It makes a lot of sense and isn't all that complicated to do. Honestly, it kind of reminds me of Rex's unused Slick Trick. I'll probably just give this as a freebie, it makes no sense for me to go "It didn't win a vote"- cause again, it really isn't complicated enough to need a Vote to make it happen.
Scheduled vote count started by Kkutlord on Feb 13, 2023 at 7:51 PM, finished with 10 posts and 8 votes.
[X] Being able to run away better would be helpful....
-[X] Create some kind of powered Wheels on the Armour's Boots, not little wheels like Roller Blades though, Mountain Blades? Bowling Ball sized? Two wheels on each Boot. If this works, then I could make a single version on my Gauntlet that spins and has blades on it?
A/N: I'm kind of surprised "Talk To Danny" won, though I'm mainly only surprised because I've seen people be really insistent Danny is too problematic. He doesn't have powers so he fundamentally can't understand what that is like, but other than that I don't get why people think he's a problem.
[] Talk To Dad.
- Maybe I should tell him what I'm about to do...
----
Doing nothing had, well, never done anything of value for me and as much as I didn't want to get stuck in the 'With Great Power' trap... I spent over a year being bullied and traumatized, another three months in a mixed state of confusion & denial, then today I finally did something truly meaningful.
Part of me wanted to immediately run out, I could probably defeat regular crooks easily enough. Sure, I'm uncertain of my suit's strength, but I only got harmlessly blasted back from my... 'Nano Wall' detonating. Granted, that might have been a unique trait in response to Disrupter tech, but the only way to prove its durability is having someone or something I don't want damaging it to try.
But that was also why I shouldn't just waltz out looking for trouble- Everything that happened at school was little more than me flailing around wildly with zero clue to what was happening. Not exactly like that, but it would be smarter having someone more experienced available to make sure I didn't get injured or worse.
I'm not sure what Vicki told the ERT and thus Providence, I just know nobody tried to stop me from leaving the local branch. Trying to get their help is a risk for multiple reasons- either they 'put two & two together' or prioritize trying to recruit me as a Protectorate member. I wasn't aiming to be some 'hero for fun' but I didn't want the expectation to hero regularly either.
New Wave wasn't completely unshackled, though mainly because Providence wouldn't ignore the existence of very obvious EVOs. I'll probably still get recruitment attempts, though again because Providence. If there was a good enough reasoning, Providence was willing to accept any EVO into their ranks.
Walking wouldn't be the fastest, but if I recall correctly New Wave was primarily stationed just a little off from the Broadwalk and the ERT building not too far away. I could probably get there and back before it was too dark, though if my idea worked I might be able to cut down on my travel time without involving Dad.
Right, Dad... I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't talk to Dad about my plans, despite my earlier insistence I needed to reach out to him. He was upstairs, in his room, not sleeping like he claimed. From what I can tell by his Nanites, Dad wasn't even trying to fall asleep. I couldn't see through walls, so I wasn't entirely certain but...
He was sitting on the edge of his bed, hunched over, with head held in one hand. Dad was thinking about something, I know how this usually goes... knocking on the door, I speak up clearly. "Dad, can we talk?" That got Dad's eyes on the door, he seemed to take a few deep breaths and rubbed his arm against his face before getting up.
I made sure to dismiss my 'helmet', so the first thing Dad did was look at my 'costume.' I felt a pit in my heart upon realizing he had been crying, yet he still tried to look... not exactly reassured, but like he hadn't been crying recently. "Of course, what did you need Taylor?" Part of me tried insisting I was stupid and horrible for having upset Dad, that it was a terrible idea to tell him...
But with a breath of my own, I managed to muster up the will to answer. "I... I want to be a Hero. Not for the ERT, Protectorate, nothing Providence related. I'm not doing it for fun, there's all kinds of bad people in our city, if I can protect the people I love why shouldn't I?" Dad's expression wasn't stony, but for several moments he looked at me silently.
Finally, Dad lets out a melancholic sigh, his body slouching as his attempt to look calm & composed faded away. "What am I supposed to say? I can't really stop you, even if I did try grounding you and the only option I could think of that might work... we both know why it wouldn't end well."
Regardless of what might have happened, I knew for a fact I would never be able to trust Dad again if he told Providence about me. Mom and Dad were the only two family members I have ever known, the most I knew about either side of my extended family is that Dad had an uncle once. Given how Dad is about Mom...
"I-I don't have to, Dad- things have been fine without me, I don't even have a 'Superhero Name' prepared." That gets Dad to shake his head gently, before placing a hand on my shoulder and smiling slightly.
"No, I could see that fire in your eyes. I know it sounds cliche, but it reminds me of your mother. What right do I have to make you pretend to be something you're not? I never expected anything like this to happen, but I'd be a right hypocrite telling someone they aren't allowed to use their 'gifts' to help others."
For a moment, I wasn't sure what to do, before hugging my Dad. In response, he slowly returned the hug, and I felt both sad & happy. Was this all I had to do- tell Dad about my powers? Powers I probably wouldn't even have if it wasn't for the Locker... Still, maybe it was worth it just to have Dad back...
Disengaging from the hug, for a moment I felt like a shy little kid as I looked at Dad. "I'm not going to run around without a plan though, I've been experimenting a little and I intend to make some connections." That gets Dad to raise an eyebrow slightly in curiosity, he didn't need to say words for me to guess. How to elaborate...
----
Besides the ERT, Protectorate, and the 3 Main Gangs there weren't many other big groups. Dad might not be the actual head of the DWA, but having an understanding of the local Cape scene was one of those things he couldn't ignore.
New Wave is primarily a family unit, but compared to some of the other choices it was probably best. While nobody knew for sure what was going on with Coil's organization and Faultline's own, Dad was at least insistent I shouldn't associate with Villains.
Really, who else was I supposed to reach out to- Über & Leet? Nobody seemed sure what Purity was doing, and other than two minor Heroes there was Parian- but she specifically isn't a fighter. Might not be a bad idea to visit her eventually, given I can 'instantly' create my 'costume' at will I could probably come up with different outfits.
I can think about that later, right now my main concern was figuring out when I should 'Hero Up'. Even despite the fact Brockton Bay isn't an unstable living hell, not many people tended to wander around. There just wasn't much to do outside the Broadwalk, and nobody knew when one of the gangs might act up.
It was easy enough to disappear into an alleyway or anything of the like, the only people likely to pay attention to such activity were those likely to act on that knowledge- EVOlution isn't extremely common, most people aren't prepared to deal with guys holding guns let alone some wolf made purely of blades.
So when some young teenage girl passed me, the only thing I was thought was "Isn't she a bit young to be alone?" I'm not old enough to legally drive, did that give me any right to judge someone else? I don't remember for sure, but the whole 'you're too young to stay home alone' is apparently just heavily advised rather than actual law.
I tried to just ignore her, even as I kept my Nanite sense open to avoid any trouble. In the back of my mind, nobody was looking at her- save for one person, who was quickly approaching the girl. Then, the man spoke. "Are you lost little girl?" The instance I heard that, I shivered a little- I didn't know the voice, but I knew the tone.
I didn't look back just yet, there could be multiple explanations- though I quickly started to doubt that, when the girl in question seemed to stare at the man. "Uh, no, I'm pretty familiar with my route. So... bye." The man watched as she turned around, only for him to grab her by the forearm.
Finally turning around to look, I couldn't help letting out a sigh of annoyance. The Empire has a shockingly good PR game, but 'unofficially' it was clear they aren't the 'Real Heroes' like they claim. They 'know' how to identify those likely to turn EVO, it is 'totally' a coincidence that was near-exclusively non-Caucasian individuals.
It seemed to be just the one guy, and I wasn't getting any strange readings from him. Sure, I meant to speak with New Wave and maybe Vicki in private about school, but I couldn't just leave some kid alone after getting 'identified' as a Pre-EVO.
-- (What to do?)
[] He's Just One Guy.
- Dude's trying to be 'subtle', he'll probably back off realizing he has witnesses.
[] Super Suit Time?
- Not what I was expecting for my debut, but I really can't stand 'bullies.'
[] Write-In
----
A/N: Look, we all know "Walk away and pretend you saw nothing" was never going to win, so I honestly had no idea what to list for the Obligatory 3rd Option. As for this Update overall, I always intended for any of the last three options to end with an encounter for Taylor's first Hero moment.
Well, the New Wave option might have delayed things by another update, but I've been waiting for this moment & figured I probably shouldn't keep putting it off. Regarding Danny, poor guy just had a very upsetting day- first he gets a phone call about the 'EVO Attack', picks Taylor up from the local ERT, gets told very strange things, and there's also the fact he lost his beloved Wife less than 2 years ago.
I'll elaborate if his Interlude wins, but basically he's struggling with a lot of fear regarding his daughter's safety. About the Empire... on one hand, I don't really understand why Wildbow made them a thing in the first place. On the other, I could have easily removed them entirely but... it made sense to me for there to be an Anti-EVO group, and being 'totally able to identify' EVOs?
Adapt or Die, the more 'traditional' racists probably existed at some point cause they do even today IRL, just the advert of Real Superpowered Lifeforms would have quickly made anyone going "Only this specific type of Human is a real human" look obviously stupid- Unless being a Ginger meant they were likely to transform into a Sentient Goo Monster capable of distorting space, who would care?
Nazis bad, I understand, I have very personal reasons to agree- all I did was take what was already there and do something to make it seem believable.
Let's see here. Option #1 opens up the possibility of a gun or other weapon that could kill us, while Option #2 could jeopardize our identity if the guy remembers enough.
With that said:
[X] He's Just One Guy.
- Dude's trying to be 'subtle', he'll probably back off realizing he has witnesses.
Oh, Purity. With all the bias in your thinking and a fair amount of mental gymnastics that you do on a regular basis, there is still a level of hypocrisy that you are not ready to deal with, is there?
[X] He's Just One Guy.
It will be much worse if they think this girl might actually be involved with EVO.
A/N: I'm kind of surprised "Talk To Danny" won, though I'm mainly only surprised because I've seen people be really insistent Danny is too problematic. He doesn't have powers so he fundamentally can't understand what that is like, but other than that I don't get why people think he's a problem.
I saw basically two opposing points of view on this issue - those who consider Danny an absolutely worthless parent, and those who, on the contrary, make him a super-competent person who just has some problems communicating with his daughter. Both of them are wrong, although the first is still closer to the truth if we look at the canon.
I saw basically two opposing points of view on this issue - those who consider Danny an absolutely worthless parent, and those who, on the contrary, make him a super-competent person who just has some problems communicating with his daughter. Both of them are wrong, although the first is still closer to the truth if we look at the canon.
Hopefully I didn't do too badly in that regard- I was going for "Oh God I really have been a bad father". Basically, Taylor outright telling him she has Powers ever since The Locker was the catalyst for him to think really hard.
Oh, Purity. With all the bias in your thinking and a fair amount of mental gymnastics that you do on a regular basis, there is still a level of hypocrisy that you are not ready to deal with, is there?
Just going by her Wiki page, there's not much regarding her before Coil outting every single Empire Cape. I admit, she's difficult to handle, but I'm not really okay with going "Pure Black & White" regarding anyone really. Honestly, that just isn't interesting, most Worm villains seem like they only exist to be Generically Evil Problems. Got plans for Accord though...
I have encountered people who tried to insist Rune is Super Evil, despite her genuine Heel-Face-Turn in Ward, how she starts Worm only 13, and that her parents were control freaks who didn't let her live her own life. It really isn't hard to say Rune didn't actually understand what she was getting into, because she was 'given' what she wanted most: Respect, at least she thought she was.
Hopefully I didn't do too badly in that regard- I was going for "Oh God I really have been a bad father". Basically, Taylor outright telling him she has Powers ever since The Locker was the catalyst for him to think really hard.
I would say that you are doing a good job. It will probably be a decent amount of time before they can rekindle their old relationship, but at least they aren't actively avoiding each other now. See, progress!
Depends, there's a lot of those and Worm by itself justifies me randomly including hyper-deadly teenager girls whenever & wherever I want.
I am genuinely interested to know who you think she is. I love this kind of curiosity, I really do want to make a proper response but again that's a pretty vague description.
Also apparently I forgot to hit Open Voting? Apologies for that, I really need to pay better attention to things.
[X] Write-In
-[X] Use your nanite's from a distance. Partially create your suit from range so it looks like an Evo independently acting to protect her.
[X] Write-In
-[X] Use your nanite's from a distance. Partially create your suit from range so it looks like an Evo independently acting to protect her.
You sure we have the skills to pull that off? We just figured it out a few minutes/hours ago, and I'm pretty certain that said suit would be mute as well since we probably can't throw our voice that well.
[X] He's Just One Guy.
- Dude's trying to be 'subtle', he'll probably back off realizing he has witnesses.
[X] Write-In
-[X] Use your nanite's from a distance. Partially create your suit from range so it looks like an Evo independently acting to protect her.
You sure we have the skills to pull that off? We just figured it out a few minutes/hours ago, and I'm pretty certain that said suit would be mute as well since we probably can't throw our voice that well.
Yeah, Taylor can only really do relatively simple things currently- stuff like "Make wheels so I can move around quicker/easier" is more in her range, trying to do 'Nanite Clones' would be a more advanced skill with multiple parts; Creating constructs at range and synthesizing speech. That'd be too much too fast.
Scheduled vote count started by Kkutlord on Feb 16, 2023 at 1:21 AM, finished with 3 posts and 2 votes.
[X] Write-In
-[X] Use your nanite's from a distance. Partially create your suit from range so it looks like an Evo independently acting to protect her.
[X] Write-In
-[X] Use your nanite's from a distance. Partially create your suit from range so it looks like an Evo independently acting to protect her.
A/N: Sorry about not doing much yesterday, I wasn't in the mood for doing things in general and these first two Arcs have been relatively easy since they're mainly focused on setting things up. I might start slowing down, not sure.
[] He's Just One Guy.
- Dude's trying to be 'subtle', he'll probably back off realizing he has witnesses.
----
There was no question I had to do something, 'the plan' didn't matter- Walking away and pretending I saw nothing was literally the kind of thing the people at Winslow did. There was a part of me that wanted to just blindly 'Hero Up' and provide unlicensed surgery, but that was a bad idea for multiple reasons.
I briefly considered the idea of crafting my 'costume' at range and puppeteering it into acting like a Cape, but I wasn't sure I actually could do something like that- experimenting on the spot with untested anything was too likely to go wrong somehow. Maybe if I was lucky enough, nothing bad would happen.
Overall, the situation didn't seem very complicated- there were a few looking in this direction, but nobody making any move to get involved. The man wasn't trying to gather attention, while powers weren't everything... nothing about the guy gave me the impression he's more dangerous or important than he appears.
The younger teen looked visibly annoyed, no doubt preparing to say something herself. This was the part most would dismiss the need to get involved, but it never ended well when I was caught being defiant. Making my presence known as I approached, I didn't shout but I still spoke loudly. "What are you doing with her?"
My eyes were focused on the man before me, even as I was aware in the back of my mind that the girl was looking at me too. I noticed the annoyance on his face, even as he tried looking calm and unbothered. "I'm just trying to help." That was as believable as 'sweet & cute' Madison being able to punch her fist through a wall.
Before either of us could do anything, first with Nanite sensing and then my own eyes, I noticed as the 13ish year old girl slammed her foot into the man's knee. He screamed in pain, mindlessly letting go of her, with the girl darting away. Honestly, I'm not sure what else I was expecting to happen...
His eyes glared at me, filled with anger before shouting at me. "Do you know what you've done!? I was helping!" I sincerely doubted that. Grown white man trying to drag off a black teenage girl in this city? Not sure how such an idiot is involved with the Empire, I just know there was obviously no way that was ending well. There weren't many misunderstood creepy weirdos in Brockton Bay after all.
"She very obviously didn't need your help, see if the police care." It was then I realized what should have been obvious. 'Huh?' I wanted to immediately explain how he clearly did a crime, except... I'm not sure he did? I don't know nearly enough about law to figure out if he'd qualify, if anything it was the girl most likely to get in trouble for attacking him...
The notion he 'technically' did nothing wrong infuriated me, he's clearly the kind of person who shouldn't be allowed to run around freely! It was rather twisted, but I kind of wished he did something blatantly illegal. I didn't want the girl to have been in danger, but what's actually stopping this idiot from trying again when I wasn't around!?
"Why couldn't he do something stupid!?" That was when I noticed two very concerning things- a gun being pointed at me, and that his Nanites were in a state of heightened activity. The only time I ever noticed such before... Bang. I felt something tearing my body, the force sending me falling onto my back.
Even as I heard the man screaming in panic and the 'noise' of his Nanites escalating, at that moment only one thought grabbed my attention. "Why aren't I dead?" It wasn't an 'instant kill' spot, but despite getting shot by an actual gun... Besides the initial pain, I felt weirdly okay. That's not how this is supposed to work right?
Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to figure out why I wasn't dying- I only ever heard that specific 'noise' once before, but I still remembered what it meant. I couldn't help my eyes widening, as a familiar pattern of blue circuity lines grew over the man. Where once there was a man, a... creature stood.
It was a large, lanky, and slim thing- more like some beast designed to be an inescapable hunter, even 'complete' with a face stretched out into a muzzle you'd find on predatory animals. The only clue it was once a human being is the skin and the black hair on its head, most of the former blonde hair having fallen off with only a few strands left.
I knew what was before me, everyone nearby seemed to as well, yet... even as I watched it sniffing at the air, I couldn't help thinking. "Was this my fault?"
-- (What to do?)
[] Wait For The Heroes
- Beverly is my friend, this is just some random jerk.
[] Try To Distract It
- I wasn't certain, but it might be trying to find something... or someone.
[] No More Waiting
- I have the power to stop that Mad EVO, what kind of hero ignores an obvious problem?
----
A/N: I was kind of struggling with this, I feel the need to clear some things up. Taylor had gotten kind of carried away with her anger, so she wasn't paying attention to the warning sighs. I would also say she has heard heightened Nanite activity before, but Beverly was the first time Taylor ever realized the connection to EVOlution.
Since the Nanites are in a constant state of analysis, there's the occasional moments where they spike in response to Host being in particular states. Essentially, this guy's Nanites were more 'awake' than normal, and because Taylor wanted him to do something stupid... This isn't a Broadcast or Master kind of thing, all that really happened was that he got a 'push' to do a thing he was likely to do.
Ultimately, he went EVO all on his own. I just thought it would be neat showing Taylor needs to be a bit careful with her abilities, so that the Omega-1 doesn't accidentally do something to halp. Can you imagine if someone had made some malformed replica? Hmm, might actually be interesting running into someone with some 'Omega-2' Nanite who doesn't understand what are doing.
I've been waiting to introduce Blindspot, I suppose you could consider him similar to a Horizon Stalker, just more some grotesque humanoid than a cool Robo-Panther. I briefly considered having the front half of his human body dangling like some vestigial limb, but I figured I should save that for later.
[X] No More Waiting
- I have the power to stop that Mad EVO, what kind of hero ignores an obvious problem?
I'm voting for this purely because I'm expecting it to end with our ability to cure EVO's being more well-known. This has the chance for resulting in more conflict and not allowing us to just turtle like I know questors like to do.
Surprisingly close, I kind of thought "No More Waiting" would have had a clearer lead since ya know... it is obviously the option that involves Taylor going Hero. The 'mysterious Hero' capable of Curing EVOs being attention grabbing, thus opening a lot of doors. I vaguely have plans for other locales, so I needed some kind of explanation for Taylor to travel beyond Brockton.
"Wait For The Heroes" and "Distract It" would have had similar results, in that Taylor's Heroic Persona wouldn't get debuted. 'Distract It' probably would have gotten her called out for endangering her life given she's an 'ordinary citizen.'
Scheduled vote count started by Kkutlord on Feb 17, 2023 at 6:26 PM, finished with 7 posts and 7 votes.
