Comatose

Taylor ambled through the streets aimlessly, listening in vain for the sound of Brandon's voice, while sniffing for the smell of his deodorant. The smell of smoke hung heavy in the air, negating any chance she might have had of finding Brandon by scent, but still she tried, hoping desperately to find him. How do I even know he wants to be found? Taylor knew it was unusual for humans to fall for epics, especially ones like her who could do particularly nasty things when displeased. But why shouldn't Brandon have fallen for her? She was Taylor Swift, after all, which meant she was pretty much perfect. Even if Brandon was gay, surely even gay men would make an exception for a pop goddess like herself. "Cause we're young and we're reckless," Taylor caught the sound of the familiar lyrics, being sung quietly, from over a black away. "'We'll take this way too far. It'll leave you breathless, or with a nasty scar..." Was that what was happening to her and Brandon? Had they taken their romance farther than they should have? One thing was certain, if he was thinking of leaving her now that they had reached The Dalles, it would be him who was left scarred and breathless. She would see to it. Unable to resist the spell of her own lyrics, Taylor moved forward towards where she had heard the sound of someone singing. As she grew close, the she noticed the area around her begin to shift in colour, becoming decidedly greener. Could it be that a fellow epic was appreciating her music? She passed the young man in question, who was know letting his music play out loud, just as a new song began. As the familiar guitar riff and the beginning of her hit, "I knew you were Trouble," echoed through the street, Taylor found herself unable to resist. Once upon a time A few mistakes ago Once her fan had passed, Taylor transformed, shedding her ugliness in an instant, reforming into the perfection that was herself. I was in your sights You got me alone You found me You found me You found me... "Ee-ee-ee-ee." Taylor joined in, adding the beauty of her live voice to the song. "I guess you didn't care, and I guess I liked that. And when I fell hard, you took a step back, without me..."

Loved the post! I'll try to get a Taylor response up tomorrow. So excited .

All that picture did for me is make me want an ice cream sandwich. Darn dairy sensitivity . So you are saying I can use epic weaknesses as bargaining chips? Had I known that I would have been much less likely to give them away as I have. EDIT: Also, thanks for the feedback on Insight. I think the main thing that distinguishes him from Lockvault is that he can't take more things than he can carry with him (unless he brought a car or something in, but even then, he's limited) as well as the touch restriction. I intended his 'cognitive space' to be less extra-dimensional and more like another aspect or view of the physical world. I'll have to reread Sidestep and look-out for overlap.

I'm not sure, that's probably a question for Edge or Voidus. On another note, I'm working on the powers for Euphoria's mysterious captor. His powers are very clear to me in my mind, but I'm having difficulty explaining them. Let me know how I did! EDIT: Of course, also let me know if you see problems of a world-breaking variety here, or if you feel there is overlap with another epic. The most similar one I could find was Lockvault, but I felt the cognitive space (taking suggestions for other names as well) was sufficiently different from storage to prevent overlap. Insight [WIP]

Rainmaker post is up! I'm not entirely happy with it, but don't know why (likely just because I'm awkward at writing fight scenes). If you all notice any issues, let me know! Silver, I tried not to assume anything about Converter's reaction or response to Rainmaker's new attack strategy, but if you feel your options are unduly constrained, let me know I can edit things to make it less restrictive. Blaze, I think Buttercup could be up next. Her or Converter anyways. I wasn't sure if Buttercup's healing factor would be enough to stop Converter from instantly sapping all her heat, so I decided Rainmaker didn't know either, and would err on the side of caution. Feel free to have Buttercup object. Anyways, back to work for me! Why is it so hard to find email addresses for different school administrations? Some school division websites are great, others seem horribly out-dated and difficult to use .

From Rainmaker's view, the hail stone seemed to have halted a few feet off the ground, indicating the epic below it was likely not squashed as she should be. It would seem Blossom's guess about kinetic energy manipulation was also correct, or the epic possessed super strength of some kind. Given the epics apparent ability to use the energy she absorbed, Rainmaker quickly decided it might be best to alter her strategy, lest her galeforce winds give the epic the kinetic energy necessary to do more than simply stave off the attack. Rainmaker altered her winds so the stopped abruptly just before reaching the epic. The winds would still work to keep her corralled in one place, but unless the epic could absorb energy from a distance, in which case they were all in very real danger, then the winds would only be absorbed if she tried to move, which was unlikely when she focusing on preventing the hailstone from crushing her. Next, Rainmaker focused on the small bubble of still air around the epic, lowering the temperature without the use of wind, while raising the humidity drastically. The epic had to breathe, meaning at least some of the freezing cold, humid air should effect her. Unless, of course, she had some ability to survive without oxygen. That would prove difficult. Rainmaker did keep the wind tunnel carrying Blossom's ice breath hitting the area around the ice epic, trusting it to lower the temperatures below what she herself could manage using normal earth temperatures. "Buttercup," Rainmaker spoke into her mobile, keeping a wary eye on the trapped epic. "We seem to have the situation with the rebel epic under control for the moment, but she's resisting my powers. I want you to go to the grove where Cornucopia has her industrial strength restraints, and arrange for some of the chains, anchors, and other supplies brought over. We may need to trap the epic here permanently until we can figure out her weakness or a way to move her safely. We can use some of the same restraints that we used on the Iron Ogress, but make sure that whatever is used has a good resistance to both hot and cold temperatures. Once you've made the arrangements, I want you here yourself, and try to find an Epic who is immune or at least resistant to heat, cold, and electricity. I don't want to risk you getting to close to this one." While Buttercup did have healing abilities, seeing the frozen corpses on the ground, Rainmaker worried about risking her chief of security. With Euphoria gone, Rainmaker was already feeling out of her depth handling the logistics of coordinating her staff; at this point she could not afford to lose more Queens. Cautiously, Rainmaker landed on the ground, to better study her opponent. She opened a small window in the icy storm, and through it she could see the epic crouched beneath the hailstone, withstanding her attacks. How did she make it into the city? At first Rainmaker had suspected she might be a teleporter, given her sudden appearance, but surely a teleporter would have fled by now, or used her powers to take out the other Queens one by one. What do you want here? "Well, little epic, have you had enough of my power?" Rainmaker spoke loudly while keeping her distance, still wary of the epic's tricks. "You seem immune to my attacks, and you may be able to stave off hypothermia for a time, but eventually I will find a way to destroy you. I will give you one last chance to surrender to me, and allow yourself to be escorted out of Corvallis in peace."

If no one else wants to go next in Corvallis, I can go with Rainmaker. Blaze, how is Buttercup doing evacuating the remaining Vanillas? Rainmaker might have need of her. Now for an important Question: How can Rainmaker get a hold of a 'royal voice'?

Wouldn't being the person with the highest rep-count on the boards kind of defeat the whole point of the whole under-cover thing? Besides, with Brandon's schedule, there's no way he could maintain Kobold's post count and still put out 2 books a year.

Personally, I love Charlotte's web, though my first thought when you mentioned spiders was of Varys from A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. Kobold's comment makes me wonder what a Charlotte's Web / Julius Caesar cross-over would look like... Welcome here!

I was thinking Converter would be next. If you want a Cornucopia one that would be fine, but probably not necessary if you don't.

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone! I was otherwise occupied yesterday, and have been busy today as well, but I should be back again tomorrow and Monday! Possibly spoilers? I've only watched the first season plus two episodes, but I'm responding to something in the spoiler tags, so Kobold, you can decide for yourself if I'm likely to give anything away: On another note, I LOVE Discord! He's fantastic.

I think you've convinced me on the Newcago front, and would concede that her weakness is triggerable there. Let's just say it's good I started watching MLP, so I have something else to talk about that isn't law or this RP thing that no person who doesn't participate can understand. Wait... people don't get MLP either? Guess I'm stuck chatting about politics or something lame like that...

The concept of law predated Hobbes's theories though. I always took his writings more as what he thought the law should be in a more ideal world than the one he lived in. While it is true that we have moved towards Hobbes's ideals since his time, I think the definition of law is more relative. Many governments of the passed were created and maintained through fear of the powerful and the subjugation of the weak, and they all had the power to rule by legislation. Steelheart's model certainly doesn't meet Hobbes's social contract model, but that doesn't mean his model doesn't have legal authority. To me, Steelheart has the power to enact and enforce laws, and people recognize this power and abide by his laws. There are many flaws with his system, especially when viewed through an ethical lense, but that doesn't mean it's not legal in nature. Again, the protection of humanity from it's dark side might be the ideal purpose of law, but I don't think it is the only purpose. The definition of one's 'dark side' itself is relative, since what I define as dark might be different from what you define as dark, and both of us are certainly different from the definitions that Steelheart defines as dark. When the Canadian government legislates to change electoral districts to split opposition votes, is that in the interest of protecting people from their darker sides, or in the interest of maintaining power? While many laws can be seen as being protective in intent, even if they have effects that are not protective (I think Canadian Immigration Law is a prime example, but that's just me), surely there are some laws that are purely bureaucratic and arbitrary in nature, that are only remotely related to the protection of humanity, if at all. The protection of humanity from it's darker side should be the primary ambit of the law, but I feel that is more a goal that is striven for, and not always met. I would agree with your characterization of exception, but I still think a loophole is different from a legislative gap. With a loophole or exception, you have a blanket law, and then another legal provision limiting the application of that law to specific circumstances. The area is still regulated. If there is no law, then the area is not regulated at all. A 'lawful excuse' to me means an excuse created by law, not an excuse because of the absence of law. To me, an exception or loophole in a legal provision would fit this definition, but a gap because of the absence of legislation would not. Does the fact that I find this fun make me a huge nerd? I know that's not a bad thing here, but sometimes I feel like even when I'm hating the workload, I'm still enjoying school too much. EDIT: Yeah, it stretched out the reply box for me. Not sure what in the post caused it though. Usually this happens when people post images that are too large, but I don't see that happening here.

Since this was a joke character, MURDERLINA IS THE MOST SERIOUS, I'd like to start by making it clear that I'm more interested in the theoretical side of this debate. I would say it depends how you define law. Since the capitulation act gave epics the ability to do whatever they wanted, I think it freed them to rule and make their own laws. Even if it did not, what gives the law power? Is something like the Capitulation Act even effective in places where no one recognizes the authority of the government that passed it? I would say, since Steelheart wields the power in Newcago, then he (and those working under him) would have law making ability, and his laws would be effective, since its his government's power that is being recognized. Whether or not he chooses to exercise that law making ability is up to him. As for triggering the *cough weakness, I think that it would need to be an exception to an anti-murder law, such as self defense. A lack of legislation in an area is not a lawful excuse, its a legal gap. True, murdering vanillas may not be against the law, but if there is no regulation of killing, then it isn't positively reinforced by the law either. There's just a gap, and it isn't clear what people are supposed to do. While you could argue the capitulation act is in effect everywhere where no epic holds sway, I would say it means pretty much nothing technically, in less you are in an area of the Fractured States where the old government is still recognized and in some semblance of power. Laws without legitimacy or authority aren't really laws. I think what it would take to trigger a 'lawful excuse' weakness would be for there to be a law prohibiting a behaviour, such as murder, and then a positive exception to the prohibitive law, such as self-defense, or state sanctioned executions, but that's just my two cents. Interesting theoretical ideas these epics bring up, haha. Please no. What have we done to deserve this? Why are you doing this to us? Whyyyyyy????

"I want to know who Taylor is, and if she's here in the Dalles with you. If she is I must interview her. You seem like you're clean, except for this mission you keep thinking about. I need to know what that is to let you stay here, so you can tell me, or else..." Great. He wants to know about Taylor and her freaking mission. The two things I can't tell him anything about. Reader would know if he was lying though, so Brandon decided he would have to tell the truth. It would seem there were limits to his mind reading though, since he had to ask who Taylor was. Unless... could this all just be some sort of crazy test to assess his loyalty to the city? What if he tried to lie or mislead Reader, only to get caught and be executed? What if he betrayed Taylor and she found out? The Blank Space video was running through Brandon's head as he responded to Reader's question. "Taylor is... well she's Taylor Swift, like, the pop star, so she's pretty amazing." There. No lies so far, at least as far as Brandon knew. Maybe that would be enough? "She's got a lot of... well resources, right? I know it's wrong to deceive her about, you know, the whole gay thing, but really, it's a dog eat dog world out there, and every man for himself, right? A guys gotta eat, and I figured my chances would be better with Taylor Swift on my side than without her." Brandon shrugged, trying his best not to glance nervously at the door. Where had the guards gone who had brought him in? Whatever his story, it would likely need to stand up at least to a surface corroboration. "You probably know as much about her as I do. I mean, she's not exactly easy to get close to. She's never told me what her mission is, only that she's looking for someone. A human, not an epic. When we heard about The Dalles, we thought it might be a good place to look. We were separated though, and I don't know where she is now." Brandon spared a single glance towards the door. Reader's latest response had seemed a tad gentler, more due to a sense of weariness than any sort of mercy Brandon was sure. Maybe he had shared enough, and Reader would let him off the hook. After all, there had been a lot of epics in the room when Brandon arrived, and the city had just been attacked by a panda army. Surely such a useful epic had more important things to be doing. "Can I go now? I really need to use the bathroom. It's kind of been a long day..."

I intended for it to be vague so there would be room to interpret it. Generally, I think she would stay away from places like Newcago, or would come as an 'invader' in order to avoid triggering her weakness, or find other ways to murder people in the commission of another crime. If she came to The Dalles, the best way to stop her would be to welcome her to the city with open arms, give her the post of executioner, and then sentence someone to death. That person, ironically, could then kill her, haha. To prevent this, Murderlina would likely announce her arrival by sending dirty text messages from Vondra's communication device to Arsenal, and vice versa, and do whatever it took not to be welcomed. She could also cause a lot of damage from no man's land, if she fears entering a particular domain might be dangerous for her. A sample of her work: "Yo Obliteration, I totally luv JBeebs!!! XOXO Steel<3." "Sic Jams! But Im a tru Directionist. JBeebs cannot compare. U LOOK CUTE TODAY. XOXO Obliteration." "MURDERLINA RULES!!! LOLZ" ... and so on. EDIT: There's a reason that's her primary power, haha.

Because it had to be done (feel free to suggest different powers, this is just what I came up with: MURDERLINA

Now I'm trying to figure out if Taylor Swift dated Obliteration, and if so, what break-up song she would write about him...

*shudder *whimper

When I drink too much, I usually just end up complimenting people a lot. If Obliteration has a similar reaction... *Realizes this implies a similarity between self and Obliteration.* Nevermind, a drunk Obliteration is definitely a bad idea.

Well, at the very least, this attack should make Converter angry enough that if she is forced to reincarnate, it would make sense for her to have motive to come back to Corvallis for revenge. She can take the kinetic energy from the wind, but what would that do about air temperature? Also, I'm curious with how she deals with the hail stone, since her back was turned, and she used all of her energy up in the electrical attack. Since things seem to be getting heated between our characters (lol), after the next round of posts (to give Converter, Cornucopia, Chase, and the girls a chance to respond), we might want to consider work-shopping out how we want the rest of this fight to go in a PM or a google doc or something.

Blame Rainmaker. She's upset you haven't written an epic for Corvallis yet . Does Rainmaker's post still work? I have her noticing the electricity, which is why she decides not to use lightening. I'm curious to see how Converter gets out of this one, especially since she didn't seem to be ready for such an attack. EDIT: I'll get around to the wiki eventually. Sorry I'm slow! EDIT 2: Also, just in case anyone is wondering about Rainmaker's attack, it looks kind of like this, haha:

Rainmaker watched Chase's little trick with interest. On one hand, the show of power was good, as it might convince this new epic that fighting was not in her best interests. On the other hand, it could be viewed as an interruption, and Rainmaker hated being interrupted. "I am an Epic!" The newcomer was shouting now. "You have no right to even look at me without permission, let alone talk to me." She will have to learn it is my permission that matters. It would appear she had not caught on to Chase's trick, and was prepared to act out. Rainmaker began subtly working the winds high above them, creating large hail stones. She also readied her lightning, ready to attack if need be. Rainmaker was startled when the epic unleashed a wave of electrical energy on the crowd. She can manipulate electricity too? "Bossom," she whispered into her mobile, "Are you seeing this?" It would appear the epic could manipulate energy in many different forms. That would make her incredibly powerful. Rainmaker resisted the urge to run and regroup. She was in the height of her power, surrounded by allies in a location she knew well. She could not accept such insubordination without losing the city. "It looks like she can manipulate many different kinds of energy. I think it best if we attack with cold. Get your ice breath ready." "You are weaker than I thought. You're a sorry excuse for an Epic, if that's how you let your sparking normals treat us. All that talk about reprimanding them was a lie. You're too soft to be an Epic. Calamity made a mistake with you." The epic turned to leave, and Rainmaker felt light erupt from her skin as the epic's words infuriated her. No one turns their back on me and gets away with it. Not wasting any time, Rainmaker hurled one of her now bus-sized hail stones down at the epic, speeding it's progress and guiding it's path with gusts of icy wind. Next, she lowered the temperature of the air around the epic as low as she could manage, and summoned gale force winds from every direction, thick with ice and snow, to bombard her with and hold her in place. Let's see if your heat powers can save you from frostbite, little epic. Adding to her onslaught, Rainmaker created a narrow tunnel of wind, leading from Blossom to the energy epic. "I have a wind stream ready, Blossom. Cornucopia, hold off on firing until we see how she deals with my attack. If she comes out from that hail stone alive, hold nothing back." Above her, Rainmaker readied more giant hailstones, just in case the first proved unsuccessful, and pressed down on her first hail stone from above, with more icy winds.

In all seriousness (lol), we should probably try to figure out Murderlina's other powers. Somehow I doubt you get a name like Murderlina by manipulating auto-correct alone. The point of their inheritance was so provide them with established safe houses and that sort of thing. I was hoping that they wouldn't warrant the same level of infamy as the Reckoners, since they aren't actually killing anyone, so that, even while they would be easier to find than the Reckoners, they wouldn't be as worth finding. This was a pretty key element of the characters, but I see your point. Do you have any suggestions for how to make this work? Well, I would prefer to stick closely to canon, but if some slight bends are made, I guess there is precedent. I think that's a matter of perspective. If they were being useful for a year, why not keep them around? This time period could also be shortened. I'm flexible. All good questions. How does Knighthawk do it? I'm not saying these two would be anywhere near the same level as Knighthawk, and they have the added worries about staying underground, but maybe there is something there we can use? I guess we still don't know much about how Knighthawk was established, or how it has survived making epic technology in a world run by epics, or how payment works between states (don't they mention trade in Steelheart?). I'm having trouble coming up with answers, but I really like these characters, so if you have some suggestions or answers to these issues I would really appreciate it! I'm not really the Reckoners-verse expert here, so some help would be much appreciated.

Is it just me, or should "Murderlina" be an epic name? Perhaps one with a secondary power that allows her to communicate through auto-correct.