Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

[Slayer Anderson]

Don't forget that you need to have one statement that's true. One statement that's false. And use those two statements to draw a completely unrelated conclusion.

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Example:

Ancient peoples constructed extremely advanced structures and technologies for their time without the use of modern machinery. (True)

These structures cannot possibly be made any other way than with modern or more advanced machinery. (False)

Unrelated Conclusion:

Ancient people were visited by aliens (who obviously possessed advanced machinery) came to Earth and helped out the early civilizations...

...also, lizard people exist and are running the government.

 

[Divabot]

No quite, you are simply removing context. True conspiracy makes up makes up facts and also claims parts of reality is fabricated.

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JET FUEL CAN'T MELT ENDBRINGER FLESH, DEBRA

 

[Snake/Eater]

What happens if or When it gets out that Vicky is killing US citizens outside the law?Pantheon and Avalon lose more trying to cover it up or trying to keep Vicky out of Prison politically and publicly.

 

[dasstan]

What happens if or When it gets out that Vicky is killing US citizens outside the law?Pantheon and Avalon lose more trying to cover it up or trying to keep Vicky out of Prison politically and publicly.

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The public at large didn't seem to have much of an issue when Taylor was flaying people alive with bugs. One dead child rapist isn't that big of a deal.

 

[TanaNari]

That and, adoptive sibling notwithstanding, Vicky is a US citizen. That's not an international incident. Not that she really expects to get caught. There are potentially thousands of bodies to be found... forensics testing is not a thing that'll happen often, and certainly not in cases that look accidental.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 277- Ruth


"Calling the first meeting of super social thinker committee to order," Minerva announced. She's nervous, and hiding it with flippancy. She knows her information is important, using it to tease others, much like she did with the 'Emissary' title she selected for her status as an Avalon 'royal'.


Around our table was an admittedly heady group of minds. Alexandria, Dragon, and myself were to be expected. Dinah Alcott was something of a surprise. Attempting to be seen as adult, views being a child as a weakness, trauma brought on by abuse. No signs of physical or sexual abuse markers. Signs of behavior learned by addicts.


I of course knew a bit about her history, having been rescued and placed under full protection by Pantheon. She was the most powerful known precog on the planet, now that the Simurgh was destroyed, so everyone considered it their business to know her story. Now I knew how she was controlled.


I spared glances at the others. Dragon was, again, using her robot body. There was a reason she was known as the world's best Tinker, and she'd never once let me see her real body, or even directly operated a puppet in front of me. Always it was through an AI filter. At first I had come to the conclusion that she didn't trust me, a fact I didn't blame her for in the slightest, given the things I'd done.


But I was sure she trusted trusted me now, she wouldn't have had me work with Heartbreaker's children otherwise. Nor would she and Avalon allow me into the sensitive operations that they did, like this one. Both kept some secrets from me, but that wasn't a surprise. No, now I was certain she used a proxy because she had to. A severe disability, perhaps like cerebral palsy or ALS. Why she didn't have Pantheon repair the problem, I was unsure. Perhaps they couldn't? If the disease was caused by her power, they would have to remove her powers to heal her. That seemed the most likely answer.


All of that mental analysis happened in a heartbeat or two. Minerva started speaking again, her smile saying that she knew all of us used that time to have a short mental conversation with ourselves. "As I'm sure is no surprise, we're here to talk about the Endmakers." She was right, it none of us were surprised. "Well, I think we've been doing this all wrong. Here's a thought, and right now it's just a thought, but what are the odds that the Endmakers are actually trying to help us in their own twisted way?"


I almost made the mistake of exclaiming a negation of the idea. So, I noted, did Dinah. Dragon, or her AI controlled puppet, didn't show a notable reaction. Alexandria's reaction was a sort of patient curiosity. She was surprised, but interested. I got the impression she'd be far less receptive of the idea if it were someone other than Minerva presenting it.
Minerva herself was clearly disappointed no one fell for her trap, and absorbing information from our less obvious personality tells. Her power is an order of magnitude greater than it was when I first met her so many months ago.


"I thought about it, after Atropos made a comment at the end of the Wendigo battle," she informed us.


"Yes, the one about killing an Endbringer making someone a hero once, while merely beating them made you a hero once a year," Alexandria supplied. She is saying it for Dinah and I, who hadn't heard that conversation. She's humoring Minerva's showmanship. Minerva's aware of this. It's... part of the way their friendship works.


"Right," Minerva responded. The interplay between the two women was more intimate than I'd have expected. They regularly have thinker conversations with one another. I felt a mild pang of jealousy that I didn't have someone I could be like that with. But, then, I was a Tinker and had that kind of fulfillment instead. "That made me think about how the Endbringers have influenced, well, everything. I think I speak for all of us here when I say, as uncomfortable as it is, all of us have directly or indirectly benefited by their presence."


The mood at the gathering went a bit on the dark side. A combination of 'explain yourself' and 'I don't want to be the one person here that can't figure out the answer if she happens to be right'.


"Take the birth of Pantheon," she went on. "We were Class S threats pretty much right out of the gate. What would have happened without the pressures created by the Endbringers? If the heroes weren't nursing their wounds from Leviathan and dealing with all the local threats instead of being able to mobilize more quickly. More than that, if we'd built like we were building, without making very public declarations of using our weapons on the Endbringers?"


"I would have killed you," Alexandria responded. The undertones were complex. Regret, in some ways. Sadness at the idea of losing Minerva? They know something they're not telling. Dragon does, too. A major secret. Alexandria took some action that kept Pantheon from being destroyed early on. What, I couldn't discern with the limited information I had. "As the member of the Triumvirate that was immune to Gaea and Khepri's power sets, the command would have fallen to me to do the job."


"Precisely," Minerva responded. "And that story can be told time and time again. The Protectorate itself was founded, at least in part, to respond to threats like the Endbringers, too powerful for any parahuman, or any team of parahumans, to believably fight."


"This is starting to make a sick sort of sense," Dragon agreed. "The Baumann Parahuman Containment Center shares a similar story. A nonlethal deterrent, for fear that the use of the death penalty in cases that are obviously deserving of it might provoke parahuman retaliation. Threaten the loose sort of peace that exists solely so both heroes and villains can work together against the Endbringers."


"Exactly," Minerva replied. "Dinah, don't worry I'm footing the bill for this, but if the Endbringers just mysteriously vanished from the planet tomorrow for no discernible reason, how long would it take before World War Three began?"


"Ninety four point three seven percent chance that a war involving more than fifty percent of Bet's population, including colony worlds, would occur within six years," she answered.


"And as destructive as the Endbringers are, I doubt they're as deadly as a war fought with nuclear bombs and tinker weaponry," Lisa concluded. "We know the death of India was caused by a parahuman, not the Simurgh. If there are even three or four people on the planet who have and use a power of that magnitude, then there wouldn't be a Bet left to fight over."


"You're saying this as if it would be better for us to allow them to live," I pointed out.


"No," Minerva responded. "That's what happens if they vanish mysteriously. Now what happens if the Endbringers are actually slain to the last?"


"I... my power isn't good at working with this many hypotheticals," Dinah informed us. "But the numbers are... I think it takes longer to occur, long enough that Scion happens first. That's too much a constant for me to see around."


"Of course, Scion," Minerva added. "Which really is the crux of the problem. The Endbringers are tough as hell, but they're nothing compared to the Entities that made them. If we can't beat them, then there's no way we can beat him."


Alexandria frowned, and the rest of us slipped into our thoughts as well. She was the one who spoke first, however. "So that's what this has to come down to, then? A weapons test. If we can't destroy the remaining Endbringers, then there's nothing we can do to fight the Entity."


"It's disturbing," Dragon agreed. "I take it that bringing this up to us, and only us, serves a purpose?"


"Of course," Minerva offered that foxlike grin. "I still intend to find the Endmakers and 'thank' them properly." Her vocal inflection was anything but grateful sounding. "But if we're going to find them, we need to be looking in the right places, and that means we have to cut the assumption that we're hunting for obvious enemies, and start looking at people who are possibly our allies."


"So, adding people who might want to help us, but are pretty certain we would reject that help if they just outright offered it to us?" I suggested. "I can create software that will look in that general direction."


Alexandria's reaction surprised me a little. She wasn't part of an Endmaker conspiracy, but she was definitely part of some kind of conspiracy. That's information that I might have felt safer not knowing about. Minerva already knows. Fuck. Dragon already knows, double fuck. Dinah's oblivious to the implications, she doesn't know.


"Try not to kick over any hornets' nests, any of you," Minerva responded, though the social cues led me to the obvious conclusion that she was only speaking to me. "Right now, there are a lot of people involved in trying to hold things together the world over. If we upset an ally like the Thanda accidentally, we might lose their help in future Endbringer battles. We'll cross reference our information with each other, if we come across any. No one acts without all of us comparing notes."


"That is reasonable," Dragon agreed. She didn't seem particularly happy with the conspiracy angle of this. She's an ally, not a friend, when it comes to Alexandria. While Minerva was at least friendly with both.


Wheels within wheels.


"Of course," I agreed. "The Endbringers and Scion are the top priorities. Everything else can wait until after that." For the time being, I made sure I believed that. Hopefully none of them were sharp enough to catch the fact that I knew I'd change my mind later.


=====================

A/N- I've missed having Rapture in the story. So here she is! Yay!

 

[AyiosKat]

immune to Gaea and Khepri's power sets,

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You sure about that Rebecca?

 

[dasstan]

"Of course," I agreed. "The Endbringers and Scion are the top priorities. Everything else can wait until after that." For the time being, I made sure I believed that. Hopefully none of them were sharp enough to catch the fact that I knew I'd change my mind later.

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Oh, Ruth. You're banking against outwitting Second Trigger Tattletale, Enhanced Senses Alexandria, and She Who Walks In Info Dragon?

Well. Hopefully she won't fuck it up/get herself killed for the greater good. Rey would be sad.

 

[Snake/Eater]

Ruth is the Martyr Without A Cause

 

[cosoco]

whept

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wept

coping a feel

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copping a feel

"I don't think you understand," I hissed. "I only found one survivor in this building."

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Uh. Victoria. That's not necessary. Uh.

A/N- Well, that got dark fast.

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It started with teenagers implementing a scorched earth policy with an orbital death gun. It transitioned to people thinking about how this was only the start of something worse. It moved to searching through rubble for horribly maimed people, and ended at a pedophile trying to get out of what he did.

It was never light at any point.

It occurs to me that it is possible Gallant's entire schtick could have emerged from a desire to impress Vicky, knowing her... proclivities prior to his debut. Not sure if the timetable matches up, but it amuses me.

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It doesn't. Victoria started dating Dean before he had superpowers.

Edit: no she didn't.

But really, this is hardly the worst thing we've seen members of Pantheon do.

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I'm not sure it makes the top 10, actually.

I almost made the mistake of exclaiming a negation of the idea. So, I noted, did Dinah. Dragon, or her AI controlled puppet, didn't show a notable reaction. Alexandria's reaction was a sort of patient curiosity. She was surprised, but interested. I got the impression she'd be far less receptive of the idea if it were someone other than Minerva presenting it.

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"Minerva, I'm enchanted by the melodies of your voice. Sing for me once again."

I felt a mild pang of jealousy that I didn't have someone I could be like that with.

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Sarah/Rebbeca/Ruth/Teresa OT4?

to me. Right now,

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to me. "Right now,

She wasn't part of an Endmaker conspiracy, but she was definitely part of some kind of conspiracy.

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Silly Ruth, if you're not in a conspiracy, you're falling behind! They're all the rage, now.

 

[Inverness]

JET FUEL CAN'T MELT ENDBRINGER FLESH, DEBRA

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The Endbringers are an inside job!

...

Wait a minute...

 

[CptTagon]

"But of we're going to find them

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if we're.

Actually took me a minute to remember who she was, its been so long. Looks like Lisa didn't make as much of the leap as we were all thinking, but she is on the right track.

 

[Coruscant Knave]

Ruth just jelly she has no thinkerwife and wants to kick over sandcastles.

Please tell me Dinah was in a suit again.

It doesn't. Victoria started dating Dean before he had superpowers.

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That would be exactly what I suggested.

 

[powerofvoid]

I thought Dean got his powers first.

 

[TanaNari]

It's never stated in Worm.

https://wildbow.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/snippets-drafts-of-worm/

However. Guts & Glory is "almost canon"- so it's the closest you have to go on. In that case, Gallant had his powers at least a year or so before either of the Dallon siblings. But didn't seem to have taken up a hero identity by that point.

 

[Mogget]

Contessa would probably pop up before Rapture could really screw too much up in any case. Hopefully.

 

[Daunmi]

If we upset an ally like the Thanda on accident

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[Coruscant Knave]

It's never stated in Worm.

https://wildbow.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/snippets-drafts-of-worm/

However. Guts & Glory is "almost canon"- so it's the closest you have to go on. In that case, Gallant had his powers at least a year or so before either of the Dallon siblings. But didn't seem to have taken up a hero identity by that point.

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I'll read G&G one day. Not today, though.

I'm not sure why people keep bringing it up, though. It has very little to do with whether or not Vicky and Dean knew each other before he debuted as a hero.

BTW, I liked the bookendy-comparison thing you did between how Anima and Victoria feel about their powers.

 

[Ack]

Nah, she can tell the difference between related DNA (parent/child, siblings, cousins, although after that the parental genetics blur too much to be useful) and the "presence of foreign genetic material".

Even if they were related, she could have distinguished that particular evidence.

Oh, and yeah, she can tell between different types of cellular material, too, so if the girl had for whatever reason swallowed a few tablespoons of his blood, she'd know it was blood.

At least until it was broken down by the digestive system. In which case she wouldn't be able to identify it as foreign (human) DNA to begin with.

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So why did you have her note "Black, so not his."?

That gave the (false) impression that she couldn't do a more detailed DNA scan and go, "DNA profiles do not match closely enough to be related. Except for there."

I do not argue with her conclusions, save that the way you presented it was clumsy. It was like you were going, "See, they're not related (because she's black) but she still has his DNA inside her, so he obviously raped her!"

That is, her being black (and thus not related) being the proof that his DNA in her was the product of rape.

Just as a suggestion (not saying you should retcon, but this would have presented it more smoothly):

"Pantheon," I replied. "I'm Victoria. Sorry about the costume, it's not as tough as I am." I deliberately stretched out a leg to give the man a look. I could do that for a second or two, at least.

"Okay," he agreed, coming out. A child followed. She was black; he was white, but that didn't mean much. My powers were much more precise. DNA scans do not match on any significant level. Not related.

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"The fuck's going on here?" he demanded.

"My powers," I growled. Now that the child and pixie were gone, I could talk freely. If I wasn't aware that Khepri was pretty much omnipresent, I wouldn't have bothered talking. "I can sense living things. In this case, your genetic material inside that little girl. Fresh genetic material." The insects nearby buzzed their response. I have her attention, good.

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See? Removes any ambiguity.

I will state again; I never thought for a moment that this was setting up for Victoria to accidentally murder an innocent. Just that the way it was done was a little clunky.

Though I do hope that this event is revisited in some way down the track, and not just thrown in as Vicky-uses-acceptable-lethal-force-on-a-pedophile. Have Taylor mention it, or Vicky, or someone else ask "What happened to the other guy?" Something so that it's not just a throwaway.

 

[Ack]

If we upset an ally like the Thanda on accident, we might lose their help in future Endbringer battles.

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Really? Minerva uses this travesty of English?

I would think she'd know better than that.

Oh wait, she does.

All I can say is, if I was in that room, listening to her speak, hearing that come out of her mouth, I would immediately lose a certain amount of respect for her.

 

[TanaNari]

Just as a suggestion (not saying you should retcon, but this would have presented it more smoothly):

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Edited. Your way wasn't quite how I meant it to be perceived, either. I think the changes I made work better.

But you're right. The changes needed to be made.

Also. Your post. That's what good criticism looks like. A simple "here's something I think went wrong, here's why I think it's wrong, here's a way to fix it'.

You didn't need to phrase it like you were afraid you'd make me mad or something, though.

 

[TanaNari]

Really? Minerva uses this travesty of English?

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I'm tempted to keep it just to irritate daunmi.

 

[tordg]

"Me, too," GL spoke up. "They're supposedly male, but they all look girlier than you, blondie. And they act it, too. But they're insanely good in a fight. It's like watching those Lord of the Rings movies in person, only with slightly less homoerotic subtext."

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I am now imagining the things Glen would do with a bishie army.

And absolutely none of which is anything compared to what my old powers did.

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I'm actually really proud of Vicky here.

A/N- I've missed having Rapture in the story. So here she is! Yay!

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It's good to have her back.

Sarah/Rebbeca/Ruth/Teresa OT4?

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I ship it.

 

[Snake/Eater]

Sarah/Rebbeca/Ruth/Teresa - the name for this small canoe will be ..... Puzzle Quest

 

[dasstan]

Sarah/Rebbeca/Ruth/Teresa - the name for this small canoe will be ..... Puzzle Quest

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Why not Brain Teaser?

 

[TanaNari]

Why not Brain Teaser?

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Mindfuck.

 

[dasstan]

Mindfuck.

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Oh, sure, use the whole chicken.

 

[GiftofLove]

Book Club

Because there's always one.

 

[TanaNari]

Oh, sure, use the whole chicken.

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That would be a mindcluck.

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

Mindfuck.

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No, that's Ruth/Niko.