the experiment. He might or might not be hiding his responsibility for all this. He's a deity. He doesn't give a damn.
If you'd prefer a character not get rescued but rather bet set loose, that is completely okay too. They can wake up on their lawn with a sore ass from anal probing, a microchip in their neck, an eartag, and a radio-tracking collar, or whatever you'd like. They can be told they were a failed experiment and thrown out as inconclusive. They can escape on their own (or did they?), half-mad and trailing electrodes. However you'd like to play it. And once the character is out, certainly, they can tell all they endured and start a riot or a revolution against it all, if you want.
Because, really, isn't there going to be some kind of repercussion for all these inhumane experiments? Oh, well...You might just be able to catch Prof. Dr. Laszlo Jamf. Yes. You read that right. We can work it out so that you can catch the Professor Doctor. What you do with him thereafter is rather up to you (throw him in prison, stuff him in a box, hang him), but know that the other deities probably won't stand for it. He won't die--the way no one really dies in the City, and how does one kill a god anyway? (Truth be told, I would love for him to get caught, arrested, put through a trial, executed, all of that after an experiment or two. Yes, I'm serious. Let's talk!)
Either way, science marches on--! And there will be a need for a Subject Number 2.
Duration
I'll leave the duration of this whole ordeal largely up to the player involved. I don't want to interfere with any other plots or curses or ideas that you might have planned. However, this ordeal would ideally last three or four days at the least and a week or two at the most.
This plot will run concurrent with any curses or other plots that might be going on. Curses will not stop or change during this plot, even if there is a deity behind this one.
Results
Both the short- and long-term effects of these experiments I will leave up to you, the player, as you understand your character and his or her mind best. I can suggest things, if you'd like, of course. Nightmares are a good idea, as are flashbacks, general discomfort and stress, claustrophobia, anxiety over the deities, fears of specific situations the character was put in, specific psychological damage, &c. It's a pretty good opportunity to explore the weirder recesses of a character's mind and what the after-effects of this situation might be. Of course I don't want to shove a character into OOC-land with this plot, so I'll leave the specifics up to you, the player.
Laszlo will be drawing his own conclusions from it all, the bastard.
Conclusions
TBD upon completion of the experiment.
And, yes, that's what this was all about~ I admit, it's something of an elaborate plot, and I apologize for my tl;dr. And, yep, it's mod-approved♥ If you have any questions (or even suggestions), feel free to ask and I'll be glad to answer. And, if you're interested, feel free to get yourselves organized in this post. Also, if you'd like to know what, um, inspired or precipitated this, check out this film (potential squick warning!).
So...any volunteers~? I'll be taking volunteers for the next day or two!
Laszlo Jamf wants to do science.
And he wants to do science on your character.
The Nature of the Residents of the City: A Proposal for On-Going and TL;DR Experimental Studies
Hypothesis
The people of the City are a mass of apparent contradictions and psychological peculiarities. They seem simultaneously powerful and weak, connected and isolated, alive and dead. These apparent contradictions can and should be harnessed and explored for the sake of science, the greater use of the City, and the City's population at large.
(In other words, this is a BS hypothesis that will let Laszlo do whatever the hell he wants, but read on...)
Methodology
ICly, Laszlo Jamf will be kidnapping/snatching/taking/grabbing one (1) character and using him or her in a series of ethically questionable (to say the least) experiments. (Note: if this goes well, and I hope it does, there's a good chance that he'll take more than one character at a time in a later experiment. We're starting with one, but only starting.)
OOCly, in order to make sure everyone who wants in on this plan will have a fair shake, I'm going to be making good use of online random number generators. I know these random number generators aren't really "random" in a statistical sense, but it should provide enough randomness for this use.
1. Each player who volunteers his or her character(s) will be randomly assigned a number between 1 and the total number of volunteers (x) with no numbers being repeated, using an online random number generator. I will be using the number of players rather than characters to make the odds more even for everyone involved. This way, someone who volunteers one character has the same odds as someone who volunteers two characters.
2. I will then use an online random number generator again to choose a number between 1 and X. I'll then notify the winning player (the character might disagree on the "winning" part) on the organizational post. If the player plays more than one character, he or she can then choose which character will be involved, and we'll talk plots.
3. I don't have a set series of IC experiments for the character to endure in this plot because I'd like to build it up around what you, the player, would like and whatever interesting things there might be in the character (magic powers, peculiar psychology, a rebellious streak, particular intelligence, &c.). So, for all one knows, maybe Laszlo had his eye on your character for some time now...
4. If you'd rather not participate after being chosen or after volunteering, that's fine too, but please let me know. I'll renumber the list and rerun the method described above.
5. Likewise, I'd love to run this plot more than once, but not so often that it becomes stale, obvious, or predictable. I've got lots of variations in my head (two characters at once, a captured character naming another one in his or her place, three characters at once, Lord of the Flies survival trials, City!dead characters in particular, &c.).
Plots
So. Now what? Well, now Laszlo or one or some of his NPC assistants come upon your character in a method of your preference: a chase, a midnight snatch-and-grab, an unfortunate meeting, a little chloroform, a trap, a lure, a deity trade gone bad, whatever you'd like (and I'm glad to throw out ideas). Either way, your character gets caught by one Prof. Dr. Laszlo Jamf and is now Subject Number 1 in one of his famous experiments.
The character will be carted off somewhere and messed with. Maybe they're made to relive a particular memory over and over again. Maybe they're put in a maze and made to escape. Maybe it's good old Pavlovian bells and shocks. Maybe it's the Milgram Experiment all over again with the screaming in the voice of their best friend (in the City or not). Maybe they're told that if they kill their way through a crowd of NPCs, the door at the far side of the room will take them home (the door is a lie). Maybe they're made into a spy or a snitch for the deities. Maybe they're made into a human weapon. Maybe it's far more elaborate than that. We can play it as you'd like, but know that I have a whole stash of horrible and ethically unsound things I can think of and am willing to toss your way. It won't be a pleasant experiment. Hallucenogens may or may not be involved.
But wait, there's more: Your character is more than welcome to keep his or her own Network device throughout this ordeal, steal Laszlo's network device when the opportunity presents itself, find a telephone, manage to get on a computer, rig an intercom to connect to the Network, &c. In other words, being involved in this will by no means knock a character out of play. At all. Desperate, gasping, terrified posts to the Network are always exciting. And they'll alert people to one's predicament, won't they?
Yes, that's right! Escape attempts, rescue parties, old-fashioned detective-work, and successful ends for all of the above are more than welcome. So get yourselves organized! You've got
And where is Laszlo, after all? Maybe he's in his labs at the office building? Maybe he's in the underground? What about the City Labs? Or what if he's in the Shadow City? Look high and low, watch for clues, pay attention to what those desperate Network posts might say or hint or show in the background. Or, you know, just go pounding on doors. Whatever your method is, of course. Laszlo himself will be making Network posts during the duration of the experiment. He might or might not be hiding his responsibility for all this. He's a deity. He doesn't give a damn.
If you'd prefer a character not get rescued but rather bet set loose, that is completely okay too. They can wake up on their lawn with a sore ass from anal probing, a microchip in their neck, an eartag, and a radio-tracking collar, or whatever you'd like. They can be told they were a failed experiment and thrown out as inconclusive. They can escape on their own (or did they?), half-mad and trailing electrodes. However you'd like to play it. And once the character is out, certainly, they can tell all they endured and start a riot or a revolution against it all, if you want.
Because, really, isn't there going to be some kind of repercussion for all these inhumane experiments? Oh, well...You might just be able to catch Prof. Dr. Laszlo Jamf. Yes. You read that right. We can work it out so that you can catch the Professor Doctor. What you do with him thereafter is rather up to you (throw him in prison, stuff him in a box, hang him), but know that the other deities probably won't stand for it. He won't die--the way no one really dies in the City, and how does one kill a god anyway? (Truth be told, I would love for him to get caught, arrested, put through a trial, executed, all of that after an experiment or two. Yes, I'm serious. Let's talk!)
Either way, science marches on--! And there will be a need for a Subject Number 2.
Duration
I'll leave the duration of this whole ordeal largely up to the player involved. I don't want to interfere with any other plots or curses or ideas that you might have planned. However, this ordeal would ideally last three or four days at the least and a week or two at the most.
This plot will run concurrent with any curses or other plots that might be going on. Curses will not stop or change during this plot, even if there is a deity behind this one.
Results
Both the short- and long-term effects of these experiments I will leave up to you, the player, as you understand your character and his or her mind best. I can suggest things, if you'd like, of course. Nightmares are a good idea, as are flashbacks, general discomfort and stress, claustrophobia, anxiety over the deities, fears of specific situations the character was put in, specific psychological damage, &c. It's a pretty good opportunity to explore the weirder recesses of a character's mind and what the after-effects of this situation might be. Of course I don't want to shove a character into OOC-land with this plot, so I'll leave the specifics up to you, the player.
Laszlo will be drawing his own conclusions from it all, the bastard.
Conclusions
TBD upon completion of the experiment.
And, yes, that's what this was all about~ I admit, it's something of an elaborate plot, and I apologize for my tl;dr. And, yep, it's mod-approved♥ If you have any questions (or even suggestions), feel free to ask and I'll be glad to answer. And, if you're interested, feel free to get yourselves organized in this post. Also, if you'd like to know what, um, inspired or precipitated this, check out this film (potential squick warning!).
So...any volunteers~? I'll be taking volunteers for the next day or two!
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