Thanks for the omake.
could be changed into
never jam
send me to my session?
bye
Thank you, corrected.
to happen
are there
daamn well
and is
camaraderie
there'll
never
Suppressing
confirming
bombb
you
bye
Thank you, corrected.
Thanks for the chapter.
Couple corrections below. One or two may have been covered already.
Thank you, corrected.
Hm, time for another omake.
XXX
Lightsaber Toys
Thanks for the omake.
Hm, I was going to quote something here, but I can't find it.
Anyway, have an omake.
XXX
Interdimensional Television
Thanks for the omake.
And some responses to comments on the previous chapter:
I really enjoyed the chapter but I think the name showtime is a bit misleading
This chapter was Garment's showtime, not Joe's.
The title might not have been the best fit, but the focus was both on Joe managing the title becoming well known and Garment getting a chance to show off her shop and work. Honestly, the 'time' chapters started as a gag that kept working well enough for me to stick with it. It's kind of highlighting the current arc, so the naming scheme will be dropped once we get to Somer's Rock.
It's rather funny that the thread had that massive debate on wether Joe's equipment would be affected or not by Faultline only to receive a material that guarantees a defense against it.
I feel like this is the reader's version of what happens when I build up to a major project that will finally allow Joe to take advantage of some technology or perk he's been struggling with for ages, then I suddenly roll an ability that makes all of that irrelevant. It kind of cuts the legs out from under you, but that randomness is one of the fun parts of a story like this.
What did Uppercrust do to piss off Flechette? Was it simply that he interrupted her confession of eternal love? Or did he actually do something to some poor Rogue? Is she a victim of the PRT PR machine?
I felt that the chapter keot bouncing from place to place, it was a bit too chaotic for my tastes, but I could see how it could be intentional to show how chaotic his life is.
Flechette was in a bad mood because of the interruption and the Elite have a bad reputation regarding press ganging rogues. Uppercrust is one of the better ones, but he still endorses the group. If the Elite went all out there was a good chance that Garment could end up folded into them, regardless of what she might want (Flechette doesn't know the full scope of Garment's abilities or that she has Apeiron's support). So part of it was irritation, part was anger at the Elite and part was concern for Garment.
First off
yes all the YES.
Second thank you
@LordRoustabout for the lovely early birthday present your updates are always such a treat.
Your welcome, and happy belated birthday. Sorry for how long it took me to get to the comment.
Firstly, thank you for the chapter. It amuses me that I am more apprehensive over this upcoming phone call than the meeting with literal supervillains a few chapters away, but I guess that just showcases your ability to create a connection between the readers and the character.
Secondly, I've come from the Discord to bring my worries over Natural Puppy. I must admit, I had not even heard of TWEWY before today, so I may be wildly off the mark.
What if Joe uses Natural Puppy to, in a hopefully hypothetical situation, boost his confidence levels in preparation to meet with his parents. He is wearing some Natural Puppy-supported clothing, which is affected by most, if not all of his fiat enhancement abilities.
He then cuts off ties with his family. He doesn't regret it, because of Natural Puppy.
Joe doesn't need to go to therapy anymore. He is more confident than he has ever been.
It seems like such a slippery slope. He is much more confident now, so why doesn't he try and fix the Undersiders' problems, the city's problems, the world's problems? He is gaining more and more power with the Spiral due to his confidence, why doesn't he just keep Natural Puppy on to boost his progress? Why doesn't he keep it on for every encounter with another person forever. He has to be better for them, for all of them, after all.
What I am trying to say is, could we get some clarification of how mentally warping Natural Puppy could be using divine-tier clothing, because it seems that unless I am wrong, which is likely, Joe could invalidate most of his struggles, both with his family and the weight of power, at the seductive cost of replacing himself with a more confident, more powerful person.
And I... don't want to see that. Joe's story is so compelling because an ordinary man is actively striving to be a person worthy of the gift, and life, he was given. If Joe basically brainwashes himself to deal with his life's problems, it would be incredibly dissatisfying.
Joe only gets the fiat backed effects of brands regardless of the canonical effect from the game or universe. They aren't going to affect his mind, only his stats and defenses. Mostly defenses for Natural Puppy. As explained before, that brand is a good match for pre-Forge Joe, but not for Apeiron. Pretty much the only usable item is the Black Jeans, which can match with his style in or out of costume and provide serious defensive utility. Specifically, Dual Resistance stops his attack or defense from being compromised by other effects.
There are no shortcuts to mental health for Joe and anything that acts as a crutch would be recognized as such, either by him or by the duplicates. Some things might help with his mindset, but it's not going to be a magic bullet for his issues.
While that's his interpretation of his speciality, and how he's using it, has he actually tried creating modules from scratch since "figuring it out", or just converting existing tech into modules? Because, there's a difference between "can convert other Tinkers' work into modules" as his main ability ("garbage tinker" as he puts it), or just as a small aspect of his actual ability.
A big reason why Kid Win 'discovered' his specialty was because of the moratorium on new projects following the Bank. He was forbidden from building anything new thanks to the mess with his cannon, so all he could do was tinker with his old equipment or the half finished projects that had already been built. Combined with the need to jury rig something out of his hoverboard he found himself able to switch out components, create multi-purpose modular devices, and recombine old work into better creations. Of course, he was in a horrible mental place so he took the absolute worst interpretation of what was happening and continues to focus on his 'garbage tinker' idea. It's at the point where even comments from other tinkers are being misinterpreted. Uppercrust doesn't hand out compliments lightly, but the significance of it went right over Kid Win's head.
Does Joe have the post-jump Harry Potter power to make companions/anyone into witches or wizards by having them read through this copy of the Hogwarts curriculum? I don't remember if that was explicit or house ruled by several authors.
This is the first time I have heard about this, and I can't find any reference to it in the jump document. Is it an optional rule, or was it referenced somewhere else?
Regardless, Joe has gotten everything he can from the Harry Potter jump, so if this effect requires an item he's out of luck. He can still grant Harry Potter magic if he gets Magitek Mastery, but probably not through any other effect (maybe cloning, though that's a bit of a difficult area for Joe).
You know thinking about it the animation mechanism of Avid Gloves, much less the faux-biology they have, would probably be quite interesting to reproduce. Not much of a reason to stick to only a single piece of living clothing once you have one and especially if you can prevent them from achieving what little awareness they seem capable of.
What's particularly interesting is that he'd probably be able to use a few scraps of Welds faux-flesh metal for it and make some neo-living devices. Those boots of his would probably be a good place to start.
The animating principles of the Avid Glove are a mess. It is made out of non-living material, but is also alive in a paradox that Neath doesn't care about. The actual origin of avid gloves and other living clothing (and items) is tied into Polythreme, the Clay Men, and The King with a Hundred Hearts. Recreating that kind of effect might be possible with enough experimentation and aggressive use of The Arcane Craft to mess around with the essence of Stone, but one mistake could turn his workshop into a New Polythreme, which trust me, is not something anybody would want.
Should really get some Familiars or something that'd be able to do that for him. Those disembodied souls would probably be willing to do it for him and with a remote connection to a few systems they'd almost definitely be able to as well.
Fleet and Survey are both capable of running mundane crafting machinery and Matrix was purpose built for that. The reason Joe or his duplicates need to be personally involved is the variety of effects require him to be the one crafting. Some aspects, like material transmutation, are not even possible without his direct action.
Oh yeah Taylor's definitely going to want one of those. Possibly one that's technically alive for the purpose of greater manipulation via magic.
The fact that Joe could put any parahuman on a Harry Potter broom hasn't been lost on him. It's a less drastic way of granting flight than a Striker Unit, but also more dangerous. Wizards have some level of enhanced durability, but most parahumans would be one broom crash away from death. Still, given the utility of flight I'm pretty sure most capes would be happy to roll those dice if Joe started selling racing brooms.
Yeah it'd probably be a good idea to get Tetra to practice forming less ghoulish arrays of herself. Maybe something akin to macrame or filigree? Like it's pretty obvious that Joe's cool with it but one performs as one practices so it'd probably be a good idea.
Garment will be happy to educate Tetra on the potential of dispersed fiber constructs that can be taken when she shifts back to her natural form. Not saying the 'nightmare web' look will be completely abandoned, but it will at least feature less tangles and more stylistic lacing.
Doesn't he have a lab coat that has some vague mood altering properties though? That might be able to help.
The coat is an Int boosting Fallout item with an effect that's mostly psychological. Less increased intelligence and more confidence and focus when doing intelligence related tasks. Being appropriately dressed can have that effect. The coat has become common wear in the workshop and Garment has started working the effect into her other clothing.
God can you imagine how fucking triggered Joe would be by mental health medication actually being good for Alec?
The right meds are good - somewhat - for Joe. It was a bad reaction to new meds that triggered him after walking away from a family fight.
But it'd be interesting to see him make his own meds. With all the benefits the Forge permits.
Joe isn't against psychiatric medication, but he does take it seriously. If medication can help someone he would be happy for them, but would also exercise due care for the treatment and understand that meds don't fix everything. When it comes to making his own medications he has the skills and technology to do that exceptionally well, but considering it's basically exactly what half of his trigger power would have been its going to be a very difficult field for him to get into.
I'm very curious if it will lead to anything.
Those most definitely aren't normal tinkertech. Some of the perks might make it non-replicable (if they were made by Joe or clones and not a printer), but it will still put Garment's rating very high, because her telekinesis apparently has industrial precision), but there is a chance that some of those materials are fully replicable and might be a hornet nest of its own.
I say Kid Win will bring it back & Armsmaster will 'somehow' get a hold of it. Dragon as well.
Kid Win runs tests & the experienced PRT sticks their noses into it.
The technology is 'mundane' (meaning only seriously advanced but still physically possible), but the work might not be reproducible. Not because of the level of technology, but because of the manufacturing technique. Without precise telekinetic control of every component and a perfect understanding of the principles at play and the end result you're going for weaving a display like that would be pretty much impossible. It's not just a flexible screen, its a screen that's composed of fabric, meaning it can stretch, shift, and breath without disrupting the effect at play. The display itself is high enough resolution that it could work as active camouflage, though that's pretty much the opposite of Garment's intended application.
Too optimistic. I think there will be 3 more chapters.
First, conversation with his sister, analysis of new perks, updating of ammunition and equipment for the Undersiders, work on projects, perhaps some minor side business. Yes, 15k words) We keep in mind that it will be Saturday evening, at the latest, a citywide congress of super-criminal workers in a day. A lot of time by the standards of a fucking mysterious master.
Second, this is a moment with a 48-hour recovery, working with the consequences of this, analyzing new perks, working on projects, again side quests, entertainment and social activities, perhaps some surprises like a suddenly arrived mother, Oni Li and Bakuda survivors attack with support from Uber&Leet, any another fuckup.
The third, comprehensive preparation for the summit, new perks, side quests, a bit of a weekend, for a change, a surprise attack from someone there. Oh yeah, presenting updates to the Undersiders in this or the previous chapter. Intense conversations with them live and on the phone.
And also interludes, things 2.
Well, you understand the scheme, yes.
And now, after a month and 60-70k words, we came to Summers Rock ...
While the predicted "surprises" are unlikely, the rest is on point. It also reminded me that at my best that "60-70k words" would have been two chapters, meaning I could have gotten to Somer's Rock in less than a month. As it stands all I can say is it will take as long as it takes. Somer's Rock wasn't the 'Next time on Brockton's Celestial Forge', it was the season finale. There's stuff that I want or need to get through or set up ahead of the meeting, and the meeting itself will probably be more than a single chapter. I would like to be able to blaze through everything in a pair of chapters with beefy preambles and addendums, but that's not a pace I can handle right now.
Well, I admit I am more familiar with the original version of Mage, but these powers involve literally re-writing the laws of the universe-in a limited way depending on your particular powers and affinities/traditions, sure, but nonetheless, a very broken system compared to many others. I
think I read somewhere that this would come with two dots in one arcana and one in another, but of course I don't know which he would get. Even this limited amount would indicate a massive change in what Jozef can do, though of course it comes with some of the typical Mage drawbacks as well. I for one will be more than pleased when/if he gets this troublesome Perk...
Edit: just found a WOG, it will be Force and Matter. Also, LordR didn't seem that enthused about the Perk either, so evidently it
is going to be a bit of a dud after all.
As a disclaimer, I was never that into Mage and have had to brush up on the rules and concepts for the inclusion of it in this story.
Joe would start with one rank in Gnosis, two ranks in his ruling arcana and one in another arcanum. One rank is about enough for detection and two ranks can manage basic manipulation. Most of the reality altering stuff you hear about from mage is four or five ranks, three at the absolute minimum. Also, because of the Watchtower system Joe can't get both Force and Matter as ruling arcana. Joe's Watchtower would probably be Obrimos, meaning he'd have Force and Prime as major Arcana (two ranks) and one rank in Matter. While this would have been moderately useful earlier in the story and can still be trained to higher levels its mostly going to be overshadowed by Joe's current abilities. Force is the most powerful ability there and can only manage damping of blows or a invisibility effect that extends to visible light only. Prime at least has the potential of manipulating magical energies, so there's some use there. Joe also still has to worry about paradox and vile magic when casting Mage spells, though thankfully disbelief isn't a problem post-jump.
I was re-reading the story and just had a really odd thought when I read the chapter where Joe received Mechanist. Did Lung turn into Magicite when he was killed? Since the forge treats parahumans as magic and magical entities such as espers can turn into Magicite when they die it would be interesting if there was a Lung Magicite crystal just floating in space. Joe did mention using parahumans as a magical power source but filed it under too horrific to think of...
There is actually a separate perk from the FFVI jump that causes " spirit or magic-based creatures" you defeat to turn into Magicite so that you can learn magic based on their abilities or summon them in battle. It's not part of this story, but given the magic equivalency parahumans would count for that effect. There's probably an entire story possible about someone with that ability, though it would have serious Fairy Queen vibes to it.
@LordRoustabout
6 chapters late, but I still wanted to say that your new style of chapters has been bombastic. Of course the truly pitiful amount of words of under 20k is heartbreaking and the pseudo-cliffhangers are irritatingly teasing but your style of writing has become exactly how I like it personally (descriptive and detailed with some greatly written personal interactions). So thank you for you choosing the path that makes you happy and NOT caving to peer pressure or silly criticism.
There are 2 things I have been confused about though. One a random tangential thought I had and the other a consistent weird feeling about this wonderful story.
Firstly how did Oni Lee work as effectively as Parahuman as he did (especially with something as difficult as the super duper timed Endbringer-slaying Teleport hug) with a broken arm? As far as I know recovery time of broken arms are around 4-6 weeks and while I do not doubt that he has a high enough Pain Tolerance to endure it or simply lacks the ability to feel normal pain (weird Call Bead induced spastic seizures non-withstanding) re-breaking his arms to the point of a complete disability would be unadvisable for a Parahuman whose whole attack arsenal relies on his ability to use his hands.
Secondly is the constant talk about analysis and reassurances in the story from nearly every perspective (not to mention that this is first time I have ever seen/read a single work (fiction or not) that used those words as often as this one does).
I thought that the reason why Parahumans and more specifically the inclusion of High-Tech (via Tinkers) into Low-Tech Worlds works without breaking the Cycle is that they are not reproducible, decipherable or in any other way being capable of being used against the Entities Design (of course the Tinkers Brain Death and Scions Sloppiness due to his Depression could explain why there is so much weight put upon Analysis). That of course is compounded by Apeiron deriving his abilities out of everyones purview and reach and thus making even Analysis that works on Parahumans shaky at best with him. Tinkers can be inspired by other work so I can understand why Technical Data on Apeiron's Work has to be very juicy but Joe does know this himself so he is going to limit any recreation of his designs as much as he can by only providing Data on Capability and not Specifics (his explanation of his neural Throne to Dragon was about as comprehensive as the average fictional SCIENCE!)
Not to forget Reassurances. Why is anyone putting so much weight onto it if there are not gonna believe it anyway? In the last few talks between Apeiron with Weld about his technology Weld said that everyone was worried and that he wants as much information as he can get while Joe basically repeated different Versions of "This is not in anyway dangerous" or "Don't poke it with a stick and you'll be fine" and the Protectorate is still loosing their shit and worried as fuck.
Considering that Joe is a near complete unknown with powerful abilities, a somewhat heroic intent and an abnormal dedication either to his contracts or the Undersiders, that is somewhat understandable.
In Worm though the Undersiders changed the Wiki Information of themselves (or maybe just Theo) to limit information on their own abilities which was tactically sound in a world where most powered individuals are non-brutes (not even pseudo-Brutes like in most Comics) and thus the smallest of advantages can mean the difference of being turned into living spaghetti or survival, so misinformation is key to a Parahumans continued Existence. Additionally the vaunted Protectorate Thinker Tank has shown their ability by being completely thrown off by Joe's character traits (it is hilarious that it was not even Joe's Jump-chan derived abilities that veered them off logical coherency) and clearly does not provide the perfect Lie-Detector that would explain the weight put upon reassurances.
Given that the technology he made 6 days ago was already creating a seimic event the decision to treat the parahuman equivalent of high grade Uranium ready to be processed into a Nuclear Bomb like it is already near ignition and then start to gently hammer it because it is not under their complete and utter control is confusing. Is the concept of a subtle touch beyond them? Shards do push their Hosts for more Combat and creative use of their abilities but it does not override the fear of death and yet you have made it pretty clear that the other Parahuman Factions in Brockton Bay are going to do the equivalent of taking out the sledgehammer (I really like this metaphor and yes I know that kinetic force is not what makes the Uranium go Boom-Boom, the point still stands though) in the Bermuda Bar.
I understand that Apeiron is scary as fuck especially with the the fear of the unknown for most but blindly flailing in panic is not how long experienced Professionals or Parahumans who care about surviving the next week would react like, they would either try to work with the Titan in their midst or get the hell away from him, not antagonize the guy who one-shot an Endbringer Tier (at least in their own eyes is late Stage Lung comparable to an Endbringer) Being and whose future Goals are unknown.
With the chasing Apeiron meme and his growing infamy I don't even think that the Reputation loss would be so severe. So only crazies like the Teeth would challenge him.
The Assumption that Apeiron would limit himself to Brockton Bay is completely understandable though so I understand why most of the country or the world is just looking with concerned amusement at the Situation.
P.S I am sorry if this sounds in any way mean. I have followed this story since near the beginning, made this account specifically for it and have reread certain chapters up to a few dozen times so it is frustrating that the closest approximation i have for this is that the whole analysis and reassurances bit feels both too rational and maddeningly stupid at times. So to finally write this out is way more cathartic than I thought, though I hope that as a non native English Speaker and someone with a tendency to ramble on and on my point and confusion comes across.
I hope you enjoy writing this story as much as I enjoy reading it.
With respect to Oni Lee, the broken arm did inhibit him. He didn't engage anyone in melee after his fight with Joe was focused exclusively on hit and run attacks, mostly using his undamaged arm to throw the same grenade over and over again, sometimes switching to a different model or using a launcher, but not actually going in with knives like he used to. March's coordination was a key factor in keeping him effective while injured and helped cement her status in the gang despite joining so recently.
For the rest of it, that covers a lot of ground, so I'll try to answer it as well as I can. One of the things with this story was the impact the short timescale has had on the people enduring the events. Short term decisions prove to be detrimental but nobody has the time to fix them before the next set of stopgaps need to be put in place. Add in the fact that you have reputations and careers tied up in earlier decisions and self interest keeps people from making the sensible decisions that would have resolved things quickly. A minor pissing match between Armsmaster and Piggot over the handling of a new cape had repercussions that continue to be felt, largely because they decided to try to ride things out rather than backtrack when they still had a chance. Yes, after Saturday night the position on Joe should have been completely revised, but they had problems with the blackout, injured heroes, the collapse of New Wave, Weld being missing, Weld being partially healed (This was actually a legitimate concern. A fair number of Case 53s are inherently dangerous like Sveta and even having them in the city could be a disaster. Multiple people like that swarming in looking for a cure could have resulted in a lot of damage.), and the continued gang war with March's manipulations in play made it impossible to pull an effective about face, and that was without Master/Stranger protocols tying their hands on a lot of matters. It's a slow motion train wreck that's clear from the outside but from the perspective of people in the thick of it they were at worst taking minor risks while being blind to the larger situations.
@LordRoustabout
Could Amy even do anything to Joe at this point? Like if he specifically didn't fight back and allowed her to get full contact?
Amy's power still works through biological manipulation, seeing as it needs living cells. She would still be able to affect Joe, but he has some seriously non-standard anatomy not to mention what's going on with his heart. Some parts of him, like divine ichor and life fibers, would be either impossible or extremely difficult affect in any meaningful way.
5) MC's criminal under-utilization of the Super Science Household power.
Most of the rest of these have been covered by other people, but I wanted to weigh in on this again.
Joe is very much intentional in his under-utilization of the Super Science Household technology. He knows what can happen if that stuff goes wrong and doesn't want to end up stuck in a time loop or pocked dimension. The example you gave about predicting the weather is setting off massive alarm bells since anything super science that involves looking ahead in time is going to be very easy to abuse and go very bad when it does. If your actions based on predicted weather change more than a weather report would warrant you could collapse a timeline completely. Washu level hijinks that are funny in anime are the kind of thing that gets cities walled off in Worm. It's also why Joe hasn't been handing out Super Science appliances, namely because he can't trust anyone else to leave well enough along. The perk is doing exactly what its supposed to do, taking care of mundane household problems. Joe doesn't need to worry about grocery shopping or cleaning his bathroom. Trying to push the 100 point perk further than that will result in it pushing back hard. If Joe does use it for something beyond obvious household issues it will be treated with the level of care and concern he also extends to things like antimatter or the impulsion pump.
@LordRoustabout if Joe ever gains a Dragon soul or maybe a Dragon core would it make him into the Dragonborn.
It's not only you but imagining gloves and boots helps make it less creepy to more hawt
Okay, watch your capitalization there because on my first readthrough I say Dragon as opposed to dragon and assumed you were talking about the tinker, since I've already had to answer the 'Dragon's Soul' question and was trying to figure out what you meant by core.
The answer is no. Elder Scrolls Dragonborn is different from Fate dragon core/soul. Having one wouldn't extend the abilities of the other. There might be some crossover or reinforcement if Joe had both, but one doesn't grant access to the other.