02/01/2010 | 10:33 AM
Location: Fugly Bob's, Commercial Area, Brockton Bay Central Area
Sin of Gluttony.
The act of overindulgence, the act of consuming without purpose, without need. Greed and Gluttony go hand in hand, like two buns in a hamburger.
"...why is this good?"
"Forgive me Wilds, I have sinned."
"Okay, this isn't total garbage, I guess."
"To be fair, this could feed a bear and make it ready for hibernation."
"Agreed." "Agreed." "Agreed."
"Heh, of course you three bears would agree."
Olivan had to sigh- The sheer monstrous abomination against nature made of meat, sins, and grease. He felt almost like a ravenous beast from hell as his sharp teeth sank deep into the oh so famous Challenger. His hands were covered in sauce and oil, clenching tightly into the buns of the thing made from the corpses of devils, tearing it apart. They, all the Shamans of the Untamed Wilds (except Old Man Bah, who refused to even look at them right now) that were present at the devil's sacrament (Fugly Bob's), knew that what they were doing would cause them excessive health problems if they overdid it. Thankfully, this would be the first and last time they indulged in such... greasy eatings, mostly because of the unhealthy nature of it all, but also because of the sheer amount of attention they were getting.
They weren't used to such blatant and needless glaring and pointing of shiny rectangles- phones, those were called phones, apparently -and whisperings. They were curious about the group of thirteen people, men and women, of different ages that entered the same establishment of sin and grease and ordered the same thing, a beast of a meal famously named Challenger.
Olive knew the attention they were getting was planned by the Emperor. They were going to take over some merchants or something, not that he really cared, but his group of Shamans was tasked with being the momentary distraction, and Makati was doing her best to be exactly that- After all, her Chosen Form was that of a peacock, and she was just as showy. Her hair was a spray of ever-changing colors and shades, because her ability to change the color of her skin and feathers to perfectly copy the world around her an camouflage everywhere was so powerful that she could become practically invisible by just changing her hues. "Stop that." He swatted away at the bright blue-green-red feather that slapped his face, his hand midway turning into a panther clawed paw as he easily manifested portions of his Chosen Form, like every Shaman of the Untamed Wilds could. "You're being annoying, Makati."
"Awn, kitty's getting grumpy?" With another swish of her hand, a handful of feathers exploded right into his face, making him hiss like a cat at her- Which was exactly what she wanted! "Hah! That never fails." With a chuckle that was shared by a few watching them, Makati swayed her fingers and watched as colors switched swiftly and quickly through her fingernails and eyes in a rather hypnotic pattern for a few seconds, making him sigh: "Okay, okay- I'll stop bothering you." She was quite the bothersome younger sister type of woman, who saw the most fun in the most annoying of situations, but even so she was quite effective in annoying the enemy and making them want to attack her, giving them opportunities to attack tunnel visioned foes. "Ohh~ Who's the shiny blue man?" He knew exactly who she was talking about. They all knew who she was talking about, they all received the information packet from the Priestess of the Abyssal Mind Devourer, she was just playing it up for the audience they had.
Aganna huffed from her seat, her larger frame easily drawfing most of the men present, her muscles even more prominent as well. Her physical strength was perhaps quite deceptive, since he Chosen Form was one of the most mindful and wise forms, granting her powerful abilities related to the mind and not the body. Her form was that of a white raven, a quite large one too. "It is the Master of Arms. He and the Lightning Steps come, alongside the Fearless Warrior. They come bearing doubts as heavy as mountains, and questions as deep as the seas." Her main ability was to know things sometimes, know more than she appeared to know- sometimes she would just say things that haven't happened yet, and they do happen soon a few moments after.
Even if she loved to sound dramatically and needlessly wise.
Stepping into the establishment, the three men that they had been warned about appeared. The so called "Master of Arms" was at the forefront of the trio, his cerulean colored armor quite the eye-catching sight when compared to their own "costumes", although they all simply didn't wear any masks to speak of. They all carried weapons with them, wore comfortable robes or leather armor with bone plates in place of metallic armor (with Old Man Bah's skin being quite literally tree bark), with some even carrying staffs alongside their main weapons to have a backup whacking stick. Compared to the professional and sleek armor and costume of the trio, they didn't quite look like the so called "capes" at all.
"Unknown Parahumans, identify yourselves."
Quite demanding, isn't he? Regardless, Olivan followed along the instructions left behind inside his brain by his Emperor and the Priestess of the Abyssal Mind Devourer, being blunt "as fuck": "Fuck off, government scum." He arched his back a little, his eyes glowing a menacing light as fur began to grow alongside his skin for a few seconds- until a staff hit him in the head. Old Man Bah, following the directions they were given, followed along with his role as the "wise old man" and leader of their group. At least in the eyes of this oh so called government: "Stop that, Little Oli." The old fucker had too much fun with this, since he was not the stereotypical "wise old man" at all, being the bastard version of it instead: "I told you time and time again not to antagonize others just because they antagonize you... Please, forgive him. We haven't had the greatest experience with you government folk."
"I apologize for his... forward personality." The one in a Greek armor spoke, making everyone look at Old Man Bah while audibly wincing; "Let's, uhm, talk somewhere else?"
The Wilds Ones looked at each other. Well, time to keep them occupied while the Emperor goes on with his plan.
So they went along with the heroes' requests.
Which is how they ended up at the PRT Eastern North-East base of operations- also called The Rig by Brockton citizens - and into one of the reserved rooms for Power Testing. Somehow, someway, everyone was coninced that Dauntless had managed to talk them to do such a testing- which revealed something very unique to the new cluster trigger, upping their importance and usefulness up by a lot.
"So you're telling me that half of you can heal?"
Dauntless couldn't believe what he was hearing. This was one of the most unusal cases of Cluster Triggers he has ever heard of in his entire life! Not only there didn't seem to be a huge or deep presentation of the infamous Kill/Kiss dynamic, they all represented powers that seemed similar in the surface but were somewhat different when analyzed. All thirteen different people of different ages all acted like they knew each other in a deeper level than they showed, with many at least showing surface level cooperation. The seemingly leader of the group of capes was called (or wished to be called) Olivian, and he was quite the interesting guy.
"Yeah, yeah." Dismissively, Olivian lazily swatted a fly away with his tail as he was transformed into his pantherian form. He and all other members of his cluster could take different animal forms at will, which they referred to as their "chosen form". Olivian himself was a black panther, but there were many others! Three bears, one peacock, one rhino, one hawk, one lion, one tiger, one boar, one rat, one white raven, and one tiger shark. "I don't really see how that is so important, everyone can learn how to use their powers to heal if they try hard enough- Messing around with organics is just the easiest way anyway. Many of us can do that to some degrees, but my specialization is shadows." Shrugging, the black panther sank into the shadows behind him that was being produced by his tallest companion and immediately he disappeared from sight completely.
'Okay, that's fucking scary.' Dauntless couldn't see him at all, he could only see the normal shadow. There was no telling that there was someone there. "That is one very interesting ability to have." Thankfully, he was trained to bot aggravate any Parahumans into fighting, since conflict de-escalation was an essential skill to have as a hero... Well, it didn't always work- in fact, most of the time it led to fights, but is the thought that counts, right? "Are you still there in that shadow?" He payed close attention to the darkness of the shadow, only to blink when Olivian came walking from another shadow. So, Mover too? "Oh wow, I didn't even see you move! That's impressive."
"Yeah, you haven't seen nothing, pretty boy."
Mission distraction was a massive success.
02/01/2010 | 02:55 PM
Location: Abandoned Trainyard, Northern Brockton Bay Area, Abandoned Factory - Damien's Main Base
Operation "Love not War" was such a success that Damien was considering doing the same to other Parahumans that he knew about. Planting a seed of love to control the Parahumans in the future, making them fall madly in love with his Priests of the Lusting Heart and make them accept their Mastering without even fighting back... But he still needed to hold base for one week before he can upgrade the cauldron once more, then sacrifice ten enemies to the cauldron, and then sacrifice an enemy Parahuman to the cauldron. He already had an idea about the enemy parahuman, seeing as there are literal nazis running around that were up for the taking.
In fact, he already had several of the lesser crooks, the unpowered scum in several jail cells underneath his base! Whin and the other eleven Priests of the Allmighty Forger were having a field day with the raw materials they could recycle from their surroundings, and even more fascinated by the concept of "modern forging techniques and technology" once the Priests of the Masked Mistress were able to gather the resources and money from all the Merchant's warehouses and use that money under strict orders from the Priests of the Abyssal Mind Devourer. Computers were set up, books were bought, and they started to learn more about the modern world.
Damien refused to let science die just because he now had magic at his fingertips.
"Let's see... The Honored Ones were between the Empire Eighty-eight and the Teeth, they could become nice allies." Scribbling away at his notebook, Damien paused when he felt yet another Dragon being born from the Cauldron of Monsters. He paused for a moment, and using [Telepresence] he changed the production from dragons- of which he had 10, now -to the production of Slimes. "Well, at least they have their... servants." He sighed- Dragons were incredibly prideful beings, and although they seemed to like him and respect him quite a lot, they still demanded to have servants. So, Damien pulled unto the Cauldron of Monsters and created more priests, focusing on draconic deities.
That was how the Priests of the Draconic Tyrant were born.
"Now that I think about it... There's the Priests of the Everloving Hearth, the Shamans of the Untamed Wilds, the Priests of the Masked Mistress, the Priests of the Allmighty Forger, the Priests of the Abyssal Mind Devourer, the Priestesses of the Silver Moon, the Priests of the Unending Waves, the Priests of the Green Moss Boulder, the Priests of the Evershine Sunbringer, the Priests of the Bloodied End of War, the Priests of the Lusting Heart, and now the Priests of the Draconic Tyrant..." He paused, counting the deities in his mind, eyes widening for a moment at the sheer amount of deities his cauldron seemed to hold within itself: "Seriously, where does this thing keep getting these deities?" Maybe it eats them? He isn't sure. Regardless of his realization of just how many gods exist within his cauldron, the Priests of the Draconic Tyrant were tasked with the care of all dragons and draconic creatures that the cauldron is able to summom or will be able to summon in the future. And he's pretty sure all his dragons and draconic creatures would be capable of at least causing some serious destruction.
Back to the dragons, Damien checked the package that came alongside the dragons- pounds upon pounds of clean cut meat. Meat of several types and cuts, some cuts were chicken meat, some cuts were bovine meat, some cuts were pig meat, and some cuts were from animals he could not recognize... At least he had about 250 packets per dragon, so he had about 2,500 packets full of meat, with one pack containing enough food to feed a dragon for a day, so now he had more meat than he knew what to do with.
'I could probably get a mole on the various different gangs.' Until he has more options for monsters and sigils, he would play it carefully... So far, he has been able to keep himself free from notice, but it has been only a day, and just two hours or so ago he was able to take over the Merchants. Sure, it would take some time for the Priests of the Lusting Heart to make their "I love you" spell last forever and they'd need to continuously cast the spell to keep them addicted to love (and genuinely fall in love), but he is pretty sure they could keep doing it until the Merchants become his loyal soldiers.
Already Squealer is breaking, and it has been only a few hours!
'I mean... I would break too if one of those men had their way with me...' He sighed, banishing those thougts out of his mind- No time for horny, only conquest! 'The Wild Ones are still on the PRT side, which makes them valuable moles or potential moles, but to make the heroes fall madly in love with a few members of the Lusting Heart church it would require him to know their civilian identity and how to best approach them. Otherwise, Mastering signals would be sent out and he'd have the whole damn PRT on his ass. 'Colin Wallis would be difficult to bring to my side, but I bet I could find a few more Tinkers...' He paused for a moment, and using [Telepresence] he requested the spy network that the Priests of the Masked Mistress were forming to covertly find out the locations of the local Tinkers.
He even looked up the Wiki list of Tinkers, hoping to find targets. He did learn about the known Tinkers in Brockton Bay-
Armsmaster, with the Protectorate/PRT, whose specialty was well known to be Efficiency.
Kid Win, a Ward. With the Protectorate/PRT. His specialty or otherwise style of tinkering was most likely Modularity.
Squealer, with the Merchants, who he already captured. She has a specialty in Vehicles and Automobiles.
Butcher XX with the Teeth, technically, but only because Butcher IX, Butcher VI, and Butcher XVI were Tinkers or Tinker adjacent.
Jalloo, who was a minor villain in Brockton Bay. They seem to be a new one, with people theorizing that they were a Tinker because of their quite interesting set of abilities that are tightly linked to their costume- so, most likely Tinker.
Chariot, a member of the Undersiders, the thief group that has been active for three months now. He probably worked for Coil, but Damien hasn't found proof that Thomas Calvert was alive, he was counted as deceased in the Elisburg Memorium Website. He has a specialty in Movement.
Shelter, who was a weird Tinker/Stranger combo with his technology being the focus of hiding away. Or so it was believed, seeing as they rarely surfaced but when they did it was to go on a rapid and wide stealing spree to fill up his bunker. Or so the public believed.
Vulcan, with the Honored Ones, who was a tinker that was apparently specialized in "heat", like Pyrotech from the Toybox Rogue group. He was, after all, quite the big guy even without a power armor. He also joined the Honored Ones after his home was burned down by the Empire Eighty-eight because he was black- Or so was the most shared speculation online.
Brokkr and Eitir were twins of the Herrens clans that were sent from Gesellshaft to work alongside Kaiser and elevate the Empire Eighty-eight. Like the twin Fenja and Menja, Brokkr and Eitir had the same Tinker specialty: Defense. The only downside to their power, it seemed, is that their creations required a lot of repairs.
Geumsok with the ABB was a korean tinker that had a specialty in "metal", being able to create the infamous metal dragon that apparently rampaged through the city after he triggered. He was soon taken in by the ABB.
Another ABB tinker was known as 搖錢樹 (Or simply referred to as Gu) was a tinker with a specialty in "trees". Don't laugh, because this Biotinker was the source of the ABB's richest money laundering scheme as he can make diamonds grow out of his tree! Diamonds and other precious materials such as metals and even organs. A fortune tree. There's also some pretty scary evidence that his trees can possibly spread and grow quickly from seeds.
And then there was a rather interesting, if somewhat obscure, "gang". The Tinker's Guild was founded by Über and Leet- or rather, by Leet, after the death of Über by the hands of the Teeth. They are a rogue trio of Tinkers that reside somewhere within Brockton Bay, and they constantly harass and steal supplies from the major gangs. They are led by Leet who famously can make anything only once (aka Prototype), Patchwork whose specialty is rumored to be Repair- seeing as some of Leet's older stuff started working again -and Flashpoint, whose specialty was either projections or memory related due to The Tinker's Guild always running away with a rather flashy and powerful illusion that make people forget about them for a few seconds.
Of course there were many other Parahumans spread around Brockton Bay that were complete unknowns, but Damien already has ideas on how to find The Tinker's Guild, seduce and bring Vulcan to his side alongside all of the Honored Ones, and even how to get Chariot and potentially the rest of the Undersiders into his service.
But it all starts with a one fact: Waiting.
Until then, he will expand the amount of Priests of the Masked Mistress he has, to expand his spy network.
"Hum....Since Panacea doesn't exist, there is no official Healer for the bay..." He immediately thought of Luxian and how the old man was a literal saint who wished to spread the warmth of the Everloving Hearth, and smiled. "Time for some goodwill farming." The old man was, after all, the Head of the future House of Healing for the Menagerie Empire, why not send him to gain the goodwill of others- or better yet, establish himself as an independent hero healer. "But then he'd look just like prime kidnapping material... He'll need a group. He'll need protection." For the moment, Damien stashed that idea away as various slimes that his cauldron created continued to dig underground.
He'll revisit this idea after he upgrades his cauldron again- then, and only then, will he even consider making his first moves against the Honored Ones.