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The God Diversion

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ImperatorV said:
Man, I was extremely confused for a few minutes until I saw Rihaku had edited Grand Caster. The sheer WTF of seeing brightwing's post with no context was fun.

Chloe though, huh. I don't think she's come up yet. I wonder why Sol is interested in her.
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Yup, there was a lot of Discord discussion with Birdsie re: Sol romance options and he seemed quite for it. Sol is also quite a decisive individual when he does act: see how definitively he secured Magician and proceeded with the ritual to absorb the leyline.

Discord info:
*Sol does desire a girlfriend but has previously had too low Will to even consider it. Now that that's changed, it's a realistic option for him. Anyway, that's not what we're doing here, Sol is just going on a date with one girl in order to get to know them. Serious romance will probably be in the future unless they turn out to be exceptionally compatible - though with turns spanning one entire month, they represent more than enough time for Sol to know someone quite well if that's desired.
*Chloe's primary Aspects, Liquidty and Equilibrium, have extremely high synergy with Sol. She's generally a wise and capable individual, having saved the Fool (Maximilian's) life during this field trip.
*Liquidity pairs great with the Cups Arcanum
*Equilibrium can help move him towards a more 'temperate' degree of sloth, potentially even granting him the diligence of an average person!
*Deepening Sol's social ties with a character will let him use Connections on them more effectively, allowing for effective Aspect sharing. In Chloe's case, he could share nearly his full ranks in Arcanum and receive nearly her full ranks in Liquidity, giving us access to an individual with Sol's Arcanum but none of his sloth!

Birdsie also mentioned -
Sandra - A goth girl with fate manipulation, can therefore help Sol with his fate weakness
Samantha - The Star, monofocused on creating great outfits for the Tarot members, extremely enthusiastic and happy
Harrison's Aspects - He has Traveler, which grants enhanced mobility in all situations and always synergizes with other mobility Aspects; a gamer/quest system that rewards him for accomplishing goals, a physical combat Aspect, and the ability to manipulate the four primary Elements.

_brightwing said:
[X] Plan Grand Caster Says no to Harems
-[X] Same as main plan. But Sol decides dating is too much troublesome. Socialises with Explorer Club members instead following Harrison's lead.

I'm sorry.
But I had to
Try stay fate's hand.

Anyways, most of the people we care about (Samantha, Penelope, Harrison) are in the Club might as well hang out since we're doing an Exploration action. Instead of jumping straight to dates out of the blue.
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You should probably specify what mechanical actions are being replaced here. Grand Caster has three: 1x Remedial, 1x Social with Penny (in which Sol asks for her to investigate the apostles, investigate Damien, and set up the date), 1x Exploration. There's no spare action that can be replaced with "Socialize with the Exploration club," you'd just truncate the third quest in Social with Penny. If you intend to replace Social with Penny, you should specify that explicitly as it's a strong deviation from Grand Caster and prevents Sol from investigating the Apostles via Penny, or helping Damien.

I also disagree with the characterization of Sol implied by "dating is too troublesome," as we have canonical confirmation from Birdsie that Sol wants a girlfriend and is as horny as a normal teenage guy. "Dating is too troublesome" implies that he does not go for what he wants even with an infusion of Will which is IMO a poor characterization to lock in for the long term. You could alternatively specify that he's focused on other things this month and doesn't bring up dating but does everything else in the plan.
 
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[X] Plan Grand Caster Says no to Harems

Dating sounds like a action sink to me, and I'm not interested in reading about dates anyways so thats just a double negative.

[X] Plan Investigateandbond-And-Explore-And-Head-Off-Problems-and-get-a-cool-outfit-and-maybe-Remedial-and-remember-the-cups-discount-exists
 
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I like the dating action, personally, although I'm not as keen on deciding on a girlfriend based on her aspects. I suppose early romantic interest is basically always for superficial reasons anyway, but somehow dating for power seems worse than dating for appearance or based on small samples of positive interaction. I'd be fine with labeling that instinct as irrational though.

When it comes non-power-related traits, Samantha seems cute. Although her energetic lifestyle may be a poor fit for Sol. In that respect, perhaps Chloe is a good fit after all, as Temperance I would expect her to have a more calm approach to things.
 
ImperatorV said:
I like the dating action, personally, although I'm not as keen on deciding on a girlfriend based on her aspects. I suppose early romantic interest is basically always for superficial reasons anyway, but somehow dating for power seems worse than dating for appearance or based on small samples of positive interaction. I'd be fine with labeling that instinct as irrational though.
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Yeah, Birdsie mentioned Chloe primarily as the girl Sol was most interested in even before Enrollment, she just also has Aspects that are extremely synergistic with us now that we picked Cups as our Devotion.

EDIT: Which does bring up an important point, whether Sol and Penny will find it harder to relate to the others now that they can act and think 16-25x faster than their classmates... Sol can probably mitigate this to a degree by buffing whoever he's conversing with, but it's unclear whether Seraph gives Penny the versatility to do the same. How perilous
 
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Rihaku said:
Birdsie also mentioned -
Sandra - A goth girl with fate manipulation, can therefore help Sol with his fate weakness
Samantha - The Star, monofocused on creating great outfits for the Tarot members, extremely enthusiastic and happy
Harrison's Aspects - He has Traveler, which grants enhanced mobility in all situations and always synergizes with other mobility Aspects; a gamer/quest system that rewards him for accomplishing goals, a physical combat Aspect, and the ability to manipulate the four primary Elements.
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Is that why we should start dating him?
I mean, we didn't even talk to any of these three during the quest except Harrison.
Therefore, I personally, as I suspect, and others are not at all interested in reading about Sol's dates with complete strangers.
This is not to mention the fact that a date can develop into a relationship that will take away our time.
In general, this is too serious a choice that should not be made so hastily before even talking to potential love interests.
 
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Rihaku said:
Yeah, Birdsie mentioned Chloe primarily as the girl Sol was most interested in even before Enrollment, she just also has Aspects that are extremely synergistic with us now that we picked Cups as our Devotion.

EDIT: Which does bring up an important point, whether Sol and Penny will find it harder to relate to the others now that they can act and think 16-25x faster than their classmates... Sol can probably mitigate this to a degree by buffing whoever he's conversing with, but it's unclear whether Seraph gives Penny the versatility to do the same. How perilous
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I mean the olympian can act fineish around normal people as far as I know and hes easily millions of times faster than normal humans.
 
You guys should contemplate grabbing more levels of Fluxator by the way. There's no cauldron quite like the one inside your stomach.
 
Fghubyygvb said:
Is that why we should start dating him?
I mean, we didn't even talk to any of these three during the quest except Harrison.
Therefore, I personally, as I suspect, and others are not at all interested in reading about Saul's dates with complete strangers.
This is not to mention the fact that a date can develop into a relationship that will take away our time.
In general, this is too serious a choice that should not be made so hastily before even talking to potential love interests.
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Okay but brightwing at least needs to edit his plan as it doesn't work and they aren't thinking about subactions like rihaku and thats rather annoying.
 
firefrog600 said:
Okay but brightwing at least needs to edit his plan as it doesn't work and they aren't thinking about subactions like rihaku and thats rather annoying.
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I don't quite see how this bogs things down mechanically.. if we had time for a date, we can surely spend equivalent capital on talking to our fellow club members - when we're taking an explicit action to join said club and go on an Exploration action..

Anyways, in essence the vote serves as not jumping the gun on a date and to just to let things proceed more organically. It doesn't really take away from the main parts of Grand Caster - which I love overall.
 
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_brightwing said:
I don't quite see how this bogs things down mechanically.. if we had time for a date, we can surely spend equivalent capital on talking to our fellow club members - when we're taking an explicit action to join said club and go on an Exploration action..

Anyways, in essence the vote serves as not jumping the gun on a date and to just to let things proceed more organically. It doesn't really take away from the main parts of Grand Caster - which I love over all.
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Okay but include who your doing social with my dude I don't want to do another vote over this stuff.
 
_brightwing said:
Why is this a problem? Birdsie can simply adapt it into the exploration scenario with whichever characters are relevant. It say to talk to your fellow explorers in the expedition.
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because it slows down what we get from birdsie it means that another vote dedicated to something we can already do happens instead and thats annoying.
 
firefrog600 said:
because it slows down what we get from birdsie it means that another vote dedicated to something we can already do happens instead and thats annoying.
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I think you might be misunderstanding what I'm trying to say firefrog. There wouldn't be another vote..
Anyways, I changed the line to explicitly mention socializing in the expedition to clear things up.

Towards the beginning of the Club the members were Penelope, Harrison, Carol, Sophia, Francis, and Samantha.. I'm not saying we social all of them, just who happens to be along the trip.

If the vote wasn't valid Birdsie would have just let us know by now.
 
_brightwing said:
I think you might be misunderstanding what I'm trying to say firefrog. There wouldn't be another vote..
Anyways, I changed the line to explicitly mention socializing in the expedition to clear things up.

Towards the beginning of the Club the members were Penelope, Harrison, Carol, Sophia, Francis, and Samantha.. I'm not saying we social all of them, just who happens to be along the trip.

If the vote wasn't valid Birdsie would have just let us know by now.
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eh birdsies said a votes invalid days after their made before so not really.
 
[X] Plan Grand Caster Says no to Harems
-[X] Same as main plan. But Sol decides dating right now is too troublesome. Socialises with the Explorer Club members instead in the upcoming expedition, following Harrison's lead.

I understand Sol himself is fine with dating but I would really like to wait with romance.
 
Not that we would and I don't want this for the quest but birdsie did mention the harem ending with penelope and chloe being possible with really high connections. Well it makes me think that the harem route is actually economically useful since it allows us to basically stack more aspects onto ourself without having to train them. The power of power leveling friendship (connections) leading to ultimate power made me chuckle a bit.
 
Discord WoG earlier..

Penny/Sanctum/Lawgiver WoG
Birdsie: Penny is strong enough right now to rip buildings from the very earth and her Truthseeking is good enough to analyze entire layers of bullshit and dig down to the very fetid core of aforementioned bovine excrement and perceive the contents of its origin's meals.

Birdsie: Josh and Francis will certainly experience Justice. Well, she won't kill them.

Birdsie: Anyway, it's already assumed Solomon is studying to move up a year in his off-time as reasonable.

Birdsie: Also, I should note, ironically for all the power she's boasting, Penny is a bit of a glass cannon right now. Low Retributor means almost no defensive physicals to speak of, outside of personally-directed miracles of deflecting damage or healing.

Birdsie: Although Truthseeker does make her good at dodging, at least.

Birdsie: Physicals are an element of its progression; the other elements are doing holy magic.

Birdsie: Her Retributor's ER isn't high enough to be extremely relevant at her overall level, but sure. And being an angel.

Birdsie: Was simply noting she could theoretically be sniped by a peer-level opponent.

GenericName —
And we can't lock them away
They'll just get back into class angry
Birdsie: Actually.
Birdsie: With Potioncraft, you could keep them perpetually sedated.

Bit of a morally dubious solution, though.
And Educator will grumble his students keep missing classes.
Might have to start teaching them in their dreams.
Oneiric Education is difficult and costly for the Educator, so he prefers to avoid it.
But he'll go beyond for his students if needed.

You're fairly sure in-character that if one of the Educator's students was a death-spirit virtually incapable of not entropically decaying its surroundings, he'd still try his damndest to accommodate them.
Entropy-resistant chairs. Protective school uniforms for all the other students in the class.


Birdsie:
Man, I knew you guys didn't think Penny was especially competent but damn, this is a whole 'nother level.
Honestly, if you're willing to commit to sharing a bit of your Sanctum through the Connections Technique, she might have a permanent solution to all bullying, crime, and fighting by making the entire Academy a perpetual zone of unbreakable Law.
You can't fight in the Spawn Zone.
Or get hurt.

Birdsie: Gotta semi-permanently commit a portion of your Aspect to maintaining it.
Or until she figures out a Technique to copy your notes.
Which shouldn't be impossible at higher levels?
In return, you get a just, equitable, and peaceful Education! And assure it for both your seniors and juniors.
She has to translate Magician lore to Justice lore.

R' —
In the interim can she not simply Lawgive Josh and Francis to not directly or indirectly bully other members of the class
Birdsie: Sure.

Birdsie: Imagine the things you could do together for the world.
If you leveled up Sanctum and she leveled up Lawgiver.
A perfect, ordered, crimeless world.
Nothing but auspicious patterns as far as the eye can see.
Mercantile Mermaid —
...Looks at billionaires... looks at poor stealing bread to eat.
Birdsie: Why steal bread when it grows on trees?

Sanctum + Lawgiver is a ridiculously good combo for making a utopia.
Edict: No human being shall go hungry.
The universe then bends itself over to make sure this is the state of things.
Sanctum provides the fundamental basis for more easily altering reality and making the changes permanent and easily maintainable, and Lawgiver is the chisel with which to input the alterations.
If you really want to personally enchant every single meter of space to disgorge transmuted bread for hungry people, sure.
Which'd only take a damn lot of effort outside of a Sanctum.
Damien/Samantha WoG
questionable —
but anyways if you want Damien to be part of the cast so much
what are his aspects?
do we know?
Birdsie:
Aspect: Metamorph 3, Aspect: Sacrifice 1, Aspect: Gallowmaster 1.
Damien's Aspects: Metamorph is an Aspect related to conceptual change and alteration, and grants him physicals via constant self-refinement; Sacrifice is basically blood magic but he's slowly twisting it into 'magic-stealing' via arguments to the Educator and Gallowmaster is telekinetic control over ropes and nooses. He's basically slowly turning himself into a Sylas skin from League of Legends.

Yeah, it makes him pretty grim to be around.
He now wears a noose as a belt, a necktie, and on both of his wrists as bracelets.
Spindly as fuck.
Skinny motherfuck with glasses (which he no longer wears as a result of Metamorph slowly fixing his eyesight).
Imagine the Scarecrow from Arkham Asylum but noose-themed instead of scarecrow-themed.
And then make him even skinnier.

Damien's actually kinda savvy.
He understands that going full edgelord here is unironically to his advantage.
Play along with your Thematics and they'll play along with you.
They've already called him the worst of the worst.
He doesn't mind being cringe.

R' —
Is Sol doing well playing to his thematics
Birdsie: You could wear a wizard robe and speak only in cryptic phrases (something you already do sometimes).
Move out of your dorm and live in an actual wizard's tower on Fortuna.
Locomote solely through teleportation which is always accompanied by a loud bang and a cloud of sparkles and gas.

R' —
Would wearing magician's garb materially improve our XP gain and or effective Arcanum level
Birdsie: Not mechanically, but it'd look baller as fuck.
I'd probably give you slight bonuses to your checks, though.
As well as a minor ER bonus.
If the robe looks baller enough, none.
As long as correct Thematics are maintained.
R' — For robe + moving out + teleporting everywhere
Birdsie: None.

Just ask Samantha to make you a wizard outfit.
She makes outfits for her classmates, no questions asked.
Using Enrollment to make them really high-quality.
Solomon likes having swag.
So wearing such a baller costume will offset the Will costs of doing other wizard things which'd normally be embarrassing or tiresome.
She's got an actual Aspect devoted to making supernaturally good outfits.
The Star.
She's argued to the Educator that a part of being the Star is creating sources of inspiration and then pivoted from there to arguing that looking really well is really inspiring and that a part of looking really well is having a good outfit and...
The Educator just... eventually.
Silently nodded his head and surrendered to the reality.
That the Star should have the ability to make really good outfits.
Just ask her, really, no +s needed.
She'll do it for the sake of seeing you wear it.
"Ohmigosh, Sol, you look so cuuute! Here, hold this wizard staff, lemme snap a pic..."

Just tell her in passing.
"Hey, can you make me a wizard outfit?"

maybe grab your measurements first.

Yes, with stars in her eyes.
She went from Detached Artist to Thrilled Artist over the course of a single month of Education.
Enrollment as the Star really gave her creativity the spark it needed.
to become manifest.
Oh, if you're giving her an outfit request, make sure to include notes on any preferences insofar as extra features.
Make the robe itself durable and self-repairing and very smooth to the touch.
A belt with a mega-super-cool bag of holding!
A cape made of nightly essence and gleaming star motes that lets you fly like a biiird (if birds could fly at Mach 2) ~★
Gloves that can become animate when removed to slap people for you or bring you things like useful little lab assistants!

She recommends for you:
Also, a wizard hat that obscures your identity with mysterious shadow when you activate it!

Birdsie: She's focused solely on making outfits and nothing else.
Yeah, Mach 2 is beyond her.
But they only partially scale to her (and Mach 2 was a slight exaggeration anyway).
But for now, she wants to do Enrolled fashion.
Artforms.
She'll eventually branch out into other stuff.
She gaslit the Educator, too.
"YOU'RE NOT ACTUALLY LETTING ME STUDY MY ROLE, YOU'RE AN IMPEDIMENT TO MY EDUCATION."
The social equivalent of bringing the Educator down to a Yamcha pose.
Is accusing him of the cardinal sin.
Of being an impediment to learning.

R' —
Birdsie: Will Penny ask her for a costume of her own accord or do we need to suggest it
She's already got a Sammie-made outfit.
Two of them, even.
One for civilian use, one for Surveyor Club activities.
R' —
That got ripped when she manifested wings
Birdsie: Wings are pretty big and strong.
It'll fix itself by the time you're at the Academy.
Anyway Penny's civilian outfit isn't focused on durability.


Birdsie: Educator nearly spat out blood when she told him that.
Almost collapsed to his knees.
From sheer disbelief.
"I- I will help you make clothing," he said, resolutely, once he recovered his tarnished pride.


Birdsie: All your classmates are pretty interesting.
You can borrow her a bit of your Arcanum for a bit, sure.
Let her combine it with her own Aspect to enchant them.
No, you can do it pretty casually, but not for very long or very efficaciously.
She could make you a bandoleer for holding potions.
Tyrant_Rayne —
Is giving her any alchemically treated materials possible and/or helpful?
Birdsie: Sure, she can incorporate that for you.
But if you want advanced alchemiweave pants, you'll need an action on it.

If you give her a sample of your symbiote.
She could do like.
A wizard's robe that's blue normally.
But then you go Lethal Protector, and it becomes stained black, with the stars now white instead of yellow.
And your face obscured with tenebrous strands of shadow.
Her Clothweaver Aspect has interesting synergies with it.
It's a question of precision vs. power.
She can do things with Arcanum that you couldn't, but you're way better at Arcanum.
And have way more interesting cosmetic effects.
She could make you a robe that reflects your accomplishments as a Magician.

A constellation splayed out across your body, each star a spell you've learned; each moon its own potion or ritual, etc.

It'd give you mild buffs to Arcanum.
Very minor ones at her current level.
Microscopic even.
But potentially awesome later on.
Huh, now that I think about it, with Connections at your level,
she wouldn't need to update it for you.
If you could get her consent to borrow a bit of Clothweaver every now and then,
she'd probably agree but sulk that you don't want her specific expertise.
Dating/Cloe/Harrison WoG
You guys should consider dating someone.
For easier Connections access via Social Link.
Well, there's plenty of cards in this deck.
Solomon is personally fond of Chloe but not in a way that he'd ever approach her.
Nah, Temperance.
The Tower is Grace, who's someone that Solomon would never approach.
She's a rich kid with snobby parents that came out surprisingly unspoiled, unentitled, charitable, and kind.
Which Solomon finds so anomalously curious he's just sort of interested in her.
Sure.
But that'd cost you Will.
To break through your fear.
Of a relationship.
Let's call it 30 that'll further decrease over time as your confidence in your ability to maintain committed relationships expands.
She wanted to let other people have their pick and was confident she could make whatever was left work well for herself.
Penny is a based choice for romance route if you can weather some pointed questions from the Olympian.

Nah, he regularly does teenage boy things in privacy, but is afraid of relationships because of his predictions + inability to convince people of them.

He tries to make himself relatively uninteresting, boring, and detached.
To shoo off potential interest.



Although Solomon is terrified of Penelope for other reasons than the romantic.
"Holy fuck did she just solo a giant monster that fate itself told me we cannot beat?"
"With one attack?"
"This girl is fucking crazy!"
You can always do the classic move of asking Penny for dating advice and to set you up with some of her friends, and when that fails, she'll console you about your inability to find a girlfriend... just as planned.


Harrison's Aspects are:
Traveler 2 - enhanced mobility and agility, ability to dilate space (solely for traversal of self and others nearby).
Adversity 1 - enhanced overall condition and combat instinct, martial arts talent.
Terminus (n/a) - conceptual abilities related to increasing one's fortune when certain 'goals' are met, or 'destinations' reached, eventually develops other more esoteric shit.
Wheelwright (n/a) - crafting and storage of enhanced vehicles, surprising synergies with Traveler.
Elemental (n/a) - four elements kinesis.

Traveler is always assumed to synergize generously with other Aspects and Enrolled.
and an amazing Vice Captain for the Surveyor's Club.
which makes him an amazing team player.

Cloe:
Liquidity 2 - manipulation of liquids; hydrokinesis and hemokinesis among them, can eventually enhance liquids and do other interesting stuff with them (notable synergy with your Devoted Cup).
Healer 1 - grants biokinesis focused on healing and defensive uses, but can theoretically do most things.
Equilibrium (n/a) - semi-conceptual ability to redefine boundaries on binary axes, change their values, etc.
Grace (n/a) - minor enhanced condition, minor ability to pick up 'talents' or 'knacks' from other Enrolled with prolonged study and observation, can eventually develop into an insanely diverse powerset, eventually also gives her angel wings (apparently).
Her homeostasis is a thing of another world since, much like Damien's Metamorph, she can ceaselessly improve and optimize her body in minor ways.

R' -So if Sol gives himself Liqudity and Chloe Cups Arcanum, what sort of feats could they pull off beyond Sol alone
Birdsie: It'd give you both pretty damn amazing synergy with each other since, with her Equilibrium, she could help along your Connections and basically make it so you both have Liquidity and Arcanum (Cup) at close to each other's level. Eventually, at least; it'd take some doing from both of you.
Liquidity can make magical potions slightly easier and more efficiently than you at the same level; it can even produce what your Arcanum would consider an exotic reagent.


If you want mitigation to your destiny and improvements to Architecturalism, and you like goths, you could also contemplate dating Sandra. One of her Aspects is basically more or less fate manipulation.

Sol is a teenage boy, he'd settle for anything if he didn't think it'd end calamitously for both sides. Although he wouldn't mind Sandra. Out of all the girls in class, the only ones he wouldn't date are probably Stella and Isabella. All the others are alright, but he couldn't stand them.

He's spent the occasional interlude of his life fantasizing about handholding with Chloe and sometimes about the likes of Sandra or Sam. Penny's always seemed too distant, cool, aloof, and well-put together to approach, but he could probably do it now that he's actually talked to her. He's not Ethan. He'd rather have a cuddling partner than a sex partner.

R' —
Can Equilibrium bring Sol closer to a temperate level of sloth / near average human diligence
Yes. Unironically helped if you maintained close proximity to Chloe at all times. Giving further incentive to constant handholding.
Adventure/Odin/Architecture
Man. Maximilian and Damien both went on their own, wholly separate behind-the-screen character arcs on Pangothica. I guess Carol also did, sort of. If you count hunting down a werewolf as a character arc.

_brightwing —
Did Carol just wrestle a Werewolf into submission by wringing it's jaws
Birdsie: She made a trophy out of its head, as well.

Tyrant_Rayne —
So did Max get bitten by the vampire?
Birdsie: Lol almost killed by one. He's lucky Chloe was in his vicinity to heal his dumb ass.


Damien learned the real way to get power is to actually, seriously kill yourself.

[X] Hang yourself by the neck.
-[X] With the Silver Noose.

Now he's gone full "share and share alike." Meanwhile, Maximilian learned a painful lesson of poking a sleeping vampire. Well, to be fair, the vampire wasn't sleeping except in a metaphorical way.


Even actual Odin would be slightly disturbed by Damien. The man with the Role of Allfather hadn't actually had the balls to hang himself from a tree until midway through Year 2 of his Education.


Like three people near him to supervise
Just in case something bad happened
Including a healer
If he heard about what Damien's pulled off here
He'd spit out his mead
And ask, "What the fuck?!"
Damien's slowly developing into a horror show
XII - THE HANGED MAN
Man, his Aspects have
Such interesting potential evolutions and techniques
Like genuinely out of the entire class, I am most interested in Damien's Role
Imagine a twilight realm
A mist-wreathed island with no sun, the waters surrounding it dim and murky
No signs of a civilization or world beyond this island
At its center, a giant tree
Full of nooses
And on those nooses, those who persecuted you
Their power constantly sapped
For your own empowerment
The Enrolled of the world may still yet learn one day
To fear the HANGED MAN
No, he did it privately
How do you know it wasn't a scene close to the end of the episode with a drawn-out internal monologue accompanied by grayscale flashback scenes of those who mocked him, concluded with him drawing his lips into a snarl and finally having the determination to loop the noose around his neck

This could be a Shield Hero-style revenge porn anime
You never know
Anyway, Solomon isn't on Damien's list
You're not one of those who mocked him
All the other kids with the pumped-up kicks...
It's weird
It's almost like the Architecture conspired
To make Damien like this

You can notice that much clearer now that you know what the Architecture is
All four protagonists have something messed up about them, to be fair

R' — Who are we to gainsay the path that would realize his potential
Who are we… to play God?
Birdsie: Rihaku is making some based arguments right now

Maybe you should let Damien face this issue
Pain, sacrifice, punishment... How neatly these things tie together
All three of them under a noose that binds
Aspect: Sacrifice is all about that shit
Derives power from pain and sacrifices made
Although he's expanding its remit slowly to include forcing sacrifices out of others (stealing their shit)
The Revolver would
Just kill him
And not in the way where he gets back up from it
If she blinds herself, there's no way to return her sight
And if you did, it'd nullify the benefits

Birdsie: Anyway she's unlocked some new Combination Techniques with Seraph

Among other things, she can give herself a mutating Sharingan that'll evolve on its own over time. But it's a one-Level only Technique and very expensive.

ArcanaVitae —
Has Penny leveled her Truthseeker high enough to see Sol's Despair and Damien's issues?
Birdsie: She's starting to notice things she hasn't before.

God Diversion lore..
Birdsie: You guys need more self-confidence
Be more like Mutant Master
That guy's oozing with confidence
He had the balls to raise his hand in class and say, "My Role should remake my genetics to conform to the standard of 1940s Germany."

Birdsie —
The Mastermind could almost swear
he'd heard him humming 'Im Wald, Im Grunen Walde' under his breath once.

All the Supervillains were pretty concerned about Mutant Master.
Except Trevor.
Trevor was cleaning his guns and thinking about all the ways he could make the world a better place.
ArcanaVitae —
I'm guessing that Mutant Master ain't around no more.
Birdsie —
He's been imprisoned in 2000, escaped in 2002 with the help of a couple of his comrades, then was captured once more in 2017 with the help of the Traveler.
ArcanaVitae —
Huh that's acutally pretty sucessful considering that he's a Supervillian.
questionable —
im surprised that chloe didn't go for any social aspects
Birdsie —
Honestly if you ignore the fact that he's basically a closeted neo-Nazi (?) Germanophile, Mutant Master isn't that bad
Had a chad moment where he made Olympian's son into a Mutant just to prove a point.
Something-something, "We're not so different you and I. Meant to lead humanity to greatness with out power."

_brightwing —
Penny's brother?
Birdsie —
"That's surely what the Educator meant in making us."
Birdsie —
Yes, older brother.
questionable —
i don't think we should ignore that
Birdsie —
One of two.
Both of the brothers inherited some powers from their parents
which is what made Penny (who didn't) such an anomaly.
It convinced Olympian she was fated for Enrollment.
_brightwing —
Clearly this means Sol must now beome Lord Voldemort
Birdsie —
Honestly Mutant Master if he were free at the time of the Metaphysician's Streak
probably would've become one of his sworn followers.
Similar ideologies of, "people can't be trusted with their own self-determination and governance." Just different motivation and ways of going about it.
_brightwing —
Who has commited more war crimes?
ArcanaVitae —
Acutally how many siblings does Penny have?
Birdsie —
Between Mutant Master and the Metaphysicist, or between the Supervillains?
_brightwing —
the former two
Birdsie —
Two older brothers and that's it.
Olympian learned his lesson.
ArcanaVitae —
That's ominous. But I suppose having a Reality Warper give birth would be terrifying for everyone invovled.
Birdsie —
Nah, the Continuum confers extremely fine control.
In fact, Lady Justice finds it difficult to deploy extremely powerful effects.
She put all her points in precision work and variety.
She's also advanced science by leaps and bounds.
ArcanaVitae —
Honestly fair given that Reality Warping is OP enough and has potent consequences to backlash.
Birdsie —
She's way better than any mere particle collider.
Discovered entirely new aspects of quantum physics, although most of them can't be replicated with modern science (yet.)
ArcanaVitae —
Powers have to be really useful for stuff like that.
Birdsie —
Well, that's a lie.
_brightwing —
We should have gone Christmas and went high tech
Birdsie —
They can be replicated with Thematic science in areas where such Thematics rule.
People in Argentina really having fun.
ArcanaVitae —
If Reality Warping wasn't the problem then what lesson did the Olympian learn?
Birdsie —
Hard Science Fiction spread over most of South America.
ArcanaVitae —
Your kids can and will be used against you?
Birdsie —
No.
Changing the diapers of a kid who can melt through the ceiling with laser vision is top priority.
Unless you want a leaky bathtub.
ArcanaVitae —
F in the chat.
_brightwing —
So South America is essentially Wakanda now
Birdsie —
He lived that Incredibles 2 Bob life.
ArcanaVitae —
So many sleepless nights must've been had.
That poor man.
He didn't deserve that.
.....
Birdsie —
They call him the Paragon Exemplar.
The First of the Enrolled.
The Greatest Hero in the World.
But the name he's proudest of above all else
is
"Dad."
ArcanaVitae —
that is so sweet.

_brightwing —
Penelope must have been a breathe of relief.. and worries for the future
Birdsie —
For a second, he was almost hopeful.
Then realized what it actually means.
ArcanaVitae —
Yeah on one hand yeah no sleepless nights on the other oh shit Enrollment kinda is chaotic.
Birdsie —
"Well, darling, look on the bright side - we won't have to save for college."
Lady Justice, 2008
Free Education.

ArcanaVitae —
Actually now that Penny has been Enrolled.
What are her parents and siblings reactions?
_brightwing —
I really want another Penny POV
Getting inside her head after her dreams getting realised like this unexpectedly
Birdsie —
Olympian's made a public address he'd like the next Class to enter to show to her and her Classmates.
Older brother is proud she'll surpass him, younger brother's still sulking in prison.
R' —
How is lady justice of all people even remotely hurting for money
Birdsie —
It's a joke, Rihaku.

ArcanaVitae —
The younger brother is in prison? Is he the mutant one?
Birdsie —
Fell onto the wrong path. Eventually turned himself in.
It was on the news.
R' —
It's too bad we won't be able to pay her to appear in our Penny's Mom video
ArcanaVitae —
That sucks but at least he's trying to turn over a new leaf.
Birdsie —
It's a shame neither of them was Enrolled, they would've been interesting as Enrolled.
R' —
Anyway, I thought penny and chloe were friends


ArcanaVitae:
Also from the fact that there was a public address by him that likely means it's well known that Penny is Enrolled.
How did the world and other Enrolled react to the possibility of the children of Enrolled becoming Enrolled themselves?

Birdsie:
You aren't certain. The Architecture is muddy. Curious, scared. The world is torn, as it usually is.

_brightwing:
Man I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Drone Villain's daughter to pop up in Gothic Horror class.

R':
We should go full Gandalf
And start smoking a pipe

_brightwing:
Smoking is the kabbalistic path to untold powers over the cosmos

ArcanaVitae:
Wizard Smoking is cool.

_brightwing:
Hmm, I should get around to compiling my notes on Tikkun

ArcanaVitae:
Elminster and Gandalf do it.
John Constantine does it too.

_brightwing:
(although Gandalf kinda be cribbed from the Hermit card)

ArcanaVitae:
But he's not a good role model

_brightwing:
I am the secret fire..

Birdsie:
Finally, you guys understand the secret of wizardry.
Habit is the basis of all ritual.

_brightwing:
Does that mean we should make it a habit for Sol to go on dates?

Birdsie:
If she did, she'd be a scientist who makes Gothic drones.

ArcanaVitae:
Actually, could Sol make potion cigs?

Birdsie:
Anyway, Drone Villain is simply carving out a function within his Enrollment to share it with his daughter, sort of like Arcane Induction.
And have it pass fully onto her when he dies from old age or w.e.
(It's fine, he's insured himself with an afterlife.)

ArcanaVitae:
Being able to talk to the dead is a thing. He probably got the really good package too.

Birdsie:
"He's in a better place, sweetie."
Hades: "Well, yeah."
"Pretty much."

ArcanaVitae:
Now I'm just imagining Drone Villain causing shenanigans in the Afterlife.
And Hades not knowing whether to feel amused or annoyed.
But at least it gets him a break from the paperwork.
Actually, are there any Enrolled currently in Hades's Afterlife?

_brightwing:
Drone Villain be sending out drones from the afterlife.
He has a sacred pact to fulfill for the Olympian.

ArcanaVitae:
Hephaestus is happy to have help in the tech department.

_brightwing:
Olympian attending his funeral and letting out a weary sigh

Birdsie:
His daughter can take over the work.
Theirs shall be the Lineage of Drone.

ArcanaVitae:
Even from the Afterlife, I shall haunt you!!!!! The Olympian vaguely hears.

_brightwing:
Poor Penny..

Birdsie:
What if you're in a TV show
and every time someone says 'Justice' it flashes over to a title card
That becomes increasingly more luminous each episode.
"That's right, I'm..."

JUSTICE
"We want him caught! We want-"

JUSTICE
Penny's on that Invincible grindset
At least her dad's better than Omniman
ArcanaVitae —
THINK PENNY THINK!!!!!!
_brightwing —
I am stealing this for a future newspaper
ArcanaVitae —
The world is lucky Olypmian is such a cool dude.
_brightwing —
Where Olympian chastizes her for becoming part of Sol's harem
ArcanaVitae —
But that's part of the reason he fits the Role so well.
Birdsie —
Olympian really picked the name
and then some group of Greek geeks came out of nowhere 'bein like
"AND THEN ALONG CAME ZEUS, HE ZAPPED"
ArcanaVitae —
That must've been really awkward.
Birdsie —
Well they fought
ArcanaVitae —
For both the Greek Class and Gabriel
Birdsie —
And Olympian had to hold up the skies like Atlas for a second
But they ended up shaking hands
And everything is fine now
ArcanaVitae —
....... Did they acutally start a fight over nameing rights!?!?!?!!?!
Birdsie —
He's got the honor of calling himself Olympian of Olympus
Birdsie —
Unironically yes
He was called to Mt. Olympus and made to stand before the court to explain himself
ArcanaVitae —
I fucking love this quest.
Birdsie —
His argument of, "I picked it first," fell on deaf ears.
They demanded he rename himself
He considered it
Then said
"No."
Then Enrolled did what Enrolled do
ArcanaVitae —
Greek Class do be petty like that. But to be fair it likely has a thematic effect on him.
Birdsie —
It was all about Thematics
They were fighting over XP
It's their Theme to be petty fucks
It's his Theme to stand his ground and make his name something worth aspiring to
He ended up arguing to them why he should keep the name
And pretty much convinced them
and infected the Greek Theme with Superhero
It's still the Greek Theme but has a more positive valence
ArcanaVitae —
What a boss.
Magical_Duck —
Does Pen's Blindness Tech require her to remove her eye balls or just blind herself?
ArcanaVitae —
That's acutally probably how most Enrolled conflicts start isn't. Theme Clashes.
Birdsie —
He did that while holding up the sky
And being assaulted from every side
with the power of the Gods
The Armies of Ares, the Inventions of Hephaestus, the Wrath of Hera, etc.
ArcanaVitae —
Gabriel holdling up the Sky.
Birdsie —
Olympian is simply like that.
He Endures, then he Powers Through.
ArcanaVitae —
Olympian is Him.
He's the Will Monster for a Reason.
Birdsie —
I need you to understand something
Imagine you're some rando kid living a boring life in the early 1990s
The world's boring and mundane, full of war and petty conflict and crime and bad comic books
And then one day
for the first time in forever
you and your classmates are kidnapped by a man who promises you everything that's impossible
He says, "You can be Heroes"
If you take up this burden
Your classmates are scared
Who is this man? What does he want? What does he mean?
But you realize you have an opportunity to change the world
To, one step by another, wring what's bad out of it and make more of what's good
You are being offered this
And Gabriel decided that he'd risk it
And he stood at the center of the class
And told them it is worth the risk
From the very first moment
He embodied his Theme
Even before the discussion of Roles came up, he was a Super Man.
No one knew what Enrollment meant
what was actually being offered, if the Educator could be trusted
But Gabriel Storm decided he would become the Olympian and climb that mountain of the Gods
ArcanaVitae —
Image
Magical_Duck —
And he took the world by Storm
ArcanaVitae —
Gabriel gets better and better the more I hear about him.
Birdsie —
He's the Olympian for a reason.
ArcanaVitae —
Is there anyone that could give Gabriel a go in how much of an absolute boss they are.
I mean not just as an Enrolled but as a person?
(Besides Meta)
_brightwing —
This kinda reminds me of how Harrison stood up in right after enrollment, a shadow of him

ArcanaVitae —
Harrison is our classes's version of Gabriel. Harrison is the dude who can surpass the Will Monster.
Magical_Duck —
I ask because I wonder if Sol can make a potion of Blindness and Restore Blindness to allow her to activate when she wants?
_brightwing —
That will just nullify her sacrifice
ArcanaVitae —
Wouldn't work if you restore the Sight she looses the bonus. There's a Techqniue that already does that without extranal help.
_brightwing —
It's fine though, even if she is blind.. She'll still be able to See
I'm envisioning burning orbs smouldering in her sockets
barely covered up by cloth
Magical_Duck —
I know
But "It has the same effect as Blindfold of equivalent level, although enhanced"
So until she levels Blindfold she can use it for this
_brightwing —
might be her balance aspect at work
Removing the boon if her eyes are restored
Magical_Duck —
Also if she restores her Eyes and Loses the boon, does she loses level due to losing the discount?
Birdsie —
Sure. The Heartsmith, The Fearless Bogatyr, the Terraformist (before his depression), The Lone Ranger, the Youth Who Went Forth To Learn What Fear Was, some others.
Plenty of chads and girlbosses.
ArcanaVitae —
Look forward to seeing them and learning more about them.
What was the Terraformist like before the Depression and Break Up?
_brightwing —
en.wikipedia.org

The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

ArcanaVitae —
Also what Class does The Lone Ranger Belong to?
_brightwing —
Interesting, they're Storybook so we should be able to meet them
Magical_Duck —
Weird West?
Birdsie —
Wanted to make the world a better place.
ArcanaVitae —
I can see him pulling that off, it's really fitting given his Role too.
Birdsie —
Nah, Wild West.
Aspect: Big Iron

Magical_Duck: How do the two wests get along?

คຖ໓rē ¢hค໐Ş: I like this one!

Birdsie: They're in two different wests, so. Only a couple made a trek across the Atlantic to go into the other one. The US Government isn't super supportive of the Wild West, though. It'd rather have, like Texas back, please?

คຖ໓rē ¢hค໐Ş: Too wild?

Birdsie: And the bits of New Mexico?

ArcanaVitae: Texas must love the Weird West. That's actually a really potent way to spread thematics. Must've gotten a lot of XP from that.

Magical_Duck: Is there not an overlap in Roles?

_brightwing: I love how Enrolled wrecks world politics.

Tyrant_Rayne: Honestly, they should just be happy that there even is a US Government after everything that happened.

_brightwing: I wonder if we'll get around to taking over Europa.

Birdsie: The Government Man disapproves of your attitude.

คຖ໓rē ¢hค໐Ş: Why is there even a government after everything?

ArcanaVitae: Actually, how many Enrolled work for various Governments? That doesn't really seem to be something people would do unless they have a Role involved in that.

Magical_Duck: The Second Coming is just around the corner.

ArcanaVitae: And I mean non-Enrolled Governments.

ArcanaVitae: People know there is a Bible Class given that they are 3rd Years. People are going to freak out.

คຖ໓rē ¢hค໐Ş: Maybe some just believe it's a good thing to do, civilized way or something.

Magical_Duck: Bible Class is likely gonna clash with the Gods of Ancient Babylon as well.

Birdsie: US is fucking swarmed with Themes. Teeming with them. Although only a few are competitive.

Magical_Duck: Roman Empire is a coin toss.

Tyrant_Rayne: There's probably already conflicts going on about whether or not to declare the whole class heretics or something.

Magical_Duck: I do wonder what the Once and Future King will do, though?

คຖ໓rē ¢hค໐Ş: I feel like after the apocalypse, many people are going to look at them nervously.

Tyrant_Rayne: So exactly how powerful is the guy who has the Jesus Role? Like in overall potential. Could he break into the top 10?

Magical_Duck: Hey Birdsie, how many Knights of the Round table are there?

คຖ໓rē ¢hค໐Ş: What kind of people are in Bible Class anyway?

ArcanaVitae: Jesus would have a lot of Thematic Power Ups from going on a Cross or Dying now that I think about it. That would be his equivalent of Hanging Himself or Blinding Himself.

Magical_Duck: Because is Jesus not himself the Once and Future King, with 12 Disciples/Knights?

คຖ໓rē ¢hค໐Ş: Shouldn't he let others do it?

Birdsie: Enrolled, or Knight-Enrolled specifically? I'd have to check, but it was a similar number to Superheroes and Supervillains.

Magical_Duck: Either. Just wanted to check what number you went with. Just stumbled upon a Jesus-Arthur connection.

Birdsie: 30.

Magical_Duck: Ah. Would the O&FK kneel to Jesus?


Magical_Duck: I do wonder if he has some Roman in him?

Birdsie: Man, the US is such a mess. Just for myself, I put together a map of territories affected Thematically. God, what a mess. And it'll be even worse once you graduate.

Basically, write off anything with too-thick a color as 'no longer under US' control except the East Coast. And the light green spilling from Los Angeles. That's just alien sightings zones and places where UFOs crash sometimes, pretty much.

ArcanaVitae: Tarot Class is US, right? Where is the Class from? Penny is there, so maybe New York?

Birdsie: New York, yes. This'll be the first time a second Theme emerges from the same location.


Magical_Duck: Gothic Horror will be London, I bet it. That or a small town in the south of Italy.


BunnyLord: Could you drop a key just to say what color's who? Some are obvious, but it'd be handy to have.

Birdsie: West Coast & Center: Magenta is Oregon, dark gray is Horror Movies, Green is Aliens, that spot in Vegas is Action-Archaeology, and Yellow is Wild West. Denver, Colorado has Highschool Drama.

East Coast: Red is Supervillains, Blue is Superheroes, White is Philosophy, Gray is Noir, and Green is Video Games.


ArcanaVitae: I'm guessing that the Camelot Class is the one with the most Knights. But who are notable non-Camelot Class Knights?

Birdsie: The Knight (Medieval Theme).

ArcanaVitae: Tarot Class is weird like that, with Sol having superpowers and Penny being the child of an Enrolled.

Birdsie: "Times a'-changin', Jackie."

Addio: Oregon consumed by the Trail to Oregon Class, huh?
 
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