Involuntary OOC

What's this? Yet another OOC post? Yeah, we know.

In this post, we have detailed a master OOC timeline for the Endplot. Because there are going to be a lot of things happening simultaneously, we wanted to make this rough guideline as to when things will happen in real-world time. That way, you can better know when to post logs and (more importantly) when characters can start reacting to things in texts and network chatter. As always, posts can be backdated if you want, just be sure to clearly mark when they're being posted! We just thought that this timeline would help make things a little less confusing.

If someone is so inclined and could go add the relevant times to each group doc, that would be awesome and much appreciated!

You will also see that we've assigned some VR NPCs to the Admin Building, Med Center, and Library. If you want to claim some of these NPCs for a log, they're first-come, first-served in the comments below! Not many people have requested them yet, so we're going ahead and offering them up here. If you're claiming VR NPCs, please communicate both in your group doc & to the mods about what you have planned.

( MASTER OOC TIMELINE. )

In addition, it occurred to us that there will need to be some place for injured students to go, despite the fact that there will be no more medical staff & the Med Center is probably left somewhat in shambles after Night #1.

Since the Library is used as a sort of student fortress/safe place, injured students are brought here starting on Day #2, and it becomes an impromptu triage site after the bombing at solitary. (NOTE: it'd be great if characters could ICly suggest this once injuries start happening!)

We have created a separate doc for the Library after Night #1, where people can list injured students and volunteers to run the makeshift medical site. Please go check it out and sign your characters up! Feel free to add yourselves to the doc so that it shows up in your master list.

Sup friends. Just a quick OOC note to say a few things:

1) We cleaned out the mod inbox tonight, so if you sent us a request and we didn't answer it, ping us again because it got missed somehow.

2) Please don't forget to send us pertinent details about your characters re: endplot! If your character: a) is getting permanently depowered, b) is dying, c) is getting seriously injured, d) is going on the run when the forcefield goes down, e) is killing someone, f) needs an NPC VR member to fight against, or g) is involved in any other kind of thing that you think we might want to know about, please e-mail us! We have a big master endplot doc that we're tracking everything in.

3) We've had a few questions about what can be written for students after they leave IVI. It's our preference that once a character leaves IVI, players post no more than one wrap-up/resolution log. So, for example, if Caleb and Daisy decide to run away together when the forcefield drops and get married in the nearest town, there could be one wrap-up log that details this, but then that's it -- no continuing saga of the Caleb/Daisy union. If you want to keep writing stuff about your character in a post-IVI world, please do so over in invol_drabbles!

Also, a reminder that Vol Squad has now left for their super secret mission.

Ooookay that's all for now, carry on.

( Final Vol Squad Mission! )

Hey guys, just a quick VU/Undernet update: at this point, with so few days left to go before THE END TIMES, it makes sense to assume that pretty much all characters who might be interested are now being added to the Undernet. Which is to say that it could basically be anyone who wouldn't tell IVI about it. This includes the pro-VR types -- especially since they already know about Kim, it makes sense for them to have a place to be able to talk about things without IVI watching.

SO, if you want to handwave that one of your characters was brought in, just comment here, add them to the VU Doc (and give them a codename) and... that's it.

However, just a note that all characters should probably get set up on the Undernet no later than breakfast tomorrow, for TBA Daisy reasons.

Below are signups for the end of endplot. Just as a note SIGNING UP IS NOT REQUIRED. If you have specific plans of what you want to do and have people to log with - that's fine! This is really about facilitating people find logs, especially for those of you who have ideas but need other people to make them happen, or who want to use this as your last (!!!) chance to plot with someone new. After Day 1, we're good with people doing their own thing - we want you to be able to have your characters do what they want!

A few reminders: if you're having a character die, permanently lose their powers, get majorly injured, or have a successful escape attempt on July 10, please let us know.

Additionally, we've sent out docs for Day 1 - if for some reason we left you off, please contact anyone on the doc to get you added (and then to loop you into the emails if there are any going, since you won't be on the original reply-all).

If one of your characters was shoulder-tapped for plot in the original plot post, we should be getting to you today with details of that!

And if you have other questions, let us know!

FINAL PLOT UPDATE! Are you excited? We are! Here are the major things you need to know leading up until endplot:

• July 2 - a group of VUers will be practicing their powers and talking about IVI in a mutinous way, including talking about harming staff and personnel, near that damn patch of trees everyone does everything. Unbeknownst to them, IVI has noticed increased activity by that patch of trees and has started bugging it. Thus, IVI overhears and everyone there is put into solitary until the 7th. Experimentation is a possibility for characters involved in this plot, but not required. If you want your character to be a part of this group, please comment below.


• July 3 - VR will free all the students in the German-speaking school for dangerous Vols (approx 15 students, both 14-16, and older non-English speaking) using the serum used in the Melbourne Incident. The population of IVI, however, won’t know this until the Squad is able to bring back the news after their mission on the 5th.


• July 5 - the Vol Squad will have a mission that brings them head-to-head with Vols Rising. Shortly after that mission is over, it will be revealed that VR has a plan in place and intends to break students out of IVI on July 7.


• July 7 - VR attacks at dusk, ENDPLOT BEGINS

( AND NOW... TIME FOR ENDPLOT! )

As promised, here is a plot post with a rundown of upcoming things this week!

• As you may have noticed, extended stays in solitary now come with extra fun - power experimentation! If you would like to volunteer a character of yours for an extended stay with power experimentation, please email us and we can work with you on it. One important thing to note is that while as mods we’re fine with characters talking about what happened, all power modifications/needle marks/etc will be gone before students rejoin the general population, so there won’t be any physical proof.
  
• As mentioned yesterday, there will be a Vol Squad mission this week, during which various members of the squad will do their best to get out the news about the hunger strike and the new solitary rules. They will be successful, but IVI won’t be happy about it. After they return (and after the news breaks) the team will get lectured on how leaks such as these result in the school being less secure.
  
• The media is still covering the squad in a very positive light, but some of the more liberal organizations are using the good the squad is doing to show why the increasing limitations the students at the school are having are problematic. As the squad continues to prove that Vols can be helpful and capable, there are questions as to whether or not the IVF is making the right decisions.
  
• The IVF is continuing to get bad press worldwide. Chile, Belize, Peru, and Panama have all pulled out - they’re all countries in which there were no students at IVI. Many of the 'major' nations (the ones with a lot of people/a lot of students at IVI) are facing increased criticism from citizens.
  
• Some disturbing news will break this week re: the legal authority that IVI claims over the students at IVI.

Hey all,

We’re LESS THAN ONE MONTH from the end of the game - can you believe it? Because we sure can’t. As we reach the home stretch of the home stretch and plan for the end, there are some things we wanted to go over with everyone.

( massive modpost under the cut )

As evidenced from the slew of logs/placeholders, some Shit Went Down tonight on campus. At night after the sun went down, a bunch of students decided to go all-out in an attempt to locate the source of the force field & shut it down.

Here is a really basic rundown to help you figure out what your character might know about it:

• A group broke into the Lab (Laurel/Jonas/Ivan/Jesse/Coralie/Seth/Sol/Devon) and another group (Padraig/Ted/Remy/Kaz) served as various "distractions" to the other guards nearby, in hopes of keeping them away from the Lab.


• All of the characters listed above are now in solitary. Their roommates will be informed via email.


• More news will come tomorrow, but for now feel free to have your characters comment/express concern/speculate on what happened.

Shortly after this happened, as a reaction to both the events of tonight, and a lack of enthusiasm about the new schedule, IVI has decided to take a new approach to motivate students to both attend and be engaged in training. Specifically, they will now be giving out solitary sentences to students who either miss training, or who have multiple days of not being engaged in training. It's up to each Team Leader's discretion as to what "engaged" looks like, so if you think your character may fall into this category please contact the mod-or-Ryan that runs your character's team to discuss the situation with that character. Legitimate illness won't result in solitary, but the expectation is that the character reports to the medical center in these cases. An e-mail went out explaining these changes on Sunday night, a couple of hours after the Lab breakin.

Rather than trying to track down all the characters that are missing training, we're asking you to self-report and note it here. Starting Monday, June 17, if your character misses a day of training, please comment below so that their roommates/teammates/etc know that they did, and assume they got sent to solitary for 48 hours with no visitors. Guards would come to collect them sometime midday after their absence was noted -- if they weren't in their room, they'd be sought out wherever they happened to be. Roommates would be notified that they were taken to solitary. We've added a link to this post from the invol homepage for easy finding if/when your character misses a day.

There may be additional repercussions for students who miss multiple times, so please keep that in mind. We'll give you warning before your character starts reaching permanent solitary territory, though.

If your character has been unengaged in training, please contact the mod-or-Ryan one-on-one that runs that team to discuss punishments. The result is often going to be solitary, but don't assume that it is without first talking to the mod-or-Ryan.

If you have any questions, please comment below!

This afternoon there will be an earthquake in Shizuoka City, Japan, about 45 minutes from Tokyo. It will be a 7.3, and the biggest issue is that a little over 200 buildings have been destroyed, and people trapped in them need to be rescued. Additionally, it triggered a landslide, taking out part of the railway and cutting off easy transportation. In the end, there will be 53 deaths, and about 2300 injured.

The students of IVI won't know about this right away, of course, since communications have been shut off. That being said, if anyone has family in the area and would have been contacted (with a legitimate message) via the emergency phone, please let us know, as they would have gotten the message.

The Vol Squad will be contacted tonight (Monday night) letting them know they will be going there the following morning for rescue and relief efforts. It will be emphasized that this is a PURELY humanitarian mission, and not a VR one. (And it actually is just a humanitarian mission.) After volunteering Tuesday/Wednesday, the Japanese government will gift them each with an elaborately wrapped melon that is worth around $300, and they'll be given Wednesday night off in Tokyo with handlers. They'll return to IVI on Thursday morning.

Roles in Tokyo are:
Operations - Lilja, Rose, Leo, Kitoko, Yael
Search and Rescue - Liam, Leigh, Allegra, Jordana, Ashton, Chris, Sam, Hugo, Nawal, Mariana, Qamar, Leona, Javier, Dani
Aid work in shelters - Zelda, Savannah, Isla, Clara, Anthony, Caleb, Miyu, Ethan, Ansel, Mette

(these assignments aren't hard and fast, so if you want to switch them around that's fine!)

FYI about some stuff that will be happening tomorrow!

ON MONDAY (tomorrow), students and their families (or emergency contacts) will be notified that, for the safety of students and their families, communications between IVI and the outside world will be shut down, effective immediately. The reasoning is that with the VR in Australia, the IVF has reason to believe that the organization is monitoring communications between the school and the outside world, both to gather intel on the school and to target families that are being contacted back home. It is emphasized that this is meant to be temporary - only until they can figure out how the VR is getting this information, or the VR ceases to be a threat.

There is an off-site number families can use in the case of a major emergency (such as a death in the family) and in the case of an emergency with a student, the families will be contacted as well. It is emphasized that families should only use this number in extreme cases, and they will have to go through an IVI operator. Emails that are sent will get the equivalent of an out of office reply stating that communications at the school are down and that urgent messages should be sent to the emergency line. Phone calls that are made will reach a recording stating the same thing.

The communication that will cease communication includes internet, email, phone, and snail mail. Internal intranet, phones/texts, and email will not be affected. (Neither will the undernet, not that the school knows about it.)

-----

Additionally, students will be told that, after having listened to numerous concerns about comments about classes and how useful (or not useful) students perceive them to be, and in response to their attentiveness during classes lately, IVI administration has decided to make a change in the daily schedule. Instead of academic courses, students will now be in training with their teams from 9am - 3pm every day (with a break for lunch, of course). The squad will continue to train as a group on Fridays - other days squad members will train with their team. If students want to keep working or doing independent studies, they're welcome to after 3:00 or on weekends. Students who have questions about their progress towards secondary school equivalencies can direct them to the dorm heads/independent studies advisers. For the most part, everyone who was working toward a full year of school credits (to fulfill a year of University, for example) should have gotten it by now, assuming they were actually working at it.

As was true before, missing training results in a fine and the loss of one's pub night privileges that Saturday. New, however, is that not showing up to training will result in a meeting with the assistant dean or the dean that same day.

We wanted to give a quick wrap-up of what happened today, so that everyone is on the same page as to what happened and who knows what. Don’t read this until you’ve read the previous logs (especially this, this, and this), because, spoilers.

( spoilers below! )

A few OOC clarifications! Warning, there are spoilers behind the cut. We recommend that you read this and this before clicking.

No seriously. Read them. We'll wait.

( DID YOU READ THOSE THINGS FIRST??? Okay good. You may click. )

A few quick announcements about game plot!

There are a little less than 7 weeks left of the game, according to our handy mod plot document! (Also... according to the calendar.) We wanted to take this opportunity to clear up some concerns that have been brought to us about game plot, give you guys an idea of what's ahead, and also give some updates.

VOL UNDERGROUND

We know that many people have had questions about what's happening with the Vol Underground. We want to be very clear that this was and is a player-run plot, conceived of in-game by various characters and given our modly blessing. It is not, however, our central end-game plot. Obviously, all characters at IVI will be involved in the Invol End Days™, no matter if they're involved in the Vol Squad or the VU, if they're a VR supporter or if they're on Student Council, or even if they're Max. It is our aim that everyone will be able to find a role to play, as it has been since day one of this game.

That said, we have been in close contact with Zoe, Lou, and Emily, and all of us understand the need to move forward with "adding" more people to the covert network (Undernet, trademark pending). Now that the current members have had a chance to suggest other people, please assume that this 'second round' of people has now been spoken-to and has access to the Undernet.

Kelly Ansell
Finlay McCracken
Valery Zhiglov
Jace Jacobs
Valeska Protz
Nelly Dupuis
Alex Katz
Harlow Hart
Benjie Aquino-Robinson
Kiara Albury
Kieran Keaveny

These people have been mentioned ICly, but because of some kind of concern expressed by other characters, are behind held off for the time being. They will all definitely be contacted in the next round, which should be happening soon! Obviously, this has to happen a little slowly, otherwise the secret would be really hard to contain at an IC level.

Davi Alizadeh
Mariana Bezerra da Silva
Damien Harrington
Omar Calderon
Lo Fernandez
Understanding Jones

If you haven't already, PLEASE go check out & contribute to the following google docs:

1) Vol Underground Information
This document includes a lot of information about the plot, but also has information on characters who should be recruited. If you want your character to be recruited and he or she is not already on the doc, please add him/her and start a discussion about it! Please do NOT assume that if your character isn't on there, it means you aren't wanted -- everyone is responsible for speaking up for their own characters and working out a way to get them involved. And if you feel like you've tried that and for some reason things still aren't working, please reach out to us (Cat & Sarah) at the mod account. In addition, if someone says they'd want to recruit your character, but you know your character won't be interested, please also contribute that information on the doc!

2) VU Recruitment Web
As above, please check this to see if your character is reflected in the way you want on this doc -- and if they're not, comment on the main doc and/or talk to one of the players involved as to how you can change things to better reflect your own character plans.

FINAL PLOT

Obviously, we are keeping much of this under-wraps, although we hope that you will find that we are slowly unraveling things as the days go by. Expect things at IVI to ramp up in a pretty major way very soon. If you have not done so already, please e-mail us to let us know if you want your character to die by the end of the game. If there is something else that you had in mind for your character (some kind of serious maiming, loss of powers, immaculate conception, etc.) please also feel free to shoot us an email and let us know. We can't promise to make everyone's dreams come true (as tempting as it may be to make next Virgin Mary out of Ted) but we'll do our best to accommodate you.

IN CONCLUSION...

Thanks, guys. We're really excited about what's coming in the next 7 weeks, and hope that you are too! As always, leave your questions, concerns, and credit card information in the comments.

Cat & Sarah

Yesterday a couple of small fires in California's central coast (the San Luis Obispo area) broke out - overnight they grew significantly and by this morning, IVI-time, they were full-on wildfires. The Vol Squad was contacted by text this afternoon after training to get ready, and leave right dinner, arriving in San Francisco in the wee hours of the morning. They'll spend Thursday and Friday doing rescue ops, relief effort and controlling/combating the blaze if powers allow.

For the most part.

A small group of Vol Squadders have been selected for a covert mission investigating the attacks at NwRI on Thursday - the various rescue groups will be separated enough that their disappearance won't look particularly odd. The students selected for this were selected both because of their skills and because they wouldn't share the fact that this mission happened with anyone else at IVI.

Everyone will be doing the Friday rescue efforts, and Friday evening they'll be put up in a San Francisco hotel, given the night off to explore the city (though handlers will tag along, of course), and will leave for IVI on Saturday morning. We're going to handwave timezone/travel issues so that players don't lose a day of play due to crossing the international date line, and students will arrive back to IVI on Saturday night.

For plot reasons we'd like this secret mission to stay completely contained within the group that is participating for the time being, so we've requested that players of vol squad members not volunteer their character for the mission if they would tell anyone. We're also going to ask that characters that aren't participating in the mission not discover/realize/etc that it happened before it comes out through plot - if you have questions or concerns about this, please let us know!

( Early Thursday morning and shortly after the news of the Australian prison break, members of Vol Squad will receive a text informing them of their immediate departure.  )

In the aftermath of the solitary incident, we wanted to give a snapshot of media coverage and current rumblings that the students may be picking up. Students could get this information from the internet, of course, but with the continued slower service, they may also be getting some of the information from friends and family back home, and from tv news programs.

( and tonight on the news... )

tl;dr, the main difference students may note is that the mainstream media and the right-leaning media used to be very similar on most issues, but now the mainstream media is taking a more neutral approach on issues than it has in the past.

For those of you with kids in solitary or that want to visit, some basic info:

( Solitary 101 )

Also, as far as what started the original event, we're okay with students having videos that show something, but they should be blurry/from a distance, weird angle, something that leaves the "who hit first" up for debate. Obviously observers would have seen, but there should be no physical record of it - just witness statements.

Hi guys. We know that all of us are highly aware of what happened in Boston today. A few people have asked us whether or not we're going to tie the bombing into the game. While we realize that it may be natural for characters to make ties from the real bombing to terrorism undertaken in our game by the VR, we do not feel comfortable bringing this real life tragedy into our fictional world. While it might make sense that the VR would have been involved or would have commented on a major attack like that (or that news outlets would be making the case that Vols were somehow involved) we would prefer to not even go there. It feels disrespectful to us to adopt this trauma for our own purposes.

Of course, it's fine if characters want to comment on what happened -- we are not asking anyone to pretend like it didn't happen -- although we do ask that everyone please be respectful in how they address it, if they do. However, we will not be writing any news articles or incorporating it into our plot in any way.

We do have pre-planned attacks coming up very soon for the VR, and we are trying to distance them as much as possible from what happened in Boston. Unfortunately, some similarities may be unavoidable, as is always the case with terrorism and the taking of human life. Although we deal with dark themes at invol, we want the game will remain a fun activity for everyone. If you ever feel uncomfortable with something, please don't hesitate to shoot us an email or leave us a note in the mod dropbox.

- Cat & Sarah

Today in training, the Team Leaders would have revealed the names of those chosen to join the new Vol Squad. Anyone asking why they might not have been chosen would have received answers ranging from the vague to the diplomatic to the Rathbornian.

Without further ado I give you, ( the Vol Squad! )