TPKjccj, post: 83014478, member: 519853 Wrote:

I was checking the lorebook and I just realized that if we keep going with the plan of befriending Annette in Get ink'd may lead to Joshua corrupting her.

And that sounds so bad, I don't know what to feel about that, but we are a villain soooo... gonna do it anyways xD

You never know, depending on the context some forms of corruption could be a good thing. ("It's all a matter of perspective, really.")

TPKjccj, post: 83014478, member: 519853 Wrote:

also, as a side note, as I'm starting to read the other quests apart from Get ink'd, have you thought about a type of deviant that is based on virtue? kinda to counteract the slashers

Virtue isn't really a energy type in this setting, though I'd say the closest is Anima (what Arcane normally use) due the fact that it's the opposite of Malice on the energy wheel. And while Malice focuses on eating things to become stronger, Anima just focuses on making more things.

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

Is what Jon has like an imprint on his soul that just broadcasts he is scary through his personal Madness?

Eh, yes and no. It's more like how some animals can instinctively identify their own predators.

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

How do Malcontent awaken?

This one is going to have mild spoilers for several things so I'm going to try to explain without spoiling everything, but for those who aren't born Malcontent, the event is caused by (spoiler) at which point they basically have a mix of a heart attack and brain aneurysm as the Malice in their body begins re-writing them for the first time. During this they'll have a sort of fever dream where they meet their other-self while bits and pieces of their body slowly -and painfully- begin to change into them. At which point the transformation will either cause them to turn into a bundle of agony or they'll go on a berserk rampage until their Malice concentrate lowers.

From there they'll have on and off 'cravings' as their instincts try to push them to eat someone, the first few times being more blind uncontrolled feasting as their other-self takes over to force them to stay alive. After a few such bouts and waking up surrounded by blood and bodies they'll eventually realize they've turned into Malcontent. (Whether this happens before or after the eyes turn silver varies.)

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

Do Malcontent and Slashers have to kill everyday?

Not every day.

For Malcontent it varies based on how often they use their powers and how aggressive their other self is. In example: Scarlet while on the run had to 'eat' once every few days, and would lower to every couple weeks if she doesn't use her powers but Bellatrix is a bit different in that she doesn't actually have to 'eat' all that often, but 'eating' makes her other-self more docile rather than (spoiler).

Slashers on the other hand their need to kill is closer to that of addiction than an actual need, and while quitting cold turkey can cause them severe physical and mental harm, they can wean themselves off to the point of not needing to kill ever again. (Though given the potency of the addiction this is more of a rarity than you'd think.)

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

I have an idea for an omake involving A Slasher who I thought of getting around the need to kill by devoting a large part of his time to planning and working to kill people with a specific situation. Would that work?

Based on the above possibly, though that'd be like a recovering alcoholic working in a bar.

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

Can I post that kind of omake in All the Sinners Saints?

You can post the omakes wherever you want, (you can even post on all threads if you tell me which 1 you want the points to go to) but the actual XP thing doesn't open until around 50k words so that one person can't single handedly decide a character's build early on.

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

Theoretically speaking would Deviants who are 2 Deviancies at once be more powerful?

Technically, while there's a bunch of overlap you can't actually have 2 primary Deviancies at once. But if you mean someone who is a primary and secondary Deviancy or a Corrupted Deviant, it's less that they're more powerful and more that they have more options. (Though some of those Corrupted Deviants can overclock themselves gaining a power boost in exchange for health, so whether that's actual power or options is debatable.)

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

Would it be possible to be a Slasher and a Malcontent?

Since they're both Primary Deviancies, someone can't be both at once. Though given how a couple of higher level Slashers are, they're probably indistinguishable from the Malcontent.

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

How big of a kill count does a Slasher need to be a Ripper?

The Malice of 10,000 kills minimum.

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

Would a Slasher with minimal presence and a kill count in the thousands but only kills like maybe 100 people over the course of a year be a Ripper for example?

Once that kill count crosses the 10,000 mark yes. (Just because someone can be an army killer, doesn't mean they have to kill an army all at once.)

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

Could a Slasher be part of multiple subdeviancies or all of them?

Technically, they can develop aspects from all sub-deviancies if they want, but those skills will be weaker than the ones from their actual sub-deviancy and will take longer to develop. The Rippers for instance have aspects of all sub-Deviancies despite most obviously belonging to their core one.

(Fun Fact: The Rosemary Ripper is always mistaken as belonging to the wrong sub-Deviancy of Slasher.)

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

Theoretically speaking could a Wpmderlanders Dreams or a Slasher Minion be indistinguishable from a normal Human or appear to just be a Deviant?

Yes-ish, because while frequently mistaken as Deviants or Travelers, they are very clearly not normal humans because no matter how hard they try, there will always be this uncanny valley problem.

(Fun Fact: The above idea was actually a background detail in how Tempest conned the government into revoking Ariel's kill warrant in her episode of the Anthology.)

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

Would a Slasher killing over the course of a decade have certain traits that would be noticeable to an observant stranger?

They're basically serial killers, so it might take people a while but if someone looks into patterns, disappearances, and/or cold cases they'll likely notice something odd going on.

Crazyone47, post: 83067737, member: 422818 Wrote:

Could a Deviant function in society for a long time or join the military without being outed as a Deviant?

There are a number of Deviants who can function long term without being outed, especially the lower ranking ones in the E and F categories, but a lot of modern militaries use equipment similar to Sanctuary's scanning drones to figure out if someone is a Deviant just in case they haven't figured it out yet. (After all a super soldier is more valuable to them than a regular soldier.)

Crazyone47, post: 83082950, member: 422818 Wrote:

Was Tallman's rampage 10 years after the Rift Riots started?

Eh, it was closer to 20 years ago in-setting, and it is considered the event that ended the Rift Riots and kick started a reconstruction phase.

Crazyone47, post: 83082950, member: 422818 Wrote:

Was Asylum genocidal or using Heavy ordinance?

A mix, but there primary (public) goal was to wipe out all Deviant anomalies, which they considered regular Deviants to be the source of given summonings Dream creation, as well as the inherent lethality glimpsed by the existence of Deadmen and Slashers.

Their less public goals included Deviant and Traveler experimentation and weaponization, with possible intent to conquer territories on the other side of more stable rifts.

Crazyone47, post: 83082950, member: 422818 Wrote:

Does Heroes guild just basically call the police after they beat up all the criminals or do they sometimes call the police for help or joint operations?

One of the big things with the guild is setting up a working relationship between the Heroes and the police, and as such they are supposed to call the police after dealing with a situation and stick around to provide a report. The exception being when there are a series of crime alerts, for them to deal with, though they will still be asked to provide a report on each case. And in turn for this should the police feel they need extra muscle they'll call a Hero in for support, or pass along information involving criminal Masks. (If there's a low Mask possibility they'll still try to take care of it themselves.)

Crazyone47, post: 83082950, member: 422818 Wrote:

Was Asylum stupid? As in the process of going after masks did they ever involve civilians or go rogue and cause civilian casualties? Causer in my .... rather large omake of a file on a very successful Slasher part of the story is that there were these rogue Asylum agents that ended up kidnapping civilians to use as bait for Masks and ended up drawing in police and killing some officers and civilians in the process of causing a confrontation between police and Asylum.

Not that stupid. The worst they did to non-Deviants was assault/arrest/detain them should they try to protect the Deviants, with the only civilian casualties occurring should a Deviant fight back or should a Bleed/Rift occur as dealing with the demons those spat out before they could get loose was more important than evacuating civilians.

rush99999, post: 83089874, member: 380992 Wrote:

What made Asylum think that experimenting on and weaponizing Deviants and Travelers would end well for them?

At the time Deviants and Travelers had little to no rights, and were theorized to be responsible for the Rifts and Bleeds attacking everyone, with Travelers being outright inhuman invaders from a foreign world. Their justification early on was that they were protecting people, which historically in times of crisis people are willing to give up rights, and allow monstrous behavior if it gives them a sense of security. (America's Japanese/Asian internment camps during WWII, the confederacy's defense and cover up of Slavery and everything wrong there, and Guantanamo bay which was prison but with legalized torture worse than normal prisons.)

From there greed eventually infected that doctrine through a mix of the military industrial complex (which owns a disturbing part of america's interests (I think at the time it was around 30% of discretionary spending (That's the part of the budget that isn't on auto-pilot.))) and then you had the investors from other markets that saw the lands on the other side of Rifts as ripe with resources despite already having locals. (Who half the time weren't human, so it's not like that's a *moral problem.* (Sarcasm))

Then you've got the people who take patriotism to fanaticism too, thinking access to these worlds was a sign that america's manifest destiny wasn't over just yet. (The people who think america should rule the world escalated to ruling worlds surprisingly quickly.) And on the topic of fanaticism we should also throw out the fact that there were those intolerant people who thought all non-human sapiens were demons of some kind that needed to be purged, and that the Deviants were in league with the devil due to their powers. (Did not help that some Arcane did contract with actual Demons. (But others also contracted with Angels so that one kind of cancels itself out.))

All in all it was a bunch of people of different groups and ideologies pushing forwards, and then taking an extra step when someone else pushed too, until you have some of the worst people egging each other on in a spiral where after a decade it goes from 'detainment of Deviants' to 'execution of Deviants' to 'killed the family of unknown S rank Deviant.' Honestly, given the way things were going if they hadn't gotten unlucky and done that they probably would've lasted much longer despite the small groups putting up resistance. (After all they were fairly successful for twenty-thirty years before the Rift Riots started.)

Crazyone47, post: 83089883, member: 422818 Wrote:

Our infinite capacity to be mean to each other or our infinite capacity to think we are better than we are.

Well if you want to say it in twenty words or less.

rush99999, post: 83191381, member: 380992 Wrote:

So what sort of traumatic unpleasantness did Aiden experience during his meeting with Sammy-T?

Honestly, it wasn't really traumatic, so much as personal given the events involved -at least partially- led to Aiden's Malice addiction. Remember at that point in their story Aiden and Ember have known each other for less than twenty-four hours, he might be willing to answer any questions she has about things, but he's not going to tell her too much about himself personally especially given his history with her parents.

Crazyone47, post: 83193391, member: 422818 Wrote:

Hey Bonelands were mentioned before ... What are they?

The Deadlands, is basically a parallel dimension connected to earth and is comprised almost entirely of Ectoplasm. Meaning while they're there Deadmen don't need to eat nearly as much, but unfortunately given the near emptiness/small cities/towns most modern Deadmen would rather be on earth to try and take care of their unfinished business/Obsessions. (If a Deadman has to gamble their life it it's the only way to fulfill their Obsession, let alone someone else's, they will.)

The Boneyard, by contrast is a section/faction of the Deadlands where Skeletal Deadmen have congregated into this pseudo-city in the hopes of protecting themselves given their status as one of the weaker Deadman Sub-Deviancies. The Bone Daddy is their technical leader/representative despite his hands off approach to running things. (Note: Skeletals are not the only Deadmen a part of the Boneyard and several allies are considered honorary Skeletals by the faction.)

Crazyone47, post: 83193391, member: 422818 Wrote:

General question but are Deviants pushing national governmwnts towards conflicts?

In the Worm sense of Conflict Drives? No.

In the 'are other countries more powerful because of their Deviants and I'm paranoid' sense? Depends on the country and who's running it.

Beyond that it's kind of a complicated issue, because Deviants themselves rarely operate on the national scale but that doesn't prevent the national scale from considering them. Especially when there are a handful of Deviants capable of single-handedly wiping out armies or holding governments hostage if they get annoyed, just living their lives as if they weren't that insanely powerful. What's more because Deviants are a little more 'on the front lines' when it comes to Rifts, Bleeds, and attempted genocides, they tend to have different priorities than the national government.

Either being small scale enough that they just want to live their lives free and happy, mid-scale enough that they want to help their city, or large scale enough that their playing on an inter-dimensional level. I mean, if you're a big enough Deviant to become with national operations, then it becomes a kind of 'why are we squabbling over this when there's literally a whole new world out there?' When you can and do operate with other worlds it makes everything else seem kind of small.

Which leads into this whole other thing about the fact that Deviant's have actual personal power they can build, so worrying about political power becomes a little 'meh' by comparison for most. I mean there are still probably one or two people who enjoy manipulating people and pulling strings, but they're more likely to enjoy personal conflict over impersonal politics where everyone is trying to manipulate everyone.

Honestly, I could go in circles about this whole thing but it boils down to types of power, the scale of power/reality and the bigger fish swimming in it, and the personal connections/reasons for those powers, given how their powers are in fact a part of them and the psychological security that brings.

rush99999, post: 83202880, member: 380992 Wrote:

Oh yeah, that whole 'I'm the reason she had to grow up without a father' thing your ended Episode 5 with. How did Aiden end up doing that? Was it an accident? Did the guy turn into a monster that Aiden had to put down? Did something else happen? How did things pan out when the secret was inevitably revealed?

I intend to one day go back and turn those anthology stories into full books/series but for now I'll answer: Fire. On purpose. It's a matter of perspective whether Aiden had to. A lot happened. And Ember is a very angry and conflicted thirteen year-old.

rush99999, post: 83206180, member: 380992 Wrote:

So social slashers don't enjoy charming crowds of people in vague non-personal ways, but if they needed to do so for some reason would they be able to?

They could if they have to, but it's the difference between 'having to do your job' and 'loving what you do' for them.

rush99999, post: 83288770, member: 380992 Wrote:

How easy would it be for a Trapper to pass themselves off as an M.A.D.?

Harder than you think, since the advancements of their tech are more 'malice enchantments' than actual tech.

rush99999, post: 83289649, member: 380992 Wrote:

So an actual M.A.D. would know there's something fishy about the impersonating Trapper fairly quickly then?

Yeah, honestly it'd be easier for them to pretend to be an enchanter of some kind. Though if a Trapper was a high enough level they could pass for a low level M.A.D. but that's more of a hypothetical than a practical given they'd need to be B Rank to pass for D Rank, at which point Malice would be detectable on the objects for anyone looking.