- Location
- Leeds
Voracity (Worm Case 53 Quest)
- Thread starter Lyova
- Start date
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The best application of this:
Imagine the flourescent blush lines we could make! It'd be great for jokes or acting flustered to mess with people.
lockingbane
If you're crazy and you know it clap your hands!
- Location
- Waxahachie tx
or better yet it is naturally responsive to our emotions. We will encounter something that would make us blush and this power will allow it to be visible.
- Location
- Net Slum Tartarga
Got my laptop back! Keyboard is fixed! Writan writan~
Spoilered some shardbabble below in discussion with @Gnarker. Mostly me eyeballing how your shard works in this quest rather than how shards work in canon, though I don't believe I'm contradicting anything outright. Shards are flexible.
Not here or now!
Your shard isn't originally set up as a tinker shard. The original tinker power was a stretch, existing mainly to offer voters the tinker option. Its tech library would've been a largely biological hodgepodge held together with lots of direct shard intervention, plus a few scraps of tech your shard knows about. The tinker shard growth is more sensible, and fits better thematically. Wotsdis? Nom! Mine now. It might still give a biological spin on tech when replicating.
Not really. Shard growths are either 1) extrapolations of existing capabilities, or 2) powers that fit within the overarching theme and specific applications of your shard. (Which will have to be discovered in the story, or guessed based on the originally available powers and current shard growths.)
Reincarnation is an extrapolation of regeneration, armor constructs are an extrapolation of armor growth. These aren't exactly related to your shard's theme, but rather general reinforcements. When the shard connected to you, it saw stress, it saw a suboptimal host, and decided to halp. It reached out across the world for inspiration, saw boneless motility and limb regrowth in octopuses, saw exoskeletons in nearby crabs, saw nutrient distribution in sponges... etc.
Actual shapeshifting would require an actual power; it might've been a shard growth for the Changer option, if it had been chosen. Right now, that hardware has been rendered inert (to save energy), and your shard's developing in a different direction. The capability is not lost forever, but it's not really feasible to recover either, outside a second trigger / extreme shard shenanigans.
Both would need a stretch to meet the criteria, and the second can be approximated via your inventory.
Generally too far removed from current abilities, though I'll consider some of these. Most would be very impractical to write though, and impractical for voters to take advantage of. When it comes to combat, this quest gets maybe ten posts of serious discussion between 2~4 people, so adding a vast amount of complicated combat options (most of which are tremendously munchkin'able) seems more trouble than it's worth.
It already severs things that pass through, and it's already optional in the sense that you can wait till nothing's passing through. It might be valuable, but I don't see this being bought.
Impractical to keep track of from a writing and voting perspective. Also, would quickly explode into 'teleport wherever'. Close-range teleport and the ability to hide / lie in extradimensional ambush is already incredibly potent.
I'll consider this, though I'm leaning to a no. Your body doesn't quite have an enhanced smell / taste, and it's not really in the theme of your shard. (The 'smell parahumans' growth is a shardsense that mentally translates to taste. Doesn't actually involve tastebuds.)
Spoilered some shardbabble below in discussion with @Gnarker. Mostly me eyeballing how your shard works in this quest rather than how shards work in canon, though I don't believe I'm contradicting anything outright. Shards are flexible.
Not here or now!
Your shard isn't originally set up as a tinker shard. The original tinker power was a stretch, existing mainly to offer voters the tinker option. Its tech library would've been a largely biological hodgepodge held together with lots of direct shard intervention, plus a few scraps of tech your shard knows about. The tinker shard growth is more sensible, and fits better thematically. Wotsdis? Nom! Mine now. It might still give a biological spin on tech when replicating.
Not really. Shard growths are either 1) extrapolations of existing capabilities, or 2) powers that fit within the overarching theme and specific applications of your shard. (Which will have to be discovered in the story, or guessed based on the originally available powers and current shard growths.)
Reincarnation is an extrapolation of regeneration, armor constructs are an extrapolation of armor growth. These aren't exactly related to your shard's theme, but rather general reinforcements. When the shard connected to you, it saw stress, it saw a suboptimal host, and decided to halp. It reached out across the world for inspiration, saw boneless motility and limb regrowth in octopuses, saw exoskeletons in nearby crabs, saw nutrient distribution in sponges... etc.
Actual shapeshifting would require an actual power; it might've been a shard growth for the Changer option, if it had been chosen. Right now, that hardware has been rendered inert (to save energy), and your shard's developing in a different direction. The capability is not lost forever, but it's not really feasible to recover either, outside a second trigger / extreme shard shenanigans.
Both would need a stretch to meet the criteria, and the second can be approximated via your inventory.
Generally too far removed from current abilities, though I'll consider some of these. Most would be very impractical to write though, and impractical for voters to take advantage of. When it comes to combat, this quest gets maybe ten posts of serious discussion between 2~4 people, so adding a vast amount of complicated combat options (most of which are tremendously munchkin'able) seems more trouble than it's worth.
It already severs things that pass through, and it's already optional in the sense that you can wait till nothing's passing through.
It might be valuable, but I don't see this being bought.Impractical to keep track of from a writing and voting perspective. Also, would quickly explode into 'teleport wherever'. Close-range teleport and the ability to hide / lie in extradimensional ambush is already incredibly potent.
I'll consider this, though I'm leaning to a no. Your body doesn't quite have an enhanced smell / taste, and it's not really in the theme of your shard. (The 'smell parahumans' growth is a shardsense that mentally translates to taste. Doesn't actually involve tastebuds.)
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Alright, fair enough. Though, minor nitpick;
If our shard already doesn't really distinguish between tech and biology in expression, then wouldn't it make sense that if it can identify objects and analyze tech by swallowing and deconstructing it, it can also analyze tissue and living beings including those created by tinkers and powers, by swallowing and tasting or digesting them?
Also, how detailed is the item identification ability? Powerful enough to, for example, read the contents of a USB stick? Or scan a brain, taking that concept further?
One last little (large?) idea:
[4 / 15] You can create a continuous portal to the pocket dimension within your body.
- [0 / 10] You can create a vacuum-suction in your mouth.
- [X / X] Your bite warps space to a limited extent, letting you open your mouth wider and swallow bigger objects than normally possible.
But we're already deep red all over our body!
If our shard already doesn't really distinguish between tech and biology in expression, then wouldn't it make sense that if it can identify objects and analyze tech by swallowing and deconstructing it, it can also analyze tissue and living beings including those created by tinkers and powers, by swallowing and tasting or digesting them?
Also, how detailed is the item identification ability? Powerful enough to, for example, read the contents of a USB stick? Or scan a brain, taking that concept further?
One last little (large?) idea:
[4 / 15] You can create a continuous portal to the pocket dimension within your body.
- [0 / 10] You can create a vacuum-suction in your mouth.
- [X / X] Your bite warps space to a limited extent, letting you open your mouth wider and swallow bigger objects than normally possible.
But we're already deep red all over our body!
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
incredibly fluorescent pink, done in stripes like so:
This is the best use of our shard points I can imagine.
- Location
- Net Slum Tartarga
Analysis, sure. Replication would depend. Tinker creations would generally require Tinker tools, and Master minions may be too exotic.
Could tell one USB from another, but it won't translate flash memory into something Skye can comprehend. Same concept for brains. Would have higher specificity for abnormalities, e.g. detecting corruption or cancer.
Size is virtually the only limit to your bite and portals, so I'm a bit wary about expanding it. I may come up with something suitable eventually.
Size is virtually the only limit to your bite and portals, so I'm a bit wary about expanding it. I may come up with something suitable eventually.
In the meantime we have a Vista, I suppose.
- Location
- United States
From my attempts to balance a version of Cirrata's bite for DnD, I can confirm her bite is awesomely powerful.
In some ways, by joining the Protectorate we're seeing her bite at its least powerful; she's constrained by institutional precautions, and has to worry about niggling things like property damage and "not being a murderer" - though on the balance we do get an team that our powers are a force multiplier for. If Cirrata was dumped in warlord-controlled Africa or was driven insane by a Bakuda bomb or something, I shudder to think of what she could do. Slaughterhouse 9!Skye would be insane. Imagine the body horror possible when Bonesaw doesn't have to even make her victims contiguous. Imagine what Mannequin could do if his "sealed environment" specialty could be arbitrarily extended via portals. A few hours of surreptitious portal placement would give the whole S9 limited city-wide instant transport, good luck to the heroes trying to keep up. Something like Bonesaw's hallucinogen combined with mass use of trap holes in the ground could turn a shopping mall into a nightmare. And this is all ignoring Cirrata's personal ability to cube people with her giant mouth, play with her food for a bit, then sever them for real. Or stuff them through a portal directly to Bonesaw for turning into spider-thralls or something. Or have Jack Slash monologue to a bunch of severed heads while they can feel the Siberian munching at random on their toes a mile away. Not to mention her ability to be a city-wrecker second only to Shatterbird with portals linked to undersea or other distasteful places. Hell, wouldn't it be fun just to throw half of a portal connection inside Arcadia and the other inside Nilbog's territory, just to see what would happen next?More ideas: capture and thoroughly slice up a hero, then ship their limbs and other body segments to PRT departments across the country so they can watch them spasm as Bonesaw pokes and tinkers with their head! Just keep small sections that fit between the pieces sent off so the pieces are non-contiguous and can't be joined together. Or bite a chunk out of a hero's torso under their costume and release them, but tell them if they ever annoy the Nine, the portal will be cancelled. Give them some time to adjust and become invested in this new normal...then chuck an earpiece through the removed chunk of flesh and slowly ratchet up the blackmail.
Anyone remember the Echidna fight, where Skitter learned Tattletale told Miss Militia to prioritize killing Skitter clones, because in those hands her power is horrifying insectoid mass murder within a several block radius? Outside of sane hands, Cirrata's power has the same sort of potential. Portals are nuts.
Seriously Skitter should have been labeled a low Master, high Shaker by the time of her surrender IMO
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- Location
- Leeds
This is obviously false. We just need to worry about being caught.
- Location
- Washington DC, United States
Well, the thing is a lot of the votes have been framed in terms of "Are you interested in Avalon's offer?" The most recent "you're curious to know what kind of options are open to you" vs. "Nah. You're versatile enough as it is." is a good example. So instead of looking at it like a mystery people vote "No, I don't want their offer." "No, I still don't want their offer." "NO, I DON'T WANT THEIR OFFER." I think people would be more adventurous if Skye had explicitly decided she wasn't going to take the power upgrade from Avalon. I know I would voted for information gathering if she had.
I don't expect you to screw us over. I expect you to let us make bad decisions.
- Location
- Net Slum Tartarga
New Wave and Misteltein were social votes. If you interpreted them as 'is Skye interested in Nimue's power?', I messed up. I'd be interested to know what caused the interpretation to avoid the issue in the future.
I avoid railroading, and one of Skye's core character traits is keeping her options open. Part of why she divorced her singing from heroism; she wants choice, not live life by process of elimination.
See previous posts on bad decisions vs. irrationally paranoid decisions. Also note I did not comment or call the vote until the voting died down.
chocolote12
A Penguin Flailing Against The Keyboard Of Life.
Asking about the power, really. The common interpretation of being interested in something that somebody's marketing to you is that you're interested in it being marketed to you.
- Location
- Washington DC, United States
A lot of it is the wording of the "No" options. Look at "Nah. You're versatile enough as it is. Your only interest in Avalon is keeping the city safe from the trouble they might cause." this implies that the "Sure" option indicates an interest in making our power more versatile, ie. getting Nimue to zap us. As for Misteltein, if you wanted this to be a non-Skye centric plotline probably don't put her on the list of people Avalon has to specifically contact.
Letting player decisions stand unless contradicted isn't railroading. Honestly, I you're worrying too much about giving us freedom of action. The fact that Skye is a Protectorate member is just part of the premise of the quest at this point, to use one example. We aren't going to do an about face and reverse all our earlier decisions, so giving us the option doesn't really contribute anything.
- Location
- Net Slum Tartarga
The 'not interested' vote won there though.
Skye's lack of serious interest should be present in the following updates, just not explicitly, because the business side of Avalon was avoided and Mist didn't make a pitch.
Interest does not imply commitment. But to return to my original question, you said 'a lot of the votes have been framed in terms of "Are you interested in Avalon's offer?". I only intended there to be two:
One preliminary vote with purely the information the Protectorate wants you to have.
One vote with information Avalon wants you to have, and some familiarity with its members.
The fact I'm not letting previous player decisions stand in this instance is intentional. New information, new considerations, ideally.
If there were any other votes that gave you the impression they were about Skye's interest in Nimue, it was unintentional, and I'd be genuinely thankful to know which those were.
Have you wondered why Avalon would be interested in a grotesque penniless newbie with no known regeneration? And whether they actually are? Rhetorical questions - point is, it was intended as a curiosity to explore, not 'Skye's the protagonist and a real hip squid so of course they want her!'
- Location
- Washington DC, United States
Okay, I remember there being more than that. I think maybe because it's hung over the last couple updates? Maybe?
- Location
- Somewhere, probably Earth
But we are hip, right?The 'not interested' vote won there though.
Skye's lack of serious interest should be present in the following updates, just not explicitly, because the business side of Avalon was avoided and Mist didn't make a pitch.
Interest does not imply commitment. But to return to my original question, you said 'a lot of the votes have been framed in terms of "Are you interested in Avalon's offer?". I only intended there to be two:
One preliminary vote with purely the information the Protectorate wants you to have.
One vote with information Avalon wants you to have, and some familiarity with its members.
The fact I'm not letting previous player decisions stand in this instance is intentional. New information, new considerations, ideally.
If there were any other votes that gave you the impression they were about Skye's interest in Nimue, it was unintentional, and I'd be genuinely thankful to know which those were.
Have you wondered why Avalon would be interested in a grotesque penniless newbie with no known regeneration? And whether they actually are? Rhetorical questions - point is, it was intended as a curiosity to explore, not 'Skye's the protagonist and a real hip squid so of course they want her!'
...right?
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
If they are interested, it's for what that represents from a future marketing standpoint: Someone relatively new to the game, with next to no ties to other stuff, finds Avalon's services to be a good deal.
As for whether they actually are, I think there is a distinct possibility the Nimue is acting as a false flag. Intentionally spreading misinformation among heroes so they can't get a solid fix on what they're thinking and planning.
- Location
- Net Slum Tartarga
Honestly, it's probably because my update speed has been crap this month. I blame work, the weather, and the Cauldron discord. Don't tell them.
Definitely the hippest in several categories monopolized by you.
Theorizing! I love you Alwaysss.
Anyway, back to writing! Again, sorry for the awful update speed. Update... I'd like to say tomorrow, but we'll have to see.
chocolote12
A Penguin Flailing Against The Keyboard Of Life.
Mmm. Trauma Victims is a bit of an overstatement, but the post that used it in the context of why the voter base acts like it does is generally correct. Indicating in previous votes our lack of interest is, generally speaking, no guarantee of our continued in character disinterest; if we later make a vote that could be interpreted to be interested, it's going to be interpreted as being interested.
There have been multiple quests on SV (Two come to mind off the top of my head, although typically speaking elements of the problem crop up in every PMMM quest, for example) where something like this occurs: A vote is made. After this vote, multiple votes come where voting "incorrectly" leads to the original vote being invalidated. This breeds a culture into the quest of continuing to hardline in such a way as to maintain the option they've already chosen.
New reasons, characterizations, or what have you are then essentially ignored, except when they in and of themselves grow to such a point as to become their own, full issues. "No, we've already made this decision," voters have decided. "Stop giving it to us." It's not a happy thing.
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Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
*suppresses lewd joke*
When I'm not misusing it, you mean./self-depreciation.Theorizing! I love you Alwaysss.
I do have to concur with this. If I may expand on it based on my experience, that hard-liner attitude can increase and cause problems with the involvement of one or both of these two factors: Divisiveness and interpretation.
Divisiveness is how unequal the two parts of the voterbase are in taking/not taking a thing. The closer the initial vote is, the more concern there is among the winning side that with the subsequent votes that they could end up in that situation where their 'win' ends up being invalidated. And nothing gets more players permanently soured than feeling like their voice has been ignored when it shouldn't have been.
The Interpretation is about what players think of the story, characters, and want for the future. This often make the Divisiveness even more intense and hateful, as you've got two groups of people wanting mutually exclusive things. When you factor in that people may or may not be 'interpreting the story correctly', this ramps up the antagonism and lack of good dialog even further.
I don't think these elements are present in Vorcacity's playerbase at this time, but I've seen them in more than three quests and the kind of community toxicity I've talked about is next to impossible to fully undo.
- Location
- Washington DC, United States
This is similar to some of my thinking, although this is actually the first quest I've participated in, so I'm not sure this is an experience thing so much as a psychology thing.
fabledFreeboota
Sometimes frustrated.
- Location
- England, West Midlands
Lyova has yet to inform the artist...
'No god damn it's a world-devouring herald of the end, not a cutesy hug hero.'-Lyovo, Cauldron
nekoemonn vs Lyovo
*** *** ***
Lyova has just started pestering nekoemonn
Lyova: I have some news. Um. IusedyourartforawormquestandnowitssuperpopularandIdontknowwhattodo
Across the internet, the Pixiv artist raised a solitary eyebrow, its partner lagging behind.
Lyova: I may have used your art, as an inspiration, for a protagonist, in a quest, for Worm.
nekoemonn: Worm?
Lyova: Webnovel, super good, you should read it?
A long and terrible attempt to shill the work of John Macrae was politely declined.
nekoemonn: Quest?
Lyova: Voter driven storytelling, people decide what happens next. It was supposed to be scary.
nekoemonn: Supposed?
Lyova: Yeah.
nekoemonn: This monster, was not scary.
Lyova: No. Cute. Um. Yeah. If I could find a quote...
Kyakan, summoned from the grave depths, deposited a witty snip long since past. The two laughed, and missed the Alexandria Avatar'ed Fact Checker as she slipped unseen into the murky fathoms of Discord.
nekoemonn: I see. So, you used my art, linked my name, and it grew into something people liked? Well at least it was just the once.
Lyova: And then there was the crossover...
nekoemonn: What?
Lyova: Well, some people were doing another quest, with cutesy art, and they threw in Skye, except it wasn't Skye.
Lyova: Her name was Ashley. It definitely wasn't Skye. There were more hugs.
nekoemonn: How. Did this get so far, without you saying a word?
Lyova: I credited you...?
A great and terrible stare was placed upon the anime avatar, and a curse that Voracity may never be mentioned again without a dearth of quotes, and "It's really good"s and the summoning of the dreaded @Kyakan.
Yo Lyo. Keep it up cuddlefish curator.
'No god damn it's a world-devouring herald of the end, not a cutesy hug hero.'-Lyovo, Cauldron
nekoemonn vs Lyovo
*** *** ***
Lyova has just started pestering nekoemonn
Lyova: I have some news. Um. IusedyourartforawormquestandnowitssuperpopularandIdontknowwhattodo
Across the internet, the Pixiv artist raised a solitary eyebrow, its partner lagging behind.
Lyova: I may have used your art, as an inspiration, for a protagonist, in a quest, for Worm.
nekoemonn: Worm?
Lyova: Webnovel, super good, you should read it?
A long and terrible attempt to shill the work of John Macrae was politely declined.
nekoemonn: Quest?
Lyova: Voter driven storytelling, people decide what happens next. It was supposed to be scary.
nekoemonn: Supposed?
Lyova: Yeah.
nekoemonn: This monster, was not scary.
Lyova: No. Cute. Um. Yeah. If I could find a quote...
Kyakan, summoned from the grave depths, deposited a witty snip long since past. The two laughed, and missed the Alexandria Avatar'ed Fact Checker as she slipped unseen into the murky fathoms of Discord.
nekoemonn: I see. So, you used my art, linked my name, and it grew into something people liked? Well at least it was just the once.
Lyova: And then there was the crossover...
nekoemonn: What?
Lyova: Well, some people were doing another quest, with cutesy art, and they threw in Skye, except it wasn't Skye.
Lyova: Her name was Ashley. It definitely wasn't Skye. There were more hugs.
nekoemonn: How. Did this get so far, without you saying a word?
Lyova: I credited you...?
A great and terrible stare was placed upon the anime avatar, and a curse that Voracity may never be mentioned again without a dearth of quotes, and "It's really good"s and the summoning of the dreaded @Kyakan.
Yo Lyo.
Keep it up cuddlefish curator.
- Location
- US
[x] one for $500
[x] Headwings
[x] Headwings
- Location
- Fabulously Rainbow Ireland
It's true
Artwork by Nekoemon, pixiv id 1257520
For a nommy chest mouth-having, hug happy, flying octo girl Skye certainly has "dat booty"