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You woke tied to a chair, but broke free. Your captors killed you, but you returned from the dead - and back to the chair. You escaped again, and were killed once more by a strange autonomous craft. After further misadventures, you escaped in earnest, and began to explore the world. You learned some things, and remembered others:
Largely, you have destroyed these people with extreme prejudice… but not all of them. You have found companions - allies:
Kelly and Chance to seek out the lesser Actives with worldwide vigilante actions; Oracle to feed you intelligence on the location of your targets and future events; And finally you, seeking the rogue Active Zoni Faife, who fled from Manos into the depths of the ocean. So far, negotiations are going poorly. But you aren’t going down that easily, because you’ll  quote:What?
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Jan 4, 2021 19:33
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| # ? May 19, 2024 04:25 |
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You felt it before you saw it. A whale, a humpback, rising out of the darkness. Your eyes narrowed, then widened. It was getting bigger. Easily double the size of a regular whale, then quadruple. Its surface was quicksilver and light, streaked by fine silver lines. Hair? Impossibly long hair, outlining the shape of a great beast made of water. Deep, deep within, a shadow with blazing blue eyes. You flexed your powers and found yourself held in place. Held! The water around you may as well have been concrete, for all you could stretch. And yet, the beast - Zoni, it must be - passed through it like it was flying. It rumbled a deep whale call that shook your teeth and belly, leaving you slightly nauseous. It was, unequivocally, a simply question. “WHAT - DO - YOU - WANT” “Listen, I'm not Manos. I'm not with Manos - those guys are bastards, and I'm basically trying to save the world from them!” The water rumbled ominously and you held up your hands. You kept her eyes while you pressed your feet against the ice for leverage. You needed space for your next trick, and being stuck in the ice like this was cramping your style. “I'm not Manos, Zoni.” You spread your arms wide, a friendly smile on your face - and your ice prison bloomed like a rose, paper-thin sheets of it peeling off to circle the water around you. The Whale charged, it's watery mouth open wide and foaming with rage or terror. Her form was disrupted by a pulse of displaced water as you shifted to take an aspect of a great obsidian whale of size equal to her own. “I AM NOT MANOS!” You burst, dissociating into a school of rainbow tuna that churned through the water around her. The figure inside the Whale turned this way and that, her eyes wide in fear or wonder. The petals of ice followed you like a whirl of leaves, flashing scenes from your previous trials against the company that had stolen from you. You interspersed the 'footage’ with vivid cartoons of you stomping on their logo. Now you were a massive squid, tentacles waving in the current of your passage. Now you were a pair of seals, dancing around her. Now you were a spray of seaweed, raining down on her from above like maple seeds. “I AM LIFE ITSELF! I fight against them for perverting my power into something darker, something base and cheap when it should rightfully be mine.” Appropriately dramatic, and true in the important places. You coalesced from a dozen different species of sea life, a food chain devouring itself until your human form was birthed, glittering, from the entrails. Arms crossed, annoyed, you waited. The Whale inverted, its face becoming its tail and vice versa, and - with a powerful slam of its tail that sent currents whirling around you - it powered away into deeper waters. The figure inside keened a wordless song as it went, stunning you momentarily as she fled. What the heck, lady?
She's fast! Hunt her down! 1B. Follow Her! [Difficulty 4 (15) , Momentum +0] Follow her, but don't engage. See where she's going. 1C. Cripple Her [Difficulty 4 (11), Momentum +0] Well, not 'cripple’ cripple. Slice off her tail or disrupt her form non-lethally. 1D. Destroy Her! [Difficulty 6 (22), Momentum +2] You got a good look at her body - explode her heart in her chest. 1E. Leave Her! [Difficulty 1 (6), Momentum -3] She's clearly harmless. Let her remain a peaceful ocean demigoddess - you have bigger fish to fry. Pun absolutely intended. 1F. Something Else! [Difficulty ???, Momentum ???] You have a better idea... ABILITIES
Never Ever Give Up: Do anything - as long as the dice are with you. [PASSIVE] Lady Of Luck: When active and Momentum is >0, reroll a failed roll and consume one Momentum. [ACTIVE] Lady Of Domination: Consume +1 Momentum to force an opponent to roll d4s. [ACTIVE] Chance Never Ever Give Up: Do anything - as long as the dice are with you. [PASSIVE] Dealer’s Choice: Chance gains +1 to roll when he uses his powers to grant support to you or Kelly. [PASSIVE] Mixed Martial Artisans: Chance gains +2 to rolls for melee combat, acrobatics, and escape artistry. [PASSIVE] Kelly-Anne KARN’s Wrath: In melee combat, KARN rolls 4d6o6! against physical attacks - on both attack and defense. [PASSIVE] Mixed Martial Artisans: KARN gains +2 to rolls for melee combat, acrobatics, and escape artistry. [PASSIVE] ORACLE Forecast: In addition to Difficulty, learn the precise roll of a given action. Always applies to options given in the list, occasionally applies to suggested options. [PASSIVE]
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Jan 4, 2021 19:34
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Interesting. Voting 1B.
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Jan 4, 2021 19:50
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1B
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Jan 4, 2021 20:24
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1:F We can tell the future via ORACLE, so do that and get to where she is going before she arrives so we can figure out what she is going to do before she does it.
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Jan 4, 2021 20:49
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-e Switched to 1F (Thaum) for the momentum grinding. Aabcehmu fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Jan 5, 2021 |
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Jan 4, 2021 21:49
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Swedish Thaumocracy posted:1:F This seems like a decent idea
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Jan 4, 2021 22:46
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Swedish Thaumocracy posted:1:F Call that Difficulty 5 - not normally so tough (because that's sort of ORACLE'S who deal) but Zoni is a special case...
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Jan 4, 2021 23:02
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1B, we have no need to flex right now, just maintain formation with Zoni.
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Jan 4, 2021 23:30
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A reminder to everyone: we lost momentum right at the start of this update, so taking some risks for extra momentum isn't a bad trade.
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Jan 5, 2021 01:15
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You hung there for a moment, irritated. You almost charged right after her, but thought better of it. Clearly Manos had hurt her, or at least driven her to this pathological desire to flee from even the mention of them. Clamping down on her hard would just drive her deeper, and this was clearly her turf - she’d held you back earlier, you, with all your power, frozen in place like a fly tacked to a board. This would take some subtlety. You flipped open your mental rolodex and drew out your (far too thin) file of pilfered Manos knowledge on Zoni Faife. South African native, no one special by all accounts except for her evident resonation with the Active Compound. Rumblings of avoidant personality disorder in her psych evaluation, but the records were fragmentary… and pulling up whatever archival footage you were able at short notice, you found out why. She’d been inducted in a Manos facility in Madagascar that was shortly afterwards hit by a freak tidal wave. Mostly superficial damage, but a good chunk of a lab had been neatly flooded and pulled beneath the waves. Afterwards, she was in the wind. You opened the part of your mind that contained ORACLE and prodded her gently. You felt a brief mental confusion, then she slid into her customary focus. <Ms. Negu. It’s four AM here, Mistress.> <What, you weren’t expecting my call? What do I pay you for?> <...How can I help, Mistress?> <Zoni Faife. She keeps slipping my clutches, and I’m sick of it. I’m going to try to focus my power through you like a prism and try to figure out where she’s going before she decides to go there and intercept. Hold still.> <I will continue to lie motionless in my comfortable bed. Try not to detonate my head or something similarly awful. Meanwhile, I will dutifully attempt not to forecast to see whether this attempt destroys me.> Smiling softly at the mental image, you poured yourself through her mind. ORACLE Interception: 5d6 23 vs. Zoni Faife: 5d6 14 [Momentum Gained! Momentum at +1] Again, you felt the jarring sensation of omni-awareness, perceiving the world through ORACLE’s unclouded eyes. You, of course, had the power to see just about anything you needed to, even the future, but this was… different. All the Actives had put a different spin on cut-down elements of your omnipotence, specializing in ways that gave them effortless advantages in their related field that you were hard-pressed to match. In this case, the future lay open to you like the roots of a great tree, spreading out from the present. You could see the paths of others, the path of Kelly and Chance and that Russian mobster guy you'd beaten up in the sewers; everyone, and all the possibilities before them. You felt them riding on a track, the driving force of the “true” story of the world… But seeing this, it was child's play to nudge someone, to cause a chain of effect that would reveal an entirely new story. This was how ORACLE did it, and this was how Manos had grown into a household name. But you were different. Looking into your own future… Your path, singly, was more complex than the others combined. Nothing was beyond you, after all, and you would never give up until you'd taken everything you deserved. But… you were getting ahead of yourself. Your tore your gaze from your future and sought out Zoni’s. Her path was strangely narrow, moreso than even the others. At a glance it was clear that in the vast majority of probable futures, she was staying underwater, forever. What could have happened to drive her down here like this? No sense in guessing, you supposed, when you could just find her and ask her. You looked an hour or so in the future, where the dividing possibilities were narrow. Most of them passed through a single point, and most of those that didn’t passed through there later on. You seized the commonalities and exploded them outwards, revealing a surprising scene. You found yourself in some deep undersea cave, nearly lightless apart from some faintly luminous lines. Hair, you realised, dozens of meters long and draped artfully around. In some places, it had clearly been arranged to make scenes; mostly fish and water iconography, but one or two hints of surface life. Here and there, fragments of manmade debris, presented like sculptures in a gallery. Clearly your target's home base. You cleared out a ten meter sphere of water, manifested an easy chair from the naked rock, and made a tea. An hour or so later, you detected her coming through an increase of pressure more than anything visual. Your sphere began to contract as the water grew dozens of times heavier, and you struggled to maintain your composure as the inexorable pressure began to tax even you. Finally, you saw her. The whale-like shell was gone, too small to fit through the tunnels, leaving only her. Naked, wreathed in long, white hair that trailed along the walls and floors like feelers. Her eyes were a jarring sky blue, lighting the tunnel with her gaze. She froze when she saw you, then in an instant her muscles tensed like she was trying to lift a great weight. The water around you began to churn and bubble...
The pressure is intense, but she needs to listen to you! She does not, however, seem happy you’re in her house… 1B. Take Control Of The Water! [Difficulty 7 (32) , Momentum +3] The water all around you should be trivial to touch, to take, to bend… but it resisted. Like trying to bend steel back when you were human! Unbearable! 1C. Drain Her Power [Difficulty 6 (28), Momentum +2] All this power - it should be yours. Steal it. Leave her with nothing! 1D. A Little Help, Chance!? [Difficulty 6 (22), Momentum +2] Chance’s simulacra was still here - maybe he could help somehow? You can pick this in addition to another option, but it obviously leaves your Chance-fish open to harm. 1E. Do Nothing! [Difficulty 1 (3), Momentum -3] She really seemed pretty harmless… by all accounts it seemed like she just wanted to hang out underwater alone, forever? Certainly she wasn’t going to harm your chances taking down Manos and Anthony. 1F. Something Else! [Difficulty ???, Momentum ???] You have a better idea... ABILITIES
Never Ever Give Up: Do anything - as long as the dice are with you. [PASSIVE] Lady Of Luck: When active and Momentum is >0, reroll a failed roll and consume one Momentum. [ACTIVE] Lady Of Domination: Consume +1 Momentum to force an opponent to roll d4s. [ACTIVE] Chance Never Ever Give Up: Do anything - as long as the dice are with you. [PASSIVE] Dealer’s Choice: Chance gains +1 to roll when he uses his powers to grant support to you or Kelly. [PASSIVE] Mixed Martial Artisans: Chance gains +2 to rolls for melee combat, acrobatics, and escape artistry. [PASSIVE] Kelly-Anne KARN’s Wrath: In melee combat, KARN rolls 4d6o6! against physical attacks - on both attack and defense. [PASSIVE] Mixed Martial Artisans: KARN gains +2 to rolls for melee combat, acrobatics, and escape artistry. [PASSIVE] ORACLE Forecast: In addition to Difficulty, learn the precise roll of a given action. Always applies to options given in the list, occasionally applies to suggested options. [PASSIVE]
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Jan 7, 2021 23:04
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1C, and Dominate ~2/3 odds of success, still gains +1 Momentum, reclaims a portion of our power, doesn't permanently harm Zoni. -e Also, we should probably not take literally all of the power. We should leave her enough that she can still, like, survive at this depth, so that we don't need to save her from drowning/getting crushed.
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Jan 7, 2021 23:15
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Voting 1A. Parley first, dominate later if necessary.
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Jan 8, 2021 00:32
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1A Successful negotiations whilst she's in her element at her place of power should be a good workout.
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Jan 8, 2021 01:44
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1B, Lady of Domination (to make us get +2 Momentum for winning while opponent rolls 1d4s vs our 1d6s).
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Jan 9, 2021 12:04
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1AF Access her dialogue tree and cherry-pick our responses to increase her attitude to us enough that she will calm down and tell us what's up.
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Jan 9, 2021 16:19
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You held up your hands in a calming gesture, but she clearly wasn’t having it. Your sphere contracted more and more until it was little more than a Nisa-shaped sheathe over your body, shimmering and bubbling as her preternaturally long hair slithered over its surface and tightened. Some vengeful part of yourself wanted to end this game and shatter her to bits or something, but you’d resolved to try this peacefully - at least once more. You took a deep breath (contracting your bubble further, oops) and tried to radiate calm blue light, like a peaceful sea under a full moon. “Zoni, listen. I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk. Ten minutes, then I’ll be out of your… hair.” Talk Her Down: 5d6+1 21 vs. [5d6 = 15] [Momentum Gained! Momentum at +2!] She looked at you, then, really looked. Her eyes were enormous, owl-like in her too-pale face, and inhuman. In their depths you thought you could see roiling waves… that suddenly settled. She blinked, her countenance sliding suddenly to something more human, and she pulled away, drifting backwards through the water without moving her limbs. “SO - TALK.” Her voice thrummed through the water and echoed off the walls, but she did not move her pursed lips. She didn’t trust you, still, but she was willing to listen - for now. Of course, now that you’d gotten her calm, what did you want to say? You’d hunted her down because she was one of the most powerful Actives around, but you hadn’t quite settled on whether you wanted her dead, drained, or just out of the way in your coming conflict with the other Actives and Manos itself. Either way, the time to find out was now.
Ask her anything you can think of, but ask her quick. The top three questions get answered. You may select this in addition to another option. 1B. REALLY Talk to Her! [Difficulty 0, Momentum -4] Really spend some time talking it out with her. She’s probably one of the beings in the world the closest to you in capacity, if not scope of abilities. Maybe it would be nice? 1C. Drain Her Power While She’s Distracted [Difficulty 5 (24), Momentum +1] Fool, for letting her guard down… 1D. Something Else! [Difficulty ???, Momentum ???] You have a better idea... ABILITIES
Never Ever Give Up: Do anything - as long as the dice are with you. [PASSIVE] Lady Of Luck: When active and Momentum is >0, reroll a failed roll and consume one Momentum. [ACTIVE] Lady Of Domination: Consume +1 Momentum to force an opponent to roll d4s. [ACTIVE] Chance Never Ever Give Up: Do anything - as long as the dice are with you. [PASSIVE] Dealer’s Choice: Chance gains +1 to roll when he uses his powers to grant support to you or Kelly. [PASSIVE] Mixed Martial Artisans: Chance gains +2 to rolls for melee combat, acrobatics, and escape artistry. [PASSIVE] Kelly-Anne KARN’s Wrath: In melee combat, KARN rolls 4d6o6! against physical attacks - on both attack and defense. [PASSIVE] Mixed Martial Artisans: KARN gains +2 to rolls for melee combat, acrobatics, and escape artistry. [PASSIVE] ORACLE Forecast: In addition to Difficulty, learn the precise roll of a given action. Always applies to options given in the list, occasionally applies to suggested options. [PASSIVE]
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Jan 12, 2021 19:35
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1B Never underestimate the utility of mental stability, and this option seems like it might give us both some.
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Jan 12, 2021 19:40
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1B Why take their power and kill when you can befriend a powerful ally instead?
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Jan 12, 2021 19:49
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1B How's life, being a megawhale?
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Jan 13, 2021 00:28
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Sure, let's have a nice chat for once. B
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Jan 13, 2021 10:15
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1B Yeah, this is worth sacrificing momentum for.
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Jan 13, 2021 11:08
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B
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Jan 13, 2021 11:22
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Okay. Okay. So. “So… Hi. I'm Nisa, and I'm some kind of goddess and basically your progenitor? I was going to say “mother” but that's sort of weird, eh?” No response from Faife, but that was better than violence. Seems like she was really in this conversation for the long haul. You took a breath and let down your hair, let down your guard. You let your air shield vanish, letting her waters rush around you. She blinked again, and whatever vestiges of tension remained in her hair she allowed to fall slack. You flicked a fingertip of awareness at your Chance simulacrum, but it - he - remained in a sort of pleasant dormancy. You didn't need him for this, but it was good to reassure yourself of your assets. No violence forthcoming, you began to tell your story. Mostly honestly, omitting only unflattering or confidential bits. How you'd started with Anthony, done his dirty work. How you'd finally escaped after his collateral, your mother, had died. How you'd lived free for precious months, almost able to take a normal life. [Momentum Lost! Momentum reset to 0!] How you'd been captured once more and died and lived and died and fought and scrambled and grew in power and learned and begun the long effort to overturn this injustice that had been performed against you, this great theft that stung you like nettles beneath your skin. This godlike power that ought to be yours, this world changing stuff that has made Manos a rising star of benevolence and philanthropy, the light of their goodness blinding the world to their dark, rotten heart. “And you, Zoni, how did they get you? How did they steal your life away and turn you into this? Not that you're not pretty badass in your own right.” “I… VOLUNTEERED, I THINK.” Her voice still echoed off the walls, reverberating through her skin instead of spoken. “I WAS… HURT, I THINK. I LOVED THE WATER. MY LIFE WAS THE WATER. RIDING THE SKIN OF IT, BRUSHING MY… FEET AGAINST ITS SURFACE. I RODE IT AT ITS HEIGHTS, I RODE IT DOWN TO THE SHORE. I WAS AT… THE TOP OF THE WORLD UNTIL I…” She made a motion with her hand, vaguely describing a crashing fall. Water followed in her wake, slamming into the floor hard enough to crack the stone and send up a turbid cloud of silt. She brushed a hand lightly, and the silt settled immediately, returning the scene to crystal clarity. “I WAS NEAR A… MANOS… FACILITY. I CANNOT KNOW WHETHER THEY… CAUSED THE INCIDENT. I WAS HURT. I WAS… AFRAID. THEY SAID THEY COULD… FIX ME. I WAS DESPERATE.” There was something in the water now, a sort of oily sheen. You could almost taste it. Pheremones? Something… you drifted along with the rainbow patterns, trailing hairs outlining a young Zoni, body broken, blood flowing freely from triple compound fractures. You felt a sympathetic flash of pain, washed away as the scene passed. The broken doll was taken by a great hand, lifted bodily and carried to a cage by the sea. “THEY OFFERED ME SOMETHING. THEY SAID I WAS… SUITED FOR IT. THAT I WAS EXTREMELY… COMPATIBLE.” Something passed into the doll, and it became whole… but something was taken, too. You’d seen this before, with the others. You indicated the scene with a pulse of light. “What did they take from you in exchange for this?” A ripple of a shrug, the current from her motion bobbing you up and down. “I CANNOT… SAY. I TOOK THEIR OFFER. THEY FIXED ME… THEY TESTED ME… THEY SAID I COULD DO MORE, BE MORE THAN I WAS… IF ONLY I WOULD GO A LITTLE FURTHER… PUSH HARDER… I PUSHED. I PULLED. I PUSHED. I PULLED.” All at once her hair, pulled taut, churned the water, pulled the scene into a great curling arc that slammed down towards the cage by the sea. It broke like a child’s toy, and they doll was drawn out as it withdrew. “THEY CHASED ME… THEY BROUGHT… THINGS INTO THE DEPTHS, CAME FOR ME WITH GUNS AND HOOKS AND NETS. I… BROKE THEM, LIKE THEY BROKE ME. AND THEN… I RODE THE WATERS. DOWN AND DOWN AND DOWN AND… NOW I AM HERE. AND NOW YOU ARE HERE. AND NOW…” She looked at you expectantly. And “now what” hung in the blue waters between you. She knew your story, you knew hers. You were gunning for Manos, and she sequestered herself down below their reach. She knew you wanted her power - your power - but she wouldn’t relinquish it easily. Couldn’t, if she wanted to stay here. Now what, indeed.
Query your crew about what to do. Ultimately you were the boss, but doubtless they have their own opinions. 1B. Now What!? [Difficulty ???, Momentum ???] What to do… Faife was calm now, but the situation remained tense. Short of leaving her alone outright, things were liable to get heated quickly. Abilities posted:
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Jan 17, 2021 23:16
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Reach into the story and take back what they took from her.
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Jan 18, 2021 01:02
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Swedish Thaumocracy posted:Reach into the story and take back what they took from her. Pretty abstract, call it Difficulty 7
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Jan 18, 2021 02:18
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Use the story to take a really close look and at what was taken and what they did with it
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Jan 18, 2021 08:09
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vorebane posted:Use the story to take a really close look and at what was taken and what they did with it +1 ^^^ this. Rather than grabbing it from the memory, we identify what it was and locate where it is now and promise to get it back to her, perhaps with her help.
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Jan 18, 2021 08:35
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Use the story to weave a skein of myriad futures: Where we see what was taken, where we prevent it from being taken in the first place, where we retrieve it now, where we promise to retrieve it. Of those potentia, choose the best and make it real.
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Jan 18, 2021 14:24
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vorebane posted:Use the story to take a really close look and at what was taken and what they did with it AJ_Impy posted:Use the story to weave a skein of myriad futures: Where we see what was taken, where we prevent it from being taken in the first place, where we retrieve it now, where we promise to retrieve it. Of those potentia, choose the best and make it real.
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Jan 18, 2021 14:46
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Well, you’d talked. She didn’t want to kill you now, which was good… but you needed to make some actual inroads on your purpose for being here. As you continued to talk about idle things (she was beyond reluctant to talk about the surface world - she clearly remembered her time there, but found little value in it) you pored over your memories of the conversation. The story squirmed before you like some translucent undersea worm, its organs visible only dimly through the flesh. You imagined the answers you sought as parasites crawling through it, even more ethereal than the story itself. You reached out for it, keeping your face still and pleasant as you played your part. Investigate The Story: 5d6 22 vs. 5d6 20 [Momentum Gained! Momentum at +1!]
You shook your head, the thoughts breaking up and floating away from you like tetra fish. In your experience Manos had taken all sorts of strange intangible things, but Humanity? Was that why she was… like this? You watched her move around here, and it was uncanny as hell. She had a human body, but you hadn’t seen her use her hands even once, or blink for anything other than emphasis. Whatever her appearance, she was closer to those dolphins in thought pattern (if not mood) than any human you knew. You weren’t sure what you thought about that.
It was strange, but that wasn’t bad in and of itself. Maybe it worked for her? 1B. You Felt Disgust More Manos taint. She looked fine enough, but she would, wouldn’t she, when they took from her the very element that would qualify that. 1C. You Felt Sadness What a strange, sad creature this was. Alone forever beneath the sea, cut off from the experiences of the land above. And for what? Some strange goal of Manos? Some quirk of the Active process? 1D. You Felt Something Else It was complicated. You struggled to think of the words...
Imprint this moment upon the world in case things get messy. Or not. Maybe things would be fine.
Engage in hostilities with the goal of destroying her utterly. She was too powerful to be allowed to live, and for all you knew she’d get stronger. 3B. Leave Her She wanted nothing to do with Manos or with you, and that was good enough for you. 3C. Recruit Her She wanted nothing to do with Manos, but maybe you could change that. Maybe you could get her on your side in this fight. 3D. Befriend Her Don’t make her fight for you, just… befriend her. She must be lonely, down here. Give her someone to talk to, maybe draw her out of herself - or else go with her on her journey to become something other than human. 3E. Depower Her She didn’t need to die, but she DID need to give you back that power. You needed it. You wanted it, and it was yours anyhow! ABILITIES posted:
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Jan 22, 2021 06:40
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1: C 2: Nah 3: Uh... let's try... inverting her? That should make her the most human human there ever was, and also powerless. Just make sure to do it above water i guess?
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Jan 22, 2021 17:23
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1D 3D Perhaps we can help her perceive what her existence would be with humanity restored. In either case, regardless of Manos, be on good terms and see where that leads us.
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Jan 22, 2021 17:49
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1D - She has become something amazing, something perhaps she'd truly want to have been? But she was forced into that mold by Manos. A great crime. 2 no 3C
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Jan 22, 2021 19:21
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1D - All of the above: You are mostly fine so long as Zoni Faife is okay with her new form, but you are disgusted - outraged even - that Manos would take such things from her and alter her memories so. Zoni being so alone also makes you sad... 2A Save often, you chuckleheads. We don't want to do this all over again. 3D Friends don't force other friends to endanger themselves.
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Jan 22, 2021 20:58
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You floated there with her for a while, saying nothing. For Zoni it was probably her natural state - fish weren't thrilling conversationalists as far as you knew - and she seemed perfectly fine to hang there motionless like some sort of sea wraith. She wasn't just doing nothing, you knew. Fine hairs stretched long tendrils out and around the cave, twitching with the currents and feeling the water. This whole place was her nervous system, and she stretched out enormously beyond her physical bounds. She was less human than you were in some ways. It made you feel… Complicated. It was an ill thing that Manos had done this to a person, any person, with your stolen essence. Either they'd some it as part of a nefarious plan, or they were meddling beyond their means and had made a mistake. But either way they'd made… Her. Wonderful, strange her. In a world that was rapidly falling under your control, she was a mystery. If you took this from her, if you took her “under your wing”, she'd become yours; even if you gave her free rein, she would fall into your destiny, and you'd sooner or later know everything about her. You found you weren't willing to do that. Instead… “Alright, Mrs. Faife, I've made a strange decision. I will not cease my waste with Manos, but you? I'll leave you out of it. What they did to you… Even I don't know whether it's good or bad, or even if those matter. You've found a place for yourself here, and I'm not going to take it from you.” You paused, and she said nothing, though she was clearly listening intently. You held out your hand. After an awkward pause, she quirked a limb and water slithered tight against your palm and wrist. “FRIENDS, THEN. I HAD FRIENDS… BEFORE, I THINK. YOU WILL BE THE… FIRST, HERE.” Another awkward pause. You ventured: “I saw your art along the walls when I got here. With the… Water and the hair? Pretty good. Do you like that sort of stuff?” She said nothing, but slid backwards towards the cave mouth, eyes watching you. A current drew you behind her, and you let it. Faster and faster, until the water tugged at your skin and drew your face into a half-unwilling grin. Then you stopped, with a deceleration that felt like hitting concrete. You were in an… Undersea valley of some kind, a shallow trench like some ancient giant dragging their toes through sand. And everywhere, every inch of it, was covered in crisscrossing hair. It shone dully in the gloom, picking out streets and cars, buildings and people, all woven and pulsating as the water passed into it and through it. “I LIKE TO… MAKE. SOME THINGS FROM BEFORE, SOME FROM NOW, SOME FROM... MAYBE LATER?” She brought her body to a kneel, crouching among the hairs that suddenly went slack at her approach. She touched them gingerly with pinching fingers, then hauled them up in a shockingly fast whirl of her upper body. They flowed with a chaotic beauty and settled into… You. A perfect mirror image, woven of stolen moonlight and the sea. “COME AND SEE THIS WHENEVER YOU WANT… I WILL BE HERE IN THE WATERS OF THIS WORLD. IF THE WORLD ABOVE GROWS… TIRESOME… SEEK BELOW.” --- You spent another two days with her, exploring, but you couldn't stay still. You were impelled to the surface, impelled towards your destiny and your dominion. She wasn't going to be coming with, but it wasn't as though she'd be hard to find now that you knew of her. And so you left, but not before...
You wanted to give her a little something. A token, some information, a TV. Something small and amusing, or heartfelt - you decide. 1B. Learning Some Tricks [Difficulty 6](30) She had serious skills with water. You had all sorts of tools in your kit, but specialisation like this was nothing to shrug at. You try to watch and learn, but it's tough. So much easier to have just devoured her... 1C.Something Else] You had a particularly clever idea.
See what Kelly and Chance were up to. Living that superhero life, by all accounts, taking down Actives and bloodying Manos’ nose. 2B.Go after another Active [Difficulty 5](11) You had a few more heavy duty Actives on your list, almost certain to be a little less friendly than Zoni. Get started on that. 2C.Go after a Manos Facility [Difficulty 6](27) Take the fight right to them. Their security should be higher than previously due to you and your allies’ mucking about (though due to assorted metaphysical shenanigans you'd covered your tracks), but you could handle it. Probably. Unless they'd figured out some other crazy poo poo. 2D. Find Anthony [Difficulty 8](44) That bastard had been the cause of all this, whatever else went down since. If nothing else, you REALLY wanted to have a chat with him. At very least punch him in the nose. Alas, as usual, weird interference made pinpointing him nearly impossible. You try anyhow. 2E.Something Else[Difficulty ???] You had a better idea - but you needed to MOVE. Something active, something impactful. Abilities posted:
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Jan 28, 2021 03:58
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1C Leave a gift AND create a bond of communication and protection. 2B Make a list of Actives.
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Jan 28, 2021 04:52
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1B 2E track down individual manos employees to fleece for info and what have you
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Jan 29, 2021 04:57
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1C Not before you offered to retrieve her lost humanity if she wanted it.
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Feb 3, 2021 18:16
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| # ? May 19, 2024 04:25 |
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vorebane posted:2E track down individual manos employees to fleece for info and what have you[/b] Difficulty 5 if you want to be pretty thorough - Oracle can basically get you any of that easily, but for Difficulty 5 and up you can get more and more granular about it.
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Feb 3, 2021 18:21
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