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Alchemical Solutions [Worm/Exalted] Thread 16: Playful Parasites Pervert Prayer, Perpetuate Plagues

Gromweld said:
Yeah, having Clarity last so long was a mistake in retrospect. It was really fun to write, but I guess I wasn't able to communicate that enjoyment through the writing. A lesson learned, and something that will be getting a lot of trimming when I go back around and turn this into a story.
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I'm way late to this (apparently, I didn't watch the new thread), but I enjoyed the Clarity arc quite a bit, even if I didn't actually know what was going on at the time that I was reading it. Also, I should mention that this quest is what sparked my interest in Exalted, as well as what preserved it when other stories tried to kill it.
Gromweld said:
and the mind is still attempting to accelerate to meet the demand when the effect ends just as quickly as it began
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your mind
Gromweld said:
as Bladedancer's grin is already sliding off as she updates you on her last update from the Director
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repetitive use of "update"
Gromweld said:
following the Delaware river's course,
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Delaware River's

So, we need to get Who out ASAP. Preferably to get her to Wyld, but even basic EMT services might be enough to save her. While Exalting her is a possibility, I'd rather we not have to do it in a hurry, with no consent. Also, making sure we don't alienate Brian (which might impact our access to the rest of the group). PR is mostly a long-term concern, I think, though if we could avoid any particularly gruesome takedowns on cameras, that would be preferable.

Does anyone think we could stunt Armsmaster or Miss Militia being brought in early to help with this?
 
spudman said:
We get her stable enough that Wyld can get to her later and back on her feet she'll be very useful against the 9.
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Taylor knows nothing at all about Wyld/Panacea's existence/location IC, and Dragon's offline so can't tell her.

veekie said:
Omnitool Implants: Stabilization was automatically successful as long as we got to them in time and nothing is continuing to kill them.
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Including the giant bomb that's just gone off.
 
veekie said:
Perfect Parry, isn't it wonderful?
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Multiple or mass attacks when you have no tick or action long defences or ones with the Leader keyword and are facing people who can read the manual on our powers, aren't they terrible. That means you get to save one person.
 
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Alratan said:
Taylor knows nothing at all about Wyld/Panacea's existence/location IC, and Dragon's offline so can't tell her.



Including the giant bomb that's just gone off.
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We can find Parian, can't we? That's a lead. And you can bet Brian is going to be trying to find US. Lisa's sure to be helping.



As for who to Exalt if it comes to it...

I'd prefer to get both Chevy and Who stable. But if we can only stabilize one and Exalt the other...exalt Chevy, because we could still potentially exalt Who later and she'd still be alive. If we can only SAVE one by Exaltation...Who. I refuse to let a child die when we can save her, GODDAMMIT, and her power before Exaltation is nothing to scoff at.


Vista and the others we can't consider right now, as much as I hate to say it. We're nowhere near them, they're mindfucked, and probably rigged to blow. If we haven't worked out something with Vajra, Weaver, Wyld and possibly a captured/de-(re)?) mindfucked Bonesaw to help them by the end of things...we can figure out what to do then.
 
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Alratan said:
Multiple or mass attacks when you have no tick or action long defences or ones with the Leader keyword and are facing people who can read the manual on our powers, aren't they terrible. That means you get to save one person.
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Given that Marrow only has 2 Bashing wounds, we're uninjured, and we still have Aisha as an Intimacy, I'd say the Instant length Perfect Parry worked.
 
Ridtom said:
We are going to have to ask a lot of questions to some PRT officials about Bezalel and Vox.
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Doesn't matter, they could be the most security cleared people on the planet, but if Jack Slash talks to them for a while, he pushes all their buttons and breaks them, because grimdark bullshit.

The Real question to ask here is that "In spite of all the Thinker attention on this place, in spite of them being prepared for an S-Rank event... It still happened, and apparently caught everyone flatfooted, and not only that, but they dropped the ball so fucking hard that the S9 managed to either literally magic up all the infrastructure and connections they needed, or that someone actually listened to them long enough to let them in".

Either there was a Criminal level of incompetence, or the S9 has been given magical powers to fuck everything over. Considering that "Fuck Up Everything" was their canonical purpose, I'm leaning towards the latter.

Now, on the plus side? Iris of Innovation usually tends to backlash on an "Unworthy" user, usually at the moment of their triumph. His backlash tends to be overwhelming in scope, and absolutely destructive to everything they give a damn about. So in theory, the S9 can do damage, but at the moment of their victory, they'll be utterly destroyed beyond all hope.

What makes me feel this won't actually happen is that apparently Jack Slash (Or someone else in the S9), managed to somehow shut him down, given how when he hit "Divine Fury", the very next update, his consciousness turned off.

So, basically, the S9 win everywhere and forever, just like canon. Hope is lost and nothing can be done because the people allegedly on the sign of the angels are idiots, and villains have infinite competence and powers that let them fuck everything up without significant consequence. Worm Grimdark is assured.
 
spudman said:
I'd prefer to get both Chevy and Who stable. But if we can only stabilize one and Exalt the other...exalt Chevy, because we could still potentially exalt Who later and she'd still be alive. If we can only SAVE one by Exaltation...Who. I refuse to let a child die when we can save her, GODDAMMIT, and her power before Exaltation is nothing to scoff at.
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That's the wrong choice. Triage means we have to prioritise who to save based on first who helps you do the greatest over all good, and women and children don't get special privileges. This is what Clarity is for, so you can make that choice.

landcollector said:
Given that Marrow only has 2 Bashing wounds, we're uninjured, and we still have Aisha as an Intimacy, I'd say the Instant length Perfect Parry worked.
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You can have an Intimacy to the dead.

The other shoe (bomb) may also not have dropped yet. Jack Slash may be toying with us.
 
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iris is currently unable to act for lack of Essence. He probably went catatonic at the sheer helpless blasphemy.
 
Alratan said:
That's the wrong choice. Triage means we have to prioritise who to save, and women and children don't come first. This is what Clarity is for, so you can make that choice.
s.
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Oh, I'd still prefer Alchemical Who over Alchemical Chevalier if we can only pick one because I think her power is more useful now against the 9 and down the road, so Triage still applies in my book.
 
landcollector said:
Wrong. We had a burgeoning Intimacy to Glory Girl that went away almost immediately when Behemoth vaporized her.
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That's because of the context of the intimacy.

Otherwise you're going to have to argue that parents no longer love their dead children and similar, and that's going to be a tough case to make.

spudman said:
Oh, I'd still prefer Alchemical Who over Alchemical Chevalier if we can only pick one because I think her power is more useful now against the 9 and down the road, so Triage still applies in my book.
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Alchemical Chevalier would be substantially more useful in the big picture of getting Autocthon to understand the local physics. He also's more useful as a leader, and Who's utility is massively reduced by the S9 using cybernetics.
 
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Alratan said:
That's because of the context of the intimacy.

Otherwise you're going to have to argue that parents no longer love their dead children and similar, and that's going to be a tough case to make.



Alchemical Chevalier would be substantially more useful in the big picture of getting Autocthon to understand the local physics.
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I fail to see how a "cautious guardianship" intimacy can apply if Aisha's dead.
 
Nobody important to us is dead yet. We have Word of Gromweld on that. They won't die without at least the CHANCE to react to their situation.
 
Not to mention that if we Exalted her THIS MINUTE, she still wouldn't be out until either the crisis was over or it was reaching it's climax.
 
Alectai said:
So, basically, the S9 win everywhere and forever, just like canon. Hope is lost and nothing can be done because the people allegedly on the sign of the angels are idiots, and villains have infinite competence and powers that let them fuck everything up without significant consequence. Worm Grimdark is assured.
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I am inclined to agree with this. I haven't spent time to involve in the very-rapid discussion/debate for this Quest in some time, but I have been following it.

This felt like so much Grimderp.

Let's summarize:

1. The S9 got into Philidelphia undetected. Not entirely implausible by itself, even if there are some top-tier Thinkers present.
2. They uncovered the identities of a number of the Wards, undetected.
3. They caught a pair of at-will Teleporters, somehow, without drawing notice.
4. They found, broke into, and took control of a major city villain's base of power, again, undetected.
5. They subverted or made contact with then subverted the major Hero Tinker of the city, while Dragon was dedicating a lot of attention to the area, without being detected.
6. They took control of an entire PRT base without there be any forewarning.

Conclusion: Either someone high-up in the PRT/Protectorate turned traitor (and it would take more than just Bezalel) to work with the S9, which is a really, really nasty storytelling element, but plausible, or the S9 are unbelievably competent, and the PRT and Protectorate are completely incompetent.

I don't usually like to make posts that bitch about the progression of a story and do little else, but this post was basically made out of puppy-kicking, and mind-raping children.

Why?

I'd include ideas/thoughts on what sort of action to vote for, in order to try to counterbalance all the negativity with something productive, but that isn't really an option yet, so yeah.
 
LordsFire said:
Conclusion: Either someone high-up in the PRT/Protectorate turned traitor (and it would take more than just Bezalel) to work with the S9, which is a really, really nasty storytelling element, but plausible, or the S9 are unbelievably competent, and the PRT and Protectorate are completely incompetent.

I don't usually like to make posts that bitch about the progression of a story and do little else, but this post was basically made out of puppy-kicking, and mind-raping children.

Why?

I'd include ideas/thoughts on what sort of action to vote for, in order to try to counterbalance all the negativity with something productive, but that isn't really an option yet, so yeah.
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I think part of the problem, for me, is that we weren't in control of the main character when all this went down, and were instead playing one of the side characters, so it feels like all our agency was removed. We invested an enormous amount in the kind of skills and abilities designed to deal with this kind of thing, and it was all wasted as we didn't get the chance to even try to use them.

It feels a bit like one of those cut scenes where you just want to shout at the screen because you're watching crap go down and you can't do anything about it. Perhaps, if we'd been here, there'd been nothing we could do, but instead it feels like diabolus ex machina.
 
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Was it Loyola who said "give me a child before the age of seven and I will give you the man"? Jack has had Bonesaw since age 6. It took Contessa, Tattletale, two years Jack free, making an outside connection and the fucking apocalypse before Riley was any use to team Humanity. Trying to have her fix the people she has mutilated means letting her do surgery on them again. Not only is that horrible for those victims but it means giving her access to tools, living material, and time. At that point she knows she's been defeated - if she didn't have deadman's switches before it's a prime opportunity to create a vengeance weapon.

As it happens I don't think she has superplagues set up to go in the event of her death - Jack doesn't think plagues are artistic. She is no doubt carrying some ghastly shit that we don't want spilling but if we can keep her person contained when we kill her and sterilise thoroughly (another singularity bomb would be ideal) that should be that.

Note that Defiant was prepared to go for the kill with a melee weapon the moment he caught up with her, and Amy was in the Birdcage then. We have her in the same town if a counter to biowar is needed. To help the victims we have Wyld, FPoP our own technical skills and the resources of the PRT and Protectorate.
 
LordsFire said:
Conclusion: Either someone high-up in the PRT/Protectorate turned traitor (and it would take more than just Bezalel) to work with the S9, which is a really, really nasty storytelling element, but plausible, or the S9 are unbelievably competent, and the PRT and Protectorate are completely incompetent.
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Someone such as Director Samson, who was kidnapped just as a massive, multi-directional gang war broke out, that the S9 could use to cover their actions.
 
1) Done in canon.
2) Not done in canon, not really feasible unless they've been in town longer for at least a week without doing anything noticable...I'm guessing it happened to be the week we were under house arrest, and they invaded Camden, breaking into PRT information sources that way.
3) We have one working hypothesis for it, with a power nullifier or other Trump(Communication shard again?) effect in play. Another is holding their friends hostage on them, or drugging them to diable their power centers. We know it's not by knockout or injury as they revert to their dimension upon unconsciousness.
4) Done in canon, with about as much effort, assuming Jack didn't just talk Vox into it.
5) NEARLY done in canon, if Armsmaster was a bit less stubborn. They certainly broke into the most secure area of BB HQ at the time with just Mannequin, and the only alarm raised was when he attacked Armsmaster.
6) See #5
 
Thinking some more, it seems a cruel trick to tell us that we needed to Exalt someone urgently, and then use that as an excuse to deny us the opportunity to do anything to prevent a disaster of this magnitude.

I mean, at this point I think that we'd have been better off without having Exalted Marrow and with that week of Taylor's time back.
 
Alratan said:
Thinking some more, it seems a cruel trick to tell us that we needed to Exalt someone urgently, and then use that as an excuse to deny us the opportunity to do anything to prevent a disaster of this magnitude.

I mean, at this point I think that we'd have been better off without having Exalted Marrow and with that week of Taylor's time back.
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I think it was more along the lines of "It will be worse if you guys don't Exalt someone".
 
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