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Tinker Quest (Current Character: Ajax Washington)

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XPlatoon said:
That's why we should choose ants, because we can get a few minions very quickly (probably if we make the growth faster) and if we improve the queen, this will also be transferred to the offspring, so we don't have to improve all of them individually, but only the queen, which then produce the improved offspring
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To be honest, although I prefer the lizard to win, the ants don't sound like a bad idea either, so I guess I'll give it a vote.

[X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A queen ant
[X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A lizard: Can crawl up a wall, has thick scales, and could possibly be made into a dragon one day. There is something to be said about the ability to have your own dragon or just a creature that can ignore small-arms fire.
[X] What's your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can make minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A Platypus: Who will defend the tri-state area if you don't turn a Platypus into Perry the Platypus?
 
[X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A person: It resembles a person, and that has all the upsides and downsides you think it would. It can handle tools, is somewhat smart, and could even fake being a cape, but a handful of people will be really scared of what it represents.

[X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] Something else: An ape. Hands like a human, but can't easily pass for one, greater strength and less intelligence than a human, probably less likely to cause bad reactions.


[X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A queen ant

[X] Who are you?
-[X] Ajax Washington
-[X] Male
-[X] young, dark-skinned and with a military buzz cut that's starting to grow out a bit, Ajax has a large, solid build that probably could've made him a linebacker if he'd trained for it. As it stands, he looks like the kind of guy who could put a man on his ass in a fight.
-[X] A scar above his right eye, from an accident when he was a kid.
 
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So I was doing some thinking; I wanted to sit down and really parse out the whys and wherefores of what I've been looking for with this whole business, enunciate it clearly so there wouldn't be any misapprehension. So here it is.

This is, ultimately a story, yeah? A story set in the Wormverse wherein we the assembled questers direct as best we're able a character of our own creation through the narrative written by the QM. It's a collaborative effort, both amongst ourselves and between us and the QM, the more all involved are invested and enjoying themselves the better it works. QM writes a good story, the Questers are engaged and fill the thread with speculative thoughts, the QM gets inspired to write their best, the Questers fall in love with a random background character and make them the centerpiece of their plans, ect.

It's a story, shared storytelling.

The fascinating thing about Worm is how it's positively chock full of iconic characters, memorable vibrant examples of practically any character archetype you can imagine (So long as spandex is somehow involved) from heroes to villains and all the bands of grey between. They're all memorable and in some way embody or at least demonstrate a kind of power/character fantasy. Armsmaster and his gadgetry, Skitter and her swarms, Glory Girl and her "Gloryness" You can point at nearly anyone and say "hey this would be a cool idea" while using them as a reference.

Larger-than-life characters are a part of the setting's root themes. Admittedly flawed human beings are another pillar of the setting, but flaws are what makes a caricature human. Within reason...

Now with superpowered characters come the powers themselves. Every power classification has a set of tropes and exceptions to the tropes, this quest in particular deals with Tinkering. Tinkers! Mad scientists and obsessed inventors, people who look the laws of physics in the eye and say "nah I'd win". For whatever reason, whatever misfortune, Tinkers are driven to change the world around them to suit their vision.

They've all got vision, an ideal invention or what have you that they're pursuing. Blasto, Kid Win, String Theory, Armsmaster, Bakuda, Dragon, even Squealer. That often-manic ambition to build the best possible thingummywut that their power will allow, whether it's an Endbringer-prediction device or a machine that can shoot down the moon.

So if we're going to be a Tinker then our plan's got to have soul, it's got to be something that matters to us, that'll lead us to fight the odds to see it realized so we can show them all!!!

Personally that's why I'm all-in on Lizards, because lizards are honestly cool and because I can get excited about the possibilities of a super-engineered scaly monster and a pack of little kobold minions that constantly go "Merp!" for reasons we can't figure out. The challenges of dealing with rumors of a sewer monster because we hid the lizard in the sewers and it became an urban legend without us realizing. The sheer moment of character vindication when we succeed in our ambitions and a honest-to-god dragon emerges from the augmentation tank.

Forget about petty bean counting about whether this choice or that choice is more viable or practical. When has a Tinker ever cared about practical? Tinkers need to tinker, the rest of the world can worry about it making sense.

Also Lizard tech tree includes an opportunity for the best lizard.


View: https://youtu.be/bhLgOzZBdR8?feature=shared
 
mythfan12 said:
5 days, Taylor fights Lung on the 10th to 11th, and the fight between the Undersiders and Bakuda is the 15th.

Edit: The bomb spree only was a day in canon, presumably if Lung isn't able to escape it will be longer.
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Holy fuck, yeah, wow, yikes.
Venerable Ro said:
So if we're going to be a Tinker then our plan's got to have soul, it's got to be something that matters to us, that'll lead us to fight the odds to see it realized so we can show them all!!!
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I think the whole, "person with medical problems who made a version of themselves without these horrible problems" works fine on that front.
 
Just going to put my two cents out there: if we wanted to run this as a fix-fic, we would've voted for Liberty x Hyperspecialist with the intent of joining the PRT. Since we didn't do that, we might as well all vote for what we think is cool. I think human minions are cool, so I voted for that. If you like lizards, vote for that. Obviously, take into account the listed pros and cons, but this is the stage where we're deciding what exactly the problems we're dealing with are, not how to deal with the problems.
 
I think at this point it is unlikely that anyone will end up changing their mind

All the arguments for and against the options that have the best chance of winning (Human vs. Lizard) have already been said. At this point we just have to wait for time to pass and for new people to come and vote.
 
[X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A person: It resembles a person, and that has all the upsides and downsides you think it would. It can handle tools, is somewhat smart, and could even fake being a cape, but a handful of people will be really scared of what it represents.
 
[X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A person: It resembles a person, and that has all the upsides and downsides you think it would. It can handle tools, is somewhat smart, and could even fake being a cape, but a handful of people will be really scared of what it represents.
 
HelioA said:
@Witherbrine26 just out of curiosity- how closely are you hewing to Weaverdice here? Will we be able to research out of our specialty?
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I'm taking a good chunk of ideas, general theming and such from Weaverdice. However I'm also going to be making plenty of my own stuff.

It really depends on three factors. The first is what you can get your hands on, data from parahumans may let you research at the edges. The second is determination, smash your head against the brickwall long enough and you'll managed something. The last one is your relationship with your Shard, it won't come up much but if you feed it with conflict many more avenues will open up.

An good example would be Bonesaw, she fought plenty and pushed the edges of her specialty a ton. In turn she expanded her specialty massively allowing things like fiddling with powers.

A bad example would be Leet, he was a coward who did his best to hedge his bets and always be safe. This meant that his options were worse and that his Tinkertech was worse and failed more on him.

Now Shards themself are unlikely to come up much if all but they are going to be in the background putting a hand on the scale of what you can make.
 
Witherbrine26 said:
A bad example would be Leet, he was a coward who did his best to hedge his bets and always be safe. This meant that his options were worse and that his Tinkertech was worse and failed more on him.
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To be completely fair, once the shard started sabotaging him it just became a downward loop, since if his tech is unreliable of course he's not gonna take risks with it.
 
[X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A queen ant
[X] What's your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can make minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A Platypus: Who will defend the tri-state area if you don't turn a Platypus into Perry the Platypus?

[X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A person: It resembles a person, and that has all the upsides and downsides you think it would. It can handle tools, is somewhat smart, and could even fake being a cape, but a handful of people will be really scared of what it represents.

[X] Who are you?
-[X] Ajax Washington
-[X] Male
-[X] young, dark-skinned and with a military buzz cut that's starting to grow out a bit, Ajax has a large, solid build that probably could've made him a linebacker if he'd trained for it. As it stands, he looks like the kind of guy who could put a man on his ass in a fight.
-[X] A scar above his right eye, from an accident when he was a kid.


Person because Heart meds and an easier time grabbing Powers from Capes. At least, easier/more related to the speciality than Lizard would be. Capes are a 'type' of human after all.

Queen Ant because Taylor synergy and I just really love insects. Sadly, not likely to win. I'd love Bees even more than Ants, but alas.

Platypus because hilarious and I'm cool with a Perry situation. X3
 
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ShadeFiende said:

Person because Heart meds and an easier time grabbing Powers from Capes. At least, easier/more related to the speciality than Lizard would be. Capes are a 'type' of human after all.
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Feels like that is a very wrong assumption to say that only the human template could gain powers. Since the point of the minion is that we could improve every one by studying parahumans. Basically from what I am getting we won't be 'grabbing' powers but studying them to put into our minion using bio tech we unlocked.

Do I have this right @Witherbrine26
 
I mean, we have the best possible parahuman to study if we go with lizard, since lung is out there and is one of the most powerful natural parahumans in terms of strength, durability, and regeneration

While the layers we could base it off of if we end up with persona would be... Aegis? He's the only brute whose powers are entirely biological and are always in his body, maybe bitch's dogs in their enhanced state (though I'd see that more in the lizard realm and mainly if she won the canine option)

I guess we could go the intelligence enhancement route, but the only ones I remember that are even halfway related to intelligence are Lisa whose power makes her a pseudo-Sherlock and maybe Victor if we squint
 
Red Bovine said:
Feels like that is a very wrong assumption to say that only the human template could gain powers.
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I didn't though…? I said easier and that it was more related to the Person speciality. At least as I saw it. I'm sorry if that was missed somehow, but I never implied that Lizard could not get powers from Capes tacked on with enough study. Just that it would likely require more effort and study than Person.

Believe me, I brought up stealing Lung regen for the Lizard when I went on the rants advocating for Lizard.

As for the next post… I mean… if it was only biological powers, then almost no Capes anywhere would would. And what works for Lizard will work for Ant and Person, if differently. I mean, regen is regen whether in Lizard or Human form. If Lung works for Lizard, it'll work for Person.

If Lizard wins, I'm advocating for giving ourselves Lizard bits. Especially an enhanced Lizard Heart. I just think Person will make the self-surgery less difficult when we get to that point. Since it'll already be focusing on Person biology.

I mean, we'll need to fix pour heart eventually, if only so we get an extra 70+ dollars per month/extra AP without major consequences.
 
Red Bovine said:
Do I have this right @Witherbrine26
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Sorta, you can think of scanning parahumans as giving you automatic progress in a field related to their power.

So let's say you scan Vista and want to add the ability to bite from a distance that scan would apply. Now if you wanted to try and mimic her power that scan would also apply.

So in summery scanning powers will let you unlock/modify stuff based on their properties

ShadeFiende said:
X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A person: It resembles a person, and that has all the upsides and downsides you think it would. It can handle tools, is somewhat smart, and could even fake being a cape, but a handful of people will be really scared of what it represents.
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Your vote is messed up here, you'll need to add a [ at the top.
 
[X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
-[X] A lizard: Can crawl up a wall, has thick scales, and could possibly be made into a dragon one day. There is something to be said about the ability to have your own dragon or just a creature that can ignore small-arms fire.

Dragons and kobolds are just fundamentally cooler than a frakentstine monster and a gaggle of Igor's.
 
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Here you go

Adhoc vote count started by alexthealright on Jan 7, 2025 at 1:15 AM, finished with 258 posts and 46 votes.
  • [X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
    -[X] A person: It resembles a person, and that has all the upsides and downsides you think it would. It can handle tools, is somewhat smart, and could even fake being a cape, but a handful of people will be really scared of what it represents.
    [X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
    -[X] A lizard: Can crawl up a wall, has thick scales, and could possibly be made into a dragon one day. There is something to be said about the ability to have your own dragon or just a creature that can ignore small-arms fire.
    [X] Who are you?
    -[X] Ajax Washington
    -[X] Male
    -[X] young, dark-skinned and with a military buzz cut that's starting to grow out a bit, Ajax has a large, solid build that probably could've made him a linebacker if he'd trained for it. As it stands, he looks like the kind of guy who could put a man on his ass in a fight.
    -[X] A scar above his right eye, from an accident when he was a kid.
    [X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
    -[X] An octopus: smart, sneaky and versatile, you could even use the bay to transport itself and hide it.
    [X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
    -[X] Something else: An ape. Hands like a human, but can't easily pass for one, greater strength and less intelligence than a human, probably less likely to cause bad reactions.
    [X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
    -[X] A queen ant
    [X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
    -[X] A Platypus: who will defend the tri state area if you don't turn a Platypus into Perry the Platypus?
    [X] What's your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can make minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
    -[X] A Platypus: who will defend the tri state area if you don't turn a Platypus into Perry the Platypus?
    [X] Who are you?
    -[X] Ajax Washington
    -[X] Male
    -[X] young, dark-skinned and with a military buzz cut that's starting to grow out a bit, Ajax has a large, solid build that probably could've made him a linebacker if he'd trained for it. As it stands, he looks like the kind of guy who could put a man on his ass in a fight.
    [X] What is your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can create other minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
    -[X] A queen bee, modified to be loyal to you and to be your control hub for her offspring.
    [X] Who are you?
    -[X] Joaquin Narvaez
    -[X] Male
    -[X] A young Hispanic man with a swimmer's build, hazel eyes, and dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. Ever since he started living on his own, he's gotten a lot scruffier without a life goal to work towards.
    -[X] He tends to scrutinize everyone he meets, which has helped suss out possible white supremacists but isn't as helpful in making real friendships.
    [X] What's your Focus? (This is your main creature; you can make minor ones, but this is what the vast majority of your efforts will revolve around.)
    -[X] A Lizard: It can climb a wall, has thick scales, and could possibly become a dragon someday. There's something to be said for the ability to have your own dragon or just a creature that can ignore small arms fire.
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