Also good point on Spider-Man's web fluid, which should work in a very similar way. If we get in contact with Peter, and offer him an honest, and fair deal about his incredible formula, I'm all for it.
As we all know Peter is a genuinely nice guy, with a sentiment very similar to this version of Taylor and his desire to be a true hero. Marvel writers love to kick him in the metaphorical nuts all the time, so helping him out is something I'm all for it. If they become friends - all the better.
Also, I mention buying out his formula because we have the perfect example of what happens when his own trademark isn't secured in the Ultimate Spider-Man comics series. Pretty much what happens there is Kingping gloating to Peter about owning his own image and selling Spider-Man items like toys. It's such a well-executed scene in that comic series, and this version of Kingpin is one of the best versions of him around. Because in the end, in this specific scene, Kingpin did nothing illegal really - Spider-Man never secured his trademark, so someone simply took advantage of it to make money.
Pretty much it helps Peter. If it wouldn't be us, it may be someone like Tony, as long as it's an honest business deal.
We could possibly set up a project to track down Peter Parker in NYC and see if we can find the Man, if not the Spider and talk to him from that angle. It could be helpful to train up investigative skills to work in parallel to 'snoop on the Merchants and cause problems there', though I'd like to be able to promise him more support or aid than a shoulder to cry on every so often.
I guess we could pull off an inferior version of him if we feel like it. I wonder if Taylor choosing a Spider-Girl persona here would make her become a part of the 'spider family'. Yes, it would have implications with the whole multiversal mess of Spider-Totems/The Web/Spider-Verse multiversal shenanigans. There is no reason to do it really (unless we really want a spider-themed hero team on Mahon for some reason?), it's simply me speculating about this.
I meant it more as 'we could incorporate some of the following in our repertoire' than 'we should drop everything and emulate the Web-Head'. Taylor's a strong, independent hero who doesn't need to horn in on Spidey's schtick without an invitation. Besides, I wouldn't worry too much about the totemic stuff any time soon.
Ah, patent laws. I guess maybe we could get away with it if we made it just different enough, but again, we have no idea how Earth-Bet patent laws exactly look like, so it may be simply risky to approach. Unless we get Dragon's blessing.
Your idea with Peter's formula sounds good, although I have no idea if this is how it is in this specific universe. I mention this as in some universes Peter could naturally produce the web, instead of it being a formula he invented, so if we deal with one of those cases... this whole idea goes down the drain.
As I understand it Spider-Man most typically needs to make the fluid (to allow for dramatic 'oh no I am low on ammo' moments) rather than organically secrete it. As to Bet patent law...we have a better-than-average-but-not-professional understanding of the matter, so we're in a better-than-average position to know about it, but we'll want to do better before we try to tilt at those windmills.
Also on the One Piece topic - in One Piece there is one VERY obscure character that knows magic. Yes, it's a thing. He is called
Spiel The Hexagon. And yes, he is canon, as the 'Romance Dawn' series was created by Oda himself. Although I think he also showed up in manga in one of those one-page side stories that show up in One Piece chapters?
Although he is so obscure, Taylor most likely doesn't even know he exists.
Isn't Arlong's sister an oracle?
proposed Plan Not The Ducky! v.1:
- Taylor Mad! (+10 to combat stuff)
- Thinker with light seasoning (middle option)
Day 1
- Devil Fruit (open to suggestions)
- Marksmanship (Primitive)
- Ninjutsu
- Fishman Karate
Day 2
- Devil Fruit (same as Day 1)
- Ninjutsu
- Fishman Karate
- Marksmanship (Primitive)
-c
Getting +10 to training rolls can be very helpful, especially with low-likelihood training options like ninjutsu and Fishman Karate, and taking advantage of the incentive helps both with the upcoming Baroque Works fights but also combat events in Bet like cape fights and, y'know, Endbringer events.
proposed Plan Not My Monkeys v.1:
- Taylor meh (no penalties)
- Thinker with light seasoning (middle option)
Day 1
- Villain Hunt (Circus)
- Driver's ed
- Ninjutsu
- Doctor
Day 2
- Villain Hunt
- Ninjutsu
- Devil Fruit (undecided)
- Doctor
- Language (tbd)
I'd go more into noncombat stuff here but I'm unsure what sort of investigative stuff hunting for Circus would be proc'd on project advancement, and it's not like ninjutsu stuff is tangential to the project anyway, while Devil Fruit and Doctor work both prepare for oncoming hostilities re; BW.
proposed Plan Communism (No More Merchants) v.1;
- Taylor meh (no penalties)
- Thinker with light seasoning (middle option)
Day 1
- Villain Hunt (Merchants)
- Ninjutsu
- Computer skills catch-up
- Criminal Psychology (swap out with Forensics, lockpicking or science catch-up if conflicted with villain hunt)
Day 2
- Villain Hunt (Merchants)
- Lockpicking with Nami (swap out with Criminal Psych, Forensics or science catch-up if there's a conflict)
- Ninjutsu
- Sharpshooting with Usopp
- Discuss what is known about Baroque Works and plan contingencies with Vivi and the crew (Tactician training)
Since we have at least one location that senior Merchant leadership meets to get paid, would it make sense to
bug it? I imagine we have the know-how to make bugs and should help give a feel for their operations and players going forward. Adding a few catch-up skills here and hoping to get a few supplemental bits of skill training in forensics or criminal psychology if that's not getting taken up by the project. The idea here as I see it isn't so much to try to defeat the Merchants in one fell swoop all at once (though I'm not adverse to mugging one of their capes if they're alone and vulnerable) but to set things up so that when a crackdown happens it's harder for elements to escape.
Unrelated, but while I'm most 'meh' on this plan, I like this plan name the most as it allows for successive themed plan names as dismantling the Merchants continues ("Glorious People's Republic of Shitty Warehouse", "Taylor's Five Day Plan", "le Interstat-ial", "On your Marx" etc) and reserve the right to recycle the plan names and themes for future endeavors should the current option not be chosen