13 KiB
[BST] r!Animorphs ARG: UN Conference on Peaceful Interspecies Development
Post:
This thread is something I'd like to see more of on r/rational: this is an asymetric roleplay scenario, taking place in the Animorphs: The Reckoning universe. Obviously, massive spoilers ahead.
The basic idea is simple: the Earth is currently being invaded by body-snatching aliens who, for now, are trying to play nice and open diplomatic channels. Posters play the role of journalists who talk to and try to understand these aliens.
Background
The Yeerk invasion has been revealed 3 months ago, when a meteorite destroyed Ventura city, killing millions of people, and a Yeerk spaceship was hijacked and crashed in Washington DC.
Since then, the world has plunged in chaos. The US President Tyagi was revealed as a Controller, the peace conference in Japan was interrupted by a nuclear explosion caused by North Korea, and now Yeerks are forcibly removing every single nuclear bomb from Earth "for our own safety".
When the chaos died down, the UN Security Council agreed to give up their nuclear weapons and start the development of a voluntary infestation program, in exchange for protection from extraterrestrial threats and help setting up advanced tech manufactories around the world.
Brazil was chosen among the volunteer countries as the one that will host the first Yeerk Integration Program (eg voluntary infestation). Now a new conference is taking place in Rio de Janeiro, to set up accords that will define how the Yeerk Federation will cohabit with the Brazil administration and the rest of the world.
A more detailed background can be found on the brainstorming preparation thread. You shouldn't need to read it to participate.
Rules
The ARG will last seven days, each day representing a week in-universe.
The posters play as journalists from all over the world (exact background or lack therein of to your discretion); a select few of them will play as diplomat Controllers.
The journalists ask questions regarding the current themes, past events, controversies, etc, and the Controller try to answer without revealing strategic secrets; hardball questions and follow-up questions are encouraged.
Each day, I will post an update, including a theme for discussion, and a series of events that happened since the last "week". Weeks 3, 5 and 7 will be special events: players are encouraged to post proposals for a Human-Yeerk peace accord. At the end of day 7, the most upvoted proposal will be designated as the final proposal of the conference, that will determine Human-Yeerk relations going forward, assuming the Yeerks player accept it. (if they don't, I guess humanity gets exterminated or something)
The goals of the United Nations Interstellar Relations Organization (UNIRO) during the conference are:
- To guarantee the safe independence and sovereignty of Earth's nations.
- To set up safe and healthy supervision for all volunteer Controllers, and make sure their rights and bodily autonomy are respected.
- To get access to Yeerk technologies.
- To better understand the motivations, long-term goals and philosophy of Yeerks.
The Yeerk players will be:
- u/Rouninscholar
- u/CopperZirconium
- u/NatsuDragnee1 (may not be available)
- u/couteaubleu (me)
- u/Modularva
If you're interested in playing as a Yeerk before the end of the ARG, PM me.
Comments:
-
u/CouteauBleu:
**WEEK 1** **Theme of the week** - The Yeerk Federation and its long-term goals. **Events** Nuclear missiles are still being pulled for the US, Russia and China. Soon, there will be no nuclear weapon left on Earth. The _United Nation Conference on Peaceful Interspecies Development_ (UNCPID) is now starting. On the human side, the newly-formed UNIRO will be tasked with guiding negociations with the Yeerk Federation, and drafting a proposal for mutually beneficial cooperation for the years to come. To guarantee transparency, and reduce risks of foul play, the UNIRO's comission will decentralize its decision-making, and partially rely on crowdsourced input: journalists from all over the world are invited to submit questions, proposals and observations for the Yeerk delegations. While the final proposal and agreement won't be decided by vote, the UNIRO hopes that exposing the decision-making process and integrating popular requests will guarantee a certain degree of accountability and fairness in the final treaty. For the duration of the conference, the Brazil government has selected 100 volunteers for Integration. Some of these 100 Controllers will act as diplomats for the Telor coalescion, while the others will be free to act as they please within the confines of Rio de Janeiro.-
u/chaos-engine:
What happens if a yerk wants a human to do something that the human doesn't want to do? How can we verify that humas are never forced to act against their will?- u/CouteauBleu:
Right now, the government has every delegation member go through a check-up by a psychologist every 24h to safeguard against basic coercion. This is a temporary setup. The understanding is that permanent measures may be more elaborate, and will be decided during this conference. Are there specific concerns you're worried about, that you'd want us to address?
- u/CouteauBleu:
-
u/chaos-engine:
[let's get this party started] How can we trust that our leaders are actually free humans who are going to be working on humanity's interested, and are not secretly controlled by Yerks? -
u/chaos-engine:
How many volunteers do you want? What if you don't get enough?
-
-
u/None:
How long has the yurk extraterrestrial society been aware of earth, and how long have you made active attempts at interaction with our system, openly or otherwise? Are you aware of any awareness or attempts at contact with earth on the part of other extraterrestrial societies? What do you know about the possible veracity of claims by David Icke, Erich von Däniken and others concerning extraterrestrial contact with earth in the recent and distant past? The Bohemian Grove is in California, not inconveniently far from Ventura but easily distant enough to survive the Ventura impact or any likely impact on Ventura which wouldn’t destroy the western USA or more. Is there any connection between the Bohemian Grove and your extraterrestrial society or any extraterrestrial society known to you?-
u/CouteauBleu:
* We are not at liberty to divulge military information. * We aren't aware of any interplanetary contacts predating, say, the last 20 years. * I had to search that on Google. As far as I'm aware, there has been no contact between this society and the Yeerk civilization.-
u/None:
Would you consider it unlikely that humanity has been contacted by extraterrestrials in the past, or are you simply unaware of any specific incidents? If you were to gain information about previous encounters, on what basis would you be willing to share it? Separately, can you describe to us any agreements you may have with other extraterrestrial societies? Do you have any close relationships which do not involve hosts?- u/Modularva:
Good question. The Yeerk Federation is fully committed to promoting the spread of relevant information regarding non-Yeerkish extraterrestrial activities to our human counterparts in the United Nations and other governing bodies.
- u/Modularva:
-
-
-
u/CouteauBleu:
**WEEK 2** **Theme of the week** - The Andalites and the greater war. **Events** A shocking leak by a US Army whistleblower reveals that US military has contacted the Andalite homeworld, and that the Andalite high command has threatened to blow the Earth up, but hasn't followed up on it for unknown reasons. All communications with Andalites are currently blocked off. Threats of retaliation by the US military have received no response. Multiple world leaders call US military "irresponsible" and "reckless" for hiding that information from the public and other countries. Congressional committee is being formed to address the issue. US military declares they have been intercepting encrypted Yeerk transmissions through unspecified means for weeks. They publish a log of all recorded data for anyone to interpret. BBC releases overview of Yeerk-Andalite war. The overview is collected from interviews with ex-controllers, Brazilian controllers, and US military spokepersons, and covers broad events, with many interrogation marks and no specific strategic information. [What the overview actually says is up to your imagination; Visser 3 is not mentioned]- u/gamedori3:
If the military is planning for war with the Andalites, what is the current state of the US nuclear stockpile? What can humanity do to prepare for war if the Yeerks are destroying the nuclear stockpiles? When will tech transfers from the Yeerks begin?
- u/gamedori3:
-
u/CouteauBleu:
Ok, given this thread has had way less attention than the last two, and is losing what little momentum it had, I'm going to call it quits now. It was fun while it lasted, and I'm sorry for everyone who participated, but there just isn't as much interesting discussion happening as I hoped. For those curious, the following events were going to be: --- **WEEK 3 - PROPOSALS Round 1** **Themes of the week** - Terms for alliance between Earth and the Yeerk Federation - Plans for the arrival of the Yeerk fleet. **Events** China declares they have analyzed the communication log from the Yeerk fleet released by US military. They have managed to estimate speed and distance of Yeerk fleet using the Z-space equivalent of the Doppler effect, and confirmed that, if it maintains its current speed, the fleet will arrive within three months. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **WEEK 4** **Theme of the week** - Balance of power **Events** A joint military raid has been operated by the special forces of Germany and Japan on 28 facilities (14 in each country), which, according to the now-defunct Serenity Z-space tracker, had been regularly visited by space-capable fighters in the past. These facilities turned out to be spaceship manufactories, manned by unindentified bipedal aliens. These aliens have been captured and are currently detained in secret locations by the German and Japanes militaries. Attempts to communicate with them have proven mostly unsuccessful so far. The Yeerks controlling them have been returned to Telor, who in exchange promised not to retaliate for the raid. Engineers from all over the world are examining the factories, and comparing their technology with the documentation released by the US military detailing the spaceships in their possession. Preliminary analysis suggests that it will be impossible to build the core components (Z-space drive, high-power dracon beam) without Yeerk assistance. US announces they have one-off ability to destroy yeerk homeworld as a last resort, using the same method the Andalites threatened Earth with. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **WEEK 5 - PROPOSALS Round 2** **Themes of the week** - Yeerk personal philosophy - Will Integration be beneficial for humans **Events** The last of the Ventura survivors who were released from Telor's ship has been released from quarantine. Authorities ask journalists and other parties to leave them alone. As part of a recent thread, another Controller has been arrested for drunk driving by the PMERJ. The Controller refused to submit to alcohol and drug tests, and, when threatened with incarceration, insisted that she be repatriated to the Pool ship. PMERJ officer Vasco Torres has declared that, while the Yeerk delegation had to benefit from a degree of diplomatic immunity to ensure proper negociations can take place, that immunity may be loosened for auxilliary members of the delegations. "We don't want to send the wrong message. If we're going to cohabit in the near future, it's important that the Yeerks remember, both as individuals and as a faction, that their actions have consequences". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **WEEK 6** **Theme of the week** - Yeerk personal philosophy **Events** UN representative demands Visser 3 participates in the Summit, or failing that, clarification by Telor on Visser 3's status. Brazil starts preliminary construction of a giant housing complex on _Restinga da Marambaia_ that will house the upcoming Yeerk Pool. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **WEEK 7 - PROPOSALS Final Round** No notable events. No theme.