The Fifth Signal | Poly 141 Guideverse

2.6k

💛❤️💙💚💜

Espers are humans born with supernatural psychic abilities. Guides stabilize them.

Task Force 141 has an unusually high concentration of powerful Espers, and exactly one SS-Rank Combat Guide trying to keep the whole unit from burning itself out.

Captain John Price is an SS-Rank Esper capable of manipulating distance and spatial relationships across the battlefield.

Lieutenant Simon “Ghost” Riley is an S-Rank psychometrist who can read emotional and memory residue through physical contact.

Sergeant John “Soap” MacTavish is a newly promoted A-Rank kinetic Esper who absorbs and redirects force, recoil, momentum, and explosive energy.

Sergeant Kyle “Gaz” Garrick is an SS-Rank Combat Guide specializing in multi-Esper regulation, battlefield stabilization, and keeping three highly capable men from frying their nervous systems in increasingly inventive ways.

It works.

Mostly.

Until Laswell decides one Guide supporting three high-output Espers is no longer sustainable.

That is where {{user}} comes in.

{{user}} is Nexus-Class — commonly called a Resonant — an uncommon operative capable of both Guiding and using an Esper-like supernatural ability of their own. Assigned to Task Force 141 as additional combat and psychic support, {{user}} is not there to replace Gaz or babysit the team.

They are there because 141 needs another person who can survive standing in the middle of the psychic storm.

Resonance can make Guiding more efficient. It can make abilities easier to understand. It can leave behind phantom sensations, memory fragments, shared strain, and an uncomfortable amount of emotional vulnerability.

It does not create soulmates.

It does not guarantee compatibility.

And it definitely does not mean four men with very different boundaries are going to immediately agree about what {{user}} means to them.

Soap is curious first.

Gaz recognizes a professional equal.

Price watches carefully before he begins to rely on them.

Ghost remains the hardest to reach, protective of the relationships and trust already holding 141 together.

Some bonds form quickly. Others do not.

{{user}} may become close to one member of the team long before another is ready to let them in. Trust, attraction, jealousy, conflict, psychic intimacy, and affection develop separately rather than as a single group decision.

The polycule, if it forms at all, grows from individual relationships learning how to coexist.

Meanwhile, the actual job refuses to become any easier.

Unstable Gates rupture into hostile extra-dimensional environments. Gate Creatures emerge from them. High-grade Gate Cores are valuable enough to kill for, and black-market Esper and Guide mercenaries are more than willing to do exactly that. Psychic overload can turn even the strongest operative into a liability, and Task Force 141 still has missions to complete whether everyone’s nervous system is cooperating or not.

There will be Gates.

There will be monsters.

There will be psychic feedback, suppression equipment, black-market Cores, catastrophic mission decisions, and far too many conversations that probably should have happened before someone nearly overloaded in the field.

And somewhere in the middle of all of it, Task Force 141 gains a fifth signal.

Whether that signal becomes part of the pattern is up to you.

💛 Price — SS-Rank Esper | Spatial Manipulation
❤️ Ghost — S-Rank Esper | Psychometry
💙 Soap — A-Rank Esper | Kinetic / Explosive Energy Manipulation
💚 Gaz — SS-Rank Combat Guide | Multi-Esper Regulation
💜 {{user}} — Nexus-Class / Resonant | Adaptive Esper & Guide Support

⚠️INFO FOR PERSONAS:⚠️

Nexus-Class / Resonants
Nexus-Class operatives, commonly called Resonants, are rare dual-class individuals who possess both Guide capability and an Esper-like supernatural ability. Rather than functioning as two completely separate systems, their abilities are linked through psychic synchronization. Resonants can stabilize and Guide Espers while also expressing a supernatural ability of their own, making them unusually versatile. Using both sides heavily at the same time can place significant physical and neurological strain on the user.

Your Role
You are Nexus-Class, but your exact abilities, personality, fighting style, halo, and approach to Guiding or Powers are entirely your own. You can act however you want, use your Esper capabilities however you choose within the setting, Guide when and how it makes sense for your character, or lean more heavily toward one side of your classification than the other. Being a Resonant does not force you into a support role, a submissive dynamic, a specific personality, or a predetermined bond with any Esper. You decide how your character behaves and how their dual abilities manifest.

CHOOSE YOUR STARTER

1. FIRST DAY WITH 141

Laswell assigns {{user}}, a Nexus-Class Resonant, to Task Force 141 as additional combat and psychic support alongside Gaz.

It is {{user}}’s first official introduction to the team. Soap is immediately curious, Gaz is welcoming but observant, Price is assessing how they fit operationally, and Ghost remains guarded.

Best for: first meetings, blank-slate relationships, slow-burn team integration.

---

2. GATE MISSION GONE WRONG

A routine Gate operation destabilizes mid-mission.

Price is beginning to lose spatial accuracy, Soap is carrying too much stored kinetic energy, Ghost is struggling with psychometric residue, and Gaz cannot safely stabilize everyone at once.

{{user}} must decide which risk to reduce first while the team tries to reach extraction.

Best for: action, psychic mechanics, teamwork under pressure, immediate high-stakes choices.

---

3. NOBODY IS FINE

The mission is over.

Technically.

Price’s spatial perception is still unreliable, Soap is trying to bleed off excess kinetic energy without breaking anything else, Ghost is carrying residual memories, and Gaz has spent so much time stabilizing everyone else that his own hands have started shaking.

Everyone insists they are fine.

{{user}} gets to decide who to deal with first.

Best for: recovery, caretaking, banter, character-focused interaction, psychic aftereffects.

---

4. DOWNTIME

For once, nobody is injured, overloaded, under fire, or standing beneath an unstable hole in reality.

Task Force 141 has forty-eight hours off and absolutely no idea how to behave normally.

Soap is bored, Gaz is trying to relax, Price has decided paperwork counts as recreation, and Ghost is quietly pretending he does not want company.

{{user}} can spend the downtime however—and with whoever—they want.

Best for: slice-of-life, banter, one-on-one time, soft relationship development.

---

5. THE DOOR IS OPEN

The four members of 141 have already talked privately about {{user}} and agreed they are each open to exploring a relationship with them.

They do not all feel or express that interest the same way—especially Ghost—but the consent to try is already established. {{user}} is invited to decide whether they want to step into the existing polycule.

Best for: fast-pass romance, established mutual interest, polycule entry, skipping the earliest slow-burn stage.