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Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)

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Rick Pickler said:
While it's true that he could basically snap all the damage away, when he told the PRT he could get rid of the blackout zone, he also basically said that they'd have to trust him to have that much leeway over such a large part of the city, and they both knew the PRT did not trust him with that much power.

Edit: Lethe'd... I mean, who?
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Vista, literally: He is obviously holding the security of the city hostage by following the law!
 
Diver said:
Out of curiosity, why haven't Joe's dupes made something to clear the Minovsky particles out of the area and end the Blackout Zone? I know that they should be able to make something for it if even mundane scientists are able to do theoretical work on the particles already. Given the nonsense that Dupes regularly get up to in 15% time, I could see 2 or 3 generations making quick work of that.

Also, it's been a couple days, what's the guy Joe empowered with aura up to?
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He hasn't done so because it's a large enough project that Apeiron doing that kind of thing will send everyone panicking, plus if he's already doing that then why not go ahead and also deal with the conscripted civilians? Joe suggested as much to Piggot during his phone call to Weld, and the response from them was pretty clear - No.

It helps that Joe knows that it would go away by itself in time, probably faster if a storm came in and all the water dispersed the particles, hint-hint, hm, why is my Passenger reacting like that to that idea?
 
Vysirez said:
The only way brute leaping would impact the ground with the same force he used to jump is if he jumped straight at the ground. If he's jumping in an arc, all of the initial force would bleed off, and the downward impact would basically just be one gravity of falling.
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It depends on whether the brute bounces and whether landing dumps the horizontal speed all at once too. Either one makes the impact much harder.
 
LordRoustabout said:
"What about your Uncle Mark?" He asked Crystal, burying evidence of his concerns.

"I haven't seen him." Crystal said. "I mean, he hasn't come by, but nobody really has." Neil nodded. "Well, Uncle Mike has been checking in on everyone, and Eric saw him when mom sent him over to Aunt Carol's."

"Just your Uncle Mark?" He asked. Crystal nodded.

"Apparently Aunt Carol's been spending a lot of time at the office. Sleeping there some nights. But Eric said Uncle Mark was doing well." She said in an encouraging voice.
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Did Mark and Mike get switched around here a bit?
 
Wondering when Weld is going to get called in to the Apeiron Mutation Clinicᵗᵐ.

Actually, this might have already been discussed, but can Joe actually help Weld, specifically? And if so, wouldn't he be able to restore the memories of Cauldron testing?

Edit: Thank you!
 
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Bloms said:
Wondering when Weld is going to get called in to the Apeiron Mutation Clinicᵗᵐ.

Actually, this might have already been discussed, but can Joe actually help Weld, specifically? And if so, wouldn't he be able to restore the memories of Cauldron testing?
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If I recall correctly, WOG (comments made about aspects of the story by Lord Roustabout on Ao3) says that Joe's been able to fix Weld since the meeting at Somer's Rock. While I'm not sure on the restoring-memories thing, Joe can definitely fix Weld's broken shard, meaning Weld won't be permanently stuck as a metal boy anymore, have human-like senses, etcetera.
 
LordRoustabout said:
Neil didn't have good supporting powers. At least he hadn't. Not until the last week. A lifetime of careful power management, of knowing exactly how far he could push himself before he would cause more harm than good, was suddenly having to be reassessed. And all because his body was soaking up Apeiron's mystery particles like a sponge.

Lightning crackled around him as he moved through the air. Unlike normal electrical discharge, the bursts held a geometric shape, moving at sharp angles to each other, like they were being conducted by an invisible grid.

Because they kind of were. The entire problem with the blackout field could be tied to charged particles that bound themselves into an ordered arrangement. And Neil's entire power was based around charged fields bound into an ordered arrangement.

Okay, usually it was millimeters from his skin, not the mess that had been happening, but he could feel the way his power was working. Really feel it, in a way that never happened before. Or that he never paid attention to. Like moving a single joint on a pinky finger. Never considered and never practiced, until it suddenly developed unprecedented strength and overturned your entire view of the world.

Okay, it wasn't that excessive. Give him an ability like this twenty years ago and he would have thought it the most incredible thing to ever exist, but there was too much happening. Too many capes finding new applications for their abilities or breaking through limits. It was the kind of thing that was more than a little concerning, considering who had set things off.

Those were misplaced concerns. That is, he thought they were misplaced. There was no way to draw a line between every incident of a cape rising to a new level and Apeiron's actions. Not in a direct sense, at least. Still, having a suspected power tinker in the same city where that kind of thing kept happening was more than a little concerning.
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Well, that's concerning. Way back at the start, Joe's power/Shard told him that even with the entire Celestial Forge unlocked, the threat to Earth Bet (Zion/the Shard Network) would still be beyond him. More recently, we learned that was because Joe's power/Shard didn't understand how the various parts of the Celestial Forge would synergize, and that its estimations against Worm's biggest threats were based on the assumption that they'd stay static.

I think we're starting to see the reverse side of that; yes, Joe with the full Celestial Forge unlocked could probably crush canon Worm. But this isn't canon Worm, and Joe isn't the only one who can learn from the Celestial Forge. The Shards are adapting.
 
infinityDivided said:
Well, that's concerning. Way back at the start, Joe's power/Shard told him that even with the entire Celestial Forge unlocked, the threat to Earth Bet (Zion/the Shard Network) would still be beyond him. More recently, we learned that was because Joe's power/Shard didn't understand how the various parts of the Celestial Forge would synergize, and that its estimations against Worm's biggest threats were based on the assumption that they'd stay static.

I think we're starting to see the reverse side of that; yes, Joe with the full Celestial Forge unlocked could probably crush canon Worm. But this isn't canon Worm, and Joe isn't the only one who can learn from the Celestial Forge. The Shards are adapting.
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It can be (and if I recall WoGs correctly WILL BE) much worse than that. Shards adapting, sure, Endbringers IIRC at least new ones supposed to adapt to methods that killed their predecessors, if Joe nukes them with something very excessive new ones might end up being turned up to 11, that's also very bad possibility. But here's a truly horrible revelation: Joe literally has perk that confirms that yes, he is Outside Context Problem. And what purpose Zion serves? What purpose Zion misses so much that it drawn him into crippling all consuming depression?

Protecting Cycle against OCPs.

Depressed Zion is nightmare. FUNCTIONAL Zion is Death.
 
infinityDivided said:
Well, that's concerning. Way back at the start, Joe's power/Shard told him that even with the entire Celestial Forge unlocked, the threat to Earth Bet (Zion/the Shard Network) would still be beyond him.
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Hmmm, I had always assumed that Joe's shard had stumbled into/been chosen as an anchor for the greater Celestial Forge, something that I see as either fiat-backed or ROB given, and in the process had gotten raised up due to exposure to what could have been. His shard has frequently had feelings about stuff that haven't, and now probably won't, happen yet. Unless Lord Roust is doing some serious AU additions, a shard would have no way to access the stuff the Celestial Forge has been handing out.

I think that the Celestial Forge is something else, maybe even some sort of connection to the Akashic Record, that was anchored to Joe through his shard, or maybe even separately and Joe's shard is just a minor hanger on from his trigger. The changes going on to other parahumans are due to everything their shards are learning through their connections. Basically, they are rewarding their hosts for finding new data, despite the fact that Joe is the one actually providing it.

Joe's shard thought he was getting a decently powerful tinker ability that would grow, it wouldn't have any idea just how much so it assumed that he would never be able to handle Scion.
 
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LordRoustabout said:
"Emails. A couple of texts, but we haven't met up." She explained. "He's going to be at the charity event tomorrow. Asked me to come." She shifted awkwardly, somehow managing to look small despite towering over him. "I mean, Garment invited me, but those kinds of things aren't really my thing."
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Maybe she can get in contact with Apeiron here. Even a initial meeting would be good.
 
infinityDivided said:
Well, that's concerning. Way back at the start, Joe's power/Shard told him that even with the entire Celestial Forge unlocked, the threat to Earth Bet (Zion/the Shard Network) would still be beyond him. More recently, we learned that was because Joe's power/Shard didn't understand how the various parts of the Celestial Forge would synergize, and that its estimations against Worm's biggest threats were based on the assumption that they'd stay static.

I think we're starting to see the reverse side of that; yes, Joe with the full Celestial Forge unlocked could probably crush canon Worm. But this isn't canon Worm, and Joe isn't the only one who can learn from the Celestial Forge. The Shards are adapting.
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Regarding the whole "Scion is beyond the CF when full" thing, that's more the fanon passenger speaking rather than our own knowledge. Joe, as of right now, with the CF team as it currently is could beat Scion or at least stalemate him while causing almost irreparable damage to Earths all across the multiverse. Zion's a bit of a different story, but that's also the full Warrior entity.
 
Narsauce said:
He's also just depressed, and having Carol for a wife with no real means of letting loose, or any real forms of escapism for that matter, probably isn't healthy.
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I would be depressed too if Carol was my wife.

HandleWithCare said:
Yeah we haven't really talked a out it but it's clear the Forge has been fulfilling one of it's primary purposes: inspiring people.
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That's not its primary purpose, at least not in this story. The passenger want Joe to complete the Forge, but that's about it for the "Forge goal".
 
IIRC, Joe is technically not a parahuman. Asked Lord about this way back in the day and he said no, Joe is not one. This was before Joe got the Armsmaster tinker perk so he might now count but still does not have the connection to a shard.

While he did have a Corona Pollentia (can become a cape) in his brain and had a standard trigger moment, that was overwritten by the Celestial Forge at the moment of triggering. His "passenger" is supposed to be a gestalt hivemind of worm fandom which came as part of the Forge, not from a shard.

I don't know if Joe still have the Corona Pollentia in his head (at this point I've lost track of what is or is not in Joe's physical body and just go with whatever Lord says on the matter) still but for sure he does not have the Gemma that makes one an active cape.

One of the reasons why Jack Slash's power has not yet been alerted to Joe plotting against him and will bounce off Joe and return "results not found ask again later".
 
Leafy503 said:
Maybe she can get in contact with Apeiron here. Even a initial meeting would be good.
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I have this lovely vision of Gully at the charity event and being all wallflowery until Garment comes along and gives her a new wardrobe that cheers her up. Later she is relaxing and suddenly Gully finds herself alone and standing next to Lethe in full armor. Lethe tells her that yes, she is known to Apeiron and the Forge and while they have a couple things they need to finish up in town first it will not be long. Gully blinks and Lethe is gone.
 
In Lisa's last interlude she was concerned about Joe's power and rate of advancement so let's recap what has happened in the 24hrs since the last call
-became a level 2 Kardashev civilization
-discovered the slaughterhouse nine are on their way
-portals
-spent over a year in a virtual reality researching the nine and teaching tinker tech to his team
-organised a charity event
-became supernaturally lucky
-was mentally linked with a extratemporal entity
-made a deal with Uppercrust who now works for him
-more mythical craftsmanship powers
-became physically invincible
-just all the fire
-Star wars and therapy!
-was mentally linked with another significantly angrier extradimensional entity
-located the nine and have them under constant observation
-and finally the whole Monstrous Titan thing
I'm sure everything is totally under control.
 
I'm so glad to see that people are looking into what Carol is doing with Amy. Because my guess is that she's throwing Amy under the bus to try to prevent anything happening to the daughter she actually likes.

Given how fanatical Carol is probably getting about that, I'm mildly surprised she hasn't been taken in for Mastering testing. The whole issue is arising from the potential Master effects Vicky has on people who are constantly around her, and here's one of them rabidly trying to protect her from the consequences of her powers. It paints a pretty concerning picture.

MDK said:
If I remember correctly then Vicky was indeed confirmed to be Mark's daughter.
Amy most certainly claimed as such during her talk with Aperion.
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IIRC, Vicky's powers were taken as a sign that Carol was still emotionally and physically cheating on Mark with Neil, despite Mark being her genetic father. Apeiron pointed out that powers tend to spread not just to genetic relatives, but also to people that have other types of strong connections to the parahuman. And Vicky has a forcefield like Niel's instead of anything like Mark's powers, which implies that Mark was basically being shut out by Carol in favor of Neil.

Though iirc Neil's interpretation was that the strong connection was from his constant thoughts of guilt around Vicky, not anything going on with Carol. The affair had faded away after Vicky's birth.
 
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