[M&M 3e] Defying the Future IC

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily's head was an odd place to be, right at the moment.

On the one hand, bees. Lily was freaking terrified of bees and also deathly allergic to them. These two facts were not even slightly unrelated. And if the bees weren't giving her enough to panic about, the circumstances of their attack were more than sufficient. Let's review.

1. These weren't just ordinary bees, these were a Punishment designed by Manchineel. The only thing Lily was more afraid of than bees was Manchineel.
2. They were targeting Lily specifically. Manchineel was after her personally.
3. She was alone. There were three of the bee monsters. Each one was probably individually more powerful than she was.
4. ****.
5. They had attacked her as the sun went down. They did not give off a scent. Manchineel had a good enough sense of what she was capable of to prey on her weaknesses and exploit the limitations of her powers.
6. Manchineel had no reasonable way of knowing about her phobia, but probably had super-senses at least matching Lily's own, and so probably had been aware of her allergy from the moment they met. Any biological strengths or weaknesses that Lily possessed must be presumed known to Manchineel.
7. All of Lily's powers were fundamentally biological in nature.
8. ****!
9. They had been lying in wait near her home.
10. They had attacked her in civilian garb. She couldn't fight back without risking her secret identity.
11. No, screw that, they had been lying in wait near her home and had attacked her in civilian garb. Her secret identity was known to Manchineel and worthless as a defense. Manchineel could target her whenever she darn well pleased.
12. ****ing ****!

So, having received all that delightful data and all those wonderful updates over the course of the past approximately four seconds, it should come as no surprise that the Flower Girl in Lily's head was making a very high-pitched sound and basically blubbering that oh God oh God she didn't want to die.

...On the other hand, the bee-monster's ambush attack had accomplished precisely nothing. And the bees swarming her proved to cause little in the way of harm. They didn't exactly help with her panic any - she had to fight the urge to freeze entirely and just hope they would go away, which was her usual approach to a bee getting close to her - but from a superheroic standpoint, they hadn't actually accomplished all that much.

Floral was telling her to squash them like the bugs they were.

...Yeah, turned out, there was still a rather large difference between Lily Woods and the vision of Floral living in her head. The thought of fighting these things filled her with terror.

But then Nope arrived. Her friends had gotten her text! They could destroy these monsters! And she could...could...

Okay yeah if she were honest what she really wanted to do right now was run and hide behind Nope. But Lily was no mere Flower Girl either, and refused to succumb to helplessness. Let instinct guide reason. She wasn't wrong to seek safety. These things were dangerous.

They were also after her personally. She would be their primary target.

Lily didn't have to win this battle. She just had to survive it!

Nectar began seeping from her pores. She spat at the nearest bee-monster, more as a distraction than anything else - though of course, any creature intended to defeat Floral would have to know to avoid contact with anything that came from her body - and then flew past it, past Nope, and straight into the little pond, hoping that would help get the swarming bees off of her.

Spoiler

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Free: Reconfigure Flower Power. 5 points to Floral Acid (foregoing the effect boosting ranks), 5 points to Petal Wings, 20 points to Healing Nectar, 10 points to Medicinal Nectar, 10 points to Solar Nectar.

Standard: Aid let's say Helios's next attack on V1, Defensive Attacking for 5, -2 for Impaired, +5 for Teamwork, at (1d20+8)[20]. Lily gets Restorative Persistent Healing at (1d20+8)[23]. Priority is Vulnerable then Weaken then Impaired. +5 Aid, 13 RP +5 for Persistent is 18, removes Vulnerable.

Move: Into AD16, diving underwater, in case its worth a circumstance bonus on the recovery check or Resistance to the SE since, you know, being underwater isn't exactly helpful for swarming bees.

End of Turn: Resistance to remove Impaired+Vulnerable (-2 for Impaired, -3 for Weaken): (1d20+5)[23]. Recover a point of Resistance. Recovers, shoulda prioritized the Weaken!

Current Status: -2 Resistance (8/10 RP), +5 Defense this turn.