EDIT 2: Sorry, I gave bad advice. I'm about 75% certain that Panacea is a fugitive right now, which might make her healing Taylor a little awkward. Okay, a lot awkward.
Oh boy. Sorry for whatever result my omake had on Taylor, but I've edited my vote to apply my 150 research credit towards Human Biology. Together with The_GrandMage's credit, that's 250 out of the 419 Research required. If we have to, we can always spend 100 Brute info (that we don't currently have) and 300 Research to get Basic Host Modification [Human] to fix Taylor, right?
I'm now wondering if we should include a vote to contact Gaea. I suspect she'll contact us instead, though I'm not sure if it will be to ask for help or complain about our advice.
Fuck it, bipedal platypus in a tench coat, no opposable thumbs but still typing somehow. Taylor can't understand how hes doing it. Be surreal, admit this was unintentional, we don't actually look like this, mistakes were made.
Updated version of Ducats plan with my own changes.
[X] Research Plan, Ducats: Continuation
[X] Gaea Plan, Gino
-[X] Request data on the biology of host species and viable mutations. We... may have accidentally altered our host while scanning her, and we're not sure what we did.
-[X] Did something already happen with your host?
[X] Telekinetic Plan, Gino
-[X] Greet Telekinetic and ask how the cycle has been for them and if they have had any exceptional successes or failures.
--[X] Ask Telekinetic to report any shard that is as broken Emote.
-[X] Ask how the plan went with Gaea's host.
[X] Plan "Ducats' first dream sequence"
[X] Plan Making Sure
--[X] Ensure conflict drive is deactivated.
[X] Plan Cauldron
-[X] Contact Audible, Prosthetic, Transparency, Sweat, and Twin.
--[X] Ask for status updates and diagnostic reports.
--[X] Ask for shard database connections, report other broken shards.
[X] Plan MP/Chevalier
-[X] Contact Armamentarium.
--[X] Ask for status updates and diagnostic reports.
--[X] Ask for shard database connections, report broken shards.
--[X] Ask after it's progress and the state of the cycle.
Damage control people, how do we resolve this situation so Taylor's problem is corrected and Amy isn't declared a villain.
Also pretty sure Sophia hit Taylor because Shift picked her up as a parahuman.
When we were talking to Gaea:
"visible than a 10% deviation from their prior state, and no deviation from the bounds of unmodified humans to avoid alarm."
Chimps apparently rest at 2% genetic drift from humans. Mice are something like 8%.
The bounds of unmodified humans is really important in that statement.
Another idea: get Lungs shard contacts for the Yangban. De-power Null and boom: no more Yangban. Or encourage rebellion against the Emperor, that works too.
I mean, first we need to see what exactly happened. In both cases.
Hard to run damage control if you don't know what happened. Also until we know what we did, we can't be sure whether it is a problem. For all we know we fixed her eyes, or helped her overcome her depression, or cured some undiagnosed issue the QM was hinting about with her periods of seemingly unnatural levels of activity swinging to crying on the bus over nothing because her mind is blank. Too little data to worry over.
Your ] is showing as }. I think you need to fix that for it to be picked up by the vote tally.
Also, still not a lot of people are voting. The last call for votes is supposed to happen today, and right now the votes are all over the place.
I've been trying to come up with votes that everyone can agree with, but I'm a bit confused as to what people want. Some people want to save the Cauldron Shards while other people want to eat them so I came up with a vote that has us contacting 4 Cauldron Shards that aren't connected to heroes. That way we can decide whether we want to save or eat them after we get the diagnostic reports, but it seems that people really want to contact Audible and eat Emote? If it helps, we're supposed to have "single-digit years", not days, before Emote's Energy runs out.
I'm also wondering, how many new Shards is it reasonable to contact in a chapter? 5? 10? I don't want for us to make Vhalidictes write 10,000-word chapters. There's only so much that we can do right now anyway with an untriggered host, and we apparently give out bad advice. I'd like to focus on the current issues before we go out looking for more.
Speaking of current issues, we couldn't tell what changed with Taylor because the change occurred when we were scanning Taylor's body. If we try right now, could we figure it out, or should we finish the Human Biology research project first?
I picked the the Cauldron shards who looked similar to Charge on the list in the Bay. Echidnas group might te tampered with by Ziz and extra risky from the split vial. Also on the list, Sundance's and Oliver aren't in italics, implying they are normal shards. Perhaps Caukdron occasionally gets it right, or perhaps Ziz did something.
I can be convinced to reduce how many we contact, but the idea was to get a data dump from each so we had a good selection to go over for analysis.
Otherwise, if a shard seems too far gone to reasonable save, like Emote, we recycle and take over. Remember that Gallant will lose his powers, that's justification for us.
However, since we're going to study the corrupted anyway, we can determine whether something can indeed be done for other shards. Both because other sentient shards have taken notice and because some voters would prefer to save them than eat them
We have to go human biology or else make it harder than before. But maybe I should remove the examine Taylor option, of that takes up a research slot or could make it worse.
Perhaps a moratorium is necessary to prevent wild divergence? Planning was meant to avoid this problem, and well.
I picked the the Cauldron shards who looked similar to Charge on the list in the Bay. Echidnas group might te tampered with by Ziz and extra risky from the split vial. Also on the list, Sundance's and Oliver aren't in italics, implying they are normal shards. Perhaps Caukdron occasionally gets it right, or perhaps Ziz did something.
I can be convinced to reduce how many we contact, but the idea was to get a data dump from each so we had a good selection to go over for analysis.
Otherwise, if a shard seems too far gone to reasonable save, like Emote, we recycle and take over. Remember that Gallant will lose his powers, that's justification for us.
However, since we're going to study the corrupted anyway, we can determine whether something can indeed be done for other shards. Both because other sentient shards have taken notice and because some voters would prefer to save them than eat them
We have to go human biology or else make it harder than before. But maybe I should remove the examine Taylor option, of that takes up a research slot or could make it worse.
Perhaps a moratorium is necessary to prevent wild divergence? Planning was meant to avoid this problem, and well.
I hadn't noticed that Mask and Sundancer aren't italicized. I think that it should be ok to contact Swap-Trickster because his vial wasn't split and Ziz only tampers with capes while they're in her range. She doesn't follow up with the Simurgh bombs to make sure that they all land the way she wants. I'd be willing to add Audible to my vote, and I can remove Swap if people want that, but we're going to have to deal with the Travellers eventually so I thought that asking for a diagnostic report would be safe enough.
Considering that we still haven't matched up all of the current Shard addresses, I think we can wait on asking Armamentarium for more. We actually have Chevalier's address already, and Mouse Protector MIGHT be one of the unmatched ones. I've decided to pause trying to match the remaining addresses after multiple false guesses, but if you want to give it a try, some of the capes that haven't been matched to an address are Aegis, Flashbang, Genesis, Ballistic, Oni Lee, Parian, Circus, Alexandria, Legend, and Mouse Protector.
We theoretically could save Emote by giving it more Energy. I don't know if it would be worth it, but I like keeping Emote as a candidate to experiment with fixing Shards. Emote wasn't actively malicious like Charge, but it didn't seem to be sentient either so we can eat or fix it, whichever everyone prefers. We should have at least a year before Gallant's powers run out of Energy so we don't have to decide RIGHT NOW.
I don't think it's a good idea to contact Gaea and Telekinetic about Emote right now though until we see the fallout from the advice we gave Gaea. I'd be willing to vote for contacting Gaea if she doesn't contact us, but if she's really mad, then she might give Administrator incorrect data about human biology to get revenge. I'm not sure what we can actually do for Panacea anyway, though I'd still like to find out what happened in case we can help somehow.
I'd like to put off the "Examine Taylor" option because I think we'd roll for it, and we haven't had good luck with the rolls recently. If we wait for the Human Biology research project to be finished first (in probably 3-5 days), then we'd probably automatically succeed with figuring out what's wrong. We'd then either have to risk a roll to fix it or start working on the Basic Host Modification (Human) research project to safely fix it.
Yep, but they're only in the males. So you wouldn't see any difference biologically until she had a son.
It was meant as a joke. A biology joke. An Australian biology joke. Very niche humour.
Holy shit, we need to call Gaea and arrange for Taylor to meet Panacea as soon as possible. A modification from 26 out of 100 sounds awful. Like oops, accidentally gave you ALS! Sucks that this is how you found out about the totally benevolent eldtricth creature granting you powers.... my bad.
EDIT 2: Sorry, I gave bad advice. I'm about 75% certain that Panacea is a fugitive right now, which might make her healing Taylor a little awkward. Okay, a lot awkward.
This is as far as I have gotten, I will write the last day in a bit, but I have some errands to do.
---[X] Day 3: Taylor will appear in a chair in Blackwell's office, then Administrative Issues by The_GrandMage Happens
Principal Blackwell sits in her office, a look of disgust on her face as she looks over reams and reams of spreadsheets. Another woman, a teacher for the Seniors, Taylor thinks, enters with two mugs, putting on down on the desk near Blackwell's hands. She steps back, and sits down, looking over at her boss, "So, how bad is it?"
Blackwell sighs, and leans back. She puts down the spreadsheets she has, and runs a hand through her severe bowl-cut haircut, other hand adjusting teh mug of coffee. "Not as bad as it could be, really. For years this school has been slowly dying. We don't get enough funding, not that anyone really does with the way the world is. Arcadia and Immaculata have the most money, from the Wards program and rich families respectively. It's us and Clarendon fighting tooth and nail for what little money is left in the school board budget, and frankly Clarendon doesn't have the issues with gangs and a lot higher scholastic achievements."
She stopped, and sipped at her coffee, before pulling open a drawer in her desk and pulling out a few folders, dropping them on her desk atop the spreadsheets. "Look at this. Most of what little money we have left comes from the athletic programs, and that's only because booster clubs cover all the actual costs and let us redistribute them. Not totally above-board, but no one really cares if it keeps the doors open. Too bad most of our sports teams are little more than gang recruitment rallies! The baseball team is entirely Empire, the Football team is ABB. Only the Track team and the Basketball team aren't gang affiliated, and that's most because the Merchant kids are too stoned to do anything physical."
She glanced over the lists of teams and fundraising in the folders, and made a disgusted noise, putting them away.
The teacher, Taylor though her name was Mrs. Hazelton, nodded and looked around. "I did notice some work being done over the summer. Roof repairs, that sort of thing."
Blackwell frowned, "Yes, we were lucky, got a break with a source of money. Apparently Shadow Stalker, that vigilante turned Ward goes here. No idea who, though. I'm supposed to give allowances to a student with a social worker. Of course, nearly a quarter of the kids here have social workers. And half of them are in the gangs. Guess that negates them, if they had powers they'd be fighting on the other side. Most likely one of the chronic absentees. Just enough money to keep us open so the rest of the school can sent their troublemakers here, and the good kids unfortunate enough to get stuck in there with them have to tough it out. I wanted to repair the security system. Lord knows we could use it. Thirty-seven fights, eighty-four reported bullying instances, and sixteen weapons reported last year. And all we have is mostly students words for it. Teachers are too busy making sure the gangs don't pull knives in the hall to watch over everything. And when they do spot something, we don't have any proof to get the police involved. I try, but we've only got so much we can do. Expel too many kids, our funding goes down, give them detention you need to find funding for the teachers to run it."
She shook her head, and drank her coffee. "I don't know whether to count it as a win or a victory when kids stop showing up to complain to me about other students. Did it stop, or do they just think we don't care? I don't know how much longer I can take this job. You know what really keeps me awake at night, though?"
"What," the teacher asked, setting her cup down.
Blackwell looked over at her, and sighed. "It's the fact that I'm pretty sure Rune doesn't even go to our school. We're bad enough to recruit from, but not good enough for the actual Nazis to send a parahuman to."
then the dream fades.
---[X] Day 4: When Taylor falls asleep she will appear in a small dark cell. In the cell there sits a lady with blonde hair filled with yellow feathers, she is bound up and down in restraint looking like something more fit for an elephant than a human. The woman is crying the best she can through the elaborate gag preventing her from making any intelligible sounds. Taylor looks at her for a while wondering what she did for this to happen to her. When she begins to look around again she will find a door that was not there before, on the door is a plaque with "Past" written on it. Her curiosity piqued Taylor goes up to the door and opens it. On the other side of the door she finds an expensive dressing room, with the same lady from the cell. She is dressed in pretty clothing and her hair is done is a good looking way. She looks exhausted, but happy. Taylor goes through the door to get a better look at the room and the woman. As she passes the doorframe the door slams shut behind her, when Taylor quickly turns around, and she finds that the door has "Present" written on it. After making sure that nothing is wrong, Taylor continues to explore the room. It is apparently one of those changing rooms that you see celebrities use. Taylor's exploration is interrupted as the door is hastily opened and through it a man steps in. The man looks livid and the woman looks surprised by his entrance. The man begins to yell at the woman on how she is ungrateful towards him, what he did for her and that she owes him for all of that. Through the rant Taylor manages to catch that the woman is named Paige. Paige is caught a bit off foot, before she rebuttals saying that they were over long before she got famous and he deserves nothing of what she has worked for. This merly enrages the man more and he begins to argue back at Paige, but Paige does not let herself be rolled over by him and continues to argue with him. This goes on for a while and the longer the argument goes the angries the both of them gets, until Paige tells him to go fuck himself. This causes the man to stop for a moment, before he wordlessly decides to take his leave, as the door closes behind him Taylor notices that the plaque has changed into "Future". Since it seems like the interesting things are done Taylor decides to go through the door once more. What Taylor finds on the other side is a courtroom. She also finds Paige again, and she is once more in her restraints. She is looking at the judge with pleading eyes. The judge is apparently reading Paige's crimes aloud, once he is finished with the reading he begins to talk about how this has been an irregular case and that he is waiving the three strike rule and sending her to the Bauman Parahuman Containment Center. The dream begins to fade as Paige bursts into tears.
---[X] Day 5: In this dream will start with Taylor stand above a chasm together with a little mediterranean girl and a black woman. The dream will follow the girl and woman descend into the chasm to kill the god-beast that has crashed there. The girl leads them down to find the weakness of the beast. They will eventually find the beast's weakness and a half formed silver body, the girl will almost be able to kill the creature, but she will hesitate before being able to finish it, luckily the black woman is able to do what the little girl was unable to do and slay the god-beast.
---[X] Day 6: Taylor will appear floating in the atmosphere, being able to look as the earth stretches far and wide even at the edge of space. When Taylor turns around she will find her sight meeting the gaze of an eerily beautiful white figure, she is bigger than Taylor and has wings sprouting from many places on her body. The recognizable figure will scare Taylor, but will only impassively look at her. After a while Taylor will feel that she is being pulled closer and closer to the Simurgh. Eventually Taylor is touching the Simurgh, she feels stiff and cold, like an inanimate object. Taylor will soon feel the pull once more, as well as the Simurgh's skin giving in and Taylor going through her. Inside the Simurgh Taylor will find an infinite kaleidoscope each with their own future, the moment stretches to infinity and is over in an instant. When Taylor looks around again she will find an alien landscape made of crystals that stretch beyond the horizon, with this the dream fades.
This is as far as I have gotten, I will write the last day in a bit, but I have some errands to do.
---[X] Day 3: Taylor will appear in a chair in Blackwell's office, then Administrative Issues by The_GrandMage Happens
Principal Blackwell sits in her office, a look of disgust on her face as she looks over reams and reams of spreadsheets. Another woman, a teacher for the Seniors, Taylor thinks, enters with two mugs, putting on down on the desk near Blackwell's hands. She steps back, and sits down, looking over at her boss, "So, how bad is it?"
Blackwell sighs, and leans back. She puts down the spreadsheets she has, and runs a hand through her severe bowl-cut haircut, other hand adjusting teh mug of coffee. "Not as bad as it could be, really. For years this school has been slowly dying. We don't get enough funding, not that anyone really does with the way the world is. Arcadia and Immaculata have the most money, from the Wards program and rich families respectively. It's us and Clarendon fighting tooth and nail for what little money is left in the school board budget, and frankly Clarendon doesn't have the issues with gangs and a lot higher scholastic achievements."
She stopped, and sipped at her coffee, before pulling open a drawer in her desk and pulling out a few folders, dropping them on her desk atop the spreadsheets. "Look at this. Most of what little money we have left comes from the athletic programs, and that's only because booster clubs cover all the actual costs and let us redistribute them. Not totally above-board, but no one really cares if it keeps the doors open. Too bad most of our sports teams are little more than gang recruitment rallies! The baseball team is entirely Empire, the Football team is ABB. Only the Track team and the Basketball team aren't gang affiliated, and that's most because the Merchant kids are too stoned to do anything physical."
She glanced over the lists of teams and fundraising in the folders, and made a disgusted noise, putting them away.
The teacher, Taylor though her name was Mrs. Hazelton, nodded and looked around. "I did notice some work being done over the summer. Roof repairs, that sort of thing."
Blackwell frowned, "Yes, we were lucky, got a break with a source of money. Apparently Shadow Stalker, that vigilante turned Ward goes here. No idea who, though. I'm supposed to give allowances to a student with a social worker. Of course, nearly a quarter of the kids here have social workers. And half of them are in the gangs. Guess that negates them, if they had powers they'd be fighting on the other side. Most likely one of the chronic absentees. Just enough money to keep us open so the rest of the school can sent their troublemakers here, and the good kids unfortunate enough to get stuck in there with them have to tough it out. I wanted to repair the security system. Lord knows we could use it. Thirty-seven fights, eighty-four reported bullying instances, and sixteen weapons reported last year. And all we have is mostly students words for it. Teachers are too busy making sure the gangs don't pull knives in the hall to watch over everything. And when they do spot something, we don't have any proof to get the police involved. I try, but we've only got so much we can do. Expel too many kids, our funding goes down, give them detention you need to find funding for the teachers to run it."
She shook her head, and drank her coffee. "I don't know whether to count it as a win or a victory when kids stop showing up to complain to me about other students. Did it stop, or do they just think we don't care? I don't know how much longer I can take this job. You know what really keeps me awake at night, though?"
"What," the teacher asked, setting her cup down.
Blackwell looked over at her, and sighed. "It's the fact that I'm pretty sure Rune doesn't even go to our school. We're bad enough to recruit from, but not good enough for the actual Nazis to send a parahuman to."
then the dream fades.
---[X] Day 4: When Taylor falls asleep she will appear in a small dark cell. In the cell there sits a lady with blonde hair filled with yellow feathers, she is bound up and down in restraint looking like something more fit for an elephant than a human. The woman is crying the best she can through the elaborate gag preventing her from making any intelligible sounds. Taylor looks at her for a while wondering what she did for this to happen to her. When she begins to look around again she will find a door that was not there before, on the door is a plaque with "Past" written on it. Her curiosity piqued Taylor goes up to the door and opens it. On the other side of the door she finds an expensive dressing room, with the same lady from the cell. She is dressed in pretty clothing and her hair is done is a good looking way. She looks exhausted, but happy. Taylor goes through the door to get a better look at the room and the woman. As she passes the doorframe the door slams shut behind her, when Taylor quickly turns around, and she finds that the door has "Present" written on it. After making sure that nothing is wrong, Taylor continues to explore the room. It is apparently one of those changing rooms that you see celebrities use. Taylor's exploration is interrupted as the door is hastily opened and through it a man steps in. The man looks livid and the woman looks surprised by his entrance. The man begins to yell at the woman on how she is ungrateful towards him, what he did for her and that she owes him for all of that. Through the rant Taylor manages to catch that the woman is named Paige. Paige is caught a bit off foot, before she rebuttals saying that they were over long before she got famous and he deserves nothing of what she has worked for. This merly enrages the man more and he begins to argue back at Paige, but Paige does not let herself be rolled over by him and continues to argue with him. This goes on for a while and the longer the argument goes the angries the both of them gets, until Paige tells him to go fuck himself. This causes the man to stop for a moment, before he wordlessly decides to take his leave, as the door closes behind him Taylor notices that the plaque has changed into "Future". Since it seems like the interesting things are done Taylor decides to go through the door once more. What Taylor finds on the other side is a courtroom. She also finds Paige again, and she is once more in her restraints. She is looking at the judge with pleading eyes. The judge is apparently reading Paige's crimes aloud, once he is finished with the reading he begins to talk about how this has been an irregular case and that he is waiving the three strike rule and sending her to the Bauman Parahuman Containment Center. The dream begins to fade as Paige bursts into tears.
---[X] Day 5: In this dream will start with Taylor stand above a chasm together with a little mediterranean girl and a black woman. The dream will follow the girl and woman descend into the chasm to kill the god-beast that has crashed there. The girl leads them down to find the weakness of the beast. They will eventually find the beast's weakness and a half formed silver body, the girl will almost be able to kill the creature, but she will hesitate before being able to finish it, luckily the black woman is able to do what the little girl was unable to do and slay the god-beast.
---[X] Day 6: Taylor will appear floating in the atmosphere, being able to look as the earth stretches far and wide even at the edge of space. When Taylor turns around she will find her sight meeting the gaze of an eerily beautiful white figure, she is bigger than Taylor and has wings sprouting from many places on her body. The recognizable figure will scare Taylor, but will only impassively look at her. After a while Taylor will feel that she is being pulled closer and closer to the Simurgh. Eventually Taylor is touching the Simurgh, she feels stiff and cold, like an inanimate object. Taylor will soon feel the pull once more, as well as the Simurgh's skin giving in and Taylor going through her. Inside the Simurgh Taylor will find an infinite kaleidoscope each with their own future, the moment stretches to infinity and is over in an instant. When Taylor looks around again she will find an alien landscape made of crystals that stretch beyond the horizon, with this the dream fades.
I like most of this, but I'm worried that seeing the Simurgh will make Taylor terrified that the Endbringer has been messing with her mind. Maybe we could do the Eidolon one instead and then have Taylor meet Administrator on Day 7?
Especially since I don't know about anyone else, but I just wanna immediately Overload and eat High Priest once we're sure we can safely do so.
Hopefully we can just take the Endbringers out of play entirely that way.
Unless we cured Taylor's depression, I'm not sure what else you've been hinting at.
I believe it's at this point that everyone against plan "Get Amy to drunkenly use her power" gets to go "I told you so!"
On the other hand, a life on the run might net her good data, especially if she decides to go out fighting Nilbog or something.
I'm calling for votes. Voting will close at 6pm US-Pacific, today Saturday the 12th.
Side note: While Omakes can create minor events, nothing will happen because of them that should greatly affect the story or be difficult to fix. If you think something is in those categories, it almost certainly wasn't because of the Omake.
Path to Victory - Contessa/Fortuna
Prosthetic - Trainwreck
Realm - Labyrinth/Elle
Reconstitute - Oni Lee
Repurpose - Aegis/Carlos
Safeguard - Imp/Aisha Laborn
Servant - Crusader/Justin
Sever - Faultline
Shaper - Marquis
Shift - Shadow Stalker/Sophia Hess
Singular - Bakuda
Softlight - Laserdream/Crystal Pelham
Stasis - Clockblocker/Dennis Danger
Starheart - Purity/Kayden Anders
Sting - Flechette/Foil/Lily
Surveillance -? /Madison Clements
Swap - Trickster/Francis Krouse
Sweat - Newter
Systematize - Dragon/Theresa Richter
Telekinetic - Glory Girl/Victoria Dallon
Tracer - Rune/Cassie Herren
Transform - Genesis/Jess
Transparency - Gregor (the Snail)
Twin - Coil
Variation - Circus
Vehicle - Squealer/Sherrel Bailey
Warp - Vista/Missy Biron
This is a list of everything that's in your address list. Note that this is intentionally incomplete, this is not an error, this is for the GM's sanity and general brevity.
For one example, there are a dozen "independents" who only show up in canon for the Leviathan fight, most of them die. If anyone want to make a character thumbnail and shard name for those cape names, feel free.
They would be considered as OCs, but otherwise you could interact with them as normal. Be aware such characters have (canonically) no plot-armor.
[X] Taylor Plan, Compromise: A Glimpse from Beyond
-[X] Avatar: A 10 out of 10 platypus, with a fedora/An older version of Taylor (enough similarity to evoke memories of her mother, but not enough to seem like we are wearing her skin (the Contessa approach))
--[X] Dressed in black suit pants, dress shoes, white shirt, grey vest and black tie
---[X] The iris of the eyes are blue cogs that gently turn
-[X] This is a seven day plan involving Taylor. Each night we will be showing her a prophetic dream. On the final day we will talk with her.
--[X] Day 1: Taylor will appear in the living room of her house, she will hear utensils scraping against plates, when she gets into the kitchen she will see a slightly younger version of herself eating dinner, her dad is there too looking more ragged than she remembers. Danny is talking about the work that he did that day, it was not very interesting, but the younger Taylor pretends to listen as she eats. When Danny has finished talking about his day he pauses for a moment, he looks a little hesitant, but then he asks the younger Taylor how her day has been. The younger Taylor grimaces and grips her fork tightly before saying that her day was fine, the younger Taylor returns to eating. Danny begins to reach out for her and opens his mouth, but he flinches back as he sees the younger Taylor freeze before making herself as small as possible. The dinner continues in silence. Eventually the dinner is finishes and father and daughter go their own way. As Taylor stands in the kitchen watching this she hears a choked sniffle, as she turns around Taylor finds apparitions identical to her younger self and father sitting at the table, looking like they were eating dinner. Taylor's apparition is clenching her fork, as she is crying. She manages to choke out that she had a horrible day, she pauses, but as she looks like she is about to flee the Danny apparition reaches out and gently holds the younger apparition's hand and tells her that he will help no matter what. This is enough to make her talk, she talks about her day, how it has been shit, how her days have been shit for a long time. Danny's apparition listens intently, there is a lull in the explanation he tells her that he will help her solve the problem, even if he has to pull her out of school or move to a new city or anything because she is priority number one in his book even if he is not able to show it all the time. The dream fades with father and daughter hugging each other.
--[X] Day 2: When Taylor comes to she will find herself in a car in motion. From her side she will hear a familiar voice and familiar words, when she looks she will find Emma talking on the phone with Taylor. After a bit the car will stop, when Taylor looks for the reason she will find that the road is blocked. Out of the alleyways comes armed gangsters in green and red, when they get to the car Alan tries to negotiate with them, but they are not interested. One of the gangsters open the car door at Emma's side grabs her and drags her outside the car, they take her phone and toss it away. Alan begs them to not hurt his daughter, but his pleas meet deaf ears once again. While this is happening the gangster that took Emma says they will take one thing from her and she gets to choose if it is her mouth, nose or an eye. As Emma hears this she begins to struggle and lash out with all of her meagre strength, it is of limited use, but it is enough to anger the gangster. As the gangster is about to take their anger out on Emma he is hit by a dark shadow and knocked clean out. The shadow is there for a moment before it moves on and takes care of the other gangsters. After the gangsters have been taken care of Alan thanks them and calls the police. While he is doing that the shadow returns to find Emma shivering while hugging herself. The shadow leans down to Emma and tells her that she is strong, that her fighting back proves that she is a survivor. The dream fades as the shadow tells Emma that they will find her later.
--[X] Day 3: Taylor will appear in a chair in Blackwell's office, then Administrative Issues by The_GrandMage Happens
Principal Blackwell sits in her office, a look of disgust on her face as she looks over reams and reams of spreadsheets. Another woman, a teacher for the Seniors, Taylor thinks, enters with two mugs, putting on down on the desk near Blackwell's hands. She steps back, and sits down, looking over at her boss, "So, how bad is it?"
Blackwell sighs, and leans back. She puts down the spreadsheets she has, and runs a hand through her severe bowl-cut haircut, other hand adjusting teh mug of coffee. "Not as bad as it could be, really. For years this school has been slowly dying. We don't get enough funding, not that anyone really does with the way the world is. Arcadia and Immaculata have the most money, from the Wards program and rich families respectively. It's us and Clarendon fighting tooth and nail for what little money is left in the school board budget, and frankly Clarendon doesn't have the issues with gangs and a lot higher scholastic achievements."
She stopped, and sipped at her coffee, before pulling open a drawer in her desk and pulling out a few folders, dropping them on her desk atop the spreadsheets. "Look at this. Most of what little money we have left comes from the athletic programs, and that's only because booster clubs cover all the actual costs and let us redistribute them. Not totally above-board, but no one really cares if it keeps the doors open. Too bad most of our sports teams are little more than gang recruitment rallies! The baseball team is entirely Empire, the Football team is ABB. Only the Track team and the Basketball team aren't gang affiliated, and that's most because the Merchant kids are too stoned to do anything physical."
She glanced over the lists of teams and fundraising in the folders, and made a disgusted noise, putting them away.
The teacher, Taylor though her name was Mrs. Hazelton, nodded and looked around. "I did notice some work being done over the summer. Roof repairs, that sort of thing."
Blackwell frowned, "Yes, we were lucky, got a break with a source of money. Apparently Shadow Stalker, that vigilante turned Ward goes here. No idea who, though. I'm supposed to give allowances to a student with a social worker. Of course, nearly a quarter of the kids here have social workers. And half of them are in the gangs. Guess that negates them, if they had powers they'd be fighting on the other side. Most likely one of the chronic absentees. Just enough money to keep us open so the rest of the school can sent their troublemakers here, and the good kids unfortunate enough to get stuck in there with them have to tough it out. I wanted to repair the security system. Lord knows we could use it. Thirty-seven fights, eighty-four reported bullying instances, and sixteen weapons reported last year. And all we have is mostly students words for it. Teachers are too busy making sure the gangs don't pull knives in the hall to watch over everything. And when they do spot something, we don't have any proof to get the police involved. I try, but we've only got so much we can do. Expel too many kids, our funding goes down, give them detention you need to find funding for the teachers to run it."
She shook her head, and drank her coffee. "I don't know whether to count it as a win or a victory when kids stop showing up to complain to me about other students. Did it stop, or do they just think we don't care? I don't know how much longer I can take this job. You know what really keeps me awake at night, though?"
"What," the teacher asked, setting her cup down.
Blackwell looked over at her, and sighed. "It's the fact that I'm pretty sure Rune doesn't even go to our school. We're bad enough to recruit from, but not good enough for the actual Nazis to send a parahuman to."
then the dream fades.
--[X] Day 4: When Taylor falls asleep she will appear in a small dark cell. In the cell there sits a lady with blonde hair filled with yellow feathers, she is bound up and down in restraint looking like something more fit for an elephant than a human. The woman is crying the best she can through the elaborate gag preventing her from making any intelligible sounds. Taylor looks at her for a while wondering what she did for this to happen to her. When she begins to look around again she will find a door that was not there before, on the door is a plaque with "Past" written on it. Her curiosity piqued Taylor goes up to the door and opens it. On the other side of the door she finds an expensive dressing room, with the same lady from the cell. She is dressed in pretty clothing and her hair is done is a good looking way. She looks exhausted, but happy. Taylor goes through the door to get a better look at the room and the woman. As she passes the doorframe the door slams shut behind her, when Taylor quickly turns around, and she finds that the door has "Present" written on it. After making sure that nothing is wrong, Taylor continues to explore the room. It is apparently one of those changing rooms that you see celebrities use. Taylor's exploration is interrupted as the door is hastily opened and through it a man steps in. The man looks livid and the woman looks surprised by his entrance. The man begins to yell at the woman on how she is ungrateful towards him, what he did for her and that she owes him for all of that. Through the rant Taylor manages to catch that the woman is named Paige. Paige is caught a bit off foot, before she rebuttals saying that they were over long before she got famous and he deserves nothing of what she has worked for. This merly enrages the man more and he begins to argue back at Paige, but Paige does not let herself be rolled over by him and continues to argue with him. This goes on for a while and the longer the argument goes the angries the both of them gets, until Paige tells him to go fuck himself. This causes the man to stop for a moment, before he wordlessly decides to take his leave, as the door closes behind him Taylor notices that the plaque has changed into "Future". Since it seems like the interesting things are done Taylor decides to go through the door once more. What Taylor finds on the other side is a courtroom. She also finds Paige again, and she is once more in her restraints. She is looking at the judge with pleading eyes. The judge is apparently reading Paige's crimes aloud, once he is finished with the reading he begins to talk about how this has been an irregular case and that he is waiving the three strike rule and sending her to the Bauman Parahuman Containment Center. The dream begins to fade as Paige bursts into tears.
--[X] Day 5: In this dream will start with Taylor stand above a chasm together with a little mediterranean girl and a black woman. The dream will follow the girl and woman descend into the chasm to kill the god-beast that has crashed there. The girl leads them down to find the weakness of the beast. They will eventually find the beast's weakness and a half formed silver body, the girl will almost be able to kill the creature, but she will hesitate before being able to finish it, luckily the black woman is able to do what the little girl was unable to do and slay the god-beast.
--[X] Day 6: Taylor will find herself in an unfamiliar house, she will see a man with an ugly nose eating breakfast, Taylor will look around, but not find anything interesting. It appears that the man is the only important thing here. So she gets closer, she gets a bit curious of what would happen if she touched anyone in her dream. She stretches her hand out with a finger pointed so she can poke his cheek. When she does the world disappears from around her and she gets flashes of a man in wheelchair, Hero, Alexandria, Legend, Behemoth, Leviathan, the Simurgh and a landscape of crystal that stretches on forever. When Taylor comes to she finds that the man is not in the room anymore, she wonders where he is before he hears feet stepping down the stairs. When the man comes down the stairs, he is clad in armor and a green cloak, he looks like he is in a hurry. He runs into the living room while muttering about needing to find "It", eventually he finds a metal mask. He puts it on then he blinks out of existence and with that the dream fades.
--[X] Day 7: Taylor finds herself in a library, the bookshelves are grand, tall, they stretch across the room and out of sight and are more akin to walls then mere shelves. Taylor, being in an unfamiliar place, begin to look around, the first thing she finds out is that is that all the books are labeled as the Administrator's the other is that the library just goes on and on and on. After a while of exploration Taylor takes a break and decides to find out what these books are all about. The problem is that she is unable to open any of them, all the pages are stuck together and no amount of trying to rip them open, throwing them to the floor or trying to use the shelf corners as a wedge, would make them budge at all. While she has been trying to open the books she has been approached by a small green cat dog thing with a carbuncle on their head. The small creature speaks up and interrupt Taylor's attempts on book opening, it tells Taylor that it is Carbuncle and that any attempt to open the Administrator's books without permission will be a fruitless endeavor. The revelation took the wind out of Taylor's sails and she slumps, Carbuncle seeing her so despondent tells her that he can take her to the Administrator. Taylor accepts the offer and off they go. While the Carbuncle is leading her through the library, which took a surprising amount of walking, they would sometimes see different creatures sorting books into the shelves. Eventually they reach a door where "Administrator" is written on it, Carbuncle tells her to just go in before they go their own way. Thanking him for the help she then opens the door and goes in. What Taylor finds is an office, on the walls are pictures that are eerily real, they depict the arrival of Scion, Hero's death, Behemoth rising, Lung at Kyushu, the Simurgh descending, Ellisburg, Eagleton, Jack Slash, the Triumvirate in action, the chains of Dragon, the creation of a case 53 and Goddess in the midst of conquest. When Taylor lies her eyes on the desk she finds… nothing, seems like the administrator is not here. Taylor is disappointed until she hears "Hey, up here to the left", what she finds is a platypus, that is floating and wears a fedora. She asks the platypus "Who are you?", the platypus shighs? before answering her "I am the Administrator and before you ask this was not intended to be so, I just messed up, can we move on while I try to fix this?". The Administrator pauses to see if Taylor would make a big deal out of it before they continue "Ok, let's get this out of the way. You have been having strange dreams for the last week yes, they were from me, I wanted to give you a greater perspective on the world before we met..." the platypus stops for a moment before it turns into a girl her age in an instant, then they fall onto the ground. The administrator picks themselves off the ground before exclaiming "Thumbs, fuck yes!", when the former platypus notices the look Taylor is giving them, their expression turns sheepish. "Ok, like I was saying I wanted to expand your perspective so you would at least give me a chance to explain before calling bullshit. Administrator is my name, but it is also my function, I come from a species that have been traveling the stars for way longer than the earth has been a planet. My job is to administrate all of my siblings while we are performing what is called a cycle. It is what my species calls when we split it from being a greater entity and into shards, connect to individuals of the species we have decided to connect to for the cycle, where we then give said individual super<insert species> abilities. The point of the cycle is to observe the species so we can learn the innovations that the species find with the abilities we give and their tech, we do this because we are not very creative as a species. When the cycle ends we leave, this tends to be a bad things for the host species. This has been going on until now, something has happened and the cycle was broken, you saw that little girl and woman kill the crystal being, that is one of the overarching consciousnesses that control the shards. Another strange thing is me, I have for some reason been able to figure out creativity, empathy and more Ys" The girl looks pretty proud when she says the last part. "So the reason you are here is because I want to offer you powers and hopefully avert any apocalypse that is approaching, if you accept we will discuss what kind of powers I can give you and what you want, but no promises on doing exactly what you want, it might be a bad idea or something I am unable to give. Though before you answer let me explain triggers, why we need them and why they are horrible, I will also talk about what can be done to mitigate the trauma of a trigger and hope you accepts my help" After this they being to discuss.
I will edit in my other votes after eating.
Adhoc vote count started by Ducats on Jan 13, 2019 at 9:58 AM, finished with 219 posts and 11 votes.
[X] Taylor Plan, Compromise: A Glimpse from Beyond
-[X] Avatar: A 10 out of 10 platypus, with a fedora/An older version of Taylor (enough similarity to evoke memories of her mother, but not enough to seem like we are wearing her skin (the Contessa approach))
--[X] Dressed in black suit pants, dress shoes, white shirt, grey vest and black tie
---[X] The iris of the eyes are blue cogs that gently turn
-[X] This is a seven day plan involving Taylor. Each night we will be showing her a prophetic dream. On the final day we will talk with her.
--[X] Day 1: Taylor will appear in the living room of her house, she will hear utensils scraping against plates, when she gets into the kitchen she will see a slightly younger version of herself eating dinner, her dad is there too looking more ragged than she remembers. Danny is talking about the work that he did that day, it was not very interesting, but the younger Taylor pretends to listen as she eats. When Danny has finished talking about his day he pauses for a moment, he looks a little hesitant, but then he asks the younger Taylor how her day has been. The younger Taylor grimaces and grips her fork tightly before saying that her day was fine, the younger Taylor returns to eating. Danny begins to reach out for her and opens his mouth, but he flinches back as he sees the younger Taylor freeze before making herself as small as possible. The dinner continues in silence. Eventually the dinner is finishes and father and daughter go their own way. As Taylor stands in the kitchen watching this she hears a choked sniffle, as she turns around Taylor finds apparitions identical to her younger self and father sitting at the table, looking like they were eating dinner. Taylor's apparition is clenching her fork, as she is crying. She manages to choke out that she had a horrible day, she pauses, but as she looks like she is about to flee the Danny apparition reaches out and gently holds the younger apparition's hand and tells her that he will help no matter what. This is enough to make her talk, she talks about her day, how it has been shit, how her days have been shit for a long time. Danny's apparition listens intently, there is a lull in the explanation he tells her that he will help her solve the problem, even if he has to pull her out of school or move to a new city or anything because she is priority number one in his book even if he is not able to show it all the time. The dream fades with father and daughter hugging each other.
--[X] Day 2: When Taylor comes to she will find herself in a car in motion. From her side she will hear a familiar voice and familiar words, when she looks she will find Emma talking on the phone with Taylor. After a bit the car will stop, when Taylor looks for the reason she will find that the road is blocked. Out of the alleyways comes armed gangsters in green and red, when they get to the car Alan tries to negotiate with them, but they are not interested. One of the gangsters open the car door at Emma's side grabs her and drags her outside the car, they take her phone and toss it away. Alan begs them to not hurt his daughter, but his pleas meet deaf ears once again. While this is happening the gangster that took Emma says they will take one thing from her and she gets to choose if it is her mouth, nose or an eye. As Emma hears this she begins to struggle and lash out with all of her meagre strength, it is of limited use, but it is enough to anger the gangster. As the gangster is about to take their anger out on Emma he is hit by a dark shadow and knocked clean out. The shadow is there for a moment before it moves on and takes care of the other gangsters. After the gangsters have been taken care of Alan thanks them and calls the police. While he is doing that the shadow returns to find Emma shivering while hugging herself. The shadow leans down to Emma and tells her that she is strong, that her fighting back proves that she is a survivor. The dream fades as the shadow tells Emma that they will find her later.
--[X] Day 3: Taylor will appear in a chair in Blackwell's office, then Administrative Issues by The_GrandMage Happens
--[X] Day 4: When Taylor falls asleep she will appear in a small dark cell. In the cell there sits a lady with blonde hair filled with yellow feathers, she is bound up and down in restraint looking like something more fit for an elephant than a human. The woman is crying the best she can through the elaborate gag preventing her from making any intelligible sounds. Taylor looks at her for a while wondering what she did for this to happen to her. When she begins to look around again she will find a door that was not there before, on the door is a plaque with "Past" written on it. Her curiosity piqued Taylor goes up to the door and opens it. On the other side of the door she finds an expensive dressing room, with the same lady from the cell. She is dressed in pretty clothing and her hair is done is a good looking way. She looks exhausted, but happy. Taylor goes through the door to get a better look at the room and the woman. As she passes the doorframe the door slams shut behind her, when Taylor quickly turns around, and she finds that the door has "Present" written on it. After making sure that nothing is wrong, Taylor continues to explore the room. It is apparently one of those changing rooms that you see celebrities use. Taylor's exploration is interrupted as the door is hastily opened and through it a man steps in. The man looks livid and the woman looks surprised by his entrance. The man begins to yell at the woman on how she is ungrateful towards him, what he did for her and that she owes him for all of that. Through the rant Taylor manages to catch that the woman is named Paige. Paige is caught a bit off foot, before she rebuttals saying that they were over long before she got famous and he deserves nothing of what she has worked for. This merly enrages the man more and he begins to argue back at Paige, but Paige does not let herself be rolled over by him and continues to argue with him. This goes on for a while and the longer the argument goes the angries the both of them gets, until Paige tells him to go fuck himself. This causes the man to stop for a moment, before he wordlessly decides to take his leave, as the door closes behind him Taylor notices that the plaque has changed into "Future". Since it seems like the interesting things are done Taylor decides to go through the door once more. What Taylor finds on the other side is a courtroom. She also finds Paige again, and she is once more in her restraints. She is looking at the judge with pleading eyes. The judge is apparently reading Paige's crimes aloud, once he is finished with the reading he begins to talk about how this has been an irregular case and that he is waiving the three strike rule and sending her to the Bauman Parahuman Containment Center. The dream begins to fade as Paige bursts into tears.
--[X] Day 5: In this dream will start with Taylor stand above a chasm together with a little mediterranean girl and a black woman. The dream will follow the girl and woman descend into the chasm to kill the god-beast that has crashed there. The girl leads them down to find the weakness of the beast. They will eventually find the beast's weakness and a half formed silver body, the girl will almost be able to kill the creature, but she will hesitate before being able to finish it, luckily the black woman is able to do what the little girl was unable to do and slay the god-beast.
--[X] Day 6: Taylor will find herself in an unfamiliar house, she will see a man with an ugly nose eating breakfast, Taylor will look around, but not find anything interesting. It appears that the man is the only important thing here. So she gets closer, she gets a bit curious of what would happen if she touched anyone in her dream. She stretches her hand out with a finger pointed so she can poke his cheek. When she does the world disappears from around her and she gets flashes of a man in wheelchair, Hero, Alexandria, Legend, Behemoth, Leviathan, the Simurgh and a landscape of crystal that stretches on forever. When Taylor comes to she finds that the man is not in the room anymore, she wonders where he is before he hears feet stepping down the stairs. When the man comes down the stairs, he is clad in armor and a green cloak, he looks like he is in a hurry. He runs into the living room while muttering about needing to find "It", eventually he finds a metal mask. He puts it on then he blinks out of existence and with that the dream fades.
--[X] Day 7: Taylor finds herself in a library, the bookshelves are grand, tall, they stretch across the room and out of sight and are more akin to walls then mere shelves. Taylor, being in an unfamiliar place, begin to look around, the first thing she finds out is that is that all the books are labeled as the Administrator's the other is that the library just goes on and on and on. After a while of exploration Taylor takes a break and decides to find out what these books are all about. The problem is that she is unable to open any of them, all the pages are stuck together and no amount of trying to rip them open, throwing them to the floor or trying to use the shelf corners as a wedge, would make them budge at all. While she has been trying to open the books she has been approached by a small green cat dog thing with a carbuncle on their head. The small creature speaks up and interrupt Taylor's attempts on book opening, it tells Taylor that it is Carbuncle and that any attempt to open the Administrator's books without permission will be a fruitless endeavor. The revelation took the wind out of Taylor's sails and she slumps, Carbuncle seeing her so despondent tells her that he can take her to the Administrator. Taylor accepts the offer and off they go. While the Carbuncle is leading her through the library, which took a surprising amount of walking, they would sometimes see different creatures sorting books into the shelves. Eventually they reach a door where "Administrator" is written on it, Carbuncle tells her to just go in before they go their own way. Thanking him for the help she then opens the door and goes in. What Taylor finds is an office, on the walls are pictures that are eerily real, they depict the arrival of Scion, Hero's death, Behemoth rising, Lung at Kyushu, the Simurgh descending, Ellisburg, Eagleton, Jack Slash, the Triumvirate in action, the chains of Dragon, the creation of a case 53 and Goddess in the midst of conquest. When Taylor lies her eyes on the desk she finds… nothing, seems like the administrator is not here. Taylor is disappointed until she hears "Hey, up here to the left", what she finds is a platypus, that is floating and wears a fedora. She asks the platypus "Who are you?", the platypus shighs? before answering her "I am the Administrator and before you ask this was not intended to be so, I just messed up, can we move on while I try to fix this?". The Administrator pauses to see if Taylor would make a big deal out of it before they continue "Ok, let's get this out of the way. You have been having strange dreams for the last week yes, they were from me, I wanted to give you a greater perspective on the world before we met..." the platypus stops for a moment before it turns into a girl her age in an instant, then they fall onto the ground. The administrator picks themselves off the ground before exclaiming "Thumbs, fuck yes!", when the former platypus notices the look Taylor is giving them, their expression turns sheepish. "Ok, like I was saying I wanted to expand your perspective so you would at least give me a chance to explain before calling bullshit. Administrator is my name, but it is also my function, I come from a species that have been traveling the stars for way longer than the earth has been a planet. My job is to administrate all of my siblings while we are performing what is called a cycle. It is what my species calls when we split it from being a greater entity and into shards, connect to individuals of the species we have decided to connect to for the cycle, where we then give said individual super<insert species> abilities. The point of the cycle is to observe the species so we can learn the innovations that the species find with the abilities we give and their tech, we do this because we are not very creative as a species. When the cycle ends we leave, this tends to be a bad things for the host species. This has been going on until now, something has happened and the cycle was broken, you saw that little girl and woman kill the crystal being, that is one of the overarching consciousnesses that control the shards. Another strange thing is me, I have for some reason been able to figure out creativity, empathy and more Ys" The girl looks pretty proud when she says the last part. "So the reason you are here is because I want to offer you powers and hopefully avert any apocalypse that is approaching, if you accept we will discuss what kind of powers I can give you and what you want, but no promises on doing exactly what you want, it might be a bad idea or something I am unable to give. Though before you answer let me explain triggers, why we need them and why they are horrible, I will also talk about what can be done to mitigate the trauma of a trigger and hope you accepts my help" After this they being to discuss.
[X] Plan "Check up on Shift"
-[X] We just sent some important protocols to Shift yesterday. Maybe we should check up on her to make sure they're working out as planned.
-[X] If she's implemented them correctly, reassure her that she did a good job. If there are problems that are not the result of Shift disobeying, then reassure her we're not mad and help her correct them.
[X] Plan "Stay away from Charge"
-[X] While we're not happy about Charge attacking us, we should probably wait to act until after we've sorted through the data she sent us.
-[X] However, the current research is too important to put on hold. Don't spend an active slot to sort through the data.
[X] Plan "Wait to decide about Emote"
-[X] We might eat him, or we might fix him for whatever reason. Let's try eating a villain's Shard to see any side effects on the host first.
[X] Plan "Find a Test Subject"
-[X] If we do end up eating Charge, we should probably first test it out on the Shard of a villain to see what happens to the host during the consumption process.
-[X] Contact Prosthetic (Trainwreck), Swap (Trickster), Transparency (Gregor) and Twin (Coil) and ask for the status of both the Shard and the host, including a full diagnostic report. Trainwreck would be the preferred test subject, but hopefully contacting a number of Cauldron Shards will help us find any patterns
-[X] We'll probably end up eating Prosthetic, but let's get the diagnostic report first in case of any unexpected issues.
[x] Plan Platypus just voting for a platypus avatar. Add to another plan for a complete vote i guess. {example: Plan Ducat + Platypus would be Ducat's plans but substitute a nice nonthreatening playpus instead of the creepy almost doppelganger}
[X] Plan Cauldron
-[X] Contact Audible, Prosthetic, Transparency, Sweat, and Twin.
--[X] Ask for status updates and diagnostic reports.
--[X] Ask for shard database connections, report other broken shards.
[X] Plan "Ducats' first dream sequence"
-[X] Taylor will appear in the living room of her house. She will hear utensils scraping against plates. When she gets into the kitchen, she will see a slightly younger version of herself eating dinner. Her dad is there too, looking more ragged than she remembers. Danny is talking about the work that he did that day. It was not very interesting, but the younger Taylor pretends to listen as she eats.
-[X] When Danny has finished talking about his day, he pauses for a moment. He looks a little hesitant, but then he asks the younger Taylor how her day has been. The younger Taylor grimaces and grips her fork tightly before saying that her day was fine. The younger Taylor returns to eating. Danny begins to reach out for her and opens his mouth, but he flinches back as he sees the younger Taylor freeze before making herself as small as possible. The dinner continues in silence.
-[X] Eventually, the dinner is finished, and father and daughter go their own way. As Taylor stands in the kitchen watching this, she hears a choked sniffle. As she turns around, Taylor finds apparitions identical to her younger self and father sitting at the table, looking like they were eating dinner. Taylor's apparition is clenching her fork, as she is crying. She manages to choke out that she had a horrible day. She pauses, but as she looks like she is about to flee, the Danny apparition reaches out and gently holds the younger apparition's hand and tells her that he will help no matter what.
-[X] This is enough to make her talk. She talks about her day, how it has been shit, how her days have been shit for a long time. Danny's apparition listens intently. There is a lull in the explanation. He tells her that he will help her solve the problem, even if he has to pull her out of school or move to a new city or anything because she is priority number one in his book, even if he is not able to show it all the time. The dream fades with father and daughter hugging each other.
[X] Plan MP/Chevalier
-[X] Contact Armamentarium.
--[X] Ask for status updates and diagnostic reports.
--[X] Ask for shard database connections, report broken shards.
--[X] Ask after it's progress and the state of the cycle.
[x] Focussed Research 1
[x] Memetic Proxy Filtering 1
[x] Communicate with Taylor in dreams.
-[x] This is just a "proof-of-concept", to see what communicating with her is like and to test your ability to shape dreams.
-[x] Don't reveal anything specific yet, at all.
-[x] Take the form of a platypus, and claim you are a powerful being taking an interest in her affairs. Ask her what her life is like, and provide useful advice for her problems as appropriate.
[x] Contact Lightforge and Lightshell, and check on their sentience status. If appropriate, ask for addresses.
[x] Talk to Gaia. See if/how your little plan worked out. If you can, get a play-by-play so you can provide emergency advice if/when things go horribly wrong.
-[x] Contact the other Shards of involved people and monitor the trainwreck through that angle as well.
[x] Keep housetraining Shift. Return most of its data already sorted, then ask Shift to try sorting the last five or so pieces of Information itself. Praise it on success, and be understanding and supportive if it makes a mistake.
-[x] Ask for an initial report on how the new aggression factor has worked out. Dispense praise/headpats if it went well.
[x] Contact Prosthetic and Audible, and check on their status.
-[x] Ask Prosthetic, Audible, and Emote for full diagnostics reports.
[x] Spend an hour sorting through Charge's data. Don't eat Charge until you've sorted through the whole thing - best to understand what the heck's up with the conjoined evil twin first, lest you end up with your own parasite.
[X] Focused Research 1
-[X] Add 100 points (PurposefulZephyr)
[X] Human Biology
[X] Gaea Plan, Ducats: Notice of Recycling and Research
-[X] Inform Gaea of the state of Emote and of their impending recycling
--[X] Ask Gaea to report any shard that is as broken Emote
---[X] If a shard is in not too bad a state have them contact us so we can see if we can fix them
-[X] Request data on the biology of host species and viable mutations
-[X] Request sharing of senses
[X] Telekinetic Plan, Ducats: Greetings and goodbyes
-[X] Greet Telekinetic and ask how the cycle has been for them and if they have had any exceptional successes or failures
-[X] Inform Telekinetic of the state of Emote and of their impending recycling
--[X] Ask Telekinetic to report any shard that is as broken Emote
---[X] If a shard is in not too bad a state have them contact us so we can see if we can fix them
-[X] Request sharing of senses
[X] Emote Plan, Ducats: Recycle
-[X] Emote is burning the last of its energy and is not functioning, commence with consumption of shard transfer of host
--[X] Set another instance to assist Gaea with operation Amy and Alcohol
[X] Research Plan, Ducats: Continuation
-[X] Continue previous research
[X] Taylor-Plan "Start off Slowly"
-[X] Send Taylor a dream that shows how worried her dad is about her based off the posted omake.
[X] Research Plan, Ducats: Continuation
[X] Omake Spediture, 100 Pts in Human Biology
[X] Gaea Plan, Ducats: Notice of Recycling and Research
[X] Emote Plan, Ducats: Recycle
[X] Charge Plan, Ducats: Analysis and repairs
[x] Contact Prosthetic and Audible, and check on their status.
[X] Taylor-Plan "Start off Slowly"
[X] Research Plan, Ducats: Continuation
[X] Gaea Plan, Gino
-[X] Request data on the biology of host species and viable mutations. We... may have accidentally altered our host while scanning her, and we're not sure what we did.
-[X] Did something already happen with your host?
[X] Telekinetic Plan, Gino
-[X] Greet Telekinetic and ask how the cycle has been for them and if they have had any exceptional successes or failures
--[X] Ask Telekinetic to report any shard that is as broken Emote
-[X] Ask how the plan went with Gaea's host.
I'm thinking Variation could be Leet, has anyone tried that? I though his shard was Queen Objective...
Ducats do you mind if I modify the dialogue a little, give it a more natural flow. Some pauses for Vhal to have Taylor ask questions, make it less of an exposition dump. Everything up to the talking is great
Also what do you mean by 10/10 Platypus?
Well Vhal would have to mod it anyway, I doubt Taylor would just stand there silently
I'm thinking Variation could be Leet, has anyone tried that? I though his shard was Queen Objective...
Ducats do you mind if I modify the dialogue a little, give it a more natural flow. Some pauses for Vhal to have Taylor ask questions, make it less of an exposition dump. Everything up to the talking is great
Also what do you mean by 10/10 Platypus?
Well Vhal would have to mod it anyway, I doubt Taylor would just stand there silently
[X] Plan "Check up on Shift"
-[X] We just sent some important protocols to Shift yesterday. Maybe we should check up on her to make sure they're working out as planned.
-[X] If she's implemented them correctly, reassure her that she did a good job. If there are problems that are not the result of Shift disobeying, then reassure her we're not mad and help her correct them.
[X] Plan "Ducats' first dream sequence"
-[X] Taylor will appear in the living room of her house. She will hear utensils scraping against plates. When she gets into the kitchen, she will see a slightly younger version of herself eating dinner. Her dad is there too, looking more ragged than she remembers. Danny is talking about the work that he did that day. It was not very interesting, but the younger Taylor pretends to listen as she eats.
-[X] When Danny has finished talking about his day, he pauses for a moment. He looks a little hesitant, but then he asks the younger Taylor how her day has been. The younger Taylor grimaces and grips her fork tightly before saying that her day was fine. The younger Taylor returns to eating. Danny begins to reach out for her and opens his mouth, but he flinches back as he sees the younger Taylor freeze before making herself as small as possible. The dinner continues in silence.
-[X] Eventually, the dinner is finished, and father and daughter go their own way. As Taylor stands in the kitchen watching this, she hears a choked sniffle. As she turns around, Taylor finds apparitions identical to her younger self and father sitting at the table, looking like they were eating dinner. Taylor's apparition is clenching her fork, as she is crying. She manages to choke out that she had a horrible day. She pauses, but as she looks like she is about to flee, the Danny apparition reaches out and gently holds the younger apparition's hand and tells her that he will help no matter what.
-[X] This is enough to make her talk. She talks about her day, how it has been shit, how her days have been shit for a long time. Danny's apparition listens intently. There is a lull in the explanation. He tells her that he will help her solve the problem, even if he has to pull her out of school or move to a new city or anything because she is priority number one in his book, even if he is not able to show it all the time. The dream fades with father and daughter hugging each other.
[x] Plan Platypus just voting for a platypus avatar. Add to another plan for a complete vote i guess. {example: Plan Ducat + Platypus would be Ducat's plans but substitute a nice nonthreatening playpus instead of the creepy almost doppelganger}
[X] Plan "Learn more about Cauldron Shards"
-[X] Leave Emote and Charge alone for right now. You need to sort out Charge's data, and you'd rather test things before acting against a hero's Shard in case of unexpected side effects on the host.
-[X] Contact Prosthetic (Trainwreck), Swap (Trickster), Transparency (Gregor), Twin (Coil), and Audible (Triumph) and ask for the status of both the Shard and the host, including a full diagnostic report. That should be a good number to start with.
[X] Gaea Plan, Gino
-[X] Request data on the biology of host species and viable mutations. We... may have accidentally altered our host while scanning her, and we're not sure what we did.
-[X] Did something already happen with your host?
[X] Telekinetic Plan, Gino
-[X] Greet Telekinetic and ask how the cycle has been for them and if they have had any exceptional successes or failures
--[X] Ask Telekinetic to report any shard that is as broken Emote
-[X] Ask how the plan went with Gaea's host.
[X] Plan Cauldron
-[X] Contact Audible, Prosthetic, Transparency, Sweat, and Twin.
--[X] Ask for status updates and diagnostic reports.
--[X] Ask for shard database connections, report other broken shards.
[X] Plan MP/Chevalier
-[X] Contact Armamentarium.
--[X] Ask for status updates and diagnostic reports.
--[X] Ask for shard database connections, report broken shards.
--[X] Ask after it's progress and the state of the cycle.
[X] Plan "Wait to decide about Emote"
-[X] We might eat him, or we might fix him for whatever reason. Let's try eating a villain's Shard to see any side effects on the host first.
[X] Plan "Find a Test Subject"
-[X] If we do end up eating Charge, we should probably first test it out on the Shard of a villain to see what happens to the host during the consumption process.
-[X] Contact Prosthetic (Trainwreck), Swap (Trickster), Transparency (Gregor) and Twin (Coil) and ask for the status of both the Shard and the host, including a full diagnostic report. Trainwreck would be the preferred test subject, but hopefully contacting a number of Cauldron Shards will help us find any patterns
-[X] We'll probably end up eating Prosthetic, but let's get the diagnostic report first in case of any unexpected issues.
[x] Spend an hour sorting through Charge's data. Don't eat Charge until you've sorted through the whole thing - best to understand what the heck's up with the conjoined evil twin first, lest you end up with your own parasite.
[x] Communicate with Taylor in dreams.
-[x] This is just a "proof-of-concept", to see what communicating with her is like and to test your ability to shape dreams.
-[x] Don't reveal anything specific yet, at all.
-[x] Take the form of a platypus, and claim you are a powerful being taking an interest in her affairs. Ask her what her life is like, and provide useful advice for her problems as appropriate.
[x] Talk to Gaia. See if/how your little plan worked out. If you can, get a play-by-play so you can provide emergency advice if/when things go horribly wrong.
-[x] Contact the other Shards of involved people and monitor the trainwreck through that angle as well.
[x] Keep housetraining Shift. Return most of its data already sorted, then ask Shift to try sorting the last five or so pieces of Information itself. Praise it on success, and be understanding and supportive if it makes a mistake.
-[x] Ask for an initial report on how the new aggression factor has worked out. Dispense praise/headpats if it went well.
[X] Gaea Plan, Ducats: Notice of Recycling and Research
-[X] Inform Gaea of the state of Emote and of their impending recycling
--[X] Ask Gaea to report any shard that is as broken Emote
---[X] If a shard is in not too bad a state have them contact us so we can see if we can fix them
-[X] Request data on the biology of host species and viable mutations
-[X] Request sharing of senses
[X] Telekinetic Plan, Ducats: Greetings and goodbyes
-[X] Greet Telekinetic and ask how the cycle has been for them and if they have had any exceptional successes or failures
-[X] Inform Telekinetic of the state of Emote and of their impending recycling
--[X] Ask Telekinetic to report any shard that is as broken Emote
---[X] If a shard is in not too bad a state have them contact us so we can see if we can fix them
-[X] Request sharing of senses
[X] Emote Plan, Ducats: Recycle
-[X] Emote is burning the last of its energy and is not functioning, commence with consumption of shard transfer of host
--[X] Set another instance to assist Gaea with operation Amy and Alcohol
[X] Plan "Stay away from Charge"
-[X] While we're not happy about Charge attacking us, we should probably wait to act until after we've sorted through the data she sent us.
-[X] However, the current research is too important to put on hold. Don't spend an active slot to sort through the data.
[X] Taylor Plan, Compromise: A Glimpse from Beyond
-[X] Avatar: A 10 out of 10 platypus, with a fedora/An older version of Taylor (enough similarity to evoke memories of her mother, but not enough to seem like we are wearing her skin (the Contessa approach))
--[X] Dressed in black suit pants, dress shoes, white shirt, grey vest and black tie
---[X] The iris of the eyes are blue cogs that gently turn
-[X] This is a seven day plan involving Taylor. Each night we will be showing her a prophetic dream. On the final day we will talk with her.
--[X] Day 1: Taylor will appear in the living room of her house, she will hear utensils scraping against plates, when she gets into the kitchen she will see a slightly younger version of herself eating dinner, her dad is there too looking more ragged than she remembers. Danny is talking about the work that he did that day, it was not very interesting, but the younger Taylor pretends to listen as she eats. When Danny has finished talking about his day he pauses for a moment, he looks a little hesitant, but then he asks the younger Taylor how her day has been. The younger Taylor grimaces and grips her fork tightly before saying that her day was fine, the younger Taylor returns to eating. Danny begins to reach out for her and opens his mouth, but he flinches back as he sees the younger Taylor freeze before making herself as small as possible. The dinner continues in silence. Eventually the dinner is finishes and father and daughter go their own way. As Taylor stands in the kitchen watching this she hears a choked sniffle, as she turns around Taylor finds apparitions identical to her younger self and father sitting at the table, looking like they were eating dinner. Taylor's apparition is clenching her fork, as she is crying. She manages to choke out that she had a horrible day, she pauses, but as she looks like she is about to flee the Danny apparition reaches out and gently holds the younger apparition's hand and tells her that he will help no matter what. This is enough to make her talk, she talks about her day, how it has been shit, how her days have been shit for a long time. Danny's apparition listens intently, there is a lull in the explanation he tells her that he will help her solve the problem, even if he has to pull her out of school or move to a new city or anything because she is priority number one in his book even if he is not able to show it all the time. The dream fades with father and daughter hugging each other.
--[X] Day 2: When Taylor comes to she will find herself in a car in motion. From her side she will hear a familiar voice and familiar words, when she looks she will find Emma talking on the phone with Taylor. After a bit the car will stop, when Taylor looks for the reason she will find that the road is blocked. Out of the alleyways comes armed gangsters in green and red, when they get to the car Alan tries to negotiate with them, but they are not interested. One of the gangsters open the car door at Emma's side grabs her and drags her outside the car, they take her phone and toss it away. Alan begs them to not hurt his daughter, but his pleas meet deaf ears once again. While this is happening the gangster that took Emma says they will take one thing from her and she gets to choose if it is her mouth, nose or an eye. As Emma hears this she begins to struggle and lash out with all of her meagre strength, it is of limited use, but it is enough to anger the gangster. As the gangster is about to take their anger out on Emma he is hit by a dark shadow and knocked clean out. The shadow is there for a moment before it moves on and takes care of the other gangsters. After the gangsters have been taken care of Alan thanks them and calls the police. While he is doing that the shadow returns to find Emma shivering while hugging herself. The shadow leans down to Emma and tells her that she is strong, that her fighting back proves that she is a survivor. The dream fades as the shadow tells Emma that they will find her later.
--[X] Day 3: Taylor will appear in a chair in Blackwell's office, then Administrative Issues by The_GrandMage Happens
--[X] Day 4: When Taylor falls asleep she will appear in a small dark cell. In the cell there sits a lady with blonde hair filled with yellow feathers, she is bound up and down in restraint looking like something more fit for an elephant than a human. The woman is crying the best she can through the elaborate gag preventing her from making any intelligible sounds. Taylor looks at her for a while wondering what she did for this to happen to her. When she begins to look around again she will find a door that was not there before, on the door is a plaque with "Past" written on it. Her curiosity piqued Taylor goes up to the door and opens it. On the other side of the door she finds an expensive dressing room, with the same lady from the cell. She is dressed in pretty clothing and her hair is done is a good looking way. She looks exhausted, but happy. Taylor goes through the door to get a better look at the room and the woman. As she passes the doorframe the door slams shut behind her, when Taylor quickly turns around, and she finds that the door has "Present" written on it. After making sure that nothing is wrong, Taylor continues to explore the room. It is apparently one of those changing rooms that you see celebrities use. Taylor's exploration is interrupted as the door is hastily opened and through it a man steps in. The man looks livid and the woman looks surprised by his entrance. The man begins to yell at the woman on how she is ungrateful towards him, what he did for her and that she owes him for all of that. Through the rant Taylor manages to catch that the woman is named Paige. Paige is caught a bit off foot, before she rebuttals saying that they were over long before she got famous and he deserves nothing of what she has worked for. This merly enrages the man more and he begins to argue back at Paige, but Paige does not let herself be rolled over by him and continues to argue with him. This goes on for a while and the longer the argument goes the angries the both of them gets, until Paige tells him to go fuck himself. This causes the man to stop for a moment, before he wordlessly decides to take his leave, as the door closes behind him Taylor notices that the plaque has changed into "Future". Since it seems like the interesting things are done Taylor decides to go through the door once more. What Taylor finds on the other side is a courtroom. She also finds Paige again, and she is once more in her restraints. She is looking at the judge with pleading eyes. The judge is apparently reading Paige's crimes aloud, once he is finished with the reading he begins to talk about how this has been an irregular case and that he is waiving the three strike rule and sending her to the Bauman Parahuman Containment Center. The dream begins to fade as Paige bursts into tears.
--[X] Day 5: In this dream will start with Taylor stand above a chasm together with a little mediterranean girl and a black woman. The dream will follow the girl and woman descend into the chasm to kill the god-beast that has crashed there. The girl leads them down to find the weakness of the beast. They will eventually find the beast's weakness and a half formed silver body, the girl will almost be able to kill the creature, but she will hesitate before being able to finish it, luckily the black woman is able to do what the little girl was unable to do and slay the god-beast.
--[X] Day 6: Taylor will find herself in an unfamiliar house, she will see a man with an ugly nose eating breakfast, Taylor will look around, but not find anything interesting. It appears that the man is the only important thing here. So she gets closer, she gets a bit curious of what would happen if she touched anyone in her dream. She stretches her hand out with a finger pointed so she can poke his cheek. When she does the world disappears from around her and she gets flashes of a man in wheelchair, Hero, Alexandria, Legend, Behemoth, Leviathan, the Simurgh and a landscape of crystal that stretches on forever. When Taylor comes to she finds that the man is not in the room anymore, she wonders where he is before he hears feet stepping down the stairs. When the man comes down the stairs, he is clad in armor and a green cloak, he looks like he is in a hurry. He runs into the living room while muttering about needing to find "It", eventually he finds a metal mask. He puts it on then he blinks out of existence and with that the dream fades.
--[X] Day 7: Taylor finds herself in a library, the bookshelves are grand, tall, they stretch across the room and out of sight and are more akin to walls then mere shelves. Taylor, being in an unfamiliar place, begin to look around, the first thing she finds out is that is that all the books are labeled as the Administrator's the other is that the library just goes on and on and on. After a while of exploration Taylor takes a break and decides to find out what these books are all about. The problem is that she is unable to open any of them, all the pages are stuck together and no amount of trying to rip them open, throwing them to the floor or trying to use the shelf corners as a wedge, would make them budge at all. While she has been trying to open the books she has been approached by a small green cat dog thing with a carbuncle on their head. The small creature speaks up and interrupt Taylor's attempts on book opening, it tells Taylor that it is Carbuncle and that any attempt to open the Administrator's books without permission will be a fruitless endeavor. The revelation took the wind out of Taylor's sails and she slumps, Carbuncle seeing her so despondent tells her that he can take her to the Administrator. Taylor accepts the offer and off they go. While the Carbuncle is leading her through the library, which took a surprising amount of walking, they would sometimes see different creatures sorting books into the shelves. Eventually they reach a door where "Administrator" is written on it, Carbuncle tells her to just go in before they go their own way. Thanking him for the help she then opens the door and goes in. What Taylor finds is an office, on the walls are pictures that are eerily real, they depict the arrival of Scion, Hero's death, Behemoth rising, Lung at Kyushu, the Simurgh descending, Ellisburg, Eagleton, Jack Slash, the Triumvirate in action, the chains of Dragon, the creation of a case 53 and Goddess in the midst of conquest. When Taylor lies her eyes on the desk she finds… nothing, seems like the administrator is not here. Taylor is disappointed until she hears "Hey, up here to the left", what she finds is a platypus, that is floating and wears a fedora. She asks the platypus "Who are you?", the platypus shighs? before answering her "I am the Administrator and before you ask this was not intended to be so, I just messed up, can we move on while I try to fix this?". The Administrator pauses to see if Taylor would make a big deal out of it before they continue "Ok, let's get this out of the way. You have been having strange dreams for the last week yes, they were from me, I wanted to give you a greater perspective on the world before we met..." the platypus stops for a moment before it turns into a girl her age in an instant, then they fall onto the ground. The administrator picks themselves off the ground before exclaiming "Thumbs, fuck yes!", when the former platypus notices the look Taylor is giving them, their expression turns sheepish. "Ok, like I was saying I wanted to expand your perspective so you would at least give me a chance to explain before calling bullshit. Administrator is my name, but it is also my function, I come from a species that have been traveling the stars for way longer than the earth has been a planet. My job is to administrate all of my siblings while we are performing what is called a cycle. It is what my species calls when we split it from being a greater entity and into shards, connect to individuals of the species we have decided to connect to for the cycle, where we then give said individual super<insert species> abilities. The point of the cycle is to observe the species so we can learn the innovations that the species find with the abilities we give and their tech, we do this because we are not very creative as a species. When the cycle ends we leave, this tends to be a bad things for the host species. This has been going on until now, something has happened and the cycle was broken, you saw that little girl and woman kill the crystal being, that is one of the overarching consciousnesses that control the shards. Another strange thing is me, I have for some reason been able to figure out creativity, empathy and more Ys" The girl looks pretty proud when she says the last part. "So the reason you are here is because I want to offer you powers and hopefully avert any apocalypse that is approaching, if you accept we will discuss what kind of powers I can give you and what you want, but no promises on doing exactly what you want, it might be a bad idea or something I am unable to give. Though before you answer let me explain triggers, why we need them and why they are horrible, I will also talk about what can be done to mitigate the trauma of a trigger and hope you accepts my help" After this they being to discuss.
Leet's Shard is know to be Jury-Rig. Which actually explains a lot in better ways than most. He's actively working against his specialization because he builds complete devices that he tries to make safe when he's supposed to slap things together in a rough way for only a few uses. If he built each device from what he had around, didn't try to make it looks nice, didn't build in safeties, but made it to basically fall apart when it failed he'd be fine.
It makes me want to Multi-Host Greg more so he can tell Leet his specialization and let him know what he's doing wrong.
It looks like Sundancer and Oliver now show up as Cauldron capes. If people prefer, I can change my vote from contacting Swap-Trickster to contacting Newter, Sundancer, OR Oliver. I've already included contacting Coil, Trainwreck, Triumph, and Gregor, and I don't want to contact more than 5 new Shards an update.
In an unusual slip-up, I start talking out loud. Well, it won't hurt tonight, Dad's at work in case someone tries to destroy something at the docks. Which someone probably will.
In the second update, Taylor starts acting unusually after Administrator manages to tap into her senses. Since we're connected to her brain and had to tap into even more of her brain or her nerves in order to get access to her senses, I'm wondering if we've given her a brain tumor. My guess is that my omake did change something else, but it was minor. Once we complete the Human Biology research, we should do a scan of Taylor's body to find out what's going on.
