Sirrocco
Pedantic
Who's on the inside? I always figured she was capturing and converting.
-
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Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest
- Thread starter King crimson
- Start date
- Superhero
I believe that that's her ultimate goal but I think she's focusing on subverting it right now, which requires the rest of HIVE to not know she has control of some parts of it and believe that everything is operating as normal
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
Hello, status update.
Still struggling with the last 5%, hoping to get it out tomorrow. I will be posting a teaser to show forward progress but I want to double-check it and edit it, before putting it out there (I caught multiple instances of me writing Superman as Sperman and I want to make sure there's no other wonkiness).
Thank you all for your patience and understanding.
Still struggling with the last 5%, hoping to get it out tomorrow. I will be posting a teaser to show forward progress but I want to double-check it and edit it, before putting it out there (I caught multiple instances of me writing Superman as Sperman and I want to make sure there's no other wonkiness).
Thank you all for your patience and understanding.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So, this is over 2K words of the opening teaser to this update. This is POV 1 of 7 in the current draft. Needless to say a lot is coming. With this and the aftermath update the event will finally be coming to a close. Thank you all for your patience and understanding with how long this has taken and I hope to get the update proper out tomorrow. In the meantime enjoy this teaser.
Edit: if people want to give a critique would you mind telling me what you felt about Brainiac in this teaser? I wanted to reemphasize how smart and dangerous he was and show why letting him gather data is a really bad idea as he learns more over time. Does the plan he constructs make sense and work to demonstrate that stuff or does it fall a bit short?
Superman
It was complete and utter pandemonium. Superman had been fighting for god knows how long and there was always more drones and ships coming at him. Superman had intended to head straight for the largest ship Brainiac had in orbit but his way was constantly being stymied by Brainiac's army. It irked Superman to know end and so he kept on fighting, all the while the murderer of his father continued to taunt him. Brainiac had followed him to earth and so now Superman had to put an end to his threat but at the same time Superman was flagging and tiring.
It might not seem that way to many people but for all of his incredible powers Superman had his limits. Fighting for hours and hours on end without rest or pause was getting to him. He'd made it into the view of Brainiac's massive skull-shaped mothership but the sky was almost literally blotted out by the sheer number of machines Brainiac had surrounding his ship. Even more disheartening was that Superman didn't even know how to stop Brainiac once and for all. The alien had survived being blown up and so even if Brainiac lost everything in this invasion, Superman wasn't sure if that would be enough to stop him from just coming back again later and trying once more. Still he had to do something.
"Your suffering will only be prolonged the more you struggle Kal-El" Brainiac dryly intoned with the slightest hints of glee slipping into the voice. It almost reminded Superman of a childhood bully in Smallville who'd been caught in a wrongdoing and was trying to hide just how much he enjoyed the torment of others. It was an odd bit of comparison for sure but the poorly concealed malice made Superman consider just why Brainiac was that way.
He surely couldn't be trying to fool Superman, as Superman was well aware of Brainiac's murderous tendencies, and he couldn't be trying to fool an audience, since no one was watching. It lead Superman to believe that Brainiac might be trying to conceal his emotions as a way of hiding weakness. Brainiac was not the creature of calm rationality he'd initially tried to present himself as, since many of his actions made no sense from a purely rational perspective, and he'd made statements looking down on Kryptonians for their irrationality. Maybe the alien equated emotions to irrationality and thus as weakness, which in turn made the fact that he wasn't keeping a handle on things all the more interesting. Superman was aware that he was practically grasping at straws but he was getting desperate and so he needed a new angle of attack. Baiting out and enraging the alien invader might not be such a bad idea.
"If it's all the same to you I think I'll keep on fighting" Superman responded as he smashed an incoming bunch of drones and then promptly dove straight down towards the waters of the Pacific Ocean. He twisted his way past various laser blasts and took a deep breath as he plunged into the cold water, diving deep enough that the lasers would dissipate before they reached him. It was a cold shock, entering into the water but it was worth it as Brainiac struggled to catch up giving Superman the opportunity to advance forwards. As the various drones dove down after him, Superman swiftly smashed those that got too close and continued to move forwards. He briefly surfaced for air and used his heat vision to slice through a horde of robots before once more diving down.
However, when he finally managed to get under the main ship, all Superman could see was a massive dark, metallic mass hurtling down towards him. He swiftly flew backwards to get out of the way and was forced out of the water. Despite this, he was barely given a moment to breathe when a massive wave of water slammed into him and sent him reeling and sputtering for air. Brainiac had decided to force Superman out of the water by simply dropping a massive ship down and forcing him to come up for air. Superman swiftly dodged the incoming laser fire when suddenly the nearby drones instead began releasing various gasses.
Brainiac had tried this tactic before and Superman had easily repelled it by simply generating wind currents to blow the gas away from him. It wouldn't work and even when he'd previously tried firing through the gases as a way to blind Superman to his attacks, the attempt had failed. As such, Superman was unconcerned. When Brainiac's massive ship suddenly lurched out from the water in what would have been his blindspot, Superman could hear it coming and turned to punch his way through the ship. He'd found respite and despite having to smash his way through the various defenses, he'd eventually managed to down yet another ship via targeting its engine.
Superman fled out into the open and continued to push at the various drones whilst struggling to advance towards Brainiac's main ship. When the occasional laser blast clipped him, Superman kept on powering through, ignoring the alien's taunts and calls to give into oblivion.
Brainiac instead began to deploy pods which unleashed the gas omnidirectionally. The pods formed a net to entrap Superman but he still had an answer to this trick. He simply spun fast enough to generate a cyclone that would blow away the gas. The winds were great enough that any drones that got to close would be rapidly smashed against either each other or the ocean. However despite all of this Brainiac wasn't letting up. For a few minutes this continued until Superman's lungs started to burn and he realized what Brainiac was attempting. Superman couldn't effectively blow away the gases and breathe at the same time and despite his incredible powers, he still needed oxygen in order to survive. As such Brainiac was attempting to kill him in an excruciating way without ever engaging in a proper fight.
Superman dove down into the water once more, hoping to swiftly swim underwater out of the range of the gas and get a breath of clean air. As he came down though he spotted countless metallic spheres when he realized that Brainiac had completely outsmarted him. Apparently when the ship he'd downed had hit the water, it had released various mines out into the open that Brainiac could likely detonate anytime Superman entered the water, completely cutting off that area from him.
A bright light bloomed out from under water as the sphere nearest to Superman burst open and a wave of heat and force pushed Superman back out of the water and into the air. Most concerningly of all however, it knocked the wind out of Superman and forced him to inhale the gas that Brainiac had previously littered the area. Superman swiftly held his breath and flew out of range while using his heat vision to snipe the pods as he wove past various drones and dodged oncoming fire.
Superman was getting beaten down and tired. Everything felt like it was burning and on fire and excruciatingly painful in a way he hadn't ever experienced before in his life. His lungs were burning, his ears were ringing, his head was spinning and his whole body felt like little more than a wad of scar tissue and spite. He had to keep on fighting though since Brainiac was nowhere near close to giving up.
"It appears the that the effects of yellow sunlight makes Kryptonians immune to conventional necrotic viruses and some strains of poisons" Brainiac observed "I have no doubt you're suffering but considering you're still able to fight back, this is well outside normal statistical parameters for Kryptonian-like species exposed to those gases"
Superman was past witty banter at this point as he just continued to fight and smash whatever drones he could. A shot clipped him and Superman coughed up blood before gritting through the pain and flying out once more to try and continue to make his way through Brainiac's endless horde of drones.
"No matter, for some reason or another you care about the creatures living on this planet" Brainiac calmly continued unabated "Therefore if I were to inform you that I was dropping a container filled with enough toxins to poison all of the water in this ocean, you would do everything in your power to prevent this outcome from occurring"
Superman hated Brainiac like no one he'd ever encountered before. The alien was a monster plain and simple and he only found ways to keep getting worse and worse as time went on. Superman almost regretted that he hadn't killed the bastard back when they'd first met. This threat was beyond the pale and worst of all Superman was sure that if he gave Brainiac time, he'd find an even worse action or threat to top himself with
"With the stakes so clearly established Kal-El, I'm curious to see what you'll do. Will you let these earthlings die in order to fight me, or will you choose to be noble and play into my plans and die like your father before you?" Brainiac questioned with malice and delight. "Either way your suffering will be a learning experience"
Superman spotted the container being dropped, a massive metallic torpedo shaped object and raced to catch it. He faltered and flagged and his body was screaming at him to stop but Superman needed to do this. He managed to just barely make it through and catch the container. And as he did and he felt the slightest sense of triumph, Brainiac instantly yanked it away by firing down upon him with his main ship's massive cannon.
Everything went white and though Superman had managed to get both the container and another ship, as well as countless drones, between him and the blast, the pain he felt was still utterly and entirely excruciating. It was almost like what he imagined being vaporized would be like, with every inch of his skin burning with unbridled pain.
His suit had the top and cape completely blown off and his skin was red and raw and burnt. As he tried to steady himself, the pain in his lungs grew worse and he began to cough up more blood as he struggled to right himself. Superman wanted to keep going but for the first time ever, Superman's body was simply giving out on him, even without Kryptonite being present.
"I suppose there's another complication to my initial query" Brainiac stated "What happens if I do it again?"
Superman's heart sank as he saw another identical container being dropped. While he would be able to stop it from hitting the ocean, Superman doubted he'd survive another shot from that cannon in his current state. He was going to die here, he realized with mounting dread. Superman had decided to charge in alone to save the day and now he was going to die here for it.
Superman still flew towards the falling container even as Brainiac was clearly lining up his shots, never hesitating for a moment even as he grappled with his own mortality. Superman refused to let innocent people die, even if the cost he'd have to pay was his own life. He could only have faith that his fight with Brainiac had bought someone else sufficient time to properly take down the alien menace and save the earth where he had failed, knowing that he'd at least made it so Earth was still habitable. But even that sort of solace was taken away from him when Brainiac managed to fly a drone directly into him, causing him to spin in place and hack up more blood.
The blow hadn't really hurt him and had ended up with the drone getting destroyed but it had ended up delaying him. And it had delayed him enough that now he wouldn't make it in time to catch the container before it hit the ocean. Despair washed over Superman as he was forced to confront the enormity of this failure and his vision started to go a little blurry. He'd failed completely and utterly in every way that mattered.
Flashes of light suddenly broke out across the area where Brainiac was situated and Superman saw countless figures pop into existence around them. A glowing green hand managed to snake out and catch the cannister as it felt before it was tossed up and vaporized. Fighting broke out as Brainiac's drones were all forced to fight these new individuals on the battlefield. Superman smiled. He hadn't completely failed. He hadn't succeeded in bringing down Brainiac but he had bought enough time for others to attempt to succeed where he failed. As everything began to go black and Superman started to fall, he couldn't help but feel both optimistic and depressed at the same time.
Humanity still had hope and the earth could be saved, in fact Superman was confident that the earth would be saved here. At the same time Superman didn't want to die here. There was still so much he wanted to do and see and learn about. He had things he wanted to say to Lois and Jimmy and countless other good people who would never really know why he was gone. It was with this sort of melancholy resignation and optimism that Superman began to accept that this was the end.
However, before it was all over, as absolutely everything faded to black, Superman could make out a firm voice declaring something that made it seem like this wasn't the end just yet.
"Steady yourself Superman" The voice commanded "My magic can heal you of your wounds and you are still needed in the coming battle. Prepare yourself for your role in the defense of the earth is not yet over. This is Fate's decree"
It appeared that this wasn't the end and that Superman would be able to bring down Brainiac himself. And when that monster was finally gone, he could get about to making sure he wouldn't be leaving behind regrets when he did ultimately have to go.
It was complete and utter pandemonium. Superman had been fighting for god knows how long and there was always more drones and ships coming at him. Superman had intended to head straight for the largest ship Brainiac had in orbit but his way was constantly being stymied by Brainiac's army. It irked Superman to know end and so he kept on fighting, all the while the murderer of his father continued to taunt him. Brainiac had followed him to earth and so now Superman had to put an end to his threat but at the same time Superman was flagging and tiring.
It might not seem that way to many people but for all of his incredible powers Superman had his limits. Fighting for hours and hours on end without rest or pause was getting to him. He'd made it into the view of Brainiac's massive skull-shaped mothership but the sky was almost literally blotted out by the sheer number of machines Brainiac had surrounding his ship. Even more disheartening was that Superman didn't even know how to stop Brainiac once and for all. The alien had survived being blown up and so even if Brainiac lost everything in this invasion, Superman wasn't sure if that would be enough to stop him from just coming back again later and trying once more. Still he had to do something.
"Your suffering will only be prolonged the more you struggle Kal-El" Brainiac dryly intoned with the slightest hints of glee slipping into the voice. It almost reminded Superman of a childhood bully in Smallville who'd been caught in a wrongdoing and was trying to hide just how much he enjoyed the torment of others. It was an odd bit of comparison for sure but the poorly concealed malice made Superman consider just why Brainiac was that way.
He surely couldn't be trying to fool Superman, as Superman was well aware of Brainiac's murderous tendencies, and he couldn't be trying to fool an audience, since no one was watching. It lead Superman to believe that Brainiac might be trying to conceal his emotions as a way of hiding weakness. Brainiac was not the creature of calm rationality he'd initially tried to present himself as, since many of his actions made no sense from a purely rational perspective, and he'd made statements looking down on Kryptonians for their irrationality. Maybe the alien equated emotions to irrationality and thus as weakness, which in turn made the fact that he wasn't keeping a handle on things all the more interesting. Superman was aware that he was practically grasping at straws but he was getting desperate and so he needed a new angle of attack. Baiting out and enraging the alien invader might not be such a bad idea.
"If it's all the same to you I think I'll keep on fighting" Superman responded as he smashed an incoming bunch of drones and then promptly dove straight down towards the waters of the Pacific Ocean. He twisted his way past various laser blasts and took a deep breath as he plunged into the cold water, diving deep enough that the lasers would dissipate before they reached him. It was a cold shock, entering into the water but it was worth it as Brainiac struggled to catch up giving Superman the opportunity to advance forwards. As the various drones dove down after him, Superman swiftly smashed those that got too close and continued to move forwards. He briefly surfaced for air and used his heat vision to slice through a horde of robots before once more diving down.
However, when he finally managed to get under the main ship, all Superman could see was a massive dark, metallic mass hurtling down towards him. He swiftly flew backwards to get out of the way and was forced out of the water. Despite this, he was barely given a moment to breathe when a massive wave of water slammed into him and sent him reeling and sputtering for air. Brainiac had decided to force Superman out of the water by simply dropping a massive ship down and forcing him to come up for air. Superman swiftly dodged the incoming laser fire when suddenly the nearby drones instead began releasing various gasses.
Brainiac had tried this tactic before and Superman had easily repelled it by simply generating wind currents to blow the gas away from him. It wouldn't work and even when he'd previously tried firing through the gases as a way to blind Superman to his attacks, the attempt had failed. As such, Superman was unconcerned. When Brainiac's massive ship suddenly lurched out from the water in what would have been his blindspot, Superman could hear it coming and turned to punch his way through the ship. He'd found respite and despite having to smash his way through the various defenses, he'd eventually managed to down yet another ship via targeting its engine.
Superman fled out into the open and continued to push at the various drones whilst struggling to advance towards Brainiac's main ship. When the occasional laser blast clipped him, Superman kept on powering through, ignoring the alien's taunts and calls to give into oblivion.
Brainiac instead began to deploy pods which unleashed the gas omnidirectionally. The pods formed a net to entrap Superman but he still had an answer to this trick. He simply spun fast enough to generate a cyclone that would blow away the gas. The winds were great enough that any drones that got to close would be rapidly smashed against either each other or the ocean. However despite all of this Brainiac wasn't letting up. For a few minutes this continued until Superman's lungs started to burn and he realized what Brainiac was attempting. Superman couldn't effectively blow away the gases and breathe at the same time and despite his incredible powers, he still needed oxygen in order to survive. As such Brainiac was attempting to kill him in an excruciating way without ever engaging in a proper fight.
Superman dove down into the water once more, hoping to swiftly swim underwater out of the range of the gas and get a breath of clean air. As he came down though he spotted countless metallic spheres when he realized that Brainiac had completely outsmarted him. Apparently when the ship he'd downed had hit the water, it had released various mines out into the open that Brainiac could likely detonate anytime Superman entered the water, completely cutting off that area from him.
A bright light bloomed out from under water as the sphere nearest to Superman burst open and a wave of heat and force pushed Superman back out of the water and into the air. Most concerningly of all however, it knocked the wind out of Superman and forced him to inhale the gas that Brainiac had previously littered the area. Superman swiftly held his breath and flew out of range while using his heat vision to snipe the pods as he wove past various drones and dodged oncoming fire.
Superman was getting beaten down and tired. Everything felt like it was burning and on fire and excruciatingly painful in a way he hadn't ever experienced before in his life. His lungs were burning, his ears were ringing, his head was spinning and his whole body felt like little more than a wad of scar tissue and spite. He had to keep on fighting though since Brainiac was nowhere near close to giving up.
"It appears the that the effects of yellow sunlight makes Kryptonians immune to conventional necrotic viruses and some strains of poisons" Brainiac observed "I have no doubt you're suffering but considering you're still able to fight back, this is well outside normal statistical parameters for Kryptonian-like species exposed to those gases"
Superman was past witty banter at this point as he just continued to fight and smash whatever drones he could. A shot clipped him and Superman coughed up blood before gritting through the pain and flying out once more to try and continue to make his way through Brainiac's endless horde of drones.
"No matter, for some reason or another you care about the creatures living on this planet" Brainiac calmly continued unabated "Therefore if I were to inform you that I was dropping a container filled with enough toxins to poison all of the water in this ocean, you would do everything in your power to prevent this outcome from occurring"
Superman hated Brainiac like no one he'd ever encountered before. The alien was a monster plain and simple and he only found ways to keep getting worse and worse as time went on. Superman almost regretted that he hadn't killed the bastard back when they'd first met. This threat was beyond the pale and worst of all Superman was sure that if he gave Brainiac time, he'd find an even worse action or threat to top himself with
"With the stakes so clearly established Kal-El, I'm curious to see what you'll do. Will you let these earthlings die in order to fight me, or will you choose to be noble and play into my plans and die like your father before you?" Brainiac questioned with malice and delight. "Either way your suffering will be a learning experience"
Superman spotted the container being dropped, a massive metallic torpedo shaped object and raced to catch it. He faltered and flagged and his body was screaming at him to stop but Superman needed to do this. He managed to just barely make it through and catch the container. And as he did and he felt the slightest sense of triumph, Brainiac instantly yanked it away by firing down upon him with his main ship's massive cannon.
Everything went white and though Superman had managed to get both the container and another ship, as well as countless drones, between him and the blast, the pain he felt was still utterly and entirely excruciating. It was almost like what he imagined being vaporized would be like, with every inch of his skin burning with unbridled pain.
His suit had the top and cape completely blown off and his skin was red and raw and burnt. As he tried to steady himself, the pain in his lungs grew worse and he began to cough up more blood as he struggled to right himself. Superman wanted to keep going but for the first time ever, Superman's body was simply giving out on him, even without Kryptonite being present.
"I suppose there's another complication to my initial query" Brainiac stated "What happens if I do it again?"
Superman's heart sank as he saw another identical container being dropped. While he would be able to stop it from hitting the ocean, Superman doubted he'd survive another shot from that cannon in his current state. He was going to die here, he realized with mounting dread. Superman had decided to charge in alone to save the day and now he was going to die here for it.
Superman still flew towards the falling container even as Brainiac was clearly lining up his shots, never hesitating for a moment even as he grappled with his own mortality. Superman refused to let innocent people die, even if the cost he'd have to pay was his own life. He could only have faith that his fight with Brainiac had bought someone else sufficient time to properly take down the alien menace and save the earth where he had failed, knowing that he'd at least made it so Earth was still habitable. But even that sort of solace was taken away from him when Brainiac managed to fly a drone directly into him, causing him to spin in place and hack up more blood.
The blow hadn't really hurt him and had ended up with the drone getting destroyed but it had ended up delaying him. And it had delayed him enough that now he wouldn't make it in time to catch the container before it hit the ocean. Despair washed over Superman as he was forced to confront the enormity of this failure and his vision started to go a little blurry. He'd failed completely and utterly in every way that mattered.
Flashes of light suddenly broke out across the area where Brainiac was situated and Superman saw countless figures pop into existence around them. A glowing green hand managed to snake out and catch the cannister as it felt before it was tossed up and vaporized. Fighting broke out as Brainiac's drones were all forced to fight these new individuals on the battlefield. Superman smiled. He hadn't completely failed. He hadn't succeeded in bringing down Brainiac but he had bought enough time for others to attempt to succeed where he failed. As everything began to go black and Superman started to fall, he couldn't help but feel both optimistic and depressed at the same time.
Humanity still had hope and the earth could be saved, in fact Superman was confident that the earth would be saved here. At the same time Superman didn't want to die here. There was still so much he wanted to do and see and learn about. He had things he wanted to say to Lois and Jimmy and countless other good people who would never really know why he was gone. It was with this sort of melancholy resignation and optimism that Superman began to accept that this was the end.
However, before it was all over, as absolutely everything faded to black, Superman could make out a firm voice declaring something that made it seem like this wasn't the end just yet.
"Steady yourself Superman" The voice commanded "My magic can heal you of your wounds and you are still needed in the coming battle. Prepare yourself for your role in the defense of the earth is not yet over. This is Fate's decree"
It appeared that this wasn't the end and that Superman would be able to bring down Brainiac himself. And when that monster was finally gone, he could get about to making sure he wouldn't be leaving behind regrets when he did ultimately have to go.
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It looks pretty good to me
This should be "no end" right?
Yeah Brainiac dropping those canisters is him toying with Superman. With him learning emotions he might be aware of it or he might not but I can practically hear the smugness when he says "What happens if I do it again?"
- Location
- Singapore
How pissed would the Atlanteans be?
Speaking of which, damn. Aquaman will favour Kal-El now.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Will he? This fight is taking place directly over the Trench. No one aquatic who's willing to actually communicate intelligibly with civilized folks is anywhere near this place, and the Atlanteans certainly didn't send anyone to the fight. How are they going to know?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I think you've done a very good job, about as good as anything I've ever seen, of emphasizing and demonstrating the things you desired.
In the area closest to his own ship, he's dropped mines to deny enemies the waters below him. Smart. May not even have been something done specifically to counter Superman. After all, dudes like the Atlanteans might have something to shoot at him with too.
He's observed Superman's counters to his standard tactics, and he's finally identified one that Supes can't possibly keep up indefinitely... which is a weak point he can use, by forcing him to keep trying it until it runs out and leaves him vulnerable. Smart.
Doing it again, as noted, is a sign of both smugness and realism. Brainiac has effectively unlimited material resources. It isn't worth expending them endlessly, but Superman is, in Brainiac's feelings, worth just spamming stuff endlessly. It's not just an experiment, it's an attritional tactic. Much like with the gas and the vortex, the idea is to force him to make a single, specific, predictable move that can only end by leaving Superman weakened.
[The only thing I would have added would have been for Brainiac to have energy weapon drones continuing to fire beams and projectiles at Superman even as he spins in place to repel the gas cloud. If I were in Brainiac's shoes, Supes would never not be under fire from my drones except when there was something solid enough to completely obstruct gunfire and make it pointless to fire at him, and even then, his projected exit points form whatever cover he's hiding behind would themselves be under fire, because when you have like... billions of killbots and they have ranged weapons, why would you not lay down insane, massed barrages of suppressing fire at all times as long as your weapons can even moderately slow and inconvenience Superman]
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
The battle was humongous, and it isn't even over yet. And Brainiac was very, very loud. It is far from impossible that somehow the Atlanteans know what Brainiac tried to do.
I mean, even if they do somehow find out (which considering they're in the middle of s civil war I find doubtful) I doubt it will suddenly make Arthur buddy buddy with Superman since our efforts to stop pollution seem to have done exactly jack shit to endear ourselves to him
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Well yeah, but Lex Luthor has accepted merely moderate efforts and never so much as broken a sweat to reduce pollution, and furthermore has profited handsomely from some of our 'green' initiatives.
Lexcorp: "Use kryptonite! The greenest energy!"
...
Meanwhile, Superman was getting the shit beaten out of him to try and stop a giant bomb from destroying all life in the ocean, suffering great pains and toils, far worse than anything Lex Luthor has ever experienced personally in his life, let alone for the specific purpose of fighting pollution.
Aquaman has considerably more reason to be grateful to Superman.
Lexcorp: "Use kryptonite! The greenest energy!"
...
Meanwhile, Superman was getting the shit beaten out of him to try and stop a giant bomb from destroying all life in the ocean, suffering great pains and toils, far worse than anything Lex Luthor has ever experienced personally in his life, let alone for the specific purpose of fighting pollution.
Aquaman has considerably more reason to be grateful to Superman.
Yeah but conversely Lex has consistently opposed pollution on both a corporate and government level for years and produced several inventions to make doing so viable whereas Superman just stopped one big, obvious thing from happening
It's kinda like having two police officers stopping crimes, one of them stops hundreds of murders over the course of several years and another stops one bombing that would have killed a lot of people by itself
Sirrocco
Pedantic
It was directly over the Trench, and the drones were thick and far enough that Superman had to fight hard to even get to the point where he could even see the mothership. This is not an area that the Atlanteans were going to put observers in. Also, we're not entirely clear on how loud Brainiac was being. He might have been transmitting from the drones that were constantly surrounding Superman all the time.
Unfortunately, it speaks to a larger problem. Brainiac has learned a trick that is bad for us. He now knows that Superman is willing to throw himself into near-certain death in order to save the lives of large numbers of people. Unfortunately for us, it doesn't matter how many times he does that. It's never going to stick. Unfortunately for us, Brainiac has no way of knowing that... which means that Superman now has an eager crafter of scenarios that will let him nobly risk his life to save huge numbers of people.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
Yup and I've made the fix. Thank you for pointing this out.
I'm glad this line landed. I actually ended up altering it pretty significantly from the initial version. In the initial version Brainiac openly reveals that it's an actual experiment where Superman doesn't know if Brainiac is lying or not about the contents of the container and thus his decision on whether or not to catch it is more complicated and it is Brainiac actually learning how Superman will act once the possibility of lying is introduced.
That was really dry and long winded and the explanation kind of took away from the tension (especially since it required an explanation of why Brainiac would point out that he can lie) so I decided to simplify it and go for a more clear cut and emotionally resonant take on things that still feels earned and makes sense for Brainiac's character. I'm glad the line landed because that was something that got changed and workshopped a fair bit.
I mostly cut out that stuff because there was only so many times I could write "Brainiac's drones shot at Superman, but they missed because he dodged" without it getting overly repetitive and killing the flow of various scenes. Like I think in pretty much every Superman POV in this event I had to write that at least three times and so by this point I decided to try and cut down on it a bit in order to help things flow a little more cleanly especially since I wanted the chain of action of what Brainiac was doing and how he trapped Superman to be fairly clear.
I don't know if that's a satisfying answer but that's why I didn't end up writing anything about how Brainiac kept shooting at Superman.
Brainiac's trick is a little more complicated than that. He's learned that Superman is willing to throw himself into near-certain death scenarios in order to do what he thinks will save the lives of large numbers of people if presented with information that they are being threatened by an outside actor.
Superman's POV on Brainiac is not entirely accurate (for example he still doesn't know that Brainiac is a machine) and one of the assumptions he makes is that Brainiac is always being honest. While it doesn't really affect the situation from Superman's POV or even for this scene, it can be a little more complicated PR-wise because it means Brainiac can potentially get Superman to risk his life for nothing if he's willing to work the scenario a bit. It's almost never going to work on a legal platform (because Brainiac has shown a willingness to wipe out entire species and insane capabilities and resources, so any threat he makes is enough to give Superman reasonable belief that he can and will act on said threat) but it can potentially work on a PR platform if you can figure out what Brainiac was actually doing and change the narrative from "Superman is willing to face death to save lives" to "Superman is willing to martyr himself for nothing". It's not easy to do or really fair to Superman but I think that the information Brainiac has learned is less obviously solely good or bad for you.
Edit: Somewhat unrelated but the mistake Superman made is the same mistake Lex made when he got Mari trapped in Coast City after Brainiac found a way to deny the teleporters temporarily. They both underestimated how fast Brainiac can learn to counter the tools used to counter him and how swiftly he can switch tactics at a critical moment. The difference is Lex never had Brainiac's attention solely on him so he had room to maneuver and work around things when Brainiac wasn't adapting to counter him, whereas Superman was the only thing Brainiac had to deal with in their fight and so when Brainiac could concentrate on a single target, he could effectively craft no win scenarios even when being purposefully inefficient and cruel simply because he had less variables to account for when cutting off every option. I think something to keep in mind here is that narratively, Brainiac had effectively killed Superman with his plan. If Dr. Fate, an outside variable Brainiac didn't know how to account for, hadn't shown up and healed Superman then Superman would have died.
Edit #2: I think another thing that's important to keep in perspective with Brainiac is that he constantly learns from everything and constantly evolves and adapts his tactics. He won't do the same things over and over again when they stop working and he'll actively change strategies and plans as he learns. Granted what Brainiac is probably going to try to learn how to counter after this experience is not Superman himself but rather outside actors like Dr. Fate, which in turn gives time to Superman to learn how to better fight Brainiac, but Brainiac (at least in my opinion) has demonstrated that he's very good at modifying and altering his tricks to make them more effective and dangerous as he learns more about what he's up against. This is not to say that your statement is inherently or entirely wrong, I just wanted to point out that there are mitigating factors to the situation to make it less clear cut then it is initially presented as.
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
@King crimson you've done a good job of getting across what you wanted to. The "continuous shooting" thing was a detail; the only reason I brought it up was that I figured Superman couldn't dodge freely while creating a whirlwind because he'd be likely to disrupt it as he moved and/or lose the benefit of its protection, which would have been enough of a game changer to be noteworthy, but it's a stylistic difference involving a matter of opinion.
The only really significant thing I might disagree with you about is that I think this PoV scene is lovely and (at roughly 2000 words long) is more than ready to be an update in its own right. Shorter, more frequent updates might help break some of the logjam we've had with this event. Then again, I could be wrong.
We can't do this if we lose our sense of perspective and become unhinged OOC about Lex's position in the setting.
Lex is one contributor to anti-pollution projects. The oceans would still contain life if he had done nothing. Things would be less good, and might well be even less good in the future, but he has not averted world destruction. Despite this, he has contributed significantly, through his control of other people- remember that he has at his command resources greater than those of many nation-states. Only a modest part of his contribution has been personal. He has never broken a sweat in his efforts to reduce pollution. He has never been harmed over this issue. He has never been, so far as we can tell, even inconvenienced aside from opportunity costs such as "take an hour of your time" or "send one of your loyal minions to go do a thing, when they could otherwise be doing a different thing."
Society has rewarded him handsomely with great sums of praise and money for these contributions. It is doubtful that he would have done most of this in the first place, if he did not expect to profit by it.
Superman has personally saved the whole damn Pacific Ocean, assuming Brainiac wasn't simply bluffing. His contribution, in that moment, appears to have been irreplaceable- that is, almost no one in the world could have done what he did, and the others who could were not there to do so. He has done all this all by himself; it reflects entirely on his personal character and willingness to contribute, not on some outside group of people who work for him because he's a billionaire. He was burned and cut and bloodied and blasted in trying to do this. He experienced great pain. He was nearly killed.
He will receive no reward apart from gratitude for doing any of this, and expects none.
Hell yes, people who understand what just happened here will feel stronger, more unalloyed positive sentiments about Superman than they did about Lex.
The only really significant thing I might disagree with you about is that I think this PoV scene is lovely and (at roughly 2000 words long) is more than ready to be an update in its own right. Shorter, more frequent updates might help break some of the logjam we've had with this event. Then again, I could be wrong.
I feel like I need to keep pushing this point- we cannot afford the luxury of indulging in a misguided sense of "those pathetic fools should be grateful for what Lex has done for them." In-character as a supervillain Lex can be all over that like white on rice. Out of character it's crippling.
We can't do this if we lose our sense of perspective and become unhinged OOC about Lex's position in the setting.
Lex is one contributor to anti-pollution projects. The oceans would still contain life if he had done nothing. Things would be less good, and might well be even less good in the future, but he has not averted world destruction. Despite this, he has contributed significantly, through his control of other people- remember that he has at his command resources greater than those of many nation-states. Only a modest part of his contribution has been personal. He has never broken a sweat in his efforts to reduce pollution. He has never been harmed over this issue. He has never been, so far as we can tell, even inconvenienced aside from opportunity costs such as "take an hour of your time" or "send one of your loyal minions to go do a thing, when they could otherwise be doing a different thing."
Society has rewarded him handsomely with great sums of praise and money for these contributions. It is doubtful that he would have done most of this in the first place, if he did not expect to profit by it.
Superman has personally saved the whole damn Pacific Ocean, assuming Brainiac wasn't simply bluffing. His contribution, in that moment, appears to have been irreplaceable- that is, almost no one in the world could have done what he did, and the others who could were not there to do so. He has done all this all by himself; it reflects entirely on his personal character and willingness to contribute, not on some outside group of people who work for him because he's a billionaire. He was burned and cut and bloodied and blasted in trying to do this. He experienced great pain. He was nearly killed.
He will receive no reward apart from gratitude for doing any of this, and expects none.
Hell yes, people who understand what just happened here will feel stronger, more unalloyed positive sentiments about Superman than they did about Lex.
Firstly we're still operating off of the belief that somehow people will know about this which while we don't know for sure one way or the other I'm inclined to believe they won't, especially if Brainiac was bluffing
Secondly in character I can't really fully agree with the idea that Superman's actions just matter more than Lex's because he doesn't go out and do these things singlehandedly because you could easily argue that it takes Superman absolutely no effort to accomplish these things and he could easily be doing more whereas Lex's actions take time, money, effort, coordination and for the most part invention of whole new technology and very few could argue that Lex could be doing more than he is because he the individual doing the most about it. Essentially it's just a matter of what resources they have at their disposal, Superman has raw might and Lex has his vast amounts of money and influence.
Finally my OOC issue with this idea is that if we take this approach then we might as well completely write off the idea of ever overshadowing Superman because he can pull shit like this every turn by just stumbling into a villains plot and solving it with a wave of his hand
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
It might be worth considering in the future. I've been sticking mostly to bigger updates so that I don't lose track of things as easily (I don't have to trawl through as many posts to find things) but keeping the canon clean and non-contradictory might be less of a concern as time goes on.
I personally feel like splitting up the updates into many smaller updates might have helped on the readers side, but keeping everything together definitely helped me keep things together on my end when writing (whenever things went wrong on my end due to life, the bigger updates helped me make sure that I was keeping the plot threads intact and the hooks working). I might need to switch styles soon considering that I do consider this event to kind of be a failure but the change would come with its own costs.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Historically, my solution has been to keep a Googledoc going where all the posts can be worked on in parallel. On the other hand, that doesn't help if you're trying to refer back to posts that you've cleared from the Googledoc to keep the overall size manageable. I see your point.
The "if people find out" conditional is already baked in, yes.
Bluntly, it is probably best for us to assume that any information not being actively hidden will eventually become known, rather than assuming that Aquaman will remain ignorant of what a huge disaster nearly happened here even though literally no one is trying to hide what happened. Or, at a bare minimum, to be willing to posit what happens if this information becomes known, rather than immediately reacting negatively with "no, Lex totally did something better than saving the Pacific Ocean and Aquaman didn't care, so clearly Aquaman won't care about Superman saving the Pacific Ocean!"
What are you talking about. "In-character?" This is an out of character discussion, that's my point!
Jonas, we're playing a quest protagonist who is a megalomaniacal criminal. It is important that we keep our perspective, out of character, rather than attempting to invent in-character rationalizations for why Lex's megalomania is justified. It's dangerous for us to expect other people in the quest to behave differently than their own good judgment and common sense would cause them to behave, due to having an exaggerated sense of Lex's importance to them
And what's this about "it takes Superman absolutely no effort?" The man nearly DIED just now. I'm not talking about Superman's routine accomplishments in stopping petty criminals or the occasional C-list supervillain here, Jonas. I'm talking about how the world would view grandiose physical feats on a vast scale that save millions of lives, at serious risk of Superman's own.
You are under no obligation to stan for a fictional character so hard that you get a selective memory and forget the reasons other people in-game might support that character's rival. Nor is it advantageous to do so.
Except not even Superman singlehandedly saves the world (or even a whole continent) every turn. We can hope to keep up with Superman because of the sheer size of our organization and because we keep pulling out miracles like a literal perpetual motion machine... But we need to keep our perspective about how other people will view Superman's actions, and Lex's actions. Or we're just going to be confused and angry out of character when people in-quest don't kowtow to Lex 'appropriately,' or give Superman things because he did something for them, or otherwise behave as if Superman has done admirably or as if Lex's ego doesn't deserve to be catered to.
Which, come to think of it, is a problem I'm pretty sure I've seen you have before- thinking of characters in-story as "ungrateful" for not deferring to us as much as they could have, and things like that.
Again, there's no need to get egotistical by proxy and develop an exaggerated sense of Lex Luthor's importance here. It doesn't benefit us.
That's fair, I still don't think it's particularly likely since the only people that really know are Brainiac and Superman and neither of them are particularly likely to blab but the conversation can't be had if we assume nobody finds out
I meant more "trying to look at this as a regular citizen of quest earth" but fair enough
To be fair the only times I can think of that you i that be referring to are Lexpo where I stand by it was kind of a dick move to blame us for some psychopath going in a rampage and Sam Lane who I feel like was intentionally an asshole
But you do make good points
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
Pamela is hiding the full extent of her powers but she's not in disguise. Nobody knows the full extent of her powers but it's currently a bit of an open secret among the upper levels of government that she is in fact a metahuman with some degree of power over plants. That being said at the same time there's a bit of polite fiction going on right now where nobody is incredibly eager to push on her and out her as a metahuman to the public at large considering that making such a big move is effectively career suicide (you'd piss off Lex Luthor, Eiling and the current president all at once in order to try and attempt a gambit that might not even work if certain PR machines swing the narrative against you).
In the fights with both Kingslayer and Parasite, Pamela wasn't in disguise, but she didn't stick around to be identified and wasn't exactly a very visible figure in these battles. People know that there is a redheaded plant controlling metahuman in Metropolis but they don't know her name or who she is exactly and leveling an accusation at a member of the president's cabinet off of a fairly flimsy connection (that Pamela looks like the figure who most people didn't get a clear view of and who wasn't photographed well if at all) is a very dangerous gamble even for people interested in that stuff.
So to get back to the initial question, the public does not know that Pamela is a metahuman, the upper levels of the US government does know and is essentially acting as though they don't know and Pamela isn't in disguise but is actively making it harder to connect her to her powerset.
Does that make sense?
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Sirrocco
Pedantic
Well. In retrospect?
I admit, I really don't know why I thought that having a world-threatening existence that hates Superman personally show up would make things easier for us, rather than harder. That's on me.
Realistically, we can generally expect the forces arrayed against us to grow stronger over time. After all, we certainly are. Havign an obvious world-threatening rival show up is just more of that. Superhero assets just look different than megacorp assets. That's all.
On the bright side, Brainiac does at least know about kryptonite (Thanks, Metallo!), and he's only a carjacking or two away from having a supply of his own to work with. Also, it's not an unmitigated loss. Brainiac is at least interested in inflicting mental cruelty on Superman, and that's the kind of damage that can stick, at least for a little while. Also, if Brainiac manages to pull off three big wins in a row, then that whole nemesis thing he has going on with Superman becomes mutual. That would certainly help.
For all that some bits of me want to feel a bit salty about some of this... I do have to admit that it's very, very true to the comic books. Like I said - the failure of my earlier expectations is kind of on me. So kudos on that one.
Speaking of Nemesis actions, though... Superman is back. We're going to need one next turn. I'm thinking that we fold that into the PR campaign in some fashion, but in a way that makes him look particularly bad. Sadly, we don't actually know enough about his mental state IC to precision-target his current emotional issues, but it still probably won't do him any favors.
I admit, I really don't know why I thought that having a world-threatening existence that hates Superman personally show up would make things easier for us, rather than harder. That's on me.
Realistically, we can generally expect the forces arrayed against us to grow stronger over time. After all, we certainly are. Havign an obvious world-threatening rival show up is just more of that. Superhero assets just look different than megacorp assets. That's all.
On the bright side, Brainiac does at least know about kryptonite (Thanks, Metallo!), and he's only a carjacking or two away from having a supply of his own to work with. Also, it's not an unmitigated loss. Brainiac is at least interested in inflicting mental cruelty on Superman, and that's the kind of damage that can stick, at least for a little while. Also, if Brainiac manages to pull off three big wins in a row, then that whole nemesis thing he has going on with Superman becomes mutual. That would certainly help.
For all that some bits of me want to feel a bit salty about some of this... I do have to admit that it's very, very true to the comic books. Like I said - the failure of my earlier expectations is kind of on me. So kudos on that one.
Speaking of Nemesis actions, though... Superman is back. We're going to need one next turn. I'm thinking that we fold that into the PR campaign in some fashion, but in a way that makes him look particularly bad. Sadly, we don't actually know enough about his mental state IC to precision-target his current emotional issues, but it still probably won't do him any favors.
- Location
- Singapore
Just have Jinx and Leslie blame the invasion on Superman on Handshake.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Some in the government may have connected Pamela Isley to the events in Centennial Park during Intergang's attack on Metropolis.
Because that was a LexCorp action. Dr. Isley was escorted by LexCorp troops and all, and then she went 'major operational asset' on Intergang, neutralizing dozens of troops and armored vehicles in a very short time while altering the terrain of a large area.
A totally uninformed radio DJ watching what happened was able to figure out "I bet Lex Luthor found the shoebox with one of his old science fair projects," which is a reasonable guess if you don't know about Dr. Isley's powers. US Marines secured the scene and presumably took pictures and stuff of all the abnormal plant activity. That could plausibly have been explained by super-science of some kind... but then Dr. Isley showed up at a high level of government.
So I would bet that Amanda Waller and so on have a pretty good idea of what Dr. Isley is capable of- it's just that she's not the first, or the strongest, metahuman working in a major public-facing US government position (that would be Diana Prince). So they deal with it.
I'm not sure we should be disappointed.
Because that was a LexCorp action. Dr. Isley was escorted by LexCorp troops and all, and then she went 'major operational asset' on Intergang, neutralizing dozens of troops and armored vehicles in a very short time while altering the terrain of a large area.
A totally uninformed radio DJ watching what happened was able to figure out "I bet Lex Luthor found the shoebox with one of his old science fair projects," which is a reasonable guess if you don't know about Dr. Isley's powers. US Marines secured the scene and presumably took pictures and stuff of all the abnormal plant activity. That could plausibly have been explained by super-science of some kind... but then Dr. Isley showed up at a high level of government.
So I would bet that Amanda Waller and so on have a pretty good idea of what Dr. Isley is capable of- it's just that she's not the first, or the strongest, metahuman working in a major public-facing US government position (that would be Diana Prince). So they deal with it.
I mean. Brainiac came reasonably close to killing Superman just now. And I don't think we were expecting him to just casually win, were we?
I'm not sure we should be disappointed.