-trajectory. agreement.-

[from_scratch]

"Hasn't everyone heard of Kithabel? I live in Africa, not under a rock," Cam tells Tattletale. "You, on the other hand, are new to me."

Comments

[wormcan]

"The organ in the brain? It's different in each parahuman. The rest of it is off in some other dimension that powers are specifically blocked from."

[from_scratch]

"Actually," says Cam, "since I seem to be able to create things in other dimensions, I wonder if I can just do that, like, from here, or some more expendable vantage point. No parahuman anything, just me and knowing where to aim and a black hole."

[whole_new_can]

"It's the knowing where to aim that's the hard part. Once that works you could, but getting Kithabel out first would be good for a couple of reasons."

[from_scratch]

"What happened to her, anyway?"

[wormcan]

"We don't know. If she's even still alive it's because they want her to be. I think you should just kill the planet and not take any extra risks."

[from_scratch]

"So how would we be getting her out...?"

[whole_new_can]

"When we came to find you I would have said we knock her out, run, and hope whatever they've done to contain her goes away when the entities are dead. But if you're going to try being the Butcher....

When you were skimming Cauldron's notes did you run across a description of Contessa?"

[from_scratch]

"Yes, but I notice her power was supposed to be 'I win' and she did not win."

[whole_new_can]

"Because the entity messed with her power before they killed it. Couldn't be infallible against entities or Endbringers. You can copy the version from before that."

[from_scratch]

"I also notice that her power was supposed to be 'I win' but did not turn out to be 'I make my attempt to win in a remotely ethically palatable way' and I am not sure to what extent she was able to tweak that and simply didn't bother."

[whole_new_can]

"That one I don't know either."

"I know better than to ask what's the worst that could happen, but it'd have to be pretty bad to not be worth it. We could use some infallibility right now. Or you could always just make the black holes from here."

[from_scratch]

"I could if I knew where to put them. Is it the same place the passengers wind up? That one I seem to have divined by copying alone."

[whole_new_can]

"No, they throw those across who knows how many dimensions. Finding this one is going to take a bit of cheating."

[from_scratch]

"Okay. So I can Butcher myself a Contessa, see if she thinks I need any extras - do you happen to Thinker yourself the information of whether I can do this multiple times or if I ought to load up a single Butcher with a lot of stuff, Tattletale? - use that to see if Kithabel can be got out and even if she can't use it to aim black holes."

[whole_new_can]

"Separate Butchers. Powers'll be stronger that way. So would the side effects, but we're already counting on those not applying.

You are still going to need to be a parahuman first. I don't want the Butcher jumping to me; it might not be safe for us mere mortals. Cauldron's vials might still work, or maybe you could make yourself a passenger directly so it's not connected to one of the entities."

[from_scratch]

"Is there any obvious reason I can't just make myself several passengers and bypass the Butcher thing entirely?"

[whole_new_can]

"No one ever has multiple, so there's no telling what would happen if you tried. The other thing is that copying someone's passenger wouldn't be the same as copying their power. A lot depends on the individual and the trigger event. Wait, you can't conjure yourself a trigger event at all. Guess it'll have to be a vial."

[from_scratch]

"What if those aren't working anymore?"

[whole_new_can]

"Then we have a problem. Theoretically you could copy the extra brain bits someone had post-trigger, not just the connection, and just see what it does when it's attached to your head instead of theirs. But past a certain point it'd be less risky to use two six five on Labyrinth."

[from_scratch]

"Right then."

Cam looks for the vials on offer; he needs safety, not power. Power will come separately.

[wormcan]

Then the thing to look at is the catalog Cauldron showed their customers. Those ones have already been tested, and are conveniently ranked by interestingness and power of the result as well as by reliability of the vial.

[from_scratch]

And what is the least interesting most reliable vial?

[wormcan]

A sample they called Balance. The name might be familiar from elsewhere in Cauldron's more secret notes, as they took to diluting other formulas with this to make mutations less likely. When taken by itself, the Balance formula gave remarkably unremarkable powers: marginal improvement at picking up skills, or an appearance that gradually shifts to fit the subject's current idea of really good looking. The theme seems to be that it makes the recipient a better example of what they would want to be along some axis. It's a drinker-friendly vial, if low power by cape standards.

[from_scratch]

It'll do. Quaff.






"Is having a trippy vision normal."

[whole_new_can]

"You remembered it! Normally people forget that right away. I'd grill you on it, but it's not a priority right now."