[IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Insert Coin To Continue

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Vivid
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Press Any Button to Start

Post by Vivid »

The Operative
CND: 0, Fatigued > Exhausted, HP: 1 JuryRig: 2
Utility Belt: Translation Program stunt
Projection System: Illusions
Scanner Suite: Visual gain penetrating, radius


"Okay, were you contacted by anyone new in the past few weeks or do you recall any signature of the power that brought you here? A smell? anything?" Operative asks.
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Press Any Button to Start

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

The villian closed his eyes, breathing deeply through nose. He exhaled slowly, but continued talking. "<It's all about the friends we make along the way, just like I said.>"

Something seems to catch his attention as his eyes open and he looks to the upper right. From everyone else's perspective, there's nothing there. One's first assumption might've been the obvious one of a UI element, except, Superheroics Unlimited didn't have UI elements. Everything like that was usually only visible in the main lobby.

Even Rainbow had a justification in the form of her headgear when it came to the chat window for her stream.

Regardless of what he's seen, he smiles. "<I'm done answering questions.>"
Am I dead? Am I alive? The answer may surprise you!
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"What a week, huh?" "Doc, it's only Wednesday."
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Tony Jones
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Press Any Button to Start

Post by Tony Jones »

Exemplar
Hero Points: 1; Luck Points: 1; Condition: Fatigued

Exemplar, having no chance to read his mind, throws her ESP towards him as he starts to look to his upper right, with a point of view to match his so she hopes to see whatever he is seeing...
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Press Any Button to Start

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

Exemplar see's nothing through use of her ESP.
Am I dead? Am I alive? The answer may surprise you!
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"What a week, huh?" "Doc, it's only Wednesday."
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Tony Jones
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Press Any Button to Start

Post by Tony Jones »

Exemplar
Hero Points: 1; Luck Points: 1; Condition: Fatigued

*Someone is communicating with him somehow,* Exemplar comments mentally, expanding the communication to include not just the other supers present, but the police officers as well. *Not something visible to my ESP. But given what he just said, and his no longer being willing to talk, I think we should expect someone to try and break him out in the near future...*
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Press Any Button to Start

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

Image

It's almost as if on cue with Exemplar's mental observation that the situation with Absinthe takes a sudden turn for the worst. Throughout the conversation he'd been carefully maintaining his breathing, taking larger and deeper breathes of air. As if he were trying to kindle the flames of a dwindling campfire. Opening his eyes, you see the coals of his eyes flare in time with his breathing. "<You really think I'm powerless, just because I'm chained up like this?>"

You can almost hear the grin even if you can't see it, "<I can break these cuffs.>"

Veins bulge along his neck and down his arms as he visibly makes an effort against his bindings, gritting his teeth and groaning against the strain. Rainbow is more than ready to make an attempt to subdue him when a suddenly flash of heat causes her to flinch back reflexively. The seams of his body begin to glow a dangerous red, the very air around him seaming to steam. "<Ever heard... of Blood alcohol content...?! Hahhhhah! There's never a moment when I'm anywhere less than five percent!>"

Despite his bold claim of levels that'd kill even the hardiest of drinkers, Absinthe doesn't seem impaired in the least. If anything the implication was that it's made him even stronger, a fact proving by the way his handcuffs start to melt right off his body. "<Hahah, I didn't think this would actually work! This is inᚲᚱᛖolig->"

Operative's translation trick suddenly starts to display strange visual errors, the occasional word displaying what might be Nordic runes. The more Absynthe speaks, the odder he's started to sound as well. It's as if he suddenly started speaking another language in place of his own. Meanwhile, Rainbow notices her chat blowing up as the events started to unfold. People are absolutely loving the drama, while a handful have taken notice of the shift of language. They claim the language he's shifted to was Swedish. Somewhere in the jumble of text, someone says they lost connection to the stream.

"<Hehah... Hah... It's working! ᛁᛏ×ᛊ... It's...>" His amusement peters out, his eyes start flickering to and fro as they track something none of you can see. A twitch of his arm goes unnoticed as he struggles to keep speaking. The man takes a gulp of air, looks straight at Warlock and speaking. "<Something's wrong.>"

"What the hell is going on?!" A shout from behind the group, snapping people's attention to the people around them. People who in this instance might be better likened to statues. All around them are civilians, police, and EMTs alike that have frozen in place. One of the only people not affected was the fireman Octogirl had been talking to earlier as he franticly waved a hand in front of his friend, while everyone else seemed to be operating as if nothing was wrong.

Image

Lines start forming in mid-air, spiderwebbing outward from nowhere and seeming to cut off nonsensically at strange angles. The more Absinthe glows the more that reality all around the heroes starts to stutter and chug. If that wasn't bad enough, there's a strange phantom heat in the back of everyone's minds. Exemplar in particular finds herself affected by a sudden piercing headache as a stream of nonsense words and phrases just start beaming straight into her consciousness.

The air around the villain has grown almost unbearable, his bindings having long melted into the growing pool of molten asphalt around his feet. In the middle of it, a perfectly symmetrical circle the size of a fist seems entirely unaffected. <H...Help. Help me. I can't- I can't stop it! It's bugging out-> The translation completely fails for several words, for a brief moment turning Japanese. <"-integer overflow?! That sounds bad! I can't- Help me! It hurts, my head, my head- ARGGGggHhh!>

Time stutters, even lifting a finger feels like you're fighting through molasses. How you haven't considered doing anything up until now is a mystery, perhaps some corrupted form of the Monologue? But even still, you find yourselves pressed with a single thought. Absinthe was about to blow, and you were all right next to the blast zone.

GM: Everyone has a single action or move.
Am I dead? Am I alive? The answer may surprise you!
------------
"What a week, huh?" "Doc, it's only Wednesday."
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Vivid
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Press Any Button to Start

Post by Vivid »

The Operative
CND: 0, Exhausted > Passed out next round unless HP recover, HP: 1 JuryRig: 2
Utility Belt: Translation Program stunt
Projection System: Illusions
Scanner Suite: Visual gain penetrating, radius


"Shields in layers!" Operative calls out and the illusory subtitles vanish as she activates the thickest shields she can manage around the dwarf. If possible they'll fit under as well.
[Extr effort to raise ranks by... I think it's 1? That'd make Toughness 11 shields {Create Object, Precise}]
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Gunmetal_Rainbow
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Press Any Button to Start

Post by Gunmetal_Rainbow »

RAINBOW STAR
[HP:0] Cond: Exhausted -> Unconscious

RS honestly hadn't been keeping up with the conversation. She was exhausted from the back to back battles, so the most she could do is keep her hand glowing psudo-menacingly. But things changed when....well...*something* was happening. RS had no idea *what* was happening, but she could pick up on it was something bad.

As the captured villain started panicking, she knew it wasn't just some game mechanic, but something really REALLY bad was happening. She did hear The Operative's shout to layer shields, but seeing the panic in the villains' eyes, she couldn't just abandon him to whatever this was.

Instead of backing out, she leaned in, throwing all the healing energy she had at Absinthe. She had no idea what this was, or if what she was doing would do anything at all, but it was a reactive flinch response to the situation, heedless of her low energy reserves and she could feel her consciousness slipping as she made her desperate attempt.
Discussed the stunt with Doc beforehand.

Stunt from Energy Emission(22pp): Nullify 11, Broad(???), Simultaneous, Side Effect
He's defenseless bound up I recall, but going to roll anyways for the crit
All-Out Attack for the added accuracy: Allout(+5) Nullify: 1D20+12 = [6]+12 = 18 (And realizing after the fact, I'm not sure critting on an effect that has an opposed roll makes sense.... so I'll roll it normal, but add the crit bonus if you feel it's appropriate Doc)
Opposed roll: Nullify: 1D20+11 = [19]+11 = 30
Good base roll for it though! (Of course, it's probably against the AI itself, so....we'll see?

She has no HP to deal with the fatigue, so she's rendering herself unconscious by doing this.
jmucchiello
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Press Any Button to Start

Post by jmucchiello »

Octogirl

"Why are you still moving but the others aren't?" Octogirl says to the fireman. "I think you need to be far from here." She picks him up and flies away from the center of Absinth's eventual explosion.
kenmadragon
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Press Any Button to Start

Post by kenmadragon »

Warlock
HP: 1; Cond: Fatigued; Bruised (-1)

Martin had been thinking to himself how the revelation that Absinthe wasn't a true sorcerer made so much sense now. After all, the dwarf hadn't been casting proper spells, but channeling the energies of his elemental companions... and blowing flames from his mouth using internal reserves. Externally shaping the power hadn't been done by Absinthe, even if the dwarf did use magical energy by his very nature to achieve those effects. Everything had been internal or done by the elementals -- the healing from the Ale conjured by the Alemental, and the rage-spirits that transformed the dock workers into berserkers came from the ash of the Fire Fiend.

...That meant Absinthe's powers weren't the formation of external sorcery, but of internal magics innate to his being... which also meant that the dwarf might have had power left in the tank. And the signs were beginning to point to Absinthe being a Villain-PC, nor an NPC, which meant there were likely more tricks up the dwarf's sleeve if he had access to more patterns of innate magic in his internal reserves. More tricks that could be pulled out upon capture.

The realization came too late. Before he could warn to gag the dwarf, Absinthe had already started channeling the power... inwards. And it didn't seem to be going properly. No proper practice, likely. But whatever the Villain had tried to do, it wasn't in line with what his powers normally permitted, or were done incorrectly and the backlash was ripping through the local reality.

Sam paused, looking on in horror and fascination, wondering at how the Virtual World started to stutter and glitch around the dwarf at channeling booze-magic internally as a boost in ways the world hadn't designed him to do. He spent so long just staring, mouth agape in utter fascination and curiosity that he barely registered the danger of the dwarf threatening to explode the virtual reality around him as the glitch spread. It wasn't until Rainbow Star blasted the dwarf with rainbow energy to try and stop the damage with even more disruption that he jolted back into himself and realized there was a voice in the back of his mind screaming at him to do something.

"GET CLEAR!" Martin roared, finally leaping into action. The Wandering Warlock thought quickly, harnessing the eldritch powers of the world and seized upon the cracks in the Virtual Reality to channel order-affirming power and twist the shattering into logical order and form the patterns he needed to create. Acting quickly, the knowledge he had taken from the Arcane Order flowed through him, reminding him of the spatial calculations and dimensional harmonies that had to be computed and synchronized in the flashes of instants, carving out the patterns as eldritch lightning circled the dwarf and runes screamed into being around him. With a thundering cry and exclamation to dead gods, Martin rent open a rift between the worlds and fought to keep it stable while his mind raced and focused eldritch power into the world to shape Order as he willed.

"Help me if you can! Shove him through! Make sure he falls into the rift!" the Warlock cried as he weaved gleaming mandalas of energy and surrounded the non-combatants and the other heroes he could with more barriers, layering them with the tech-ghost's gleaming white-light fields, lines and runes of forbidding power singing a song of defense as they added yet another enhancement to defend against the encroaching cracks as gravity had difficulty taking hold of the dwarf to draw him into the rift the sorcerer had opened beneath him.
OOC wrote:Swapping from Hedge Magic to Parting the Veil Between Worlds. Opening a Portal beneath Absinthe's feet, hoping that gravity will drop him into another dimension (though having someone help shove him through would be appreciated). That should be a Move+Free Action. Swapping Sorcery array to Conjuring from Thin Air to throw upon more barriers with Create 13 in a similar vein to Operative's idea with my Standard Action.
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Tony Jones
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Press Any Button to Start

Post by Tony Jones »

Exemplar
Hero Points: 1; Luck Points: 1; Condition: Exhausted

"Whatever is happening to him ... is ramming nonsense words and phrases into my head too!" says Exemplar in a pained tone as she raises her hands to massage her throbbing temples.

"But ... the civilians!" she raises a hand from her temple, and her psychokinetic power lashes out, filling the area with tendrils of crystalline psychokinetic force that pick up every one of the frozen civilians, police, and EMTs and moves them away, to as safe a location as it is possible to get them in the time available.

She attempts to back away from Absinthe herself as she does so (though she wasn't too near him to begin with), but doing that is of far lower priority than saving the civilians.
OOC wrote: Power Stunt on her Psionic Powers array:

Move Object - 3 [400 lbs], Burst Area x 6 (900 feet radius), Selective, Precise

With her ability to Detect Minds hopefully she can find, pick up and move away to a safe location everyone around Absinthe, even if they are out of line of sight of her eyes...
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Doctor Malsyn
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[IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Loading...

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

In the span of a few seconds everyone begins moving in tandem. Octogirl and Exemplar are both entirely focused on helping to get people out of danger, the former slamming into the fireman while the latter tries to grab as many people as she possibly can. It's so hard to concentrate with the amount of junk data slamming into the accomplished mentalist, it's as if some fundamental facet of her powers have gone completely haywire. For some reason several boxes and a trashcan got picked up even when she was so sure to have only picked up those with thoughts. In contrast, the exact same number of people as objects remained rooted in place.

"Oof-" The earlier flirt was taken by surprise by the energetic heroine's sudden tackle and subsequent flight. to his credit he recovered remarkably quickly, looking back at the floating civilians with noted concern. "I think it's because they're all- Well, you know?" The statement hangs unfinished, but the implication obvious. The only people not being affected seemed to be player controlled characters.

Operative and Rainbow both were fighting on the brink of unconsciousness, the strain on their avatars having reached the absolute limit. One was focused on trying to help contain the inevitable much to Absinthe's dawning horror, while the other pushed for another route. It was taking every single bit of her mental strain to pour herself into a move she'd never even once considered trying up until this very moment. It showed, it absolutely showed that this wasn't what she'd been designed to do. In the corners of her visual interface, pop-ups that weren't associated with her actual equipment began to crop up as something tried to her that something was wrong. Very wrong, considering how overt the game was being when normally it was the silent arbiter that subtly directed her thoughts elsewhere.

When Martin pulled upon the eldritch forces coded into the worldspace, something else was tugged upon instead, some deeper fundamental aspect of this reality. Said reality was absolutely hating this, and the visual cracks only grew deeper and more profoundly disjointed. For a brief moment, Sam thought he could see the very code that underlined the gamespace, before his thoughts were abruptly ripped to the side by an uncaring arbiter. A portal had formed at the feet of the dwarven invader, to where the spellcaster had no clue. When he gave his shout, only one person was able to hear and act.

For Hellcat, this rapid series of events had been taking course over several perspective hours now. She could pinpoint to the exact pico-second when things had started to go wrong, and it just so happened to coincide with that mysterious message Absinthe received before turning his powers inward. Whatever this meant could be considered later when everyone was finally out of danger, and it's only at this very moment that her body had finally caught up with her mind. Feet were beat as she launched herself forward, her cartoon physics finding all the more purchases in this strange nonsensical breakdown of reality.

Absinthe saw the woman coming towards him and met her with an outstretched hand, as if looking for her to grasp hold and pull him free of the danger he himself had set off. What hope had remained alight in his eyes turned into realization as the woman didn't slow down even an instant, merely rearing back her foot and slamming it against the shields containing him within. This was the last push needed to shove the dwarf fully within the rift, light bubble and all.

Near instantly this had a noticeable effect on the stability of the world around everyone, things for a brief moment seemed to normalize. The danger, it seemed then, had passed.

Then the sky exploded, and time froze.

Image

The final destination for the villain had been realized, the dwarf having ended up somewhere in the upper atmosphere above Premium City. A blinding light swept across the city, with an all encompassing darkness nipping at it's heals. Everything everywhere else had stopped; Warlock in mid-chant, Octogirl halfway through a flirtatious boast, Operative and Rainbow both on the razor's edge between wakefulness and sleep, Exemplar finding herself fully blanked mentally, all while Hellcat was halfway across the city in a single stride.

Despite the worldspace having frozen all around them, the thoughts of the players behind these masks were at full attention as the sphere of nothingness raced ever closer.

Until- Everything vanished all around them only to have their senses assaulted by the sharp scent of disinfectant and the shout of an attended at whichever True Realities center they had individually frequented. Whatever words they told each player through their blinding headaches were desperate but conveyed the same message. Something had gone wrong server-side, forcing the company to shut down the game so that they might patch whatever problem just occurred.

Each of you were now in the hellish grips of extreme 'dumpshock', a medical term for being ripped out of a VR space without proper preparation. Having been a the forefront of the proceeding error cascade, it seemed it was currently affecting each of you worse than it was for other players. They assure however that the symptoms should clear up in a few hours with plenty of water and a little bit of aspirin, after which one should be able to return home safely.

For today, it seems, game time was over.

GM: Thusly concludes the first adventure of the game. out with a bang, I say. You can all write how your character's real selves react to this event if you'd like, keep in mind that you're all very likely in different VR centers all over the world so your interactions will be minimal at this point.
Am I dead? Am I alive? The answer may surprise you!
------------
"What a week, huh?" "Doc, it's only Wednesday."
jmucchiello
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Loading...

Post by jmucchiello »

Tim "Octogirl" Oliver

Someone was talking about cascading failure and apologizing at the same time. Tim was out of it for a few moments before he even realized he had a splitting headache. There were a bunch of folks at the facility recovering from being ejected from VR but Tim seemed to have been affected worse. He wasn't sure how long he was out of it before he even decided he could look at his phone: Ten o'clock at night. Damn! he thought. Should have been home hours ago. This was confirmed by half a dozen text messages from Mom and Dad. He texted back that he couldn't charge his phone for a while and that he'd lost track of time at the library.

As soon as he was steady on his feet, he left the center and headed home. The talking to he was going to receive at home wasn't able to push past what had happened online. He had flirted with that fireman. He hadn't really hated it when he thought the fireman was a bot. But he wasn't a bot. He was a player. Who plays a fireman in a game where you can do anything? Tim was kind of interested in knowing who would do that. The next time he was in game, he would have to go visit that bar and see if he could ask him about it.

What was his? Danny? Not much to go on to find him. I suppose there's a firehouse near the pier. But there must have been firemen from several engine companies at the pier that night....
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Vivid
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Loading...

Post by Vivid »

Maggie Cole

Maggie called her husband, Dennis. He was away at some conference or another and she didn't get the time zones right, that's why it went to voice mail she assured herself.

She was going to tell him what happened, she really was. Then she had the thought that he might encourage her to quit the game. He'd never understood it and this would just be 'proof' that the housewife didn't need such frivolities. The voicemail she left was a generic 'I miss you' type.

She did however call her primary care physician to tell her what happened. Dr. Gretel Schumaker had been her family's GP for many years now and Maggie expressed her concerns and request CAT and MRI scans. She otherwise went home to her empty suburban house to rest.
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Tony Jones
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Re: [IC] Superheroics Unlimited: Loading...

Post by Tony Jones »

Emily
Condition: Suffering from Dumpshock. Ouch.

"Oh, my head!" groans Emily Christian as the dumpshock crashes down into her brain.

"What happened? Did it crash? I hope your game hasn't given me brain damage or something! Or am I OK? Is everyone else OK too?"

----

But regardless of the answer, she eventually made her way back to her isolated cabin in the Oregon backwoods where she took some painkillers and then took herself to bed in the hope the headache would be gone in the morning.

It was sad, but she couldn't help but find herself missing the powers, the confidence, the sheer intelligence of Exemplar now she was back in the mundane - the real - world...
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