Fragmentation (Original Superhero Setting)
- Thread starter Alivaril
- Start date
- Original
Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
Younger powers still aren't quite sentient, but that seems to be a function of age. So yeah, sounds about right.
Given that Progenitor is giving people a do-over, I assume he means that they all got very difficult to detect powers, that can't be called 'super' powers. Getting a minor improvement to eyesight doesn't mean you're not still within human levels, especially if you already need glasses. Also, Skye was the sole Sentinel up until now, from what I understand. Progenitor tried to make it so he only needed one.
2.7: Completionist
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Push for more things.
-[X] The intent of safety sense is to basically reassure her it's not the apocalypse. Can you do something like that?
-[X] Briefly explain that Skye isn't scared of just physical damage or restraint. Is there something else he can suggest?
-[X] Skye lost a lot of brainpower in her incarnation. We want that back. She shouldn't have to be crippled forever for her freedom.
-[X] Postcog with a time requirement would be completely fine as long as it's either running "in parallel" to her, or running very fast, or both. "Trancing" for meaningful durations would be problematic.
-[X] The IOU -- because Skye should get a choice in the matter, and while you're doing your best to help, it's not the same thing.
-[X] The intent of safety sense is to basically reassure her it's not the apocalypse. Can you do something like that?
-[X] Briefly explain that Skye isn't scared of just physical damage or restraint. Is there something else he can suggest?
-[X] Skye lost a lot of brainpower in her incarnation. We want that back. She shouldn't have to be crippled forever for her freedom.
-[X] Postcog with a time requirement would be completely fine as long as it's either running "in parallel" to her, or running very fast, or both. "Trancing" for meaningful durations would be problematic.
-[X] The IOU -- because Skye should get a choice in the matter, and while you're doing your best to help, it's not the same thing.
"Proper precog is optional, although we do see why it'd be difficult to have a proper 'safety sense,'" you begin.
"We want her to know it'll be OK to do stuff like staying up past our normal bedtimes,"
"To eat using forks,"
"And, in general, know it won't be the end of the world if she does try X, Y, or Z."
"Some of that might be fixed just through invulnerability, but not all of it."
"She's scared of more than just physical damage and restraints."
"Magical girl seals were mentioned."
"She's obviously scared of you, too."
Progenitor lets the jab pass without comment.
Julia raises her hand and silently waves it around. Progenitor snaps his fingers and allows Julia a few seconds to dramatically gasp for air she wasn't lacking.
"Sealing of evil creatures hasn't been done in, like, a century. Well, uh, mostly? We don't do imprisonment seals anymore, but stasis and... what's the plural of geas? Geasi? Geases? Geese? Stuff that say you can't knowingly do excessive evil or whatever. Anyway, those and stasis are still fair game and nobody sane is going to use the latter on someone redeemable. At least, not for a period of, like, less than twenty hours or something? However long it takes to lock down the area and prepare something better."
Progenitor slowly moves to snap his fingers and is cut off by Julia frantically waving her hands.
"I'm not quite done! Ayna is under one not to kill or torture people and it's not like that's stopped her from jaywalking or enjoying life in general. Basically, don't believe everything you see on TV? Magical girls are about reintegration these days, not removal."
"So noted," Progenitor says drily. Julia looks like she wants to say something more, but no sound emerges from her mouth. The magical girl pouts and crosses her arms.
Celes frowns. "Don't you think that's just a bit rude?"
"Not really. My time is literally priceless."
(O_o)★彡＼(- – )
I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean.
"She's calling me silly because I can stop time," Progenitor interjects absentmindedly. "Miming a smack or thrown peanut. And before you ask, no, I don't read minds, just what you say to each other. What else did you want?"
"For Skye?"
"Extra processing speed or something similar."
"She lost a lot of brainpower when she was incarnated. She's practically crippled right now."
"Losing the ability to even think properly is even more horrifying than being partially paralyzed."
"Even if she might not miss it right now..."
"What happens when she actually wants to think that quickly and can't?"
"We'd prefer she not have to put up with that just to be free."
Progenitor raises both eyebrows.
"That's fair. Your thinking speed is probably fine, but I suppose I can give her back true multitasking abilities. I believe that may help with the postcog problems as well. Are you done?"
Although he still seems perfectly content, the phrasing does make you slightly uncomfortable. You're glad there's only one last thing left on the list.
"Just one last thing, we promise."
"An IOU. We're doing our best, certainly, but we're not perfect."
"Someday, she might know something she wants and finally be comfortable enough around you to ask for it."
"We want her to know that she even can."
Progenitor leans even further back and stares at his own feet. You give him time to think things over, mentally noting the slow speed as you do so.
"Everything you've asked for is surprisingly reasonable," Progenitor admits eventually. "Still, I am going to be switching around the Nodes possessed by Skye's power. They're just a disaster waiting to happen."
Progenitor scowls within moments.
"Oh, come off it. You should know better than to devote two-thirds of yourself to erasing knowledge. Focus on your own concept, change, or be changed; those are the rules. I don't care if 'everyone else' is doing it, you're here right now."
Progenitor's sitting position abruptly changes. Not a lot, mind you, but enough for Archive to confirm that he did not properly move through the intervening space. His scowl also seems to have flipped over to a slight smile.
He looks back up at you and smiles brightly.
"Right, that's over and done with. Any questions?"
Celes rolls her eyes.
"You know what we're going to ask,"
"If only for Skye's sake."
"Most likely," Progenitor agrees cheerfully. After a moment of thought, he shrugs and mentally invites you to a separate network. You can feel Skye and Celes in it when you join, but not Julia or Ayna.
"I slaved Interweave to Archive and basically redid the rest from scratch. Treasure this host, Science; I'll confiscate the extras Nodes once you leave her. Skye? You should fill them in."
Progenitor removes himself from the connection. Why he didn't just let you use Collaborate, you're not sure.
Skye doesn't answer for an unusually long time. She eventually transmits a sigh over the connection.
"Archive is now a secondary Node with Repeat and Interweave slaved to it. Interweave remains relatively unchanged while Repeat will make it significantly easier for me to cause any phenomena I have observed in the past, provided I've at least started down the right track. Repeat has another slaved Node, Replicate, which will grant me temporary use of any superpowers needed to recreate specific objects created by, or using, said powers. Although I believe this would include Upgrade once it began selectively suppressing one or more laws of reality to further improve a given object, I would only gain approximately one day of charge instead of enough energy to fully recreate it. I believe I can only borrow powers once per relevant object.
"I can maintain four additional simultaneous processes courtesy of the secondary node Parallel. If any one of my trains of thought is aware of the presence of a nearby sentient being, Disposition will let me sense or feel their emotions should I decide to do so. Precedent will let me assign one process to view a specific past event designated by rather loose criteria provided I am at or near wherever it took place. Being Collaboratively or otherwise telepathically linked to at least one of the individuals shown in such a record would work as a suitable substitute for geographical location.
"Precedent's slaved ability, Confirm, will let me designate a course of action and subsequently be informed if a large minority of those who previously performed similar actions suffered as a result. If they did, the search criteria will be narrowed to those with top-tier superpowers, and if that group suffered, it will consider whether there were more negative consequences than positive ones. Register is a completely new secondary Node and will make me aware of any objects I have personally created or significantly improved in an unknown, but large, radius. The slaved Manipulate will let me remotely move, control, and use any such items.
"Progenitor has also given me a second Cluster, Protect, which is both unintelligent and artificial. As far as I can tell, it is capable of blocking or repelling anything that would harm or restrain me, although physical force will still knock me backward. Emotional harm is not included while mind-effecting powers are. The remote sensors Backup is paired with will alert Progenitor if I or my power deliberately activate it or if said sensors miss an automatic six-hour check-in. I am also allowed to use Backup to call Progenitor for the 'IOU.' Retreat will give me the ability to teleport myself any location I have previously slept in for a period of more than three hours."
- SCIENCE! (Silver+Gold/White/Blue) {Sentient}
- Protect (???)
- Archive (???)
- Interweave (???)
- Repeat (???)
- Repeat (???)
- Replicate (???)
- Parallel (???)
- Disposition (???)
- Precedent (???)
- Precedent (???)
- Confirm (???)
- Register (???)
- Manipulate (???)
- Protect (???)
- Backup (???)
- Retreat (???)
- Retreat (???)
Progenitor waits for you to refocus on him before continuing. And by 'continuing' you mean 'isolating you, Celes, and himself inside a monochrome bubble of stopped time.'
"Now, I was going to give you three a proper challenge, but I didn't quite realize Skye is apparently terrified of me. Dragon already rewards you for scoring high and your mother would stack on even more gifts, so that's right out. Do you think setting out to get ten million views on a single video before school starts would be excessive? In terms of scaring Skye, not for what you think you can do."
(✿◠‿◠)
I'll take that as a no.
You and Celes exchange slightly concerned looks. You only have a little less than a month before school starts; unless you get lucky with an absolutely adorable video posted to MewTube, you're honestly not sure how you'd go about that. Admittedly, it is supposed to be a challenge.
"Limitations?" you ask.
Progenitor begins checking points off on his fingers.
"No clickbait, on one video, using content either made by or featuring yourselves on your own accounts. Just news articles featuring you aren't enough. And by the way, if you end up turning yourselves into Magical Girls without weakening your own powers in the process, I do plan on giving the same benefits to your new rivals over there." Progenitor jerks his head toward the two frozen magical girls. "Neither of them has powers yet, but Ayna hasn't been tested and I expect Julia will do better on her second try."
[] Are you allowed to use content involving Progenitor? Like, say, what you know he can do.
-[] Flat-out say you know he has Judge and you'd like permission to reveal it. People have been speculating about his original power for years.
[] Accept the challenge. Skye doesn't have to get involved if she doesn't want to, and if she does, it'll be a good bonding activity.
[] Turn him down. Such a challenge suggests expectation and you don't want anything to get in the way of helping Skye.
[] Tell Progenitor to bring Skye in and then let her decide.
-[] Better yet, have him cut out the timestop silliness entirely. Julia and Ayna may be able to help.
[] Suggest an alternative challenge, one Skye might be more comfortable with.
-[] Write-in
[] Write-in
Please provide even a little reasoning (not as part of the [X]'d IC vote itself) for why you vote a specific way, even if it's just a sentence or two. What you're hoping to accomplish by voting that way, why it seems like a good idea, something else along those lines, etc. Your vote will not be counted otherwise, same as last vote. Keep in mind that if you provide more or "better" reasons, you'll often have higher chances of converting others to your cause.
Last edited:
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Yes, I think that we can do this.
It's simple.
We steal Prism's artifact.
We stash it somewhere.
We make a video loaded with clues.
And then we post it, challenging Prism to get their artifact back by the time school starts.
edit: Of course, whether we should do it is an entirely separate question.
banjo2E
Has left the planet
- Location
- Mafia Town
Do we have the ability to make it impossible for anyone to perceive the artifact and then just leave it in exactly the same spot it's supposed to be? Or would that be considered cheating?
Actually, wait, no, even if it is cheating we could still get away with it by having the final clue being something like "The real artifact was with you all along!"
Last edited:
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
He's listening to us talking to each other, so he knows that we know. This is probably not an option. Probably safe to mention that we understand it's not an option, though?
He'll need to define "our own accounts", I think, given that we're planning on going wide for maximum trolling. Or does he just mean "an account that we own"?
Mid-season upgrade incoming, lol.
This is the question that we need to be answering. Do we think that Skye will be okay with this much publicity? "She can just stay out of it" doesn't quite work because the conditions strongly associate us with the posted video. The only thing I can think of that'd avoid that is some kind of spycam footage of someone important doing something incredibly uncharacteristic and funny, preferably in under thirty seconds.
...Hmm. We have Progenitor right there. @Alivaril Quick, do we have anything on us that can record video? Everyone else, can we provoke a reaction from him that'd get enough views?
We should probably ask him if he intends to publicize the new wave of power-granting that's about to happen. If so, could we pretty please get the first interview with him, since he's right here?
...That's an awesome idea, but also a classic, and I have a feeling that the magical girls are savvy enough to immediately check for it. If we did it, we'd want to paint the message on the artifact to taunt them when they find it.
- Location
- Illinois
We should do this and leave some major Villain hogtied next to it with a note to the effect of "Winner winner chicken dinner!"
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
If we tell Mom about this challenge she's going to have a heart attack. I bet she could help, though. Worth it?
edit: ...holy crap, if we do it right, that can't fail.
Like, we drop some hint right now, or we change asterisks' name to tie in somehow, and we're totally safe because the only people that could possibly solve it are Julia and Ayna. Then we just build hype for an entire month and our livestream completes the challenge.
I am a genius.
If it's the night before the semester starts and they still haven't found it, as is inevitable because AHAH I'VE GOT IT the solution will necessarily involve the fact that we were the ones that fixed Asterisks' name, we put up a livestream, publicize it, and get millions of views as the entirety of America tunes in to watch Julia and Ayna fight us to recover the artifact.
edit: ...holy crap, if we do it right, that can't fail.
Like, we drop some hint right now, or we change asterisks' name to tie in somehow, and we're totally safe because the only people that could possibly solve it are Julia and Ayna. Then we just build hype for an entire month and our livestream completes the challenge.
I am a genius.
Last edited:
- Location
- Illinois
If we tell Mom about this challenge she's going to have a heart attack. I bet she could help, though. Worth it?
If it's the night before the semester starts and they still haven't found it, as is inevitable because AHAH I'VE GOT IT the solution will necessarily involve the fact that we were the ones that fixed Asterisks' name, we put up a livestream, publicize it, and get millions of views as the entirety of America tunes in to watch Julia and Ayna fight us to recover the artifact.
edit: ...holy crap, if we do it right, that can't fail.
Like, we drop some hint right now, or we change asterisks' name to tie in somehow, and we're totally safe because the only people that could possibly solve it are Julia and Ayna. Then we just build hype for an entire month and our livestream completes the challenge.
I am a genius.
[V] Look at each other
-[V] Simultaneously shift to look at the two meguca
--[V] "Challenge accepted."
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Time-saver: An account that you own and made. You can't just use phishing to steal one belonging to somebody else.
Your smartphones, but you sincerely doubt Progenitor would make it that easy for you.
banjo2E
Has left the planet
- Location
- Mafia Town
I've got it: We upgrade the artifact so that it generates a stealth field as long as it's plugged in, in such a way that the entire artifact and the plug are impossible for anyone to detect in any way except for the power draw on the electric grid (and that's left in mostly to prevent narrative causality from forcing a loophole to pop up somewhere else where we don't want it). At that point, all we have to do is make sure nobody has any reason to check the electric bill by giving them even better reasons to check literally anything else. Then all we have to do is set the stealth field to automatically deactivate temporarily whenever someone who has decided to be a MG shows up for initiation, and write "The artifact was with you all along" on the artifact. With crayon. In perfect Comic Sans.
I think this should be 'not for a period of more than twenty hours'.
And, to maintain our desired reputation, we make sure its fixed when they find it.
- Location
- Hyperborea
Is this a good time to bring up my old "Phantom Thieves" idea?
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Hmm. Overdrive+Borrow+use our brain to upload the information? But I bet he'd just wipe it off the internet, so we'd actually have to delay things until it's "fair game", ahah! We have record which has infinite storage, so we can overdrive+borrow and then we have all the bits and we just need to find a way to get it out of our brain later which we can do with another overdrive+borrow session.
OTOH, there's no way he'd miss an obvious power use like that, so that's probably out.
Rewind the phone once he's gone to recover the video that he wiped?
Hmm. Upgrading things. Could we record a music video or something and upgrade it until it's a guaranteed hit? No, we'd also need to publish it at the right time, hit the front-page of Reddit or something. Our analysis powers seem to all be focused on other powers, unfortunately.
Bloody hell. If the numbers are anything like youtube, 10 million is actually incredibly hard. There are a grand total of two videos in YT's "trending this week" section with more than 10M views, both of them music videos by rappers. John Oliver himself doesn't get 10M views. o_o
So, the real question. I feel like this would be excessive, yes. The only thing I can think of that'd make it happen is a titanic prank, and even that might not do the trick, even if we pushed it so hard that literally the entire country heard about it - after a certain point it'd get picked up by news channels and their showings of it wouldn't count toward our view-count. Well, I'd assume; this feels like a meme-y numbers game. @Alivaril? Either way, this is "worldwide news coverage" territory. I do not think that Skye would be comfortable with that in the context of a major prank.
[X] Are you allowed to use content involving Progenitor? Like, say, what you know he can do.
-[X] Flat-out say you know he has Judge and you'd like permission to reveal it. People have been speculating about his original power for years.
[X] Accept the challenge. Skye doesn't have to get involved if she doesn't want to, and if she does, it'll be a good bonding activity.
Honestly, giving our rivals better powers is the least we can do.
[X] [Experiment] Try drawing out a single frame of your memory in pixel perfect detail.
Maybe we can create a flip-book or something, or upgrade the amount of time a flipbook covers or something to recreate talks with projenitor.
-[X] Flat-out say you know he has Judge and you'd like permission to reveal it. People have been speculating about his original power for years.
[X] Accept the challenge. Skye doesn't have to get involved if she doesn't want to, and if she does, it'll be a good bonding activity.
Honestly, giving our rivals better powers is the least we can do.
[X] [Experiment] Try drawing out a single frame of your memory in pixel perfect detail.
Maybe we can create a flip-book or something, or upgrade the amount of time a flipbook covers or something to recreate talks with projenitor.
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You'd assume the goal is "Get the view counter to 10,000,000", yes. Knowing Progenitor, he probably wouldn't even mind if you used cheap methods to get it there, provided it stuck afterward / wasn't reversed by MewTube or whatever other video hosting service you use.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Totally Cheap Ideas by Shard (TM)
1. Upgrade the number of views on the video directly to 10 Million. Upgrade and/or Authority the video Hosting site to make it stick.
2. Authority the Video directly to the frontpage. Of every newsite. Make it autoplay.
3. Make the homepage of many computer's internet browsers literally our video. Like opening up an internet browser directs them straight to our video.
- Via Authority.
- Via a, Upgraded virus (Science?)
4. Make sure the video's like, adorbs.
1. Upgrade the number of views on the video directly to 10 Million. Upgrade and/or Authority the video Hosting site to make it stick.
2. Authority the Video directly to the frontpage. Of every newsite. Make it autoplay.
3. Make the homepage of many computer's internet browsers literally our video. Like opening up an internet browser directs them straight to our video.
- Via Authority.
- Via a, Upgraded virus (Science?)
4. Make sure the video's like, adorbs.
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Underhanded methods it is.
What opposition would we expect... Surely the people running MewTube or similar would have hired people with powers to deal with exactly this kind of manipulation.
Hm.
Hah! Hahaha!
We host our own video service! We just have to make sure that it can do all the things that a video service would normally do and make accounts on it for ourselves.
- Location
- Australia
If they use our footage without permission then we can sue them for copyright infringement.
Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
Geasa, actually.
...This site started out as a cat video hosting site, didn't it?
Eh. We do have a month to rack up the views. But yes, it is a tad much. A couple million over the course of a year is often considered pretty good.
Number three is actually probably our best bet, IMO. Unfortunately, that's also pretty much using video ads or *shudder* redirect ads. I.E. the kind that takes you away from the site you were using, and onto another one. Which I frankly find morally reprehensible. Also, that is fairly likely to get the video taken down, afterwards.
Honestly, even getting 5 million in this time-frame would be difficult. Admittedly, we can use bots to astroturf the video going viral, which should help a lot. Have a bot post the video in a pretty much every forum-type thing it can find, add the video to people's feeds, etc. That's more subtle, if we do it right.
Fair Use, laddy. It applies pretty strongly to news services.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
If they use our footage, doesn't that count as a 'view'?
- Location
- Australia
Then we watermark it with our channel or include an advertisement for our channel 'on set' during filming.