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Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)

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[X] Yes

Well, fuck. This is a thing that's about to happen.

It's a good thing we're literally a teleport away in case something really bad happens that requires our immediate attention. Hoping we can find and blast the fuck outta the Fallen/Teeth quickly, and deal with the remnant gangs quickly.

....Eh, this is gonna either suck really bad or be very interesting. Only time will tell really.
 
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Escapades 5.2
  • Threadmarks
    • [ ] Join the fight – Miss Militia was very clear that the Protectorate needs help. You didn't agree with how the PRT handled the screening process, but there's a time and place to make an issue of that. This is neither.
    [ ] Lend her skills – Samantha is a Guardian Beast, someone literally designed for combat. If the heroes are in such dire straights that they are letting villains go after mistreated villains, they need her there.
    [ ] The boss's problem – All the Privateers are injured except for Danny, but his powers don't truly require having his crew around. He can still go by himself and coordinate some of the heroes just like he did during the Simurgh fight.


    Escapades 5.2

    The answer is an easy one, though you get the feeling the rest of the Privateers aren't going to like it. "I'm going, all right. Samantha, you in?"

    "Do you honestly expect me to stay here while you put yourself at risk?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.

    "Fair enough."

    "Good," Alexander says, still blissfully unaware of the path your thoughts are treading. "Everyone who's still able to fight, let's get a couple of trucks ready—"

    "Everybody, stop!"

    The men all turn to look at you in confusion. Kurt, still sitting as part of the group who admitted they were too injured to fight again today, was the first to figure it out. "You don't want any of us to go, do you?"

    "No, I don't. Not now, and not to this." You raise you hands before they can bellow out their disagreement with your opinion. "If everyone was at their peak, maybe. Maybe. But you just got back from dealing with a boobytrapped drug den. All of you are injured. Some of you more than others, no arguments there, but injured just the same."

    "Not all of us," one man argues. Mitch, you think his name is. It really has been a while if you can't remember everybody. "A few of us are still good to go."

    Samantha lays one hand on your shoulder. "And 'a few' is… how many, exactly? Two? Three? That won't be enough."

    "We've fought capes before! We can do this!" the same man yells.

    "This won't be a regular fight!" you shout back. Right now, you'd dearly like a verbal hammer you could use to literally pound the facts into their heads. "You guys don't have powers, but you make up for it with skill and cunning and teamwork. But right now, you'll be missing most of your team, and it's going to be a mess out there. You heard Miss Militia. There will be both heroes and villains there, and they'll all be shooting to kill. There are going to be a lot of casualties, and I bet quite a few of them are going to be friendly fire from everyone going all out. Sam and I? We can take bullets and explosions and hits from Brutes and keep on going. We've done it before. None of you have the kind of defenses we do."

    "They're right." You, along with Samantha and the Privateers, turn to regard your dad as we walks into the room. He's dressed as Captain, tricorn and all, and that means another argument you don't want to have. "We've been successful in fighting the gangs, immensely successful. But we didn't achieve our victories by charging in and butting heads with the strongest capes around. We played it smart. We watched and waited and planned, and then, only when we knew we had the greatest chances of getting away with it, did we attack. But this?" He shook his head. "This isn't something we can outthink and outmaneuver. We just don't have the raw power we would need for any kind of meaningful contribution.

    "Go home, everyone. I know you want to help, but like it or not, this isn't our fight. There's nothing we can do here." The men muttered but lost their scowls for the most part, and he smiled. "And then, once everyone's rested up and recovered? Then we'll keep going after the villains who have infested this city. We know what living in a gang-ridden hellhole is like, and while we may have lost Brockton Bay, we won't lose Philadelphia."

    It takes a couple of minutes before the Privateers are entirely dispersed. Once they're gone, though, you shoot your father a curious look. "Been working on your public speaking skills?"

    "How do you think I kept so many people in a dockworkers' union in a city without a working port?" he replied. "There were months where a speech was all I could send the men home with. Compared to that, this is nothing."

    "Danny," says Samantha gently, "everything you just said about outthinking your problems and not having the raw power you need? You know that applies to you, too."

    "If I was even considering heading out to actually fight, you'd have a point, but I know where my strengths are. My powers helped out a lot during the Simurgh fight with coordinating people. They'll help out just as much with coordinating this mess."

    You bite your lip, but after a long moment you nod. You don't like it, not one little bit, but… maybe he has a point. "You promise you'll stay at headquarters? No volunteering for anything, no stupid heroics?"

    He gives you a flat look. "That should really be my line, you know."

    "It should be, but I'm the one who's bulletproof."

    Waving him closer, you raise your Intelligent Device. "Do you have the coordinates for the base?" A confident ring from the red gem, and a set of numbers appear inside your head. You take a deep breath and let it out. Time to do this. "Storm? Spatial Translocation."

    Your triangle of light spins into existence below you, and the floor breaks apart into motes of orange light that quickly float upwards and wipe the converted warehouse out of existence. What replaces it is a large room with a bunch of capes and soldiers who have all glanced over to see who the new arrivals are before they return to their other duties. You look around, but you can't find Miss Militia anywhere.

    "There," Samantha says, pointing out a young National Guardsman next to a box. A man in a burlap robe walks up to him and takes a wristband before continuing on his way. A very familiar wristband, in fact. Moving quickly towards the soldier, you tell him, "Calamity Witch and Samantha. I only know the basics. What's going on?"

    From the faint smile on his face, this is either a question he's gotten several times already today or he has a sick sense of humor. You'll give him the benefit of the doubt considering it immediately morphs into carefully contained anger. "The Teeth weren't the only ones who hit the wall today. You know about Empire Eighty-Eight?"

    "Too much. We're Brockton natives, left after the Simurgh hit."

    "Okay. Most of them left and went to Boston, but apparently this Kaiser guy failed screening and got stuck inside. They decided to come back and bust him, a couple other capes, and a bunch of thugs out. Big chainsaw guy people were calling Hookwolf was leading them. They all went west.

    "There was another group with them for a while, but this flying glowing cape and a few others split off fairly quick from what I was told and headed up 95 like they're trying to get to Maine. They reportedly have a bunch of families with them." He shook his head. "Guess they saw a chance to make it out and start a new life without people knowing they got Zizzed and took it.

    "Everybody was already going after those two groups or dealing with the Teeth and Fallen when a bunch more people came out and ran south. More families, but they had capes riding on big dog monsters with them. They didn't hurt anybody, which is more than I can saw for the others, but between the dogs and all the smoke one of them was spewing out, we couldn't get a clear shot."

    "Where are the Teeth now?"

    The soldier scowls. "They aren't far from here, unfortunately. We thought they were either going to go inside the city or leave, but then this half-dragon guy breathed fire on some of the Teeth and the Fallen. Don't know if it was an accident or what, but they started attacking this new group, then somebody was teleporting around and blowing shit up. They're drifting away, but they're still fairly close by, and Alexandria and Legend and some others went over there to bring all of them down." He thinks for a moment. "Alexandria did say anybody who decided to go help over there needed to know that the Butcher, Valefor, and Lung were in play and to make sure you left the Butcher alive. If you can't stop them without killing them, you need to make yourself useful somewhere else."

    That's… worrying. "Where is everybody now?" you ask.

    "I don't know. We haven't been kept in the loop since the big names arrived, just providing security for the coordinators." He hands out a couple of wristbands. "Give them your name, and tell whoever answers what group you're joining. They'll put you in touch with the team leaders who will have further directions." You and Samantha take yours, and he shrugs. "Good luck out there. You might need it."


    So, yay. That was a thing. As you can see, there four groups of villain you can go after, but you can only be in one place at a time, so you'll have to choose.

    …Well, no, I suppose that isn't technically true.
    • Empire – Kaiser, Fenja, Hookwolf, Cricket, Stormtiger, Victor, Othala, Rune, a bunch of non-powered skinheads. Kaiser, at least, is a high-probability Ziz-bomb.
    • Purity – Purity, Night, Fog, Crusader, along with several families with kids and elderly.
    • ABB – Lung, Oni Lee, various thugs, and a small number of civilians. Currently squaring off against the Teeth and the Fallen simultaneously.
    • Independents – The Undersiders, Parian, Uber, Barker and Biter, a couple of unknown parahumans, the largest number of families.
    • Security – No villains, but a soft target for anyone with the bright idea to cause trouble.
    These are your possible targets, but you and Samantha don't have to go after the same group. You can split up if you so desire. I'll mention the voting format you'll need to use in 24 hours.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Let's go after the undersiders. Let's say hello to Lisa (and let's admit it, Lisa as a ziz bomb is ludicrously scary let's nip that in the bud)
     
    Danny and Samantha in Security/Mission Control would give a useful reserve in case one of the fights becomes harder than expected. Taylor would be more confortable against the ABB or Kaiser than against Purity or the Undersiders, but does she knows that they are mostly moving refugees?
     
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    Silently Watches said:
    "Go home, everyone. I know you want to help, but like it or not, this isn't our fight. There's nothing we can do here." The men muttered but lost their scowls for the most part, and he smiled. "And then, once everyone's rested up and recovered? Then we'll keep going after the villains who have infested this city. We know what living in a gang-ridden hellhole is like, and while we may have lost Brockton Bay, we won't lose Philadelphia."
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    1. Nice speech Danny.
    2. But be careful about promises like that. Simurgh loves to break those.
    Silently Watches said:
    "Okay. Most of them left and went to Boston, but apparently this Kaiser guy failed screening and got stuck inside. They decided to come back and bust him, a couple other capes, and a bunch of thugs out. Big chainsaw guy people were calling Hookwolf was leading them. They all went west.

    "There was another group with them for a while, but this flying glowing cape and a few others split off fairly quick from what I was told and headed up 95 like they're trying to get to Maine. They reportedly have a bunch of families with them." He shook his head. "Guess they saw a chance to make it out and start a new life without people knowing they got Zizzed and took it.
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    Well shit. Purity's leading a group of civilians out of the city. The biggest problem from Ziz was the reason Switzerland had to undergo genocide: Everyone, cape and civilian, is a weapon of hers. And the more of her weapons gather, the more they work together to sabotage global stability and Endbringer resistence.
    Silently Watches said:
    "Where are the Teeth now?"

    The soldier scowls. "They aren't far from here, unfortunately. We thought they were either going to go inside the city or leave, but then this half-dragon guy breathed fire on some of the Teeth and the Fallen. Don't know if it was an accident or what, but they started attacking this new group, then somebody was teleporting around and blowing shit up. They're drifting away, but they're still fairly close by, and Alexandria and Legend and some others went over there to bring all of them down." He thinks for a moment. "Alexandria did say anybody who decided to go help over there needed to know that the Butcher, Valefor, and Lung were in play and to make sure you left the Butcher alive. If you can't stop them without killing them, you need to make yourself useful somewhere else."
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    So not only is the Empire trying to get its Ziz-bomb boss out, but Lung decided now was the time to tangle with the Teeth and the Fallen.
    Silently Watches said:
    • Empire – Kaiser, Fenja, Hookwolf, Cricket, Stormtiger, Victor, Othala, Rune, a bunch of non-powered skinheads. Kaiser, at least, is a high-probability Ziz-bomb.
    • Purity – Purity, Night, Fog, Crusader, along with several families with kids and elderly.
    • ABB – Lung, Oni Lee, various thugs, and a small number of civilians. Currently squaring off against the Teeth and the Fallen simultaneously.
    • Independents – The Undersiders, Parian, Uber, Barker and Biter, a couple of unknown parahumans, the largest number of families.
    • Security – No villains, but a soft target for anyone with the bright idea to cause trouble.
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    Well double shit. There's another group of civilian escapees.
    The 'easy' morality option would be to go over to the Empire, set for lethal, and obliterate them all.
    But Purity's group and the Independents are really the greater threat, while simultaneously the biggest moral issue. Last time Simurgh co-opted civilians, Taylor didn't kill them. Is she willing to kill a bloodthristy mob that won't go back and/or is willing to kill her? Can Taylor take Samantha tearing the civilians to bloody pieces because they attacked her? While we can try to talk things out with them, are we the players really capable of convincing these people to go back inside the Containment Zone?
    So what do we do, ladies and gentlemen? The easy thing, or the Greater Good thing?
     
    We have high power subdual attacks. Let's send Danny to the coordination tent with Samantha as a guard, and either go for Lisa or the Butcher.
     
    Always Late said:
    The 'easy' morality option would be to go over to the Empire, set for lethal, and obliterate them all.
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    This is admittedly rather tempting.

    Always Late said:
    But Purity's group and the Independents are really the greater threat, while simultaneously the biggest moral issue. Last time Simurgh co-opted civilians, Taylor didn't kill them. Is she willing to kill a bloodthristy mob that won't go back and/or is willing to kill her? Can Taylor take Samantha tearing the civilians to bloody pieces because they attacked her?
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    Hm. While potentially necessary, that result starts flirting with the borders of grimdark land.

    Always Late said:
    While we can try to talk things out with them, are we the players really capable of convincing these people to go back inside the Containment Zone?
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    Social, SV's greatest downfall.
     
    Silently Watches said:
    "Alexandria did say anybody who decided to go help over there needed to know that the Butcher, Valefor, and Lung were in play and to make sure you left the Butcher alive. If you can't stop them without killing them, you need to make yourself useful somewhere else."
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    Well, we can stop them without killing them, and in process we will impress Legend.
    Solar Wrath, non-letal.
    Zenryoku zenkai!
     
    Let me remind you there is a thinker with legitimate reasons to be bitter against us and knows our secret id. Probably blames us for leaving her with coil and later with ziz. We do not want to have her free!

    Also the undersiders are escape artists. while killing Nazis is cathartic and morally unambiguous, our help there is less relevant than using wide area search inside grue's darkness and snipe that little blonde security leak. Hiding is next to impossible for the empire while the undersiders are made for it, and are the worst ziz bombs because of that.
     
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    ...Honestly, the biggest threat is Purity's group right now. Lung and Kaiser's groups can be handled at another time, and the Independents aren't enough of a threat for us...until Lisa hears that we're still in town. So it's likely going to become a higher priority later if the Undersiders decide to attack us. But Lisa's not suicidal, so it's unlikely.

    Edit: Just realized that we can totally use the Independents as a testing ground for people who have Linker Cores. And once we explain the situation to them, I doubt there will be many that will turn down the chance to get Ziz immunity - and in Newter, Gregor, and Labryinth's cases be free from their powers - so it's good to put that as a higher priority imo.
     
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    kokuenDG said:
    Edit: Just realized that we can totally use the Independents as a testing ground for people who have Linker Cores. And once we explain the situation to them, I doubt there will be many that will turn down the chance to get Ziz immunity - and in Newter, Gregor, and Labryinth's cases be free from their powers - so it's good to put that as a higher priority imo.
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    Remember the requirement for making them a mage? Takes quite a bit of power, and scanning them is apparently intensive enough that it's subject to the fifty-percent rule.
    globalwarmth said:
    Let me remind you there is a thinker with legitimate reasons to be bitter against us and knows our secret id. Probably blames us for leaving her with coil and later with ziz. We do not want to have her free!

    Also the undersiders are escape artists. while killing Nazis is cathartic and morally unambiguous, our help there is less relevant than using wide area search inside grue's darkness and snipe that little blonde security leak. Hiding is next to impossible for the empire while the undersiders are made for it, and are the worst ziz bombs because of that.
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    Why do I read this and pick up a message of 'KILL LISA, KILL LISA, KILL LISA'?
     
    Always Late said:
    Remember the requirement for making them a mage? Takes quite a bit of power, and scanning them is apparently intensive enough that it's subject to the fifty-percent rule.
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    Yep. But at the very least it's an option. Also, I just realized that Faultline's Crew isn't included with the Independents. Blerp.

    Always Late said:
    Why do I read this and pick up a message of 'KILL LISA, KILL LISA, KILL LISA'?
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    Because that's basically what it is. People need to stop freaking out over Lisa when we have more pressing concerns to deal with. And starting shit with the Independents that are just out to protect the families in their territory is no bueno.
     
    kokuenDG said:
    Yep. But at the very least it's an option.
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    That might be the key to successful diplomacy. "I can make you all immune to the Simurgh. But not all at once."
    Of course, that's just another form of the PRT's verification system to let people out of containment zones, so their trust in that is already nonexistent. Maybe if we demonstrate that it works, convert someone like Purity and have the PRT/Protectorate confirm she's off the kill list.
    But then we now have to book very long-term time to defusing and converting people, when a pissed-off Simurgh will be gunning for us.
    "OK, I missed you last time because you managed to scurry around my attention. Now, you messed with my plans directly. I WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE A LIVING HELL! YOU AND EVERYONE YOU EVER KNEW!"
    kokuenDG said:
    Because that's basically what it is. People need to stop hating on Lisa when we have more pressing concerns to deal with.
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    FTFY.
     
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