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Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

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Dentin said:
Thanks, that makes a lot more sense.
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My view is that the body is just a meatsuit, change it how you would any other clothing. The moment you start altering the mind is when my hackles start rising.

... Of course, that doesn't really address the whole mind-as-a-product-of-the-body issue. Nothings perfect~
 
dasstan said:
As to Taylor's preference change, I had a problem with it because the impetus for the change comes from the Spacewhale, rather than anything internal. If the shard influence wasn't a thing and she wanted to change herself, I'd be all for it. More power to her. Transhumanism, ho.
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I don't see why you draw the line. The QA influence might as well be considered internal to Taylor at this point, because she's never going to get rid of it. The person that she is now is a sum of normal-Taylor and the influence from the QA, why be unfair to that person and put normal-Taylor up on some kind of pedestal? Should she be permanently barred from making decisions for herself just because she's a parahuman now? Is she not a real person until she gets her power removed?
 
DeAnno said:
I don't see why you draw the line. The QA influence might as well be considered internal to Taylor at this point, because she's never going to get rid of it. The person that she is now is a sum of normal-Taylor and the influence from the QA, why be unfair to that person and put normal-Taylor up on some kind of pedestal? Should she be permanently barred from making decisions for herself just because she's a parahuman now? Is she not a real person until she gets her power removed?
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Shard influence is a thing that affects all parahumans, some more than others, but it's fairly minor in what it causes; increased conflict, desire to use powers. That's pretty much it. It's the bond interaction that causes unprecedented and continuing changes that is the root of problem.

Self reflection is enough to curb the worst of the normal shard influence. The Bond's influence is insidious, going so far as actively changing the way people affected by it think, and creating an emotional reliance on it so that the people in the Bond will continue to rely on the bond.

But to answer your questions, any decision she, or any parahuman, makes should be subject to oversight by someone or someones that lack a multidimensional parasite that influences their choices. She is just as real a person as anyone else acting under the influence of a mind altering substance.
 
Amelia, Ch 388- Missy
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    • Amelia, Ch 388- Missy


    The first thing I noticed when I woke up is I wasn't alone in my bedroom. Someone was stroking my hair. Combat training kicked in and I bubbled space around me, rolled to my feet and took a combat stance. "Riley?!"


    She smiled faintly and waved her hand. "Clarice, now." She was more insistent than anyone that we call her that than anyone. A new name, a new identity, a new self. "Just had to make sure you wake up. Too much sleep can be as bad for recovery as too little."


    I glanced over at my clock. Nine. That doesn't seem... oh, PM. Well, fuck. I relaxed and dropped down in my bed, bouncing a little. One of those little guilty pleasures of mine that every so often when I was alone, I'd jump on my bed for fun. The Yggdrasil padding was soft and healed from any damage, so I could get away with it. Not even Theo and Clarice were allowed to know about that. "So how long was I out?"


    "Twelve hours. I had some work to do, so I got in nine, but my power doesn't tire me the way yours does."


    "We're both going to be up all night, huh?"


    "And work in the morning, but our circadian rhythms should reassert themselves some time tonight. I've got a minor relaxant to let us get a nap in for a few hours if we haven't self corrected by four in the morning. And don't worry, I already have permission to stay the night."


    "Oh, okay." I almost had to admire the relationship between Clarice and Amelia. Despite the lack of age gap, they were more like a mother and daughter than anything. More than my relationship with my mother has ever been, that's for certain. No point in thinking about that now. "So what do we going to do tonight?"


    Clarice managed a light scowl, as if in thought. "The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world!"


    What? "What?"


    She laughed at the look on my face. "Sorry. That's from a silly cartoon that Zach got from Aleph. I think it's from that one company that did those old Bugs Bunny cartoons. Only they still exist on Aleph. I've got the whole first season on DVD. They have pigeons in the mafia and a song about lake Titicaca. And a dog that doesn't realize his girlfriend is really a cat."


    I blinked a couple times. "That sounds really stupid."


    "It is." Clarice agreed, then she paused for a second and smiled. "Wanna watch?"


    I looked back at her. Oh god, this has to be a bad idea. "Is it a popcorn occasion or icecream?"


    "Popcorn."


    "You're on."


    ....


    An hour later, we were munching popcorn in bed, laughing at this stupid, stupid show. Any that fell got quickly eaten by the Yggdrasil. I would never be content to sleep in a normal bed ever again in my life. "How do they get away with this stuff in a cartoon show? Aren't these supposed to be for kids?" Jeez, if they showed a cartoon with implied cannibalism here, the censors would have strung someone up by their toes.


    "I don't know." Clarice responded through a mouthful of popcorn. "Zach says Aleph is boring so people compensate for it with shock value. They even have softcore pornography on their daytime television shows and it's considered perfectly normal."


    "That... is kinda messed up." I kept watching the show, which was now focused on a squirrel that sounded like she was voiced by a sixty year old chain smoker. Wait... did they just say 'anal' on television? For that matter, is 'Piz Peeners' a real person, or was that just another dirty joke? Either way, holy shit!


    I glanced over at Clarice, but either she had an expert poker face, or she didn't get the reference.


    "The squirrel likes to hide his nuts in many odd places, where the sun doesn't shine on 'em."​


    What? How?! "I think I know why Zach likes this show so much."


    Clarice nodded, but again I doubted she actually understood all the implications of the show. Or, possibly, any of them. She interrupted my thoughts, bouncing excitedly as the next scene started. "This is my favorite song ever!" She started singing along.


    I smiled and watched her as she put her singing voice to use on what turned out to be an honestly interesting song throwing out numbers about the sheer vastness of space. Every so often I wondered to myself how many of her talents were natural, and how many were enhancements that she installed into herself. I guess it really doesn't matter, that's just who she is. She was energetic and fun and caring and nicer than almost anyone I knew. If anything, her major problem she that was too giving, too willing to ignore her own happiness to make others feel better.


    All of that was genuine, and if her ability to sing beautifully was artificial, then so be it. Just making the outside resemble the inside a little better, that's all. Same with the chocolate brown hair and amethyst colored eyes that she was currently sporting. I realized after a minute that she'd stopped singing, and I was just staring at her.


    She hesitated for a second. "So, umm, you think I'm pretty?"


    And she caught me staring. And now she's watching me blush. No sense in trying to deny it. I smiled and hoped I looked more confident than I felt. "Yeah, of course I do. Everyone thinks your pretty."


    It was her turn to blush a little. "I know, but none of them matter. Just you and Theo."


    I smiled. That was sweet of her. Some part of me felt like I should be jealous, but I couldn't quite decide of who to be jealous about. If it came down to it. I couldn't be sure if Theo would pick me over Clarice. For that matter, who would I pick? I was sure Clarice would pick me over Theo. But that line of thinking was stupid, there was no reason for us any of us to do something like that. Just stupid paranoid fears.


    Besides, if it came down to it, there was no doubt Clarice would side with Amelia over both of us. I couldn't even blame her for that. Amelia was the one who saved her, who gave her a home and a family and a hope for redemption and forgiveness. Even after what she did to Amelia's adoptive father. I wasn't sure I could have done the same, I didn't have that kind of generosity in my heart.


    Clarice was still sitting there pensively waiting for me to speak. "Thanks, that really means a lot. I'm sure Theo will agree with me."


    "Do you... does this mean you want to do 'stuff' with me? Like you and Theo do?"


    Stuff? What d- oh. Stuff. I started to blush again. Wait. "Uh, I don't do any 'stuff' with Theo. At least, not stuff stuff. Just watching movies and cuddling, that's all. Just like we do, and what you do with Theo. That is all you and Theo are doing, right?" It better be, or I am going to murder him. And then tell Amelia so she can murder him more.


    She looked down at the bed. "Yeah, that's all. We've never even been in each others' bedrooms alone. It's against the rules."


    Ah, yes, those rules. Regrettably necessary. All these immature adults around, who knows what trouble they would cause if they weren't carefully monitored? The twins had already gotten their own place so they could 'entertain guests'. "Yeah, me neither. But that's fine, I don't want to do anything like that now."


    "But I saw the way you looked at me before. When we were... well, stuck together."


    And of course she noticed that, too. "Well, yeah. That's just natural, you of all people should know how nature works." You violate it too often not to. "But that doesn't mean I think it's a good idea. I'm going to wait until marriage."


    She tilted her head. "You mean like my Big Sister?"


    No. "Sorta. I just. It's a personal thing."


    The bed shifted as Clarice moved closer to me and gave me a hug. The shifting spilled some more popcorn that was promptly eaten by the bed. That was always cool as hell to watch. "I understand. If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to."


    I sighed. I had talked to Theo about it, but not Clarice. We were always pretty cautious when it came to talking about family around her, for a number of reasons. The sort of idealism she had about both her birth family and the adoptive one with Amelia. The nightmare of her six years spent treating the fucking Slaughterhouse Nine as a family. How that compared to the broken homes that Theo and I came from. We just didn't know how to approach the subject with her.


    I leaned against her, sliding down so my head was resting in her lap, then I looked up at her. "To start with, my mother is only thirty one." I paused for the second it took for her to do the mental math. "She has five children, with three men. I've had a total of twenty two step siblings. None for much longer than a year each. My older brother lives with my dad. Somewhere in Michigan, I think. I don't know, it's been years since I talked to either of them. And I just don't want to be like my parents. I want to know it's going to last before I take that step. I need to be better than my mother is. I won't put any of my hypothetical children through that life, either."


    "And you don't think we will stay together?"


    Oh fuck, can I have a do over for this conversation? "It's not that." How do I make this work for her? Okay, time to talk like a Tinker. "Think of it as, like, a test. An experiment. If we're still together in five years, when we're old enough to marry, then we know it's going to last because it's already lasted that long. I am really hoping that it does, but we can't know for certain. And don't say 'Dinah', we both know her predictions don't work around this team." We also don't know what circumstances surrounding the seventy eight percent chance she gave when I did ask.


    She smiled down at me. "Okay, that makes sense."


    "Besides, I'm pretty sure Amelia told you that you had to wait, too. Right?"


    "Yeah. But your explanation of why makes more sense."


    "I'm sure. So, I think we should probably start up the next episode of that silly cartoon."


    "Okay."


    The rest of the night involved jokes about painting naked people, pianists, bizarrely educational songs, and the strangest parodies of famous musicals. My face was so sore when I woke up in the morning.


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


    A/N- For this chapter I did extensive research. Not quite the best episode of Animaniacs, but certainly the earliest of the truly exemplary ones.

     
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    • TanaNari said:
    A/N- For this chapter I did extensive research. Not quite the best episode of Animaniacs, but certainly the earliest of the truly exemplary ones.
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    ...That's what they're calling it these days, huh? Next time my students deride me for watching cartoons, I'm throwing out the 'Research' line.
     
    TanaNari, a while ago, I started to think how you would or could end Amelia, as you would put clues and foreshadowing every now and then, i'm sure of it. In the last chapters, i'm finding myself with more and more clues to an end i found likely to come (amongst a few others) and i'm honestly getting more and more worried...I hope I'm wrong and maybe I'm the only one to think like that but damn! I find your last chapters are bad omens for the end...
     
    dasstan said:
    I can't wait for when they get to the finger Prince/fingerprints joke.
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    I'll be offscreen. Sorry.

    Slayer Anderson said:
    Next time my students deride me for watching cartoons, I'm throwing out the 'Research' line.
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    It only works if you're writing something about the cartoon. :p

    SpitEoll said:
    TanaNari, a while ago, I started to think how you would or could end Amelia, as you would put clues and foreshadowing every now and then, i'm sure of it.
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    There's some, certainly.
    In the last chapters, i'm finding myself with more and more clues to an end i found likely to come (amongst a few others) and i'm honestly getting more and more worried...I hope I'm wrong and maybe I'm the only one to think like that but damn! I find your last chapters are bad omens for the end...
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    Well, by all means, share with the class. The more (relevant) comments in the thread, the happier the author is. The happier I am, the less my characters suffer.

    Besides, if someone actually gets it, I may feel the need to change it.
     
    TanaNari said:
    Besides, if someone actually gets it, I may feel the need to change it.
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    Therefore: only guess things you NEVER want to see happen.

    For example:
    - I bet Zach dies for good, off-screen like a bitch, with no narrative impact.
    - Emma is never mentioned again: certainly no more chapters from her perspective.
    - The whole story was just a dream within Scion's simulation matrix, which he created as an artificial counterpart after eating every Earth.
     
    TanaNari said:
    "That... is kinda messed up." I kept watching the show, which was now focused on a squirrel that sounded like she was voiced by a sixty year old chain smoker. Wait... did they just say 'anal' on television? For that matter, is 'Piz Peeners' a real person, or was that just another dirty joke? Either way, holy shit!
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    Yeah... coming from someone from Bet... Honestly, that's like a Canibal complaining about the tablemanners of those uncivilised animal eaters.
    TanaNari said:
    Besides, if it came down to it, there was no doubt Clarice would side with Amelia over both of us. I couldn't even blame her for that. Amelia was the one who saved her, who gave her a home and a family and a hope for redemption and forgiveness. Even after what she did to Amelia's adoptive father. I wasn't sure I could have done the same, I didn't have that kind of generosity in my heart.
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    Shard: It's boring, not enough conflict. Too much happyness. :Insert angst and drama:
     
    Guh. I threw up in my mouth a little at the mention of the floor and furniture eating spilled popcorn...
     
    pepperjack said:
    That's what squicked you out? Are you reading the story backwards?
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    No, it's hardly the only squicky thing in the story. It's just the casualness of it that got me. Hell I'm a Cronenberg fan, bio-horror is not a new thing for me, the casual acceptance the characters have of it is what really disturbs me.

    dasstan said:
    Just think: the bed must eat the dead skin off of her body while she sleeps.
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    Yeah. It's the fact that none of these little monsters are disturbed by it that squicks me the most.
     
    dasstan said:
    Oh, I don't have a problem with it. I was just trying to get a rise out of MGS.
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    Biggest squick is none of the bio-horror that the 'fic literally drips with, it's how they entrust the structure and content of their minds mainly to an individual who is emotionally immature, actually insane, and has a less than rational grasp on the concept of ethics.

    How many of them have had their mind states backed up and been re instanced at this point? Damn near all, right?

    Can anyone claim that Riley/Clarice is actually sane in this 'fic? I mean with a straight face.
     
    MadGreenSon said:
    Can anyone claim that Riley/Clarice is actually sane in this 'fic? I mean with a straight face.
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    Nobody is perfect,she's a work in progress for the people around her and a nightmare for her foes.at this point you kinda forget she's a retired serial killer who possibly knows what human flesh taste like.but she's done more good in two years to wash it out the blood....but her victim's families still won't give a care about that.on a slightly related note i kinda want see a conversation between Clarice and Manslaughter!Eidolon,if they both think the positive results out weigh the cost,or that they are just sad monster wearing halos?
     
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    I think it's kind of sad that Riley is ditching her old name. I mean, fair enough that there's a large chunk of bad memories associated with it, but it's who she is and she should be improving herself, not trying to create a new self to be. Kind of like what Taylor and Amelia did early on in accepting the bad things in life and pushing through them together.
     
    TanaNari said:
    I relaxed and dropped down in my bed, bouncing a little. One of those little guilty pleasures of mine that every so often when I was alone, I'd jump on my bed for fun. The Yggdrasil padding was soft and healed from any damage, so I could get away with it. Not even Theo and Clarice were allowed to know about that.
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    Taylia knows, and they think it is the cutest thing ever a perfectly reasonable activity for a mature adultling.
    TanaNari said:
    She interrupted my thoughts, bouncing excitedly as the next scene started. "This is my favorite song ever!" She started singing along.


    I smiled and watched her as she put her singing voice to use on what turned out to be an honestly interesting song throwing out numbers about the sheer vastness of space.
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    Clarice singing Yakko's Universe Song is the most adoriblest thing ever.
     
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