Worth pointing out that host!Taylor was basically just smacking bugs into the trio. You can safely assume they aren't, like, three big guys, but that doesn't seem like conditions Weaver could use to get a meaningful look at any of them. The rest of your argument is decent, but assuming gathered by host!Taylor borrowing Weaver's power (but obviously not her experience controlling it) is as good as data Weaver herself could gather is...well, it's not an assumption the QM is making.
...Ah. for the record, I thought Weaver would have gotten a better look when she took over later in the chapter, which was clearly an incorrect assumption.
Well, if we're walking into a trap, at least it's for reasons that make sense in-character. Host looks up to Weaver and is trusting her snap assumptions even when she maybe shouldn't. Ultimately we are here for an interesting story after all, not just Taylor avoiding any meaningful problems.
I'm not surprised this didn't change, but I wanted to wait the full 24-hours-and-change just in case. Especially since one or two votes absolutely could have changed the outcome.
You probably could have prevented my writer's block, yeah. Then again, you probably could have made it worse, too.
Speaking of which, the next update is taking long enough that it got tangled in other things I have to do. But now I can theoretically focus on it, so...hopefully I'll get somewhere in the next couple of hours?
[X] Sneak through the trees; wait for an opening before attacking. [Lotophage]
-[X] Have Weaver stick some subtle bugs on the Undersiders [All]
Watch me, Weaver said as she started to maneuver—gnats? Little fly-like insects in the cloud of darkness.
Cirrus was piloting Taylor's body—she obviously had the most experience using her power, and hence had the lowest chance of noisily crashing into something—so Weaver took the opportunity to show Taylor how to bug people without alerting them.
The first thing you need to do is not hit them with a big swarm of bugs all at once.
Thanks, I figured that one out on my own.
Weaver went on to explain the rest. Using the smallest bugs that can get on the targets. Places where the bugs would be hard to see and impossible to feel. What parts of the body were most likely to have clothes over them—places you could assume they wouldn't feel, even if you couldn't see what they were wearing.
Until Weaver's explanations trailed off.
Weaver?
Trying to remember what the Undersiders' early costumes were like.
Huh? Why?
You're right, it's probably fine.
Taylor had no idea what Weaver was talking about. Something about these Undersiders was putting her in a weird mood.
Meanwhile, the Undersiders were still standing around. It was increasingly clear that they were talking—maybe arguing. They were stepping around a bit, gesturing. Sometimes one of the shorter ones turned as if they were going to walk away.
I'm not the Undersider expert, Lotophage mused, but it looks like they're about to do something.
Or convince themselves not to do something, Cirrus responded. Seems like the only difference between what they were doing earlier and what they're doing now is we can see 'em better.
What do you think we should do? Skein asked.
Rattle their cage a little. We've got bugs, don't we?
If we set some bugs on them, they'll start looking for bugs again. Who knows what they'd do then?
So don't attack them directly. Raise some buzz, remind them we're here, make them do something.
We don't know what they'd do.
So?
Lotophage sighed. Right now we have the initiative. But if we don't have some kind of plan, we can't use it. We'll be reacting to them, they'll be reacting to us, it's practically a level playing field.
I mean, they don't know where we are yet, but we know where they are.
See? The host agrees with me!
I didn't say that. Weaver, what do you think?
...
Weaver?
She's focused on...something. I wish she'd tell us what was bothering her, but...well, it's never been easy to get her to tell us stuff.
She's usually pretty open about stuff relevant to cape stuff, though. She's always giving us advice. This is something else.
Taylor took a moment to survey the scene. A handful of buildings were in the hundred yards or so between the treeline and the highway. The Undersiders' darkness was partly behind the casino and partly behind a nearby gas station, with the Undersiders being sort of in the middle.
Taylor couldn't tell exactly where they were relative to the buildings—Weaver was good at mapping the input she got from the bugs onto the world she saw, or maybe didn't even need to use her own eyes any more, but Taylor had only practiced with Weaver's powers when she insisted on it.
There were a couple of cars in the Ruby Dreams's enormous parking lot—probably guards or something on the night shift. The gas station was open, and also had a couple cars. Someone who had pulled up to fill their car, and two other cars besides.
The Undersider who wanted to walk away had crossed their arms, tapping their foot. The other short one was clearly restless, but stayed put. The tall one was walking around a bit, the front of his torso pointing towards the road.
I don't think they want to be seen.
Huh?
The way they're acting...they know someone's watching, so they're just huddling in the darkness instead of going wherever they were going to go. One wants to go do that, or maybe just run, but definitely not stand around and wait for us to do something.
Wow.
It's not that hard to guess. From how much they're moving, but still staying put, and knowing they freaked out about the bugs...
Okay. Lotophage, you were talking about plans.
It's harder to plan when I have no idea what they're going to do, but...Recant sounds like the one with the most disruptive power. If we can knock him out, we can fight Grue without much problem, and the Thinker should be easy to deal with after that. Probably.
Which one's the big guy? Cirrus asked. Because if it's not Regent, the big guy could wreck us if we don't wreck him first.
Couldn't we use bugs to take him out?
How? There's some spiders around, but not that many, and the only stinging bugs I can find are one wasp nest on the other side of the highway. Weaver might be able to think of something, but I've got nothing.
I— Skein paused. I'm more concerned about Regent than the big guy. I think we can take him, if we can control our body.
Well—Weaver, you up for some input?
...Tattletale's the biggest threat, if she's there. Never underestimate Thinkers.
But picking a target isn't much good if we don't have something to do to them.
Weaver, Skein, and you probably have more mano a mano experience than the Undersiders put together, and none of them have any decent combat powers. Use bugs and maybe drones to distract the ones we're not fighting, keep mobile.
I'd rather not rely on the idea that we're strong enough to just beat up three supervillains at the same time.
Do you have a better—
A wolf howled in the distance, startling the tall Undersider, which startled the less restless short one, who knocked a small moth off his back. Taylor quickly grabbed control of it to get it back on them.
What was that? Weaver said something about dogs—
No, it's not her. It's just a normal animal.
The tall Undersider stepped forward and plucked the moth off the short one. He waved it around, probably making some kind of point to the others.
That—that's probably my fault.
It's okay, Skein said comfortingly. Everyone makes mistakes. And I don't think letting the Undersiders know we have bugs on them is that big of a—
The restless Undersider bolted, followed by the tall one and then the other one.
Okay, this seems like my fault.
I don't think it is.
Guys, we need to get a move on!
Two decisions
Who will you pursue?
[X] Target: The tall one [???]
[X] Target: The restless one [???]
[X] Target: The other one [???]
What will you do to them?
[X] Action: Punch them and hope for the best [Cirrus]
[X] Action: Try to separate them from the others somehow [Lotophage]
[X] Action: Write-in [MOB]
(You may write in additional actions not directed at the target, but please don't tag them with "Action".)
Only one option actually had multiple votes, but it only had two. Aaand I'm not seeing great ways to integrate bits of the others. Especially the "get an autograph" option.
I like the idea of host!Taylor pretending to be several superheroes with different powers rather than one girl with a bunch of voices in her head. Let's see if y'all can pull it off!
Probably should have rolled for Cirrus's deductions, but good lord I don't want to starve you of information because of bad RNG!
I keep procrastinating on the next logical stage of the targets' plan because I don't want y'all to feel like the twist comes out of nowhere (especially with the modifications that my belated realization required), and it feels like if I revealed it before this update a lot of you would think it did.
But now I can't write them doing anything else, so nothing you say can convince me to procrastinate because my foreshadowing might have been too subtle. Instead I'll worry whether I'm beating everyone over the head with it.
I need to stop borrowing trouble from the future and just post this. This probably wouldn't be half as big a problem if I'd thought about whether the original scenario made sense either earlier or not at all.
It's interesting to see how the Taylors (especially Cirrus) have drifted from how I originally envisioned them. I imagined Cirrus as being a bit of a doormat most of the time, but she needs to be more passionate to be a presence in Taylor's head, and all four main Taylors need some presence at this stage in the narrative. So I've been putting more focus on the "optimistic rookie" part of her character, making her almost...cocky?
Once the Taylors finish this patrol, I'll probably work on trying to synthesize how I've been writing Cirrus and how I meant to write her into something clearer and more intentional. And I'll give Skein and Lotophage a second glance, too; I'm pretty sure I've been consistent with what character I've given Wonder Weapon.
I'm glad someone brought this up, actually. I'd thought about saying something like this in the OP or something, but I didn't want to sound like I was desperate to mooch ideas off the community. But responding to a specific question is another thing entirely!
If you have a Taylor to suggest, I'd be glad to accept it! I'm not going to include fanfic Taylors in the roster unless the fic's author asks for it/gives permission, and the right situation would need to arise for anything suggested, but aside from that the sky (and my suspension of disbelief) is the limit!
And yes, more Taylors will be added to the roster over time, if the game doesn't die before then. I wanted to start this quest off on a high-action note rather than an exposition dump, so I haven't had a good chance to explain the details of Taylor's powers, but the short version is that you'll get a chance to add additional Taylors at certain times—theoretically whenever Taylor gets stressed/imperiled enough, in practice when I think it'd be dramatic. (It's nowhere near the scale of a second trigger event, but it should get a bit trickier each time—Taylor has as bit of a roster as she's likely to get without getting into cape fights or something. Speaking of which...would this have worked better as a segue into the next update?)
[X] Target: Write-in: All of then
[X] Action: Write-in: Fly small insects - mosquitos maybe - into their ear canals. Once there, buzz around their inner ear to make them too panicked/distracted/nauseated to do anything.
Also: Taylor's to bring in!
- Deputy Taylor. One of the most well adjusted Taylors out there, with deep knowledge of the PRT's inner workings.
- Sand and Fury Taylor. Very strong Shaker/Thinker power, but more importantly, a well-done gender-swapped Taylor. I'd be highly amused to read *that* dialogue.
[X] Plan
-[X] Target: The other one [???]
-[X] Action: Try to separate them from the others somehow [Lotophage]
--[X] Create Illusions to have him follow his team mates in the wrong direction. Then repeat the process on the Tall one.
--[X] If the nervous one comes too close use: fly small insects - mosquitos maybe - into their ear canals. Once there, buzz around their inner ear to make them too panicked/distracted/nauseated to do anything.
The goal should be to have them back off from their crime, since we can't arrest them.
It would also be preferable not to be seen.
We should also remember that Coil is likely to use his power in order to select a safe or a risky timeline.
- Sand and Fury Taylor. Very strong Shaker/Thinker power, but more importantly, a well-done gender-swapped Taylor. I'd be highly amused to read *that* dialogue.
Literally typing this before reading the rest of the update. But:
Oh no. Oh No no nononononononono....!
*Reads the rest*
....Oh. Okay, that wasn't so bad. It's being pretty heavily foreshadowed that this isn't Tattletale, Grue, and Regent, but at least we didn't run headfirst into Spitfire and end up immolated. Which is... honestly what I was expecting.
Vote:
[X] Target: The tall one [???]
[X] Action: Try to separate them from the others somehow [Lotophage]
- [X]Write in: Use Lotophage's illusions.
Separating one from the others seems like our best chance to pick a fight we can win, given all the uncertainty. The tall one is probably Grue, and going after the leader seems like the best way to sow confusion and slow the others down. Plus, we have a good match-up against Grue, and he's the only one we know is on the team since we've seen his power in use. He seems like the safest target.
Suggesting using illusions specifically just because it wasn't spelled out how we would split them up, and I don't think we can afford to hold back here. Besides, a power like that will be strongest in a panicked confusion like what we've just created.
If you have a Taylor to suggest, I'd be glad to accept it! I'm not going to include fanfic Taylors in the roster unless the fic's author asks for it/gives permission, and the right situation would need to arise for anything suggested, but aside from that the sky (and my suspension of disbelief) is the limit!
I'd be happy to let you use both the Taylor from Fragments and the hypothetical Merchant!Taylor outlined here. Though Fragments!Taylor might be a bitvery OP mixed with other powers, and Merchant!Taylor probably needs a power. (I think. Do you accept unpowered voices? Either way, I'd be happy to flesh her out for you if people wanted to use her.)
Edit: Actually Fragments!Taylor would probably not be too OP, as long as her other powers couldn't be used through her shards while she's in her Breaker state.
I'm also willing to accept Taylors that don't actually have fanfic written about them, and are just a summary of history, personality, and power. Though an omake would
I could, but...I'd rather not use fanfic authors' stuff unless I know they'd actively want to see it in this Quest, as opposed to just not being actively opposed to it? Does that make sense?
Let me try this. Given the choice between using a fanfic Taylor whose author is merely ambivalent about this Quest, and writing a new Taylor myself, I'd rather make my own. And if the author speaks up in this thread, I know they're not just ambivalent.
I'd be happy to let you use both the Taylor from Fragments and the hypothetical Merchant!Taylor outlined here. Though Fragments!Taylor might be a bitvery OP mixed with other powers, and Merchant!Taylor probably needs a power. (I think. Do you accept unpowered voices? Either way, I'd be happy to flesh her out for you if people wanted to use her.)
Edit: Actually Fragments!Taylor would probably not be too OP, as long as her other powers couldn't be used through her shards while she's in her Breaker state.
[X] Action: Write-in: Fly small insects - mosquitos maybe - into their ear canals. Once there, buzz around their inner ear to make them too panicked/distracted/nauseated to do anything.
[X] Plan
-[X] Target: The other one
-[X] Action: Try to separate them from the others somehow [Lotophage]
--[X] Create Illusions to have him follow his team mates in the wrong direction. Then repeat the process on the Tall one.
--[X] If the nervous one comes too close use: fly small insects - mosquitos maybe - into their ear canals. Once there, buzz around their inner ear to make them too panicked/distracted/nauseated to do anything.
Not a lot of votes, but almost everyone who voted was in agreement.
Now for me to finally write an action scene for what was supposed to be an almost in medias resintroduction!
[X] Target: The other one
[X] Action: Try to separate them from the others somehow [Lotophage]
Taylor turned towards—the Undersider that wasn't tall and wasn't restless. They hadn't left much of an impression, but Taylor figured they were probably a good target. At the very least, they weren't as big as the big guy.
Plus, as they started running, the other one started to fall behind. Not far, but the big guy had long legs, and the restless one was sliding through the darkness spreading rapidly across the ground.
Taylor ran out of the woods, towards the cloud of shadow. Lotophage, do you think you can distract them with an illusion?
Huh? But there's too many people—
If they can't see through Grue's darkness, they can't interfere with the illusion, right? And the darkness means they can't even perceive their surroundings, let alone pay attention, right?
...maybe? I've never tried something like this before...
Well, there's a first time for everything?
Well, I guess?
Taylor ran into the darkness, getting close enough to the other one for Lotophage's power to pick up on their thoughts. The thing on their mind was bugs—swarms of them, wasps, beetles, bees. Lotophage quickly drew on that and shaped it into a mass of stimuli, then a full illusion, putting it right behind the big guy. She tried to shape, expand, and root it—give it more detail, spread it over more area, make it harder to disrupt—before the other one got close enough to sense anything.
They ran face-first into what must have seemed like a cloud of stinging insects. They stumbled backwards, tripping, any other reaction lost in the darkness. The big guy slowed and turned around, still walking backwards, trying to see what was going on; the illusion was shaken, lost ground, but Lotophage stopped it from collapsing entirely.
Taylor caught up to the other one—
Hold on. Why isn't the big guy isn't coming back to help?
Oh. Oh no.
The darkness contracted around the edges, and something lifted Taylor off her feet.
Cirrus cursed. Weaver, who the hell is this?
...I have no idea. I have no idea what's going on. I never had any idea what's going on. I just—
Can you have a crisis later? We're in the middle of...um…
We have no plan! No idea what we're doing! No idea what's going on!
Taylor, focus on the fight outside, not the people inside!
The other one stood up, and the thing around Taylor. It felt slick, almost soft, like a sheet of wet rubber. Taylor couldn't wriggle out of it, but… She pushed with Cirrus's power as hard as she could, trying to pull out of the other one's power. She didn't escape, but the other one stumbled a couple steps forward.
Oh, this thing must be attached to him.
Try using the drones too!
Taylor flexed her hands. They weren't bound by whatever was around her, so she opened them and had the drones fly into them. Combining their propulsion with a continuous stream of Cirrus's power, all at full power, Taylor managed to pull upwards, dragging the other one with her.
He's still hanging on? Skein asked. Why is he hanging on?
It was slow, the drones' batteries were being drained fast and it was hard to breathe, but Taylor broke the top of the shadow cloud, about twelve feet off the ground. She finally saw what was wrapped around her; it looked like darkness, but less smoky than Grue's. A moment later, it dispersed, and Taylor surged up another ten feet or something.
She checked the drones' status. Battery at 23% and 26%. Does anyone remember how much charge it took to get out here?
I think we were at seventy-something when we got here? Close to eighty?
One was at seventy-seven. The other was close. Are we even going to be able to get home after this?
They might not have quite been at 100% when we left the—
The top of the shadow cloud burst. The other one flew out of the darkness on wings of darkness, covering himself with more darkness, with a trail of darkness connecting him to Grue's darkness.
I think this team might have a theme.
Their powers complement each other. That's not great for us.
Taylor nodded. Her powers were all useful, but she hadn't thought of any good ways to combine them (unless you counted Skein's idea with the drones). They were just...a bunch of loose powers.
She focused on Lotophage's power, trying to see what images were floating out of the darkness guy's mind. She saw what looked like the darkness guy swooping out of Grue's darkness to attack her, so she braced herself for an attack, but the darkness guy sank back into the darkness.
That happens. You can't trust people to do whatever they're thinking about.
We should chase him.
Into the darkness? Are you insane?
He's still got some bugs on him, that's almost like seeing.
Weaver, do you feel up to fighting?
...Yeah. Unless he grabs us again.
We should gather our thoughts, figure out what they're doing, maybe get a bit more towards the middle of their team.
It won't take long, the frontrunner is halfway to the road.
Taylor glanced down at Grue's shadows, which covered the highway, the gas station, and part of the casino. She hadn't bugged the guy who had been filling his car, or anyone else, but she imagined they were freaking out.
To clarify, I think that's a bad idea. Because the frontrunner is halfway to the road. And they're probably not running to the road.
Thank you, Skein. I got that the first time.
Sorry. Anyways...we might be able to beat the darkness guy, but maybe we should stop one of the others first.
Taylor had to make a decision.
[X] Float above the Undersiders and watch what they do for a moment [Lotophage]
[X] Swoop down and fight the darkness guy [Cirrus]
[X] Swoop down and fight someone who isn't the darkness guy [Skein]
Was listening to DragonForce while writing this update. Also (checks notes) Space Jam mashups, Touhou music, and Hololive Eurobeat. But Dragonforce is the only thing that affected the threadmark title, thankfully.
Shorter update, but that's probably a good thing now that the action's started.
Now, let's see how people react to Darkness Guy...which I realize technically also describes Grue, but that's fine because I have other things I can call him. Like "Grue".
We have no plan, no win-condition and we do not know who we are up against. We don't even know if these guy are actually criminals. The only reason why we are still in this fight is because of the lost cost fallacy.
I suspect however that if these guys wanted to rob the Casino that they wouldn't do it anymore, because they just spend a some and energy chasing us.
[X] Disengage and go into a Tactical Retreat. And try to cover your tracks.
EDIT:
-[X] Tomorrow, check PHO and/or other cape related information sites to see if this whole thing is mentioned anywhere
[X] Disengage and go into a Tactical Retreat. And try to cover your tracks.
-[X] Tomorrow, check PHO and/or other cape related information sites to see if this whole thing is mentioned anywhere
(If that last one is not allowed, then I guess just disengage)
We could be making a colossal mistake here. Better to retreat and later check any potential source of info to see what exactly we may have done from an outside PoV
[X] Disengage and go into a Tactical Retreat. And try to cover your tracks.
-[X] Tomorrow, check PHO and/or other cape related information sites to see if this whole thing is mentioned anywhere
It was slow, the drones' batteries were being drained fast and it was hard to breathe, but Taylor broke the top of the shadow cloud, about twelve feet off the ground. She finally saw what was wrapped around her; it looked like darkness, but less smoky than Grue's. A moment later, it dispersed, and Taylor surged up another ten feet or something.
She checked the drones' status. Battery at 23% and 26%. Does anyone remember how much charge it took to get out here?
I think we were at seventy-something when we got here? Close to eighty?
One was at seventy-seven. The other was close. Are we even going to be able to get home after this?
They might not have quite been at 100% when we left the—
The top of the shadow cloud burst. The other one flew out of the darkness on wings of darkness, covering himself with more darkness, with a trail of darkness connecting him to Grue's darkness.
Hmmm... someone with a Bud from Grue? Imp maybe? That or this is actually Sophia and she had an alt-trigger that makes her synergize with Grue instead of conflicting. Her makes her more solid, right? If she's forming darkness projections, that might actually be a good thing.
Of course, Taylor called this person a guy. But we got no physical description and they're apparently covered in darkness, so the gender seems pretty up in the air.
[X] Write in: Track the Undersiders back to their base using the bugs on them, then disengage as soon as you know where it is.
To me this seems like a good way to take advantage of what we've done so far without putting ourselves in further danger. Plus, we're a Mover here, if not and fantastic one. We'll probably fail if they get in a car, but trying costs us nothing. With all but one (maybe two?) of them blinded by the darkness cloud it shouldn't be too hard to keep from being seen at night, and the bugs mean we should be able to tell if they've spotted us in time to flee.
[X] Disengage and go into a Tactical Retreat. And try to cover your tracks.
-[X] Tomorrow, check PHO and/or other cape related information sites to see if this whole thing is mentioned anywhere
Yeah, this seems like a good idea. Sunk cost fallacy is the worst.
[X] Disengage and go into a Tactical Retreat. And try to cover your tracks.
-[X] Tomorrow, check PHO and/or other cape related information sites to see if this whole thing is mentioned anywhere
Adhoc vote count started by GreatWyrmGold on Sep 27, 2021 at 10:22 AM, finished with 6 posts and 6 votes.
[X] Disengage and go into a Tactical Retreat. And try to cover your tracks.
-[X] Tomorrow, check PHO and/or other cape related information sites to see if this whole thing is mentioned anywhere
