Question 3

TwiLyghtSansSparkles · November 4, 2014

On second (third? fourth?) thought, it might be easier to manage if I just removed the Financier's prediction powers. Any other ideas for math-related powers?

Voidus · November 4, 2014

On second (third? fourth?) thought, it might be easier to manage if I just removed the Financier's prediction powers. Any other ideas for math-related powers?

Quantitization: The ability to instantly quantify any observed entity or phenomenon, can look at an army and give an instant assesment of the number of soldiers in it, look at a bullet and precisely determine it's speed, tell the precise temperature of a flame.

Asymptotic: Cause an object to slow increasingly as it approaches a certain point, eventually coming infinitely close but never quite reaching it.

EDIT: Side note, what would happen if say an Epic who could make text come alive met Financier and say... Actualized every number in his presence so he was chased by an ever-growing army of digits?

Edited November 4, 2014 by Voidus

Mailliw73 · November 4, 2014

An interesting point on the density guy, altering his density should logically alter his senses if his pupils become less tangible they'll be hit less frequently by light so everything would appear darker and as his tangibility decreased his hearing would become more sensitive, more easily resonating with softer soundwaves although once completely intangible he'd go deaf as well since his ear wouldn't resonate from sound waves, alternately increasing his density would I think result in things becoming even brighter and potentially increasing his hearing sensitivity briefly, though at high ends his ear would resonate less again and so would gradually get reduced hearing.

Naming isn't my strong suit, I usually have the same problem but some suggestions:

Juggernaut, Momentous Ghost, Ammit (The beast of Egyption myth who devours hearts of wrongdoers after the heart-weighing ceremony)

You know, that's true, but I'm not sure I want to deal with that much physics of it. like David says, Epics treat physics like something that happens to other people.

Hmm. Juggernaut is closer to the feel I want for him, but it still doesn't feel right to me. I'll try and think of more and see if Edge or Joe has any ideas.

TwiLyghtSansSparkles · November 4, 2014

Quantitization: The ability to instantly quantify any observed entity or phenomenon, can look at an army and give an instant assesment of the number of soldiers in it, look at a bullet and precisely determine it's speed, tell the precise temperature of a flame.

Asymptotic: Cause an object to slow increasingly as it approaches a certain point, eventually coming infinitely close but never quite reaching it.

EDIT: Side note, what would happen if say an Epic who could make text come alive met Financier and say... Actualized every number in his presence so he was chased by an ever-growing army of digits?

Voidus, I knew I could count on you.

I like the quantification power. It sounds like something an Epic budget officer would be able to do.

Freeze momentarily, shoot wildly, and attempt to multiply the entire army by zero as he screamed obscenities. When the army was gone, he would hide under the bed until he was too hungry to stay where he was.

If the army were large enough, he would decide the cause was hopeless and divide by zero.

Voidus · November 4, 2014

You know, that's true, but I'm not sure I want to deal with that much physics of it. like David says, Epics treat physics like something that happens to other people.

Hmm. Juggernaut is closer to the feel I want for him, but it still doesn't feel right to me. I'll try and think of more and see if Edge or Joe has any ideas.

Assuming he can control which parts of his body are intagible/indestructible you can always just get out of it by saying his retina and ear are excluded from his power most of the time, he'd only need to include them if he planned on walking through any walls and he'd be blind and deaf then anyway since he's in a wall

Fred the Immovable? (His name is Fred now)

Tenacity, Pertinacity

Edited November 4, 2014 by Voidus

mail-mi · November 4, 2014

Hm...what powers would a High Epic named Sloppy Joe have...hm...

Voidus · November 4, 2014

Hm...what powers would a High Epic named Sloppy Joe have...hm...

None, because Big Al will tolerate no rivals!

Mailliw73 · November 4, 2014

Assuming he can control which parts of his body are intagible/indestructible you can always just get out of it by saying his retina and ear are excluded from his power most of the time, he'd only need to include them if he planned on walking through any walls and he'd be blind and deaf then anyway since he's in a wall

Fred the Immovable? (His name is Fred now)

Tenacity, Pertinacity

He can, his hand, as was mentioned as an example. That's good to me. So unless he wants to go through a wall or become completely dense, he's fine.

Hahah I actually name most of my Epics human names by starting with the same first letter as their Epic name. Sometimes more. Examples: Night-Mare was Maren Noles. In her case, Mare was even her nickname before Calamity. FlashPoint: Frank Ponte.

Tenacity, I'm liking. I still don't feel it, but I don't know why.

TwiLyghtSansSparkles · November 4, 2014

Mailliw, do you think it's plausible that rumors of Koschei made it to Portland with some of the refugees? Not of the specifics; he didn't last long enough for that, but just that a cruel, immortal High Epic tried to take The Dalles two years ago and now he's dead?

Mailliw73 · November 4, 2014

I don't see why not. In fact, I would be surprised if there weren't any.

A Joe in the Bush · November 4, 2014

Hm...what powers would a High Epic named Sloppy Joe have...hm...

Chicago Joe, Calamity Joe, Pirate Joe, Joe ST, Sloppy Joe.

Have you guys not seen my Username?

Also, I'm going to be very busy this week. Don't expect many long posts, or comments in this thread.

TwiLyghtSansSparkles · November 4, 2014

I don't see why not. In fact, I would be surprised if there weren't any.

I'll have him use that in my next Remington post, then. Hopefully, I'll have it up tomorrow.

Mailliw73 · November 4, 2014

I'll have him use that in my next Remington post, then. Hopefully, I'll have it up tomorrow.

I'm excited.

Also, I'm going to be very busy this week. Don't expect many long posts, or comments in this thread.

Maybe this is my chance to catch up in rep.

These are the ideas I'm liking so far: War Smasher, War Wrecker, Rock of War, Glory Smasher. If you have opinions on those or have something along those lines or anything at all really, I'm glad to hear them.

A Joe in the Bush · November 4, 2014

Maybe this is my chance to catch up in rep.

You know you're a Sanderfan when you consider which is more worth it; Maintaining your 3.8 GPA, or Having more Rep than your Nemesis.

Kobold King · November 4, 2014

Maybe he can predict with a plus or minus (five? ten?) margin of error? I'm not very good at math, so basic algebra is already like sorcery to me. I was trying to figure out exactly how random chance would figure in with his powers, but like I said, I'm not good at math, so maybe a math-based Epic was the wrong move.

How about the margin of error increases with the size and scale of the event he's predicting, and the more vague his predictions are regarding large events, the more accurate they will be. For example, if he predicts a general victory for Lucentia in a battle, it has a greater chance of accuracy than, say, trying to predict precisely how many soldiers they'll lose, when the biggest losses will occur, and the time of each major loss. Those things would be far more vulnerable to chance and therefore more difficult to predict, while generalities are simpler. And, with a battle, where there are thousands of smaller skirmishes and variables going on, it's hard to predict victory if it will be a close match.

Or maybe I should change his prediction powers to something that doesn't make my head hurt.

I could do a Remington post first. I was just trying to figure out his best move from here. Maybe admit he's been spying on them a bit, then tell Max Alice is a recovering zombie?

Edit: How likely do you think it is that one of the Reckoners heard of Koschei? He wasn't around very long, but would it be possible that word traveled with a few The Dalles refugees about an immortal High Epic who caused chaos, and who is now mysteriously gone?

Edit edit: What if I changed the Financier's prediction powers to something that allows him to calculate roughly how long it will take to conquer something—how long a person would last (physically) under torture; extrapolate how long it would take to crush a city or town, etc.? It wouldn't take into account powerful variables like emotional endurance, but merely things like how long it would take to destroy a person or place physically? Does that sound like an actual power, or something that anybody with a good grasp of medical knowledge could do?

I'm no good at math either, but I like your Financier proposals.

Aldo has something similar to Financier's precognition, but it has a much shorter range. He can predict where a bullet will end up after it's fired, but nothing so distant as next Tuesday's lunch.

I think the Reckoners would probably know about Koschei. They seem to keep tabs on a wide variety of Epics, and a delusional High Epic who succeeded in taking over a city would definitely hit their radar. For that matter, David Charleston probably knows about him.

TwiLyghtSansSparkles · November 4, 2014

I'm no good at math either, but I like your Financier proposals.

Aldo has something similar to Financier's precognition, but it has a much shorter range. He can predict where a bullet will end up after it's fired, but nothing so distant as next Tuesday's lunch.

I think the Reckoners would probably know about Koschei. They seem to keep tabs on a wide variety of Epics, and a delusional High Epic who succeeded in taking over a city would definitely hit their radar. For that matter, David Charleston probably knows about him.

I'm just going to nix the prediction thing and replace it with Voidus' suggestion of quantification—the ability to know all the relevant numbers in a situation. Much less headache-inducing for a communications major like me.

From the notebooks of David Charleston:

Koschei the Deathless: an immortal healer who, despite having no offensive powers and a defensive power that should have made him a halfway decent human being, decided he was a god and set about slitting throats to prove it. Seriously, this guy was more insane than a guy who was scared of dolls who got a job in a doll factory for thirty years. He wore a tiara.

Circlet.

Whatever it was, he wore it. I'm really, really happy he's dead now.

Edgedancer · November 4, 2014

Here's the last guy's power set:

Primary Power: Force fields. Able to create force fields with up to a twenty foot radius. He can create them with himself as the center or he can create it somewhere else, but only a maximum of fifteen meters away. The force fields block all materials from entering or exiting.

Secondary Power: He is able to control his own density as well as objects he is touching. He can increase his/objects' density, making them impervious. Or he can decrease density, allowing him to be intangible, semi-transparent, and he can float around. He often lowers a part of his body's density, eg his hand, and reaches inside someone and then increases the density of his hand, causing extreme pain or death.

Any name ideas? I'm stuck on this one.

This is an obligatory question but how durable are his force fields and a "dense" body. (I´m not even going to touch the scientific implications of density, from being to heavy to move or less durable than a soft tissuen, not to speak about turning himself into a black hole. Density might be a bad word for this, how about we call it "firmness?")

Suprisingly I don´t have a very good name idea either. I kind of feel like doing something with the words whole or unscathed but I don´t get it to sound right.

Just to make sure, were these four intended for Astoria?

All right, I think I have the Financier's bio ready….

Epic Name: The Financier (known as Monsieur de Finance to his subordinates)

Primary Power: Number-crunching. The Financier can take strings of numbers (latitude, longitude, date, number of warriors on his team, number of weapons, etc.) and, by solving for the variables, can determine when the next threat will arrive, whether it is a major or a minor threat, where it will be, etc. He can also solve for X and find out what's for lunch next Tuesday. Battles require pencil and paper (never, ever, ever complete a math assignment in pen!) but a small prediction (lunch on Tuesday) can be completed in his head.

Secondary Power: Basic math, especially multiplication and division. Zero is his favorite number. When he multiplies an object up to the size of a tank by zero, it vanishes; this only applies to objects, not sentient beings. (He could, however, multiply an assailant's weapons by zero, even if they were hidden in his clothes. Fortunately for all, the Financier has no interest in multiplying clothes by zero.) Dividing by zero causes a temporal disturbance that resets everything within a ten-mile radius to ten minutes before he divided. However, division by zero kills him, so he only does it when they are out of options because….

Passive Power: Upon death, he resurrects precisely one hundred seconds later. However, each death causes him to see numbers as increasingly violent living entities, so he holds death in the same regard he holds numbers: something evil to be avoided at all costs.

Modus Operandi: WHAT THE SPARKING SPARKS IS THIS SHEET OF NUMBERS DOING ON MY DESK? Oh, you want me to crunch them. I'll crunch them. Those numbers—oh, they're wily, they are. That 7. He thinks he's perfect. Everyone in the whole world thinks he's perfect, but I'm wise to you, 7. I know your tricks. You're just like the rest of those horrible, horrible numbers—and I will crunch you. I will crunch you! No, I'm not giving you my pistol—are you mad? Do you aim to leave me unguarded from this numbers? Oh, if I could multiply you by zero, you'd be multiplied by every zero in the world!

Edit: Should I post for Remington now, or wait for Kobold to post for Lightwards?

I like him. How would he react to being called Finnigan?

I was going to explain how the number crunching would make sense with varibles, probability and defining parameters but it seems that it is no longer wanted. Although, it would feel kind of wrong for him not to have a number crunching ability, maybe limiting it to more ordinary things like the trajectory of bullets and weather patterns.

How likely do you think it would be for Lucentia to have extorted his weakness out of him?

TwiLyghtSansSparkles · November 4, 2014

This is an obligatory question but how durable are his force fields and a "dense" body. (I´m not even going to touch the scientific implications of density, from being to heavy to move or less durable than a soft tissuen, not to speak about turning himself into a black hole. Density might be a bad word for this, how about we call it "firmness?")

Suprisingly I don´t have a very good name idea either. I kind of feel like doing something with the words whole or unscathed but I don´t get it to sound right.

Just to make sure, were these four intended for Astoria?

I like him. How would he react to being called Finnigan?

I was going to explain how the number crunching would make sense with varibles, probability and defining parameters but it seems that it is no longer wanted. Although, it would feel kind of wrong for him not to have a number crunching ability, maybe limiting it to more ordinary things like the trajectory of bullets and weather patterns.

How likely do you think it would be for Lucentia to have extorted his weakness out of him?

Depends on who called him Finnigan.

The number-crunching ability makes sense with those limitations, actually.

Depends. How likely is it that she tortured him with census data and budget reports until he fessed up? The only caveat there is that she would have either needed to be convincingly sweet enough that he believed she would take the numbers away if he told her his weakness, or (much more likely, given what we know of her) kept up the torture long enough that he couldn't divide-by-zero out of it.

Edited November 4, 2014 by TwiLyghtSansSparkles

Voidus · November 4, 2014

This is an obligatory question but how durable are his force fields and a "dense" body. (I´m not even going to touch the scientific implications of density, from being to heavy to move or less durable than a soft tissuen, not to speak about turning himself into a black hole. Density might be a bad word for this, how about we call it "firmness?")

I was thinking about it too, Density is the only really scientific term for it but it would more be the atomic size I think, the only way to decrease density enough to walk through a wall is if all of your bodies individual atoms were small enough that they'd not interact with those of the wall, intangibility is one of the harder powers to try to make scientific, after precog.

For the black hole issue I'd assume he has an upper-limit to his density but if not it wouldn't be all that OP, just a really fancy way to kill himself, the black hole would still only have the same gravitational pull as his original body.

Edgedancer · November 4, 2014

Depends on who called him Finnigan.

The number-crunching ability makes sense with those limitations, actually.

Depends. How likely is it that she tortured him with census data and budget reports until he fessed up? The only caveat there is that she would have either needed to be convincingly sweet enough that he believed she would take the numbers away if he told her his weakness, or (much more likely, given what we know of her) kept up the torture long enough that he couldn't divide-by-zero out of it.

The Metal and Bloody Mary might adopt the name for him, depending on the reaction.

The power of math. Muhahahaha!

While Lucentia wouldn´t be above it, the actual torture specialist of Astoria would be bloody Mary, who might convince him to fess up before things got ugly. Otherwise... well she´s very good at not killing people. :unsure:

I was thinking about it too, Density is the only really scientific term for it but it would more be the atomic size I think, the only way to decrease density enough to walk through a wall is if all of your bodies individual atoms were small enough that they'd not interact with those of the wall, intangibility is one of the harder powers to try to make scientific, after precog.

For the black hole issue I'd assume he has an upper-limit to his density but if not it wouldn't be all that OP, just a really fancy way to kill himself, the black hole would still only have the same gravitational pull as his original body.

Which is why we don´t do it. It´s magic, willing suspence of disbelief and all that stuff.

Wouldn´t higher density either mean more mass, meaning stronger pull, or smaler size, which sounds like it would be worth it´s own mention?

TwiLyghtSansSparkles · November 4, 2014

The Metal and Bloody Mary might adopt the name for him, depending on the reaction.

The power of math. Muhahahaha!

While Lucentia wouldn´t be above it, the actual torture specialist of Astoria would be bloody Mary, who might convince him to fess up before things got ugly. Otherwise... well she´s very good at not killing people.

With two powerful Epics like that calling him Finnigan, the Financier might growl that it wasn't his name the first few times they did it, and then grudgingly accept the nickname. But if anyone else called him that, he'd refuse to answer.

Actually killing him would be more effective. The way he sees it, numbers really are living entities, their true nature hidden to most. Every time he dies, he thinks his mind becomes a little clearer, his vision a little sharper—although it's the exact opposite. His insanity regarding numbers makes him think that he's seeing them as their true selves, and the more he dies, the more violent the numbers seem to him. So if Mary actually killed him, then showed him an algebra textbook upon resurrection, he would see numbers at the most violent he had seen them yet. Multiplying the book by zero would solve a temporary problem, but he would think that by causing an entire book of their comrades to vanish, he was only making the other numbers in other books angrier. So if Mary tortured him to death, showed him an algebra book and, after he multiplied it by zero, brought out a trigonometry book, our Finnigan would be ready to tell Lucentia his weakness.

Kobold King · November 4, 2014

Remington Springfield is the most awesomely badchull man in Portland.

I realize there are already a lot of discussions going on here, but I wanted feedback and cooperation on something. I've gotten confused about the dates involved in the RP's history, so I've put together a loose timeline of Reckonersverse history + Oregon events. This is to help myself and others maintain continuity when talking about dates.

2013 A.D.: Calamity appears in the night sky. 2013 was Steelheart's publication date, and thus was selected as the year Calamity first appeared.

2014: Roughly a year later, the first Epics begin to manifest powers. Most early Epics wear masks or otherwise attempt to conceal their identities.

2014(?): Milton Towren discovers his illusionist abilities.

2014: Thomas Cardinal discovers his necromantic abilities.

2015: Alexandra Hawkins discovers her space-warping abilities.

September 24th, 2015: Annexation Day. Steelheart seizes control of Chicago, Illinois with the Great Transference. Nightwielder plunges the city into perpetual gloom. Date chosen as the novel's publication date. If anyone knows the actual date in canon, don't hesitate to let me know.

2015: U.S. government passes the Capitulation Act, declaring all Epics exempt from the law. By this point other Epic despots are believed to have seized power.

2015: The Epics SparkCloud and Hardwire wage war in Portland, Oregon, destroying the city's central power grid.

2015-2016: Altermind seizes a portion of Portland, founding the urban center of Thoughttown.

2015: Jonah Trumble leaves Newcago, taking the name Chicago Joe.

2016: With no evidence of Reckoner existence prior to the Capitulation Act, this is possibly the founding year of the Reckoners.

February 2016: Steve Lawrence discovers his past-seeing abilities.

2017: By this point CorpseMaker's gang has become a powerful force within the city.

2018: The Epic Möbius founds the city of Calamityville, situated in a pocket universe stolen from north California.

Winter 2021: Koschei the Deathless begins his short-lived conquest of The Dalles, Oregon.

2022: Sightline discovers his teleportation powers.

September 2023: A steady influx of High Epics floods Portland. Turf wars begin in earnest. What Happened in Portland begins.

2024: Latest possible point of Oregon's total destruction.

2025: Death of Steelheart at the hands of David Charleston.

That's all I could gather at the moment. Naturally a lot of the precise years center around my characters, as they're the only ones I can state with some degree of certainty. I'd love it if other people could fill in the blanks with their characters--I'm especially interested in when Lucentia took control over Astoria and when Phoenix and Saccharine's lab disaster occurred.

TwiLyghtSansSparkles · November 4, 2014

Awesome timeline! Very well thought-out. I added a few dates for Remington and Funtimes, but those were the only character-relevant dates I could think of offhand.