Say, guys, I have an idea. We keep making builds based on our efforts to outscale The Madman, but what would he make a build of? If Doctor Apocalypse got his hands on the coins used in Furthermost Reaches, what would he buy? Either at the beginning of They Called Me Mad, or just prior to his training arc against Coeus, or whatever decision ultimately made there.
For the second point in the timeline, I'm imagining Apocalypse had a look at their artifacts while tinkering with Skyveil, so perhaps one of the spatial or temporal ones spat out the coins as a reaction to the Fire Jewel, or possibly Apocalypse himself, potentially some of both. It's hard to say when dealing with higher dimensions.
Able to tell the coins are benign, if faintly supernatural, Apocalypse is allowed in close proximity, picks them up to run a few tests, and the Broker arrives to make a deal.
He likely wouldn't be interested in the Transmogrifications. His Creation-based alterations to his biology has moved him far past the raw physicality of any of them, and Elysian's extreme healing and immortality are things he could likely achieve on his own, so he wouldn't bother paying for that. Besides, Aria would be able to tell him Elysian wouldn't let him survive Coeus if he had any doubts.
Color Green has an unacceptable cost in the form of quashing his free time by an extra 4 hours, and he doesn't kill things frequently enough for Violet to amount to a major boost. Even if he could kill a Titan, they're crucial to the functioning of the current universe, so he can't get that boost. The mental contamination flavors of Green and Violet likely wouldn't appeal to him either, though he seems self-aware enough to think Gold and Red more in line with his current thought processes. The Essence-bending of Color Red would hold some interest for him, since constant growth across all parameters regardless of what he does or what happens to him up to 3.8 ISH would be an immense amount of power, even by Titanic standards, but he wouldn't have the time to draw it out. Gold would likely draw more interest from him due to it's effective fate-bending via luck enhancement than the limbs/soldiers, since that's not likely to be a huge shift in the calculus, but getting more out of his training thanks to lucky breaks might. Since his Creations likely count as part of his 'treasury' and he's got an undersea fortress set up, he might not have a queen's money, but he can certainly access a minor lord's benefits. Basically, his build at Quest-Start or after the Coeus duel would likely have Red as a center-piece as a means of outscaling his foes, while just prior would likely go for Gold to bolster him if it came to a fight and boost their preparations, combing Gold with Ten Thousand as a means to improve his astral combat and mental faculties simultaneously.
Numeracy One might be valuable to him, since he'd be able to work through the night, effectively appending 8 productive hours to his schedule by having his healing magic take care of his needs on that front, as well as providing a means of surviving a blow that wasn't immediately lethal from Coeus, so I suspect this would be in his build regardless of the time period. It beats Elysian's healing by applying to the mind, even if it's a once-per-day thing. Numeracy Three would also be likely to persist in his build regardless, since he intends to resolve the power issues himself, though it's unlikely to be especially meaningful against Coeus. This does have the benefit of reassuring him about the intentions of his temporary allies, and Aria might be in the zone to be affected at the time. Seeing astral energies in his physical body may have synergy with his training for the potential duel on that plane. Seven is likely to fall into the 'Can replicate it via Powers' the Transmogrifications did.
Numeracy Ten isn't especially relevant against Coeus, even a fragment of him sent to handle something trivial, unless it synergizes with Ten Thousand on the astral plane, giving him ten thousand iterations of himself, and Ten then multiplies strength, speed, and durability by 10. That might tip the scales enough that he can actually meaningfully aid Aria when they've spent weeks hammering out a teamwork bonus instead of a malus. Ten Thousand granting Apocalypse so many of himself to work with might have some scaling issues, as is often a problem, but even if it only effectively multiplies his mental output by 100, he's likely to get a major boost to his Creations, and may well be able to train with Aria and work on Creation simultaneously. Also, I doubt Coeus would get anything out of Ten Thousand, since he's got universe-scale processing power, but if he would(which I doubt), then offering to teach it to him could be an extremely potent bargaining chip. He'd effectively get ten thousand times as much calculation of the next Age done. Of course, Doctor Apocalypse may well not be willing to offer one of the major means of leveling the playing field he possesses, but it might depend on the situation. Then there's the possibility of Coeus being able to just... copy it. The Numeracies seem heavily math-based, and if there's a type of magic the Titan of Knowledge would be able to easily copy not explicitly derived from Titans, math-based would be my guess.
The Verses are in a weird place. Last Laugh might offend the Doctor's pride, but I think he's pragmatic enough to go for it. Especially if it provides a means for him to drive off Coeus if all else fails. His strong willpower, high intellect, and Creation-augmented strength mean Bolt From the Blue would be really powerful. I doubt the anti-memetic effect would mean much to Coeus though. Probably wouldn't take this and Gold, but given the Gold constructs can be used as a shield, while this would take some serious finagling for such, it may be a possibility. Step Up's intellect scaling intellect boost would be of great use to him, as a means to endlessly increase his intellect, and by the time it reaches it's upper limit in the far future, he'll have long since Creation-ed his way to more intellect boosters even if none of these other magics help him out. Stitch in Time wouldn't work on Coeus, so it's mostly useless if it's intended to be just before that encounter, but Quest Start, or after that encounter, would make it more likely. Stealing Blaze's trick of having a rune of it ready to go if you die would make much more dangerous experiments feasible, which might function as an 'EXP multiplier', particularly since 'one-off' experiments can be repeated. Especially if Ten Thousand is also taken. Second Fiddle would be essentially useless to him unless he was going for 'Verse completionism' for the boost to learning them, and his assistant goes out of her way to remain a normie to keep him grounded, so it's not like it could be useful to her. Perfect Storm is highly versatile, but it's going to look a lot better at the beginning of the game than the middle or end. Quest Start Apocalypse might pick it up for sheer versatility, and Perfect Storm's final invocation might be of use in resolving Coeus issue with Kronos peacefully, but if he got the deal right after taking Coeus' deal, then I doubt he would take it. He can already do or easily outperform most of these effects on his own initiative.
The Trinkets might pique the Doctor's interest in the name of direct replication, or making them the centerpiece of Creations as the Fire Jewel was. Still, he's unlikely to have enough interest to buy the Manacles or Glasses. Sigil on Step Up or Red seem most likely, given that allowing Ten Thousand to gain more instances is likely to be a lot less bang for your back unless you're gaining a higher percentage of instances than you're gaining intellect or total performance, though the fact that Ten Thousand can't normally grow might swing things back into it's favor. Sword would likely only be of interest due to it's pocket dimension. Now, if he could jury-rig it so that slaying Titans with it allowed it to slot them back into the cosmic machinery, with their minds ground into Essence for the Sword while the majority of their power remained in the rest of the universe, that would be different, but I don't think that's likely. Gonne's mental alterations aren't likely to be appreciated, and the benefits at early levels are unlikely to be of much help to PL 30 Doctor Apocalypse who's been in the Supervillain game for decades. The gun magics might be of interest for potential mass production, especially post-Coeus, as DA is going to know that not everyone is going to just accept that his rule would be for the best, and being able to send out weapons and machines with unlimited ammo would be of interest to him. He's not likely to take the Ticket, since it's a little too much of a gamble on luck, especially when he'd need to take on a Blight. Diagram is the only magic school likely to be of major use. Maybe Marrow, but only because he's pretty much guaranteed to take One, and that's rather time-consuming for it's buck when he's already got Artifice to worry about. The Basis might be useful for unlimited minions if he can customize it enough, but requires a lot of killing to do that. Exavolt is once again 'I can probably make a copy of that.' though Amplitude might be a good second-place relative to Diagram.
Oh, one more thing. Considering Apocalypse without Furthermost Reaches powers was already a Blight, would he, with access to such, receive a Blight along the lines of a FR character who is also a Cursebearer as a Blight option?
Here's a Quest Start build:
[D] Gold [1 Platinum]
[D] Red [1 Jade]
[D] One [1 Copper]
[D] Three [3 Copper]
[D] Seven [1 Platinum]
[D] Last Laugh [2 Copper]
[D] Bolt From the Blue [4 Copper]
[D] Step Up [1 Platinum]
[D] Stitch in Time [1 Platinum]
[D] Sigil - Applied to Red [1 Platinum]
[D] The Captain [+2 Copper]
[D] The Hunted [+2 Platinum]
Since he's not expecting to fight a Titan, he's going for a build with a mix of versatility, since he's going to be strapped for resources for the foreseeable future, and potential/mental boosts. With 4 Verses, and his own prodigious intellect, he'll learn Verses very quickly. Seven may bolster Creation-ing and experimenting when he's got resource issues affecting his toolkit, which might synergize with Stitch's boosts on that front, but it's mostly to avoid leaving a Platinum lying around.
Captain is, much like Tyrant, so similar to his usual behavior that's it's practically free Coppers. Hunted may be a net boon, since he's likely to amass followers and resources via his antics, even if he's only defending himself, and there's already a manhunt going on. Not sure what would replace Madman, but neither Waning nor Wretch are a good fit for someone who wants to rule the world.
While this would be a pre-Coeus build:
[D] Gold [1 Platinum]
[D] One [1 Copper]
[D] Three [3 Copper]
[D] Ten [2 Platinum]
[D] Ten Thousand [1 Jade]
[D] Last Laugh [2 Copper]
[D] Bolt From the Blue [4 Copper]
[D] Step Up [1 Platinum]
[D] Sigil - Applied to Ten Thousand [1 Platinum]
[D] The Captain [+2 Copper]
[D] The Hunted [+2 Platinum]
Direct combat boosts are a moderate priority, so Bolt sticks around, but Stich and Seven are traded for Ten, since that's likely to be more directly helpful. Red now has too much ramp-up time to be useful, so it's swapped for Ten Thousand, which is very good for massive amounts of Creation-ing and Astral training. Last Laugh is now an absolute must, in case DA fails against Coeus. Though, unless I am drastically underestimating the Curse Broker, Coeus is well beyond him, so it would have to be someone else. Maybe a High Cursebearer avatar like Haeliel? Or literally one of Haeliel's avatars. Would the 'About the Kuiper Belt' distance be enough to move up from Least Quasi-Avatar to Lesser Quasi-Avatar if Aria is shielding Earth from her influence, I wonder?
If I were using my illegal 'Just take the resources and double them, number of Curses is now unbound.' builds, then they'd look more like this:
[D] Gold [1 Platinum]
[D] Red [1 Jade]
[D] One [1 Copper]
[D] Three [3 Copper]
[D] Seven [1 Platinum]
[D] Ten [2 Platinum]
[D] Ten Thousand [1 Jade]
[D] Last Laugh [2 Copper]
[D] Bolt From the Blue [4 Copper]
[D] Step Up [8 Copper]
[D] Stitch in Time [1 Platinum]
[D] Sigil - Applied to Red [1 Platinum]
[D] Gonne [1 Platinum]
[D] Plate [2 Platinum]
[D] The Captain [+2 Copper]
[D] The Hunted [+2 Platinum]
Since Red amplifies all other magics, it's the better idea to boost with Sigil, and combined with Ten Thousand and 4 Verses, he's going to learn crazy-fast, particularly with Gold to accelerate testing. Gonne and Plate are intended to be reverse-engineered and made into mass-production models for his soldiers, for the latter, and used to generate 'ex nihilo' production of war-making apparatuses. As you can see, I mostly just smashed the two builds together. Now, a bunch of these abilities aren't going to be much use against Coeus, even if this is Quest Start and he gets extra ramp-up time, but with all this, he's going to be managing Hunger-tier Progression, not merely Cursebearer-tier. Of course, if I remember the timescale correctly, less than three months pass between the Quest Start and the fight with Coeus, but then Doc's not starting as a cripple with most of his memories missing, and as we all know, power compounds on power.
What do you guys think?
2401 Words, by the way.
