Davies wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2017 12:05 am She has acquired a powered armor suit from Japan
I've always imagined Zane being especially annoyed that he wasn't consulted on building a suit, regardless of how little time he would have had to make it ;~)
To be fair this would likely be more of a result of his other major obsession: the belief that he can fix things.
Wainwright having inoperable cancer would put him into a downward spiral that would force him to accept he couldn't do just that.
How much that would help or last for a mad scientist type? Who's to say.
But it would have limited his ambitions to a much smaller scale than it had previously.
Davies wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2017 12:05 amWainwright's decision was ultimately prompted by the fact that her agents inside Grant's campaign were able to discover that he had no intention of leaving her in charge of Project Freedom, and was considering shutting down the organization completely. She was left with absolutely nothing to lose.
Owch, yeah, that would do it. Lost her friends, lost those that were closest to her through her own machinations, and then losing her life's work. I can only think of one last kick that somebody could give her, but that would just be too damn dark.
Easy to see why she'd throw it all on the line.
Of course I wonder how surprised she was by how many people came with her.
Davies wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2017 12:05 amWhen I presented this outline to you, I asked you to describe how the final adventure played out, and was very pleased by the ideas that I'd gotten.
Aaaaand I wasn't one of those people.
I completely bluescreened when I thought of Zane going into the Terminus. Mostly because I can't see him surviving.
Great idea guy, good support, but he lacks mobility or sheer power. Against the forces of the terminus I just see that being a huge problem.
Of course if I was smart I would have came up with a great story about him getting separated after everything goes wrong and sneaking his way back with some survivors relying on ingenuity, illusions, cobbled together inventions, and damn lies.
Face off against unstoppable force with stealth and guile.
Instead I put the ball in Davies court.
If I remember correctly (and I might not, it was a long time ago) I told him I wasn't sure Zane would survive and left the option upto him. Honestly I just thought he'd find a good run for it.
However in the off chance he survived? Well, Zane's return to the Project to be with Rachel was something that had to happen.
I'm still shocked (and happy) that Zane came out the other side.
Jalinth's offer to have Zalman sacrifice himself was what spared Toxic's life -- sort of. (In one of my outlines, moved by forces she wot not of, she tells Omega, "You are nothing in the scheme of creation. A far greater foe awaits me" -- words spoken by another, long ago -- then is chased by him all the way to the Doom Coil, which she throws herself into, distracting him so the rest of you can make your escape.)
And this is the nightmare that would result in a deranged Zane building a time machine to save Rachel... and likely wind up reliving events over and over again unable to change them.
The way that I dealt with the way Shock had Robin refusing to enter the Terminus made for an okay bullet point, but it would have made for lousy campaigning. Here's what happened instead --
Neat.
I was thinking that the Mahoshoujodan would have been an excellent choice to drag along for such a fight, but since Robin was the only one who A) know of their true history and B) had any connections with them... Well, I didn't expect that to to happen.
Davies wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2017 12:05 amRobin does so -- does she contact the Freedom League? The Atoms? The Mahoshoujodan? All of the above and some more people?
Amusingly all I can think of is "Nope, Robin has about as many friends as Zane" ;~)
Davies wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2017 12:05 am"From: Mr. Infamy. Body: To think you did what I wanted without even being asked!"
Evil. I love it!
Davies wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2017 12:05 amNeedless to say, both missions are pretty disastrous, and Zalman's sacrifice is all that saves your lives. Wainwright was either going to get killed in the first engagement with Omega -- a full-powered Omega, not an injured, paralyzed one -- or was going to live long enough to call the retreat and then sacrifice her life to buy you an extra round of escape time.
In my own head cannon I'd like to think she realized the folly of her actions in time to call for a retreat, before trying to buy Zalman the time he needed to save everybody.
Sadly I don't imagine that fight took very long. Because: OhmygodOmegawe'reallgoingtodie!
Davies wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2017 12:05 amWith regards to Zalman's fate, it should come as no surprise that I had no intention of having the mage killed off for real. The fire creature that the members of Project Freedom faced in the first and only episode of the reboot was supposed to be the first of four elementally-themed manifestations which were Zalman trying to pull himself back together. This was going to spread over the first few episodes, but ... I found that I still couldn't hack it, despite having taken so long a vacation. Or maybe because of it. Who knows?
Yeah, there was a lot going on in that where I wouldn't mind talking about, but I'm going to hold off for a day or two.