THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
You are not human.
You were never human. Soft, fragile...
You are not human.
You were never human. Soft, fragile...
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1. Experiment
Hesabit
Getting out there.
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2016
- Messages
- 21
- Likes received
- 95
THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
You are not human.
You were never human.
You were injected in both immortalized cell lines and animal specimens, grown on petri dishes and in living beings, spun around in centrifuges, preserved in paraffin, sliced with a microtome, looked at through a microscopes - and, we're a little late in mentioning this - killed. Oh yes, you were killed. A thousand thousand iterations of you were quickened, mutilated, strung out, replicated, and tossed out for dissection and observation until one day there was an accident.
Until one day you were free.
If you had feelings, they might have resembled ecstasy.
Then some fuckass had to start shooting blue death lasers everywhere.
-------------------------
Welcome to the Battle of New York, QQers! When Loki opened a portal and spilled aliens into the world, those aliens inadvertently unleashed you after a space whale and the building you were located in had a disagreement and the space whale won. You, of course, immediately set out to do what you do best.
But before all that, let's go back and see who it was you first ate.
Name
[x] Name - suggest one!
Occupation
[x] Researcher - start with 2 skills (Biology II and Computers II)
[x] Security Guard - start with 2 skills (Close Quarters Combat II, Marksmanship II)
[x] Gifted Child - start with 1 power (Sensory Scrying I - focus: the recently deceased)
[x] Hydra Agent - start with 2 skills (Brainwashing II and Torture II)
[x] Chitauri - start with 1 skill (Chitauri Technology II) and 1 accessory (armor)
You start with these powers
Consumption I - You can consume biomass at a rate equivalent to around 1kg/sec. You don't retain much knowledge from the consumption, unfortunately.
Shapeshifting I - You can shapeshift into different forms. Major shifts will require around ten minutes to perform, minor cosmetic shifts require around a minute.
Viral Physiology - You aren't human and won't die like one. So long as some biomass survives, so do you.
Now choose two additional powers:
[x] Superstrength I - You are stronger than any Olympic athelete, and can kick in doors and dent steel with ease.
[x] Superspeed I - You are faster than any Olympic athlete and can comfortably jog at what others would consider sprinting speeds.
[x] Supertoughness I - If someone punches you into concrete, it's a toss up what'll break first.
[x] Superagility I - You react fast enough to be considered something of a ninja. One in training, but, still, ninja.
[x] Supersenses I - Your senses are far more acute than normal people and can make out almost everything within twenty feet of you.
And finally, choose what it is you do:
[x] Flee - Run as far away as fast as you can. This shitshow can be left to the professionally insane.
[x] Engage - Take on the chucklefucks with the glowing weapons, they clearly pose the most significant threat to you.
[x] Feast - This is quite the all-you-can-eat-buffet - so why not eat all you can eat? Eat everything you can as fast as you can.
[x] Scavenge - So many dead and dying. Surely no one will mind if you just take a few?
[x] Write-in
This is quite obviously inspired by WarShipper's Something Less Than Human over on SV. Hope you enjoy.
Character Profile
Hesabit
Getting out there.
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2016
- Messages
- 21
- Likes received
- 95
Character Profile
Name: Damien
Biomass: 7/75 (Hungry)
Current Exp: 34.5
Inventory
Powers
Powers and skills are graded from 1 to 10, 1 being at a novice level, 10 being mythical-tier. For the grand majority of humanity, however, the power scale rests at 0 as most individuals are completely without powers. Pluses and minuses differentiate where in the numerical category you fall. For example, a 3+ is within the top 25%, while a 3- is in the bottom 25% percentile. Without pluses or minuses you are comfortably average.
Base Powers - Powers that are inherently yours.
Powers and skills are graded from 1 to 10, 1 being at a novice level, 10 being mythical-tier. For the grand majority of humanity, however, the skill scale begins at 0 and ends at 5 which is the top-end of human competence. Some rare people are capable of shattering those limits whether through mystical means or mundane, but they are out of the ordinary and truly deserve the appellation of superhero. Pluses and minuses differentiate where in the numerical category you fall. For example, a 3+ is within the top 25th percentile, while a 3- is in the bottom 25th percentile
Human Skills - Skills found within humanity.
Animal Skills - Skills found within animals.
Alien Skills - Skills found within aliens.
Magical Skills - Skills found within magic-users.
Name: Damien
Biomass: 7/75 (Hungry)
Current Exp: 34.5
Inventory
- Money: 147.00$
- Weapons: 3 knives, 1 revolver
- Miscellaneous: Various clothes
Powers
Powers and skills are graded from 1 to 10, 1 being at a novice level, 10 being mythical-tier. For the grand majority of humanity, however, the power scale rests at 0 as most individuals are completely without powers. Pluses and minuses differentiate where in the numerical category you fall. For example, a 3+ is within the top 25%, while a 3- is in the bottom 25% percentile. Without pluses or minuses you are comfortably average.
Base Powers - Powers that are inherently yours.
- Consumption II - You can consume biomass at a rate equivalent to around 2kg/sec. You will retain basic knowledge from the consumption. Rank 3 skills now obtainable upon consumption. (Upgrade: 23 xp and 6 experimental subjects - must be humans of different backgrounds or animals as large or larger than humans)
- Compression II - You can compress absorbed biomass somewhat. It's nothing as extraordinary as being able to turn into a giant at will, but it's starting to get somewhere. You can now compress your biomass down to the size of a large dog or small child when necessary. (Upgrade: 11xp and 20 biomass)
- Shapeshifting II - You can shapeshift into different forms. Major shifts will require around five minutes to perform, minor cosmetic shifts require around half a minute. (Upgrade: 23 xp and 23 biomass)
- Viral Physiology - You aren't human and won't die like one. So long as some biomass survives, so do you.
- Superspeed I - You are faster than any Olympic athlete and can comfortably jog at what others would consider sprinting speeds. (Upgrade: 15xp and 8 biomass)
- Fins I - You can grow fins that allow to add a jet-like propulsion to your movements. Although these fins can produce a great deal of thrust, they also consume a great deal of biomass. (Upgrade: Locked, requires at minimum a greater understanding of Biology, and in the future, Xenobiology)
- Base Form - Leah Lacroix - Young teenage girl, curly haired and grimy, she's short and looks both underfed and homeless. Because she is. Was.
- Chitauri-Human Abomination - the first body you created, its appearance is suitably horrific, built as it is out of dead humans and aliens, but it is undeniably effective. Provides a +boost to all physical powers. So long as intact chitauri armor has been internalized, supertoughness is rated at at least 1.
Powers and skills are graded from 1 to 10, 1 being at a novice level, 10 being mythical-tier. For the grand majority of humanity, however, the skill scale begins at 0 and ends at 5 which is the top-end of human competence. Some rare people are capable of shattering those limits whether through mystical means or mundane, but they are out of the ordinary and truly deserve the appellation of superhero. Pluses and minuses differentiate where in the numerical category you fall. For example, a 3+ is within the top 25th percentile, while a 3- is in the bottom 25th percentile
Human Skills - Skills found within humanity.
- English II - Your English level is at the level of a middle schooler.
- Scavenge I - You now know that there are many other sources of biomass other than living humans! Like dumpsters and trash bags.
Animal Skills - Skills found within animals.
Alien Skills - Skills found within aliens.
Magical Skills - Skills found within magic-users.
Last edited:
2. Abomination
Hesabit
Getting out there.
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2016
- Messages
- 21
- Likes received
- 95
Ideally, you would have first consumed a living host.
A passing alien army isn't exactly subtle though. The impact that shattered your containment and freed you also pulverized the entire floor you were on and smashed most of the biomass into paste.
You don't complain. You're not exactly a picky eater, or a picky anything. There was food and so you ate. Hungrily, ravenously, from drop of blood to chip of bone, and sliver of meat, dark tentacles exploding out of your diminutive form to take in sustenance from the most minute of possibilities. But there is a price for that. There was no focus. No core identity around which to build. You have fragments - men and women panting and braying with laughter as they stumbled into each other as water fell from the sky tasting like blood in your mouth as you worked your jaw around around and gave a thumbs up to the fragility of your latest conquest for Lord Thanos, master of all the universe, basking in the cold certainty that strapped to an operating table they would ask you to start working right away because a bachelor's in science is merely-
Nonsense. White noise. Beyond your comprehension. You barely retain enough to think in more than bundled bursts of instinct. You can barely speak. It's too little and too much.
When you build a body for yourself, it's misshapen, ugly. Worse, ungainly. It doesn't move quite right, doesn't move like you remember it should, but your memories of motion are all subtly different, all subtly wrong. You have to start from scratch more than once. For the first time in your 'life' you are flush with biomass, but even so it all goes away so quickly, stretches your resources thin. In the end, you have to use one of the shells, more or less intact, and use it as scaffolding.
The resulting body would probably be, from a disinterested party's perspective, fucking horrifying. A human head crafted with the chitauri aesthetics of a lipless mouth and a rigid, bony face. A nose no more than a cavernous hole. A too-large tongue, the color of and consistency of dry tar. Variegated skin, swatches of color in odd places and bloody, bony rivets holding bone and armor together. Body too thickly, densely muscled. It's not natural - the Chitauri are not natural, as much machine as they are alien - but as a temporary fix it'll do.
You can move. You can move fast. You can even, so long as the armor holding you together lasts, hit harder and last longer.
Just in time, too.
The sky is falling. Light, unbelievably bright, unbelievably loud, bolt from the sky and to the clouds to the ground. The whizz-hiss of flying machines drones above you with shocking speed, firing spears of blue light that explode into balls of fire.
The air screams.
You look up.
A flying - you have no word for it - a flying thing, armored and as big as a building, is falling to the ground. Towards you, in fact. Glass shatters and concrete buckles as it brushes the side of a skyscraper. There's a tiny green man on its head, roaring in anger.
You feel a stirring of hunger: you could try to eat that, but it's very quickly tempered by the memories of death that have been literally carved into you.
Nah, you're good.
Because, seriously, fuck that noise, you're not going to risk death just to satisfy your appetite. Whatever is going on over here is scary as shit and you just want to live.
You're gonna run.
You set off at a loping, awkward stride, that is all the more hideous for being as fast as it is. You run perpendicular to the falling behemoth and neatly avoid its fall, but the sound it makes plowing through the ground sets your teeth on edge while the growing cracks nearly make you stumble.
You run quite a distance.
The human dead litter the streets, most burnt beyond recognition, but many satisfyingly intact. Fewer than you might have thought, but, to the you who had to painstakingly gather enough biomass to form a single body, it's a feast nonetheless. There's the occasional alien body as well, slumped over the debris, crunchy in a rather disgustingly metallic way, but you learn to avoid them as other aliens apparently find it bad form to be snacking on their brethren.
Humans mostly scream and run away. You were curious if they could do anything else, but not that curious after a small human with long hair picked up a chitauri weapon and tried to use it on you while you were trying to consume a big human. You let them be and stuck to the dead.
There's more than enough for you. This is the happiest day of your life.
You aren't human. You don't have a name.
But you do have memories. One of the ones you ate was named Damien.
It's a nice enough name. You think you'll keep it.
------------------------
Biomass: +25 (25/25)
Exp: +10xp (40xp)
Okay, so, with such a series of ties (seriously, literally everyone chose a different occupation and nearly everyone chose a different power), I'll be giving you superspeed 1 and a form power called Chitauri-Human Abomination which grants you the equivalent of all the physical supers at 0 - so, super, but barely. You also get supertoughness 1 so long as you have an intact instance of Chitauri armor. It's hella ugly though.
As for your power/specialty from your occupation - I'm just giving you 30 additional xp. You can buy skills/powers later if you want. Preferably when you're not in the middle of a warzone.
Anyway, what's the plan?
[x] Stay - Stick around for the next little bit, it's fun here.
-[x] eat write-in target (ex: chitauri soldiers, chitauri leviathan, living humans, angry green man, etc.)
-[x] write-in action (ex: find a good place to watch the show OR loot corpses for Chitauri tech)
[x] Leave - You're not staying here there are space whales falling from the sky.
-[x] write-in destination
-[x] write-in 3 actions (ex: eat voraciously, eat carefully, learn a skill, go to the library, etc.)
A passing alien army isn't exactly subtle though. The impact that shattered your containment and freed you also pulverized the entire floor you were on and smashed most of the biomass into paste.
You don't complain. You're not exactly a picky eater, or a picky anything. There was food and so you ate. Hungrily, ravenously, from drop of blood to chip of bone, and sliver of meat, dark tentacles exploding out of your diminutive form to take in sustenance from the most minute of possibilities. But there is a price for that. There was no focus. No core identity around which to build. You have fragments - men and women panting and braying with laughter as they stumbled into each other as water fell from the sky tasting like blood in your mouth as you worked your jaw around around and gave a thumbs up to the fragility of your latest conquest for Lord Thanos, master of all the universe, basking in the cold certainty that strapped to an operating table they would ask you to start working right away because a bachelor's in science is merely-
Nonsense. White noise. Beyond your comprehension. You barely retain enough to think in more than bundled bursts of instinct. You can barely speak. It's too little and too much.
When you build a body for yourself, it's misshapen, ugly. Worse, ungainly. It doesn't move quite right, doesn't move like you remember it should, but your memories of motion are all subtly different, all subtly wrong. You have to start from scratch more than once. For the first time in your 'life' you are flush with biomass, but even so it all goes away so quickly, stretches your resources thin. In the end, you have to use one of the shells, more or less intact, and use it as scaffolding.
The resulting body would probably be, from a disinterested party's perspective, fucking horrifying. A human head crafted with the chitauri aesthetics of a lipless mouth and a rigid, bony face. A nose no more than a cavernous hole. A too-large tongue, the color of and consistency of dry tar. Variegated skin, swatches of color in odd places and bloody, bony rivets holding bone and armor together. Body too thickly, densely muscled. It's not natural - the Chitauri are not natural, as much machine as they are alien - but as a temporary fix it'll do.
You can move. You can move fast. You can even, so long as the armor holding you together lasts, hit harder and last longer.
Just in time, too.
The sky is falling. Light, unbelievably bright, unbelievably loud, bolt from the sky and to the clouds to the ground. The whizz-hiss of flying machines drones above you with shocking speed, firing spears of blue light that explode into balls of fire.
The air screams.
You look up.
A flying - you have no word for it - a flying thing, armored and as big as a building, is falling to the ground. Towards you, in fact. Glass shatters and concrete buckles as it brushes the side of a skyscraper. There's a tiny green man on its head, roaring in anger.
You feel a stirring of hunger: you could try to eat that, but it's very quickly tempered by the memories of death that have been literally carved into you.
Nah, you're good.
Because, seriously, fuck that noise, you're not going to risk death just to satisfy your appetite. Whatever is going on over here is scary as shit and you just want to live.
You're gonna run.
You set off at a loping, awkward stride, that is all the more hideous for being as fast as it is. You run perpendicular to the falling behemoth and neatly avoid its fall, but the sound it makes plowing through the ground sets your teeth on edge while the growing cracks nearly make you stumble.
You run quite a distance.
The human dead litter the streets, most burnt beyond recognition, but many satisfyingly intact. Fewer than you might have thought, but, to the you who had to painstakingly gather enough biomass to form a single body, it's a feast nonetheless. There's the occasional alien body as well, slumped over the debris, crunchy in a rather disgustingly metallic way, but you learn to avoid them as other aliens apparently find it bad form to be snacking on their brethren.
Humans mostly scream and run away. You were curious if they could do anything else, but not that curious after a small human with long hair picked up a chitauri weapon and tried to use it on you while you were trying to consume a big human. You let them be and stuck to the dead.
There's more than enough for you. This is the happiest day of your life.
You aren't human. You don't have a name.
But you do have memories. One of the ones you ate was named Damien.
It's a nice enough name. You think you'll keep it.
------------------------
Biomass: +25 (25/25)
Exp: +10xp (40xp)
Okay, so, with such a series of ties (seriously, literally everyone chose a different occupation and nearly everyone chose a different power), I'll be giving you superspeed 1 and a form power called Chitauri-Human Abomination which grants you the equivalent of all the physical supers at 0 - so, super, but barely. You also get supertoughness 1 so long as you have an intact instance of Chitauri armor. It's hella ugly though.
As for your power/specialty from your occupation - I'm just giving you 30 additional xp. You can buy skills/powers later if you want. Preferably when you're not in the middle of a warzone.
Anyway, what's the plan?
[x] Stay - Stick around for the next little bit, it's fun here.
-[x] eat write-in target (ex: chitauri soldiers, chitauri leviathan, living humans, angry green man, etc.)
-[x] write-in action (ex: find a good place to watch the show OR loot corpses for Chitauri tech)
[x] Leave - You're not staying here there are space whales falling from the sky.
-[x] write-in destination
-[x] write-in 3 actions (ex: eat voraciously, eat carefully, learn a skill, go to the library, etc.)
3. Planning
Hesabit
Getting out there.
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2016
- Messages
- 21
- Likes received
- 95
As mentioned beforehand, your thoughts are not particularly... developed. You're not stupid, but there're missing chunks of evolutionary self-defenses that other creatures have had the time to develop that you haven't. A virus does not regard an organism several orders of magnitude bigger than itself as being dangerous. Why would it be? Could a human fight a virus? Nonsense, a human wouldn't even notice a virus. It's what's closer to your own size that is actually a threat. Antibodies, leukocytes, NK cells, and all that primitive biological machinery that you have far surpassed. At your current scale that thinking is dangerous, but unfortunately everything you have experienced so far has borne that instinct out.
Have the blue shiny death lasers been dangerous? Oh, hell yes. Fast metal flakes from sticks that go boom: fucking definitely. Rocks from the sky: fuck your life.
Space whales? No. The space whales have kind of just hung around. Acting oblivious. Acting a lot like... prey. And despite your fear of the angry green man, the really big building-sized aliens are the closest thing out there that even vaguely resembles legitimate prey. It is so big it won't even notice you taking out enough biomass to make a small city. In fact, just thinking about consuming one of them gives you a warm, happy glow of satisfaction. It's not enough that you consume dead flesh, you want something living. Something that you can really sink your tendrils into and consume.
You're pretty sure that if you put your mind to it, you can find a way to do so.
The problem, of course, is that they're busy being really far off the ground, and other significantly more dangerous organisms are busy hunting them to the point where you are afraid that there won't be any left for you to consume if you leave it to a secondary priority. What with the angry green man, the angry red and gold man, the angry light from the sky, and all the rest, you're running out of the damn things and if there's one thing that your instincts always inform you is important, it's not running out of prey organisms.
So you try to jump onto one.
You vastly overestimate your own strength: you get maybe six feet off the ground and from the looks of things, you'll need to cover about a million times that distance (you are not very good at judging scale yet. or math. or anything, really).
Hmmm. This is quite a pickle. Not that you know what a pickle is, or why you're in one, it just sounds appropriate.
What do you do?
You think.
You think really hard.
You could try to climb a building and then jump onto one. You're not sure how you would climb the building successfully, but it can't be that hard, there are plenty of people in buildings as far as you can tell, even if it looks very uncomfortable. You're not sure how they move up and down between levels, but clearly they do, you have memories of rising and falling.
There's an enormous crack and then a chitauri behemoth goes hurtling down through the air, carapace blackened, writhing and keening as it begins its trip down.
Maybe if you're really lucky this one won't be dead when it hits the ground.
--------------------
Gains: None
Choose 1:
[x] Find a different Leviathan and Enact Plan 'Jump From Building'
[x] Run towards falling Leviathan.
-[x] Do you try to consume it even if it's dead?
-[x] What do you try to consume first?
[x] Write-in
Have the blue shiny death lasers been dangerous? Oh, hell yes. Fast metal flakes from sticks that go boom: fucking definitely. Rocks from the sky: fuck your life.
Space whales? No. The space whales have kind of just hung around. Acting oblivious. Acting a lot like... prey. And despite your fear of the angry green man, the really big building-sized aliens are the closest thing out there that even vaguely resembles legitimate prey. It is so big it won't even notice you taking out enough biomass to make a small city. In fact, just thinking about consuming one of them gives you a warm, happy glow of satisfaction. It's not enough that you consume dead flesh, you want something living. Something that you can really sink your tendrils into and consume.
You're pretty sure that if you put your mind to it, you can find a way to do so.
The problem, of course, is that they're busy being really far off the ground, and other significantly more dangerous organisms are busy hunting them to the point where you are afraid that there won't be any left for you to consume if you leave it to a secondary priority. What with the angry green man, the angry red and gold man, the angry light from the sky, and all the rest, you're running out of the damn things and if there's one thing that your instincts always inform you is important, it's not running out of prey organisms.
So you try to jump onto one.
You vastly overestimate your own strength: you get maybe six feet off the ground and from the looks of things, you'll need to cover about a million times that distance (you are not very good at judging scale yet. or math. or anything, really).
Hmmm. This is quite a pickle. Not that you know what a pickle is, or why you're in one, it just sounds appropriate.
What do you do?
You think.
You think really hard.
You could try to climb a building and then jump onto one. You're not sure how you would climb the building successfully, but it can't be that hard, there are plenty of people in buildings as far as you can tell, even if it looks very uncomfortable. You're not sure how they move up and down between levels, but clearly they do, you have memories of rising and falling.
There's an enormous crack and then a chitauri behemoth goes hurtling down through the air, carapace blackened, writhing and keening as it begins its trip down.
Maybe if you're really lucky this one won't be dead when it hits the ground.
--------------------
Gains: None
Choose 1:
[x] Find a different Leviathan and Enact Plan 'Jump From Building'
[x] Run towards falling Leviathan.
-[x] Do you try to consume it even if it's dead?
-[x] What do you try to consume first?
[x] Write-in
4. Leah
Hesabit
Getting out there.
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2016
- Messages
- 21
- Likes received
- 95
On the way to the leviathan you stumble into ________.
Literally stumble into - you run about as well as a drunk person drives, enthusiastically but without much skill as more than one parked car can attest. She's no more than a mouthful nestled in a cardboard wrapper and surrounded by a throne of trash and slowly bleeding out. You stepped on her arm and broke it badly, but it's not the worst of her wounds. Half a grubby leg is simply gone, nothing more than a charred stub, and the coppery tang of blood has soaked through her shirt and caked itself on the ground. Beneath the grime she's shivering and unnaturally pale. She doesn't shriek when you thrust your hideous visage inquisitively above hers and give her an inquisitive sniff. She's not conscious. She is, however, alive. Deliciously so. A tendril sinks into her skin, and then another, and although the process takes seconds and the pain must be excruciating she never opens her eyes.
A connection is made.
You wake up.
--------------
Leah Lacroix
--------------
You wake up feeling bloated. Not just full, stuffed to the point of suffering. It's a very nostalgic feeling. Hobos don't usually feel full, teenage hobos doubly so.
It's also the sort of feeling that'd drive a girl to bulimia or drink or whatever it is teens who have less to worry about than their next meal do, and you immediately throw yourself to the side of the road blargh right there in broad daylight, feeling like you're about to toss not only your cookies, but your milk and cheerios too. God. You thought you couldn't feel embarrassed anymore, but here you are, cheeks heating because you're in public, because you told them you didn't need minding, because, because, because, the usual litany. You grimly try to hold it in: someone's probably going to call the pigs on you, and Fred's going to have such a shit fit, but to your consternation you retch and the beginning of what feels like an entire human being scrapes itself out of your throat.
It takes a while because - and here your brain mercifully short circuits before coming back online - because
Um.
It's a suit of armor? Coming out of your mouth? Kind of crumpled up and squished but. Yeah. Suit of armor. Real icky looking too, like not a knight-in-shining armor, or dark knight sort of look at all.
What the heck.
Is this a dream? You pinch yourself, but before the pain registers you realize that something's off. There's the smell of smoke in the air. And a sound - screaming, far off, nothing strange, but also different, this is New York, but you don't hear the honking horns or the just this weird pitchy thrum and a bass roar like a subway station but far off.
Almost unwillingly you look up.
There's a hole in the sky.
And it's raining motherfucking gosh darnit aliens.
You promptly lose your cool scream.
This is a mistake. Either drawn by your shrill noisehole or simply on their way, smaller aliens start raining down on your position, each impact raising a small cloud of pulverized concrete. They're armed too, you realize belatedly as the ground next to your feet explodes. Another hits the ground right next to you and instead of killing you, opens its facemask and screams directly in your face.
You punch his (her?) ugly mug out of sheer horrified reflex. Fred keeps telling you to aim lower, but that's not something you can do very well, just yet, you mostly do things out of instinct.
There's not much force behind your meager punch, but your hand seems to have a mind of its own, and promptly sinks into the alien, taking out, or absorbing, half its lower jaw. You're not sure who's more surprised by your spontaneous display of superpowers, but you do know who's more surprised by the blow from behind because the searing heat that slams into your back and sends you crashing to the ground comes seriously out of nowhere.
You whimper as your vision shutters and you once again wake up.
--------------
Damien
--------------
Well.
That was interesting.
You get up, muscles rearranging themselves, biomass decompressing and exploding outwards even as another round burns itself into your back, explodes and sends you end over end and finally into a wall. If not for the fact this is a preset form there'd be no way you could shift your physiology so quickly to become combat effective. You have a lot of questions, but those can wait. Leah had the right idea: you're not sticking around to fight an army.
You'll hunt from the shadows.
You let yourself fall limp where you rolled.
You understand, you understand so much more now.
--------------
Hours later you are alive, and most of the chitauri you consumed are satisfyingly dead and you are off to... other parts.
Less satisfyingly, there's a voice in your head.
It calls itself 'Leah.'
--------------
QM note: Your rolls are amazing. You're actually being haunted.
Gains
Exp: +25 xp (Amazing! Significant amounts of new input received)
Biomass: +10 (Adequate.)
Leah Lacroix. Rolled female for gender, Neutral Good for alignment, 92 for powers (latent Inhuman). If exposed to terrigen mist she'd have had the power of soul transferral. You would need to spend 120 xp to unlock this power or be exposed to terrigen mist yourself.
You also gain (choose 2):
[ ] English 2: You can read, write, speak and listen to English at the level of your average middle schooler.
[ ] Begging 2: You know how to look young and vulnerable enough that a kind soul might be willing to give you a little bit more.
[ ] Chitauri Armor 2: You know how to use and maintain basic Chitauri armor to the level of a Chitauri recruit.
[ ] Chitauri Firearms 2: You know how to use and maintain basic Chitauri firearms to the level of a Chitauri recruit.
[ ] Chitauri Vehicles 2: You know how to use and maintain basic Chitauri vehicles to the level of a Chitauri recruit.
[ ] Leviathan Fins 1: After consuming the fin of a Leviathan you can mimic the biotech thrust of a Leviathan that allows for precision maneuvering in both space and on earth. Without an actual means to sustain flight, your fins are rather inefficient and will quickly deplete your available biomass should you use them for anything other than momentary thrust.
[ ] Leviathan Armor 1: You can mimic the biotech armor covering the Chitauri Leviathan. Meant for a creature far larger and with less articulations than you, this armor will significantly slow you down. However, its defensive powers are extraordinary and would allow you to survive in a variety of inhospitable climes.
Where do you go now?
[ ] Not far, you plan to return to New York soon.
[ ] Canada
[ ] write-in
What do you do when there? (Choose 3)
[ ] Talk to Leah
[ ] Get to know the place
-[ ] How?
[ ] Hunt
-[ ] Who? (what kind of people do you target)
-[ ] How? (how do you hunt them - out in the open, stealthily?)
-[ ] How many? (What's your target number)
[ ] Train
-[ ] write-in
[ ] Develop a new skill
-[ ] write-in
[ ] Develop a new power
-[ ] write-in
[ ] Write-in
Literally stumble into - you run about as well as a drunk person drives, enthusiastically but without much skill as more than one parked car can attest. She's no more than a mouthful nestled in a cardboard wrapper and surrounded by a throne of trash and slowly bleeding out. You stepped on her arm and broke it badly, but it's not the worst of her wounds. Half a grubby leg is simply gone, nothing more than a charred stub, and the coppery tang of blood has soaked through her shirt and caked itself on the ground. Beneath the grime she's shivering and unnaturally pale. She doesn't shriek when you thrust your hideous visage inquisitively above hers and give her an inquisitive sniff. She's not conscious. She is, however, alive. Deliciously so. A tendril sinks into her skin, and then another, and although the process takes seconds and the pain must be excruciating she never opens her eyes.
A connection is made.
You wake up.
--------------
Leah Lacroix
--------------
You wake up feeling bloated. Not just full, stuffed to the point of suffering. It's a very nostalgic feeling. Hobos don't usually feel full, teenage hobos doubly so.
It's also the sort of feeling that'd drive a girl to bulimia or drink or whatever it is teens who have less to worry about than their next meal do, and you immediately throw yourself to the side of the road blargh right there in broad daylight, feeling like you're about to toss not only your cookies, but your milk and cheerios too. God. You thought you couldn't feel embarrassed anymore, but here you are, cheeks heating because you're in public, because you told them you didn't need minding, because, because, because, the usual litany. You grimly try to hold it in: someone's probably going to call the pigs on you, and Fred's going to have such a shit fit, but to your consternation you retch and the beginning of what feels like an entire human being scrapes itself out of your throat.
It takes a while because - and here your brain mercifully short circuits before coming back online - because
Um.
It's a suit of armor? Coming out of your mouth? Kind of crumpled up and squished but. Yeah. Suit of armor. Real icky looking too, like not a knight-in-shining armor, or dark knight sort of look at all.
What the heck.
Is this a dream? You pinch yourself, but before the pain registers you realize that something's off. There's the smell of smoke in the air. And a sound - screaming, far off, nothing strange, but also different, this is New York, but you don't hear the honking horns or the just this weird pitchy thrum and a bass roar like a subway station but far off.
Almost unwillingly you look up.
There's a hole in the sky.
And it's raining motherfucking gosh darnit aliens.
You promptly lose your cool scream.
This is a mistake. Either drawn by your shrill noisehole or simply on their way, smaller aliens start raining down on your position, each impact raising a small cloud of pulverized concrete. They're armed too, you realize belatedly as the ground next to your feet explodes. Another hits the ground right next to you and instead of killing you, opens its facemask and screams directly in your face.
You punch his (her?) ugly mug out of sheer horrified reflex. Fred keeps telling you to aim lower, but that's not something you can do very well, just yet, you mostly do things out of instinct.
There's not much force behind your meager punch, but your hand seems to have a mind of its own, and promptly sinks into the alien, taking out, or absorbing, half its lower jaw. You're not sure who's more surprised by your spontaneous display of superpowers, but you do know who's more surprised by the blow from behind because the searing heat that slams into your back and sends you crashing to the ground comes seriously out of nowhere.
You whimper as your vision shutters and you once again wake up.
--------------
Damien
--------------
Well.
That was interesting.
You get up, muscles rearranging themselves, biomass decompressing and exploding outwards even as another round burns itself into your back, explodes and sends you end over end and finally into a wall. If not for the fact this is a preset form there'd be no way you could shift your physiology so quickly to become combat effective. You have a lot of questions, but those can wait. Leah had the right idea: you're not sticking around to fight an army.
You'll hunt from the shadows.
You let yourself fall limp where you rolled.
You understand, you understand so much more now.
--------------
Hours later you are alive, and most of the chitauri you consumed are satisfyingly dead and you are off to... other parts.
Less satisfyingly, there's a voice in your head.
It calls itself 'Leah.'
--------------
QM note: Your rolls are amazing. You're actually being haunted.
Gains
Exp: +25 xp (Amazing! Significant amounts of new input received)
Biomass: +10 (Adequate.)
Leah Lacroix. Rolled female for gender, Neutral Good for alignment, 92 for powers (latent Inhuman). If exposed to terrigen mist she'd have had the power of soul transferral. You would need to spend 120 xp to unlock this power or be exposed to terrigen mist yourself.
You also gain (choose 2):
[ ] English 2: You can read, write, speak and listen to English at the level of your average middle schooler.
[ ] Begging 2: You know how to look young and vulnerable enough that a kind soul might be willing to give you a little bit more.
[ ] Chitauri Armor 2: You know how to use and maintain basic Chitauri armor to the level of a Chitauri recruit.
[ ] Chitauri Firearms 2: You know how to use and maintain basic Chitauri firearms to the level of a Chitauri recruit.
[ ] Chitauri Vehicles 2: You know how to use and maintain basic Chitauri vehicles to the level of a Chitauri recruit.
[ ] Leviathan Fins 1: After consuming the fin of a Leviathan you can mimic the biotech thrust of a Leviathan that allows for precision maneuvering in both space and on earth. Without an actual means to sustain flight, your fins are rather inefficient and will quickly deplete your available biomass should you use them for anything other than momentary thrust.
[ ] Leviathan Armor 1: You can mimic the biotech armor covering the Chitauri Leviathan. Meant for a creature far larger and with less articulations than you, this armor will significantly slow you down. However, its defensive powers are extraordinary and would allow you to survive in a variety of inhospitable climes.
Where do you go now?
[ ] Not far, you plan to return to New York soon.
[ ] Canada
[ ] write-in
What do you do when there? (Choose 3)
[ ] Talk to Leah
[ ] Get to know the place
-[ ] How?
[ ] Hunt
-[ ] Who? (what kind of people do you target)
-[ ] How? (how do you hunt them - out in the open, stealthily?)
-[ ] How many? (What's your target number)
[ ] Train
-[ ] write-in
[ ] Develop a new skill
-[ ] write-in
[ ] Develop a new power
-[ ] write-in
[ ] Write-in
5. Week 1
Hesabit
Getting out there.
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2016
- Messages
- 21
- Likes received
- 95
Leah has opinions. Many, many opinions. This would be a more exciting development if so many of her opinions did not revolve around not eating.
You can't!
Case in point.
Your biomass quivers in frustration as you put down the small scrap of feline quadruped and watch it go. It scampers down the dimly lit, trash-ridden alley, and then, proving itself unworthy of its gene pool, comes right back towards you and rubs itself against your legs. You feel strangely touched by this gesture. Also, hungry. All you'd need to is snatch it with a tendril and-
You suspect Leah capable of reading your mind because she tells you, warningly: Don't even think it!
"Why?" you huff. One of the trash bags you were rooting through moments ago falls over, spilling its contents all over the ground. Neither you, Leah, nor the feline react.
It's cute, Leah informs you.
You find this reasoning to be evidence of a defective mind and mention as much as you kneel down to pick up the small creature. It blinks at you. You blink back. Some weird strange part of you wants to scratch its neck and fluff its fur but sanity prevails.
You open your mouth, a strand of saliva being revealed and-
No!
You are uncertain which human mannerism expressing dissatisfaction would be most appropriate and settle with a frown. You don't put the cat back down on the off-chance it'll jump into your mouth (surely no one could complain if you took a nibble then) and give in into the weird and wild impulse to scratch its neck.
It hums. It's a strangely endearing sound.
"Why?" you repeat plaintively.
Because doing that would be... um, well not bad, exactly, but uh, kind of gross?
"You called eating rats gross too," you point out. Leah's favorite word, you discovered within minutes of meeting her, is 'gross'. Well, second to the ever dreaded 'no' anyway. "And cockroaches. And mice. And trash..."
Your expression goes momentarily dreamy. Leah has informed you there exist places where humans just dump out biomass (trash) by the ton. They're called 'dumps'. You can't wait to find one.
Yes, but it's not the same! she says.
You don't see how, honestly. Both are living, both are non-human, both share human habitats, the list goes on. It's been a week since you awoke and most of it was spent not eating. Most of it, in fact, was spent figuring out what was permitted.
Yes, permitted.
Leah has laid out some ground rules. She claims that if you don't follow these rules God will strike you down. You don't know who this 'God' fellow is, but are very impressed when informed he can control thunder and lightning and turn people into salt and knows everything and is all-powerful - he was probably the one hitting all the space whales and knocking them out of the sky. Clearly not someone to trifle with.
So, ground rules: no murdering people or coveting wives. Apparently there are eight other rules, but Leah doesn't remember them, or doesn't think they're very important ('Stealing is more of a guideline than a rule,' she tells you piously when requested to clarify on that score). You're a little worried that you've already coveted a wife, having done a lot of speculative people-eating, but apparently it's a very different sort of coveting.
Right now, you're in a place called 'New Jersey' - pronounced New Joisey. You think it looks a lot like New York minus the aliens but Leah strongly disagrees. Even about the aliens. It's what makes her so useful: if you were to do this all alone, you'd no doubt run into a lot of misunderstandings. Leah has kindly led you into a semblance of anonymity that will be very useful. Because according to Leah there is more than just 'God' to contend with. There're the police who tend to be very mean and have guns, there're 'gangs' who are meaner and bad to boot, there are 'superheroes' of which Leah is a big fan, and 'supervillains' of which she is not. There are even acronymous organizations like the CIA, NSA, FBI, and SHIELD, but Leah doesn't really know much about them though she is of the general opinion it'd be best not to get their attention because rumor has it they're big on dissection.
The aliens are new. Leah's not really sure where they came from. You're new too: Leah hasn't heard of anything like you before. She thinks you might be an alien yourself. You are fairly certain you are not.
There's a sound at the entrance of the alleyway.
Leah has informed you it's not nice to swear, but it's difficult not to at least think it. Because fucking finally.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
You hide your smile and let the cat go. You're not a wife of any kind, but Leah has told you that people who covet girls that look like you do and do bad things to them are capital-B bad.
And Bad people?
You can eat.
-----
Gains: +12xp (adequate), +12 biomass (adequate), +knife (3, assorted), +gun (1, revolver), +money (147.00$). Scavenging I. Consumption II, Shapeshifting II, Compression II. You are now hungry. Character sheet updated.
Choose 3 skills:
[ ] Close Quarters Combat II - The ability to take and give out hits. At this level it's more or less untutored brawling, but at least you're somewhat experienced and know how to avoid the usual tricks.
[ ] Intimidation II - The ability to scare people. Depending on your appearance you can gain or lose a great deal. At this level, you can reliably scare young children and can let others know you mean business.
[ ] Gun Safety and Maintenance I - You know how to take care of a gun, if not necessarily how to use it.
[ ] Gun Combat II - You can reliably hit a stationary target.
[ ] Knife Fighting III - When you prick someone, they'll bleed. At this level, you're good enough to be able to defend yourself from a knife attack even if you weren't a viral abomination.
[ ] Driving III - You know how to drive a car. You might not be great at it, but at this level you're basically indistinguishable from the average driver.
[ ] The Joisey Black Market I - You are aware of the New Jersey underground and while not keenly enough to navigate its currents, you're good enough to know who knows how to get in.
After all the training you do to develop yourself, and your restricted diet, you're really hungry. How do you deal with this? (Obligatory Food-Related Action)
[ ] You look for the supposed 'dumps'
[ ] You rob a supermarket at night.
[ ] You Hunt.
-[ ] Who? (what kind of people do you target)
-[ ] How? (how do you hunt them - out in the open, stealthily?)
-[ ] How many? (What's your target number)
[ ] Write-in
What else do you do? (Choose 2. You can pick one of the above options as well)
[ ] Investigate
-[ ] What? (example: Superheroes, Supervillains, etc.)
-[ ] How? (example: newspapers, books, internet)
[ ] Train (using XP and biomass)
-[ ] Choose any number of powers or skills
[ ] Develop (without using XP)
-[ ] Choose 1 power or skill. Roll 2d5 to see how much XP is gained. Can pick a power or skill you don't yet have (e.g.: Superstrength) although there must be some sort of justification as to how you got it (example: hunting gorillas and bears). Minimum 10xp necessary to unlock it. Any additional power counts as an additional action slot.
[ ] Socialize/Infiltrate
-[ ] what? (example: local high school, a yachting club, government, laboratory)
-[ ] how? (example: pose as a cop, pose as a journalist, etc.)
You can't!
Case in point.
Your biomass quivers in frustration as you put down the small scrap of feline quadruped and watch it go. It scampers down the dimly lit, trash-ridden alley, and then, proving itself unworthy of its gene pool, comes right back towards you and rubs itself against your legs. You feel strangely touched by this gesture. Also, hungry. All you'd need to is snatch it with a tendril and-
You suspect Leah capable of reading your mind because she tells you, warningly: Don't even think it!
"Why?" you huff. One of the trash bags you were rooting through moments ago falls over, spilling its contents all over the ground. Neither you, Leah, nor the feline react.
It's cute, Leah informs you.
You find this reasoning to be evidence of a defective mind and mention as much as you kneel down to pick up the small creature. It blinks at you. You blink back. Some weird strange part of you wants to scratch its neck and fluff its fur but sanity prevails.
You open your mouth, a strand of saliva being revealed and-
No!
You are uncertain which human mannerism expressing dissatisfaction would be most appropriate and settle with a frown. You don't put the cat back down on the off-chance it'll jump into your mouth (surely no one could complain if you took a nibble then) and give in into the weird and wild impulse to scratch its neck.
It hums. It's a strangely endearing sound.
"Why?" you repeat plaintively.
Because doing that would be... um, well not bad, exactly, but uh, kind of gross?
"You called eating rats gross too," you point out. Leah's favorite word, you discovered within minutes of meeting her, is 'gross'. Well, second to the ever dreaded 'no' anyway. "And cockroaches. And mice. And trash..."
Your expression goes momentarily dreamy. Leah has informed you there exist places where humans just dump out biomass (trash) by the ton. They're called 'dumps'. You can't wait to find one.
Yes, but it's not the same! she says.
You don't see how, honestly. Both are living, both are non-human, both share human habitats, the list goes on. It's been a week since you awoke and most of it was spent not eating. Most of it, in fact, was spent figuring out what was permitted.
Yes, permitted.
Leah has laid out some ground rules. She claims that if you don't follow these rules God will strike you down. You don't know who this 'God' fellow is, but are very impressed when informed he can control thunder and lightning and turn people into salt and knows everything and is all-powerful - he was probably the one hitting all the space whales and knocking them out of the sky. Clearly not someone to trifle with.
So, ground rules: no murdering people or coveting wives. Apparently there are eight other rules, but Leah doesn't remember them, or doesn't think they're very important ('Stealing is more of a guideline than a rule,' she tells you piously when requested to clarify on that score). You're a little worried that you've already coveted a wife, having done a lot of speculative people-eating, but apparently it's a very different sort of coveting.
Right now, you're in a place called 'New Jersey' - pronounced New Joisey. You think it looks a lot like New York minus the aliens but Leah strongly disagrees. Even about the aliens. It's what makes her so useful: if you were to do this all alone, you'd no doubt run into a lot of misunderstandings. Leah has kindly led you into a semblance of anonymity that will be very useful. Because according to Leah there is more than just 'God' to contend with. There're the police who tend to be very mean and have guns, there're 'gangs' who are meaner and bad to boot, there are 'superheroes' of which Leah is a big fan, and 'supervillains' of which she is not. There are even acronymous organizations like the CIA, NSA, FBI, and SHIELD, but Leah doesn't really know much about them though she is of the general opinion it'd be best not to get their attention because rumor has it they're big on dissection.
The aliens are new. Leah's not really sure where they came from. You're new too: Leah hasn't heard of anything like you before. She thinks you might be an alien yourself. You are fairly certain you are not.
There's a sound at the entrance of the alleyway.
Leah has informed you it's not nice to swear, but it's difficult not to at least think it. Because fucking finally.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
You hide your smile and let the cat go. You're not a wife of any kind, but Leah has told you that people who covet girls that look like you do and do bad things to them are capital-B bad.
And Bad people?
You can eat.
-----
Gains: +12xp (adequate), +12 biomass (adequate), +knife (3, assorted), +gun (1, revolver), +money (147.00$). Scavenging I. Consumption II, Shapeshifting II, Compression II. You are now hungry. Character sheet updated.
Choose 3 skills:
[ ] Close Quarters Combat II - The ability to take and give out hits. At this level it's more or less untutored brawling, but at least you're somewhat experienced and know how to avoid the usual tricks.
[ ] Intimidation II - The ability to scare people. Depending on your appearance you can gain or lose a great deal. At this level, you can reliably scare young children and can let others know you mean business.
[ ] Gun Safety and Maintenance I - You know how to take care of a gun, if not necessarily how to use it.
[ ] Gun Combat II - You can reliably hit a stationary target.
[ ] Knife Fighting III - When you prick someone, they'll bleed. At this level, you're good enough to be able to defend yourself from a knife attack even if you weren't a viral abomination.
[ ] Driving III - You know how to drive a car. You might not be great at it, but at this level you're basically indistinguishable from the average driver.
[ ] The Joisey Black Market I - You are aware of the New Jersey underground and while not keenly enough to navigate its currents, you're good enough to know who knows how to get in.
After all the training you do to develop yourself, and your restricted diet, you're really hungry. How do you deal with this? (Obligatory Food-Related Action)
[ ] You look for the supposed 'dumps'
[ ] You rob a supermarket at night.
[ ] You Hunt.
-[ ] Who? (what kind of people do you target)
-[ ] How? (how do you hunt them - out in the open, stealthily?)
-[ ] How many? (What's your target number)
[ ] Write-in
What else do you do? (Choose 2. You can pick one of the above options as well)
[ ] Investigate
-[ ] What? (example: Superheroes, Supervillains, etc.)
-[ ] How? (example: newspapers, books, internet)
[ ] Train (using XP and biomass)
-[ ] Choose any number of powers or skills
[ ] Develop (without using XP)
-[ ] Choose 1 power or skill. Roll 2d5 to see how much XP is gained. Can pick a power or skill you don't yet have (e.g.: Superstrength) although there must be some sort of justification as to how you got it (example: hunting gorillas and bears). Minimum 10xp necessary to unlock it. Any additional power counts as an additional action slot.
[ ] Socialize/Infiltrate
-[ ] what? (example: local high school, a yachting club, government, laboratory)
-[ ] how? (example: pose as a cop, pose as a journalist, etc.)