If voting is now open…

[X] Plan Love, Unending (and Zeno's There)
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian, Han Yu
-[X] Apiary, Rosemary Ward
-[X] Zeno, Camdyn Poole


Freeze everything within sight, and while time's frozen, create more clones to create more eyes. Also good narratively and encourages us to take the Defiance Unit Fill-in for delicious angst.
Thats A big eff you to anything if I ever seen it.
 
[X] Cruel Angel's Thesis
-[X] Justicar
-[X] The Red Huntress
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian

Yeah, this feels right. We don't need a gigantically efficient combo for killing SB here.
 
[X] Cruel Angel's Thesis
-[X] Justicar
-[X] The Red Huntress
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian

I really like this but a part of me feels like Cisma, Shutdown or Zeno might be useful as well.

Damn, the fact we can only use 3 lego blocks for this.

[X] Plan: Narrative plus Shutdown
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian
-[X] The Red Huntress
-[X] Shutdown

Screw it, I'll vote for this one as well and hope it has enough narrative weight.
 
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[X] Plan: I'm just here for the narrative
-[X] Valiant Red
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian
-[X] Red Huntress

[X] Plan: I'm just here for the narrative and lore
-[X] Osanyin
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian
-[X] Red Huntress
 
[X] Cruel Angel's Thesis
-[X] Justicar
-[X] The Red Huntress
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian

I really like this but a part of me feels like Cisma or Zeno might be useful as well.

Damn, the fact we can only use 3 lego blocks for this.
Yeah...
But its also a Combo of 3 OP powets without any limits, and that is Broken in all the best ways possible. A combo like this on a normal person would be impossible. So lets see what happens shall we?
 
[X] Plan: Cruel Angel's Thesis
-[X] Justicar
-[X] The Red Huntress
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian

[X] Plan: Narrative plus Shutdown
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian
-[X] The Red Huntress
-[X] Shutdown

HA + RH give us some very solid narrative and combat elements for the fight. Where Shutdown and Justicar are both solid options in terms of utility stuns/silences which are very valuable considering what is on the table here now, either one is fine with me here.
 
Edit: How the hell would this mission have gone if we'd taken it on Issue 2?? Would SB just outright win? ...Or maybe, without Wolong, she wouldn't have known we were recruiting her in the first place?
I really think what's going on is adaptive scaling of the size of the guns that enemies are bringing to the table. Because they see Justice Unlimited's unstoppable rise, they have to commit much more to get the results they want rather than continuing with their shadow ops all the time. This leaves them liable to overplaying their hand and getting exposed, as with Faust. So if Justice Unlimited were weaker, the missions would be easier, but still just as harrowing in my opinion.

It makes narrative sense to keep the fights engaging, and the in-universe justification is the risk of losing secrecy for a group that evidently wishes to preserve that secrecy. So they wish to keep the force proportionate to what they need. At least when they aren't having a meltdown like Socialite Butterfly is.
 
[X] Plan: Narrative plus Shutdown
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian
-[X] The Red Huntress
-[X] Shutdown

[X] Plan Justice in the nick of time
-[X] Justiciar
-[X] Copycat
-[X] Shutdown

I'm gonna be voting for just about anything with shutdown in it. The sooner we turn off clone!Justicar's powers the sooner the rest of the team can help. And I think there's less chance she has a defence against fiat power nullification than any sort of damaging ability.
 
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Looking over the Back Issue Justice For All, Justicar had two key limitations: One, she had to know a person had broken an Edict for the punishment to take effect, and two, her power was only active while she was awake. Given that everyone got immediately hit with the punishments, I think it is safe to say clone!Scarlet Maturities power up probably removed the first limitation.
 
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[X] Plan: Cruel Angel's Thesis
-[X] Justicar
-[X] The Red Huntress
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian

[X] Plan: Narrative plus Shutdown
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian
-[X] The Red Huntress
-[X] Shutdown

Hmmm... Also going to vote for this

[X] Plan Justice in the nick of time
-[X] Justiciar
-[X] Copycat
-[X] Shutdown
 
It makes narrative sense to keep the fights engaging, and the in-universe justification is the risk of losing secrecy for a group that evidently wishes to preserve that secrecy. So they wish to keep the force proportionate to what they need. At least when they aren't having a meltdown like Socialite Butterfly is.
This is a quest, though. I feel like we're allowed to earn ourselves an anticlimax every so often.
 
I never did understand why power-copiers weren't the most powerful characters in whatever setting they were in.
I actually can't think of another Power Copier in fiction that:

1) Has no time limit to how long the power remains copied.
2) Doesn't lose the ability to copy a power when the person copied dies.
3) Has no limit on the number of powers copied.
4) Leaves no hints (like people who have to murder someone to copy thier power.)
5) Gets the full power, generally no weaker*


*This is the only one where there's caveats because the clones are generally stupid and powers that take months or years to build up like Algernons or etc. But at least in theory the powers are not 'half strength' the way you get with the kinda, like, Kirby Model of getting an ability based on enemies you kill.

Like generally the reason why power copiers aren't blatantly the most powerful enemy in the setting tends to be because they're given limits that are narratively meaningful (and yes, she has to touch someone, but that's not narratively meaningful because it all happens in the past without any Saves for 'Actually no she didn't touch literally every relevant Cape in history that doesn't hard-counter her power.')
I'm reminded of Amazo in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoons. A power copying Android that become so powerful, it could do basically anything. And was only "defeated" because Lex Luthor convinced Amazo to seek purpose in life beyond revenge.
 
[X] Plan: LowTierTelepath
-[X] Seraph
-[X] Mr. Whaaa?
-[X] Miss Conception

This plan accomplishes several things narratively and practically.

Narratively, it would be satisfying to see Socialite Butterfly be defeated by her latest victim who she considered little more than a power-up for her collection. Seraph died fearful, and if the glimpses of her history were anything to go by, she has a record of being coerced into using her power for goals she doesn't believe in or want. Thus, it would be very poetic to give her the chance to attain justice for the crimes done against her with her own two hands. Similarly, placing two people who don't have much narrative weight helps further focus the spotlight on Seraph.

The story has humanized Crusade a lot lately, and the narrative is clearly pushign us towards dealing with Elysium and the Ladder as major pieces of the puzzle. Having Seraph is key to further help us move in said direction by influencing Ellie of the lived experiences of someone who was born there. Not only that, but Ellie was pretty mad when she last met Seraph during the interview thanks to how she manipulated Black Swan, and I think her growing to know more about Seraph can help her become more and perhaps, help her undo the misstep with Silvio earlier on since it's been outright stated and demonstrated that Exceed-Beyond has always been meant for two people.

Practically, this set of powers is perfect for dealing with Socialite Butterfly's clones by subverting her ability to command them, while also hiding details of Project Prometheus from the many hostile observers present around us right now.

Serpah is a true telepath in every sense of the word, able to influence the minds of others and communicate with them. We know Socialite Butterfly even used her clone of Seraph to transmit her commands wordlessly to the rest of her admirers. Combine this with Mr. Whaaa?'s perception filter, Miss Conception's ability to fool the senses, and the clones being incredibly dumb, and we have the perfect recipe to turn Socialite Butterfly's strengths against her.

Not only can we fool cloned Justiciar to turn off her Edicts and use them against her allies instead by imitating Socialite Butterfly in voice and visuals, we can potentially make Socialite Butterfly do it for us by making her think she's saying one thing when she actually said another. This completely reverses the situation on its head as Socialite Butterfly will now operate on incomplete and false information, while also hiding what exactly we did to all observers. The latter is important strategically, as keeping Project Prometheus hidden is a major reason for why the smear campaign against us has not been effective, and it's also how we'll be able to keep catching our opponents off-guard every time they pull out their own BS against us.

Our espionage game has been top tier so far, and I want to force the Mysteries to tear their hair out of frustration from the fact that even when we dropped this bombshell literally right in front of them, they still couldn't glean anything of value from it. The fact that we've been able to keep this hidden for so long is one of the best parts of playing as Lady Leizi, and I want to make sure we keep it going for as long as possible.
 
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[X] Plan: Narrative plus Shutdown

[X] Plan Justice in the nick of time

"Um momento em que a Terra e Céu são distorcidos pelos caprichos de alguns. Mais do que uma batalha normal, esta é uma disputa dos gladiadores que almejam ser imperadores. Levantem-se, aqueles que desejam expiar. Levantem-se, aqueles que se ridicularizados. A sombra desta batalha será longa, mas primeiro sua luz ser ofuscante. Ataquem!"

("Oi, sou Shutdown, estou aqui também. Gosta Mengão?")


Also
[X] Plan: LowTierTelepath
 
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[X] Plan: LowTierTelepath

I really like this plan for being super clever, for the narrative of turning Socialite's power on her, and for being a complete ??? for everyone else as to what is even happening. Dynamite is JU's biggest ace in the hole, something so powerful every telepath on the planet knows it's being used. For this psychic beacon to lead to a complete mystery? That keeps both operational secrecy and confounds the heck out of all our enemies? That's super hilarious.
 
I'll be honest, I haven't been keeping up with chat but this last chapter really solidified something for me that I haven't been feeling more and more as the quest went on.

Namely, that the rolls don't matter and only serve as window dressing for bitterman to write the scenes they want.

Now, as someone who has grown more and more fond of narrative quests, and who especially loves the sort of system that Petals of Carbon Steel uses where there is no choice which wins it all, and you're choosing your priorities and accepting some loss with each choice, I don't mind that trend. I think that's a lot of fun, more so than just winning every roll and steamrolling things.

But it does feel dishonest in these updates to pretend that the dice rolls are what's determining success
 
[X] Plan: Cruel Angel's Thesis
-[X] Justicar
-[X] The Red Huntress
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian

[X] Plan: Narrative plus Shutdown
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian
-[X] The Red Huntress
-[X] Shutdown

Both plans work for me thematically.

For cruel angel's thesis I'm hoping there will be good synergy between RH and Justicar, they both have powers triggered by conditions. Maybe it'll be the ability to ramp not just on a single target but anyone currently affected by an edict with the abilities granted being stronger and stronger expressions of inertia control?

Narrative plus shutdown I could see being ramped based on how many people have had their inertia and powers cancelled in a sort of snowball-y build.


Also: This is a crack theory and not related to whats going on currently, but do you think Justicar and Faust have any relation to each other based on their power sets being fairly similar?
 
Opponent Flipped The Board? Reset The Table

[X] Plan: ZA WARUDO!
-[X] Heavenly Astrologian
-[X] Zeno
-[X] Lightstep

Cancel the trump, turn time to jelly to stop counters, buff your allies so they can act anyway, punch SB in the face.
 
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