Mind the Gap - (Worm CYOA/SI x Touhou)
- Thread starter ultima333
- Start date
Inverness
The Foxiest Wife
Few things can destroy the quality of a story faster than wank of this level.
I mean, my headcanon of Yukari, or maybe Maribel, is that she does conceptual level bullshit. Which now reminds me of those debates about Ea vs Endbringer/Scion. Point being, either interpretation of Yukari's power would suffice, but wanking would be if there was emphasis on how boundaryhax is innately way better on every fundamental level than spacewhalehax. Though, in my experience, it's better to have the OP character defeat the big bad and spend most of the fic on things like character interactions or societal implications, than to drag out by spending several story arcs on being OP even though there's already a narrative sense of the protagonist being invincible.
- Location
- Own World
I would find it funny if there would be a Human(PRT, villains, heroes, Cauldron) interlude guesstimating the extent of Yukari's powers only for it to end with Yukari barging in the meeting like she belonged there, criticizing their points and giving an explanation of "It just works" and then leaves before they could react in a significant manner. She has that trolling potential.
Motoko
Herald of Iron to The People
- Location
- Canada, ontario
Am Confused. That comment wasn't meant to be wank? It was kinda to throw out there that I didn't understand the characters observed power limits and to provoke a response that would hopefully explain what exactly the power was. As, I, at the time did not believe that we'd see someone with more power than the broken Worm CYOA.
Or alternatively, is your comment agreeing with my speculation on the fact that the character is very broken and would curbstomp just about anything?
If this comment doesn't make sense it's because i'm currently drunk off my ass for the first time in a few years.
Hopefully it's not too cringe inducing.
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- Location
- Earth
The only answer that I got is that Yukari just find out a randon guy and decided to have fun using his body and he got hers in exchange.
Yukari is just fooling around.
The way I usually read Yukari's powerset is that her nature as the Youkai of Boundaries allows her to do some amazingly broken things, but she can't do certainties. Her plans can be messed with, and are. Her power is amazing, but not undefeatable. Because the moment things become absolutes, they're no longer boundaries, and therefore outside the scope of her power and antithetical to her being.
- Location
- USA
Ah, broken powers are my favorite! People just don't realize how OP bug control is and going into worm without a god tier power like bug control is just stupid. Think about all DC/MCU characters and then add Skitter and see how fast they die, because no one can stop bugs without knowing who is the cause etc...
Vox De Harlequin
Consequences are for other people
- Location
- Hyalean Theoric World
Most powers are limited by their user.
If Skitter were to appear in DC with the intent to kill pretty much anyone, she'd almost certainly fail.
Mostly due o the fact that she won't just control the bugs from a hidden spot, but will almost certainly 'get in on the action' herself.
And that's ignoring the multiude of people in DC pretty much immune to anything the bugs can try to do to them, for various reasons.
Seriously, a big reason why Skitter was as successful as she was, was a healthy helping of authorial fiat.
Just... Don't wank in public like that. Please. For me?
ultima333
Lazy Snug Youkai
Brockton Bay, Earth Bet. That's where I was.
Well, as far as shithole worlds go, Bet was actually pretty good. Just so long as one avoids the roving murderhobo parties, the villain gangs, and the invincible, city-destroying monsters that attacked on a clock. Oh, and the golden spacewhale that was going to go crazy and try to end all life on all Earths at some point, too.
Well, I should be able to something about all of that, at least.
I watched as Armsmaster dismounted his motorcycle and grabbed his halberd. He turned to face me, holding his weapon upright. Well, at least it's not being pointed at me.
My mind raced, thinking of a way out of this. I couldn't just leave, that would be suspicious. I didn't want to go with him, since that meant going to the Protectorate. Of course, that meant I had to stay and answer at least a couple questions, or until an opportunity to leave presented itself.
It's also pretty obvious he knows I'm a parahuman, seeing as I'm out late, dressed unusually, and still floating a foot off the ground.
For a moment, we just stood there, looking at each other. I'd say it was a fierce staredown, but really, it was more awkward than anything.
Just as I was about to break the silence, however, the bearded hero did it for me. "Who are you?"
Hm. Well, I guess I'll use the name of the body I had. Not like it'd make sense to keep my old name, anyways. I tilted my head at him as I gave my reply. "Yukari Yakumo."
The response seemed to give him pause, for a moment. Surprised that it wasn't a 'cape name?' Oh wait, computer in his helmet. He's probably trying to look it up.
Armsmaster gave a short grunt. "You're not from around here," he said.
No shit, Sherlock. "Does that matter?"
"Hero or villain?" His terse questions were starting to get on my nerves.
"Neither, for now." I gave a small shrug.
Really, I didn't know what I wanted to do here. I knew I wasn't going to join any of the existing hero teams, though. The Protectorate had rules that I didn't want to follow, New Wave's members were all dysfunctional, and it's not like I could join the Wards if I wanted, anyways. Of course, I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a villain, either. All the villain groups except the Undersiders and Faultline's crew were full of assholes, and the former was a bunch of kids and the latter was mostly Case 53s.
Armsmaster, for his part, seemed to be taking a moment to think. Just as he opened his mouth to give another stellar example of speech, however, he abruptly closed it, frowning. A second later, I saw a woman wearing military fatigues with an assault rifle slung across her back, and an American flag bandana over her face. Oh thank the stars, someone who can talk.
Pointedly ignoring Armsmaster, I turned to face the arriving Miss Militia. "Ah, hello there. I suppose you're here to help in the interrogation?" I asked jokingly.
"No," she answered, but I could see hints of a smile under her bandana. "We want to extend a formal greeting to Brockton Bay, on behalf of the Protectorate."
Huh, so she wasn't going with the 'interrogate and/or pressgang me' approach. That's good, I thought to myself.
"If you're unfamiliar with the area," Miss Militia continued, "we could give you a tour, and some information. Brockton isn't exactly the safest of cities, with villain gangs around."
Well, other than locations of where everything is, I already knew a good deal of information about the local gangs. Probably more than the Protectorate did, at least regarding identities. All I really needed was a phonebook, and a map. Or just a computer. Hell, I could just grab one with my power, so there's no reason to follow Miss Militia. Especially not now that I actually knew where I was.
I smiled and shook my head. "No thank you, I'll be fine." I sighed internally, and began to look for an opportunity to run.
"Hmm. Well, I'll give you my contact number in case anything comes up. Do you have a phone?" Miss Militia handed me a small business card.
I made a non-affirmative noise at that. "I'll be able to use a public phone, if need be. Ah, but I must be off, now. Toodles!"
Before the heroine or her bearded sidekick could voice an objection, I opened a gap beneath my feet, and dropped into it.
That was plenty enough socializing for the moment.
* * *
Instead of meeting heroes face to face while I still didn't know fully well what I could do, I decided to take a random warehouse (of which Brockton had plenty, but surprisingly few unoccupied), grabbed a lounge chair and a laptop from a gap, and sat down to take a browse at the local internet.
Of course, as I looked at the web browser's alert that there was no internet connection, I realized there were downsides to being in a random abandoned warehouse.
I frowned at the screen. Really, I guess it's time to see how abstract and bullshit Yukari's, and by extension my, new powers were. I concentrated for a moment. Hm. Did I have to think of a couple concepts that had some sort of barrier in between them? Maybe [Connected] and [Disconnected]?
As I thought of that, my mind immediately jumped to various ways I could impose my will onto the world. All sorts of myriad things I could manipulate, from the connection to the local electricity grid, to the components in the laptop to each other. Even in ways that wouldn't make sense, like acting as if it were connected, without being physically so.
Well, that's probably one of the most bullshit ways for this to work. I grinned. I'm completely okay with that.
I waggled my fingers for dramatic effect as I used that border to connect to the internet…. Somewhere. The IT nerd in me raged in it being fucking impossible, that there were rules that it had to follow, there was no logical way for this to work. I told that part of me to shut up, this was Gap Hax. It didn't need to explain shit.
On a whim, though, I did a test to find out what public IP address I was using, and upon looking where that address was assigned to, it was somewhere in... Bangladesh? I checked again, and it had changed to France. Huh. I bet that'd make it hard to track me.
Well, time to get to business. And by that I meant information gathering. Let's start with the basics, a map of Brockton Bay, current location of the Endbringers, addresses of notable characters…
Well, as far as shithole worlds go, Bet was actually pretty good. Just so long as one avoids the roving murderhobo parties, the villain gangs, and the invincible, city-destroying monsters that attacked on a clock. Oh, and the golden spacewhale that was going to go crazy and try to end all life on all Earths at some point, too.
Well, I should be able to something about all of that, at least.
I watched as Armsmaster dismounted his motorcycle and grabbed his halberd. He turned to face me, holding his weapon upright. Well, at least it's not being pointed at me.
My mind raced, thinking of a way out of this. I couldn't just leave, that would be suspicious. I didn't want to go with him, since that meant going to the Protectorate. Of course, that meant I had to stay and answer at least a couple questions, or until an opportunity to leave presented itself.
It's also pretty obvious he knows I'm a parahuman, seeing as I'm out late, dressed unusually, and still floating a foot off the ground.
For a moment, we just stood there, looking at each other. I'd say it was a fierce staredown, but really, it was more awkward than anything.
Just as I was about to break the silence, however, the bearded hero did it for me. "Who are you?"
Hm. Well, I guess I'll use the name of the body I had. Not like it'd make sense to keep my old name, anyways. I tilted my head at him as I gave my reply. "Yukari Yakumo."
The response seemed to give him pause, for a moment. Surprised that it wasn't a 'cape name?' Oh wait, computer in his helmet. He's probably trying to look it up.
Armsmaster gave a short grunt. "You're not from around here," he said.
No shit, Sherlock. "Does that matter?"
"Hero or villain?" His terse questions were starting to get on my nerves.
"Neither, for now." I gave a small shrug.
Really, I didn't know what I wanted to do here. I knew I wasn't going to join any of the existing hero teams, though. The Protectorate had rules that I didn't want to follow, New Wave's members were all dysfunctional, and it's not like I could join the Wards if I wanted, anyways. Of course, I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a villain, either. All the villain groups except the Undersiders and Faultline's crew were full of assholes, and the former was a bunch of kids and the latter was mostly Case 53s.
Armsmaster, for his part, seemed to be taking a moment to think. Just as he opened his mouth to give another stellar example of speech, however, he abruptly closed it, frowning. A second later, I saw a woman wearing military fatigues with an assault rifle slung across her back, and an American flag bandana over her face. Oh thank the stars, someone who can talk.
Pointedly ignoring Armsmaster, I turned to face the arriving Miss Militia. "Ah, hello there. I suppose you're here to help in the interrogation?" I asked jokingly.
"No," she answered, but I could see hints of a smile under her bandana. "We want to extend a formal greeting to Brockton Bay, on behalf of the Protectorate."
Huh, so she wasn't going with the 'interrogate and/or pressgang me' approach. That's good, I thought to myself.
"If you're unfamiliar with the area," Miss Militia continued, "we could give you a tour, and some information. Brockton isn't exactly the safest of cities, with villain gangs around."
Well, other than locations of where everything is, I already knew a good deal of information about the local gangs. Probably more than the Protectorate did, at least regarding identities. All I really needed was a phonebook, and a map. Or just a computer. Hell, I could just grab one with my power, so there's no reason to follow Miss Militia. Especially not now that I actually knew where I was.
I smiled and shook my head. "No thank you, I'll be fine." I sighed internally, and began to look for an opportunity to run.
"Hmm. Well, I'll give you my contact number in case anything comes up. Do you have a phone?" Miss Militia handed me a small business card.
I made a non-affirmative noise at that. "I'll be able to use a public phone, if need be. Ah, but I must be off, now. Toodles!"
Before the heroine or her bearded sidekick could voice an objection, I opened a gap beneath my feet, and dropped into it.
That was plenty enough socializing for the moment.
* * *
Instead of meeting heroes face to face while I still didn't know fully well what I could do, I decided to take a random warehouse (of which Brockton had plenty, but surprisingly few unoccupied), grabbed a lounge chair and a laptop from a gap, and sat down to take a browse at the local internet.
Of course, as I looked at the web browser's alert that there was no internet connection, I realized there were downsides to being in a random abandoned warehouse.
I frowned at the screen. Really, I guess it's time to see how abstract and bullshit Yukari's, and by extension my, new powers were. I concentrated for a moment. Hm. Did I have to think of a couple concepts that had some sort of barrier in between them? Maybe [Connected] and [Disconnected]?
As I thought of that, my mind immediately jumped to various ways I could impose my will onto the world. All sorts of myriad things I could manipulate, from the connection to the local electricity grid, to the components in the laptop to each other. Even in ways that wouldn't make sense, like acting as if it were connected, without being physically so.
Well, that's probably one of the most bullshit ways for this to work. I grinned. I'm completely okay with that.
I waggled my fingers for dramatic effect as I used that border to connect to the internet…. Somewhere. The IT nerd in me raged in it being fucking impossible, that there were rules that it had to follow, there was no logical way for this to work. I told that part of me to shut up, this was Gap Hax. It didn't need to explain shit.
On a whim, though, I did a test to find out what public IP address I was using, and upon looking where that address was assigned to, it was somewhere in... Bangladesh? I checked again, and it had changed to France. Huh. I bet that'd make it hard to track me.
Well, time to get to business. And by that I meant information gathering. Let's start with the basics, a map of Brockton Bay, current location of the Endbringers, addresses of notable characters…
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- Location
- france
I forgot that Yukari have TOTAL control upon the concept of "boundaries".:lol
Yep, totally bullshit.
Even the shard "Sting" is nothing compared to that.
The Endbringers and Zion are totally vulnerable to anything Yukari do.
At first, i was focused on the "Infinite Spamming Attacks" in geometric 3D form of Touhou.
And of course the "Gate of Babylone" technique of Yukari.
- Location
- USA
More than anything else, this is the part that sold it for me. I can tell there are going to be some great moments later.
- Location
- Море песка, солнце огня и множество злых сарацин
Yukari OP, as always.
Looking forward to the next part!
Looking forward to the next part!
- Location
- Lake superior, Minoc
Yeeep, She just needs to slam the little portal/holes they use for EVERYTHING close on them. The space tumor would splatter apart into all its separate pieces as if someone smeared a dirty sponge across a bunch of planets.
JamesB
You needed worthy opponents.
- Location
- Kansas
If you can close off boundaries, you are a quite effective power nullifier. Close the dimensional boundary that gives a parahuman their powers, and now they're just a normal human. This gives you almost free reign to visit the Nazis at Medhall and de-power them. Who, exactly, are they going to complain to?
- Location
- france
Why the PRT of course.
It's obviously against THE RULES.
And totally unfair, she didn't blow them up with her other techniques.
- Location
- Own World
Sadly, the SI seems to be more amiable during the hero encounter. Or its that I expected some trolling knowing Yukaris character. On the good side, nothing happened sine usually this ends up with some fight and delicious conflict between the PRT and the SI.
Correction: Every villain group is full of assholes not excluding the Undersiders. Dont let Taylor's bias blind you, SI.
Correction: Every villain group is full of assholes not excluding the Undersiders. Dont let Taylor's bias blind you, SI.
ultima333
Lazy Snug Youkai
>60+ likes
>8 comments
Why do so few people comment?
They're kind of assholes, but not really when compared to the E88, ABB, or Merchants.
Faultline's kind of the same, really. They're mercs, and they know it, but they're okay people for the most part.
But really, that seems like entirely too much to do to some (comparatively) small-time crooks at the E88. Especially when the inevitable reprisal from permanently de-powering a bunch of capes would be bothersome.
People would be willing to look the other way if it were the S9 that got shut down (or outright killed), but villains would take exception to it if they thought it would happen to them, too.
>8 comments
Why do so few people comment?
Eh, Undersiders aren't really assholes. I mean, they're utterly ruthless to anyone that's not one of them, and Regent can be a dick, and Lisa's kind of a bitch, but they have their reasons for the most part.
They're kind of assholes, but not really when compared to the E88, ABB, or Merchants.
Faultline's kind of the same, really. They're mercs, and they know it, but they're okay people for the most part.
I had more thought 'Border of [Mundane] and [extraordinary]' or something, but yeah, shutting down their space-whale symbiotes is a good way, too.
But really, that seems like entirely too much to do to some (comparatively) small-time crooks at the E88. Especially when the inevitable reprisal from permanently de-powering a bunch of capes would be bothersome.
People would be willing to look the other way if it were the S9 that got shut down (or outright killed), but villains would take exception to it if they thought it would happen to them, too.
- Location
- Elsewhere
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Unseelie
(Verified True Fae)
- Location
- Tír fo Thuinn
And what, exactly, could they do about it?
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
And Yukari/the SI would care.......why?
ultima333
Lazy Snug Youkai
Directly against me? Not much.
But there's plenty of ways they could be a nuisance. Slander, being a nuisance online, trying to ineffectually kill me, the like.
Like I said, it'd be a nuisance.
Besides, I'm not the type of person that would want to spend all their time fixing everyone's problems. There's always going to be villains, no matter what I do, so I'm not going to want to bother with all the (relatively) small fry, de-powering them or something.
Besides, the less villains there are, the less
- Location
- Seattle, Washington, USA
Because eventually she'll be treated like an Endbringer wherever she shows up. A Thinker villain could orchestrate a PR campaign against her, which she'd have no defense against, and get people thinking she's a villain enough that heroes would start attacking her. Once she has beaten up a few heroes, the PRT will get involved and declare her a villain, causing all heroes to attack her.
Don't forget, the reward for beating the Protectorate enough to have a 9+ rating in ANY category could be a 50 kiloton nuclear missile the next time you make waves.
Kinruush
Who?
- Location
- USA
@ultima333
I'm one of the people who liked without commenting, but since you mentioned it specifically, I felt like giving my reasons for it. Part of it is that I follow too many stories to get involved in the comments on all of them, so I just pick a few to keep up with. As for not commenting specifically on your story, I just don't have much to say about it, as there's not much there, yet, and I'm fairly ambivalent about what is there. What's there is reasonably well written, but it's not certainly not gripping at this point. I'm not big on SI's, as I'd generally just rather see an actual character inserted instead, but I've been hoping for more Touhou/Worm crossovers, and a pseudo-Yukari could be interesting. So, basically, I haven't seen any glaring errors, but other than that, I'm just patiently waiting and hoping for something to get me invested in the story. So I just hit the like button, the watch button, and wait.
I'm one of the people who liked without commenting, but since you mentioned it specifically, I felt like giving my reasons for it. Part of it is that I follow too many stories to get involved in the comments on all of them, so I just pick a few to keep up with. As for not commenting specifically on your story, I just don't have much to say about it, as there's not much there, yet, and I'm fairly ambivalent about what is there. What's there is reasonably well written, but it's not certainly not gripping at this point. I'm not big on SI's, as I'd generally just rather see an actual character inserted instead, but I've been hoping for more Touhou/Worm crossovers, and a pseudo-Yukari could be interesting. So, basically, I haven't seen any glaring errors, but other than that, I'm just patiently waiting and hoping for something to get me invested in the story. So I just hit the like button, the watch button, and wait.