January 2022 Spoilers QnA

Is it possible to go as the puppet to meet HG but not deliberately crash the car with Ortega in it? If it ends up having to be that way just because otherwise there's no differences between the choices made I totally get it, it just felt a bit out of character I guess for my Sidestep to not even park the car before leaving the puppet lol.

Yes, but you can't do the early abandoning of the Puppet when you get that option.

Is there a particular reason for choosing orange specifically as the Regene tattoo colors? And contrasting it with Sidestep’s teal in the stats page?

I like orange and teal! I picked orange for the tattoos because it is an odd and vibrant color that is unlikely to be confused with real tattoos. I almost went with a neon green instead, but orange fitted better with teal. They are good contrast colors.

Can we have one night stand with Jake, can i be homewrecker.

Thinking about it.

Will it be possible to permanently recruit Jake as BossStep, how pissed off HG will be?

Pissed off is not the word. Murderous rage more like it.

Saw a question this last qna in regards to Sidestep being rescued by the rangers post heartbreak instead of the farm, and now I'm wondering how Chen, Ortega and Sentinel as the present rangers would have taken finding out Sidestep is regene at that point. Most everyone was in a really bad state physically, how would the recovery process have gone for sidestep in particular? Would they have been turned into the SD outside of Ortega's jurisdiction?

That is such an extensive scenario, I will leave that to any AU writers.

How much does Nocturne know about HG's family history... and would she know of or have seen pictures of the dead sibling that resembles Sidestep.

Nocturne knows a lot, HG is sappy. She had probably seen pictures, but it hadn't really stuck in her mind. Her partner sharing their childhood photos is a nice act of bonding, it's not something she'd remember or care about. HG is what's important to her, as is the act of sharing. Not remembering the details.

From your first book I take it Sidestep and the regenes were raised to believe in a sort of "Darwinist future" bullcrap ideology with an added sense of duty above all else. How did Sidestep cope with their philosophy/pseudoreligion falling apart?

Sidestep had an advantage compared to the other Re-Genes. Since they were a telepath, they were exposed to "deviant" thinking early on. Once they started to be deployed as a cuckoo, there was ample time to see the world through different eyes. However, how Sidestep dealt with this is personal. Some might still be stuck in the same lines if thinking, while others lost "faith" before they even escaped the Farm. Maybe we'll get around to talk about it in game, so I don't want to say anything that applies to all Sidesteps. There will be choices there.

Argent is able, in some paths, to permanently mark / wound Sidestep. Plot armor and bad endings aside, will every one of the main cast be able to wound Sidestep so fully down the line?

Maybe. Probably.

Alpha spoilers: Has Ortega ever suspected that Chen was threaded by Hollow Ground? 

Spoilers. Not telling.

Alpha spoils: Did Ortega ever air their Hollow Ground relation suspicions about Step to Chen before he got threaded?  Did Chen ever air his suspicions about Step being a secret spy to Ortega?

Not the former, definitely the latter. 

Beside the pain-gate (and boosting), are there other body or biological modifications implemented in cuckoos that humans don't have? If yes, what are they, and is Sidestep aware of them? 

It varies depending on the cuckoo. Usually it's mods to help with their information gathering. Sidestep had no need of such recordings since it was impossible to record telepathic impressions. It was useful to have a "clean" cuckoo to use in places where they scan for mods.

Is Lord Ember "a collector of villain memorabilia"?

No.

And of course, just out of curiosity... Who would be most likely to dress up as a squatter in order to scout a waterplant, Ortega or Jake?

Ortega.

Please excuse my tinfoil hat but was what happened during Herald's dinner actually a microquake?  Or perhaps stress touching on triggering a dormant layer of Herald’s boost abilities?

Good question.

Could HG potentially get Regina to forget all about Step and that any confirmations are just fake?

Yes.

Alpha spoilers: Could telepathic connection between Sidestep and HG be able to strengthen HG’s red-threads to a degree where they wouldn’t even need touch or to say the words aloud for their powers to work on someone?  

No.

Was the memory of being seven and standing on a boardwalk HG’s sibling’s childhood memory?

No.

What had Nocturne done or said that had pissed off Alvarez?

Called her tacky.

Is the Impostor limited to either Sidestep’s or Puppet’s powers or do they have their own powers as well? 

Hehehehehehhe.

Character lore question connected to Jake: Jake mentions in his lore post about HG that “They do that, don’t they? Change things. Change people.”, does Jake nowadays suspect at all HG’s actual powers are somehow connected with the way people change around HG? 

Yeah.

Does each regene have different tattoos, or are there regenes with the same tattoos? Are sidestep’s tattoos unique? Funny question (kinda) but who designs the regene tattoos?

They are all unique, like snowflakes or fingerprints. There are some common themes between similar powersets and symbols though. And yes, there is a person at the farm whose job it is to sit down and design and catalog every single tattoo and bar code. Sidestep never met them, that part was kept away from the Re-Genes, to make the tattoos feel natural, like a part of you.

Could Thunderhead have been able to use her powers successfully on HG or would they have been able to notice her powers influence?

Hmmm good question. HG would notice, but perhaps not immediately. They have taken some precautions towards things like that though.

Alpha spoilers: will it be possible get the Herald lore about when his and brother’s boosts kicked in in the future if we don’t do the innocent stay with herald ending?

Yes, there will be more chances.

How many people can HG thread in a row before starting to suffer from mental exhaustion 

Not many. It's an exhausting process.

Alpha spoils for argent At the end of rebirth, when argent has step pinned to the wall and they can't telepathically break free and she's uh. Call it playing with them like a cat does a mouse. Would she have had any concerns about her rather ruthless behavior getting out or was she kind of already intending some uh extra judicial justice and snack time? If the latter would she have cracked the armor to see who she was snacking on or would she have just nommed and gotten rid of the armor? 

Depends on the villain. A villain who just blew up the museum with people inside might have been a snack.

Completely random and outta the blue question but one I've been thinking about for a while now: Are Herald's powers actually flight or is it more like gravity manipulation? The fact he can seem to stop the full impact when Step puts him on the ground during training (not sure if this should be spoilered but gonna do it to be safe)as well as being able to levitate Step while they're touching makes me think its not just flight but something more 

Good spot.

At the end of rebirth when argent can have step pinned to the wall and step actually does succeed in getting free telepathically and argent falls unconscious, what does argent think happened there? Step is not outed as a telepath. 

Most likely gas. Villains love gas.

SPOILERS. In the playable teaser there is a situation where Sidestep gets captured and the Ratking bails them out. Given a situation were Hollow Ground has no reason to suspect telepath shenanigans and Ortega is pretty sure Sidestep is the Villain, what do they think happened here? Without knowledge of the Ratking I imagine things get confusing fast.

Yeah, the Rat King is a massive curve ball for everyone. Nobody will see them coming. I'm so proud of the girls! I think most people will leap to the conclusion that the villain has an accomplice, or maybe even two people using/sharing the same suit. It has been known to happen.

Is opening 9th Gate an automatic game over or just baaad? 

No auto game over until book four (so I reset them to 7). Not sure yet if I will give you a peek of what might happen in book three. I probably will, but can't promise.

Alpha spoilers? better safe than sorry: What hypothetically could have happened to step if Mortum had shot them with the gun when it was empty? What would Mortum have done with them?

Probably dumped them somewhere embarrassing like the harbor, with a towel and a note once they climbed out. Basically to leave them the hell alone.