Just a Phase [Worm]

[Highlord]

I hope Taylor goes completely off the reservation in this fic. Implacable had he get her win through determination and the loving support of her father, but here she stands alone.

I hope she pisses on whatever NDAs the fucking PRT think bind her and blow the doors off the whole situation, consequences be damned. Then make her name doing so over and over again.

Justice is anathema to the PRT and the cabal of worthless bastards drunk on their own HARDMAN stupidity that are backing it.

To shorten the classic phrase, let the heavens fall.

 

[FirstSelector]

doors her actions are closing

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Joke's on them, Taylor doesn't need doors!

Omake: Compromise

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This was fun! How Taylor would fare in a courtroom is dependent on a number of things, and I liked this take on a levelheaded judge.

 

[SlickRCBD]

AO3 now has a n "Exclude" list with the same setup as the "Include" list. If you exclude M/M just be sure to go down to the character listing and exclude the "Original Male Character/Original Male Character" pairing tag, as that can slip through AO3's jumbled-ass tagging system. Praise be, I can actually search for things and not end up wanting to claw my eyes out!

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I'm not seeing it, the only exclude I can see is to exclude crossovers.
Could you give more details on how to use this?

Ao3Categories by slickrcbd, on Flickr
Clicking on the "?" for help says "by default it uses AND" but I don't see anything in the GUI to make it a NOT or an OR.

 

[Rymu]

Could you give more details on how to use this?

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It's not in the works search page but on the sidebar when you're browsing the list of fics.

 

[Lucid Lunacy]

I'm not seeing it, the only exclude I can see is to exclude crossovers.
Could you give more details on how to use this?

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It's not in the works search page but on the sidebar when you're browsing the list of fics.

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Ninja'd! Just click on a fandom or tag or whatever, then the fics list with sidebar options with Rating, Warnings, Fandom, Pairing, etc.

 

[Akasora]

So people could post Omakes, while Firstselector is occupied with life and make the time pass faster. No idea why it was posted here, other than so people may be able to make NSFW content.

I mean.....why would they have that in place? And by they I mean Cauldron. They want people to choose between Protectorate yoke or being villains. Having something like that would be counterproductive to what they want, what they want is people not having other options than joining in or go villain.
If the independent is lucky they may be able to find liked minded individuals and form a team together, but that is rare.
Btw, that thing the PRT uses about independents only lasting 6 months alone, people seem to think it's because they get pressganged....and it's only partially true. The real reason that Independents don't last too long is because Endbringer attacks, which happen every 6 months.

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There are actually hero teams run by corporations in Worm, they just wasn't mentioned much because they were irrelevant to the story and the story is in Taylor's POV.

 

[Highlord]

Frankly, Taylor's power, while not really combat oriented, is top tier for infiltration and intelligence gathering. That the PRT wants to lean on her and get her to show the flag in some stupid costume on useless patrols, while entirely in character for them, is as wrongheaded as it is useless.

Again, I really hope Taylor goes completely rouge in this story. Everyone she's trusted, from friends and family to institutions, has done nothing but stab her in the back. She owes them nothing but a life of sorrow and broken promises. Danny included.

Have her use her power to get even more ammo on the PRT, then have her let fly. Burn the fuckers as deep and hard as possible.

Whatever happens, she needs to walk away from the PRT, doing damage to their carefully constructed veil of lies on the way out. Maybe she goes to a life of crime, maybe she goes mercenary, maybe she gets picked up by another agency. Who knows?

But no matter what, she should get her vengeance, since actual justice will forever be denied so the PRT can save face. They hurt her, they destroyed her life, they took everything she loved away from her so they can keep pretending to be good people. No more, and fuck them.

Doesn't matter if they're a government agency and institution. If they refuse to grant justice, than it is right for those they ignore, intentionally fail and betray to take vengeance on their own behalf.

 

[Santo]

Frankly, Taylor's power, while not really combat oriented, is top tier for infiltration and intelligence gathering.

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Allow me to heartily disagree with the bolded statement. The last chapter showed that her power is absolutely top tier combat oriented.

She's not Manton limited, the only thing stopping her from reaching inside someone and pulling their heart out with her hand, or reaching into their head and literally scrambling their brains, is her own lack of desire to do such a thing.

Not only that, but as long as she keeps her head in the game, she could do that with impunity and there'd be nothing anyone could do to stop her unless they had a power cancelling Trump nearby or they could fly.

The only things she lacks are the ability to get into and out of combat quickly and easily, and a bit of training in how to scuffle. But going by power alone, she's scary as all hell to anyone that's not a hell of a regenerator, a flyer, or a fast mover, as pulling their heart out would take her no physical effort. As, during the fight, separating someone's arm was a brief application of will.

Tay Tay be scary yo.

 

[Rymu]

A pile of training, maybe some tinker assists, and a spot of sheer ruthlessness and Taylor's power could easily become one of the more terrifying ones on the east coast. The east coast, may i remind you, has a roster of capes including Lung, Legend, The Butcher, and Echidna.

 

[BF110C4]

The main problem with giving Taylor duties in intelligence/counterintelligence operations is that so far Taylor shows no inclination towards using her powers for anything other than acting as a classical heroine who likes to punch criminals in the face while celebrating doing so is counting coup against the PRT/Protectorate. The powers of invisibility/intangibility are useless if the parahuman in question uses them only to reach punching distance instead of waiting hours and days with a phone camera set on mute and a anonymous E-mail account for the police.

 

[The Dude]

A pile of training, maybe some tinker assists, and a spot of sheer ruthlessness and Taylor's power could easily become one of the more terrifying ones on the east coast. The east coast, may i remind you, has a roster of capes including Lung, Legend, The Butcher, and Echidna.

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Beyond that... she can dodge powers. She's one of the few people that could gank Ma Mathers.

 

[Midnighter13]

So here's a thought, how would this Taylor stack up (power wise, not skill wise, yet) against the Slaughterhouse Nine? Especially the Siberian and Jack? Because being immune to their powers could mean she trumps them, but both of them have powers that are essentially 'I win' buttons against most parahumans.

 

[Qaw]

So here's a thought, how would this Taylor stack up (power wise, not skill wise, yet) against the Slaughterhouse Nine? Especially the Siberian and Jack? Because being immune to their powers could mean she trumps them, but both of them have powers that are essentially 'I win' buttons against most parahumans.

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Against Jack, depends on which interpretation of him you go with. If you go with the more canon 'his power does all the work for him' line, she trumps him. If you go with the more interesting Joker analogue where Jack is actually extremely sly and skilled at psychology, (and this interpretation, while less canon, better answers the question of why Jack wasn't shot with a shotgun by a random dude in all the years before Bonesaw,) she's just another obstacle where he should meet his end but probably won't.

Against Siberian, she's got to find the guy first. And without any tools to do so, the apparition can just poke her until she tires and messes up or runs far enough away.

 

[MudkipSage]

I have rediscovered my latent appreciation for Malicious Compliance Taylor.
Queen Admin's gotta be loving the conflict generated while staying within the rules.

"She could be a huge help against the minor threats moving into Cambridge."

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These feel like the kind of word's, one looks back on fondly remembering when you didn't have a Skitter.

 

[Midnighter13]

Against Jack, depends on which interpretation of him you go with. If you go with the more canon 'his power does all the work for him' line, she trumps him. If you go with the more interesting Joker analogue where Jack is actually extremely sly and skilled at psychology, (and this interpretation, while less canon, better answers the question of why Jack wasn't shot with a shotgun by a random dude in all the years before Bonesaw,) she's just another obstacle where he should meet his end but probably won't.

Against Siberian, she's got to find the guy first. And without any tools to do so, the apparition can just poke her until she tires and messes up or runs far enough away.

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So you don't think she could no sell the Siberian's physics breaking 'punch through everything' power?

 

[Qaw]

So you don't think she could no sell the Siberian's physics breaking 'punch through everything' power?

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the apparition[Siberian] can just poke her[Taylor] until she[Taylor] tires and messes up[fails to phase due to exhaustion] or runs far enough away.[leaves Manton's range]

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[BF110C4]

So you don't think she could no sell the Siberian's physics breaking 'punch through everything' power?

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Let's just say that Taylor is not in an ideal mental place, but she is not remotely so suicidal that she would try to put that aspect of her power to test without some damn good reason and even then she will make her best effort to not get hit by something that could injury people like Legend or Alexandria who got their own quite broken ways of negating most damage.

 

[Brawlingbard]

I like this so far, one small detail made the story real for me lol. Taylor hides to change behind a Dunkin Donuts. You cant go a few blocks in any major city in Mass without hitting a Dunkin. Good on you for this tiny authentic detail.

 

[SlickRCBD]

I like this so far, one small detail made the story real for me lol. Taylor hides to change behind a Dunkin Donuts. You cant go a few blocks in any major city in Mass without hitting a Dunkin. Good on you for this tiny authentic detail.

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It is ridiculous in The Chicago Loop. Seriously. Three Dunkin Donuts in the Northwest Station OTC or Riverside Plaza (one in the food court, one downstairs from the train platforms in whatever they are calling it now, one more if you walk across the enclosed pedestrian bridge over Canal St. that connects to Riverside Plaza)
and several more within 4 blocks.

 

[MrTwistr]

I think this has more promise than Implacable because Taylor feels more vulnerable and human here than in this one. In Implacable she just felt like an asshole who was taking her shitty life out on everyone else around her, even the characters who DIDNT deserve it like some of the Wards. There's definitely some of that here but she is more defensive than outright provocative and there are hints of her letting people into her shell which gives me hope for decent character development in the future. I hope this gets updated again soon.

 

[Rymu]

I think this has more promise than Implacable because Taylor feels more vulnerable and human here than in this one. In Implacable she just felt like an asshole who was taking her shitty life out on everyone else around her, even the characters who DIDNT deserve it like some of the Wards. There's definitely some of that here but she is more defensive than outright provocative and there are hints of her letting people into her shell which gives me hope for decent character development in the future. I hope this gets updated again soon.

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Almost nobody in Implacable didn't deserve Taylor's actions and downplaying what happened to Taylor as her life being shitty is honestly really shitty as what happened to her during that fic was pretty fucking heinous as far as shit you can post on SB goes.

 

[SlickRCBD]

Almost nobody in Implacable didn't deserve Taylor's actions and downplaying what happened to Taylor as her life being shitty is honestly really shitty as what happened to her during that fic was pretty fucking heinous as far as shit you can post on SB goes.

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The other Wards didn't deserve that, especially Carlos. He was collateral damage for Taylor's fight against Piggot and those that aided her.
However, I discussed this when it came up in Implacable, and this is better discussed here:
Implacable Discussion, Fic Ideas, and Recs. AKA The Worm General Malicious Compliance thread. | SpaceBattles

 

[Qaw]

In Implacable, the Wards got exposed to a person that doesn't act like a marionette, has their own agency, and is willing to pursue their interests. If we're talking about the first half of the story, I would actually call the interaction a positive for them. Unpleasant, irritating, but an undoubted public good as it broadened their perspectives and expanded their horizons. And on a different note, many, many people over the course of many, many pages of discussion have stated in the original thread as well as the new one, that getting angry at Taylor for being an asshole just slices the knees under any person who wishes to go against any large organization but only manages to do so imperfectly. And if you disagree with that assessment, as well as posting in the appropriate thread, you should probably just bite the bullet and write out the full essay at this point, unless you want the keep the circles spinning. And if we're talking about the second half of the story, Taylor was hardly even involved in that and had her agency removed by an OC fairy godmother.

That said, the very similar positive interaction is present here, where Taylor, most notably in the zoo tour chapter, is making cracks in the narrative Wards had been spoon fed up to now. But many subtle differences are present, with the main one that the cracking is a low slower and gentle compared to Implacable, since the MC is working with a much longer time-table.


And honestly, considering the hiring, vetting, and education practices of the PRT for their teenage heroes, most of the Wards being good people and obedient pets has always been a gigantic stretch of suspended disbelief. (Though I can buy a specific city just getting very lucky.) Just going by the statistical analysis you'd have a couple teenagers with family/friends ties to one of the gangs and therefore barely hidden sympathies to them, (or even not hidden at all!) where they'd spend the time mooching off of the PRT, giving the gangs info, and making an honest attempt to stop petty crime. Like, if the teenager or even an adult hero says 'Hey, I think E88 actually does a lot of good' in a private chat out of the media eye, what is the PRT supposed to actually do about it? Add subtle Master effects to the food and water? That is before we get into all of the teenagers who'd be some combination of making every effect to get more privileges, get self-important and act like petty kings to the personnel, and routinely break the rules without a care. (Oh no. I went out when you suspended me for a week and run around on the rooftops. I am so sorry. What, I am grounded? Watch as I do the exact same thing that very evening. I am so sorry, I didn't realize what I was doing. What, you are putting me in a cell for a couple days?! Well, now I am just mad at you and hate everyone here.)

For all the meme about the PRT brainwashing and propaganda, real world indoctrination always hinges on either only targeting a slice of the population, or being able to cancel the dissenting voices in a public manner. The exact opposite of the way the Wards program operates. That you'd have a teen that bucks the narrative and damps everyone's morale is only unbelievable in that it hasn't been happening near-everywhere since the program's inception.

EDIT: Cleared up the first paragraph.

 

[tarrangar]

I think this has more promise than Implacable because Taylor feels more vulnerable and human here than in this one. In Implacable she just felt like an asshole who was taking her shitty life out on everyone else around her, even the characters who DIDNT deserve it like some of the Wards. There's definitely some of that here but she is more defensive than outright provocative and there are hints of her letting people into her shell which gives me hope for decent character development in the future. I hope this gets updated again soon.

Click to shrink...

In Implacable, Taylors plan for getting out was to make herself more trouble than she was worth, in a way that didn't break the terms of her Probation, the Wards might not have deserved what she did to them, but doing it to them was necessary for her plan to work, and when you're enslaved by an uncaring bureaucracy, then even if your volunteer coworkers don't know about your enslavement, and are pretty decent people, you're in no way obligated to make sure your plan to get free don't inconvenience them.

The Wards were unavoidable collateral damage in her plan, and that was entirely fair, she was pressganged and forced to work with someone who had tortured her, if her plan to get out of that inconveniences some volunteers who didn't take part in the pressganging, then that's too bad so sad, but it's not a reason to say she shouldn't do it.

Combating unfairness will almost always have collateral damage, that don't mean it shouldn't be done.

 

[BF110C4]

Omake: Compromise
(Part II)

"Now, regarding your legal guardianship I believe that you're right about the fact that there is a serious conflict of interest with the PRT and Protectorate that needs to be addressed so let's begin examining the viability of the current arrangement."

"The contract to introduce Taylor Hebert into the Wards program was presented in the PRT offices of Brockton Bay and signed by both the representant of the Legal Office of the ENE Protectorate and by Taylor Anne Hebert's sole living parent Daniel Hebert who at the time was the legal guardian with full parenting rights and obligations. Videos and Audio recordings show that at no point Daniel Hebert requested the aid of a lawyer, which the state is under no obligation to remind the need or lack thereof nor they showed that he wasn't unable to take rational decisions concerning his and his dependent, that there was no undue pressure applied by the government representative by threat or use of physical harm, application of legal or administrative punishments or the illegal and/or immoral use of authority, no illegal conditions under either federal laws or those of the State of Massachusetts, that the terms offered were within the line guides of the Rules and Regulations for the Wards of the Protectorate of the United States of America and the terms of the contract were not misrepresented as understood in contract law."

Personally, he thought that a middle manager tasked with hiring people for an union should have known better than signing a three years' long commitment in his daughter's name without either consulting with a lawyer or the interested party but frankly the video showed a man still trying to process something in the middle of shock, and only the few questions related to Taylor's safety and some of the conditions of the trust fund convinced him that he actually was aware enough to not consider him 'non compos mentis' during the signing.

"The offer to move the minor Taylor Hebert to the Boston Protectorate Wards Program is neither illegal nor atypical for Ward contracts negotiated by the Legal Office of the ENE Protectorate and the oral and written explanation given about the rights and obligations of ceding legal guardianship 'In Loco Parentis' for educational and living purposes, to authorize medical procedures in emergency situations, the management of parahuman training and law enforcement deployment, as well as other purposes related to the welfare of the minor were neither false nor incomplete to the point an informed decision couldn't be taken."

For the second time in the day the girl looked as if she was barely containing quite an impressive temper, he didn't need a degree in psychology nor his many years of experience in court to understand that she wasn't happy of how fast her father had moved her out of their house and into the Wards.

"Furthermore, there was no specific attempt to make benefits of the program contingent in the signature of an agreement to not press criminal charges against PRT or Protectorate law enforcement officers or administrative personnel or to wave the right to fill a civil lawsuit against either or both organizations. That the Non-Disclosure Agreements signed as part of the induction to the program are standard for the protection of the identity of members of the Ward program and it doesn't include any clause aimed specifically to conceal misdemeanors or felonies of those protected."

The problem was that even without clauses specifically concealing the crimes perpetrated by the two miscreants in question the standard NDAs Taylor's father had signed had few workable loopholes about who was allowed to know about the identities of Protectorate and Wards members which made even explaining things to a lawyer not under federal contract a complicate issue.

"That on itself the offer to move the minor Taylor Hebert outside the jurisdiction of the ENE Protectorate Wards Program and into the Boston Protectorate Wards Program is not part of a recognizable pattern of witness tampering or obstruction of justice on the grounds that the Protectorate makes available legal mechanisms to denounce felonies performed by or against parahumans including across state lines."

"So I consider that the contract between Taylor Hebert and the Protectorate is valid and legally binding, that said I will be following the DoJ inquiry and the BB investigation as well and if there are any ground to substantiate charges of witness tampering, obstruction of justice or even negotiations in bad faith and I will move to invalidate the contract."

"Currently the legal guardianship of the minor Taylor Hebert is in the hands of the Boston Office of the New England region of the Protectorate and administered by the Parahuman Response Team Agent Jane Watkins according with the regulations of the Ward Program. The legal guardianship provided by the Wards for in-base inhabitation normally allow 'Pater Familias' rights to be asserted when they do not directly conflict with law enforcement procedures, when the situation allows the time and opportunity to ask for parental authorization or in matters where the Protectorate might find itself in a conflict of interests, additionally the parents are allowed to rescind this right at any moment as long as the established procedure is followed."

"However due to the activation of the protocols for child endangerment by Taylor Hebert, all custody rights and obligations of Daniel Hebert were immediately and unilaterally suspended, with those not already contemplated by the previous agreement given temporally to Agent Watkins."

"At the same time the Boston PRT and Protectorate, by virtue of having federal jurisdiction regarding cases of abuse and endangerment of a minor parahuman, particularly when the investigation needs to cross state lines; the responsibility to conduct the investigation without exposing Taylor Hebert parahuman status to third parties and the specific laws regarding the crimes committed against Wards opened an investigation of child abuse to determinate if penal charges were required."

"As part of the investigation the medical and psychological records of Taylor Hebert were disclosed to the assigned investigators. It was determined that he origin of injuries previous to her arrival to the Wards Program was for causes not related to actions of her father. Her assigned therapist also determined that while there were concerns of negligent behavior in the preceding months there was no indication of active psychological or physical abuse."

As he said those words he looked at the girl, there was a certain amount of indignation on her face, but thankfully the deeply rooted shame that he saw far too often on persistent abuse victims was missing. "As a reminder Miss Hebert, there is no doctor-patient confidentiality in cases of child abuse, however while this is not the correct forum to show you the exact content of the released information I can assure you that both the documents and the interviews gave the authorities only case relevant information and did not delve too deeply in unrelated private matters."

"The investigators then performed a review of Taylor Hebert residence in Brockton Bay, as well as an interview with Daniel Hebert. Due to the local recertification of the Wards Program these actions were done by Boston agents in a secondary Protectorate administrative office."

"This investigation determined that Daniel Hebert did show concern regarding the basic needs of the minor Taylor Hebert such as proper feeding and clothing as well as ensuring her an education within his means. Furthermore, he showed distress at even the suggestion of turning his anger and frustration against her. However, by his own reckoning he has been taking double turns in his current job for the last two years; he was incapable of noticing and properly addressing the drop of her academic grades, the deteriorating assistance and discipline record accrued during school hours, and the toll and toil of her mental status during the last two years." In his own defense the moment he was made aware of the issues plaguing his daughter he took measures to address them immediately."

"During the interview the investigators noticed symptoms of chronical fatigue and possible depression which are not conductive to the unassisted care of a minor. They also noted that the incidents regarding his daughter all started happening the same year Anette Hebert died in a vehicular accident."

The next document in the case file filled by the PRT intrigued him, it was rare that the infamous Watchdog would offer an official deposition for anything less than Birdcage cases and he wondered if the Protectorate feared the Hebert's case terrible optics enough to waste such a favor on an otherwise routine investigation.

"As an additional note to the case file, upon consult with the WEDGDG office of the Protectorate the parahuman Thinker with the designation Appraiser concluded that Daniel Hebert would not intentionally harm his daughter nor himself."

This time there was a not particular loud noise when Taylor's pen, which she had firmly hold on her hand rolled to the floor, if he hadn't been directly looking at her, he might not have noticed how it went through her hand. He noted how she schooled once more her expression as the rest of the Protectorate and PRT handlers slightly tensed as if they had to restrict themselves from intervening.

"As such the recommendation filled by the Protectorate to the state attorney and family court is to not press for charges, likewise they are agreeable to allow supervised visitation rights, however the PRT/Protectorate will oppose any motion to return full custody to Daniel Hebert until he gets evaluated by a mental health expert and attends therapy for at least three months."

"To that I should add that to prevent further use of the child protection mechanisms I would strongly recommend for Taylor to be asked if he wants to meet his father with a reasonable lead time so in case she got a previous commitment during the time frame or for personal reasons refuses to have the meeting he doesn't have to waste more than an hour in the road."

"And on a personal note, Miss Hebert I can see why you don't want to meet him, you got reasons to be angry at him, but I would still recommend you to see him once in a while and at least put some effort on it, as someone much older than you I can tell you that in ten, twenty years untangling the What If's and the I Should Have's is harder. Also that part of being an adult is to sometimes tackle hard relationships and the problems they come with head on."

"With that your current legal status is clear, so do you have any complains with the PRT agent detached to the Protectorate and the Wards Program and your current guardian, Jane Watkins?"

For the first time during this hearing the young girl stand up to directly talk to him. During the previous interviews they had she had shown to be on the shy side once she decided not to throw her surprisingly controlled spite in his general direction. And thankfully she wasn't directing that spite at Miss Watkins.

"Your honor, before the start of these proceedings I didn't have many meetings with Agent Watkins, mostly to fill some paperwork and a monthly interview she takes with me, with Flechette and with Weld. Other than that, she mostly stood silent during my meeting with the lawyer, mostly correcting which topics and names I could and couldn't mention."

Usually, he was reluctant to allow a minor to talk so openly in open court, even in an affair as informal as this one but after their last meeting in which he had given her an overview of the topics they would touch on the courtroom and the reasons why, the girl had been properly prepped by her legal advisor on how to talk about the topics she could and couldn't touch yet, and just as important she knew how to choose her words for maximum effect.

"Do you know of someone within the local Protectorate or PRT assigned to the Wards that you think would be more appropriate and agreeable to hold your legal guardianship?" He already knew the answer to that would be a simple 'no', they had discussed about it and his take was that, just as every other teen, she was perfectly fine with a distant legal guardian that didn't take too close a look on her room and her complains were mostly to left in record she was not completely satisfied with the current arrangement, quite wise of her.

"Your honor if I may." Without waiting for his approval, the tall man currently standing at the first row of the public seats continued. "James Reed from the Young Guard, your honor."

…and for every wise girl there were ten foolish men.

"As her representative to the Young Guard I have been closely working with Taylor Hebert in a number of topics, particularly regarding the assault and cover-up she suffered in Brockton Bay and to assert her right to not be part of the law enforcement part of the wards and as a legal guardian I would be more readily available and far less biased than miss Watkins or any other employee of the Protectorate and PRT."

Taylor was looking at the man with some astonishment which soon changed to chagrin, the girl had resisted the temptation to interrupt the proceedings despite dealing with some extremely emotionally charged themes and here this man was doing just like in a Judge Judy episode, and to make things worse doing so without asking.

"Denied." The man was opening his mouth again, if he had to guess Mr. Reed was used to interrupt other people and the lack of his robes made him forget that he was a federal judge. "Before you ask why, I want to ask you a question Mr. Reed. What are mandatory reporters and what are their duties."

"You honor?"

"To answer my own question, mandatory reporters are individuals who hold a professional position that requires him or her to report to the appropriate state or federal agency cases of child abuse that he or she has reasonable cause to suspect. In Massachusetts the standard is to send to the hot line an oral emergency report immediately with a 51A written report ready and in the mail within 48 hours, federal standards for employees are laxer mostly using the regulations of the state they are current standing but Protectorate regulations do add the requirement for every adult member involved with wards to take specific classes to identify and classify abuse."

"You had plenty of sessions with Taylor Hebert in which she talked at length of her induction to the Wards and the actions and inactions of her father. What she told you the Saturday 29 of 2011 was not substantially different of what she told you before. So either you ignored previous instances in which you were trained and obligated by law to report a case of abuse or you decided that the ideal mechanism to prevent a meeting between a teenage girl and her father was by interposing a child abuse claim to a federal law enforcement agency."

"In fact the exact words you told Daniel Hebert that day were '…in those cases where there is acrimonious separation, there are regulations that can be invoked to protect the child from their parents. Unfortunately, those regulations are poorly worded; Taylor can claim ex post facto that your relationship was personally damaging and that she requires the PRT to keep the two of you separated for her own well-being.' And that 'the Youth Guard exists to protect her, not you.'"

He shredded the image of the reasonable old man and for the first time during the hearing he acted as the thirty years veteran of the federal legal system he was. "Advising a teenage girl, already hurt by the manipulation of other adults to use a poorly worded regulation that can and has in the pass had put people in jail, deserving or not, instead of the many less confrontational options available starting with simply telling Miss Hebert's legal guardians she didn't want to meet her father tells me many things about your moral fiber, none of them good."

"So yes, your motion is denied and I should point that you still have to fill the mandatory abuse report or the retractation from it, before the legal penalties start falling on your lap."

"So for the moment Taylor Hebert's In Loco Parentis guardianship will stay the same unless there is a more substantial reason not to. In addition, I'm granting her the option to get a guardian 'ad litem' for the purpose of reviewing the viability of civil lawsuits against Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess, Brockton Bay Board of Education, the ENE PRT/Protectorate and other involved parties that are legally and morally responsible of this mess. Since any lawsuit will involve confidential and classified information regarding the Wards identities and procedures I am issuing a series of legal requisites that any lawyer willing to take the case need to fulfill before even hearing about it, also since I do know that miss Hebert lacks the expertise to look on her own for these characters in the Boston legal system I took the opportunity to collect a list of law firms that I know are permissible, including two who offer free legal aid clinics as part of their services. Once you have a prospective lawyer I will have a meeting between you, him and the government to see his viability and grand a limited security clearance."

"With that this hearing is adjourned."

 

[Simonbob]

Translation from Legal Speak:

"Taylor, here's the problem. You can now start to deal with it. Everybody else, You Dun Goofed. Here's the paperwork, Taylor, go for the eyes!"


Slightly more seriously, this is good stuff.

 

[Scranj]

I really enjoy the court omakes, but one fact about the last one kinda bugs me. While I'm sure caveats exist to protect secret identities, I'm of the opinion the PRT and Protectorate should also get chewed out over being mandatory reporters, and have that count as another strike against them here. Considering they're a government organizations involved with managing underage parahumans, parahumans who are pretty much guaranteed to have gone through some level of trauma.

 

[BF110C4]

I really enjoy the court omakes, but one fact about the last one kinda bugs me. While I'm sure caveats exist to protect secret identities, I'm of the opinion the PRT and Protectorate should also get chewed out over being mandatory reporters, and have that count as another strike against them here. Considering they're a government organizations involved with managing underage parahumans, parahumans who are pretty much guaranteed to have gone through some level of trauma.

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Except that Taylor throw them that bomb less than an hour befoe her father came to Boston and before that they had nothing of substance that would constitute abuse or criminal neglect, in fact going by the information of the fic Taylor never complains about her father not listening about the bullying before the locker incident or ignoring the signs of bullying. In the fic her complains are that she told him that her bullies are part of the Protectorate and neither he started criminal lawsuits against them and he still forced her to join the Wards Program, and ironically enough sending Taylor to the Wards against her will is actually proof that Danny does care about her special needs (and yes, being a parahuman does count for special needs) and while not noticing the bullying for literally years was actually a form of neglect is one that due to its nature wouldn't naturally happen in front of the Boston PRT/Protectorate since Taylor was no longer in his exclusive care anymore.

 

[tarrangar]

Except that Taylor throw them that bomb less than an hour befoe her father came to Boston and before that they had nothing of substance that would constitute abuse or criminal neglect, in fact going by the information of the fic Taylor never complains about her father not listening about the bullying before the locker incident or ignoring the signs of bullying. In the fic her complains are that she told him that her bullies are part of the Protectorate and neither he started criminal lawsuits against them and he still forced her to join the Wards Program, and ironically enough sending Taylor to the Wards against her will is actually proof that Danny does care about her special needs (and yes, being a parahuman does count for special needs) and while not noticing the bullying for literally years was actually a form of neglect is one that due to its nature wouldn't naturally happen in front of the Boston PRT/Protectorate since Taylor was no longer in his exclusive care anymore.

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Turning her over to the organisation whose still employed members tried to murder her though, is very much a case of conflict of interest, the PRT is a national organisation, forcing her into the Ward program, after Wards tried to murder her, don't look good at all.

Sure it was a different division of the Wards, but it was still the Wards, considering Taylor has a very legitimate case against the Wards, forcing her into the Wards was very much a bad decision, after all, as a Ward, she can be punished for making the Wards look bad.

 

[BF110C4]

Turning her over to the organisation whose still employed members tried to murder her though, is very much a case of conflict of interest, the PRT is a national organisation, forcing her into the Ward program, after Wards tried to murder her, don't look good at all.

Sure it was a different division of the Wards, but it was still the Wards, considering Taylor has a very legitimate case against the Wards, forcing her into the Wards was very much a bad decision, after all, as a Ward, she can be punished for making the Wards look bad.

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However the judge, while sympathetic to Taylor, must make his decisions based on the law and evidence, in that order. Unless he finds a superior of both Piggot and Amstrong giving orders about Phase that are explicit enough to be considered a conspiracy he must consider each different regional PRT/Protectorate office as different organizations.

In the case of the ENE Wards he contacted the local District Attourney, first to check in how advanced was the case against Hess and Barnes and then when he discovered that there was no open investigation he gave the local DA the evidence Taylor and the Boston office had gathered as well as hints that if they didn't want the Department of Justice to go looking for people to smack down they would stop treating it in-house and start acting like cops instead of covering their asses. That's about as much as he can do without getting into a fight with a completely different jurisdiction, and in practice is probable that Sophia had her parole revoked and Emma, who did show remorse, cooperated with the investigation and was kinda crazy would get on probation herself; and of course Piggot would have to at least fire a few more administrative and legal drones at the same time her paperwork for warrants triples to calm down the DA.

On her being forced into the Wards with a serious conflict of interests the fact is that Danny wasn't lied about it with the PRT just mentioning that the matter was 'under investigation' and still signed her off to a different state and regional office. And even Taylor and Young Guard has to admit that the Boston Office acts well within both the letter and the spirit of the laws and regulations regarding Wards so legally speaking she cannot complain of her treatment, not even of the tour incident counts since even the most basic forms of Loco Parentis guardianship does allow schools to force children to interact with others through either community service, extracurricular and curricular classes as well as other events, and at the same time schools are allowed to restrict the Right of Expression within school grounds and hours, plus Taylor didn't even receive a punishment so arguing any kind of abuse of authority would be hard and ambiguous.

Ironically enough the one incident that a canny lawyer could use to demostrate incompetence from the Boston Office is the fact that Taylor was able to put herself in harms way as a vigilante without proper supervision from the PRT/Protectorate and their own regulations prevented them from doing anything about it even when having her in front of them. That said the judge, being a responsible adult himself would be just as angry with Taylor and would slap a number of restrictions and punishments, so using this tactic would be pyrrhic at best.