Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest

Computer upgrades from []Red as Blood and Cold as Ice provide very perspective direction, so I'll vote for it although I like SCU options and costume selection in []More costumes, more upgrades, more SCU enhancements more than in first plan

[X] [Plan] Red as Blood and Cold as Ice

But just in case I'll put together plan that more or less combines my preferred options.

[X] [Plan] Biocomputers and robopolice
-[] [SCU] Allow LexCorp to plant spyware in the SCU headquarters (30 points)
-[] [SCU] Enable LexCorp to freely remove any evidence the SCU has from lock-up under the pretext of analysis (2 points)
-[] [SCU] Offer to cybernetically enhance interested officers of the SCU (9 points)
-[] [SCU] Recruit Lupe Teresa Leocadio-Escudero to LexCorp (20 points)
-[] [Bill] Make it so that only the DOMA can approve of a sponsor in order to be able to legally sponsor a superhero(20 points)
-[] [Bill] Push against giving the president any special powers regarding superhuman sponsorship(25 points)
-[] [Bill] Begin taxing superheroes and their merchandizing based on income from sales(6 points)
-[] [Bill] Make it so that any costumed vigilante who operates without a sponsor is effectively treated as potential murderers and will be arrested on sight(20 points)
-[] [Bill] Push for the Bill to be completed as fast as possible(25 points)
-[] [Demon] Meet with Talia to discuss alien invasions, Count Vertigo's war and Superman
-[] [Richter] Agree to create new combat capable aircraft or drones for General Richter in exchange for a lot of money and her tacit support in getting LexCorp more backing with the US military
-[] [Richter] Provide General Richter with blizzard blanket drones in exchange for General Richter's meteorological data
-[] [Richter] Provide General Richter with a functional tornado generator in exchange for her pushing to give you access to what the US government has on the Metal Men
-[] [Costume] Jinx
-- [] [Design] Gothic Coven (25 points)
-[] [Costume] Leonard Snart
-- [] [Design] Arctic Assault (27 points)
-[] [Costume] Samuel Scudder
-- [] [Design] Full-Mirror Suit (14 points)
-[] [Costume] Caitlin Snow
-- [] [Design] Open-Air Attire (2 points)
-[] [Costume] Siobhan McDougal
--[] [Design] Skulls, Spikes, Light Armor and Leather (5 points)
-[] [35 Points] Reduce the cost of Pharmaceutical Lab
-[] [Comp] Wetware computers (78 points)
-[] [Comp] DNA spectrography program (17 points)
-[] [Comp] Improved arithmetic logic units (5 points, can be taken repeatedly)
-[] [Bone] Increased bird survival chance (5 points)
-[] [Bone] Improved rate of regeneration(2 points, can be taken repeatedly) X12
-[] [Freeze] Ease of constructions (3 points, can be taken repeatedly) X2
-[] [Freeze] Freeze grenade launcher (20 points)
-[] [Whale] Agree to not directly attack Tobias Whale's holdings if he agrees to never directly attack LexCorp's holdings
-[] [Brain] Refer the Brain to Wade Eiling if he wishes to strike a deal with the US government

Negation said:

I have to ask why flat rate taxes instead of percentage of sales?

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I believe it's to make it so that heroes who make a lot of money from their merchandise get to keep more of that money, which inherently makes being sponsored by large companies like LexCorp more appealing since we can afford to make more merchandise to be sold

Negation said:

Also why speak for Brain? This is a lunatic who labels his own organisation as "Brotherhood of Evil" both inaccuate due to having a woman on the team and bad for PR with the Evil part.

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Primarily because we are trying to set the precedent that super powered criminals can receive amnesty if they work with us/the government

Plus I don't think the Brotherhood has done anything that bad yet, publicly at least

[X] [Plan] Red as Blood and Cold as Ice

Yeah, I'm fine with this.

[X] [Plan] More costumes, more upgrades, more SCU enhancements

[X] [Plan] Mechanical Over Wetware

King crimson said:

So this isn't really a solid threadmarkable post but I did kind of want to potentially jar some discussion regarding a few subjects that I've been thinking on as of late.

Firstly I find it kind of a shame that a lot of Deathstroke's really strong theming has been lost with time as people focused more and more on making him as cool and badass as possible. See Deathstroke's got a great thematic resonance with explorations of trauma and PTSD. The man is very literally a Vietnam war veteran who returned back home and found he couldn't adjust to living life as a civilian and his marriage and home life promptly self-destructed as a result of actions he took due to being unable to adjust back to being a civilian. His kids are all to some degree or another haunted by his actions (Grant died trying to be like him, Joseph tried to make up for his father's mistakes and then asked to die when he realized he was becoming like him and Rose very literally harmed herself trying to be more like her father on top of some other stuff). There's also a really great scene in one of the old Teen Titans comics where Beast Boy is planning on killing Deathstroke during a court hearing to avenge all of the things he did to Terra and the Titans only to be unable to go through with it when he sees Deathstroke on the stand without his costume and realizes he's just a human being and not this incredible demonic figure.

I enjoy Deathstroke as a badass and I think he's a great character but I think a lot of comic book writers have kind of made the same mistake as Beast Boy in that comic and Deathstroke has slowly transitioned from having really strong theming regarding war damaging people long term to just another amoral mercenary who kills for money. I probably will be keeping some of the older characterization as I feel it's a solid thematic core for Deathstroke and it recontextualizes a lot of his actions in an interesting and engaging way that separates him from a lot of other supervillains.

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I think Christopher Priest's recent run on Deathstroke balanced "badass", "shellshocked" and "amoral" aspects, but with a huge dip towards amoral. For all the hilariousness of Prieststroke's hyper-competency, for all the humanity acknowledged, Priest makes sure that the readers never forget that Slade, protagonist or not, is a highly disturbing individual. I think the only thing he kinda shied away from was the exact nature of Slade's relationship with Terra, but he has shown Slade's crazyness in spades in many other aspects.
What I think is Deathstroke's weakest element (down to Wolfman and Perez's original works with him) is that his coolness aspect eventually overshadowed his villainy. Obviously, "amoral mercenary" is indeed too generic a conclusion for him, but to me the greatest sin regarding writing Slade (and, again, it comes right from the original character creators) is being so overwhelmed by the character theyforget he's supposed to be the villain (to the point that it seemed that they tried to may Terra, the groomed teenage accomplice, seem more amoral than Slade himself). Priest did a fine balancing act between Slade's admirable coolness and the distinct understanding that he's in no way a hero, and you'd never want to associate with a person like that in real life.

jonasquinn said:

I believe it's to make it so that heroes who make a lot of money from their merchandise kegs to keep more of that money, which inherently makes being sponsored by large companies like LexCorp more appealing since we can afford to make more merchandise to be sold

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On the other hand, I would like to keep to the spirit of the agreement with Diana and "lead the way in corporate ethics" by contributing more revenue to the government at both federal and state level.

Then again i can understand the choice. But why so few points (6) on it?

Kir the Wizard said:

I think Christopher Priest's recent run on Deathstroke balanced "badass", "shellshocked" and "amoral" aspects, but with a huge dip towards amoral. For all the hilariousness of Prieststroke's hyper-competency, for all the humanity acknowledged, Priest makes sure that the readers never forget that Slade, protagonist or not, is a highly disturbing individual. I think the only thing he kinda shied away from was the exact nature of Slade's relationship with Terra, but he has shown Slade's crazyness in spades in many other aspects.
What I think is Deathstroke's weakest element (down to Wolfman and Perez's original works with him) is that his coolness aspect eventually overshadowed his villainy. Obviously, "amoral mercenary" is indeed too generic a conclusion for him, but to me the greatest sin regarding writing Slade (and, again, it comes right from the original character creators) is being so overwhelmed by the character theyforget he's supposed to be the villain (to the point that it seemed that they tried to may Terra, the groomed teenage accomplice, seem more amoral than Slade himself). Priest did a fine balancing act between Slade's admirable coolness and the distinct understanding that he's in no way a hero, and you'd never want to associate with a person like that in real life.

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I really liked Christopher Priest's run on Black Panther so I'll probably check out his run on Deathstroke eventually.

I'll state that my own personal stance is a little different on Deathstroke. Not only is he not someone you'd want to associate with, he's also not someone you'd want to be. Being Deathstroke, someone who never got over his PTSD, is unable to find peace, happiness or genuine connections because he's unable to stop fighting and whose own choices almost always result in him being worse off than he was before, sucks. Like with a lot of supervillains once you get past the bravado and the achievements and the pomp and circumstance they surround themselves with to look better to others and feel better about themselves, Deathstroke is kind of pathetic and pitiable. He's someone who hyper-fixates on being a killing machine (which he is admittedly good at) because he's a failure of a human being.

Negation said:

On the other hand, I would like to keep to the spirit of the agreement with Diana and "lead the way in corporate ethics" by contributing more revenue to the government at both federal and state level.

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I get what you mean but ultimately I don't think it matters, we're fulfilling our side of the bargain and it is a very capitalist way to do it

Negation said:

Then again i can understand the choice. But why so few points (6) on it?

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I imagine because we need to do it for Diana but don't care enough to push particularly hard for it

[X] [Plan] Ice and Taxes
-[] [Inch] Get no improvements to LexCorp tower's defenses but gain a large DC drop of 20 next turn
-[] [SCU] Enable LexCorp to easily access any metahuman awaiting transfer to a prison (5 points)
-[] [SCU] Allow LexCorp to plant spyware in the SCU headquarters (30 points)
-[] [SCU] Create an informal system to allow LexCorp to post "bounties" for certain metahumans (21 points)
-[] [SCU] Replace all vehicles used by the SCU with Kryptonite powered ones where possible (7 points)
-[] [SCU] Enable LexCorp to freely remove any evidence the SCU has from lock-up under the pretext of analysis (2 points)
-[] [Bill] Make it so that only the DOMA can approve of a sponsor in order to be able to legally sponsor a superhero (15 points)
-[] [Bill] Push against giving the president any special powers regarding superhuman sponsorship (15 points)
-[] [Bill] Allow superpowered criminals amnesty for non-heinous crimes if they can find a sponsor willing to draft them as soldiers or superheroes, and pay an indemnity to clear their name to be paid to the victims families (20 points)
-[] [Bill] Make it so that any costumed vigilante who operates without a sponsor is effectively treated as potential murderers and will be arrested on sight (20 points)
-[] [Bill] Push for the Bill to be completed as fast as possible (10 points)
-[] [Bill] Begin taxing superheroes and their merchandizing based on income from sales (16 points)
-[] [Demon] Meet with Talia and Ra's al Ghul to discuss alien invasions, Atlantis and long term alliances
-[] [Richter] Agree to create new combat capable aircraft or drones for General Richter in exchange for a lot of money and her tacit support in getting LexCorp more backing with the US military
-[] [Richter] Provide General Richter with blizzard blanket drones in exchange for General Richter's meteorological data
-[] [Costume] Caitlin Snow
Caitlin's powers necessitate that any costume designed for her use must be built around interacting with her powers. This means that the costume must hold up under extreme cold and that there must be at least one place for her to vent and draw heat from. However with this complication also comes an opportunity to design a costume that Caitlin can make use of and would be easier for her to wear in her day to day life than what she currently has.
--[] [Design] Cold Kryptonite suit (62 points)
The cold kryptonite suit is a compromise between power and comfort. Gauntlets, boots and a chest piece each with a kryptonite based heating system installed in them make up the bulk of costume and provide it with most of its weight. However Caitlin's head, shoulders and fingers are all exposed so that she may freely use her power and draw heat from the environment around her. This suit is essentially equivalent to walking around with multiple bombs strapped to her but one advantage it does have is that Caitlin can modify the energy being put into the kryptonite in her suit enabling her to ratchet up her power to be even more devastating for short periods of time. This costume is one Caitlin would be comfortable wearing and would let her effectively interact with others
-[ ] [Costume] Siobhan McDougal
--[ ] [Design] Skulls, Spikes, Light Armor and Leather (5 points)
This costume is one which appeals more to Siobhan's usual aesthetic. The black leather jacket with silver spikes, motorcycle pants, lace up combat boots and studded black fingerless gloves give this a unique and striking silhouette. The more punk aesthetic naturally pairs well with Siobhan's skull like face as the Silver Banshee and gives her a distinctive style and appeal. It's unlikely to be everyone's favorite design but it's one Siobhan likes and it could find its own invested audience. The additional armored plates subtly woven into the jacket and pants do give this look a bit of defense even if Siobhan's powers would be doing the majority of the heavy lifting in a serious fight.
-[] [35 Points] Reduce the cost of Pharmaceutical Lab
-[] [Comp] Wetware computers (78 points)
-[] [Comp] DNA spectrography program (17 points)
-[] [Comp] Improved arithmetic logic units (5 points, can be taken repeatedly)
-[] [Bone] Increased blood cell production (28 points)
-[] [Bone] Reduced throat complications (1 point)
-[] [Freeze] More compact grenades (7 points, can be taken repeatedly)
-[] [Freeze] Ease of constructions (3 points, can be taken repeatedly)
-[] [Freeze] Easier to throw grenades (16 points, can be taken repeatedly
-[] [Whale] Agree to not directly attack Tobias Whale's holdings if he agrees to never directly attack LexCorp's holdings
-[] [Brain] Agree to help the Brain gain temporary amnesty and a reduction of sentence for him and the Brotherhood of Evil in exchange for his aid in dealing with an alien invasion.

It is more comfortable for me to keep our promises to allies.

So I decided to make a second version of my plan, the first one is still
[X] [Plan] More costumes, more upgrades, more SCU enhancements

This new version has everything the same as that but the computer options are switched to @drake_azathoth's since I took a look at this page on Wetware CPUs in fiction to get a better idea of what it does, and I see that it could really help us down the line with cybernetics and faster/smoother processing. I also switched the Whale action to both sides not directly attacking each other, though we should make a plan to find and destroy the blackmail soon.

[X] [Plan] More costumes, more SCU enhancements, wetware computers
-[] [Inch] Get no improvements to LexCorp tower's defenses but gain a large DC drop of 20 next turn
-[] [SCU] Offer to cybernetically enhance interested officers of the SCU (9 points)
-[] [SCU] Enable LexCorp to easily access any metahuman awaiting transfer to a prison (5 points)
-[] [SCU] Allow LexCorp to plant spyware in the SCU headquarters (30 points)
-[] [SCU] Replace all vehicles used by the SCU with Kryptonite powered ones where possible (7 points)
-[] [SCU] Enable LexCorp to freely remove any evidence the SCU has from lock-up under the pretext of analysis (2 points)
-[] [Bill] Make it so that only the DOMA can approve of a sponsor in order to be able to legally sponsor a superhero (20 points)
-[] [Bill] Push against giving the president any special powers regarding superhuman sponsorship (20 points)
-[] [Bill] Allow superpowered criminals amnesty for non-heinous crimes if they can find a sponsor willing to draft them as soldiers or superheroes, and pay an indemnity to clear their name to be paid to the victims families (20 points)
-[] [Bill] Make it so that any costumed vigilante who operates without a sponsor is effectively treated as potential murderers and will be arrested on sight (20 points)
-[] [Bill] Push for the Bill to be completed as fast as possible (10 points)
-[] [Bill] Begin taxing superheroes and their merchandizing at a flat rate (6 points)
-[] [Demon] Meet with Talia and Ra's al Ghul to discuss alien invasions, Atlantis and long term alliances
-[] [Richter] Agree to create new combat capable aircraft or drones for General Richter in exchange for a lot of money and her tacit support in getting LexCorp more backing with the US military
-[] [Richter] Provide General Richter with blizzard blanket drones in exchange for General Richter's meteorological data
-[] [Costume] Mari McCabe
-- [] [Design] Armored Tiger (24 points)
-[] [Costume] Leonard Snart
-- [] [Design] Arctic Assault (27 points)
-[] [Costume] Samuel Scudder
-- [] [Design] Full-Mirror Suit (14 points)
-[] [Costume] Caitlin Snow
-- [] [Design] Open-Air Attire (2 points)
-[] [Costume] Siobhan McDougal
--[] [Design] Skulls, Spikes, Light Armor and Leather (5 points)
-[] [Lab] Upgrade Vehicles (0 points)
--[] [Equipment] Better data monitoring and collection (9 points)
-[] [Points] Pharmaceutical lab (Reduce cost 26 points)
-[] [Comp] Wetware computers (78 points)
-[] [Comp] DNA spectrography program (17 points)
-[] [Comp] Improved arithmetic logic units (5 points, can be taken repeatedly)
-[] [Bone] Improved rate of regeneration (2 points, can be taken repeatedly)
-[] [Bone] On-command growth (26 points)
-[] [Bone] Reduced throat complications (1 point)
-[] [Freeze] Ease of constructions (3 points, can be taken repeatedly) X2
-[] [Freeze] Freeze grenade launcher (20 points)
-[] [Whale] Agree to not directly attack Tobias Whale's holdings if he agrees to never directly attack LexCorp's holdings
-[] [Brain] Agree to help the Brain gain temporary amnesty and a reduction of sentence for him and the Brotherhood of Evil in exchange for his aid in dealing with an alien invasion.

Inserted tally:

King crimson said:

Deathstroke is kind of pathetic and pitiable. He's someone who hyper-fixates on being a killing machine (which he is admittedly good at) because he's a failure of a human being.

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It had that too. There is also a huge contradiction in his character in Priest's run, in which he can't stop himself from spying on his kids and "knowing better" (down to downright disturbing control over Joseph's love life... I can't do it justice with words), but also when time comes to finally "stop" and be a better man for his family, he physically can't shut up and stay, and runs off to become a killing machine again. There is an arc where he tries to unite his kids and kid allies he met throughout the run into a superhero-for-hire team, sort of combining his wish for family with his desire for the hunt, - and it goes as "swell" as you can imagine.

HavocOrder0999 said:

This is the reason, we really don't want to advertise that Cassandra is a front line fighter for a while, wouldn't mind giving her a suit when she starts taking those kinds of martial actions more regularly.

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On the other hand, one advantage of giving her a body-concealing, face-concealing "super suit" is that it will be much less likely that anyone knows Cassandra is a frontline fighter.

Given that Cass is old enough that I'm pretty sure she's gone through puberty by now, all they'd know is that Lexcorp employs a relatively lightly built person of uncertain gender identity wearing body concealing armor who is very good at fighting.

Given that Lexcorp already employs several badass normals and a number of low-order metahumans, and hires more on a semi-regular basis, this wouldn't narrow things down much.

Simon_Jester said:

On the other hand, one advantage of giving her a body-concealing, face-concealing "super suit" is that it will be much less likely that anyone knows Cassandra is a frontline fighter.

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True, we could make one for her for these kinds of situations to keep her skills a secret.

That said a part of me really wants someone to capture an image of Cassandra slicing an alien ship in half with the Sword of Beowulf and seeing the fallout of that, one hell of a debut.

Negation said:

It is more comfortable for me to keep our promises to allies.

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I feel the need to point out that I'm pretty sure the flat tax 100% meets the requirements of our deal with Diana

Is that correct @King crimson?

Simon_Jester said:

Given that Cass is old enough that I'm pretty sure she's gone through puberty by now

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Cassandra is twelve as of this writing (she has her birthday on every turn that's a multiple of four so on turn 28 she went from being four to being twelve) so she'd probably be at the start of puberty but in the simplified internal diagnostics I use to determine character age categories she's passed none of the transitory age markers to stop being a child (13, 16 and 18). For all intents and purposes while in-universe she might have started to stop looking like a child, within the quest mechanics she'll only start being counted as a teenager in four more turns.

This isn't to discredit the idea that a full body suit could conceal Cassandra's identity but it is a wrinkle I thought was relevant to bring up.

jonasquinn said:

I feel the need to point out that I'm pretty sure the flat tax 100% meets the requirements of our deal with Diana

Is that correct @King crimson?

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Yes the flat tax still meets the requirements of what Diana wants.

[X] [Plan] Ice and Taxes

We eventualy will need to give Lex powers eve if is Magic. Being unable to punch up on earth-1 is a problem for lex.

King crimson said:

• Superman: 6 ft, 3 in
• Lex Luthor: 6 ft, 2 in

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Damn that xenos, just another way he's flaunting his supposed superiority over us.

MrRobot said:

We eventualy will need to give Lex powers eve if is Magic. Being unable to punch up on earth-1 is a problem for lex.

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Our plan is the Mazahs-build, hence giving Black Adam as much as he wants/needs. We have gotten some of his notes as a basic framework to study.

I'm not sure if learning from Faust is a good idea if we get him. But his son may be a good match if we ever meet him. His daughter is a maybe, a specialised Magic thief is good

It is unfortunate that Mystik University does not exist in-Quest.

Gumiho said:

Damn that xenos, just another way he's flaunting his supposed superiority over us.

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We only just got over the hair!

Negation said:

Our plan is the Mazahs-build, hence giving Black Adam as much as he wants/needs. We have gotten some of his notes as a basic framework to study.

I'm not sure if learning from Faust is a good idea if we get him. But his son may be a good match if we ever meet him. His daughter is a maybe, a specialised Magic thief is good

It is unfortunate that Mystik University does not exist in-Quest.

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I feel like I should clarify that there is a sizeable group of people that want Lex to learn actual magic

To be honest we have no reason to not combo as many stuff as possible if we had to go on a colision course with the big blue brick.
Overall i do not think get involving with cartoonistly evil supervillans is good buisness since it would bite us in the back. DR Moon is proof enough that these guy are as worty only as long they are truly usefull.

jonasquinn said:

I feel like I should clarify that there is a sizeable group of people that want Lex to learn actual magic

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Sure, I agree. I suggest that if in-Quest Sebastian Faust exists with a similar situation as Prime Earth Sebastian with his dryad wife, LexCorp is in a perfect position to assist thanks to Dr Isley and Rebecca.

Felix Faust can always be handed over to Tala to be sealed in a vault in addition to his mirror once he is no longer useful.

I just like to say i like how unlikeble lois lane is in this quest.
I mean superman is the brick that Lex is cosmically fated to hate but he is passive enough that he realy isnt a problem.
Lois in other hand realy show her cracks when theres no Monster to slay.
Its intresthing to say the least.