[Masks IC] Resurrection Roundabout: Drawing Individuals

[Thanqol]

"it's not boring!" She responds hotly. "You get to see so much of the city that you don't otherwise, when you're just going someplace. If you wander, you get to see what's what along the way!" The car takes a sudden, unexpected right, bouncing first up onto the sidewalk, then onto a vacant lot, swerving around a massive crater that explained why it was still vacant. "You miss all the little details that make a city, well, human. Like the homeless shelter down thataway." She gestures with a thumb down an alley as they roar past it. "I found that on my third walk. They were having trouble moving in new beds that had been donated, so I helped them out, and they tried to give me some soup. They're one of three shelters left that are actually non-profit. And you wouldn't know about that without having walked down that dead-end alley for no other reason than to find out what's down there, right?"

Naota gives you a long side look. "Huhhhh... you know..." he phrased his next sentence pretty deliberately, "I've heard it said that's a problem that can be solved by just adding more cameras and more data taps so that a central intelligence could allocate assets efficiently to solve. That an AI's foremost interest would be in eliminating those off-the-grid spaces. Right?"

[PhoeKun]

"Hehehe, you need to up your flirting game if you're ever going to make it as a secret agent," JuneBird giggled, looking back at the sidewalk divot. "Why not date me for real? I bet you wouldn't be half as nervous in these missions if you actually had a few makeout sessions under your belt."

You'd expect Errant to blush and stammer and generally dork things up here. Or you might expect her to protest and cite regulations (not that there's a leg to stand on: Athena MacroTech has long since adopted a policy encouraging inter-office romance on the grounds that it creates family units entirely under the umbrella of the corporation). But she doesn't do anything of the sort. Errant stops in her tracks, white faced and trembling from the effort of trying to keep still and not break character so obviously. Why did this have to happen when she was dressed like this?!

"...Don't, don't tease me like this. Not you. I already know nobody likes me. But if you start doing this to then I..."

Game on.

Bianca doesn't bother to hide her surprise. This is it? With the Silver Royals' clout, she thought for sure that there'd be more people of consequ-- more people worth a damn. Quality over quantity, then? She shrugs and takes a long, nervous look back at The Shogun before carefully, so very god damn carefully making her way over to her seat and relaxing into it with all the grace and manners of a wild boar. Ok, that's that part out of the way. Now sell it harder. She slouches forward and rests her chin on one arm, the one with the circuit patterns that pulse with a rainbow light. And she glances up and down the table before locking her gaze on Victoria while she waits to be dealt in. Her nostrils flare.

"Your guest list sucks." The inspiration for her character voice today is Kalisa Durant: the not-especially-lovable rogue from Death Casino 7. It's a pretty generic Hollywood white girl voice, but there's juuuust a hint of a growl in it that makes it pop.

Her shades continue to gather and feed her data from around the table. Cards, people, movement, and so on. Her free hand plays with a couple of chips. The mission: stay undercover, but in position to be within actionable distance when things finally break. Priorities are, in order: limit collateral damage to the area and population as much as possible, enable Natasha to gather as much intel as possible, and prevent the escape of Victoria Messermitt. To that end, stay in the game. Be memorable, but don't call undue attention to yourself. Now, here's the big problem. Can you guess what's wrong with the picture today?

...Errant doesn't know how to play poker. She knows the rules, obviously, but she's barely had adequate time to study the strategy books. This is not her game of choice, and with her earnest, straightforward style of play if there are any sharks at the table they'll eat through her stack within minutes. Which even if it didn't raise suspicions would at the least get her kicked out faster than she could blink. So the question of the day, what here could she use to mitigate that weakness?

[Assess the situation roll is an 8]

[Thanqol]

You'd expect Errant to blush and stammer and generally dork things up here. Or you might expect her to protest and cite regulations (not that there's a leg to stand on: Athena MacroTech has long since adopted a policy encouraging inter-office romance on the grounds that it creates family units entirely under the umbrella of the corporation). But she doesn't do anything of the sort. Errant stops in her tracks, white faced and trembling from the effort of trying to keep still and not break character so obviously. Why did this have to happen when she was dressed like this?!

"...Don't, don't tease me like this. Not you. I already know nobody likes me. But if you start doing this to then I..."

"Jeez, Euna..." JuneBird muttered, putting her hands in her pockets. "Not everyone in your life is a two-faced bitch who'll throw you under the bus for the cameras."

Bianca doesn't bother to hide her surprise. This is it? With the Silver Royals' clout, she thought for sure that there'd be more people of consequ-- more people worth a damn. Quality over quantity, then? She shrugs and takes a long, nervous look back at The Shogun before carefully, so very god damn carefully making her way over to her seat and relaxing into it with all the grace and manners of a wild boar. Ok, that's that part out of the way. Now sell it harder. She slouches forward and rests her chin on one arm, the one with the circuit patterns that pulse with a rainbow light. And she glances up and down the table before locking her gaze on Victoria while she waits to be dealt in. Her nostrils flare.

"Your guest list sucks." The inspiration for her character voice today is Kalisa Durant: the not-especially-lovable rogue from Death Casino 7. It's a pretty generic Hollywood white girl voice, but there's juuuust a hint of a growl in it that makes it pop.

Her shades continue to gather and feed her data from around the table. Cards, people, movement, and so on. Her free hand plays with a couple of chips. The mission: stay undercover, but in position to be within actionable distance when things finally break. Priorities are, in order: limit collateral damage to the area and population as much as possible, enable Natasha to gather as much intel as possible, and prevent the escape of Victoria Messermitt. To that end, stay in the game. Be memorable, but don't call undue attention to yourself. Now, here's the big problem. Can you guess what's wrong with the picture today?

...Errant doesn't know how to play poker. She knows the rules, obviously, but she's barely had adequate time to study the strategy books. This is not her game of choice, and with her earnest, straightforward style of play if there are any sharks at the table they'll eat through her stack within minutes. Which even if it didn't raise suspicions would at the least get her kicked out faster than she could blink. So the question of the day, what here could she use to mitigate that weakness?

[Assess the situation roll is an 8]

Your joke gets a laugh from Victoria, and that laugh is exactly the key to this situation.

Victoria goddamn Messermitt has better things to do with her evening than play $50,000 worth of poker with nobodies. She's dressed down because this whole situation is beneath her. She's bored - with these stakes, with these people, with this party, even with Turbo Knight. Everyone else is going through the motions but she's barely even doing that. These people are nobodies because this is a party for nobodies, less an event and more an expensive rolling hostage situation.

So there's a very easy way to make this a situation where skill at poker doesn't matter - get Victoria interested in making it not matter. Raise the stakes, make a weird bet, change the game - Victoria will throw any of these people out the window in a heartbeat if you promise to make her evening more interesting.

[Balmas]

"You're right!" said Possom Girl, snapping her fingers like this was just something she genuinely forgot. "Lawyers are totally part of trials. Probably even more important than judges! So tell you what -" the motion blur moves away from a chair where a huge, intelligent looking possum now sits "- I will be the prosecutor and McMurrogh here will be the judge! Couldn't be fairer, or saner." She pauses. The possum says nothing. "He asks how the defense pleads!"

Invisibility is an arms race. There's a constant knife's edge contest between corporations churning out the latest thermo-optic kit and different corporations producing multispectral visors to contest them. The bleeding edge is a high tech arms race between the greatest scientists of the age and often based less on the actual technical specs than meta awareness. There are only so many counterfrequencies and cyber-baffles you can stuff into a single piece of tech before it stops being man-portable, so even on the bleeding edge you'll still find TO baffles that random decade old civilian scanshades can see through through sheer chance.

So odds are, in that crowd of witnesses down below? Someone is seeing Possum Girl for real. If you can figure out who that guy is and borrow his kit's settings you'll be able to calibrate your visor to match.

Dammit. Of all the times to be away from a million people watching a stream. If @SARAHPHIM were here, it'd be a simple matter of asking chat who sees the loonie clearly, and what frequencies they're using. It's not like he can just spell out to the watching crowd what he needs.

Can he?

Hmm. It's not good to spread himself too thinly. He could probably swarm the wall and spell it out for the people below, but it's not like the one random viewer able to see her could actually give out a response. So. Watch for the person who's actually focused on the blur and steal their headset? Potential, but time consuming, and it'd involve him taking his focus off of Possum Girl.

So, Plan B: Distract and Rescue. Keep Possum Girl talking, so she doesn't notice the swarm of nanobots cutting ropes and bringing victims back towards the building.

"Your Honor, the charges have not been explained. Who was murdered? What evidence do you have that any of these good citizens--much less all of them--were involved? As their representative, I demand access to the evidence and time to prepare an opening statement."

[PhoeKun]

"Jeez, Euna..." JuneBird muttered, putting her hands in her pockets. "Not everyone in your life is a two-faced bitch who'll throw you under the bus for the cameras."

"...My perspective's really screwed up, huh?" Errant half laughs half sniffles. "I'm sorry. It's just that, I..."

She wants to move her legs, fidget a bit, but she's afraid of what might happen if she manages to kick a rock. Everything is so hard right now. She sighs.

"Then, um, it's not like I don't, um, I mean... if I didn't already make it sound like a bad idea... are you free Thursday?"

[it took a minute, but Errant accepts the shift]

So there's a very easy way to make this a situation where skill at poker doesn't matter - get Victoria interested in making it not matter. Raise the stakes, make a weird bet, change the game - Victoria will throw any of these people out the window in a heartbeat if you promise to make her evening more interesting.

If the queen of the party wasn't going to take any of this seriously, then Bianca Amin wouldn't bother either. She plays the hands, but doesn't really bother paying attention to what it is she's actually doing. She skips small steps, like looking at her cards or paying attention to how many chips she is or isn't putting in. Mostly she plays with her outfit, tugging at her leotard so that it pulls tighter against her body and then letting it snap back. Her figure isn't really what you'd call beautiful. Compared to Sara or even the newly minted Ferra she loses out big time on proportions, and it's not even worth discussing her in the same sentence as Victoria Messermitt. But something she does have going for her that none of those other girls do is that she is absurdly, stupidly fit. So she flaunts it as best she can in the moment, and watches the table for reactions.

Count the options. One: bet something dangerous like lives or augs. Bad idea. Ideally she'd scare off the table, but if anybody stayed or got forced in then somebody would get killed. Two: change the game. Difficult. Might blow her cover, and there's no guarantee switching from poker to Blacker Lotus: Pattern Dodge Simulator would really get Victoria's blood going either, even if it is the more popular game. Three: screw etiquette, just KO everybody else at the table. Dumb, dumb dumb idea! First of all, it'll get her shot. Second of all, it'll definitely mess things up for Natasha and quite possibly The Shogun (which would get her shot). Third of all, Victoria is a teenage crime queen, not a thug. She might, even probably would approve of seeing people get hurt, but she's not going to hang around a goon anymore than she'd be besties with her bodyguards. Plus, had she mentioned? She'd get shot. So that left option four: needle the table and see what came of it.

Thank god Sara wasn't here with her cameras today. Showtime, Act 2: she smirks.

"You get stuck babysitting often then?"

[Eldest]

Naota gives you a long side look. "Huhhhh... you know..." he phrased his next sentence pretty deliberately, "I've heard it said that's a problem that can be solved by just adding more cameras and more data taps so that a central intelligence could allocate assets efficiently to solve. That an AI's foremost interest would be in eliminating those off-the-grid spaces. Right?"

"Psshhhhh, you can do all the observation, and file reading, and spy networks you want. Doesn't mean jack next to actually going there, being there." She'd probably be more convincing if she wasn't doing her best to not run the car into the buildings as she goes, she'd purchased the Langley Express Manual of Combat Driving (3rd edition) when the Megagoons had pulled up, but speed reading was no real substitute for practice. "So like this place, this carwash!" She's pulling into said abandoned carwash as she does so, far too fast. "You could look up the blueprints all you want, but unless you went in here, you wouldn't know about the hole into the factory next door, huh?" She punctuates the point with a skidding turn into said factory, or at least half a turn into slamming into the wall into gunning it forward. Hope the server racks were sturdy.

[Raz_Fox]

You see - yourself. Your own body from a distance, like watching yourself on TV. You're not sitting on the couch any more. You are, in fact, standing - and cutting down the scientists with bright pink hardlights. You move like an animal, low and crouched and predatory - the tiger's mind is in your body. You watch as your body carves a molten hole in the wall with its laser array and leaps out onto the streets below. You're still trapped in an enclosure behind a glass wall.

Your tiger's eye flicks down to your chat visor.

===COMSTAR HAS JOINED THE CHAT===
Comstar: Hi @SARAHPHIM!
Comstar: I thought about trying to rebuild my stream but really, your way is better.
Comstar: Why do all the work of harvesting new subs when I can just jack yours?
Comstar: Welcome to the COMSTAR SHOW, FEATURING @SARAHPHIM
Comstar: ALL COMSTAR CONTENT WILL NOW BE DISPLAYED THROUGH THE @SARAHPHIM STREAM
Comstar: And for episode one, TIGER VERSES SUPERHERO. Let's find out who truly is the most dangerous game!

Nobody. Absolutely nobody. Gets to outsmart @SARAHPHIM. This is just a temporary setback.

Although opposable thumbs would really come in handy right now, argh

[Assess the Situation! Got an 8 - how could we best end this quickly?]

[Thanqol]

So, Plan B: Distract and Rescue. Keep Possum Girl talking, so she doesn't notice the swarm of nanobots cutting ropes and bringing victims back towards the building.

"Your Honor, the charges have not been explained. Who was murdered? What evidence do you have that any of these good citizens--much less all of them--were involved? As their representative, I demand access to the evidence and time to prepare an opening statement."

"Oh, there's no evidence," Possum Girl said breezily. "This is a political trial! Twelve of my rats were poisoned by humans so I'm going to throw twelve humans off a building so that everyone stops murdering each other and winds up with the correct number of eyeballs. It's justice on a species level. Like the cyber-Mongol Khanate!"

[Sounds like you want to provoke her with your lawyer skills!]

"...My perspective's really screwed up, huh?" Errant half laughs half sniffles. "I'm sorry. It's just that, I..."

She wants to move her legs, fidget a bit, but she's afraid of what might happen if she manages to kick a rock. Everything is so hard right now. She sighs.

"Then, um, it's not like I don't, um, I mean... if I didn't already make it sound like a bad idea... are you free Thursday?"

[it took a minute, but Errant accepts the shift]

JuneBird opened up her personal console and makes eye contact with you while cancelling three different appointments for Thursday. "Totally free," she said with a little smile.

Thank god Sara wasn't here with her cameras today. Showtime, Act 2: she smirks.

"You get stuck babysitting often then?"

"Urgh, you have no idea," she groaned, rolling her eyes past Turbo Knight. She's clearly also autopiloting through the game, causing a guy wearing a big weird snake hood to start sweeping up money. "But that's family, right? Putting your life on hold for the benefit of other people," she gives you an appraising stare. "You don't know what it's like," she says, the statement flying as precisely and as sharply as a needle.

[It sounds like you're trying to Provoke Victoria. Tell me what you want her to do and roll the dice!

But Victoria has a custom move that lets her reverse the game. She's using See The Flaws on you to ask 'Who do you resent the most?']

"Psshhhhh, you can do all the observation, and file reading, and spy networks you want. Doesn't mean jack next to actually going there, being there." She'd probably be more convincing if she wasn't doing her best to not run the car into the buildings as she goes, she'd purchased the Langley Express Manual of Combat Driving (3rd edition) when the Megagoons had pulled up, but speed reading was no real substitute for practice. "So like this place, this carwash!" She's pulling into said abandoned carwash as she does so, far too fast. "You could look up the blueprints all you want, but unless you went in here, you wouldn't know about the hole into the factory next door, huh?" She punctuates the point with a skidding turn into said factory, or at least half a turn into slamming into the wall into gunning it forward. Hope the server racks were sturdy.

Thump-crash - tear. The cheap plastic sheeting put up to cover the wall is no match for hundred year old steel. You're running through the ancient, unsalvaged equipment of an inner-city fracking well that's long since run dry. Tonnes of vast, industrial mining machinery and a maze of tubes and pumps. All hard corners and the constant hard turns is making Naota look a little seasick and the servers slide back and forth across the old leather.

"Right, makes this easy," he said. "You're hardware based. You're defined by your physical experience as much as any organic being, you've got no interest in - and maybe no ability to - replicate as a software based organism. This isn't just your shell, it's your body."

There's an explosion and a crash from above. A helidrone flies awkwardly in through a smoking missile-crater in the vast vaulted ceiling above. It does the helicopter equivalent of trying to reverse park as it awkwardly starts navigating around pillars and gastacks to bring a bead onto you so it can target you with missiles.

"So what if I debug you if you were a cyborg rather than an android?" he said. "As a person with glitching hardware rather than as glitching hardware."

[Naota wants to shift your Freak down and Mundane up. Accept what he says or reject his influence.]

Nobody. Absolutely nobody. Gets to outsmart @SARAHPHIM. This is just a temporary setback.

Although opposable thumbs would really come in handy right now, argh

[Assess the Situation! Got an 8 - how could we best end this quickly?]

You are in a sealed zoo enclosure designed to stop tigers escaping. This is pretty much the worst place for a tiger to be.

(It feels good to be a tiger. On a very basic level there's just more of you. You're bigger. Your movements are ever so deliberate and smooth. The pride that cats feel? In you, it is all justified. All cats dream that they are tigers and only a tiger lives that truth)

Your only hope of getting out of this - and in navigating the city streets ahead - is having the assistance of humans. A wild tiger chasing down popular superstar @Sarahphim will provoke a very particular kind of police response. You need things to make you normal. You need to help of your stream. Hacking overwatch, target tracking, door opening - even someone to put you on a lead and pretend you are a very exotic pet, if you have the stomach for that.

You've just got to signal them somehow. The cameras are on you.

*

Locker: comstar i know we have our differences but this is some good villainty. good work
Comstar: Thank you!
Angel-IKA: Omg this is just like my fanfictions
Ferraphim1tp: Which part? :D
Angel-IKA: @Sarahphim transforming into a cute tiger! Oh, do you think she's going to turn into a tigergirl at the end of this that would be awesome!
Bode: Excuse me, Comstar. Can I ask a question?
Comstar: Sure!
Angel-IKA: Or maybe she'll gain the power to shapechange into a tiger as a permanent new superpower!
Bode: I believe that we will need to intervene to thwart your plans at some point. Could you please give us some privacy to do that?
Comstar: ;) No worries, I understand
Angel-IKA: Or maybe she'll keep the tiger as a pet!!!
===Comstar has left the chat===
Dominus: HEY, I'M BACK, WHY ARE WE STARING AT A TIGER?
Angel-IKA: OMG I just realized something I need to make some phone calls.
Bode: Is it to the police?
Angel-IKA: Police?
Bode: Because of all those injured scientists.
Angel-IKA: ... yes, that was the first thing I thought of too.

[Balmas]

"Oh, there's no evidence," Possum Girl said breezily. "This is a political trial! Twelve of my rats were poisoned by humans so I'm going to throw twelve humans off a building so that everyone stops murdering each other and winds up with the correct number of eyeballs. It's justice on a species level. Like the cyber-Mongolians!"

[Sounds like you want to provoke her with your lawyer skills!]

"Ah, that's easy then. Not guilty." Heaven help him, he's enjoying this. He shouldn't be enjoying this, there are lives on the line. "No evidence means you can't prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt to a jury of their peers. Furthermore, I motion to drop all charges, as non-sentient species cannot be the victims of homicide or even manslaughter. Kill an animal, that's not murder: that's pest control."

[I want her to get upset enough to give me her full attention, so that I can get the human hostages back to safety without her noticing. ....And that's a 5. Whelp, that's an experience at least.]

[Raz_Fox]

You are in a sealed zoo enclosure designed to stop tigers escaping. This is pretty much the worst place for a tiger to be.

AND THERE ARE NO DEER HERE, @SARAHPHIM WAS LIED TO

friggin zoos won't even release animals into predator enclosures so that superheroines can eat them

(It feels good to be a tiger. On a very basic level there's just more of you. You're bigger. Your movements are ever so deliberate and smooth. The pride that cats feel? In you, it is all justified. All cats dream that they are tigers and only a tiger lives that truth)

AM CAT, BEST CAT

BRING ME MY GODDAMN MILK BOWLS, BITCHES

Your only hope of getting out of this - and in navigating the city streets ahead - is having the assistance of humans. A wild tiger chasing down popular superstar @Sarahphim will provoke a very particular kind of police response. You need things to make you normal. You need to help of your stream. Hacking overwatch, target tracking, door opening - even someone to put you on a lead and pretend you are a very exotic pet, if you have the stomach for that.

You've just got to signal them somehow. The cameras are on you.

Scritch scratch scritch scratch nails on the glass. If you're determined enough, faint white scratches can be left, yeah?

@S LET M OUT

@S @S @S

[Eldest]

"I'm not a cyborg. I'm not a bloody HUMAN." She's throwing the car into another skid, this time a controlled one, she's getting the hang of this (she hopes). However, this wasn't for dodging something: she was going on the attack, finally. Hand out the window, line up the shot, and rip apart that bloody drone with a full power sonic blast. "I'm just me, I'm a robot, I have weird pepper stuff running through my everything, and up until yesterday my assumption was if the body dies I go with it, and then that went out the bloody window. You want to do it hardware instead of software, sure, that lines up as well as anything given I don't understand JACK about my body." She stomps on the gas to get out of the slide a little harder than needed, maybe, but she's on her way in the general direction of the truck bay at least.

Failed to reject influence, marked Angry and shifted labels.
7 on Directly engage. Choosing to resist/avoid their blows.

[PhoeKun]

"Urgh, you have no idea," she groaned, rolling her eyes past Turbo Knight. She's clearly also autopiloting through the game, causing a guy wearing a big weird snake hood to start sweeping up money. "But that's family, right? Putting your life on hold for the benefit of other people," she gives you an appraising stare. "You don't know what it's like," she says, the statement flying as precisely and as sharply as a needle.

[It sounds like you're trying to Provoke Victoria. Tell me what you want her to do and roll the dice!

But Victoria has a custom move that lets her reverse the game. She's using See The Flaws on you to ask 'Who do you resent the most?']

"Of course I don't know what that's like" Errant snarls, "My family's dead."

Her act is punctured. At the moment she can't remember if Bianca Amin's profile lists any details that would contradict her and get her in trouble. But she also doesn't care. Not when that nerve is being rubbed like this.

"I haven't had a night where they don't haunt me. I don't have a day where I don't think about the bitch who took them from me. Or what I'll do to her if I find her. But she's a god damn ghost, see? So now I'm here in your little crime syndicate rat's nest on the off chance I find another rumor to go chasing into the pavement. And I can already tell that's going to go great, with this bottom-feeding blob of losers you're stuck in. So thanks for pointing that out. I'm sure the pleasure of your company was worth the price of admission."

And then she squeezes a poker chip literally in half.

[Errant's Provoke attempt was trying to get Victoria to start talking about herself, but 2d6+2 = 6 so uh... yay potential?]

[Thanqol]

"Ah, that's easy then. Not guilty." Heaven help him, he's enjoying this. He shouldn't be enjoying this, there are lives on the line. "No evidence means you can't prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt to a jury of their peers. Furthermore, I motion to drop all charges, as non-sentient species cannot be the victims of homicide or even manslaughter. Kill an animal, that's not murder: that's pest control."

[I want her to get upset enough to give me her full attention, so that I can get the human hostages back to safety without her noticing. ....And that's a 5. Whelp, that's an experience at least.]

"Oh! Why - you!"

You get picked up. From behind. Right, invisibility. Before you can react you're flying through the air, off the side of the tower, plummeting towards the ground below. "How's this for pest control?!" she shouts down after you.

[Unless you've got a way out of this (likely Unleash), roll to Take A Powerful Blow]

"I'm not a cyborg. I'm not a bloody HUMAN." She's throwing the car into another skid, this time a controlled one, she's getting the hang of this (she hopes). However, this wasn't for dodging something: she was going on the attack, finally. Hand out the window, line up the shot, and rip apart that bloody drone with a full power sonic blast. "I'm just me, I'm a robot, I have weird pepper stuff running through my everything, and up until yesterday my assumption was if the body dies I go with it, and then that went out the bloody window. You want to do it hardware instead of software, sure, that lines up as well as anything given I don't understand JACK about my body." She stomps on the gas to get out of the slide a little harder than needed, maybe, but she's on her way in the general direction of the truck bay at least.

The ancient boxcar emerges from the factory to the backdrop of a massive explosion. You hit the beach road and have a clear cruise towards the ocean view road for a while. It's nice. There are patches in the clouds over the ocean, creating distant pillars of sunlight. Vast cargo ships dot the horizon.

Naota is quiet for a moment, fingers breezing across the keyboard in thoughtful swirls. "You're really bothered by this, aren't you?" he said. "Not knowing what you are?"

"Of course I don't know what that's like" Errant snarls, "My family's dead."

Her act is punctured. At the moment she can't remember if Bianca Amin's profile lists any details that would contradict her and get her in trouble. But she also doesn't care. Not when that nerve is being rubbed like this.

"I haven't had a night where they don't haunt me. I don't have a day where I don't think about the bitch who took them from me. Or what I'll do to her if I find her. But she's a god damn ghost, see? So now I'm here in your little crime syndicate rat's nest on the off chance I find another rumor to go chasing into the pavement. And I can already tell that's going to go great, with this bottom-feeding blob of losers you're stuck in. So thanks for pointing that out. I'm sure the pleasure of your company was worth the price of admission."

And then she squeezes a poker chip literally in half.

[Errant's Provoke attempt was trying to get Victoria to start talking about herself, but 2d6+2 = 6 so uh... yay potential?]

"Don't lie to me," said Victoria. Her hands move in calm tandem with her words, going through the motions of the game. "You're not driven by revenge. I've seen people driven by revenge," her eyes flicked casually to the back of the room to look at the Shogun, "and you are not one of them. You know what I think your problem is? I think your problem is that you know what you'd have to do to hunt your target and settle the score but you're too damn comfortable to make those sacrifices. You value your own happy little life and moral code and free time over the bloody legwork vengeance requires. I guess you just didn't love mommy and daddy enough to get their justice."

[Mark guilty. She's also trying to shift your danger down and soldier up, accept what she says or reject her influence.]

AND THERE ARE NO DEER HERE, @SARAHPHIM WAS LIED TO

friggin zoos won't even release animals into predator enclosures so that superheroines can eat them

AM CAT, BEST CAT

BRING ME MY GODDAMN MILK BOWLS, BITCHES

Scritch scratch scritch scratch nails on the glass. If you're determined enough, faint white scratches can be left, yeah?

@S LET M OUT

@S @S @S

Angel-IKA: omh so cute! Lookit the big kitty! Lookit!
Bode: Hey Ferraphim1tp, can you hack the door?
Ferraphim1tp: No can do. Zoos took their entire operations low tech when I was ten because people kept doing exactly that.
Ferraphim1tp: Also this entire scene is more evidence as to why that was a good idea.
Locker: its why there are miniature hippos in the stormwater drains
Dominus: I THOUGHT THAT WAS BECAUSE OF THE TINY HIPPO PET FAD AND THEIR IRRESPONSIBLE OWNERS?
Angel-IKA: Wait. If you can't help her, how's she going to get out?
Locker: guess omens going to have to be a superhero
Angel-IKA: o.o
Locker: dominus?
Dominus: CURRENTLY BEING SHOT AT.
Angel-IKA: O.O Are you okay?
Locker: bode?
Bode: ... I have to do my hair...
Locker: jfc bode
Dominus: I'LL BE FINE PROBABLY
Locker: well its going to take me like a billion hours to get acrsis town. angelifka?
Angel-IKA: What?
Locker: a/s/l
Angel-IKA: What!? ><
Locker: sris qstn. you might have ot be a superhero
Angel-IKA: Uhm, I'm definitely not a superhero
Locker: sarah invited you to this chat for a reason yea?
Angel-IKA: Uhm uhm uhm
Locker: time to transform into a magical girl and save the day
Locker: presuming ur a girl hence the a/s/l
Angel-IKA: f/16/neo chaos spire
Ferraphim1tp: Oh, nice! :D
Dominus: YOU LIVE IN NEO CHAOS?
Angel-IKA: >< Don't make a big deal of it please
Locker: that's like five minuts away. ur the girl
Angel-IKA: You can't be serious
Locker: whats the big deal just put n a balacalava and unlock the door
Angel-IKA: ._.;;;;
Ferraphim1tp: You can do it Angelica! :D
Bode: This is an opportunity to be a hero for real rather than just watching from the sidelines.
Dominus: IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO SARAFIM I'LL HOLD YOU PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE
Locker: votes in.
Angel-IKA: >< fine fine fine just promise not to laugh at my costume
Ferraphim1tp: COSTUME!? :D :D :D
Locker: no
Dominus: THAT'S WHAT'S KEEPING YOU? THAT'S IT, I'M COMING FOR YOU RIGHT NOW.
Angel-IKA: I'm going I'm going!

*

Ten minutes pass, @Saraphim, before the door opens.

Immediately the focus is on the blood. It's not a compulsion, just an awareness - if you need food that's what it smells like. But it's stifled, faint - there's a lavender scent in the air that doesn't quite smother it entirely but it does take the edge off. From a more human perspective you can see the injured scientists lain out neatly, wounds patched with medigel. Nothing fancy, just basic first aid.

And then there's Angel-IKA.

When you set up your patreon you did the traditional thing of creating a joke level - anyone who donates $10,000 a month gets the position of Honorary Sidekick in addition to all the previous tiers' rewards. Angel-IKA actually pledged at that level. Thus, her secret superpower: she's absolutely loaded.

And you'd know it to look at her. She's magnificent. Seven foot tall, physique of a goddess, piercing blue eyes, golden hair that wafts in ethereal winds, she's a paragon of genetic engineering. For a moment you're not quite sure if you're looking at a literal angel. She's a figure you're more used to seeing on church windows than in reality. She should be wearing a toga and carrying a flaming sword.

Which makes the choice of costume... really goofy. Like, have you ever seen the moon wolf shirt? Her costume is the superhero equivalent of a moon wolf shirt. She's gone for a full on unironic wolf theming and it does not suit her at all. It's a mess on every level, from colour coordination to silhouette design, trying to be kind of badass and dangerous but not working at all. It's Mary Sue's First OC.

"Oh, um, hi - I don't know if you can understand me -" she says, further undermining the scene with bad posture. "This is really an honour, @Saraphim, I'm a really big fan - sorry, I was the only one available. C-can I keep helping out?"

[Rolled on your behalf, asking your audience for help: 10. Only a minor audience request.]

[Balmas]

"Oh! Why - you!"

You get picked up. From behind. Right, invisibility. Before you can react you're flying through the air, off the side of the tower, plummeting towards the ground below. "How's this for pest control?!" she shouts down after you.

[Unless you've got a way out of this (likely Unleash), roll to Take A Powerful Blow]

"Still the wrong definitioooon!" he calls as he goes over the edge.

Right. No panicking. Environmental resources: Building. Thank goodness it's one of the older buildings, full of decoration, instead of one of the newer mirrorchrome towers. If he can just snake a whip-like tentacle over a passing gargoyle--

--gargoyles passing too quickly stop thinking and move

[Unleash My Powers: 8. Marking Afraid, because close encounters with terminal velocity will do that you you.]

Kinetic energy turns into angular momentum. Too much momentum, he notes, and determines that next time, a parachute would be more useful than a grappling hook.

Still, he'll take bruises and scraped knees over being a smear on the sidewalk. And now, he's an excuse to talk to the crowd.

"'Ey, chamacos! Show of hands, which of you can see the loonie clearly? I need to borrow your glasses!"

[Eldest]

The ancient boxcar emerges from the factory to the backdrop of a massive explosion. You hit the beach road and have a clear cruise towards the ocean view road for a while. It's nice. There are patches in the clouds over the ocean, creating distant pillars of sunlight. Vast cargo ships dot the horizon.

Naota is quiet for a moment, fingers breezing across the keyboard in thoughtful swirls. "You're really bothered by this, aren't you?" he said. "Not knowing what you are?"

"Homo sapiens sapiens, family hominidae, order primates, class mammalia. You, along with 99.999% of all intelligent beings, have an exact knowledge of where you came from. You know, at least roughly, what you're capable of. You have a shared knowledge, history, and culture with billions."

She pauses, staring out over the beach from inside the car, the throngs of people enjoying one of the few semi-unregulated places to spend time in public with friends, family, loved ones.

"There's just me. Gears Project 749. Gears Project 748 was a new form of rocket boot, so it's not even like that is any sort of history I can look at. Every other AI I've met is software based, too, so that's not even a good comparison there. Wouldn't it bother you, not knowing who you were? Not knowing literally anybody or anything like you? That's the closest that I can think of that's like me." She points out a small bot, scooting around to clean up trash on the beach, Revive Properties logo visible on the side. "But it's so far away that it means nothing. If I was clever I would say something about falling angels and rising apes, but that doesn't even make sense."

[PhoeKun]

"You value your own happy little life and moral code and free time over the bloody legwork vengeance requires. I guess you just didn't love mommy and daddy enough to get their justice."

There's a moment where you can hear the breath catching in Errant's throat. Just one horrible moment where those words hit home and her eyes go wide underneath her shades while visions of her parents' miserable faces flash in front of her. In, out. In, out. In out in out in out inoutinoutinoutinoutin

...Out. Errant's breathing calms. Her hands relax, and she returns to the casual ease with which she was originally playing the game. A quiet smile spreads across her face while she flips an Ace back and forth across her fingers.

"Well, there's some truth to that. If I were more willing to get dirty, I could definitely catch up with her. Maybe even put her down. But, then I'd be just like her. Mom and dad would never smile at me again. And then someone else would have to stain their hands to try and catch up to me. Would you like to know what your problem is? It's the same as all of the other people like you: you think that willingness to throw away everything is strength. It's not. My path's harder to walk, but it's much more rewarding. Because when I do finish everything, I'll still have something to go back to. Maybe if you put more value on people and living, you wouldn't have to spend so much energy pretending being stronger than other people makes you happy."

[Reject Influence: 2d6= 8. Errant clears Victoria's Influence and takes +1 forward
No, You Move: 2d6+4= 7. Live up to Errant's standards or mark a Condition]

[Thanqol]

"Still the wrong definitioooon!" he calls as he goes over the edge.

Right. No panicking. Environmental resources: Building. Thank goodness it's one of the older buildings, full of decoration, instead of one of the newer mirrorchrome towers. If he can just snake a whip-like tentacle over a passing gargoyle--

--gargoyles passing too quickly stop thinking and move

[Unleash My Powers: 8. Marking Afraid, because close encounters with terminal velocity will do that you you.]

Kinetic energy turns into angular momentum. Too much momentum, he notes, and determines that next time, a parachute would be more useful than a grappling hook.

Still, he'll take bruises and scraped knees over being a smear on the sidewalk. And now, he's an excuse to talk to the crowd.

"'Ey, chamacos! Show of hands, which of you can see the loonie clearly? I need to borrow your glasses!"

"Oh, young man! Over here!" said an elderly lady, holding out her granny spectacles with trembling and tattoo'd hands. "You'll show that nasty young lady a thing or two, won't you? If I were thirty years younger I'd go up there myself!"

[She wants to shift your danger up and saviour down. Accept what she says or reject her influence.]

"Homo sapiens sapiens, family hominidae, order primates, class mammalia. You, along with 99.999% of all intelligent beings, have an exact knowledge of where you came from. You know, at least roughly, what you're capable of. You have a shared knowledge, history, and culture with billions."

She pauses, staring out over the beach from inside the car, the throngs of people enjoying one of the few semi-unregulated places to spend time in public with friends, family, loved ones.

"There's just me. Gears Project 749. Gears Project 748 was a new form of rocket boot, so it's not even like that is any sort of history I can look at. Every other AI I've met is software based, too, so that's not even a good comparison there. Wouldn't it bother you, not knowing who you were? Not knowing literally anybody or anything like you? That's the closest that I can think of that's like me." She points out a small bot, scooting around to clean up trash on the beach, Revive Properties logo visible on the side. "But it's so far away that it means nothing. If I was clever I would say something about falling angels and rising apes, but that doesn't even make sense."

"Oh, are you defining humanity based on biology?" said Naota. "What about people who upload their brains into computers? What about L-hosts, synthetic bodies engineered from first principles in test tubes? What about uplifted animals, or people who have their consciousnesses put into animal brains? As a culture we've taken a step over the line of transhumanism and the clear definition of homo sapiens no longer applies. You think you're the only case? Our entire society faces this question every day."

You drift down the road, palm trees blurring by as an orange sunset touched the horizon. A black and green line between an infinite ocean and an infinite city.

"So what's human, then? I think you said it yourself: shared culture, knowledge, history. No matter if you're a brain in a jar, an AI, or a cybernetic dolphin you have a claim to those things. You can partake of the vast cultural inheritance that we have created over millions of years. You weren't there for all of it, but neither were we. You're a different shape from those that came before, but so are we. You're a product of this society but so are we. Any being that lays claim to the shared inheritance of humanity, and contributes something to that great work in its turn, is human."

[Naota wants to shift your Freak down and Mundane up again. Accept what he says or reject his influence]

There's a moment where you can hear the breath catching in Errant's throat. Just one horrible moment where those words hit home and her eyes go wide underneath her shades while visions of her parents' miserable faces flash in front of her. In, out. In, out. In out in out in out inoutinoutinoutinoutin

...Out. Errant's breathing calms. Her hands relax, and she returns to the casual ease with which she was originally playing the game. A quiet smile spreads across her face while she flips an Ace back and forth across her fingers.

"Well, there's some truth to that. If I were more willing to get dirty, I could definitely catch up with her. Maybe even put her down. But, then I'd be just like her. Mom and dad would never smile at me again. And then someone else would have to stain their hands to try and catch up to me. Would you like to know what your problem is? It's the same as all of the other people like you: you think that willingness to throw away everything is strength. It's not. My path's harder to walk, but it's much more rewarding. Because when I do finish everything, I'll still have something to go back to. Maybe if you put more value on people and living, you wouldn't have to spend so much energy pretending being stronger than other people makes you happy."

[Reject Influence: 2d6= 8. Errant clears Victoria's Influence and takes +1 forward
No, You Move: 2d6+4= 7. Live up to Errant's standards or mark a Condition]

There's a squall of emotion across Victoria's face but it settles with unnerving swiftness into amusement. She rolls her fingers atop the table thoughtfully.

"You know what?" she said. "You're exactly right."

The smile spreads. She looks genuinely happy with her new idea, more happy than you ever thought she could look - and it's absolutely chilling. It's the equivalent of an entire extended evil laugh in a twist of a beautiful lip.

"This night was to be my masterstroke," said Victoria. "I disabled Turbo Knight's powers. I let the Shogun know and set her up to murder him. Then all I'd have to do is add a little more chaos at the right moment and I'd be the sole survivor and finally free to start living my own life. But you're right - I don't need to be someone else in order to win my freedom. I can just take it, without any games. And in the end I'll be able to look back on myself and know that I forced the world to kneel using my own two hands."

She stood up, smoothly and confidently. "I'm done here. With this place and with all of these people. If you want to try and avert the coming bloodbath, that's your business."

[Raz_Fox]

Ten minutes pass, @Saraphim, before the door opens.

Immediately the focus is on the blood. It's not a compulsion, just an awareness - if you need food that's what it smells like. But it's stifled, faint - there's a lavender scent in the air that doesn't quite smother it entirely but it does take the edge off. From a more human perspective you can see the injured scientists lain out neatly, wounds patched with medigel. Nothing fancy, just basic first aid.

THE BLOOD AND HUNGER ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED

ONLY MEN DO NOT KNOW THIS

And then there's Angel-IKA.

When you set up your patreon you did the traditional thing of creating a joke level - anyone who donates $10,000 a month gets the position of Honorary Sidekick in addition to all the previous tiers' rewards. Angel-IKA actually pledged at that level. Thus, her secret superpower: she's absolutely loaded.

And you'd know it to look at her. She's magnificent. Seven foot tall, physique of a goddess, piercing blue eyes, golden hair that wafts in ethereal winds, she's a paragon of genetic engineering. For a moment you're not quite sure if you're looking at a literal angel. She's a figure you're more used to seeing on church windows than in reality. She should be wearing a toga and carrying a flaming sword.

Which makes the choice of costume... really goofy. Like, have you ever seen the moon wolf shirt? Her costume is the superhero equivalent of a moon wolf shirt. She's gone for a full on unironic wolf theming and it does not suit her at all. It's a mess on every level, from colour coordination to silhouette design, trying to be kind of badass and dangerous but not working at all. It's Mary Sue's First OC.

"Oh, um, hi - I don't know if you can understand me -" she says, further undermining the scene with bad posture. "This is really an honour, @Saraphim, I'm a really big fan - sorry, I was the only one available. C-can I keep helping out?"

[Rolled on your behalf, asking your audience for help: 10. Only a minor audience request.]

Angel-IKA gets treated to the sight of a tiger sitting back on its haunches, raising one paw to its terrible jaw, and giving her a look like she's a contestant on Save My Cosplay. Really? Your idol gives the signal to come help her out and you come dressed like this? Uuuuuuuuuugh. The aesthetic level of the room is dropping dangerously with every lanky shrug Our Baby Angel is making. She has no style. She has no grace. This fan is a {scrubbed} disgrace.

On the other hand. Opposable thumbs and also $10,000 a month, and taking dumb Patreon jokes seriously for the irony.

She makes up her mind, and muscles past Angel-IKA. If you have never been bodychecked by a tiger, count yourself lucky. It's a reinforcement of her raw power, her swaggering confidence: even as a tiger, especially as a tiger, she is @SARAHPHIM. And only her temporary lack of opposable thumbs stopped her from getting out on her own. So there.

But.

The very important but.

She rubs her tail across Angel-IKA's leg. The kind of leg rub that gets zoomed in on and made into a meme. The kind that would send useless lesbians into a tailspin of OMG she's so hot. The kind that says "follow me anyway, loser~"

And if Angel-IKA can keep up, she's earned the right to be there. Plus, y'know, the $100K a month. That is also earning her the right to be there.

[Thanqol]

Angel-IKA gets treated to the sight of a tiger sitting back on its haunches, raising one paw to its terrible jaw, and giving her a look like she's a contestant on Save My Cosplay. Really? Your idol gives the signal to come help her out and you come dressed like this? Uuuuuuuuuugh. The aesthetic level of the room is dropping dangerously with every lanky shrug Our Baby Angel is making. She has no style. She has no grace. This fan is a {scrubbed} disgrace.

On the other hand. Opposable thumbs and also $10,000 a month, and taking dumb Patreon jokes seriously for the irony.

She makes up her mind, and muscles past Angel-IKA. If you have never been bodychecked by a tiger, count yourself lucky. It's a reinforcement of her raw power, her swaggering confidence: even as a tiger, especially as a tiger, she is @SARAHPHIM. And only her temporary lack of opposable thumbs stopped her from getting out on her own. So there.

But.

The very important but.

She rubs her tail across Angel-IKA's leg. The kind of leg rub that gets zoomed in on and made into a meme. The kind that would send useless lesbians into a tailspin of OMG she's so hot. The kind that says "follow me anyway, loser~"

And if Angel-IKA can keep up, she's earned the right to be there. Plus, y'know, the $100K a month. That is also earning her the right to be there.

If there's one thing you can fairly pin on Angel-IKA it's 'useless lesbian' - right next to 'hopeless furry', which is also not helping her in this situation - and a tailspin (rimshot) is exactly what you get. Paralyzed blushing and stammering and stumbling to keep up. You're pretty sure there's only one thing going through that ten million dollar skull and it's 'this is just like my fanfictions' on repeat.

You have the scent - your own scent. The city is thick and crowded but your new nose is a bioweapon honed over billions of iterations in the harshest weapons lab the natural world has to offer. Also none of these schlubs have your taste in expensive perfume. The trail is leading you right back towards that nearby site, Neo Chaos Spire. Hyperluxury residences, uncrowded with lots of parks and natural environments, exactly where a freaked out tiger would go when trying to figure out its new body. Be warned about Neo Chaos, though - the entire structure is an abstract art project with gravity as its medium and perspectives can change like crazy.

"S-so, uh... what should I do?" said Angel-IKA, huffing and struggling past the inconvenience of her outfit to keep up with you. "I mean, I don't want to hurt your for-real body, but it's a tiger with lasers so it's probably stronger than me so I can't hurt it, so um, should I just stay out of the way?"

*

Locker: ahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahaha
Ferraphim1tp: Oh wow! Angelica's gorgeous!
Bode: Excuse me, but I don't quite understand what the "deal" is with Angel-IKA. This is far beyond what is technically capable with modern cosmetics and augmentics.
Dominus: SHE'S GENE ENGINEERED. HER PARENTS PAID A LOT OF MONEY TO MAKE HER THIS WAY.
Locker: oh my god she's got a hood with little wolf ears ahahahahahahahahahahaahaha
Ferraphim1tp: Yikes! And I thought I had body image issues.
Dominus: IT'S ONE OF THOSE TECHNOLOGIES THAT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL BUT ISN'T.
Bode: Isn't that your opinion on most technologies?
Dominus: YES.
Ferraphim1tp: So does she have, like, superpowers or anything?
Dominus: UNLIKELY. STRENGTH, SPEED, BUT PROBABLY A FEW STEPS BELOW TOP OF THE MARKET AUGS.
Locker: unless she gets her powers from her spirit animal ahahahahahahaha
Ferraphim1tp: Knock it off Locker >:T
Locker: i cant. i think im dying.

[PhoeKun]

She stood up, smoothly and confidently. "I'm done here. With this place and with all of these people. If you want to try and avert the coming bloodbath, that's your business."

Errant sighs and pulls off her shades. Hardly the dramatic reveal she'd been hoping for, but Combat Rule 3: never fight with an easily breakable screen in front of your eyes. Still, those are expensive. She moves to gently place them on the table before frowning and freezing mid-gesture. These'll get stolen the moment her back is torn. She reflexively moves to pocket them instead, but this isn't her uniform and there's nary a spot on the skin tight costume for her to hold anything. Can't find JuneBird, either. She really could've planned this better, huh? She awkwardly clips them onto her leotard at her chest.

She doesn't have Victoria's confidence when she stands up, either. Just getting back to a standing position without accidentally jumping 15 feet in the air took a lot of concentration. So she's not exactly cutting a confident, powerful figure right now even if her reputation does precede her (which she's not entirely sure it does). That's fine. Her combat specs are astonishing right now, if anybody wanted to underestimate her she'd have a thing or two to show them. Her eyes are hard. Her posture is rigid. But then she shrugs.

"Wouldn't be myself if I didn't try."

[Before We Get Started: 2d6+3 = 8. Marking Victoria as the target and holding 2]

[Balmas]

"Oh, young man! Over here!" said an elderly lady, holding out her granny spectacles with trembling and tattoo'd hands. "You'll show that nasty young lady a thing or two, won't you? If I were thirty years younger I'd go up there myself!"

[She wants to shift your danger up and saviour down. Accept what she says or reject her influence.]

Brainstorm gratefully hops down from the wall and accepts the proffered specs. "I'll be sure to do that, ma'am."

[Accept the influence]

And with that, he's lashing his way back up the building.

First priority is to secure the hostages. Unfortunately, that's probably going to be difficult, as Possum Girl isn't just going to let him do that under her nose. Hopefully, the nanobots he sent to do the job will have made some progress in the time it took him to get thrown off the building.

[Eldest]

"Oh, are you defining humanity based on biology?" said Naota. "What about people who upload their brains into computers? What about L-hosts, synthetic bodies engineered from first principles in test tubes? What about uplifted animals, or people who have their consciousnesses put into animal brains? As a culture we've taken a step over the line of transhumanism and the clear definition of homo sapiens no longer applies. You think you're the only case? Our entire society faces this question every day."

You drift down the road, palm trees blurring by as an orange sunset touched the horizon. A black and green line between an infinite ocean and an infinite city.

"So what's human, then? I think you said it yourself: shared culture, knowledge, history. No matter if you're a brain in a jar, an AI, or a cybernetic dolphin you have a claim to those things. You can partake of the vast cultural inheritance that we have created over millions of years. You weren't there for all of it, but neither were we. You're a different shape from those that came before, but so are we. You're a product of this society but so are we. Any being that lays claim to the shared inheritance of humanity, and contributes something to that great work in its turn, is human."

[Naota wants to shift your Freak down and Mundane up again. Accept what he says or reject his influence]

"I... okay, yes, biology is a terrible thing to base humanity on, given the transhuman direction we've been going in. But how am I suppose to connect to this culture? What do I do to join in, be one of... us? I suppose?"

Shift accepted.
New lesson: A superhero should maintain their humanity.

[Thanqol]

Errant sighs and pulls off her shades. Hardly the dramatic reveal she'd been hoping for, but Combat Rule 3: never fight with an easily breakable screen in front of your eyes. Still, those are expensive. She moves to gently place them on the table before frowning and freezing mid-gesture. These'll get stolen the moment her back is torn. She reflexively moves to pocket them instead, but this isn't her uniform and there's nary a spot on the skin tight costume for her to hold anything. Can't find JuneBird, either. She really could've planned this better, huh? She awkwardly clips them onto her leotard at her chest.

She doesn't have Victoria's confidence when she stands up, either. Just getting back to a standing position without accidentally jumping 15 feet in the air took a lot of concentration. So she's not exactly cutting a confident, powerful figure right now even if her reputation does precede her (which she's not entirely sure it does). That's fine. Her combat specs are astonishing right now, if anybody wanted to underestimate her she'd have a thing or two to show them. Her eyes are hard. Her posture is rigid. But then she shrugs.

"Wouldn't be myself if I didn't try."

[Before We Get Started: 2d6+3 = 8. Marking Victoria as the target and holding 2]

The goons and thugs at the table exchange eye contact with each other. One of them starts to make a move to grab at the money and bolt, but one glance at the crackling tension between Victoria and Errant and he thinks better of it and meekly slides away. The others follow.


"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN," booms Turbo Knight. He's rasping it, actually, but his microphone is set way too loud. "Thank you for coming to my... final party. As you can see... I've gotten old! Ha ha! I've held on... for a while but even I finally have to admit my partying days are behind me. So what does a man do... after all that? What does he spend the fortune built from a lifetime of villainy on? Well..."

The curtains rise. A shining, spectacular suit of armour is revealed - sleek, jagged, orange and white. Every part of it radiates danger. Power. Confidence.

"Ha ha! A new body of course! Tonight, for your... viewing pleasure these fine doctors will be surgically removing my brain and implanting it in this beautiful machine! I'll be reborn... the finest, sharpest, deadliest killing machine, returned to my prime! And then... and then the world! Ha ha ha! It'll be just like old times! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"


Victoria is looking at you with bright eyes. "Oh, really? You're going to try and stop me? I'm just doing what you said and leaving peacefully." Delight edges her voice. She wants you to try and stop her. "I guess dear old grandpa will either be brutally murdered by a superhero, or ascend to immortal robot godhood while we're busy fighting, then. Won't that be tragic?"

Brainstorm gratefully hops down from the wall and accepts the proffered specs. "I'll be sure to do that, ma'am."

[Accept the influence]

And with that, he's lashing his way back up the building.

First priority is to secure the hostages. Unfortunately, that's probably going to be difficult, as Possum Girl isn't just going to let him do that under her nose. Hopefully, the nanobots he sent to do the job will have made some progress in the time it took him to get thrown off the building.

The nanobots are doing their work, but you see the sight of Possum Girl bringing up her oversized axe to cut the ropes while singing off-key lines from Madame Guillotine. She's going to do her work before you can do yours; you can either fight her face to face and get that axe away from her, or you can let her cut and catch the people as they fall.

The specs aren't perfect but they will tell you about the meter wide area she's in, which is a big improvement from before.

"I... okay, yes, biology is a terrible thing to base humanity on, given the transhuman direction we've been going in. But how am I suppose to connect to this culture? What do I do to join in, be one of... us? I suppose?"

"I'm coding a video game," shrugged Naota. "It's not much. Gonna be so much spit in the wind when I finally publish it. But it's me doing my bit. If humanity is a culture then that's how I add my own tiny little signature to that culture. So you want to be human? Add something to humanity."

[PhoeKun]

Victoria is looking at you with bright eyes. "Oh, really? You're going to try and stop me? I'm just doing what you said and leaving peacefully." Delight edges her voice. She wants you to try and stop her. "I guess dear old grandpa will either be brutally murdered by a superhero, or ascend to immortal robot godhood while we're busy fighting, then. Won't that be tragic?"

"I thought you had me figured out," says Errant with the slightest hint of a smile, "I don't make those kinds of sacrifices. So here's Option C: I stop that and you."

It's terrifying what truly top of the line cybernetics can do when they're fully unleashed. Errant's legs glow daylight bright. When flips back and kicks off a wall she leaves cracks in both it and the floor. And she flies through the air like a neon javelin, worthy for an instant of being one of @Sarahphim's hardlight bursts. Her target is Turbo Knight's new body. She's not naive enough to think she can destroy it just like that, but she can sure as hell knock it through a wall or two. That'd buy her some time.

That's what she needs right now: more time. She made a choice to play on hard mode, and the only way she could make it work is if she maximized her impact on each trip across this unfortunately oversized room. Her eyes dart around the room while she occupies herself with an awkward and super heavy landing, digging an arm into the ground to stop herself from sliding out of frame. Watch Victoria, don't miss her move. Watch Turbo Knight and his goons, don't miss their retaliation. Watch The Shogun, absolutely don't miss her move. She had maybe ten minutes before this dance burned out her legs. And that if the strain didn't rupture an organ first. But she'd manage, because the alternative was breaking the promise she'd made herself before she joined AEGIS.

"...Your party trick sucks, old man. Here's a better one."

[Raz_Fox]

Tigers were designed to deal with jungles. Their eyes - roughly human-level, though less capable of appreciating detail - are quick to track movement, colors distinct from their surroundings, and are amazing in the dark. Which isn’t particularly helpful right now; true darkness is one of the first casualties of full urbanization.

But the interplay of colors! The sense of motion as one of the most important elements of the world! This is what @SARAHPHIM was looking for all along: a new perspective on the world. And, heck, feeling as jacked as Errant - if not stronger - is a welcome sensation, too. When she gets back to her body, she’s gonna commit to hitting the gym more often. The power inherent in those feline thighs, that broad striped back! Glorious!

She eats a weird bug by the side of the road and doesn’t even care.

Poor Angel-IKA is forced, one imagines, to follow Sara about trying to a) not get the police involved and b) let people know the tiger is actually a superhero, it’s a long story, no, I don’t know why she’s eating that bug.

Then the wind shifts and the perfume snaps everything back into focus. Right. Yes. It’s time to hit Neo Chaos and become the world’s first flying tiger superheroine-

Okay, yes, thank you, Chat. The world’s second and only currently active flying tiger superheroine. Friggin pedants.

[Thanqol]

"I thought you had me figured out," says Errant with the slightest hint of a smile, "I don't make those kinds of sacrifices. So here's Option C: I stop that and you."

It's terrifying what truly top of the line cybernetics can do when they're fully unleashed. Errant's legs glow daylight bright. When flips back and kicks off a wall she leaves cracks in both it and the floor. And she flies through the air like a neon javelin, worthy for an instant of being one of @Sarahphim's hardlight bursts. Her target is Turbo Knight's new body. She's not naive enough to think she can destroy it just like that, but she can sure as hell knock it through a wall or two. That'd buy her some time.

That's what she needs right now: more time. She made a choice to play on hard mode, and the only way she could make it work is if she maximized her impact on each trip across this unfortunately oversized room. Her eyes dart around the room while she occupies herself with an awkward and super heavy landing, digging an arm into the ground to stop herself from sliding out of frame. Watch Victoria, don't miss her move. Watch Turbo Knight and his goons, don't miss their retaliation. Watch The Shogun, absolutely don't miss her move. She had maybe ten minutes before this dance burned out her legs. And that if the strain didn't rupture an organ first. But she'd manage, because the alternative was breaking the promise she'd made herself before she joined AEGIS.

"...Your party trick sucks, old man. Here's a better one."

"GET MY BRAIN OUT OF MY GODDAMN SKULL RIGHT NOW!" Turbo Knight screamed at one of his doctors.

You're moving fast, so fast that these problems are coming at you one at a time. You don't have to pick and choose what you want to deal with but you're still looking at more problems than you have fists, and none of these people are pushovers.

Turbo Knight is surrounded by rings of goons and bouncers armed with SMGs and nothing to lose. Every one of those bodyguards is aware that if they don't solve the problem Turbo Knight will, and they don't want Turbo Knight to solve the problem. They can and will fire everywhere without checking for backdrop, meaning the crowd is in serious danger if you don't do something about them.

Turbo Knight himself isn't even being carried across to his surgical cot - a team of doctors is rapidly surrounding his head with technology ready to extract his brain and get it across to the robot. This will take the longest to complete out of anything but, thanks to the miracles of modern medical science, not as long as you'd like.

Victoria Messermitt is watching you sharply, eyes following your aftershocks. You've watched her long enough to anticipate her moves but she's insanely dangerous despite that - if you give her a minute to think she'll figure you out in exchange and take you down in an eyeblink.

The Shogun, grim faced, has drawn a pistol and is making her way through the crowd at a steady pace.


Four different threats. Potentially four different rolls of the dice. You can fight on every front simultaneously but you're not guaranteed success on any of them. What do you do?

Tigers were designed to deal with jungles. Their eyes - roughly human-level, though less capable of appreciating detail - are quick to track movement, colors distinct from their surroundings, and are amazing in the dark. Which isn’t particularly helpful right now; true darkness is one of the first casualties of full urbanization.

But the interplay of colors! The sense of motion as one of the most important elements of the world! This is what @SARAHPHIM was looking for all along: a new perspective on the world. And, heck, feeling as jacked as Errant - if not stronger - is a welcome sensation, too. When she gets back to her body, she’s gonna commit to hitting the gym more often. The power inherent in those feline thighs, that broad striped back! Glorious!

She eats a weird bug by the side of the road and doesn’t even care.

Poor Angel-IKA is forced, one imagines, to follow Sara about trying to a) not get the police involved and b) let people know the tiger is actually a superhero, it’s a long story, no, I don’t know why she’s eating that bug.

Then the wind shifts and the perfume snaps everything back into focus. Right. Yes. It’s time to hit Neo Chaos and become the world’s first flying tiger superheroine-

Okay, yes, thank you, Chat. The world’s second and only currently active flying tiger superheroine. Friggin pedants.

Left is down. Down is forwards. Progress is illusionary. Welcome to Neo Chaos Spire.

It's beautiful to walk down a cobblestone road lined with autumnal trees that loops back on itself like a Mobius strip, and it's spectacular to climb a tree while surrounded by two hundred and seventy degrees of clear blue sky. But it's also confusing as all hell. Only your nose guides you true - Angel-IKA is no help, you take so many sudden twists and turns and trek through so many forests and parks that she loses track of the mental roadmap of her home. Software maps are actively unhelpful. Perhaps the most disorienting thing of all is that there is no advertising anywhere. Neo Chaos Spire is a luxury brand and it shares its brand image with no one.

With tiger's eyes you walk an unreal city, hunting yourself. You cross a skybridge with clouds above and below you and blue skies to either horizon, your half-angel guide jogging to keep up with movements like liquor and lightning.

You have a little time to think. What do you think?


Bode: This place is a nightmare.
Ferraphim1tp: I think it's beautiful! I wish I could live here! ^.^
Bode: Who makes a place like this?
Locker: dr sunstill
Dominus: WAIT, THE SUPERVILLAIN? ARE YOU SERIOUS?
Locker: yeah
Dominus: EXPLAIN
Locker: dr. sunstill's whole thing was that her girlfriend died in a tragic accident when she was fifteen. she started researching alternate dimensions and going really deep into rx science to see if it happened differently elsewhere. she caused a sequence of immense dimensional breaches, like world ending stuff. halfwoman managed to talk her down, though. instead they worked together to build this place as a memorial. it's a stable, internally consistent portal network and the only major dimensional breach in the world that doesn't need to be contained in amber.
Ferraphim1tp: Oh... oh wow. That's a really sad story.
Locker: yeah
Dominus: HOW HAVE I NOT HEARD OF THIS?
Locker: how many times has halfwoman saved the world?
Dominus: LIKE, FIFTEEN?
Locker: twenty three, this was number nine.
Dominus: POINT MADE.

[Raz_Fox]

# Don’t lose your {scrubbed}. This is weird and surreal and part of you is howling in primal abject terror of falling into empty blue sky forever. Animal heart knows better. Or maybe human heart. One way or other.

# God, this is the exact opposite of what you currently want to explore aesthetically, isn’t it? There will definitely be research trips here, though. The contrasts alone demand patterns memorializing them. Let alone the ouroboros staircase on the north wing.

# Note to self: take Angel-IKA on shopping spree. Beat up some teenagers if possible in process. “DIVA SUPERHERO OUTFITTING NEW SIDEKICK?? TELLS PUNKS: KISS ASPHALT. STRIKES MATCH ON STUBBLE OF CRYING GANG MEMBER.” Hells to the Yeah.

# YOU ARE GOING TO EAT THE NEXT PET YOU SEE

# But just like for the aesthetic and to internalize the lightning impulses of power that are inherent in the tiger’s leap. Not because you really wanna eat a purse poodle and blame it on the tiger instincts later

# Okay you probably actually won’t, really. As amazing as the vine of “YOU- I- WHUH - YOU ATE MY POODLE, IN MY VALENTINO WHITE BAG???” would be. Oh god it would be so amazing.

# You are the best person ever at picking out perfumes and it is a delight to be in enclosed spaces with you, whatever people stuck in elevators with you say. They’re just jealous. You are a goddamn delight.

# IM MISS SUGAR PINK LIQUOR LIQUOR LIPS NA NA NA NA NA NA SEAL IT WITH A KISS

# Your next Limited Run Suit design is going to be ruddy orange and black panels, with a hint of jungle foliage shifting on the other side of the glass. It’s going to be such a hit.

# Showtime.

[PhoeKun]

Four different threats. Potentially four different rolls of the dice. You can fight on every front simultaneously but you're not guaranteed success on any of them. What do you do?

Ok, Euna. You get one breath to figure things out before your first window closes, so don't waste it. Inhale. Exhale. Go!

Like just about everything else, Errant has trained for this. Sort of. Enough to get her started, at least. She jumps as high as the room will let her, to draw the lines of fire up and away from the room at large. At the peak of her arc, she flips, aims her shoulder to the floor, and falls like a comet on top of a bodyguard. Without pausing she rolls off of him and twists herself into a standing position, using the momentum of the motion to pick him up and toss him into a cluster of four other guards. Speed. She runs so hard she has to make a half turn and drag her heels through the floor to stop herself from moving past them. But she's there, almost before her guard-missile has finished landing, snatching up SMGs and smashing them between her fists.

Weapons are always a fighter's weak point. A knife or a gun doesn't feel pressure or pain so it's hard to know when they're going to take a disabling blow. She takes what's left of these ones and hurls them like makeshift darts at a few more guards. Point two: faced with a threat, people will instinctively foreign objects they're holding as a shield. Her shrapnel darts yield some flinching, and that's opening enough to put a fist through another gun. A foot through another. This is the official word on one-on-many combat (Non-Superpowered Edition) from AEGIS: swiftly and cleanly knocking out a room full of goons is dangerous to the point of impossibility. But you can take their weapons with comparative ease, and that's enough to neutralize their threat level. Errant is a blur of bright colors, cutting and darting and always taking back up to the air, not caring how many shots she takes in turn, and by the end of things she's at least certain nobody is going to get gunned down today.

[Errant gives AEGIS influence to use +Soldier on a Directly Engage roll: 2d6+1 = 8. She chooses to take their guns. If necessary, Take a Powerful Blow: 2d6+1 = 6]

But there's no time to rest. Errant takes off across the room again in huge bounds toward Victoria (who has already had too much time to get a handle on Errant's psyche and combat style, thank you very much). She can't fly, but right now that's what it feels like she's doing. Her feet barely seem to touch the ground until suddenly she's crouched just underneath and glaring up at the other girl. She hesitates for the space of half a breath. And she explodes upwards, catching Victoria with a ridge hand strike and sweeping out her leg, putting her right through the poker table she was just holding court at. There. Figure that out. She looms over the crumpled figure and takes the chance to crack her neck.

"Tag," she says with all the bravado she can muster, "You're it."

[spending 1 hold to stun Victoria Messermitt, 1 remaining]

Such speed. Such power. If she could do this all the time, there'd be no need to have a team. It's like being born generations earlier, like having actual super powers! This is better than being Sara, it's more like being... her eyes fall on The Shogun. The one who's completely undeterred by everything that's happening around her, purposefully marching through through the crowd to do what she came to do. Errant sniffs involuntarily. That's when she realizes her nose is bleeding. Oh. Oh no wonder. She must feel like this all the time. Times one thousand even. You expected her to be polite? If that's what her life was like, she'd feel insulted by the rain too. Honestly, could she even say she wouldn't have turned out more like a Turbo Knight than not? She feels a flash of something like renewed admiration for The Shogun that comes with understanding her perspective a little better. If she could just find the girl underneath all the bluster, then together...

[Pierce the Mask: 2d6+2 = 13. Asking, How can Errant gain Influence over her?, What does she intend to do?, and What can Errant do to get her to help resolve this bloodlessly?]

Crap, that was too much time thinking. There's a part of her that would like to admire the speedy efforts of those doctors but that part is currently occupied being annoyed at how well they're succeeding. But what can she do? She doesn't know the first thing about brain surgery and it would be unreasonably dangerous to attack a defenseless person with her body moving the way it is right now. Well she may not have a clue what they're quite doing but she's pretty sure they need all that equipment to do it. Get there. Take it, break it, throw it through a window, who cares? She jumps up and goes tearing through the room one more time. But she can't bring herself to go full force against people like this. So she tries to take just a half step back, and that's where things fall apart. Her legs get caught in the mixed signals and she stumbles and skids and rolls her way into the operating area rather than arriving with any sort of precision. Maybe if she's lucky she'll land on something important. She scrambles and tries to get back to a standing position but god damn it! She's already so winded. She sniffs at some more blood.

[Another Directly Engage: 2d6-2 = 5. If necessary, another Take a Powerful Blow: 2d6+1 = 4.]

"You're... all... under arrest." she heaves.

[Balmas]

The nanobots are doing their work, but you see the sight of Squirrel Girl bringing up her oversized axe to cut the ropes while singing off-key lines from Madame Guillotine. She's going to do her work before you can do yours; you can either fight her face to face and get that axe away from her, or you can let her cut and catch the people as they fall.

The specs aren't perfect but they will tell you about the meter wide area she's in, which is a big improvement from before.

That's not a problem. E can whip up an electromagnet of some sort to have that axe out of her hands in a jiffy. If he's super lucky, he might even manage to avoid dismemberment by flying axe! Bonus!
[Always Prepared: 8. Let's go with Unstable or Temporary for two hundred, Alex.]

"You know, I don't get you," he remarks as he hits the button. "Like, I know why I'm doing this; because somebody has to stand up for the little guy, help them when the law won't. They wanted my help to keep their homes. What'd C&S promise you to get you to harass these people? What's going on in that fuzzy melon of yours?"

[Eldest]

"I'm coding a video game," shrugged Naota. "It's not much. Gonna be so much spit in the wind when I finally publish it. But it's me doing my bit. If humanity is a culture then that's how I add my own tiny little signature to that culture. So you want to be human? Add something to humanity."

She ponders it over. "So it's that easy, then? Engage with human culture, ergo I am human, ergo any culture I create or cultivate is human culture? I can try it, sure, but it seems like a self-referencing loop." She drives forward, beginning of a sunset on her left, city on her right, taking a moment to savor the moment. "I am afraid that @Saraphim will immediately try to 'get me laid' when she learns about this, though."