I had assumed that was something we wanted to tinker experiment with after the fight, since by my understanding it does involve breaking up and recreating Accelerando with one mote less.
As a side note, we have a solid Brute power, but zero combat training, and by my understanding, we kind of suck as a street fighter outside of our crazy endurance.
Whatever the winning approach, we will need another strategy than relying only on our Brute rating to bumrush a guy with actual combat experience, presumably several lives worth of stolen martial arts and para-military training under his belt, and the kind of sociopathic mindset that may have lead him to spend years devising strategies to off Hookwolf just in case.
Shifting motes typically requires breaking it down, but PSYCHOPOMP likes aggression against other capes and so it might be willing to loosen power restrictions a bit. I'd probably make a dice roll at a fairly high DC to determine if it works or not?
Re: nobody sad about a dead Chosen, it's a bit of truth but also, yeah, you aren't supposed to kill anyone if you can help it. No one will be sad, there will be anywhere from concern to a serious "recruitment" attempt unless the circumstances are truly quite remarkable. Which they might end up being, you never know how Othala's death might have impacted Victor.
I had assumed that was something we wanted to tinker experiment with after the fight, since by my understanding it does involve breaking up and recreating Accelerando with one mote less.
As a side note, we have a solid Brute power, but zero combat training, and by my understanding, we kind of suck as a street fighter outside of our crazy endurance.
Whatever the winning approach, we will need another strategy than relying only on our Brute rating to bumrush a guy with actual combat experience, presumably several lives worth of stolen martial arts and para-military training under his belt, and the kind of sociopathic mindset that may have lead him to spend years devising strategies to off Hookwolf just in case.
If he hits us with martial arts we just bleed on him. We don't need to be good at fighting if we just launch our body at him as fast as we can. It is my understanding that martial arts require either redirecting momentum or grappling. We directly control our momentum and if we're grappled we might be able to just go up.
Scheduled vote count started by paebel on Jun 9, 2024 at 12:35 AM, finished with 17 posts and 7 votes.
[X] Plan Couldn't have happened to a better Nazi
-[X] Follow Miss Militia's plan. Protean and Vista will engage the Chosen. Miss Militia will engage Victor if he shows himself. This reveals the smallest amount of what Protean can do, but has the smallest chance of meaningful gains.
--[X] With a bunch of panicking Chosen shooting up the place, accidents could happen. If it can be done believably and from outside the Heroes' line of sight, use Accelerando on a bullet or piece of shrapnel to make sure an accident happens to the right person.
-[X][POWER] Utilize PSYCHOPOMP to create, modify, or break apart powers.
--[X] Create a new power with CRAFT, SHAKER, & FIELD. Transfer one mote from ACCELERANDO to it.
[X] Plan: Cape Hunting
-[X] Protean is a cape hunter. So hunt the cape. Protean is confident that most bullets can't meaningfully harm her--at least not permanently--and with her Mover and Thinker power she can engage Victor rapidly. Post-Leviathan Brockton Bay is a shithole, and nobody will be upset at a dead Chosen, so it is likely Protean will have the opportunity to gain motes and KEYWORDS.
-[X][POWER] Utilize PSYCHOPOMP to create, modify, or break apart powers.
--[X] Create a new power with CRAFT, SHAKER, & FIELD. Transfer one mote from ACCELERANDO to it.
[X] Respectfully suggest that being a nigh invulnerable and effectively bulletproof cape who gets more powerful the more she gets hurt, and who can sense him, you might be more suited to take on Victor.
If he hits us with martial arts we just bleed on him. We don't need to be good at fighting if we just launch our body at him as fast as we can. It is my understanding that martial arts require either redirecting momentum or grappling. We directly control our momentum and if we're grappled we might be able to just go up.
I don't think the wording of Accelerando allows us to go up (takes time to spool up and requires constant movement). Unless we can apply the Striker effect to the sole of our shoes or suchlike? That would be an interesting trick.
And yes, I'm concerned about possible chokeholds/strangulation techniques, since cutting the airflow is still valid against brutes (hello Alexandria). Our Phoenix power might allow us to adapt to asphyxia, but I'd rather not test this hypothesis in the field.
I don't think the wording of Accelerando allows us to go up (takes time to spool up and requires constant movement). Unless we can apply the Striker effect to the sole of our shoes or suchlike? That would be an interesting trick.
And yes, I'm concerned about possible chokeholds/strangulation techniques, since cutting the airflow is still valid against brutes (hello Alexandria). Our Phoenix power might allow us to adapt to asphyxia, but I'd rather not test this hypothesis in the field.
Something in Protean's mind, something in her power, pushed her into action. She gave a quick confirmation to Miss Militia and stepped in front of Vista, even as Miss Militia broke away. With a quick shout of "to the left and above!" to her, you began your assigned task... while keeping an eye open for opportunities. Vista had a strong power, one that worked wonderfully for battlefield management, mobility, and playing defensively. Protean, though?
As far as the local PRT knew, she was a Brute. And so that's what Protean gave them, as well as the Chosen. An iridescent glow came from her body, and she moved. The distance wasn't quite far enough that she built up much speed, but every little bit added a bit more energy to the equation that was her fist smashing a Nazi's face.
Even as she moved, Protean nudged her power, reaching out her newly developed Mover power. She felt an unexpected resistance, a refusal to break apart. But as the first bullets arrived something finally gave. She felt the beginnings of a small headache, but it didn't stop her from combining her final... whatever they were (aspects? words? ideas?) into a new power. Even as the new power came into being, Protean delivered a firm kick to the ground.
Where her foot struck the ground, a small wall rose and blocked the bullets. Using the force of her own kick, she allowed herself to accelerate upwards and at an angle, gravity giving way to ACCELERANDO. Protean vaulted over the wall and turned her power off, beginning her descent. She stood in the middle of the pack of Chosen, the convoy forgotten on the side.
Exactly where I want them, Protean thought to herself. Her hands lashed out, constantly moving, the iridescent glow of acceleration surrounding them. One, unnoticed, slip into one of the goon's pockets. The pocket was empty but as she continued her battle--the Chosen somehow missing most of their shots, with only a few grazes to show for their efforts--she found what she wanted. Loose bullets.
Even as Protean attracted attention, Vista played her own role. Space found itself distorted as the convoy found its way through a twisted tunnel of space. Even as the young Ward arranged this, she also created a boundary, establishing a zone that any stray bullets had to travel. Vista took her role seriously. Too many people had died in senseless violence these past few days. She didn't want to see anymore, not if she could help it. Bullets found themselves caught in twisting spatial mazes, twirling endlessly until their kinetic energy had been spent.
Even as the Chosen began to break and flee, Protean kept her cape sense on Victor and Miss Militia. The latter--feeling something like a cup of stale coffee--had almost perfectly positioned herself relative to Victor. Protean stomped the ground and a small pillar rose from the earth, bringing her to a nearby rooftop. And then everything went wrong.
Protean had a decent view of what happened next. Miss Militia closed the distance with Victor but, as soon as she came close, she paused for a moment. She looked around as if confused. Victor took a moment and lined up his shot. Militia fired her weapon--some sort of net thrower--somewhere three feet to the left of Victor.
The sound of Victor's bullet leaving the barrel resounded. And it covered up Protean's own attack. She had slowly charged one of the bullets from earlier. It glowed with an iridescent light and, in a frantic need to somehow get Victor before he managed to tag Miss Militia, it launched. She felt an extra nudge from her power as the bullet self-corrected, a streak of light across the sky, and it caught Victor between the eyes. The Nazi cape's body language simply exuded shock at the attack.
And then he was no more. I failed you, again and again, I couldn't protect you. I wasn't good enough, not good enough, not smart enough, not skilled enough...
Protean felt it then, a sensation much stronger than she'd expected, but also warped somehow. Vista, she noticed, had already moved. The Chosen still in the field had been forgotten, already fleeing. Protean considered chasing after them, for a moment, before deciding to join Vista. Her new power wasn't exactly the greatest for battlefield control, it's range too limited, each construct she created causing a previous one to crumble.
But it provided an excellent place to launch herself. Even as she jumped from her impromptu pillar, she triggered her Mover power, and her inertia from the jump remained. She fell--somewhat lacking in grace--onto the rooftop Victor had positioned himself on. Vista stood over Miss Militia's body, bandages in hand and listening intently to an earpiece. Protean heard the ambulance in the distance.
"Come here and keep pressure on," Vista ordered her. Protean simply kneeled to the ground and did as instructed. She had some basic first aid training but Vista clearly had more, and seemed to be getting specific instructions too. A part of her considered making some sort of mistake, letting Miss Militia die and claiming even more, but she dismissed this with ease.
Protean didn't want other heroes to die. Though could she really be considered a hero? She had been planning on killing Victor from the start. Circumstances had simply made it a necessity.
It wasn't long before the ambulances arrived and Protean was relieved of her duties. She had been asked to remain and she saw no reason to disobey. Vista approached her not long after.
"I saw it, you know. What you did."
The girl doesn't sound accusatory. Her voice is dull and tired.
"I've seen so many of them die. Dauntless. Velocity. Panacea. Aegis. Gallant. I'm sick of it. The villains making things worse, preying on people at the very worst, when we should all be coming together. You don't have anything to worry about. According to the official report, one of the Chosen caught Victor, firing blindly as he fled. Or that's what it'll say."
Protean doesn't know what to say to this. So she stays quiet, sitting with the twelve year old girl that has become the most experienced Ward of Brockton Bay. A grim looking Battery arrives and debriefs. Just as Vista stated, the report includes nothing of Protean's killing of Victor. She backs up Vista's report of events. A suggestion is made for power testing. Casey mumbles something non-committal, not sure if he wants to be Protean anymore tonight.
And then something tickles at the edge of his senses. The sensation of bugs crawling over his body, of a million million million pinpricks of light at the edge his senses. A part of him wants to track Skitter down. Either to talk, or to claim yet more, he isn't sure. Rumor has it she'd left the Undersiders. She might make a good ally, he thinks to himself, but she also might be a loose end. She might have seen what happened, might report it to the PRT.
They wouldn't believe her. Casey chuckles to himself at the idea, but it's an empty laugh. The question is what should he do next?
[] Fuck it. Track down Skitter. She stands at the edge of your sensory range, but the combination of ACCELERANDO and GEOMANCY will see Casey there in no time. He'll talk to her, maybe make an offer of cooperation. Start to build a team, maybe.
[] PSYCHOPOMP pulses in anticipation. Protean tracks the supervillain Skitter and lays claim to more. The cape feels somehow delicious to Protean's cape sense.
[] Go home. Sleep. Figure out what to do tomorrow. They're in no position to be making any decisions now, though it does mean having to track down Skitter again, assuming they feel like pursuing the lead.
[][POWER] Utilize PSYCHOPOMP to create, modify, or break apart powers.
-[] Add a KEYWORD to [existing power]
-[] Add motes to [existing power]
-[] Break apart [existing power] and reclaim all motes and keywords (requires at least eight hours of rest).
-[] Do nothing for now.
POWER PANEL
CURRENT MOTES 10
THINKER, STRANGER, SKILL, THIEF, SENSE, SCRAMBLE
PSYCHOPOMP (Rank 12)(Trump): Harvest KEYWORDS and motes from dying capes. Use them to create powers. Gain a minor Thinker power to identify capes.
PHOENIX(Rank 5)(Trump/Brute/Changer)(BRUTE, TRUMP, CHANGER, FLESH, REGEN, FIRE, CONTROL) Burn to ash and rise again, stronger than before. Casey regenerates damage taken, the more damage taken the more rapidly they regenerate. As they regenerate, they shade "feathers" of flame, which they have moderate control over. They grow stronger the more times they regenerate, generating virtual "motes" which may improve PHOENIX by up to three ranks. (10 motes)
ACCELERANDO (Rank 4)(Mover)(MOVER, STRIKER, ACCELERATION, INTERTIA) Casey increases in speed the longer he is in constant movement. It seemingly has no limit, but takes time to spool up. Once he reaches a speed, he can maintain it, and needs some space to slow down. Casey may reach out and touch a single item no more than ten grams in mass. This item gains an iridescent sheen and is propelled at ever increasing speeds, in whichever direction Casey chooses. It will not slow until it strikes something, unless Casey wills it. (4 motes)
GEOMANCY (Rank 1)(Shaker)(SHAKER, CRAFT, FIELD) Casey may shape the world around him. At low motes, he is limited to the most readily available materials and has a range only slightly beyond his body. He is also limited to a single extremely basic creation (pillars, walls, holes, etc). At higher motes, Casey may utilize more exotic materials, expand his range, and expand the number of creations. Complexity of creations may increase as well. (1 mote)
Victor had undergone a second trigger after the death of Othala. His range and speed of skill theft had decreased, in exchange he had grown the ability to scramble and interfere with the senses of his targets. This wasn't quite to the level of making them see things that weren't there, but it could make them see him in different places, etc. Second triggers offer superior rewards to regular triggers.
Miss Militia is alive and well, but will be spending time in recovery unless she receives attention from a healing cape.
Yesssss we got the thief and skill words like I'd hoped. Honestly Geomancy 1 is much more useful than I thought it'd be. For now I'm going to suggest we dump some motes into a power that is only the words THINKER and SKILL, and maybe a power made of STRANGER, SENSE, and THIEF. Thoughts?
Oh hey by the way is it possible for us to get duplicate words?
[X] Fuck it. Track down Skitter. She stands at the edge of your sensory range, but the combination of ACCELERANDO and GEOMANCY will see Casey there in no time. He'll talk to her, maybe make an offer of cooperation. Start to build a team, maybe.
Edit:
[X][POWER] Utilize PSYCHOPOMP to create, modify, or break apart powers.
-[X] Dump four motes into a power made with the words THINKER SKILL
-[X] Be ready to dump the rest of the motes into Accelerando if things go pear shaped with Skitter and we need to run.
[X] Fuck it. Track down Skitter. She stands at the edge of your sensory range, but the combination of ACCELERANDO and GEOMANCY will see Casey there in no time. He'll talk to her, maybe make an offer of cooperation. Start to build a team, maybe.
PSYCHOPOMP will not produce duplicates, but it can produce very similar ones. For instance, you can get TINKER, CRAFT, MAKE, etc, but all of these have some variation in meaning.
He is also limited to a single extremely basic creation (pillars, walls, holes, etc). At higher motes, Casey may utilize more exotic materials, expand his range, and expand the number of creations. Complexity of creations may increase as well
Can Casey shape holes (and so, subtract matter)? Are Creations made from actual material or just mass extruded through the power?
Also, good on y'all that wanted to put STRIKER inside Accelerando. Turns out that the ranged option was real useful, huh?
Powers: if we make one with thinker/thief/skill, will it be Victor's? If so and we drain ppl, can we still use stolen skills after we break the power?
We should make a STRANGER, SENSE, SCRAMBLE power regardless, i feel. If we ever get a Trump, we could add to this too. It might help with strangers if the combination of thinker/thief/skill also lets us sense skill use. Think Imp stalking us, we see no one but we can sense someone's [stealth] or [sneak] ([walking], if we're lucky and it also tracks simple stuff. Maybe [balance]?).
The reason i say that is because some powers work quite like a game of rock-paper-scissors. A human master finds you and you don't have a good answer for that? Insta loss. Stranger? Loss. We either need to have a power like that (so we can abuse it too/gain resistance to it like some masters have/stranger the person who is strangering us), or a good counter for one.
Idk. Thinker/skill is useful, 100%. But i think the motes will be more useful on thinker/skill/thief, because then the shard won't be pulling the skills out of nothing, if you get what i mean? Like, 10 motes without thief lets us emulate x skills, but 10 motes with THIEF lets us take infinite skills, but we have to actually put effort to get them? We could use it on Coil's mercs.
Also, GEOMANCY turned out to be really useful huh. I want to see if we can stomp and put people inside of holes, that would be neat. Let's put more motes on that.
Wait, so we can't get another TRUMP? Because we already have one. Huh. I thought it was like, it won't produce duplicate keywords in the same kill. That changes some stuff.
Also, can Casey know when a power levels up? Like, can we make a vote [] Put motes until Y power reaches next level/level X?
Edit: made a vote. Dont want to double post, so i'll put it here.
[X] Go home. Sleep. Figure out what to do tomorrow. They're in no position to be making any decisions now, though it does mean having to track down Skitter again, assuming they feel like pursuing the lead.
[X] Fuck it. Track down Skitter. She stands at the edge of your sensory range, but the combination of ACCELERANDO and GEOMANCY will see Casey there in no time. He'll talk to her, maybe make an offer of cooperation. Start to build a team, maybe
Either works.
[X][POWER] Utilize PSYCHOPOMP to create, modify, or break apart powers.
-[X] Make a new power with the KEYWORDS THINKER/SKILL
-[X] Make a new power with the KEYWORDS STRANGER/SENSE/SCRAMBLE
[X] Put enough motes to level up ThinkerSkill one time. Then share the rest between GEOMANCY and ScrambleSense. Level up one, then the other. Repeat until you can't 100% level up another time.
Re-edited this vote. We don't keep skills from thinker/thief/skill when we break it, and i feel like thief might be too useful to stay there in the long-term. Might as well make a thinker/skill so we don't have to set-up for a thing we probably won't use later. Maybe. Like, we can Steal better things than just skills, yeah? Maybe we can recreate victor's power later, if thinker/skill doesnt get us basically Uber's power.
Also changed the motes. Focusing now on scramblesense + geomancy, and leveling up ThinkerSkill just one more time (so we first use mote to create it, then level it up one time. The rest goes to ScrambleSense and GEOMANCY.), because we don't know that the result of thinker/skill might be.
Can Casey shape holes (and so, subtract matter)? Are Creations made from actual material or just mass extruded through the power?
Powers: if we make one with thinker/thief/skill, will it be Victor's? If so and we drain ppl, can we still use stolen skills after we break the power?
That's an interesting take on him (that he ACTUALLY cares about O enough to second trigger, i mean.)
Wait, so we can't get another TRUMP? Because we already have one. Huh. I thought it was like, it won't produce duplicate keywords in the same kill. That changes some stuff.
Also, can Casey know when a power levels up? Like, can we make a vote [] Put motes until Y power reaches next level/level X?
1. Casey can shape holes, and even add matter that shouldn't be present. GEOMANCY is pretty versatile, only uses three KEYWORDS, and PSYCHOPOMP likes it.
2. Yes, THINKER, SKILL, THIEF is basically Victor's base power. No, if you break the power down you don't retain the skills, though you can add to it. If you remake it, you will get the previously stolen powers back, though.
3. In this, Victor's trigger is pretty intrinsically tied to Othala. He's roughly the same age as her, maybe a year older, and had been looking to marry into the Herren Clan. The original person he was to marry was Othala's cousin, also of a similar age as him, and she died in the event that Othala triggered. Due to how the Herren Clan views people, this made her more "valuable" and so he felt a need to prove himself, to be better than everyone, and he eventually triggered with a power that enabled this. It's also tied into the fact that he let Othala's cousin die, who I'm thinking died during Othala's own trigger event. So it's a combo of feeling inferior combined with a need to protect the woman he considers to be "his" like the misogynist he (and the rest of E88, Othala as well) were.
4. You can get a second TRUMP when you kill an Endbringer and create a permanent TRUMP power. Then you'll get the original back. Mostly, PSYCHOPOMP wants Casey making a bunch of powers, but also breaking old ones down. A constant churn with maybe one or two mainstays that get polished overtime.
5. Casey will know in the sense the power will be more responsive, and it'll come at certain mote thresholds. It might also feel a bit different in his mind. But he doesn't know beforehand "put X motes to achieve the next strength increase."
PSYCHOPOMP will not produce duplicates, but it can produce very similar ones. For instance, you can get TINKER, CRAFT, MAKE, etc, but all of these have some variation in meaning.
Idk. Thinker/skill is useful, 100%. But i think the motes will be more useful on thinker/skill/thief, because then the shard won't be pulling the skills out of nothing, if you get what i mean? Like, 10 motes without thief lets us emulate x skills, but 10 motes with THIEF lets us take infinite skills, but we have to actually put effort to get them? We could use it on Coil's mercs
Yeah but I want to break down any powers we make now to mess around with the words later, so for now I just want things that potentially make dealing with Skitter easier.
I'm editing the actual vote into my last post because SV voting is weird but I'm voting for:
[][POWER] Utilize PSYCHOPOMP to create, modify, or break apart powers.
-[] Dump four motes into a power made with the words THINKER SKILL
-[] Be ready to dump the rest of the motes into Accelerando if things go pear shaped with Skitter and we need to run.
A combination of rolling dubs in the fight it was generated and just being a very streamlined power with a lot of potential to it. It's only using three KEYWORDS but these KEYWORDS open up a lot of possibilities. PSYCHOPOMP has a reserve of motes and KEYWORDS it can use to flub things when it feels like.
What is the date ic anyways? S9 arrived in early June of 2011, scouting candidates and only speaking to them on june 7-8. I want to know how much time we have to grow before entering a conflict against them. Particularly worried about Cherish here, since we don't have an answer for Masters. I'm thinking either going all in with a stranger/trump power (so she is blind to our emotions and cant affect them), a breaker one, or just an human master. Ah, i guess we could kill Alec for that keyword?
We can always send a ton of bullets towards her with ACCELERANDO before we enter her manipulation range (as opposed to her emotion sense, this one has a short range. Unsure how short.). Make a thinker power that helps with sensing/aiming at/seeing her from a good range and just... grab 10 boxes full of bullets and throw at her.
You know Flesh Changer might just straight up make us a shapeshifter, and if not flesh thief and changer would almost definitely let us copy someone's form.
Would all power that steal using keyword THIEF work like that?
About endbringers: Does killing other S class threats give us a rank up? Not parahumans, but things like the three blasphemies.
Also can we know more about PHOENIX? thinking about pruning it a bit.
Does CONTROL affect just the FIRE element (the bleeding "feathers" of fire that we can control)? If we remove FIRE, what does CONTROL affect then?
What is CHANGER doing there exactly? If we remove it what happens?
About the adaptation when Casey gets hurt: Can we adapt to more than one thing? If Behemoth uses one type of energy to hit Casey's arm, Casey adapts, B hits with a different attack in the same arm, what happens? Does Casey lose the first adaptation (and can he chose to not adapt to the second hit in order to keep the first)?
What FLESH is doing there and what happens if we make the power without it?
Can we adapt to Siberian damage?
I see that ACCELERANDO is rank 4 with 4 motes. It uses 3 keywords. PHOENIX is rank 5 but uses 10 motes and 7 keywords. What rank will PHOENIX end up, if we use the same amount of motes when remaking it but using 1/2/3/4 less keywords?
You know Flesh Changer might just straight up make us a shapeshifter, and if not flesh thief and changer would almost definitely let us copy someone's form.
About the adaptation when Casey gets hurt: Can we adapt to more than one thing? If Behemoth uses one type of energy to hit Casey's arm, Casey adapts, B hits with a different attack in the same arm, what happens? Does Casey lose the first adaptation (and can he chose to not adapt to the second hit in order to keep the first)?
[X] Fuck it. Track down Skitter. She stands at the edge of your sensory range, but the combination of ACCELERANDO and GEOMANCY will see Casey there in no time. He'll talk to her, maybe make an offer of cooperation. Start to build a team, maybe
[X][POWER] Utilize PSYCHOPOMP to create, modify, or break apart powers.
-[X] Make a new power with the KEYWORDS THINKER/SKILL
-[X] Make a new power with the KEYWORDS STRANGER/SENSE/SCRAMBLE
[X] Put enough motes to level up ThinkerSkill one time. Then share the rest between GEOMANCY and ScrambleSense. Level up one, then the other. Repeat until you can't 100% level up another time.
I'm looking forward to breaking down all our powers. I'd love to see what THINKER/SKILL/CRAFT can do.
My thoughts exactly. Either it gives a tinker power, or it gives the power to create new skills ourself. I'm personally hoping for the latter. I'm on the fence about whether to add trump to the mix. I'm also interested in combos like sense+brute or changer+skill or thief+fire or striker+regeneration or striker+skill where the implications aren't immediately obvious. Actually now that I'm thinking about weird combos thief+control might give us an anti-master power, or a master power. I'm not sure what adding trump to that mix would do, but it'd be really wild.
I would need to re-read Worm to pull the exact quotes, and, to be honest, to sort canon from misremembered fanon, but my read on Victor has always been someone who considers people as resources for the cause, including himself and Othala (he loves her, but still leans on his power and manipulation skills to keep her happy and loyal, IIRC). I always had a "be polite to everyone you meet, have a plan to kill everyone you meet" vibe from him.
He also has a serious superiority complex hiding some deep-seated insecurities, and to an extent he resents people whose powers have a more direct applications, because contrary to them he has to work to maintain his stolen skills (very strict PT regimen and so forth), and he can see the day when he will be too old and therefore worthless.
That aside, his death will be a major blow for the Chosen, who have just lost their most competent tactician and administrator, among a myriad of other things.
