- Location
- England
Kessler isn't even in that picture, though.
If I'm not mistaken, that's the original team lineup.
Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns
If I'm not mistaken, that's the original team lineup.
Of all the places she ever expected to have a meet up, a launderette had been fairly low on the list. However, here they are, Henriette thought. Wearing heavy winter coats, she and Rose passed the rows of tumbling clothing and the bored people on their phones. They let themselves into the backroom using the key that'd been left for them in the drop.
A security camera whines as it pans towards them, but Henriette swipes at her phone and shuts it down.
Raising one hand, Rose gestures at her to wait and - knife in the other hand - she edges her way along the corridor, moving like a predatory doll. She pauses just before a potted plant, and straightens up.
"What is is?" Henriette hisses.
"That's one of Pia's plants," Rose says softly. "It's watching us."
Even as she says that, the flower in the plant blinks, revealing the eyeball at the heart of the blossom.
"Um. Yuck," Henriette whispers.
"Hmm? What's yuck?"
Progenitors, the Iterator silently thinks. "Well, they know we're here," she says.
"Yes," says Rose. She steps through the final door. "Hi, Sera."
It's not quite Serafina, but it's almost her. Some kind of remote operated body, Henriette suspects - a dumb Bob-alike that looks sort of like what Serafina would look like if she was Japanese. The two of them are the same height for once. Given that Rose has also scaled herself down, it's quite nice to not be the shortest one in the room who isn't Director Belltower for once. She's accompanied by a woman with eye-searingly bright pink hair, which doesn't seem to be very good for blending in. Maybe some kind of combat construct?
"It's good to see you two," Serafina says softly, "but I'm going to lay down some ground rules. This body is a remove operated unit with a cut-out. If anyone tries to backtrace me, I'll cut the line. My current location is too sensitive for anyone to know. I'm risking a lot with this, but I have a data cache which needs to make its way to Alex and it's too sensitive to transmit even over standard Union lines."
"I'm A," says the pink-haired woman. "I'm here to keep this body from falling into hostile hands. It's too cute."
"Behave," Serafina says, with a sigh.
"Aww. No, more seriously, I'm with Damage Control. I've got something for Rose that belongs to her, along with the data cache. And Sera needed someone to help her move the field dump gear along."
"What's this about?" Rose asks suspiciously.
Serafina hunches up her shoulders. "So, you remember what happened in London?" she asks.
"Yes."
"No, you don't. Not exactly. Henriette knows."
Henriette felt a pair of red Rose eyes focus on her. She coughed. "So, uh. By my understanding, Serafina... wait, why am I explaining it?"
"Because it shows that I'm not just making it up and I am me," Serafina says. "Yes. You and Sykes encountered an exhuman Progenitor working for Our Enemy who was searching for Director Belltower."
"Is that what that attacker was?" Rose asks.
"Yes. Sykes managed to spoof its IFF and engaged in extended conversation with it. There's quite a bit of pertinent information in there. And there's rather more that I've produced in analysis, when combined with things that A has recovered from infiltration of things Gregor is up to."
"You mean he's working with Control's Progenitors?" Henriette asks.
"Of course."
Rose narrows her eyes, but then relaxes. "So you didn't trust me to know."
Serafina slumps down. "No," she says. "That's right. We didn't trust you. Rose, you have to remember we were in the middle of the Tribunal at the time. I hate that I couldn't trust you then, but I couldn't. And for what it's worth, you did ask for it."
Rose is silent for a while, staring at her reflection in the dull metal of a half-disassembled drier. "I'm fine," she says, after a pause. "You had good reasons."
"We had good reasons, but they weren't right," Serafina says. "And... no. No, that's for later." She massages her temples. "I wish I could be your mother right now, but I don't have time. The most vital thing is getting that information into you and giving you back your memories. You'll know what you need to tell Alex."
"So you trust me now?" Rose asks. Henriette winces at that.
"Yes! Yes, I do!"
"That's good!" Rose says brightly.
The disassembled drier turns out to be junk packed around a Progenitor field kit, and very soon A is fussing around Rose as they position her for memory dump. Henriette stands around, feeling useless. She offered to help on the grounds that surely she'd be far better with the machinery than them, but no.
And so instead she just stands back and watches. After all, if this does turn out to be a trap, Rose will be out of this and she might have to use some of her fallback options she really, really doesn't want to use. Henriette shifts uncomfortably, aware of the IBM-design body armour under her coat. Mari said she'd added 'a few special features' to the body armour and that scares Henriette more than a little bit. Her little sister doesn't have the best sense of human limitations.
There's something very interesting she notices, which gets picked out by the gait analysis tool in her ADEI. Serafina and A move almost identically. They hold themselves very similarly. In fact, her ADEI is occasionally returning false positives, although it's falling below the statistical threshold for certainty. Henriette suspects that the other woman may be sometimes doubling up as a body-double for Serafina. That would come as a surprise - someone they thought was just an academic suddenly turning out to be a Damage Control agent.
She watches as Rose goes under, eyes closing.
"So," she says. "Let's get the conversation out of the way you don't want Rose to hear."
Serafina raises her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"
Henriette feels like a bit of a fool. "Well, I mean, you went to this length to get me alone without even Rose being awake so..."
"Oh dear." Serafina laughs. "Henriette, dear, not everything is about you. Yes, I do have a few things to ask you about, but they're technical questions to do with Iteration X infrastructure and countermeasures against the TENNO units that Gregor has. If you can provide as much info as possible on some things, I'll have someone pick it up from a drop-off."
"Um." Henriette had forgotten how embarrassing conversations with Serafina could be when she was nicely and sympathetically making you feel like an idiot. Also, she suspected that A was sniggering at her. "Oh. Okay."
Serafina pauses. "Oh, Henriette," she says fondly. "You wanted to impress me and wanted to show off how you felt you'd grown up, didn't you?"
"I did not!" Henriette swallows, and lets her BLO deactivate. This is going to be hard to say. "I... I actually wanted to thank you."
"For what?"
Henriette glances at A. "What does she know about Moscow?"
A grins. "Everything," she says. "I was there too. Operating behind the scenes, helping out. I was in Molotek when it all went down. Super-deep cover, though. No one saw me."
Henriette stares. The other woman has an impish grin on her face. "I don't believe you."
"Sorry, is this asking if I know about the IBM?" A asks. "Just want to be clear? Their security isn't perfect."
"..." says Henriette, or rather doesn't. "Okay. Fine. I'll accept for a moment that you're..."
"... a super-amazing infiltration specialist and Damage Control agent?"
"... very annoying. But still can you please not interrupt?"
"How much is is it worth to you?"
Serafina sighs. "Zip it, A. Make sure everything goes fine with Rose, please?"
"Yes ma'am, my doctor lady princess queen empress dictator." Still, A turns and bends over the hardware.
Henriette didn't believe for a moment that she wasn't listening, but decided to accept that as the best she could get. "So. We found Director Belltower in space. And, uh, survived that. Also survived the ambush."
"Mmm," Serafina says. "I'm glad that didn't come to nothing." She stuffs her hands in her pockets. "How is she?"
"Uh," Henriette says, considering the question. "Much the same as usual, apart from the fact that she seems to have adopted Rose's pet cat and acts like she believes it's plotting against her."
"It's the Operative business," Serafina says sadly. "It could drive a woman to madness. They'll start believing that the potted plants are spying on them."
"Yeah... wait." Henriette narrows her eyes. "I saw that plant outside."
"I didn't say they weren't right."
That forces a laugh from Henriette's lips. "But I did something terrible in space," she says softly. "It had to be done. But it shouldn't've had needed to be done. The world sucks sometimes." She took a deep breath. "The MUSCOVITE field commander is... is dead."
"Oh," Serafina says. "Was it that bad?"
Nodding, Henriette swallows. "I had... I had to break her will. Through talking and... and I think the h-addiction she picked up from eating all the haemophages in Moscow left her in a very bad place mentally to start with. I left her nothing but the knowledge that she'd been used and her whole life was a lie. She broke down. Violently."
"Oh dear." Serafina wraps her arms around Henriette, a warm presence around the slight young woman. "I wish I could help you feel better by telling you that you had no choice, but you don't feel that way, do you?"
"I chose to do it. I... uh, I wanted her to break down utterly. Instead... um, she went post-singularity on us, ate a giant spaceship and... uh." Henriette rubs the back of her neck. "Well, if I was the sort to believe in karma, it was pretty quick." She hugs back, and gives Serafina a kiss on her cheek. "And thank you so so so much. I don't know exactly how it happened, but somehow... somehow Mari knew what was happening. And she helped me out against... against who she used to be."
"Mari?" Serafina freezes up.
"I know about her," Henriette says. "My... little sister. I know pretty much what you did." She kisses Serafina on the cheek again. "You saved one tiny bit of my incredibly fucked up family. She saved me from the exhuman remnants of who she used to be and... and it was going to torture me forever. She... she's kind of a brat, but... well, she is my little sister."
Serafina laughs. "You said it so I don't have to," she teases.
"You're so mean." Henriette gives her a third kiss for luck, and then lets go, blushing pink. "I... I just have one question. Why did you even s-save her?"
Smiling sadly, Serafina wraps her arms around herself. "Because I like helping people," she says simply, directing a meaningful glance at Henriette. "I've killed a lot of people, but I never wanted to. And I saw a young woman who'd been turned into a weapon and broken by it, who didn't even understand how damaged she was. Who'd never had a chance to be anything else. So I thought I'd help her."
"I wasn't that bad!" Henriette protests, cheeks still flaming.
"... I was talking about Mari."
Henriette cringes as A snickers. "It's a... a g-good thing that this is so ultra-classified that I don't need to worry about you blabbing about that to anyone," she mutters.
"Impressive display of self-awareness there," Serafina says lightly.
Henriette considers tossing down a sonic grenade and letting the liquefying ground consume her, but no one would believe that was an accident. She does the next best thing and re-engages her BLO. Her expression straightens out and her complexion pales again.
"Oh dear, you've gone serious."
"We need to talk about Rose, before she wakes up," Henriette says swiftly. "She opened up to me in Los Angeles, when we were trying to work out what had happened. Things happened to her in the Demise. Very bad things. She's holding herself together with duct tape and our icecream and bad movies nights." She pinches her brow. "I'm not good with people, not like you," she admits. "But I'm really worried about her."
Serafina perches on a table, slumping down. "So am I," she confesses.
A security camera whines as it pans towards them, but Henriette swipes at her phone and shuts it down.
Raising one hand, Rose gestures at her to wait and - knife in the other hand - she edges her way along the corridor, moving like a predatory doll. She pauses just before a potted plant, and straightens up.
"What is is?" Henriette hisses.
"That's one of Pia's plants," Rose says softly. "It's watching us."
Even as she says that, the flower in the plant blinks, revealing the eyeball at the heart of the blossom.
"Um. Yuck," Henriette whispers.
"Hmm? What's yuck?"
Progenitors, the Iterator silently thinks. "Well, they know we're here," she says.
"Yes," says Rose. She steps through the final door. "Hi, Sera."
It's not quite Serafina, but it's almost her. Some kind of remote operated body, Henriette suspects - a dumb Bob-alike that looks sort of like what Serafina would look like if she was Japanese. The two of them are the same height for once. Given that Rose has also scaled herself down, it's quite nice to not be the shortest one in the room who isn't Director Belltower for once. She's accompanied by a woman with eye-searingly bright pink hair, which doesn't seem to be very good for blending in. Maybe some kind of combat construct?
"It's good to see you two," Serafina says softly, "but I'm going to lay down some ground rules. This body is a remove operated unit with a cut-out. If anyone tries to backtrace me, I'll cut the line. My current location is too sensitive for anyone to know. I'm risking a lot with this, but I have a data cache which needs to make its way to Alex and it's too sensitive to transmit even over standard Union lines."
"I'm A," says the pink-haired woman. "I'm here to keep this body from falling into hostile hands. It's too cute."
"Behave," Serafina says, with a sigh.
"Aww. No, more seriously, I'm with Damage Control. I've got something for Rose that belongs to her, along with the data cache. And Sera needed someone to help her move the field dump gear along."
"What's this about?" Rose asks suspiciously.
Serafina hunches up her shoulders. "So, you remember what happened in London?" she asks.
"Yes."
"No, you don't. Not exactly. Henriette knows."
Henriette felt a pair of red Rose eyes focus on her. She coughed. "So, uh. By my understanding, Serafina... wait, why am I explaining it?"
"Because it shows that I'm not just making it up and I am me," Serafina says. "Yes. You and Sykes encountered an exhuman Progenitor working for Our Enemy who was searching for Director Belltower."
"Is that what that attacker was?" Rose asks.
"Yes. Sykes managed to spoof its IFF and engaged in extended conversation with it. There's quite a bit of pertinent information in there. And there's rather more that I've produced in analysis, when combined with things that A has recovered from infiltration of things Gregor is up to."
"You mean he's working with Control's Progenitors?" Henriette asks.
"Of course."
Rose narrows her eyes, but then relaxes. "So you didn't trust me to know."
Serafina slumps down. "No," she says. "That's right. We didn't trust you. Rose, you have to remember we were in the middle of the Tribunal at the time. I hate that I couldn't trust you then, but I couldn't. And for what it's worth, you did ask for it."
Rose is silent for a while, staring at her reflection in the dull metal of a half-disassembled drier. "I'm fine," she says, after a pause. "You had good reasons."
"We had good reasons, but they weren't right," Serafina says. "And... no. No, that's for later." She massages her temples. "I wish I could be your mother right now, but I don't have time. The most vital thing is getting that information into you and giving you back your memories. You'll know what you need to tell Alex."
"So you trust me now?" Rose asks. Henriette winces at that.
"Yes! Yes, I do!"
"That's good!" Rose says brightly.
...
The disassembled drier turns out to be junk packed around a Progenitor field kit, and very soon A is fussing around Rose as they position her for memory dump. Henriette stands around, feeling useless. She offered to help on the grounds that surely she'd be far better with the machinery than them, but no.
And so instead she just stands back and watches. After all, if this does turn out to be a trap, Rose will be out of this and she might have to use some of her fallback options she really, really doesn't want to use. Henriette shifts uncomfortably, aware of the IBM-design body armour under her coat. Mari said she'd added 'a few special features' to the body armour and that scares Henriette more than a little bit. Her little sister doesn't have the best sense of human limitations.
There's something very interesting she notices, which gets picked out by the gait analysis tool in her ADEI. Serafina and A move almost identically. They hold themselves very similarly. In fact, her ADEI is occasionally returning false positives, although it's falling below the statistical threshold for certainty. Henriette suspects that the other woman may be sometimes doubling up as a body-double for Serafina. That would come as a surprise - someone they thought was just an academic suddenly turning out to be a Damage Control agent.
She watches as Rose goes under, eyes closing.
"So," she says. "Let's get the conversation out of the way you don't want Rose to hear."
Serafina raises her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"
Henriette feels like a bit of a fool. "Well, I mean, you went to this length to get me alone without even Rose being awake so..."
"Oh dear." Serafina laughs. "Henriette, dear, not everything is about you. Yes, I do have a few things to ask you about, but they're technical questions to do with Iteration X infrastructure and countermeasures against the TENNO units that Gregor has. If you can provide as much info as possible on some things, I'll have someone pick it up from a drop-off."
"Um." Henriette had forgotten how embarrassing conversations with Serafina could be when she was nicely and sympathetically making you feel like an idiot. Also, she suspected that A was sniggering at her. "Oh. Okay."
Serafina pauses. "Oh, Henriette," she says fondly. "You wanted to impress me and wanted to show off how you felt you'd grown up, didn't you?"
"I did not!" Henriette swallows, and lets her BLO deactivate. This is going to be hard to say. "I... I actually wanted to thank you."
"For what?"
Henriette glances at A. "What does she know about Moscow?"
A grins. "Everything," she says. "I was there too. Operating behind the scenes, helping out. I was in Molotek when it all went down. Super-deep cover, though. No one saw me."
Henriette stares. The other woman has an impish grin on her face. "I don't believe you."
"Sorry, is this asking if I know about the IBM?" A asks. "Just want to be clear? Their security isn't perfect."
"..." says Henriette, or rather doesn't. "Okay. Fine. I'll accept for a moment that you're..."
"... a super-amazing infiltration specialist and Damage Control agent?"
"... very annoying. But still can you please not interrupt?"
"How much is is it worth to you?"
Serafina sighs. "Zip it, A. Make sure everything goes fine with Rose, please?"
"Yes ma'am, my doctor lady princess queen empress dictator." Still, A turns and bends over the hardware.
Henriette didn't believe for a moment that she wasn't listening, but decided to accept that as the best she could get. "So. We found Director Belltower in space. And, uh, survived that. Also survived the ambush."
"Mmm," Serafina says. "I'm glad that didn't come to nothing." She stuffs her hands in her pockets. "How is she?"
"Uh," Henriette says, considering the question. "Much the same as usual, apart from the fact that she seems to have adopted Rose's pet cat and acts like she believes it's plotting against her."
"It's the Operative business," Serafina says sadly. "It could drive a woman to madness. They'll start believing that the potted plants are spying on them."
"Yeah... wait." Henriette narrows her eyes. "I saw that plant outside."
"I didn't say they weren't right."
That forces a laugh from Henriette's lips. "But I did something terrible in space," she says softly. "It had to be done. But it shouldn't've had needed to be done. The world sucks sometimes." She took a deep breath. "The MUSCOVITE field commander is... is dead."
"Oh," Serafina says. "Was it that bad?"
Nodding, Henriette swallows. "I had... I had to break her will. Through talking and... and I think the h-addiction she picked up from eating all the haemophages in Moscow left her in a very bad place mentally to start with. I left her nothing but the knowledge that she'd been used and her whole life was a lie. She broke down. Violently."
"Oh dear." Serafina wraps her arms around Henriette, a warm presence around the slight young woman. "I wish I could help you feel better by telling you that you had no choice, but you don't feel that way, do you?"
"I chose to do it. I... uh, I wanted her to break down utterly. Instead... um, she went post-singularity on us, ate a giant spaceship and... uh." Henriette rubs the back of her neck. "Well, if I was the sort to believe in karma, it was pretty quick." She hugs back, and gives Serafina a kiss on her cheek. "And thank you so so so much. I don't know exactly how it happened, but somehow... somehow Mari knew what was happening. And she helped me out against... against who she used to be."
"Mari?" Serafina freezes up.
"I know about her," Henriette says. "My... little sister. I know pretty much what you did." She kisses Serafina on the cheek again. "You saved one tiny bit of my incredibly fucked up family. She saved me from the exhuman remnants of who she used to be and... and it was going to torture me forever. She... she's kind of a brat, but... well, she is my little sister."
Serafina laughs. "You said it so I don't have to," she teases.
"You're so mean." Henriette gives her a third kiss for luck, and then lets go, blushing pink. "I... I just have one question. Why did you even s-save her?"
Smiling sadly, Serafina wraps her arms around herself. "Because I like helping people," she says simply, directing a meaningful glance at Henriette. "I've killed a lot of people, but I never wanted to. And I saw a young woman who'd been turned into a weapon and broken by it, who didn't even understand how damaged she was. Who'd never had a chance to be anything else. So I thought I'd help her."
"I wasn't that bad!" Henriette protests, cheeks still flaming.
"... I was talking about Mari."
Henriette cringes as A snickers. "It's a... a g-good thing that this is so ultra-classified that I don't need to worry about you blabbing about that to anyone," she mutters.
"Impressive display of self-awareness there," Serafina says lightly.
Henriette considers tossing down a sonic grenade and letting the liquefying ground consume her, but no one would believe that was an accident. She does the next best thing and re-engages her BLO. Her expression straightens out and her complexion pales again.
"Oh dear, you've gone serious."
"We need to talk about Rose, before she wakes up," Henriette says swiftly. "She opened up to me in Los Angeles, when we were trying to work out what had happened. Things happened to her in the Demise. Very bad things. She's holding herself together with duct tape and our icecream and bad movies nights." She pinches her brow. "I'm not good with people, not like you," she admits. "But I'm really worried about her."
Serafina perches on a table, slumping down. "So am I," she confesses.
Last edited:
FourthWall
May The Sun Never Blind Your Eyes
- Location
- Chiraq
But if we lost it, we'd have a total loss of Catrol.
Incidentally, this write-in sucks. It's shit. I hate it. The characters feel flat and the scene is a sketch. It's chain of consciousness crap.
So, you know. Please, in future... look, okay, I know most people can't write like I can. But there comes a point when I ask repeatedly for what people want to see, trying to prompt some discussion in the hope that I might get some inspiration and most people don't care enough to actually even suggest things that I start to get disheartened.
Because this is meant to be a Quest, and there's meant to be audience participation that isn't just people making jokes - and not even really on-topic jokes. I mean, @MJ12 Commando said this was moving into the end game and yet most of you apparently didn't care enough to try to shape that endgame. I said I wouldn't write this scene, because I wanted to let other people feel that they could have an impact and also because, bluntly, I sometimes get sick of feeling like everyone isn't even bothering to suggest things because they think I'll do all the work.
Newsflash. My write-ins often involve stealing and prettying-up other people's ideas. Talking about things gets me persuaded in your direction. Just making Shinji Wank jokes doesn't help one goddamn bit.
Like MJ explicitly said and almost all of you apparently entirely ignored:
So, please. In future, don't sit around like lumpenproletariat when MJ is going "you need to talk more" and I'm going "I'm busy in life, come on guys, you need to talk more". Because that's the sort of thing which kills quests, or gets characters killed because the audience doesn't apparently even give enough of a damn to talk about plot developments which are explicitly leading up to the endgame.
So, you know. Please, in future... look, okay, I know most people can't write like I can. But there comes a point when I ask repeatedly for what people want to see, trying to prompt some discussion in the hope that I might get some inspiration and most people don't care enough to actually even suggest things that I start to get disheartened.
Because this is meant to be a Quest, and there's meant to be audience participation that isn't just people making jokes - and not even really on-topic jokes. I mean, @MJ12 Commando said this was moving into the end game and yet most of you apparently didn't care enough to try to shape that endgame. I said I wouldn't write this scene, because I wanted to let other people feel that they could have an impact and also because, bluntly, I sometimes get sick of feeling like everyone isn't even bothering to suggest things because they think I'll do all the work.
Newsflash. My write-ins often involve stealing and prettying-up other people's ideas. Talking about things gets me persuaded in your direction. Just making Shinji Wank jokes doesn't help one goddamn bit.
Like MJ explicitly said and almost all of you apparently entirely ignored:
So, please. In future, don't sit around like lumpenproletariat when MJ is going "you need to talk more" and I'm going "I'm busy in life, come on guys, you need to talk more". Because that's the sort of thing which kills quests, or gets characters killed because the audience doesn't apparently even give enough of a damn to talk about plot developments which are explicitly leading up to the endgame.
NonSequtur
a body
Like, and admittedly this is compounded by moving house and doing executive stuff for SV, the current scenario has so many moving parts I literally don't really know what's going on and while normally I might dig through your brain and the cold machinery that does MJ's thinking on IRC and read through the past couple updates a half-dozen times to get a more solid handle on shit I don't have the time right now and most people aren't really going to do that even if they did have the time.
Deadly Snark
Tryhard As Fuck
I've honestly just lost track of the plot a few dozen updates ago.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
What a time to have finally caught up with everything. Now... err... what to do...
Dealing with Donald probably should be our first priority given he's more than able to ruin everything for us (and thus ruin everything for our foe... somehow... if we know he's still on our side) and also since if he falls, Rose will too and so Sera... might not fall, but she certainly won't be as effective.
On the enemy without front, they have basically a Tenno/Raiden/a fucking solar. Thankfully, we have Piero and weremen (they obviously are bears that change into mostly human beings during the full moon) so that could give us some time.
Now, time to do what?
Eh... probably unfuck Donald so we can send Rose to deal with her problems in a shonen way, punching god in the face with the power of friendship, love and family.
If Rose's whole arc wasn't about becomming a real person, I'd totally try to get her into an EXEMPLAR IV.
Actually, would it be possible to upgrade her with the stuff in the lab (if/when we get to it) in a non-"you're just a construct" way and without corrupting her? If she needs to punch god in the face, she'll kind of need it.
Dealing with Donald probably should be our first priority given he's more than able to ruin everything for us (and thus ruin everything for our foe... somehow... if we know he's still on our side) and also since if he falls, Rose will too and so Sera... might not fall, but she certainly won't be as effective.
On the enemy without front, they have basically a Tenno/Raiden/a fucking solar. Thankfully, we have Piero and weremen (they obviously are bears that change into mostly human beings during the full moon) so that could give us some time.
Now, time to do what?
Eh... probably unfuck Donald so we can send Rose to deal with her problems in a shonen way, punching god in the face with the power of friendship, love and family.
If Rose's whole arc wasn't about becomming a real person, I'd totally try to get her into an EXEMPLAR IV.
Actually, would it be possible to upgrade her with the stuff in the lab (if/when we get to it) in a non-"you're just a construct" way and without corrupting her? If she needs to punch god in the face, she'll kind of need it.
Last edited:
Well, since lots of people feel like Serafina, Rose, and Henriette aren't particularly important characters and don't need much discussion, I guess they don't need to survive the endgame amirite?
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
I know this is humorous, but like...Well, since lots of people feel like Serafina, Rose, and Henriette aren't particularly important characters and don't need much discussion, I guess they don't need to survive the endgame amirite?
You have here a tremendously complex quest with a ridiculous number of moving parts (like @NonSequtur, I actually cannot track everything that's happening right now) that is highly reliant on a specific set of posters who provide incredibly lengthy write-ins, deep insight, etc. With those people not as active for their various reasons, things are going to slow down dramatically. I get that it's sucky when posts drop and voters don't discuss things - I hate it when it happens in my own quests too - but in this case you are expecting a lot more than is reasonable from your readers.
ckk185
Crazy Bunny Girl Scientist
- Location
- Port city
Yea p much. I have to third the statement that this quest has gone above and beyond the average quest in terms of well... everything.
Don't get me wrong. That's a really good thing. It's just that nobody wants to stick their hands into this really complicated grandfather clock when they have no idea what is going on anymore.
Don't get me wrong. That's a really good thing. It's just that nobody wants to stick their hands into this really complicated grandfather clock when they have no idea what is going on anymore.
This quest is absolutely amazing and I love reading it. I also never vote because while Mage enables absolutely amazing stories, the powers are even more complicated than the social interaction, and I can't handle the second of those, let alone the first. There not really anything besides those two topics that get voted on, since combat tactics rely utterly on what the person in question is capable of.
- Location
- Southern Virginia
Henriette and Serafina have gone through most or all of the character growth and development we can expect. Their further involvement should look at cementing their new identities and making use of their new perspectives.
For Henriette's part she's definitely been picking up from Jamelia and even Harlan, so it makes sense that her role in the upcoming mission will be electronic subversion and support; albeit with the fallback option of getting in a robot to confront Sanjeet and Ling if that's something that Gregor is keeping as a reserve. But there's another test of her NWO-itis, and a trauma left to confront. Jamelia can turn enemies into allies by attacking their beliefs, undermining their ideologies, above all by understanding them. Can Henriette? The old Henriette had only her drive and her skill with a weapon; the new Henriette can use her mind and her words as weapons. But doing so led to the destruction of her sister in a way that will haunt her even if she finally makes peace with it. And yet again she may have the opportunity to sway two pawns of Control that she has a personal connection to; will she shut down and engage them only on the battlefield to defeat them, or will she overcome her regrets and misgivings and use her new skills to try to save them?
As for Serafina she's clearly taking her new role as Leader. And if she survives the action I think her personal narrative journey is largely coming to a close. But there are some loose ends. With her newfound focus she probably needs to resolve matters with Rose and with Cross. Her daughter and her lover. In a cold-blooded way her close relationships with two of the deadliest Constructs in the Union is an obvious political advantage. But they give her a certain credibility speaking to Construct issues; she can put herself and her "family" forward as a living example and symbol of an ideal where sapient Constructs and natural-born Technocrats treat on terms of equality. It's not just an alternative to the bad old Progenitors who abuse their Constructs but also to Li, whose idea of equality is freeing Constructs to be the murder-machines they were meant for. We said Serafina needs to be a shepherd of the Union and to do that she has to step up afterward. She's made a deal with Li to enter the game but she has to stake out her own position. So in addition to undoubtedly helping Rose work through her issues, we might consider if maybe Serafina might be ready to settle down and propose to Cross.
If they both survive. Popping the question before the assault would be a bad omen, of course.
For Henriette's part she's definitely been picking up from Jamelia and even Harlan, so it makes sense that her role in the upcoming mission will be electronic subversion and support; albeit with the fallback option of getting in a robot to confront Sanjeet and Ling if that's something that Gregor is keeping as a reserve. But there's another test of her NWO-itis, and a trauma left to confront. Jamelia can turn enemies into allies by attacking their beliefs, undermining their ideologies, above all by understanding them. Can Henriette? The old Henriette had only her drive and her skill with a weapon; the new Henriette can use her mind and her words as weapons. But doing so led to the destruction of her sister in a way that will haunt her even if she finally makes peace with it. And yet again she may have the opportunity to sway two pawns of Control that she has a personal connection to; will she shut down and engage them only on the battlefield to defeat them, or will she overcome her regrets and misgivings and use her new skills to try to save them?
As for Serafina she's clearly taking her new role as Leader. And if she survives the action I think her personal narrative journey is largely coming to a close. But there are some loose ends. With her newfound focus she probably needs to resolve matters with Rose and with Cross. Her daughter and her lover. In a cold-blooded way her close relationships with two of the deadliest Constructs in the Union is an obvious political advantage. But they give her a certain credibility speaking to Construct issues; she can put herself and her "family" forward as a living example and symbol of an ideal where sapient Constructs and natural-born Technocrats treat on terms of equality. It's not just an alternative to the bad old Progenitors who abuse their Constructs but also to Li, whose idea of equality is freeing Constructs to be the murder-machines they were meant for. We said Serafina needs to be a shepherd of the Union and to do that she has to step up afterward. She's made a deal with Li to enter the game but she has to stake out her own position. So in addition to undoubtedly helping Rose work through her issues, we might consider if maybe Serafina might be ready to settle down and propose to Cross.
If they both survive. Popping the question before the assault would be a bad omen, of course.
LoserThree
Finds writing poorly easy
- Location
- Greater Seattle Area
- Pronouns
- he/him
I like stories like these even though I have have lost track of everything going on because I trust that the author will wrap it all up in the end and along the way remind me of all the lose threads. There's a certain joy to that, "Oh yeah! I remember that part! This has totally been in the works the whole time!" feeling.
Now, I'm often slow on the uptake. But I also just finished reading this through, like, a couple months ago I guess. And I don't know where any of the characters are at who have not been recently mentioned, including the protagonist who is my favorite character in this story. I have no idea how people who experienced the stuff written a year ago a year ago keep track. I figure they've got notes or they're just better at things like that.
For, you know, whatever the words of Johnny-come-lately are worth.
I do really enjoy this story. It's got me feeling like running Mage again, something I've only done once in the past decade. And I do look forward to the conclusion.
Now, I'm often slow on the uptake. But I also just finished reading this through, like, a couple months ago I guess. And I don't know where any of the characters are at who have not been recently mentioned, including the protagonist who is my favorite character in this story. I have no idea how people who experienced the stuff written a year ago a year ago keep track. I figure they've got notes or they're just better at things like that.
For, you know, whatever the words of Johnny-come-lately are worth.
I do really enjoy this story. It's got me feeling like running Mage again, something I've only done once in the past decade. And I do look forward to the conclusion.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
You've just killed one of them indirectly.
Still, I feel like the main confrontation has been built to be between exemplars, so we really should think about what Rose should do...
Either she comes into what she was supposed to be and starts leading stuff, which will play with the whole "constructs aren't treated as people" thing, or she decides to go full murderhobo, which... honestly doesn't sound as good, since it reinforces her human weapon side (and might really kill her given what she's against).
So we should find how to make it so Rose has responsibilities so she can get shit done.
Maybe.
*shrug* School just started for a lot of us, yannow. As much as I love this Quest, to actively shape this bit of the endgame would require I dedicate a lot of brainpower that could be going into things like "getting forms signed" and "arguing with bureaucrats/professors/both at once".
I was thinking about attacking the Sera/Rose/Henriette scene, but... well, maybe I'll have time next weekend, if I haven't collapsed.
I was thinking about attacking the Sera/Rose/Henriette scene, but... well, maybe I'll have time next weekend, if I haven't collapsed.
cB557
voOOP
Hey, that's my line.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I've *tried* to throw analysis at the issue, but the well doesn't go but so deep these days, and even when I was in my heavy write-in/omake phase, I wasn't at the quality level to compete with the rest of this quest.
Admittedly, the fact that the majority of the written feedback I've gotten here seems like it's been some form of "No, you're totally wrong." (with occasional side order of "What's wrong with you?") hasn't helped. At this point, when trying to contribute meaningfully to this quest, I'm basically left throwing out analysis in the hopes of providing some energy feedback for our QM and maybe have someone else find something useful in there.
Still... it's a good quest, and I'd like to see it come in for a finish, so I'll see what I can do. Point me at something. Give me another topic or two to analyze, and I'll see what I can do to generate at least a bit of grist.
For what it's worth @EarthScorpion, I enjoyed your latest bit, and I was glad to have read it.
Admittedly, the fact that the majority of the written feedback I've gotten here seems like it's been some form of "No, you're totally wrong." (with occasional side order of "What's wrong with you?") hasn't helped. At this point, when trying to contribute meaningfully to this quest, I'm basically left throwing out analysis in the hopes of providing some energy feedback for our QM and maybe have someone else find something useful in there.
Still... it's a good quest, and I'd like to see it come in for a finish, so I'll see what I can do. Point me at something. Give me another topic or two to analyze, and I'll see what I can do to generate at least a bit of grist.
For what it's worth @EarthScorpion, I enjoyed your latest bit, and I was glad to have read it.
I don't think being wrong is a problem most of the time, otherwise I'd have told you to shut up
In fact, getting things wrong is often useful because why someone's wrong can bring out some insights.
As far as the write up goes I don't know if Serafina would be able to avoid seriously giving in to her Maternal side (caregiver vice) after seeing Rose again and that would likely cause Rose's charmer vice to kick in causing a bit of a mothering feedback loop. Both of them have matured, but fuck she's Sera's baby girl and Rose has been hilariously brittle for a good while now. A minor emotional breakdown would be completely in character for both at this point. This kind of 'mission time now, feelings later' stoicism works between Sera and Alex but it doesn't really feel appropriate for her and Rose at this moment.
Especially since Rose is having to deal with the unknown of whatever's up with Donald. I could honestly see her breaking down first because she assumes that's what Sera wants her to do, after all she doesn't know about Sera's side story character growth. Rose'll still see her as the flighty slightly overprotective figure she was when they last talked.
It's worth noting that Sera's story is essentially done now she has basically everything she's ever wanted if they get through this. Influence alongside Li to start reversing the bigotry and war mongering within the progenators. She's (almost literally) excised her lack of concentration and flighty-ness, which she felt always held her back. She's reconciled with her parents and gotten Rose and Alicia back. Basically if everyone lives she's got a nice quiet decade of headbutting Li's faction into shape. So narratively she's about done.
Likewise barring the upcoming Sanjeet revelation Henriette is basically out of plotlines. She's largely gotten past her friend Compute based PTSD, found out she really wasn't nuts, reconnected with her last remaining family (as well as those already lost however briefly), and is developing nicely as a baby nwooblet under Jamelia and Harlan.
Rose OTOH is dealing with almost every part of her life falling apart. She's in a super unhealthy place because of what Reina and the Demise did to her. Her boyfriend has probably been undermined by hostile alien godlike beings. And she's still broken (in a new and exciting way) and a construct so not a real person. I think she needs a win before the upcoming fight something to hold her together for just enough to get through this crisis. Dunno what right now but that's the feeling I get.
If Blanc is going to get taken down in this assault Jamalia NEEDS TO BE HERE. Like confronting him stands to actually wrap up a significant amount of her arc. And our main character has been gone for aaaaaaages!
Likewise if the Anathema shows up for the Control on Earth reunion tour Kessler, Henriette (who is on scene but under equipped) and Reina should all to be in play. Kessler and Henriette because they've moved past ITX and Reina to she her m onsterous offspring put down. But I'd like that to happen after this assault if possible. Like take out the other exemplars but Blanc gets away and he and the Anethema make one last play which would be the actual finale. Cuz honestly we have way too many loose ends to wrap in one arc when half our party isn't even there for it.
A list of dangling threads as I remember them: Christos' s last message, Mrs Clock, Alice (who should get to both confront Blanc and deliver her message), the Anathema, Panopticon, Aelph's conditioning, Harlan's psychic connection to Control (bet you thought I forgot about that), Possible Civil War and that's it anyone else got more?
On th table now we have Exemplar IV Yinzheng, most of Mrs Clock's Crew (her construct will likely be just her once this and Janice's side story are done), Sanjeet, and Finally letting the VE's know they're not alone.
Especially since Rose is having to deal with the unknown of whatever's up with Donald. I could honestly see her breaking down first because she assumes that's what Sera wants her to do, after all she doesn't know about Sera's side story character growth. Rose'll still see her as the flighty slightly overprotective figure she was when they last talked.
It's worth noting that Sera's story is essentially done now she has basically everything she's ever wanted if they get through this. Influence alongside Li to start reversing the bigotry and war mongering within the progenators. She's (almost literally) excised her lack of concentration and flighty-ness, which she felt always held her back. She's reconciled with her parents and gotten Rose and Alicia back. Basically if everyone lives she's got a nice quiet decade of headbutting Li's faction into shape. So narratively she's about done.
Likewise barring the upcoming Sanjeet revelation Henriette is basically out of plotlines. She's largely gotten past her friend Compute based PTSD, found out she really wasn't nuts, reconnected with her last remaining family (as well as those already lost however briefly), and is developing nicely as a baby nwooblet under Jamelia and Harlan.
Rose OTOH is dealing with almost every part of her life falling apart. She's in a super unhealthy place because of what Reina and the Demise did to her. Her boyfriend has probably been undermined by hostile alien godlike beings. And she's still broken (in a new and exciting way) and a construct so not a real person. I think she needs a win before the upcoming fight something to hold her together for just enough to get through this crisis. Dunno what right now but that's the feeling I get.
If Blanc is going to get taken down in this assault Jamalia NEEDS TO BE HERE. Like confronting him stands to actually wrap up a significant amount of her arc. And our main character has been gone for aaaaaaages!
Likewise if the Anathema shows up for the Control on Earth reunion tour Kessler, Henriette (who is on scene but under equipped) and Reina should all to be in play. Kessler and Henriette because they've moved past ITX and Reina to she her m onsterous offspring put down. But I'd like that to happen after this assault if possible. Like take out the other exemplars but Blanc gets away and he and the Anethema make one last play which would be the actual finale. Cuz honestly we have way too many loose ends to wrap in one arc when half our party isn't even there for it.
A list of dangling threads as I remember them: Christos' s last message, Mrs Clock, Alice (who should get to both confront Blanc and deliver her message), the Anathema, Panopticon, Aelph's conditioning, Harlan's psychic connection to Control (bet you thought I forgot about that), Possible Civil War and that's it anyone else got more?
On th table now we have Exemplar IV Yinzheng, most of Mrs Clock's Crew (her construct will likely be just her once this and Janice's side story are done), Sanjeet, and Finally letting the VE's know they're not alone.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, but "go be blatantly wrong some more, so that others can gain insight from how severely incorrect you were" isn't exactly the most *inspiring* rallying cry.I don't think being wrong is a problem most of the time, otherwise I'd have told you to shut up
In fact, getting things wrong is often useful because why someone's wrong can bring out some insights.
I think the idea on Sera/Rose is that they're channeling their virtues to get them through their vices. Serafina Leader. She has subordinates, and her organization has a mission, and she cannot afford to break down right now, even if it would feel really good. Rose is Masochist. She's doing what she's been doing this entire time - forcing herself through her pain and brokenness to keep driving on. It's one of the reasons how she can be so broken but not slow down - her emotional trauma is just another limit to force herself past. In the long term, it's *ridiculously* unhealthy, but in the short term it keeps her going long past the point when any healthy person would have broken down, and it keeps being the short term. It's *still* the short term.
I like the thought on Jamelia and Blanc. Arguably, Alice and Clock should be part of that too. Right now, they're all kind of out in the etheric uncertainty, so that might still happen, with any permutation of them (...though its getting less and less likely that they'll be doing anything *locally*, and they may well not wind up doing anything *on-screen*). Also worth noting that this may very well not be Blanc. It's actually more likely to be whoever was holding that seat on Control, and I was under the impression that Blanc was one level below that (maybe two). He's basically on par with the elder Rosarios, rather than the true epic figures.
Still, if it is Blanc, he's highly likely to be calling in something with Clock, and Jamelia might well wind up there trying to stop *that*. Alternately, IIRC, the last time we saw her, she was liasing with the Void Engineers? Given that Donald has just called *them* in, she might be coming along for the ride.
As far as Reina goes, I could see Reina showing up one last time to play the "Control in an Exemplar body faces down Control in an Exemplar body" schtick. On the other hand, the idea that the sins of the parents must be expunged by the children is also very strong here, with Reina as our ultimate (if neglectful) parental figure, and Rose as our ultimate child figure.
Worth noting that we're not going to pick up *all* of the threads. We'l likely pick up some, but some simply will be left dangling. I think there's a decent chance that the Anathema will show up, though. Whoever our Man in White is, he's scheduled to pull some Horrible Surprises out of his back pocket as we make this assault, and the anathema works well for that. It's got the right approximate power level, we know it's still out there, and we don't know what it's doing. Of course, if the Man in White came through himself and then blew up the door before Autocthon could get a body, the anathema might not be too terribly pleased with him....
There's no guarantee that Doshman is going to die or even be removed from Clock's group as a result of Janice's side story. We don't know what the end of that will be. We don't know when it's running as compared to this story. We don't even know if she'll be successful (...though if she's *too* unsuccessful, then we can infer that the events of that side story are after the events of *this* story).
Last edited:
FourthWall
May The Sun Never Blind Your Eyes
- Location
- Chiraq
The last time I got involved in the actual how and why of the quest, I got fucking banned.
I'll stick to dumb jokes, please and thank you.
I'll stick to dumb jokes, please and thank you.
Pretty sure you're right about Blanc not being control. So scratch that.
I had forgotten Alice's connection to Clock, so yeah I agree her the message Blanc and Clock could all easily tie together if we can just get the MC to everyone else.
I'd personally prefer if Rose, Cross and Piero beat ass on the Ex IV's and not Reina. First cuz we voted that down already
, second because I don't want her over played and would prefer one last big hurrah against the Anathema.As they have an existing relationship while her vs Control are sort of arms length symbolically.
We don't know for sure if Doshman and his Atlas will be removed from play, but it seems likely if Janice is at all successful that they won't be avalible for a bit while they get whatever she ruins back in order.
Edit: As to the Sera Rose thing you've got totally valid points characterization-wise but I think it makes for a somewhat dry read if everyone is all "hard women stoically ignoring their feelings for the mission".
Last edited:
Sirrocco
Pedantic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well... Sera is a hard woman stoically ignoring her own feelings for Her People. Rose is a hard woman stoically ignoring her own feelings because emotional trauma is weakness and she refuses to have any. Still, point is valid. That particular moment is less interesting as a result than it could have been... but Rose's trauma has been building to a climax for a while, and I don't think this moment particularly needs to be that climax. In particular, there's a much more climactic possible moment where she faces off against the Man in White, and he starts whaling on her flaws and insecurities, doing the combat psychologist thing. She looks like she's breaking down completely... and then takes that moment of apparent weakness to hit him back that much harder - she was faking it because she knew that was what he wanted (Charmer) but she's basically gotten to the point where she refuses to accept that pain is meaningful data (Masochist) so even if all of his barbs slam home (and many of them, perhaps all of them will) it still won't slow her down. Alternately, he pulls an effect to project into her mind, and finds the entire place is made of blades and broken glass and blood covering everything and the blood is trying to kill you because it's her blood, and her blood can do things like that.
For that matter, the theme has all sorts of possibilities even in the real world. The fight is going to be taking place in a high-end progenitor facility, and she's a high-end progenitor construct with life 4, absurd levels of regen, and a fully in-paradigm focus of "I can do awesome things with my blood". We could quite literally have a moment in battle where she's splattered across the room, leaving no chunk larger than a fist, and it only increases her threat level. (Specifically, she'd have used Life/Time beforehand for a contingency to transform into a "bloody chunks" form when hit by overwhelming force - helping her soak and possibly heal the damage - and then use high-end Life while in that form to do Bad Bad Things to the enemy, now that she's spread around the room and they're not thinking of her as so much of a threat.)
For that matter, the theme has all sorts of possibilities even in the real world. The fight is going to be taking place in a high-end progenitor facility, and she's a high-end progenitor construct with life 4, absurd levels of regen, and a fully in-paradigm focus of "I can do awesome things with my blood". We could quite literally have a moment in battle where she's splattered across the room, leaving no chunk larger than a fist, and it only increases her threat level. (Specifically, she'd have used Life/Time beforehand for a contingency to transform into a "bloody chunks" form when hit by overwhelming force - helping her soak and possibly heal the damage - and then use high-end Life while in that form to do Bad Bad Things to the enemy, now that she's spread around the room and they're not thinking of her as so much of a threat.)