- Location
- Ural, Russia, Earth
For the same reason Arcana didn't participate in Kansas City fight against Behemoth family.
Can we really be sure that Mama Mathers is dead and Silently is not under her thrall? 🤔
Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)
- Thread starter Silently Watches
- Start date
Can we really be sure that Mama Mathers is dead and Silently is not under her thrall? 🤔
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
I'm ready to be done with the Fallen. You will hear no complaints from me.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Nah, it's more that trying to balance fights with just Taylor and Sam has been a pain in the ass since Arc 4 or 5, and adding Missy and Laura and Kayleigh and now Sarah – while great for character interaction and social scenes – adds even more firepower to the side that already had more than enough. Writing curb stomp after curb stomp gets very boring after a while. I would need fights with either near-Triumvirate-level opponents or literal armies to match them, and justifying either is tough.
Nanoha simply has such a higher power ceiling, and power FLOOR for that matter, than Worm does that it's kind of ludicrous.
Mal-3
Fun Tyrant
I'm good with skipping Arcana vs. the Fallen and just riding straight to the cleanup. We've got bigger fish to fry on both a personal level (Kayleigh and the shipping gods demand more awkwardness!), a local level (the velociraptors have yet to come home to roost with Winter Hill) and on a big plot level (we need to finish Dragon's collection of Endbringer heads. That fireplace is looking awfully spare) to worry overmuch about a bunch of cultists now that their plot armor is ash in the wind.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Physician, actually. And interestingly enough, even though the number of COVID patients is going down, the total number is staying higher than it should be this time of year. My colleagues and I have to wonder if it's because telemedicine, while better than nothing, is that much inferior to in-person visits that people's chronic diseases are flaring up more than normal, or if this is just the inevitable aftermath of people spending the last year locked in their homes.
Honestly, I personally would prefer Taylor and co. doing stuff other than stomping on the Fallen.
After all, we've already slaughtered the most dangerous part of the Fallen and the portion that allowed the Fallen to be as untouchable as they were before Arcana was a thing.
What's left is clean up. Something the PRT and the Protectorate can damn well do. Unless they are so incompetent that they can't even do that after Arcana has exterminated the Simurgh branch of the Fallen for them.
After all, we've already slaughtered the most dangerous part of the Fallen and the portion that allowed the Fallen to be as untouchable as they were before Arcana was a thing.
What's left is clean up. Something the PRT and the Protectorate can damn well do. Unless they are so incompetent that they can't even do that after Arcana has exterminated the Simurgh branch of the Fallen for them.
- Location
- USA
I'm always an enthusiastic fan of your fight scenes, they really are some of your best work for me behind the much rarer to find anywhere "detailed research/ritual magic" moments that non-tinker Escalation can't really get into. But I also certainly understand the urge to speed up and prioritize with how current events have slowed progress, and the difficulties of balancing these late-game characters. A small part of why I'm hoping to see Taylor and friends join up with the TSAB for more adventures rather than stick around to manage Earth's uplifting and reform
Maybe following a classic route and going hunting for any S-class types that remain (obviously S9 and some are gone) would help there, now we're with Dragon Tech?
Alternately, you could try something of a reverse to the Wolfhead fights lately, and make any of the fight-scenes an interlude focused more on how Kayleigh or the other new people fight while Taylor is present but off-camera , for something different without impacting plot? Just Suggestions <3
After all
I am an Admiral and founding shipwright for the HMS Fire&Ice shipping fleet, I will hardly complain about more focus on social events!!! Doing a recent re-read of threadmarks (moments like the gun range and the mall with K&L ) , I've wondered what exactly Taylor's hobbies are that she might share with Laura.Considering Laura's thought-out philosophical moments at the birthday party and (averted or not) Florida, and Taylor's history as something of a nerd with a Lit-Professor mama, maybe theres something to be found there discussing old classics book club style? (With a side of Kayleigh and Missy bonding over aleph-import Mahou Shoujo manga and snickering that the powerhouse blasters are bookworms) ?
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
It's never become not weird to have people say this. My fight scenes are actually my least favorite things to write or re-read, with very few exceptions such as the Taylor-saving-Missy-from-the-Fallen massacre, and that has less to do with the "fight" and more to do with her mental state falling apart. Certainly my fights aren't as good as a lot of other authors'.
You'd probably enjoy Spells in Silence, then. Hazel has already had several "How does spell work" moments, and will have many many more in the future.
Just don't go hunting Sleeper. Since his power was never explained in canon (or at least not in Worm, I don't know about Ward), it gives me free rein to come up with whatever I want. That is NEVER a good idea!
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Just don't go hunting Sleeper. Since his power was never explained in canon (or at least not in Worm, I don't know about Ward), it gives me free rein to come up with whatever I want. That is NEVER a good idea!
He actually got some screen time in Ward, though I only know it second hand. I think he maybe killed Ziz or kept her unable to leave his area of influence, not sure. It was something like there's an area of unstable reality in a huge area around him. Like, a massive rainbow storm of matter annihilation, with broken physics.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Yeah, no. That's too tame for me to use.
His power is explained well enough in Worm imo-
Kephri: '...Nope. Imma just leave him alone.'
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
The only thing we actually know for certain about it from Ward is "From the outside it looks like a large rainbow bubble thing of impossible colors" and "Once something goes in there you can write it off, even if the thing in question is an Endbringer".
Actually, no, there was that one line where they were recruiting people to hold off the Sleeper... Here, found it:
There has been a lot of speculation on how those three things in particular could be useful against Sleeper, and a lot of possible interpretations have cropped up. There's plenty of room to play around with the information we do know though.
Actually, no, there was that one line where they were recruiting people to hold off the Sleeper... Here, found it:
There has been a lot of speculation on how those three things in particular could be useful against Sleeper, and a lot of possible interpretations have cropped up. There's plenty of room to play around with the information we do know though.
Ah, another case where the author of a story believes their writing to not be good while the fans disagree. Sure, you probably wouldn't get an award for the quality of your writing, but that doesn't mean it's bad. I quite like it myself.
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- Location
- Georgia
Just don't go hunting Sleeper. Since his power was never explained in canon (or at least not in Worm, I don't know about Ward), it gives me free rein to come up with whatever I want. That is NEVER a good idea!
As I recall, the entire purpose of Sleeper was as a nod to H. P. Lovecraft's assertion that nothing is as frightening as the unknown.
Almech_Alfarion
(Unverified Paradox)
- Location
- Roaming the Void of the Space between Spaces
If I'm reading this correctly, this means that Arcana would still be there at the fight, but we would only see the Aftermath?
If so, then I'd be fine with it so long as we still get the XP points for all of the participating characters.
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
sounds like you have a plan that will cover it happening without the bog down of actually writing the fight, works for me
- Location
- Britain
See, this I get - it's the stuff you spend time agonising over than you hate to go back to, not the stuff you get right straight away, and you specifically have never been quiet about hating writing fight scenes. My only advice would be that if you hate rereading them so much, you should do so when you can in order to see what you got right, what you didn't, what you'd change and what you'd keep the same. That way, next time you need a fight scene, you can refer back to those ideas and use them to speed up and/or lessen the pain of writing it.
- Location
- New Jersey, USA
It's never become not weird to have people say this. My fight scenes are actually my least favorite things to write or re-read, with very few exceptions such as the Taylor-saving-Missy-from-the-Fallen massacre, and that has less to do with the "fight" and more to do with her mental state falling apart. Certainly my fights aren't as good as a lot of other authors'.
You'd probably enjoy Spells in Silence, then. Hazel has already had several "How does spell work" moments, and will have many many more in the future.
Just don't go hunting Sleeper. Since his power was never explained in canon (or at least not in Worm, I don't know about Ward), it gives me free rein to come up with whatever I want. That is NEVER a good idea!
Well, you were just talking about how hard it is to do appropriately even-sided fights...
- Location
- Canada
Whatever you need to do. If writing out the Fallen fight is causing you this much stress, then just dump the whole thing like a rock.
I'm assuming that the press conference announcing Arcana's decision to join DragonTech (since I believe it's coinciding with handing over the timebubble-popper) will also potentially reveal the other choices from the last Tech vote? So we'd see Missy's new arm design (with "more bark," which now that we know her summons is hilarious in retrospect) and what Sparky's cannon gives us for Tim's Exotic Physics.
And the PHO interlude...There's a lot that can be done with that. Giving us the internet's view on Arcana is one thing, but you could also include several other topics to give us a view of what's going on in the rest of the world, drop new plot hooks or foreshadowing for us to chew on, or just give us something random like a music recommendation thread. And this format could be a way to make the Leviathan Fallen curbstomp more interesting by framing it as a livestream reaction to the Fallen attack in progress and people giving their unfiltered reactions to Arcana's counter attack, potentially being on the scene at the time. Whatever you write Silently, know I will be ready and eager to read it.
👍Oh hell yes. During the slow periods this year and my imposed break, I brainstormed several potential social events and I am excited to bring them out for peer review when the eventual vote comes around.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Glad the joke works
Almech_Alfarion
(Unverified Paradox)
- Location
- Roaming the Void of the Space between Spaces
Why wait? The arc's getting to its end soon, and more time to chew over things would help us better work through the details.
- Location
- Canada
You know what? Why not. I'll post them in the order I'd like to see them occur.
- [] Taylor and Tim meet up with Dragon and scan her workforce for Linker Cores to create more magi-engineers for DragonTech.
-[] Ask how her "date" with Armsmaster went. Was it a successful "Unison?"
-[] Have Tim do a Tech demo/display of what he's built and what he's working on. Specifically mention the Linker Core mutation and stress the risks of it. See if any of the non-mages are interested.
- [] Train, either in the real world or in Perfect Storm's simulator. SPECIFY which spell or skill to work on.
-[] Go to Earth He to practice Vampiric Ray. Use up some magic first investigating the ruins. Bring Samantha along for a target/companionship as she is also immune to the environment.
-[] Taylor has a Flare Mana Conversion Affinity that converts Mana into Fire/Radiation . Let's test if that functions in reverse by using Vampiric Ray on the volcanic surroundings to convert Fire/Radiation into Mana.
-[] Ask Perfect Storm for some more lore on Orianna Brevetti. How she got her Flare Mana Affinity or what made her develop Starfield Harvest are on-topic questions to ask.
- [] Now that the Wolfheads are functionally gone, we should figure out what to target next in Phillie. Track down Circus to get their opinion on what's going on with the city's villains.
- [] Make yourself available to help Operation Pentagram.
-[] Join Legend and the current Flight team in Chicago to start a new branch of the Operation.
-[] Invite Missy along to say hi to her old teammate.
If we wanted another location for a new branch, then my next choice would be New Orleans, since we'd see Kayden and find out exactly what we missed out with her, and Theo, since I have a list of more Breaker forms for him that would cover the entire E88 powersets.
- [] Spend time with the Enforcers
-[] Bring Dragon along to speak with AI-friendly people.
-[] Get a general overview of who's on the crew and where their skills lie.
-[] Ask for info on Earths 3,4,6-9, and 11.
- [] Hang out with Epoch and Maclibuin. Formally invite them to join Arcana.
-[] Bring along Sarah to show off her new abilities and to grease the wheels to get them to join up.
-[] Bring along Lacey to chat with Mac about Magical healing. Experiment with Maclibuin's Artifact spell to see him make an artifact with another mage's spells.
-[] Now that we can make Linker Cores, ask Epoch about the former members of the Adepts, specifically who he thinks might be amendable to becoming heroes (ie. actual heroes, well-meaning rogues, circumstantial villains).
Obviously, not all of them would be interested, but we may as well know who to talk to. Some likely joined for a safety in numbers things, or have more personal reasons, but there were likely some true believers as well. I know Argus was a hero, Geomancer's power seemed applicable to a Rogue, and Planeswalker deserves the possibility of getting teleportation without the specific scenarios required.
I know that it was mentioned in the Sunny AAR that Mac and Lacey could have chatted about healing, so bringing it back here works out. Sarah can now offer her perspective as someone who has joined up with us of some of the benefits.