INCENTIVE WORKSHOP.

[futurologists]

INCENTIVE WORKSHOP

Because the promise of adventure and pocket money may not be enough to impress volunteers, Hathaway offers to use its connections to fulfill incentives. They can be anything from a big payout to the cure for a disease, and everything in between. ICly, guild masters will hire contractors to work toward achieving your character's incentive, using a small portion of their stipend to fund the work. OOCly, the incentive is ready whenever you would like to have your character retire through a permanent drop. There are some limits to what kind of incentive is possible: ▸ No reviving the dead. This is generally possible through the miracle of science or magic, but it isn't pretty and reputable contractors will refuse to do so on moral grounds. ▸ No time travel. Hathaway's scientists and magicians are not capable of this. ▸ No instant murder. Asking for someone to drop dead is impossible. However, one could ask to hire an assassin -- this does not mean there is a guarantee the assassin will be successful. ▸ No making someone fall in love/changing someone's attitude, thoughts, or feelings. This is akin to hypnosis and is a hotly debated topic. In order to avoid the implications of interfering with autonomy, this service is not offered. ▸ Nothing intangible. The incentive has to be something that is achievable through the laws of physics. In other words, you cannot ask "make me king," but you can ask for help overthrowing a king so you can take their place. ▸ Nothing your character doesn't know to ask for. Your character must already have the knowledge to ask for it. It must be knowledge they already have in-canon or, if you are updating their incentive after time in game, knowledge they have naturally acquired. Outside knowledge and informants cannot be involved; this is a solo deal. If you need assistance coming up with a suitable incentive for your character, here's the place to do it! You will need to let us know what your character's end goals are; we will not be looking up any extra information about your character besides what is given, simply giving ideas for how to achieving those goals within the parameters of this system. If you simply aren't sure if your incentive is acceptable and want to get it approved before you submit your application, that's fine too!

Comments

[digiorno]

Hi there, mods! I have a theoretical incentive that I would love to bounce off of y'all.

The bare bones of the problem is that about ten years in Giorno's future, the world will end and be replaced by a new world due to the actions of a priest named Enrico Pucci. The bare bones of the incentive is that Giorno would request a Hathaway guild to meet his future self at that time and in that place in order to defeat Pucci and keep the world from ending.

The main snag here is that Giorno doesn't know that this will happen. I had originally thought that, given the nature of ALASTAIR and now Hathaway as groups with knowledge about various timelines, it might be possible for a Hathaway member or guild master to pass that information along to Giorno, given that it will be a massively destructive multiversal event. However, based on question 4b here it appears that that might not be the case.

So my questions are:

1) Would it be possible for Hathaway to know this information and pass it on to Giorno as a potential incentive?

2) If not, would it be possible for someone from Giorno's world ten years from his canonpoint to contact Hathaway and request assistance, and for Hathaway to then pass the information to Giorno as a potential incentive? This is fairly plausible as there is an organization in Giorno's world (the Speedwagon Foundation) that might do so.

3) Am I barking up the wrong tree entirely with this idea? Is there some other way to make it work? This is by far the strongest incentive for Giorno, both for practical and personal reasons, but if it won't work I'd rather know now.

Thanks in advance, and please let me know if any of this doesn't make sense!

[futurologists]

Hey there! Hathaway doesn't deal with timelines in the sense of time travel, and wouldn't know anything about the future of any recruit's world to be able to tell them about it. It's also not possible for anyone from a character's canon to initiate contact with Hathaway to maintain the integrity of the meta; all contact must be initiated by Hathaway.

We do require that characters have an incentive based off of the knowledge that they have at the time they're recruited, without any outside help. However, if a character apped in that was able to tell Giorno about his future, you would be welcome to change his incentive to that via the incentive change form on the canon update page.

[digiorno]

Would it be possible for this to be Giorno's incentive if a character with fourth-wall knowledge of Giorno's world let him know of his timeline's future? The reason I ask is that there is a character in-game who might be able to do that, so I want to cover my bases.

[futurologists]

In light of this question we’ve added another bullet point to the kinds of incentives Hathaway is able to offer, for clarity’s sake. We apologize for not having this in there initially; we are still working some kinks out on our end as well!

▸ Nothing your character doesn't know to ask for. Your character must already have the knowledge to ask for it. It must be knowledge they already have in-canon or, if you are updating their incentive after time in game, knowledge they have naturally acquired. Outside knowledge and informants cannot be involved; this is a solo deal.

Incentives are something that the character would come to want or need organically and naturally, something they desire at the moment of their recruitment.

However, if a character were to be given information (such as in your example) or experience changes in-game, players would be able to change their incentive through the canon update page. Since Giorno doesn't know the fate of his world, he would not be able to be apped with that specific incentive initially; however, if events aligned in such a way that he became aware of it later on, you would be welcome to submit an incentive change request.

[digiorno]

Thank you for updating that! It's appreciated.

One more clarifying question, just so I can make sure: there is a character in game currently who has the knowledge I mentioned above and is close to Giorno. If Giorno were made aware of this information before season 2 begins, would I be able to apply with this incentive at the beginning of season 2, or would I have to app him with a different incentive and then change it even though he would already have that information?

[futurologists]

Correct, you will need to re-app with a different incentive to start. If the subject comes up naturally through the course of gameplay in season 2, you can switch incentives here.

[digiorno]

All right, thank you for the input! I will keep this in mind going into season 2.

[cyberware]

this seems legit by the guidelines up there but JUST TO BE SURE ... would hathaway be able to regenerate prosthetic/missing limbs and other body parts? if, say, a person happens to be a good portion cybernetic and sad and gloomy about that........

thank you!!

[futurologists]

Yes, that would be fine! They could regenerate however much of a body needs regenerating.

[kitrite]

nice, thank you!

[pummelling]

Hi mods! I think this fits the guidelines but wanted to run it by you all to make sure.

"World peace", vague and open-ended as it is, is clearly not a viable option. However, would it instead be possible for Jin to request that Hathaway agents serve as diplomatic liaisons to help ease the tensions between Earthrealm and Outworld, working toward the ultimate creation of a formal peace treaty?

[futurologists]

Hey there! Yes, that would be definitely be within their abilities.

[crownless]

oh boy time to fix mortal kombat canon

Merci, mods!

[selfimage]

Hi Mods!

Question for you:

Would Hathaway have the ability to pinpoint down some of Loki's other "evil" selves [Lokis deliberately creating mayhem and playing the "villain" role] through the multiverse? He'd like to know their locations, specifically King Loki, who is the Loki that time traveled back into his own era to corrupt him back into a "villain" role (don't ask, it's full of existential complexity).

He may also ask for others, but I'm teetering on it. I'd like to know if it's possible, first.

[futurologists]

Hi there! They would be able to pinpoint evil Lokis for him, yes; they can only look into the present day of various realities, and they can only give him a general area (they won't be able to tell him that King Loki is at the Burger King off the expressway in Milwaukee, for example, but they can point to the right country in the right reality), but they would eventually be able to locate as many as he would ask for.

[selfimage]

Awesome, thank you mods!

The best part is that King Loki probably would be at the Burger King off the expressway in Milwaukee, the cad.

[webdesigned]

Hey mods,

Celen and I have chatted a bit about our incentives so this is what we came up with and we wanted to clear it for app writing! It doesn't seem against any of the rules here but it's good to check.

Peter and Stiles would like to ultimately be able to stay together after their time in Hathaway is over, so one would like to ask for security and protection for the world they leave behind and a way to bring the important family member they have along with to whatever world they land in, and the other would ask for the other (and their family member) to be able to come with them when they go.

Is this feasible? Thanks!

[futurologists]

Hello!

That would be feasible! The protection extended to one’s home world wouldn’t be infinite, they would have to request that an armed company occupy the world for a certain amount of time, or that the planet be monitored for a certain amount of time, or however they would like to approach it. And Hathaway of course can’t guarantee the presence of the family member of the other one, but they can certainly extend the invitation and the means to transport them.

[webdesigned]

That sounds perfectly reasonable! Thanks mods.

[scarredhorns]

Hello mods! Your answer to a previous question (the one right above this comment) half-answered the one I had in mind, except mine applied to a single person.

Both Lucy and Nyuu would be content if Hathaway sent a couple of hidden body guards for their friend Kouta back in their world. And by hidden, I mean watching him from the shadows since Lucy/Nyuu wouldn't want him to ask questions about their whereabouts. But would the guards be allowed to work in secret, or would they have to let Kouta know what's going on?

[futurologists]

Hello! Yes, that is fine, they could protect him without his knowledge -- but keep in mind they can only do so for a defined period of time, whatever that may be, rather than indefinitely.

[explosible]

hey mods, is the incentive itself singular, or could it be a two part request? per example, i want a jetski and 10k to buy a deserted island so i can jetski uninterrupted?

[futurologists]

It should be singular! Ideally characters should be able to think of a way to encompass all the things they want under one umbrella request -- in this example, it would be enough money to buy both the island and the jetski.

[explosible]

thanks!

[opensup]

Hello mods! The incentive I'm thinking of is less based around Rohan having a need fulfilled, but more in that he would take up the offer because he wants to experience a different reality and gain inspiration for his works through the exposure.

To that end, the incentive I have in mind is that when he does leave Hathaway - regardless of how that may come - he would want to retain those experiences and weave them into his works, with the option to make an original work based upon what he went through. Naturally he would omit any mention of Hathaway, or maybe just have a stand-in organization under a different name. Would Hathaway go for any part of this?

[futurologists]

Hey there! Hathaway would be fine with this — in fact, they don't even mind if he keeps the name, they're not a secret. (And as a note, memories are never altered when characters leave the game, so there would be no question that he is able to retain his experiences.)

[opensup]

Great, thank you mods!

[wyvil]

Hello! For Wylan's incentive I was hoping to have him ask for a text-to-speech technology like what the Magitek allows that he'd be able to use/bring back to his home. Ideally, he'd also like it to be something not just he could use, but anyone in his world back home. The Grishaverse does not have anything like computers/advanced tech/etc, so it would likely need to be adapted to be Grishaverse magic based. Would this be something that Hathaway could fulfill?

Thank you in advance!

[futurologists]

Hello! That sounds fine, they would be happy to share the magitek technology that enables it, to be replicated and distributed as he'd like.

[wyvil]

Awesome! Thank you so much for your super quick response, I really appreciate it!

[abortz]

Hello! A weird question containing big SPOILERS for the Houseki No Kuni manga, in case anyone wants to avoid them:

The incentive I have in mind for Bortz here is what I imagine they would request before anything else, which is the retrieval of their lost comrades' fragments from the moon. They are under the impression that those fragments are, while certainly sometimes small, still whole enough to be gathered and brought home in a great enough number to be reassembled. The more recent chapters of the manga, however, have revealed that all the fragments that have been stolen away to the moon were ground into dust and spread across the moon's surface.

My question kind of has two parts: would it still be possible for that dust to all be gathered up and separated into the various different stones its made up of? And even if not, would it still be a viable incentive because of what Bortz thinks they would be asking for?

[futurologists]

Hey there! Hathaway would indeed be able to gather and sort the dust. They would assume Bortz knows the correct state of the fragments and take that at face value, but if and when you decide to permanently drop them and allow them to go home and receive their incentive, Hathaway agents would reach out to them to let them know it has been discovered that the fragments are actually dust, but will be collected and sorted nonetheless.

[abortz]

Awesome, thanks for the quick response!

[question]

Hi! I have an idea for an incentive but I'd like to run it by you before apps.

Jonathan's universe is basically ours, but unseen Lovecraftian powers exist and manipulate events from somewhere outside our dimension. These "Domains" (including things such as pestilence, death, enclosure, darkness, and Jon's boss Beholding) can put objects (Artifacts) into the world that have horrible effects and forward their goals, and they can also make people into Avatars of their powers, though they often have to transform monstrously to do so.

As far as I can tell from the lore, Domains aren't the source of all death and darkness etc, they just feed on their chosen power and therefore seek to create more of it in the world. One power in particular, The Stranger/unknowing, has been organizing its cult to do some kind of ritual that will allow it to come through into the world.

Jon would like to ask if, through magical means, Hathaway could close off however the powers reach into the world, blocking them from creating any more Artifacts or Avatars — and probably saving a lot of lives in the process.

If the answer is no, or that's too vague, he would like to ask for the resources to stop the Stranger's ritual specifically, and the destruction of all the Artifacts in the archives.

If none of these are possible I can easily find other motivators — leaving his terrible universe behind entirely is certainly an incentive on its own — but kicking out the monsters would be a really strong one so I thought I would ask!

[futurologists]

Hi there! Unfortunately, Hathaway does not have the means to affect anything intangible, meaning that if the character himself doesn't know how something is happening, Hathaway wouldn't be able to intervene. However, asking for resources to investigate and destroy the cult is perfectly acceptable!

[modality]

Hi mods! I have a few questions, just trying to see what works/fits best.

- David's girlfriend has a touch-based superpower that makes it impossible for them to touch. Assuming her permission was a stipulation, would they be able to create a device or medication that gave him immunity to her ability? (they just wanna hold hands ok)

- Are they able to do any kind of psychic healing? Like helping someone mend memories or remember things they've forgotten? For context, a powerful telepath rewrote some of David's memories, so checking to see if that's something they could correct.

- Similar note, could they offer any kind of defense or immunity against a specific psychic presence, or would it probably be an all-or-nothing situation (like Magneto's anti-telepath helmet).

Thanks so much!!

[futurologists]

Yes, all of these would be valid incentive options, including a specific psychic presence defense! They couldn't offer all of them, of course, but any one choice would be perfectly fine.

[modality]

Awesome, thank you!