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Project Prometheus (Original Setting Superhero Quest)

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ThaTrueRealmWalk said:
Ah, well I was again thinking about game design there- if he made his own weapons he would have to have good operations. I think to balance it either drop the 10 to an 8 and the Operations to a 5? It's a rough draft- I trust Bitter to balance it how they wish if they use it.
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It's probably fine now that I think of it. Stats are pretty vague: both Handyman's and Lady Leizi's high ESP comes from different sources (powers vs information network), and while Maddie has high OPs thanks to her power being great for support, she can't organise an budget like Chatelet can despite Chatelet's OPS score being lower.


ThaTrueRealmWalk said:
Also good Omake! A bit short but it explores the concept of a prolonged existence like Mona's very well.
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Thank you !
 
Bitterman said:
Very good, but more hopeful than I thought'd it be? I really liked it! +1!
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Even after all this time, Mona is Mona.

Plus, it's not really the immortality itself that's getting to her, it's the fact she feels like she can't connect to people anymore due to her status as Is A Hero Literally All of Known Civilisation Has Admired for millennia.
 
StarSingerBlue said:
The discussions regarding Mona's immortality inspired me to do a thing. Enjoy.

Tw: mention of suicide


Ten Thousand Years Later


18 July, 12476

Somewhere near V762 Cas



She floated in the middle of the void, her lightform in the shape of wings. She wasn't human, but her wings were beautiful, feathery lights dancing around a black hole, unattached to any body.


Black Swan, hero of a million battles, explorer of a hundred galaxies, had reached the apex of her existence centuries ago.

It was funny. The Mona of long ago had loved heroes, looked up to them, and one day she woke up and Lady Leizi was gone, and there was no greater hero than her, nor would there ever be.


The members of Justice Unlimited, not the original ones, the ones from so long ago, forgotten by all but a few, but the ones that had been her team at the very beginning, the ones she had defeated the Philosophers with, had all died one by one.

Medical technology nowadays granted you virtual immortality, but it hadn't been the case back then. They had lasted for centuries (so many adventures together, so much fun) but one day, even Rhys was gone.

She was glad she and Ellie had managed to go and see her namesake together, her black hair turned white with age.

And she had led Justice Unlimited since then, through coups and civil wars and first contact and empires falling and humanity changing again and again.


And she had found new friendships, and found new loves, again and again and again.



All things decayed, except her.


…

God, she was getting overdramatic.

She wasn't the only immortal in the world. Project Prometheus had given eternal life to many: none from the first days, but Shatterpoint had only been given their powers two years after she joined.

And there was the R-Train, and other, more fleeting existences.

But still, sometimes it hurt. It felt like Mona had never been there, as if there had only ever been Black Swan, the mighty hero that had been alive ever since mankind had been confined to Earth.

And through her dreams, through the time-bending powers of the Stage, she could see her friends's ghosts, shades of them flitting through the afterlife. It made her long to see them again.

But she was Black Swan. Power nullification technology had been refined and perfected over millennia, but would she truly wish to die, ample measures would have to be taken, lest the black hole within her be set free.

And every time she thought about going, took preparations, it took too long, and she changed her mind.


But more often than not, she kept getting distracted. By the smell of a new food, the sound of a new song, the smile of a new friend.


By the ever-changing universe, far greater than she would ever be.

So not now.

There are still things to do, still things to see…
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Unwinding — ScorpioSting (canon) New
  • Apocrypha
    • Unwinding, an Omake by ScorpioSting (FT. Michiko Katou)​

    Keith idly sipped on the remainder of a smoothie as he headed back to his apartment.

    Keith had swapped over to a digital learning courseload between middle and high school, in order to maintain flexibility with regards with his hero schedule. He still had to attend school twice a week, but digital lectures and electronic homework afforded him extra time to sock guys in the face, which he appreciated.

    He liked to do schoolwork in restaurants. He had a deal-he was allowed to work and got a hefty discount on the food and drink he ordered while he did it, in exchange for stepping up if any attack came in.

    He'd finished his courseload and started heading home when he got a text from Hazel:

    "NEW ESCAPE-ADE DROPPED."

    Keith smiled like a cat and quickly texted back.

    "i'll let Lifelink know"

    Escape-Ades were the product of a video game company called Visualzer, from the UK. They were virtual escape rooms, filled with clever puzzles and great design.

    Hazel worked at a VR Arcade that got them in. Plenty of richer kids had private VR sets in their own houses, but if you just wanted short tastes, you could rent a room in the arcade for a party or social gathering. Some of them marketed to kids and teenagers, some to adults. Of course, construction was usually identical, it was just a matter of if they served alcohol or not-the old Chuck E Cheese/Dave And Busters divide. They had a lot of rooms for the ones that required specific games or equipment-MetaChasers, the licensed hero team fighter that you could make some money on the eSports leagues in, a social deduction sim called Witch Hunters where witches tried to 'kill' other players while keeping under the radar, Runes of Xenobia, a fantasy hack-and-slash with a fun magic system where you had to draw runes with your fingers…

    and, of course, Escape-Ades. One fringe benefit was that, because Hazel had a spare key to the store, she had been quietly allowed to use games with friends after hours, for free.

    Or at least, that's how Hazel had described it. There was always the possibility that she had just decided to go behind her boss's back. She was pretty shrewd…

    Hazel had only one on-paper job, but she also tutored for extra money, and she had been helping some of the students from a private school when she had met up with Michiko Katou, one of her tutoring subjects. Michiko had played some of Visualzer's screen-based puzzle games, but hadn't tried their larger and more in-depth VR experiences, owing to her home gaming system having only one headset, when Escape-Ades required four people.

    Which was where Lifelink came in. Lifelink, real name Ravi Kaur, was barely older than Keith. 20, in college, and also a hero. Ravi had awoken to his ability when he was Keith's current age.

    Lifelink's ability, really, was eerily well-suited for Keith. Lifelink could 'link' people, so that damage done to one was done to the other. It was a decent defense-if you punched Lifelink in the face, your own face would hurt just as bad. It made for efficient group clearings-hit one guy in the stomach hard enough and the rest of the group feels it.

    It meant that recharging his own ability wasn't as much of a liability, too.

    After a few minor team ups, the two had traded phone numbers and became mild friends. When, in conversation, it came up that Ravi also liked Escape-ades, he became the fourth member of the group.

    Keith opened up the text chain to Lifelink:

    "new escape-ade. usual place and time."

    "Cool. See you then."

    Lifelink always texted like that, perfect punctuation and grammar. It was weird.

    The rest of the afternoon passed like a blur. The meeting time was 11 PM. Keith went back to his apartment, browsed news sites and the Hero For Hire forums.

    All the shit with Crusade was wild. But it didn't sit right that a nepo baby and an American plant were trying to dictate the course of action.

    Black Swan was hella cool, though. She had made an entrance.

    Keith's apartment was all for himself. His legal guardian lived across the hall, his aunt and uncle.

    His parents had died in an attack when he in kindergarten. A Named Behemoth called the Thousand Mirror Serpent. Justice Unlimited had taken it out- not their first Named Behemoth takedown post-splitting from New Dawn. But… within the first 10 or so, he wanted to say? There was still footage of an adamantium-covered Adamant leaping into the snake's mouth, and then slicing it open from the inside out, then stabbing an adamantium blade up through the top and climbing out from inside the wound, covered in blood and mucus all over. Apparently, he had realized that the snake's reflective body bounced all energy-based attacks from the outside back at an attacker-like a monstrous clone of Arc. But the inside of it's mouth was not mirrored, so he attacked it from the inside out.

    But still, the rampage of the serpent had taken a few civilian's lives, after a pond of rainwater inside the QZ had let the Thousand Mirror Serpent jump into the 'world of reflection', where it traveled into the city and sprung out of the reflection inside of a department store window.

    Keith had enough memories of his parents to mourn them, but not quite enough to have a solid idea of what they were like. Aunt Maria and Uncle Ricardo took him in.

    His aunt and uncle had given him space. They checked in, helped him with groceries, and helped him set up his heroic career when his metahuman abilities started to manifest, but they understood that they weren't his parents and wouldn't replace them.

    He still loved them, but he also respected them keeping their distance. They hadn't wanted kids, and didn't have any. Keith didn't want to be an imposition.

    The afternoon wiled away, and gave way to evening. Keith made dinner, frozen potpies. He liked to mix it up into a sort of mini-stew, chunks of meat and veggies in the gravy-ish sauce with bits of the pie shell all around.

    He studied his digital textbooks and chipped away at his history essay until about 10, when he got dressed up to head out, sliding on his winter jacket.

    It was a 20 minute drive on his bike, giving him plenty of time to swing by Cruz's bodega for a few snacks and drinks before he arrived.

    Ravi and Michiko had already arrived when he came to the side entrance. They were waiting for Hazel, who had the key.

    Ravi was in the midst of describing a heroic escape to Michiko, who was, like always, enraptured by it.

    "This guy had an invisibility power, but it wasn't the type where it could cover clothing and objects you were holding. It was skin-only, so once it was clear that we had found him out, he started running while stripping his clothing off. I used my power on Keith, and then punched him right in the stomach. Keith had the martial arts training to take a punch to the gut, but the guy hadn't, so he doubled over before he could run away. Then we cuffed him and handed him over to the mall's security forces, where he'd be taken to prison."

    That would have been the case the two of them had been contacted for a week or so back regarding mysterious thefts and break-ins at the employee locker room at a mall. Ravi had done most of the detective work, Keith was there as the muscle.

    Honestly, aside from the fun factor of the game, Escape-ades, Keith hoped, were sharpening his mind so he'd be a better hero.

    He was a good fighter, and he wasn't bad at the social side of things, but he didn't want to be clueless when it came to other things. This was a way to sharpen his mind, his ability to put the dots together.

    "Cool as hell." Michiko just smiled as she took in the story.

    "Yo." Keith raised a hand as he headed up, smiling.

    "Hey."

    "Good to see ya. Just waiting for Hazel?" Ravi asked.

    "Yeah, she should be here shortly-"

    "It's rude to talk about someone behind their back." Hazel's voice startled Keith, coming from right behind him.

    "Jesus! Don't scare me like that!" Keith sighed as she passed by, her puffy jacket a soft green.

    She pulled the key out and opened the door, letting Ravi and Michiko through and inside.

    "Alright, what are we in for? What's the theme of this new room?"

    "It's a haunted house, and we're exorcising ghosts." Said Hazel as she moved to start up the computers and machines that ran the room. Michiko was looking at her screen as the four crossed the eating area and lobby and into the VR rooms themselves. Keith deposited the bag of snacks he had acquired onto one of the tables as he took off his jacket. Playing these things always made him sweaty and anxious. Even more so than the actual fights he was in.

    "Neat." Ravi just smiled casually. That was something Ravi was weirdly good at. He always looked good, but in a casual, low-effort, "I Woke Up Like This" sort of way.

    He could be a damn model or actor, the way he looked. You didn't need to be good-looking to be a hero, but it sure helped you snag endorsements and sponsorship deals. Ravi was waiting a bit before he did anything like that, but apparently an athleticwear company had an eye on him?

    Keith never begrudged him for that, but Keith could never have imagined doing something like that. Sure, his hero costume was… basic. His biker helmet, leather jacket, jeans, riding gloves, not much else. But he had decided it on his own. He didn't want any PR types telling him what haircut would be most flattering, what colors tested well with audiences, how to present himself.

    He'd do heroism on his own damn terms.

    Ravi shot him a look, and Keith realized he'd been furrowing his brow too much. He shook his head. This was supposed to be a fun time! Stop thinking about work, dammit!

    Hazel finished putting in the requirements and waiving the payment via her employer codes, and so Keith entered the room, moving to put on the headset and gloves along with the other four.

    The group signed in, and activated Escape-Ades's newest room, "The Haunting of Shadow Manor".

    After signing in came character choices. That was one of Escape-Ade's hooks. The four roles in each game each had their own skills and abilities, that you'd have to use in specific areas.

    "Okay, we have… Carlos, the scientist. Mei, the medium. Isaiah, the lockpick, and Leah, the muscle."

    "I'm taking Mei!" Michiko said as she took the slot.

    "I'm going to go with… Carlos, then." Ravi moved over to that.

    "…if you don't want to be Leah, you don't have to, Keith." Hazel said as her avatar looked at Keith's.

    "Nah, it's good. Take Isaiah." Keith selected Leah, and they entered the game.

    "That was pretty good!" The game had been finished, completed in the one-hour time limit, and Ravi was smiling as he took off the headset.

    "I mean, yeah, but I still think Dismantlation was the best."

    "You just liked the aesthetic of that one, with the whole military cult base angle."

    Keith sighed as he put everything back in it's place in the VR room, before the four of them exited, heading to the table with the snacks. As Hazel removed the Coca-Cola can from the 6-pack, Keith still couldn't help but feel frustrated.

    Hazel and Ravi had done the bulk of the lifting in the room. Hazel was a hard worker, who'd go over all the clues with detail and precision. Ravi, meanwhile, was intuitive, often making the small but crucial jumps of logic, turning a problem on it's head.

    Michiko had mostly been the go-between, relaying information only she had access to through hearing the ghost's voices, but she had her own critical moment with a puzzle involving tarot cards being placed in a correct spread, because she knew about it.

    He had helped with some of the more physical puzzles that required Leah's strength, he was quick with the digital notepad to jot things down, and he was helpful in gathering items, but still, Keith couldn't help but feel like a loose end. Mei's ghost clues, Isaiah's lockpicking, and Carlos's science gear had also been used often, but Leah was basically there to pry open boxes, push aside furniture, and not much else.

    Hazel seemed to sense Keith's frustration, and she put her hand on his wrist on the stool.

    "Hey, you did great! You don't get to sulk."

    And then Hazel just gave him that special look. That, "I love you, dork" look, with that quiet Mona Lisa smile, and Keith couldn't help but smile back.

    "Thanks. Sorry for getting all moody."

    "No problem."

    The night went quick, and everyone headed their own paths home, Keith walking Hazel back to her apartment.

    They kissed right before Hazel went inside, and Keith smiled. Yeah. Good night, definitely.
     
  • New
  • Apocrypha
    • Tsipouras1997 said:
    Oh! You mean like how the Fuhrer of Amestris in FMA is actually named King Bradley?
    Leading to him being called Fuhrer King Bradley.
    With many people believing that his title must be Fuhrer King and Bradley is his first name.
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    I swear to God I thought "the Fuhrer" and "King Bradley" were different characters for like a year watching FMA reruns on Adult Swim.
    ScorpioSting said:
    Unwinding
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    Very nice! +1!
     
    Bitterman said:
    The more barriers she creates at once, the weaker they all become collectively.
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    I know it's about 180 pages too late to mention, but the reference image for Châtelet is broken, and can't be seen.

    Unless I'm hallucinating due my weeklong binge of this story, great stuff, in which case, ignore my declining insanity.

    I'll see ya guys later when I finally escape the backlog
     
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