View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Yesterday, this was an ordinary twenty-first century city. Today it's a war zone, tomorrow it'll be walled off and abandoned.
A few collapsed buildings, shattered streets, and assorted craters. The place is mostly empty, with scattered groups of mostly humanoid monsters roaming and trying to escape the guarded fence around the city. The most instantly noticeable change is an ongoing wordless singing in the back of the mind of anyone present. By itself it's just a sound. An unpleasant sound, and almost but not quite predictable as if someone were trying to attack the listener's sanity without saying anything, but possible to ignore. But along with it, any time a listener closes their eyes they get flashes of memories. Not their worst memories, but whatever negative ones can stick with them unforgettably. It builds up associations between the feelings in those images and almost anything else. Sometimes there's a recognizable common thread and other times there isn't.
An angel fights off teams of opponents. She's fifteen feet tall, extremely winged, with more wings than is strictly necessary for an angel. Even some of her wings have wings. All of them are asymmetric and varyingly sized. A spherical halo of weaponry surrounds her, firing at her more distant enemies from across the battlefield. Her opponents cycle in and out: a golden man, a man surrounded by a bubble, a woman in a dark costume, all flying. Others make certain to stay away after taking their turn, on rare occasions spending too long hearing the angel's music. Those ones voluntarily self-destruct.
A small group of ordinary humans takes refuge in a house as far from the battle as they can reach. The song is quieter here, and, they hope, less potent. Some of them run away from and back to the house, occasionally calling for help. They haven't found any.
+ Show First Post
whole_new_can
ertia
When her armband thinks she's good for ten minutes she zips out to the hospital.
...She should have been here first, damn, these people are slow as fuck.
...She should have been here first, damn, these people are slow as fuck.
wormcan
Slower.
Their goal here is to keep people from dying on the spot, which means plenty of minor and major injuries remaining untreated simply because there are worse ones. And it's still on the outer edge of the song's range, with many of the patients having recently been closer. It's not the most well-organized emergency room this world has to offer, either.
Their goal here is to keep people from dying on the spot, which means plenty of minor and major injuries remaining untreated simply because there are worse ones. And it's still on the outer edge of the song's range, with many of the patients having recently been closer. It's not the most well-organized emergency room this world has to offer, either.
ertia
Well, Kithabel doesn't want to heal people all day every day because that would tank her general momentum in no time, but she can clear this room of injuries.
wormcan
The recipients of the healing are less grateful than would probably be expected. As with most things, it's the Simurgh's fault. The doctors thank her for it; they're extremely shorthanded since so few volunteer to go to an Endbringer battle. Especially this Endbringer.
ertia
Kithabel doesn't do this for the gratitude except in a very abstract way.
wormcan
The fact that she's here is not quite a dead giveaway by itself, but close.
Even this far out, she's still seeing flashes every time she blinks of memories, particular sensations and annoyances, and whatever is most likely to keep her disoriented and uninhibited. It's probably not a good idea to go toward the monster again.
Even this far out, she's still seeing flashes every time she blinks of memories, particular sensations and annoyances, and whatever is most likely to keep her disoriented and uninhibited. It's probably not a good idea to go toward the monster again.
ertia
Kithabel has no intention of approaching the monster again.
...She can just not blink, that's a thing.
...She can just not blink, that's a thing.
wormcan
Between the recently emptied emergency room and the fact that most other interesting things are closer to the monster, there might not be a huge number of useful things she can do.
ertia
She goes out and up to get a good view, and then a better, eagle-eyed view. She's got some range, she can put it to use without the armband now that she has an idea of the scope of the battlefield.
wormcan
From up here they look like they're all the size of insects, with the Simurgh in the middle controlling them.
She can see the rough path the battle has followed by tracking the trail of collateral damage. Capes are buzzing around the angel, occasional flashes or impacts are visible from this distance, but how the fight is going in general is harder to tell.
She can see the rough path the battle has followed by tracking the trail of collateral damage. Capes are buzzing around the angel, occasional flashes or impacts are visible from this distance, but how the fight is going in general is harder to tell.
wormcan
Hours, but she wasn't here for the whole thing.
Eventually it leaves. Flies away, pursued by the gold cape and the green one and taking a few last ranged attacks, and just like that it's over.
Eventually it leaves. Flies away, pursued by the gold cape and the green one and taking a few last ranged attacks, and just like that it's over.
ertia
Kithabel tends to their wounded. Others with more information about the state of the original combat force can count their dead.
wormcan
The temporary blockades get moved to reflect the area the song poisoned, and there are plans to replace them with permanent walls. They'll bring in capes who can create three-hundred-foot stone walls, and then everything that happened here will be out of sight and out of everyone's mind except the people who have to stand on the parapets. This is what passes for a victory.
ertia
Well, Kithabel can help with the walls. She can make castles; building walls is strictly easier. (Which is bad.)
And after that does anybody look like they have something else for her to do? That person who gave her the armband maybe?
wormcan
Well, aside from walls (in whatever degree of complication she needs; they care only for function) they planned to flatten an equally broad area around it. None of this was supposed to be immediate, but since she's here.
There's collateral damage in places that weren't close enough for long enough to be condemned, if she's looking for things to do. This is typically even less immediate.
And some people, led by a blue-armored man with a visibly capitalized Halberd, suggest asking the person who can repair tinker devices to repair a tinker device. Apparently Endbringer attacks sometimes have targets, and this one was a Professor Haywire, now deceased. It was his technology that the Simurgh used to create a portal to wherever those monsters came from, and it might be valuable to find out where. Scion cut the device in two, but if Kithabel were to turn it on they'd be prepared for the dangers. No Endbringer taking their attention this time.
This is an unsurprisingly controversial suggestion.
There's collateral damage in places that weren't close enough for long enough to be condemned, if she's looking for things to do. This is typically even less immediate.
And some people, led by a blue-armored man with a visibly capitalized Halberd, suggest asking the person who can repair tinker devices to repair a tinker device. Apparently Endbringer attacks sometimes have targets, and this one was a Professor Haywire, now deceased. It was his technology that the Simurgh used to create a portal to wherever those monsters came from, and it might be valuable to find out where. Scion cut the device in two, but if Kithabel were to turn it on they'd be prepared for the dangers. No Endbringer taking their attention this time.
This is an unsurprisingly controversial suggestion.
ertia
Kithabel isn't going to do anything that controversial while there's anything else to do. Walls: up. Collateral: undamaged. Condemned area: flat.
Now, could Mr. Halberd explain what he wants in slightly more detail so she can decide if it's a good idea? Quickly, please.
Now, could Mr. Halberd explain what he wants in slightly more detail so she can decide if it's a good idea? Quickly, please.
wormcan
(Armsmaster doesn't appreciate the suggestion that the newcomer is the one in a position to make the decision, but he understands the value of quickly.)
"We know very little about where parahuman abilities come from, or why only humans get them, and equally little about the Endbringers. She opened a portal as a distraction, bringing in what didn't look like humans, many of which had powers. I'd like to investigate where they came from. If you recreate the portal, it would also be the greatest improvement in our understanding of alternate dimensions since the discovery of Aleph."
A robed man with a staff gives the other side.
"We found the notes and equipment of the tinker she was copying. Armsmaster helped destroy them, because if the Simurgh is offering us information we don't want it. The scream is gone now, but it's still the immediate aftermath and she still almost certainly predicted this argument."
"We know very little about where parahuman abilities come from, or why only humans get them, and equally little about the Endbringers. She opened a portal as a distraction, bringing in what didn't look like humans, many of which had powers. I'd like to investigate where they came from. If you recreate the portal, it would also be the greatest improvement in our understanding of alternate dimensions since the discovery of Aleph."
A robed man with a staff gives the other side.
"We found the notes and equipment of the tinker she was copying. Armsmaster helped destroy them, because if the Simurgh is offering us information we don't want it. The scream is gone now, but it's still the immediate aftermath and she still almost certainly predicted this argument."
ertia
"Is exposure cumulative or does it wear off? I could just fix it in a year or something, I'll probably be around that long."
wormcan
"Doesn't matter," the wizard figure insists, "if she wants us going through, the reason probably won't be something that goes away in a year."
A dark-costumed woman with the (on this earth) rare ability to wear a cape and not look silly lands. "We're not doing it. Certainly not without any precognitives affecting the decision process to make it less predictable. You're talking about voluntarily subjecting ourselves to something an Endbringer used as a weapon, and there's no benefit on that scale."
A dark-costumed woman with the (on this earth) rare ability to wear a cape and not look silly lands. "We're not doing it. Certainly not without any precognitives affecting the decision process to make it less predictable. You're talking about voluntarily subjecting ourselves to something an Endbringer used as a weapon, and there's no benefit on that scale."
ertia
"Okay, I won't fix it. Anybody have anything else for me to do? I need to be doing stuff."
wormcan
"Hazardous materials, on the inside. The mutants weren't the only things to come through."
Non-Armsmaster people don't all just accept that at face value, "What, all the time?"
Non-Armsmaster people don't all just accept that at face value, "What, all the time?"
ertia
"I have to sleep. Unfortunately. If anybody has a way around that I want it. Can you identify the materials you want gone?"
wormcan
He starts writing the list of descriptions while the others worry about more organizational things.
"If not sleeping is important enough, Panacea could theoretically help. But she lives in Brockton Bay and is overworked already. Some tinkers myself included have unusually good stimulants, as far as that goes. But tinkering time is valuable so it would once again have to be important enough."
"If not sleeping is important enough, Panacea could theoretically help. But she lives in Brockton Bay and is overworked already. Some tinkers myself included have unusually good stimulants, as far as that goes. But tinkering time is valuable so it would once again have to be important enough."
ertia
"The more stuff I do - there has to be a variety, I can't just hang out in hospitals all the time - the more stuff I can do. I'm on a biphasic sleep schedule to cut down on backslide. What does she do? Could I do some of what she's doing to solve the sleep problem?"
She looks at the list. She demats the hazmats.
She looks at the list. She demats the hazmats.