[UNIONVERSE!] Public Opinion

((Not to clash with Mech's thead, but this is intended to follow directly on from Rogue War III, which took place on the Union Server this weekend just gone. While this Open RP takes place in the Unionverse, having a character on that server is by no means a requirement for participation as long as you're aware for the events that transpired over the course of last week. Your character in this thread can be pretty much anyone right down to a random civvy, really.))

((Yes, this is somewhat inspired by/nicked from the Ghost in the Shell episode "Chat! Chat! Chat!", but I couldn't really work out a better way to get this going. And look on the bright side. It's a Unionverse OpenRP without chaos, panic and disorder and several things going boom before most people can contribute. Or lobotomised psychic whales. ))

The online game Other Life Online, unlike other MMOs out today, has served as an extreme form of social networking for some years now. Players can create their avatars in their own image, or at least as close to considering the creator's limitations and meet up with other players to engage in various activities available within the extensive gameworld, much of them designed by the players themselves, rather than simply going out and hitting rats with an improbable sword all week. Of course, if you wanted to do that, someone was bound to have developed a working Whack-A-Mole somewhere, but that's about it. On the plus side, it does combine reliable VoIP code with some of the finest lip-synching seen in a virtual world. Why? Well, we shall get to that soon.

The game's world is generally divided up into regions geared toward specific types of content for the sake of making things easier to find if not a complete walk in the park. You know, action activities in one corner of the map, puzzle games crammed into an impossible cranny on the other end. Your attention is now drawn to the region of Blatherston, an area dedicated to masses of 3D chatrooms for all your mass, erm, discussion needs. Within this region, a new room has just been opened, one that will draw attention to most of the people living in the City of Paragon, Rhode Island, USA, Earth and so on.

Once you've figured out how to enter this room, because for some reason all the actual doors in the game world keep answering "It's locked." every time you click on them, you find yourself in what appears to be a large lecture hall, much like the ones in just about every university you've ever been to. The only notable difference, of course, is the complete lack of any wooden finishings or other decor. Instead, everything is plain and angular, plasticky and split between two very bright colours. Red down one side, Blue down the other, with a great big white star in the middle. For some reason the star is cracked right down the middle. Whoever you happen to worship knows why.

Before you, on your highest point, sits a lone man. He appears to be a healthy twentysomething with a mullet directly out of some 1980s cop show and aviator's glasses to match, however, a player's avatar here has never once been a clear indication of the individual behind it. His position at the highest point in the room, along with a small yellow star above his head indicates that this man is the room's admin and prime moderator. His public info identifies him "mrthrowback". Across the hall sits the first standard member to enter, assuming others hadn't entered before her only to suffer the inconvenience of ISP failure. She is an improbably beautiful woman with short black hair that doesn't quite reach her shoulders. She is dressed in grey trouser suit. Further inspection of her public data reveals her username as "Mimi Lolcat", but that's about all you're likely to find out without commiting some kind of breach of the game's EULA.

"Welcome!", the player known as mrthrowback greets you with a slight wave. "Please, take a seat. Now, before I continue, I need to ask just a few teensy little things. First off, I ask that you try to keep it clean here, or I'll be forced to use the banstick here."

The admin then proceeds to pull a large plasticky rod from behind his chair and points it at you before putting it back.

"If at any time you fail to keep your cool and get all shouty and abusive towards another member, see above. Pull any stupid stunt that would serve to disrupt this conversation, see above. Generally talk out of your bunghole incoherently with nothing worthy of a contribution to this discussion... you get the idea, right? Don't worry, I've set that as this room's Message Of The Day so I don't need to kill my throat repeating it."

mrthrowback then proceeds to shuffle a pile of virtual papers about, much in the same manner as a newscaster.

"SO! Today's topic, which shall be played back to all who enter the room... We've seen some pretty nasty events occur over the course of the past week or so that has divided public opinion on Paragon City's heroes. Primarily -one- hero being somewhat allegedly unheroic in his treatment of a surrendering Soldier of Arachnos - I mean, defenestration isn't exactly nice, now - beating down on Rogue Isles residents purely on the basis of passing comments, yadda yadda yadda. Well, allegedly, but that little genius Molly Longstaff seemed to have it in for him, didn't she? While the offending hero ended up leaving the land of the living at the hands of one of The Corporation, I have to wonder if the division of opinion has shifted at all in the days that followed. Discuss, people!"

An avatar under the username of “Electric Feel” enters the room, the avatar seems a little more abstract than the standard celebrity or me IRL designs, being little more than a collection of shadows, tilted upwards into a messy mix only barely resembling a human figure. Other than the avatar’s username everything is hidden, the fields in personal information, filled with null data, if they could not be left blank. It’s ping seems to be all over the place, and it seems to come from now fixed I.P address, when it speaks the voice is neither male nor female, far too distorted to make any assumptions about the user... luckily sub titles are provided.


“It is clear, Molly Longstaff is a murderer. Though her hands may be free of blood, it was clearly her intent that the Priest died.”

The figure paused, the number of shadows making up its form decreasing and increasing randomly.

“The why is simple... Money, the Priest’s terrorist actions pre-empted Longstaff’s own weapon sales, clearly the deal between the Priest and Longstaff was jeopardised by his sudden attack. Unable to supply both sides of the conflict, Longstaff lost money, and thus Molly had her business associate ‘terminated’”

An avatar dressed in stylised (read 'brief') samauri armour including helmet and face mask appears bearing the name Sharp Words. The entry animation features the form being built up in segments, from the ground up and the mask's lips sync when she speaks.

"Don't mind me, just observing. Interesting topic."

(( I wasn't around for the war, but I can't resist a GitS analogy and I love playing Devil's Advocate. ))

An avatar , using the name MrBinky101, enters , the avatar has used the blandest male human features and cloths possible with the exception of a brilliant red Fez .
MrBinky101 seems to wander around bumping into everything , as if the user is uncertain of the controls.. finally it move to stand up close to mrthrowback.

You know , stuff happens , what we have here is the natural consequence of the inter human dynamic , greed , lust , envy, wrath ,vainglory , .. well you know the rest .. oh pride ..now that had a big chunk of the action here .

Heroes is such a misused label theses days .. ever seen the ..hmm lets say .. sample… that infest Galaxy Girl park of an evening ..freaks , weirdoes , self-involved egotists , and the down right dangerous …

What is clearly needed it the close regulation and monitoring of these licensed super powered persons , dump them all into Longbow , and lets have some independent auditing of them and their activities …

Well that’s my 5 cents ..

(( Note MrBinky101 details list him as a 37 year old male , living in Steel Canyon Paragon , hobbies include ping pong , goldfish , eating out , an IP trace will come back to the University Library in Steel Canyon ))

A generic male figure pops into the room, displaying the moniker Peacmaker. It is clear that no thought has gone into the creation of the avatar as it uses the common starting model with no additional flair.

The information box proclaims the user to be from Galaxy City.

"Hi. Im a newbie lol."

"I am interwsted in this discussion. I love and work in Galaxy. That's allpwed, isnt it? We can say where we live?"

"Are tinfoil hats required, or just an optional extra?" BODICIA stated as she entered the room. The avatar had blond hair, dressed in a little red cocktail dress with a plush Welsh Corgi in one arm. "I'm from the Internet, I know what these can be like."

"The Priest let himself down." She said with a squeeze of the plush Pembroke, that gave a cute little barking sound at it. "The organization I am a part of would not have tolerated such actions, and any member acting as he did would have been swiftly reprimanded, and if severe enough, shown the door."

Giving a little shrug, the woman hopped into a seat in the blue section. "If he were still alive, perhaps a 'WWJD' bracelet would help his perspective on matters."

The figure increased in number of shadows until the avatar resembled a thick, black, multi-limbed amalgamation of a crowd.

“While true that the Priest’s actions showed his lack of character... surely the same can be said of all people once they gain certain amounts of power. There are certainly enough cases, of people believing themselves to be above their governments or laws, simply because they believe their version of ‘right’ is more correct, that that of the public’s, and since they have the power to enforce their version, it will be so. That is without bringing ‘villains’ into the consideration.”


The number of shadows thinned out as the Avatar made its next point.

“Regardless of his terrorist actions, the Priest still had a right to be judged in court, not to have his sentence decided by a millionaire who hired an executioner to carry out the act.”

"What was the motivation for hiring the assassin?" the armoured figure asks. "And would the outcome of a trial have been different? Well, there's no death penalty in Rhode Island, but if the trial had been on the Isles..."

"She didn't want him to talk, if it was known that Longstaff Wartech were sponsoring terrorists, in an effort to start a war, and make a 'killing' from the weapon sales... well their stocks would take a tumble."

"Is that conjecture, or do you have any evidence? Photoshopped or not." BODICIA asked, giving her plush accessory a squeeze. "I could easily state that Statesman has a fondness for dressing up as Nancy Regan, it would be foolish to believe me though without wanting to see evidence of Statesman tiptoeing around in a lovely red top and some nice shoes. Of course, even then it could be a fake. If you have seen enough, you could perhaps check the pixels."

"Surely there's a clear crime committed here. There is no question regarding whether defenestration or murder are acceptable behaviour for a sanctioned hero, they aren't. If you think killing criminals is the right way to deal with things, you hand in your license and hope you can dodge the cops and other heroes. It's always been like that. Where's the debate?"

"The only real evidence that I have is the flow of the events. If Ms Longstaff, was truly as disgusted as she claimed in her companies little statement, then why after the death of the Priest, was she one of the leaders of the 'hero' forces?"

"So, you're making accusations against someone with no real evidence?" The figure shrugs. "And the evidence you have is that your target lead a group of heroes. That seems... weak."

Matching the room, though with an unbroken white star, is the small mockup of Fanservice Girl in her ever popular Statesgirl outifit. It was rumoured that the real life heroine paid a tidy sum to get the name off a previous user when she found it was taken and Wikipedia confirms it as true. On the internet that's good enough to be a fact.

"Not to mention who'd she be selling these weapons too?" Fanservice says with obvious puzzlement on her face. "Longbow get all their equipment off NATO and a few Ms Liberty subsidiaries and Arachnos' have their own suppliers too. Maybe it was a good chance to show off her weapons in a combat theatre, but that's hardly illegal or worth killing someone over."

The avatar seems to have good natured built into it and the cheery looking mock up is backed up by an equally positive voice "As for her going on to lead the Hero forces after Pious' death, maybe she did it so she could try do it right? You don't just give in the first time things go wrong after all, you try your best to make good of a bad situation. I've gone on to fix messes that disgusted me at the time they were skirting the borders of legality, that doesn't mean I was complicit in them. Just hand tied."

MrBinky101 had paid close attention to what was being said , while at the same time trying out some of the odder emotes the avatars could make use of ..now he spoke up again ...

if this was such a hard fight ..why only the one death ..? did our ..so named heroes hold back while battling the nasty forces ...and for that ,does it not seem strange not a single bad guy was arressted ? .. does this whole not smeel like a ten day old meat loaf ....

why , when areas vital to our fair city and nation are being contested , was control of our forces left to either a reckless religious nutter , or a mercenary, hipshooter of a girl ..

Where was the goverment in all this ..might i use the word PLOT ..

The shadow avatar draws a square, in the air, which becomes solid a metallic sheen which it then tosses to the others in the chat room. A brief data transfer that gives them.....




"Molly Longstaff's own words, if he continues to 'act up' her forces are ordered to take him down."


Again the shadow draws a box in the air, however this one just expands and starts to scroll with information, NATO purchase orders for various supplies, including weaponry, from a range of companies. The total at the end, is quite the figure.


"A lot of money right, worth a few lives to get a slice of that pie."


Draws another square in the air, this one expands into several squares hanging in the air around the shadow avatar.


"What do we have here, the 'villain' side, why aren't they members of the Corporation? An organization that is involved in the exact same sectors as Longstaff?"


Clicking one set of it's fingers the shadow avatar shuts down the data displays.


"Showing of your weapons in the theater of war, not illegal, but how about setting up a situation in which you can show of your latest products? And when some one's manic nature threatens to escalate the carefully tailored conflict you had constructed, threatening in turn your profits... then killing just becomes a matter of numbers."

"You can if you really want to come over as a conspiracy nut, sure. You're complaining about a single death in a hard fight? I'd call that good work. You complain about lack of arrests, but targetted arrest is a standard police tactic and if the target's dead..." The mask shakes from side to side. "Still not convincing."

"So, supposition piled upon assumption."

Mimi Lolcat calmly snaps her fingers, calling forth a copy of the memo from an unknown source. After donning a pair of rather fashionable reading glasses - something obviously worn by the avatar for show - she takes a moment to absorb the virtual A4. However, rather than passing any opinion she may have, the woman merely looks to Feel with a raised brow.

MrBinky101 mulled on what had been said ...

seems to me that if it looks like a duck , walks like a duck and sounds like a duck ..then its a duck .. like was just said ..when do these Hero type get all the evidence we demand the PPD gathers , before charging in , laser beam eyes blazing ... they act outside the laws the rest of us have to obey .. who knows what they get up to ...full disclosure i call for .. public investigation of the whole incident ...call in the Feds...

The mask looks toward MrBlinky and the shadow figure and then shrugs. "Neither of you has the slightest idea how actual heroes operate in this city, do you?"