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A Champion in Earth Bet [Worm/Original Setting]

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[X] For now, do nothing directly. Over the rest of the week, when opportunities arise and other matters aren't monopolizing your resources, gather intel on the Jacksonville PRT and villains.
 
[X] For now, do nothing directly. Over the rest of the week, when opportunities arise and other matters aren't monopolizing your resources, gather intel on the Jacksonville PRT and villains.

We only have one side of the story so far. Let's get more.

Briefvoice said:
I have to say, I'm starting to really see the downside of taking the Avatar as the POV character. Powerside it's easy street, but the Avatar is... well... boring. As a protagonist, I mean. He's devoted to heroism above all else and thinks of nothing else, but that means he doesn't really develop a bunch of complicated relationship subplots. I don't know; I'm just finding myself kind of uninvested in his story beyond the fixfic power fantasy.
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True, but on the flipside, we get the opportunity for amazing world-building, and seeing how the rest of the world has fared from the advent of parahumans. I concede that getting any of the other GCs would involve more character interaction and be more interesting in that sense, but I'm enjoying this quest for what it is.

Plus, we still haven't directly met any of the Kings of Pride or any of the new Endbringers yet, nor have we seen how a direct link to Scion is affecting things either, so there may be more character interaction to come, and we get to see how the Avatar deals with this brand of megalomaniac.
 
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[X] You are extremely valuable to the Protectorate, both strategically and PR-wise. Bring the matter to the Chief Director's attention, and make it clear you wish to see it resolved.
-[X] Clarify that you are willing to donate some of your time to assist.
 
[X] You are extremely valuable to the Protectorate, both strategically and PR-wise. Bring the matter to the Chief Director's attention, and make it clear you wish to see it resolved.
-[X] Clarify that you are willing to donate some of your time to assist.
 
[X] For now, do nothing directly. Over the rest of the week, when opportunities arise and other matters aren't monopolizing your resources, gather intel on the Jacksonville PRT and villains.
 
[X] For now, do nothing directly. Over the rest of the week, when opportunities arise and other matters aren't monopolizing your resources, gather intel on the Jacksonville PRT and villains.
 
[X] For now, do nothing directly. Over the rest of the week, when opportunities arise and other matters aren't monopolizing your resources, gather intel on the Jacksonville PRT and villains.
 
[X] For now, do nothing directly. Over the rest of the week, when opportunities arise and other matters aren't monopolizing your resources, gather intel on the Jacksonville PRT and villains.
 
[X] For now, do nothing directly. Over the rest of the week, when opportunities arise and other matters aren't monopolizing your resources, gather intel on the Jacksonville PRT and villains.

This honestly seems like the best choice, for the reasons already outlined.
 
Briefvoice said:
I have to say, I'm starting to really see the downside of taking the Avatar as the POV character. Powerside it's easy street, but the Avatar is... well... boring. As a protagonist, I mean. He's devoted to heroism above all else and thinks of nothing else, but that means he doesn't really develop a bunch of complicated relationship subplots. I don't know; I'm just finding myself kind of uninvested in his story beyond the fixfic power fantasy.
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For some reason, I really like that about him. I like that he is genuinely and literally what everyone thought Scion was and I find his complete good-guyness refreshing in contrast to the Hard-Teenager-Making-Hard-Decisions mud, blood and powergrinding of a Taylor fic.

But yeah, I wouldn't want more than one fic starring someone with his power level and his goodness level.

In my fantasy world where writers never get blocked and have infinite free time, there'd be full length parallel versions of this story, each starring a different member of his team (at least, the ones who can take the fight all the way to the Worm endgame i.e. Causality, Techno-Paladin and maybe Mimic)
 
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RazorSmile said:
In my fantasy world where writers never get blocked and have infinite free time, there'd be full length parallel versions of this story, each starring a different member of his team (at least, the ones who can take the fight all the way to the Worm endgame i.e. Causality, Techno-Paladin and maybe Mimic)
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Our interaction with Scion so far was teaching him about using true bonds of friendship to help deal with grief, and then he flew off toward where the one person that could possibly bed a friend of his is. We're on the path, even if just the very beginning of it, for that part of an endgame being defanged rather than defeated.
 
Anaja said:
Our interaction with Scion so far was teaching him about using true bonds of friendship to help deal with grief, and then he flew off toward where the one person that could possibly bed a friend of his is. We're on the path, even if just the very beginning of it, for that part of an endgame being defanged rather than defeated.
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Scion is a member of a race who, in the normal course of business, routinely commits genocide. Scion being depressed is bad for him, but good for us. We don't want Scion to deal with his grief and become a happy, well-adjusted, genocide monster.
 
arromdee said:
Scion is a member of a race who, in the normal course of business, routinely commits genocide. Scion being depressed is bad for him, but good for us. We don't want Scion to deal with his grief and become a happy, well-adjusted, genocide monster.
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Well, remember the Avatar's speech after the defeat of Leviathan:

There is, in every sapient soul, a spark of glory. Male or female, black or white, organic or cybernetic, earthling or alien, any mind capable of conscious choice can choose to be great. To help, rather than to hinder. To acknowledge fear, and refuse to be its slave. To admit your flaws with humility, and work past them to the best of your ability. To stand up against injustice in all its forms. To choose the right and good over the convenient and easy. To treat everyone with the respect and generosity we wish were afforded to us. To give aid and kindness, not because you expect reciprocation, but because it is a better way to live, a better person to be.

"That spark of glory is in everyone, in all of you. Sometimes, you lose sight of it. Sometimes, you feel that it is out of reach. Circumstances place you in what feels like a lose-lose scenario, where doing the right thing looks like a losing proposition. At times, it's terrifyingly clouded what the right thing to do even is. Yet even in the murkiest of circumstances, it is always worth it to strive toward the most heroic self you can be. Even at the world's darkest, you are not truly alone; there are millions who would gladly reach out to you, help you ignite the spark within. I, for one, can think of few greater honors than standing by the side of someone trying to be better, even as the weight of the world seems determined to drag them down and extinguish their spark.
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Entities are sapient too; the spark of glory the Avatar talked about is in them as well. Now, do I agree that the chances of Scion reaching for that spark are fairly slim to near non-existant? Yes. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. This whole quest is about helping people to be better, after all. Scion and Eden's past actions are monstrous and inexcusable; however, Scion is also currently in a vulnerable emotional state he has never been in before, a state in which he is malleable to new ideas, even if just to escape the pain of loss. If we can help him to the point where he actually gets satisfaction from his work as a hero, there might be a chance that he can change for the better. A slim chance, admittedly, but it's there. He's not Jack Slash levels of gleefully evil. Even the countless planets they wiped out were not wiped out due to gleeful malice and revelling in the carnage, but out of clinical disinterest and self-preservation.
 
arromdee said:
Scion is a member of a race who, in the normal course of business, routinely commits genocide. Scion being depressed is bad for him, but good for us. We don't want Scion to deal with his grief and become a happy, well-adjusted, genocide monster.
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The idea would be to help him truly become the role that he has taken up.
 
But we have precognitive proof that at 22 years at the latest Doomsday will hit. I assumed this was Scion finally going genocidal.
I took it to mean that you can remove stressors (even Jack Slash), but in the end He'll lose it.
 
RoninSword said:
But we have precognitive proof that at 22 years at the latest Doomsday will hit. I assumed this was Scion finally going genocidal.
I took it to mean that you can remove stressors (even Jack Slash), but in the end He'll lose it.
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We have Scion doing the laziest search ever and coming to the conclusion after he saw one instance of it that it was inevitable.

And that's before we smacked that path with an asteroid.
 
RoninSword said:
But we have precognitive proof that at 22 years at the latest Doomsday will hit. I assumed this was Scion finally going genocidal.
I took it to mean that you can remove stressors (even Jack Slash), but in the end He'll lose it.
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We also have evidence that we can change the predicted future. Dinah even specifically said that we can make things better than her power thinks is possible.

Exact Words said:
"It's OK," says Forecast, AKA Dinah Alcott. She's been given a clean bill of health - thankfully, she only spent a month in Coil's clutches. "Director Piggot warned me to save up questions for this. I can ask eight or nine without getting a headache, and I'll have more tomorrow." She pauses. "I looked at the numbers every day when I was imprisoned, to see if I would get rescued. The odds weren't good. Then you showed up, and, after you killed Leviathan, they were above 99%. I looked at the numbers when the Simurgh arrived, and they were terrible, then you won anyway. You make things better than my power thinks they can get. But… my power still tells me things you need to know." Her expression grows serious. "The PRT asked me about the end of the world. It's probably going to happen this year. It might happen in eleven years. There's a 5% chance it doesn't happen at all. If you die," her voice grows smaller, "the odds it doesn't happen are less than 1%."
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Anaja threw 12 20-faced dice. Reason: 1 in 20 World Doesn't End Total: 106
5 5 2 2 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7 17 17 1 1 17 17 12 12 10 10 8 8
 
[X] Ask the Guild and its contacts to spend a day or two cleaning up the town after Goiânia is handled.


This is a relatively safe setting where the Guild can prove once again that they don't need the Avatar to have victories. Even if the lady isn't telling the truth as others have said, this aspect is a benefit either way.
 
[X] Ask the Guild and its contacts to spend a day or two cleaning up the town after Goiânia is handled.

I believe this is the one we need to go for. There are too many ways to use temporary non interference against us.
 
Crimson Doom said:
I mean, an argument could be made that we already have made it more stable to some extent. Might want to clarify what you mean by "more stable".
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Indeed.
You've moved Cuba from "one bad day away from collapse into parahuman feudalism" to "could be better" (with significant knock-on effects on the stability of the Caribbeans), vastly lessened Japan's refugee crisis while removing any real risk of its far-right overthrowing the government (thus stabilizing East Asia in general), vastly improved the Nigerian situation... the Protectorate has gone on to incorporate Mexico with a very promising start, the Guild is practically twice as powerful as it used to be, the European Brigade is becoming relevant, thousands of villains across the world have gone heroside...
Earth-Bet is already significantly stabler than it was when the quest started. Of course, there's still a long way to go.
 
Say, @sun tzu, I've been having this niggling thought in my head for a while. All the way back during the Skylance operation, when the Guild brought in Japanese heroes from abroad to hide amongst the refugees in disguise and then blast Skylance's forces in the back, could that have been considered a war crime? Combatants dressing up as civilian non-combatants?
 
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