Kobold King

First off, let me just say that this looks like a wonderful, richly imaginative setting. The concept of superpowers in a realistic setting isn't explored often enough in fiction, in my opinion. I'd love to help out in any way I can, but unfortunately I'm not at my mental peak right now. :/ With that in mind, here are some random thoughts and questions that spring into my head. Religion and philosophy--are there any religious or philosophical systems that have grown up around Supers? The image of an insane cult worshiping a superpsycho spring to mind immediately, but on a more subtle scale: have existing world religions adapted to rise of Supers easily? Have new ways of viewing the universe arisen in this new age? Perhaps a zen, karma-based religion founded by a powerful empath?What percentage of human beings have gained these powers? Are Supers common enough for most people to be intimately familiar with them, or are Supers surrounded by murky superstitions? Has the world population risen or declined since the appearance of Supers? Was their earliest appearance marred by enough violence to seriously lower the global population, or is overpopulation still an issue? If the population has still been skyrocketing, than perhaps Supers would use their powers to open up new parts of the world for colonization. Hydrokinetics could maintain underwater settlement, or a powerful teleporter could even assist in the colonization of Mars. That's all I can think of for now. I hope I've been somewhat helpful; I'll be trying to think of more questions or suggestions.

"W-why can't we just eat normal food?" * sigh * "Fine. We'll go for burgers next time." "B-but--there was a salmonella case in Boston last year! I could die!" There are many, many reasons Steve Lawrence could never get a date. But... Funtimes just wants people to love her! Why won't they love her? Why won't they take the free shinies? (Thanks.)

She'd do better against him than Backtrack. I'm afraid Backtrack would be so terrified, he would render Steelheart permanently immune to his own weakness. Still working on a Portland post. Not sure if it'll be up today--I keep getting interrupted by various things, and Sam's always been the toughest POV to write. Not to mention the fact that I keep needing to stop and fetch new tissues.

"I'm here to spill all your darkest secrets and drink wine. And I don't see any wine here." Unobservant!Sam strikes again as I write a long catch up post, spanning her uncharacteristically quiet observations of the beardapalooza and the trip to the Sadry's. Just a heads up, 'cuz I'm writing as diligently as I can and I'd really hate to get ninja'd here. Might throw in a surprise viewpoint covering the beardapalooza, just to spice things up a little.

The Knifeketeer: capable of pulling infinite throwing knives out of the bandolier strung across his chest. Possesses superhuman aiming abilities. (I kind of sort of stole him from a webcomic. ) Sam POV scene coming soon. I've got most of the dialogue worked out in my head, I just need to see if I can write it down in some semblance of an entertaining narrative. Didn't get much sleep last night due to a bad cold. :/

I foresee Sam scribbling furiously on her notepad for the entirety of the meeting. (That's kind of how Sam copes with worry or trauma--by mocking everything in sight.)

I think it could work either way, though having her come in now would save Mailliw the hassle of having Altermind's party introduce themselves twice for Funtimes' benefit. It occurs to me that I also forgot to do a Sam or Revolution viewpoint in my last post.

Granted, but you are not allowed to ask it. I wish to switch bodies with Brandon Sanderson for a day so I can read his book drafts.

Ain't no party like an Epic pony party. (Thanks for the invitation. We should warn you though that the majority of Epic ponies aren't pleasant company. ) Unrelated, but I had the Doctor Funtimes pony up on my computer screen a minute ago. My three year-old sister actually squealed with delight upon seeing it, and immediately asked what pony that was.

Plot twist: Server with a Crossbow isn't actually an Epic. Thomas Cardinal is so outraged that a normal man could perform such atrocities with a clear conscience, that he physically punches the man in the chest with Doctor Frowntimes' full support.

Or the one where Backtrack and Jingleberry team up and take control of Newcago? (We have a lot of AUs. )

The Dalles has a survival strategy similar to the porcupine: it's a very prickly prey, and there's not a lot to gain from it. There are enough Epics and trained soldiers there to be a major thorn in the side of any invasion, but there's a much lower population than in nearby cities and no valuable resources to speak of. (I'd support that.)

Words to live by, truly. Now throw in foreshadowing, and all sense of reality ceases to make sense in this game.

Brute force, when applied intelligently, can make all the difference in a conquest... but seeing as Steelheart ruled unopposed for ten years and Koschei barely lasted a winter, I think we can divine whose strategy was more effective.

Every time I ponify a character my younger brother is the first to hear about it. He rolls his eyes at me every time. 0.o I see Altermind's, uh, doing well for himself in an alternate universe. It's rather ironic that the healing Epic tries to rule by brute force while Evil!Superman actually uses his noggin.

Backtrack: the benchmark for being not quite evil, but kind of whiny and apathetic.

0.o And then Neverthere died.

How well-known is Neverthere among Portlanders? Does she frequently roam the streets in broad daylight, informing everyone who she is? Does she have many atrocities to her name?

"Product was dry and had not enough sugar; baker was surly and unpleasant to deal with. Warrior taken from establishment was stiff, elderly, and useful only for sending a dire message to an annoying teenager. "3/10, would not murder and rob from this institution again." "Tacky" would probably fit a lot of characters in this RP.

Deciding that the cupcake's quality is to blame for their failure to entertain his guests, he wakes up early the next morning and writes the Trattner bakery a bad Yelp review.

Leaving Lightwards to sulk all night because no one wanted his blackmail cupcakes.

One can only muse and wonder about which taste Altermind would prefer.

I feel confident that if Altermind took a bite of cupcake, he would declare it tastes like pumpkin and blackmail.

That's too bad. Your character is officially declared MIA, but we left his fate open-ended for you to come back should you so choose. In other news, I made post 800 on What Happened in Portland.

Neverthere is one of those women who shouldn't roll their eyes, Lightwards decided. It makes her look somehow ditzier and more annoying than she looked before. "You know what?" the idiot proclaimed grumpily. "You don't get a cool nickname anymore." Her eyes flickered to Vincenzo the Allosaurus, which made her face light up with enthusiasm once more. "Oooh, cool pets. Can I call him Numnums?" she gushed lightheartedly. "I just thought you might like to know that your boring old museum is going to be attacked tonight along with Corpsey's place and the nerd town." Lightwards frowned. The girl's claims, if at all accurate, entailed a citywide attempt to supplant the most powerful faction leaders. Any group with enough influence to pull off the simultaneous collapse of Thoughttown, the Empire, and the Dominion would undoubtedly have reached his ears by now. And surely there wasn't a group foolish enough to attempt such a thing unless it was confident it could succeed. He was opening his mouth to question the pink Epic further, but the girl's body dissipated into a vaguely humanoid poof of smoke. The smoke began wisping away, only to converge again into her annoying self. "Actually," she giggled. "It seems that the attack on ThoughtTown may happen even sooner. Apparently some thoughtless person convinced all the Epics to leave. Have you been naughty Wardy?" He responded only with a scowl, but Lucentia stepped to his side. “Giving you the benefit of the doubt that an attack is going to happen,” the queen said harshly. “Why would you tell us and more importantly, why would we trust a traitor that hasn’t even bothered to introduce herself?” The girl giggled again, which was apparently an annoying habit of hers. Sitting alongside such annoying traits as running around Portland in a short skirt and talking to powerful High Epics like teenagers at a slumber party. "Why should you trust me?" she sang happily. "You shouldn't Lucy, if you look for me I'm never there!" This prompted a fit of hysterical laughter that almost knocked the girl off her feet. As she laughed and shook over her own non-existent joke, Lightwards began to seriously doubt the pink little Epic was still fully sane. The pink, barefoot, insane little Epic wiped a tear from her eye before growing more serious."I'm telling you because I like dinosaurs, and I like floating museums, and because I like LW and Lucy. But I suppose the most important reason I'm telling you is that I'd rather live as a traitor than die an honest person. Refill caught my attention with his talk of all us less powerful Epics striking out on our own but I know something he doesn't, I've seen all the leaders and he doesn't stand a chance against them. So for now I'm just giving my favourite bunch of Epics an edge in tonights proceedings. Tomorrow you might see me, you might not, but wherever I am, I'm never there." And with that, she vanished in a cloud of smoke that kept her form for a few minutes after she was gone. Lightwards scowled at the open smoke for a moment longer before continuing his walk. There was no telling whether the astral projector was honest or not; with her habit of running through downtown Portland barefoot and laughing at random sentences, it was perfectly possible that the whole concept of a simultaneous attack was just a peculiar delusion of hers. Or her idea of a practical joke. Silently folding the conversation to the back of his mind, Lightwards continued along his path. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Sadry residence from the outside was just as he had left it. Lightwards smiled as he came to his first residence in Portland, ordering his dinosaurs to stand on the front lawn to keep watch. It was cheerfully whole compared to the devastated suburb across the street from it, aside from a single broken window. The interior was clean and mostly spotless, save for a few bloodstains. Those, Lightwards decided, would be best left uncleaned, as a message to Altermind and his group. It was a proclamation of territory--a message which said "I own this house. I have killed to gain it and I will kill to defend it." Something felt slightly off about the interior decoration, though; Lightwards frowned briefly as he tried to figure out what it could be. Did the house feel somehow... emptier than how he'd left it last? The bloodstains were identical, every shard of glass by the shattered window still in the same place. Whatever it was, Lightwards assigned to flawed memory with a shrug. This meeting was too important to spend the night indulging his growing paranoia. Pamela Tithers, who had dutifully found the location without difficulty, stood in the kitchen with her tray of cupcakes. Lightwards ordered her to arrange the pastries on the dining room table, and had a few toys fill and run the Sadry's generator outside. Lights came on through the house, and the Empire's Epics were settled. They were ready for the meeting. They didn't have to wait long. It was scarcely ten minutes before the sound of motors issued from outside, and the door swung open. The best and brightest of Thoughttown began filing into the building. Altermind was first, striding into the building with his characteristic confidence. He was tall and sandy-haired, a flawless example of the human form. Most illusionists were paradigms of physical attractiveness, a fact which Lightwards doubted was much of a coincidence. The illusionist king of Thoughttown was after a moment accompanied by a pair of human guards, one grizzled veteran and a lad who couldn't have been much more than twenty. Soon other Epics entered the premises; Lightwards didn't recognize most of them. There was another tall man with a dark tan following behind Altermind, slightly spiked hair and a rifle slung over his shoulder. A third man of above average height and muscle mass entered as well, holding hands with a blonde girl in grey mottled clothing. Just as Lightwards was beginning to think absurd levels of attractiveness were a hard requirement for Thoughttown Epics, a man with greasy black hair and a goatee strode into the building, his mouth twitched into a perpetual sneer. He was followed by a shorter woman who seemed of Native American descent. No more visitors came in through the door, but he caught a glimpse of Sightline standing outside the shattered window in his identifying blindfold. Lightwards blinked, and the knife-wielding teleporter was standing in the Sadry living room. Lightwards smiled and gestured for his guests to pull up seats for themselves. Altermind sat in one already positioned, staring back at him with a serious expression. "I'm here," Altermind said stoically. He looked at Lightwards expectantly, apparently waiting for him to begin. "Welcome," Lightwards said, taking a seat and gesturing towards his allies. "I'm sure you all know who I am. This is her majesty Lucentia, here to aide us in the fight against CorpseMaker. Across the table is my lieutenant Aldo the Enigmatic, with his assistant Cricket." He smiled, making sure to show all his teeth. "Everyone, feel free to take a seat. Take a complimentary cupcake, introduce yourself... and then we can begin."