The year is 1968 and America is bogged down in the mud and blood of yet another "police action" to stop their ideological enemies. This time, it's Vietnam that gets to be the playground of the world's two superpowers.
But this time, things are...different.
Because the world has been joined by a third superpower.
Her name is Amanda Sykes. She is the Progenitor. And history is about to go completely off the rails.
And you are at the ground floor.
---
WORM CROSSOVER!?
This is a Worm crossover with the Wild Talent's setting Progenitor - an alt history where Dr. Manhattan's superpowers are infectious.
Rules
1) Standard democratic voting!
2) Write ins are a-okay!
3) We're going to be using the Wild Talents rules.
Warnings
THIS IS A QUEST BY ME, DRAGON COBOLT, MEANING THAT THERE MAY BE SEX SCENES. THEY WILL BE SPOILERED IF THEY HAPPEN.
FURTHER!!!
THIS IS A QUEST SET IN THE PROGENITOR AND WORM UNIVERSE, WHICH ARE BOTH FULLY CAPABLE OF DARKNESS AND GRIMMNESS THAT MAY BE UPSETTING. THERE WILL BE CONTENT WARNINGS ON ANY UPDATES RELATED TO THESE THINGS.
It was late fall and Amanda had no idea that the world was about to change, forever. She was just enjoying the crisp weather, swinging a basket in her hand, a basket with a delicious fresh pie. The smell of it tingled in her nose as she walked out of the house, towards her husband - he was working in the fields, on his bright, red, snorting and grumbling tractor. He looked so handsome, even from this distance - rugged, hard working. A good man. Amanda smiled to herself and picked up her pace.
The moment was ahead of her, waiting in a precise confluence of time and place. She had many thoughts, and they all seemed so small and distant after that last step, that last second...before the Event.
She was thinking about her daughter, Amy.
She was thinking about her husband, Abe.
She was thinking about the pie she'd baked. She was thinking, a bit wistfully, about her father, who had died in 1951 and had never gotten to see more than a few years of Amy.
She took that step.
The clock ticked forward.
And Amanda Sykes, thirty three year old housewife from Kansas, got 0.05% of the entire potential energy of the universe crammed into her at once.
For literally decades afterwards, the smartest men and women on the planet - and for the decades after, there would be some very, very smart men and women on the planet - would debate theories as to what happened. The most coherent and in-line with observable phenomenon was that a chunk of 'dark energy' - the mysterious energy that produces the constant expansion of the universe - had become dislodged by a celestial event and whipped through the universe at a significant speed, waiting for a consciousness to infect.
Consciousness was the key.
If Amanda had made apple pie instead of peach pie…
If Amy had tugged on her sleeve and asked her to look at the shiny black beetle she found…
If Abe had driven his tractor just a bit faster, to meet Amanda closer to the farmhouse…
Well. That chunk of energy would have kept on: Zipping through the Earth, interacting with nothing but subatomic particles and gone on its merry way to streak through a vast, mostly empty universe. Instead, there was fire. And there was pain. And there was a scream like the end of the world.
The next thing Amanda knew, she was kneeling in a circle of grass that had been blown away from her in concentric rings and every window in her home was broken. Her daughter was cowering, looking at her with wide eyes, her hands clapped over her ears. Her husband was gaping at her from a distance. Smoke rose from her body. Her head swam and throbbed. Then she fell to the side, with her daughter and husband running to her sides.
Then darkness again.
When she woke, it was in bed, with Abe doing his best to doctor her, and Amy sleeping upstairs.
"Do you need anything, honey?" Abe asked, quietly.
"Yeah, I...I'm really thirsty, Abe," Amanda said, sitting up. She did feel thirsty. But what scared her more was how, otherwise, she felt...good. At least, she thought that was what scared her more. Because, all she had to do was think: I wish I had a glass of water…
And her hand glowed with a pale green light. The air above her palm shimmered and sparks of green light appeared, then collapsed with a soft thump, and sitting in her palm was a tall glass, full of cool, pure water.
Amanda screamed and dropped the glass. It fell and shattered. Abe reached out with his hand - and the glass flew back together. The shards reassembled themselves, seamed together, the cracks vanished. The water jumped back into the glass and the cup was left on the ground, sitting upright.
The two exchanged a glance.
The question of what to do took time. Amanda experimented grudgingly at first. She found she could lift the tractor over her head. She could fly. She could turn air into gold. She could see through walls. It became a game for her and Amy. Amy would show her some comic books she'd bought, point at the page, and beg for Mommy to do one, to do one. Abe's powers were less flashy and less flexible...but just as incredible.
He could rewind time for objects. He could fix any mechanical object, just by winding time back to the point it was new. He could...feel molecules and hold them in place. He could even see how molecules had been arranged before - and could always find Amy during hide and seek, by seeing where her molecular structure had been mere moments or even hours before.
Abe and Amanda agreed on a lot. They knew they should do something.
The disagreement came in February 1st, as they settled in to watch the evening news and saw footage of the troops being attacked along the entire front line in Vietnam.
They called it the Tet Offensive. It had been raging for twenty four hours before Amanda heard about it. Abe was shaking his head - but all she could see was the grainy image of those terrified kids. Those American kids, fighting in the jungle.
Amanda decided that she had to do something.
The next day, she showed up in the Kansas City Army Recruitment center. The sergeant at the front desk had no idea that the unassuming woman standing before him had arrived by teleporting almost a hundred miles in a second. She had smiled and said: "Hello, uh, I would like to help? ...I can do this."
Then she pointed at him and lifted him out of his chair from across the room.
Six hours later, she was doing the same trick to General Andrew Colt.
Twenty four hours after that, she was showing President Lyndon B. Johnson what she could do to a surplus M46 Patton. By opening her palm, the Patton flew into pieces. By closing her palm, the chunks smashed together with a sound like the end of the world. The President's aides gasped in shock, while the General Staff started to mutter to one another. The President, though, turned to her and gave her his most winning smile. "Mrs. Sykes, I do believe you've just won us the war."
A week later, she was in Vietnam.
And each of the men she had talked to had superpowers too.
--- Welcome to Progenitor. Amanda Sykes, the Progenitor, has powers that can almost anything. But there's another facet, one that has not yet become clear to the people around her: Dark Energy is contageous.
She can infect ten people - each of them gaining a superpower that is inspired by their own deepest thoughts, will, personality and wants. Those ten can infect nine more. Those nine can infect eight more. Those eight can infect seven. Each step reduces their powers. Amanda will always be the strongest…but her progeny will change the history of humanity.
Welcome to Worm! Worm is an incredibly popular superhero setting that I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT. I reiterate! I know NOTHING ABOUT WORM. Who is John Worm? I don't know! What's their powers? Forgetabout it! But I do know Progenitor, and I had a really fun idea: What if Worm and Progenitor had a crossover.
I know everything about Progenitor. You don't need to know about it - we'll be starting in 1968, when history has yet to fully slip off the rails. But I know nothing about Worm. You? You know about Worm! So, all the worm crossover will have to come from YOU! This will be because you get to dictate to me what the main character, John Worm, is, where they live, and what their powers are!
But what is more, you will be (like Amanda), infectious. Meaning that as you become a vector for superpowers, other characters will be infected - becoming your power children. Those characters will ALSO be created by you and will be from Worm, allowing you to bring in your favorite Worm Villains, Doctor Worm, and favorite Worm Supporting Characters, like Mary Jane Worm!
So, let's go!
Make it a plan vote!
Name
[ ] Write In (but I think it's Taylor? Or John? John Worm?)
Age
[ ] Write in
Gender Assignment (Gender Identity)
[ ] Girl (Girl)
[ ] Girl (boy)
[ ] Boy (boy)
[ ] Boy (girl)
[ ] Girl (Neither)
[ ] Boy (Neither)
[ ] Girl (Yes)
[ ] Boy (Yes)
Nationality (the most common vector for powers are America and Vietnam, but metahumans are wont to teleporting, flying at incredible speeds, and doing unexpected shit, so don't worry too much about it.)
[ ] Write In
Powers (just describe, I'll make them)
[ ] Write In
THE METRIC DATA IS NOT AVALAIBLE TO YOUR CHARACTER UNLESS THEY HAVE SUPERHUMAN (10+) DICE IN MIND.
YOU MAY CHECK THE METRICS, BUT YOU MUST NOT ACT UPON THEM.
IF YOU START DOING MONKEY BEESKNEES, THEN I'LL REMOVE THESE.
BUT THEY'RE NEAT, SO DON'T MAKE ME DO THAT.
THE CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE STONEWALL NINE
TEAM MORALE: Dissolved (1/4), Fraying (1/2), Bad (3/4), Average (x1), Good (x1.5), Excellent (x2), Found Family (x3) TEAM HEADQUARTERS: Yggdrasil, the World Tree TEAM ALLIES: NYPD (Grudging), Stan Lee (Eager), Cam Nguyet (Whether You Want Her Or Not), Amanda Sykes, Abe Sykes TEAM ENEMIES: Don Crawler (Nemesis) [IN JAIL], Glasshead (Nemesis) [IN JAIL], Miss Eyes (Nemisis) [IN JAIL], Zipperneck (Rival) [IN JAIL],
Cam Nguyet (Whether You Want Her Or Not)
TEAM WARDS: Tina Shaw, Amy Sykes, Cassie the Humanoid Force, Sloppy Joe, Aisha Laborn, Camilo Vera, Jill Danning
Lily Satō, Head of the Stonewall Nine
AGE: 19 (DOB: 1951)
PASSION: Girls [7], Fuck the Cops [4], Superheroing [1]
LOYALTY: Queer Rights [7], Your Friends [5], , A Better World [1]
BASE WILL: 25 | XP: 1
Lily has seen nothing but hassle from New York's finest and is damn sure not going to let them push her around. And now, finally, a queer woman can hit back harder than the patriarchy does.
BODY
CORD.
SENSE
MIND
CHARM
COMMAND
1d+1wd
6d
3d
3d
2d
2d
Lily, before becoming a metahuman, was perceptive and smart, but had the strength and endurance of a sixteen year old girl after a bad cold. Afterwards, she could become incredibly strong if she manipulated the physics of the items she touched, or the clothing she wore to augment herself. Her max press was five tons without any additional effort, a top speed of 40 MPH for running, and a vertical jump of 8 yards. Also, she can dodge bullets.
SKILLS (Broad, Flexible, Influence)
[Any] New Yorker, Japanese-American, Delinquent (B/F/-): 3d
[Any] Being a Lesbian in the 1960s (B/F/-): 3d
[Any] Superhero (B/F/I): 1d
[Coordination] Sneaking (-/-/-): 2d
[Coordination] Lockpicking (-/-/-): 2d
[Mind] Speak Vietnamese (-/-/-): 1d
[Mind] Speak Russia (-/-/-): 1d
[Mind - Hyperskill] Intuitive Physicist (B/-/-): 6hd
[Charm] Voice of the People (-/-/I): 1d
[Command] Stubbornness (-/-/-): 3d
Lily, before becoming a metahuman, was the bad apple of her family. A second generation Japanese immigrant, she doesn't like or respect her parents - if only because she's grimly determined they'd freak out if they found out what she...felt about other women. She's good at sneaking out and has spent more time at Stonewall than she has at school, as her grades will attest. She's got a stubborn attitude and is about ten years early for punk and ten years late for the Beatniks. She makes do.
ARCHETYPE: METAHUMAN
Source: Unknown | Permission: Super
Intrinsics:
Immutable: Barring superhuman assistance, gadgets, or something wildly unexpected, Lily's powers will not change or improve.
Infectious: Lily is either a strong, stable or weak vector (she doesn't know which.) If she's strong, she has a 100% infection rate until she reaches power equilibrium. If she's stable, she has an 80% shot (the joy of being a Tier 3.) If she's weak, she's got a 10% shot. Infection passes when she uses her powers on anything sentient.
POWERS
Not So Little Anymore...
Dice: 1wd
Hyperbody (+4), No Physics (+1), Booster [2] (+2), If/Then [Must Be Wearing Clothes Over The Parts Used] (-1), Obvious (-1)
Cost per Die: 5 | Total Cost: 20
By adjusting, in minute and gross ways, the physical properties of either what she carries and her own clothing, Lily effectively has her very own suit of strength enhancing exoskeletal structures. This imparts incredibly precise control to her blows, her athleticism, and her jumping. This isn't a subtle effect - her body emits strange flashes and odd noises as air and light interacts unpredictably with her physics alterations.
Fast as a Thought
Dice: 4d
Hypercoordination (+4), No Physics (+1), Go First [2] (+2), If/Then [Must Be Wearing Clothes Over The Parts Used] (-1), Obvious (-1)
Cost per Die: 5 | Total Cost: 20
Just like with her body, but this covers her reflexes as well. She can dodge bullets! ...not that she HAS too. The flashing and eerie hissing makes stealth hard, so she prefers to turn it off when she's sneaking anywhere.
Intuitive Physicist
Dice: 6hd
Hyperskill [[Mind]General Physicist (B/-/-)] (+1)
Cost Per Die: 1 | Total Cost: 12 She's intuitively a PHD equipped physicist on par with Albert Einstein. Maybe better, actually. She literally can't NOT know the exact right answer to any physics question. This really helps, considering her powers.
Everything is a Gun
Dice: 8d+1wd
Range: 2,560 Yards | Mass: Knockback = Base Damage + 6 meters | Base Damage: Width in Shock & Killing
Attack (+2), Area [1d] (+1) Spray [1d) (+1), Heightened Capacity [Mass] (+1), Penetration [2] (+2), Power Capacity [Mass] (+2), Speeding Bullet (+2), If/Then [Must Touch an Object] (-1), Obvious (-1)
Cost Per Die: 9 | Total Cost: 108
By touching an object (any object, really) and canceling their mass and lateral motion relative to the planet Earth, she can turn anything, from an apple to a doorknob to a manhole cover into a projectile. By touching a lot of objects (I.E, using spray), she can hit as many times as she gets sets. By making sure to touch relatively fragile objects and creating deliberate fracture points, she turns the weapon into a kind of kinetic shotgun (using Area.) People hit by this tend to go flying (using the Power Capacity [Mass]), but she can just use narrow blades if she just wants to do the slicing and slashing. The only problem is if she can't touch things with her skin (it has to be a skin to skin contact) it won't work. Oh. Also, the sonic booms.
No
Dice: 10hd
Range: 512 yards
Defends (+2), Power Capacity [Range] (+2), Spray (+1), Obvious (-1), Limited Capacity (-1), If/Then [Must have a Medium to Manipulate] (-1)
Cost Per Die: 3 | Total Cost: 40
By glaring at the air around her, she can render it impenetrable to whatever is coming her way. Maybe the air molecules suddenly lose the ability to move at all and become an impenetrable wall that simply bounces a kinetic projectile off, or negating an explosive's ability to undergo chemical interactions that lead to detonations, or making the air molecules ahead of her simply non-conductive to whatever energy blast is heading her way. This is not subtle - producing bright flashes, loud booms, and strange changes in local atmospheric conditions as the interactions become chaotic beyond the immediate radius. The maximum number of people or places she can protect at once is five people, but the more people she tries to protect, the less effective the defense is. It's literally impenetrable when she's just protecting one person, but if she's protecting five at once, a fast shot or lucky hit might get through.
Physical Fuckery
Dice: 5wd
Range: N/A | Mass: N/A | Speed: N/A
Attacks (+2), Endless (+3), Variable Effect (+4), If/Then [For Variable Effect] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Must Be Related to Repressing a Physical Law] (-1), Locational [Head, R. Arm, L. Arm, Body, R. Leg, L. Leg] (-6)
Defends (+2), Endless (+3), Variable Effect (+4), If/Then [For Variable Effect] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Must Be Related to Repressing a Physical Law] (-1), Locational [Head, R. Arm, L. Arm, Body, R. Leg, L. Leg] (-6)
Useful (+2), Endless (+3), Variable Effect (+4), If/Then [For Variable Effect] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Must Be Related to Repressing a Physical Law] (-1), Locational [Head, R. Arm, L. Arm, Body, R. Leg, L. Leg] (-6)
Cost Per Die: 6 | Total Cost: 120
Whenever she puts her mind to it, Lily can do something. If it can be done by suppressing a physical property or law, she can do it. Needless to say, once she realizes how her power works, she starts studying the hell of out physics. This is really easy, thanks to her intuitive understanding of physics. However, this power requires her to be able to use every SINGLE iota of her body's contact with the surrounding universe. If she has taken any trauma to any part of her body, then these powers short out. If she gets a chance to refocus, she can reestablish her control...unless the body part in question is too damaged to be used (I.E, filled with any combination of shock or killing damage.) In which case, she simply cannot tap into this ability to manipulate the universe. She simply lacks the holistic connection to the universe.
Seriously, Though, everything?
Dice: 1d
Range: Self Only
Attacks (+2), Attack Quality [10] (+10), Augment (+4), Area [10d] (+10), Booster [10] (+10), Burning (+2), Engulf (+2), Penetration [10] (+10), Radius [5] (+10), If/Then [Augment Only] (-1), If/Then [Cannot Spend Use Augment for anything but "Everything Is a Gun"] (-1), If/Then [Must Be Manipulating Matter On A Scale Permitting The Impacts She Wishes] (-1), Self Only (-3)
Cost Per Die: 54 | Total Cost: 54
Hey, what if she touches a mountain face and she negates its inertia and lateral motion for a flash of a second and turns Everest into a five kilometer high rock shotgun? Well, uh...take your pick! Add all of the above! If she uses a chemical tanker, it might explode. If she uproots an oil derrick, it will set things on fire. Anything justifiable in the scene, she can do it. She will have to spend a willpower point to do this. Oh, and be willing to accept the consequences.
Confident as Hell
Dice: N/A
Base Will (+3), Attached [Hyperbody] (-2)
Cost Per Point: 1 | Total Cost: 26 Lifting five tons over her head, running as fast a car, and being aware she doesn't have to be afraid anymore all combine to create a staggering, preposterous level of raw confidence. This is good, cause it makes her good at fighting supervillains and changing the world. The only problem is that if that hyperbody ever goes away...poof. There goes the confidence. Good thing that won't happen! ...right?
Andy Richter, Time Thief and Genius Gadgeteer
Andy's Powers
ANDY HAS 11 BASE WILL.
Hypermind
Dice: 4wd
Hyperbrain (+4), If/Then [Must be within 10 meters of any form if electrical equipment) (-1), If/Then [Can be disrupted by wrapping his head in a Faraday cage] (-1), If/Then [Can be disrupted with any form of non-physical radar jamming too] (-1)
Cost Per Die: 1 | Total Cost: 12
More Hypermind
Dice: 2wd
Hyperbrain (+4) If/Then [Must be within 10 meters of a pretty hefty chunk of computers) (-1), If/Then [Can be disrupted by wrapping his head in a Faraday cage] (-1), If/Then [Can be disrupted with any form of non-physical radar jamming too] (-1)
Cost Per Die: 1 | Total Cost: 8
Even More Hypermind
Dice: 2wd
Hyperbrain (+4) If/Then [Must be within 10 meters of even more computer components) (-1), If/Then [Can be disrupted by wrapping his head in a Faraday cage] (-1), If/Then [Can be disrupted with any form of non-physical radar jamming too] (-1)
Cost Per Die: 1 | Total Cost: 8
Dear God, Sir, How Much More Hypermind Do you Need!?
Dice: 2wd
Hyperbrain (+4) If/Then [Must be within 10 meters of a pretty hefty chunk of computers) (-1), If/Then [Can be disrupted by wrapping his head in a Faraday cage] (-1), If/Then [Can be disrupted with any form of non-physical radar jamming too] (-1)
Cost Per Die: 1 | Total Cost: 8
When Andy is within ten meters of any kind of electrically conductive material harnessed for human ends – lamp posts and microwaves, toasters and hair driers – he becomes smarter than the smartest human being in the world. If those electrically conductive materials are arranged into a computer of some kind, then he becomes a lot smarter, and he gets more and more smarter the more and more computers are around him. Eventually, he hits the four way tie for smartest monkey on this marble. Unfortunately, unlike some metahumans, Andy's "exocortex" is suspended on physical matter and communicated to him via electromagnetic signals, meaning they can be blocked or removed by his enemies.
Time Snatch
Dice: 2hd
Mass: 2.5 kg or less
Useful (+2), Permanent (+4), Limited Capacity (-1)
Cost Per Die: 5 | Total Cost: 20
Andy has a fascination with electrical gizmos and computers. But the 1960s was not enough for his subconscious. He is able to reach forward in time into parallel universes and, uh...steal stuff. The stuff can only come from other universes, and he can't do more than 2.5 kilograms at a time, making the stuff he REALLY wants (quantum computers, spaceship engines, laser guns) slightly tricky.
I Can Make Whatever You Want
Dice: 5hd+10d+5wd
Attacks (+2), Endless (+3), Variable Effect (+4), Delayed Effect (-2), If/Then [Variable Effect Requires at least 6wd of Hyperbrain to be active] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect is only for Technology] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Any Gadget Made Must Have the Manufacturable Extra] (-1), Willpower Investment (-1)
Defends (+2), Endless (+3), Variable Effect (+4), Delayed Effect (-2), If/Then [Variable Effect Requires at least 6wd of Hyperbrain to be active] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect is only for Technology] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Any Gadget Made Must Have the Manufacturable Extra] (-1), Willpower Investment (-1)
Useful (+2), Endless (+3), Variable Effect (+4), Delayed Effect (-2), If/Then [Variable Effect Requires at least 6wd of Hyperbrain to be active] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect is only for Technology] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Any Gadget Made Must Have the Manufacturable Extra] (-1), Willpower Investment (-1)
Useful (+2), Endless (+3), Delayed Effect (-2), Touch Only (-2)
Cost Per Die: 7 | Total Cost: 280
Hokay. So! Andy can make gadgets. He's, in fact, one of the better gadgeters in the world – in part because he doesn't NEED A LABORATORY. He doesn't NEED supplies. Because he just...uh...borrows them from the future. (Note, if he chooses to not borrow things from the future, then he will need a laboratory, but won't get a rebate in points.) The gadgets he makes can be, eventually, learned to be recreated by non-metahumans. Now, it still takes him some time to actually build a gadget! Now, there is one tiny problem: He needs to be smart enough to do any of this, and that means that if he's in a Faraday cage helmet, then he's shit outta luck.
Oh, also, the last useful ability is the ability to deconstruct other people's foci. So, if he finds a gadget in the wild, he can take it apart and gets all the Willpower used to build the device in the first place. This is why gadgteers tend to HATE one another. He can also deconstruct any device he's built to get the willpower he invested in it back.
Base Will
Dice: N/A
Base Will (+3), Attached [Hypermind] (-2)
Cost Per Point: 1 | Total Cost: 14
He's a driven, focused guy.
Sabah Attar, Girl Who's Under Your Skin
SABAH HAS 8 BASE WILL
Puppets
Dice: 2hd+8d
Range: Touch/5,450 Yards
Useful (+2), Permanent (+4), Delayed Effect (-2) If/Then [Needs Materials To Make Them From] (-1), If/Then [Can only use hard dice with skin] (-1), Touch Only (-2)
Useful (+2), Permanent (+4), Attached [Telekinesis] (-2)
Cost Per Die: 4 | Total Cost: 48
By using her telekinesis to sew together, uh, material - don't tell people it's skin, please don't tell people it works best with skin - Sabah is able to make incredibly useful puppets. With a 2x10 result, she can make 10 of them. They last forever and are perfectly loyal to her! ...so long as they're within about three miles. Once beyond that, they act on their own recognizance. She CAN make it with non-skin and she's even pretty good at it, but it is kind of tricky and doesn't always make the best minions. (a 2x1 to 2x3 result produces Rabble, while a 2x4 to 2x6 makes trained minions, and 2x7 to 2x8 makes professionals. 2x10 make Elites.
This is the big shebang. Sabah is able to manipulate non-living matter to move it around. She's pretty weak. For...a tier 4, meaning she can "only" lift a 1.2 ton boulder off the ground from a "mere" 510 yards and "barely" throw it at 128 MPH. Guh. What a chump, right? This power can defend, attack, and manipulate matter. The matter that she manipulates tends to "stick" to what it was doing for about an hour - so if she flings a rock upwards at 128 MPH, then it'll keep going straight up at that speed for an hour before falling down.
Specialty Puppets
Dice: 2hd
Range: Touch
Attack (+2), Duration (+2), Variable Effect (+4), Attached [Puppets] (-2), If/Then [For Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Only Is Attached to Puppets] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Can Mimic Expert Minion Abilities] (-1), Touch Only (-2)
Defend (+2), Duration (+2), Variable Effect (+4), Attached [Puppets] (-2), If/Then [For Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Only Is Attached to Puppets] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Can Mimic Expert Minion Abilities] (-1), Touch Only (-2)
Useful (+2), Duration (+2), Variable Effect (+4), Attached [Puppets] (-2), If/Then [For Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Only Is Attached to Puppets] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Can Mimic Expert Minion Abilities] (-1), Touch Only (-2)
Cost Per Die: 1 | Total Cost: 4
When she makes puppets, the puppets can do stuff that they would reasonably be able to do. If she makes a bunch of ninja costumes, they get the Elite Ability: Stealth, allowing them to do what minions normally cannot (sneak into buildings without being spotted.) She can attach any elite ability she wants to these puppets!
Armed Puppets
Dice: 2hd
Range: Touch
Useful (+2), Permanent (+4), Attached [Puppets] (-2), Touch Only (-2)
Cost Per Die: 2 | Total Cost: 8
...is that a puppet? HE'S GOT A GUN!? BLAM BLAM! If this power is used after the puppet power, then the puppets have guns and can do their damage in S/K damage. The guns look like they're made of felt cloth or bone depending on if Sabah is making them out of which cloth - but no matter how impossible the gun looks, it still can kill.
Immune Puppets
Dice: 2hd
Useful (+2), Permanent (+4), Variable Effect (+4), Attached [Puppets] (-2), If/Then [Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect is for Immunities Only] (-1), Self Only (-3)
Cost Per Die: 3 | Total Cost: 12
These puppets don't need to breathe, cannot be poisoned by gas, cannot get cancer, radiation, "live" I guess, forever, and are immune to pretty much whatever would kill a normal human other than straight out physical damage.
Self Stitching
Dice: 2hd
Useful (+2), Permanent (+4), Engulf (+2), No Physics (+1), Self Only (-3)
Cost Per Die: 6 | Total Cost: 24
Sabah hopefully doesn't learn about this for a while. But the instant her own flesh dies, she can control it and can instinctively stitch it back together again. This effects her entire body. At the most extreme case, if she is completely atomized, she will reconstitute herself in approximately sixty seconds. She will not enjoy doing this, but she can do it. Death for Sabah now requires some equally permanent effect or for her to lose her powers.
Touch Up
Dice: 1d
Hypercharm (+4)
Cost Per Die: 4 | Total Cost: 1d
Like most teens of any gender or sexuality, Sabah has a few hangups about her body. A few wrinkles gone, a bit less sag here and there. Most people won't notice, but they're gone.
Base Will
Points: 1
Base Will (+3)
Cost Per Point: 3 | Total Cost: 1
She's just a bit more confident. Also, I had 3 points to spare
Lisa Wilbourn, Nose Who Knows
LISA HAS 12 BASE WILL
Become a Foxgirl
Dice: 2hd
Useful (+2), Endless (+3), Self Only (-3)
Cost Per Die: 2 | Total Cost: 8
Lisa becomes a fox girl!
Elementary
Dice: 5wd
Hyperskill [Broad, Flexible] (+2), No Physics (+1), If/Then [The wild dice must be set to the value of the normal die rolled] (-2)
Cost Per Die: 1 | Total Cost: 20
Why, it's elementary, my dear Watson! This is a broad and flexible skill that covers all manners of detective and investigation sneakery. It has no physics, allowing for preposterous levels of information to be drawn, far beyond what would normally be available from a mere glance. The only problem is that it is somewhat dependent on her own mind (5d.) So, if she rolls a 4, 3, 2, 1 in her normal mind dice, she'd HAVE to get a 5x4 - a fast, but not necessarily correct deduction.
Bang
Dice: 10wd
Hyperskill [Broad] (+1)
Cost Per Die: 1 | Total Cost: 40
She's quite possibly the best shot on the planet with any gun or gun like object. This is a byproduct of her incredibly focused intellect.
Coordinated Like A Fox
Dice: 10wd
Hypercoordination (+4), Attached [Fox Girl] (-2)
Total Cost Per Die: 2 | Total Cost: 80
When she is a fox girl, she is able to preform feats of physical coordination that defy imagination. Dodge bullets? She can CATCH bullets. She can shoot bullets WITH HER OWN BULLETS.
Can't Touch This
Dice: 1d
Hyperskill [Narrow] (+0), Interference (+3), Duration(+2), Attached [Fox Girl] (-2)
Total Cost Per Die: 4 | | Total Cost: 3
Remember when I said she can dodge bullets? Say she gets shot at. She rolls a 10x10 using her coordination+ this skill. This now on for the rest of the battle. She can dodge all the bullets forever until the battle is over.
The Nose Knows
Dice: 10wd
Hypersense (+4), Attached [Fox girl] (-2)
Cost Per Die: 2 | Total Cost: 80
Her senses are so preposterously attuned to the world around her that she can see in the dark, read by touch, identify targets by smell, differentiate between distinct sounds in a symphony by their subtle differences, and can sense movement up to a quarter of a mile away.
Oh Shit
Dice: 2hd
Useful (+2), Permanent (+4), No Physics (+1), Radius [13] (+26), Self Only (-3), Uncontrolled (-2), Attached [Fox Girl] (-2)
Cost Per Die: 26 | Total Cost: 104
This is a power no one knows she has. Because it's not really a power exactly. It's a combination of her incredible senses and her deductive reasoning. Here's how it works. If anything catastrophic happens within 12 hours - the death of a loved one, a natural disaster, a space station knocked out of orbit and smashed into the ground - and it happens somewhere within 50 miles around Lisa, this power triggers. The game resets to that point with her waking up from a prophetic dream put together by her subconscious, aware of exactly what she did during that day. Once she realizes this power exists (and, also, the 50 mile limit to when it triggers) she is going to be INCREDIBLY CLINGY.
Base Will
Points: 5
Base Will (+3)
Cost Per Die: 3 | Total Cost: 15
She's confident, like most of you, because she has superpowers.
Theo Anders, Arm of the Resistance
THEO HAS 7 BASE WILL
Limb Field
Dice: 8+2wd
Hyperbody (+4), Booster [+8], No Physics (+1), On Sight (+1), Endless (+3), Power Capacity [Range] (+2), Radius [1] (+2), Spray [1] (+1), If/Then [Only for arms] (-1), If/Then [Requires Local Materials] (-1)
Cost Per Die: 20 | Total Cost: 320
So! Everything within a 3 mile range can be touched by Theo by manifesting an arm made of local materials (air, if nothing's there, but he can also use cloth, bits of stone, metal, anything that he can use to reach through.) This does mean it doesn't work in a vacuum, but it can work in an extremely thin atmosphere or with local dirt if he was, say, on the Moon. Anywho, he can make as many arms as he want (for example, if there were twenty people in a ten yard radius, he could make 20 arms to grab each of them by the scruff of their necks.) What is more, he can use this power through screens to cheat the distance. If he sees someone on TV, he can manifest an arm there and pants them! Cool!
Anywho, these arms can lift 1.28 trillion tons, last forever unless he is killed or runs out of willpower. They can throw a 1.6 ton object nearly a tenth of a mile. They can punch someone so hard that they'll go flying 48 yards BEFORE you figure for any extra damage. And did I mention they defy the laws of physics - so, he can pick up a building without spilling the coffee cups inside? Cool!
Tougher Than He Looks
Dice: 3hd
Defends (+2), Endless (+3), Hardened Armor (+2), Armored Defense (-2)
Cost Per Die: 5 | Total Cost: 30
He's tougher than he looks. He has 3 levels of Light Armor, which reduces shock damage to 1, then converts 3 levels of killing damage to shock. So, if he was thrown into a wall for 5s/2k like poor Ned, he'd take 1s/2k, then the 2k would be turned to shock, so that's a total of 3s - a bad bruise, not a potentially life threatening spine snap.
Rachel Lindt, Houndmistress Extraordinaire
RACHEL HAS 9 BASE WILL
Pet Their Heads And They Wag their Tails
Dice: 2hd+2d
Useful (+2), Permanent (+4), Touch Only (-2)
Hypermind (+4), Attached [Pet Their Heads] (-2), If/Then [Does Not Provide Hard Dice To Canines] (-1)
Points Per Die: 5 | Total Cost: 30
When Rachel pets a dog, the dog wags their tail! Also, she can now talk to this dog, forever, at any time, using normal conversational English. She can also understand the dog's response. Oh! Also, the dog gets +1d to its mind as hypermind, bumping it from an animalistic 0d to a human level 2d. Good dog! Who's a good pupper?
Make My Doggy GROW!
Dice: 3hd+6d+2wd
Range: 5,120 yards
Useful (+2), Duration (+2), On Sight (+1), Attached [Pet Their Heads] (-2), Obvious (-1)
Hyperbody (+4), Booster [2] (+2) Attached [Pet Their Heads] (-2), Attached [Make My Doggy Grow] (-2)
Hypercoordination (+4), Attached [Pet Their Heads] (-2), Attached [Make My Doggy Grow] (-2)
Defends (+2), Duration (+2), Armored Defense (-2), Attached [Pet Their Heads] (-2), Attached [Make My Doggy Grow] (-2)
Defends (+2), Duration (+2), Interference (+3), Armored Defense (-2), Attached [Pet Their Heads] (-2), Attached [Make My Doggy Grow] (-2)
Attacks (+2), Penetration [5] (+5), Attached [Pet Their Heads] (-2), Attached [Make My Doggy Grow] (-2)
Useful (+2), Duration (+2), Engulf (+2), Attached [Pet their heads] (-2), Attached [Make my Doggy Grow] (-2), Self Only (-3)
Useful (+2), Duration (+2), Attached [Pet their Heads] (-2), Attached [Make my Doggy Grow] (-2)
Points Per Die: 13 | 260
If a dog that Rachel has petted is within range - or even just visible through a screen, or...she can talk to it over a phone (note to self: Invent radio collars for her dogs that she can work through), she can make the doggy GROW! This only lasts for a short time, but the dog will become much larger, much tougher, and much stronger and much faster. Basically, they get +3hd+6d+2wd to their Body, their Coordination, AND they'll get (effectively) 5 levels of light and hardened armor and +5 health levels on each area, making each dog a literal walking tank! ...also, they get laser eye vision. Which can cut through tank armor. Cause, you know. They're dogs.
...the dogs can also fly. At 640 MPH.
Cause they're dogs.
Power Collar
Dice: 2hd
Range: Touch
Useful (+2), Permanent (+4), Attached [Pet Their Heads] (-2), Always On (-1), Automatic (-1), Touch Only (-2)
Point Per Die: 1 | Total Cost: 4
The dogs, once she pets them, cannot gain dark energy powers despite being sentient. It's an instinctive byproduct of Rachel's will to both connect with dogs and 'keep them safe' - wild, uncontrolled dark energy powers spreading unchecked through the doggy population terrifies her subconscious. And so, her subconscious makes sure to lock that off.
Healing Touch
Dice: 2hd
Range: Touch
Useful (+2), Useful Quality [5] (+5) Engulf (+2), Touch Only (-2)
Points Per Die: 7 | Total Cost: 28
Though terrified at first this power only works on Dogs, Rachel is relieved to learn it actually can work on just about anything. She touches them, and they glow a little, and then heal 7s/7k to every single part of their body instantly. No muss, no fuss. It, sadly, cannot bring people back to life unless she pushes herself (she will have to permanently burn 1 Base Will to do so.)
Base Will
Total Points: +2
Base Will (+3)
Point per Will: 3 | Total Cost: 6
She's determined. Not as much as others, but enough.
A powerful and incredibly flexible ability, Marsha is able to create and utilize plant growths (most people think she can only do flowers, but she can do trees, she can do vines, she can do thorns, oh boy.) These plants often defy physics and understanding - if she wants, she can make a thorn that can cut through tank steel, or a tree that can grow powerfully enough to uproot a building, or an apple that, when eaten, can cure sickness. While her power isn't as "rawly" strong as some other abilities - if she got into a tree V arm wrestling contest with Theo, Theo would win - her powers are so staggeringly flexible that she is an amazing asset. However, her powers do need to be "formatted" - meaning that if she isn't prepped for combat or defense, she is terrible vulnerable.
Queen of Stonewall
Dice: 8hd
Defend (+2), Endless (+3), Radius [3] (+6), Delayed Effect (-2), If/Then [Only Works in an building she owns and operates and has become in, some metaphorical and metaphysical sense, hers] (-1), No Physical Effect (-1), Exhausted (-3)
Cost Per Die: 4 | Total Cost: 64
So long as the Queen is in her domain, no harm shall come to any who are there. This power is an endless effect centered on her, radiating out approximately 40 yards (meaning an exceptionally large building won't be entirely protected.) The effect is entirely psychological - people simply cannot bring themselves to harm anyone while in the field - this includes her allies, she can't shut it down for them.
Beauty Without Compare
Dice: +4d
Hypercharm (+4), Obvious (-1)
Cost Per Die: 3 | Total Cost: 12
She is luminous, with total of 7 dice in Charm.
Fabulous Performer
Dice: +1d
Hyperskill (Broad, Flexible)
Cost Per Die: 1d | Total Cost: 1
This is a mild improvement, but it was all I could think to spend her last point on. Sue me!
By focusing, Tori is able to create telekinetic fields. Unlike many, these fields are completely, one hundred percent invisible. She can protect people in bubbles (selectively, if she wants!) bout 10 yards wide, so long as they are within about 80 yards of her. Her attacks are incredibly narrow stabs that then balloon in the target - they can only be dodged, not resisted with armor (hence the 'non-physical' extra.) If she's feeling exceptionally vindictive, she can just grab your heart and punch it as hard as she can from within your ribcage too. Her max range for her TK attacks is 800,000 yards. That's 450 miles! It can send people flying pretty goddamn far too.
Next, she can pick up and carry stuff. Anything within 450 miles, and her max weight is 2,000 tons. Not as stupidly huge as some people, but nothing to shake a stick at. What is really amazing, though...is this.
Anything she picks up - anything at all - becomes invisible TOO. This includes her own self, if she's using TK to fly. This includes the ENTIRE PARTY if she's carrying everyone. This includes jets. This includes buildings. Anything she grabs, she can turn invisible!
Adaption
Dice: 4hd
Useful (+2), Endless (+3), Variable Effect (+4), If/Then [For Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect For Immunities Only] (-1), Self Only (-3)
Cost Per Die: 4 | Total Cost: 32
Thanks to telekinesis, she can also breathe in space. With telekinesis.
Base Will
Points: 1
Cost Per Point: 3 | Total Cost: 3
You know the drill by now. Powers, better will, had points hanging.
When activated, this power is a bit slow and sluggish - effectively going off last on every round. However, you have to know it is coming, and this requires a Resistance roll of Sense+Perception to spot where Brian is looking (he just need to glare to do it.) If the resistance roll fails, then you get hit with 5x10 attack in a 10 yard radius. Due to limited width and limited damage, this only does 1 shock to the head. ...it also removes FIVE DICE from their next turn. If a character has no dice, they can't do shit. This happens each round they're in the cloud, so if they're completely debilitated, they take 1 shock to the head every round until the cloud is dispersed or they slowly and painfully die. Since, 1 shock per 6 seconds for an hour is going to kill you. Even better, the cloud also gets a 4x10 useful effect that obscures visibility, chokes out EM frequencies, and negates all but the best dark energy perceptions. That's what the useful is, the jamming field.
Power Thief
Dice: 1d+2wd
Attacks (+2), Variable Effect (+4), Endless (+3), If/Then [For Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Is For Mimicking Powers Only] (-1), If/Then [Target Must have been exposed to the Gruecloud at all! Ever!] (-1)
Defends (+2), Variable Effect (+4), Endless (+3), If/Then [For Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Is For Mimicking Powers Only] (-1), If/Then [Target Must have been exposed to the Gruecloud at all! Ever!] (-1)
Useful (+2), Variable Effect (+4), Endless (+3), If/Then [For Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect Is For Mimicking Powers Only] (-1), If/Then [Target Must have been exposed to the Gruecloud at all! Ever!] (-1)
Cost Per Die: 18 | Total Cost: 162
If a target has been exposed to the dark energy cloud that Brian can produce, Brian can replicate that power. In himself. Now, usually, it will be a great deal weaker, and it may require expending some willpower, but he can do it. What's more, as he hits more people (or more people volunteer for the admittedly unpleasant whammy), his power catalogue just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
Ghost Recall
Dice: 2hd
Useful (+2), Duration (+2), If/Then [Subject must have been exposed to the Gruecloud] (-1), No Physical Effect (-1)
Cost Per Die: 2 | Total Cost: 8
Powers aren't the only thing that Brian can copy. He can also recreate the memories and personality of a person in a ghostly, shimmering cloud of darkness roughly in the shape of the person. Their personality-clone cannot form new memories and only exists for a short time, but has pretty accurate information. If you can convince them to give it up. Is this ethical? Anyway, that's Brian's power set!
Brian's Library
Every Single Power From the Stonewall Nine
THE EYEBALL POWER SUITE (note, as this is multiple powers, it would take Brian a total of 5 rounds and 81 WP to make one permanent eye with each of these powers. However, he doesn't need to make an eye with every part. He can just have an eyeball that flies for 18, or an eyeball that can access the Eyeball Zone for 18 WP (18 to make it, 0 to make the Zone) Fortunately, due to Permanence, each of these WP expenditures does last forever. Or, uh...until the eyeball is squished...
The Eyes have it! ...flight, that is. Brian's can soar along at a mere 10 MPH. They are slightly better at dodging though.
Into the Zone
Dice: 1d+2wd
Useful [Traps Target In Horrifying Nightmare Dimension] (+0), Endless (+3), Traumatic (+1), Attached [Eye Eye, Ma'am!] (-2), Touch Only (-2)
Willpower Cost: 0 | Cost:0
Brian's eyes, like Miss Eye's eyes, have access...TO THE EYEBALL ZONE.
Your Attack, Foreseen
Dice: 1d+2wd
Hyperskill [Dodge] (+0)
Willpower Cost Per Die: 0 | Cost: 0
Formatting his power this way does let Brian dodge better.
Mistress of All Eyes See
Dice: 4hd
Hyperskill [Tactics] (+0), Power Capacity [Range] (+2), Booster [5] (+5), No Physics (+1), If/Then [Can Only Command Eyes] (-1)
Points Per Die: 7 | Cost: 63
For a staggering 63 GODDAMN willpower, Brian can get the STAGGERING ABILITY to command Eyeballs with his mind at a range. AMAZING!!!!!
GADGET ONE: The Gaia Engine
Useful [Gravity Control] (Mass: 500,000,000 tons| Range: 200,000,000 meters| Speed: 50,000,000,000 meters per round [74 times the speed of light])
Dice: 2hd
Useful (Free, Gadget) | Duration (+2), Booster [10] (+10), Power Quality [Mass, Range] (+4), High Capacity [Mass, Range] (+2), No Physics (+1), If/Then [Requires Metamaterials Produced by Lily to Function] (-1), Foci [Fragile, Bulky, Crew x4, Manufacturable] (-5), Obvious (-1), Slow (-2)
Cost Per Die: 10 | Total Cost: 40 WP (1 Base Will To Free Up)
Costing 40 WP from your pool (representing the metamaterials that you provided to construct it), the Gaia Engine is a remarkable device. Requiring the attendance of sixteen trained professionals - among the first hires that Andy ever made - the Gaia Engine is capable of gravitational manipulation at an obscene scale and speed, with ludicrous precision. How absurd? Well, from orbit, you can snatch up the entirety of Manhattan - island and all - and rip it into space and then fling it towards Alpha Centauri at 74 times light speed without damaging a single thing on it, nor causing it damage when it lands on Charon. Cool! You officially can't bitch about me spending 40 of your WP on this fucking thing, you goddamn maniacs!
The duration is approximately a day, so once per day, the crew have to make sure the gravity field that keeps Yiggy in the air is 'reupped.'
GADGET TWO: The Aegis
Defense [Gravity Shield]
Dice: 5hd
Defends (Free, Gadget), Endless (+3), Interference (+3), Attached [Gravity Manipulation] (-2), Foci [Bulky, Manufacturable] (+0),
Cost Per Die: 4 | Total Cost: 40 WP (1 Base Will to Free Up)
Feeding off the Gaia Engine, the Aegis is an attached chunk of material that projects a defensive field around the entirety of the Yiggy's superstructure. Incoming weaponry, unless it goes faster than 5x10, is simply swatted away. This includes beams of light, the rays of the sun, solar flares, and other nasty things.
GADGET THREE: Room Service
Useful [Room Service]
Dice: 3d+1wd
Useful (Free, Gadget), Endless (+3), Variable Effect (+4), Attached [Gaia Engine] (-2), If/Then [Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect is for Room Service Only] (-1), If/Then [Variable Effect only applies within the Yiggy's superstructure] (-1), If/Then [Room Service must be Requested] (-1), Foci [Bulky, Manufacturable] (+0)
Cost Per Die: 1 | Total Cost: 7 WP (1 Base Will To Free Up)
Also feeding off the Gaia Engine's powers, Room Service is simple as hell. You ask for tea, earl gray, hot. Then the fucking tea shows up! This also covers very attractive P-zombies that look like dead celebrities, medical aid, giving you lucid dreams, creating illusions, playing movies, and translating languages.
Here's some basic rules for gadgeteer who want to make powers
---
GADGEETING RULES FOR GADGETEERS
STEP ONE
Decide what power does. All powers can either ATTACK, DEFEND, or be USEFUL. Each thing costs (+2)
Example: I want to make a ray gun that can also heal people. It Attacks [Ray Gun] (+2) and is Useful [Heals People] (+2)
STEP TWO
Apply modifiers for extras and flaws to each power capacity. The full list is found in the Wild Talent's core rulebook. Add them all up into a total cost per die. The minimum point value is always 0 (you can't get extra for going below your maximum.)
Example: This ray gun can fire very fast. It has +3 Spray. This ray gun heals all of you! It has Engulf (+2). Both attack and useful has the Foci (-1) with the Fragile (-1) and Accessible (-1) flaws. This means it costs 2+3-3+2+2-3 for a total of 3 points per die.
STEPTHREE
Count up how much it costs based on how many dice. If it has hard dice, the hard dice are "base cost x2" and if it has wiggle dice, then they cost "base cost x4."
Example: This ray gun has 5d+1wd. It costs (5x3)+(3x4) for a total of 27 willpower.
STEP FOUR
Use your gadget. The gadget can then be taken apart to regain your willpower back. If you want to, you can burn 1 base will to make it a gadget that exists permanently (freeing up those dice for later.) If the gadget has the Manufacturable extra, then it can be made a common, household device that anyone can buy for a cost of 1/2 the willpower it costs to make in base will, taking 1 month per base will spent to make it ready for manufacturing.
Example: Pretend the raygun has manufacturable (even though it doesn't.) It costs 14 Base Will to make it buyable at any street corner, and takes a year and change for the final designs to be completed. Once done, the inventor gets the 5d+1wd that they put into the gadget back into their gadgeteering dice pool.
---
HOW TO INFLUENCE PEOPLE WITH YOUR INFLUENCE SKILLS
There's a big old table from the Kerberos Club book! Here it is!
The subway car rattles as you slouch against the wall and try and ignore the other people on the tube. That's not hard, it isn't rush hour. You roll your head back against the glass window, looking at the cracks and spiderwebs, and try and look as cool and chill as you wanted to feel inside.
You didn't feel cool.
You didn't feel chill.
You felt a tight knot of tension in your belly. You felt like your heart was going to crawl up and out of your throat. You bounced on your feet, slightly, wishing that the subway would...break down. Go on forever. Stop and get you there already. Just crash and kill you all. You wanted to be at the end of the line and you wanted to just...to just fucking go, as fast as possible, as soon as fucking possible. You wanted to never get there, ever.
Your hand dropped to your jean's pocket. You just thanked God that you were old enough to pick your own clothes - if Dad had his ways, you'd still be in a skirt. You blew at your hair, your bangs slouching before your face. Ugh. Shit. Mom didn't let you get your hair cut the way you wanted, so you just didn't bother to brush it. It made you feel like you had at least a little fucking control over your body. You ducked your head forward as the subway started to slow, tapping your feet more. Okay. Okay. You were almost there.
You pulled the note out, before you could stop yourself. Unfolding it, you read it again, then crammed it back in to your pocket.
In letters, cut from a bunch of newspapers, it said...
i kNoW WhAt yOu aRe. HaVe moRE pHoTos. BrInG ThE CoNtEnTs oF YoUr dAd's sAfE To 30tH WaLl sTrEeT, tEnTeD BuIlDiNg, By 12 Am oR ElSe
Your stomach knotted. You didn't know who had left it.
But they hadn't been lying. The letter had been wrapped around a snapshot of you ducking into Stonewall. You hadn't even done anything there. Just talked. Listened. Drank root beer, the only thing the bartender would give you - how could a gay man be so fucking square? - and got to be yourself for a bit. It was dangerous, each time you played hookie or skipped out without telling your parents, and rode the subway and headed into the bar. But...fuck it. They kept saying that they couldn't keep us down forever. Right?
Yeah.
Right.
The subway finished squealing to a stop and you hunched your shoulders forward - then started out onto the platform. It's busier than the one you'd gotten in at - because, well, it was getting near to lunch and there was an uptick in people heading out to find places to eat, or getting off one shift. You get a few funny looks but you duck your head down and slouch and try and look older than you are. It's not hard if you move fast and rely on your ratty jacket and your jeans. Your heart is in your throat as you come out onto the sidewalk, but there aren't any cops who might notice you and think you look suspicious. But you did spot the building that was tented - it was a whole office building that was wrapped in a white shroud, with big machines attached to it to pump the poison gas in. You walk towards it, glance around to make sure no one is looking your way, then duck into the space between the office buildings.
You slow down, looking around, biting your lower lip.
You see someone standing by the white sheet. There's a hole cut into the sheet, but it's sealed up with tape. It must be a way for workers to get in. You slide your hand to your backpack and square your shoulders. You take another step forward.
"You have the money?"
It's a woman. You tense, narrowing your eyes. "Yeah. You got the photographs?"
"Yeah, I have the photographs," she says. You crane your head - and you catch a glimpse of glasses.
You look aside. "I can't fucking believe this, I'm getting blackmailed..." you drag your backpack off, throwing it to the ground. It makes a crinkling, crashing noise, the zipper slapping against stone. "I'm getting fucking blackmailed by my fucking landlady!"
Mz. Wendell looks like a pinched prune as she steps from the shadows. "I always knew you were a delinquent, but you always seem to be ready to live down to-"
"That's fucking rich!" You cut her off. "You're fucking blackmailing me! Don't you get enough in fucking rent?" She yanks up the bag, opening it, looking inside. She nods, her nose wrinkling slightly. You step forward, your hands tightening - but before you can ask her why - though, the question's fucking obvious, of course why is money and she was always an officious fucking busybody and a bloodsucking ghoul -something weird happens. The entire shroud around the office building ripples, as if wind has blown from the inside, sweeping out. Then the building's sheets suck inwards. For just a second, it's like the entire building has had the sheet glued to it. Next, you notice...you turn around, your ears noticing the oddness first.
"Well, I will be going. Next month, if you-"
"Shut up," you say, the blackmail and photographs forgotten.
"You don't seem-" Mz. Wendell hisses.
"Where's the pump," you say, pointing down the alleyway, to the pumping machine that you'd seen hooked up to the tent. It's gone. It's like it was never there. There's just a hole where the tube used to be. Mz. Wendell blinks, then looks at you as you hold up your hand, cocking your head. You can hear voices inside the building. The building full of toxic fucking gasses. You grab the opening that's been taped shut and yank it open. Mz. Wendell advances, grabbing your arm - but she notices the same thing you do. Nothing but clean air is coming from inside the building. And the voices are clearer now and you peer in. The corridor you're looking in leads past the ground floor offices, and you can just barely see the front lobby.
There are people in there.
You walk forward, and Mz. Wendell follows after, clutching your backpack and your money. The two of you move, quietly, inside - united in curiosity and confusion.
The main lobby has two people in it. They're both Asian, and they're dressed in sleek, dark black clothes, with...with guns. The man has a pistol, and the woman has a pistol, and both of them are looking around. The woman's nervous, while the man is grimly determined. They speak to one another in a language you don't recognize.
"They're Japs," Mz. Wendell hisses in your ear. You give her an incredulous look.
"They're not speaking Japanese, you stupid-"
"Hands up!"
The man spoke, his English accented but understandable. He aims the pistol in your direction. Mz. Wendell screams and drops the bag. She lifts her hands, stammering. "W-We don't mean any trouble, if you're here to...to rob..." She trails off. It's not a bank, but you think it is some kind of fiscal building. The man glares at you two, then mutters to the woman in their language. It's definitely not Japanese. But those black uniforms...your brow furrows and...
And...
No fucking way.
"You're fucking VC?" you ask. You'd seen the news. Boys had been going to Vietnam since you were, fuck, twelve and still in dresses. You'd seen their black pajamas, that was what they called them at least. "What the fuck are you doing in fucking New York!?"
"Leave, now," the woman says, her English even worse. "Now!"
You start to back up. Mz. Wendell steps back as well, but then grabs for the money. The two VC don't even give a shit. You move back slowly, but Mz. Wendell backs up more. The man nods, says something...and then closes his eyes. He holsters his pistol, clenches his hands as you back up just a bit more, biting your lip slightly. You have to know what they're doing - but he just looks like he's stretching his arms back. There's a faint hum. The air seems to get heavy...
And then a glowing ball, the size of your fist, shoots out of his chest. It hums down the corridor across from you, vanishing around a corner. Before it has even vanished, a second, third, fourth ball shot out. Some of them whip up open doors into stairwells. Others dart around corners and vanish from sight. All of them zoom out, before the woman grabs onto his hand - and both of them vanish.
Like...
One second, they were there. The next, they were fucking gone.
You stood there, gaping, as the first of the orbs, unknown to you, reached its target...
And half the building exploded.
Wood splinters flew through the air and heat washed your face - hotter than the sun. You screamed, throwing up your hands - and then something grabbed onto your back. Two hands, shockingly strong, throwing you. You skidded...and the other half of the building exploded. Your head hit something hard and everything went white, then dark...and distant.
You groaned...
Your eyes opened to slits.
You were...caked in dust. Your head rang. Your ears screamed. Like a fucking gong had gone off in them. Your eyes refused to focus as you opened them. You saw burning wreckage. Dust motes drifting through the air. Fine ash, caking your entire body. Something long and lean lay in your lap as you sat up, whimpering and gasping and tasting the grit of the building on your teeth, coating your tongue, in your lungs. You coughed - and the cough dislodged the dust and you saw what was on your lap.
It was Mz. Wendell's arm.
You started to breathe faster, faster, faster, nose flaring.
--- Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
[ ] You have to help. Maybe...she's still alive? (Passion: Heroism [7], Passion: Girls[7], Passion: Fighting [5] | Loyalty: Queer Rights [7], Your Friends [5]
[ ] You have to get outta here, before the cops show up and blame you somehow. (Passion: Girls [7], Passion: Fuck the Cops [5] | Loyalty: Queer Rights [7], Your Friends [5], Yourself [7])
[ ] Write In (Any combination of passions and loyalties are fine.)
TUTORIAL TEXT: A passion or loyalty represents an investment of Base Will. Base Will is basically your permanent reserves of focus and drive, while willpower is your short term mental energy. If you act in a way that benefits and supports a Passion or Loyalty, then you GAIN WILLPOWER equal to the amount invested. But if you act AGAINST that, you LOSE WILLPOWER equal to that amount. Willpower is spent to resist powers, block damage, keep yourself alive if you've been stabbed in the stomach and left for dead, and finally, are required to keep your powers functioning.
If you hit 0 WP, then your powers all are HALVED and turn into regular dice. So, your fancy pantsy 10hd defense power becomes 5d, thus, making you much easier to kill other ways.
What shocks you most...is how...calm you feel. You scoot away and the arm flops off your lap, rolling away. Your gorge rises and you put your hand over your mouth - but sirens are wailing and you know the cops are coming. You look from the arm to the ruined building. Except...ruined is putting too fine a word on it. The building isn't ruined. It's fucking gone. It's as if the whole building has been turned into a fine ash, and then blown outwards, cloaking the air around you with a shrouding smoke. There's no signs of walls or corridors or even the fucking...foundations - it's like a big fist had just reached out of the sky and scooped it up. The only fragments left are the ash and a few bits of melted, blobby metal that still hiss and bubble and glow in the catastrophic aftermath.
No way is Mz...Mz...
Mz...
She's dead.
She's dead, and...
She saved your life. Okay. You put that into the back of your mind as the sirens get closer and the cloud begins to disperse.
Think about it later.
You stand up, ash falling off you, stumble backwards against the wall of the building next to you. People are coming out of it, to gape at the destruction - and you notice that the buildings nearby are untouched. Except for the broken glass. There's glass everywhere. Your shoes crunch on it as you turn and you run. You run as fast as you can, panting heavily, but you see that the cops are coming from the other street as well, encircling the building, pistols and flashlights in their hands, trying to cut through the smoke that still drifts everywhere. You stop, skid, then dart into a nearby alleyway, shoving past a few people who are coming out to gape at the building. None of them even glance your way, though you do see a cop that looks more on the ball than the other, pausing and looking back.
You duck behind a dumpster before he sees you, and you wait, panting, closing your eyes.
He doesn't come investigating.
You vanish into the city.
***
You slip inside the apartment to find your parents don't even notice your arrival. They're glued to the TV. You almost don't look at the screen - because...
Something really fucking weird is going on. Which sounds insane, considering you'd just seen some...some guy just blow up a fucking building with...with his mind? You didn't even know. But on the way home, after brushing the dust off you, you had noticed something. Each time you had clapped your hands on your jacket and ratty old jeans, the dust flew off...and a part of your brain, cool and analytic, started to examine the dust. Watched how it moved. Danced. Floated to the ground. Once you noticed it, you couldn't stop noticing it. When a taxi cab parked to pick a guy up as you hustled down the sidewalk, your hands in your pockets, you could know to the second how long it'd take for the friction of the tires to bring the mass of the car based on first approximation of its weight - mass, actually, it was approximately 3,500 kilograms. The math tumbled from your brain like you'd always known it: N = m g cos θ N-
You shook your head, trying to get the math out of it. But it kept coming.
By the time you were home, you even knew how the building had been exploded. It wasn't just...a bomb blast or something, you were almost positive that the fine level incineration was a byproduct of an oscillating force, not a concussive one. Molecular expansion on a uniform level in an approximately forty meter wide sphere, created throughout the building's internal structure, and replicated several times.
It was...creepy and weird and scary and you nearly walked straight to your room.
Until you saw the flying woman on the TV.
You stopped, turning, walking up behind your parents as they watched the TV. The announcer was mid-sentence. "...is American. Seen here, this incredible being - who's name has been classified for the purposes of her own privacy and state security - is capable of manipulating, through an as of yet unknown means, any observable combination of matter and energy in an area around her body. According to the Department of Defense, she has been active in the Vietnam police action for the past month, engaged in security and peacekeeping operations for the protection of the Vietnamese people."
The flying woman is hard to see as human. She's wreathed in glowing green flames and has an almost metallic sheen over her face. The camera tracks her as she soars down from the sky, then points at several tanks that are lined up on a dusty Arizona looking desert. A green beam leaps from her fingertip, hitting each tank one after the other, melting through it.
"This footage was filmed several months prior, during her first demonstrations to the United States Army-"
"What the fuck," you whisper.
"Lily!" your mother exclaims, in Japanese. "Watch your language. And..." She gapes at you. "What happened to you?"
Your best attempt to clean yourself off wasn't exactly foolproof. Mom had seen the ash smeared into your hair and the burn marks on your clothes.
"Were you at the explosions?" Mom asks, springing to her feet, while Dad gets up, turning off the TV, so everyone can focus on you.
"E-...Explosions?" you ask, noticing the S.
"It's on the news. The whole country is under attack," Dad says, his voice just a bit hysterical. "Factories in Michigan and New York and Arizona! They say that a meteorite has hit Nevada's desert, ten tons, dropped from the sky, then ten minutes later, another ten tons hit the same spot! Then, ten minutes later, another ten tons! They say that it's the commies, they're showing what they can do - then this!" He points at the TV. "We have a superman too!"
"Superwoman," you say, a bit dazedly.
"What happened to you?" Mom asked. She actually sounds concerned. You do notice, Dad...isn't freaking about the money. From the safe. Which is now atomized.
--- What do you do?
[ ] Tell them the truth. The whole world's gone completely fucking nuts, now isn't the time to be coy. (-1 WP [Minor Fuck the Cops Loss])
[ ] Lie! Lie your fucking ass off and hide in your room for a bit! (+1 WP [Minor Fuck the Cops Gain] - requires an opposed CHARM + Lesbian + Delinquent roll)
[ ] Write In
Also, you have a best friend, who lives in the apartment next door.
[ ] Describe WORM CHARACTER who is your bestie. To be clear, this should be formatted similarly to the first character vote. You can even just copy and re-use Turing Complaint!
CURRENT STATUS
Health: Fine
Willpower: 30
CHECK: Seeing the catastrophic results of violence on a human body is worth a Trauma check. This is a Command + Stubbornness check. Sadly, none of your broad or flexible skills really apply - while you've seen violence (being a lesbian in the 60s), you've never seen THIS level of violence.
ROLL: 10, 8, 8, 7, 7
RESULT: 2x8 - excellent result! You keep yourself remarkably calm.
CHECK: Cops arriving on the lookout. They're a minion mob, meaning they roll 1d per member. Since looking for perps is something a lot of people can do working together, this counts as a regular skill check, but since cops are only Trained minions (one up from Rabble, really), their skill check is 8. This means they have to get an 8+ on their set to see anything. There are about 10 in the area, so 10d! Because they are minions, they can use as many sets as they get.
ROLL: 10, 10, 9, 7, 6, 5, 5, 3, 3, 2
RESULT: 2x10, 2x5, 2x3 - at least three cops have a chance to spot you running away from the scene.
CHECK: Sneak sneak sneak! Since using your hypercoordination would be Obvious (and thus, negate the stealth check), you use your 2d coordination, +2d for sneaking - a narrow skill that applies - and +3d for delinquent and +3d for lesbian - you can stack as many flexible skills as apply to a roll and as a lesbian in the 60s, you've run away from cops before.
ROLL: 10, 9, 8, 8, 8, 7, 5, 5, 4, 3
RESULT: 3x8 - the 2x5 and 2x3 guy can't even see you. The 2x10 guy would have spotted you...but you get to cover JUST before he sees you.
"I...fuck, I just got pushed around by fucking Ned at school, and he managed to get me into some trash bags, because he's a-" You're cut off by Mom narrowing her eyes at you. Dad, though, shakes his head and frowns, his hands going to his hips.
"I should go over to the Smithsons and tell them about their boy - he's a menace." He frowned and shook his head, and you actually are a bit surprised that he's willing to go that far. But you think it might be more because he prefers it if the only person to boss you around and push you was himself and was getting mad at Ned horning in on his turf. You turn and start to slouch towards your room in the apartment. It's a one story apartment, and the rooms are tucked up into a set of side corridors that run off the main room - which holds the kitchen, dining room, sofa and TV all at once. Your parents start to whisper to one another. Probably bitching about what a fuckup you are.
You come to your room, closing the door. There's an old beat up record player that you'd been given for your fourteenth birthday. It barely works, and you have applied some extra tape to the power cable. You have a wind up alarm clock on your nightstand, a window looking out at the fire escape and an alleyway. Steam rises from a radiator parked a few floors down, fogging up the glass and making the idea of stepping outside onto the balcony decidedly unwelcome. Your biggest direction is a poster that you told your parents you got for cheap on a garage sale, but actually, you'd just stolen it when you'd noticed someone had left the little glass cabinet infront of the theater unlocked.
You didn't even like James Bond movies.
You flopped onto your bed, sighing out.
Who the fuck do I even...tell? you think. What do I do?
There's only one person in your life you'd trust telling this. And even him, you're not sure about. You hold your hand up, your brow furrowing slightly as you...tried something. You focused...
And a cube, approximately...eh, ten centimeters by ten centimeters by ten centimeters, with edges drawn like God had a ruler, appeared floating in the air above your finger. It is black. Black. Black. Blacker than anything you've ever seen before - it has no reflection, no glossiness, no nothing, it's as if reality has simply ceased to exist in that cube. The air around it radiates a cold so intense that your room's temperature feels as if it has dropped a few degrees - and you realize that air is turning to mist around it - ice crystals forming. Ice crystals made of air itself.
You hastily make the cube go away. It's as easy as just thinking - and the cube vanishes and the room stops getting cold. The air ice evaporates with a crinkling noise before it even touches your lap. You tremble in your bed.
You just removed the laws of physics for a ten by ten by ten centimeter cube of air. No light. No movement. No time. The air around it was touching an edge of absolute zero. No fucking shit the room started to get cold, that's basic thermodynamics, you thought.
"I have to show Andy," you whisper.
***
This took herculean effort. Why, you had to get off your ass, open the window, crawl onto the fire escape, then clamber down one level, then peer in through the window at Andy. Andy has the record on and is listening to his Dad's old albums - the crooning, warbling, old fashioned song made your hair stand on end, even through the window. Andy is a gawky kid, about your age and two heads in your height, but it's all beans and string. He's the kind of boy that might look impressive if you hung sailcloth off him, but as it was, the other kids - especially Ned - preferred to use him for target practice with spitballs. His family was about as rich as yours was, but his dad worked at an old pawn shop, so he was able to get his hands on all sorts of goodies that your dad, who worked at a cannery, couldn't.
That included the big old HAM radio set he was fiddling with.
Andy didn't actually talk to people on the HAM set. Talking wasn't really Andy's thing - though, okay, no, that was a lie.
Andy could talk for days with girls. He did it with you all the time. It was just when he was around boys, which was what he was supposed to be doing with his free time, because he was a boy and boys that didn't hang out with boys were sissies and fags, Andy would get the worst stammer in the universe. You weren't sure if it was cause he liked boys, or if boys just intimidated him, or maybe he stammered around other girls and you just didn't notice it because you weren't there with him.
...the idea he could only talk to you had just hit you, now, and made you feel...like...like...like you just wanted to punch him really hard in the shoulder. Instead, you opened the window with a quiet squeak. Andy didn't hear you over the crooning song. His voice was soft and warbling. "Maybeeee I'lll say...maybeeeee..."
"You're off tune," you say.
Andy lifts his head. "Huh?" he blinks at you. "H-Holy shit, Lily, what the...the...the heck happened to you?"
You brush your hands through your hair. Then you sit down on his bed. Then you hang your head forward. Your hands are shaking. The image of Mz. Wendel's arm on your lap fills your mind. You can't shake it. You clench your hands, then open them. "I was...at Wall Street. When that building blew up." You look at him as he gapes at you, then sets down his soldering iron in the little...ring holder thing. Steam hisses up from the wet spongue that sits at the base of it and he spins the office chair he uses at his desk to face you.
"H...H...Holy shit, are you okay?" he asks.
You gulp. "Yeah."
"Why were you t...there?" He asks.
"I was getting blackmailed by Mz. Wendel for being a dyke," you say. "S-She...she's fucking dead, Andy."
Andy puts his hand over his mouth.
"And...and..." you pause. "And I...something happened to me. And I have no idea what it is. And it scares me."
"Are you hurt?" He asks, his eyes wide. They're gray eyes. Gray eyes on a pale, narrow, angular face. "Did you get hurt, I mean, did...the building...I...Mz. Wendel, our landlady, she's dead? She..." He shook his head. "I...just...this is wild."
"Yeah." Your voice is ragged. You stand up, brush your hands along your hips, clap them together. "Okay, uh, you care about this lamp?" you ask, pointing at one of the three lamps he has - each of them in various states of disrepair. It looked like he had gotten some lamps, then taken them apart for the wires and bits and bobs inside, leaving some truly ugly and mostly useless lamps. Andy looks at the one you're pointing at and nods.
"I...I haven't, uh, pulled it apart, so-"
You touch it.
And you remove any resistance to electricity in the wires and cables for a fraction of a second. The light bulb flares as brightly as it could, then explodes as the incandescent wire goes way, way, way past its tolerances and explodes. The lamp shade rattles and the glass clatters down as you take your hand from the lamp, looking at Andy.
"I can do things," you say. "O-Or to be more accurate, I can remove or suppress any physical law. I can remove all of them. I can suppress some of them. I can remove some and suppress others. I can do any combination I freaking want. And it's easy. Want me to selectively remove the effect of Earth's gravity on your skinny ass? I...I can do that!" You spread your hands. "I'm a...a...a..."
"Like the superwoman on the TV," Andy said.
"And I have no idea how," you say. "I was just at ground zero of that explosion - which was done by some VC...supers. D-Do you think that has anything to do with that?"
Andy looks thoughtful. He rolls his seat back and forward, back and forward. Then he nods. "D-Do...Do that. To me. I mean."
"Huh?"
"Remove gravity. Selectively."
You blink at him. "I...no, what if I kill you?"
"Lily, I sat next to you f-for science. Whatever's happened? It's made you smarter." He pauses. "N-...N-...No offense."
You scowl at him. "I'm plenty smart." You cross your arms over your chest and slouch. "I just don't give a shit." You've already mathed out precisely what effects you'd need to negate. The impact of the Earth's gravity, yes. The current momentum or inertial mass of his body, no, not unless you wanted him to be 'stationary' while the Earth spun faster than a speeding bullet under him. You looked at him through your bangs. "...you sure?"
"I have a hy...hypothesis," he says.
You frown, then reach out and touch him. This is a bit harder, but you manage it - it takes you a few seconds to make sure you've isolated the exact negations, then double check it to super make sure. To Andy, it looks like nothing more than a few seconds of hesitation before the touch. Then he starts to float up into the air, his arms spreading as he started to beam at you, his eyes glittering eagerly. He started to wobble in the air, his arms flailing, spinning around and around and around as he pushed off the wall. YOu watched him hover in the room, grinning slowly as you did so.
"This is amazing!" He said, loudly enough that you glanced at the door, nervous his parents might hear. HIs feet bumped against the ceiling, his head swinging down to you. "Haha! Hah!" He laughed - and you found yourself grinning and laughing too. You'd been so scared, so panicky...
Mz. Wendell's arm, flopping, lifeless, off your lap. The faint red splatter of what blood escaped around the ash.
...but you were remembering now. You had superpowers. You had...you were a superhero. Andy pushed out with his hands, his brow furrowing. He frowned. Then he glared at the ground, as if it owed him something. "No, no, that's not working either..." he muttered. Then he snapped his fingers. Nothing.
"What are you doing?" you ask.
"Well, uh, bad news, my hypothesis didn't work, I'm not getting any superpowers," Andy said, flicking his fingers, spreading his palms.
"Huh?" you asked.
"I mean, you were at ground zero of superpowers, you got superpowers, it seemed reasonable," Andy said, grinning at you. You shake your head slowly.
"What, you think superpowers are like the fucking clap or something?" you ask.
He shrugs, still floating by overhead.
"So, uh...what's your superhero name going to be?" He asked, craning his head to try and peer at you. "Negation Lass?"
"Absolutely fucking not!" you say, then laugh.
Andy finishes his slow tumble, so that he's now right side up. He holds up an oblong black glassy rectangle up and aims it at you, his brow furrowing. "Okay, smile!" he says, and you instead give him the most quizzical expression you can - but before you can ask him what the fuck he's holding, there is a loud CLICK. He beams, then turns the glassy rectangle around and shows you the screen. It has the most shocking, crystal clear picture of your face on it - as if you're looking into a clean mirror. You look like someone just asked you to smell their farts.
"Andy. What the. Fuck. Is. That?" you ask.
"An Apple...Eye...Phone," he says, reading off the back. "What th...the hack is Apple?"
"What the fuck's an eyephone!?" You ask, your eyes boggling.
"A phone, I guess?" He asks, fumbling and dropping it. It hits the ground and the glassy surface of it cracks audibly. "S...Shit!"
"How can it be a fucking phone, it doesn't have a cord," you say. "And where did it fucking come from!?"
"I...I just had it!" He said, then bumped against the ceiling. "Can you give me gravity back?"
You don't even need to focus hard - just a quick jerk of your mind and the power retracts and Andy drops to his feet with a light thump. He snatches up the eyephone, his eyes boggling. "It's broken, I broke it, I broke...a...a...huh..." He poked at the glassy surface.
"You're going to cut yourself," you say, hurrying over, but you see that he's being careful, prodding and swiping. His finger moves around on the glassy surface and you can see images on it, flitting about. It is as if he is holding a very small, very good television in his palm, and it can see his finger moving and react to it. You watch him bring up a slightly grainy view of your feet, and he muttered. "That's the camera function, ah, here's the picture I took of you..." He taps and a collection of photographs, stored in a massive set of rows, comes up onto the...screen, you suppose it is.
Your eyes widened.
"You didn't just got an eyephone," you whisper. "You got someone's eyephone."
The first photograph was of three people wearing surgical masks. You think doctor first, but they're outside and and none of them are wearing scrubs. They're leaning in close, so they're all in the camera. The next photograph is of a sign posted on glass window leading into what looks like a ritzy movie theater. It has a collection of somber looking people on it - actors, you think - all arrayed above a desert, with the word DUNC under it. Andy's eyes bug almost out of his head.
"They made a Dune World movie!?" he whispers.
"What the fuck is a Dune World?" you ask.
"Oh my god, you haven't read Dune World? I have...the..." Andy almost drops the phone, then hurries over to his bookshelf, then throws several copies of Analog, the pulp that Andy reads because he's a fucking nerd. The first one has a desert pillar on it, with almost invisible human figures running by on the bottom. DUNE WORLD. The next one has PROPHET OF DUNE, and there's a huge...worm...thing on it. Your brow furrows as you look at it, then flip the first open open cocking your head and trying to figure out how the fuck you were even supposed to pronounce some of these words. Your new skill with physics didn't help at all.
Andy is flicking his finger along the screen, careless of the danger of cutting his finger. He muttered, quietly. "There's dates, uh, twenty twenty one...holy shit, this eyephone is from the 21st century!" He bounces. "Auuugh, I wish I knew who these people were, or...why are they all in freaking masks?" His eyes widened. "Pollution! That has to be it! We're pumping leaded gasoline into the air by the millions of metric tons per second, maybe these masks help to filter it?" He flicked his finger, then pulled back, frowning. "These buttons, each one corresponds to...a different...function. Podbean...no idea. Music! Duh, music." He taps on it. "Oh hey, the Beatles!"
You look up at him. "You pulled a phone from the future."
"Yeah," Andy says. "Twitter, bird symbol, a kind of...bird watching functionality?" He taps it, then goes. "Oh! It's a kind of...note...taking function?" His head cocked to the side and he frowned. "The phone has a limited cache of them, uh, hmm." You lean over and read them - try to make sense of what you're seeing. But then Andy taps one of the little notes, which is...fucking incomprehensible. The image balloons up, but then the entire...function of the phone seems to freak out, before flashing up the words SIGNAL NOT FOUND, RETRY.
"I think it tried to update it's cache of messages but doesn't have any way to do so," Andy says, thinking.
Is it just you or is Andy figuring this stuff out faster than you?
You decided to put this theory to the test.
"Andy, what the fuck does 'Piss is valid. Jacking off is not valid. Shitting your pants is not valid. Mental Health is valid. Looking at the computer is valid, & so on' mean?" You ask.
"I have no fucking idea," Andy whispers.
--- Well! Shit! Bad news, you're infectious. Good news, you're infectious!
[ ] Immediately sneak out to find somewhere quiet and secluded to test out both of your powers.
[ ] Try and play things casual, go to school, and make sure to NOT do...anything...weird with your powers to anyone until you figure out some kind of...power...condom or something.
[ ] Write In. Remember, if it's in keeping with a loyalty or passion, you will get +1 WP (if it is a minor act) or +[Value] (if it is a major act.) So, like, standing up to a bunch of cops for queer people would be worth a cool 12 WP!
CURRENT STATUS
Health: Fine
Willpower: 31
CHECK: Parents Trying To See Through Lies, rolling their Sense 2d and their Being Parents 3d, for 5d.
ROLL: 9, 9, 9, 7, 4
ROLL: 9. 7. 3, 3, 2
RESULT: 3x9 versus your 2x10 - Mom sees through your lie before you can disassemble it (due to her width beating yours) but she doesn't have enough evidence to be 100% firm on calling you on your lie. Dad gets a 2x3 and buys it completely.
CHECK: You experiment with your powers to negate all physical laws in a cube ten by ten by ten centimeters wide.
ROLL: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
RESULT: 3x10 will set your variable effect [useful] into the Useful of: "Negate Physics", using the Mass Capacity. You could negate physics for up to 400 kg of matter, but limited that to just the amount of air in that cube with your 2x10 result. Until you reset your power to a different power, it will Negate Physics.
CHECK: You remove resistance to conductivity from the cables, turning them to room temperature superconductors.
ROLL: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
RESULTS: 3x10 to set, 2x10 to do it.
CHECK: You attempt to give Andy the ability to...at the very least float. Since you don't want the power to go away once you stop focusing, you give it Duration (+2). This would normally cost 40 willpower (2 points for 5 wiggle dice. Wiggle dice cost x4 as much, so 2x4x5 = 40.) But you apply the flaw of Slow (-2), meaning that you can only do this every other round, so it instead costs 0 Willpower.
ROLL: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
RESULT: 3x10 to set the power, 2x10 to giving him floatingness.
CHECK: Andy uses his future snatch power.
ROLL: 10, 10
RESULT: Andy snatches Alice Martin's iPhone from the future. Or at least...a future.
1968: J. Edgar Hoover spends an Unexpected Amount of Time As A Teenage Lesbian
"I want them fucking found, Hoover. You say you can give me their heads, I want you to give me their heads and I want them yesterday."
"Yes, Mr. President."
The phone slammed down and Hoover rubbed his temples, slowly. Then, in the privacy of his office, Hoover allowed himself a moment. "Fucking asshole," he muttered, pulling a cigarette and lighting it. He puffed, sighed, and considered. The President was getting out of hand. He'd been out of hand the second he thought he could keep a secret like the Sykes woman out of Hoover's hands. Oh, you didn't need to know my aching ass, Hoover thought. He had been so damn close to getting a straight answer out of the President when LBJ had looked him dead in the eyes and said: Listen here, Hoover. Drop it.
The words had hit like the force of a truck and the speed of a bullet. Instantly, the idea of trying to push the President into giving him any information on his top secret new ace in the hole had vanished from Hoover's mind. He hadn't even thought it was odd...at the time. Now he was furious. His fingers drummed on his desk as he let his cigarette burn almost down to his knuckles, before he steeled himself.
Since March, he...had known he could do this. At first, he'd thought it'd been amazing - a way to really understand the anti-American mind. He had been sitting in this very office, thinking about that rabble rousing negro and...suddenly, he had been King. From his head to his toes to his innermost mind, he had known the Reverend Martin Luther King. He had known his earliest memories. He had felt the deep, burning passionate rage at the injustices of the system heaped upon him. He could feel a still fading bruise from a demonstration. He could know a speech as of yet undelivered, being mentally rehearsed in King's mind, as if it was his very own thoughts.
It had been a hell of a boon for COINTELPRO.
So, Hoover had used it again and again and again, working his way along the Most Wanted List. It was then he learned...for all that he detested King...King was a fundamentally good man.
Tyler Ford wasn't even human. Hoover could remember the sick, fascinated pleasure burning through his nerves - the mental knowledge of what it felt like to...do what Ford did to human beings.
It was why it took a call from the President to get him to do...this.
He closed his eyes and thought about what he knew. The attacks had all been well chosen, if you wanted to scare a bunch of people and hurt American interests without killing people. There'd been one death in the entire place, a woman named Mz. Delilah Wendell in New York City. The police had found tracks leading away from the scene - an advantage that the ash had left behind. He rubbed his palm against his chin and started to mentally follow those tracks. He felt the ping in his mind that let him know that he'd found his target.
Now the nerve wracking part.
Hoover breathed in.
Focused.
And flashed with a pale white light. When she opened her eyes, she was not J. Edgar Hoover, seventy three year old white man. She was some...teenage punk Jap named Lily Sato. Her palms slid along her cheeks and she thought back to what she'd been doing today. She'd been sitting in her room, talking with her friend Andy about what to do with her new superpowers. And she had quite a power. 'Lily' held out her hand and touched her lamp, watching it slowly drift up into the air of the office before drawing taut on the wire that led from the base.
"Well, fuck me," 'Lily' said, quietly, starting to smoke her cigarette. She coughed, her lungs not used to the taste - which meant the nicotine buzz hit even harder. 'Lily' shook her head - and the part of her that was still J. Edgar Hoover felt the unease in her belly. It wasn't just she was a woman. It wasn't just she wasn't white. It was...the disquieting feeling of bone deep awareness that America was a fucked up, shitty country that hadn't done anything for her but kick her in the ass. "Practically a fucking communist."
'Lily' stabbed out her cigarette.
The door to the office opened and one of Hoover's aides walked in. "Si-" he stopped.
'Lily' glared at him. "Remember what I said...about fucking knocing?"
"...sorry, sir," the aide said, his face going pale.
The door shuts and 'Lily' stubs out her cigarette. She rubs her forehead and realizes that she fucking hates herself.
But that's okay.
She'll only hate herself for...about an hour. Then she'd be back to being a proper white man again. And, more importantly, Hoover knew exactly what to do.
An hour later, he was on the phone. "Get me Pine, from NYPD. We're going to move the timetable up."
***
The past few hours have been the most agonizingly slow in your entire life. You and Andy had talked until dinner - which had been about an hour of real together time before you needed to scuttle back to your room before your parents noticed anything was up. You managed to act sullen and unresponsive over dinner, then eventually had to help mom wash up. She then cajoled you into a shower - which was cold, because Mz. Wendell, before she died, had never gotten around to actually fixing the fucking water heater for the apartment complex and the thing went out of hot water round four in the afternoon. You lay in bed afterwards, trying to sleep, but instead, your brain ping-poings between the three things rattling in your skull.
The first was physics equations.
The second was...the...ash and...
And the third was what you and Andy had talked about.
You both visited Stonewall a lot. It was the only place you could really be yourselves. And you had friends there. There was Brain, and Tori and Lisa and even Theo, even if he wasn't gay. And...uh...your cheeks heated as you thought about Sabby and Rachel. Guuhhh, you had to...like, pick? One? Right? Or talk to one for more than a sentence. Or...something. And of course, team Mom, Martha. She always made sure that when you guys were in the tavern, you got a place away from the table where the more shady people at Stonewall sat.
You tossed. Turned. Your brain kept pinging: Physics, choking ash and blood, Sabby and Rachel, the future...
Then eventually...somehow...you managed to fall asleep.
And thus, the worst day of school ever started. You got into school with Andy and immediately got corralled by the Principal, who gave you a lecture about truancy and disrespect. He slapped you with detention and warned you that you were this close to being kicked out of school. You played mentally with the idea of making his clothing no longer have certain laws of physics. Just enough to fling him through the roof and into space. You were pretty sure you could too. Instead, you bore it, mumbled some half assed apology, then slouched to class.
Math class. Boring.
English class. Agonizingly boring.
Every second you slouched in your desk, you glanced at the clock and reconsidered your promise to Andy to not cut class and instead just wait for the school to end before heading to Stonewall. Every second seems to take longer and longer and longer than the last. Are you unconsciously making time go slower for yourself? You don't know.
History class. Torturously boring.
Lunch.
You're in the cafeteria, with Andy already at your favorite table. You're in the line, waiting for the lunch lady to put some food worth eating on your plate - though, considering the look of things, you were pretty sure that you'd be waiting a long time. As you slouch forward, you hear thumping footsteps behind you. Your neck prickles and you turn around to see Ned towering over you, smirking down at you as he does so. You'd lied, to your parents. Ned hadn't actually bullied you yesterday.
That was cause he usually alternated.
"That's my spot in line, twerp," he says.
You look up at him.
--- Hmm...
[ ] Just...clock him a good one. (Gain WP equal to his Base Will if you beat him.)
-[ ] Make it a sure thing, he's actually pretty good in a fight (use your hyperbody)
-[ ] Play it safe. You don't know how infectious you are (don't)
[ ] "Yeah, Ned, it's your spot." (Lose -7 WP for Loyalty [Yourself]
CURRENT STATUS
Health: Fine
Willpower: 28 (-1 WP per class due to minor Fuck The Cops. School? Also cops.)
CHECK: Hoover uses his powers to scan Lily. It has a range of 2,900,000 miles!
ROLL: 10, 9, 8, 8, 7, 6, 6, 5, 5, 1
RESULT: 2x8. He's got a lock!
CHECK: Hoover uses his linked duplicate physical and duplicate memories/personality power!
ROLL: 10, 10, 10, 10
RESULT: 2x10 fer the one, 2x10 fer t'other. For the next hour, J. Edgar Hoover gets to be a lesbian who hates herself.
"You know what, Ned?" you turn to face him. "No. It's not your fucking spot."
You think about how you could touch the metal rail that runs ahead of the glass separating you from the foot, and just shoot it through him. No. You instead realize, with a smirk, that you can do something a bit less...instantly lethal. You can remove the friction under his feet.
Ned, meanwhile, look as if his rectangular face is beginning to fill up entirely with blood.
"Oh, wow, you remember what happened the last time you gave me lip-"
"Fuck off," you say, already constructing the power in your mind. It takes a fraction of a second - and then you start to focus. Ned swings and there is a white flash of pain as his knuckles slam into your jaw, jerking your head aside, causing gasps and yelps of shock to fill the air. Andy springs up from his table, his eyes wide, as Ned's legs whip out from under him, his hand flailing. He smacks the tray down as he tries to catch him and your food goes flying, splattering him.
He shakes himself as you clutch at your jaw. "Fuck! Fuck! Ow! You asshole! Stay-" You snarl, but see that firstly, you need to keep focusing, or friction comes right back.
Secondly, Ned looks like he wants to kill you. He trembles, snarls, then springs to his feet, rushing straight at you as you jerk backwards. You hastily yoink the friction from the ground.
HIs feet whip out from under him so hard that he flips almost entirely up and over. He smashes to the ground, belly first, and keeps picking up speed - sliding along the floor as if it had been iced. You realized you'd put it on too hard - yanked back, tried to. He slowed, slightly - but not enough. His head smashes into the wall and his body catches up against it with a sickening crunch. People are gaping, and at least one girl - Cindi, you think - screams. You gape and look at Ned.
His head lolls to the ground and blood streams from a massive cut on his forehead.
He looks dead.
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," you whisper.
A hand slams down on your shoulder and you turn and see the school cop, glaring down at you.
***
You're still numb in the principal's office. Principal McGiffin frowns at you. "According to the doctors at North General, it'll be lucky if Ned Smithson ever walks again."
"I-"
"His skulls' fractured and his spine is broken," McGiffin says, standing up, his palms sliding along his desk.
"He started it..." You whisper, hunching down in your seat, your stomach knotting as guilt gnawed at you. Maybe he'll get superpowers? You think, dazedly. But you didn't actually use the powers on him. You used it on the floor. Right? Is that how this worked? Or...or maybe that wasn't how it worked at all. Maybe you and Andy had gotten your powers for some other reason. You didn't know, but you felt a cold, prickling panic.
"He-" McGiffin shook his head, then sighed. "Miss Sato, it doesn't matter who started it, it matters who is in the hospital. It matters who has a history of truancy, who has been a delinquent for her entire career." He shakes his head. "Officer Kelso will be taking you downtown."
Your eyes widened. "You're arresting me? Ned punched me in the fucking jaw!"
"An entire crowd saw you throw him into a wall!" McGiffin says, his voice getting higher pitched - you realize just how fucking scared he is. What if Ned's parents sue him? What if he gets into trouble. You try and put yourself into the shoes of the other students, watching the fight from the rest of the caff. There had been the punch, then Ned had charges you then...you'd moved out of the way and WHAM! He had flipped, smashed, and crashed. In the flurry of movement, maybe you had kung fu'd him or something. Shit. You were Japanese, weren't you? You definitely knew kung fu. You wanted to laugh the idea was so fucking stupid - they couldn't even get the racist assumptions right - but it looked like it was bound to ruin your life.
...like how you'd just ruined Ned's.
They said he might never walk again.
The door behinds you open and you look back at the cop, fucking Officer Kelso. He's got cuffs and everything.
--- What do you do?
[ ] Go with the cop, but try and find a way to escape subtly or sneakily.
[ ] Write In
[ ] Fuck this. Remove the wall's physicality for a fraction of a second, jump through it, and make it to Stonewall. (+12 willpower, Major Fuck The Cops, Major Yourself]
[ ] Write In
CURRENT STATUS
Health: Bruised Jaw (2 shock to the head)
Willpower: 18
Combat begins!
ROUND ONE, DECLARE PHASE: Ned has a lower sense (2d) than yours (3d), so he declares first. He's gonna deck you as many times as he can for mouthing off to him. You're going to format your power to trip him and then use that power
ROUND ONE, ROLL PHASE:
Ned rolls: 10, 10, 9, 8, 6, 5, 1
Lily gets: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
Ned gets: 2x10 Punch
Lily gets: 3x10 format, 2x10 trip
ROUND ONE, RESOLUTION PHASE: Lily formats her power invisibly. Then Ned clocks her in the jaw for 2s just as she makes the ground frictionless under him. This is, essentially, using your Useful as a Wrestling attack. It beats ned's body of 3 in height (10 is higher than 3? Huge if true) and sends him sprawling. This does 1s to his head and flings him along the ground.
ROUND TWO, DECLARE PHASE: Ned's furious and he's going to stand up and tackle you in the same motion. You're going to back up and keep the friction fuckery up.
ROUND TWO: ROLL PHASE
Ned rolls: 8, 8, 8, 6, 4, 4 (-1d to get +1 width for initiative, as standing is a free action if you're not being actively pinned.)
Lily gets: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
Ned: 3x8 (going on 4 for initiative purposes)
Lily gets 5x10 to frictionless the ground up.
ROUND TWO RESOLUTION PHASE: Ned starts to stand - and then slips out again. He takes 1s to the head and flings him along the ground. Since you used your full power this time, you make 500 kg worth of the ground's surface frictionless, and I'm going to say this counts as very limited knockback. This sends him skidding at least 1 yard for damage, +5 yards for width, for 6 yards. There's a wall 4 yards off, so he takes 2 yards worth of impact damage: 2s/2k to his entire body. Since he didn't see THIS coming, he gets no resistance.
Ned has 4s/2k in the head, 2s/2k to everywhere else. Since he's above his head's wound boxes (of 4), excess shock becomes killing at a 2 to 1 ratio, leaving him with 1s/3k to the head.
CHECK: ...Truama Check!
ROLL: 10, 8, 7, 6, 5! FAIL!
RESULT: Lily can either choose to become a trembling wreck and let whatever happen, happen OR she can choose to soldier on. However, the former loses half her WP, while the latter involves losing all of it. She chooses the former! This drops her WP to 14. But she does get +4 for beating up Ned. So...there's that, putting her at 18.
CONTENT WARNING: A 20something mafia guy is extremely inappropriate to a 17 year old lesbian and hits on her and is...generally, just, super shitty.
"Fuck this," you say.
"Miss Sato-" the Principal starts, but you're already standing up, your hands tightening as Kelso walks forward, twirling his handcuffs.
"Settle down, you little-" he says, but you dart away from him as he reaches out with his cuffs. They click on empty air as you spring at the wall next to the window. You focus, delete some physics - the kind that say molecules press against molecules, that matter exists for other matter - and for a fraction of a second, the wall is less of a wall and more of a hazily defined quasi-real swarm of quarks. You land on the far side, snapping the physics right back and turn back to sneer through the window at the gaping principal and the officer. Kelso, though, reacts by sprinting towards the office door.
You blink, a bit shocked that he's able to think at all, considering you just jumped through a fucking wall.
He bursts out into the corridor beyond the office. His service revolver is in shaking hands and he aims it at you. "F...Freeze, you freak!"
You gape at him, then scowl. "Fuck off." You turn around and start to walk away.
"I said-"
Maybe...
Maybe that shaking hand meant his finger twitched. You could give Kelso the first bullet.
But the second and third?
You snapped your head back, time seeming to slow as you saw the bullets shooting towards you. One hit the ceiling. One flew at your arm, the last at your head. You glared...and thought: No. The word was clear in your head and the result was even clearer. The air before you turned into dark rectangles, flashing up before the bullets, which struck them and bounced off with whining pings. One sparked off a locker to your right as you grinned at Kelso, feeling rush as he gaped at you, then at his pistol, then dropped it.
Was he horrified at the fact he'd almost shot a kid?
Or was he just scared shitless?
Honestly, you couldn't care either way. You turned and started to jog out of the school, rushing past lockers towards the front doors of the school. Your arms crackled and black lightning seemed to crackle around you as you realized that you could negate mass here, eliminate gravity here, make clothing harden to support your muscles there. It was all subtle, almost unconscious results of your powers - synthesizing into speed and strength. You pushed more power into it and leaped into the air to clear the little handrail that runs along the stairs that lead up to the school...and you find yourself soaring through the air, whistling up and up and up, your legs wheeling under you. Your arms spread wide and you feel the wind blow past you, catching your hair, trailing it behind you.
You can't help it.
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!" Your feet smashed down on the hood of a yellow taxi almost two blocks away and you leaped off it, not even leaving a dent as the man in the taxi gaped at you. A skyscraper shot towards you and you pulled your legs up against you, flipped, and landed feet first against the glass, sprinting as hard as you could. You left behind little flashes of ice that melted away behind you as your feet slapped against the panes, the people in the building gaping as you laughed, laughed hysterically. You got to the edge of the scraper, flipped, jumped, and shot down the road, landing on a lamp post, then springing from it to the midsection of a building. You sprinted a few feet, kicked off, flew through the air and landed on roof. Pigeons and secretaries on their smoke breaks both saw you - the secretaries gasped in shock and the pigeons took flight as you spread your arms wide, laughing.
"Ladies!" you said, winking at both, as they watched you walk to the side of the building.
"No, don't!" one says, and you wink at her, then leap off the building, shooting across the street and landing on the next roof over. You laugh, sprinting to the edge of the roof, then jumping again and again and again, clearing the vast, glittering sprawl of New York City in what felt like a flash. Before you knew it, you were leaping through the air and came down before the Stonewall Tavern, skidding to a stop. The sidewalk outside had a few people who gaped at you, looking as if they could hardly believe their eyes. You grinned at them, then walked in through the front doors.
It was the middle of the school day, so only serious drinkers were here - most of the night club wasn't. Despite that, you had...faintly hoped that Sabby or Rachel...or, heck, someone you'd love to see right now? Martha. Martha would know what to do. Instead, you just saw the day bartender, Jack, who was the same fidgety little shit he always was. And...ugh. Worse.
"Well, look at who's playing hookie again," a guy who's basically a walking fridge says, looking you over like he's undressing you with his eyes as he turns from the pool tables in the edge of the bar. The fact that he's got a scar that runs across his entire throat doesn't make it any better. "You couldn't resist me, could you, Lil' Lily."
You roll your eyes. "Fuck off, Alphonse," you say, walking past him. One of the other guys at the pool table - they're all the straights in the bar, which means they're all tough, they're all mean, they're all packing heat, and almost all of them are Made - laughs. That means that Alphonse has to do something about it or else he'll look all weak infront of his...goombahs or whatever the fuck they're called. He swings the pool cue around behind his neck and hooks his arms over it, swaggering towards you.
"You know, you just haven't had the right man-"
"Oh, and it's totally going to be you, Zipperneck," you say, smirking at him.
His face starts to redden. "Don't call me that."
You grin at him. You don't need to take his shit today.
"Why not...Zipperneck?"
"Listen, you little-"
"Alphonse, baby, what are you doing!?" A very, very, very welcome voice sings out and Martha comes bustling in. She's looking absolutely fabulous, even though it's not night and she's not even in full gear - no wig, no flowers, just her dress and her normal hair. She looks like she came running downstairs when she heard your voice. Which...aww. "You know Lily's too young for you."
"She's old enough to be here, isn't she?" Alphonse muttered.
"And didn't I hear you and Grimes were heading out soon?" Marie asks, glancing meaningfully at the bartender. The bartender gives you a smug, smug, smug, smug smile. Like, way more smug than a man like Jack fucking Grimes should possibly be able to give, considering he's not Italian enough to be made, not competent enough to go legit, and too fucking in over his head to do anything but tend bar during the day time.
"Yeah...yeah, we gotta catch the train, Russo. Remember? For...the gig..." Jack says, with such weighted, obvious import that your eyes start to narrow.
"Yeah, I guess," Alphonse said, then smirked, reaching down to grab your ass. The only reason you do not punt him through the goddamn wall is the last thing the fucking world needs is Alphonse "Zipperneck" Russo getting goddamn superpowers. As Jack hangs up his little mop and Alphonse talks in rapid fire Italian with his Mafia goons. All of them nod, and then they all start off, the whole group making five. As the door swings shut after them, Martha takes your hands in hers, looking at you.
"Honey, you can't come here every day - your school is going to notice." She smiles at you.
You smile back.
So...
Shit, where do you-
"Oh, and...what happened to you?" Her finger brushes your jaw. You wince. She's already noticed your bruise. Shit. "Come on! Come!" She drags you up to the back of the place.
---
"You have to give me Sykes for this."
"Absolutely not."
The room that J. Edgar Hoover, General Colt and the President of the United States of America wouldn't have, couldn't have, existed in 1967. In the bald face of things, it didn't even exist right now. The 'room' was a mental construct, a replica of the nuclear hardened safe house under the White House, stitched together despite the fact the President was in Washington, Hoover was in the FBI headquarters (which, coincidentally, was also in Washington. Hoover was just nearly eighty and didn't like having to shuttle himself around unless he was in the form of a younger body) and Colt was in Edward's Air Force Base in California.
It beat the hell out of telephone, Hoover thought. And he knew for a fact Colt couldn't read his mind here - if he did, then he'd have found and destroyed Hoover's file on him already. The file that detailed Colt's little drinking problem...his little tryst with the waitress in Kenosha, Wisconsin that his wife didn't know about...
Hoover never once entertained the idea that Colt did know, but he also didn't think that Hoover's petty bullshit was worth distracting himself from the incredibly important and dangerous job of being the United State's most powerful (and only) telepath. This room construct was an irritating focus that Colt wished he could just drop - there were literally hundreds, thousands, of troops who needed orders and direction right now. But he had to admit...this situation in New York was worth the focus.
If only so he could stop Hoover from doing anything too stupid.
"Listen," Hoover said - his mental projection of him in his youth, which was either a reflection of his newly found vitality and sense of purpose or an indication that his self image had never quite gotten out of the 1920s - leaning forward and tapping the table with his finger. "I've not just met or seen or heard about this Sato woman. I've taken her form and I know what she can do. She could level the whole goddamn city like she's a walking A-bomb. Every second she's not under out control is another second she might decide to kill a million Americans because they pissed her off."
The President frowned. "I understand your concerns, Director," he said, all polite and smiles now that he wasn't alone with Hoover. "But Mrs. Sykes is a military asset."
"And we've lost nearly six thousand troops in the past twenty four hours from the detonations alone," Colt said. "And I have no idea who is causing it or how - they're moving around too much for me to pinpoint them. And that's just one of the fucking things that the NVA have thrown at us. There's a teleporter - she was spotted in Cape Canaveral, stealing one of our spacesuits. Less than a week later, she dropped a ten ton asteroid on Nevada."
"On empty desert," Hoover muttered.
"They know we have nuclear bombs," Colt said. "They can blow our cities up, but we can blow their cities up. Meanwhile, the only thing keeping ARVN in the fight at all is that we have Sykes flying around, putting out fires and swatting those detonations out of the sky before they can land. We're going to barely hold out until reinforcements show up. And there's reports that this is just the first of it. We've heard reports from ARVN that there's a walking statue the size of a building that's leveling their positions!"
The President nodded. "I agree. We can't bring in Sykes, not right now."
Hoover snarled and leaned back in his seat. "Oh, what are you going to do, then? Send in some beat cops? The NYPD finest!?"
"You were organizing them, weren't you?" The President asked.
"As support," Hoover said. "I was hoping I'd get Sykes here."
The President shook his head. "Keep them at a distance. Colt, keep the ARVN in the game - we lose south Vietnam, the commies take the whole shebang, and they get the second largest population of...what did those eggheads call them?"
"Metahumans, sir," Colt said, seriously.
"Right. Metahumans," the President said, looking thoughtful.
"Mr. President, respectfully," Hoover said, without any respect in his tone at all. "What are you going to give me to work with?"
"I'm going to try one thing first. Maybe we can solve this without Superman and Rex Luthor tearing up downtown New York," the President said, before his form shimmered out of existence - vanishing back to the material world.
"There has to be something you can give me, Colt," Hoover said.
Colt looked across the table. He could feel Hoover's desperation - and his fear. That, more than anything Hoover had said, communicated to him just how powerful this Lily Sato was. He sighed, slowly.
"There is one thing..." he said.
---
You wince as Martha pushes what looks like a plastic bag of frozen peas against your jaw. "Owww..." you whine, softly.
"It'll feel better in the long run, honey, believe you me. I've...had to deal with this more than you," she says, her voice gentle. Then, quietly. "So...tell me everything."
You blush. Your eyes dart to the side.
And you tell her.
Everything. Everything. More than you expect, actually. You start with the blackmail, then work to the building, then the VC, then the explosion. Then Mz. Wendell. Then you start crying. "S-She was...she was blackmailing me, but she saved my life, I don't get it," you say, sniffling and sucking in air past your now snotty nose. Martha hugs you close, while still keeping the peas against your skin.
"Oh honey," she whispers, shaking her head. "It's okay." She holds you tight, and her voice is soft and husky - somewhere between contralto and soprano, and you close your eyes. "People are more than just any one thing. Sometimes, that one thing is brighter and more obvious than other things - like me being so dang beautiful." This startles a giggling snort out of you. "And some things, they're real ugly. But they're never all the person is. Even the ugliest person, inside, might have a tiny spark. And...I know I have some darkness in me too." She petted your head, gently as you nodded.
"...you won't tell Sabby or Rachel I cried right?" you mumble against her.
"Cross my heart and hope to die," she says, laughing.
"Okay." You drew back, your hand on the peas. "...there's something else."
She nods, watching you gently.
"...I got superpowers from the explosion," you say. "And I think I can give you superpowers too."
Martha's eyes go very wide. She looks at you, and you're not sure if she believes you or not - or if she's about to say something. Because that's when the door bursts open and one of the staff at the Stonewall - a guy who looks like he was called in to cover for Grimes now that Grimes had booked it, is standing in the door. "Sato!" he says, his voice edged with an absolutely panicky, confused tone. "Sato! The fucking President is on the phone for you!"
"What?" you and Martha ask the same thing, at the same time.
The two of you hurry down the stairs after the bartender, with Martha whispering behind you. "Oh my, I think you are actually telling the truth, oh my, oh my, oh my-"
You come to the telephone, which is being held by a shocked looking waitress. She holds it out to you and you take it, gingerly, as if it might explode. You put it to your ear.
"Hello?" you ask.
Through crackling pops and hisses, you hear the familiar sound of LBJ's drawling voice.
"Miss Lily Sato?" he asks, drawing out the a in your name. "This is President Johnson. I would like to talk to you about the current ruckus that's going on - your, ah, new amazing powers and what they mean for yourself, for your family, for the United States and the world. Now, I'm aware that this is quite a lot to heap on a woman of your tender years, but I'm sure you're up to the task. I'm calling to ask if you wouldn't mind meeting somewhere in person, to discuss this here face to face."
Martha, who is watching you with boggling eyes, leans in close and you're pretty sure she just heard all of that.
--- What do you do?
[ ] Write in
CURRENT STATUS
Health: Fine
Willpower: 30
CHECK: Formatting power! It works, you know how this works by now.
CHECK: Officer Kelso tries to cuff ya and you make a break for it, using your Body +Delinquent roll.
ROLL: 10 7 7 5 4 for Kelso and 8 5 2 1 for you! You...throw in your Wiggle Dice.
RESULTS: 2x7 for Kelso, 2x8 for you. Your width ties, so the break goes to the height! You sprint towards the wall and hit it with a 2x10 to make it permeable, 2x10 make it impermeable again, then you're out!
CHECK: Officer Keslo makes a Stability check because he just saw superpowers.
ROLL: 10, 8, 8, 6, 1
RESULT: Kelso, remarkably on the ball, sprints out through the side door and aims his gun at you.
CHECK: Kelso is going to shoot at you cause you ain't freezing. You're going to defend and book it. Your defense pool is 10hd and, with your hyperbody on, your free movement is 40 yards in six seconds, so no roll is required for additional speed.
ROLL: 10, 10, 10, 6, 6, 2 for Kelso.
RESULT: Kelso gets a 3x10 and 2x6. If you weren't a meta, you'd take 3s/3k to the right arm and 4s/4k to the head. You'd be really, really, REALLY dead! As you ARE a metahuman, you get 10x10, which gobbles all those dice and has 5x10 left over.
CHECK: You format your physics fuckery power to hyperbody to run even faster, turning the A, D, and U effects to Hyperbody. This jumps your body from 1d+1wd to 1d+7wd, putting you at 8d in total. And it still has 2 boosters AND no-physics. So, your lifting capacity is 3,200 tons, your run speed is 160 MPH, and your jumps are now 48 yards horizontally and 12 vertically. That's FOUR STORIES.
RESULT: You get across the city in record time.
CHECK: Martha uses her first aid roll (2d for her mind, 3d for her broad skill, and 1d for her narrow skill) to patch up your bruise.
ROLL: (-1d to do an expert roll, setting one die to 10 automatically ) 10, 6, 4, 3, with her pre-set 10.
RESULT: 2x10! This heals 2 shock to the head! Yay!
1968: Stonewall vs President Lyndon B. Johnson & the Legion of Steel Soldiers
You take just a second to collect yourself. To think.
A few days ago, this call would have reduced you to a gibbering panic. But you'd stopped bullets with your mind. You could scale a skyscraper by just jumping real hard. You think if you work it right...you could fly. You could do so much more. And you felt that confidence. So you put on your most mocking tone of voice as you leaned against the wall.
"A pleasure for the phone call Mr. President but you'll have to forgive me," you say, twirling the cord between your fingers. "Not exactly in the most trusting mood if my surveillance detail was A-Okay with one of New York's finest putting a bullet in my head for telling him to fuck off after attempting to arrest me for getting my face punched in at school. I'm sure they didn't skip that detail in your report. Call the Stonewall back after dark and we will arrange the details for speaking about- this, since you know the place and number."
You slam the phone down before he can respond.
---
The President frowned at his phone.
"Brenda," he said.
"Yes, Mr. President?" Brenda Harkness, one of his best and most loyal aides, spoke up from her normal place in the office, her arms holding her collection of files and papers to her chest.
"Find whatever stupid son of a bitch tried to put a bullet in an A-bomb's head and have him fucking fired," the President said, his voice sharp. "Right now."
"Yes, Mr. President!" There was no hesitation whatsoever.
"And get me a plane to New York."
"...yes, Mr. President!"
---
"Martha, do you want superpowers?" you ask, watching her as she gapes at you.
"You...just hung up on the President of the United States of America!" she said. You looked at her through your bangs and grinned at her. She shook her head, put her hands on her hips, and huffed. "Well, I'm proud of your bravery. If not your common sense."
"Yeah, well," you say, then spread your hands. "Want superpowers?"
"...superwhat?" the bartender asked, but Martha was already nodding. You stepped over and tapped her, enfolding her body in the same shimmering antigravitational field that you had put on Alan. She drifted upwards, then wriggled slightly, laughing.
"How...how do I get down?" she asked, as you retract the powers - and she drops down, then looks at her hands. Her brow furrows. "When do I get the powers?" she asks and you blush slightly.
"Not sure," you say. "It...just...comes to you - Andy didn't even notice until he was pulling phones from the future."
"Phones from...the..." Martha muttered, her eyes wide, while you went to the phone and started to punch in numbers, tugging on the rotary dial, letting each one click and clack into place. The first person you called, obviously, was Andy's home. It was near the end of the school day, you think, so you had a good shot of getting him. The phone picked up and you heard his mom.
"This is the Richter residence, who may I ask is calling?"
You sound as cheerful and normal as you can. "Hey, Janice, it's Lily, is Andy in?"
"No, he's not, I thought he was hanging out with you," she says, while the doors to Stonewall open and Andy comes stumbling in, followed by Brian's tall, handsome (or so you've been told) self, then Rachel, Sabbi, Tori, Lisa, and finally, Theo. All of them look like they'd been booking it, except for Theo who never looked anything but completely unruffled and like he should be on some propaganda billboard. You gape at them, then stammer into the phone.
"Uh, uh, uh, actually, uh, it's cool, he just showed up, bye, bye, bye," you say, while Mrs. Richter tries to say something.
"What is-"
You click the phone back onto the cradle and step away from Martha, who is beginning to shake her head. "Oh no, no, no, no," she says, while your brain shuts down because Rachel and Sabbi are both walking towards you at the same time. Sabbi - er, Sabah Attar - is just one of the prettiest girls you've ever met. She's curvy with a heart shaped face and dark, dark, dark brown eyes and long straight black hair that, unlike yours, never look ratty and knotty. She is dressed in jeans and a tied-dyed shirt that swept around her hips and she was just a bit taller than you. Having Rachel next to her is just unfair...to you because Rachel is the opposite end of all your buttons and hits them just as hard. She's tall and she's tough and she radiates a coolness that you can't even put a finger on. She's always looking off and to the side, as if she was just...too...cool for this room, and she fucking sold it. Her hair was short cropped, cut by her own hand into a ragged pattern, and she wore patched together clothes that she afforded by doing her odd jobs, since...she, well, she wasn't in school like the rest of you since she had run away from home when she was fourteen.
"What's up?" Rachel asked.
"Are you okay, I heard you got punched and there was a gunshot, and everyone had to go home early!" Sabbi said, throwing her arms around you.
Your brain shot up through the roof, past the clouds, and into heaven. Sabbi was...hug. Wow. Okay. Cool! Hug. Ah. Ahhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhh.
"I got them all here," Andy said, panting.
"Yeah, he didn't say why," Theo said, cheerfully. "But since you're here and not locked up by the Man, I figure you're in deep shit and looking to get us all into deep shit and I am here for it."
"Shut up, Theo," Tori says, while Martha frowns and opens her mouth - but before she can object to the plan you've clearly figured out, you stammer.
"Do you guys want superpowers?"
The whole group blinks at you. Brian looks like he's actually getting irritated. Theo look confused. Tori blinks a few dozen times. Rachel actually looks into your eyes. Sabbi opens her mouth in shock. Lisa snorts, quietly. "Fucking what?"
You point at the air above your head and futz around with how light works just a tiny bit. Enough to make an erratic spray of light, flashing and hissing and sparking. It's obvious and impressive enough to shut everyone up. Andy steps up next to your, his hands in his pockets, looking sheepish as he smiles a bit. "I have powers too," he says. "She gave them to me - it's pretty clear that they're infectious. We have one, a...a progenitor that gave it to a bunch of VC when the US government sent her overseas - you all saw her on the news. The VC comes back and hits us, and then gives Lily superpowers. Now Lily gives us superpowers." He slaps your shoulder. The others look like they're thinking.
Brian, to your surprise, is the first to step forward. "Shit...superpowers?" he asks. "I'm in."
Sabbi nods.
Rachel doesn't meet your eyes. She does say: "Yeah, I want them."
"You're going to waste superpowers on a white boy like-" Theo starts.
"Theo, you once hit a neo-nazi with a fucking bat to save my ass," you say. "Fucking yes."
Theo blushes and mutters something unintelligible.
Tori and Lisa both nod. Tori rolls her shoulders, bounces on her toes, like she's about to go for a sprint.
Martha puts her hand on your shoulder. She leans in close, her voice soft. "Lily...you know, if you do this, all of you...every last one of you are going to be...you're going to be in the thick of it. And people die when...when power like this runs up against the cops and the army. I've seen it before. Not like this, but..." She shakes her head. "You won't be able to hide."
You hesitate, for a moment, then look at the others.
"We're ready," Brian says. "And, respectfully, Miss Johnson, we were already in the thick of it. Hiding isn't better than fighting, if you ask me."
You nod. Martha smiles, slightly. "You're all good kids, you know?" She asks as you slam your palm down. This time, rather than making a bubble of anti-gravity around one person, you lift everyone around you. The shimmering wave of it pulses out and each of you begin to float in the air. The air sparkles with shimmering light and you feel a weight lifting off your shoulders. No matter what happens, you're not alone. You tumble head over head, slowly, as Tori laughs and Sabbi claps her hands.
"This is amazing!" she says as Martha floats past you - and then gasps as her skin begins to turn bright, bright green.
As she drifts away from you, you turn your head to Andy. "So, Andy, I got something I want you to make."
---
Airforce-One touched down in JFK-International at the same time as a pair of heavy duty C-141 cargo planes. All three squealed to a stop and rather than the normal staff meeting them, the tarmac was crowded with FBI special agents and military duty personal pulled from the nearest bases in a tearing hurry. The sky was dark - it was nearly 2 in the morning, and the air was freezing cold and the special agents and soldier's breath fogged in the air. The door to Airforce-One swung down and the President and the Secret Service came off.
"Mr. President!" one of the FBI agents shouted, jogging over, followed by a round faced, pinched looking man. "Special Agent Crawford, we were sent here to help coordinate with the...this is, uh, Director Pine-"
"A pleasure to meet you two, excellent work I've heard you're doing," the President said, taking both their hands, shaking them as the engines whirred down. "But your men will be serving as support operations here."
"I, uh...I was briefed on the situation, this meat-ah human thing," Director Pine said, clearly having only read the word 'metahuman' on a report and heard it pronounced by people who had only read it on a report themselves. "We're facing highly dangerous individuals, and my men are ready to face up to the challenge."
The President smiled at him, slapped his back in a comradly sort of way. "Don't worry, Director, your men will have plenty of chances to show their pluck. But I have some special forces here to deal with this situation, if things go, as the army says...FUBAR." He timed it with almost theatric good timing - the fronts of the cargo planes were opening. Director Pine and Agent Crawford turned - and watched as the surreal present strode from the planes. The front row could not be mistaken for human. The second row made it even clearer. The third trampled the idea underfoot. They marched in perfect unison, their feet clanging off metal and cracking against tarmac.
They had the shape of human men. They had army uniforms. They carried M16s. They had M1 helmets.
The only problem was the people in this uniform were not people. They were earth. And turf. And stone. And, in some cases, steel.
Two whole platoons of them - nearly a hundred living masses of earth and steel - and they marched up behind the President, forming into ranks and coming to attention. One of them, a steel skinned officer who's face gleamed in the light of the landing field, stepped forward and spoke to Director Pine and Special Agent Crawford. "Lieutenant 009, 1st Steel Company, 2nd platoon, reporting for duty." His voice sounded like it had been produced by ringing strings inside of his breast. Musical. Alien. But understandable.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?"
The President, Crawford, 009, Pine, and a good chunk of 2nd Platoon all snapped their heads around.
Standing about ten yards away from them, looking perfectly real, were two teenagers. One of them was a seventeen year old asian girl with long, ratty hair and clothes that looked like it badly needed a wash, while the other was a taller, more gangly looking white boy with dark hair and a fascinated expression on his features. He cocked his head.
---
"I think the right question is who is that," Andy says as he stands next to you on the...well, he called it the 'holo projector.' It looked like, to you, like a collection of wires, cables, bits, bobs, and glass that he had yoinked from the future and put together with a feverish speed. It had a thick power cable running into the wall socket and was currently making an unmistakable humming, whirring noise while emitting enough light to make the Stonewall seem like it was midday. Most everyone was still around, watching nervously...but they couldn't see what you saw. You were mostly running on catnaps and caffeine, so you were not sure you were seeing what you were seeing, but...
What you saw was...
Well, you could both see Stonewall around you...and a ten yard wide circle of space. It looked like an airport runaway, though the vision stopped about ten yards away from you into a shimmering wall of confused white sparkles. You could see the President himself, some spooks, and...a fucking army guy made out of fucking steel.
You shook yourself, while the President walked forward, looking you up and down.
"What is this?" he asks, his voice sharp.
"A holographic projection," Andy said. "We're not physical, you can just put your hand right through me."
The President frowns, while the spooks hurry forward, clearly terrified of him running towards danger. You're honestly a bit shocked - was LBJ like, a total badass or something? He put his finger up against your face and you forced yourself not to flinch as his finger goes into your cheek. You don't feel it, and he doesn't feel you, but you still wave your hand to try and get him to draw his hand back. He nods, slowly.
"Well, you've definitely got a nice toy here," he says. "I'd buy ten, if you were selling."
"Thanks, Mr. President," Andy says, nodding. "So, uh...we figured it'd be safer talking like this. Since, uh, you can't..." He trails off, not saying 'have us shot when we're holograms' for which you're grateful.
The President still frowns at that. So, he's not completely dense.
"Well, Lily, and..."
"Andy Richter!" Andy says.
"Well, Lily, Andy," the President said. "Lets talk brass tacks. You are aware that our country's in danger - the reds have supers, which changes the balance of power like that." He snaps his finger. "Our cities aren't safe from them - and that includes all of you. I've been told you have...personal proclivities that...render normal channels of legal employment difficult."
"I'm a dyke, you mean," you say, frowning at him.
"Yes, well," the President said as the two spooks that he has - the high ranked looking ones, not the guards - look at you like you're scum of the Earth. More so than already.
Then something interesting happens.
"What is a dyke?" the steel guy asks, as if he was born yesterday.
"I like making out with girls," you say.
"Ah," he says. Then he frowns. "Sir, why is this against the law?" He looks right at the President as he speaks.
"Not right now, Lieutenant," the President says, and...though there's nothing special to his voice from your perspective, it has a clear, obvious effect on the steel guy, since he nods and immediately goes to stiff attention, like he's a robot. Maybe the President has some kind of special command over this...steel guy? You glance at Andy, who is looking fascinated, his finger rubbing along his chin.
"...artificial intelligence..." he whispered, very softly. "A thinking machine."
Ignoring him - since, well, he had whispered it so soft you barely heard it - the President tries to get things back on track. "I'm willing to overlook your personal failings and to offer you a similar position as our other extranormal operatives. Proper standing and employment with the United States government, putting your powers to the betterment of society."
Like killing babies in Vietnam? you think.
--- Okay! You've got a reasonably peaceful situation, where Mr. President's biggest oomph is unpowered, and you have some forward warning about the Steel Soldiers and Turf Warriors. That's good! ...right? What do you say?
[ ] Write In
CURRENT STATUS
Health: Fine
Willpower: 44 (+minor girls, major queer rights, major your friends, minor fuck the police)
CHECK: Sergeant Christopher Marshall makes two platoons of Turf Warriors and Steel Officers to lead them. It takes him approximately 42 seconds (7 combat rounds.)
ROLL + RESULT: Each time: 2x10 for the 2hd+8d Turf Warrior roll, 2x10 for the 2hd Steel officer roll. The Turf Warriors come in batches of 10 and are minions, while the Steel Officers come 1 at a time and are standard characters. They all have permanent duration.
CHECK: Convincing your buddies. Andy adds +1d to your roll by assisting, bumping you from 5 to 6! That's a +15% chance to succeed because of Wild Talent's weird ass bell curve!
ROLL: 10 9 7 7 3 2
RESULT: 2x7. They buy it, as shocking as it is
CHECK: Andy makes a holoprojector. It is two Useful effect with a Foci (-1) and Fragile (-1) and 2 levels of Booster on the first, and Foci (-1) and Fragile (-1) and Attached [Communication] (-2) with Radius (+2). Total cost: 0 points! He builds it with 2d+2wd, costing him 10 WP. He will get this WP back once he deconstructs it. Then, after writing this, I remember he needs to put Manufacturable (+2) on it. So he'll give it Obvious (-1) and If/Then [Requires Power] (-1.) So, this thing is LOUD and bright in your area, and also, needs to be plugged in.
ROLL: 10x10 makes the gadget, taking him 1 hours. (width-5 hours, minimum 1). Then USING the gadget's dice pool gets 9 and 3
RESULT: 2x9 for communication, 2x3 for scrying, means you have a view of the radius around the point you're looking at and can project yourselves there as near perfect holograms!
CONTENT WARNING: Some racial slurs, used in righteous sarcasm.
You snort. "Care to fucking elaborate?" you ask, your voice bitter and edged. "You want me to kick my people in the head the same way the whole American system has been kicking me in the head my whole fucking life? Keep the blacks on their backs, don't let the slanteyes get any ideas?" You glare at him, almost trembling slightly. "Hey, maybe I could clear the redskins out of any of the spots you missed, and lets not forget the fucking Irish and Italians and white trash commies that your goon squad want to kick in the ass. Or....or..." you spread your hands. "Maybe you want to actually make America better for Americans. All of us. Not just men. Not just whites. Not just Christians. Not just the straights."
Andy gives you a look.
The President's face has gotten...shockingly calm. Next to him, the spooks are trembling. The secret service guys look ready to draw their guns.
"Take a walk," he says, flicking his hand.
The metal dude turns on his heel and marches off. The secret service take their hands from their guns and leave, ambling away. The two FBI agents don't even blink, they just wheel off, all of these big powerful men leaving you and Andy and Mr. President, glaring at one another over holographic space. You're beginning to really get what powers the mysterious first super, the girl that Andy has already taken to calling the 'Originator', has given to the President. Probably without even knowing she was doing it.
"All right," the President says, his voice icy calm. "As much as you'd prefer to think of me as one, Miss Sato, I am not an idiot. We're fighting a war for the future of this country - against communism, and against the metahumans in Vietnam. You may hate me. But you do not hate America, or Americans." He smirked. "Though, I'm sure Wall Street would disagree, and the Klan. But I am neither beholden to Wall Street, nor do I listen to those sheet wearing hoolignas, and I know when to fold, and when to hold." He nods. "I propose...a compromise. The United States government steps back, gives you your space. You obey our laws-"
"Hey!" You say. "It's against the law for me-"
"You obey our laws," he says, more firmly. "Save for those that cannot be proven to be broken, if you take my meaning Miss Sato." He freights the words as hard as he can. You're sure if you were in the same room, they'd hit like punches to the face. "You will not cooperate with any criminal elements - the Mafia owns that little bar of yours. I want that ownership to change - no more connection to crimes that can be proven. And, finally, you provide the services of at least..." He pauses. "Three of your members to logistic operations. Nothing directly military. Nothing overseas. Nothing involving police work. I want disaster response, famine prevention, healing people if you can do it - we already know that our operative can heal people." He nods. "You do that, you can do whatever the damn hell you want. Run for Mayor for all I care!"
You frown at him.
"And protect the country," Andy says, quietly.
"If the Vietcong drop their next rock on New York, I fully expect your well tuned senses of self preservation will kick in," Mr. President says, his voice edged with sarcasm.
Andy bites his lip, glancing at you.
"Three of wh-"
"We know you know how powers spread," the President says. You feel a cold creeping dread. How does he know that? But then again, how had they known about you? It remained a mystery that left your stomach tightening and releasing with nerves.
"And if we say no?" you ask.
"Then..." the President is silent. "Then you'll need to face the entire might of the United States government. We don't go looking for this fight, Miss Sato. But make no mistakes, we will end it."
Your eyes and his meet. You can see that he doesn't want to do it. But he will.
"...one second," you say, then step back and away. You turn, slowly, to the room, where everyone is sitting, waiting for the results. Sabah is making dust motes flow around her palms. Lisa is brushing her hand along her brand new fox ears. Martha is watching a flower grow from her palm. She closes her hand and the flower itself snaps free, drifting away on the wind, settling against your chest. You take it, then smile at her, gently. You sigh. "The President is offering a compromise.
"What kind of compromise?" Brian asks, his voice soft as he sits on a table, his legs drawn up against his chest.
"He gives us space, three of us have to work with the government on anything not related to the war or busting heads. He said stuff like disaster response, famine prevention, healing...that kind of thing," you say.
Everyone is quiet, thinking.
"What do you think?" Sabah asks, her voice soft. You blink, and realize they're all looking at you, to see which way you swing.
--- Well? No write ins - any attempt to negotiate, just telling you now, will get hammered with LBJ's 10hd in Command+Stability and he'll just react as if you had rejected it. You can tell you've pushed him up to the very edge of his ability to take guff.
[ ] Go for it (lose a major fuck the police, gain a major friends)
[ ] Reject it, knowing you throw your friends into a war or leaving everything they love (gain a major fuck the police, lose a major friends)
CURRENT STATUS
Health: Fine
Willpower: 43 (-2d for spend, +minor fuck the police)
CHECK: LBJ makes a Command+Stability to resist the emotional punch of your words.
ROLL: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
RESULT: 10x10. Guys, I don't think you're getting through to him. However, while he emotionally can disregard your worlds, he will make...
CHECK: LBJ makes a Sense+Politician roll to get a gauge for you and a Mind+Politician roll to determine the possibilities of what he thinks
SENSE ROLL: (-1d to call for a 10): 8, 7, 5, 5, 2 (10)
MIND ROLL: (-1d to call for a 10): 10, 9, 7, 4, 3 (10)
RESULT: 2x5 - he gets that you don't like the government, you're rebellious, you don't think much of his imperialism, that you disdain the society that treats you like garbage, and are unrepentantly gay. This is all stuff you're not hiding. 2x10 - he has a pretty clear headed understanding of realpolitik and the situation. LBJ is not a foolish man.
CHECK: LBJ asks for privacy.
ROLL: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
RESULT: At 10hd in charm, he can convince anyone of anything in Width-5 Rounds. At 10hd in command, he can bark an order that anyone will follow - including killing themselves - so long as it doesn't take more than a round. The men go.
