What Misting would a secret Mistborn pretend to be?

[+Oltux72]

So, you do not want to be observed using two powers at once, at least not by people whom you cannot kill to silence. That means that you should pick a power that is hard to hide and useful. If you wanted to be underestimated you wouldn't admit to being an allomancer at all, rather than something like an augur. So what would you be? I cannot decide between

• Seeker - you can't burn copper while seeking, so you cannot hide seeking from Seekers
• Coinshot - you will need to explain the speed you displayed getting hither thence on occasion, even if you wear a mask or disguise while flying around

What do you think?

[Honorless]

I think most Mistborn went for pretending to be Coinshots because of the versatility & maneuverability, it's good for a fight & good for a getaway. The Mistborn were assassins & at most, fought in small skirmishes, so they'd prefer something like this. Iirc, Vin mentions that most Mistborn are better Coinshots than they are Seekers or Soothers, etc.

[datalaughing]

Well, we know Shan pretended to be a soother.

That's probably the way to do it if you want to be underestimated. You pretend to be a misting that would be useful but not threatening. Coinshots would be threatening.

[Quantus]

It's worth noting that standard Bronze Mistings can feel the difference between the burn of different metals, so you would need to keep a constant Coppercloud going most of the time you are burning metals.  

[FantasyFanatic]

Since a Mistborn main job is basically to kill people, most would probably disuse them selves as Coinshots, but in a political setting a seeker would probably be more useful.

[Halyo_Alex]

1 hour ago, Quantus said:

It's worth noting that standard Bronze Mistings can feel the difference between the burn of different metals, so you would need to keep a constant Coppercloud going most of the time you are burning metals.  

but then a Seeker that could see him would notice "hey wait that guy is using Steel but I can't sense it, he must be burning copper too!"

[Quantus]

7 minutes ago, Halyo_Alex said:

but then a Seeker that could see him would notice "hey wait that guy is using Steel but I can't sense it, he must be burning copper too!"

Indeed, you'd pretty much have to pick just one thing and drop your cloud when you are burning just that metal.  Steel as one of the Overt metals would probably make the most sense to be your cover Misting type, since all the rest are theoretically easier to hide.  

 

Honestly the easiest way to hide that you are a full Mistborn might simply be to get really into Body Piercing, and just keep everyone guessing which are Invested Spikes.  

[+Oltux72]

18 hours ago, Quantus said:

Indeed, you'd pretty much have to pick just one thing and drop your cloud when you are burning just that metal.  Steel as one of the Overt metals would probably make the most sense to be your cover Misting type, since all the rest are theoretically easier to hide. 

Except Bronze. It cannot be hidden fro other Seekers at all.

[Quantus]

4 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

Except Bronze. It cannot be hidden fro other Seekers at all.

Good Point.  An aluminum-lined hat would help hide most of the internal metals, but I dont think it would stop two Seekers from detecting each other's efforts.  It has no visible effect so you could use it if you were confident there were no Seekers around, but it would be one of the more dangerous metals to your secret. 

[Karger]

Soother.  It is advantageous in social situations and humans have difficulty responding to or thinking about both emotional and physical threats simultaneously.

[18th Shard]

I haven't seen this one yet, but Smoker - unless you need to burn bronze, you can have an excuse to be burning copper any time you need to. That would allow you to burn Tin, Pewter, and use Steel and Iron in more minor ways without anyone noticing the difference. I can't find any WoBs on whether having a coppercloud up would prevent you from Sooting or Rioting someone, but I suspect if they are outside your coppercloud it would still work. In other words, you can (with a little planning) use 5 of your metals freely, and use Iron and Steel minor-ly, without any suspicions being raised. Plus, it is relatively nonthreatening, so people will underestimate you.

Edited July 1, 2020 by 18th Shard

[The Sovereign]

1 hour ago, 18th Shard said:

I can't find any WoBs on whether having a coppercloud up would prevent you from Sooting or Rioting someone, but I suspect if they are outside your coppercloud it would still work.

Smoking would not shut off your Soothing or Rioting. It only stops the Smoker themselves from Being soothed/rioted. We have seen several instances of Vin and Kelsier using Emotional Allomancy while their copper cloud is up. We also see we also see Breeze and his team using emotional allomancy while inside of a copper cloud.

With all that said, I agree that claiming to be a smoker would be the play.

Edited July 1, 2020 by The Sovereign

[+Harrycrapper]

It depends what situation you're in. If we're talking Final Empire era, Inquisitors will know if you're using multiple forms of Allomancy unless you can produce a coppercloud that prevents them from detecting you which kinda nullifies the question. So if you're only going to use one power publicly it would depend on your objectives. If you're mostly just doing political stuff, emotional allomancy is the way to go. If you have an associate like Breeze who's particularly better at emotional allomancy than you, copper might be a viable option for political work as well. If your political work is identifying other hidden allomancers, bronze is an obvious choice. If you're more concerned about combat/espionage, steel pushing or pewter burning are probably your best options. I could be wrong here, but I don't think gold mistings were public knowledge at the time so I'm not sure that's an option. So yea, there is no single answer for this, it's situational. If we're talking Era 2 and you're Mistborn, you're pretty much a god among men. There aren't going to be any Seekers that can pierce your coppercloud without Hemalurgy so as long as you can hide visible evidence of your powers, there's nothing stopping you from using them.

[18th Shard]

I think the advantage in the Final Empire wouldn't take Inquisitors into account too much - you don't really care if the Canton of Inquisition knows you're Mistborn, it's the other noble houses you'd be trying to fool.

[Karger]

39 minutes ago, 18th Shard said:

I think the advantage in the Final Empire wouldn't take Inquisitors into account too much - you don't really care if the Canton of Inquisition knows you're Mistborn, it's the other noble houses you'd be trying to fool.

The canton of inquisition was greatly feared by the nobility.  They also had trained assassins.  I bet the nobility would care deeply just as business don't want either law enforcement or their rivals knowing much of anything about their doings.

[18th Shard]

12 minutes ago, Karger said:

The canton of inquisition was greatly feared by the nobility.  They also had trained assassins.  I bet the nobility would care deeply just as business don't want either law enforcement or their rivals knowing much of anything about their doings.

Valid. Maybe I should say it as the nobility don't know Inquisitors can pierce copperclouds, so its a moot point.

Edited July 1, 2020 by 18th Shard

[Spren of Kindness]

Practically, I'd go with Coinshot.  If you wanted to seem completely harmless, pretend to be an Auger, maybe?

[StanLemon]

I agree that if you are trying to hide it then pretending to be a Smoker is the way to go. If you make a show that you train yourself to be able to fight then your Pewter won't seem as suspicious. Tin would be unlikely to be noticed unless you end up with an unexpected stimulus. Steel and Iron can be used covertly to an extent. You aren't likely to know that Inquisitors can pierce Copperclouds so your emotional Allomancy would be hidden all while you can still use it yourself. All while you have an excuse to keep burning Copper all the time. The biggest worry is that if too many "coincidences" happen around you then people might suspect you are using your Coppercloud to hide being a Mistborn.

[rosin_the_beau]

If you really want to be underestimated, claim to be an Aluminum Gnat. Everyone will assume you are thoroughly useless, and you will be seen as no threat whatsoever. It's the perfect cover.

[Kingsdaughter613]

I think you want to claim to be a smoker. It gives you the most versatility.

[Aspiring Writer]

On 7/5/2020 at 8:18 PM, Spren of Kindness said:

Practically, I'd go with Coinshot.  If you wanted to seem completely harmless, pretend to be an Auger, maybe?

 

On 7/6/2020 at 8:00 AM, rosin_the_beau said:

If you really want to be underestimated, claim to be an Aluminum Gnat. Everyone will assume you are thoroughly useless, and you will be seen as no threat whatsoever. It's the perfect cover.

If you are picking a metal that useless just to seem harmless, you may as well just try and look like your not an allomancer at all. If you are going to disguise yourself as an allomancer, you may as well pick something with some utility. 

[Halyo_Alex]

57 minutes ago, Aspiring Writer said:

 

If you are picking a metal that useless just to seem harmless, you may as well just try and look like your not an allomancer at all. If you are going to disguise yourself as an allomancer, you may as well pick something with some utility. 

Hence why I'd pick Copper. You can hide your other Allomancy, and people (seekers) won't be suspicious when there's no allomantic pulses coming from anyone near you.

[+robardin]

On 9/25/2020 at 2:50 PM, Halyo_Alex said:

Hence why I'd pick Copper. You can hide your other Allomancy, and people (seekers) won't be suspicious when there's no allomantic pulses coming from anyone near you.

Agree that if you wanted to be known as an Allomancer but disguise that you were a Mistborn, a Coppercloud is the best cover story because you'd always have it burning when you did your other stuff.

However, in a combat situation where everybody's in the dark or ninja-suited up or simply don't know each other, firing coins like a common Coinshot until the last moment is probably the best cover - or if starting out at close range, as a Pewterarm.

In fact, didn't a Mistborn do exactly this early on in WoA? She was attacked by a team of Mistings, or so she thought, and she worked on offing the Coinshots and Thugs one by one until The Watcher (Zane) helped her out by sniping out the Smoker... Which left her to realize that she still couldn't sense the Allomancy of the remaining Mistings. One of them was a Mistborn who was also burning copper! And it was one of the Coinshots, who she wouldn't be as worried about closing ground with her like she would be with the Thugs among them, who pulled out a glass dagger and started burning atium (and almost certainly pewter).

[Halyo_Alex]

50 minutes ago, robardin said:

Agree that if you wanted to be known as an Allomancer but disguise that you were a Mistborn, a Coppercloud is the best cover story because you'd always have it burning when you did your other stuff.

However, in a combat situation where everybody's in the dark or ninja-suited up or simply don't know each other, firing coins like a common Coinshot until the last moment is probably the best cover - or if starting out at close range, as a Pewterarm.

In fact, didn't a Mistborn do exactly this early on in WoA? She was attacked by a team of Mistings, or so she thought, and she worked on offing the Coinshots and Thugs one by one until The Watcher (Zane) helped her out by sniping out the Smoker... Which left her to realize that she still couldn't sense the Allomancy of the remaining Mistings. One of them was a Mistborn who was also burning copper! And it was one of the Coinshots, who she wouldn't be as worried about closing ground with her like she would be with the Thugs among them, who pulled out a glass dagger and started burning atium (and almost certainly pewter).

Okay, you make a good point: context probably matters more than we've been giving it credit for, and you're right about that setup for sure.

[Narcoleptic Axolotl]

Without reading anyone else's responses, I'll say slider. Now hear me out - this is an incredibly useful power on its own, but that's perfect for the deception. People will assume you're a great fighter because before the fight you can make a bubble to give yourself time to prepare, sort of plan out the battle. Then during the battle you can make a bubble and re-plan because it isn't going exactly how you envisioned. But actually, you're a great fighter because you can do all that AND shoot coins at people, pull their weapons out of their hands, hit them with the strength of pewter, and all the other great stuff mistborn can do. I don't know, maybe they'd just do tin or something.