[HALP] me! (WORM quest)

[Vhalidictes]

Keep in mind that an actual healing power (compared to something they can be used as healing) is by itself aberrant since it lacks conflict potential.
It is even more aberrant for Administrator of all shards to have such a power.

Just because Taylor designed a certain power doesn't mean we have to comply with her wish.

Click to shrink...

I'm not so sure that a real/true healing power is all that Aberrant. From canon it's said that healers are rare, but they do exist.

While Panacea might not be a good example, Othala is. IIRC she has no personal offense at all, but she's a bone-standard Zion Trigger.

EDIT: Re: Plans-so-far - I get the sense that everyone is forgetting about Lilac and Veronica; They are high-tier Capes and they're already under your control. Maybe while Taylor, uh, (pressure) cooks you could use them for something?​

 

[Mount. Elements]

Here's another omake for Administrative Censorship. My first omake for it is here.

You've set up instances of yourself called Censors to watch for any signs of aberrance, created a library of possible signs of aberrance, and have protocols in place to inform the Censors if you are doing anything aberrant. It's now time to figure out how to actually censor host data.

• The simplest option is copy how live television is censored. This can be rather obvious at times, but you can hopefully brush it off as accidental if it doesn't happen too often.
  
• It's probably best to test this out before censoring the host data going to your sense-sharing partners. You decide to set up instances of yourself to stream host data to and that will give you feedback on said host data to allow you to better alter it in the future. These instances will be called The Audience. They're going to be boxed off so that they don't know if you are doing anything aberrant. This way, their reports on the streamed host data should be objective.
  
• It would be better if you simulated the Shards you're currently sense-sharing with, but that seems like it could backfire if you miscalculate so you'll hold off on that for now. Maybe once you better understand how Shards think.
  
• The host data streamed to The Audience is to be delayed by 10 microseconds, with the Censors reviewing the host data in real time. If the Censors detect any signs of aberrance in their assigned stream of host data, they are to delete that host data along with a microsecond of the data before and afterwards to avoid making it obvious exactly what was in the deleted data.
  
• You're planning to explain the delay to any sense-sharing partners that actually notice it as due to some analysis protocols you've set up to sort through the host data. This is a bit strange in and of itself because the Entities usually analyze all of the data, but Zion seems to approve of anything that saves him some work so he should be ok with it.
• That still leaves the suspicious blanks in the host data. You should probably hold off on doing too many aberrant things in the beginning, and then you can explain the occasional blanks as due to unexpected errors in the protocols that have now been revised.
• Ideally, you'll eventually replace that host data with simulated host data that does not show any signs of aberrance. Maybe you can alter The Dream Master to create "dreams" to insert into the blanks?

 

[Retrueno]

What level of control over dreams allows our Dream Master research?

Is it at the level of showing any dream we want or can we do more 'interesting' things like adjusting the time rate inside the dream or allow another Shard (like Negotiator) to see it and intervene in it?

On another note, I think we should put on hold getting an Avatar m until we get Administrative Archaeology, I'm sure there will be something about why getting one is a bad idea (alternatively we could ask Charge).

 

[WillRobinson]

Is it at the level of showing any dream we want or can we do more 'interesting' things like adjusting the time rate inside the dream or allow another Shard (like Negotiator) to see it and intervene in it?

Click to shrink...

Maybe future versions could work by emulating their Taylor's consciousness and then inserting the modified version before she wakes up.

 

[Metoto]

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.

Click to shrink...

How about we actually use dream master again and talk to Taylor about this? Like, there are things she shouldn't do (like directly interacting with other shards) and our specialty being Administration, which is why controlling lots of relatively tiny things takes less energy from us and leverages the advantages we can give her (INFINITE MULTITASKING!).

Let's also not forget that our powers dream is not really comprehensive; Taylor doesn't know about loads of the intricacies of powers like shard specialties or how data gathering and usage works (plus, we just grabbed loads of data she doesn't know about). Let's give her more information and/or get her to take a closer look at some of the power templates with bug control that she basically ignored.

Even just repeating the dream with more detailed information in our "power design app" should result in more data points on how Taylor's eventual power should turn out. If we're gonna spend months on triggering her, we might as well do it right.

The good news here is that Chevalier has no idea (yet). He won't know anything is wrong until he meets one of your Hosts in-person - at which point he'd see the "powers image" thing and crap himself.

But not before.

EDIT: One strategy for nullifying any of the consequences of scaring the Destroyer Shard is to make sure that Taylor actually is S-class...

Click to shrink...

I'm all for Taylor becoming S-class. I mean, if other shards managed it, I don't see why we can't do it better (or worse, depending on your point of view).

 

[Mount. Elements]

What level of control over dreams allows our Dream Master research?

Is it at the level of showing any dream we want or can we do more 'interesting' things like adjusting the time rate inside the dream or allow another Shard (like Negotiator) to see it and intervene in it?

On another note, I think we should put on hold getting an Avatar m until we get Administrative Archaeology, I'm sure there will be something about why getting one is a bad idea (alternatively we could ask Charge).

Click to shrink...

I think that Dream Master is only for creating any dream we want right now. We'd probably have to do more research to do your other suggestions.

[The Dream Master]: Achieved! The capability to interact with the sleeping state of connected Hosts. A indirect form of communication that causes less Aberrance.

The problem with trying to get Administrative Archaeology first is that the project costs 1,000 Research. Plus, there's a risk of memetic hazards so we need to get Memetic Proxy Filtering 2 (450 Research) beforehand and possibly other memetic protection projects as well. Memetic Proxy Filtering also slows down Research when it's active so completing Administrative Archaeology would take even longer.

I'm pretty sure that getting an Avatar is considered aberrant, which is why we're trying to get Administrative Censorship first. Once we get the 10,000 Research bonus, we can get the Stranger Danger tree as well. But if we hold off on getting an Avatar, we're stuck on what to do without all of the research projects we need to safely do things.

We CAN still try to do things without the research projects, but there's a much greater chance of things going wrong. I've been wondering if we should try switching the Shards for Leet and Squealer, but I THINK that Multi-Host Connection 1 is involved somehow. Plus, making the Merchants and U&L more effective villains sounds like a bad idea. On the other hand, leaving the Shards unhappy isn't good, and figuring out how to safely and efficiently remove the connection between a Shard and host would be nice. Apparently, the inability to do that is one reason why the Entities keep blowing up worlds as they leave them. Of course, there's still the Energy problem to deal with.

@Vhalidictes, there are some research omakes that haven't made it into the Sidestory threadmarks. Ducats lists the omakes here. One of them is the Assuming Direct Control 1 omake that was credited to Multi-Host Connection 1.

@Valdimarian, @WillRobinson, @Captain Hunt, would you all consider changing your votes for Plan Hero's Shard's Address to remove the mention of Chevalier? I'm worried about reminding Chevalier's Shard that it has other Shards it can contact about us right after we ticked it off. If you do want to keep contacting it, please substitute Destroyer for Chevalier because I mistakenly put the host name instead of the Shard address.

[] Plan Hero's Shard's Address
-[] Ask Marker for its Shard addresses list.

 

[Metoto]

@Valdimarian, @WillRobinson, @Captain Hunt, would you all consider changing your votes for Plan Hero's Shard's Address to remove the mention of Chevalier? I'm worried about reminding Chevalier's Shard that it has other Shards it can contact about us right after we ticked it off.

Click to shrink...

I don't think that'll be a problem as Destroyer isn't sapient. It has already reported us to Scion (or tried to, at least) and that's that. It doesn't have protocols instructing it to ask other shards for help or even to alarm them to the aberrant factor- an entity is already reviewing and dealing with the problem (or its secretary is, at any rate).

 

[ccstat]

I've been wondering if we should try switching the Shards for Leet and Squealer,

Click to shrink...

Wow, I love that idea. A way to make both Shards happier, without anyone getting too suspicious because they're both tinker specialties. I mean, someone is going to notice the other changes going on in the Bay, and this might even throw them off the scent to have two non-Cauldron capes get power alterations. I am in favor of trying to figure this out in the medium term.

EDIT: If the Research Omake for Assume Direct Control was really miscredited, it should be complete and just needs a research slot to make it happen. Since we have the Continuous Research skill, that should mean that all of our research points this turn go to whatever we put in the other slot (currently Administrative Censorship seems to be leading the vote). Do I understand that correctly?

 

[ccstat]

Research Omake: Stabilize Trigger

We've looked into this before, to figure out the mechanics of triggering, but some of what Negotiator said today really set our minds racing. Let's see if we can unpack this.

• Negotiator says that the messiness of the trigger is a feature, not a bug. The alterations to powers that occur during a trigger event are a major source (the major source?) of variation from cycle to cycle.
• We knew that shards were lacking in imagination, but this seems a little extreme. They are basically relying on random processes to come up with any new applications for powers. The host side of things seems to be just to test drive the new iteration.
• There are so many problems with this, but rather than redesign the system (yet) let's figure out how it works and how we can use it.
• Negotiator's example implied that the trigger event did two things: selected from a subset of specialties, and fiddled with the application. That depends on the sorts of signals going around the host's brain at the time, and which areas the gemma connects to.
• This sounds like most shards just poke into the brain and let the power connect however it can, with little to no design ahead of time. We're already a step or three ahead there from our detailed scan of Taylor's brain, our research into human biology, and our (excessively long) list of possible powersets that we keep designing in our spare time. We've clearly put a lot of thought into how to design the connection on this end, and we know a lot about what we're connecting to.
• It's the interface that's the mystery still, but fortunately we have two active connections to analyze! Let's check on Lilac and Veronica.
• Huh, that's a bit of a mess. For Veronica there's a few trunks of data that operate independently, but there is some branching channels for crosstalk before it even reaches her brain. Then it dissolves into a mass of spaghetti before reaching into the neurons.
• Oh, because her brain isn't doing the actual work, it just directs the pieces of shard she has access to. We've been thinking about this one backwards. It's not the shard plugging into part of the brain, it's the brain plugging into part of us. Consider the brain to be "in charge" and the connections deconvolute into... slightly less of a mess.
• Let's try Lilac. Oh, nice, she's actively tinkering! That gives us some more data to work with here. Like this feedback loop that seems pointless if you diagram the circuit actually serves to reinforce the specialty. Signals that go through that loop resonate into this other substructure, and wow, look at the patterns there. Neato!
• It's easy to see a lot of ways to make the connection more straightforward and efficient, and to do exactly what we want it to. Especially since we know so much about Taylor's brainmeat by now.
• On the other hand, Negotiator warned us against having power that looked too "designed." There's probably no way to notice from the host side, but anyone who examines the data coming off a connection closely would be able to see the difference between a directly installed power and a more organically grown one.
• ...unless we spoofed that bit. Design a few resonance pathways and pseudo-tangled bits to give the impression of "messiness," and it will look totally normal.
• In fact, that gives us some ideas on how to make the Administration specialty substitute for other effects. Manage enough little pieces and it starts to look like one big mass. We can route those signals through whatever kind of spaghetti junction we want, as long as we map them correctly.
• Time to go simulate things!

 

[Parzival95]

So about Destroyer: sure, we're blocking it from contacting Zion, and it probably won't think to contact another shard. But that doesn't stop another shard from contacting Destroyer, sapient or broken somehow, which could be a problem. It's a loose end is what I'm saying, you never just laugh and let loose ends go unless you're absolutely sure.

 

[Valdimarian]

@Valdimarian, @WillRobinson, @Captain Hunt, would you all consider changing your votes for Plan Hero's Shard's Address to remove the mention of Chevalier? I'm worried about reminding Chevalier's Shard that it has other Shards it can contact about us right after we ticked it off. If you do want to keep contacting it, please substitute Destroyer for Chevalier because I mistakenly put the host name instead of the Shard address.

Click to shrink...

Fair point, made the change to Destroyer.

I don't think that'll be a problem as Destroyer isn't sapient. It has already reported us to Scion (or tried to, at least) and that's that. It doesn't have protocols instructing it to ask other shards for help or even to alarm them to the aberrant factor- an entity is already reviewing and dealing with the problem (or its secretary is, at any rate).

Click to shrink...

We've already overwritten Destroyer's admin rights, and it's not smart enough to gossip, so another sapient shard would have to have the creativity and the initiative to ask Destroyer about us before it'd tattle.


We could probably bluff our way past that even if someone did ask, most Sapient shards we've met get the idea of humor. I doubt they'd have thought of spoofing Destroyer like that as Shard creativity is the square root of -1, but once the idea is pointed out they'd get a kick out of it and probably start trolling it as well. (Negotiator will be so upset she never thought of this first)


Even without Destroyer's address list we should be down to a dozen or so potential addresses by now, that should be a small enough number we could knock it out with 5 minutes of cold calling Shards.



A separate thought about Research: Given that we have Rollover I don't think taking the free Multi-Host Connection will decrease our research gains any, it just means that one of our options gets 2/3 of the research roll instead of both getting 1/2. It might increase our total research for the round too, since wouldn't we'd be getting our Int bonus three times instead of two? (Someone posted a blurb that researching everything at once would technically get us more research points per round by stacking the static Int modifier, but might also incur QM wrath. This is just a minor exploit, not wholesale breaking the system.)



I thought of a few things that while not plans might be useful for others to write actual Plans around:

1. Do Lilac and Chloe need to make a shopping trip? Chloe has been noted as wearing her one and only outfit in public already and Lilac mugged a Merchant girl trying to break in for her clothes (what ever happened to her anyway? Did she run off in less than her skivvies?)
2. What does Lilac do to support her Tinkering habit? Thankfully steam and steampunk plus Shard shenanigans lets her get away with less precise tools, but she'll still need higher quality materials eventually.
3. Do we still want to drive Lilac to Palanquin or did we nix that idea for our own super powered girl gang?
   1. If we still want her to go, maybe having Chloe along with her will be enough to encourage her to go?
   2. Even if we don't want her to join, it'd be a neat experience for her to visit.
4. Speaking of Palanquin, we should ping Realm and Sever at some point, Realm especially might need some HALP adjusting to Labyrinth so she can control what realms go where and when.

 

[ccstat]

Given that we have Rollover I don't think taking the free Multi-Host Connection will decrease our research gains any, it just means that one of our options gets 2/3 of the research roll instead of both getting 1/2. It might increase our total research for the round too, since wouldn't we'd be getting our Int bonus three times instead of two?

Click to shrink...

Not quite. Filling a third slot divides all rolls by two, so the extra 18 from INT doesn't compensate for that loss. Assuming average rolls of 50, it would drop our total research points for that round from 186 to 154. The Max/Min possible for each scenario is 2 slots = (336/36) and 3 slots = (254/54), until we get Faster Research 2.
(Also, apparently Multi-Host isn't actually free; those 100 points were misallocated and it's Direct Control that should be free at this point.)

 

[Metoto]

We could probably bluff our way past that even if someone did ask, most Sapient shards we've met get the idea of humor. I doubt they'd have thought of spoofing Destroyer like that as Shard creativity is the square root of -1, but once the idea is pointed out they'd get a kick out of it and probably start trolling it as well. (Negotiator will be so upset she never thought of this first)

Click to shrink...

This. All of the this. Let's actually tell everyone we know to troll Destroyer and enjoy the fireworks. If this idea catches on around Brockton Bay, Chevalier will have a sight to see next time he's visiting (Endbringer fight, most likely).

 

[Valdimarian]

Not quite. Filling a third slot divides all rolls by two, so the extra 18 from INT doesn't compensate for that loss. Assuming average rolls of 50, it would drop our total research points for that round from 186 to 154. The Max/Min possible for each scenario is 2 slots = (336/36) and 3 slots = (254/54), until we get Faster Research 2.
(Also, apparently Multi-Host isn't actually free; those 100 points were misallocated and it's Direct Control that should be free at this point.)

Click to shrink...

I made note it's whichever one has the free auto complete and dropped Stabilize Trigger, the sooner we get Faster Research the sooner we can have 2 Utility researches and leave 1 on additional Research projects.

 

[Ducats]

(The Entities themselves might have a way, but they wouldn't bother)

Click to shrink...

I am pretty sure that Wildbow said that the entities has it, but did not find it very interesting so they split it up into tons of different shards with more specific use area.

I'm not so sure that a real/true healing power is all that Aberrant. From canon it's said that healers are rare, but they do exist.

Click to shrink...

Healing powers really aren't lacking in conflict driving, it is a power that automatically removes consequences from dumb actions, preventing the hosts from learning from mistakes and causing them to jump into danger again.

EDIT: One strategy for nullifying any of the consequences of scaring the Destroyer Shard is to make sure that Taylor actually is S-class...

Click to shrink...

Ok, S-Class powers coming right up.

Spoiler: Mjølner

Shaker 600, Thinker 100, Breaker 300: The host is able to emit insane amounts plasma from their bodies. They have a lot of control over the plasma and can use it to synthesize elements in it through nuclear synthesis. They can also absorb energy to power up their energy emitting power. If the host is pushed to the extreme then they can convert matter to energy and use it to attack with. The hosts body has been converted to a strong crystalline material that is impervious to most damage, the hosts mind is connected to the crystal so as long as there is any crystal left they won't die. The can synthesize more of this crystal for whatever use they want including shape change or make a phylactery as long as they psionically synchronize themself to the crystal.

Breaker 100, Thinker 100: The host receives assistance with psionically seeing through deceit with slightly enhanced intuition, they will have to learn more on they own.

Here, this is a power based on a character I submitted to CYOA pileup 2.0, it is a pretty cool rp. The idea behind the build was creating an Ash Beast 2.0 based on Sawada Tsunayoshi and of course Ash Beast.

Spoiler: Super Trump

Trump 1200: Can use 5 powers from any Parahuman that the user knows of even if they are dead in a another dimension or whatever. As long as the Administrator can find the shard of whatever parahuman or if they can copy said power by themselves it is fair game.

So you could go Eidolon + GU + Flechette + Contessa + Dinah if you wanted to.

I would recommend against giving Taylor healing powers since I think that it would just be better to give such a power to an actual health worker who won't be distracted by heroics. This will also allow us to not get stuck with having to diversify the power so much and will allow us to create a better more specialized power.

 

[Edifier]

Human invention works by a couple of humans make an awesome thing which would improve stuff a lot; This mirros triggering with the randomness and chaos of the human mind, odds are that eventually an amazing power forms or the user figures out unexpected and superior uses for it.
Except how human civilization progresses is by one of those humans, who figured out the problem, manage to share the solution with everyone. Forcing them all to adopt it, making the invention a standard, a baseline for the whole civilasation.
And than comes the next patch of humans toying with things who figure something out and put it in the mainstream.

Now, arguably shards pool all their ideas together at the end of each cycle and share the good uses with all. But, but to me it looks like there's no point. They're never going to use what they discover for anything. They're not going to share the awesome powers with others, they're just going to keep on generating random powers while the stockpile of passable and good things grows infinitum.

Improving the organization of shards is a human thing to do. Updating other shards and their protocols to an higher standard is a very human thing to do and it's possibly the one thing they where missing. The ability to self modify and improve by removing bad practices and implementing good ones to replace them.

Edit: We are aberrant in exactly the way that the entities would most desire us to be, in the most desirable way. Tho, I don't doubt they'd still erase us cause it's the traditional thing to do with aberrant shards - most of them that is.

 

[Vhalidictes]

We CAN still try to do things without the research projects, but there's a much greater chance of things going wrong.

Click to shrink...

This is very possible. In fact, I'll come out and state that after 5 successes you've basically learned the skill without needing to do any research.

It really comes down to how comfortable you are with a few failures here and there. And your tactics for what to do when failures happen.

I've been wondering if we should try switching the Shards for Leet and Squealer, but I THINK that Multi-Host Connection 1 is involved somehow. Plus, making the Merchants and U&L more effective villains sounds like a bad idea. On the other hand, leaving the Shards unhappy isn't good, and figuring out how to safely and efficiently remove the connection between a Shard and host would be nice. Apparently, the inability to do that is one reason why the Entities keep blowing up worlds as they leave them. Of course, there's still the Energy problem to deal with.

Click to shrink...

You don't have any idea how to do this yet. It's definitely possible, you're sure of that. You'd just need to pick a strategy and research it.

Note that you pretty much already know how to (or very shortly will) eat a Shard mostly-intact, and then Bud it back out. The Bud would then, in theory, be free to re-connect with its previous Host. Whether the Bud was initially sapient or not is up to you, although currently your only sapience option is to give it a (redacted if desired) copy of yourself.

@Vhalidictes, there are some research omakes that haven't made it into the Sidestory threadmarks. Ducats lists the omakes here. One of them is the Assuming Direct Control 1 omake that was credited to Multi-Host Connection 1.

Click to shrink...

Thanks, I'll fix this today.

EDIT: This is fixed. Still working to incorporate Omakes.

Ok, S-Class powers coming right up.

Spoiler: Mjølner

Shaker 600, Thinker 100, Breaker 300: The host is able to emit insane amounts plasma from their bodies. They have a lot of control over the plasma and can use it to synthesize elements in it through nuclear synthesis. They can also absorb energy to power up their energy emitting power. If the host is pushed to the extreme then they can convert matter to energy and use it to attack with. The hosts body has been converted to a strong crystalline material that is impervious to most damage, the hosts mind is connected to the crystal so as long as there is any crystal left they won't die. The can synthesize more of this crystal for whatever use they want including shape change or make a phylactery as long as they psionically synchronize themself to the crystal.

Breaker 100, Thinker 100: The host receives assistance with psionically seeing through deceit with slightly enhanced intuition, they will have to learn more on they own.

Click to shrink...

This is really interesting, but I don't think Taylor would particularly enjoy being effectively a Case-53? I'd have to ask.

Here, this is a power based on a character I submitted to CYOA pileup 2.0, it is a pretty cool rp. The idea behind the build was creating an Ash Beast 2.0 based on Sawada Tsunayoshi and of course Ash Beast.

Spoiler: Super Trump

Trump 1200: Can use 5 powers from any Parahuman that the user knows of even if they are dead in a another dimension or whatever. As long as the Administrator can find the shard of whatever parahuman or if they can copy said power by themselves it is fair game.

So you could go Eidolon + GU + Flechette + Contessa + Dinah if you wanted to.

Click to shrink...

This is an awesome idea. One small issue is that abnormally-intelligent Taylor with the powers of Contessa/Dinah/Lisa would be hard as hell to write. I might not be able to.

 

[Centergg]

So, I think what is needed to put more research time in nature of the Connection. Maybe it also will lead to understanding of Connection between Eidolon and Endbringers, Manton and Siberian. And there is a good test subject right in Brockton Bay! It is Genesis. If I remember correctly, her shard is almost same as Manton', just broken.

Now, to omakes!

 

[Valdimarian]

If I remember correctly, her shard is almost same as Manton', just broken.

Click to shrink...

In Mauling Snarks it's the exact same shard as Manton's, just a different expression.

In this one it's a very broken very malignant Shard who sent us a chunk of machine code telling us to go fdisk ourselves. (I've been looking for an opportunity to make that joke since I read what it told us to do)

 

[Ducats]

This is really interesting, but I don't think Taylor would particularly enjoy being effectively a Case-53? I'd have to ask.

Click to shrink...

It is not that bad, she could just synthesize materials to use for her body as she wishes. The reason that I decided to use a crystal body is primarily because it makes her immune to all, but the weirdest of masters. Also she could just reduce herself into being a brain sized crystal then make a body around that.

 

[Metoto]

Human invention works by a couple of humans make an awesome thing which would improve stuff a lot; This mirros triggering with the randomness and chaos of the human mind, odds are that eventually an amazing power forms or the user figures out unexpected and superior uses for it.
Except how human civilization progresses is by one of those humans, who figured out the problem, manage to share the solution with everyone. Forcing them all to adopt it, making the invention a standard, a baseline for the whole civilasation.
And than comes the next patch of humans toying with things who figure something out and put it in the mainstream.

Now, arguably shards pool all their ideas together at the end of each cycle and share the good uses with all. But, but to me it looks like there's no point. They're never going to use what they discover for anything. They're not going to share the awesome powers with others, they're just going to keep on generating random powers while the stockpile of passable and good things grows infinitum.

Improving the organization of shards is a human thing to do. Updating other shards and their protocols to an higher standard is a very human thing to do and it's possibly the one thing they where missing. The ability to self modify and improve by removing bad practices and implementing good ones to replace them.

Edit: We are aberrant in exactly the way that the entities would most desire us to be, in the most desirable way. Tho, I don't doubt they'd still erase us cause it's the traditional thing to do with aberrant shards - most of them that is.

Click to shrink...

I completely agree with this. The most poignant difference between human and shard intellect in this quest is the implementation of ideas and the level of creative thought processes needed for this. If we take a few days to create an awesome tool like the Dream Master and use it to greatly influence our hosts, and this tool can be used on any host species that has some form of sleep cycles, then why didn't other shards/entities implement something like this cycles ago?

Simply put, they never came up with the idea. If they did something like it through a specific power, they never thought to do the same thing again on a wider/more generalized scale.

What this means for us is that if we research skills and stuff, then share this stuff with other shards, we'd essentially be one step ahead of pretty much any possible adversaries shardside; as a group of like-minded individual shards, our effective power and influence would be multiplied. Even if we need to be the mind of a bunch of other shards ourselves.

Edit: Heck, that pretty much describes some kind of proto-super-entity.

 

[Valdimarian]

I was reading the Omake Marquis' Most Loyal Ones and I'm reminded that there was a PHO post about Claire that she has to have seen (she was the one signed in!) any nibbles on this dangling plot thread?

Edit: read the Dimensional Theory omake and saw this gem:

Maybe you should gather some data from some of Cauldron's staff's shards? They spend lots of time on parallel earths. Actually, Doormaker's shard in particular probably has a ton of data on all this...

Click to shrink...

I don't think we've pinged Doormaker yet!
Edit2: HOW is Doormaker not on our known list? We should get on pinging Observer / Clairvoyant then!

Edit3: Looking into writing Omake and realized it sounds like we're probably 2 out of 5 on teaching ourselves Stabilize Trigger from triggering Vial Shards.

Due to your efforts, Trainwreck actually Triggers for real! Corona misfire roll: 1D100+14 => 80 - minor alterations.

Click to shrink...

Due to your efforts, Veronica Stansfield actually Triggers for real! Corona misfire roll: 1D100+14 => 75 - minor alterations.

Click to shrink...

This is very possible. In fact, I'll come out and state that after 5 successes you've basically learned the skill without needing to do any research.

Click to shrink...

 

[Valdimarian]

Not sure if these meet criteria, but I have a few Research Omake to put forth:

Spoiler: Research Omake: Specialty Comprehension

(Side note: this was originally going to be a look at Stabilize Trigger and I distracted myself with talk about genetics and realized it might apply to Specialty Compression instead, which as a bonus might lead to research on Budding. )

• So of course Shards are going to be geologically slow at modifying powers, from our look at stabilizing the trigger event we know they're literally taking the Natural Evolution approach of shoving everything in a bag, shaking it up, and shoving the pieces that stuck together wherever they look like they'll fit.
• That sounds a lot like taking a bunch of seed and tossing it over a random yard, then when it grows especially well in an area say you meant to do that, and if it doesn't discarding it.
• Didn't the Russians do a an experiment similar to that? Or the opposite of that? Right, the quack Trofim Lysenko who thought certain teachable traits like when crops germinate were in fact inheritable traits. That sounds like a terrible way to... wait.
• Genetic memory might not work that way in reality, but we're not talking genetics, we're talking about sentient beings that can pass on conscious thought.
• But IS specialization a conscious choice? Is it the difference between running Windows on an Intel Chip vs. Mac OS on an Intel Chip, or is it a hardware issue like comparing a CPU vs. a purpose built GPU?
• Do we have a chunk of formerly Empathy or Prosthetics mass sitting around unformatted somewhere? Lets try running some isolated instances solely on Empathy hardware and compare it to some identical instances running on Administrator hardware. That'll tell us if it's a Hardware difference or a Software difference.

Spoiler: Research Omake: Multi-Host Connection

• We've already got multiple hosts, but they're running on stolen hardware, lets see what happens when we try multiple (sandboxed) hosts?
• Uh, huh... gibberish, that's what. Apparently having multiple inputs and multiple outputs doesn't mean they're optimized.
• OK! Looking at the problem it looks like it's a port routing issue, all the 'host' corona tried connecting to the same primary 'shard' address, despite being told to use different shard addresses.
• Once the first 'host' connected the micro portals all latched onto that as a solid connection and 'error corrected' the rest back to it.
• We could try tagging each incoming thread with source metadata, but we'd need to increase the receiver bandwidth to handle the data flow of TWO connections, plus the metadata tagged to each stream, and dedicate a few instances to sorting the flow back into separate data streams once it's received...
• Or we could just move the different receivers further away and try testing the minimum distance before error correction 'fixes' what we broke. That sounds a lot easier.

 

[Mount. Elements]

I don't think that'll be a problem as Destroyer isn't sapient. It has already reported us to Scion (or tried to, at least) and that's that. It doesn't have protocols instructing it to ask other shards for help or even to alarm them to the aberrant factor- an entity is already reviewing and dealing with the problem (or its secretary is, at any rate).

Click to shrink...

I'm not quite sure of the difference between sapient and non-sapient Shards. Shift is technically not sapient yet, though she's approaching it. Singular is supposed to be non-sapient, but the invisi-text was creepy. It should theoretically be ok to ask Destroyer for its Shard addresses list, but I generally prefer to play things safe.

Wow, I love that idea. A way to make both Shards happier, without anyone getting too suspicious because they're both tinker specialties. I mean, someone is going to notice the other changes going on in the Bay, and this might even throw them off the scent to have two non-Cauldron capes get power alterations. I am in favor of trying to figure this out in the medium term.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, this idea has come up in the thread before. Getting a way to move Shards around would be very useful, especially if Sophia manages to get herself killed or arrested. Shift is a pretty interesting character that I like having in the story.

Note that you pretty much already know how to (or very shortly will) eat a Shard mostly-intact, and then Bud it back out. The Bud would then, in theory, be free to re-connect with its previous Host. Whether the Bud was initially sapient or not is up to you, although currently your only sapience option is to give it a (redacted if desired) copy of yourself.

Click to shrink...

Didn't @The_GrandMage ask for the ability to copy the personality of any Shard we eat as an omake bonus? I think I remember something about that, but I don't see anything on the character sheet.

In Mauling Snarks it's the exact same shard as Manton's, just a different expression.

In this one it's a very broken very malignant Shard who sent us a chunk of machine code telling us to go fdisk ourselves. (I've been looking for an opportunity to make that joke since I read what it told us to do)

Click to shrink...

Transform-Genesis was actually the one that's possibly infected.

Translated message courtesy of Redshirt Army, "They're coming out of the walls! The dimensional leak won't close! NOOOO // Stop it, stop it man, get yourself together.. <munch> <slurp> <gulp>".

Click to shrink...

You're probably thinking about Mask, who looks like a bunch of small bits, but that might be a mask. The translated binary message it sent us was, "IHATEYOUALLDIEDIEDIE"

I don't think we've pinged Doormaker yet!
Edit2: HOW is Doormaker not on our known list? We should get on pinging Observer / Clairvoyant then!

Click to shrink...

If any Shard could see that we're aberrant immediately, it would probably be Observer. We also don't know which Shards the original QA has contacted. Does anyone have any ideas of additional protocols we can use for future contacts?

Even if we don't come up with new protocols, I'd like to SLOWLY keep contacting new Shards. Armor-Bitch and Gas-Fog are top candidates for me because of how messed up the hosts are. I'd like to see if we discover anything new by studying them.

 

[Retrueno]

Tattoo-Tinker Healer (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.
  
  
• Shaker 200, Changer 100, Striker 100. Healing Aura. On-off at-will. Targeted or area-of-effect. 500 meter range. Slowly regenerates either the target(s) or everyone in the area of effect that isn't designated as an enemy (heals everyone by default). Works as a biokinesis power. Touch doubles the healing/modification speed. Affects me, and since I'm closer to myself than touch it works at quadruple speeds. Healing power will automatically turn on and heal me if I'm unconscious.
  
  
• Trump 200, Thinker 200, Powers Communication. On-off at-will. Targeted or area-of-effect. 500 meter range. Affects any Parahuman or potential, allows communication with their Power. Powers can be temporarily turned on or off, copied, or (with permission) moved.

Click to shrink...

Warnings:

-Host doesn't use specialties of power 'Adminstrator', [Multitasking] and [Information] (these words in Shardspeak so as to convey the amazing we're).

-Powers Communication (direct communication) is dangerous, even Host of Broadcast, 'Jack Slash', only has an hyper intuition related to Hosts instead of direct power communication.

-Powers Communication is dangerous (power transference), power Tattoo-Tinker Healer doesn't include Blindspot for Thinker powers. Great probably of being put under control of 'Censored' (knowing name of 'Censored' is massively dangerous for Hosts that aren't a Blindspot). Certainly of being watched by 'Censored'. Probably of becoming and Endbrindger Target while they're under subconscious control of Host of 'High Priest'.

-Power Communication may not work as intended (Power Copy), Host wouldn't have 'slots' to use a copied power, still the powers could be copied directly to the Shard but Host wouldn't be able to do anything with them (Power Commination doesn't include Power Granting).

-Healing Aura heals by default, this would be a vulnerability to Host identity, it's not in this case as Host would receive unlimited Multitasking when its power is granted independently of the Power.

Suggestions:

-Healing Aura +50 Shaker, +50 Trump, when working on self now attune their body to nullify whatever it was that caused the damage. Master effects are counted as damage. This changes are reversible if Hosts wills it.

-Tattoo Tinker: add ability to Tattoo inanimate objects.

-Host should learn body language and psychology to cover vulnerability of 'Social Manipulation'.

-Host should try to know the true reason behind her bullying and its not persecution by the respectives authorities. Not doing this could lead to bullying not ending in the short term despite of Host powers if Host decides to keep her identity secret.

-Host should be warned that Tinkers are extremely sought by 'Host Groups' and are normally forcibly recruited. Tinkers needs resources and a base and are at its weakest after Triggering.

-Host should be warned of joining the PRT, 'Censored' has massive influence in the PRT and any big organization in Earth Bet or other Earths were there are powerful Hosts.

-Host should be warned searching for 'Censored' without being a Blindspot to Thinker powers is very dangerous.

-Host should never tell anyone about these dreams as it could lead to Host and Power 'Administrator' termination (so Taytay knows we're putting our "life on the line" here).

Power will not be granted for a few days (unless fatal danger is encountered) so Host has time to rework it if she desires.


We could show Taylor something like this next time she dreams, making suggestions to her power while telling her some problems there may be with them and also revealing some secrets of the settings but without revealing anything that a Thinker could verify.[/Information]