Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)

I suspect that "enemy attacks an area that you are in" still counts as "direct enemy action" — bombs, artillery strikes, landmines, etc. However, "enemy attack destabilises a building, which then falls on you" most likely does not, unless they were specifically using demolition charges to bring the building down or something.
Minefields might not count either!
 
That one is easy. Right now he have three troubles:
1) Uncertainity. He don't know how Endbringers works. That mean, he can't be sure what can kill them and what can't. He, of course, want to be sure without a shadow of doubt that his strike will put them down.
2) Ominous warning from his Passenger. He know that he need to do something before he'll kill endbringer, or it'll only make things worse. But he doesn't know what he need to do.
3) Collateral damage. Currently, his options that have chance to kill an Endbringer is "let's strike it as hard as I can and hope it'll be enough". Of course, collateral damage from such strikes at best would devastate a city. At worst - destroy the Earth.
So, beside second point, if he'll get some good shit, that'll allow him to use fiat-backed annihilator effects without much collateral damage - he'll almost certainly to come and fight. Or, even more likely, will attack Ziz first.
Otherwise... Most likely he'll help with search and rescue, I think.
I kind'a have three non-respective points to bring up in response to this.

The first is that he doesn't need to beat the Endbringer as long as he can fight it and lend other Endbringer Fight services like healing and Search And Rescue and whatnot.

The second is that he doesn't even need to beat/fight/attack a Endbringer to really defeat it since they can be physically modified with the right equipment as shown by Simurgh hacking Leviathan with the Shank Of Firmware Updates +5 to grow nanothorn fins for the Zion fight.

The third and final point is that even if one can't transport a Endbringer around the place one could probably set up a few defensive or redirective measures, like a few portals, to deal with any backlash or waste energy from anti-Endbringer-scale effects. Like if needed he could probably time-stop or dimensionally shunt the rest of the world away from the Endbringer instead of the other way around before he went to work on it.
Right so, I have a question. Panzerkampf insures that all tools of war you produce can only be damaged or hindered in their function via direct enemy action. Now, would bodyarmour be covered by this perk and if yes, would that make Joe then immune to all attacks, even esoteric ones such as timestop, that are not personally fired at him by an enemy? Because that could prove quite useful in future engagements with Vakuda.
I suspect that "enemy attacks an area that you are in" still counts as "direct enemy action" — bombs, artillery strikes, landmines, etc. However, "enemy attack destabilises a building, which then falls on you" most likely does not, unless they were specifically using demolition charges to bring the building down or something.
Minefields might not count either!
yeah , the perk says IED don't count , so mines prob wont count

The perk no-sells 99.99% of bakuda arsenal
IED stands for Improvised explosive device.
So I'd expect it to protect against anything Bakuda slaps together on a whim, but not against anything she actually puts work into.
I think that the best way to define the effect is that no effect that isn't specifically targeted at them would be able to break a fragile component, like a axle or part of some continuous tracks or something, more then it would be able to/before being able to damage the strongest one. Sort of like a vehicle version of Fashion Non-Victim or whatever Perk allows Joe to be as tough as whatever protection he's wearing. Got to go though the harder parts before the softer ones.

I also think that anything wearable it could apply to would need to be a mecha, something as much worn as piloted or possibly something like those Strike Witches boots, for that trick to work and even then that anything that's large enough, persistent enough, exotic enough, or sufficiently direct as a attack wouldn't be blocked by that Perk.

Minovsky particles would probably be a bit of a edge case since they are a large scale environmental effect but on the other hand they also only effect the internals of a machine which I think the Perk defends against the most.



Personally I also think that it might be possible to exploit by turning ones-self, and possibly more importantly others, into a miniaturized Evangelion Unit. You just need to technically count as a biological APC and your internals should be hardened against external effects. As a side-benefit you also end up with pockets in your birthday suit. Either that or modified on a metaphysical level to better hold souls and count as a vehicle that way.
 
Omake: Friendbringers #2
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.
 
I kind'a have three non-respective points to bring up in response to this.

The first is that he doesn't need to beat the Endbringer as long as he can fight it and lend other Endbringer Fight services like healing and Search And Rescue and whatnot.
That point, or at least the second part, is literally what I've said: "Otherwise... Most likely he'll help with search and rescue, I think". Maybe I shoul've added "and other not directly related to combat stuff, like healing, evacuation and so on". But I don't think that'd really change the meaning.
You third point, I'd say, pretty close to that too.

First part... I doubt he will fight, because until he'll know for sure he can kill the Endbringers without catastrophic collateral damage, he would try to limit the information about his capabilities.

The second is that he doesn't even need to beat/fight/attack a Endbringer to really defeat it since they can be physically modified with the right equipment as shown by Simurgh hacking Leviathan with the Shank Of Firmware Updates +5 to grow nanothorn fins for the Zion fight.
He don't know that.
 
As someone who was part of the argument that spawned the "Natural Puppy Self Mastery" thing, I was honestly just talking about the real world psychological effects of wearing clothing that is comfortable and fits your self-image. How it spiraled out into what it did, I have no clue. Clothing that feels good makes it easier to be yourself, boosts your confidence, and tends to make things that are distressing less distressing. That was all I was saying at the time.

That's why some people have to dress up or apply their make-up for phone calls, or wear specific boots when they go out dating.
 
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.
Isn't Joe already pushing SSS quite a bit? I mean, the N-Dimensional Privacy Curtain is covering his entire workshop, which at this point is more "All-In-One Production Plant" than a house. Shouldn't it be suffering from some sort of defect, like... I dunno, forcing everyone to see nothing but Joe's workshop?
 
Isn't Joe already pushing SSS quite a bit? I mean, the N-Dimensional Privacy Curtain is covering his entire workshop, which at this point is more "All-In-One Production Plant" than a house. Shouldn't it be suffering from some sort of defect, like... I dunno, forcing everyone to see nothing but Joe's workshop?

IMO, the workshop still counts as part of the home.
If he were to start mass producing items for sale, then that might shift things a little, maybe, people do work out of their homes on occasion, but for now, he's doing the equivalent of using his workbench/power tools to help a neighbor or friend.
 
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.
The easy solution to that is just to use flying carpets instead, and then use all his various perks to make them smaller and then integrate them into clothing. Bam, magically flying clothing accessible by any parahuman.
 
People snooping into his Workshop/home has been considered an household issue. SSS has deemed the fact that simply stopping people with a pair of binoculars or mundane listening devices isn't Super or Scientific enough. Not when there are tons of precogs, clairvoyants and superpowered hackers/AI trying to comb over his entire private life with a comb and no respect for his privacy.

I'm sure there's a way to get it to start running rampant, but at a minimum it probably involves trying to assassinate the President inside the Oval Office while wearing it as a cape.
 
This 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).
I believe it's used in Companion Chronicles at least. I'm not sure if I've seen it anywhere else.

After some searching, it might be the Jumper School of Magic Warehouse extension/property from the Generic Harry Potter Fanfiction jump. It lets anyone teach any kind of magic they know, bypassing prerequisites like being born with magic. That seems like the kind of thing that would be present in Companion Chronicles without being explicitly mentioned, especially since their jumpchain house rules favor buying items.

I just remembered that Celestial's Entertainment has a freebie perk from their version of the celestial forge that gave a set of Hogwarts course books that granted magical ability. Checking that thread, they have the Schoolbooks perk from the Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality jump, which I guess is in the v2 forge.
 
Ah, so completely ahistorical then. :rofl:
Well it is based on Sabaton which is pretty ahistoric.

Considering that "Death of the Author" has resulted in academic institutions not only teaching the complete opposite of the author's intent with regards a book, but then having the temerity to tell the author that their interpretation is wrong, I feel it's an concept that gets taken to absurdly arrogant extremes, has largely outlived its usefulness, and should be killed back like a hedge that's overgrown the entire garden.
I don't think that the author saying something means conflicting interpretations are invalid. It's silly to take that to the extreme of 'the author's interpretation is wrong' but I do think that ultimately a work largely stands on its own. If you have to read the author's notes and clarifications to understand a work the author has failed.
 
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.

As I've only dealt with depression from the chemical imbalance side. I assume that all his neurotransmitters are running through his body exactly as they should be. Which is a MAJOR portion of what causes depression. Mostly without that imbalance he'll feel like shit about the phone call but it'll be temporary and not a death spiral of negative thoughts.

Basically without the body supporting all those dark thoughts it's far easier to dig yourself out of bad habits. From personal experience just fixing the physical side you can feel a world of difference only days after find that sweet spot.
 
I don't think that the author saying something means conflicting interpretations are invalid. It's silly to take that to the extreme of 'the author's interpretation is wrong' but I do think that ultimately a work largely stands on its own. If you have to read the author's notes and clarifications to understand a work the author has failed.

Not necessarily true. There are many times in which reader interpretation is the result of, well, not quite reading thoroughly or because they have a particular bias that they cherry pick the work to confirm that bias and so on. Given it is the -authors- work, then the author's interpretation, if he goes on record on what his work means in or outside of the body of the work, is the final say for what it means. Sometimes, the author may end up having thematic elements in his work that readers discover that he didn't -intend- to put there, but were rather more along the lines of a happy accident. Or because life just works that way and/or is just that interconnected.

And then there are the times in which authors would be -deliberately- vague on their points. As a challenge to the reader to 'figure it out themselves'. Case in point, The Rule Unwritten, The Rule Unspoken, the Wizards Last Rule from the Sword of Truth series....I -still- don't know what that rule is. T-T But I do know many interpretations of what it could be floated around, and, as far as I know, the author has been mum on what it actually is, merely stating, it's there in the book if you read it.

Lastly there are times in which the author makes it a point that multiple interpretations are correct, and there is no one true point or right interpretation. In this last example, is the only example in which conflicting interpretations are not invalid. Otherwise, the authors word is law, given the work is there creation. Like that of gods. Hence why they are referred to as WoG. Word of God.(barring troll authors like Wildblow that is.)

As for the author not doing his job...ugh...no? Again, aside from Troll authors like Wildblow, most of the time in the cases of Authors of works that have conflicting interpretations, there are readers of it who get the interpretation correctly with what the author intended, and then there are those that do not. The fact there -are- those got the correct one means the author did his job fine. So one should -probably- be looking at those who got it incorrect to see what exactly happen. As mentioned above, it could be because of some bias, or lack of thorough reading, or perhaps even a lack of education in some areas. (Some times authors may or may not use metaphors or analogies or other literary tricks and doobobs that without knowing certain subjects you won't make the connection you were meant to make, and that leads you down to getting the wrong understanding of the work in question.)
 
Not necessarily true. There are many times in which reader interpretation is the result of, well, not quite reading thoroughly or because they have a particular bias that they cherry pick the work to confirm that bias and so on. Given it is the -authors- work, then the author's interpretation, if he goes on record on what his work means in or outside of the body of the work, is the final say for what it means. Sometimes, the author may end up having thematic elements in his work that readers discover that he didn't -intend- to put there, but were rather more along the lines of a happy accident. Or because life just works that way and/or is just that interconnected.
If you acknowledge the possibility that the author can include thematic elements without intending to I don't see why it would be impossible for an author to accidentally undermine their intended message or themes.

To assert as you seem to be that the author is the final authority on how their work ought to be interpreted feels a bit narrow. Of course the author's comments can be useful for framing a discussion but meaning is ultimately a very personal thing and I don't think it's right to tell anyone that they took the wrong meaning from a work. Now if they're making claims about what a book is 'really' about they're asserting some objective meaning with less basis than the author has and it's absurd.

Also if they claim that something was really the author's intent and the author says otherwise they had best have some very convincing evidence.
 
Just remembered that the empire has Damsel of Distress and they know that Joe's weak to annihilator effects. They might use the truce of Somer's Rock to try and get a surprise attack on him, or maybe Damsel doesn't listen to them and attacks anyway, we saw how interested she was in Joe in the interlude involving her. Or she could just be used as a show of force.

Regardless of how she shows up, I'm pretty sure she'll meet Joe in some way.
 
Was there a snip done involving "A Certain Scientific Railgun"? Lost it.

I saw a mention of skills from it, a perk where you gain a field of education from there, a 400 or 600 point?

A lot of people are going over the Workshop Security, Does it need an upgrade?

I just imagined Uber & Leet coming back to play "Super Smash Bros" with a returning version of Lung, controlled by Leet.
 
How much free will do the Endbringers have right now? Can they all just attack Joe? I thought that they have to follow Eidolon's subconscious order right now, so I don't think they can just get up and go "Joe is a threat to the cycle, lets kill him." Plus, I am pretty sure the only order given to Leviathan and Behemoth is the worthy opponent one. I believe the only reason why ZIZ has more free will is because she was specifically designed to be the leader of the Endbringers, and to help manage the cycle by directing other Endbringers to places where they would cause the most conflict (I believe this was the intended purpose before Eden's death and the birth of Eidolon). Despite this, ZIZ still primarily follow's Eidolon's subconcious command. I don't think they can all go and kill Joe. I could be wrong though.
 
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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.
Love the story but I also gave a question. I'm kinda confused if we assume the people inside the situation are those in charge in Brockton Bay, then what about the higher ups who don't live in the city and can see the situation form the outside. Why haven't they done something to help with the situation because, it looks like the whole organization is about to take a giant "L" and it can be avoided but know one seems to want to put in the work to make that happen?
 
Love the story but I also gave a question. I'm kinda confused if we assume the people inside the situation are those in charge in Brockton Bay, then what about the higher ups who don't live in the city and can see the situation form the outside. Why haven't they done something to help with the situation because, it looks like the whole organization is about to take a giant "L" and it can be avoided but know one seems to want to put in the work to make that happen?
Probably the same reasons as in original story: the city was unofficially written off, whole country is stretched thin, army on the decline, politics got involved (less than a week had passed since first attack, not enough time to properly react) e t c.

A certain Contessa making things difficult in the background likely doesn't help matters and who knows what March did to prevent other cities from helping. Couple well placed bombs are enough to tie a lot of forces fighting disasters like fires in forests or helping save people from blown up dams

Edit: And apparently I forgot about March giving out some kind of head ups to gangs in other cities, resulting in them acting up as well.
 
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Overall I feel sorry for Flechette considering she is completely misunderstanding Garment's feelings toward her.
I don't think she thinks she understand it. She have hopes, but as far as I can tell, she didn't take any assumptions beside "Garment like me in some way".
Of course, without Flechette PoV we can only guess about her actual thoughts.

what about the higher ups who don't live in the city and can see the situation form the outside. Why haven't they done something to help
After Saturday night Piggot, no doubt, reported something along the lines of "I need reinforcement because of injured heroes, but otherwise everything under control". Because she couldn't afford to report "Everything goes FUBAR and I don't know what to do! Send help ASAP!". That'd cost her position, you know.
Everyone around had their hands full with consequences of the Cape Blackout (and that, as you should remember, also included moves from several gangs across the state, who been warned about it by March beforehand).
So, at first they didn't have time to spare to pay attention what happening anywhere else.
Then, when Moonday Fallout happened, they, probably, could've call her bullshit and try to intervene. But first they had to think, how they should manage the situation. And I suspect they been kind of taken with suck cock phallacy sunk cost fallacy. They had to throw Piggot under the bus and make drastic changes, but they hesitated, because that'd mean the PRT as a whole will take the PR hit too. They, apparently, thought they have time to think how to minimize that. Surprise, they didn't. :whistle:

Everything @andreykl said is true too, of course.
 
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