If my goal was to get rich and powerful I'd have gone public with my powers. I came here to get away from this hero politics crap and hope for a fresh start and a normal life. My power is stupid valuable, but only for OTHER people. I'm just a regular person, and as you have just demonstrated, nobody needs powers to beat my ass.

I just met some cool people and wanted to see if I could maybe do some good for them without drawing attention to myself. I did NOT expect the iceberg to get this deep, and I am kind of freaking out about it, okay? I recognize that my showing up catalyzed some stuff that had been brewing for a while, but this isn't my show. We're acting on Willamina's info right now. You're here 'cause Will suggested it. If you don't trust me, trust her.

Edmango 2021/05/17(Mon)00:05 No. 1000532 ID: afe7de
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> Don't HOPE, BELIEVE
You're kind of panicking right now and are on the verge of an emotional breakdown. The only reason you're not crying right now is because you JUST got done crying over your bro. You take deep, shaky breaths, you don't want to HOPE that she believes you, that would be manipulating her and that goes against this conversation. Instead you try to BELIEVE in yourself. That maybe you can have the calm and understanding to convince her to not just blow your secret and cause your eventual death. You take another deep breath and try. You feel a warm energy in your chest slowly moving towards your neck, your voice comes out cracked, but its the best you can do for now.

[1 HOPE ENERGY USED]

You dont feel the energy going to Cannie, more like it feels like its supporting you, making you calm enough to make it through the moment.

> Backstory
You give her the bullet points version of your back-story, she looks impatient and you don't want to drag this out too much.

Your family died 8 years ago in the dungeon break. So did nearly all of your friends.
You flunked out of Tinker school because of elitism and not being awakened.
You went from dead end job to dead end job and got real ground down.
You have very few friends left and that you've kept up with.
You nearly died multiple times in muggings that stole the only thing you had left of your family.
Then you awakened and decided you needed a fresh start that wasn't at the source of your misery.
You came to Lyst on the first bus out of there, and met Will.
And for the first time in YEARS you weren't depressed and actually had fun.
SEVERAL people claimed she was SELFISH, TWO FACED, UNTRUSTWORTHY, so you snooped and found it to be BULLSHIT.
you built up trust, went on dates, sparred with, etc. it was nice and you could sympathize with will
So you trusted her and Awakened her, you only JUST found out about the inheritance and SHE was torn up about it

You: So Picture it, a freshly empowered, actually happy new arrival to Lyst. Who was suggested work by Isabella, albeit reluctantly. Getting to meet new new people and kin, realizing things were looking up, getting a FRESH START, despite all the complicated conspiracy shit? After the first day?

Edmango 2021/05/17(Mon)00:05 No. 1000533 ID: afe7de
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Cannie is silent, she's staring you down still, you're really not sure what to say at this point so you kind of start rambling.

You: You can doubt as much as you want, but I was scared even revealing anything to Will and thought I fucked up for a moment, I didnt know about the inheritance. I just happened across half the secrets I did, and AFTER you all coerced me into revealing my powers, WHICH TERRIFIED THE FUCK OUT OF ME, I find out that if I didnt act on it that Iraphena or Isabella would have had me MURDERED, why do you think I'm such a fucking panicked mess.

You: I don't know if one day my power will evolve to straight up mind control, I just upgraded my power for the first time and there's an option to start on that road, maybe the future could really lead to it, BUT THATS A CHOICE, one of MANY I'd have to do to become that kind of person. And unless someone I awakened starts doing BAD SHIT I wasnt considering it. I was just HOPING that that I could only awaken people that, you know, wouldn't betray me. Vain a hope as that might be?!?!

Cannie remains silent, her glare intensifying, maybe she's mad knowing you have the potential to become a problem, maybe you shouldn't have said that, no. You're going to BELIEVE in yourself and what you're saying. That warm sensation is still there.

Willamina: They WHAT? Uh CANNIE, maybe you-

Cannie: QUIET. Keep going Cat.

You: What do you even want Cannie? Do you want my fucking records, the obituaries, COMM numbers of the people I knew, character witnesses? Fucking go wild, investigate me, see what kind of person I am, I don't know what more I can even say. That Iraphena and I traded items and one of the items was my brother's stolen ring, that he's a spirit and I was crying because I got to talk to him for the first time in YEARS which was why I wanted alone time?!?

You're starting to panic, she's putting more pressure on your chest, its a bit hard to breathe, but you keep going anyway, you're starting to get ANGRY.

Edmango 2021/05/17(Mon)00:06 No. 1000534 ID: afe7de
File 162123515994.png - (15.79KB , 500x500 , C2_221.png )

You: No, you know what, you're the one threatening me claiming I was being manipulative, for dangling power in front of you, neither of which are things I've even come close to fucking doing. Nothing here is that convenient or pleasant enough to make this a good story to get you in my pocket or some shit, except for my power, and it's not something I put out there as a means to control someone.

Cannie: That's enou-

You: No. FUCK YOU CANNIE. You don't get to tell me I'm done talking after MANIPULATING ME at the diner, I never bartered to Awaken anyone. I've only used my ability 4 times, one of which was on a FUCKING BADGER. And you right here, right now, are doing exactly what you're scared I was going to do. Holding the threat of violence over me to get your way, threatening me if I dont satisfy you.

You: You could have chosen LITERALLY ANY OTHER WAY of approaching this, but no, you chose this, and if you still dont want to trust me after I spilled basically everything I know, fine, whatever. But implicitly holding this over me, that if you dont like my answer you're going to hurt me or tell someone about me, which will get me killed or worse? That's a shitty thing to do, and I dont know if I can trust YOU.

Cannie lifts her leg off of you, but gives you a kick, which still hurts before backing off. Willamina comes to your side and helps you up. It's been a long time since you've been even close to this angry and betrayed. You sit back on the couch and Willamina is at your side. The warm sensation dissipates.

Cannie: Calm down, I just wanted to make sure you were legit. I believe you're genuine now. I wont tell anyone.

You and Willamina both blank at that response. Willamina just shakes her head, but you're just pissed that she brushed it off like that. In fact, you’re not so sure you can trust your back to this girl. Maybe she has a better reason for this than “making sure I am legit”. Callan’s shaking his head and taking deep, calming breaths. How do you respond?

>>1000534
>> How do you respond?
"Convince me. "

>>1000536
Seconded.

Her turn I guess. After that display, why should you trust her? What kind of paranoia justifies physical violence?

Just keep it short and sweet.

"That's it?? Why are you being such an asshole, Cannie?"

I personally think Cannie is legit.
But sadly, Cat has gone through so much emotional turmoil that he can't see that.

I think quietly telling "Convince me" is the only response to make. Don't make it an angry response. Just a cold quiet response

Nothing more, nothing less. Just those two words. Don't even have to make eye contact. She needs to know her manipulating you like that at dinner was wrong, so it is her turn to gain Cat's trust before the vacation.

If we say anything else, we can assure her we'll awaken Nicky, but other than that, just telling her "convince me" is the only thing that needs to be said.

If she tries to say anything thay doesn't involve convincing you like telling you to calm down, get Willamina to talk to her instead. You've said your peace.

Of course, she's stubborn, which is horrible right now, because she's stubborn on the wrong side. We practically gave her Shellshock with the corruption and apocalypse with everything and she's dug her feet in through it all because if she budges she'd have to acknowledge that she's worked for evil people, that she's on the wrong side, she'd have to deal with that guilt so she'd rather delude herself that she's right.
It is understandable but..
It's absolutely INFURIATING! It makes you want to punch her out of stubborn but that would only make her more stubborn. Cat is understandably pissed at the whole damn situation. But in order for her to get our of that god damned trench she's dug and holding onto for her dear life, she has to get herself out. We've given her the information, now she needs to internalize it. Otherwise, things WILL get worse. She needs more than knowing she's on the wrong side, she needs to internalize it, this information can't just slide off of her, she needs to be able to understand it, to soak it in.
>>1000536
"Convince me."
A simple response, but it may be exactly what we need, as her having to convince us will lead to thinking over ours and her words. Convincing us that she isn't going to stab us in the back, and the fact that we need convincing will show her that she really is on the wrong side. It will also help us in ascertaining her intentions, as her trying to convince us would help with that and calming Cat down, but if she doesn't even try, we know she's a lost cause, and should be considered our enemy.
How we play this could either mean a big loss or a big gain, and there's more to the loss than the gain. She would let everyone know what we told her and could possibly be actively working against us. If we do get her on our side, then we have someone who's a strong fighter that could help us a lot as well as someone stubborn enough to not give up and stick by our side.
There's a lot rising on this conversation, let's not fuck it up.

Don’t escalate. At best offer another spar so you both can relieve some aggression and settle grudges. You don’t want bad blood to linger.

There’s many things that could’ve made her conflicted and angry about getting all of these deets dropped. That would’ve made her want to check if Cat was a threat and dig deeper, even with threats of violence.

Take a deep breath.

>convince me
Did she even quit Nunitus? You’d understand her reaction if she was still, like, working for them.

Are there people in Nunitus she really likes? You’d understand that too, and even forgive that last kick.

Did the things she got told while working for Nunitus resonate with her? Like, was she specifically warned against power-tripping Awakened? You feel like that’s something they might have tried to instill in their recruits.

And now for the biggie, can SHE prove she hasn’t been mind controlled in turn? She’s Unawakened, she’s close to Will. What sort of defense would she have if someone in a position of power wanted to put a spy near her sister?

Getting the third degree isn’t fun, Cannie. It’s frustrating and one can’t always provide or get answers that satisfy. You decided to put your trust in her, though. That MEANS something. You’re not just yanking her chain or fucking with her for the sake of it, or trying to take some kind of gross advantage of Will and her inheritance. You’re literally trusting her with your life. So she’s got to understand what she did right now was NOT PLEASANT.

>>1000560
Yeah, I agree, we dont need to escalate, if only because Cat's had enough damn drama today.
All we really want is to know what the hell all this hostility was about. It wont make us square but it will help us understand. As it is now, we thought Cannie was cool, but recent behavior is proving otherwise. We need trust going forward, and we've put all our cards on the table, almost literally, she needs to convince us after this.

If she doesnt want to try, or just isn't convincing enough I think we should just...go somewhere else. Anywhere else. Maybe go see what Mint is up to. We havent checked out the brothel yet, I think, and at least that should be simpler then this.

I mean, considering Cat's power it's pretty likely that if his power got out he'd get kidnapped and used as some kind of living tome/artifact rather than a person. Keeping things close to the chest just seems sensible in the face of that.

>>1000587
Actually, I think after everything that happened, Cat will need a lot of emotional support from Willamina, his best friend right now, and should spend the rest of the night with her. Just as we need her emotional support after today, she needs ours.

We can go to the brothel with Andrea tomorrow anyway.

Cannie seems... Unsatisfied. I think I know why.

She actually posed a REALLY good question that we haven't actually answered.
What's our endgame?
No seriously. What does our power mean to us, and what do we want to do with it?
What do we stand for?

Sure we plan on going along with Willamina's "Save the world" thing but that's literally just the first path that's opened up to us.
We've been so focused on survival that we've forgotten that we're a fucking awesome dude with fucking awesome power.
We are for better or worse, important. Important to the people around us. Important to the people of this world. Important to the Future.

We don't have the luxury of just being able to go with the flow anymore.

To someone looking in from outside like Cannie our lack of intent must be downright creepy.
We've shuffled her life around in a massive way, but from her point of view we are hiding our reasons for doing so.
She has every right to be frustrated and suspicious, and for someone like her who gets her way with her fists it makes sense that she would lash out at us, even if doing so isn't normally "ok".

We've already explained that life has been coming at us too fast for us to really plan anything already, but this question still needs to be answered, not only for her piece of mind, but for ours.
What do we care about, and what kind of future are we trying to build here?

>>1000603
Cat is really caring, whether he intends to be or not. He saved a wild badger, helped improve Will's life, and despite not liking Isabella, and being scared of her, he still gave Max's photo to cheer her up.

He cares about others, he cares about friendship. The future he wants is to live a peacful normal life with his friends with no fears despite his powers.

Lets bring this up as well.

>>1000603
This is relevant, but I think we need to turn it around in Cat's head, too.

>What did Cannie want? What was her play here?
She doesn't want to save the world, she claims, but she agreed to join you for now.

She wants her mom to be Awakened, so she can defend the town (and herself) in case worst comes to worst.

She got depressed by the revelation of Isabella's powers.

She got angry over you being the bearer of bad news concerning Nunitus.

What really tipped her over was the revelation Max was still around.

Your bro tells you she prefers honesty, but has probably gotten yanked around a lot.

>What kind of picture does that pain of her?
She's jaded and mad she's been lied to and kept out of the loop. Cat's been SHOT AS THE MESSENGER - but only partially, since I think Cannie's less of a meathead than her fighty, hotheaded nature might suggest.

She's got stuff that she treasures for sure, but she probably learned not to invest in causes, which you and Will have been offering her. She doesn't expect to get something for free - and you've been doing nothing but handing it out today, which might've been what gave such a hard rise out of her suspicions. She's got a tough attitude, doesn't give much of a shit for feelings, so if she had to metaphorically kick you in the balls to get a true rise out of you, get you to reveal your true nature, she'll do that. She did that.

I don't think Cat disappointed her as much as he disappointed her expectations. She was expecting Cat to crumble, to say something that broke the character she thought Cat was wearing. She might still be on the fence, but nothing Cat said pushed her over.

...also, Cat. For fairness' sake. Callan just told you about there being two external visitors to the Hadlee estate that day. That's still relevant information for these two and how they're to go forward treating Isabella.

>>1000534
Ok her turn now. She has to tell you why you can trust her, beyond just being Willamina's friend. This was supposed to be easier...

We refilled our water bottle before Liminal came in the post office, lets go ahead and drink some and calm your nerves, once you are a little calmer, consider this:

Yesterday, before their fight, cannie said this:

>she’s (Isabella) my friend, but like, sometimes she pisses me off, like at dinner. What the fuck was up with that, putting you on the spot like that, bribing you, and then nearly hiding Isabella’s power status. S’ like there’s some big ol’ conspiracy going on.

Apparently, Cannie probably was NOT interested in putting Cat on the spot on trying to get him to reveal his power at dinner, and was actually pissed at Isabella for doing that. She wasn't manipulating Cat then.

>>1000621
>>1000603
>>1000606

Support

it'd be so cool if Cannie after being told to convince Cat if she just silently removed her armband, and then walked away leaving Cat and Willamina to their thoughts

Cannie forced us to metaphorically flay open our skin and bare ourselves, being made both physically and emotionally vulnerable to her by force. And now she's telling us to "calm down," as if that didn't happen? No, she doesn't get a free pass on that.

Cat needs at least some expressive outburst of anger here, if only to get it out of his system.

>>1000621
>This is relevant, but I think we need to turn it around in Cat's head, too.

This is true, and it'll probably take time.
Luckily it's fairly normal for someone Cat's age to not have everything figured out, even if they didn't have sudden world altering super-powers.

At the very least Cat needs to recognize the question and express -if nothing else- that he does not have a cohesive plan for his powers, and does not yet know who or what he wants to be.

>>1000659
We already ended up accusing her of ulterior motives in the diner, which what we already know indicates isn’t true. If Cat really believed she was in on it, why even tell her all this? That’s just lashing out, trying to get a cheap hit in return.

There’s nothing righteous about blowing one’s lid and making wild accusations. If Cat wants to get proper even, suggest a second spar so he can kick her ass a bit (if he can). If Cat is of the opinion the third degree was the least cool thing, stake and justify that claim so Cannie maybe can get over her own issues and see she did him a wrong - or at least explain why she thought it was so dang necessary.

I never made any claims about what happened at the diner. You must have me confused with someone else. This is all about Cat's treatment here and now.

>>1000675
Ah, the post wasn’t aimed at you that way. It was just a point to illustrate how lashing back angrily lead to an illogical accusation being made in the heat of the moment - one that probably hurt Cannie’s feelings in turn - and maybe continued railing at her isn’t Cat’s best or most productive bet, however angry he has the right to be.

We don’t technically have to be here for this.

“Will, you negotiate for me. I’m going to head out and consider who else I can awaken in case Cannie doesn’t work out.
Let me know about any deals or agreements you made when I get back, I trust you to carefully consider terms and to be reasonable on my behalf.”

>>1000642
You raise a very good point

But even if Cannie said that she was pissed at Isabella for forcing Cat to reveal his power, Cannie herself is still in the wrong for not even trying to do anything to stop Isabella and Iraphena from pressuring Cat, and her doing nothing having a bystander effect makes her at least just as guilty as well, even if she didn't know Cat that well.

She needs to know that even if she was pissed at Isabella for doing it, she is just as guilty for not even trying to stop them, not even a "hey, you think you should lay off a lil bit?" Would have given Cat a little bit of a positive view on Cannie. We can't have Cannie having that bystander effect if she is going to help fight to save the world

>>1000720

If we can help it, I think we should try to stay and reconcile things with Cannie and Cat right now and not run from our problems. If Cat has to go anywhere, lets just have him go to the soundproof bedroom to be alone for awhile with Callan, and wait for Willamina to talk to us. Can't leave her alone since she's been hit with a lot of emotional bombshells today too. They'll need each other.

Authors Note: No update today, its the last day of the tax season and im burnt out from work, BUT as a reward for your patience, feel free to suggest for Willamina's actions for this section too. Thanks for your patience, see you tomorrow. We're nearing the end of thread 2!

Willamina try to calm down Cat to salvage this, and uh-- have you ever seen Cannie get paranoid like this before? If not maybe you should ask her what that was about. You can have a private conversation if needed.
If so, do... whatever you usually do.

These two are both your friends, you should be able to work things out right?

Willamina: get Cat his water bottle from his backpack/duffel bag immediatly. cool it up a bit for him with your ice powers and... give him a hug, and whisper that "everything will be okay, you're safe now". Tell him to go to the bedroom and you and he will talk privately together in a few minutes, and spend time together tonight, just the two of you, maybe have a bit of sex and then you and he can have some late night television watching in your house afterwards. A little escapism never hurts anyone. Assure him that this is just Cannie's weird way of getting a read on people. Really, It's tough love.

Afterwards, when Cat is in the bedroom, explain to Cannie privately that he has had a rough life... rougher than ours from what it looks like, I mean sure, we are scarred for life and lost most our family, but Cat lost so much more, friends, family, possessions, and he had to deal with thugs with almost nobody looking out for him except Shocker. Really, he's afraid. Ask Cannie that you need her help to show that he has nothing more to be afraid of, and show that he has friends now. help us show him that he is not alone anymore.

Then, Thank Cannie for trusting Cat and joining the alliance. Having her join will help give Cat that bit of tough love he needs now and then to toughen him up and keep him from getting complacent. Tell her that Cat will come around, and you will see about having him work with her and Random and then awaken her tomorrow evening.

Then hug Cannie as well.

Willamina should let Cannie know that right now, Cat needs to learn to trust others again, and see what it means to have true friends looking out for him again. He's been in a rough spot since the dungeon break with a lot of people in the city taking advantage or hurting him. And after he's got a power that can awaken others, shit, we'd imagine that he is even more terrified that lots more people will try to take advantage of him for his powers, and right now more than ever? He needs friends to support him emotionally, and help teach him to trust others again, otherwise he'll go down a dark path thinking everyone is out to get him. He's already made some couragous leaps in trusting others after revealing his powers to us, and even moreso with Cannie, so Cannie should try to help Cat continue his advancement in trusting others again by being his friend.

Willamina: Ask what the hell he meant by his brother being a spirit. Ah well, the Dead really are walking (floating?) the World during the end times, including yours.

Give Cat a hug and tell Cannie to take a shower and think about what she did.

As Willamina, we need to have her as the mediator and not pick sides. They are both our friends, we need them both to work together. Understand they are both in the right in some aspects, and in the wrong in others

She needs to let Cat know that he has every right to be angry after how he's been treated, but he shouldn't burn bridges between himself and Cannie, let him know that Cannie is only doing this out of fear that she might lose her friends and family and wanted to make sure Cat was trustworthy, and she is satisfied with what she saw in Cat

Will should let Cannie know that while her heart was in the right place, her actions were a bit too extreme, considering Cat had been suffering all day today. Cat's actions were out of fear from potential threats, so it made sense for him to act the way they did.

Let them both know that they shouldn't be facing against each other, but instead, fear is what they actually should be facing against if we want them to both trust each other again.

>>1000456
Don't forget, we can even verify the burnt animals thing with a quick pop-in with our bunny cop pals if Will's testimony isn't enough there. I forget who specifically we reported that too, but we did, so that should be on record.

>>1000734
Take care of yourself, the regular update schedule on this quest is pretty wild. Appreciatively so, but still, beware them burnouts!

>Willamina actions
While originally livid with Isabella and confused-mad about Max being alive, she's not very angry at anyone currently PRESENT so the quarrel is disturbing enough that her frustration and fury drops, leaving a mix of worry and resolve. She too wants to convince Cannie that Nunitus might be bad news - that's something she's fairly confident of thanks to Saba's will - but she knows her sister well enough to see she's angry about the implications there and wants to step lightly. She doubts her sister will betray them, so it's all just a matter of giving her the time to soak the details in. Cat just dropped too much on her and Cannie at once.

What Cannie did for sure wasn't nice, but Will would want to give her a shot at opening up as to why she's so aggressively skeptical and ready to believe Cat's a mind-controlling baddie - uh, even if it came out that he might actually be able to become one? Poor Cat seemed awful close to losing it there and he claimed some nasty - and surprising - stuff in return, so his well of secrets hadn't even run dry. Will's not sure how much of it is twisted by panic and anger and emotional cogs wearing out and how much is 100% truth, but she doubts most of it was spun from thin air.

So if the situation seems like it's escalating (or be about to) Will is ready to intervene by grabbing her mother's water-generating device and summoning a spray of mist to cool into a flurry of snowy particles and a chilly gust that she blows over Cannie and Cat - a COLD SNAP - to get them to literally cool down. Nothing harmful or lasting, just a quick shock to get their attention so she can say - with 'Mistress'-mode's chilling seriousness - that she's going to be VERY UPSET if either of them tries to make her choose between your friend or your sis.

She wants things STRAIGHTENED OUT before anyone leaves with their knickers in a twist and if she has to play the mediator, she will. But they're both adults, and they should be able to FUCKING PLEASE keep their COOL. There's enough FUCKED UP SHIT going on right now that you all FOR FUCKING SURE don't need any COCK-DAMNED FIGHTS BETWEEN YOURSELVES.

Will should go on to state she loves her sister, she's the very best, but Cat's really been nothing but a gentleman to you - a little disappointingly so - and none of his actions have come off as awful or come off in a way that won't come back to HAUNT HIS ASS if it turns out he's lying. She's not sure what she's gonna do if Cannie messes with him like that again WITHOUT WARRANT, but her sister can AT BEST expect some TIME OUT slush down her neck. Got that... HOTTIE-HEAD?

(she'd been saving that one for Isabella, but fuck if Cannie didn't just make herself deserving of it)

She should meet Cannie's eyes with determination 'till she blinks, then soften it up to give her a light pat on the shoulder and a quiet, confident 'we'll figure this shit out'.

To Cat she should state that she BELIEVES him, but he'd best be CERTAIN of the things he's telling her and her sister and EXPLAIN MORE CAREFULLY WHAT HE KNOWS - now or later - because if it turns out any of this is PURE NEUTRONIUM BULLSHIT, she's of course gonna take it out on his ASS, Great Awakener or not. Got that... PRICK?

Half-smile at the insult-turned-endearment and reach down to help him up (if he hasn't already gotten up) and give him a light hug and a quiet 'it's okay, she's not gonna tell on you'.

Will should also let Cannie know that Cat has had a very emotional day getting bullied by the heroes rep, learning of what was in grandfather's will, and iraphena probably didn't help calm things either when he visited her.
Tell her that it was your fault really for pushing Cat into explaining things after all the shit he went through today, so the outbursts were excusable.

And yeah, apologize to Cat too for not considering how he was feeling before bringing Cannie here. You'll make it up to him tonight, for now, he must be so exhausted, let him sit and think in the bedroom.

And yeah, suggest Cannie and Cat schedule meeting tomorrow evening for Cannie's night job, might be best for them to know each other a little bit more then.

Cannie, go fuck yourself.

Edmango 2021/05/19(Wed)00:21 No. 1000885 ID: afe7de
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> Calm Down
> Don't get emotional
> Calm down
> Express your anger
> You need emotional support
The stress of the situation and your in flux emotions are getting to you. You feel STRAINED and STRESSED. You're not quite close to depression yet, but you feel a pretty strong desire to SMOKE. You'd really like to fuck, cry, or cuddle while watching some shitty TV or something. But you have to deal with this first. Today's been TOO LONG. You're close to snapping but you hold back with the little restraint you have left.

> Go with Cannie on her job tomorrow
No. You refuse this course of thought and action. Even if Cannie apologizes and everything’s fine you want time to yourself or something. You’ve been going very fast and doing a lot of things all this time and you haven’t had a BREAK. If you change your mind you can do something, but you feel like if you don't take some time to yourself you’re going to be MORE STRESSED.

> Don’t run away
> Convince Me
You’re ticked, you’re really mentally out of it right now, but you refuse to just run away and break down no matter how easy it might be. This is something you need to deal with now or it’ll be a bigger problem later, so you pick the most appropriate way to do it. You take a good long look at Cannie and say two words.

You: Con-vince Me.

Cannie scoffs and shrugs.

Cannie: Of what?

You don’t respond, you don’t even look at her. This is the best you can do in your stressed condition right now, Willamina notices this and decides to chime in. She grabs your hand for support.

Edmango 2021/05/19(Wed)00:21 No. 1000886 ID: afe7de
File 162140889259.png - (7.69KB , 500x500 , C2_223.png )

Willamina: I care about both of you a decent bit, so I’m going to try to be IMPARTIAL here. So here, let me make this easier. How about, why give Cat the third degree at this level of INTENSITY? Or maybe think over Cat’s words, what do you think?

Cannie: I don’t see why I-

Willamina: TRY. For ME.

Cannie seems a little defeated at that and takes a moment before responding.

Cannie: First. You can’t just go into a dungeon and expect everything will go right with a positive attitude. Kin DIE. Sometimes the dungeons LITERALLY pit you against your friends, forcing you to kill a certain number before letting you leave. You have to have CONVICTION. Words? Whining? They mean JACK-SHIT. Saying you have a dungeon that can power level us to A or S rank is a bullshit pipe dream where if you go in with 8, only 2 will come out. MAYBE. And if it comes between my sister and you, I’ll pick her without a moment of thought.

Cannie: Then I hear you’re giving people who don’t know what they’re doing powers seemingly altruistically and it pisses me off. Kin don’t just give out artifacts to others. Everything’s about BUX and RESOURCES. And while I hate that about the HL, it’s been true for thousands of years. And hearing you don’t have an end goal in site, or something you want to do, just to get strong disappoints me.

Cannie: Frankly, I don’t care about the world. I care about my family and the kin that have been good to me. If I can find a way to get them to survive, then great, but you tell me that two people that I care extremely deeply for are one alive and two mystically powered and harassing Willamina, yeah I get pissed off.

Cannie: You are weak, Cat.

Cannie: And unless you can fix your timidness and approach, you’ll die. You can’t do anything yourself and are relying on others. You’ll become a parasite in no time, of that I’m positive. Sure, you can give kin powers, but so what? There are kin and people who are strong WITHOUT powers, but I don’t think you’ll ever be one.

Cannie tears off her Nunitus armband and tears it to shreds before tossing it on the ground.

Cannie: I’ll believe that Nunitus is bad and the world is going to shit, but the SECOND- and I mean SECOND- we find a way to get off this rock and out of the crossfire, I’m taking who I care about and I’m leaving. I like fighting, I like getting stronger, but I don’t want any part in fighting to save this planet, it’s just not worth saving in my eyes. That’s all.

And before either of you can say anything, she walks out, slamming the door.

Edmango 2021/05/19(Wed)00:21 No. 1000887 ID: afe7de
File 162140890886.png - (9.42KB , 500x500 , C2_224.png )

It’s silent. You feel an indignant fury building in you, it mixes with a deep and boundless depression. You’re trying to internalize what was just said and comprehend it. She’s right that you don’t have a long-term goal. That you just want to get strong enough to survive. You just hopped on the save-the-world bandwagon because the first person you awoke wanted to. You probably were going to just float aimlessly after that.

But thinking again, that’s not true. When you were younger you wanted to be a hero like your brother, but that dream was thoroughly squashed when THE INCIDENT happened. Then you wanted to be a Tinker, go to college to make things to help not let things like that happen, but they killed that dream too. So you just took jobs and tried to form connections, but barely anyone wanted one of those too because you had nothing to offer. And now that you have this power, after years of losing your dreams, you don’t have anywhere you think you want to go. You briefly remember years ago, the dark room, th-. No. You’re not going back to that dark place. You’re better than this.

You didn’t notice but you’re crying, it’s a silent cry, your face thoroughly soaked. You’re laying on Willamina’s lap and she’s quietly consoling you.

You reflect some more. You’re weak, yes. But you’re actively seeking improvement. You were called a parasite, and there’s some truth to that, you were just accepting of Willamina’s kindness and now she’s covering your expenses, but you were also thinking of ways to give back to others. You almost didn’t when you were bargaining with Iraphena, but changed your mind and realized the necessity. Your mind’s a jumbled mess right now, you imagine that this level of stress will get pretty common in the future with the constant fights for your life and so on. You were too spoiled by your world. Callan takes the moment where your eyes are focusing again to speak up.

Callan: Hey man. We’re here for you. You tried being honest, but sometimes you can’t win over everyone, if you can even call what just happened as winning over someone.

Willamina, not knowing that Callan’s speaking, decides to pipe up as well.

Willamina: She’s always been THAT uh, BLUNT I guess. I didn’t realize...

She starts mumbling but it’s hard to focus on. How do you respond to all of this stress, is it Cannie that’s in the wrong? And do you have a GOAL you want to set for yourself? Setting a GOAL or DRIVE or ATTITUDE for how you handle this moment will slowly change how you interact with the world going forward.

Don't let Cannie decide how you should move from here on. She's a bully, and she hasn't decided her own path either.

Why yes, you are indeed weak. And you will always be weak. Because you're not stupid. Cannie was afraid of your weakness. She knows that the bullied are molded into beasts and weapons that can truly hurt her, in ways that her usual stupid aggressiveness can't possibly overpower. That's a challenge you'll have to live with for the rest of your life; having true power constantly thrumming in your body without letting it go to your head. Price of being a true hero, you see.

And despite the realism and practicality of being cynical and provincial? Well, she can do her, but it's all shallow. Say you only protect your cozy little town and a handful of people while the world burns. Do you want to reinstall all the infrastructure and nip the sociopathic politics in the bud and repopulate the planet without going insane with too many children and not enough adults? You may as well let the world die if you can't save its soul. Cannie thinks her world is Donjon, the town, and her screwed up family. That's never how it works and there wouldn't be Dungeons and Dragons and Demons and Angels if it was.

>>1000887
Honestly it's fucking bullshit to expect so much of you when you've been beaten down for your entire life and Awakened less than a week ago. You haven't had time to think about long term goals.

What the fuck happened to the Cannie that was upset over getting someone hurt in a dungeon? What happened to her being pissed at her sister for walking all over her? It's like SHE got mind controlled. ...maybe that's the forest lady's power. Not just control over animals, but control over people as well, and she used it to set her against you, make it harder for you to recruit her and pose a threat, since she saw you and her sparring.
The world's not worth saving? Then change it. Become strong, gather strong people, use them to root out corruption and put systems in place to protect the weak. Maybe it won't last forever, but nothing ever does.

Also, fuck "Cat just grabbed onto the save the world goal because it was the first thing someone suggested". We obviously wanted to do that the instant we found out there was an apocalypse! ANYONE with any fucking brains at all would want to try to save the world in Cat's position.

what kind of goddamn moron would respond to "I wanna save the world" with "you have no long term goals" anyway? Christ. This is ridiculous. It's also ridiculous to tell someone like Cat, who has a power that does not benefit himself at all, that he's "weak". Or to tell someone that they're being timid after thoroughly intimidating them with your much greater strength, and then kicking them while they're down.
There is no excuse for Cannie's behavior at all. Any redeeming qualities she had were just thrown away when she partook in completely unnecessary physical and verbal violence. Like, okay, intimidating Cat a little would've been fine, then she crossed the line and kept going. She's a bully, and decided to beat up Cat physically and emotionally because he said something about her sister that she didn't like, despite complaining about not knowing the exact piece of information we gave her. No excuse whatsoever.

The BEGINNING of the apocalypse is 1-3 years away. That's when the demon-angel war is supposed to start. Stopping that AND what comes after is a long term goal; we don't even know when the fighting will stop! It is a terrible idea to plan past that point because we don't know what state the world is going to be in! Basically anything we come up with is going to be a "no duh" kind of thing, like "keep my friends safe" or "live a life of luxury".

I say we cut ties with Cannie completely. She doesn't get to be in the dungeon run, she doesn't get any help with jobs, she doesn't get any more sparring practice. We don't awaken her or her mom, and we make sure she knows that it was entirely her fault.

And another thing: of fucking course we're using Willamina's money. We're the only reason she GOT it. It hasn't even been 24 hours since we got access to it, that's WAY too early to start feeling like we're taking advantage of her.

She says she hates how everything is always about looking out for number one, but then is disappointed you're not doing the same. She says the world isn't worth saving, but wants you to be exactly the same as everyone else?

She's not talking straight, and you don't need to take her words to heart. You can be idealistic without being weak. Unfortunately, a grand total of one thing she said about you is true: You can't fight on an awakened's level as you are, and you'll need to fight. Work on changing that.

>>1000900
>What kind of moron...
Burns bridges because someone had a point to make, but made it poorly? Gives up on someone because of a difference of opinion? Denies them a chance to grow, and them defense and protection, because of a single quarrel?

Let's not semi-mirror Cannie here.

And look, if Cat can - and should - give themselves a pass for not being PERFECT and READY for this, the same should apply to Cannie, yeah? It's a tough situation all around. Cannie's not having much fun right now either - she's likely leaving for PRIVACY and to VENT FRUSTRATION, because NEITHER HER SISTER NOR HER OLD FRIEND TRUSTED HER WITH THEIR SECRETS. Nor do we know what her situation with Nunitus was and how hard it hit her. She might never tell us if we just push her away after this.

And yeah, obviously there's plenty to disagree with about Cannie's assessment - how Cat's power leans hard into having to cooperate with others who will also specifically be new to Powers and that's not their fault, how not everyone can or has to be a POWERHOUSE in battle as long as they can STAY ALIVE TO OFFER SUPPORT, how wanting to MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR THE WORLD (i.e. 'SAVE' it) isn't necessarily a BAD GOAL - but, critically, Cannie is not IN THE WRONG to HAVE A STRONG OPINION about all of this.

She's just not right about everything - and the best way to PROVE HER WRONG is for Cat to GROW. Whether they'll be a HERO, a SAVIOR, a BLOODY FOOL or A TYRANT, the path they're on isn't one for the WEAK and UNPREPARED. Cannie GOT THAT RIGHT.

>Attitude
So find that glimmer of DETERMINATION and stoke it, nurture it, BELIEVE in it. Cat NEEDS to be their own mental bulwark. They can't just CRUMBLE - or damn near to - because someone SMACKS THEM ABOUT and CALLS THEM A PARASITE out of worry for their sister. Worse things will come, especially if Cannie's assessment of what you're trying to do is anything to go by. Shit, being FORCED TO KILL YOUR FRIENDS by a DUNGEON sounds FUCKING AWFUL and is definitely something to AVOID if at all possible.

Wipe your tears. Get to your feet and stretch. Prod at your kick-bruise, and eye Callan and Will both.

"Urrrgh... dear today; suck less. Uh. Do you at least wanna see my bro, Will? He's cool."

Hand her the Demon Eye Amulet.

(Also, why are we not buying Catalyzer's Rights and applying it to ourselves and those around us - Callan included - right this second? The sooner a Growth happens the better, and helping other people around us grow will certainly alleviate the worry that they themselves will be weak enough to as easily die in a dungeon.)

>And unless you can fix your timidness and approach, you’ll die. You can’t do anything yourself and are relying on others. You’ll become a parasite in no time, of that I’m positive. Sure, you can give kin powers, but so what? There are kin and people who are strong WITHOUT powers, but I don’t think you’ll ever be one.

Cannie raises a very good point. we need to get stronger, and stop being reliant of others. Otherwise, we will become what she fears, a tyrant that manipulates and controls others. We need to make sure we don't use our powers to manipulate others to get what we want and instead try to be more reliant of our own strengths to actually work to become strong enough to EARN our rewards, not leech off of others.

What she is wrong about, is that she believes we will never become strong enough, even without powers. That, we need to prove wrong to her.

>>1000900

>I say we cut ties with Cannie completely. She doesn't get to be in the dungeon run, she doesn't get any help with jobs, she doesn't get any more sparring practice. We don't awaken her or her mom, and we make sure she knows that it was entirely her fault.

I strongly disagree with this. I believe people can change, and we should always try to see the good in people. We should instead try to prove her wrong to earn her respect. She is just concerned over the safety of her loved ones, so it's reasonable she acted the way she did.

Plus, she is Willamina's sister, and one of her best friends. she cares about Willamina so it is understandable that she does not want her to get hurt, just like us. And not having her go on dungeon runs with us will only have her hate us more. Willamina probably wouldn't be too happy about us not bringing Cannie either. And we should at the very least awaken Nicky, if not for Cannie's sake, but for Willamina's. They need someone to protect the town after all.
Plus having her with us will help ensure that we don't go down a path of manipulation like she fears and keep us in check. Basically, if she doesn't believe in us, we need to PROVE to her that we are strong enough to earn her respect.

Don't forget, she just cut ties with Nunitus by removing her armband, which I believe was something very difficult for her to do. If she is able to change her views like that without using our hope powers to convince her, then I believe we can change her mind about us as well. Burning bridges will only cause more drama and make us more untrustworthy.

GOAL or DRIVE or ATTITUDE

ATTITUDE: you want to be SELFLESS, SYMPATHETIC, and EMPATHETIC. we want to help others with their problems. We helped Willamina with her awakening her and healing her wounds, and made her happier with her shitty life just by being with her despite her temperament, not just because we gave her powers. We told the truth about the artifacts to Iraphena despite how she treated us, we gave a photo of Max to Isabella even despite how she treated us. We were honest with Gena when we were put in a situation that could have lost us our job. We tried to break Mint's slave contract. Overall, Cat has been trying to do things to better people's lives. Basically, it feels good to help others and give the HOPE.

DRIVE: Our friends are what drives Cat to succeed, and we want our friends to succeed to. He values the trust and friendship of others. He believes in his friends.

GOAL: we want our friends to LIVE. Not survive, but LIVE. Whether it be from saving the world, or finding a way to get through the apocalypse. You just want everyone to LIVE life to it's fullest. It was the main reason we moved to Lyst in the first place.
We want to become Strong enough too, not rely on our powers to manipulate others to get what we want, but become strong enough to EARN the rewards we get.

>>1000900
Pretty much this, Geez, what a hypocritical spiel that was. I know one thing, shes not being entirely honest about what she was angry about, if she even knows at all.

>>Cannie: Then I hear you’re giving people who don’t know what they’re doing powers seemingly altruistically and it pisses me off. Kin don’t just give out artifacts to others. Everything’s about BUX and RESOURCES. And while I hate that about the HL, it’s been true for thousands of years. And hearing you don’t have an end goal in site, or something you want to do, just to get strong disappoints me.

Bitch, We wanted to give people powers so so that they can have a chance to LEARN, And YOU specifically because you had experience! Do you think people just come out of the womb strong or weak, because thats some wild misunderstanding to the world in general. It takes Time, Effort and opportunity which are what were trying to create. And fuck what every else does, what WE do isnt dictated by money, We're giving power to who we think can use them and be trusted with them, or NEED them, and BUX as well as whats worked for years are going to be real irrelevant in 1-3 years anyway.
We're getting strong so we can survive, because we're already planning to put ourselves in dangerous situations, because the alternative is wait for the world and everyone around us to die. The dungeon runs and the acquisitions of power are not an end goal, and were never intended to be, just a means, and really power like that should only ever be a stepping stone.
Beating back or evading a horde of invading demons, and then angels is a good enough end goal for anyone.

Just because Cat is not a physical powerhouse now doesnt mean he cant do anything himself, he's already DOING stuff NOW, And N in this situation no feasible amount of power would be enough to do things alone anyway. And Cat's already working on getting more capable anyway, and has been for almost as long as this has been going on, thats what acquiring the spell books and artifacts was for. But honestly, if the goal is to create a structure, a way for more kin to survive and not just save himself like some kind of jaded, selfish asshole, then giving others the means to do more, to protect themselves and those around them, is far more useful and important than personal strength. Thats not being a parasite, thats being an asset, and ally. Parasites dont give anything back. We Can, Have, and WILL make others lives better, and its not something we should feel bad about, or worry about benefitting from.

Cannie is thinking realistically, she has experience going into dungeons before and knows firsthand the dangers it poses. She is being harsh and telling us we're weak because she probably have met people with the same attitude we have fall victim to the dungeons they travel in, and wants us to get it to our heads that we need to get stronger and not just rely on others.

Cutting ties with her and not allowing her the chance to change her views on us is SELFISH of us. Just like how we changed how Willamina viewed us from where we first met us with her cold attitude to now valuing our friendship, we can also change Cannie's view towards us as someone who is weak to someone who is strong.

Lets prove her wrong that we are weak by showing her we can get stronger. Lets make it our goal to protect our friends.

Yeah, lets introduce our bro, screw around with Willamina, and watch some television. Let us RELAX

Lets at least give Cannie the chance to change her views on us. I imagine that everything we told her like on Isabella and Max made her just as emotional and didnt make her think straight on certain things. At the very least, she trusted what we said enough to throw away her armband and convinced her Nunitus as evil. I believe that she isn't going to reveal our secret power to anyone either. Really, The only thing we need to do now is prove to Cannie that we are not weak.

Like your brother said. She seems used to getting jerked around, probably being treated like an idiot muscle that should't be trusted with anything important, an afterthought with nothing useful to say, desperately clinging to anyone who seems to actually care about what she thinks. Her trust is hard earned, and hearing horrible things about two of the only few loyaltys she has is going to infuriate her and make her doubt the rest of them. Who even does she care about at this point? I bet she's asking herself that now.

I'm contemplating saying you should have roach tail her but at this point maybe demonstrate you trust her. Apologize gently. Explain that this whole experience feels like the worlds been thrust upon your shoulders when, you're also person that wants to do good for people they care about that was near universally panned as useless. And has been given the chance to change things for the better. To be a hero to someone. And you you want that chance for her, too.

>>1000900
I agree with this, especially the part where we cut her off and never empower her.
I do not and will not accept that there is any capacity for change in someone like that. I have no idea why other posters are bawling for us to give her another chance, but FUCK THAT, say I.

>>1000943
Just curious, Why do you believe it is impossible for us to change her mind about Cat? We did manage to get her to change her mind about Nunitus after all. Maybe her harshness was to scare us straight to take this dungeon crawling more serious. Shouldn't we try to prove to her that we have the capacity to be strong and have a goal for ourself?

Remember, our power is arcane catalyst

A catalyst is an event or a person thay causes a change.

Lets be that catalyst to make a change in Cannie's view of Cat, and her view on how she see's the world.

>>1000944
Why do you want to change her mind so badly?

>>1000949
Because I believe her heart is in the right place, it's just her anger is coming from her love of Willamina and her concern that she might get hurt in the dungeon and we are giving the impression that we aren't taking it seriously since dungeons are dangerous. And i believe she just needs someone who believes in her considering everyone else like Isabella kept lying to her

Plus do we really want to keep her from protecting her sister Willamina when we go dungeon diving? Pushing her away from Willamina and convicing Willamina Cannie is bad will just make Cannie hate us even more and bring out the potential for her to go back to nunitus, or have Isabella manipulate her into thinking Cat is evil and cause a possibility for Cannie to reveal everything she knows about Cat to Nunitus and Isabella.

>no idea why others want to give her another chance
Awright, implicit challenge accepted.

>1
Because encouraging a change of heart in someone (if that's the road the story goes) is more uplifting and interesting than someone acting angry, petty or being all 'they must pay for this' vendetta-ish (at least to me).

>2
Because staying on bad term with Will's sister could endanger Cat's relationship with Will and that's a pairing I for one would like to continue to encourage (although it's fine if it doesn't work out). There's also, y'know, the danger of Cannie falling to the Dark Side (Light Side? Angel side?), which won't be ideal for our nascent heroes (however interesting it might be to see play out).

>3
Because we had previous positive interactions with Cannie and she hasn't come off as bad until now - and I'd question whether it's actually BAD to try to give someone a reality check, the real hurt and harm here lay in the undeserved violence and harsh language - and even what happened here can be understood for the possible reasons already outlined; frustration at the truths revealed, doubt IN the truths revealed and the person revealing them, feeling wounded by pillars of stability and trust crumbling, misplaced anger turning into shooting the messenger, wanting to shield her sister from abuse and risk, being jaded, etc.

To be clear, no poster is inherently unreasonable for wanting to take the tale in the direction of Cat cutting Cannie off - it's not an unlikely result from how this encounter went! But doing so makes Cat come across as incapable of empathy with Cannie's situation, and from a 'person I'm rooting for' and 'story beats I'd like to see' perspective that's not something I would like to encourage - so I'm not!

Now just seems like the appropriate moment to get these thoughts crystalized. Cannie muttered something about saving the world. That hadn't really been your plan, because:

Recall, psychics and seers like Iraphena uniformly predict the circumstances surrounding the end of the world.

Consider, Iraphena cannot see you or predict your actions. This appears to extend to all divination methods encountered so far.

Ergo, nothing you do was included in those end of-the-world predictions.

Ergo, if you do ENOUGH, perhaps you CAN change the future.

Anybody else think it's weird that she went on that whole Nunitus Is Evil journey by herself despite us repeatedly and intentionally not bringing it up? I wonder what she knows?
[or if the author internalized all our unused suggestions on the matter and acted like we HAD said some of them perhaps?]

>>1000974
I internalized them, yeah. Several suggestors said I mentioned nunitus, and I kinda forgot I didnt. Whoops! Just assume that somewhere along the line, unmentioned that nunitus being a bad was mentioned. Sorry!

Cannie's position is... Understandable. She was rough and it seem's bleak but...
She's giving us a chance.
However. her final words were both a threat and a challenge.
> the SECOND... we find a way to get off this rock... I’m taking who I care about and leaving.
There will come a time when we must DEFEAT Cannie, or else she take Willamina and any other family and friends she has in our party away forever.
This can happen at any time and she will be far more powerful than she is today.
At that time our Resolve must be strong enough to prevent our comrades from taking her side willingly, and our Prowess must be great enough to at least win the battle. I suspect that if we can gain the UNIVERSAL TRUST of our comrades and defeat Cannie SOUNDLY she will relent and join our cause.

Alternatively we could just EARN CANNIE'S RESPECT the old fashioned way. Perhaps TRAIN WITH or RIVAL her, but it's a HIGH BAR. I imagine we'll get ONE SHOT at entering such a relationship.

One thing is for certain. It only get's harder from here. We will need to train body, mind, and power constantly if we are to have a chance against her, much less everything else.

.....

Respond to this stress with with some frustrated angry outbursts. It's not really directed at anyone. More yourself really because-
Cannie's right.
You ARE weak.
As you are now even with all these fancy artifacts, people will die if you challenge a dungeon, much less fucking angels.
Her self-serving attitude is Valid even if such broad disregard for her fellow Kin DISGUSTS you.
After today it should be easy to let her go. Hell, logically you should agree with her but...
NO. IT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
YOU HAVE SEEN THE HORRORS FATE HAS IN STORE FOR THIS WORLD WITH YOUR OWN EYES.
YOU HAVE FELT THE BITTER ACHE OF LOSS IT BRINGS.
YOU AND WILIMINA BOTH OWE YOUR LIVES TO PEOPLE BOTH WILLING AND ABLE TO CHALLENGE FATE.
A ROAD HAS OPENED UP TO YOU, ONE WHOS PATH WILL LEAD YOU TO BECOMING ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.
WHO WOULD TAKE YOUR PLACE SHOULD YOU COWER?
WHO WOULD SAVE THOSE DESPERATE SOULS AT THE END?
Willamina wants to save the world?
ETCH IT INTO YOU HEART!
YOU WILL DEFEAT THESE INTERDIMENSIONAL INVADERS TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE OF THIS WORLD!

>>1000887
If we're gonna do anything, we're gonna do the hard shit.

Big Goal:
Stop not just our apocalypse, but all future apocalypses. Stop the cycle entirely.

We goin' full Doom Slayer.

>>1000915
>>1000925

Her "point" was irrelevant. Cat is just starting out, of course he's weak. Her accusations of him not "timid" are false, because the only reason we didn't go harder on her is because she's Willamina's lifelong friend. Of fucking course Kin give eachother shit without expecting payment, those are called GIFTS. Friends give gifts to eachother! We were trying to be her friend because she's an exceptionally close friend of Willamina who I would say is a pretty good friend of Cat's by now. Also it's not like we weren't getting anything out of awakening her, she'd be helping us through the dungeon. Relying on other people makes complete strategic sense for a person who gives other people strength. Like, that's the entire fucking point of Cat's power, to grant and cultivate power in others, not himself.

NOTHING Cannie said was valid. She was full of shit and lashing out because... Cat was being nice. Because we were being nice, she decided to be an asshole. She didn't just look a gift horse in the mouth, she kicked it in the teeth. I do not want anything to do with that kind of person.

>>1000929
Realistically?! No, a realistic person would warn Cat that he is going to lose people unavoidably so he needs to bring more people that are expendable. Not heap abuse on him just because he was being nice. It's like she was dead set on the idea that only the three of them were going.

I'm honestly not sure if I want to bother following this quest if the dungeon is going to be that bad though. Character death should not be arbitrary, and it'd completely spoil the mood of the quest besides. All this excessive drama and rapidfire plot twisting is spoiling it already.

Well, I guess that's all we can expect from Cannie, you could say she's Jaded, that she is being realistic in assuming that she can only save her family. But that is bullshit. Cannie is weak. She hears about the end of the world and immediately gives up on living, and instead focuses on surviving. She's a person of physical strength, but mentally she is one of the weakest, giving up so quickly.
You are STRONG. Not because you can punch a dude but because despite all this you have not lost HOPE. A normal person would have entered a downwards spiral after not only having all of their family die but being robbed and beaten multiple times afterwards. But you got back up. You got up and still looked for ways to help people, you never got rid of your dreams, you never ever let them get crushed. You have RESOLVE.
Your goal has never changed, it's just been reinforced, you need to help people, you need to ensure life can go on. Not in a literal sense, but in a figurative sense as well. You will have people do more than survive, you will have them LIVE, you will give them hope and you will let them keep their freedom, their sanity, their lives. The Demons enslave, The Angels massacre, but you will not allow either to ruin your home. You, for all intents and purposes, will be a BEACON OF HOPE.
You know that dungeons are dangerous, that anyone could die at any moment, but you won't let yourself become as downtrodden and pessimistic as Cannie, you have found an avenue to success, you're not turning it down because of the risk, if everyone were to do that humanity wouldn't exist. In fact, humanity's continued existence may rely upon you. You might not be some super powerful hero, but you are determined to make things right, and no one will ever take away your determination, your hope, your dream.
Cannie expects you to have an end goal, something specific. I say that's bullshit. You have a course of action for now, a way to improve, and you have an ideal, you aren't going to constrain yourself to some realistic goal as that would only detriment you, they saying goes: Shoot for the stars and you will land on the moon. Well, you are going to do just that, you're going to do your best in any situation, deciding what the next course of action is in the moment. Simply put: Keep an open mind, don't let yourself be bogged down by a specific goal, but instead strive for the best.

>>1000988
>I'm honestly not sure if I want to bother following this quest if the dungeon is going to be that bad though.
There's several factors here which may be worth considering, chief of them this: What Cannie's perspective is.

Cannie cut her teeth on the Donjon Dungeon. The dungeon Saba stated had a notoriously high difficulty degree for the first few levels. I tried to get Cat to ask her about her experiences dungeon diving, but it likely didn't flow well into the sequence of events and got dropped. We may approach this topic later, assuming relations soften, and indeed we should, since she' an Unawakened with that experience and we may want to know what's going on in the Donjon Dungeon for later anyway.

She did this WHILE working for Nunitus though, the guild controlled by the angels. Who are not reportedly keen in letting people Awaken themselves and probably instills in their recruit a healthy amount of fear and respect of the dangers of dungeon diving to justify not doing it often and have fewer spoils to hand out - plus maybe use it to drive people AWAY from dungeon diving. It's speculation on my part, but it would fit their MO and motive. For all we know they could even have made the Donjon Dungeon even WORSE than it was in order to surreptitiously get rid of unaffiliated Awakened from 'Death by Dungeon'.

Both of these factors might help explain Cannie's rough attitude here - she'd literally be ready to believe Cat and Will are newbs about to throw themselves into the jaws of death and dear goddess why would she let them do that without a wake-up call?

Finally, there is definitely going to be an element of danger. Saba himself stated something along the line of that he built the dungeon to act as a high-risk, high-reward crash course for the next generation - but I THINK he included more safety elements than a nastier dungeon would have, what with the teleport option and all. I think it's fair to say Saba's dungeon will probably be a tutorial of sorts for us and the real dangerous ones will come later, assuming the quest stretches that far.

Still, if you're not willing to see any of these character risk their lives and possibly die due to bad calls or misfortune, you may indeed want to quit following this quest, as it has clearly opened up for that possibility - and such a Chekhov's Gun will lie in wait until a fitting moment.

I would also in general advice not taking anything that happens in a quest personally and lash out at quest authors for whatever perceived bullshit or slight on the part of fictional characters whose motivations haven't even been fully explored. Remember this is something people run for fun with their free time and get no pay for. Don't be an asshole about it if you don't like it, just drop it if it ain't your jam.

>>1000995
>Still, if you're not willing to see any of these character risk their lives and possibly die due to bad calls or misfortune
No. Read what I wrote. Make sure you see the word "arbitrary", and everything after that.

She wasn't even being "harsh" about the dungeon being tough. She was beating up Cat in every sense of the word, from every angle. Doubting his potential despite him performing well during their spar, saying he'll be a parasite despite his power literally being the OPPOSITE of that, going "you can't expect everything to go right with a positive attitude" when we were never doing that in the first place. It's just fucking bullshit. She had no valid points. NONE.

Our goal: to create a new heroes league (Willamina calls the villains alliance) where heroes league no longer has any! Basically, become a hero just like our bro.

Cannie is wrong about a lot of things about us, it is alright to be mad with her,but cutting ties with her and not letting her join us is just going to make thing worse. Instead we should show her that she is wrong and that we can be stronger. If there is one thing she did right, she put things in perspective for us on the true nature of the dungeons, but saying we will never improve and be good enough is not a mindset she should be giving us, and it is alright to have hate for her over that. But we should at least give her room for redemption, and work to show we are not a parasite.

Here's my potential guild names:

Antiheroes Association
Guardians of Earth
The Kinship

>>1001005
>Arbitrary
Then we are in agreement that getting distraught over a character death would be unnecessary if it came to pass with due justification and/or warning (although what that would be is probably up for debate, so I would argue not getting distraught AT ALL is one's best bet).

To address your grievance with Cannie a bit more - you'll note very few people excuse Cannie fully, or even agree with much of what she was saying. Many do offer reasonable explanations for why she might've lashed out, however, and sit on a willingness to forgive or at least let forgiveness be something worked towards. That you do not choose to forgive her for her attitude and words won't change that others will encourage such and if that's a letdown to you, sorry, but ain't that just the multiplayer interactive quest experience? Your opinions may still get taken into account, but there's no guarantee they'll take the lead.

That you interpreted Cannie's words to mean the author was suggesting dungeons would be for-sure deathtraps was wholly your take though - one to which (again) there may be reasonable explanations and you may have been a bit hasty in looking to pass judgement here, which is what got me on your case.

To wit: that you throw shade on the author's ability to run their quest - however indirectly - is your choice, but when someone goes 'I don't like the direction this is turning, don't do this or I might quit' the correct response tends to be 'ok, gonna do whatever, bye if you go', because phrasing it like that doesn't come off as constructive critique, it comes off as a demand that the quest conform to your preference, or else... and who's gonna listen to that?

Honestly, you sounded a little too personally invested and I wanted to try to defuse. Sorry if that wasn't the case or if I failed miserably, but we all have bad takes sometimes. Definitely gonna shut up about this now though, sorry for the derail y'all.

>>1001009
I do like the Antiheroes Association. The Kinship is pretty neat too if we're aiming for a nobler-sounding name, though I'm a bit foggy on the lore here - doesn't Kin exclude, like, Humans, who are their own thing? If it includes most available sentients, I'd say go for it, if it doesn't, perhaps workshop it a bit more.

>>1001005
Characters haven't even died yet, excluding those already dead. Give this wild ride a little more time before trying to hit the brakes on topics like this.

---------

Cannie has valid points that we should definitely consider, even if they were based on half-baked assumptions and missed their mark. Also do consider that we probably do look like some CIA spook to her, digging up secrets and making fast connections to people with $$$. Even with her asking about our endgame, she seems to think we've got some mega-mind plan years in the making when we've only really got most of the info just a day or two prior.

She's definitely got her head too far up the clouds to try and process what we're going through, and who we are. BUT, as it stands, she's sticking with us for now at minimal risk to us. We still definitely need all the hands we can get. The best move for now is to let this situation cool down and reapproach with sound logic, free of our current emotional context. Remember, she was cool with us before.

A lot of good counterpoints and dissections were made regarding Cannie's argument. We need her to realize that there is no grand plan and most likely never will be. We've all got to decide which way to go at every fork in the path all the while avoiding a boulder that's coming down behind us. There is precious little time to play "catch up" with every other big player here. Currently, the best play here for our greatest chance of survival is fight, not flight. Playing the late game of this war as just a small collection of family/friends running from place to place is a losers game. I'd believe Mint would have plenty of anecdotal evidence of such. Yes, we're not at any decent level of strength right now and are in desperate need of training and experience. That's why we have a "synthetic" dungeon tailored to training us up. There will always be a risk of death and injury in this and in everything we will be doing from this point on. But in this immediate part of the path, we have a very safe chance to begin evening the odds for later on.

As for the whole "Cat's a parasite" thing, I got tired of thinking so hard lol. Basically, we've been going nuts trying to gather info and items to improve our collective odds, taking into consideration numerable formations and uses for each item. Also to boot, it's not like Cat is gonna be on the sidelines. There is no Overlord play here, risk and gain is shared amongst the whole party.

Also, Cannie's got dungeon-diving experience we need, however minimal or tainted it may be with her only being a bag carrier for Nunitus.

Yeah, No, I dont think Cat should be apologizing to Cannie for anything, at least not until she apologizes herself. And probably shouldn't give her the super powerful awakening book unless something changes.

Its not about being petty or vindictive. Cat Gave her some bad news and she got angry, thats understandable, and its fine to feel bad for her in that. Its how she chose to lash out, physically and verbally at Cat for it thats the problem.
And not giving her the book unless something changes isnt because of a grudge, its because now we have to worry about what she might DO with the powers after she gets them, both from her behavior, and because some of the views she exposed afterwards. Some of that was straight up dangerous and antithetical to what we're trying to accomplish here.
Maybe we'll still awaken Cannie, But im not for it unless she does something to change the situation, not us. Its open, but it might be further down the line. Maybe talking to her mom and awakening her might still be a good idea and might change her mind a little, she might have a better handle on her hang-ups.

One thing I think most of us agree on is that making it through the apocalypse with just ourselves and a small group of loved ones is not, and will never bee the goal. At best, it will be the highest fail state. As long as the possibility exists that we can save mor epeople, or let more people save themselves, we will work towards that, and we're not going to just let the Demons and Angels roll over us and ruin a world they have no right to.
Personally I'd like to be able to beat them back so hard when things hit the fan that theyre too crippled to try this shit again some other world, at least for a while, or just seriously reconsider it.

>>1000887
In a way, Cannie is right. You don't owe the world shit, its done nothing but beat you down, but its because people aren't willing to let that go that the world is the way it is. You can do the right thing for once, and fight for something other than just "me and mine" for once. Embracing Cannie's philosophy means being part of the problem, and you're better than that. Your brother was better than that. And now you have the chance to help other people be better than that.

Here's the ATTITUDE/GOAL I think you should bring. You don't owe this world shit, but you'll save it anyway because its just the right thing to do.

>>1001060
I'd be more along the lines of "you used to owe the world, but then it took most of what it gave, bullied you for sport, and is planning to take what you've built as if it's entitled to that. But you're going to save what you can, because there's parts of it worth saving and the rest of the world maintains the properties of those parts."

Edmango 2021/05/19(Wed)23:15 No. 1001079 ID: afe7de
File 162149135137.png - (40.29KB , 500x500 , C2_225.png )

You sit up, the tears have stopped and you wipe your face. The room is silent as your two companions look at you. You reflect on all of the new thoughts that have poured into your mind and take a moment

You: She’s right about one thing, I’m weak. I can’t just break down. And I haven’t lost HOPE yet. Otherwise I wouldn’t be trying to do this. I’m upset because I haven’t had a moment to breathe and I guess we went too far in revealing everything too quick and I think… I think she was trying to give me a reality check?

You: It’s just… THERE’S NO TIME. I’m DISGUSTED by her disregard of kin and people. We owe our LIVES to people both WILLING and ABLE to challenge our fate. We can become one of those people. No one’s going to take our place if we don’t go. Who would save the DESPERATE SOULS AT THE END?

Willamina: We WILL, even if no one else does.

You: You know what all those psychics and precogs say about the apocalypse? Well, here’s a funny thing. I’m A BLANK SPOT to them. Iraphena at least proved as much. And that means that we can be the CATALYST for change. They can’t PREDICT what we’ll do. What if we awaken one person who was never meant to get a power and they end up being the straw that breaks their back. If we do ENOUGH, maybe we CAN change the future.

Callan: Ah, I like this reinvigorated you.

You: Today is going to suck less. The future, is going to suck less. I will get stronger, WE will get stronger. I care about my friendships and don’t want to lose them again. I can’t stay feeling down like this forever, weather or not she’s hurt me today.

Edmango 2021/05/19(Wed)23:16 No. 1001080 ID: afe7de
File 162149136960.png - (7.12KB , 500x500 , C2_226.png )

Willamina: I think… I think she’s angry that she’s been treated LIKE an afterthought, and assaulted you because the only LOYALTIES she has to people are being tested, leaving her with not much. She needs time. TIME to reflect, time to brood, in her own way. I won’t force you to awaken her after what happened just now, but I’d APPRECIATE if you’d consider it still.

You: One day there will be a fight between us you know. Unless she changes her mind. She’ll try to take who she can and leave. I have to be STRONG enough, to have enough RESOLVE to have her soundly join our cause. I’m sorry but Cannie is the WEAK one. She’s not willing to even try to confront this reality. I haven’t given up, I still have RESOLVE in me.

Willamina: She’s still my sister. But I think calling you a parasite was going way too far.

You: She’ll have to redeem herself, or at least apologize. I’m not a parasite, I’ve been planning on being on the front lines since the beginning. I gathered info and items to improve our odds. We’re SHARING risk, I’m not pushing it on anyone. And you know what? Maybe she’s right about the world. I certainly don’t owe the world SHIT for how it’s treated me. But I’ll work to save it anyway because there are parts WORTH saving.

You have a new GOAL: Save what you can because it’s the right thing to do
You have a new DRIVE: Your Companions

Your RESOLVE has been EMBOLDENED by your GOAL and DRIVE. You are starting to truly BELIEVE in yourself. You feel HOPE surge through you and a change flows through your body.

You: You called us the Villain’s Alliance Will? Then we’ll become the villains of the world if we have to to, maybe even stop future apocalypses from happening. And our first step is meeting a new friend. Say hello to my brother. I’ll translate.

You bend over and remove the Demon Eye Amulet, tossing it to Willamina. She puts it on her wrist and jumps at the spirit in front of her.

Callan: Hey, read the update prompt Cat.

Confused, you notice there’s a notification in the corner of your eye, you open it.

Edmango 2021/05/19(Wed)23:16 No. 1001081 ID: afe7de
File 162149138306.png - (42.46KB , 500x500 , C2_227.png )

[Due to your mental fortitude and resolve you have learned more about the forces of HOPE and BELIEF]

[SPIRIT OF HOPE has been improved]

SPIRIT OF HOPE [2] - upgrade? [15]
Grants the contracted the ability to see and understand other spirits
Grants the passive HOPE buff, providing MINOR boosts to general activities the contracted BELIEVES or HOPES they can accomplish.
You now have HOPE ENERGY equal to your level, one is gained every 8 hours. HOPE ENERGY can be spent in the following ways:
- The contracted may boost a single action of a target by a MODERATE amount
- The spirit can MANIFEST for 20 minutes a day, becoming CORPOREAL, able to be understood, seen, and felt by others

Achievement: “Enlightenment I” Has been unlocked. +30 AP.
Achievement point total is now 105/250

You feel the HOPE ENERGY drain from you as Callan manifests, it looks like he can chose to do that of his own will. You feel the world around you distort slightly as Callan becomes corporeal, there’s a slight… wiggle… in the air. He remains floating and touches his body a bit before holding out a hand which Willamina takes with hesitation.

Callan: Woah, that’s a strange sensation. Oh uh, hi Willamina. Nice to meet ya. Name’s Callan and I was the guy who trained your brother and former S ranked hero. I’m also this goober’s big bro!

Willamina: Uhm. HI. I think I saw a picture of you before at one point. Not today I mean. So uh like…

You introduce the two and have a good chat, talking about the events that just occured. Giving some history to the two of you, sharing what he knows about the estate fire, answering a few questions Willamina has. You’re feeling a LOT BETTER. Which is surprising considering how badly you were kicked down a bit ago. Like a mental block has been lifted. Part of you still hates Cannie for what just happened, but it inspired change in you because you actually reflected. It’s a minor change for now, but you’ll have to build upon this foundation, even if your goals change.

You agree to awaken Willamina’s Mom before you leave, and talk about the people you want to bring on the dungeon run briefly. It’s your job to convince Andrea and Willamina will convince Gena. You also bring up Nipha and Rudy, explaining that your ties with them still run pretty solid and you’d be interested in bringing Nipha along.

Callan has some input about the dungeons and verifies the validity of Cannie’s claims. There ARE dungeons that force you to kill your companions, but they ONLY appear when you enter in groups of 9 or more. And ONLY in certain dungeons. He offers to guide you all as it was his job before and he has TONS of experience. After a little bit he says goodbye and returns to your chest, opting to rest for the night. Willamina returns the DEA and you re affix it to your ankle.

It’s just you and Willamina now. Is there anything you want to do or talk about before you have sex and decompress. You desperately need it, even if you feel better.

This is your last chance to do anything before the thread ends. Thanks so much for the suggestions, theorizing, and ideas everyone! It’s my first time telling a story of this length and with so many moving parts so thanks for sharing the experience with me. The next thread will be a lot lighter and will be in a more experimental format, look forward to it!

>>1001081
Haha, Callan got the ability to go Corporeal (thus not needing the DEA for others to see him) right as we handed over the DEA. Awkward.

Ok, to avoid "kill your allies" bullshit just don't try to zerg rush big boy dungeons. Got it. I guess this means the dungeons that' *don't* do that can be zerg rushed? Is there a hard limit on the number of people you can throw into a dungeon? Well, regardless, there's a soft cap because there's only so many people you can fit into a room to fight monsters.

For a second I thought Cannie might've forced Cat into the GOALS and DRIVES thing on purpose but it sounds like it's a HOPE-specific power source so she wouldn't have any way of knowing. The explanation that Cat telling Cannie those secrets forced her to question her own loyalties makes a lot of sense though. I mean, I expected that, but I also expected her to approach the conflict of information with a bit more decorum. She lashed out like that because it was like Cat was taking important things from her at the same time as he offered things to her, and she wanted badly for it to be manipulation via lies, so she could keep what she had. The more convincing he was, the more upset she got. Also he was taking Willamina into a dungeon after she had shitty experiences doing dungeon runs so that's another thing he was taking away. In her eyes, Cat was ruining her life and she hated him for it, but begrudgingly agreed to go along with it to try to protect Willamina. Hopefully after a while she will figure out that it's the opposite- Cat is saving her from being attached to people who don't appreciate her. The truth hurts, but the truth will also set you free.

Anyway, I don't know of anything else to do, except maybe start looking into how much High Appraisal costs on average and think of how to advertise your services.

Check our comm for messages. What did we miss?

Talk a bit about tomorrow. Tell Willamina that she'll take the Rogue’s inner monologue for awakening Gena and let her know about everything.

But overall besides that, tell her our plans for tomorrow is... have fun! let's have one day where we don't have to worry about anything for once, and just enjoy life. Seriously, this week has been so emotional and stressful for the both of you, so just having a day for fun can be just what we needed.

Also, ask Willamina about the RATIOLATRY GROUP MEETING tomorrow at 9am, you're thinking about going there in the morning before your date at noon with Andrea for a laugh, or at least have Rex go there. Also show her that picture you took on the community center club board which had that note hanging off to the side that just got a Date, Time, and Address for MONDAY at 1PM on the outskirts of town with gibberish. Ask Willamina what it is.

Tell Rex tomorrow he can have the day to do whatever he wants. feed him and his brood a jerky (scan the jerky too)

Afterwards... strip. Show Willamina the goods.

Oh yeah, we set a GOAL and DRIVE, but we didn't set an ATTITUDE

For ATTITUDE as I said before: you want to be SELFLESS, SYMPATHETIC, and EMPATHETIC. we want to help others with their problems and see the good in people, even the ones that are perceived bad like Isabella. We helped Willamina with her awakening her and healing her wounds, and made her happier with her shitty life just by being with her despite her temperament, not just because we gave her powers. We told the truth about the artifacts to Iraphena despite how she treated us, we gave a photo of Max to Isabella even despite how she treated us. We were honest with Gena when we were put in a situation that could have lost us our job. We tried to break Mint's slave contract. Overall, Cat has been trying to do things to better people's lives. Basically, it feels good to help others and give the HOPE.

Well, we did just tell Willamina some things she might want to spend some time processing, with respect to Max and Isabella. Other than that, I can't think of anything that needs to be discussed immediately.

Sex with Willamina!
Oh, be sure to wear your condom you got like a few days ago. Finally time to use that!

"Hey Callan? How much sex do you want?"
You need to ask Callan if he's okay with sharing a body that's going to be inside multiple... partners. Of all kinds. Possibly all at once.

Well first up, you need to take a stance on what kind of Boss you want to be. A Commander won't put themselves in harm's way until they're the last thing standing; doesn't foster loyalty, but your minions will understand that this organization will crumble into an full evacuation if you die. A Squad Leader has all the risks of being killed in frontline crossfire, but fosters extreme loyalty as they are willing to put themselves at any risk before they force their minions in.

Recommend that you still set a hard-coded limit on the number of party members per mission. For instance, the Angels and/or Demons might have control over dungeon generation and could lower that maximum at their whim, especially if they know what you can do and want to piss you off. Rex would be an easy technicality if he brings too many bodies, while you and Callan technically count as two.

Make sure Rex is okay with sacrificing his spare bodies - actually, what kinds of souls do they have and what happens when he nabs a body? - to test out the dungeon's traps. You also need a buddy system; two partners have to take priority with saving each other, while the rest of the party takes on more immediate concerns for at least a few turns, like killing the monster that caused the crisis before it can continue to perpetuate crises.

Oh, and ask Willamina what she thinks about you siring a litter of bastard children.

Maybe we can also consider awakening the rest of Roaches brood tomorrow? One point for each of them. See what happens.

Check messages, send a lawlpic at Toni (still need to figure out what's up with him and who in town he was warning you away from) and otherwise try to respond to peeps. Chat up Rex a bit, poor guy did just get exposed to a lot of sudden drama. Will can give 'im some jerky to gnaw on!

Oh! Speaking of food, what about dinner? You and Will may want to order takeout - or just head out to the bar, grab some food and drink from there, inform Miss Walpole that you're leaving her room for now, then head back to the Elysian.

>>1001081
Well, We have enough achievement points now to grab a few of the good power upgrades, Does anyone else want to get those?
I'd like to get the one that lets us awaken items so we could get more stuff, maybe awaken our Mana Pistol, but we wouldnt have enough energy to use it yet.
We could get BOTH Catalyzer and Arcane Rights, or get one and amp it up.
Or, we could get the one that lets us force a power to mutate, which could be useful for powering up, or changing a power to have less (or more) secondary functions, Which might let us, say, Change Andrea's Sleepless ability into something with an on/off switch, or better, Since it's not upgradeable. Depending on how it works, it could be useful for fighting other powered individuals too, and it'd leave us with some points left over for more energy.

Also, when we formed a contract with Callan, his ring should have become a new Artifact right? I think we've been too emotional and busy with other things to check it, can we do that?
Also, while Callan is MANIFESTED, he has a corporeal from right? Can we check if that means he is able to upgraded while manifested then?

>>1001127
I'd say lets wait until the next day to upgrade so we can get Mint and Callan's opinion (callan went to sleep, and Mint is spending the night at the brothel.)

But yeah, scan our ring

>>1001081
I think instead of calling ourselves villains we should be the Rogues Alliance/Guild.
Also rename Rex to Oroachi.

I like villains alliance beause since the heroes league is full of corrupted bad people, it ironically falls to the villains to be the good guys. Plus Willamima named it. Shes the leader

Oh! Headpats for Willamina to get her started!

Rogue Alliance sounds great. Or Rogue Academy hehehe

Oh wait I was thinking of Jedi Academy and mixing it up with Rogue One.

Might as well Spend some achievement points. I'm thinking the Item Awakening one, and some extra energy, as the sooner we get that the more we have to use every day- it really adds up.
I'm thinking we should keep getting max energy until we hit a limit. I'm thinking 20 for right now. thoughts?

Authors Note: So because I’m dumb and update late at night my ISP had an outage and that means I can only get half of an update done (since I can’t look up refs for porn poses) and I can’t even post it (it’s all written I just need to draw 3 more images)

I’ll post it tomorrow, it’s the last update of the thread, so stay tuned, sorry y’all :(

CATALYZER'S RIGHTS is high priority. It's basically an XP booster, so if we assume we'll want it eventually (we will, we've already been informed that growths are significant and that we should be seeking them out), we should get it early to get the most use out of it.

Edmango 2021/05/21(Fri)15:04 No. 1001246 ID: afe7de
File 162163465965.png - (30.58KB , 500x500 , C2_228.png )

> Dinner and chill
You give Roach some jerky and tell him to do whatever he wants tomorrow, you’ve had a long day and just want everyone to chill. He thanks you and asks about TV, if he could get one or something so he could have something to watch when he got bored outside. Will pops to her house and gets him a small tablet, showing him how to use it and putting it in an easily reachable spot. The tactile screen can detect his inputs so he messes around with the apps a bit and manages to find a TV one with a simple interface for switching channels. He thanks you and loads up random news programs whilst nibbling on the jerky. You and Willamina head back to her apartment after locking the Winnebago and order some food.

> Check your COMM
You take a moment while you’re on the toilet to pull out your COMM and scroll through your messages, you got a few earlier, so you go back through them.

Iraphena: Thank you for your business.
Iraphena: For the record, Appraisals usually cost monster cores, regular monster cores can go from 10K to 100K BUX in cost, with HQ ones costing in the millions. High quality appraisers usually bill in the tens of millions worth because they know they’re worth it.
Iraphena: We’ll speak again soon.

This tidbit of information is pretty useful, though you think it would be very hard to be able to appraise things without first building up your fighting force or personal defense capabilities, or you’ll run the same problem of becoming an Item Scanning factory instead of an Awakening creation factory. Next was an update from Andrea.

Andrea: Tmrw [Bunny emoji] [Eggplant emoji] [Sweat emoji]
Andrea: V Excite.
Andrea: Goin to Park, picnic planned.
Andrea: Real rlxing, saw you walkin stressed earlier.
Andrea: Dw it’ll be fun!
You: Thanks, that’ll probably be pretty nice, I need a break.
Andrea: Np, I gotchu fam. [thumbs up emoji]

You were kind of worried at first that it was just going to be sex sex sex with Andrea tomorrow, but if she has a nice picnic trip in the park planned that might be good, getting away from the city a little bit, just relaxing with nature. Next up was Gena.

Gena: Will have vids processed nxt week (*^▽^*)
Gena: I had fun. Make sure you give Will a good time, ya hear.
Gena: She’s been lookin forward to it! (っ˘ڡ˘ς)

You didn’t get any other texts and just spent your time browsing the web for random shit, you looked up a dumb meme and chuckled, but otherwise did nothing else productive. Eventually you decide to bother Callan, whose attention is easy to get.

Edmango 2021/05/21(Fri)15:04 No. 1001247 ID: afe7de
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Callan: Yo.

Cat: So like, I’m probably gonna have sex with a bunch of people down the line, will that bother you?

Callan: Not really? I can just turn off my sensing what you’re doing, or just leave to go somewhere else. I’m not really interested in watching you bone your friends.

Cat: Cool, cause me and Will are probably gonna.

Callan: I’ll just go exploring the town or something, gimme a hollar if you need anything.

Callan pops out of your chest, you focus a little and realize that same space he comes out of is the space where your HOPE ENERGY feels the densest, maybe they’re connected? Either way he waves at you and shoots through the roof, you hear an ecstatic “WHEEEEEEEEEE” as he leaves. Your mind starts wandering to specifics about leadership, teamwork, etc. Who will end up being the squad leader anyway? We have to have someone in charge. Will it be you because you have Callan and your intelligence. Just having that wont mean you can make good split second decisions. Maybe it’ll be Willamina, she seems like the take charge kind. You also think of formations, plans and procedures but shake the thoughts away. Those thoughts are better left for the pre-dungeon prep, you want to rest for now.

> Radiolatry meeting
You’ll probably pass on that. Maybe if you wake up early enough you might go, but with the level of STRESS and EXHAUSTION you have right now, you’ll probably want to stay in bed pretty late.

> Litter of bastard children
You ponder over this thought and get kind of confused by it. There probably won’t be anything like a state managed marriage in the future, so it’ll be more like you partnering with whoever you want to, within reason. Sure you’ll probably have kids somewhere down the line, it might even be quite a few. But bringing that up to Willamina now is a bit too soon and would probably be seen as creepy. Plus who wants to bring up a kid during an apocalypse.

Edmango 2021/05/21(Fri)15:04 No. 1001248 ID: afe7de
File 162163468050.png - (4.13KB , 500x500 , C2_230.png )

> Upgrades
You want to talk to everyone about this later. Probably MONDAY, let it sit and marinate for a bit unless you get a true moment of INSPIRATION tomorrow. Either 5+ suggestors suggest a purchase on one update, or, when you are presented with the choice, the majority option will be selected.

> Check your ring
Oh right, you almost forgot about that. You look it over, it’s a MILKY WHITE ring now with spirals inlaid on it. You Scan it with the DEA.

Ring of the reversal - This ring can store an attack that has hit you, negating all damage from it. You can at any point in time after storing an attack release it back towards an opponent within 10 meters, it will seek and hit the opponent without fail. This ring will break after storing and ejecting attacks twice. This ring is currently deactivated, you must activate it with a mental command to cause it to store the next attack that hits you. [2/2 charges remaining]
(DEA - An extremely rare item, can even store attacks from cataclysm level monsters. You’d have to survive the encounter with them first though. Damage will be negated but you will still feel pain, possibly enough to faint, but not enough to kill you or permanantly disable your mind.)

This. This will be your trump card. You don’t know what a cataclysm level monster is, but if one appears, maybe you can delay it for even a moment, and that will be just the moment needed to change everything. Your hand forms a tight fist as you take a deep breath and get up, flushing, washing your hands and heading over to the burgers Willamina ordered. It’s a nice meal, the burgers have this sauce on it thats both tangy and sweet but fits the flavor palette nice. The onion rings are excellent and pair well with some ketchup. You laugh and joke about random things for a while, at one point Willamina got some ketchup on her cheek and you wipe it off, licking it off your finger. She gives you a little eyebrow wiggle with her one good eyebrow. And the meal is finished. So she wanders over and drags you to her room.

Edmango 2021/05/21(Fri)15:17 No. 1001258 ID: afe7de
File 162163547763.png - (12.95KB , 500x500 , C2_231.png )

In a split second your clothes are already off, there’s some relaxing music playing in the background and you’re both ravishing each other, tasting each others bodies and embracing in a heated manner. You lose yourself in the sensation of holding another, there’s biting and sucking and aggressive panting as the two of you wrestle each other on the bed, fighting for dominance. You eventually turn the tables and flip Willamina around, diving face first into her muff with deep probing licks. But she’s not losing to you either as she starts thoroughly coating your cock in her saliva. You’ve been on a hair pin trigger since earlier, but do your best to hold back while you eat her out.

It’s an aggressive and bestial oral session, eventually Willamina manages to knock you down with her ass and sit firmly on your face, grinding against your nose and mouth. You take the challenge and continue to lick, suck, and prod. You can feel her quivering with pleasure. She’s furiously jerking you off at this point, sucking on your head, waiting for the first load and after a few minutes it comes pouring into her mouth, you can feel the high building, relaxing you, relieving the tension. Willamina sputters a bit before gulping down your full load.

Willamina: Damn, that was a lot. Hmm, I’m all warm and FUZZY now, it’s like being a bit DRUINK- *HIC* -DRUNK. Cmonnnnn, I want it inside me alreadyyyyyy.

Edmango 2021/05/21(Fri)15:18 No. 1001259 ID: afe7de
File 162163549267.png - (11.19KB , 500x500 , C2_232.png )

You pull out your condom box and slap a rubber on, you’re not sure if Willamina has a dermal implant or not, and with your load size you don’t want to risk getting her pregnant. She takes the rubber from you and puts it on with one swift motion, she stands above you, towering, letting you get a good look at her body.

Willamina: Hey DINGUS, check this out.

Your cock is erect and pointed directly towards her, but what surprises you is that she jumps and your cock slides into her furiously wet pussy with one intense motion. It’s all you can do to hold yourself back from coming immediately. You have to admit, that maneuver was PRETTY COOL. She’s trembling, nearly seizing with pleasure. Her eyes roll back in her head as she moans uncontrollably, you even feel her wetting herself a bit, and her vaginal walls are just crazily coiling in and sucking your cock deeper inside. Deciding she won’t have all the fun you start grinding against her in a circular fashion. She collapses on top of you giving you a strong hug and biting your neck enough to draw blood. This hurts a bit, but you take it in stride and start pumping, first slowly, but then with the increasing tempo of the background music.

Edmango 2021/05/21(Fri)15:18 No. 1001260 ID: afe7de
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Everything is a blur of sexual motion as your bodies continue to entwine, you deeply kiss and embrace eachother. You feel all over eachothers bodies, Willamina takes extra time to touch your chest, while you get a feel for her scars, they’re rough, but soft, with a strange texture. You don’t know how many times you’ve cum by the end of it, just that you’ve gone through a few condoms and that the pleasure is immense. YOu end the bout with a deep kiss. You really fucking needed that. Eventually the two of you calm down, your condom filled you pop it out of Willamina and toss it in the nearby trash. The two of you cuddle for a while, still breathing roughly.

Willamina: Goddess Cat, I REALLY fucking needed that.

You: Same honestly, what a fucking day.

Willamina: What a FUCKING day indeed.

Willamina hits something on her bedside table and the TV turns on, the volume is low and it’s some random cooking show. The two of you snuggle in closer to each other and just relax for the rest of the night. The world can wait for a bit. You can be the CATALYST for change later, right now you just want to be CAT in the arms of your friend.

END OF THREAD 2

Authors Note: Wow, what a ride everyone. So glad to have you all join me on this. It got a little rough there, but I hope you enjoyed it. Things will become more like a traditional RPG in the coming threads after the intermission. You’ll get less time to spend on days as you prepare for your dungeon diving, collect allies, and train.

The next thread’s going to be a bit different, a break from the story so you can cool your heads, and more an exploration on the world of CATALYST. It’ll be about various TV shows, Movies, commercials, and news broadcasts throughout the world at large where you get to suggest what’s happening. A few will even be run by other questden regulars. And some of these characters and events you see might even show up later in the story! So have fun and enjoy, see you in a few days, gotta prep for the next thread. -Edmango

Loving this. Very intricate story. Veery engaging. Excited to see more.

>>1001246
>Picnic at the park with Andrea

Idea: play truth or dare with her at the picnic!