dasstan
:)
- Joined
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Nilbog would be a fun one to throw in there, too.
"Here, go crazy. We'll be back to check on you in a few days."
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RIP @Silver Swallow
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"Here, go crazy. We'll be back to check on you in a few days."
gunghoun
The Hero of Man (v2.0)
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2015
- Messages
- 192
He needs fresh input. In canon, his creations were growing weaker and weaker as he had to cannibalize them for biomass for the next generation.
Daunmi
Shun the sun, night so nice
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2015
- Messages
- 433
Love it!
I did as a child. But before anyone says age doesn't matter, I had no idea there were negative meanings to the word, so I used it as the name for what I got when I mixed chocolate and strawberry milk mix together.
Pink chocolate is obviously 'chink'.
Three guesses to what my parents had to explain to me. First two don't count.
Amelia, Ch 378- Missy
TanaNari
Verified Dick
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 28,450
Amelia, Ch 378- Missy
I reluctantly pulled away from Clarice. As much as I wanted to help her, and I actually had a top notch medical skillset to help me do it, Khepri was right. We needed to survive first and worry about injuries second. The part where these assholes were willing to set off a nuclear fucking weapon right above their own population told me how very little they cared for human life. If we were caught right now, we'd be better off dead.
I dropped back into my seat and gripped space, twisting it like a pretzel. In my time off, I'd spent a lot of time just thinking, because there was nothing else to do. Except losing at card games to Dinah, or losing at video games to Zach and Theo. Or watching the amazing combination of brilliance and insanity that was Clarice. But everyone was always so busy, so I was left with thinking and talking to the others. It meant I had a lot of ideas.
....
"Lachesis, you'll be needed for two purposes. First to keep this thing outrunning enemies that almost certainly include short range precogs and teleportation powers. The second will be during cleanup, to seek out human lifesigns or anti-power devices. My powers have been proven vulnerable to certain types of strangers and cloaking technology. But in the interest of conserving your strength, I'll take care of everything I can first. When I'm done, you confirm that this world has been completely cleared of human life."
I saluted. It wasn't even sarcastic. I loved this, I needed this now that Elena and Clarice managed to safely restore me to full power. Knowing that my actions were making a difference on the international stage. The respect I commanded from my peers, and the fear felt by my foes. "Yes ma'am."
....
If space could cry, it would be screaming right now. If it could bleed, then I would be its murderer. Distance folded in half around us, concentrating the gravity drive to send us forward at supersonic speeds. That's the thing about gravity, even the folded and warped gravity used by our antigrav tech, it's a form of energy that travels through space just like all other types of energy. The drones chasing us found a new 'down' in the enemy fortress. They were pulled by gravity roughly equivalent to the surface of Jupiter. We were moving far too fast for me to enjoy the satisfaction watching and hearing the explosions, but I'm sure Victoria would approve.
Lily clapped a hand on my shoulder. "Holy shit! And people think I'm the scary one. "
Yes! About damn time you admit it. I shrugged, about a thousand times more nonchalant than I felt. "You've probably still got me beat. I mean, the only way my power can affect anything you're influencing is if we spend several minutes working with Clotho to synchronize our effects. So you can basically ignore anything I can throw at you like it's nothing."
She laughed. "Maybe, in the insanely powerful battle armor that lets us kick the Triumvirate's collective asses. But when we're not wearing our suits I'm pretty much pure glass cannon. You can outrun me, you can track me at range and, oh, drop a building on my head or redirect traffic into me. Seriously, what is it about little girls with crazy unfair powers?"
Little girl? Oh, you bitch.
"We're approaching your first dropoff point. We might have to leave you behind."
"That's fine, I'm kinda looking forward to the whole 'orbital cannon' thing." Lily stepped away from me, and the suction of the open door began and ended in a couple seconds.
....
"I'll be piloting. Once we break their barricade device or devices, our shunt tech is poised on Mashu. Both Basilisk and Bolla are ready if we need them. I really doubt we're going to need them. Amelia and Dragon will be waiting on the other side, along with some backup firepower. Once their barricade is down I'll have full control of the planet's insect population in a matter of minutes, plus my special bugs shunted in from Avalon. To that end, Atropos, there's a reason your new armor is equipped to function in orbit. We search, you destroy."
"Wait, does that mean my armor doubles as an orbital cannon?"
"Plus the tech needed for you to aim and fire at that range," Taylor smiled. "And survivability at that altitude. You could take a trip to the moon and back if you really wanted to."
Zach started clapping slowly. "All you need now is an upgrade that lets the armor transform itself into a sailor suit and an adorable female AI that flirts with you constantly, then your apotheosis into the goddess of all geek fetishes will be complete."
Lily's head turned slowly toward Zach. Her smile was wild, almost manic. "Y'know, I should be pissed at you for saying that, but you are so totally right. I am wearing the sexiest thing ever made. And I am in love."
Victoria laughed. "It's true, if you keep getting new features, I might have to jump you. And I'm a negative one on the Kinsey scale."
Taylor ignored the comments and went on with the briefing. "Normally we might expect the dimensional barricade machine to be near their main base. However, we know they've been using dimensional viewing tech to spy on Bet. Various world leaders, research labs, and other places with sensitive information in the world. Both Cauldron and Dragon have been tracking interesting financial shifts that suggest they're already mucking about with banks. They're spread out across the world, and that means their machinery could be anywhere. Fortunately, barricade tech leaves very distinctive signatures, and Dragon's given us the means to track them."
This is my favorite part of working with Pantheon. My bosses aren't dumbasses. They're not borderline psychopaths like the Piggot, they aren't tools like Armsmaster. They're not completely oblivious to the people they're supposed to command. As much as I loved Dean, he was dumb as hell when it came to people. The more I'd learned about Thinkers and how their powers tend to cause behavioral oddities, the more I'd come to accept that it wasn't his fault that he didn't understand the way others thought and felt. He was able to sense them, but he could never really understand them.
Khepri did understand people. She didn't yell at the smartass commentary, and she didn't try to force herself to participate in their humor. They did their thing, she let them do their thing, and she kept the briefing on track. And she trusted her people to get the job done.
....
Space rippled around us as I was forced to evade another wave of Yangban blasts, jumping the ship by miles at a time. The problem was, the enemy had an absurd number of powers to call on. Teleportation, some kind of precognition or other really good Thinker powerset, a laundry list of blaster and shaker powers to make our lives more difficult.
Khepri forced the controls hard, and I barely adjusted my space folding in time to keep us from breaking through the tunnel. The ship shuddered and shield panels flickered as they were drained of power. "How are you holding up?"
I grit my teeth. This was starting to suck, I'd have used a stim by now if they gave me any. "I'm running pretty low already. I might have to beg off the cleanup part of the mission for a day or two."
A pair of arms wrapped around me from behind and squeeze. "You can do it, you're strong." Clarice, supporting me despite her own injuries. I closed my eyes and drew strength from that. Maybe the three of us don't have the benefits of Taylia's power improvement bullshit, but we are a team and a partnership and a family, however unconventional it may be. However weak or strong our powers were was not a factor in our relationship. It did, however, factor into us surviving. I focused on that. I can keep going.
Taylor nodded. "Just a little bit longer, Lily's almost caught up to us. I'm sorry there's so many more people than we expected. According to Dragon's tracking software, they're already at over three hundred thousand people and climbing steadily."
"That's more than Avalon." Theo muttered. "They've only had this world for a couple weeks."
Another stream of blasts started coming in, and I focused, twisting them toward the building itself. Thus far we hadn't been able to pierce the shielding they had around those things without using Lily's weaponry. But we were buying time for ourselves. Further away from the devices was more dangerous, since they weren't willing to fire on us with their most powerful attacks when I could redirect ninety percent or more of them toward the very thing they were trying to protect.
I faltered. I faltered for half a second and the ship twisted and flipped sideways. In one desperate maneuver, I altered our path to the ocean. Water started flooding in through the vent system meant for Theo's power.
================
A/N- It might have been easier if, instead of shunting over an attack force, they just created Vashta Nerada and shunted a ship full of them in.
I reluctantly pulled away from Clarice. As much as I wanted to help her, and I actually had a top notch medical skillset to help me do it, Khepri was right. We needed to survive first and worry about injuries second. The part where these assholes were willing to set off a nuclear fucking weapon right above their own population told me how very little they cared for human life. If we were caught right now, we'd be better off dead.
I dropped back into my seat and gripped space, twisting it like a pretzel. In my time off, I'd spent a lot of time just thinking, because there was nothing else to do. Except losing at card games to Dinah, or losing at video games to Zach and Theo. Or watching the amazing combination of brilliance and insanity that was Clarice. But everyone was always so busy, so I was left with thinking and talking to the others. It meant I had a lot of ideas.
....
"Lachesis, you'll be needed for two purposes. First to keep this thing outrunning enemies that almost certainly include short range precogs and teleportation powers. The second will be during cleanup, to seek out human lifesigns or anti-power devices. My powers have been proven vulnerable to certain types of strangers and cloaking technology. But in the interest of conserving your strength, I'll take care of everything I can first. When I'm done, you confirm that this world has been completely cleared of human life."
I saluted. It wasn't even sarcastic. I loved this, I needed this now that Elena and Clarice managed to safely restore me to full power. Knowing that my actions were making a difference on the international stage. The respect I commanded from my peers, and the fear felt by my foes. "Yes ma'am."
....
If space could cry, it would be screaming right now. If it could bleed, then I would be its murderer. Distance folded in half around us, concentrating the gravity drive to send us forward at supersonic speeds. That's the thing about gravity, even the folded and warped gravity used by our antigrav tech, it's a form of energy that travels through space just like all other types of energy. The drones chasing us found a new 'down' in the enemy fortress. They were pulled by gravity roughly equivalent to the surface of Jupiter. We were moving far too fast for me to enjoy the satisfaction watching and hearing the explosions, but I'm sure Victoria would approve.
Lily clapped a hand on my shoulder. "Holy shit! And people think I'm the scary one. "
Yes! About damn time you admit it. I shrugged, about a thousand times more nonchalant than I felt. "You've probably still got me beat. I mean, the only way my power can affect anything you're influencing is if we spend several minutes working with Clotho to synchronize our effects. So you can basically ignore anything I can throw at you like it's nothing."
She laughed. "Maybe, in the insanely powerful battle armor that lets us kick the Triumvirate's collective asses. But when we're not wearing our suits I'm pretty much pure glass cannon. You can outrun me, you can track me at range and, oh, drop a building on my head or redirect traffic into me. Seriously, what is it about little girls with crazy unfair powers?"
Little girl? Oh, you bitch.
"We're approaching your first dropoff point. We might have to leave you behind."
"That's fine, I'm kinda looking forward to the whole 'orbital cannon' thing." Lily stepped away from me, and the suction of the open door began and ended in a couple seconds.
....
"I'll be piloting. Once we break their barricade device or devices, our shunt tech is poised on Mashu. Both Basilisk and Bolla are ready if we need them. I really doubt we're going to need them. Amelia and Dragon will be waiting on the other side, along with some backup firepower. Once their barricade is down I'll have full control of the planet's insect population in a matter of minutes, plus my special bugs shunted in from Avalon. To that end, Atropos, there's a reason your new armor is equipped to function in orbit. We search, you destroy."
"Wait, does that mean my armor doubles as an orbital cannon?"
"Plus the tech needed for you to aim and fire at that range," Taylor smiled. "And survivability at that altitude. You could take a trip to the moon and back if you really wanted to."
Zach started clapping slowly. "All you need now is an upgrade that lets the armor transform itself into a sailor suit and an adorable female AI that flirts with you constantly, then your apotheosis into the goddess of all geek fetishes will be complete."
Lily's head turned slowly toward Zach. Her smile was wild, almost manic. "Y'know, I should be pissed at you for saying that, but you are so totally right. I am wearing the sexiest thing ever made. And I am in love."
Victoria laughed. "It's true, if you keep getting new features, I might have to jump you. And I'm a negative one on the Kinsey scale."
Taylor ignored the comments and went on with the briefing. "Normally we might expect the dimensional barricade machine to be near their main base. However, we know they've been using dimensional viewing tech to spy on Bet. Various world leaders, research labs, and other places with sensitive information in the world. Both Cauldron and Dragon have been tracking interesting financial shifts that suggest they're already mucking about with banks. They're spread out across the world, and that means their machinery could be anywhere. Fortunately, barricade tech leaves very distinctive signatures, and Dragon's given us the means to track them."
This is my favorite part of working with Pantheon. My bosses aren't dumbasses. They're not borderline psychopaths like the Piggot, they aren't tools like Armsmaster. They're not completely oblivious to the people they're supposed to command. As much as I loved Dean, he was dumb as hell when it came to people. The more I'd learned about Thinkers and how their powers tend to cause behavioral oddities, the more I'd come to accept that it wasn't his fault that he didn't understand the way others thought and felt. He was able to sense them, but he could never really understand them.
Khepri did understand people. She didn't yell at the smartass commentary, and she didn't try to force herself to participate in their humor. They did their thing, she let them do their thing, and she kept the briefing on track. And she trusted her people to get the job done.
....
Space rippled around us as I was forced to evade another wave of Yangban blasts, jumping the ship by miles at a time. The problem was, the enemy had an absurd number of powers to call on. Teleportation, some kind of precognition or other really good Thinker powerset, a laundry list of blaster and shaker powers to make our lives more difficult.
Khepri forced the controls hard, and I barely adjusted my space folding in time to keep us from breaking through the tunnel. The ship shuddered and shield panels flickered as they were drained of power. "How are you holding up?"
I grit my teeth. This was starting to suck, I'd have used a stim by now if they gave me any. "I'm running pretty low already. I might have to beg off the cleanup part of the mission for a day or two."
A pair of arms wrapped around me from behind and squeeze. "You can do it, you're strong." Clarice, supporting me despite her own injuries. I closed my eyes and drew strength from that. Maybe the three of us don't have the benefits of Taylia's power improvement bullshit, but we are a team and a partnership and a family, however unconventional it may be. However weak or strong our powers were was not a factor in our relationship. It did, however, factor into us surviving. I focused on that. I can keep going.
Taylor nodded. "Just a little bit longer, Lily's almost caught up to us. I'm sorry there's so many more people than we expected. According to Dragon's tracking software, they're already at over three hundred thousand people and climbing steadily."
"That's more than Avalon." Theo muttered. "They've only had this world for a couple weeks."
Another stream of blasts started coming in, and I focused, twisting them toward the building itself. Thus far we hadn't been able to pierce the shielding they had around those things without using Lily's weaponry. But we were buying time for ourselves. Further away from the devices was more dangerous, since they weren't willing to fire on us with their most powerful attacks when I could redirect ninety percent or more of them toward the very thing they were trying to protect.
I faltered. I faltered for half a second and the ship twisted and flipped sideways. In one desperate maneuver, I altered our path to the ocean. Water started flooding in through the vent system meant for Theo's power.
================
A/N- It might have been easier if, instead of shunting over an attack force, they just created Vashta Nerada and shunted a ship full of them in.
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Snake/Eater
Myth Maker of the North
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2015
- Messages
- 6,421
This fight was destined to happen,The Avalonic Empire against the Chinese Imperium.I am posting The Delfonics "Ready or Not Here I Come (Can't Hide from Love)" as covered by Mischa "Book" Chillak.Ready or not,they are coming for all of them
dubdub
Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2015
- Messages
- 3
I'm still catching up, but I'm only at chapter 200 or so, great story by the way. I keep seeing you requesting likes. If you really care, I will go through and like every single one of your posts in this thread if you create a link to the next chapters at the ends of your posted chapters.
pepperjack
A Variety of Cheese
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2014
- Messages
- 27,996
Welcome to QQ!
And by the way, Tananari is ... not exactly hurting for likes.
TanaNari
Verified Dick
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 28,450
That's tongue in cheek. Or something like that. Not really serious.
Threadmarks.
dasstan
:)
- Joined
- May 23, 2014
- Messages
- 5,321
You had one job, Missy! ONE JOB! Oh well. Not like they all aren't wrapped up in tinker-tech environmentally shielded suits.
Divabot
KILL ALL THE HUMANS
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2014
- Messages
- 94
I assumed that was a flashback to mission planning.
Coruscant Knave
'Twas love that did this to you.
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2015
- Messages
- 344
y'know in movies and TV shows where they start in the middle of a complicated plan, and then as each person's part in the plan comes up there's a flashback to the briefing explaining their part? Tana's doing that.
dasstan
:)
- Joined
- May 23, 2014
- Messages
- 5,321
... I've just doomed myself to forever thinking of Missy as a tiny Beatrix Kiddo.
tordg
(Unverified Idiot)
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2015
- Messages
- 119
Weird. My using proper grammar hasn't caused confusion before.
It started out that way, but has since had its definition generalized enough that it's considered a new word. Hax is a singular noun with no separate plural form (or at least, none in common use. It wouldn't be incorrect to speak of haxes or haxen per se, especially if emphasis were needed for some reason). Hence, "strikes".
I think the "drive" is redundant here. Perhaps "the drive"?
Either "those emotions", xor redundant "those".
Present tense. Perhaps "if I focused on that, I could keep going"?
Was this said within hearing distance of Amy? I hope not, since I imagine that even now that would be like a kick in the teeth.
... I don't mind this... Their personalities are pretty similar aren't they?
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dasstan
:)
- Joined
- May 23, 2014
- Messages
- 5,321
All she needs now is a
tordg
(Unverified Idiot)
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2015
- Messages
- 119
Y'know, they could probably make her one, but it would take away from the Black Hole Cannon (Spass Cannon?). Which she loves dearly.
GiftofLove
A Gift From The Heart
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2014
- Messages
- 11,542
I don't know why but for some reason while reading this chapter I got insanely angry. Fucking weird, man.
Also, ha! Missy taking digs at everyone. Taylor thinks she's so cool with her artificial love bond.
You know that gets thinking. Maybe there's a reason Thinkers always see Taylor and Amy breaking up without the bond. Food for thought.
Also, ha! Missy taking digs at everyone. Taylor thinks she's so cool with her artificial love bond.
You know that gets thinking. Maybe there's a reason Thinkers always see Taylor and Amy breaking up without the bond. Food for thought.
dubdub
Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2015
- Messages
- 3
Maybe I'm missing something, but what I'm trying to avoid is having to scroll all the way to the top of the post on my phone to check the chapter number, before going back to the index and clicking the next chapter. I'm not sure if I'm missing a function of threadmarks, or if they just don't help me.
pepperjack
A Variety of Cheese
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2014
- Messages
- 27,996
They wouldn't be together without it? If there's something more to it than that, I'm not seeing it.
Daunmi
Shun the sun, night so nice
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2015
- Messages
- 433
Of course there is?
Taylor's not gay. Amelia's not attracted to Taylor. The bond was the only thing that got it started and the only thing that keeps it going.
I don't seem them suddenly not caring for each other if the bond was gone, but they wouldn't care as much and certainly not in a way that makes them feel attracted to each other/the connection.
As for why Thinkers see them breaking up, it's the natural result of precog simulation not being allowed to take into account shard actions, which is what the Taylia bond is. Of course the other shards can't work that out/don't tell their hosts that.
Faraway-R
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
- Messages
- 186
Suddenly, Avalon shunts into the scene! Avalon uses shunt-propagating Moirae attack! It's Super Effective! Simurgh is vanquished!
You're describing Nanoha, you know that?
THE Magical Cannon Girl.
All the firepower of a Battleship.
All the cuteness of an adorable cosplayer.
A faithful AI.
And a magic staff with Wide Area Search.
I call shard shenanigans. Aka - it's Missy's shard being obstinate since the last time.
The problem with that approach... A few.
1) They'll need to remove it, somehow. While Avalon-biosphere is capable of it, normal Earth analogues aren't. But that's cleanup.
---And it's all too easily negated by making Vashta Nerada Khepri-compatible. Just shunt in in the aftermath and the problem is solved at once.
2) They'll still need to deal with dimensional barricades and wild card Yangban actions. And that requires targeting.
TanaNari
Verified Dick
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 28,450
That's horrific, since they'd starve to death in minutes. Also- the whole "need parahumans to fight Scion" thing.
That's even MORE horrific.
They have Amelia. This is not an issue.
The dimensional barricade tech isn't.
This has been a plot point for over three hundred chapters, now.
Sorry, I'm not spending what will amount to hours of work to give you that extraordinarily minor convenience. I will point out that this story is also on Sufficient Velocity, and that has a convenient auto-index on it that you may appreciate.
Starting with the part where it was a joke.
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- Joined
- Mar 13, 2015
- Messages
- 762
Omni-Dimensional Violating Magical Girl Lily-chan!
I'm okay with this.
I'm okay with this.
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2015
- Messages
- 762
Actually, why the hell was that not a thing?
So many people look at Taylor and gave her alt power, heck, maybe even give other Undersider more unusual power but not much beyond that.
When Lily arrived at Blockton Bay, shit is fucked already. Perfect! Time to hit on everyone like a harem protagonist while shooting everyone with absolute penetration power!
Heck, she's already a lesbian and half a Japanese, if that wasn't the perfect character to insert weird anime shit then I don't know what is.
So many people look at Taylor and gave her alt power, heck, maybe even give other Undersider more unusual power but not much beyond that.
When Lily arrived at Blockton Bay, shit is fucked already. Perfect! Time to hit on everyone like a harem protagonist while shooting everyone with absolute penetration power!
Heck, she's already a lesbian and half a Japanese, if that wasn't the perfect character to insert weird anime shit then I don't know what is.
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dubdub
Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2015
- Messages
- 3
It is excessively immersion breaking, like if you had to close a real book and then figure out what page you were on every time you turned the page. That said, I in no way blame you for not wanting to go through the effort. I'll check SV, thanks.
Snake/Eater
Myth Maker of the North
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2015
- Messages
- 6,421
It would get out of customs easy,if it was old fashioned khonsu-aged wine.when is having more money a bad thing?
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GiftofLove
A Gift From The Heart
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2014
- Messages
- 11,542
I'm aware. I just didn't really give it much thought until recently. Missy musing on the differences between their relationships kicked me in the brain, and made me wonder why it is Pantheon always falls apart in Thinker analysis.
The idea was less ' lol, they stop dating' and more 'how much of them even being able to work together for longer than two months is because of brain leaches'.
Ack
(Verified Ratbag) (Unverified Great Old One)
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2014
- Messages
- 7,219
... well, shit.
Just watched Pacific Rim. Now I have more of a feel for Endbringer attacks. (No, really, I do).
Also, typos:
Just watched Pacific Rim. Now I have more of a feel for Endbringer attacks. (No, really, I do).
Also, typos:
This reads weirdly. Unneeded 'at'?
Unneeded end quote.
TanaNari
Verified Dick
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 28,450
It was actually a line I forgot to finish. Here's the full thing for convenience of not rereading:
"Plus the tech needed for you to aim and fire at that range," Taylor smiled. "And survivability at that altitude. You could take a trip to the moon and back if you really wanted to."
dasstan
:)
- Joined
- May 23, 2014
- Messages
- 5,321
Oh well. Not like they don't have a parahuman that can summon extradimensional metal and shape it to his well.