OOC) You want to challenge a muscle-bound oaf to a physical contest that you cannot possibly lose? See who can tread water longer. Fat floats. Muscle doesn't.

Hodder just growls at you. He's trying to intimidate you.


The guard standing next to you mutters "Whatever you do, don't get shot." and pops off a glowing paintball at one of the guards you're facing. (Not Hodder) The guy goes down, and it's clear he's not just surrendering, he's down for the count. Out like a light. Sawing logs. Whatever metaphor you want to use here.

And he fires a second shot just as you start lunging at Hodder with your sword. But you're too focused to know what's happening around you. You are aware that your sword is glowing white. Bright white.



So you lunge at Hodder. You stick him a good one. Maybe 3 or 4 inches deep. He's not down, but he's in pain, and enraged. He swings at you. CRACK!!!!! Ah!!! My head hurts!!!!! What beautiful stars there are in this room. And then you feel something hit your back. It felt a lot like a paintball. But it burns!!!!!

And between that and the fist impact, you're down. You pass out. But it can't be for very long, because you're awake before Hodder has taken 3 steps towards you. You see a white aura flowing from your body and into the sword. And you feel rejuvenated. Not back to full health, mind you. More going from dead asleep to just waking up, but you're awake. You're laying on the ground. Hodder is 10 feet away.

And your buddy the guard has taken down 2 more guards without getting hit. He's ducking back behind some of the sci fi equipment.

Edison is standing there in frustration, barking "What's wrong with you guys? TAKE THEM!!!!!!"

He's really lost his cool for the first time.

(Doing Therapy)

White light?  Odd.

I scramble to my feet and while I'm still low, I slice out at Hodder's leg.  I hope he expected me to wait until I was fully upright.

Not white light. It's the white Chaos aura. The one you're pretty sure only you can see. It wouldn't light up a dark room, and you doubt it would even be visible in the dark. You're in a room full of Chaos.



Apparently he did, because he just stands there like an imbecile whilst you slash his leg to the bone. His scream of agony as he's going down sounds about the way you would expect a Yeti to scream. He's bleeding and screaming curses at you.

Buddy, the guard is pinned down. He's taken down one more guard. There's 5 left, not counting Hodder. Buddy doesn't look like he can do much more on his own. They've got him cornered in a bad spot.

Edison's face is the color of a Stop sign. He's Losing It.

(Doing Therapy)

Understood.  (Already, I think.)

One down, five to go.  My rage cools, but I must muddle on.  I wish I had some clever plan but I'm all out of clever.  I know I could go after Ediston, but he'll have to wait.  I go charging into Buddy's foes, perhaps I can get a good angle on them and hit them from behind or on their side.

In any case, swing,slash, cut, and bash.

Clever just left the building.  Its now time to do the stupid.  I'd smile if I had enough energy to do so...

Just to let you know. Hodder has one of the paintball guns with the glowing paintballs. He never took it out of the holster. He was swinging his fists at you. Point is, you've got access to one of those paintball guns. And there's a few more laying on the ground from the guys Buddy shot. So the sword might not be your best choice here. Just stating what's obvious to you.



You're in luck here. The guards that have Buddy pinned down have all of their attention focused on him. They're screaming things like "Traitor!!!" and "Turncoat!!!" and trying with everything they've got to get him. So the first guard doesn't even realize you're there as your blade connects with the side of his neck. You don't quite decapitate him, but he's shooting blood from his jugular vein. His wounded howl alerts the others, who turn on you. There's four guards left between you and Buddy. Two of them focus on you, the other two focus on him. But that break in their attention lets Buddy get a clear shot at one of them. And then there were three.



And Edison screams "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE???????????"

Drop the sword, grab two paintball guns, and do like an Old West gunslinger....

In the space of a second before I fire, as I'm grabbing up the weapons, dedicate my shots to Good (I'm a little weirded out by 'glowing' and 'Cthulhu').  I don't want to be inadvertently sacrificing to an Old One.

"Eddy, Eddy, old boy....can I get 'the total and complete destruction of my vicious, sadistic madman's plans for two hundred dollars?"  I'm not sure how to make him more crazed, but I'm trying.  So I go for my smirking, consdesceding 'you loser' vibe as best as I can cause that always annoys me when someone pulls it on me.

So you grab Hodder's gun, it's full. The other gun you grab from a guard is half full. You take those and you open fire like a lunatic from Vietnam. You watch a guard fall. Then the others turn around. You and Buddy have them caught in a crossfire. Then another guard goes down, and another. The half full gun clicks empty just as guard number five falls down. Hodder's gun has maybe 10 paintballs left. You're not sure who scored the hits, you or Buddy, but they're all down. Buddy walks up to you grinning like an idiot. "We got em!!! We got em!!!!" he cheers.

But then you turn to Edison. He mutters "If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself." And he reaches back and pulls out a 45 pistol and points it at you. Not a paintball gun. This is an actual pistol.

"Looks like we got ourselves a Chinese standoff here!!!" he screams at you.

Buddy is looking confused. He's never seen a pistol before and doesn't seem to understand what it does.

"Get behind me." I say urgently to Buddy.

Once he does, I smirk.

"No, Eddy old chum, we don't. See, you shoot me, I shoot you. I verse out, you go to sleep and wake up in the Machine."

Just when he realizes just how badly he's messed over, in that moment of inattention, I fire and fire again.

Buddy gets behind you and raises his weapon. Carter says smugly "You don't get it. I'm not arguing with you. I'm explaining to you why I'm right. You're going down verser-ino!!!!"

And he fires at you. But he's a terrible shot and way overconfident. The bullet just barely grazes your left shoulder. You've probably stepped on shards of broken glass that cut you worse than this.

But then you and Buddy open fire. Edison's smug look dies. The paintballs splatter on his chest and he goes down. He's out and he doesn't look like he's getting back up any time soon.

Buddy looks at you and asks "What do we do now? Oh by the way, those guys we put down? We've got about 10 minutes before they're back up."

(Doing Therapy)

"Belts, or shoelaces, or if needed, shirts. We tie them up."  I avoid looking at the man I killed because I don't have time to throw up."

If anyone starts twitching, I shoot them again.  Also, after we start, I realize I need Buddy to keep an eye on the door.  I'll do the tying.

Meanwhile I start explaining the Love of God to Buddy, and how his innate Justice demands punishment for Evil, just as in society (and yeah, I tell the TV to stay on in a rather intimidating manner), but how Jesus stepped in the path of the divine lightning bolt.

Buddy says "They've all got a set of handcuffs. I suggest daisy chaining them. Or I can do that. We gotta get that guy out of The Machine though."

He'll go along with whatever you want.

And for the first time in a while, you become aware of the guy. He's screaming and still being needled. In the confusion, you kind of lost track of him.

Your inventory is 10 paintball guns and if you took all of the paintballs and consolidated them, you would have six full 30 round cylinders, and each guard has one extra. So sixteen 30 round sleeping paint cylinders.

Buddy listens when you explain the love of Jesus. He seems interested. But he does tell you "That whole thing with selling my soul to Cthulhu? That's just an expression. I didn't really do that. Feels like it sometimes though. We never used to be like this before Edison showed up."

(Doing Therapy)

Two Posts

if Tadeusz was the name of a video game, what kind of video game would it be? First person shooter? Fighting game? Puzzle game? Maybe one of those old classics like Dig Dug or Pac-Man? Spaceship game? I've got a really weird idea for your next world. So, if Tadeusz was the name of a video game, what kind of video game would it be?

(Doing Therapy)

Daisy chain.

Drat. Too many jobs, too little time. I rush over to turn off the Machine as well as I can, leaving him to daisy chain.  I try to keep one ear open for anyone to come behind me and zap me.

For now, I have to wait on preaching.  Although I understand how a charismatic and decisive individual can sway others into doing things they would not normally do.

OOC) You never answered me. What kind of a video game would Tadeusz be? I'm thinking he'd be a bit of a supersoldier. What do you think?

Buddy sets to work on handcuffing the others into a daisy chain. When he gets to Hodder though, Hodder growls loudly and swings at Buddy. Buddy jumps back and pops him a few times with his paintball gun. Hodder is down now. Buddy looks at you and says "That guy was tougher than I thought. Whoosh!!!!"

The guy in The Machine is still screaming and howling. His body is covered completely in welts that look like bee stings. You could not put two fingers anywhere on him and not touch them. He's also completely naked, save for a G string type of thing. The cage surrounding him has a rather straightforward locking mechanism. You just have to be yourself careful so you don't get stung. But you get it open and get him out. He collapses on the floor, obviously delirious.

Where's your black iron Katana sword? Is it in your hand?

Nobody is coming for the moment. It's just you, Buddy, a bunch of unconscious guards and one delirious "criminal".

Answer: FPS or RPG or Trivial Pursuit.

I had a brand new and unique idea for how to run supercharacters. So, in your next world, you're going to meet Tadeusz, Supersoldier Extraordinaire.

Now, on with the game!!!!!!!

OOC: M.J. tried this, sorta (not supersoldier), and he got it wrong.

I pick up my sword, and use it to strip Edison's shirt from him.  I then search his pockets.  Then, without Buddy's help (he's assigned to guard the door), I put Edison in the Machine.  My face is grim, but this needs to be done.

I turn to the TV viewers and the camera which I make sure is on.

"I speak of the Love of God, but God is a person, and He needs Justice as well, for He is Justice. Without Him, we would not know what Justice is.  Edison Carter has tortured many people to death.  Plus, he is not one of you.  He is....of.....hmmm...call it, my clan."

OOC) Yeah well, I'm not gonna make the same mistakes as MJ. I'm gonna make entirely different ones.



Couple things happen here. You go to get your Katana sword. You're holding it left-handed. When you pass it over the guy who was in The Machine, you see a white Chaos aura start to flow from his body and into the sword. Assuming you hold it there for a few seconds, you will see a very large amount of the white aura flow from him. His bee sting welts start to disappear and he starts to focus. Soon he seems to be back to full health. Healed completely. He says completely coherently "What did you just do to me? I feel great!!!!"

Buddy goes and guards the door. He does mention that only Edison's personal bodyguards had the paintballs that would actually knock someone out. And they're all in this room. Every other guard has regular paintballs.

When you start to put Edison in The Machine though Buddy objects sternly. "What are you doing???" He yells at you. "That would make you no better than him!!!!"

Yes, Buddy is prepared to protect Edison from you putting him in The Machine.



OOC) And I'm going to hold off on what happens here for a minute because I want to see what you do about Buddy first.

Two Posts

Almost missed the part where you said you were going through Edison's pockets. He's got four spare 7 round clips for his 45 and a wallet with various forms of ID and a whole boatload of cash.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 19:11, Tue 14 Oct 2014.

I think its more complicated than that, and I say so to Buddy after a few tens of seconds in thought.  But, I'm weary, and it'd be hard to explain, and maybe I'm wrong, and anyways its something I would have to force myself to do.

"I disagree, Buddy, but I see your point, and it is  your world, not mine.  I would like to point out to whoever is watching this, that Carter has a lot of money, and it probably would be a good idea for the gov't to nationalize it to keep him out of causing trouble."

And along those lines, and to reinforce my point, I take my sword, and see if I can use it to chop the Machine up, and then to hilt-bash the pistol, and I try to see if there is some way to set Carter's money on fire.  I'm careful not to stress the katana enough to break it, I hope.

I point to the guy just healed.

"In my opinion, you have suffered enough for  yoru crime, and your debt is paid to society.  Go and sin no more."

Buddy says "Don't get me wrong. He would deserve it. But, it's just, well..... You keep talking about God. I haven't been to Sunday school since I was a kid, but doesn't God say that He will take care of the bad people? It's not on us. We're supposed to be better than the bad people. Because we're good people."

He's pretty adamant about it.



In your agitated, Chaotic state, the sword has a strong white aura around it. It's like an electric steak knife cutting up a Thanksgiving turkey. You're slicing through the metal like it was paper. Doesn't take long to reduce it to a huge pile of scraps.

Hilt bashing the gun doesn't work so well. But you can slice it up just as easily.



When you try to do that, Buddy says "You do realize that's a drop in the bucket to Carter right? You're not going to hurt Carter by destroying that. You should give it to him." And points at the guy that was in The Machine.



I don't know if I ever said this, but Magehammer told you that the black iron weapons were virtually unbreakable. He said "Virtually" because there's no such thing as Unbreakable, but he doesn't know of anything short of Order/Chaos magic that could do it. So feel free to try to slice open the door to Fort Knox.



And you hear an earsplitting POOF!!!! Air being displaced. And a voice from behind you says "Oh no no no verser-ino. You're the one who owes a debt here. And we're gonna make you pay it in full."

And turning around, you're facing two more Carters.

"Its more complicated than that, Buddy." I say gently. "But I'm going to do what you want so take the win, eh?"

When he interrupts my attempt to light the moneyroll, I smile.

"Yes, I know.  Its a gesture for the TV viewers.  Its a symbol."  And I turn to the other man.  "However, Buddy does make another good point.  Do you want this scumsucker's money as payback?"

I start, and then I start to smile fiercely.  I look over at Buddy.

"I'm not a good person.  What I am is forgiven.  Actually, I can be a very bad person, or perhaps the nature is awful, not evil, but terrifying, scary."

I giggle and turn to face the two other Carters.

"Dear God, let me open the gates." I pray in my head, and down deep in my soul, I try to open the cage which has a very dark shadow, a part of myself thats not seen the light of day in decades, and even then it was heavily suppressed and controlled.  Not now.

"You're going to beg for death." I whisper to the two Carter's not looking them in the eyes, instead seeing the visions of the terrible things I'm going to do to them....I smile.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:29, Wed 15 Oct 2014.

He gives you a thumbs up.



Dude says "Yeah, I'll take that." He's wearing nothing but a G-string and standing next to you.


Buddy says "Anybody that puts a stop to Carter is a good person in my book." and gives you another thumbs up.



The white aura on your Katana becomes more fierce. You feel elevated.



One of the Carters looks at you hard and you hear his voice in your head in a flat monotone. "KILL EDISON KILL EDISON KILL EDISON KILL EDISON!!!!!!" over and over. Then he winks at you.

Then they both pull out 45 pistols and the other one says "Oh you're in it now, verser-ino!!!!"

Spin and stab the Edison Carter that was knocked out.  Try to stab him in the chest.  Hope I'm not making a fatal mistake...

So you spin and stab Edison. And at the same moment as your sword pierces his heart, you hear a single gunshot. And in the time it takes the bullet to leave his gun and hit you, you see the three Carters disappear into thin air.

And then the bullet strikes you in the chest. It was fatal, but whether it was a mistake is up to you.

Thou art dead.