Mayfield Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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mayfield_ooc2012-01-02 04:22 pm
mayfield_mods) wrote in mayfield_ooc2012-01-02 04:22 pm
Drones
Drones! The smiling, oblivious and entirely generic NPC citizens of Mayfield. Who are they? Are they real people, or false constructs? What happens to you when you become one? All these mysteries and more will be revealed...
...later. But for now, here are some facts concerning your friendly neighborhood drones.
Appearance
Most drones in Mayfield look pretty similar: adult males are well-built, short-haired men typically wearing suits, adult females are beautiful long-haired women wearing dresses and aprons, boys are grinning little scamps in T-shirts and shorts, and girls are adorable little sweethearts wearing dresses and ribbons in their hair. Things like hair color, eye color, and age will differentiate between drones, though they will always be Caucasian unless otherwise specified. There are other, more in-depth similarities as well, similarities that may not be immediately apparent to characters. Drones who inhabit the same age/gender class (man/woman/boy/girl) will share certain characteristics with each other: dental records, DNA, and fingerprints will always be the same between them, and characters capable of noticing this sort of thing are free to do so.
There are, however, drones who do not conform exactly to the appearance standards set by their peers, although they are somewhat rare and are typically constrained to teenagers. Mayfield is host to stereotypical 50's groups such as greasers, jocks, preps, nerds, and other such "cliques" who can typically be found loitering in one area (the greasers hang out under school bleachers and downtown, nerds hang out in the school library, etc.). Droned PCs are free to fall in with one of these groups for the duration of their droning and display the usual characteristics of that group.
Behavior
Drone behavior will always conform to that drone's "role" in Mayfield: men are hearty, hard-working wage-earners, women are happily submissive housewives fond of gossip, boys are rambunctious and mischievous, and girls are stereotypically "girly" and fond of playing with dolls and ponies and whatnot. Teenage drones tend to fall into one of the cliques described above, though "normal" teenage drones exist as well. These drones are rather bland and unassuming, and generally exhibit the same behavior as their adult counterparts.
Drones do not respond to violent behavior or being attacked: at worst, they will chastise you for being rude, even as they are being murdered or tortured. Similarly, they do not appear to notice or feel pain. This doesn't mean that drones are incapable of being upset: doing things like insulting a woman's cooking or taking a boy's toys away will cause them to be distressed, although the emotion seems somewhat... artificial. Should an incident like this happen, the drones will forget all mention of it the next day and deny that it ever happened.
All drones, regardless of age, gender, or clique, will insist that both they and you have lived in Mayfield your entire lives, and that Mayfield is the best town in America. They will patiently deny any attempt to convince them otherwise, and chalk up any subversive behavior to "silliness" or a bout of temporary insanity.
Droning
Characters who step too far out of line will receive a visit by the local Police Chief, Grady, and summarily be droned. This will cause them to behave like drones for the amount of in-game time specified by the mods in the droning comment; see Drone Behavior for how this works. We mods and many players have adapted the use of the Courier New font to display how drones speak, but this isn't something we really enforce or anything.
Grady typically reserves himself for major infractions, such as public murder or assaults on the town's infrastructure. Minor infractions, such as skipping school/work or nonviolently disrupting daily life in Mayfield, will cause the character to be droned automatically, without his presence. Whether or not it's Grady causing these "automatic" dronings or if the town itself somehow causes it remains to be seen. For some reason, crimes and infractions committed within the privacy of your character's own home will not warrant a droning regardless of severity.
If you're still confused on how to play your character while droned, or if you're wondering whether your character's actions would get them droned, please be sure to ask a mod! We reserve the right to drone characters whenever we feel they have warranted it; we typically don't go around droning characters without the player's consent, but if your character tries to blow up City Hall, for example, they will receive a droning whether you want them to or not. If you would like to request your character be droned for a specific plot, please see the Player-Run Plots post. Non-hiatus or canon-update-related dronings typically last in the range of 12-24 in-game hours, but this can be extended up to (no further than) 3 days if the player requests it.
Rarely, Grady will resort to punishments other than droning, oftentimes attempting to physically torment characters or mess with their heads. These types of punishments often arise as the result of attempting to confront Grady directly at the Police Station. We do not take specific requests for these types of punishments; rather, they happen at the mod in question's discretion. If you're not comfortable with your character undergoing a punishment like this, or if you're not happy with the one they've received, be sure to tell a mod and we'll revert it to a simple droning.
Other Information
A few more miscellaneous notes concerning drones:
-Drones do not exhibit any sort of magical life force, aura, or any other manner of spiritual indication of being "alive". Characters with mind-reading, soul-reading, or any other manner of telepathy will get the same amount of response out of drones as they would from a rock. If your character can read the mind of rocks, they won't get anything either. No free rides. Whether this lack of response is because your characters' power is being blocked or because drones are truly lifeless husks remains to be seen.
Attempts to read the minds/souls/etc of major NPCs such as Grady, the Mayor, the Smiths, or the Milkman will not only result in nothing, but also in a massive, cripplingly painful headache. Repeated attempts may lead to the temporary loss of that power.
-In addition to the drones who live on the same streets as PCs, many drones live on further streets not listed on the Housing pages. These "other" streets are also where dropped characters, now permanently droned, go to live after they have been replaced by new characters.
-Drones, whether PC or NPC, do not have sex drives. Although spouses may refer to having had sex with one another or with characters they are currently married to in the past, they will never attempt to initiate sex with either PCs or with one another. Kissing is as far as drones go: anything further than that will cause them, regardless of age or gender, to exclaim that they are "not in the mood". Teenage drones will often hit on each other or PCs, but they too will never attempt to actually have sex beyond "first base". (For those of you who didn't go to a public high school, that's making out.)
Any attempt to force sex on drones of any age or gender will lead to an automatic 24-hour droning before the act can take place; this also applies to molestation. Seriously guys why would you even.
-There are no infants in Mayfield. All drone children are at least 6 years old, and PCs are, for whatever reason, incapable of having children while in Mayfield. We apologize to anybody wanting to run a pregnancy plot, but given the terrible things that happen in Mayfield on a monthly basis, not having babies around is probably for the best.
...later. But for now, here are some facts concerning your friendly neighborhood drones.
Appearance
Most drones in Mayfield look pretty similar: adult males are well-built, short-haired men typically wearing suits, adult females are beautiful long-haired women wearing dresses and aprons, boys are grinning little scamps in T-shirts and shorts, and girls are adorable little sweethearts wearing dresses and ribbons in their hair. Things like hair color, eye color, and age will differentiate between drones, though they will always be Caucasian unless otherwise specified. There are other, more in-depth similarities as well, similarities that may not be immediately apparent to characters. Drones who inhabit the same age/gender class (man/woman/boy/girl) will share certain characteristics with each other: dental records, DNA, and fingerprints will always be the same between them, and characters capable of noticing this sort of thing are free to do so.
There are, however, drones who do not conform exactly to the appearance standards set by their peers, although they are somewhat rare and are typically constrained to teenagers. Mayfield is host to stereotypical 50's groups such as greasers, jocks, preps, nerds, and other such "cliques" who can typically be found loitering in one area (the greasers hang out under school bleachers and downtown, nerds hang out in the school library, etc.). Droned PCs are free to fall in with one of these groups for the duration of their droning and display the usual characteristics of that group.
Behavior
Drone behavior will always conform to that drone's "role" in Mayfield: men are hearty, hard-working wage-earners, women are happily submissive housewives fond of gossip, boys are rambunctious and mischievous, and girls are stereotypically "girly" and fond of playing with dolls and ponies and whatnot. Teenage drones tend to fall into one of the cliques described above, though "normal" teenage drones exist as well. These drones are rather bland and unassuming, and generally exhibit the same behavior as their adult counterparts.
Drones do not respond to violent behavior or being attacked: at worst, they will chastise you for being rude, even as they are being murdered or tortured. Similarly, they do not appear to notice or feel pain. This doesn't mean that drones are incapable of being upset: doing things like insulting a woman's cooking or taking a boy's toys away will cause them to be distressed, although the emotion seems somewhat... artificial. Should an incident like this happen, the drones will forget all mention of it the next day and deny that it ever happened.
All drones, regardless of age, gender, or clique, will insist that both they and you have lived in Mayfield your entire lives, and that Mayfield is the best town in America. They will patiently deny any attempt to convince them otherwise, and chalk up any subversive behavior to "silliness" or a bout of temporary insanity.
Droning
Characters who step too far out of line will receive a visit by the local Police Chief, Grady, and summarily be droned. This will cause them to behave like drones for the amount of in-game time specified by the mods in the droning comment; see Drone Behavior for how this works. We mods and many players have adapted the use of the Courier New font to display how drones speak, but this isn't something we really enforce or anything.
Grady typically reserves himself for major infractions, such as public murder or assaults on the town's infrastructure. Minor infractions, such as skipping school/work or nonviolently disrupting daily life in Mayfield, will cause the character to be droned automatically, without his presence. Whether or not it's Grady causing these "automatic" dronings or if the town itself somehow causes it remains to be seen. For some reason, crimes and infractions committed within the privacy of your character's own home will not warrant a droning regardless of severity.
If you're still confused on how to play your character while droned, or if you're wondering whether your character's actions would get them droned, please be sure to ask a mod! We reserve the right to drone characters whenever we feel they have warranted it; we typically don't go around droning characters without the player's consent, but if your character tries to blow up City Hall, for example, they will receive a droning whether you want them to or not. If you would like to request your character be droned for a specific plot, please see the Player-Run Plots post. Non-hiatus or canon-update-related dronings typically last in the range of 12-24 in-game hours, but this can be extended up to (no further than) 3 days if the player requests it.
Rarely, Grady will resort to punishments other than droning, oftentimes attempting to physically torment characters or mess with their heads. These types of punishments often arise as the result of attempting to confront Grady directly at the Police Station. We do not take specific requests for these types of punishments; rather, they happen at the mod in question's discretion. If you're not comfortable with your character undergoing a punishment like this, or if you're not happy with the one they've received, be sure to tell a mod and we'll revert it to a simple droning.
Other Information
A few more miscellaneous notes concerning drones:
-Drones do not exhibit any sort of magical life force, aura, or any other manner of spiritual indication of being "alive". Characters with mind-reading, soul-reading, or any other manner of telepathy will get the same amount of response out of drones as they would from a rock. If your character can read the mind of rocks, they won't get anything either. No free rides. Whether this lack of response is because your characters' power is being blocked or because drones are truly lifeless husks remains to be seen.
Attempts to read the minds/souls/etc of major NPCs such as Grady, the Mayor, the Smiths, or the Milkman will not only result in nothing, but also in a massive, cripplingly painful headache. Repeated attempts may lead to the temporary loss of that power.
-In addition to the drones who live on the same streets as PCs, many drones live on further streets not listed on the Housing pages. These "other" streets are also where dropped characters, now permanently droned, go to live after they have been replaced by new characters.
-Drones, whether PC or NPC, do not have sex drives. Although spouses may refer to having had sex with one another or with characters they are currently married to in the past, they will never attempt to initiate sex with either PCs or with one another. Kissing is as far as drones go: anything further than that will cause them, regardless of age or gender, to exclaim that they are "not in the mood". Teenage drones will often hit on each other or PCs, but they too will never attempt to actually have sex beyond "first base". (For those of you who didn't go to a public high school, that's making out.)
Any attempt to force sex on drones of any age or gender will lead to an automatic 24-hour droning before the act can take place; this also applies to molestation. Seriously guys why would you even.
-There are no infants in Mayfield. All drone children are at least 6 years old, and PCs are, for whatever reason, incapable of having children while in Mayfield. We apologize to anybody wanting to run a pregnancy plot, but given the terrible things that happen in Mayfield on a monthly basis, not having babies around is probably for the best.