Question 22

[kenod]

2 minutes ago, Weirdpersonx said:

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

Same here. Probably good too, since Stormlight only had two books at that point and Mistborn is better than Elantris and Warbreaker (to me at least).

[The Swan Dragon]

Just now, kenod said:

Same here. Probably good too, since Stormlight only had two books at that point and Mistborn is better than Elantris and Warbreaker (to me at least).

0.o I started before the first Stormlight came out.

[kenod]

Just now, Weirdpersonx said:

0.o I started before the first Stormlight came out.

Yeah, I came in late, after AMoL had come out to be precise.

[DrakeMarshall]

11 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?

Oh, you're in for a treat  The only thing about the reading order that I would say is to read Warbreaker before Stormlight Archive. Although, I personally didn't, so feel free to take that suggestion with a grain of salt.

Yep, he's going to agree quietly. He wants people on his side. He doesn't like to be alone. He would honestly prefer to just have everyone on his side instead of needing to take over. He's going to be as reasonable as possible when requesting allies, and he's going to do his best to keep his end of the bargain. Although, his offer also isn't quite as good as it sounds. People who align with him don't necessarily know what they are getting into, in light of the fact that Epoch is potentially about to start a war.

Edited August 1, 2019 by DrakeMarshmallow

[breakingamber]

18 minutes ago, DrakeMarshmallow said:

Oh, you're in for a treat  The only thing about the reading order that I would say is to read Warbreaker before Stormlight Archive. Although, I personally didn't, so feel free to take that suggestion with a grain of salt.

Yep, he's going to agree quietly. He wants allies. He doesn't like to be alone. He would honestly prefer to just have everyone on his side instead of needing to take over. He's going to be as reasonable as possible when requesting allies, and he's going to do his best to keep his end of the bargain. Although, his offer also isn't quite as good as it sounds. People who align with him don't necessarily know what they are getting into, in light of the fact that Epoch is potentially about to start a war.

Thanks for the advice.

Does anybody have a way to contact Sazedezas? He's not on the Discord and he hasn't been online since June. From what I can tell, Karabiner's assassination is one of the next important parts of the plot, and we kind of need him around for that. 

[The Young Pyromancer]

Um, @Kenod, there may be a problem with your character concept's weakness...

Spoiler

That's Jacklyn's weakness...

I guess it could happen to occur twice, but it would be kind of weird...

Also your character's actually REALLY good against both the illusionists, but especially Blank with the Stranger power.

[kenod]

1 hour ago, The Young Pyromancer said:

Um, @Kenod, there may be a problem with your character concept's weakness...

  Hide contents

That's Jacklyn's weakness...

I guess it could happen to occur twice, but it would be kind of weird...

Also your character's actually REALLY good against both the illusionists, but especially Blank with the Stranger power.

Ah, thanks, I didn't know that. I'm not really sure what else to use though, so I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Edit: As for compatibility with illusionists, this true, but she actually has a fairly bad compatibility with Epics whose powers have visual indicators, like Blasters and Energy Manipulators, since she'd often have to rely on their body stance and where they're looking to get an idea of what they're doing, or rely on the powers affecting airborne microbes.

p.s.
My name doesn't start with a capital letter, so your tag doesn't work.

Edited August 1, 2019 by kenod

[The Young Pyromancer]

Ah, sorry.  Also, don't worry about the illusionists.  They'll be fine.

You could use

Spoiler

a Coconut Cream Pie, specifically to the face, stemming from a fear of being humiliated as a child,

or something like that.

[kenod]

Just now, The Young Pyromancer said:

Ah, sorry.  Also, don't worry about the illusionists.  They'll be fine.

You could use

  Hide contents

a Coconut Cream Pie, specifically to the face, stemming from a fear of being humiliated as a child,

or something like that.

Hm, could work, I personally just had the following idea:

Spoiler

Being abandoned by people taking care of her. Essentially, as a blind kid she would have been extremely relaint on other people taking care of her, so she would probably always have a fear that they'd have enough of her and abandon her. It would also explain why she prefers serving other Epics, since she'd still have a fear of living on her own, probably reinforced by her periods of living as a street kid.

This would probably also trigger if she thought it had happened, and would probably last for at least an hour with no powers, and her powers being weakened for a much longer period (so just weakened senses and stealth for example), with the effects also disappearing if someone came back for her.

 

[breakingamber]

1 hour ago, kenod said:

Hm, could work, I personally just had the following idea:

  Reveal hidden contents

Being abandoned by people taking care of her. Essentially, as a blind kid she would have been extremely relaint on other people taking care of her, so she would probably always have a fear that they'd have enough of her and abandon her. It would also explain why she prefers serving other Epics, since she'd still have a fear of living on her own, probably reinforced by her periods of living as a street kid.

This would probably also trigger if she thought it had happened, and would probably last for at least an hour with no powers, and her powers being weakened for a much longer period (so just weakened senses and stealth for example), with the effects also disappearing if someone came back for her.

 

Sounds like an interesting weakness. 

[kenod]

14 hours ago, breakingamber said:

Sounds like an interesting weakness. 

Thanks. Did you have any ideas for how our characters would work together?

[breakingamber]

1 hour ago, kenod said:

Thanks. Did you have any ideas for how our characters would work together?

Yes. First, I rewrote my character (mostly). He's really more support than anything else, and I just wanted to see how such a power could and could not be used in this setting.

Here's what I was thinking:

Spoiler

Name: Mason Filmore

Appearance: 30-ish looking white male with brown hair. About 6 feet tall with a long somewhat gangly body. 

Epic Name: Downfall

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 a blood knight who's always looking for fights and challenges that give him a thrill. He is confrontational and always looking for an excuse to fight. This makes him pretty reckless when it comes to antagonizing other Epics. He doesn't think much of vanillas and will kill them if they or something else irritate him, sometimes by switching the ground that's underneath them to be on top of them or by switching something heavy on top of their head and snapping their spine, or just encasing them in solid rock. He has a slightly healthier respect for Epics who annoy or irritate him, as he's looking for an Epic that can really challenge him in a fight. He tends to purposefully impose arbitrary challenges on himself like 'don't suffocate people' or 'don't break anyone's spines' because, really, most Epics can't survive being encased in stone or having a large rock dropped on their head. In the end, however, if he's actually in danger of dying, he tends to bail.

Backstory: He was about 19 when Calamity first rose and he get his powers. He'd just arrived at his biology class when he had his Rending, where he left a pile of suspiciously rectangular rubble behind. As time passed, he practiced more and gained more control over his ability and was able to make more specific shapes. Travelling some of the most Epic-filled cities, he looked for challenges that could provide a challenge but couldn't actually kill him. He had a close call with Steelheart in Newcago and a reality-manipulating Epic in California, but he got out largely intact. The other day, he heard of a couple extremely powerful Epics in Portland that fled to Edmonton. He's only heard vague rumours, but he's always wanted to fight a teleporter. Also, that Phytomagnet fellow sounded interesting.

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

The Friend Computer icon or any obvious quotes from the Friend Computer. He was a timid, shy, and Paranoid bookworm who liked to learn before he got his powers, and he doesn't want to go back to being like that.

 

As for interactions with your character, I figured maybe... actually, what's your character's backstory? Would you mind fleshing it out a little bit? I have the vaguest inklings of an idea, but I don't want to write you into a corner, if you know what I mean.

Edited August 2, 2019 by breakingamber

[kenod]

11 minutes ago, breakingamber said:

Yes. First, I rewrote my character (mostly). He's really more support than anything else, and I just wanted to see how such a power could and could not be used in this setting.

Here's what I was thinking:

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Mason Filmore

Appearance: 30-ish looking white male with brown hair. About 6 feet tall with a long somewhat gangly body. 

Epic Name: Downfall

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 a blood knight who's always looking for fights and challenges that give him a thrill. He is confrontational and always looking for an excuse to fight. This makes him pretty reckless when it comes to antagonizing other Epics. He doesn't think much of vanillas and will kill them if they or something else irritate him, sometimes by switching the ground that's underneath them to be on top of them or by switching something heavy on top of their head and snapping their spine, or just encasing them in solid rock. He has a slightly healthier respect for Epics who annoy or irritate him, as he's looking for an Epic that can really challenge him in a fight. He tends to purposefully impose arbitrary challenges on himself like 'don't suffocate people' or 'don't break anyone's spines' because, really, most Epics can't survive being encased in stone or having a large rock dropped on their head. In the end, however, if he's actually in danger of dying, he tends to bail.

Backstory: He was about 19 when Calamity first rose and he get his powers. He'd just arrived at his biology class when he had his Rending, where he left a pile of suspiciously rectangular rubble behind. As time passed, he practiced more and gained more control over his ability and was able to make more specific shapes. Travelling some of the most Epic-filled cities, he looked for challenges that could provide a challenge but couldn't actually kill him. He had a close call with Steelheart in Newcago and a reality-manipulating Epic in California, but he got out largely intact. The other day, he heard of a couple extremely powerful Epics in Portland that fled to Edmonton. He's only heard vague rumours, but he's always wanted to fight a teleporter. Also, that Phytomagnet fellow sounded interesting.

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.

  Reveal hidden contents

The Friend Computer icon or any obvious quotes from the Friend Computer. He was a timid, shy, and Paranoid bookworm who liked to learn before he got his powers, and he doesn't want to go back to being like that.

 

As for interactions with your character, I figured maybe... actually, what's your character's backstory? Would you mind fleshing it out a little bit? I have the vaguest inklings of an idea, but I don't want to write you into a corner, if you know what I mean.

Looks interesting. Is the plan to try and take over the city, claim a certain amount of territory or (temporarily) serve under a more powerful epic?

As for my character's backstory, she was born as a blind girl, had a nice life with her parents until calamity came, with an epic killing her parents a few years after calamity. She then got taken in by a family/group/clan who took pity on her, living with them for about a year until she got her Rending, which was fairly uneventful because of how her powers worked but she ended up getting kicked out with some food and cloths because of the danger of having an Epic live in your group, after which she ended up on the streets. She moved between different street gangs at that point (having a stealth ability is quite useful for stealing, and people won't suspect the 6-7 year old blind girl) until she ended up using her biokinesis by accident. A passing Epic saw it and took her in and started training her. The exact timeline varies at this point. I didn't have a specific age at which point she was found or a specific Epic who found her. This could either be Downfall or a different Epic. If it's a different Epic then she probably served them for a while until said Epic died for some reason with her ending up serving a different Epic, with this continuing until she gets to Downfall.

A different possibility for the backstory is that she had already had her rending before her parents died and that the Epic who killed them found out and took her in and trained her, with possibilities as to who this was and what happened next varying depending on what works better.

[breakingamber]

14 minutes ago, kenod said:

Looks interesting. Is the plan to try and take over the city, claim a certain amount of territory or (temporarily) serve under a more powerful epic?

As for my character's backstory, she was born as a blind girl, had a nice life with her parents until calamity came, with an epic killing her parents a few years after calamity. She then got taken in by a family/group/clan who took pity on her, living with them for about a year until she got her Rending, which was fairly uneventful because of how her powers worked but she ended up getting kicked out with some food and cloths because of the danger of having an Epic live in your group, after which she ended up on the streets. She moved between different street gangs at that point (having a stealth ability is quite useful for stealing, and people won't suspect the 6-7 year old blind girl) until she ended up using her biokinesis by accident. A passing Epic saw it and took her in and started training her. The exact timeline varies at this point. I didn't have a specific age at which point she was found or a specific Epic who found her. This could either be Downfall or a different Epic. If it's a different Epic then she probably served them for a while until said Epic died for some reason with her ending up serving a different Epic, with this continuing until she gets to Downfall.

A different possibility for the backstory is that she had already had her rending before her parents died and that the Epic who killed them found out and took her in and trained her, with possibilities as to who this was and what happened next varying depending on what works better.

Haha, I'm imagining a young girl's Rending with few to no offensive powers.

Spoiler

For her new weakness to work, she'd have to have been abandoned at least once before she got her powers, or she could have a severe fear of being abandoned beforehand? Not sure.

Would you rather play a girl with very little experience with her biokinesis power or someone who has a little more? I'm largely fine with either.

I think I can justify Downfall taking Shade along with him by putting it as a win-win situation - if she stays loyal, he gains more power and can take on more powerful and more diverse Epics, and if she betrays him he gets a good fight. I'd have their first encounter occur during the first scenario, where she first discovers her biokinesis and is robbing someone.

[kenod]

2 minutes ago, breakingamber said:

Haha, I'm imagining a young girl's Rending with few to no offensive powers.

  Hide contents

For her new weakness to work, she'd have to have been abandoned at least once before she got her powers, or she could have a severe fear of being abandoned beforehand? Not sure.

Would you rather play a girl with very little experience with her biokinesis power or someone who has a little more? I'm largely fine with either.

I think I can justify Downfall taking Shade along with him by putting it as a win-win situation - if she stays loyal, he gains more power and can take on more powerful and more diverse Epics, and if she betrays him he gets a good fight. I'd have their first encounter occur during the first scenario, where she first discovers her biokinesis and is robbing someone.

Sounds good. I'd say she'd have some experience, enough to kill someone or do some basic healing, but not enough to be able to use more complex applications of her abilities.

As for the weakness:

Spoiler

She hasn't been, it's just been a constant fear of hers since she knew she wasn't useful or capable of taking care of herself, so she's always been afraid her parents/caretakers would become sick of taking care of someone who couldn't do anything and just leave her.

 

[breakingamber]

1 minute ago, kenod said:

Sounds good. I'd say she'd have some experience, enough to kill someone or do some basic healing, but not enough to be able to use more complex applications of her abilities.

As for the weakness:

  Hide contents

She hasn't been, it's just been a constant fear of hers since she knew she wasn't useful or capable of taking care of herself, so she's always been afraid her parents/caretakers would become sick of taking care of someone who couldn't do anything and just leave her.

 

Alright, makes sense. 

After Epoch dies today, would it be unreasonable for the two to enter the city the next day? I've got a couple ideas to work out (can you actually snap someone's spine by putting a heavy block on your head? How far down is bedrock anyway?), and a couple interpersonal things I'd like to work out.

[kenod]

1 minute ago, breakingamber said:

Alright, makes sense. 

After Epoch dies today, would it be unreasonable for the two to enter the city the next day? I've got a couple ideas to work out (can you actually snap someone's spine by putting a heavy block on your head? How far down is bedrock anyway?), and a couple interpersonal things I'd like to work out.

Epoch is going to die today? Do you mean IC or OOC? As for bedrock, according to this bedrock probably starts between 110 and 50 meters deep.

[breakingamber]

11 minutes ago, kenod said:

Epoch is going to die today? Do you mean IC or OOC? As for bedrock, according to this bedrock probably starts between 110 and 50 meters deep.

IC, Epoch should die by the time the stadium scene's over, or so Darshall - Marshmallow? It's weird when people change their names - has told me.

And hm. Maybe just asphault and concrete then.

[kenod]

Just now, breakingamber said:

IC, Epoch should die by the time the stadium scene's over, or so Darshall - Marshmallow? It's weird when people change their names - has told me.

And hm. Maybe just asphault and concrete then.

True, but I think the idea was that Epoch threw a timestop around the stadium to allow him to rule everything while the others are stuck there, meaning that by the time they figured it out a month would have passed.

[breakingamber]

Just now, kenod said:

True, but I think the idea was that Epoch threw a timestop around the stadium to allow him to rule everything while the others are stuck there, meaning that by the time they figured it out a month would have passed.

Yeah I think that originally was the idea, but someone would've noticed beforehand? Blank, for example, as he's outside the dome and would see the time slowing before the hours could turn into months.

[kenod]

Just now, breakingamber said:

Yeah I think that originally was the idea, but someone would've noticed beforehand? Blank, for example, as he's outside the dome and would see the time slowing before the hours could turn into months.

Ah, true. Well, I guess we'll see how it ends up.

[breakingamber]

Hm. I reread Drake's post earlier, and you're right, he planned on a timeskip. Not sure what to think about this.

What is the rate at which Epoch slows down the rate of time in such a large area? I remember something about how his time slowing takes longer than his time speeding upping, but what's the approximate rate? 1 hour of RL time is a decrease of - oh god this rate equation is so confusing.

[kenod]

6 minutes ago, breakingamber said:

Hm. I reread Drake's post earlier, and you're right, he planned on a timeskip. Not sure what to think about this.

What is the rate at which Epoch slows down the rate of time in such a large area? I remember something about how his time slowing takes longer than his time speeding upping, but what's the approximate rate? 1 hour of RL time is a decrease of - oh god this rate equation is so confusing.

Honestly, I've got no clue. At this point I'd just say that it slows it down at the speed of plot. Does it matter that much though? Epoch will still die and open up a power vacuum, so whether or not there is a timeskip doesn't really matter, at least not in this case. And otherwise we could say the characters have used said time period to already establish themselves, so we don't have another set of arriving at the border scenes.

[breakingamber]

23 hours ago, kenod said:

Honestly, I've got no clue. At this point I'd just say that it slows it down at the speed of plot. Does it matter that much though? Epoch will still die and open up a power vacuum, so whether or not there is a timeskip doesn't really matter, at least not in this case. And otherwise we could say the characters have used said time period to already establish themselves, so we don't have another set of arriving at the border scenes.

What is the speed of plot? Basically, what I'm asking is, who's in favour of the timeskip and who is not? I'd rather go on with a difference of a couple hours at most because writing for the characters outside Epoch's bubble is bound to be a pain otherwise.

[The Young Pyromancer]

Blank's work could reduce it to a day to a week.