Kobold King

Lucentia would have to do the dishes all on her own for a week. Stripped of his powers and sent to Newcago, I think Lightwards would probably pull a Traveler and walk in wearing his coat and bowler hat, expecting people to treat him like an Epic. It would most likely not go over well for him. Dr. Frankinsane? No, that's an awful portmanteau. Forget I ever said that.

"Lucentia, be a dear and help your mother whip up a batch of cupcakes." "For the last time, you are not my mother! You're a pathetic weakling who's only taking advantage of this hypothetical situation to gain free labor!" "Now now, Lucentia. That's no way to treat the only loved one you have left." "Gah!" So a combination of fun and Frankenstein. Much more Funtimes' style.

"Oh yeah? How would you do in my shoes, 'Traveler'?" * Nathan disbands the Empire, sets the Warriors free, then seeks psychiatric counseling for PTSD * I'm assuming Funtimes' efforts at creating a cybernetic limb would be more "fun" than it would be "Frankenstein."

Must... resist urge... to make... CyberSam... canon...

"Backtrack? You're really creeping me out when you talk to yourself like that." "I'm not talking to myself. I'm just talking to this lovely young lady who walked past here last week." "Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Seriously though, I don't know if Backtrack will be returning to Portland. If he headed back to find the CM War blazing in earnest, he'd probably just say "lol nope" and head back to The Dalles.

Most of our Epics are fairly predictable people. TwiLyght's got it right. Interestingly enough, he'd probably have a similar gut reaction if he peered into Lightwards' (and certainly Nighthound's) minds. Also remember that he felt mildly disoriented when he peaked into Saccharine's thoughts, simply because her mind is so unconventional and obsessive. I'd be pretty disturbed if anyone tested as Lightwards or Nighthound from this test. Though in my sleepy haste I forgot to add a Funtimes option. Oh well. (I'm probably Nathan or Revolution as well, though as I said, there are hopefully few people on the forum who would test as many of the others.)

The key difference is that he peered into Koschei's mind, but viewed the Lightwards scene as an outside observer. He has a mental and emotional disconnection when he simply views a past event, as opposed to when he views the thoughts of the time and gets a visceral sense of the scene. There's also the fact that I hadn't had Backtrack's character fleshed out very well when I wrote him in the park. Oh, it 's easy. You see a woman struggling with groceries in a parking lot. Do you: Ask her if she needs help; Start helping her while smiling and poking fun at the newest High Epic in town; Start helping here while scowling and calling the newest High Epic in town a slontze; Stand watch over her with a loaded rifle while she loads her groceries, ready to shoot anyone who messes with her; Kill her while she's distracted, then use her reanimated body to advance your plans for world domination; Kill her with a death-glare; Force her to take a complicated IQ test before deciding if she's worthy of your help. Make a snide comment about something secretive she's embarrassed about while sipping from your wine goblet; Cup her chin in your hand, tell her she has feisty eyes, and then murder her. Drink whiskey and take a nap; Curse her with bad luck so she drops all her groceries; Push her to suicide by bringing up every negative emotion she has; Saw her in half; Tell her she doesn't need that extra bag of Sausage McMuffins, because you're a nice guy who's got her covered for that sort of thing.

It's going to take every ounce of my self control not to put Pony!Sam in that costume every time I use her. (Also, congratulations. You scored "Revolution" on the official "Which Oregon Character Are You" quiz. )

Sam's Halloween costume met mixed responses. Revolution thought it was adorable, Funtimes thought it was boring, it gave Remington traumatic flashbacks, and Lightwards tried to talk her into eating a pound of wolfsbane to be "technically accurate." (That's definitely something I'll have to see for myself once I'm back on a computer. Unless you'd care to post a picture now...)

That might work, if Lightwards zombified a lip-reader. Poor Backtrack. He really needs to post on the "Having a Bad Day" thread.

The final details of the story rattled off his tongue, and Backtrack finished the tale with "And then you shot me in the arm, meanieface!" He tried to salvage some degree of dignity by glaring, taking a number of deep breaths to steady himself. I hope you're happy now, you snooty slontze, he thought angrily. It turned out Reader was happy now. His head tilted back in a loud, obnoxious laugh. He laughed and he laughed and he laughed. "It's not funny!" Backtrack protested indignantly. "I'm having the worst day of my life here--" If Reader had heard his voice over that grating laugh of his, he showed no sign of it. The Epic's laughter finally subsided, him putting a hand on his chest as if his deep amusement had put a stitch in his side. "Now that," Reader said with a wide smile across his face, "that was entertaining." Backtrack felt his jaw drop furiously, but Reader ignored him and instead poured himself another tall goblet of wine. "Care for some wine?" the Epic asked amiably. Backtrack stared dumbly. "Would I care for some wine?" he repeated flatly. "Would I care for some wine?" Though his flickering visions of the past showed him just how unoriginal the action was, rage and indignation triumphed over creative innovation. Backtrack furiously snatched the goblet from Reader's hand and threw it across the room, making it shatter and splash red wine across a wall. "No I don't want any of your stupid wine!" he shouted. "I'M HAVING A BAD DAY, AND YOU'RE A BIG PART OF THE REASON WHY!" He pulled himself out of the chair with his uninjured arm and began angrily pacing across the office. "You're insane! Just completely sparking out of your mind! You just shot me, for Calamity's sake! You can take that bottle and you can... you can..." Feeling slightly faint, Backtrack slid back into his chair and scowled balefully. "You're an awful person," he accused. "Just a really, sparking awful person. I don't want to wreak havoc in your stupid city. I just want to go back to Portland and hang out with the awful people I chose to hang out around. Is that too much to ask?"

A pair of high-heeled shoes is permanently fused to your feet. I wish to wield Nightblood.

Darn. There goes Sight Revolution. ...though I may or may not plan on having Revolution reference Sightline as "the cute one" at some point.

OK TwiLyght, here they are. Lucentia Pony Create Code: 313X002004F7FCC0E2C5D60484199E8B0UM183700D01100331190E01BBEDD10G107F3FCC004CB2 If Edgedancer ever shared her code from the newer creator, I never saved it. But the classic mode is a wonderful pony on its own merit. EDIT: Here's Fortuity's cutie mark: I love the title, by the way.

Sounds like a technopath... you know, I don't think we ever added Royal Pain to the Epics we transparently stole from Sky High. And actually, I have the Lucentia codes too. I'll find them on my computer real quick.

That sounds about right. Securing Upgrade will be a major priority for Lightwards during the battle. He might have a hard time evading capture, depending on when he decides to make a run for it. When you say "somewhere else in Oregon," do you have a specific city in mind? Do we really have any idea what the majority of Oregon looks like at this point, or is our worldbuilding entirely limited to Portland, The Dalles, and Astoria?

"Hehe. Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself, stop hitting--oh, hello Doctor. Your friend Remington just decided to punch himself a bunch of times. You really ought to pick your friends more carefully you know, his brain seems a bit defective." Sam vs Lucentia? We should at least try to keep the conflicts fair. Yeah, I would not envy SoulSwitch's position in this scenario. Though how Funtimes would flush him out of her friends' body is beyond me.

"How obvious is your possession to an outside observer? If you were to, say, as a random example, possess an annoying hippie woman and make her shut up for five measly minutes, would a hyperactive matter manipulator be able to spot the difference?" That makes sense. I'm saving that for the Quota battle. (That would be so awesome. I started another song-based comic similar to the "What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me" cover, but couldn't get if finished today. Maybe tomorrow.)

Honestly, I'm not really sure what The Dalles' map system looks like. "Sector B" just sounded like something military-people would say. Logically the town's gotta be divided into sectors... right? I need to write a quick Backtrack response and then bring Lightwards back to the Museum, correct? Is there anything in particular Lightwards needs to do once he arrives?

Lightwards is definitely planned to survive the fall of Portland. He may even be the last major faction leader left standing, if CM and Altermind both kick the proverbial bucket. If this is the case, he'll have become quite powerful and perfectly capable of taking dark!Paladin's empire by this point.

Bonus points if the Epic who takes over Dark!Paladin's infrastructure is Lightwards. Lightwards and Remington are already approaching archenemy status.

That would be both immensely fascinating and terrifying. But historically speaking, what happens when a well-established empire suddenly loses its leader? His generals and lieutenants pick up the pieces rule in his stead. I'm not sure whether the rest of his team would try their hands at ruling on their own, but an already-established empire with firm hiearchial infrastructure would become a very tempting target for other Epics. Nice!Paladin would probably find another High Epic seizing control of his handiwork and wielding it against him. Cool! I've thought about switching for a bit now, but I think I've gotten too used to this one. Still though... there may come a day when I take the mantle of the Bold Ko King once more.

Any more of this and I think we'll drive The "Only" Joe insane.

...Is it too late to give Chicago Joe a teammate?

Calamity, Joe. It's almost like you're trying to destroy the whole game setting. ... Oh yeah.