[HALP] me! (WORM quest)
- Thread starter Vhalidictes
- Start date
- Location
- Florida, USA
Yes. It tried to eat us.
No. Don't you start this, again. Last time we fucked with time the update jumped forward in time.
Also, I like the tattoo and healing power. We may need to edit the talking power to, uhm, not communicate with powers. As apparently figuring out what powers are is bad. Just influencing them should be fine. Also, I really want to swap Leet and Squealer's powers.
Edifier
Trusted within thoughts.
- Location
- Court of Moon Wizards
We got some stuff from the future this chapter, which is grand;
- Location
- Massachussetts
No more time travel! Certainly not until we figure out a plan for what we want to do and get a better sense for what is going on in the wider world. I think we have quite enough out-of-context problems complicating each other already. Until the situation gets desperate, adding another one can only make things worse. And that's without considering that we are in Wormverse.
This is strange because of the Negotiator involvement. That's not who I would have expected old Administrator to turn to, especially given that she is an uploaded future Lisa. This is something I would consider priority to follow up on if passing restricted info through host dreams ends up actually working.
This is concerning, but sounds like a future/long term problem. I propose we file this away and don't worry about it until later.
Well, that's not good, and will probably act as a trade-off with our nightly research time. Sounds like a good enough reason (and a hint from the author) to stop micromanaging all of our hosts. Going forward, let's only use dreams for important communication or crucial sanity saves, not for telling them what to do with their lives.
With regard to Taylor specifically, she's clued into the fact that someone or something is manipulating these dreams. I propose that we move on to direct communication in the next one. Say we're her power but that there have been some configuration problems, which is why it isn't working yet. Fixing it grants a lot of possibilities and we wanted her input, hence the power selection dream. We're working on it, and we'll see how much of her suggestion we can get to work. Explain our specialty of Administration, which is why she saw that theme in the provided power builds, and see if she has ideas for how to leverage that with the power she designed. At this point maybe even explain that human creativity is important for power applications, which is part of why we want her input.
According to the Charge Data from today, the real problem is if the wider world discovers what's behind powers. If we can create a good working relationship with Taylor (something we want anyway) and impress on her that the source of powers is super secret, I don't see any reason not to just be up front on this. I would be worried about reducing the likelihood of a trigger, but from what we know about Taylor's mental state and the research we've done on triggers so far, I don't think that will be a problem in practice.
I really don't see the benefit to eating shards. Consuming functional shards and just getting bigger ourselves seems pointless and super-aberrant, attracting lots of negative attention. Even if you want to ascend as an entity or something, that is still accomplished via a network of individual shards, not by just absorbing everything. No matter what our goal, allies are more useful than territory.
Plus, if you do want to eat shards, why wait until their host dies? The ones we've absorbed so far had hosts attached, and that didn't impact the outcome as far as I can tell except for us gaining additional data inputs (at the cost of being aberrant for having multiple hosts).
That was the impression I got as well.
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Edifier
Trusted within thoughts.
- Location
- Court of Moon Wizards
What are we suppose to do with the data we got? Troubleshoot it? Organize it? Redistribute it? Give it back after analyzing it?
Besides being Scions secretary, I'm unsure what the secondary job implies when we traded the data.
Wasn't there an warning about hosts finding out about the space whales making them an threat to us? Well suppose it's too late with cauldron on and about. But would it apply to Taylor as well?
Besides being Scions secretary, I'm unsure what the secondary job implies when we traded the data.
It's possible that the one shard that looked like it crashed together with another was a multi trigger from a previous cycle. If not fixed that's what it's going to end up as. Figures the pair would leave some intact to see if they produce something new.
Wasn't there an warning about hosts finding out about the space whales making them an threat to us? Well suppose it's too late with cauldron on and about. But would it apply to Taylor as well?
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- Location
- Florida, USA
It may be that she set that up before Negotiator got the patch of future Lisa installed.
Easy: Tell Taylor we didn't start her power yet because she hasn't talked to her father yet, which is the reason for the other dreams.
The stress of needing to reconcile with him to activate her power will Trigger her.
We can use it to create skills. Along with Research, we spend information to create skills. Granted, we don't have any Research for certain types, yet, but we can always trade what we don't need for what we do.
Maybe this is why Cauldron is a conspiracy. Their Shards are keeping them from blabbing.
- Location
- Massachussetts
For the purposes of the quest, we spend the data on research topics and on host powers.
As a shard, it sounds like collecting and storing data is all that is expected, and any organization/analysis is done by the Thinker between cycles. Since we're already Scion's secretary (and possibly looking for a promotion
Edifier
Trusted within thoughts.
- Location
- Court of Moon Wizards
We already have an early start on this, since we're delegating data storage and soring protocols to our subordinate shards. Taking the information already sorted. Which, I imagine would be an HUGE boost to efficiency.
I feel like the old thinker already did this, but with her now dead... Hmm. Maybe not.
I appreciate your insight and I think I get it now.
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I disagree, actually. The power Taylor eventually gets should certainly include several key aspects Taylor has outlined in her thoughts while designing her power (being safe as utmost priority, for example), but the powers she's built so far are not ideal on several points. Specifically, giving her any kind of shard-communication seems like a bad idea full stop. While we could certainly work with that, I'd think that'd be counterproductive to dealing with the problem ourselves shardside and keeping our hosts seperate unless necessary. Taylor would sooner or later stick her nose somewhere it shouldn't be and end up messing up our masquerade. Glaistig Uaine's shard perception power only works because the host is so mindfucked it can't tell other hosts about what it sees in any precise manner.
Actually, setting ourselves up as the data/information processing center for any shards we can subvert in place of the late Thinker seems like a good step to becoming an entity, operation corporate takeover and/or getting loads of research done and sharing our results with our subordinate shards where it would bring the greatest results.
I mean, Negotiator made great progress in influencing Lisa through the use of Dream Master. Why not keep in mind that we can share our researched skills and abilities with other shards when interacting with them? Oh, sure, we'd have to ensure nobody blabs to the Big Gold, but the potential strengthening of our allied shards is interesting, to say the least. We could establish a seriously overpowered faction of shards, possibly utilizing numbers in addition to increased abilities to silence any opposition. Why risk having to go up against an entity eventually when we can assemble an army that can rival one under our guidance? After all, while quantity is a quality of its own, why not have both? Ultimately, that is, after all, the purpose of the Administrator shard in the context of a whole entity: Coordinating other shards to make a bunch of single parts a functioning whole.
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- Location
- Russia
still, warped perception of Shards are actually allowed as proven by Glaustig Uaine. And it can be warped in interesting ways. And can hold Master element / hidden Master element which will satisfy Negotiator who wants Taylor to be the Master.
Alternatively it may be purely unconscious, like Jack Slash hidden power. Or even under our direct control.
Meanwhile I remembered 12 kingdoms anime and now imagine how Triumvirate, motivated by Chevalier, crushed into Taylor's class during the lesson in broad daylight to recruit the Khepri))
Alternatively it may be purely unconscious, like Jack Slash hidden power. Or even under our direct control.
Meanwhile I remembered 12 kingdoms anime and now imagine how Triumvirate, motivated by Chevalier, crushed into Taylor's class during the lesson in broad daylight to recruit the Khepri))
Well the big incentive for eating certain shards is that things like Twin are generally considered dead shards, now not budding is hardly a problem since we don't care about that for the most part. The issue is that these shards won't do anything once their hosts die. They'll just sit there. If we eat them we have the option of not just cleaning out their data stores, registry lists, and calling upon their powers, we can re-jigger them at the most fundamental level and re-spawn them as loyal to us, put them in whatever earth is convenient, and keep them as a surprise weapon/support unit should the need arise or we decide to make use of their specific powers. The reason I wanna wait until their hosts die is that I don't wanna deal with that many hosts.
Vhalidictes
(Verified Demon)
- Location
- Las Vegas
Re: Power designs and Taylor - She's intelligent but not experienced (or knowledgeable).
She really doesn't know how Information translates into power-effectiveness in more than a very general sense. She also doesn't know what she shouldn't be allowed to find out.
As someone pointed out already, she probably *does* know (theorize) that powers are essentially some kind of symbiote, and that doesn't really contradict current Earth-Bet power theory. (See: Canon reasoning for why Psychics don't exist) You could tell her whatever, but keep in mind that unless she has a power to provide this, she's entirely vulnerable to Thinkers even if you're not.
She really doesn't know how Information translates into power-effectiveness in more than a very general sense. She also doesn't know what she shouldn't be allowed to find out.
As someone pointed out already, she probably *does* know (theorize) that powers are essentially some kind of symbiote, and that doesn't really contradict current Earth-Bet power theory. (See: Canon reasoning for why Psychics don't exist) You could tell her whatever, but keep in mind that unless she has a power to provide this, she's entirely vulnerable to Thinkers even if you're not.
- Location
- US
Why not solve two problems in one (non-master and safety) by giving her a self-duplication power? Not a quick one, but the ability to make permanent tattooable clones so she can pretend to be a Resurrection Brute.
Every dead Taylor becomes a test-subject in our research into her bird brains.
Also, we should make sure that we have the ability to feed more info into the tattoo Trump power.
With the (self!) Biokinesis, she can also disguise the clones.
Edit: if possible, we should see if an anti-thinker power can be given as a tattoo design instead of taking up a power slot.
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Vhalidictes
(Verified Demon)
- Location
- Las Vegas
Voting is open for the rest of Part 12!
I've decided that each Chapter has a limit of 12 actions. If multiple plans win, I'll take the twelve options with the most votes and enact them.
(I'm not happy about doing this but my writing time is going to be restricted for at least the next month and I don't want the Quest to stagnate.)
[ ] Propose what kinds of things to look for in the giant Charge data dump. It's a huge mess and you're going to have to search for specific things (ask detailed questions) to get anything useful. You have about one more shots at this (about 2 questions) before you've exhausted the archive.
(Option disabled, this is a second-half chapter)
[ ] Communicate with a Human by talking. Current choices: Taylor, Veronica, Lilac. Note: This is hugely aberrant and there are now non-direct communication methods available. That said, it's also a giant advantage too.
[ ] Communicate with a Human in dreams. Current choices: Taylor, Veronica, Lilac. Note: This causes very little Aberrance.
(Option disabled, this is a second-half chapter)
[ ] Communicate with (Specific Shard) - Now that you have address lists, you don't need to rely on Taylor or Scion. You can just connect whenever you want.
[ ] Examine Host Data (in detail).
[ ] Perform Research.
[ ] Timeskip forwards… to when?
I've decided that each Chapter has a limit of 12 actions. If multiple plans win, I'll take the twelve options with the most votes and enact them.
(I'm not happy about doing this but my writing time is going to be restricted for at least the next month and I don't want the Quest to stagnate.)
(Option disabled, this is a second-half chapter)
[ ] Communicate with a Human by talking. Current choices: Taylor, Veronica, Lilac. Note: This is hugely aberrant and there are now non-direct communication methods available. That said, it's also a giant advantage too.
- [ ] With what voice?
- Voice option examples: Normal Male, Normal Female, Robotic, Chorus (what kind?), famous celebrities or actors.
- Remember that Taylor may not be familiar with voices made famous after the mid-80's because of the dimensional fragmentation.
- Keep in mind that you can imitate any kind of accent perfectly (Russian, German, Aussie, UK, Scottish, etc) - including 'fake' versions.
- [ ] How do you introduce yourself?
- [ ] Do you talk about powers?
- [ ] Do you reveal setting 'secrets'? Warning: Precogs. (QM will not reveal the exact mechanics of this danger)
- [ ] With what Avatar?
- [ ] How do you introduce yourself?
- [ ] How do you manipulate the dream setting?
- [ ] Do you attempt to reveal setting 'secrets'? Warning: Precogs. (QM will not reveal the exact mechanics of this danger)
[ ] Communicate with (Specific Shard) - Now that you have address lists, you don't need to rely on Taylor or Scion. You can just connect whenever you want.
- [ ] Specify - Which Shard?
- [ ] What do you Command, if anything?
- [ ] What do you say, if anything?
- [ ] What do you do, if anything?
[ ] Examine Host Data (in detail).
- [ ] Specify - Which Host?
- [ ] What are you looking to discover?
[ ] Perform Research.
- [ ] Specify - Which Item?
- [ ] How many Items? Recall that there is a scaling penalty after the second choice.
[ ] Timeskip forwards… to when?
- [ ] Perform any Research rolls during the skipped time? (Reduced rate: one roll per week skipped, not including any bonuses to research)
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- Location
- universe
What about giving her power stealing as a final power? Nothing that gives her insight into what's happening behind the scenes, but instead able to constantly improve her whilst moving shards into our gestalt where they'll feel more at home - That is, as long as Taylor makes sure to keep escalating.
We could even give her a unique power sight that only extends to shards that need a better host, them being the only ones that she can steal. That way she leaves happy/useful shards alone whilst we gain a method of controlling/appeasing the other shards by giving them a better host. It'll let the shards we approve of/cannot work around right now remain undisturbed, but still give us a work around for greater influence over other shards.
Or is that too aberrant?
We could even give her a unique power sight that only extends to shards that need a better host, them being the only ones that she can steal. That way she leaves happy/useful shards alone whilst we gain a method of controlling/appeasing the other shards by giving them a better host. It'll let the shards we approve of/cannot work around right now remain undisturbed, but still give us a work around for greater influence over other shards.
Or is that too aberrant?
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- Location
- Russia
I have a couple of ideas about first option. But I need more time to think about the rest. So...
[ ] Communicate with any available Human... It might not be a time for this. But we must be prepared! It better to prepare standartised protocol for sucj communication! Ambe even do some reasearch in this direction! Can we seemingly compress time for the host while doing it? Like Valkorion was doing in SW TOR, making hal an hour long conversation in less than half a second. Question - will it affect other parahumans nearby, like when trigger event happen?
[ ] Communicate with any available Human... It might not be a time for this. But we must be prepared! It better to prepare standartised protocol for sucj communication! Ambe even do some reasearch in this direction! Can we seemingly compress time for the host while doing it? Like Valkorion was doing in SW TOR, making hal an hour long conversation in less than half a second. Question - will it affect other parahumans nearby, like when trigger event happen?
- [ ] With what voice?
- Because i recently watched Bleach S Abridged, I propose to use Josh Groban. Alternatively - Morgan Freeman.
- [ ] How do you introduce yourself?
- *white noise* "You are not yet ready to hear our name!"
- [ ] Do you talk about powers?
- "What are you doing with our power?! Seriously What is that thing supposed to be/do?!! (for Lilac)
- "Or course we can give you more POWAH! But, on certain conditions." (for everyone)
- [ ] Do you reveal setting 'secrets'? Warning: Precogs. (QM will not reveal the exact mechanics of this danger)
- NO. It is not a time for such drastic measures yet.
- [ ] With what voice?
- Location
- Koszalin, Poland
Glaistig Uaine pretty much does this and she is a natural trigger, so I don't think so. It also kills people with powers, so I don't think Power Stealing Trump would be the problem.
Manager!Taylor is hella strong and it would do the trick, problem is that... reading about Taylor with a power we already know sounds kind of boring and repetitive.
If Taylor wants to be a Brute, I think Brute / Trump / Changer which gains new resistances and transformations depending on absorbed damage. So if for example she tanks a bullet, she gains completely bulletproof forms. Those forms may be based on fictional works for example.
Also you say that we should take advantage of multitasking? Master power which simply allows to summon fictional or alternate versions of some people, maybe even including her alternate forms? Suddenly she has her own Skitter, which takes advantage of Administrator's Multitasking via projection instead
. When you have Ancient Red Dragon as an option to summon or Symbiote Armor so you get free Brute rating anyway suddenly being squishy is not really a problem anymore. I think very simple summoning power would do the trick and reward potential power testing and research. Also with power used more her reward would be an ability to control more creatures with time and effort, so it would fit with Administrator's Multitasking ability.I think Master 200, Trump 200 will do the trick with this kind of power.
As long as she receives something versatile and not one-dimensionally boring, I'm fine with those options.
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- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
Woo! That was an exciting read! Haven't read the Omake's and all the power suggestions but it's on my list.
Not going to vote just yet, but a thought about Taylor's powers:
1) That Power Sensing bit seems very similar to Broadcast Administrator's, I'm not objecting to giving it to her, just an insight.
2) She might WANT the healing power, but she doesn't know we're manipulating her to be on the same team as Panacea, which means short of death she can probably be healed.
Like Clone wanted to eat us because it oversynced with Noel in a feedback loop similar to Sophia's Conflict Drive loop, but Transform is literally sending out machine code viruses!
(Plus we wanted to look into Shard Machine Code when we were trying to hijack the "Alert an admin" flag)
Obviously the important takeaway here is that Gregor's Shard knows that Chicks Dig Giant Robots. And that it has read the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
Edit:
Ya know, if we ate Genesis that's basically what it's power is, only because we're QA we'd do it BETTER.
Edit2: I forgot about this for a second. I'm kind of sad we wiped out whatever was borrowing Taylor's brain-meats. I suspect it was a copy of QA, or possibly Kheperi, archived before we took over QA. Finding a way to back this up in Australia or something might have meant access to the updated OCP codes QA sent out.
Not going to vote just yet, but a thought about Taylor's powers:
1) That Power Sensing bit seems very similar to Broadcast Administrator's, I'm not objecting to giving it to her, just an insight.
2) She might WANT the healing power, but she doesn't know we're manipulating her to be on the same team as Panacea, which means short of death she can probably be healed.
We should probably do something about Transform / Genesis / Jess 'cause that sounds MEMETICLY bad.
Like Clone wanted to eat us because it oversynced with Noel in a feedback loop similar to Sophia's Conflict Drive loop, but Transform is literally sending out machine code viruses!
(Plus we wanted to look into Shard Machine Code when we were trying to hijack the "Alert an admin" flag)
That sounds... bad. Plus I forgot about Oliver and thought this was Browbeat and we forgot to ping his shard last chapter, but he's A not yet triggered, and B the Growth shard.
Obviously the important takeaway here is that Gregor's Shard knows that Chicks Dig Giant Robots. And that it has read the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
Is it bad that my vote for a voice would be David Tennant? Specifically his natural Scottish accent or his Killgrave performance. (Soothing, kind of sexy, but creepy enough to feel honest for a Giant Space Whale's voice.)
Edit:
Also you say that we should take advantage of multitasking? Master power which simply allows to summon fictional or alternate versions of some people, maybe even including her alternate forms? Suddenly she has her own Skitter, which takes advantage of Administrator's Multitasking via projection instead
Ya know, if we ate Genesis that's basically what it's power is, only because we're QA we'd do it BETTER.
Edit2: I forgot about this for a second. I'm kind of sad we wiped out whatever was borrowing Taylor's brain-meats. I suspect it was a copy of QA, or possibly Kheperi, archived before we took over QA. Finding a way to back this up in Australia or something might have meant access to the updated OCP codes QA sent out.
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- Location
- Koszalin, Poland
Superior Othala powerset also wouldn't be bad, but to make it better it also works on Taylor with lots of additional options. Healing would be included as well.
Very simple idea and it should work. Combined with her 'Thinker Power' Taylor would actually be pretty damn good. Combined powers with fast learning.
It may be even better in a way that once or twice per day for example any powers she granted may become permanent.
Also on Sophia thing - I personally REALLY don't care what happens to her and I think I wouldn't disrupt any of her current plans as long as it's nothing connected to Taylor. And honestly at this point rope slowly tightens on her neck.
And yeah, trying to fix those may be one of the priorities.
Pretty much. With something like an interface, which presents her current options. With always one 'mystery card' being an option to make it more interesting.
"Who is Skitter? Sure, why not." 0_0
There was always a risk of something going wrong here if left alone, so I'm personally fine with it.
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
Yea, we definitely couldn't have left it alone as it was eating up most of Taylor's brain space, but reformatting it without a backup also meant no chance to recover it if we later discover it was in fact a message in a bottle. (And given that A: it bore similarities to Taylor's brainwaves and B: We know that Negotiator is running a Canon!Tattletale emulator it seems likely that QA might have had the same thing happen to it that we intercepted)
Something like Completely Unoriginal or Chevalier's power where repeated applications of a power builds them up?
It's a slower power, but as seen in Completely Unoriginal if you keep adding 10% a day in a week and a half you're as good as the original, three weeks and you're twice as good as the original!
(This is the internet, you'd be REALLY hard pressed to find anything interesting that hasn't been done before)
- Location
- US
Those sorts of Trump powers are typically hand-placed by the Entities (Nilbog is a non-trump example). So that's probably not the best measure of aberrancy.
That projection power idea seems like a rip-off of Rein and another quest. Might be fun, but it's been done a couple times before.
@Valdimarian Good point about the biokinesis, it probably will be redundant.
I really, really like the Tattoo theme, so maybe her third power can be integrated into it.
From Image, Power (Trump)
- Trump 100, Tinker 300. Tattoo Tinker. Can ink tattoos on myself or others that grant a permanent improvement or minor power. Tattoos can be made transparent/invisible if required, but I will still always be able to see them. Tattoos can be added onto over time, improving their power by either increasing the size or adding details. Tattoos can be removed. Tattoos can be de-powered by myself at range (500 meters) without needing to remove them first. Power grants full knowledge of all tattoo techniques as well as the drawing skills needed for any kind of design.
- Breaker 300, Striker 100. The Girl Who's a Dragon Tattoo. Can transform self into a living image. Capable of manipulating any other images or words on the surface. With physical contact, can trap others as an image for a short randomized time. Obviously human skin is a viable surface.
- Master 400. The Image of an Angel. Images of this power's owner can be granted a semblance of life and controlled. These images are largely limited to their own forms: photographs remain photographs, drawings remain drawings, sculptures are limited by their material and cannot be larger than the original. Near-perfect replicas in form and substance (actual clones) become new instances of the user's consciousness and are interchangeable with the original.
A bit iffy on the last power, on the one hand it's on-theme and cooler than the simple self-cloning I had in mind (encourages cooperation with Claire too), on the other hand it doesn't immediately meet the safety requirements and might be a bit too powerful.
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I have finally caught up!!! The Shard info threadmarks are updated, but I need to review them for any mistakes later.
[X] Researching for a Human Avatar
-[X] Administrative Censorship-Apply any bonuses and generic Research points here.
-[X] Specialty Comprehension
Edit: I'm doing a different plan.
I need to think about what to vote on, but right now I really need to take a break.
We don't keep the powers automatically unless we have:
- [ ] Specialty Comprehension: 250 Thinker info, 250 Trump info, 500 Research. The ability to copy the specialty of any Shard that you eat. You can then use the specialty to a limited effect, but it is much more effective to either give out powers or create a bud with that specialty. May not work if the Shard is too badly damaged. Research on budding must be done separately. "Get more out of what you eat!"
[X] Researching for a Human Avatar
-[X] Administrative Censorship-Apply any bonuses and generic Research points here.
-[X] Specialty Comprehension
Edit: I'm doing a different plan.
Optimize was one of the Shards contacted by the original Queen Administrator. He hasn't reacted (that we know of) even though he probably knows that we're not the original, but it's probably not a good idea to sense-share with him at this point.
We got the updated codes from the Charge data. We don't need a copy of the original QA threatening to take over.
I need to think about what to vote on, but right now I really need to take a break.
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- Location
- universe
I'm assuming the tatoos are like Gaelic/tribal/wizard runes and such, rather than the more modern variety? It'd suck to have detailed images or words be the method of application, seems far too mundane.
Something traditional and magical-looking would be really cool imo, especially if they glow.
Edit:
This kinda stuff:
Something traditional and magical-looking would be really cool imo, especially if they glow.
Edit:
This kinda stuff:
