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“Oh, indubitably~!” Comes her flippant reply, the fleshy ground roiling as her construct body hops from one foot to the other. “I’ve been keeping an eye on her, and the second I realized what she was up to, then I skipped over here to let you know!”

The construct leans forwards, misshapen hands clasped behind its back and head cocked to one side; a gesture that might’ve been considered endearing if it weren’t being performed by a malformed meat puppet held together by little more than gristle and gumption.

“How much time do we have?” Dorian demands, dispensing with the pleasantries entirely.

"More than enough to turn the tables, if you play your cards right." Orwell replies, suddenly standing straight up with a sickening snap as the construct rights itself. "West Alpha's just gotten word from Prime that Francine's next on the list, and the last place that Francine was sighted was in this area. Oh, I have us on Skinternet lockdown here, by the way, same as when we chatted in Laoc. Plenty of privacy...though I with a little bit of clever maneuvering, we can keep Alpha in the dark long enough for us to formulate a plan of attack."

{We? Us?} Gina asks, voice echoing in your mind as the suspicious question hangs in your thoughts for but a moment.

"Where did you have in mind?" You ask, cocking one eyebrow unseen through the armor of the Chitinous Stalwart.

“Oh! Oh! The Panopticon!” Amara practically squeals with joy, jumping up and down at your side as Orwell chuckles.

"Haha, yep~! The Panopticon's my broadcasting station, my pride and joy!" The streamer adds enthusiastically, throwing her arms wide and spinning on one meaty stump of a leg. "Physically defensible and psychically impenetrable! It'll be the perfect place to review everything that's been compiled on Alpha, so we can plan your attack!"

"Wait. Compiled?" Gina suddenly says, her focus snapping back to Orwell's projection as it nods emphatically.

"Yes indeed! There's a wealth of data on Alpha that I've been compiling ever since Shu and I talked in Laoc! Past raids, her confrontations with other Proxies and assorted Daughters, and all sorts of juicy bits!" Orwell exclaims. "Everything you'll need to plan a counter!"

"...and all we have to do is make a trip to the Envious City." You say, voice low.

"That's right~" Orwell replies, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

As if you had all the reason in the world to trust her.

>>...Fine. It's more of a lead than you had otherwise, so return to the Envious City as a group. And from there; the Panopticon.

>>Decline. You can do your own research on your own time, with people you trust. Regroup and retreat with your allies for the time being.

>>You need more information before you can make any smart plays. Press Orwell for details, here and now [Write-In].

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Gentlemen, it's good to be back and I hope that you all had an excellent weekend. Voting shall remain open for the next four hours.)

(Additionally, I realized late last night that the Relic sheet hasn't been updated with your newest acquisitions yet, so I'll be doing that later today or this evening.)

>>4067815
>You need more information before you can make any smart plays. Press Orwell for details, here and now [Write-In].

>"Alright Orwell. I will see about giving you a visit. But I will have to pick up a two more members of my family and then have to head over there. I would like to know a couple things though already. What is WAlphas greatest strength? I would guess she is very good at grappling from what we learned about her from one of Amara's clones. But she also has several forge cores so any Intel on what she is rocking and maybe how to counter her. Just some food for thought for us before we can come to a decision since my family might also have picked up in something."

>Go and get Rath and November if we run into any kind of trouble we will need them, especially if Orwell turns out a traitor or has been subverted by Prime
typing from phone because I might not make it in time for the vote closing otherwise

>>4067815
ah, how convenient that Orwell wants us to have to visit her massive fortress. again, even if she doesn't mean us harm, i just cant help but feel that choice was made for no other reason that it benefited her, regardless of what logic she has as an excuse.

Vote;
>First, recompile your entire swarm into your stealthiest, most scouty versions possible, and start sending them out here and work with Holly to get some out with the Gear to other places, both to watch over allies and other places, so you can start to close the info gap on West Alpha and figure out her movements, aswell as be prepared for if she decides she herself needs some bait to draw you and Francine out.
>quickly have Amara,Gina, and Dorian on standby keeping our guards up. have the Gear primed to pull everyone on a teleport trip to safety at a moments notice.
>Get Whoever can to get in touch with Rath, tell them the situation and to get back to the Penthouse for a meetup ASAP.
> Swerve to Francine, and toss her the Hive Phone associated with Sia and the Barbers. "Francine, I know you need more time for your plan, but if ever you had even a slight idea of any kind, nows the time to sound like a college professor if ever there was one. Either way, two things; First, even if all you can think of is how Sia can give us time, now is the time for you to make that call, er, literally too."
>"...And Second? Francine? take a second to calm yourself. because you already know how this plays out..."
>"No one gets away with coming after this family, and that includes you. we'll figure this out. maybe not prettily, maybe not as cleanly as we would like... but we will, damn be who it is thats sent after us."

>You need more information before you can make any smart plays. Press Orwell for details, here and now.
>Swerve back to Orwell.
>"What assurances do we have coming to your place is safe? and i dont just mean physically, though... yes, that very much too."
>"Where is West Prime now, and how fast can she move? Gears primed, so be specific here."

>>4067853
im very very very much against already agreeing to meet her at all. horribly, terribly against it.

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>>4067816
glad to be back aswell. Weekend was alright, bit boring ill be honest, but better than it being chaotic or something, so i can easily live with it.

>>4067859
>that pic.

oh my. Ahtal-ka, the golden queen Mantis. Capable of making golden silk that can string up rubble into a walking fortress. Also kills its boyfriends (read: mates) like a female praying mantis to coat its skin in gold dust after having a one-night stand. Now in monstergirl form.

>>4067853

>Orwell
This feels too suspicious to be a coincidence. It's hard look at the gift horse in the mouth, but we're looking at the gift horse in the mouth.

>>4067869
i think the worse part is, Orwell brought the suspicions on herself. we're, well honestly, probably too trusting at times. yet she met us both guns metaphorically blazing on the suspicious offerings and wordplay department, and seemed all too ok with just... brushing it aside when we brought said concerns up. her name doesn't help, considering even IC we have plenty of reason to make the connection, hell its required reading in alot of schools.

like, maybe shes just having some fun wanting us to be suspicious of her, but.... shes enjoying it way too much, especially given the circumstances here. even giving her the biggest swath of benefits of the doubts we can, her attitude over the whole thing alone is just kinda iffy.

>>4067857
Do you think we should have a discussion with teaching her the adage of "never meet your heroes"? Because I think this lesson will very much apply to Orwell.

>>4067877
I think the biggest takeaway for Orwell is that she gets to control the narrative. that's the core reason for her delight. She makes us these offers, this wealth of information that she has hoarded through her iron grip and influence on the skinternet so that when we take it, she'll be estatic that she gets better control of the narrative more. that's the scary part. her outward propaganda feels like a gas lighting method that also invokes double think and technically true statements. That's why she's been approaching us with all of these offers. She's making these offers because she may be in a position where she can afford it as long as it satisfies her core desire.

>>4067883
>Do you think we should have a discussion with teaching her the adage of "never meet your heroes"? Because I think this lesson will very much apply to Orwell.
i think Orwell is her own hero....
as in, er, herself, not like, the actual author. pretty sure everyone knows what i mean, but when her name is a literal, direct reference...

>I think the biggest takeaway for Orwell is that she gets to control the narrative.
yeah, i can see it. which, so far i almost want to turn her down just over that. sorry Amara, you have good judgement overall, but fandom love is easily blinding, you're still only eight, and to be fair, you have more than once called dead people treasure while jumping up and down, so im actually very positive we should take your excitement and judgement with a grain of salt, especially on this one.

>>4067877
And it's weird, because she's a media mogul, she has to know how to control her image. If she was trying to manipulate us, there are so many less obvious ways to do it. It makes me think that maybe she's genuine, if only because if she was this bad at hiding how sketchy she was I don't think she'd have the following she does.

>>4067892
maybe, but at the same time theres no way she would be in her position without understanding how much wording matters, and how what shes saying could be be taken with a slant or suspiciously.

>>4067894
Right, that's what I'm saying. Why is she acting this suspicious? She has to know how it sounds. It's a deliberate choice for some reason. Is she trying to warn us, maybe? That's the only explanation I can think of that doesn't involve Orwell just being super oblivious when off the air, that West Alpha is there at her compound and has a gun to her head.

>>4067815
>Plenty of privacy...though I with a little bit of clever maneuvering, we can keep Alpha in the dark long enough for us to formulate a plan of attack.

>though I with a little bit of clever maneuvering

>though I with

bhop, this wording sounds off. can you clarify that phrase? the meaning's throwing me off. Is she trying to imply that through her influence she can pull it off? or is she saying: "though with a little bit of clever maneuvering" and the "I" was a fat-fingered typo that you accidentally put in?

>>4067897
oh.
well i mean... i guess that is a possibility. id be more inclined to agree if Orwell hadn't acted like this before though. also feels slightly odd for West Alpha to choose her. i mean, maybe shes smart enough to know any of our allies might die over betraying us but... i still feel like there could be better choices than someone we're suspicious of if shes trying to draw us in.

personally just sounds like we need a bit more info. if theres a gun to her head, than either desperate to trick us or tell us, more talking should let something slip.

>>4067900
(I'm afraid that the 'I' was merely a typo.)

>>4067815
I'm going to support>>4067853
The clock is ticking so I feel like we don't have much of a choice if there's a ready and supposedly comprehensive source of information on West Alpha within reach. It should at least be given a chance, unless anyone wants to try a staling/retreat tactic until we can get her under the DO's rocket or something.

>>4067917
>>4067853
Umm... Don't we have Mara's penthouse? It's got the same defenses as Orwell's Broadcasting city.

Like not to ruin your parade, but I'm not trusting this.

>>4067917
i mean, yeah. id prefer that than letting one bad situation lead us into another. accepting her offer without any further talking or discussion is a horrible, terrible idea. utterly dumb. we can and have ways to deal with this and gather info ourselves. letting her cause us to panic and jump into her arms s just asking for this all to go even more awry.

>>4067917
>>4067853
this >>4067920
too. at the very least, ask Orwell why her place would be the safest place to talk. even if she has the info, why does it have to be her place? is her place actually even the safest? she can already communicate to us over a good distance, why not... jump in a fleshscape car and keep on the move or something? plenty of other options.

>>4067920
Also, how do you fortify a Panopticon? The whole point is that there are open sight lines in every direction. Unless Orwell just took any old random building design and called it the Panopticon, in which case I will be very disappointed in her.

>>4067815
>You need more information before you can make any smart plays. Press Orwell for details, here and now:
>"What makes you so sure that your place is the best? Even if you have all of the information compiled, we've got our own fortress of solitude that has the same defensive qualities on par with yours. If you're insisting that we can only gather the information that you have compiled by visiting your place and conducting a 1 on 1 interview, then think again."

>"I may be known as a kind person, but I'm the type that looks a gift horse in the mouth when the circumstances are suspect. I respect your core and dignity as a skintalker and streamer, but I'm afraid I have to decline."

>Decline. You can do your own research on your own time, with people you trust. Regroup and retreat with your allies for the time being.

>Reconfigure your swarm. Have them turn into a fleet of Stealthed Jacklings and scoutlings. Cast a wide net over the area. Find and observe West Alpha from range.
>Call in favors from Sia and the Barbers.
>Put Amara up to the task of Gathering information from the skinternet, the parts that aren't locked down by Orwell. Have her spawn an army of clones and send them out to scout and gather skintalking information.
>"Amara sweetie, I know you're disappointed that we couldn't get to meet Orwell face to face or go to her city, and I respect your idol very much. But you know what? You have me. You have your family. Do you want to be famous like Orwell? Do you want Orwell to admire you for what you are? For being the awesome spell-talking-demon-slaying-ninja-catgirl that you are?"
>"Then go, make this a competition, see what sorts of hidden treasures, gems, and information that even Orwell can't find. If she can't find it, then maybe you can. See if you can one-up her."

I'm refocusing Amara's enthusiasm on Orwell from fangirl to rival. Us declining is sure to bum Amara out, so I want to refocus her attention to a healthier aspect instead of having her suffer a "broken pedestal" moment.

>>4067945
eh, im really not for this either. dont trust Orwell either, but we should at least give her a moment to respond and make her case before outright saying no, aswell as i feel the wording here is a bit harsh when Orwell hasnt earned it. i mean, shes untrustworthy, but she hasnt actually done it in a outwardly dickish way at least, and has still been helpful. think that at least calls for a bit of tact. that and i especially just dont think the first part and the part with amara mix well at all, especially like i said with the wording on the first part.

>>4067815

Amending my vote >>4067945 to support >>4067857

>>4067853
>>4067917
I'm pretty much against jumping right into Orwell's arms. Orwell may be a skintalker, but Amara's a skintalker viable in her own right. Besides Amara's blatant fangirling which is bad to the point that she may be vulnerable enough to be manipulated, we have our own resources. We've got Mara's penthouse which is situated in a mountain range, and our own point of contacts (the midnight crew, the Barbers, Laoc, The Hyenas). To jump into Orwell's arms is basically asking for us to be put into her debt and viable for more narrative manipulation by her. That's the reason why she set up the panopticon, to have a base of operations so she can control the skinternet and the narrative of the information that's been passed through that skinternet. there's plenty of rumors flying about the wests, and Sia's group has a skintalker too, so we have two other sources of viable information that we can trust as opposed to a source of information that presents itself under tense and suspicious circumstances like a gift horse.

>>4067815
Ammending my vote from >>4067853
To supporting>>4067857

After getting something to help against my headache(which only made me tired..... Thanks big pharma) and finding out my internet cable won't work for at least a day I scraped my attempt at a rewrite and just vote for something I can live with....

>>4067816
As for how my weekend went. Well it was long my players nearly got themselves killed by an avatar of a powerful lich. And I lost track of time in a one on one session with one of my players and so got about four hours of sleep tonight..... Otherwise it was great

>>4067966
Yeah, whether Orwell is nefarious or not, heading to her place of power is probably bad from a social credit sense. It's better if we establish as working with her and pooling resources than using her resources. She's getting her cool story out of this, we're paying her in a sense, but if she gets the story because she contributed more to the operation we'd still owe her.

>>4067978
don't forget to cast your vote.

>>4067978
yeah, we'll see how this goes. she could have legit reasons we gotta go to her place, but i dont trust her just off the bat, and still dont think i like it regardless. we're also 100% gonna have to have a talk with Amara about WHY we dont trust her, i think skipping round the truth isnt gonna last long with her if we turn her idol down.

>>4067815
Supporting >>4067857

with the addition of
>Get the Joyous Many to start multiplying and spreading out, as much as they can without straining Amara.

>>4067815
Changing votes>>4067917
to>>4067857

>>4067945
If accepting right away is too trusting, I feel like declining outright is too paranoid as well. Amara is also a skintalker but she's not the one with info on West Alpha. And I don't care if she takes advantage to control the narrative or gets an interview, so long as we don't lose any member of our family in the end. Unless it really is a trap set up by West (which there isn't any evidence or solid suspicions for), then declining for any other reason feels a bit prideful.

>>4067985
>>4067983
>>4067987
>>4067992

so why exactly do we not trust Orwell? Besides the double meaning within the name that she chose?

And how do we translate our fears and reasons into the vocabulary that a 7-year old would understand? That's the big kicker.

And I'll be honest, we've been victim of judging books by the cover and bad first impressions and usually really get along with daughters who have shown what they are in the dark.

For my reasons to not trust Orwell: She offers things that have a catch to them, keeping francine covered from the prying eyes in the skinternet in exchange for something that benefits her greatly like exclusive streaming rights. Offering information that helps in the short term in exchange for us having to visit a place where she controls all the levers that leaves us indebted to her in the long term. Trades that benefits her more than us. Things that allow her to gain narrative control.

In retrospect we should've declined Orwell's offer because the cat was already out of the bag the moment we revealed Francine at Yurei's mansion. So why ask for skinternet lockdown now? Sure, it may have delayed the West Network for a bit while we did our own business, but we're now put on the spot for coming up with a plan that's the equivalent of "Protecting Sarah Conner from the Terminator"

>>4067996
I'm mostly in agreement with your logic for why not to trust Orwell. She does things without prompting and then acts as if that means we've already made a deal. It's rather predatory. I think that getting hooked into that may be part of why we acquiesced to her offer to conceal Francine earlier, though we did specifically say "that would be nice if you would, but we don't have a deal yet, I'm going to have to talk to my party about this". So we didn't really make a deal, we responded to her concealing information unprompted by not treating it as if we owed her anything for it. That's the big issue, that she wants us to owe her before we've actually made the exchange. Maybe she's just a nice young woman who doesn't know how to make friends when she's not in her public persona, but it is concerning.

As for why we went along with concealing Francine's presence at Laoc, as I recall it was because we didn't want West Alpha tracking Francine through the town and hurting people along the way. The idea was to make it look as if she was off doing something elsewhere, so that coming to Laoc and breaking legs until someone told West Alpha what she wanted wouldn't be an obvious way to gather information. In retrospect it may have been unnecessary, I'm not sure how much West Alpha would bother with that anyway, but enough shit had befallen Laoc that we didn't want to add to their troubles while they were rebuilding.

>>4068007
so then how do we translate our reasons into words and reasoning that Amara would understand?

>>4067992
It has nothing to do with pride, it has to do with thinking about the long term consequences and who we associate ourselves with. She outright offered to be out minister of truth, that alone goes against basically everything we have made ourselves stand for.

Id say more but im away trying to get my car inspected but turns out i have a break bulb out, so as frustrating as it is, i dont have time to say more.

>>4067992
>prideful
We already have a walking gospel that's hyping our deeds (read: Charon), we don't want another one who actually controls and whitewashes the narrative through the skinternet.

Declining Orwell's help in this case is more of a matter of principle and pragmatism. Orwell made a one-time offer to suppress the illusion of choice by censoring and whitewashing skinternet information when it came to the Laoc Hunger Riot.

It's also not a matter of pride, it's also a degree of pragmatism. We usually don't trust people when they're communicating with us via a proxy. We only trust them when it's face to face. It's the degree of caution we dealt with Yurei, it's the same we are handling with Orwell. Here she's trying to angle for a more predatory approach while still communitating with us via proxy, and I don't like it.

>>4068014
Here's the thing though. Right now there's the possibility that Orwell is only an imaginary threat, and not even a malicious or harmful one at that. Meanwhile, Alpha is a very tangible threat targeting us. I would much rather give Orwell her streaming to get a better chance in dealing with Alpha. And as for our misgivings about Orwell, we should probably voice them, as I feel there's little chance that she'll fly off the handle or retract her offer over it, nor do I think Amara will dislike us for it.

>>4068011
For now, when it's just suspicions and nothing concrete, we can tell Amara that it's about not wanting to get into the friendship wrong. That some people want more from you than you're prepared to give right now, and that's okay. It doesn't make them bad for wanting something from you and it doesn't make you bad for not being in a position to provide it. But what you do need to do, in that case, is to not promise anything that you can't give. Because that gives people expectations that can make them very upset when they're not met.

If we ever do get confirmation that Orwell is as skeevy as she appears, we can then go into a lesson that some people will make their own expectations. That even if you make it clear what you want your position in the relationship to be, they'll have already decided. So they'll keep pushing you to reciprocate, keep trying to force the issue so you have no choice but to give them what they want. Maybe you can convince them to stop, make things clear and remove their pre-made expectation. But if you can't, it's important to remove them from your life. Ideally not fatally, but we don't always have that option in the Crucible.

We actually might bring up our problems with Isabel. It's kind of a suitable parallel, though it has some problems now that Isabel is hanging out in our dreamscape. Might feel kind of mean now. But it works to convey the message. Isabel was wrong because she demanded a relationship from Shu that Shu was not able to give her, and refused to listen when Shu tried to clear up that misconception.

>>4068023
She really isnt though. Physical harm is not the only type that exists or is important, and what she could do could lead to worse physical harm later aswell through other means. Playing into her hands now could have serious consequences not worth the risk, even with West Alpha being after us.

Also we did voice our concerns before. She basically just brushed them off in a not at all trustworthy way.

>>4068023
>>4068040

>"...If you would omit Francine's presence for now, I’d appreciate it.” You reply, turning to face Orwell’s massive visage directly, your own face hard and stoic. "However, I’m not one to lie or bend the truth unnecessarily. You cover my stories, you keep it as truthful as you can without putting lives in danger. Nothing more, nothing less. Otherwise, you'll find yourself sorely in need of off-hand sources for anything, I’ll make sure of it."
The last little threat you tack on doesn’t illicit any negative reaction, much to your surprise; instead, Orwell’s grin just widens more, and if her eyes had any color to them at all, you’d imagine they’d be shimmering with excitement.

>"Hopefully it won’t come to that, but I’m neither in need of nor will I tolerate a propaganda machine in my name. Folks dislike or like me? That’s their decision, based on the truth, and that’s what it needs to stay." You conclude, and you’re treated to the sight of the wall leaning forward and backwards with the girl’s emphatic nod.

>“See?! THAT’S stardom! You’re absolutely incredible, and I know we’re going to do some amazing things together, Shu!” Orwell titters happily, tilting her head towards you as she continues. “I know you must have some terribly important business to wrap up, but when you’re ready for that sit-down, you know how to find me. Isn’t that right, Superfan?”

Note Orwell's reaction, she basically ignored our warning and acted as if we were all in for her help.

If anything, we should be straightforward and decline Orwell's offer.

>>4068048
First, it seems more like she's happy to see us live up to the reputation herself.

Second, I just can't agree to do that while Francine is threatened by a terminator. There needs to be a solid and worthwhile alternative for that, but Alpha's abilities and strength are too nebulous and unknown right now for that.

>>4068060
We do already know a decent bit about West Alpha, and we can find out more on our own and from more trustworthy sources. By even giving us this offer and the way she presented it, Orwell is already telling us we have time.

Jumping into her arms without a second thought is exactly what she is hoping this situation will scare us into doing, and is the outright worst idea we could do.

Maybe she'll out forth a good argument, maybe she won't, but just blindly trusting her or ignoring the issues she could cause like you are deadset on doing is foolish as best. We have our own resources, we can and have gotten by without her before, abd even expected we would have to. Letting a situation we already knew was gonna happen freak us out and forgo what we stand for or just trade a guiltoine right now for a noose later is horribly unnecessary.

>>4068048
If necessary, sure. But hearing her out a bit more still wont hurt, like i said, she already has made it clear we have a bit of time, just not enough for this not to be our focus.

>>4068060
home now.
also, i disagree. doesn't seem like thats what shes happy about. nor is it a good sign she doesn't actually address it, nor the fact she put it on the table in the first place.

>>4068083
As is, I want to hear her out a bit, press her for at least an overview of Alpha right now, and let a couple of Joyous Many go to the Panopticon to check out what kinds of detail she has. I'm fine with being wary of her, just not with outright rejecting her given the stakes.

I would also like to know some suggestions as to who else we can go to for info on Alpha.

>>4068100
We could always ask Amara to go on the skinternet for us, or have Sia and the Barbers (they've got a skintalker among their group) do some digging as well.

Finally, we can ask Francine to remember her interactions with Alpha or what she recalls about her time in the west network.

>>4068100
Sia/The Barbers, Francine, the entire Skinternet?
id not be surprised if Laoc has some info floating about. you're acting like West Alpha is an unknown, when in truth we ourselves already know a decent bit about her, and already know a good fair bit of info is readily available about her too. Francine im very certain has never discussed her much either, at least no ability wise. sure, i dont expect her to know everything, but she probably knows more than she has said before. we've literally never even tried looking up the info is the problem, not that none is or was even not known to be around.

we can ask around our other allies too, see what they might have scrounged up. taking her offer just because she MIGHT of compiled it nicely is silly like i said, nor necessary, nor worth the very potential downsides just because its 'West Alpha'. yeah, shes a very big and tough opponent, but we never planned to take her in a straight up fair fight anyways.

>>4068132
>
"Where is West Prime now, and how fast can she move?” You ask, interest piqued but guard up. “Gears primed, so be specific here."
>West Prime
Don't you mean West Alpha?

BAMBOOZLE THIS POST.

>>4068137
(Damn it, me. It legitimately auto corrected to that.)

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>>4067815

You hold up a single gauntleted hand, an unspoken demand for pause as you turn to your allies and address them through the privacy of your empathic channel.

[Gina, Amara, Dorian] You begin, your brood flitting to your side as they begin to shift and contort, glossy shells becoming almost translucent as you alter their forms for the task at hand. [While I send my swarm out to scout, I need the three of you on standby with spokes of Escher’s Gear. Gina, take the hivephone and check on Rath and November. Please get a status report from them tell them to regroup back at the Dragon’s Roost]
From out of one of the innumerable holes that dot the length of your spine, a diminutive swarmling crawls forth that you promptly toss to a surprised Francine.

[Francine, I know you need more time for your plan but if ever you had even a slight idea of any kind, now’s the time to sound like a college professor if ever there was one] You tell the beleaguered physician as you hold up two fingers. [Either way, two things; first, even if all you can think of is how Sia can buy us time, now’s the time for you to make that call…literally]

She nods sharply, every small movement stilted as she fights through the fog of her own fear until you reach out and place a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulder.

[...And Second? Francine? Take a minute to calm yourself. Because you already know how this plays out...] You say, the hand that hangs at your side curling into a fist so tight that your chitin gauntlet creaks under the strain. [No one gets away with coming after this family, and that includes you. We'll figure this out. It might not be pretty, it might not be clean...but we will, and damn whoever it is that’s after us]

“…Thank you.” She says softly, her tremulous tone closer to that of a scared girl than a professional woman…and when Amara reaches out and surprises the good doctor by hugging her torso, that just serves to steel your resolve further.

"What assurances do we have coming to your place is safe?” You demand aloud, rounding on Orwell’s construct. “And I don’t just mean physically, though...yes, that very much too."

“Because I’ve beaten back West before…as in Prime. The real deal.” She replies, her voice with an undercurrent of professionalism and succinctness that was absent just moments before. “I’ll spare you the gritty details, but it was about a year ago. She was weaker than she is now, obviously, but my original Panopticon design was a prototype then, too. A different location, but similar layout to the Envious City. When I realized the threat she posed, then I started keeping tabs on her and updating my defenses accordingly.”

"Where is West Alpha now, and how fast can she move?” You ask, interest piqued but guard up. “Gears primed, so be specific here."

(Continued)

>>4068143

“Five miles west of Laoc, and set to avoid the city entirely. She’s slower than your dashing young gentleman over there, but she can still cross ground faster than most.” Orwell replies with a little wave at Dorian. “Fun fact; she can’t use the Waystations anymore. I’ve narrowed it down to either a Relic that prevents her from being teleported or the fact that the Crucible doesn’t recognize her as a Daughter.”

“Why’s that?” Gina demands.

“West Alpha is…I don’t think there’s anything like her in the Crucible…except maybe West Prime, herself.” Orwell replies with a shrug, her featureless head seemingly glancing between you all as her shoulders drop, balance shifting from one foot to the other as she pauses a moment before speaking again.

“Shifting topics a bit, I…well, I believe that we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot, and that’s on me.” She begins, her voice devoid of her previous theatrics. “The whole ‘playful trickster’ persona has always been popular, though after a spat of recent in-person interviews I realize it’s not exactly the best for cultivating…y’know…*trust*. Works great to get views, but…yeah. Doesn’t do a lot to inspire confidence one-on-one, I’m finding out.”

You remain silent, allowing the awkward moment to persist as you wait for Orwell to continue. Amara attempts to speak up but Gina reaches out and places a firm, yet kind hand on the little girl’s shoulder, shaking her head almost imperceptibly.

“It’s why I wanted to meet face-to-face.” Orwell adds after a long moment, shifting in place uncomfortably. “Your empathic field-thingy would show you exactly where I stand, and then we can actually start talking on equal terms. You meet me, and you don’t like what you…well, feel? Well, then no harm, no foul. We go our separate ways and do our own thing. If you have questions, then I’ll answer them. If you have worries, I’ll do my best to address them, too.”

“Hm.” You murmur, still as stone as you keep your eyes on the construct before you. As much as you appreciate this girl’s apparent candor, she’s still not your only solution to the problem at hand…and you think she’s realizing that, as her facade continues to fade.

“Crafting an image is a journey that straddles the length of a razor, Defiant…” Orwell sighs with a weary chuckle.

“…and I’m starting to realize that it’s really easy to cut yourself on that edge.”

>>…Okay, you’ll bite. Head to the Panopticon to meet with Orwell in person while a select few of your other family members attend to other matters [Choose allies to join you].

>>You still don’t trust her, and you have other sources of info on Alpha that don’t come with strings attached. Decline Orwell’s offer, and make your way to [Write-In].

>>Much of what Orwell said only paves the way for more questions…important ones. [Ask Orwell something else].

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Gentlemen, voting shall remain open for the next four hours.)

>>4067859
(Glad to hear your weekend went fairly well. Sometimes no news is good news, in my opinion.)

>>4067973
>>4067975
(Sorry you've been suffering from a headache, but I'm glad that your session went well. I had a migraine for the first time in years just on the tail end of a one-shot I was asked to run on Sunday. It went well, for being the first time I've DMed in person for over a year. It was a fantastic success, and the first time I'd used a Forged in the dark system. I had two returning players [my wife and her friend] and two newcomers who'd never played anything like this before...and the latter two got more invested and excited about it than I ever expected, so that was very fun.)

(...until the migrane, of course. But still, a small price to pay.)

>>4068145
If anyone still doesn't like it, how about meeting her just outside of the Panopticon to do the empathy check, and then agree to go inside if she's clear?

>>4068145
>“The whole ‘playful trickster’ persona has always been popular, though after a spat of recent in-person interviews I realize it’s not exactly the best for cultivating…y’know…*trust*. Works great to get views, but…yeah. Doesn’t do a lot to inspire confidence one-on-one, I’m finding out.”
You don't say Orwell. Who did you take that thought from that being would make you at least somewhat trustworthy..... The god damn Harlequins that invaded the imperial palace cutting down Custodes while shouting they were there to bring a message to the Emporer in person?
......... God that scene was so stupid.....

>>4068147

That's it I am starting to fade after...... I got to little sleep last night... Good night OP.
Never played a forged in the dark system. I may look into those after I played that nechronica oneshot I have been planning for a while

>>4068145
>…Okay, you’ll bite. Head to the Panopticon to meet with Orwell in person while a select few of your other family members attend to other matters [Amara and Francine]
Amara because she's going to meet her idol, Francine because having someone who has personally fought West Prime before will give lots of insight for us and Francine.

>>4068151
(You're getting the feeling that she'd be amenable to something like that, yes.)

>>4068145
>"....one caveat then Orwell. we meet first outside your fortress. and im not just talking its entrance. you think its only fair only me and you meet first, to even the field, im fine with that. but you want my trust? you want me to trust you with my families lives? you prove it first, and every step after."
>"regardless, it sounds like we have a moment. not much, but we can make it work. We have family to check on and regroup with, and allies that could be pivotal here that we would need to bring with us to the planning."
>"Sound good? fair? Id give you a moment more to prepare... and think on why it is we dont feel we can trust you in the first place."

>Regardless, check on Francine and the Barbers, and Rath and November. you wont move out til everyone's ready, or you know where they stand on being able to come at all.
>>Also, either way, set Amara and Gina on information gathering in the meantime, even if we only have moments to spare. Skinternet, allies, Francine, wherever we can cobble info from, get it.

>If Orwell doesn't seem comfortable with the idea or throws in any further caveats you cant agree to, just cut it off here and make the Penthouse the new meeting spot, and work from there.

>>4068160
i dont want to actually go there just yet, because further info on Rath and November, aswell as the Barbers, will easily affect who and how many we bring, aswell as i still think a one on one meeting first to prevent unnecessary danger should happen first.

after that, we really have no reason to leave anyone out, as we will need everyone we can for the planning phase.

>>4068143
>“Because I’ve beaten back West before…as in Prime. The real deal.” She replies, her voice with an undercurrent of professionalism and succinctness that was absent just moments before. “I’ll spare you the gritty details, but it was about a year ago. She was weaker than she is now, obviously, but my original Panopticon design was a prototype then, too. A different location, but similar layout to the Envious City. When I realized the threat she posed, then I started keeping tabs on her and updating my defenses accordingly.”
Huh. So the Panopticon enhances her on the offense, too? It's not just fortified, it doesn't just improve her senses, it improves her projection as well.

>>4068145
>“Five miles west of Laoc, and set to avoid the city entirely.
Thank god.

>Fun fact; she can’t use the Waystations anymore. I’ve narrowed it down to either a Relic that prevents her from being teleported or the fact that the Crucible doesn’t recognize her as a Daughter.”
Curious. Maybe all the Relics she's got in her means she counts as a living Relic, now. We should see what Erupting Grasp level three does to her, that disables any Relics on the target. And Rath doing a HEAT END on Alpha does appeal.

>>4068160
>>4068170
that, and maybe for all we know the Barbers can help solidify or cut down Orwells story and claims. probably not, but teleporting buys us a good chunk of time id imagine, and making sure we use it to not jump from the pan into the fire sounds like a good idea to me.

So I have some time before I leave for work again, but I wanna write down some questions that we might have time if/when we meet with Orwell face to face:
>what's her beef with West Prime
>what inspired her to start the Panopticon project
>what prompted her to reach out to us.
>who was she before all of this


>>4068170
Fine by me.

>>4068171
I think West alpha doesn't classify as a daughter anymore. Remember Sam? Sam's in a forge construct which means the way points don't register her as a daughter which also means she can't use it.

Although the fact that West Alpha is more a living construct than an actual daughter, means that West Alpha is equipped with enough relics and stats and traits to Swim across the River of Tears without a sweat. And that's scary, that negates much of Shu's primary elemental damage output: acid.

>>4068185
>I think West alpha doesn't classify as a daughter anymore. Remember Sam? Sam's in a forge construct which means the way points don't register her as a daughter which also means she can't use it.
Yeah, that was sort of what I was thinking. That more or less all of West Alpha has been replaced with Relic-based cybernetics. Whatever the cause, it's interesting that Alpha doesn't count as a Daughter anymore. The Proxy still counting as a Daughter and getting to interact with the Crucible's systems is the whole point of the Proxies being made from lobotomized people instead of constructs. Turning Alpha into a super-cyborg was meant to recoup the investment put into a failed Proxy, but it looks like Prime would have been better off scrapping her entirely and just building a robot. I guess she got too deep into the sunk cost fallacy.

>Although the fact that West Alpha is more a living construct than an actual daughter, means that West Alpha is equipped with enough relics and stats and traits to Swim across the River of Tears without a sweat. And that's scary, that negates much of Shu's primary elemental damage output: acid.
Good thing we just picked up fire blasts for our swarmlings. Though Alpha probably has good resistance to that, too, given that she's powered by Forge Cores like November is. And if she's largely metallic our parasitic Contender ammo might not be too useful, either. Yeah, I think Shu's going to be on support duty for this fight, mostly. Keeping Alpha pinned down and allies in top shape, rather than harming Alpha herself.

>>4068202
we do have our gurrenlings and lagaanlings to drill through her fibromantic defenses.

>>4068154
(Rest well, Anon!)

>>4068145
>>Write-In
>"Well, it wouldn't be the first time I had a bad initial meeting with someone who turned out to be decent. Hell, I've done it, too."
>"Alright, how about this: We meet up outside your Panopticon, I get an empathic read off you, then we proceed from there. Sound reasonable?"
>"Give us some time to get things sorted out, though. I've still got to collect some of my party. There are also some allies I'd like to get in contact with, see if they can help, too. I'll have Amara contact you when we're ready."

>See if Gina has gotten in touch with Rath and November. Find out what they've scouted and what happened with the person they said they saw approaching, then pick them up.
>Check on Francine's progress contacting Sia. Arrange a place to meet them.
>If they're not near a Waystation, teleport back to the Lair to wait. But first, teleport to a random Waystation on the far side of Carol's Woods and spend a short time there. Convince West Alpha to change course, both to delay her further and to keep her path away from the Pyre Ants and Thelis/Veilen. It's better for them if West doesn't look too closely into their existence.

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>>4068145

"...One caveat then, Orwell.”

The construct’s back straightens as Orwell stands at attention deep within the Envious City.

“We meet first outside your fortress, and I’m not just talking its entrance.” You continue, your words drawing a line in the sand, clear and unequivocal. “You think it’s only fair only me and you meet first, to even the field, and I’m fine with that. But you want my trust? You want me to trust you with my family’s lives? You prove it first, and every step after, Orwell."

“I’d expect nothing less from someone so family-oriented.” She replies, the hint of a smile in her voice. “Name the place, and I’ll meet you there. Your little superfan can reach me privately, when you’re ready. You’re in control, so whatever you’re comfortable with.”

"Good. Regardless, it sounds like we have a moment. It’s not much, but we can make it work.” You press on. “We have family to check on and regroup with, and friends that could be pivotal here that we would need to bring with us to the planning. Sound good? Fair? I’ll give you a moment more to prepare...and think on why it is we dont feel we can trust you in the first place."

“…Okay.” Orwell replies, about to extend her arm for a handshake before hesitating, then turning the gesture into a respectful bow. “I’ll come when you call, Defiant.”

With that, the construct scarcely has time to melt back into liquefied flesh and clumps of formless gristle when you’re already turning to your assembled allies with a plan of action, transmitted instantaneously across your empathic channel. Francine’s immediately reaching out to Sia, while the hivephone Gina tosses to Dorian is already vibrating, reaching across the distance between you and Rath.

“GG, Amara, you’re my best scouts, so I need to ask you a favor.” You declare, kneeling before the younger of the two as you look up into her two-tone eyes. “Gather as much information on West Alpha, as fast as you can.”

“But…I thought we were gonna go talk with Orwell after this?” Amara asks innocently, and you have to will yourself to not meet the look that Gina shoots you just over the young girl’s shoulder.

“We are, but the more we know, the better.” You assure with a smile, taking Amara’s hands in your own. “We’ll get info from everyone and everywhere, to keep Francine safe…to keep all of us as safe as we can.”

“…Okay.” She finally relents, a bit of uncertainty lingering in her gaze as biomass begins to slough from her limbs, quickly coagulating into her doppelgangers. Gina winks at you, her eyes and veins flickering with the tell-tale amethyst light of her power, as radiant and ethereal as its wielder.

And with that, you wait.

A few long, tense minutes pass until Francine and Dorian stride up to you; a hint of relief on her features and a look of consternation on his as he gestures to the older woman.

Ladies first, after all.

(Continued)

>>4068507

“The Barbers are ready when we are.” Francine declares. “Additionally, I...may have an idea that I’ll need Gina’s assistance with, one that involves resources at home and may give us an edge. It serves as a natural evolution of my…original plan, given recent developments.”

She clears her throat, turning to Dorian.

“Rath's on the line, and while she and November are perfectly fine they’ve hit something of an odd snag…I think it’s best that she explains.” He says, and as you take the device you hear it crackle to life with a familiar voice.

“Yo, just dealt with our stalkers when they tried to get cute. Took two out pretty quick, then the rest scattered when we got some help from the last person I expected. Guess who?” Rath asks, her frown practically audible.

“Who?”

“…Sam.”

An uncomfortable chill runs down your spine, and in your pause, Rath continues. “The Daughters started takin’ pot-shots at us, but then they just stopped and everybody started shouting when their back lines started getting cut down. Anyway, they run off and Sam’s gangly ass uncloaks a couple dozen yards off like she’s making a statement, just staring at us. Still is, and I’m pretty sure she knows I’m talking to you.”

“How do you figure?”

“Cause I’m holding a goddamn bee to my ear and talking into it, man.” Rath laughs. “Yeah, she’s in line of sight, just watching. I can shoot her the bird, if you want.”

“Hah, no. Hold off on that…for now, at least.” You reply with a chuckle, attention split when Gina and Amara run up to you.

“I learned that Alf is immune to acid, fire, frost, and electricity! AND she’s immune to blunt and crushing!” Amara announces proudly, her tone just a shade too cheerful for the news she’s sharing. The incongruity isn’t lost as Gina just cocks an eyebrow before chiming in.

“Piggy-backed with Amara into the Skinternet, and Alpha’s combat logs show she actually fights a lot like Rath; overwhelming offense and damn near untouchable, all because she generates Relics on the fly. She’s practically a Swiss-army knife, so long-range isn’t out of the question, either. Also, those immunities are just the obvious ones from what’s been seen. We’d have more, but there’s apparently a lot of Skinternet info that was taken down…guessing we’ve got West Prime to thank.”

You nod as the hivephone crackles in your hand, as if Rath’s waiting for you to decide what to do with the odd situation she finds herself in. Francine has a plan, GG and Amara have info, and you…

…you have a call to make.

>>Meet with the Barbers at home, and plan your next move while allowing Francine time to work.

>>Take measures to throw Alpha off your trail while you go meet Orwell in a location of your choice.

>>…Talk to Sam, if she’s willing. You’re not one to turn a blind eye to possible help, given what the Joyous saw.

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Gentlemen, I shall be pausing a little earlier than I usually do in order to update the Relic sheets and set everything up for tomorrow. Thus, voting shall remain open for the next sixteen hours, with posting to resume shortly thereafter. I’ll be around most of this evening to address any questions, comments, or concerns you might have, and thank you all for your participation and enthusiasm.)

>>4068510
>Tell Rath to tell Sam your families trying to prevent a members assassination, so she can either fuck off or walk and talk to Rath about whatever it is she clearly wants to talk about.... unless Rath really doesn't want to hear her out, then just the first part.
>>Regardless, Sam isnt a threat, doesn't seem to want to be one, so isnt the priority. she sticks around or she doesn't, but Rath and November have places to be.

>take a convoluted route home, with Gina and Amara help to try and scramble and confuse the path you took, but get home and meet up with everyone first and get the ball rolling, see if anything needs to be said or done real quick before you meet Orwell, and all going to well, move everyones plan party to her fortress.

>If you dont get holed up by anyone at home, meet Orwell at the Factory.

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>>4068513
ah, glad to see ya getting on that. i have a feeling knowing how they interact with November will matter alot here. no questions as of now, but we'll see. regardless, do hope the rest of your day is pleasant BHOP!

>>4068513
Thanks BHOP, the vein is excellent so far, as always! Looking forward to how this already tense situation escalates!

That said, I want to raise a question, regardless of whatever plan we choose: do we want to consume the remains of the mole from last vein, in preparation for the fight ahead? It's 24 points to divide between our (currently) six team members, after all, and we need every advantage right now.

>>4068510
>“I learned that Alf is immune to acid, fire, frost, and electricity! AND she’s immune to blunt and crushing!”
>Also, those immunities are just the obvious ones from what’s been seen. We’d have more, but there’s apparently a lot of Skinternet info that was taken down…guessing we’ve got West Prime to thank.”
Right, so it's probably safe to assume that West Alpha is immune to all our trump cards. Just because why would anything go right? In seriousness, though, many of our go-to solutions for turning the tide of battle are fairly common, Prime would be a fool not to give her enforcer immunity to things like stunning if she could. And fear and bleeding effects probably don't work just by virtue of Alpha being so robotic, no need to specifically add those immunities.

>>4068513
Thanks for running, BHOP. See you tomorrow.

>>4068547
That raises a secondary question: There any meat left on that pair of Daughters that jumped Rath and November? And a tertiary question: Why did those Daughters jump Rath and November? Specifically targeting them, or just opportunism? I'd assume a specific target, because why would you pick on the Daughter traveling with a nine foot-tall super robot? Opportunists would find someone else.

>>4068548
yeah i have a strange and very unwanted suspicion shes basically immune to all 'standard' damage types.

>>4068547
im fine with it, though unsure it needs to be the first thing we do. plus, gotta see if Rath can get home.in time for the fight? probably, just might not be exactly in the next update and such.

plus, maybe Orwells and/or the Barbers info will affect how we upgrade a bit.

>>4068554
yeah, good question. as for the attack, its odd, i mean, its Rath plus a tall robot and very possibly a Tank, but i could still see them thinking they have the numbers to take them out in a surprise attack.

>>4068561
>yeah i have a strange and very unwanted suspicion shes basically immune to all 'standard' damage types.
Maybe some non-standard ones, too. I hope she's not immune to Radiant, because then an OMA GRA NUKA THA would solve the immunity problems, but we can't rely on that. It would be nice if Orwell knows.

just finished with work, will come back to review and plan with you all.

So, I must have dozed off, but I remember neither falling asleep nor waking up. One moment I'm typing up my vote, the next it's six hours later. I guess I just crashed super hard. Good thing we've got an extended voting period today.

>>4068510
>>Write-In
>Have Rath hand the Hivephone to Sam.
>"...hey, Sam. Thank you for helping Rath and November. But what are you doing in the neighborhood? Last I heard you were a lot further east. Have you been trailing this group? Please tell me that you weren't and these were just opportunists and the whole thing is a coincidence. We've already got one big nasty threat coming after us, I don't need another."
>"Speaking of said nasty threat...look, I'm not trying to get rid of you, but you might want to duck out. Dr. West's strongest Proxy is tracking us, we're about to go to ground while we prepare a counter. I appreciate you helping here, Amara told me about the change you're trying to make in your life and I genuinely think that's a wonderful thing, but you probably don't want to get involved in this. You can stick around if you really want to, but we have a lot to do."
>If she doesn't stay: "Stay safe, Sam."

>Afterwards, have Sam give the phone back to Rath. Tell her to gather up as much of the killed Daughters as they can, then plant the Escher spoke we gave them so that we can teleport over and pick them up. We'll leave the spoke there for now, save their place in our westward expansion.
>Teleport the meat and most of the party back home. Take Rath, Dorian and Francine to pick up the Barbers at an agreed-upon Waystation, then have Sia put up an agnosia field and teleport everyone back to the lair. Drop Francine off to work with Gina on her plan, leave the other Barbers there too, then take Sia and (with the agnosia field still up) spend some time random-walking around the Waystation network. Leave impressions all over the map of places where Francine might be but that West Alpha can't be sure of, so that she has to check them in person.
>After a short time spent on that, teleport back to the Lair and hear out Francine's plan. Decide on who to bring to meet with Orwell and where after we've heard that.

>>4068510
>"Rath could you and November gather what is left of the daughters and plant the spoke while I have a little chat with Sam"
>Have Rath hand the Hivephone to Sam.
>"...hey, Sam. Thank you for helping Rath and November. But what are you doing in the neighborhood? Last I heard you were a lot further east. Have you been trailing this group? Please tell me that you weren't and these were just opportunists and the whole thing is a coincidence. We've already got one big nasty threat coming after us and u don't want any other assassin's on my family's trail"
>"Speaking of said assasin...look, I'm not trying to get rid of you, but you might want to duck out. Dr. West's strongest Proxy is tracking us, we're about to go to ground while we prepare a counter. I appreciate you helping here, Amara told me about the change you're trying to make in your life and I genuinely think that's a wonderful thing, but you probably don't want to get involved in this. You can stick around if you really want to, but we have a lot to do."
>If she doesn't stay: "Stay out of trouble"

>Then pick up Rath and November via teleport. (As well as Sam if she wants to stay and gelp)Then teleport a but to random places using the waystations to mask our meeting up with the Barbers and meet with them and especially Sia. Have Gina and Amara help with masking your presence in the waystations.
>Repeat a bit while Sia turns on her agnosia field and you return to the lair after maybe two more teleports.
>Dump off Dr Fran and whoever she thinks necessary then take Sia and (with the agnosia field still up) spend some time random-walking around the Waystation network. Leave impressions all over the map of places where Francine might be but that West Alpha can't be sure of, so that she has to check them in person. But also leave three convenient spots where you could easily hide out and deliberately avoid them. That might throw off Alpha even more once she thinks she recognizes a pattern.
>After you return see if they made any progress on a counterplan. Then go meet Orwell. First alone as promised a good place away from the Panopticon and check her out. Have the family stand ready in case something bad goes down

>>4069353
>>4068510
yeah, im against this one.
we're still iffy on Sam, and have no IC reason to actually talk to her like that. yet, nor has she earned it. we also dont have time for that, like, for once quite literally, hence my walk and talk thought if she even is gonna stick around.

it also feels... a bit not right, to just treat her as that helpless and trying to shove her off, regardless of the threat.

>>4069436
>>4069445
this ones not better either.

>>4069445
We left Sam on a positive note, I'm going to at least try to be polite to her. Also, it's not treating Sam like she's helpless, it's treating Sam like she's a rational actor who would probably prefer to avoid fighting West Alpha if she had an excuse not to, like everyone else in the Crucible would.

>>4069450
Nah, it's way better. I was being too colloquial about the threat West Prime presents, and "stay out of trouble" works better than "stay safe" because it can be read as both worry for her and worry of her.

>>4068510
Supporting >>4069436

>>4069467
not that positive and not still without suspicions of her. and no, it really is. hyping West Alpha up that much and the wording is just terrible, feels like talking to a kid.

and no, they're both not good and honestly annoying out of character for the situation and our relationship with Sam, aswell as wholly feel like they're ignoring how tense our situation actually is. the Sia jumping around is too honestly,feels like a bit tad too much and casual the ways its presented.

>>4069474
Yeah, we're being suspicious about Sam. That's why it's opening up with asking what she's doing here. Also why it's got that awkward tone of "this isn't really pleasant for either of us but I'm trying to be decent to you". And no, it's not hyping West Alpha up too much, it's just acknowledging the threat she poses. I don't see the "like talking to a kid" part at all, either, we're treating Sam like a rational adult capable of making her own decisions while informing her of why we're busy now.

And the random-walk teleporting is perfectly sensible. We can teleport, we've got an ally that can obscure who is who, let's use it to lay some false trails. It probably won't help a ton, but even a tiny bit can help and it won't cost us anything substantive. Maybe ten minutes bouncing around the Waystation network and a bit of Bio off of Sia, it won't be a problem. Francine can use that time to get her thoughts in order. And it's certainly better than your "leave a convoluted trail back to the Lair" plan, which is just baffling. Why would we leave a trail to the Lair at all? We can teleport.

>>4069445
And I don't like you brushing her off like that if she wants to talk. And it is simply more efficient to have her tell us directly while Rath and November gather together the remains and we just quickly teleport to them and the use the waystations to mask our exact path of leaving before getting home. Then we create a smokescreen to throw off WAlpha a bit more before meeting Orwell

I am confident that Gina and Amara will be more than enough to help throw Alpha off

I can probably time down what I tell her but leaving her uniformed that if she wants to stick around she would be running into the Terminator. Something we know she is not ready for and probably never will be warrants us warning her.

Maybe something like this would be more satisfying for you.
>"Hey Sam... look I don't have a lot of time on my hands right bow. West Alpha is on our trail. And while I am thankful you helped out Rath and November I am not sure you would want to go up against her. I will head over there soon to pick Rath and November up once they picked up everything. If there is something on your mind you can tell me now or once I head over but I won't be staying long"

>>4069493
Yeah, sure, that works for me. It's more brusque, but still polite enough.

>>4069491
>>4069493
no, it really feels like you're both treating her like an old friends with many of those parts, and thats just not at all how our relationship with her is. and nah, it sounds super condensing. 'oh, West Alpha is too much for you to even think about helping, you should just run off along now dear." THATS brushing her off. if you wanted to try and treat her like a rational human being, dont make it sound like you're making her decision for her, just tell her the situation plainly and why you dont have time to mess around, and let her decide on her own to offer help or not, or if she should just leave.

>>4069508
>and nah, it sounds super condensing. 'oh, West Alpha is too much for you to even think about helping, you should just run off along now dear."
With the added implication of "West Alpha is too much for us to even think about fighting, because we're going into hiding to avoid her for now". It's not condescending, we're admitting that we're afraid of West Alpha and then giving Sam the opportunity to not have to deal with this thing we're frightened by.

>>4069510
yes, it very much is. because we're still planning to do something about her, and we're treating her like she cant even make the decision or even could think about offering aid against her. its horribly condescending.

>>4069510
we dont even talk to Amara like that. and shes literally a kid we would like nothing more than to not see get run through with swords.

>>4069513
Except we're not making the decision, that would be just telling her to buzz off. We're giving her the option and then advising her that this is some nasty shit we're about to get into.

>>4069517
Yeah, because we don't need to, Amara knows that this is some nasty shit. She's right here. If she wasn't aware, I would be way more forceful in getting her to stay out of danger than I am with Sam.

>>4069517
>"Hello Sam. How are you doing? Thank you for the help you've done for Rath and November. Look, I'll make this quick since I don't have enough time for a proper conversation, but long story short I have a veritable Terminator named West Alpha hunting down one of my family members and I'm not sure if my entire family and friends can stop it from achieving their goal. If you're up for the task, thank you for the help. I appreciate it. If not, well...nice to see you passing by."

Here's what I have as an attempt. Sounds too formal in my opinion, but it's the best way I can address Sam without going into personal condescension while keeping the door open for Sam to decide whether or not she wants to opt in. We're treating her as a new person whose made their choice to get involved into this mess despite our past history.

>>4069529
Yeah, this works for me. Is this an acceptable compromise, >>4069513?

>>4069528
yes, we are. as unlike with everyone else, we're telling her what her decision should be based on the info, instead of letting her come to her own conclusions. Sam knows about West and the Proxies, even if she doesn't know everything about West she isnt child that cant read the room or make sense of the info.

>>4069529
i still dont like it, no.
literally all she needs is the situation, whatevers next is on her.

>>4069534
>>4069529
i also highly disagree Shu at all needs to be the one to talk to her. Rath is right there and we have to get a move on. fine, telling Rath to tell her to Fuck off is a bit much, ill agree to that.
but we also shouldn't just waste time on her trying to explain every detail and finagle her decision. let Rath handle it while we actually like, organize and get everyone back, once she knows the details she can just... do whatever.

>>4068510
>>4068529
amending to;
>Tell Rath to tell Sam your families trying to prevent a members assassination by West Alpha, so she can either walk and talk to Rath about whatever it is she clearly wants to talk about, or go on her way, but we dont have time for a conversation, we need all hands getting ready.
>>Regardless, Sam isnt a threat, doesn't seem to want to be one, so isnt the priority. she sticks around or she doesn't, but Rath and November have places to be.
>>Iff they think they can afford to take the time, have Rath and November scoop up the fresh corpses to bring home

>take a convoluted route home, with Gina and Amara help to try and scramble and confuse the path you took, but get home and meet up with everyone first and get the ball rolling, see if anything needs to be said or done real quick before you meet Orwell, and all going to well, move everyones plan party to her fortress.

>If you dont get holed up by anyone at home, meet Orwell at the Factory.

I believe Bhop has a moderate case of the "Wednesdays work overload".

>>4069926
(I've begun to realize that every day is Monday where 2020 is concerned. I am terribly sorry for the delay, as work's been downright silly. I'm considering doing an evening of rapid-posting to catch up, however. Would that work for everyone?)

>>4069933
Since i go the sleep i needed today and dont have anything particularly pressing tomorrow that would work for me

>>4069934
Also my internet is working again. Have to thank my dad for that one since i didnt have the time to look after the problem he came over and did it for me.And then i made some chocolate-cheesecake -muffins so today is a good day and i just feel great so we can certainly keep going all night if need be

>>4069933
Works fine for me, BHOP. See you in the evening, I hope your day calms down and gets less hectic soon.

>>4069933
Sure, works for me.
Any eta on the next update? No rush just curious mostly.

>>4069933
fine by me. today's my day off.

>>4069954
(Within the current hour, if all goes well.)

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>>4068510

With a burst of pure information across the empathic channel, the plan is set; your family busies themselves with gathering their things as Francine reaches back out to the Barbers to coordinate a place to meet. Holly trots up alongside you at the same time Gina does, the pair listening intently as you bring the hivephone to your ear.

"Rath, could you and November gather what is left of the daughters and plant the spoke while I have a little chat with Sam?"

She’s quiet for a moment, and you think she’s about to argue with you when the speaker crackles, a taloned hand scraping around your construct.

“Hello, Shu.” Says a voxel-tinged voice on the other end of the line.

“Hello Sam.” You begin, hoping your friendly tone isn’t coming across as too forced. “Thanks for helping Rath and November. I wasn’t expecting you in this neck of the Fleshscape…last I heard, you were a lot further east.”

“Cloak helps me avoid distractions. I move pretty quick.” She replies simply. Her tone is clipped, though you get the feeling it’s not out of anger. “Couple of Daughters I met told me about this crew that were sniping small parties. Looked for them, then found your people.”

“Well, we've already got one big nasty threat coming after us and I don't want any other assassins on my family's trail, so the less, the better.” You say with a sigh, and to your surprise a warbled laugh meets your ear across the line.

“Who’ve you pissed off this time?”

"Doctor West's strongest Proxy is tracking us, and we're about to go to ground while we prepare a counter, and…look, I appreciate you helping here.” You continue as you and your allies trudge towards the nearest waystation. “Amara told me about the change you're trying to make in your life and I genuinely think that's a wonderful thing, but I’m not sure you want to get involved in this. You can stick around if you really want to, but we have a lot to do and little time to do it in."

Silence, and then…

“I want to help.”

…the unexpected.

“To be clear, there’s someone I wanna find.” Sam explains, and she continues with a hasty follow-up when you make a small, involuntary grumble. “It’s nothing bad, just somebody I met when you cut me loose. Was kind of a dick to her. Want to not be, but if I’m gonna do that then I need to find her...with your help.”

You share a look with the girls beside you, and with a small nod from Gina in the direction of your family, you speak.

“I’ll consider it, but my allies get to weigh in, too. I respect your choice, I respect their opinions, and I’ll need some time to think on both…so keep the hive phone, and I’ll be reaching out with my answer on my own time. Fair?”

“…Fair.” She replies, and with a scrape and crackle the swarmling trades hands.

“Rath, meet us with what remains you can gather.” You say with a grimace. “It’s time we take the Barbers up on their offer.”

(Continued)

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>>4070034

“Sounds like you’ve been keeping busy.” Sia says as you and she emerge into the scarlet light of the Fleshscape.

It took a little bit of doing, but you’ve spent the better part of two hours jumping between Waystations since meeting with the Barbers, the icing on the distracting cake that is Gina and Amara’s Joyous sending up false flags everywhere they can.

“A lot hit us all at once, and we’re doing our best to try and keep up, but…yeah. Yeah, ‘busy’ is a nice way to put it.” You say with a sigh, hoping that Francine and Gina are making headway since you left everyone back at the Dragon’s Roost. “First Laoc, then Julia, then Gemma, then...”

“Then Sam.” Sia adds, her face flickering as you emerge into the scarlet twilight atop a lonely hill, the very one that overlooks the bombed-out town where you first met November. “Considering your past with her, I’m kind of surprised that they were as amenable to Sam’s help as they were.”

“Yeah, well. Rath’s been playing ‘yes-man’ more than I’d like, and as for the rest…I sometimes worry if we’re being too trusting.” You murmur, scanning the river’s edge that nearly claimed your life mere days ago.

“With who?” Sia asks, glancing your way with her inscrutable features, static made material.

You blink.

“With everybody.” You admit, prompting a laugh from the other girl. “Present company excluded, of course.”

“Ha, no, I get it.” She says with an audible and good-natured grin. “Joining up with those three jokers of mine was a leap of faith, but turns out forming the Barbers was a silver lining to all…this.”

Sia gestures at the beach of jagged stone lapped by waves of corrosion, bathed red by a false sky. She shrugs, turning to you.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?” Sia continues, shoving her hands in her pockets as a chill wind blusters across the cliffs of the ruined town. “Sounds like your methods have been getting you good results, in any case.”

“With whom?” You fire back with a half-cocked grin.

“With everybody.” She counters, and by the tilt of her head you think she might’ve stuck her tongue out at you, but you can’t be sure. “Wish we had that kind of luck.”

The two of you stand there for a few seconds more as Sia allows the impression of Francine to linger on the Fleshscape for a little while longer before she speaks once more.

“So, aside from everything…you good?” Sia asks hesitantly, and to your surprise, the question gives you pause.

>>Confess your worries about the Amara/Orwell situation.

>>You worry about letting Sam help…if only for the fact you have a Dream Daughter that might not appreciate her proximity.

>>You’ve been concerned about Rath’s state of mind, recently…

>>You’ll be alright for now. Gather everyone and head to meet Orwell in person [Please choose who says/goes]

>>Turn the question on Sia.

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Gentlemen, voting shall remain open for the next five hours as I try and finish out the work day, with rapid posting to begin immediately following the next update. Voting periods for tonight shall run at one-hour intervals. I hope everything is going well, and thank you again for your time and patience.)

>>4070035
>"Its a lot....... i worry about my daughter being verymcuh a massive fangirl of someone i cant really trust yet(implying Orwell Sia is probably aware of her reputation). I dont want to hurt Isabelle with Sams Company even if Sam wants to better herself. Rath is a bit of a yes man......... I worry if he Vitruvian Core of hers is gonna rear its head..... I dont know if i am capable of dealing with that in a manner that wont hurt or drive her away......."

>"But all of that are things i still have a bit of time on and will address in time.Rath i think is the most critical and i will have to have a talk with Amara about meeting ones heroes and all that. So nothing too crazy. How are you holding up yourself?"

>>4070036
Well i think i will catch some shuteye to stay in top shape even if i could stay up for the night.

No nee dot stress things with a five hour voting period

>>4070035
>"Honestly? considering everything... i am."
>Shrug, and keep the conversation going.
>"Id be lying if i said i had no worries or concerns, no issues im unsure of or anything.... But I know me and mine are doing good, least as best we can, and that we all mean well and are here for eachother. it helps... but it can also be terrifying, too, when you realize how much we all have gone through and how close things have come before... but you know you couldn't stop them from being in the thick of it either, no matter how much you dont like to see them get hurt."

>You’ll be alright for now. meet back up at base and get the rundown of the situation, so you know who best to initialize the Orwell meeting with.

>>4070036
so, it seems clear, but just double checking, the Family did agree to let Sam help, yes?

>>4070047
(Yes, everyone’s alright with letting Sam help *if* there's an obvious need for her assistance.)

>>4070055
hrm, alright. fair caveat. only thing she can really offer is her better stealth, so we'll see. and being an extra pair of hands i suppose, ones that aren't kid sized i mean.

>>4070035
>"Two things that have been plaguing my mind recently...Rath, and Amara."

>"Rath's main ability has been hybridized with Fibromancy and Generator class skills, but her core is Vitruvian. I'm recently worried about the mental effects that slowly has been taking hold on her since she's become more of a yes-man as of late. I've already suffered before due to the drama Vitruvian Corruption brings out on the mind, I don't want it to happen again like last time."

>"And Amara, as much as I love her, I'm unsure about Orwell herself and how Amara idolizes the other skintalker when much of what I saw through her words and actions before screamed "stranger danger". I worry about Amara being blindly manipulated by her fangirling, yet...I don't want Amara to suffer a broken pedestal moment when she goes out to "meet her hero in person".

>"Those two are my biggest worries at the moment."


>>4070047
When I think about it, this quiet moment is a prime opportunity to reflect.

Also, come to think of it. Shu's growing into the Team Mom/Mother archetype.

As much as I want to write-in a revelation for Shu that she's beginning to know and feel the duties of what a being a "Mother" of a family is like, I feel like it's a bit too soon for the personal apotheosis.

>>4070061
>>4070044
eh, honestly i really dont want to go into details or specifics here. not only do i think any of those are actually that major of concerns, given the circumstances, but nothing i dont think we cannot trust our family to work through on their own to the point of needing to vent about them. they're worries, but nothing we have not surmounted worse before, both of similar and different types of concerns.

it also just sounds... very honestly silly in the face of our actual concerns, both immediate and otherwise. plus it just feels like having little faith in our family to actually overcome them. we have and we will, and honestly, even with those concerns, both small and large, our family and Shu are both doing well and more than just holding together.

i just disagree and dislike the feeling of dumping this on Sia or making it feel like they're big enough concerns to 'reflect' or be worrying Shu that much ,when honestly they just haven't or arent like that at all. we also have much bigger concerns too like i said, both of people and of... fleshscape(?).

>Shu's growing into the Team Mom/Mother archetype.
i also disagree with this. shes just being a leader and a friend honestly. much different than being a Mother or 'team-Mom' type in my opinion, and i dont really see it either.

>>4070066
I don't know about you, but this feels like a moment where Shu is allowed to voice her hidden stresses and worries aloud to someone else other than her family and have a moment with a girl she recently befriended. It's not that we aren't putting faith into our family. We do put a lot of faith and trust in our family, it's just that Shu's been having to make so many calls due to her leadership role that she doesn't really get to unwind, vent, and confide with someone else due to how busy her other family members are at the moment.

That's my interpretation of the voting prompt we have here.

>>4070070
but what stress all of those(but the newest one about Sam) might be giving her arent hidden. nor things that she cant really talk about with her family. hell, she very much has with both, albeit the Amara one a bit more. maybe not much, but far from being something her family doesn't know about. i just dislike and highly disagree it at all feels right or makes sense for her to feel that stressed out over it to the point of wanting or needing to talk to it with Sia, especially given the circumstances.

it feels way more like a moment Shu should be using to actually just relax and enjoy a friends company, not dump out worries on their shoulders or mix up her mind with issues she cant, doesn't have time to, or honestly even needs to solve or are actually that big all things considered to solve right now. feels like ruining what breathing room she has with whirling her mind up over what honestly isnt even much, especially considering the circumstances.

nor does that feel like something to talk about with a new friend or dump on someone you're actually asking quite a bit from, to the point we could very much end up getting Sia extremely hurt or even killed, even compared to her team in general, depending on how things go.

>>4070034
I'm confused, how is it helping us for Sam to find someone she wants to apologize to? That's not helping us, Sam, that's us helping you. We don't have time for that right now. We'll deal with you later, Sam, okay? That will give us the chance to convince Isabel that it's worth the effort to help you be less shitty. Honestly, we should get her opinion, too, I think Isabel counts for this particular vote.

>>4070035
>>Write-In
>"As good as I can be. I've got some concerns, but none of them are anything that won't keep until after we're no longer being hunted by a killer cyborg. Maybe ask me again after West Alpha is shut down for good, I'll have more attention to worry about other things then."
>"Thanks for asking, though. My life's been a rollercoaster, lately, constant ups and downs. It's nice just to have someone outside it show concern. Not that I don't feel like I can talk about this with my family, but they're along for the ride too, you know? It's reassuring to be...seen, I guess. To know that someone not dealing with this stuff can tell it's stressful. So thanks."

>>4070154
(Sam was essentially offering to help you with your situation, with the hopes of you helping her find the girl she's referring to after the dust has settled.)

(...She's not exactly great at asking for favors.)

>>4070165
Yeah, I figured it was probably something like that. Still, we'll talk to her later. We probably won't need her, we've already got a bunch of invisibility cloaks so one more invisible person won't be that helpful. I think we can safely leave her out of this until the fighting is over, so we can have our interaction with her be after we've talked to Isabel about "if she wants to be a less shitty person I think it would be a good thing to encourage that, but if that would be too uncomfortable for you I will respect that and turn her down". Because I wasn't expecting it to go like this, and I really don't want to hurt Isabel with Sam's presence.

>>4070171
eh, i disagree. Sams invisibility is supposed to be several grades higher than Amaras cloak, meaning it could very well be possible for Sam to go undetected while Amara would be.

we'll see, and if we even need stuff like that, but having a more reliable invisible gal doesn't at all sound unhelpful, especially when a direct fight with West Alpha is a bad idea. could end up being really useful for springing the trap.

and if she is useful, Isabelle is far from a good reason to not accept her help, especially given the circumstances and our family being ok with it.

>>4070173
Well, I did say "probably". If we need her, we need her, and we'll just have to apologize to Isabel for it. I accept that that's possible. I'm going to feel shitty about it, though.

Although, if we do make use of Sam, we're going to have to be very careful. She might have better stealth than Amara, but her durability is not great. We're going to want to make very sure West Alpha doesn't become aware of her.

>>4070173
>>4070178
If anything, Sam's loadout would make her an excellent saboteur and a guerilla fighter if we hand her the right relics. She's no magpie, but her hand in hindering the near juggernaut pace of Alpha would help.

>>4070186
Oh, shit, Magpie. We should call her to tell her we might not be able to make the meet-up, depending on how long we're at dealing with Alpha.

>>4070197
As far as I can tell, the day still isn't over so we might have time to make the appointment if we consider each time we sleep marking the passage of a "day"

>>4070178
to be fair, id not want even Rath to get into a brawl with West Alpha.

>>4070186
>>4070165
actually, we have two Shawls now, with Amaras also being upgraded to cover two people at once now(?).
wonder, does Stealth double up? could we drape the extra one over Sam to increase her Stealth level?

>>4070197
we'll see if we need that. we got what was it? two days? thats like, at least that many months OOC, and still quite a bit IC when you consider how much we get done in just a few hours at times.

>>4070205
nah, we know its not only when we sleep. its been confirmed its been 2-3 weeks(might be 4 now?) or so at least since Shu first woke up, but if we only counted when we actually slept as a days passage, we might not even be passed a week.

which, thinking about it, is super unhealthy, weird fleshscape body and day/night cycles or not.

>>4070212
>>4070197
You know what? We need a Relic that actually tells the time. of all the conveniences that Modern Humanity or any civilization that we've sorely missed, it's the ability to tell time.

>COSMIC CLOCK: A hand held pocket watch. a miniature planetoid of flesh slowly orbits the relic the compass while a still-beating heart of a still-born lies in the center of the watch. The watch has no face nor arrows. The heart beats at a constant rhythm unerring. For such a exotic looking Relic, the main purpose is rather simple: It tells the time. Rather, the exact time both local, planetary, Solar, Cosmic, and Universal. All of them with unerring precision and accuracy from simply looking at it.

>>4070289
oh, well i guess thats an-
>while a still-beating heart of a still-born lies in the center of the watch.
geezus fleshscape christ thats dark and morbid. not what id think someone would use something like that for, er, if at all.

>>4070295
>the still-beating heart of a still-born is too much

Well, I'll remove the heart and replace it with the planetoid then.

>COSMIC CLOCK: A hand held pocket watch. a miniature planetoid of flesh slowly rotates in the center of the watch. The watch has no face nor arrows. You can hear a heartbeat constant and unerring when you look at the relic. For such a exotic looking Relic, the main purpose is rather simple: It tells the time. Rather, the exact time both local, planetary, Solar, Cosmic, and Universal. All of them with unerring precision and accuracy from simply looking at it.

Better?

>>4070302
i mean, i wasn't saying you had to change it. just that thats pretty dark a thing to use in relic crafting and for such a purpose. though i suppose it depends on if your just relic crafting or trying to get it made, as i cant see us crafting the first version.

could just be a, you know, normal heart, just a small one, forge made? could even have multiple, one counting seconds, minutes, hours?

>>4070289
>>4070302
actually, is the Compass part even necessary? doesn't every daughter have a natural pull towards the Cord? i even think we naturally knew it was westward, but still, would you really need a compass when you already have a natural direction to work off of thats the same for everyone?

>>4070337
>>4070315
I made it on the spur of the moment, the compass design on the first version of the Cosmic clock was some flavor text that I inserted as a place holder as the original iteration before publishing was an archaic sundial of all things.

I could refine the relic to make it more tact, but the thought of the clock keeping track of the unworldly aspects of time was something that I couldn't resist adding to add to the atmosphere of body/cosmic horror.

>>4070362
the cosmic time part is fine and a nice touch yeah, that wasnt the part i had thoughts on.

>>4070337
It may not be necessary, but I'm willing to bet that there's some daughter out there that has a horrible sense of direction despite the automatic compass the Crucible provides.

>>4070382
"Okay... now where is the Cord again?"

*Is looking in the opposite direction from the fuckhuge biotower the size of an entire state stretching upwards into the sky*

>>4070382
>>4070409
(This idea has me on the floor, it's just so simple of a character quirk as to be endearing. This is great.)

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>>4070411
BHOP, understand if you're busy, but just curious if you saw my question(s) here >>4070206
or not?

also, all i can think with this picture is 'If Amara ever met someone whos earned a name like that, im not even sure a Relic crowbar could get her off of them."

>>4070424
(Ah, I missed that, my apologies! Amara's Shawl is still upgraded, and the Shawls' effects do stack.)

("Fluff...the Fluff.")

(Adorable.)

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>>4070035

"Honestly? As good as I can be." Comes your honest answer as you turn to Sia with a shrug and a smile. "I've got some concerns, but none of them are anything that won't keep until after we're no longer being hunted by a killer cyborg "I'd be lying if i said i had no worries or concerns, no issues I'm unsure of or anything.... But I know me and mine are doing good, and that we all mean well and are here for each other."

"That's all we can hope for really, isn't it?" Sia muses, staring back out at the beautiful, yet deadly river.

"True...thanks for asking, though. My life's been a rollercoaster lately, constant ups and downs. It's nice just to have someone outside it show concern. Not that I don't feel like I can talk about this with my family, but they're along for the ride too, you know? It's reassuring to be...seen, I guess. To know that someone not dealing with this stuff can tell it's stressful. So thanks."

She just gives you a little salute, at that.

"Maybe ask me again after West Alpha is shut down for good, I'll have more attention to worry about other things then." You laugh, and with a jerk of your thumb in the direction of the Waystation, you and she make your way back to your respective families. Upon your return to the Dragon's Roost, you find your living room’s been re-purposed into a command center, a large circular tableau taking up several times the space where the length of your dining table used to be. Everyone's assembled around it save for Holly, who's busying herself with...

"Uh, what're you doing?" You ask, watching the blonde stuffing biomass into a set of leathery satchels.

"Oh!" She chirps, turning to you with a winning smile. "I figured that since we're headed to Orwell's place, I'd pack all the biomass to-go!"

“We…we probably won’t be taking the biomass with us, Holly." Gina says, as gently as she can. "We can come back here for that.”

"Oh...yeah, that makes sense." Holly says sheepishly, glancing at the five pre-filled sacks.

"Actually, has it been decided who's going to the Panipticon and who's staying here?" You ask, shifting focus back to everyone gathered around the table.

"We've been mainly catching up and working on preparations, but I think Francine and I would like to stay behind and do some last-minute diagnostics, if you don't mind." Gina says before turning to the other Neuromancer in the room. "And we'd like your help too if you're willing, Sia."

The other girl nods, and Gina turns back to you. "Aside from that and the fact that Amara really wants to go, I'd say it's up to you and whatever plans we come up with here."

"On that topic...Francine? You said you had something you wanted to share?" You segue, giving the floor to the good doctor as all eyes fall on her, and the small, crystalline Relic that she carefully holds in her hands.

(Continued)

>>4070531

“This is a heavily-modified version of the device I used to block West Prime’s neural network on a personal level." She begins, taking a breath. "After a considerable overhaul courtesy of Gina’s input and a generous donation of biomass from both of us, I’ve constructed a one-use device that I believe will offer an alternative solution to the Proxy problem.”

"What'sit do?" Amara demands, craning to get a better look.

“When forcibly attuned to a Proxy, this device should resonate with them by using me and the other party as conduits, through which a neural re-write will take place across the entirety of the proxy network." Francine explains to the entire table, immediately losing Amara's interest with the complexity of the elaboration. "You see, it was while I was assigned to the Disassociated that I truly began to attain a sense of individuality, primarily because I was kept in the dark and out of the loop that all other Proxies where forcibly tethered to. I used to think my inclinations, my…quirks…were an error in programming, but then it hit me after Amara and I spoke; why would West have these updates? If we were nothing but mere constructs, then our thoughts and actions were beholden to her, as Shu to her swarm."

The older woman shakes her head, staring out past you through the room's massive windows and into the Fleshscape beyond.

"No, there had to be something else. Something West herself was afraid of. The Proxies are imperfect, and a short leash was her only option…so I will give every last Proxy in existence the very gift that she fears. The gift that Shu was kind enough to grant me.”

Francine's gaze turns to you, a smile playing on her lips.

“A choice.”

Everyone except for you and the doctor glances around the table at each other for a moment before Francine continues, her eyes having remained locked on yours.

"If I can get close to a Proxy and use this, then it will effectively immunize me, her, and every Proxy from West Prime's influence world-wide, including West Alpha. Prime can no longer interact with them at a distance, and they can no longer interact with her." She elaborates, taking note of Dorian's skeptical expression across the table. "It's a risk, yes...but I believe it's in the spirit of what we advocate, and it serves as a solution that robs her of her eyes and ears, to say nothing of the possibility of Proxy rebellion."

She clears her throat softly, before adding in a small voice;

"I am...hopeful, if nothing else."

“And what of the ‘kill-switch’ you possess?” Dorian asks, and Francine places a hand over her heart before she answers.

(Continued)

>>4070532

“I've decided that when I die, then it won’t be as a martyr…it’ll be protecting the people that have allowed me to be who I want to be. The people that welcomed my choice.” She replies, prompting a smile from the young man across the table. “And if there’s a chance that other Proxies could make the same choice I did, if unchained? Well, then far be it from me to rob them of that opportunity.”

“What if they decide to be bad guys, like West Uno?” Amara asks, head tilted quizzically.

“Then after all this is over, and we stand victorious at the end of the world?” Francine declares, folding her hands behind her back. “…I shall take measures to dissuade them.”

“I wanna help!” Amara pipes up, thrusting her sword into the air.

“Darling, you’d be my first pick to wade into battle with, rest assured.” The good doctor replies, and as Amara grins Francine just shoots you a sideways wink.

"In any case..." She continues, placing the Relic on the table and sniffing dismissively. "...I've come to realize curiosity in and of itself may not be a terrible thing to have as one's vice. For example, my curiosity about how you all have lived this long without me never fails to astound, so I intend to stick around as a long as I can to unravel this mystery."

This is...a step forwards, to be sure. To untether the Proxies from West entirely would be a massive blow to Prime's entire network, but it's a double-edged sword. Freedom for good and ill, alike...you're not necessarily against it, but this version of the plan still leaves you to contend with West Alpha in some capacity.

You can only hope that Orwell's good on her word with the information she's promised, because just given what Gina and Amara have gathered already, you're going to need it.

>>Construct your team, then go meet Orwell in person. It's time you saw what Big Sister's all about.

>>There's one or two other points that you want to discuss with your Family and the Barbers before you leave.

>>There are a few adjustments you'd like to make to Francine's plan, now that you're thinking about it.

>>Retreat into your own mind for a moment and touch base with Dream Daughters of your choice.

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Gentlemen, voting period of one hour are now in effect until evening's end. I'll try to get at least a few solid updates in before I call it a night to make up for today's silliness.)

>>4070537
So this is Francine's new plan - to forcibly unchain all of the proxies and give them complete freedom from West Prime.

I love it. Even if some of them go rogue, most of them will want nothing to do with Prime, and a few may even want to take her down. This is gonna SUCK for Prime.

>>4070546
Wait. if West Alpha is coming for Francine, wouldn't that make Francine's plan to untether the entire Proxy network easier (depending on a certain point of view)? We don't need to really need to hunt for another proxy, all we need to do is to have West Alpha come to us.

>>4070554
(Precisely. However, getting in close proximity to literally any other Proxy than Alpha does give everyone involved a considerably longer life expectancy.)

>>4070537
huh, well fair enough Francine. i mean, nothing wrong with the plan overall, but... theres other Proxies. ones less suited to being a death wish to get close to?

Vote;
>"Its... well, im fine with the plan Francine, its a good base for sure... but, er, are you sure West Alpha is the best to try this on?"
>"If you think it needs to be her, then by all means, it is an opportunity marching to our doorstep... but shes also the last one we should be taking in a straight up fight or be getting close to it feels like."
>"We did have the idea to use Sia to split the focus, and either draw in or hunt down another Proxy, then simply get everyone away from the now out-of-place Alpha and to the weaker one."
>"regardless, we'll need some more info to know how to deal with her, especially if she doesnt stop after all this is done..."
>Take Amara, Rath, and one Barber of their choice to meet Orwell, though of course with the three staying back til you finishing checking out if Orwell has good intentions.

>>4070546
im very uncertain of that actually. i could actually see most still sticking to her side, than not. they're still West, afterall, and as good as Francine turned out, we do know thats not a good foundation to start from.

>>4070554
yeah, except West Alpha is the absolute last one we should be trying to get close to or that will be easy to do on. her plans fine as a base, but West Alpha is just about the single one we know of that could make that a suicide task. the Halo might also complicate things.

>>4070554
It all depends on WHEN we want to use this relic.

Do we want to use it now and make a preemptive strike on Prime, giving other proxies a better chance to gain independence and grow in power?

Or do we want to wait, gather more information on her network, and use it at the most opportune moment that has the best chance of overthrowing her, once and for all?

>>4070554
>>4070567
(Her plan was crafted under the assumption you were still going to try and use another Proxy other than Alpha, hence her wording.)

>>4070572
well, its unlikely, but it COULD get West Alpha off our back.
could.
but could is better than any alternative we have. it also might make West Alphas priorities shift, even if she does remain loyal, as i can see other Proxies now being free with more important projects, abilities, or up-to-date info outweighing hunting down Francine.

>>4070576
ah.
yeah.
very much so, on my part.
though i will say i did not catch that in her wording at all.

guess that still means i gotta re-write my vote though.

>>4070576
You know...It may be an in opportune moment to put this in as a joke, but post-crucible, I would imagine the surviving West Network coming together to set up a clinic system al la pokemon centers with each proxy as the Nurse Joys.

>>4070537
Well good to see Dr Fran found her will and reason to life.
It will make her less suicidal in he future.

>"So do you think we should divide and conquer. While one party distracts WAlpha the other tracks down a proxy and shoves this thing into them?"
>"Think it will have any effect on WAlpha?"
>Take Amara, Rath, and one Barber of their choice to meet Orwell, though of course with the three staying back til you finishing checking out if Orwell has good intentions.

>>4070537
>>4070567
changing vote to;
>"Its a fine plan Francine, but it involves one more detail we need..."
>Look to Francine, Gina, Sia, and Sugar.
>"We need to find the best other Proxy to catch, and lord knows thats not West Alpha. we also need a plan on how to get West Alpha as away and out of position as possible so we can strike the other Proxy, and how to get whatever team does that to the rest quickly so we can keep everyone safe and team up on the other Proxy to make sure we succeed."
>"Ill go see if Orwell will get us some helpful info on West Alpha, while you guys start to hammer that out and find us our target. worse case, hopefully she'll have something to at least make fighting off West Alpha not such a death wish."

>Take Amara, Rath, and one Barber of their choice to meet Orwell, though of course with the three staying back til you finishing checking out if Orwell has good intentions.

>>4070537
>Take the time to talk with Amara to talk about Orwell and her fangirling.
>"Amara, how badly do you want to meet Orwell?"
>Let Amara respond
>"That's fine. It's great that you have someone to look up to as an idol."
>"But I would like to tell you that sometimes, idols are best when they're admired from a distance."
>"It's okay to be a fan of Orwell, just don't expect too much out of them when you meet them in person."
>"So please be on your best behavior."

>depending on how the meeting goes with Orwell and how Amara's perception of her has changed:
>Lead off with: "So what do you think of Orwell after meeting her in person?"
>Let Amara respond:
>"Was there something about her that you liked? was there something new that you learned about her?"
>"And what about the parts about Orwell that you didn't like?"

>>4070636
honestly not a fan of this. mostly i dont like pre-responding to things, at all. feels... so so artificial, and just asking for things to go wrong too, as you have no idea how their response is actually gonna be or change how you would actually like or should respond.

>>4070636
>>4070537
lets not do this. if needed, we can talk to Amara after the meeting if it feels right to do.

>>4070537

>There's one or two other points that you want to discuss with your Family and the Barbers before you leave.

>"For the team that's stalling West Alpha, Do you have an exit plan? I know this is asking so much for you to act as a decoy to Dr.Terminator chasing us, but at the very least I hope you have some way to escape safely and alive while stalling Alpha as long as possible."

>"The moment we come into contact with a non-alpha proxy is the moment Alpha might switch tracks and head towards our main group. So worst case-scenario is that we have to fight two proxies at the same time."

(Also, Gentlemen; when you reach out to Orwell, do you want to tell her you'll meet in the city limits, or one of the areas just outside of it such as the Forest of Bones or the Abandoned Warehouse?)

>>4070659
thought it was a factory?
regardless, the Factory/warehouse outside the city yeah, that was my vote earlier when we first talked to her.

>>4070537
Bhop, this vote I would like to cancel this vote >>4070636 in favor of >>4070656

>>4070659
Warehouse, it's a good mid-point between Envy City and our Mountain home in Calcite Peaks.

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>>4070537

"It's a fine plan Francine, but it involves one more detail we need..." You start, glancing between her, Gina, Sia, and Sugar, in turn. "...we need to find another Proxy to catch, and lord knows that's not West Alpha. So, we need a plan on how to get her away and out of position so we can strike the other Proxy, and how to get that team to the rest quickly so we can keep everyone safe and team up on the other Proxy to make sure we succeed."

At that, you glance between Rath and Amara. "We'll go see if Orwell will get us some helpful info on West Alpha, while everyone else starts to hammer that out and find us our target. Worst case, Orwell will have something to at least make fighting off West Alpha not...y'know. A death wish."

"I'll come with." Sugar declares, to the considerable surprise of everyone present. "Everyone here can talk and talk, but I want to sample this Panopticon."

You look to Sia for some sort of explanation, and all you get is the girl's head in her hands.

After you say you brief goodbyes, with Amara, Rath, and Sugar by your side you find the factory as you left it; derelict and deserted, an unfitting place to have met the kind young girls that made up the Sororitas. With a wave of your hand, you leave your allies a safe distance away as you approach the collapsing building, and it's as a knot forms in your stomach at what West subjected them to that you enter the musty structure, all corrugated metal, pulsing flesh, and creeping rust.

"Hey there!"

The sudden greeting from the depths of the dusty darkness before you almost makes you jump, your eyes slowly adjusting the the dim light as a spindly figure strides towards you. You blink, focusing on the pair of piercing blue eyes that stare out at you from the dark, framed by a head of messy blonde hair. The girl's all angles and bones, covered by a simple tank top and shorts...the very picture of an over-caffeinated high-schooler. You're not sure what you were expecting, but...she wasn't it.

Christ, this kid's half your age.

"It's me! Orwell, the great and terrible!" The lanky teen says with a tired laugh, running a hand through her hair. as she gestures to herself with the other. "Sorry for all...this. Just got through with a stream, and by the time you said you were on your way, I was like 'gah', so..."

The two of you just stare at each other for a moment before she plants both hands on her narrow hips.

"Anyway!" She says, with a rough 'ahem' before announcing to the world; "Testing, testing! My name is Orwell, and I want to help Shu and her family put a stop to West's vast dickery and maybe help make the Fleshscape a better place in the process."

You blink, and so does she.

...Nothing.

No insincerity, no double-meaning. This kid...she's not lying to you, that much is clear.

"So?" She asks with an enthused grin.

"Did I pass the test~?"

>>Venture to the Panopticon.

>>Ask Orwell something while you're out in the open.

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>4070721
>Ask Orwell something while you're out in the open.

>"...for now."
>"Gotta admit, not what i was expecting. kinda interested in watching a stream now if it causes you to seem so disheveled."
>"so, lets get the base out of the way. what happened between you and West, and why?"
>"why DO you want to help us? I mean, ok, you seem sincere about wanting to help folks, and with West Alpha? yeah thats a big deal. but you still came to us first, when im sure there plenty of folks and places that could use an eye like yours."
>"And last one... why did you present yourself like you did originally? was it a test? or did something horrible get lost in translation about what me and mine stand for?"

>>4070721
>"To be honest your not exactly what I expected...... But that would explain why you may have thought the trickster persona was a good way to interact with people..... No offense intended everyone can be everything in this fleshscape and appearances can be deceiving"
>" But damn you look used up. Is this what streaming always causes you to look like?"
>"so, lets get the base out of the way. what happened between you and West, and why?"
>"why DO you want to help us? I mean, ok, you seem sincere about wanting to help folks, and with West Alpha? yeah thats a big deal. but you still came to us first, when im sure there plenty of folks and places that could use an eye like yours."
>"And last one... why did you present yourself like you did originally? was it a test? or did something horrible get lost in translation about what me and my family stand for?"

>>4070721
>"...yes."
>"A few follow up questions though."
>"What happened between you and West?"
>"What prompted you to reach out to us?"

>>4070744
>"Gotta admit, not what i was expecting. kinda interested in watching a stream now if it causes you to seem so disheveled."
That's a bit of a low blow, mocking Orwell's appearances. We could just say, "You're not what I expected, but you've piqued my interest in how you run your Neuro-streaming nonetheless."

>>4070764
it wasn't mocking her, it was a a joke, and even slightly a compliment, sorta. plus, she herself very clearly admitted she was disheveled.

its saying 'Holy cow, what happens on your streams to where that is the result?"

>>4070770
that aside, if streaming makes Orwell thin and disheveled, then she needs some food and rest badly.

>>4070779
Rest? sure.
but im not sure just straight up 'food', both normal or fleshsacpe, will help. i doubt she or her bodyguard(mostly probably the second) let her go close to hunger madness via consuming. her scrawniness is probably her over exerting her biomass(and possibly Health too) supplies, very likely all those long range projections and streaming could eat up alot of resources, and i think its very possibly implied she doesn't give herself proper time to fully replenish afterwards.

>>4070787
I'm guessing that Orwell's probably pretty lonely then. Without having a minder to moderate her streaming habits, she runs the risk of really letting herself go. And I've seen streamers (professional gamers especially) who've let themselves go in the hygiene and the rest department where their may seem fine on-camera, but their home and body is an utter wreck off-camera.

>>4070798
i can imagine so, and if she is genuine and possibly thinks she helping with he streams, she might feel even more obligated to push her limits.

BUT, this is all some ifs and for later. assuming she does keep turning out to be swell, yeah sure, dont want her to keel over, but until West Alpha is no longer a threat one way or another, i dont think anyone will be resting easy, much less sleeping.

(Wrapping up writing the next post now, might be a moment since the explanations are running a bit long and revelatory.)

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>>4070721

"...For now." Comes your answer as you give Orwell another once-over. "Gotta admit, not what I was expecting. Kinda interested in watching a stream now if it causes you to seem so disheveled."

"Ha! If I'd know that was all it'd take, then I'd have sent you a snap of me looking all ratty for free." Orwell snickers, catching on to your good-natured jab.

"So, lets get the base out of the way. What happened between you and West, and why?" You ask, shifting the focus back to business.

"Tl;dr? My Core, and what I've added into it" She replies with a sigh. "Like I said, my beef with West came about a year back, when I was new on the Skinternet scene. I started surfing, and ended up talking to West about Core, powers, and stuff, since I had a lotta theories I-"

"Wait, 'new'?" You interrupt, holding up a hand. "I thought you said this was about your Core, but you're talking like you got Skintalking later on."

"Yep! I'm a Gluttonous Core." Orwell replies with a nod. "See, I picked up Skintalking and Phantasmal Conduit pretty early on, so I ended up rolling it all into my Core 'cause I didn't know any better. I always had this thing about making sure all my 'mons were equally leveled, so I guess that had...y'know what, that's irrelevant. Long story short, my tri-hybrid glitched and now I legit don't have to eat people anymore to sate my Hunger."

"Wait...then what do you do?" You ask, confused.

"Turns out, when you hybridize a Gluttonous powerset with something else, the end result tends to be something that's REALLY good at eating whatever else is rolled into it. So, if you rolled up your Maw into, let's say, your own Core, then bam! You'd be chowing down on constructs like nobody's business. Pair it with Generator? Play your cards right, and you're nomming on elemental damage. It's weird shit, but mine takes the cake."

She grins.

"Thoughts, emotions, words...THOSE sustain me now. I talk, people listen...and that's keeping the Hunger at bay, without me leveling up or my powers evolving." She declares, before shrugging her sharp shoulders. "I don't think this is the way it's supposed to work, 'cause I can't find anyone else whose tri-brid turned out like this in all the research I've done. Everyone who did what I did ended up with something different, like making people depressed when they're bit, or having the bite wounds they inflict turn into other mouths that they could use their Lexicon through. I think it came down to the nature of how my Gluttonous manifested, and someone got a little too violently curious as to how."

"You eliminate hunger, you make yourself sustainable." You conclude, watching as Orwell gives you a thumbs' up as you realize what she's been building to. "That would be a hell of an advantage in West's hands, before or after she became whatever she is, now."

There's a sharp crack as Orwell snaps both her fingers at you, pairing the gesture with a wink of an eye and a click of her teeth.

(Continued)

>>4070918

"Bingo! Actually, the last time I saw Prime in the flesh, she looked almost exactly like Francine, but she went downhill pretty fast once she started cracking into Forge Cores and Engines. She and I started talking on the forums, and the second I thought I'd made a friend she was trying to break into my place and kill me. Was a first at the time, but after a while that shit gets real old. Was kind of getting used to fending her off, but I have to say, I really don't miss it." Orwell continues with a weary sigh. "It's a goddamn miracle West never thought to throw my ass under the bus and tell Mara about me out of spite, or else I'd have had the Marrow Dragoon kicking down my door trying to solve world hunger."

"All that aside, I have to ask; why DO you want to help us?" You say, feeling a bit more relaxed in the girl's presence. "I mean, okay, you seem sincere about wanting to help folks, and with West Alpha? Yeah, that's a big deal...but you still came to us first, when I'm sure there plenty of folks and places that could use an eye like yours."

"Dude, I'm not sure how you and your family don't see this already, but...your actions? Your accomplishments? Legit, everything you've done since the moment you woke up? YOU are the movers, YOU are the shakers. You're getting shit done at a freakishly fast pace, and it's about damn time someone steps up to the plate to kick the Hunger Games in its teeth. The simple answer's the honest one..."

Orwell throws her hands wide with a grin.

"...you're a runaway train of problem solving, and I want to hop on the caboose."

(Continued)

>>4070933

"Okay...so, why did you present yourself like you did originally? Was it a test? Or did something horrible get lost in translation about what me and mine stand for?" You finally ask, folding your arms as you study the spindly Daughter before you.

"Look, I got excited. Can you blame me?" She groans exasperatedly, more at herself than anything. "You just pulled a big damn heroes moment by saving Laoc, and I could FEEL how much of a big freaking deal that was. News, stories, information...I can feel that stuff in my bones, thanks to my power. You were on the cusp of something HUGE, and if it was spun, then it'd be a hurricane of goodwill that you can ride all the way to the Cord."

"You heard what I said about 'narrative control' and all that spin-doctor nonsense. I don't want any of that, so-" You start to growl, finding yourself interrupted when Orwell holds up her hands.

"Yes, yeah, I get it, but that's not what I'm offering." The waifish girl explains, choosing her words with care. "You do good things, and I can take good things and get the word out about them. The RIGHT words. Look, people will try and spin the narrative around you whether you like it or not. Charon's already out there forming cults under your name without fully realizing it, and you've got loads of people who're looking at you like you're some kind of messiah."

Orwell steps forward, with an almost pleading look in her deep blue eyes.

"You don't want to put out anything less than the truth, and nothing but the truth? I get that. I LOVE that. But you've gotta realize that if you don't have control of your own story, then you can rest assured that someone else will...and stories have power you wouldn't believe. So when someone else takes control of your narrative..."

She smiles, and it's a small thing, weary and tired.

"...that's when all your control and power goes right out the window."

>>Given what she's said, you have a few more questions for Orwell before you follow her to her home.

>>You're done for now. Continue to the Panopticon, and get down to brass tacks about West Alpha.

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>4070947

>"Well then..."
>Crack a smile.
>"Welcome aboard Orwell. Just one more condition, take good care of yourself. It wouldn't do you any favors if my daughter sees her idol looking like she hasn't taken a shower in days"

>You're done for now. Continue to the Panopticon, and get down to brass tacks about West Alpha.

>>4070940
>take a moment, to study Orwell and let the air settle.
>"the minute its the right time to talk to Charon, im making sure they knock that off."
>fold your arms, and stare her down, making sure she gets the point.
>"Im not a messiah, and i refuse to be one. people want to bend my story? ill deal with it when it happens. people think im something grander than i am? ill disappoint them in person then when they meet me."
>"tell my story or dont, i dont care. but if i find out you're spinning the story, to my benefit or not, ill put a stop to it. I help people, sure. but im not a holy savior, and im certainly not a god."
>"You want to help? to prove yourself for real? you'll help put a stop to this nonsense, not exasperate it. the last thing i want or need is a damn cult, and ill sure as hell break it over my knee myself if i need to."
>sigh, and let the thick air go, and give her a genuine nod.
>"but for what its worth, i appreciate your honesty, even if i cant agree with the feelings a bit. now, ive got friends and family standing around, family being hunted by a super soldier, and you've got info that can help. lets go deal with that problem first, ok?"

>>4070947
>>4070963
Adding to the vote:
>Extend out a hand for a hand shake
>Motion for Amara, Sugar, and Rath to come over.

>>4070966
>>4070947
er, linking to the right post... even though i caught the bamboozle and clicked on the new one? the hell 4chan?

(Gentlemen, writing now since I got side-tracked from the task at hand. The next update will round out the evening, as it will allow you a unique information-gathering opportunity.)

Ugh. I conked out before doing dinner, again. I'm sorry, BHOP, we were going to have a cool big update full of exposition tonight and I missed most of it.

Anyways, I like Francine's plan. I was hoping she'd do something like this. Jam the network, unfetter all the Wests, leave them to their individual devices. They might not all be good people, but once unshackled they'll at least not be helping West Prime. A dozen mad scientists working towards individual goals is less of a problem for the world than a collective.

And Orwell can eat emotions? Damn, the Crucible glitched something heavy, in that case. That kind of explains why she's so hungry for views, she is literally hungry for views.

>>4071151
(No worries, I'm clinging to the waking world right now, as-is. I had a very specific point I wished to leave off at depending on how everyone voted, and I'm going to get there.)

(I'm glad you were able to get some rest, though. It was well-deserved.)

>>4071151
>And Orwell can eat emotions? Damn, the Crucible glitched something heavy, in that case. That kind of explains why she's so hungry for views, she is literally hungry for views.

Damn right. Some streamers use their views to make money and put food on the table, but Orwells' are way more important to her. If she doesn't get views, she doesn't EAT, period.

>>4071151
>>4071165

No.... that's not it. That's not it at all.

Orwell feeds on thoughts and emotions to survive.
Orwell needs ideas to sustain herself...she's basically a roundabout Mindflayer.

that brings up the concept of "attention whoring" into terrifying levels. And Streaming herself is the perfect avenue. She basically eats the random thoughts, emotions, and memes twitch chat creates during her streams to keep herself sated.

and that image file name says it all: "Food for Thought, Thought for Food".

>>4071155
I keep dozing off in the early evening, I don't even remember falling asleep or having dreams. Just suddenly "Boop, it is now midnight and you have a crick in your neck from sleeping in a funny position in your chair. Enjoy having your sleep schedule disrupted enough you're probably going to do this again tomorrow."

>>4071165
>>4071175
It's honestly kind of refreshing in its purity. To have the entire system of the "attentional economy" stripped down to its most literal. I like it a lot, Orwell's a fun idea.

>>4071155
>>4071165
>>4071175
(It's thoughts and emotions, given the nature of the Skintalker and Phantasmal Conduit abilities she rolled into her Core, respectively. It's all sustenance for her, in the most literal sense of the word.)

>>4071180
please take care of yourself and fix your sleep schedule.

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>>4071180
I get it, i do, but it might be better to just jump in bed for a day when you get home or whatever, instead of fighting the tiredness. i mean, to be fair, it doesn't sound like not is avoiding issues or lost time anyways.

>>4071155
also BHOP, dont push yourself if you''re that tired, and/or its all just becoming mush on paper. I get wanting to make up for lost time and wanting to let off a session right, but at the same time if you're struggling to do the section the justice it needs, its ok to wait til you know you can write it well.

plus, you might just cause yourself the other Anons issue. and that doesn't sound fun.

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>>4070947

You allow a contemplative silence to settle between the two of you, lingering for a few moments before you shake your head with a sigh.

"The minute it's the right time to talk to Charon, I'm making sure they knock that off." You grumble, and for some reason that's enough to coax a laugh out of Orwell.

"Ha, seriously!" She grins. "When I saw what they were doing, I was all like, you want cults? 'Cause that's how you get cults!'"

Folding your arms, Orwell's laughter subsides when she realizes you mean business with the unmistakable tone you take with her. "I'm not a messiah, and I refuse to be one. People want to bend my story? I'll deal with it when it happens. People think I'm something grander than I am? I'll disappoint them in person then when they meet me."

"Aw, I don't think you're disappointing at all, now that we've met." Orwell slides in, and you just cock an eyebrow right back at her.

"Tell my story or don't, I don't care. But if I find out you're spinning the story to my benefit or not, I'll put a stop to it. I help people, sure. But I'm no holy savior, and I'm certainly no god. You want to help? To prove yourself for real? You'll help put a stop to this nonsense, not exacerbate it. The last thing I want or need is a damn cult, and I'll sure as hell break it over my knee myself if I need to."

You can tell she's about to give you a little salute or something similar when she pauses, allowing her arms to rest at her sides as she settles for a simple nod at the import of the line you've drawn. Well, now that that's over with...

"For what it's worth? I appreciate your honesty, even if I can't agree with the feelings. Now, I've got friends and family standing around, family being hunted by a super soldier, and you've got info that can help. lets go deal with that problem first, okay?"

Cracking a smile, you extend you hand for a shake that Orwell enthusiastically accepts.

"Welcome aboard Orwell. Oh, and just one more condition; take good care of yourself. It wouldn't do you any favors if my daughter sees her idol looking like she hasn't taken a shower in days" You say, and the slight young woman laughs again before you wave your allies over. You're able to swiftly introduce Rath and Sugar before Amara finally breaks down, the words spilling forth from her a million miles a minute.

"I'm so happy to meet you!" Amara starts, dashing towards her idol with stars in her eyes. "I've listened to and watched all your streams and I really like the art corner you set up and I've been thinking about getting Uncle Dorian to help me with a drawing to submit but then I wasn't really sure if I'd be able to make what I want 'cause I've never really been that good at art but I wanted you to see what I made even if it sucked but then I thought I'd be too self-conscious to submit it but THEN I remembered what you said about always being true to yourself in stream two-hundred and sixty-five and so I told myself I'd-"

(Continued)

>>4071248

>>WEST PRIME
>>HEALTH: 36,560% (+6520%)
>>BIO: Unusable, generative power re-routed through Forge Core Matrix.
>>ACT: 6/6
>>RELICS: Variable, prefers augmentation-based and mix of melee/speed enhancers. Possesses four Tier 5 Forge Cores, Generation Halo.
>>IMMUNE: Acid, Frost, Blunt, Crushing.
>>ABSORB: Heat, Elec
>>UNIQUE - Unfeeling: Utterly immune to any and all positive or negative emotion-influencing abilities from any source.

Umm... bhop. Is that West Alpha's stat sheet or West Prime's stat sheet?

>>4071251
the info fits what we know about West Alpha, 100% my guess is a mix of BHOP being tired as hell, and him having so many people with overlapping names.

File: Orwell, in her Element.jpg (314 KB, 600x877)

314 KB JPG

>>4071240

"Amara?" Orwell gently interrupts, a twinkle in her eye.

"Y-yeah?"

The Skinternet star kneels down, bringing her eye-level with her biggest fan.

"I'd love ANYthing you made, 'cause you're awesome." Orwell says with a bright smile as you watch Amara's eyes go wide with awe. "I've watched you fight alongside Shu, and you've done so much to keep everyone safe. You may think I'm cool, but I'm nothing compared to you, superfan, and that's a fact."

Your young ward just makes a small, stunned sound as Orwell pulls her into a hug, which Amara's too shocked and overwhelmed to return until Orwell stands once more.

"It's good to meet you all, for real." She says with a smirk on her lips and a fire in her eyes. "Now, let's go figure out how to fight the unfightable, shall we?"

She leads the four of you back into the Envious City, through crumbling streets and shattered windows on the way to the looming, crystalline Panopticon. Striding up the steps to the front door, massive shards of glass-like construction groan as they make way for her and her guests, creaking closed behind you as you take the restored elevator up through the complex. It rises up, up, up ever higher through the shining spire, the entire city visible through its inscrutable angles. You finally emerge into a massive workspace, the top floor of the building crudely assembled into an almost comically messy living space, at complete odds with your ethereal surroundings.

"Thanks to my setup, I can broadcast practically anywhere in the world, and see there, too. We don't have to worry about being surprised!" Orwell exclaims, flopping her gangly form in a worn-down office chair, set before a colossal setup of refurbished computer screens. "So, just for a little sample of what I've gathered for you..."

With an arcane whisper that immediately piques Amara's interest, the inexplicable phrase Orwell uttered seeps into your mind, rounding out in your consciousness as a picture of the looming threat that stalks ever closer to you and your family...

>>WEST ALPHA
>>HEALTH: 36,560% (+6520%)
>>BIO: Unusable, generative power re-routed through Forge Core Matrix.
>>ACT: 6/6
>>RELICS: Variable, prefers augmentation-based and mix of melee/speed enhancers. Possesses four Tier 5 Forge Cores, Generation Halo.
>>IMMUNE: Acid, Frost, Blunt, Crushing.
>>ABSORB: Heat, Elec
>>UNIQUE - Unfeeling: Utterly immune to any and all positive or negative emotion-influencing abilities from any source.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Orwell says with pride, her blue eyes glittering in the light of the monitors. "And that's just the beginning. Combat data, preferences, lethal scenarios...it's all here. So! Where do you wanna start?"

>>Have Orwell search for a specific scenario or piece of information regarding West Alpha. You'll need every edge you can get.

>>While you're at it, use this opportunity to investigate one or two other targets of note.

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Gentlemen, I shall be pausing here for the evening. Voting shall remain open for the next twelve hours, with posting to resume afterwards. Essentially, this voting section allows you to ask very specific questions regarding West Alpha, with extremely accurate information to be provided regarding her strengths, weaknesses, and general combat strategies, the answers to which will be partly in writing, partly in stat blocks and information snippets, as appropriate.)

(Thank you very much for your participation, enthusiasm, and patience, and I wish you all a restful evening and a great day to follow. Take care, and good night.)

>>4071218
(I'm leaving the voting open for a good long while so as to give you all plenty of time and myself a breather to get some work in...and sleep. That's important, too.)

(Speaking of which...)

>>4071200
>>4071190
>>4071180
(I truly appreciate how caring everyone is, here. As someone that's struggled with insomnia and bizarre dreams for years on end before getting into a health schedule and habits, I do appreciate everyone's kind words, both to me and each other.)

>>4071251
>>4071253
(...And now's when I go to sleep. Thanks for pointing that out, you two. I'm glad that seems to be the only goof thus far, though.)

>>4071257
(Oh, and studying this information also grants you a considerable bonus to West Alpha's 'THREAT' stat block, should combat ever be initiated with her. Next targets, incoming elements, and the like.)

>>4071240
>"I'm so happy to meet you!" Amara starts, dashing towards her idol with stars in her eyes. "I've listened to and watched all your streams and I really like the art corner you set up and I've been thinking about getting Uncle Dorian to help me with a drawing to submit but then I wasn't really sure if I'd be able to make what I want 'cause I've never really been that good at art but I wanted you to see what I made even if it sucked but then I thought I'd be too self-conscious to submit it but THEN I remembered what you said about always being true to yourself in stream two-hundred and sixty-five and so I told myself I'd-"
Breath, sweetie. Amara, we've seen your drawings, you're actually pretty good for a seven year-old.

>>4071254
Fuck, Alpha absorbs heat, not is immune to it. Which means that Rath's immunity-piercing would do nothing, it's a higher order of defense. And yeah, I was right, she's so robotic as to not be affected by emotion effects. Nothing about immunity to bleeding, though, so I guess she still has enough fluids for that.

And the Generation Halo, too. Lovely. Not going to be fun seeing what fighting that thing is like. Kind of covet it for our own, though. Maybe crashing the network will shut her down and give us the opportunity to extract it.

>>4071254
>"well... fuck. im not surprised, but seeing all that in persons more than just a bit harsh to take in."
>Give Orwell a nod though, to show your appreciation at least.
>"so, any relics shes fond of? sounds like she either has or can make just about anything, but knowing even one common thing to expect could help."
>"any odd ticks? habits? anything we could even possibly exploit in that department."
>"...has she ever shown hesitation? both in and out of combat? any time shes seemed like something could or would trouble her?"
>"...any intel on how much our little ring-around game has done? think we've overused it, and shes catching on, or think we can still get some juice out of it, even if we gotta be a bit more creative next time?"
>"one last thing... know the location of the other West Proxies? we have an idea... not sure if it'll stop West Alpha, but it'll still cause West Prime trouble, and hey, who knows? it goes well and its possible even if it doesn't stop West Alpha, that'll give us more time... or piss her off even more, but, cant be worse than her already trying to kill us."

nows not the time to ask about anything else. unless Orwell kicks the bucket, we'll have another chance for that im sure. and, well, i think the goal is to avoid anyone kicking the bucket, oddly possibly even West Alpha, though probably unlikely to avoid needing to put her down... eventually.

>>4071257
Sleep well, BHOP. Get some rest, you've earned it.

>>4071261
>And the Generation Halo, too. Lovely. Not going to be fun seeing what fighting that thing is like. Kind of covet it for our own, though. Maybe crashing the network will shut her down and give us the opportunity to extract it.
Wouldnt count on it we might very well have to find someone capable of shutting its security off(i think OP said something to the effect of that it is possible to turn them off post mortem... but that has been a long time ago)....... unless we get Alpha to acceptance herself to us which i kinda doubt we will be able to do to a robot. I think she is not overwritten by a mind update every second she is probably literally a robot and cant do anythign outside of her programming.....

>>4071257
West Alpha is a goddamn Servitor isnt she OP?

>>4071261
strangely enough, she's not immune nor resistant to Neuromancy. Which is ironic because Prime relies on Neuromancy to perform system updates and orders.

>>4071268
>Wouldnt count on it we might very well have to find someone capable of shutting its security off(i think OP said something to the effect of that it is possible to turn them off post mortem... but that has been a long time ago)....... unless we get Alpha to acceptance herself to us which i kinda doubt we will be able to do to a robot. I think she is not overwritten by a mind update every second she is probably literally a robot and cant do anythign outside of her programming.....
Oh, I'm not even talking about making the Halo safe for consumption. I'm still on the logistics of just taking it. It would be nice if Alpha shut down so we could grab it ethically, if she developed free will we'd have less excuse for it.

>>4071269
Huh, that's true. I guess it's because she's a mind-slave, West Prime had to leave her open to Neuromancy so she could get controlled that way. Odd that she couldn't make a filter for that using the Neurotic Halos, let her Neuromancy through but not others, but for a Neuromancer West Prime has always been conspicuously bad at realizing the full potential of these things. Alright, then, Neuromancy it is if we ever have to fight her.

>>4071257
you get some rest BHOP, and see you at lunchtime tomorrow... or probably an hour or two after, but still.

>>4071261
>>4071268
>>4071269
No Slashing or Piercing Immunity, so Dorian is good. no outright Skintalker or Neuromatic immunity, so thats good. not actually seeing stun resistance on there too.

also, technically Radiant is its own damage type, so Rath(and November i think?) should be fine, just reduced. both will have to rely on stacking up methods and making singular hit count, over just basking or quick jabbing away. think Raths Strands should still work really well, but not her specialty. thankfully Amaras trump card should be wicked well too, and we just got Gina a good weapon for here, though she already had a blade anyways. our Drills should be good, but our Acid is not only useless, but needs to be fully avoided.

and yeah, that Generator Halo is gonna be a bitch.

even with a full Family and allies i think getting 6,000+, especially enough to matter, would be hard if not sometimes impossible. well, 3,000+ i guess, assuming she really doesn't have anything to stop our Leash. but ive still got very strong suspicions even 3,000+ wouldn't be easy nor it end up that simple. not to mention what she could dish back in return.

Mind you, still think avoiding this fight, and certainly a conventional, direct one in any way, is really the option we need to figure out here. i cant see us walking away from a fight with her at all happy, and possibly without losses.

>>4071287
Well we could switch Rath to cold as well. She would pierce right through that immunity of WAlpha

>>4071254
Things to look up:
>Relic Loadout. Detail on Alpha's Forge Core Matrix, the Generator Halo, and the Four T5 Forge Cores that have been grafted onto Alpha's body. What relics is the Matrix powering? Is there any way to disable the matrix? That Generator Halo will give us a hard time since it appears to be what gives Alpha her Elemental immunities.
>the list of known augmentations Alpha has integrated onto her person
>Preferred fighting style, most frequently used move, preferred terrain, initial strategy, secondary strategy, and desperate last resorts.
>Her defensive responses/measures towards Terraforming, Neuromancy, and stealth attacks
>Any notable instances where a major ability of hers has been disabled or hampered.
>Her history of augmentations, relic installations, the frequency of her maintenance sessions, and her usual patrol routes when she isn't going inquisition.
>Her original Bio abilities.
>Who West Alpha was before she became who she is now.
>List of combatants that have engaged Alpha, the tactics used against Alpha, their effectiveness on Alpha, and any notable adaptations Alpha has incorporated into her fighting style.

Alternative Targets:
>West Sigma:

>>4071287
The Dainsleif will also do a wonderful job at dealing damage, but given that Alpha's mainly fibromancy boosted, I don't want the spear to be used by Alpha herself.

Alternatively, we can have Gina perform Ability Lockdown on Alpha and disable crucial Augmentations and abilities that give the terminator its fighting edge. If we lockdown the Emotion suppression ability, phantasmal effects will do wonders against Alpha. Alternatively, we could also disable an elemental immunity/absorption and exploit that chink in the armor. And finally, Neuromancy can be exploited for some wifi dream battles. However I will say that if we do take the fight to a wifi-dream battle, then this will grab the attention of West Prime herself, so if we are going to do a dream fight against Alpha, lets do it immediately after taking down the Proxy network.

>>4071294
That's correct:

>BURROWING BLAST (Generator Augmentation): Power and unrelenting strength are the touchstones of a Generator's skillset, and to be rebuffed by something as cowardly is armor is an affront to their very nature. Any and all of the wielder's Generator-based skills now completely bypass armor and reducing the target's elemental resistance by one level, rendering your strikes able to pierce through immunity to your damage type. To add insult to injury, the also gain an additional 5% boost to their damage for each 10% of biomass-related defense the target has, in addition to having their critical-hit chance doubled against any foe that does not have at least one level of resistance to the element of your strike. Because really....fuck armor. (BIO+50%)

>>4071294
maybe, but thats still cutting down on the Colds performance, while her Radiant performance wouldn't be affected at all.

>>4071295
why West Sigma? was that the Amara Clone story one? not sure its worth wasting time on just her. getting dragged away by West Alpha cant be good for anyone, and if we even can and want to help her, taking down the Proxy network would be more beneficial. and we certainly dont need or have time to get to know her specifically in detail right now.

as for the rest, maybe. the fact it requires constant focus and ACTs for a random ability though i still dont like. and yeah, taking her in the Dreaming sounds like an iffy idea too. im not sure i want to see what 4 T5 Forge Cores can do in the limitlessness of the dreamscape honestly.

>>4071287
>Mind you, still think avoiding this fight, and certainly a conventional, direct one in any way, is really the option we need to figure out here. i cant see us walking away from a fight with her at all happy, and possibly without losses.
No argument here, shutting down the network via another Proxy should be our aim. Still, it's good to know we can hit her with Neuromancy and Skintalking, those are actually pretty big weaknesses. Skintalking especially, a GRA REV VITA CUNT would take off more than four fifths of her Health if we used it as an opening move. Definitely something to use if we have no other choice.

>>4071294
Silvis' Radiance only applies to heat and radiant damage, unfortunately.

>>4071305
West Sigma is the Proxy that set up shop right next to Silvis's old Power Plant.

West Tau is the one in Amara's Clone where Alpha dragged Tau out kicking and screaming.

>>4071311
Yeah, we should hit Sigma, if they're still there. Or at least start tracking them from their lab, if they've left.

>>4071311
>>4071315
oh, fair enough, but i still disagree on wasting time on asking about specific Wests, over just finding which one is the most vulnerable.

we have no way of knowing, or reason to think, that is, or technically ever was, West Sigma.

>>4071306
Huh..... Completely forgot we had that augment.... Then radiant is definetly the way to go and we should probably have Amara enchant us with radiant damage as well........
Would that work on Rath to boost that damage even more?

>>4071321
Maybe? knowing BHOP, probably does. but im actually not sure if we have ever been told if stacking the same elemental damage type is just directly x1, x2,etc, nor how it interacts with resistances and such.

so far i seems like it doesnt, so you could have 100x an elemental damage but just be feeding your foe 100x more than usual. question for BHOP, once morning comes.

>>4071321
I don't know if that innately happens when you add an elemental damage augment spell to existing elemental damage, but the NUKA word does boost Radiant damage on its own in addition to converting damage dealt to Radiant. And it would mean that all of Rath's damage would count as Radiant, instead of mixed Radiant/Heat, so she'd be dealing full power hits instead of some being absorbed to ameliorate the rest. If we have to fight West Alpha, then we need Amara casing GRA REV VITA CUNT on her and the Joyous Many casting OMA NUKA THA on us. Take off four-fifths of her health and give everyone a damage type she has no immunity or absorption to, it would help a lot. Still, though, as much as contingency plans for if we have to fight Alpha are good, we should focus more on crashing the network. That might remove Alpha from play, it might just make her unfocused and less effective without a network connection to guide her, either way it should be our first priority.

>>4071257
Hey Bhop, is Alpha's Bio Reserve have any regen? Or is all of that Bio regen diverted to HP regen?

>>4071327
>>4071321
>>4071315

>>HEALTH: 36,560% (+6520%)
>>BIO: Unusable, generative power re-routed through Forge Core Matrix.

Gentlemen, I just noticed something, but I need to confirm with Bhop when he wakes up:

But here's my hunch:
Alpha has Zero Bio regen. Her Bio pool is static. What if we drained Alpha's bio pool with Dorian's lvl 5 Core?

>RED DEATH (Lvl 5 Hybrid): A new facet of fear will strike to the very lifeblood of Dorian's foes. An offshoot of SCARLET TERROR's Lvl 1 power, Dorian is now able to turn his sanguine tether into an instrument of slow, seeping death, exchanging his armor regeneration for the ability to subtract his HEALTH/BIO REGEN from his a single foe’s own regenerative capabilities. In the event that his target's REGEN is reduced below 0%, then Dorian deals unavoidable damage to the foe's HEALTH and BIO reserves equal to the difference of each statistic. His scarlet reign is as inevitable as death itself. (HEALTH REGEN +30%, BIO REGEN +20%)

>(Your Biomass, or BIO, gauge is a measure of how much flesh-stuff you’ve assimilated into your form. It pulls triple-duty as damage-buffer, initiative modifier, and mana pool in Meat World. The higher the gauge, the more it weighs you down but the more damage resistance it grants, while a lower gauge means lessened damage resistance but a higher chance to gain first strike and score a critical hit. Melee classes typically form weapons or armor from BIO, while Ranged Classes actively spend more BIO with their abilities.)

Granted, it will make Alpha all the more dangerous while she's swinging, but it will let us deal more damage unaffected by her Bio pool's defense modifier.

Another thing to add: Much of Alpha's power appears to be Relic dependent. strip Alpha of her relics and we cripple her fighting ability.

>>4071342
really depends on what it means and how it works with her Forge Cores. also, just realized i have no idea what BHOP means by the wording on that ability, so either Dorian probably isnt draining it fast enough to really matter, or he could possibly kill her in 2-3 turns potentially, depending on the circumstances and what her Bio Pool number actually is... and if it can actually even be affected.

feels very intentional it was given no number.

>>4071342
>Another thing to add: Much of Alpha's power appears to be Relic dependent. strip Alpha of her relics and we cripple her fighting ability.

WAIT

ERUPTING GRASP (Lvl 3): By far Rath’s most puzzling and oft-forgotten tool in her ever-growing arsenal, Erupting Grasp’s most recent increase in power now allows Rath to pour 150% BIO into a single, devastating strike that boasts the unique ability to temporarily disable any active Relics the target is in possession of, rendering worn Relics briefly useless and opening the wearer up to powerful follow-up attacks.

Could this be Erupting Grasp's time to shine!?

>>4071342
regardless, i agree with
>>4071337
we're focusing on the wrong thing here by alot.

>>4071354
assuming we get Rath in close and she has no Relic or ability to negate that. protecting her Relics and ability to use them has to be in there somewhere id imagine.

>>4071358
Yeah, West's too cunning to not include an ability that'll prevent someone trying to disable her relics, given that Alpha is so dependent upon them.

>>4071342
Sadly we don't have access to Julia..... That could be absolutely monstrous if she could eat all those generated relics......
Oh well it's not like we plan to fight the Arco Flagellant that can spontaneously create new weapons in a fair fight.
I think it rerouted into her firgecore system. So reducing regen might reduce her ability to react with new relics.

>>4071354
.......... That might work as well if we can get that through I might be devestating. But I would imagine she has a restarter somewhere in there to counter anti relic builds.

>>4071356
So just ask Orwell for a general list if the other proxies their whereabouts and what kind of defences they have? In addition to all she knows about West Alpha

>>4071356
>>4071337
While I agree wholeheartedly that we're not focusing on the priority of crashing the network, it would be prudent to learn about the current biggest threat and devise countermeasures against Alpha if/when the worst case scenario happens (that being we're forced to fight Alpha and disable the network through the Alpha Node)

The issue is if we are to crash the Proxy Network, we need a different West proxy to target, and so far we have one other notable Proxy that we can target: West Sigma. We could've targeted West Tau since Amara's clone scouted her out, but that opportunity's gone out the window...

Actually, I wonder if West Tau is still alive?

>>4071362
Even though Julia's artisanal appetites would make mincemeat of Alpha, Alpha has some very interesting Relics that I would very much like to obtain intact as stupid and counter intuitive as it sounds.

>>4071366
We might be able to salvage the like we did the sui sacrificum from Yurei

>>4071363
I'd guess that Tau is still alive, but probably wishes she wasn't. Most likely she's being rewired rather more directly than the Neurotic push notifications that Prime sends, to get rid of all that pesky empathy and love for children.

>>4071362
technically, Julia said if it was super duper important we can call her up, but honestly? Julia would have to put herself at even greater risk than Rath to use her anti-Relic ability, assuming West Alpha doesn't have a counter. that, and we would only need her if we plan or do get into a direct fight, which isnt our goal.

>So just ask Orwell for a general list if the other proxies their whereabouts and what kind of defenses they have? In addition to all she knows about West Alpha.
well, yeah, basically what im doing. minus just asking 'about everything'. not only does that sound like torture to BHOP he doesn't deserve, but being specific does help and we dont actually need to probably know EVERYTHING.

>"and despite her emotionless state, West Alpha is know to prefer boxer briefs and- no, Shu, you asked for everything, and you're getting it! anyways, now, despite being a West Clone, technically her sizes are different slightly by...."

>>4071363
its almost like id prefer to ask her about what is the best looking Proxy Target, over just assuming the only one we know about is the best. huh, who would've thought we could use this opportunity to make things easier on ourselves, over just focusing on only what we know?

>While I agree wholeheartedly that we're not focusing on the priority of crashing the network, it would be prudent to learn about the current biggest threat and devise countermeasures against Alpha if/when the worst case scenario happens (that being we're forced to fight Alpha and disable the network through the Alpha Node)
yeah, but we can do that when/if its clear shes a threat, and/or after we actually know more about her and arent making as many wild assumptions and guesses.

>>4071366
i doubt we could or it would be that easy.
it also isnt worth it. if West Alpha has no Relic safeguards, were abusing the shit out of that, Relics be damned. not to mention, its very possible alot of them cant be saved, as she could melt them back into the cores when not in use. not to mention trying to smack 4 T5 Cores without collateral damage in general.

honestly even thinking about saving those relics is a horrible mistep in priorities here.

>>4071377
Fair point on the Relic safeguards, I just don't want to kill Alpha only to find out she's begun the Nuclear self-destruct sequence.

And it's getting late. We should resume this conversation in about 7-8 hours.

>>4071254
These >>4071266 >>4071295 are good, but I'd like to add
>Does Orwell think she can blow the Forge Cores?
to the list of questions to ask. Feels pretty important thing to know.

Also
>Go further in-depth on any Wests that Orwell knows that we could reach and target. Defenses, preferred tactics, etc. Also how close they are to West Alpha's current position, if we need to lead her away so we can safely strike.

>>4071807
If anything, we need to remove the Forge Cores from Alpha if it comes to a confrontation.

Suffering from a strong bout of apathy right now, but someday soon I will continue my backlog and hopefully catch up with a quest n progress.

>>4071844
I hope you do. A lot of interesting things have been happening in the quest lately, you've got some neat stuff to catch up on.

>>4071844
(I look forward to hearing what you think, and I hope you enjoy it.)

>>4071342
(It's all been rerouted to her Forge Cores.)

>>4071287
(Ha, thank you, and you're probably right about the timing, though for different reasons than yesterday; you and Orwell rolled quite well for info bonuses, and I'm having a blast writing it, so it'll be a pretty big update overall.)

>>4071268
(Basically, yes.)

>>4071990
>(It's all been rerouted to her Forge Cores.)
So that means her bio pool gets the isabelle treatement (static bio pool, all regen diverted towards HP regen) is what I'm hearing right?

>>4071996
(It's more like her Bio pool is constantly being consumed and used as fuel for her Forge Cores, existing in a sort of stable stasis as opposed to being rerouted to her Health reserves. The reasons for this odd symbiosis is further explored in the info you're about to get.)

>>4071807
actually, you know what?
if it does come to a fight, Tinker Tailor might be more help than Orwells info on how to defeat her. might, mind you, but i could see it as a 'everyone's thinking of her like a Daughter or combatant, instead of 4 Cores in a walking forge', or something like that. but, well, Tinker Tailor isnt here to give her very specific expertise knowledge on that right now.

>>4072096
>4 T5 cores in a walking forge
huh. Never thought of that. so wouldn't it be more appropriate to make her drain her own HP cap by forcing her to craft relics and then immediately steal them? Because aside from her scary melee Alpha's practically a Relic pinata.

>>4072100
assuming her cores being constantly fueled by her biomass isnt already doing that, sure. though, id still imagine theres a limit there. T4, and ESPECIALLY T5 relics cost a house and a half. even if her bio pool is similar to her health, id imagine 4 T5 relics still takes alot out of you to run, especially if you forge relics on the fly. undoubtedly id think theres a limit, and not an 'unreasonable' out of reach one for her to hit too.

but, yes, regardless if we could steal her relics, id be helpful either way, assuming they dont count as her constructs so she still controls them. but i was more thinking about if Tinker Tailor knows how to disrupt Cores or make them act wonky, or other odd things a Forge Mistress of her level may of found out.

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>>4071254

"Well...fuck.” You breathe after a moment’s contemplation. “I’m not surprised, but seeing all that in person is still a lot to take in. Well, I do know there are a couple of high points we can look into…”

Orwell nods enthusiastically as you rattle off a list of questions, her unsettling whispers of Skin-speak weaving into your own voice as you watch her eyes glaze over with something like static, her very skin beginning to fuzz out as she begins to lose herself in the search.

“Bingo.” She finally says, eyes and skin clearing as she rubs the bridge of her nose. “Alright, I’m going to start talking, and you’ll basically get a stream of info straight to your brain. It’s not gonna hurt, but things might look kinda weird. Oh, and it’s unfiltered, just an FYI. Raw data that West tried to scrub, compiled by other Skintalkers, and stuff. Best of luck!”

“Alright.” You relent, closing your eyes as you prepare to receive tha answers to your myriad questions. “Do it.”

She speaks, your mind buzzes, and then…you know.

>>Accessing W_ALPHA Directory…

>>Opening folder…

-RELIC LOADOUT/CORE MATRIX-

>>KleioChronicle: A quartet of Tier-4 Forge Cores make up West Alpha’s Core matrix, each one capable of generating a single Relic per turn. Evidence indicated that at least one Core has been effectively ‘jailbroken’, empowering Alpha to incredible degrees beyond that of her actual level when she was considered a Daughter. While overwhelming force tends to be her go-to, the fact that few have been able to touch the Cores she so jealously guards indicates that removal of one or more may serve to destabilize her systems, though the ramifications of such an event are currently unknown. It’s possible that a sufficiently-powerful blow could serve to overload a Forge Core, but the attack would have to penetrate Alpha’s defenses and be of incredible strength. The past has shown that little short of a high-grade explosive or a potent Generator ability is capable of overloading a Core. (NOTE: Preferred Relics and notable strategies have been moved to their own subsection.)

-KNOWN AUGMENTATIONS-

>>KleioChronicle: It appears that a rather low-level Daughter was used as the base for West Alpha, so they were effectively a blank slate in terms of ability. However, two Augmentations note have been hypothesized; in the handful of duels where Alpha’s taken any noteworthy level of damage, her physical strength appears to increase dramatically, likely indicating an inverse relationship between her condition and her power reserves that points to a common class of Augmentation. Second, whether through an Augment or some other modification, it appears that West Alpha is utterly immune to Phantasmal Conduit fields and other emotion-based powers, though of course the reason for this remains unknown.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: OMG girl, this is as dry as a desert. Git gud.

(Continued)

>>4072110

-FIGHTING STYLE AND PREFERENCES-

>>KleioChronicle: Incredible speed and combat potential aside, it’s become apparent that West Alpha is nothing if not pragmatic in her approach. Given that many Relic-based strategies employed by Daughters worldwide rely on a wide suite of useful tools, West Alpha seems to meet any challenge with an appropriate countermeasure generated on the fly. Curiously, unless Relics are brought to bear against her then she does not appear to generate Relics to counter what she sees, a habit that’s proven true time and time again. Whether this is a simple ‘if-then’ quirk of programming, a tactic to not have her potent creations used against her, or something like an honor system remains to be seen. Aside from that peculiarity, the Generation Halo allows her unparalleled maneuverability via the powerful air vents on her limbs, giving her the edge in melee and when it comes to targeting the backline fighters, a tactic she typically opens with as she takes steps to immediately remove Hive Mistresses, Neuromancers, and Skintalkers from the conflict before taking apart the rest of her adversaries. Additionally, if (by some miracle) a Daughter is able to get the initiative, then Alpha will often outright ignore them, using her superior speed to her target and put her into melee range. As a result, there have only been two known instances in which a range-specialized Daughter was able to survive past the opening moments of combat, and in both scenarios West Alpha employed a combination of all four Cores and her Halo to generate a massive burst of heat akin to a laser, instantly incinerating the last remaining Daughter and leaving no trace of her. While this appears to leave Alpha winded, there has never been anyone left standing to capitalize on this moment of weakness. It is both terrifying and awe-inspiring, in equal measure.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Didn’t know someone could have a hard-on for the Terminator. GET EQUIPPED WITH: Mecha-fetish

>>KleioChronicle: This is purely for research purposes. Alpha has proven herself to be a considerable threat to all who approach her, and people need to be aware of the dangers that are wandering this world.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: “Your clothes. Give them to me.” -teh Ahnuld

(Continued)

>>4072111

-REACTIONS TO NEUROMANCY/INDIRECT CONFRONTATION-

>>KleioChronicle: As indicated in my previous post, most long-range efforts to engage Alpha falter by the simple merit of her speed. However, there are at least a half-dozen recorded ambushes on Alpha by groups of Daughters attempting to obtain her Cores and Halo. While all were safely dispatched and Alpha continued en-route to her primary goal, there was a noteworthy trend that emerged; West Alpha was purely reactionary, having either been wholly unaware of the ambush until the first blow was struck against her, or determining that pre-emptive measures were unnecessary. Further investigation leans towards the former, given the considerable damage she took in the opening round, as a successful attempt to disable a Core would have proven devastating. However, there also remains the possibility that given her considerable regeneration, the opening round was considered an acceptable sacrifice to determine suitable countermeasures and a plan of attack.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Terminator 2; Fetish Booglaoo.

>>KleioChronicle: Your comments are neither constructive nor appreciated. Please desist.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Just trying to water the desert that are your posts, dude. It was a joke.

>>KleioChronicle: West Alpha has fifty-six confirmed kills, and that number comprises just the known ones. My best friend was among them. I am trying to save lives, so unless you have something to contribute, then please direct your attempts at humor elsewhere.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Oh.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Im sorry.

>>KleioChronicle: Thank you.

-MAINTENANCE/ROUTINES-

>>KleioChronicle: While tracking details are sparse, West Alpha’s orders tend to take her from east to west, and then back again in a consistent timeline that runs roughly one week. Taking this information and comparing it to prior combat records, it can be hypothesized that Prime’s maintenance occurs weekly, with updates made to West Alpha’s combat files once reviews are complete given small tactical changes between maintenance intervals. Aside from this cycle, Alpha appears to be thoroughly indefatigable; she does not stop, rest, or allow herself to be sidetracked from her current target, though she will not miss her scheduled updates by more than a day or two at most, going off of records that indicate that Alpha broke from tracking a target in favor of receiving an update, though Alpha immediate resumed her hunt with new capabilities at her disposal that allowed her to accomplish her task with her typical efficiency.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Alpha makes loops, not lines.

>>KleioChronicle: Explain. I do hope this is not another attempt at your brand of levity.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Heard from a friend of mine that Alpha starts off in the North, then loops back around to Prime by going south. Hope this helps.

>>KleioChronicle: I see...thank you.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: np. Sorry again, for earlier.

(Continued)

>>4072112

-PRIOR CONFRONTATIONS/FALLOUT-

>>KleioChronicle: Few confrontations have borne viable fruit regarding any possible weaknesses, but two particular duels stand out. The first was a memorable confrontation between West Alpha and Marrow Dragoon, when both were engaged in equal footing in melee range. It was during this duel that West Alpha’s propensity for spontaneously crafting booster-type Relics became apparent, with which she repeatedly drained her own HEALTH to fuel their defensive effects while simultaneously experiencing a drastic boost in strength due to her diminishing HEALTH pool. Despite this escalation Marrow Dragoon held her own, moving between close and long range to keep Alpha cycling through Relics, which appeared to hinder the Proxy’s overall efficacy as she struggled to keep up with the varying assault. Of particular note was the odd habit Alpha had of breaking down her unusued weapons and equipment into raw biomass before re-consuming them, a quirk that Marrow Dragoon capitalized on by hiding a Calcite/Generator mine on ome of the weapons after a skirmish, a tactic that dealt considerable damage. The fight ended in a tie after appx. seven hours’ time, after which Alpha was forced to retreat for maintenance and Marrow Dragoon, despite not being winded, failed to pursue. A second-hand account of the other encounter is to follow.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Sup. So I know a guy, and he told me that a buddy of his was part of a small team of mercs that tried to bring down the Terminator. Long story short, the girl that pulled the team together was this Conduit chick. Looked like a necromancer but with the justice-boner of a paladin. Anyway, on a lark one of the mercs she hired (not my friend, he’s not *that* much of a badass) practically killed herself with this big explosion of rocks and calcite. Not sure what did it, but one of the Cores got thrown out of wack and suddenly Alpha was flipping out, talking and yelling and stuff for the first time in the fight. Kleio said it’s the first time since ever that Alpha’s so much as made a peep, but her barbarian rage ended up offing most of the mercs and that Yurei chick had to bail out, so there’s that. Not sure if the Core thing had to do with her symbiosis-thing or if there was an ability shut-down that was finally able to get through for some reason, but it’s something, right?

>>KleioChronicle: Much obliged.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Now who’s the kidder?

>>KleioChronicle: Rest assured, I’m quite serious.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Oh.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: …Cool.

(Continued)

>>4072113

-PAST LIFE/ABILITIES-

>>KleioChronicle: No known info. Was early on in Prime’s atrocities before anyone realized she was a cut above the rest of the butchers that infest the Fleshscape. Alpha and Beta were made at the same time, so maybe there’s a link there, or maybe Prime decided to spread her cruelty around that day. I don’t know. I’ve reviewed everything so much it’s all I can think about, now. West isn’t a doctor. She’s not a butcher. She’s just a monster. I’m so fucking sick of all this.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Hey. You okay? I’ve tried reaching out privately.

>>KleioChronicle: it’s been six months since my sister.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: …shit.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Can we talk? No jokes. I’ll just listen.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Kleio?

>>KleioChronicle: …okay.

>>KleioChronicle: I think id like that.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: me too.

-PARTING THOUGHTS-

>>KleioChronicle: Sorry for the lack of updates in the past month, but I’ve been trying to distance myself from Prime, Alpha, and everything Proxy-related. I’d been sitting the dark for so long, I think I had forgotten what the light felt like. I’ll be leaving everything I’ve written up for future reference, and I’m leaving the edits open to let anyone contribute with new info. I hope you find it useful, and please be safe out there.

>>KleioChronicle: ...I know it’s easy to get lost in the dark with everything that’s happened and continues to happen every day the Crucible keeps trying to crush us under its weight, but there’s always a spark of good to be found, some sort of silver lining. Even if you have to hunt for it, even if you’ve got to let your guard down, just a little, to find it? It’s there. There’s still good in this world, no matter how bad things get. So stay safe, and keep your chin up, whoever you are? You’re not alone.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: Aww.

>>KleioChronicle: Hush, you.

>>KleioChronicle:…

>>KleioChronicle: : )

>>Baller_Oebalus69: :P

-ARCHIVE=End#@%+-

>>Updating…

-ARCHIVE ADDENDUM-

>>Baller_Oebalus69: West found Kleio. Took her. Made her something else. Kleio, she…she knew, and she lied to me, sent me on some stupid little errand so I wouldn’t…

>>Baller_Oebalus69: fuck

>>Baller_Oebalus69: I’ve committed everything to memory, and I’m distributing Kelio’s work everywhere I can. Prime keeps trying to scrub it from the network, but I’ll keep circulating this if it’s the last thing I do. It may be. And I don’t care.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: So whoever you are, whenever you read this…use it. Use it, and anything else you find to bring the fight to West Prime. She’s not going to stop. She’s never going to stop, and neither will I. So fight. Live. Survive, and be the silver lining in this hell. For you, for me, for everybody that West’s hurt.

>>Baller_Oebalus69: For Kleio.

-ARCHIVE: Closed-

>>Explore more files.

>>Search for information about other Proxies.

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Gentlemen, voting shall remain open for the next four hours as I close out the work day.)

>>4072110
not gonna lie, thought 'KleioChronicle' was the name of the relic-cores until the other person talked.

>>4072115
...oh.
oh damn. well that suddenly hit like a goddamn freight train.
well its ok Kleio, and Oebalus too, West Prime and Alpha will get their dues someday, we'll make sure of it.
...just no point in dying over it and not knowing our current limits either though. sorry, but dems the truth no matter how hesitant it might make us sound. trust me i want them both dead too, but we need to not be a pile of corpses in the process of that.

>>4072115
vote;
>"...any intel on how much our little ring-around game has done? think we've overused it, and shes catching on, or think we can still get some juice out of it, even if we gotta be a bit more creative next time?"
>"one last thing... know the location of the other West Proxies? we have an idea... not sure if it'll stop West Alpha, but it'll still cause West Prime trouble, and hey, who knows? it goes well and its possible even if it doesn't stop West Alpha, that'll give us more time... or piss her off even more, but, cant be worse than her already trying to kill us."

a repeat of some questions, but the only two not directly or indirectly answered, or at least couldn't be interpreted as either.

Damn. the tragedy can be felt. I think I have a good idea on what's causing the skintalkers to go into hiding.

Notable highlights:

>Defensive fighter
>Melee fighter that goes up close and personal, tends to gank the mage and backline fighters first as opening with a high priority in combat. Brings out relics as secondary tactics to adapt to circumstances, uses Forge Core Laser as ranged desperation move to take out ranged targets.

>Easy to ambush, but adapts to subsequent attacks
>Generates Relics as a reactionary defense measure (4 relics per turn), consumes them if unused. Useful for sabotage/stealing.
>Patrol route is a broad counterclockwise loop. Goes from East and heads North before Returning west from the south side. Weekly maintenance and updates hold priority in Alphas objectives
>One of Alpha's cores holds a emotional suppression unit. Overloading it or knocking it out of commission leaves her open to express and take in emotions. >Another core has been overclocked/hacked.

File: ddlyiq4-1933702f-9425-4e2(...).png (52 KB, 1050x875)

52 KB PNG

>>4072117
also, seriously BHOP, nice job on making me feel for two character over literally just an info dump and one girl trolling. well played, you bastard.

also, ive said it before, but ill say it again, love this artist. though her artwork really only works for daughters much further down their corruption line, though thats not really a bad thing over just a limited application of the artwork.

>>4072130
another thing thats very important shes good at reacting, bad at planning. the fact she fell for and couldn't catch onto Maras tactic of making her waste resources on re-consuming relics is a major weakness. sure, she clearly has limited resources, buts its also obviously not a 1-to-1 return on the consuming, or too easy to lose resources elsewhere for it not to still be wasting, and its clear she can HAVE more than 4, yet she never once thought to keep them around so she would be ready for when Mara changed tactics again.

thats a major lapse in long-term planning ability, and oddly even long-term adaptability too. she seems to only be able to take things turn by turn.

>>4072115
Supporting >>4072128
And then start to dive deeper into the files to find a suitable proxy that WAlpha will be far away from

.......also God dam why did it have to end like this.....
But this also confirms one thing.There is still something left in there. Her mind is probably close to an Arco Flagellant. Suppressed and kept passive until a certain trigger appears. Either being attacked or finding her target.
I think when they knocked out the core her "pacifier helmet" got removed and what was left was let out......

Well maybe mux her with a dash of Obliterator Virus for the spontaneous weapon generation and the flesh metal...... Damn she is like a Chaos Space Marine Obliterator............ She also has an autumn protocol. And if she has that...... Then she will also probably have something like the Winterfall initiative........