[HALP] me! (WORM quest)
- Thread starter Vhalidictes
- Start date
Vhalidictes
(Verified Demon)
- Location
- Las Vegas
I get you. My point was that SB's rules about fiction, well, they don't hold up to any kind of scrutiny.
I understand the main thrust is "SFW", and I respect that, but... they just can't make sense in speculative fiction. Not 'don't', 'can't'.
Prologue - Interlude P
TigerTitian
High Lord of the Antares
- Location
- USA
--Interlude P--
Lost. Looked for more food outside the nest, nest was gone. Tall ones fed and pet but wouldn't leave her alone. Annoying. No mates. No playing. Went for more food, more mates. Can't find any.
Water near. Lots of water. Can hear, can smell, can't find. Tall ones nests block way. Nest things block way. Waste and waste things block way. Too small, too weak, to move things. Must find way around.
Hungry. Past feeding time but no tall ones near to give food. Hungry. Not like hungry. Must find food. Tall ones always have food. Look for food near their nests.
Tall ones wasteful. Food in waste. Maybe-food and not-food in waste. Tall ones have trouble knowing food from not-food? Not important. Eat food. Waste food make less hungry but not taste good. Food tall ones give more tasty. Not tasty food goes in waste? Not important. Less hungry but still hungry. Look for more food.
Tall one leave nest. Maybe tall one give food. Make call to tall one. Tall one make call back. Tall one come closer. Move closer to tall one.
***
Wake up. Is dark. Remember nothing. Not important. Feel good. Feel better. Something happen? Not important. Hungry. Find food important.
Search waste. No more food, only maybe-food. Only eat food-food. Learn this in old neat. Maybe-food make less hungry but make sick. But no more food. Want to eat maybe-food but not get sick.
Feel strange. More hungry. Lots more hungry. Hungry hurts.
Maybe-food smells like food-food. Eat maybe-food. Make less hungry. Sick okay if less hungry. Find better food later. Less hungry now.
More food in waste sacks. Sometimes waste sacks in hard shell. Waste sacks always hard to open. Not-food always in way. Hard to move not-food. If bigger and stronger could do.
Feel strange again. Hungry again. Really hungry.
Need more food now.
--Interlude P--
Lost. Looked for more food outside the nest, nest was gone. Tall ones fed and pet but wouldn't leave her alone. Annoying. No mates. No playing. Went for more food, more mates. Can't find any.
Water near. Lots of water. Can hear, can smell, can't find. Tall ones nests block way. Nest things block way. Waste and waste things block way. Too small, too weak, to move things. Must find way around.
Hungry. Past feeding time but no tall ones near to give food. Hungry. Not like hungry. Must find food. Tall ones always have food. Look for food near their nests.
Tall ones wasteful. Food in waste. Maybe-food and not-food in waste. Tall ones have trouble knowing food from not-food? Not important. Eat food. Waste food make less hungry but not taste good. Food tall ones give more tasty. Not tasty food goes in waste? Not important. Less hungry but still hungry. Look for more food.
Tall one leave nest. Maybe tall one give food. Make call to tall one. Tall one make call back. Tall one come closer. Move closer to tall one.
***
Wake up. Is dark. Remember nothing. Not important. Feel good. Feel better. Something happen? Not important. Hungry. Find food important.
Search waste. No more food, only maybe-food. Only eat food-food. Learn this in old neat. Maybe-food make less hungry but make sick. But no more food. Want to eat maybe-food but not get sick.
Feel strange. More hungry. Lots more hungry. Hungry hurts.
Maybe-food smells like food-food. Eat maybe-food. Make less hungry. Sick okay if less hungry. Find better food later. Less hungry now.
More food in waste sacks. Sometimes waste sacks in hard shell. Waste sacks always hard to open. Not-food always in way. Hard to move not-food. If bigger and stronger could do.
Feel strange again. Hungry again. Really hungry.
Need more food now.
--Interlude P--
I like keeping all information about Admin vague since it's supposed to be representing all of the voters. Making Admin canonically a teenager feels like it's excluding the voters that are not in their teens. As long as we don't try to pair off our human avatar with anyone (EWWW!!), Admin's age isn't important.
@TigerTitian, great interlude, but I have to admit that I'm lost as to what happened. I'm guessing that Amy altered an animal (cat? dog?) so that it has powers? Though I have no idea why she would do that and then just leave it.
- Location
- Florida, USA
I agree that Avatar/Host relationships are squicky. No.
Maybe we could meet another Avatar? The Warrior isn't really my type, but maybe Abaddon is around?
Or maybe we should reverse harem the pair of them?
Meh, maybe we should be aromantic or ship ourselves with ourselves, instead. After all, their are a lot of us in here.
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- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Abbadon is totally evil and behind everything.
There's always Gaea and Negotiator. Though Gaea does seem very young and naive, though not quite as bad as Bonesaw. We'll see how Vhal develops her as she becomes more independent.
There's always Gaea and Negotiator. Though Gaea does seem very young and naive, though not quite as bad as Bonesaw. We'll see how Vhal develops her as she becomes more independent.
- Location
- Florida, USA
So, uhm, what does the P stand for? I'm not recalling any characters who start with that name. Did Bitch have a dog that started with P?
Also, I notice it got canonized. WTF?
Does that mean Tiger earned a bonus for it?
Also, where do we draw the line for what earns bonuses? I'm somewhat confused why Rune-chan earned but Detective Perry and the Lively Ladybug didn't, since they're both crack-y side-stuff. Unless. . . Vhal, you didn't, did you!?
Vhalidictes
(Verified Demon)
- Location
- Las Vegas
Yes!
Yes, Gino also gets a non-Research bonus of his choosing.
I must have missed that one when I was checking for threadmarks.
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- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Thank you Vhal, I'll have to think about it.
Grand Mage, you may look down your nose at my lack of ciatation, but I don't believe for a second that Abbadon isn't behind everything that happens in Worm. I bet you he show up sooner or later in Ward. Maybe he's already there as character we already know, maybe he doesn't show up until the end to pull the rug out and shoot the shaggy dog.
I can imagine Wildbow letting us think Vicky had earned her happy ending only for the real Big Bad to show up and clean house like the Red Wedding was amateur hour.
I'll be waiting for a while, but I have faith I'll be vindicated in the end. In Worm, the bad guys win. Peace is but a dream.
Grand Mage, you may look down your nose at my lack of ciatation, but I don't believe for a second that Abbadon isn't behind everything that happens in Worm. I bet you he show up sooner or later in Ward. Maybe he's already there as character we already know, maybe he doesn't show up until the end to pull the rug out and shoot the shaggy dog.
I can imagine Wildbow letting us think Vicky had earned her happy ending only for the real Big Bad to show up and clean house like the Red Wedding was amateur hour.
I'll be waiting for a while, but I have faith I'll be vindicated in the end. In Worm, the bad guys win. Peace is but a dream.
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- Location
- Florida, USA
Okay, now the mystery of the ages: Was this research Omake awarded points? I can't tell, and while here Zephyr asks all points to go into Focused Research, you only grant 100 points, which seems like it might be for only the Research posted there, so I dunno what's going on there. I'd really like to be able to update my notes on what was spent where.
I'll agree it's behind everything. The death of Eden, the Rise of Khepri. Not so sure it's evil, though.
Powerofmind
In Madness Fallen
- Location
- United States
Agreed. It's like saying a natural disaster is evil because it kills people. That said, abaddon is arguably the least evil entity by human metrics, since it's actions are the only reason people still existed after Golden Morning.
TigerTitian
High Lord of the Antares
- Location
- USA
Agreed.
Thanks!
I left things vague enough that Vhal could use it however he wants. Maybe Amy did it, or maybe an aberrant shard triggered an animal. Selfcest FTW.
A name, I would assume.
Sweeeeeeet. I'll have to keep that in mind for the future.
Proof that our GM is fallible.
Blue/ orange morality perhaps?
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Blue orange morality is possible, I'll hrant you that. My first thought for my omake bonus was to somehow use Tigers omake to have Pancea create Perry the Platypus... but no, it's Tigers omake. I'll find a way to make it happen.
- Location
- Florida, USA
Well, I'd say Perry depends on what the thread as a whole wants to do, vis a vis Avatars.
We should probably start thinking about that. It's a lot of research gained with that quest completed.
And don't need to worry about Aberration to talk to Hosts.
Unlocked Avatar Options
[] No Host
[] Human Host
-[] Child
-[] Teen
-[] Adult
-[] Elder
[] Platypus Host (We have enough data to mutate a human to a platypus, but not a humanoid one.)
Locked Avatar Options
[] Catgirl (We'd need to scan one, or finish Advanced mods)
[] Other Animals
[] Slime? (Need to scan Lilac to see if we're even capable of copying her form)
Personally, I think the best options are either an AltEarth Taylor, or an adult AltEarth Relative of Taylor. Then we can claim they're the only 'family' we have while we get on our feet. Both would allow us to try and raise her SAN. Probably being an Aunt or something would fit into her life better, make her more capable of connecting. The question is which side to go for. Annette's sister you might jog Danny into action, could also fuck around with his SAN (most don't seem to care, really). Taylor would probably bond better because of her memories over her mother. Danny's sister you mess with Danny's head less, but Taylor might not be as open to her?
And then there's always the little Zizster option. Personally I'd prefer going Aunt, being an AltEarth Annette's Sister. Best chance of fucking up the status quo, there. Kind of also want to mark her with a stylized C as some sort of exiled criminal (rebellion against parahuman overclass?) and have her claim their world specifically avoided Aleph and Bet because Case 53s make Bet look like it's already being used as a prisonworld for some other multiEarth Empire. "I had to spend most of my money to bribe them to send me to a Criminal-class world I had some living family. The only one was this wretched place. It's technically supposed to be banned because of the presence of Criminal exiles from some other world, but enough money made it possible."
We should probably start thinking about that. It's a lot of research gained with that quest completed.
And don't need to worry about Aberration to talk to Hosts.
Unlocked Avatar Options
[] No Host
[] Human Host
-[] Child
-[] Teen
-[] Adult
-[] Elder
[] Platypus Host (We have enough data to mutate a human to a platypus, but not a humanoid one.)
Locked Avatar Options
[] Catgirl (We'd need to scan one, or finish Advanced mods)
[] Other Animals
[] Slime? (Need to scan Lilac to see if we're even capable of copying her form)
Personally, I think the best options are either an AltEarth Taylor, or an adult AltEarth Relative of Taylor. Then we can claim they're the only 'family' we have while we get on our feet. Both would allow us to try and raise her SAN. Probably being an Aunt or something would fit into her life better, make her more capable of connecting. The question is which side to go for. Annette's sister you might jog Danny into action, could also fuck around with his SAN (most don't seem to care, really). Taylor would probably bond better because of her memories over her mother. Danny's sister you mess with Danny's head less, but Taylor might not be as open to her?
And then there's always the little Zizster option. Personally I'd prefer going Aunt, being an AltEarth Annette's Sister. Best chance of fucking up the status quo, there. Kind of also want to mark her with a stylized C as some sort of exiled criminal (rebellion against parahuman overclass?) and have her claim their world specifically avoided Aleph and Bet because Case 53s make Bet look like it's already being used as a prisonworld for some other multiEarth Empire. "I had to spend most of my money to bribe them to send me to a Criminal-class world I had some living family. The only one was this wretched place. It's technically supposed to be banned because of the presence of Criminal exiles from some other world, but enough money made it possible."
TigerTitian
High Lord of the Antares
- Location
- USA
We don't need to spend bonuses to make that happen, we just need to vote to make it happen.
Considering most of Taylor's reduced sanity is a result of her being bullied and lack of friends I think sister is the best option for improving her sanity. She's lonely. Being an adult lets us give her good advice and whatnot but it can't ever really give her a friend, the age gap would innately cause too much of a disconnect. Having two children to take care of might be enough to kick start Danny's floundering parental instincts. If not, we could always call him out by saying "You might be an alt version of my Dad but I've seen how good you can be! So get your act together already!"
Also, being able to go to school and physically stop the bullying would be a major help to taylor. As an adult our hands are tied there unless we have massive influence.
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- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
These are terrible lies that we absolutely cannot support. We're not lying to Taylor and Danny. We're especially not publicly lying about crossing dimensions and messing with Cauldron when Armsaster alone has a lie detector and Contessa would probably be able to tell there was something up with us when her precog acts weird.
This is hilarious crack but best for omake fodder. We'd never be able to pull it off in the real quest, and we definitely wouldn't be able to have any kind of low profile. You want to publicly announce that the C mark mean some kind of crimainal and that people are freely traveling dimension without the PRT knowing. And don't say that Taylor and Danny could keep it a secret, they wouldn't even believe us.
Let's just ask apparently super genius Taylor for advice wehn we fiannly talking to her. Everyone would think we were a cape. That Taylor and Danny were capes. And they would mostly be right. The PRT would watch us like we were in witness protection.
We would need all the mater/stranger data to attempt this, and is that really the power we want for an avatar?
I can't even tell if you're serious or trolling us.
This is hilarious crack but best for omake fodder. We'd never be able to pull it off in the real quest, and we definitely wouldn't be able to have any kind of low profile. You want to publicly announce that the C mark mean some kind of crimainal and that people are freely traveling dimension without the PRT knowing. And don't say that Taylor and Danny could keep it a secret, they wouldn't even believe us.
Let's just ask apparently super genius Taylor for advice wehn we fiannly talking to her. Everyone would think we were a cape. That Taylor and Danny were capes. And they would mostly be right. The PRT would watch us like we were in witness protection.
We would need all the mater/stranger data to attempt this, and is that really the power we want for an avatar?
I can't even tell if you're serious or trolling us.
I hate the idea of lying to Taylor about being her family. Plus, she's supposed to become really smart once we fix her brain so she might figure out that we're lying to her.
We're going to need to get a legal identity for our human avatar if we want them to be able to go to school or get a job. Maybe Lisa could do it in return for a favor.
We're going to need to get a legal identity for our human avatar if we want them to be able to go to school or get a job. Maybe Lisa could do it in return for a favor.
- Location
- Florida, USA
Well, what, older sister? Younger would probably hurt her psyche to be saved by. Older has the benefits of being acceptable to be rescued by. Then you run the risks of filing Sophia's Alpha slot, which even if you back them off Taylor to protect her, might lead to some resentment because you're 'with' them.
Then again, that keeps us at arm's reach. Allows us to make her life better and be there while giving her reasons to become independent and not rely on us. It's a tough balance to hit. We'd probably need to bank a few bonuses to autocrit on getting her to the right levels of acceptance while not being directly involved in each other's lives.
I like it, though.
Also, why would Contessa care when we're in Brockton Bay, the city that they're specifically leaving alone for their Parahuman Feudalism experiment? And why would Armsmaster use a lie detector on us? Hell, why would Armsmaster interview them at all? He's got an actual job, you know. He can't go down to every non-threat to interview them, despite what fanon would have you believe.
As to not lying. . . We'll have to lie to them at some point. What, you want to reveal the truth about Zion and Powers and everything? Why? To be honest? You want to destroy their worldview, do probably irreparably harm to their SAN, all to be honest about something that if we play it right, they never need to know about? I could see maybe letting them know Zion is actually an alien and should be killed. If we want to go the battle routes.
Considering his mental state, though, I think a non-violent solution to make ourselves an indefensible Core Shard and basically just take over to repair the Cycle and have him basically let himself be subsumed to correct his grief is a better win condition because it doesn't involve massive amounts of Human death for style points.
Heck, avoiding an Avatar and contact with the Hosts is probably the best way to go about it, but making one is a decent back-up if things go wrong and gives us the whole fighting Zion thing as a back-up plan. Plus, it gives tone of Research points which will speed up gaining skills early on, and lets us interact more with the world to try and combat what a crapsack it is.
But while I am willing to help save a bunch of Hosts we like, and make the world work better, I find the idea of pulling a bunch of humans into it really poor.
Also, want to know an easy way to make this work? Simulate it out into a process, dump them in the brain so they believe it entirely, and give them a minor Stranger power that makes their brain look like a normal human brain with no Pollentia Corona or Gemma. Boom, it now believes it's story entirely and shows up true to all scans and this person doesn't look like a parahuman. Well, we know other Earths exist. We can just be glad they'll leave us alone. Do some physical tests for Tinkers to be happy, answer some questions, get a government ID, get shown the door.
. . .
That is not how brains work. Even if the storage is kept around (don't forget it's so energy inefficient she's starving with it), she'll still need to study to accumulate facts. She'll probably have better memory and recall, but that's non-human brainmeats designed for data storage. This does not automatically make someone a super genius, and even if it increase a lot of things, she'll still have to put the work in to have the facts and knowledge base to work with, having more meat up there won't suddenly make up for the fact she's gotten basically nothing done academically since starting high school and has almost no social skills.
She's not going to become Tony Stark or Da Vinci just because we empty it out, even if we let her use all of it instead of trying to get rid of some of it so she can actually feed it. She'll still be Taylor, only with more potential.
Then again, that keeps us at arm's reach. Allows us to make her life better and be there while giving her reasons to become independent and not rely on us. It's a tough balance to hit. We'd probably need to bank a few bonuses to autocrit on getting her to the right levels of acceptance while not being directly involved in each other's lives.
I like it, though.
No, it'd be announcing that was the assumption of another Earth who did that to yet still different Earths. They wouldn't have any idea where Case 53s come from. They scanned Bet, made an assumption that might be right or wrong, they never checked, just moved on.
Also, why would Contessa care when we're in Brockton Bay, the city that they're specifically leaving alone for their Parahuman Feudalism experiment? And why would Armsmaster use a lie detector on us? Hell, why would Armsmaster interview them at all? He's got an actual job, you know. He can't go down to every non-threat to interview them, despite what fanon would have you believe.
As to not lying. . . We'll have to lie to them at some point. What, you want to reveal the truth about Zion and Powers and everything? Why? To be honest? You want to destroy their worldview, do probably irreparably harm to their SAN, all to be honest about something that if we play it right, they never need to know about? I could see maybe letting them know Zion is actually an alien and should be killed. If we want to go the battle routes.
Considering his mental state, though, I think a non-violent solution to make ourselves an indefensible Core Shard and basically just take over to repair the Cycle and have him basically let himself be subsumed to correct his grief is a better win condition because it doesn't involve massive amounts of Human death for style points.
Heck, avoiding an Avatar and contact with the Hosts is probably the best way to go about it, but making one is a decent back-up if things go wrong and gives us the whole fighting Zion thing as a back-up plan. Plus, it gives tone of Research points which will speed up gaining skills early on, and lets us interact more with the world to try and combat what a crapsack it is.
But while I am willing to help save a bunch of Hosts we like, and make the world work better, I find the idea of pulling a bunch of humans into it really poor.
Also, want to know an easy way to make this work? Simulate it out into a process, dump them in the brain so they believe it entirely, and give them a minor Stranger power that makes their brain look like a normal human brain with no Pollentia Corona or Gemma. Boom, it now believes it's story entirely and shows up true to all scans and this person doesn't look like a parahuman. Well, we know other Earths exist. We can just be glad they'll leave us alone. Do some physical tests for Tinkers to be happy, answer some questions, get a government ID, get shown the door.
. . .
That is not how brains work. Even if the storage is kept around (don't forget it's so energy inefficient she's starving with it), she'll still need to study to accumulate facts. She'll probably have better memory and recall, but that's non-human brainmeats designed for data storage. This does not automatically make someone a super genius, and even if it increase a lot of things, she'll still have to put the work in to have the facts and knowledge base to work with, having more meat up there won't suddenly make up for the fact she's gotten basically nothing done academically since starting high school and has almost no social skills.
She's not going to become Tony Stark or Da Vinci just because we empty it out, even if we let her use all of it instead of trying to get rid of some of it so she can actually feed it. She'll still be Taylor, only with more potential.
TigerTitian
High Lord of the Antares
- Location
- USA
Being a high school senior would give us the best balance of old enough to give advice and young enough to be a friend.
I like this idea.
Even without all that, there is no tech or power that would be able to tell we're lying. All our thoughts are shard side, which powers cant interact with.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm just gonna vote against this if you ever get around to it. I want a conspiracy of alien shards and parahumans to strike at Zion. That's the goal I'm working towards, it'll be in my plans as it becomes relevant, I'm going to try to convince the others to go for it.
We're godlike in power but not an actual god, we don't actually know best. We talk to Taylor as our true confidant and first among allies because she is the designated protagonist. This is Worm, she is the queen of Escalation, she came from nothing and ascended yo godhood. Vhal has already made her special.
The lie you want to sell we cannot possible keep secret. Danny would not possible keep it secret. Taylor would not believe it. And if by some miracle we convinced them, thinkers exist. Precognition and pericogs, Watchdog, Contessa Clairvoyant and Doormaker.
They wouldn't be looking specificly for us or our lies but holy s)&@ thats is not a plan for subtlety.
You... I can't even articulate how crack this is. Vhal has let us get away with some nonsense but this is far over the line I can't even.
If you can reread what you wrote and post it with complete seriousness as a viable plan, than clearly I'm not going to be able convince you.
This isn't a white lie that's convenient for us, this is the kind of a whole we bury ourself with. This is the kind of lie you make up when the only thing you know how to do is keep digging. This will never hold up under any scrutiny, at all.
I still can't tell if you're trolling me, that's how put out I am right now.
Like.
What.
But if we do end up doing it I'm putting all my research toward stranger danger and giving our avatar ridiculous master/stranger powers. This would antagonize and alert so many players. This is all the attention grabbing.
We're godlike in power but not an actual god, we don't actually know best. We talk to Taylor as our true confidant and first among allies because she is the designated protagonist. This is Worm, she is the queen of Escalation, she came from nothing and ascended yo godhood. Vhal has already made her special.
The lie you want to sell we cannot possible keep secret. Danny would not possible keep it secret. Taylor would not believe it. And if by some miracle we convinced them, thinkers exist. Precognition and pericogs, Watchdog, Contessa Clairvoyant and Doormaker.
They wouldn't be looking specificly for us or our lies but holy s)&@ thats is not a plan for subtlety.
You... I can't even articulate how crack this is. Vhal has let us get away with some nonsense but this is far over the line I can't even.
If you can reread what you wrote and post it with complete seriousness as a viable plan, than clearly I'm not going to be able convince you.
This isn't a white lie that's convenient for us, this is the kind of a whole we bury ourself with. This is the kind of lie you make up when the only thing you know how to do is keep digging. This will never hold up under any scrutiny, at all.
I still can't tell if you're trolling me, that's how put out I am right now.
Like.
What.
But if we do end up doing it I'm putting all my research toward stranger danger and giving our avatar ridiculous master/stranger powers. This would antagonize and alert so many players. This is all the attention grabbing.
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I'd rather have our human avatar avoid Taylor than lie to her. It feels wrong to go up to an abused girl who has little trust in other people and try to get her to trust us by lying to her.
As for age, I think adult would be best because an adult can get a job to support themself, rent an apartment, etc. I'd rather leave gender up to a roll of a die, given how Admin is supposed to be a representation of all of the voters.
As for age, I think adult would be best because an adult can get a job to support themself, rent an apartment, etc. I'd rather leave gender up to a roll of a die, given how Admin is supposed to be a representation of all of the voters.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Thank you Mt. Elements for your common sense. I'd go for early 20s or some kind of monstrous/animal cape. Gender is fluid but I'd go female just because there seem to be more female capes in general and I prefer a female protagonist in general.
Definitely don't want to be generic white dude with generic comb over.
Definitely don't want to be generic white dude with generic comb over.
TigerTitian
High Lord of the Antares
- Location
- USA
Regardless of whatever backstory y'all decide on, if we want to improve Taylor's sanity the fastest (and maybe safest) way it would be to become an older sibling figure to her. Fixing her brain and triggering her won't fix her sanity.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Becoming an older sibling figure is fine. We can even vaguely look similar. But please let's not actually pretend to be her older sister. We can't retcon reality.