- Pronouns
- He
[X] Plan New Options Explored
Headway/Nexus Quest 4 (Worm/Gamer-lite/Multicross/Dimensional Travel/One Piece/X-Men Evo)
*faux sage nod*
I see, I see. And then we hit them with a switch, right? /joke
Thank you.
I suspect the seals practice regular martial arts, but if they help us train something akin to Fishman Martial Arts I'm all for it. Alternately, if we take the time to defeat several of them in martial arts and teach them Fishman Karate I wonder if that helps establish a seal-based defense system around Alabasta?
I suspect that Enel gets to fight the captain, unless Luffy feels like tagging out at some point. I doubt Taylor's going to do much to against someone who is, y'know, living lightning unless she can rig up a faraday cage suit or something.
I definitely want to make some VI/AI to interact with Bet's internet. If we can get a sophisticated JARVIS-like system as part of Factota's outfit to handle things like managing our electronics kit, auto-hacking bad guys' electronics, calculating routes, sifting through online data (everything from 'where is a good gyro place nearby' to 'do we recognize this guy talking to Brazen Bull and Murderhog') and generally being an assistant that's a fair bit of added value, and we already see the stuff Dragon does without being a Tinker thrown in.
...that said I imagine we'd need to figure out how to hide the AI from Scion, as even if we're able to convince people AI are cool (they're demonstrably cool) given the restrictions he puts on people like Andrew Richter who are able to create AI that seems like a hot button 'no-no' situation. Maybe station the AI on Mahon and see if it can help manage the internet there, with data bursts from the AI to Dragon and back like pen pals whenever Factota crosses the dimensional barrier? That could be fun.
Oh, that reminds me! If we're able to beat up Saint, does that mean we could get a branch of Teacher's power/learn Saint's power of "able to maintain x tech"? Would it count towards one of the Tinkers we'd need to punch and master the skills of to unlock Tinkertech Understanding? Because I think we want to punch Saint for unrelated reasons, but....
Still, I think we want to get to Computers 10, Engineering 10 before trying to make an AI. Not sure what other skills to include but getting those two high seems like a reasonable first step.
- Location
- U.S.
or she takes advantage of when wiper attacks enel the first time and finishes off enel before he revives himself, or gets ahold of wiper's seastone skates and does it herself
You're basically right on the money. SPY ON THE MERCHANTS involve looking for weaknesses, noting them down, and the project ends once Taylor's satisfied with her knowledge of the extent of the Merchants' operations. Once that finishes, the players get an option for a multi-part project for TAKE DOWN THE MERCHANTS, which uses the information from the completed project to take down the Merchants. It's a more conservative version of VILLAIN HUNT, letting the players choose not to commit to a full takedown immediately.
VILLAIN HUNT combines the two, and is slightly riskier as a result. Rather than Taylor merely collecting information for later, she's collecting info with the mindset 'ok, in the next ten days these guys are going to be gone, and I'm going to take them down.' Her Tactics and new general skills unlocked during the course of training the project work overtime with that specific goal in mind.
How the players gauge the risk is up to them.
Based on feedback, I'm thinking something like that. Sleight-of-Hand will likely be added as an option next update. Probably something like 100% of 0, 80% of 1, 50% of 2, 25% of 3, since you already have quite a few related skills at high levels.
Was wondering when someone would come up with that idea. I had the same thought (not with the goldfish fishman bit) for months when I was brainstorming H/NQ ideas.
I don't think so. I think Saint's skill of understanding Richtertech would be considered a Thinker skill. Mostly because I think it's thematically appropriate and kind of funny for Dragon, a Thinker who can understand Tinkertech, slave to Richter's restrictions, to be so violently opposed by... a Thinker who can understand Tinkertech, slave to Teacher's restrictions.
There's a specific Mahon-AI who's been mentioned in this quest before, that Taylor is aware of. Been inactive since WW2, but he's probably one of the leads Taylor is more likely in-character to track down once she has the spare time to start research on Mahon.
Plan New Options Explored: 8 (Ompa60, Escalatus, spudman, Slamu, Kejmur, Othar, Simon. Andersen, edja)
Plan New Options Explored and Hunting Prey: 9 (fictionfan, sleepypanda, BunnyLord, wizig, LightLan, bookworm702, Oseanman, mojtaba, gjones600)
Wait: 2 (Simon. Andersen, Slamu)
Tell Him Now: 10 (Ompa60, sleepypanda, BunnyLord, wizig, bookworm702, Oseanman, spudman, Kejmur, mojtaba, Othar)
This is exciting! We almost have a tie for the plan. Vote closes at midnight EST.
Last edited:
I'm assuming Swordfish Fishman might get associated with Escape Artist Taylor, and unless we're wanting to create a whole new identity based on Disguise as a bounty hunter, being a Fishman trying to collect on a bounty while disposing of pirates feels like it'd work. The three biggest complications I see are a) racism against Fishmen making the bounty collection more difficult than it needs to be (Taylor was basically handed a check unprompted in Loguetown but I imagine a Marine station on the Grand Line won't operate like Smoker was the station chief), b) someone might get suspicious if a bunch of bounties get turned in in areas where the Straw Hats were reported, especially if it's people that fought the Straw Hats, and c) there's a good chance the people getting over might not be very cooperative in maintaining our story and loudly proclaim "I wasn't defeated by Kenji the Giller, I fought Black Leg Sanji and they tied me up and turned me over to this bounty hunter in a rowboat!" which could cause...complications. There's probably a way to make this work but it's likely something we'll want to try to do selectively.
...tangentially related but I wonder how well something like an electric eel fishman or octopus fishman would work for Headway. I imagine we'd be able to collect their forms but how much 'value added' are we looking at if we get, say, an electro-sense or extra appendages? Which reminds me, are we still needing to get above 50% on the Giant Utensil Squid form, or does it benefit from Lemons?
I don't know if 'new form' counts as an 'ability' but it seems like this might be relevant.
Yeah, I'm not saying it's impossible for Taylor to win, I'm just saying I don't want to automatically assume we've got that fight in the bag and have the rug pulled out from under us, y'know? Also, I'm curious how effective Fishman Karate would be in the sky. I'm torn between 'not very, the sea is far below' and 'quite, you can fly and it's a 3D combat skill'. Might need to pull a Katara and carry around a canteen of seawater with us though.
So Saint's skill would basically be Dragon's skill, but with "*only works on Andrew Richter or Dragon's work" as a caveat?
Also, assuming we had a tiny misunderstanding with the Guild and Dragon tasked some of the Dragonflight to bring us in, but we defeated one of her units could we then potentially shapeshift into the Cawthorne? Or would Taylor not considering Dragon to be an enemy (although at the time certainly an opponent in an antagonistic role) be enough for Headway to ixnay that?
Another skill you might consider adding would be cryptography, for when we want to make (or break) codes. Probably effected by a strong math skill (see; the Enigma Machine in WWII), helpful in hacking stuff? Not sure how granular you want to get.
That's something to look into for sure, once we're less Mayim-focused. I'm a bit curious now though, how difficult will it be to break through the masquerade? Also a reminder that XME plot is moving forward and they're around episode 3 or 4 atm, I don't know at what point we wanted to insert ourselves there.
Assuming we wanted to investigate the Human Torch I'm guessing we'd start with doing a project with Investigate + History to get a lead and then move onto 'well what happened to him' and 'gotta break into this top secret HYDRA facility to steal their records
...I wonder how difficult it'd be to build an android hero like the Human Torch or Red Tornado. It'd almost certainly get us eyeballed by the PRT ("Master-creating Tinker" at the least, "creations can perpetuate themselves" likely gets a very stern talking-to)
D'you think that we could do something like highlight a rare coin collection (or more likely fabricate something like that online), infiltrate U&L's group chat and suggest a redo of a Mario episode where the duo try to 'collect the coins'? I don't know if Taylor'd be able to do the social manipulation stuff but it seems like one way to go about it.
- Location
- U.S.
taylor proceeds to carry a barrel of seawater on her back, proceeds to shove enel's self reviving body into it and drown him in the sky
Taylor: WHERE'S MY POWER LEBOWSKI!?
I wonder if we could use the Cloud Sea with our Fishman Martial Arts. Technically it is water too even if it's mixed with pyrobloin that lets it solidify. If we could create Island Clouds on demand with our martial arts, that would be pretty damn cool.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Not sure if we can beat Enel. We certainly can't if he takes the fight seriously (he never takes any of the fights that seriously too used to god mode). However if we master the rock hard fruit he is likely to have a hard time hurting us as well.
Well also as soon as we see Luffy successfully hit him we are likely to jump back home and scramble to find rubber stuff.
Also we are going to make so much money at skypiea. Just keep bringing in dirt and take home gold.
Well also as soon as we see Luffy successfully hit him we are likely to jump back home and scramble to find rubber stuff.
Also we are going to make so much money at skypiea. Just keep bringing in dirt and take home gold.
Last edited:
Victories in team battles only give you 50% odds. This was a battle where you were cooperating with the Straw Hats on equal terms. See the Kachi Kachi roll here, for instance.
It's a shittier version of Dragon's ability, but yes, basically.
Unlikely this would happen, but if it did, I don't think Headway would recognize the Dragoncraft as alive enough to count. Taylor also likely wouldn't consider the Protectorate/Guild as enemies in 99% of situations.
Think I'd just shunt that one under Computers and call it a day, like Surgery with Doctor.
Mahon's masquerade may not be what you think it is.
Vote closed.
Plan New Options Explored and Hunting Prey: 9 vs 8
Tell Him Now: 10 vs 2
Overwhelming victory for Tell Him Now vs Wait, and Plan New Options Explored and Hunting Prey wins a nailbiter of a horserace against its progenitor plan. Here are the rolls, as they stand. Working on the update now. With the two leading plans being so similar, I already have a decent start on the update, and you all should expect it in the next few days.
18:95. Seaman (AoS) 9 not unlocked.
20:90. Boatswain 10 not unlocked.
54:20. Leadership 4 unlocked. (Regular boatswain actions, guide crew through a hailstorm)
69:80. Teaching 5 not unlocked. 51:100. Carpentry 7 not unlocked. (Usopp carpentry+general Boatswain work combining to give you a slightly better bonus to teaching, still not successful in crossing the threshold. Usopp learns how to use the tools.)
-$653.77 for 400 feet of double-braided nylon rope for Going Merry, more durable than the hemp rope used currently.
-$854.98 for polyester sailcloth for the sails. Today mostly covers the action of going out and buying it, finding a Marine supplies store (along Hudson River, Manhattan), etc.
08:100. Disguise 6 not unlocked. 47:75. Acting 5 not unlocked. (Related to rope/sailcloth purchase, reinforce the Merry project)
77:20. Kachi Kachi no Mi 3 unlocked. 46:100. Kachi Kachi no Mi 4 not unlocked.
12:00. Driving 2 unlocked. 54:50. Driving 3 unlocked. 21:100. Driving 4 not unlocked. New Hampshire state mandated driving course and project finished, driving exam scheduled for June 21, 2011, $36.00 fee to be paid after completion of exam. Driving project finished.
No roll needed. Tell him now.
79:00. Investigation 0 unlocked. 06:20. Investigation 1 not unlocked. 87:30. Forensics 0 unlocked. 02:90. Forensics 1 not unlocked. 01:85. Stealth 8 not unlocked. (Critical failures do not exist in this quest.) 20:80. Perception 8 not unlocked.
05:??. Dismal rolls for the first Villain Hunt day. Two of the leads you check for Villain Hunt are duds, and while you get a decent start dipping your toes into the water of investigation and forensics, no significant progress is made in finding the root of the Merchants' operation.
21:80. Seaman (AoS) 9 not unlocked. (Regular boatswain work + installing the new rope)
77:85. Boatswain 10 not unlocked.
13:50. Shape Changing: Giant Utensil Squid not unlocked. The Straw Hats and Taylor collaborate to drive off a megafauna squid with shapes in the rough shape of utensils built into its tentacles.
03:50. Shipwright 6 not unlocked. (Rope installation)
66:20. Acrobatics 4 unlocked. 58:60. Acrobatics 5 not unlocked.
19:??. Vivi was given the outfit by Miss Goldenweek as a bit of a curiosity on her end - to study the impact of dance and movement on Colors Trap techniques, as opposed to just regular paint-traps. Vivi doesn't actually understand the mechanics of it - she doesn't really need to for the technique to work. She just needs to dance in such a way that the outfit itself does the work for her, inspiring the vertigo. While Taylor tries to study it in the context of what she knows, it's mostly just a frustrating experience for her… or is it?
13:00. Master Resistance 0 unlocked. Worm Quotes and WoG Repository Master Resistance, while a very useful skill, will not be a cure-all against Master effects even on Bet. Even at highest levels, it may only delay mid-level Masters, and many parahumans will simply no-sell it. This is to say nothing of those with more exotic effects like Miss Goldenweek, or telepaths on Mahon. This skill may merge with a greater psi-resistance skill once you reach a certain point in your actions on Mahon.
58:95. Ninjutsu 0 not unlocked.
51:90. Kachi Kachi no Mi 4 not unlocked.
70:00. Investigation 1 unlocked. 52:50. Investigation 2 unlocked. 37:80. Investigation 3 not unlocked. 93:50. Forensics 1 unlocked. 66:80. Forensics 2 not unlocked. 77:30. Criminal Psychology 1 unlocked. 87:80. Criminal Psychology 2 unlocked. 32:80. Stealth 8 not unlocked. 74:80. Perception 8 not unlocked.
74:??. Considerable progress made - a dealer Taylor recognizes from the warehouse 'accounting meeting' followed back to his house, address memorized, mentioning 'Skids' in conversation, following him along reveals details about his routines, other stuff to be expanded upon in update and in future updates.
20:90. Boatswain 10 not unlocked.
54:20. Leadership 4 unlocked. (Regular boatswain actions, guide crew through a hailstorm)
69:80. Teaching 5 not unlocked. 51:100. Carpentry 7 not unlocked. (Usopp carpentry+general Boatswain work combining to give you a slightly better bonus to teaching, still not successful in crossing the threshold. Usopp learns how to use the tools.)
-$653.77 for 400 feet of double-braided nylon rope for Going Merry, more durable than the hemp rope used currently.
-$854.98 for polyester sailcloth for the sails. Today mostly covers the action of going out and buying it, finding a Marine supplies store (along Hudson River, Manhattan), etc.
08:100. Disguise 6 not unlocked. 47:75. Acting 5 not unlocked. (Related to rope/sailcloth purchase, reinforce the Merry project)
77:20. Kachi Kachi no Mi 3 unlocked. 46:100. Kachi Kachi no Mi 4 not unlocked.
12:00. Driving 2 unlocked. 54:50. Driving 3 unlocked. 21:100. Driving 4 not unlocked. New Hampshire state mandated driving course and project finished, driving exam scheduled for June 21, 2011, $36.00 fee to be paid after completion of exam. Driving project finished.
No roll needed. Tell him now.
79:00. Investigation 0 unlocked. 06:20. Investigation 1 not unlocked. 87:30. Forensics 0 unlocked. 02:90. Forensics 1 not unlocked. 01:85. Stealth 8 not unlocked. (Critical failures do not exist in this quest.) 20:80. Perception 8 not unlocked.
05:??. Dismal rolls for the first Villain Hunt day. Two of the leads you check for Villain Hunt are duds, and while you get a decent start dipping your toes into the water of investigation and forensics, no significant progress is made in finding the root of the Merchants' operation.
21:80. Seaman (AoS) 9 not unlocked. (Regular boatswain work + installing the new rope)
77:85. Boatswain 10 not unlocked.
13:50. Shape Changing: Giant Utensil Squid not unlocked. The Straw Hats and Taylor collaborate to drive off a megafauna squid with shapes in the rough shape of utensils built into its tentacles.
03:50. Shipwright 6 not unlocked. (Rope installation)
66:20. Acrobatics 4 unlocked. 58:60. Acrobatics 5 not unlocked.
19:??. Vivi was given the outfit by Miss Goldenweek as a bit of a curiosity on her end - to study the impact of dance and movement on Colors Trap techniques, as opposed to just regular paint-traps. Vivi doesn't actually understand the mechanics of it - she doesn't really need to for the technique to work. She just needs to dance in such a way that the outfit itself does the work for her, inspiring the vertigo. While Taylor tries to study it in the context of what she knows, it's mostly just a frustrating experience for her… or is it?
13:00. Master Resistance 0 unlocked. Worm Quotes and WoG Repository Master Resistance, while a very useful skill, will not be a cure-all against Master effects even on Bet. Even at highest levels, it may only delay mid-level Masters, and many parahumans will simply no-sell it. This is to say nothing of those with more exotic effects like Miss Goldenweek, or telepaths on Mahon. This skill may merge with a greater psi-resistance skill once you reach a certain point in your actions on Mahon.
58:95. Ninjutsu 0 not unlocked.
51:90. Kachi Kachi no Mi 4 not unlocked.
70:00. Investigation 1 unlocked. 52:50. Investigation 2 unlocked. 37:80. Investigation 3 not unlocked. 93:50. Forensics 1 unlocked. 66:80. Forensics 2 not unlocked. 77:30. Criminal Psychology 1 unlocked. 87:80. Criminal Psychology 2 unlocked. 32:80. Stealth 8 not unlocked. 74:80. Perception 8 not unlocked.
74:??. Considerable progress made - a dealer Taylor recognizes from the warehouse 'accounting meeting' followed back to his house, address memorized, mentioning 'Skids' in conversation, following him along reveals details about his routines, other stuff to be expanded upon in update and in future updates.
Last edited:
That reminds me, I'm not sure you are handling Category skills correctly. In the last update you had Doctor level up to 2 and gave us levels in stuff that was at level 4 and even 6 alongside it.
I believe the intended way for Categories to work was that they would level any skill under their umbrella that was lower than the newly attained level. For example, When we get Ninjutsu 0, we would also get Horse Riding 0, but stealth won't get a level since it's already higher than Ninjutsu.
Not that I'm going to complain about extra skill levels, so if you want to handle it the way you currently are then that's fine too.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Yes hard to avoid it. Shame we didn't go to little garden though. Dinosaur would have been a cool shape. Or even giant.
I don't know how much gold Skypia has, if they're poor in dirt there's unlikely to be a great deal of metals precious or otherwise to be had.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
They have a whole city of gold up there. Also lots of dials to buy as well.
Frankly just buy out their stocks of dials with bags upon bags of dirty. Also I think they ha e an excess of gold as well that they are probably willing to trade?
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I am imagining impact dial armor. We likely don't need it with both the rock hard fruit and the slip slip fruit, but if we ever get a squishy ally on bet we will be able to make them an instant brute.
Last edited:
Impact dials can harm logias. Croc is a logia user. We want impact dials for more then just armor.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I don't know where you are getting that idea from. If you are talking about when the reject dial was used on Enel they put a sea stone on it.
- Location
- Koszalin, Poland
We don't see it exactly in canon, but yes, I'm hoping for something special Kung Fu-wise to get a natural progression for what we know already.
I'm pretty much assuming any scenario where we may get a 'free hit' from ambush. In a direct fight, at the moment, especially if he somewhat gets serious, I don't give us good odds with what we have now. But again, this is Headway. If we end up lucky with something that allows us to handle him, who knows?
The specially designed Faraday Cage is an interesting angle though. The problem is that Taylor doesn't have the foreknowledge here to prepare for this specific encounter and start working on it.
It could also open up that angle of opening some sort of small production line for products only we could produce.
Mahon is most likely the best place to do it anyway, with how superscience in Marvel work.
I would say Robotics?
I'm tempted to train this next time because this looks like a good way to quickly level up a good skill. Especially in One Piece, which is also a comedy gag setting. Where people can get distracted by most random things, so it may help us buy out the time or get a free hit after distraction. I could even say that most One Piece characters have worse attention spans than people in most other settings, especially if it's for the sake of humor. Yes, we could use comedy timing to our advantage in a way of a classic 'straight woman'.
Also Luffy, sometimes, desperately needs to be entertained or distracted, so this is another plus for it. Especially if we would use it to play some 'magic tricks' like stage magicians we know.
Interesting angle. Yeah, worth to check it out.
We wouldn't pick up 'Straw Hats' bounties but simply leave once in a while to pick up some random targets in the area they tend to be if we want to do this bounty as a Fishman thing. So nothing that Straw Hats officially defeat pretty much, although a few first times it could work if it would be explained by this 'Fishman Bounty Hunter' being sneaky, and stealing the bounty from under Straw Hats' noses without a fight. But doing it too many times could become suspicious, true. Straw Hats are already kind of used to Taylor leaving anyway, but I would still warn them if we start doing this, as we don't want to leave the impression we do something 'shady' behind their backs.
I don't assume it, as it may not even happen in the first place, at least against Taylor. But pretty much the way I see it would be a 'cheap shot' type of deal, and this ending up with a 50% chance, instead of 80% if she would do it solo. Right now she certainly can't.
It still wouldn't be bad, as long as we start working together with Dragon in some capacity.
If we do it on Mahon, it could be sold off as their Earth being far more advanced (and it not being tinkertech would most likely be accepted), and in theory 'not her creation', but simply a companion made by someone else. Yes, this lie may not work long-term, but it's an option. This way we buy the time for this 'new heroic cape' to become so popular that even if the truth gets out, there will be more than enough people to oppose anything that would hurt this new hero.
Yes, it's manipulative, but I can say this can work. Especially as it would be for a good cause.
The way I would suggest approaching this is to create a persona, it doesn't even need to be a cape one. May be even some 'fangirl/fanboy' calling Uber & Leet on their incompetence, directly on some stream, and challenging them for let's say a gaming duel. It would work better using some cape persona, but IMO it's necessary if done right. I doubt they would ignore this because it would directly insult what they are best at, and people could start calling them out if they refuse for being cowards/noobs or something similar. Of course, it would need to be the offline thing to bait them in. In this case, it would be a prepared trap.
If we end up saving them, like in canon, I wouldn't be surprised if they give it out for free, with us or not asking. But we could most likely get even more with some trading. But as long as we watch out to not sell too much of it at once, and spread it around (we don't want to value of gold to drop if we oversaturate the markets with it), this will be a nice financial bonus.
But yeah, I'm mostly interested in Dials. Heck, I hope we will get an action in Skypeia where we can train how to tinker Dials ourselves. Their tech is pretty interesting, like their Wavers or Burn Bazookas. In this case, I wonder if we would unlock something like [Skypeia Technology] skill.
- Location
- Texas
I'm going to put this out there as a suggestion, but maybe Taylor can look up One Piece or one of the other worlds at a library computer or something with internet access in Mahon.
Because what isn't available media wise in Bet might be available in other words.
With that out of my head, finally, it's time for sleep.
Because what isn't available media wise in Bet might be available in other words.
With that out of my head, finally, it's time for sleep.
The closest I can think of is for her to start developing an 'anti-Endbringer' outfit intended to protect against specific enemies, and Behemoth is known to use Lightning. However I think it's also known that he uses Lightning in ways that normal lightning doesn't work, so there's probably reasonable doubt that regular efforts would be sufficient.
I'm hesitant to pursue the 'only we can produce' angle; in time I want people to produce most of the things we do (powered armor, medical nanobots, arc reactors, holo projectors, etc) and be credited as 'this is the person who invented/simplified it'. Getting called just another Tinker is an insult to what we can provide, and where everyone and their dog would trip over themselves to gain access to the next major medical advancement if it could be popularized, it would be a waste of efforts for people to shrug and say "Yeah it's neat, but Tinkers do stuff like that all the time and they don't share it with the rest of us".
There are a few things I'd want to keep up our sleeves and probably a few things we're going to use as actual Tinkertech we can handwave as 'still in prototyping' or something, but better to have a string of successes like 'Language Learning Software; Final Edition' and 'Samsung Holo-Vid' before introducing the Nuclear Motorbike or something.
I get the impression Robotics is tied up under Engineering.
I imagine Nami at least would be kept well-informed, as she's ship treasurer and honestly she'd probably eagerly help us iron out kinks in this scheme. Zoro's insight as an actual bounty hunter likewise would be useful. We'd need the captain's permission to do this though, and I suspect he'd be tempted to order the ship to change course and join us on our side-adventure.
Alternately we could swing through a few different bounty hunter identities; the fishman here, the archer there, someone who built a two story animatronic teddy bear on one island...instead of having a single identity that gets tracked, having a bunch of amateurs who try to cash in on one or two bounties and drop off the map (presumably either killed or having gained enough berri to comfortably retire) could probably be workable for the initial part of the Grand Line, though it'd be trickier as we progress further along and new blood becomes more difficult to find. Then we'd probably want to settle on a single identity.
The trick becomes finding our way back to the crew. "Fly there" is the obvious answer but with how unpredictable the weather is I'm unsure how reliable it is. "Swim there" feels slower and has the added consequence of 'potentially attacked by sea monster' which honestly you can take either way. "Sail there" has its own difficulties, especially of the 'getting boarded by Marine vessels' variety.
...I'm curious, how difficult would it be to rent a secure storage facility in Mahon and drop off literal chests of gold and gems there as a sort of Swiss bank account for the Straw Hats? Or we could do the classic pirate thing and bury it underground somewhere in rural New York? If so we must, by order of the captain, sing appropriate shanties while doing this. It's tradition!
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
It is hard to see us beating Behemoth without a logia of some sort. And we aren't beating any of the Endbringers without a Logia if they get even halfway serious. Can't see any reason besides sandbagging that Levithan couldn't just make our blood expode out of our body. Manton limits are an artifical limitation.
I fully expect our first Endbringer fight to be us 'attempting to survive' and 'attempting to help others do the same' while we learn what works and what doesn't. I expect our second Endbringer fight will be us being a big contributor, perhaps not to the level of the Triumverate or Lung, but certainly at the 'mentioned in dispatches' level. I hope that we'll have the training, resources and perspective by the third to Do Something About That though perhaps not kill off the Endbringer. After that everything is out the window.
I suspect the next Endbringer will be Leviathan. We're well-equipped for SAR work given our Perception, First Aid and various Mobility skills, plus Fishman Form and (hopefully) able to use the literal tons of water laying around to defend people from tidal waves (though that last isn't likely to do much good until we level things up; the +1 to skill levels during Endbringer fights is welcome but isn't going to turn a chump into a champ.
Behemoth is somewhat more of the same, although I doubt Fishman Form or Karate will be as useful (except maybe putting out fires?). Logia I consider to be of the most use here, either Crocodile or Enel's, but wonder if the Rock Hard Fruit would let us tank lightning strikes no problem. If all we could do was disrupt lightning strikes or use sand form to get close to Behemoth, that might be worth exposing some of our broader skillset. Alternately if we have a few Tinker abilities up our sleeve by then we might be able to whip up something like the 'giant lava monster punching device', but I have my doubts that something really effective would be available.
The Simurgh...tricky. I'd like to say 'we can take her' but honestly I don't know if we can even derail her schemes (or admittedly, 'should' if the idea of her working towards a future where Eidolon, and by extension humanity, survives and thrives is to be trusted, which in turn it most assuredly not be uncritically) with just Investigation/Psychology/Parahuman Studies checks. The only things I can think of in Worm to really threaten the Endbringers are Sting (unlikely to get as Flechette is a good guy) and Phir Se (who admittedly is probably safely punchable if we can catch him but his haymaker attack could have oopsed the Indian subcontinent and with three days of prep work didn't land a telling blow) whose power I'm not sure jcw3 wants to deal with the headaches of. That's ignoring the whole 'the Protectorate is picky about who they let fight her and also they do bomb collars' thing, so while I don't want to say I feel safe pushing her to the back burner I don't see a good reason not to.
Unless we have a lead on something in Mayim or Mahon that would be particularly effective against Endbringers (Logia, Haki, maybe something the X-Men face?) I think we're better off reinforcing the fabric of society by cleaning out threats we can do something about like the S9 or Fallen (hopefully picking up abilities that we can combo into something more effective, like Labyrinth + Scrub = portals), finding ways to empower more heroically inclined people (Mayim magic skills like Haki and Magical Martial Arts, unlocking the X-Gene, inventing mass-producible powered armor so PRT troopers get a general upgrade in being able to survive capes, etc), building some AI able to operate on par with pre-trigger Dragon, even tracking down Cauldron and figuring out how to do their job better.
Incidentally, please let the record show that I favor the 'build up infrastructure, teach people to do cool things and hunt the really bad guys' options.
While I'm thinking of it, would having defeated a cape and gained their powers (ie Slip Slip Fruit) count as having studied a cape's powers for the purposes of tinkering, or if we wanted to replicate a cape power we had (ie 'frictionless components for Tinker gear') would we need to build a scanner, put on our "we are using X power" hat, spend an hour shooting lasers from our eyes or what have you, and then check the recording for what we expect? Or to put it another way, as we collect abilities like Paramecia or Bet cape abilities (Othala, Rune, etc) are we more easily able to leverage that to Tinkering?