Worm Quest - Heroes & Villains

GMs Note – This is a Worm AU Quest. This has sorta been in my brain for a while now, and I hope it goes well. Now that it is Labor Day weekend I have time to get this thing started. I will try to get at least one update in a day. Let’s see if I can manage that.
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Arc One - Trigger

The trees swaying in the distance we’re beautiful. The way they moved with the wind, going with the flow, bending but not breaking. Eternally flexible but indestructible. Mountains could be ground down. Fires could be put out. Water could be consumed. But the trees, they endured. Even destroyed they would grow again. They would return.

I wanted that.

I wanted that sort of strength. I wanted that more than anything.

“Mr. Herbert. Tyler Herbert. Are you with us?” Mr.G asked, standing in front of my desk, snapping his fingers once or twice to get my attention.

I looked away from the window, and towards him. Apparently I had been daydreaming again as was my (bad) habit of late. Made the time pass quicker, and as long as I did that I could be ignored. They would not bother me, hopefully.

Mr.G was cool for a teacher. At least approachable, if not caring very much.

“Sorry” I apologized, shaking my head to clear my head and focus on the material.

“It’s alright. I just know how much you have been waiting for the class to go over the Parahuman phenomenon and I did not want you to miss out. Just try to pay attention okay?” He said, smiling slightly.

Most teachers would have bitched me out for ignoring a lecture. Not Mr.G. He was cool.

“Alright class. Today we are doing something a bit different from our usual lecture where I talk and you listen and take notes. Today we are going to do something called a Socratic seminar. We are going outside so we can sit in a circle for this activity.”

At that the class burst into cheers, the various little cliques and groups of friends starting to get together and talk to each other like they always did whenever there was a break or they thought they could get away with it. With the sun up and a nice breeze in the air, and the clouds fluffy and white, today was not a day anyone wanted to be cooped in up inside.

"Alright class. You know the drill. No noise in the hallway. Now lets go."

At Mr.Gladly's directive we formed into less a single final line, as a porous stream of bodies into the hall. I intentionally stuck to the back of the line. Better to be in the back of the line, unnoticed, and with luck unbothered.

Only to be surrounded by them. Great. Apparently they saw me. 'Big' Hess, and his cronies Joseph and Edward - the latter of whom had been my friend once upon a time.

"Hey faggot. What do you think you're doing?" Hess jeered, sticking a stubby finger into my chest with a thud.

I tried to walk around him, doing my best to ignore his taunts, my temper rising though I did my best to control it. Joe and Eddy cut me off.

"I was talking to you asshole. What do you think. you. are. doing?" He asked me, timing each word with a quiet but hard blow to the chest.

This was not the first time this had happened. I don't know what exactly it was what I did to deserve this. I stayed to myself. I studied and worked hard. I mean, I thought the football jock bully stereotype was supposed to be a cliche? But no.

[ ] Run. Juke from behind and move. These guys may be big, but I am probably faster. Time my moment just right and get away. Do it quickly enough and I should be able to get near enough to Mr.G or another member of the school's staff that they won't risk trying to anything.

[ ] Hit them. Bullies never expect their victims to fight back right? Maybe I can get them to stop.

[ ] Mouth off. Give them a piece of my mind.

[ ] Snap. I just see Red.

 

Reserved

 

Might need it. Who Knows?

 

[x] Mouth off. Give them a piece of my mind.

We try to fight it out, our ass is grass. There are three of them, and they're all bigger than us.

Snapping might work, but it speaks to a lack of control and dignity.

Running? Eh. I don't want to.

 

I will just say this is your Trigger Event. Based on your reaction will determine how your power manifests.

 

[X] - Mouth off.

Quippage is an important part of both Hero and Villain methodology.
If we cannot bring sufficient snark to bear against mere playground bullies, then our future as a Super is doomed from the start.

 

[X]Snap

Berserker for the win.

 

[X] Mouth off. Give them a piece of my mind.

 

[X] Run
(speedster powers for the win)

 

[X] Mouth off. Give them a piece of my mind.

 

Two Notes.

I will be posting a "main" thread on SB for this Quest, dependent on how the lag there works out.

Second, do not assume the power sets for each option are as obvious as they might first appearance. For instance "Run' is not a Mover power set. Just an FYI and something to think about.

 

(X) Snap

 

[X] Hit them. Bullies never expect their victims to fight back right? Maybe I can get them to stop

Fight back, he gets his ass kicked so what? Just don't be the kind of guy that just let's things happen to him without putting up a fight.

 

[X] Mouth off.

 

Concensus looks to be achieved.

Also I have a thread on SB for an alternative version of this game. You guys are encouraged to go over there too, to explore a different route

In the process of updating.

 

Arc One - Trigger 1.1

The Event

I felt my face heating up, my palms starting to bleeding, my fingernails digging into my flesh. I looked up at him, my mouth forming a tight line.

It was not enough for these guys to literally take my lunch money, to beat my face in, and to generally make my life hell.

They had to do it Every. Single. Day.

What the hell did I do do to deserve this? Did I punt a toddler in a past life or something !?

"What am I doing?" I spat back rhetorically. "I'm just going outside with the rest of the class. And maybe text your sister tonight. If she puts out as easily as I've heard I won't even need to break her in. Course you'd have to know that, given she fucks anything with a pulse, family included."

His eyes just went big, like he did not know how to react.

Of course I was talking out of my ass, but whatever. I just continued on. "I mean shit. That does not belong in Brockton Bay! That is some deep south, Deliverance shit. How far back does that shit go? I mean sheesh, are your parents, like related or something?"

And then his friends took hold of my arms and it looked like he made up his mind. I saw the fist coming towards me, and my heart skipped a beat. Then the world seemed like it slowed down, moving a millimeter a second. I could see the path his punch would take. I 'saw' that if it connected I would be in need of dental work. I 'saw' that I would be in a world of hurt.

I also saw how to avoid the punch. I saw how to avoid that outcome. Strike the side of Edward with an elbow, weaken his grip, letting me escape. Next spin away from the second one, preventing him from grabbing me again.

From here the 'outcome' split into multiple paths, I could 'see' me doing each option, and how I would do it.

I could move forward and roll with the punch to the side, and break his arm in a single motion. Or make him suffer or even die, by snapping his neck, or any multiple of options to make him suffer like I suffered... Or I could simply move around him, and get to the front of the line. And leave him unharmed. And I knew I could do it. Before he could even register the action.

[ ] Break free and dodge.
[ ] Break his arm. He will know better to mess with me!
[ ] Kill him. He has made me suffer enough. Time for this asshole to die.
[ ] Something else.
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So what do you think your power is?

 

[X] Break his arm. He will know better to mess with me!

"Why are you hurting yourself?"

 

How about instead, we get him to hit one of his two friends holding us down? Use that as a distraction to get away and then call the teacher over about the 'fight' they just got into.

 

This would qualify as a possible Write-In yes.

 

But yeah this is a Thinker power, some kind of precognition? Able to see possibility trees, what actions lead to what and how he can bring those about?

 

Close. Hypercognition. You don't see the future per say, but you can run extremely high accuracy short term probability models in your head near instantly, and then you can propel yourself fast enough to make those actions happen.

So its a Thinker/Mover power-set. Something like Contessa's power set but less absolute and far shorter in range, as yours only works for variables you can account for, and for a much shorter time frame then hers. Someone gets the drop on you you are kinda SOL.

 

So to make up for not having the ability to perfectly do it and at farther range we get super speed as it relates to making a certain possibility happen?

 

Kinda. I will also note this ability can be applied to social situations as well, though the accuracy of something like this is determined by how well you understand the people you are dealing with. Know them extremely well and your predictive models are very accurate. Make a poor misjudgment on there motivations or character, and it could cost you due to bad assumptions on your part ruining your accuracy.

 

... what was our trigger event ? Because seriously if it was that, it's anti-climatic and underwhelming.

[X] Break free and dodge.

 

[X] Break his arm. He will know better to mess with me

I was wondering how long it was before someone made a quest based on Worm

 

[X] Break his arm. He will know better to mess with me!

Hopefully we can Social Fu our way out of the repercussions later. If not? Oh well...

It does seem rather mild; but I can see it as the culmination of months of bullying. We triggered riding a flush of despair, frustration and anger as we realize that this is our life now, that this was how it was going to be for the foreseeable future, and that there was damned all we could do about it.

On another note: Awesome power is awesome!

 

[X] Break free and dodge.

 

It could also lead to one of the AU parts being a cape as a parent as second gen don't need as horrible a thing to happen to them to trigger.