Cubist

Jubatus converting amps and suchlike into a transducer for the benefit of Constance: This looks like a job for Jube's Knowledge (Technology) +9! Quickness-plus-Take-20 means he's got a 'roll' of 29, and his Improvised Tools feat means no penalty in case some necessary tool isn't available.

Xavier nodded. "Got it in one. From the official species nomenclature, Acinonyx jubatus. Or if you'd rather, go ahead and call me Jay, because that is my name. And before you ask, no, I don't bother with a secret identity." The feline smiled (without letting his fangs show). "Oh, she's here, alright. Just in a slightly nonstandard physical configuration, that being 'coherent acoustic standing wave'. One more piece of the local weirdness, is all." Weird, yes, but not that freaky, so why's she bothering to mention it? Hmm… if Blue Jay's one of those people who just can't cope with Extreme Weird, she should get out of the game now. Here, the feline's smile evaporated, leaving a serious expression: "If you don't know how to deal with weirdness, you really ought to consider moving to a place with a lower background level of the stuff than Freedom City—and giving up on the superhero thing might not be a bad idea, either. I mean, I've been on a bus that got hijacked to a different dimensional plane, and getting back home involved assistance from some ancient Hittite deities, okay? You stick around, odds are that you will run into freaky crap like Nazi robots and divine drilling-equipment salesmen and transdimensional nanotech-enhanced baristas." Xavier paused to gauge the young woman's reaction to his words—until he heard someone else's words: "'Scuse me, Blue Jay." And Xavier looked at nothing in particular, aiming his eyes in the direction his ears told him Constance's voice was coming from: "Could work, sure, why not? But it's almost certainly different in some way from the mechanism that originally zapped you, so Echo only knows whether or not a thing I rig up here-and-now can fully restore you to your normal self. If I was in your position, the first thing I'd try is running the original energy-converter in reverse, before I tried any other possible cure. That said… I'm not in your position. And I did say that whatever you chose to do, I'd back you up on it. So… yes, I'll jury-rig these amps into a bank of sonic transducers for you. And while I'm doing that, I strongly recommend that you think about all the ways this plan could backfire on you. And if, after you think about it, you're still willing to give it a shot, you can do so with my blessing." Xavier upshifted; this was going to be a delicate task, and the more of his time he took doing it, the lower the likelihood of his screwing it up in some horrific way. He wracked his brains (and his internet-connected tablet computer) for every scrap of information he could recall, or retrieve, about the energy-converting mechanism that had originally transmuted Constance into her current state, and he tried his level best to duplicate that mechanism with the parts and tools available to him here and now. Okay. Amps and mics. They're both sonic transducers, with amps specialized to convert electricity to sound, and mics specialized in the opposite direction—and we got plenty of both to play with. Also an Imperial crapton of semiconductor-based gadgets, so there's another exploitable source of energy-converting components… He also considered secondary issues: Say it works—she's returned to a solid body. Will her clothes will come with? Have the space-blanket at hand, just in case… Sound-dampening earplugs, just in case her hearing ends up over-amped… And in a relatively small number of clock-minutes, the deed was done: The stack of amps Xavier had commandeered, was now festooned with a variety of exposed wires and cannibalized components. Xavier downshifted to the common tempo of 1. "Okay, Constance: It's as good as I can get it. Are you willing to take a chance on my handiwork?"

The feline's reflexive first thought—Down? I just got shrunk to, like, 1/3 life-size; I am down!—was elbowed out of his conscious attention by the nigh-instantaneous follow-up—Yeah, and CF saw that, and he's not stupid, and he's still telling me to get down! He hugged the ground, making damn sure that his tail was down, as Frost's "pocket blizzard" froze all the fight out of the thieving monkeys. After a momentary upshift, to confirm that he still possessed his Timeshift ability, Jubatus glared at the big ape. "Yeah. You also got a bunch of other people, some of whom are not at all well. You'd damn well better hope none of 'em die from what you did to them." Then, looking up at the Russian master of cold: "And it's about time I checked on those other victims. I'll be back—" And the cheetah blurred away, to confirm that none of the suffering ex-humans had taken a turn for the worse in the past several clock-seconds.

Jubatus In-canon threads Chimply Awful Riffsational! Too Good to be True? Naaaaah In-canon GM threads Like a Greased Porcerine

Okay, the chimp's got a zap-gun, too, Jubatus thought. Looks like a different model than the one that moll used. As the chimp slowly, slowly, swiveled its gun around, Jube came up with, and evaluated, a number of courses of action; by the time the chimp's gun was once more steady, Jube knew what he was going to do. The cheetah extracted a polished steel hand-mirror from his Vest of Many Things, grasped it firmly in a two-forepaw'ed grip, and moved it in position to intercept the zap-gun's beam, reflect that beam harmlessly into the ground. Then he waited for the chimp to finish pulling the trigger… and when the beam (finally!) emerged from the gun's barrel, it struck the mirror. It also struck Jube's fingertips. Oh hell. Bizarre energy flowed through his forepaws, up his forelegs—Need a bigger mirror, handgrip on back surface, something—and the feline's flesh and bone flowed wherever that energy touched his body, shrinking and shifting into a new form—Oh [bg=black]xxix[/bg] the genetic boobytraps—and within seconds, the Fastest Cat Alive was gone, replaced by the Fastest Capuchin Alive! I'm not dead, the transformed hero thought. I'm not dead! Which means I'm still in the game. Now, where's that damn chimp…

Well, that's that; 1 (one) spent Hero Point for Instant Counter, plus Extra Effort for the Power Stunt. Will post this to the IC thread. Hmmm… Post-1st-turn Fortitude check (1d20+6=22) means that Jube's gonna be all chimped out for a while.

Hmmm… getting hit by the zap is not something Jube really wants to have happen, what with his +6 Fortitude save. Jube's player, being a fan of Barry 'Flash' Allen, regards random transformations as an occupational hazard for superspeedsters, but that's another story… Anyway. Idea: Jube pulls a polished steel hand-mirror out of his vest and deflects the zap-beam harmlessly into the ground (relevant game-mechanics: Extra Effort for a Power Stunt, namely invoking Deflect as an AP for Enhanced STR). Not sure if this is do-able, since Jube has already acted in this round, but if it's do-able, the cheetah gets Deflect 14 (vs Energy Weapons only), which should be okay because he's PL12 with a +2 DEF/-2 TOU tradeoff, and the Deflect roll (if allowed) (1d20+14=29)… equals the attack roll for the incoming zap, hence fails to re-direct the zap (because Deflect works via a Block maneuver, and your Block roll needs to exceed the attack roll in order to succeed). Sigh. If that Power Stunt deal is not okay… or even if it is okay, what with the failed attempt to Deflect… then it's down to Jube's Fortitude check (1d20+6=18). Which does not succeed, so the Fastest Cat Alive is now the Fastest Chimp Alive. Question: Does the chimp-ified Jube have a real voice?

Hmmm… getting hit by the zap is not something Jube really wants to have happen, what with his +6 Fortitude save. Jube's player, being a fan of Barry 'Flash' Allen, regards random transformations as an occupational hazard for superspeedsters, but that's another story… Anyway. Idea: Jube pulls a polished steel hand-mirror out of his vest and deflects the zap-beam harmlessly into the ground (relevant game-mechanics: Extra Effort for a Power Stunt, namely invoking Deflect as an AP for Enhanced STR). Not sure if this is do-able, since Jube has already acted in this round, but if it's do-able, the cheetah gets Deflect 14 (vs Energy Weapons only), which should be okay because he's PL12 with a +2 DEF/-2 TOU tradeoff, and the Deflect roll (if allowed) (1d20+14=29)… equals the attack roll for the incoming zap, hence fails to re-direct the zap (because Deflect works via a Block maneuver, and your Block roll needs to exceed the attack roll in order to succeed). Sigh. If that Power Stunt deal is not okay… or even if it is okay, what with the failed attempt to Deflect… then it's down to Jube's Fortitude check (1d20+6=18). Which does not succeed, so the Fastest Cat Alive is now the Fastest Chimp Alive. Question: Does the chimp-ified Jube have a real voice?

[checks the Core Book] Ah—yeah, that does seem more like it. And surge-for-an-extra-action is very appropriate for a speedster. [nods] I'll have to keep that in mind for future threads. In this particular case, the GM has already spoke/posted on the results of the action in question, so I'm okay with letting those results stand.

Thanks to his accelerated perceptions, Jubatus recognized the gorilla's incipient attack on Comrade Frost before it happened. The question was, what could he do about it? Claws… aren't my first choice, as living flesh is a lot more vulnerable than whatever that zapgun's shell is made from. Slam the big ape's head into the ground? Maybe; sucker's gotta be 400 pounds, if not more so, but my Timeshift is literally a force-multiplier… What the hell, the gorilla's skull has to be thick enough to take some punishment. Thus resolved, the cheetah zipped in behind Big Coco… grabbed the back of the ape's shirt-collar in his right forepaw, and pressed his left forepaw into the ape's belt… and forced the ape's top half down towards the ground while shoving his bottom half upward. From Jube's perspective, the gorilla's head accelerated downward at a deliberate, stately pace—and then Jube's left forepaw lost contact with the ape! The primate's reflexes were very quick indeed; from what Jubatus could tell, he'd thrown his legs up and back, and used that momentum to send himself backspinning even faster than the feline's maneuver. Oh, great. If it's a contest of muscle, I lose, end of discussion. And this was supposed to be one quick move and done; can't afford to let that other one get a bead on me with their energy pistol. Jube's indecision occupied less than a second of clock-time… but that was long enough for the gorilla to make contact with the ground and send himself springing straight to Comrade Frost! Oh, [bg=black]xxix[/bg]—another failure, the cheetah berated himself. Well, what's done is done, so get the hell over it and seize the next chance to not-screw-up. The monkey with the energy pistol looked like a suitable target for Jube's attention…

I think I'll let it stand as is. Since the problem is that the target made their Toughness roll, it seems to me that the only thing Jube could really do is a Power Stunt to give himself Luck Control… and that doesn't really strike me as appropriate for the cheetah. [after reading the updated most-recent GM post to the thread] Okay, Jube completely failed to even distract Big Coco from his intended target. Such is life. I'll post my interpretation of how it went…

Jubatus will deal with Big Coco. What he's going to do is zip up behind Big Coco; grab Big C at the back of his neck; and pull Big C's head down to smack against the floor. That's the 'fluff'; the 'crunch' is, Jube unleashes a Mighty Strike on Big Coco (1d20+12=25). Assuming 25 is a high-enough roll, Big Coco now needs to make a Toughness save vs. DC23.

Jubatus' claws made contact with the zapgun, alright. They just didn't do any real damage—all he did was scratch the damn thing. Wonderful. Too bad chimps are so damn strong, or I'd duct-tape the sucker… wait a second… can I wrap up this ape in such a way that he's got no leverage to exert his strength? Let's find out. Applying basic principles of mechanical advantage, Jubatus manhandled the chimp's limbs into an arrangement that afforded him no opportunity to break his bonds—or at least, the cheetah sure hoped so—and strategically looped several thicknesses of tape around carefully-selected spots on the chimp's body. With any luck, the fact that it's sticking to his fur will help; tearing mass quantities of hair out by the roots has got to hurt, bigtime. And then Jube downshifted, the better to observe the effects of his handiwork… …success! The chimp was thrashing around, but Jube's duct-tape held—the ape was thoroughly bound! One down, three to go, Jubatus thought to himself. Upshift…

Jay Xavier felt it was something of a waste of time to just hear the pitch and sign the contract. But here and now, what else was there for him to do? Not the autopsy on the security glitch, that needs to wait until I see Silhouette's report… hmm… got it. "So what are your plans for the YouTube videos? I'm assuming you do have such plans, because YouTube carries a sizeable audience, which means anybody who's at all concerned about PR should know how they're gonna handle it. Me, I'm thinking you should steal a page from Microsoft's book: 'Embrace and extend'. Like, say, you could give $1000 to the maker of any such video you happen to like for whatever reason. Pocket change for you, but a non-trivial windfall for most of them.. Or maybe you could set up a YouTube channel of your own, highlighting the best and worst of the other guys' videos; same general principle, just maybe consuming a little more of your time. For trolls, the jerkwads who do the YouTube thing 'for the lulz', either response from you will be evidence that their videos aren't pissing you off, and that should encourage them to turn their sights on other, more easily provoked, targets. And once the trolls are neutralized, you should be able to subtly nudge that channel towards portraying you in ways you prefer."

In no particular order… "A voice familiar to Jubatus' ears"—How similar is Acinonyx's current voice, to what she sounded like when she was human? The ex-animals and cage: Jube will ask these 'people' if any of them can understand what he's saying. In the event that none of them speak up, he will close and lock the cage, on the theory that that's the least-bad option. The ambient scents: Not good. Jube will pull a set of nose-filters from his Vest of Many Things. This will mess with his sense of smell, but it can't be helped. The hidden loudspeaker: Jube will search out this device, and see if this 'Acinonyx' joker was incautious enough to leave any useful clues on it. The transmogrifying gizmo: Jube wants to look this thing over, see if his 29 'roll' for a Take 20-ized Knowledge (Technology) can reveal any useful information. Jube will compare notes with King of Suits, and introduce himself to Rabbit. The herd of transmogrified ex-humans: Jube will try to make sure nobody freaks out or 'goes native'.

Jube will attempt to Snare the chimp, Slick Sammy, in duct tape. He will attempt to do this in a way that destroys the chimp's leverage, so he can't bring his full strength to bear. Roll to enSnare (1d20+12=22)… well, maybe it'll work…

In this situation, Jay Xavier lacked Wilder's high degree of relevant expertise… but if you wanted to trawl the ocean of digitized human information for specific knowledge, Xavier had few rivals. So while Constance and WIlder chatted amongst themselves, Xavier took a tablet computer from his Vest of Many Things and occupied himself with searching out alternative routes by which Constance might be able to regain her former mode of existence. …Sonichron, that's interesting, they got a hypersound facility near Secaucus, New Jersey… ArcheTech has two high-energy labs within a 150-mile radius of the City… Xavier's ears twitched. He'd heard that voice before, at the Lacrenza Apartments fire. And… yep, same costume. "Hello, Blue Jay," Xavier said. "What's happening here is a music festival, plus a couple of instances of weirdness. I take it you've had your nose rubbed in the weirdness?"

I'm inclined to go for the Mighty Strike. The bare 1d20 roll (1d20=16), plus Jube's melee bonus of +12, yields an attack roll of 28. If that hits, the zapgun gets to make a damage roll against DC 23.

As Jubatus sped down the streets of Freedom City, he dispassionately noted the presence of other recently-transformed people. Evidence that the perps were here, good. He also noted the few who were obviously suffering, but those, he was not at all dispassionate towards. Ever since the time he'd been completely unable to stop two innocent people from bleeding out, the feline had been that much more careful about life-threatening situations… Unfortunately, whatever was wrong with the poor bastards, it was something Jubatus couldn't—didn't have the training or knowledge to—do anything about. Thank Asclepius for 911… The feline called in the bizarre situation to Emergency Services: "—corner of Westbrook and, hrrm, 38th. Victim was transformed into a gorilla sometime within the last minute or so… Some sort of 'ray gun'… Victim is curled up and moaning in agony. No externally-evident injuries, possibility of internal injuries… Doubtful; there's a number of other recent ape-transforms who aren't hurting. If I had to guess, I'd say this guy has an inorganic implant, a pacemaker or metal hip replacement or something… Right… Don't know, but it wouldn't hurt to have more ambulances on call, just in case… Yes, I'll keep an eye on him… You're welcome." After hanging up, Jubatus spoke to the writhing gorilla: "I wish I could stop your pain, but I can't. I just called for an ambulance, so hang on for a little while longer, because real help is on the way. In the meantime, I'm going to see what I can do about the jerkwads who did this to you—and I'll also come back here once every few seconds, so you don't need to worry about anyone messing with you while you're helpless." Had the gorilla heard and understood his words? Jubatus didn't know, but as with many other things, he figured it couldn't hurt. And then he upshifted and was off again… There were other ex-humans in obvious pain; each time he found one, Jubatus dialed 9-1-1 to summon an ambulance, and each time, he promised the victim he'd keep intermittent watch on them. All of this slowed down the cheetah's search for the transformation-inducing perps, of course; but as far as he was concerned, that was an acceptable cost. So it was that by the time the feline caught up to the perps at Pizzazz, Comrade Frost had already engaged the enemy in combat—at least, that's what Jube assumed the highly-localized fog around one of them meant. Unless one of these apes is a cryo themself… no, that silhouette's more consistent with someone who doesn't like being muy frío. So okay, Frost has that one covered. Don't like the looks of their weaponry; let's see how many zapguns I can wreck before they zap any more victims. Starting with Zoot-Suit Boy's. And Jubatus blurred in to shred the sci-fi-looking sidearm with his claws…

Jube's Initiative roll (1d20+37=49). Assuming Jube can do something during the initial Surprise Round, he'll try to wreck the "odd and out of place raygun" that's currently wielded by the chimp in the zoot suit. Jube knows that disarming the chimp isn't an option, since chimps have something like 5* the raw physical strength of an adult human… Anyway, wrecking the raygun. Not sure if this would be covered by a Disarm Device roll (Jube doesn't have the actual skill, and would therefore be depending on his Jack of All Trades feat for this), or using his Mighty Strike to reduce the zapgun to scrap?

the Ogdoad Based on data extracted from Wikipedia, here, and here. A group of eight deities which represent the 'true beginning' of all existence. The Ogdoad represent four facets of the beginning of all things: Hidden Powers (air, invisibility), Infinity (eternity, infinite space), Darkness (obscurity, unknown, chaos), and the Abyss (emptiness, primordial waters). Each such facet has a male aspect, which is associated with frogs, and a female aspect, which is associated with serpents. Only one of the pairs of the Ogdoad seems to consist of two distinct entities; the other three are androgynous and seem to present themselves as whichever gender they want to for whatever purpose. Hidden Powers: Amanuet, fertility goddess and protector of the nation, and Amon, creator god and Lord of the Sun. Infinity: Hauhet and Heh, the "god of millions of years". Darkness: Kauket and Kek, the "bringer-in of light". the Abyss: Naunet and Nun, "father of the gods".

Seems to me that one reason for the Nile Gods' comparatively low level of exposure here, could be that most players don't really know much about them. So how about using this thread to post information about the Nile Gods? Hopefully, someone will see this info, say "hey, that sounds cool", and build a character or organization or something based on said info.

Jubatus' reflexive reaction, when he heard the ex-humans, was perhaps selfish—They can talk!? Lucky bastards.—but recognizing it as a purely personal response, he stifled it nigh-instantaneously. "Okay—Westbrook. Got it." It's as good an initial lead as any, but I'll have to be careful in case one of the perps is hiding in this crowd. "Can do," the cheetah replied. He wanted to say more, but Comrade Frost had already dissipated into his alternate form as a pocket blizzard. Oh, joy. He's already gone. Well, hopefully there'll be a fresh opportunity to offer Frost a commlink before we meet the enemy. Then again, would my gadgets survive his cute little transform-to-snow trick? Well, it won't hurt to make the offer, anyway. The feline upshifted… but did not begin his reconnaissance, as his nose had detected a half-familiar scent. Okay, who's dropping in? he thought as he scanned the area; and sure enough, there was a flier touching down. A flier Jubatus recognized as a novice heroine called Butterfly, whose back bore a human-sized version of her namesake's wings. Scent and sight, together, triggered a minor flashback: In the theatre of the feline's mind, he saw Butterfly lying on the ground, unconscious, and bleeding from a nasty gut wound… Get a grip, Jube. She obviously got better. But the emotional response remained. The first and last time the cheetah had interacted with Butterfly, the situation du jour had involved a pack of weird mutant cat-things that had, among other things, ripped hell out of the heroine with little (if any) evident difficulty. So damn young, the sexagenarian Jubatus thought… Wait, her mouth's opening. She must be starting to talk. He downshifted, the better to hear and understand what Butterfly might have to say: Jubatus wasn't at all sure what to say in return. He upshifted, giving himself time to think things over… "Hi, Butterfly! How's the sucking chest wound?" is not appropriate. "Get the hell outta here before you kill yourself"? Yeah, right. If the head wound and near-disembowelment didn't change her mind about heroing, no mere words are gonna do the trick. And with the damn monkey-zappers, can't spare the time to browbeat sense into her skull. A couple of discarded alternatives later, he downshifted to say, "Hello, Butterfly. I think you're making a mistake, and you know why it's a mistake. But it's your life, so if you're going to insist on throwing it away…" Jube executed his unique version of a shrug, then pulled a small gadget from one of the pockets in his Vest of Many Things. "Put this thing on—it's a commlink. I want you to do aerial reconnaissance; from up there, you'll be able to see things I'll miss on the ground, and the commlink will let us stay in touch at all times. I'd have given it to Comrade Frost, but he left before I had a chance to mention it to him."

Jubatus will do the reconnaissance thing on the ground whilst Comrade Frost plays 'eye in the sky'. A Notice check is probably called for here; Jube will do one of his standard Quickness-plus-Take-20 'rolls' here, so the Notice 'roll' will be 29.

Jubatus had no difficulty finding the place; it was the only spot where there was a sizable mob of animals of various species, not least including some that weren't native to this part of the world. It wasn't hard at all for him to 'tune out' the N different flavors of live bodies whose collective stench polluted the air, but he had plenty of practice, since ignoring-evil-odors was a requirement for day-to-day life in Freedom City. What was difficult, was coping with the situation. What these poor bastards were going through… it reminded him too bleeding strongly of his first few calendar-days after he woke up with the damn fur coat and all. Endless hours of acclimating himself to his bizarrely distorted new senses… of staring at normal humans as they oozed their slow, slow way across his field of vision… of discovering what foods his new body could or couldn't tolerate… of fine-tuning the noises that came from his throat until they could form minimally-comprehensible speech… of re-learning how to stand upright and walk on two legs… …and the feline blinked as he realized that the world had slipped into the languid not-quite-stillness of his default tempo of 6. Right—enough with the memories! That was then, this is now, damnit! He upshifted to a tempo of 40, the better to survey the surrounding weirdness. Okay… felines, canines, equines… doesn't look like there's any fish or cetaceans, thank Proteus for small favors… hm. King of Suits. Don't recognize the woman he's with, but it sure doesn't look like I've caught 'em in the middle of a fight, so I won't worry about it. Then the cheetah's eyes fell on something that was not a normal fixture of any street in Freedom City: A cage full of people. Jube considered, and swiftly discarded, the notion that the caged humans might have been animal-victims of the Transmogrifier: They got clothes. Considering the number of empty suits in the area, not to mention animals ensnared in clothes that don't fit them any more, it's a good bet that T-mog's zap only affects living flesh, so the guys in the cage must be people T-mog didn't get around to zapping yet. It was clear that most of the ex-humans were disturbed, some of them deeply enough that it might not take much to push them over the edge to complete panic. As for the few who seem happy about this… oh, hell. I hope they started out as species dysphorics, because if T-mog's zap can make its victims like what's happened to them, the problem just got a lot worse. Well, not my problem. Better keep an eye on 'em anyway, just in case any of 'em decide to become my problem… Jubatus pondered his options; it didn't take long, because in brute practical terms, super-speed just wasn't all that helpful for dealing with the aftermath of a bodily transformation. And… the only helpful thing I can do, at the moment, is unlock the cage. Fine; better than nothing. Mindful of the tension in the air (which definitely made his muzzle itch), Jubatus sped off to a little outside the perimeter of the crowd of ex-humans… and downshifted to a tempo of 1. Let's see if I can reduce the tension around here. "Hello, people!" he shouted, loudly enough to ensure that he would be heard over the existing sonic ambience. "You can call me Jubatus, but I also go by Jay Xavier. I know what you're going through—been there, done that—and I can tell you that freaking out just won't do you any good, so find yourself a coping mechanism, okay? Right now, I'm going to free those people from that cage. And after that, I'm going to compare notes with the King of Suits over there, since he got here first." Having said his piece, Jubatus walked over to the cage at a normal walking pace, deliberately not-looking at the clumsy cheetah—his damned instincts were certain she was a healthy and very eligible female—who was stepping awkwardly in his direction. Once at the cage door, he extracted a set of lockpicks from his Vest of Many Things and told the cage's occupants, "Hang in there. I'll have you out in no time." This was no idle boast; Jube had found that his animal-like forepaws were physically capable of performing many of the same tasks as true hands, just nowhere near as quickly or cleanly. So he upshifted, which made 'nowhere near as quickly' translate to 'faster than any normal human could', and put his lockpicks to excellent, if somewhat clumsy, use…