This Plot Idea Is For The Birds (no, really)

[doitrockapella]

Hey, everybody! Alex here, coming to you with a (Sunny-approved) post-Fourth Wall player plot idea, and hoping to get some information, work some ideas out, and see how generally feasible it'd be to pull off!

Basically, several months ago a couple of Rockets attacked Falkner's gym and stole his Elite Team of six Flying-types for the glory of Team Rocket and all that. It's recently come to Carmen's attention that those birds are apparently still around and just hanging out in what she assumes is the Goldenrod Rocket Base, and, well. It's been a while since she stole something, and we certainly can't have anybody getting complacent in their villainy, can we.

So here's the tentative idea: following the conclusion of Fourth Wall, she'll wake up in Goldenrod, just in time for the nation to get hit with the Thanksgiving Tornado. While she's there, she'll happen to notice a careless Rocket prioritizing his or her own safety over Strict Secrecy™, and observe them using the secret passage down into the Rocket Base as they attempt to take cover from the tornado. Once she's caught on to this little revelation (and once the tornado has passed), she'll decide to go drop in and pay the Rockets a visit, and liberate Falkner's birds in favor of some birds she figures the merry Rockets might find a bit more palatable for the holiday — a set of six frozen Thanksgiving turkeys, instead.

Of course, the problem with just randomly walking into the Rocket Base is that people are kind of liable to notice that you are not a Rocket and don't belong in the Rocket Base. So, thanks to some Steve-approved Fourth Wall shenanigans, she'll be doing it in disguise.

As Cobra Commander.

So there's a fair amount of room for flexibility and involvement in the plot, really, which is what I'm largely here to discuss — I'd prefer to have her succeed at this, but if it'd be completely unrealistic for reasons I don't yet know about, then I'm more than happy to amend or altogether scrap the idea. So what I'm looking for is:

• Rockets — who's in the base, are you likely to have special security measures that I don't yet know about, do you want to have an encounter with Fake Cobra Commander while she's in there, that kind of thing! Also, if somebody would like to take on the currently-NPC role of being the idiot who gives away the location of the base (and IDK, possibly face Rocket Consequences™ if that's something you're interested in playing around with, too), I can definitely work with you on that! Mostly I'm looking for who might be around, complications she might run into, that kind of thing.

• The PGC — my going thought is that, in true Carmen fashion, she's probably not likely to actually go return the birds herself, but rather to find some Designated Good Guy™ and just have the birds mysteriously show up in their PC when it gets a little closer to Christmas, with the idea that one of them will be compelled to do the right thing and go give Falkner his stuff back. Understandably, this could cause some WHO WAS THAT MASKED MAN among the Designated Heroes, which I'm also okay with, and I'd be interested in playing around with some possible CR opportunities in that respect as well.

• Anybody Else — if you're in Goldenrod and would be affected by this in a way that I haven't anticipated, please let me know so I can keep working on the idea and come up with something that makes sense for everyone!

The tentative working dates for this plot are Thanksgiving and the day after, so that's the 28th and 29th of November. Assuming it flies, I'll probably put up an open Rocket Base log with Carmen in disguise so people can hit her up and shenanigans can ensue, but again, please don't hesitate to tell me if there's good reason why this isn't feasible! I'm more than happy to change things around or dump the idea altogether if it's going to pose a bunch of problems I haven't anticipated. o/

And again, this has been Sunny-approved. ♥

Comments

[akito]

/CHINHANDS AT THIS WHOLE THING

[colorsofthewind]

omg this sounds fantastic. I'll happily volunteer Talim for any good guy-type shenanigans.

[doitrockapella]

Sounds good to me! Did you have something in particular in mind?

[colorsofthewind]

Nothing specific, though Talim is a member of the PGC. She's all about doing the large thing, and is actually quite forgiving (possibly too forgiving). There's some potential for stuff there, though she and Carmen have only talked once, to the best of my knowledge.

[doitrockapella]

Yeah, that's a good point; as far as I know, she isn't aware that Talim is a part of the PGC, so she's missing the basis to make that kind of connection. We'd have to plot something in order to get around that. o/

[colorsofthewind]

I'm all for whatever. o/ I need to work on expanding her CR anyway |D

[doitrockapella]

Is she in Goldenrod, then, or...?

[colorsofthewind]

... you know, I'm going to have to check with Ironhide's player and get back to you on that.

Might I add you on plurk in the meantime? I'm ro_bot

EDIT: if you have a plurk, that is. I suppose I should assume |D

[doitrockapella]

Haha, it's okay! It'll work better for me to just hash things out here in this post, if that's all right with you. o/

[beforethedarkness]

Haha I'll gladly volunteer Sasuke for this insanity! It's been a while since I've had him heavily involved with rockets or almost anything that wasn't cast drama or just plain dramatic in general. In other words, YES PLEASE to this.

EDIT: I don't know how, just know that he is part of the PGC as well. Whether it's to return Falkner's Pokemon or to encounter the 'fake' Cobra around the base during its presumably weak point, either way could be fun.

[doitrockapella]

Sorry, I'm a little confused here - so Sasuke is both a Rocket and part of the PGC? Working as a mole for at least one, I presume.

[beforethedarkness]

Ah, not at all. But I'm assuming he'd jump on the opportunity to screw up their plans if he thinks the base is going to be unguarded, considering his encounters with team rocket in the past. That and it's a good opportunity to possibly get him to find out about his brother.

He is firmly in the PGC however. Sorry for confusing you there.

[doitrockapella]

No, no, not a problem! I'm just trying to get things straight on my end, don't worry.

And what is it that's making him think the base is going to be unguarded? I'm confused about how he's going to be inside the base to discover fake Cobra if he's not a Rocket and otherwise wouldn't have any reason to be in there. :|a

[beforethedarkness]

Possibly because he's a stupid kid who thinks that he can do anything just because he's got his powers back.

... No really, Itachi hasn't beaten the tar out of him yet in canon. It's plausible. That being said, chances are if that doesn't work I'll just keep him away and busy with other things until after the fact?

Still using this icon b/c this is his reaction to my dumb right now

[doitrockapella]

Oh! I see now. Sorry, slight miscommunication. This plot is taking place after Fourth Wall is already over. So he wouldn't have his powers back in the first place because it won't have happened until after he's already lost them again!

She's breaking in on the 29th, two days after Fourth Wall is over.

[beforethedarkness]

And now I can't read too haha

Fair enough! In that case I don't mind having Sasuke as a potential PGC member involved after all is said and done with Carmen.

[doitrockapella]

Okay, cool! Sorry about all the trouble.

As far as I know, she doesn't know Sasuke is a member of the PGC (she doesn't know a lot of the PGC personnel, actually...but maybe there's a way to fix that), so that'd be something we'd have to get established as groundwork before getting him involved, but that shouldn't be too much of a hassle. :|a

[beforethedarkness]

Fair enough. If Carmen knows anything about Lightning, she might at least somewhat know Sasuke as 'that kid who has been annoying the crap out of Lightning and hangs around her sometimes'. :P

Sounds good! I'll let you know if I have any ideas, and if you have any then you can either PM or PP me at RizuK01. Sounds good?

[doitrockapella]

She's aware of Lightning, actually, but they don't talk all that much. Still, maybe there's something to be done with that, yeah!

[cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

This just continues to be an absolutely beautiful thing.

[doitrockapella]

YEAH BECAUSE IT'S NOT LIKE YOU SET THE BAR SUPER HIGH FOR ATTEMPTING TO PULL OFF COBRA OR ANYTHING, STEVE

IT'S NOT LIKE I'M INTIMIDATED BY THE PROSPECT OR ANYTHING

AT ALL

[cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

DON'T BE INTIMIDATED.

IT'S JUST THAT I'M RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED TO SEE THIS OKAY ):

[doitrockapella]

...also HEY STEVE

Remember Cobra's hit list of people who've crossed him and/or need to face the wrath of COBRAAAAAAAAAA? There wouldn't happen to be a copy of that still lying around the base somewhere, would there? >>

[cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

There just might be. If there is, it'd be this one because he apparently hasn't made a new one in over a year. ...I should fix that at some point.

[freshprints]

That could still be pretty useful, if only to get the ball rolling on pinning down some of the other members of the PGC. :|a

I'll have to think about that, with regard to making some of these connections.

[cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Yeah.

Or maybe not in some cases since he didn't even have names for some people at that point.

And I am just sort of going "wow that's outdated I really need to have him make a new one" every time I look at it. ):

[freshprints]

IT'S OKAY, COBRA, WE STILL LOVE YOU EVEN IF YOUR BURN BOOK IS OUT OF DATE

[cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

He'll make a new one. Someday.

Maybe after all this. That's a good reason.

[soggypastry]

>3 Oh, I do like this plot. I like it very much so. If there's room for her and Carmen wants to put up with her, I volunteer Lightning for whatever you may need. this'll be interesting...>3

[doitrockapella]

Well, we've had a handful of PGC people popping up already, but the biggest complication I'm facing right now is that Carmen doesn't ICly know that any of them are with the Corps, which poses the problem of how she'd be conscious of them in the first place — and arguably, she doesn't have that problem with Lightning since she already knows about her via Cooper, so that's something. :|a

I mean, I'm flexible with what y'all want to do here; I'm assuming pulling a stunt like this will make waves somehow, and I wanted to leave things generally open for people to build off of and do their own stuff with, too. Outside of needing somebody to receive the birds, Carmen's pretty self-contained with her own stuff; I'm open to working with people who want to use this as a means of facilitating their own ideas along with it. o/

[soggypastry]

Well, the first thing that comes to mind about getting other PGC members involved would be getting Lightning to call them into the field again. The only way I can think of that happening is if, for some reason, Carmen doesn't send the birds to just one PC, but leads people on a wild bird chase with riddles for them. At that point Lightning would call everyone out, and if Carmen's somehow watching, she could potentially find out that way?

with the other player's permission, of course; Coop's word for Carmen really only works with Lightning at this point. Unfortunately. >>;;

[doitrockapella]

Hey, now there's an idea. I could definitely see her pulling shenanigans like that. If she were to send a cryptic riddle message to Lightning specifically, would that be enough to get people mobilized? Because what she could do is send out two — one as a preliminary "hey I've got a thing you might be interested in, you might want to get ready to do something about it", and then after they've had some time to mobilize, a secondary "Merry Christmas, go here and do this and you'll get your present."

And if she did that, then potentially what I could do is have her leave the Pokeballs at one of the Pokemon Centers with a Nurse Joy, and then what the pursuers have to solve is which Center to go to and what name to give the Joy in order to receive the birds "back". How does that sound?

[soggypastry]

That sounds very good, and very workable! Lightning wouldn't be happy, and would attempt to grill Carmen through whatever connection was made, but yes. I can definitely see it working--the birds are safely returned, Carmen gets her holiday fun, and all's well that ends well!

Probably, anyway. >3 so yes. I'm down for this.

[doitrockapella]

Yes, well, if heroic people are ever entirely happy with Carmen, then I'm doing something wrong, so. c:

Do you have any preference as to which city she deposits them in? I can make it as difficult or convenient as you like, really.

[soggypastry]

so she can drive heroic people crazy and the world is right once more. C:

welp, being that the PGC is always scattered around, I think it would be best if they stayed in one region but no. No preference with regards to the city. You know. So long as no Nurse Joy gets a little prankster streak and leaves one in the Ice Path.(though that would be funny, in it's own way) Distribute as you see fit~

[doitrockapella]

LOOK SHE KIND OF DRIVES THE VILLAINS CRAZY TOO A LOT OF THE TIME she is a freewheelin' third party independent agent, baby.

I probably won't be terrible and split them up six ways, but I might do two sets of three Pokeballs each, or three sets of two. Either way, I'll check in with the other people who've wanted to volunteer for this and see what general areas they might be in, and probably send them close to there, if that works?

[soggypastry]

oh, is that what they're calling loose cannons these days? xD fair enough.

That sounds like it'll work out fine, yes~ reasons to move around are never bad, especially a reason like this.

[firstnothing]

Not a Rocket (yet) ... OR really a goodguy but if there's a way to get Xemnas embroiled in all of this, I'd like to!

[doitrockapella]

Sounds great! I'm still really just kind of figuring out who's interested and what people want to do at this point, so feel free to let me know if there's something you've got in mind!

[20faces]

Oh this plot sounds wonderful! Whoever this mysterious thief is, they just might become Akira's new role model.

He's a Rocket so maybe he could run in to 'Cobra Commander' and completely fail to notice anything is amiss? idk. I just wanted to pop up and say yes A+ plot I will be reading this.

[doitrockapella]

Sure, that'd be entirely feasible! I'm probably going to put up a log in 1065 for the Goldenrod Rocket Base on the day that she's in there, so if Akira would be around also, they could definitely meet up!