While I agree with most of that (especially the part about leaving if the PRT tries to get more information from us), there are a couple of things I want to point out. First, Vicky might tell her boyfriend Gallant all about the 2 new capes. He then will probably feel obliged to share with the Protectorate and the PRT. I'm not sure if she'd be willing to listen to us if we tell her not to, but hopefully Lady Photon will talk to her?
I thought that I should go back and clarify what I'm trying to get New Wave to do about us. I don't think that New Wave could really hide our abilities, given that plenty of gang members have seen us use them and we will continue to use them in the future. What I'm hoping for is that they'll downplay them a bit, keep quiet about the limits we mentioned, and avoid sharing any suspicions they might have about us.
For example, Lady Photon saying, "Hastur got us all close to the targets invisibly and proceeded to destroy their cellphones, attack them with emotional overloads, and obstruct their use of firearms, all while staying outside the building!" gives a different impression than "Hastur kept up an invisible zone around himself that we used to get close to the targets and then kept Panacea safely invisible outside during the attacks. He also helped out with his telekinesis and emotional projections whenever he saw an opportunity."
While I know that Vicky was smart enough to take a college course in high school, she's more likely to complain to Gallant about Hastur's dislike of her aura and his emotional overload attack than mention the specific ranges that Hastur gave for his abilities. I think that she's also rather arrogant (canon? fanon?) so she'll hopefully downplay Hastur's abilities and contributions in favor of her own. @
Z488411, how likely is Vicky to mention Siona's strange comments about Masks to Gallant? If it's somewhat likely, how many points would it take to stop her from doing so?
I was thinking that most of these people will certainly be put under drugs to avoid too many crisis as it tends to be systematic in some places when you have a shell shocked patient, you drug them to either sleep the edge off or to dull their reactions to the trauma. I wasn't proposing we stay the night, I was saying we could accompany them to the center that will hold them and just emit calming waves and emotions. Become a Soothing Presence, and internal warmth diffuser. Not put a mental seal or anything, just reassure them that their saviors won't abandon them to unknowns like hot potatoes after doing their Good Deed then washing their hands off them. Some there are kids, they'll latch on to those who actively took them out of this and react badly from being separated.
Spending a good three hours helping them find rest and get calm enough to not need restraining bonds (in hospital you sometimes have to handcuffs patients to their beds to stop them from hurting themselves, even when doing so is incredibly bad for their mental state). The girls will see that those lives are out of danger, they are being taken care of (believing that someone going away in an ambulance is gonna be ok and seeing them cleaner in a bed are worlds apart). That will help the two friends I think, better than leaving after the screams and blood and painpainpain. Even getting a 'well done' from Heroes won't make their current state better.
I mean, hypothetically you see a wounded dog on the roadside and take him to a veterinarian: most people wait a little in the clinic for news about the dog's status, wants updates on their health and some might even decide to keep the dog. You don't just drop off the canine in front of a vet and then go your merry way, "whohoo I helped a poor doggy, imma such a good person".
You feel responsible. You care.
Edit: I may have badly worded the thing about drugs: their state and distress means that they normally would need to put them on heavy drugs, that have high risks of being addictive (seeking chemical escape is unfortunately the fate of some of them) what we can do is help them be less terrified/panicked/our of their minds so they either won't be put under such drugs or (most likely) under less heavy ones. A few hours' worth of a calming and safe Aura won't erase their trauma in any way. It'll just make the first care easier ( these people will need to be cleaned up and that might a very difficult thing to live through for some of them, especially those who cannot do it by themselves).
We'd just be around to help take the edge off, we certainly won't become a miracle cure to mental trauma. And Siona can help distract the younger ones with her little tricks and grace.
Huh, that's pretty interesting and sad. While I think that Siona and Hastur will certainly give the PRT a way to contact them if the victims need anything, I'm not sure that the PRT will want unknown capes near them right now, especially when they can call on Gallant instead. I hope they do. I don't think I've seen this use of Gallant's abilities before. I'm also not sure that the rescued individuals would want to be near Hastur. Siona was at least participating in the attack visibly, but Hastur only attacked from a distance and looks rather strange.
It's probably also better for Taylor and Emma to get some rest. I think that Taylor at least was described as being out of energy at the end. Plus, she's only really been using emotional projection as an attack and a distraction. She might want to practice using it to calm down Siona and Grue first before trying it on anyone who really needs it.
Finally, I don't want the rescued individuals to be associated with Hastur and Siona on a ongoing basis because that might make them targets for any gangs that get upset about the capes' activities. Contributions of money and possibly medical treatments are probably ok, but if it looks like the capes are invested in their welfare, then that means hurting them is a way of indirectly attacking the two.
But that'd go and be distributed to other branches, and cauldron. We can invest it locally better.
On one hand, it seems kind of mean to steal all the money when the PRT is going to do all the work of arresting Coil, especially since they're underfunded and had to do many expensive security checks to find the moles in the PRT. On the other hand, how would Hastur and Siona explain knowing that the PRT was going to arrest Coil, to leave some money behind for them? Either way, they should make sure to leave their sign behind so that the PRT doesn't blame the other person who could hack Coil's accounts and knew about him- Danny.
I suggest that we donate some of the money we steal from Coil to the police and New Wave (and possibly the PRT and the Protectorate, depending on whether we steal all of it). One big public contribution, however, should be cleaning up the Boat Graveyard with local workers. I know that this is a fairly typical project for stories that try to improve the city, but I'm actually planning to use this as a bait for the gangs. If Hastur and Siona make a big deal about how cleaning up the Boat Graveyard symbolizes how they're going to clean up the city, then hopefully any upset gang members will attack the cleanup instead of a civilian neighborhood. The local workers will be warned and paid extra for the danger, and we can hire retired PRT members as security to keep everyone safe until we can get there to capture the attackers. I'd rather Shine pollute the Boat Graveyard than another person's home.
