Question 22

[the winter system]

Put in some Kokkichi. 

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

@breakingamber The collab with Sazedezas and I has already been posted. Sazedezas already wrote most of the Karabiner stuff; I have a little reaction to his post at the end of the meeting doc.

[The Young Pyromancer]

Blank is watching.  Nicroburst is trying not to be noticed, as he didn't realize that this was a meeting until just now, and can't leave without drawing attention.  Kokichi's field's probably going to make him get noticed at some point.

 

Who took over Orbit again?

Edited July 28, 2019 by The Young Pyromancer

[The Swan Dragon]

Right now there isn't anything for Phytomagnet to do? I guess I could have him react, idk that that he'd have much of a reaction. Epoch would've already mostly briefed him on the speech.

[breakingamber]

14 minutes ago, Weirdpersonx said:

Right now there isn't anything for Phytomagnet to do? I guess I could have him react, idk that that he'd have much of a reaction. Epoch would've already mostly briefed him on the speech.

Maybe have him investigate what's going on with Kelvin? I dunno, it's up to you.

[kenod]

6 hours ago, breakingamber said:

Okay, I hate to both double post and put people on the spot, and I know many of you are busy but...

@Sazedezas: We could use you on the meeting document both to write for Arachnerd and Bloodlight/Nate. The coffee shop scene seems finished, so would either you or @Hemalurgic Headshot post it or revise it or something? Also I'm not sure what's happening with Karabiner, but I assume he's coming in soon? 

@Kidpen, @winter devotion, @kenod, @The Young Pyromancer, @Voidus, @TwiLyghtSansSparkles, @Weirdpersonx: You all have characters either at or watching the meeting. Some of them may want to react or say something to respond to Epoch's question. (Armageddon, Kokichi, Amethyst, Nicroburst, Blank, Viktor, Neverthere, Jade/Nathan, Phytomagnet...)

...Is that everybody? Sorry if I'm being bossy, rude, and/or insensitive.

I'll take a look tomorrow. I'll probably add some reactions from Amethyst, but she probably won't do much unless the situation changes a lot.

[breakingamber]

I think it's Drake's turn to respond to Kokichi's weirdness.

 

Am I being too pushy?

[kenod]

19 minutes ago, breakingamber said:

Am I being too pushy?

Not really. Besides, this place needs a bit of a push every now and then to keep moving.

On an unrelated note, does anyone here have plans to create a new character? I was thinking of creating one, but she wouldn't work well on her own.

[breakingamber]

49 minutes ago, kenod said:

Not really. Besides, this place needs a bit of a push every now and then to keep moving.

On an unrelated note, does anyone here have plans to create a new character? I was thinking of creating one, but she wouldn't work well on her own.

I was. I think a page or two ago, I mentioned an Epic I was thinking about with the ability to swap two regions of space. Would you like me to copy it over?

EDIT: As of now he has no backstory and no characterization besides paranoia. Here's what I was thinking:

Spoiler

Name: Mason Filmore

Appearance: 30-ish looking male with brown hair. About 6 feet tall with a long somewhat gangly body. As his other identities, he wears  things that are more fitting than regular street clothes.

Epic Name: Downfall (Trapmaster?), Rebound, Stranglehold (Asphy? Vacuum?) (I haven't chosen names for them yet).

Primary Ability: He can swap two equally-sized portions of space that he can perceive, either through sight or through his secondary ability, as long as they don't contain living things. If he tries, the swap just warps around them. These things preserve their momentum and shape. (so he's technically not a teleporter.)

Secondary Ability: He has short-range clairvoyance, up to about 20 feet in every direction. He can only perceive objects, not sounds, colour, smell, etc. 

Tertiary Ability: He has enhanced reflexes, enough to react to a bullet being fired at him at point blank range. This grants him a form of prime invincibility, as he can perceive threats coming from all directions, and can react to them in time to swap them or block them.

MO: He's paranoid that someone will kill him, and relies on (probably too much) misdirection  to hopefully avoid it. He's crafted at least three separate Epic identities, and as each one he tries to only use a small facet of his power so that people will hopefully underestimate him and try to exploit the nonexistent weaknesses in his power.

• Downfall: He pretends to be a dirt and stone manipulator, shifting the ground out from under enemies and raising earth and stone to defend himself. He once had a major field day in Newcago where he found there was no dirt and stone to manipulate, and was forced to run away really quickly.
• Rebound: He pretends to be an Epic who can redirect harm done to him to anyone else he chooses. He usually does this by taking a small gun and pushing it against his head, and teleporting the bullet into other people's body parts just it hits him.
• Stranglehold: He pretends to be an Epic that can make people unable to breathe. He does so by constantly teleporting the air out from around people, though he can't just move the air inside peoples' lungs because something something Notnam effect.

Weakness: Just about any living thing or something can't be blocked or penetrated can kill him. Something like Phytomagnet's trees, most invulnerable Epics, most incorporeal Epics.

Spoiler

Also, the Friend Computer icon or an obvious quote from the Friend Computer. What, you thought his Paranoia was only literal?

 

What were you thinking for your character?

Edited July 29, 2019 by breakingamber

[Kidpen]

1 hour ago, kenod said:

Not really. Besides, this place needs a bit of a push every now and then to keep moving.

On an unrelated note, does anyone here have plans to create a new character? I was thinking of creating one, but she wouldn't work well on her own.

Dozens of pages ago I had an epic I liked named Maestro. Don't know if he would work with yours.

[kenod]

My own idea was a (young) blind epic with the ability to sense living beings, as well as their bodies (stance, size), with a faint ability to find walls and objects by sensing microbes on them. As a second ability they'd either be able to alter their own presence (make people ignore them, think they're somewhere else or somebody else) or alter the bodies of living beings when touching them. I'm not sure about backstory yet though, though I think they'd probably be some sort of assassin.

[Kidpen]

6 minutes ago, kenod said:

alter the bodies of living beings when touching them

Like, Panacea style or what?

[kenod]

Just now, Kidpen said:

Like, Panacea style or what?

Yeah, basically. Touching the victim would be necessary because it gives their sensory abilities much better resolution so they actually know what they're changing.

...

I might actually go with both powers actually, but I'm not sure how strong that would be, since you'd have someone with high-level stealth combined with said biokinesis ability.

[breakingamber]

For the record, I'd be more than willing to pair my character with yours, kenod.

It even kind of fits: Yours is a character that manipulates and sees only living things, while mine switches non-living things. There's a justification for teaming up there somewhere, but I'm a bit too tired to think of it.

[kenod]

10 hours ago, breakingamber said:

For the record, I'd be more than willing to pair my character with yours, kenod.

It even kind of fits: Yours is a character that manipulates and sees only living things, while mine switches non-living things. There's a justification for teaming up there somewhere, but I'm a bit too tired to think of it.

True. Here's the current design I had in mind:

Spoiler

Name: Shade

Age: 14

Gender: Female

Appearance: 4'8'', with light-brown hair. Her eyes have a milky-white look, lacking any pupils or iris, and she generally keeps them closed. She wears an old grey hoodie and slightly worn jeans.

Abilities:

• Primary Ability: Biokinesis
  She can alter the bodies of people she touches, both for healing but also for killing. While powerful her lack of biology knowledge (or formal schooling in general) limits how she can use the ability. She can't use this ability on herself.
• Secondary Ability: Lifesense
  She can sense living beings around her. This sense also includes their stance and appearance. She can also focus her sense on a specific area to get a more detailed look of it. This ability is sensitive enough that she can sense microbes to some extent, allowing her to get some idea of objects around her (walls, buildings) but finding smaller objects requires her to specifically focus on that area. Touching someone gives her a much better view of their body, allowing her to examine things like veins, nerves, muscle structures and even specific groups of cells.
• Primary Passive Ability: Enhanced Physiology
  She is faster than normal people her age, and has enhanced reflexes. She also has a limited amount of regeneration. Not enough to be useful in combat, but she can heal back from serious wounds within a few hours with proper care, as long as the wound doesn't initially kill her.
• Secondary Passive Ability: Lowered Presence
  It is difficult for other people to notice her, and they quickly forget about her once she's gone. She hasn't fully realized this ability exists yet, and isn't capable of controlling it. How much it affects people is based on how much she trusts them, if she trusts people the ability influences them less. The ability also influences people less when they spend more time around her.

Skills: She's skilled in surviving on the streets, as well as hiding. Has a very good sense of hearing and smell.

Weaknesses: She's blind. While she can use her abilities to compensate to some degree she has difficulty with certain other things. She can't use displays and monitors for example, or other devices that rely on light. She can read things because the letters stick out of the paper to some degree, but it's exhausting because of the concentration necessary to notice it. She also doesn't have a lot of schooling, which severely limits how she can use her abilities.

Epic Weakness:

Spoiler

Sensory Deprivation. If she can't sense the world around her her powers will fail. Having part of her senses taken away will weaken her abilities as well, with lifesense, touch and hearing being the most important to her.

Personality: She keeps to herself, and generally displays little emotion, especially when on a job. She prefers working for Epics, generally serving as a personal assassin instead of being the center of attention. She dislikes being around other people. Generally stays away from fights, instead preferring to ambush opponents by killing them before they notice she's a threat.

History: Born a few years before Calamity rose with a birth defect that left her blind. A few years after Calamity her parents were killed by an Epic, though she survived because she wasn't noticed, since her powers had appeared a few weeks before that. She ended up moving around a lot, sometimes being picked up by various groups of Maples who took pity on her, sometimes living on her own on the streets, begging or stealing. During this time she also slowly trained her lifesense, learning how to use it to replace her missing sight. Eventually she accidentally used her primary ability and a passing Epic took note of it. Taking her in they started training her as their personal assassin. The Epic got killed however, their empire overthrown, and she ended up wandering again, eventually ending up serving another Epic.

 

[breakingamber]

40 minutes ago, kenod said:

True. Here's the current design I had in mind:

  Hide contents

Name: Shade

Age: 14

Gender: Female

Appearance: 4'8'', with light-brown hair. Her eyes have a milky-white look, lacking any pupils or iris, and she generally keeps them closed. She wears an old grey hoodie and slightly worn jeans.

Abilities:

• Primary Ability: Biokinesis
  She can alter the bodies of people she touches, both for healing but also for killing. While powerful her lack of biology knowledge (or formal schooling in general) limits how she can use the ability. She can't use this ability on herself.
• Secondary Ability: Lifesense
  She can sense living beings around her. This sense also includes their stance and appearance. She can also focus her sense on a specific area to get a more detailed look of it. This ability is sensitive enough that she can sense microbes to some extent, allowing her to get some idea of objects around her (walls, buildings) but finding smaller objects requires her to specifically focus on that area. Touching someone gives her a much better view of their body, allowing her to examine things like veins, nerves, muscle structures and even specific groups of cells.
• Primary Passive Ability: Enhanced Physiology
  She is faster than normal people her age, and has enhanced reflexes. She also has a limited amount of regeneration. Not enough to be useful in combat, but she can heal back from serious wounds within a few hours with proper care, as long as the wound doesn't initially kill her.
• Secondary Passive Ability: Lowered Presence
  It is difficult for other people to notice her, and they quickly forget about her once she's gone. She hasn't fully realized this ability exists yet, and isn't capable of controlling it. How much it affects people is based on how much she trusts them, if she trusts people the ability influences them less. The ability also influences people less when they spend more time around her.

Skills: She's skilled in surviving on the streets, as well as hiding. Has a very good sense of hearing and smell.

Weaknesses: She's blind. While she can use her abilities to compensate to some degree she has difficulty with certain other things. She can't use displays and monitors for example, or other devices that rely on light. She can read things because the letters stick out of the paper to some degree, but it's exhausting because of the concentration necessary to notice it. She also doesn't have a lot of schooling, which severely limits how she can use her abilities.

Epic Weakness:

  Reveal hidden contents

Sensory Deprivation. If she can't sense the world around her her powers will fail. Having part of her senses taken away will weaken her abilities as well, with lifesense, touch and hearing being the most important to her.

Personality: She keeps to herself, and generally displays little emotion, especially when on a job. She prefers working for Epics, generally serving as a personal assassin instead of being the center of attention. She dislikes being around other people. Generally stays away from fights, instead preferring to ambush opponents by killing them before they notice she's a threat.

History: Born a few years before Calamity rose with a birth defect that left her blind. A few years after Calamity her parents were killed by an Epic, though she survived because she wasn't noticed, since her powers had appeared a few weeks before that. She ended up moving around a lot, sometimes being picked up by various groups of Maples who took pity on her, sometimes living on her own on the streets, begging or stealing. During this time she also slowly trained her lifesense, learning how to use it to replace her missing sight. Eventually she accidentally used her primary ability and a passing Epic took note of it. Taking her in they started training her as their personal assassin. The Epic got killed however, their empire overthrown, and she ended up wandering again, eventually ending up serving another Epic.

 

Hm... some of my first and probably laziest thoughts.

People are just well-stuck together sacks of cells, correct? Can she manipulate something living that is touching something else that is living that she is touching? 

What is the range of her sensory ability? A mile? Sight range? 20 feet?

For her last ability, would people notice her if she did something warranting attention? How would this be defined? Is she actually harder to perceive, or is it just difficult for people to perceive her? 

How enhanced are her reflexes? Fast enough to dodge a bullet? A car?

She's young for an Epic. Not sure how that might affect her story, but that in mind maybe?

Where do you plan to go with this character? Static or changing? Her age makes the latter more likely, but how? How does her corruption affect her? 

I've got a couple more questions, but I think I'll stop now.

[kenod]

9 hours ago, breakingamber said:

Hm... some of my first and probably laziest thoughts.

People are just well-stuck together sacks of cells, correct? Can she manipulate something living that is touching something else that is living that she is touching? 

What is the range of her sensory ability? A mile? Sight range? 20 feet?

For her last ability, would people notice her if she did something warranting attention? How would this be defined? Is she actually harder to perceive, or is it just difficult for people to perceive her? 

How enhanced are her reflexes? Fast enough to dodge a bullet? A car?

She's young for an Epic. Not sure how that might affect her story, but that in mind maybe?

Where do you plan to go with this character? Static or changing? Her age makes the latter more likely, but how? How does her corruption affect her? 

I've got a couple more questions, but I think I'll stop now.

She can't manipulate things someone else is touching. To manipulate something she needs to have a detailed view of it, which means touching them (since it enhances her lifesense). Even if two people are touching they'd still count as two separate living beings to her lifesense, which so she would only be able to manipulate the first person. She can manipulate people when touching their cloths though, as long as they're thin enough. It would be more difficult than with direct skin contact though.

Her range depends on the strength of the life form. Humans are the strongest, and she can sense at ranges of about a mile, though only vaguely (focusing on a specific area allows for a better view of the people there). After that the strength is based on the size of the life forms, with the sense becoming fuzzier based on distance. For sensing objects around her by looking for microbes her range is only around 20 meters for larger objects like walls while smaller objects like tables have a range of about 5 meters. Small objects like cups can't be senses except as vague bumps unless she focuses on them, and even then she only has a range of about a few meters.

For the last ability, it works in that most people just see her as part of the scenery, something that isn't worth any attention. If she starts doing bigger, attention grabbing things they will notice her, though that is also related to how she doesn't know how to control the ability, since if she starts doing things that grab everyone's attention she would want everybody to pay attention to her, so she'd subconsciously shut down the ability.

For reflexes, dodging bullets would be too much, but her reflexes and movements are fast enough to fight other Epics, or at least escape if attacked.

I'm not yet sure about the amount of change she'll go through, I think that will mostly depend on how the story ends up going. I am planning for at least some growth though, it's one of the reasons I made her so young (that and that it fits better with her personality).

As for corruption, it limits her ability to feel emotions. The degree varies, with her lifesense not contributing much, and her other abilities more. Her biokinesis and healing contributes the most and is enough to make her lose all emotions for a while, but her other abilities still contribute a fair amount. This actually means that the more she wants to hide from people the less emotions she has. It isn't that noticeable though, since she doesn't display much emotions anyway even if she feels them.

[breakingamber]

7 hours ago, kenod said:

She can't manipulate things someone else is touching. To manipulate something she needs to have a detailed view of it, which means touching them (since it enhances her lifesense). Even if two people are touching they'd still count as two separate living beings to her lifesense, which so she would only be able to manipulate the first person. She can manipulate people when touching their cloths though, as long as they're thin enough. It would be more difficult than with direct skin contact though.

Her range depends on the strength of the life form. Humans are the strongest, and she can sense at ranges of about a mile, though only vaguely (focusing on a specific area allows for a better view of the people there). After that the strength is based on the size of the life forms, with the sense becoming fuzzier based on distance. For sensing objects around her by looking for microbes her range is only around 20 meters for larger objects like walls while smaller objects like tables have a range of about 5 meters. Small objects like cups can't be senses except as vague bumps unless she focuses on them, and even then she only has a range of about a few meters.

For the last ability, it works in that most people just see her as part of the scenery, something that isn't worth any attention. If she starts doing bigger, attention grabbing things they will notice her, though that is also related to how she doesn't know how to control the ability, since if she starts doing things that grab everyone's attention she would want everybody to pay attention to her, so she'd subconsciously shut down the ability.

For reflexes, dodging bullets would be too much, but her reflexes and movements are fast enough to fight other Epics, or at least escape if attacked.

I'm not yet sure about the amount of change she'll go through, I think that will mostly depend on how the story ends up going. I am planning for at least some growth though, it's one of the reasons I made her so young (that and that it fits better with her personality).

As for corruption, it limits her ability to feel emotions. The degree varies, with her lifesense not contributing much, and her other abilities more. Her biokinesis and healing contributes the most and is enough to make her lose all emotions for a while, but her other abilities still contribute a fair amount. This actually means that the more she wants to hide from people the less emotions she has. It isn't that noticeable though, since she doesn't display much emotions anyway even if she feels them.

So if we're going to work together on this, I'll need to think about the relationship our two characters have together, as well as flesh out my own character's personality more. Maybe instead of a similarity to Backtrack I should go for more of a blood knight vibe? (I'm going to call him Downfall for now) Downfall's powers do lean more towards the skill side than the raw power side, and seemingly so does yours? Maybe? *shrug* Sorry I'm bad at this. Anyway.

The first thing that came to mind was... not family friendly, so I'll move on.

The second thought was a student-mentor relationship, but I'm having difficulty justifying that based on Epic characteristics.

My third thought would be ripping off poor Aldo and doing a partners in crime style relationship, but I don't really want to do that and I'm horrible at writing witty banter.

So far I'd go with option two, but I think I'd need help with that. Anyone have any ideas? 

[kenod]

13 minutes ago, breakingamber said:

So if we're going to work together on this, I'll need to think about the relationship our two characters have together, as well as flesh out my own character's personality more. Maybe instead of a similarity to Backtrack I should go for more of a blood knight vibe? (I'm going to call him Downfall for now) Downfall's powers do lean more towards the skill side than the raw power side, and seemingly so does yours? Maybe? *shrug* Sorry I'm bad at this. Anyway.

The first thing that came to mind was... not family friendly, so I'll move on.

The second thought was a student-mentor relationship, but I'm having difficulty justifying that based on Epic characteristics.

My third thought would be ripping off poor Aldo and doing a partners in crime style relationship, but I don't really want to do that and I'm horrible at writing witty banter.

So far I'd go with option two, but I think I'd need help with that. Anyone have any ideas? 

Um, yeah, lets not do the first one. (though given that it requires physical contact it would likely just end up with a dead Downfall)

The second one sounds good though. My personal idea would be that she'd serve as some sort of personal enforcer/partner to Downfall, probably working as a personal servant during down-time (that last one probably because she actually wants to do it) with Downfall taking care of more general things, like providing a place to live as well as taking care of her in general. As for why he'd take care of her... Idealistic version is that he cares for her to some degree, cynical version is that she'll help him as long as she likes/trusts him, so he does it to keep her friendly to him. He might teach her stuff as well, either to make her more effective or to allow her to stand on her own.

As for justifying it, you could just go the cynical route and say he's just using her. Otherwise, it seems his paranoia is his main corruption, so if he actually trusts Shade despite that he might be able to actually care about her, perhaps even more than other people since she'd be the only one he could trust.

[DrakeMarshall]

On 7/29/2019 at 9:47 AM, kenod said:

On an unrelated note, does anyone here have plans to create a new character? I was thinking of creating one, but she wouldn't work well on her own.

I have like a billion new character ideas, but I really need to kill some of my characters before I start introducing new ones.

Realistically I have more ideas than I can ever use so if anybody wants to take a look at my character concepts as starting points / inspiration for their own characters let me know.

22 hours ago, kenod said:

True. Here's the current design I had in mind:

A few random questions about the powerset, if you don't mind. As the above might evidence, I really enjoy character generation. Nice touch, with the blindsight thing, by the way. That could be pretty cool.

Is the biokinesis limited to humans, or can it affect other animals? Plants? Microbes? Could they create beneficial symbiotic life forms, or conversely offensive parasites/diseases? Can it alter already dead organisms, or keep a sample of the cells alive post-mortem in a way similar to motivator tech?

Can they graft biomass from one organism onto another, or is it limited to the biomass a given organism already possesses?

How difficult / time consuming would it be to kill somebody with a touch using biokinesis? How would this interact with a healing factor or something like that?

Can they manifest complex structures that seriously diverge from an organisms original genetic blueprint, like the addition of new limbs or wings or biological weapons and toxins? Could they change somebody's appearance to look like a convincing replica of someone else? If this is outside of their skill at this point, could their power theoretically do those things?

I am assuming that if she has done nothing to warrant attention in the first place, or if she is in a crowded space or something, that she will generally go unnoticed. If people were actively looking for her in an uncrowded space while she was trying to hide, would her powers still prevent her from being spotted?

[kenod]

Just now, DrakeMarshmallow said:

Is the biokinesis limited to humans, or can it affect other animals? Plants? Microbes? Could they create beneficial symbiotic life forms, or conversely offensive parasites/diseases? Can it alter already dead organisms, or keep a sample of the cells alive post-mortem in a way similar to motivator tech?

Yes for everything except altering dead organisms, but the fact that she doesn't have any formal schooling, let alone university grade biology knowledge means she can't use the more complex applications of her powers (even healing people is difficult, especially sicknesses).

2 minutes ago, DrakeMarshmallow said:

Can they graft biomass from one organism onto another, or is it limited to the biomass a given organism already possesses?

In theory, probably, but again, she doesn't have any idea for how to do that. She can increase someone's biomass, but this takes time and effort, and it does have limits in the amount of mass she can conjure up (probably around 2 or 3 times the original body-mass, and it would probably take 10-20 minutes to do).

4 minutes ago, DrakeMarshmallow said:

How difficult / time consuming would it be to kill somebody with a touch using biokinesis? How would this interact with a healing factor or something like that?

Killing is fairly easy, once she touches someone she just needs to identify their heart or spine and destroy it. If she's prepared, probably less than half a second, but if she isn't it'll take longer. Healing factors should be able to repair the damage as long as the healing factor is strong enough to work in combat.

11 minutes ago, DrakeMarshmallow said:

Can they manifest complex structures that seriously diverge from an organisms original genetic blueprint, like the addition of new limbs or wings or biological weapons and toxins? Could they change somebody's appearance to look like a convincing replica of someone else? If this is outside of their skill at this point, could their power theoretically do those things?

It is possible, and she could actually do it (at least for adding limbs), but given that she has no clue how those sort of things work the victim would probably die really fast or be stuck in a really horrifying torture scenario (ignoring the pain of having your body warped that way).

[DrakeMarshall]

So a pretty elastic power, but currently limited by lack of the knowledge required to use it. Cool.

Edit: It's now probably either Kaitlin, Phyto, or Neverthere's turn. I tried to leave it a bit open for whoever is around.

Edited July 31, 2019 by DrakeMarshmallow

[breakingamber]

Yay. I've just finished the first Mistborn trilogy. Now to go through the rest of Sanderson's works, which I should've done a loong time ago.

EDIT: Is Epoch really going to agree so quietly?

Edited August 1, 2019 by breakingamber

[kenod]

7 hours ago, breakingamber said:

Is Epoch really going to agree so quietly?

My guess is that at this point he just wants to be done with Kokichi, even if he knows they're hiding a bunch of stuff.

[The Swan Dragon]

10 hours ago, breakingamber said:

Yay. I've just finished the first Mistborn trilogy. Now to go through the rest of Sanderson's works, which I should've done a loong time ago.

EDIT: Is Epoch really going to agree so quietly?

Woohoo! Mistborn was my first proper exposure to him (other than Wheel of Time), loved it.