this is crazy

[from_scratch]

Cam is watching a new recording of Atriama, tail swishing in the gap in his couch, and doesn't stop to pause the show when he feels a summons go by.

Comments

[wormcan]

"No, no one does. The leading theory, which this one supports, is that their attacks are sometimes designed to interfere with people who could otherwise improve the world the most."

[from_scratch]

"If you're talking about me, I turned out to be immune to the song in the way I'm immune to most things or I would have flown away as soon as I could."

[wormcan]

"That's part of it, that we don't know if you're immune or if she just made it seem that way. Mostly it's the fact that you're an attractive target for Endbringers, and we've been hit by two of them now. We aren't going to ask you to stop and become irrelevant, but I do have to ask you to base your projects somewhere else. Outside Japan."

[from_scratch]

"Okay. How quickly do you want me gone?"

[wormcan]

"There's no hurry. It'll be months before the next attack. Just before the next time you do anything beyond what the rest of the world could manage."

[from_scratch]

"Okay."

Cam wraps up and delegates local things as best he can. And he does some research on Africa.

[whole_new_can]

The most prominent feature is that most of the continent is dominated by local warlords. Countries don't exist in the normal sense, though people refer to places by their 1980 or 1990 geographical equivalents for convenience. What really matters is what powerful parahumans are within their travel radius of where. When these radii overlap, the parahumans either form an almost feudal hierarchy or (more typically) one of them dies. Depending on the powers involved there might be collateral damage; more often it comes up as a way for a challenger to get a champion's attention. The current record for stability is approximately eight years without a regime change.

[from_scratch]

All right. Who's the most objectionable warlord available, and if it's a tie which one has the most objectionable near neighbors? Bonus points for Cam already knowing at least one popular language of the region; he's got several African languages but not that many.

[whole_new_can]

Depends what he objects to. The one who kills the most people is the aforementioned record holder—Moord Nag's power feeds on killing, she is terrifyingly powerful, the obvious implication is in effect—but her territory has the lowest overall risk of death by warlord. Being unassailable will do that. She's in Namibia and speaks Afrikaans, conveniently enough.

If Cam's goal to intervene in the most violent area, he should pick somewhere that doesn't currently have a successful dictator at all. Those are the places most likely to spontaneously turn into battlegrounds.

[from_scratch]

Hmmm. Cam is in fact moved by the "lowest overalll risk of death by warlord" statistic. He'll deal with her but he'll deal with her after he's got something stable set up in, let's see, the region formerly known as Angola needs help and most of them speak Portuguese. He reads up on what there is to know about the currently operative warlords in the fighting there.

[wormcan]

Information is sparse and out of date, especially in regions selected for not having an even relatively stable winner. The two biggest in the area as of a year or so ago were a blaster with weaponized darkness and someone who seemed generically invulnerable with touch-range telekinesis. Both individuals were good enough at terrorizing civilians to make it as warlords limited only by the competition. But they might have killed each other or been replaced since or maybe they're even allied now. Who knows.

[from_scratch]

Well. Cam will just have to land right in the middle of everything and find out himself, won't he?

Bye, Japan.

[wormcan]

It's technically good news, but the fact that Angola isn't literally filled with constant firefights visible from a spaceship does make it a bit harder to find who's in charge.

[from_scratch]

Little bit. He'll try asking around, and then he'll try something else if this results in panicked fleeing.

[wormcan]

No panicked fleeing. The response to landing a spaceship and saying "take me to your leader" is mostly just surprise and directions. Word does spread that it might be a good idea for people who happen to be in Cam's target's immediate vicinity to stay inside for a bit.

[from_scratch]

That's not a bad idea, honestly.

Cam heads for their leader.

[wormcan]

It's not literally next door, but Cam's pretty mobile.
If he's not being especially stealthy on the way over the occupants of the destination will see him coming.

"So who are you?"

[from_scratch]

"I'm Cam," says Cam.

[wormcan]

"That's not really an answer. You here to work for me? I can always use more powers."

[from_scratch]

"No. I recently re-modernized Japan and have moved into this region. I don't especially want to start a fight, but it seemed like I should probably talk to you before attempting to raise the local standard of living."

[wormcan]

"You want to steal my position."

[from_scratch]

"Crossed my mind."

[wormcan]

"In that case I don't care who you are. You can leave or you can not leave. Your choice."

[from_scratch]

"I'm gonna not leave."

[wormcan]

"OK, so we're doing this." An dark orb starts condensing around Cam's interlocutor. Underlings get out of the line of fire and, in the case of powered underlings, prepare an offense and look for a signal.