Accept our Terms of Service
Our Terms of Service have recently changed! Please read and agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy
Topaz fights crime
+ Show First Post
Total: 711
Posts Per Page:
Permalink

Sure! 

Merge the two mergeable 1 pters, and then make that power.

Permalink

Done!

Permalink

Merge 'em up! 

Permalink

That leaves her with a level-1 power that lets her manipulate the range and efficacy of aura powers, and two level-3 powers. One is her slow perfective regeneration aura, and the other one is an aura that grants additional willpower, skill at avoiding mindreading, and ability to suppress mental tiredness.

Permalink

The green lightning is oddly satisfying to watch. She takes a deep breath, and merges the two three pointers. Here's for hoping for something good! 

(And watches how long it takes, of course.) 

Permalink

54 seconds exactly.

There's something qualitatively different about the merged 4th-level spark. It burns a dark blue that somehow feels deeper and brighter than it looks.

The combined power takes the form of a passive 10-foot aura that allows the people within its influence to use augmented willpower to reshape their own minds and bodies toward a healthier, less-tired, more-private state.

Permalink

'more private'? 

She turns it on tentatively, feeling the ebb and flow of it as it expands and contracts, the power fading and strengthening at her whim. 

Permalink

The concepts the gift uses don't always translate into language perfectly. It comes from the blending of 'skill at preventing mind reading' with the 'having a target image' part of the regeneration power; when the powers merge and everything blends together, being skilled at preventing mind reading means being able to subconsciously picture a 'healthy' state that is resistant to psionic information gathering.

Also, there isn't really a hard line between reading minds and reading emotions, or between reading emotions and reading blood sugar. With enough willpower and focus, someone could remodel their pancreas in a way that would interfere with some forms of psionic information gathering.

Permalink

Oh that is shiny and pretty useful, even! A lot of people's ideals probably have enough embarrassing microdetails that that's helpful in that direction, too. 

She tries to get a sense of the full range and full strength - how much stronger is it when it's just applying to her versus the default state, and how large is the aura effect when she's stretching it out as far as she can while making it still have a noticeable effect? 

She writes out the times she's figured out in a simple lil text editor. 

Merging: 

1st: 6 seconds

2nd: 18 seconds

3rd: 54 seconds 

generating:  

36 seconds

So that means... a fourth level is 8 base powers generated. Those eight powers require four level 1 mergers, two level 2, and one level 3. 

8*36 + 4*6 + 2*18 + 1*54 = 402 s = 6 m, 42 s

That's... pretty fast. Not blazingly fast, the sort of thing that you can rely on being able to do in an emergency, but basically any situation where she has real control of when things start happening, the only real limit here is going to be how 'tired' the assistant is and how much of a good idea of what she's trying for she has. Probably she only has that once a day or so, from the recharge, but in principle if she ever has say, ten minutes, she can probably totally respec by just dumping everything. 

can she... 'save' power configurations? If she figures out something that works it'd be good to be able to replicate it precisely again, and ideally 'buffer her inputs' so that she doesn't have to think too hard about it and doesn't lose any time, in case that bit of time is ever important. 

She might as well use all but the last little bit of the power generation capacity - She should probably make a dedicated focus for the green lantern stuff - maybe some sort of... stainless steel generation power, if she can get that? The material probably isn't that important but having something that she can control the shape of and that'll last well is probably a good idea. If that works, she might as well just fill in the last slot with an anti-synergy power, since she's going to have this configuration set for a while, short of some emergency that means that she has to use the last power generation. 

 

Permalink

A power to slowly generate stainless steel works, although it is pretty slow. This anti-synergy power is different: it doesn't feel dangerous to use. In fact, it feels sort of like the opposite of an aura.

With these last two sparks generated, the gift starts to feel genuinely lethargic. Its presence retreats from her mind — still there, but dormant, sleeping.

Experimenting with the aura range/power manipulation power shows that it takes about a minute to change between settings. The minimum range is exactly half her height and there is no obvious maximum range. Getting an idea of the strength of the effects is a little difficult to measure precisely, but limiting it to just herself and measuring by how many green sparks she can produce suggests that setting is about three times stronger. Extending the aura out to twenty feet makes it about four times weaker.

Permalink

So presumably that means that it's proportional to square of the radius, at least expanding it out - which is at least a bit better then the cubic scaling you'd get if it was scaling by volume. 

Seeing no reason not to get two birds with one stone, she nabs another knife alongside the first one that she infused sparks in, and infuses sparks in it for maybe twenty seconds at distances a few feet apart, focusing absolutely and letting it slide slowly into the steel. Does it fit the square of the multiplication of the distance line when she increases it? She plays around a little with decreasing the range too, even losing maybe a foot off her height to see if it makes a noticeable difference in the maximum intensity. It's going to be really awkward if the best way to do this is to shrink into a bobblehead, but this is why you test things! 

She takes the newly infused knife and the previously infused knife up in each palm, and meditates a little, reaching out to feel the emerald sparks of will caught within each one. Do they feel different in character? Intensity being different is a given, but she's not sure if adding all of the extra concepts means that they ended up being comingled, here. There's only so much that just meditating can get her, though - she experiments with cutting up some of the banana peels with both knifes - is it sharper? Can she sort of... extend the blade or animate it, like the green lanterns seem to be able to do? How much of that is coming from the knife versus her directly? 

She looks up a picture of the rings that the green lanterns use - probably there's some sort of subtle structure involved that means that this wouldn't get the full benefit even if this worked, but she faithfully replicates the emblem and shape on one ring, then makes a smooth topped ring with otherwise the same dimensions. She tries infusing them both in turn on a minute's  timer, focusing on her resolve to be strong and make the world safe, and to get the tools she needs to make that happen. The most useful thing would likely be the personal forcefield that the lanterns seem to always have wrapped around her body, so she pictures that, making her steady and in control and ready to help whatever is around her. 

She feels out their power - can she make anything (like that) happen? Do they feel any different from each other? 

She puts aside all of the green light infused things well clear, then feels out the anti-synergy power for a short while, before flaring it on for a brief moment for science. 

 

Permalink

Shrinking her height does not noticeably impact the power of her aura either way. Presumably for deep, consistent, mathematical reasons that this margin is too narrow to contain.

 

The knives both do a better job at cutting than un-enhanced knives. A careful inspection of their blades shows that they glow very slightly green while cutting. Whether that's the beginning of them starting to develop a projected edge or not is unclear — but it clearly depends on her willpower too. Using the knives while not paying attention leaves them roughly on the level of normal knives. Applying her will as she cuts is needed for them to produce the enhanced cutting effect. Exerting her will while cutting with a control knife doesn't exhibit the same properties, though, so both the imbuement and the focused use seem to be necessary.

 

Weirdly, a stainless-steel ring bearing the Green Lantern's sigil is noticeably easier to imbue willpower into than an otherwise equivalent flat-topped ring. The flat-topped ring doesn't do much when worn, but the sigilized ring produces what might be a faint shimmer of green across the skin of her hand. If she wants to test its defensive properties, the computer does have a "holographic training mode" shortcut on the desktop.

Permalink

Turning on her anti-synergy power immediately makes the effects of her aura power cut out ... as well as making the computer's holographic interface look fuzzy, and introducing a strong flavor of cinnamon to her mouth.

Permalink

She reflexively switches the power off the moment the taste hits her tongue - that's not usually a good sign! 

It doesn't seem like it's an actual problem problem, and it could... theoretically be useful, if she ever runs into someone with aura or light powers that she wants to disrupt? It's doesn't seem like the sort of power that plays nice, though, and she'd probably need more of a target to get that much out of it. 

She lets out a small sigh of relief at the aura power not getting stronger when she shrinks, before immediately starting to think about how it works if she grows - an extra foot of height honestly still seems pretty natural? 

Really though, the real gold mine is the ring! The design appears to help, and in principle at least something like this should work as something that she can do without an active investment, at least eventually. Hopefully Zatara will have some ideas about how to optimize it further? 

...Probably not the best idea to fight fight quite yet, but... 

She pokes around to see if there's a 'training dummy' or 'pressure plate' mode, or something like that? It doesn't look like it's consistent enough yet to be that that useful as a defense qua defense, but in principle it should be possible to see if she can say, enhance a punch with it. 

Oh and... do the knives deplete when she uses them to cut or no? 

Permalink

She's not exactly working with precision equipment, here. If the knives are depleting, it's slowly enough to not be obvious.

Permalink

The computer does have a 'punching bag' mode, actually. Along with a number of other pieces of holographic workout equipment including various weights, a climbing wall, and a trampoline.

Permalink

She tries out the weights without the ring's assistance, feeling out the way her new body strains and shifts with the dumbells, slowly adjusting the weights 'til she can barely get through a ten set, then letting her aura restore her, and working her way up to near the point of failure with the barbells. It feels good, honestly, the warmth and flow of her muscles steady exertion, the relief and rush of strain and rippling strength, the little moment of ease as she settles into full extension. Without really thinking about it, she lets a good half-hour go by, idly pushing the focus of the zone into her ring for later. 

Oh! Yes, she was going to... 

She tries out one dumbell in her ring hand and focuses on calling on its power to help her lift. 

Permalink

It's a little hard to disentangle 'focusing her willpower lets her push a bit farther' versus direct effects from the ring, but it seems like she can lift about ten more pounds with it than without it.

Permalink

Okay! 

That's a start, honestly. She spends a good while longer infusing her ring and idly researching little miscellaneous superhero things, looking up some supervillains and superhero footage to get a bit of a better sense of what it looks like, before she notices just how late it is. 

...Right! 

Probably the aura helps a bunch with going without sleep, but she really shouldn't push that too much first day. 

She takes a long, luxurious shower, before scoping out a room to nab - they look all much the same, but she'll grab one of them by the water, and tucks herself in for the night. 

Permalink

Nothing disturbs her rest — other than the inevitable strangeness of sleeping in a new location, in a strange new world, in a superhero-secret-mountain base with an in-progress plumbing system.

 

Gloop.

Permalink

Thankfully, girlifying and having a power that erases mental fatigue when she focuses on it and heals away cramps and little discomforts almost as fast as she can cause it does wonders for her sleep quality! 

She bounces out of bed with only a bit of bleariness in her eyes, and goes makes herself some toast. 

She pokes around a bit more on what she can find on the green lantern policy stuff, then checks out the green lantern's schedule - she's probably figured out enough that it makes sense to poke them a bit about the policies and ways to use the green light - probably there's some big database the Guardians have with stuff about that that they might be able to share? She looks to see what their availability looks like, and sees about maybe booking one after the two appointments she has? Honestly though, it's probably best to leave that in their court - pressing too much seems a little unwise. 

Permalink

One of the Green Lanterns on the League has a very carefully arranged and blocked out schedule — with a free spot for consultation today from 15:00 to 15:30, or tomorrow between 16:00 and 17:45. The other Green Lantern either doesn't use the League's scheduling program at all, or is free literally 24/7 for the rest of the year.

 

Poking around for more information doesn't reveal much more about the Green Lantern Corps' operating rules. The definition of crimes against sentience reeks of being the absolute bare minimum that a government has to avoid in order to not earn the corps' ire: genocide, torture purely to inflict pain and for no other purpose, mass deportation, slavery (very specifically and narrowly defined to work around some implied bizarre alien biology), systematic rape, and enforcing heritable punishments against species that do not have a genetic memory.

Other information about Green Lantern rings is mostly dispersed throughout various short interviews. She does find a comment from the organized Green Lantern that their rings are unforgeable proof of authenticity, akin to an Earthly police officer's badge. Her reading is interrupted when—

Permalink

—the teleporter's announcement echos around the base.

"07: Martian Manhunter. A-03: Miss Martian"

Permalink

And a light brush of something passes over her. Topaz probably wouldn't feel it, were she not currently skilled at throwing off mind reading. It's not an intrusive probe; more just a passive ping to reveal people's presences.

Permalink

Two silent, stoic green figures in blue cloaks and red double sashes float out of the teleporter, their body language vaguely uncanny.

Total: 711
Posts Per Page: