Okay, did we end up making the Magical Girl Maker or not? Because I didn't see it and thought we were planning on having that.

If you can find a quote by me saying you'd make it during the exploitation, I'll retcon in the bastardized version as a free apology, but it required too many unique parts to be a fully efficient exploit-creation.

@Alivaril if we Overdrive a 10%-of-c projectile, will it still explode?

...For a given value of "explode"? If you're asking about the shockwave, fusion of air molecules forced away, etc, then yes, that would still happen. The projectile just wouldn't break apart.
 
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The backpack is much less scary than it initially seems to be.

Most rifle rounds start out about going 1000 meters per second. Reaching .1c would take 15 doublings, or 30 days. A normal-ish intermediate cartridge rifle bullet (e.g. US military ball ammunition in 5.56mm NATO) at that velocity would be packing about .5 kilotons of boom, while a higher-power round (e.g. 50-caliber browning machine gun) would be closer to 5 kilotons. Hiroshima, for reference, was 15 kt.

Yes, that's pretty impressive... or, it would be for most capes. Put it in context, though: What new capabilities does it give us?
I'm sure anyone capable of causing a Cataclysm-class disaster automatically qualifies."

Celes stifles a yawn with one hand, blinks, and proceeds to pretend she doesn't need sleep. You're still stuck on her claim you could be Cataclysm-class if you wanted to.

"Wait, what? Rewind. Unless I start upgrading a bomb or a robot or a virus or…"

You trail off, slowly coming to realize just how many ways you have to end the world. Or give it a good try, anyway. You don't intend to devote serious thought toward breaking the world so thoroughly that even other Capes couldn't fix it.
The answer is "not many". @Alivaril, assuming we started with something that Skye could build out of stuff she could find at a hardware store, how long would it take us to upgrade a bomb to the kiloton range?

Then there's the fact that indiscriminate destruction is not even that useful. We simply have no reason to set something like that off in atmosphere.

The pineapple grenade... eeeeeh. I really want to keep it, if only because it's so funny, but at the same time, it's mostly because it's funny - it's not all that threatening, and while we could make it pretty scary, it's not inherently suited weaponization. It's not even as dangerous as an off-the-shelf hand grenade. That suggests to me that we should let the CBCC have it to mislead them about the level of danger they can expect from the rest of our arsenal.

I want to keep the Steal Wool. @Alivaril, what happens to the steal wool when it's done stealing something? Does it teleport itself back into storage along with its acquisition? Or is it left behind to find its own way back?

I want to keep Grand Theft Automaton. We'll have to figure out a good way to disguise it.

I'm fine with letting them take the bubble bomb. We don't have much use for it and "It turned out more powerful than I thought and I don't have any use for it" signals responsibility, which would be a useful thing to show.
Excalibur can only be wielded by the undisputed ruler of an entire planet or planetoid. Since you are a planetoid, that apparently counts.
I can't wait to see the CBCC's reaction when we describe this feature.
 
Alivaril, assuming we started with something that Skye could build out of stuff she could find at a hardware store, how long would it take us to upgrade a bomb to the kiloton range?

You don't know, but you expect it might actually take a while. Upgrade isn't one of the Beyond who are fond of brute force. You do have plenty of cheap ways to end the world without explosives, though.


@Alivaril, what happens to the steal wool when it's done stealing something? Does it teleport itself back into storage along with its acquisition? Or is it left behind to find its own way back?

Currently, it'll just keep eating until you collect it and put it back in its sleepy-pouch. You can upgrade it to respond to calling or to head to storage, though. (Later, anyway, you're OOM right now)
 
I kind of want to keep the ammo backpack just so we can have a "oh crap, bring out the biggatons!" response.

But I also foresee it sitting in a basement for years accumulating ridiculously deadly baseballs we don't know what to do with.

As for the backblast, I've got no clue, but remote controlled firing platforms exist for a reason. Some sort of flying drone with a potato cannon would be ideal.


On the other hand, depending on how much we can trust CBCC to be responsible, I would be fine handing them a nuke factory. They are the ones who actually need this thing.

The main problem is how to do so without making them panic that a bunch of little girls have the ability to make a WMD-generator. Not just "making a mini-nuke" but "making a thing that makes mini nukes at a rate of a few every month".

I suspect if we fully explain the backpack, ALL three of them will get S-Class designations.
 
(Use preference voting: 1, 2, etc.)
[] Rainbow Crystals
[] Starfields
[] Solidified Light
[] Light-absorbing metal shards
[] Water
[] Crispy fried chicken with buffalo sauce and blue cheese

Iiiiiiii should probably go find some food. >_____>
Is sentient (feeling) and will wander around of his own accord; although he does like you and your siblings, he'll probably be more of a neighborhood stray than a pet belonging to you. He's also invulnerable and immune to disease.
...Please tell me that the neighborhood in question will be Dragon. That'd be perfect. People would get so mad.
You don't know, but you expect it might actually take a while. Upgrade isn't one of the Beyond who are fond of brute force. You do have plenty of cheap ways to end the world without explosives, though.
That's fair. I'm guessing that by "cheap" you mean in the one-week-or-less range?
I kind of want to keep the ammo backpack just so we can have a "oh crap, bring out the biggatons!" response.
If we want to blow something up, we have faster, easier, more precise, and more effective ways to do it.

The use case for the backpack is, in fact, not kinetic energy weapons at all: It works on anything that can be classified as a projectile. RC plane: Now goes super fast. Communications satellite: Hand-launch to orbit. Specialty arrows: much faster and therefore more accurate and usable against different targets. That kind of thing.
On the other hand, depending on how much we can trust CBCC to be responsible, I would be fine handing them a nuke factory. They are the ones who actually need this thing.
Simple solution: Don't tell them what it is now. Tell them what it is in a month or two, after we've already established that we're responsible people and it's not giving us any new capabilities.

Note that it's currently heavily disguised. Once we take it home and take it out of the backpack, it's just a random box. They might figure out that we built it today and held on to it for a while, but I don't think that that's even a major problem: Part of the point we'll want to make at some point is that we could've built any of this stuff at any time, barring resource shortages.
Currently, it'll just keep eating until you collect it and put it back in its sleepy-pouch. You can upgrade it to respond to calling or to head to storage, though. (Later, anyway, you're OOM right now)
Ah. Yep, definitely want that.

[x] Hand over some items:
-[x] Bubble Bomb: Turned out more powerful than you expected, you don't have a use for it, and it's a bit dangerous.
-[x] Pineapple Grenade: You weren't expecting them to be a problem and you're disappointed. Pineapples are delicious!

[x] Lie/be misleading about others:
-[x] Grand Theft Automaton
-[x] Super-Celes's Go-Ballistic Exponential-Doses
-[x] Steal Wool

@Alivaril It sounds like we leave the details there for a later vote?

[1] Starfields
[2] Solidified Light
[3] Rainbow Crystals
[4] Water
[5] Light-absorbing metal shards

Starfields are clearly the correct choice given our real parents, our implied parents, our real bodies, and our team names. After that, light-absorbing metal shards are a bit too edgy and I get the impression that the CBCC will know that we made them, so they go on the bottom. I'm iffy about water. Solidified light and rainbow crystals were close, but I think that solidified light are probably a bit more distinctive and have better associations.
 
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Heh. I'm kinda glad several of my favorite mythological weapon suggestions went through. I was really proud of Joyeuse, and Gun-gnir. The Sword of Damocles did eat a bit of a nerf, but seems fine. Gram was too obvious a joke to feel that proud of, though. Sadly, it seems like the less punny, more mythologically weird ones were more likely to be left on the cutting room floor. Though I did have a subtle pun worked into Durandal (the sword of Roland).

I'll note that Gram was originally meant to worded such that it also adapts to redefinition or refinement of the value of a gram. Mostly to dodge any possible future move to define it based on a universal constant, rather than a master weight, and also so it would adapt to any minor weight shifts in such a weight. Wasn't really considering gravity as a factor, but thwt does seem drastically more obvious as a possible problem, now that you've brought it up. Whoops.

I would also just like to point out that we do have some Escape Pods that can teleport out our sketchier gear, if need be. We could probably pass it off as a malfunction of a get-away teleportation item if we set things up right, I.E. with neither us or our siblings within range to raise eyebrows at our lack of being teleported. Admittedly, breaking them at a distance in an accidental manner is a touch tricky, but, if it doesn't require gentlenss, then falling objects and other methods of crushing something should work. Alternatively, something sharp and something like fishing wire or thread might do the trick subtly. @Alivaril?

Mind you, I could still see that causing problems, as having Builder tech made by people of our caliber loose in the world might be enough to get them to launch some sort of massive search attempt. But a malfunction in activation could also indicate a malfunction in something else, like end coordinates, so that might not happen. Or we could lie about the Escape Pod's function, and say it disintegrated the stuff. Still suspicious, of course, but we're going to have to lie to get anything that's questionable out of here anyway. The only variable is what lies we're going to be telling.

Personally, I see that as an excellent counter to the attempt by Alivaril the Beyond to sabotage the Escape Pods, and a way to come out with all our loot. Not that I necessarily think we'll need all of it, simply that I feel like not coming out with everything is much less satisfying, less of a victory. I'll write up a vote later, if I need to. I'm a bit tired right now
 
So, question about Nature's Hatred: Exactly what is defined as a "near-lightless vacuum"? Because if this thing can expand to fill the Earth's shadow during a new moon if deployed in high orbit, there are going to be problems.

(Happy to see Moment of Inertia make it in, btw.)
 
Oops, forgot this quote:
Technically, it would be theft if you don't first use the parts. However, you might be able to work out some sort of loophole-ridden deal when it comes to "testing their security." They also tend to be pretty comfortable with giving large rewards for revealing security problems; getting past their teleport blockers like that would probably be adequate.
Updates:

[x] Hand over some items:
-[x] Bubble Bomb: Turned out more powerful than you expected, you don't have a use for it, and it's a bit dangerous.
-[x] Pineapple Grenade: You weren't expecting them to be a problem and you're disappointed. Pineapples are delicious!

[x] Lie/be misleading about others:
-[x] Grand Theft Automaton
-[x] Steal Wool

[x] Teleport out:
-[x] Super-Celes's Go-Ballistic Exponential-Doses

It should be easy enough do disguise the functionality of the Grand Theft Automaton, and I'm sure we can disguise the Steal Wool somehow. @Alivaril, what happens when you put something into the pouch with the dormant Steal Wool? I'd expect the ballistic exponentiator to be much harder to lie about or disguise; there's no partial effect we can demonstrate from it to support a misleading explanation. Unless they're willing to accept our word about a literal mystery box that they haven't seen any evidence whatsoever of the actual functionality of?

[1] Starfields
[2] Solidified Light
[3] Rainbow Crystals
[4] Water
[5] Light-absorbing metal shards

Note: Prisms will not divide the beam. You'll get one cohesive healing beam no matter what is done to it.
...Maybe generic prisms, but what about Prism? That seems like a sufficiently magical girl thing to do if there're a bunch of wounded allies.
 
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If you can find a quote by me saying you'd make it during the exploitation, I'll retcon in the bastardized version as a free apology, but it required too many unique parts to be a fully efficient exploit-creation.
You didn't say that, we just assumed.

[] The frustrated tears of those who thought the Capacitor drain was a one-time incident
[1] Solidified Light
[2] Starfields
[3] Water
[4] Light-absorbing metal shards
[5] Rainbow Crystals

I'll wait to decide on the rest of the vote.
 
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I am disappointed that nobody here made a joke about naming a team Prog's Spawn.

Shame, shame on all of you.
 
Oops, forgot this quote:
That certainly makes life easier. Thanks for bringing that up.
It should be easy enough do disguise the functionality of the Grand Theft Automaton, and I'm sure we can disguise the Steal Wool somehow. @Alivaril, what happens when you put something into the pouch with the dormant Steal Wool? I'd expect the ballistic exponentiator to be much harder to lie about or disguise; there's no partial effect we can demonstrate from it to support a misleading explanation. Unless they're willing to accept our word about a literal mystery box that they haven't seen any evidence whatsoever of the actual functionality of?
I'm not sure why we shouldn't just teleport out all of our dangerous items (or at least those we want), along with a bunch of other items to muddy the waters. The inability to teleport ourselves could probably be covered up by putting the EPs in a small, grenade-like casing that does the needed action to set them off upon impact or after a certain amount of time from activation.

While I'm okay with the Pineapple Bomb being turned in, I will note that I'm fairly sure the Bubble Bomb was a solo effort on our part, and thus revealing what it does and turning it in might tell them a few things about our powers that we'd rather keep hidden. Assuming they've actually managed to keep track of who made what.
 
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****** Super-Celes's Go-Ballistic Exponential-Doses
  • Tell them it doubles the velocity of hand-launched objects, and it takes 8 days to work. Don't mention that it works on dispoable projectiles or that it can be stacked
  • When they insist of testing it, protest that requiring you to leave it here for 8 days is unreasonable
  • Allow them to 'convince' us that they really do need to test it, and 'grudgingly allow them to keep it for 8 days
  • Find a small object valuable enough to attract the Wool and get 3 or 4 of them
  • Spread the items on a table and release the wool in the middle
  • The wool will start craling towards the items; move them around when it gets close so it doesn't catch them
  • Explain that it is a non-sapient pet that is attracted to [whatever valuable item we picked]
  • When they ask what happens when it catches one, allow it to do so, and explain it eats them

Cat-a-pult
A handheld catapult. Projectiles launched by the Cata-a-pult become imitations of very angry cats in midair, reverting a minute after impact. Successfully hitting an opponent with one cat will give the other cats homing capabilities. "Killed" cats will immediately vanish.
Note the phrasing there. Immediately vanish. Not immediately revert. Which means we now have a way of safely disposing of any object small enough to fit into the Cat-a-pult.


Gun-gnir
A long rifle that fires homing spears at your targets. You should probably save this for nonliving targets and/or threats to your life.
I am shocked this isn't a red or yellow star.


I'd expect the ballistic exponentiator to be much harder to lie about or disguise; there's no partial effect we can demonstrate from it to support a misleading explanation. Unless they're willing to accept our word about a literal mystery box that they haven't seen any evidence whatsoever of the actual functionality of?
See above. As long as we don't mention the 'works on bullets' thing, the doubling time is long enough that they can't test two iterations on the same object unless we let them.
 
I will note that I'm fairly sure the Bubble Bomb was a solo effort on our part, and thus revealing what it does and turning it in might tell them a few things about our powers that we'd rather keep hidden.
Hmm, fair point.
I'm not sure why we shouldn't just teleport out all of our dangerous items (or at least those we want), along with a bunch of other items to muddy the waters. The inability to teleport ourselves could probably be covered up by putting the EPs in a small, grenade-like casing that does the needed action to set them off upon impact or after a certain amount of time from activation.
I guess that, if we are teleporting some things out, it's not much worse to teleport out a bunch of stuff rather than just the important things. Would still want to leave behind some things to convince them of our relative harmlessness, though.
Find a small object valuable enough to attract the Wool and get 3 or 4 of them
I don't know if we'd be able to find an inconsequential trinket that's more valuable than a bit of actual gear. @Alivaril, is the range on the Steal Wool small enough/the definition of "valuable" sufficiently malleable that this would work?
Allow them to 'convince' us that they really do need to test it, and 'grudgingly allow them to keep it for 8 days
I'd worry about them trying it with a disposable projectile, or wondering if the effect stacked and insisting on testing it for two cycles.
I am shocked this isn't a red or yellow star.
It's not more dangerous than an off-the-shelf rifle. They're generally worried about bombs and other things that'd cause massive property damage or loss-of-life in set off in a crowded area. Or, apparently about items that are only useful for theft? I can understand what they don't like about the Grand Theft Automaton, since I doubt the thing has a drivers' license, but I'm a bit confused about the steal wool.
 
That's fair. I'm guessing that by "cheap" you mean in the one-week-or-less range?
Correct.

@Alivaril It sounds like we leave the details there for a later vote?

Up to you; yes, you can.

We could probably pass it off as a malfunction of a get-away teleportation item if we set things up right, I.E. with neither us or our siblings within range to raise eyebrows at our lack of being teleported. Admittedly, breaking them at a distance in an accidental manner is a touch tricky, but, if it doesn't require gentlenss, then falling objects and other methods of crushing something should work. Alternatively, something sharp and something like fishing wire or thread might do the trick subtly. @Alivaril?

When did this become Conan

Probably not.



So, question about Nature's Hatred: Exactly what is defined as a "near-lightless vacuum"? Because if this thing can expand to fill the Earth's shadow during a new moon if deployed in high orbit, there are going to be problems.

(Happy to see Moment of Inertia make it in, btw.)

Earth and the surrounding area has too much dust and light. Interstellar space might work, but you don't think it would. The void between galaxies would most likely be OK.

@Alivaril, what happens when you put something into the pouch with the dormant Steal Wool?
Nothing.

Unless they're willing to accept our word about a literal mystery box that they haven't seen any evidence whatsoever of the actual functionality of?

Probably not. Nature's Hatred will likely be OK if it's justified as a one-time mobile home (a scan would show it to have a tiiiiny room right now), but the inside of the backpack looks like a collection of odd rods and mechanical arms.


...Maybe generic prisms, but what about Prism? That seems like a sufficiently magical girl thing to do if there're a bunch of wounded allies.

You don't know. Maybe? You honestly wouldn't be too surprised.


I go back to sleep now.
 
I am shocked this isn't a red or yellow star.
It's really not that much more dangerous than any of our other obviously dangerous weapons. Apparently, blades and firearms are common enough that they don't raise too many eyebrows.
I guess that, if we are teleporting some things out, it's not much worse to teleport out a bunch of stuff rather than just the important things. Would still want to leave behind some things to convince them of our relative harmlessness, though.
It also has the advantage of making it look like an attempt to come away with more gear than we otherwise should, if we also include some spare parts and the like. Just teleporting away a few items is much more suspicious, makes it look like we're mostly dodging explaining things to them.
It's not more dangerous than an off-the-shelf rifle. They're generally worried about bombs and other things that'd cause massive property damage or loss-of-life in set off in a crowded area. Or, apparently about items that are only useful for theft? I can understand what they don't like about the Grand Theft Automaton, since I doubt the thing has a drivers' license, but I'm a bit confused about the steal wool.
Based on the fact that we had to hide most of Celes' new apps, being made to aid in illegal actions does seem to be the most common thread.
 
[1] Light-absorbing metal shards
[2] Starfields
[3] Solidified Light
[4] Water
[5] Rainbow Crystals

[X] Hand over your more dangerous items, but refuse to explain the others.
-[x] Bubble Bomb: Turned out more powerful than you expected, you don't have a use for it, and it's a bit dangerous.
-[x] Pineapple Grenade: You weren't expecting them to be a problem and you're disappointed. Pineapples are delicious!

[x] Lie about the functionality of your various items.
-[x] Grand Theft Automaton
-[x] Steal Wool

[X] Teleport away your incriminating items.
-[x] Super-Celes's Go-Ballistic Exponential-Doses
 
I will now proceed to engage in the traditional proxy vote for Vebyast. (Busy this weekend. Skimmed discussion and saw nothing objectionable with his vote.)

[X] Vebyast
 
If you can find a quote by me saying you'd make it during the exploitation, I'll retcon in the bastardized version as a free apology, but it required too many unique parts to be a fully efficient exploit-creation.
The problem is more that we semi-voted on the MG maker, and now it was replaced by a dozen items that each were suggested by a single person; without ever telling the voters that their previous decision was discarded...
Assuming the majority agrees, which items would we have to give up to retcon the MG maker into existence?


[1] Rainbow Crystals
[2] Solidified Light
[3] Light-absorbing metal shards
[4] Starfields
[5] Water

[X] Hand over your more dangerous items, but refuse to explain the others.
-[x] Bubble Bomb: Turned out more powerful than you expected, you don't have a use for it, and it's a bit dangerous.
-[x] Pineapple Grenade: You weren't expecting them to be a problem and you're disappointed. Pineapples are delicious!
-[x] Grand Theft Automaton: Format its programming and tell them you lost interest in a robot butler halfway through.

[x] Lie about the functionality of your various items.
-[x] Steal Wool
-[x] Super-Celes's Go-Ballistic Exponential-Doses: Use Celes' reality-Authority to temporarily limit it to hand-thrown objects and double velocity.
 
Assuming the majority agrees, which items would we have to give up to retcon the MG maker into existence?

For the bastardized version...
Stopwatch (Upgrade)
An additional module for your anti-observation watch. The Stopwatch will reroute energy from Reverse in order to pause a nonliving target for 10-25 seconds or a living target for 3-7 seconds. Living targets will be aware, if indestructible, and their minds will continue to process input from their senses — including, unfortunately, pain.
GTG
Or: Grand Theft Garage
Turns out that the room you're in is partitioned from the rest of the CBCC structure. This only made it easier for you to play with it. It isn't a giant robot, but it could phase through intervening walls in order to fly freely through the air atop four person-sized boosters — at least, until someone shot it down. You don't think that would take very long.
Note: You'd still have subverted the security systems, but the phasing and boosters would be gone.

Flash Mob
A 20th-century camera with a blinding white flash, the Flash Mob will summon a 10 to 20 ten-centimeter toy mobsters to attack the ankles of your enemies. Will need to be fed new batteries after each use.
Shades
Glasses that dim areas within your line-of-sight instead of dimming your own perception of the surrounding area. You added little mirrored sections to let you dim the entire surrounding area, but effectively lost your peripheral vision in exchange.
x3 Escape Pods
A trio of pea pods that will rot within the next twelve hours. When the pods are broken, they will transport all nearby (5 meters) item(s) belonging to you, but not worn by you, to a seldom-used forest park a few kilometers from your home. You will not be transported with them; the Beyond didn't want you weaseling out of what they believed to be an entertaining explanation to CBCC.

For the full version, you'd also have to give up these:
x3 Sidelong V2 (Upgrade)
Improvements to your costume pseudo-backpacks. After Sidelong is activated, whenever its wearer quickly changes direction, the Sidelong will create a fake image continuing along their original path. This image appears real to everyone who sees it, including you, but will vanish after two seconds. When combined with the Stutter Drives (short periods of timestop) Upgrade added to your costumes, your opponents are probably going to end up rubbing their eyes an awful lot. You and your siblings will only see the ghostly outlines of Sidelong images instead of having them block your lines of sight.



Does it increase in size when it eats something?
Not yet.
 
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For the bastardized version...
Personally, I wouldn't mind giving up GTG, Flash Mob, Shades, and Escape Pods.
Could we sacrifice GTA + Impenetrable Disguises instead of the Stopwatch?
Though even if not, the Stopwatch Upgrade is probably easier to add later than creating the MG maker, so I'd still vote for the change.
 
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