Aftermath (Worm AU)

[Navrin]

Well, "Sara Foster" is helping dig that hole deeper and deeper, and Deputy Director Renick just jumped in after them on very, VERY little information. Bad moves, people. Also, Renick, have a trope.

Also, it seems probable that Dana knows very, VERY little about who is cleared to know Sophia's identity or else she would know that there are people that she could call to get the word to pull Sophia back properly WAY faster than getting there in person. Or even just tell them "I have credible reason to believe that Shadowstalker is (insert one of several true reasons that she shouldn't be there); I suggest she be pulled back before (insert likely consequence of chosen true reason) What does she expect to do in person that she can't do over the phone, anyway? Bullets aren't worth much, she has no reason to know of the electricity weakness (and she might not have a stun gun of any type on her), and there are still the same secrecy limitations in person (though often harder to prove, of course). So, what's she thinking?

Thanks for the chapter, Ack. Though it's disappointing that it is probably going to take 10+ cycles before this one updates again.


For example: "Two of Sophia Hess' friends are suspects of a murder investigation and we suspect she knows about this and is trying to prove that they're innocent. Please pull her back before she tampers with the evidence; you know how people get when they're trying to prove their friends didn't do it and her efforts could easily prevent us from finding the real killers."

 

[Chojomeka]

You and you're evil evil cliffhangers Ack! Dammit people we should all start just putting Aftermath as the top vote until it's done so the agony of suspense doesn't kill us!

 

[Navrin]

You and you're evil evil cliffhangers Ack! Dammit people we should all start just putting Aftermath as the top vote until it's done so the agony of suspense doesn't kill us!

Click to shrink...

Please do; that's what I've been doing for a while, now, except for when the votes are irrelevant as it will definitely win that round regardless.

 

[Ack]

Well, "Sara Foster" is helping dig that hole deeper and deeper, and Deputy Director Renick just jumped in after them on very, VERY little information. Bad moves, people. Also, Renick, have a trope.

Also, it seems probable that Dana knows very, VERY little about who is cleared to know Sophia's identity or else she would know that there are people that she could call to get the word to pull Sophia back properly WAY faster than getting there in person. Or even just tell them "I have credible reason to believe that Shadowstalker is (insert one of several true reasons that she shouldn't be there); I suggest she be pulled back before (insert likely consequence of chosen true reason) What does she expect to do in person that she can't do over the phone, anyway? Bullets aren't worth much, she has no reason to know of the electricity weakness (and she might not have a stun gun of any type on her), and there are still the same secrecy limitations in person (though often harder to prove, of course). So, what's she thinking?

Click to shrink...

She's thinking that PRT is on site, and she can talk to someone in authority, in private: "I've figured out Shadow Stalker's secret identity. She's a murder suspect. Can we get her in custody, quietly, until we get this sorted out, please?"

 

[Navrin]

Are phonecalls not private enough for her, or something? She's racing against the clock, so why in the world is she insisting on doing it in person instead of over the phone? Especially when the stakes are "prevent yet another murder" and, quite possibly, "attain sufficient evidence to prevent plea-bargaining".

And, given how organizations like this work, they'd probably have to call their superior for confirmation anyway. It seems needlessly timewasting and I really don't know why she thinks doing it in person is superior enough to justify the time spent travelling there and then trying to find somebody with the authority and clearance for her to talk to.

 

[Ack]

Because she's already been stonewalled once over the phone, and she doesn't have any of the numbers of anyone there, except the police officers themselves. Who don't have the clearance to talk to about this sort of thing. She wants to talk to someone face to face.

 

[Navrin]

That's... at least a semi-decent reason, but she's not a lone wolf. She's part of a team. Why doesn't she make a short call to one of her police officer friends and ask them to text her PRT Director Piggot's work number? Even if she insists on not using the phone while driving trying takes her MAYBE a minute if she's particularly slow and could easily make all the difference.

And it's not like ignoring her in person would actually be notably harder, especially if they've already entered the building by the time she gets there.

 

[Ack]

That's... at least a semi-decent reason, but she's not a lone wolf. She's part of a team. Why doesn't she make a short call to one of her police officer friends and ask them to text her PRT Director Piggot's work number? Even if she insists on not using the phone while driving trying takes her MAYBE a minute if she's particularly slow and could easily make all the difference.

And it's not like ignoring her in person would actually be notably harder, especially if they've already entered the building by the time she gets there.

Click to shrink...

Because the police officers on scene are going into the house. She's reaching out to Piggot by having Garbutt send the pages to her, but she also recognises that the PRT Director is actually a busy person who might not have the time to take a phone call right now, but can open an email and look at the attachment after a minute or so of sorting something else out.

Second-guessing is all well and good, but McAllister wants to get there to make sure nothing bad happens to Danny Hebert. So that's what she's doing.

 

[Navrin]

... so "It is possible that calling her won't work and thus I won't try and I will gamble everything on being able to get there on time, find them quickly, and be able to actually convince whoever I find to talk to me privately and convince said person to get Shadowstalker into custody"?

Whatever. Bad decision, Dana; congratulations on figuring everything out except for how to actually accomplish anything useful. There is basically no way she's going to get there in time to actually prevent anything other than making herself a target and probably getting herself killed.

 

[Ack]

... so "It is possible that calling her won't work and thus I won't try and I will gamble everything on being able to get there on time, find them quickly, and be able to actually convince whoever I find to talk to me privately and convince said person to get Shadowstalker into custody"?

Whatever. Bad decision, Dana; congratulations on figuring everything out except for how to actually accomplish anything useful. There is basically no way she's going to get there in time to actually prevent anything other than making herself a target and probably getting herself killed.

Click to shrink...

Wow, really?

Seriously.

You're assuming a boatload there.

 

[tertius]

Wow, really?

Seriously.

You're assuming a boatload there.

Click to shrink...

What, you mean not everyone can just dial the Kremlin Hotline?

 

[Navrin]

Well, let's see... she's WAY too late to get there before the operation starts unless there are some massive time discrepancies between these scenes, so that negates basically every possible way for her plan to actually work, she has no real capability to actually contribute to a battle with Taylor and Shadowstalker because she doesn't have the equipment or relevant training, nobody there has any real reason to listen to her except for Shadowstalker and Taylor Hebert... essentially all that can be accomplished by walking into an incredibly volatile situation she's completely unprepared for with information perfectly calibrated to make the situation truly explosive is to make things worse or be absolutely useless.

Best case probable scenario probably involves her showing up after the entire situation is over to provide extra information to ensure Sophia ends up behind bars.

She might get REALLY lucky in trying to talk to Armsmaster and be directed to a PRT officer instead of being completely dismissed as a dangerous distraction when he needs to be prepared to act on a moment's notice, said PRT officer sends the information up the line, and they decide to pull back and then detain Shadowstalker once they're back at headquarters... and all of this without Shadowstalker overhearing anything that would notably concern her.

There are probably a few other ways for it to work out so that her going there improves things, but they all seem to be rather unlikely.

 

[Ack]

Well, I've rewritten it slightly so that her decisions make a little more sense.

Also, she's not altogether far from the Hebert house, given that they are in the Winslow school area. Also also, ignoring puny things like speed limits.

No, she's not going to get there in time to stop the operation going through. She's hoping to get there in time to prevent Danny Hebert's 'accidental' death. Or at least warn the PRT troops that the notes are something that Shadow Stalker will not want around.

And she's also ensured that Piggot gets a partial copy anyway.

Right now? She just wants to prevent another tragedy.

 

[Navrin]

The only person on the scene with any authority to accomplish what she wants is Armsmaster... who has a lot of reasons to ignore her, most of them very good. She doesn't have her evidence with her, they're in the middle of a tense operation, her goal is nothing less than "turn on your teammate/subordinate in a hostile situation"... getting anybody to listen is going to be difficult, to say the least.

Potential paths to victory: She convinces Taylor Hebert and she pre-emptively swarms Sophia to force her to stay away from her dad. She convinces Clockblocker to stick with Danny Hebert even after the threat of him being swarmed is gone and to be ready to freeze him when Sophia tries to kill him. Armsmaster gives command of the situation to somebody else entirely so that he can talk with her and he believes she knows what she's talking about enough to actually be prepared for the situation. The third seems extremely unlikely, the second relies on Clockblocker reacting quickly in the right situation and then dodging the retaliation bolts against him (since his "freeze costume" trick is a death sentence against Shadowstalker), and the first requires that Taylor VERY quickly figure out how to hear human speech effectively in an area other than her main focus. Taylor seems the most likely to be useful one, to be honest.

The PRT officers have no authority, no equipment useful for anti-Stalker combat... they're almost entirely a liability in this situation other than MAYBE passing the word up the chain of command.

Anyone figure out another way for her presence to improve things? I'm out of ideas at the moment.

Hn... I suppose it's theoretically possible that Dana could try and intimidate Sophia and Sophia could have a sudden attack of sanity and run away instead of trying to kill her way out of trouble... seems even more unlikely than Armsmaster deciding to abandon his duty, and the glory of a successful mission (while keeping the blame for failure) by taking a break to deal with some random outsider.

 

[Ack]

The only person on the scene with any authority to accomplish what she wants is Armsmaster... who has a lot of reasons to ignore her, most of them very good. She doesn't have her evidence with her, they're in the middle of a tense operation, her goal is nothing less than "turn on your teammate/subordinate in a hostile situation"... getting anybody to listen is going to be difficult, to say the least.

Potential paths to victory: She convinces Taylor Hebert and she pre-emptively swarms Sophia to force her to stay away from her dad. She convinces Clockblocker to stick with Danny Hebert even after the threat of him being swarmed is gone and to be ready to freeze him when Sophia tries to kill him. Armsmaster gives command of the situation to somebody else entirely so that he can talk with her and he believes she knows what she's talking about enough to actually be prepared for the situation. The third seems extremely unlikely, the second relies on Clockblocker reacting quickly in the right situation and then dodging the retaliation bolts against him (since his "freeze costume" trick is a death sentence against Shadowstalker), and the first requires that Taylor VERY quickly figure out how to hear human speech effectively in an area other than her main focus. Taylor seems the most likely to be useful one, to be honest.

The PRT officers have no authority, no equipment useful for anti-Stalker combat... they're almost entirely a liability in this situation other than MAYBE passing the word up the chain of command.

Anyone figure out another way for her presence to improve things? I'm out of ideas at the moment.

Hn... I suppose it's theoretically possible that Dana could try and intimidate Sophia and Sophia could have a sudden attack of sanity and run away instead of trying to kill her way out of trouble... seems even more unlikely than Armsmaster deciding to abandon his duty, and the glory of a successful mission (while keeping the blame for failure) by taking a break to deal with some random outsider.

Click to shrink...

Or we could wait till the next chapter. Which will be the last one for this story.

Also, your post has several factual errors, which stem from assumptions that you have made.

I'm not even going to tell you what they are, because the corrections will give hints as to what's going to happen next.

But seriously ... You seem to delight in finding ONE tiny thing, and nitpicking the FUCK out of it, with overarching assumptions slanted toward your view of how the story will/should turn out.

Seriously? It's as annoying as fuck. At least suggest a viable alternative.

 

[gunghoun]

The only person on the scene with any authority to accomplish what she wants is Armsmaster... who has a lot of reasons to ignore her, most of them very good. She doesn't have her evidence with her, they're in the middle of a tense operation, her goal is nothing less than "turn on your teammate/subordinate in a hostile situation"... getting anybody to listen is going to be difficult, to say the least.

Potential paths to victory: She convinces Taylor Hebert and she pre-emptively swarms Sophia to force her to stay away from her dad. She convinces Clockblocker to stick with Danny Hebert even after the threat of him being swarmed is gone and to be ready to freeze him when Sophia tries to kill him. Armsmaster gives command of the situation to somebody else entirely so that he can talk with her and he believes she knows what she's talking about enough to actually be prepared for the situation. The third seems extremely unlikely, the second relies on Clockblocker reacting quickly in the right situation and then dodging the retaliation bolts against him (since his "freeze costume" trick is a death sentence against Shadowstalker), and the first requires that Taylor VERY quickly figure out how to hear human speech effectively in an area other than her main focus. Taylor seems the most likely to be useful one, to be honest.

The PRT officers have no authority, no equipment useful for anti-Stalker combat... they're almost entirely a liability in this situation other than MAYBE passing the word up the chain of command.

Anyone figure out another way for her presence to improve things? I'm out of ideas at the moment.

Hn... I suppose it's theoretically possible that Dana could try and intimidate Sophia and Sophia could have a sudden attack of sanity and run away instead of trying to kill her way out of trouble... seems even more unlikely than Armsmaster deciding to abandon his duty, and the glory of a successful mission (while keeping the blame for failure) by taking a break to deal with some random outsider.

Click to shrink...

I can't even comprehend your thought process. I can't understand how you think Armsmaster would have a police detective show up at the house of what they until extremely recently thought was a homicide victim and telling him "I believe Shadow Stalker is Sophia Hess, who is as of now the prime suspect in the murder investigation regarding the person who lived here" and just brush that off. I mean, I know there's departmental rivalry, but if a police officer's house is on fire he isn't going to tell the fire department to fuck off. They understand that other departments are qualified.

Even if she only gets to a PRT trooper, she can still tell them she has reason to believe that the prime suspect is the civilian identity of one of the Wards, and they can then inform Armsmaster (because of fucking course they would understand the importance of that information!). Armsmaster isn't belligerent for the sake of being an asshole, he just doesn't really get human interaction. Shit, he'd probably be more likely to go the other way, and immediately have Sophia taken into custody ignoring the idea that she might be innocent, just so he could say he kept the operation secure.

Obviously I don't know where this is going. But at this point it sounds like you had one thought about how it could go, and then immediately set out to argue that it is the only possible way it could ever go, no reason to even read the story because we've already figured out how it ends! Just about the only thing I can rule out with as much certainty as you have, is that I'm almost 100% certain Scion isn't going to show up, Fuck You Beam! Taylor back into her body, steal Sophia's powers, and tell her she's on her own now. Almost.

 

[Daunmi]

Because she's already been stonewalled once over the phone, and she doesn't have any of the numbers of anyone there, except the police officers themselves. Who don't have the clearance to talk to about this sort of thing. She wants to talk to someone face to face.

Click to shrink...

Wouldn't work to call them and demand, politely, to get the attention of the cape in charge regarding a matter of operational security, or an unknown hazard that's came up through her investigations? Once the cape gets the phone she can convince them to hold things off for a minute or two because she knows something and it's to do with cape identities so she can't say anything over the phone.

Eh, sounds fine as it is to me anyway. It's not like she's really got time to think things through, considering the timetable.

 

[Navrin]

... have you not picked out a pattern, Ack? I make a response to a story. You, or somebody else, hones in on one particular point that you find disagreeable and respond to that. I try to explain, this is repeated a few cycles, you get extremely pissed off while I get frustrated, probably at least partially because I cannot explain myself very well and there are notable cultural differences making translation more difficult somewhere along the lines. English being a frustratingly unclear language might also contribute...

Also, I have not said "you are writing this wrong" or anything along those lines; I have said (after asking for information on what in the world she is thinking that lead to this plan) that I think Dana is making a very poor move and the odds are very much against it actually working out well for her. If you want me to offer an alternative: Stay the heck away from the combat zone that she is completely untrained and equipped for while also missing extremely vital information about what's going on. Focus everything on communicating with Director Piggot, possibly in person if she insists for whatever reason, because she is not in the middle of a field operation and has the authority to actually issue relevant orders instead of having to pass the information up the stream and convince them, too.

You seem to have conveyed "extrapolations from the story and predictions about how things will go are unwelcome because they're not going to match what I intend". Is this accurate?

gunghoun And how is she going to convince them that she isn't Mastered, an enemy Thinker, a member of the gangs, some lunatic conspiracy theorist, or whatever? She has insufficient evidence on her, most of what she has are (accurate, but good luck proving that) conclusions from rather small amounts of evidence that haven't been processed yet, and they're dealing with a situation where a small distraction could easily get them killed (as far as they're aware). The number of fail conditions that I can pick out are rather... large. Sophia Hess overhears, she's ignored in favour of their rather pressing combat operation, Dana doesn't manage to convince the person on the scene (almost definitely not Armsmaster, as he's busy) who then needs to convince Piggot or Armsmaster (while he's busy) that these concerns are reasonable and a preemptive strike is called for, Taylor mishears the wrong bit, Dana startles somebody at the wrong moment, she draws her pistol and somebody shoots her in response.... does that help explain what I'm thinking? She is heading towards an extremely tense situation, as an outsider, and trying to argue that they should betray Shadowstalker. And despite what we know, they have very, VERY little reason to believe the word of some random outsider over Shadowstalker. She's disagreeable and unpleasant, sure, but this is accusation is coming out of nowhere of extreme magnitude at a VERY inconvenient time against somebody on their side. They have a lot of reasons, good and understandably human, to pay essentially zero attention to her other than keep her away from the tense investigation and potential shooting situation.

This is especially the case when multi-service operations make everything worse, especially when you DON'T want a fight. The differences in training, acceptable tactics, expected responses, etc make them a nightmare even when you have prep time to try and work things out. Somebody coming in during the middle of the operation would make exacerbate these problems even more; her being a hostile would, in general, be a lot less difficult to deal with.

On the bright side, they all have the same native language, they're nominally on the same side (in practise... sort of at oblique angles to each other), and there isn't any particular reason to believe that there are any personal grudges involved.

 

[Starfox5]

Armsmaster got a lie detector. He will know Dana at least believes her claims which will male him at least consider them I would say.

Loved the "I understand" scene. Perfect Colin.

 

[Ack]

... have you not picked out a pattern, Ack? I make a response to a story. You, or somebody else, hones in on one particular point that you find disagreeable and respond to that. I try to explain, this is repeated a few cycles, you get extremely pissed off while I get frustrated, probably at least partially because I cannot explain myself very well and there are notable cultural differences making translation more difficult somewhere along the lines. English being a frustratingly unclear language might also contribute...

Also, I have not said "you are writing this wrong" or anything along those lines; I have said (after asking for information on what in the world she is thinking that lead to this plan) that I think Dana is making a very poor move and the odds are very much against it actually working out well for her. If you want me to offer an alternative: Stay the heck away from the combat zone that she is completely untrained and equipped for while also missing extremely vital information about what's going on. Focus everything on communicating with Director Piggot, possibly in person if she insists for whatever reason, because she is not in the middle of a field operation and has the authority to actually issue relevant orders instead of having to pass the information up the stream and convince them, too.

You seem to have conveyed "extrapolations from the story and predictions about how things will go are unwelcome because they're not going to match what I intend". Is this accurate?

gunghoun And how is she going to convince them that she isn't Mastered, an enemy Thinker, a member of the gangs, some lunatic conspiracy theorist, or whatever? She has insufficient evidence on her, most of what she has are (accurate, but good luck proving that) conclusions from rather small amounts of evidence that haven't been processed yet, and they're dealing with a situation where a small distraction could easily get them killed (as far as they're aware). The number of fail conditions that I can pick out are rather... large. Sophia Hess overhears, she's ignored in favour of their rather pressing combat operation, Dana doesn't manage to convince the person on the scene (almost definitely not Armsmaster, as he's busy) who then needs to convince Piggot or Armsmaster (while he's busy) that these concerns are reasonable and a preemptive strike is called for, Taylor mishears the wrong bit, Dana startles somebody at the wrong moment, she draws her pistol and somebody shoots her in response.... does that help explain what I'm thinking? She is heading towards an extremely tense situation, as an outsider, and trying to argue that they should betray Shadowstalker. And despite what we know, they have very, VERY little reason to believe the word of some random outsider over Shadowstalker. She's disagreeable and unpleasant, sure, but this is accusation is coming out of nowhere of extreme magnitude at a VERY inconvenient time against somebody on their side. They have a lot of reasons, good and understandably human, to pay essentially zero attention to her other than keep her away from the tense investigation and potential shooting situation.

Click to shrink...

Wow ... just wow.

You remind me of one of my GMs. This is a guy who, whenever I presented even the slightest vagueness in an action I intended to take, always assumed that my character was being as stupid ad fucking possible about it. I had to outline my actions with every single contingency defined, otherwise I'd find myself starting fights with the slightest provocation, leaving gear behind, or something of that ridiculous nature. And yes, you remind me of him.

You know what's going to convince them that she isn't Mastered, and enemy Thinker, a member of the gangs, some lunatic conspiracy theorist, or whatever? A badge, ID and other cops on site who will identify her. Or you know, they can call the fucking precinct.

Once she's identified as a police officer, the evidence she does have will carry some weight.

If Armsmaster's busy, then so will Shadow Stalker be.

Seriously, you seem to be literally manufacturing fail conditions here. It's almost as if you don't expect human beings to be reasonable, rational or intelligent, just for reasons of plot.

Or even that you're saying that there's no way she can succeed in her mission. Wow. Just wow.

 

[Navrin]

Armsmaster being busy includes paying attention for a change that would necessitate him giving an order very quickly to prevent everything from falling apart, among other things. Splitting his attention from that focus would be unwise, and once the mission has started there is no downtime for him. Sophia Hess, by contrast, has a much smaller set of situations where she would need to be focusing on something instead of lurking around.

If they weren't in the middle of a combat situation (even if nobody is attacking yet, or hopefully at all) that would be an expected response, yes. Given the lack of personal ties, inter-department training, or anything else that would help bridge the gap of "we're busy here and need to be ready for anything so we don't all die horribly" I would not expect communication to actually work out well. For the most part, I would expect "stay the hell outside of our perimeter so you don't screw everything up, you trigger-happy lunatics; go keep away the civilians or something", though in far more polite language. After all, actually integrating them into the operation would almost certainly be a complete disaster.

"She has a badge and is a known police officer" doesn't actually convey very much. Could have been Mastered, could be a Changer, might have been blackmailed, could STILL be a crazy conspiracy theorist; having a badge doesn't have an exceptionally large positive correlation with "is actually sane and reasonable".

This will, somehow, work out, fine. It seems like that would require some rather unlikely events because the situation as presented is already a complete disaster with everyone involved missing very key information, having loyalties, orders, and equipment in exactly the wrong direction to be useful, and an extreme time crunch involved. Danny Hebert's Master powers are one of the very few ways to actually end a fight fast enough for everyone to walk away and getting him the information to act in time without Sophia deciding to be a complete moron and gloat before actually killing him and running away (or just skip to part two, but she's very, very murder-happy in this story) seems rather far-fetched. And the only other identified weapons that are even remotely useful are Armsmaster's halberd (near-melee weapon at most) and guns that are at least mostly in the hands of near-non-combatants and against a target they have a LOT of reasons not to want to shoot and somebody who has experience not dying to bullets. And this is against somebody with a mobility advantage nobody present can even come close to matching as long as Sophia stays within buildings and actually uses her powers and equipment.

Also, somewhat amusing that Dana has complete confidence that Sophia Hess is extremely foolish under pressure; she's convinced that Sophia will murder somebody in a way that's child's play to link back to her to cover up evidence that she was involved with a situation that lead to her first murder.

 

[Ack]

All Dana knows is that Sophia is a suspect in two murders, and you don't deal with that by going, "Eh, I can't do anything if I go there; I'm sure it'll work out."

But you know, thanks. Pointing out all the odds against everything turning out all right will just make Dana look all the more badass when she saves the day

 

[Navrin]

"Do nothing" was never the suggested alternative. And sure, if she actually deals with everyone being primed to attack Taylor if she does anything aggressive, Sophia out to perform an action or two highly likely to provoke Taylor, extreme difficulties in effectively communicating by Taylor and to Taylor, showing up to the situation notably late (so things have probably already started going wrong), nobody on the Team PRT actually having much reason to pay attention to her other than to keep her from screwing everything up until she can convince them that there is very serious danger and it's worth acting upon in a manner she has in mind, her missing rather critical knowledge (like who she can tell what she knows and what in the world is going on for the mission) that would, in fact, make her achievements pretty badass.

Semi-likely event: Sophia takes a knife and cuts through Danny's diaphragm with it. One of the quietest assassination techniques possible. Even with Clockblocker nearby to buy time that's the kind of medical complication that's... difficult to deal with without parahuman assistance. (After all, she probably doesn't have her lethal bolts on her and when you want to reliably kill somebody a knife is one of the most reliable, and easy to acquire, weapons to use) Also one of the few methods that she might be able to pass off as a Stranger's work instead of her own. (Before the lie detector gets involved)

 

[Ack]

"Do nothing" was never the suggested alternative. And sure, if she actually deals with everyone being primed to attack Taylor if she does anything aggressive, Sophia out to perform an action or two highly likely to provoke Taylor, extreme difficulties in effectively communicating by Taylor and to Taylor, showing up to the situation notably late (so things have probably already started going wrong), nobody on the Team PRT actually having much reason to pay attention to her other than to keep her from screwing everything up until she can convince them that there is very serious danger and it's worth acting upon in a manner she has in mind, her missing rather critical knowledge (like who she can tell what she knows and what in the world is going on for the mission) that would, in fact, make her achievements pretty badass.

Semi-likely event: Sophia takes a knife and cuts through Danny's diaphragm with it. One of the quietest assassination techniques possible. Even with Clockblocker nearby to buy time that's the kind of medical complication that's... difficult to deal with without parahuman assistance. (After all, she probably doesn't have her lethal bolts on her and when you want to reliably kill somebody a knife is one of the most reliable, and easy to acquire, weapons to use) Also one of the few methods that she might be able to pass off as a Stranger's work instead of her own. (Before the lie detector gets involved)

Click to shrink...

Heh.

You're assuming that everything that Dana has assumed to be true is actually true.

That's so adorable.

 

[Navrin]

... is that meant to be mocking? It is coming off that way.

 

[esotericist]

... is that meant to be mocking? It is coming off that way.

Click to shrink...

Are you intending to be hostile? You seem to always come off that way in these discussions.

 

[Navrin]

Are you intending to be hostile? You seem to always come off that way in these discussions.

Click to shrink...

No, no I am not; that is very far from my intention.

 

[AntonioCC]

Well, the way you are phrasing your posts (blunt and demanding) comes away as hostile, that's probably one of the reasons why Ack has reacted the way he has.

 

[esotericist]

No, no I am not; that is very far from my intention.

Click to shrink...

I strongly urge you to consider the reactions you get in light of the possibility you are unintentionally using hostile communication patterns.

 

[Navrin]

*Mutters darkly about communicating being so bloody complicated and confusing* My bluntness is what I normally do in essentially all situations; I don't really know how to do otherwise and still convey any degree of useful information. And demanding? That... is very much unintentional. Can you give an example?

Important, esotericist, but not particularly useful as I don't really have the background to figure that out and how to avoid it other than "don't communicate anything involving a potential difference of opinion".