Yeah. I remember in another fandom, there was a character named April. One forumite, in a fanfic, named her April O'Neill, because it "sounded right". The TMNT connection never occurred to him.Chandra Magic said:
Alchemical Solutions [Worm/Exalted] Thread 9: Icon’s Idiosyncrasies Incite Irritating Inquisition
- Thread starter Gromweld
- Start date
-
- Tags
- exalted (white wolf) worm
She's losing intimacies because she has too many right now. Once you have more than Willpower + Compassion intimacies some of them start to degrade.Czlyydwr Llrngwl said:
Also, an intimacy doesn't just represent fondness or such. It represents a deep emotional bond that meaningfully affects your actions on a regular basis. It's not as if Taylor has forgotten about Danny, it's just that due to Clarity and events his importance to her has been dropping.
Though that's kind of in keeping with canon anyway, given the distance between the two of them after Annette's death. It just kind of got formalized when he tried to kill her.
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
Clarity also rapidly degrades emotion-based Intimacies. Intimacies that provide tangible, material benefits can last longer (which is why the Intimacies towards the Wards with you right now aren't degrading), but at the highest levels of Clarity even those start to go.Cytokinesis said:
.IronSun.
I don't descriminate, I hate all of you equally.
- Location
- IN UR BASE, PUNCHIN UR DOODZ
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
Philadelphia Road Trip: The Last Leg
[X] Write-In: Should've read the Owner's Manual first...
- [x] Stunt: You've been getting burned too often by poor understanding of your own Charms, and it's making you ineffective. This stops now. You tell the others you're taking a nap, close your eyes, absolutely do not turn SoPA on, and meditate. It's high time to figure yourself out.
[X] Essence Reservoir-to-Heart: Provide counsel for a member of your caravan, getting to know them better as a mortal as well as evaluating them for Alchemical potential.
- [x] Stunt: Talk to Dennis, find out how he's doing, and what he thinks of things so far. Get his support in covering up for any Clarity induced social mistakes, and see about enlisting his assistance in keeping Aisha sufficiently motivated and amused, especially after their mutual Glenn sessions. The last personal conversation you've had with him involved a prank involving being surrounded by a swarm of bugs, after all, things could stand to be on a more positive note.
XP Expenditures:
[X] 4 XP - Bureaucracy ●●○○○
[X] 4 XP - Craft ●●●●○
[X] 4 XP - Medicine ●○○○○
***
The clock on your wall reads 11:47 when Legend knocks on the window of your guest suite. Having locked your door and enabled the 'Do Not Disturb' sign in order to focus on Glenn's assignment, you calculate that Legend purposefully is avoiding the door to claim ignorance of your desire for solitude. Dragon, at least, has thankfully remained silent in her vigil over your costume reconstruction - her wireframe avatar observing your progress from the workstation monitor with a measure of resigned sympathy.
Legend, unfortunately, technically outranks Glenn, and thus must be given priority over duplicating old costumes for the PRT museum.
Extricating your fingers from the weave of kevlar fibers used in Champion's blue-and-white chestguard, you push yourself up from the workbench's chair and crisply stride eight paces to the window closest to the Protectorate's Leader. Your omnitool-laden hands produce a staccato of light clinks as you press against the window and release the lock, idly fastening a loose bolt in the hinges as the thick pane of glass slowly rotates outward.
Your visual augments register the otherwise-imperceptible glow surrounding the lantern-jawed Triumvirate member; arms crossed and mouth set in a grim line, your diagnostic scan also registers a slight measure of caution from the tenseness of his upper back and lower neck.
"Weaver. May I come in?"
Finishing the small repairs on the window frame's mechanisms, you nod and take the necessary three steps back away from the window to allow Legend room to land.
Silently hovering into the room on a thin trail of energized particles, Legend lightly touches down on the white-and-grey marble floor of your room with a thump from his settling boots.
After several seconds of continued silence, Legend slowly turns his attention to the progress you have made thus far on Glenn's assignment. Observing a hitch in his breath and a flash of tension through his upper body, you suspect his eyes have found the first costume you reconstructed after returning to your room.
Striding to your workstation, your own presence momentarily forgotten, Legend stops his outstretched arm just short of touching the gold-and-silver power armor collapsed neatly on the table. After a further moment of hesitation, he carefully moves his hand down towards the middle of the gleaming cuirass and tentatively presses his hand against it while murmuring with astonished recognition.
"You… repaired it?"
Taking eleven steps to place yourself at Legend's right side, you shake your head.
"Negative. Replication. Original still repairing in Elsewhere storage."
His mouth turning down briefly in confusion, Legend gently rapps his knuckles against the thickest part of the breastplate, eliciting a muted, metallic clack.
"A copy? But it doesn't sound…"
"Fully-functional, identical construction. Request stipulated no alterations, improvements to reconstructed costumes."
A brief snort of humor from Legend prefaces his voice regaining its confidence and casual sincerity.
"Improvements? You're saying you could have improved Hero's armor in only a few hours?"
Extending an omnitool-equipped hand, a quick series of taps on the armor's right armband causes the top half of the cuirass to fold outward to reveal a network of armaments and sensor suites. Moving your hand to exposed features, you coalesce a few of the tools to point to specific parts.
"Potential micro-missile fabricator power draw reduction through Armsmaster-designed capacitor relay. Enlarged battery replaced with modular, exchangeable generators."
Motioning to a complex series of brilliant, exposed wires, you note the part that your Technomorphic Integration Engine charm had some difficulty comprehending.
"Gold wire threading incomplete, hypothesis: final deployment interrupted."
As Legend noticeably reels and deflates from your statement, you close up the armor with another series of taps on the armguard's keypad. As the armor's whisper-silent gears lock the plating back into place, you turn to former teammate of the First Tinker - back before the Triumvirate became the Triumvirate.
"Provided sufficient materials, components, calculate six-point-two hours for implementation of changes."
Legend is silent for nearly seventeen seconds before exhaling a long, heavy sigh. Placing his hand flat against the chestpiece, a wistful smile slowly overtakes the morose frown before he nods in satisfaction.
"I always bugged him about keeping a spare set around in case of emergencies, but he'd never hear it. There's been a lot of discussion over the years, wondering if that was his Tinker limit - we didn't even know to look for them back then. Maybe now we can finally show off the full piece, instead of just…"
His hand falls down to rest near the base of the cuirass, where the armor in your own Elsewhere storage space is still slowly stitching together.
"… pieces."
The both of you stand there for three-point-four silent minutes before Legend retracts his hands to the small of his back and straightens his posture. After a long, steadying breath from the Protectorate's Leader, you can almost feel Legend's commanding presence fill the room once again.
"I've kept Director Swanson from breaking down your door for an explanation, but I can only hold him back so long."
You nod, understanding this was the original purpose of his visit. Having reviewed the events several times over in your minds by now, you have a much clearer understanding of the steps - if not the complete reasonings - behind your earlier breakdown.
"Mental influence from parahuman-based charm detrimental to social interaction. Previous deactivation of charm during earlier discussion drained mental resources, resulting in complete depletion of mental fortitude when second attempt made prior to entering Raybeam's Pizzaria."
The eyes on Dragon's wireframe avatar go wide at your comment, and Legend's breath stalls in his chest. Holding up a tool-laden hand to motion that your statement is unfinished, you continue your recounting of events as you have been able to piece together.
"Post-traumatic stress disorder triggered from nearby slam of taxi door, causing relapse of Behemoth encounter. Reflexively activated full Iconic Anima in attempt to reduce probability of lightning strike; fear effect quantifiably reduced Behemoth accuracy during battle. Regained senses, observed effects on bystanders, retreated to lower stratosphere to avoid further emotional harm. Allowed for anima to recede, returned to PRT Headquarters."
Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, Legend's mouth dips in an empathetic frown as you explain the events and reasoning behind your earlier mental breakdown. As you finish, he turns his head to the workbench and its computer; still looking on from her position in the workstation's computer monitor, Dragon closes her digital avatar's eyes and gives a silent sigh before nodding solemnly.
Rotating his gaze to stare silently past your head for one-point-seven minutes, you are unable to see anything noteworthy outside your window with your own peripheral vision and swarm-enhanced senses. When he speaks again, it is again with the kind, sympathetic tone you recall from his earlier parting statement.
"It was… Seattle, wasn't it? The first time we let a Ward fight. There was so little warning, there weren't any teleporters available, and she… just wouldn't leave. Rock… wave was her name?"
"Rocksteady," Dragon says lightly, after nodding to his first question.
"She helped turn the battle, save the city. The Simurgh had only just appeared three months before, and we were starting to run out volunteers…"
Shaking his head, Legend holds a hand up to his head as if to banish away the memories of decades of Endbringer fights, of thousands - millions - of lives lost.
"It's so easy to forget what it was like to be young."
Disagreeing with the implication that you should possibly be barred from future Endbringer fights, you wave off the idea with a swift sideways cut with your right hand.
"Control over emotional vulnerabilities restored. Improved understanding of mental resource limitations. Probability of future incidents significantly reduced."
Once again you are surprised by the wide range of emotion Dragon's wireframe avatar is capable of displaying, though you should have expected her disbelief of your claim. Legend, too, appears to be giving you an incredulous look if his quirked frown and exasperated tone are any indication.
"Now there's an argument I hear often enough - though that phrasing is certainly new."
"Outstanding hypothesis: current understanding of Charms, Alchemical Exaltation capabilities incomplete, resulting in decreased effectiveness, instability. Meditation, re-evaluation: priority objective."
As a puzzled frown over your claim crosses Legend's exposed jawline, Dragon speaks up with an air of uncertainty.
"Taylor, was that what you were trying to do last Sunday?"
Shaking your head, you many minds recall the extended success of your last attempt to reach out to your primordial patron.
"Meditation, not on Charms or Exaltation. Attempted contact with Great Maker to resolve information deficiencies, partial success achieved."
Dragon opens her mouth to say something, but she is cut off by Legend holding out his hand from where it was resting on the forehead of his visor.
"'Great Maker', Weaver?"
While Dragon has thus far proven trustworthy enough to receive the partial explanation you have prepared, your minds have only just now come to a similar consensus on Legend after both your earlier conversation and his clearly-genuine concern for both your well-being and privacy. You understood the need to reveal much of this information to your superiors eventually, but if you are able to gain the support of Legend - the Leader of the Protectorate and one of the most well-liked heroes in the world - then ramping up your efforts in building your Assembly should become significantly easier.
The trouble, of course, comes from avoiding the sensitive matter of your patron being a world-sized being of incalculable power, who requires the fundamental re-writing of the rules of this universe to survive his eventual summoning to Earth-Bet.
At the very least, you should be truthful when building the framework for the eventual reveal.
"Creator of current form. Uncertain origin. Terminal condition, trapped, seeks aid entering Nowhere Universe."
Dragon's avatar has dispensed with all pretense of hiding her surprise, and fascination, at your statements. Legend, on the other hand, has grown still. After a brief pause, his mouth turns down further in confusion as he puzzles over the last part of your claim.
"What do you mean, 'Nowhere Universe'?"
"Specifics uncertain. Term for this universe, used by Iris. Names used for Great Maker's origin universe: The Design, Creation, Wyld. Different fundamental laws of reality, physics."
Nodding slowly, Legend 'hmm's briefly.
"Like the worlds Myrrdin's powers draw from."
"Low probability. Essence not recorded in powers revealed by Myrrdin during Behemoth encounter."
"Ess- wait, no, we're getting off track," Legend sighs while holding out his arms, briefly, before folding them again against his chest. You can tell his gaze is focused on your own eyes, even through the opaque, over-the-head visor covering everything above his nose, so you do not blink as he appears to struggle with his next question.
"So… you're saying you were created, then? You're an artificial intelligence?"
Shaking your head, you gesture with your right, omnitool-converted hand to the massive oval diamond embedded in your forehead.
"Soul tangible, quantifiable object in Great Maker's origin universe. Great Maker provided soul through implant of soulgem, retrieved, transferred to Alchemical form. Consciousness uninterrupted."
A flicker of some undecipherable emotion passes across Dragon's digital avatar before you detect a spark of realization from her raised eyebrows.
"Then the hole in your… original body's… head?"
You turn your head, directing your eyes to the small camera mounted atop the monitor in which the wireframe bust resides.
"Rescued by Great Maker before complete termination of vital signs."
This elicits simultaneous grimaces from the two experienced heroes as each quickly realize the environment from which you were saved. A heavy silence reigns in the room for several seconds before Legend's shoulders sag lightly in a weary sigh. Moving to the padded stool-chair at your workbench, the world-famous hero shows more of his age in his movements than ever before as he settles into a thinking position.
Dragon, her eyes darting between the Triumvirate member and your own gaze, hesitantly clears her throat.
"This has been very… illuminating, Taylor, but it's getting late. Perhaps we should table this for later, so you can finish up Glenn's assignment before you leave tomorrow?"
Starting slightly, Legend looks up to the clock on the opposite wall and snorts in a mixture of resignation and mirth - clearly surprised that it is already 12:56 in the morning. Sitting up straight on the stool, he squares his shoulders and nods at both you and Dragon.
"Weaver - Taylor - I'm not saying I believe everything you've said so far, but I think I have enough to keep Director Swanson at bay until you're out of town. I can't promise the same for Director Uriel, however, unless…"
You can almost see the gears turning in Legend's head as he appears to make a few connections in his mind, causing him to frown again in confusion.
"Taylor, why didn't you tell any of this to Director Piggot? Or Armsmaster and Miss Militia?"
Standing four paces from the seated Triumvirate member and the displayed avatar of the world's greatest Tinker, you idly cycle through several different configurations for your omnitools while your multitude of minds compile a sufficient answer. Eventually one of your minds comes up with an explanation that the others agree stands the greatest chance of success for explaining your apparent insubordination.
"Years of experience under untrustworthy authority figures. New charge from Great Maker too important, discretion mandated."
Your comment evokes an almost tangible display of pain from Dragon's wireframe avatar, which you attribute to the implication that you did not trust her enough to divulge this information to her previously. Legend, on the other hand, seems to fill with renewed purpose and energy - his former weariness a mere memory. Standing, he only requires a single confident stride to come close enough to place his hand on your left shoulder.
"I know trust is a hard thing to rebuild, Taylor, but I want you to know how much it means to me that you're willing to risk yourself like this after everything you've been through. I've seen grown men and women fall to pieces after only a fraction of what you've experienced in the last month - let alone what happened in your school - so believe me when I say that the Wards, the Protectorate, and the PRT are here to help. You don't have to hold the world on your shoulders - even the best of us have teammates, friends, and loved ones to help us carry on."
Reviewing the contents of Legend's speech with your various consciousnesses, you start to grow… frustrated as they begin to get stuck processing various parts. You… you do not need to… to feel. Why does it seem so much harder to think, all of a sudden?
Squirreling up your face in concentration, you realize you need to provide recognition to Legend's statement. Blinking away the fog accumulating in your eyes, you nod sharply.
"Un-under… understood. Thank you, sir."
His smile nearly blinding you with its brilliance, he gently pats your left shoulder twice before moving his hands up to his helmet. With a quiet series of clicks and a whisper of rustled hair, Legend removes his helmet to reveal startling blue eyes and a neatly-trimmed buzz-cut head of sandy-blonde hair.
"Please. Call me Peter."
***
After promising that you will attend to your 'meditation' as quickly as possible, as well as look into seeing a therapist help with the issues you undoubtedly accumulated during your time in Winslow, Legend leaves you to your work with a final parting word of thanks as he floated backwards out your open window.
"Hero was the best of us, Taylor. At the very least, you have my support for helping restore a piece of his legacy for future generations."
You cordon off the wasteful thoughts and feelings of wonder at what just happened until they run their course, then re-focus all your attentions back on the task at-hand. You are thankful for Dragon's return to silent observation, though you detect occasional signs hinting that she is withholding herself from interrogating you further.
Despite the occasional bout of feelings creeping into your thought process again - generally thoughts of embarrassment or horror about your actions today - you finally manage to piece together everything and store it in the no-longer-irradiated crate after extruding it from your Elsewhere pocket. As there were only twelve costumes this time around, and the delay provided by Legend and Dragon allowed for your lower-level anima to dissipate entirely, you manage to avoid invoking your fear-inducing anima effect when you finish extruding the last few costumes to place alongside their new duplicates in the crate.
After saying your farewells to Dragon, you move to your oversized bed and absorb your costume. Opting to forego extruding your pajamas so as to avoid elevating your anima even further, you climb into bed and deactivate your Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade charm.
Lying on your back, black smoke rolling pouring out of the covers around you and sparks of black and blue lightning cascading across your eyes, you sigh wearily.
You do your best to ignore your anima's antics, and before long you fall back into the bliss of unconsciousness.
***
Tuesday the first day of February, dawns far earlier than you deem satisfactory.
Even less satisfactory is the textbook elbow-drop slammed into your stomach that awakens you.
"That's for fuckin' scarin' the shit outta us and then fuckin' bailing!"
Your various visual augments coming online at the same time as the usual rush of your swarm's senses, you eventually narrow your eyes at Who's costumed form... after regaining the ability to use your diaphragm to speak.
"Repeat application of fear effect requested?"
"No!" comes Vista's panicked exclamation from your living room, followed quickly by her sudden appearance next to Who. "No, she is not requesting another application!"
Nodding to the two younger Wards, you take three more steadying breaths before rolling back the sheets and sliding out of bed. As you begin your routine neck and shoulder stretches to ease the usual tenseness gained from sleeping with Shard of Perfect Administration enabled, Vista coughs in her hand and turns away while Who snorts in laughter.
"Whaddya know, you have the parts after all."
Blinking, you turn your head down to note that, yes, you apparently have taboo-triggering anatomical details again. Somehow.
Is this… something you can control?
Closing your eyes (more as mnemonic device than any way to block out your vision) and focusing on the thought of returning to your 'plain' form, you feel a subtle tugging sensation in the three problematic locations. The bewildered double-takes from the two younger Wards several feet away serve as verification enough that the process is complete.
"Weavs, that's just… wait… does this mean you don't have to deal with Mother Nature kickin' you in the box every month, too?"
Vista makes a strangled sound, something between a sigh and a groan, but otherwise just holds her helmeted head in her hands as you nod in assent. Punching a fist down into her outstretched palm, the young Stranger nods in return.
"Well then I, for one, welco-"
-but whatever Who was going to say is cut off by Vista grabbing her foul-mouthed teammate and warping out of your room, yelling a closing remark to drown out Who's statement.
"Just take a shower and come down when you're ready!"
***
After a quick round of ablutions in the excessively-furnished bathroom, you extrude your dress-costume and navigate down to the gathered group of Wards, Assault and Battery, and the biggest stars of New York's Protectorate: Adamant, Ursa Aurora, Cache, Prism, and Legend himself.
By the time you reach the vans it appears you missed most of the speech from Prism and Legend, though you catch parts of it through the handful of insects in the parking structure - a somewhat generic, if well-spoken, reminder that the Wards, Protectorate, and PRT are here to help in any way they can. You suspect Legend allowed you to sleep in and miss the most of the speech due to having given you a similar one last night, which is reinforced by the knowing nod he gives you as you approach the group.
After patiently waiting for the speech to end and providing the customary farewells to Legend's teammates, you and your team climb back into your respective vans and begin the slow process of trudging through mid-morning Manhattan traffic.
After settling into your seat and allowing for the customary silent period (seven-point-five) that begins all road trips, you propose your meditation request to Battery. In return, she tilts her head in confusion while briefly humming at your request.
"That sounds… fine? I don't see why you need to ask me for permission, though."
"Low probability of fear-inducing anima display. Request immediate physical strike to interrupt meditation process should anima begin to produce smoke-like effect."
Vista's nervous cough attracts Battery's attention, as well as your own.
"Are you sure you want to do that in here, Weaver? Won't that, I don't know, make the van crash if you make that giant spider-thing illusion again?"
Shaking your head, you motion with a hand to allay Vista's concerns - which have caused Battery's mouth to frown in dismay.
"Previous anima incident during meditation due to specific goal at time. Other meditation attempts produced no such display, indicating low probability of any anima display."
"So, wait," Who interrupts with a raised hand and a grin in her voice, "you want us to smack you if you start gettin' smoky? I'm down for this."
Turning your head to the newest Ward, you give her a flat stare through her grey helmet.
"Clarification: jostle, shake, arrest. High probability of retaliation for open- or closed-hand strikes."
Holding her hands up in a mock display of innocence, you still hear a light laugh emanating from Who's helmet despite the warning. Battery cuts off any further discussion, however, by placing her hand on your shoulder.
"It's alright, Weaver. Legend let us know you might try some kind of meditation today - I'll keep an eye on you if it looks like something's going wrong, but I trust you to keep things under control."
The firm tone in the latter half of her statement is more indicative of an order than a reassurance, but you nod in agreement all the same, causing Battery to pull her arm back and leave you to your introspection.
Settling in your seat you begin going through your active charms, one-by-one, and disabling them; after disabling your Visual Enhancements and Industrial Survival Frame, you pause briefly to consider leaving Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade online - due to its potential usefulness in this process - before ultimately deciding that you should start from as baseline a state as possible for this meditation.
With everything else deactivated, and your mind once again confined to a single train of thought, you review your mental reserves and compare them to how you felt yesterday when you first spoke with Legend and then in front of the pizzaria.
Slightly less than the former, slightly more than the latter.
Opting not to risk draining yourself completely again, you spend the next twenty minutes cycling through slower and slower breathing rhythms and thinking only the previous sensations of when you switched off the invasive charm.
With a final, momentous gathering of will, you push back against your own mind and cage the renegade charm's access to your reservoirs of essence, slamming closed the hole in the back of your mind in the process.
Thankful that your other sensory and mental enhancement augmentations are disabled as the dizzying effect quickly fades, you start again from the top of your breathing cycle and begin to work your way down, while reviewing the names listed in Iris' primer on essence and your own exaltation…
***
Technomorphic Integration Engine.
Held together with strands of starmetal, moonsilver, and orichalcum, a crystalline engine of adamant hums and whirls its essence-charged pistons. Compressed in the heart of this complex machine is an infinitesimal gateway - a point in space - tuned to open only to your own soul.
That Iris was able to enter and exit freely from this gateway gives you pause, until you ultimately decide to leave the ramifications of that act for later.
Gold, silver, copper, and brass pipes of varying sizes feed into the engine of magical materials, which you trace back to your essence reservoir - your heart - with ease. In the nebulous darkness of your own mind, you compare the relative location of your heart to the charm's physical location and pinpoint it as nestled just opposite your heart in your right ribcage. An unusual, but fitting, display of symmetry; one pulls forth essence from Elsewhere, while the other pulls everything else into Elsewhere.
As you study the device in further detail, you begin to make out the various sub-modules and compare them to the names Iris provided in his guide. Endodiagnostic Analytical Routines, Pattern-Mending Integration, Instant Aegis Upgrade, two nodes of Precursor Technology Absorption, and three linked installations of Resonance Harmonizer.
As each name slides across your consciousness, instinctual understanding of each of the sub-modules floods into your memory as if it had been on the tip of your tongue all-along. Conceptual understanding, yes, and repairs… but… assuming ownership of an item? There is a brief mention of the concept of 'ownership' in Iris' notes, but the guide is woefully lacking on any further meaning behind the loaded term. Something to review later, perhaps…
With a hum, a click, and a snap, you feel the charm settle in your chest, lighter than before. Were you always carrying that extra weight around? Breathing, too, feels easier - less impeded by the charm built into your chest. The hum of the engine, as well, seems to have settled, the draw on your essence reservoir stabilizing under your gaze.
With nothing else appearing out-of-place, you turn your gaze away…
***
Industrial Survival Frame.
Woven into the very marrow of your jade-and-soulsteel bones is an intricate relay of pattern-reaffirming, starmetal and orichalcum nodes. While dulled to your senses at first, as your mind's-eye dances across the eraser-head-sized nodules, you eventually run across the heart of the network burrowed along your spine.
At six points starting from your tailbone and working up to the base of your skull, the dime-sized sub-modules of Metal, Oil, Smoke, Lightning, Steam, and Crystal briefly hum with residual essence as your attention passes over them - and all hum lightly as you observe the Sixfold Transcendence Synergy sub-module that brings them all together…
***
Optical Shroud.
A hexagonal lattice of crystal - adamant and diamond mixtures - coating every inch of your skin, with barely a millimeter between their points. Connecting this massive network is a fabric of moonsilver microscopic threads, all leading to the primary control plate just under the joint between your collarbones.
Fitted against the plate are the various installations of the Dynamic Cloaking Module and Sense-Countering Upgrade sub-modules, with an additional moonsilver relay connecting the Echo-Chamber Vocalization sub-module that has replaced your larynx…
***
Omnitool Implant.
Not just bracer-like extensions of your arms, but your arms themselves; your entire forearms and hands have been replaced by the charm and its moonsilver generators, starmetal wiring, and soulsteel housing.
Unlike the other charms you've analyzed thus far, the Comprehensive Surgical Systems and Secondary Telefractor Assembly sub-modules for your omnitools appear to be housed within the charm itself, so intricate that they are only noticeable as sub-modules due to Iris' call-outs in his notes…
***
Integrated Artifact Transmogrifier.
As your attention falls on the network of retractable jade pores hidden just under your skin, you notice something unusual: the charm is still draining essence as if it were partially activated. Tracing the flow from your reservoir to the control node - a nozzle-like device attached to the small tank of clay just below your stomach - you mentally tug at the node to cause it to soak up the remaining clay lingering in your… hair?
Investigating the Loom Server Migration sub-module begins to give you a headache as you study the infinite fractal of adamant crystal surrounding the tank of clay, which is only further exacerbated by the complex network of jade plates that serve as the Essence-Muting Baffles sub-module.
Pulling away from the charm, you give yourself a few minutes to steady yourself before pushing onwards…
***
Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade
Your entire nervous system, replaced by a more… efficient… network of starmetal threads and adamant crystal, all wired into the Hypercalibration Benediction sub-module - a plate of orichalchum, jade, and studded with adamant shards - at the base of your skull…
***
Visual Enhancements
More a massive collection of sub-modules than a singular charm itself: Flash Shutters, Light-Intensification Filters, Ultraperipheral Awareness, Microscopic Lens, Telescopic Lens, Diagnostic Overlay, Motion-Tracking Targeting Glance, Thermal Vision, Essence Sight Oculars, Mass-Penetrating Scan, Tactical Analysis Engrams. Reviewing them all, it's clear that your eyes, eyelids, even eyebrows have been replaced to accommodate the charm, and several shutter-like protrusions of various magical materials grafted into - and around - the sockets.
Of the two remaining sub-modules, Soulgem Transponder Overlay now strikes you as potentially useful upon recruiting more Alchemicals for your Assembly. Unfortunately, the Cross-Phase Scanner sub-module is still disappointingly useless in the Nowhere Universe; with Earth a multiverse instead of a single concrete Creation, if the sub-module yielded anything it would be a blinding mess of all possible Earths laid on top of each other…
***
Dynamic Reaction Enhancement System
A dizzyingly-complex series of machines fastened to the inward-facing side of your spine, the soulsteel protrusions designed to slam into your spine and overload your nervous system give you cause to wonder why you've never felt any deleterious side-effects from the use of the charm.
After further careful study, you note the existence of a regenerative mixture tied into the machines workings that likely heal any damage as its done. You wonder, briefly, if the first implementations of the charm did not have the regenerative mixture, but decide to not go down that path now…
***
4th Dexterity Augmentation
… moonsilver lines tracing parallel, razor-thin lines across your skin in a semblance of a second, shimmering skeleton…
4th Stamina Augmentation
… scales of dull white jade forming dense padding on the undersides of your limbs and covering your spine along your back…
4th Intelligence Augmentation
… hidden mostly by your hair, a web of starmetal filaments glimmers as it draws essence around your skull and focuses errant brain waves back into your mind…
2nd Perception Augmentation
… orichalcum threading throughout your brain's sensory lobes hums with potential power…
***
Shard of Perfect Administration
Following the eight spider leg-like antennae that now rest folded-up in the sides of your skull, you trace the dense cords comprised of all six magical materials as they burrow into your brain and meet a small node where your Corona Gemma would have resided.
Not for the first time, you wonder at the lab technicians' reactions to your CAT scan's results.
As you study the device, you mentally blink at the recognition: it appears to be a smaller, more streamlined version of your Technomorphic Integration Engine, which explains the enormous passive drain on your essence reservoirs just to keep the charm attuned to your body.
Focusing your study of the machine even further, you begin to mentally probe it in an attempt to discern its contents - keeping your guard up in the event of the charm's accidental activation. Perhaps if you treat it similar to the charm it mimics, you can unlock…
***
A shifting sea of gears, wires, pistons and servos stretches out beyond the visible horizon, undulating with a rhythm indicative of a… pulse. Mundane and magical materials course through ocean of metallic flesh, the radiating a rainbow hue of essence even in this lightless void of Elsewhere.
Before you have a complete moment to comprehend the nature of the bizarre… creature… filling your gaze, your mind explodes with a chaotic mass of sensations, images, memories…
HOST
Multi-hued, octopus-looking creatures tear each other apart in the streets between sky-darkening towers formed of living trees, each exhibiting mixtures of powers that remind you of a parahuman battle-royale…
CONTROL
Four large, upright lizards - reminiscent of komodo dragons - dance around the corpse of a fifth, which they have stripped of its crude bronze armor and roughly-hewn grass clothing so that they may burn the corpse; a reminder to the other gangs of their superiority…
HOST … CONTROL
A fog falls over a canyon filled with insects the size of small cars, each adorned in fantastic battle regalia that would drive you to wonder at the sheer wealth of material needed to adorn the thousands - no, millions - of combatants as they tear each other limb-from limb…
CONTROL … POWER
… until, swinging in from the higher branches, a night-black octopus-creature drops down in the midst of the battle. Raising four of its arms into the air, the seventeen other creatures around it halt mid-motion…
CONTROL … ORDER
… when they freeze, the air in the throats collapsing, as a lizard armored, dressed, and colored similar to the deceased strides forward out of the nearby shadows, a clawed hand extended in a choking motion…
CONTROL … HOPE
… which stops, suddenly, all at once. The horizon of living combatants pause, silent and unmoving, for long seconds before turning in unison to kneel towards a nearby mountaintop - upon which a gilded queen floats on wings of gossamer…
CONTROL … CYCLE
An aquatic planet that birthed a species of sapient cephalopods explodes in a spectacular nova, propelling massive creatures of flesh into the stars beyond…
A desert planet that gave rise to a fierce race of lizard warriors detonates in a thunderous cataclysm, ejecting massive creatures of twisting flesh out into the fathomless void…
A planet covered in jungles and canyons upon which evolved a dozen species of enormous, tribal insects bursts apart from the inside, launching massive creatures of formless flesh in their search for a new planet…
***
Jerking awake, you desperately attempt to control your racing heartbeat as your breath hitches in your chest and refuses to obey your diaphragm.
Your eyes darting to the other costumed passengers of the van, you note that they all appear to have turned to watch you at some point in your meditation.
Noticing your wide, panicked eyes, Battery quickly places a reassuring arm on your right shoulder.
"Weaver? Are you- ok, just breathe. Breathe… in… out… there, that's good."
Your lungs managing to pump air again, you dutifully follow Battery's instructions and cycle through some of your low-rhythm breathing exercises as your heartbeat slowly stops beating a cannonade in your eardrums.
Just… what was that? Was that - is that - massive mechanical creature your… Shard of Perfect Administration? Was it talking to you? Not directly, at least - it almost felt like it was trying to use a mixture of sounds from your own memory to piece together words and sensations like speech…
Is that what you've been struggling against all this time? A battle of wills against a creature with a horizon? But yet… it didn't feel malicious, just…
… desperate, dreading some cataclysmic…
… massive creatures of formless flesh…
You try to hold on to the images, the feelings, the memories… but they slip through your mental fingers as you try harder and harder to hold onto them.
All except for three names. Three sub-modules.
Vertebral Organization Algorithms.
Spirit Attunement Generators.
Sapient-Coordinating Relays.
Despite the proximity to lunch time, you no longer possess an appetite.
***
Clarity Gains: 1 Point
Clarity Losses: 1 Point (Virtue Channel [1] + Compassion Roll [1])
Net Clarity Change: -1 Point
New Temporary Clarity Rating: 4 Points (-1 to non-Intimidation Social Rolls, -1 to Compassion Rolls)
SoPA Status: OFF
Intimacy: Legend (Respect) +1 Increase!
Intimacy: Aegis/Carlos (Friendship) -1 Decrease!
Bureaucracy ●●○○○ GAINED!
Bureaucracy +2 Training Intervals (2/6 Intervals)
Craft ●●●●○ GAINED!
Craft +1 Training Interval (1/6 Intervals)
Investigation +1 Training Intervals (5/6 Intervals)
Medicine ●○○○○ GAINED!
Occult +1 Training Interval (2/6 Intervals)
Presence +1 Training Interval (5/6 Intervals)
Had to break this update off early to save some for the arrival Update, as well as to get this out in time - the Dennis vote will carry over to next update, don't worry. Still gonna post an Interlude today, but after I get some shut-eye.
Also, before people flip out, please note that I was taking into account our previous vote for how to handle revealing our nature and Autobot in this update's conversation. Further refinement of that vote is below.
Much Ado About SoPA: Whoops!
[ ] My Little Controller (Friendship Is OBEY): It wants to help! Keep it on all the time, because it loves us and wants to bring Order to the world.
[ ] People Are People, Bugs Are Bugs: Keep SoPA off for heavy social activities, but otherwise leave it on for all the tactical advantages it yields.
[ ] Bug Hunt: Keep it off unless in a threatening/combat situation. Two alien consciousnesses in our heads is too many.
[ ] Write-In: Specify a plan of action!
The Word Is Out: Dragon and Legend know a lot more about us now, and the former is definitely going to be inquiring more soon - not to mention Chevalier and our new boss, Director Uriel. How do we want to handle things?
[ ] What Word?: Now that Clarity's finally going away, play dumb unless we speak with Legend or Dragon.
[ ] Mum's The Word: Keep this to your superiors only, and reinforce that this is not something you want spread around just yet as you are still figuring things out on your own.
[ ] Spread The Word: Let the fellow Wards in on the joy of being a Bullshit Magical Possibly-Communist-Aztec-Hindu Robot, as well as your superiors.
[ ] Write-In: Specify a plan of action!
Please remember to format XP Expenditures properly:
[X] ? XP - Item ●●●○○
[X] ? XP - Item (Specialization ●●○)
[X] Write-In: Should've read the Owner's Manual first...
- [x] Stunt: You've been getting burned too often by poor understanding of your own Charms, and it's making you ineffective. This stops now. You tell the others you're taking a nap, close your eyes, absolutely do not turn SoPA on, and meditate. It's high time to figure yourself out.
[X] Essence Reservoir-to-Heart: Provide counsel for a member of your caravan, getting to know them better as a mortal as well as evaluating them for Alchemical potential.
- [x] Stunt: Talk to Dennis, find out how he's doing, and what he thinks of things so far. Get his support in covering up for any Clarity induced social mistakes, and see about enlisting his assistance in keeping Aisha sufficiently motivated and amused, especially after their mutual Glenn sessions. The last personal conversation you've had with him involved a prank involving being surrounded by a swarm of bugs, after all, things could stand to be on a more positive note.
XP Expenditures:
[X] 4 XP - Bureaucracy ●●○○○
[X] 4 XP - Craft ●●●●○
[X] 4 XP - Medicine ●○○○○
***
The clock on your wall reads 11:47 when Legend knocks on the window of your guest suite. Having locked your door and enabled the 'Do Not Disturb' sign in order to focus on Glenn's assignment, you calculate that Legend purposefully is avoiding the door to claim ignorance of your desire for solitude. Dragon, at least, has thankfully remained silent in her vigil over your costume reconstruction - her wireframe avatar observing your progress from the workstation monitor with a measure of resigned sympathy.
Legend, unfortunately, technically outranks Glenn, and thus must be given priority over duplicating old costumes for the PRT museum.
Extricating your fingers from the weave of kevlar fibers used in Champion's blue-and-white chestguard, you push yourself up from the workbench's chair and crisply stride eight paces to the window closest to the Protectorate's Leader. Your omnitool-laden hands produce a staccato of light clinks as you press against the window and release the lock, idly fastening a loose bolt in the hinges as the thick pane of glass slowly rotates outward.
Your visual augments register the otherwise-imperceptible glow surrounding the lantern-jawed Triumvirate member; arms crossed and mouth set in a grim line, your diagnostic scan also registers a slight measure of caution from the tenseness of his upper back and lower neck.
"Weaver. May I come in?"
Finishing the small repairs on the window frame's mechanisms, you nod and take the necessary three steps back away from the window to allow Legend room to land.
Silently hovering into the room on a thin trail of energized particles, Legend lightly touches down on the white-and-grey marble floor of your room with a thump from his settling boots.
After several seconds of continued silence, Legend slowly turns his attention to the progress you have made thus far on Glenn's assignment. Observing a hitch in his breath and a flash of tension through his upper body, you suspect his eyes have found the first costume you reconstructed after returning to your room.
Striding to your workstation, your own presence momentarily forgotten, Legend stops his outstretched arm just short of touching the gold-and-silver power armor collapsed neatly on the table. After a further moment of hesitation, he carefully moves his hand down towards the middle of the gleaming cuirass and tentatively presses his hand against it while murmuring with astonished recognition.
"You… repaired it?"
Taking eleven steps to place yourself at Legend's right side, you shake your head.
"Negative. Replication. Original still repairing in Elsewhere storage."
His mouth turning down briefly in confusion, Legend gently rapps his knuckles against the thickest part of the breastplate, eliciting a muted, metallic clack.
"A copy? But it doesn't sound…"
"Fully-functional, identical construction. Request stipulated no alterations, improvements to reconstructed costumes."
A brief snort of humor from Legend prefaces his voice regaining its confidence and casual sincerity.
"Improvements? You're saying you could have improved Hero's armor in only a few hours?"
Extending an omnitool-equipped hand, a quick series of taps on the armor's right armband causes the top half of the cuirass to fold outward to reveal a network of armaments and sensor suites. Moving your hand to exposed features, you coalesce a few of the tools to point to specific parts.
"Potential micro-missile fabricator power draw reduction through Armsmaster-designed capacitor relay. Enlarged battery replaced with modular, exchangeable generators."
Motioning to a complex series of brilliant, exposed wires, you note the part that your Technomorphic Integration Engine charm had some difficulty comprehending.
"Gold wire threading incomplete, hypothesis: final deployment interrupted."
As Legend noticeably reels and deflates from your statement, you close up the armor with another series of taps on the armguard's keypad. As the armor's whisper-silent gears lock the plating back into place, you turn to former teammate of the First Tinker - back before the Triumvirate became the Triumvirate.
"Provided sufficient materials, components, calculate six-point-two hours for implementation of changes."
Legend is silent for nearly seventeen seconds before exhaling a long, heavy sigh. Placing his hand flat against the chestpiece, a wistful smile slowly overtakes the morose frown before he nods in satisfaction.
"I always bugged him about keeping a spare set around in case of emergencies, but he'd never hear it. There's been a lot of discussion over the years, wondering if that was his Tinker limit - we didn't even know to look for them back then. Maybe now we can finally show off the full piece, instead of just…"
His hand falls down to rest near the base of the cuirass, where the armor in your own Elsewhere storage space is still slowly stitching together.
"… pieces."
The both of you stand there for three-point-four silent minutes before Legend retracts his hands to the small of his back and straightens his posture. After a long, steadying breath from the Protectorate's Leader, you can almost feel Legend's commanding presence fill the room once again.
"I've kept Director Swanson from breaking down your door for an explanation, but I can only hold him back so long."
You nod, understanding this was the original purpose of his visit. Having reviewed the events several times over in your minds by now, you have a much clearer understanding of the steps - if not the complete reasonings - behind your earlier breakdown.
"Mental influence from parahuman-based charm detrimental to social interaction. Previous deactivation of charm during earlier discussion drained mental resources, resulting in complete depletion of mental fortitude when second attempt made prior to entering Raybeam's Pizzaria."
The eyes on Dragon's wireframe avatar go wide at your comment, and Legend's breath stalls in his chest. Holding up a tool-laden hand to motion that your statement is unfinished, you continue your recounting of events as you have been able to piece together.
"Post-traumatic stress disorder triggered from nearby slam of taxi door, causing relapse of Behemoth encounter. Reflexively activated full Iconic Anima in attempt to reduce probability of lightning strike; fear effect quantifiably reduced Behemoth accuracy during battle. Regained senses, observed effects on bystanders, retreated to lower stratosphere to avoid further emotional harm. Allowed for anima to recede, returned to PRT Headquarters."
Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, Legend's mouth dips in an empathetic frown as you explain the events and reasoning behind your earlier mental breakdown. As you finish, he turns his head to the workbench and its computer; still looking on from her position in the workstation's computer monitor, Dragon closes her digital avatar's eyes and gives a silent sigh before nodding solemnly.
Rotating his gaze to stare silently past your head for one-point-seven minutes, you are unable to see anything noteworthy outside your window with your own peripheral vision and swarm-enhanced senses. When he speaks again, it is again with the kind, sympathetic tone you recall from his earlier parting statement.
"It was… Seattle, wasn't it? The first time we let a Ward fight. There was so little warning, there weren't any teleporters available, and she… just wouldn't leave. Rock… wave was her name?"
"Rocksteady," Dragon says lightly, after nodding to his first question.
"She helped turn the battle, save the city. The Simurgh had only just appeared three months before, and we were starting to run out volunteers…"
Shaking his head, Legend holds a hand up to his head as if to banish away the memories of decades of Endbringer fights, of thousands - millions - of lives lost.
"It's so easy to forget what it was like to be young."
Disagreeing with the implication that you should possibly be barred from future Endbringer fights, you wave off the idea with a swift sideways cut with your right hand.
"Control over emotional vulnerabilities restored. Improved understanding of mental resource limitations. Probability of future incidents significantly reduced."
Once again you are surprised by the wide range of emotion Dragon's wireframe avatar is capable of displaying, though you should have expected her disbelief of your claim. Legend, too, appears to be giving you an incredulous look if his quirked frown and exasperated tone are any indication.
"Now there's an argument I hear often enough - though that phrasing is certainly new."
"Outstanding hypothesis: current understanding of Charms, Alchemical Exaltation capabilities incomplete, resulting in decreased effectiveness, instability. Meditation, re-evaluation: priority objective."
As a puzzled frown over your claim crosses Legend's exposed jawline, Dragon speaks up with an air of uncertainty.
"Taylor, was that what you were trying to do last Sunday?"
Shaking your head, you many minds recall the extended success of your last attempt to reach out to your primordial patron.
"Meditation, not on Charms or Exaltation. Attempted contact with Great Maker to resolve information deficiencies, partial success achieved."
Dragon opens her mouth to say something, but she is cut off by Legend holding out his hand from where it was resting on the forehead of his visor.
"'Great Maker', Weaver?"
While Dragon has thus far proven trustworthy enough to receive the partial explanation you have prepared, your minds have only just now come to a similar consensus on Legend after both your earlier conversation and his clearly-genuine concern for both your well-being and privacy. You understood the need to reveal much of this information to your superiors eventually, but if you are able to gain the support of Legend - the Leader of the Protectorate and one of the most well-liked heroes in the world - then ramping up your efforts in building your Assembly should become significantly easier.
The trouble, of course, comes from avoiding the sensitive matter of your patron being a world-sized being of incalculable power, who requires the fundamental re-writing of the rules of this universe to survive his eventual summoning to Earth-Bet.
At the very least, you should be truthful when building the framework for the eventual reveal.
"Creator of current form. Uncertain origin. Terminal condition, trapped, seeks aid entering Nowhere Universe."
Dragon's avatar has dispensed with all pretense of hiding her surprise, and fascination, at your statements. Legend, on the other hand, has grown still. After a brief pause, his mouth turns down further in confusion as he puzzles over the last part of your claim.
"What do you mean, 'Nowhere Universe'?"
"Specifics uncertain. Term for this universe, used by Iris. Names used for Great Maker's origin universe: The Design, Creation, Wyld. Different fundamental laws of reality, physics."
Nodding slowly, Legend 'hmm's briefly.
"Like the worlds Myrrdin's powers draw from."
"Low probability. Essence not recorded in powers revealed by Myrrdin during Behemoth encounter."
"Ess- wait, no, we're getting off track," Legend sighs while holding out his arms, briefly, before folding them again against his chest. You can tell his gaze is focused on your own eyes, even through the opaque, over-the-head visor covering everything above his nose, so you do not blink as he appears to struggle with his next question.
"So… you're saying you were created, then? You're an artificial intelligence?"
Shaking your head, you gesture with your right, omnitool-converted hand to the massive oval diamond embedded in your forehead.
"Soul tangible, quantifiable object in Great Maker's origin universe. Great Maker provided soul through implant of soulgem, retrieved, transferred to Alchemical form. Consciousness uninterrupted."
A flicker of some undecipherable emotion passes across Dragon's digital avatar before you detect a spark of realization from her raised eyebrows.
"Then the hole in your… original body's… head?"
You turn your head, directing your eyes to the small camera mounted atop the monitor in which the wireframe bust resides.
"Rescued by Great Maker before complete termination of vital signs."
This elicits simultaneous grimaces from the two experienced heroes as each quickly realize the environment from which you were saved. A heavy silence reigns in the room for several seconds before Legend's shoulders sag lightly in a weary sigh. Moving to the padded stool-chair at your workbench, the world-famous hero shows more of his age in his movements than ever before as he settles into a thinking position.
Dragon, her eyes darting between the Triumvirate member and your own gaze, hesitantly clears her throat.
"This has been very… illuminating, Taylor, but it's getting late. Perhaps we should table this for later, so you can finish up Glenn's assignment before you leave tomorrow?"
Starting slightly, Legend looks up to the clock on the opposite wall and snorts in a mixture of resignation and mirth - clearly surprised that it is already 12:56 in the morning. Sitting up straight on the stool, he squares his shoulders and nods at both you and Dragon.
"Weaver - Taylor - I'm not saying I believe everything you've said so far, but I think I have enough to keep Director Swanson at bay until you're out of town. I can't promise the same for Director Uriel, however, unless…"
You can almost see the gears turning in Legend's head as he appears to make a few connections in his mind, causing him to frown again in confusion.
"Taylor, why didn't you tell any of this to Director Piggot? Or Armsmaster and Miss Militia?"
Standing four paces from the seated Triumvirate member and the displayed avatar of the world's greatest Tinker, you idly cycle through several different configurations for your omnitools while your multitude of minds compile a sufficient answer. Eventually one of your minds comes up with an explanation that the others agree stands the greatest chance of success for explaining your apparent insubordination.
"Years of experience under untrustworthy authority figures. New charge from Great Maker too important, discretion mandated."
Your comment evokes an almost tangible display of pain from Dragon's wireframe avatar, which you attribute to the implication that you did not trust her enough to divulge this information to her previously. Legend, on the other hand, seems to fill with renewed purpose and energy - his former weariness a mere memory. Standing, he only requires a single confident stride to come close enough to place his hand on your left shoulder.
"I know trust is a hard thing to rebuild, Taylor, but I want you to know how much it means to me that you're willing to risk yourself like this after everything you've been through. I've seen grown men and women fall to pieces after only a fraction of what you've experienced in the last month - let alone what happened in your school - so believe me when I say that the Wards, the Protectorate, and the PRT are here to help. You don't have to hold the world on your shoulders - even the best of us have teammates, friends, and loved ones to help us carry on."
Reviewing the contents of Legend's speech with your various consciousnesses, you start to grow… frustrated as they begin to get stuck processing various parts. You… you do not need to… to feel. Why does it seem so much harder to think, all of a sudden?
Squirreling up your face in concentration, you realize you need to provide recognition to Legend's statement. Blinking away the fog accumulating in your eyes, you nod sharply.
"Un-under… understood. Thank you, sir."
His smile nearly blinding you with its brilliance, he gently pats your left shoulder twice before moving his hands up to his helmet. With a quiet series of clicks and a whisper of rustled hair, Legend removes his helmet to reveal startling blue eyes and a neatly-trimmed buzz-cut head of sandy-blonde hair.
"Please. Call me Peter."
***
After promising that you will attend to your 'meditation' as quickly as possible, as well as look into seeing a therapist help with the issues you undoubtedly accumulated during your time in Winslow, Legend leaves you to your work with a final parting word of thanks as he floated backwards out your open window.
"Hero was the best of us, Taylor. At the very least, you have my support for helping restore a piece of his legacy for future generations."
You cordon off the wasteful thoughts and feelings of wonder at what just happened until they run their course, then re-focus all your attentions back on the task at-hand. You are thankful for Dragon's return to silent observation, though you detect occasional signs hinting that she is withholding herself from interrogating you further.
Despite the occasional bout of feelings creeping into your thought process again - generally thoughts of embarrassment or horror about your actions today - you finally manage to piece together everything and store it in the no-longer-irradiated crate after extruding it from your Elsewhere pocket. As there were only twelve costumes this time around, and the delay provided by Legend and Dragon allowed for your lower-level anima to dissipate entirely, you manage to avoid invoking your fear-inducing anima effect when you finish extruding the last few costumes to place alongside their new duplicates in the crate.
After saying your farewells to Dragon, you move to your oversized bed and absorb your costume. Opting to forego extruding your pajamas so as to avoid elevating your anima even further, you climb into bed and deactivate your Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade charm.
Lying on your back, black smoke rolling pouring out of the covers around you and sparks of black and blue lightning cascading across your eyes, you sigh wearily.
You do your best to ignore your anima's antics, and before long you fall back into the bliss of unconsciousness.
***
Tuesday the first day of February, dawns far earlier than you deem satisfactory.
Even less satisfactory is the textbook elbow-drop slammed into your stomach that awakens you.
"That's for fuckin' scarin' the shit outta us and then fuckin' bailing!"
Your various visual augments coming online at the same time as the usual rush of your swarm's senses, you eventually narrow your eyes at Who's costumed form... after regaining the ability to use your diaphragm to speak.
"Repeat application of fear effect requested?"
"No!" comes Vista's panicked exclamation from your living room, followed quickly by her sudden appearance next to Who. "No, she is not requesting another application!"
Nodding to the two younger Wards, you take three more steadying breaths before rolling back the sheets and sliding out of bed. As you begin your routine neck and shoulder stretches to ease the usual tenseness gained from sleeping with Shard of Perfect Administration enabled, Vista coughs in her hand and turns away while Who snorts in laughter.
"Whaddya know, you have the parts after all."
Blinking, you turn your head down to note that, yes, you apparently have taboo-triggering anatomical details again. Somehow.
Is this… something you can control?
Closing your eyes (more as mnemonic device than any way to block out your vision) and focusing on the thought of returning to your 'plain' form, you feel a subtle tugging sensation in the three problematic locations. The bewildered double-takes from the two younger Wards several feet away serve as verification enough that the process is complete.
"Weavs, that's just… wait… does this mean you don't have to deal with Mother Nature kickin' you in the box every month, too?"
Vista makes a strangled sound, something between a sigh and a groan, but otherwise just holds her helmeted head in her hands as you nod in assent. Punching a fist down into her outstretched palm, the young Stranger nods in return.
"Well then I, for one, welco-"
-but whatever Who was going to say is cut off by Vista grabbing her foul-mouthed teammate and warping out of your room, yelling a closing remark to drown out Who's statement.
"Just take a shower and come down when you're ready!"
***
After a quick round of ablutions in the excessively-furnished bathroom, you extrude your dress-costume and navigate down to the gathered group of Wards, Assault and Battery, and the biggest stars of New York's Protectorate: Adamant, Ursa Aurora, Cache, Prism, and Legend himself.
By the time you reach the vans it appears you missed most of the speech from Prism and Legend, though you catch parts of it through the handful of insects in the parking structure - a somewhat generic, if well-spoken, reminder that the Wards, Protectorate, and PRT are here to help in any way they can. You suspect Legend allowed you to sleep in and miss the most of the speech due to having given you a similar one last night, which is reinforced by the knowing nod he gives you as you approach the group.
After patiently waiting for the speech to end and providing the customary farewells to Legend's teammates, you and your team climb back into your respective vans and begin the slow process of trudging through mid-morning Manhattan traffic.
After settling into your seat and allowing for the customary silent period (seven-point-five) that begins all road trips, you propose your meditation request to Battery. In return, she tilts her head in confusion while briefly humming at your request.
"That sounds… fine? I don't see why you need to ask me for permission, though."
"Low probability of fear-inducing anima display. Request immediate physical strike to interrupt meditation process should anima begin to produce smoke-like effect."
Vista's nervous cough attracts Battery's attention, as well as your own.
"Are you sure you want to do that in here, Weaver? Won't that, I don't know, make the van crash if you make that giant spider-thing illusion again?"
Shaking your head, you motion with a hand to allay Vista's concerns - which have caused Battery's mouth to frown in dismay.
"Previous anima incident during meditation due to specific goal at time. Other meditation attempts produced no such display, indicating low probability of any anima display."
"So, wait," Who interrupts with a raised hand and a grin in her voice, "you want us to smack you if you start gettin' smoky? I'm down for this."
Turning your head to the newest Ward, you give her a flat stare through her grey helmet.
"Clarification: jostle, shake, arrest. High probability of retaliation for open- or closed-hand strikes."
Holding her hands up in a mock display of innocence, you still hear a light laugh emanating from Who's helmet despite the warning. Battery cuts off any further discussion, however, by placing her hand on your shoulder.
"It's alright, Weaver. Legend let us know you might try some kind of meditation today - I'll keep an eye on you if it looks like something's going wrong, but I trust you to keep things under control."
The firm tone in the latter half of her statement is more indicative of an order than a reassurance, but you nod in agreement all the same, causing Battery to pull her arm back and leave you to your introspection.
Settling in your seat you begin going through your active charms, one-by-one, and disabling them; after disabling your Visual Enhancements and Industrial Survival Frame, you pause briefly to consider leaving Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade online - due to its potential usefulness in this process - before ultimately deciding that you should start from as baseline a state as possible for this meditation.
With everything else deactivated, and your mind once again confined to a single train of thought, you review your mental reserves and compare them to how you felt yesterday when you first spoke with Legend and then in front of the pizzaria.
Slightly less than the former, slightly more than the latter.
Opting not to risk draining yourself completely again, you spend the next twenty minutes cycling through slower and slower breathing rhythms and thinking only the previous sensations of when you switched off the invasive charm.
With a final, momentous gathering of will, you push back against your own mind and cage the renegade charm's access to your reservoirs of essence, slamming closed the hole in the back of your mind in the process.
Thankful that your other sensory and mental enhancement augmentations are disabled as the dizzying effect quickly fades, you start again from the top of your breathing cycle and begin to work your way down, while reviewing the names listed in Iris' primer on essence and your own exaltation…
***
Technomorphic Integration Engine.
Held together with strands of starmetal, moonsilver, and orichalcum, a crystalline engine of adamant hums and whirls its essence-charged pistons. Compressed in the heart of this complex machine is an infinitesimal gateway - a point in space - tuned to open only to your own soul.
That Iris was able to enter and exit freely from this gateway gives you pause, until you ultimately decide to leave the ramifications of that act for later.
Gold, silver, copper, and brass pipes of varying sizes feed into the engine of magical materials, which you trace back to your essence reservoir - your heart - with ease. In the nebulous darkness of your own mind, you compare the relative location of your heart to the charm's physical location and pinpoint it as nestled just opposite your heart in your right ribcage. An unusual, but fitting, display of symmetry; one pulls forth essence from Elsewhere, while the other pulls everything else into Elsewhere.
As you study the device in further detail, you begin to make out the various sub-modules and compare them to the names Iris provided in his guide. Endodiagnostic Analytical Routines, Pattern-Mending Integration, Instant Aegis Upgrade, two nodes of Precursor Technology Absorption, and three linked installations of Resonance Harmonizer.
As each name slides across your consciousness, instinctual understanding of each of the sub-modules floods into your memory as if it had been on the tip of your tongue all-along. Conceptual understanding, yes, and repairs… but… assuming ownership of an item? There is a brief mention of the concept of 'ownership' in Iris' notes, but the guide is woefully lacking on any further meaning behind the loaded term. Something to review later, perhaps…
With a hum, a click, and a snap, you feel the charm settle in your chest, lighter than before. Were you always carrying that extra weight around? Breathing, too, feels easier - less impeded by the charm built into your chest. The hum of the engine, as well, seems to have settled, the draw on your essence reservoir stabilizing under your gaze.
With nothing else appearing out-of-place, you turn your gaze away…
***
Industrial Survival Frame.
Woven into the very marrow of your jade-and-soulsteel bones is an intricate relay of pattern-reaffirming, starmetal and orichalcum nodes. While dulled to your senses at first, as your mind's-eye dances across the eraser-head-sized nodules, you eventually run across the heart of the network burrowed along your spine.
At six points starting from your tailbone and working up to the base of your skull, the dime-sized sub-modules of Metal, Oil, Smoke, Lightning, Steam, and Crystal briefly hum with residual essence as your attention passes over them - and all hum lightly as you observe the Sixfold Transcendence Synergy sub-module that brings them all together…
***
Optical Shroud.
A hexagonal lattice of crystal - adamant and diamond mixtures - coating every inch of your skin, with barely a millimeter between their points. Connecting this massive network is a fabric of moonsilver microscopic threads, all leading to the primary control plate just under the joint between your collarbones.
Fitted against the plate are the various installations of the Dynamic Cloaking Module and Sense-Countering Upgrade sub-modules, with an additional moonsilver relay connecting the Echo-Chamber Vocalization sub-module that has replaced your larynx…
***
Omnitool Implant.
Not just bracer-like extensions of your arms, but your arms themselves; your entire forearms and hands have been replaced by the charm and its moonsilver generators, starmetal wiring, and soulsteel housing.
Unlike the other charms you've analyzed thus far, the Comprehensive Surgical Systems and Secondary Telefractor Assembly sub-modules for your omnitools appear to be housed within the charm itself, so intricate that they are only noticeable as sub-modules due to Iris' call-outs in his notes…
***
Integrated Artifact Transmogrifier.
As your attention falls on the network of retractable jade pores hidden just under your skin, you notice something unusual: the charm is still draining essence as if it were partially activated. Tracing the flow from your reservoir to the control node - a nozzle-like device attached to the small tank of clay just below your stomach - you mentally tug at the node to cause it to soak up the remaining clay lingering in your… hair?
Investigating the Loom Server Migration sub-module begins to give you a headache as you study the infinite fractal of adamant crystal surrounding the tank of clay, which is only further exacerbated by the complex network of jade plates that serve as the Essence-Muting Baffles sub-module.
Pulling away from the charm, you give yourself a few minutes to steady yourself before pushing onwards…
***
Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade
Your entire nervous system, replaced by a more… efficient… network of starmetal threads and adamant crystal, all wired into the Hypercalibration Benediction sub-module - a plate of orichalchum, jade, and studded with adamant shards - at the base of your skull…
***
Visual Enhancements
More a massive collection of sub-modules than a singular charm itself: Flash Shutters, Light-Intensification Filters, Ultraperipheral Awareness, Microscopic Lens, Telescopic Lens, Diagnostic Overlay, Motion-Tracking Targeting Glance, Thermal Vision, Essence Sight Oculars, Mass-Penetrating Scan, Tactical Analysis Engrams. Reviewing them all, it's clear that your eyes, eyelids, even eyebrows have been replaced to accommodate the charm, and several shutter-like protrusions of various magical materials grafted into - and around - the sockets.
Of the two remaining sub-modules, Soulgem Transponder Overlay now strikes you as potentially useful upon recruiting more Alchemicals for your Assembly. Unfortunately, the Cross-Phase Scanner sub-module is still disappointingly useless in the Nowhere Universe; with Earth a multiverse instead of a single concrete Creation, if the sub-module yielded anything it would be a blinding mess of all possible Earths laid on top of each other…
***
Dynamic Reaction Enhancement System
A dizzyingly-complex series of machines fastened to the inward-facing side of your spine, the soulsteel protrusions designed to slam into your spine and overload your nervous system give you cause to wonder why you've never felt any deleterious side-effects from the use of the charm.
After further careful study, you note the existence of a regenerative mixture tied into the machines workings that likely heal any damage as its done. You wonder, briefly, if the first implementations of the charm did not have the regenerative mixture, but decide to not go down that path now…
***
4th Dexterity Augmentation
… moonsilver lines tracing parallel, razor-thin lines across your skin in a semblance of a second, shimmering skeleton…
4th Stamina Augmentation
… scales of dull white jade forming dense padding on the undersides of your limbs and covering your spine along your back…
4th Intelligence Augmentation
… hidden mostly by your hair, a web of starmetal filaments glimmers as it draws essence around your skull and focuses errant brain waves back into your mind…
2nd Perception Augmentation
… orichalcum threading throughout your brain's sensory lobes hums with potential power…
***
Shard of Perfect Administration
Following the eight spider leg-like antennae that now rest folded-up in the sides of your skull, you trace the dense cords comprised of all six magical materials as they burrow into your brain and meet a small node where your Corona Gemma would have resided.
Not for the first time, you wonder at the lab technicians' reactions to your CAT scan's results.
As you study the device, you mentally blink at the recognition: it appears to be a smaller, more streamlined version of your Technomorphic Integration Engine, which explains the enormous passive drain on your essence reservoirs just to keep the charm attuned to your body.
Focusing your study of the machine even further, you begin to mentally probe it in an attempt to discern its contents - keeping your guard up in the event of the charm's accidental activation. Perhaps if you treat it similar to the charm it mimics, you can unlock…
***
A shifting sea of gears, wires, pistons and servos stretches out beyond the visible horizon, undulating with a rhythm indicative of a… pulse. Mundane and magical materials course through ocean of metallic flesh, the radiating a rainbow hue of essence even in this lightless void of Elsewhere.
Before you have a complete moment to comprehend the nature of the bizarre… creature… filling your gaze, your mind explodes with a chaotic mass of sensations, images, memories…
HOST
Multi-hued, octopus-looking creatures tear each other apart in the streets between sky-darkening towers formed of living trees, each exhibiting mixtures of powers that remind you of a parahuman battle-royale…
CONTROL
Four large, upright lizards - reminiscent of komodo dragons - dance around the corpse of a fifth, which they have stripped of its crude bronze armor and roughly-hewn grass clothing so that they may burn the corpse; a reminder to the other gangs of their superiority…
HOST … CONTROL
A fog falls over a canyon filled with insects the size of small cars, each adorned in fantastic battle regalia that would drive you to wonder at the sheer wealth of material needed to adorn the thousands - no, millions - of combatants as they tear each other limb-from limb…
CONTROL … POWER
… until, swinging in from the higher branches, a night-black octopus-creature drops down in the midst of the battle. Raising four of its arms into the air, the seventeen other creatures around it halt mid-motion…
CONTROL … ORDER
… when they freeze, the air in the throats collapsing, as a lizard armored, dressed, and colored similar to the deceased strides forward out of the nearby shadows, a clawed hand extended in a choking motion…
CONTROL … HOPE
… which stops, suddenly, all at once. The horizon of living combatants pause, silent and unmoving, for long seconds before turning in unison to kneel towards a nearby mountaintop - upon which a gilded queen floats on wings of gossamer…
CONTROL … CYCLE
An aquatic planet that birthed a species of sapient cephalopods explodes in a spectacular nova, propelling massive creatures of flesh into the stars beyond…
A desert planet that gave rise to a fierce race of lizard warriors detonates in a thunderous cataclysm, ejecting massive creatures of twisting flesh out into the fathomless void…
A planet covered in jungles and canyons upon which evolved a dozen species of enormous, tribal insects bursts apart from the inside, launching massive creatures of formless flesh in their search for a new planet…
***
Jerking awake, you desperately attempt to control your racing heartbeat as your breath hitches in your chest and refuses to obey your diaphragm.
Your eyes darting to the other costumed passengers of the van, you note that they all appear to have turned to watch you at some point in your meditation.
Noticing your wide, panicked eyes, Battery quickly places a reassuring arm on your right shoulder.
"Weaver? Are you- ok, just breathe. Breathe… in… out… there, that's good."
Your lungs managing to pump air again, you dutifully follow Battery's instructions and cycle through some of your low-rhythm breathing exercises as your heartbeat slowly stops beating a cannonade in your eardrums.
Just… what was that? Was that - is that - massive mechanical creature your… Shard of Perfect Administration? Was it talking to you? Not directly, at least - it almost felt like it was trying to use a mixture of sounds from your own memory to piece together words and sensations like speech…
Is that what you've been struggling against all this time? A battle of wills against a creature with a horizon? But yet… it didn't feel malicious, just…
… desperate, dreading some cataclysmic…
… massive creatures of formless flesh…
You try to hold on to the images, the feelings, the memories… but they slip through your mental fingers as you try harder and harder to hold onto them.
All except for three names. Three sub-modules.
Vertebral Organization Algorithms.
Spirit Attunement Generators.
Sapient-Coordinating Relays.
Despite the proximity to lunch time, you no longer possess an appetite.
***
Clarity Gains: 1 Point
Clarity Losses: 1 Point (Virtue Channel [1] + Compassion Roll [1])
Net Clarity Change: -1 Point
New Temporary Clarity Rating: 4 Points (-1 to non-Intimidation Social Rolls, -1 to Compassion Rolls)
SoPA Status: OFF
Intimacy: Legend (Respect) +1 Increase!
Intimacy: Aegis/Carlos (Friendship) -1 Decrease!
Bureaucracy ●●○○○ GAINED!
Bureaucracy +2 Training Intervals (2/6 Intervals)
Craft ●●●●○ GAINED!
Craft +1 Training Interval (1/6 Intervals)
Investigation +1 Training Intervals (5/6 Intervals)
Medicine ●○○○○ GAINED!
Occult +1 Training Interval (2/6 Intervals)
Presence +1 Training Interval (5/6 Intervals)
Shard of Perfect Administration
Cost: - [3m]; Mins: Essence 3, Perception 5, Wits 5
Type: Reflexive (Step 1 or 2)
Keywords: Internal, Obvious, Touch
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None
The primordial Autochthon's first attempt at converting an Entity's shard into an essence-based mechanical spirit, the former Administrator shard was an overwhelming success in almost all of the right ways. As the shard itself counted as the 'tool' of another master, Autochthon - in his dream-fugue - was stymied by his own theme of Innovation and Creation; only through completely re- and over-designing the shard into an entirely new being could the weakened primordial apply his remaining might to the task.
The resulting 'charm' - is wholly unique, unreproducible, and likely cannot be uninstalled without mentally crippling its wielder. While the charm is active by default, it requires an expenditure of [(1+Clarity)/2, round up] points of Willpower to deactivate. Furthermore, every 24 hours (or the first time it is enabled in a 24-hour period) the charm generates a point of temporary Clarity. At Clarity 5, the charm's mental influence over the wielder grows, instilling an additional -1 internal penalty to all social rolls that do not involve administration, but yields a +1 to all Mental Attribute or Conviction rolls that do. These penalties/bonuses double at Clarity 8 and triple at Clarity 10. Finally, should the charm be disabled for an extended period of time, a Temperance check will randomly occur every [Willpower - Clarity] hours to keep it off - this check can be ignored by spending a point of Willpower.
The primary effects of the charm, however, are often considered worth the trouble: Perfect control over, and understanding of, all non-sapient insectoid and invertebrate creatures within a radius of [Essence x 300] feet. The number of subjects within range of the charm does not decrease its effectiveness, as the wielder gains sufficient multi-tasking abilities to handle each and every subject of the charm as if the subject's body were the wielder's own.
Should there be sufficient charm subjects condensed in an area, 'swarm' attacks (Speed 6, damage varies) may be used through a [Wits + War] roll - these attacks do not incur a Flurry penalty. In addition, ranged attacks against targets sufficiently surrounded by charm subjects automatically gain a full Aim bonus without the need of a separate, prior action.
Submodules:
Vertebral Organization Algorithms (Essence 4, Perception 6, Wits 6)
Spirit Attunement Generators (Essence 5, Int 5)
Sapient-Coordinating Relays (Essence 5, Perception 8, Wits 8)
Cost: - [3m]; Mins: Essence 3, Perception 5, Wits 5
Type: Reflexive (Step 1 or 2)
Keywords: Internal, Obvious, Touch
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None
The primordial Autochthon's first attempt at converting an Entity's shard into an essence-based mechanical spirit, the former Administrator shard was an overwhelming success in almost all of the right ways. As the shard itself counted as the 'tool' of another master, Autochthon - in his dream-fugue - was stymied by his own theme of Innovation and Creation; only through completely re- and over-designing the shard into an entirely new being could the weakened primordial apply his remaining might to the task.
The resulting 'charm' - is wholly unique, unreproducible, and likely cannot be uninstalled without mentally crippling its wielder. While the charm is active by default, it requires an expenditure of [(1+Clarity)/2, round up] points of Willpower to deactivate. Furthermore, every 24 hours (or the first time it is enabled in a 24-hour period) the charm generates a point of temporary Clarity. At Clarity 5, the charm's mental influence over the wielder grows, instilling an additional -1 internal penalty to all social rolls that do not involve administration, but yields a +1 to all Mental Attribute or Conviction rolls that do. These penalties/bonuses double at Clarity 8 and triple at Clarity 10. Finally, should the charm be disabled for an extended period of time, a Temperance check will randomly occur every [Willpower - Clarity] hours to keep it off - this check can be ignored by spending a point of Willpower.
The primary effects of the charm, however, are often considered worth the trouble: Perfect control over, and understanding of, all non-sapient insectoid and invertebrate creatures within a radius of [Essence x 300] feet. The number of subjects within range of the charm does not decrease its effectiveness, as the wielder gains sufficient multi-tasking abilities to handle each and every subject of the charm as if the subject's body were the wielder's own.
Should there be sufficient charm subjects condensed in an area, 'swarm' attacks (Speed 6, damage varies) may be used through a [Wits + War] roll - these attacks do not incur a Flurry penalty. In addition, ranged attacks against targets sufficiently surrounded by charm subjects automatically gain a full Aim bonus without the need of a separate, prior action.
Submodules:
Vertebral Organization Algorithms (Essence 4, Perception 6, Wits 6)
Spirit Attunement Generators (Essence 5, Int 5)
Sapient-Coordinating Relays (Essence 5, Perception 8, Wits 8)
Had to break this update off early to save some for the arrival Update, as well as to get this out in time - the Dennis vote will carry over to next update, don't worry. Still gonna post an Interlude today, but after I get some shut-eye.
Also, before people flip out, please note that I was taking into account our previous vote for how to handle revealing our nature and Autobot in this update's conversation. Further refinement of that vote is below.
Much Ado About SoPA: Whoops!
[ ] My Little Controller (Friendship Is OBEY): It wants to help! Keep it on all the time, because it loves us and wants to bring Order to the world.
[ ] People Are People, Bugs Are Bugs: Keep SoPA off for heavy social activities, but otherwise leave it on for all the tactical advantages it yields.
[ ] Bug Hunt: Keep it off unless in a threatening/combat situation. Two alien consciousnesses in our heads is too many.
[ ] Write-In: Specify a plan of action!
The Word Is Out: Dragon and Legend know a lot more about us now, and the former is definitely going to be inquiring more soon - not to mention Chevalier and our new boss, Director Uriel. How do we want to handle things?
[ ] What Word?: Now that Clarity's finally going away, play dumb unless we speak with Legend or Dragon.
[ ] Mum's The Word: Keep this to your superiors only, and reinforce that this is not something you want spread around just yet as you are still figuring things out on your own.
[ ] Spread The Word: Let the fellow Wards in on the joy of being a Bullshit Magical Possibly-Communist-Aztec-Hindu Robot, as well as your superiors.
[ ] Write-In: Specify a plan of action!
Please remember to format XP Expenditures properly:
[X] ? XP - Item ●●●○○
[X] ? XP - Item (Specialization ●●○)
Last edited:
Wow, those draw backs are very harsh.
Edit from later on:
Doomlord9 said:
I think it needs to stay off until we're back down to zero Clarity. We can then reactivate it, but it needs to be switched off if we get up to Clarity 2, and then stay off until we're back down to zero.
It's incredibly useful to have active, for the massive multitasking and silk manufacture/insect breeding, but it needs to be kept under close control.
Also, people, please, please don't knee jerk vote until there's been some discussion. It hurts us almost every time.
There's almost certainly a better, middle ground than has been presented. For example, at Clarity zero, in peace time; the charm is completely manageable. It's during combat situations that it can run out of control.
It's incredibly useful to have active, for the massive multitasking and silk manufacture/insect breeding, but it needs to be kept under close control.
Also, people, please, please don't knee jerk vote until there's been some discussion. It hurts us almost every time.
There's almost certainly a better, middle ground than has been presented. For example, at Clarity zero, in peace time; the charm is completely manageable. It's during combat situations that it can run out of control.
The only turn it on for combat vote pretty explicitly means don't turn it on for crafting 24/7.Jinnt said:
Let's consider the votes:
[] My Little Controller (Friendship Is OBEY): It wants to help! Keep it on all the time, because it loves us and wants to bring Order to the world.
Obviously problematic. As that way we won't turn it off when we need to.[ ] People Are People, Bugs Are Bugs: Keep SoPA off for heavy social activities, but otherwise leave it on for all the tactical advantages it yields.
It only needs to be switched off for Social Activities at high Clarity, otherwise doing so is just a waste of Willpower and productivity, and at high Clarity turning it off wrecks our Willpower, making social combat very dangerous. One of the more suboptimal choices.[ ] Bug Hunt: Keep it off unless in a threatening/combat situation. Two alien consciousnesses in our heads is too many.
Combat situations are the ones that are most likely to see us have Clarity spikes, which means switching it on then can be self-fulfilling.[ ] Write-In: Specify a plan of action!
We need to come up with a good one of these.All the given options, are, in some obvious ways, not quite traps, but certainly sub-optimal. Look at what SoPA actually does, and what the downsides are. It becomes very problematic at High Clarity. However, when we're at zero Clarity and are having plenty of social interaction, it's absolutely fine. The way it's set up means it's safe to use during downtime, but we need to consider switching it off whenever things get stressful.
I'm thinking of:
[ ] Write-In: switch it off now, and keep it off, unless we enter combat, until we're back down to zero Clarity. Then, re-enable it right before a serious of social events. Keep it on until we go above Clarity two, then switch it off immediately, unless it's required to keep us alive. When we go back to to Clarity zero, re-enable it.
I assume the submodules let us imitate various aspects of Khepri.Z000 said:still have no clue what those name mean ?
It looks like:Z000 said:still have no clue what those name mean ?
- Control over vertebrates (instead of just bugs)
- Control over spirits
- Some kind of power relay
That's better, but the reason why they're sub-optimal, even as general principles, as that the effective use of SoPA needs to be calibrated against our current Clarity level. For example, it needs switching off when we're at high Clarity, and can be left one when we have none, in most situations.Chandra Magic said:
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
I can see wanting it off if we hit 5 or more Clarity (when the shard actually starts getting froggy with your brainmeats), but at 2? Keep in mind that we'll likely be remedying our Clarity-reducing Compassion roll problems soon, so it shouldn't be nearly as bad as it has been (Clarity shouldn't really be a problem at all, unless things go REALLY pear-shaped).
Also, you'll always have the option to stunt SoPA off (temp or perm) at any point afterwards - this is just to set a general mindset for now.
Also, you'll always have the option to stunt SoPA off (temp or perm) at any point afterwards - this is just to set a general mindset for now.
Probably because we has Industrial Survival Frame turned off.uju32 said:
Plenty of reasons to keep if off at Clarity 3+. It makes it a lot more difficult to reduce Clarity, so much so that it negates the primary method of losing Clarity we have. Virtues channels are great, but they're in a limited supply and we don't exactly have the charm tech to regain any of them. You can only lose 1 Clarity from human interaction per 24 hour period and the charm gives you 1 point of temporary Clarity per 24 hour period. It means that your Clarity track is suddenly a lot more stable and incredibly dependent on circumstance to remove. The only other method we have of losing clarity is Eidolon, and that's also in limited supply.uju32 said:
Also, right now? Going from 5 Clarity to 4 effectively negated 3 dice worth of social penalties. It's no wonder we were failing left and right socially. We had barely any dice to roll in the first place and then had an external penalty taking away what successes we did get.
- Location
- Fabulously Rainbow Ireland
[X] My Little Controller (Friendship Is OBEY): It wants to help! Keep it on all the time, because it loves us and wants to bring Order to the world.
The Word Is Out: Dragon and Legend know a lot more about us now, and the former is definitely going to be inquiring more soon - not to mention Chevalier and our new boss, Director Uriel. How do we want to handle things?
[X] Spread The Word: Let the fellow Wards in on the joy of being a Bullshit Magical Possibly-Communist-Aztec-Hindu Robot, as well as your superiors.
[X] 4 XP - Reputation (Beautiful) ●●●●○
[X] 2 XP - Integrity (Mental Trauma ●○○)
The Word Is Out: Dragon and Legend know a lot more about us now, and the former is definitely going to be inquiring more soon - not to mention Chevalier and our new boss, Director Uriel. How do we want to handle things?
[X] Spread The Word: Let the fellow Wards in on the joy of being a Bullshit Magical Possibly-Communist-Aztec-Hindu Robot, as well as your superiors.
[X] 4 XP - Reputation (Beautiful) ●●●●○
[X] 2 XP - Integrity (Mental Trauma ●○○)
I don't see why people are voting to keep SoPA switched off in social situations. We only need to do that when we have higher Clarity than we are now. The reason to switch SoPA off is because we have Clarity 4. Switching it on and off for social situations actively hurts us, as it drains our Willpower (our health bar for social combat), and means it will still prevent Clarity reduction.
tl;dr: this option is a trap
It very significantly hinders us in social situation.
tl;dr: this option is a trap
It very significantly hinders us in social situation.
At Clarity two, switching it on means we go to Clarity 3, which means you can fall into a Clarity spiral if we fail the daily roll it loose a point..Gromweld said:
Much Ado About SoPA: Whoops!
[X] Shard Training Observations: Get people you trust(namely the Wards we're closest to) to keep a record of any differences they notice in our behavior with SoPA on or off, to bring it to our attention so we can figure out a means of adapting to it's adjustments to our behavior or training the charm to be less intrusive, more acceptable. Establish a schedule of use where SoPA will remain offline for at least one whole day in every three and to keep it off for heavy social activities at higher Clarity. Ensure that it is active for patrols, or any high risk activities.
Now that we know about it, we need to acclimatize to it's influence. The Shard is apparently sentient and helpful to some degree, but if we keep it off all the time it'd never make the adjustments that we need it to. There might be more calibrations that it needs, and leaving it off means it'd never adapt and neither will we.
The Word Is Out: Dragon and Legend know a lot more about us now, and the former is definitely going to be inquiring more soon - not to mention Chevalier and our new boss, Director Uriel. How do we want to handle things?[/SIZE
[ ] Spread The Word: Let the fellow Wards in on the joy of being a Bullshit Magical Possibly-Communist-Aztec-Hindu Robot, as well as your superiors.
[x] Positions of Trust: Tell only the Wards and superiors we trust without reservation. Vista, Chevalier, Miss Militia and Armsmaster come to mind.
The word is already out. Now we're to manage how the information spreads, and keeping mute on the topic only encourages rumors to grow out of control. Take charge of putting word out and giving it positive spin.
[X] 4 XP - Reputation (Beautiful) ●●●●○
[X] 4 XP - Reputation (Beautiful) ●●●●●
More bonuses for our social rolls, but splitting it into two votes in case we can't afford it by the next update.
[X] Shard Training Observations: Get people you trust(namely the Wards we're closest to) to keep a record of any differences they notice in our behavior with SoPA on or off, to bring it to our attention so we can figure out a means of adapting to it's adjustments to our behavior or training the charm to be less intrusive, more acceptable. Establish a schedule of use where SoPA will remain offline for at least one whole day in every three and to keep it off for heavy social activities at higher Clarity. Ensure that it is active for patrols, or any high risk activities.
Now that we know about it, we need to acclimatize to it's influence. The Shard is apparently sentient and helpful to some degree, but if we keep it off all the time it'd never make the adjustments that we need it to. There might be more calibrations that it needs, and leaving it off means it'd never adapt and neither will we.
The Word Is Out: Dragon and Legend know a lot more about us now, and the former is definitely going to be inquiring more soon - not to mention Chevalier and our new boss, Director Uriel. How do we want to handle things?[/SIZE
[x] Positions of Trust: Tell only the Wards and superiors we trust without reservation. Vista, Chevalier, Miss Militia and Armsmaster come to mind.
The word is already out. Now we're to manage how the information spreads, and keeping mute on the topic only encourages rumors to grow out of control. Take charge of putting word out and giving it positive spin.
[X] 4 XP - Reputation (Beautiful) ●●●●○
[X] 4 XP - Reputation (Beautiful) ●●●●●
More bonuses for our social rolls, but splitting it into two votes in case we can't afford it by the next update.
I'd say that we should keep it on normally but turn it off at Clarity 2, as waiting until 4 means we risk getting stuck like this again.uju32 said:
Waiting till Clarity 4 is way too late. I'd say Clarity 3 at most should be the drop point, because at least then we have a bit of a buffer before hitting the worst stages and can work to get back to a sane level. Even then, I'd be more comfortable if we only regularly used it when we were at 0 or 1 Clarity, but I can see arguments for keeping it on at 2 as well.
Adding [] 2 XP - Integrity (Mental Trauma ●○○) to my vote. I still want it. Also adding the first dot of Performance.
Now to look at the submodules after that vote composition:
Vertebral Organization Algorithms (Essence 4, Perception 6, Wits 6)
-Clearly the module to expand our control to all animal life, vertebrate and inveterate, but not sentients. Birds and other animals add a less subtle control option, and greatly expands the possibilities of swarm husbandry and swarm training. Not as much tactical applications other than throwing bigger critters at enemies...unless we have a biotinker make us some upgraded monsters to wield.
Spirit Attunement Generators (Essence 5, Int 5)
-At first glance, this might only work on spirits, but we hadn't actually observed any spirits here in Nowhere. Might be a bigger factor once Essence saturation increases though, Spirits are a natural outcome of Essence after all. And we don't quite know where parahuman shards and artificial intelligences fall.
Sapient-Coordinating Relays (Essence 5, Perception 8, Wits 8)
-Hello Khepri. Even if we unlock access to it, we're damned well keeping this on the down low.
Vertebral Organization Algorithms (Essence 4, Perception 6, Wits 6)
-Clearly the module to expand our control to all animal life, vertebrate and inveterate, but not sentients. Birds and other animals add a less subtle control option, and greatly expands the possibilities of swarm husbandry and swarm training. Not as much tactical applications other than throwing bigger critters at enemies...unless we have a biotinker make us some upgraded monsters to wield.
Spirit Attunement Generators (Essence 5, Int 5)
-At first glance, this might only work on spirits, but we hadn't actually observed any spirits here in Nowhere. Might be a bigger factor once Essence saturation increases though, Spirits are a natural outcome of Essence after all. And we don't quite know where parahuman shards and artificial intelligences fall.
Sapient-Coordinating Relays (Essence 5, Perception 8, Wits 8)
-Hello Khepri. Even if we unlock access to it, we're damned well keeping this on the down low.
I really don't like Spread The Word. It loses all chance of information control, not only to the Wards but to everyone, including things like the public and like Jack Slash and the Slaughterhouse Nine.
It's probably going to make it downright impossible to sway Danny, if it isn't already too late for that. I mean, we'll be outright confirming what is making him attack us in the first place.
That part is less relevant due to us eventually getting more members in our Assembly, but the whole "Claiming to be made from a person that came from another universe with different physics who is a communist Aztec-Hindu-Robot" thing is not going to go away anytime soon.
It's probably going to make it downright impossible to sway Danny, if it isn't already too late for that. I mean, we'll be outright confirming what is making him attack us in the first place.
That part is less relevant due to us eventually getting more members in our Assembly, but the whole "Claiming to be made from a person that came from another universe with different physics who is a communist Aztec-Hindu-Robot" thing is not going to go away anytime soon.