Aonar

Yup.

For this term, yes, Tuition has already been paid. You'll have to worry about that soon enough, though.

Okay. That makes much more sense. I was confused by how you talked about it in the profile; between the reference there and the explanation here I wasn't quite sure what you were getting at. Things sound good, then.

*Note: I am not qualified to talk about quantum mechanics in any way, and my understanding is most likely flawed. However, I think I might be able to help with conceptualizing the idea.* Thing is, quantum entanglement doesn't exactly work like that. It really doesn't apply to macroscopic objects. (Heck, it doesn't really apply to most microscopic ones, either.) If your Epic could enforce quantum coherence and entanglement on macroscopic objects, your primary application of this power would be the absolute minimum of their abilities; some of which would be very scary. Additionally, it's hard to say if you could even get your linking ability out of quantum entanglement. More formally defined, quantum entanglement is when two systems become connected in such a way that they must be treated as one system, regardless of physical distance. However, this doesn't really mean that what happens to one happens to the other; rather, this means that the state of one is dependent upon the state of the other, the same way that the position of a baseball depends on the energy and vectors of the bat that struck it. (Well, no, the two things aren't actually the same at all, but it's not a bad way to think about it. ) This is complicated by the fact that at a quantum level, objects do not really have classical locations, rather they have a probability that they may be found in any given location and state. This is where the idea of one entangled element interacting with another comes from; when one is measured, one instantly knows the measure of the of the other, because they are linked. However, one did not actually change the other; once one is measured, it and it's partner have, in a sense, inhabited this state since the moment they interacted. Except they haven't, because they were in a supersposition of possible states. with the caveat that the state of one depends upon the state of the other. Really, it all gets ridiculously complicated ridiculously quickly. You'd probably be better served by laying out the power in purely classical terms. (Eg. Linking two objects makes it so that they will always attempt to have equivalent velocity with opposing vectors, while conserving energy and momentum. Or vice versa.)

1. ...Good question. There are a variety of ways to steal money, but items are trickier, and I'm, not sure we ever nailed that down. That will require some conferring, perhaps. 2. Basically, yes. Example: Gamma is an unranked student, as such, he earns five EP/term. If he spends this EP impressing a Master, and is not chosen, this EP remains with that Master, making it more likely he will be elevated next term. If he does not spend this EP, he will lose it moving into the next term. (This is to prevent players pulling a Manet ("the eternal E'lir") and jump from unranked to Master in two cycles.) 3. Yes, they do. In the early game, it's decided purely by EP and dice rolls, but in the late game, the players will be able to interfere with it.

Don't worry. They confuse us too, sometimes. There's a reason we need three GMs for this.

Public actions: What: Try for Heir (Male, Alden Female, Corranne) Who: Should be obvious. When: Action 2. Where: Should be obvious. Why: Again, should be obvious. What: Propose contract with Tekiel, Armour for Wealth each turn. Who: Lord Izenry, via messenger to Keep Tekiel. When: Action 3. Where: Keep Tekiel, Luthadel Why: Improve my House's overall financial state.

Actions: 2: Try for an Heir. (Male, Tatheil, female, Corranne). 3: Increase the size of the Urteau Garrison, to better defend against attacking skaa and maintain Order. I might try to RP later. we'll see what happens.

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20160211 ... *Insert undignified squeeing here.*

Idiot. Sparking idiot. Frostfire fumed internally. That slontze Deathwish had been right the first time. They didn't have time to deal with a vanilla casualty, especially a non-civilian that didn't appear severely injured. They could maybe lend a radio, but that was all. More likely than not, the only reason Deathwish was interested at all was because she was pretty. Of course, that’s not the sparking worst of it. The woman was an Epic, and a strong one. Probably a little stronger even than Deathwish or himself, although it was hard to say without knowing exactly what she could do. She didn't seem aggressive as of yet, so Frostfire did his best to hide his surprise, keeping his head down and dusting off the front of his coat. He grimaced slightly as he did so; pinpricks of pain flaring with each movement. Struggling, and likely failing, to appear casual, he moved close beside Emma, speaking as softly and as quickly as he could. "The woman's an Epic. A strong one. Either an infiltrator or newly minted. I doubt we have time to deal with both her and Quicksilver. Thoughts?"

Eh, yeah, that... I was going to try to post a Mirrorveil section with that, but that hasn't really be coming together, so one short Frostfire post is coming right up.

Mars: Blimps may actually be even less practical, I'm afraid. (As a word of warning, most of the physics here is stuff I've just taught myself on the spot in order to answer this, but I think it's right. ) I'm assuming for the purposes of this story that atmospheric pressure on Mars is about 40 kPa, pretty close the the minimum survivable amount for a human. (About 67 times what it is on Mars in reality.) Now, at STP, air on Earth has a density of about 1.2 kilos/meter cubed. Mars will be a little colder than Earth, so let's call the density of it's air about 1.4*0.4, or 0.56kg/m^3. One we know that, we can start figuring out other stuff. A commercial blimp these days runs about 4250 kilos empty, and has a volume of about 6000 m^3. This means that It will displace roughly 6000*0.56 kilos of air, or 3360 kilos. This is a problem, seeing how we haven't even started factoring in payload or the weight of the gas that will be lifting it, and we're already too heavy by about 900 kilos. (I haven't factored in Mars's reduced gravity simply because it's unnecessary to the equation; it'll effect both the buoyant force and the weight of the airship equally.) You could theoretically get by with some sort of ultralight design, with minimal payload; probably personal craft or some such. A viable commercial industry though would be unlikely. (Once again, not impossible; if you wanted to make it work, you could, but the blimps in question would be rather sketchy and ultimately unreliable, I would think.) In terms of water, you can do really whatever you'd like; you've already shifted Venus's position in space by several thousand kilometers at least, so I'd imagine having a few additional ice-bearing comets strike Mars at some point in it's past is not out of the question. Venus: Pretty much, yeah. (Crab dragons! ) Flora... that's trickier. Mars, depending on location, and how you decide to mess with water concentration, will vary between having flora similar to arid areas in midwestern America/the middle east, to things more like what would be seen in subarctic/tundra scrublands of Canada, Russia and northern Europe. Venus... Hrm. I would imagine dense, tropical forests would be plentiful, stretching from the equator well into the higher latitudes. Go further north/south, and things will get more temperate, but life there would never have to adapt to anything like winter. They'd be more shaped by the storms, I would imagine; most things would not grow too tall, save perhaps if they all grew close enough together to be able to weather the extreme winds. Perhaps some would even take advantage of the storms, maybe even requiring them for reproduction, similar to the way some pines have adapted to forest fires? The problem with terraforming the moon is that any atmosphere you introduced would be stripped away in a matter of days, if not hours, due to the lack of gravity. (Unless you were sensible and contained the atmosphere within an enclosure of some sort, but that's boring.) So it'd be like Florida for about a weekend, tops, then everything would die.

Morzathoth: If you're looking for ideas on how evolution might drive the species on those planets, here are a couple: Martians will have adapted to the cold, lower oxygen concentrations/atmospheric pressure/gravity, as well as a more limited water supply. A few ideas: Venusians will have almost the exact opposite challenges to martians. As such, I would be surprised if Venusians were terribly comfortable on Mars, or vice versa. They'd have to deal with increased gravity (Well, relatively increased. Compared to Earth, Venus's gravity is actually a fraction weaker (about 9%), but that's still more than double what Mars has.), heat, and atmospheric pressure. Thankfully, Venus has a fair bit more water than Mars, so if we cool things down enough to allow liquid water to form, and ease up on the whole "sulfuric acid storms and constant hurricane force winds that are hot enough to melt lead," thing, that won't be a problem. In case you can't tell, in real life, Venus is far less hospitable even than Mars, but if we're assuming Venus to be more Earth-like in this 'verse, you might see things like this: Anyways, I don't know if any of that was helpful, (Kobold will likely be able to provide some better help, when he gets around) but those are a couple quick conjectures one could make about theoretical life on each of those planets.

Collaboration post by Voidus, Edgedancer, and myself. “Who sent you?” Azrael prepared another spear of darkness, holding it lightly in his free hand, as something intruded on his consciousness. We have a problem, Azrael. Something’s happening; poison, maybe. Probably the fleshwarper. We need to get out. Azrael sighed in irritation. Of course. “I’ll be back. Sit tight.” With a thought, he filled the room with darkness, expanding Bioterror’s bonds into a full body cast. Stepping outside, he called enough shadow to cover the whole group, and shifted them to an outbuilding at the base of the tower, before sending himself back. Dismissing enough darkness for Bioterror to see and speak, he continued. “Now, where were we? Ah, yes. Who exactly sent you here, and why?” Bloody Mary was right in her assumption that things would get interesting, even if it would have been preferable if Bioterror and Brightdeath were the ones tossing their opponent around. It still made for a nice show to watch while eating her snacks. Given how Brightdeath had barely managed to stay in the room before her teleportation moved her to safety, Mary had to draw out a little bit of blood from her just before the shadow lance send her away. She made it trickle towards the Epics working for the shadow manipulator, slowly as to avoid them noticing it. A bit too slow it turned out, as the Epic in charge managed to relocate them before she reached even one of them. Just to be save, Mary scanned across the city to see if they appeared anywhere she could tell but they had the sense to relocate to somewhere without any people around. Another thing to keep in mind but at the very least Mary should be able to tell if they tried to enter the tower again. By the time the room was bright enough for Bioterror to see again the other Epics had disappeared. A teleporter as well as a shadow manipulator then. That could be somewhat difficult. Even his enhanced muscles hadn’t managed to break free of the bonds that had encased his body, but there was always another way. He reabsorbed his arm bones into his body, leaving two appendages which could do very little but he needed the extra material. Solid matter like bones didn’t compress very well, which meant they could exert quite a lot of pressure if he directed it all into one place. A bright flash lit the room as Sparkles appeared again, this time teleporting in right behind the shadow warper who she promptly stabbed in the back. Well I would have preferred to do it but can’t argue with results I guess. Azrael felt something tear through the cloak on his back, and prick his skin, before catching. Under his hood he grimaced, and swept his wings backwards, sending the light manipulator scurrying away again with the threat of razored feathers. “Once again, that was a fair attempt, but by no means enough. I begin to tire of these games. Do not draw this out longer than is necessary.” The Epic continued on unfazed, swatting Brightdeath off as though she were nothing but a fly. A healer? damnation it. Change of plans then. Bioterror stopped the rush of calcium that was being directed to his ribs, he could feel the pressure on his bones and it seemed that he’d break his own ribs by the time he managed to burst the restraints placed on him. But he had complete control over his body, there was no way that restraints like these could hold him. His entire body began to reform under cover of the restraints, flesh sliding around as it restructured itself by his whims. “Fine. No games, let’s get this over with quickly. Do you know how fast a Death Adder can strike?” Bioterror grinned, his teeth sharpened to points gleamed in the darkened room. In a bare fraction of a second his head suddenly leapt out, propelled by the coils of muscle he’d formed underneath. His jaw locked onto the epics arm just below his shoulder, venom dripping from the corners of his mouth as coils of flesh began to loop around the arm. Because I can move even faster than they can. Azrael looked down at the fleshwarper winding its way around his arm with cool disinterest. This has gone on too long. “I must admit, the speed and versatility to your ability to change your body is quite impressive.” He winced slightly as Bioterror’s coils pulled tighter. His body was resilient enough to withstand hundreds of times more force without injury, but he still felt the pain. “Healing, though, I have learned through painful experience, can only go so far, before it is overcome. Sure, you may not die. But you will wish you had.” Slivers of darkness forced their way through Bioterror’s body, cutting the Epic apart as much as prying it off. Even as he started to reform, Azrael prepared to strike again, wings and weapons shattering into fine needles of shadow. “Goodbye, Bioterror. Pray we do not meet again, else I may find a more permanent solution to you.” The cloud of darkness leapt forwards, driving into Bioterror’s deformed flesh. Red mist filled the air, as scraps of meat went flying throughout the room. Partitions of shadow slammed down, preventing what was left from joining back into a whole. One problem solved. The light manipulator was still at large, but she seemed considerably less tenacious in her attempts to inconvenience him. If absolutely necessary, she could be banished for long enough relocate to a less conspicuous location. The Adventurer watched the ensuing fight with interest, that one guy had some kind of skill to change his whole body which was pretty cool but the other one was some kind of high-level mage, he had a blink spell as well as a series of darkness-based attacks. The fight had ended abruptly when one of them was blown into pieces, his body then getting separated even as it tried to join together again. “Huh. One of them has some kind of infinite regeneration. Wonder if it’s a hack.” He said to Lockvault. “Is it over yet?” His companion asked, the Adventurer had nearly forgotten that Lockvault couldn’t see the minimap like he could. But he almost felt like he could show it to him. Maybe if he… “Ah. There we go how’s that?” The Adventurer asked as a small dimly lit hologram appeared before him, showing the scene taking place in the other room. “What the? Was that a person exploding?” Lockvault asked as the Adventurer tried to recreate what he’d seen before. “Yeah I think so, pretty cool wasn’t it? Still High level mage and I think he was in a party. Might be difficult to take with just the two of us.” “Yeah maybe we should er.. fall back and try to get a party before we clear this boss.” Lockvault said. “Yeah maybe. Still I’d better go check it out solo first, one life isn’t much of a loss and I’ll get to test his abilities up close.” Before Lockvault could raise a hand to stop him the Adventurer placed a hand on the wall and phased through, entering the room with the two other players. ------------------------------------------------------------ It had been a while since someone had tried to blow Bioterror up. He’d almost forgotten how disorienting it was to suddenly have his consciousness spread throughout such a large area. He could feel his body beginning to coalesce, though parts of it were now separated by some kind of solid construct. Likely the shadow manipulators doing. A new presence suddenly entered the room, seeming to come right through the wall. One of his other friends again? No matter, the timing is fortuitous. Bioterror gathered what mass he could and began inching his way towards the new presence. After a bit more scuffling, it seemed that Bioterror’s relentlessness finally managed drive the shadow Epic far enough and he concentrated all his effort on keeping the fleshwarper from reassembling himself. With him concentrating on his handiwork, Mary moved her blood in from behind him and tried to inject a little bit through his skin but the Epics healing was strong enough to push it out of his before she managed to reach blood. One of the two Epics spectating from the next room teleported into the battle and just a moment later Mary noticed Brightdeath’s position shifting again. It was all the warning she got as the room exploded into light. Countless of small suns appeared all over the room and immediately shoot at the shadow manipulator from all directions, enveloping everything in a blinding light. With the brightness impairing her vision Mary needed a moment to recover, before she could access the damage done. The room suddenly filled with light, near blinding to Azrael’s eyes. Then there was only pain. Small orbs of light came at him from all angles, some deflecting harmlessly while others struck true, breaking bone and shredding muscle. Azrael fell to his knees screaming, the sound dissonant, somehow inhuman. He didn’t think, couldn’t think, except to instinctively lash out against his attacker. Shadow poured from his wounds and open mouth, filling the air around him with black mist. Writhing tendrils of darkness exploded in all directions, blindly seeking out the light manipulator. Finding nothing, they eventually retracted, and the dark cloud spread, enveloping the room. Under the protective cover of darkness, Azrael replaced his shredded robes with dark armour, formfitting and featureless. There were no openings; within darkness this deep, there was no use for sight, and breathing was never something Azrael had found terribly necessary. Some of the wounds underneath his armour still burned where they hadn’t been properly cleaned of light, but the pain was fading fast. Bioterror had just managed to latch on to the latest person to enter the room when a telltale flash announced Brightdeath’s return, this time she wasted no time before launching an all-out assault on the shadow-Epic. Hopefully the light attack combined with Bioterrors continued assault on the Epics nerves would be enough to incapacitate him. But Bioterror didn’t have time to find out, he’d barely registered the attack before a mass of shadows leapt through the room and he suddenly found himself outside the tower, his link to the shadow Epic now broken he tried to orient himself, he was still stuck to the leg of the new Epic, the one who’d seemed to come straight through the wall. A teleporter of some kind, perhaps one who could only transport through a solid object? The two rapidly began falling, the teleporting Epic seeming almost as confused as Bioterror was at their sudden predicament. The Epic slapped a hand on a wall and he suddenly found himself back inside the tower, albeit on a lower floor than before. Wasting no time he tore apart the fabric separating him from the Epics bare skin and tore into his flesh, the two flickered for a moment, his position on the Epic seeming to reverse as the Epic teleported to his other side but he could shift his body at a moments notice and he managed to tear open a gash in the Epics leg and inject him with a personal favourite poison. Sorry little teleporter, I need your body for now. The Epic gasped in surprise as pain flooded his body, but with such direct access Bioterror could produce an immense amount of toxin in a short time and the boy quickly fell to the floor, shaking before finally lying still. Bioterror slipped over the corpse, thanking whatever gods still watched over the earth that he’d managed to find an Epic without any stronger defensive abilities. Though a normal human would have been better still. He spread himself out as much as he could, covering the body before he began to release digestive enzymes, breaking down the cloth and skin of the body and allowing him to spread his own cells throughout it. In a matter of seconds he felt a mental shift, he’d invaded the corpse enough that his power considered it a part of him rather than a separate body. The body smiled as its face began to shift and change, morphing into a parody of Bioterrors own face, the muscles not quite sitting right on the skull. Forgot how much work it takes. Ah well, with luck Sparkles took out the shadow. He picked the body up off the ground, luckily some scraps of clothing had been left untouched when he’d consumed the body so there was a touch of modesty to it. His blood still burned, a curious sensation of power and pain interwoven as he replaced the Epics old blood with his own. Two gifts from Calamity could not exist in the same body unfortunately, he’d eaten an Epic once before to see if he could gain their abilities but his powers weren’t compatible it seemed and he’d had to replace every blood cell in the body before it stopped burning him. A form suddenly appeared before him, once more seeming to come up through the floor. “You have a cannibal perk or something?” The Epic asked as he looked at his own former body. Reincarnation? Sparks how many High Epics does this city have? The brightness was replaced by darkness overlaying the room, leaving Bloody Mary for the most part only with the position of infected blood to tell what was going on. Brightdeath had again left the room and the Epic that had teleported into the room was gone as well, having moved just outside the tower. Bioterror or at least the parts of him that were still moving she found along with the other Epic that had first moved them outside the tower and now back inside of it, moving through the wall a few floors lower. The piece of flesh that was Bioterror attacked the teleporter, quick and efficiently adding his victim’s flesh to his own. Deciding to their new employes at least a little bit of help, she contacted Brightdeath through a bit of blood she left in the cafe that Brightdeath had reappeared in after the last few times her danger sense was triggered, she’d have to organize the fool a more discrete place once this situation was dealt with. Mary gave the light Epic directions on where to find her ally and shortly afterwards she was standing next to Bioterror and the resurrected Adventurer. Sparkles showed up soon after the other Epic had reincarnated and they both exchanged a quick glance of recognition. “Someone you know then?” Bioterror asked, neither seemed too tense so they weren’t dire enemies at least but not exactly allies either. “Met her in another quest.” The other Epic chimed in. Quest? Before he could clarify the situation movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention, a dark mist descending down the stairs. The unknown Epic stared at it for a moment before holding up one hand, which suddenly began to glow brightly as he held it up between him and the dark mist. Two teleporting light manipulators? And a teleporting shadow manipulator, all in one city? Man what are the odds. Bioterror wondered idly The Epic suddenly stopped, looking like he’d realized something and slapped a hand against a wall, vanishing once more. “So what’s his deal?” Bioterror asked casually. Brightdeath just shurgged. “No idea, some kind of crazy I met yesterday, said he was the Adventurer I think? But he was with someone el-” The Adventurer reappeared again, this time accompanied by someone else, probably whoever Brightdeath had just been about to mention. The mist had begun closing in on them and Bioterror had little desire to get stuck on it just now. “Meet you on the ground.” He said before jumping out a nearby window, falling a few floors to the ground before feeling his legs snap. Oh crap, forgot to enhance the bones when I took his body. “So anyway.” Brightdeath said as she teleported next to him. “What’s with your face?” “Shut up Sparkles.” The Adventurer and his friend were a short distance away, having teleported down also it seemed. They were gesturing to each other rapidly with strange finger movements. Sign language? “You guys here to help or do I need to eat you?” Bioterror threatened, allowing his teeth to become somewhat more pointed. The two Epics looked darkly back at him, eyes threatening, seizing him up. But finally the Adventurer’s companion shook his head and finger-signed back to his companion again. “We won’t get in your way.” The Adventurer said. “We’re after the same boss and Lockvault says that he doesn’t mind partying up this once.” This once? Someone not a fan of the government then. Bioterror mused. But that didn’t matter, he could crush them both later if needed, for now the shadow Epic was the more pressing issue, and if another light-manipulator was offering his assistance… “Fine, I’m a healer so don’t worry about hitting me. If you help us take this guy out then I don’t care what you do after, if you turn on me then I’ll turn you into a soup.” Bioterror growled. The two Epics both nodded. Lockvault signed again for a few seconds before the Adventurer translated again. “We’ll provide back up then.” ------------------------------------------------------------------ Be careful around these guys. Lockvault signed. They might turn on us if things go badly. The Adventurer just shrugged back before replying. Don’t worry, just stick close and let me know if anything bad’s going to happen, I’ll travel us both out of there and we can just try again once we’ve leveled a few times. Lockvault smiled at his new friend. His eccentricities were amusing but they also hid a sort of innocence that was rare in the Fractured States these days. The Adventurer was someone who he rarely had to worry about hiding hidden motivations. Not like these government Epics. He narrowed his eyes at the two other Epics. Trying to guess their motivations. Brightdeath had seemed to be a new member of the government when they’d met yesterday, was this new Epic a mentor of some kind? Or was he new too? The Adventurer had said something about him having a cannibal perk, what was that supposed to mean? And that Epic they’d met the other day would be much better suited to hunting down Epics so why wasn’t he here? Questions without answers but he’d have to leave them for now. Brightdeath lightly touched Bioterror’s shoulder and the two vanished in a flash, back up to the room above. Can you show me what’s happening again? Lockvault signed. We’ll wait and see what happens before we join in. The Adventurer screwed up his eyes for a moment before a sudden light appeared between them, resolving into the room he’d seen before, though it was somewhat blurrier now, like a tv with bad reception. Azrael stood still in the centre of the room, allowing his awareness slowly spread throughout the tower. He had encompassed the large majority of it without finding anything; hopefully that meant the insects bothering him had moved on to easier prey. Almost in response to that thought, a pair a figures appeared a few feet behind him, roughly matching the profiles of Bioterror and the light manipulator. Azrael quickly ported himself a few meters away, and sealed all the entrances to the room. Alright. We’re done playing nice, now. The light manipulator started gathering spheres of light to fling around the room. Azrael didn’t give her the chance. Twin rams made from darkness coalesced in an instant, one knocking Bioterror away from the woman, and the other banishing her from the room. No sooner had Bioterror entered the room with the shadow manipulator than he’d been attacked with some form of blunt instrument. His flesh deformed around the solid shape, giving him an idea of its form before the force shattered his body. His cells scattered briefly before flying towards one of the pieces of himself that he’d been forced to leave earlier, creating a small eddy in the dark mist and allowing Bioterror to sense the room far more efficiently. He gathered around a smooth black spear that had been placed around his eyeball when the Shadow Epic had blown him up earlier, with most of his mass gathered around it he felt the black sphere become a part of him, something his powers could affect. Excellent. He ripped a hole in the sphere to retrieve his eye, body already reforming. Suddenly though he felt the shadowy substance still itself once more, reforming into a sphere. So he can still control it as well. That’s not exactly desirable. A short moment later Bioterror felt not only the sphere beneath him but also those capturing all his other body parts weaken and dissipate. Did he lose focus? Encounter his weakness? Attaching his eye to his brain once more he saw that the mist in the rest of the room was still functioning, clogging the room and shrouding it in near total darkness. Either way it’s the last mistake he’s making. The rest of his flesh flew from all corners of the room to join him, bones clattering along the floor, muscles and organs soaring towards him. Within seconds he stood nearly twice as tall, his body immediately growing to inhuman proportions though it took some adjustments to support this new weight. “You are done Shadow.” He growled, tensing his new body to leap through the mists and devour the Epic, shadows and all. Before he could manage his first step however he felt the mists begin to solidify around him, growing thicker and thicker before he was finally shut off completely. The Adventurer watched from far below as the room that the two Epics in suddenly became completely opaque to his minimap. “What the? Some kind of anti-surveilance item or something?” He mused aloud to an equally bewildered Lockvault. The two watched for a minute, seeing nothing but tiny pieces of static in the image that the Adventurer was projecting. “We should go now, if either of them get out it’ll be bad news and if we can't see what we’re doing…” Lockvault left his sentence hanging ominously. “Right you are.” The Adventurer said, surprising his ally. “First rule of PKing, if in doubt, run away.” The two vanished into the ground, leaving the tower behind for another day. Back at the top of the tower tiny cracks were beginning to form in the black substance that encase the entire floor that Bioterror had been fighting in. Inside the black prison Bioterror raged against his cage, steadily shredding the material apart while The Imperial March played through an earbud lying nearby.

Sounds like a pretty viable theory. It could well be something like a sort of systemic, autoimmune cytokine storm. (Basically, an immune response that sets up in an uncontrolled feedback loop; resulting in swelling, extreme fever (and all the associated symptoms), fatigue, nausea, and substantial tissue damage in the associated areas.) While we can't be sure, obviously, without someone putting a question to Brandon, that definitely sounds very plausible.* (*Take this with a grain of salt; the extent of my medical knowledge is from a high school biology course, frequent trawls through Wikipedia, and binge-watching House on Netfilx. )

Well, Dalles and Portland are both closed to new Epics. Astoria is leagues above her power level, which would make it difficult for her to participate in the main story. (Seriously. Just about everyone in there could go toe to toe with Steelheart. Some of them might even win.) Salem could work. (Think gladiatorial area run by a basically untouchable high Epic/mentalist, with some intrigue plots going on in the background, although not much has happened there of late.) So could Corvallis. (Think kind of Orwellian utopia for Epics, where all the vanillas were drugged into submission by Euphoria, but now Euphoria has been captured by an Epic by the name of Insight, and in the resulting chaos new Epics are maneuvering to take control.) Wastelands is also an option, but stuff going on there is kind of complicated, so you'd have to ask Voidus for more info.

... ...True.

That could be very cool. Switch a pebble's inertia for a building's, and suddenly you've got a rock no one can move, and a building that'll topple (quite dramatically) with the slightest breeze... I might have to steal this, later.

Never assume reasonable limits. (Unless it's an Epic I actually plan on introducing to canon. ) ...And that's What Happened in Oregon. Twi became an Epic. The end.

Speaking of which, what're your thoughts on an Epic that can alter inertia independent of all other qualities, including mass? My initial thoughts are "very, very bad" but I'm wondering if I'm on the right track.

May I ask for clarification upon what exactly the chirnagi are? They seem to fill the role of elemental spirits of sorts; lesser beings fashioned from the one of the Great Elementals for one purpose or another, which occasionally meddle with mortal lives. (I believe you mentioned that as a priest, one of your functions was to bind said spirits, if they become to disruptive?) However, you also refer to them in the context of your animating spirit, and the theoretical difference between yourselves and the Soulless. And then again they are also referred to as the demons which can posses the Soulless. How exactly does this all link together? If demons are chirnagi of Darkness, what motivation do they have to damage/steal a chirnagi of Spirit? If a demon is in a sense a human animated by Darkness, what is the difference between one such as that and a Chaod Leu, who is animated by Spirit? Would it be possible for a human to be animated by the chirnagi of one of the other elements? If so, would they still be considered a demon/Soulless? (Sorry for the ramble-y/kinda weird questions. I'm curious as to exactly all what roles/purposes the chirnagi fill in this mythos, though. As a bit of an aside, is there a factual basis for these spirits in-world? Or are they purely a construct of the Chaod Leu religion?)

That's a great question, honestly. >> Originally, there were plans for her to run in to Frequency's gang, but nothing's happened with that, so I guess she's still wandering around in the woods. I'm happy for pretty much anything to happen there, in anyone has some ideas for what she could do. She might be able to see Quicksilver's pillar, depending on how tall it is, but I don't know.

Of all the Epics Taylor could have met in the Dalles, she's managed to run into one (of two, total) that can (and will) realistically see through her deception (Shapeshifting abilities, not the whole Taylor Swift thing. Although I imagine he'd be pretty skeptical about that, too. ) immediately. This is going to be interesting... (Also, Quicksilver just kind-sorta made one of his bases and his current location very much public with the whole "giant column of steel," thing. O.o Things are moving way faster than I thought they would. )

I'm not Oversleep, but I can answer a bit of this one. (I've got a character in the Reckoners RPG who's powers work off basically the same principle.) You could store kinetic energy to slow a fall; how much so would depend on the "resolution" of the storage. If you stored kinetic energy every second, your speed would never exceed 9.8m/s (the base rate of acceleration due to gravity). The more often per second you store, the slower you go. However, there's a caveat to this. Because the formula for kinetic energy is 1/2mv^2, mages in this system will gain exponentially more power if they store while travelling at a high speed (as close to terminal velocity as possible, or, if they're falling for long enough, by storing whenever they reach terminal velocity). Earthquakes might be a bit of a stretch (a 1.5 magnitude earthquake, which is too small to be even noticed by a human, releases about 11 megajoules of energy; or about a hundred times what is contained by a human travelling at terminal velocity [125 kilojoules]), but with enough kinetic energy, you could definitely do a lot of damage.