now that's something i wish i had more writhing skills to make
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 (Young Justice/Gamer/Multicross OC)
- Thread starter Mister Ficser
- Start date
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Could be a hilarious What If? episode, I think. Acknowledge that it would be a viable way to go about it if someone considered it, albeit with potentially bad consequences depending on the tantrum that Salem throws (which could be why they didn't actually try it).
Salem's kind of a murderous bitch. It'd be the least she deserves.
You're assuming that it's not used subtly. Alchemist is capable of subtlety, after all. He did very well at Shinra Headquarters until it was time to go on a murderous rampage.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Salem has anywhere from starting at, MINIMUM, a large county, maybe province sized area, up to maximum a minor continent to herself. There is no way in hell humanity wouldn't have noticed the ooky spooky castle surrounded by black/purple corrupted land, constantly spawning Grimm under a blood red sky otherwise. Now, we know Oz has managed to build up a significant power base in the past via the fairy tales, but how significant would it need to be to mount an expedition through an unknown amount of hostile territory where nothing grows to assault a fortified position?
Last edited:
That depends on how big the castle is, and how far from her territory's borders it is. Otherwise, all they would know (if they even knew the place existed) is "somewhere in that area the size of (really big place) that we don't go into". Does Remnant even have a space program or satellites? If not, they won't have accurate maps of places that are essentially one big pile of coast-to-coast monsters.
I can't recall if it's fanon or not but all of their technology relies on Dust and Dust stops working when it reaches the upper atmosphere. As such they have no space program and thus no satellite technology.
IAmNotAlpharius
Not Omegan either
. . . That actually explains a campaign I was once a part of, neat
Chapter 247
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build 2.4.7
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
Batman had quite a few mixed feelings once they finished up and Alchemist teleported the trio up to the Watchtower.
A lot of them were bad.
Most of them were bad.
He'd learned things about the powers behind his allies that he wasn't sure what to do with. He needed to write it all out, break it down and see how it changed things.
Accidentally killing an entire sector... in part because the perpetrators lacked the ability to deeply question themselves and determine the potential consequences of their actions. In part because one of their own turned traitor.
Alchemist's plan to empower not just one or two individuals but the entire world.
The cosmic horrors that dwarfed the very Earth itself.
Batman was just one man. A powerful, talented man, but one man all the same.
How much could he do? How much could anyone do?
The man ran a hand down his face, feeling far older than he really was.
Bruce was working on it. He'd already started, he'd already begun working on recruiting The Question.
He knew he needed more than that. He needed more people, a greater variety of talents to draw upon.
Bruce remained silent as he led Alchemist through the Watchtower, to the medical wing.
He'd been making efforts to contact Guy Gardner, one of the other Green Lanterns of Earth but that particular tree wasn't bearing fruit. Bruce knew, at least from the conversations he'd had with the other Lanterns, that Guy wasn't quite stable.
What else could Bruce do? Who else could he convince, coerce or hire? How much time did he have?
"...You mentioned these guys were basically vegetative when they were brought in?" Alchemist finally asked once the automatic doors let him through and into the suite where the two Kryptonians and one unknown girl lay.
"Yes," Bruce responded, pushing his malaise to the back of his mind. "Wonder Woman had them brought in. Two of them have begun making strides towards recovery but the man..."
"Had a portion of his brain burned out. I'm quite aware." The cold, hard tone that Alchemist used when he said that, speaking with a subtle menace... It left the room feeling colder, the lights dimmer. "It was a favored tactic used by the council in charge of Krypton when dealing with... radical thinkers."
"What?" Robin asked, leaning around the mage to look at the oblivious man on the bed. "What did he do?"
"He tried to save his people, Robin," Alchemist told him, inhaling slowly as the color returned to the room. "He tried to tell people about the fate that would befall Krypton, he tried to get them to evacuate. He tried to do the right thing."
"...And the council didn't like that?" Batman asked, though he felt it unneeded. It was obvious that they'd disagreed with the man. That they'd silenced him.
"Tyrants, regardless of whichever name they've tacked on to their office, find the truth to be... difficult. Insular, xenophobic, practitioners of planned marriages for the sake of perpetuating specific traits of breeding instead of any personal feelings? It's a bit difficult to do this when your serfs aren't under your direct control, though."
"...Yhou," a dry voice croaked out from behind a privacy curtain. Bruce nearly jumped at the unexpected sound. "Yhou, yhou're wrong..."
"Always possible," Alchemist agreed as he walked around the curtain. "My knowledge is really only limited to a few exciting parts. Mostly Zod and the final hours of Krypton."
Bruce walked around Alchemist to meet the sharp blue eyes of the Kryptonian girl. She looked better than she'd been when she was first brought in but she was still too thin, too pale.
"Final... hours?" the girl asked, her eyes slipping away from Bruce to focus on the wizard.
Alchemist, rather than immediately answering her, picked up the chart at the foot of her cot.
"...Yes." Alchemist exhaled slowly and set the chart down. Looking at him, Bruce could see the wizard's eyes soften slightly as he looked the girl in the eyes. "Kara Zor-El, daughter of the house of El..."
Alchemist looked to the side, passed Bruce and through the window looking over the Earth.
"...Krypton has fallen. The planet's core became unstable and the Science Council, well, they refused to evacuate. You are not the only one left but... Kal-El, son of Jor-El, the last son of Krypton knows nothing of his heritage that was not recorded for him."
"Alchemist..." Bruce tried to say as he watched the girl, Kara, clench the thin blanket covering her in her fists. "Is now the right time to be doing this?"
"...There is no 'right time' for this, Batman." Alchemist sighed again before he brought a hand up to cover the bottom half of his face. Sliding that down, Bruce could hear the man's stubble scratching against his hand. "You're not an invalid, Kara. I'm sure that you don't believe me, that you need proof. And I can't provide that. We're in the Sol system, lightyears upon lightyears away from that bastard, Rao."
"Why are you telling me this?" Kara asked, hot tears gathering at the edges of her eyes. "Why am I here? Why... why wasn't I left in the Phantom Zone?"
"When you've finished recovering, I have no doubts that your cousin will want to get to know you. Assuming you want to get to know him in turn? I intend on sparing the both of you from dealing with the awkward reveal of your status as 'Refugee'." Alchemist picked up the girl's chart again and tapped the wooden board with the knuckle of one finger. A nervous gesture, Bruce noticed immediately. One meant to buy the man time as he tried to think of what to say. "As to the Phantom Zone? ..Someone bartered with the God of the Dead, one of them at any rate, to retrieve a handful of people from a fate they didn't deserve. You were one of them."
"...Hey," Robin whispered to Batman. "This is getting really heavy. Think maybe we should get Alchemist to heal them and get him out before he traumatizes them some more."
Nodding to his ward, Batman reached out and placed a hand on Alchemist's shoulder. When the mage turned a confused eye towards him, Bruce spoke up "Perhaps it would be best to treat them and then give them all some time to come to terms with things?"
"...That might be for the best," Alchemist agreed before he simply raised one hand up and snapped his fingers.
"...What?" Kara hiccuped. "Was that- was that supposed to do something?"
"Hmm..." Alchemist hummed, raising his hand and snapping his fingers again. "Maybe if I..." and then he snapped his fingers a third time. "Ah well. Nothing for it then."
Turning around, Alchemist waved briefly over his shoulder and began to walk to the door.
"I'm going to head to the kitchens and throw something together," Alchemist glibly told the dynamic duo as Bruce heard the man in the center bed let out a low, keening groan. "Maybe a bean soup, minestrone? Tasty and high in protein, you know."
"Alchemist?" Batman called out as the automatic door shut behind the wizard. Spinning around as the massive man began to audibly cry, Bruce could see Non was clutching at his head and curling forward on his bed.
Kara was clutching at her blanket, her fists clenching and unclenching as the girl screwed her eyes shut in discomfort.
Taking a step to the side so he could check on their final guest, the Wazzo girl had curled into a ball and begun whimpering.
Bruce could feel his teeth click against each other as he left the room-
Only to find Alchemist just outside, leaning against the wall with a disgruntled look on his face. The man's presence and demeanor immediately quashed the irritation Bruce had felt.
"...Did you really have to do that?" Robin asked as Alchemist leaned forward and began to walk towards the kitchens.
"Eventually, yes," Alchemist told the duo, his jovial attitude quite clearly gone. "Non and Kara would both make a full recovery, eventually. Nutritious foods and yellow sunlight, they'd be right as rain. Tinya, I'm a lot less sure about. Hitting them all with Regeneration should cover all of the bases. Especially Non's 'Forced Infantilization'."
For a long moment there was silence as the trio walked.
"...I was serious about the bean soup, though," Alchemist spoke up, a hint of nervousness in his voice as he filled the silence. "I'm not sure how well they'll handle our food, starting out. So, y'know, soup should be a good starting place."
"...Your bedside demeanor could use a lot of work," Robin spoke up, the young man favoring Alchemist with a minor glare.
"Oh, no. How awful!" Alchemist teased, his voice reaching a painfully false falsetto. The man raised his hand and snapped his fingers-
And his outfit, bluejeans and a hoodie, was replaced with a very traditional nurse's outfit. A button up white blouse with a knee-length white skirt.
"Is this better?" Alchemist asked, completely shameless. "I know I can't pull it off as well as the Joker could."
"No!" Robin shouted. "That's not-"
"What... did I just walk in on?" The Flash asked as the trio turned a corner, nearly knocking the speedster over.
"This?" Alchemist asked, looking down at himself as Batman raised one hand and covered his eyes in exasperation. "This is exactly what it looks like."
-----
Amanda Waller looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, unhappy with what she saw.
Old, angry, overweight- Her pressed blue suit was stuck underneath of her neck and she despised how that made her feel. She remembered when the suit had fit perfectly, offering her an air of professionalism.
Now she just felt like an overstuffed sausage.
Which was incredibly unfortunate given that she was about to be grilled.
The warden of Belle Reeve had been called in for a special inquest before Congress. They wanted answers and they wanted them from her. So much so that Congress had sent her a flight ticket, booked a hotel for her and even sent an armed guard to make sure she showed up.
Some people might have felt special, getting so much attention from such very important officials.
Those people were, in Waller's opinion, too god-dang stupid to be trusted with watching an empty room.
"Missus Waller?" a nervous voice asked through the bathroom door. Amanda didn't bother turning to look as a young aide poked her head into the room. Instead the warden just ran the cold water tap and splashed a bit of water on her face. "The, uh, the panel is ready to see you, now."
"Alright." The middle-aged woman inhaled deeply before exhaling sharply as she reached for some paper towels so she could dry her face. "Alright. Let's get this show rolling."
A show. Waller had dealt with enough politics before she'd dead-ended in Belle Reeve to know that this was just a dog and pony show.
The question then became, was she the dog? Or was she the pony?
It didn't matter which role she was stuck in, she felt nervous regardless. It was hard not to, given the number of cameras that were focused on her as Amanda took a seat in the center of one of the numerous stake-out areas whose name she couldn't remember.
She wasn't a member of Congress. By tradition and the rules governing the body, she couldn't be interviewed in the House Committee Gallery or the Rayburn Studio.
Seated at a trio of tables, covered with white cloths with microphones sitting on top was a panel of nine individuals.
"Please state your name and occupation for the record," the old man seated smack-dab in the middle demanded. He was an older man, going grey in every way. He was also Samuel Register, the vice-president of the United States and thus the president of the Senate.
"Amanda Blake Waller, warden of the Belle Reeve correctional facility."
"And can you tell us what kind of facility Belle Reeve is?" Samuel asked her.
"Belle Reeve is a super-max facility built to house metahuman and metahuman-adjacent criminals throughout the term of their sentence," Amanda explained patiently, her hands itching to grab at the bottle of water she'd been provided.
That needed to wait. They hadn't gotten to any of the hard questions, yes, and that would be one of the few delaying tactics that she could easily get away with.
"And how long have you been the warden at Belle Reeve, Miss Waller?" one of the other panelists asked. She was Sandra McCathy, of California, and likely looking to be re-elected given that it was the last year of her current term.
"Five years," Amanda answered immediately. "During which the facilities have undergone significant improvements, both in facilities, treatment and inmate retention through the use of new technologies and methodologies."
Some of which had been pioneered by that damn fool, DuPois, her predecessor.
"Yes. Five years and no breakouts or unfortunate... incidents."
Waller's nostrils flared but she kept her mouth shut. Samuel's statement was just that, a statement. The shifty bastard was referring to the incident that led to DuPois retiring in disgrace but beating on that dead horse wouldn't help Waller in any way.
Especially given that she didn't even know what this little meeting was about.
Several seconds ticked by before Waller's glare faltered before the assembly. They wanted her to say something, obviously related to the discussion.
"...With the advent of suppression technology, we've been able to ensure some of our more at-risk prisoners are better able to be contained. Though, it is not without its drawbacks," Waller explained neutrally.
The biggest drawback to the technology came in the fact that it wasn't universally useful. And each power-nullifying collar had to be built specifically for each inmate. That was an up-front cost of fifteen-thousand dollars with absolutely zero guarantee of return for each empowered prisoner in her facility.
"Do you believe that such technology would have been able to prevent the events that occurred under your predecessor? When one Miriam Wailer, a.k.a. 'Shrieker' destroyed the women's facility at Belle Reeve and instigated the largest breakout of metahuman prisoners to date?" asked Jonathan Dorset, from Ohio.
"...Miriam Wailer's loss of control over her powers and subsequent death was a symptom of a severe lack of oversight combined with cruel and inhumane treatment, sir." Waller's voice had gone completely flat and her glare could penetrate stone. "The results of that investigation, by experts from quite a few departments, had concluded that Miriam overcame the Shock Collar she'd been fitted with while she was screaming for her life while giving birth in her cell."
Amanda Waller reached for the bottle of water while she kept her eyes fixed on the little man. He didn't even have the grace to seem ashamed.
"Perhaps," Amanda began as she set her bottle down after taking a small sip. "The panel would like to get to the point instead of revisiting past crimes and confirming my bonafides?"
"...That may be for the best," Samuel muttered before clearing his throat. "As you may be aware, the United States was alerted to the destruction of Bialya's capitol at thirteen-o-one, yesterday. This was performed by a single metahuman, the remains identified as belonging to one 'Simon Jones' who had some form of ability to psychically control other people and had developed some ability to make use of the powers of his victims. The purpose of this inquest is to ascertain what methods are currently available to subdue metahuman criminals in the case of a similar event."
Amanda reached for her water again, desperately needing a moment to think.
Because, no, she had not been aware of that. At all.
"Sir, if I may?" Amanda asked after setting the half-empty bottle back down. When he nodded, she continued. "Sir, ninety percent of the metahumans in Belle Reeve are guilty of perfectly mundane crimes performed with perfectly mundane means. They may have been born with strange mutations, or else developed strange mutations, but they were not -useful- mutations. One such inmate has the ability to remove his left arm at the shoulder. It cannot be operated remotely, he cannot use it in any especially strange ways and it is just as susceptible to harm as the rest of his body when unattached. The young man was arrested on charges of possession."
Amanda took a deep breath as she looked at the various members of the panel that were supposed to be questioning her.
"The vast majority of metahumans thus do not pose a significant threat, regardless of criminal intent. They are simply sent to my prison because most people are afraid that some boy with a beak will somehow turn into some great big monster." A fact that Waller found patently absurd. A man with a gun was more dangerous than ninety percent of people born with a metagene. "And we have had to adapt to that pressure. Our medical facilities have had to employ doctors who are trained as veterinarians due to people born with scales or feathers growing out of their skin. Some of the inmates do require special facilities just to remain alive- One of them must be kept under constant sedation or else he transforms into a mindless slime entity that consumes toxic waste!"
"So, from what I'm understanding, containment of metas would be largely the same as containing a person?" Tom Hardly, a fat black man from Wyoming asked her. She nodded in response.
Or she started to nod in response. Right up until the way he'd said things fully registered with her.
Amanda Waller calmly reached for her water again even as she felt her stomach drop to the floor.
The people that were sitting across from her? She'd figured out what they wanted from her, what they hadn't just come out and said.
And her?
Amanda Waller wanted nothing to do with it.
-----
Alchemist teleported home after a strangely therapeutic day spent working. He'd left a piece of himself behind on Infinity Island, left it with the minimum amount of focus to get started on figuring out what to do with all of the dirt he'd pulled up from building the Fire Tower.
True Creation had jumped from level one to level fifty throughout the course of that. The material cost multiplier had dropped from five to four point five as a direct benefit to leveling up. Then, with Miserly Master adding up to a twenty-five percent decrease, the final value was three and three eighths. With the three-thousand, five hundred GP allowance Alchemist had in his equipment per spell cast, he was able to conjure up a bit over one-thousand GP in materials, now.
The mage couldn't really remember where he'd come across the idea, he vaguely recalled monks doing it, but his Bilocation Duplicate had come up with the idea of creating a ring partway up the barren walls of the volcano and just dumping all of the fill-dirt in there. He'd been running around, visiting various zoos throughout the United States to buy up their compost to bring life to the dead soil.
Four hours to build the first tower. A good six hours to figure out what to do with the leftover materials. Alchemist wasn't even close to done considering he was going to need to do everything another seven times.
Well. Eight.
Appearing outside of his home, Alchemist looked across the cabins, the people. They'd largely situated themselves into roles not dissimilar to what they'd done before coming to Earth. Pulling an earbud out of his left ear, tuned to a global news channel, Alchemist considered those people and the projects he still had going.
Looking straight up, directly at a minuscule black speck flying high above the Earth, the wizard pursed his lips.
Civilians weren't too interested in Alegrab disappearing. Not yet. For them, it was just a name and a handful of numbers. It was similar in a lot of ways to the mass death of countless vampires focused primarily in Europe.
It didn't happen to them or anyone they really cared about, or at least it didn't negatively impact them. Why would they care?
The world leaders, however, were panicking.
There were talks going around in circles about what could be done. What should be done. A lot of them focused on the Justice League and how they were too little, too late.
The discussions about proactive and preventative policing were making the wizard nervous. Regardless of how doable it may or may not be, it was going to come at some extreme costs and he doubted he'd be willing to pay them.
Such as the numerous suggestions for a 'Metahuman Registration Act'. Alchemist knew where that would go.
So had the German representative in the U.N., according to the news he'd been listening to. Their decrying of such an act as being the first step down a slippery slope had been... well, it wasn't exactly comforting but Alchemist did appreciate someone out there remembering their history.
"Dad!" Yuffie shouted, pulling the man out of his darkening plans. The preteen was wearing a green sweater and black jeans, the only color of pants that Jinx had been able to get the girl to wear.
And she was running at him with a pair of big, black puppies trailing behind her.
Puppy, perhaps, may have been a misnomer at this point. The hellhounds came up to Alchemist's navel. If not for how ludicrously big their paws were and how uncoordinated they could be, they'd likely be mistaken for off-color wolves given their size.
And they would only grow larger. The hellhounds on Bitterblack Island had come up to about Leslie's chest and the boy wasn't really much shorter than Alchemist, even at thirteen. That was when they were stuck in a highly competitive environment where the hellhounds were honestly pretty low on the food chain.
Here, where their dietary needs were being met and they were growing with Gamer mechanics behind them?
Ash and Cinder were going to get a good deal bigger.
"Yuffie!" Alchemist shouted at the girl as she launched herself into the air at him. He braced his legs as the girl wrapped her arms around his neck and swung around, launching herself into the air in a flip. She landed in a crouch before bouncing up and on to her feet.
"What'd you do today? Huh? Huh-huh-huh?" Yuffie fired off, running her mouth at a mile a minute.
"Well, I started building some stuff, I cast some healing magic, I made a handful of people really uncomfortable and I gave that Robin kid a scroll to learn." The scroll had been the most interesting part of interacting with the boy all day.
Robin had been really, really interested in learning about Alchemist's immunity to fall damage. So Alchemist had just given the boy a copy of a scroll that would teach him a spell that offered that to him.
Spook. A low level spell that masked the caster's noises and prevented them from taking fall damage. It had a sort of limit in Dark Souls Three for how high the caster could be before they just plain died instead but Alchemist had found no such limitation in his unintentional experimentation with the same effect from the Silver Cat ring that he'd moved to his other gear.
He'd fallen down a set of stairs without getting hurt. And he'd fallen a good twenty meters to a hard surface unharmed.
"How'd you make people uncomfortable?" Yuffie asked as Alchemist caught sight of Reis in the corner of his eye. The little dragon was snarling and snapping at Chica while the doll was following her and asking questions.
"Well, the spell I keep up to hide my features lets me change my clothes whenever I want," Alchemist explained to the girl as he started walking through his little village. "And one of the people I was working with said that I made a terrible nurse. So I told the spell to give me a nurse's outfit. I guess they aren't used to seeing people wearing outfits meant for the opposite sex."
"...That's it?" the little ninja asked, practically disappointed with his answer.
"That's it," Alchemist agreed as he passed by Andre's workshop. "These people fight cosmic horrors but can't handle an illusory disguise. I don't get it either."
"...Champion?" Aine, the firekeeper, asked as he walked beyond the forge she was working at. "'Tis good to see you. Have you a moment to spare?"
"Of course I do. What do you need?" Alchemist asked as he stopped looking around and focused on the woman.
"The walls of my home feel rather cramped of late, filled as they are with the products of my labor," Aine explained as she turned and nodded to her cabin. "Could I trouble you with expanding mine domain?"
"I'm... actually debating moving everyone here to a more secure location, Aine," Alchemist admitted to the woman. "The world at large is growing anxious and restless, I'm not sure how long my home here will be safe for everyone. Can you give me a few days?"
"Of course, my lord," Aine said with a reverent bow. "We, all of us, appreciate your generosity in caring for us."
With a wave, Alchemist continued on to his rounds. He could feel her brilliant blue eyes locked on to his back as he walked away, though.
"...We're moving?" Yuffie asked, her voice small and anxious.
"...Yeah," Alchemist admitted before sighing softly as he stopped to focus on the girl. "Things around the world are getting kind of bad. I purchased this land publicly, using the identity that Batman got for me. People who think they're important are starting to feel scared of people who have actual power. It won't be too long until they try and do something. Maybe not against me, not at first, but someone would try something eventually."
Stopping at the edge of the village, leaning right against a post holding up his silver fence, Alchemist inhaled deeply and looked out over the mountains in the distance. There weren't any trees that still had their leafs, the season had started to go cold and brown. Soon enough it would be snowing, miserable and cold.
"...What are we gonna do?" Yuffie asked, false bravado in her voice.
Alchemist looked away from the scenery and focused on his daughter. She'd been put through a few cycles of empowerment through his System. She didn't have his knack for magic but she'd picked up a few things. Most especially she'd developed quite a bit of skill with knives and throwing weapons. That combined with her summon, the small but lethal Cactuar, she should be fine against any force that tried to coerce or harm her.
"I'm going to keep preparing my new island," Alchemist told her as he looked away from Yuffie and down to a handful of people in the distance, wearing bright orange vests. "And I'll be building traps, creating more golems and dolls."
Alchemist's headache from earlier in the day had faded away completely. He didn't feel especially comfortable grabbing a second perk off of the Epic Perks list but the situation wasn't one that left him with a lot of freedom. Not if he wanted to act defensively instead of offensively.
As such, he opened his system and beelined for his selection.
~~Efficient Item Creation: Crafting [Epic]
Prerequisites: Item creations skill ≥ 100, Intelligence: ≥ 58
Benefit: Select an item creation skill. Creating a magic item using that skill from the Dungeons and Dragons catalogue requires one day per 10,000 gp of the item's market price, with a minimum of one day. An item may benefit from 20,000 gp of progress in one day at a +10 DC modifier.
Normal: Without this perk, creating a magic item requires one day for each 1,000 gp of the item's market price. ~~
Alchemist would need to get that perk again tomorrow, adding Smithing to the list of skills impacted by Epic Perks so he could do metal golems as well.
He had a special one in mind. One he hadn't yet built.
Eiling, Steel, Bones...
Alchemist didn't want to have to act against them. He really didn't.
But when they forced his hand?
They wouldn't get a second opportunity.
"Wait, hold on, back up!" Yuffie shouted, distracting Alchemist from the headache building up behind his eyes. "When did we get an island?!"
"Last night," Alchemist told her as he turned around to head back to Kary's cabin. He'd been in two places at once throughout most of the day and he wanted to get to bed. "It used to be a ninja stronghold but I stole it when the guy running it left to do an errand. So it's still full of traps and equipment that they hadn't gotten around to moving, yet."
The sound that came out of Yuffie's mouth was shrill and incredibly high-pitched.
It sent pain lancing all the way through Alchemist's skull.
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
Batman had quite a few mixed feelings once they finished up and Alchemist teleported the trio up to the Watchtower.
A lot of them were bad.
Most of them were bad.
He'd learned things about the powers behind his allies that he wasn't sure what to do with. He needed to write it all out, break it down and see how it changed things.
Accidentally killing an entire sector... in part because the perpetrators lacked the ability to deeply question themselves and determine the potential consequences of their actions. In part because one of their own turned traitor.
Alchemist's plan to empower not just one or two individuals but the entire world.
The cosmic horrors that dwarfed the very Earth itself.
Batman was just one man. A powerful, talented man, but one man all the same.
How much could he do? How much could anyone do?
The man ran a hand down his face, feeling far older than he really was.
Bruce was working on it. He'd already started, he'd already begun working on recruiting The Question.
He knew he needed more than that. He needed more people, a greater variety of talents to draw upon.
Bruce remained silent as he led Alchemist through the Watchtower, to the medical wing.
He'd been making efforts to contact Guy Gardner, one of the other Green Lanterns of Earth but that particular tree wasn't bearing fruit. Bruce knew, at least from the conversations he'd had with the other Lanterns, that Guy wasn't quite stable.
What else could Bruce do? Who else could he convince, coerce or hire? How much time did he have?
"...You mentioned these guys were basically vegetative when they were brought in?" Alchemist finally asked once the automatic doors let him through and into the suite where the two Kryptonians and one unknown girl lay.
"Yes," Bruce responded, pushing his malaise to the back of his mind. "Wonder Woman had them brought in. Two of them have begun making strides towards recovery but the man..."
"Had a portion of his brain burned out. I'm quite aware." The cold, hard tone that Alchemist used when he said that, speaking with a subtle menace... It left the room feeling colder, the lights dimmer. "It was a favored tactic used by the council in charge of Krypton when dealing with... radical thinkers."
"What?" Robin asked, leaning around the mage to look at the oblivious man on the bed. "What did he do?"
"He tried to save his people, Robin," Alchemist told him, inhaling slowly as the color returned to the room. "He tried to tell people about the fate that would befall Krypton, he tried to get them to evacuate. He tried to do the right thing."
"...And the council didn't like that?" Batman asked, though he felt it unneeded. It was obvious that they'd disagreed with the man. That they'd silenced him.
"Tyrants, regardless of whichever name they've tacked on to their office, find the truth to be... difficult. Insular, xenophobic, practitioners of planned marriages for the sake of perpetuating specific traits of breeding instead of any personal feelings? It's a bit difficult to do this when your serfs aren't under your direct control, though."
"...Yhou," a dry voice croaked out from behind a privacy curtain. Bruce nearly jumped at the unexpected sound. "Yhou, yhou're wrong..."
"Always possible," Alchemist agreed as he walked around the curtain. "My knowledge is really only limited to a few exciting parts. Mostly Zod and the final hours of Krypton."
Bruce walked around Alchemist to meet the sharp blue eyes of the Kryptonian girl. She looked better than she'd been when she was first brought in but she was still too thin, too pale.
"Final... hours?" the girl asked, her eyes slipping away from Bruce to focus on the wizard.
Alchemist, rather than immediately answering her, picked up the chart at the foot of her cot.
"...Yes." Alchemist exhaled slowly and set the chart down. Looking at him, Bruce could see the wizard's eyes soften slightly as he looked the girl in the eyes. "Kara Zor-El, daughter of the house of El..."
Alchemist looked to the side, passed Bruce and through the window looking over the Earth.
"...Krypton has fallen. The planet's core became unstable and the Science Council, well, they refused to evacuate. You are not the only one left but... Kal-El, son of Jor-El, the last son of Krypton knows nothing of his heritage that was not recorded for him."
"Alchemist..." Bruce tried to say as he watched the girl, Kara, clench the thin blanket covering her in her fists. "Is now the right time to be doing this?"
"...There is no 'right time' for this, Batman." Alchemist sighed again before he brought a hand up to cover the bottom half of his face. Sliding that down, Bruce could hear the man's stubble scratching against his hand. "You're not an invalid, Kara. I'm sure that you don't believe me, that you need proof. And I can't provide that. We're in the Sol system, lightyears upon lightyears away from that bastard, Rao."
"Why are you telling me this?" Kara asked, hot tears gathering at the edges of her eyes. "Why am I here? Why... why wasn't I left in the Phantom Zone?"
"When you've finished recovering, I have no doubts that your cousin will want to get to know you. Assuming you want to get to know him in turn? I intend on sparing the both of you from dealing with the awkward reveal of your status as 'Refugee'." Alchemist picked up the girl's chart again and tapped the wooden board with the knuckle of one finger. A nervous gesture, Bruce noticed immediately. One meant to buy the man time as he tried to think of what to say. "As to the Phantom Zone? ..Someone bartered with the God of the Dead, one of them at any rate, to retrieve a handful of people from a fate they didn't deserve. You were one of them."
"...Hey," Robin whispered to Batman. "This is getting really heavy. Think maybe we should get Alchemist to heal them and get him out before he traumatizes them some more."
Nodding to his ward, Batman reached out and placed a hand on Alchemist's shoulder. When the mage turned a confused eye towards him, Bruce spoke up "Perhaps it would be best to treat them and then give them all some time to come to terms with things?"
"...That might be for the best," Alchemist agreed before he simply raised one hand up and snapped his fingers.
"...What?" Kara hiccuped. "Was that- was that supposed to do something?"
"Hmm..." Alchemist hummed, raising his hand and snapping his fingers again. "Maybe if I..." and then he snapped his fingers a third time. "Ah well. Nothing for it then."
Turning around, Alchemist waved briefly over his shoulder and began to walk to the door.
"I'm going to head to the kitchens and throw something together," Alchemist glibly told the dynamic duo as Bruce heard the man in the center bed let out a low, keening groan. "Maybe a bean soup, minestrone? Tasty and high in protein, you know."
"Alchemist?" Batman called out as the automatic door shut behind the wizard. Spinning around as the massive man began to audibly cry, Bruce could see Non was clutching at his head and curling forward on his bed.
Kara was clutching at her blanket, her fists clenching and unclenching as the girl screwed her eyes shut in discomfort.
Taking a step to the side so he could check on their final guest, the Wazzo girl had curled into a ball and begun whimpering.
Bruce could feel his teeth click against each other as he left the room-
Only to find Alchemist just outside, leaning against the wall with a disgruntled look on his face. The man's presence and demeanor immediately quashed the irritation Bruce had felt.
"...Did you really have to do that?" Robin asked as Alchemist leaned forward and began to walk towards the kitchens.
"Eventually, yes," Alchemist told the duo, his jovial attitude quite clearly gone. "Non and Kara would both make a full recovery, eventually. Nutritious foods and yellow sunlight, they'd be right as rain. Tinya, I'm a lot less sure about. Hitting them all with Regeneration should cover all of the bases. Especially Non's 'Forced Infantilization'."
For a long moment there was silence as the trio walked.
"...I was serious about the bean soup, though," Alchemist spoke up, a hint of nervousness in his voice as he filled the silence. "I'm not sure how well they'll handle our food, starting out. So, y'know, soup should be a good starting place."
"...Your bedside demeanor could use a lot of work," Robin spoke up, the young man favoring Alchemist with a minor glare.
"Oh, no. How awful!" Alchemist teased, his voice reaching a painfully false falsetto. The man raised his hand and snapped his fingers-
And his outfit, bluejeans and a hoodie, was replaced with a very traditional nurse's outfit. A button up white blouse with a knee-length white skirt.
"Is this better?" Alchemist asked, completely shameless. "I know I can't pull it off as well as the Joker could."
"No!" Robin shouted. "That's not-"
"What... did I just walk in on?" The Flash asked as the trio turned a corner, nearly knocking the speedster over.
"This?" Alchemist asked, looking down at himself as Batman raised one hand and covered his eyes in exasperation. "This is exactly what it looks like."
-----
Amanda Waller looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, unhappy with what she saw.
Old, angry, overweight- Her pressed blue suit was stuck underneath of her neck and she despised how that made her feel. She remembered when the suit had fit perfectly, offering her an air of professionalism.
Now she just felt like an overstuffed sausage.
Which was incredibly unfortunate given that she was about to be grilled.
The warden of Belle Reeve had been called in for a special inquest before Congress. They wanted answers and they wanted them from her. So much so that Congress had sent her a flight ticket, booked a hotel for her and even sent an armed guard to make sure she showed up.
Some people might have felt special, getting so much attention from such very important officials.
Those people were, in Waller's opinion, too god-dang stupid to be trusted with watching an empty room.
"Missus Waller?" a nervous voice asked through the bathroom door. Amanda didn't bother turning to look as a young aide poked her head into the room. Instead the warden just ran the cold water tap and splashed a bit of water on her face. "The, uh, the panel is ready to see you, now."
"Alright." The middle-aged woman inhaled deeply before exhaling sharply as she reached for some paper towels so she could dry her face. "Alright. Let's get this show rolling."
A show. Waller had dealt with enough politics before she'd dead-ended in Belle Reeve to know that this was just a dog and pony show.
The question then became, was she the dog? Or was she the pony?
It didn't matter which role she was stuck in, she felt nervous regardless. It was hard not to, given the number of cameras that were focused on her as Amanda took a seat in the center of one of the numerous stake-out areas whose name she couldn't remember.
She wasn't a member of Congress. By tradition and the rules governing the body, she couldn't be interviewed in the House Committee Gallery or the Rayburn Studio.
Seated at a trio of tables, covered with white cloths with microphones sitting on top was a panel of nine individuals.
"Please state your name and occupation for the record," the old man seated smack-dab in the middle demanded. He was an older man, going grey in every way. He was also Samuel Register, the vice-president of the United States and thus the president of the Senate.
"Amanda Blake Waller, warden of the Belle Reeve correctional facility."
"And can you tell us what kind of facility Belle Reeve is?" Samuel asked her.
"Belle Reeve is a super-max facility built to house metahuman and metahuman-adjacent criminals throughout the term of their sentence," Amanda explained patiently, her hands itching to grab at the bottle of water she'd been provided.
That needed to wait. They hadn't gotten to any of the hard questions, yes, and that would be one of the few delaying tactics that she could easily get away with.
"And how long have you been the warden at Belle Reeve, Miss Waller?" one of the other panelists asked. She was Sandra McCathy, of California, and likely looking to be re-elected given that it was the last year of her current term.
"Five years," Amanda answered immediately. "During which the facilities have undergone significant improvements, both in facilities, treatment and inmate retention through the use of new technologies and methodologies."
Some of which had been pioneered by that damn fool, DuPois, her predecessor.
"Yes. Five years and no breakouts or unfortunate... incidents."
Waller's nostrils flared but she kept her mouth shut. Samuel's statement was just that, a statement. The shifty bastard was referring to the incident that led to DuPois retiring in disgrace but beating on that dead horse wouldn't help Waller in any way.
Especially given that she didn't even know what this little meeting was about.
Several seconds ticked by before Waller's glare faltered before the assembly. They wanted her to say something, obviously related to the discussion.
"...With the advent of suppression technology, we've been able to ensure some of our more at-risk prisoners are better able to be contained. Though, it is not without its drawbacks," Waller explained neutrally.
The biggest drawback to the technology came in the fact that it wasn't universally useful. And each power-nullifying collar had to be built specifically for each inmate. That was an up-front cost of fifteen-thousand dollars with absolutely zero guarantee of return for each empowered prisoner in her facility.
"Do you believe that such technology would have been able to prevent the events that occurred under your predecessor? When one Miriam Wailer, a.k.a. 'Shrieker' destroyed the women's facility at Belle Reeve and instigated the largest breakout of metahuman prisoners to date?" asked Jonathan Dorset, from Ohio.
"...Miriam Wailer's loss of control over her powers and subsequent death was a symptom of a severe lack of oversight combined with cruel and inhumane treatment, sir." Waller's voice had gone completely flat and her glare could penetrate stone. "The results of that investigation, by experts from quite a few departments, had concluded that Miriam overcame the Shock Collar she'd been fitted with while she was screaming for her life while giving birth in her cell."
Amanda Waller reached for the bottle of water while she kept her eyes fixed on the little man. He didn't even have the grace to seem ashamed.
"Perhaps," Amanda began as she set her bottle down after taking a small sip. "The panel would like to get to the point instead of revisiting past crimes and confirming my bonafides?"
"...That may be for the best," Samuel muttered before clearing his throat. "As you may be aware, the United States was alerted to the destruction of Bialya's capitol at thirteen-o-one, yesterday. This was performed by a single metahuman, the remains identified as belonging to one 'Simon Jones' who had some form of ability to psychically control other people and had developed some ability to make use of the powers of his victims. The purpose of this inquest is to ascertain what methods are currently available to subdue metahuman criminals in the case of a similar event."
Amanda reached for her water again, desperately needing a moment to think.
Because, no, she had not been aware of that. At all.
"Sir, if I may?" Amanda asked after setting the half-empty bottle back down. When he nodded, she continued. "Sir, ninety percent of the metahumans in Belle Reeve are guilty of perfectly mundane crimes performed with perfectly mundane means. They may have been born with strange mutations, or else developed strange mutations, but they were not -useful- mutations. One such inmate has the ability to remove his left arm at the shoulder. It cannot be operated remotely, he cannot use it in any especially strange ways and it is just as susceptible to harm as the rest of his body when unattached. The young man was arrested on charges of possession."
Amanda took a deep breath as she looked at the various members of the panel that were supposed to be questioning her.
"The vast majority of metahumans thus do not pose a significant threat, regardless of criminal intent. They are simply sent to my prison because most people are afraid that some boy with a beak will somehow turn into some great big monster." A fact that Waller found patently absurd. A man with a gun was more dangerous than ninety percent of people born with a metagene. "And we have had to adapt to that pressure. Our medical facilities have had to employ doctors who are trained as veterinarians due to people born with scales or feathers growing out of their skin. Some of the inmates do require special facilities just to remain alive- One of them must be kept under constant sedation or else he transforms into a mindless slime entity that consumes toxic waste!"
"So, from what I'm understanding, containment of metas would be largely the same as containing a person?" Tom Hardly, a fat black man from Wyoming asked her. She nodded in response.
Or she started to nod in response. Right up until the way he'd said things fully registered with her.
Amanda Waller calmly reached for her water again even as she felt her stomach drop to the floor.
The people that were sitting across from her? She'd figured out what they wanted from her, what they hadn't just come out and said.
And her?
Amanda Waller wanted nothing to do with it.
-----
Alchemist teleported home after a strangely therapeutic day spent working. He'd left a piece of himself behind on Infinity Island, left it with the minimum amount of focus to get started on figuring out what to do with all of the dirt he'd pulled up from building the Fire Tower.
True Creation had jumped from level one to level fifty throughout the course of that. The material cost multiplier had dropped from five to four point five as a direct benefit to leveling up. Then, with Miserly Master adding up to a twenty-five percent decrease, the final value was three and three eighths. With the three-thousand, five hundred GP allowance Alchemist had in his equipment per spell cast, he was able to conjure up a bit over one-thousand GP in materials, now.
The mage couldn't really remember where he'd come across the idea, he vaguely recalled monks doing it, but his Bilocation Duplicate had come up with the idea of creating a ring partway up the barren walls of the volcano and just dumping all of the fill-dirt in there. He'd been running around, visiting various zoos throughout the United States to buy up their compost to bring life to the dead soil.
Four hours to build the first tower. A good six hours to figure out what to do with the leftover materials. Alchemist wasn't even close to done considering he was going to need to do everything another seven times.
Well. Eight.
Appearing outside of his home, Alchemist looked across the cabins, the people. They'd largely situated themselves into roles not dissimilar to what they'd done before coming to Earth. Pulling an earbud out of his left ear, tuned to a global news channel, Alchemist considered those people and the projects he still had going.
Looking straight up, directly at a minuscule black speck flying high above the Earth, the wizard pursed his lips.
Civilians weren't too interested in Alegrab disappearing. Not yet. For them, it was just a name and a handful of numbers. It was similar in a lot of ways to the mass death of countless vampires focused primarily in Europe.
It didn't happen to them or anyone they really cared about, or at least it didn't negatively impact them. Why would they care?
The world leaders, however, were panicking.
There were talks going around in circles about what could be done. What should be done. A lot of them focused on the Justice League and how they were too little, too late.
The discussions about proactive and preventative policing were making the wizard nervous. Regardless of how doable it may or may not be, it was going to come at some extreme costs and he doubted he'd be willing to pay them.
Such as the numerous suggestions for a 'Metahuman Registration Act'. Alchemist knew where that would go.
So had the German representative in the U.N., according to the news he'd been listening to. Their decrying of such an act as being the first step down a slippery slope had been... well, it wasn't exactly comforting but Alchemist did appreciate someone out there remembering their history.
"Dad!" Yuffie shouted, pulling the man out of his darkening plans. The preteen was wearing a green sweater and black jeans, the only color of pants that Jinx had been able to get the girl to wear.
And she was running at him with a pair of big, black puppies trailing behind her.
Puppy, perhaps, may have been a misnomer at this point. The hellhounds came up to Alchemist's navel. If not for how ludicrously big their paws were and how uncoordinated they could be, they'd likely be mistaken for off-color wolves given their size.
And they would only grow larger. The hellhounds on Bitterblack Island had come up to about Leslie's chest and the boy wasn't really much shorter than Alchemist, even at thirteen. That was when they were stuck in a highly competitive environment where the hellhounds were honestly pretty low on the food chain.
Here, where their dietary needs were being met and they were growing with Gamer mechanics behind them?
Ash and Cinder were going to get a good deal bigger.
"Yuffie!" Alchemist shouted at the girl as she launched herself into the air at him. He braced his legs as the girl wrapped her arms around his neck and swung around, launching herself into the air in a flip. She landed in a crouch before bouncing up and on to her feet.
"What'd you do today? Huh? Huh-huh-huh?" Yuffie fired off, running her mouth at a mile a minute.
"Well, I started building some stuff, I cast some healing magic, I made a handful of people really uncomfortable and I gave that Robin kid a scroll to learn." The scroll had been the most interesting part of interacting with the boy all day.
Robin had been really, really interested in learning about Alchemist's immunity to fall damage. So Alchemist had just given the boy a copy of a scroll that would teach him a spell that offered that to him.
Spook. A low level spell that masked the caster's noises and prevented them from taking fall damage. It had a sort of limit in Dark Souls Three for how high the caster could be before they just plain died instead but Alchemist had found no such limitation in his unintentional experimentation with the same effect from the Silver Cat ring that he'd moved to his other gear.
He'd fallen down a set of stairs without getting hurt. And he'd fallen a good twenty meters to a hard surface unharmed.
"How'd you make people uncomfortable?" Yuffie asked as Alchemist caught sight of Reis in the corner of his eye. The little dragon was snarling and snapping at Chica while the doll was following her and asking questions.
"Well, the spell I keep up to hide my features lets me change my clothes whenever I want," Alchemist explained to the girl as he started walking through his little village. "And one of the people I was working with said that I made a terrible nurse. So I told the spell to give me a nurse's outfit. I guess they aren't used to seeing people wearing outfits meant for the opposite sex."
"...That's it?" the little ninja asked, practically disappointed with his answer.
"That's it," Alchemist agreed as he passed by Andre's workshop. "These people fight cosmic horrors but can't handle an illusory disguise. I don't get it either."
"...Champion?" Aine, the firekeeper, asked as he walked beyond the forge she was working at. "'Tis good to see you. Have you a moment to spare?"
"Of course I do. What do you need?" Alchemist asked as he stopped looking around and focused on the woman.
"The walls of my home feel rather cramped of late, filled as they are with the products of my labor," Aine explained as she turned and nodded to her cabin. "Could I trouble you with expanding mine domain?"
"I'm... actually debating moving everyone here to a more secure location, Aine," Alchemist admitted to the woman. "The world at large is growing anxious and restless, I'm not sure how long my home here will be safe for everyone. Can you give me a few days?"
"Of course, my lord," Aine said with a reverent bow. "We, all of us, appreciate your generosity in caring for us."
With a wave, Alchemist continued on to his rounds. He could feel her brilliant blue eyes locked on to his back as he walked away, though.
"...We're moving?" Yuffie asked, her voice small and anxious.
"...Yeah," Alchemist admitted before sighing softly as he stopped to focus on the girl. "Things around the world are getting kind of bad. I purchased this land publicly, using the identity that Batman got for me. People who think they're important are starting to feel scared of people who have actual power. It won't be too long until they try and do something. Maybe not against me, not at first, but someone would try something eventually."
Stopping at the edge of the village, leaning right against a post holding up his silver fence, Alchemist inhaled deeply and looked out over the mountains in the distance. There weren't any trees that still had their leafs, the season had started to go cold and brown. Soon enough it would be snowing, miserable and cold.
"...What are we gonna do?" Yuffie asked, false bravado in her voice.
Alchemist looked away from the scenery and focused on his daughter. She'd been put through a few cycles of empowerment through his System. She didn't have his knack for magic but she'd picked up a few things. Most especially she'd developed quite a bit of skill with knives and throwing weapons. That combined with her summon, the small but lethal Cactuar, she should be fine against any force that tried to coerce or harm her.
"I'm going to keep preparing my new island," Alchemist told her as he looked away from Yuffie and down to a handful of people in the distance, wearing bright orange vests. "And I'll be building traps, creating more golems and dolls."
Alchemist's headache from earlier in the day had faded away completely. He didn't feel especially comfortable grabbing a second perk off of the Epic Perks list but the situation wasn't one that left him with a lot of freedom. Not if he wanted to act defensively instead of offensively.
As such, he opened his system and beelined for his selection.
~~Efficient Item Creation: Crafting [Epic]
Prerequisites: Item creations skill ≥ 100, Intelligence: ≥ 58
Benefit: Select an item creation skill. Creating a magic item using that skill from the Dungeons and Dragons catalogue requires one day per 10,000 gp of the item's market price, with a minimum of one day. An item may benefit from 20,000 gp of progress in one day at a +10 DC modifier.
Normal: Without this perk, creating a magic item requires one day for each 1,000 gp of the item's market price. ~~
Alchemist would need to get that perk again tomorrow, adding Smithing to the list of skills impacted by Epic Perks so he could do metal golems as well.
He had a special one in mind. One he hadn't yet built.
Eiling, Steel, Bones...
Alchemist didn't want to have to act against them. He really didn't.
But when they forced his hand?
They wouldn't get a second opportunity.
"Wait, hold on, back up!" Yuffie shouted, distracting Alchemist from the headache building up behind his eyes. "When did we get an island?!"
"Last night," Alchemist told her as he turned around to head back to Kary's cabin. He'd been in two places at once throughout most of the day and he wanted to get to bed. "It used to be a ninja stronghold but I stole it when the guy running it left to do an errand. So it's still full of traps and equipment that they hadn't gotten around to moving, yet."
The sound that came out of Yuffie's mouth was shrill and incredibly high-pitched.
It sent pain lancing all the way through Alchemist's skull.
- Location
- Hell
I mean.
This registration act feels more like first step towards segregation and discrimination based upon random string of dna. If i was an evil goverment worker i would feel queasy as well.
This would be an Amanda Waller who hasn't become a scapegoat for Strange and his agenda with the Light, so that's one thing.
This is also a fairly early version of her, all said and done. Later on she would go on to utilize the Suicide Squad but that's 7-10 years down the line. That's a lot of time to slide down a slippery slope.
Finally- She's a black woman with nine(!) kids. I'd imagine that she's incredibly well aware that a solid number of her inmates performed the terrible crime of Jaywalking while Meta. At the end of the day, though, she's a Warden and not a Judge. She doesn't set the terms of her inmates sentences, she just oversees them as the term is carried out.
Frescko
Transhumanist
Short idea world building thing I had when I should probably be sleeping:
Ley Lines, something of incredible importance to the supernatural, every world has or have had Ley Lines, the same can be said about Solar Systems, Galaxies, and Universes.
Earth and all of its infinite variations just so happens to be at focal point of the Mutliversal Ley Line. This means that supernatural phenomena happen at such frequencies that they'd seem common to the wider multiverse.
Gravity, drop something and it will be pulled towards the heaviest mass around. This includes Fate, Destiny and the like. Superman coming to earth to become it's greatest hero wasn't something that just happened for no reason, of all the planets he crashed here, the Gravity attracted him and so many other extraterrestrial objects.
Nexus, the locations where Reality is at its Thinnest, most planets have one or two Major Nexus, while a few minor Nexus are scattered around, earth bucks this trend, Earth itself could be considered one minor Nexus, with hundreds Major Nexus being found across the world. This leads to something not found nearly anywhere else: Hyper Nexus. Hyper Nexus are what happen when multiple Major Nexus share the same spot, an example of a Hyper Nexus is Gotham.
These three factors along with the favor and interest of Higher powers, mainly due to the previously mentioned factors compound themself. This leads to Earth being filled to the brim with Spirits, Gods, Demons, and Monsters among with countless other creatures. This once again compounds itself leading to a snowballing effect.
To put it bluntly, Earth and to ever so lesser extent the solar system is overflowing with Supernatural Phenomena and Elements.
Ley Lines, something of incredible importance to the supernatural, every world has or have had Ley Lines, the same can be said about Solar Systems, Galaxies, and Universes.
Earth and all of its infinite variations just so happens to be at focal point of the Mutliversal Ley Line. This means that supernatural phenomena happen at such frequencies that they'd seem common to the wider multiverse.
Gravity, drop something and it will be pulled towards the heaviest mass around. This includes Fate, Destiny and the like. Superman coming to earth to become it's greatest hero wasn't something that just happened for no reason, of all the planets he crashed here, the Gravity attracted him and so many other extraterrestrial objects.
Nexus, the locations where Reality is at its Thinnest, most planets have one or two Major Nexus, while a few minor Nexus are scattered around, earth bucks this trend, Earth itself could be considered one minor Nexus, with hundreds Major Nexus being found across the world. This leads to something not found nearly anywhere else: Hyper Nexus. Hyper Nexus are what happen when multiple Major Nexus share the same spot, an example of a Hyper Nexus is Gotham.
These three factors along with the favor and interest of Higher powers, mainly due to the previously mentioned factors compound themself. This leads to Earth being filled to the brim with Spirits, Gods, Demons, and Monsters among with countless other creatures. This once again compounds itself leading to a snowballing effect.
To put it bluntly, Earth and to ever so lesser extent the solar system is overflowing with Supernatural Phenomena and Elements.
Red_Faux
私を終わらせる
- Location
- 'Straya M8
It's a common plot point.
Worse in Marvel on average, Marvel Canada has literal Mutant Death Camps, but it gets plenty terrible in DC too.
Lol, this is Yuffie's version of an Adult telling their kid "Hey kid want to go grab anything you want from Santa Workshop!!!".
- Location
- Philippines
@Mister Ficser
Is it odd I feel in the future Alchemist gonna have a group of healer trainees behind and turned into a inspiration for their version of House but lack the limp and addiction but alot of magic and mental traumas?
Is it odd I feel in the future Alchemist gonna have a group of healer trainees behind and turned into a inspiration for their version of House but lack the limp and addiction but alot of magic and mental traumas?
IAmNotAlpharius
Not Omegan either
Oh thank goodness that this is one of the more reasonable Wallers
Ozymandias
I HATE
We're going to Toys 'R' Us, and everything is free!
(Bring a big cart)
Will the Dark Souls gods grow stronger from living in mana-rich land?
Would gods with divine domains related to war*, renewal, or perseverance grow stronger from living on top of a dimensional weak point between the Afterlife and the Mortal World?
*In my head cannon, all war gods are indirectly attuned to the concept of death, because war and death go hand-in-hand.
Moving the Dark Souls gods to the Alchemist-upgraded Infinity Island has potential. A well-worded Wish spell could let them "divinely claim territory" (one Wish spell needed for each deity), magically giving the Dark Souls god the homefield advantage went on Infinity Island as a Place of Powaaahhh. Right now, the Dark Souls gods are interlopers from another reality, but tethering themselves to Infinity Island would strengthen their foothold in DC-Earth's supernatural ecosystem.
P.S.
Given politicians talking about a Metahuman Registration Act, building a village on Infinity Island could be a precursor to establishing a safe haven for fleeing metahumans like post-apartheid Genosha in Marvel's "X-Men" comics.
- Location
- Texas
I generally come down on the US government side of the meta registration act. The fact is, many meta powers are like carrying a loaded gun 100% of your life. I don't think it's unreasonable to require training for that. Any farther is un American but training should be enforced
... So no sane GM allows their players to reference the Epic Level Handbook. Ever. This clearly fits with Alchemist's insanity-as-a-species-trait, and I'm pretty sure Gaia's just kind of taking notes of things not to allow based on what Alchemist digs into.
If this was Marvel, the Meta Registration act wouldn't be has bad has if it was DC, do to the sheer fact that anyone and their mum's dog can be capable of dealing and summoning demons, and also Gotham, quite literally hell on earth, exists.
If that act goes through, the entire world can be at a war of EXTINCTION at any moment, in marvel that shit is restricted, DC, the single restriction is people not making dumb choices, so yeah, really hope that doesn't happen, cause people may not have a world to call home, or a species they are a part of.
If that act goes through, the entire world can be at a war of EXTINCTION at any moment, in marvel that shit is restricted, DC, the single restriction is people not making dumb choices, so yeah, really hope that doesn't happen, cause people may not have a world to call home, or a species they are a part of.
Putting aside any political stances of this because wow that's a powder keg; this is less everyone has a handgun 100% of the time and more 'everyone has a weapon and some of them are handguns of the point-and-shoot variety, and some are off-balance ornamental rapiers that require a year of careful guided training before you can even hold it right'. Finding someone capable of training others in the kind of one-size-fits-all that all major undertakings try to adopt would be hilariously problematic.
If your concern is just 'everyone dangerous should receive de-escelation training and weapons safety training' then... why not make it part of standard education since nobody ever knows when or if a mutation would happen to give someone powers?