Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)

With the limit to one template mage for the near future, I'm thinking we should give it to Standstill, adding her AND Cat Sith to our adventuring forces, and team up Laura with Cassiel. This also has the advantage of allowing the vastly more useful parahuman power to remain ours.

I wonder how effective Missy would be with a Unison Device designed to partner with her. That would give her Master immunity while linked and let her keep a really useful power, unlike giving her a Device. Exact details will need to wait for after we see the results of her mutation, but we can still speculate and ponder.
 
I wonder how effective Missy would be with a Unison Device designed to partner with her. That would give her Master immunity while linked and let her keep a really useful power, unlike giving her a Device. Exact details will need to wait for after we see the results of her mutation, but we can still speculate and ponder.

Now this is a plan I can get behind.
 
I forget her original power level, but I think if she'd been C rank or higher and we'd had the new Device Mage option we probably would have done that instead of a Template for her.
She was in fact a C rank
I'm okay with Lacy not being a combatant. Using Mages and magic only for violence is almost criminally underutilizing what they're capable of.
I would completely agree if not for the detail that Lacey can't learn new spells without engaging in combat. As such, she needs to support allies in fights if she wants to get better at healing,, unless SW changes the rules, which I don't expect them to do.
Unless Silently retcons it so that Lacey can be a dedicated healbot and not be a template mage we can't leave her to be a non-combatant.
I've said in more than one occasion that the IE template was wasted on Lacey. Retconning...

IIRC, which I like to think I do with my own stories, she's only shown three spells in-story: Cover and Strike Boost in her interlude and then healing. So more starting spells than a C ranker should have, but if I put her in XP debt to cover Physical Heal as an "early purchase"... But then we have @LancerisDead buying Guardian Beast for her, which would deepen her debt...

I need to know if people would want to do this at all, but if there is some interest in essentially botching her template and converting her to normal Device mechanisms, I might put this up for a vote in 14.4
 
She was in fact a C rank




I've said in more than one occasion that the IE template was wasted on Lacey. Retconning...

IIRC, which I like to think I do with my own stories, she's only shown three spells in-story: Cover and Strike Boost in her interlude and then healing. So more starting spells than a C ranker should have, but if I put her in XP debt to cover Physical Heal as an "early purchase"... But then we have @LancerisDead buying Guardian Beast for her, which would deepen her debt...

I need to know if people would want to do this at all, but if there is some interest in essentially botching her template and converting her to normal Device mechanisms, I might put this up for a vote in 14.4
I'd be up for it personally. Putting the IE template on a mage we know will be willing to participate regularly in fights and be able to handle the stress of combat sounds better to me. While Lacey if a trustworthy person her having IE is a waste because of her pacifist personality. Nothing wrong with her having said mentality. Just giving her a template was a mistake.

Wonder if IE could be part of a redemption arc for Kurt?
 
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Which would be true if there weren't three (two and a half?) different ways of dealing with the EBs. Brute force from top level mages is only one of them.
Well, that's how I see it:

1. Brute force - we need a half-dozen of AA+ rank mages to bury the Endbringer in Breakers. The more mages we have the better, if we don't want them to drop dead immediately after the battle. Considering how incredibly rare high-ranking mages are, templates are basically the only way to gather enough of them.

2. Teleport the Endbringer into orbit and shoot it with Arc-en-Ciel - we need two teams.
- The support team needs four B+ rank mages with Boost Devices. It's much easier to find them than a half-dozen of AA+ rankers, of course, but they still are quite rare. Additionally, IEs amongst them will significantly boost our chances to succeed and survive thanks to their big reserves of mana, long spell list and summons.
- The strike team will need to actually pin the Endbringer down and hold it in place for the support team to do their part. Again, having templates amongst them will boost their chances to succeed and survive the experience.

3. Send a mega-bomb into Phantasm's dimension and blow up one of the Endbringers with it - the only plan that doesn't strictly demands powerful mages to brawl with the Endbringer. Still, will be good to have some to distract its attention from our preparations. It's also probably will work only once, and we'll need to evacuate Phantasm from her dimension and therefore lose an access to it.

So, templates are not exactly necessary to defeat the Endbringers, but it's always good to have some powerful mages, and templates are the most easy and practical way to acquire some.

I've said in more than one occasion that the IE template was wasted on Lacey.
And it wasn't a big deal when we could just make another IE or several. Now, when you declared she's the only one, it is a big deal.
 
All three of those are just different ways of blowing it up...

edit: TnT didn't work? Try C4.
 
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I've said in more than one occasion that the IE template was wasted on Lacey. Retconning...

IIRC, which I like to think I do with my own stories, she's only shown three spells in-story: Cover and Strike Boost in her interlude and then healing. So more starting spells than a C ranker should have, but if I put her in XP debt to cover Physical Heal as an "early purchase"... But then we have @LancerisDead buying Guardian Beast for her, which would deepen her debt...

I need to know if people would want to do this at all, but if there is some interest in essentially botching her template and converting her to normal Device mechanisms, I might put this up for a vote in 14.4
Personally, the reason for the whole "only templates are worthwhile" is because of the stated end goal of the quest. Kill the Endbringers.

Now as seen with Cassiel we don't need to kill them to remove them as a threat and fullfill the criteria, but as both Benny and Levi are no-go's for getting turned into Unison Devices and diplomancing them is a fools dream we're left with killing them. As I can't remember any Silver Bullet we could use we're left with brute force.

As was pointed out a bit up we got a few different ways of brute force but they all require at least a medium team of B+ mages(and some AA+ to pin them for the B mages but we got that with Taylor and one of each template plus whatever natural mage we find) and preferably AA+. Which means we got to do a whole lot of scanning/mutating and hoping for good rolls if we can't use templates to level up their core. Considering how much we scanned so far that's gonna take a while to say the least.

Now, that was before the Device rework that made them more useful but the basis still remains, we need a whole bunch of high level mages and templates was the go to method for that. If you say we can kill the Endbringers without that then I believe you but aside from possibly having Tim build a fleets worth of EB-killing weapons that's hopefully hiding behind that Large Weapon tech I don't see how.

Now, on the "Lacey wasting the IE Template". While that's true, especially with only learning spells from combat which she refuses to do, we got a healbot out of it which was good enough for most of us to be content but that was when we could give a second IE Template to someone else. Now when she is suddenly the sole IE Template that is very much a problem.

Retconning her to use a normal Device and simply putting her in debt on xp is fine by me but you also have a second option. Allow a second IE Template to be made which we can give to someone that will actually fight. As IAE's entire purpose is to massproduce Templates I assume the lockout is going to be OOC/Meta and not IC as that would conflict with the stated purpose and abilities of IAE so it should be something you could do.
 
And it wasn't a big deal when we could just make another IE or several. Now, when you declared she's the only one, it is a big deal.
Now when she is suddenly the sole IE Template that is very much a problem.
Pretty much this.
Circumstances matter!
I'm well aware. :rolleyes: That's the entire reason why I'm offering to "refund" her template and switch her to regular Device mechanics in the first place.
Retconning her to use a normal Device and simply putting her in debt on xp is fine by me but you also have a second option. Allow a second IE Template to be made which we can give to someone that will actually fight. As IAE's entire purpose is to massproduce Templates I assume the lockout is going to be OOC/Meta and not IC as that would conflict with the stated purpose and abilities of IAE so it should be something you could do.
I actually have an IC justification in mind for how it would work. As for why to refund the template, it has the advantage over just a second IE template in that regular Devices get passive XP, so Lacey would actually grow faster with a regular Device than she has been with a template.
 
IIRC, which I like to think I do with my own stories, she's only shown three spells in-story: Cover and Strike Boost in her interlude and then healing. So more starting spells than a C ranker should have, but if I put her in XP debt to cover Physical Heal as an "early purchase"... But then we have @LancerisDead buying Guardian Beast for her, which would deepen her debt...
I'm totally okay with refunding Guardian Beast if it makes things easier.

I mean, given he's strictly a non-combatant I say bend the rules a little and have her XP being 0, leaving her with her current spells. Seems like that'd be the simpler way out.
 
The human body is terribly optimized, transhumanism is inevitable and we started down that path a long damn time ago, the people who are against it should stop wasting their time and join the conversation on how to do it safely and responsibly instead.

(I'm talking both for Missy and real life humanity.)
You can't optimize it until you don't understand how is it exactly works. Especially the brain.
Any change can potentially cause unforeseen issues somewhere else.
 
I'm totally okay with refunding Guardian Beast if it makes things easier.

I mean, given he's strictly a non-combatant I say bend the rules a little and have her XP being 0, leaving her with her current spells. Seems like that'd be the simpler way out.
I was considering that, though I don't know that I would leave her with ALL her spells. Ring Bind, for instance, she has never once used. I would more likely send her out with 4 of her 9 slots filled: Cover, Strike Boost, Physical Heal, and Guardian Beast. Essentially the ones she has been seen or heard to use plus GB because that's honestly a spell I think any C- and B-ranker (and likely higher!) should have in their tool belt.
 
Realign 14.3.5
Realign 14.3.5

It should not come as a surprise that Dragon's manufacturing plant has a lounge room, but it does. After all, before being converted into a Unison Device and then hiring Tim, it was not as if she was in a position to enjoy physical comforts, and as this is one of her main plants, it is almost fully automated.

You do not ask why she had it built, though, in part because you can spot what looks almost like a nest made out of fluffy towels in the corner. If this room doubles as her bedroom, you would prefer not to bring too much potentially embarrassing attention to it.

Tim sits on the lone couch in the room, flipping through anatomical diagrams and holding an intense telepathic conversation with Dragon. You sit in a chair, just watching the rest of the room. Samantha leans against the wall behind you. Missy is the only person who seems at ease, sitting in another chair and letting the bright yellow electric gerbil climb all over her and softly smiling to herself.

With a sigh, Tim banishes the screens he had been examining back to Sextant's memory banks. "Missy."

"Yeah?"

"What you're asking for…" He frowns and scrubs at one cheek for a moment. "The surgery I could probably do with a reasonable margin of safety. Most of the hurdles I'd be concerned about I took care of when I replaced the muscles in your chest. But the mutation…"

She tilts her head. "You don't think you could do it?"

"I think it's insanely risky." Tim sighs. "I know we've done plenty of procedure on you already, but I'd really prefer if we had your guardian involved in this one."

He does not say 'parents', thankfully. You mentioned that to him at one point or another, but now that you think about it, you do not know if you ever told him who Missy's guardian actually is.

"You want me to ask Miss Militia for permission?" Missy asks in a scoffing voice. "No."

"She is your legal guardian. You can't keep her in the dark just because you don't want her to refuse to permit something. If you were not a cape and did not therefore have a legal identity that gives you wiggle room around the normal limits of your age, she would have needed to give her consent for any of the surgeries Tim has already done," Dragon reminds her. "This is a bigger change than giving you a high-tech prosthetic."

A sad smile slides onto Missy's lips. "There's a small problem with your plan. You two are reluctant to do this because you're worried about my safety. You're worried about me. If my concern was that Miss Militia would be hesitant about it or would say no because she was worried, too, I'd be willing to talk to her about it."

"You don't think she would be worried about you?"

Missy shakes her head. "Not in the way you are. She may be my legal guardian, but I don't trust her to make major decisions with my best interests in mind."

Silence follows in the wake of that bombshell.

"What… What makes you say that?" you finally ask. You are not sure you have ever seen Missy act this way. Angry and frustrated at being ignored by Miss Militia and Chevalier? Plenty of times. But not this resignation and dismissal.

"I spent two days in M/S quarantine," she reminds you. "I had lots of time and not much to do but think. I had plenty of things to think about, though. The difference between Missy and Vista was a big one. What I said about making a clean break from being Vista? That wasn't a spur of the moment thing." She grimaces. "I, uh, I've actually been working on my letter of resignation and all the paperwork that goes with it since we got back from Florida. I'm leaving the Wards."

You wince at that. "I guess you finally got fed up with Chevalier's restrictions?"

"No," she says, surprising you. "Or that's not the main reason, anyway. Actually, I think I understand what he was trying to do now. It just doesn't work, or at least won't work for me. He wanted me to separate being a hero from fighting criminals and villains. That doesn't make any sense. Fighting crime is the core of our job.

"What I need isn't to separate being Vista and acting like a hero. I need to learn how to be Missy and also be Vista. How to have a civilian life, not just a civilian name on paper. That's the biggest lesson I took away from this vacation." She sighs. "That's also why I have to quit the Wards. The Protectorate isn't somewhere I can learn to do that. We're always wearing our masks, figuratively and sometimes literally. There is no time to do anything outside of the Wards, either. There's always some training exercise or course we have to take or something else. It's funny," she adds, almost as though she is talking to herself, "but I used to like that part. I was always busy with something. Now I see the flaws. I need time and I need space to figure out my life, and I can't get it while I'm still part of the Protectorate."

"Which means you have already given up being Vista," Dragon says, earning a nod from Missy.

You look back and forth between the two of them. "Wait. Why does she have to give up being Vista? I thought you just said you wanted to learn how to be both?"

Missy waves for Dragon to explain things, then has to catch Zeus before he tumbles off her shoulder.

"A Protectorate cape's identity isn't just their name. It is their brand. The Protectorate made a large business out of selling cape merchandise, and in order to protect their claim to the profits they retain ownership of their capes' names and appearances and the associated image rights. It's part of the contract any cape joining any division of the Protectorate has to sign.

"From a marketing protective, Missy isn't Vista. She was just using Vista's likeness, and if she quits, she would no longer have the Protectorate's permission to do so. They, however, can continue to produce Vista-themed merchandise if they so choose, although with you being relatively new to Philadelphia and a Ward, they probably won't."

"That's…" You do not even know the right word for what you're feeling.

"Abhorrent?" Dragon suggests. "Absurd? Greedy? Yes, it is. Like I said when they let us out of quarantine, I have many reasons why I never joined the Protectorate. They have good people, as we have seen," she says with an offhanded wave towards the soon-to-be ex-Ward, "but as an organization? I have my reservations. It makes me extremely glad that being a Unison Device, I now no longer have to follow every one of their orders against my will."

"Anyway, that's going to cause friction all on its own," Missy says as she returns to her explanation. "But the main reason I don't trust Miss Militia is something I realized when I was deciding what to do. When she and Chevalier told me I couldn't patrol, they said it was because it was Protectorate rules and breaking them would bring the attention of the Youth Guard down on them. Then they talked about how it wasn't safe and other things, but if safety was the real hurdle something could have been arranged, some workaround or precaution or something. Nothing ever was. When they forbade me from using the combat arm, it was because a Ward with an armored arm and a particle cannon wasn't a good look for the Protectorate. Every time they said I couldn't do this or had to do that, the reason was never because it would help me or make me better. It was always because it was what was best for the company."

She looks at you again. "You said that I'm one of only a few Shaker 9s on this continent. You're right. When I leave, I take that power with me. That's not in the Protectorate's interests. And if you said you wanted to do something that would get rid of that power forever? That's even worse because then there's no chance that it can be brought back into the fold."

"Do you really think that would be the basis for Miss Militia's decision? Not that she would have justifiable concerns about what it could do to you?" asks Tim.

Missy bobs her head around as she considers her next words. "Chevalier I can understand making his decisions about me based on what the Protectorate needs. He's just my superior officer, and I'm the problem child. I get it. Miss Militia parroting the same reasons, never explaining why the decision is best for me personally? Never saying 'you need to make more friends' or 'I think you need to talk to someone about what happened in Brockton Bay before you go back on the streets'? Even the fact that she didn't have a word to say against the way things were run in the Bay but now all the rules Chevalier says I have to follow are set in stone? That isn't the behavior of a concerned guardian. Not as I see it, anyway, and I have first hand experience with parents who cared more about something else than they did me. I know what that looks like.

"If you ask her for permission to change my power, she will tell you no. But I guarantee it will be because she's looking out for the Protectorate, not Missy Biron."


By popular demand, the suggestion that Missy talk to Miss Militia about the Linker Core mutation. You can now see why I was laughing maniacally.

And with that out of the way, it is time to vote.


[ ] Supervise the PRT's Gears (max 6 slots, 1 tech point for every 3 slots)
[ ] Help out the Enforcers (max 6 slots, 1 tech point for every 3 slots)
[ ] Resurgerize Missy and adapt her old arms (2 slots, 0 tech points)
[ ] Brew Linker Core mutagenic serum for Missy (1 slot, 1 tech point)
[ ] Analyze Sparky's cannon (3 slots, 1 tech point)
[ ] Pop Grey Boy's bubbles (max 4 slots, 3 bubbles per slot, 0 tech points)
[ ] Something else from the "Ideas for Tim to Build" threadmark
[ ] Write-in (subject to my approval)

Also, if you wish to spend any of Tim's accumulated tech points, vote for what skill you want as well.
 
Yeah, that sounds like Miss Militia alright. Always following orders.

[ ] Brew Linker Core mutagenic serum for Missy (1 slot, 1 tech point)

General prep for the conversion, I don't think it will 'go off' if we decide to delay for some reason afterwards.

[ ] Pop Grey Boy's bubbles (max 4 slots, 3 bubbles per slot, 0 tech points)

We're taking a Ward away from the protectorate, some unequivocally good PR would be brilliant to counter their options.
 
Great chapter, and I think that your analysis of Miss Militia is very true to canon.
[ ] Brew Linker Core mutagenic serum for Missy (1 slot, 1 tech point)

General prep for the conversion, I don't think it will 'go off' if we decide to delay for some reason afterwards.

[ ] Pop Grey Boy's bubbles (max 4 slots, 3 bubbles per slot, 0 tech points)

We're taking a Ward away from the protectorate, some unequivocally good PR would be brilliant to counter their options.
Agreed on both counts. Plus, Grey Boy and the S9 are gone, so there's no reason not to de-freeze those bubbles, and the reward money for popping those bubbles should come in very handy.
Again, Missy is more mature and aware than the voters, it's like people forget MM was willing to shoot a teenager in the head over PRT secrets.
When did this happen? Was it in Worm or Ward?
 
General prep for the conversion, I don't think it will 'go off' if we decide to delay for some reason afterwards.
The general idea of brewing it now is that Missy can take it and then have her magic scanned before the next build vote so you don't have to cool your heels if you want to give her a Device.

Also, you still have a slot you can fill with something else.

We're taking a Ward away from the protectorate
Strictly speaking, you aren't taking a Ward away so much as that Ward is leaving of her own free will and was doing so even before she knew magic was an option. I had that planned as soon as you guys voted to bring her on vacation and exposed her to Kayleigh. Though the Protectorate would absolutely try to frame it that way, yes.
Again, Missy is more mature and aware than the voters, it's like people forget MM was willing to shoot a teenager in the head over PRT secrets.
When did this happen? Was it in Worm or Ward?
It was in Worm. The almost-shoot-ee was Tattletale. Because of course it was. I THINK over Defiant being Armsmaster?
 
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Just caught up again.

Do we want to use one of Tim's build slots to make a Device of some sort for Sarah/Standstill this time, or wait until next time?
 
What I'd like to do: brew the LCM serum, put it in Missy's hands, and research ways to make it safer at the same time. It's up to her whether she waits for it to be safer, and we'd like her to wait for our results, but if we take too long, she can still take the serum.

Also I'd like to latch onto a group we can use to recruit potential mages. We might be able to pick up any remaining Privateers who have any good will toward us, and we can probably join with the Adepts.
 
Long-time reader over on ff.net, first time voter over here. Great story!

It's funny that 2 of the 3 ongoing Worm/MGLN stories I'm reading now are at the "magic up Missy" stage :) (And the 3rd is set in MGLN-land, so Missy's not available, or I'm sure she'd be asking for a device there too...)

[ ] Brew Linker Core mutagenic serum for Missy (1 slot, 1 tech point)
[ ] Pop Grey Boy's bubbles (max 4 slots, 3 bubbles per slot, 0 tech points)
 
Strictly speaking, you aren't taking a Ward away so much as that Ward is leaving of her own free will and was doing so even before she knew magic was an option. I had that planned as soon as you guys voted to bring her on vacation and exposed her to Kayleigh. Though the Protectorate would absolutely try to frame it that way, yes.
Actually, thinking about it, can Missy actually resign? She's technically an orphan and literally a ward of the state, in addition to being a Ward. Legally speaking, they all but own her. Not that that's going to stop Taylor and co., but it vastly complicates the situation.
 
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