Fannin Quest [Worm]

[Reverberate]

Fannin, Texas. A city located right on the border of Mexico. In 2006, the population was estimated at 603,182. It had a substantial parahuman population, the estimate hovering around 100, with 16 Protectorate heroes and another 8 Wards.

Things changed. On September 13, 2007, Behemoth attacked, killing most of the local parahumans, leaving large parts of the city irradiated and uninhabitable. Tens of thousands dead, hundreds of thousands displaced. An estimated 16,388 people still lived in the city by November 2007. The Protectorate shut down shop, with what heroes were left moving away to elsewhere. The city was looking to be dead.

Somehow - no one is quite sure how - the city has recovered, albeit not quite to it's former glory. The Exclusion Zone - the area too irradiated to be hospitable - is shrinking more quickly than anticipated. Over one hundred thousand people have moved in (or moved back), and the population has bulged in part due to the steady flow of Cuban refugees making their way through Mexico. New gangs have been born and old ones have bounced back. Some villains chose to use the city as a safe zone, doing operations elsewhere and setting up shop locally in some safe-but-as-yet-unreclaimed building.

You were one of the people living here before Fannin collapsed. You struggled through everything, hung on after losing family, never left it for even a moment. Never considered. Your family has lived in this area since before Texas seceded from Mexico. You'll be damned if some fucked up monster is going to break that two centuries long streak.

You carried on, dogged, committed to this city. Just an unusually proud citizen of Fannin.

Then you triggered. Had the worst day of your life, and got powers for the experience. Better than what most people get for it.

You're not sure what to do, now, with your whole situation having changed comprehensively.

Gender?
[ ] Male
[ ] Female

Age?
[ ] Minor (14-17)
[ ] Young Adult (18-25)
[ ] Adult (26-35)

How did you trigger?
[ ] Write-in.

With Behemoth's attack and the slow recovery of the city, there's a paucity of local groups. Only the Aryan Brotherhood is the sort who might be interested in you. The Monárquicos are Cuban-American, the Children of the Confederacy are isolationist, and the other groups are just making their homes here, not really operating in Fannin itself. There are no local heroes or independent villains you know of.

What's your general disposition? Which one of the following paths would you choose, given the choice?
[ ] Independent hero. No one else around these parts is currently a hero, and even if it's an uphill battle, I could do a lot of good by taking down the gangs.
[ ] Independent villain; play cops and robbers from the "robbers" point of view.
[ ] Villain leader. I'll start my own gang. The local scene is almost ideal for it, given the apparent absence of heroes and the small size of local parahuman groups.
[ ] Mercenary. The local gangs fight one another, and I can take advantage of that for some quick cash.
[ ] Go rogue; chart my own path, try to find a way to capitalize on my power.
[ ] Join the Aryan Brotherhood, the only gang to have survived the Behemoth attack.
[ ] Write-in.

 

[Reverberate]

Character Sheet:
Name: Jacinta Salamanca
Gender: Female.
Age: 20 (born Feb 22, 1989)
Trigger event: Trapped in own car on side of road. Half-dead of dehydration by the time she triggered.
Power: Breaker state where she's weightless. Spending time in her Breaker state fills a charge for a Striker ability, which artificially increases the effects of gravity on objects. Can fill only one charge at a time, at present.
General Information: Father died in the Behemoth attack. Mother survived, but left the city. Jacinta stayed in Fannin and kept working, eventually getting a position as assistant manager when Rauner's opened a new retail outlet. Currently still employed there.

Updates:
0 (right above this one!)
1 (trigger event, recovery)
2 (power experimentation)
3 (getting robbed by a homeless girl)

 

[Biigoh]

​

[X] Plan Bii

Gender?
[X] Female

Age?
[X] Young Adult (18-25)

How did you trigger?
[X] You were in a car accident, with your car having ended up in a deep ditch that was out of the way in a former Exclusion Zone... and no one to save you. You struggled, prayed hope for days on end that someone, ANYONE, would come for you... but it wasn't to be. You just suffered in hunger and thirst... day after day, night after night... and when you came to the realization that you were going to die... that no one would come for you, that you would NEVER get powers... you got superpowers. [Breaker/Shaker/Blaster/Mover powerset able to survive in a harsh environment]

What's your general disposition? Which one of the following paths would you choose, given the choice?
[X] Go rogue; chart my own path, try to find a way to capitalize on my power.

 

[Z000]

[X] Female
[X] Minor (14-17)
[X] Independent hero. No one else around these parts is currently a hero, and even if it's an uphill battle, I could do a lot of good by taking down the gangs.

I wanted a Tinker power with the specialization in replicating super power using tech like Acura from Azure Striker Gunvolt and his shield
but i don't really know how to make a trigger situation for that

so i will just go with whatever plan got the highest vote

 

[EVA-Saiyajin]

[X] Bii

 

[Xicree]

Bii the trigger you described wouldnt get a Mover, or Blaster rating. Shaker, Breaker or Brute is the most likely to come out of that (environmental danger/direct type/no human involvement in the stress factors).

 

[Xicree]

Gender?
[X] Female

Age?
[X] Young Adult (18-25)

How did you trigger?
[X] Long frustration plagued you at every turn as you tried to enter college on a scholarship. But you were inadequacy, and like your father had always told you, you were incapable of doing this. Not smart enough, too lazy, no focus. Over and over these things would be repeated no matter how you tried with every class. Some days it felt almost as if you were lucky to be able to read with how your mind scrambled everything which you tried to learn and how standardized testing could never quite capture your plight. You trigger on the day of your result, after a fight with your family as you finally blew up at your father and ran away from the house, only your hopeful prospects for a scholarship against all odds remaining as you struck it out on your own... You found out that day that you were just as big a disappointment as your father had always said.

What's your general disposition? Which one of the following paths would you choose, given the choice?
[X] Go rogue; chart my own path, try to find a way to capitalize on my power.

 

[gammoregan]

[X] Xicree

Looks like that's designed to be a tinker trigger. Master might also be possible, but unlikely.

 

[Biigoh]

Bii the trigger you described wouldnt get a Mover, or Blaster rating. Shaker, Breaker or Brute is the most likely to come out of that (environmental danger/direct type/no human involvement in the stress factors).

Click to shrink...

Actually, a similar trigger event got Kayden her What The Hell BLASTER/MOVER ratings...

 

[Xicree]

Actually, a similar trigger event got Kayden her What The Hell BLASTER/MOVER ratings...

Click to shrink...

Yes, but the event had a human focus. Remember blaster powers come partially from anguish of wanting to lash out at a specific person.

 

[Biigoh]

Yes, but the event had a human focus. Remember blaster powers come partially from anguish of wanting to lash out at a specific person.

Click to shrink...

Erm... no... there wasn't. The core of Kayden's power is to use sunlight/light to fuel herself... she just gets a bonus FLIGHT and SOLAR LASER.

 

[Xicree]

Erm... no... there wasn't. The core of Kayden's power is to use sunlight/light to fuel herself... she just gets a bonus FLIGHT and SOLAR LASER.

Click to shrink...

That's the result not the trigger Bii.

 

[Biigoh]

That's the result not the trigger Bii.

Click to shrink...

My point being is that the trigger I wrote up IS the same as Kayden's. Just from a different pov and stuff...

 

[Grosstoad]

Just... Don't say what type of power, or categorize the power, just what the power does and how it correlates with the Trigger.

Some Powers don't really meld with the Trigger. They don't save, give answers, or provide solutions to the parahuman.
Case in-point: Taylor Hebert, the Locker (and the preceding events, because those are important as well), and bug control.

Actually, the OP post doesn't even require powerset, just the Trigger event.

 

[Hextroyer413]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[kinglugia]

​

Gender?
[X] Male

Age?
[X] Minor (14-17)

How did you trigger?
[X] You did not know how you find yourself in Fannin, now did you remember that there was a Fannin in your memory - nor of any other memories of yourself other than your name, to be exact. The only clue you had of your life prior of arriving here was some kind of strange symbol reminiscent of a reverse Omega on your arm. [Case-53, Blaster/Master powerset]

What's your general disposition? Which one of the following paths would you choose, given the choice?
[X] Go rogue; chart my own path, try to find a way to capitalize on my power.

 

[Reverberate]

Right, finally got home from the long drive. Plan Bii wins. I'll give the update one last read-through and post it.

 

[Reverberate]

Your car is your baby, really. You've taken good care of it ever since you got it for your eighteenth birthday, learning the name of every part, regularly checking it, keeping it in the best condition possible, always driving safely. In the aftermath of Behemoth, the thing survived, spotless, and outside an Exclusion Zone, safe from radiation. Some cosmic act of luck. It was your last - and best - gift from your father.

He didn't survive Behemoth, unfortunately.

Your mother lived through it. You'd both been at your home when Behemoth attacked - your finances were not quite to the point where you felt comfortable moving out, and your parents were happy to let you stay. The two of you had gone to the Endbringer shelter together.

After Behemoth, your mother moved out. You didn't. You were keeping to your father's memory, to the pride of the Salamanca family, to its long history here. She hadn't been able to bear living in the same house she'd spent so much time with your father in, and the family finances weren't in the best condition, with Behemoth having wrecked the city financially as well as physically. You kept on, though, your workplace being one of the few to stay open, with all the emigration, and when it started to expand operations as Fannin got back on its feet, you'd gotten offered a promotion. You took it, greedy, and got a position as assistant manager at a new outlet. Your life was looking up, even if the new job meant you had less free time.

A few days prior, one of the Exclusion Zones had been opened up, an old route now available. Very few people had quite moved in yet, large blocks left empty, the streets pretty much absent of traffic - people have superstitions and worries about just-opened Exclusion Zones, even if you know better - but it was faster than the other ways and you knew the roads from back when you'd first started driving. It would be a faster way to get to work, you thought.

It was. It cut a twenty five minute commute down to ten, and you'd taken to speeding, not having to worry about somebody running into the road or coming around a corner or making a stupid turn.

Unfortunately, your recklessness wound up getting the better of you. You came around a corner at the wrong speed, realizing all too late, your car flipping once, then twice, falling into a ditch, driver's side down, your legs crushed beneath the dashboard. Your first instinct - once you recovered enough presence of mind to stop screaming about the pain in your legs - was to call an ambulance. You scrambled, reaching for your phone, only to learn that there wasn't any signal here. You tried to pull yourself up, but you weighed too much, and your legs weren't moving at all, even if they continued to scream in pain every time you tried to escape.

You yelled occasionally, waiting for someone to stumble on you. It was painful, and you were really sad about the car (and your legs, though you held out hope), but you were alive, not bleeding out, and you'd come back from this.

Then it started to set in that you'd been waiting for hours. You started screaming more loudly, screaming until your throat was raw and hoarse, screaming until you couldn't scream any more.

Still nothing.

Days passed. You slept in the car, when your consciousness failed you.

You got thirstier, as time went on. You pissed yourself, your fingers desperately trying to claw some of it out of your pants and car seat to drink, you were so desperate for water by that point. You couldn't even let yourself cry, because you were in such bad shape, you couldn't dare to lose any more moisture than you had to. You couldn't scream any more - all that would come out was a raspy whisper, not enough to be heard on the road.

A knowledge slowly set in that no one would find you, that you were just fucked. As good as dead. That you would be dead, in just a little while.

The thought is terrifying, and you are suitably terrified. You decide to make one last desperate gambit, trying to claw your way out of the car with your hands and arms alone, but your strength has long dwindled from lack of food, and you hadn't been able to do that when you'd first tried.

"No," you try to say when you fail again, but all that really accomplishes is hurting your throat a little bit and making a raspy whine. You fall back, finally letting the tears fall free, knowing you're lost, that there isn't any point in holding on.

You are going to die here. No one will save you.

The universe unfurls around you, the car seeming to disappear instantly, the smell of your own bodily waste disappearing with it. There's one thing in your sight, massive, whirling, incomprehensibly large, spread out in too many dimensions and made up of too many parts for you to latch onto anything. Some part of it stretches out, and-

You snap back to reality, your throat no longer so hoarse, your body feeling fit in a way it hadn't just a bit earlier. You guess you really needed that little... nap? Was it a nap? You remember dreaming of... something, but you can't recall quite what. Whatever. It hardly matters now.

You try one more time, with your sudden and unexpected second wind, your fingers stretching up, clawing at the car seats, your legs scraping against the dashboard painfully as you pull yourself up, groaning all the while. You feel a sort of pressure in your head, like something pressing down on your brain, building the more you struggle, until it finally releases. When it does, your body feels weightless, like you were floating in water, and you take advantage of your sudden lightness to pull, dragging yourself out of your trapped position, your legs useless lumps of meat that scream louder and louder in pain the more you try to escape.

But you've gotten your second wind. You're feeling stronger, the feeling only compounding with time, and you manage to pull yourself out, preparing to fall on the windows beneath you and gather your strength. Instead, however, you simply float, weightless, your legs dangling uselessly out in the air. You still take a break, glad to finally be free, vaguely inspecting your legs as you hang in the air. The skin is ripped open, a dozen tiny fresh cuts, bleeding slightly. Not enough to bleed to death, you hope. Other than that, they look fine. Bruised, cut, damaged, but fine. You try to wiggle your toes. Nothing.

You let yourself breathe a little, take some time, then turn your attention upwards, towards the door above you. You crawl "up" the car, finding it eerily easy thanks to your current weightlessness, and push open the door. Again you crawl upwards, pulling yourself out, and it's not difficult in the least, thanks to gravity's apparent decision to yield its hold on you.

Your legs are still useless, but it doesn't matter so much any more, since your hands are sufficing to let you move freely for the moment.

You feel a sort of wellspring inside you, growing. Like a second stomach, almost, filling up, something within it needing to be released, but you have no idea how. You notice, absently, that you're no longer hungry or thirsty, your throat feeling better already. You crawl along the car, careful to keep a grip here and there, never letting go. You start to feel a pressure in your hands, increasing in intensity. Something waiting to get out, reaching out each time you touch the car itself, eager to latch on to the vehicle. You don't release it, not just yet - you don't want to risk it.

You manage to crawl your way up out of the ditch, ignoring the thing that wants to escape through your hands, even as it grows in intensity. You let your power - and that's what it must be, a power - drop, and your body falls in a painful pile. The pressure in your hands largely - but not entirely - subsides.

At least you're alive.

You just lie there on the side of the road, hoping that when someone comes by they'll stop and help you.

They do, though it's in no small part thanks to your screaming, your desperate cries for help. You're very glad that your throat is in working order again, and the car slows to a halt, a father with two younger children stopping, looking out the window at you. He looks Hispanic. He glances around, as if afraid that it's a trap of some kind, before finally saying something to his children and getting out of the car.

"Are you okay?" The man says, looking down on you. It's a bit of a stupid question, really, but you find it in your heart to forgive him.

"Can't feel my legs," you rasp. "No signal on phone. Hospital?"

The man looks down at you, nodding, physically lifting you up and carrying you, bridal style, to the front seat of his car. You consider helping him, activating your power again, but the well still feels full, and you don't want to feed that... pressure, in your hands, any more. Not under these circumstances, anyway. You don't know what would happen if you accidentally released it, and you don't think it would be pleasant.

You talk with the man a little on the way to the hospital, apologizing for your smell. He's a recent immigrant, Marco Abrantes. His wife is at home with her mother, and he and his kids were on their way to the movie theatre, though he doubts he'll manage to get to the film in time now. You don't really care, but you listen anyway, trying to be polite. He did kind of save your life, after all. Or at the very least, save you from an awful lot of crawling.

At the hospital itself, you're informed that your legs aren't even broken, much less permanently disabled. It's a pinched nerve - or so they think - and they just have to treat the swelling and it should fix itself. Your mother comes to visit you, driving down from Houston - the hospital called her, since she's your next of kin - and she piles on a mixture of "I love you"s and "you idiot"s in equal measure. You just smile and hug her back when she hugs you on the bed. You're glad to be alive, and your mother's disapproval of your choice in how to drive is far less important than that. She can't stay the night, so she just gives you one last teary hug and admonition to drive more safely before leaving.

The very next day, you're able to walk, and it's surprisingly easy, given that you spent the past three days unable to move them in the least. Maybe it was just not long enough for any real muscle atrophy, or maybe it's some secondary aspect of your power.

The thought occurs to you that you've missed several days of work without calling in sick. You call the next minute, grabbing a nurse and getting a phone so you can hurriedly contact your boss.

"Hello, this is Mr. White's office," come the airy tones of his secretary. "To whom am I speaking?"

"Uh, it's me," you say. "Jacinta Salamanca. I missed a few days because I got in an accident and was trapped in my car."

"Oh, Jacinta!" His secretary has always been unusually friendly with you. You have the impression that it's affected, but you never bothered to call her on it. "It's so good to hear from you! I'm sorry about your accident. Let me just get Mr. White on the line."

There's about thirty seconds of some stupid elevator music and then there's Mr. White. You explain the situation to him, again, avoiding mentioning that you have powers just yet.

"Wow," he says, when you finish. "Jesus. You all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, now," you say, waving your hand in a dismissive gesture automatically even though he can't see you. "I'm sorry about missing work."

"No, no, it's fine! At first I was worried you were flaking, but when I called your house and cell and didn't get a response, I started to worry you'd been kidnapped or something. I'm glad to hear you're alright."

You really wish he had called the fucking police or something, since then you might not have almost starved to death in your car, but you don't say that out loud. Instead, you say, "I'm glad to be alright, sir. You didn't replace me while I was gone, did you?"

"No, no," he says, with a small chuckle. "Hell, if you want to take a few days off to recover, that'd be fine."

Keep working as assistant manager at the local retail chain?
[ ] Yes. I need the money. I'll be ready for work tomorrow morning.
[ ] Yes. I need the money. But I'd like a few days off for the moment.
[ ] No. I don't need the money from some stupid job as assistant manager. I'm a parahuman. It's not like I enjoyed the job, anyway.
[ ] Write-in.

What to do about the situation with your powers?
[ ] Experiment with them. I have a loose idea from my experience, but I do still have questions about that pressure in my hands.
[ ] Just pretend I don't have them. I don't want to deal with this.
[ ] I think these powers can be monetized, legally...
- [ ] Write-in.
[ ] There's no way to monetize these powers but violence. I'll become a mercenary.
[ ] There's no way to monetize these powers but violence. I'll become a vigilante, stealing from the gangs.
[ ] There's no way to monetize these powers but violence. I'll become a villain, robbing banks and the like.
[ ] Write-in.

 

[Biigoh]

​

[X] Plan Bii
Keep working as assistant manager at the local retail chain?
[X] Yes. I need the money. But I'd like a few days off for the moment.
What to do about the situation with your powers?
[X] Experiment with them. I have a loose idea from my experience, but I do still have questions about that pressure in my hands.
-[X] Better to experiment and find out the limits of the power and that pressure before deciding on what to do, legally or otherwise.

 

[Xicree]

Bii... I told you so.

 

[Biigoh]

Bii... I told you so.

Click to shrink...

It looks like we've got gravity based powers with POSSIBLY blaster/shaker subset.

Good enough for tanuki.

 

[Xicree]

It looks like we've got gravity based powers with POSSIBLY blaster/shaker subset.

Good enough for tanuki.

Click to shrink...

No look again. Its a Striker Brute Breaker set.

Power: Can enter alternate state in which she is effectively weightless. Probably has some other abilities she's not yet aware of. Possible Striker ability. Possible (very low-level) regeneration or Brute powers.

Click to shrink...

 

[Biigoh]

No look again. Its a Striker Brute Breaker set.

Click to shrink...

Ish okay, Xicree!

 

[Reverberate]

"I'd really like that, actually," you say. "Getting trapped in my car was kind of unpleasant-" now there's an understatement if ever there was one "-and I'd like some time to get myself together." You pause for just a second before adding, "Thanks."

There's some other meaningless babble, which drains your gratitude a bit, but Mr. White finally - finally - hangs up, letting you take your time off in peace. The hospital is ready to discharge you, since your only real problem was a pinched nerve, and you don't exactly have the best insurance anyway. You sign some papers and walk free.

Experimentation is one of your first thoughts, and your... recent experience has shown that just-opened former Exclusion Zones are basically devoid of human life, so you hike out to a particularly empty area - the insurance on your car hasn't paid out yet, so you can't afford a new one just yet - and find a nice, empty lot, next to two half-ruined buildings. Your... wellspring? "Battery?" It feels like a second stomach, almost, but you're pretty sure if you really had two stomachs, the doctors would have noticed at some point. It gradually drained while you were in the hospital, and you haven't felt much of an appetite since your power manifested, so you think it may actually be a sort of second stomach.

Once you're in the lot, you give a quick check to make sure you're alone, and turn your power on. Your feet stay where they are, for the moment, but you can feel your own weightlessness already. You push, just a little, with your heels and toes, and you rise from the ground, very, very slowly, but without any real ability to stop. You let yourself go, and eventually you slow to a halt several feet above the ground, your body just hanging in the air. You try to "swim," but you can't really manage it, just flailing around uselessly in midair, spinning your body around. Your battery is filling up, almost to bursting now, so you let your power drop, and you hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. It hurts a bit, but you hadn't really planned things out all that well.

You almost repeat your experiment, but the overfull sensation in your gut makes you wince in pain a bit when you turn on that part of your power, and you turn it back off, quickly. You got the vague impression that the pressure in your hands was connected to it, somehow, and you actually had brought things to experiment with that part of your powers. You toss down your backpack, pulling out different objects. You'd originally intended to see which ones the pressure would work on (god, you need better names for these things!), but just touching them with your power so full makes it obvious that it's all of them. The metal ones, the wooden ones, the pressure is eager to leap out for every one of them.

You start with the basketball, putting it down on the ground before filling it with your power, the sensation of fullness almost completely vanishing, and watch as it... does absolutely nothing? Well, that's really fucking useful. You pick it up, intending to stuff it back in your backpack, but notice as you do that it's a lot heavier. Like a weighted trainer ball, or worse. You try bouncing it a little, and it's much harder than normal, like you would expect from its increased weight. You set it back down, intending to move on to the next object, but find that the pressure in your hands has dwindled almost completely, and you can't push anything out.

That's as good an excuse as any to try toying with your weightless state again, and you move over to one of the buildings so you have something to grab onto rather than just risking falling to your death. You experiment with a bit more finesse, this time, climbing while weightless, turning off and on weightlessness. If you do that in midair, you'll fall, but at a controlled pace, and you risk bouncing off the ground if you don't turn it off when you hit the earth. By the time you're done with those experiments, your battery is full.

You keep experimenting back and forth, from your weightlessness power to weighting objects. After a couple hours of experimenting, your notes and work reveal the following:

"Battery:"
- weightless state feeds a battery.
- weighting power feeds off the battery.
- weighting power consumes (roughly) an entire charge of battery. If you fill your battery to the brim, there's a little left after using the weighting power, and your weighting power can be used with only a partial charge, but you're pretty sure it lasts a shorter amount of time when it does.
- battery fills after a minute or two of weightlessness, varies seemingly at random.
- battery's charge dwindles over time.
- battery may be used for natural bodily processes? You've had little to no appetite since your power manifested, while you were starving beforehand.
- battery does not seem to aid natural healing. You cut your hand a little and then filled your battery, but it didn't have any effect that you can see.
- "overcharging" battery is unpleasant. Annoying/somewhat painful to turn on weightlessness while battery is full, but only mildly uncomfortable to leave it on.

Weighting Objects:
- weighting power requires physical contact with the object, but does work through gloves.
- weighting power lasts a long time on all the household objects you've tried. It finally cancelled itself on the basketball around the hour and a half mark. Doing some quick math once other effects cancel, you think the effect lasts longer the lighter the object is, though the relationship doesn't appear to be linear or particularly predictable.
- weighting power has some variance, from about twice as heavy to (what you'd guess is) about four times as heavy. No pattern based on weight, composition, etc, that you can discern.
- weighted objects fall more quickly than unweighted objects, proportional to their increase in weight (twice as heavy -> twice as fast, four times as heavy -> four times as fast).
- weighting power cannot be activated on self.
- weighting power cannot be activated on very large objects (buildings, ground).

Weightless State:
- weightlessness power does not absorb momentum in any way. This means if you activate it, you keep moving in whatever direction you were moving initially. Air friction will gradually (very gradually) slow you.
- you can make very long jumps in your weightless state, but you're not particularly faster than normal.
- staying in weightless state too long starts to ache once your battery fills, and the sensation gets worse the longer you spend there.
- the weightless state is applied to you and objects immediately attached to you (clothes, wallet, watch, necklace, etc). It does not apply to objects you are holding, or to objects you've weighted. Removing objects from your person while weightless makes them regain their normal weight.
- you can apply the weighting effect to objects while weightless. This can be a bit awkward if those objects are attached to you, but that creates an effect where you act like you're much lighter than normal. It does, however, let you sustain your weightless state for much longer without worrying about "overcharging" your "battery."

With your gut feeling full from recent experimentation with long jumps, you spot a garter snake slithering through the grass. On a whim, you reach down and touch it, then fill it with your power. It squirms uselessly in position, apparently unable to move much at all. You watch it for a while, and while it manages to slither maybe an inch, it takes a long time to do so. You don't know exactly how a human would react to this application of your power, but you can't imagine they'd do well.

That more or less concludes your experimentation. There are a few other experiments you can think of, but they're the sort of things you can handle later, if you decide to become a cape.

Cape name?
[ ] Write-in.
[ ] I don't need a cape name! I'll just use my real name.

What to do about the situation with your powers?
[ ] Just pretend I don't have them. I don't want to deal with this.
[ ] I think these powers can be monetized, legally...
- [ ] Write-in.
[ ] There's no way to monetize these powers but violence.
- [ ] I'll become a mercenary.
- [ ] I'll become a hero/vigilante, stealing from the gangs.
- [ ] I'll become a villain, robbing banks and the like.
- [ ] Write-in.
[ ] Write-in.

Anything else?
[ ] Write-in.

Spoiler

Feed your shard conflict and the size of your battery/rate of refresh/etc will increase.

 

[gammoregan]

Anyone have thoughts on how these powers can be used? They don't appear obviously useful to me, but there must be something we can do.

 

[Biigoh]

I think that increasing someone's weight can be dangerous...

But then, I'm also thinking of a jet pack or some such to get enhanced movement.

 

[gammoregan]

Yes, using our power directly on people would significantly hinder them, but compared to other striker powers it just feels lacking that way. I'm simply having trouble thinking of how the ability to nullify our weight, while not affecting our mass or momentum, and increase the weight of other objects, while again not affecting their mass or momentum, is that usable.

 

[Reverberate]

Yes, using our power directly on people would significantly hinder them, but compared to other striker powers it just feels lacking that way. I'm simply having trouble thinking of how the ability to nullify our weight, while not affecting our mass or momentum, and increase the weight of other objects, while again not affecting their mass or momentum, is that usable.

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Your Striker ability will effectively disable most non-Brutes you use it on with a single touch. Your advantage is really more synergy: you have a Striker ability, and your Breaker state is worth a Mover rating. The major(/most obvious, I believe in you guys) trick is getting a good handle on your enhanced movement and using that to get close for your Striker ability.

Yeah, you're not as powerful as, say, Clockblocker or Flechette, but Clockblocker and Flechette both participated meaningfully in the takedown of Scion, and lived in one of the most populous cape cities around. Brockton Bay is a big pond, with big fish (Lung comes to mind).

Fannin is a much smaller pond. To give you some idea of the pond's size, the leaders of the two "big" (relatively speaking) local gangs are Duquesa Sangrienta (of the Monárquicos) and Wraith (of the Aryan Brotherhood). Duquesa Sangrienta is a hemokinetic with a Breaker state where she's made of blood. Wraith is a Master who distributes his consciousness among a bunch of people, but only with their consent. (Those aren't the complete explanations of their powers, obviously, but that's what's common knowledge, and it's pretty close to accurate.) Dangerous in a fight, powerful, hard to take down, sure. But they're probably not earning any ratings higher than a 6, if that.

 

[Larekko12]

I guess we could earn money with weight training? And maybe construction work or something?

 

[Odysseus2099]

I think that increasing someone's weight can be dangerous...

But then, I'm also thinking of a jet pack or some such to get enhanced movement.

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We could probably repurpose a fire extinguisher for that.