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Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Reader mode
by the way TanaNari, what are you going to call Vicky's Wormhole sword?
 
GiftofLove said:
Weirdly, shouldn't Missy have one of the strongest connections to her shard?
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Would explain why Missy is so serious and driven and willing to overclock her powers, wouldn't it?

Izicata said:
So they do think that the drug can cause total power loss if overused. Yes?
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They file it away under "not a risk we really want to take". In the same way you probably don't want to drive your car out onto a frozen lake.

Sure, the ice might be strong enough to handle it, but you probably don't want to risk it if it can be avoided. At least not if you can't test said ice to know how strong it is first- which they can't in this analogy.

What they ARE convinced of, is that if you start driving dozens of cars out onto the ice, eventually it's going to cave. Don't know where the limits are, but it's better to not find out.
 
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TanaNari said:
Also: holy shit, it's been so long since Amelia had an Amelia chapter that I actually put her name in the chapter title!

I'mma leave it there, just so my readers can discover if they noticed or not.
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I just figured that, at this point, you'd decided "Fuck it, I'll write from whatever PoV I damn well feel like. Screw standard Worm conventions!"

I don't have a problem with it either way.
 
Daunmi said:
I just figured that, at this point, you'd decided "Fuck it, I'll write from whatever PoV I damn well feel like. Screw standard Worm conventions!"

I don't have a problem with it either way.
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Well. This was always an experiment to help me find my "style" in writing online. Because of the serialized nature of the story, and my own future stories I intend to do... it has to be VERY different than the standard practice of writing with one major character and binding it all up in 300k words or so.


I either have to do Constant Escalation! and Only One Character Does Anything Significant!... Or I have to be more open to the idea of a wide variety of invoked characters.

Instead of taking the Action to the Perspective via Deus (Diabolus) Ex Whatever... I will take the Perspective to the Action and tell stories through the eyes of whomever is there at the moment.

... This makes for a very different style of writing, requiring a large supply of characters and interactions to sustain. But I think I have a fuckton of that going on here.


Honestly, I might just sidestep over into writing my own original supers story. I'd have to lose Amelia and Cast. But I have Anima, Zach, Arianna/Eric (and more drama for it without Amelia's "gender swap" button to eliminate a perfectly delicious plot hook that I could have (ab)used for entire arcs at a time)... Vicky's an OC stand-in at this point...

Some of my favorite stories in Amelia have been the ones where they were trying so very hard NOT to press the "Summon Taylia" button. Part of why I cut them off from using their influence on Bet. A story where the characters are completely without that political and technological resource would be fun.

But that's all for the future. Right now, I'mma finish Amelia.

Honestly, we're getting pretty close to the end of the story, there's almost no way this gets another 100 chapters.


This story has always been about me eliminating the most grievous flaws in my writing. And I think I've gone a long way toward that. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn good now and still improving. But I'm approaching the point where there's nothing more to learn from Amelia, and I should move on.

Time to convert the local multiverse into raw material and jump to the next inhabited world.
 
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Hmm well i guess that i'll just say something since the end is within sight. One of the drawing points about Amelia was the new territory you explored with power combinations and usage. Sure people have fics with tinkers working together and oh god there are so many Skitterpan solves everything things but you just pushed it all into a new level turning wannabe supers into gods.I know it's kinda weird but I'm the kind of guy who really likes it when the methodology of a system is explained or interpreted into something I've never considered like Lisa using her ability on herself and Clarice being the impetus for a bud and If I ever do start writing a worm fic I'll probably take quite a few cues from your work.
 
TanaNari said:
"Alright, well, the first thing you have to remember is that the Imperial family has been ruling Japan in a more or less unbroken line, for well over two thousand years.
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Not true, in two ways: first, there's no real archaeological evidence of Japan's imperial lineage stretching back to the claimed date of 660 BCE, and some counterevidence in the form of contemporaneous Chinese accounts; and b) the imperial family can't really be said to have been "ruling" during the Kamakura, Ashikaga, or Tokugawa shogunates (1185-1868 CE, with a brief restoration in 1333-1336), nor after the post-WWII occupation of Japan.

TanaNari said:
"In addition, they're going to treat this a business transaction," Lisa continued. "From their perspective, Lily's functionally a piece of property, not a person. Or maybe it's that Lily's a person and they're gods. Whatever, point is, try not to get too pissed about this."
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Emperor Hirohito (d.1989, known posthumously in Japan as Emperor Shōwa) specifically and publicly denounced any claim of Imperial divinity.
 
Ampersandwich said:
Emperor Hirohito (d.1989, known posthumously in Japan as Emperor Shōwa) specifically and publicly denounced any claim of Imperial divinity.
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That doesn't necessarily mean that Lisa's wrong, though.
TanaNari said:
update
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So we have three weapons that would give a nuclear-armed state pause: Mashu, Bolla and Basilisk. Lisa favors Basilisk, and thinks Bolla would start a Cold War. (ie, China would back off, but start assembling weapons of their own.) Taylor doesn't suggest actually using Bolla, just revealing it. This makes me think that it's incredibly destructive - on the scale of fusion bombs.

Wild mass guess: Basilisk is a set of six hundred brain parasites that take control of people's bodies if they can get into any of their orifices. They are each equipped with a sophisticated AI. They can network together and form a hivemind. They are programmed to only attack Chinese parahumans. It's distributed, so there is no central component to assassinate, like Taylor. They activate automatically if China attempts a large-scale invasion. They have integrated shunt drives, so they can attack from, and take captured parahumans to, a dimension with no portals attached to it. They have stealth systems, and can fly.

...that's my best guess for 'scary but not destructive.'
 
Are you going to be making a playlist from the songs posted on Amelia?
 
TanaNari said:
Amelia, Ch 302- Amelia
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I haven't brought this up before since it was a nice stylistic quirk, but I like the consistency established here, and will note that there are at least a couple of multi-POV chapters that would be made less confusing were the name "Amelia" not privileged earlier.
TanaNari said:
Bolla
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This reminds me; as an SBer, I am compelled to inquire about Bolos. Dragon is certainly familiar with the idea and would... encourage their development to the extent she could.
TanaNari said:
three people on any planet that you seem to respect.
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Vickery, Becky, and... Dragon?
TanaNari said:
Making it one of the longest lived governments bodies in history.
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Government, governmental, governing, possibly even government's?
 
I got bored and reread the last two chapters of Amelia on SB,I thought this song would be appropriate with Erica saying hello to Bonesaw and Riley saying goodbye to Siberian.this is 9 Crimes the demo version by Damian Rice.


Leave me out with the waste
This is not what I do
It's the wrong kind of place
To be thinking of you

It's the wrong time
For somebody new
It's a small crime
And I got no excuse

And is that alright? Yeah
Give my gun away when it's loaded
That alright? Yeah
If you don't shoot it how am I supposed to hold it?

That alright? Yeah
Give my gun away when it's loaded
That alright? Yeah, with you?

Leave me out with the waste
This is not what I do
It's the wrong kind of place
To be cheating on you

It's the wrong time
She's pulling me through
It's a small crime
And I got no excuse

And is that alright? Yeah
To give my gun away when it's loaded
(Is that alright with you?)
Is that alright? Yeah
If you don't shoot it how am I supposed to hold it?
(Is that alright with you?)

Is that alright? Yeah
If I give my gun away when it's loaded
(Is that alright with you?)
Is that alright
Is that alright with you?

That alright? Yeah
If I give my gun away when it's loaded
(Is that alright with you?)
Is that alright? Yeah
You don't shoot it how am I supposed to hold it?
(Is that alright with you?)

Is that alright? Yeah
If I give my gun away when it's loaded
(Is that alright with you?)
Is that alright
Is that alright with you?

And is that alright? Yeah
(To give my gun away when it's loaded)
Is that alright? Yeah
(You don't shoot it how am I supposed to hold it?)

Is that alright? Yeah
(To give my gun away when it's loaded)
Is that alright? Is that alright?
Is that alright with you? No
 
Amelia, Ch 303- Zach
Amelia, Ch 303- Zach


"Wait, you told her she was pregnant?" I exclaimed. "Holy shit, Ems, how did you not get punched in the teeth?" Especially by Taylor and Amelia. I mean, I know Taylor says it's water under the bridge, but I can't believe she really means it. Not completely, and certainly not if Emma is going to start picking on everyone's favorite little girl that wants to be a grownup already.


"It was Lisa's idea," she responded.


"And suddenly everything makes sense," I concluded.


"I still feel pretty bad about it," she sighed. "Missy puts so much of her personal value on her powers. She'll have to go without them for months, just to undo the damage she's caused herself. Which she only did because she wanted to be useful."


Emma paused for a moment. "Uh, earth to Ems?" I prompted.


"Oh god, I just now realized why I felt so bad for her," Emma facepalmed.


"Pretty sure that's every parahuman, hun." I gave her a comforting hug. Over the months I'd gotten used to the fact that her skin would never really be more than lukewarm, but that didn't really make it the most pleasant experience in the world.


"I mean, look at us," I continued. "Let's leave Taylor and Amelia out since they're one beard shy of being actual gods. You Tinkers are the most obvious, throwing yourselves into your work and spawning whatever abominations come to mind this week. Riley, Trevor and Rey are the exact same way. Then you got the ultimate workaholics with Dragon and Halbeard."


"You keep calling him that and he's going to find a way to kill you for real," Emma warned.


"What? I'm just trying to help out his love life," I defended.


"How do you figure?" Emma scoffed.


"Every couple needs pet names for each other," I insisted. "It's a requirement, so they can be sickeningly cute with one another and horrify everyone who knows them. Those two are way too serious to come up with their own, so we'll have to do it for them."


"Every couple, huh?" Emma smirked. "So why don't we have any?"


"We have pet names," I smiled. "I'm 'you moron' and you're 'please don't hurt me'."


As predicted, she jabbed me in the rib. I grabbed my side and moaned in badly acted pain. "Oww, what did I just say about not hurting me!"


"You really are a moron," she laughed. I smiled wider. My favorite thing about her is definitely her laugh. "Speaking of which, I'm betting you haven't bothered to study your homework at all this weekend."


"But there was an Endbringer fight!" I protested. "I strained my brain muscles trying to fly in virtual pitch black darkness and fighting Leviathan clones left and right. I killed at least three of them. Plus a tacky looking statue outside of a used car lot. Truly my finest accomplishment to date. Even better than filling Hookwolf with acid."


"Well, you have six hours to cram before class, get your ass in gear."


"Yes, mistress," I whined, doing my best to pout as I turned and left. A quick slap on my ass and I hurried along. She was right, I really did need to hit the books at least a little before tomorrow started up. I didn't have superhuman intelligence, although I wasn't exactly stupid and my power probably gave me about five bonus IQ points. I also suspected Amelia did a little 'upgrading' when they figured out a way to heal me. I opted not to ask, and she was choosing not to tell.


....


"So, looks like we lost three more classmates over the weekend," I said in idle chitchat at lunch. Right now, it was just me and Theo. His girlfriends were sitting at their table, chatting with the few remaining girls. Our entire 'highschool' now had a grand total of thirty three students. Everyone else had been pulled off to either return to Bet, or their parents decided they liked Avalon enough to find a permanent home. In six months, this school would be gone. A thought I'd have liked better if words like 'private tutors' weren't being bandied about.


Theo was looking over at the girls, of course, he didn't pay attention at all. "Earth to the dude with the harem," I waved my hand in front of his face.


"Wha?" he jumped a little. "Sorry, just lost in thought."


"It's about Missy, of course," I concluded. As fun as it was to fuck with Theo, figuratively speaking, this was game face time. "Emma told me the basics. Powers down for a month or two, and I imagine she's pretty upset about it."


"She almost cried when we got to school," Theo responded. "We were two minutes late, and no one cared about it at all, but she was over there fighting to keep from tearing up. I... what do I say to her? I've only had my powers a few months, she's had them for almost half her life. Riley's the only one who really understands what it's like to have powers that long. And she's trying to help, but..."


"But it's Riley and she's going all 'Victoria' in trying to force Missy to be happy, when right now she just wants to be miserable?" I suggested. "So all that's going to happen is Missy getting more and more upset while Riley desperately tries to make her feel better until both of them manage to have second triggers, at which point Missy turns all of us into something out of a Picasso painting, and Riley puts us all together as a single horrific composite monster?"


"Where do you get these ideas?" Theo just looked at me like I grew a third head without taking the time to grow a second.


"Late late night monster movies are hilariously bad," I informed. "Point remains, though. Riley's brand of delusionally cheerful optimism isn't working, and I'm going to guess that your particular brand of quiet support isn't cutting it, either."


"Yeah, that," Theo responded. "I tried last night, I really did." Don't say it, Zach, do not say it. Comedy gold be damned.


"Hey, how about I give it a shot?" I offered.


"You?" he just looked at me.


"Yeah, I'm good at this sorta thing," I insisted. "Playing world's weirdest therapist is my calling in life."


"Sure, go for it," Theo shrugged. "If nothing else, maybe you'll make me and Riley look good in comparison."


"Awesome," I agreed. "And if I succeed, you three will have to support me in my bid for a royal title."


"Zach, I keep telling you there's no way in hell they're calling you that," Theo sighed. "No one's ever going to call anyone that. Not while they're sober, at any rate."


"That's okay, I have a whole list of other options to try out," I watched the clock for a minute. Wait for it, wait for it. Now! "So, do you think if I do a good job of cheering Missy up, she'll let me join her harem?"


"Dude!" Theo exclaimed. He was then interrupted by the end of the lunch bell.


"Too late!" I declared as I got up. "You already agreed to let me try!" I bolted from the cafeteria. Sure, Theo and I had the same class this period anyway, but I was laughing the whole way there.


....


After class was a simple walk back. We tended to avoid being in large groups. Clarice and I tended to head back together, because we didn't have secret identities. Missy, Theo, and Trevor sometimes went together, and other times Trevor went home alone. He was rather paranoid about his secret identity being found out. I wasn't quite sure why at this point, but it wasn't something that seemed to make him unhappy, so I just let him have his quirk. Not like I was lacking in pet weirdness of my own.


"Hey, Theo, mind if I cut in?" I asked, approaching the pair of them from behind. "I'll swap you mine," I gestured at Clarice. Riley already knew I was going to take a stab at this, so it was a surprise to exactly Missy.



"Umm, sure," Theo agreed. "I'll see you back at home."


He started heading off, and inspiration struck me. "But you have to promise not to get her pregnant." Perfect!


"Meep!" Clarice squeaked. And on this day, we learn that Riley built her doll with the ability to blush.


"Too late, no backsies!" I declared. "You kids have fun."


I watched the pair of them head off a bit.


"Man, I must be a really sad sight if they're sending you," she chuckled bitterly. "Am I really that pathetic?"


"You'll never hear me calling you pathetic," I responded. "Mainly because I'd like my ass to remain unbeat."


"Not what Emma tells me," she quipped.


"Nice," I laughed. "Seriously, though, you are anything but pathetic."


"I am until my powers come back," she countered. "I can't do anything now. The next Endbringer the rest of you fight, I'll be sitting on the sidelines instead of out there helping and it's all my own fucking stupidity."


"You did what you had to do to save lives," I responded. I wasn't sure if that was entirely true, but I wasn't above lying to make someone feel better, so I could certainly say something I wasn't completely sure about. "It may not have been the right choice in the long run, but you did it for the right reasons."


"That's a dumb excuse and you know it," she retorted. "Now I'm useless."


"You're hardly useless," I argued. "Missy, you're the heart of this team."


She froze for a second. "What was that?"


"You are," I insisted. "Everyone has their role to play. Well, you and Amelia. But she's more like the heart of the movement itself, of Pantheon as a whole. You're the heart of this team we've created for ourselves inside. Half of us would be miserable if not for you. Riley would still be alone and miserable, but you're the one who stepped up to make that work. Your powers had nothing to do with any of that."


"Well, I did have to use them to take Clarice's ribbon," she responded.


"Whatever," I rolled my eyes. "You could have done that with the word 'please' and everyone knows it. Except maybe Theo. Because let's not kid ourselves, if you asked Riley to leave Theo for you, she wouldn't even hesitate. The only person that means more to her than you is Amelia, and I wouldn't want to risk money on that bet. You're the one who stands up for us when what passes for the 'parents' of this group are being dumb. The one that finds the solutions that make everyone happy, even when no one else thinks that's possible. Even if it means you have to sacrifice yourself to make it happen."


She hesitated. "Someone said something a lot like that to me. It was a lot of comfort, then. Thanks."


I put a hand on her shoulder. The girl would probably never reach half my current weight in her life. "Look, you went overboard and it cost you. I'm not saying don't give it your all, I'm just... when you do, remember there are a lot of others ready to help. We're a team, and when one of us is hurt, all of us suffer for it. Keep that in mind from now on. And get used to the idea that we're around to make you feel better, too."


She smiled. "Thanks. So... if I'm the heart, what does that make you?"


I laughed. "Isn't it obvious? I'm the sex appeal."


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


A/N- Obviously, the most important part of this chapter is trying to guess Zach's desired title(s).
 
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Faraway-R said:
Victoria would be a sharp and witty tongue then - after all, who else is going to have the best lines?
And Crystal is probably the warm and inviting bosom for making people feel welcome. :)
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Crystal is the oft ignored voice of reason. The tiny, easily gagged one that goes "No, maybe we shouldn't do that. This is a terrible idea. It can only end in tears."

Lisa is the voice of hindsight and 'I told you so'. She is the voice that goes "You dense motherfucker. What did you think was going to happen?"
 
TanaNari said:
Right now, it was just me and Theo. His girlfriends were sitting in their table, chatting with the few remaining girls.
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Oh god why?
TanaNari said:
A thought I'd have liked better if words like 'private tutors' wasn't being brandied about.
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Weren't.
Ack said:
FTFY

Reference to joking habit, plus sexual humour (if you don't get it, just think for a moment) thrown in for free.
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I think you meant the 'fun' bone. Wink wink. Nudge nudge.
 
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