Spoiler QnA June (Patreon)

When you tell Steel about HB being an experiment, he replies "huh, that's interesting", as if "your words triggered something inside him". You also tell him about medical equipment being attached to HB right before Steel replies that. What does he find interesting here? Did Steel also think HB was an experiment? Did he see HB's body? Was the corpse not attached to medical equipment when he saw it, which could make him find Sidestep's comment "interesting" (as in "odd")? Or, could it be that your body (on the autopsy pictures) were the one attached to medical equipment as well? 

Let's be honest here. Do you really think I would spoil that when everybody is desperate for that book three discussion when everyone might start putting their one braincell together in a jar and compare their Heartbreak experiences? I wrote what I wrote for a reason. ;)

Alpha spoilers Can Spoon "feel" Argent's nanovores? How does he react to her? 

No, and he wants to be friendly, but she doesn't seem to like dogs.

It's been asked what civilians and the media would think of rumors of a Ranger dating the new villain, but what about other villains? What would HG and other big players, even small ones, think of rumors of the newest LD villain dating a Ranger?

Not really caring that much, that kind of rumors always happens. If they wanna get caught, that's a good way to do it.

Piggy-backing on that, since HG seems to have done some info-gathering both about Sidestep as the villain AND Sidestep as a civilian, is HG aware of Sidestep's close relationships with the Rangers or Mortum?

Spoliers. Want you to sweat a little there.

How did the HG trio discover their powers?

They all took the hero drugs willingly, so they were expecting powers once they survived. In some cases it took a while to kick in.

HG: It took months of fine tuning and figuring out what it actually was. It wasn't until they met Nocturne when they really started to push the boundaries.

Nocturne: A panic attack during a fancy dinner.

Jake: Pretty immediately after taking the drugs, we're talking hours here. Fell through a wall which saved his life.

Did Hollow Ground thread Psychopathor?

Yes.

How much of the PullInStripDownKissDevourWant… is argent and how much is the nanovores?

It's a mix, which is why personal physical interaction is so dangerous to her.

Have we met the new guardians recruit in the text yet?

The name has been mentioned, yes.

If the letters "CB" were part of Sidestep's old regene code-name at the farm... Could the "C" stand for "Core"? 

No.

Is Mortum’s disintegration/teleportation ray made with Void tech?

Yes. That's the part Mortum can't work out, because that was Vitruvian's deal.

Was Arsenaux the party interested in buying Mortum’s gun from the auction?

Ahahahahaha.... yeeeeeeah. Good work connecting the dots.

Does sidestep remember before they were boosted? Is that something regenes remember or not?

Not before they were boosted, no. That happens rather early in the process for most, to minimize the waste when things go wrong. But, with the telepathy acting up, Sidestep has more memories from the tank days than is usual for Re-Genes.

With Ortega knowing about Puppet's excursions to Joes and clearly having looked into them, how much do they know about Bo or Rosie? What about Mob Boss crew? 

Spoilers. What Ortega knows stays with Ortega.

Is Ortega aware that Finch might have had ties to HG? Is therapy one of the Charge Ploys™️ where they try to kill 88 birds with one stone?

No, in this case they genuinely are trying to help Sidestep.

Does Sidestep still have the chip?

They have never removed it, so yeah. As far as they know.

Did the memory wipe attempt Sidestep underwent when they went back to the farm fail because of them having grown too far out of their training (ie, did they become too "human" to be erased by virtue of living more human-ly), or is it related to something else—their powers / their... passengers, for example? 

Oh that is all Sidestep's own stubborn self.

Doesn’t Mitchell supply the files on heroes/villains? Wouldn’t HG know for sure that Step is a telepath? 

Mitchel do provides files when asked, but they usually takes a while to dig out. It's not like HG's got them all memorized. And the Sidestep from back in the day (if famous enough to warrant a file) would be marked as a possible telepath. Remember, there was a concerted effort to keep that under wraps, and Sidestep was not on the top of any list of people Mitchell needed to research.

However, HG had no idea that Sidestep was the one behind the current new villain, so there was no preparations for a former Rangers associate. Had they know, it's doubtful they would have ever met.

At dinner with Herald, Step senses a microquake- the table rattling wasn't really a microquake was it?

Hehehe if it was, it was VERY localized.

At the art exhibit, the paintings made Step uneasy & Herald remarks on the color orange being 'toxic'. Does Step recognize the painter's work in anyway? Or is this an Ace reaction?

Sidestep (unless they are an art thief) is unaware of the artist and painting. Why they reacted so strongly is at this point unknown, but it was strong enough to be felt. Is it a Sidestep reaction to the color reminding them of their tattoos? To the subject and feel of the painting? Is it an Ace reaction? Not telling, and it might be a mixture of things.

How does Jake feel about Sidestep that beats them up while robbing the auction?

Wants a chance at a rematch.

How do the HG trio feel about how similar Step and HG look? Nocturne seems to be a bit uneasy in the epilogue. HG seems taken aback at first but not put off by it.

It's raised some questions that will be explored in game.4

We know how Ortega handled it but, How would the other ROs react if they thought HG and Step were related? 

Spoilers, you'll see in game.

Does whoever possesses the puppet in the end change, if you aren’t the one who’s stuck in it? 

The answer might be different depending on Sidestep and path. I'm collecting behind the scenes stats for a reason.

What did Ortega think of Step supposedly defecting from HG’s ‘influence’ and becoming a hero + defying them? Sad that they have to go against family? Worry? Admiration? Would they have killed HG if they knew Step loved them? Or would they let Step kill them- if not, at least have some time alone with HG before they’re sentenced to death?

Oh you will get to find out. Some things will be explored in the books, not going to spoil them here.

The PuppetStep is more Action Survivor to Sidestep's main body Action Hero(Villain). Is it going to be possible to take a few levels in Badass for Puppetstep or is this going to remain the case? (repeated question)

Expanding on this for the spoilery section. Oh you'll get your levels of badass in certain paths, trust me on that. Looking forward to writing them. Precognition can be fun if used proactively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L2xaklGm1s 

Something I've been wondering is Why does Sidestep concern themself to be 30? Do they consider themself to be born as a teenager? If its not too much of a spoiler how old is Sidestep really?

Partly because that's how everybody else sees them, and they are a telepath so that bleeds through. It's also how their body looks/feels. They've been indoctrinated from an early age to provide socially acceptable ages when people ask, that's included as a Cuckoo. You get a more through background feed to be able to bluff being human. So yeah, they do consider themselves having been born as a teenager, especially with the fake childhood memories implanted to ground them. I haven't decided on an exact decanting date, that will probably remain headcanon.

if Puppet goes to the gala alone, Sidestep recalls a vague memory of psychiatrist asking "at what point did people stop feeling real to you?", was the memory some random person's memory and nothing else or was it a hint of deeper layers?

Oh I am not going to tell you something that juicy.

will we get to see the conversation between the rangers when they are discussing step's plan of escape? 

I will probably write a snippet one day, it's too hilarious not to.

will we be seeing more themmy memories in book 3?

yes.

Will it be possible to attempt to seize control over the criminal underworld and steal Hollow Ground's position as top dog? Could we fan the flames between HG and Lord Ember while building our own strength? Maybe infiltrate their organizations with our own people or recruit some turncoats? Los Diablos is too small for more than one ambitious Mastermind...

That is indeed a possible path for ambitious Sidesteps.

Or conversely, can we choose to attempt coexisting peacefully  while pursuing our own agenda? Perhaps even becoming genuinely amicable with HG and their inner circle (I.e. Jake, Nocturne + others)?

That is also a possible path I've planned.

What would the Rangers have thought about Daniel getting involved with Re-Gene advocacy? Would they have suspected Sidestep to be one if they hadn’t already because of him? 

No. Danny gets invested in causes now and then, this is nothing new.

Alpha spoiler: Does HG powers work through clothes?

Nope.

Alpha spoilers since the puppet is apparently walking around when we’re not aware, has the puppet ever met with people we know without us knowing?

Sounds like a good way to get revealed to me.

Alpha spoilers: during the guilty breakout Herald says “I… looked into things” regarding regenes, does he have any contacts outside of the rangers who might have specialist knowledge of regenes?

No, this was more looking up what would be readily available to a government agent with a high security classification. So while he knows a lot more now, he still only knows what's released within the system.