Icarian Dreams

I deserve to take the brunt of the blame here. Sorry for dropping on you two, I shouldn't have committed when I didn't really have the capacity to

It feels to me like that would probably be different on a frame to frame basis. For this one in particular, I think we need @WickedCadrach to chime in

Cassandra narrowed her eyes. Adjusted herself in her cockpit and leaned in, following what was just a moment ago but a sliver of motion barely caught out the corner of her eye. A kaiju? No... but the movement signature didn't match any known threat she was taught about either. And while at first she dismissed the sensors failing to track it as just another malfunction of the frame's systems, right next to the unresponsive comms, she was starting to suspect that maybe it wasn't as much her gear failing as it was this anomalous entity managing to conceal itself in some way? She bit her lip. In other circumstances, this would have been... somewhat exciting, even. A part of her always found facing the unknown thrilling. That's why she enjoyed kaiju hunting so much, even though it was mostly in controlled environments. But here, alone, without the safety net of allied forces, or even a friendly ear she could consult this with? The entire situation just felt anxiety-inducing. Alright. Cassandra swallowed and put her game face on. She's been in bad operational situations before. She needed to guide herself through this. Whatever it was shifting through the terrain, given its speed and size it probably didn't pose much a threat to her frame by itself. But it sure as hell could if it had friends. At which point, as good a vantage point as she had, the mountainside also made her Frame into a sitting duck. She slid back down into the valley. She needed more information... but she couldn't be careless either. If this entity was moving towards the outpost, she had a good chance of intercepting it from where she was, especially if she caught it by surprise. If it was going elsewhere, then... well, it sure as hell wasn't anything Hive-aligned, so not engaging might have been the preferred course of action. For now, it felt best to stay out of sight while keeping her own eyes peeled. Figuring out what she was dealing with was the priority.

Yup yup, I'll try to get you a reply tomorrow. Probably won't be a particularly lengthy one.

Bah, I really wish the plans admins had a while back for letting us create separate character profiles to use in club RPs actually went somewhere. Pinging characters would be great for sure, as would be the possibility of immediatwly putting a face to a character. @WritesNaughtyStories Am I right to assume I should wait after @WickedCadrach to post? Also in general, would you rather maintain a strict posting order or have people replying when they can between GM posts? Also; someone picked up on my use of stars as separators ;p

Thank you, I needed the positive reinforcement Sometimes you just end up staring at a thing for too long and it starts looking all janky, y'know?

I posted something. Been sitting on it for the past three days or so. It's sprawling, ugly, disjointed, filled with unnecessary purple prose, and I really don't like it, but at this rate I wasn't going to post at all, so it's probably better to just let it exist and tweak anything that needs tweaking at a later date. Hopefully it's workable and doesn't tread onto any established fiction. Cassandra Magnusson. Daughter of a prominent Frame weapons/equipment manufacturer and a senior officer in the Hive armed forces. Dropped into the scene under the excuse of an emergency support request, only to end up with alone, with no allies, and seemingly malfunctioning comms. Right now blissfully unaware of the whole media action going on. How do we get her working with the Union? Well, she's alone with few promising prospects, wants to get some answers that the Hive is not giving her, though while that might get her working temporarily alongside the Union (or at least follow them without shooting), I feel like there should be some major betrayal moment that would make her flip completely. Maybe there actually is a bomb strapped to her frame and the Union rescues her. Maybe she sees the Hive broadcasting what they're claiming is her tragic death to the public, making it clear she is not expected to come out alive from her situation. If we were to put some name to the threat, we could place an assassin with ties to some of the Hive organizations as a hook for her to chase. Anyway, I'm using this for the character sheet, hoping to fill it in as the fiction progresses. Lmk if the post is alright. Right now I'm headed off for the night.

There was a cold in the air. Not that Cassandra could feel it — the sensations coming from outside the frame were always carefully tuned and filtered by arrays upon arrays of sophisticated tech not to impact the pilot's performance, nor distract from the goals they fought for on the battlefield. The entire system was constructed so she would not feel the pain of a fresh combat wound on her Bio-Frame, the soreness of its exerted muscles, nor — indeed — the impact of high or low temperatures on the exposed organic parts of the unit. A heads-up display informed her of everything she needed to know, when she needed to know it, and a loud alert system would pipe off the moment any of the values shot past their expected boundaries so she could react accordingly. A system tighter than a well-made watch. And yet, it was cold. Despite the on-board displays showing nothing outside the range of normalcy and the in-cockpit atmosphere being strictly regulated by a steady whir of fans and heaters. It must have been a nightmare to install AC into what was essentially a living creature, but the Hive had some of the brightest minds to ever be put into the field of Bio-Frame augmentation. Many of which were even employed under the company bearing her own family's name. Cassandra grimaced. A living creature. A frame. The kaiju that lent its biological functions for this weapon of precise destruction was "alive" in only a very rudimentary sense. Steering it was little more than applying correct impulses to the correct parts of the tissue that you wanted to move. Not at all different from a remotely-controlled robot. But Cassandra felt it reacting to the cold breeze outside. Reacting in a way that no other Frame she had steered before reacted, and to what was, ultimately, parameters that should have been well within expected configuration. The subtle hesitance in the relaxation of the muscles. A delay, slight inaccuracy in her inputs. A behavior in no way similar to those of any of her hunting Frames back home, nor like the giant Heracles-class she was given back at the northern front just a few years ago. A unique behavior, specific to this one, particular unit. A quirk, a sliver of personality, as some would call it. If she heard anyone from her unit do so, she'd have them disciplined within the hour. But thoughts, especially her own, were a little harder to police. And there was something that made it hard for her to think about a being shivering from cold the same way she'd think of a lifeless metal construct... ☆☆☆ A quiet breath escaped the woman's lips, carrying a note of resignation that rested in a foggy mist on the lower part of her translucent full-face visor. She reached towards the communicator for what must have been the dozenth time in the recent history. Thumb pressed down in a familiar motion the transmission button. A just-as-familiar buzz signaled she was on air. "This is Major Cassandra Magnusson of the 23rd B-Frame Company; Command, please come in. Over." The communicator accepted her plea with an emotionless "beeeep," then fell silent again. Just like it did some eleven times before. Cassandra sighed once more. No matter how long she waited, there was no response. This was not right. Nothing about this was right. At first, she had speculated that the relay station must have got hit. It would have explained why her comms went dark and why no-one reacted to that kaiju strike earlier. But it didn't explain why she got ignored on the local frequencies when the reaction forces actually did arrive, and got into that skirmish with the Union not far from here. Or why the everpresent cameras kept on broadcasting her (and not only her) every move to some unknown audience as if it was some strange reality show. It didn't really make sense. In all honesty, she should have expected foul play ever since she got the order to divert her course and arrive here instead. The call was sudden, uncalled for, and the fact that she got summoned here alone, without her subordinates, should have raised her eyebrow from the get-go. She wasn't even officially on duty when the call arrived. But she wasn't in the habit of questioning her orders and it wouldn't have been the first time a kaiju strike or some Union shenanigans pulled her unit into action when she least expected it. Never like this, but often similar enough for this not to seem too out of ordinary. But that mattered little now. Now she was stranded, in a frame she barely knew, and with no allies to call for after the dropship that got her here left her sensor range. The outpost didn't even have a proper garrison, so she spent last night cuddled in the cockpit, keeping her signature low as to not attract the kaiju. And between her broken comms, the disproportion between supplies at her disposal and the apparent hostile activity in the area, locals who knew seemingly as much about the situation as she did, and that strange behavior of the patrol just fleeing the scene after the skirmish... she was half-expecting to learn there was a bomb with a "thank you for your service" note rigged somewhere to her undercarriage. It had not exploded quite yet, but Cassandra wasn't convinced it wasn't just waiting for a particularly dramatic moment. ☆☆☆ The jump-jets of the Lion-class she was riding roared with blue-ish flame, getting the frame higher into the mountainside. The terrain below showed remnants of a recent attack — the one stopped by the Union and not her Hive allies... allies who did not even check on the outpost, which, she was pretty sure, was the only real resource the Hive had in the area. If not for it, then why were they here? And why was she here? Cassandra ordered a full scan. Maybe someone was still in the area. Anyone, really, who had a better sense on what was going here than she was... // Notice Roll [+, , -, +] + 3 = +4

And it's just as horny, if not more. Love it, though might be a hard pitch to my regular group :p

To be fair, that's still like almost five times a human height :p The first post in this thread mentions most frames being ~10m tall, but Scyllia being just 2m shorter doesn't seem like it would track with her being significantly smaller. I should probably figure out my skills...

Fair enough — I'll start writing, but I'll probably have the full thing done after I'm through with the whole "real life" shebang. I got two small questions myself, actually: 1. How much uniqueness/standarization is there to the Hive mechas? I read your little snippet in the IC thread, but I'm still a little unsure how much the individual frames would differ from each other. Considering we're meeting out Union heroes within Scyllia, I'm kinda inclined to put my character in a frame as well, it would feel weird to have this encounter outside of the outpost otherwise. Hope that's alright with everybody. 2. What would be a reasonable military rank for my gal to have? And as follow-up, worldbuilding question: would the upper ranks of the military ladder be exclusive to the Hive elites? Commissioned officer levels, I imagine.

Hey hey, sorry for the silence, real life has been getting in the way. I got a job interview tomorrow so I've been stressing over that instead of getting to do fun creative stuffs I'll try to write something up before I head off for the night. Is there anything I should take into account for my post?

Numb, dumb, same thing really Fair enough. Does that mean that public approval has some impact on policy, then? Or is there something secondary to warrant a propaganda piece? And they were clearly good ideas, given how I took them and decided to make them my own :p I know I should settle for one, but, to be honest, they also have about equal merit in my own eyes. Let's hold off on that detail for now until we have a better grasp on the starting circumstances altogether. Alrighty! I did miss the fact that there was that small Hive force involved. That gives me context to some earlier suggestions you made that I think I didn't quite understand. And with that information, I do agree with some of your earlier ideas that tying her to this reaction force somehow feels like it makes the most sense and I see how some of the ideas I have do not quite fit in. I feel like I have the missing pieces now. I'll take some time to try and figure out something. I think I didn't explain correctly the point I was trying to make. Whether it's "Fallen", "Disillusioned", "Promising", or else, I don't think really matters. The fact is that by the virtue of having "Hive Elite" (or Hive Cadet, Daughter of Hive X-rank person etc.) you end up basically having the trouble baked in because it comes from the juxtaposition of the character (Hive Elite) and the circumstances (having to live in the Union's conditions). This does not need to be externally highlighted because you can compel it by just compelling the "Hive Elite" aspect and letting the circumstances do the rest. This is a good thing, I don't think we want to change it. I think what we want to do is use this opportunity to have the trouble explain some other aspect of my character.

Oh, also, this: I think it's the best out of the ideas around this theme so far, but I am going to repeat my concerns that this will likely overlap with the high concept too much. We're ending up with two aspects that are essentially both saying that she had an "aristocratic" upbringing/roots. I'm pretty sure that whether we stick to the high concept you suggested or go with one of my ideas I gave in my last post, they are going to be invokable in very similar circumstances to this trouble, with very similar consequences. It's just different phrasing of the same idea.

Yeah, I get that, and there's no need to diverge if you don't want to. I'm mentioning hooks, but it's up to you to decide whether to follow up on them or not. Okay, I'll try to answer them sequentially: As mentioned before, probably to her death. Why is she supposed to die? My assumption would be to hurt or send a message to whomever she's related to — might be an attempt to swing the military funding vote by targeting a vocal opposition leader, might be something more personal, a long-standing vendetta between two Hive clans/factions. I don't quite see how this follows. It's hard to see a trap until you're caught in it, and I imagine getting stranded in the outpost surrounded by Kaiju could very easily be the moment she realises there's no way she can go back, especially if no-one's answering her calls for backup or escort back. It could be the mech not coming online, it could be issue with logistics, it could be that her frame got damaged when she was actually getting here first and is not operational. Or she just didn't have one, or was told she'd get one here but didn't. I really don't see why she would see the coverage. As far as I understand, the propaganda is likely targeted at the elites far from the action, because it makes no sense to show propaganda to emotionless masses, where propaganda literally relies on emotions to make an impact. It makes even less sense to show said propaganda to the group that's being sacrificed as part of that very propaganda piece. My assumption would be that she noticed the cameras, figures out something is fishy, but doesn't really know what exactly is being broadcasted. You lost me here. But Imma preface this by saying it could very well be so that communications got sabotaged and she doesn't have a direct way to contact command. Or it could be like you said, up to you. I don't follow the fragment about the reaction force. I assume by reaction force you mean the unit my character was leading/a part of? If we go the direction of her having arrived with a team to defend the outpost, which we haven't yet hard established. Was there a scrape with the Union? I was under the assumption that both sides have only been facing off against Kaiju so far. I'm also under the understanding that the "lost frame" is the one you mean was rescued in-game. How much do we know about that frame? Honestly, it might be helpful if you could give me a short rundown on what has happened in the story so far, chronologically — I've been reading through the main thread, but it's been honestly quite hard to follow at times. Okay, this part makes me think the reaction force is something else? Were there already other frames at the outposts? I was under the understanding the the outpost had no defenses? Help x.x

I have been already thinking along the lines of A fish out of water — I'm not happy with this phrasing yet either, but I think it goes in the direction of what you have in mind. (Admittedly, these sort of troubles have also some overlap with the high concept, which could arguably be invoked in similar circumstances. I think — you'd definitely know better than me whether that's the case, though) Something like Born with a silver spoon/Raised in luxury could carry the implication just as well (and are probably even closer to the high concept), just by the virtue of being put in the circumstances you described in the game itself. At the same time — and mostly on a bit of a sidenote — I'm not sure I want to make her too sheltered; to better explain what I mean: I imagine that there is quite a bit of overlap in how people behave, with both sides being essentially two opposing extremes. Yelling, crying, and fucking for all kinds of reasons would be probably something she'd have been exposed to, not among the rabble — but among the elites she had lived between all her life. Of course that doesn't account for the sudden lack of silken sheets and brainwashed personal servants, but I think there's something to be explored with the similarities and differences of the pretend freedom that the nobility showcases in private and the rough, but arguably sincere liberty that life with the Union brings. I think the parallels are just as interesting here as the contrasts. But I'm going off on a tangent. @WickedCadrach I do quite like your idea of bringing a face to a threat as well, at the risk of such a Trouble being harder to reliably invoke — especially with the group being already quite adversarial towards the Hive (and vice-versa) which might make the conflict a little too close to what's already, you could say, the team's trouble. I think there's something to be found here if we were to focus on more specific aspects rather than the general ones — something like Hive's chief bio-engineer wants my head in a box or something else which would similarly focus on a specific subpart of the Hive's threat. Give the antagonist a slightly more unique spin and also suggest potential areas that my character could have knowledge off by the virtue of having to defend herself from these people. Also, here's a couple aspect ideas that just randomly came to my mind, mostly unrelated to the prior conversation. Maybe something will spark interest: "I used to hunt these people for sport" "My execution will be televised" "Power is the only language I know" By the way, thank you so much for this sheet. I freaking love excel character sheets, and I'm definitely making a copy of this one to keep track of shiz. :D I don't mind this, though I'm still keen on the idea of being sent to the place under a false pretense to get rid of by the orders of someone in the Hive. I know this runs into the issues of going back on the Union's intel that the settlement is undefended, but I think there's way to work alongside that, from the intel simply not being complete, through the operation being clandestine and not really officially supposed to happen, to the character being sent to the outpost for non-military purposes and ending up trapped there (I imagine high Kaiju and Union activity would make traveling out without a larger escort difficult). I like the idea of politics happening in the background, I like the idea of my character being unfortunately tangled in these politics by the virtue of whom she's related to (we could make that a trouble if we can word it well :p). I think the fact that me being in the outpost is unexpected is just a ripe opportunity to set up some hooks for some deeper storytelling in this direction. On a side-note, how about changing the High Concept to something like Hive General's Daughter (or maybe even Hive General's Firstborn Daughter?) or Heiress to a Tech/Food/Chem-Baron? I feel like the "fallen" aspect is already implied by the virtue of the story and the circumstances she will end up in, and this could be a good opportunity to expand on what her and her family's background actually is.

Ahh, the quantum ogre. I didn't make the connection. With a high-tech setting like this, my mind went to the literal Agreed with the high concept; it's a good starting point. I should probably start thinking what her Trouble should be. Hrmm.

At no point did I want to fight Scyllia. I don't have a strong idea on what BioFrame I'll end up with yet either. Wanted to get the main character idea down first and then figure out what works both narratively and thematically. The one back at the base seems as the obvious choice, I suppose. Can you say a more? Does that involve me anyhow?

@WritesNaughtyStories First of all, genuinely thank you for the reply, it made it much clearer to me where who's coming from. Also, I did not quite communicate this clearly — I am not imagining my character's BioFrame as being operational after the initial scene, or in any way significantly threatening to Emily. The image I had in my mind was a mech essentially on its last legs, right after or during the process of fighting off a kaiju, getting pulled out of deep shit by Emily intervening. Admittedly, my understanding of the outpost's situation is rather vague at the moment, so I'm fully aware this sort of an image might not be even plausible — but it's what was guiding my thoughts. The main points being — 1. the Frame my character uses in the scene can very well just not survivenpast that scene and 2. that MC is severly outgunned and essentially at LU's mercy when we first encounter her. What I'm pushing for is less a "already disillusioned character actively looking for a way to defect" kinda angle and more of "character finds an unlikely ally in their once-enemy and joins them because she can't go back to her old life," if that makes sense. Of course how exactly that happens can manifest in all sorts of different combinations, but that's the overall direction that I'd like to go towards. I also think that something along the lines of having her life saved by Emily would come a long way to both start building a bond between the characters and further motivate the character to trust the Union. Whether a Frame is involved or not is honestly secondary, the more I think of it. Most of its value would have been to show "hey, this girl is a skilled Frame pilot as well" off the bat anyway, but I imagine that can be conveyed in some other manner just as well. Though I do appreciate your efforts to try and figure out a way to give me a frame there <3

I am 100% putting "Hive scion having to pose as a emotion-drugged love-doll for infiltration purposes" on my "please yes, I so badly want this to happen list". Just saying. That's a really good idea, which would also give a way to actually have a custom Bio-Frame for my character, which was going to be potentially problematic otherwise. I really like what you did here. At this point, however, I am almost certain I am going to end up with the scion idea. The suggestion you made earlier of having a "knighting"" moment with a new mech also stuck with me, so I'm not sure I'd like to forsake this. Yup yup, that's close to how I'm seeing it. I do think the best way to handle the severity of the "punishment" of crossing the emotion limit would be to make it tweak-able or dynamic dependent on other factors. This way you can make it both a soft dampener — or a torture device. Not sure why or what for yet, but I think it'd be neat :p

I am not necessarily against these suggestions (well, somewhat, I suppoze), but I would be keen to learn what sparked them — I think there's more drama and stronger motivation to align myself with the Union if the real reason I am at the location is because it was a trap laid for me. It's fine if the official reason given was some sort of a proving or a test, but it does feel like it also goes against the stated goal of sacrificing the settlement to actually have this sort of a trial take place there. Similarly, I think putting my character in a Hive BioFrame — presumably one that won't survive the fight — makes for a better story. Not only does it give me more agency and prove to the Union that MC is/can be actually a competent pilot, there's also a much more personal link for if MC is saved by another pilot mecha-to-mecha rather than if they're just an important ViP somewhere in the outpost. There's a difference in dynamic that this paints, one that shifts from what I see as potentially damsel in distress, to one that's more matched and earned in blood on the battlefield. If you want cohesion between player characters, I think the latter would work out better. Is there something in specific that you dislike about the original idea or causes issues for the narrative?

Oh shit oh fuck the roleplay started moving again, I need to actually start creating something here Well now I'm starting to want to play a Hive lovedoll Even if just for a couple scenes. These high-class dystopian sex parties can be such a vibe. You know, the sterile white tones of the Hunger Games capitol, servants modified to be at your every command, some of the nastiest, most powerful people you'll ever find dining in a room together? It's tickling the funny parts of my brain. A&A doesn't quite roll off the tongue, but ANA does for that particular word combination. Might be too close to ANAL though :p Makes me wonder about the shipments that found themselves in Union's hands. And how many among the Union would pay good money to pump one of those into the so-called leaders of the Hive if given the chance? Memory blockers do feel like a quite natural thing to exist given the technological and social state of the world in the setting. Even IRL we already have semi- (if not fully-) controllable memory loss inducing drugs, as far as I'm aware, it's only reasonable to have them be a thing. Your suggestions make a lot of sense here. Are they ingested before or after the time period they're supposed to forget? How much memory do they retain? Is it a complete wipe-out or does the brain form fake memories to justify the gap? And a random thought inspired by that: do pilots still get PTSD sometimes, even when on E-blockers? Perhaps not everything can be filtered quite as well as the Hive claims? I'm thinking using them en-masse on a city population might be too expensive, whether money- or resource-wise, at least for relatively frequent application. Probably one of the last-resort kinds of options, where anything else just doesn't come into play. & I do feel there's still space for Bio-Frame-specific regiments that are chosen to be experimented on. It could be an attempt to further the imitation of Union's pilots syncing with their frames — emotion seems to be a pretty significant part of how that connection is formed, so I think it wouldn't be completely out of the question that Hive could be experimenting with trying to copy that to the furthest extent that still lets them retain full control over the mech and its rider. And I agree that a Frame lance getting overwhelmed by Kaiju certainly paints a stronger picture than regular troops. I'd like to put a pin in the cybernetic emotion clamp, because I do like the idea. Is it better than chemical blockers in any other way? Easier to produce/implement over large periods of time? More detailed control over what exactly the subject can feel? Is shortening of the emotions a painful experience, shock-collar like, or is it just a fade-out? Could it be tuned into an impromptu chastity device? That being said, with what both you and WNS mentioned, the thought of the fallen Hive scion is starting to seriously grow on me. Playing someone who is from that high-class environment of the Hive could be really fun to play out, especially thrown into the very alien (and likely quite hostile) environment they will find themselves in in the Union. Where I was getting stuck is what that kind of character would be doing on the to-be-battlefield, but now I'm starting to see this as a perfect way to perform a public execution, right? The propaganda piece is most likely already targeted to the elites, considering the emotionless massess likely don't care and don't have much to say about it anyway, and getting rid of a rival/rival's daughter like this would be a pretty spicy way to do it. Or, to preserve that propaganda aspect a little better, it could be a fine way to convince a particularly stubborn opponent that the Kaiju actually are a threat worth investing into defense against — what better way to make the conflict feel personal? Also; Is this a religious kinda group? It sounds like a religious kinda group. The idea of purity often is, I think.

Don't take my silence for anything negative, it's just that you two have been posting so much good content that I'm struggling to respond in time on a phone at 3:30 in the morning :'D @WickedCadrach That's so much good stuff! I think your view of the subfactions and inner factions is exactly the way it could work out, and thanks for actually managing to word it out for me :p The canaries idea definitely has potential — I like the angle of having someone serving as a frame of reference to what an emotional reaction to a given situation might look like so that the rest of the hive command can take more informed actions. Intellectualizing will only take you so far. I'm not sure I'd use it for a character concept, but it's a nice plot point to keep in the back of our minds. The internal Hive faction you described also brings up the existence of selective e-blockers, which is quite interesting. It does allow for the Hive to use selective emotions in its operations as well, which could be something to look into. Right now the only thing that comes to mind is the classical anger-fueled berserkers, but what other beneficial behaviors could you induce by boosting specific emotional responses and muting others? Servants who can feel nothing but love and adoration are an interesting concept ;p @WritesNaughtyStories Apology 100% accepted, and I am sorry myself for starting us off at a wrong foot. I'm honestly as thrilled as you are for an opportunity to be a part of this... and maybe a little intimidated, because god damn are you two good writers. Ekhm. This is something that I think is worth emphasizing. As much as I love exploring the different factions and subfactions, there is a benefit to staying focused. I think it's good to hint at the existence of other factions and politics going on, but at the same time probably not introduce too many moving parts that could distract us from the core. Would be nice if I could create a character whose background is from one of those subfactions within the Hive, I think, show that there's some cracks behind the united image that the Hive is presenting, but at the same I don't want to make it their core identity — it feels more like something that could potentially help if the story evolves into grander reaches later. So, the core of the character is an ex-Hive soldier/commander currently contributing to the defense of the outpost, probably wary towards the Union but not in a position to refuse additional firepower. The main challenge is somehow figuring out how to make them not have to go through the traumatic process of detoxification when they do switch sides. It's a little tropey, but the "canaries" could be just an experimental batch. An attempt to see if easing the blockers on some specific emotions would make them more effective in a fight, or whatever scenario they're supposed to be put in. And being a failed batch, they end up sent to get disposed of on the frontlines. Does that sound like anything? This way we have them off the drugs to a degree already, and we could build towards what the subfaction within the Hive that's overseeing this experiment is.

I think when you view the two factions as collectives of smaller entities that come into conflict with each other, mercenaries and other criminal third parties start to make more sense. The Hive is comprised of different corporations and wealthy elites that won't always be able to get what they want via official means — from my point of view, there's definitely space for organizations that would do the dirty work for them — corporate espionage, sabotage, making sure that that profitable operation that your neighbour is conducting suddenly changes hands. Historically, when you've got more money than you know what to do with, you start desiring things that just throwing money at won't get you, stuff that you're not allowed to just buy. I think that's where external organizations come in. As I said, a lot of it could be done by private armies, but even then an emotionless drone could be convinced to betray you — a third party meanwhile relies on its reputation to stay afloat. They generally cannot afford to fuck a client over. As for where the Union comes in? Well, aside from the fact that the Union itself also has factions that are likely for infighting to occur between, a mercenary force is outside you day-to-day logistics. Sometimes an opportunity arises that you cannot mobilize quickly enough for yourself, but a local mercenary force may be able to. Or you need some backup you didn't expect to need. Or you just need more numbers than you can muster at a given moment. As to how the Union can pay? From the way I see it, the Union has unprocessed food, equipment and staff able to jailbreak, arm, and modify Bio-Frames, apparently even some territory of its own and the ability to hunker down well enough that the Hive cannot fully eradicate them. Let alone the Bio-Frames themselves, if the Union is willing to trade with them. From my point of view, there's a lot that can be traded. That's just the mercenaries, too. But there will always be independent communities glad to split from whatever organization they belong to and carve a piece for themselves. A liberated settlement that doesn't really want to join the entire big war effort and hopes to just stay under the radar and siphon supplies from whatever supply routes are nearby. An emotionless outpost that realized they hold a unique enough position where cooperating with the Union while staying under the Hive's influence is in fact the best strategy not to get wiped by one of the sides. A splinter faction from the Union surrounding a personality they think should rule the liberated factions or who just doesn't agree with some point of what the Union is attempting to do. If I'm making some misassumptions with these let me know, but I think that even then you'd be able to find other factions popping up, if not at the Hive, then at the very least the Union, which doesn't have the narrative device of e-blockers. In all honesty, I've mostly lost interest in the character concept. Especially since Emily already had to go through detoxification, so I don't think there's much value to introducing another character with a focus on this sort of experience. Might be better to run someone from the Union itself. Or someone for whom the scars have mostly healed by now. There's a lot that can be explored in the setting still. I'm not convinced there's no point; I got a sense of frustration from your last post and I got a frustrated myself at getting what felt like a mostly negative response at pretty much every idea I was juggling with at the time, especially after outright getting told it would be nice if I tried to contribute to the setting. If that wasn't the intention, I'm sorry. It's been a long day, and I'm pretty sure I'm more cranky and sensitive to these sort of things than I should be. Words and sentiments are hard, especially the written kind x.x

Shit, sorry. I didn't manage to read the IC yet, and I missed the post in OOC where that was mentioned. From what I'm reading detoxing in general is pretty traumatic, not just cold turkey, so that probably renders most of the idea moot. The cold analysis of "given the current status, aligning with Liberation Union gives us and this settlement better odds of survival" makes a little more sense for defecting here for sure, though it keeps the need to detoxify anyway, which is a whole can of worms that's probably best left unopened. Let's drop this idea. I honestly don't quite agree with your view on the viability of third party factions, but that's fair enough. If you want to keep it to just the Hive and the Union, there's certainly ways to fill in the gaps — the Hive probably has private armies for whatever infighting/unofficial business the elites are having, and without the Hive's tolerance they don't really have a way to survive without joining the Union. I think pirates run into the very same issue of the Hive having no interest in them existing and without Union's help having no chance of survival. To be honest, I think it's gonna be best if I drop out. Ongoing campaigns with custom settings like that are always a struggle to hop in when you weren't there at the start. I feel like I'm just gonna be treading on your baby otherwise, and I'm not really in the right mindspace at the moment to give it the attention it deserves It's a good setting though, had fun reading through it :3