- Location
- New Jersey, USA
Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)
- Thread starter Silently Watches
- Start date
Arc 11 is the arc we just finished. Arc 12 will be the Endbringer fight. We've already been informed that Arc 13 is going to be "special" before Arc 14 is back to our normal weekly choices.
Ugh. I wish we'd spent more time with Kayleigh and Calieach. I bet one of them will die in Arc 13.
Which means one of the characters with the most chance for great magic potential and potentially rare magic will likely be lost. Given how other than Vista they are the ones Taylor spent the most time with iirc.
Which means one of the characters with the most chance for great magic potential and potentially rare magic will likely be lost. Given how other than Vista they are the ones Taylor spent the most time with iirc.
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- Location
- Ural, Russia, Earth
What would have happened if we refused to build an Unison Device for her? If Taylor had started to poking the Fallen instead in hope to actually save Cassiel?
It would be very risky, of course, but Taylor's death is the last thing Ziz needed.
I, for one, didn't consider them valuable enough to seek a way to not give them up.
That's... underwhelming, to be honest. Tinkertech is not even so widespread.
It could have been really useful against Bakuda, I suppose. Except, would Tim still be able to study damaged bombs?
Accord?
- I'm especially disappointed in the loss of the Leo vial. One of the characters named in this AAR could have really benefited from that.
To be precise, two Enforcers, committed to ending the Endbringer menace, found out the truth of their nonmagical origin and decided to not inform their superiors about it. Which is kinda imply that the TSAB as a whole may not consider aliens genociding Unadministrated Worlds something worth fussing about.
For me, it wasn't. What was a surprise is that Vista has a way out of Wards all this time and still didn't use it.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Well, once you guys voted to have Tim build her a Device, yeah.
Nope, that vote didn't win.
That would have been interesting.
NotInventedHere
MSV, Desert Class
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- The Leo vial, on the other hand, was a defensive power that lets the cape absorb physical blows and store that energy to use as fuel for bursts of superspeed.
- I'm especially disappointed in the loss of the Leo vial. One of the characters named in this AAR could have really benefited from that.
... So, the Leo power is a defensive power that absorbs blows, and Kayleigh (the only character named who could possibly be being referred to) could really have benefited from having it. So... because we didn't social Kayleigh and Laura enough, Kayleigh dies. (And possibly Laura turns on us because of it.) Joy.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
I love the guesses as to who I think would benefit from the Leo vial. I suppose I'll have to insert this character into the story later. That's an interesting subplot there, and recruitable character.
EDIT: Now it isn't like I was shoving this character in your face at every opportunity. It was more a subtle slide in, so I shouldn't and wasn't EXPECTING you to notice something off the bat. You guys just might want to do a little patrolling in arc 14.
EDIT: Now it isn't like I was shoving this character in your face at every opportunity. It was more a subtle slide in, so I shouldn't and wasn't EXPECTING you to notice something off the bat. You guys just might want to do a little patrolling in arc 14.
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serra2
Himouto! Sylvanas-chan
The main problem I had with the vial is that I could not see any reason we would have used it? It's a vial, filled with unknown goop, that could produce unknown, possibly life-altering consequences to the person it is applied to. At least with the mutation thing we have the person producing them on hand to explain what effects they produce, with the vial we don't even have that.
- Location
- Ural, Russia, Earth
That Jujak guy?
I reread Lacey interlude, and it seems he didn't use any powers against gangsters. Could it be he just a normie in a fancy costume?
Even if Kayleigh dies, why would we get the blame? No one except our inner circle and the Triumvirate knows about the vials.
NotInventedHere
MSV, Desert Class
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Because we're a powerful cape who could have done *something*, and because the last time someone didn't get socialed enough we got the whole mess with the Privateers, so I'm kinda twitchy and paranoid about it.
NotInventedHere
MSV, Desert Class
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Looking over the named characters, our options... ... ........... hmmmm.
Hm.
How sure are we that Jujak is actually a parahuman?
Nothing in 11.l features him actually using any kind of power at all. Is he pulling a Batman?
EDIT: Ninja'd by Shaseyu
- Location
- Ural, Russia, Earth
Laura is a powerful cape too. More so, she's Kayleigh's BFF since forever, while Taylor knows them only for several months.
If Kayleigh actually dies, I propose we will turn against Laura because she should have done something, not the other way around.
- Location
- Georgia
I and some others tried to convince people that giving both vials to Alexandria was a major waste. I even voted against giving them over at all until it looked like the best I could do would be to mitigate the damage. Partly, I think the Kayleigh-hate voting block wanted us to throw them away specifically so she couldn't be given one.
Sidestep in this case refers to getting the information and good will with Alexandria without having to sacrifice either vial, as I understand it.
So, you wanted us to pour them down the sink because you didn't see an immediate use for them? Giving Alexandria both of them was effectively doing just that, as the most likely use they'll be put to is giving Eidolon a little power back, power that will most likely have absolutely no impact whatsoever on our part of the story.
As far as I know, it was never explicitly said whether Cauldron capes had the conflict drive. Capes created through them tend to be enormously more stable, but whether this was a case of no conflict drive or simply the lack of PTSD thanks to not needing to Trigger was never explicitly stated that I am aware of.
Taylor and Tim's deaths would have been more a reaction to how pissed she was, rather than as part of a plan to make us do that. If we had gone after the Fallen instead of building one, I'm sure Ziz would have kept trying to manipulate us into doing what she wanted.
My take on the matter is that they don't have any official laws or regulations involving aliens of any stripe, as there is no evidence that the TSAB has ever encountered any aliens. They only have access to alternate Earths, have an ability to travel between them that appears vastly less efficient and rapid than the Entities use, and as a result, seem to only know about a few hundred habitable worlds. When you consider how vast space is and the apparent lack of FTL*, that they've never encountered actual aliens is honestly far more believable than if they had encountered aliens. We do not know if FTL is at all possible in this setting. It could be that travelling to other star systems would take years for even the fastest ships racing to the nearest stars, while travelling sideways to alternate Earths can be accomplished nearly instantly with dimensional transfer. The benefits of spreading out in space instead of time is simply too costly for people to gravitate towards the former.
I fully expect that the unofficial debrief from this mission will involve convincing the admirals that yes, this really was an inimical alien race from beyond the stars and a set of new protocols being developed in response to this new information. It's just that trying to do that first might result in either them getting recalled immediately to have the situation analyzed or them getting explicit orders to not interfere with the Endbringers so they could be studied.
As for Arc 13, it might start with Laura getting arrested by the new PRT semi-capes. There's lots of ways this could go wrong. I was one of the people who voted every single week for doing stuff with them, so I can at least take some small solace in knowing I did what I could and failed.
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Spectral Waltz
Scatterbrained Writer
- Location
- Walking the Endless Corridors
Your point? I'm still not clear on how we could have possibly done that, our only real bargaining chip was the vials.
- Location
- Ural, Russia, Earth
The easiest way I see is to let Taylor hunt the Fallen for several weeks without big results (if the Fallen were easy to catch, they would have been dealt with long time ago) and after that send her a new dream: "The Fallen plan to kill me in two weeks (because they found out about our connection and are torturing me demanding I use it against you; because they scared of you and plan big human sacrifice to sic Endbringers on you; because something-something, help me, Taylor Hebert, you're my only hope)."
After that, without any information about Cassiel's whereabouts, an Unison Device would have been our only way to save her.
Of course, it would have also made players angrier after the revelation. [X] Throw Ziz back into the box intensifies
I'm pretty sure they start to act in the beginning of Arc 14, and their targets will be fliers, which the Winter Hill doesn't have, if I remember correctly.
It says how right in the AAR:
Alexandria wanted vials so we could have just sidestepped her request by taking her to the Cauldron base.
Spectral Waltz
Scatterbrained Writer
- Location
- Walking the Endless Corridors
And we were supposed to figure that out how? If it didn't say so, I'd be doubtful that would work, Alexandria is emphatically not a reasonable authority figure.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
It's amazing how reasonable people are when 1) you aren't a villain she had to come to Brockton Bay specifically to stop and 2) have what she really REALLY wants. As for figuring it out,
There are enough lateral thinkers and rules lawyers playing along I expected SOMEONE would test me to see if it was possible. Would have been nice to surprise you with a positive answer to an off the wall question for once.
Guess the lesson is that if we aren't going to bother to social people enough they should be considered expendable for then purpose of the quest?
Well. If Kayleigh dies Taylor will have even less of a incentive to social at all instead of just going power level however she can to eliminate the villains. Why bother trying to form new social bonds with anyone without power when they will either betray her (Emma) or die on her (Kayleigh potentially)? Taylor is already very strained in her social ability and Kayleigh dying and Taylor going through another bout of pain related to forming friendship that is broken one way or another would just reinforce the lesson taught by Emma's betrayal. She'll probably be more closed off to those she doesn't already know afterwards.
Well, guess we'll see how much being Taylor is suffering in Arc 13.
Edit: Without more extensive effort at social and gaining friends and subsequently more mages that Taylor can trust, whatever eventual victory that the quest might end in will probably not feel like much of a one to Taylor if she just closes herself off to the world.
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- Location
- Georgia
We were asked about finding vials, but also about exploring the base. Giving her access to the base might not have satisfied her on its own, as far as we knew, but bringing her to the base was definitely an option. We even discussed that option before the vote to give her the vials, and it came up again during that vote as well, iirc.
The interlude said their current plan was to start with taking out the fliers, all of whom are new to town, as it was mentioned shortly after we moved to Philly that there were no flying capes on either side of the law.
There are enough lateral thinkers and rules lawyers playing along I expected SOMEONE would test me to see if it was possible. Would have been nice to surprise you with a positive answer to an off the wall question for once.
I did bring it up. I didn't ask you specifically, and I know I... tend to ramble. A lot. Which gets even worse when my head is less clear, so I can understand missing it.
Then again, it's certainly possible that I meant to bring it up and forgot. As I recall, though, somebody else shot it down and that was the only response I saw to the idea. I then moved to building drones to map the base and maybe find other vials; even unlabled vials would have been plenty to offer Alexandria, after all.
If she dies because we didn't talk to her, then, yes, that would be a terrible twist to throw in. However, all SW said was that s/he didn't feel bad about what was going to happen because we didn't socialize with them. It's entirely possible that what we missed out on was information that would have helped us, rather than help we could have offered them.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Keep in mind that you guys are assuming what I have planned is bad, or even that it involves Kayleigh. Plus I suggested you patrol…