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Mushroom Cloud (Worm CYOA v4, Amnesiac SI)

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How old is Mouse Protector and Narwhal those are some of the better heros.
Plus what happens to mouse protecter is pretty sad so that should probly be stoped.
 
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1.4 (2)
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    • earthboy said:
    (Also: "snatch cradler".)
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    UNBELIEVABLE

    Okay well here is tonight's snippet, mainly just a second half to 1.4. Next snippet is when we really get to work.

    1.4 (2)

    Once we're out the door, I pick Erin up and take off, flying back towards our little boat. My autopilot program handles our flight, and it only takes a few seconds; my new Striker power lets me grant Erin invulnerability, so I don't have to moderate my speed for her sake. I do stay below the speed of sound, just because I figure sonic booms attract lots of attention. More attention than I get already for going from 0 to 600 in three seconds flat, I mean.

    In retrospect, I'm kind of lucky that I didn't kill that cape I tackled yesterday, too. I should probably not hit anyone at a higher speed than, like, 60 miles per hour in the future. To be safe.

    I bring us down to a gentle landing on our boat's deck, but when I loosen my grip around Erin she immediately begins to fall forward, her legs giving out beneath her. I catch her and lower her slowly to the deck. "Sorry, was that too rough?"

    She pulls off her gas mask and lays back on the deck, grinning and panting for breath. I think she'd been screaming the whole time – hopefully in delight, but I could barely hear her over the noise. "Are you kidding?" she gasps. "Best ride of my life!"

    I preen.

    It takes her a little while to get her feet back under her and catch her breath – she giggles giddily the whole time – but when she does she pulls me into a quick hug. "That was perfect! Just the right way to top off the morning!" She giggles. "Oh my god, did you see the look on Lung's face? 'I take what and who I want,'" she growls. It's a pretty impressive Lung impression. "That fucking tool."

    I slip off my mask with my metallokinesis, my hands on my hips. "Did we honestly go there just to mock Lung?"

    "Nah. I'd been planning on joining up with him since before we bombed Cornell. It was kind of a snap decision."

    "Oh, okay. That makes me feel better about it."

    "Aw, come on, Shroom! It was fun! It's not like we need him. Either one of us could probably take him."

    It's true, honestly. Erin might have more trouble, but then again with the invincibility and the power boost I give her, she could probably kill Lung with a bomb made from a pack of gum. "Still seems kind of irresponsible, you know? He'll retaliate. He has to, seeing as we literally walked in there, told him to fuck off, then left."

    "Yeah." She snickers. "But I have an invincible sidekick who gives me invincibility, so I think the power's going to my head."

    ...Yeah, if there's one thing I've learned about Erin so far, it's that she's definitely the kind of person to get drunk on power. "Great. Well, I'll build a radar in my head or something to give us an early warning system. I was kind of hoping we'd take out the Nazis first, though."

    She shrugs and heads towards the rusted hatch of our ship, waving me along after her. "It's not a big deal. We'll take over the whole city eventually. Honestly, there really aren't any capes around here who can compete with us. Or pretty much anywhere."

    "Developing a God complex is a good way to get us in trouble, though."

    "Well, that's what you're for!" She flashes me a grin over her shoulder as she leads us through the moldy corridors, heading down to where we camped out last night. I don't know how she sees down here; I have better night vision than a cat at this point, but she's wandering around with only the light provided by the holes in the walls. I'm pretty sure some parahuman or other put them there, I don't think rust works like that normally. I start working on a materials analysis program to find out for sure. "You're always such a sourpuss, you'll keep us grounded. Just tell me if I'm going crazy."

    "You're kind of a sociopath and you have delusions of grandeur."

    "That's the spirit!" She waltzes into the workshop and turns on our collection of electric lamps, illuminating our meagre possessions – a collection of scrap, our sleeping bags, some canned goods, the door leading to Erin's probably-deadly custom bathroom, that kind of thing. Most of it was stolen – I'd gone out last night to do some Stranger-powered "shopping" while Erin was in her power-boost-induced Tinker frenzy, which in retrospect was kind of a bad idea since it had led to very sudden nuclear proliferation. "So, that was a good start to the day, but we should probably do something more productive with the afternoon. I've been thinking about patching a ship up, turning it into a sort of lair, yknow? With, like, cannons and missile launchers. And making it fly."

    I nod slowly. "Sounds good. Although it might be a bit ambitious to start out with. Where would we get the materials?"

    She shrugs and gestures around the room. "This place is all just one big scrapyard, and you could melt down and disassemble everything around here pretty easily. I could build some decent weaponry just from that."

    "And making it fly?"

    "Right, so, that leads me to my next idea. Have you heard of the Merchants?"

    "I have heard of literally nothing, I'm amnesiac."

    "Well, they're a really small-time gang, nothing important, but they've got their own Tinker, this chick named Squealer. Speculation on PHO said she might be specialized in vehicles. So we get her to come work for us. We've got a hell of a lot more to offer than the Merchants, especially with your power boosting. Plus, you could probably just Stranger her into doing whatever we need."

    I shrug and nod and take a seat on the sleeping bag. "Okay. Should I, like, grab her today?"

    She nods happily and begins picking through our scrap heap. "Yeah, you do that, and I'll look around a bit and make sure we've got the best boat picked out to work with. Or maybe we should start from scratch, I dunno. I'll figure it out."

    "Probably be more efficient to start from scratch. I'm good with nanotechnology, miniaturization, that kind of thing. Starting from scratch will let me make sure it's as efficient as possible."

    Erin nods absently, then turns to look at me. "Hey, so, I know I sort of cut you off early last night while we were talking, I just got distracted with the whole Tinker-boost thing. You know you can, like, set your own goals, too, right? And I'll back you up with whatever you wanna do."

    "I know. I appreciate it. I just… can't really think of anything."

    She sets down the scrap she's fiddling with and looks at me more closely. "Yeah, I mean, I wanted to ask you about that. I mean, you did sort of appear out of nowhere and then agree to bomb Cornell with me. Not that I'm complaining! I got like the best sidekick ever, crazy powerful and no complaints, but… well, I mean, I know it's not normal. Like, I guess it wasn't normal for me to bomb my school, but I had really good reasons, so… I dunno, I'm just sort of trying to wrap my head around what you're thinking, Cathy."

    I lay down, nuzzling against the sleeping bag. "I'm pretty sure my powers fucked with my head," I admit. "I just… don't really care. Like, I kind of want to kill something tough, loot it or eat its biomass, that kind of thing. But other than that… I just… there's nothing, really. I mean, it's not like I need anything. I don't remember what I did for a living. I think I might have studied politics, but it's just sort of fuzzy and vague and hard to care about. I don't care about the law or heroes or anything, I kind of get the impression I had something against the police even before I lost my memories. So it's all just… whatever. And I like you, so I'm fine going along with your plans. I want to try to restore my memories, but other than that… I dunno. If I want something, I can just grab it whenever."

    Erin cracks a smile. "That last bit kind of sounded like Lung, you know."

    I groan. "I can't help it. Superior ability breeds superior apathy."

    "Next you'll try to name us the Bombin Bad Gurlz."

    "I was thinking something mushroom-themed, actually."

    She snickers. "Aw, come on, I like your name. It's intimidating."

    "You called me 'Shroom' literally like five minutes ago."

    "I mean, you are synthesizing hallucinogenic drugs in your body, so."

    I roll over. Erin laughs.

    "You're fun." Her voice is fond. It makes me embarrassed and blushy. "I'd probably have blown up the city by now without you to keep me entertained."

    She steps over and sits down next to me and plays with my hair a bit. A small part of me – the gay part, so not that small – screams internally a little bit. I try not to nuzzle her hand like a fucking kitten. I fail.

    She giggles a little bit, then goes quiet. A long moment passes with us there, her playing with my hair, me relaxing and maybe snuggling up against her a little bit. My echolocation shows me her opening her mouth, but she closes it without saying anything.

    "We're a good team," she settles on saying. "We'll stick together. And if there's any way I can help you figure things out, just say so."

    I nod against her hand. "I will. Thanks."

    "Mhm." She smiles and stands back up. I roll back over to watch her. "I think I'm gonna build a missile launcher now. I've got like eight hours of invincibility left, so could you go kidnap Squealer for me so we can get started on the flying battleship, sweetie? Maybe brainwash her or something, if you can come up with something to do that."

    I nod and get to my feet and stretch. "Yeah, sure thing."
     
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    • Is it possible for shroom to make something like the super-soilder serum from Captain America because that would be pretty cool and permanent.
     
    1.5
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    • Easter said:
    Is it possible for shroom to make something like the super-soilder serum from Captain America because that would be pretty cool and permanent.
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    Yes. She's already in the early stages of developing things like that, with her Brute drug. It'll definitely be a priority for her.

    And here's tonight's snippet! ^_^

    1.5

    You'd be amazed how easy it is to gather information when you can casually move faster than sound and everyone you meet thinks you're a dearly trusted friend. I flit around the Docks, asking all my "friends" if they know where I can get hooked up with drugs or whatever. I end up chasing some false leads while I try to feel out the boundaries between ABB and Merchant territory, but it only takes an hour or two before I'm making home visits to Merchant dealers. Then it's just a matter of working my way up the chain – mainly, by telling people that Squealer had a job for me but I was too high to remember where I was supposed to go see her. I only get redirected a few times before finally finding someone who knows where her garage is.

    My ability to multitask with my Tinker powers is a blessing; I'm able to work on designing a, um, recruitment aid for Squealer while my attention is focused on tracking her down. During my three-or-so hour search, I flesh out (heh) the designs to a sort of fungal brain slime neural computer mesh thing that can be injected into a human skull to allow their brain to be controlled remotely using pheromones, and since my multitasking is awesome, I'm able to use that same period of time to design the pheromone-emitting organ and hyper-thin concealable injection needle I'll need, as well as software drivers for the whole set to maximize the precision and scope of my control. I start working on Erin's flying fortress base idea too, but that's more out of my area of expertise so I figure real progress will have to wait till I can collaborate with Erin and our future recruit.

    When I arrive at Squealer's garage, I give a friendly greeting to the muscle she has watching the entrance. After they wave me in, I duck into her bathroom – it's a fucking wreck, for the record – and take a few minutes to grow my mind-control organs. I take a moment to admire my handiwork before stepping back out. The needle is especially impressive; with my Breaker powers distorting space and time and my Brute powers strengthening my flesh, I'm able to make the needle so thin that it's invisible to the naked eye while still being capable of piercing a skull and delivering an effective dose of the brain control fungal mesh within less than a second of real-time. It's an interesting synergy; my Breaker and Brute powers, combined with the fact that most of my Tinkering affects my own biology, mean that I'm basically a Tinker who can always work with the strongest materials imaginable and customized laws of physics on top of that. The realization prompts me to start programming up about a half-dozen different pieces of analytical software in my head to try to generate ideas for what kinds of bizarro technology I might be able to build in my body that wouldn't be possible normally, even with Tinkertech.

    But that can wait till I'm done here. I step out of the bathroom and head towards the sound of welding.

    Squealer's place is… about what you'd expect. She has a bunch of guards and stuff who seem to just sort of lounge around here 24/7; I chat up a few of them while I wander, since I'm everyone's best friend. Apparently she's the boss's girlfriend, so between that and her Tinker powers she's pretty much given her own personal army of Merchants.

    For all the good they're doing her right now.

    I slip into the garage. It's pretty big, considering how low-budget the Merchants seem to be; there's like eight vehicles in here, most of them heavily modified and augmented. I mosey over to where Squealer is working on some kind of… motorcycle, except it's the size of a tank and covered in spikes. It looks like the sort of thing you'd weld a skull to. Squealer, on the other hand, is covered in very little at all. Her top and shorts are so tiny that I have no idea why she even bothers wearing them; it can't be safe for her to be welding wearing that.

    She's kind of hot, though. In like a sexy trashy sort of way.

    …then again, her welding mask has a penis scribbled on it.

    I tap her on the shoulder. "Hey Squealer."

    "I'm welding," she snaps. "Give me a second."

    I huff and wait. I think I'm kind of spoiled after spending all day being everyone's best friend.

    Eventually, she shuts off her welding torch and turns towards me, lifting her mask. "Oh, hey!" She grins at me. Her makeup is basically caked on, and her teeth are… not so good. So maybe a little more trashy than sexy. Then again, I'm here to brainwash and kidnap her, so I guess the least I can do is not judge her on her looks. "Sorry I snapped, babe. What're you doing here?"

    "Um." I realize I didn't actually think of what I was going to say. "Hold still?"

    She blinks and holds still as I cup her cheek with my palm, not reacting as my injector shoots out of my fingertip and plunges into her temple; if she felt anything, it might have been a vague itch. I hold my hand there for just a couple seconds while the injection finishes, then pat her cheek and smile.

    "Um?" she asks. "Should I get Skiddy for a three-way?"

    …

    I release a burst of pheromones to erase her short-term memory. Her eyes go unfocused and she sways forward. I scoop her up into my arms.

    "Hey, I've got something for you to work on, so I'm taking you there," I tell her, releasing pheromones to trigger compliance. She nods groggily into my chest.

    "Cool," she mumbles.

    I prepare for launch, planning on just phasing through the roof – and then I remember Squealer isn't invulnerable. And I can only grant invulnerability to one person at a time, and Erin has it. I sigh. Guess I'm gonna have to take her back to base the slow way, to be safe. I float leisurely up towards and through the ceiling, carrying Squealer with me.

    And find myself phasing directly through some grungy man's chest.

    "Bwuh?"

    "Oh hi!" I exclaim, floating up and over him, holding Squealer with one arm and tapping my free hand against his forehead. Two seconds, a lot of brain fungus, and a dose of drowsiness pheromones later, and it's all taken care of. I'm pretty happy with my ability to think on my feet.

    "Skiddy?" Squealer mumbles sleepily.

    I blink. "Is that Skidmark?"

    She snores. I shake her back awake. "Hey, is that Skidmark?"

    "Mm," she mumbles affirmatively.

    "Huh." I purse my lips. "Hey, your only other parahuman is Mush, right?"

    "Mm."

    "He doesn't have any immunity to Stranger powers, right?"

    "Mm."

    "Could you, like, call him up?"

    "Mkay."

    ---

    Another couple of hours later, and I'm waltzing back into our workshop, Squealer in tow.

    "Honey, we're home!"

    Erin is sitting in a corner, sketching on a pad of paper and covered in oil and grime. Machine parts are strewn all around, including what looks like a half-finished bazooka or something. "Oh, hey! Your boost wore off and I've been just sitting here dying trying to keep up with my own work I did while I was buffed up-" I cut her off with a quick boost, restoring her to full capacity. "Oh, fuck, thank you!" she gushes, scurrying over to her missile launcher and getting back to work. "From now on, you're definitely not leaving me alone for that long while I work. Did you get Squealer, though?"

    "Yep!" I wave Squealer over, regulating my pheromone output to keep her eager to make new friends. "I told her a bit about the project on the way over, and she's got a load of ideas."

    "Hey!" Squealer grins a bit vacantly, sauntering over towards Erin and giving her a hug from behind. A very friendly hug.

    I dial back on the pheromones a bit.

    "Oh!" Erin pats Squealer's hand. "You're very friendly, aren't you? What did you do to her, Shroom?"

    "I injected a neural mesh into her skull to envelop her brain so I can control her with pheromones," I say, emitting pheromones to keep Squealer totally fine with hearing that. She smiles at Erin and straightens back up, wandering over to pick through the pile of scraps and notes. "I could surgically implant a pheromone emitter in you too if you wanted one."

    "Yeah, that'd be nice. We should just set aside a day for surgery sometime, there's a bunch of enhancements it'd be nice for you to put in."

    "Okay." I stretch and head over to join them, surveying Erin's schematics so far. "I also kind of implanted Skidmark by accident. And then I figured, you know, why not, so I had Skidmark call Mush over and then implanted him too."

    She tilts her head at me while Squealer gives a dazed smile. "So… you took over the Merchants?"

    "Yeah. They didn't really have any counter to my Stranger power, so, yknow."

    She shrugs. "I mean, good job. Good initiative. You're kind of scary sometimes, you know that?"

    "Yeah."

    She reaches out and grasps Squealer's chin, tilting her head from side to side to examine her. I keep emitting pheromones to keep Squealer docile and subservient; it'll take a little while, but eventually I'll have broken her in so that she's conditioned to remain that way for the two of us even without pheromone usage. "Huh. Cool. I mean, I wasn't really expecting you to take over a gang today, so I hadn't really thought of anything to use them for, but I guess it's just good to have these things when you need them. They probably at least have a lot of money and supplies for us to pull from if we need to."

    "Yep. I might be able to do the same thing to other gangs, but someone like Lung who transforms would probably be immune, among other parahumans. So I haven't like conquered the world yet."

    She hums and pats Squealer's head like a favored pet.

    …I'm definitely not jealous.

    "Well, for now, let's get to work on the lair. I figure Squealer'll take the lead, with you using your miniaturization knowledge and shit to like build metamaterials and the computer systems, and I'll focus on the weapons systems." Squealer nods happily in assent. So do I.

    "So, about that," I begin, "This is a bit out of my area of expertise, but I was thinking that our best move might be to grow the lair out of my biomass instead of building with scrap."

    "That sounds like it'd be a lot more time-consuming than just harvesting the scrap we've already got," Erin says doubtfully. "And would Squealer and I even be able to work with it?"

    I grimace and shrug. "I hadn't thought it out very thoroughly yet. But injecting my brain fungus into Squealer gave me the idea, and I'll need to experiment a bit to be sure, but I think that I can reproduce parts of my brain in biomass I bud off of my main body to make it retain my Breaker and Brute powers even after I disconnect it. It'd be the ideal building material."

    Squealer looks pensive. Erin slowly smiles. "Did you say 'brain fungus,' sweetie?"

    "Yeah, my… oh."

    She cackles. "Shroom strikes again!"

    "A fungal mycelia structure was the best way to envelop the brain!"

    "Of course, dear." She snickers. "Well, we can experiment with it, but you'll need some way to grow a lot of mass for us to work with. Maybe you should try growing spores."

    I huff. "I thought about spores. But it has to still be attached to my body for me to modify it. But that's okay. I've been thinking – I'd been worrying about taking in external biomass, but really it's just a matter of taking in enough matter for me to work with to build my own biomass. I'm pretty sure I can come up with a way to eat the metal in the Ship Graveyard, process it directly into my body. Especially with my Breaker state to help. Give me a chance to try it out, and I'll let you know."

    She nods thoughtfully. "Let's take the night to lay out some plans, get things ready. No way I'll be able to sleep while you're wrecking shit. You can go trash the Graveyard in the morning."

    I shrug. "That's fine. Gives me time to do the modifications I need, plus some other upgrades I've been designing all day. I don't need to sleep." I purse my lips. "Once I start eating the ships, though, we're probably going to attract some attention pretty fast. I mean, it was kind of inevitable, considering you want to build a flying ship for our lair, but still. We'll probably get some visitors."

    Erin grins. "Well, it's about damn time."

    ---

    As always, I love hearing any comments or feedback or criticism or questions you have!

    Let me know what you think of the pacing; I like posting a little snippet every night because it helps me make sure I'm actually writing every day, and that's what I want since this is like my way of practicing and experimenting with writing right now. But if the pacing gets weird or awkward, let me know so I can work with it. Thank you all <3
     
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    • this is... this is...

    'laughs hysterically' ... 'can't stop laughing' ... timeskip ... 'Still laughing'
     
    ...you may want to preemptively get yourself and your future plot mod reviewed, because once you start with mind control + female parahumans and descriptions of them being sexy (of a sort) you're going down a path that tends to lead towards modhammering. Or just preemptively exile yourself to QQ if you recognize where this is going.

    May not be infraction worthy yet but there was another SI not too long ago that got booted for flat out being "just not content desired on SV" without earning points themselves AFAIK.
     
    Spectrum said:
    ...you may want to preemptively get yourself and your future plot mod reviewed, because once you start with mind control + female parahumans and descriptions of them being sexy (of a sort) you're going down a path that tends to lead towards modhammering. Or just preemptively exile yourself to QQ if you recognize where this is going.

    May not be infraction worthy yet but there was another SI not too long ago that got booted for flat out being "just not content desired on SV" without earning points themselves AFAIK.
    Click to expand...
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    Ive people say QQ before what is it?
     
    Spectrum said:
    ...you may want to preemptively get yourself and your future plot mod reviewed, because once you start with mind control + female parahumans and descriptions of them being sexy (of a sort) you're going down a path that tends to lead towards modhammering. Or just preemptively exile yourself to QQ if you recognize where this is going.

    May not be infraction worthy yet but there was another SI not too long ago that got booted for flat out being "just not content desired on SV" without earning points themselves AFAIK.
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    There definitely won't be any sex scenes or whatever in this story, and nobody's going to be taking advantage of Squealer while she's mind-controlled. The most NSFW stuff that'll be included in the fic is just more teasing/bantering. Is that still like approaching infraction-worthy territory?

    Also, after some other comments on SB I'm thinking of maybe retconning the chapter a little bit anyways - specifying that she needs to create artificial Corona Pollentia brain structures in any biomass she wants to retain her powers after separation, and maybe actually cutting out the part where she gives the Merchants mind-control drugs to distribute, because on reflection I can't see how it'd really even be useful to spread that to a general populace that's already defenseless against Stranger powers.

    I feel kind of silly retconning things like that, but I don't have a beta yet so these things don't get caught till I post the chapter online. ^_^'
     
    I don't mind retconning unless it's like two arcs back and you've invested more than a dozen chapters into a world that's going to have to seriously change.
     
    Mom said:
    There definitely won't be any sex scenes or whatever in this story, and nobody's going to be taking advantage of Squealer while she's mind-controlled. The most NSFW stuff that'll be included in the fic is just more teasing/bantering. Is that still like approaching infraction-worthy territory?
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    There doesn't have to be strictly explicit stuff to get modhammered. Once you are using mind control in any large fashion there's a line that gets bumped into that, even if not strictly crossed, starts making people nervous.
     
    Mom said:
    Look," she begins. She's talking louder, as if she thinks that'll help me understand. "I'm really busy right now, and… there's going to be a lot happening on campus today, so I really think you should go home
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    Bakuda is giving a shit about someone other than herself. Continue.
    Mom said:
    Hey! Put that down!" She plucks it out of my hand and cradles it like a baby. "Jesus Christ, kid, don't touch that."
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    The Precious!
    Mom said:
    I reach out to take her hand, but she jerks away. "Fuck, don't touch me! You don't get it, you don't know what those racist fucks have put me through, I'm only fucking half-Vietnamese and they just never fucking stop, they stole my notes, they ruined my room, they're following me around every fucking day and I can't get any work done and I could get it done if they'd just leave me alone, I'm fucking brilliant compared to them and they know it and they hate that their rich White asses can't keep up with me so they fucking stalk me every fucking day because I don't have fucking nine-hundred-dollar clothes and a sports car or whatever, and nobody ever does shit about it and they're going to get away with everything-"
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    It's like if Taylor has a superiority complex and hated rich people.
     
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