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
File 162163467001.png - (11.78KB , 500x500 , C2_229.png )

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
File 162163550277.png - (17.16KB , 500x500 , C2_233.png )

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!