- Location
- Auckland, NZ
He was right up in her face at Sommer's Rock.
Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)
- Thread starter LordRoustabout
- Start date
In regards to Truth and Victor, it's entirely possible that Victor will come out... mostly fine? Truth hasn't interacted with a Parahuman before, have they? How're they supposed to know what to take and what not to take? Truth could take something that Victor doesn't even realize he has and doesn't impact his power's functions or capabilities, like the ability to bud or second trigger.
I'm... a bit concerned that Victor was able to gain that much, that quickly. Considering for part of the time at Somer's rock, until Lethe revealed herself holding a blade to Othala's neck, the amount of time he could have been linked to Aisha was limited.
Your story, obviously, but I think you're drastically overrating how fast Victor's power works.
Your story, obviously, but I think you're drastically overrating how fast Victor's power works.
Turbonator
Mildly Chaotic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The way I understood it was that he got just enough off of Lethe to find out alchemy exists and get an inkling of how a basic circle is made, and from there he's just been using trial and error (plus Thinker collaboration) to figure things out. It's just that, since his understanding of the science side of alchemy is pretty good, all he needs to focus on is how to translate that to a transmutation circle.
ADeshantis
King on the Chromium Throne
- Location
- United states
Oh no.
Victor isn't going to die to the Gate, I don't think. But that just makes him everyone else's problem, because if you see the Truth and survive your mastery of Alchemy is pushed to an absurd degree.
That, and having your fundamental inability to achieve the thing you were willing to trespass against God for rubbed in your face by that selfsame knowledge, is not going to be good for anyone's mental state, much less a Parahuman.
Victor isn't going to die to the Gate, I don't think. But that just makes him everyone else's problem, because if you see the Truth and survive your mastery of Alchemy is pushed to an absurd degree.
That, and having your fundamental inability to achieve the thing you were willing to trespass against God for rubbed in your face by that selfsame knowledge, is not going to be good for anyone's mental state, much less a Parahuman.
Yeah, it's a demonstration of the astounding hubris that person has, the arrogance to think they understand a person on such a fundamental, precise and intimate level that they can make a perfect replica of them.
All the while being blind to how much they simply do not know about what makes a human, nevermind the enormous complexity that is a specific instance of human.
He seeks to resurrect a dead woman he knew for a year? Two years? With a pile of chemical substrate, the fumbling beginnings of chemical and biological sciences we have along with a few stolen scraps of Alchemical knowledge he did not earn or learn the surrounding context of.
Victor would be lucky to come away unharmed from trying to make a living Sunflower from scratch, let alone a human woman.
Truth is gonna eat the space worm or something drastic will happen because when 'The' Truth meets the shard nothing pleasant can occur.
- Location
- Cardiff
Hypothetically (I know Joe wouldn't do this), would one of the souls in a bottle he has work to resurrect a person via equivalent exchange. A soul for a souls sort of thing? I know literally nothing about FMA or any of it's sequels/spin offs so I'm a bit confused about how bad this is for Victor beyond 'He's messing with things he doesn't understand nearly as well as he thinks he does'.
From what I've gathered, transmutation involving human souls summons some grinning porcelain god-figure who really likes karmic punishments and standing in front of a gate to the afterlife or something like that. He'll basically remove an arm or an entire body and also... not let the transmutation go through, I think? Just to be an arse about things, I suppose. Hence, human transmutation is bad for Victor as he'll lose a body part or two or three or... possibly the entire thing.
You are right about the whole thing about Truth never having interacted with a parahuman before.
But that still isn't going to stop IT from doing it's job properly. When a parahuman attempts to do human transmutation, which quite a few will be doing, then we get into a aspect that I don't believe has been touched upon.
What role does the Shard play in that? Will that be brought before the Gate and made to pay a price? Or will it just suddenly notice that it's connected human is suddenly better at alchemy but missing something like a limb or a proper connection to it?
And if it does get brought to the Gate then what? Will it suddenly be mutilated by being brought through it? Lose information that it had previously while also getting a mixed batch of info for alchemy?
Keep in mind that Truth, being brought forth by fiat and having made a appearance when Joe was treated by human transmutation to separate him from Tetra, is a representation of the universe along with a self reflection of the one doing the transmutation. It will ultimately come down to how that person would view their punishment for placing themselves into such a domain while also trying to teach that alchemy is just another potential devastating tool out there.
After all, while it was snarky and rude to Ed when he tried to bring back his mother and bind Al's soul to a suit of armor, it also congratulated him for learning that lesson when he was willing to sacrifice his ability to perform alchemy to bring back his brother. It can show leniency for those that break his rules when it is meant for unselfish needs and is being unfairly punished to a degree. Such as Mustang only losing his sight when it could have taken his eyes while also giving him circleless transmutation while also allowing him to restore it by using a philospher's stone when Truth could have left it to be permenate.
I've thought similar things as well.
Also, I've watched YouTube videos about information in the physics sense (so you know that makes me an expert ;P ). Something about information, like energy, cannot be created or destroyed. Just changed from one form to another. So just like you can't create energy from nothing, you can't create information from nothing. And the human brain has a LOT of information.
EDIT:
Also, which version of FMA jumpchain document did the Celestial forge reference? That could tell us if the perks are from the 2003 anime or Brotherhood. LR is pretty consistent in using details like that to determine how perks function. So we could figure out if human transmutation would create a homunculus or not.
Last edited:
If you take Victor's power, remove the permanence of the skill theft, and replace it with Glory Girl's aura, you get a pretty close approximation of Mary-Sue.
Last edited:
- Location
- Georgia
Eh, I'm gonna keep reading because it's been so interesting so far, but I do agree with some of the responses. I don't necessarily see it as a nerf, but I don't really enjoy it when the present characters can use or copy the MC's abilities. It feels like it cheapens things a bit. To me it just reminds me of fics where a insert has their abilities spread to everyone until eventually its less of an insert and more like an AU. Why even bother with an insert if the MCs abilities will eventually spread? I'm not really articulating this well, but I agree with the other comments that I don't really enjoy it when it happens.
- Location
- Somewhere
Dude did you even understand my post?
This is a story about using Jumpchain mechanics, so why would real life logic, trump the source materials logic?
Alchemy came from Fullmetal Alchemist, and so LordRoustabout uses the percentages given by the source material.
Actually, I disagree. Joe does have several ways to put the genie back in the bottle. He won't like it, but assuming people learn alchemy to the point where death and destruction is even more common, Joe might be convinced to pull some mind control/erasure technology, or some sort of effect that makes people forget about alchemy whenever they think about it.
- Location
- Georgia
Yeah, but at the same time, Joe's personality works against him there. The read I get of him is that he'd be very unlikely to mess with others minds in that way. It's possible, but I don't see it happening.
Turbonator
Mildly Chaotic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
LordRoustabout does his best to keep to what the Forge doc says, and IIRC it explicitly states Alchemy can be learned by others due to its scientific nature, so his hands are sorta tied there. Most other abilities only operate by fiat or ways that can't be outright copied, so at worst they get emulated like what Blasto did with Tetra. Joe is still going to be the foremost user of his own abilities, and if anything the government will be scrambling to stop the spread of the replicable powers since that sort of thing results in quarantine zones (like Flint).
Personally, I like this development because I find the more enjoyable OP MC stories focus more on the consequences of the MC's actions and powers, which has been a pretty big focus of this fic. Contagious powers that spread quickly are a pretty big consequence.
Last edited:
- Location
- Philippines
I think it's more that he basically got a quick at the basics of Alchemy and basically worked up from there with his own understanding of the material sciences. It would also neatly explain why he got so self-assured about it so quickly - suppose that you are someone who only had the most basic axioms of mathematics and from those you managed to derive trigonometry. It would undoubtedly an amazing achievement. It just so happens though that while Victor derived trigonometry, he has no idea that higher levels of mathematics like calculus, set theory, etc exist and thus remain unaware of some of the rules surrounding what he is planning on doing.
And now those rules involve toying with a power beyond mortal ken and too much love for literal human sacrifices. Victor, you did not think this through.
Still way above what he is likely comfortable doing, I feel. To be honest though? By the time the spread of alchemy gets to be a thing, Joe would've already started dealing with things at a worldwide scale, so at that point he might actually decide that it's something worth spreading as long as it is properly watched over and controlled. Either way, Zion would become the more salient issue before any of that.
Hm, considering the Truth's setting is literally "to know all the truths of the universe" and that's fiat-backed, I don't think the Truth will have any issues in dealing with parahumans.
Last edited:
I get that, but I think if it causes too much chaos, Joe might become convinced to erase anything related to alchemy from their minds.
- Pronouns
- She
XD I can't believe that Victor is falling for that trap
After rereading the chapter, I'm thinking that the shards wouldn't really be that interested in alchemy. Isn't there mission to stop entropy or something? Alchemy is equivalent exchange. I'm not familiar enough with the Worm canon to know if they dabble in things they know won't go anywhere.
The Stormbringer
Worm Fanfic & Crack Connoisseur
- Location
- Spaaaaace~!
I hope that, instead of taking any limbs or anything, he takes Victor's power... and all the skills he's gotten from it. It would probably leave him with lingering echoes of said skills, and he'd get Truth gifted Alchemy in return, but would it be worth it? Especially when he awakens to find a horrific creature instead of the woman he loved.
- Location
- A big rock
The shards are desperate and unimaginative enough that they would put "turn into an angry dragon" as one of their attempts at a solution to entropy. Even if they didn't actually think alchemy would help them, it would still be something to throw in the soup. Still, they probably won't be able to do anything good with it. Even if they manage to "patch" alchemy into this cycle, instead of taking at least one cycle to set up shards specialized in alchemy (doubtful they could even do it in 1 cycle if I'm being honest) it's probably going to just be copy and pasting a single alchemical "operation" instead of some kind of unique application of it. Shards are very uncreative, comprehending things is difficult for them, finding applications of alchemy would be hard for them. That's not even counting the fact that any "powers" they handed out would probably be outclassed by human skill.
This is the best twist in this fic up until now. And really, I'd honestly wish Victor to succeed, if his goal wasn't so unrealistic from his supposed point of view. I mean someone as educated as him thinks that he can replicate a brain that he never even looked at, much less scanned? Yeah, that's unlikely. He shouldn't be crazy enough to be one of those types.