Question The Book of Darwin

Since it appears it hasn't been done yet. Here we go!

JG..All i have to say...The final scene really hits home. The march really got to me.

Uhhh... I thought caimans were native to the Americas? How did Adam get near one?

That march! So Heartwarming! There's some good in the world!

... So, that seemingly normal man was Rager too... Well, they do come in all shapes and sizes...

... Ragers that feel like they were possessed... Given the existence of Demons and stuff, actual demonic possession might not be unlikely... ... An Avatar taken over by their spirit might have the same effect...

... The higher amounts of GSD in Australia might be due to the Dreamer, who I think is Gaia, but could be one of her daughters, drawing more spirits in... Or the A-Forge... ... Is Mutant testing in Australia good enough to even tell that apart? I don't think so...

OH! Diamondback broke though the binding! ... And that guy wasn't fully human...

Artificer Forge... When I read that, I was like, a place to make more Artificers?!? And it's running?! Oh shit. ... But, no.

Nice intro, in the plane! And a good MCO person! ... Koala got a biomod from Jobe? She's no Drow or something, right? So, did she get it as payment instead of as a full-on guinea pig? And is this confirming her being Sidhe?

No she "stole" it... I wonder if anyone's got stolen Jobe biomods... Wait... Perhaps her Sidhe appearance is a sideeffect of that biomod, which might have been a Drow prototype??

... Wait... Does Sidhe also count as GSD in Australia?

Aww! Little Adam!

... So, how's Sandra gonna get that Snake Spirit? Familiar, Avatar, or something else, perhaps...

Sir Lee wrote: Uhhh... I thought caimans were native to the Americas? How did Adam get near one?

Jack's family were in America at least for Parent's Day, perhaps a family holiday?

Awesome story JG, kind of surprised there was no violence in it however. Are you feeling alright?

The opening with the parachutes kind of surprised me, I was like, "Wait the MCO doesn't even land the plane just tosses them out!" But for the adrenaline junkies I can understand the appeal.
The last part with the march and Jericho talking about how the kid told the police to shoot him if he raged and hurt people was a masterpiece, that reallly made the story.
Thanks for writing it.

Only people who call it football down here are generally europeans, or maybe their kids.

Hell, growing up it was Wogball.

Not sure there are even Caiman's in zoo's down here.
But saving his little brother from a large saltwater, that would impress anybody.
Bloody things have been found in swimming pools before.

Great story.

Awesome story, JG. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Wrayth

^^ Hmm... I guess Jobe might have noticed the theft and tightened up security even more or something.

... Did he ever mention the theft? He'd attribute it to Belfatso anyway... ... Should I be as surprised as I am that someone other than Belphegor stole something from Jobe? Mmm...

Austraila is a wild place, full of dangers that the rest of the world has forgotten. Australia is a tame place, full of people who live ordinary lives, lives that any among us would recognize. It is passionate and strange, it is boring and mundane, and it is beautiful. I dare any person in this world to stand upon Australia's soil and not thing, "Oh, how green this land, oh, how blue this sea; I must have been very good to have been allowed to come here.

From "How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea" by Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire)


Oddly enough, this is the second story this week that I've read set in Australia. (The first being the one quoted above). Both stories were excellent. Getting to see Outcast Corner become a little closer more than makes up for the lack of zombie kangaroos.

SPOILER ALERT
Below is a stream of conscious commentary I type up as I read the story. There will details from the story included in it. If you have not read the story yet and don't wish to have details of it spoiled, read no further.


Outcast Corner on a C-130 transport plane, poor Jack out cold. Trip to Australia and Caitlin made to go by Gunny Bardue. Boredom on long plane flight, ugh. Ah, to be able to read as fast if not faster than Diamondback can and retain it all. Spider, Hammerhead, and Katja Vilenkov, interesting additions to their group for the trip.

Ah, glad to see Jericho is closer to having his Rafe armor being pure gadgeteer tech so he can market it. Nice to know more of how Jericho's powers work, always thought he was in the 'super-genius' category of gadgeteer types before now. They're doing an airdrop instead of landing! Jacks in his back and skull to interface with a helmet and spine assembly to allow him to see normally, dang.

Ouch, Jericho got Carmilla for his Combat Final. Poor Sandra having to do that from a plane, I would be scared as well. Now that was some epic landing in the Australian outback. Hehehe, Caitlin giving Jericho an armor wedgie, wonder if we will actually see that. Bwahahaha, Razorback landing on Jericho right when he is in the middle of a sentence. And dang, Diamondback knows how to make a landing.

Going to Ayer's Rock aka Uluru, its original name. Dimensional pocket storage for their power armors, nice. More monstrous GSD-types from Australia, wonder what causes that. All of them have unusual vision except for Diamondback, Spider due to stealing something from Jobe. Bwahaha, teasing Jericho about being an imposter as he is dressed like a normal teenage boy for once, so Diamondback gives him a noogie. Ah, good friends.

Adam waiting for Razorback, too cute that little boy is. They are adorable together. Bloodwolf stalking Aquerna and Razorback caught him, Bloodwolf has bad luck. Dang, Adam calling Diamondback pretty before being asked if he can get down, kid is a charmer too and doesn't seem fazed by any kind of GSD. Adam riding on her lower body as she slithers along, okay, feel like I'm going to get cavities from all the cuteness.

Ah, stories of fun back home with friends and siblings. Caitlin going to tell them the truth, the whole truth, when she is ready, now that is trust. Ah, Adam takes after their mom more, interesting family. And Jericho has another interesting family, Edith and Nathan Turner and little brother Zachary. Razorback's parents, Debra and Kiernan, they know their son and his best friend so well. Smartasses the both of them.

Ah, the interplay between Jericho's parents, dad is a good cook and teasing his wife about her cooking through Jericho. Spider is off, teased and called Koala by Outcast Corner, starts to get upset until Adam hugs her leg and says "Bye Koala." Anyone who can stay mad at a kid that cute doesn't have a heart. Okay, what is the phantom tearing sensation on Diamondback's lower body that left no physical wounds, guess have to keep reading to find out.

Magic flowing oddly through the world there, like scar tissue, interesting. What are wards like that doing out there? A spirit of some kind, one whom is of stone made flesh, weird to have expected someone else beside Caitlin. And the old man is storing essence in his walking stick, powerful magic wielder to do that like it is old habit.

A story that most wouldn't get, Kuparr is mysterious, wonder what he knows. Invited in, talk of cleansing Uluru of a particular scar. Woah, that description of what Caitlin is seeing as they walk along, epic. In the dreamtime, a place carved from the dream when the Five-Fold Court existed, this is more serious than expected. An Artificer Forge!

Who presented the gifts of the Artificers to the Courts, Sidhe, Undine, Efreet, one for the Earthen Court, and the last court left out. And just one of these forges for an Artificer to work in, draining essence from the world slowly while giving none back, sickening. Such an ancient thing still causing harm. That must be a huge edifice.

Terra-Valeria, Firstborn, Terra-Verdanis, Secondborn, Terra-Kashaly, Thirdborn, and Terra-Nocturne, Fourthborn. Children of Gaia and ruled the Center Court each at one point. Having memories going back to the Five-Fold Court and not always able to filter them out, ouch. A pendant, crystal, seed, and fawn are what their remaining power and spirits had been bound to, this feels like foreshadowing and those things might show up in future stories. Hope the seed mentioned wasn't the World Tree seed, that would suck.

The imagery inside the Forge is unsettling, especially of Terra-Kashaly caressing beasts that despite no spines remind Caitlin of Razorback. Like Caitlin's thinking, find anything the Atlantean League can use or the locals can use to protect Uluru, destroy the rest. Gifts for Jericho, Sandra, and Razorback, each of those could be game changers for each of them. Dang, that simple for her to make the Forge die, thought it would take a lot more.

Wonder why Sandra is in such bad shape upon waking up if she isn't shedding, especially with the phantom tearing sensation on her lower body from earlier. Kuparr saying Sandra is blessed with odd physiology, wonder why. Ragers and GSD cases are as common in Australia as Exemplars are elsewhere, ouch is right.

Teasing Sandra about how much she and Razorback eat, Sandra saying she can dance and Caitlin has two left feet, only friends can tease each other like this. Dang, Jericho has gotten in shape. And a wrestling match between him and Razorback, ah, those two. It is a wonder they don't get in more trouble at Whateley.

Poor Sandra, that close to a panic attack, know what those are like. Woah, those security guards are so laid back and polite even when dealing with Caitlin and Razorback, big departure from what we've seen before. Dang, the locals are used to GSD cases, having sympathy for poor Sandra even. Ooo, provoking a rager in Australia and you are found guilty alongside the rager for everything that happens, good policy, insures idiots behave.

Loving the security at Uluru resort, these are what people who work with mutants should be like. And Caitlin didn't want to wear the bikini, ah well. And now we know despite the ritual she is far from comfortable with being a teenage girl yet. And looking at herself in a mirror and seeing all the details, dang, I would rate her a 9 myself. And no cutting hair or nails, ouch. No period, no need for sleep, and none of the major emotions such a m-t-f changeling would experience.

Nice to have friends to support you, Sandra and Caitlin have each other and the rest of the Outcast Corner. Woah, woman actually gives Caitlin a massage that works and they have stuff just for Sandra and her scales, they know how to deal with GSD in various forms it seems. Always nice to see pros at work and pain relieved that they didn't even know they had. And even hair and nails done.

Both Sandra and Caitlin in dresses, woah.

"Help Sandra, they've assaulted us with class," Caitlin deadpanned. "We never stood a chance."

Hehehe, priceless. They got Jericho in a proper suit and even Razorback, thought that would take magic to do. Ah, to have a great time with family and friends like that, though poor Caitlin remembering the woman she loved and lost, ouch.

Ah, revealing how Jack was Debra before and Sandra had been a boy with a twin brother. Caitlin saying this explains a lot, but Jack doesn't have a girly bone in his body left, the others wondering why she is taking it so well. Caitlin recalling Zenith and Nikki Reilly, among other changelings she has been confided in or figured out over the years in her old life. And I wish more people had Caitlin's attitude about not judging.

Way to make their jaws drop, perfect reaction. And Sandra figures it out quickly, which is why she is one of the smartest if not the smartest student at Whateley. Clicks for Jericho that she was Erik Mahren, just can't go back to being who she once was anymore. Points out what I like about the Outcast Corner, they think, use their brains, and don't judge.

And she rejects being leader in Team Tactics, Jericho is team leader and good at it. Roping in Caitlin to learn drums in music class and Sandra to sing, sneaky and persistent little buggers those two. Irritation incentive, Jericho is such a little kid in that aspect, suggesting wedgies to Caitlin, oh boy. I pity those guys now. Probably just joking around, but still wouldn't want to risk it with her or Diamondback.

Crap, that is what the tearing was, the cocoon to keep Sandra's astral projection power in check breaking down and now it just broke. This could be very bad. And Uluru going insane, this is worse than I thought. Two "personalities" and only the Ryan one can see this stuff. Gah! Seeing both those perspectives of the world around you at once could drive someone nuts.

So this is a dream but not the dreamtime, the dream of something, but they don't know what. *cringes* Bunyip is the term for demon, all those things are Bunyip, scary. Ouch, revelation about Caitlin's scars, we knew she had them but the fact they aren't healing anytime soon. So it probably would have been worse for Caitlin to unfetter herself somewhere besides Uluru, scary to think about.

*eyes bug out* She is a child of flesh and spirit, of Astral space and Dream Realms while still physical, this is big. And Sandra having to keep an eye out for threats that are not wholly flesh or spirit, yikes. Yikes, mentioning the Bastard nearly awakens whatever the Dreamer is, both enemies of each other. Tried to kill her heart once, and it's still recovering from the doom it inflicted upon itself. Sounds like the Dreamer is Gaia to me from all the clues given, the very spirit of Earth which the Bastard tried to kill. And we find out the Voodoo Wolves true nature is much worse than what has been seen.

Kuparr was just a Dream all along, wasn't expecting that. So now we know more details of "Rager's Night" that has been mentioned in past stories, yikes. At least the Australian Parliament reacted right, push those who deliberately trigger ragers if they survive the encounter. Nice message with the plaque, don't let those who try to spread hatred and fear win. All those dead, including two which Caitlin regrets the most next to Conner, killed by gunfire intended to stop the berserker.

Black roses for the Marines who fell, Caitlin placing her rose on the plaque for Conner Edwards, dang, got me tearing up with her. Jericho knows Caitlin needs to grieve right now on her own, insightful kid. Ouch, pray for the dead and even those who killed Conner and Caitlin is gone by the time it is over.

Good lord, those kind of nightmares to live with, Erik and now Caitlin having to live with that, just heart wrenching. And to never have spoken to anyone about it, yikes. You know things have gotten serious when Jericho doesn't make smartass commentary. All of that...that is a nightmare situation for everyone involved, including poor Conner. To realize he snapped out of it and is wondering what happened right before killing him, so much the worse for Erik/Caitlin.

And it is even worse for Conner, he would have remembered everything that happened. To finally hear the truth about Conner, about his fear of raging out and hurting innocents and people he cared about, even told the local cops if he did so and started hurting people to shot to kill. All these years and Caitlin finally knows the truth, Conner wouldn't have wanted to live after what he did against his own will. Now with Jericho's help she is finally able to let go and mourn him.

Excellent story. The ending was perfect, and gives Caitlin the opportunity to heal from some of her heavy past.

I was surprised to see Spider tag along for the trip. Will she be progressively introduced and added to the Outcasts? Maybe a peripheral member like the Fury twins?

annachie wrote: Only people who call it football down here are generally europeans, or maybe their kids.

Hey! The Sydney Morning Herald calls it football!

Phoenix Spiritus wrote:

annachie wrote: Only people who call it football down here are generally europeans, or maybe their kids.

Hey! The Sydney Morning Herald calls it football!

You know Sydney doesn't count. They play Thugby up there.

annachie wrote:

Phoenix Spiritus wrote:

annachie wrote: Only people who call it football down here are generally europeans, or maybe their kids.

Hey! The Sydney Morning Herald calls it football!

You know Sydney doesn't count. They play Thugby up there.

And bashball, along with Aerial Ping-Pong …

… and of course FOOTBALL!

annachie wrote: Not sure there are even Caiman's in zoo's down here.

Because Australia needs to import more things that can eat people.

Oddly enough I just reread the Outcast stories. (OK it was intentional as I expected a JG story next week.) and several questions that I thought about were answered.

I was surprised by the ending, I didn't think she would talk about that. Maybe now she will go talk to Dr. Bellows or at least Mrs. Carson.

It's nice to see a different attitude out there in the world, and a nice law.

Now if we can get a JG-Elrod collaboration involving Kayda and Sandra.

Hmmm, Bloodwolf must have been stalking Anna before her combat final.

Spider only likes Razorback, because she doesn't know when he signs "Koala."

*sniff*

Powerful stuff with the Rager's Night March and all the stuff that followed. From the first plaque to Sandra wishing she could help. You got me good JG. That and those mystery dust storms, ending up inside my house somehow, right when I got to those scenes.

Always nice when Joe drops the act for one of his friends.

I guess on a (hopefully) brighter note...what exactly is Sandra then? Exemplar, mage, and bit of esper mixed in? Crosses the lines of astral and physical planes to exist in both simultaneously, able to affect both simultaneously? Her twin personas each seeing one of the two (perhaps as a means to cope with being forced to see both?). All without an avatar spirit.

Is she a nāga (or more appropriately, a nāgī) in far more truer ways than we've been led to believe?

And Jack is The Hunter, so named by the dreamers. Hmm...

Her next vacation should be to Japan though. They'd like her there as well.

WOW! We finally get to see the Outcast Xmas.
Thanks JG.

@Dreamer Just a quick note: Debra is Jack's mother; Caitlin was noting the resemblance of the girl in the picture to her. Jack's original name was Erin, according to previous stories and the Wiki.

Sandra put down a picture of a little girl who was the spitting image of Debra Carlyle at age eleven, with brown hair, her father’s tanned skin and a yellow sun dress.

Re Sandra:
If I remember well, Sandra does *not* have a Wiz trait -- she does magic the hard, baseline way. The wiki says that she's a Wiz-1, but I think that was old seeded info which was later contradicted in the stories. It's one of a bunch of things we have to fix in that entry...

She is a receptive empath, and she has some sort of shamanic aptitude -- I haven't reread her solo story recently, but on Jericho's solo story Hekate's augury describes her as "a Shaman with two hearts and one mind". In her solo story, the Astral Squad were worried about her, and cast that binding to protect her. There's also the matter of that malicious spirit messing with her, like pushing things so she has Psydoe as a roomie. This recent astral trip she took makes the whole thing yet more complex and intriguing.

Physically, she is an Exemplar with an unusual BIT. Her being a pagan since before manifesting may have played a part on shaping her, it still remains to be seen. The interesting part is how it affected her mind -- not only it drove her IQ through the roof, but she has a sort of a "dual CPU" thing going on. It's not a split personality, not quite, but she refers to one of the half-minds as "Ryan" and the other as "Sandra." Jericho knows about it (I think), but I can't remember if she told anybody else. This latest story puts another spin on it: apparently one eye is controlled by "Ryan" and the other by "Sandra", and Ryan is the one with the mystic shaman-vision.

Oh, and at least the Sandra half-mind is heterosexual as a female -- there were references to her having a crush on one boy. It's unclear if "Ryan" still has a male self-image, or if "Ryan" is still sexually attracted to girls.

Damn, I have to reread the entire Outcasts/Caitlin saga and give that wiki page a major overhaul...

I cannot remember what story Diamondback's combat final is shown in, but doesn't that show her MID?

Call the Thunder 4, and yes it does.

Code Name:

DIAMONDBACK

Ratings::

Exemplar 4, Esper 2, Wiz 1, GSD (Severe)

Techniques:

Constrictor, Venomous bite, Venom-spitter, Distracting wave, Bogeyman, Doppleganger, Healing Hands

Weak vs.:

Unknown

Backup/Team affiliation:

Outcast Corner

To be fair, I read Child of Confusion and The Book of Darwin back to back yesterday.

Sir Lee wrote: Re Sandra:
She is a receptive empath, and she has some sort of shamanic aptitude -- I haven't reread her solo story recently, but on Jericho's solo story Hekate's augury describes her as "a Shaman with two hearts and one mind". In her solo story, the Astral Squad were worried about her, and cast that binding to protect her. There's also the matter of that malicious spirit messing with her, like pushing things so she has Psydoe as a roomie. This recent astral trip she took makes the whole thing yet more complex and intriguing.

Physically, she is an Exemplar with an unusual BIT. Her being a pagan since before manifesting may have played a part on shaping her, it still remains to be seen. The interesting part is how it affected her mind -- not only it drove her IQ through the roof, but she has a sort of a "dual CPU" thing going on. It's not a split personality, not quite, but she refers to one of the half-minds as "Ryan" and the other as "Sandra." Jericho knows about it (I think), but I can't remember if she told anybody else. This latest story puts another spin on it: apparently one eye is controlled by "Ryan" and the other by "Sandra", and Ryan is the one with the mystic shaman-vision.

In Child of Confusion, the Astral Squad were concerned because Valkyrie notice she was in the Shadow World and Physical world at the same time, the same way Heyoka would for a little while after Astral Projection, except Sandra seems to do it permanently.

The problem was that she was effectively blind to the astral side of things, but all the things could see her very clearly ("a giant "Kick Me" sign for every spiritual parasite, predator and opportunistic thing under the sun"), which made it especially dangerous, and likely attracted the Calibans to her (and Psydoe) in the first place. So the Astral Squad blocked her off, even knowing that she would eventually break out of it, only hoping that Sandra's control would grow some more before that happened.

Now we've been given a little confirmation that she remains in both at the same time, "Sandra" being in the physical, and "Ryan" being in the Shadow World. Thankfully she broke through the binding in a well-protected and sheltered place like Uluru.

Doesn't that make her especially dangerous to things? Her physical body is at no risk at all when she's affecting the Shadow World, since she is fully conscious in both. A strike or a constrictive squeeze affects both worlds at the same time.

She made a pretty big fireball defending herself from night terror Psydoe. Let's also not forget that her hobgoblins are one of the most adorable, 4-inch Jericho pirates!

Btw 1: JG certainly did a great job of making Diamondback as adorable on the inside as she feels she is ugly on the outside.

Btw 2: Does the cabal have a list of everyone's hobgoblins in the database/list/chart thing? Please tell me you do!

Katssun wrote: Btw 2: Does the cabal have a list of everyone's hobgoblins in the database/list/chart thing? Please tell me you do!

Hobgoblins change form, so there's no real 'catalog' of different mage's hobgoblins. Fey's have had several different forms. Elle's have been fanged little snow bunnies, walking pac-men with teeth, and multi-colored little wolves - so far. Wait til she does the miniature pink Yetis

The latter part of this was definitely emotionally heavy, but it's good that Cait is making some long-overdue progress in dealing with her past and present. It's really good for all of them to know that as changelings they're not as alone as they previously thought.

As for sharing her past as Mahren with the others, I was expecting it to happen, as during the Team Tactics classes it just felt like Outcast Corner knew that. Christmas holiday was one of the likelier times for it to be shared.

But as I said, the march was an emotional ride. Returning to the spot where he had taken down the kid, now as a rager herself... With irony it comes full circle and she finally gets some closure.

It really is good to have you back, JG.

So which stories is it best to read before reading this one?

Parkour Jam Hooligans followed by Call the Thunder Series, followed by Ashes and Steel.

konzill wrote: So which stories is it best to read before reading this one?

Call the Thunder, followed by Ashes and Steel mostly. There are also a few hints in Ayla and the Great Shoulder Angel Conspiracy that bad things happened during the Outcasts' christmas, although nothing had been spelled out explicitly then.

EDIT: Ninja'd, and Domoviye's right to add Parkour Jam Hooligans in there. First one to read if you haven't read any Eldritch.

As Katssun said, Child of Confusion gives some of Diamondback's background, and describes how and why she'd been bound.

Sir Lee wrote: Damn, I have to reread the entire Outcasts/Caitlin saga and give that wiki page a major overhaul...

Don't rush, there's a lot of stuff already in the pipeline you probably want to release before you start doing any heavy lifting. JG's muse is making up for lost time big time.

Well, re-reading is fine. Goodness knows I'm doing that right now as well.

It also doesn't hurt to read Ill Winds concurrently with Call the Thunder, for that matter.

Similar to when Jade casts into herself.

Actually, come to think of it, Sandra reminds me a bit of Stephen Leeds from Brandon Sanderson's novella Legion. Leeds is a genius who kept himself from going crazy (mostly) by compartmentalizing his knowledge into imaginary people who follow him around. He knows that they're imaginary (and so do they, mostly), but he treats them as mostly real. But since he can only visualize/hallucinate a few at a time, he never has access to all his knowledge at once.


Which is not at all what Sandra is doing, but the effect is somewhat similar.


Is Sandra seeing one the school psychologists? If so, are they aware of the two brain thing*? What do they think about it? On the one hand, having multiple personalities is usually regarded under the umbrella of "crazy people". On the other hand, sane is what you make of it, Sandra is clearly functional, and her particular brand of strangeness seems to come with benefits, so why break something that works?

I also think it would be amusing to watch Sandra and Kayda have a conversation about what it means to be "two-spirits"



*Also, does this make Sandra a reverse-Harem ?

Overall a nice start, tying into several events in other stories. I look forward to reading the rest of the story (too many unfinished stories here )

It is good to see Caitlyn starting to cope with her side of the Rager Event. A pity about the Forge, though I can sort of understand why she did it. IMO she really ought to have kept the whacking great hammer.

Why did Sandra choose to use a cargo chute? I think it's been mentioned that she weighs 500 lbs or so, which is probably below the upper limit for (rectangular) parafoils used for tandem jumps. Even if she weighs more than that then parafoils her size do exist. There are GPS guided steered (rectangular) parachute systems, such as JPADS, around capable of dropping several tons of cargo onto a fairly small target from a few miles up and away. Looking at aerospace development the NASA X-38 prototype, apparently weighing 8-10 tons, was airdropped (from a B-52) and landed softly with the help of a large parafoil.

When I read about Sandra parachuting I had this bizarre idea of her twisting her snake body into a helix and using it as a spring to cushion her landing. Hmm. Sandra exploring new ways of propulsion and becoming known as the living pogo stick. Maybe something for a fairly bizarre spell research project.

There's what is ideal, and then there is what is readily available...

Given that she pulled the ripcord almost immediately, I'm guessing that she was terrified of the idea of parachuting, so when for the jumbo 'chute.

Hmmm, so Gaia may sleep in Oz...

Damn I so wish this one was illustrated. I wanna see the girls in their Christmas finery.

And JG, Very nice job on the other side of Rager Night as seen in Hooligans. Both versions brought tears to my eyes when I read them.

Hold up how was there no issues with jet lag?

JG wrote:

NJM1564 wrote: Hold up how was there no issues with jet lag?

Three of them are Exemplars, and one of them consumes copious amounts of Devisor Coffee.

One of those exemplars needs no sleep. The other two can pull 48 hours without sleep like it's just another day.

Besides a C-130 isn't a jet.and would take 32 hours to get there from Boston, with 6 refuelings. (before modifications)


Interesting little thing of note.

The Book of Darwin wrote: It took Caitlin less than two hours to find everything useful in the place. This Forge had largely been wasted on the four sisters, who could do most of what they needed without artifice. An armband shaped like a black-metal serpent with Orichalcum eyes, a smoky, black octagon of seeming obsidian and a small box from whence came a haunting voice, singing a lullaby that calmed even Caitlin’s emotions, were what she stuffed into a pouch and strapped to her back.

“Why those things?” Kuparr asked. “From what you told me of the rest, those are the least-valuable.”

“My friend Joe built armor to save lives. The adamant Octagon would let him shield wounded people better, and not break. The serpent is an unbonded familiar spirit, in a physical form, intended to advise and guide a child into their full powers, and I think Sandra could use an advisor who didn’t judge her on her appearance. The music box may help Razor keep his temper when he needs it.”

Ayla and the Great Shoulder Angel Conspiracy: (Chap 2) wrote: Diamondback was helping Eldritch into the room. Diamond was in her Whateley uniform - plus a fancy snake jewelry piece like a bracer about her upper arm - but she was shedding. It looked like she had hundreds of tiny cuts all over, and she was apparently shedding around every one of them. Eldritch looked worse. First off, she was sporting a bunch of weird tattoos. They looked like cobalt-blue metal fused to her skin. Instead of her usual super-wiccan goth clothes, she was wearing a forest-green camo outfit that was pretty close to Hank’s ‘urban badass’ look from fall. I could see she had some wicked cuts on her arms, and the cuts were stapled closed. Ouch. She wasn’t moving too well, and Diamondback was leading her to a seat. If you asked me, it looked like Eldritch needed to be in a hospital bed instead of here. Diamond had to let go now and then, since Eldritch was doing her usual ‘sparks of magical death’ routine. Eldritch looked like she had parked her brain somewhere and couldn’t find it, but she was expertly carrying some sort of military rifle.. thing. Plus a ton of magazines for the thing, in case she needed to ‘go Columbine’ on us.

Oh crap! Diamondback’s snake jewelry was alive! It was some sort of real snake!

Well damnees, JG's been sitting on that for a while.

PS: There's a pretty good description of Jericho's shield in There's Something about Billie (Chapter 1) .

Wait... Not all Wondersmiths are Artificers... Either that, or there are male Artificers or something?

the Courts you spoke of were presented with a gift. Four wondersmiths that would be granted to them, one for the Sidhe, one to the Undine, one to the Efreet, one for the Earthen Court, whom I don’t know much about. Two male, two female.

Jesus Christ... pardon the blasphemy, but I just realized Sandra may have some growing yet to do if her waist size is any indication. That didn't sound right...

Any way I'm kind of basing this on Titanoboa and my exposure to living constrictors in Junior High. The one I sat in front of for a year was I think 10 feet long and it's 'waist size' was something like 8-10 inches. Sandra's waist is say 20-30 inches, and she's 19 feet long. Add in say another five feet for her human body, that's 24 feet. Titanoboa was about 20 feet longer then her and had about the same 'waist size' as Sandra, based on reconstructions of it's skeleton. So Sandra may be short in the train.

But then again, I can't recognize a good length for a naga form even if it wrapped itself around me and squeezed.

Actually, back in "Child of Confusion" Sandra said that she's about 5 feet 8 tall when "standing" on her tail, plus 13 feet of tail for a total of roughly 19 feet. But that was in November, if she's still growing she might have gotten two extra feet of tail since then.

I just realized that the only two canon ragers who remember what they do with full clarity have/had really crappy lives.
Conner was afraid of hurting someone and then killed and maimed over 100 people, while Tara killed her parents plus eight other people and became a test subject for the MCO.

Ragers have it bad enough, these guys have it at least ten times worse.

JG wrote:

Domoviye wrote: I just realized that the only two canon ragers who remember what they do with full clarity have/had really crappy lives.
Conner was afraid of hurting someone and then killed and maimed over 100 people, while Tara killed her parents plus eight other people and became a test subject for the MCO.

Ragers have it bad enough, these guys have it at least ten times worse.

Four Canon ragers.

You forgot Phobos and Deimos.

They remember the rage? Did not know that.

OK, so it still sucks for them but not as badly. So I guess it's not as bad as I thought.

True. Life isn't pretty for any rager, but it seems like the ones who really remember have it worse, and Whateley is about the only place that would make it bearable.

JG wrote:

JG wrote: On another note, looking back at Upheaval... *Facepalm*

I'm seriously debating going back and revamping the stories based on how things evolved over the years. I should have made a few dozen (more) passes to get the lead out of those before i actually dumped them into Canon. If I do, I'll let you know.

To clarify here, by revamp, I do not mean *significant changes to the plot, or flow, or tone of the story."

I'm more referring to clunky storytelling that could use a bit of polish and whatnot. There's a few points in the narrative where my first thought is "How the fuck did I get invited into the Canon crew after writing that?"

Just clunky bits where I feel the conversations, details and events could flow a bit more organically.

Unless it's a major structural change, I personally think that you should leave it be. That way lies madness.

Seeing Sandra come into more of her power was great, was awesome. And as for Astralia having more GSD mutants, it plays to sterytypes but I still found it amusing. I was wondering for why Cait didn't give out the goodies right away, then I realised, this is a Christmas Story, and Christmas Morning hasn't arrived yet

And having Sandra taught magic by a dream, was a very nice touch.

Could there be a Mutant vs Bunyip throwdown in the near future...

I've read it, and I have no idea about how to talk about it, many little things but the whole is more than their sum.

All that I can say is that my gut reaction was: "I'm in awe"

P.S.:
Sorry, not much of feedback here but words fail me.

There's one thing that I was wondering, Jericho's family is looking out for Sandra's brother, but they are in Australia right now, it seems the perfect time for him to manifest and have a (mis)adventure..... IIRC, there was a teaser about him going camping in the woods and having a talisman that might have been the hallow of what is left of the soul of one of the Sidhe Queens.... can we hope?

JG wrote: What's this "hope" thing you speak of?

I will tell you that none of the characters I've created for canon, past or present, have been Sidhe."

I still have hopes you'll create a Sidhe-Devil

A "Sidhe-Beast", if you will?

JG wrote: I find characters like the outcasts or the random GSD and thornie kids more compelling.

V jbaqre vs nalobql jvyy gel naq qrpbqr guvf? Vs lbh qb, qba'g fnl nalguvat bhgevtug, ohg vapyhqr n fzvyrl jrnevat fhatynffrf va lbhe arkg cbfg ba guvf guernq. Lbhe cevmr sbe abgvpvat vf guerr pubpbyngr puvc pbbxvrf, gb or erqrrzrq va gur sbbqvr obbxvrf guernq.


I tried to come up with a sarcastic comment of surprise, but everything I came up with looked mean written down. So assume that the above gibberish is a sufficiently amusing rejoinder.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: … assume that the above gibberish …

Thank God … for a moment there I though the site had crashed or something.

JG wrote: But no, the spirit in the pendant in the archaeological "small mercies" teaser was not Sidhe.

so, not Sidhe..... What other group of sisters have been mentioned?

...Oh, yes. There are Gaea's daughters, the Terra sisters, maybe it's a fragment of one of them (or maybe not).

Anyway, the nature of the spirit was not the point of my previous comment (even though the contrast between Sandra's GSD and her twin being one of the pretties could have been an interesting theme to explore), the point was: could her brother be about to manifest?

And no, I don't expect an answer to my question (it was a retorical one), but we can dream, can't we?

.....

Thinking about it, no, otherwise there would have been some hints between the winter and the spring terms..... Maybe during the summer or at the beginning of Year 2 fall term.... Or maybe later.... If at all.

Sigh, I suppose we can just wait and see what happens (it will take just a few years, IRL).

Otherself wrote:

JG wrote: But no, the spirit in the pendant in the archaeological "small mercies" teaser was not Sidhe.

Anyway, the nature of the spirit was not the point of my previous comment (even though the contrast between Sandra's GSD and her twin being one of the pretties could have been an interesting theme to explore), the point was: could her brother be about to manifest?

And no, I don't expect an answer to my question (it was a retorical one), but we can dream, can't we?

.....

Thinking about it, no, otherwise there would have been some hints between the winter and the spring terms..... Maybe during the summer or at the beginning of Year 2 fall term.... Or maybe later.... If at all.

Sigh, I suppose we can just wait and see what happens (it will take just a few years, IRL).

Hasn't it already been hinted at in this thread (by JG's phantasm stories titles post), as well as the stories themselves? They just have been very subtle.

Sandra and her brother were/are twins. They both have the meta-gene complex. They're both committed Wiccans, and a lot of really weird shit is starting to coalesce around poor Sandra. She has the whole Twin Flame paired soul thing going already, and has a twin of her own...it's only a matter of time. Matt is probably going to manifest differently though, and so far I don't think we've been given hints at what form that will be.

The foreshadowing that it will be relatively soon is from Caitlin's line that she'll make Carson let her loose to extract Matt to Whateley right away once they hear from Joe's parents that he's manifested.

It occurs to me that the code name "Red Wing" is now available.

I wonder if Matt will end up using that one. Assuming he manifests of course.

Otherself wrote: There's one thing that I was wondering, Jericho's family is looking out for Sandra's brother, but they are in Australia right now, it seems the perfect time for him to manifest and have a (mis)adventure..... IIRC, there was a teaser about him going camping in the woods and having a talisman that might have been the hallow of what is left of the soul of one of the Sidhe Queens.... can we hope?

I think you might be forgetting a little detail...

"The Book of Darwin" takes place around New Year's Day. It's only warm and summery because, well, they are in Australia, and it's summer there. Back in the U.S., it's winter. I know that Texas is quite Southern and therefore warmer than most states... but still, camping trip in the winter? I'm looking at an AccuWeather page for January temperatures in Kilgore, and on average it will drop to 37°F (2.8°C) at night, which is pretty cold... but that's average, meaning that there will be colder days. For instance, this last January 6 the maximum was 34°F (1.1°C); the following morning, the minimum was 15°F (-9.4°C). That's no ordinary camping trip with the kids.

JG wrote: Detail not forgotten, Cold Weather camping IS a thing with a lot of people in the states, though.

Sometimes even inadvertently, in my experience.

Phoenix Spiritus wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: … assume that the above gibberish …

Thank God … for a moment there I though the site had crashed or something.

I was trying to make sense of it. my head hurts now, and I have some kind of abomination humping my leg.

JG wrote:

null0trooper wrote:

JG wrote: Detail not forgotten, Cold Weather camping IS a thing with a lot of people in the states, though.

Sometimes even inadvertently, in my experience.

That's not a camping story. That's a "no shit, there I was" survival story.

Wow, I just realized how mean I can be to my characters.

Good way to kill Razor.

JG wrote:

Sir Lee wrote:

Otherself wrote: There's one thing that I was wondering, Jericho's family is looking out for Sandra's brother, but they are in Australia right now, it seems the perfect time for him to manifest and have a (mis)adventure..... IIRC, there was a teaser about him going camping in the woods and having a talisman that might have been the hallow of what is left of the soul of one of the Sidhe Queens.... can we hope?

I think you might be forgetting a little detail...

"The Book of Darwin" takes place around New Year's Day. It's only warm and summery because, well, they are in Australia, and it's summer there. Back in the U.S., it's winter. I know that Texas is quite Southern and therefore warmer than most states... but still, camping trip in the winter? I'm looking at an AccuWeather page for January temperatures in Kilgore, and on average it will drop to 37°F (2.8°C) at night, which is pretty cold... but that's average, meaning that there will be colder days. For instance, this last January 6 the maximum was 34°F (1.1°C); the following morning, the minimum was 15°F (-9.4°C). That's no ordinary camping trip with the kids.

Detail not forgotten, Cold Weather camping IS a thing with a lot of people in the states, though.

My mistake. I hadn't checked in the original snippet (in fact, at the time I thought I hadn't saved it, but I since found it) -- and in that snippet you clearly say that it was happening during the Outcasts' Christmas trip to Australia.

My error was in assuming that Otherself was assuming (heh, recursive assumptions) a Christmas date for the snippet with no evidence -- when, in fact, the evidence was there and Otherself was correct all along.

Sir Lee wrote: I'm looking at an AccuWeather page for January temperatures in Kilgore, and on average it will drop to 37°F (2.8°C) at night, which is pretty cold... but that's average, meaning that there will be colder days. For instance, this last January 6 the maximum was 34°F (1.1°C); the following morning, the minimum was 15°F (-9.4°C).

Heh. "Cold" is somewhat of a personal concept. Last month I was up in Minnesota visiting family. On one night I stood around outside for a while enjoying the existence of stars in just a t-shirt and cargo pants, and I felt pretty good. I don't know what temperature it was, but the high and low for that day were 34°F and 0°F, so it was somewhere in that range. Probably around 20°F. No wind; wind would have made it a bit chilly.

Still reading this, so I don't know how it ends, but WTF DR. REAPER attacks!
Goodbye relaxing Christmas. Now we know why they were so messed up at the start of Winter term.

Wow, were really seeing all the big guns come out.

Edit:
BEST STORY so far in terms of action, desperation and the aftermath.

So THAT'S how Jericho got the Tennyo-proof shield!

Isn't Glow based near Chicago?

mhalpern wrote: So THAT'S how Jericho got the Tennyo-proof shield!

Isn't Glow based near Chicago?

Punch and her family, Glow, I believe that Silver Ghost is close enough to get there in time for a fight if the super team breaks several speed limits or flies.
Not sure who else is there or close enough.

Domoviye wrote:

mhalpern wrote: So THAT'S how Jericho got the Tennyo-proof shield!

Isn't Glow based near Chicago?

Punch and her family, Glow, I believe that Silver Ghost is close enough to get there in time for a fight if the super team breaks several speed limits or flies.
Not sure who else is there or close enough.

And Julie Robinson (Kayda err Brandon's former girlfriend, turned tree Sidhe) (she lives with her aunt in Chicago) Which could be a good set up for getting some more common characters involved and invoke the Kimba Kurse

What the fuck did I just read?

Holy shit, that was awesome. In a horrific, heart-stopping, soul-rending way, but awesome.

What's worse than having to shove your hand partway into an extra-dimensional demon that is trying to eat Los Angeles in order to stop it? Now we know.

SPOILER ALERT
Below is a stream of conscious commentary I type up as I read the story. There will details from the story included in it. If you have not read the story yet and don't wish to have details of it spoiled, read no further.



The Book of Darwin Chapter 2 comments
Dang, Joe telling his mom to drop it and let it go when she is reading the riot act to Caitlin, whole new level of respect for him for standing up for a friend in pain. Hehe, how Caitlin makes Jack take her money to buy a Christmas gift for his little brother. Ouch, poor counter girl and her fear of snakes. Great, can't even do last minute Christmas shopping without running into thieves and the leader in a body-enhancing servo frame.

Smart, call in the local heroes and only help the injured if anyone is. And yeah, after seeing even the Masterminds in action most thieves like this are amateur-hour at best. Ugh, these idiot young local heroes turn the whole thing into a worse mess. And without the Outcasts being there, these idiots would have gotten innocent bystanders hurt or killed. Oh goodie, take out the criminals and idiot hotshot kid hero group, sounds good to me.

Fast and efficient takedown of both groups with non-lethal attacks and methods, shows what training and teamwork can do. Okay, between the jaws of Razorback is scarier than between two of Wolverine's claw with the third just waiting to come out. 39 seconds to take down both idiot young heroes and criminals, dang. And idiot camera crew shows up to interview them, this is a battlefield with injured, don't tick off those who were just in a fight, use some common sense for once.

Nice to see most of the police there being friendly. A short fight and the rest took 6 hours and a ride to the police station, all because some idiots tried to rob jewelry stores in broad daylight and rookie young heroes showed up and just opened fire without care for bystanders or collateral damage. Lol, Ito either get soft or torture you if you start being nice and apologize to him for what they have called him.

*eyes bug out* Okay, will never ask for Razorback's combat final to be written, just that little talk of him has me scared of what it would be like. Joe proving a point about why not summoning his armor every time is a good idea when trying to avoid escalating, tough PFG he has. Caitlin's hide as tough as stone, Sandra can dodge bullets, and Razorback high level regen, they are some of the toughest students at Whateley.

-You could ground us until we all turned thirty, but we'd do it again. Hunting's fun, but keeping people from drying rather than mauling team means something to me. I feel a bit more human afterwards.-

And that is why Jack is more human than some of the non-GSD students at Whateley, a conscious and wish to protect fellow humans. And Caitlin reveals how she saw what happened on Rager's Night, but Joe's mom thinks she was a 7 year old girl who saw the whole thing, eyowch.

Caitlin can only beat Ito by an endurance match by keeping him running, and never twice in a row, dang. Sandra calling the fight in the mall like a warm-up compared to the stuff they go through in training at Whateley, it seemed like barely even a warm-up compared to that stuff. Ouch, already judged a threat by your neighbors just because of your appearance and/or powers, knew it was bad but spelled out that way by Caitlin hits home. 37 kids in 5 years disappeared by the American MCO, worse than I thought it was, thought it was half that at worse.

Santa Raptor! Jack going breakfast for everyone, how sweet. Adam using Razorback like a jungle gym, that kid just gets more adorable. The emotions of children at Christmas almost like a high for a receptive empath, nice. Nice framed photo of Outcast Corner and all their friends at Whateley Academy. Awww, hope from Jack's parents after his bad first year at Whateley, now having so many friends.

And this is how Outcast Corner signed up for team tactics class with Joe as the lead, Caitlin's terms for joining their band. All of them ganging up on Sandra to sing, even having Adam hand her the mic, that isn't fighting fair. Ouch, the most heart-wrenching Christmas song, "I'll be home for Christmas", sung by Sandra as she thinks of her twin brother and missing him.

Sandra's gift is a very impressive, wonder what changes we will see in her in the coming year due to it. That octagon is about 400 pounds and made of Adamant! Caitlin can't figure out how to destroy or dismantle it, dang, no force can pierce, alter, mangle, or otherwise damage or penetrate the stuff. A meter wide, he now has a freaking Captain America shield that is even more indestructible than Cap's shield!

Okay, that music box is potent, to calm all that with such ease. Dang, what Sandra is seeing from everyone. Jericho like an angel who takes on the pain of others, the image of Caitlin is very intense. And @#*@#$@, I knew something was up with Jack/Razorback but he is an Avatar with the spirit of the Hunter, the song releasing them from their fury. The news of this doesn't bug Jack too much, figure it out back at Whateley, just wants to be happy with friends and family for Christmas.

Oh boy, having to talk Spider down from a Diedricks fury as she wants to build an disintegrator ray, thanks to another Sidhe noble-wannabe. Poor Sandra. Oh boy, this is a bad episode, though Ninimeth does sound like Tolkien reference by a wanna-be, annoying. 4 hour shrieking match with Mega-Death, yikes. And going out to see Night at the Museum, nice movie to see with little brothers.

D'oh! Truck goes out along with others vehicles, Doctor Reaper is coming and if everyone isn't out of there in 5 minutes they will die, now that is a scary villain. This is the worse situation we've seen with a supervillain so far, planes falling from the sky and exploding, having to flee for their lives as the team gears up and calls in help. And he is insane, believing at least 80% of humanity has to die for the world to be saved.

Those are the killbots! Designed to kill fast and in great numbers, multi-limbed, shredding blade-wheels the size of small horse is a nightmare to deal with. An hour to move a kilometer, this is brutal. Spider-like burner that blast napalm fire, *tries to hold food in* And the one Jericho is facing, Doctor Reaper needs to be put down. Transmuting one of the bots joints into glass, okay, Diamondback just got a whole lot scarier.

Dang, when you have even super-powered criminals fighting against you and your forces, you done messed up. Gogg and Magogg need to die! If Razorback is reacting like that, possible connection to GOO I think. And Dr. Diabolik shows up, dang. *eyes bug out* Those two merged, nightmare fuel x100! And the music box stops even the nightmare Goggmagogg. That thing is even more potent than I thought before.

Oh boy, Doctor Reaper is coming to check what could be stopping the deaths of people and destroying his minions. Seeing Caitlin and Jericho take down the drones he was watching the fight through, then gets slammed into by Hammerhead with the help of Koala. Overwatch Defense against Doctor Reaper, hope they take him down for good.

Yes! Razorback, the Hunter spirit in him, designed to kill things like Goggmagogg and so the music keeps the monster calm and unable to fight back at Razorback pounds him. Five-story face, much bigger than I thought. @_@ Dang, Caitlin took a huge hit from a nearby missile explosion and still keeps fighting. Dang, taking out his eyes by Razorback and Dr. D and Goggmagogg is out, but so is Razor as he was still raging and Jericho had to subdue him for his own good.

Nice banter between Dr. D and Outcast Corner, and Spider shows up complaining about Dr. D. When it is a fight for life, everyone needs to help however they can. And Razorback revives without problem, Caitlin and Diamondback both injured more, this needs to end soon. Woah, Caitlin taking out a drone like that and building a hand blaster from parts in the middle of the fight, badass.

Banter between Jericho, Dr. D, and then Caitlin, dang, Dr. D actually liked Erik Mahren. Bwahahaha, Caitlin saying she could kiss Dr. D after he fixed her gun, then he responds he has enough on his plate without adding shenanigans with a minor. It sounds like Giz made the loaders from the banter, and they misload and the feed tray cover explodes.

Diabolik chuckled, "God the other kids must hate the lot of you in the sims."

Did Dr. D just bring in his own combat robots or override control on some of Dr. Reaper's killbots so they protect the port and city? Sounds like the latter to me.

Dam, 3 of Overwatch dead including Hammerhead, Spider is going to be pissed. Oh god, Thundercall killed like that, Dr. Reaper is a monster in every sense of the word. That scythe needs to be destroyed! Wave 3 of the killbots called in, the 4 heaviest hitters on Overwatch dead, this is a disaster.

Dang, Caitlin keeping her rage under control after seeing the Tiger Guard uniforms, she has insane willpower. Ouch, Diamondback and Razorback exhausted and banged up badly. 5 waves of these bots before the Iron Hag in Russia ripped Dr. Reaper a new one, dang. *eyes bug out like saucers* Jericho sending Caitlin with Dr. D to take down Dr. Reaper, thinking it means he has sentenced the rest of them to death.

Okay, the banter between Caitlin and Dr. D as they head towards Dr. Reaper leads me to believe he knows Caitlin used to be Erik Mahren. Oh boy, talking to Carson and she tries to tell her she can't fight Reaper.

["What do you intend to do?" "Same thing I do every night Carson, try and new and interesting ways to kill people more powerful than me."

Dang, 400 meters from Reaper, ready to attack and a distortion field appears with a lone figure coming out of it. Unverziehen, Unforgiven in German, shows up and Caitlin will draws his attention as Unverziehen and Dr. D take him on. A Metallica song as they start the attack, nice. Unverziehen is an insanely potent warper, wonder what other categories of warper besides teleportation he has. And Caitlin shows how much of an epic badass she was and still in, weaving through the battlefield.

And Caitlin takes a hit from Reaper's Eon Blast, disintegrating her armor but leaving her untouched, as she is unaging. Dang, she took away his scythe in an epic move.

"I'm a goddamned miracle in action, now kill that fucker!"

Unverziehen is an Exemplar 7 in addition to insanely potent warper powers, dang. @!#$, Unverziehen killed by 2 Eon Blast, this is major.

Dang, legs cut off at the knees by his own scythe by Caitlin. Taken down by Dr. D but disappears before the kill blow can be done. But Caitlin removed something from his scythe and he needs it to recall the scythe and everything else. Ooo, give it to Dr. D and figure out where he keeps disappearing to so they can go visit him, sounds good to me. Okay, with him thinking about those last words now I wonder if Dr. D knows who Caitlin used to be or not.

Jericho hit the hardest by all the fighting, at least by what we see, as he throws up and then goes back in to help the wounded, not wanting any more people to die if he can help it.

All those poor people, lives lost, homes and businesses destroyed all due to a madman. No hurt feelings from Caitlin towards Jericho for sending her on what he thought was a suicide mission. Poor Jericho holding his brother and crying for over an hour. Dang, go through all that and Diamondback finds out her brother Matthew is missing. Caitlin wondering how many more might have been saved if they had just attacked Reaper as soon as they found him.

8 of what was once a 20 member team dead, Reaper needs to pay in suffering like never before for he has done. Koala aka Spider, her mother was Thundercall, plus it is uncertain if the team's mage can heal her dad enough to survive. Trying to build a devise to halt the damage inflicted on him by the Reaper's scythe.

Caitlin shaking the other Outcast Corner members out of nightmares, and she is a lot worse off than I thought, yikes. On the van back to Whateley Sandra finally breaks down crying, Caitlin bottled up her nightmares with her other ones, Jericho still felt guilty for sending Caitlin to what he believed was certain death. Only Jack is calm, thanks to the spirit it seems. Bellows, Carson, and Bardue there to help them each find some peace of mind. And Caitlin is more messed up mentally than she let on, painful to see her like that. And Reaper's Scythe into a pocket of nowhere only she could access, genius.

Poor Joe, all that happening around him, having to make the hard decisions, talking to Carson about it all. Dreams guarded by Louis, Psychic Arts Teachers pulled to work them through the trauma in waking hours and in their dreams. Except Caitlin, who won't let them. A few months of relative [for them] calm to recover, dang. War is hell is an expression for a reason.

And the monsters terrorizing Whitman Hall are toast thanks to Sandra's newly awakened ability, tearing the creeps apart one by one and lifting the fog from Mrs. Savage's mind as she realizes what Psydoe and Diamondback have been through. Yeah, the trauma of the fight against Reaper and his forces, then finding evil spirits messing with her cottage mates and she can kill them, I understand her going berserk.

Bwahahaha,, Jericho hugging Jadis and telling her to thank her dad for saving their lives, plus he bought her a big marker, leaving her confused about what just happened. Priceless.

Oh crap, medical bots helping him to recover, clones being prepared with memory imprints fully updated. And now he is planning to attack Chicago and wipe out 95% of the population. Dr. Reaper is insane and I would be surprised if he wasn't at the top of the most dangerous supervillain list.

An excellent story that gave up a lot of details about all of the Outcast Corner we didn't know until now. Plus everyone got an upgrade or addition to powers/gears in one form or another. A dangerous team that uses their brain, thinks, and is good with team tactics and now they get an upgrade. I hope we hear something like a news broadcast or one of the staff mentioning Darwin and the recovery efforts in a future story. Plus I hope there are plans for how Doctor Reaper will be finally taken out, if it happens in Gen 1.

We actually did see Razorback's combat final, it was against Jimmy T.

How they finally determined the winner was priceless.

mhalpern wrote:

Domoviye wrote:

mhalpern wrote: So THAT'S how Jericho got the Tennyo-proof shield!

Isn't Glow based near Chicago?

Punch and her family, Glow, I believe that Silver Ghost is close enough to get there in time for a fight if the super team breaks several speed limits or flies.
Not sure who else is there or close enough.

And Julie Robinson (Kayda err Brandon's former girlfriend, turned tree Sidhe) (she lives with her aunt in Chicago) Which could be a good set up for getting some more common characters involved and invoke the Kimba Kurse

There are, and I am going off of my memory, at least two Superhero Teams in Chicago, Wingnut (or Wing Nut), Punch's older brother's team and another. Glow is somewhere in or on Lake Michigan along with that Team. I thought that Julie was in Minneapolis. Silver Ghost and the rest of the colorful heroes are in Cincinnati.

Darwin Australia (pop 150,000 or so) is pretty isolated, Chicago (pop 2.7 million, 9 million in the "metro" area) on the other hand isn't.

Valentine wrote:

mhalpern wrote:

Domoviye wrote:

mhalpern wrote: So THAT'S how Jericho got the Tennyo-proof shield!

Isn't Glow based near Chicago?

Punch and her family, Glow, I believe that Silver Ghost is close enough to get there in time for a fight if the super team breaks several speed limits or flies.
Not sure who else is there or close enough.

And Julie Robinson (Kayda err Brandon's former girlfriend, turned tree Sidhe) (she lives with her aunt in Chicago) Which could be a good set up for getting some more common characters involved and invoke the Kimba Kurse

There are, and I am going off of my memory, at least two Superhero Teams in Chicago, Wingnut (or Wing Nut), Punch's older brother's team and another. Glow is somewhere in or on Lake Michigan along with that Team. I thought that Julie was in Minneapolis. Silver Ghost and the rest of the colorful heroes are in Cincinnati.
.

Just checked, Cincinnati is almost 5 hours away by car, but an hour and a half by plane. So if they called in every hero and gave them military support, it's possible Spectrum could be flown in within 2 hours. For something like this, I could see it happening.

Based on Nacht's Xmas story, there is a Chicago Crusaders team, because Sunny was part of its expansion into the California Crusaders.

On another note, unless there is a part 3 to this, I do not see why the MCO was upset about the students' activities.

Well, we finally get to see Dr. Diabolik in action, not as a leader but as a fighter which was really impressive. And we get to see Dr. Reaper who we've only heard about as a city killer doing his stuff.
Up until this point Whateley has had some really deadly and serious fights which are great to read, but nothing quite on this scale. It's impressive.

Is this the first mention of "Unforgiven"? I do not recall him from any other story.

JG wrote:

Kristin Darken wrote: Given how long a sustained attack Dr Reaper plans (wave after wave), you could theoretically fly in most of the active super teams in the US to an attack on Chicago before you got more than a couple waves into it... depending on their ability to deploy without an available airport

Vehicles don't work in Reaper's interdiction zone. Airports are irrelevant because the birds will simply fall out of the sky.

True, so you just have to get the heavy hitters in as close as possible and let them parachute or jump out. Then they go find Reaper and try to take him down, while anyone else keeps civilians alive. Messy but it works.

you just land them in Milwaukee its just a very short jump over the Wisconsin border

I was expecting the story to dial it up to 11but it went stright to 20. if I'm being picky there was a little too much exposition in places, especialdy at the start. and end. but the bit in the middle, wow.

Quite some heavy stuff, after a lot of really happy moments. You're pretty mean JG. Not as mean as elrod is to Kayda...but meaner than Morpheus, Nagrij, and E.E.

Caitlin is at least used to this a little and Jack is protected by his spirit (who is more powerful and significant than we thought?!). Sandra gets to take out her frustration, trauma, and guilt on a (frankly hilarious) rampage through Whitman and the things that infest it.
But Joe...doesn't he have it the worst? Due to his armor, he didn't even get physically injured the way his friends did. His Surivor's Guilt has to be the worst of the batch, and he sent Caitlin to what he thought would be her death.

I don't remember much of how it is referenced in the later stories, but doesn't he need the most support from his friends?

Hold on if vehicles didn't work then how come the power armors did?

Difference between commercial electronics and hardened combat designed stuff.

Great story! Went waaaaaaay above what I expected for the Outcasts' Christmas. And Reaper's not even dead from all this. It's hard to imagine anything that would put him down for good.

From a practical point of view, why did Reaper program all of his robots to self-destruct should he be taken out? If he has clones and can revive ad-nauseam, wouldn't it be better to program the robots to keep on their rampage to advance his plans in the eventuality that he might be able to pull of a quick recovery mid-fight and return to the battlefield?

JG wrote:

Esar wrote: Which character of the WU would you like to play with storywise but haven't be able to ? (because you never had the opportunity or because the canon cabal didn't want to for example).

(serious answer or a funny one, I let you decide.)

THaaaat's a tough one. I'd never had a chance to play with any of the A-List supervillians, or some of the close to A-List, like Doctor Dad (Diabolik)

They've just never come up as appropos to story

It was awesome, thanks JG.

Bright blistering warts.

It felt like I was reading Worm again.

JG wrote:

null0trooper wrote:

JG wrote: Detail not forgotten, Cold Weather camping IS a thing with a lot of people in the states, though.

Sometimes even inadvertently, in my experience.

That's not a camping story. That's a "no shit, there I was" survival story.

Wow, I just realized how mean I can be to my characters.

You? Mean to your characters? Never!



On a more cheerful note, who else wants to see Jericho and Caitlin acquire some of those inflatable T-rex suits and go running around with Jack?

And, of course, Champion is in Chicago. Which probably means that Ms. Carson grew up there, so she might feel a bit... personal about an attack there.

GrimGrendel wrote: Great story! Went waaaaaaay above what I expected for the Outcasts' Christmas. And Reaper's not even dead from all this. It's hard to imagine anything that would put him down for good.

The scythe which Caitlin now has in storage. If she had inflicted a more leathal hit with it he would actually be dead, not that she had a way of knowing that. SO presumably whatever happens in Chicago, the outcasts are going to be involved, and Caitlin will get to finish the Job.

the important question is waether this will happen before or after his army of clones is ready, to continue his insane mission.

GrimGrendel wrote: From a practical point of view, why did Reaper program all of his robots to self-destruct should he be taken out? If he has clones and can revive ad-nauseam, wouldn't it be better to program the robots to keep on their rampage to advance his plans in the eventuality that he might be able to pull of a quick recovery mid-fight and return to the battlefield?

I thought it was clear that the robots were teleported back to his base along with him, not self-destruct. Thus he doesn't have to have as many built again for his next attack.

Well If the vehicle disabling effect is EMP based, commercial airliners should be able to operate, at least partially, they have to be able withstand the electromagnetic effects of a solar flare, but regardless, long range porters could be called to get all available powered individuals into the fight if need be, tactical viability of sending that many people in or not, Chicago is one of the most populated cities in the US, the gut response will be to send anything and everything they can at Reaper, short of WMDs of course, be it in combat or evacuation roles, chances are they won't give a damn if some of the people they send are minors either, especially with the population and economic importance, save as many people as you can so that way they are alive to bitch about the morality and ethics later, if successful you could point out the lives that were saved, if not your career is over regardless, and you'll be scapegoated for the destruction of a major metropolitan center, so you probably wont live to go through the court proceedings anyways... Also I wouldn't be surprised if Tennyo is somehow dragged in, as not many weapons do much more than annoy her or cause wardrobe malfunctions- which she finds annoying.

konzill wrote:

GrimGrendel wrote: Great story! Went waaaaaaay above what I expected for the Outcasts' Christmas. And Reaper's not even dead from all this. It's hard to imagine anything that would put him down for good.

The scythe which Caitlin now has in storage. If she had inflicted a more leathal hit with it he would actually be dead, not that she had a way of knowing that. SO presumably whatever happens in Chicago, the outcasts are going to be involved, and Caitlin will get to finish the Job.

the important question is waether this will happen before or after his army of clones is ready, to continue his insane mission.

The clones are to deal with his death. When he dies or is badly injured he moves to the next clone. The problem is he needs to upload his newest memories or he'll have a large gap in his memory concerning Darwin.
Somehow he survived his head being blasted, probably his armour teleported him out just as it broke in a critical place. If however it had broken completely, say by Caitlin taking off his head with the scythe, his older memories would be uploaded to the clones and he'd have to review the video feeds to find out what went wrong.
So Caitlin doing more damage would have been a minor set back and a more painful recovery for the madman, nothing more.

Dreamer wrote: I thought it was clear that the robots were teleported back to his base along with him, not self-destruct. Thus he doesn't have to have as many built again for his next attack.

The Book of Darwin (Chapter 2) wrote: When the robots started dissolving in a pixelated, bizarre lightshow that left no evidence save dead, burned out husks of assault robots

That makes sense. At first I took it to mean that the way they dissolved left them as dead burned out husks.

GrimGrendel wrote:

Dreamer wrote: I thought it was clear that the robots were teleported back to his base along with him, not self-destruct. Thus he doesn't have to have as many built again for his next attack.

The Book of Darwin (Chapter 2) wrote: When the robots started dissolving in a pixelated, bizarre lightshow that left no evidence save dead, burned out husks of assault robots

That makes sense. At first I took it to mean that the way they dissolved left them as dead burned out husks.

It ALSO means there is less viable equipment to reverse engineer to find countermeasures and use to track back to his base, mind you self destruct would also work, and kill more people, but that would require constant replacements and possibly leave more equipment behind that may be used against him later, after much cannibalization of parts, mind you, but they would have more parts to cannibalize, another thing is the not-quite dead but damaged bots and the fully functional bots carry information, damage indicates weaknesses and the equipment itself stores combat information, which can be used for hardware and software evolution.

GrimGrendel wrote: From a practical point of view, why did Reaper program all of his robots to self-destruct should he be taken out? If he has clones and can revive ad-nauseam, wouldn't it be better to program the robots to keep on their rampage to advance his plans in the eventuality that he might be able to pull of a quick recovery mid-fight and return to the battlefield?

That they just left and didn't self-destruct has been covered... but the second part of your question ties in to his goals... He's not trying to kill everybody, just enough.

DanZilla wrote:

GrimGrendel wrote: From a practical point of view, why did Reaper program all of his robots to self-destruct should he be taken out? If he has clones and can revive ad-nauseam, wouldn't it be better to program the robots to keep on their rampage to advance his plans in the eventuality that he might be able to pull of a quick recovery mid-fight and return to the battlefield?

That they just left and didn't self-destruct has been covered... but the second part of your question ties in to his goals... He's not trying to kill everybody, just enough.

Also he's insane, not just pretending to be insane, like other characters we know, he doesn't have to be practical. Jade is more practical, because she pretends she lacks sanity, but what she really is doing is overloading logical processes with absurdity to obscure some very well laid plans, Reaper on the other hand, if he was practical, he could just use bombs or chemical weapons, but he doesn't

Holy. Shit.

mhalpern wrote:

DanZilla wrote: That they just left and didn't self-destruct has been covered... but the second part of your question ties in to his goals... He's not trying to kill everybody, just enough.

Also he's insane, not just pretending to be insane, like other characters we know, he doesn't have to be practical. Jade is more practical, because she pretends she lacks sanity, but what she really is doing is overloading logical processes with absurdity to obscure some very well laid plans, Reaper on the other hand, if he was practical, he could just use bombs or chemical weapons, but he doesn't

Are you sure that he's insane? He seems to have a rational (but thoroughly evil) plan for "saving" the world. He's no different from the people in our own world who declare, "Overpopulation is the blight of all humanity and Earth!"

It is, however, interesting that he is directly opposed to the SMI²LE villains (Dr. Dad and the Committee of the Syndicate), who have the same "goal" of saving humanity, without caring how they accomplish it.

When Reaper attacks Chicago, how many villains will be supporting the heroes? Also...now that I think about it, The White Lady is a Chicagoan. Does this mean that Bianca remembers the attack, or that the attack happens to Gen 2?!

Katssun wrote:

mhalpern wrote:

DanZilla wrote: That they just left and didn't self-destruct has been covered... but the second part of your question ties in to his goals... He's not trying to kill everybody, just enough.

Also he's insane, not just pretending to be insane, like other characters we know, he doesn't have to be practical. Jade is more practical, because she pretends she lacks sanity, but what she really is doing is overloading logical processes with absurdity to obscure some very well laid plans, Reaper on the other hand, if he was practical, he could just use bombs or chemical weapons, but he doesn't

Are you sure that he's insane? He seems to have a rational (but thoroughly evil) plan for "saving" the world. He's no different from the people in our own world who declare, "Overpopulation is the blight of all humanity and Earth!"

It is, however, interesting that he is directly opposed to the SMI²LE villains (Dr. Dad and the Committee of the Syndicate), who have the same "goal" of saving humanity, without caring how they accomplish it.

When Reaper attacks Chicago, how many villains will be supporting the heroes? Also...now that I think about it, The White Lady is a Chicagoan. Does this mean that Bianca remembers the attack, or that the attack happens to Gen 2?!

Of course, you're assuming he meant Chicago Illinois...

Dr. Reaper, essentially, is J.G. explaining "why Batman considers Ra's Al Ghul a first-class menace despite his laughable track record."
Chris Dee makes quite a bit of fun of Ra's in her wonderful "Cat-Tales" series, pointing out that Ra's is his own worst enemy, insisting on stupid eighteenth fifteenth tenth second-century schemes.that have no chance of working in today's world. The thing is, he still has that fanatical cult around him, and if he ever smartens up, even a partial success of his would likely be the greatest catastrophe in history.
Dr. Reaper appears to have essentially the same plan as Ra's; reduce the human population in order to save the world's ecosystem. He's both more and less effective than Ra's; more, because he actually manages to kill a lot of people; less, because this piecemeal, city-by-city strategy is unlikely to even hold at bay the current rate of population growth.

Darwin is about 140 000 people; he aimed to kill 80% of that, or 112000. World population grows by about 75 million per year. Even if he managed a successful attack every night -- which I very much doubt to be the case -- he would only halve the population growth. True, the economic disruption would amplify the effect... but still, not nearly enough for his goal of dramatically reduce the world's human population.

But the guy is clearly insane. My take is that he's actually a mass-murdering sadist who simply likes to kill people, and "saving the world by reducing the population" is just a way for him to rationalize his destructive impulses.

If someone really smart and rational, like Dr. Diabolik, decided to go the population-reducing route, he wouldn't bother with world-conquering schemes like Ra's, or mass murder like Reaper. He probably would engineer some bioweapon that would reduce human fertility, with only some mild, common cold-like symptoms during the infectious phase. By the time someone noticed the problem, it would be too late.

Edit: Now that I think of it, there were a couple Stargate: SG-1 episodes built around that idea -- an alien race, the Aschen who decide that conquering other planets by force of arms was just too much work; instead, they posed as friends and infected the population with a sterilizing bioplague. The episodes were fourth season "2010" and fifth season "2001".

Especially considering Reaper's choice in weapons, napalm, saws and a devise that ages people very rapidly, to name a few, NONE of those are certain to kill people quickly besides the devise, which looks painful, Flamethrowers are banned by most countries as weapons of war for a DAMN good reason, 3 actually 1 machine guns are more effective and kill you more cleanly, 2 they cook you from the inside out, 3 fire spreads, bullets are more predictable.

In hindsight, I'm kind of surprised that Jadis was surprised by Jericho. A velociraptor, a giant snake lady, and Dr. Diabolik saving hundreds of people from Reaper seems like it would be ever so slightly newsworthy. Even if Whateley is having Hartford and Circuit Breaker scour the net to protect Outcast Corner's privacy, there's only so much they can do without giving themselves away. You can't exactly blur their faces (well you can, but it doesn't make Jack any less recognizable). And I know that Jadis hears all the major news about her father, if only for self preservation. Even if Whateley managed to scrub OC's involvement, Jadis should be at least aware that Dr. Dad earned himself a few cookies while out shopping.

JG wrote: Given opinions of her father, regardless if he does do good?

How many people would acknowledge that he assisted them? How many people would say "one good act doesn't excuse a lifetime of evil?

How many mighr blame him for Reaper because he's another goddamned mutant?

How many will assume he helped Reaper for his own ends?

Never make assumptions about what people see and believe. They aren't using your logic, and people are more prone to judgment by emotion over logic.

Dr. Dad isn't a mutant though...

JG wrote: Given opinions of her father, regardless if he does do good?

How many people would acknowledge that he assisted them? How many people would say "one good act doesn't excuse a lifetime of evil?

How many mighr blame him for Reaper because he's another goddamned mutant?

How many will assume he helped Reaper for his own ends?

Never make assumptions about what people see and believe. They aren't using your logic, and people are more prone to judgment by emotion over logic.

A fair point. I guess I took Jadis' confusion to be about why Jericho was thanking her, not just because he was thanking her at all.

JG wrote: Given opinions of her father, regardless if he does do good?

How many people would acknowledge that he assisted them? How many people would say "one good act doesn't excuse a lifetime of evil?

How many mighr blame him for Reaper because he's another goddamned mutant?

How many will assume he helped Reaper for his own ends?

Never make assumptions about what people see and believe. They aren't using your logic, and people are more prone to judgment by emotion over logic.

You also didn't have him going around saying "I'm Dr. Diabolik and I'm here to save you!!!" If so people may have been running AWAY from the Outcasts and Dr. Dad and toward the Reaper forces. If not just hunkering down and waiting to die.

Some news sources may credit him for being there... and the BEST they might say is that he wasn't helping Reaper directly... It's just not good for their credibility to credit him for being helpful... especially without good footage of him doing so.

Astrodragon wrote: Of course, you're assuming he meant Chicago Illinois...

Just another sunny day for the Bug City.

... a weapon taken as a trophy by that magically unstable woman right before that idiot Diabolik had ended his existence in that thread of potential

If he's playing the precog game with Mythos assets (e.g., Goggmagogg) instead of the the Tapestry, no telling where or when he'll strike.

Why Darwin now? Maybe it becomes the next New York City in 100 years. Nipping it in the bud now may be more efficient than hitting a city that's already doomed to go down hard, taking a lot of people with it. For example, Campi Flegrei cooks off in 2017, taking Naples, Italy out and doing rude things to the climate and agricultural yields in central and southern Asia. In a case like that, your everyday mass omnicide would want the region's cities to survive, concentrating millions of people to die of starvation and disease anyway - those cities have been "safe" so far from Dr. Reaper, right?. Only then would it be time to bring in the death machines.

Meanwhile, there's always Chicago.

Minimizing the chances of survival, rather than bringing humane ends, had dictated the design of his minions.

Hence, the flamethrowers. He doesn't have to kill you *now*, a day from now from organ failure, or a week from now from sepsis works just as well. It's a fast way of creating walking wounded soon to die of a Pestilence that cannot be vaccinated against, because the burn wards can only handle a finite number of people. Even minor grazes from cheap bullets can become deadly once the local health system breaks down entirely and antibacterials become scarce. There's also the benefit of recruiting terror to his cause, making the stampeding crowds easier to mow down while they in turn make it harder for defenders to do their job.

Think that flying saw blades are nasty? Imagine what the concertina wire cluster bombs do to a street flooded with fleeing civilians (preferably with enough cars to snag on while someone runs past.) Even if you stand still, the people caught with you won't. The trick is getting good dispersal so there are enough people left free to trip on and trample those caught.

For omnicides playing a long game, develop strains of wheat, corn, barley, and rice that produce abundant nutritious yields on marginal land, with a genetic kill-switch roughly 10 generations down that hits about when all the competing strains have been elbowed out of the seed grain market by monoculture. And, oops, what if there's not enough nutrient value left in the soils for other grasses to grow. Dust Bowl conditions + economic disruption and outright starvation. Wars have been fought over less.

I'm afraid I didn't collect my thoughts for part 1 in a timely manner, so I might as well lump them together with my thoughts on part 2.

Part 1 was an enjoyable 'slice of life' look at the outcast corner crew. I think my favorite part was the look at how mutant society interacts with baselines in another part of the world. The Rager's Night memorial was also quite touching and ended on just the right note.

What part 1 lacked in overt violence, part 2 made up for in spades. The arrival of Doctor Reaper made me think of War of the Worlds, and the carnage that followed matched the entrance. Putting Dr. Dad into the story put a unique spin on a larger than life figure in the Whateley universe and helped make him more human (mutant?).

I'm glad to see that the Caliban situation was (essentially) resolved, though I wonder if Diamondback might not be due for a red band of her own, based on the level of response. Though I suppose it would take more than a single incident to reach that conclusion.

The Jericho/Jadis encounter at the end was worth a good grin, and the Doctor Reaper scene sets the stage for another possible plot point somewhere down the road. Why can I see the ghost walkers having their shot at him in a year or two?

JG wrote:

Sir Lee wrote:

Otherself wrote: There's one thing that I was wondering, Jericho's family is looking out for Sandra's brother, but they are in Australia right now, it seems the perfect time for him to manifest and have a (mis)adventure..... IIRC, there was a teaser about him going camping in the woods and having a talisman that might have been the hallow of what is left of the soul of one of the Sidhe Queens.... can we hope?

I think you might be forgetting a little detail...

"The Book of Darwin" takes place around New Year's Day. It's only warm and summery because, well, they are in Australia, and it's summer there. Back in the U.S., it's winter. I know that Texas is quite Southern and therefore warmer than most states... but still, camping trip in the winter? I'm looking at an AccuWeather page for January temperatures in Kilgore, and on average it will drop to 37°F (2.8°C) at night, which is pretty cold... but that's average, meaning that there will be colder days. For instance, this last January 6 the maximum was 34°F (1.1°C); the following morning, the minimum was 15°F (-9.4°C). That's no ordinary camping trip with the kids.

Detail not forgotten, Cold Weather camping IS a thing with a lot of people in the states, though.

Yes us Polar Bears enjoy the cold weather and if they're from Minesota, then above freezing is damn near spring time. For others, don't forget Kodiak is from Alaska, thus the same thing applies to him

cprime wrote: I'm glad to see that the Caliban situation was (essentially) resolved, though I wonder if Diamondback might not be due for a red band of her own, based on the level of response. Though I suppose it would take more than a single incident to reach that conclusion.

I would think that Psydoe reporting what she half-saw and felt, Mrs. Savage realizing what she had been overlooking between the two, and Fubar checking her psychically at security would completely exonerate her.

Needless to say, her other cottagemates probably aren't too happy about a young lady screaming with rage through the building for three hours in the middle of the night.

But the Dream Team is probably quite proud of her.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: In hindsight, I'm kind of surprised that Jadis was surprised by Jericho. A velociraptor, a giant snake lady, and Dr. Diabolik saving hundreds of people from Reaper seems like it would be ever so slightly newsworthy. Even if Whateley is having Hartford and Circuit Breaker scour the net to protect Outcast Corner's privacy, there's only so much they can do without giving themselves away. You can't exactly blur their faces (well you can, but it doesn't make Jack any less recognizable). And I know that Jadis hears all the major news about her father, if only for self preservation. Even if Whateley managed to scrub OC's involvement, Jadis should be at least aware that Dr. Dad earned himself a few cookies while out shopping.

But how many knew it was Dr. Dad? The Outcasts. Overwatch? It's not like he ran around with a big Dr. Diabolik banner, and it's not like the most of the fleeing population was paying attention, sure a few idiots probably stopped to take pics, but how many of them survived? How many people can ID Dr. Dad's armor anyway, it's not like he uses it often, he seems to be more of General than a Captain. It's very possible that he, outside of Overwatch, the MCO, and certain Australian Governmental agencies, that his involvement is listed as "unknown hero in powerarmor." It may even get recorded in MCO and Australian records as that. That may be what the MCO wanted to talk to the Outcasts, and presumably Spider about that first day of Winter Term.

Chicago, hmmm. There doesn't seem to be another city named just Chicago, but the band Chicago has had a total of 20 members, 1 has died. Leaving 95% of the band alive. Coincidence? I think not. The fiend (Dr. Reaper) plans to kill off the surviving members of the band Chicago.

On a different note, I wonder if Unverziehen's death here is part of what allowed Nazi groups to become so prevalent in G2. I'll bet they kept their heads down while he was alive.

I wound up winter camping ONCE in my life at -40, when I was 11. It was a large event, though; with a couple hundred people. It just happened to be on a weekend that set an all-time cold record for that location.

Experiencing that once was enough for me, thank you very much.

So is the Sidhe, Ninimeth, an actual plot hook as they were forgotten in all the excitement, or is Doctor Reaper merely one of the things we can expect from attempting to get JG to write about the prissy elves?

Aside from that, it was good use of the robot army trope, exposing the kids to intense lethal combat and while scarring them a lot, never so far as them killing another person. Keeps the interactions all well within character, especially for Jericho I feel.

And while it's likely just a coincidence, I couldn't help but think of a certain new Blizzard IP while reading about Overwatch and Reaper.

If the events of this story weren't otherwise going to be shown to us readers, then I'm really glad you're back JG. As my previous comment may have indicated, this blew me away.

God damn. He even gives piggy back rides. Somebody get that man a "World's Best Dad" mug, pronto.

JG wrote: Glad the story seems to meet up with your expectations, and I do hope you will all forgive me if I don't take the path badly traveled by many authors and choose not to try and escalate the action of the stories from here for a good while.

I had more fun writing this one than i expected, and there were a few twists and turns I wasn't expecting myself. This was a "How bad things can get" story, and sets a lot of the stage for the muted presence of the Outcasts during Semester Two. Their recovery was intended to put a damper on their shenanigans... for a time.

I don't intend for all of the stories to push the grimdark barrier, so you will have a chance to see how they grow alongside the rest of the campus.

We have Elrod writing about Kayda for that.

The reason Jadis was surprised was quite simple:
While she probably found out that her dad was in Darwin...
While she might have found out that the Outcasts were in Darwin...
She still didn't know that they had fought side by side.

Professor Reaper and Doctor Reaper. Are they the same or different? The Professor is "an A-list supervillain"...


If they are the same, then "He is considered one of the few high end, scientific geniuses in the field of superpower phenomena." ... Feels so weird to give to a mass murderer.

Ametros wrote: So is the Sidhe, Ninimeth, an actual plot hook as they were forgotten in all the excitement, or is Doctor Reaper merely one of the things we can expect from attempting to get JG to write about the prissy elves?

Ah, now that's a not-too-secret secret. The answer is hidden in plain sight, if you know where to look.

So it is. I recall intending to check that out, but that obviously never happened.

It still doesn't contest my belief that JG had Doctor Reaper attack solely so he'd not have to deal with her.

JG wrote: Same, just depends on who's doing the talking. it's not like he popped up and cared what people call him. he's going to kill them anyway.

So, for wiki purposes... what's the preferred form? (So far "Professor" has three weak occurrences, while "Doctor" has a single very strong one)
And, by the way, Counterpoint mentions a "Gog and Magog" in There's an Angel in Dickinson Cottage. Are these the same as Gogg and Magogg we have seen in Australia?
(Boston Brawl II says Gog and Magog were both carried at once in a single Metahuman Prisoner Transport Vehicle. If they are the same, then it seems that when powered-down they shrink back to approximate human proportions...)

Gogg and Maggogg were on a boat. Gogg fell off. Who was left?

I'm sorry. I'll go away now. *slinks off into a corner*

Sir Lee wrote:

JG wrote: Same, just depends on who's doing the talking. it's not like he popped up and cared what people call him. he's going to kill them anyway.

So, for wiki purposes... what's the preferred form? (So far "Professor" has three weak occurrences, while "Doctor" has a single very strong one)
And, by the way, Counterpoint mentions a "Gog and Magog" in There's an Angel in Dickinson Cottage. Are these the same as Gogg and Magogg we have seen in Australia?
(Boston Brawl II says Gog and Magog were both carried at once in a single Metahuman Prisoner Transport Vehicle. If they are the same, then it seems that when powered-down they shrink back to approximate human proportions...)

Okay, for the record, The Reaper has officially given himself the status of 'Professor', but that's a tad awkward, so 'Doctor' is often used. It depends on the user.

As for Gog and Magog/ Gogg and Magogg, again, it depends on the writer.

As for the Boston Brawl question, its a matter of Yes and No. Yes, both Gog and Magog are of... variable... dimensions. Things like that happen when your base operating system is supposed to be a twisted application of Schroedinger's Law. And No, they were not carried in the Iron Coffin together. That would be stupid. They carried Gog first, and then Magog. The Police Honcho was bragging a mite.

And, while it pains me to correct a fellow member of an alleged, fictional, nope-there-ain't-none-nowhere's cabal, but The Reaper is NOT an A-List supervillain. Not even the top of the A-List.

He is a AAA-List supervillain, the roster of which includes..... HIM. Period. He is literally the Most Wanted man in the WORLD. He has an international bounty on his head, Dead or Alive, that registers in the BILLIONS. The Syndicate has a 2 Bil price on his head. There is a Demi-Official agreement known as 'The Reaper Protocols' that suspend most of the jurisdictional BS that keeps Military, Police, Superhero and other responders from acting. Martial Law is immediately in effect in that jurisdiction upon confirmation of the Reaper's presence. Super powered criminals in jail, either pending sentencing or post-sentencing are offered a blanket deal: if they assist with the defense of the area from the Reaper, they are given a Three-Day grace period. After those three days, all Wants and Warrants are active again. If you take the deal, and then turn around and say, 'Screw you losers, I'm OUT of here!', the next time you're in court, no matter which jurisdiction, you WILL be found guilty of all charges. Even the charges of selling dope dressed as a Nun . And on a certain level, even other supervillains will be looking at you and saying 'Dude, that's LOW'

Now, as for the questions of 'Why doesn't he use BioWar?' Well, that's debated in many circles. Very Quietly. No one wants to give him any ideas.

Bek D Corbin wrote: He is a AAA-List supervillain, the roster of which includes..... HIM. Period. He is literally the Most Wanted man in the WORLD.

Yup, which demonstrates that one of the many reasons for my initial comment was how well the Outcasts more than pulled their weight.

Ametros wrote: Holy. Shit.

Once again, I bring up the Worm Class S threats. It seems like an apt comparison.


How often does Dr. Reaper appear? Do all conflicts end in his near death, or does he go away again once he's demolished a city?

I seem to recall that the first time he was mentioned, he was rumoured to have destroyed twenty cities. They weren't sure exactly how many becausena few were Chinese cities and the attacks were covered up by the government but rumours got out.
That was destroyed not just damaged.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: In hindsight, I'm kind of surprised that Jadis was surprised by Jericho. A velociraptor, a giant snake lady, and Dr. Diabolik saving hundreds of people from Reaper seems like it would be ever so slightly newsworthy. Even if Whateley is having Hartford and Circuit Breaker scour the net to protect Outcast Corner's privacy, there's only so much they can do without giving themselves away. You can't exactly blur their faces (well you can, but it doesn't make Jack any less recognizable). And I know that Jadis hears all the major news about her father, if only for self preservation. Even if Whateley managed to scrub OC's involvement, Jadis should be at least aware that Dr. Dad earned himself a few cookies while out shopping.

Your assuming that anyone got the on film. They could have gotten out before the news showed up. And remember this takes place like 10 years ago. There wasn't quite a smart phone in every pocket. And to a panicked crowed one GSD mutant might look quite like another. Definitely not enough t o positively ID outcast corner.
And DR. dads armor probably doesn't have his name on it.

Though I am surprised that he didn't mention meeting any of her classmates while on his shopping trip. I guess he dosen't share his "adventures" with his kids. But I think we knew that.

Thanks for showing us the combination of ability and desire to kill massive numbers of people. Combined with the ability to keep coming back to do that time after time.

No question there. Just thanks for writing.

Heh. I was just rereading Call the Thunder, and I got to the part where Outcast Corner invites Caitlin to join them for Christmas.

The raptor kid chirped with amusement then started a rapid-fire series of hand-signs, of which Caitlin caught only the words “home” and “Christmas.” Razorback was like a kid in a candy store, and about three times as hyper.

Caitlin looked over at Diamondback. “Smee, translate.”

“In three days we’re gonna have a war!” Jericho cackled maniacally as Diamond dutifully completed the joke.

Diamondback only thought she was being sarcastic.

Oddly enough it was Devilmaster that was mentioned having to disappear for business reasons over Christmas.

JG might be trying to slip another state change of Caitlin past us. In Book of Darwin Ch 2 "... trying to get Caitlin to interview, only to have her unconsciously flash azure fire from her hands as her skin seemed to burn."

Humm... Perhaps the fire from the heart of the forge still exists and Caitlin is unaware... What was spark that started that fire? Could it be a boon/curse or reclaimed birthright?

No, No, don't tell me but if JG wants to torture us...

I'd argue she's fairly good at the control already, as the reporters were alive until at least Dr Reaper's attack hit.

I'd guess that she values their lives being somewhere else.

God bless and keep the press... far away from us.