I wasn't referring to being controlled? But I suppose the reminder was needed.
Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)
- Thread starter Silently Watches
- Start date
- Location
- Georgia
Charm testing: omake one of I don't know how many(I have ideas for three more, but whether I'll be able to follow through, I cannot say.)
Far out in the deserts of Arizona, forty miles from the closest human dwelling, lies a testing ground used by the PRT for anti-Endbringer/Class S threat weapons testing and training abilities that are too dangerous to work on in the normal, smaller scale options available to the various Protectorate teams. On this day, a small group has gathered there, surrounded by a number of structures constructed(and often reconstructed) by a cape named Builder.
Alexandria is the first to speak, "So, how, exactly, do these charms of yours work?"
Maclibuin responded, "Each one can enhance any cape's power by generating a field that allows the energies parahuman's use to flow more freely. The exact benefit varies as much as the powers involved do, but the effect lasts for roughly 60 seconds." He handed over a small, silvery charm shaped like a book.
Alexandria smirked for a moment at somebody referencing her namesake library. So few people remembered that detail. She could feel the energy contained in the charm from the moment she touched it. As the original 'untouchable', the perfect brute, of course she insisted on being the first person to test a charm. Testing her durability wasn't an option. Her strength, likewise, was limited more by leverage than the amount of force she could generate, so testing that would be problematic. As for her perfect recall, how could that be enhanced? Would she start remembering things that might have happened? No, there was only one power she had that lent itself to testing.
Floating over to a long straightaway painted with a series of stripes for reference, she looked to Armsmaster, who was overseeing the recording gear. Armsmaster gave her a thumbs up, prompting her to draw on the power hidden in the charm and vanish. A fraction of a second later, the onlookers winced at the sonic boom that rolled over them. Ten to fifteen seconds later, a dot in the sky resolved itself into a figure flying back at a more sedate pace. Armsmaster, who hadn't visibly reacted to the sonic boom, finished up his initial study of the data. He waited for Alexandria to get back before speaking, "That was at least a 50% boost to acceleration. Top speed seems higher, too, but you got out of range of the monitoring equipment before you stopped accelerating."
The onlookers, most of whom were there to test a charm's effect on their own powers(Samantha, Calamity Witch, and Maclibuin had no parahuman powers to enhance. Vista was just there to watch. Despite her arguments to the contrary, she wasn't being allowed to test a charm in the first round) starting chomping at the bit, eager to see what they got out of the boost.
* Suggested effect for Alexandria: Increased top speed and acceleration, greatly increasing her Flying Haymaker of Doom maneuver.
Edit: This isn't me trying to pad my omake count. This is just the point where my mind started to get fuzzy and uncooperative. Health issues suck.
Far out in the deserts of Arizona, forty miles from the closest human dwelling, lies a testing ground used by the PRT for anti-Endbringer/Class S threat weapons testing and training abilities that are too dangerous to work on in the normal, smaller scale options available to the various Protectorate teams. On this day, a small group has gathered there, surrounded by a number of structures constructed(and often reconstructed) by a cape named Builder.
Alexandria is the first to speak, "So, how, exactly, do these charms of yours work?"
Maclibuin responded, "Each one can enhance any cape's power by generating a field that allows the energies parahuman's use to flow more freely. The exact benefit varies as much as the powers involved do, but the effect lasts for roughly 60 seconds." He handed over a small, silvery charm shaped like a book.
Alexandria smirked for a moment at somebody referencing her namesake library. So few people remembered that detail. She could feel the energy contained in the charm from the moment she touched it. As the original 'untouchable', the perfect brute, of course she insisted on being the first person to test a charm. Testing her durability wasn't an option. Her strength, likewise, was limited more by leverage than the amount of force she could generate, so testing that would be problematic. As for her perfect recall, how could that be enhanced? Would she start remembering things that might have happened? No, there was only one power she had that lent itself to testing.
Floating over to a long straightaway painted with a series of stripes for reference, she looked to Armsmaster, who was overseeing the recording gear. Armsmaster gave her a thumbs up, prompting her to draw on the power hidden in the charm and vanish. A fraction of a second later, the onlookers winced at the sonic boom that rolled over them. Ten to fifteen seconds later, a dot in the sky resolved itself into a figure flying back at a more sedate pace. Armsmaster, who hadn't visibly reacted to the sonic boom, finished up his initial study of the data. He waited for Alexandria to get back before speaking, "That was at least a 50% boost to acceleration. Top speed seems higher, too, but you got out of range of the monitoring equipment before you stopped accelerating."
The onlookers, most of whom were there to test a charm's effect on their own powers(Samantha, Calamity Witch, and Maclibuin had no parahuman powers to enhance. Vista was just there to watch. Despite her arguments to the contrary, she wasn't being allowed to test a charm in the first round) starting chomping at the bit, eager to see what they got out of the boost.
* Suggested effect for Alexandria: Increased top speed and acceleration, greatly increasing her Flying Haymaker of Doom maneuver.
Edit: This isn't me trying to pad my omake count. This is just the point where my mind started to get fuzzy and uncooperative. Health issues suck.
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Inverness
The Foxiest Wife
[x] Wait and watch what happens
The circumstances of this suggest that the Simurgh wanted it to be known that she was taking the device and to have an audience when she acquires it. Attacking her directly is suicidal. Attacking the device is the obvious, predictable move that she would surely have prepared for. I don't think being predictable while facing the Simurgh is a recipe for success.
Tim is correct to be weary of both how the Simurgh would stop Taylor from destroying the device or what she would do if Taylor successfully destroyed the device.
From the metagaming perspective:
If Taylor hasn't started drawing connections between the Simurgh and Cassiel already, the Simurgh would likely do it herself. Assuming the theory of Cassiel being the Simurgh is true, she would likely move to make Taylor aware of this and hesitate to destroy the device.
It's interesting because in canon it was Taylor's idea, after Scion had started his rampage, to go and recruit the Simurgh to help deal with Scion. A lot of people thought she was crazy. It was some seriously out-of-the-box-thinking that paid off.
It's not about whether letting her have it is a good idea, it's about whether or not you could stop her in the current situation, and what the Simurgh would do to stop you from stopping her. I don't see a way in which escalating against the Simurgh without backup is a good idea.
The circumstances of this suggest that the Simurgh wanted it to be known that she was taking the device and to have an audience when she acquires it. Attacking her directly is suicidal. Attacking the device is the obvious, predictable move that she would surely have prepared for. I don't think being predictable while facing the Simurgh is a recipe for success.
Tim is correct to be weary of both how the Simurgh would stop Taylor from destroying the device or what she would do if Taylor successfully destroyed the device.
From the metagaming perspective:
If Taylor hasn't started drawing connections between the Simurgh and Cassiel already, the Simurgh would likely do it herself. Assuming the theory of Cassiel being the Simurgh is true, she would likely move to make Taylor aware of this and hesitate to destroy the device.
It's interesting because in canon it was Taylor's idea, after Scion had started his rampage, to go and recruit the Simurgh to help deal with Scion. A lot of people thought she was crazy. It was some seriously out-of-the-box-thinking that paid off.
That assumes there is a recipe for success when facing her. There isn't.
There are however, predictable ways to make recipes for failure here.
If Simmy is concerned with the risks of being interrupted here she'd have just done it out of sight out if mind.
Forget doing it when nobody's looking. Just haul the cube at hypersonic velocity and finish what she's doing an hour before Taylor catches up.
- Location
- Georgia
Whenever we next talk to the TSAB, we should tell them how we originally powered the radio. I just want to see their reaction to learning you have enough mana to power a capital ship interdimensional radio for even so short a time. It's something I thought about several times when reading through the story given how some things were worded.
I don't really have anything else to say about the current vote, so it might have been better if I shut up and waited. I am terrible at shutting up and waiting =P
I don't really have anything else to say about the current vote, so it might have been better if I shut up and waited. I am terrible at shutting up and waiting =P
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
[X] Wait and watch what happens
I'm on team "Hope Cassie is actually Ziz".
I suspect if we unleashed a Ragnarok at the unison device Ziz would just yank it out of the way faster than we can re-aim at the thing, and anything less than that she's already seen it coming and moved a piece of space junk near enough to intercept.
(Fetad made a good point that we should probably TRY to destroy the Unison Device, but honestly I don't want to risk it actually working from an OOC perspective)
As has been pointed out before: She could have stolen it at any point before or after now. Why now? Why when Taylor and Tim are watching? My thought: When she transfers over to the UD she's going to stop flying and start FALLING and wants someone to catch her.
1) She gets access to more Tinkertech weapons, things that Masamune COULD reproduce, even if he hasn't started yet. (Tinkertech laser rifles, more powerful tasers, more exotic explosives, less than lethal microwave guns, etc.)
1m) Taser swords, heat knives, variable sword (ala Ringworld), etc.
2) Increase the payload of any weapon she fires (it's basically Green Lantern energy anyway, making a 5.56 hit as hard as a .50 cal Beowulf round is well within the realm of Shard's telling physics to take a hike)
2m) Swords cut better, blunt weapons increase mass just before moment of impact, nets become harder to cut, etc.
3) Weapons now raytrace (IE instant transmission between launch and target) no need to lead your bullets or account for bullet drop. (All ranged weapons become Line of Sight)
3m) Melee weapons feel lighter / have no weight to MM, but have full weight when impacting something. Being weightless may throw off how it feels to her though.
4) Weapons self optimize, if going for a non lethal takedown even a normally lethal shot somehow only disables. Going for a lethal shot? The term "gibbed" applies.
I'm on team "Hope Cassie is actually Ziz".
I suspect if we unleashed a Ragnarok at the unison device Ziz would just yank it out of the way faster than we can re-aim at the thing, and anything less than that she's already seen it coming and moved a piece of space junk near enough to intercept.
(Fetad made a good point that we should probably TRY to destroy the Unison Device, but honestly I don't want to risk it actually working from an OOC perspective)
As has been pointed out before: She could have stolen it at any point before or after now. Why now? Why when Taylor and Tim are watching? My thought: When she transfers over to the UD she's going to stop flying and start FALLING and wants someone to catch her.
Easiest answers? (# = ranged, #m = melee version)
1) She gets access to more Tinkertech weapons, things that Masamune COULD reproduce, even if he hasn't started yet. (Tinkertech laser rifles, more powerful tasers, more exotic explosives, less than lethal microwave guns, etc.)
1m) Taser swords, heat knives, variable sword (ala Ringworld), etc.
2) Increase the payload of any weapon she fires (it's basically Green Lantern energy anyway, making a 5.56 hit as hard as a .50 cal Beowulf round is well within the realm of Shard's telling physics to take a hike)
2m) Swords cut better, blunt weapons increase mass just before moment of impact, nets become harder to cut, etc.
3) Weapons now raytrace (IE instant transmission between launch and target) no need to lead your bullets or account for bullet drop. (All ranged weapons become Line of Sight)
3m) Melee weapons feel lighter / have no weight to MM, but have full weight when impacting something. Being weightless may throw off how it feels to her though.
4) Weapons self optimize, if going for a non lethal takedown even a normally lethal shot somehow only disables. Going for a lethal shot? The term "gibbed" applies.
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Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
I like both #1 and #4 really, and might just fold them up together.
- Location
- Georgia
Ziz can't see a mage with her precog while a mage is casting spells, and any futures that result from the possible decisions people, including the mage, come to during or as a result of the spell casting. Further, from canon, Ziz is blind. Blind, deaf, mute, anosmic(no sense of smell), the whole nine yards. She cannot directly perceive reality. She has to look at the very near future and past to figure out where things are in the moment, which is what makes defending herself against Zion so hard. She has to look for gaps where the future doesn't match what she would expect from the past to tell he is even there. This blindness is also why we've been hypothesizing Ziz is so interested in us, enough so to attack a target on the opposite side of the planet from where she attacked in canon, and for her to greatly reduce how much she's holding back to make a point.
Of course, this is all out of character information. That this isn't entirely in character is the primary thing pushing me toward 'destroy the device', but my curiosity just barely outweighs that.
On a note for SW, this quest evidently starts within days of the locker institute, at least in regards to a number of different details you've dropped over the course of the game, while also being several months after it. I'm not asking for a rewrite(that would be crazy) or any changes at all, I just thought I'd bring it up for consideration should you try to look back over the course of the quest and see what you've done right and wrong. If it helps in the way of positive thoughts, it was reading your story that got me to read Worm, not the other way around, so please don't think I'm at all unhappy with your work. I try to offer constructive criticism, whether positive or negative in nature; I know I don't always succeed in conveying that.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
What do you mean, several months after it? It started January 29 as per 1.1
- Location
- Georgia
The sheer amount of time involved in the legal process, getting Winslow to foot the bills and make a show of at least pretending to get better, a canon process that lasted over a month before the bullying started back worse than ever*, enough time to become inured once again to what was being heaped on her.... While not explicit, a great many details from canon were used that only made sense in the longer gap between The Locker and Skitter getting her first costume ready. This being my second read through of your story and with Worm fresh in my mind, the inconsistencies stood out. With my original read through, I was focused on the Nanoha aspects(and the similarities between Taylor with Perfect Storm and Hayate with the Book of Darkness).
Regardless of the date you list, details don't quite add up. It's nowhere near breaking SoD. It's more like catching the little inconsistencies in shows when different takes get spliced together, moving items, changing clothes, etc.
*At a guess, just long enough for SS's handler to get one, and only one, progress report regarding Sophia's behaviour.
Edit: To be fair, Wildbow had plenty of inconsistencies in canon, too.
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- Location
- Georgia
Can Perfect Storm call out of Recursion Field? It's not immediately relevant, so if you don't see this or respond to it I'll try to remember to bring it up later. It's that coordinating what is happening inside and outside the field would be tactically useful.
That said, would the device be taken into Recursion Field as is, without being linked to a linker core? It's too late to have any chance of convincing people that's a viable option before the vote gets called, but it is an option I'm surprised nobody, including me, brought up.
That said, would the device be taken into Recursion Field as is, without being linked to a linker core? It's too late to have any chance of convincing people that's a viable option before the vote gets called, but it is an option I'm surprised nobody, including me, brought up.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Never underestimate the power of a sufficiently motivated bureaucracy.
Yes, things moved faster than in canon, but the differences contributed to it. In canon, Taylor was sent to the hospital and from there to a psychiatric facility as a result of her Trigger. It gave Winslow leverage in the matter. "Yes it was a prank, but it wasn't THAT bad. She would have been just fine if she weren't crazy." That was the implicit reasoning, and canon Danny bought it. Here? She didn't trigger, and she was in the hospital purely because of infection. Her physical injuries couldn't be dismissed in favor of focusing on her mental health, which many people unfortunately see as less important or the victim's fault.
Also, in this story Danny was more invested and proactive and so threatened to go to the press, which he didn't do in canon and which got the gears moving. That part was a bit of REALLY subtle foreshadowing about him becoming a cape a few chapters later.
PS can't auto cast Recursion Field. Since the Unison Device has never been activated, it wouldn't come in either.
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- Location
- Georgia
Not cast on his own, make a phone call or send a message to Tim/Dragon/Sam from inside the field.
As for the device, I figured that was the case. It occurred to me that Recursion Field could be a weapon against Simurgh by removing us completely from its senses while people maneuvered. OOC, that would almost certainly work, even if IC, we'd have no idea it would, or at least that it would be that effective. Thinking about using RF to maneuver, as we did against Coil, spurred the follow up thought about communicating between devices inside and outside the field, then to the off chance that the device might carry over, removing the item from the table without attacking the scary sapient superweapon.
Lab_Accident
A 2D 1D4
- Location
- Your dreams
Could we call one of the TSAB guys to dimensional teleport in and then dimensional teleport out with the device while we distract the Simurgh?
Since it cannot see consequences of spells, if we got it to hold the device still long enough, someone could come in, pick it up, and leave before it even noticed, while we presumably kept it distracted with Mittelstein (sp?) or Ragnarok.
Of course, the decision is pretty much made and this is pure speculation for it's own sake. Bad enough I get caught on my own flights of fancy, now I get caught in other people's, too. Shame on you, @Wyrd, for having such a good idea.
Since it cannot see consequences of spells, if we got it to hold the device still long enough, someone could come in, pick it up, and leave before it even noticed, while we presumably kept it distracted with Mittelstein (sp?) or Ragnarok.
Of course, the decision is pretty much made and this is pure speculation for it's own sake. Bad enough I get caught on my own flights of fancy, now I get caught in other people's, too. Shame on you, @Wyrd, for having such a good idea.
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Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Ooh, now THAT would be interesting
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
She doesn't have to see the spell to see the effects of Ragnarok, that's one MESSY spell if it hits with the force of nuclear annihilation she can just precog the giant sweeping swath of annihilated air particles in it's path.
OTOH Flare Shooter would probably sink her Precog, since it doesn't interact with anything but the target, so unlike Ragnarok it won't be vaporizing a path that can be used to map out blind spots.
But like I said, from an OOC perspective I want to see what happens. IC justification would be that we've taken several days to come up with this with OOC knowledge, IIRC Taylor's IC knowledge doesn't include knowing that she shorts out precog and thus doesn't know that Flare Shooter might work.
Inverness
The Foxiest Wife
Keep in mind that Ziz uses other people as her eyes. If other people have seen Taylor's magic then the Simurgh can use what they know to see and predict what will happen. Dragon having the Simurgh constantly under observation works against Taylor.
Also you can't forget the Simurgh's ability to use post-cog to gather information. She would have been constantly watching not just Taylor but everyone that Taylor interacts with to build a profile of Taylor like Contessa did with Eidolon.
Also you can't forget the Simurgh's ability to use post-cog to gather information. She would have been constantly watching not just Taylor but everyone that Taylor interacts with to build a profile of Taylor like Contessa did with Eidolon.
- Location
- Georgia
To repeat the question, since it seems to have been lost to the much larger block of text I wrote: Can Perfect Storm communicate with anybody outside of Recursion field while inside it? Can it attempt to contact somebody inside a field, since we have the TSAB mages to consider, not to mention the chance of getting a new mage/gb on our team who can cast it?
Lab_Accident
A 2D 1D4
- Location
- Your dreams
And not to distract from Wyrd's question, but:
At the risk of asking something that's been asked before, flight is a spell, right? Can the Simurgh see us while we are flying? All signs point to yes, given she's been leading us by the nose, but it doesn't hurt to confirm it. It's OOC knowledge, and so not applicable, but still.
Edit: I've been posting a lot in a short span of time in this thread. Dunno if that goes against good thread behaviour or not. If so, someone please tell me. But something's just occurred to me. Some of us have been worrying, quite rightly, what are we gonna do if it turns out Ziz isn't Cassie and/or doesn't actually want to defect to the good guys. Now I'm worrying what are we gonna do if she is.
Because somehow, I'm guessing "she followed me home, can I keep her?" is not going to fly with the Protectorate. Nor, I'm thinking, is the mandatory "Eidolon must die" reveal.
At the risk of asking something that's been asked before, flight is a spell, right? Can the Simurgh see us while we are flying? All signs point to yes, given she's been leading us by the nose, but it doesn't hurt to confirm it. It's OOC knowledge, and so not applicable, but still.
Edit: I've been posting a lot in a short span of time in this thread. Dunno if that goes against good thread behaviour or not. If so, someone please tell me. But something's just occurred to me. Some of us have been worrying, quite rightly, what are we gonna do if it turns out Ziz isn't Cassie and/or doesn't actually want to defect to the good guys. Now I'm worrying what are we gonna do if she is.
Because somehow, I'm guessing "she followed me home, can I keep her?" is not going to fly with the Protectorate. Nor, I'm thinking, is the mandatory "Eidolon must die" reveal.
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Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
No.
Flight is a spell, but she can see the effects mages flying has on stuff she can see.
- Location
- Georgia
Thank you. Given the possibilities involved with interdimensional communication that have already been established, and how much this would let us coordinate both inside and outside such a field, I really wanted a definitive answer. Oh well. Not every idea's going to work out.
Provided we get close enough to Alexandria to learn she has a non functional fake eye, I wonder if Tim could make a prosthetic eye that communicated with Alexandria's mind by telepathy. I just read through the interlude where you talked about why Wildbow's solution wouldn't work. Tim wouldn't be able to implant a generator, but the energy needs should be several orders of magnitude less than Vista's arms, so an internal battery and a charging station with a mana collector, possibly including a spare eye so one is always charging, means that it might be viable.
The main reason I bring it up now is to share the idea before it vanishes from my brain entirely. Hopefully somebody will remember this should we ever get a strong enough relationship for personal details like this. If not, c'est la vie.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Communicating that much data would require Lexi to have telepathy of her own, which would only be possible if she has magic. Which we don't yet know.