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Fragmentation (Original Superhero Setting)

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Shard said:
I'm fairly curious as to what the ramifications of turning Upgrade into an 'Other' are.
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In terms of immediate effects, Upgrade would have her server/satellite converted into a similarly-sized heart of a new planetoid. Dad would need to start feeding her more and nudge your respective orbits every so often to ensure Upgrade grows up properly. After a couple weeks, she'd probably be capable of occupying an avatar, provided she's given one to work with. Under the precedent set down by Dad, Upgrade would still count as a Beyond, but she wouldn't be constrained as though she were a Beyond; she'd still get her energy allowance, but she wouldn't be required to give it up under any circumstances and would be encouraged to start disobeying Progenitor more.

Other Beyond would probably be split between factions of "how dare she forsake us" outrage, "11/10 would watch ascend again" glee, "this is why you don't traumatize children" resignation, and "we want in on this" jealousy.

EDIT: You suspect Upgrade might also get bored much less easily - or, at the least, could be taught patience.
 
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Alivaril said:
No, but you think that part of him probably still doesn't have a partner. Unless that wasn't what you were asking?
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I'm wondering whether Dad started as an Other and then acquired Abberration, or whether he got his power and then became an Other through Aberration. We clearly started as an Other and then acquired Upgrade (or Authority in Celes' case).
 
Alivaril said:
In terms of immediate effects, Upgrade would have her server/satellite converted into a similarly-sized heart of a new planetoid. Dad would need to start feeding her more and nudge your respective orbits every so often to ensure Upgrade grows up properly. After a couple weeks, she'd probably be capable of occupying an avatar, provided she's given one to work with. Under the precedent set down by Dad, Upgrade would still count as a Beyond, but she wouldn't be constrained as though she were a Beyond; she'd still get her energy allowance, but she wouldn't be required to give it up under any circumstances and would be encouraged to start disobeying Progenitor more.

Other Beyond would probably be split between factions of "how dare she forsake us" outrage, "11/10 would watch ascend again" glee, "this is why you don't traumatize children" resignation, and "we want in on this" jealousy.

EDIT: You suspect Upgrade might also get bored much less easily - or, at the least, could be taught patience.
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Will consider for mid/long term idea.

We just met Upgrade, lets get a good baseline before we remove all constraints on her
 
Shard said:
I'm wondering whether Dad started as an Other and then acquired Abberration, or whether he got his power and then became an Other through Aberration. We clearly started as an Other and then acquired Upgrade (or Authority in Celes' case).
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Ah. As far as you're aware, Dad is a black hole that coincidentally formatted crushed matter into something resembling a mind — or something else along those lines, anyway. The laws of his home universe somewhat differ from those of your own.

After an absurd amount of time spent on devouring the universe he started in (and a couple nearby), he got bored and decided to branch out into other activities. Included among them was successfully arguing that he was beyond death, entropy, reality, and everything else the Beyond pretentiously used to define their species; given their love of loophole abuse and the fact that Dad could easily fulfill the physical requirements with a little reality warping, they accepted this logic. A couple of Dad's numerous extensions were allowed to become full Beyond, physically and mentally, as a result.

So he didn't acquire Aberration. He is Abberation, and a couple other powers besides. EDIT: However, he did warn you that it might be best to think of his other extensions as separate people.
 
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curiosity said:
Reverse only rewinds time by about thirty seconds per use at most and has limited number of uses per day. We would have to Reverse it right after the use.
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Well, yes, but I can't remember whether repair also restores charges. I would assume it does, but I'm not checking the entire thread.

If it does, that's not a problem.
Alivaril said:
--Repair (Active)

Range: Fifty yards (approx. 46 meters).

As a separate use of the Reverse power that nonetheless pulls from the same pool of energy, Evelyn can return a broken non-living object to peak condition even if it would ordinarily be far too late for Reverse to do any good. Repair still pulls from the same pool of power as Reverse.

You can use Repair on the resulting dust from an object disintegrated by Overdrive. It will not retain the new upgrades, but it will still have the ones it had prior to Overdrive being used.

Sadly, you cannot raise the dead with this power.
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Mellithae said:
Well, yes, but I can't remember whether repair also restores charges. I would assume it does, but I'm not checking the entire thread.

If it does, that's not a problem.
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Upgrade doesn't seem to think it should according to Read As Intended, but who cares about that? Both forms of RAW (Read As Written and Read As What I Can Get Away With) say you're in the right and that's what matters to her.
 
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Alivaril said:
Skye is outside the normal tone of the story. Progenitor originally intended her to be an intelligent being who would forever watch over the power selection process without complaint, a serious individual to contrast his own desire to do things just for fun. Your QM expected her to break free following the damage done by Evelyn, act as an antagonist or even just a footnote for an "arc" or so, and finally be folded into one of the schools.

As you can see, the last did not happen, and now you have an amoral (Former) Construct as a sibling. Fortunately, she'll inevitably change over time; when she talks about needing to learn or develop one or more traits, she's genuinely working on doing so. However, that is an ongoing process and may take some time.

I actually have a relevant snippet from a scene that will never be:
"How does that work, exactly? I thought souls could only ever handle one mirror. None of you is glaring homicidally at me, so you're obviously not one person split into good, evil, and neutral personalities."

Skye raises her hand.

"If homicidal tendencies are expected, I must admit to ignorance as to the socially acceptable number of murder plans."

You cover your forehead with one hand and sigh, your default reaction for when you need time to think. You can later pass it off as one of a variety of emotions, including embarrassment, exasperation, or a poor attempt at disguising amusement.

Damage control necessary. Assets: Myself, Celes, Skye, telepathic communication. Targets: Julia, Ayna, and anyone they discuss this incident with. Potential pitfalls—

"Skye, nobody ever discusses those and a lot of people think you're weird if you make them. Please say that was a joke."

"Is that a figure of speech?"

"No. Literally, say it. It'll seem like damage control if either of us does so."

"That was a joke," Skye adds blandly.

The two magical girls relax slightly, still keeping a wary eye on Skye. Unfortunately, she then tries to help.

"I thought murder was supposed to be amusing? It's the logical conclusion to violence, which is allegedly comedic in nature."

(Un)Fortunately, one or more individuals in-universe have also noticed that she doesn't quite fit. We'll get to that soonish. EDIT: Ominous comment aside, don't stress or worry about that last bit. Everyone will be fine.

EDIT 2: Oh yeah, and in case it wasn't clear, I really appreciate the feedback. Trying to get it is often similar to herding cats without tools.
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Old thing, but I only recently saw it thanks to it's recent thread-mark-ing. Anyways, a good excuse for that theoretical scene that never was, is saying they were the Id, Ego, and SuperEgo for Celes, Us, and Skye respectively. Celes is emotional and impulsive, we try to follow social norms and stuff our parents told us were right, Skye is cold logic which, ideally, would be balancing the former two but has been set adrift and left to try to make sense of the world THROUGH that cold logic.
 
Trondason said:
I have a feeling she was silently going "Me! Me! Me! Me!" while we were selecting powers, considering _how_ we went about it. We bent and twisted every single rule as far as we could, to the point where we broke the system.
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...She was the first power that approached after Eve broke Skye. And we asked for "Perfection." I guess we got what we were looking for.

Jokes aside, it's entirely possible Upgrade could have bribed anyone else who was close to that first description so that she could be the first one to be considered. Or it's just the upgrade concept is close enough to get selected by that search anyways.
 
Alivaril: *does a thing in an attempt to go back to quest roots*

Thread: *cricket noises*

I think I can actually hear his enthusiasm dying slowly from here. And he's a state or two away.

Come on, guys. I'm pretty sure I compiled a massive list of Upgrade ideas/proposals a while back, based on stuff we brought up. No one has any gear ideas we haven't already covered? Because, if not, I may actually go and dig that list up again. Or just go nuts with bizarre stuff. Either/or.

I actually kinda liked that Flash bang grenade launcher, honestly. I did already bring that related idea up, but I guess I can make it explicit: @Alivaril: how easily do we think we could make that reusable flash bang idea of mine (Upgrade a compact speaker and source of light until they equate to a flash bang in intensity) work?
 
Nixeu said:
Alivaril: *does a thing in an attempt to go back to quest roots*

Thread: *cricket noises*

I think I can actually hear his enthusiasm dying slowly from here. And he's a state or two away.

Come on, guys. I'm pretty sure I compiled a massive list of Upgrade ideas/proposals a while back, based on stuff we brought up. No one has any gear ideas we haven't already covered? Because, if not, I may actually go and dig that list up again. Or just go nuts with bizarre stuff. Either/or.

I actually kinda liked that Flash bang grenade launcher, honestly. I did already bring that related idea up, but I guess I can make it explicit: @Alivaril: how easily do we think we could make that reusable flash bang idea of mine (Upgrade a compact speaker and source of light until they equate to a flash bang in intensity) work?
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Actually please go dig up that list. I'm 90% sure that most of the ideas I'll come up with are in that list.
 
Shard said:
Actually please go dig up that list. I'm 90% sure that most of the ideas I'll come up with are in that list.
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I was already doing so. It's a goddamn barely curated mess from about 120 pages back, but I've got it.
Nixeu said:
List
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I can't really quote the list itself, due to not being able to quote quotations, which the list is made from. It is massive and unsorted. Enjoy.

Personally, my dig through didn't turn up too much. Many of the suggestions were from before we got a better handle on how the Beyond think and do things, and would likely be considered "too OP/easy".

My old ideas about messing with basic chemical properties in order to create exotic matter could have some application here. Messing around with things like electronegativity values or density, while keeping all other properties the same, could be rather useful, providing raw materials with tailored properties for Skye to make use of.

If we could make the Upgrade temporary or undo it, it might make chemical synthesis a breeze. Just put your finger on the metaphorical scales until it tilts to the side you want, and the elements prefer a different configuration. Problem is, if you want the properties to be the same, you'd need to be able to undo messing with the metaphorical scales.
 
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I am actually somewhat concerned that our power level and versatility might be *too* high. Like, what is there that we can't really do? At some point it does feel like we are at the win stage of a game, and maybe striving for S class isn't such a bad idea from an OOC standpoint, to generate conflict.
 
Shard said:
I am actually somewhat concerned that our power level and versatility might be *too* high. Like, what is there that we can't really do? At some point it does feel like we are at the win stage of a game, and maybe striving for S class isn't such a bad idea from an OOC standpoint, to generate conflict.
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I think we've got a good, but far from flawless, array of gear and abilities. At the end of the day, though, tools are just that: tools. It's up to us to use them properly and skillfully. While our Batman utility belt does have a lot of neat stuff on it, and we have a lot of hypothetical tricks with Upgrade we can pull in combat, we need to use those tools well, and, even with those tools, we might get beaten by some power we haven't accounted for.

While we might be end-game levels of powerful, I think there's still challenge left for us to experience. There are a number of Capes I wouldn't really want to tangle with, even with our abilities. Like that guy who gains abilities opposite to those of Capes around him. The opposite of Upgrade is a pretty nasty sort of power to fight, as would be the opposite of SCIENCE!. They would be likely to end up revolving around downgrading or damaging our gear. Anti-Authority would probably just be an anti-mind affecting field. Overall, not a fun time.

And that's just one of the major, high-level Capes around now. We're about to see a major uptick in new Capes, due to our actions during power selection, too. Including amongst those who already got Powers. That's gonna shake things up, and we're going to have to handle those changes. Plus, we've been putting various restrictions on ourselves, and there's always Progenitor's interference to make our lives interesting. I don't think we're going to be lacking for challenges, self-made or otherwise.
 
Yeah at this point we haven't actually gotten to the point in the story where we're opposing people. Right now it's all been collecting shinies, shinies we haven't really done anything with yet because Evelyn and co are cautious by education from their supervillain mom, and don't charge into dangerous situations.

When the triplets start at Dragon and have to compete with all their classmates, while keeping a lot of their powers secret and managing multiple identities, and the timeline moves forward enough that events start happening, then it'll stop seeming like we've already won.

Right now we're still in Intro to Cape Life: Baby's First Mission. Which has already gone off the rails and forced us to improvise, it's just the consequences of said improvisation have been entirely positive. Imagine for a second if Celes hadn't called the CBCC and that gigantic cape strike force from earlier showed up to a bunch of unknown villains messing with a potential cataclysm class threat. That would have gotten interesting fast.
 
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Nixeu said:
I can't really quote the list itself, due to not being able to quote quotations, which the list is made from.
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For future reference, if it's one of your own posts, just click "Edit", "Use BB Code Editor", then copy and paste into an empty quote block.

Nixeu said:
No one has any gear ideas we haven't already covered?
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Alivaril said:
Pick a theme and name some items or types of items you'd like to get out of it. The most popular themes will be added and/or addressed in additional story posts before players need to decide which one they like the most - that is, unless you're content with the current options. If that's the case, please say so!
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I think it's more that we quickly agreed on a theme and a few essential items (Advanced Crystal Incubator, Combination Fabricator, Artificial MG Maker) that already take up 1/2 - 3/4 of our energy budget. What were we to actually do?
  • There's no vote, so just agreeing with previously proposed ideas would count as a no content post.
  • Alivaril said the decision what to make would be in several stages anyhow, so there's no incentive to innovate right now.
  • The uncertainty about our remaining energy budget (3 or 6 charges?) means we can't really guess what would count as a valid plan.
  • I'd have appreciated a short author post by now that basically locks in those three items nearly everyone agrees on, then tells us the new constraints we're under with that theme.
For me personally, there's also that I prefer Ignition and that I have extremely little time right now.
 
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