- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Man, the eventual reveal to Crystal is going to be fraught.
Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)
- Thread starter LordRoustabout
- Start date
So one thing that came to mind, relating to Aisha's Shield World. Is that Joe put a lot of emphasis on making it a nice place, and last update he balked at giving every parahuman their own to shield them from Broadcast.
But Joe doesn't have to make these places livable. The idea is that any power that lacks the range or power to hit someone through a planet, just no longer works on people with these shield worlds. Joe should be trivially able to build up the mass needed to block Broadcast even just throwing out masses of water in pocket universes. So it's ultimately just an issue of building them fast enough to be available before the confrontation.
But Joe doesn't have to make these places livable. The idea is that any power that lacks the range or power to hit someone through a planet, just no longer works on people with these shield worlds. Joe should be trivially able to build up the mass needed to block Broadcast even just throwing out masses of water in pocket universes. So it's ultimately just an issue of building them fast enough to be available before the confrontation.
Remember that Planet Aisha was a nearly week-long project for Joe even as powerful as he is now, and it is also a Named artefact. Between the spiritual energy expense (that he can only recharge with genuine real-world social interaction), the several-day build-time (even with the suggested cut-backs), and the fact that the Nine are going down sometime in the next 12-24 hours, he just doesn't have the time to build the *checks notes* several million required copies, nor go Full Santa and deliver them overnight.
So he needs a different solution.
My preference is just one pocket-world, and put Broadcast on it where it is far enough away to be out of contact. Give it a relay crystal so it can seem to still be connected, but maintain control of the data flow so the Forge can redact or alter its communications.
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Or he could do something to Broadcast instead to cut it of from other powers. His only link right now is to Jack, so if they can fake the "all is good" signal from him to other shards, they can cut him of or even kill Broadcast with no real fanfare.
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"Hey, Aisha? We've still got a few call beads — want to try finding out what happens when Jack's Passenger forgets that he exists?"
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
No need to wonder, I'm sure Tetra has already poured herself a shot.
CF is precog immune, Joe specifically has fiat protection from Worm based Thinker powers. March's shard wouldn't know to avoid the weekend.
Love it when a plan comes together.
You ready to marry into the family now Joe?
You ready to marry into the family now Joe?
- Pronouns
- He/Him/Whose
Honestly my favorite chapter recently. I've been getting a little burnt out on power expansion- it's mostly several paragraphs of slight improvements or ways to do things he could already do, usually- but the social aspect of the story really shines
Edit. Phone typos
Edit. Phone typos
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Honestly, I think it would be fairly amusing if right before they enacted whatever plan they have against the 9, members of the forge simply approached each of the remaining powers in the city and simply told them, "Don't do anything fucking stupid for the next 30 minutes. You'll understand why when we're done, and you don't want to be associated with helping the people we'll be bringing down. Yes, even you, Butcher."
See, while I was fine with joking about it previously, that's going to be pretty damn harsh. It wasn't his intention, but he did play a big role in the current fuckup that is New Wave family politics and such. I mean, it wasn't his fault directly, but he did more or less set things in motion. I could see Crytal being pretty torn up about that if she ever learns about his cape activities.
March isn't exactly firing on all cylinders anymore regardless.
The degree to which Joe has already lied to Crystal will make it very difficult to build a stable relationship. Even after he unmasks, and assuming he gets some slack for the necessary lies for that, it will still be apparent that he's been far more dishonest than mask-preservation requires and that will taint everything.
I would say there's no way that Joe makes that date, but it would be even better if a crisis happens during it. A part of me thinks the whole buildup with all the other organizations in the city is just a red herring for a surprise endbringer attack. There are too many key players in the city or heading to the city.
And yeah, agree with the poster above. The step-mom line alone would be enough to taint any romance. It's going to seem super manipulative and the whole "related to Gods" reasoning is ridiculous. No one would believe that.
On the other hand, Joe is hot as fuck. Just look at all those social experiments and real-world examples of women that just don't give a fuck. Like that one criminal who became a model, or that guy that posted on tinder with fake hot profile pics but wrote that he was a convicted sex offender in his profile. I can only imagine the halo effect of a supernaturally hot person.
And yeah, agree with the poster above. The step-mom line alone would be enough to taint any romance. It's going to seem super manipulative and the whole "related to Gods" reasoning is ridiculous. No one would believe that.
On the other hand, Joe is hot as fuck. Just look at all those social experiments and real-world examples of women that just don't give a fuck. Like that one criminal who became a model, or that guy that posted on tinder with fake hot profile pics but wrote that he was a convicted sex offender in his profile. I can only imagine the halo effect of a supernaturally hot person.
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I think Carol being Carol is actually helping him here. Crystal sees that Carol is completely wrong and possibly insane, and also that Carol is obsessed with Apeiron being the Bad Guy. Crystal doesn't want to be wrong, or insane, so believing the opposite to Carol is subconsciously going to seem pretty attractive.
Throw in a recording of the actual conversation he had with Amy rather than the derived copy pieced together through an interview with a distressed teen under a polygraph…
Until they step into his literally divine realm, gain the palpable benefit of simply being there, and he then relaxes his shapeshift.
Remember his base form is now made of clay-like pseudoflesh, covered in dragon scales from the waist down, and of a height to look Leviathan in the eye. Before he merges with his shadow-transformer body.
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Cosmic
Novel Addict
- Location
- Library Nexus
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
While I do agree that the Apeiron identity reveal will come with some drama mainly due to the link with the New Wave fiasco for Crystal, I think "being Apeiron" by itself will overshadow a lot of things. Don't forget that any identity reveal with be after the S9 takedown and uplift.
As for the divine stepmother thing, it's definitely ridiculous at face value, but I seriously doubt that'd be the first or even one of the first things mentioned. There'd be a whole lot of questions and at least with proper communication, things will resolve themselves.
As for the divine stepmother thing, it's definitely ridiculous at face value, but I seriously doubt that'd be the first or even one of the first things mentioned. There'd be a whole lot of questions and at least with proper communication, things will resolve themselves.
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
"I can't believe you lied to me!"
"About my step-mother? Babe, I can explain-"
"No, you're ripped, of course I know that Aphrodite is your stepmother. I'm talking about everything else!"
Just say "my stepmother" is an inside joke about one of my thinker abilities.
All Joe needs now for the date is to be "lucky" enough to have a band pull out or be unable to perform at the last minute, forcing him to go onstage and serenade Crystal. I imagine that after that alot would be forgiven.
As to how to handle the "stepmother" revelation, I think the key to having Crystal not freak out about it would be to introduce her to his "stepmother" before he tells her his parents are still together. I think Joe may want to come out about being Apeiron rather early in their relationship. After all he has defences in place regarding revealing his identity and will want Crystal to know what she is getting into. He can explain his powers, like how he is the "child" of Hephaestus, and take her to his "stepmother's" shrine. He can later reveal that his real parents are still together but his family situation was still bad enough to cause him to trigger. I think showing that he was telling the truth from a certain point of view and that he has his own family drama would take a lot of the sting out of his initial "lie" to her.
As to how to handle the "stepmother" revelation, I think the key to having Crystal not freak out about it would be to introduce her to his "stepmother" before he tells her his parents are still together. I think Joe may want to come out about being Apeiron rather early in their relationship. After all he has defences in place regarding revealing his identity and will want Crystal to know what she is getting into. He can explain his powers, like how he is the "child" of Hephaestus, and take her to his "stepmother's" shrine. He can later reveal that his real parents are still together but his family situation was still bad enough to cause him to trigger. I think showing that he was telling the truth from a certain point of view and that he has his own family drama would take a lot of the sting out of his initial "lie" to her.
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
That's just the nature of capes not in New Wave.
How many times do capes lie to peoples' faces about details where their two lives intersect? All the time.
Crystal should be mature enough to understand that, if Joe ever outs himself to her.
Cosmic
Novel Addict
- Location
- Library Nexus
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
The employee thing was an old plan that has long since become obsolete. Joe now also has plenty of alternative options including faking being a freelance programmer or other self-employed jobs.
The secret identity thing is cape 101 even if the New Waves are open capes. It'd be dumb for Crystal to take issues with Joe employing secret identity 101 of keeping your cape relationship connections separate from your civilian ones.
That's not even getting into the multiple reasons why compared to other capes, Apeiron's civilian identity being kept secret is not only vital but also expected. Again, I don't think Crystal is going to take issue with the hiding of the identity itself which is why she's not gonna to be too upset that Joe didn't reveal his connection to these high profile individuals (Garment and her team) especially during the gala charity event.
The drama is pretty much entirely more of Apeiron and the New Wave fiasco. After getting over the shock of the reveal (mostly due to the sharp contrast between civilian Joe and post-S9-demise/uplift-in-progess Apeiron), I believe Crystal will feel like she finally has a chance to ask questions such as on the original Amy convo.
Also, it was Crystal who approached and invited Joe. That will be a point in Joe's favor compared to if he was the one to seek out Crystal.
Jordisk
<Unverified N00B>
- Location
- Blind Eternities
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Blood Artisan Plus, the ability the Joe has yet to get but could feel a "slot" for in his most recent power, will allow for such a thing.
- Location
- Brazil
Considering that we are talking about Apeiron, that doesn't explain much, he could easily fake all of it in a lot of different ways to manipulate events to go the way he wants, but then again that's Carol's point of view, I doubt Crystal and the rest of the New Wave will see things that way.
Bro that's just too funny, lol.
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Sure they can!
Strider (as an example) *coincidentally* teleports to right in front of them. They snag him and get him to teleport them ahead.
- Pronouns
- Him/Dude/That/Guy
Ah the U+L and Butcher plan to attack Coil's base and get access to Noelle because that's such a good idea. By then the S9 is handled and Joe has made public some of his abilities. Joe is pissed they might get his date cancelled and shuts down the whole thing in under five minutes including all perps being moved to various PRT cities across the nation.