Just a Phase [Worm]

[BF110C4]

The main problem with that is it is a short term solution not a long term one and once the short term passes the consequences will be far worse. While they might have been able to get away with it if Taylor complied with the program and moved on she is clearly not doing that so she is definitly gonna push the issue if given the chance and now it looks even worse since they tried to cover it up.

Click to shrink...

Don't forget that Taylor is no longer the ENE region problem, legally they have crossed the T's and dotted the I's well enough that Taylor -I love loopholes- Hebert hasn't found a way of revealing the issue without falling in serious troubles with the law (which she isn't willing to break yet) and from her arrival in Boston the responsability of dealing with Phase's information contaiment and Ward training and indoctrination is that particular branch of the Wards Program.

The headache that are the YG newest restrictions and fines are better than having an Internal Affairs investigation which would have ended with those same YG findings, plus any administrative punishments recommended by IA, plus an immediate PR problem, plus both criminal trials and civil lawsuits, plus a politically costly (internal) scandal, plus one hostile teen who most likely would specifically hate ENE heroes regardless of anyone's actions after her disastrous introduction to the Wards AND would be In Good Standing therefore being really hard to punish or censor. Compared to that as far as the ENE Protectorate and PRT are concerned having to keep a close eye on both Ampere and Shadow Stalker while giving them the worse assignments and applying fines to reduce their salary to the legal minimum is a relief.

Sucks to be the Boston PRT/Protectorate/Wards and being forced to clean Piggot's mess.

 

[KingCrimson1081]

I am surprised no one mentioned this yet but Emma was using standard abuser tactics when apologising to Taylor, which is to be apologetic (maybe even have it be genuine) but the thing is with abusers is that in the case of the abused forgiving them they will often times fall back into old habits thus keeping the abused (Taylor) in the same vicious cycle.

 

[BF110C4]

I am surprised no one mentioned this yet but Emma was using standard abuser tactics when apologising to Taylor, which is to be apologetic (maybe even have it be genuine) but the thing is with abusers is that in the case of the abused forgiving them they will often times fall back into old habits thus keeping the abused (Taylor) in the same vicious cycle.

Click to shrink...

Which ironically enough she probably used so many times before to torture Taylor that she was more than ready to consider the message in really bad faith and run to the YG advocate to fill a complain, ironically enough considering him the only person in a long, long time to actually do something useful about the bullying.

 

[KingCrimson1081]

Which ironically enough she probably used so many times before to torture Taylor that she was more than ready to consider the message in really bad faith and run to the YG advocate to fill a complain, ironically enough considering him the only person in a long, long time to actually do something useful about the bullying.

Click to shrink...

Yep fool Taylor once shame on you, fool Taylor twice shame on her, fool her three times expect bugs in your lungs or rather a hand reaching into your chest cavity.

But yes Taylor has no obligation to forgive her abusers for any of their actions, because they had plenty of opportunities to stop when it became clear Taylor wouldn't respond the way Emma wanted her to so everything that happened is on the trio and not Taylor.

 

[SlickRCBD]

I am surprised no one mentioned this yet but Emma was using standard abuser tactics when apologising to Taylor, which is to be apologetic (maybe even have it be genuine) but the thing is with abusers is that in the case of the abused forgiving them they will often times fall back into old habits thus keeping the abused (Taylor) in the same vicious cycle.

Click to shrink...

It also lets them manipulate the Authority they are apologizing from and makes the Target seem like the problem if after the first (or second, or even fifteenth) time they refuse to accept the apology and both forgive and forget. If the Target refuses to work with the abuser and keeps acting like they are an enemy out to get them, the Target gets painted as "paranoid" and gets told things like "this is NOT how to make friends". The Authority then concludes the Target is the problem and is "making themselves a target" or "bringing it on themselves." Pointing out previous apologies followed by more abuse falls on deaf ears since the Authority has labeled the Target the problem and any protests are either lies, manipulation, or self-delusion. I particularly hated the "The problem is you believe your own lies" line.

Yep fool Taylor once shame on you, fool Taylor twice shame on her, fool her three times expect bugs in your lungs or rather a hand reaching into your chest cavity.

But yes Taylor has no obligation to forgive her abusers for any of their actions, because they had plenty of opportunities to stop when it became clear Taylor would respond the way Emma wanted her to so everything that happened is on the trio and not Taylor.

Click to shrink...

Actually, in a school situation you get considered insubordinate and punished if they make the bully apologize and you don't "forgive and forget" and act willing to "make up and be friends". Pointing out the number of times they have done that only for the abusers to wait a couple of days before starting up again just gets you labeled something like "oppositional" or "paranoid" or "poor me, everybody's out to get me" or something that makes the Target the problem.

 

[KingCrimson1081]

It also lets them manipulate the Authority they are apologizing from and makes the Target seem like the problem if after the first (or second, or even fifteenth) time they refuse to accept the apology and both forgive and forget. If the Target refuses to work with the abuser and keeps acting like they are an enemy out to get them, the Target gets painted as "paranoid" and gets told things like "this is NOT how to make friends". The Authority then concludes the Target is the problem and is "making themselves a target" or "bringing it on themselves." Pointing out previous apologies followed by more abuse falls on deaf ears since the Authority has labeled the Target the problem and any protests are either lies, manipulation, or self-delusion. I particularly hated the "The problem is you believe your own lies" line.


Actually, in a school situation you get considered insubordinate and punished if they make the bully apologize and you don't "forgive and forget" and act willing to "make up and be friends". Pointing out the number of times they have done that only for the abusers to wait a couple of days before starting up again just gets you labeled something like "oppositional" or "paranoid" or "poor me, everybody's out to get me" or something that makes the Target the problem.

Click to shrink...

The whole forgive and make friends thing never made sense to me, because why should I have to be nice to guy who was a total ass to me just because he said sorry, while it isn't good to focus on a grudge that doesn't mean you have to let someone walk all over you because they said two words.

Another thing to mention about that scene where Emma sends the text that if Taylor had gone to anyone but the YG about it she would have definitly had the forgive and be friends thing shoved down her throat. But she didn't and went to Jim who has probably been trained to handle such situations and reacted appropriately.

 

[SlickRCBD]

Another thing to mention about that scene where Emma sends the text that if Taylor had gone to anyone but the YG about it she would have definitly had the forgive and be friends thing shoved down her throat. But she didn't and went to Jim who has probably been trained to handle such situations and reacted appropriately.

Click to shrink...

That if anything seemed to be the most unbelievable thing about the whole affair. An adult NOT trying to force Taylor to accept her abuser's apology and be civil to them? Not making Taylor the bad guy for "rejecting that attempt at forgiveness"? Not saying "Attitudes like that are why you don't have any friends?"
Forgiving one transgression or somebody who made a mistake and was out of line and apologized is one thing. Forgiving somebody who has done a harassment campaign before they have proven to have changed their ways is quite another. Especially if this isn't the first time they have apologized.
Saying "Fine, I'll accept it provided you stay away from me as I don't trust you to change your ways after the previous apologies. So you can prove it by never bothering me again." is for some reason viewed as wrong by Authorities, and often landed ME a punishment.

Sorry, situations like this strike a little close to home for me. They (school psychologist, Dean of Students) say bulling like that is harmless, I'm too thin-skinned, making mountains out of molhills, but even with a few years of therapy and 25 years to "get over it" I still have a few scars from it, if my attitude is any indication. It's not like they (the school psychologist or the Dean) have to live every day in fear of what will happen and if you are going to be attacked in the hallways then blamed for "allowing the situation to escalate to violence" and "Not de-escalating the situation", or "Not ignoring it".

Yes, I was harassed in 8th grade and high school, just about everything Taylor went through but The Locker and the e-mail (I was a computer geek and _I_ didn't have an e-mail address until senior year when Hotmail offered free web-based e-mail addresses in '96, and could only access it from school or the library) or social media stuff (that hadn't been invented yet) I also went through. It's nothing new. I tended to get more violence and far fewer physical "pranks" than Taylor however. Oh, I never had a teacher tell me to sit on a dirty seat, at least the teacher made me clean up the mess around me the bullies made saying "You're responsible for keeping your area clean. It was clean when you came in, it should be clean when you leave". Even if she would ignore them throwing crap at me to make the mess.

 

[Highlord]

The law is still the law

Click to shrink...

Fuck the law, and the people demanding it be followed like holy writ.

The system fucked Taylor, and so she owes it nothing. In fact, she doesn't owe shit to the laws, the system, her father, the wards, the so-called "heroes," the protectorate, the PRT, and certain not a fucking thing to the government.

They fucked her, then said she had to shut up and deal with it like a good little pawn. Fuck them, and everything they love, stand for, created, hold dear and desire. If they didn't want Taylor or others to hit back, they shouldn't have started playing dirty pool.

 

[tarrangar]

Fuck the law, and the people demanding it be followed like holy writ.

The system fucked Taylor, and so she owes it nothing. In fact, she doesn't owe shit to the laws, the system, her father, the wards, the so-called "heroes," the protectorate, the PRT, and certain not a fucking thing to the government.

They fucked her, then said she had to shut up and deal with it like a good little pawn. Fuck them, and everything they love, stand for, created, hold dear and desire. If they didn't want Taylor or others to hit back, they shouldn't have started playing dirty pool.

Click to shrink...

My point was exactly that the law as written is entirely on Taylors side, and all the things they're doing to Taylor, is using their influence to bend the law.

I was talking about the fact, that even if Taylor decide to become a run-away, they don't have a good legal argument to use that for putting her on probation, as the extent of a crime being a run-away is, is truancy and loitering, and outside of a corrupt court, that press for hundreds of times the normal sentence for those crimes, the crimes of truancy and loitering is at most getting you a sentence to juvenile hall measured in weeks, which isn't enough to get Taylor to accept a probation agreement to avoid.

Even if Taylor is also caught in petty theft while being a run-away, the punishment a juvenile get for petty theft in a fair court, don't extend a sentence to more than at most months in juvenile hall, so even then they don't have much of an argument for forcing Taylor on probation.

And most likely Taylor wouldn't need to sink to petty theft, if nothing else Parahumans are interesting, so even a poorly made street performance that involve Parahuman powers, could probably get her enough money to survive.

 

[Nikas_Zekeval]

That if anything seemed to be the most unbelievable thing about the whole affair.

Click to shrink...

In Taylor's case she has a few things weighing in on her favor.

1. An acknowledged problem between her and Emma and Sophia. Bad enough it was required to send one of them to another city to keep them apart.
2. Taylor kicked up enough of a fuss to get the Youth Guard to open an investigation. And they found enough shit in a week or so they basically shut down the ENE Wards till they got to the bottom of it.
3. This was not a casual contact. "Phase" as a temporary alias is not in any messaging system directory. Emma had to social engineer contact info out of Armsmaster to send that message.
4. Points two and three to the Youth Guard make it basically a major suspect in their investigation trying to contact the primary witness of the same investigation. That would get anyone slapped down, hard. As James said, the PRT should have already blocked messages from Shadow Stalker and Ampere to "Phase" in their official messaging app. The fact we see Emma getting a "Message blocked" bounce back in the first interlude shows it is possible.
5. The contents of the message. In which Emma not only admitted how she got around the normal restriction to contact a Ward without a full ID, but also used Taylor's real name in the message. That should be the violation of OpSec that gets Wards yelled at who are actually friends. In the context of the situation as already acknowledged? It could be seen as a threat to "accidentally" out Phase. Also it said Emma wanted to "apologize for everything over the last two years." While not a direct admission? It is suggestive, given the other acknowledged facts.
6. Politics. Taylor is one of the few Wards who isn't part of their Omerta towards the Youth Guard. She is doing a fire sale business in handing them crowbars to pry up areas that other Wards keep quiet about. So as the goose laying golden prybars she is an ally to help and consider her side valid till disproven.

Of course Taylor thinks the PRT will shuffle this under the rug, again. Which is why she doesn't go to Weld, her (alleged) Ward team leader. Nor Gauss, her Protectorate mentor. Nor escalate the complaint to Director Armstrong. She immediately goes to the Youth Guard to get them to file a complaint over all of their heads. Well "immediate" after finding out where James's contact info is buried in her phone.

 

[BF110C4]

Ass covering 101

Barring emergencies every third Friday of the month the director of the PRT, his second, the Protectorate Team leader and their liaisons to the local PD had a meeting where they would consider their strategy to deal with crime and emergency response, it was a tradition as old as the PRT Office in Boston and one Director Armstrong was planning to continue for his entire tenure.

Also traditional was the fact that a few days before the meeting the Deputy Director of the PRT Phil Sears would commandeer a secure meeting room, call for takeout and meet with department heads, squad leaders and the occasional cape to avoid being blindsided by external threats and internal screw-ups during the meeting. This was also a longstanding tradition no one wanted to get rid of.

"So gentlemen, what fires we need to put off this week?"

Lieutenant Erik Chase, a former Tactical Response Team member before an encounter with Butcher III cost him a leg took the floor. "External threats, we got the usual players. Blasto is sniffling for material for his tinkering but considering how easily he gave up when we arrived is our opinion that he was just filling his pantry and not actually searching materials for a specific creature. There are whispers from our CI's that the Teeth are going to have a Tea Party, we're coordinating with the Port Authority in case…" During the next forty minutes or so they discussed the parahuman situation in Boston at large, mercifully concluding that none of the known actors had anything particularly obvious on the works.

"So that's all for external problems. What's next on the List?"

"Right now? Phase."

PR and Image department head Bobby O'Hannon interjected before he could tell why the newest Ward in Boston was a problem "Good. My guys at image are chomping at the bit for branding the girl. So far, they are thinking of going all out with the Casper friendly ghost thematic and they want the testing results to know what fabrics and patterns work best with her powers. On the other hand, both Branson and I are really concerned about some of the rumor's mill whispers we have been hearing and I would really appreciate it if you could tell me they are all blown out of proportion, or even better lies and slander."

Gauss didn't bother to contain a snort at the man's plea. "If anything, the fact that you're not panicking about scandals and Branson isn't swearing like a sailor while complaining about fire and brimstone tells me that the mill is slow on the uptake this week. Must be that Taylor won't talk to anyone unless she has no option, but oh boy, when she does she really lays it down!" She continued in a much lower voice. "Not that I blame her."

"Phase came to Boston after two Brockton Wards, one of them being in probation for aggravated assault and battery, in their civilian identities allegedly bullied her into triggering, bullies whose identity she discovered less than thirty minutes after signing during team introductions in the middle of the Wards common room. Less than two hours after that the PRT recruiter sold her father the idea of giving the Protectorate custody of his daughter and expediting a transfer to Boston, close enough to visit, far enough from nazis or killer dragons."

"And just far enough for Miss Hebert to read the Wards rulebook, find the one actionable loophole in the entire glorified pamphlet, confirm it with the unabridged rules and regulations that she received with her signing package and then on arrival claim her constitutional right not to be tested for parahuman powers without her personal and direct consent. A constitutional right no judge will override without clear evidence of her committing at least a Class-B felony." Megumi Miyako was the lawyer in charge of reviewing all aspects of Phase's case, and so far she wasn't seeing an end to the headaches anywhere close.

"And of course, she believes that the entire PRT, Protectorate and Wards are her enemies and does her best to avoid all of us in and out of uniform no matter how uninvolved with her case we are. I just had a very uncomfortable chat with Principal Williams from St. George, after he had an even more uncomfortable one with Taylor so I'm holding my breath about her accepting us for a long time." Gauss added, to the lawyer's explanation.

"So everyone in the labs and testing grounds we can all say goodbye to any kind of tests for the foreseeable future. Great!" Doctor Jeremiah Smith was Boston's PRT R&D chief, and thanks to Armstrong's patronage he had written multiple articles and books on parahuman development, but he was always hoping for one more guinea pig.

"Gauss, I know that triggers are incredibly horrible for those who experience them and nothing that should ever be taken lightly and I'm sorry, but I need to ask. How bad was the bullying in reality, roughhousing that went out of control or something more serious?" Bobby awkwardy asked, Triggers were always a taboo topic for obvious and not so obvious reasons.

"Apparently the bullying started almost two years ago, long before Shadow Stalker and Ampere entered the Wards they were already friends and apparently they bonded over torturing Taylor Hebert, Ampere's family friend from early childhood. Starting more than a year ago the girl started a detailed chronicle of her situation, and as much evidence she could gather, filling multiple notebooks with relentless bullying every day of the week that went from classic bumps in the hallways and stealing homework to Ampere destroying mementos of Taylor's dead mother in front of her."

Lieutenant Chase continued the narrative, far more controlled but still sounding more pissed than his usual surly self. "Meanwhile Shadow Stalker was playing vigilante and was caught by the ENE Protectorate after impaling an E88 skinhead, she was inducted to the Wards under a fairly tame probatory agreement after Ampere's father gave his support as a character witness, allowing her to stay in Winslow High School due to logistical and social reasons. In an astounding case of incompetence, the pre-entry investigation on Shadow Stalker managed to miss both the collusion between her and Ampere, which would have nullified the testimony in her favor, as well as their mutual 'hobby' despite hundreds of messages in their cell phones and their school's social media parading their 'pranks'. Note that it took me less than an hour to find the later." It was obvious that his professional pride was particularly offended by that. "This sad state of affairs continued during Stalker's time in probation and even when Ampere voluntarily entered the Wards herself, with neither their school nor their shared PRT handler noticing anything."

"After a cooldown period in which Miss Hebert hoped that they were finally getting bored of tormenting her, they filled her locker with used tampons from the women's bathroom and let it fester for at least a weekend, and when Monday came, they shoved the girl inside and keep her there for hours until she gained the ability to go through the door to escape. So yeah, a little too extreme for roughhousing gone wrong."

"Shit. I wouldn't want to be the ENE PR department if this leaks, there is no positive or neutral interpretation of their actions, the optics on the local PRT/Protectorate overseers is of incompetence -at best- and the whole story sounds like one of Stephen King books, sensationalist and nasty enough to make page three in the local news even if Kaiser and Lung fight it out in the streets that day and for reporters to make the effort of giving regular updates on the case on slow days. No freaking way of spinning it without outright lying." O'Hannon took a drink from his coffee mug dramatically enough for everyone to wonder if it was spiked with vodka before continuing. "Did the morons at Brockton managed to contain the story?"

"Yes and no. No one noticed that the culprits were Wards nor the involvement of the PRT and the bullying itself hasn't leaked to the media yet but its all there in the student's social media and the locals decided that trying to erase that would do little more than draw unwanted attention." Phil answered, catsup in one hand and a slice in the other.

"Which can change with the smallest leak from either the school side or from the Wards, and Phase is so far no shy about complaining about it. Other than a worse case unmasking we're relatively well isolated from the fallout but we can still coordinate with Brockton for some after the fact follow up articles detailing the vague but pretty strict punishments the school's faculty and the non-disclosed minors suffered in order to defuse the story, maybe talking about a settlement… Phil, I know that face, you know that I know that face! What the fuck the idiots up north did?"

"There's no official punishments to the girls involved or the school's faculty nor a payout on the works for Miss Hebert. Brockton PR strategy is to close their eyes and wish everything away. That means that the police investigation is stalled, no recommendations for punishments can be passed to the appropriate school district and Legal won't authorize a settlement or any form of compensation until the investigation is over, and their intention is for it to take years."

"Are they for real? Meg can they even do that?" Bobby questioned her, already dreading his colleage response.

"So far the people at ENE are obeying the letter of the law. They already introduced the collected evidence and relevant testimonies into the system, doing otherwise would be obstruction of justice, particularly since we know, but the investigators' notes are shining by their absence. If I was a betting woman, I would assume that the game they're all playing is to delay and pray. The lead investigator will run out all the normally allotted investigation time and ask to his section leader for as many time extensions as possible, before that time runs out and the section leader has to ask the director to authorize even more time."

"So… they are waiting until everyone is 18? Can they delay that much?"

"Not really, regs indicate that sooner or later the status of the investigation must be changed to Cold Case, but for that is mandatory for they to analyze whatever evidence they have at hand and give a mandatory report to the DA office, and what they already introduced to the system is enough to fill charges for multiple Class A misdemeanors and at least one Class D felony even before taking into account the probation of one of the culprits. If they try to obfuscate that then it and every delay beforehand will be considered as obstructing justice."

"But then again, they don't need to delay that much, wait a year or so until either or both of the girls involved can get some accomplishments under their names and present the evidence to a DA in a good mood so they can negotiate an extended parole agreement."

"Oh, that's how you'll do it in their place, I guess."

"Fuck no. That house of cards sounds nice and clean in theory, but it has too many moving parts and ways it can go wrong. And when it does go down in flames then everyone in the chain of command even tangentially involved by rubberstamping a delay will be facing conspiracy charges themselves. For it to blow up they just need the girls committing one additional crime, one wrong look from IA for unrelated reasons, that the DA asks for a parole report on SS as part of the background check after she makes an arrest… there are too many ways the delay circle can come to an end even before considering the fact that the victim is going to actively try to kick down the house of cards on everyone's head!"

"And when that happens ENE region will have a disproportionally large percentage of their chain of command paralyzed by an Internal Affairs investigation, with the entire Wards rooster benched, and the Protectorate leadership in charge of the Wards forced to step down. Depending on how it happens and who discovers the smoking gun then they might get rebranded or retired, or it bad comes to worse arrested as accessories after the fact."

"And experience tells us that when shit goes down hard enough in BB it always, always ends up with Boston eventually dealing with the fallout."

"And what if we trip the wire early? I've always said that the best way of dealing with a bomb is by poking it with a pointy stick, a very long one."

"And that's why you're missing a leg."

"What can I say? I didn't have a long enough one with me that day."

"Tempting, but frankly I don't fancy getting myself relocated to Eerie, Indiana. Disaster in the making or not if we intentionally sabotage another regional office all of the directors will pounce on us."

"Eerie, Indiana? Not to a Quarantine Zone?"

"Do you think that The Powers That Be would like a whistleblower in those places?"

"Touche."

"And talking about Miss Hebert, how likely is that she gets to blow the whistle?"

"She signed a standard NDA regarding the Wards and Protectorate secret identities, confidentiality for actions related to law enforcement and regarding protocol and procedures as part of her acceptance into the program. That her attackers are minors themselves add another small layer of safety regarding her spreading their names beyond the judicial system but other than that the ENE region was so desperate to move her out of the state that they didn't force her or her father to sign anything more specific."

"And if the ENE office sends a more comprehensive NDA for her to sign?"

"Then we politely return it to the sender and, if they insist, we call their bluff and even more politely ask for an update on the case, implying that we might formally ask for it on writing. That will make them back-down ASAP."

"Now the girls committed their crimes in their civilian identities when off-duty and their actions are definitely not covered under good samaritan laws so they don't get any kind of immunity to lawsuits, so she can freely sue their civilian identities as well as her former school even if the NDA makes difficult -but not impossible- to sue the Protectorate and the PRT as well. Even if the PRT won't release any of the evidence of the locker 'prank' during this last year she collected plenty of independent evidence of harassment, enough to build a viable case even if part of it is circumstantial. Once the lawsuit is on the docket then is game over, during discovery the fact that the PRT claimed jurisdiction will have to be revealed and since the nature of their crime can't by its nature be directly or indirectly part of Wards activities then there will be no legal recurse to keep said fact, the evidence or the legal status of Shadow Stalker and Ampere secret without perjuring themselves."

"But you said we hold her legal custody, can we block her from suing?"

"We have 'Pater Familias' custody. We can choose to sign her for swim classes at the school, authorize her dentist to get her brackets, and ground her if she misses her homework, but the one person that has the legal right to sue those little shits in her behalf is still her father. And even if we had full custody, if she really wanted, she could request an 'ad litem' guardian, and since there is an obvious conflict of interests between her and the PRT it would be a no-brainer for a judge to assign her one."

"Lucky we that she seems to hate her father almost as much as she hates us. When he tried to give her a good bye hug she phased through him and her parting words probably hurt a lot more than the last time I was punched in the gut."

"Now that's a depressing silver lightning if I ever heard of one. What if we pay a settlement ourselves?"

"On one hand it would trigger the chain reaction we already agreed not to poke with a stick, on the other enough funds to equal a settlement of this magnitude will never be authorized when everything happened well outside our jurisdiction and we have no official reason to justify the expense. Worse case it might accidentally trigger a corruption and embezzlement case against us." Phil answered.

"The other thing she can do, at least legally, is to fill a complaint with some of our watchdogs. I know for a fact that she is talking with Reed from Youth Guard, and while they cannot mess with an ongoing investigation, they're already issuing every fine and punishment they can levy on the Wards handlers, while reinforcing their monitoring of the Wards. As it is they will delay Stalker or Ampere getting back in the field for at least six months so any hope of doing a good enough work to earn brownie points with the DA office is already facing trouble. And God save them if she can get into contact with an IA officer, or a politician read in the Parahuman's Affairs Committee."

"Less legally, but one that no judge would give her more than a slap on the hand, is for her to gather her evidence, which you are telling me she got entire notebooks filled to the brim and talk to the media. No matter how much she decides to disclosure, anything short of revealing other Wards identities will have the ENE region and us tarred and feathered, a noble tradition of this city."

"At least that we can stop without getting into a legal mess. Well, at least as long as someone knows how to stop someone intangible from going anywhere."

"Good question. So, in case we need to stop her from running away to join the circus, to give a personal interview in WBZ News Radio, from going vigilante on the streets or even becoming a villain what options do we have?"

"You can forget Wards support of any kind other than self-defense or her clearly and openly going villain, for any containment action I'm giving Weld standing orders to retreat and stay out of it. No way I'm letting the kids get involved in this shit, even if no one gets hurt and Taylor moves away afterwards Team cohesion and morale would be destroyed for this generation of Wards." Gauss was obviously distracted of even thinking the local Wards would need to put down one of their own, even if that person was keeping them at arm's length.

"Agreed, the last thing the public needs to see is a civil war in the middle of the Wards team. Almost certain it would leak, and that plus the mess of Brockton and we would be seeing the Wards Charter revoked for both regions. Fuck damn it, I wish I had a bottle of bourbon."

"Me too. I agree that the Wards can't be used unless as a last resort, his whole affair is going to be hard on the them already, no need to make it harder. Even then I'm going to request an action plan in case they do need to defend themselves or are caught in the crossfire. As for Protectorate support, Nebula told me the Protectorate own's action plan is on the works. Chase, what can the strike teams can do in case there's no parahuman support available?"

"First, no way to passively bar her way in or out the building, not even by having troopers physically block her path so to enforce any kind of lock-down we are going to need to perform an active take-down even if she doesn't take aggressive actions first, and for that I'm going to need a special authorization."

"I'll have one written by tomorrow."

"Non-lethal we can say goodbye to barriers and hand-to-hand maneuvers of any kind, containment foam, tasers and rubber bullets, flashbangs probably work on her and maybe tear gas if she even needs to breathe in her Breaker state, other than that I need to brainstorm with the rank and file. Also, other than keeping her sedated, we have no way of containing her after capture."

"If I may, tasers might not be out of question. When her Trigger Event occurred, she was in close proximity to two other parahumans, Shadow Stalker and Ampere, Trigger Events in similar circumstances have a tendency to share characteristics of the parahumans inside a certain radius. Shadow Stalker's tests indicate that her Breaker state is vulnerable to electricity so there is a chance Phase herself is vulnerable as well."

"If she is vulnerable to electricity then we can use tasers to subdue and shock handcuffs for containment… If. I would love something a little more concrete than that for my contingency plans Doc."

"Without comprehensive testing or Thinker support we are limited by our passive observations of Phase and our knowledge is likewise very limited. We know for certain that she can enter her Breaker state with her clothing and the objects she is carrying, so far the greatest amount observed is a medium sized school backpack mostly filled with books. We have seen her phasing through a human being without apparent physical damage, his father showed signs of emotional distress but afterwards he didn't have a physical examination performed on him nor did he filled a questionnaire to evaluate if his psychological status was affected beyond the nature of his farewell to Phase, so we have yet to discover if she can intentionally harm someone by interacting with them in her Breaker state or the exact restrictions of her Manton Limit. She asked to switch rooms due to her powers so we are assuming that she got a passive ability that affects her when in proximity to either other people or specifically parahumans, considering her proximity to Ampere before and during her Trigger we consider that this may be a secondary Thinker ability. One of my analysts noted that in the mess hall surveillance recordings she never seems surprised of people coming from blind angles even while distracted, however that same analyst added that it could be hypervigilance due to bullying instead of signs of a Thinker ability."

"Joy, so Thinker four countermeasures at the very least. If she's uncomfortable in a room then we need to consider a twelve feet awareness perimeter." Chase complained.

"And of course, there is very intriguing fact that, every Thinker that has tried to evaluate her has been unable to direct their power towards her. "Watchdog's Thinkers are already offering their help to find how encompassing her abilities are, they have yet to find out how high her Stranger rating is, but its at least a six and raising."

"And with their curiosity an uncomfortable amount of attention from other jurisdictions is coming, particularly since she won't take her power tests in one of the best labs in the country."

"All in all, my preliminary recommendation is that the use of force to contain her should be a last resource, morale tends to take a nose dive when a parahuman either casually ignore every action against her or when the troops are forced to beat the shit out of a teen girl."

"Good, I don't want the ENE to drag us even deeper in this hole they're digging. We accepted Phase in good faith before realizing the shit we were getting into and we will do our best to integrate her into the Wards and if she tries to spread classified information, we stop her as we would with any other Ward or Protectorate cape trying the same but that's where I'm drawing the line. No further interaction between Miss Hebert and the ENE Wards, Protectorate or PRT personnel from any media nor any actions that can be seen as tampering with a witness even if they can be seem as legal out of context, they wanted to make her our problem let them choke on that."

"Aye to that. But it doesn't help her situation at all."

"We keep director Armstrong's strategy and hope she makes friends within the Wards and they mellow her anger enough we can start to mend things."


AN: I have been thinking how Piggot and Armsmaster can keep this PR nightmare completely In-House while people from Boston, YG and WEDGE are actively watching without breaking any laws in the process and this is the answer I reached. In RL crime investigations can take years of research even with clear evidence of culpability and laws and regulations reflect that. So she is acting as if this open and shut case is far more complex and running the time so that she can make the reveal at the local District Attorney when she gets enough political capital to negotiate some agreement that doesn't involve jail or relocation from the girls, for example increasing the probation inside BB well into their twenties instead of them moving to a different city when they graduate to the Protectorate.

 

[tarrangar]

"Good, I don't want the ENE to drag us even deeper in this hole they're digging. We accepted Phase in good faith before realizing the shit we were getting into and we will do our best to integrate her into the Wards and if she tries to spread classified information, we stop her as we would with any other Ward or Protectorate cape trying the same but that's where I'm drawing the line. No further interaction between Miss Hebert and the ENE Wards, Protectorate or PRT personnel from any media nor any actions that can be seen as tampering with a witness even if they can be seem as legal out of context, they wanted to make her our problem let them choke on that."

Click to shrink...

Is that even legal? She didn't sign those NDAs her father did, so it's him who can be punished for her breaking them, which mean it's not a crime she's liable for to break them, and if it's something she can't be punished for, are they allowed to use force to prevent her from doing it?

And isn't there laws against NDAs being used to cover up crimes.

 

[BF110C4]

Is that even legal? She didn't sign those NDAs her father did, so it's him who can be punished for her breaking them, which mean it's not a crime she's liable for to break them, and if it's something she can't be punished for, are they allowed to use force to prevent her from doing it?

And isn't there laws against NDAs being used to cover up crimes.

Click to shrink...

We need to accept that as far as this fic is concerned everything the ENE has done is not illegal enough for the people in a different jurisdiction to be concerned. My interpretation is that the Wards NDA were signed by her before meeting the Wards and discovering who SS and Ampere were, and therefore legal. The problem from Taylor's PoV is that she is not a lawyer especialized in NDA's and those laws are complex enough that reading a few books won't help without years of focused study on them so she really can't understand yet the strict limits of an NDA in the eyes of the law.

Plus in my omake at least they acknowledge that she can go to court as long as she does not reveal the fact they are wards, and even then is not outright impossible, just harder to do, not to mention that the PRT is technically not covering up the crime, they are slowing down the investigation so much that it will take years before a judge sees it, not illegal per se but close enough that they will get in hot water if they cross any more lines.

 

[Nikas_Zekeval]

Ass covering 101

Click to shrink...

A few critiques. One, there is alot of "talking heads" in here. Frankly I can't keep track of who is saying what dialog.

Two, using Taylor's real name in the meeting. If they are already walking on egg shells they don't want a PRT team leader to mess up and publicly call her "Taylor" at this early stage. Even if "public" is in a PRT and Protectorate only area of their HQ.

Three, making sure the ENE can't contact here didn't seem to be done. Since Emma did it. For suggested changes, if set before that message? "One advantage of refusing testing is her temporary ID is only in the restricted directories. Protectorate team leaders, Directors and their seconds plus people on her "need to know" list like Weld and unfortunately her Youth Guard rep. So it's not like her bullies can contact her up here, and hopefully that will give her time to cool off."

Or if set after, have the question brought up on how the hell Ampere got Phase's contact info. "She wheedled it out of Armsmaster. And worse the little shit used Phase's real name. Reed made sure to point that out, once he got it redacted from the system, as Ampere sending a threat. We got a formal block on anyone in the ENE contacting Phase directly now, but it still didn't help us with getting her on board."

Which leads to, Four. "Dealing with Phase" didn't include any way to get her to willingly participate. The lack of ideas on how to stop her by force was a good way to segue into it, "Instead of thinking how to lock her up, maybe come up with ideas of how to get her to want to stay?" It could also tie into their own legal butt covering, "I know we documented things so legally we didn't. But as far as Phase is concerned this department is part of the coverup."

 

[KingCrimson1081]

Ass covering 101

Click to shrink...

Very suspicious that they didn't involve the local Youth Guard rep in a discussion about Taylor now isn't it.

As for what they should do is challenge the ENE department for jurisdiction on the case regarding Taylor since she is legally listed as their ward so they should be involved in any criminal investigations that involve her any meaningful capacity.

Which leads to, Four. "Dealing with Phase" didn't include any way to get her to willingly participate. The lack of ideas on how to stop her by force was a good way to segue into it, "Instead of thinking how to lock her up, maybe come up with ideas of how to get her to want to stay?" It could also tie into their own legal butt covering, "I know we documented things so legally we didn't. But as far as Phase is concerned this department is part of the coverup."

Click to shrink...

For a way to get Taylor to willingly participate I would say that the Boston department should be the ones to blow the lid off the cover up and punish Sophia and Emma plus those who helped cover up their crimes such as the school. While it might be a bit late at least they can say it got done by them in a visble way that Taylor can't deny, and while it might not solve all Taylor's problems with the program at least she will be more willing to give the Boston department the benefit of the doubt and participate a little bit to see how she likes it.

 

[BF110C4]

A few critiques. One, there is alot of "talking heads" in here. Frankly I can't keep track of who is saying what dialog.

Two, using Taylor's real name in the meeting. If they are already walking on egg shells they don't want a PRT team leader to mess up and publicly call her "Taylor" at this early stage. Even if "public" is in a PRT and Protectorate only area of their HQ.

Three, making sure the ENE can't contact here didn't seem to be done. Since Emma did it. For suggested changes, if set before that message? "One advantage of refusing testing is her temporary ID is only in the restricted directories. Protectorate team leaders, Directors and their seconds plus people on her "need to know" list like Weld and unfortunately her Youth Guard rep. So it's not like her bullies can contact her up here, and hopefully that will give her time to cool off."

Or if set after, have the question brought up on how the hell Ampere got Phase's contact info. "She wheedled it out of Armsmaster. And worse the little shit used Phase's real name. Reed made sure to point that out, once he got it redacted from the system, as Ampere sending a threat. We got a formal block on anyone in the ENE contacting Phase directly now, but it still didn't help us with getting her on board."

Which leads to, Four. "Dealing with Phase" didn't include any way to get her to willingly participate. The lack of ideas on how to stop her by force was a good way to segue into it, "Instead of thinking how to lock her up, maybe come up with ideas of how to get her to want to stay?" It could also tie into their own legal butt covering, "I know we documented things so legally we didn't. But as far as Phase is concerned this department is part of the coverup."

Click to shrink...

I'll do some rewrites later during the day incorporating your concerns.

Very suspicious that they didn't involve the local Youth Guard rep in a discussion about Taylor now isn't it.

As for what they should do is challenge the ENE department for jurisdiction on the case regarding Taylor since she is legally listed as their ward so they should be involved in any criminal investigations that involve her any meaningful capacity.

For a way to get Taylor to willingly participate I would say that the Boston department should be the ones to blow the lid off the cover up and punish Sophia and Emma plus those who helped cover up their crimes such as the school. While it might be a bit late at least they can say it got done by them in a visble way that Taylor can't deny, and while it might not solve all Taylor's problems with the program at least she will be more willing to give the Boston department the benefit of the doubt and participate a little bit to see how she likes it.

Click to shrink...

This was a troubleshooting meeting in order to anticipate problems, YG rep is an specific source of headaches so he will never get an invite.

As for asking jurisdiction on crimes performed by ENE Wards? If they ask Piggot and Armsmaster will tell them to go to hell, if they go through channels then even with incuestionable evidence of corruption, which the ENE region has so far avoided, if an entire regional command needs to be audited it would need to directly involve Legend and Costa-Brown because the scandal would reach the point where congress would not be amused. Far too above the pay grade of the deputy director, not to mention that doing so will get him in enough political problems that by mutual agreement everyone in the meeting decided against poking that landmine.

 

[KingCrimson1081]

I'll do some rewrites later during the day incorporating your concerns.

This was a troubleshooting meeting in order to anticipate problems, YG rep is an specific source of headaches so he will never get an invite.

As for asking jurisdiction on crimes performed by ENE Wards? If they ask Piggot and Armsmaster will tell them to go to hell, if they go through channels then even with incuestionable evidence of corruption, which the ENE region has so far avoided, if an entire regional command needs to be audited it would need to directly involve Legend and Costa-Brown because the scandal would reach the point where congress would not be amused. Far too above the pay grade of the deputy director, not to mention that doing so will get him in enough political problems that by mutual agreement everyone in the meeting decided against poking that landmine.

Click to shrink...

Well my second suggestion would be to call Rebecca Costa-Brown and have her solve the issue discreetly in a way that has the Boston department looking like the good guys in Taylor's eyes.

"If I may, tasers might not be out of question. When her Trigger Event occurred, she was in close proximity to two other parahumans, Shadow Stalker and Ampere, Trigger Events in similar circumstances have a tendency to share characteristics of the parahumans inside a certain radius. Shadow Stalker's tests indicate that her Breaker state is vulnerable to electricity so there is a chance Phase herself is vulnerable as well."

Click to shrink...

It would be really ironic if electricity just super charges Taylor due to Emma's added presence during Taylor's trigger event coupled with Sophia's presence.

 

[BF110C4]

Well my second suggestion would be to call Rebecca Costa-Brown and have her solve the issue discreetly in a way that has the Boston department looking like the good guys in Taylor's eyes.

Click to shrink...

Never forget that Costa-Brown is not exactly an accessible figure or a merciful one. If things escalate to the point anyone needs to call her she will end making an example of everyone involved, and not necessarily the kind of example you want. During the meeting no one was joking about being exiled if they rock the boat without a damn good reason, whistleblowers are never liked inside a government organization.

 

[KingCrimson1081]

Never forget that Costa-Brown is not exactly an accessible figure or a merciful one. If things escalate to the point anyone needs to call her she will end making an example of everyone involved, and not necessarily the kind of example you want. During the meeting no one was joking about being exiled if they rock the boat without a damn good reason, whistleblowers are never liked inside a government organization.

Click to shrink...

True, but at the same time informing her or someone higher up on the chain of command of the potential incident before it turns into a shit show that needs their attention would probably be a good thing because a teaspoon of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

 

[BF110C4]

True, but at the same time informing her or someone higher up on the chain of command of the potential incident before it turns into a shit show that needs their attention would probably be a good thing because a teaspoon of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Click to shrink...

There's making a memo to your supervisor, and there's calling a person tasked with the parahuman affairs of the whole country, organizing task forces to deal with a city being destroyed every three months and reporting to the president and congress about the constantly deteriorating situation. She won't thank you for interfering with a minor disciplinary issue of a different jurisdiction (remember, she gets to deal with the aftermath of SH9 rampages, everything with less than a dozen deaths is a minor issue for her) unless you have rock solid evidence of corruption by Director Piggot or the cape you're trying to woo is Alexandria 2.0.

Anything less, she expects that Directors deal with it directly, or that they use appropriate channels and proper procedure to request an Internal Affairs investigation.

 

[KingCrimson1081]

Anything less, she expects that Directors deal with it directly, or that they use appropriate channels and proper procedure to request an Internal Affairs investigation.

Click to shrink...

There are probably members of her staff that are there to deal with complicated and potentially damaging situations such as these that don't require her direct action all Armstrong has to do is contact her office with his complaint and they could probably work on it from there without Rebecca getting involved. I am not saying to call Costa-Brown's personal number with this issue just that Armstrong can kick the issue up the chain of command to get it solved since his hands are tied due the actions of the ENE department.

 

[Nikas_Zekeval]

There are probably members of her staff that are there to deal with complicated and potentially damaging situations such as these that don't require her direct action all Armstrong has to do is contact her office with his complaint and they could probably work on it from there without Rebecca getting involved. I am not saying to call Costa-Brown's personal number with this issue just that Armstrong can kick the issue up the chain of command to get it solved since his hands are tied due the actions of the ENE department.

Click to shrink...

Or have some passive-aggressive sniping in the next meeting where he is being harped on "When will Phase finally get with the program?" And frame the blocker as the 'interminable' investigation into the two Wards that abused and triggered her. And how that delay of justice and restitution is preventing Phase from seeing the Wards in a positive light, any Ward not just Brockton's.

Which puts Piggot in a bind. She doesn't want to conclude the investigation, because it will lose her two Wards. But if she keeps it open she is admitting to other Directors and her superiors she can't conclude a simple investigation into her own Wards in a timely manner. Which is a stunning level of incompetence. Or she considers an investigation into abuse of power by her own people to be something to put at the bottom of her priority list.

Armstrong: Toss a time-bomb into my department, will you? Here, let me light the fuse on some of the bombs in your own department.

This is different from deliberately setting off said bombs, "All" Armstrong is doing is putting timers on them. Denying Piggot the ability to defer them indefinitely by using the pressure on him to get Phase fully inducted into the Wards. Or possibly Protectorate given Hebert stubbornness to drag things out.

 

[KingCrimson1081]

Or have some passive-aggressive sniping in the next meeting where he is being harped on "When will Phase finally get with the program?" And frame the blocker as the 'interminable' investigation into the two Wards that abused and triggered her. And how that delay of justice and restitution is preventing Phase from seeing the Wards in a positive light, any Ward not just Brockton's.

Which puts Piggot in a bind. She doesn't want to conclude the investigation, because it will lose her two Wards. But if she keeps it open she is admitting to other Directors and her superiors she can't conclude a simple investigation into her own Wards in a timely manner. Which is a stunning level of incompetence. Or she considers an investigation into abuse of power by her own people to be something to put at the bottom of her priority list.

Armstrong: Toss a time-bomb into my department, will you? Here, let me light the fuse on some of the bombs in your own department.

This is different from deliberately setting off said bombs, "All" Armstrong is doing is putting timers on them. Denying Piggot the ability to defer them indefinitely by using the pressure on him to get Phase fully inducted into the Wards. Or possibly Protectorate given Hebert stubbornness to drag things out.

Click to shrink...

Thats one way to get the problem solved without having to draw in the main office just toss it like the hot potato that it is directly into Piggot's face in a way she can't deflect it onto someone else.

 

[BF110C4]

Or have some passive-aggressive sniping in the next meeting where he is being harped on "When will Phase finally get with the program?" And frame the blocker as the 'interminable' investigation into the two Wards that abused and triggered her. And how that delay of justice and restitution is preventing Phase from seeing the Wards in a positive light, any Ward not just Brockton's.

Which puts Piggot in a bind. She doesn't want to conclude the investigation, because it will lose her two Wards. But if she keeps it open she is admitting to other Directors and her superiors she can't conclude a simple investigation into her own Wards in a timely manner. Which is a stunning level of incompetence. Or she considers an investigation into abuse of power by her own people to be something to put at the bottom of her priority list.

Armstrong: Toss a time-bomb into my department, will you? Here, let me light the fuse on some of the bombs in your own department.

This is different from deliberately setting off said bombs, "All" Armstrong is doing is putting timers on them. Denying Piggot the ability to defer them indefinitely by using the pressure on him to get Phase fully inducted into the Wards. Or possibly Protectorate given Hebert stubbornness to drag things out.

Click to shrink...

That's a way of seeing things, but I think that any dirty laundry between Piggot and Amstrong would be done in private while they keep a relatively united front for the rest of the PRT directors. And the reason is politics and the ability to actually get their jobs done.

For that I think that we need to see what politics is about at the regional director level. Let's take for example from which directors the political pressure to get Taylor into power testing comes from.

Most PRT directors wouldn't care a rat ass that a girl is not getting into the program, Boston office is far from them, Wards as resources are hard to use during national emergencies and for trading between teams since both things need parental approval, not to mention that no matter the powers they have strict limits for field deployment and tactical use, no one will put Flechette to hunt the SH9 under normal circumstances even if they realize just how deadly she is. But on the other hand cities who contribute capes to WEDGDG will be far more interested in seeing Phase abilities catalogued in order to prevent interference and also as a training tool to extract information from power protected sources, while other cities such as Vegas will be keeping an eye on people like Taylor since they deal with a disproportionate amount of Thinkers and someone capable of bypassing their defenses, both physical and extrasensorial would be invaluable to some of their missions. So in order to pressure Amstrong the directors of those areas negociate with some of the very valuable time of Thinkers under their command, either offering an increase in thinker resources, or just the opposite, reduce Boston priority for Thinker support. They can affort to be agressive with him because they don't depend in Boston for any support other than maybe some lab time (Amstrong is very interested in the study of powers so I'm guessing he got a very nice power testing lab).

On the other hand we got a much closer relationship between Boston and Brockton Bay. The cities are close, a little more than an hour away by civilian car, probably a fraction of that in helicopter so each city is their own closer source of reinforcements in case of an A or S threat.They probably share other things, I can see Piggot negociating for example lending some of Armsmaster's tinkertech creations to Boston in exchange of using their superior laboratories for testing and saving that way a large chunk of money if she was to use her own resources.

Note that said close proximity cuts both ways, criminals can and has moved assets from city to city (from guns and drugs to whole teams such as the Travellers), and the moment law enforcement loses its capacity to act as a deterrent they start to move in. We see this after the SH9 attack on BB when both Accord and the Teeth move to gain a foothold in the city, with the former making an alliance with the Undersiders in the process, we also see the opposite effect years before when the Teeth were kicked out of BB and migrated to Boston. So both offices need to share real time intelligence on their gangs in order to block such attempts.

Now if Amstrong attacks and humiliates the PRT offices in BB he might or might not solve all of his problems with Phase, but at the same time he provokes the immediate dismissal of at least one fifth of the ENE Wards and makes an enemy of the Brocktonites when a rift between both offices will make harder to get accurate intelligence and support to deal with the threats coming his way now that the city is going to be a little less stable than yesterday.

Is not fair, but no matter how angry is Amstrong for Piggot's actions he knows better than to suddenly destabilize his sister city even at the cost of a Ward. And he can apply some less extreme passive agressiveness himself, banning the BB capes from his own testing labs he pushes the price of those tests on Piggot for example.

 

[Nikas_Zekeval]

Now if Amstrong attacks and humiliates the PRT offices in BB he might or might not solve all of his problems with Phase, but at the same time he provokes the immediate dismissal of at least one fifth of the ENE Wards and makes an enemy of the Brocktonites when a rift between both offices will make harder to get accurate intelligence and support to deal with the threats coming his way now that the city is going to be a little less stable than yesterday.

Is not fair, but no matter how angry is Amstrong for Piggot's actions he knows better than to suddenly destabilize his sister city even at the cost of a Ward. And he can apply some less extreme passive agressiveness himself, banning the BB capes from his own testing labs he pushes the price of those tests on Piggot for example.

Click to shrink...

The thing is, Piggot already started the rift by trying to use Armstrong to launder her Ward problem. Now Kamil has both a resentful Ward On Paper Only that not only he can't use? But is fomenting a toxic atmosphere within his Wards team due to her well earned distrust and resentfulness. And on top of that he is having pressure to get Phase active, and by your speculation having difficulty getting resources he normally could, because of Piggot pulling a Karma Houdini.

Think of Kamil being the designated driver, then Emily after a night of drunken debauchery puked in his car, refused to help clean it up or pay to get it cleaned, and stuck him with her bar tab the next morning.
,
The relation between the two departments is already tainted. And even if the other Directors pretend not to notice? I'm sure the rumor mill got around at how Piggot screwed Armstrong over. Which would affect her ability to get help or people from other departments. They are all going to be looking for the poison pill in this deal, and make higher demands to offset what they know has to be there, even if they can't see it.

 

[BF110C4]

The thing is, Piggot already started the rift by trying to use Armstrong to launder her Ward problem. Now Kamil has both a resentful Ward On Paper Only that not only he can't use? But is fomenting a toxic atmosphere within his Wards team due to her well earned distrust and resentfulness. And on top of that he is having pressure to get Phase active, and by your speculation having difficulty getting resources he normally could, because of Piggot pulling a Karma Houdini.

Think of Kamil being the designated driver, then Emily after a night of drunken debauchery puked in his car, refused to help clean it up or pay to get it cleaned, and stuck him with her bar tab the next morning.

The relation between the two departments is already tainted. And even if the other Directors pretend not to notice? I'm sure the rumor mill got around at how Piggot screwed Armstrong over. Which would affect her ability to get help or people from other departments. They are all going to be looking for the poison pill in this deal, and make higher demands to offset what they know has to be there, even if they can't see it.

Click to shrink...

I agree, but consider Kamil's personality when measuring the actions he is willing to take. Do you think he is a man that would choose the most antagonistic solution to a problem? Because exposing Piggot to the rest of the Directors and making her already precarious situation any worse will most certainly won't help with keeping the peace in either BB or Boston.

 

[Nikas_Zekeval]

I agree, but consider Kamil's personality when measuring the actions he is willing to take. Do you think he is a man that would choose the most antagonistic solution to a problem? Because exposing Piggot to the rest of the Directors and making her already precarious situation any worse will most certainly won't help with keeping the peace in either BB or Boston.

Click to shrink...

If this shit goes on long enough? Hell yes. The more Piggot's unwillingness to own up and take the consequences of her actions and inactions forces Armstrong to pay for them? At some stage Armstrong is going to decide Piggot is drowning and he doesn't want to be dragged down with her. Blame shifting is a well honed bureaucratic skill, and if the situation Piggot threw into his yard like a bag of shit starts making significant impacts on Kamil's ability to run and get support for his own department? Then he is going to engage in some finger pointing to push the blame for "Phase" well she isn't just sitting on the bench, but isn't even showing up in the stadium. He is going to decide Piggot shot first and push the blame for this impasse back to her.

Edit: another reason to retaliate on some level? If other directors see Piggot can get away with this shit against Armstrong, with no consequences or pushback? Then they will see they can shove problems off on him and give him the short end of the stick without complaint or consequences. Again, if for nothing else than the integrity of his own department he'll will push back and shove the blame at least partially back to Piggot, because souring that relationship isn't the only thing in play.

 

[KingCrimson1081]

I agree, but consider Kamil's personality when measuring the actions he is willing to take. Do you think he is a man that would choose the most antagonistic solution to a problem? Because exposing Piggot to the rest of the Directors and making her already precarious situation any worse will most certainly won't help with keeping the peace in either BB or Boston.

Click to shrink...

I can imagine that Kamil has a ruthless streak to him because remember while we have currently only seen him as someone who is trying to be a friend and ally to Taylor he is still a PRT director who is in a city that has both Accord and the Teeth in it so that does require him to have a degree of ruthlessness to him if he wants to get anything done. Even more so if he has to go up against Accord frequently having to out think a Thinker on occasion should give him the political maneuvering skill necessary to get back at Piggot for dumping the whole mess on him.

 

[BF110C4]

If this shit goes on long enough? Hell yes. The more Piggot's unwillingness to own up and take the consequences of her actions and inactions forces Armstrong to pay for them? At some stage Armstrong is going to decide Piggot is drowning and he doesn't want to be dragged down with her. Blame shifting is a well honed bureaucratic skill, and if the situation Piggot threw into his yard like a bag of shit starts making significant impacts on Kamil's ability to run and get support for his own department? Then he is going to engage in some finger pointing to push the blame for "Phase" well she isn't just sitting on the bench, but isn't even showing up in the stadium. He is going to decide Piggot shot first and push the blame for this impasse back to her.

Click to shrink...

But what is the limit in this case? Other than sending Taylor under dubious pretences and the SNAFU that came from Emma's phone here was no additional problems coming from BB, and you can even argue that the later was its own punishment since it triggered the YG investigation. Even more during Kamil interlude, mere days after the YG when to BB he mades no mention of Piggot or Armsmaster complaining abut Phase's complains, which means they actually decided to be discrete about the incident (and Piggot probably did her stress relief by screaming at both Emma and Colin until their ears bled).

Plus we have Taylor's issues to take into account. Despite her obvious and logical dislike of the cover-up her complains are directed towards others trying to control her life and how the actions she takes are how she recovers that control. She won't see the Boston PRT as the ones doing the right thing, but as people using justice as one more tool to get her into the program, and she might or might not thank people for that, but she's not going to stop using the free time loophole to stop being a vigilante either.

I can imagine that Kamil has a ruthless streak to him because remember while we have currently only seen him as someone who is trying to be a friend and ally to Taylor he is still a PRT director who is in a city that has both Accord and the Teeth in it so that does require him to have a degree of ruthlessness to him if he wants to get anything done. Even more so if he has to go up against Accord frequently having to out think a Thinker on occasion should give him the political maneuvering skill necessary to get back at Piggot for dumping the whole mess on him.

Click to shrink...

I agree that he has the potential to be ruthless and politically capable, but in the political game between equals is often the discrete and meticulous actions behind the curtain which win the day, not the screaming recriminations.

In the specific case of Amstrong exposing Piggot plans to the directors at large she can counter with the fact that A) Its completely legal and also way cheaper than other alternatives, B) she managed to contain a PR issue (not disaster or any colorful description) with minimal fallout and C) she is in the process of rehabilitating two Wards that would otherwise be lost to the penal system (that more often than not splits out hardened criminals) and even with YG restrictions she might have them well trained and disciplined in time for their graduation to the Protectorate. She even gave Boston an excellent Breaker-Stranger cape that just need some attitude adjustments for their program (and one not even on probation at that), What else could Boston ask of her? The worst part is that many of the directors are both pragmatic and they won't be affected one way or the other if her ruse falls apart and would see the logic of Piggot actions and dismiss the pitfalls of her chosen method as giving enough rope for her to either hang herself or get up from that hole she dug, so no need to waste any more energy on that.

End result? Piggot in general is politically covered in the short term, BB is irritated at Amstrong and they show their displeasure with delays in intelligence reports and other small nuisances and Boston still has an antagonistic Ward in paper only, who moonlights as a vigilante.

 

[Nikas_Zekeval]

In the specific case of Amstrong exposing Piggot plans to the directors at large she can counter with the fact that A) Its completely legal and also way cheaper than other alternatives, B) she managed to contain a PR issue (not disaster or any colorful description) with minimal fallout and C) she is in the process of rehabilitating two Wards that would otherwise be lost to the penal system (that more often than not splits out hardened criminals) and even with YG restrictions she might have them well trained and disciplined in time for their graduation to the Protectorate. She even gave Boston an excellent Breaker-Stranger cape that just need some attitude adjustments for their program (and one not even on probation at that), What else could Boston ask of her? The worst part is that many of the directors are both pragmatic and they won't be affected one way or the other if her ruse falls apart and would see the logic of Piggot actions and dismiss the pitfalls of her chosen method as giving enough rope for her to either hang herself or get up from that hole she dug, so no need to waste any more energy on that.

End result? Piggot in general is politically covered in the short term, BB is irritated at Amstrong and they show their displeasure with delays in intelligence reports and other small nuisances and Boston still has an antagonistic Ward in paper only, who moonlights as a vigilante.

Click to shrink...

I'm not talking a a direct attack, but an indirect one. The next time Armstrong is being pressured to "get Phase on board with the program", so they can find out how her power ticks?

"Phase has leveled some serious accusations at two of the ENE's Wards. It is why she is currently in my department rather than her home town's after all. And I'm afraid as long as that investigation remains unresolved, it is a hard block on getting any power testing cooperation out of Phase. Once the investigation is concluded and any appropriate charges and punishments are recommended? Well that would give me a carrot to offer Phase to get some cooperation."

Armstrong doesn't have to go full J'Accuse! here. More like the Tenth Doctor's "Do you think she looks tired?" Present the investigation remaining open as a blocker for any progress with getting Phase into power testing. Armstrong himself won't speculate on why the investigation has yet to turn out any results. But it will turn some of the people pressuring him to asking themselves, and Piggot, how long an internal investigation into two Wards can possibly take. Basically don't let Piggot be able to string out the investigation indefinitely, or at least do so without consequences.

At which points the powers over both of them have to ask themselves, is Phase interesting enough to pressure Piggot on the investigation into her Wards? Asking for progress reports, why things are taking so long, and such. Make her have to explain to their superiors on a regular basis where the investigation is, and why it is still open.

Worse case? Those higher ups say if Piggot is so strapped for resources she can't conclude the investigation in a timely manner? They can send some people to take it off her hands. Which puts Piggot in a bind, she's been asking for more help deal with her problems. She can't let an outside investigator look at this, but if she refuses them she is saying she has the resources to handle the situation. Which would undermine any other requests for support, and set an expectation for a timely resolution to the investigation.

Rather than Armstrong taking the heat alone for Phase's stubbornness? It spreads the blame around, and the higher ups might decide Phase is worth more than one or both of Piggot's misbehaving Wards. And Armstrong is acting with apparent reasonableness, asking for a timely result to an investigation from a fellow Director so he can use that to do his own job. Because "rehabilitating" them doesn't fly if you are saying the accusation is still an open investigation, that comes after the investigation concludes and charges and punishments are recommended. Otherwise Piggot claiming the investigation is stalled to 'rehabilitate' her Wards is admitting they are guilty as sin and she can't turn in the investigation without them being charged for serious enough crimes to yank them from the Wards. Not something she wants to admit to others.