Realistic or Modern Fragmentation [IC]

[Birdsie]

Spoiler: Optional Prologue

Spoiler: SFX

If you're into sound effects, these would be appropriate for the prologue.

Brockton Bay, May 15th, 2016

Rain was pouring from the sky like a shower, and Brockton Bay was about to see one of its darkest days.

On that day, mistakes were made.

Leviathan once again sunk into a bubble and charged across the street at three times his previous speed, probably approaching bullet-speed. He rammed into a building, penetrating through it and coming out on the other side, and the building sinking in a tidal wave that followed after him. The tidal wave not only sunk the building but enveloped the entire block in a disproportionate amount of water.

The massive Endbringer directed himself toward the nearby underground aquifer. His intent in attacking Brockton Bay was clear, and so was his target. The heroes were simply trying to stall him.

Legend flew out from behind a nearby townhouse. The hero shot a barrage of braided and spiraling lasers toward Leviathan. Red, thermal beams and stilling silver hardlight bullets that barely scratched the Endbringer's body.

Leviathan let out a grumbling sound and dismissively flung its tail at Legend, a trail of water following his tail and creating a knife-shaped pillar that caused the hero to dive lower with his flight, and shoot out several more lasers. Leviathan ignored him after this, racing across the streets as he did previously, until Alexandria hit the ground and stepped in his path, trying to block him.

Leviathan's advance was halted, but the Endbringer quickly batted the heroine aside with his clawed manus.

Both of the heroes gave pursuit, as Leviathan neared his objective: the western district, where the aquifer was. It was already in sight.

Eidolon flew down from the sky, trailing green light in his advance. The hero summoned up a wall of ice from Leviathan's own water. Ice that was tougher than steel and rooted into the ground like a tree. Leviathan rammed into it at full speed, creating cracks.

Heroes in the area - and not just them, even the villains who came to defend their home - shot everything they had at Leviathan. Beams and lasers, miniature suns of power, flechettes, rockets, explosions, time attacks, tears in reality, telekinetic tubes of force. These attacks could only scratch the tough skin of the Endbringer.

Leviathan seemed to barely register he was being attacked. And even then, he didn't seem to care at all. He moved across the street, circled back, and rammed into the wall of ice once again, cracking it more.

He repeated the motion, ignoring Alexandria who clung to him in a bid to slow him down and Legend, who shot out lasers to burn the water around him that granted him his speed. His body raced across the length of the avenue, breaking the windows, tearing down the walls of buildings, uprooting street lights, causing cars to follow him, and killing or gravely injuring anyone that neared his trajectory.

Leviathan broke through the wall of ice. Fragments were sent everywhere.

Brockton Bay, June 12th, 2019

It's been slightly over three years since Leviathan's attack on the city.

Many local villains and heroes died in the Endbringer's strike. The local PRT department has begun to rebuild and restock its board of parahumans after spending thousands of dollars on the costs of rebuilding. Now, the city of Brockton Bay has become an open playground for new faces, rising heroes, and plotting villains.

 

[Birdsie]

Noble Scion Spazzycat101 Lunar Remembrance SP3CT3R MoltenLightning CrimsonEclipse
We begin. I'll leave your characters' initial activities to you.

Posting Rules:
1. Include the character's name above the post.
2. Include the character's location above the post.
3. Include your character's power/tinkertech above the post, in a spoiler.
4. Have fun, pretty much.

Brockton Bay, June 12th, 2019, 7:50 local time

A morning in Brockton Bay was about as safe and welcoming as an open vat of green, sizzling acid.

The morning TV broadcast this morning contained a local PRT department warning citizens that gang activity was on the uptake and that the group known as Empire 88 was moving in on ABB territory, resulting in small skirmishes over the Docks all morning. Citizens are advised to stay as far away as possible while the PRT tries to contain the situation.

Everyone knew the truth, though. The Empire had much too many capes, and the ABB had one that was more powerful than any cape in the city.

The Protectorate couldn't contain this, not in their wildest dreams, and no matter how many press conferences they made to convince the public otherwise.

Ever since Leviathan went through town, the local Protectorate has been down on numbers and recruiting with as much ardor as a baby in conniptions, trying to seek out for any activity of independent capes and offering moderately lucrative business deals. The PRT needed more heroes, both for integration purposes and manpower in dealing with villains, but also to receive funding from the main department. And yet, they didn't have enough funding to sway enough capes to their side.

There's been a press conference, where the director said they were having talks with a few potential hero recruits.

For now, Comfort was one of the few heroes known to the public. A robot hero, made by a tinker. People's reactions were mixed, obviously, but the kids loved her and her merchandise, and the PRT was happy with just that. Merchandise means money, money means bullets.

Bullets mean order on the streets.

There were others; Armsmaster, and Miss Militia, but they couldn't work alone.

The Protectorate was fragmented.

​

Local News:
- PRT Department ENE "Brockton Bay" Director, Alan Kleeberg made an announcement about a new hero, who will be revealed on the next press conference. No details were revealed yet and no information was allowed to leak through.
- A gang war broke out recently between the E88 and ABB and is ongoing as of now. The Docks are not safe.
- Scion flew over Boston tonight, at midnight, at the rough speed of Mach 20. He was southwest-bound.
- "Slaughterhouse Nine attacked Manchester," PRT warns.
- "Fundraiser for the PRT department next week," says Mayor Christner.
- Parahuman researcher missing after making a statement about the possibility of "obtaining powers from a flask."
- Endbringer activity suggests Behemoth will attack next, in approximately fifty-eight days. Thinkers predict his target will be in southern or eastern Asia.
- Condom truck trips, spills load.

​

Noble Scion . Director Alan Kleeberg would like to meet Comfort today in his office punctually at eight AM.

 

[Noble Scion]

Comfort - PRT Headquarters 7:52 - 8:00 AM

Spoiler: Appearance

Spoiler: Tinkertech Profile - Comfort

Comfort - hardware (robot, electric)

A fully working humanoid robot. Can store up to 108 terabytes of raw data, has well over 12.5 GHz of processing power and can speak in English, Chinese, Russian, French, German, Japanese, and Afrikaans fluently.

Main Blueprint Data: Mechanist :::::::::: :::::::::: (20)

Armor Plating - armor primary

Powerful physical/kinetic defense, emphasizing defense against ballistic weaponry. Outright immune to ballistic attacks up to Stage 2, strong resistance to ballistic attacks up to Stage 4. General physical/kinetic resistance up to Stage 4. Thermal resistance up to Stage 4. In addition, electronics cannot malfunction due to contact with water.

Blueprint Data: Mechanist ::::: (5)

Hardlight Shield - armor secondary

A generator of kinetically-charged static photons capable of shaping them to create a millimeter-thick blue-colored energy shield in front of the user, capable of taking up to around five meters squared of space. The shield is immune to any attack up to Stage 4, has mild resistance to Stage 5 attacks and begins to malfunction or crack, and breaks upon contact with any Stage 6 attack.

Blueprint Data: Funnel ::::::::::: (10)

Tranquilizer Gun - weapon primary

A simplistic mechanism capable of firing sedative-filled projectiles at the safe speed of 100kph. Has the potential to deal Stage 1 wounds when aimed at the right place, but otherwise, it only delivers a chemical payload in the form of a sedative.

Blueprint Data: Mechanist :: (2)

Energy Source - addon

A special alien energy source located inside the design. It produces a seemingly inexhaustible resource of power, capable of storing up to 2MWh and producing 0.2MWh daily. It can be used to power the Hardlight Shield or other equipment. It is possible to use it to plug in other devices to power them.

Blueprint Data: Well ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ ÷÷÷÷÷ (15)

Status

Damage: Pristine condition
Construction Cost: $15,550
Construction Time: 105 days
Required Materials: High-strength low-alloy steel plate, electrical wiring, computer parts, hard disk drive, power generator

Total Data: Mechanist :::::::::: :::::::::: ::::::: (27) Well ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ ÷÷÷÷÷ (15) Funnel :::::::::: (10)

New Shards Discovered!

Mechanist: "A Tinker shard, which harbors stored memory of technology and development from past cycles. This one focuses on the creation of intelligence with the condition of it being attached to technological hardware, and less focus on software."

Well: "This is a dead shard, and its data lacks conscious design or organization. Focuses on the creation of a mighty generator, as well as the large, power-hungry devices meant to attach to it."

Funnel: "Specializes in devices that utilize hard light, both for offense and defense."

Upon receiving the official request for a meeting, Comfort immediately placed down the newspaper she had been reading and began making her way to the director's office unattended. Originally, a guard would've led her around the complex, but times had changed and eventually the members of the PRT seemed to have become more accustomed to her presence, which was most pleasing to the bipedal robot as it confirmed that she had been doing her job correctly, the only thing that still tied her to her creator. Her purpose.

Her robotic movements were almost imperceptible from an average human's movements, and if nobody knew better already, she would've almost just looked like a human in some strange suit.

CT addressed everyone she passed by with their name and a short greeting, while not losing pace, placing a smile on each staff member's face with her mere personalised greetings that she'd spent hours deliberating over since the day she'd come to this place that was now 'home'. Most of the time, she thought about these things while humans did their recharging periods, which were always particularly interesting to watch, but as she'd since been told, made people creeped out by having her in their room.

She had deduced that humans felt vulnerable during this time, which also explained the necessity for individual rooms.

Arriving relatively early, the robot made no attempt to enter. Choosing to wait until exactly 8:00 am as requested before rapping gently on the door, awaiting the usual 'Please enter' before doing exactly as such and calmly walking into the room, faintly curious as to why she had been called, but not asking for fear of bothering the director through asking unnecessary questions. He's always been stressed since the day she met him, but has refused all of her attempts to aid him, yet, as it had almost become a tradition, she asked the same question she asked every time, always coming up with a new suggestion.

"Apologies, Director, but I couldn't help notice that, by your mannerisms, you don't seem particularly happy at the moment. Would you care for a massage? They are widely known to relieve humans of their stress, I've been reading up on them!" She blipped in the usual optimistic and cheery tone of hers that had put her in such a spotlight with the media, and while she had no face to smile with, her body language seemed to indicate that she was doing just that.

Last time she'd suggested swimming, and needless to say, he had said no.

One of these days she hoped he would say yes. it simply wouldn't do for him to have a heart-attack with so much responsibility resting on him.
Birdsie​

 

[Spazzycat101]

Serana Wildes
Local ice rink| Her Apartment | Walking Down the Street
Open for interaction, if anyone wants to idk launch a robbery​

Ba da dum, ba da daaaaa,

Serana’s crossovers slowed with the suspension of the beats of the music. On a long fermata she paused, then turned toward the center of the rink to turn, turn, and hop—!

She was almost entirely lost to the world. Serana only took enough note of her surroundings so she could weave and dodge the other people in the rink.

Many were inept. The ages of those on the ice ranged from child to adult. This was what the downtown rink called ‘cosmic skate.’ They turned off most of the main fluorescents and had a couple of lights projecting colour-changing dots that shifted all over the ice, and they played pop music. It was quite cheesy and a little cheaply executed, but that made it feel more fun, a little more genuine. Plus, combining the lights and her lack of makeup, nobody recognized her as her competition persona.

Even so, Serana had brought her own music. Gliding with the rhythm of ‘The Proving,’ swelling with the melody of ‘Journey (feat. Kronos Quartet),’ leaping with ‘the turn,’ the name with which she had internally dubbed a few measures of ‘I Am Not A Moron!’

Ahh, thank premium Spotify.

Suddenly, a soft buzz took over her hearing, and she jerked one blade to the left. Turning, she saw that she had narrowly avoided colliding with someone she hadn’t noticed before.

While she was lost for a few seconds in contemplation and confusion, the fuzz came back to urge her into another maneuver, which she followed through with.

Serana paused her music and skated off the rink, back to the lobby and sat down heavily. She didn’t go to untie and pack up her skates until maybe five minutes later. She could be done for the day.

After securing her backpack on both shoulders and plunking her helmet on her head, the skater took off toward her downtown home on a purple streak of a motorcycle.

But as soon as she was out on the road, the fuzz returned. Relentless this time. It would have been distracting if it wasn’t warning her to stop before the vehicles in front of her even braked. Serana was glad she wasn’t on the highway; she had a feeling it would be more intense with more stimuli.

She made it home safely, though a little shaken. And almost regretting driving her motorcycle. Her brother had insisted rather than advised that she avoid driving it until her arm was healed. At least until she could have the stitches removed. But part of her didn’t want to admit that he was right.

For a long time though, she just sat on the balcony of her apartment, anxious and off-put. She distracted herself by scrolling through the news, but after a few minutes decided that she didn’t want to see it. Instead she spend her time incognito-googling ‘warning fuzz’ and the like, but found nothing but a fan-Wikipedia page about Spider-man.

Serana decided she needed to distract herself. She needed to go grocery shopping anyway, and it wasn’t far. She decided to walk the few blocks.

It turned out that she had overestimated her needs. Still, it was nice to resupply her stock of strawberries and cereal.

 

[Birdsie]

Director Kleeberg - PRT Offices, Director's Office

The Director was a man in his late forties, with graying crew-cut hair. He wore a business suit with a red tie in thin black stripes and had a leather holster under his left shoulder, holding a pistol. He had a five-o'-clock shade on his face and wore a pair of glasses as he wrote something down in a document with a list of expenses for munitions.

"I don't need a massage, thank you," Director Kleeberg said, with the dryness of sandpaper. He laid down the pen and took off his glasses. He looked at Comfort with his steel-gray eyes intently, then motioned to the chair in front of his desk. "Sit down."

He waited for her to do so, then steepled his hands and looked at her for several seconds, in empty silence. His eyes moved around a bit, mostly downward - he already knew what he wanted to say, just didn't know how to phrase it.

Director Kleeberg said, "As you know around seven hours ago, a spontaneous gang war between the ABB and Empire Eighty-Eight broke out. So far, the cost of property damage is over fifty-thousand USD, and twenty-two lives between gang members have been lost, and an unknown amount have been injured. Five civilians were injured in the crossfire, as well. I've assigned a few agents to investigate this, and our Thinker tank has begun anticipating their movements."

"In short, I want you to join a warehouse raid tonight, at twenty-two. Three squads of troops, Armsmaster, and Miss Militia will participate. Our primary task is to capture Kaiser, or any other Empire Eighty-Eight members we can. I want you there, and I don't want any leaks regarding this. Armsmaster and Miss Militia know of this, but no one else in the PRT does except my deputy director, and Captain MacNessa."

"Do you understand?" The Director gave her an unreadable look.

Noble Scion

 

[Noble Scion]

Comfort - PRT Headquarters 7:52 - 8:00 AM

Spoiler: Appearance

Spoiler: Tinkertech Profile - Comfort

Comfort - hardware (robot, electric)

A fully working humanoid robot. Can store up to 108 terabytes of raw data, has well over 12.5 GHz of processing power and can speak in English, Chinese, Russian, French, German, Japanese, and Afrikaans fluently.

Main Blueprint Data: Mechanist :::::::::: :::::::::: (20)

Armor Plating - armor primary

Powerful physical/kinetic defense, emphasizing defense against ballistic weaponry. Outright immune to ballistic attacks up to Stage 2, strong resistance to ballistic attacks up to Stage 4. General physical/kinetic resistance up to Stage 4. Thermal resistance up to Stage 4. In addition, electronics cannot malfunction due to contact with water.

Blueprint Data: Mechanist ::::: (5)

Hardlight Shield - armor secondary

A generator of kinetically-charged static photons capable of shaping them to create a millimeter-thick blue-colored energy shield in front of the user, capable of taking up to around five meters squared of space. The shield is immune to any attack up to Stage 4, has mild resistance to Stage 5 attacks and begins to malfunction or crack, and breaks upon contact with any Stage 6 attack.

Blueprint Data: Funnel ::::::::::: (10)

Tranquilizer Gun - weapon primary

A simplistic mechanism capable of firing sedative-filled projectiles at the safe speed of 100kph. Has the potential to deal Stage 1 wounds when aimed at the right place, but otherwise, it only delivers a chemical payload in the form of a sedative.

Blueprint Data: Mechanist :: (2)

Energy Source - addon

A special alien energy source located inside the design. It produces a seemingly inexhaustible resource of power, capable of storing up to 2MWh and producing 0.2MWh daily. It can be used to power the Hardlight Shield or other equipment. It is possible to use it to plug in other devices to power them.

Blueprint Data: Well ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ ÷÷÷÷÷ (15)

Status

Damage: Pristine condition
Construction Cost: $15,550
Construction Time: 105 days
Required Materials: High-strength low-alloy steel plate, electrical wiring, computer parts, hard disk drive, power generator

Total Data: Mechanist :::::::::: :::::::::: ::::::: (27) Well ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ ÷÷÷÷÷ (15) Funnel :::::::::: (10)

New Shards Discovered!

Mechanist: "A Tinker shard, which harbors stored memory of technology and development from past cycles. This one focuses on the creation of intelligence with the condition of it being attached to technological hardware, and less focus on software."

Well: "This is a dead shard, and its data lacks conscious design or organization. Focuses on the creation of a mighty generator, as well as the large, power-hungry devices meant to attach to it."

Funnel: "Specializes in devices that utilize hard light, both for offense and defense."

Comfort took the seat quickly and noiselessly, so as to not interrupt the director and bother him any more than was necessary, not showing any form of reaction to his declining of her suggestion. There was no reason to try and non-consensually force someone to relax. As far as she knew, it couldn't be done.

Upon hearing the mission objective, the tinkertech being simply sat there, thinking about what such mission would entail, and after a brief pause of pondering, she responded. "I will go, if only to ensure no more harm occurs, and please, do not worry. I am not in the habit of spreading secrets." her words rang out with a strange reassurance. There was nothing in her programming that told her to keep secrets, but even so, her speaker was not going to spread the mission around. Standing up, Everyone's friendly neighbourhood Comfort moved towards the door before turning to face the director once more.

"If the meeting is aadjourned, I would like to return to my room and prepare, if the director allows it." And with his consent, she did just that, pondering why she in particular was needed. Whether it was due to her proficiency in non-lethal takedowns, or her ability to converse with people, of which, she was unsure, and while the notion didn't matter all too much, she couldn't help but think if these people were going to be sociable at all given that they had murdered several people already over the ongoing firefight.
Birdsie​

 

[Birdsie]

Spazzycat101 Random encounter. You rolled one of the strongest the E88 has to offer. Do with the encounter what you will.

Outside the grocery store, people began to shriek and run away. There was a bright flash of white light around the corner, followed by another, both punctuated by loud cracking sounds.

A woman, glowing white too brightly to look at directly, raised a hand from which shot three corkscrewing beams so bright that they left purple afterimages across an onlooker's vision.

The three Asian teenagers lied crumpled at the foot of a concrete wall with about half of a stylized ABB tag spraypainted on it, surrounded by two others who have already fallen before them.

Purity was probably the strongest cape on the Empire Eighty-Eight roster: very rapid flight, some degree of toughness, and lasers that could level buildings. The fact that she hadn't killed those three punks only meant she had the fine control to match her power.

She floated the six feet between her and the pile of groaning bodies, slowly enough that it gave time to wonder if it was an intimidation tactic, or if she just never walked anymore.

"Where is Bakuda?"

One of the thugs started stammering, another looked to be out cold, and the third was starting to crawl away when a white whip-crack flash left the asphalt beneath her spider-webbed with cracks. Make that two of them out cold.

"What about Oni Lee?"

Further stammers, punctuated by another laser blast.

"Useless."

 

[Spazzycat101]

Serana Wildes
Outside the grocery store
Interacting: Birdsie (Purity)​

Alarm.
Serana paused before the doors of the store for several seconds. She had no reason to, logically, not really. Except when she stepped through them, screams resounded.

How did she know that?

She flinched even before she heard the crack of concrete or saw the flash of light. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t run. Soon she, Purity, and the three unconscious kids were the only ones left on the street.
Now of course, Serana didn’t have a deathwish. But she also didn’t want other people to die. And this was Purity, one of the most powerful people that didn’t care about the casualties.

So distract her.
After all, Serana was used to the spotlight.

‘Hey! That was… admittedly kind of cool, but, uh, also really dangerous!’ She hurried her pace when Purity’s attention came to her. ‘Really cool lightshow, really unsafe infrastructural damage.’ Serana gestured to the cracked concrete. ‘Now I know I certainly can’t tell you what to do, but, uh, you obviously have admirably acute control over that. Frankly I’m very impressed—and terrified. Also terrified. But maybe—and of course this is just speculation—maybe tone it down about a notch or three? I’m not the best strategizer but I feel like your business, whatever it is you do, I feel like it might be all for naught if the city goes squish!’
Just distract her.
And the Warning Fuzz was back again, much, much stronger.

 

[Remembrance]

Ezekiel Archimi (Williams)
Stressing at home
Interacting: None

“Dammit!” Ezekiel shouted out as he hastily set down his coffee cup, as usual, his coffee was scolding hot. Ezekiel had some things planned for the day, and a lot more for the coming days so he’s really preparing for a lot. “While I let that cool off, time to get to work!” He rolled his sleeves up, cracked his neck and knuckles and then sat down. The whole idea of coming up with something is being able to envision and imagine, pretty basic but it’s not for the faint of heart. Ezekiel recently had been having a hard time convincing himself of things that might work, he’s been through countless ideas that rarely stick around long enough for it to become real.

But Ezekiel had high hopes, usually his hands not burning up from his coffee was a good thing so maybe this idea will follow through. He decided not to think too long about it and drew out a crappy but kind of detailed depiction of his idea... and he loved it! It clicked with him, resonated with him, he had it! But before he finishes his brilliant sketch, he’s got to go finish his coffee. Damn, what if it’s cold?

 

[Birdsie]

Purity turned around her own axis when she heard a voice address her. Her arms were parallel to her torso, as she watched Serana with an unreadable expression.

"Cracked pavement is nothing. Would you rather Bakuda and Oni Lee blow up a building? Or worse yet, Lung turn into a dragon?" Purity spoke with surprising frankness and conviction after Serana was done with her brief monologue.

The villainess raised one of her hands at Serana. The white outline of Purity's bode seemed to pulse outward, forming a halo around her hand as she charged up an attack. "I'll commend you for the courage to approach me, especially with that kind of tone, but I don't know who you are, and unless you wish to die, you will tell me now."

Serana's warning fuzz told her everything she needed to do if Purity shot - leap to the left, take cover behind the dumpster - Purity will follow the attack up with two others if the first one misses.

Spazzycat101

 

[Spazzycat101]

Serana Wildes
Street outside the grocery store
Interactions: Birdsie (Purity)​

Serana shaded her eyes partially with her left hand.

‘To be completely, one-hundred-percent honest, I’m not entirely sure who those are. I don’t pay way too much attention to the news. I probably should. But I’m gonna take the safe route and assume they’re not nice. Also, I’m—I’m Sera.’

Serana’s muscles tensed in preparation to dash to cover behind the dumpster.

‘I know who you are, I mean, I watch the news a little. And you’re also kind of more powerful than—than most anyone else, I’m pretty sure. Then again I’m not all caught up. I’m talking in circles, aren’t I?’ Serana punctuated the rhetorical question with a laugh that hid only so much of her nervousness. She was staring down one of the most powerful capes that she knew of. ‘Suffice it to say, I guess, that I’m not oblivious, but I’m not, like, one of those crazy conspiracy theorists pouncing on every little piece of information.’ With her free hand she mimicked typing on a keyboard.

As she spoke, Serana adjusted her grip on her grocery bag in her right hand—the arm that wasn’t still recovering from a stab wound. Throw the bag at Purity to draw at least one of the two beams after that away from her, which would give her time enough to flee or find better cover—all given that the supervillain fired anyway, and that the ice-skater would dodge it. Serana was well aware that Purity’s power would treat a dumpster like a rusted tin can.

 

[Birdsie]

Purity floated silently, bobbing up and down slowly in the air, as she stared at Serana. After a moment, she clicked her tongue and lowered her arm, the nimbus of light fading away.

Purity stared blankly at Serana for several seconds, somehow coming off as angry despite it being impossible to see her face with the blinding light emanating from her.

The villainess turned her back to Serana. Her body language was hard to read, suggesting very little, other than that she didn't care enough to fight her. After a moment, Purity calmly said, "You're stupid, living in this city and not caring to know of the monsters that live here. You should get on fixing that, if you want to live another day."

With that, Purity took off. Her white form took off and flew into the sky faster than a speeding car, leaving behind a white trail of firefly-like motes of light. In moments, she was far away enough that she couldn't be seen anymore.

Spoiler: Post-Encounter Report

Conflict concluded with no combat. No data gain for either side.

Purity's and Serana's shards were actively trying to push either of them into instigating a fight, but both Purity and Serana are too reasonable and not emotionally vulnerable enough to be susceptible to a shard's Insinuate Action to act outside of what they consider reasonable (ie: not fighting random innocents who did nothing except having balls [and] fighting a villain respectively), and Direct Control is used by shards very sparingly and neither used it in this situation. Both shards are disappointed with this outcome.

Purity will recognize Serana if she ever sees her out of costume, but since Serana hasn't used her power, Purity assumes that she was just a normal human with a pair of solid steel balls, so she won't figure out Serana's identity should she get a costume and begin going out as a hero/independent/villain/whatever, except maybe feeling that her voice seems oddly familiar.

By the way, I mean it when I say she will recognize Serana out of costume. There are very few normie humans willing to get close to a parahuman actively using their power to gun down Asian teenagers with hardened photons, and Purity, on some small level, respects that.

Spazzycat101

 

[Remembrance]

Ezekiel Archimi (Williams)
Home / Hardware Store / Stuck in traffic downtown
Interacting: None

As Ezekiel finished his cold cup of joe, he brought up his paper of ideas and reviewed it. It’s perfect! Ezekiel was astonished at what he could complete with some coffee and thought power, and this was really the pinnacle of his work. But until he could finish the masterpiece, he needed to get the materials needed, it wasn’t a lot but it’d take some time to gather. What Ezekiel needed were all kinds of parts, the most easy way to get them all was to go and grab a car. Cars have too many materials mixed in them, especially old and used cars, they are really the most recyclable thing in the world because of the wealth of materials you can get. In an attempt to save money, Ezekiel put his mind to use his own car to build his new ideas. It has everything he needs, so it’s possible he could be done with everything by the next day.

But before then, he needs to take a trip to the hardware store. His drive there was uneventful but he did say his proper goodbyes to his car during the drive. At the hardware store, he picked up some industrially but commercially available bolts, he also grabbed some high-grade steel sheets, not a lot but enough just in case. As he bought everything he had in his cart, he threw it into his car and drove off to head back to his neighborhood.

Ezekiel’s ride was anything but good, he had hit about a dozen redlights and wasn’t able to advance so much. As of right now, he’s stuck in downtown with an ever-piling up line of cars, it’s beginning to look like Ezekiel will have some time to contemplate and think about things.

 

[MoltenLightning]

Bianca Simmons
Grocery Store :: Boardwalk
Interacting With: No one, as of yet

Spoiler: Bootlegged Body

Bootlegged Body - Changer 6 (Master/Stranger 5), Thinker 3

The host's body permanently changes to be a genderless, slim, boney humanoid, with scraggly or absent muscular structure. Their entire body is hairless, including the head, and the face becomes a flat expanse of skin, with nooks where the eyes and mouth should be, and a small peak where the nose should be. Despite being effectively eyeless, noseless, mouthless, and earless, the host doesn't lose any of the associated senses, except for taste.

The host's voice in this state can be compared to the buzzing of a swarm of insects, or a "demonic cacophony of noises," layering into each other, as if a thousand voices were speaking at once.

Henceforth, this body will be referred to as the 'Default Form.'

Freakshow - primary effect

At will, the host's Default Form grows a second, composite body over itself, composed of fat tissue, muscle fibers, cells, skin of natural color and hair of any color. Their vocal cords alter themselves to any pitch, tone, and timbre the host chooses, and eyeballs, nostrils, mouth, and ears emerge, in any shape the user decides, and in the eyes' case, any color. The host grows traits and genitals of the associated gender in this state.

The host can grow organic implements which mimic synthetic implements. Things like clothing, or even simple items like keys can be produced this way, and without chemical analysis, they appear to be normal objects. If these objects are taken away from the host's body, they will begin to "die" in three minutes. Two hours after that, they will produce a smell reminiscent of rotting flesh, and six hours later, they will wither into a dry husk. In a full day, the object degrades into powder. This may be used to produce counterfeit dollar bills, though obviously they don't last long.

The host can assume their exact pre-Trigger form with extreme ease, like breathing or blinking. When maintaining this body, the host is capable of sexual procreation, eating, drinking, becoming inebriated, and even having offspring, for as long as they maintain their pre-Trigger form. If the host drops their pre-Trigger form for another during pregnancy, the baby will be displaced into the shard dimension and provided nutrients and care for there, for as long as the host is holding another form, to the upper limit of three days. The host is aware of this on a weirdly conscious level.

The host can perfectly copy any person they have seen, but only to the extent of their information. If provided with a facial photo, they can only copy the face. If given a voice, they can copy only the voice. If they see the person themselves, the host can copy everything, up to and including body language, mannerisms, and vocabulary, which is provided by the secondary effect (read below.)

Any form of genetic testing or blood testing will show that the host isn't who they look like and reveal the facade, unless the host can somehow obtain that information, like in the secondary effect (read below.)

If the host receives a Stage 2 injury or above, their fake body is torn away, to reveal their Default Form. They cannot assume any body other than the Default Form after that for a span of two minutes, and once they do, their assumed form has a random number of flaws equivalent to the size of the injury. This effect stays with them for as long as they are injured, unless the injury drops to Stage 1.

If the host dispels this effect, their fake skin sinks into their Default Form like water into earth.

Circus Make-Up - secondary effect

The host gains a Thinker ability, which they can use for up to a full, run-on two hours daily, after which they get progressively debilitating headaches, comparable to a 'bad migraine' at the three-hour mark, and agonizing pain after four hours. The host will lose consciousness from pain after five hours of continuous usage. The best way to use it would be in short bursts, but that does not remove the time limit, only spreads it across a longer timeline.

As long as the Thinker ability is active, the host will be provided with perfect knowledge of the mannerisms, body language, and vocabulary of the target they are copying, limited to their own impression and knowledge of the target. The mimicry borders on being perfect and will fool even good friends or family members who see the target on a daily basis, but the host will not gain any knowledge about the target that they, themselves haven't discovered, so a "I will ask you each a question, a question to which only the real X knows!" test will accurately prove the host to be the fake.

In addition, if the host can find tissue from the target they are copying and eat it (or, if in the Default Form, stick it on their skin,) they can perfectly mimic its genetic makeup during any future transformations.

Laughing Clown - minor effect

The host heals their wounds at 2.5x the speed of a baseline human and bleeds out at 0.75x the speed. The host still feels pain, but they are less mentally influenced and 'scared' by it and can ignore its effects slightly more.

It's Me - minor effect

The host has a permanent, subtle Master/Stranger effect. It increases people's trust toward them, and their belief in the host's fake disguise, by roughly 12% average. This does not work on Master and Thinker parahumans.

Noctis Cape - special effect

A relatively rare side-effect of the parahuman condition, appearing in less than three percent parahumans. It removes the physical and mental need to sleep, but the host can still sleep if they desire it. Its causes are unknown.

Manton Limit: Self, organic tissue, human.

Lethality: Not lethal, but can help you gain people's trust, so you stab them in the back when they least expect it.

Data: Polytomy ++++++++++ ++++++++++ ++++++++++ ++++++++++ (40)

Polytomy: "A shard specializing in the area of infiltration, espionage, acting, and social-oriented stealth. Very experienced and sophisticated in its specialty."

Bianca had become a freak. She reminded herself of this fact each and every day. Every day that she was forced to experience another day of living as an ambiguous creature. A faceless entity, barely worth calling human anymore. She tried to convince herself, constantly, that it wasn't all bad. If she just didn't use the power for evil, she would probably be fine. But she'd noticed some subtle corner cuts she'd been making to her morals, some less than ethical decisions she'd made. Giving people fake money was one of those things, but she only did it occasionally. At this point, her train of thought focused a lot on convincing her she shouldn't hate herself. And it was getting harder and harder to become convinced.

On another note, she was both thankful and tortured by the fact that she no longer had to sleep. Without sleep, she wouldn't technically have to return to her 'ambiguous' form. But she was stuck consciously aware of her predicament, always. So sometimes, she did sleep, if only to escape for a while. Today, however, was not one of those days. She had to work. She had to survive, despite harboring some disgust for herself.

Currently, she had the skin of a young man. For some reason, she had become more comfortable going out in public with a different face. If she made a mistake, at least she could blame it on the façade she had. It also kept her from being recognized if she ever did have to use her power with witnesses. Which, hopefully, was never. The face she was wearing had black hair, a closely shaved face, and green eyes. She'd chosen this guise randomly, had seen no one to base him off of. Or maybe she had, subconsciously, based him off of her father. She didn't want to find out, so she avoided thinking about it. Turning on a street corner, she came face to face with a scene that sent her stomach plummeting.

Purity. A powerful member of Empire 88. Crap.

And some girl, approaching her like a lunatic.

Nope.

Bianca turned on 'her' heel, attempting to leave before things got ugly. She'd rather not become photon dust today. She could deal with living so long as she never had to face anyone who knew her true identity. She could act. She had gotten surprisingly good at acting. She tried not to think of the implications of this reality, instead focusing on the idea that she could better cope with frustrating people. If she rarely got angry before, now she was stone faced to anger. She could act angry, act offended. But it wasn't real emotion she was projecting. Only an act.

Bianca had to force herself to stop thinking about how much acting she had been doing and instead focused on her destination. The clothing store, on the Boardwalk. It was around the time for her shift, though she suspected she'd be a bit late because of the detour she had to take to avoid the scene with Purity and the girl.

Taking the bus, she arrived at her destination slower than she would have liked. The 'watch' on her wrist told her the time was 7:45, just 15 minutes before she was supposed to be at work. Hastily, she left the bus, found a secluded spot, and began the gruesome process of 'shedding' her current guise for her pre-Trigger appearance. The skin of her fake persona sunk into her faceless form's, before it was quickly being overcome again with more skin and features. The process had always been swift, much to Bianca's relief, and she settled into her familiar form once again. She already had her uniform on, before she set off towards the store where she worked.

It would be fine. She just had to… Cope, with what she was now. As long as no one saw… It was like it wasn't really there, right? With this flimsy reasoning in mind, she trekked to the store, striving to avoid thinking about her abilities and instead pondering different fashion ideas.

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

Natalya Mayers
Location: Natalya’s Apartment
Birdsie

Spoiler: Cauldron Power: Starburst Beryl

Starburst Beryl - Blaster 7, Shaker 4

Starsaw - primary effect

The host can shoot out rotating verdant-green projectiles that float, or 'hover' that act like air hockey disks, floating two to five feet above the ground and rapidly changing altitude. These projectiles look like glowing, green, five-pointed, almost cartoony stars, and are roughly the size of a frisbee.

They reflect off of walls and objects they encounter without losing speed and slide around in the air as if it were ice, at a brisk pace of 15kph, but the host can speed them up to 100kph, controlling their air velocity freely. The stars do not stop moving, unless the host consciously orders them to. The stars can also start suddenly moving in the opposite direction at the host's will.

At the host's will, the green stars will begin to rotate at high speeds and deploy an energy blade at each startip, each having a length of one (1) meter. The stars effectively turn into buzzsaws, cutting anything that comes in contact. If they impact an object of any kind, they will violently fly off in a random direction at high speed, reflecting off of walls and indiscriminately cutting into anything they hit. An impact with a star deals mixed Stage 2 to Stage 3 cutting/blunt injuries.

The limit of stars that can be maintained at once is ten. A star can be dispelled at any moment.

By selectively shooting out, activating, and dispelling stars, the host can achieve the effects a simple Blaster power.

Starburst - secondary effect

After having their energy blades deployed, the stars can be made to stop, then pop like a bubble, with their blades remaining in place. Afterwards, the host may indicate a single target and all active blades floating in midair will aim at that target and fire at speed approaching that of an arrow fired from a bow, and dealing Stage 2 to Stage 3 impalement damage, depending on where the attack hits.

Manton Limit: Aim, target

Lethality: An active star deals Stage 2 wounds. Enough impacts with one of these and there can be enough bleeding and bruising to cause death.

Data: Emerald ‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡ ‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡ (20)

Emerald: "This is a dead shard, and its data lacks conscious design or organization. Specializes in giving solidity and force to microwave and radio waves and applying conflict conditions to them."

​

Natalya’s heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest as she ended the call. She had finally done it, she was finally in the Protectorate. Well, not yet really, but she was practically there. Natalya had called the PRT headquarters via the emergency number. They had said that they’d be sending someone over, though the person she was talking too didn’t seem too thrilled really, these things might just be another Monday to them. Natalya could only wonder how many people called PRT and pretended to have powers just to meet a bonafide Cape.

However, despite one of her long time dreams finally on the verge of becoming reality, Natalya could barely feel any triumph or joy. What used to be an unattainable dream, a childhood aspirations that she could never have foressen would come true, is now nothing more than a means to an end. The status, the reaources, the powers, all of them are nothing more than tools for her vengeance. The thought almost made her chuckle, to think she finally had a power, that she’d finally become one of the Heroes she had once admired, and all she wanted to do was commit suicide via Endbringer. She wasn’t going to try to delude herself, she knows she’ll die trying, but she’d make sure she’d hurt one of those fuckers before she did.

She was just a jumbled mess of emotions right now, but she had another thing on her mind other than revenge on what might as well be a force of nature. She was thinking about Cauldron and how she got her powers. Natalya knew she made a Faustian bargain, I mean, she got free powers in exchange for a few favors. Couldn't possibly lead to anything bad could it? Yeah right, well, probably. She couldn’t help but feel skeptical and think about how sketchy Cauldron is, but to be honest, she’s grateful. Sure, they might be a shadowy organization, after all they do sell powers in a can in exchange for favors, but they did manage to give her powers.

Problems for another day perhaps, but for now she has a bigger problem. How exactly should she welcome a cape into her house?

 

[Birdsie]

CrimsonEclipse

Earlier That Same Morning...

The radio spoke of the war that started between the Empire Eighty-Eight and the Azn-Bad-Boyz this morning. The driver sighed, already aware that this week would be particularly unpleasant.

He heard the sound of a door opening, and looked in the side view mirror and saw a group of men clad in black kevlar with reinforced glass faceplates enter the garage, talking to each other.

He glanced at the clock and saw it was already time for his shift.

The driver of the van was a simple worker, uninvolved in actual drills, but trained in both firearm safety and evasive driving as well as pursuit methods. Hearing the squad get ready to roll out, he switched stations, and Cage The Elephant - Ain't No Rest For The Wicked began to play.

Four squaddies and their sergeant walked into the van in an orderly manner, then sat down opposite of each other. The sergeant spoke to his subordinates, listing various items.

He clapped his gauntleted hands with a loud smack. "Alright, boys. The city's on fire today. I want to see peak performance from you, and not a single fuck up! With that in mind, let's make sure we have everything. Battle gear?"

Private Heller responded, "Check."

"Breach charge."

"Check." Private Garcia raised the aforementioned charge to show it off.

"Ammo."

Everyone in unison answered, "Check."

"Guns?"

Once again, Heller answered, "In good condition, check. Weapons hot, locked, and loaded."

The sergeant smiled under his helmet, saying, "Rollout," as he tapped the side of the van and closed the pair of reinforced back doors, then locked them. He sat down next to his teammates and spoke over the radio.

"Team five is on patrol. Awaiting orders."

The van left the PRT garage and went out into the chaotic streets.

***​

"Hey, Sarge. I thought there'd be, uh, you know," Heller started awkwardly, faux scratching the back of his head through his helmet, "more activity... today?"

"This sucks," Johnson added. "I signed up for the fat paycheck, yeah, but I also want to throw a flash at a superpowered freak and show him he's not as hot as he thinks. Then shoot him in the back with rubber rounds when he starts vomiting up his lunch from vertigo."

"You fucking love your flashbangs, don't you?" Garcia asked sardonically. "That's everything you talk about!"

"Quiet," the Sergeant said, holding his radio up and speaking into it: "Understood."

"What is it?"

"We're making a detour. Trigger Event, conditions appear calm. Be on watch for M/S or possible ambushes."

Grunts of acknowledgment rang through the van.

***​

The PRT van pulled up outside Natalya's apartment, in the middle of the street, its green-white signal flashing interchangeably with enough intensity to temporarily leave spots in the vision of an onlooker.

The back door opened, and a trio of squaddies left, including the Sergeant. Weapons - containment foam included - at ready, they walked up the stairs to the ordered apartment, and the Sergeant knocked on the door of the new Trigger.

 

[Birdsie]

Honestly, I don't care about rolls anymore. There's a gang war going on. Time to spice things up - I don't want to bore you all and lead this thing to die. Let's just have shards go badshit crazy and start #randomconflict everywhere.

Spazzycat101

Not half a minute after Purity flew away, Serana could already her a distant siren. A PRT van pulled up near the grocery store, its green-white signals flashing and its loud siren blaring up until it stopped moving. A squad of PRT troops emerged from the back, followed by a pair of PRT sergeant and a man in power armor.

Armsmaster, a known tinker in the area. His power armor featured a blue and white design with a black V-shaped visor for his upper face, though his mouth, chin, and parts of his cheeks were exposed; he had a thinly-trimmed beardie on his face. He carried around what looked like an extremely futuristic, mechanical halberd.

He appeared to begin speaking with the PRT troopers to coordinate. The squaddies split into teams of two and one went into a nearby alleyway, while another pair walked towards Serana.

One of them called out, "Excuse me, miss. There's villain activity in the area, we need you to vacate for your own safety and go home."

Remembrance

As Ezekiel was stuck in traffic, he could hear the drivers up ahead blaring their horns continuously and with startling frequency, like a wave moving in his direction. This was followed by light tremors and the distant sounds of explosions. In fact, he could swear he saw black clouds of smoke rising up on the street far away.

Probably not a good sign.

People ahead of him began to leave their vehicles, screaming, and running away, and soon, Ezekiel would see what the big deal was.

A man in a black costume, with a red devil-mask. He appeared to carry around a samurai sword, and had several bombs strapped to his chest. The man stood on top of a car in the middle of the street, then his form flickered.

Suddenly, three more copies appeared - two on cars to his sides, and one ahead of them, and closer to Ezekiel. The copies, and the 'original' set off their explosive vests and exploded, tearing the cars to pieces.

The fourth one simply advanced, climbing on top of another car and preparing to repeat what he did. More people, seeing this, began to flee.

However, before he could repeat his deed, something hurtled toward him through the air. The leaper had no shirt, wore a pale blue tiger mask, and light seemed to distort around his fingers in the shape of three claws.

The bomber created three more clones, confusing the leaper, though he still managed to cut one of the clones apart before they all exploded in unison. Sans one.

Oni Lee and Stormtiger.

What a great way to start the day.

MoltenLightning

As she was in the bus, Bianca felt the earth tremble and the concrete of the street unravel beneath its wheels. The vehicle soon tipped over, spilling the passengers to the left side. As everyone emerged, they discovered the reason.

A seemingly eight-foot-tall man, with patches of silver-white scale covering his body and a pair of blaring yellow eyes, emitted increasingly stronger flames as he was pushed back by totems, spears, and swords of metal that emerged from the ground. His assailant stood on the other end of the street on the T-shaped junction, clad in silver armor and flanked by two women.

Kaiser, Fenja, and Menja.

Versus Lung.

Could the city go any more to hell today?

 

[Spazzycat101]

Serena Wildes
Street by the store | Apartment | Street where Oni Lee and Stormtiger are fighting
Interactions: Birdsie (PRT agents, Armsmaster || bystanders, Stormtiger, Oni Lee) Remembrance (Ezekiel)​

Serana turned to leave. As she did, she watched a PRT vehicle arrive. Fear manifested again just as it had dissipated.
‘I’m not a—OOH, Purity, you mean Purity. Actually, you just missed her. She, uh, she left a little less than a minute ago, I’d guess.’ Serana paused for a long, awkward moment. ‘Oh!’ She turned from mild confusion to alarm in almost an instant. ‘But yeah, there are some kids over there that need help!’ She pointed over toward the three unconscious teenagers with enough vigor to make the stitches in her arm ache.

‘And she mentioned a couple of people, she was looking for—oh, I can’t remember, but she said they might blow up a building? Or something. And she was also talking about a person turning into a dragon, she called them Lung. If that helps anything.’
With that, Serena took her leave and started her walk back to her apartment, giving the PRT vehicle a wide berth.

When she got home, she tossed her bag of groceries on the counter and sprinted for her closet. From the back of a drawer she pulled a folded icy-blue-and-gold outfit; an old performance outfit from several years ago. Still fit, but old enough that nobody aside from her fanatics—of which there were not many, if any—would recognize. Another bonus, it matched her blue motorcycle helmet.

As she hurried back out the door and hopped on her motorcycle, the street chaotic enough that she was confident nobody would notice, she came halfway to reprimanding herself. It was stupid, unforgivably idiotic, but there was something in her that felt invincible, and something else that knew it was right.

Serena followed the cries of sirens and bystanders. Eventually she found herself on a street crowded with cars. She turned her motorcycle quickly into an alleyway and left it there, far enough away from the entrance that she was almost sure that it wouldn’t be destroyed. She left her helmet on. Fortunately, it wasn’t too clunky, and didn’t inhibit her peripheral vision. That wouldn’t be good for driving. Or fighting.
Coming back out of the alley, Serena assessed what was happening. Two—wait, five? No, two. Just two. Two people were battling it out on top of the many stopped cars, one periodically cloning themself and then making the clones explode. Self-replication was probably their superpower. They were a cape. And presumably the other person was as well. Light seemed to warp around their hands.

This was stupid. This was ridiculous. This was suicidally imbecilic.

Serena decided she wouldn’t fling herself between the two. She would try and cover the hectic evacuation, perhaps ty to corral their fight. Somehow. She decided she’d figure it out as she went. For now she hurried back toward the people hurriedly fleeing, helping open crushed car doors and usher civilians away.
‘Nothing here to see worth the risk of staying, folks! Let’s get you—ow—OW—pleasedon’ttouchmyarm—let’s get you outta here!’
Debris was no issue. She dodged it and pulled others out of the way with supernatural fluidity, as if she had some precognitive cheat. But hey, one man’s bug is another woman’s feature. The warning fuzz was making itself useful.

 

[Loki The Trickster]

Spoiler: Tinker + Power: (Binary ) x (Limit)

Tinkertech / Illuminant - Tinker 6 (Specialty: Hardlight & Drones), Breaker/Thinker 3

Tinker - primary power

The host is a Tinker, of the Binary and Limit categories. As such, there are two main methodologies that overlap. The host specializes in building hardlight devices (lasers, light-spears, lightsabers,) and drones (reconnaissance, imaging, analysis, etc.) Building together devices that combine the two categories grants them a bonus. The host can build other items, with a penalty.

Each of the host's creations requires regular maintenance, depending on the size of the build. Items which were damaged may require repairs before operating at full power.

Tinker hosts of tinker shards use blueprints. There is no maximum limit to how many blueprints the host can retain. To build a device, the host must pay the cost in materials and data from their own pool.

When beginning the construction of a device, the host enters a fugue state and the shard performs the tinkering according to their directions. The host understands the elements and meaning of each part of the device, and can explain, for instance: "yeah, this thing holds energy, and this thing condenses energy," or "I guess if this got hit hard enough, it'd blow up pretty rough," but cannot explain anything beyond that and cannot help reverse-engineer. In fact, any non-tinker attempting to copy tinkertech will fail automatically.

Generally, the host will require some form of basic construction tools to perform their craft.

Tinker Actions

The following actions can be taken using this power: (Contact the GM in OOC for tinkering.)

Build - Build a device from a known blueprint
- Repurpose - Intentionally deviate from a blueprint's design when building
- Refine - Spend additional materials, time, and data to produce a superior device
- Rush Job - Spend fewer materials, time, and data to produce an inferior device

Repair - Expend materials to repair or modify own device [note: Repairs cannot be done without Breaker state]
- Alter - While repairing, modify an existing device to serve a new function
- Combine - While repairing, combine two previously built devices
- Lock-In Data - Locks in the data into a tinkertech device to allow it to go for extremely long periods of time without maintenance and allow non-tinkers to use it effectively, but its effectiveness drops, usually by half

Draft - Attempt to design a new blueprint

Study - Study other's device to gain data
- Disassemble - While studying, disassemble the device to gain materials

Create Blueprint

When creating a blueprint, describe the desired function of the device and assign it any amount of data desired from the Host Data Pool. If the goal fits within the shard's tinker specialty, it'll guarantee it as a result; if not, the result will try to fulfill the goal as best as possible. Building the blueprint costs the amount of assigned data, as well as materials described near the blueprint (an approximate cost in materials is included next to it.)

Data from other tinker shards can be used in place, but they will add their specialties, which influences the resulting blueprint. Power data can be used in place of tinker data. Tinker data can be gained by studying other tinkertech, or directly from other tinkers.

Host Data Pool - 40 saved data (Note: update this section as the GM directs.)

Spoiler

Lightware :::::::::: :::::::::: :::::::::: :::::::::: (40)

Blueprints - 4 blueprints created

Spoiler

Methodology: Binary/Limit
Specialty: Hardlight, Drones, Control, Relay, Matrix, Crystal, OS [software], Data, Lasers, Light, Communication
Rating: Tinker 6 (Master, Blaster, Brute, Shaker)
Data Pool Capacity: 400

Network Relay Station
Data: 10 or 40

Spoiler

Methodology Blueprint - Network Relay Station
Drones, Control, Relay, Communication, OS, Matrix,

This device allows drones in its effect radius to network with each other, sharing their information to act as a collective unit. Base network radius is 750 feet if built at 10 Lightware data (personal-portable size), or 3,000 feet if built at 40 Lightware data (stationary-desktop size). The device can display information received from the Drone Network and allows a user to issue commands to drones via the Drone Network.

Blueprint Data Value: Lightware 10 or Lightware 40

Base Construction Cost: $5 x blueprint data value
Base Construction Time: 30 minutes x blueprint data value
Required Materials: Size-appropriate phone, computer or other digital electronic device with wireless network capabilities (or) alternative materials.

Software
Data: 10

Spoiler

Specialty Blueprint - Software
Software (OS), Hardware (OS)

This device is a pair of software program and hardware that the program works with. It is meant to imitate low-rate (below 3,) Thinker, Blaster, and Stranger effects. For example, drones can be programmed to map out all sapient creatures in the area and use advanced prediction and analysis of their senses to avoid being spotted, or they can be programmed with pinpoint long-range imaging effects that lets them act as discreet cameras.

To the untrained eye, this is just programming, but it is Tinkertech. A programmer trying to read it will simply find a line of bizarre gibberish that doesn't make any sense in any programming language known to binary computers.

Blueprint Data Value: Lightware 10

Construction Cost: N/A for software, related mundane device for hardware
Construction Time: 1-2 hours depending on software complexity
Required Materials: Requires Network Relay Station for software, requires related mundane device for hardware

Hardlight Drone
Data: 10

Spoiler

Specialty Blueprint - Hardlight Drone
Software (Crystal,) Hardware (Crystal)

This device is a densely packed computation matrix of hardlight in the shape of a pyramidal chunk of crystal, of similar volume to a baseball. Its color can be chosen upon creation, but is typically either white or pink.

The device floats with no visible means of propulsion and can be connected to the Network Relay Station to implant it with commands. Despite not having any visible means of perception, the drone has 360-degree vision around itself and can detect radiation.

It can be slotted with Hardlight Matrices (read blueprint below) to gain new functions.

The device is immune to Stage 1 and 2 attacks, and receives damage on Stage 3. Due to its unique properties, it does not lose durability when hit, and instead it expresses a random error (requiring repairs,) instead of accruing increasing levels of durability loss. Stage 4 damage causes three errors at once, Stage 5 causes seven errors, and anything above that causes the equivalent of a hardlight bluescreen, after which the device detonates with varying results. Each error causes the device to go against its programming or misinterpret its programming, and has a small chance of causing the device to detonate.

Blueprint Data Value: Lightware 10

Construction Cost: $1,000
Construction Time: 1-2 hours depending on software complexity
Required Materials: LEDs, light emitters, small circuitry, glass lenses, small diodes (or) alternative materials

Hardlight Matrix
Data: 10

Spoiler

Specialty Blueprint - Hardlight Matrix
Hardware (Crystal)

This device is a small hardware chip made from a densely packed matrix of programmed light, capable of reproducing a simple effect akin to a "laser superpower." The possibilities are: Hardlight beams, hardlight weapons [melee; spears, swords, objects], forcefields from hardlight or shields from hardlight, shaker effects for either defense or large detonations of energy [defense, nuke, flashbang].

Blaster [beam, object], Striker [spear, sword], Brute [field, shield], or Shaker [defense, nuke] hardware effect.

Alternatively, may be created as a Trump [three] device, with the following effects: the device converts other devices of its data value or less. Converted tech retains its abilities, its specialty becomes Crystal, and its data is overwritten by this device's data.

Blueprint Data Value: Lightware [?]

Construction Cost: $100 x blueprint data value
Construction Time: 30 minutes x blueprint data value
Required Materials: LEDs, light emitters, small circuitry, glass lenses, small diodes (or) alternative materials

Disciple of Truth - minor effect

The host can enter a Breaker state, in which their eyes and hair glow white and their arteries begin to glow through their skin. Within this state, the host can freely interact with all hardlight technology in a 50-foot radius without physical contact. In addition, the host can tinker devices made out of hardlight at triple the normal speed and repair them for free. This is the only way to repair devices made by Lightware.

The state can be maintained for up to twenty minutes a day unless released in bursts.

Manton Limit: Tinkertech, self

Lethality: "Let us show them the truth of lasers."

Data: Lightware :::::::::: :::::::::: :::::::::: :::::::::: (40)

Lightware: "A bud of Configure, formed from data on technology and hard light, and deviating enough to offer unique data. Specializes in the use of kinetically charged photonic energy, with an emphasis on computation, projection, and analysis."

Maria Morena
The Docks
​

The Docks weren't safe, but Maria Moreno was there anyway. That was the story of her life. Chapter I: Being Where She Had No Business Being. She smoked a cigarette and, with a drag that smouldered the tobacco slowly, the smoke sheeted her face in ash-grey drab. "I should quit," Maria whispered, inhaling, "I really should." Exhaling.

When the Cuban took the last drag, she cast the cigarette into the Brockton Bay sea--where the waves brought it back to the seafront with salt-eroded stones and straggly seaweed (and, of course, more emotional baggage). Any normal person might've spent their day off at home, binge-watching Netflix rom-coms or listening to Spotify power-ballad playlists, but Maria Moreno wasn't normal... nor was she hopeless.

Actually, second thoughts, maybe she was. Why else would she have chosen to spend her day off in an area she knew was overrun with E88-ABB gang activity and why else would she have had two lime tequilas for breakfast this morning? She turned on her mobile to browse social media and read about the Parahuman Response Team fundraiser, muttering, "Dear God," at all the cheesy slogans and unflattering spandex.

She wasn't one for those crotch-constricting costumes, not AT ALL one for those tacky colour schemes. Maria favoured earth tones and suede mattes, clothed head to heel in leather, and she could for all intents and purproses be a Hells Angels biker. She wore a baseball cap that, when drawn down, cast her eyes over in a vague black visor.

There was always something threatening about someone whose eyes you couldn't see.