Question 8

[Seonid he/him]

So the Internet went out in my apartment building over the weekend. I came back and there were 13 pages to read. This is the point when I just give up. Hope there wasn't anything too important in there. I'll start from this point.

Edited March 17, 2015 by Seonid

[Voidus]

Loved the first post Comatose.

 

 

 

Based off of this Buttersafe comic here, but with milder language.

This was amazing.

I'm feeling oddly compelled to create a ninja Epic but not finding much inspiration, a name might help though. Any ideas?

Edited March 17, 2015 by Voidus

[Kobold King he/him]

Loved the first post Comatose.

 

 

This was amazing.

I'm feeling oddly compelled to create a ninja Epic but not finding much inspiration, a name might help though. Any ideas?

 

I too enjoyed the fabulous first appearance of Taylor Swift.

 

Iga or Koga, maybe?

[Edgedancer he/him]

Thanks for the answers! I checked through the initial epic post, and didn't see any either. Still undecided whether I'd like to debut in Dalles or Astoria.  I see my epic playing more of a supporting role to one of the more powerful epics, but she also has her own agenda, so she could end up in Dalles as well. 

Okay, here we go

Epic Name: Taylor Swift. "That's right! I don't need a special epic name, because my name is already freaking special."

Primary Power: Taylor swift is a powerful shape-shifter, able to adjust her shape and mass pretty much however she wants. It is difficult for her to maintain a form for more than a few seconds if it is more than five times or less than half of her total mass, but she can do it in a pinch. Also, the less humanoid a form is, the more difficult it is for her to maintain. For example, turning into a fully functional automobile might be totally beyond her, she would likely be able to change into a puddle of water for a few seconds, or a tiger or dog for a few minutes to a few hours depending on size and if she took liberties, but she could appear to be another person, complete with voice, eyes, and fingerprints, pretty much indefinitely (but why would she, she's Taylor Swift!). Being humanoid in shape gives her more flexibility (example: she can be a rubber skinned human much longer than she could be a cube of rubber). Generally, she stays herself, with helpful modifications when in battle (such as metal skin, sword hands, claws, growing to twice her usual size, or 'melting' to get through a crack in the door or window). She can only affect her own mass, but she's difficult to tie down or trap.

Secondary Power: Not true secondary power, but her shape-shifting happens automatically when she's put in danger, granting her nearly prime invincibility. For example, if you tried to shoot her, either her skin would turn hard to repel the bullet, or it would shape shift AROUND the bullet, letting it pass right through her. If you tried to burn her, she shapeshift to withstand the fire. Try to drown her, she'd likely grow gills. The only way around this would be to somehow contain her (perhaps by using her weakness), and then either trap her underwater, in an airtight room, in a furnace, or some other environment that would require her to transform to survive, and then find a way to keep her there until she becomes unable to maintain the transformation any longer. This can be difficult, as she is able to 'reset' her clock by shifting to a new form, so the fewer ways for her to survive, the less time you would have to keep her contained.

Weakness: SSSSH! That's a secret! Has to do with her secret mission. I'm going to include her weakness here in a spoiler, but it's not known to anyone, so only click the spoiler if you want to know more than your character, and feel like you will be able to keep it out of your mind while writing.  Also keep in mind that it is a SPOILER, so part of her story will be spoiled if you peek (mods are, of course, encouraged to peek). 

First things first, she's not really Taylor Swift.  Her real name is Kacey Jane Fernquist, Taylor Swift's number one fan (don't you DARE say she was number #2!  Janice Garland was a hack and everyone knew it!).  Upon discovering her powers, she quickly transformed herself into her idol.  Her weakness is PROOF (not just suspicion) that she is not the real Taylor Swift.  Proof can take the form of T-Swift trivia she does not yet know, interviews she has not watched, or pictures of Taylor at an event Kacey did not know about.  The downside is that, if she gets out of a situation where her weakness is used against her, that particular bit of proof will likely not work in the future, since now that she knows about it she can still pretend to be Taylor.  Meeting people who knew Swift personally prior to calamity will usually only weaken her powers, unless they have proof she is not really Taylor.   Meeting the real Taylor Swift in the flesh would completely nullify her powers for as long as the true Taylor Swift remains in her presence.  Because of this, Kacey has dedicated much of her time as an epic to hunting the real Taylor Swift down.  She doesn't know what she will do if she finds Taylor (could she really kill her idol to protect herself?), but knows that she will not feel safe until she does.  Rumour has it that in the early days of Calamity, Taylor, her team, and a group of friends from the music industry, absconded to a secret hideout in a secret remote location, and have been living in relative luxury there ever since.    

Modus Operandi: I know what you're thinking. "Taylor Swift became an epic, really? I mean, she was already super cute, really talented and filthy rich! Did she really NEED to get super powers and an evilish ego boost?" Do you think it's easy using these shape-shifting powers when my natural form is virtually flawless? I thought not. AND to top it all off, my evilness has totally killed my song-writing abilities! At least I can still perform the HELL out of 1989! Maybe, if you don't want me to kill you right now, instead you could listen to be sing "Out of the Woods" for the next five hours! Or I could just go all HULK-SWIFT on you and smash your head against that wall. Your choice .

Personality: Let's just say that, since Calamity came, I've been a little more "Blank Space" than "Love Story."

Appearance:

 

History

. . . And then she became an epic. 

What fresh spawn of madness is this? (This is one of the highest praises around these parts. )

 

Couple Lots of questions:

-She has a time limit for transformations but you say she can "reset her clock" by changing into another form, so how broad are these "clocks"? If she can simply put on another transformation with only slight alterations that defeats the the point of adding the limit.

-How long does it take for a timer to reset?

-How sensitive is she in changed forms? For example, if she changes into metal, does she still have a sense of touch and how would being electrocuted feel under that condition?

-How fast is her transformation, could it adapt to something that happens instantaneous.

-If she transforms in let's say metal, could an Epic with the ability to manipulate metal affect her.

-With what strenght does she transform, aka how strong does a box need to be, so she can't just burst it open by transforming.

-Not really as much a question as a nitpick, but her secondary doesn't near prime Invincibility it is a full fledged PI.

Concerning her weakness

Given that she's in the Dalles now, you want to keep her far far away from Reader. One look is enough and the jig is up. Backtrack isn't quite as risky, unless he happens to have Tylor Swift on his radar, but could also blow her cover.

 

what about Astoria? Do you think Iconoclast could fit in there, if i ramped up his powers a little? If i made his control over his ghouls more widespread?

id just need to read it a bit better, i only skimmed it so far.

Plot wise there wouldn't be a problem. Although, as Voidus points out, a good number of Epic could just walk straight through his ghouls. Worst of all Bloody Mary, given that every Vanilla he turns after coming to Astoria would already have been infected by her, so she could just use them as her own puppets.

 

Will he survive meeting ShinySparkle after he cracks wise at her date? Let's hope not.

Will he make it out alive? Only Shiny Sparkle knows for sure.

Depends on how fast Autumn tells her not to blow him up. Do you go next, Twi?

 

So the Internet went out in my apartment building over the weekend. I came back and there were 13 pages to read. This is the point when I just give up. Hope there wasn't anything too important in there. I'll start from this point.

Nothing that would affect you directly, so no worries.

 

I'm feeling oddly compelled to create a ninja Epic but not finding much inspiration, a name might help though. Any ideas?

Shinobi?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Depends on how fast Autumn tells her not to blow him up. Do you go next, Twi?

 

I can have something up for Autumn. 

 

Also, Taylor Swift and elements of canon blended together in my mind to create the….something I'm currently working on. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I feel I should apologize in advance for it.  

[Edgedancer he/him]

I can have something up for Autumn. 

 

Also, Taylor Swift and elements of canon blended together in my mind to create the….something I'm currently working on. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I feel I should apologize in advance for it.

He may survive then.

 

That's good. Usually if you feel the need to apologize the results are superb.

Edited March 17, 2015 by Edgedancer

[Kobold King he/him]

I can have something up for Autumn. 

 

Also, Taylor Swift and elements of canon blended together in my mind to create the….something I'm currently working on. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I feel I should apologize in advance for it.

 

I get the feeling that we'll be upvoting it far too uproariously to hear your apologies.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

When I saved the original comic on my laptop, I called it sowrong.png. 

 

Just so you know what you're getting into.  

 

[Kobold King he/him]

When I saved the original comic on my laptop, I called it sowrong.png. 

 

Just so you know what you're getting into.

 

 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

 

Kobold? Kobold? 

Stay with me, man.

[Kobold King he/him]

Kobold? Kobold? 

Stay with me, man.

 

Rebooting... rebooting... recovering lost data... buffering speech patterns... reloading sense of humor... reestablishing connection with social norm processing...

 

Ugh... what happened? Is that chocolate I smell through my computer screen? Why did I...

 

Oh.

 

* upvotes comic *

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Rebooting... rebooting... recovering lost data... buffering speech patterns... reloading sense of humor... reestablishing connection with social norm processing...

 

Ugh... what happened? Is that chocolate I smell through my computer screen? Why did I...

 

Oh.

 

* upvotes comic *

 

I said I called it sowrong.png for a reason.  

[Kobold King he/him]

I said I called it sowrong.png for a reason.

 

...Uh, I thought you meant "sow" as in a female pig and "rong" as in the Chinese family name?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

...Uh, I thought you meant "sow" as in a female pig and "rong" as in the Chinese family name?

 

No, not really, no.  

 

And it looks like it's terrified at least one other person.  

[Comatose he/him]

The possibility of the scene from the comic occurring at some point has definitely already crossed my mind

 

What fresh spawn of madness is this? (This is one of the highest praises around these parts. )

 

Couple Lots of questions:

-She has a time limit for transformations but you say she can "reset her clock" by changing into another form, so how broad are these "clocks"? If she can simply put on another transformation with only slight alterations that defeats the the point of adding the limit.

-How long does it take for a timer to reset?

-How sensitive is she in changed forms? For example, if she changes into metal, does she still have a sense of touch and how would being electrocuted feel under that condition?

-How fast is her transformation, could it adapt to something that happens instantaneous.

-If she transforms in let's say metal, could an Epic with the ability to manipulate metal affect her.

-With what strength does she transform, aka how strong does a box need to be, so she can't just burst it open by transforming.

-Not really as much a question as a nitpick, but her secondary doesn't near prime Invincibility it is a full fledged PI.

Concerning her weakness

To reset, she would have to shift back to a human form, close to her original mass for an instant before shifting into a new form. This means that if you trapped her in un-survivable conditions, they would need to kill her almost instantly. Before shifting into a non-maintainable form (something far from humanoid) for a second time (example: changing into a chunk of metal twice in a row), I think she would need more of a cool down, somewhere between several minutes to an hour. This means that if you did manage to trap her in extreme conditions, she would likely exhaust all of her options for surviving within the first minute, and then you would have at least ten (with a maximum of an hour) or so to let the conditions kill her. This is why it essential that the trap not be solvable with simple modifications. If you just trap her underwater, she'll probably find a way to survive, unless you can keep her there indefinitely (I think the longer she stays out of human form, the longer her "cool down" period gets). However, if you trap her underwater, and then electrify it, or trap her in a furnace, you are more likely to have success.

As for the limitation, I picture it having a cognitive base. The longer she stays in a form, the more she starts to "think" she is that form, so her powers prevent her from "thinking" she is an inanimate object by de-transforming her. It takes some time for the "idea" of the form to leave her, hence the cool down period. As far as minor alterations go, the idea of a copper block vs a gold block are similar, as they are the same size, shape, and made of similar material. This is also why she can maintain humanoid forms indefinitely. Relatively sspeaking, they are VERY similar to her true form/mass (humans are more similar to each other than a box is to a dog, for example). The overall answer to your question is that it depends on what forms she uses, relative to their similarity in shape and property to a human body. Do those ranges help?

Material changes affect her senses. She can make her skin more or less sensitive. Changing into metal would remove her sense of touch, but she could also selectively change (also keep in mind a change this drastic would be harder to maintain).

Her defensive transformations are basically instantaneous (similar to Obliteration's teleportation).

If she changes herself into metal, an epic's powers affecting metal would affect her, until she detransforms. Any effect that constitutes harm though would trigger her ability, and she would de-transform automatically.

The strength of the transformation depends on what she is transforming into. If her muscle mass/the material she coats herself with is strong enough, she will break the box. If she is growing, keep in mind that her defensive ability would stop her from being crushed, which also could result in bursting the container.

I also saw her ability as more of a PI, but then I thought of some ways to get around it, and wasn't sure if that counted or not. I guess Fortuity's precog ability counted despite the possibility of check-mating though, so that makes sense.

I hope that all makes sense!

EDIT: Also, regarding her weakness:

Knowledge of deception alone is not enough. Physical proof is usually necessary. But you are right that she needs to be careful of Epics like Reader, since they could easily find evidence or proof once they know her secret. If they have knowledge, and an ability to prove their Knowledge is correct, that could be enough. Knowledge alone might weaken her powers slightly.

MORE EDIT: If Reader could gift his powers, that would be enough, I think.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

New Autumn post up, by the way. 

[Edgedancer he/him]

The possibility of the scene from the comic occurring at some point has definitely already crossed my mind

 

To reset, she would have to shift back to a human form, close to her original mass for an instant before shifting into a new form. This means that if you trapped her in un-survivable conditions, they would need to kill her almost instantly. Before shifting into a non-maintainable form (something far from humanoid) for a second time (example: changing into a chunk of metal twice in a row), I think she would need more of a cool down, somewhere between several minutes to an hour. This means that if you did manage to trap her in extreme conditions, she would likely exhaust all of her options for surviving within the first minute, and then you would have at least ten (with a maximum of an hour) or so to let the conditions kill her. This is why it essential that the trap not be solvable with simple modifications. If you just trap her underwater, she'll probably find a way to survive, unless you can keep her there indefinitely (I think the longer she stays out of human form, the longer her "cool down" period gets). However, if you trap her underwater, and then electrify it, or trap her in a furnace, you are more likely to have success.

As for the limitation, I picture it having a cognitive base. The longer she stays in a form, the more she starts to "think" she is that form, so her powers prevent her from "thinking" she is an inanimate object by de-transforming her. It takes some time for the "idea" of the form to leave her, hence the cool down period. As far as minor alterations go, the idea of a copper block vs a gold block are similar, as they are the same size, shape, and made of similar material. This is also why she can maintain humanoid forms indefinitely. Relatively sspeaking, they are VERY similar to her true form/mass (humans are more similar to each other than a box is to a dog, for example). The overall answer to your question is that it depends on what forms she uses, relative to their similarity in shape and property to a human body. Do those ranges help?

Material changes affect her senses. She can make her skin more or less sensitive. Changing into metal would remove her sense of touch, but she could also selectively change (also keep in mind a change this drastic would be harder to maintain).

Her defensive transformations are basically instantaneous (similar to Obliteration's teleportation).

If she changes herself into metal, an epic's powers affecting metal would affect her, until she detransforms. Any effect that constitutes harm though would trigger her ability, and she would de-transform automatically.

The strength of the transformation depends on what she is transforming into. If her muscle mass/the material she coats herself with is strong enough, she will break the box. If she is growing, keep in mind that her defensive ability would stop her from being crushed, which also could result in bursting the container.

I also saw her ability as more of a PI, but then I thought of some ways to get around it, and wasn't sure if that counted or not. I guess Fortuity's precog ability counted despite the possibility of check-mating though, so that makes sense.

I hope that all makes sense!

EDIT: Also, regarding her weakness:

Knowledge of deception alone is not enough. Physical proof is usually necessary. But you are right that she needs to be careful of Epics like Reader, since they could easily find evidence or proof once they know her secret. If they have knowledge, and an ability to prove their Knowledge is correct, that could be enough. Knowledge alone might weaken her powers slightly.

MORE EDIT: If Reader could gift his powers, that would be enough, I think.

Makes sense, yup.

On an aside, Obliteration's danger sense seems to be purely reactive and not preemptive, for example it only triggers after David fired his gun not when he aimed it, so we don't know if something where action and reaction happen simultaneously, for example Deathpoint's pointing of death, could get through it. How is that for her?

 

New Autumn post up, by the way. 

Yup and it's pretty cute.

[Comatose he/him]

Good clarification! I would think though that Oblivions power is preemptive but to the impact of the bullet rather than the firing of the gun. Taylor's power, at least works this way, so it would respond equally to a gunshot or to an instantaneous power like Deathpoints, reacting to the receipt rather than the creation of the attack.

As a side note I'm not sure of the limits of Deathpoints powers, but Taylor could potentially be defenceless. If an epic had the power to destroy or disintegrate anything, Taylor would be destroyed no matter what she turned into. Her body could still automatically shift to avoid the attack (forming a hole for a beam to pass through), but that only works if an attack is dodgeable.

On the topic of integration into the thread, I think I'm getting a feel for what is all going on, but am unsure about relative locations. If Taylor walks into the Dalles (direction is negotiable) who / what is she likely to run into / see first??

[Aonar he/him]

On the topic of integration into the thread, I think I'm getting a feel for what is all going on, but am unsure about relative locations. If Taylor walks into the Dalles (direction is negotiable) who / what is she likely to run into / see first??

 

Following a road, most likely either Frostfire's convoy, (which I just realized really need to get back to, seeing how I'm thinking of putting Mirrorveil in there) the Pandarmy, Memori/Current Event/Planeshift, or Frequency's gang. Or any combination of the above. I don't know the area at all though, so even this is just a guess, based on which scenes are located on roads leading into the Dalles.

 

Does anyone mind if Frostfire goes next in the clinic? There's no way under Calamity's red light he'd let Reader tell his side of the story first.

[Edgedancer he/him]

Following a road, most likely either Frostfire's convoy, (which I just realized really need to get back to, seeing how I'm thinking of putting Mirrorveil in there) the Pandarmy, Memori/Current Event/Planeshift, or Frequency's gang. Or any combination of the above. I don't know the area at all though, so even this is just a guess, based on which scenes are located on roads leading into the Dalles.

 

Does anyone mind if Frostfire goes next in the clinic? There's no way under Calamity's red light he'd let Reader tell his side of the story first.

That sounds about right, yeah. She may meet Deathwish and/or Florist, given that their location is still kind of in limbo.

 

No, go ahead.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Voidus, can I put in an order for about four cannon fodder Epics?

[Kobold King he/him]

Voidus, can I put in an order for about four cannon fodder Epics?

 

I'm not Voidus, but will any of these do?

 

Menagerie: a young woman capable of transforming herself into any animal she's seen in person before.

 

Cutcloud: can create clouds of broken glass which he can project outwards away from himself.

 

Cursor: can project a small astral hand which he uses to throw objects or punch people in the face.

 

Knock 'Em: generic strength Epic. No prime invincibility, but he can lift a car and shatter skulls with his fist.

Edited March 17, 2015 by Kobold King

[Edgedancer he/him]

Why do people keep assuming that Shiny Sparkle is ridiculously dressed, 'cause appart from the sunglasses she really isn't?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I'm not Voidus, but will any of these do?

Menagerie: a young woman capable of transforming herself into any animal she's seen in person before.

Cutcloud: can create clouds of broken glass which he can project outwards away from himself.

Cursor: can project a small astral hand which he uses to throw objects or punch people in the face.

Knock 'Em: generic strength Epic. No prime invincibility, but he can lift a car and shatter skulls with his fist.

Ooh, I like those. Cutcloud gets the song "Broken Glass" from Victorious in my head.

Do the glass clouds remain under his control?

[Aonar he/him]

Why do people keep assuming that Shiny Sparkle is ridiculously dressed, 'cause appart from the sunglasses she really isn't?

 

I believe her physical description was:

 

And there, scarcely a few feet away, was the shiniest, sparkliest Epic Autumn had ever seen. Aside from the turquoise jacket, her white blouse and jeans could have been mistaken for normal—had her shirt not sparkled. She turned toward them, and Autumn knew that if this colorful Epic was one of the invulnerable ones, she had best send her last words over the radio while she had the chance.

I'm not certain about anyone else, but the image this generates in my head, especially with Backtrack's glasses thrown in, is nothing if not ridiculous. I'll concede that it doesn't really have anything to do with how she's dressed, but rather her powers, but still.

 

I could replace it with "very sparkly," if you'd prefer.

Edited March 17, 2015 by Aonar Faileas