PROGENITOR: WORM (A Wormquest AU)

[DragonCobolt]

SUSPICION​	TECHNOLOGY​	ECONOMY​	WARFARE​
2​	3​	3​	2​

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

Spoiler: Lily's Stats

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

Spoiler: Powers

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

Spoiler: Powers

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.

Matterkinesis
Dice: 9d+1wd
Range: 510 Yards | Mass: 1.28 Tons| Speed: 128 Yards
Attacks (+2), High Capacity [Mass, Range] (+2), Power Capacity [Mass, Range] (+4), Spray [1d] (+1), If/Then [Only Manipulates Unliving Matter] (-1), Limited Capacity (-1)
Defend (+2), Power Capacity [Range] (+2), Spray [1d] (+1), If/Then [Only Manipulates Unliving Matter] (-1), Limited Capacity (-1)
Useful (+2), Duration (+2), High Capacity [Mass, Range] (+2), Power Capacity [Mass, Range] (+4), Spray [1d] (+1), If/Then [Only Manipulates Unliving Matter] (-1), Limited Capacity (-1)
Cost Per Die: 19 | Total Cost: 247 points

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

Spoiler: Powers

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

Spoiler: Powers

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

Spoiler: Powers

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.

Marsha P. Johnson, The Queen of Stonewall

Spoiler: Powers

MARSHA HAS 11 BASE WILL

Flower Power
Dice: 9d+1wd
Attacks (+2), Endless (+3), Variable Effect (+4), If/Then [For Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [All Effects are Plant Themed] (-1)
Defends (+2), Endless (+3), Variable Effect (+4), If/Then [For Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [All Effects are Plant Themed] (-1)
Useful (+2), Endless (+3), Variable Effect (+4), If/Then [For Variable Effect Only] (-1), If/Then [All Effects are Plant Themed] (-1)
Cost Per Die: 21 | Total Cost: 273

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!

Tori Heflin, The Telekinetic Smuggler

Spoiler: Powers

TORI HAS 8 BASE WILL

Invisible Telekinesis
Dice: 3d+1wd
Attacks (+2), Booster (+4), High Capacity [Mass] (+2), Non-Physical (+2), Power Capacity [Mass] (+2), Subtle (+1), Spray [1d] (+1), Locational [head] (-1)
Defends (+2), Controlled Effect (+1), Duration (+2), Interference (+3), Power Capacity [Range] (+2), Radius [1] (+2), Subtle (+1), Locational [head] (-1)
Useful (+2), Duration (+2), Booster (+4), High Capacity [Mass, Speed] (+2), Power Capacity [Mass, Speed] (+4), Subtle (+1), Locational [head] (-1),
Useful (+2), Booster (+4), Engulf (+2), High Capacity [Mass] (+1), Power Capacity [Mass] (+2) Attached [Telekinesis] (-2),
Cost Per Die: 45 | Total Cost: 315

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.

Brian Laborn, The Power in Obscurity

Spoiler: Powers

BRIAN HAS 7 BASE WILL

Grueclouds
Dice: 9hd
Attack (+2), Daze (+1), Duration (+2), Radius (1) (+2), Non-Physical (+2), Spray [1d] (+1), Limited Damage (shock) (-1), Limited Width (-1)
Useful (+2), Duration (+2), Radius (+1), Attached [Dazing Cloud] (-2), Automatic (-1)
Cost Per Die: 10 | Total Cost: 180

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

Spoiler: List

• 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...

Eye Eye, Sir!
Dice: 1d+2wd
Defends [Evasion] (+0)
Useful [Exists] (+0), Permanent (+4), Touch Only (-2)
Points Per Die: 2 | Cost: 18

By focusing, an eyeball grows inside of Brian's body, then pops out. It's gross.

Why Is It So Tough, It's An Eyeball!?
Dice: 1d+2wd
Useful [Health Boxes] (+0), Permanent (+4), Attached [Eye Eye, Ma'am!] (-2)
Willpower Cost: 2 | Cost: 18

When he creates the Eyeballs (which, as a note, he currently cannot), Brian can only give them 3 extra health levels, making them much smaller.

Eyebeam
Dice: 1d+2wd
Attacks [Eyebeam] (+0), Spray [5d] (+5), Attached [Eye Eye, Ma'am!] (-2)
Willpower Cost: 3 | Cost: 27

The Eyes have laser beams. Because they're eyes. Brian's eyes will have a total of 6d+2wd, rather than 9d+1wd.

Eyeflight
Dice: 1d+2wd
Defends (+0), Attached [Eye Eye, Ma'am!] (-2)
Useful (+0), Permanent (+4) Attached [Eye Eye, Ma'am!] (-2)
Willpower Cost: 2 | Cost: 18

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!!!!!

Spoiler: Yiggy - Team HQ

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!

Spoiler: The Big Old Table from the Kerberos Club Book

 

[DragonCobolt]

"...this...feels off," you say.

"Huh?" Lisa asks.

"This is kinda like if we were two hydrogen atoms in a big tank the size of New Jersey...and we just bumped into each other by accident," you say, quietly.

Lisa opened her mouth, then closed it.

"Okay, when you put it that way, it is a bit suspicious."

***
​

The bridge of the Yiggy is dead silent for a solid twenty seconds.

It's funny. In stories, you sometimes hear things like 'a minute of silence' or 'the silence stretched on for minutes' and it sounds like a short pause - but even twenty seconds of absolute stillness feels like forever when you're actually there. This is a thought that only occurs once the silence is broken, though.

Because those twenty seconds are spent in complete, utter, silent shock.

"Well. Fuck me," Andy says.

"Is that what I think it is?" Sabah whispers.

"I..." Andy gulps. "Okay. Wait. Lets all...lets all just...lets all just take a second here. Dark energy manipulation produces extremely odd results. We've seen people turn into clouds of sentient energy, we've seen...sentient comic book characters, this isn't actually that weird."

The thing that Andy was declaring was not that weird...was the alien floating in the telescopic view.

It had looked humanoid. At first. Then, as the telescope dialed in and got more and more focused, that humanoid shape had turned out to be a lie, created by the triangular trunk of the central body. Three sided, each roughly equally sized, each one faintly bowed outwards, as if the inside was pressurized, each one lined with three sets of eyes, creating nine eyes in total. The upper vertexes (at least, upper from your orientation) both sprouted a pair of tentacles that wound around one another to create the 'arms' you had seen from a distance. The lower vertex has has a single thick tentacle that bifurcates halfway down, creating the leg-shapes you had seen from the distance.

The whole thing 'stood', for lack of a better word, upon a slab of stone that looked for all the world as if it had been etched with a kind of angular, edged writing.

"That slab?" Beta says, pointing at it. "Is it some kind of dark energy foci? Is it a dark energy creature?"

You frown, then step over to the console. One part of the bridge - the part of the bridge no one fucking trusted - had been given to you as a present by Cam. It was one of her very own dark energy detectors, and it was tied to various sensors and antennas along one of the limbs of the Yiggy's branches. You brushed those antennas across the creature and read the results, scowling a bit. "Yes and no," you say. "They're both dark energy sources, but...Beta, Andy, look at this."

The two hyperbrains walk over and lean over.

"Oh, well, that's a relief," Andy says, grinning. "They're dark energy constructs. See the emission patterns, it's just like a turf warrior, this thing is just a chunk of dark energy that someone spat out with a very weird idea of aesthetics."

Beta nods.

"You two are missing something, though," you say, quietly. "Dark energy physics are still...expressed with human mathematic structures. We're base ten critters, most of us." You tap the readout. "This thing's matrix is base twelve."

"That...isn't conclusive..."

"Every single dark energy construct I've ever seen in my life, from Turf Warriors to Puppets to Amanda's weird demon things," you say. "Has had the same basic structure underlying their outward manifestation. We're all working with the same rough brain pattern. This one is different."

Andy frowns.

Beta frowns harder.

"Maybe they had...brain damage?" Andy says, nervously. "Before they got infused."

"Maybe it's a fucking alien!" you say.

Rachel, who has been watching the telescope, frowns. "What do we do if it is an alien?"

"Heck, what do we do if it's not?" Theo asks. "A creepy weird construct made by a metahuman so fucking weird that they make critters in a completely alien mode from the rest of us also seems like a big pile of nope."

You're all quiet for a bit.

"We could, uh, try talking to them," Sabah says. "Just. An idea here."

"I like that idea," Marsha says, chuckling. "Is their body suspended in one of those, uh...what did you call it?" She smiles at you.

"Implausibility bubbles, yeah," you say, then check the scans. Some metahumans could survive in space. A lot of them also just gave the finger to physics and let their voices transmit through vacuum as if it was air. How? Fuck you, that was why. You nodded. "It seems to be suspended in one from the tablet. I think the tablet's also their FTL system and travel system. The actual construct...not sure...it's definitely stronger than your average Turf Warrior."

"So, closer to a Shavian?" Andy asks.

"Yeah," you say.

"Okay," Andy rubs his palm along his face. "We can aim a loudspeaker at it and their implausibility bubble will pick it up without us needing to worry about technological interfaces..."

"Thank you dark energy," you say, quietly.

"What do we say?" Andy asks. "Try something with English? Flash them some math?"

"Math?" Lisa asks.

"Yeah, to start setting up a mode of communication that's shared across the universe - math's math, it's always math," Andy says.

"Andy, we live on a flying tree that makes physics cry," you say.

"Still!" Andy sounds defensive.

---
AN ALIEN!?
[ ] Say something - write in what!
[ ] Go out and say hi, where you can use your powers to try and translate
[ ] Leave and go home and check with, like, I dunno, a government or something to get an actual ambassador?
[ ] Write In

 

[w34v3r]

[x] Say something - "What's a respectable looking type like you doing out here in the shit end of the galaxy?"

 

[Parzival95]

[X] Inform Cam, Weeks, and Amanda about the potential first contact scenario while Andy improvs mathematical communication. Try to get across a message of peaceful greeting and otherwise be very sure that the first interstellar war isn't humanities fault. That would be very embarrassing.

 

[10ebbor10]

"You two are missing something, though," you say, quietly. "Dark energy physics are still...expressed with human mathematic structures. We're base ten critters, most of us." You tap the readout. "This thing's matrix is base twelve."

"That...isn't conclusive..."

Click to shrink...

Well, that's awefully western centric of you, Lily. There are multiple languages which have duodecimal numerals.

[x] Go out and say hi, where you can use your powers to try and translate

Frankly, we don't have the time to drag off everyone else every time.

 

[SweetJackal]

[x] Go out and say hi, where you can use your powers to try and translate

 

[DragonCobolt]

Well, that's awefully western centric of you, Lily. There are multiple languages which have duodecimal numerals.

Click to shrink...

Yes, well.............................

*runs away*

 

[ThatGazzer]

[X] Inform Cam, Weeks, and Amanda about the potential first contact scenario while Andy improvs mathematical communication. Try to get across a message of peaceful greeting and otherwise be very sure that the first interstellar war isn't humanities fault. That would be very embarrassing.

 

[DragonCobolt]

Hey, guys, just as a quick update: I think I am genuinely burnt out on questing...in...general

Instead of motivation, I just feel tired and like all my quests are dumb and bad, and taking a few weeks off didn't help. I don't know if I'll get motivation back for my current quests, or if when my motivation comes back, it'll just be for new quests or what.

So, just in case, I'm going to put some spoilers for what my plans were for Progenitor here, which you can read, if you want to know what I was gonna generally plan to do next!

Spoiler: Spoilers...FOR THE FUTURE!

Since you all worked very hard to make the world a better place and I don't feel capricious or creative enough to come up with unintended consequences beyond the super obvious stuff, I was going to bring in the big question: How common are Progenitors?

the answer is...more common than you expect, universally. It's extremely rare for dark energy chunks - they're castoffs of the big bang - to hit sentient life. But sentient life is common and space is big, so periodically, these chunks hit people. What happens next depends on the brain architecture of the species and the personality of the individual...but in general, one of three normal outcomes comes out

1) They explode. The dark energy uses the quantum event that is consciousness to interact with the observable universe in a way that is uncontrolled and randomized and, due to the powers involved, the planet tends to be ripped into chunkletts.

2) They fracture. This is what happened to Amanda - she got the power, but human brains don't have enough cohesiveness in our consciousness to maintain a tight control on the dark energy, so it leaks. This leads to worlds like Earth

3) They solidify. This is when a species, due to random biological factors or some quirk of an individual, gets a Progenitor that just...holds onto all the power. They are a singular god-being for their world.

humanity is about to meet the civilizations spawned from these variables - be they diasporics who have lost homeworlds due to unexpected dark energy detonations, or bizarre "superhero" civilizations like Earth...but most frightening of all the Godworlds - where a singular progenitor has shaped it utterly to their singular vision, ranging from merely idiosyncratic to nightmare distortions of inhuman willpower.

Some future adventure hooks

• Not!Darkseid rules Not!Apockylpse. he doesn't conquer, though. He just has 12 billion people who are being tormented constantly to feed his passions and loyalties, and no one is capable of stopping him. What's the moral response to this? Invasion would spark a galactic war - but can you let this monstrosity play out?
• Intergalactic superheroic Olympics
• humanity is courted by two non-Dark Energy factions to be used as superheroic mercs in a far flung galactic war
• A solo progenitor, desperately lonely, asks for humans to sire power progeny on his or her world so he can have some semi-equals.
• Some assholes think we're easy pickings and do a quick invasion

The current encounter, btw, is running into a herald from Not!Darkseid (because of course Not!Darkseid has Not!Silver Surfer, don't be silly.

So, yeah, sorry about burnout everyone.

At least, I think it's burn out. I read a friend's quest and started feeling very sad about how all my quests are stupid and dumb by comparison and my friend erika was like, "No, dragon, that's burn out."

 

[CyberFemme]

Erika is right, your quests are consistently fantastic. You were running a LOT of them at the same time tho, so burnout seems VERY likely.

Edit: Also that premise sounds AWESOME. It really nails tho superhero comics aesthetic but within the trappings of Progenitor.

 

[BioWolf]

Likewise Dragon I love your quests and have been following them religiously. I hope you feel better and do other stuff you enjoy.

Also the the future looked Rad.

 

[Parzival95]

That premise does sound awesome, (and likely to give Cam a stroke), and your situation definitely sounds like burn out. You write…. a lot.

You write a lot about a lot of different things, and they're all interesting. Erika is wise.

 

[CyberFemme]

Yeah, like, notice how Erika's quest output dropped a lot now that's she's got her games and books published?
And then you - already a professional writer with a pretty regular publishing schedule - decided to run like... five quests that gave 1.5k to 2k updates every week?

I wonder why you're feeling stressed.

 

[JNewbold54]

You are a very good writer, I wish I could write as many good stories as you do. And that definitely sounds like burnout.

I've massively enjoyed your quests, and I'm sure when you feel ready to continue, I'll enjoy them just as much.

 

[DragonCobolt]

Thanks everyone <3

all this support really does help

 

[fanficfan]

I jumped on your Rogue Trader quests because I love the setting. I jumped on your other quests (which I know basically nothing about) because you're an awesome QM who creates some fantastic stories for us to enjoy.
If you need a break ,take a break. If you feel like questing again, we will definitely still be here 👍

 

[CyberFemme]

I just realized, we probably wouldn't be able to deal with NotDarkseid right away, but no way the nine would just let it go.
Cue going around the galaxy gathering allies and identifying other threats before crashing down on NotDarkseid (and assorted other shitheels).

True Tales Issues 15-63: The Titanomachy.

Stan Lee (Vibrating Off of This Brane of Existence With Excitement)

 

[DragonCobolt]

"We need to contact Cam and Amanda and the President and the United Nations and we need to figure out how we can communicate safely and...and we need to do so much stuff!" Andy said, looking down at his console, then up at the rest of us.

"Teeny tiny little itty bitty problem with that plan," Lisa said, her ears flattening back against your head. You had time enough to look at the scope to see that the strange creature is gone - before it is before you.

Up close, the alienness of is impossible to deny.

Not because it looked any fucking weirder than it had out there - it had already looked weird enough, being a...goddamn triangle made of rocks and shimmering tubes, floating on a slab of stone that radiates dark energy like it was manifested out of thin air by Jack fucking Grimes. No, it was because the instant that it had manifested itself in the room - bypassing your gravity shields by the simple expedient of teleportation (or, for all you knew, even stranger and harder to understand methods of travel) - and it had immediately begun...to...

Speak.

Your hands clapped over your ears - but the sound itself isn't really a sound. It's more like the idea of a sound, originating inside of your head and echoing outwards. You feel alien sensations crawling up your nervous system, buzzing against your thoughts and pushing moist fingers into your optic nerves. Colors you had never seen swam before your eyes, and sounds you had never been meant to hear buzzed through you. But what was worse was the thoughts.

Then, all at once, it was over.

You stumbled backwards, dark energy flaring around your palms as you instinctively got ready to obliterate this fucker - an immediate, gut deep response that shocks you. But then you hear the sing-song buzzing in your head, humming softly: Well, that was rude!

For a dizzying second, you think that it was the alien talking.

But the alien is gone.

"Where the fuck did he go?" Brian asks, his hands over his head too.

"He's traveling away from us at a pretty decent clip, we can match his speed easily enough if we try, thanks Buzzy," Andy says, his voice clipped. Beta is sagging back into one of the carved wooden seats, her head in her hands, her fingers rubbing her temples. She doesn't even have a body like we do.

"What was that?" Sabah asked. "I...I felt...things."

"He was beaming information straight into our heads," Andy said, his voice tight. "Direct transmission, nerve to nerve, without any amelioration. That'd have caused a headache between two humans doing it, and we're evolved in the same freaking biosphere." You're looking at everyone - and everyone is looking shaken. You probe the mental wreckage that was the memory of that moment and wince away from it. The thoughts aren't just...alien.

Something about them makes you feel faintly queasy.

The only person who is looking chipper is Lisa.

"How the fuck are you okay?" you ask.

"I dodged," Lisa said.

"...you...dodged. The telepathic attack?"

Lisa shrugged. "What can I say?" She spread her hands.

"It wasn't an attack," Beta says. "It was a message. And starcharts." She shakes her head, lowering her hands from her face, her eyes looking haunted. "And a warning."

Everyone looks at her. Tori crosses her arms over her chest. Marsha steps over, putting her hand on her shoulder, gently. On the telescopes, the figure is very distant now - shooting out towards interstellar space on a bizarre angle. Of course, he doesn't have to follow the plane of the ecliptic, now that you think about it.

"What warning?" you ask, quietly.

"There is...a...sphere about...five light years wide around Bernard's Star. We got close to it...well, the IEG got close to it with their expedition to Alpha Centauri. So, this herald came to tell us to...back off, basically," Beta said, her lips pursing. "Guys. There's a Progenitor there."

The silence in the room is ringing.

You put your hand on your head, dragging your hat off, slowly. You brush your fingers through your hair.

A Progenitor.

An alien Progenitor.

The possibilities are as exciting as they are terrifying. You've seen what human metahumans can do. You're trying to imagine what alien ones might accomplish. And worse, the idea of someone just deciding to send a message like that just to neighbors - not a greeting, but a dictate. It wasn't exactly promising.

"...shit," you say. "Wait, the IEG? Did they get this message too?"

"I don't know any details beyond that," Beta says.

"Understanding these thoughts is pretty hard," Andy explains. "Even with an exo-cortex."

"Too alien for you?" Lisa asks.

"No," Andy's voice is soft. "Too...evil."

"Evil?" Marsha asks, her brow knitting. Flowers bloom along her hair - the colors of agitation flaring against her luxurious strands. "Andy, you know as well as-"

"I know what I normally say about the other being just not understood!" Andy says, holding up his hand. "But something about this transmission screams evil. Just...there are flashes of imagery, I'm still untangling it in my mind - but they're of a planet...with...with not nice things happening on it. Like..." His voice drops. "Like looking into hell."

"Why!?" Sabah exclaimed.

We all look at her.

"They're alien?" Theo suggests.

"That's a STUPID reason, Theo!" Sabah sounds exasperated. "People don't just do things because they're evil!"

"Maybe they have an alien psychology, so, what looks like pure evil to us is just normal, every day stuff for them," Rachel says, quietly.

"I hope you're wrong, Rachel," Andy says. "Because if that's their normal..."

You all mull on that.

The blip is almost out of scope range.

---
what do?
[ ] Chase the Herald down and use Marsha's powers to filter the telepathic communication to human norms. Maybe you're misunderstanding something.
[ ] ...lets go talk to the UN. And Amanda.
[ ] Write In

 

[ThatGazzer]

[X] ...lets go talk to the UN. And Amanda.

Aaaaaaaaaaaa!

 

[dragonkid11]

[X] ...lets go talk to the UN. And Amanda.

 

[DragonCobolt]

...yes, I did sneak a dodge charms joke in there cause I'm big brained and have amazing taste

 

[notbirdofprey]

Wait, what?

 

[Torgamous]

I don't know what it was a reference to, but it was a good bit.

 

[w34v3r]

Keychain of Creation, it's been too damned long.

 

[JNewbold54]

[X] ...lets go talk to the UN. And Amanda.

 

[Torgamous]

[x] Chase the Herald down and use Marsha's powers to filter the telepathic communication to human norms. Maybe you're misunderstanding something.