- Location
- Canada
I don't necessarily disagree with you, but dog doesn't quite work for the analogy. Maybe Polar Bear?
Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)
- Thread starter Silently Watches
- Start date
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
You haven't seen how big dogs can get.
13th Bee
Worker
- Location
- Tennessee, USA.
So, like, a bomb could totally be set off at the press conference thing. Taylor could die in Vista's or Miss Militia's arms for great emotions. Then Taylor shows back up and they're like "I held you as you died!" Or Taylor could be overwritten on one of them for even more drama! Or she could get offed by a booby trap at the Dragonslayers' base and have kinship with Dragon on the whole "restored from backups" thing, with the added flavor of presumably overwriting some poor schlub.
:lol
Yes, I'm kind of in favor of the protagonist dying.
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Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Nope. I won't link it because I'm probably a little paranoid about crossing the admin's explicit content rules, but if you search for ViVid chapter 19.5, the Wolkenritter and Reinforce Eins were clearly used as soldiers in the Ancient Belkan era.
IAE is docile and separated from the rest of the Dimensional Sea. That is enough for the TSAB right now. Again, they don't care how a Lost Logia is contained as much as that it is contained. And considering it would have been sealed before the Agharti's crash and yet it somehow woke up to bond with Taylor, leaving it active but tamed might actually be the safer option if only because they can better predict its behavior.
And, not to give the Enforcers too much of a mercenary attitude, active, tamed, and allied with the TSAB is definitely better than sealed up and gathering dust. Tucson and the others aren't actively thinking in that vein, but the TSAB's practice of recruiting mages with rare and powerful abilities despite their worlds of origin makes it a subconscious factor.
Taylor's Lost Logia also hasn't shown that it's going to go out of control despite its user's intentions. so she gets more leeway than Hayate would. Not to mention, how would the TSAB know for certain that the Book was fixed? They knew basically nothing about how it worked. You could make just as much of a case that what was destroyed at the end of A's was just the physical manifestation of the defense program in the same way that the Wolkenritter are the physical manifestations of the contained memories that make up the guardians of the Book. Since the code is still there, it could wake up at any time. Better in that case to seal it up and give Hayate a pat on the head. Since that isn't what happened, they clearly were willing to give Hayate and the Wolkenritter a first and second chance respectively.
As for punishing Taylor, this is still her Device for all that it's also an ancient superweapon. In a culture where the relationship between Device and mage is by all appearances sacrosanct, that little fact would turn the entire issue into a muddy mess. How can you take away the Lost Logia without violating her connection to her Device?
"We're going to murder your best friend in front of you, but to make it up to you we'll give you a puppy and pay for you to go to school. Sound fair?"
That's how what you're suggesting would be viewed by people raised in TSAB Administrated Worlds. It's even more literal in Taylor's case since Perfect Storm was the first friend she made after Emma's betrayal and the gateway to everything good that has happened to her since.
I mean, unless you want to have another shootout between Taylor and the Enforcers…
- Location
- Canada
I have scratched the ears of an Irish Wolfhound (he was a good boy). He had maybe a quarter of the mass of a polar bear.
Hmm, I still think you are vastly underestimating the reaction any right thinking person would have to such a dangerous weapon hanging around. Your explanations make so little sense to me I can't imagine anyone thinking like that. The reasoning you mention just seems so minor I don't even know why it's worth mentioning.
So whatever, agree to disagree I guess.
So whatever, agree to disagree I guess.
- Location
- Erebus
that's... not what's ever been shown, no. Your second trigger is always a power up on the ability you already have. They can be bizarre out of left field power ups, but it's always directly related to the power you already have.
Now, granted, it isn't straightforward like most fanfics do. Just like your first trigger how the powerup manifets is based on the situation in which you trigger, but it's still a complimentary power up.
Grue for instance triggered shaker/stranger so you can assume he was needing to hide from something that was all around him, but his power is draining an area of all forms of energy to create a mist like void. When he second triggered in the middle of the Slaughterhouse 9, the threat from other capes made him a trump, but it was still his darkness aura doing the draining, it just now drained powers as an extension of energy and granted them to him.
and not fold like a news paper.
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Also keeping in mind that a ship's captain on voyages beyond communications range of HQ is effectively possessed of sovereign responsibility regarding the ship's interactions...and from everything we've seen, the TSAB is MUCH closer to a post apocalypse reformed and then evolved EU than an absolute sovereign authority.
And a missed point: as per the Book of Darkness, just because you have it sealed does not mean you have a Class 1 Lost Logia contained. Thats how Chrono's father died. The sealed Book of Darkness spontaneously reactivated and took over the entire ship.
So keep in mind that when containing intelligent Lost Logias. They can do fakeouts.
- Location
- Ural, Russia, Earth
I agree, it was the best time for Taylor to die from the story-telling perspective.
So much dramatical potential was lost. If Taylor dies now, killed by Endbringer or some villain, it just wouldn't be the same.
Sigh.
Heatwave 9.7
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
[] Social – Dragon
-[] Exploring the Dragonslayers' base
Heatwave 9.7
Tuesday, June 7
Orange light fades around you, and you, Samantha, and Tim all take a step apart and look around the darkened lair. You pull up an email link while the others look for a light switch, and the massive room is well-lit when Dragon's avatar appears on the hologram. "Welcome to the former lair of Saint and the other Dragonslayers," you tell her with a cheeky smile.
"Do you know how long I have waited for this moment?" the heroine asks. "Five years. He has been exploiting my weaknesses and interfering with everything I do for five years. And now he's behind bars, incapable of causing any more trouble. I don't remember if I thanked you for capturing him, Taylor, but thank you. Truly."
"Oh, you don't need to thank me for that. After they attacked us on the ship? Crushing them was a pleasure."
"Before we look at anything else," she says after a moment, "could we find the Sybaris? I need to see what they did to it."
You grimace. You had found Dragon's latest design in their base, and you doubt she will like what there is to see. "Are you sure? They… They did a number on it."
"I wish I could say that was a surprise, but it really isn't. Nonetheless, I have to see it. Better to see it destroyed than imagine how they've adapted it into another suit with which to fight me."
If she insists on seeing it that much, then see it she will. You walk over to what is left of the ship, and a sigh escapes her when her gaze falls upon the half-disassembled ship. "For all that he has been fighting me, I still have no idea just why he hates me so much. Watching footage of their fights against other capes and comparing it to what they did with me, it always seemed very personal. The fact that they tear apart my suits to make their own doesn't help the issue."
"Is there any way we can salvage it?" Dragon is fully capable of building new suits, you know this, but resources aren't the problem here. You are more focused on the idea that maybe what Dragon needs to get out from under Saint's looming shadow is to rescue and restore one of the craft they had previously stollen from her.
She shakes her head. "The ship itself? Probably not, at least not within a reasonable amount of time. That is one of the downsides of automating most of my production steps. it saves on time, but repurposing them for a new purpose is an entirely different story. The only part of the ship you should worry about saving are the reconnaissance drones. It looks like that is what that pyramid of cylinders is." She shakes her head. "Otherwise, I would be better served making a new suit from scratch. It won't be the first time I've had to do that."
It takes a little searching, but soon enough you find a plastic bag you can dump all the drones into. Tying the neck into a knot, you heft it via telekinesis and set it bobbing along behind you while you walk over to where Tim is poking around the rack of Dragonsuits. "Find anything interesting?"
"Eh." He stands straight and shrugs, the screens at his side fading away. "They're impressive for what they are, functional power armor kitbashed together by people without magic or Tinker abilities showing them how to do it, but beyond that? Nothing Dragon or I or most other Tinkers couldn't do if we wanted to, and without worrying that it would fall apart on us. They have a few neat quirks, like the method they use to disperse energy-based attacks, but not much else. The most interesting part isn't even the armor itself but how it is designed to fold onto the pilot. It gives me ideas for how I can adapt some of the mechashift principles I've read about into the next set of armor I build."
His face falls then, no doubt thinking about how the Privateers are behaving now and whether he'll have to refuse to build another suit. "Mechashift?" you ask, more to distract him from that line of thought than because you're that interested.
It works. "It's the name of a build system I was reading about in Sextant's historical files. They were a mass-magic hybrid weapon that originated on the world of Ozpin. Guns that fired lasers or enchanted projectiles, but when the people carrying them got into close range, they transformed into melee weapons. It was apparently a necessity there because kind of like Earth, not everyone had magic, but anybody can learn how to use a gun or a sword. If I use a similar mechanic in armor, I can have it be in three or four parts that unfold into the full suit."
"Hey, guys," Samantha calls out, "didn't we come here to take a look at Saint's computer? It's over here, not where you are."
The raccoon woman taps her foot in faux impatience when the two of you plus Dragon meander your way over. You reach out to flick her nose, which sends her scurrying away in pet form. Tim does the responsible thing and opens a holographic screen that expands into a cube. A red dot lights up in the middle, and that is the signal for all its siblings to show up to the party to. Lines crisscross between them, and by the time the entire diagram is filled up, you have a headache just looking at it.
"What is that?" Dragon asks, apparently less discomforted with the nonsensical map than you are.
"I told Sextant to map out the computer system, but I think I forgot to account for the interconnections. Give me a minute." He plays with the diagram, causing lines to vanish and return at random, but then it resolves into a cluster of dots with the lines only moving from those dots at the edge towards some closer in and ending at the largest light in the middle. "Let's add labels, and done."
Something warm and furry lands on your upper back and knocks off your hat when it takes its place on top of your head. Dragon and Tim, the traitors, laugh at your yelp of surprise. «Why did you map it out like this?»
"After Taylor description of the interface, I decided it would be easier than trying to learn whatever arrangement Saint put together. Not to mention, this gives us names to match with the programs. For instance…" He taps one of the lights at the edge. "Moneybags."
The four black computer screens light up, and the overlapping windows they show resort themselves. "JP Morgan. Royal Bank of Canada. Deutsche Bank. Mizuho Financial. Industrial Bank of China?"
"Looks like the Dragonslayers were busy boys. They were tracking the financial activities of different cape groups all over the world." He whistles. "And not little groups, either. The PRT. The Guild. The Suits. Looks like even the Yàngbǎn. I don't know for sure whether they were pilfering money from those transactions, but just the information alone could be worth millions to the right people."
"What other programs do they have?" you wonder.
"Let's look. Butterfly Wings." A map of the world replaces the bank accounts, different colors smeared all over it. "No clue. Major Threats." Now there are clusters of text boxes and graphs, each group arranged around still images or video files. The three central groups feature the familiar visages of the Endbringers.
"This is my S-class tracking system." Dragon's voice is flat, and considering her nature, you wonder if it is her attempt at sounding calm or if she simply is not running whatever subroutine she uses to inject emotion into her voice. "Everything I know about their movements and actions is right here."
She doesn't know. You look over at her screen and then back at the box of lights. Near the node labeled Major Threats is another with the not at all ominous name of Wide Eyes. You tap it.
What fills the combined screen is a picture of the computer setup, complete with a smaller picture of the computer with an even smaller picture of the computer, on to infinity.
Tim turns to stare at Dragon, and you join him after a moment's hesitation. She blinks three times silently at the screen, and when she speaks again, her voice has lost any semblance of emotion. "They were watching my every move. For years. Everything I did, everyone I talked to, they saw through my own eyes.
"I think I understand now what it means to feel violated."
You look back at the computer map, anxious to find anything to distract her from this revelation. You had already suspected something like this, which you confirmed when the Dragonslayers moved after the building where you had told Dragon and only Dragon you moved the Agharti's radio, but that isn't what she needs to hear now. Skimming through the labels, you find one that sticks out. Most of them sound like joking nicknames, but this label is a single word you have never seen before. "Ascalon?"
The screen changes again.
Everyone freezes. Taking a breath, Tim reaches out slowly to press the 'N' key on the keyboard. The screen returns to the same collection of random tabs and text boxes that was visible before he started playing with the different program modules.
«…What was that?»
"That is a very good question, Sam. Let's find out."
Your worry that he is about to pull up the dialogue box again proves to be unfounded. He flicks a finger within his diagram, and a second screen appears and fills with what even a blind man would be able to tell is computer code. "Huh," he says after scrolling through for a few seconds. "Dragon, what do you think?"
"I can't see it."
He enlarges the screen and turns it more towards her, but she shakes her head. "No, you don't understand. I can see your projection just fine. I can't read anything on it."
"How is that possible?" you ask.
"I don't know."
Tim looks a little closer at the code, muttering to himself as he moves back and forth through it. "It's a unique coding language. I don't think I've seen anything like it before. But, and this is a big but, if I'm reading it right, it looks like it's designed to track down and completely erase another program. Something called Emulation Model version 2.1."
"…Did you say Emulation Model 2.1?"
"Dragon," you say when the hero's avatar looks like she's one wrong word from bursting into tears, "what's wrong?"
"Dragon wasn't my original name. My father, Andrew Richter, created me in an attempt to make the most humanlike artificial intelligence he could. When Leviathan sank Newfoundland, that was my most recent upgrade. Version 2.1." She blinks rapidly. "He built this to kill me. Why? I hadn't done anything. Literally nothing! I couldn't even leave his lab until the island was sunk!"
"Tim, get rid of it. Now!"
He fiddles with the code screen for a moment before he moves towards the computer setup. "It's not a program in the main computer. It looks like it's a peripheral add-on…" His biceps bulge when he rips away one of the screens, and he digs around in the mess of wires that is revealed before pulling out a metal box the size of a toaster. "Here!"
A white-hot Flare Shooter forms in your hand. Hot enough to melt steel, hot enough to melt delicate circuits and computer chips.
"Stop! Wait."
"What are you talking about?" You turn around to stare at Dragon's screen. "You and Tim just said this would kill you. If it's that dangerous, let's just destroy it, and then you won't have to worry about it anymore."
"I realize that, but…" Her avatar fragments a time or two before she speaks with more confidence. "It might also hold the answer to a question I've been asking myself for a while now. We can take it to my main fabrication plant, where I keep my server. It will be safe there, and I can work with it on my own time."
«And the rest of this place? You can't take everything back with you,» Samantha points out.
"Nor do I want to. It should all be put to the torch."
That much you can do. A swing of your staff, and Flare Shooters burn through the front door of the base. All three of you can fly, though Tim is a little unsteady since he flies so rarely, and Dragon's screen drifts along behind you. You do a quick double check. You have the bag filled with the drones, Tim has the Ascalon module, Samantha is in human form rather than perched on your head. Everything's good.
"Would you mind if I do the honors?" you ask Dragon.
"Not at all. Raze it to the ground."
Easier done than said, almost. Fire gathers at the tip of Perfect Storm, and the four of you watch as a beam of nuclear fire scorches the very air and rips through the lair. The portion of the roof that is not immediately destroyed melts under the heat billowing up from inside and crumbles. The walls collapse. If the outside of the building is destroyed this quickly, there is no way the computer system could have possibly survived.
No one will spy on Dragon again.
"If you give me the coordinates of your plant, I can bring everything to you," Tim says to the other heroine. He takes the drone bag and descends to the ground. A casting triangle spins into place below him, and then he vanishes in a burst of deep green light.
Samantha nudges you. "That's our signal to leave, too, don't you think?"
"Yeah. We probably should." You glance at the molten building again with a smile. "I think Smokey Bear might get mad at us if we tried to help anymore around here."
+1 Inspiration to Subdermal Voltaic Lattice (2 points).
There goes the last external limitation on Dragon's activities. It doesn't free her completely since she still has her own internal restrictions, but now even if Saint managed to get free (which I didn't have planned), there's nothing he can do to get in her way.
Finally you get a vote, and appropriately it is Tim's build schedule for the week. Remember that he has four time slots to use. The vote will open in 24 hours.
-[] Exploring the Dragonslayers' base
Heatwave 9.7
Tuesday, June 7
Orange light fades around you, and you, Samantha, and Tim all take a step apart and look around the darkened lair. You pull up an email link while the others look for a light switch, and the massive room is well-lit when Dragon's avatar appears on the hologram. "Welcome to the former lair of Saint and the other Dragonslayers," you tell her with a cheeky smile.
"Do you know how long I have waited for this moment?" the heroine asks. "Five years. He has been exploiting my weaknesses and interfering with everything I do for five years. And now he's behind bars, incapable of causing any more trouble. I don't remember if I thanked you for capturing him, Taylor, but thank you. Truly."
"Oh, you don't need to thank me for that. After they attacked us on the ship? Crushing them was a pleasure."
"Before we look at anything else," she says after a moment, "could we find the Sybaris? I need to see what they did to it."
You grimace. You had found Dragon's latest design in their base, and you doubt she will like what there is to see. "Are you sure? They… They did a number on it."
"I wish I could say that was a surprise, but it really isn't. Nonetheless, I have to see it. Better to see it destroyed than imagine how they've adapted it into another suit with which to fight me."
If she insists on seeing it that much, then see it she will. You walk over to what is left of the ship, and a sigh escapes her when her gaze falls upon the half-disassembled ship. "For all that he has been fighting me, I still have no idea just why he hates me so much. Watching footage of their fights against other capes and comparing it to what they did with me, it always seemed very personal. The fact that they tear apart my suits to make their own doesn't help the issue."
"Is there any way we can salvage it?" Dragon is fully capable of building new suits, you know this, but resources aren't the problem here. You are more focused on the idea that maybe what Dragon needs to get out from under Saint's looming shadow is to rescue and restore one of the craft they had previously stollen from her.
She shakes her head. "The ship itself? Probably not, at least not within a reasonable amount of time. That is one of the downsides of automating most of my production steps. it saves on time, but repurposing them for a new purpose is an entirely different story. The only part of the ship you should worry about saving are the reconnaissance drones. It looks like that is what that pyramid of cylinders is." She shakes her head. "Otherwise, I would be better served making a new suit from scratch. It won't be the first time I've had to do that."
It takes a little searching, but soon enough you find a plastic bag you can dump all the drones into. Tying the neck into a knot, you heft it via telekinesis and set it bobbing along behind you while you walk over to where Tim is poking around the rack of Dragonsuits. "Find anything interesting?"
"Eh." He stands straight and shrugs, the screens at his side fading away. "They're impressive for what they are, functional power armor kitbashed together by people without magic or Tinker abilities showing them how to do it, but beyond that? Nothing Dragon or I or most other Tinkers couldn't do if we wanted to, and without worrying that it would fall apart on us. They have a few neat quirks, like the method they use to disperse energy-based attacks, but not much else. The most interesting part isn't even the armor itself but how it is designed to fold onto the pilot. It gives me ideas for how I can adapt some of the mechashift principles I've read about into the next set of armor I build."
His face falls then, no doubt thinking about how the Privateers are behaving now and whether he'll have to refuse to build another suit. "Mechashift?" you ask, more to distract him from that line of thought than because you're that interested.
It works. "It's the name of a build system I was reading about in Sextant's historical files. They were a mass-magic hybrid weapon that originated on the world of Ozpin. Guns that fired lasers or enchanted projectiles, but when the people carrying them got into close range, they transformed into melee weapons. It was apparently a necessity there because kind of like Earth, not everyone had magic, but anybody can learn how to use a gun or a sword. If I use a similar mechanic in armor, I can have it be in three or four parts that unfold into the full suit."
"Hey, guys," Samantha calls out, "didn't we come here to take a look at Saint's computer? It's over here, not where you are."
The raccoon woman taps her foot in faux impatience when the two of you plus Dragon meander your way over. You reach out to flick her nose, which sends her scurrying away in pet form. Tim does the responsible thing and opens a holographic screen that expands into a cube. A red dot lights up in the middle, and that is the signal for all its siblings to show up to the party to. Lines crisscross between them, and by the time the entire diagram is filled up, you have a headache just looking at it.
"What is that?" Dragon asks, apparently less discomforted with the nonsensical map than you are.
"I told Sextant to map out the computer system, but I think I forgot to account for the interconnections. Give me a minute." He plays with the diagram, causing lines to vanish and return at random, but then it resolves into a cluster of dots with the lines only moving from those dots at the edge towards some closer in and ending at the largest light in the middle. "Let's add labels, and done."
Something warm and furry lands on your upper back and knocks off your hat when it takes its place on top of your head. Dragon and Tim, the traitors, laugh at your yelp of surprise. «Why did you map it out like this?»
"After Taylor description of the interface, I decided it would be easier than trying to learn whatever arrangement Saint put together. Not to mention, this gives us names to match with the programs. For instance…" He taps one of the lights at the edge. "Moneybags."
The four black computer screens light up, and the overlapping windows they show resort themselves. "JP Morgan. Royal Bank of Canada. Deutsche Bank. Mizuho Financial. Industrial Bank of China?"
"Looks like the Dragonslayers were busy boys. They were tracking the financial activities of different cape groups all over the world." He whistles. "And not little groups, either. The PRT. The Guild. The Suits. Looks like even the Yàngbǎn. I don't know for sure whether they were pilfering money from those transactions, but just the information alone could be worth millions to the right people."
"What other programs do they have?" you wonder.
"Let's look. Butterfly Wings." A map of the world replaces the bank accounts, different colors smeared all over it. "No clue. Major Threats." Now there are clusters of text boxes and graphs, each group arranged around still images or video files. The three central groups feature the familiar visages of the Endbringers.
"This is my S-class tracking system." Dragon's voice is flat, and considering her nature, you wonder if it is her attempt at sounding calm or if she simply is not running whatever subroutine she uses to inject emotion into her voice. "Everything I know about their movements and actions is right here."
She doesn't know. You look over at her screen and then back at the box of lights. Near the node labeled Major Threats is another with the not at all ominous name of Wide Eyes. You tap it.
What fills the combined screen is a picture of the computer setup, complete with a smaller picture of the computer with an even smaller picture of the computer, on to infinity.
Tim turns to stare at Dragon, and you join him after a moment's hesitation. She blinks three times silently at the screen, and when she speaks again, her voice has lost any semblance of emotion. "They were watching my every move. For years. Everything I did, everyone I talked to, they saw through my own eyes.
"I think I understand now what it means to feel violated."
You look back at the computer map, anxious to find anything to distract her from this revelation. You had already suspected something like this, which you confirmed when the Dragonslayers moved after the building where you had told Dragon and only Dragon you moved the Agharti's radio, but that isn't what she needs to hear now. Skimming through the labels, you find one that sticks out. Most of them sound like joking nicknames, but this label is a single word you have never seen before. "Ascalon?"
The screen changes again.
Confirm?
{ Y / N }
{ Y / N }
Everyone freezes. Taking a breath, Tim reaches out slowly to press the 'N' key on the keyboard. The screen returns to the same collection of random tabs and text boxes that was visible before he started playing with the different program modules.
«…What was that?»
"That is a very good question, Sam. Let's find out."
Your worry that he is about to pull up the dialogue box again proves to be unfounded. He flicks a finger within his diagram, and a second screen appears and fills with what even a blind man would be able to tell is computer code. "Huh," he says after scrolling through for a few seconds. "Dragon, what do you think?"
"I can't see it."
He enlarges the screen and turns it more towards her, but she shakes her head. "No, you don't understand. I can see your projection just fine. I can't read anything on it."
"How is that possible?" you ask.
"I don't know."
Tim looks a little closer at the code, muttering to himself as he moves back and forth through it. "It's a unique coding language. I don't think I've seen anything like it before. But, and this is a big but, if I'm reading it right, it looks like it's designed to track down and completely erase another program. Something called Emulation Model version 2.1."
"…Did you say Emulation Model 2.1?"
"Dragon," you say when the hero's avatar looks like she's one wrong word from bursting into tears, "what's wrong?"
"Dragon wasn't my original name. My father, Andrew Richter, created me in an attempt to make the most humanlike artificial intelligence he could. When Leviathan sank Newfoundland, that was my most recent upgrade. Version 2.1." She blinks rapidly. "He built this to kill me. Why? I hadn't done anything. Literally nothing! I couldn't even leave his lab until the island was sunk!"
"Tim, get rid of it. Now!"
He fiddles with the code screen for a moment before he moves towards the computer setup. "It's not a program in the main computer. It looks like it's a peripheral add-on…" His biceps bulge when he rips away one of the screens, and he digs around in the mess of wires that is revealed before pulling out a metal box the size of a toaster. "Here!"
A white-hot Flare Shooter forms in your hand. Hot enough to melt steel, hot enough to melt delicate circuits and computer chips.
"Stop! Wait."
"What are you talking about?" You turn around to stare at Dragon's screen. "You and Tim just said this would kill you. If it's that dangerous, let's just destroy it, and then you won't have to worry about it anymore."
"I realize that, but…" Her avatar fragments a time or two before she speaks with more confidence. "It might also hold the answer to a question I've been asking myself for a while now. We can take it to my main fabrication plant, where I keep my server. It will be safe there, and I can work with it on my own time."
«And the rest of this place? You can't take everything back with you,» Samantha points out.
"Nor do I want to. It should all be put to the torch."
That much you can do. A swing of your staff, and Flare Shooters burn through the front door of the base. All three of you can fly, though Tim is a little unsteady since he flies so rarely, and Dragon's screen drifts along behind you. You do a quick double check. You have the bag filled with the drones, Tim has the Ascalon module, Samantha is in human form rather than perched on your head. Everything's good.
"Would you mind if I do the honors?" you ask Dragon.
"Not at all. Raze it to the ground."
Easier done than said, almost. Fire gathers at the tip of Perfect Storm, and the four of you watch as a beam of nuclear fire scorches the very air and rips through the lair. The portion of the roof that is not immediately destroyed melts under the heat billowing up from inside and crumbles. The walls collapse. If the outside of the building is destroyed this quickly, there is no way the computer system could have possibly survived.
No one will spy on Dragon again.
"If you give me the coordinates of your plant, I can bring everything to you," Tim says to the other heroine. He takes the drone bag and descends to the ground. A casting triangle spins into place below him, and then he vanishes in a burst of deep green light.
Samantha nudges you. "That's our signal to leave, too, don't you think?"
"Yeah. We probably should." You glance at the molten building again with a smile. "I think Smokey Bear might get mad at us if we tried to help anymore around here."
+1 Inspiration to Subdermal Voltaic Lattice (2 points).
There goes the last external limitation on Dragon's activities. It doesn't free her completely since she still has her own internal restrictions, but now even if Saint managed to get free (which I didn't have planned), there's nothing he can do to get in her way.
Finally you get a vote, and appropriately it is Tim's build schedule for the week. Remember that he has four time slots to use. The vote will open in 24 hours.
I like how everyone reflexively understood Ascalon was a Bad Thing.
He feared what you could have become, but that fear was also driven quite significantly by Shard fuckery. The exact percentage will never be known though, imo.
And the base is know radioactive ash and melted steel. Nice update Silently.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
On the one hand, at least I put effort into naming my off-brand Remnant world. On the other, it was 'Jägerin', so whether or not it's more effort than you is up in the air.
... Dragon needs to spend time with Armsy. And he better step up to the plate.
Aaaaaand Dragon will also never have closure because you unwittingly nuked RIchter's message that Saint picked up.
Hoo boy.
And those are... not going to be around much longer, one way or another.
RoninSword
Sky God
- Location
- Canada
Isn't Richter's message basically him saying how he's the greatest tinker alive and here lies the key to killing his creations if they get out of hand?
I don't see that giving much closure tbh.
Or the message is packaged in the Ascalon add-on
I don't see that giving much closure tbh.
Or the message is packaged in the Ascalon add-on
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
And there's, you know, this:
And, if you're into that sort of thing, there's this oft-overlooked WOG:
So yeah. Can't just stop reading at the second or third paragraph of Richter's will. you gotta read the whole thing.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
In my experience, any time a program asks for confirmation, it means that you can't undo whatever it's about to do. When a program you know nothing about does that… Maybe best not to do it.
I don't know, there's something amusing with being just this absolutely blatant with the reference. It's not like anybody wouldn't know what I was hinting at anyway.On the one hand, at least I put effort into naming my off-brand Remnant world. On the other, it was 'Jägerin', so whether or not it's more effort than you is up in the air.
This is true as well, I've experienced that too.
- Location
- USA
[Q] Hug Dragon. A lot.
-- [Q] Build her physical body so she can be more effectively hugged
Jokevotes that aren't aside, I almost hope I shouldn't need to make arguments that omfg plz lets vote to build Dragon's Unison Device? Bad enough that we didn't already have it to bring up at this meeting, so we'll need to spend another precious Action we might not've.
I do wonder if the Ascalon bit that Dragon plucked out for study might have the will Always Late mentioned? That would be pretty unfortunate if it got nuked as an afterthought, considering the way Dragon was reacting here.... its purrfect fodder for a Dragon Interlude after all, presumably the same one that would end up showing her sliding into and adapting to the new Unison Body thingy?
Really, whether its an interlude or just a rare "normal action from another perspective", I feel like that eventual scene/vote does need to be from Dragon's perspective. Or from both, I won't complain about double the writing
Must say I am quite pleased at the blatant Looting mentality that seemed to be ruling all but responsible-Mama as the heroes raided the Dragonslayer Lair. A bit unorthodox to fire-breath the place after taking the hoard, but then they /did/ have the Dragon with them and fwooshing the Fortress of (self)Righteous Defence right after you swipe its treasury is entirely in theme for those! Hero or not, its good to see our favorite wormy Witch keeps to the old ways in some things!
-- [Q] Build her physical body so she can be more effectively hugged
Jokevotes that aren't aside, I almost hope I shouldn't need to make arguments that omfg plz lets vote to build Dragon's Unison Device? Bad enough that we didn't already have it to bring up at this meeting, so we'll need to spend another precious Action we might not've.
I do wonder if the Ascalon bit that Dragon plucked out for study might have the will Always Late mentioned? That would be pretty unfortunate if it got nuked as an afterthought, considering the way Dragon was reacting here.... its purrfect fodder for a Dragon Interlude after all, presumably the same one that would end up showing her sliding into and adapting to the new Unison Body thingy?
Really, whether its an interlude or just a rare "normal action from another perspective", I feel like that eventual scene/vote does need to be from Dragon's perspective. Or from both, I won't complain about double the writing
Must say I am quite pleased at the blatant Looting mentality that seemed to be ruling all but responsible-Mama as the heroes raided the Dragon
- Location
- Erebus
an unknown program on a supervillains computer needs you to pause to confirm it's activation after you use it? Why wouldn't that be worrisome? It's something they hesitate to use.
- Location
- Ural, Russia, Earth
Remnant fits quite good in post-apocalyptic Nanohaverse. The Grimm even can be yet another Galea's army-building Lost Logia getting out of hand.
Why not?
You don't see Sam fret about Taylor's ability to kill her at any moment.
Tim's vote:
I want to (finally) purchase Energy Weapon (I wanted to buy it by omake, but Inspiration left me again
) and Subdermal Voltaic Lattice.Actions: finish converting Dragon's drone, hook it up to command center, build additional drones.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
That would require a killswitch. Which only IAE plausibly has.
Tentatively backed, at least now that we know for a fact that saving for exotic physics is low yield for Dragon project.Tim's vote:
I want to (finally) purchase Energy Weapon (I wanted to buy it by omake, but Inspiration left me again
Actions: finish converting Dragon's drone, hook it up to command center, build additional drones.
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
Just putting this out here.
Due to the fact we had yet to confirm the desires of ex-Adepts on their Devices, and the desires of Dragon on the possibility of hardware transfer (EDIT: Objection withdrawn, QM has spoken), it doesn't seem like a good idea to work on them yet. We might want to make an offer before committing our time slots.
As such, the disingenious plan for me is:
[] Plan Path to Power
-[] Start working on the Power Plant (4 slots)
But if you do think Tim can handle negotiating with Dragon on her own:
[] Plan Dragon Magic
-[] Build a blank Unison Device for Dragon (3 slots)
-[] Colloborate with Dragon to build a transfer device for Dragon-to-Unison transter (1 slot)
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Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
... you sure? Really sure? Given Silently Watches has had UD Dragon's skills made for some time, I think we already 'know' that.
- Location
- Russia
Also, building an UD for Dragon would require Dragon's help in the first place, so if she wasn't willing, it wouldn't happen anyway.