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Panacea Quest

[X] You feel Scion's fingers around Victoria's throat. He hasn't sent his blasts from them. You could part your suit. It can't possibly work, taking control of his biology. That might be a much worse idea than wrapping Victoria around you as a shield.
 
I'd guess the "worse idea" is because Scion could reclaim the shard?

Anyway, the messenger is probably on our side. Probably. And sounds like Dinah. And we did think of Victoria, first.

Do we trust Dinah to not screw us over (assuming it is her).
 
Commentary:

Dispatch seems pretty cool. I wish we'd written in to interact with him a little more. I think Amy would be ok with following Victoria's last order as long as she can marry Sophia too.

Teacher. He was a bro. Let him be remembered.

Amy said:
"Okay, that's it. You two are going out on a date. Sarah, Madison, you're dating now."
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I approve of this turn of events.

Dispatch said:
"Why the fuck not? I like Katie."
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Dispatch clearly can see the way the wind is blowing.

Looks like Stage 1 of plan fight the loser worked. Stage 2 may be more difficult than we hoped.

---------------------

I hate precogs. This vote is based on thinking doing nothing is bad, and thinking that we shouldn't turn people into clothing.

[X] You feel Scion's fingers around Victoria's throat. He hasn't sent his blasts from them. You could part your suit. It can't possibly work, taking control of his biology. That might be a much worse idea than wrapping Victoria around you as a shield.
 
[X] You feel Scion's fingers around Victoria's throat. He hasn't sent his blasts from them. You could part your suit. It can't possibly work, taking control of his biology. That might be a much worse idea than wrapping Victoria around you as a shield.

Go big or go home!
 
It looks like we've traded one heavy-hitter for a qualitative reduction in the Golden Man's strength.

A malevolent or very pragmatic sender is bad and we seemingly couldn't do much about it. Most senders should find it harder to see the future when Scion is concerned. The cautious option does not tend to be safer, but staying still and staring at him as he continues to kill us isn't exactly cautious. Phantasos, one of our clones, did weird stuff to Scion. Might be a clue of some sort. His emotional stress ought to be high, he's lashing out yet not quite catatonic, and wants to kill both of us painfully. Difficult.

[X] Wrap Victoria around you as a cloak, a ball, a shell, keeping her brain and memories safe. It will keep you alive.
 
On the other hand, should the event prove significant enough they will see it even past the Scion's blindspot. On the other hand, hitting the blindspot directly should be most unforeseeable.

There is the problem that the statement is frustratingly vague like typical Oracle statements, since that "whatever you're thinking" can apply to anything, given that precogs foresee consequences not read minds - they'd need to precog their own precog to see if that would work. Also, if we ignore warning of someone who sounds like Dinah, well...That sounds unwise.

It might be that if we wrap Victoria around us, someone is going to appear to counter Scion right then and we would have lived had we not done that, for example. It might be that wrapping would not ultimately save Amy, given that Scion could see it right there and stop it or kill them regardless of it by outwaiting the shield or by taking advantage of need to breathe.

Immanent Thing said:
It looks like we've traded one heavy-hitter for a qualitative reduction in the Golden Man's strength.
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I'd perhaps have preferred trying to outmatch the Thinker entity in making the world a better instead of worse place, though there are still 17 more Endbringers.
 
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[X] You feel Scion's fingers around Victoria's throat. He hasn't sent his blasts from them. You could part your suit. It can't possibly work, taking control of his biology. That might be a much worse idea than wrapping Victoria around you as a shield.
 
[X] Wrap Victoria around you as a cloak, a ball, a shell, keeping her brain and memories safe. It will keep you alive.
 
Voting closed. Using your powers on Scion won...
 
[X] You feel Scion's fingers around Victoria's throat. He hasn't sent his blasts from them. You could part your suit. It can't possibly work, taking control of his biology. That might be a much worse idea than wrapping Victoria around you as a shield.
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Phantasos did it, you remember. His powers could only kill the living flesh.

Scion could only win, unless he chose to do something stupid. But he is crazy, full of grief. You extend your power into him. His body is terribly, bizarrely human.

You tell it to go to sleep, and he does. You keep touching him, reinforcing that, as he collapses. You don't let it break for a second, as you feel his healing. Victoria looks at you with a sense of wonder and relief.

There's a long pause as you look around the empty, destroyed room. The floor is gone. Victoria carries you down several stories to a hard stone ground. You sit there in the dirt, keeping your hands on Scion.

"So, that worked." Victoria mutters, disbelieving. "Fuck. Just, fuck."

"He deviated." A voice you don't recognize says from behind you. "He could see the paths to victory and avoid the ones that led to his destruction. He chose death, chose to hurt Victoria the most." Victoria is looking scared.

"He failed." You laugh. "We just won."

"No, we didn't." Victoria's voice cracks. "You can't let go. The moment you do, he'll recover."

"So we kill him." You frown. "We have ways. It has to be much easier, now."

"No one can kill him." The strange voice says. "Can't be done. If Victoria had her second trigger event, she would have gained the power to destroy him. Now, Flechette is dead and no one can use the Brain Box to restore her with Cranial in a coma. The magic bullet of the glass bomb would consume you before you left." You chuckle.

"So what, I die here?" You say. This feels ridiculous. Scion is down. There have to be ways to get around this. Doormaker, Shadow Stalker, Siberian.

"Is Sophie okay?" Victoria asks suddenly. "Madison, the Doctor, Dispatch?"

"They're fine." The voice answers. "Mostly. Sophia is in critical condition in a suspended animation tank. Madison Secunda is severely injured, and Prima refuses to leave her side. The rest of them are alright."

"Who the fuck is this bullshiter?" You ask.

"The Morrígan." Victoria answers, and she sounds very tired.

"The Simurgh clone?" You sigh. "Yeah, that was always a bad idea."

"So, the plan was to get me to second trigger next to Scion, so I'd get a weapon that would kill him?" Victoria laughs and chokes. "Drive me even crazier for a win?"

"It would have been preferable to losing Amy through your death or her own." The voice says, smooth and annoying.

"So, I die?" You think for a moment. You've faced death before. Usually it's a hot, violent thing. Coil, Noelle, you've probably forgotten some of the times you could have actually died. This feels different.

"So, the plan is I hold him for as long as I can while we figure out something that could really fuck with him?" You sigh. "Or just give people time to run."

"That is the plan we have to move to, though the plan was for Victoria to second trigger. That is why you were instructed not to attempt to fix the situation." You sigh deeply.

"Nothing much can even hold him still. Boosted Victoria, I think some members of the Yangban, or was it the Thanda? I guess something that can shut him down for this long is a big win." It all seems to huge, and you feel so tired. Can you even use your powers if you sleep? You've never tried. Maybe Teacher could show you how, but Teacher and Cranial are dead, right? You can barely think.

"This feels like a really good time for a second trigger." Victoria moans. "Why did you have to bring up the idea?"

"You would have thought of it anyway." Morrígan tells you.

"So, what, that's it? Amy dies and there's nothing I can do about it? Tell me what to do!" Victoria shouts.

"We are thinking of having Best Girl work on Amy's brain and prepare a system to keep her active and holding Scion until a superior solution can be found." The Morrígan explains. "Worst case, keeping Scion in suspended animation indefinitely would be a victory."

"So I just waste away, watching her tomb for however long it takes for us to find a better idea?" Victoria asks. She sounds heartbroken.

"You could join the spare Panacea. She survived, and your duplicate did not. You will be strangers to each other, but she needs a sister, as would you." Victoria howls and the pain hits your heart.

"Give. Me. Another. Choice." Victoria hisses.

"I can formulate two." Morrígan answers. "Amy could remove your short term memory, and I could arrange a second trigger event from this material. It would wound you, Victoria. You would be wounded in ways you cannot imagine."

"She's my Amy. She's my sister, my fiance, my hero, my lover, the best thing that ever happened to me even if she's a rapist sadist who cheats on me." Victoria giggles madly. "Of course I'll go crazy for her."

"You aren't understanding how bad this would be. The trauma would be pressed into your essence, your very core. You suffer a lot. Each time cuts a piece out of you, but you can heal. This would be a wound you could never heal. Your mission in life is being a hero, saving the world, and keeping Amy sane. You will not make Amy sane. Your worst self will be exposed, Victoria. Imagine your worst day, the cruelest you can be, the stupidest, and imagine that every day, a march of years. You would hurt Amy, and make her a monster. You would be Queens Regent and Consort of a realm, and that realm would be terrible. Amy is a mad woman. Imagine if she had nothing to hold her back, imagine if she seemed sane to you. The city you would build, the force that might inherit the Earth, the Natural Order of Man, would be a nightmare. I promise it would."

"You're insulting my future wife." Victoria hisses. "Besides, Narwhal's not nuts. The fox faced cunt wouldn't be if Amy didn't fuck her up."

"Oh, it is not the madness it is the problem. It is that Amy loves you, respects you, trusts you. It is your aura and your passion of being her sister and mother and lover. You will be mad, and listen only to mad people. Can you truly imagine anything good coming from two powers so great feeding on each other?"

"I don't want to hurt you." You tell Victoria, shifting the conversation. "I can't do something that fucking bad to you." Victoria laughs. "Hold on tight."

"What?" You ask, and Victoria lifts your remaining hand to her face, and breaks your little finger.

"OW!" You shriek. You're lucky to keep a hold on Scion, who you have exposed legs wrapped around for the sake of comfort. Actually, you aren't. The genius precog would have stopped it if it was a risk.

"Amy, Amy, Amy. I have fucked you up more than I can imagine. I drove you to two trigger events, broke your hand, dislocated your hip, tormented you every time we touched for years. I can take it for you." Then Victoria kisses your finger to make it all better, and it works. The aura and Scion make it hard to really care about the pain.

"She does break your finger for effect." Baby Simurgh says. "Though considering this is before her second trigger, you might want to avoid increasing just how crazy she is.

"This is important, and she's had a rough day." You point out. "She did have people she knew crushed to death right in front of her. Almost including me." Victoria is good at sucking a broken little finger so it feels better. Your suit rushes to make sure you're not in pain already.

"The third option would be to get it over with." The Morrígan says. "If you want it, you could just have portals arrange the death of Scion using the glass weapon on an uninhabited world."

"Why would that be a good idea?" Victoria asks, tragically moving her mouth away from finger sucking.

"If Amy and Scion go into suspended animation, he could be broken out of it. The world will be at risk for as long as this lasts. Simply taking care of the situation now, for the price of a Panacea, would be efficient, if you take that into your calculus." Morrígan explains.

"Cunt has a point." Victoria mutters. "Not that I want you dead. I want you happy and cuddly and healthy." She kisses you.

"Then why'd you break the damn finger." You roll your eyes.

"As you said, hard day. I needed something to cheer me up." Victoria laughs. "Um, cut me some slack. I've almost died, like, ten times since the rampage started. Don't ask me to think too clearly." She licks your cheek for some reason.

"Besides the obvious 'fuck you cunt' is there anything else?" You ask the woman behind you.

"Once again, it comes down to choice. As it is your life, and you have given the world so much, including me and my brothers life, I give you this choice. Is it better to die to ensure the world's safety, rest and pray for a better tomorrow, or engage in a ruthless crime that ruins the person you love the most to save the world."

"Let me go crazy." Victoria whispers. "After all, I drive you crazy. Return the favor." Her breath is suggestive.

She's insane. You realize that with a horribly clarity. She is crazy right now, in no condition to make this choice. You probably shouldn't make it either.

Your best chance of an ending with Victoria is carving out a piece of her, impressing this state on her for the rest of her life. What could be crueler?

Well, breaking her down so completely, and then taking yourself away from her would give it a run for its money.

You want Cranial. You desperately miss your voice of reason. You miss Sophie Hess, your girlfriend, a bully and a bitch who needs you. You miss Madison, maybe the best friend you ever made.

You miss Carol. You need your mother.

"Do you want to talk to anyone?" You ask Victoria. She pauses.

"It's your decision." The words seem to break her. "Just, please don't bring in anyone for advice, okay? I'm your big sister. Just, I can't let someone else be your fucking top." It's a crazy answer, but it makes you feel warm inside.

"Do you want to decide?" You ask. Victoria is silent for a moment.

"You know my answer, but I can't order this. I can't force you to hurt me. It's your decision." Victoria looks grief stricken at giving up the power to decide.

If Victoria has a second trigger, will she ever willingly give up that kind of choice? You might live exactly like she wants. See who she wants, go to the bathroom when she wants, eat what she wants you to eat. The play is fun, but if it gets so serious...

"There's no words left for how much you are." You tell Victoria. "You're the romance that gave my life meaning."

"How does it end?" Victoria asks.

[X] "You kill Scion." You decide. You can be crazy together.

[X] "Let's hold out hope for a miracle." You tell her. Time to call Best Girl.

[X] "Get yourself a real girlfriend." You sigh. The world is more important than your happy ending. Time to arrange Scion's death, and your own.
 
[X] "Let's hold out hope for a miracle." You tell her. Time to call Best Girl.

Can we not make Scion a lesbian with amnesia as well? Lesbians will find a way. Cats and moving vans?
 
[X] "Get yourself a real girlfriend." You sigh. The world is more important than your happy ending. Time to arrange Scion's death, and your own.
 
[X] "Let's hold out hope for a miracle." You tell her. Time to call Best Girl.
-[X] Victoria I know you don't want other people to be my top, but we need to assemble a combo so we are gonna need to get other parahumans in on this mess.
-[X] Work in shifts with Catholicon to delay the matter.
-[X] Get Leet. Also get Eidolon to run his booster and get Twos if there are any alive to help Leet. And Ingenue (Leet/Ingenue pairing.) Have Leet make a Glassing Vaccination Pill to give to Amy.
-[X] Move Amy and Scion to an empty world and Glass it. Have some Shakers there to protect Amy from the cataclysmic Glass aftereffects with Forcefields and such (Eidolon and Narwhal are probably sufficient.)
-[X] Have the Shakers decontaminate Amy and then everyone comes home.
 
Hm. Scion could get the Annie treatment, if somebody can heal Cranial. As Alex, he could be the best thing to happen to humanity.

It could also go worse than any proffered option, though.

E: Though I do understand what the GM is attempting here. To use a chess parable, your king is threatened and you have the choices of:

[ ] Destabilize and give up pawns your king hides behind so you may be able to breathe. The attack is warded off but you may not get a chance to make a choice of your own in a long, long time due the king being easily checkable from multiple directions, and not being in control can leave you quite vulnerable.

[ ] Make a complicated counterattack focusing either on opposing king/queen or the pieces that are attacking you. Can result in total defusion of situation with no material lost and advantage. Can also result in further losing whatever you deployed to counterattack and whatever was threatened in addition to king. It is an opposing skill check with you needing to put in far more work to have any chance at all, and may be plain impossible to succeed at. An All or nothing option.

[ ] Sacrifice a Queen for Rook to surely ward off the attack with opposing king vulnerable. After your own attack though, being down a Rook can very well doom your side.
 
[X] "Get yourself a real girlfriend." You sigh. The world is more important than your happy ending. Time to arrange Scion's death, and your own.
-[X]"First, bring me a knife. I can't use my power on myself and I can't let Claire die with me."
 
[X] "Victoria... Touch Scion and kiss me... Call Sophie too but I don't think she'd want what I'm going to do, Bring me Annie as well if Sophia comes... Come with me... Love me... and trust me forever." Together with your lovers and the golden man of lore, you shift and change all into a single ball of flesh, melding all together around you into a council of minds and in so doing connect you three into a single nervous system and a single grand dream.
You aren't expert at this. Not by any means... but you have nothing but time on your side, and the company of those you love. Together you infiltrate the golden-man's hateful mind and soothe him with dreams of being different... happy... and satisfied with being YOURS... and being VICTORIA'S... and being SOPHIE'S... and being ANNIE'S... loving little sister... lover... friend... confidant... daughter. The Golden-Man sacrificed himself to hurt you... But the Golden-Girl will give you her EVERYTHING!
Together time will be on your side. And when you are done, So too will the world know a new age of Goddesses walking amoung man.


Basically this is a version of plan B which doesn't Amy as holding on to the Apocalypse forever, but instead plays on Victoria's shard and the fact that we finally have an In on the Golden-Bastard to give her time to work on him. We do this will ALL of her lovers and family together and ultimately reshape everything including the golden bastard and his modus operandi to be beneficial to humanity. A proper symbiosis.
 
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It's less satisfying than heroic sacrifice, as endings go.
 
I'd thought the Morrigan was more likely than Dinah Alcott, but it didn't occur to me that Victoria could have a second trigger event.

To take him down on an empty world in a heroic sacrifice, well, I think that would fit for other heroes, it's dramatic, but I don't think it works for Panacea. Victoria has a way to kill him, but it's a nasty way that will lead to more issues. A failure, but a failure that ends in a satisfying way, as I see it. To make him into a member of our harem is just weird, even wrong, as a story element, but... if it works, how could you turn that down?

Perhaps we could fuse the Morrigan into Scion, somehow? There is an appealing duality to it, and the idea of a benevolent angel is less crass, less earthly than a harem member. But we haven't even talked to the Morrigan until now, and the Liar and the Shaper are meant to be the highlights of this story, which means they must be included in the end. So...

[X] Plan Xicree
-[X] Ask the Morrigan to take part.

Edit: On second thoughts, I'm chickening out of Plan Xicree.
 
hyzmarca said:
I must disagree.
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Then we both disagree with each other, as some of my favourite books have ended in an unrevoked Apotheosis after they were made to work for it.

In fact in this quest you could say that it is following the trend which it set from the start. From lonely little Amy afraid of being a monster, to powerful important Amy who has become a god.
 
The thing is, Amy doesn't want power. She wants family. She wants a normal family at that. At the end of the day, she would chose to protect her family by sacrificing herself.
 
hyzmarca said:
The thing is, Amy doesn't want power. She wants family. She wants a normal family at that. At the end of the day, she would chose to protect her family by sacrificing herself.
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And yet this Amy has pretty much set herself as the type to have her cake and eat it too; Goddess isn't some new person, it's Victoria ascending to what Amy believes she is to her.
 
Remember that Annie is dead at the moment, and Sophie is in critical condition in suspended animation. Only Victoria is available out of Plan Xicree.
 
[x] "Is there a cape somewhere with the power to let me stay awake forever?
[x] Stay as long as possible, and as long as needed for tinkers or whatever to develop a better way to kill scion.
 
WyldCard4 said:
Remember that Annie is dead at the moment, and Sophie is in critical condition in suspended animation. Only Victoria is available out of Plan Xicree.
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That is only for the moment.

This is a longterm plan. Which means that we can wait till everyone is in place, up and running again.

Time is on our side.
 
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