this is the perk "the Maddest Science Yet" from the same jump. 800cp cost, but it allows all the same level of work that SSS does, except it is completely unblackboxed and you can use it however you want.
Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)
- Thread starter LordRoustabout
- Start date
- Pronouns
- He, Him
Are you able to reapply the black box int hat case after making an item so that it can't be scanned and shit?
- Location
- Florida
- Pronouns
- He
Yep, and lord was toying with the idea that if scion can't be killed with the V1 forge (or that we finish before the fight) upgrading the forge to the V3 version could be possible (tho joe would need to second trigger, and with the workshop crew it's almost impossible )
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theflyingbiscuit
"Titanic neechan"
HA! I doubt it. Remember everyone coming into the city from the previous interludes. Now there is a giant blackout zone where electronics don't work. Big opportunity there.
I mean it's not meaningless though. His first pre-story week he got almost nothing. Him taking a break/timeskip could see his nodes slow to a crawl as Lord summarizes days at a time, or at least goes faster.
Not that I think he would get a break.
Trying to keep the Apeiron and Garment separate. An Apeiron makeover does not help. Let the girl stand on her own two boots.
I feel a good question would have been "what could we do"?
One fire plane to drop water of the city could have taken the edge off of it. Not like they don't have the ocean to fill up with. It would take some time, but it would not be too hard to clean it all up. Quicker and very much mundane solution. Alternatively, fire trucks.
Probably, could find a cape that could just make water vapor all over the affected area to make it all go away.
This is just too much "Will you fix it?" and not enough "How can it be fixed if you won't be able to?". Real oversight from the PRT.
AntaeusTheGiant
Child of Gaea
- Location
- Lawrence, KS
Well, not much, since for the most part my notes came from your site. I have noted something from the jumpdocs, though. You have one of the free perks from the newly available Asura's Wrath perk Demigod Atelier, but there is another:
I was going to mention the Capstone constellation, but you have updated it since the last time I looked.
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- Location
- Deep inside the sand
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
He wanted to secure her location. Not to mention Garments reaction if she gets robbed when she's not there. No need to go all out.
The Shallow
Shallow, Yet Deep
- Location
- Your Universe
- Pronouns
- She/They
I doubt that he made one, but if he did it wouldn't be named Recovery. Likely more like Postnestaion or similar.
"Tinc-hîr?" (The Shallow)
The Shallow
Shallow, Yet Deep
- Location
- Your Universe
- Pronouns
- She/They
"Tinc-hîr?"
This all started with me playing around with Sindarin, and realizing a funny coincidence.
After a much-needed therapy session, Weld had ended up messaging me. The PRT had cleared out most of the area, and while the field was deteriorating, they were asking me to help clean it up, and inform them of what I would be deploying. I had decided against sending out an army of drones, and rather crafted a divine magnetokinetic hammer. The fact that metal runes could manipulate magnetic fields was really useful.
I opened the hatch of the upgraded Veritech Motoroid "Hey, Weld!"
The young ward, seemingly the only PRT cape that they were okay with me interacting with, smiled as I walked up to him. He glanced to the beach "Feels like it's been a year since you fished me out."
I nodded "Time passes oddly these days... Anyways. As I stated, I'll be using a magnetic field manipulator, so I'd recommend you stay back. I'll be precise, but it might affect you, considering your composition."
Weld nodded "I'll just watch."
Fleet directed the Motoroid upwards and I summoned the hammer I made. And then I swung it. With the insight of Maliwan Intern, the divine construction of the Hammer, and Efficiency? It was perfect. All the particles moved in response, and with just another two swings I had cleared the are, the field northwards intensifying. I continued northeastward, planning on pushing the feild into the sea, only to get a message from Survey "Archers Bridge Merchants approaching; Squeeler, and Scrub detected, coming from the north. Skidmark and Whirlygig detected, coming from the northwest."
Apeiron's new mech suddenly floated down "Seems the Merchants aren't happy with losing this hiding spot; Squeeler seems to have a large bulldozer-like machine, and she's coming with Scrub to cause a lot of damage. Skidmark and Whirlygig are on the far side of the I-feild, can I trust you to handle that?"
"I uh, should call for backup-"
He swung his weird hammer, froze for a second, then nodded to himself "I just did that."
Weld blinked at him. Skidmark was not that big of a deal, but Whirlygig could carry a lot of ammo for him and provide him cover... "I guess I'll try to stop those two?"
Apeiron nodded "Ok, these won't last you long, but make use of them."
Apeiron exited his mech, and stood before Weld, wind blowing lightly, making his cape billow. He outstretched both hands, and they began to shine as blue energy formed into the shape of a diadem and a duplicate of his hammer respectivley. He placed the diadem on Weld's head and the hammer in his hand. Weld gasped with the surge of power he felt as his body connected to the two objects. Apeiron then uttered two words like a prayer "Tinc-hîr. Hirdring."
The power seemed to explode even further in power. Weld genuinley shivered as he felt his senses expand. What had Apeiron said? Tinker Herding?
Apeiron then suddenly kneeled over and stumbled into his mech, which sealed before starting to ascend. His speakers then carried his pained (as if punched in the gut) voice outwards "Hirdring isn't quite like mine, it's ferrokinetic, and it really likes you."
And with that he was off to face Squeeler and Scrub.
Weld then noticed just how aware he was. He was very aware of his body, where and how it was integrating with material, and also very aware of the metal all around him. It peaked right around him, and exponentially decreased. In the distance, he could barely sense a storm of metal moving around. He began running in that direction, knowing that to likely be where Whirlygig was.
The oddest thing about his sense of metal was that the metal that made both his diadem, Tinker, and hammer, Herding, both seemed to be decaying quickly; as if the wind was slowly biting into them. Is that what Apeiron had meant by them not lasting long? At this rate they'd be around for at least two hours- how could he tell that? He just knew it. Why? Ok, no, he had to focus on the issue.
He began running again, sensing the and turned a corner, only to be hit with a flying sheet of chickenwire. But he could feel it touching his skin. He didn't need to absorb it. He threw it aside and looked down at his hands. His finger turned into a fork, which became sharper, and sharper, and sharper. He couldn't push it past that, but he had never been able to get this level of detail before... What was up with this gear?! What the hell was it made of?! Why was it breaking down?! Were these actual projections?! Why could he affect them like metal?!
"Fuck ya gonna do with that fork, Chrome-boy?!"
Weld looked up, shifting his finger back, just to watch as Whirlygig stepped forward, to Skidmark, and a bunch metal sheets pushed into a violet wall, and suddenly took off in his direction. He could feel as they approached; as their presence got more apparent to him. He fused both his hands with Herding, and swung forward. The metal moved with the hammer, crumpling, twisting and flying back at Skidmark.
The projectiles slowed down quickly as they hit a new violet wall, before skidding forwards; barely.
Skidmark growled and clapped angrily. Whirlygig's Trash Tornado lurched even closer to Skidmark, and a bunch of random junk flew at him. He ran forward, using a quick swing of the Hammer to redirect all the trash away from himself.
He ran around Skidmark's position in the middle of the street, and swung Herding, freezing a majority of Whirlygig's tornado with a lot of effort. It was barely holding there, so he had to act quick. He raised the hammer for another swing, only for Skidmark to run at him, and suddenly he was blown against the building he had been standing next to in a flash of violet. Skidmark created a new wall right infront of him, immobalizing him.
Skidmark walked forwards with an old rusty pipe, and swung it at Weld's eyes.
Weld screamed in pain, but he felt the way the metal of his body deformed with the swing. He could fix it, he just had to get the pipe away, which was difficult with the forcefeild infront of him. He fused with the pipe before Skidmark could pull his hand away. He slid it down to his Torso as he sucked it in, Skidmark being dragged forward by the sudden force. Weld then fixed his eyes, and shapeshifted his skin to cover Skidmark's hand, effectivley entrapping him. Skidmark froze in shock, and Weld worked his way up Skidmark's arm to the best of his ability.
Skidmark growled, and the violet wall nearly became opaque as the force holding Weld in place multiplied. Weld worked his metal flesh around Skidmarks hand, forcing his fingers open. Then he pushed them even further. Skidmark howled in pain and dropped the feild, which Weld used to eject Skidmark from his body, before shoving him against a nearby car, and using the rusty pipe metal in him, made crude handcuffs trapping him there.
Then he swung his hammer twice, sending a portion of the tornado right into Whirlygig. The rest of the tornado lurched, went still, then collapsed. Weld rushed in, and used a sheet of chickenwire to also make crude handcuffs. Whirlygig was likely concussed, but not much could be done about that-
Thrusters roared above as Apeiron descended "Weld! Great work!"
Weld turned around to see Apeiron snap his fingers, and suddenly Tinker And Herding were gone. There was a faint blue haze where they were. Suddenly his awareness was back to where it was- no. It had improved a bit. Barely, but it had. He swallowed his shock, and looked to the tinker, who had healed Whirlygig and was placing her next to Skidmark's swearing form "What were those?"
"They were power focuses. Well, Hirdring was a bit more, but that was the jist of it."
"Why the names though? Tinker and Herding?"
Apeiron seemed to roll his eyes, based on his body language, and he started ranting, but in a foreign language. Was that greek? "Uh, English please?"
Apeiron sighed "Sorry. Look, I... I just like naming things."
"But why Tinker and Herding?"
"I have my reasons..." He sounded exasperated. It was as if he thought his explanation wouldn't matter "I'll be finishing the field and going now."
And with that he took off again, leaving Weld in confusion.
I sighed as I flew away. Of course, Weld had heard Tinc-hîr and Hirdring as Tinker and Herding. It had been a simple idea; give him two focuses "Master of Metal" and "Master's Hammer". Of course, Weld didn't know Sindarin, so he didn't get the meaning. I really hoped this wouldn't come back to bite me in the ass...
Armsmaster smiled as he read the report. His shaker/projection theory was correct! Still... "power focuses"?
"Doctor Mother, you need to read this report."
This all started with me playing around with Sindarin, and realizing a funny coincidence.
After a much-needed therapy session, Weld had ended up messaging me. The PRT had cleared out most of the area, and while the field was deteriorating, they were asking me to help clean it up, and inform them of what I would be deploying. I had decided against sending out an army of drones, and rather crafted a divine magnetokinetic hammer. The fact that metal runes could manipulate magnetic fields was really useful.
I opened the hatch of the upgraded Veritech Motoroid "Hey, Weld!"
The young ward, seemingly the only PRT cape that they were okay with me interacting with, smiled as I walked up to him. He glanced to the beach "Feels like it's been a year since you fished me out."
I nodded "Time passes oddly these days... Anyways. As I stated, I'll be using a magnetic field manipulator, so I'd recommend you stay back. I'll be precise, but it might affect you, considering your composition."
Weld nodded "I'll just watch."
Fleet directed the Motoroid upwards and I summoned the hammer I made. And then I swung it. With the insight of Maliwan Intern, the divine construction of the Hammer, and Efficiency? It was perfect. All the particles moved in response, and with just another two swings I had cleared the are, the field northwards intensifying. I continued northeastward, planning on pushing the feild into the sea, only to get a message from Survey "Archers Bridge Merchants approaching; Squeeler, and Scrub detected, coming from the north. Skidmark and Whirlygig detected, coming from the northwest."
Apeiron's new mech suddenly floated down "Seems the Merchants aren't happy with losing this hiding spot; Squeeler seems to have a large bulldozer-like machine, and she's coming with Scrub to cause a lot of damage. Skidmark and Whirlygig are on the far side of the I-feild, can I trust you to handle that?"
"I uh, should call for backup-"
He swung his weird hammer, froze for a second, then nodded to himself "I just did that."
Weld blinked at him. Skidmark was not that big of a deal, but Whirlygig could carry a lot of ammo for him and provide him cover... "I guess I'll try to stop those two?"
Apeiron nodded "Ok, these won't last you long, but make use of them."
Apeiron exited his mech, and stood before Weld, wind blowing lightly, making his cape billow. He outstretched both hands, and they began to shine as blue energy formed into the shape of a diadem and a duplicate of his hammer respectivley. He placed the diadem on Weld's head and the hammer in his hand. Weld gasped with the surge of power he felt as his body connected to the two objects. Apeiron then uttered two words like a prayer "Tinc-hîr. Hirdring."
The power seemed to explode even further in power. Weld genuinley shivered as he felt his senses expand. What had Apeiron said? Tinker Herding?
Apeiron then suddenly kneeled over and stumbled into his mech, which sealed before starting to ascend. His speakers then carried his pained (as if punched in the gut) voice outwards "Hirdring isn't quite like mine, it's ferrokinetic, and it really likes you."
And with that he was off to face Squeeler and Scrub.
Weld then noticed just how aware he was. He was very aware of his body, where and how it was integrating with material, and also very aware of the metal all around him. It peaked right around him, and exponentially decreased. In the distance, he could barely sense a storm of metal moving around. He began running in that direction, knowing that to likely be where Whirlygig was.
The oddest thing about his sense of metal was that the metal that made both his diadem, Tinker, and hammer, Herding, both seemed to be decaying quickly; as if the wind was slowly biting into them. Is that what Apeiron had meant by them not lasting long? At this rate they'd be around for at least two hours- how could he tell that? He just knew it. Why? Ok, no, he had to focus on the issue.
He began running again, sensing the and turned a corner, only to be hit with a flying sheet of chickenwire. But he could feel it touching his skin. He didn't need to absorb it. He threw it aside and looked down at his hands. His finger turned into a fork, which became sharper, and sharper, and sharper. He couldn't push it past that, but he had never been able to get this level of detail before... What was up with this gear?! What the hell was it made of?! Why was it breaking down?! Were these actual projections?! Why could he affect them like metal?!
"Fuck ya gonna do with that fork, Chrome-boy?!"
Weld looked up, shifting his finger back, just to watch as Whirlygig stepped forward, to Skidmark, and a bunch metal sheets pushed into a violet wall, and suddenly took off in his direction. He could feel as they approached; as their presence got more apparent to him. He fused both his hands with Herding, and swung forward. The metal moved with the hammer, crumpling, twisting and flying back at Skidmark.
The projectiles slowed down quickly as they hit a new violet wall, before skidding forwards; barely.
Skidmark growled and clapped angrily. Whirlygig's Trash Tornado lurched even closer to Skidmark, and a bunch of random junk flew at him. He ran forward, using a quick swing of the Hammer to redirect all the trash away from himself.
He ran around Skidmark's position in the middle of the street, and swung Herding, freezing a majority of Whirlygig's tornado with a lot of effort. It was barely holding there, so he had to act quick. He raised the hammer for another swing, only for Skidmark to run at him, and suddenly he was blown against the building he had been standing next to in a flash of violet. Skidmark created a new wall right infront of him, immobalizing him.
Skidmark walked forwards with an old rusty pipe, and swung it at Weld's eyes.
Weld screamed in pain, but he felt the way the metal of his body deformed with the swing. He could fix it, he just had to get the pipe away, which was difficult with the forcefeild infront of him. He fused with the pipe before Skidmark could pull his hand away. He slid it down to his Torso as he sucked it in, Skidmark being dragged forward by the sudden force. Weld then fixed his eyes, and shapeshifted his skin to cover Skidmark's hand, effectivley entrapping him. Skidmark froze in shock, and Weld worked his way up Skidmark's arm to the best of his ability.
Skidmark growled, and the violet wall nearly became opaque as the force holding Weld in place multiplied. Weld worked his metal flesh around Skidmarks hand, forcing his fingers open. Then he pushed them even further. Skidmark howled in pain and dropped the feild, which Weld used to eject Skidmark from his body, before shoving him against a nearby car, and using the rusty pipe metal in him, made crude handcuffs trapping him there.
Then he swung his hammer twice, sending a portion of the tornado right into Whirlygig. The rest of the tornado lurched, went still, then collapsed. Weld rushed in, and used a sheet of chickenwire to also make crude handcuffs. Whirlygig was likely concussed, but not much could be done about that-
Thrusters roared above as Apeiron descended "Weld! Great work!"
Weld turned around to see Apeiron snap his fingers, and suddenly Tinker And Herding were gone. There was a faint blue haze where they were. Suddenly his awareness was back to where it was- no. It had improved a bit. Barely, but it had. He swallowed his shock, and looked to the tinker, who had healed Whirlygig and was placing her next to Skidmark's swearing form "What were those?"
"They were power focuses. Well, Hirdring was a bit more, but that was the jist of it."
"Why the names though? Tinker and Herding?"
Apeiron seemed to roll his eyes, based on his body language, and he started ranting, but in a foreign language. Was that greek? "Uh, English please?"
Apeiron sighed "Sorry. Look, I... I just like naming things."
"But why Tinker and Herding?"
"I have my reasons..." He sounded exasperated. It was as if he thought his explanation wouldn't matter "I'll be finishing the field and going now."
And with that he took off again, leaving Weld in confusion.
I sighed as I flew away. Of course, Weld had heard Tinc-hîr and Hirdring as Tinker and Herding. It had been a simple idea; give him two focuses "Master of Metal" and "Master's Hammer". Of course, Weld didn't know Sindarin, so he didn't get the meaning. I really hoped this wouldn't come back to bite me in the ass...
Armsmaster smiled as he read the report. His shaker/projection theory was correct! Still... "power focuses"?
"Doctor Mother, you need to read this report."
Good catch added to the reference not sure how I missed that.
That really seems like it's super-tech that's intended to be used that way rather then tech that can't be used otherwise.
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
And clarketech from a harem comedy rubber-science universe rarely works well when used in unintended ways, yes.
The Shallow
Shallow, Yet Deep
- Location
- Your Universe
- Pronouns
- She/They
The thing is, with the insanity that is Washu tech, it's so specialized that it gets fucked up when used outside of it's scope.
- Location
- Philippines
If you need WoG, it's been stated by LordRoustabout that yes, SSS is unequivocally only tailored for household uses, and no, any attempts to reverse engineer the technology for other uses is going to fail, whatever complexity you think Washu tech is, it's way more complex than that, and yes, if Joe tries to force it anyway, it will only end hilariously, or disastrously depending on the scale Joe is trying to use it in.
I would bring up the relevant quotes if necessary.
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- Pronouns
- Masculine
I just want the Efficiency roll to happen soon. So Joe can get Armsmaster's tinkertech specialization AND the free rider to make him invisible to precognition.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you, corrected.
Thanks for the omake.
Now some responses to comments from the last couple of chapters that have been building up:
I've gotten into this on AO3, but Efficiency doesn't have the ability to disable other perks. It specifically says "never unintentionally use more than you need to", which doesn't disable things like Beauty in the Arts " Regardless of what you create, it's going to look good enough that the gods might take notice" or Classy Contortionist "no matter what you're always going to look good". It will keep Joe from going further than the perks require him, meaning he can moderate things better, essentially allowing him to go just 'too far' enough for a given situation.
Coil is actually very careful about doing any violent interrogation. The risk of getting trapped in a bad timeline is one of his worst fears, so you won't see him torture someone for information unless he has everything else under control so as to guarantee that some unforeseen event won't leave him stuck with the consequences of his actions. With March gone he has just gotten Dinah's power working again and it will be time before she can handle enough questions to provide that level of assurance. Additionally, with the chaos in the city his power is needed for dealing with other elements of the situation. His use of it on Tattletale is probably going to be limited to the standard 'tell her something, see how she reacts, drop timeline, tell her something else, etc.' rather than anything violet. It's the kind of power use that only takes a few minutes, is low risk and provides useful information. The odds of him even running into the watches countermeasures are very low at this point.
I was able to get to this on AO3, but for people who only read on SV I'll copy my response:
"Breathing and Walking is a specific technique, and not something Joe can emulate purely from the fact that he no longer wastes any energy. If he was aware of the technique he would be able to master it much faster than normal both due to the efficiency of his training and the fact that he would never perform any version of the technique with any unnecessary energy or flourish.
On interesting aspect of this is the relationship between chi and Od. They are equated in Fate, meaning they can be used interchangeably. Joe has some sources of mana from his other abilities, but chi, ki, or life energy is something much more common. He has versions of it from Kill la Kill, FMA's Alkahestry, GUNNM/Battle Angel Alita's T'ai Chi Chuan, Inukami, and History's Strongest Disciple: Kenichi. The relationship with breathing, the cultivation of internal energy, and the use of chi are all things that benefit from Efficiency. Joe is limited in how he can use chi, but he will never use or develop it inefficiently. Since chi can be used as Od and can be cultivated more easily that the largely-static capacity of magic circuity Joe has an avenue to improve his magecraft that he will be able to pursue with perfect efficiency."
I wouldn't worry about that. Joe at least recognizes that his need to try to make everything perfect is a bad thing. It's something he's (somewhat) aware of and is working on. One of the big principles is that perfectionism is outwardly focused. It's not about being happy with your own work, it's about concern over how other people are going to see it and therefor see you. Being able to move past perfectionism, not necessarily to 'good enough' but to something you can personally be happy with, is an important part of Joe's growth.
While Joe can 100% breath fire thanks to his pyrokinesis it is a little showy, even for him, and he does tend to wear a full face mask. Still, Titan's Blood and zoanthrope form seem like a natural combination for the recreation of some famous Toho scenes.
Joe's main 40k tech perks (Armourer, Weaponsmith, and FIxer) are mental databases that have been assembled over thousands of years in Necromunda. The idea behind them, as far as I understand, is that they were assembled from the memories and skills of craftsmen that could be found in the hive. Possibly willingly, possibly at the end of their lives, but this is 40k so it's just as likely they were hunted down for their knowledge or traded it to pay of debts. The thing is you have nearly 10,000 years of knowledge stored in the databases, meaning as long as someone in the hive knew how to put together a piece of technology it probably ended up in the database. Given the tech level of the hive and the fact that the stupidly rich nobles have access to archeotech and possibly deal in xenotech there is a crazy amount of information there, but it's still only what you could find in a hive city. I am treating having more that one database as enabling additional options, such as Weaponsmith and Armourer allowing the creation of Hunting Rigs, but that still isn't enough to open the door to knights or titans. At best Joe could manage some Imperial Guard vehicles, though not super heavy ones or extremely specialized variants. If you want titans you'll need to wait for The Pleician Tome, probably with the assistance of Arch-Magos as well.
You can be assured that both Joe's workshop and all his vehicles will see full upgrades to the limit of what he cam manage with his crafting speed. That means peak tech level, including benefits from cybertonium and Transformers tech as well as all of Joe's improvement perks (miniaturization, hybridization, simplified designs, etc.). The only thing they'll really be lacking is high level enchantments (Elven Enchantment) since Joe is still developing his skills in that area, and integrated Arcane Focui since those take time to design and craft and don't see the full benefit of Joe's technology speed perks.
Part of what comes with having the variety of powers Joe has access to is a desire to get use out of them. This is particularly true for the Forge since minor powers can be boosted by the addition of other abilities, meaning something that wasn't worth pursuing suddenly becomes an ideal option.
The biotic implant could be emulated with the Matrix's nanobots, but it's still something that usually requires brain surgery. With everything that's happened Joe isn't inclined to start experimenting with that kind of thing. A emulated implant would also be much worse than anything Joe could build by hand, and since the implant is part of developing control of your biotics switching it out could be counter productive.
Joe could have done any number of things to correct his image for the call. He was fully aware that he was delaying things to work on his totem magic. The consequence of that was him getting a stable illusion effect that would serve him for day to day use rather than something only applicable to video calls. I wouldn't really call it an overcomplication since it is an effective solution and something that let him further develop his talisman magic.
The problem with using Waste Not as a substitute for souls is the wording of the perk. First, it only works for weapons and armor, so Joe can't use it for philosopher's stones, key crests, or exspheres. Additionally you need to make up the emulated material with other parts of the item. If something is only made of souls then there's no 'other materials' to add in place of the soul. Finally, his ability to use souls in weapons and armor is limited. Castelvania Alchemy can infuse souls into items to enhance them, but that's not part of the item's creation, so Waste Not wouldn't help. Tempered Soul has the ability to work with souls, but not as a core part of the power. It's mostly added as part of the setting's metaphysics, and Joe would need to train up to the practice. Finally, That Undefinable Thing lets Joe power items from souls. This might work with Weapons or Armor from Waste Not, but would be a tricky matter. Waste Not requires skill and practice to be able to emulate materials. Normally Joe's Forge granted skills would be enough, but for emulating souls Joe would need at least some experience working with them before he could manage to emulate them as power sources for magic weapons.
There is antigrav technology from the 40k fixer perk, but it is delicate and precise tech. Joe tends to go with Element Zero because that's basically 'hook rock up to circuit' antigrav. The Element Zero method is actually mass reduction which has some key differences to negating gravity, but it works out to the same result in most situations and is much easier to work with.
A projected Vortex Grenade is possible, but is only slightly less dangerous than emulating the required materials with Waste Not. Based on the effects in play it will be something that will require incredible precision to project and probably substantial energy costs due to the materials in play. This is probably one of those things that will need a ten count aria to get right. If projected you'll want to use it as quickly as possible, since I don't want to think what will happen if a vortex grenade partially degrades. Finally, even if everything goes 'right' you're still left with the aftermath of a vortex grenade, namely an unstable warp rift that can erratically move across the battlefield. Definitely the kind of thing I would file under 'desperation options'.
The story is currently entering the last week of April. Leviathan's canon appearance was on May 15th. It might not take that long, but three weeks is a big swing. It's been less than two months since the Simurgh attacked Canberra (Feb 24) and the next canon attack was New Delhi on July 26th.
Joe has been acknowledging the people who died from his actions from the time he unleashed his Final Slash at the storage yard. Even before that he knew some of the injured were due to his earthquake attacks and some of them might have died because of it. The point both was and is that unless you have a better way of handling things there is no point in dwelling on it, and even then the only helpful thing would be to improve for the next time. Joe is throwing around attacks of cataclysmic power while dealing with opponents on nearly the same scale. This isn't DBZ where you have every fight take place in a convenient wasteland. People are in the line of fire. Joe does everything he can to minimize casualties to the point where it severely impacts his combat effectiveness. The two points you referenced, the dust explosion and I-field, were some of the least damaging aspects of the attacks. The first thing Joe (actually his duplicates, but whatever) did was deploy help to injured people in the effects. There are 'piles or bodies' but they aren't because of Joe, and they are much smaller than they would have been without Joe's intervention. Additionally, Joe is not trying to be 'a hero'. He's trying to do what he can to help while working under seriously adverse conditions and multiple looming threats. You can blame him for the impact of his technology, and I'm sure many people would, but don't act like Joe ignored a charnel pile to run off and congratulate himself.
Natural Puppy was picked to get access to the Entanglement pin. It also matched with doormat, Joe's most likely flaw for the revival perks. It is actually in line with how he approached style before triggering or when dealing with his family, basically inoffensive designs and colors that aren't going to get comment or cause problems. The applicability for his cape persona is limited, but the interesting thing is Joe can get minimal benefits from other brands. The exact wording is "You could wear any of the brands listed here without an affinity for them, and you'll receive minor versions of their bonuses, but you'll probably feel uncomfortable and weird in them." Joe's crafting makes any clothing feel comfortable, and his quality powers enhance what the 'minor versions of their bonuses' can cover. With Garment's help he isn't limited to Natural Puppy if he wants bonuses from the outfits, and Garment could probably find a way to make one or two Natural Puppy items work with his style.
Since the mind reading specifies being limited to people on the Realground my ruling is it's limited to working when the user is in the Underground. That means if Joe ends up with the Reaperdom perk instead of Revival he will get the ability to read surface thoughts while attuned to the Underground. The exact mechanism of deciding whether Joe gets the Reaperdom or Revival perk is something I'm still working on, but it will probably have something to do with Joe's specific Flaw from within the context of the jump.
This was basically the joke of the entire exchange.
"Minks are small, furry animals, so they're cute and harmless, right? Like a stretched out bunny rabbit?"
"No, minks are the kind of murder tube that could only be produced by compressing a wolverine through a drainpipe and releasing it to take revenge on every living creature on the face of the Earth."
Tetra is about 4 feet tall when standing upright. She also has a long tail, so the body length measurement is different from height.
Internal transport system for the Volcano is on Joe's project list and has plenty of options. SSS is more than capable of making extradimensional spaces or linked doors. In fact, if we include Tenchi in Tokyo (which is entirely in the spirit of that perk) it opens the possibility of the Washu inter-dimensional portal which was able to handle instant transport across over 600km of distance (Same limits as all SSS tech, so you won't be shipping cargo of moving military assets through it).
This might be true, but it's important to remember the best guide for building spiral energy: What would Kamina do? Spiral does seem to respond better to blind determination that measured responses based on past failures.
Joe has some samples, but it's not easy to analyze and hasn't given any immediate results. It's significance probably won't be clear until the motoroid restores itself and is able to communicate again.
Joe in his right mind would have been able to subdue March easily, but he wasn't making the most sound decisions and at that point anything beyond various flavors of smash was too much for him to handle.
Joe can make strikers that amplify any magic powers, including parahuman ability. Since the strikers need to cover certain magical effects (oxygen supply, wind protection, g-force negation) in order to function that means there are aspects of their home magic system enforced on the user. In other words any parahuman can get a free boost to their powers in exchange for animal ears and a tail while not being able to wear pants.
If Joe tries to sell anyone on the idea he probably isn't going to open with that element of the pitch.
Joe is already trying that with Mantic shards and other materials he hasn't transmuted yet. Having a working copy means it will be easier for him to examine the physical principles and create it at a later time. He doesn't have that many materials he needs to create, but that will change if he gets Peak Advent Technology.
There's already precedent for making items out of magic in things like Saber's armor. Its a powerful ability, but high level work, so Joe will either Need Item Creation A+++ or both Daedalus' Student and Titan's Blood (which could manage a stronger version of the effect).
This was something of an accidental reveal, but it's right on the money. Not having to deal with or be permanently associated with any small errors in their work is one of the most freeing things for duplicates. Joe would be mortified about wasting time building a home IMAX theater, but the clones know they never need to experience that. They get to live in the moment rather than have every action and decision held against them forever, like what Joe struggles with.
There are a lot of options for better aerodynamics in terms of using projections as ranged weapons all the way up to projecting actual missiles with onboard tracking systems. Another thing is the use of wind runes to turn otherwise unusable weapons into deadly projectiles. With enough practice it would be possible to direct his projections with magic alone, and some high level abilities (Craftsman of the Gods) are able to create weapons that never miss their target.
High level soul modification is possible for Joe, but something he is understandably concerned about. Not the least of his problems would be that fact that every crafting step mentioned would trigger Workaholic and his material conservation perks, meaning he would effectively be multiplying the souls he worked on. Any work with souls is going to be treated with great care and significance just because of what it represents.
Chaos Tinkers aren't incompatible with Mad Scientists. The combination is known as a Runaway Science tinker and are characterized by devices that improve themselves, usually in ways the tinker doesn't know about or understand. That's one of the things being considered for Apeiron, along with pretty much every other Mad Scientist possibility.
Cask grants temporary powers, so not equitable to being able to unlock aura. Same with just copying power effects to use yourself. The closets equivalent to Joe who's not inn a containment zone would be Baster Son, and by the sounds of it he's a hair away from a kill order. The Protectorate clearly takes any form of contagious power very seriously under the 'exponential progression' rule.
No matter what form runes take in a projected object they'll count as the same level of 'created' by Joe. The inscription of runes scales the power from the method ranging from hand engraving at the highest end to machine printed without Joe's involvement at the lowest end. Joe forming them in a projection will always have the same level in terms of their 'inscription' value, scaled by their design (boosted by his aesthetics perks) and the material of the runes. Emulated highly magical materials are about as good as you can get, and just flooding empty runes with mana isn't going to exceed that. Solidified mana or some kind of high density mana storage might work better, but Joe would need the Fate Alchemy perk to manage that.
Joe can basically reinforce a material until it can't hold anymore magic. A weaker object doesn't improve the amount it can be reinforced and since Joe is specialized in Transmutation he can take things further than most the typical magus. He can reinforce to a higher level and even overcharge to get bursts of power in exchange for damaging or destroying the object, in the same way as a broken phantasm (though not to that level of power).
Joe would be able to train up this skill, particularly with the benefit of Efficiency. It will just take time and require another implant to get the full benefit, meaning it's a larger project. Currently just having a device to project mass fields will do the trick without Joe needing to learn incredible precise control of his nervous system.
Shields in strike witches are actually insanely strong considering they tank beams that can sink battleships in a single shot. Joe deconstructing the shield effect enough to enhance or duplicate it will be a very significant achievement. It's also a magical effect that could be translated to the tiered magic system, meaning with enough training Joe could make potions that grant the effect for other people to use.
The shard referenced here is a element of Caelondian technology from Bastion. They are power sources for the Caelondian cities and devices, less powerful than cores but still massively significant. They are not magical and have nothing to do with parahumans. They can however take the mantic circuits Joe's been using to enhance his workshop up to an incredible level and potentially lead to the creation of Cores, the real serious shit of Caelondian tech.
If Joe could offer compensation or even just help in the relief effort he would. The anonymous healing was about the most he could get away with without setting off one of the power groups active in the situation. For the moment he still needs to step lightly, meaning he can only help in indirect ways.
Releasing any kind of new lifeform would cause more panic then rolling out with a robot fleet to deal with the effect. Joe could do it, it's just far on the side of bad ideas that provoke major response.
That's around the closes guess, along with the idea that he has a secondary shaker power that influences how he presents himself that must have gone out of control during the fight. That would also mean they are looking at a shaker effect rather than a master or stranger one. Purely semantics, but that kind of thing is important to people.
Joe's tech is still very identifiable and treated with extreme caution. He could design and provide emergency supplies and shelters, but he would need a way to deliver them and would have to automate the process of assemble to as to minimize the impact of his powers on the production, possibly to the point where it wouldn't even count as 'him' making them.
An emergency stasis field from 40k would actually be one of the best crisis measures possible, and considering Joe can build them at grenade level something the size of a watch would be doable. A deactivatable stasis bubble triggered at the moment of critical injury or death would keep the person in a state where Joe could treat them, and would only last as long as the field's power source. If Joe ever builds his own version of Dragon's Endbringer wristbands you can be assured those will be included.
It will take Survey a while to build a Garment translator even with Joe or the duplicates helping to explain things. You can be assured that she will at least see constant improvement in her auto-complete program from the endeavor.
While that might be less disruptive and have health benefits Joe gets the Undersiders to keep wearing the watches by ensuring they feel comfortable with them. Even though he said he was collecting medical scans monitoring a sleep pattern closely enough to identify REM periods would probably be seen as an intrusion. The ability to call them during the night isn't worth them deciding to sleep without the watches on.
Meditation is something that would be covered under both his magical training and new ninja experience. It would be beneficial, but it's something he needs to practice and get used to. Since it's the kind of thing with a real spiritual significance there's a good chance Joe will make it part of his routine since it's easier for him to justify things that have a tangible benefit for other situations than things that are purely self care.
Tetra has access to a lot of what's been transcribed from Joe Tailor perk, but Joe doesn't have many examples of life fiber technology for her to copy. Just the principles of how tech is emulates and a lot of designs to emulate.
It might be possible, but it wouldn't be recommended or even that useful. Goku uniforms are about controlling life fibers. If your maintaining consciousness then you might as well make a Kamui. There's almost no advantage to having a Kamui who can turn back into a life fiber entity. The only reason for that would be if you wanted the option to go back to the original life fiber/covers/world domination setup. Becoming a Kamui would be an upgrade for Tetra, but it would also be a disruptive experience. It's more important to make sure she's happy with the form she ends up with than ensure and easy 'undo' button with the assumption that they will need to start over at some point.
It's possible to do all those things, but there's a psychological value to having a 'normal' night's sleep. Trying to game the system might buy them a few more hours of functioning, but Joe has been through a bad experience. Having something to help ground him, like sleeping in a bed and waking up normally, would be more helpful than any kind of drug enhanced sleep schedule.
Joe has lots of disguise options, but there's an advantage to being able to use magic for the disguise. It's not tech based, meaning no dependent equipment, it doesn't involve any more surgery or body alterations, and it let him further develop his talisman magic, giving him a stable solution to his public identity problem. In a pinch he can probably project a hologram generator or just some stealth tech or a Cameleoline cloak, but the talismans will cover him for day to day use.
Joe has some serious issues with medication, particularly self medication, following the events of his trigger. Those issues make his other problems with wet tinkering look minor in comparison. The same is equally true for any modification of his own mind, particularly with respect to emotions. Joe would rather manage a full panic attack then self medicate to prevent it. A call to his therapist will be made long before he starts cooking up any tinker tech neural meds.
Depending on Tetra's debut as a cape and whether her life fiber form is seen there is definitely a chance that Sveta will pick up on it and note any similarities. Whether anything further happens will depend on the situation in Brockton regarding Case 53 treatment and the entire mess around that.
Thank you. It's great to hear you're enjoying the story. As I have said, I'm well aware of the pacing issues. With respect to the amount of time spent analyzing powers, at this point I really don't have a solution for it. The powers being granted by the forge are so varied with such unique interactions that in a lot of cases I can't proceed with the story until I clarify what they can do, can't do, and how they interact with Joe's other abilities. I've considered various solutions to the word bloat issue that won't leave powers unexplained, but I haven't found any that would work in this story.
This is very much a prototype story. While it's not the first I've written with incremental point gains it's the first that progressed this far. I thought I had worked out the bugs in the stories I wrote before this one, but power creep is one that I didn't see coming, mostly because you don't see it until it really starts to ramp up. I've considered various methods of slowing down the point rate, but I didn't want to change the rules mid-story. The only variation I seriously considered was adding a recovery period to 600 point perks, where Joe would have a certain number of words where points weren't gained after getting a 600 point ability, letting me properly explore the power and its interactions without earning yet more points. It was something I could even scale as more 600 point perks are earned, which would both shift the focus back to the narrative and slow down the power gain.
Ultimately I decided against any change. Many readers have been holding out for certain perks and it didn't feel fair to push the chance to gain them back even further. Eventually I just adjusted my plans for the story to account for Joe's projected power level during major events and decided to push forward. I am trying to avoid having Joe be totally introspective on his abilities, even if you just have Aisha or the workshop crew there for him to interact with. That helps avoid chapters that take place entirely within Joe's head, but there's still a lot of detail to go through in terms of the Forge abilities. All I can say is that I am aware of the issue and am doing my best to mitigate it.
Thanks, and I'm honored you made an account to comment on the story.
With respect to the Simurgh there are a lot of reasons Joe is still at least concerned about her, if not terrified to the level he originally was. The Simurgh is something of a existential threat for the people in Worm. Nobody understands how she works or what she's trying to accomplish. Other Endbringers are done once they finish their attack, but the consequences of the Simurgh linger and spread. Joe had a real time look at what happened to Sphere and is naturally concerned about that happening to him. Of all the Endbringers she's the one he wants to fight the least. He can't kill Endbringers without using his most powerful weapons and knows that there is some bad consequence to killing them. While he could fight every instant he's in her field of influence is a massive risk. His best bet would be to flee, but that means abandoning everything and everyone in the city, beyond those he could get out. From what he knows about her significance Taylor becoming a Simurgh bomb could be nearly as bad as getting influences himself. The prospect of the Simurgh pulling his tech is a concern, but not on the level of everything else she could do. Even just getting on her radar could see Simurgh Bombs heading his way, people he would never see coming but could tilt things at just the right critical moment to cause massive destruction. That's also why he's holding back tech improvements he could release. Out of all the threats out there the Simurgh has the most impact on his behavior which is why he's still concerned about her.
As I said above, it's actually the consequences of releasing tech and cures that's holding Joe back. Initially Mannequin was a big concern, since being a helpful tinker would bring in the Slaughterhouse Nine. Now that's something Joe can prepare for, but a fight with the Nine would still have massive collateral damage. The big concern is the Simurgh. Any world changing tech will either being down her or her bombs. Joe is holding until he has a way of dealing with her that isn't 'huck projected vortex grenade, write off anything affected by traveling the warp breach, and somehow deal with the post-Endbringer 'bad thing'.
Lisa emphatically did not hack Joe's watch. The second she tried she was locked out. What she did was work out how the command systems work. Basically she deciphered the interface based on responses from the virtual intelligence. It wasn't hacking, it was learning how to use the system which is well within the scope of her shard's ability. I have been very clear as to what the 'walking Sechen range' means and how it doesn't give new abilities to capes. I get there is serious Lisa hate for how her power gets exaggerated, but this isn't that.
Oh, and Brian's power would be able to block shots from a Lasgun. It doesn't block cape lasers because they usually have some hard light effect or similar exotic physics, but lasguns are directed radiation, so yeah, Brian can stop that, and probably a lot of other conventional radiation weapons as well. Anything based on particle beams or projected materials and anything based on physics more advanced than directed radiation will punch through, but darkness that blocks the EM spectrum will actually block EM based weapons. I have already covered exactly what Dragon will be able to decipher from Joe's tech so I don't see the need to get into it again.
I don't know where you got a connection between March and Amy. March doesn't actually have a playbook to what's happening in the city, she was just well researched and propped up by her power. Furthermore she's barely functional at the moment. She's certainly not going to be launching a coordinated kidnapping attempt and even if she did convincing Amy to fix something without putting in contingencies or knocking you out is going to be a nightmare. It sounds like you're just spinning a 'it gets worse' suggestion rather than something that could actually play out in the story.
Jack Slash can't connect to Joe's mind since he doesn't have a standard shard to interface with. The pin would be able to prevent the level of mind reading you see in the games, meaning surface thoughts. That's enough to interfere with a lot of master (and some thinker) powers, but not total immunity. It could keep him from becoming a Simurgh bomb, but wouldn't impact her precog.
I have commented about dropping tiny hints that get overlooked until they pay off several chapters later. I kind of like hiding foreshadowing like that, but since the topic of Survey getting a body has come up fairly often I'll just say, maybe you should give chapter 44 another look.
Projection is big, disruptive, and varied enough that it's likely to be seen as it's own thing. On the other hand, Dark Slayer from DMC is basically Allfather on a good day and will be triggering flashbacks in any veteran E88 capes who see Joe use it.
Drill swords were something of a joke, but when combined with Joe's standard tech loadout for weapons they become incredibly destructive. Just an active high power drill with a 40k power field would be bad enough, but Joe also adds HF capacitors from Metal Gear Rising to all his weapons. Since the property of the HF weapon scales with quality and Joe makes incredible quality weapons it's already deadly, but HF weapons can also project damaging effects from their edge. The edge of a drill sword extends around the 'blade' and would move as it spins. Add wind runes and you extend the effect on the level seen from Joe's omni blade. A drill sword launched at an enemy would be generating waves of molecular disruption as it moved, pretty much annihilating everything in the area. It's not something you would use unless you wanted to remove large buildings in a hurry.
Efficiency would make learning to use Biotics much easier. It would improve Joe's learning speed in every field (actually, improve everything in every field. It is global efficiency), but there are specific benefits in terms of biotics with precise control of energy use.
If Joe wanted to use time dilation he'd need to fall back on SSS ('No time to workout' is a household problem), but things can easily go wrong with that perk. There's a fine line between 'home gym' and 'military training center'. Joe could use it for workouts, but serious combat training might blow the system. Fortunately, since the perk comes from Tenchi Muyo you're probably good for most types of martial arts practice. 'Home Dojo' is fine, 'Home Wargames' not so much.
Between the work done while Joe was unconscious and the benefits of Build Rome all of Joe's computer systems have been upgraded with Cybertonium and his other best materials. There are still a few parts of his workshop that haven't been fully upgraded, but that's more due to lack of priority than any real obstacle. You can count on the entire workshop being in peak form in short order.
Joe is going to be working with his wand more. It has enough promise that he can justify it beyond just being an effective comfort item. Additional magic practice will happen during Joe's downtime, including building focuses for Joe's abilities. Joe could build a focus to enhance the power of his hearth, but there's actually a more significant use for that kind of thing. He has blessings from Greek gods (including the implicit blessing that comes from Hephaestus). The effects of those blessings count as "mysterious forces" for the purposes of the Arcane Craft. Joe could actually build shrines to the gods who have blessed him and use those as focuses to amplify the benefits of his demigod and blessing perks. The god's don't physically exist in Worm, but Joe would be able to use his Old Traditions perk to effectively connect with the same type of power they represent in Percy Jackson. Essentially, its a way of leveraging the statement that "the god will care slightly about you" from Minor Blessings even though the god in question isn't a physical presence in the world.
What happened to March and what happened to Khepri are very different things. March is essentially a corrupted restore file loaded by her shard that can't run independently anymore. Khepri was the same type of program running in administrator mode, more access but the loss of some user settings. March did NOT get a powerup from the experience. The only thing that might count is the fact that her body is still alive despite being a twisted mess that really should not function on any level.
Pretty much. Joe doesn't even like thinking about the Simurgh outside of his workshop protections. He's certainly not going to mention her casually. The only reason he brought her up with Weld was he was dealing with something on an equal scale (Contessa) and needed him to know it was serious. Even then the mention was only 'I am avoiding her attention', and Joe still feels it was incredibly risky. Also, he did it because he needed Weld to act with restraint. Joe doesn't exactly trust Taylor to behave with the same reservations.
I get the concern over this perk. I want to clarify, it's not going to suddenly turn Joe into a different character. The primary aspect of being a spark is the intelligence increase. He would be able to take in and process information much faster and build and design things he could never achieve before. There will be impacts on him, but those will still play out through Joe being Joe. It will be things like it being easier to get caught up in a project, enjoying work and discovery more, excitement about showing off his creations. Joe already feels these things to some extent, Spark will just amplify them.
The Madness Place is a more delicate issue. Right from the start Joe has Sei Ki, so spark mania will never be as bad as in a normal spark. The Madness Place isn't something that just happens, it takes effort to build up that energy. Phase 1 is nothing more than showmanship and grandstanding, and even Phase 2 can be managed. If you get to Phase 3 it's usually because you're up against something that you need to be in Phase 3 to handle. For context, in the previous fight, if Joe had the Spark he would have spent most of the fight in Phase 1. His duplicate would probably have gotten to Phase 2 when attacking Bakuda's lab, and you might have seen the same level of intensity when rescuing Chen. To hit phase 3 you would need the ambush and it's aftereffects. Nothing else could possible bring Joe to that level. If he was fighting in Phase 3 Joe would have countered Lung with some spark built mega-project rather than an FTL strike, probably to the same level of public concern.
Also note that being a spark and even entering the Madness Place doesn't destroy your morality. Agatha never unleashed horrors of abused innocent people even in the worst of her fugues. In fact, considering Joe's mentality part of his mania is probably going to be "and I'll do it without hurting ANYBODY!". Additionally, the Girl Genius novels give a very good picture of the onset of awakening as a spark and the nuances of the ability. I'm confident I can write that perk into the story without destroying Joe as a character or turning this into a crack-fic.
Just a point of clarification, the specialization will actually be Magos Errant, the type of Magos that's assigned to a Rogue Trader in exchange for the ability to study unique sites, materials, or technology the trader comes across. They have a broader focus than most types of Magos due to the variety of things they need to account for and problems the Trader they're assigned to might need to address. As such the memories would be less about slaughtering villages to get a single scrap of archeotech and more about decades of dealing with esoteric technical problems from corners of the galaxy on a city sized trading ship, requiring him to function in an environment full of backstabbing nobles, rival factions, massive infighting, and every shade of legality all ruled over by a hereditary captain who's family have operated the ship across a timescale the makes the Roman Empire look like a hiccup. Oh, and you can bet that the techpriests who actually care for the ship (and probably have done for generations) probably hold no affection for the captain's pet Magos. So still a significant and disruptive power, but not in the way most people seem to be concerned about.
I'm seriously considering adding Hybrid from Battle Angel Alita/Gunnm. It's a perk that directly boosts other perks available to Joe, but those are free perks, not ones listed in the forge itself, which is why I was conflicted on the matter. Still, I leaning towards it's inclusion both because it technically qualifies and because it's highly useful for Joe's situation.
Hybrid 50CP – This represents a very broad base and enough skill to quickly adapt and integrate new techniques into your personal style. It doesn't by itself increase your raw power, but versatility is extremely useful when your opponents may have a huge variety of body types and combat styles. Allows ordinary humans to attempt to learn special cyborg techniques such as vibration strikes – but is extremely difficult and stressful.
I'm sticking with the player pin only countering surface level mind reading, so it won't block Aisha's power. However, he revival perk Mental Fortress would be able to make him immune to it.
The only effect I'm allowing to produce more duplicates is Mixing Mixtures. I'm already being very generous with the interpretation of the perk, and I don't want a situation where I'm drowning the story in Duplicates. The Alchemy Machine will increase the duration to over two hours and give enough resilience that the duplicates can handle light surgery (compared to the single hit). That means they can prototype and test cyberwear and endure a lot more mental acceleration from the neural interface.
Skyrim metaphysics are present, but Joe has no training or ability with that alchemy system, so he's limited to the potions from his own perks.
During my research on the subject there was information on the shifting in pronunciation over different eras of the Greek Language. Possibly not enough to absolutely confirm things, but probably enough for it to be recognized by Greek scholars. Also, as pointed out, Weld is badly into confirmation bias, so he'd be ignoring any contradictory stances.
FMA transmutation is difficult with exotic materials and you can't produce new elements without violating equivalent exchange. However, Deranged Alchemist allows transmutation of elements and even creation of exotic materials, meaning Joe could produce materials from other settings, ones that he knows about but doesn't have access to. The machine would make that easier and boost the quality and quantity of the material produced.
It's not just 3 for 25, it the ability to triple input to boost production with no impact on crafting time. Directly stacking with Workaholic means he can either go for 25 normal items, of 5 that are 3 times as large. Massive production capabilities especially when you consider FMA transmutation that can be done in the field.
The Alchemy Machine works with every type of alchemy, not just the obvious stuff like potions and chemicals. FMA transmutation are scary when you consider them enhanced and automated with boosted production, but that's just the start. The machine could have been used in the creation of a Philosopher's Stone, meaning a larger stone of better quality (and assembly line production of them, if you have zero morals about that kind of thing). It would work for Castlevania Alchemy, for both potions and the charm and enhanced item aspects. That also means it could be used to enhance and automate dark rituals. Also everything under Deranged Alchemists, including homunculi production. Joe's probably not going to do that, but consider what a 'drastically enhanced' homunculus would be like. It would even work with Evermore Alchemy, letting joe automate and enhance the process, you know, since his call beads clearly need another power boost.
Piggot is using a time honored diplomatic technique known as bullshitting. Piggot might have a mountain of issues and be incredibly close minded, but she knows how to conduct herself in public. She wouldn't have been able to hold on to her position if she was raving about parahumans at every opportunity. A big part of that is giving the appearance of being reasonable and covering your true motives under so many layers of bull that nobody will be willing to dig through them.
Basically, Piggot had an initial plan centered around the horrible consequences of enduring a unstable s-class cape who totally deserves a pre-signed kill order which definitely won't make it to the media or influence any disciplinary hearings that are coming up. Even if she didn't get it she could spin things based on the fact that said order was being considered. With Uppercrust laying down the law she had to 180 on her position, which would have been difficult considering more hard line factions she might have been reaching out to ahead of the meeting. Now she has the perfect excuse for going along with Uppercrust's ultimatum, and can even frame it as being cautiously optimistic, still highly dangerous, but deserving of taking the risk. If there is one thing Piggot can do it's spin.
As for the actual impression Joe made one her, probably not the best. Being called out for past actions and personal care wasn't a good thing for someone as defensive and power obsessed as her, but she will work with things. Odds are good that at some point Apeiron will become someone else's problem and she just needs to manage until that point.
Considering the level of analysis that will be directed at the call if Joe had used any ultrasonic to map the area it would have been picked up. That's counter to his attempt to calm the situation, so he's 'only' limited to impeccable analysis of every sound transmitted through the phone and precise location data based on its signal. Still significant, but not everything. Joe isn't going to give the PRT any reason to build up any more paranoia.
It does up to plants with household uses. So anything you might find in a garden, up to medicinal herbs can be grown with SSS. If you get into more experimental plants or mix the perk with other types of super science it's going to break down. Rest assured, Joe won't need to worry about fresh vegetables.
The alchemy machine's effect is fiat based. Joe can't reproduce it, but he can modify the item he has. With miniaturization from Gadget Master and simplification from Ambrosial Artificer Joe can shrink it down to the point of mobility. It would still be bulky, but Hybridization Theory could let him integrate it into something like armor. Of course, the Armsmaster perk would let him shrink it to fit into any item he wanted.
There's interesting wording in Shipping the Product. It specifically says "logistics have increased". Not your understanding or logistics, or your your ability to manage logistics, or really anything related to your input to the situation. From a fiat based reading of the perk, if you want to get something somewhere the logistics will change themselves to make it happen. Easier to ship, harder to intercept, and fresh resources for your allies. It's not exactly Path-to-shipping (or would that be path-to-paths?) but it will allow Joe to manage transportation of goods beyond what should be possible for a situation. Given that it's a 400 point perk and gives less boost the Workaholic I'm inclined to be more generous on the ability to transport goods.
The Ace Combat perk is as much about technical skills and new technology as managing planes. There's also the super weapons, but they take some time to develop. Interestingly, there is a specific clause in the Strike Witches Jump stating all Ace Combat perks apply (which is why Joe got a hanger for his striker). So, in addition to strikers being able to carry more missiles than physically possible, all of the Ace Combat technical perks apply to striker technology. Joe can draw on any of Ace Combat's technology to enhance his striker.
The implant isn't replaced yet. That will be a custom job and probably involve some careful applications of The Arcane Craft to provide a built in focus for at least one of Joe's powers.
Winning a cyberwar with Dragon depends on the environment it's fought in. Dragon only did as well as she did against Joe because she basically had homefield advantage in the area they were fighting. Even then, Joe did extremely well for someone without Dragon's resources or connections. The processing power afforded by cybertonium means Joe can make the most powerful systems on the planet by far, but the ability to translate that to an advantage against Dragon will depend on the particulars of the conflict.
In terms of ability to hack Dragon's code any perk that gives an advanced tech base will give Joe better understanding and new insight into computer systems and software. Additionally Dragon still counts as tinkertech so any of the advanced reverse engineering perks will help with understanding her code and possibly breaking her chains..
Joe's insistence that he's taking a break will reassure some people, but concern others. Generally they either won't believe his sincerity, or will see it as evidence of some kind of volatile shift in mentality. This isn't totally unreasonable considering he was a raving wolfman the previous night, but it's not going to be the universal take. Feelings on Apeiron are mixed and this complicated things even more, though largely for the better.
My interpretation of the nanites stems from my original description of them in the story, which was :
The idea was the nanites were about the minimum size you could form out of conventional matter, something like a shell around a quantum scale computer. The power source would have been some sort of zero-point energy able to cover the apparent violations of mass and energy they displayed. Hollywood science through and through, but not that much worse than what you see from other sci-fi series.
Both tea and coffee technically fall under the umbrella of his alchemy, probably as infusions. The line between tea and potions is already nebulously thin for Joe and using the Alchemy Machine would cross that line at Mach speed. The exact nature of any enhancement would depend on the blend and intent of the brewing, but it would be extremely potent.
The Alchemy Machine is the size of a large cabinet. That's why the Workshop shook when it arrived. It is going to take some drastic modification if Joe wants to make it mobile, and even then it will be fairly bulky compared to the rest of his gear.
Sakuya's Butler
A refined Butler to a knife wielding Mistress.
- Location
- ↓, ↘, → + Punch
Says something....awe inspiring....when the REPLIES to various comments, is over 8.7k words in size.
Good god man, go get some sleep like your character.
Good god man, go get some sleep like your character.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
You're new here, then? Welcome aboard.
- Location
- Philippines
Ah, "Less than 10k? Probably Lord responding to posts."
- Location
- Buffalo, NY, USA
8.7k words of replies. LOL.
If it's not at least 12k words, it's likely not a chapter, lol.
Functionality
The Scholar
- Location
- At the Library
- Pronouns
- He
Alright, thank you for your response. You are doing your best, and since the serial format of this story leaves you little time to do editing and proofreading, I can overlook issues and just enjoy the story.
Lords shortest update for this fic was a little over 10K words, IIRC.
Narsauce
The Crucible Shitlord
- Location
- Here, there and everywhere
In the current era, yes. The shortest chapter in this Fic's history is 3K, Brian's interlude, which was the fourth chapter or so.
Functionality
The Scholar
- Location
- At the Library
- Pronouns
- He
I just skimmed the threadmarks, and earlier chapters are no longer than 10K words, but the average chapter length became longer and longer over time.