Panacea Quest

[EnderofWorlds]

[X] "I need to quit." You spit out. "I can't keep doing this."

 

[Swingline#57]

*looks over last page and a half*

Well, things certainly aren't looking good. Annie having a Defiant-type sleep schedule is worrisome as well.

 

[serra2]

[X] "I need to quit." You spit out. "I can't keep doing this."
- [X] I need... I need to speak to the student... I need... perspective. I'm going to give it up, but a the very least I at least need to know the people who started this before. And maybe in speaking to them... I can find a better way."

 

[Lement]

I hope the next person who votes does so for Cranial tbh, it would kind of betray expectations

Also, got to find out what is making Algae die - new parahuman, new EB, what? Oceans cover three times as much area as land and they have depth. Imagine if all the trees on land started dying all at once - sure, there are other plants, but...

We need to end world hunger, ASAP - too much reliance on seafood in lot of places.

 

[esran]

[X] "Cranial." You admit. "I can't half ass this. I don't want too, but its for the best, and I won't be a hypocrite."

 

[mc2rpg]

[X] "I need to quit." You spit out. "I can't keep doing this."

 

[Xicree]

So... yet again. NO ONE wants to have a chat with Doctor Mother?

 

[Lement]

Thank you, esran

In any case, while it is not a bad idea for any option, though I fear she may be dead, it is not overly good idea either, and I am really not all that interested in reading a repetition of canon. We'd get pretty much inferior explanation of Alexandria, but she does lack Thinker power.

IC, I guess it'd be more justification for Amy for whatever she chooses. Eh, reinforcing character is hardly the worst option.

Bonus stunt:
- [X] Talk to Doctor Mother how she came to terms with human experimentation.

I'm not using that exact stunt you suggested as "I will give it up" doesn't fit for other two options.

 

[Biigoh]

[X] Plan Xicree

 

[Lement]

Maybe one of Us should Tell people who used to Vote on things yet haven't done so now about this move to Here, as that isn't readily apparent.

 

[WyldCard4]

Maybe one of Us should Tell people who used to Vote on things yet haven't done so now about this move to Here, as that isn't readily apparent.

Click to shrink...

Sounds good. No objection to that. Mc2rpg did send out PMs, but it might not be clear that the quest did survive, as opposed to make noises about surviving.

 

[UrsaTempest]

[X] Plan Xii

 

[WyldCard4]

Plan Xicree won, obviously. I'm off to update.

No, Leviathan didn't destroy the Sahara desert. Amy was imagining all the greatest features of the world, individually, being destroyed, to get an idea of what it means for the world to end.

 

[WyldCard4]

[X] "I need to quit." You spit out. "I can't keep doing this."
- [X] I need... I need to speak to the student... I need... perspective. I'm going to give it up, but a the very least I at least need to know the people who started this before. And maybe in speaking to them... I can find a better way."

Click to shrink...

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The Doctor is sitting in a small coffee shop, working on a laptop. You sit down across from her.

"I was told you saved the world once."

"For a while, yes. There's at least two more ways the world could end, and I couldn't stop either of them." The woman looks at you. She seems so old to you, so tired. Middle aged, perhaps, but that's old, too. She's older than your mother. Honestly, once you stop having children, you're old. That's a truth you can feel in biology. You need youth, or else you're waiting for death.

"Has anyone ever thanked you for it?" You ask. "I am glad I was born. If nothing else, I met Victoria out of it." You can't miss a look of disgust on her face.

"I heard about that. Your condition, and you're welcome. Only one person ever did, Eidolon." You feel a sense of unease.

"David thanked you?" You wouldn't have guessed that.

"When his powers informed him of certain things, he did, eventually. It took him quite some time. I suspect he has less reason to be grateful for life than you do."

"I have almost everything I could want, and I want to share that, give back. I can't use my powers to kill innocent people."

"The mix you have created was the best we have had since the very earliest days of testing. You refine the formula, using the useful elements and removing the harmful ones. Without your assistance we can only hurt more people for worse results, or create parahumans who are all but useless against the threats we face."

"I know that, but if I accept that, what else will I accept? Do you want me to stop caring?"

"You already have." The Doctor points out. "You ceased to care about your patients." You frown and correct yourself.

"Admit to myself I don't care. Be the kind of person who does this, instead of the person who stops because it is wrong."

"That is closer to the truth. You fear because you are so precarious. It is so easy for you to let go that you do not trust yourself in this position."

"People are dying because you're shooting poison I made into them. Poison that has made some of the best capes I have heard about, but still poison. Panacea, the universal cure. I'm supposed to make people better."

"So you flinch, and squirm, and how many people will die because you did? Maybe all of them. We lost ethics a long time ago, but without the Triumvirate, the Protectorate, there would be much less world now. So many days would have been so much worse."

"I could be worse than all of them. I think, sometimes, how to end the world. Make every type of creature a carrier for a disease that destroys another type of creature. Chain the food web to self destruction." The Doctor snorts.

"Do you actually want to end the entire world? What is in it for you?"

"Peace." You answer. "I could be left alone. All the commitments, the responsibilities, the work, would be gone. I could wander with Victoria through gardens made in her image, raise a family with her that knows nothing of want or pain or fear. I would be perfect safe, and so would everyone I love, everyone I render immune. It would be so beautiful. I could make everything I want without anyone worrying about it. Would Scion even bother to destroy a world with so little in it? Would the Endbringers?" The Doctor sits back, looking shocked.

"Maybe you aren't cut out for Cauldron." She admits. "I don't believe we've ever had a member who thought ending the world could be a good thing."

"I will give you one last day. I will mix everything you have left. Poor it all into a single Cauldron, give me materials and time, and I will give you everything I can. After that, Cauldron will never come up again, ever, in my earshot. That's all I can do."

"I never reacted so badly to the failures." The Doctor admits. "The dead, the deviations. They were bad, but you seem to take it worse than any of us."

"My patients always got better. Every single one, until I joined with you. Smelly, gross, ugly things, but they all left better than when I got them. I'm not a scientist and I am not a witch. I am a superhero and a goddess. Do no harm. I've been doing a lot of harm lately. I need to draw a line, or else I'll keep going, keep making the choices to save the world. If I do that forever, my world won't be worth saving." You get up. "Thank you again, for saving the world."

"Thank you for not being able to." The Doctor says. "I think we must have done something right, if there are still people who can't."

"Maybe." You walk away.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"So, the idea is a network of portals for rapid response to crisis." Dodge explains. "I've been working on the idea. One in each Protectorate HQ, with a nexus point in Brockton Bay so I can work on all of them."

"You see, each of them are placed next to tinker labs." Tecton (Everett, the name just doesn't fit) explains. "If we get a sample of Two, of the Yangban, and can make a clone, or even use the Brain Box for it, just place her in the nexus point with a TV, a bathroom, and a few personal assistants. Now every tinker gets the boost while working. We know the boost extends along portals, it's happened before, and with these minor structural changes, every tinker of the Protectorate could benefit from this boost in one part of their lab. They'd become, well, smarter. Better at using equipment. Yangban tinkers are incredible because they benefit from boosting. Imagine Hero if he was ten times better at his work. Imagine Dragon if she was ten times better at her work. With all of the new P=NP related discoveries, add in a huge sample size, better understood tech, and we might actually be able to hack tinker tech, mass produce it, and not just the recurring trends."

"That would be amazing." You nod. "I could have one of those labs."

"I can't imagine how you could be stronger." Dodge laughs. "You've already got, like, complete mastery of biology."

"I can think of three or four ways." You shrug. "Control of inanimate matter, range, self modification, creation of mass."

"Like, half of those are entirely new powers. Two doesn't really do that." Everett explains. "She strengthens limits, doesn't grant new abilities. She tends to enhance power, range, and control, and Null reduces power, range, and control. They balance together well."

"You're putting a lot of thought into this." You smile, and wonder why Everett keeps wanting you to see these kind of plans.

"If I'm going to build cities I need to know what they're going to look like. I've actually been working on other city ideas. I've got preliminaries for New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston already." You consider, he needs to be working fast if he's already made those projects. "My old ideas for Brockton Bay have changed considerably since we got Golem." We?

"How so?"

"Have you even noticed what we can do?" Everette seems surprised. "He can mass produce anything if we can make enough of it in one place for him to push his finger into. We've been moving exotic stuff in all week. Tinker made stuff for the most part. Dragon's been organizing it. There's talks of a sea wall for every coastal city to slow down Leviathan. Put Phantasos and Golem on it and you could make walls a mile high. Leviathan would rip them down, but he'd need to spend time on that instead of damaging things elsewhere." Huh.

"That could be really useful. Gives time to move capes into position, forces Leviathan to make choices about how he deals damage."

"You guys, you have no idea just how rich you're getting, do you?" Dodge asks. "Like, he's already been doing stuff with saffron, tritium, stuff like that. He's mass producing it. Just the industry to move and sell it all is going to be huge. He can mass produce so much. If he can make enough of it gold will be devalued so much, just used for the industrial stuff and gold jewelry will start to look low class." You think for a moment. Victoria handling these level of finances is kind of sexy. More than kind of.

"Um, do you know what we're doing with this vast wealth?" You ask.

"Charity, and whatever else you want. You guys are rich. You're going to own so much they're going to need to trust bust you guys, just out of general economic sanity." Dodge explains. "Sure, you're nice guys, but some things get so big it's not safe to have them be consolidated. Thinkers all agree on that. Competition is way healthier."

"So we, what, give Golem a separate corporation?" You shrug. "I don't see a problem with that." You think for a moment. "Is my company on the stock market?"

"You don't know?" Everette asks. He looks vaguely frightened.

"I kind of like Victoria handling all of that stuff." Everette swallows.

"That's several billion dollars just from the corporate stuff, Amy, and for a third of the added value of the clones in tinkers, thinkers, and economically useful powers, it's, um, a lot." And that's not counting what you did with the Cauldron vials, the suits, and the more efficient uses of money that the government can make by not having to pay you for their support.

"Also, do I have, like, a half a patent on P=NP since I was important for figuring it out?" You ask. You have never felt more like a dumb blond. You're kind of proud that Victoria isn't.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Heightened sense of smell?" Victoria asks. She has a laptop open to a site on pregnancy.

"Um, nope." You admit.

"Food aversions?" Victoria asks hopefully.

"Nausea or vomiting?"

"Nope." You sigh. You'd hoped this would be more exciting.

"Hm, looks like we should start monitoring your body temperature. If it stays high fir eighteen days, it's a sign you're pregnant." Victoria looks happy at this.

"Cool." You nod. "Anything else?"

"Some women notice minor bleeding or spotting." Victoria offers.

"Cool!" You're kind of excited at that idea, something so obvious.

"You two are getting kind of gross." Sophie points out, looking up from, of all things, a psychological textbook.

"We're pregnant." Victoria puts an arm around you. "We're supposed to be excited about this."

"Yes we are." You lean into Victoria. "We're, like, only the eighth lesbian couple to ever manage this, and most of the others used much weirder powers."

"Well, as long as you don't do it to me, I'm fine with it." Sophie says."

"I don't know." Victoria grins. "I think she'd look cute pregnant."

"Hm..." You look over her.

"Um..." Sophie looks worried.

"Don't worry. Not without your consent." You smile at Sophie.

"God I'm bored." Sophie groans. "Nothing on the last eight patrols."

"Yeah." Victoria agrees. "We need more excitement."

"Well, there's some ideas. Maybe the Toybox could have some ideas? They probably have old enemies. What about Dodge's idea, of setting up a network of portals, and going on raids into other cities to stop the villains from consolidating? Any other ideas?"

"Hm..." Victoria nods. I like..."

[X] "...inter city raids." Victoria announces. "We shouldn't let the villains consolidate. Now's the time to capture as many as possible."

[X] "...The Toybox." Victoria announces. "Abigale's been so nice to us, maybe we can help them out?"

[X] "...my own idea." Victoria decides. Write in: What idea does Victoria have?

 

[serra2]

[X] "...The Toybox." Victoria announces. "Abigale's been so nice to us, maybe we can help them out?"

 

[Biigoh]

[X] "...The Toybox." Victoria announces. "Abigale's been so nice to us, maybe we can help them out?"

 

[Theman]

[X] "...inter city raids." Victoria announces. "We shouldn't let the villains consolidate. Now's the time to capture as many as possible"

 

[Lement]

[X] "...inter city raids." Victoria announces. "We shouldn't let the villains consolidate. Now's the time to capture as many as possible."

After what happened with Saint, well....

On the other hand, Toybox has probably better idea who can bypass Dodge.

 

[Xicree]

[X] "...The Toybox." Victoria announces. "Abigale's been so nice to us, maybe we can help them out?"

 

[DeAnno]

[X] "...The Toybox." Victoria announces. "Abigale's been so nice to us, maybe we can help them out?"

 

[mc2rpg]

[X] "...The Toybox." Victoria announces. "Abigale's been so nice to us, maybe we can help them out?"

I would rather send them out after the gangs, but the gangs are forming giant armies with counters to some Panacea gear.

 

[Swingline#57]

[X] "...The Toybox." Victoria announces. "Abigale's been so nice to us, maybe we can help them out?"

 

[Acaila]

[X] "...The Toybox." Victoria announces. "Abigale's been so nice to us, maybe we can help them out?"

We're not really prepared to fight giant gangs made of groups of villains, which is what the villains seem to be doing. I'm fine for assisting the Protectorate in fighting one of them if we get intel on a location, but not fighting random gangs when we could be massively outnumbered.

 

[WyldCard4]

[X] "...The Toybox." Victoria announces. "Abigale's been so nice to us, maybe we can help them out?"

Click to shrink...

"Ooh, you're frisky today." Sophia giggles. The two of you are making out in the car before you head in to see Cranial. Victoria observes from the rear view mirror when you stop at traffic lights.

"I just feel better." You explain. "Everything with the testing. Just not having that." You head for Sophie's neck and she sighs happily.

"Mind control is some good shit." Sophie mutters.

"That's not all I can do. Hey, want something I only tried out once?" Sophie nods and you kiss her ear, sending a wave of pleasure up from her toes, as strong as you can make it.

"God." Sophie whispers when she regains the ability to speak.

"Amy is fine, dear." You assure her, and Victoria howls with laughter.

"That's, um, yeah." Sophie grins. "Um, if we ever break up, wow, my life is never going to be better than this, is it?" She looks kind of worried.

"What, being the beloved girlfriend of two people, apparently billionaires, with incomparable access to parahuman resources, personal tinker abilities, and all of me would be hard to match?" You grin at Sophia Hess. "You'd best be a really nice girlfriend, then."

"Hm, think she's ready for a collar?" Victoria asks. She sounds pretty happy.

"Hm." You trace Sophie's neck. She's cutely worried. "You have to admit, Shadow Stalker, it would be useful. We could put your name on it in case you get lost, a phone number with a reward on it."

"You know, given all the shit we're pulling, we probably could actually pull that kind of shit." Victoria suggests. "Like, if she ran away and you really freaked out I bet the Protectorate would track her down for you."

"This isn't funny." Sophie says.

"No, but it is cute." You assure your girlfriend. "But you're right. It's not funny because it's true. I promise you I won't ever be that scary to you. You are perfectly free to go." You stroke her hair, making your way to her back, and let another rush of pleasure hit her. The black girl gasps. "I make no promises about making you want to go."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You walk into Cranial's building with a girlfriend on each side, enough parahuman power to defeat an infantry platoon in a fair fight, and enough money on your credit cards to buy a private island for every day of the year.

You owe a lot of that to Cranial. You find her with a patient you don't recognize.

"Hello, Abigale." Victoria sweeps forward and hugs her gently. Sophie stays at your side. "We were thinking, we just want to give back to you. You've done so much for us. Really, you've done everything for us. Thank you."

"You haven't exactly failed to give back before now." Cranial sounds amused. "What exactly do you have in mind?" Victoria gives a wide smile.

"To be honest, we are a bit bored. Restless, I guess. So few villains left in Brockton Bay. I was wondering about a mission of some kind. Something with a bit more excitement."

"Well, we are allies. If you truly are volunteering, there is something you could do. The Toybox was founded because both sides, heroes and villains, are highly aggressive in their recruiting tactics towards tinkers."

"I never really got that." Sophie says. "Like, I heard about it, but why just tinkers? Why aren't they just as aggressive for everyone?"

"The truth is that a tinker adds value to an organization, while other capes are often competing over the same resources. The Protectorate is aggressive in recruiting in a more equitable way, but for villains, who need to earn their keep, another Stranger or Brute will want equal compensation to the current members of a gang while they rarely add the same percentage of revenue. There are exceptions to this, but parahuman gangs tend towards smaller organizations with mercenary groups. Note the major powers of Brockton Bay, only Empire 88 both held territory and worked for expanding cape numbers, and that was on ideological grounds. A tinker, however, is going to add value in any number of ways to the other capes in the organization and possibly to the foot soldiers as well."

"Hm, so like what Amy does, but on a much smaller scale." Sophie nods.

"Really, capes can almost be thought of in three overlapping categories, tinkers, thinkers, and everything else. Tinkers seem to have the same rules for trigger events and psychology as ordinary capes, but their powers, most effective uses, and countermeasures are so different that they need their own organizations." You can tell that Sophie is already bored.

"So, you're saying you want us to rescue tinkers who have been press ganged into service by villain gangs? I think." Victoria says.

"Yes, that is exactly what I would like you to do, if you truly need some adventure. I think this is a more productive use of your particular organization than supporting the Protectorate. You are a powerful, mobile, autonomous group."

"Huh, the more tinkers we help out, the weaker villains will be." Sophie says suddenly. "Let them be rogues and everyone benefits as they sell tinker tech. If people can buy tinker tech or tinker employees those benefits go to corporations, strengthen the economy against Endbringers, and increase funding for the Protectorate. This could be really big." Everyone just stares at Sophie.

"She's been reading a lot lately." Victoria explains. You get the impression she might be feeling a bit inferior in general being one of the weakest members of the team, not really being involved in any of the management side, and not being really able to add value to anything else. Pretty much anyone might feel inferior to you now, come to think of it.

The idea that Victoria could feel inferior scares you.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Road trip?" You ask Victoria.

"Sixteen cities in three weeks. Abigale wrote up the plans last night." Victoria explains. "Check in with tinkers the Toybox suspects are being mistreated. See how many need help, need rescuing. If even a fourth of them come back that's a lot of tinkers to add to the Toybox, a lot of power. Maybe a recruit or two for us or the Protectorate."

"I can't go with you." You mutter.

"Don't worry about it." Victoria assures you, hitting you with a very strong hug. You sniff her hair and it smells really good. "I'll be back before you know it, maybe with goodies, tinkers for you to work with and steal ideas from. Come on, for me this is practically a safari. I get to just punch bad guys and blast my aura. I really need some excitement."

"Killing Jack Slash wasn't enough?" You mutter.

"That was months ago, Amy. I wouldn't want to ever do that again, but without some low level fighting, cops and robbers action, I'll go crazy. You don't want me crazy, do you?" Honestly, that's more of a question than you're willing to admit.

"Have fun and stay safe." You kiss Victoria. "Keep Sophie safe as well."

"I'll do my best, Ames. Now I'm off to pack." Victoria moves an inch above the ground, out into another area of your current base.

After they leave, you walk around the construct. It's kind of massive, unplanned, a hundred rooms stretching over a large section of the old Boardwalk. You're not even sure why you did it after all the orphans left.

Now it's just you and Annie. Lady Bug to watch over the changing city, keep it safe, protect it. Panacea to provide the lifeblood of the city, the healing (you really should go back to twelve hours with Dispatch and no Cauldron), the clones, the suits, the bio-tech.

Panacea hardly seems to fit anymore. You have grown beyond the universal cure, become something else as much as Victoria is no longer truly Glory Girl. You never thought that would happen.

You can't remake the world without remaking yourself.

You call Cranial on the phone.

"I feel old." You admit. "I'm just eighteen but I feel old. I feel like I've done so much, too much. Everything hit so fast."

"You have done a lot, dear. Most people don't really adventure. Adventures are tiring things. You are an adult, now. Adults just live, they raise their children, they go to work, they try to do something important, and they get old. What you need to do is just be an adult, work, love, have your children. Won't that be enough?" You think.

"It is for me. I'm not so sure about Victoria. She gets restless. I think a lot of capes are like that, they need strength, a vision. I just kind of want to curl up and start middle age, I think. I don't really know what she wants. I think she lies to me about that, a lot."

"I am sure she does. She wants you to be happy. She wants that more than anything. I don't think honesty enters the picture for her." Cranial admits. "You need to get better at reading her, playing her games. You probably have to force her to be happy." You smile.

"I actually like that idea."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"Fish, trees, insects, and birds." Alexandria explains. "Diseases are going through all of these populations at a rate that only parahuman powers could account for."

"I can't replace the entire ecosystem." You tell Alexandria. "Maybe with Annie I could put it on life support, but we'd lose more than I can imagine. Losing wet lands, agriculture, fishing, lumber, even if we can replace all of that with a lot of work, the Endbringers won't give us room for the transition." Alexandria looks grim.

"Whatever this is, this is bad. I am sorry to bring you into this after the earlier issues, but you are possibly the best solution for this. Agnes Court and Nilbog are the only real alternatives, as the Mannequin clone's closed systems couldn't be expanded to the world." You consider.

"Agnes Court is that powerful?"

"She seems to create small pieces of an alternative ecosystem with exponential growth. Nilbog was left alone, secretly, largely because of his ability to respond to global ecological catastrophe. The truth is, they're probably better at it than you, but both of them are much harder to work with."

"What's wrong with Agnes Court?" You ask.

"She's a parahuman supremacist, gangster with a large body count, and extremely proud. If we go to her, ask for her help, she will want power and respect. It would shatter the public trust. Nilbog, obviously, is completely insane and a mass murderer. I was hoping you might be able to produce a solution for this problem without resorting to having to deal with these creatures." You frown.

"We both know this is well outside of what I can do. Working with Sphere and parahumans would can bring in matter and energy I could make a very decent self contained ecosystem, but the sheer scale of this is unbelievable unless I am producing organisms that reproduce extremely easily, like the algae."

"You know your powers better than we do. Are you sure you cannot keep the ecosystem functioning?" Alexandria looks at you weirdly intently.

"The atmosphere, yes. The ecosystem, no." You feel extremely uncomfortable. You're not, well, God.

"Very well. My preferred alternative would to use the Brain Box and Cranial on Agnes Court and Nilbog." Alexandria explains. You briefly consider all the ways that could go wrong.

"Um..."

"I understand your hesitation. Their moments of insanity could be absolutely devastating. However, I believe versions of the villains who are given highly cooperative personalities would be vastly more productive in the long term than dealing with the villains themselves." Alexandria explains. "Making deals with sufficiently powerful supervillains would, in my opinion, set a truly terrible precedent, and embolden many villains to further conflict with lawful authorities." You sigh.

"I do have another idea." You suggest.

"That would be?" She asks.

"Look at what has been going on, statistically, see if we can track this down to the source. If we can destroy or negotiate with whatever is doing this than there would be no need to do so."

"Would you be willing to help?" You pause. Alexandria seems really off today.

"Why?" You ask.

"You could analyze the afflicted creatures safely and give us extremely valuable hints." You frown. Something's not sitting right with you about this. Your phone rings.

"Sorry, I have to answer this." You get up and leave for a minute. "Hey, Victoria."

"Hey, Amy." She sounds excited. "Today was really fun. These giant techno-snakes are really awesome to fight. Thank you for letting me go."

"I'm glad you're having fun." You can't help but smile. "How's Sophie?"

"She seems a bit down. I think she misses you." Victoria says. She sounds fairly happy about this. "So, how are things going over there?"

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I don't really feel that fine." You shrug. "Weird stuff with the ecosystem. Not sure what's going to happen."

"Troubling." Victoria says. "We'll talk more later. I'll check in again in another hour."

"I'm looking forward to it. Bye." You hang up and head back to Alexandria.

"Do you actually need to check in every hour of the day?" Alexandria asks. You stick out your tongue at her, an act of defiance that you have used to defend your relationship with Victoria for over a decade.

"Have to? No. Wish to? Yes."

"Alright, what do you think we should do?" Alexandria asks.

[X] "The real villains would be best. If we lose the Brain Box we might never get it back."

[X] "I will talk with Cranial. Nilbog Secundus and Agnes Court Secunda are probably good ideas anyway."

[X] "Both ideas are terrible. We should do our best to track down whatever is causing this and put a stop to it before we try to replace the world ecosystem."

 

[Biigoh]

[X] "Both ideas are terrible. We should do our best to track down whatever is causing this and put a stop to it before we try to replace the world ecosystem."

 

[serra2]

[X] "Both ideas are terrible. We should do our best to track down whatever is causing this and put a stop to it before we try to replace the world ecosystem."

I think preferring to clone difficult people, rather than talk or work with them, sets a very terrible precedent that validates everything Epoch said. I also think it would work far better to target what is going after the ecosystem before trying to fix the issues. If it can do this to the current ecosystem, than it should have no trouble adjusting to any changes we make.

 

[DeAnno]

[X] "Both ideas are terrible. We should do our best to track down whatever is causing this and put a stop to it before we try to replace the world ecosystem."

I'm worried that if we use either of the villain clones the real villains will be able to compete with them for the infrastructure they create leaving us in a bad position, since theyll be pissed about the end around we used. On the other hand going to the villains and replacing the ecosystem puts them in charge of things in the same way Amy and Cranial are now, and in a way that probably cant be reversed.

 

[Xicree]

[X] "Both ideas are terrible. We should do our best to track down whatever is causing this and put a stop to it before we try to replace the world ecosystem."


Ok this is definitely something that needs hunting down... and while Amy can't correct it on her own... I think we should at least have bonesaw begin preparing to get an ecosystem diversity scan and plan going on along with Sphere.

Sphere directs to show what is needed for the healthy ecosystem, Bestgirl to figure out what is missing and design suitable things to take their place based on sphere's direction... Amy to mass produce them from vat grown flesh.

 

[Acaila]

-[] "The real villains would be best. If we lose the Brain Box we might never get it back."

This option is basically "It's best not to get too dependent on it"? That doesn't really make sense as an argument. There's no point in having something if you never use it for fear of being reliant on it in the future.


-[] "I will talk with Cranial. Nilbog Secundus and Agnes Court Secunda are probably good ideas anyway."

This opens up ethical issues related to involuntary cloning and treating clones as tools (which we're already somewhat doing with Annie). I'm also not sure it would be any better than using Best Girl and Companion Cube.


[X] "Both ideas are terrible. We should do our best to track down whatever is causing this and put a stop to it before we try to replace the world ecosystem."

I like Xicree's reasoning for this. Nilbog and Agnes Court seem like the "replace existing ecosystem with eldritch abominations" option. Panacea, Best Girl, and Companion Cube seem like good options for actually finding and curing the problem.

I've noticed every other update I want to recommend we include Tattletale in our plans. I guess you only miss what you've got when it's gone :x


If this is a recent thing, could it be a new Endbringer? Given Simurgh was killed recently, it seems like a possibility. Granted, it doesn't fit their MO (periodic attacks on important locations normal capes can fight), but it may be a reaction to Eidolon testing out more esoteric powers and wanting more of an intellectual challenge.

Also, it kind of fits as a progression.
Behemoth -> Small-area high-intensity damage.
Leviathan -> Medium/large-area medium-intensity damage.
Simurgh -> Strategic-area medium-intensity damage at a global scale.
?Gaia? -> Global-scale low-intensity damage.

They start off concentrating damage in one area and spread it out further with each new Endbringer.
Something to think about.

 

[WyldCard4]

-[] "The real villains would be best. If we lose the Brain Box we might never get it back."

This option is basically "It's best not to get too dependent on it"? That doesn't really make sense as an argument. There's no point in having something if you never use it for fear of being reliant on it in the future.

Click to shrink...

I was unclear. The issue is that the clone might destroy the brain box, given they both have dangerous Master powers and will be close to the box.