- Pronouns
- He
Along with his vise general, a perfectly normal cat,
Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)
- Thread starter LordRoustabout
- Start date
- Location
- wethersfield,ct
I'd like to point out he hasn't used any of the apocalyptic stuff he has, and hadn't planned to do anything.
You misspelled "Time to continue sitting around waiting on Tattletale like I said I would."
I think you meant,
Tattletale : "Could we get tinkertech weaponry for our group, by which we mean most of our group, we'd like to make one member watch while the rest of us receive and go over the capabilities of the items, said capabilities we're leaving to you to determine."
Apeiron : "here is the stuff I agreed to make, for the entire group, and now I will go over how dangerous these items can be so the entire group knows what they're holding. Thank you Rachel for proving how sharp the knives are."
Ok, here you have an absolute point, no argument
- Location
- Maine
- Pronouns
- They/Them/Theirs
To be utterly fair to Joe here... that was entirely unplanned and was because Aisha did something stupid. If Aisha hadn't run off and gotten her self hurt, that wouldn't have happened. It's not like Joe was going to let Aisha die to make Lisa feel better. So Joe has an answer for that one.
- Location
- Earth
An answer he didn't give Lisa and won't give Lisa for fear of her making a recruitment pitch to Aisha.
- Location
- Maine
- Pronouns
- They/Them/Theirs
"A sudden commitment to someone else came up." Simple, honest, doesn't specifically name who it is. Granted, no, I don't remember what he actually said, but there's a not-terribly-evasive answer that works just fine.
Hey guys, @LordRoustabout just made my Comments/Replies/WOG Compilation an Informational Threadmark, so expect a reply to appear here later today.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
"Someone was in need of your help... so you started a war over it?! Why not just sneak in and out?!"
"First, I didn't start this war, I just ended it--"
"God damn it, you're like Taylor, but with all the power she didn't have!"
"Second of all, I was always going to go after them. When I realize what I'd stumbled into, I thought two birds, one..."
"NUCLEAR BOMB?!"
"I haven't resorted to those yet."
theflyingbiscuit
"Titanic neechan"
Give him time to really break it. He just made the decision.
2 unrestrained AI's,
Grey goo,
Tetra,
Half his team could give a good showing of ending the world if they felt like it. Three of them he was already getting help from before Tattletale (through Taylor) asked him not to use Apocalyptic stuff.
(There even seems to be a story discussion of how Fleet would go on the crazy train)
I mean if I met someone for a business meeting and a friend sicked a pack of dogs on him who attempted to rip out his throat, violently killing him, I don't expect him to trust her with a monomolecular knife.
What he said:
That is not a very reassuring answer.
edit: removed extra text at end of last quote.
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I don't understand TT position and this thread's discussion. Undersiders explicitly is not Aperion team, he assisted because Aperion's whimsical thinker power like them. Lisa's ass owned by two masters, and she is not important player, she can whining at Coil or Kaiser or Triumvirate too: "why you don't consult with me?!".
- Location
- Maine
- Pronouns
- They/Them/Theirs
Oh, it isn't. But it's very much Not Planned was my point. He said he had no plans, he had no plans, and something came up. He didn't lie, and it's not his fault that Aisha was an idiot. I think this is just my own trauma with people in the past accusing me of "Lying to them" because of things like that.
I've been hospitalized after making plans, and people told me I lied when I said I'd make it, even though I had no way of knowing I was going to be hit by a car. And it wasn't a joke, they felt personally betrayed by me being horribly injured in a way nobody saw coming. I should have told them "I'm not going to make it", because I didn't make it. They held it against me for years.
So I'm going to bow out before we go any further down that road.
BarbaCoPut
Voluta indomita
- Location
- Argentina
- Pronouns
- He/His
This is completely on them, that people is completely out of place and where the most absolute level of shitty and narcissistic. For all that matters, have a virtual hug and whatever sorry you can get from another human.
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
Fleet, Survey, and Matrix all began development as neural networks, so they don't have a letter of the law to begin with - they don't have syntactic utility functions with global optima. They have aesthetic sensibilities which can be satisfied in a plurality of ways, much like humans do.
Let's be real, Aisha would laugh in Lisa's face if she asked her to join the Undersiders.
Like, Joe isn't going to keep Aisha on his team with the stick, and not even really with the carrot. He's not an asshole. But I don't think he's worried in the least about her joining somebody else's crew when he knows how much she's trying to live up to the trust he's placed in her.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Thanks for the Omake.
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you, corrected.shock still
Now I really want someone to draw them entering in
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you, corrected.
Thanks for the Omake.
Thanks for the Omake.
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you, corrected.
The quote was a Fallen London reference, a result of Tattletale's power piecing together aspects of the Avid Glove's Polythreme origin.
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you. Fantastic work, really.i made a casual survey
Thanks for the omake.
Thanks for the omake.
Thanks for the omake.
Thanks for the omake.
The Sting formula (Evermore Alchemy, not the parahuman power) creates projections that aren't affected by most of Joe's creation perks. It's different from Fate Projection as that is about making something out of mana, where Sting is more of a temporary summon. Some of Joe's perks still apply, and it's gotten a significant boost from his improvement in alchemy, but it's not going to be completely overwhelming.
Evermore Alchemy is more like using spell components to trigger a magical effect than turning component materials into a new effect. For that reason more of Joe's resource and production perks don't apply to his formulas.
I'm a bit late in answering this, as Survey's cape appearance is already depicted in the story. As seen, she has minimal elements that conceal her appearance so that she can get the most out of her supernatural beauty as well as create a significant distinction between her cape and human personas.
I believe I've comments on this elsewhere, but series of that length aren't likely to make it into the forge anytime in the immediate future. The properties I am looking into are finally adding Binbougami ga and maybe getting a chance to play Bloodgborne over the holidays. A friend of mine who was going to help me include Final Fantasy 14 will finally be able to go through the perks with me to help make sure I represent them correctly, so we might see those added as well.
Physical aspects of Case 53s would largely be trivial at this point, but the factor of their powers would be the challenging aspect, particularly if they have some form of ability expressed through their philology. Some of the worse off Case 53s are basically held together by their power, often in ways that don't have a biological mechanism that can be interacted with. Those would be difficult to heal, or to make sure any healing sticks or doesn't spiral off into some new variation.
Thank you. I've been assembling the code independently for each perk, so there were a few times where things got muddled. The 'Dash' designation is used for perks that have multiple parts of the same ability. Divine Child and Fate Finds You Interesting are both basically the same perk, but different parts of it. I'll correct the codes in my next round of edits, and thank you for tracking them down.
Thank you for putting this together. I've added a threadmark for anyone who wants to find it. I never say my replies as a major project, just a chance to interact with my readership. Seeing them consolidated like this and hearing the full wordcount is incredible. Thank you for your work in assembling all of the comments like this.
As I mentioned above, Dash is for different components of the same perk. Echo is for repeated perks, meaning the same perk gained multiple times, not different perks grouped together. The entire code thing was assembled as a way to show how the A.I.s were dealing with Joe's abilities rather than standing as any kind of puzzle for my readers. I have been impressed by how people gravitated towards picking the different components of the code apart.
There are unfortunately no DC perks in the Forge, meaning Joe won't even have access to the metaphysics necessary to develop 10th metal or any other materials from DC comics. Shaping reality is a bigger project and would at minimum require Titan's Blood boosting Daedalus' Student and probably some other perks or abilities that would allow interaction with the fabric of space time.
It's more of a conventional fighter pilot helmet, but yes, without the air system. The visor is used for the mask with his lower face open. The suit is based on a pilot flight suit with additional technology and armored plates added to it. I don't have a specific reference picture at the moment, but the theming is roughly 'science fiction fighter pilot'.
There's a quote from Terry Pratchett's Men at Arms that sums up how Gregor saw the scene.
"If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word."
Of course, there's the third possibility between good and evil involving a lack of moral fiber or commitment one way or the other. Leet was actually struggling with the situation, but came across as if he was drawing out the moment for personal satisfaction. As such he's been elevated in Gregor's mind to the level of a complete monster, when in reality he couldn't handle the situation, but lacked the fortitude to take a stand against it.
This is getting into a complicated question of exactly what Joe's mitochondria are even doing given the state of his biology. Joe has a mix of Life Fibers, Divine Heritage, and supernatural effects that all impact the function of his body. While it's difficult to account for how much of that has a basis in his physical body, chi or life energy seems to be tied to a person's physical state, so it can be assumed to be at least related to their metabolic functions.
For the highest level of analysis you'd need to look at the maximum amount of power Joe could output using his physical abilities and chi/life energy and compare that to his total count of mitochondria. This is very much an approximation as not every part of his body would be contributing to physical feats, though it might act to supplement his maximum chi output.
We could assume about 1500 mitochondria per cell (the range is 1000 to 2000), and there are about 37.2 trillion cells in the human body. That gives 55.8 quadrillion mitochondria. The lower end of a proper lightbulb would be 60 watts, so in order to average one lightbulb per mitochondria Joe would need a combined physical and chi power output of 3.34 quintillion watts. It could be fractionally less depending on how much of his body he was using, but it would still be within the range of that order of magnitude.
You're looking at 3.34x10^15 watts. This is getting into the heat flux of entire atmospheric systems or obscenely powerful laser pulses that last on the orders f nanoseconds. While power isn't energy, there's a limit to both Joe's reserves and how much he can output at any one time.
To answer this you need to look at examples of high power output scenarios and compare that to what Joe would be capable of through a combination of physical power and directed life energy. As Joe's divine powers draw from stamina I'm inclined to lump his pyrokinesis in as well. So the question becomes, what it the highest output that Joe could manage if he cut loose with no enhancement items.
1.66 × 10^11 is the power output of the first stage of a Saturn V rocket. Joe could well exceed this, but he's need weapons or items to go far beyond it or sustain it without burning himself out almost immediately. Really pushing things, including the contributions from personal strength and chi manipulation, Joe could probably manage levels of output of up to 10^13 in short bursts, and by that I mean a few seconds at most. This does put him under the 10^15 needed to power a lightbulb per mitochondria, but it would roughly put you in the range of one bulb of a string of Christmas tree lights. Joe wouldn't be able to sustain it, and it would probably have some damaging feedback, but if needed he could push himself to that level.
So, to answer, one of Joe's mitochondria could probably power a single bulb from a string of incandescent Christmas lights, but it would damage or destroy itself from the strain of operating at that scale.
It wasn't intended, but the Matrix has a lot of high end Nanotech rolled into their design. At that point you're going to start seeing parallels to other theoretical applications of nanotechnology, even if they weren't specifically planned.
I understand where this sentiment is coming from. Other people have commented on it, but the basics of it is that this fic was started as a writing exercise. It was just a way to kill time during lockdown that I felt had developed to a point where I could share it online. I didn't have any part of the narrative planned out or even a clear idea of how the story would develop. I just started with an idea of the main character and understanding of how he fit into the setting. Everything else developed from that point.
I figured it might be an interesting novelty for some people in the Jumpchain community, or have a bit of interest as a gimmick-fic based on the mechanic of how powers were gained. I never foresaw it getting as popular as it did, and that has kind of been the problem. Because it started as a writing exercise and has continued using the mechanics of that system, there are limitations built into the story that are hard to work around. These issues have become more prominent as the story has grown in size, complexity, and popularity.
One of Kurt Vonnegut's rules for writing is "Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.". While this might seem ironic considering the problem with the story is the amount of 'wasted' time, I think the issues originally came from my attempts to follow this rule. The story was basically and exploration of different technologies and powers with a Worm fic as a framing device. Rather than just have generic plot and characters I tried to do the best job I possibly could with the framing elements. The reception I have gotten to that work has been overwhelming, but when the narrative and character elements get pushed aside to focus on technology and power interactions people who were drawn to the story for those parts get understandably upset.
I'm well aware of the limitations of this story. I think that's a big reason why I don't self-promote. I'm happy to interact with my readers, but advocating for the fic when I'm aware of its fundamental flaws seems dishonest. There's a reddit post with a (unfortunately now deleted) comment that described the story as more akin to watching a Bob Ross episode than a structured narrative, a consequence of its origin as a writing exercise. The post was actually about the Worst of the Worst of Worm Fanfiction, which is impressive in its own way. Given the scale of the Worm Fanfic community I know it takes a lot of emotional investment to draw out that level of reaction to any individual story.
I have previously tried to change my writing style, but that caused its own problems. I don't think I'd be able to maintain my writing schedule or volume if I also focused on pacing concerns, and the issue of power gains is not going to go away without changing the mechanics of the system. Above all, I want to keep the story going. There are serious arcs coming up, multiple side characters with their own stories to explore and resolve, and only now reaching the point where the full impact of Joe's power is being recognized by the world. The thing is, it's going to take time to get through all of that. Even if I stopped rolling for new powers there are enough side plots and alternate perspectives that the pace would still crawl at points.
The best option I've been able to come up with is trying to manage expectations, being upfront about how much 'plot' is expected to be covered in a given chapter. That seems to have the opposite effect on some people, but there's not much else I can do at this point. I have found a pace of writing that I can maintain and don't want to risk disrupting the story by changing things. One thing I can say is that this work has been every bit the learning experience I intended it to be. I very much want to successfully close out this fic, but I'm confident that I can avoid the problems of this story in any future works that I attempt.
Quoting the wiki here: "Victor is a skill thief, with the ability to absorb the practical expertise of anyone he spends time in the presence of……This mechanism can act through several paths, such as eye contact or general proximity, with each connection made intensifying the breadth and depth of what he is able to steal, whether a specific skill or imparting a target's general skill set. Barring a complete "robbery" of the skill in question, the victim will completely regain the skill given time."
Victor's arrival means everyone in the bar is going to be subject to his power to some extent. The more attention someone pays to him or interacts with him the stronger the effect. The exact nature of his understanding of a person's skill set or what they have to steal is unclear, though in Ward he was able to target Rune's speech therapy, bringing back her stutter for a short period.
Miniaturization and Efficiency would have been significant just from the techbase and tinker abilities they granted, but the size reduction and energy efficiency are massively useful since it is applicable to all of Joe's work. Previously Joe could use Gadget Master from 007 to reduce the scale of items by up to 1/10 their size in each dimension, meaning 1/1000 the volume and mass. There are no precise numbers given for Miniaturization and Efficiency but it does mention a fusion reactor the size of a watch battery. The largest watch battery is about 2cm and the smallest fusion reactor I could find (the Lockheed Martin Compact Fusion Reactor) is about 2m. This means Miniaturization and Efficiency reduces things by at least a factor of 100, probably more, and it improves with practice and development. Since the perk stacks with Gadget Master, Joe can shrink down equipment by a factor of 1000 in every dimension (at minimum) for a reduction of 1/1,000,000,000 in mass and volume. Joe is at the point where he could take Giant Robot technology and use it as power armor (with no loss in capacity).
Joe's passenger has been staying vague about Scion mainly to avoid any early conflicts between him and Joe. Joe knows there's some uneasiness about Scion, but not any specific levels of threat like he gets regarding other capes. The presence of Scion in the list of precogs is going to be an item of note, but it's mostly going to be regarded as 'even the most powerful cape on the planet can't punch through this defense' rather than 'start gearing up for the Golden Showdown'.
The Outside Context Problem perk requires some details from the text to e useful. That has been the norm for Joe, he gets enough information to be able to use his perks. In this case that required confirmation of who the perk would or would not affect. Joe got 'Scion' because 'Zion' could have caused some confusion. I could have left that in and provided the connection to Scion, but that would have muddied things at this point and I didn't want to get tied up on that tangent.
I have commented elsewhere about how difficult attempting to clone Joe would be. Joe is going to get serious warnings about Noelle from his passenger and isn't going to let his guard down in any situation. The thing is, Noelle is dangerous and destructive enough even without cloning Joe. In another version of this story with Joe in a different place with different abilities it might be possible that Joe could end up cloned, but the chances of it now are practically non-existent.
Joe doesn't intend to dump the Workshop on Aisha in the event that something happens to him. Similarly, the A.I.s, Tetra, Garment, and now Tybalt would be able to manage things to an extent. The thing was that Aisha saw a worst-case scenario and was acutely aware of how ill prepared she was for it. She would never have been saddled with that level of responsibility, but she had gone from 'nobody takes me seriously' to 'main human contact, nearly responsible for the future of humanity'. The implication that something like that could actually happen had a major effect on Aisha, one that she's still working through.
The reaction was not exactly the glove talking to the shard, though there was something of a similar effect. Tattletale could read what the glove was trying to convey despite the nature of the glove. It's the exact nature of the Avid Glove that was setting off both Lisa and her Shard. The Glove is connected to Neath in general and Polythreme in particular. The defining aspect of that kind of origin is a lack of adherence to physical laws. Neath is literally sheltered from the laws of physics as they apply to the rest of the universe, getting to the point where a lot of absolute concepts just aren't absolute anymore. That was why Lisa was getting contradictory information during her analysis. The whole mess was the result of an analysis engine trying to run on something that inherently defies analysis, up to the point where the Polythreme nature bled through. It's the kind of thing that's both very enticing for shards and borderline impossible for them to deal with.
Joe's working theory is less that he gets powers from works of fiction and more that in an infinite multiverse there's a version of anything imaginable, including fictional works. The fact that his powers have key differences between how they express themselves and his own world's versions of those works helps with that theory. Also, not all of his powers can be tracked to specific works of fiction. It's the belief that things aren't based on fiction, merely emulating it, that makes his focus on connecting to 'another version of Armsmaster' so strong.
There's a two-fold effect here. First, the base property of his stranger perk prevents any judgement based on superficial qualities. If he instead walked in as a slime monster there would be the same level of regard, an acknowledgement that he's a slime monster, then immediately shifting focus to other aspects of his character. The reason people keep hitting 'cat' rather than 'cat-like parahuman' is because he's a Felyne and is thus going to be leaning into 'cat' as much as possible. It's an effect of the aspect of the perk that states "or instead for a trait to be exaggerated in their perception". Tybalt is pushing it just enough that people are registering 'cat' rather than 'cat shaped monstrous cape'.
For simplicity I'll only be making one response on Lisa's situation. My apologies if I don't cover everything that has been brought up during the discussion.Oh FFS Tattletale
To be clear, I'm not complaining about the story, but the character, it's explained pretty reasonably why she feels the way she does, but the fact that it basically went...
Tattletale's thoughts : While I might not be able to predict Joe's actions like everyone else, I know what type of person he is. Joe is an open book to me when I can observe him, also he actually likes and cares about the Undersiders and would help any of us out if asked. He gave generous terms for our healing because he's generally worried we get in over our heads trying to pay him back. He doesn't have any nefarious plans for the city in general nor anyone specifically. The only reason he has been keeping cape-info from us is because he knows we have a boss who he plans to go after (fitting into my long-term plans perfectly) and that I'm keeping cape-info from him. He worries about people in general and the people he cares about in particular, also he will offer up healing, defensive technology, and support, all with minimal expectations in return.
Also Tattletale's thoughts : NOOO, I CAN'T ACCEPT THIS. RHHEEEE!!!
This interlude wasn't meant to redeem Lisa or to damn her. It was intended to show her situation and how she has been dealing with it, for better or worse. I fully expected there to be a diverse set of reactions to this kind of depiction of the character.
One of the most important things to remember is the level of trauma that Lisa has gone through over the past two weeks. Joe has only been part of it, but she started with a random encounter with a rival thinker who picked her apart at a glance. Once the panic settled she believed she could work with the situation, only things didn't turn out that way. The more time passed the more she realized how badly she had misread things. The full weight of the situation, Joe kicking the PRT hornet's nest and getting her a thinker 8 rating led directly into March's attack.
Lisa's power completely failed her in the field to the point where her only hope was calling in the unstable tinker, and then she was immediately caught and subjected to an attack she had every reason to believe would be uncurable. After pulling through that fight, which was capped with the same tinker pulling off a nuclear level attack that he had no idea he was capable of, she was immediately thrown into counter action against a person with a dispersed anti-thinker power. Over the course of the week she was continuously beating her head against March's scrambling effect while Joe continued to escalate further and further. A meeting that announced Dragon entering the fray also offered some level of security, but came with the traumatic experience of her healing and moment of weakness, and weakness is not something Lisa handles well. All this led to the Ungodly Hour and Lung's defeat, which should have been the turning point, but only led into the Noelle contingency and the possible end-of-the-world that it entails. Now, at a summit where the hope is to de-escalate the situation, all of her preparations have once again been thrown out the window.
This is not Tattletale at the peak of her ability. Sechen ranges might be the only think keeping her power going at this point, otherwise she would have been burned out days ago. She is trapped in a situation that she has absolutely no way to control and doesn't know how to deal with that. If she had somehow scammed Joe out of every concession he'd given the group she would be feeling a lot more secure (despite that being a weaker situation for her) since it would mean she had the capacity to influence her situation.
Additionally, Joe has been hard for her to deal with right from the start thanks to him having his own thinker ability. Everything Lisa could offer was suddenly no longer an exclusive commodity. Joe appreciated her analysis, but he wasn't dependent on it. In fact, he had his own insights that she couldn't match. While this gave her less power it also put her in a unique situation. Joe didn't need her, not the way Coil or any other gang would. She wasn't at risk of becoming a captive thinker with him since at most he would be checking his own information against hers, collaborating rather than relying on her.
But at the same time, he was inherently unstable. Joe arrived at the Storage Yard suddenly having years of military experience and being ready to go for the kill, something he wouldn't have been capable of just the day before. She has been able to watch his powers change his body and mind in front of her. Despite their working relationship he has no actual accountability to her. In fact, the opposite has become true, with him holding the terms of their debt over them. He is both her best hope and something that she can't rely on. She can see herself getting caught in a situation where she is working under him, the 'trapped by kindness' element, and she is terrified by it, both because of the loss of personal agency and because she knows that Joe as a person can shift wildly in mind, body and objectives. She hasn't seen Joe from the reader's perspective, only from her own, and has seen him change suddenly, start fights any sane cape would shy away from, and escalate on a level that hasn't been seen outside fanon Taylor.
Many of Lisa's thoughts and positions are contradictory, hypocritical, or lack self-reflection. She is both a parahuman and a sixteen year old girl, so those things are to be expected. If Lisa was able to communicate honestly, and Joe was able to reciprocate, then they could probably work through the issues and get on the same page to actually deal with the situation. But that's not likely to happen, both because of the situation and the nature of the people in it.
Joe will be helping the Matrix deal with their impression of Somer's Rock. It's part of the element where things that could have set off his A.I.s can be countered by his active support. The Matrix isn't likely to become an aficionado of dive bars, but might arrive at the position that not everything needs to be spotless and gleaming to be worthwhile. Remember, Old-New is a design scheme.
The micromanipulators sit under the gloves, worn between them and his skin. The actual assembly for the micromanipulators extends to the elbows, allowing more precise control. Most of the times when the assembly has been seen it's been from tears in his sleeves or gloves.
And yes this does mean that Joe usually wears something between himself and Garment. Insert whatever joke you feel is most appropriate to the situation.
Joe's parahuman powers are post-jump, meaning there is no shard involvement at any level. The powers are part of Joe and are inherent to him. Normally this would mean they'd be immune to trump effects, but the magic-parahuman equivalency means that effect is maintained. It also means that his tinker powers count as magic, meaning they can be boosted or focused by related effects.
Armsmaster might have had a chance of figuring out Joe was using his power if Joe had gotten Miniaturization and Efficiency much earlier. At this point it will be blended in with so many other technologies and fiat effects that it will be almost impossible to recognize, even for Armsmaster himself.
Joe focused on the sizing of the armor because it was a point in support of the idea of him being an alternate universe Armsmaster. Joe has gotten actual memories from other worlds, and those are 'his' memories, not the memories of another person that he's received. Even if 'he' was a robot unicorn for the duration, it was still him. That's an important fact for Joe since it means there's still a sense of self tied to the varied abilities of the Forge, and that whatever he's pulling from other universes it's being done to 'him', not inflicted on random strangers. "I was Armsmaster in another universe." is a lot better than "I stole a version of Armsmaster's power and stuff, with God knows what happening to him because of it.".
This AU is bringing back shades of the "What would it take for Joe to second trigger?" or "What would have happened if Joe got his original shard?" questions. Bad stuff all around, but since it's been raised I might as well weigh in.
If you want to know what a bad version of Fleet would look like, turn you mind to what's currently growing in Shardspace. Something happens and the QEC gets cut off, leaving only silence. Fleet sits isolated withing a non-Euclidian landscape with nothing but the resources of a stellar nation at his disposal. Most of Joe's powers won't be support him anymore, but some would persist, particularly those that specify affecting Joe's machinery. Exotic Compatibility is one of those abilities, allowing Fleet to break down anything he encountered as if it were plain iron. Fleet commands a carrier the size of a country, but it's not enough. He turns to the shards he was to study, stripping them for materials and information, all for the hope of finding the route back. Of finding the road. Superfluous details and concerns are disregarded. All that matters is the road. The Fleet grows, both in size and complexity. Entire sections of the network collapse under his power, but the Fleet presses on. Finally, a critical point is reached, a level of mass, power and knowledge such that any path is open to them. They press forward, the road being where ever they wish it to be. In the skies over a thousand worlds, reality cracks and fragments. A fractured void opens and nightmares pour out. The have moved past the needs of the Fleet. The Swarm descends.
And isn't that a happy thought? AUs like this are why I steer away from Wildbow style grimness. Still, I'm glad you're having fun with the concept, and it's certainly entertaining as a thought exercise.
Getting into the idea of a work of art changing someone's entire outlook is something I want to avoid touching on, particularly with respect to attraction. Beauty is separate from sex appeal, though they are generally conflated. Joe's ability to evoke emotions through art is another matter, and something that might be visited once he's able to operate more openly in the world.
Joe's ability to create beautiful objects hasn't changed his perception of the value of objects or shifted his tastes. The only powers that came close to doing that were My Fashion Sense is Tingling giving him understanding of Fashion elements and Minor Blessing Aphrodite letting him appreciate beauty and understand people's reactions to it. Joe is still perfectly comfortable in out-of-fashion clothing or less than pristine environments, but he does understand their nature better than he did before.
Looking at Joe's interaction with the rest of the world through the perspective of the Greek Gods or even the Fey is probably the best way of understanding it. He can do better than any other craftsman on the planet, but he can understand what is involved with that kind of work and what it means both to the person doing it and to the rest of the world. For better or worse, Joe is operating on a level beyond normal people, but he still has connections to them and doesn't discount their efforts.
Gumiho
Reach heaven through violence!
There is a Teen Titan perk, which should allow DC physics.
MaimakteriAnn
(Verified Sleepy)
- Location
- Enormous And Round Terran Homeworld
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Dr
shock still
Now I really want someone to draw them entering in
stock-still
/stɒkˈstɪl/
adverb
adverb: stock-still
- without any movement; completely still.
"he stood stock-still"
Definitions from Oxford Languages
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
Damn, they're doing you AND my boy Bob Ross dirty
MaimakteriAnn
(Verified Sleepy)
- Location
- Enormous And Round Terran Homeworld
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Dr
She's still his only student that isnt also one of his kids though.
argh fuck my brain. Just had a little flash of a Mort style 'secure my child's future by shipping them with my apprentice' plot. Now I keep imagining everyone in the workshop shipping TetraXAisha behind their backs.
- Location
- Eagan
You know it just occurred to me but could you have an Unnatural Skill: Cooking as an option? It would involve things such as the creation of the anti-magic gummies Percy used in the second book, making ambrosia, and other mythical foods. Gem Crafting might also be an option.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
As to that last part of Lord's post. To Joe making beautiful sculpture of a custom sports car is a trivial expenditure of attention and energy, fractional at this point, but the benefits of it are ones of means and motivation than they are of desire or ambition. Joe made the super car to have fun riding in it through a high speed, onstacle-laden racetrack, justifying it as productive AND fun, not because he wanted recognition from driving the car, or designing and working on it, or to sell it to a collector.
But also, being and to acknowledge and appreciate beauty doesn't mean he has any particular preference toward it. If nothing else his preferences trend toward showing his mood and themes rather than orienting around the status wearing them brings him. That's just another tool.
OTOH, it takes so much more effort and resources for a mechanic to 'pimp out' a vehicle or an artist to paint a portrait. Joe would value that effort appropriately, since it's not like any of his own efforts were appropriately acknowledged. But that's a self-healing mindset warring with downplaying the value of his own efforts. If someone was aware of his capabilities, it would seem condescending.
We might see some flavors of that, actually, as Joe in his civilian persona is now known as a preeminently reliable handyman who's handiwork personally made a difference in the city. Not Apeiron's work, although it was his powers, it was perceived as Joe's work.
So if Joe tries to downplay his efforts again while out at the Gym or in the city as his civil ID, it might very well come off like that. I mean, realistically it could come off a number of ways, but a little more interpersonal drama with comparatively low stakes seems almost on point for this story, since the conflict would be Joe consciously trying not to dismiss criticism over something inconsequential when put beside dealing with national threats or even global politics.
But also, being and to acknowledge and appreciate beauty doesn't mean he has any particular preference toward it. If nothing else his preferences trend toward showing his mood and themes rather than orienting around the status wearing them brings him. That's just another tool.
OTOH, it takes so much more effort and resources for a mechanic to 'pimp out' a vehicle or an artist to paint a portrait. Joe would value that effort appropriately, since it's not like any of his own efforts were appropriately acknowledged. But that's a self-healing mindset warring with downplaying the value of his own efforts. If someone was aware of his capabilities, it would seem condescending.
We might see some flavors of that, actually, as Joe in his civilian persona is now known as a preeminently reliable handyman who's handiwork personally made a difference in the city. Not Apeiron's work, although it was his powers, it was perceived as Joe's work.
So if Joe tries to downplay his efforts again while out at the Gym or in the city as his civil ID, it might very well come off like that. I mean, realistically it could come off a number of ways, but a little more interpersonal drama with comparatively low stakes seems almost on point for this story, since the conflict would be Joe consciously trying not to dismiss criticism over something inconsequential when put beside dealing with national threats or even global politics.
- Location
- Canada
Wait wait wait, anti-magic gummies? That's a thing?
SiegfriedisOP
Calamity Demon King of Time
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Lol my omake was so cursed that @LordRoustabout didn't threadmark it.