⇨ New Location: MAINFRAME

[ringleaders]

PREPARATION↴ Only a small amount of preparation will be necessary for this visit. Early Day 90, everyone will be given a circular badge by the Ringmaster, who will tell you that you'll need to wear it if you plan on travelling to the new touring location. Where you wear it isn't important as long as it's accessible. Later on Day 90, the Nightrunners will be sent out to do a quick security check of the new location - so, they'll be discovering all of this sooner than anyone else, and it will be their jobs to report on it. There are a few security concerns, which will be outlined OOCly for them in the comments below. As well as whatever can be gleaned from this general info post. Entrance to the new location will be done with the transition portal through the woods, out through a "forested" area filled with weirdly low polygon trees. Glamours will be in effect, though the appearances of the locals are variable enough that appearances will not have to significantly change in a lot of cases. SETTING↴ Mainframe is a city inside of a computer. No, not like the Matrix - as opposed to a virtual reality simulation that the denizens think is real life, it really is a civilization of programs that know what they are and live accordingly. In contrast, the local's perception of any world outside of the Net is very hazy, and "the User" (IE, the beings that actually use the computers they live in) is seen as either a god-like entity or malevolent demon, depending on who you ask. Either way, the User is most often something the inhabitants of the Net are forced to combat rather than cooperate with. Life within the Net is the only world they know, and the Ringmaster will advise that you leave it that way, or else they'll probably get all weird about it. The Net is actually a real, physical plane of existence for those inside of it, so visitors from the carnival will be under the same threat of injury or death that they would be otherwise. The programs have very different biological features (or a lack thereof), of course, but the glamours will be able to conceal these differences as long as no one does anything really weird like bleeding all over the place. This also means that you'll be able to take objects back into the carnival as souvenir, and that they won't just poof into metaphysical data when you leave. Weird, though. This isn't the exact Mainframe as in the show, to be clear. There is a different Guardian and different viruses at play, for those familiar. Aesthetically and culturally, however, it is very familiar - though about three times the population size. Ostensibly they are without those 90's animation budgets. PATRONS↴ ► SPRITES: Sprites are less common than binomes, but have the most physical variety. In terms of narrative, the protagonists are almost always sprites. Sprites commonly come with a roughly humanoid appearance (though their skin is always something odd, like blue, green, purple, or orange), but they can also look like a wide variety of other things, such as robots of various shapes and sizes, or animals. Every sprite (and every other person in the Net, for that matter) has an icon on them that serves as the core of their body and identity as a program. They are made of code and can be "hacked" or infected by viruses accordingly. When they are injured, they don't bleed, and instead start "glitching" or going transparent, eventually falling into a coma until their programming is repaired. ► BINOMES & NUMERALS: Binomes are the most plentiful format of program, and all of them have one of two shapes: either a pair of rectangular prisms stacked on top of each other (a one) or a single orb for a body with arms and legs attached (a zero.) The joke is that they represent binary. Despite their uniform body types, they can - and do - have clothing and hair of all kinds. Despite being narratively the "extras" of the world, they have unique personalities and are considered equals to sprites. They can be anything they want to be - even a pirate. Numerals are more or less the same as binomes except more rare, and are literally just programs that come in the shape of the numbers 0-9. That's it. That's their whole thing. They are very rare in comparison, so much so that I couldn't even find a good screenshot of one. ► NULLS: Nulls are small, rainbow coloured slugs with no real self awareness or complex emotions beyond animalistic notions of "good" and "bad". They like to consume the energy of other programs and objects within the world, though they are weak enough that they would never be a threat to a larger program without there being a whole swarm of them. When they are in a swarm, however, they are capable of rapidly consuming whole buildings. While they can experience pain (and make a lot of shrieking noises when scared or hurting), they cannot actually be destroyed, and are pretty much immortal. This is unfortunate for multiple reasons - but mostly because nulls are actually the diminished husks of former programs of other formats, that have been nullified by game cubes. As far as anyone knows, there is no way to return nulls to their former selves, because most of the program's data is lost when they are destroyed within the game. While a lot of research has been directed at trying to reformat nulls into other formats, there has been little to no progress. Some people keep nulls as pets, despite all of this. DANGERS↴ ► VIRUSES: Programmed to be malevolent forces within the net, viruses are much more powerful than the average program and are capable of destroying entire systems. Though they are instinctively engineered to be "evil", more or less, their exact goals will depend on their intended functions. Some viruses are driven to destroy outright, while others are driven to dominate and control the systems they infect. Some are programmed to be strictly "chaotic", meaning that they will try to disorganize or disrupt the workings of a system with no particular objective in mind. The one in this Mainframe is known to be mostly on the domineering side. Viruses's abilities will vary depending on their origins, though most of them are capable of infecting other programs through some means or another. ► GAME CUBES: Giant purple cubes that drop down from the sky every so often, landing on giant chunks of a given system and pulling every program inside of it into a "Game" that they are forced to play and win. If the user wins, all of the programs within the Game will be nullified, and the city within the cube will be destroyed. The Games within these cubes vary wildly - the only advantage programs have while trying to win against the user is their ability to "Reboot" - by tapping their icon twice, they can download information and abilities from the game world that will usually help them to square off against the user. Game sprites are also downloaded to fill in the empty spots between the abducted programs, which are more shallow programs intended to be generation anew every time the Game restarts. When the carnival arrives, a Game will just be ending - with a devastating loss on the system's side. A second one will drop in the second half of the touring week, potentially trapping any carnival visitors caught within its area, or baiting in those that want to help the local populace. ► POWER NERFING: The Net is going to struggle with rationalizing carnival member's powers, when they enter. This means that most powers are going to be nullified on entry, unless there is a snappy computer equivalent that it can be transposed into. Healers may find themselves capable of knowing how to knit together certain kinds of messed up coding. Those with mind effecting powers may find themselves able to infect or read the coding of other programs without their permission. Those with super strength and the like will still be above average in their strength on a purely physical basis, but not as extremely as they are usually. The default assumptions for all powers is that they are nerfed, but you can ask the mods questions down below about any particular powers, and we'll tell you whether they would be nerfed or transposed into something computery. You can also make you own suggestions. The end goal is that this universe won't generally allow visitors to upset the hierarchy of power, so they should all be generally less powerful than a virus or a Guardian. If your character is skilled at computers and computer hacking, they will be able to figure out how to do that to objects and people within the system. It will take some learning, and there are limits to what they can accomplish, but it's an element that can be touched on. REWARDS↴ There's no overt rewards for being here, beyond your own personal satisfaction. CHANGES↴ If your character plays in the Game when it comes (either by accident or intentionally) they may keep an uncommon or common charge related to what they turn into when they Reboot. The Game is going to be a dungeon crawler/roguelike similar to Diablo, for reference purposes, though more details will be explained in that event post. So, think demons, mummies, and other scary things you'd find in deep, dark dungeons. You can get creative with this. Beyond that, this is a PLOTTING POST, which means you can use it to make plans! The game chat is also a great place to discuss plots, so we welcome you to pop on in if you haven't already! A mingle log will be posted this weekend.

Comments

⇨ NIGHTRUNNER DEETS

[ringleaders]

A game will be in progress from the moment the Nightrunner's enter, so they will mostly see the aftermath. The enormous, electric looking cube will rise from a new destroyed section of city, as the system alerts will declare for all to hear: "GAME OVER. USER WINS." The behavior of the programs after the game leaves will be like humans reacting to a natural disasters. Dozens of new nulls will flood from the area, and morale will start out exceptionally poor.

With some investigation, the Nightrunners will be able to find out the generality of what a Game Cube is, and what it just did to the city (though the locals will look at you like you're crazy if you act like you've never seen or heard of one.) The Ringmaster will have recommended that you tell people you came from "the Net" if they catch on to you being unfamiliar with Mainframe, and if you do it will seem to work without much problem. Though, they may ask some confusing follow up questions that may be harder to answer if you're bad at thinking on your feet.

With some exploration and research, the Nightrunners will eventually be able to discover that the populace is mostly blaming their Game loss on a local virus named Polymorph. Apparently, there would have normally been a program called a "Guardian" that would have stepped in and helped with the Game, but Polymorph put them out of commission seconds earlier (for a fun bit of confusion, "seconds" are akin to "hours" in program timekeeping - IE a program will say "wait a nanosecond" instead of "wait a minute") (or something), dooming the rest of the system to a loss.

Polymorph has apparently been trying to take over the system for a long time, and it can only be assumed that they are hoping to weaken the enemy by causing them to fail at Games.

You can ask followup questions to this explanation, if you wish. NIGHTRUNNERS ONLY.

[whattaprick]

ROLLS ON IN HERE WITH THE QUESTION TRAIN CHOO CHOO.

1. Is it possible to determine what happened to "the Guardian" and where it is now? Is it "out of commission" as in turned into a Null, or just like, rebooted/knocked out?

2. Polymorph sounds kind of like a shithead. Do they just pop up during the games, or can he be found chilling at Starbucks in a known location?

3. Is there any way to determine what the nature of the Game that was lost was?

4. Can people bring their Pokémon in with them or should we just assume they're explicitly told not to? If they can bring them, what do they end up looking like?

5. Similarly: what happens to weapons brought in? Specifically I'm thinking of swords of course!

6. Can 'shield' type powers still function? Like idk a firewall or something.

[ringleaders]

1. The Guardian sounds like they are just a person who has special powers, like some kind of super cop from the Net. If Lambert spends the time finding someone who actually witnessed the fight, apparently she just got knocked out pretty hard and is injured. She's currently under the care of Mainframe's COMMAND.COM - aka, the leader or mayor of the system.

2. Polymorph IS a shit head - it's the virus way. Viruses actually avoid the games, because there's no benefit to participating in them. There is an area of the city that is corrupted into being Polymorph's evil fortress of sorts, though oddly enough, a lot of the citizens seem unclear on what Polymorph actually looks like.

3. Not really! Unfortunately, everyone who was in the Game got nullified when it ended, and you can't see what's going on from the outside. There are no living witnesses.

4. They can bring their Pokemon, and the Pokemon will probably just look similar to how they do normally - Sprites come in all shapes, so it won't be anything too strange to the locals. Pokemon will also lose most of their special powers, though.

5. Any kind of weapon can be brought in, though special powers may be lost. Regular swords and guns and stuff are fine, though - stuff like that exists in the Reboot world. One of the characters from the show fights with a katana.

6. I was thinking "firewalls" would be a good way of converting shields, so yes! Though Lambert may find it kind of baffling since he has no comprehension of what code is, or how he knows how to interact with it.

[whattaprick]

Belated follow up:

Lambert would absolutely try to find the Guardian and get more information out of her about what went down. Particularly, he'll be trying to suss out exactly how the Guardian 'helps' in games to see if it's something that could be useful if one happens while they're here (which, as we know, it will). If it appears to be to the Carnival's benefit to assist the Guardian in getting back on her feet, he'll ask what they can do for her.

Similarly though, he's interested in figuring out if there's anything of value in Polymorph's possession that would be worth bringing back! So there's two questions there: 1. is it going to be possible to sneak into that place and take a look around, 2. what happens to objects brought back from this world back to the Carnival, assuming the usual fluid rules of being able to move back and forth (unless trapped inside the game cube) apply?

[ringleaders]

To be totally honest, helping the Guardian does sound like it would be mostly an altruistic effort. I could have some benefit in handling a game, were it to drop during their stay, but that's about as far as it would affect the carnival.

For stolen items and physical rewards, some of it will translate back to the carnival after it leaves and others won't. For example, the hoverboards from here can fly around anywhere in Mainframe, but after the carnival leaves they'll only be able to cover above physical surfaces. The virus probably does have access to some technology capable of bending reality within this universe (the equivalent of using a program to edit data), and it would be a curious experiment to see how that affects life outside of the computer.

Lambert can definitely go for a search if he's up to it. If that's something you'd like to pursue, I may take it to a one on one conversation to discuss the details.

[whattaprick]

Given that the Game Cube's dropped, I guess we can say the point's rendered moot and academic! Whether or not there were efforts to help the Guardian they were probably unsuccessful in that regard...

Good to know that about items as well!

Lambert would like to go for a search -- most likely after the game is over. Stealth will obviously be the goal rather than direct confrontation, taking advantage of his new awesome Ringmaster trinket. I'll shoot you a PM! o/

[kingsroads]

1. So the destroyed part of the city: how destroyed are we talking? Everything wiped off the map level of destruction, everybody nulled but buildings still standing level of destruction, or somewhere in the middle?

2. How often do games occur? Obviously there's some level of randomness involved but is it more like once every few days or once every few weeks?

[ringleaders]

1. Destroyed as in it looks like a wild fire went through it. What's left of buildings is twisted and distorted, like it's been burned. (Though not literally, so there isn't any ash or anything.) The objects within the zone basically shriveled up because the energy got sucked out of them.

2. Once or twice a month in slow periods, or once every week or two when it's busy. Of course, you also may end up with two games dropping in the same day, so you always have to be on guard.

[stillwinningthehardway]

Scout's lightsaber will still work, right? Even if just as "a very sharp sword whose blade goes away when not needed"? Her Force abilities aren't terribly strong and would probably translate as, like, a HUD and predictive software.

What makes the Guardian so special? Are they just better at handling Games?

[ringleaders]

1. The lightsaber is fine - it'll basically still just be an energy sword. The predictive software idea also works.

2. Guardians are sprites that are trained within the Super Computer, to basically police the Net and keep it safe from threats, like viruses or Games. They basically function the same as regular sprites, but they have special weapons called "keytools" that can do a whole bunch of useful stuff. The training and knowledge they bring from the Super Computer is also important. So, a mixture of knowledge and equipment give them a major edge.

⇨ GENERAL QUESTIONS

[ringleaders]

For other event/setting questions from non-Nightrunners.

[pipers_son]

What's the verdict on "sunlight" in a computer world

asking for a friend

[ringleaders]

There is none, as far as vampires are concerned! So good fortune, there.

Re: ⇨ GENERAL QUESTIONS

[mylastchance]

"The programs have very different biological features (or a lack thereof), of course, but the glamours will be able to conceal these differences as long as no one does anything really weird like bleeding all over the place."

So this means the characters will still see each other as they normally do like they did in Alola? Also, does this mean they cannot be infected by viruses and other things that are dangerous to the natives? Though, I guess they will still have their own icons since they can reboot in the game...?

Re: ⇨ GENERAL QUESTIONS

[ringleaders]

It's sort of complicated, because the icons make it so they are like... hybrids between their regular selves and their computer selves, which is why some abilities will work at all. So while they are different, they can still be infected or whatever, because of their icons.

Also, I'm gunna say that for this one the glamour is visible to other carnival members unless they try to look through it, mostly because it sounds more funny to see the 90's outfits and potential binome characters than otherwise. So basically, you'll see the glamour unless you fae squint through it.

[otoko]

IMPORTANT STUFF

I can't recall what the complete stance on Pokemon and changes was BUT

Since pokemon can come along for the ride to Mainframe, does that mean a pokemon could get stuck with someone in THE GAME (oh no babies,,,)

Likewise, would they themselves end up with a teensy tiny change? (obviously it would have to be akin to the trainer's in that case, I imagine...)

[ringleaders]

Yeah, Pokemon can come into the game and get a common change! Anything coming into Mainframe needs their own Icon, though.

[insidescoop]

Tiny little badge collars...for everyone............ gasp

[destiny_key]

So, I'm assuming Sora's abilities/magic are all getting nerfed, but what about the keyblade?

Does it still have all its powers, or does it basically become a blunt object to hit things with? Is it still summonable?

[ringleaders]

It can be summon-able, but unless there's something you think would be computer relevant, it will just be a blunt object.

Lambert -- Nightrunner & General Plotting

[whattaprick]

Lambert's official Nightrider position on the whole game thing is: Stay Out Of It. The last thing you want to do is get involved in a conflict that has nothing to do with you and attracting negative attention. That shit doesn't work out well in his experience. Arguments based on the moral merit of saving people is unlikely to move him; that said, he also knows the rest of the Carnival will do whatever the heck they want, so he's resigned to the possibility that they're going to have to possibly extract anyone who gets in trouble.

Since this is the first place they're getting assigned to scope out with him in 'charge,' Nightrunners will be basically told 'figure out what you can about what's the deal with this world and report back, don't get yourself killed or do anything stupid' which he expects to last all of five seconds before someone blows something up. But in all seriousness, if you'd like to play out something with sneaky stuff, direct combat etc HMU here or on Discord.

On a less business-related aspect: guess who knows fuck all about computers? Yeaaahhh, this guy. Help him marvel at the weirdness of this world and shit, he's hopeless at it.

His canon is basically a really pretty dungeon crawler. He'd participate in the game when it initiates just to make sure nobody ends up turning into a nasty little slug, but boy he's not going to be happy about it.

[kingsroads]

"don't get yourself killed or do anything stupid"

boooo let's bring back fun boss who actively encouraged everybody to poke at the giant crab

[whattaprick]

lbr this is gonna last for all of five minutes until something pisses him off

[perverses]

Shima knows what the average teenager in 2009-2011ish would know, so he can at least explain games and the basics! He even knows what ~the Net~ is. Like. The internet.

Yeah but he's totally going to play the Game. Sorry, boss #2.

[whattaprick]

laUGHS please confuse him with JRPGs ... honestly, since he's from weird backwards pseudo-medieval land he's just gonna be so utterly confused by everything ever

monsters monsterin it up y/y?

[perverses]

hell yeah monstering it up, he's going to trash some players sO LONG AS THERE ARE NO BUG MONSTERS

don't turn into a bug monster, lambert, pls don't

And worse, he'll use dating sims as the example.

Re: Lambert -- Nightrunner & General Plotting

[insidescoop]

WHAT IF: JOINT DEMONSTRATION OF HOW TO USE THE BADGE-Y THINGS

like one of those 'IN CASE OF EMERGENCY' videos except everything is horrible because it's these two

[whattaprick]

is this the event that is going to give me lambert in a dress

is it

[insidescoop]

if lambert foolishly lets carly throw things at him at random, then yes
yes it is

'THIS IS A RE-ENACTMENT OF WHAT WE HAVE DETERMINED WILL OCCUR, WORST CASE.'

[whattaprick]

IT IS SO TRAGIC THAT THE RADIO COMMS ARE VOICE-ONLY but um yES this needs to happen ... somehow ...

[insidescoop]

clearly they should borrow the BIG TENT and call a meeting

[kingsroads]

who's ready for the Computers And/Or Power Nerfing Is Awful Club, led by Jonathan Strange, other members soon to follow. Meetings held at some Mainframe bar and/or restaurant, there shall be no judging allowed, bitch all you want and be as petty as you desire because computers and/or power nerfing is absolutely awful, why doesn't magic work well with computers, he doesn't want to be reminded of the matrix again thank you very much.

aka Strange is gonna be grumpy and whiny for most of the event until he gets yoinked into the Game and gets worryingly into throwing fireballs at people. WHO WANTS TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE INTERNET?

[handwringing]

these 20th century kids and their internet can get off elsa's lawn

BY WHICH I MEAN Elsa will totally be in this club too, let's be grumpy together Strange.

[kingsroads]

welcome to the club, the first topic up for discussion is 'how the fuck do they expect us to know how computers work'

[sunflowerfields]

do you mean to tell me, the ultimate country bumpkin who barely knows what electricity is, all this stuff ISN'T magic??

[showmystar]

Kids these days and their non-fakey-Victorian-era technology! /shakes a cane

count him in