Test just how much force I can apply to things, and how evenly. (E.g, if I can apply ten thousand newtons of force, I could lift a car, but if it's all applied to a 10-centimeter area I'm going to be ripping the car apart)
Spend those last two minutes getting the city firmly in my mind and trying to figure out where the BETA is coming from. And where the people are.
EDIT: If I hear, um, NAV's note, head for that corner of the city.
It looks like the amount of force you can apply scales based on the size of the object you are trying to manipulate. So that means that while you can lift a car, you can't apply the same force to turn a marble into a supersonic projectile. On the bright side, that means there's less chances of you overshooting while using your power on smaller objects.
You jump at John's (Toaster's) location and check out his big gun.
You look up. Well, you could had mistaken it for a star, but then it moved. There's an orangered dot in the sky. And then it becomes two dots. And then three dots, all of them slowly moving towards slightly different directions, sometimes making a sudden movement, seemingly for no reason.
As for where the people are, you don't see any clues about that.
They probably evacuated somehow. Left the cars here because they can't function outside the city.
Maybe they're superadvanced genetically modified humans that simply run away very quickly. Or maybe they were airlifted out of here. Or maybe they used some other fast transportation method. Or they were teleported away by Charlie. Or they were killed by the entities. Or there were never people here to begin with and this is all a giant test site. Or maybe this place isn't real at all and all this is simply a simulation. Or maybe you're not real, maybe you're just a computer simulation and all this data is fed to you for testing. Or even worse, you're nothing but a puppet in some sort of twisted game, where people use words and chance to decide the actions of their puppets. Or maybe nothing is real and you and this entire universe are nothing but a dream in some alien imagination and will cease to exist the moment it wakes up. Or maybe...
((Neat. Should it fail, though, I do have a secondary plan. It involves using my tech sense on the robot to figure out its weakness. You know, the touch range one.))
John regarded his work. Hmm... needs armor, but there's no time for that.
Summon up an autoloader. Once that's done, start making DU penetrator rounds (with a steel shell to enable firing in ferrous mode.) Reject any crappy shell.
<<Okay, team, I'm in the construction zone and my cannon's ready. A couple good hits from this and he should be down for the count, unless he has freaky alien armor or something.>>
((PLAN B: Banzai charge the giant robot with my bare hands! PLAN C: Choke giant robot! PLAN D: Throw fluffy wambler at giant robot! PLAN E: Drown giant robot with magma! PLAN F: Use cage trap to...))
((Also note that I used ferrous as a sort for ferromagnetic which in retrospect wasn't such a good idea. Not that it matters though, since the steel you summoned is. Just saying.))
Well, you get a very crappy autoloader, little more than a couple of rails standing over the back of the coilgun.
At least you get a good enough shell. It's not very massive, just a steel sabot carrying a small DU needle. (Relatively small anyway, compared to what the coilgun could fire. It's still pretty big.) Could cause some damage with a well placed shot.
Oh, hey, that little girl, Angel is here. She just popped into existance. And now she's looking up. And now she's looking down again. And now she's having some sort of existential crisis, muttering about how the entire world could be a product of her imagination.
Kids these days... Don't their parents know they have to max out Cynicismish and keep an eye on the Existential Fuck-a-roo stat?
Broadcast to everyone:
"I have some data on the Beta. It's heading for the landing point gamma, southeast corner of the city. The undeveloped land. So point all your big guns in that direction."
Look for any tape, glue, rope, string, or zip ties. Stuff my pockets full.
You get tape and glue. You don't find any rope but you do find some sturdy electrical cables you could use as ropes. You find some zip ties along with the electrical cables.
No strings though, this is a governmental building, people come here to do important work, not to knit. You could start searching the trash for any loose strings that might have come out of their clothing if you need string that badly.
<"Roger roger, niner niner, check your vector, vector. I got a spaceplane with that new guy, we're going to either distract it or try to throw explosives at it. If you guys find any explosive barrels, lemme know.">
Start up the spaceship.
(Just realized I called Coolrune by his OOC name. :S)
"We have clearance, Clarence."
"Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?"You close the cockpit and cargo doors and check to make sure everything is in order and ready to go.
You slowly raise the lever on your left, the hover thrusters at the bottom of the Spaceplane firing in response. At some point the force exerted by the thrusters overcomes gravity and you begins to rise, slowly. You turn the Spaceplane around and inspect the cityscape, making small corrections to keep it level.
Turn on the radio. Check if any songs are on
You put the headset on and fiddle with the switch a bit. There's nothing but silence and a bit of static.
You fiddle with the switch, trying to find a station with good music.
There's nothing but silence for a while. Then your ears are assaulted by a horrifying sound, like the grinding of metal mixed with the sound of a dial up connection played on insanely high levels.
You quickly remove the headset to protect your ears.
You are left with a buzzing in your ears and what looks like a broken radio.
Everyone
"Enemy approaching. Estimated time of arrival: 1 minute."
Meanwhile...
"You say pessimist, I say realist. I think you'll soon realize (if you haven't already) that most things in this world depend on your perspective. Your ideas and you perceptions. If you know how to take advantage of that when it comes to other people, then they will not only do what you want, they'll do it willingly and then thank you for giving them the opportunity to serve you."
Interface, Scion: <That's how the Guardians and Mediums work. We all have different purposes, different traits, and different abilities that work in cohesion to fight the Shadow.>
"I say just threaten him. Traitors are usually cowards."
Interface, Scion: <That reminds me of Commander Oblivion, my alter-ego's nemesis. He used his charisma to manipulate entire kingdoms and dethroned both Artemis and Apollo at the same time. At one point I think he was even a triple agent.
...Artemis and I ended up uniting as one to kill him.>
Host: >Tell Raul that he is in a lot more trouble than he knows, and that you're already doing him a favor by offering him short asylum for his information. Tell him he can't push it with the Agency, and if he does, there will be repercussions.
"Oh, so you want some protection?""For starters."
"And a nice house in the suburbs? Or maybe you'd like something a bit more high quality? How does a class 2 apartment in Downtown Moscow sound to you?""Yeah, that could work."
"Or, hell, why don't we just give you a ticket for Triumf Rabotnika and a million rubles for you to spend as you will."The man nods a bit slower this time. Seems like he's beginning to suspect you don't mean what you're saying. For a man that was a double agent he seems to have a startling inability to understand the tone of your voice.
"Yeah? You'd like that?" your host asks, the irritation blatantly obvious in his mind as well as his voice.
"Listen here, you maggot!" you growl and grab him by the collar, trying to give him your best death-stare.
"The agency has been very generous to you! You are a member of a terrorist organization and a traitor to the State and her allies! You should be executed for your crimes. The amnesty we are granting you is a privilege you don't deserve!""B-but, the other said-"
"Well, I am not 'the other'. I'm not some paper pusher. I am an Agent. I get results. And I will get results from you, one way or another." Your host is surprised and a bit relieved by his behavior. Looks like he found somewhere to vent all that stress.
"Now, will you give me anything or should I take you down to central where we can have a more... private conversation?" he adds in a more sinister tone.
Great. Raul looks ready to tell you everything... once he stops being so terrified he can't speak.
Your hosts happiness doesn't last for long though. He suddenly gets a very bad feeling. A sense of impending doom. There's danger nearby. Something bad is going to happen soon.
Crap! The real Agent! He must be here!
"And I'll walk right through the door, walk right through the door!" Ike sings. He's been through about five songs by now. It was a long drive.
>Walk right through the door. Make sure to be packing at least a handgun.
((Yeaah, sorry about that. I'm using the location changes too keep you synchronized. So you and another guy could be at different floors of a building and do your actions fine. But if you are 16 minutes later in time than the other guy, going down the elevator to talk to him would take you however many turns it would take for the other guy to go forward 16 minutes in time.
Plus I got to stop every once in a while to make sure you don't have any action you might want to do, like for example, last turn was a chance for you to retrieve any extra weapons or armor you might want from the trunk.
At first, I had planned for you two to arrive nearly at the same time and have DAF and his host try and be very very quick or smart. Then you overshot your influencing your host to get bigger weapons and got delayed enough I thought you were going to have to do some detective work to continue. Then DAF had some fails influencing his host and so we get this...))
You've got two machine pistols, two spare clips and a body armor.
You enter the restaurant and make your way to the bar and ask for Raul.
The man at the bar scoffs. "Another one? He's upstairs. The private room to the far left."
Oh good...
Wait a minute. Another one?
Bryan
Some interesting information, a shame that now would be a bad time to dig for more; I need to focus. A new destination also good. I hope I haven't made a mistake.
Faron
Go to the place detailed by Edward.
{Irine}
Listen for danger and if Zoe freezes up, nudge her towards decisiveness.
If Zoe really can't decide for herself, then I'm in favor of chasing the moving one (if catchable) while Morgan protects/treats the wounded one, if not catchable then Zoe is a trained military medic, right? She knows how to handle gunshot wounds. It's Zoe's decision though and I don't want to interfere. I just know that whatever decision she makes, she needs to make it fast.
{Zoe}
Decide between chasing whoever ran out back, and running inside, and act on that decision. Run around to the back and yell for help while you decide since the only way in is back there and so is the person you might be chasing.
"Help! Now!" you scream and start running towards the back.
You are almost there but you don't see anybody. Where-
You hear the front door slamming open and then another gunshot.
You turn around and start running towards the front of the house.
You've only taken a few steps when you see a man running, moving with an incredible speed, unnatural speed for a man carrying someone else.
You use your powers to create fire on his head but he ducks out of the way a moment after it comes into existence around him, seemingly unaffected by it.
A moment later, he's out of sight, obscured by a nearby building. You notice the silvery gleam of an Interface on his hand before you loose sight of him.
{Lenglon}
((I'm getting really frustrated here, It's taken me two turns to walk from a car to a door, 3 turns to drive a 15 min walk, meaning less than 3 min drive, when it takes anyone else 2 turns to go all the way across town, and thus far I've been completely unable to do anything at all, all mission. Could I please be allowed to do something? anything? I haven't had any options, any decisions, any actions, anything at all. I might as well not be here for all it matters.))
waiting for permission to play the game, and hoping that Ed lied, keeping Amelia and Zoe both safe at the same time. a pro won't bother killing someone extra to fulfill a private threat to a dead man. It's just extra risk and cleaning with zero reward even for future intimidations since the threat wasn't made public, so as long as he accepted his own death, which he seemed to have, then lying is the smart choice.
I'm sorry. I'll try to do better.
((Zoe's ex-military and froze upon hearing gunfire? what? that's... odd. Irine is used to a primitive society/life, so I'd kinda expect that from her. But Zoe should be used to gunfire and should have been acting immediately.))
Military surgeon/medic. The guy they have tending the wounded. And she froze for only a second while she was trying to process what was going on. She was surprised, didn't knew what's going on. When people are shooting you, it's easy to duck out of the way and retaliate. Instinctual. When you hear a gunshot but don't know what's going on, when you aren't prepared for it, it's different. You've got to process it and decide what to do besides the basic "Take cover and find source of noise".
At least, that's what I imagine it to be like.
Never heard a real gun shoot, not from up close anyway and I've never received military training.
My only experience comes from suddenly hearing fireworks, flashbang grenades and bombs going off unexpectedly.
((I suppose Irine could have interfered and told Morgan to drive faster, but I had no reason to believe she was going super-slow until it was too late.
Wasn't going super slow. Simply wasn't going faster than normal.
Remember Zoe is an NPC. You've been ending turns like she's a PC,
I don't understand what that means. I must have not realized I'm doing that.
Sometimes I just end turns to give you a chance to influence your hosts if you want. Like I said, you could post no actions and simply watch your hosts do whatever it is they're doing.
and so I've been posting action suggestions for her, but Zoe is an NPC, I don't know her personality fully, or her story, or what she'd do, or whatever. and these are Her decisions you keep asking me for. Irine really doesn't want to interfere and will not do so lightly. I'm not going to be posting dialog for Zoe, ever. My character is Irine. Zoe is yours.))
Indeed. I never gave you any more control over Zoe than the one Irene's position affords you. So every time you give an action for her, I just treat it as you influencing her unconsciously. A standard influence action.
Anyway, like I said, I'm sorry. I'll try to do better.
((Wait a minute... Xan's post is missing. Eh, I'll just put them on hold.))
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1140663 times)