tippler 2022/02/01(Tue)15:04 No. 1022028 ID: eedbeb
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>Aura armor
You’ve been proper lacking in the defense department and an investment in something that would protect you from bullets seems prudent, given the horde waiting for you outside.

You take a deep breath and close your eyes, leaning against the shower wall. Okay, so you can generate concussive spheres from any part of your body, though it’s easier to aim with your hands. What if you summoned a thin layer of energy around your whole body? And, uh, pointed it outward to repel anything coming towards you?

Many liters of hot water later and you manage a wavy film around your skin, with air holes on your face and nothing on the bottom of your feet. It takes some concentration to maintain, like keeping a muscle clenched, but the power draw isn’t bad.

It won’t stop Kibble from biting you in half, but you feel fairly confident in your armor otherwise. There’s a constant breeze on your face from the air getting sucked through the gap, and the water from the shower is bouncing off your force field.

tippler 2022/02/01(Tue)15:04 No. 1022029 ID: eedbeb
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>Enhanced speed
Okay, you have a brilliant idea, magic propulsion. You can put little jet thrusters on your back and zoom around. It’ll take practice to stay balanced, but you applaud yourself for such an innovative thought and immediately slam into a wall.

Your crashing attracts attention, and Theda comes into the bathroom, waving her thin hand to clear the steam.

“What are you doing?” she shrieks.

“I had the door closed! You’re not supposed to come in.” you yelp.

“You’re covered in fur, I can’t see a thing, look what you’re doing to my walls!” Theda points wildly at the water flying off your shield over the top of the glass doors and splattering everywhere.

“I’m learning new powers.” you say proudly. “Look at—“ You smack face first into the wall again. “—I can go fast if I do this.”

tippler 2022/02/01(Tue)15:04 No. 1022030 ID: eedbeb
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“You’ve been in here for an hour, my utility bill is going to be enormous.” Theda pouts.

“Alright, alright.” You turn off the water and your force field so you can towel your fur dry. “Any news?”

“Yes, actually. I’ve been fired and there’s a rather impressive artillery force growing outside.” Theda crosses her arms sulkily. “Honestly this is less of a concern for me than those brats showing up, at least in the short term.”

It’s a damn good thing you worked on that bullet armor. What’s your escape route?
-Roof, via magic propulsion shenanigans
-Ground floor, face the mob head on
-Make your own exit and sneak away

Roof. They don't know you can do it. Surprise!

>You’re covered in fur, I can’t see a thing

Fur is actually sparse in those areas because of... bodily functions.

And that's even LESS probable when you're wet.

>>1022032
She's probably just saying that to shut us up, there are bigger problems than getting ogled to worry about after all. Like, many bigger problems, intending to fill us with exponentially more even bigger problems.

Roof. She's a mosquito and you just learned to rocket jump.

tippler 2022/02/01(Tue)20:09 No. 1022058 ID: eedbeb
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>Roof
“Can you get to the roof from here?” you ask.

“Yes, I have a key to the access door. What are you planning?”

“You’ll see.” You can’t wait to impress Theda with your wicked new powers.

You follow the mosquito to the top floor, then take a staircase to the windy and slightly damp roof. There’s a satellite disk and a small shed, but otherwise it’s bare. It’s chilly, but you can’t wear your coat for understandable reasons.

“Okay. Okay.” You take a deep breath and carefully activate your thrusters. You’re a pilot, you understand how the physics work. This time you don’t go flying off and manage to hover at a controllable height.

“That’s a neat trick.” Theda concedes.

“I’m going to try to evade them as much as possible, since I don’t want to kill anyone else.” you tell her. After some more practice on the roof, you take to the empty space above the street.

tippler 2022/02/01(Tue)20:10 No. 1022059 ID: eedbeb
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You’re doing great, soaring through the air while the horde below you scurries back and forth. Flying takes a lot of energy though, and you can only do it for a few minutes at a time.

While you’re experimenting with your thrusters, you notice several grenades floating up towards you. There’s a mix of spells on them, levitation, homing, and something to pull the safety pin.

Time for some rules!

>Major League Gaming
There will be ten rounds of attacks before 8:00 pm. You’re quite close to the park so you don’t have to worry about travel distance.

Every attack will have three possible solutions, one of which will involve a skill you already have. You’ll have a 100% chance of success if you pick that option and a 50% chance of success if you pick a different option. If you fail three times the mob will capture you which would be bad.

But wait, why take any risks at all? Well because Theda thinks it’s cool if you have more powers and she’s hot. When you practice a new skill three times you gain mastery and can use it consistently in the future. This is the only chance you’ll get to gain new skills.

What do you do about the grenades?
-Use your speed to outrun them (guaranteed)
-Shoot them out of the sky with homing shots
-Use a shockwave to set them off before they reach you

Shockwave to blast them all.

Shockwave!

Be sure to scream out the name of your moves as you do them like some anime villain hero for more oomph.

Shockwave almost sounds like an option that would work, so do that.

>>1022059
Shockwave sounds cool, but it would probably cause a ton of shrapnel to fly everywhere which could potentially maim or kill people. We don't want to kill more people, right?

If the shrapnel kills bystanders then that's more reason for the mob to stop attacking.

tippler 2022/02/02(Wed)09:21 No. 1022092 ID: eedbeb
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>Shockwave
There’s at least six grenades soaring towards you, and you decide a shockwave will be the best way to clear them away, otherwise they’ll keep coming.

>Failure
You try to make a hollow concussive sphere around your body and expand it outwards. Unfortunately, by the time you get it to work the grenades have gotten too close and the resulting explosions knock you out of the sky.

For some reason, it’s a lot harder to experiment with new abilities when you’re flying instead of relaxing in a shower. You must be getting old.

You crash land on the roof of a four story building and tumble to a stop. Your ears are ringing and you’re bruised, but otherwise okay.

tippler 2022/02/02(Wed)09:21 No. 1022093 ID: eedbeb
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There’s the crack of a gunshot, and you instinctively check your shield to make sure it’s still active. You peer over the edge of the roof and see a slug crawling up the side of the building. Wait, there’s something different about them, they look more translucent than normal and you realize they’re a slime monster.

What can slimes do again? You remember they shapeshift and are weak to being dried out or overwatered. This one’s making fast progress up the building so they probably got some stat buffs like every other monster.

Round 2 Options:
-Boost to a different roof (guaranteed)
-Level 2 Shockwave (improved 2/3 chance of success)
-Wrestle with the slime monster using your strength

Shockwave again, gotta get at least one new move out of this

Are we going to solve our problems with shockwave? Well, alright then!

Second time's the charm?
Also maybe take the opportunity to shout down that you'd really like it if you didn't have to kill anybody from now on and they REALLY aren't helping with that.

Shock. Wave.

Zoom to another roof.

tippler 2022/02/02(Wed)11:43 No. 1022100 ID: eedbeb
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You back away from the edge as the slime pulls themself over the lip and shapeshifts into an odd, vaguely disturbing simian shape.

>Absolutely rotten luck
You prepare to use the big orb shell blast technique once more, but immediately notice something’s wrong. You’ve put too much energy into the shockwave and if it hits the slug, they’ll be vaporized.

What do you do? Both choices count as experience.
-Cancel your shockwave and take the failure
-Kill slimegirl (murder is bad but will not change the main outcomes of the story)

Do not kill diplomat

Surely we could just tell them we overcharged it? We're done murdering people anyway, so at least we could try to talk our way out of getting fucked up for doing the right thing.

Just take the failure
Just means we'll just try one more time with shockwave in the next round so we cam get that skill, and use gauranteed successes until we get to the park. I'm fine with just the one move at this point.

Though if we fail one more time with dice roll next round we use dice roll for shock wave, well it might lead to something interesting even if it's a very bad outcome.

>>1022100
Cancel it. You have that shield, so whatever she's hiding behind her back won't hurt you too badly.

It’s a trap. Cancel it anyway.

>>1022101
Seconding

tippler 2022/02/03(Thu)07:16 No. 1022234 ID: eedbeb
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“Get away! It’s not safe!” you shout.

The slime pouts and bats her eyelashes. Her weird mammaries bounce with the motion and you make a face. “Aw, but I just wanna talk to you, uwu.”

“Oh, er, really?” Maybe the slime is a diplomat from the mob, though you’re pretty sure this is all an act and you’re about to get jumped. You cancel your shockwave anyway since murder is bad.

The slime smiles cutely, then lunges, tackling you to the roof. Your armor does a good job of shielding you from her blows, but to your horror the slime finds the holes in your defenses on your face and starts shoving herself into your nose and mouth.

Round 3 Options:
-Close your shield and blast with your normal orbs (guaranteed, will injure but won’t kill slime)
-Level 3 Shockwave (improved 5/6 chance of success)
-Stun shot the slime

Shockwave. This time don't put too much energy into it.

Well we’ve failed a lot. Shut your holes and blast her.

No idea how we would get out of this situation if we fail shockwave again, but there's no taking our foot off the gas pedal now.
"Why can't you just let me do a good thing?!"

Third times the charm

Let's go with the guarateed success, please.

>>1022234
Shockwave again.

tippler 2022/02/03(Thu)11:50 No. 1022251 ID: eedbeb
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You use your shockwave ability with less power this time so you don’t kill the slime. It’s hard to focus when you’re maintaining your shield and struggling to breathe while getting bludgeoned by an amorphous blob.

>Failure #3: Okay, this is getting a little ridiculous
This time you underestimate your opponent, and your counterattack isn’t enough to dislodge her from your face. Your thrashing weakens as you slowly run out of air, lungs filled with cold fluid. You might be an incredibly strong monster, but you still need oxygen to survive. The edges of your vision darken and you fall unconscious.

tippler 2022/02/03(Thu)11:51 No. 1022252 ID: eedbeb
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>Dead?
You’re pleasantly surprised when you wake up with only a singed face and some gunk in your throat. You figured you’d either never wake up or find yourself strapped to an operating table in the Lewis mansion basement. After a moment spent hacking dregs of slime into your fist, you notice the small hand on your back.

You turn to see Theda. The mosquito looks grim, like you’ve disappointed her, and you shrink in on yourself. A quick glance around shows a world frozen, with a partially charred slime recoiling from where you fell.

“I messed up.” you croak.

“You sure did. I only stepped in because of some misplaced sense of responsibility. You owe me bigtime for this, I want you to leave the GIA and become my bodyguard.”

“What if I say no?”

“Then I’ll kill you here. A lot better than what Clive and Joy will do to you.”

tippler 2022/02/03(Thu)11:51 No. 1022253 ID: eedbeb
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Which do you choose? All the options understandably have large downsides.

A. Eternal Servitude (could be kind of hot?)
You will leave the GIA and become Theda’s loyal servant until you die. You’ll travel around the world and be treated fairly well.

B. We had a Good Run
Ask Theda to kill you. It’ll be painless and quick. You can also tell her to pass on any messages to Max and Flipper.

C. Massive Cunt Moves
Theda is vulnerable right now, having brought you to into her time state. Kill her and flee the city. The GIA will be so pleased they’ll forgive you for killing Rancid.

B. Better late than never.

A

All this espionage and crime is starting to get really bad for your health, so you know, fuck the GIA

C. How many shots do you get at killing the original vampire? None. You must be dreaming right now. So take it. Shockwave should work now that you’ve decided to keep mashing the shockwave button instead of holding off for one update, good job guys.

A

Let's be real the gia sucks ass. Glamming it up with a cool old mosquito vampire sounds like a much better time yea? sure she's kind of evil but at least it's a nicer, more personable kind of evil than the spooks lori works for now.

C - If you're absolutely going to die or be a slave, may as well die fighting.

A
Get out of here Lori, get out of everywhere and everything. Life has always, ALWAYS been hard for you, mostly through a shitload of complications brought on by other people. Maybe this will be better? It's not like she can't be asked to kill you later.

A. It's a steady job, you won't have to work for the GIA anymore, and let's be honest she's kinda hot.

>>1022253

A because quite frankly being with someone with literally tons of money and time powers who will treat you well is better then being a dog of the military which frequently employs those like rancid, thus putting you on the endless cycle of stress you hated *already* that you wanted out of.

A. The age of monsters will end in a few years anyway, so it'll probably be easier by then.

A: She seems better then the GIA.

tippler 2022/02/03(Thu)18:56 No. 1022299 ID: eedbeb
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>A
You don’t want to die and you don’t want to kill Theda, so that leaves taking the mosquito’s offer. With a cough, you shakily get to your feet. Theda’s hand stays on your fur the whole time, though you suppose you wouldn’t know if she took it off.

Theda watches you with her large, multifaceted eyes. From your limited interaction you already like her more than the impersonal politicians who control your life. She doesn’t need you as a hired gun because she’s a grown woman who can kill people herself. This is a steady job for a cracking, if somewhat evil animal. What’s not to like?

Now that you think about it, the Age of Monsters is going to end within a decade anyway. Will you keep your powers? What will happen to Theda? You might get freedom sooner than expected.

tippler 2022/02/03(Thu)18:56 No. 1022300 ID: eedbeb
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“I’ll join you.” you tell Theda.

“Good. We have a lot to discuss, but first let’s go somewhere safe.”

Theda takes your hand and leads you to the edge of the roof. You’re pleased to find your boosters work in this time funk, and you carefully lower yourself to the ground while Theda flutters beside you.

You walk together through the assembled crowd with the setting sun fixed in the sky.

Thanks for reading.