So, you've identified what is most likely their base...what now? You realize with chagrin that you didn't really think about the "why" of your investigations until now.

>Leave, the night is still young and the Protectorate probably isn't going to start their investigation until tomorrow. Might as well see if they find these folks as easily as you have.
>Call the Sheriff's anonymous tip line. He'll pass it along to the Protectorate, and you might even give yourself a good reputation with some real capes!
>Knock on the door. They're clearly scared, and from their past actions, don't seem like the violent type. If you talk to them, you might be able to convince them to skip town now, before the Protectorate comes crashing down on their heads. Surely that'd be the best for everybody, right?

>>2192623
>Call the Sheriff's anonymous tip line from a considerable distance away from the cluster of huts, enough so that our voice will not carry there. He'll pass it along to the Protectorate, and you might even give yourself a good reputation with some real capes!
They'll NEVER see this coming.

>>2192623
>Knock on the door. They're clearly scared, and from their past actions, don't seem like the violent type. If you talk to them, you might be able to convince them to skip town now, before the Protectorate comes crashing down on their heads. Surely that'd be the best for everybody, right?

can't ... resist ... bad .... choices

>>2192623
>Call the Sheriff's anonymous tip line from a considerable distance away from the cluster of huts, enough so that our voice will not carry there. He'll pass it along to the Protectorate, and you might even give yourself a good reputation with some real capes!
Eh, I'm sure the law will be fair with them. Littering isn't sooo bad.
I would have liked to actually find out what they were doing though. I was umderr the impression that they were in a tunnel under the hut, not iin it. So we could have snooped around.

>>2192623
>>Call the Sheriff's anonymous tip line. He'll pass it along to the Protectorate, and you might even give yourself a good reputation with some real capes!
Lawful good, let's go.

>>2192620
>>Call the Sheriff's anonymous tip line. He'll pass it along to the Protectorate, and you might even give yourself a good reputation with some real capes!

>>2192623
>>2192662
Shit, I didn't notice your modified vote until after, let me switch my vote to yours
>>2192702
Just ignore my first vote.

>>2192683
Anon, these are clearly the guys from the construction site, the reason the protectorate got called in here in the first place

>>2192706
Misclicked the post, just ignore me. I've partied too hard today.

Well dang, hive mind is strong.
Writing.

>>2192696
>>2192706
>>2192716
>Lawful good, let's go.
Reminder again: we can choose to subvert Worm's "doing wrong things for the right reasons" to hell and back. We can choose to be completely unlike Taylor in every single fucking way imaginable, and actually pull it off and survive in-universe doing it. Though we still have no idea how close to canon this setting is, if at all, so there's tons of possibilities for our development this early into the quest.

>>2192723
I liked taylors bad things for good reason theme though.
She did nothing wrong.

Really though, I dont see us making huge waves unless we get into a vendetta thing with a prt cape.

>>2192723
Good thing we're capable of recognizing when we're out of our depth and are capable and willing to inform the proper authorities before doing anything crazy. I'd already rate us as doing a better job on our first night out than Taylor. We're gonna be a model independent cape.

>>2192737
>>2192740
I'm just waiting for the hard choices to start.
What'll come first, a family disaster or a cape life disaster?

>>2192751
>>2192740
>>2192737
And to be fair, Wildbow's whole theme is "rebellion/defiance against authority" and "horrific trauma and/or bullshit being the price of any power". Not sure how much of that the QM is gonna keep and to which extents, but Worm is still cool.

You briefly consider talking to these criminals yourself, but...no. You have to talk to the authorities, do this the right way. Heading away from the hut and back into the relative safety of the woods, you pull out your phone and redial the sheriff's tip line from the other night. This time, an automated voice answers.

"Due to high volume of calls, there are no live operators available at this time. Leave your message after the tone, and it will be reviewed shortly. Thank you."
No wonder, really. You're sure that the Sheriff's department is receiving a lot of calls about the Protectorate stepping in, considering that the only exposure most of the town has had in the last decade is the base specifically made to house dangerous members of the wards. Once you hear the beep, you speak, talking quickly and doing your best to lower your voice.

"Individuals related to the sabotage of the construction site at Spelt Park can be found in the...northeast corner of the park, in a cluster of huts. They're likely using the natural caves and tunnel systems to travel without being noticed. You may be able to catch them without a struggle if you're quick, but they're scared." You hang up as soon as you've finished, heart racing. You wait there for a few minutes, calming down. How long will it take before somebody checks out the tip, anyway? Probably tomorrow at the earliest, right?

Just as you're about to head back, the door to the hut flies open, a man storming out, cursing up a storm. For a second you're terrified, but he turns back toward the hut and starts pulling a dark-colored tarp off something, half-hidden by the angle and the darkness. Moments later, you hear an engine turn over, then stall, and another muted curse. Something plastic, like a container, hits the ground, echoing hollowly. The man circles back into your field of view, then back into the hut, slamming the door behind him. You can hear shouting inside.

>Try to get closer, see what's going on. They might be trying to escape! They might spot you, but yoi'll have a good chance to react to what's happening.
>Make a small golem out of earth and send it to get a look behind the hut and report back. It's slow, but safe.
>Sneak just a little closer, so you can take a photo, or at least get a look at, the man's face when he comes back out of the cabin. It should be safer than going behind the hut, there's more cover.

>>2192751
>What'll come first, a family disaster or a cape life disaster?
*evil laughter intensifies*

>>2192802
>>Make a small golem out of earth and send it to get a look behind the hut and report back. It's slow, but safe.
Well shit, there's probably a connection to our phone call and them panicking. I'd rather not get close to the people freaking out and potentially willing to do something crazy to get away.

>>2192802
>>Make a small golem out of earth and send it to get a look behind the hut and report back. It's slow, but safe.


I mean, worst comes to worst we start a street gang.
We're a white teenager and don't know jack about the streets though.

>>2192844
We live in a smallish town, I don't know how we'd be able to start a successful street gang without people eventually finding out who we are. Or how we'd be able to fight off competitors with 3 foot tall clay golems. Then again, not like there'd be someone comparable to Lung in a rural area...

>>2192850
yeah i also thought of that as soon as i posted.
Unless we went full mafia and were legal but not really or something.
burglar or thief is probably the best we can do at our worst.

>>2192865
In terms of scouting, skirmishing, and minor distractions in a larger scale fight, our power is decent. Outside of that not much else. Unless we figure out clay isn't the only material we can use, we're not hitting the big leagues any time soon. Which is actually kinda refreshing and exciting in its own way.

>>2192802
>Try to get closer, see what's going on. They might be trying to escape! They might spot you, but yoi'll have a good chance to react to what's happening.

RECKLESS

>>2192802
>Make a small golem out of earth and send it to get a look behind the hut and report back. It's slow, but safe.
Mouse golem offers rapid mobility, same godly eyesight, and the advantage of being a natural forest animal.

>>2192891
>>2192844
>>2192824
Writing.

No sense risking things when you don't have to. Scraping at the ground, you get a few handfuls of loose, wet soil. Squeezing it together, you shape it into a crude mouse, the tail a little too stubby for your taste, but there's no time to be critical. You pass a part of your power onto it, and whisper instructions to check out the back of the hut, and report back on what it sees. Without a word, it skitters off.
[2 out of 12 golems in use]
At almost the same time the mouse disappears from sight, the door swings back open, slamming on the wall of the hut once more, light spilling into the forest, leaving his face in shadow. His outline is thin, and you can make out long, elegant fingers at the end of lanky arms. Someone appears behind him, grabbing his shoulder.

"Ludvig, don't do this!" A woman's voice. It sounds like the same person who was at the caves earlier. Willow? "We knew they'd get involved eventually! They don't know anything yet, we're still safe!"

"Really?" the man turns back toward her, practically spitting the words. "You've seen what they're willing to do to protect corporate interests. They might be slow, but they're thorough. They'll be combing this place tomorrow, they'll find us no matter how much you want to believe otherwise. I'm out of here. Good luck." Somehow, he makes the last words sound like an insult, pulling away from her as he does so.

She stands there for a second, silent, then reaches forward to shut the door. Your mouse golem chooses that moment to return, immediately giving its report in a sufficiently quiet voice.

"There is a dirt bike, a tarp, a milk crate, an empty plastic jerry can, three bungee cords, and a radio."
As soon as it finishes talking, the engine you heard earlier turns over again, roaring to life. The dirt bike your golem mentioned tears out from behind the hut, with the man you assume to be Ludvig riding it. He wastes no time, hightailing it toward the far side of the clearing and quickly disappearing into the woods.

You check the time—it's getting late.

>Stick around and maybe snoop a bit around the hut once you're sure nobody else is bursting out any time soon.
>Head home. You're tired, and you do have school tomorrow after all.
>Go check out the Protectorate base. If you hurry, you might be able to catch some of the late-night goings on as the big-league capes come to town.

>>2193027
>>Go check out the Protectorate base. If you hurry, you might be able to catch some of the late-night goings on as the big-league capes come to town.
Is it possible to inform them of what we've found out, or is this strictly sight-seeing?

>>2193027
>Stick around and maybe snoop a bit around the hut once you're sure nobody else is bursting out any time soon.

We got the name Ludvig. Let's see if we can get any others.

>>2193027
>go be a tourist at the protectorate base
Our job here is done.

>>2193027
>>Stick around and maybe snoop a bit around the hut once you're sure nobody else is bursting out any time soon.

>>2193036
They don't accept civilian visitors, and in fact have quite sizeable fences since their stated purpose is housing wards with dangerous powers. That goes double for this time of night.

>>2193065
We're in costume, right? We can't just send a small golem to inform them we have important information to give them?

>>2193080
No!

>>2193080
You are in costume, and if you'd like, you can absolutely write-in an option to send a golem up to the gate.

>>2193027
>>2193036
>>2193100
Good to know, I'm adding in to send a golem up to the gate to my vote.

>>2193027
>Go check out the Protectorate base. If you hurry, you might be able to catch some of the late-night goings on as the big-league capes come to town.
Preemptively backing >>2193109

If you guys want do this that bad then we can pay a civvy to tell the cops or visit a police station in costume.
Im sure those guys got a line to the prt base without getting near the prts recruitment pitches

>>2193138
Your reason for not wanting to do it is because you don't want to hear a recruitment pitch? Lmao dude just say no, like just tell them you aren't interested.

>>2193128
>>2193057
>>2193036
Going to the base wins, writing.

It's a long walk back home, and even further back to the Protectorate base, but the draw to try to catch a glimpse of some real big-city capes is too much. So you start to pick your way back, golems sitting patiently in your bag as you follow trails and cut across brushland. Towards the end you do walk along the side of the road for a bit. It's late enough that you're not too worried about getting spotted, and the Protectorate base is near the edge of town anyway.

It's at the end of a long gravel road, but you don't want to risk it, so you make your way through the woods until you're within a couple hundred feet of the main gate. The buildings are fairly small and widely dispersed, all surrounded by a tall chainlink fence with three strands of barbed wire at the top. The fence also encompasses a large field, pitted with so many ditches and craters it reminds you of one of those World War I battlefields you see pictures of in history books.

It's not as if there's going to be a parade or anything, but you do catch sight of a few brightly-costumed figures crossing from one building to the next. It's hard to tell, but the one in the silver bodysuit looks an awful lot like Argent, the Blaster/Mover from Portland. He's infamous for the amount of property damage he causes, especially when fights get drawn out. You make a note of it—just imagining the amount of respect you'll get for posting that online is enough to make you grin.

Now that you think about it, you suppose this is also a good chance to give your message about the saboteurs directly to the Protectorate. Your costume is a little shabby, but you've definitely seen worse. They definitely tend to push young capes to join the Wards, but despite the rumours you've heard, you doubt they'd kidnap you or anything. Then again, you could just create a fairly large humanoid golem and have it deliver the message for you. Your power doesn't really have a range or time limit so far as you've been able to tell, so you could have it walk up to the guard station and request to talk to somebody in charge. You'd come across as more mysterious and maybe they'd listen to the message more easily if it's not just coming from a kid in an army jacket.

Just as you're considering the best way to approach the problem, you notice something going on at the far end of the field. It looks like a kid a few years older than you, pulling some kind of machinery behind him. It's slow going in the rough terrain of the field, but he's not stopping. Could it be one of the wards staying here until they control their powers better? Might just be some intern for all you know.

>Walk up to the guard station at the gate yourself, to give them the information
>Send a golem in to hand over the information
>Go try to find out what that kid is doing
>Write-in

>>2193314
>Send a golem in to hand over the information

>Make another golem and have it investigate what that kid is doing.

>>2193314
>>Send a golem in to hand over the information

>>2193314
Backing >>2193354

>>2193314
>>2193354
Supporting this.

Using those powers wisely, I like it.
Writing.

You dig the mouse out of your satchel and re-animate it, sending it down to the other end of the field to get a closer look at what's going on down there. In the meantime, you skulk a bit further back into the woods and start scraping together enough dirt for a larger golem. Larger is relative of course—it'll only be about 3 feet tall, but it's a good sight bigger than the mouse you just sent off.

Once you're done sculpting, it looks more or less humanoid. The proportions are a little off, and you can't help thinking it looks a little too much like a garden gnome, but that's probably just you. Some rocks set into its face give it a more pleasant expression, and you begin to instruct it.

"Okay now, you're going to go up to the guard at the gate and say this to him. Say 'I am a friend. I have reason to believe the people sabotaging the construction site are hiding out in one of the huts in the northeast section of Spelt Park, and are using the caves and tunnels to get around. There are at least three of them, probably at least one parahuman. Just keep repeating that whenever anybody talks to you, and follow them if they ask you to, alright?" Multi-stage instructions are a bit of a test of their memory, but you're pretty sure it'll be able to follow through on this.

You lead it back to the main road, and it totters towards the guard station. The guard, a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper beard, startles and starts talking into his radio, then hesitates when the golem gets close. You can just barely hear it talking, repeating the message you gave it word for word. The guard talks into his radio again, the golem repeating the message. This goes on for a minute or two before the guard goes inside, golem waiting motionless outside the gate.

Soon, the guard returns with a younger man in a suit jacket and loosely buttoned shirt. His body language seems bemused as he circles the golem a few times, before pulling out a cellphone to record it. Once he's captured a video of the message, he shrugs and walks away, bringing the phone up to his ear as he does so.

cont.

A few seconds later, a sizeable explosion occurs in the field, the shockwave strong enough that you can still feel the force at this distance. The dust cloud is too large to get a good look at what's happening, but as you sit there, confused, your mouse golem returns, a little worse for wear.
"He pushed a few buttons on the machine, spoke words ending with 'improved stability', then ran behind a concrete barrier. It exploded after a few seconds, and he shouted several swears, and began kicking the machine. A man came from another building, patted his back, and lead him back inside."
That's...weird. Some kind of really shitty tinker? You're not surprised he's here, if all his machinery ends up with this kind of blast radius.
You take another look at the time and groan. You have school first thing in the morning, and you still have to walk all the way home. You really do need better transportation...
You begin the long walk home, information swirling in your head as you reach out and allow the golem at the gate to fall apart. You've done a good deed, and probably earned a file in the Protectorate's system, maybe even helped capture a group of eco-terrorists. It's been a hell of a night and right now, you just want some sleep.

****
Last post of the night guys, hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. I'll be posting infrequently throughout the day tomorrow. Reminder that my twitter is https://twitter.com/RuralWormQuest and y'all should follow it for info, updates, and to ask me any questions you care to. Have a nice night, and happy New Year!

>>2193536
Thanks for running!

>>2193536
Thanks for running, happy New Year to you too.

Idea!
can we make a golem hollow and fit inside them?

>>2193552
Considering the max size of a golem we can make is 3 feet, I doubt it. Unless the size constraint has more to do with overall mass or something, then maybe.

>>2193536
Thanks for running, always looking forward to more

Gonna be running tonight around 7:30 or 8pm EST, again for 3-4 hours. Get hyped!

File: 1451193501153.gif (940 KB, 420x236)

940 KB GIF

>>2197213
Fuck. Yes.

File: 1497748792970.png (607 KB, 695x871)

607 KB PNG

>>2197213
Nice

Can we mold a golem horse for transpo?? Or any quadped in particular

>>2197592
>golems can be no smaller than 6 inches tall, and no taller/longer than 3 feet
Straight from last thread.

>>2197614
>not going full dogsled
I'm not angry, just disappointed anon

Your alarm blares to life, and you groan, rolling over to slap it and get five more glorious minutes of silence. They pass all too quickly, and the morning routine is the same as ever. Put out the twin's lunches, get breakfast ready, brush your teeth and your hair, and so on. Before you know it, you're climbing the steps onto the bus, Dex just a step behind you. You knew there was going to be an advantage to making friends with him.

The two of you dive into a rehash of everything you covered yesterday, going over theories and ideas, until you remember a certain juicy little secret. Argent. You saw him at the base last night, and even though it might be a bad idea, you can't help but share the fact with Dex, safely disguised as 'something you saw posted'

"Seriously?! If that's true, Mortar and Bloodhound are probably here too, since they work together so much."

"What? Bloodhound I can understand, since his whole thing is finding people, but Mortar? Don't his powers like, only work on concrete?"
Dex shrugs, and you spend the rest of the ride exchanging conjecture on the finer details of the trio's fighting styles and powers.

School goes as usual—boring, with occasional periods of excitement or dismay. You've always done pretty well, but due more to your mom's incessant hounding about GPAs and Advanced Placements than anything else.

Then, just after a solitary lunch, you have a free period. More than an hour and a half of time to yourself. The only question is what to do with it.
>Study up on Argent, Mortar, and Bloodhound's powers
Looking around on the more popular video-hosting sites, PHO, and some less PG-13 cape forums will definitely net you some more information. If you get lucky, you might even find something that'll be useful if you ever get to meet them.

>Look around on the local Protectorate bases' press site for anything you can scrounge up on that weird kid from last night with the exploding machine.
He's probably one of the Wards they keep there until they can sort out their powers and are safe to be around civilians, but what's his deal? You don't think they ever released a full list of the parahumans on the base, but it's possible there's a group photo floating around somewhere

>Actually do schoolwork
You can't deny that this is the less interesting of your options, but it does mean that you'll have a bit more time later do to something else. And as much as you hate to admit it, it's hard to take pre-calc seriously when you're at home, knowing you'll be running through the woods foiling eco-terrorists in a few hours.

You could probably do more than one, but you won't get as much done dividing your time between two options. It's still a possibility though.

>>2197691
>>Actually do schoolwork
Getting this done while we're still at school means we have more free time afterwards for caping. Let's use our time efficiently.

>>2197691
>Actually do school work.

>Look up the 3 heroes if we have the free time. School work takes priority.

>>2197691
>Actually do schoolwork

>>2197691
>Actually do schoolwork

>>2197691
>Study up on Argent, Mortar, and Bloodhound's powers
Goddamn you guys are angling for captain america tier good.

>>2197758
>>2197723
>>2197720
>>2197706
Lawful, goodie-two-shoes option wins
Roll 1d20 for random encounters

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>2197765

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>2197765
lawful good has nothing to do with it, I just want to ensure we can cape as much as possible without getting our parents or the school on our case for dropping grades.

File: 1463878187699.jpg (11 KB, 236x285)

11 KB JPG

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>2197765
rollan

>>2197777
>Rolled 20 (1d20)
>QUAD SEVENS
QM, this MUST count for something, come on. Those digits are undeniable.

>>2197777
>>2197794
>>2197772
Getting homework done and researching capes with no penalty it is.

File: 1395014093859.jpg (84 KB, 1280x720)

84 KB JPG

>>2197777
What a time to be alive.

With a sigh, you reach into your backpack and pull out your planner, flipping through to get an idea of your assignments for the week.

Huh. Turns out, you're a bit further ahead than you realized. You've been diligent enough over the past few weeks that you really don't have much do to. Certainly not enough to keep you busy for the whole period. Energised by the realization, you pull out your textbook and some looseleaf and get to work, plowing through your work with brutal efficiency.

You have a brief moment of confusion here or there, but copious notes and a good search engine help you through them, and you manage to finish everything in record time. Occasionally the teacher, or one of the other students, seem on the verge of interrupting you, but they seem to think better of it. Whether it's your expression of intense concentration, or just your reputation for being a bit cold, they don't bother you.

Having finished well ahead of schedule, you pull your laptop out of your bag, a middle-of-the-line model. You do some googling, and find a wealth of information available on some of Portland Protectorate's most controversial capes.

Argent seems to be the leader of the unofficial team. He fires blasts of silvery energy out of his hands, and can propel himself at highway speeds by shooting similar blasts out of his feet. From the videos you watch, it seems like the strength ranges from "sucker punch" to "sledgehammer", and they come out pretty quickly. It doesn't look like there's much range to them though, and his accuracy could use more than a little work.

Mortar fights alongside Argent, and after a bit of reading you realize you'd misunderstood his powers. Everybody who cares has seen the clip of him sinking some two-bit villain chest-deep into concrete, and made the obvious assumption that he can control cement and similar materials. Despite his name, that's not actually the case. The generally consensus is that he can alter some of a material's characteristics, making it flow like liquid or become dangerously brittle, for a few seconds at a time. His costume is a mottled grey affair with bands of yellow caution tape winding around his limbs, obviously a professionally designed piece. It looks like he mostly works as a support for Argent, using his powers to trip up or trap foes and provide openings to attack.

Bloodhound is the most difficult to research. It seems like there isn't a really good explanation of his abilities anywhere online, though it's accepted that once you've fought him, there's no hiding. He'll track you down and Mortar and Argent will be right behind. There's actually no video of him actually fighting, aside from some pretty acrobatic dodges caught on a shaky phone camera a year ago.

The study period ends just as you scroll through the last thread on Bloodhound, and you slog through the rest of the day. Turns out that a few days in a row of almost no sleep make academic excellence just a little bit harder.

Dex isn't on the bus home, and you remember with a pang of something unpleasant in the pit of your stomach that swim team practices after school today. Making it home to a blessedly empty house, you flop down on the bed, mind wandering. What to do with the afternoon?
>Text Dex. You're pretty sure you still have his number. He is at practice, but you know he'll answer eventually, and two heads are better than one trying to puzzle out Bloodhound.
>Go out back in the woods and do some experimentation and training with your powers. Never hurts to improve. (Specify any experiments or training you want to do)
>Look online, see if the Protectorate made any comment about your tip, even obliquely. It'd be incredibly gratifying to see that sort of thing.
>write-in

>>2198013
>Look online, see if the Protectorate made any comment about your tip, even obliquely. It'd be incredibly gratifying to see that sort of thing.

Cant really think of other ideas to try except making the golems out of other material

>>2198013
>Look online, see if the Protectorate made any comment about your tip, even obliquely. It'd be incredibly gratifying to see that sort of thing.

God damn do I love shitposting on PHO.

>>2198013
>>Go out back in the woods and do some experimentation and training with your powers. Never hurts to improve. (Specify any experiments or training you want to do)
See if you can use dirt and other various earthy materials instead of just clay. Is it a matter of requiring a moldable material that can maintain its cohesiveness?
If that fails, practice your molding/golem-making speed.

>>2198046
>strictly lawful good irl
>chaotic shitposter online
I like this MC more and more...

>>2198047
For the record, you can use any easily-molded material, and have used soil/earth to create three golems to date. A rat in the first thread, and a mouse and the message golem in this thread.
My apologies if this wasn't clear.

>>2198058
Try to make a hollow golem.

>>2198058
Good to know, I sort of assumed we'd been carting around a block of clay. Kind of dumb when I realize the message golem was the max size of 3 feet. That would have been a shit ton of clay.

>>2198029
>>2198046
This wins. Writing.

You flip open your laptop again and start scanning news articles and Protectorate press releases, hoping you can find something about a useful anonymous tip. Surely if they'd caught anybody there would have been some kind of statement about it, right?
Scrolling through, you do find a brief interview from a local newspaper. Apparently the recently-appointed head of the investigation was available for a few words. There's even a picture! You wait impatiently for the image to load, heart skipping a beat as it finally appears. It's the man from last night, the one who got called to the gate! According to the caption, his name is Jack Burgess, age 29. You waste no time in reading through it, noticing a few especially interesting bits as you do so.
Q: Do you anticipate any backlack from citizens, coming in and taking over a case like this?
A: On the contrary. We've already received a huge amount of support from concerned members of the community, including some potentially useful tips. The Sheriff's Department will tell you they've had to set up a hotline just to take information on the case.
And then, a few lines later.
Q: Is the Protectorate's involvement a tacit confirmation that there are parahumans involved in this case?
A: While I'm not at liberty to disclose facts about the case, I will say that if this sabotage was the result of normal eco-terrorist activity, I believe the Sheriff's Department would have been more than able to deal with it by themselves.
There's a little more, but mostly regarding his age, and experience leading past investigations, nothing all that interesting. Still, "potentially useful tips"! That's something, considering how hush-hush the Protectorate usually is.
It's been an hour or two, you've still got a little bit of time left before your mom and the twins get home and you have to help with dinner and answer questions about SAT prep. What to do...?
>Physical training. You don't plan on getting in any fightfights, but surely it can't hurt to do a little conditioning? You have been slacking on your workouts recently...
>Do some reading on parahuman eco-terrorist groups. If that's really what these people are, it'll be good to try to nail down their motivations and resources.
>Write-in

>>2198256
>>Physical training. You don't plan on getting in any fightfights, but surely it can't hurt to do a little conditioning? You have been slacking on your workouts recently...
Rule one for someone with Master powers, don't get caught without your minons. Which means lots of running.

>>2198256
>Physical training. You don't plan on getting in any fightfights, but surely it can't hurt to do a little conditioning? You have been slacking on your workouts recently...
We're not a fucking weakling like Taylor. It's time to git gud.

>>2198256
>Do some reading on parahuman eco-terrorist groups. If that's really what these people are, it'll be good to try to nail down their motivations and resources.

Good to know your enemy. Also don't want to exhaust ourselves before a possible fight. We'll have to start a training regimen after this.

>>2198273
>just a couple of fairly large minions
>actively working against sympathetic villains
>not slacking off at school
>about to get swole as fuck
Are we literally just the anti-taylor?

>>2198292
>just a couple
Max 12
>fairly large minions
6 inches to 3 feet
>actively working against sympathetic villains
We have no idea if they are sympathetic or not
>not slacking off at school
We're doing this only so we have time later
>about to get swole as fuck
Soon(TM)

We're still far from being an anti-Taylor. But remember what I said earlier: >>2192723

>>2198272
>>2198273
Writing.

File: 1496432790978.jpg (10 KB, 400x320)

10 KB JPG

I like the subtle hinting at our backstory and character and other things throughout the quest.
>Note: This power comes with average piano-playing ability, a decent backstroke, and a single mom. Also, you're bad at lying.
>Dad was complaining about delays at the construction site by the National Park. He works as a supervisor there.
>"I'm not on swim team anymore."
>Dex isn't a bad guy after all. You two were almost friends, after all. Same neighborhood, same clubs growing up, it was a natural thing. Still...he didn't so much as send you a text that week. Nobody did. That knowledge sits heavy in your stomach, like you swallowed a fishing weight.
>You try to tell yourself that this is easiest. You should try and get over it already—it's not like any of them meant any harm by it. Even thinking about it makes your stomach turn...
>This motorcycle gear must have been your mother's from back in the day.
>Hockey pads from your brief stint as a benchwarmer a few years back, before your mother decided swimming was more important and pulled you off the team.
>You've always done pretty well, but due more to your mom's incessant hounding about GPAs and Advanced Placements than anything else.
>Whether it's your expression of intense concentration, or just your reputation for being a bit cold, they don't bother you.
>and you remember with a pang of something unpleasant in the pit of your stomach that swim team practices after school today.
See these sort of details, a keyword here a sentence there, is part of good writing. I remember fucking wildbow doing this in Worm too, multiple times. Good shit >>2198338. It's gonna be a blast looking back through these old threads if this quest lasts until thread 10 or 20. As far as I know there has never been a finished Worm quest of any kind, and any finished quest instantly becomes valuable for being finished at all. But we're still quite a ways off from that, this is only arc 1 of ??? and I still need more art for my Worm folder

You nod decisively, standing up from your desk and changing into work-out clothes. It's embarrassing to say, but all your running and hiking last night was probably the most exercise you've done in the past few weeks. It's not like you're in bad shape or anything, but you haven't kept up with the exercise regime you were on...before.

Shaking off thoughts and memories, you shrug on a windbreaker and head out the back door onto the jogging path set through the woods. It's a well-maintained trail, smooth packed earth, and never veers too far away from a major roadway. This makes it fairly popular as a shortcut or for people who, like you, want to get in a bit of cardio but don't feel like taking the risk in the narrow shoulders of Ashford's country roads.

You run until your breath comes hot and hard in your chest, until you can no longer maintain the measured breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth. You take a second to catch your wind, and then drop to the ground, forcing your arms through a round of pushups. Once you've clambered back onto your feet you start in on lunges, going a little easier since you know you still have a long way to run. It's a little hodgepodge, and you're sure you look a little silly out here in the woods. It's a far cry from your previous setup, but right now, that's a blessing.
You get home and manage to squeeze in a quick shower to get the sweat off your aching muscles before it's time to make dinner, and eat dinner, and dodge question after question about standardized test schedules.

You retreat to your room afterwords, feeling the ache of the training, a good solid soreness. You catch sight of the field cap from your costume where it sits under your desk, and try to decide what you'll be doing tonight.

>Go to the sheds in the park and see if Argent and the rest move in tonight. It'd be something to see, that's for sure.
>Stick around the Protectorate base again. If the capes are active at all you'll get a good look at them leaving, anyway, maybe confirm who's here and who isn't.

>Stay in, get a good night's sleep for once, maybe practice a bit with your power once everyone's got to sleep.

>>2198427
>Go to the sheds in the park and see if Argent and the rest move in tonight. It'd be something to see, that's for sure.

Even if they don't we can keep an eye on the intruders, try and get more info.

>>2198427
>>Stay in, get a good night's sleep for once, maybe practice a bit with your power once everyone's got to sleep.
We've been out caping two nights straight. I want to make sure we're on our A-game before anything crazy happens. Kinda boring I guess. I wouldn't be against a more actiony option winning.

>>2198427
>>Stay in, get a good night's sleep for once, maybe practice a bit with your power once everyone's got to sleep.

I would rather not have the night that the other capes prepare for us be the one where we walk into it.

>>2198427
>Stay in, get a good night's sleep for once, maybe practice a bit with your power once everyone's got to sleep.
Experiment with making golems out of other materials. Do they have to look like a living organism, or can they also be nonliving things? Can we inject that "life energy" into anything else, like already existing sculptures or objects, or do we specifically have to create them ourselves first before we inject life?

>>2198388
Haha, thanks! It means a lot to hear that somebody is noticing the little things. Fingers crossed that we make it to thread 20 and get plenty of fanart!
>>2198512
>>2198475
>>2198456
Writing.

You go so far as reaching for your costume before you make up your mind. Tonight is either going to be dead quiet or a massive dumpster fire, and neither one sounds like somewhere you want to be. So, just for tonight, you'll take a breather. Leaning back on your bed, you set an alarm on your phone and surrender to the best, most refreshing nap you've had in months.

It's somewhat spoiled by your alarm going off in the middle of the night, necessitating a mad scramble to silence it, lest you wake the whole house. You yawn and stretch, popping a few joints, and get to work testing. You've tried out a lot of stuff in the past few months, but you're far from having a perfect understanding.

You dig the lump of modelling clay out of your satchel and break off a chunk. After a moment's deliberation, you form it into a minature table and set it down, passing your power into it. It feels...weird. It's definitely awake, but it's just acting like a table. It doesn't respond to commands or answer back when asked, unlike your normal golems. After an uncomfortable minute, you de-animate it and squish it back into a ball.

Another thought strikes you, and you tiptoe as quietly as you can into the back room, where the twins had been messing around with playdough, and by the light of your phone screen, grab a small horse-like figure that one of them smushed together. You push a part of your power into it. It's more difficult than usual. If you had to describe it, it's like the difference between pushing a potato into a tailpipe, and trying to fit a watermelon down the same way. Still, you perservere, and after a second, you feel the misshapen creature stir, wiggling crazily in your hand. It obeys a whispered command to walk in a circle, but it's barely responsive after that, ignoring half your orders until you finally let your power fade from it.

Your last experiment is a little more difficult, but certainly worth trying. You slip out the back door, making sure to leave it unlocked, and towards the woods. After a few minute's searching, you find a place where the earth is exposed enough to get a good handful of it, and start shaping. It's not easy to maintain a hollow form with such imperfect material, but a good artist never blames their tools. Finally, you've created a hollow, humanoid shape about six foot tall, out of about the same amount of earth you used for the shorter one yesterday. Gently laying your palm against it, you try to pass your power into it. You had expected a wall, or a narrow entrance, forcing you to push your power through, into the vessel. No such luck. Facing you is a vast emptiness, a void that sucks up whatever power you pour into it and then asks for more, refusing to fill, to stir with life.

You pull back, breathing hard, feeling an unpleasant ache in the center of your chest. Looks like that one's off the table.

You sneak back inside, eyelids already fluttering as you brush your teeth and change into pajamas, looking forward to an early three-day weekend once school ends tomorrow. Your last thought, as you settle into bed with another wide yawn, sinking into sleep, is that there couldn't have been a better time.

********
Last post of the night, friends, romans, countrymen. I'll try to post some tomorrow, but we'll see. Feel free to ask any questions or give whatever comments you think are useful, I'll be puttering around in the thread for a few more minutes anyway.

>>2198690
Thanks for running! Was the hollow golem we tried just too big? Six feet is a lot, even hollow. If not, I guess I'll have to bid adieu to my dreams of nitroglycerin filled golems.

>>2198763
Since it seemed like a lot of people were wondering about size vs mass being the determining factor, I figured I'd lay that to rest.
The size is a hard barrier, not the mass, but you could definitely do a hollow 3ft tall golem easily enough. The size was the reason it wouldn't animate.

>>2198777
Yes, explosive suicide golems aren't just a dream!

>>2198777
While explosive golems are a bit morbid, it's cool that we can send care packages.

File: 777.png (296 KB, 300x440)

296 KB PNG

>>2198777
Nice trips.


So far we know:
>size limit CANNOT be exceeded
>hollow golems are possible, as long as they stay within the size limit
>amount of material used is irrelevant for golems ("about six foot tall, out of about the same amount of earth you used for the shorter one yesterday")
>inanimate object golems do become alive, but remain completely unresponsive like the objects they are
>injecting into already existing objects or sculptures does work, but there's higher difficulty (potentially dependent on the golem's quality?) and only partially obedient/responsive

I do wonder how this would've gone if we went with the "lobster boat dry dock mystery" path instead of the "corporate park sabotage" path, especially since we have great swimming experience. Trigger event is definitely tied to the swim team or water, far as I can tell - and possibly EVERYONE is fucking guilty. We also have a prior reputation in school and among other people for being aloof and somewhat hostile?
Mom was a biker bitch until she became super straight-laced and made us focus on education real hard, how come? Still no background on Dad (outside of construction supervisor) or The Twins. If we're supposed to have a single mom, then how is the dad still there in the family life? And where does piano playing tie into all this?

At the beginning of the quest we were given the choice of this character or a guy Blaster/Striker, and QM said the genders were related to the trigger events somehow. /ourgirl/ is
>Note: This power comes with average piano-playing ability, a decent backstroke, and a single mom. Also, you're bad at lying.
Piano playing's relevance still unknown.
Backstroke related to swimming, related to trigger event?
Single mom has to have some significance.
Bad at lying will rear its ugly head at some point?
The light->heat->light guy is
>Note: This power comes with novice self-defense knowledge, a can of mace, and parents who tend to be hands-off. Also, you're easily startled.

Both lines involve
>a skill
>a tool/technique
>parent situation description
>a negative personality quirk
And none of the details might be trigger event relevant. So going by this, Taylor might be
>Note: This power comes with a knack for multitasking, a can of pepper spray, and a single dad. Also, you dislike people with authority.

I'm loving the shit out of this quest so far. I hope you don't abandon this or flake out. When this quest gets to 10 threads, that's when you know you're in it until the end or until you physically cannot continue.

And I completely overlooked that our other character option was Brute/Breaker, who literally has Katamari Damacy as a superpower.
>Note: This power comes with increased camping skills, familiarity with the woods surrounding Ashford, and parents that tend to cramp your style. Also, mild claustrophobia.
Skill = Camping
Tool/Technique/Knowledge = Woods in the area
Parent Situation = Stifling
Negative Quirk = Claustrophobia
Yup, that fits the pattern too. I have no clue if I'm looking too deep into all this, but guessing shit and piecing info together is fun.

>>2198903
I actually gave each power a funny name to start with in my notes, and the Brute/Breaker was Katamari Damage-y so you're right on the ball there.
and you're not wrong about the pattern, though the quirks/abilities are tangentially related to trigger events.
If you want I can spoil the lobster boat path, but I might wait a bit since it's technically still happening in-universe, but you guys are very focused on other stuff.

>>2199003
We're still on thread 2, better to not spoil anything just yet.

>>2199541
A fair point

I will probably be running tonight, again around 7:30-8pm EST for 3-4 hours. See you then!

>>2202361
Cool, 100 posts isn't exactly enough for one thread. Make sure to post on /qtg/ to get a few more people joining in?

>>2202372
There is no qtg to post in at this time, unfortunately.

>>2202415
There is however, a /qtg/ discord.

>>2202920
Does anyone actually read the update channel?

You actually wake up a few minutes before your alarm this time, turning it off before its hateful noise interrupts the early morning quiet. On another positive note, the twins don't have to go to school today—they get an extra day off for some sort of teacher's training session. You won't get the house to yourself this afternoon, but it's worth it for a calmer morning routine.

All goes well, and you even wear your favourite sweater—a bulky white affair with thick cuffs that always makes you feel cozy no matter where you are. Considering the way fall is starting to announce itself, it's not a bad choice from a practical standpoint either.

Dex is waiting at the bus stop just down the road when you get there, flicking through his phone. He flashes a grin when he sees you, and you stand next to him, leaning against the stop sign.

"Did you see the Protectorate interview in the Anchor yesterday?" he asks, leaning forward with a look that tells you he's leading up to something.

"Ye-es, Jack Burgess sounds like an interesting guy...why do you look like somebody left a puppy under the tree?"

"Okay, so you know how Burgess mentioned valuable tips from the community? Well, look at this!" He pulls his phone up, a video already playing. Dex is still talking, explaining that the date the video was taken, and its location, have already been confirmed, but you're not really listening. Because, as it happens, you already knew exactly when and where that video was taken.

It's a little grainy from the low light, but it's unmistakably the cellphone video Jack Burgess took two nights ago when you visited the Protectorate base to deliver your tip in person. Your golem, vaguely humanoid but obviously artificial, stands there, repeating the message you gave it in its flat, emotionless voice. The clip starts to repeat before Dex pulls his hand back, chattering at a million miles a minute.

"Since the eco-terrorists or whoever wouldn't do this, and it obviously wasn't the Protectorate themselves...it must have been a local! We have a vigilante in Ashford!" He's practically shouting the last few words, smiling so broadly it's a wonder his head doesn't pop off. He looks over to you, watching intently for your reaction.

>>2203633

>Excited.
Best to play it up. Of course you'd be excited if a vigilante was in town, if you weren't otherwise involved. This is what Dex is expecting, but getting blindsided like this makes it hard to act convincingly...

>Skeptical
With all your discussions of theories in the last few days, it won't be too strange to disagree with his conclusions. After all, there isn't conclusive evidence that the "vigilante" is actually a local—at least in theory, 'they' could have come up from Portland. It'll be a little easier to just seem unconvinced as well, rather than having to pretend to be excited.

>Concerned
It might throw Dex for a loop, but it's not that unreasonable. With everything else going on, it won't be too hard to convince him that you're just nervous about all the cape stuff happening so suddenly, and it'll be pretty easy to hide what you're actually worried about.

>>2203635
>>Concerned
>It might throw Dex for a loop, but it's not that unreasonable. With everything else going on, it won't be too hard to convince him that you're just nervous about all the cape stuff happening so suddenly, and it'll be pretty easy to hide what you're actually worried about.
We're a terrible liar, keeping it simple is good. Even better that we're hiding what we're concerned about instead of trying to fake an emotion.

>>2203635
>Concerned
What >>2203682 said

>>2203722
>>2203682
1d20, best of three, crits take precedence.

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>2203801
Oh boy
>inb4 single digit
>inb4 crit

>>2203635
>concerned
Why would he have posted that video, isn't it a bit irresponsible? Said mysterious local cape is clearly trying to stay under the radar.

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>2203801

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>2203801
Spaggetti

>>2203820
Writing.
>>2203815
>Why would he have posted that video
Sounds like something you should investigate further.

>>2203853
Well, if the general public is aware there's a vigilante cape in town, it's harder for us to stay hidden and do shit. So there's a societal pressure hoping the mystery cape is a hero, and eventually joins the Wards/Protectorate. And if we weren't heroically inclined and just wanted the heroes to do their job and leave as quickly as possible, releasing the video lets the town know we're around.

You've never been a particularly good liar. Not since you were a kid. No sense trying to fight that now, particularly when there's a lot to lose.

"J-Jeeze." You force out, managing to make it sound nervous rather than confused. "That's a bit scary though, isn't it?"

"What are you talking about? Yesterday you were just as excited as I was that Argent was coming to town." His brow wrinkles, and he seems almost hurt.

"Well, uh, it's different when it's a vigilante, right? The Protectorate are all trained and you know they're the good guys. Who knows what this vigilante character is up to? What if they just get in the way of the real capes?"
Dex seems to think for a second, and shrugs, running a hand over his close-cropped curls.

"I guess you're right. I just couldn't believe that somebody from Ashford had powers and all. Everybody online is going nuts trying to figure out if it's an established cape from another city or somebody new."

"Makes sense I guess."

The rest of the wait, and the bus ride, passes in awkward silence, and you're almost grateful to part ways once you arrive.

School goes well. There's a slightly excitable atmosphere, everyone looking forward to the long weekend, and it even seems to have infected the teachers. Mr. Oliviera lets your history class debate devolve into a semi-serious discussion of historical fashion choices, and Ms. Simms actually puts a sticker on your pre-calc homework. Before you know it, it's the end of the day and everyone begins filtering out of the building.

As you pack up the last of your books from your locker into your bag, you remember how insistent your mom's been lately about extracurriculars. Surprisingly, she didn't fuss too much after you quit the swim team, or even when you stopped going to your piano lessons, but more recently she started up again. What would be the best way to get her off your back...?

>Go see if Mrs. Wright is still recruiting for the art club. You do enjoy sculpting more than just your golems, and it's something, even if it's not as rigorous as your mother might want.

>Swing by the pool, maybe talk to the coach. Your mom would be happy, and it probably wouldn't get as bad as before...right?

>Just go home. Your mother can bug you all she wants, you're not going to let her run your life any more.

>>2203961
>Just go home. Your mother can bug you all she wants, you're not going to let her run your life any more.

If she tries we can yell at her then run to our room and play Linkin Park really loud.

>>2203961
>Go see Mrs Wright
Yes. We will make the prettiest little golems. Just don't make anything in class that looks like the ones we plan to use in the field.

>>2203961
>>Go see if Mrs. Wright is still recruiting for the art club. You do enjoy sculpting more than just your golems, and it's something, even if it's not as rigorous as your mother might want.
I like the idea of getting gud at sculpting.

>>2203961
>Go see if Mrs. Wright is still recruiting for the art club. You do enjoy sculpting more than just your golems, and it's something, even if it's not as rigorous as your mother might want.
Sculpting 101

>Capcha: Select all images with statues
IT'S A SIGN

>>2204003
>>2203987
>>2203982
Writing.

You sling your backpack over your shoulder and start wandering slowly towards the art and music wing. Despite how much you enjoy it, you actually haven't spent a lot of time here. There's always been something more important to do, another class to take. You're not sure if you've even talked to Mrs. Wright before, though you've seen her putting up posters for the art club all over the school. She's an older woman, long white hair held in a low ponytail, colorful vests over pale linen shirts, a flower child who managed to age gracefully out of the 70s.

You peek into the open door of the art room. The beige walls are practically plastered over with artwork, from charcoals to oil paints, all of them past students' work. There are three long wooden tables dominating the room, their surfaces stained with old pigment half-washed off. There are two other students your age in the room, both sitting at the center table a few seats apart, both bent over their own pieces. They sit up now and again to ask for an opinion or make a joke, always in a tone of voice just a little too loud to really be a whisper.

You step in and, after a moment's hesitation, clear your throat stiffly. The two students look up, one boy, one girl. The boy starts to say something, but before he can, a door in the back of the room bursts open and Mrs. Wright bustles out, freshly dried photographs in hand. When she sees you she smiles, sets them down, and walks over, extending her hand. You shake it, feeling the cool dry texture of her palms.

"Welcome, welcome!" she doesn't release your hand, pulling you out of the doorway and into the room proper. "I can guess why you're here, so why don't we skip the boring bits and get straight to the meat of it!"

"Sorry? I'm not sure I..."

"Your medium! Your chosen expression!" Rather than exasperated, she seems to only become more boisterous as your confusion grows. "What kind of art do you make?"
From the glances the two at the center table are giving each other, it seems like this is the standard treatment. Maybe risking your mom's wrath wouldn't be so bad after all...

"Oh, I do some sculpture."

"Wonderful, wonderful! We haven't had someone working in more than two dimensions for the longest time. What do you normally work with?"

>Ceramics
It'd certainly be nice to refine your skills a bit, and you've already got a decent talent to start with thanks to your power. Then again, ever since Burgess released that video for god knows what reason, it might not be a great idea to associate yourself with sculpting figures from clay in people's minds...
>Wire
You're almost sure your powers wouldn't work on metal, but to be fair you haven't actually tried it yet. That, and something about wire sculpture has always fascinated you. Lines arranged midair like drawing off the page, the shine and lustre of different metals...it could be fun.
>Wood

You know this wouldn't have any more practical uses, but it might be nice to turn something as common and unremarkable as a chunk of oak or walnut into a work of art. It'd give you something to do with your hands on long stakeouts, you suppose, and the look of rough-carved figures and totems has a certain charm about it.

>>2204143
>Wood

Stuff to do on long stakeouts is key.

>>2204143
>Wire
The description makes it seem more in character. And the maybes call to me.
I wanted to stick with clay and just not do animals/people but if we would be literally the only one working with it the connection may be a little obvious in any case.

you want to know a material that's soft?
flesh.

>>2204143
>>Wire

>>2204185
Your right, we should go to butchery club.

>>2204185
Good to know someone is willing to take us down the psychotic villain route. Maybe if we're lucky the Slaughterhouse 9 will come to town and we can be a candidate /s

File: qoij-S2c_400x400.jpg (31 KB, 400x400)

31 KB JPG

>>2204185
...pic related

>>2204184
>>2204192
Wire takes it.

File: nodding hat.gif (1.45 MB, 200x200)

1.45 MB GIF

>>2204143
>Wire

>>2204185
In time, probably in a very desperate and in character moment.
If the mant effect thingy doesn't stop it at least.

"Oh, well I've done other stuff in the past, but I want to try concentrating on wire sculpture now." You try to gloss over the fact that you have almost no experience, but Mrs. Wright doesn't seem to bat an eyelash.

"Trying new things and moving forward, what a marvelous worldview!" she beams and moves over to her desk. She takes down your name, school email address, and some other bits and bobs of information, then stands up and announces, in a grand voice that seems utterly unbefitting a somewhat shabby, small-town art room, that you are now a member of the art club.

"And these are your illustrious colleagues!" she continues, giving a sweeping gesture to take in the only other living souls in the room. "Timothy, the master of digital arts, and Sophia, the acknowledged queen of acrylic landscapes."
Tim rolls his eyes and goes back to his tablet, but Sophia gives a mock bow from her chair, giggling as she does so.

"Will you join us now and, or do other matters call you from our humble abode? I will say, I have a roll of medium gauge copper wire in back with your name on it if you stick around..." she finishes with a teasing tone, head tilted to the side as she waits for your answer.

>Uh, sure, I can stick around for a while. The late bus doesn't leave for a while anyway.
>Sorry, I have something else to do...
>Write-in

File: Coil.jpg (41 KB, 1024x1024)

41 KB JPG

>>2204185
You want us to go full Taylor already? God damn. At least remind us later when shit gets desperate, not fucking NOW. I mean, I was thinking of it from the start of the quest too, but STILL!

>>2204260
Will pic related rear his slimy head much much later in the quest, or is he non-canon?

>>2204322
>Uh, sure, I can stick around for a while. The late bus doesn't leave for a while anyway.
It's time to become better

>>2204322
>Uh, sure, I can stick around for a while. The late bus doesn't leave for a while anyway.

>>2204322

>Uh, sure, I can stick around for a while. The late bus doesn't leave for a while anyway.

>>2204323
Taylor never went edgelord fleshcrafter, and Coil never was in Maine.

>>2204322
>>Uh, sure, I can stick around for a while. The late bus doesn't leave for a while anyway.
Try to make an animal, see if you can test your power on it when you have the privacy for it, such as sticking around for a few minutes once everyone leaves

>>2204323
>Will pic related rear his slimy head
We are tentatively in Worm canon, starting some time before Taylor gets the soda treatment in her school bathroom.
>>2204351
>Coil never was in Maine.
To be fair, I don't think it was ever specified where on the east coast Brockton Bay was, though I always figured somewhere between Maryland and Massachusetts. But yeah, Coil's not in Maine.

>>2204328
>>2204332
>>2204352
Sticking around wins. Roll 1d20, best of three, crits (1 or 20) take precedent.

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>2204378
We shall create a masterpiece!

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>2204378

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>2204378
So anything is still possible in this quest. We can break canon completely and ruin ALL the plans if we wanted. Crush Worm under the feet of our army of tiny ugly-cute golems.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>2204378
Better call the nurse...

>>2204395
>>2204396
Good rolls in this quest so far. Writing.

"Uh, sure, I can stick around." You stammer, frankly overwhelmed by the teacher's personality. "The bus doesn't leave for a while anyway."
Mrs. Wright claps her hands in delight and disappears into a storage closet, reappearing almost at once with a the promised the roll of copper wire and a pair of needlenose pliers, specially rounded to avoid marring soft metal.

Swallowing down your nerves, you clip a sizeable portion of the wire off from the main coil and begin to shape it, stopping more than once to reconsider. Lean back, bend, think, cut, bend, on and on. It's surprisngly absorbing, and in fact you almost jump when Sophia addresses you, snapping you out of your reverie.

"You said your name was Leah, right?"

"Yup. And you're Sophia. You used to work at the music store in the summer, right?"

"I knew I knew you from somewhere! Small towns, huh?"

"Small towns."

You return to working on your project, but can't help sneaking a peak at what she's doing. It looks like a basic sketch on canvas, preparation for a larger work. A hill, a boulder sunk into the earth. Kind of like a--

"Blueberry barren." she says, and you flush as you realize how conspicuous your gaze must have been. "I'm actually going to be doing it in watercolors, or I wouldn't use such a heavy canvas."

"Why watercolors? Didn't Mrs. Wright just say you mostly did acrylics?"

"We all need to do things that aren't inside our comfort zone from time to time. How else do we grow?" She smiles and turns back to her work, and you do the same, mind swirling.

Half an hour later and your sculpture is beginning to take shape. It's gnarled and hunched, branches curling up at odd angles, some broken off jaggedly at the base. It's a tree, a specific tree actually, just a short walk from your backyard. Struck by lightning sometime before you were born, it struggled on just the same, putting up a dozen or so yellowed leaves each year, dropping them a few months later, and somehow surviving. It's not perfect, you'd want thinner wire for some parts, thicker for others, and it's been a while since you sat down and looked at it, but...you think you captured it. Took the essence of that tree and spun it into bits of bent copper wire.

The announcement for the late bus plays over the PA system, tinny and faint, but urgent. You grab your bag, already moving for the door, then stop just a second.
>Give the sculpture to Mrs. Wright for now. She's sure to take good care of it
>Take the sculpture home. It's not done yet, and you don't want someone else to see it before it's perfect.
>Write-in

>>2204553
>Give the sculpture to Mrs. Wright for now. She's sure to take good care of it

More convenient

>>2204553
>>Give the sculpture to Mrs. Wright for now. She's sure to take good care of it
Damn, I guess we're not testing our power on it?

>>2204566
If you were to take it home, you would have a chance to use it in privacy, and not in a room full of people.

>>2204553
>Take the sculpture home. It's not done yet, and you don't want someone else to see it before it's perfect.


Dex rides the late bus cause of club?
We could show him our work in progress. might make him forget the awkwardness of our whiplash attitude.

>>2204553
>>Take the sculpture home. It's not done yet, and you don't want someone else to see it before it's perfect.
>>2204566
Changing my vote because I'm an idiot.

>>2204553
>Take the sculpture home. It's not done yet, and you don't want someone else to see it before it's perfect.

>>2204610
>>2204591
>>2204576
Writing, this'll probably be the last one of the night bais

>>2204662
but last one of the thread? You could run tomorrow Sunday and you might be free

You turn back and carefully bundle the sculpture into your bag, waving a hasty goodbye to Tim, Sophia, and Mrs. Wright. You felt like the sculpture was missing something, a touch that you needed time to figure out. That, and you wanted to see just how far you can stretch your power, something you couldn't do when there was already a chance that Burgess was trying to get your secret identity found out.

You take the bus home, jouncing along in the nearly empty black and yellow vehicle. Dex isn't on board—either swim practice was canceled or he caught a ride home with one of the older kids. You don't think that would be unusual, though it was never something you'd done. You keep that image of the wire tree in your mind, turning it over and over as you try to figure out that last something to really complete it.

The twins are screeching in the back room as you walk in the door, your mother sitting at the kitchen table, papers spread out in front of her. She turns toward you as you walk in.

"Leah, dear, when you have a moment?" she asks, face just as pleasant as her voice. You swallow hard, nod, and duck into your room to drop your backpack off as gently as you can. It's never shouting that you have to look out for with her.

"Come sit with me in the living room. We need to have a talk."

****
Hope all y'all had a great time, I definitely enjoyed it. Definitely not the last post of the thread--we've still not hit the bump limit, so I may run either tomorrow or sunday night. If I can't, I'll still be posting throughout the day. Goodnight, and I'll see you soon!

oh gosh no, its one of those moms

>>2204727
Thanks for running!

Are we gonna get to yell at our mom then run to our room and play Linkin Park really loud?

>>2204756
>>2204760
Reminder she used to be a biker before she became whatever flavor of "bitch" she is now. We still don't know exactly how bad she is or why she became this way, but we're gonna find out and it isn't going to be fun.

>>2204784
Eh, i don't imagine it'll be that bad, especially if she didn't hide her past clothes to well.
Unless she ran with a hells angels equivalent in earth bett or she was part of a biker cape gang and we got our powers from her.

>>2204727
>"Leah, dear, when you have a moment?" she asks, face just as pleasant as her voice. You swallow hard, nod, and duck into your room to drop your backpack off as gently as you can. It's never shouting that you have to look out for with her.
Oh god, I'm concerned. We have a striker/master power. I think striker had to do with an immediate in your face threat and master was something like long-term isolation/pariah?
With all these hints about the swim team, I think that was the striker component, and whatever is up with our mom is part of the master half of our power.

>>2204812
We're mono-Master.
>striker had to do with an immediate in your face threat and master was something like long-term isolation/pariah
Where is this info from?

>>2204839
The information on trigger events as they relate to power classifications comes from the wiki, which comes from some excellent documents created for Weaverdice by Wildbow and compatriots.
Brutes have to deal with obvious violence, shakers with environmental danger/threats, movers with being stuck or chased, etc.

>>2204812
I thought we were just master. How are we a striker?

>>2205734
I think he thought we're a partial Striker because we have to touch the golems to give them life force and subservience to our will.

>>2205734
>>2205737
Basically this. It's been a while since I've read the power classifications so I might be wrong on the technicalities.

Guys if we were gonna try to animate the wire sculpture, why'd we make a tree? It won't work right.

>>2210307
Maybe it depends on material? Maybe Play-doh is too retarded to follow simple commands?

>>2210307
It wasn't our choice. But ents are real!

>>2205147
Watching through https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCW6KR4MVOXaGS2KlDJzWITG0RzAJ9NLo is a nice reminder of wildbow's style and techniques. If you ever have free time outside of the quest, maybe this can be fun to listen to or help out somewhat?

neat, hope this isn't dead.