- Pronouns
- He
You know Roust, have you considered switching to once every two weeks instead? That way when you're free to drop one a week its a treat and not an expectation.
Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)
- Thread starter LordRoustabout
- Start date
- Location
- Philippines
It's the hope and expectation that keeps me alive though, even when delays happen.
- Location
- Baguio City, Philippines
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's fine lord it just means we get a much longer chapter next week so it's fine
- Location
- Twelfth Plane of Torment
WITNESS ME!!!.... Cry as I wait another week for something amazing. It's not fair, why does life have to be so cruel.Take your time, we can wait and excellent stories like yours are well worth the wait.
There's loads of constructive things us diligent readers can do in the meantime! Like..............um................err...................w-well the thing is.............that is to say..................I'm thinking Mad Max, is anyone else thinking of Mad Max? I'm sure that's hell-a constructive in some form.
What?
Lagoon12002
How far have I fell down into this deep deep sea
Not even a week I think. The chapters are so content-juicy that it is easy to forget that, but yeah, the escalation in-universe is nuts.
Day 1: Pouch Alchemy and Clothing-Brute
Day 2: Gave away monomolecular knifes made out of impossibly stable material, and have a fiat-based self-repair function.
Now: Why am I able to do this? This is bullshit! This erodes the foundation of reality with it's very existance! WHY DO I NOW HAVE INFINITE POWER!?
If i remember right he was verified, using a 360 photo of a confrontation, unless it was a omake...
Yeah should be possible to make up a massive batch of medicinal herb drink, which I believe would count as tea regardless of what it was made out of but am not sure enough to just call it that, and a bottomless container to keep it in using Scientific Solutions.
For that matter I remember how Omega 3 is good for neural plasticity and learning. Alchemically enhanced Omega 3 would probably be highly effective at essentially the same thing.
Yeah that's a rather large problem is a lot of stories. Pacing can go out the fucking window.
- Location
- Germany
Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)
A minor background character from Worm gets access to a compounding series of Jumpchain crafting powers and is left to figure things out with nothing but the nature of his abilities and a vague connection to his passenger for guidance.
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
Foxy Boxes
[Verified Box]
- Location
- England
"Haven't been able to get much writing done." He says.
He's probably "only" written 10k words thus far this week.
He's probably "only" written 10k words thus far this week.
- Location
- Odessa
And what action regarding to Apeiron is she supposed to take in her situation?
1. Apeiron escalates. In a month as far as PRT is concerned Apeiron will have candy sized WMDs to throw around. To an observer Apeiron appears to be unstable enough to build a WMD and even consider using it near a city. A lot of things he did to an observer seem like absolute proof of mental issues. He just might do it and the only thing between a city and a bunch of easy to use candy-WMDs will be a judgement impaired, well-meaning tinker...
2. Apeiron is a suspected mad scientist type and if he is, he will completely go mad.
3. Apeiron spent a robot as a WMD, might have no robots at the moment. But will rebuild over time. For a government, leaving a WMD-wielding cape alone is simply not an option for a number of reasons. This becomes more relevant if you consider that Scion (a force of nature by this point) intervened in nuclear launch: USA on practice has no nuclear weapons. A government that is supposed to have 'monopoly on violence' and 'the biggest stick' has no nukes, but a cape does, which means that there is or will be external pressure onto PRT to resolve the issue. WMD is not something to take lightly and merely having one can be considered worthy of a kill order just to preserve order and sovereignty.
Each point by itself demands action. All together? It is at the point where PRT needs to handle situation regardless the risk and is on a timer, and declaring Apeiron an independent or a rogue, or just ignoring him is likely to end up poorly from political perspective alone.
Piggot HAS to act in some way that grants PRT control and she has a supposed 'window of opportunity'. And whatever her plan is, is likely reasonable (to her) strategy, like:
1. Escalating. Forcing Joe to do something stupid via pre-signed inactive kill order and once Joe does something stupid, calling triumvirate in, hopefully early, while Apeiron is reasonable enough not to use WMDs too openly.
2. Forcing Joe to come to 'negotiation table' (political reasoning, show of force)
3. Delaying action. Depending on a narrative, Piggot might use the 'loaded gun' of a presigned kill order to delay to find a better solution.
P.S. By this point I'm not sure if situation can even be resolved (not without something on the scale of endbringer intervention or 'author's will'). Government can't allow an uncontrolled WMD-making cape, Joe is beyond the point of it being possible to control him and Joe is at the point where his existence alone might overthrow some governments if information about Joe's true capabilities goes out (because it will seem like magnitude above an endbringer, like something that can resolve endbringers).
The 'kill order' is not something just directors decide upon, it is something to coordinate with other governmental departments. For all we know, PRT will get a presidential order "either he makes nukes for us and us alone or doesn't make them at all for safety of American population", or 'kill order'/bounty will be issued by FBI (supposed to deal with WMDs).
I'm fairly sure that Trauma explains it to observers: shield appears -> healing activates. Seems like cause and effect. Who knows, may be his healing device was intact but visor controlled so he actually couldn't use it, but shield could?
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The Shallow
Shallow, Yet Deep
- Location
- Your Universe
- Pronouns
- She/They
It wasn't an omake, but the dragon interlude. In that we see:
And then later, when talking with Weld.
The thing is, they have no leverage. So right now if they piss off someone with WMD while they don't have any (or a place to aim them at), threatening to kill that person is the same as asking him to show a demonstration of force.
You have to understand that this isn't the same USA as the one in our earth. As 9/11 did not happen in Earth Bet. Which was a massive turning point when it came to the response to terrorists.
Since Scion there have been no threats of Nukes, and the closest example of that is the cold war, except this time they don't have WMD and they have no way of attacking the person without asking the Triumvirate to do it for them, and the problem is that if they happen to fail (and it becomes public knowledge) it would result in a destabilising effect in the USA.
Till they have analysts saying that acting with aggressive force will be the better path forward they will not jump on that option. And since analysts are going to be in high demand now, there is a good chance that the Boston PRT branch will reach out to Accord. And Accord already knows that garment is with Joe, so he will attribute the state of mind as going berserk rather than a mad thinker losing his shit.
Accord has the best read on Joe out of everyone that isn't in Joe's close circle. So odds are his input will help de-escalate the situation, and I am fairly sure they will ask him for his input. As it is all hand on deck.
Also WMD isn't the only problem, the blackout zone is arguably a bigger issue.
The Triumvirate is also unlikely to be onboard since to them he might be an option against Scion. Plus with what limited pathing Contessa can do, if she runs a path on Joe to see what are the odds they take him out in a straight fight, they will not like the outcome. Eidolon might be able to hurt Joe, but the other 2 cant do shit. I think that Joe is stronger physically than Alexandria and lasers aren't likely to do shit. Eidolon can hurt him, but I don't know if he can land a hit (I genuinely don't know enough about his as fanon fucks shit up for how to measure his power). Plus dark alchemy would allow Joe to freeze them in time a few times as he prepares a containment option for them. Having a pause button on a fight is OP as fuck.
I am fairly sure that convincing someone on Joe's level to join endbringer fights is more important to them than killing him. As people in a position of power know that Earth Bet has an expiry date due to the endbringers, and that expiry date is not far. Hell even the general public know that, they just don't have the numbers and likely think they have more time, or there is some hope somehow in rebuilding or something like that. Or more likely not actively thinking about it.
Functionality
The Scholar
- Location
- At the Library
- Pronouns
- He
I think LordRoustabout uses our tears of frustration and disappointment to perform dark rituals that fuel his writing talent, and the "delays" are just him gathering the tears and preparing the ritual! There is no other explanation for how one man can consistently output more than 20k words a week.
- Location
- Behind you
ATLUS: We get off on your tears.
Do you think they are cousins?
The thing is that Contessa can't even make a proper simulacrum of him with PtV, just like the majority of precogs, one moment PtV will tell her "yeah, this totally works" and the next "no, wait, backspace! Backspace!", so I don't really think they would really depend on her, they may even think Joe have Zion's equivalent of Eidolon's shard, but Tinker focused.
They may try to throw the book at him though. Or like Coil they will assume his 'madness' is him fullfiling his contracts.
Take your time, oh author, to craft your world, with words as hammerfalls shaping the web, lest an ill concidered strike mar an erstwhile masterpiece.
We can wait, dont stress..
*goes back to convincing herself not to take up animation, solely because her brain came up with an idea that'd make a neat animated omake*
We can wait, dont stress..
*goes back to convincing herself not to take up animation, solely because her brain came up with an idea that'd make a neat animated omake*
Long term plans won't work. But checking if they can win against him that instant (which would change very soon after) is doable. And the results would not be fun.
Spiral energy gives you anti precog powers. That's what Lord said. Though I am not sure if it needs to be more developed then it is now to work like that.
- Location
- Odessa
I don't think PRT think that they have time for analysts. And they really don't have time. For all PRT know, Apeiron is a primed tickling bomb. And Apeiron escalates all the time. By the time analysis is done Apeiron will be juggling pocket singularities. Or there will be a hole in place of BB simply because Apeiron 'seemingly ignores' safeties.
Costa-Brown is more likely to push for Birdcage, simply because Apeiron sends PTV into a loop.
Someone that ignores mail, safeties and might decide to deploy nukes in the middle of Endbringer battle... That surely will make participants enthusiastic.
Kill order (even pre-signed one) is a leverage from my point of view. If it wasn't, nobody would take it seriously, yet it is a big deal in Worm. For all we know there are headhunters on the level of March, so nobody wants a kill order even if chances of PRT releasing one are low.
Joe constantly escalates. What now is a blackout zone, will turn into Roadside Picnic with tint of Grey Goo and a shade from a planet sized mushroom in a week. And PRT is aware of that at least partially.
From some points of view, PRT does not have the leisure to wait for analysis or to wait for a proper 'diplomatic' contact.
PRT needs to either establish contact that includes power and mental testing, force Apeiron to establish contact or get rid of him while they can.
First two options don't seem to work at the moment (and PRT needs it to work Yesterday), this leaves third option. If PRT manages to piss off Apeiron via presigned kill order (and Piggot likely expects that to work in a combatative way), PRT ends up: proving that Apeiron can't be worked with (because he shouldn't have built nukes or i-field mecha in the first place), PRT's image is preserved/recovered, Triumvirate gets called in, Apeiron ends in the Birdcage to wait for 'grand finale', Apeiron no longer sends PTV into a loop.
If Apeiron goes 'ok, no nukes', PRT will decide 'reasonable for now' and look into other ways to either do full power and mental testing or to force the issue in another way.
It's too weak at the moment if I understand Lord's message correctly.
CF powers constantly affect his mental capabilities, senses and even point of view, I imagine that breaks any behavioral models, not just precogs.
And that's without taking Joe's passenger into account, because said passenger might have something to say that wasn't 'precoged'.
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Nothing.
Sometimes, the wisest thing to do is nothing and gather data.
The PRT knows this deep in its institutional bones. They have not gone back into Ellisburg since the first disastrous mission; they set up observation and monitored it.They cordoned off Pastor, California and kept a watch on the place. Ditto Eagleton. Noone has bothered the Sleeper where he is. Ash Beast is still trekking his way across Northern Africa.
They've learned from bitter experience not to throw nukes at Endbringers in order to "do something".
The idea that politics overrides good sense and reasoned analysis in the setting is contradicted by the multiple localities where the PRT has adopted a watch and see policy precisely because its the most reasonable option in their toolbox.
They lived with Lung in Brockton Bay. They can live with Apeiron without escalating blindly .
- Location
- Florida
Thanks for updating us! Good luck and have a better week!
1) Toybox canonically built giant robots. Armsmaster took one of them into Houston during the S9000 Arc .
Dragon operated, and operates, an entire raft of giant robots with self-destruct options. Kid Win built a fuckoff giant laser in time for the Bank Job in canon. Building mass-destruction stuff has never been an issue as long as youre not just using them willy nilly.
2) All the economic parties who have interests in the functioning of the US economy have their own opinions about people who should know better blindly escalating delicate situations.The PRT and the government answer to the civilian population, they dont just act with impunity.
3) The PRT is not the army. Capes do not follow orders blindly.
Those capes and normals who you are placing in the front line of an avoidable conflict with someone like Apeiron may well have opinions about the idea of you escalating their risk profiles blindly. Forget the Case 53s and their medical situations; look at all the run of the mill capes who you expect to throw down with Apeiron should your gamble go south.
- Location
- Deep inside the sand
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I'd argue that Apeiron has shown measured response. However I don't know how PRT sees that. They might just see that he escalates twice as much as his opponents. They might have heard that Butcher is coming to BB so they get extra mental stress because of that.
I'm unsure if Dragon & PRT caught the implication of that refit. They might not think of nanomachines.
Cosmic posted on page 611 a fantastic theory about director Piggot and her stance on this situation. I think the PRT as a whole makes a sound decision now with Uppercrust putting pressure on Piggot.
Just like Uju32 said, PRT already has experience with this kind of thing. So with Piggot grounded by Uppercrust to lose everything if she goes all in against Apeiron. That said I've no idea what kind of policy PRT might make regarding him. That's something I'm interested in.
I'm unsure what's fanon or canon but isn't endbringer weapon encouraged as long as they will participate in next EB battle?
Out of Stock (number 32)
- Location
- India
New Omake - Out of Stock
-----Present----- (early in the morning 3:00 am to be exact)
Joseph was hard at work at work when Aisha appeared behind his shoulder "Hey, what are you working on ?" The duplicate didn't answer, too busy with coding the new AI the original had deemed unnecessary. "HEY!!" Aisha yelled to grab his attention, she had been watching this on e for quite some time, he was well into the '20% time'. "At last i have done it !" Dupseph (Aisha thought this was as good a nickname as any) "I have made the finest piece of software ever known to mankind" he exclaimed, with eyes showing a drill like pattern continuously revolving at dizzying pace "I have finally infused the software with spiral energy, they doubted me oh they said it couldn't be done, it SHOULDN'T be done, but I have achieved the pinnacle of auto clicking software" Aisha could've sworn she saw letters 'SCALPERS DEFEATED' in the background with Dupseph posing in a classic strongman pose.
----Past ---- (a few hours earlier)
Oh, I had a voice mail from Alec wonder if its some sort of emergency, "Hey Joseph, I know i'm in a bit of debt with you but i need this thing from this site and its a very low quantity shipped product and I have been trying to get it for a long time but all the new one are being bought out the second they are on sale, but could you please make it so that i can order it from my watch ? Thanks " Hmm... its not that hard to generate an auto clicker for him, but do i actually trust him with this?... Nah, I will probably tell him I don't check the voicemail all that lot...
-----Present----- (early in the morning 3:00 am to be exact)
Joseph was hard at work at work when Aisha appeared behind his shoulder "Hey, what are you working on ?" The duplicate didn't answer, too busy with coding the new AI the original had deemed unnecessary. "HEY!!" Aisha yelled to grab his attention, she had been watching this on e for quite some time, he was well into the '20% time'. "At last i have done it !" Dupseph (Aisha thought this was as good a nickname as any) "I have made the finest piece of software ever known to mankind" he exclaimed, with eyes showing a drill like pattern continuously revolving at dizzying pace "I have finally infused the software with spiral energy, they doubted me oh they said it couldn't be done, it SHOULDN'T be done, but I have achieved the pinnacle of auto clicking software" Aisha could've sworn she saw letters 'SCALPERS DEFEATED' in the background with Dupseph posing in a classic strongman pose.
----Past ---- (a few hours earlier)
Oh, I had a voice mail from Alec wonder if its some sort of emergency, "Hey Joseph, I know i'm in a bit of debt with you but i need this thing from this site and its a very low quantity shipped product and I have been trying to get it for a long time but all the new one are being bought out the second they are on sale, but could you please make it so that i can order it from my watch ? Thanks " Hmm... its not that hard to generate an auto clicker for him, but do i actually trust him with this?... Nah, I will probably tell him I don't check the voicemail all that lot...
They would have the time if they divert enough resources to the task. Which they will.
Oh ya, a kill order is a big deal. It means anyone can use lethal force on you without needing to justify it. So let's say someone like skidmark gets a kill order, next time a hero sees him, hey can go full out, no punches pulled back and they will eventually kill him. And the same stands for independents. So let's say someone has a very lethal power, but holds back, they won't anymore against someone with a kill order.
If Lung had a kill order, they can take him out before he ramps up, as they don't have to be at the sweet spot where it's enough to take him out and not kill him, but not weak enough to allow him to ramp.
The problem with kill orders is that they aren't always the right call. For example butcher would just get stronger, so would crawler. And from available data so would Joe (grows stronger with conflict, and unlike other tinker can work super fast, though they don't know about build Rome yet).
Then you have another group who being assigned a kill order would make them more of a danger, like Bakuda, string theory, Leet (Ya Leet can probably do some crazy biotinker shit I or some nano-machine tech if pushed enough. Though knowing him he might have already wasted them).
Then you have to consider what will happen when they issue the kill order or the resigned one. They have 1 clue about Joe's location.They narrowed it down to 1/3 of the city thanks to Dragon.
So doing something like this could result in Joe dropping of the grid to prepare. And that is not something you want a tinker to do.
So in conclusion, they gain nothing from going through with a pre signed kill order. Threatening or dropping hints at the possibility of it and then approaching him through the best contact they have (Weld, or Armstrong) to try and reach a compromise is the best move. And that is with the info they have.
That's the thing though. Let's say they are called. The only thing they know is that Joe is connected to the undersiders in some way. Apart from that they have nothing.
So apart from calling the big guns on a group of teens to try and draw out Joe they have nothing. As he doesn't control any territory, nor does he have minions. And that will not look good to the public. And at worst it could cause Joe to retaliate from how protective he has show himself to be of the undersiders.
And they suspect he has a strong Thinker power that lets him know about future events, so a preemptive strike might not work.
Piggot might think that by having a pre signed kill order he would be forced to compromise, but much like Coil, she would just be applying what she knows works on other capes from experience onto Joe, which is not the right move to make.
The biggest issue right now is that everyone is trying to make Joe fit into a preexisting mood they have a set method of dealing with, instead of treating him as his own case.
This is Worm. The government lost monopoly of force several decades ago, and they know it. They still think Scion is just some superhero, but when he blew up some country's nuclear missile test facility in the 1980s, their response was to grin and take it, not attempt to start a fight with him.
Its worth keeping that in mind.
Everytime someone says "The PRT cannot afford X" or "The government cannot afford Y" as a justification for escalation? IC, you're making a gamble with other people's chips. The stakes are the lives and livelihoods of the public who are supposed to be your putative employers and the people who provide your funding. Of PRT/Protectorate staff and employees who put their lives and wellbeing on the line for every policy call you make.
You miscalculate, you lose trust, and people will walk.
The public will cut your funding or disband you; your staff and employees will straight up walk away and you wont be able to do shit about it.
Nobody will give a shit about your justifications if you destroy the country in the course of escalating with Apeiron.
And there is the everpresent Endbringer timer every four months.
That means that every major policy decision is not stuff you rush into for the sake of being seen to do something.
Its worth keeping that in mind.
Everytime someone says "The PRT cannot afford X" or "The government cannot afford Y" as a justification for escalation? IC, you're making a gamble with other people's chips. The stakes are the lives and livelihoods of the public who are supposed to be your putative employers and the people who provide your funding. Of PRT/Protectorate staff and employees who put their lives and wellbeing on the line for every policy call you make.
You miscalculate, you lose trust, and people will walk.
The public will cut your funding or disband you; your staff and employees will straight up walk away and you wont be able to do shit about it.
Nobody will give a shit about your justifications if you destroy the country in the course of escalating with Apeiron.
And there is the everpresent Endbringer timer every four months.
That means that every major policy decision is not stuff you rush into for the sake of being seen to do something.