Starfinder (Worm/Starfinder RPG)

[Tsureai]

A note on non-euclidian death machine Missy. They'll never let her carry a gun. But do you think she could fire a marble? Would it be possible for her to setup an enclosed loop of space, essentially a closed track set in the shape of a D, where a marble put into that track would fall for a distance and then warp back up to the top without loosing speed and fall again? I think you can see where I'm going with this. Take a 1 inch marble or ball bearing, let it reach terminal velocity, and then redirect the end of the track at whatever you want to get hit.

 

[zerak]

But... what? First of all therapy is only effective if you want it to be, and Alec don't give a shit, and secondly isn't he already a GODDAMN SUPERVILLAN?! In what way is that not a reason to hold him in confinement? Also yeah I gotta stop with this derailing the comments shit sorry

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Not as far as I can tell. He ran away from his dad which was an abusive household, and since then any crime he committed would have been to have money to survive. And nothing too bad.

There are cases of villains being taken into the protectorate, and they would be a lot more lenient on minors, specially if they had to commit crime due to necessity. And Alec is too afraid to go to the authorities as he doesn't know how they would react or doesn't trust them, or being the teen he is that ran away from an abusive parent he probably has a mistrust in authority figures.

As for him refusing therapy, once they force him into the wards they would put similar terms to the ones Shadow Stalker had in canon but more lenient as he was forced into his situation. He would need to attend therapy sessions even if he just sat quiet during it. And as long as he follows the guidelines he is good.

If he decides to do a runner or is caught committing crime they would treat it like any other Ward committing crime (though with some slight differences biased on the judge I guess) and would probably start with a light punishment, and if he repeats they would increase the punishment till he ended up in juvenile detention.

If he proves that he can behave during his stay in the Wards, he wouldn't need to join the protectorate and can do what ever he wants as long as he doesn't commit any crimes. And the PRT are likely to keep tabs on him and might even check in regularly on him or just ask around.

A note on non-euclidian death machine Missy. They'll never let her carry a gun. But do you think she could fire a marble? Would it be possible for her to setup an enclosed loop of space, essentially a closed track set in the shape of a D, where a marble put into that track would fall for a distance and then warp back up to the top without loosing speed and fall again? I think you can see where I'm going with this. Take a 1 inch marble or ball bearing, let it reach terminal velocity, and then redirect the end of the track at whatever you want to get hit.

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I don't believe that a marble at terminal velocity would do much. If she had a dart or a tranquilliser dart then she can use your idea.

Though she can become a terror in close combat (and ranged) if she learns to stretch very small spaces into larger ones as she can make every single hit on her miss by just distorting a few centimetres around herself to make attacks go around her.

She can even emulate a Stranger effect by bending the space round her so sound, light, and touch go around her seamlessly. She just needs to learn how to bend the area relative to her location rather than set coordinates, so she can move while doing this instead of just being able to do it while standing still.

If she can trap a person in a loop she can also release gas like carbon monoxide which would be hard to notice and they would eventually pass out. Though she would need to be careful not to leave them in their too long or they die.

 

[TotallyNotEvil]

For all that she could be a non-euclidean death machine, right now she is an 11 year old.

That's why she doesn't have a gun.

Maybe if John is willing to pony up a tinkertech contraption that will change.

 

[Pineapple_Inc]

Not as far as I can tell. He ran away from his dad which was an abusive household, and since then any crime he committed would have been to have money to survive. And nothing too bad.

There are cases of villains being taken into the protectorate, and they would be a lot more lenient on minors, specially if they had to commit crime due to necessity. And Alec is too afraid to go to the authorities as he doesn't know how they would react or doesn't trust them, or being the teen he is that ran away from an abusive parent he probably has a mistrust in authority figures.

As for him refusing therapy, once they force him into the wards they would put similar terms to the ones Shadow Stalker had in canon but more lenient as he was forced into his situation. He would need to attend therapy sessions even if he just sat quiet during it. And as long as he follows the guidelines he is good.

If he decides to do a runner or is caught committing crime they would treat it like any other Ward committing crime (though with some slight differences biased on the judge I guess) and would probably start with a light punishment, and if he repeats they would increase the punishment till he ended up in juvenile detention.

If he proves that he can behave during his stay in the Wards, he wouldn't need to join the protectorate and can do what ever he wants as long as he doesn't commit any crimes. And the PRT are likely to keep tabs on him and might even check in regularly on him or just ask around.

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OK so going down the list, firstly he WAS a supervillian at the time, went by Hijack. Second, why would you think the crimes the guy with power induced sociopathy commits would be minor? Third and fourth yeah the PRT would prolly try to recruit him cause they also give no shits, but he knows exactly how the authorities would react to a rapist master (might be fanon, pretty sure it's not) and it's not good, also they would absolutely NOT be more lenient because he's a minor, they'd use that to pressure him further. Fifth? Fifth. He prolly could just sit through therapy not saying anything, but once again have to point out that he's a MASTER and the PRT would throw the book at him as hard as they could if they found out he's a heartbroken
Can't really find fault with the other shit you said tho, except that they'd prolly never give him his freedom.

 

[Bakkasama]

Ok, I MIGHT be remembering wrong, but didn't Alec (as Hijack) do drugs and had sex using the bodies he controled in order to see how it felt without suffering concecuences? I think he mentioned in his internal monologue but please correct me if I am wrong.

Iirc though, I would say that the whole murder/rape/slavery/forcing drugs on people goes a bit beyond "My da' forced me to do it". He stopped because he was laying low, not because he thought it wrong.

 

[zerak]

OK so going down the list, firstly he WAS a supervillian at the time, went by Hijack. Second, why would you think the crimes the guy with power induced sociopathy commits would be minor? Third and fourth yeah the PRT would prolly try to recruit him cause they also give no shits, but he knows exactly how the authorities would react to a rapist master (might be fanon, pretty sure it's not) and it's not good, also they would absolutely NOT be more lenient because he's a minor, they'd use that to pressure him further. Fifth? Fifth. He prolly could just sit through therapy not saying anything, but once again have to point out that he's a MASTER and the PRT would throw the book at him as hard as they could if they found out he's a heartbroken
Can't really find fault with the other shit you said tho, except that they'd prolly never give him his freedom.

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Ok, I MIGHT be remembering wrong, but didn't Alec (as Hijack) do drugs and had sex using the bodies he controled in order to see how it felt without suffering concecuences? I think he mentioned in his internal monologue but please correct me if I am wrong.

Iirc though, I would say that the whole murder/rape/slavery/forcing drugs on people goes a bit beyond "My da' forced me to do it". He stopped because he was laying low, not because he thought it wrong.

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Ya, so definitely would get forced into the wards for rehabilitation since while he did a lot of shit, some of it can be blamed on the environment. And you are right, he would never be let free of the PRT, at best he would be allowed to work another job while still part of the protectorate when he is older and would have constant surveillance on anyone he interacts with regularly and maybe even a camera to detect anyone he interacts with to make sure they know possible victims till they can twee the effects of his rehabilitation.

And if he wastes time during therapy he would probably get sent to the birdcage or another prison the moment he is old enough, or they would do that the moment he does the slightest of mistakes.

The shit he pulled after leaving his dad fùcked any chances he had at having any true freedom in his life. And depending on who actually handles him he might not even get a second chance at all. They might even trial him as an adult. Though I think it's unlikely that they won't even try to help at all, if only to show that others can turn to them for help if they are in similar situations.

 

[MrDemonRush]

A note on non-euclidian death machine Missy. They'll never let her carry a gun. But do you think she could fire a marble? Would it be possible for her to setup an enclosed loop of space, essentially a closed track set in the shape of a D, where a marble put into that track would fall for a distance and then warp back up to the top without loosing speed and fall again? I think you can see where I'm going with this. Take a 1 inch marble or ball bearing, let it reach terminal velocity, and then redirect the end of the track at whatever you want to get hit.

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I mean, didn't canon Missy topple buildings during Leviathan battle?

The building itself bulged and warped as Vista exerted her power, thickened the walls, made the middle floors of the building draw together slightly, a slight hourglass shape. I saw her, wet and worn out, one hand raised, shouting something I couldn't make out at one of the out-of-town Wards.
...

"Fucking do it!" Bastion called out, barely audible.

The building above him bent and the midsection, unable to support the upper floors, crumbled. The upper half of the building crashed down atop Leviathan and Bastion.

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Also, by WoG, the speed she can stretch space at isn't enough to turn marbles into any kind of effective weapon.

• Toss a handful of marbles in the air, stretch the space on the way down to bring them to terminal velocity, then redirect the direction they are falling to be pointblank range on someone. Instant non-lethal (but very painful) "shotgun" of marbles.

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She's too slow for that.

• Do the same thing with a bowling ball, but now it's a lethal cannonball.

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She's too weak to throw a bowling ball. She's twelve, for pete's sake.

• If someone is shooting a gun at her or her friends, twist space so the bullets from the gun are marked "return to sender". Technically she wouldn't be using lethal force because she's not the one who fired the gun in the first place.

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Way too slow to do that, and she's more about pinching/expanding than turning things around.

• In a chase, catching up is trivial by shortening the distance you have to travel while lengthening their distance.

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This is canon.

• In a chase, it's also possible to have the front of the fleeing vehicle suddenly be pointing straight up or down, or for the wheels to be a lot smaller.

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Sorta kinda not really & yes, respectively.

• Turning peoples clothes into something resembling a straight jacket is possible. Her Manton limit applies to the person inside the clothes, not the clothes themselves.

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Not at all. Her manton limit makes her power harder to use where living things are around/in the space she's warping. They're inside the space occupied by their own clothes, and definitely around it. No.

• There's no reason to stretch space to walk over a building. It's much easier to walk through the building through the air ducts. It doesn't matter that they are 1 square foot - Vista makes them bigger.

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Yes, sort of, but kind of obvious, as the walls bulge to accommodate.

• Most of matter is composed of empty space. There's nothing really stopping her from literally walking through walls by making that space between atoms bigger.

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There's a lot stopping her from this. I'll settle for a simple 'nope'.

• She can stretch space where there are not living things. Traveling ground-level means that she runs into people shortening her range quite often. However, 10 feet above the sidewalk is pretty empty of people.

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She anchors her power around solid matter/targets solid matter with the space around it being impacted. Nope.

• It's easy to cheat at darts or bowling when the dartboard/pins are a foot away.

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Yes.

• If someone is sitting in a chair, fun things would happen if one of the legs was suddenly very short or very tall.

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Yes.

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[Tsureai]

Also, by WoG, the speed she can stretch space at isn't enough to turn marbles into any kind of effective weapon.

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She's too slow to do it in real time. She can't expand space faster than an item can fall. I propose she expand space ahead of time, and then throw things into it. Wait a bit for them to get up to speed, and then point it at her target and cancel the effect. It's not a snap shot option, it's more like a sniper type weapon. It takes time to get up to speed, and time for her to aim it.

As for the impact? Terminal velocity is around 200mph give or take. Higher if you get your drag down. To put that into perspective, give Missy a 5 ounce bank sinker lead fishing weight. That's the same weight as a standard baseball. The fastest baseballs ever thrown barely top 100mph. Missy can launch a fishing weight at twice the speed of the fastest baseball ever thrown, which gives it four times the energy, concentrated into a point.

And with this setup she's not limited by the energy she can impart onto a projectile. She doesn't have to throw a bowling ball, she just has to drop it into the track and then let gravity do it's thing. A 200mph bowling ball would be... well whoever got hit would be pretty dead.

 

[Bakkasama]

She's too slow to do it in real time. She can't expand space faster than an item can fall. I propose she expand space ahead of time, and then throw things into it. Wait a bit for them to get up to speed, and then point it at her target and cancel the effect. It's not a snap shot option, it's more like a sniper type weapon. It takes time to get up to speed, and time for her to aim it.

As for the impact? Terminal velocity is around 200mph give or take. Higher if you get your drag down. To put that into perspective, give Missy a 5 ounce bank sinker lead fishing weight. That's the same weight as a standard baseball. The fastest baseballs ever thrown barely top 100mph. Missy can launch a fishing weight at twice the speed of the fastest baseball ever thrown, which gives it four times the energy, concentrated into a point.

And with this setup she's not limited by the energy she can impart onto a projectile. She doesn't have to throw a bowling ball, she just has to drop it into the track and then let gravity do it's thing. A 200mph bowling ball would be... well whoever got hit would be pretty dead.

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Counter argument: You want to give a child in law enforcement a lethal option when her power is very well suited to non lethal take downs. Ideally, you want the later rather than the former. If she is facing a brute who merits that level of force, she would be best suited using her power to contain them and while there is an argument that if she is busy doing that then she can't be helping other people, the PRT has things like containment foam which would be a lot more effective at putting down villains that brute force.

A lot of munchkinry with parahuman powers and people mathing it out run into that limitation. Would it be something they are ever likely to use in a normal setting? If they are ever able to use lethal force to that level then they are likely in something like an Endringer fight, in which case they likely are cooperating with other capes that can do something like that but better, which would leave her free to do battlefield control, which her power is best at. Just because something is theoretically possible it does not mean that it would ever be a good idea to do it and if it isn't something that you are likely to use then you are better served in training your powers in a way you are likely to use them.

It is a bit like when in Harry Potter fics the muggleborns use stuff like the atomic bomb or other weapons as to why they should not understimate muggles. Whenever I read it, I think "Ok, but why would I ever want to be able to do those things with magic?" If you have a non-lethal option to take down the enemy and it isn't any harder than the lethal one, one would think that it should be obvious that the first one is preferrable.

 

[Fluffy_serpent]

It is not for nothing but I think they should stop or go to another thread to continue their conversation, since they are derailing the thread

 

[Nulthazor]

Hi I've been reading this for a while and I've made an account solely to share this hellish realization I have come to
The MC's Name is John
All that stuff with Emma just happened
I present to you, Alan Barnes Greatest Fear:

Spoiler: What Nightmares are made from

 

[deadlyham]

Agreed. Get that outta here! More Starfinder posts!
OMAKE INCOMING!
whistle noise ~~~~~~ BOOM!

Aren't You a Polar Bear

"Did you have PR when you joined?" I asked Miss Militia as she walked me to the PR offices.

"Well, no. The Wards program just started when I joined."

"Do you think they would have let you keep your guns if you joined as a kid now?"

"I assume so. My power is always having a weapon on me. It would be impossible for PR to disarm me."

"They could make you use a marching baton, dress you like a band leader, and call you Drummer Girl." Miss Militia shuddered.

"They aren't that bad. Shadow Stalker kept her gun after all."

"Yeah, we'll see."

---

Just kill me. All the stories about PR are true. Why is my fiction knowledge right about this? I've been talking to this asshole for over an hour and he's criticized everything about me. How the hell do actual teenage capes tolerate this sort of abuse on their self-esteem? Guns are scary. My witty banter is apparently "off putting". He even tried to downgrade my armor to the Mining Jack because it looks less intimidating! Thank god I negotiated for control over my image. I really want to tell this jerk to take a long walk off a pier, but maintaining a good relationship with the PR department is part of the job. Especially when this jerk will plan most of my PR events.

"The color scheme is great, but we need to humanize heroes. I'm not asking you to wear spandex. Something as simple as leaving your eyes or mouth visible, like Armsmaster and Miss Militia." Kelly pointed to some of his designs.

"I. Am. Black. I love pummeling Nazis, but I have no plans to give them more of an excuse to murder me." I concede that an expressionless giant stompy robot is not the most approachable character, but my power armor is made for battle, not hugs.

"What about turning into a polar bear? That will hide your identity and still show something other that a reflective dome. Our market research shows a lot of positive reaction to you being a polar bear." Kelly conceded the point, and immediately moved on to another. It's like haggling with a used car salesman.

"I can't maintain the transformation for that long. It only lasts for a few minutes. Also, isn't it kind of racist to ask a black teen to turn into a white bear?"

"Polar Bears have black skin under their white fur. Look, we can table the visor for now" I'll throw you through a table "so why don't you tell me about this transformation power. It's impressive to be have such versatile abilities. The public likes to think of the stereotypical Tinker as a futuristic engineer who can build anything, but most tinkers have a much more narrow focus for their technology. Can you do anything else with your transformation tech?"

"I turned Hookwolf into a burnt, agony chicken nugget once." Kelly stared at me for a few seconds with a blank expression.

"Incidents like that give credence to the idea that you are 'torture tinker'. Tortures bad, m'kay." Kelly brought his hands together. "So let's distance your reputation from that as far as possible." And then pulled his hands apart in a wide sweeping gesture. He's been doing hand gestures and exaggerated body language the whole time to teach me how to be expressive with my face hidden. Clockblocker had to put hours into practicing this stuff.

"Hey, the transformation is crucial tech. It knocked Hookwolf out of the fight and prevents him from transforming." I waved my hands around like some stereotypical Italian mobster. Look, I don't know how to talk with my hands. I just started learning this stuff.

"OK, so keep using it, but could you turn Hookwolf into anything else that wouldn't be horrifying?"

"Well…" I honestly had some fun brainstorming polymorph ideas for the rest of the meeting.

--

My first PR event isn't so bad, but standing in front an auditorium of elementary schoolers still sucked. Does anyone really expect one of these elementary school kids to become a dangerous cape? Actually that little girl with the glasses looks a little like a mini Taylor Hebert. And Bonesaw exists. Hmmm. I'm going to keep a close eye on these kids. They're a ticking time bomb.

I pointed to a boy in the front row with his hand raised. "Is it true you are a polar bear?" Either this kid has Nazi parents or he is lurking on PHO way too much. Such irresponsible parents. As a hero, it falls to me to guide this clearly troubled youth. I looked the kid in the eyes and tried to convey some PR approved earnestness into my voice. "It doesn't matter that I'm a bear on my outside. What really matters is what is on the inside. Which is also a bear."

Sophia telepathically screamed at me What the fuck are you saying?

I kneeled down and placed my gauntlet on the boy's shoulder. "Are you a bear in your heart?"

The boy clenched his tiny fists with determination, stared into my helmet, and claimed with as much severity an eight year old could muster "Yes."

"Do you want to turn into a bear on the outside too?" I swear the kids eyes glowed.

"Yeah!"

"OK then!" ZAP! A quick finger gun and the little boy polymorphed into a Care Bear.

"Awesome!" My god he is adorable. Kelly was right. This is great.

"Who else wants to be a bear?" I yelled at the audience. Dozens of little hands went up. So anyway, I started blasting those kids. A few of a the teachers were freaking out and the PRT escort was gaping like a fish.

--

"What the hell were you thinking?" I underestimated how mad Piggot would be.

"PR said it was ok." was my weak reply. Fuck, Piggot can be intimidating.

"I believe they meant for you to use those transformations on criminals."

"I thought the kids would like to be bears too. They loved it! I mean, look at these photos. It's getting a real positive response online." I brought up some photos of the adorable Care Bears class. Yeah, she's not calming down.

 

[Lokimotion]

…why do I feel like there's more to it then that, like there's a lot context missing, are sure your bias isn't blinding you? I mean I'm willing to admit my own bias. But I feel like there's more to it then just how you see it.

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There's a lot more context, but explaining it would be long and complicated. I'll PM you to avoid continuing a derail.

 

[zerak]

"Who else wants to be a bear?" I yelled at the audience. Dozens of little hands went up. So anyway, I started blasting those kids. A few of a the teachers were freaking out and the PRT escort was gaping like a fish.

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As fun as that would be to see, he sadly does not have enough spell slots. And unfortunately, Mass Polymorph is a level 4 spell. Though that would be an amazing misuse proper of of a level 4 spell when visiting a school for a PR event once he levels up some more.

 

[Valder]

Just found and read through this. Going to put down some thoughts and reactions.

The insertion and setting up moved along quick, but starting at school the very next day after being placed with his relatives seemed like unbelievably efficient bureaucracy. Also, he walked into that new school and met with the principal and everything while sporting a black eye and other injuries, why was there not even a single reaction to this???

Throwing Alabaster into the sewer seemed like a strange solution to that fight. Like, he got close enough to lift him, so disarm and hold him down? Put a couch on him? Lock him in a room? Why specifically a sewer? If Vista wasn't there wouldn't he have just walked off?

Why does it seem like nothing came of his claim about the abusive bf of his aunt? That chapter ended with the PRT showing up and the dramatic announcement. Then later the dude is still in the house like nothing changed.

Is there really just the one alley shortcut Mr Barnes could make between the photo shoots and home? Why would the photo shoots always be in the same place? Is he following their car from photo shoot to their house every time?

Having music blaring for the encounter just seems so cringey. Like we've left the land of seriousness and entered gary-stu edgelord syndrome. Especially when there's a traumatized kid on scene.

How is it that there has been no questioning about the hacking of the wards phones?

Now he suddenly turns up at the Barnes house and unmasks?? Why??? It just seems to come out of nowhere.

 

[zerak]

The insertion and setting up moved along quick, but starting at school the very next day after being placed with his relatives seemed like unbelievably efficient bureaucracy. Also, he walked into that new school and met with the principal and everything while sporting a black eye and other injuries, why was there not even a single reaction to this???

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Back in 2012 I moved to live with my brother who was 18 at the time in a different country. Within 2-3 days of moving to the new place we would live in (since he was in uni housing) I started school. And that was within the first 5 days of moving to the country. So 1 day with a his cousin already in the same school and not needing to do much else is actually very normal.

Schools tend to let you start as soon as possible with some initial paperwork and allow you to finish the rest of the paper work if there is any later on. I have been to 8 different school in 4 different countries. And generally speaking their top priority is getting you to start class, the rest can be sorted out later. While private schools might require more effort and time, it's still a streamlined process.

 

[Roadie]

The insertion and setting up moved along quick, but starting at school the very next day after being placed with his relatives seemed like unbelievably efficient bureaucracy. Also, he walked into that new school and met with the principal and everything while sporting a black eye and other injuries, why was there not even a single reaction to this???

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Have you ever gone to a school bad enough to need metal detectors? The bad schools in Brockton Bay are even worse than that. A black eye and some bruises are minor by comparison to all the shit the staff has to regularly deal with.

 

[Valder]

Have you ever gone to a school bad enough to need metal detectors? The bad schools in Brockton Bay are even worse than that. A black eye and some bruises are minor by comparison to all the shit the staff has to regularly deal with.

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Metal detectors in schools? What kinda hell hole is this? And this was a middle school though. Granted I've no idea what ages that would mean, but I got the impression it was kids.

 

[Lokimotion]

During the school meeting in arc 5 the teachers mentioned students bringing knives to school and having to deal with stabbings.

 

[Roadie]

Metal detectors in schools? What kinda hell hole is this? And this was a middle school though. Granted I've no idea what ages that would mean, but I got the impression it was kids.

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Seven percent of middle schools and thirteen percent of high schools in the US use metal detectors. This is without the ongoing societal breakdown of Worm's setting, so I would expect the numbers there are much higher than that.

Also, did you somehow miss that Brockton Bay is infested with literal Nazis, has an active sex slave trade, and contains gangs that literally kidnap people and forcibly inject them with drugs to get them hooked on the stuff? 'Hellhole' is putting it lightly.

 

[Valder]

The US is messed up. Gotcha. The news made me think it was just a high school thing.

 

[Lokimotion]

that literally kidnap people and forcibly inject them with drugs to get them hooked on the stuff?

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This one is actually fanon. The Merchants are basically drug dealing nobodies in canon before Leviathan arrives.

 

[McFluffles]

This one is actually fanon. The Merchants are basically drug dealing nobodies in canon before Leviathan arrives.

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The villain meeting at Sommer's Rock exemplifies this best, I think? In that the Merchants are so looked down upon that the Undersiders, a gang of what amounts to teenage street punks, gets a seat at the big boy table while Skidmark doesn't. Plus iirc they're called the Archer's Bridge Merchants because of where they were founded but don't even hold that location as part of their territory by the time canon rolls around. They've just been severely hyped up by fanon over the years going "these are the BIG THREE GANGS" when really it's just the ABB and the E88 as the big names in the city. Most of what the Merchants were actually known for is from the wreckage of a city that Brockton Bay became post-Leviathan when all their proper competition was gone and they had a massive base of newly homeless/disenfranchised/etc types to draw from.

It probably helps from a fanfiction standpoint that the Merchants give an easy "first target" for whatever main character, be it some OC or Alt-power Taylor, to cut their teeth on that won't potentially end up in the Empire throwing their full weight around (like happened here) or can potentially unbalance the city immediately (canon with jailing Lung and giving Bakuda free reign).

 

[TheOmnimercurial]

Do Azata/Lilim or their Boss God the feathered serpent Coatl have abilities for Rezzing?

 

[Bowlerhat Guy]

You know, I didn't have anything even vaguely resembling friends beside Sophia recently, so I had kind of forgotten, but teenagers - in particular, teenage girls - were apparently very well practiced in the art of texting. Or rather, where an adult might accept 'no answer' as an answer of its own, a teenager apparently… didn't.

​

Vicky: What r u upto?​ You: Console duty. You?​ Vicky: homework. is Dean with you? Vicky: I know ur there. Vicky: hey Vicky: hey​ You: You grasp that console duty requires I pay attention, right?​ Vicky: y do u type like that? is dean there?​ You: Did you just 'okay Boomer' me?​ Vicky: dont know what tht is. Vicky: hey​ You: Yes, he's fucking here, jesus just stop.​

I groaned audibly, pinching the bridge of my nose and doing my best not to look at Dean - or Gallant - who was sitting fifteen feet away on the couch behind me, visibly distressed by something I couldn't begin to puzzle out. As it turned out, while I wasn't strictly 'in trouble' for it, my highly dangerous power armour randomly being teleported out of my workshop - multiple times over the last week in fact - had not gone unnoticed. Armsmaster - who I should stress, had promised me I wasn't in trouble - had then decided that now was as good a time as any to get me trained on the console.

Like I said, totally not in trouble. Officially, that is.

I genuinely didn't see the point in the exercise. The adult protectorate didn't appear to have an equivalent duty - there was always a PRT officer on the comms to handle things. Hell, five seconds of digging around the blocky old machine in the Wards common room had shown me the link to another terminal elsewhere in the building where a PRT officer was quietly riding herd on everything I was doing. I guess if the Wards program was functioning as intended, and the Wards genuinely just existed as a boy scouts program for Parahumans, then having us waste our time this way was just another way to keep us occupied. But here in the bay that just wasn't the case.

And god help me, because I was starting to think of myself as a Brocktonite purely based on the number of times I'd been in a shootout.

Now, normally I wouldn't care overmuch. My debut was in about a week, I had squared away my short term goal of keeping Emma sane - a buzzing from my personal phone handily informed me that I might not be as done with that as I'd like - and didn't have anything else set to do besides tinkering. However, for reasons that were beyond me, I seemed to get scheduled at the same time as Dean.

A lot.

Dean, who despite everything I knew about him saying he was the sane, mature, member of Worms teeny-bopper cast, seemed to just… not like me for some reason. I mean, I knew the reason - it was because I got along just a bit too well with his girlfriend for his tastes. And I had tried to respect that. It wasn't like I was going on any patrols with her recently. Vicky just had a tendency to inundate me with inane questions about her relationship because I was her one 'guy' friend. If she didn't know why something bothered her boyfriend, she asked me - presumably because she assumed I would have some insight.

I usually did, but only because all the teenage drama was old hat to me. I'd been there and done that, and I didn't relish doing it again. Of course, Vicky also just generally considered me her friend, and while she and Sophia had hung out a few times since the mall incident that got us inducted into the Wards, I had politely begged off each time. As much as I wanted to help Amy out, I figured I had more than enough time to get acquainted with her after she triggered - since we would both be at the hospital anyway. And spending excessive amounts of time around Victoria was basically the one thing I knew would piss Dean off.

Which leads me to now. Shadow Stalker and Clockblocker were currently on patrol, and to my great surprise approximately nothing had happened in the last two hours. They only had to radio in if something actually happened to interrupt the daytime stroll they were making across the boardwalk, so aside from occasional banter when one of them needed directions, I was just sort of sitting in the Wards common room breathing the air and trying to avoid the two teenagers who wouldn't stop texting me.

It couldn't have been more than a minute after I had confirmed to Vicky that Dean was with me, that a light pinging noise rang out behind me, and I turned to find the man himself glaring at me.

"What?" I asked defensively. It was an unfortunate reality that - no matter what I consciously knew to be the truth - my preconceptions about the guy made me feel bad every time he got mad at me. It was like Superman being unhappy with you. Superman was always good, and so, ipso facto, if he was unhappy with you, you were probably doing something bad.

Even though I clearly wasn't.

"Why did you tell Vicky I was here?" Dean asked me in that petulant way only teenagers can seem to manage. Not quite aggressive, not quite whiny, but somewhere between the two.

"…because she asked, and you didn't ask me not to?" I put forth tentatively. It wasn't like the idea of hiding from someone was alien to me. There were lots of times in the past when I could remember friends reminding me not to out them for doing stuff they probably shouldn't be. It wasn't about right or wrong - sometimes people just want to do something stupid, like spend two hundred dollars on a children's card game without their significant other catching on.

Or… something else less specific than that.

Don't judge me.

Anyway, my point is, I wasn't trying to be passive-aggressive here. I just genuinely didn't know the guy was hiding from his girlfriend.

"Why was she even talking to you in the first place?" Dean then spat at me.

I stared blankly at him. Then sighed. I deeply resented having to explain this, but I guess he had to hear it.

"Dean, fifty percent of the population is men. Your girlfriend is going to have male friends." I pointed out, keeping my annoyance down to a low simmer as I did so.

I just had to keep reminding myself that I was speaking from experience, which was something the person I was talking to obviously didn't have.

"That's not- stop acting like you're better than me! I know what you're doing. I can see it. You can make everyone else think you're just an easy going weirdo, but not me." Dean hissed.

The hell was this now?

"I'm not that weird!" I countered immediately before a thought occurred to me. "Wait, are you not even scheduled right now? Is this why you're always here at the same time as me?" I asked, flabbergasted.

Who chose to work overtime?

"Somebody has to keep an eye on you." Dean returned evenly. I swear to god, he even managed to sound kind of heroic while he said it. There was just one problem.

I had no idea what the hell he was talking about.

"O…kay. Look I feel like there's been a misunderstanding? What do I have to do to show you that I'm not secretly… whatever it is you think I am." I asked. And I was being sincere about it too. I'd long ago found that just being upfront about things was the easiest way to avoid conflict. Most arguments were born from misunderstandings, or a refusal to compromise- and I was very willing to compromise if it meant I could avoid more of this awkward bullshit.

Dean, to his credit, actually looked like he was pondering the question for a second, before standing up and walking to the door of the room. There, he looked over his shoulder at me and finally responded.

"You can't." He stated flatly, before leaving the room.

I quickly jumped from my seat to follow after him, trusting Merlin to mind the Console for me for a second and stuck my head out the door after him.

"I know you think that was cool but I can literally just get up and follow you!" I yelled after him.

He of course, then flipped me off, turning a corner and vanishing.

"If you would like sir, I could monitor his cellular communications and keep you apprised of any new developments?" Merlin offered

Usually, I would say no. I would flatly refuse out of hand just because I didn't want to get into that particular slippery slope. In the end I still refused, but I had to think about it.

"No. He's just a stupid kid being a stupid kid. It's fine." I replied after some agonized thinking on the subject, before heading back to the console and sitting down.

"Just so sir. Would you like me to set your phone to 'Do Not Disturb'?" Merlin continued.

I didn't actually get the chance to answer him, however, because the Console sprang to life with noise at that exact moment.

"Console this is Clockblocker. There's a minor gang robbing a jewelry store just off the patrol route. Shadow Stalker has already moved to engage, but it looks like they have Cape support - I couldn't keep up with her when we heard the alarms going off so I only just got here." Dennis' ragged voice stated, clearly out of breath from sprinting for all he was worth. I appreciated the fact that he didn't immediately rat Sophia out for clearly running off with reporting in, but only in so far as it showed he actually liked her enough to do so. I didn't appreciate the fact that she was apparently in a fight without my knowledge.

"Talk to me Stalker, what's good." I immediately called out, hitting the switch that patched me into both Wards communication devices. I had no idea how Armsmaster had gotten Sophias to work with her shadow state without zapping her, but I guess he'd found a way regardless.

"Guy in motorcycle leathers with a skull helmet. The normal thugs are running away while he blocks the way forward. I'm going to go for a takedown then chase them." She rattled off to me instantly. I got the impression that she probably wouldn't have been so forthcoming for anyone else, but at this point, I had roughly conditioned her to just tell me everything all the time to fuel my 'thinker power'. It probably also helped that in her mental calculus, I was still definitely more on her side than the PRT's - which was true, but problematic in the long run.

"Stalker, do not engage, the villain's name is Grue and he is capable of producing a-"

"I'm going in."

"He counters your fucking powers!" I hissed out, forgoing pretty much everything anybody had ever made me learn about proper communication on the console in favour of brevity. Unfortunately, instead of replying to me so I could go into more detail, all I got back from the comms was static, and a response from Clockblocker.

"So the black cloud thing negates powers?" He asked nervously, no doubt referencing Grue's cloud of darkness.

"No, it counters Stalker's powers. She can't breathe in the cloud when she's in her breaker state, and the cloud itself absorbs most forms of energy so her laser weapon will be useless inside of it. He can see like it's the middle of the day in the thing but no one else can see shit. What's going on?" I quickly rattled off in the hopes that any amount of what I was saying was reaching Sophia. I doubted it - because Grue's cloud blocked radio waves as well as it did everything else - but I had to try.

"Shadow Stalker is in the smoke and I can't catch up with the fleeing criminals. Permission to go in after her?" Clock explained before - hesitantly - asking if he could go after her.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck. On the one hand, I knew that Brian - otherwise known as the small-time villain Grue - was smart enough not to permanently injure or kill my cousin.

On the other hand, I knew where he lived and had absolutely no problem making an issue of it if he did.

I wanted Clock to go in and help, but intellectually I knew that the second they had let him create a big enough smokescreen they had lost. Some other Wards might have had a chance - Vista could shrink the affected area, and Aegis could just fly over it until Grue made a break for it - but Shadow Stalker and Clockblocker had basically no chance.

The choice, however, was rapidly taken out of my hands by a new - adult sounding - voice.

"Negative Clockblocker, Assault and Battery are on route." The PRT agent monitoring our comms stated smoothly. I grimaced - because unless they were already practically on top of them, there was no way Assault and Battery, who I somehow hadn't met yet, would get there in time.

"Confirmed," Clockblocker responded grimly.

Several minutes of tense silence went by until Clock spoke again.

"The smoke is clearing. I think-"

"-THE FUCK ARE YOU, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Shadow Stalker suddenly roared into my ear, making me wince and nearly hurl my headset away out of reflex.

"Shadow Stalker, confirm your status." The PRT agent demanded the second she made contact.

"He fucking ran away! He hit me a few times then fucking left! I'm going to try and see if I can spot him from the roof-" She screamed angrily, probably not immediately recognizing that I wasn't the person on the line with her.

"Negative Shadow Stalker. Return to Protectorate Headquarters for debriefing." The PRT agent cut her off.

I winced because I knew for a fact that I was going to have to hear her complain about this for the rest of the week.

"I can still catch him just-" Sophia, to her credit, tried to reason. You could really hear it too, the effort she put into trying to sound reasonable despite the angry screaming from seconds earlier. Alas, it wasn't to be.

"Shadow Stalker. Return to the base." The agent repeated more firmly.
There was some angry grumbling, then a halfhearted comment from Clockblocker about 'getting him next time', and then the comms went silent.

Well. That could have gone… better. It could have gone worse - I'm pretty sure Sophia nearly literally killed Grue the first time they encountered each other in canon - but it definitely wasn't ideal. I'd like to be able to get Grue to stop being such a flagrant dickhead, but I'm not sure how I would even go about trying. I thought it was pretty obvious that he had something of an independent streak. If he hadn't already joined the PRT he probably never would - not unless he was forced to, which had its own pitfalls.

Regardless, it was over now, which meant I could leave the Console to perform my other duties in peace. They had run enough tests on my Healing Ampoules to have approved them for general use, so they wanted me to have a pretty big stock of them set up and ready to go for my debut. It wasn't the most glamorous introduction to the public, but the plan was to go straight from my introduction to the local hospital so I could spend a few hours healing people in the ICU. I got some amusement out of knowing I would be in the hospital before Amy - but that was about it. Mostly, I just figured that spending hours healing people counted against my weekly hours with the PRT just as well as anything else, so I didn't really care that much about it. Unlike Panacea, I wasn't going to dedicate my life to it or develop a saviour complex or whatever it was that compelled her to spend every waking moment in the place.

I had too much Tinkering to do for that.

Naturally, when I was finally winding down from that tense little series of encounters, I got another text message.

Whipping my phone out expecting it to be more inane prodding from Vicky, I wasn't even slightly surprised to find that she wasn't the person messaging me.

Emma: R u free this wknd?

My eye twitched.