Through the Living Heir

Cole briefly looks for survivors, both ordinarily and through his new ability. Unless he finds any, he takes off into the air again.

Nick’s eyes widen as urgency enters his posture. “We should get going. Get as much information about the Teleporter as you can. If you can steal the device directly, do so. If that breaks it, I’ll fix it.” He points to @Halcyon The Only. “I assume you’ll want to help with the media and legal campaign. Deven, where should we go for that?”

Cole falls from the sky, landing just outside the town he'd been going towards.

Kion continues whispering, although he’s pretty sure a Narrator can hear him anyway. “Ah, you meant personality. Faunus is new, I believe. She’s more serious than the other couple Narrators than I encountered, and seems as unselfish as someone with seemingly unlimited power can be without using it fully.”

I look forward to seeing this, and may copy you. In all cases, I voted too much, but would be interested in seeing several options combined, if done well. Characters: 2. Reluctant Hero, 3. Mentor, 4. Unlikely Ally, 5. Antihero, and 6. Antivillain, especially if several of those apply to the same person. Characters again: 1. Villain Protagonist, 4. Character’s caginess leads to problems, 5. Character has demons from the past (whether literal or metaphorical remains to be seen), 6. Villain trusted by the people, 7. Powerful, invulnerable character who is brought down to a human level, 9. Justified, sympathetic villain, 12. Character who has survivor’s guilt, 13. Machiavellian character (very calculating and amoral, results oriented), 14. Character with a hidden talent or passion that comes to light in the narrative and completely changes how the other characters see them Plot things: 2. Protag mentored by the villain, 3. The villain and the protagonist work against a greater threat, forgetting they’re enemies in the process, 5. Bavarian fire drill (character takes charge by acting like they’re in charge), 6. Resurrection gambit (character dies on purpose, hoping someone will bring them back), 10. Stockholm syndrome, 11. Redemption arc Plot genre: 2. Rediscovering magic, active goal seeking rather than passive reactionary plot (could be any of the other three), Setting: 8. Mysterious ancient city, 11. Sprawling metropolis, 12. Secret organization, 13. Dragon people, 14 Dragons, 15. Medieval/ less advanced society built in the ruins of an advanced civilization Genre: I can see any one of these done well and it may grow out naturally from the other questions. Of course, I do love sci-fi, but fantasy is also great, and I’m indecisive when I’m tired. Please try to avoid “*ghost noises* space magic” settings though. Science fiction and fantasy are both better if consistency and logic are included. Million dollar questions: 1. Does it end well or badly? That depends on how you define well. I’d like a satisfying ending, but there are plenty of satisfying endings that have almost everyone dead. 2. Romance or no? I’d take a sub-plot, but I personally would not want it to overshadow everything else. 3. Does the villain or protagonist win? I’m not sure. The tropes that I selected will make it hard to even figure out which is which, and they might end up working together. Again, I think this one might be emergent writing, and better off not predefined. Of course, you likely have a different writing style than I. 4. Earth or otherwise? If it’s Earth, I don’t want it to be Earth now. Alternate Earth or sci-fi Earth is fine, though, if you can make some worldbuilding. (You don’t have to, of course. Worldbuilding is a lot of work that tends to make me write for weeks and never start the plot.) I should go to sleep now, but good luck. I look forward to seeing the result, and would be glad to help edit.

To start, work out for strength building. Once you’ve reached a pretty high level, start removing non-essential organs or organ portions. Find an organ that will grow back from a fraction, and remove that repeatedly. Depending upon how strength is defined, you might start healing it back on your own, but regardless, you can exploit the exponential growth. You can appear in people’s dreams and change their dreamscape. It acts like a normal dream, however, you can’t do the physical injuries from dreams that such a power sometimes comes with. Oh, and you have to be asleep yourself to use the power.

Template begins to dig a hole, using their tentacles to move sand out of the way. Their shape sort of shifts, solidifying into a nautilus-like creature, less monstrous and disorganized than before. Their dolphin body is covered in a rocky protective layer, and they trail tentacles behind them, opening and closing them like a cephalopod while kicking up and down like an ordinary dolphin.

He shrugs, putting it back in his pocket. “So it will stop the darkness? Maybe I should make sure I don’t give it away. I can probably heal it in me, correct?” He takes off into the air, committing a sunk cost fallacy and going to the town.

Have fun! *stands there awkwardly for a few seconds, tries for a handshake but things you’re going for a fist bump, changes at the last second and is somehow still wrong* Um, yeah. Bye. @Through The Living Glass @Halcyon The Only Template ends up as an octopus-rock-dolphin thing, loose currents of Narration colliding with them. Rebus waited, hiding his actions from Narration (only partly successfully) and wondering if he’s missing any plot. He casts his mind back to the Plotblades and their prophecies, trying to remember what the conditions were, and whether or not they had to be fulfilled.

Nick thinks. “I’ll go with the legal group, I think. If you need me, SIMON can send coordinates or a picture, so I can be teleported over. Unless we do need me - I’m not the tactician.”

Cole looks at the world harder, trying to turn a nearby fallen branch to metal.

“Interesting. So maybe pie is insufficient, if I could poison it.” Rather than elaborate, Cole reaches for the floating coin, planning to bring it with him. @The Sly Cookie

I had thought that it was a two way connection. Template, having been connected by Livetha earlier, can suddenly talk to everyone. Kion gives up on finding firewood inside the strange cave and whispers back to Moni, “There’s more than one kind?” Rebus, slightly awed, whispers, “I knew they were powerful, but I didn’t realize it was those.” He remembers something - and by force of will, Narrates the description away.

Cole closes his eyes, the light suffusing him. “Thank you, Calm. My coin is nice - did you make it? I hope we can stop Fear. Why is Fear not afraid?”

@SpiritOfWrath Cole flips a coin to figure out where to go, then uses wind to force it to fall on its edge. He takes off to check the town in absence of directions from Freedom or Gronk. Getting higher up, he heals from the wounds his failed attack caused.

Buy some fish, preferably ones that breed fast or are easy to source. As long as a tenth of your money is more than the cost of a fish, you’ll get really rich really fast. You’re really affected by the placebo effect. Heal limbs back if people can fool you that it will work level affected.

Even more alarmed, Dr. Warren looks for any visible injuries. “That is… unacceptable here. On behalf of the IISC, I will do my utmost to reform your planet. We’ll send food and food production, medical technology, law enforcement, and councilors for both the perpetrators and the affected.”

Using magic or technology in unconventional ways. Lateral thinking in general. Anti-villains, like Tarvangian and whoever the guy from the later Expanse books was. When things actually make sense. When things didn’t make sense, but a twist makes it all fall into place. Lots of viewpoints with overlapping storylines. Now that I think about it, I’m basically just describing Sanderson books. Which makes sense, I suppose.

Template continues swimming in place, watching their friends but unable to hear what they are saying. @SpiritOfWrath, for some reason I can’t quite right now. “Welcome back.” Rebus says a bit sullenly. “The Adari AI does sound interesting. Is it unimportant enough that I can fight it, but strong enough I won’t obliterate it? My Author probably wants to hear more about it anyway.”

She blinks again. “The Interstellar Intelligent Species Council doesn’t ring any bells? How did you get here, then?” Down the hallway is another room, much like the one you were in. One wall of it, however, is metal and covered in pipes and boxes. A member of the other species - Vvondin - paces that wall, checking things. Even indoors, the alien is shrouded in the biofabric that the life support suits were made from. “Hello! You are the traveler, correct? I have heard about the light, and how you make darkness.”

Coles smiles again, relieved and excited. “Excellent. Do you know why I couldn’t remove the stone from his grasp?” He begins gathering his gear again.

“Yes, but you told me that, so it might not be. But here, at least, is contradictory.” Template notes, probably adding more confusion rather than reducing it. Kion doesn’t press the issue, instead taking out his flint and steel, then realizing there’s nothing to burn. Enjoy your break!

She blinks again, more surprised this time. "How did that happen? Are you somehow from outside the IISC?"