The Mall Cluster

The Mall Cluster, also known as the Mall Stampede Cluster,<ref>Interlude 11.a II</ref> is a group of multi-triggers and a subject of Ward. Rain O'Fire Frazier triggered as a part of this group.

Relationship

Like many multi-triggers, they suffered from Kill/Kiss syndrome toward the others in their multi-trigger. With all four members recoiling after emotional trauma, majority of cluster gangs up to go after Rain. Initially, it is mostly based on their grief and perception of him as villain of the cluster. But with some nudging on the part of Cradle, revenge quickly becomes their predominant obsession.<ref name="I12eII">Interlude 12.e II</ref><ref name="12.fII"/>

Power interactions

In general, everyone in the group is resistant to emotion affecting powers of their fellow cluster-mates.<ref>“We’re resistant to each other’s emotion powers,” the boy said, as he climbed to his feet with a groan. - Excerpt from Interlude 5y II</ref> As well as, presumably, other emotion effecting powers to a greater or lesser degree.<ref name="R5">Having emotion manipulation usually appends a degree of emotion manipulation resistance. They'd probably both be pretty darn resistant to one another. That would include Gallant fuzzing Cherish's emotion map. His blast could theoretically knock her on her ass but wouldn't do much more than that (and against those she was controlling, would probably dash whatever effects were present to the winds, or sufficiently confuse/paralyze them to stop whatever Cherish had them doing).

When I say 'pretty darn resistant', I'd really say that the 80-100% resistance they had would veer one way or the other depending on how in concert they were with their passenger at the time of the encounter. - Comment by WildBow on Reddit</ref>

Due to the set up of their cluster they all experience a forced shared dream. It starts with reliving memories of one of the cluster members years before trigger and then directly before trigger. Then they are transferred into the dreamscape, that appears to be an abstract representation of the mall with a dais at center.<ref>Interlude 4a II</ref> This space is divided into sections for each member of the group, plus one permanently dark.<ref name="I4aII e2">A scene faded, unremembered. Points of light became light. Darkness became shadows in a large, dark room.

There was no skylight, no corridor, no crowd or mall. In the center of the room was a spike of twisted metal and glass topped by what looked like a sundial without a marker. Light shone through the glass as if it was coming through the other side, but no source could be seen. The different tints of the red-blue-purple light divided the room into four sections, with a fifth left dark. Each section was littered with debris of different sorts.

Without even needing to look to check the position, Rain reached down for the chair. Always in the same place, the same position. The floor in his section was dilapidated. Uneven floorboards with spaces between them. There were scattered books, tools that looked like they hadn’t been touched in a while, and some assorted branches and dry pine needles, as if it was a space that had been exposed to the elements. He put the chair down on the ground. - Excerpt from Interlude 4a II</ref> Each section representing their respective natures. Here they can hold discussions with the three acting under a system of Primus inter pares.<ref name="3.4 e1"/>

Their primary powers are represented by tokens and the members of the cluster can pass their tokens to one another at the dais, as each room is separated by an invisible barrier. Gifted tokens give a boost of the respective power, and in addition transfer part of their owners personality.<ref>When we give up our tokens, we give up aspects of ourselves. We change the other. Cradle’s been constantly giving up his tinker ability. To Jonathan and me, then to me alone.

He knew.

Giving us the ability to tinker, and making us into monsters. That’s how we bleed through.

Her hand shook as she touched the barrier.

The most galling part of it all- the Fallen boy had never been given anything. Until now. No bleed-through. Just him. - Excerpt from Interlude 12.e II</ref> If one of them dies, his tokens are divided randomly, and then become unavailable,<ref>Three pieces of glass, striking the pointed peak of crystal at the center of the dais, bouncing off unpredictably.

Two landed in the Fallen boy’s space. One landed in Cradle’s. - Excerpt from Interlude 5y II</ref> but remained power shifts become stronger.<ref>“Keep an eye on her?” Rain asked. “She’s stronger than she was. Cradle too. The bias of power shifts around a lot between our group. Since Snag’s gone, it’s… stormier. The pendulums swing further and harder.” - Excerpt from Beacon 8.4</ref>

In addition there is a passive day-to-day rotation that defines whose point of view is experienced, boosts all powers of that member of the cluster, and gives them two additional tokens. On the "dark room" day there is no memorable dream<ref>"He dreamed, and the dream slipped from memory as soon as he entered the room." - Excerpt from Interlude 5d II</ref> and two additional random tokens can be allocated to anyone.

Members

Name	Shard	Powers primaries italized	Personality effects
Snag	Lurching Intruder	Can reorient gravity for himself, allowing among other things a pseudo-flight ability. Can "charge" objects with negative emotions; generally used on his tinker-tech. Tinker-tech that enhances his arms, augmenting reach, strength, and durability as well as providing a weapons platform. Easily breaks through inorganic objects, possibly touch-only.	Self-loathing
Love Lost	Anguished Heart	Wall runner, enhanced speed, can slightly alter jump trajectories Emotion-affecting scream, possibly augmented with Tinker tech mask. Makes people irrationally angry, and can cause them to disregard normal friendships and loyalties. Tinker-tech claws on all four limbs, which enhance her mover abilities. Unclear ability that seems to sharpen her claws.	Rage
Cradle	Grasping Self	Enhanced balance Unknown emotion manipulation ability "Limb" tinker; appears to create hand-themed drones. Unknown destructive ability, possibly related to channeling energy through cables	Mercilessness
Rain	Cloven Stranger	Enhanced balance, ability to temporarily arrest his personal inertia for a brief moment. Zone of doubt and self-criticism with a set circular radius, secondary use for inducing rapid learning Tinker ability allows for the creation of fragile extra arms and neural interfaces. Possible secondary specialty of improvised field repairs. Blaster effect that produces long cutting blades that can be used as projectiles. Causes objects/organic beings to split along the affected areas if force is applied.	Doubt

Powers Breakdown

Name:	Movement	Emotion	Tinker	Blaster	Dream Token
Snag	Phenomenal Mover ability	Emotional munitions	Large tinker claw arms	Punch through walls easily	Glass
Love Lost	Wall runner	Emotion Scrambling Roar	Techno arms	Sharp claws	Teeth
Cradle	Enhanced Balance	???	Appendage Tinker	???	Coin
Precipice	Enhanced balance/inertia cancellation	Doubt Generation	Gimpy tinker arms, neural interfaces	Can create a long cutting blade that can go through anything	Metal Shards

Colt

Her powers are influenced by all of cluster powers, however no other clustermates expressed her breaker power. She appears in Love Lost room in the dreamscape, but does not seem to posses her own tokens.

Thanks to her breaker aspect she was able to accidentally send the dreamscape into disarray.<ref name="12.fII">Heavens 12.f</ref>

Shards

• Grasping Self is an initial, cornerstone shard. It connected to Ryan years ago, but after the death of Scion it became broken and was unable to limit Ryan's tinker ability,<ref>At this point in time, the assistant has knowledge but no power to utilize it. Later, the assistant will have the power, but will no longer hold the knowledge. [...] Build, blind liar. Lie, build, and build lies. Reach and grasp. We are broken now, we cannot take away your knowledge, but we will function as a perfect pair because we are both dead inside, disconnected.Build, blind liar. Lie, build, and build lies. Reach and grasp. We are broken now, we cannot take away your knowledge, but we will function as a perfect pair because we are both dead inside, disconnected. - Excerpt from Heavens 12.f</ref> as the cycle has been disrupted. It was not particularly bothered by that, since it had great expectations of Ryan even with shard network in ruins. It, however, was greatly displeased by cluster formation, and as so, decided to stack the clusters mechanics in Ryan's favor.<ref name="12.fII"/>

• Anguished Heart was also connected to Nicole for years and presented quite developed power to the cluster, with a nice amount of information.<ref name="12.fII"/>

• Lurching Intruder is a small, young shard. It had recent, accidental connection to his host.<ref name="12.fII"/>

• Cloven Stranger is a bud of some other shard. Grasping Self considers this connection as insult to injury.<ref name="12.fII"/>

History

Background

There was a fire at a mall. This led to four people triggering.

Snag, Love Lost, and Cradle came together in order to get revenge on Rain and the Fallen.<ref name="P.4e3">17593Q183H17953R9713E714693: You’re clearly looking for info on multis.
of5: Yes
of5: I am.
17593Q183H17953R9713E714693: I can provide.
[...]
17593Q183H17953R9713E714693: You’re part of the new cluster from the mall.
of5: No comment.
[...]
17593Q183H17953R9713E714693: The one I talked to said there’s a woman, two boys, and him. I’m going to assume you’re the one I’ve termed the runt. The smallest, easiest target.
17593Q183H17953R9713E714693: The woman is gathering funds to hire mercenaries and come after you. The one I talked to hired an information broker to find you. Her name is Tattletale. She’s good. She has resources. including the mercenaries I just mentioned. She’s also preoccupied for now.
17593Q183H17953R9713E714693: A favor from me to you.
17593Q183H17953R9713E714693: That leaves you & the last one. It sounds like all 3 are coordinating vs. you. - Excerpt from Glow-worm P.4</ref><ref>Flare 2.5</ref><ref>Glare 3.4</ref>

Several groups took notice of the groups trigger and creation.<ref name="P.4e3"/>

On the sixth day in the dream room, the members of the cluster finally understand permanence of their situation. Rain's regrets get ahead of him and he gifts tokens to Cradle. Cradle does not like it one bit.<ref name="12.fII"/>

Rain started making friends of his own.

The trigger group started gathering allies to go after Rain.

Rain decided to come clean to his team.

Early-Ward

Still trying to get Rain. Recruiting villains and more to try and kill him.

Rain also tried recruiting people.

Cradle hires a master-cape by the name of Snaggletooth, who can invade dreams, to try to intervene into nightly cluster meeting, but The Dreamscape tears interlopers projection into pieces and fries Snaggletooth's brain.<ref> It’s like an intense fight happened while the rest of us were off dreaming, and this person lost hard, Rain thought. - Excerpt from Interlude 5d</ref><ref>Cradle tried using a power to throw a wrench into things once. When I talked to March about it, she said that Cradle hired someone called Snaggletooth, a cape that invaded dreams. The woman ended up brain dead.” - Excerpt from Heavens 12.2</ref> To Rains dismay recalling Mama Mathers did not lead to the similar treatment.

Snag and Love Lost hire Hollow Point villains and The Undersiders and plan assault on the Fallen settlement.

Snag kills himself during the Mathers Compound Assault while marked by Rains blades. As the fight continues Cradle with the help of Operator Red captures and starts torturing Rain. Breakthrough arrives in a pinch. With great effort they manage to capture Cradle and recover Rain.

Post-Goddess' Takeover

Colt joins the cluster as a bud from Love Lost.

Cradle betrays Love Lost and drains her and Colt.<ref name="I12eII"/>

Trivia

• Wandering Hand and Clenched Fist or just Hand and Fist are proposed fan names for this cluster much like how The Stable has its term.
• This cluster's arrangement highly reminiscent of victim-perpetrator reconciliation therapy. Sadly, shards have not enough qualification for that.

References

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