Upon arriving on this world, Artie discovered that it is full of Constructs (or, as he prefers to think of them, "Differently Created People"). But they are, by and large, treated quite poorly, with a mix of oppression and ridicule by the Sparks, and fear by the Humans. It's rather different from his own world, where such beings are relatively rare, and often fairly empowered (think of the floating island full of superintelligent hamsters trying to take over the world currently in Narbonic).
From his POV, this is a terrible state of affairs, but one he has some understanding of: it's not all that different from the way minorities have always been treated in human affairs. And on his world, there has been much progress with minority rights. So it's time to do something about them for Constructs.
This is all nascent -- he hasn't been here long enough to make much impact yet, but we should give him hints about things like sit-ins, awareness-raising sessions, and strikes.
Most of the characters should be pretty bemused about the whole thing: this is a world that mostly doesn't even grasp the concept of civil rights, much less the idea that they should be applied to Constructs. But the Constructs are more or less intrigued. Adam and Lilith have been on the receiving end of ridicule for decades now, and should certainly be sympathetic. Sarah should be very intrigued, and maybe even actively supporting him behind the scenes. Krosp should be viewing this as an opportunity, although he probably doesn't much care about the issue. Boris is a wild card, but should be written to be at least intrigued by the idea, and maybe have some secret sympathy for it. And the Jagers -- are Jagers. God only knows what they'll do...
Darker: On one level, I really, really like this notion. It's an interesting thing for players to debate and talk over, and its introduction is eminently reasonable (given the premise of "someone from an alternate universe where civil rights exist").
But I'm also extremely leery of it - in my experience, the vast majority of the time that social issues come up for debate in one-shot LARPs, player reactions are highly slanted towards modern mores and values. I mean, I was in a LARP in an era where women's suffrage was just getting rolling, and by game end the PC activists had convinced ninety-five percent (literally!) of the influential figures in the game to back their cause.
The extreme endpoint of this plot (which I really wish I could say was unlikely, but I'd give it about even odds) would involve a whole bunch of prominent people (Agatha, Gil, others) agreeing and perhaps even signing some sort of Declaration of Construct Rights, or perhaps nearly all of the Constructs in the game going on strike, or something along those lines. While this strikes me as absolutely marvellous LARP-stuff in the general case, it also strikes me as not-very-Girl-Genius-y, unlike the other plots thus far proposed.
Justin: definitely a fair criticism -- I've encountered this phenomenon of players being unable to see the world through the lens of their character a number of times. Certainly, I'd have to over-write the plot in a few character sheets, to make the point of, "This is a weird, alien and rather unpalatable idea". Still, it's a useful plot in the web, giving some beef to a number of characters who are likely to be a tad thin, so there's real appeal to it...
Artie should also be trying to rope the Jagers into the thing, not realizing that they aren't actually Constructs. We should probably write one of them into this initially -- I'm currently thinking Dimo.
Arnis: The majority of the characters present should probably laugh at this - as if anyone's "rights" are guaranteed unless Baron Wulfenbach says so? Klaus doesn't particularly guard human civil rights, much less those of constructs :)
If this is to be done, you might want to back it with more than just overwriting it - it ought to have some mechanical or other plot impact, so that folks have a reason to support or resist it, one way and another.
Characters In Game: Artie Dimo Krosp Sarah
All Characters: Adam Artie Boris Dimo Krosp Lilith Sarah