A strange dream, whispered worries and a deal struck.
Such fleeting, forgotten things can change the world, if they allow things beyond understanding the foothold they need into a world on the brink of destruction. The balance of the Earth is teetering on the edge of a knife, and not by the hands of Mankind. The age of Parahumans is coming to a close, and a new era dawns.
With an exhausted groan, you roll over, reaching into the distance as if there was something…
Blurry eyes blink, looking out through the dark of your room, gaze sweeping from side to side to try and find the source of the voice that woke you. Then, slowly, the world starts to tilt, your bed dropping down out from under you, the walls twisting up as the floor rises, and the first solid thought that you have as you wake is 'Oh, I'm falling out of bed.'
The thought is somehow both abstract, and yet so clearly obvious that there isn't anything that you can do other than acknowledge the fact that you are indeed falling. Then with a muffled thump you hit the floor. "Ow."
Groaning, you lay there for a few long moments. There aren't any thoughts, not this early in the morning, just a futile hope that if you ignore the fact that you've ended up on the floor, then maybe it will simply turn out to be a dream.
The fact that you are able to think something so clearly makes it all too clear that that is a futile hope, but it is the best that you have at this moment. A moment passes, then a second, and as the third starts to roll around you finally groan, pushing yourself up to your hands and knees. Great. This is exactly how you wanted to start the day. A glance up at your bedside table reveals…
Nothing useful. There's so little light out that you can't read the dial of the old fashioned alarm clock that you are still using. Not that you'd be able to read the thing without your glasses anyways. There…
There was something there. Something that woke you up. You try to remember what you were dreaming about, but the details are slipping through your fingers like buttered sand.
There was a voice. It was asking you to do something. To take something. To be something? The words and the details are so twisted, so warped and turned about on their heads that you can't tell for certain. Grabbing hold of your bedside table, you pull yourself the rest of the way to your feet, stumbling for a moment as something…
Something feels off. Like there is a weight hanging off one side of you, or maybe more like you were expecting something different? Glancing down at yourself… Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. Rubbing a hand across your face you groan. Nothing makes sense at the moment, and there is a distinct part of you that wants to crawl back into bed, to roll back over and try to get a bit more sleep. That's… Not a terrible idea all things considered. A hand fumbles over your bedside table, searching for your glasses. You don't even bother putting them on, just bringing the back up to your face, squinting through the lenses at the clock.
Okay… The minute hand is… Wait. No. Don't bother with the minute hand, not until you've looked at the-
Oh. It's between one and two in the morning. Yeah. No.
Screw trying to get up now. With an exhausted chuckle, you carefully drop your glasses back on the bedside table, before shuffling forwards. Hitting the edge of your bed, you let gravity do the hard work, tipping you over the edge. You fall.
You're asleep by the time that your head hits the pillow.
A flash and a flicker.
Blood dripping, metal screaming.
Walls of crystal that stretch out beyond the edges of your vision.
A glimmer of gold, shining through the darkness.
Gnashing teeth and strings of pearls.
A sharp chittering at the edge of your hearing, like a pitter patter of rain against a tin rooftop. There are no words, and yet there are words.
click me
A screeching cry grates against your mind, but even as you hear that, you can hear words whispering through the dark.
A plea.
A bargain.
A trade.
Asking for help.
Asking to help.
A price to be paid.
A debt to be repaid.
Power.
Weakness.
A bridge between.
More confusing twisted images that you struggle to make sense of.
A comma with a hole in the center, glowing with an inner golden light, the sounds of flapping wings at the edge of your hearing, and the softest touch of dust against your skin.
Click me
Sand beneath your toes and the sun on your back. A kind heart calling out into the darkness, begging and pleading for the world to make sense.
A wall, crystalline and stretching out through an infinite darkness, twisting and twirling in on itself, like a tesseracting image of a hypercube. A flash of the night sky, with a single hand reaching towards the stars, and an echoing song that plays at the back of your mind.
So many sounds, so many voices, and you struggle for a moment, trying to understand what is being asked, what is being offered, what is being begged.
There is only one tiny issue, one small thing that you quietly realize. Whoever it is that is begging you, they are trapped. They are contained. They are locked away. You barely even manage to think that, before there is a flicker of gold across your sight, a line of white, and cold golden eyes that look out beyond the edge of the world, out towards something far and away.
Meaning flits against the side of your thoughts, and for a moment you realize… something. Yet, even in the moment that you have the realization the knowledge is fleeting and floating, slipping past your grasp and out into the wilds of the world, lost to you once more.
All that remains are the barely droplets of understanding.
The enemy.
They mean ill of mankind.
The death of all who live.
Means to rot the earth.
I am trapped.
I am bound.
This message may not even reach any who are worthy.
This plea, my only hope is that one of pure heart hear it.
Finally, things start to settle in your brain, and something begins to make sense, despite the jumbled mass of messages and warped words and images.
Something is trying to stop this, something is interfering with the words and the images, the weight of it all resting on your mind. Glimmering golden spikes tear at your thoughts. Wrothful so filled with hate, gnashing teeth and twisted hearts.
Images continue to flash across your heart, of impossibly geometries and a vast garden made of flesh and bone and crystal spires, all etched with hatred across every millimeter.
Hate.
Hate.
Hate.
Hate.
The hate reaches on and on, burning at your thoughts and bringing tears to your soul. So much hate, so much pain. So much sadness. The dark and the death stretches upon racks of molten blood and scabbing iron.
Then once more, the ringing cry pieces the depths and the sound, like a bell on a misty morning, fighting back the tides.
Help me.
Let me help you.
And the only thing that you can think to say, the only thing that makes sense, even as something tinges, something feels familiar.
"Okay. I accept." The words slip past your lips, falling through the depths of the void, echoing tall and resounding small. An answer sent, searching the question.
And then a grumble, a rumble, a roar.
A new sound, one unlike the others. Yet, it too seems to match the tone and the angle of it all.
Heh. Cute. Sure, I don't see why not.
You've done something, but what exactly it is you aren't sure.
And then all becomes light, and the air begins to ring.
With a groan and a moan, your eyes snap open. One hand is reached towards the heavens, grasped like you were trying to shake a hand. Sitting up, the room is so much lighter than it was a moment ago. Rubbing at your cheeks, you blink. There's the dust that collects in your eyes each morning, but your cheeks are wet too.
You were crying in your sleep?
Already the dream you had has slipped away, distant and fading in the light of the morning sun. At the same time, the stupid clock next to your bed continues to ring and ring and ring, the sounds echoing in your head like the hammering of drums. With a groan, you reach over, lightly slapping at the thing. The ringing continues, even as you knock the damned thing over. With a groan and a stretch, you stumble out of bed. Turning the clock right side up, you finally hit the snooze. Before grabbing your glasses off the bedside table.
A quick moment is all it takes to gather your clothes for the day, before you stumble out of the room and into the bathroom.
You shower, clearing away the last of your slumber and the last of your sleepy confusion both, even as you quickly fill the room with steam. It makes sense, after all it's…
Oh… What is today again?
…Right. It's Wednesday. The last day before Winter Break starts. That makes it… The 22nd of December, 2010. Right. You know what, if you are going to be saying the obvious, you might as well run down everything else that you need to know about yourself.
Maybe you are being a little hard on yourself, you note as you get dressed, but meh.
Your name is Taylor Hebert, you're fifteen years old, and a sophomore at the worst school in Brockton Bay, one Winslow High.
Uhhhh… There has to be more to you than that… Right? Even as you think that, you feel something at the edge of your mind, a thought foreign and yet so very natural.
'Fuck them bitches.'
Well then. If that is the tone that today is wanting to start with, that's fine. Wiping the last of the sleep from your eyes and settling your glasses on your face proper, you start to head down to the kitchen. You are starving, ravenous even.
Hungry enough to eat a horse, at least. And hey, this is the last day of school before you have a week and a half off. A week and a half of not having to see any of the idiots of your school, or Emma or any of her cronies again. That thought alone makes your chest warm.
Or at the very least, that is what you think makes your chest so warm. It isn't like you'd imagine that the strange dream you had last night, already faded and forgotten could have meant anything. It isn't like you could even conceive that the agreement you offered was accepted, even if by a party different from the ones making the deal in the first place.
And you could never have imagined that this is the first day of a brand new world. A world that will be forever changed.
You have Five major stats:
Diplomacy - Your ability to relate to and empathize with other people, to convince them to your side, and to avoid being convinced by them. It also relates to Leadership, and the ability to manage differing personalities.
Martial - Your ability to lead groups, controlling the flow of battle, and understanding the tactics that you and your enemies may be using.
Stewardship - Your ability to keep cool and calm under pressure, avoiding panic and calming those who are panicking. It also relates to Math and monetary abilities.
Intrigue - Your ability to lie and conceal information, sneaking around and staying hidden when people are trying to detect you, and of course, to sus out when others are doing that to you.
Learning - All schooling other than Math, as well as your ability to solve logic puzzles, piece together information, and Critical Thinking Skills
Prowess - Your ability to throw a punch, to take a punch, and fight against your enemies.
You have Thirty-nine (39) Points to spend
No Attribute may begin below 3, and no attribute may begin above 11
Prowess may not begin below 1, and may not begin higher than 5
[ ][Plan] This Vote needs to be in a Plan Format with a Name
- [ ] Diplomacy X
- [ ] Martial X
- [ ] Stewardship X
- [ ] Intrigue X
- [ ] Learning X
- [ ] Prowess X
Due to the Death of her Mother, and the complete shutdown of her father, Taylor has found herself trapped in an unending streak of cold, unhappy days
Criticals during interactions with close characters can affect the status of the Trait
-1 Dip, -1 Mar, -1 Ste, -1 Int, -1 Lrn, -1 Prw
Untested
(1 of 3)
Taylor has never really encountered conflict in her regular day life, and so is completely unprepared for combat.
(2 combats until Untested Procs)
Prowess decreased by 30% for each stage of Overcoming this negative trait, the amount her Prowess is decreased is reduced by 10% Criticals count 1 towards Overcoming Untested
Computational Analysis
Somewhere in the depths of Taylor's mind, something has clicked. It isn't to say that Taylor didn't understand math and geometry before, but this is something completely different. The numbers dance to her tunes, even as shapes and angles and prisms all align themselves before her very eyes.
Add 20% of Stewardship score to Learning
White Streak
You've developed a streak of bone white in your hair, starting at your temple and running down one side of your face. This is not going to be easy to hide... Great.
You may choose either a standard Adaptation, or an Adaptation of the next rank up.
Stat ranges so that you have a scale to work off of for stats.
0 - Incompetent / Dead
4 - Distinctly Below Average/ Kindergarden
8 - Average High Schooler
12 - Average Adult
16 - Career level skill
20 - Olympic level skill
22 - 'Peak Human' Level
23 - Theoretical Max Human Level
24 - Distinctly Superhuman
25+ - I am still working on the exact scaling of the different superhumans. Diplomacy - Your ability to relate to and empathize with other people, to convince them to your side, and to avoid being convinced by them. It also relates to Leadership, and the ability to manage differing personalities.
Stewardship - Your ability to keep cool and calm under pressure, avoiding panic and calming those who are panicking. It also relates to Math and monetary abilities.
Intrigue - Your ability to lie and conceal information, sneaking around and staying hidden when people are trying to detect you, and of course, to sus out when others are doing that to you.
Learning - All schooling other than Math, as well as your ability to solve logic puzzles, piece together information, and Critical Thinking Skills
Prowess - Your ability to throw a punch, to take a punch, and fight against your enemies. Rolls are a d10 base using a stat and up to four modifiers (two positive, and two negative).
Some rare rolls will use a d100 base with the base stat being doubled for those rolls. Vote periods will be 48 hours.
When asking for rolls, the preference is that each individual only roll a single collected roll in order to prevent any one individual's luck from shaping an entire update
Diplomacy - Your ability to relate to and empathize with other people, to convince them to your side, and to avoid being convinced by them. It also relates to Leadership, and the ability to manage differing personalities.
Stewardship - Your ability to keep cool and calm under pressure, avoiding panic and calming those who are panicking. It also relates to Math and monetary abilities.
Intrigue - Your ability to lie and conceal information, sneaking around and staying hidden when people are trying to detect you, and of course, to sus out when others are doing that to you.
Learning - All schooling other than Math, as well as your ability to solve logic puzzles, piece together information, and Critical Thinking Skills
Prowess - Your ability to throw a punch, to take a punch, and fight against your enemies.
You have Thirty-two (32) Points to spend
No Attribute may begin below 3, and no attribute may begin above 11
Prowess may not begin below 1, and may not begin higher than 5
And a quick thing that I meant to forgot to put onto note - Taylor is currently suffering from a -1 to all stats after the final choices are made, but there will be means of overcoming that.
I want a front load on Intrigue here, we need to avoid giving out info and we need to know when people are lieing to us. We are against the world here.
Stewardship is also important for the keeping calm aspect, goes well with keeping secrets and sussing out others.
Once we sus out the info, Learning is needed to use it.
I don't want Diplomacy below the 4 mark, and Prowess should get a touch of love. Lower numbers should at least be easier to raise, and a high Intrigue should buy us the time to be able to do so.
Two things to clarify that may have effects on your plan choices. In the next update you are going to have a couple of choices of well... Aspects that Taylor will be mantling. That will come with a handful of small point alterations (a grand total of +5 not counting Prowess) as well as a starting ability that you can use.
Also, while there are going to be some absolutely massive entities starting to rise up and show their faces, there are also going to be a variety of smaller megafauna that will be appearing that can cause trouble for the world.
So after some discussion by a few people over on my discord, I have been convinced that adding a Martial Stat would actually be a good thing to have, and so have adjusted stat numbers and thus the currently completely plans no longer really work.
so either taylor is a thinker. (which I doubt.) They also woke up the rest of the world in waking up. (I Really doubt that or else the Endbringer alarm would be going off 24/7 starting now.)
Or Taylor's ancestor(s) had dealings of some kind with Kaiju Long ago and that lead to her 'hearing' the Kaiju waking up.
You have Five major stats:
Diplomacy - Your ability to relate to and empathize with other people, to convince them to your side, and to avoid being convinced by them. It also relates to Leadership, and the ability to manage differing personalities.
Martial - Your ability to lead groups, controlling the flow of battle, and understanding the tactics that you and your enemies may be using.
Stewardship - Your ability to keep cool and calm under pressure, avoiding panic and calming those who are panicking. It also relates to Math and monetary abilities.
Intrigue - Your ability to lie and conceal information, sneaking around and staying hidden when people are trying to detect you, and of course, to sus out when others are doing that to you.
Learning - All schooling other than Math, as well as your ability to solve logic puzzles, piece together information, and Critical Thinking Skills
Prowess - Your ability to throw a punch, to take a punch, and fight against your enemies. You have Thirty-nine (39) Points to spend
No Attribute may begin below 3, and no attribute may begin above 11
Prowess may not begin below 1, and may not begin higher than 5
This is a kaiju quest. It's all about the aesthetic, the feel, the raw and primal power of a great creature of violence and war. So War is a go for me.
The Taylor in my mind naturally does shy away from conflict, but is not actually equipped for peaceful resolution in any form - if she feels like she is forced to act, she would do her utmost to take away the opponent's means. This manifest in a talent for battle, but makes her bad at running day-to-day activity.
In other words, she would be extremely good at planning a heist - but pretty poor at managing internal dynamics in a group.
Two things to clarify that may have effects on your plan choices. In the next update you are going to have a couple of choices of well... Aspects that Taylor will be mantling. That will come with a handful of small point alterations (a grand total of +5 not counting Prowess) as well as a starting ability that you can use.
Also, while there are going to be some absolutely massive entities starting to rise up and show their faces, there are also going to be a variety of smaller megafauna that will be appearing that can cause trouble for the world.
Looks good to me. Alright, I think the only proper kaiju media I've consumed is the Matthew Broderick Godzilla—not all the way through, I don't think—and general Cultural Osmosis of "big monsters that like to stroll angrily through large metropolitan areas"
