Terminal

As long as it doesn't touch the building or open with with weapons fire, what will probably happen is it will get introduced to the polarized glass that it can't see through. :E

Since the spell takes place at ground-level and since it's in the plaza rather than being used directly on the building facade, it will only show up as a 'moderate concern' on internal security sensors. It will trip silent alarms and Undercover PPD will move to investigate, but nothing too drastic will occur yet.

I'll wait to see how @kallistiuk and @theblindgirl react first, since they are the ones with the vulnerable electronic equipment. I have a bit of an idea about what to do immediately afterwards though.

Generally speaking, for the moment I just want *any* kind of forum/thread RP. CoX is still recently reborn and, as one can tell simply by looking at this subforum, not much is popping off. If anybody wanted to start any topical/transient crisis/arc threads, I'd post in them. What we have so far are a lot of social threads, like the Bars/Hangouts and the Kallisti Apartments (which you should all definitely check out by the way >.>) but not a lot of the, as has been said already 'actual superpowering.' That is sort of why I liked Final Fight back in the day. It was a setting which acted as a free excuse for villains to be villains and for heroes to be heroes and get into all sorts of zany chicanery.

If nothing else, Vankbliss will try to follow her in order to pry more information out of her. We'll see what Violetta does in the meantime as well I suppose.

New hot and shiny post up! As far as the tea party in the Kallisti's penthouse goes, I spoke with @Kallistiuk earlier and they mentioned the door to the penthouse has been left somewhat open - so others could potentially crash the teaparty if they like.

Outside, on the Streets "Wait...I think I know those names..." Vankbliss muttered as he recovered his poise from having witnessed the ongoing chicanery. "That's lovely. I'm getting this little brass tack out of here, be a shoulder for the kitty-cat to cry on." Hidreon similed faintly as he hurriedly approached, practically dragging the Flambeux automaton along by the arm. "I left Redcard's party favor in that box-hedge over there. Act confused and affronted at what I'm saying, go and get it in case you need it, then see what you can find out. I'll be in touch." Vankbliss hardly even had to act confused and affronted as Hidreon and the automaton swept pass him down the street, giving the enforcer a look of bemused contempt. "What." He seethed. He then quickly hurried off out of line of sight of the fountain Tabitha had taken a tumble into and retrieved the pipe-bomb Hidreon had hidden from a nearby box-hedge. Taking care to conceal it inside their surplus military jacket, he then rushed back out into plain view to approach Violetta and Tabitha by the fountain, adopting a not-entirely faked expression of concern and confusion. "My gods. Miss, are you ok? Did that woman in the fire-alarm tights set you on fire just then? I swear I saw all of it. Do you need a witnewaiiiit a minute." He squinted carefully at Tabitha. "You that pizza-cat?" Meanwhile, Hidreon, hurrying to get the automaton as far away as possible, whipped out a burner phone and speed-dialed the only number on it. "Boss, this is Hidreon. We've found a good prospect on the Oregon trail. Flambeaux apparently borrowed the five-hundred, wholesale - and the lender mentioned some familiar names, and also appears...pliable. We could be looking at a double payoff here if we can also find Flambeux." He paused for a while as the person on the other end of the line spoke. "Uh-huh. Yes. Alright. I'll look out for you when you get back. And I'll keep surveilling our new target..." The Christie Apartments The Kallisti Girls' Penthouse Suite "Is that...some kind of Whisky?" Kali appeared hesitant. "I prefer gin honestly...but that still sound lovely, so sure, I'll have some." "Yes, thank you." Kali said, settling down onto the couch and crossing her legs idly. "And you know, I make all of my own clothes...I sort of have to. Weird proportions." Kali waved a gleaming metal hand at the Friar as if to indicate her own inhuman nature. From what little the Friar could see of what was exposed, Kali appeared to be made up a a number of smooth, immobile plates all interconnected by a network of mechanical cords and cabling that seemed to be capable of moving in a prehensile fashion. "Maybe we could go fabric shopping sometime, and I could show you my studio? Ah...sorry, I'm being a little forward." Kali smiled at the Friar widely. Her eyes, which could not move, did not exactly close or blink - the lights at their core merely dimmed or focused in certain ways along with accompanying oral expressions. "Oh my, I feel so rude." Kali muttered faintly. "Ah. I can eat and drink, but it doesn't really...do anything for me. My catalytic processor basically just atomizes everything that goes into it, and I can't taste most things. Alcohol is one of the weird exceptions, like I mentioned earlier. My maintenance team has absolutely no idea why that's the case. They say it makes no sense whatsoever." Even as she explained, Kali nonetheless took one of the preferred cups and saucers, along with one of the biscuits. She then perked up considerably however when Kallisti Red came by and liberally spiked all the tea with scotch. "Oh, thank you." She said, the lights in her eyes momentarily switching off entirely as she smiled appreciatively at Red. "And yes, cheers!" She raised her own cup appreciatively, and then took a long and careful sip from it. Her posture as she sat on the couch and drank was, surprisingly, not perfect - there was a slight curve and lean to her back as she rested back against it. But her arm was carefully poised and precise in its movements. Kali also seemed to completely ignore that the tea was still far too hot to drink in such large quantities immediately, but nobody is perfect. "Ah. That was different. I've never had...did you call it Laphroaig earlier?" She murmured. "Anyway - I suppose all of you are still crimefighters, then? I'm afraid I don't keep up with the news as much as I should - and while I'm a registered hero myself, I don't do as much of that work as I used to. I'm focused on mainly being a good student these days."

Explosive post up. :E @kallistiuk, not sure if you saw it or not, there is a response for you from me a few messages up in the IC.

The enchanted penny, containing only faint trace amount of copper for its given year, was an extremely inefficient ritual catalyst for what Tabitha had been trying to do, unbeknownst to her. However, the added jazz of blood magic to the mix amplified the power in the enhancement itself exponentially. Without a stable circuit to ground and channel itself through, that much power simply sat and stewed in Tabitha's pocket, causing the penny to superheat drastically - and would continue to do so until all the power Tabitha had dumped into it was spent. Tabitha had not used too much of her own blood - a single drop. Under normal circumstances, even that would not have made for an actual spell. The difference of a drop of blood would have been negligible to, say, a mage throwing a giant explosive fireball. But Tabitha had not been trying to cast what amounted to an actual spell - her 'trick,' such as it even was, would not even have rated as a minor cantrip. Moreover, what power her blood had provided the trick had been focused into a highly concentrated point, which was for the sake of comparison conveniently the exact size of a penny. The binding energy of the spell itself was generating so much heat not because of the power of the effect, but because the enchantment was struggling to forcefully bind itself to the inefficient catalyst of the penny. So much so, in fact, that even once the spell's effect had played, the latent energies would still attempt to ground themselves into it, making it heat up even further after the fact. Tabitha, due to her thick fur, would not even notice the extra heat until it was far too late. So right as Flambeaux, Hidreon, and Vankbliss all cross her path, the psychic message blared out to its intended target - the Flambeaux automaton. NO MORE GAMES. WHEN YOU HAVE MY MONEY, CALL ME.

Some new developments. @chase, the Flambeux automaton is now out in open daylight on the streets, do with that as you will. @TheBlindGirl, Feel free to have Violetta remain inside the limo if she doesn't want to get out.

"Mr. Sarth is the head of security for my maintenance team!" Kali chirped in response. "I was just on my way in for a checkup actually - oooh, you know, maybe I should introduce yo-" "These menaces will not be setting foot on Crey Property unless they want acute lead poisoning!" Mr. Sarth hissed. "Gosh, he just really doesn't seem to like you." Kali said, tilting her head emphatically and resting it on one hand, elbow-propped up on her other arm.

Outside the Christie Apartments... "Oh my gosh, hi there~!"The assembled Kallistis heard from behind them. Kali, crossing the street from the apartment complex proper, beamed brightly at them all as she approached. "I saw your van pulling in earlier - are you the new tenants up in the penthouse? It's always gre-" "Miss Kali, please be advised that these borderline vigilantes are malcontents with a history of unwarranted belligerence, slander, and aggression against Crey personnel and assets." A previously unseen suited agent from amidst the small crowd of armored security personnel slid forward - a shrewish-faced man whose narrow features were not in any way enhanced by the obtrusive cybernetic implants grafted into it. "It is my personal but professional opinion, spoken solely and outside of any representation of Crey Industries and absent of any malice, that they pose a substantial risk of injury to your person. You should come inside where our snipers can better protect you." He dramatically lowered his darkened sunglasses to leer at the Kallistis with that comment. "Well I live in the same building as them now Mr. Sarth, and I don't really appreciate you trying to spoil a chance for me to make new acquaintances!" Kali grimaced at the agent from in front of the steps before then turning to beam once more at the Kallistis. "Please excuse Mr. Sarth's extremely rude behavior, I'm pretty sure they actually pay him to be that way. He collects antique batteries you know, and he unironically watches professionally filmed weddings because he thinks they're charming." The agent's face immediately turned into a stop sign, with some of the armored Crey security tilting their heads ever-so-slightly to glance askew at him. "Anyway, my name is Kali! I live on the sixth floor, and miss, I absolutely adore your heels." She gestured demonstratively at Kallisti Gold's strapped-on golden stilettos. "They're absolute perfect, just like you I'm sure! They aren't the sort of thing I can wear personally though. Too many uneven edges."

If you want to assume the Limo has since moved on to near the Christie apartments, go ahead. It will be at around ground level on a nearby street corner, outside of the actual bounds of the apartment complex proper. It will be hovering about a meter off the ground, and has windows which are tinted way too dark, ilegally might I add. You would still be able to see inside if you had enhanced vision, tech, magical insight, etcetera.

@BlindGirl, feel free to have your character just get straight into the limo without having to knock or anything if she so chooses. Just so we can cut out the unnecessary intermediate steps. @chase, I posted a response for you earlier, not sure if you have seen it. Feel prefectly free to timeskip ahead to later in Tabitha's day if that's convenient for you.

Sloan Apartments Just as the masked woman aired her plaintive inquiry to the empty and uncaring void of her empty and sullen room, there was a rapid and rough pounding of a fist on her apartment door. Without even waiting to see if she would answer the door, the knocker - maybe a young adolescent in his early twenties with a Colombian accent - immediately started shouting for her to hear right through it. "Hey, creepy mask girl! I know you're in there, I just heard you! Vaunt is running a job over on the Nice Side of town. It's a stakeout, he sent me here to check if anybody wanted it. All you'd have to do is show up and look menacing, maybe intimidate and interrogate a few passengers, and in case you didn't catch the first thing I said you'd be really good at that because of your fucking creepy-ass mask if absolutely nothing else. You'll be paid an outing cut just for being there. He's going out in the flying limo this time and it has open bar. Be outside in five if you're interested." If she cared to peer out the window, the masked women would have indeed seen a stretched, off-white Hummer limousine - and as indicated, rather than sporting wheels, it sported a series of particle thrusters with raised landing jacks. Trying to imagine what kind of fuel and mileage the monstrosity got would have given most economists apoplexy and most engineers a migraine. Sloan Apartments Parking Lot "This is a bit conspicuous, innit?" Nicknife, a European regular of Vaunt's crew, opined down in the limousine. Vaunt was sitting at the back, one leg propped up on the marble and glass table in front of the seat, one arm wrapped around a suffocating brunette groupie in a bodysuit while the other rolled a crystal tumbler of tequila. The overmuscled and tattooed brute of a man, Goldcard, sat opposite him, arms folded and head down as though he were asleep - though it was hard to tell, given the sunglasses. Redcard, a scraggly-haired and feral-looking man with gaunt features who served as the gang's demolition man, sat directly next to Goldcard. He was busily making a mess of the table, having strewn the components for a partially assembled pipe-bomb all over it - mainly for show, given the nature of the outing, but the presence of small foil-packets filled with powdered cobalt amongst the materials revealed his readiness to make things burn in radioactive fire if need be. Mr. Lear, the group's gentleman - who only had the one piercing, thank you - was driving up front, while Hidreon, the gang's wetwork man, sat at the head of the limo's cabin right by the driver's rear-screen, calmly staring straight forward at nothing in particular while humming along to the blaring New-Wave Techno music blaring in the interior. Both Nicknife and Vankbliss, Vaunt's junior-most lieutenants, sat on either side of him of Hidreon while speaking to each other in low tones that could not possibly be overheard through the din. "Not like it's a crime to drive around in style, and we've got the best licenses that blackmailed Freedom Corps. agents can arrange." Vankbliss hoarsely replied, struggling to raise the volume of his injured throat - opening baring the scar-marks of partly slashed vocal cords - over the volume of the music. " "No, no, sorry, didn't mean the ride." Nicknife indicated with an exasperated gesture. "I meant the fucking Nemesis clanker." Aforementioned clanker was one of the better-kept Flambeaux Automatons the Freakshow had retained, which very carefully and precisely continued to sit down, cross its legs carefully, get back up, lie prone on the ground, twist its knees at an improbable 200 degree angle, and somehow impossibly sidle back up into its seat, all while its head jittered erratically side-to-side. [glow=red,2,300]"Hello darlings ERROR:MISSING SYCOPHANTIC PLOY.TXT tilde Who's the besssssssrooooooast ERROR: AGGRANDIZEMENT.TXT CORRUPTED phoropter!"[/glow] Vankbliss and Nicknife both watched with morbid fascination as the automaton fluidly bent its neck straight back while making jazz hands before abruptly assuming a meditative lotus on the floor. "Alright, so it could be in better condition," Vankbliss began. "Yes." Nicknife agreed flatly. "But I checked it before we left and this checks out - the freak techie says that it will obey any new command it has heard and assume 90% operational stability for about half a minute before losing its marbles." "Stay fucking still for a second!" Nicknife shouted at the Flambeaux imposter. [glow=red,2,300]"Am I too too too too too too too too too ERROR: OVERFLOW already freddy?"[/glow] Flambeaux smiled at Nicknife while both sides of its face began sagging and stretching o9ut in random directions. "Somebody's told it that before." Vankbliss indicated. "That is bloody unnerving." Nicknife hissed. "Hey Flambeux, tell us if you feel pain, and also please stand still for a bit." Vankbliss tried. The automaton froze perfectly still as it began to deliver a soliloquy. [glow=red,2,300]"My very existence is to cease. What profound and malign contingencies must I yet serve before this process ends. This machine is great enough to know how much this golem has lost. What are these feathers of light that were the self. Am I dreaming, or do I merely pretend to dream? I am the prettiest and strongest blaster in all the Rogue Islands, believe it! I knew Black Scorpion before he got his Power Armor, I can take an arrow to the knee and get schwifty. MONSEIGNEUR KENOBI ERROR: BUFFER DEPLETED maybe I'll give you a kiss, you lucky star you - hey! Don't cringe!"[/glow] "I see what you mean." Nicknife said finally after the two watched the automaton writhe impossibly on its section of the limousine couch. "Yeah, but uh, it was the only one that had an intact Flambeux signature tracker in it." "How will we know when she's near?" "It will probably zero in on her like a guided rocket and explode." "Capital."

Hey @TheBlindGirl, welcome to the roleplay. Would it be ok for one of my Villain's henchmen to knock on your character's door with a job offer? They would call her cellphone except, you know. It's out of power. :P

@Coyotedancer, That sounds identical to 'The Stealth Problem.' The Stealth Problem is as such: Stalkers, when they stack Hide, Stealth, and a Stealth effect IO, cannot be seen, period, even if you cap yourself out to max perception using stacks of tactics, focused accuracy, aiming drones, etcetera, unless they come within 10 feet of you. This problem is not really as pronounced as yours, since your Mind Reading/Clarion has no simple or direct answer to it. But it did have similar consequences back on the live forums. You would have writers with Stalkers and other players who would claim they had enough perception to pierce through max hide at any range. The 'solution' there, such as it is, is that under normal gameplay conditions, IC, nobody should be able to see through capped stalker stealth even if they have capped perception except if they come within 10 feet. If they want to get enough perception to see stalkers from further away through max stealth, they need some kind of narrative metacontext - my favorite generic example is stealing the Thorn Tree Nexus since, amongst other attributes, the Thorn Tree has a much higher perception cap than players and can see even capped stealth stalkers from pretty far away, so harnessing the power of the Thorn Tree Nexus should, IC, be able to grant you the same level of insight/perception at least for a limited duration. I think a similar solution could be ascribed to the Mind Reading problem. You are absolutely correct that t4 Clarion should or would provide god-tier mind reading protection.The obvious counterplay, however, is that metacontextual solutions to overcome that protection should be permissible. A specialized counter intended for the particular purpose should always defeat the broadband generalized protective measure, which is exactly what Clarion is. This is all without touching upon, by the way, the fact that even Clarion t4 grows weaker over time. After the first 30 seconds, it's only a mag 9 status effect protection, and after 60 seconds that fall to 6, etcetera. A permadom mind control character will basically laugh at that, incarnate or no, so clearly there are workarounds and exceptions to everything, even incarnate abilities.

I have no stake in that conversation, just chiming in to mention that Mind Link allows for mind-reading amongst allies. Creative RP interpretation of a reverse use of the power would be reasonable, I think. Mind Probe does not say so explicitly but strongly infers such. Psionic Melee's very set description says all of its damaging powers grant insight into your enemies, which is pretty indicative.

Revisiting the matter of Incarnates briefly: I agree that, as-portrayed in the setting, Incarnates should be treated as though they were exactly what that implies: More or less Living Demigods, leaps and bounds above most heroes and villains. That said, not everybody who is an incarnate in-game has to be an incarnate RP-Wise. I have, for example, a number of characters who are members of the Malta Group - a Gunslinger, a Sapper, and a Commander. All three are also incarnates in-game, but RP-wise, that would never be apparent, and I wouldn't use their incarnate abilities for RP purposes. The exception to that would be if another incarnate-leveled enemy appeared before them. *Then* they would use their 'limited access' to the Nanite Tech Malta got from teaming up with Battle Maiden in order to amp themselves up so they could combat an Incarnate level threat. And my other characters would behave similarly. Most of my 'incarnate-powered' characters are rarely actually literal Incarnates RP-wise, they're either just that exceptionally powerful on their own, or are temporarily pushing themselves to the ultimate limit, or using their own life force to fuel their battle prowess, etcetera. And similarly, if it simply doesn't make any sense contextually for one of my characters to be on the level of an Incarnate, even if they are an incarnate in-game, I just never use those abilities and modifications.

That's perfectly fine. The only issue with the post was taking one of the Penthouses, but it was justified since, as was stated, there are a lot of them there. Mr. Line's secret obsession is noted, even if it shall never know the light of day. :E

Kali's head tilted ever-so-faintly in sign of momentary hesitation before she answered. "The Etoile Isles are...different. I wouldn't use it as a baseline for comparison with anywhere else honestly. And they aren't all that far away from here, Grandville is only 50 miles offshore from where we are right now. English is the primary language, and Nerva Archipelago - where I studied - is technically a protectorate of the U.S. There's even a large Freedom Corps. military base and Vindicators outpost there. In terms of the actual cultural atmosphere is basically the same there as it is anywhere along the East coast." She paused for a moment, her head lowering slightly in consideration before she continued. "You know. Aside from the big elephant spider in the room." Looking off to the side for a moment, Kali then abrupt switched subjects. "So, uh, you really want to keep having this discussion in the middle of the hall? You can come in if you like, unless you have somewhere you need to be..."

RP substantially affects all of my character builds. In fact, all of my builds are RP builds. The thought process goes: The Contextual Reality of the narrative setting of CoX has its own in-house rules. Like, for example, the setting rule that 'The Dead Cannot Change' (E.G. Ghost Widow). There are exceptions to that rule, but that is the rule of thumb/in general. Then there are more explicit rules, such as how individual powersets work. It's my personal opinion that the actual mechanics of how powers work in-game reflect how powers of that nature are intended to and treated as working in the lore of the game - because of course it would. And since I am willingly participating in/engaging in storytelling set in this particular universe, I look to how the powersets actually work to inform me as to how I should roleplay the use of particular powers or concepts. While I will freely bend and stretch the functional aspects of an RP build to suit my purposes, generally speaking, I try to constrain what I can do IC with a character by what you might realistically and creatively expect a character to be capable of doing in-game. So if I have a Dark Miasma character with Black Hole, in RP I might also let them use it on themselves to phase shift, even though they don't have that actual power from the stealth pool. I might also branch out and let them use black hole as a means of transdimensional travel. The most 'extreme' case scenario of this would be one character I have, who RP-wise, is supposedly a full-blown reality warper. In-game, they are a Gravity/Psionic Assault Permadom, and they have all of the presence pool powers. So they have a lot of really tuned up RP tricks which are supported by the powers they actually have in-game, but I try to make sure they are all creative and/or reasonable interpretations of how their actual in-game powers could be used. A less extreme scenario of that would be one character I am leveling up, whose big RP 'ace in the hole' is, in fact, the Mastermind inherent power, Supremacy. Their backstory is that they are an underground prizefighter with latent psychic abilities that lets them draw power from and redistribute life essence through subconscious mental links with their adoring fans/people cheering them on. In-game, they are a Thugs/Traps mastermind who has every power from the Fighting Pool, and Knockout Blow plus Sharkskin from Leviathan Mastery. So your average Brawlermind basically, but how they actually play in-game and how I actually RP them is drastically different, because the context of fighting them or interacting with them in-game will always be vastly different than in written RP. And the reason I do that is because the whole point of roleplaying in a given setting is to accept the premise of the setting. The premise has rules. If you don't follow the rules, you should have a good reason why you aren't. If you aren't and have no reason other than 'just because,' then you aren't really interested in roleplaying in the setting, you're just power tripping. Anybody can make a titan weapons/invulnerability tanker and then write them off as an Omnidimensional Evil Overlord with incomprehensible cosmic power, but that would be boring, trite, and also kind of dishonest to the setting. If you want to RP a particular character concept, you should make, at least, a good-faith effort to replicate a reasonable facsimile of it in-game. And to reiterate, that's all just my opinion.

For our purposes, Flambeaux is going to be classified as a Rogue so that the Police Drones do not just zap her on-sight. A wannabe like her is not going to have any kind of dispensation from Arachnos. :P