It is completely appropriate to ask for backstory, and standard operating procedures here. I'll try to work them into the IC descriptions as I can, but I don't want to recap and recap and recap. I was going to try to weave these in, but I realize that it's probably more appropriate for you to just get the info dump at the start.
Photography: As long as your eyes (or whatever you use to get visual stimuli) are open, theoretically, photos are being taken. You could just say to the people who scan your brain: well, I think it was around the ninth hour (see below) when there was guy with a grey hat. But, it hurts having your mind scanned, and plus, who knows what those people are getting out of you. Therefore, you tag the photos by associating them with an idea or word in your mind, so you can recall and block it off later.
Speed: You can take a mentally protected photo as a standard action.
Getting a good photograph is a matter of getting the picture in frame: this is a spot check. The artistic framing of the photo such that it looks nice is a Profession (photographer) check. (If you want you can go back and add this skill, you can, although you can both take 10 or 20). Also, if you think you should change elements of your character to go in a certain direction, I'll still entertain changes for any player. Post them here first for consideration).
You can't develop them yourself, although there are powers which let you do this (similar to Justin's 'Ms. Jones' power, just higher level). How many you take is at your discretion, some people like taking lots, some only a few. You get no say which ones actually go into the paper.
Time issues: There are 24 districts (the Mayor gets the tie breaking vote). The city goes by a jump pad for each directly on the hour, and when the clerics were initially brokering the peace, they decided to make everything nice and easy: the twenty-four districts are numbered in order that the city passes them, and the reverse gravity pads for moving between the ground and city were put such that the city passes by each pretty much on the hour.
If what your editor said is true about the four hours of sleep, you think you're probably coming up on the 15th hour.
Being put on such a weird schedule, or as it is, no consistent time schedule at all, should cause you to be a bit disoriented, sluggish, jet lagged, all of that. How much you work with that is up to you.
Descriptions: Just so it's easily referenceable, I'd like all of you, by the weekend, to put into your rogues gallery, your physical description sans hat, and your current description. This way, I can have an easy reference to figure out what all of you look like.
IC posting: the tactics for getting there (skate/rooftops/evasive), is something for this thread, I think, if you wouldn't mind moving it.
Means of transport: Rooftops are not too uneven in height, although there are an inordinate number of spiky wizard towers, but with the combination of running up walls, flying leaps, and so on, you should be able to travel faster. Unfortunately, that's kind of illegal, being trespassing and all. It's also extremely noticeable, despite tons of people using expeditious errands to get to the grocery store quicker. People fly around a lot, and use all sorts of speed boosts, so to prevent high speed crashes, there are now traffic laws dictating how people can get around. They're loose, and very unenforced, but basically involve sticking to the streets when you use magic.
There are vehicles to the extent that there are magical forms of transport: there are some flying carpets and so on. Although, people who are at all powerful in magic just teleport.
There are no horses in the city, but there are some planetside, as well as carts and so on.
Speaking of teleporting: you're almost certain the Daily Float has the magical resources to teleport, which makes you wonder why they aren't just bringing in Helena's team for this. Maybe they're busy?
Your piece with Alyssa today was strictly puff piece/filler: you weren't going in there with damning evidence on her or blackmail, just to force your way in, ask a few questions, write a little story, move on.
Arthur Carmichael: What you remember, he's been the district governor of his district for a while. There have been no major scandals that you can recall. His main election slogan, on posters all over the Opposition Party land is: "Building bridges to the future." You vaguely recall a lot of stories of him canvassing for voters down PlanetSide, which is a little odd, given how politics here are very machine-based.
The city and map: The city is about 3 miles diameter. It is laid out in something approximating a well-designed city: there are a bunch of streets that go in concentric circles, and cross streets that represent spokes. The city is split up into twenty four districts (eight sectors, three districts deep), and the center is the area where the government operates in general. Currently, the city is split roughly in half, down the middle, with the Ruling Party holding thirteen districts, and the Opposition eleven. Low-level politicians tend to be nearer to the edge between the two parties, since those districts tend to be more contested, while high-ranking politicians usually tend to be more towards the edge (where the magic from the sun is less blocked as well). The city is getting more and more vertical: some of the tallest towers in the city are now well over a thousand feet, although the average height of a building is about two-three stories. You are currently in a Ruling Party district on the edge of the party line: Arthur's house is at the eastern edge of the City.
You can tell me if this is too confusing, but I'll use polar coordinates to designate locations that you know, where the first is the compass direction, and the second is how far from the center you are (with 1.5 being the edge)
You are at: (SE,.4)
Arthur Carmichael is at: (NE,1.45)
This is about a mile and change by my rough estimate: if you want better, you do the polar math.
Crossing party lines is not a deal at all: there are no checkpoints or such. This close to the election though, people who don't support the party are more likely to be heckled, harassed, or otherwise noticed.
The city guard (more to fill in, but this is long enough): The City Guard is a supposedly neutral force. You've taken individual or even groups of the City Guard before, although the elite Enforcers are generally beyond your skill. The way they tend to be allocated, is that more guard presence and follow-through on investigating crimes tends to happen on the Ruling Party side, and on the Opposition Party, the City Guard is used more to keep tabs on people.
