Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)
- Thread starter LordRoustabout
- Start date
Well, It Could've Gone Worse... (AmberSlime)
Well, It Could've Gone Worse...
It was just after Joe had touched base with the Undersiders. The meeting was... frustrating. Brian and Tattletale were angling for something, but Joe couldn't figure out what. The Undersiders were having something of an internal spat due to whatever Rachel had gotten up to, and that was just making Tattletale grumpy and sour, which made her rather difficult to deal with in general. The meeting had gone on for far too long.
Nobody had yet to leave. They were all sitting around the coffee table, either waiting for somebody else to move or content to just sit there.
"Chess androids," Joe blurted out, a strange look in his eyes. Everybody else turned to look at him as he rose out of his seat.
"What?" asked Taylor, who had zoned out.
"Chess androids," Joe repeated, now sounding rather fascinated with his new idea. He made for the door.
"What?" Tattletale yelped, her power already telling her exactly where Joe was going with this.
"Chess androids, keep up! I'll see you guys later, I've got blueprints to--" the door shut, cutting Joe off.
The Undersiders looked at each other. Well, except for Tattletale, who was staring at the door with a look on her face that was somewhat fearful and mostly bewildered.
"Should... should we try and stop him?" Taylor asked, still unsure of what exactly just happened.
"Miss Militia?" asked Director Piggot, who was standing in front of a window looking out into and over the Bay.
"Yes, Director?" replied Miss Militia, who was standing behind and to Director Piggot's right.
"Miss Militia, there appears to be a gigantic chessboard hovering over the bay."
"I can see that, Director."
"Miss Militia?"
"Yes, Director?"
"Find Dauntless and Triumph and have one of them lift you over there."
"Yes, Director."
"And bring along Armsmaster while you're at it!" Director Piggot called as the door swung open.
"Yes, Director," Miss Militia called back as the door swung shut.
After about four hours of work, it was finally ready. The Chess Androids and the associated set were ready for their first match. Of course, Joe would've loved to have somebody to play with, but he didn't know many people who were good at chess, and he wasn't really fond of Tattletale at the moment. The A.I. he had written to play as the opponent would have to--
"Ahem."
Joe turned around, and was surprised to find Miss Militia, Armsmaster, Dauntless, and Triumph standing behind him, all geared up. He was lucky he remembered to put on his costume.
"Oh, hey." Joe gave the quartet a wave. "What're you guys doing out here?"
While he only saw Miss Militia do so, Joe was fairly certain all four Protectorate members were raising an eyebrow.
"Why did you build a giant hovering chessboard?" Armsmaster asked in lieu of providing an answer.
"To play chess with my so-sophisticated-they-might-as-well-be-alive Chess Androids," Joe explained, prompting Miss Militia's second eyebrow to join her first in elevation.
A silence hung in the air.
"They bleed!" Joe said excitedly.
Another silence passed.
"Black or white?" Armsmaster asked, to the shock of the other Protectorate members present.
"White!" Joe responded.
[The chess game demonstrated here takes place. Remember, Joe is playing white.]
Humiliated. Armsmaster was just humiliated, thrashed, demolished, destroyed, killed, slayed, and quite possibly, bamboozled. Did Apeiron even know how to play chess, or was this a clever ruse, faking stupidity to salt the wound? Was this some form of petty vengeance for a slight?
It was possible, a tiny part of Armsmaster's brain noted, that Apeiron was just very bad at chess and his bewildering moves threw Armsmaster off-course. But since when was Occam's Razor ever correct?
Armsmaster slumped to the floor, the fallen Black Chess Androids dotted to-and-fro. He failed. He failed his soldiers. Every time one of the Pawns got caught, he felt a little part of him die. Did Apeiron have to make the Pawns look like adorable little girls?
Oh, well... at least he got some data to help with his predictive algorithms...
"...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
Wait, was that screaming?
"aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Vista charged towards Apeiron, spear held in front of her. Even the Enigmatic Artificer seemed surprised by the Shaker's appearance. The spear poked up against Apeiron's armor and bent. Vista, due to the way she held the spear, got jammed in the stomach by the implement, and she bent forwards onto it, her legs losing their grip on the ground. The spear sprung back, and Vista was launched into the air like some sort of cartoon.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."
the splash sounded quite distant.
"HOW DID SHE GET OVER HERE?" Miss Militia called in a rather bewildered, somewhat panicked voice. Dauntless swooped down towards the ocean, intent on recovering Vista.
Well, that was strange. Where was he?
Ah.
Well, at least he got some data for his predictive algorithms...
psst hey LR could you maybe give this omake here a threadmarking i'd appreciate it thnx
It was just after Joe had touched base with the Undersiders. The meeting was... frustrating. Brian and Tattletale were angling for something, but Joe couldn't figure out what. The Undersiders were having something of an internal spat due to whatever Rachel had gotten up to, and that was just making Tattletale grumpy and sour, which made her rather difficult to deal with in general. The meeting had gone on for far too long.
Nobody had yet to leave. They were all sitting around the coffee table, either waiting for somebody else to move or content to just sit there.
"Chess androids," Joe blurted out, a strange look in his eyes. Everybody else turned to look at him as he rose out of his seat.
"What?" asked Taylor, who had zoned out.
"Chess androids," Joe repeated, now sounding rather fascinated with his new idea. He made for the door.
"What?" Tattletale yelped, her power already telling her exactly where Joe was going with this.
"Chess androids, keep up! I'll see you guys later, I've got blueprints to--" the door shut, cutting Joe off.
The Undersiders looked at each other. Well, except for Tattletale, who was staring at the door with a look on her face that was somewhat fearful and mostly bewildered.
"Should... should we try and stop him?" Taylor asked, still unsure of what exactly just happened.
"Miss Militia?" asked Director Piggot, who was standing in front of a window looking out into and over the Bay.
"Yes, Director?" replied Miss Militia, who was standing behind and to Director Piggot's right.
"Miss Militia, there appears to be a gigantic chessboard hovering over the bay."
"I can see that, Director."
"Miss Militia?"
"Yes, Director?"
"Find Dauntless and Triumph and have one of them lift you over there."
"Yes, Director."
"And bring along Armsmaster while you're at it!" Director Piggot called as the door swung open.
"Yes, Director," Miss Militia called back as the door swung shut.
After about four hours of work, it was finally ready. The Chess Androids and the associated set were ready for their first match. Of course, Joe would've loved to have somebody to play with, but he didn't know many people who were good at chess, and he wasn't really fond of Tattletale at the moment. The A.I. he had written to play as the opponent would have to--
"Ahem."
Joe turned around, and was surprised to find Miss Militia, Armsmaster, Dauntless, and Triumph standing behind him, all geared up. He was lucky he remembered to put on his costume.
"Oh, hey." Joe gave the quartet a wave. "What're you guys doing out here?"
While he only saw Miss Militia do so, Joe was fairly certain all four Protectorate members were raising an eyebrow.
"Why did you build a giant hovering chessboard?" Armsmaster asked in lieu of providing an answer.
"To play chess with my so-sophisticated-they-might-as-well-be-alive Chess Androids," Joe explained, prompting Miss Militia's second eyebrow to join her first in elevation.
A silence hung in the air.
"They bleed!" Joe said excitedly.
Another silence passed.
"Black or white?" Armsmaster asked, to the shock of the other Protectorate members present.
"White!" Joe responded.
[The chess game demonstrated here takes place. Remember, Joe is playing white.]
Humiliated. Armsmaster was just humiliated, thrashed, demolished, destroyed, killed, slayed, and quite possibly, bamboozled. Did Apeiron even know how to play chess, or was this a clever ruse, faking stupidity to salt the wound? Was this some form of petty vengeance for a slight?
It was possible, a tiny part of Armsmaster's brain noted, that Apeiron was just very bad at chess and his bewildering moves threw Armsmaster off-course. But since when was Occam's Razor ever correct?
Armsmaster slumped to the floor, the fallen Black Chess Androids dotted to-and-fro. He failed. He failed his soldiers. Every time one of the Pawns got caught, he felt a little part of him die. Did Apeiron have to make the Pawns look like adorable little girls?
Oh, well... at least he got some data to help with his predictive algorithms...
"...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
Wait, was that screaming?
"aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Vista charged towards Apeiron, spear held in front of her. Even the Enigmatic Artificer seemed surprised by the Shaker's appearance. The spear poked up against Apeiron's armor and bent. Vista, due to the way she held the spear, got jammed in the stomach by the implement, and she bent forwards onto it, her legs losing their grip on the ground. The spear sprung back, and Vista was launched into the air like some sort of cartoon.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."
the splash sounded quite distant.
"HOW DID SHE GET OVER HERE?" Miss Militia called in a rather bewildered, somewhat panicked voice. Dauntless swooped down towards the ocean, intent on recovering Vista.
Well, that was strange. Where was he?
Ah.
Well, at least he got some data for his predictive algorithms...
psst hey LR could you maybe give this omake here a threadmarking i'd appreciate it thnx
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I was assuming that the third example was a attempt to keep assistance out of The Bay and that the second example was in service of that. Everyone being forced to keep their eyes on Brookton but in a way that wears out their ability to judge the importance of what they're seeing.
BagFullOfLizards
Some bag, mostly lizards
- Location
- A bag
"My God…"
"What?"
"Apeiron's done something we never could have predicted."
"What, again? No, no, it doesn't matter, what did he do this time?"
"He gave Leviathan pants."
"…What?!"
"And a cute little hat."
"…"
"His water echo is wearing one too."
"I don't-"
"So dapper…"
"Chubster, are you OK? I repeat, are you OK, Chubster?!"
"Barely! What the hell happening!?"
"You've been hit by-"
"What? Dragon! You're cutting off!"
"Repeat, you've been struck by-"
"What!?"
"AN ENORMOUS WAVE!!!"
"DhoW!"
- Pronouns
- He
Joe is a citizen from Earth Bet. He knows his world is slowly dying to the 3
How much is the real question. Even if Joe only use his healing technology instead of directly fighting (by fear of the consequences if he kills Levi), he'll make a massive difference in the survival rate of other parahumans.
I'd argue no, no false positive, as it would run contrary to the intent behind the perk. It's a free perk that is there to convince plot devices (like Contessa) to leave you alone so that you can build up in peace. A kind of grace period if you want.
1) That very much depends on what they ask of PtV. Honestly, Cauldron seems to be relying on Coil for now.
2) I expect Cauldron to get a wake up call as soon as Apeiron do something that prove that the "do nothing" precog was wrong. Like, dunno, attacking Coil.
By the time Cauldron will enter in conflict with Apeiron (if they enter in conflict at all), they will know enough to not screw up too badly.
- Location
- Deep inside the sand
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Alright. Let's see what Arbiter got here. Her power is and I cite:
So Apeiron's nearest circle is almost no threat but will respond if provoked. Pretty sure that's the Celestial Forge with anti-thinker equipment.
Next after that is orange. I'm on the fence if the Undersider is calculated as one group or if they are split into 2 or more groups. But if they count as a single group then they should be the orange one.
Next is the red one. Apeiron isn't really 'close' with anyone after his own team and the Undersiders but it could be Coil. After all they are only seperated by a single layer of the Undersiders. This also fits as Coil is vindictive and have enough plans to make his enemies burn.
Next one is yellow. This is a group I'm unsure about who could fit in. They must be less dangerous than Coil & Undersiders. It could be Travelers but they should be either orange or red, not yellow. But the travellers are not at all close to Apeiron so they can't be 'higher' up in the list.
I came up with another yellow representation. Chen is one of the people Apeiron is close too. So it's probably Chen that her riot sense is pinging on and not Travelers.
An alternative way to look at this is if Workshop team is blue, Lithe is orange, Undersiders is red and finally Coil is yellow. The problem with this is that Apeiron named their group with Lithe so she shouldn't be excluded and that Lithe also has her own anti-thinker trinket.
Thoughts?
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- Pronouns
- He
Do Dragon count as "close to Apeiron" ? She could be your yellow.
I remember
I don't think so, they've only interacted like once or twice IIRC, and it was mostly professional. And she isn't really close to Apeiron so I'd say that they hold goodwill towards each other rather than they're close
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Aisha has also been more conscientious of communicating her intentions with Joe before doing anything, so her play would follow closely aligned with his, since with the added responsibility heaped upon her she has low interest in being a loose cannon, esp. with how that went last time.
It does say something when Aisha feels more trustworthy and communicative of their intentions / activities than her brother. I was about to drop the closest comparison to a main character, but Taylor is notorious non-communicative so it wouldn't be appropriate.
Anyway, Aisha would just fall under the same smart umbrella of Anti-Thinker protections Joe cast on the CF, which would be "we are not a problem unless Anti-Precog makes it advantageous to us for you to think we'd be a problem".
Which I'm still not sure how it works, but all I can think of is that a properly paranoid Cape organization would cross reference different Thinker readings, and then build a psychological profile on the different players, and the TYPE of information different Thinkers give in terms of Precog differs greatly. So different results would have to come out depending on how the question is phrased or the type of data-sets your power is working from based on what you already know to be the case.
So the Anti-Thinker protections have to include a degree of awareness with regards to the person performing the Divination, and it would be classified as Divination because Shard powers are Magical Effects.
Meaning the answer that the Shard feeds the Host is always whatever Joe would want supplied to that Host on a subconscious level, or there would be some severe cracks pretty quickly.
Unless they're basically just Mindblank non-answers, in which case people should cotton on pretty soon as soon as Apeiron makes a completely unprovoked big play which interferes with everyone's plans, but that was already inevitable due to the fact that Thinker indications stated "no problem from Apeiron until X" and X and anything X-like hadn't even happened yet.
It does say something when Aisha feels more trustworthy and communicative of their intentions / activities than her brother. I was about to drop the closest comparison to a main character, but Taylor is notorious non-communicative so it wouldn't be appropriate.
Anyway, Aisha would just fall under the same smart umbrella of Anti-Thinker protections Joe cast on the CF, which would be "we are not a problem unless Anti-Precog makes it advantageous to us for you to think we'd be a problem".
Which I'm still not sure how it works, but all I can think of is that a properly paranoid Cape organization would cross reference different Thinker readings, and then build a psychological profile on the different players, and the TYPE of information different Thinkers give in terms of Precog differs greatly. So different results would have to come out depending on how the question is phrased or the type of data-sets your power is working from based on what you already know to be the case.
So the Anti-Thinker protections have to include a degree of awareness with regards to the person performing the Divination, and it would be classified as Divination because Shard powers are Magical Effects.
Meaning the answer that the Shard feeds the Host is always whatever Joe would want supplied to that Host on a subconscious level, or there would be some severe cracks pretty quickly.
Unless they're basically just Mindblank non-answers, in which case people should cotton on pretty soon as soon as Apeiron makes a completely unprovoked big play which interferes with everyone's plans, but that was already inevitable due to the fact that Thinker indications stated "no problem from Apeiron until X" and X and anything X-like hadn't even happened yet.
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- Pronouns
- He
Yes, it's a non-answer. Here's the actual text (from chapter 57 Crunch time):
And yeah, it'll explode as soon as Joe do something major (like taking down Coil).
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The biggest irony about Arbiters reading is that it is actually an accurate reading. Because even despite Joe's anti-thinker program, his intentions towards the PRT and the general public is just that. Do nothing unless provoked. And I'm assuming Arbiter is using that reading on behalf of the PRT and general public, not villains.
Could the other yellow perhaps be Accord?
Could it be his family? They are the ones who have caused terrific psychological damage on Apeiron.
His family could be the yellow. They are associated with him but not close.
BagFullOfLizards
Some bag, mostly lizards
- Location
- A bag
I'm not sure it will explode. It depends on how confident the major players are in their thinkers. After all, there are two explanations why Joe would take down Coil. One is that their thinkers are wrong, but the other is that Coil did something to provoke him and they don't know what.
"Close" doesn't need to mean in a positive context though.
- Location
- U.S.
Who want's to now refer to @LordRoustabout by their new cape name Plotblocker from now on?
Dancingrage
On a crash course with the big time.
- Location
- On The Road, USA
Oh, you forgot, it seems, when Lord would drop a 40k chapter on us weekly or bi-weekly?
NaNoWriMo, last I checked, is 50k words in a month, and I know I've seen him drop 2-3x that monthly myself.
On Chubster, I do believe Lord has outdone himself yet again. Bringing a character to life isn't an easy task to begin with, but putting one together like he did with Chubster, doing it right, and also showing us elements as well, the whole 'beating Alexandria in arm wrestling and getting a job out of it', showing his training by pinballing some idiot trying to rush into him, musings about the cannon-fodder Alexandria packages, all of it does well to bring Chubster from a wacky joke-named cape from canon who had just about everything happen to him (I've seen this guy go from an easy-bake villan to someone more like the Blob from Marvel, etc.).
Lord Roustabout works his magic yet again, and a momentary character in Worm gets new life, and a more expanded perspective.
Bravo, Lord, bravo and well done!
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
Yes, and it's better to have any hypothetical 40k+ chapter drop be a joyful occasion than have it be a disappointment, both to readers and the author, whenever a 5k chap drops.
- Location
- Philippines
There is a reason why LordRoustabout has been pushing for consistent updates.
Because inconsistent updates is how you get dead fics. If you write inconsistently, that's how you lose the spark that started the story going in the first place. That's why LordRoustabout tempered down on the update, with shorter but more consistent updates. Early on, especially during the start of the lockdown like this fic had when LordRoustabout had lots of time in his hands, it made sense that the updates were much longer and much faster. Because that's when a writer has their best condition for writing. He had time in his hands after all, and the inspiration was fresh. Of course he could write more.
Now though, Lord is a lot busier. The initial spark, the inspiration might have tapered off to a steady flame. A flame that could die out, if not managed and maintained properly.
What some people are asking risks two things: 1) If LordRoustabout forces himself to be consistent and with long chapters, then he runs the risk of burnout, as well as some personal cost to himself due to his time that could've been spent doing RL things being put into this work. Both of which, could mean an immediate death for the fic. 2) The other possibility, where LordRoustabout doesn't keep things consistent but releases long chapters anyway, has a much lower risk of burnout but another issue arises. Once you start skipping weeks for updates, pushing yourself to keep writing starts getting more and more difficult. It becomes easier to make excuses to skip updates. The author starts to procrastinate. In the end, you still get a dead fic, except this time the document has an unfinished chapter that has "normal" length but would never be published because it was not a "large" update.
That's why LordRoustabout has been keeping to his schedule and cutting the chapters if need to be. Because even if it leads to cliffhangers like this chapter has, at least it keeps the fic alive by providing consistency.
Edit: Sorry, misinterpreted your post. But the point remains, for those wondering.
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- Location
- Philippines
"What do you mean the First Flame burned out? And here I thought my world was a hellhole. Time to make a permanent replacement, this time without sacrificing lives or turning people into monsters."
Or at the very least, if Joe is going to sacrifice a soul, he would damn sure make that soul count.
The idea of Joe going to various different settings and comparing how bad they have it to Earth bet is kinda chuckle-worthy.
I don't know if this has been asked yet, but since Joe has the Armsmaster perk (Miniaturization and Efficiency), can he intentionally blackbox his tech? As in make his technology hard to reverse-engineer like other Tinker Tech?