In the another universe. when Powers are the questers.
PuzzlePieces said:
So Four Seasons have invited Justice Unlimited to Dinner while setting up a trap for them. Not a bad idea. Hoping that the contracts will compensate foe Lady Leizi's high Espionage skill. Not a bad idea at all. Wonder if it'll work out.
To start with lets see what's been happening.
??? has absorbed ???.
"Justice Unlimited?" Has given powers to ???
??? has attacked "Justice Unlimited?"
Look, we may have the best hit and decent operations but we also have we have poor espionage. It's pretty obvious to us out here that Dr Mammoth Ibis is actually Dr Mammoth Ibis despite what Lady Leizi has made everyone in the world think. After all PuzzlePieces was very careful to say that only one official member of Justice Unlimited survived. And while Dr Mammoth Ibis was never official he was effectively a member of Justice Unlimited.
While Justice Unlimited seemed to be on the back foot originally, they've somehow managed to grab a lot of supers. Supers that should not exist. Black Swan's back-story is too clean, since she wasn't at the Leviathan fight even if she was half as powerful as demonstrated. Black Swan was also perfect to get the Workers Mitt signed back up. Menagerie Witch makes sense, but JU would never have been able to grab her without both Black Swan and Leizi
Actually- Mr T, Let's just say FP is right - Justice Unlimited is hiding something. Oh and also a warning, despite seeming harmless Black Swan's codename is horrifically apt.
Powers Auto-success prevented(Justice Unlimited has absorbed New Dawn + (?????)
Powers Auto-failure caused (Lady Leizi+ (?????)) - Roll Espionage to effective you are at preventing this penetration please. DC 5 Minor Success, DC 10 Moderate Success, DC 15 Major Success (v ???)
Oh now we find out, but I really don't like the repeating (?????). That only applies to one thing – Faust's contracts. So why the heck is it working against us? Rolling Dice: d20 =1
A Critical failure on Espionage. That's terrifying. We'd better send Scarlet Maturity there at once. If Black Swan is even half as powerful as I suspect, he's the only one that stands a chance. Also offer them the contract. Probably won't work. But worth the effort.
Contract Offer DC 15. Rolling d20 =15
(+40(extreme plausible threat) -10(hated))Scarlet Maturity )- 15(Despised -Leviathan Abscence) – 5 (Contract not working on Hiver) – 10(Black Swan's known power) - 5 (Justice Unlimited know it's a trap!) Final result: 10
Lady Leizi refuses. And before you know it, Mitchelet grabs Faust , the Shadows outside come alive attacking your plants and golems
Été asks why Mitchelet has betrayed them.
Yes, this was the espionage roll you failed. Lady Leizi was one of the four possible leaders, the others wouldn't have arrived to rescue Hiver so early. And wouldn't have swapped the failed auto-success to auto-failure. A very lucky roll for Justice Unlimited and a very unlucky one for you.
Faust: Because that isn't Mitchelet. Seems like Justice Unlimited somehow found another super.
There is a shift and instead of Mitchelet there is a silver golem like figure.
Scarlet Maturity tears the threat in half and then things go crazy. Outside the shadows come alive attacking Été' s soldiers and Printemp's plants before you know it, while a huge Bird rescues Lady Leizi and the golem (HandyMan) Scarlet maturity gets blasted. An explosion of fire that would have reduced a Floating Venom Morphene to ash hits. Scarlet Maturity drops the Shapeshifter to cross his arms to block. Then Black Swan increases her power and Scarlet Maturity's arms burn and blister. Scarlet Maturity Jumps away only for Black Swan to rocket after him. Both feel they'll need their full power and neither want their team-mates caught in the blast zone.
Ouch. That went about as well as I expected. Still the stick we have is pretty good. So at least we ready and loaded for bear. I also don't like the Black Swans negative was her known power. This is suggestively worrying.
Candidate "Preemptive Medicine Specialist"
Name: Casey Kingman Age: 35 Stats: HIT 4, ESPIONAGE 1, REPUTATION 5, OPERATIONS 7 Tolerance: 4 Chaucer's Notes: A medical doctor trained in the United States who worked with Doctors Without Borders as part of a scholarship agreement, Casey was caught up in the Guayana Conflicts in early 2060. A revolutionary army scooped him up and used him as a field medic, showing him what life looked like outside the religiofascist regime in which he was raised. He stowed away on a freighter which sank. He washed up on the North Docks a little while ago and has been working as an associate of Mendicant for cases that don't need such aggressive treatment. Leizi's Notes: Mendicant mentioned that he had needed a symbiote and he agreed to work as payment in kind. From what I've heard, the group he was attached to was defeated and he's legally dead without a penny to his name. More than most professions medicine is extremely equipment-dependent which makes it funding-dependent. He's got a cheery disposition, but I am concerned it may be a mask for having "died" twice. Given superpowered healers tend to be a mixed bag at best, benevolently-applied sufficiently advanced medicine might be indistinguishable from a superpower and he's collected a fair bit of social capital.
------
A/N: Numbers are obviously up for tweaking to fit but order is not; he is a skilled medical professional who means well and can handle himself in a scuffle but has absolutely zero talent or inclination for guile. What you see is what you get.
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A Stage Slightly To The Left: Goldheart — KermieNew
What if… Ellie was kinder at just the right moments?
Horizon, City of Leviathan's Rest– The Apiary– January 17, 2068
"As we said, we have responsibilities. We are finished running for crimes whose punishments have long been met."
You see her eyes flicker back to the hooded figure. She's been very careful to not let it away from her side. She sees you looking and then stares you down.
You don't back away.
There's something here that you're missing. Something more. There has to be something that can turn this situation around.
DC 15.
Stat Check: REPUTATION 10. Valiant Gold has REPUTATION 6.
And then, it hits you like a jolt of lightning. "Fine then. If you really want to be responsible, we can talk in private, so that the kid," you nod your head in the hooded figure's direction, "doesn't get put in any unnecessary danger."
It's a leap of logic that you're making. A huge one, that might end with you (or Leviathan forbid Mona) face down on the foot of a cliff. But it works.
Warpstar's entire outline visibly stiffens up. Marie Marionette's blood-arm starts to drop back into liquid form for a second right before it rehardens. Acid Rain and Heracles are as quiet as they were before, but there's something different about the way that their stance is now. Before, they were ready to explode into action, but now… it seems that they're ready to retreat. And Monarch is as still as the crowd around you, her eyes widening just a bit.
You see it in her eyes now. There's a silent calculation being made, about whether she can afford losing face, and whether— did her eyes flicker to the side for a second there— she can risk any other assets that she has. And that's not even taking Crusade into account.
After a few seconds of the world holding its breath, she sighs. "Subjects, you may return to the throne room. Call Dollman on your way there. This is something for me to deal with."
There's a shared look of uneasiness between the Wonderland inmates, as they look between each other. The tension breaks, however, as Warpstar teleports back onto the drill and walks through the pillar into the NID, followed by the rest of the former Wonderlanders. The only person left standing by Monarch is the hooded figure, who holds onto her leather costume like a lifeline. Monarch barely acknowledges the figure, but doesn't push them off either. Instead, she walks a few paces away from any of the evacuating crowds, and leans against one of the walls, closing her eyes.
You take a second to close off your suit's external speakers as you go back onto comms. "Everyone, I'm going to try and figure out why Monarch's here. Keep an eye on Stockpile and the other Wonderland inmates."
"Ronin should hold back any of the other Crusaders, and Mona is silently en route as we speak. We'll worry about the rest for you, Valiant Gold." Lady Leizi whispers into her comms, so far underneath her breath you almost have to wonder if you really heard her or not. But as Rhys, John, Maddie, and the rest of New Dawn whisper their own agreements, it suddenly falls into your head that you're going to try and interrogate Monarch. This could end poorly.
With quiet, poised steps, you walk across the garden, pointedly ignoring how Silvio stares at you as his fingers fiddle with the triggers of his stolen armor. When that's done, you walk up next to Monarch and lean on the spot next to her. When you're sure that you're out of earshot, you reopen your speakers and address Monarch.
"How important is the kid to you?"
The hooded figure leans out of Monarch's shadow. Somehow, you feel their gaze lock onto you, even though you can't see their face at all.
Monarch turns her head to look at you. As she does, you notice that there are bags underneath her eyes. When she speaks, her commanding tone from earlier seems to be nowhere in sight. Instead, there is an exhaustion in her words, one that reminds you of…
Something clenches inside your throat. Mom. "Her name is Princess. She was born in Wonderland. Her mother was… I'm not allowed to say. She was one of the first people I prioritized during my escape."
Something dangerous rises up inside your heart, but you force it down as soon as Princess goes to look at you. She pulls her hood up but not fully off, and you see her appearance in full. She can't be younger than 10, but the mutations that she has give her the appearance of something between a walking lizard and someone with a Siamese twin. And on her back?
A head that looks like a red cow's skull. Scarlet Maturity.
"…Hello there." Princess says shyly. You silently nod, and you can't help but smile a bit at how here already wide eyes widen a bit more and her toothy smile extends. Monarch smiles a bit, but it's closer to a momentary smirk. When you blink, it's gone.
Monarch waves a hand around, averting her gaze from you and crossing her arms. From afar, it looks like she's barely listening to you, barely feigning interest. But you can hear her whispered words, and how underneath it all, she's desperate. "The Elysiumites and Horae Guard are after her, Valiant Gold. There is nowhere in the world where she wouldn't be recognizable. Even I can't escape. That's why I had to get the other Wonderlanders on my side. You may not believe it, but they care about her as well."
You look up a bit. Mona floats in the sky, and right now, all eyes are oscillating between her, Stockpile, Scarlet Maturity (who looks straight ahead at the Wonderlanders, all of whom look severely uncomfortable) and the rest of the Horae Guard, with White Hawk floating weightlessly on the air. Just like you, he's looking at Princess. She's small, and probably scary for anyone that hasn't gotten used to her. And reminds you of…
Of…
DC 12.
Stat Check: REPUTATION 8. Valiant Gold has REPUTATION 6.
You rolled: 20.
20 - 1 + 3 (Protected Them With Your Life) = 22. Nat 20! Critical Success!
Your girls. They remind you of all the girls who are so, so close to being taken by the Frozen Throne. All the girls who you fought for, day in and day out. The world seems to freeze up for a few seconds, time slowing to a crawl as everything closes in on you, Monarch, and Princess. And in those seconds, the words that you want to say leap onto your tongue as if they were meant to be there.
"I can't condone your actions. But I understand. There's also some people who I need to protect from something bigger than me. The Frozen Throne. The girls thrown away by Yellow Qillin."
Monarch sucks in a breath, holding one of Princess's scaly green hands, out of sight from any of the other funeral-goers. Princess looks up at her, something imperceptible welling up in those yellow eyes. "Mom? Are you ok?"
"It's fine sweetie, nothing to be worried about," Monarch says underneath her breath. She trains her brown eyes onto you, and whispers. "If you've come to swear revenge on me, know that I'll take it on myself. It's my fault that monster is still running, even if I need her money to keep some of the inmates from killing. Blame me."
"No. I'm not mad at you at all. In fact, I… understand why you're doing what you're doing. I'd have done the same. Elysium wants Princess for a reason, right? Justice Unlimited will protect her with our lives, I promise. She'll be safe inside the Apiary. It's the most fortified position in Horizon."
DC 15.
Stat Check: REPUTATION 8. Valiant Gold has REPUTATION 6.
Monarch does that same thing from before, running a calculation inside her head. Then, she begins to you speak to you again, still with that feigned disinterest. Her eyes are closed, but there's a fire behind he words now. "Tell everyone on your comms to get ready then. If Crusade wants her they can try their damn best to get her. We can fake a battle and "in the chaos" get you all a "scared hostage from Monarch's faction". Do not let anybody touch her. Keep her safe, or else."
"Mom, am I going to see you again…?"
She looks down at Princess. If there's any room for tears in her eyes, they've long been shut out. But even so, you can still sense the care she has for… her daughter. "Maybe not for a while, but I promise that I'll see you again one day, Princess. Stay safe. I love you."
You tap on your comms, and there's a few taps and grunts of affirmation. It's suddenly not you against the Wonderland inmates. It's a fight to get Princess away from Crusade. And there's not a single person who's going to take Crusade's side.
Princess holds out her hand to you, just far enough to maintain plausible deniability. Far above in the sky, Mona gets ready for the first round, nodding to you silently. And almost invisibly, you notice as all the Wonderland inmates meet Monarch's gaze, and get ready for a fight. The world holds its breath for a second—
And as Monarch drives a shiv into your shielded gut, you grab Princess over to your side, and all hell breaks loose.
Author's Note:
"The worst thing about a tragedy is what could have been."
I meant to have this have a Silvio half, but I got sidetracked, so the Silvio thing will have to come later. The question marks in that last bit translate to "A Promise", the one that Monarch probably made to Princess's bio mother. This omake was written in the Morrowlark style, as an attempt to quickly generate an omake point. That is, I looked at the thread and then wrote this all entirely inside the reply box in such a way where if the servers bent by 5 millimeters everything goes up in smoke.
Don't write like that.
This is part of a series which I wanted to make a normal thing but then life kept on happening. The Stage Slightly to the Left omake series. Check out the other parts here, here, and also here.
Guide To Making Ambrosia
By Kermie Sarah "Massive" Ibis
1… 2… 3…
Ok, is this thing on… splendiferous!
If you are watching this now, welcome! I am Dr. Massive Ibis, daughter to the esteemed Dr. Mammoth Ibis, and I am here to— Leviathan's Blood, Mittens, no!
Ok, I'm back. As I was saying before one of Maddie's little creatures so rudely interrupted me, I am here to explain how Ambrosia can be compounded and administered, and also how each genetic profile fits into it. Let us get started! MUAHAHAHAH—
*cough*
Urk, I need to practice that.
Ambrosia starts with the resource cost. For a reasonable cost of income, (1000) roughly equal to our monthly income from our partnership with New Dawn and the Worker's Mitt contract, me and my dear father can begin to synthesize Ambrosia. Aside from that, we need a dose of raw goldnine— the kind that you get fresh from the source at the QZ.
Base Cost: 1000 Income (subtracted from total income) and 1 dose worth of Ambrosia.
Then, we need to pick a candidate. Say hello, our spectacular candidates!
(The camera pans over to Shelley and Soraria, who are sitting down and crunching numbers. They both barely look up and wave.)
Yes, them! Each of our candidates has a specific Tolerance for Ambrosia. Think of each candidate as a cup. If we fill them with enough liquid, that is Ambrosia filled with more DNA samples, they'll "overflow" and… well, we don't have research data for that. Probably better that way, goldnine is expensive.
If she takes a mixture of [Adamant+Dragonsteeth], 3+3=6, and she will be fine. However, if she takes [Zeno+Soldier X], 9+1=10, and she will explode. (Please do not make my blorbo explode)
As for how we know what types of Ambrosia will work on each candidate, my dear father (and Valiant Silver, but don't tell him that) have created a system for that! It's called Potency.
Returning back to the cup analogy again, each dose of Ambrosia is a unique cocktail, personalized to each candidate. And each DNA sample is an ingredient, which we can only use once per cocktail. Some ingredients will take over the taste and be bigger in the mixer.
However, I'd like to note that while we cannot use "ingredients" twice in one cocktail, we can reuse the ingredients in other mixtures. So say we have Crimson Soprano. We already used her powers to power up Mona. But if we want another flier, we can use Crimson Soprano in that person's Ambrosia without any consequences.
However, because Golem has higher Potency, his power (rock and stone, cannot produce his element but manipulates surrounding elements) is more likely to come through and have an influence on the final Ambrosia than Frostbite (ice creation, self-centered).
I would also like to now note a few things, however. My dear father and me can lower the Potency of each Ambrosia dose. Take it as dumping out some of the spare ingredients without compromising the unique taste. However, each Ambrosia dose has a likelihood of side effects. The more we dump out, the more chance there is that one of those side effects happens. Side effects can theoretically range from minor physical changes, such as an eye color change, to big things, such as Mona's weakness to psychic attacks.
A new candidate is applied Ambrosia. Their tolerance is 4, and the Ambrosia's total Potency is 7. However, because of the artificial reduction of -3 that we can do, the candidate does not explode.
However, the candidate rolls for side effects. Since Potency was reduced, they get a +15 on the d100 side effect roll, which gives them a larger chance of hitting a side effect.
Aside from that, the maximum intensity of side effects varies depending on the Potency of the Ambrosia pre-reduction. So while the candidate would normally be able to only hit Minor Side Effects at Potency 4, the 7 Potency of that Ambrosia gives them a chance of hitting a Moderate Side Effects, since it's high enough to hit that range.
I suppose it's an interesting time to note that all of our heroes so far have gone through complete Potency reduction, with both Rhys Gardner and John Henry also having had operations to increase their Tolerance. So far, side effects haven't lead to any dysmorphic transformation, but we've only had three tests so far. We need more sample data…
The Global Actions Fast Pass and Spoonful of Sugar (selected at issue start) can increase a Candidate's Tolerance. However, they are both very costly, and we're currently a bit broke.
(No, I'm not fucking making a cup size joke, thank you very much!)
Ahem! Was sidetracked for a second there. Two more things I need to talk about. First off, resonance.
(Sarah leans into the camera, before taking out a piece of paper from offscreen.)
Let's not trigger resonance. When two Ambrosia candidates have the exact same DNA samples used in their thing, they will occupy the same psychic space, and… well, let's not talk about that.
Mona's Ambrosia was comprised of [Novalight+Crimson Soprano+Soldier X+Steadfast]. If someone else uses [Novalight+Crimson Soprano+Soldier X+Steadfast], both Mona and that person would die.
However, this only applies to exact formula matches. If that person takes [Novalight+Crimson Soprano] as their Ambrosia, they'll live just fine.
And what was the other thing I wanted to say. Right. Keywords! This system created by my dear father once again (and Valiant Silver but I should probably edit that out) shows what kinds of powers will show up in a finished Promethean. The more repeat Keywords show up, the more obvious those powers will be in finished Ambrosia. And in some cases, those powers will combine together into brand new Synergy Powers, which seem to be the core of each powerset. But could there be synergies that are just there to support? Hm, more testing required…
Daggermaw and Adamant share the Keywords [Transformation] and [Enhanced Strength]. Those two powers are more likely to show up in the finished Ambrosia.
Thanks to the Potency reductions, Yara will not explode!
Here are what keywords that will appear in this mixture:
3x (Guaranteed to show up, main focus of power if not absorbed by Synergy):
-Clarivoyance, the psychic power!
2x (Extremely likely to show up, going to be great side powers):
-Transformation
-Energy Manipulation
-Enhanced Senses
1x (may or may not show up, depends on if Bitterman feels like they'll help out):
Teleportation
-Enhanced Strength
-Fitness
-Enhanced Speed
-Invisibility
And here is a synopsis of each DNA donor's powers:
Red Huntress: Total beast transformation, multitude of powers, scaled up based on opponent marked, could keep track of marked person.
Memoria: Teleportation to location in a picture, live feed of what's happening in pictures location
Millions Minefield: storing up energy mines, sapping and giving energy
Daggermaw: permanent crocodile transformation, good strength and senses
Mr. Hunch: postcognition, focused on objects.
Assuming that there are no Synergies, and a Major Side Effect was rolled, the finished power looks something like this! (Ibis isms taken out)
Name: Watcher, Yara Oliviera Keywords: Clairvoyance, Transformation, Energy Manipulation, Enhanced Senses, Teleportation, Invisibility Side Effect: Permanent Dysmorphic Transformation Faction: Justice Unlimited Potency: 13 Kermie's Notes: Yara is stuck in the form of a humanoid owl, thanks to having rolled a Major Side Effect. Her power allows her to tap into somebody's "perception" when she sees them— at will, she can relive up to 10 days of their past memories in a few seconds. Once she's perceived that person, she gains an "All-Seeing Eye" over them, which allows her to perceive anything within a 5 mile radius of that person. Once an "All-Seeing Eye" has been planted, Yara may make it so that person cannot see her specifically, and teleport herself and anybody she sees within that radius. She also has access to powerful energy attacks which I'm too tired to write out the specifics of but assume she can orbital strike people.
The "tracking/hunting" effect came from Memoria and Red Huntress, while the focus on "past trails" came from Mr. Hunch. The specifics of those powers changed up how the final power manifested, and the high potency made it super powerful!
And that's the full explanation of Ambrosia! Mix together different Potencies of dead metahumans, use the Keywords showing up at 2x or 3x to predict what type of powerset will show up, and pray that your luck rings true with Side Effects! Now, is there anything I forgot?
(an alternate universe where each hero got the second-most-voted plan for their Prometheus build)
(Menagerie Witch isn't here because uhh they did the quests in a different order)
"Ah, Lady Leizi. Charmed. And your protégé, Silver Dragon."
The stiff, skeletal figure of Faust made a gesture at LL. And next to her, Mona Merola-Morales, who had already brought out her trademark lizard jaw and wings.
"Surely you have something more pleasing to put on your face, dear?"
"Stuff it, creep!" Mona showed her displeasure by transforming into a hideous troll before shifting back to dragon.
"Ah," Faust said dryly. "This must be the famed [Empowering Polymorph] that I've heard so much praise for."
He looked back at Ete's fire soldiers surrounding the duo. Oddly, she seemed to be shaking all over. She usually has more physical control. Perhaps the stress is getting to her, he mused.
"But anyways," Faust continued, "I'm here to offer you a deal, just like les Trois Saisons. Sign this contract, we can share info and cease hostilities, blah blah blah mysterious client blah blah blah reputation carrot and stick you read Faustian you know how this goes."
Scarlet Maturity was also there.
Leizi narrowed her eyes and prepared to say something. But then, Ete moved her soldiers slightly- and the nearby table melted.
Faust and Maturity looked over in surprise, Printemps made a move, Leizi had no choice but to yell "GET FAUST!"
The entire restaurant, save the meeting zone, dissolved into snow and mist. Nearby, John Henry Rhodes aka "The Veil", clad in a subtle blue-grey, waved his hands and slammed down pillars of ice that encased Faust and destroyed Ete's soldiers.
"Whoa, nice trick!" Blue Skies broke in. "But I can do that too!" He grabbed excess water, dripping from the restaurant's true walls, and directing it to attack Leizi. However, there was a faint pop, and a wolf-man suddenly appeared next to Blue Skies and wrenched one arm wide while sticking his claws in the gut. Another pop, and the wolf was behind, slamming him in the head. A third pop, and Blue Skies took glowing claws right across the face. The aviator fell to the ground, and the wolf-man was gone.
"That'll teach you to mess with my [Total Environment Fabrication], bud!" the Veil grinned. "No respect for the cra-WHOA!"
Scarlet Maturity had charged. The Veil could only cower in fear before he was brought to safety and the wolf-man put in his place. This figure, Rhys Gardner or "Brave Wolf", ran with unnatural speed and used special claws that were legally distinct from a triangle-haired Canadian's. However, even with his speed and endurance, he was quickly dealt gaping wounds by Scarlet Maturity.
"Zhihui, get this under control!" Leizi yelled into her comm. "Dragon, it's big time!"
"I can't do this forever, you know!" came Noelle's snappish reply. However, she teleported Ete into a swinging cricket bat of ice from the Veil, where she crashed unconscious.
Printemps, was barraging Hiver's shields, only for Brave Wolf to reappear for a sneak attack - "I, agh, smell your fear!" - and Leizi to finish him off with lightning.
But all this paled in comparison to the main event. Silver Dragon had become her most powerful and iconic morph, a true dragon larger than a van, and breathed terrible flames at Scarlet Maturity. He laughed them off and yelled "Finally, someone to help me!" He lightly punched Dragon and she flew backwards through several buildings, screaming, "SORRY! OW!"
Scarlet Maturity turned back to the rest of the group with a bloody smile. But Hiver slowed him with shields, and Zhihui popped the heroes away.
On the rooftop hideout, Justice Unlimited took stock. Noelle, flickering back into visibility, passed out from overexertion. Brave Wolf was falling over in adrenaline crash and bleeding. The rest were fine. However, as Leizi turned, she saw Scarlet Maturity leap away towards where Silver Dragon had landed.
"None of us can stand up to him," she declared. "Give Noelle the emergency infusion, she and I will try to evacuate Mona. The rest of you, back to the Apiary in my car."
They could only pray that a Silver Dragon would be as strong as another world's Black Swan.
Tristran Morris died on a Monday. It wasn't what you'd call one of those good deaths; the Movement had left a lot of incidental damage, some of which was still needing to be detected. Anyone could have stumbled and fallen through that weakened sewer grate, but it was Tristran that did it, and he plunged down, broke his neck on the way down, and drowned. If he was lucky, the water workers would find his body eventually, but at least no one would know his last words were a panicked, "Oh baby no -"
Imagine then his surprise at waking up in his bed, very much alive, on Tuesday morning.
Our Man here is a classic theater kid, right down to being bi and kinda sleeping around, though to his eternal credit here he's never broken a heart on purpose. He lost Tuesday to the resulting panic attack from very vividly remembering that he ought to be dead, and then on Wednesday he had to go back into work where the patrons of one Ma's Grill know him as 'that gay waiter', a role he plays up despite its inaccuracy because it's kinda part of his brand now. The poor guy was off his game the entire time, inviting genuine concern from the regulars, a small blessing for which Tristran was nevertheless very grateful. Wednesday night was the start of rehearsal for The Man of La Mancha, in which Tristran really honestly wanted to play Cervantes, but instead ended up as the Barber. It was what it was.
The drunk driver that killed him early Thursday morning never consciously realized it.
Friday morning, Tristran woke up in his bed swearing and gasping for breath, with his sheets soaked in sweat. Jesus titty-skittling Christ, that guy could have killed Trist-
- Oh. Right. He did.
"What. The. Fffffuck -"
* * * *
Three weeks, nine deaths later, Tristran had to admit to himself that maybe he was in over his head here. Waking up uninjured was great, but also, what? Why? How? Some part of him wanted to just get on Hero for Hire on a burner, but how many metahuman hackers had survived that could just track him down? No, he needed help but if all his power was, was 'wake up at home alive', then he wasn't exactly a combatant...but if it was more, he might be a danger to himself and others...
Getting together the funds to hire courier services meant Tristran was gonna have to be late on rent. But that's fine. It'll be worth it to know, to really know. So it is that young adults on bikes, explaining that they were hired by 'some twink dressed like a stock image of a cat burglar', delivered copies of the same letter to the Zenith and, eventually, into the hands of the first member of Justice Unlimited that could be physically found in public.
Where can I learn more about understanding a newly awakened power? Matter of life and death but also somehow not super urgent. Please post it to Hero for Hire.
- "Lich"
P.S. Very sorry, could not afford a tip, can you do right by the courier?
Go to bed, Wolong, you're speculation-drunk - spiderhellianNew
You are Mona Merola— oh, sorry, I have the wrong notes! Let me try again.
You are Gabriel 'Wolong' mumblemumble. At night, you dream . . .
Or more accurately, you have a nightmare. It seems you've been hitting the speculation about Project Prometheus a little too hard the past few days. Or weeks. Has it been months already?
It's just… fun, and engaging, and in the lulls between planning fights against villains or your ongoing chess match with Monarch, your mind returns to its possibilities again and again and again.
But you clearly need to take it easy. That's the only possible response to what you see in your dreams tonight: a visibly intoxicated Valiant Silver, standing at a whiteboard and using a bottle of vodka as chalk.
You can't look away. You can't open your mouth. You can only watch, as she begins her lecture.
Wolong. Dude. Is it alright if I call you dude? Whatever, I'm going to do it. I don't owe New Dawn anything. Dude.
You know how you have the number five. A nice, good, number. Totally capacious, at doing whatever a five can do.
Well, unless you toss a negative five at it. Then BOOM. Explosion!
Or not, it's not anti-matter. But the five is gone, right? Smoothed the fuck out, back down to zero.
It's just like that. Think of each path to the stage as an infinite-dimensional vector in the space of all possible powers. The myriad of powers the sane fuckers who didn't devote their life to studying this shit would just call 'psychic' can then be considered a hyperplane in that space.
So all you need to do is find the nullifying hyperplane! Which is simple, you just have to invert every direction for every possible path, and then make that into a path itself.
Yeah, there are an infinity of those directions and paths. But that's not all that meaningful. Pretty trivial to solve. I can do it, and I don't even have a fucking PhD in this shit! I'll leave it as an exercise for the — yeah, for the reader. Sure.
Really, this isn't that hard to understand. Just make an anti-psychic. Dude.
You finally feel you can open your mouth, so you do. Is it to ask a question? To yell a few choice expletives back? To start to scream, and never stop?
You'll never know, for at that moment, you jolt awake.
Okay. No more thinking about Project Prometheus when you're laying in bed and desperately need to sleep. You never want to face a nightmare like that again. Thankfully, you shouldn't have to.
After all, you can't imagine practical-minded Lady Leizi ever asking you about something as bizarre as an "anti-psychic".
(Also, anyone know his last name? It's not in the organization sheet )
I will neither confirm nor deny I wrote this in bed, thinking about Project Prometheus when I desperately need sleep. But they do say write what you know…
A long time ago there was a great upheaval. From the heavens a dying monstrosity fell, bringing with it fear and new beginnings. The name of this beast was Chaos, for all manner of monsters sprung from its divine ichor without rhyme or reason. All the monstrosities that sprung from it raised their many horrible mouths and assorted limbs to the heavens and inflicted destruction and misery to the rest of the world, and humanity shuddered with their passing.
But despite the many beings born from Chaos, there also came to be humans who yet had a portion of Chaos' otherworldly power. They were named Titans, for they shook the world with their passing, and their passions and dramas astonished humanity.
Of the many Titans who walked the world, there were two who are important to this story, two that were representative of humanity, siblings. The first sibling's name was Prometheus, whose name means 'foresight' or 'forethought', for she was clever beyond measure.
You are the most intelligent person in Horizon. […] Your versatility in battle was unmatched—many a foe of Justice Unlimited's was defeated with your bag of tricks.
Prometheus saw the plight of mankind and her heart was moved by it. Mankind had very little in the way of inherent gifts, and were constantly at each others' throats. She realized that the heavens kept mankind's potential shackled, and that if no one did anything, this state of affairs would continue. So Prometheus did something very brave and very foolish. Something she knew would slowly kill her, for she lived up to her name and foresaw what this deed would cost: she strained her great mind and reached for the heavens, and with two naked hands took divine fire from them - the knowledge that Chaos' ichor, from which sprung so many monsters, could create more Titans like herself if applied cleverly to humanity. Though her hands perpetually burned from then onward, and would never be put out.
She kept this divine theft secret, and very carefully safeguarded it, for she knew fire needed to be used carefully, lest it burn future users. But the heavens would tolerate no interlopers, and would repay this boldness tenfold. Though no being knew of this cunning act, misfortune went in the direction of Prometheus anyway.
Fate played an awful trick on Prometheus' twin sister, whose name was Epimetheus, a name that means 'hindsight' or 'afterthought'.
The heavens provided Epimetheus with her the idea to open Chaos' dying dreams to obtain its power. And though it is said someone warned her not to accept any gifts from heaven, the temptation was too much. She wrested open the original monster's mind, and from it sprung all the evils in the world, every illness and every sickness, old age and death and misery and destructive passions, and all its nightmares made themselves manifest.
Well, not entirely your fault. Theodore was the fool who went ahead with the experiment without proper testing. Kyoko enabled him. Now he's dead and she's unresponsive.
Oscar is gone. Run away, as always. Like a child hiding his soiled sheets under the bed. He's used your device and gone so far, you doubt he'll ever come back.
Yemọja has rallied the metahumans in the city—even Novalight's remnants of New Dawn—but they will make no difference. It's just a fragment, but even a fragment of a god is a god.
It's your fault. All of your faults. You were not just Icarus flying too close to the sun—you all were flying into the sun. And you—the mother of psychic technology—built the machine that let them.
Perhaps Oscar had the right idea. Perhaps . . . you should run away too.
Not satisfied with the misery all the evils in the world had brought forth, the heavens moved on to punish Prometheus. Though dying from the burns she had suffered while stealing fire, her suffering was to be far worse than Epimetheus'.
The heavens lashed Prometheus to a rock high in a mountain…
…And every day, an eagle would tear at her stomach and eat her liver, and be sated from it. The liver, it is said, is the seat of human emotion, which is why it always regenerates itself. But this meant the eagle would always have something to eat.
"You'll fail," she says looking to the golden sunset, "People you love will die in front of you and tear another hole in your chest. The pain is inevitable. It will hurt forever."
She turns to look at you.
"You do it anyway. You let them in and you let yourself love them knowing it will hurt."
It is said that one day a hero will rise up, one who can strive past coldness and fear and misery and all the evils in the world. And in doing many great labors, she may yet free Prometheus from her torment. So it is said.
I've been trying to articulate this omake over the past few days. Some of this is drawing from my own speculation on the nature of the Woman in Blue and how she may well be an alternate-universe Nora Kim, but shrug. It's still speculation, hence the title. We have yet to put all the puzzle pieces together.
I don't know how much of the Prometheus-Nora parallel Bitterman might have had in mind when writing the story, if at all, but... even if it wasn't conscious at all and I'm seeing patterns where there aren't any, he cooked.
A sports car barreling down an empty highway at 90 miles an hour swerves into the divider with a terrible crash. A huge figure smashes through the deploying airbag and windshield, his suit shredding on the glass and then the pavement as he skids and rolls across the road.
Steadfast stands up, adjusts his pants, and turns to face the camera. "That was a rough one. Now lets play that back in slow motion so we can see all the things that would have killed me if I didn't have powers"
The crash replays in slow motion, starting from a perspective in the passenger seat. The shot pauses with Lamar's head just through the glass. In voiceover "Even modern safety glass like this will cut you up pretty badly. It's might not kill you, but the blood loss won't help."
Motion resumes and Thompson arcs 20 feet through the air before the screen pauses again as his hands and face touch the road. "Broken skull, broken neck, most of your face is gone to road rash, broken wrists. One of my worse landings."
The rest of the scene plays at normal speeds as the voiceover continues. "More roadrash. With that much skin gone something would get infected. After that landing it's just more work for the mortician. Wear a seatbelt."
A new voice "This public service announcement was brought to you by the Horizon Department of Transportation, a subsidiary of Allied Global Logistics ."
And on Todays, Of most sacred nights SolarGem Productions Presents...(Something Very small in comparison to what I usually write)
12 Days of Project Prometheus
By Solar Gem X
On the first day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
A Lady Leizi in the Apiary.
On the second day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Two Doctor Iblis,
And a Lady Leizi in the Apiary.
On the third day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Three Normal heroes,
Two Doctor Iblis,
And a Lady Leizi in the Apiary.
On the fourth day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Four Prometheans,
Three Normal Heroes,
Two Doctor Iblis,
And a Lady Leizi in the apiary
On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Five Hero Ships!
Four Prometheans,
Three Normal Heroes,
Two Doctor Iblis,
And a Lady Leizi in the Apiary.
On the sixth day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Six Global Actions,
Five Hero Ships!
Four Prometheans,
Three Normal Heroes,
Two Dr. Iblis,
And a Lady Leizi in The Apairy.
On the seventh day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Seven Justice Unlimited Members,
Six Global Actions,
Five Hero Ships!
Four Prometheans,
Three Normal Heroes,
Two Doctor Iblis,
And a Lady Leizi in the Apiary.
On the eighth day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Eight Allies a' Helping
Seven Justice Unlimited Members,
Six Global Actions,
Five Hero Ships!
Four Prometheans,
Three Normal Heroes,
Two Doctor Iblis,
And a Lady Leizi in the Apiary.
On the ninth day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Nine Candidates Waiting,
Eight Allies a' Helping
Seven Justice Unlimited Members,
Six Global Actions,
Five Hero Ships!
Four Prometheans,
Three Normal Heroes,
Two Doctor Iblis,
And a Lady Leizi in the Apiary
On the tenth day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Ten Dice a rolling,
Nine Candidates Waiting,
Eight Allies a' Helping
Seven Justice Unlimited Members,
Six Global Actions,
Five Hero Ships!
Four Prometheans,
Three Normal Heroes,
Two Doctor Iblis,
And a Lady Leizi in the Apiary
On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Eleven DNA Samples,
Ten Dice a rolling,
Nine Candidates Waiting,
Eight Allies a' Helping
Seven Justice Unlimited Members,
Six Global Actions,
Five Hero Ships!
Four Prometheans,
Three Normal Heroes,
Two Doctor Iblis,
And a Lady Leizi in the Apiary
On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Twelve Villains being Beaten,
Eleven DNA Samples,
Ten Dice a rolling,
Nine Candidates Waiting,
Eight Allies a' Helping
Seven Justice Unlimited Members,
Six Global Actions,
Five Hero Ships!
Four Prometheans,
Three Normal Heroes,
Two Doctor Iblis,
And a Lady Leizi in the Apiary!
~And a Lady Leizi in the Apiary!!!
Authors note:
A little something I wiped up in like 5 minutes...
Also wanted to Make one for Jingle Bells, But not much to replace there. Any ideas?
)
