The press conference had taken two hours. The NYPD had anticipated the popularity of the event, and scheduled it in a small park near one of their precincts, rather than the confines of their usual news room. The Mayor and the NYPD's highest ranking commander alternated speeches, with a backdrop of sunny weather and picturesque blue skies. They made scripted jokes about not understanding the science behind it all, but knowing from rigorous testing that the products were safe and ready for their first public field test.
Behind them on the stage were assembled the
robots. The META Bots, Monitoring Emergency Tactical Automatons.
“The techies had to explain the joke to me,” the Mayor admitted with a jovial smile.
“I admit, it was a little too meta.”There was a mock swearing in ceremony, with each of the matte black robots getting its own police vest handed to it. The three humanoid bots put them on. The two dogs patiently stepped into their own K9 vests with the help of a human handler. Someone had programmed their tails to wag while the crowd clapped.
“With the addition of the METAs to our city's resources,” the police commander spoke,
“We're making New York a safer, better place to live. Today marks a new day in our policing, and we hope all of New York will join us in welcoming them to our city streets.”There was general cheering and clapping.
The question-and-answer session didn't go quite as smoothly.
“Why were no X-Men invited to speak at this press conference?”
“As acting deputies of the NYPD, the X-Men will be getting a more thorough conference on the METAs at a later date. The partnership between the X-Men and the NYPD has been beneficial for the city, and we hope they're just as excited as we are to be adding the METAs to our joint resources. Next question.”
“But why aren't any of them here?”
“Next question.”
“The last time the police got their hands on robots, mutants were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Don't you think this move will increase tensions between the mutant population and the NYPD?”
“We hope for just the opposite. It's no secret that the NYPD has struggled with… sensitivity towards the mutant community,” the police commander kept a straight face, which was impressive.
“When a human officer finds a mutant at a crime scene—maybe one with unknown powers, maybe one with known and potentially lethal powers—it's a very human thing to fear for your life. METAs don't get afraid, they don't use excessive force, they don't discriminate. Mutant or human, everyone can expect fair and equal treatment. Next question.”
“These robots were constructed by an outside vendor and essentially 'donated,' is that correct? Who is this benefactor, and how can we be certain of their intents?”“While the METAs' maker wishes to remain anonymous, I can assure you that I have met the him, and toured his facilities personally. He's been open and enthusiastic about a partnership with the NYPD since the beginning, and has allowed our own experts to examine every step of the manufacturing process, and every line of code. You have my assurances that these robots are exactly what they seem: a helpful tool to aid in policing, and keep our city and our officers safe.”
The city's PR team took over the information stream from there, deluging the media with interviews from 'average citizens' as they encountered the METAs on their first official rounds through the park.
“They're kind of cool,” a gum-chewing college girl said, watching as her hipster boyfriend poked a Knight bot in the chest, then took a hurried step back.
“That tickles,” the Knight replied, in a synthesized voice.
“I mean, they'll definitely take some getting used to, but it's better a few bots get trashed than a dozen real officers whenever something crazy goes down, right?”
The Knight's head swiveled towards her, even as her boyfriend experimentally kicked it in the shin.
“I do not want to be trashed.”“Yeah,” she told it, with a smack of gum,
“good luck with that.”“Thank you,” it replied.
Another clip featured a blonde boy, no more than eight years old, gleefully chasing a Speed Scout as it ran in circles around him. He finally caught it (or it let itself be caught).
“What do you think of them?” The reporter asked, putting a microphone in his face.
“These dogs are the best dogs,” the boy replied, wrapping his arms around the scout's neck as it patiently sat. His voice was strongly accented with some flavor of Scandinavia, but his grin was infectious.
“I want one. Maybe I ask my father, and he gets me one.”The reporter gave a good-natured laugh. The dog wagged its thin black tail, as if in agreement.
META Bot ModelsHandy Picture Line Up!(Give your thanks to Alex for his awesome concept art.)
META Bot Plot Overview
Due to our site's rather long history of killing off cops, a generous donor in conjunction with the city council have worked to bring in the META Bots.
METAs will assist police actions. Some will patrol with regular officers, and some will be sent on their own missions, in conjugation with other officers or other bots. If a mutant gives a regular officer a hard time on the streets, META Bots will be sent in to assist,
not more squishy officers.
METAs are programmed to aid, in this order: police, deputized X-Men, and civilians. They have a registry of all police and X-Men on file for quick identification in the field, and are equipped with an internal x-gene scanner that is 75.32% accurate.
They are NOT programmed to discriminate against humans v mutants civilians, but they WILL treat mutant criminals with more caution, especially if their power is unknown. Standard arrest procedure for mutants includes cuffing them with shock bracelets (built into the cuffs: picture normal cuffs, but bulkier). A struggling mutant may be sedated, as well. A human criminal would just be cuffed normally.
All METAs will try to arrest their targets with a minimum of harm. Only the Sentry Bot is authorized to use potentially lethal force, and Sentries are only sent out against known murderers (like Isabel and Aura). Think of them as large police dogs: they'll chase and bite, but if you stop running/fighting back, they won't hurt you.
Of course, those are the unglitched versions.
Thanks to Ragnarok's prank, you can play the METAs with any glitches that make for a good RPing~
(Rough) TimelineThe META Plot is going to be fairly free form. Below is an outline of things folks seemed interested in during the pre-plot-planning. We'll change/expand based on player ideas, so if you think of something awesome, let the site know by posting it on the
RP Requests & Plot Ideas board!
1) META bots are announced to the public as the newest in police technology, helping to keep our officers safe as they do their jobs~
(As of this post, the METAs are now LIVE!)2) The public (especially the mutant public) starts protesting the buggy AIs. The METAs start causing issues--like detaining
all mutants at a crime scene instead of just the criminals, arresting random people on the street, falsely identifying humans as mutants and vice versa, etc—whatever people think is fun to RP.
3) Exercising their right to some constructive civil disobedience, Aura, Ragnarok, and/or others cause a big public incident. Probably by exploding something. Fearing another riot, a city-wide curfew is enacted (for both mutants and humans).
4) More shenanigans follow as tensions escalate, including a possible riot if folks want one.
Timeline to be updated as IC actions influence it.At an estimate, this plot will run until Spring 2016. If folks enjoy beating up bots OOC, it's possible the METAs could stick around as a permanent addition to MRO's police force (...minus the bugs in their AIs). Let's face it, turning robots into scrap is fun. We'll have a discussion at plot's end to see where people want to go.
(
Note: We are NOT leading up to a Registration Act/Camps plot like in the Stalker Bot plot from 2007. From the police perspective, this is exactly what it says on the tin: a way to keep down human deaths by sending out robots instead. The police and city will be trying very hard to paint a "friendly" face on the META Bot program and distance it from the previous Stalker Bots.)
META Bot DetailsGlitches to the META AIs: Bots can glitch in any way you find entertaining IC, from harmless "the Knight Bot is arresting an old lady for J-walking" to serious "the bot takes one look at you and starts chasing, you have no idea why." You can also have normal, non-glitchy bots in your threads. Their default behavior is helpful to cops/X-Men/civilians, and be minimally harmful to criminals (they'll use only as much force as is necessary to arrest their target).
What Your Character Would See On The Streets: Visually, all META bots have a matte black finish with an embossed police badge and serial number over their "hearts." The Knights and ATS (All Terrain Scouts) are the normal, every day models. These will be sent to any crime reported to involve mutants, and you may occasionally see them patrolling the streets with regular officers as the city tries to build the "friendly robot" image. Speed Scouts, Cavalry, and Sentries are sent out on specific missions, and would not be seen roaming the streets unless they were en route to an encounter. Sentries are generally reserved for known mutant killers of the "mass murder" grade. Unless they glitch, of course.
X-Gene Scanners: All METAs have an inbuilt x-gene scanner that's about 75% accurate. That means they can accidentally label a mutant as human, and vice versa. Scanners do NOT tell the bots about the
type of mutation, only a yes/no to "Is this person a mutant." Police have a hand-held version of this scanner. Standard procedure is to scan criminals before engaging. If a criminal is mutant, the police on scene will call for bot backup and will NOT engage the criminals. (Remember, the police goal is "not to die.")
Shock Cuffs: These look like bulkier versions of normal police handcuffs. If a mutant uses their power, they send a strong electric current into you, like a taser. It is now standard procedure for cops and bots to use shock cuffs on any mutants taken into custody, as a preventative measure.
Customized Bots: Normal bots not strong enough to take your character down, but you want a good fight? Feel free to run into a customized bot. Especially if your character is a wanted criminal. AKA: If you want to make a model harder to kill, have it flight-capable to catch your character, or able to shoot an electrified net out of its arm because-why-not, feel free to do so. Just make sure that any upgrades are within reasonable modern tech levels (they can pack a gun, but not a sonic screwdriver). Note that customized bots should still follow normal bot behavior. (...Unless they're glitchy. I'm just going to keep sayin' that, aren't I?)
Bot Creator/The NYPD's Benefactor: Let's face it, there's no way the NYPD afforded these bots on their own. For now, the bot's creator is preferring to remain anonymous. Speculation on
why the bots were donated is rampant, and runs the gamut from "because he's a great person who wants to help our city" to "because those x-gene scanners are recording and transmitting information to the NSA."
The Pseudo-Science (For those who care; NOT required reading!):Thanks to Richard and his OOC robotech knowledge for the following (modified slightly from his original version):
In general the composition of the META bots can be thought of in layers. The inner layer consists of the electronics, of which little is known although there are rumors of organic computers and advanced AI.
The electronics are encased in a
carbotanium skeletal structure, a material that combines the flexibility of titanium with the strength of carbon fiber. Fluidic muscles give the stalker bots cutting-edge strength, agility, and balance.
Over the muscles and sandwiched between layers of spider silk armor sits a proprietary non-Newtonian fluid called SKINs. This SKIN acts as a damper to shield the robot against excessive vibrations but also serves to provide additional armor. The SKIN remains a viscous fluid until it experiences sudden shocks, such as harmful impacts. When exposed to shocks SKIN will instantly stiffen to provide temporary armor before resuming its fluidic state so as not to impede range of motion.
Aside from the SKIN, the Spider silk armor provides no small amount of protection itself, guarding against high velocity rifle shots and .22 caliber handguns.
The outer layer consists of segmented carbotanium plates, giving the META bots a stylish matte black finish onto which their NYPD logo and badge number (actually their serial number) are embossed over their "heart."
