Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)

Maybe you weren't here for it, I don't remember, but we had a massive clusterfuck of chargen that involved picking out the girls' spell. NO, you cannot just say "let's switch one out to give ME what *I* want".

I voted for guardian beast for both Missy and Laura.
I won neither of those.
I hope to buy it in the future.

In these matters I agree with what that poster wanted. How they got from "people voted and didn't pick the spell I wanted" to "it hasn't been shown in canon yet so we can have a new vote to counter that" leaves me incredibly perplexed. Not being happy with a vote's outcome is only a reason for a revote when there is a substantial issue at heart, such as a major misunderstanding of what a choice meant, big enough to sway a very large number of voters' opinions, a threshold we don't come within a mile of in this specific case.

But taking her into every mission would be really stupid.

For what we know of Standstill it would perfectly be in character of her to get scared of us if she see us nuke the Fallen. She definitely seems to be on the "Save everyone you can" camp. So if we go by the "kill everyone" option it would be a terrible idea to take her with us. Not to mention it would ruin the whole purpose of rebranding to be associated with mass murderers.

And yes that's what would happen.

We already got someone pissy at the fake heroine we created to take the Fallen just because we killed some people.

Standstill getting rebrainded just to ruin her reputation yet again would be a dick move.



Ditto that. We can also pull the "This is too dangerous for you" card and get Cat Sith to force her to stay were she is safe.

If we literally nuke their base with Ragnarok, she'll most likely have some issues, the biggest being that, unless their bases are all extremely remote, there will be substantial collateral damage of people who just happen to be too close.

Nuking them with Solar Wrath, on the other hand, we've already done. I think we did it before we first met with the Adepts. Heck, if I'm recalling correctly, we got a message from the Adepts after that scene where we melted the E88 wondering if we had completely abandoned them and weren't willing to come see them about magic.

After giving the E88 the ultimate x-ray, regular PRT members were giving us wary side-eyes, fearing we were going to go nuts and commit mass murder as villains, even when they knew we at least claimed to be heroes. We have alleviated those concerns by never using that attack when there was any chance of collateral damage. We have built a reputation as being level headed and having self control that are both far higher than the average for capes(thanks to no conflict drive from a shard). Using that attack again, on people we've been cleared to kill(in practice, since the reason they don't have official kill orders is political rather than a statement that they don't deserve to die) will, if anything, improve our reputation.

We got word from Legend himself that people won't bat an eye for nuking the Fallen base... and Silently has said that dealing with the Mathers/Simurgh branch of the Fallen will be a 99% Taylor thing, just wiping them out because those nasty-nasty masters... are basically useless against us. What little backup they have can burn in fire without trouble.

Well, an Arcana thing. I want Kayleigh hanging back, as she's the only one of us without combat experience, so going for her first mission to make her first kill seems unwise, but Missy and Laura have all the experience dealing with cape stuff that we could ask for. There's a very good chance that both of them have already killed people when forced to by circumstance.

Fine, let's have her be perfectly okay with us being a mass murdering machine. Let's ignore that she had to be reassured that the Adepts never did anything too bad to join them. Now she will be perfectly happy with us killing people just because we have her a Guardian Beast and new powers.

You... seem to be taking this very personally and projecting quite a bit that isn't supported by chapters we've been given, and even have been explicitly contradicted in some respects.

Hmm...well, I suppose we might be able to get Lacey Blitz Action on the grounds that it doesn't harm anyone, just speeds her up. If we can swing that, then her next spell purchase could easily be Spatial Translocation for the utility and reduction in travel times, or Forced Displacement so as to end fights without hurting anyone or sending people into jail/traps. Thanks for the info.

If she can use it, Lacey needs Sprint instead of Blitz Action. Sprint speeds up the flow of time for the person using it, whereas Blitz is pure motion. I couldn't find the right page to see if that could be installed on a Boost device like she has, though I admit I didn't dig all that deep in searching.

In this setting they do seem to just quarantine people instead of mass murdering them. In fact they do have dedicated therapists to try to unfuck people. Is one thing while directly facing the Smurf, but we already saw is different when no Endbringers are involved. Aka how they reacted when we just killed some Fallen.

Anyway, Legend is one thing, but Standstill seems like she doesn't like violence. I could be wrong but everything we have seen of her in character paints her as the kind of person who is into heroics to save people, not to kill bad guys.

And yes Taylor doesn't care about PR but she also doesn't want people to hate her. If she was only about the results she would have stopped the Privateers before they mostly got themselves killed or have actually helped them to just kill villains.

I know all of that is the result of votes but whatever.

They quarantine cities hit by the deadliest pre-cog and Master know to Earth bet, who is feared the most for being able to insert commands that even the person bearing them doesn't know until one day their trigger happens. In this case, Legend just told us that the people Mastered by the Fallen that they have tried to help all killed themselves when they couldn't get back to their masters. Executing them is an act of mercy. After we've taken out the Mather's branch, any Mastered individuals serving in the other two families who can be cured at all may try to escape or help us when we get to that group. Unless they come begging for help, though, we have to expect them to be lost already.

Technically the GB is a direct bonus in that regard, since it frees up her time. If her GB is maintaining her gear and ammo supplies she has more time to do other stuff. It's the same spell cost, but it's not the same time cost.
That said, she'd have to keep and feed her GB from then on? But pet.

Eh, it's a toss up. More thematic for her to maintain her own stuff though, so I will be going that route with my vote for her spells.

I think a hyperactive bunny GB would help a lot, partly because she'd have somebody to go shopping with, saving the sanity of the rest of the team. That they can make other gadgets and such to help her out without burning Tim's slots would also be nice.

Any gun nut loves to maintain their own guns and said guns being magical doesn't make her any less of a gun nut.

She also went cowboy instead of classical magical girl and she is a bit crazy, so who knows?



So she can have the Ultimate Summon and Guardian Beast active at the same time or would the Guardian Beast be forced to pet mode and to sleep or something?

As I understand the matter, the GB has a linker core of their own that hold the mana they use for their abilities. They don't generate mana, but should be able to be active at the same time as the Breaker summon, just not for as long, as it won't have a mana supply and will essentially be running on batteries.
 
She is a gun nut who is having fun. There is no reason to call her crazy, because she is, in fact, less crazy than Taylor (who has the semi-ghost of an ancient WMD magical girl who occasionally whispers in her ear) or Laura pre-Device, since she had a piece of an omnicidal space whale influencing her decisions.

Her best friend did call her crazy due to her lack of self preservation when she called Taylor out on being a Cape, remember?
 
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Capes with these kinds of powers ARE brought into Recursion Field: altered elemental composition, energy-based states, shapeshifters, touch-based and area-based exotic effects, telekinesis or pyrokinesis or any other -kinesis, energy blasts, projected forcefields, power nullifiers or enhancers or manipulators, telepathic control of other organisms, regenerators, teleporters, pre-cogs.
This... actually changes how I want us to approach handling the fallen. The ones we outright want gone, the capes (and especially the masters), would all fall into a Recursion Field. We can Recursion-nuke them, then do cleanup on the rest of the compound in the real-world in person.

Just something to remember for when we get to that.

It also means any normals who are mastered by someone whose master effect drops when they die (if that's a thing) will be freed and alive. I don't count on that being all of them, or even a significant majority... but it's a possibility we should try for.

Edit:
When the Shipper is the sanest one of the group, that deserves a moment of careful reflection doesn't it?
Yes, yes it does.
 
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I think a hyperactive bunny GB would help a lot, partly because she'd have somebody to go shopping with, saving the sanity of the rest of the team. That they can make other gadgets and such to help her out without burning Tim's slots would also be nice.
Why all those votes with bunnies? We've got enough mamals already. How about a salamander for a change? Or a dragonfly. Those are pretty. Spiders sadly where already nixed. :cry:
 
They quarantine cities hit by the deadliest pre-cog and Master know to Earth bet, who is feared the most for being able to insert commands that even the person bearing them doesn't know until one day their trigger happens
Well, acording to this fic, they know about their trigger, as Zizzy makes them obcess about somthing until it drives them crazy. No grand plans, just as many time bombs as possible.
 
Blitz Action – Move at high speeds in a straight line. She normally can change direction only once, but in Haste Mode she can change direction three times in a row.

Did you mean to include the "Haste Mode" text when applying it to Laura's character sheet?

Well, acording to this fic, they know about their trigger, as Zizzy makes them obcess about somthing until it drives them crazy. No grand plans, just as many time bombs as possible.

As I read that, and I may be wrong, Ziz puts an association into their heads during her attack that will activate the right emotional state at a specific point to make them do what she wants them to do. They do not consciously realize what that trigger is any more than Cody(Perdition of the Travelers) did in canon.
 
Why all those votes with bunnies? We've got enough mamals already. How about a salamander for a change? Or a dragonfly. Those are pretty. Spiders sadly where already nixed.
Don't we have: One Racoon, One Cat (once we include Standstill), Two Velociraptor-alikes, and One Dove (freshly randomed for Lacey)?

We're missing... arthropods, which considering this is a Worm fic is kind of funny.

I guess there's a giant mass of Dogs over in Operation Pentagram, but those aren't really ours.

Edit: Incorrectly remembered Lacey's Dove as a Pigeon, but since Doves are basically just Pigeon recolours with better PR I consider my mistake acceptable.
 
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Don't we have: One Racoon, One Cat (once we include Standstill), Two Velociraptor-alikes, and One Dove (freshly randomed for Lacey)?

We're missing... arthropods, which considering this is a Worm fic is kind of funny.

I guess there's a giant mass of Dogs over in Operation Pentagram, but those aren't really ours.

Edit: Incorrectly remembered Lacey's Dove as a Pigeon, but since Doves are basically just Pigeon recolours with better PR I consider my mistake acceptable.
Who else has the sudden desire to catch a manta ray or an octopus to create a guardian beast?
 
She probably could I suppose, though I wasn't thinking about her elemental press. Could she learn to build a transforming gun? Given firefly and nostromo seem to be handling that atm, I'm pretty sure her gear could. I suppose it's on how much you allow her to dip into gear. I remember you said they couldn't build flight harnesses earlier. Could she?
Kayleigh can learn a wide variety of spells. MOST though obviously not all Gadgeteer stuff falls into the Basic tier. I know I haven't completely fleshed out the tier list with tech skills, so you not knowing this is entirely on me.

ANYWAY, mechashift weapons would certainly be in the Basic tier, so she could build and maintain them all on her own. Flight stuff... considering the flight spell is Advanced, I'd probably say thrusters and other things are Advanced too, so no building her own flight gear. We could definitely make some skills that are all maintenance, though, so maybe a Basic skill to care for Advanced tech and an Advanced skill to care for WTF tech? We'd need to talk about it more.
I couldn't find the right page to see if that could be installed on a Boost device like she has, though I admit I didn't dig all that deep in searching.
The Basic spells don't have Device tags yet, so you wouldn't have found it anyway. Sprint is a self-boost, so it's an Armed Device thing.
They don't generate mana, but should be able to be active at the same time as the Breaker summon, just not for as long, as it won't have a mana supply and will essentially be running on batteries.
Correct, GBs can maintain themselves for about a day without any mana from their mage if they don't fight, for a few days if they go into pet form and sleep. Over the course of an Endbringer fight or any other fight where Missy would need to use her Giant summon, a GB would be just fine in the short time she has the summon out.
Did you mean to include the "Haste Mode" text when applying it to Laura's character sheet?
I did not. :( You can tell I was doing copy-paste when making their character sheets, so yay transparency?
As I read that, and I may be wrong, Ziz puts an association into their heads during her attack that will activate the right emotional state at a specific point to make them do what she wants them to do. They do not consciously realize what that trigger is any more than Cody(Perdition of the Travelers) did in canon.
This is what I intended, at least.
We're missing... arthropods, which considering this is a Worm fic is kind of funny.
The problem with arthropods is 1) they're hard to anthropomorphize when it comes to personalities, 2) they're normally small when I imposed a minimum size restriction for GBs, and 3) the larger arthropods are things like spiders, which I have absolutely forbidden because of arachnophobia a reasonable distaste for arachnids in general.
 
As I understand the matter, the GB has a linker core of their own that hold the mana they use for their abilities. They don't generate mana, but should be able to be active at the same time as the Breaker summon, just not for as long, as it won't have a mana supply and will essentially be running on batteries.

So is a drawback in the sence the Guardian Beast will have to save power and so could get easily killed while the Ultimate Summon is active.

Still didn't answer the question. Quite annoyed now. Why. Do. You. Think. She. Is. Going. With. A. Cowboy. Theme.

tvtropes.org

The Gunslinger - TV Tropes

The hero that Guns and Gunplay Tropes are for. It should be noted that for a while, guns and bullets were considered vulgar. Point, fire, they drop dead. This is so mundane that monsters and heroes who were cool enough became Immune to Bullets.

Blame Hollywood.
 
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So is a drawback in the sence the Guardian Beast will have to save power and so could get easily killed while the Ultimate Summon is active.
Correct, GBs can maintain themselves for about a day without any mana from their mage if they don't fight, for a few days if they go into pet form and sleep. Over the course of an Endbringer fight or any other fight where Missy would need to use her Giant summon, a GB would be just fine in the short time she has the summon out.
No.

'Running on batteries' doesn't mean 'running on dregs'. It just means using reserve power, of which they have enough, if not plenty.

The problem with arthropods is 1) they're hard to anthropomorphize when it comes to personalities, 2) they're normally small when I imposed a minimum size restriction for GBs, and 3) the larger arthropods are things like spiders, which I have absolutely forbidden because of arachnophobia a reasonable distaste for arachnids in general.
There are always crabs. Or Lobsters. I share the distaste for arachnids, so... complete agreement there. Unless you find those similar? I don't, but then I've never actually encountered one in person.
 
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Kayleigh can learn a wide variety of spells. MOST though obviously not all Gadgeteer stuff falls into the Basic tier. I know I haven't completely fleshed out the tier list with tech skills, so you not knowing this is entirely on me.

ANYWAY, mechashift weapons would certainly be in the Basic tier, so she could build and maintain them all on her own. Flight stuff... considering the flight spell is Advanced, I'd probably say thrusters and other things are Advanced too, so no building her own flight gear. We could definitely make some skills that are all maintenance, though, so maybe a Basic skill to care for Advanced tech and an Advanced skill to care for WTF tech? We'd need to talk about it more.
I see. Ok then. Looking forward to that sniper/rifle/shotgun/melee weapon.

Though.... would thrusters really be the same complexity as a spell that lets you defy gravity? shrug game mechanics I guess.
 
The problem with arthropods is 1) they're hard to anthropomorphize when it comes to personalities, 2) they're normally small when I imposed a minimum size restriction for GBs, and 3) the larger arthropods are things like spiders, which I have absolutely forbidden because of arachnophobia a reasonable distaste for arachnids in general.
One word: lobsters. :D
Edit: I got imped? How the heck did this post got imped? :o
 
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No.

'Running on batteries' doesn't mean 'running on dregs'. It just means using reserve power, of which they have enough, if not plenty.

Considering that one of the escuses for Arf to be on "Teen mode" in one of the post Book Of Darkness series is to save power... is that another difference between Familiars and Guardian Beasts?

Say, can Beasts run off of alternate sources of mana if need be? Charges or other forms of stored magic?

In theory if you saved a mage power in something and that mage was the same who owns the Guardian Beast... why not? Is the exact same magic.
 
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Considering that one of the escuses for Arf to be on "Teen mode" in one of the post Book Of Darkness series is to save power... is that another difference between Familiars and Guardian Beasts?
Probably on the difference between Familiars and Guardian Beasts. Also, Fate had outgrown Arf—she was no longer useful in a fight on Fate's level and couldn't provide useful support in combat without being a liability. She was more for emotional support and friendship, which meant Fate wouldn't want to risk her. Fate almost certainly would've been fine supporting Arf at full power, but since Arf didn't want to be a drain she downsized to give Fate a boost she couldn't otherwise provide.

At least, that's my take on that. Arf not wanting to be a disadvantage to her master in any way more than it actually being something important for her to do.
 
There are always crabs. Or Lobsters
Now I'm imagining a Sylvester Stalone-like GB with MASSIVE hands. :lol:
Though.... would thrusters really be the same complexity as a spell that lets you defy gravity? shrug game mechanics I guess.
There's also the control systems to make sure the thrusters turn when they're supposed to and put out the right amount of variable thrust. Probably anything that involves computer control is going to go down as an Advanced or WTF skill unless we have a character who's, I don't know, a trained engineer or computer prodigy or someone who could conceivably apply their pre-existing skills.
Say, can Beasts run off of alternate sources of mana if need be? Charges or other forms of stored magic?
For casting, Charge Cartridge is the spell/skill that lets them both make and use cartridges, and none of the classes can do that.

...A familiar theoretically could, but that would needs its own mechanics if we were to introduce that... Also, it still wouldn't give them an alternate means to support their own existence, just not require them to use mana for casting.

Um, there's a skill in the Tech Witch cross-training that lets a Gadgeteer build mana capacitors, but it has to be taken on the first cross-training.
In theory if you saved a mage power in something and that mage was the same who owns the Guardian Beast... why not? Is the exact same magic.
Because Guardian Beasts wind up processing the mana into their own "signature" just like mages do with mana they naturally absorb from the environment.
Considering that one of the escuses for Arf to be on "Teen mode" in one of the post Book Of Darkness series is to save power... is that another difference between Familiars and Guardian Beasts?
No, it's not. It's more that Arf wanted Fate, who was off doing Enforcer stuff, to have as much magic as possible but wanted to keep her opposable thumbs, which rules out being a puppy forever.
 
No, it's not. It's more that Arf wanted Fate, who was off doing Enforcer stuff, to have as much magic as possible but wanted to keep her opposable thumbs, which rules out being a puppy forever.

Probably also because of the stupid limiter they put on Fate's core.

Because Guardian Beasts wind up processing the mana into their own "signature" just like mages do with mana they naturally absorb from the environment.

And now I am thinking that one of the "monsters" created during the Belkan Wars were Guardian Beasts that could drain ememy mages dry of magic to keep fighting even if their mage died.
 
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With all the talk about Guardian Beasts I'm curious if we're ever going to see a Guardian Beast interlude. Say Cat Sith and Samantha talking to their younger, canine compatriots about how silly humans can be. (Complete with Samantha talking about Taylor like she's her kit, not her human.)

For bonus points you could cultural differences as the dogs don't understand why Cait Sith is such a bad "pack member" for the Protectorate. Or having one of the dogs ask if Taylor being Samantha's kit (and relative apparent ages / maturity / ability to get along in a hierarchical structure like the Protectorate between Mage and Guardian Beast) means that Cait Sith is Standstill's kitten.

Cait Sith's response to that question should be .. memorable.
 
So, SIlently, now that Lacey has enough XP to purchase a new spell, even if it's just a Modification, how will this be handled? Will we be given an option to purchase a new spell for anyone who has enough XP during the same time as Tim's vote? Will we need to do a write-in? Or will there be an option to purchase a new spell, followed by a vote dedicated to that? Admittedly I'm not really interested in buying a new spell for Lacey just yet, but it'd be useful to know how this is going to be handled.
 
So, SIlently, now that Lacey has enough XP to purchase a new spell, even if it's just a Modification, how will this be handled? Will we be given an option to purchase a new spell for anyone who has enough XP during the same time as Tim's vote? Will we need to do a write-in? Or will there be an option to purchase a new spell, followed by a vote dedicated to that? Admittedly I'm not really interested in buying a new spell for Lacey just yet, but it'd be useful to know how this is going to be handled.

Since she is not in Taylor's team and is off doing her own thing in the hospital she of course should buy spells that help with her work. She is not out there doing heroics since she got a full time job after all. And since her job is healing she should get a healing spell.
 
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