School of the Artful Psion [IC]

[Lochar]

May 2021

You're not certain what you were expecting when called. For the past few weeks and months, you could feel the pressure in your mind, the ache from your psychic talent wanting to burst. Something you had never noticed until recently with the teaching and training provided by the Artful Psion instructors.

"Focus. Instead of shattering a window with a hammer, you are merely tapping on a pane of glass." Why though? Throwing your power out there as strongly as possible always produced the best results.

"The difference between everything and a partial, is something. Continue blowing a balloon up and it will eventually pop. Save your breath and you can possibly use it for something else." Well, that wasn't a good analogy. Heads don't pop, after all.

"Structure. What do you don't throw into your talent, you can use to build guides for it." It doesn't need guides, it just needs to go forth and allow you to conquer.


But they never stopped you from using your power as you chose, so long as during your lessons you followed instructions. And so you built for yourself optional controls and focii. You learned to sense the extra energy you didn't use when your talent was held back from infinity. And as you continued to use your power without those controls, you learned to feel the stretching of your self as Threshold approached. Infinity getting ever smaller.


"And now you sit here before us all, asking yourself and us. 'Is this how I defeat Threshold? By learning that barrier and never crossing it?'" Dean Iran shakes his head. "No. Because as you can feel, that line has been getting ever closer, with each usage of your talent."

"Instead, you will cross Threshold while we buffer and provide for you." Trina smiles, and ecto begins manifesting in the nearly empty room. It builds around each of the teachers and yourself, and you can vaguely feel a mental image of each of them in your mind as well. A psionic ability, and not your own. Chau had retained quite a fragment of her own original ability, apparently. The energy seemed to demand something of yourself, some of the energy you harbored that invoked your talent. You could sense that to fail to meet the demand would break you from her connection, and so you gave as needed.

It took all that energy from you, leaving you feeling almost scrapped raw in your mind. Like the wrong push would send you careening through a wall you desperately did not want to see the other side of. You slump slightly in the comfortable chair.

"While I lead the school, here Trina conducts this effort. She coordinates our power on your behalf." Iran nods to you.

"I will invoke Aurity's power, and you will see your life as choices you can remake. Her power is the same as what happens during Threshold, except controlled. You will make no choices." Trina warns. "Instead, we can all sense your focus and ability. You will instead expend your focus, throw it away while keeping in mind Michael's training while pushing your talent as hard as you can. Beyond anything you have ever asked of it before."

You startle.

"Hank's power is literally power itself. We will bestow upon you our collective energy to provide the fuel for the reformation while your talent breaks the barrier of self. Only then will you make your choices of your life. Michael's training of you and his own inclusion in this group will ensure that whatever your choices be, your mind will continue."

Trina's voice echos inside her power itself now. 'Once, Aurity's power could let you remake your life's lessons without issue. Past Threshold though, it doesn't retain that ability. You will likely be dizzy for a day as your mind settles.'

'Begin.'


For a long moment, every option you could have taken in life spreads out before you. Thousands of possible choices, millions of possible lives you could have lived. As you push yourself into Threshold, something else gives though. Something inside you shifts, beginning to draw upon your power that has nothing to give. Your body feels like it burns before power infuses you. Not enough to replace your talent, but enough to address those possibilities once more.

And beyond the veil of Threshold you behold a new existence, fueled by your own power. Where once you had an infinite well of a single speck of talent, now you realize there is so many more options. As you begin choosing your 'life' you realize the power of your dying talent will only take you so far.

And as that talent dies, so too does your consciousness. You black out.



Birchcliff Hall
Approximately 9AM
The sight of the infirmary in the Birchcliff hall building isn't an unusual one, for people training with sometimes explosive powers. Thankfully, when you wake up you're not actually in the intensive care areas, where several students double as healers, rapidly pushing people through healing days or restoring self inflicted physical wounds.

Instead, you're actually still fully clothed, just tucked onto a gurney with your shoes pulled off. The room looks a little thrown together, and you see a few others in the room stirring as well. A clock on the wall shows early morning, which means at least a night has passed.

Regardless of your privacy with the others that are sleeping in here, at least the door into the main part of the building is closed. A window in the room shows the nice weather of May in the Florida panhandle.



As normal for psychic abilities, your powers are all ingrained in your mind, etc. As much as a mindscrew as Threshold was, it also counts as a full night of rest for all of you as well.

What's different is the fact that your character definitely wasn't expecting what they got. And while in character it isn't classes, you all got a glimpse of just how varied and interesting psychic gifts can really get.

[Benoojian]

Vincent, excited to see what remains of his powers, jumps up and finds the most critical patient to try his abilities out on. He holds his hand to the sleeping man's forehead but instead of stabilizing a dying man, a small portion of his injuries flow into Vincent, like a wave of exhaustion. He watches flesh knit back together. His old power had a built in limit, he could only bring hem to the brink of death and stabilize them there. Now it seems he can go further, though there was a cost now, something that drained in him when he healed in different ways. Rather than a quirk, he could bring true health back to people. He left the once feverish boy, now sleeping peacefully. to find the others who had gone through the process, "I think something went wrong in the process." He felt two new abilities slot into place in his mind, Animal Affinity and Empathic Healing. And another, a power he hadn't expected at all...the power to create? He made a simple lump of ectoplasm appear in his hand, and the crystalline matter never faded.

[Lochar]

Assuming Vincent didn't actually rush out the closed door, the other people in the room are the ones that went through the procedure, and are in good health. Do you want to actually jump you straight out of the room before the other players wake up? Heck, let's go with it.

Vincent, seeing the others in the room aren't injured at all, rushes out the door into the main area of the infirmary. Ignoring a nurse calling his name, he quickly finds the critical area. While there are always people who have pushed themselves to the brink of their power, most people don't end up nearly killing themselves so Vincent's power usually pushes to the point of him knowing that they aren't at the brink. It is the same with the most injured person he finds, a young man who Vincent recalls had some sort of energy ray ability.

As the wounds flow off of the man, the nurse finally catches up. "Dr. Roth, you know better than to just charge through... What on earth?" She stares at the now healed man who is looking at his own missing wound in wonder. Both miss Vincent's comment.

[Sønderjye]

Threshhold

Mads is brimming with excitements and anxiousness. He trusted Eternal, he really did. But this was untested and all, and something could very well go wrong. But it probably wouldn't, it Eternal had succeeded on himself after all and Mads had been dilligent in following the instructions.

Finally though, finally he would get to be himself full time instead of having to ration his time between his dull unenhanced self and his true self. He could be his true competent self full time.

As the ritual draws to a climax he closes his eyes and exhales, trying to calm himself. A moment later he suddenly opens his eyes to see an overwhelming lightshow. Thousands and thousand interconnected lights of infinity. He draws comfort from the presense of the inferno that is his true self and in that confidence he explores the lights.

This.. This was impossible. He could have multiple powers? It was almost blasphemic, everyone knew that psionics only had one gift. Even so he felt that he could choose to forgoe his true self in order to walk a road in the light network. It struck him that this probably wasn't a fluke but rather was how this new process worked. That meant that others would come later and have the same choices.

He suddenly had a realization. It would come to strife and combat somewhere down the road. This was too threatening to the governments of the world and even if it wasn't, an outright psionic war clearly had the potential to destroy everything.

He wanted to choose to be his true self but he couldn't, not with so much at stake. He sighed and with resolve turned his back to his former power and instead try to absorb the lightshow.

They would need to work together. [Unity] his mind bellowed and he saw some lights brighten and others dim. Still too many lights. [Collaboration], [Coordination], [Companionship], his mind ordered and he saw a path spread out from him. He didn't know if it was the right one but it would have to do.

He send a longing look towards the power that would have allowed him to be himself. The sense of loss was palpable. But he had made his choice and all that was left was to follow it. He focused onto the 'life' laid out in front of him and stepped onto it.

Birchcliff Hall

Mads opens his eyes with a groan. His mind felt as if someone had used it as a football. A moment later he remembers what happened and tears start forming in his eyes. He really had just given up on his one chance of really being himself.

He lies still for a while just processing what just happened until he is brought back to reality by Vincent's statement. He unintentionally broadcasts his reaction: '[Confusion]', the feeling appear in Vincents mind with vague associations of a heartwarming smile and the sound of keys being pressed that makes it feel distinctly not his. It's followed up with something something between a feeling and a request: '[Clarification?]'

[Lochar]

The nurse trails Vincent into the room. "You were brought in unconscious, you shouldn't be running around."

She then sees the rest of you beginning to stir. "Well good morning to all of you. Will you at least stay here long enough that I can check you over?". She gives a gimlet eye to Vincent especially. "I don't care what procedure your talking about, I need to at least make sure you're all well."

[Sønderjye]

Mads looks over once the duo comes in.

'[Curiosity/Trepidation] Should we be worried? Will we be allright?', he asks.

I'll just say that he's broadcasting his thoughts telepathically instead of talking with emotions attached. Strictly speaking they need to accept being part of the collective first so I guess they can choose not to accept the mental prod.

[Laughingmanlol]

The well-built man with the blond crew cut sits up and rubs at his watery eyes with thick fingers.

"No argument here, ma'am," he says, "though I'll be glad to get out of here."

Benjy yawns, stretches, then frowns. Cracking his knuckles and shaking his fingers out only deepens his frown as the expected burst of vitality fails to manifest. Changing tack, he switches to the ectoplasm-shaping exercises taught over the past few years. With a look of intense focus, a sphere of the viscous unformed substance appears at his fingertip and slowly forms into a thimble.

"Uh, anyone else having performance issues? I can make ecto like before, better even, but my talent isn't doing its thing." He asks sheepishly over the telepathic link, joining it without thinking and only then realising he communicated without opening his mouth. "Okay, this is really weird. Who can hear me? That was you over the link, right, Mads? I think we need to speak to the professors about what happened."

[Lochar]

The nurse waves her hand in front of her face, like she's trying to brush the connection away. She then pulls a light and checks eyes. "You have fine pupillary reactions, so no concussions. Physically you are all fine as well."

She clicks the light off. "There's a note for you all from last night to get the Dean or Trina when you all woke up. If you'll stay here for a little longer, I'll call."

She pokes Vincent. "No healing unless you fill out their paperwork. You know that."

[Toliudar]

Kirby

This wasn't Kirby's first time - or even second, or third time - waking up on a gurney, but usually the experience was cushioned by someone administering The Good Drugs. Whether she actually needed them or not, with her gift. But this was different. Cold turkey, so to speak. And with a fair chunk of her mind still whirling around and picking at the edges of the experiences of Threshold.

She heard voices, and heard her colleagues from the school talking. And 'talking'. She'd have to get used to that someday. Today was not that day.

Carefully, Kirby went through a self-assessment. No broken bones. Sensation seemed to be unimpaired in all extremities. Normal range of motion in most joints. Her head was still aching, but that could be the...iowasca? Whatever it was.

She tuned into the voices around her. Unlike Benjy and Vincent, she was in no hurry to test out her power. If for any reason it WASN'T there, it'd be a hell of a thing to find out. Although a hospital would be the right place for that.

Swinging her legs carefully over the side, she pivoted to a seating position and offered her fellow students a weak smile.

"Right. Not something I want to make a Thursday tradition. Everyone okay?"

[Rokku]

Mila's eyes flutter open. She groans, and struggles to pull herself up to a seated position. Blurry eyes take in unfamiliar surroundings.

Unfamiliar. She didn't know where she was. Old fears surged up from deep in her guts. Panic. Paranoia. PROTECT YOURSELF.

With a scream she flung herself to her feet, roiling psionic power pouring off her in waves. Stumbling, she slammed hard into the floor.

Growling, she hauled herself up to hands and knees.

"Get your **** together, Mila..." she hissed. Breath control. Centering. Everything she'd learned before Threshold.

Carefully, she pulled herself to her feet. And as she did, her surging power coalesced. Stabilized. Plates of psychokinetic armor sliding into place over her body. A great blade forming in her hands.

Slow, deep breaths. Master your mind. You rule you.

Panic subsiding. Mila looked down at herself.

"Huh. That's new."

[Lochar]

"Annd I think I'll just go make that call now." The nurse stumbles back at Milia's armor forming, then catches herself before moving out of the room. Mads feels her drop from his collective rapidly.

There's a slight touch of strain to her voice as you hear her on the phone outside. "Yes, can you tell the Dean they woke up? Or Trina. Dr. Roth was talking about a process..." her voice trails off quieter.

[Sønderjye]

"Uh, anyone else having performance issues? I can make ecto like before, better even, but my talent isn't doing its thing." He asks sheepishly over the telepathic link, joining it without thinking and only then realising he communicated without opening his mouth. "Okay, this is really weird. Who can hear me? That was you over the link, right, Mads? I think we need to speak to the professors about what happened."

Mads blinks a few times, only then realizing that the conversation were happening telepathically. He had spoken telepathically! That had never been something he had been able to do before.

{[Confusion] Yes? It seems like it's something I can do now. Who else can hear us?} Mads replies to Benjy and who else might be in the collective.

He then switches to normal speech: "I'm okay. It seems that something was different and we have gained different abilities than we thought. Should we go through what we're able to do now?"

"Mila, what can that thing do?"

[Toliudar]

Sitting up on her gurney, Kirby watches a what, a lightsabre? form in Mila's grip. And then Mads started speaking into her head directly? Great. She hadn't even liked the new Star Wars movies. Well, maybe if she played her cards right, she could be the Mandalorian.

She thought briefly about the show, and then realized that something was forming over her arms. Something that looked suspiciously like Mandalorian armour. Great. Now she wasn't just unoriginal, she was going to get sued by Disney for a copyright infringement.

Okay. Let's see. If I'm starting to envision herself as the Mandalorian, then it's very important right now not to think about missiles, blasters or flamethrowers. This is a hospital, for chrissakes. So what did that leave? Jetpacks? Hilarious. Wouldn't be it be funny if she found herself -

Oh ****.

Slowly, Kirby started to drift up off of her gurney, slowly, slowly. She tried very hard not to freak out about that, and nudged herself a little bit to the left, and then to the right. HFS. Kirby extended her arms, struggling to maintain equilibrium. Then her head bumped up against the ceiling, and she crashed five feet back down onto the gurney.

"F*ck me! Didn't see that coming. I think you're right, Benjy. This is definitely more than 'making better use of our powers."

[Rokku]

"Hell if I know," she responds, "used to be I could call whatever weapon I needed from... somewhere. Now... all this."

She looks over herself again, the transparent armor covering her a soft, calm blue, the sword in her hands a steady, mellow yellow.

"But it's armor and a sword, right? So... kinda self-explanatory."

[Lochar]

A nearly cramped infirmary room probably isn't the best place to begin showing off new powers to each other, though you do have a chance to at least give each other the basics of what was changed or gained. Shortly after that, Trina shows up and whisks you off to a conference room when you all confirm for her you do remember yourselves.

In the conference room are the same four as when you went through Threshold. Several classes probably were cancelled with no notice.

There's a small tray of wrapped snacks and drinks, probably raided from a vending machine on short notice. After you all get settled, the dean starts the conversation. "We expected headaches, dizziness, and things of that nature. We didn't expect unconsciousness." He nods to Mads. "And we would have stopped at yours, except the rest of you were so close to Threshold already if we didn't go through with it yesterday, it would have been days before you went through it yourself."

He pauses. "So, did it work?"

[Benoojian]

{[Apprehension] Do we tell them everything? I was too caught up in the idea of keeping my power to think about what came next. Should we keep the Telepathy a secret for now?} Vincent had already shown part of his power, so that couldn't be held back. "Yes and no. My original power is gone, completely, replaced by somehing different, but similar. Rather than stabilizing I have true and instant healing, in at least two different ways." He emphasized the number, since that was supposed to be impossible. There was enough to explain from everyone else that he held back the rest, at least until he figured out what the school wanted from them now.

[Sønderjye]

Seeing the food Mads realizes that his stomach is feeling painfully empty. Before placing himself at the table he ensures that he brings a sizable meal.

{[Confusion] Why would we keep it to ourselves? That seems like a disfavour to our teachers} Mads asks back.

"Kind of," he replies to Iran. "I have retained all my memories and when we chatted earlier I didn't notice anything out of place with the others. Or at least if I have lost any memories I don't remember what they were."

He pauses briefly and then continues once again serious: "As Vincent, I can't use my prior power. When I went through Threshhold I.." he pauses, not wanting to say different lives, that would be superstitious nonsense: "I was able to change my power to something else entirely and I now have a range of powers that seem slightly weaker. I believe the most important ones are that I now can allow people to share their skills as well as augment skills and grant minor temporary boons, can detect psionics, can psionically make some permanent things, and with some preparation use the powers of others"

"I take it that this was also not expected?"

[Toliudar]

Kirby

Kirby works to consciously remove the armour, instead forming it into a comfortable long-sleeve T and pants. She finds her boots and follows the others out. She sends back to the group.

{I don't think that holding back anything at this point serves any of us.}

She hikes an eyebrow at Iran.

"I can't speak for the others. I definitely feel like I can do more than I could before. And I need to watch less TV."

She glances around at those in the waiting room.

"So, next. Do you need to, I don't know, probe us to find out the results or something?"

[Lochar]

"Well, if I was going to just be a battery, hell of a thing to jump start." Hank laughs, even as everyone else is scribbling down notes as fast as they can.

Aurity is the first to question more. "Your talent molded, grew, changed? Nothing I knew of my power should have done anything like that. We had assumed with my power active, you could literally just relive your life again and retain your full memories."

"My sister and I retained as much memory as we did, due to our own powers." Ms. Chau adds. "But nothing as you describe." She shakes her head. "I could only wish we did."



Dean Iran looks at the other three, before looking back at you all. "I want to apologize, because what happened wasn't what any of us expected. But this does change things. As sudden as this is, I would like to extend additional time at the school to you, to assist in further understanding what happened." He frowns. "I'm certain some of the school's backers are already writing job offers for you all, on the basis of a stable talent. Changed abilities will probably put you in even more demand."

[Sønderjye]

"Your talent molded, grew, changed? Nothing I knew of my power should have done anything like that. We had assumed with my power active, you could literally just relive your life again and retain your full memories."

"I saw multiple adjacent paths I could have taken. I suspect that your power might allow me to shift my path thus accessing other powers. We should try that out."

"Apology accepted," he replies to Ivan: "Before accepting, I would like to hear a little more about your long term plans with the school. With the options available I imagine that we can become fully self-reliable sometime soon and if the next batch of students acquire similar powers as we did it could have significant impacts on the wider world."

[Lochar]

"Self-reliant." Iran chuckles. "The human race will never be complacent enough to ever be truly self-reliant or self sufficient. Solve one problem, five more appear. Teach a man to fish, and he'll depopulate the lake."

Chau glowers at Iran as he speaks.

"But yes, I had high hopes that with enough of the right talents, we could move beyond the need for fights over resources. Over the day to day necessities that life demand of us. But to say I can do it today? No. There isn't enough time in a day even if you all had my exact pre-Threshold talent to cover what humanity needs."

"We're a deadend." Chau spits out.

"Dammit." Hank mutters.

Trina points at Kirby. "You want to know one of those five problems? I haven't held a child under my heart for over two millenia. Not since before my own Threshold connecting what was probably three quarters of the known world together mentally. I hope you were not looking forward to children." She waves her hand at everyone. "You're all a step forward from what we can do. No one cares that I can bring a few minds together. Aurity doesn't really let it be known you could relive your life under her hands, remaking a lifetime of bad learning. Hank wouldn't be useful for anyone."

"Gee, thanks."

"And until this school, Michael could have lived an unknown life quietly being rich with no one the wiser." Trina continues on. "I agreed to assist because losing people to Threshold is not acceptable. You" she points to Mads "said you saw multiple paths you could have taken and think Aurity's power could let you chose again. Do you realize how careless you sound? Governments over many lifetimes would have killed for people that could be empowered exactly as they wanted them to be. I wish for the world to change as well, but be careful in how you wish to change it. You might find someone else in command with us just as the tools, the mules."

Chau says something in an unknown language, throwing herself back in her chair. "I am still here to assist my students, though I have a feeling soon in the future I will be the student to you all."

Hank just shakes his head, while Aurity pats Trina's shoulder. Michael seems like he wants to say more, but isn't quite certain how to answer Chau's statements just yet.


Sorry, Chau got away from me already!

The unknown language sounds vaguely Asiatic. Those of you who speak a language from that region may attempt a Linguistics check, because none of you speak it. Or you can throw Knowledge: History at it.

[Benoojian]

Vincent takes 20 to focus as they are speaking. [{Respect} It is a worthy quest, and nearly the same as mine. Though I want to save everyone] Vincent idly wondered if grandiose thoughts were a symptom of Threshold, not a one of them dreamed small. "There is something else, a minor talent that might assist in your quest. I think you would call it detect psionics." Vincent scanned the room, feeling them light up in his mind, "Every single person in this room pings as psionic, without even using your power. I think it can find people with gifts even when they don't know they have it"

The language definitely wasn't mandarin but it tickled at the back of his mind.

[Benoojian]

(forgot you can't use preview and roll)

[roll0]

[Laughingmanlol]

Benjy nods seriously. He's been munching his way through the vending machine protein bars and sports drinks while listening to the others, and now he pushes the discarded wrappers aside.

"It sounds like we could use a cover story to buy us time to figure out what the hell happened and what we should do about it," he says, pulling the thimble from before out of his pocket to put on the conference table. " For what it's worth, it feels like I picked up a talent for making permanent ecto-stuff like Dean Iran's. I made this when I woke up and I haven't had to do anything to maintain it yet. Getting training from the master of it seems like a good excuse to postpone any job offers."

He closes the ragged notebook he's been jotting down ideas in. (It has "READ THIS FIRST" written on the cover in a dozen languages.) Leaning forward, he lowers his voice.

"Long-term, though, we need a game plan. How beholden are we to the feds or the donors? Are there any we can trust to see the big picture, take the long view?" He pauses for a moment, deciding whether to continue. "If we just need time, if I can make food that sticks around, we could **** off to the wilderness or to international waters and take as long as we need. One of the receivers on the team spent his gap year in a hippy commune, going off-grid ain't hard. Burning the backers would probably give us more time before they're willing to try the project again, too. But picking up latent psionics, giving them a controlled threshold, and building a team sounds a lot more world-changing, and for that we'll need to be near a population center and have backing, like we currently do. Provided we're thinking along the same lines of what changes to make, which isn't a given."

Benjy's telepathic presence is somewhat muted. "Do we even know who the telepath is? I know it's not me. I say it's their call on whether to reveal it, just like if I tested my thimble-making with you guys around and wanted to keep it a secret after."

[Rokku]

"All of this is beyond me," says Mila, "I still don't even know why you all picked me for this, but I knew I didn't wanna turn into a zombie so I took the opportunity. And now?"

Her eyes close. Deep breaths. Again she's wrapped in the soft blue armor, holding the warm yellow blade.

"Now I'm this. Some kind of warrior? I don't know. But you're talking about changing the world, and I'm just a girl with a sword."

Don't tell them more than they need to know, thinks Mila, I still don't trust all of this.

[Lochar]

"You were 'picked'" the Dean starts "because when we met with you all, you were the ones that utilized your talent the most often, the ones we thought were most likely to burn through to Threshold fastest. You all have lived through the daily use of your talent in one way or another."

"About six hundred students. Three US military members with active orders putting them in here, probably a few more added without us knowing once the criteria was figured out." Hank adds. "Thirty or so foreign students, with three of those coming from sponsors. Who knows if the rest report to other governments." Hank shifts a bit. "A lot of the other students took this school a lot more carefully, to see if the promise we made was actually real. Whoever was first was going to make or break us anyways. I figure we've got a day or two before students start asking if you all made it through with your heads intact. We didn't really hide the fact that some students were going to go through Threshold this week, after all."

"As for your question Benjy, I would suggest most of our actual backers from various labs and other schools would be able to take a big picture view of this, if only because our original premise came with the idea that someone's ability wouldn't be tied to political funding." Aurity answers. "And Dr. Roth, does the ability allow you to determine what someone's talent may be, or only that they have a talent at all?"

[Toliudar]

Kirby squints for a moment, and then nods.

"I can't speak for Vincent, but my sensitivity only extends to the presence of this kind of energy, and a vague sense of how 'brightly' you're glowing. Not what you're capable of."

She stares at each of the instructors in turn. Her voice is soft.

"F*** me."

Linguistics check and her mandarin background to get some sense of what was said: 1d20+3z

Edit. I'll roll OOC

[Lochar]

The sounds and phrasing sounds vaguely like Mandarin, but you can't really pick any words out of it.

Aspiration and rough breathing appear to play a part in the language.

You recognize enough to pick up that it's likely a form of Old or Archaic Chinese, from the Zhou dynasty, pre 500BC.


What are you cursing at? The teachers, if you're kicking off detect psionics, only detect as faint auras, same strength as the rest of you.

[Toliudar]

Kirby's reaction works whether the instructors were more powerful than the group ("wow, these folks are powerful") or not ("wow, they're in the same boat as us. We're all flailing in the dark."). :wink:

[Benoojian]

Vincent shook his head, "No, not unless they are using their power, but it's at least an easy way to sort out the fakers from the people with subtle powers." [The Telepathy isn't coming from me, but I think it could] In a moment a second collective encompassed only the group that had gone through Threshold together. [damn, I think I can only do most of my healing through the Telepathy.{Resignation}] "How long until the next group would be ready for Threshold, and are any of them ones you suspect of being 'plants'? I've just thought of another way, I want to try reading your powers. If one of the Professors would take my hand?"

[Lochar]

Michael pauses to think. "Three or four months, probably. More if we convince them to slow down their outside usage of their talent, but that would make us have to point to a problem or issue with you all having gone through Threshold, and I'm not certain what we could use an an excuse if we're not going to point out your altered powerset."

"And likely a dozen students or more. You all were the first, but once people know they'll be OK mentally, I can foresee a lot of students pushing harder." Aurity adds.

[Sønderjye]

Mads is stunned at the chaos and strive the conversation were devolving into. This was not the kind of calm negotiation he had been expecting. The outburst from Trina particularly caught him off guard. He didn't have his old power to help him find the right words but perhaps he could use some of his new powers to reach an understanding.

He focuses for a second and opens his mind to the emotional radiation coming from each of the people in the room, hoping to better undstand where they are coming from.

Mads uses empathy, expending his focus to not use power points, in order to read the emotions of everyone in the room. He's particularly interested in what's happening in the teachers.

[Lochar]

Frustration mainly. A general sense of cooperation still, but lots of frustration. Trepidation and curiosity from Michael, tiredness from Trina and to a lesser extend Aurity. Interestingly a good bit of hope from Hank.

Players can answer as they feel.

[Benoojian]

Vincent holds out his hand, "I think I should be able to read powers, I want to see who it works on, just the New-post Threshold group, the Classic edition, or people Pre-Threshold. I need someone to test it on though."
Vincent is feeling overwhelming {Excitement} at the prospect of being able to save people. That's all he ever wanted here.

[Sønderjye]

"I was talking about the school being self-reliant but global moving past basic necessities sounds like a goal I can support. So you would not have any issues with project that tries to produce cheap things for people at large?" He says to Iran.

He disgrees with Trina on almost everything she said but with the frustration in the air this does not seem like a good time to discuss or give suggestions. Instead he says: "I'm sorry for your loss. " He pauses to emphasize his point and then asks: "Do you not want me to include Aurity in any plans or are you just stressing how important it is that we keep our capabilties hidden?"

"I think I can find quite a number of ways to be useful," he addresses Hank with a reassuring smile.

{[Tenttive Respect][Curiosity] What do you want to save everone from?} he asks Vincent.

He listens closely to Benjy's questions. Those were important questions. Once the topic of telepathy comes up he ping in {}

{What about it do you not trust?} Mads privately sends to Mila [I]{I imagine that we'll need someone to protect us sometime down the road and that might be you?}

{[Excitement] I think I can sense something of the powers in the telepathic range. Would anyone be okay with me trying to make contact?} he asks the general cluster.

He is surprised when he feels the mental prod of participating in another cluster but quickly accept. {[Excitement] Do you think we can chain these?}

[Lochar]

As far as anyone is concerned, you're all humans. Elan isn't a word.

Also, Iran not Ivan. Or Michael if you want to use his first name.

"That is what I sold funding this school on in general, was teaching you all the ability to create at least raw materials by breaking the Second Law of Thermodynamics." Michael chuckles. "If we slow down the other students though, you're going to want to be exceptionally sly about it, or outright blatant to keep everyone safe if all of your other powers are discovered."



"Include me in your thoughts, just do not bandy about what I could do please." Aurity answers for herself. She holds out her hand to Vincent.

[Benoojian]

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
Vincent will try three times to contact her repertoire, just to be sure. "If this works I should be able to see your power and possibly even borrow it for a moment. It was sort of baked into the instructions for one of my powers so this is my first time trying it."

[Lochar]

Vincent, are you pulling her into your collective to use via telepathy, or trying to manifest another's unknown powers?

Please be more specific on actions, especially when you have multiple options.

[Toliudar]

Kirby

[Anxiety, tightly clamped down.] Kirby watches the goings on, striving to understand the various threads of conversation.

"With all due respect, Mads, before we start mass producing anything, we'd do well to learn from some of the missteps from nuclear and fossil fuels. Have an understanding of what the waste products will be, and what their effects are. I mean, for all we know, exposure to this stuff causes cancer, right?"

To illustrate what brainstuff she was referring to, Kirby created a large ectoplasmic cigar, twirled it in her fingers, and then allowed it to dissolve again. She turned to their teachers.

"If we haven't already looked into side effects with some of those institutes you took money from, now might be a great time to get them working on some samples."

[Benoojian]

manifest from another's powers known, the first bit is contacting the repertoire, second bit is understanding the chosen power, third is attempting to manifest it. He is only trying the first bit right now. If he had done it through Telepathy he wouldn't need to touch. I assumed she was speaking metaphorically about bringing her into your thoughts, since no one has mentioned the telepathy out loud yet. I was being brief because I have no idea if it is going to succeed.

[Lochar]

Bad reading of Telepathy, sorry. I thought it allowed you to bypass step 1.

Interestingly to Vincent, Aurity appear to have no powers to address. In what you would consider the least of powers there appears to be an almost empty framework of a single talent, but not filled in. There does feel like Aurity does have power, just not something you are currently capable of addressing.

[Lochar]

Kirby
"If we haven't already looked into side effects with some of those institutes you took money from, now might be a great time to get them working on some samples."

"My creations were severely tested before we were given funding. Oil is capable of being refined into gasoline, and if I wanted to do nothing but generate carbon nanotubes for about twenty six years straight I could generate enough material for someone to build a space elevator. If you're curious, it took me four months of dedicated study and testing to understand the molecular structure well enough for that." Iran smiles as a small bit of ecto forms in his hand, evaporating to leave a small amount of the structure in it's place.

[Sønderjye]

Mads sends Aurity a thankful smile and says: "I promise I won't blab."

Mads waves dismissively at Kirby: "Please, give me a little credit. It'll of course be tested before we start feeding people ectoplasm."

Assuming Vincent makes a reaction to indicate that he finds nothing, Mads will suggest that they try with each other.

At Michael's reply Mads asks for more information: "Has your power been tested for consumption as well or just proximity?"

[Lochar]

"Since Threshold, I can manage carbon but nothing living or edible.". Michael says. "If you have stronger, it will need to be tested."

trinket is non living only

[Benoojian]

Interestingly to Vincent, Aurity appear to have no powers to address. In what you would consider the least of powers there appears to be an almost empty framework of a single talent, but not filled in. There does feel like Aurity does have power, just not something you are currently capable of addressing.

Vincent frowned and released Aurity's hand, thoroughly perplexed, "Well I didn't expect that to happen, I accessed it, but your power is too complicated for me to understand for some reason. Like it takes more energy than I can use now."

[Lochar]

Aurity frowns as well. "It doesn't cost me anything but focus though? Interesting."

[Sønderjye]

'Only carbon?,' Mads reflects, surprised by hearing that. "And here I thought that the power I felt was identical to yours? Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding the information."

He moves on to experimentation and graps a few cups from the tray, with the intend of testing the power he thought he had inhereted from Iran. Before he begins he checks in with the group (and esp. Kirby) if they think it's safe enough to summon a few non-permanent things.

If nobody objects he starts trying to summon a material in each of the cups. He attempts to summon a regular strawberry, a frozen strawberry, the charred remnants of a burned strawberry, an ice cube, a cube of frozen pop, a small piece of electronic cable, a sugary chewing gum, an iron bullet, and a wooden arrowhead.

Manifesting Ectoplasmic Trinket without Eternal Ecto. Expending own psionic focusnd taking time in between each summon to psionically focus himself. I'm testing what counts as 'living' for the power since when I looked it up there didn't seem to be a clear biological definition. If anything is too expensive to be summoned he'll just summon less of it.

[Lochar]

basically anything with cells is a living item, even if they're dead cells ie: steak.

Also, no craft check for the cable so it's a dud.

https://byjus.com/biology/living-and-non-living-things/

You find strawberries of any kind are unreachable, though ice and the bullet are fine. The wooden arrowhead doesn't appear.

The electronic cable appears, though looking at it it's probably not usable.

[Toliudar]

Kirby moves closer, clearly interested in the results of Mads' experimentation.

"That is reassuring, Iran. Thank you."

She grabs a few more cups.

"Would you mind if I joined in?"

She attempts to fill cups with water, gasoline, and wine. Then, cupping her hands together, she tries to place in them a VERY small quantity of white phosphorus.

[Sønderjye]

"By all means, I think we'll have to put a lot of work into finding the limits," he follows along what Kirby is doing. "So what are you testing? I tested strawberry, frozen strawberry and charred strawberry, and given how none of those works I'm leaning towards that we're unable to produce anything that contains or once containd cells. Iron, electrical components, and water seems good."

He'll try some animal produced things, specifically milk, sugar, and honey.

He'll also try to see if he can create raw nutrients, i.e. proteins and vitamins. He'll refer to a vitamin supplemant somewhere online since he doesn't personally know what those do. He'll also say what he's going to do in case any of the surrounding people have any relevant knowledge.

I can't access that link. It seems to be banned in EU for not following the
Data Protection Regulations

[Toliudar]

Kirby doesn't look up.

"I'm checking on the limits of organic and inorganic chemistry. You've shown that it can make plastics. I'm trying gasoline, wine and phosphorus. Don't get too close."

[Lochar]

Normally, I just have to outthink or outwit my players. You guys are going to make me have to outsmart you, aren't you? I don't want a PhD in player mechanics!

The teachers are all amused as you begin testing different things, because what good teacher doesn't encourage experimentation.

"I can do more than just carbon, Mr. Vinter, but esoteric research wasn't extremely high on my list. More spending enough time figuring out originally how to deal with the world and then how to best position myself for helping others." Michael smiles. "Of my talent pre-Threshold, I recall having a lot less limits. Granted, I hadn't understood how to make them permanent. Figuring that out is what actually pushed me into Threshold."

Direct animal products and byproducts are a probably semi-disappointing no, while Dr. Vincent Roth can probably describe a vitamin supplement well enough that Mads can create one of those, although fish oil supplements aren't.

Gasoline and wine are fine, but everyone backs up when Kirby mentions attempting white phosphorus. Which is all too possible, given the small white marble than ends up in her hands. Thankfully in the air-conditioned room the material doesn't seem to immediately want to ignite. (https://fas.org/programs/bio/factsheets/whitephosphorus.html)

[Sønderjye]

Mads nods thoughtfully at the results and at Michaels reasoning.

"Yes yes. It looks like we can create sugar for energy and we can create all of the relevant vitamins and minerals. We'd need to think of a way to keep people full and to test to make sure it's safe."

When Kirby starts creating volatile chemical components he comments: "Just let's make a rule that we don't create enriched uranium or such at the dinner table yet?"

As he says that he turns to Iran "While I am deeply grateful for you sharing this gift with it, do you think you could find a way of only sharing a more limited version with future students? I worry if it can create truely dangerous compounds such as antimatter and what happens if that falls into the wrong groups hands. I don't really want to test it but I worry about the possibility."

[Lochar]

"One, this is a more limited version than what I was originally able to do. Two, it's not as if I can teach you anything other than my own talent. And three, what makes you all more deserving than anyone else? I understand risk, but it would not be any different than the risk you all would represent. If you want a more limited version taught, perhaps you'll join the school as staff?"

Hank is looking over the created items, and laughs at the gas. "Maybe good for a lawnmower."

[Toliudar]

When Kirby starts creating volatile chemical components he comments: "Just let's make a rule that we don't create enriched uranium or such at the dinner table yet?"

Kirby nods without making eye contact, and makes all of her samples vanish.

"So, complex carbon molecules are possible, if difficult to get right. And the phosphorus was exactly to find out whether unstable and reactive materials are possible. Which is indeed a concern. And to be clear, I also vote no to U-235, enriched or otherwise. With everything we're putting our bodies through, we don't need to do anything more to increase the energy bombardment of our cells."

[Benoojian]

Assuming Vincent makes a reaction to indicate that he finds nothing, Mads will suggest that they try with each other.

Vincent reaches for Mads' hand then stops, reaching out with his mind instead, He takes as much time as necessary to read Mads, "Well that's an odd feeling. At least I can see Mads' powers, even if I can't access most of them."

[Lochar]

Vincent reaches for Mads' hand then stops, reaching out with his mind instead, He takes as much time as necessary to read Mads, "Well that's an odd feeling. At least I can see Mads' powers, even if I can't access most of them."

"Did you only want to hold my hand and not need to?". Aurity says in a teasing tone to Vincent.

[Toliudar]

Kirby takes a deep breath.

"Well, whatever we are now, I don't think we need to be here. Hospital's not going to help us, and we're taking up valuable space. Should we head back to the school? The others are going to want to know how this went."

[Benoojian]

"Did you only want to hold my hand and not need to?". Aurity says in a teasing tone to Vincent.

"I had two ways to do it, had to test both. Was it so awful?" Vincent resets his collective, adding Aurity this time and trying to connect to her powers once again, with likely the same results no matter how long he tried it for. He wasn't sending communication over the link but Aurity could easily find the Telepathy if she thought too hard or someone else sent something.

[Sønderjye]

Mads falls into silence hearing Iran's rebuttle. "I don't think we're more deserving. I think that you're taking a huge risk by teaching us your power though I understand the benefits of having a large group of people able to make things at will. I just wonder whether it's possible to limit it somehow. And you know being on the teacher staff might actually be good idea. You are all many times my seniors and have many more lifetimes of experience with psionics but it's possible that my power set is particularly well suited for teaching. What's your process of hiring teachers?"

"That's weird. I can sense your powers and I can use some of them," to demonstrate he draws from Vincents power to cast detect psionics, for which onlookers can just see the usual sign of power manifestation but not visible effect of the power. "I think there's others that I can make contact to but I would need to be particularly focused on them, would you be open to trying to meditate together tonight?" {[Excitement] CAN YOU MAKE ROBOTS?}, the last bit is send to vincent privately.

"Sure," he answers Kirby. "Also, this connection thing seems really important. Would you mind if I made contact with you to see if I can use or see your powers?" He'll also ask the same of the teachers, and he'll create connections by inviting them to his collective.

[Toliudar]

Kirby nods hesitantly.

"Sure, but let's leave borrowing powers until I understand them myself, okay?"

She turns to the team of instructors, now on to topics of logistics, much easier for her to handle.

"Did you bring a van from the school or something? Were we checked in here with paperwork, or did you slide us in under the radar?"

[Lochar]

Aurity blinks as she is joined into Vincent's collective. "This seems similar to your own talent, Trina." There is almost a probe back at Vincent. "But you hold so many talents without losing focus on them? Is this what you are looking for?" Vincent can almost feel Trina's focus waver, and then suddenly that framework fills in for moments.


Aurity addresses you right back and is surprised at exactly how many powers you have. She doesn't attempt to manifest any of them though.

And now that she knows what you're looking for...

Psychic Reformation, Crippled
Disciple: Telepathy [mind-affecting] Level Aurity/0

By expending Psionic Focus through the Crippled Talent feat, you are temporarily able to access a crippled version of a higher level known power. This talent fades 3 rounds after expending focus. Psychic Reformation, Crippled works in all manners like Psychic Reformation, except the target may only chose to replace skills, powers, or feats (not all) from the previous level without penalty. Choosing multiple stacks penalties like going back multiple levels would.

For example, choosing to replace two levels of skill point allocations and one level of feat would impose a total of a -3 penalty and would reduce current and max HP by 15 for 24 hours.

At no point may you rechoose a class for your level.

As a level 0 talent, you may not augment this power.



"Oh, I can actually feel your talent in his repertoire, Michael."

Hearing this and Mads question, Hank nearly jumps out of his chair. "I'd just about kill to be able to use something other than my battery. Hit me!" Trina and Michael are both nearly taken aback by Hank's reaction.


Bestow Power, Crippled
Discipline Telepathy [mind-affecting] Level Hank/0

By expending Psionic Focus through the Crippled Talent feat, you are temporarily able to access a crippled version of a higher level known power. This talent fades 3 rounds after expending focus. Bestow Power, Crippled works in all manners like Bestow Power, except you take 2 points of Ability Burn, your choice of stat, to provide 3 power points instead of spending two power points.

As a level 0 talent, you may not augment this power.

Hank takes a bit longer to get the hang of addressing Mads back, and then curses. "Damn it. It feels like your power doesn't fit me or something?" He slumps. "Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it."


And since none of your powers are on their power list, they auto fail spellcraft checks to try to use them.

[Lochar]

Michael had been about to answer the question of becoming a teacher, but was paused, gaping at the new actions. He then quickly starts writing more down. "Shared talents? Seeing the others?"

And then Hank fails to manifest a different ability, and he slumps as well. Trina appears disappointed as well. "Is it due to your different Threshold?" Trina questions aloud.

[Laughingmanlol]

"I second the veto on anything radioctive, and that we need to start thinking about what happens if these abilities become more widespread. Social pressure's only a stopgap, and teaching a limited version only protects against the dangers we can think of. I know jack about theoretical physics, but say we teach a version that can't make antimatter. What happens when the next Einstein discovers super-double-antimatter or whatever? Personally I'd rather get the hell out of dodge than trust that we can rule out every possible hazard."

"All of us seem to have had a different Threshold experience. Maybe we can decide the immediate response now, let the other students know we're safe, then take some training time to test things out before we commit to anything longer-term?"

While the discussion is ongoing, Benjy is pondering his own abilities of creation. Why would organic matter be off-limits? Sure, cells are extremely complicated structures, but as far as he knows there's nothing inherently special about them. Isn't gasoline all from dinosaurs originally? If the others have some kind of mental block, it doesn't feel like he shares it, though he'll wait until he's in private to test it rather than risk embarrassing himself.

[Toliudar]

Kirby smiles.

"Sadly, Benjy, we can't run away from ourselves. The difficulty with heading off into space in order to get away from people is that you are still surrounded by people."

She slumps in a chair, pondering the visions that had unfolded for her during Threshold. It sounded like the others had had much more profound choices offered to them. Was her own more limited experience a sign of a lack of creativity? Or did the fact that she was older mean that there were fewer options open to them.

"But yeah. I'm not committing to anything long-term at this point."

[Lochar]

Michael speaks up again. "I'm very open to a longer term with you all at the school, either continuing on as students or picking up a teaching position. Especially if you can teach your abilities or assist with Threshold of the other students."

[Sønderjye]

"Sure, but let's leave borrowing powers until I understand them myself, okay?"
"Sure," Mads replies. He then establishes the connection. {[Excitement] Fascinating. I wonder if everyone who goes through this ritual will have the same width of their repetoir.}


"This seems similar to your own talent, Trina."
Mads perks up at that. He turns to Trina and asks: "May I create a connection?"


"Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it."

"I'm sorry hank," Mads says emiting: "I have two good news though. First, I can see two versions of your power, one being more powerful than the other, even if you appear to only be able to access one of them. Second, I have a power that can temporarily transform your physical form into something else. It's not using powers in the way you want but it might be fun to try?"


"Shared talents? Seeing the others?"

"Yes, it seems that both Vincent and I have gained the ability to establish a mental network that allow network members to see each others powers and to use some of their powers though the mechanics of which powers seem pretty arbitrary. I also seem to be able to increase the number of powers I can manifest this way if I do the night meditation while connected to someone. I think I can do this with a lot of the people here but some not. For instance I think I can access both of Hanks powers but I can only access Aurity's lesser version and not the greater. I don't know. It feels like some of the powers I have is more mentally taxing than others and I don't really get why yet."

When Benjy speaks up he replies: "Are you suggesting that we make a space colony? That sounds ambitious. I would be happy to support it and help out even if I think I won't be joining at least for some years. Regardless I support your proposed plan."

[Lochar]

Trina is curious and nods.


So, I'm not going to make you retcon, but I listed Hank's power if you were able to address second level powers. Which no one can currently because no one has second level powers, I didn't check sheets ahead of time. (Except Toliudar's rebuild now, I guess) And as a side note, Hank's second level Bestow Power and the others are the normal power, so it's not whatever gave people the ability to have infinite manifester level and power points.

Metaconcert, Crippled
Disciple telepathy [mind-effecting] Level Trina 0
By expending Psionic Focus through the Crippled Talent feat, you are temporarily able to access a crippled version of a higher level known power. This talent fades 3 rounds after expending focus. This powers works like Metaconcert with the following exceptions. The manifester must be the conductor, it requires all powerpoints from all individuals in the concert, and when manifesting powers through the network the manifester level is set to the level of whoever's power is being used, not raised by the number of people in the concert.

As a 0 level talent, this power may not be augmented.

[Lochar]

"Can I test something with you all?" Trina asks, looking around. "I should be able to do this with three of you and Hank."

Assuming she gets agreement from everyone, Trina manifests her own talent, linking her, Hank, and three others together. Everyone feels all of their powerpoints pulled into Trina's metaconcert.

"Normally, even with us in my power, I can barely feel any energy. You all though, it isn't the wild power of someone pre-Threshold but it is a much more stable power, and there is more energy than myself or Hank have available." Trina explains. "With what we used for you all, the pre-Threshold power that is demanded gives me temporary access to that power so we may assist in the transition."

The ethereal energy pulses from Hank to the center point, and then everyone feels a few power points restored to them. "Hank's power lets me restore some of that energy back, and I assumed that the cost is born by my power instead of my body, like when Hank uses his own talent. But if you are correct that our broken talent is only a lesser..." Trina pulses again, and then a second metconcert forms between the same five. This time, you can feel a portioned request of power coming from the connection. It's the same amount you were just returned.

"It is expensive doing it this way." Trina seems to be concentrating hard. "But Hank." You all feel something pass to him.

"I... I can direct it?" Hank looks surprised. Cautiously, he pushes at the metaconcert, and manifests someone else's power through it. "Holy ****!"

Moments later, the metaconcert collapses, the power and time spent.

Hank is still looking in disbelief at where he was able to use a different power. Michael is sitting dumbfounded, with Aurity beaming.


Crippled Metaconcert, stealing everyone's power points.

Bestow power to give everyone a few back.

Trina bestowed enough power back to herself to run normal Metaconcert with you all again.

She then passed the conductor's baton to Hank who was able to use metaconcert to manifest one of the PC powers. Not going to go into whose power, as it doesn't really matter.

Metaconcerts will leave you with only 5pp afterwards though.


Hank snaps out of it. "Do you think we're fixable?"

[Benoojian]

Hank snaps out of it. "Do you think we're fixable?"

"If each of your regular powers still exists then the most likely way to fix it is to get strong enough to access Aurity's original power of Psychic Reformation. There's no telling how long that would take, and whether you be able to guide others through Threshold without that Crippled Talent thing. I didn't get any details on that, just the indirect confirmation that you each have it."

[Toliudar]

Kirby is dumbfounded all over by the metaconcert bringing all of them together.

"Fixable? Hank, that was astonishing! I mean, perhaps you'll get better with practice, now that you have the rest of us to draw on as a power source, but that was extraordinary. I felt, well, adjacent, if you know what I mean."

[Sønderjye]

"Maybe," Mads replies though he doesn't think so. He can't let himself get that hope up if it doesn't turn out well. "Regardless, it'll need some research and there's plenty of other things that'll need some research as well. Do we want to head towards the labs?"

[Benoojian]

Some time later Vincent and Kirby are standing across from each other on a basketball court, to practice the more martial aspects of their powers. "We're not looking to get killed here, so I'll surrender if I get too badly hurt."He had Kirby in his collective so he could heal her, and monitor her health as well. It was slightly odd to discover their health could be measured psionically. If he passed out he wouldn't get the chance to heal himself though. Mads might have picked up one of his healing powers but he wasn't sure if he was coming to watch the practice fight.

[Benoojian]

[roll0] Initiative, no spaces allowed, whoops

[Toliudar]

Kirby

For this exercise, Kirby has foregone the more serious forms of personal protection, but has gone with elbow and knee pads and a slightly tailored version of her fire-resistant firefighter outfit ('Because catching on fire is no fun, even if you don't feel it.').

"Likewise. I'll call out if this starts to hurt a lot."

She seems wary, thoughtful.

"Good luck!"

Initiative: [roll0]

Fair to assume that we're both starting out psionically focused, but with no powers active?

[Toliudar]

On a nod from Vincent, Kirby starts. Jogging away from the doctor to give herself room to work, she focuses on a single burst of pyrokinetic energy, which she lobs underhanded towards him.

Round 1 actions:

Move actions: move 30' away from him.
Standard action: energy missile, fire. Deals [roll0] damage, reflex DC 14 for half.

[Benoojian]

[roll0] Reflex w Resistance (1pp)

[Benoojian]

Vincent reels from the blow. Vincent starts forming an Astral Construct between them.

[Lochar]

A basketball court is a good place to test, but it does come with one downside.

"Woo! Go Kirby!" A student shouts, sitting in a bleacher.

"The healer isn't front line, unfair!". A young man yells. Vincent recognizes him as the boy he healed the other day when he first awakened.

Fans.

[Toliudar]

Kirby grimaced. She'd really hoped that one powerful attack off the top would convince him to stop, and they could go have a beer together. She knew that fire was an especially effective attack for her, but she didn't want to risk permanent nerve damage, not yet knowing the full extent of Vincent's ability to heal injuries.

Lifting her helmet's face mask, she called out to Vincent: "We should STOP!" The final sound expanded into a rippling ball of sound that sped straight toward the good doctor.

I've got to be careful. A lucky/unlucky roll with energy missile could kill him, but short of going over and clawing at him, she doesn't really have any good offensive alternatives. So, a Sonic Missile this time: [roll0] sonic damage, reflex 14 for half.

[Benoojian]

[roll0] reflex

[Benoojian]

Vincent feels the energy of the attack bleed away from him (Resilience 2 pp), then his astral construct comes into being beside Kirby, with the improved Slam and Trip. Vincent heals himself, not quite to full but he's looking much better. "Let's give it one more round." Vincent steps away making sure he's too far for her to target both him and the construct. His construct readies an action to attack if Kirby moves or tries to manifest.

Natural healing for 3pp and 9 hp
if the readied action triggers Construct attack [roll]1d8+ construct damage [roll1] trip attempt if a hit

[Benoojian]

lost a 4 somehow, damage is [roll0]

[Toliudar]

Kirby nods grimly as Vincent opts not to stop.

"Your call, doc."

She faces down the amorphous blob he had brought onto the court with him, and tries to fake it out by dashing to one side. The feint doesn't work, and the creature reaches out and smacks Kirby hard on the side as she passes.

Now eager to end this, and smarting from the construct's heavy blow, Kirby simply forms a ball of fire in her palm and windmills it straight at Vincent.

Ben got damaged while manifesting a full round action. Wouldn't he need to make a concentration check to complete the Astral Construct?

Kirby tries to move away at one side and then circle around the construct in order to move towards Vincent. This triggers the construct's attack, and it hits. Kirby takes 5 damage. HP 19/24. PP 6/15

Standard action: energy missile, fire, [roll0] damage, Reflex DC 14 for half.

[Sønderjye]

Mads is sitting anxiously amongst the spectators. When the two said that they were going to do a practice match he wasn't expecting that it would be quite this violent. He would like to believe that they each know their limit but this is literally their first day with the powers, and he worries that one of them is going to off the other accidentally. It would make the worst kind of PR. And also he were starting to warm up to the first class.

Heal to get an idea of whether any of the contestants are close to dying [roll0]

[Lochar]

Yes, Vincent would need a concentration check.

Also, the astral construct threatened a critical if it actually appeared, but I figure this only has a round or so left to go.

Mads can see Kirby is doing alright, and Vincent was reeling for a moment but brought himself back up to alright as well.

Kirby: 19/24 (altered if the concentration check fails, or the crit is confirmed)
Vincent: 16/21 [13 from the first attack, 9 healing, 1 from the sonic attack]

[Benoojian]

Even thought the damage was zero because of resilience? Okay [roll0] con vs 11DC [roll1] crit confirm [roll2] reflex

[Lochar]

That's fine with resilience, but we still needed the crit confirm.

[Benoojian]

Vincent dodges the worst of the fireball, and bleeds off some of the rest (Resilience) then heals himself back up to full health. He checks Kirby's health and has his construct launch another attack. "This is going to be pretty close" [hp 21/21 pp 10/23]
[roll0] attack [roll1] damage [roll2] trip attempt

[Benoojian]

Seeing his construct miss, Vincent puts his hands in the air, smiling still, "I think you got me, I surrender. My little beastie disappears in a second and I doubt I'll get off another. That was so cool, except the being on fire part, that hurt like hell." He heals Kirby up as soon as she accepts his surrender.

[Lochar]

For being all of about thirty seconds, the handful of students that were in the court when you decided to practice all cheer at the conclusion of the match.



--Break--

Over the course of the next few days, you all seem to feel a palpable energy settle over the school as the Dean and other teachers let it be known that you all managed Threshold with losing yourselves, although there were unexpected changes. They do caution that you're still testing the limits of what changed, as there is a general warning that the results of the new Threshold does seem to change people's talents so the students are asked to not push themselves while it is all documented.

Vincent and Kirby's impromptu power testing may have only been a minute or two long, but drew lots of inquiries from curious students. While only a few saw it first hand, rumors quickly spread about multiple different power uses and drew inquiry with both the teachers and yourselves, even if you didn't answer.

Research into adjusting the Ectoplasmic Trinket goes well, and you expect you'll be able to adjust it to the Dean's actual promise of carbon based objects within a week or two, and limit out anything else.


After a full week of research, which hasn't quite happened yet.

Ectoplasmic Carbon

Discipline metacreativity (creation); Level [Anyone psionic] 0

Display: material
Manifesting Time: 1 standard action

Range: 0 ft.
Effect: Unattended, nonpsionic, non-magical carbon matter, up to 3 cu. ft.
Duration: 1 minute/lvl. (D)
Saving Throw: None; Power Resistance: No
Power Points: psionic focus or 1

You create common carbon, either in the form of writing grade graphite or coal. Craft checks are required to manifest it in any other form, with Diamond being a minimum of Craft: Jewelry DC 20 (severely flawed). Carbon Nanotubes, as seen by Dean Iran, require a Craft: Electronics or Craft: Chemistry of DC 25

For limiting Trinket even harder, the size of it was increased.


Mads, after badgering Vincent into hanging around long enough to borrow his Astral Construct power, learns quickly of an interesting limitation to his Harmonic Resonance and can't manifest the Astral Constructs permanently through the Eternal Ecto. Working with Vincent for a bit though, Mads does make a few interesting discoveries about Astral Constructs in general. The first level one is roughly as strong as someone who works out daily at the gym, whereas a second level construct could easily meet the strength of gold medal Olympians.

Sourcing a handful of crank generators (https://www.electricpedals.com/hand-crank-generator), you find that even the weaker construct is able to smoothly run the generator to it's maximum of 400 watts and keep it steady. A quick Internet search (https://www.statista.com/statistics/201794/us-electricity-consumption-since-1975/) and some math later shows you'd really need to get crank generators that take full advantage of the strength of the constructs, as at 400 watts per hour you'd need nearly ten billion of them to run the world. But the theory works.

Hank is willing to part with the school's power bill for the past month and it'd probably take about 500-600 generators to take the school completely off the grid. Even with a construct turning two generators, that's a pretty large number. Everyone agrees it's probably better to look into something a little bigger or more custom.


Also interesting to note, is permanent constructs are stupid. Your first one is fine with verbal commands to follow, stop, or turn crank. Once you have two in hearing range however, it's pretty much impossible to separate them out for commands. You end up with verbal and physical commands combined for 'when touched and told to follow', 'when touched and told to stop', and 'when touched and told to turn crank' as viable individual reactions, as you can't get three commands and an identifier into their limited programming capacity.


Harmonic Resonance
Special: The nature of this connection requires constant focus. If you expend your focus during the manifestation (for instance, to add a metapsionic feat to a borrowed power), the manifestation fails.

Eternal Ecto requires you to spend your focus, and I don't see where you either have a psicrystal with focus or deep focus.


Regardless, I assume Vincent is willing to work with you for a bit, and you can get the same information.

Using 100,000 square feet (https://ouc.bizenergyadvisor.com/article/large-offices) from this site with an average of 20 kwh per square foot. So 2,000,000 kwh anually, divided by 365 days in a year divided by 24 hours in a day gives 228 kwh usage a day. Divided by .4 (400 watts from those crappy generators), gives 570 generators need to be run.


I'm assuming with Vincent's Advanced Construct Feat and picking Utility as the double menu bonus, it's enough to get multiple different instructions built into them. This would form a good basis for refining a new Astral Construct power around Eternal Ecto and extending it's programming capability with Advanced Construct.


Benjy, with access to the full Ectoplasmic Creation, is in high demand by the four primary teachers to fashion some more interesting organic objects as proof of talent, though they are careful to not push him too hard and they do ensure he knows who is getting what created items for testing. He is able to bypass many of the organic restrictions from Trinket, although he is still held back by unliving material. Drawing a steak from pure ectoplasm isn't beyond him, but a still living cow is.


Each day that you all exhaust your pool of power, you wake up the next morning feeling almost as if Threshold were a step further away, but a greater Threshold lies yet before you. Another level of a stable Threshold power perhaps.


Each day you exhaust your power point pool in active ways (and not just burning the entire day's worth of PP in Resistance unless you're actually making that many saving throws) you grow towards a new breakthrough in power, IE next level. If your characters assume it's linear, it feels like about 4 weeks worth of pushing yourselves.



Eventually, Michael asks you all to meet him in a conference room again. This time, the other teachers are missing.

"You all have made an truly wonderful impression on the other students, and I honestly think they're now more interested in seeing what they gain from Threshold than keeping their original talent. But we're still advising caution, so I'm hopeful we can slow the students down and give them a month or two. However, I have a serious request for all of you. Whichever student is next to need our assistance with Threshold, I would like one of you to take my place in it."

[Toliudar]

Kirby rushes up to embrace Vincent, oblivious to the cheering students, and then quickly checks him over to make sure that all of the fire was out.

"Man, those weird polymer-things you make sure pack a whallop. I gotta go put ice on my ribs. And yeah, we should look into fire resistant materials for everybody, if we're going to continue these exercises."

[Laughingmanlol]

During the spar Benjy is an enthusiastic spectator, cheering for Vincent and Kirby alike and recounting how cool the fire blast and ectoplasmic construct looked afterwards. He also challenges Vincent's next construct to an arm-wrestling match, which the construct will likely win.

Throwing himself into the research of his ability to create biological matter is a good distraction from his apprehension about how easily their abilities are adapted for combat. Even in his downtime he's practicing his creations if he has the power to spare. It's unreasonable and unnecessary, but he's worried about letting the teachers down now that they're paying so much attention to what he can do.

Once his edible creations are confirmed to be safe to eat, Benjy has plans to host an off-the-books steak night, with everyone post-Threshold invited for a double-blind taste-testing of Benjy-created versus store-bought food.

He also books a private appointment with Trina.

"Ma'am? Unless I misheard, in the meeting a week ago, you dropped that you were over two thousand years old and that didn't get followed up on because of all the other bombshells being dropped at the table. I know it's rude to ask a lady about her age, but I have a lot of questions."

Assuming Trina doesn't accept the offered out by saying he misheard and is willing to talk, Benjy has a list in his notebook.

"Well, first off, would you be okay sharing your life story? Broad strokes are fine, but I have to say I'm curious what events you were around for. Some buddies of mine studying history would kill for a primary source for their dissertations, not that I'd ask that of you."

"I'm assuming any other immortals value their privacy considering they're not public knowledge, so I'll skip the question about whether you have any peers. Oh, what's it like from a personal perspective, living so long? How does it work in terms of memory and practical stuff? Have you ever pretended to be your own descendant, like in Twilight?"

"Last question, and this is the big one: how do you stay on the right side of history? There's so many issues in the past where one side was clearly in the wrong from our modern perspective, and there are conflicts today where I'm not sure which side is in the right. Like - eating meat from animals, will that be considered monstrous in a century's time? How do you deal with that?"

[Lochar]

Trina smiles at Benjy's first statement. "But you'd like to be rude anyways?"

At Benjy's first question, Trina's smile fades. "My sister and I were peasants. Most of the Chinese history passed us over, so long as we were careful to move between villages. There were a few times we were branded witches or evil spirits due to being unaging. It wasn't until the Opiate Wars that we were even truly exposed to the wider world, and it has only been recent times that the world has shrunk to being able to travel the length of the globe in a day." She gives a wan smile. "And it is unaging, not undying. I knew a few that were caught by the superstitious or just gave up on life and died. Provided your Threshold isn't different than ours in that manner, you'll eventually understand how boredom is truly an enemy."

"But my memory?" Trina pauses. "More clear to me is any day after Threshold than any day in two dozen years prior to it. I could describe a day visiting my mother after Threshold, but beforehand? I know I grieved for my father's death, but I couldn't even tell you his name at this point if my mother hadn't spoken of him fondly."

"As for staying on the right side of history?" Trina laughs, hollowly. "Once, Aurity and I found another woman on the verge of Threshold and tried to bring her across. She had the most unique talent. A wu of great power and beauty, she could walk the battlefields and call the recently dead back from the hands of the greedy gods. We thought to save her and her talent."

Trina stares past Benjy. "Do you think the brothel we eventually turned her over to still uses her blank minded body to this day? Or was she eventually sold to the Shogun or Emperor to satiate a royal family without the possibility of bastards?" Trina focuses back on Benjy. "History cares little for us and we have little ability to chose its morals, only to obey its whims. Perhaps you and the others, with stronger talents than us, can make that determination. Or perhaps you will look back in five hundred years and ask yourself 'Was I just trying to survive, or did I revel in my behavior?'"

Psionic Revivify is augmentable!

[Toliudar]

Kirby

In the coming days, Kirby began to feel a little guilty. Over the following weeks, Vincent healed, Mads explored the limits of human potential, and Benjy made devices that, if mass produced, might eventually eventually eliminate our reliance on fossil fuels and save the planet. And she...blew stuff up. Grew claws. Dug holes.

Becoming the centre of attention for dozens of students all having their own dreams and plans for Threshold didn't make things any easier. Kirby had quickly established a rule - no talking to her during her lab time or at meals, leaving just evenings and early mornings for the others in the dorms to come to her with endless barrages of questions. Questions that, by and large, she didn't have answers to yet.

And then there was fire. Before Threshold, fire had been an adversary. Something that she could hold back in small quantities, and defeat through her work. Now it felt more like a...companion? When she saw a bonfire, now it was like it waved to her. Beckoned her over close. Whispered things. She was not taken to flights of fancy, was Kirby, but this seemed almost poetical to her.

And then there was Leo. On her third day AT (after Threshold), she had been experimenting with her ability to control variations in the crystalline lattices of different structures she created. Deciding to start with a very stable, plentiful mineral, she had started playing around, trying to create the various polymorphs of silicon dioxide. Several of the simple quartz forms had reproduced just fine, but when she had tried to add in a little iron in order to make a heliotrope, something larger had happened.

Kirby had made a larger chunk of the red-black mineral than she'd intended, and it was more regular in shape than her previous attempts. The chunk was already smooth, bevelled, a near-perfect step-cut octagon. But after examining it, she had the unsettling feeling that it was watching her back, and she dismissed the sample. Or tried to.

It hadn't vanished. In fact, what happened instead was that it grew - well, legs. Eight of them. And then very carefully climbed up her arm and spoke to her. Spoke in a way that wasn't quite like talking to herself and wasn't quite like talking to another person. But it definitely didn't feel like a pet either.

Michael had been able to confirm that, chemically, the damned thing was silicon dioxide and nothing more. Which of course explained exactly nothing. In the end, she'd started to let the thing tag along when she went places. It developed a proprietary interest in a certain pocket of her coat. It sang her to sleep at night. It kept ridiculously good track of her daily schedule and pinged her with reminders when she was about to be late for something. When she named it Leo, any sense of scientific objectivity was completely lost.

Still, Kirby slept well. She helped prepare other students for Threshold, for whenever the instructors felt safe in putting others through the process. She refined her abilities. And she learned.

[Lochar]

Kirby does sell herself a bit shorter than she thought though, as students questions about her powers led to testing her Empathy talent if only to figure out why they were being so bothersome, and even though she normally lacks the charisma to really affect others she finds that being able to understand their emotions helps her articulate with others. Maybe not an aspiring couples therapist, but several students are happy to have Kirby pick out a few difficulties between them.

Kirby also gets an almost crushing hug from a bruiser of a man when he sees what she can do with her Psionic Repair and Kirby fixes a dainty little ladies watch, apparently an heirloom from several generations back that local clockmakers said was too finicky to attempt repairs on.



Eventually, Michael asks you all to meet him in a conference room again. This time, the other teachers are missing.

"You all have made an truly wonderful impression on the other students, and I honestly think they're now more interested in seeing what they gain from Threshold than keeping their original talent. But we're still advising caution, so I'm hopeful we can slow the students down and give them a month or two."

He pauses for a moment. "However, I have a serious request for all of you. Whichever student is next to need our assistance with Threshold, I would like one of you to take my place in it."

[Toliudar]

Still getting accustomed to her array of new tricks and talents, Kirby has enjoyed feeling more connected to the other students, even if it's a bit overwhelming at times. Thank goodness Mads and the others were better able to take the spotlight when needed.

Kirby glances around at her instructors and fellow...what? Survivors? Team-mates? She thought that they might need to invent a new word for what the four of them were at the moment.

When Michael made his request, Kirby's thoughts immediately went to Vincent or Mads, both of whom had shown themselves to be immensely capable both of great acts of empathy and great mental strength. But then a more fundamental question occurred to her.

"Would it be impolite to ask why?"

[Laughingmanlol]

"We need to learn how to replicate it, if we're to change the world. Once we get the process down, put together a training package to bring people up to the level that they can take on our roles in the process, we go exponential. The sooner we figure that out, the safer we are from outside parties. Is that right, professor?" Benjy has been noticeably quiet and introspective following his conversation with Trina, and now it's clear that this has been one of the topics weighing on his mind.

He creates a misshapen apple in his palm, examines it for defects, then tosses it in the trash can across the room with practiced ease.

"Whatever the case, consider me a standing volunteer for this kinda work. Those of us with more of an affinity for mental magic might be a better pick, though" - he nods in their respective directions - "and that's assuming none of the candidates have beef with me personally because of the accident."

[Lochar]

"Replication of our process with someone else is the goal, yes. However, my reasoning behind it isn't easy."

He pauses. "I'm not Michael Iran. Not truly. Michael did not make it through Threshold actually intact, only fragments of his mind. His talent was to spin off portions of his mind, the ultimate parallel thought processing." He pauses again, to let you absorb that

"That's how I designed Eternal Ecto., I was originally dedicated to that. Another fragment had figured out the trinket previously."

"We wanted so badly to fix whatever broke people in Threshold. And when the primary mind went through Threshold, I literally felt him slip."

"A million choices and a million more. And I couldn't make any for him, and there was nothing left of Michael to make those choices himself. Eventually, his pre Threshold invocation of myself will fade, but I believe I have years yet." He slams a palm on the table. "But I will ensure everyone's safety first before I fade."

no one addressed him, because why would you? You already had his power.

But ectoplasmic trinket or creation isn't augmentable.

Fractal schism is.

[Toliudar]

Kirby nods, happy that Benjy has stepped forward to assist. In considering Iran's response, she stares down at the table for a moment, pondering.

"So you...Michael...became a kind of quantum computer, working in parallel along many paths? What's that like?"

'I will ensure everyone's safety first.' He sounds like a firefighter.

She shrugs.

"We're learning new things every day. Perhaps there's a way to sort of reverse engineer the fragmentation. Use you as a base to add other bits of Michael to. Who knows?"

[Lochar]

"Fragments fade, so one wouldn't be a good base to build on." Michael notes. "Benjy, I'll bring you into some specific trainings with the others first then. As a first lesson though, I want you to consider how you will feel if it me being an aspect of pre-Threshold power that brought you all through, and not Eternal Ecto. It will be a heavy burden either way on all of you."

"I am and was no smarter than Michael was, but could spend a nigh infinite amount of time thinking about a specific problem or thing he wanted to work on. He was very careful about not abusing his talent because of the threat of Threshold. I was the second time he invoked his power, and the strongest time he ever did. Because I was tasked with discovering how to survive Threshold. Fragments of ideas I had were carefully spun out to another mind, the results of those lines of thoughts given back to me."

[Toliudar]

Kirby

Kirby smiled sadly, admiring this Michael's dedication, even if he seemed to believe himself somehow less than fully human. How to prove to someone that they are a person, even if they're missing some parts that used to be there? Pah. She would have to leave that for the philosophers.

"Benjy, I think you'll do a great job - you're brilliant and compassionate, exactly what's needed."

She seemed about to rise, and then looked around the table.

"Anything else? I was hoping to get in a run before supper."

[Sønderjye]

Mads eyes goes wide when he spots the unholy crystal mockery of a spider crawl into the meeting room. "Watch out behind you, Kirby" he says in a low voice as he picks up the filled coffee pot and slowly moves towards the creature intending to badger it away from his fellow survivor with the impromptu weapon. He doesn't know what is it but crystal is hard and those pointy legs look like they could do some serious damage if they hit an artery.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

* Later once that misunderstanding have been cleared up *

"Is that edible?," he asks Benjy when he sees the casual apple construction.

After the professors explanation he says: "Please professor, we're not just going to let you die. Not even if you had an unusual birth. You founded this school and you should be here to see what fantastical changes it'll bring. We have a wider range of powers available to us than ever before, surely there will be something that can solve your unique situation."


"Anything else? I was hoping to get in a run before supper."

"Actually, I have something. I've been having this strange feeling lately, oddly reminisant of what it felt like when I was getting close to threshhold. And it's been growing steadily. I worry that we may have somehow postponed the threshhold and may need the ritual again in a few weeks time."

[Toliudar]

Kirby

Kirby, still relieved that her new crystalline friend had not required hot glue to reassemble, listened intently to Mads' concern. Again, she felt somewhat self-conscious that Threshold seemed not to have affected her, emotionally or perhaps biologically, as much as the others. Although there were certainly permanent marks on her skin and psyche.

"Do we even know if a second pass is possible? Can you describe this feeling, Mads?

[Sønderjye]

"I don't think so" Mads replies hessitantly: "but I don't think we really know anything about how this new threshhold works." The last is followed by a questioning look at the dean.

"I don't know how to describe it. Like Threshhold? Like pressure and being bloated and stretching I guess"

[Toliudar]

Kirby

The older woman nods, absorbing, and then looks up at him with a deadpan expression.

"Well. First year biology was a long time ago, but is it possible that you're pregnant?"

[Sønderjye]

Mads looks at Kirby for a long moment before he burst out laughing. "Okay okay, but seriously, if this is actually a threshhold we have to go through the ritual again, and if what the ritual really does is somehow delaying threshold each time, we'll need a lot of ritualists as we increase our post-threshold numbers. Also, am I the only one who can feel the pressure?"

[Toliudar]

Kirby

Kirby paused to consider.

"Well, if Threshold is, for you anyway, something that builds and rebuilds regularly, we're going to need to come up with another metaphor for it. Then it's less like a gateway to a new realm of experience and more like, I don't know, a cyst that needs to be drained periodically to keep from bursting."

Leo skitters up out of her jacket pocket and onto the table. It taps a straw-like leg on the table, seemingly also lost in thought.

"Maybe we can try having just you as the focus of the next ritual? It'd give Benjy a chance to try out his moderation skills with an experienced participant?"

Does Kirby feel anything like what Mads is describing?

[Benoojian]

Vincent shook his head, "I don't think this is the same as Threshold. It's like the choices we made during Threshold. I could have been a bit of Psionic Ninja, instead of a stronger healer." He tried to capture that feeling again, but he couldn't even convince himself he wanted to trade, much less force a Threshold. "Maybe this lets us choose again, or a little more this time."

[Sønderjye]

"Maybe", Mads shrugs. "This is all new and I hope it's nothing to worry about but I certainly wouldn't feel confident going through the upcoming Threshold, or whatever we end up calling it, without assistance."

He doesn't reply directly to Kirby suggestion about letting Benjy be his threshold doctor. Having an inexperienced doctor is after all the biggest risk of operation accidents but he doesn't feel comfortable suggestion that Benjy try it on someone else first.

[Toliudar]

Kirby does stand this time, and nods to the group.

"Thanks for this update. If anyone needs me, I'll be over in lab C."