THS Assassination

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Catgunner

Now the question is, what would make a good THS-style assassination?

Do you want just an assassination, or would an involuntary destructive upload followed by reprogramming be practical?

Bill Stoddard

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Catgunner

But funny that you mention it, one of my layers is the fact that the target actually is involved in some indiscrete activities with either bioroids or cyberdolls, or (if my players can handle it) an erotopus

Reporter: So how did he die?
Coroner: He, uh, exanguinated?
Reporter: Could you explain?
Coroner: It means he bled to death.
Reporter: Yes, I know what exanguinated means. How did it happen? What were his injuries?
Coroner: Er, well ... his, uh, genitalia were bitten off.
Reporter: What!?
Coroner: Apparently, he had purchased some services of a more, um, intimate, nature, if you catch my meaning.
Reporter: And she bit of his equipment?
Coroner: It.
Reporter: It?
Coroner: Did you know that in their natural state, an octopus is an opportunistic predator with a sharp, parrot-like beak?
Reporter: (winces)
Coroner: Not to mention the radula, a tongue with horny, rasp-like projections ...
Reporter: OK, enough, I get the picture.

Then you can add details like how, after biting off his privates, the not-quite-erotopus ate its way into his abdomen and was found contentedly resting in the new cavity it constructed, a few rubbery tentacles dangling out of the hole and idly caressing the corpse's groin (or what was left of it).

Luke

[Catgunner]

Originally Posted by thtraveller

Pan-sapient rights activists come into contact with all sorts of Bioroids and AI shells. Many of these were built for the black market. So being associated in one capacity or another with say an ex-slinky star Tianyi Bioroid with a nebulous background or even an Erotopus are to be expected.

That's kind of my thinking too. It's probably not really all that outrageous to the pan-sapient rights crowd (especially those following "True Love" from Toxic Memes) as long as it's a consensual relationship, but it does provide a motivation for his wife/girlfriend to want him dead.

Originally Posted by thtraveller

They are also likely to come into conflict with established organisations and individuals who oppose sapient rights for a huge variety of reasons. That one or more major shareholders of Columbia Aerospace are strongly opposed to it seems quite likely given their dependence on AIs being relatively cheap and fully controllable, as well as links to other Bioroid soldier manufacturers.

That's kind of along my lines of thinking as well. I don't think I'm going to go so far as to say that Columbia Aerospace is overtly anti-pan-sapient rights, but they do have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. In the particular case of my planned adventure, Columbia Aerospace is certainly not willing to take it so far as to actually assassinate a pan-sapient rights activist, and especially not one like this guy. See the target in this case really isn't all that great of an activist. He's more than just a bit of a jerk, and is actually in this more for his own fame and glory. He's got a small following, but nothing that's going to cause a major social movement.

However, make him the target of an assassination then people start paying more attention. If someone is trying to kill him for his beliefs people begin to think maybe there's something to what he's saying, especially if he's been telling people that the "Powers that be" are out to get him.

This is where the memetics campaign comes in. Start spreading some rumors to get people a little nervous or even just interested in what's going on with this guy, and then an assassination attempt; successful or not, it just has to be very visible, and with a bit of evidence pointing toward Columbia Aerospace. Actually letting him survive might actually help the campaign, although a dead martyr is a little bit easier to keep the message under control. From there it shouldn't take too much to push this toward a riot heading for the Columbia Aerospace headquarters. Granted, I'm glossing over some of the details, but this is the basic idea.

To complicate matters, the target recognizes that an assassination attempt would increase his visibility, and he has, through his wife (who was okay with the affair in the first place) made arrangements for an attempt on his life. And also helps spread some of the rumors in the first place.

I'm hoping this is enough of a ball of twine for my players to figure out, without getting too complex and making them bored.

BTW, thanks for all of the assassination tips. If the target survives the first couple of attacks, I'll have to come up with more, so having a lot of ideas to work with is great.

[Catgunner]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

Reporter: So how did he die?
Coroner: He, uh, exanguinated?
Reporter: Could you explain?
Coroner: It means he bled to death.
Reporter: Yes, I know what exanguinated means. How did it happen? What were his injuries?
Coroner: Er, well ... his, uh, genitalia were bitten off.
Reporter: What!?
Coroner: Apparently, he had purchased some services of a more, um, intimate, nature, if you catch my meaning.
Reporter: And she bit of his equipment?
Coroner: It.
Reporter: It?
Coroner: Did you know that in their natural state, an octopus is an opportunistic predator with a sharp, parrot-like beak?
Reporter: (winces)
Coroner: Not to mention the radula, a tongue with horny, rasp-like projections ...
Reporter: OK, enough, I get the picture.

Then you can add details like how, after biting off his privates, the not-quite-erotopus ate its way into his abdomen and was found contentedly resting in the new cavity it constructed, a few rubbery tentacles dangling out of the hole and idly caressing the corpse's groin (or what was left of it).

Luke

I think I can safely say that this would be an example of pushing things a bit too far for my players. :)

[Gedrin]

More interestingly, in THS, the method really does depend on the "species" of the person who you are trying to kill. It could be that SAI is just remoting it's body, or that the sapient rights activist uses an exotic shell to better represent its constituents and that headshot doesn't actually come near the brain. Are you even guarding the real body of this guy? It could be that this public body is just another layer of security. Even a normal human could be hard to kill, given that massive damage to the body won't seal their fate.

[Frost]

Originally Posted by Catgunner

It's probably not really all that outrageous to the pan-sapient rights crowd (especially those following "True Love" from Toxic Memes) as long as it's a consensual relationship, but it does provide a motivation for his wife/girlfriend to want him dead.

The point is that the line between association and exploitation gets more than a little fuzzy when dealing with creatures bred or programed specificaly as sexual partners. The question that occurs to me and will possibly occur to others is could such a creature actualy give any sort of meaningful consent?

I would be very surprised if pan-sapient rights groups didn't have very rigid views upon this subject with notions such as 'true love' being marginalised or even stigmatised by many groups, either as a result of this kind of consideration or for fear that it would undermine the credibility of their organisations.

If the group is sufficently relaxed then yes it would be treated as a purely personal matter, in more straightlaced organisations it would be considered at best seriously embarrasing if not actively distasteful. If the activity in question is activly illegal or just legaly dubious the latter response would be both more likely and probably much stronger.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Frost

I would be very surprised if pan-sapient rights groups didn't have very rigid views upon this subject.

I would be surprised if pan-sapient rights groups don't have interminable flame wars on the subject.

[Frost]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I would be surprised if pan-sapient rights groups don't have interminable flame wars on the subject.

Yep, probably right on the money there!

Given that it is likely the sort of matter that produces faction splits etc it is likely to to be a defigining issue (admittedly a fairly minor one) for these groups especialy if the use of behaviour modification to return the creatures involved to a more 'normal' personality type has entered the discussion. The risk of having a popular (if not lucrative) frontman publicly outed as flouting policy is likely to feature heavly in the nightmares of PR and mimetics types.