[M&M 3e] Defying the Future IC

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily blinked as they were just, suddenly, elsewhere. Trippy. "Floral," she responded to Nope's introduction with a little smile.

[Ridai]

"Aw damn it. Can't wrap my head around this, sorry. I can try again later," Nope says, holding up the material piece (which looks a bit jarring, since it isn't... well, Nope isn't blurry, but it's hard to make something out, so, uh...).

"So... should I move us to Food Fast? Or we go on our own...?" he asks. People kind of get the feeling he avoids eye contact. Then again, it is hard to really pinpoint where Nope looks in the first place.

[Abracadangit]

"I agree," Kal said, in response to the botanical wonder's question. Before being teleported up to the rooftops, Kal took a moment to mull over all the new information with Ariadne.

"So the Watcher's a time-traveler from the future, trying to prevent the villains we're stuck with from taking over the world? I just don't know." She paused. "This whole thing seems kinda... far-fetched."

Kal was used to feeling a sort of ornery prickliness in her mind before Ariadne spoke, but this time, there was a strange calm. "I have heard of magics such as these, that can move one between verses in the song of time. Not very common, and often dangerous, but they exist. Perhaps this man with the wind-up bird speaks the truth."

"So you trust him? That doesn't sound like you."

"Do not bend my words, great granddaughter -- I can believe one speaks the truth without giving them my trust. You should do the same."

"Fine, whatever," Kal conceded, hoping to avoid a lecture. "Still, even if what he said is true, sounds like he messed everything up."

"I have -- how do you say -- 'worn his shoes,' before," Ariadne admitted, her voice uncharacteristically soft with tinges of sadness. "You act to save the lives of innocents, and then fate does not obey your plan. No one admires your courage or notices your sacrifice, when this happens. Instead, people tell you that it was a mistake for you to try, that you have only made everything worse, that you should have left things the way they were. So then you have only two options. One is to listen to what they say, stop fighting. Maybe then the people will speak better of you, though I promise you they won't. Or you take the other option."

There was a pause. Maybe Ariadne was remembering something. "What's the other option?"

"Or, you push forward. Let the people say what they will, and remember the reason you acted in the first place was to save lives, to help the people who suffer, to protect that which you love, and that nothing else matters, and that so long as your reason has not changed, neither should you. It sounds to me like your wind-up bird man is pushing forward."

"If what he says is true, I'll help him, though this is becoming more and more complicated. It feels like I just got started with this gig, and now it's me versus all of these villains at once, and alternate timelines?"

"But it is not just you versus them, is it. You always have me, great granddaughter, and also..." An invisible thread of psychic intent pulled Kal's attention to her teammates, gathered before her. "...you have them."

A split second later, Kal found herself atop a roof, with her new colleagues. Following Floral's, Nope's, and Helios' statements, Kal waited for a pause to speak.

"I am Ariadne," Kal said, with a small bow. "I know that I am not as... experienced as some of you, in these matters. But I shall lend whatever power I have to our cause, and I have..."

Kal took a moment, to ponder the best way to say this without coming off as unhinged.

"...a channel of communication open with a very powerful authority on strange and supernatural matters." Upon being called a 'very powerful authority,' Kal could hear a dry sort of laugh, echoing through her thoughts. "Hnn, hnn, hnn," Ariadne snickered.

To Nope's latest question, Kal nodded. "If all of you are planning to go, I shall accompany you. As the sun-empowered man says, we need not join his side, to hear what he has to say."

Spoiler: For Those With Mystic Senses That See With Sightless Eyes:

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Ariadne's aura takes the form of a great many red threads, constantly reshaping themselves around her in conjunction with her words and emotions. As she mentions that she is in communication with some 'powerful authority,' the threads comprising her aura take on a bizarrely large, singular form: the head and upper body of a hooded woman, hovering just above Ariadne's shoulders, like a sort of watchful protector.

The image of the hooded woman looks at you with a note of curious interest, as two dots of crimson light shine where her eyes should be.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Yeah, let's get it over with," Floral agreed, though she sounded more "resolved" than "glum". She didn't see any particular advantage to be had in going separately. (Well, okay, she supposed in principle there were certain cases where if it was a trap approaching individually could lead to some measure of advantage, but across a broad range of possibilities she didn't expect that on average it would be better than being able to all blink right out again and/or just concentrating power to punch through, so meh.)

[Ridai]

In response to Ariadne's comment about her experience, Nope promptly answers "Real talk: I'm looking forward to if and when I'll feel experienced enough to not be constantly terrified of accidentally blipping someone." Followed by a nervous kinda-chuckle. I just put my ass on the list of "maybe not work together with that one", didn't I?

Standing up, dusting off his pants, he goes "Well, I'll move us over there when you're ready."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I feel like I kind of put the brakes on things with teleporting people away and such, so I'll just move everyone to, say, the alleyway next to Food Fast, once they are ready/you want the game to move forward.

[Dorni]

Helios' eyes narrowed as Ariadne introduced herself. Then he very deliberately shifted his gaze to just over Ariadne's left shoulder to where the young woman's aura had shifted, the great many red threads reshaping themselves to take on the form of a hooded woman. There was a spirit bonded to the girl. He kicked himself for not noticing it earlier, but in his defense his attention had been occupied first by the battle and then by the pigeon-bot-time-traveler.

While the girl talked the aura connecting the two... rippled. It wasn't in a random way. Something was passing between the two of them, but despite his efforts Flint couldn't decipher what. Maybe it was communication, or maybe the spirit was asserting control. That the spirit might be possessing the girl couldn't be ruled out.

"Please, call me Helios. And who are you, spirit?"

[Abracadangit]

Kal responded in a puzzled tone. "Spirit? I'm not quite sure what you mean."

"Your friend addresses me directly," Ariadne clarified, her echoing tones whispering in Kal's mental ears. "So you are not the only one who can see with sightless eyes, hm."

Suddenly, Kal could hear Ariadne's voice outside her head, for once -- or could she? Despite Ariadne's words sounding unusually clear and sharp, neither Floral nor Nope showed any sign of perceiving it.

"You heard her the first time, did you not?" Ariadne asked, more curtly than Kal would have liked for a time where she was trying to make new friends. "Her answer and mine are one and the same. I am Ariadne, and I am no spirit, parlor magician. It was I who faced the Minotaur, who learned to weave from Klothos and Atropos, who traded secrets with Hekate and Nyx, who swore to..."

Ariadne's voice trailed off, as Kal willed her away, for the time being. For another occasion she might have put up with it, but she wasn't about to ruin her good relations on account of Ariadne's touchy pride.

"She is not always like that," Kal explained, apologetically. "Helios was just communing with my authority. She, er... looks forward to working with all of you."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily looked between Helios and Ariadne with a bemused expression on her face. Or maybe that was confused. Or skeptical. Or concerned? Uh...she currently smelled like potpourri? No, that doesn't help either.

Right. Okay then. That happened. Accept it and move on.

Really, come down to it, was it any more weird than anything else that she had seen over the course of the past month? Not really, no.

[Ridai]

Nope side-eyes. "What?" There is this creeping feeling in the back of his head that he somehow noped part of a conversation. And maybe a person.

[Zelphas]

The sign for Food Fast isn't terribly hard to find; the logo is simply the words "FOOD FAST" in dark blue and burnt orange, hanging over a glass storefront that consists of a dust-covered counter, a faded menu advertising several types of sandwiches, and very little else. The sirens in the background have reached approximately the sight of the warehouse, as much as you can tell. The completely normal-looking pigeon sitting on top of the counter looks up at your approach and ruffles its feathers for a moment before jerking its head towards the kitchen behind the counter and disappearing back in that direction itself.

The door opens easily enough; looks like it was an electronic lock that has been disabled. The restaurant still smells faintly of baked bread, deli meat, and grease, though over all of this is the nose-itching sent of dust (and for those with stronger senses of smell, the hint of various molds slowly working their way into the structure). There are no seats in the front; it looks like Food Fast took their name very seriously and were pickup or delivery only, and you have to vault the counter to reach the back room where Watcher's pigeon flew.

The kitchen itself is still covered in the same dust, though several streaks and the errant feather hints at a rushed attempt at avian cleaning. So, too, do the haphazardly-stacked milk crates placed around the central prep table, looking like makeshift stools for anyone who wished to sit down. In the center of the table is the bird you all came to meet with your various questions and concerns.

"Okay! So, um, first things first: what I can do to help," the voice from the pigeon begins without preamble, the mingled relief and nervousness evident in his voice. "I have some information, but not as much as I would like; I was going to do something like 'I'll answer three questions about the future now, and three every time a League member is taken down until the end', but... that seems like a bad plan now. One big piece of information I can tell you is that in order to prevent infighting, there's an informal agreement that each League member stays out of each others' business unless invited--like the whole thing today--so they aren't likely to gang up on you. They don't really... like each other, either, so that might help." The pigeon's head bobs up and down quickly for a few seconds.

"Here's the big thing I can offer, though: once you take down a League member, they'll stay down. I mean," he looks between the three of you, "Maybe it's my fault for being in a smaller town instead of New York or something, but the jail here may as well be made out of tissue paper where the League's concerned. I have five floors in the Obelisk set aside for the League as prisons, and I've spent the last month making them stronger once I... you know. If you take down a League member, or even one of their minions, let me know, and I can get them to the Obelisk in secret and keep them there."

Watcher's voice finally pauses for breath, and the pigeon turns its eyes to see all of you. "I'm rambling a bit; not a lot of people to... well. Do you have questions for me?" The sirens in the background wind down; it looks like the police have discovered that they are in the aftermath of a fight, not in the midst of one.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Once you take down a League member, they'll stay down."

...You know, it was weird. Up until this point, Lily hadn't really been considering the prospect of actually taking down a League member. That seemed strange to her in retrospect, but on reflection it was true. She had become Floral to protect her town. No, that wasn't even quite correct. She had done it because she was scared of what might happen to her siblings and wanted to try to help keep them safe. Not that they had...accepted her help. So then she had gone out as Floral on her own and...what? Tried to prove herself? Tried to stop the bad guys before they could threaten her siblings? Tried to be a hero because her pride had been smarting and that felt like the correct response?

Protecting the town was nonetheless worth doing. Lily didn't regret her choices. But after what Manchineel had done to her, how easy it had been for her to just...warp the bodies of Lily and her coworkers however she saw fit, how little they could do to stop her... If you had asked her who she was fighting, she would have told you the League of the Future. But the idea of actually fighting the actual League, of making a real effort to achieve a real victory...it wasn't that she had considered it and deemed it impossible. It had just seemed so far beyond what her dinky little flower powers, scienced beyond all reason or no, could possibly be capable of that it hadn't even really entered her mind at all, on the object level.

But now...now she was working with other Heroes. Now they had support from the Watcher.

Now it was time to consider how to accomplish the actual goal.

Lily let out a breath, and let go of her anger and resentment towards the Watcher along with it. The feelings weren't gone. It would take more than this for Lily to be in the state where she could really forgive him. But for the time being those feelings weren't productive. The Watcher was, if not an ally, then at least a resource. If they were going to defeat the League, they would need to make full use of him.

So, what did they need to know?

She considered and rejected information about the Watcher's future. That future had been derived of different present conditions. Information about it was fundamentally a curiosity. What they needed to know...

"Capabilities. Force counts. Lairs, and defenses thereon. Plans. Goals. Weaknesses. Each member of the League is personally powerful, and has minions to support them. What we need to know is as much as we can about them."

[Abracadangit]

Not fond of the layer of dust coating everything, Kal wove a little spiral of red thread in the air, then by figure-eighting her needle back and forth, prompted the little spiral to spin. As the Watcher spoke to them, Kal steered the spiral around the area, collecting dust and depositing it in a little wastebasket nearby. She waited until the pigeon had finished speaking before responding.

"I have many questions, but to start: information. You seem to have very detailed intelligence regarding these criminals -- we need to know strengths, weaknesses, anything and everything that might be of use."

"Second: resources. You say you are sorry for what has happened, and I think I believe you. So then what can you offer us to help, by way of apology. Your fancy prison is helpful, but surely you have other... toys at your disposal."

"Finally, I would very much appreciate a copy of whatever information you have compiled about me, personally. I want to know how much you know; I think that's only fair, seeing as how you've been 'watching' us for some time, from the sound of it."

[Ridai]

Much like he did after getting out of the fight, the first thing Nope does once they arrive near the Food Fast is exhale thoroughly. Alright, this went well overall, judging by the sirens.

Inside where Bird!Watcher is, it's like when he got into various abandoned or restricted places, but this time getting invited. He just kind of scampers over the counter and is about to kind of shake and wipe the dust on the milk crate off with his hand when Ariadne just hoovers up all dust in the whole room. Nope actually remains kind of bent down, looking around for a moment before sitting down.

Just casually doing that. Holy hell. That train of thought accompanies him for a while, followed by trying to think of what to ask about first. He is about to open his mouth when Floral and Ariadne just... cover all questions he could think of. At least off the top of his head. Well. They actually asked more than what he thought of. So he kind of just slouches down a bit again, trying to think of something by the time an opening arrives. When one does, he doesn't have much, so he goes:

"...Ssso did you know that... we would happen around this time?" Well, he tried.

[Dorni]

"One. Severability." He looked around the room. This was as much a question for them as it was for Watcher. "Our task isn't just to take down the League. The Suneaters... if Apophis were imprisoned today it wouldn't affect them in the slightest. They don't rely on him for orders or to empower new members. As soon as the dome is released they'll spread out and expand the cult - they need to be dealt with before the threat is over. The same concern applies to the others - can the Chain Gang create new members without Lockdown? How much of a threat is the Chain Gang once Lockdown is removed? Can Manchineel's forest spread without her to spread it?"

"Two. Time limit. You said these 3 are minor threats in your future. So someone or something worse is coming, and presumably you don't have forever to spend inside the dome dealing with the League. How long do we have?" He'd grown more serious as he gave voice to his thought. He hoped he was wrong, that whatever was coming was somehow tied to these three. But if not... and if Watcher was telling the truth... there was a long, long, road ahead. Was he really committing to... all that? He clenched a fist. With all his power, how could he not?

[Zelphas]

"...All right. Makes sense." The pigeon turns to regard Floral first. "MY information comes almost entirely from my birds, so I only have information that occurs outside of a house or near an open window. And there are... some other issues.

"Take Lockdown. Part of... my deal with him, is that I can't put any supervising devices within one mile of him." The pigeon ruffles its feathers nervously. "I can tell you that his 'lair' moves within the Industrial Block; right now, Lockdown is within one mile of Lake Michigan, closer to the southern forest than Pub Alley, but I can't give exact coordinates. As for his numbers: last count, the Chain Gang numbers just above two hundred, though it's growing aggressively. The number of Silver Links fluctuates--at that point, low-level thugs get cold feet or delusions of grandeur and get cut down--but seven have remained fairly stable, the 'seven deadly sins.' Pride is the main recruiter for the Gang; you've heard of him almost certainly. He has enhanced strength, very high endurance, and is a straight brute in combat. Wrath is the... enforcer, I guess? You've met her; fire and strength connected to rage. The two of them work under the Gold Link 'Dragon', who is a humanoid dragon with fire breath, wings, the works. He seems to be focused on growing the numbers of the Gang. Sloth, Greed, and Gluttony work under the Gold Link 'Dullahan'; they are officially the accountants of the Gang, but from the way the Bronze Links talk, the real job of Greed and Gluttony is as 'cleaners' for people who want to leave the Gang. No one is afraid of Sloth, and everyone is afraid of Dullahan, but I've never been able to pinpoint either of them. Gluttony seems to have history with Lockdown, but no one was specific. Greed is a newcomer to the gang; he's..." The pigeon hesitates for a moment. "I don't have very much on him. Lust and Envy work under the Gold Link 'Djinn'... and that's all I know about any of them. No one in the Chain Gang but Lockdown seems to know who they are; Envy and Djinn have some sort of shapeshifting power, and Lust works 'off-site', whatever that means."

Spoiler: Nope

Show

The pigeon looked at you when it hesitated.

"I have less on Manchineel; the moment she realizes that my birds aren't living, she kills them, so I have to keep my distance. Manchineel tends to stay near the logging camp, for reasons I'm not sure about. She wanders the woods, but rarely heads north. She tends to create Punishments and then revert them back to normal after their task is done, so they don't stick around for very long; right now she... was looking for a weasel, which is concerning, and I don't know why. Her Menagerie has four members right now; Manchineel calls them Abel, Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael. Abel's 'duty' is to clean up trash in the Forest; he sticks to the northwest, and... I think he seeks out my birds and stays near them, sometimes, but I don't know why. Gabriel flies through the sky, never having to rest; she can fire her feathers like pinions with deadly accuracy, and her talons are at least as dangerous. I think Manchineel has her trying to find breaks in the Dome; she won't find anything." For just a moment, Watcher's voice sounds a little bit proud, but he quickly moves on. "Michael is an odd mixture of plant and lion, and its duty seems to be to bodyguard Manchineel and attack any human it finds in the forest. If you're going after Manchineel, it would be good to deal with him first, though he's very tough from all I've seen. Raphael is Manchineel's tool to spread the Forest; she is a large cow-like creature that wanders all around the forest wherever there's bits of humanity, growing trees. She can summon Saplings to herself when distressed, it seems."

"As for Apophis... I have even less. Every bird he sees, he kills. I don't know if he knows its me, or what. Sometimes, I haven't even caught a glimpse of him before another of my birds died, so I think he might be able to change his appearance. I have a little bit more on the Suneaters; there are more than a hundred, but there must be less than three hundred. They vary widely in power and ability; many of them seem focused on summoning, with only a relative few actually developing other forms of magical power. So far, their summoning has mostly been successful, though you saw an example of success today. I'm... worried about their madness; most of them are clearly insane, but there's a coordination and method to their madness that I don't quite understand. Sometimes, they gather together and execute an attack or a small ritual without speaking or even seeing one another. It might be mental, or magical; I honestly don't know."

The pigeon turns next to Ariadne, fluffing its feathers in an oddly apologetic way. "Well... my 'toys' are pretty obviously mine. I'm sorry, but none of you are inventors, so there would be awkward questions if you suddenly appeared with futuristic weapons. My first priority is the prevention of my future, and my life and continued freedom must go on for as long as possible to increase the chances of fulfilling that objective. I can get you the information I have on you, if you truly wish; it may take a few days to compile it, and... you may not want the others to see it. I can do the same for any of the rest of you, too."

The pigeon spins to face Nope, and you can hear the excitement return to Watcher's words. "No; that's what's so amazing! As far as I can tell, all of your abilities are new! NEw heroes are great!"

The feathers wilt a little bit as the pigeon finally makes it to Helios. "Well... I guess I'd have to cut it down to a few rooms each, but I can at least make it so that the heavy hitters are all locked in the Obelisk; the small fry will need to be taken care of by you in some ways. As far as I have seen, no one but Lockdown has gained the ability to give new powers in the Chain Gang, and Manchineelrelies on Raphael to spread the forest so capturing Raphael should stop that. The Suneaters are tougher, but most of their power is coming from a thing like Apophis running around... I think. I don't have guarantees. And for your last question... I can't answer that."The pigeon looks away. "What I can say is that you don't have to worry about it. I have a plan to deal with what's coming, and that's still going the way it should be... believe it or not."

[Ridai]

Ah. Greed. Right. That's what he is going by now, huh. Well, to be honest, he does not really know much about his MO and powers either, so... Nope mostly sits and listens.

Nope can already tell that the moment they try to deal with Greed, the name Remy is getting attached to Nope. Better enjoy the relative anonymity while it lasts, it is going to be extra hell after that.

In the meantime, oh boy. The forces arrayed against them. Sure. Add more existential dread. Maybe it will become tall enough to be struck down by the God of Anxiety for being distressingly unstable.

Watcher telling them he didn't know they would be emerging as "heroes" does lead to a double take. "Did- did you guess there would be new heroes when you came here?"

[Abracadangit]

Kal heard the Watcher out, taking care to mentally note all of the observations regarding the various members of the League of the Future. She paid extra close attention when Apophis was mentioned -- she couldn't wait to pay him back for their meeting at the school, and send him flying with a flick of her needle.

"I will take you up on your offer," Kal said, in regards to receiving the file about herself. "Perhaps you have observed something that could be useful. And we have your word that this information is known by no one else?"

"I have one other question. This 'Obelisk' sounds very safe, and very secure. Could we use it as a sanctuary for our loved ones, in the event they need to be protected?"

[Zelphas]

"From all accounts, super-powers appear in moments of extreme stress, and... this situation has become that," Watcher's voice from the pigeon finishes awkwardly, the pigeon body shuffling its feet slightly on the table. "Also, an abnormally high percentage of heroes seem to gain their powers from super-powered villains and vice versa, so it was a likely outcome. Well, honestly, it was still a gamble, but it paid off! Now you all are here!"

The pigeon turns back to Ariadne, its head bobbing up and down once. "I haven't shared any information that I've gained since coming here; I've spent too much time compiling it and putting everything together. I'll get your information to you later in the day; converting it to the technology of this era shouldn't be too much of a hassle...

"As for your loved ones; well." The pigeon tilts its head, the eyes going unfocused for a long moment. "The police are leaving the warehouse with the members of the Chain Gang who are unconscious; it'll be clear around here soon enough, I think. Anyways, once again, my own survival is an unfortunate necessity to stop the future from happening, so I have to protect that at all costs. That being said... If there is a clear danger to your loved ones in the future, we can discuss a way to hide them in the Obelisk. Obviously working openly with you all would ruin everything at the moment, so they'd have to be snuck in, but... we should be able to manage something."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily mulled quietly over the information Watcher gave them. A little, spiteful part of her was kinda annoyed that the supposed leader of the League of the Future who went around calling himself Watcher didn't have more data for them, but she could admit that that was mostly just her own personal antipathy towards him; objectively speaking, that was a lot of information they hadn't had before.

She...did kinda blink some as Ariadne asked if their loved ones could be secured in the Obelisk if it came to that. Because yeah, she wasn't going to extend that sort of trust towards the Watcher for a loooong time. She did believe him that his goals were aligned with theirs, but that didn't mean she felt comfortable giving him any leverage.

...Although, thinking about it that way, Lily said, "I'd like to see the information you have on me as well, please." She hadn't originally been intending to request that; as far as Lily was concerned, Watcher's future was a single thread of probability that was only of particular relevance to her because it happened to have disgorged Watcher and Dr. Proxy back into her present. She didn't deem information about it particularly useful, and all the less so given that Watcher's stated goal was to prevent it from coming to pass in the first place.

But thinking in terms of trust and leverage...well, yeah, it occurred to her that it would be wise to know more about what Watcher knew about her (even if she could not assume he would necessarily reveal everything he knew).

...The claim that most superheroes seemed to get their powers in an encounter with supervillains sounded like the sort of thing that might keep her up at night, if she spent too long thinking about it.

"In your time period, Lockdown, Manchineel, and Apophis were all established villains. Had any of them been defeated in that timeline? And if so, how?" That might suggest some manner of weakness, maybe. "...And I can't help but notice that you left Doctor Proxy out of your description." She didn't...quite press the point, but she wasn't going to just let it go by uncommented, and her voice certainly contained an element of expectation.

Spoiler

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Let's try some Persuasion to see if I can get him to open up more about Doctor Proxy. Pheromones are still on no use when communicating by pigeon-bot, but assuming it has cameras Attractive might apply, so add +5 if it does. (1d20+10)[27].

[Ridai]

"Ah," Nope says about the "gamble". Yeah just... let's just leave it at that.

"...Which hornet's nest are we poking first? I think Proxy's real dangerous, but I guess so are the other three and all their minions?" To be frank, Nope's not exactly sounding brave right now. To his credit, he doesn't seem like backing out either.

[Abracadangit]

"Much appreciated," Kal said, with a slightly barbed edge. She didn't like having to ask nicely for information that was already about her, like asking the government for the file they have on you, but with a creepier, more voyeuristic bent. She felt that was the least they were owed, given the circumstances.

She nodded along with the Watcher's explanation regarding the Obelisk -- Kal certainly hoped it wouldn't come to that, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she had no concept of the forces she was up against, and that protecting Dimetria might involve some tough decisions in the future.

"No further questions at this time," she said, before turning to Nope. "I'm inclined to hunt Apophis first, but I can wait for an opportune moment to strike."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Hm. Apophis has the fewest guards, but is the hardest to find. Manchineel's saplings seemed a bit stronger than the other minions at the warehouse, and she had a fixed base, so while she's easiest to find, we can probably expect her to be the hardest target." There were certainly no biases that might have been influencing Lily's threat assessment and any claims to the contrary are vicious, hateful lies! "Lockdown...seems to be in the middle on both. Mmm...and it seems like taking them down may have value that scales similarly; defeating Apophis may or may not do anything to stop the Suneaters. Neutralizing Lockdown will at a minimum deprive the Chain Gang of leadership and new members. And...I'm speculating some, but I expect Manchineel's creations will be the most adversely affected by neutralizing her. We can't necessarily bet on it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they became anywhere from disorganized to entirely latent without her giving direct orders."

She didn't bother addressing Doctor Proxy. Unless Watcher gave them more information on them, they were strictly lowest priority as a matter of simple practicality. Really based on everything they did know Lily considered it more-than-marginally likely that Doctor Proxy was safe and sound and heavily guarded in the Obelisk, with no need to ever personally leave there. Heck, she wouldn't have been particularly surprised if it turned out that Doctor Proxy was in fact some sort of alternate personality of the Watcher himself. Between the pigeonbots and the Proxybots they certainly had a similar modus operandi. Although maybe everyone in the future operated through drones, what did she know?

"That all said...I feel like there's a fairly high-priority target in Raphael. She wouldn't be as strong as any of the three villains themselves, and though she can summon saplings, her operations require her to remain mobile, which somewhat restricts available guards and precludes most fortifications. She also should be relatively easy to find; Watcher, I assume your birds allow you to keep track of the growth of Manchineel's forest, right? We can use that to track her movements. And neutralizing her halts Manchineel's primary objective. Probably not permanently; Manchineel created her once so presumably could do so again. But with any luck that will at least take some of her attention, and might prompt her to s-send forces after us directly." There was a slight stutter in Lily's words there, but she pressed on. "Which...which is a good thing. Definitely a good thing. Because it gives us an opportunity to weaken her forces away from her fortifications, maybe even prepare the battleground ourselves. And it means her forces are going after people strong enough to take them, rather than civilians."

"I'm not married to the idea or anything, but that would be my suggestion for a starting point."

[Dorni]

Helios remained impassive while the others discussed safety for their loved ones. So far Watcher seemed like he had good intentions, but Flint wasn't about to just hand him Sara and Dante as hostages. For now his best option was to keep silent. Flint wasn't sure what Watcher knew about him - so far he'd been careful to make sure no one saw him cast his Helios transformation, but he hadn't exactly been on the lookout for robot-pigeons. If Watcher knew his identity and his family, then they were in no more danger now then they were before this meeting started. If Watcher didn't know about them, then asking about safety for them would just reveal to Watcher that he did in fact have loved ones with him who could be used as leverage. Thinking back on it now, he was banking on the latter - if Watcher knew all of their identities there'd have been little need to send a pigeon to meet with them after battling the League's servants in the warehouse and risking his pigeon being discovered. He could have reached out to them individually to arrange this.

"I think targeting Rapheal has merit," he added, "but there's another factor to consider. As I understand it, right now the League has a truce where they all agree to stay out of each others' way," he said with a glance toward Watcher. "So they're currently in a stalemate with the town divided up between them. Once we remove one of them, that stalemate will be broken. Those that remain will rebalance themselves and their territories. Proxy, Apophis, and Lockdown have so far keep the townspeople near their territory alive. Manchineel does not. If we start eliminating the others first she might just start expanding her forest into the city."

[Ridai]

"I... I guess Raphael is as good a point to start as any? And then hoping Manchineel won't go crazy?" This isn't veiled "I think that's dumb", this is very much "I hope Manchineel won't try to burn everything down as retaliation". The thought of discussing who to essentially hunt down and take out still makes him feel kind of weird about the whole thing, plant being associated with an angry dryad or not.

A sudden thought occurs. Nope opens his mouth, but closes it again. No, probably not the time to ask whether Manchineel has a god complex, or she was turned into an angry dryad who was a devout Christian or into Christian mythology before, and thus named her top agents after archangels. That... doesn't really seem very nature-y, but at the same time she sends out punishments, and the Bible claims god created everything, and he doesn't know whether there is like a big overarching nature spirit, and he gets increasingly glad he didn't ask this out loud.

[Zelphas]

"All right, information packets on themselves for Ariadne and Floral," the pigeon notes, the voice growing slightly distracted as though noting something down. "Anyone else? Helios? Nope? No? All right."

"Lockdown died before I was born, or shortly after," The voice states next, the pigeon absently tracing the dust with one claw. "Whether he was killed or died of... other factors is uncertain, but the powers he unlocked didn't die with him. There was enough confusion in his empire to suggest that if he was defeated, the person who killed him didn't have the power to command his underlings, so there might have been a trick involved... or just luck. Manchineel still seemed functional in my time, but no one had caught a glimpse of her, and my birds could only get slightly farther into the forest before something noticed their nonliving nature and shredded them. I even had a base for them in an abandoned tannery for a short time deeper in the forest, but something like that Boar person destroyed it before I could ramp up my efforts. As for Apophis... Frank Smith was pulled before some sort of tribunal or court in Africa, sentenced to death, and killed, but the reports after that are hazy on whether that stopped Apophis. Knowing him, it might have just been some sort of game."

The pigeon freezes for a moment, one eye staring directly at Floral. "I trust Doctor Proxy," the voice states simply. "Their methods are harsh, but they are committed to working to stop this future, and I don't believe that the disappearances can be tied to them. In any case, I don't know where they are; they were always... reclusive... even in my future. They are not in my Obelisk; I know that much. And I know what their mental influence feels like. They failed to dominate me once, and have never tried again."

The pigeon sits fairly quietly as the four of you begin to discus plans, the feathers on its wings seeming to vibrate slightly. "Not the time, but--it's wonderful to see superheroes really in action!" the voice bursts out, before the pigeon's head ducks down. "I know, I have no right, I'm sorry. Raphael is currently fairly close to Manchineel; my birds on watch around her keep getting destroyed. They're near the logging camp at the moment, but I can send a bird when Raphael moves north or west and I start getting a better view."

The pigeon pauses awkwardly, scraping its talons with tiny screeching noises along the top of the table. "Do... do you want anything else?" it ventures up finally. "I need to keep things a secret, and obviously I'm not exactly welcome for reasons that all make sense, but I don't want to be unhelpful."

[Ridai]

...wait no, one of them's Abel, not Uriel, but that's still Old Testament. Is Manchineel god or Eve or Lilith or all three in this? What does it mean that the one named after a human is there to pick up trash-

Well hopefully Nope is good enough covering the escaped train of thought underneath his blurry nature when he is kind of asked whether he wants what info Watcher has on him. "I, uh, I think you already told me enough about what you have on me." He doesn't sound enthused, but not venomous either. Just kind of uncomfortable.

"Maybe Apophis can body-hop?" Nope floats that particular idea to the group when he hears about the host body getting executed, but that's just a wild guess fueled by too many roleplaying games.

Even through the blurry everything, Nope does the human equivalent of Kermit scrunching up his face in regards to Proxy mental domination.

"C-can we cool it with the superhero title until this whole incident is over, one way or another?" It feels weird and wrong and like a death flag to be called that.

"I guess we're... 'good' right now?" ...He just looks over to the others. Should have said "I'm". Not "we're". Damn it all.

[Quellian-dyrae]

For a moment, after Watcher spoke about Doctor Proxy, a kinda minty smell rolled off of Lily, coupled with a flat stare. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it, letting the matter pass.

Doctor Proxy had attempted to subject Watcher to mental domination, and he still trusted them? Lily didn't know the whole story, it wasn't that she couldn't conceive of a course of events that would make both those facts non-contradictory. But it was still weird, and the most obvious one was that the attempt in fact hadn't failed. Watcher being compelled to trust Doctor Proxy implicitly while believing the domination attempt failed seemed to be easily the most likely explanation.

She made the active effort to devalue that probability in accordance with her identified bias against the Watcher, and could not know if she had succeeded...but even giving a substantial penalty for likely bias, that conclusion still seemed more likely than reasonable alternatives, to her.

When Nope requested they not use the title of superheroes...well, it was weird. Truth be told Lily honestly didn't really feel like a "real superhero". Watcher's excitement at seeing them in action did seem kinda...incorrect, in a way. They were a bunch of people who (she was pretty sure?) all had had powers for less than a month, and when you get right down to it probably didn't much know what they were doing, and Watcher was talking about them like they were the Justice League or the Avengers or something.

On the other hand, it wasn't like the comic book heroes always knew what they were doing either, it wasn't like they were without flaw. The four of them may have been new to their powers and may have been in over their heads, but they were trying, and they might have a chance to succeed where nobody else did. Did that make them superheroes?

If you forced her to answer, then no. Lily Woods would have to admit that even so, she did not feel like a superhero.

But...she did believe that Floral, the image of Floral that existed in her head, the ideal she was trying her best to live up to, to make real however imperfectly, that Floral...could in fact be a superhero. Would in fact be a superhero, if she could be more than a figment of Lily's imagination.

And that meant, then, that Floral would act like a superhero. She wouldn't shrink from the title, or the responsibility it conferred.

...But she also wouldn't look upon it as a symbol of status to be claimed. "I mean, we are going out and using crazy superpowers to fight bad guys while wearing silly costumes," she replied to Nope with a light laugh. "What else would you call us?"

Imperfect. Even as she said the words, she felt they were imperfect, weren't what the Floral in her head would really say, if she actually existed as a real person in the real world.

But for the time being, they were the closest that Lily Woods could come.

[Ridai]

Nope feels his face heat up as Floral seems to find his request silly. He looks down on what he is wearing. "I-I'm not wearing a costu- ...nevermind."

[Zelphas]

"You guys have superpowers, you're doing heroic deeds, what else could you be?" Watcher exclaims, the pigeon fluttering its wings and kicking up a small cloud of dust. "Ah, sorry; I'll... 'dial it back'? That's the slang, right? you still use dials?"

Settling itself again, the pigeon flutters over to the back of the room, angling towards a small window set high up on the wall. It perches on the sill for a moment, looking back at the four of you. "Well, if that's all... okay! I'll get Floral and Ariadne that information later on today. If you need anything else... wave at a bird? It's probably mine. I'll swoop down if needed, ass long as none of the League's nearby. Best of luck on finding Raphael! This is the start of something great, I'm sure of it!" It takes only a moment for the pigeon to open the latch on the window, and then it is gone.

Spoiler: Ariadne

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At 6:03 PM that day, you get an email sent to your personal email from an unknown source; the sender's email is literally a blank black bar. The title of the email is "The Information Requested." Opening the email, you find two things, first, a reassurance that "No one except myself can access the Obelisk's files," and a Word document attached. The Word document contains... your life story until the moment the Obelisk appeared.

Spoiler: Floral

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At 6:04 PM that day, you get an email sent to your personal email from an unknown source; the sender's email is literally a blank black bar. The title of the email is "The Information Requested." Opening the email, you find two things, first, a reassurance that "No one except myself can access the Obelisk's files," and a Word document attached. The Word document contains... your life story until the moment the Obelisk appeared.

Spoiler: OOC for Everyone

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All right, scene 1 is over! Everyone take 4 Downtime Actions.

In addition to the Downtimes I already have up, please come up with Downtime ideas of your own! Post your ideas in the OOC, and I'll develop progression systems for them and DCs that make sense to me, and we'll make sure they work.

Since you have the stated goal of going after Raphael and have sent Watcher specifically to let you know if and when Raphael is away from Manchineel, Pursue Raphael is a guaranteed option that you can Act on after these Downtimes are over.

Since this is the end of the first scene, please let me know if there are any questions/comments/concerns about the game in general! Thank you all for playing so far!

[Zelphas]

Light at the Crossroads

August 7, 2018.

It took the better part of a week, but eventually Watcher's pigeons tracked each of you down separately and let you know that it had finally happened: Manchineel and Raphael had finally moved away from one another. The zone of "dead" bird-bots that is Manchineel herself has moved west and north, closer to Agnelli's Bluff; Raphael was spotted by Watcher moving in the opposite direction, towards the Rudolph Logging Camp. Raphael could move quickly when needed, but usually had a rather slow pace, so she was still a long ways away from the logging camp. If you wanted to catch Raphael and remove her as an option, now would be the best time to strike.

And so, the four of you find yourselves standing (or floating on wings/magic/threads/blatant refusal to obey gravity's laws) in the woods to the south of Forester's Bay, next to a gently-flowing stream bordered by a few small, thick trees. It's mid-afternoon, and the hot summer sunlight breaks intermittently through the foliage overhead in beams of bright yellow, bursting into the green heat and dancing off of the slow-moving water. Standing across the small stream from you is an older woman with dark, weathered skin, wearing comfortable clothes suitable for hiking through the summer weather. He hair is thick and black, shot through with grey, and she has it pulled away from her face in a series of large braids.

"This town has something new every day, doesn't it?" the woman comments, her weathered face creasing at the corners in a gentle smile. She leans forward a bit on an aged, polished walking staff, her deep brown eyes looking over the four of you with steady calm. "It's pretty dangerous to be out in the forest, you know, though it looks like you picked the right place for it for the moment, and I suppose you can handle yourselves. Come to do some sightseeing while the self-proclaimed lady of the woods is away?"

Spoiler: Expertise (Local) DC 20

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You haven't met her in person, but going by the descriptions you've heard and the place you ran into her, you'd be willing to bet that this is Ntombi Peters, the only human who has spoken directly to Manchineel--twice--and walked away unscathed.

Spoiler: Floral--Smell

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The woman smells like a biological human being.

The calm you see in her eyes isn't feigned--she doesn't seem to have any reason to fear you, and she is perfectly at ease in the woods. There is something under the calm, though, something that isn't quite defined enough to be an emotion yet. It's something like impatience, but not that strong or urgent.