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Your OTC Representative [Multiversal Capitalism]

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Rider 1
  • Threadmarks
    • Rider, 34578/3/1, 16:00 OTC

    You squat atop the highrise, gritty concrete beneath your boots. Your shoulder aches dully, grey bandage poking through the claw-rips in your leathers.

    The sun lingers on the horizon, smog dyeing it a deep crimson. You gauge its position with a thumb at arm's length: the day length here is the same as most Earths, so it's about another hour before nightfall. A little bit of luck amid all the shit you've been dropped in.

    Your hand lingers on the obsidian knife on your hip. Some of your other selves prefer higher-tech weapons, but you have yet to meet the plane where sharp rocks stop working.

    Drawback: Honestly, kind of a shit weapon.
    Advantage: Keeps you sharp.

    The best assets you have are your eyes, your ears, and your brain. Better to stay a little scared, a little on edge, and relearn how to survive here rather than stomping in in a mech suit and getting hijacked by an unexpected technomancer.

    You shift slightly, and the cuts in your shoulder take the opportunity to stab you. Ow.

    It's hardly the worst pain you've ever experienced -

    (- light, light everywhere, light, light, light, glorious and terrible and - )

    - you shift the memory aside with decades' practice. What were you thinking again?

    Your gaze flicks across your camp, its scavenged tarps and tossed-together packs. It's hardly the best one you've ever made, but considering your injury and the bad-luck hex that's been following you ever since you landed on this plane…

    You allow yourself one moment of pride, then open the violin case at your feet and take out the AK-47.

    (Amazing the details that stay the same across worlds. There are AK-47s, so there was a Soviet Union. There was a Soviet Union, so there was a Russia and it had Soviets and Communism existed and this universe's Lenin is somewhere back a few hundred years ago at most -

    All that, from one convenient gun.

    It's not even your history, and you still find it fascinating.)

    [ ] 1.25x Fortify for the night and hold until help arrives. The hex will probably make more attempts on your life, and you don't intend to go down easily.

    [ ] 1.00x Try to collect more information on the plane. You don't even know who cast this damn curse on you yet.

    [ ] 0.75x Try to break the bad-luck hex on you. You are a witch, after all.

    [ ] 0.75x Fork yourself even at potentially-ruinous cost. You need someone to watch your back, and you can't wait for help to arrive. Who better than you?

    [ ] 0.50x Send Prime another message, even at ridiculous expense.

    [ ] Be a different Eva. (Specify which.)
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [ ] 0.75x Try to break the bad-luck hex on you. You are a witch, after all.

    Tempting. An ongoing drawback like that, especially a broad-scope categorically-negative fate effect, really needs to be addressed as soon as possible. But... my reasoning earlier about the local relative value of patience and insight still holds. Therefore:

    [X] 1.00x Try to collect more information on the plane. You don't even know who cast this damn curse on you yet.


    I'm not familiar with the "<N>x" notation; is that a genre/format convention we're expected to understand (voting efficacy multipliers?) or one of the Cryptic Jargon Things specific to this quest?
     
    Sonata said:
    [ ] 0.75x Try to break the bad-luck hex on you. You are a witch, after all.

    Tempting. An ongoing drawback like that, especially a broad-scope categorically-negative fate effect, really needs to be addressed as soon as possible. But... my reasoning earlier about the local relative value of patience and insight still holds. Therefore:

    [X] 1.00x Try to collect more information on the plane. You don't even know who cast this damn curse on you yet.


    I'm not familiar with the "<N>x" notation; is that a genre/format convention we're expected to understand (voting efficacy multipliers?) or one of the Cryptic Jargon Things specific to this quest?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It's a voting efficiency multiplier. Eva' will never have any multipliers, but other forks will.
     
    [X] 1.00x Try to collect more information on the plane. You don't even know who cast this damn curse on you yet.
     
    Since you have no prior information, rolling...

    What Did Jera Send Prime?
    1-50: Her Cutest Friend To Snuggle (Fairly standard Pokémon, highly cute)
    51-75: An Intriguing Specimen (Psychic type)
    76-85: A Practical Joke (Disgusting, troublesome, or deliberately useless)
    86-95: A Comparative Specimen (Ghost, Fairy or Dragon type)
    96-100: Something Unique (Legendary Pokémon)
    Evenstar threw 1 100-faced dice. Reason: Contents of Capsule Total: 42
    42 42
     
    Ok, so first and foremost it's cute. What other interesting features does it have?

    Source of Cute:
    1: BEEG LARG. (Pokémon is big enough to seriously cramp your office.)
    2: So smol!! (Pokémon fits in your palm.)
    3: Floof!! (Pokémon is notably pettable.)
    4: It's gorgeous! (Pokémon has a high base Beauty.)
    5: It's just naturally cute! (Pokémon has a high base Cute.)
    6: It's witchy! (Pokémon makes a suitable familiar.)
    7: It's stylish! (Pokémon has Contest training.)
    8: It's the first one I caught! (Pokémon has high Affection for Jera.)
    9: I want to protect it! (Pokémon is low-level or a Baby Pokémon.)
    10: There's so many reasons! (Roll twice, discard duplicates or contradictions.)

    Type:
    1: It's a birb!!! Pokémon is Flying-Type.)
    2: It goes bloop! (Pokémon is Water-Type.)
    3: It's a flower! (Pokémon is Grass-Type.)
    4: It's so smooth... (Pokémon is Rock, Steel, or Ice type.)
    5: It's all glowyyy... (Pokémon is Fire or Electric type.)
    6: It's a neat bug!! (Pokémon is Bug type.)
    7: It's tricksy! (Pokémon is Dark or Poison type.)
    8: It's just cute! (Pokémon is Normal or Fighting type.)
    9: It... seems familiar, somehow... (Pokémon is Dragon, Ghost, or Fairy type.)
    10: It's so clever! (Pokémon is Psychic type.)
    Evenstar threw 2 10-faced dice. Reason: Cute, Type Total: 16
    7 7 9 9
     
    I was thinking Jigglypuff for performance+fairy.

    Alternatively, Mimikyu is Ghost/Fairy type, and feels thematically appropriate for performance – it's basically a furry cosplayer.
     
    Prime 3
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    • Prime, 34578/3/1, 16:00 OTC

    You look from Rider's report to the capsule, then back again.

    ... Low-hanging fruit first. Suppressing your doubts in Jura's competence, you press the button on the capsule.

    The orb snaps open, and a brilliant flash of light picks out every shadow in the room. When the spots in your vision clear, a ruby-necklaced shadow hovers in the air above your desk: the shifting edges of its body remind you of falling hair or cloth.

    Its eyes are as red as the rubies it wears, and focus on you with more intelligence than you would expect from an animal. Your instincts scream. This thing is a predator, no matter how cute it looks.

    It tilts its head at you. "Miss?", it inquires.

    [ ] Try to talk to it.
    [ ] Try to establish dominance over it.
    [ ] Attempt to snuggle it.
    [ ] Try to put it back in the capsule.
    [ ] Message Jura about it.
    [ ] Ignore it for now. What's the worst that could happen?
    [ ] Be a different Eva. (Specify.)
    [ ] ForkRiot.

    [0.02s Wish Time has been awarded for the suggestions that went unused.]
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Try to talk to it.

    Cats are predators too. Doesn't mean they're dangerous, or not snuggly friends.
     
    Rider 2
  • Threadmarks
    • Rider, 34578/3/1, 16:17 OTC

    You're not about to abandon your camp this late in the day, but you keep chalk in your packs for a reason. Basic scries are an essential tool, and even on None worlds you can use the chalk for trail-marks.

    You check your diagram over again, cataloging associations. Simple enough: glass for clarity, thread for connection, paper to record what was seen, a jet-black feather to name the Raven Man...

    Slapping your good right hand into the centre of the diagram, you force your will out into the world.

    A flock of crows comes at your calling, alighting one by one along the roof. They stare up at you with beady eyes.

    You touch the closest one's head, and it does not shy away.

    (You look up at your own face, grossly huge and distorted.)

    You touch crow after crow, shattering your vision into a dozen pairs of eyes: then you throw your arms wide, startling the flock into flight.

    Settling back down with your gun in your lap, you watch the city from -

    One of your pairs of eyes vanishes. Hawk?

    Yes, there goes another one. And another. Three different hawks: you got a good look at that one as it stooped for the kill. No doubt the work of the hex on you.

    Your human body hears wingbeats and harsh bird calls. A flock of magpies, mobbing together, angry about something -

    Oh. They're angry about you.

    [ ] 1.25x Pull out your best combat evocation. You definitely have enough magical oomph to put down a few birds, and it'll draw far less attention than automatic gunfire.

    [ ] 1.00x Open up with your AK-47 on the approaching magpie mob. Some people might call that overkill, and it'll call up the local authorities - but that behaviour can't be natural. Best not to take chances.

    [ ] 0.75x Take shelter inside the building and wait for the birds to leave. No time to take anything outside arm's reach: you'll be stuck with the bare essentials again.

    [ ] 0.50x Call back the remains of your flock of ravens and have them fight the magpies for you. It'll scupper your scouting mission, though.

    [ ] 0.50x ForkRiot option.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Dang. Shoulda dealt with the hex first.

    Can we still see with our human body's eyes as well?

    [X] 1.25x Pull out your best combat evocation. You definitely have enough magical oomph to put down a few birds, and it'll draw far less attention than automatic gunfire.
     
    Do we vote for both of the Evas at once?
    Prime:
    [ X] Try to talk to it.
    (it's either a misdreavous or a mismagius. I think it's probably misdreavous, from the hair description, but it could also make sense to describe mismagius that way.)

    Rider:
    [ x] 1.25x Pull out your best combat evocation. You definitely have enough magical oomph to put down a few birds, and it'll draw far less attention than automatic gunfire.
    (although magpies are pretty smart and vicious. but Rider probably knows accurately enough whether she can do that successfully?)
     
    [You may vote for whatever subset of Evas you care to.

    You can still see with your human body's eyes.]
     
    [X] 0.75x Take shelter inside the building and wait for the birds to leave. No time to take anything outside arm's reach: you'll be stuck with the bare essentials again.
     
    Prime 4
  • Threadmarks
    • Prime, 34578/3/1, 16:10 OTC

    You smile hesitantly at the shadow creature, meeting her (?) scarlet eyes with your own.

    "Ah, hello there. Are you alright? I'm a friend, you don't need to be scared of me -"

    "Miss." The shadow creature looks completely unamused.

    "Er. Yes. Do you understand me?"

    "Miss." It eyeballs you.

    You eyeball it back. "Was that a yes?"

    The creature bobs slightly in the air. "Miss."

    "Can you say anything other than 'Miss'?"

    "Miss."

    "Okay then. Bob once in the air for yes, say Miss for no. Do you understand me?"

    The creature is barely looking at you now, its scarlet eyes flicking around the room. "Miss."

    "Helpful, aren't you?"

    "Miss." The creature floats down and lands on your desk, seemingly unbothered by the thorns. Now that it's within arm's reach, you're a little tempted to pet it. It looks very poofy and soft.

    "I can see why Jera likes you."

    "Miss."

    As you watch the strange creature, the thorns around it on your desk slowly melt away, the blackened wood lightening as the Takkarash spillover disappears.

    The creature looks quite content. "Miss," it says.

    You consider what to do with it.

    [ ] Put it back in the capsule.
    [ ] And send it to...
    [ ] Jera.
    [ ] Rider.
    [ ] Someone else.​
    [ ] And keep it here for now.​
    [ ] Leave it outside the capsule.
    [ ] And send the capsule to...
    [ ] Jera.
    [ ] Rider.
    [ ] Someone else.
    [ ] After filling it with supplies. (Specify supplies.)​
    [ ] And send the creature to...
    [ ] Jera.
    [ ] Rider.
    [ ] Someone else.​
    [ ] And try to feed it. (Specify what you try to feed it.)
    [ ] And try to pet it.
    [ ] And keep trying to talk to it.​
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Leave it outside the capsule.
    [X] And send the capsule to...
    [X] Rider.
    [X] After filling it with supplies. (Specify supplies.)
    [X] And try to pet it.​

    Rider was expecting a None world and found a Will one - and considered that important enough to put in her message. She's probably undersupplied magically. Focus on equipment that relies on Will to be useful, or is useful for countering Will effects, or both.
     
    Introductory World Codes Dossier added to the OP.

    Note: the option "[ ] Fork yourself and do something else at the same time" is always available, though sometimes circumstances may make it a bad plan.
     
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    How would we code a magic system based on understanding and exploiting complex principles, like D&D wizardry?
     
    [X] Leave it outside the capsule.
    [X] And send the capsule to...
    [X] Rider.
    [X] After filling it with supplies. (Specify supplies.)
    [X] And try to pet it.
     
    [X] Leave it outside the capsule.
    -[X] And send the capsule to...
    --[X] Rider.
    --[X] After filling it with supplies. (Specify supplies.)
    [X] And try to pet it.
     
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