(2) - Dawn of the Metahumans

Game Master mdt

I'm curious to know why so many of the PC's are running with this "He could be a villain in disguise! We can't trust him!" line.

We could all be villains in disguise! I just thought it was because he's been acting like a jackass toward the rest of us.

Is he though? I mean, he's gruff and has a lot of attitude, but not as hot-headed as Aegis. Maybe a bit more attitude than Janice, but not by much.

That said, you bring folks with attitude into a room together and it's not uncommon to have a bit of a pissing contest.

Pulse hasn't trusted anyone who wasn't specifically added to the team with knowing what she could do.

This man:
Once worked for the government.
Knowingly sent us a trap.
Showed up out of the blue unannounced by Violet, in our Batcave.

And that's assuming everything that's been shared with us is true. And it's possible it's not.

The guy is cagey. He's trying to get Pulse to leave her home to go somewhere neutral on the grounds of 'safer'.

And he just said the group who sent the trap has a shapeshifting meta. My question is why the pepole with actual paranoia are like 'yay jet!'

:p

Seems more meta to trust him just because you spent a few points on him.

If you tie his speaking of a shapeshifter to things, then I can see that making some more sense, yeah. But as to the rest of it, I think Rocket hits something: a lot of the PC's have attitudes, so there's bound to be grating.

I don't know as I consider the idea of trusting someone Violet has only ever spoken of glowingly as being meta, though. Not because I spent points, but because in-character, this is someone she trusts implicictly. Not trusting him just shows her that you don't trust her. Which could be bad in the long run.

I'm curious to know why so many of the PC's are running with this "He could be a villain in disguise! We can't trust him!" line.

1) Most the character have just been introduced into the world of metas and now that we have enemies with powers it's not that odd to be worried about new comers.

2) Violet's made it clear with all her meds and the fact she was a test subject that she's not the most reliable source of Information and Rocket knows nothing about the guy.

3) We know he sent us a trap and they know we found it so trying to play it off as 'i did what i could to stop it' is a pretty reasonable con.

4) He wants us on a Plane which would f*!@ with most our powers.

5) He actively -threatened- Aegis and Rocket, which is the big one for Aegis IC. The attitude is fine but saying 'I'm not afraid to use my years on you' ( unless he means he's going to kick our asses in bingo ) seems a pretty clear threat of 'i'm more experienced than you and will use that to fight you'

If you stop inserting Violet's knowledge, it stops looking meta.

Look at it from Pulse's side more.

She didn't catch a virus.
Said virus gave away our faces, names, voices, locations.
If we skyped? The locations of our loved ones.

Who sent the virus? Him.
Who got the virus? A company with a shapeshifter.

I can't see how her not trusting the man who violated the sanctity of her home, and wrecked all semblance of privacy is meta.

If anything, her thinking he's an impostor implies -more- faith in Violet.

And this is why throwing spies into the mix is so much fun. :) Especially mixed in with shapeshifters. :)

Can you trust the GM and the other player? Or is the other player running a con on the other players? Is the GM running a con on the other player? Is the GM running a con on all of us? Or are we just being paranoid and using double, triple, and quadruple think to mire ourselves down and get outselves in trouble? Will it be more trouble if we leave with the guy, and he does something, or will it be more trouble if we don't go with him and he was right about the CIA team looking for us? :P

GM goes off to make popcorn

PS : This is also why I love the way they handled Black Widow in Captain America's second movie. :)

Pretty much that. Pulse is very much against planes.

First: 'Cage'. Doesn't have a nice ring to it. :p

Beyond that, most of the group becomes ridiculously vulnerable on a plane.

If Aegis goes dense, bad things.
Rocket can't superspeed, because where will he accelerate?
Blaze in an oxygen rich environment. Great idea.
Mud should be fine, as fine as a supersteong character can be in an object miles above the surface.
Janice is fine, mostly.
Violet is fine mostly.
Pulse rides in a cage and if she turns on her forcefield, may nuke very important things regardless of the cage.

And that's assuming no trap at the landing point.

Side note: I've been watching Prison Break, which means Pulse has been watching Prison Break. This means everything is a double cross. Everything.

Haha, Janice would still be happy to fly to europe, though. Being able to glide indefinitely is neat, and I'm getting breath support so I can do high-alt stuff.

Super Side Note: It would still be a really cool scene to have, because most of us are pretty solidly disarmed. Which tend towards really good scenes for Superheroes.

Fun fact:

Most planes are already Faraday cages, especially commercial jets, because of the baffling they have to put in to prevent the people inside them from getting roasted or electrocuted in the event of a lightning strike.

I'm not sure Violet would know that, but Pulse should, easily. She's a walking Wikipedia node, after all. ;)

And really, the mistrust is no skin off my nose as a player - I was just wondering if there was any player-vs-character knowledge going on in terms of reactions. I know I've used it inadvertently in the past in the game (though I edited or retconned my actions when I did, because as a player and GM I hate it when that happens).

Anyway, I'm good. :)

Edit:

MDT: PDF link updated, and the .hdc file is winding its way to you via the magical pixies of the intertubes.

Yeah, you can actually reasonably expect me to do things that are -bad- for me, if I have meta knowledge of something. I can't know if my characters would have ferrets it out without my knowledge, so I often wind up walking into traps obliviously... despite knowing they were there. Thus, I try not to know things I shouldn't know.

Unrelated to anything: Hotaru, are you reading Valiant Comics' "Faith"?

The dialogue style strikes me as something you'd enjoy. :)

Ok, another OOC question from the GM.

What does the group want to do next? They've been given some information from a source that may or not be trustworthy (depending on the character's viewpoints).

As the GM, I need to know what you intend to do over the next, say, 3 weeks. It's currently the second week of January, 2016.

Travelling with Uncle Bill appears to be off the table as an option at this point (at least for anyone other than Violet).

If the party's okay with her briefly leaving, Janice was serious about taking up Uncle Bill's offer—she'd want to spend the next week jetting around Europe, appearing in front of certain security cameras Bill suggests as various members of the team before slipping away into crowds, disappearing, and resurfacing a few cities or countries away.

Bill wasn't suggesting leaving the country, due to (A) He can't afford the fuel for overseas flights, and (B) doing so without passports would be difficult (and nobody has them, that's a 1pt perk).

Strictly OOC - Violet thinks they should, as a group, ditch the attitudes and take some advice designed to keep them all alive. Pulse and Aegis' absolutely staunch attitudes aside, they are really being (to her, at least) unreasonable and so inflexible as to put themselves in danger. Bill is giving good advice, and they're too paranoid to listen to it.

Violet is not about to let herself be captured and disappeared by the government if she has any say in the matter. She's been close to that, before, and she never wants to go back.

However, Violet is loathe to split the group up, as she 100% believes that they are stronger together.

If anything, her thinking he's an impostor implies -more- faith in Violet.

Not really, no.

Because - from Violet's perspective - if you had faith in Violet, you'd have faith that the man is exactly who she says he is, and you'd put trust in him the same way she does.

From Violet's point of view, she trusts this guy. That two of her only friends so clearly do not, even after everything she's told them about him, is a seriously deep blow.

"If they don't trust me to tell them the truth, then how can they ever trust me to stand at their side?" basically.

Aww. I wanted him to take me shopping in Europe. :'(

Aww. I wanted him to take me shopping in Europe. :'(

You may get your chance, now that Violet's said her piece and gone to help him pack.

If you think she's right or wrong, now's your chance to talk. ;)

Mud is ready to fly with Bill. Need to check the IC.

FWIW Mud accepted Violet's vouch for Bill.

Cheers

Yeah, I caught that about Mud. Violet's frustration is pretty directly pointed in another direction.

FWIW, I have no intention of letting this in-group drama drive Violet away. I don't believe in splitting the group or dropping a game just because our characters don't always see eye to eye.

Posted that last bit because I got asked a question related to that earlier today by someone when I was telling them about the game, and they remember what happened the last time a character had some stressful situations arise. ;)

The GM expects the players to work through IC drama. And that's up to IC actions.

OOC - We have no drama that I'm aware of. Given the type of game, IC drama is completely expected.

NO! I LOVED THAT MICROWAVE! NOOOOOO!

*Vader Voice*

BTW, Pulse, unintentional low blow there on the "families at Christmas"? You know Violet's mom and dad are dead. ;)

No hard feelings OOC. :) Just IC drama! I'd let you know if it got to be a bit much.

Yeah, I know. Remember: Pulse is still a kid, and that's what most of this all boils down to. Below are things you might want to not read, iunno, but it'll help you determine that Pulse isn't being 'meta' right now in the traditional sense, nor is she just 'mean girl'ing it up.

My biggest concern though, is that the paranoid characters (with the disad!) are just jumping on the jet without even examining the situation. Just 'sounds great!', which makes me wonder if my character -is- acting in a way that doesn't fit with the world as written...

Notes on Vi's behavior:
Pulse suggested he could be a shifter, which is completely plausible and fits with everything that's going on. That could be paranoid, but she just found out shifters are common. Or at least useful enough to be known in Bill's circles.

Pulse said nothing else untoward regarding bill. She made a face at Violet when Violet revealed her powers: This should pretty much be a nono as a general rule. Violet has no filter, so it's in character for her to not care about the 'don't give my secrets away' thing.

Everything else was either thought -in Pulse's head- or texted to Aegis.

So... Violet just went off on Pulse for suggesting that Bill could be a shifter. Which he could be. Because Violet doesn't read her friends' minds, and Pulse trusts her not to do so. Which means she's made herself vulnerable in that regard.

She also -never- mentioned to Pulse that Bill had covered our tracks. Bill said he was mostly sure he had managed to do it. Which was not at all good enough for Pulse... but she held her tongue til Violet sploded. :)

Notes on Plane:
Hotaru will be against the jet, period. For the reasons mentioned above, and she'll likely make a genre savvy note pointing out why they shouldn't fly. Taking a bus, while a lot less cool, doesn't -shut down half the team-. :)

Violet actually specifically said that Bill had diverted it and "helped send bad information," over here, but it was a toss-away reference on her part because she doesn't understand that level of technical discussion.

For what it's worth, Violet twigged to Pulse passing secret notes to Aegis when Aegis' phone went off - it's a standard thing in the group by this point, someone's phone goes like that, it's usually Pulse.

The two of them probably need to have a heart to heart, because honestly, Violet has been pretty consistent about trying to be Super Good Friends with Pulse whenever she can - take note of how encouraging and cheerleader-y she's always being in terms of Pulse's abilities. The idea that her BEST. FRIEND. doesn't like Bill is just absolutely heartbreaking to her. Especially the bit about him being a shifter - which was after Violet said she vouched for him and was absolutely certain that this was, in fact, her Uncle Bill.

From Violet's perspective, even after telling the team, "Hey, this guy is okay, trust me," the two team leaders (let's face it, Pulse and Aegis ARE the leaders) just kept pushing the shifter angle. Violet says "no, no, he's cool," and the response is "well, what if he's not."

That all of this was going on at the dinner table with him sitting right there and being talked about as though he was invisible was also frustrating (I mean, c'mon).

Violet really considers any act of mistrust against him to be one against her (as should be obvious), and acts accordingly - she tried and tried to take the conversation to the mindlink, especially with the "if you're really that paranoid about him, shouldn't you want him where you can watch him?" question she asked more than once. But with the conversation staying in the audible world, we again come back to the "Talking about him like he's not there" problem.

I hadn't actually read any of Pulse's backstory spoilers, but I had gathered that that was what was going on, yeah - her world is probably completely shaken right now, just as it was for Violet when the malware was revealed in the first place: she got the video from her Uncle Bill, the Man Who Saves The World, so it should have been safe. Violet trusts Bill, so when he told he what was up, that was good enough for her, and she was right with the world again.

Violet has a lot of experience with psychological trauma of this type. They really should talk. ;)

And really, after all the "He's cool, I swear," "What if he's not?!" "No, really, HE'S COOL," "But what if he's a SHIFTER," "No, he's not," "BUT WHAT IF?!" can you blame her for bursting?

For what it's worth, none of that would have happened if the conversation had been moved to the mindlink. Because then there would be none of the whole "Talking about him like he's not even sitting there" problem.

As to the bit about Violet not reading her friends minds, you're absolutely right - and that's the sad part. Because Violet is just assuming that Pulse would know that Violet would have checked him out, that she would watch out for her friends. She shouldn't have to mention that she checked him out, because she figures Pulse should just know.

But yes, there's a lot of assumptions going on on Violet's part, and she isn't being one-hundred percent objective nor observant about Bill - and that may in fact come back to bite her.

But, being who she is, she's going to want to talk to her friends and try to work things out, because she wants people to like her - the idea of anyone not liking her is just going to drive her nuts. ;)

And, FWIW, I'm having fun with the in-character frustrations - I think we deserve a chance to have our characters discover that they can have a row without going out the window about things.

Edited my post, btw.

BTW, I'm going to the NorCal Renaissance Faire tomorrow and will be out all day. Expect my reply in the evening. :)

But Pulse was talking to him as if he was there!

The funny part is, she was trying not to be rude by not talking about him behind his back, but then did the same with the text :p

I hope everyone had a more relaxing day than I did. The line to get in to the Faire was insane. It took me an hour to get my ticket, and by the time the birthday girl showed up, the line to get in was nearly two hours. It was bad enough that apparently a man collapsed from heat exhaustion, and when the EMT's showed up, they promptly let the Faire staff have it for not having shade and water available to the people in line.

The Faire itself was great, though, and if anyone knows who Moonie and Broon are, they were back together for a show (and will be doing another 9 shows throughout the faire), and it was hilarious.

But my sunburn and I are exhausted, and I've made my daily post, and I am off to sleep. Hope everyone's had a great weekend so far. ;)

doesn't mud have the paranoid disad?

Yes, Mud is paranoid. AND Hunted by the US Govt.

Mud's logic is this:

1. Ace, Shimmer and team saved Mud
2. Ace, Shimmer and team saved Violet too
3. Ace, Shimmer and team put Mud in the same place as Violet
4. Violet vouched for Bill
5. Bill could be vetted by Ace, Shimmer and team

Options:

1. Bill is lying - their house is already compromised. He's trying to get us out of the house, so we can be taken down easier. So, if something is going to happen, it will be after Bill leaves: either an assault on the house or at the airport if we take the bait. Bottomline, the only action here is to call for a teleport pick-up and disappear.

2. Bill is telling the truth - Pulse and Aegis are making Violet feel untrusted AND drove away an experienced meta who could be an ally.

Mud wants to believe option 2 for Violet's sake and have Bill vetted by Ace, Shimmer and team. This is event is informing Mud about Pulse and Aegis's limit of trustworthiness.

cheers

One issue with Mud's logic.

Nobody said Bill was a Meta (he's not). He just has some training around mental stuff. He's still a normal human.

Logic still holds. Whether or not bill is a meta is a detail.

Bill obviously is familiar with metas which is more than most of the population.

Seems a bit odd so many people think Violet is infallible

I think the argument ins't that she's infallible. I think the argument was, she was absolutely sure he was her uncle, which was questioned.

I usually don't like to do this but, to keep the game on track...

A) Bill is her contact, that means he only cares about her. This is logical and no different for ANY of the main PCs. If you have a DNPC, you only care about that DNPC, not any of their friends. You aren't going to go out of your way to screw them over, but you also aren't going to risk your life for them either if they insist on doing something stupid. The best example I can think of is, imagine you have a brother (or sister) whose friends want to rob a store on a lark. You are not going to put yourself in danger to stop them, and if you have to, you'll absolutely turn them into the police to keep your brother/sister/son/daughter out of trouble, even if your b/s/s/d is completely pissed at you or is unconsolable afterwards, because they are not your responsibility/loved ones. Bill saying he is concerned about Violet and not risking his life for anyone else doing something dumb is completely realistic, for both him and everyone else.

B) A lot of people are upset because Bill forwarded the virus without telling Violet. He has explained why he did it to her, but I don't think she relayed that bit of information to everyone else, so everyone else thinks he just did it on a whim. That may be adding to the confusion/upset.

C) Bill is an know it all ass. He's Race Banon and Reed Richards rolled into one, and both of those characters are complete asses, even when they are trying to help you, they're condescending know it all jerks. Note I did not pick the character archetypes for his personality, the player did.

Violet did actually tell the group that Bill fed the bad guys bad information through the virus, but as I said to Pulse earlier: it was a throw-away line on her part because she doesn't understand the technology, and was willing to let him explain.

It was his explanation that was what then got Pulse upset - because an 80% certainty wasn't enough for her, and with good reason!

And it's true, the player did pick his personality, though the player was expecting more of the 'Do anything for his family' aspect of both Race and Reed - which is present, it's just also riding alongside the "I've been places and done things that I'm not proud of, and I'll do them again to save the world if I have to" mentality they both possess. So that's on me. ;)

Mud doesn't think anyone in the group is infallible. However, he'll give anyone a reasonable benefit of the doubt when they express absolute certainty.

This is an exclusive club. Everyone has a strong interest not to get captured or die.

I still don't remember Vi saying that. I only have Bill's acknowledgement that he did it and Vi saying she already brought it up. I looked for it once and didn't find it. Could you try to find it and quote it for me? I'm at least -personally- missing the post, even if my computer is getting it. :)

Violet, you're still missing my meaning.

You told them what he did, and left it to him to say how he did it.

You didn't tell them why he did it. As in, the reason he chanced sending bad data and not telling you instead of just not sending the virus or telling you it was malwared.

I still don't remember Vi saying that. I only have Bill's acknowledgement that he did it and Vi saying she already brought it up. I looked for it once and didn't find it. Could you try to find it and quote it for me? I'm at least -personally- missing the post, even if my computer is getting it. :)

I linked it up in my earlier post, but I'll link it again.

CLICKY

Direct quote:

"He diverted it," Violet says, busily seasoning and grilling up the steaks for dinner. "Helped send bad information. Ask him to explain, I don't follow any of it."

Violet, you're still missing my meaning.

You told them what he did, and left it to him to say how he did it.

You didn't tell them why he did it. As in, the reason he chanced sending bad data and not telling you instead of just not sending the virus or telling you it was malwared.

I don't think I missed what you were getting at, but Bill later explained "I did this to protect people who were in danger, and I also fed the bad guys bad information while doing it" (summarizing/paraphrasing, here). In character, Violet had (a) already said "Bill took care of it" and (b) he told people what he did. That's good enough for her.

Out of character, however, yes, absolutely, there's a lot of misunderstanding going on because Violet just assumed vouching for Bill would be good enough. Which is totally not enough, by a long shot.

Thank you! I hadn't gone that far back. :)

I had also read that, but it didn't click til relinked. :)

He specifically mentioned three other research subjects that Violet knew who were also in the program, not the same one, but in related research, whom he was rescuing and getting out of the program, and couldn't be caught out at the time if he wanted to get them out safely.

Right, hearing that he took this risk in order to saving several innocent lives might make a difference for some folks.

Separately:

"Sounds like a plan," Blaze said. "I'd suggest we pack some sort of 'bug-out bag', just in case it turns out we don't have a few days, though."

Ohboyohboyohboy, he thought. Time to hit Youtube…

Blaze, I wasn't clear who he was responding to? Was he endorsing the plan of flying somewhere with Uncle Bill? Of taking a road trip? Some other plan mentioned in the thread.

There's been a lot of good in character RP, but (when it comes to our plan) at this point I'm getting very confused.

For myself:
- Rocket believes that getting out of town (or otherwise lying low) makes sense
- He likes the idea of a road trip (and understands several folks' reluctance to get on a plane)
- He'd be interested in tracking down a non-local lead, e.g. trying to follow up on either Skull or the Magician, if we think we have things to look into there. Or a lead that the New Orleans team was working on before it disbanded. Otherwise, he's perfectly happy to go on a road trip vacation.

For myself:
- Mud will go with the majority
- Mud thinks that Ace, Shimmer and team should be advised of Bill
- Don't split the party
- Mud likes the idea of laying low, too
- Doesn't know how to follow a lead...

Edited my most recent post to include a bunch of stuff from the private/spoilered conversation between Violet and Bill. Eidetic Memory and Mental Illusions are fun. :)

Oh, and for the record, Ace and Co already know about Bill. Violet told Ace about Bill when she gave Ace the rundown on her situation.

Which doesn't mean the team shouldn't consider telling the Head Office about him, but the "yeah, we know" response might not be what they're expecting.

Attempt at a (ooc) summary of where we're at and where we want to go.

(I assume this is both incomplete and incorrect, but hopefully a step toward a plan.)

Here's what I can remember about PC preferences:

Doesn't want to fly:
- Pulse, Aegis, (maybe others, can't remember)

I know that Vi and Snapdragon (and possibly others) wanted to fly with Bill, but I assume that's off the table since we don't want to split the party.

Wants to take a road trip (by bus):
- Vi, Rocket, Blaze, Mud, Snapdragon, (maybe Pulse and Aegis, I can't remember if they've spoken to that)

Do we have critical mass agreeing to drive *somewhere*? It seems like we do, unless Pulse or Aegis refuse.

If so, where to?

mdt or others, do we have leads to non-local leads to follow? From upthread, Rocket'd be interested in tracking down a non-local lead, e.g. trying to follow up on either Skull or the Magician, if we think we have things to look into there. Or a lead that the New Orleans team was working on before it disbanded. Otherwise, he's perfectly happy to go on a road trip vacation.

We could go check out the site of the Christmas bombing, but I (player) suspect that lead might be cold by now. If that's not true, it's a nice option.

Also, I have a nagging feeling I'm forgetting a

Just a note, Pulse is more likely to fry the bus than a plane, with her powers. This is true whether you go with Bill or not. PLanes are, as pointed out, natural faraday cages and are insulated due to lightning.

The bus (or any other ground car) is insulated by their tires, however, ANYTHING that contacts it can create a circuit (like a person touching the bus and a lamp pole at a streetcorner, or being hit by another car, a low hanging tree limb, etc.

So you are likely as safe flying a private plane (Be it one that an NPC has or one you rent) as you are a bus. From a powers perspective.

The Christmas bombing was at Scott AFB, poking around there is likely exactly what would get you in trouble.