Lucidstuck I

seconding Xoleuph. Idunno, can't add anything.

damn, I was hoping for an extensive discussion on various light sources.

anyways, we still have to think about the flying monsters around lethos.
a while ago, it was also brought up that having derrick be more leadery is a good idea, so why not combine both into one command.
> Derrick: Strategise for the case of an aerial attack by The Swarm.

Derrick and Lucia: give your tinfoil flashlights to Skully and Hermes
we might as well double up. they wont be much use just laying in their inventories and might help against mal in the future. also might be worth testing some time later if it matters what the tinfoil is combined with (like flashlight, lamp, floodlight, nightlight) when hermes uses it



Derrick hands over tinfoil flashlight to Skully for better use.

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Derrick: Here Skully, Take this.
Tinkerskull: What's this for?
Derrick: It's a tinfoil flashlight. Use it on someone or yourself to protect you from mental intruders.
Tinkerskull: Cool!
Garreth: Thanks Derrick.

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Lucia: Here, you can have mine too, Hermes.
Hermes: Much appreciated!
Hermes: I'm now password protected, as well as anyone in my near vicinity!
Hermes: Much more security than my previous login password.
Lucia: Is there a password for this?
Hermes: Nope!
Hermes: What better way to lock up your sensitive information than throwing away the retrieval codes!
Hermes: Luckily I can simply disable the extra protection at will.
Lexii: Phew...

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Lucas: Wow, what an ugly mask.
Lexii: I know right? I found it in Loham.
Reggie: *ahem* That is called Nevil's facade.
Reggie: When you're holding it, any first encounters you have with a monster will change it's disposition to a more positive one.
Reggie: i.e Hostile to neutral or neutral to friendly.
Lucas: I see!
Reggie: Though if you fool a monster with this, you must keep up the act.
Reggie: So keep that in mind.
Emily: Are you ready, Lucas?
Lucas: Sure am.
Lucas: Testing, testing.

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Lucas: Testing...
Lucas: Hello?
Lucas: My name is Lucas, I'm a guardian!
Lucas: Behold!
Lethos: .....
Lucas: I am going to go out on a limb and mention that you are not some huge giant monster...
Lucas: But a young lady! Maybe one that was lost many years ago?
Lethos: ......L...
Lethos: Lucas...?

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Lucia: Whoa? What the heck?
Lexii: What?
Alice: She said your name!
Alice: But... in my head? I can't explain it...
Derrick: Me too!
Lucas: I didn't hear anything.
Lucas: Is this thing on?
Reggie: Hermes' is blocking her out.
Reggie: I think she speaks telepathically.
Reggie: For your own safety, keep Hermes on you, who knows what she's capable of.

1. Ask for name
2. Compliment
3. Criticize

it's too early for compliments, let's just follow the natural flow of the conversation and ask for her name.
>1.

>1 also seems the best option

you grabbed a little more text than I planned with my command. not that it really matters though.

it's too early for compliments, let's just follow the natural flow of the conversation and ask for her name.
>1.

completely agree. we gotta treat lethos like a regular person unless we get a good reason (better than her being, you know, a huge boss monster) not to.
2 can be done later, though I am not sure what to compliment her on. taking the angle lucas did, we could compliment her appearance, but that could lead to some serious issues if lethos is a bit more self aware.
3 is right off the table. if lethos did something wrong, consoling is probably a better idea. she still is a big monster we dont want to anger.

> 1

Introductions are always the first order of business.

>1, go over the pleasantries before we start actual persuasion.

while we are waiting on an update, why not discuss some gear?
I think that while the kids are all well armed (and most importantly well armored), the conjurations, at least some of them, are lacking. I also have some ideas for miscellaneous nonlethal weaponry and items that would be useful for our peaceful run.

lets start off with the conjurations.
reggie: you cant really give him much of anything, because he is a bird (shocking, I know). you could think of some sort of harness for minimal protection, but probably not worth it. instead, consider this movie if you have seen it: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219342/
the owls in it wear those awesome claw gauntlets. so why not give reggie a nice sharp pair of those?
for the rest of the realm attendants, not sure what they could get. kalem is just a cookie and I havent seen DT fight.
bambino: he already has some stylish boots and his hammer is great, but I think we can improve it. I would first make a portable floodlight (one on a stand preferrably), then combine it with the spare tinfoil hat. if we combine that with his hammer, that could give us a way to keep mal and unwanted nightmare meddling on derrick at bay. but if we are already combining an electric item with the hammer, why not add a stun gun as well to give it some stun properties.
hermes: he still has two free slots and there is basically no reason not to fill them. I would suggest adding some sort of highly defensive item, like a piece of armor with both damage reduction and bonus health, along with a taser.
piper: his spin attack is quite devastating. why not up its damage? make a pangolin harness and a pile of razor blades, combine to make a razorblade harness. all the metal should also add some defense for her.
tinkerskull: not sure what to give her. her small size makes both offensive and defensive items difficult to choose. maybe a tiny ballista?
azriel: similar as above. he also mainly uses conjured fire to attack, so weapons arent that useful to begin with. but what I really want him to have is a crown of fire, something along the line of this: https://wiki.spiralknights.com/Hovering_Crown
ira doesnt really attack directly, mostly just acting as weaponry for lucia, so I dont think she needs anything. raziel rarely shows up, while also already being deadly enough as is.

on other items, I also had a few ideas.
first, lets consider a healing item. I want to cram as many positive benefits into this thing as possible. so lets combine a (or even multiple) bottle of pills, health potion, adrenaline shot, ritalin and antidote (if we can use such a broad definition to make a usable item). that should create what I will dub as panacea pills, which will help shake any negative effects, be it physical or mental (adrenaline has one hell of a kick, should help clear ones head) while also healing and temporarily buffing stats. coming down from the effects might be unpleasant though.
we also want to subdue monsters without killing them, so why not make a poison for that. combine sedative, paralysing poison, some of kalems poison if we can extract that and combine it into debuff poison.
now lets make a weapon. make a bolt, a syringe, a servo motor and a crossbow. combine motor and crossbow to make automatic crossbow, combine bolt and syringe to make syringe bolt, combine auto crossbow with syringe bolt to make auto syringe crossbow. take it and combine with a panacea pill (one should be enough to carry over the effect) and the debuff poison to create the perfect delivery system for both. with selective fire, you can buff allies with one shot and debuff enemies with the next.

we could get on with making some or even all of those once we are done with lethos. any feedback or criticism is of course appreciated, those items are probably not perfect.

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how it should have happened 2nd edition

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Spoiler

you grabbed a little more text than I planned with my command. not that it really matters though.

it's too early for compliments, let's just follow the natural flow of the conversation and ask for her name.
>1.

completely agree. we gotta treat lethos like a regular person unless we get a good reason (better than her being, you know, a huge boss monster) not to.
2 can be done later, though I am not sure what to compliment her on. taking the angle lucas did, we could compliment her appearance, but that could lead to some serious issues if lethos is a bit more self aware.
3 is right off the table. if lethos did something wrong, consoling is probably a better idea. she still is a big monster we dont want to anger.

Hi Xol welcome to the nightmare, I suggest that you come join the discord and share your thoughts and ideas with everyone. A link to the discord can be found in the first post!

Hi Xol welcome to the nightmare, I suggest that you come join the discord and share your thoughts and ideas with everyone. A link to the discord can be found in the first post!

thanks for the offer, but I am not really a fan of discord.

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Magestic.

Lexii is the bisexual icon we deserve.

Lucas: Ask for name

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Lucas: Uhh, So what may I call you?
Lucas: It must have been a long time since you've had a chat, right?
Lethos: I am Le...
Lethos: Lethos.
Derrick: She says her name is Lethos.
Lucas: Ahh, Lethos! That's a nice name...
Lucas: Say, do you recall anything notable being as you are...
Lucas: Everything is so tiny to you, it must be difficult to take anything in.
Lethos: ... I learn from my swarm...
Lethos: I've... Ended up like this for so long... I wished for a way to see things as they once were...
Lethos: Then the next thing I knew, these small creatures starting flying near.
Lethos: Seems they listen to my thoughts somehow... But I do not control them...
Lethos: In a sense of force...
Lethos: They report information to me, it's how I know anything.
Lethos: Might I ask, what have you come for?

1. Be honest
2. Tell her what she wants to hear

> 1


obviously, this is a psychic creature, not a good idea to lie to it.

Lexii is the bisexual icon we deserve.

iPls make this canon

>1: You heard you had a good chance of becoming friends with each other, so it would have been a shame not to do so.

I specify a line of thought because I'm worried Lucas could phrase things poorly. Phrasing things poorly is a thing people do with alarming regularity here.

Side note, what do you think Lethos "wants to hear"? Do we, or more importantly Lucas, really know all that much about her? How would we know what she wants to hear? I have no idea whatsoever what option 2 would actually entail.

>1: You heard you had a good chance of becoming friends with each other, so it would have been a shame not to do so.

I specify a line of thought because I'm worried Lucas could phrase things poorly. Phrasing things poorly is a thing people do with alarming regularity here.

Side note, what do you think Lethos "wants to hear"? Do we, or more importantly Lucas, really know all that much about her? How would we know what she wants to hear? I have no idea whatsoever what option 2 would actually entail.

Seconding.

>1: You heard you had a good chance of becoming friends with each other, so it would have been a shame not to do so.

Thirding, or something in that vein. "I heard that there was a good chance we could be friends. It would've been a shame to not come by and talk with you."

Then maybe throw in a question on if there's anything Lucas could help her with?

(eyy first post on a lucidstuck thread since mspfa, what's up)

>1: You heard you had a good chance of becoming friends with each other, so it would have been a shame not to do so.

Thirding, or something in that vein. "I heard that there was a good chance we could be friends. It would've been a shame to not come by and talk with you."

Then maybe throw in a question on if there's anything Lucas could help her with?

(eyy first post on a lucidstuck thread since mspfa, what's up)

I agree with both of you.

Lucas: Be honest

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Lucia: Look, there are a couple of those things on the way!
Lucas: Well?
Derrick: She asks, what did we come for?
Derrick: What should we tell her?
Lucas: I'll just be honest. No use being caught in a lie later down the line.
Derrick: Okay.
Lucas: I've come to help you out, Lethos.
Lucas: Our friend here can help restore you to your original form!
Lethos: What....?
Lucas: Yes, with just a small notice of consent, you can once again revert back into the every day form of a young woman.
Lucas: No longer shall you trot these lands, with nothing but those winged creatures to vouch for anything anymore.
Lethos: Such is too good to be true..!
Lethos: I do not trust it.
Alice: ...!
Alice: She says she doesn't trust it.
Lucas: Uhh, well consider the alternative.
Lucas: We can lea--
Emily: Hold on Lucas! If we cannot win her over in this regard, we still need some way to befriend her in the long run.
Emily: It's not as "take it or leave it" as the others.
Lucas: Right... *ahem*
Lucas: We can, uhh--
Lethos: You council with others?
Alice: She wants to know if there is a group here.
Lucas: Y-yes, it's not just me. We are all guardians.
Lethos: I've existed here for longer than you can possibly imagine, and have yet to meet another being to communicate with.
Lethos: ... And now you come to me, is the form of light telling me my form may change and that you and your council have my best interests under consideration...
Lethos: Such rationale would make for sweet words onto a fool.
Lucia: Uh oh...
Lucas: What's wrong?
Lucia: She's not buying it.
Alice: Think of something else!
Lucas: Uhh...

>Lucas: point out there's been denizens (monsters) and other guardians, some of the former right next to your group, but she may have been too big and covered in too many potentially hostile monster for them to risk approaching her.

also

> Garreth: advise.

>Lucas: Offer Lethos companionship if she doesn't take your other offer. Suggest something to do like playing a game to make her remember what having friends was like.

God damn it, this is precisely what I didn't want happening. That's also not what we are actually here for, but backtracking at this point just makes us seem even more untrustworthy. Not to mention we probably need to weave in something to help Lucas bring back more memories of her humanity.