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Just a Phase [Worm]

Reader mode
Tiktog said:
Excellent piece and I hope to see more of Alex's attempt to get into Taylor's pants.
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Glad you liked it! It had been burning a hole in my psyche for a while.
Rymu said:
Was he trying for that? Other than judging her looks I didn't really notice anything of that nature being his motivation but I could just be an idiot.
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It was not written with that intention, but shippers gonna ship.

That said, I could see the situation evolving into that, but it was not written with that explicit direction.

But death of the author and all of that.
 
Santo said:
And the feared Dread Pirate Roberts starting a rumor that only a maiden with a pure heart could defeat him (and then allowing himself to be thrashed by Buttercup after defeating both Inigo and Fezzik) was romantic and over the top as fuck!
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A rumor that was directly tied to the death of Butcher IV and the inheritance of Butcher V, but I will admit no one could have seen that one coming.
Santo said:
It was not written with that intention, but shippers gonna ship.

That said, I could see the situation evolving into that, but it was not written with that explicit direction.

But death of the author and all of that.
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I await the squeal that details the formation of the love triangle of normal bro Alex, trying to help Lily, and Taylor who is officially done with their crap.
 
MudkipSage said:
Just occurred to me, she ought to start filing formal requests to be removed from the program. Literally just an official request to quit, that they can rubber stamp rejected. Will it do anything outright? Nope. She has no leverage legal or otherwise.

But lets say she drops one off every time she visits? At some point, someone is going to notice she had made hundreds of requests to quit, and It's very hard to explain why you have literally hundreds of rejected official requests, and not look like they were not doing their job to fix the problem.

Loopholes are grand, but sometimes persistence can create a new opening that wasn't already there. Heck, she's already in the system, she probably could generate a massive amount of paperwork if she put her mind to it.
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The best kind of revenge for government types, this is a good idea.
I really like this fic because I live my life on spite alone, and this version of Taylor basically has liquid spite flowing thru her veins. Keep it up Taylor, FORGE YOUR OWN PATH! Fuck the PRT!
 
Rymu said:
Was he trying for that? Other than judging her looks I didn't really notice anything of that nature being his motivation but I could just be an idiot.
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Santo said:
Glad you liked it! It had been burning a hole in my psyche for a while.

It was not written with that intention, but shippers gonna ship.

That said, I could see the situation evolving into that, but it was not written with that explicit direction.

But death of the author and all of that.
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KingCrimson1081 said:
A rumor that was directly tied to the death of Butcher IV and the inheritance of Butcher V, but I will admit no one could have seen that one coming.

I await the squeal that details the formation of the love triangle of normal bro Alex, trying to help Lily, and Taylor who is officially done with their crap.
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It was actually just a joke.
 
KingCrimson1081 said:
A rumor that was directly tied to the death of Butcher IV and the inheritance of Butcher V, but I will admit no one could have seen that one coming.
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That was kind of eerie, I can agree to that.

KingCrimson1081 said:
I await the squeal that details the formation of the love triangle of normal bro Alex, trying to help Lily, and Taylor who is officially done with their crap.
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Man, if Alex did manage to actually become Taylor's friend, I could see Lily being super salty about that, maybe low key stalking him during writing club meetings trying to figure out his secret.

That secret being "not part of the PRT/Protectorate".

Truly nefarious.

Tiktog said:
It was actually just a joke.
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Lol, is cool brah.

As to where to take it from there... Hmm... I'd need to figure out a way for them to actually talk. Taylor could help him get over his hangups with Capes.

If I were to make an actual story out of Alex being a thing in the universe of this fic... Oh man I got some evil thoughts. XD
 
BF110C4 said:
Actually some burocracies got specific rules to prevent that sort of spam, forms without sustance or that add no new evidence or change in circumstances can be sumarily dismissed while the original claim is in investigation. Granted, those locks are usually not for internal complains but is an administrative measure that isn't too hard to apply. Furthermore nowadays in the word processor era the paperwork doesn't have the same investment in time and effort as it did in the days of handwritten forms signed by triplicate so any judge who sees those won't think 'there is something wrong here' instead the reaction is going to be 'I hate spam'.
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It's less generating spam, and more making it official that She Does Not Want To Be Here. There's a level of forethought, and her lawyer could easily go "My client, from the *first day*, has been asking to be allowed to leave the Wards, and this proves it."

You are right that it should definitely be personalized every time, just another "Let me go I do not want to work for you." in a different wording every time, just so that it is impossible to ignore the very clear precedent that she has been asking for x time to be removed. And! Since it should be internal, she can even say "I want to leave the wards because two of them caused my trigger event and I do not wish to work in a hostile work enviroment." Especially since if you proved you were assaulted by an employee of a company you work for, the company can't really just shove you off to another department without your express consent. Nor can they enforce the quitting penalty if you signed a contract because forcing you to work for the people who enabled your abusers is *super* illegal.
 
Santo said:
talk
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Talking? In my Worm? It's less likely than you think!

But more seriously, I loved the omake because it shows Taylor from the outside in a way that we haven't explored yet. It's important that school is mostly unoffensive for her now -- the administration has kept their word about bullying -- but it's not like she has a "normal" high school experience to fall back upon. Someone actively trying to be her friend after noticing her obvious distress... yeah, good luck Alex. You'll need it.
 
Santo said:
Man, if Alex did manage to actually become Taylor's friend, I could see Lily being super salty about that, maybe low key stalking him during writing club meetings trying to figure out his secret.
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Had a weird thought about the other Wards scaring off anyone at the school who wants to be Taylor's friend in order to make sure she socializes with the team, it probably wont end well.
Santo said:
As to where to take it from there... Hmm... I'd need to figure out a way for them to actually talk. Taylor could help him get over his hangups with Capes.
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Maybe have him learn what trigger events are since as far as I know those aren't exactly common knowledge, it would really put things into perspective if he learns that the vast majority of capes are in fact very traumatized people who are trying to cope with what happened to them.
 
MudkipSage said:
It would also be reasonable to accept her situation, and try to move forward knowing this group of people are almost completely unrelated to the ones who were in large part still only tangentially responsible for what happened to her. That would probably be a boring story. I'm not her for reasonable, I'm here for malicious compliance.
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Except they aren't really, sure the Wards here are almost completely unrelated to the Wards in Brockton Bay, but if we go to the director level, then director Armstrong is a coworker with director Piggot, and work together with the Brockton branch on tasks that effect both branches.

And both branches answer to chief director Costa-Brown, who are guilty by letting Piggot get away with screwing Taylor over, so Taylor is still being forced to work for one of the people preventing her from getting justice, it's just 2 steps removed, in that it's her boss boss that's guilty of screwing her over.
 
Tiktog said:
I would actually like to know more about what happened there if you've decided.
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Well, I'm still dithering on whether or not I'll continue the thing.

Though as said in the Omake, Capes killed his dad, and he since painted all Capes with the same brush. Kinda racist, but teenager.

FirstSelector said:
Talking? In my Worm? It's less likely than you think!

But more seriously, I loved the omake because it shows Taylor from the outside in a way that we haven't explored yet. It's important that school is mostly unoffensive for her now -- the administration has kept their word about bullying -- but it's not like she has a "normal" high school experience to fall back upon. Someone actively trying to be her friend after noticing her obvious distress... yeah, good luck Alex. You'll need it.
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Lol yeah.

He's basing his hopes on a documentary he saw one time about a guy that befriended a herd of deer.

Be patient, be harmless, and wait for them to reach out.

????

Profit!
KingCrimson1081 said:
Had a weird thought about the other Wards scaring off anyone at the school who wants to be Taylor's friend in order to make sure she socializes with the team, it probably wont end well.

Maybe have him learn what trigger events are since as far as I know those aren't exactly common knowledge, it would really put things into perspective if he learns that the vast majority of capes are in fact very traumatized people who are trying to cope with what happened to them.
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Learning about triggers would change his views some. He wouldn't forgive past sins, but he'd be more willing to not dismiss a Cape's side of the story off hand.
 
SlickRCBD said:
They have been reasonably accommodating in Boston.
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'being reasonably accomodating' is...a polite way to put it.

What they've actually been is engaged in active harassment and abuse of their authority. Deliberately scheduling her in ways they know she'll hate. Deliberately forcing her into situations and settings they know will cause her distress. Deliberately attempting to prevent her from interacting with or communicating with the public about her situation. etc.

They've also completely failed to actually attempt to address her concerns with her situation. There's no indication that Armstrong is lighting up the wires demanding that Piggot pull her head out of her ass and actually prosecute the attempted murder. There's no indication that anyone of power in the PRT or Protectorate has actually seriously considered just...not harassing the girl they're supposed to be responsible for.

Hell, there's no indication that her official guardian has even interracted with her in any way, checked in with her about her needs or health. Or made any effort to address her problems.

Recontextualize this as police, instead of super-heroes.

Some girl nearly gets killed by an officer's kid. Rather than actually prosecute them, the criminal's identity is hidden, the victim is pressured into signing illegal NDAs, her father is misled into signing custody over to the officer's buddy, the victim is moved out of the city, threatened with legal repercussions if she ever reports the crime to someone who might actually help, forced into an unwanted internship with the cops, etc. etc.

And the cops in the new city not only don't tell the cops in the old city to fuck off and treat her well, they actively harass her about how 'we're totally different. we're not actually going to do anything to help your situation, and we'll constantly act like you're unreasonable for not doing whatever we want, just get over it and give up on any sort of justice...but you know, for your own good, we totally have your best interests in mind'.

Still sound like the new precinct is being 'reasonable' eh?
 
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Ina_Meishou said:
Snip
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I am just hoping that all the Youth Guard investigations Taylor is sending Brockton's way eventually dig up enough dirt to get Piggot and the rest of her accomplices arrested along with Emma and Sophia for what they did. Unfortunetly just arresting the people in Brockton won't suddenly free Taylor from her contract since her father clearly still wants her in the program where she can be 'safe' but not happy, and since the PRT are technically her legal guardians they can still keep her in the program despite the fact that her whole recruitment has been fucked since day one. I mean seriously there is no way that Taylor didn't name Emma and Sophia as her abusers when she met Miss Militia in the hospital so the PRT probably knew about her relationship with two of their Wards and the fact that it was hostile but still tried to bring her onto the team anyways.
 
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Ina_Meishou said:
They've also completely failed to actually attempt to address her concerns with her situation. There's no indication that Armstrong is lighting up the wires demanding that Piggot pull her head out of her ass and actually prosecute the attempted murder. There's no indication that anyone of power in the PRT or Protectorate has actually seriously considered just...not harassing the girl they're supposed to be responsible for.
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The thing is that, especially as Taylor is going out of her way to avoid contact outside of complaints, and has been openly suspicious of and/or hostile to any attempt to make contact on Armstrong's part, it is entirely believable that investigations etc are happening in the background and Taylor hasn't found out entirely because she is convinced the PRT is acting in poor faith.
 
KingCrimson1081 said:
I am just hoping that all the Youth Guard investigations Taylor is sending Brockton's way eventually dig up enough dort to get Piggot and the rest of her accomplices arrested along with Emma and Sophia for what they did.
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The main problem is that Jim, who is very invested in bringing down the BB Ward program already said that there was nothing he could do about the actions taken and not taken against Emma and Sophia, which means that whatever Piggot and Armsmaster are doing is not illegal even if it is clearly inmoral. In other words the only way they are going down is if one of their current or future actions is actually against the law instead of using every loophole in the book to hide the investigation. That said there are laws about ignoring evidence and conflict of interest when investigating a crime, as well as regulations regarding how long processing evidence can take, so if Taylor can wait a few years (I think that five years but sincerely could be more) for all their legal delays to ran out she will suddenly have a rather solid case of corruption.
 
Ferretshock said:
The thing is that, especially as Taylor is going out of her way to avoid contact outside of complaints, and has been openly suspicious of and/or hostile to any attempt to make contact on Armstrong's part, it is entirely believable that investigations etc are happening in the background and Taylor hasn't found out entirely because she is convinced the PRT is acting in poor faith.
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And if the entire PRT command structure wasn't full of imbeciles, then Armstrong's attempt to make contact would start with the words 'here is what we know so far based on our investigation, here is a timeline of getting legal proceedings started to actually punish these people for attempted murder, here are the current administrative punishments we've undertaken while the wheels of the legal system turn'.

Not...actively going out of his way to further alienate her and push her further into isolation.

Either the PRT is being deliberately malicious, or they're being utterly idiotic. Neither is a good look as an excuse for their current behavior, which is actively criminal.

And it is criminal. Nondisclosure contracts are not legally able to silence reporting of criminal offenses. Them trying to convince a minor that they are in an effort to hide their own culpability is...criminal.

Contracts signed under false pretenses are not legally valid, them trying to convince Danny and Taylor that the custody swap, which was explicitly signed under false pretenses, is incontestable, is...criminal.

Legal Guardians are, as you might imagine, under a legal responsibility to see to the care of their wards. The PRT agent who is Taylor's new guardian is thus legally obligated to look her bosses in the eye and tell them to fuck the hell off the second their orders stop being in Taylor's best interest. Which she hasn't, which is...criminal.

While guardians can indeed sign legal documents in their ward's name, even minors cannot be compelled into employment against their consent. Doing that is called Slavery, and the law codes have some very clear language on that topic. So even leaving everything else aside, even if we were to assume that Taylor's place as a ward of the state is legal, their consistent efforts to force her into being a Ward of the state are...criminal.

For that matter, employers are not legally permitted to abuse their position of power over their employees when the employee is on personal time. Which means that the consistent attempts by the PRT to exploit their contractual authority as her employers to force her into non work related socialization is...you guessed it, criminal.

The list of laws the PRT and Protectorate are breaking in this story is massive, and it seems to get longer every chapter. People can claim they're being 'reasonable' all they want, but they're flatly wrong. The PRT has effectively kidnapped a minor victim of a crime committed by one of their own, and are actively violating the law to silence said victim. That is Not Reasonable behavior.

It's not necessarily unrealistic behavior, it's not out of character behavior, but it is not 'reasonable'.
 
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BF110C4 said:
The main problem is that Jim, who is very invested in bringing down the BB Ward program already said that there was nothing he could do about the actions taken and not taken against Emma and Sophia, which means that whatever Piggot and Armsmaster are doing is not illegal even if it is clearly inmoral. In other words the only way they are going down is if one of their current or future actions is actually against the law instead of using every loophole in the book to hide the investigation. That said there are laws about ignoring evidence and conflict of interest when investigating a crime, as well as regulations regarding how long processing evidence can take, so if Taylor can wait a few years (I think that five years but sincerely could be more) for all their legal delays to ran out she will suddenly have a rather solid case of corruption.
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To be fair Jim said that before starting the investigation into the BB Wards program, which only started because Taylor complained, so things could have changed since then especially due to the fact that the Wards program in Brockton Bay is obviously and dangerously breaking all sorts of regulations and guess who is in charge of the Wards program in Brockton Piggot so depending on how much the investigation digs up Jim and the rest of Youth Guard could probably very easily take action.
 
Ina_Meishou said:
And if the entire PRT command structure wasn't full of imbeciles, then Armstrong's attempt to make contact would start with the words 'here is what we know so far based on our investigation, here is a timeline of getting legal proceedings started to actually punish these people for attempted murder, here are the current administrative punishments we've undertaken while the wheels of the legal system turn'.
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seriously, this, all of this.
 
Ferretshock said:
The thing is that, especially as Taylor is going out of her way to avoid contact outside of complaints, and has been openly suspicious of and/or hostile to any attempt to make contact on Armstrong's part, it is entirely believable that investigations etc are happening in the background and Taylor hasn't found out entirely because she is convinced the PRT is acting in poor faith.
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Emma being able to contact Taylor over official Wards channels puts a large hole into "we are honestly investigating!" Because there would have been a no contact order, probable communication block placed by the PRT, and Armsmaster would not have used his own clearances to give Emma contact info she wouldn't have on a Ward who didn't have an official ID yet.

Rather than Emma social engineering the contact info out of Armsmaster, and sending a message over official Wards channels, using Taylor's civilian name. Given the history, I can see the Youth Guard calling that a threat against Phase by Ampere. At the minimum in should be a significant breach of operational security to use another cape's CID in official communications and communication platforms.

And the fact they shuffled Taylor out of town in haste has all the appearances of a coverup, along with all the Protectorate heroes and PRT personnel in Boston doing the equivalent of patting her on the head and going "there, there, I'm sure it couldn't have been that bad" when she does speak up about Shadow Stalker and Ampere. Just inducting her into the Boston Wards over her very vocal objections is a sign they are not taking her complaints seriously.

Ina_Meishou said:
Legal Guardians are, as you might imagine, under a legal responsibility to see to the care of their wards. The PRT agent who is Taylor's new guardian is thus legally obligated to look her bosses in the eye and tell them to fuck the hell off the second their orders stop being in Taylor's best interest. Which she hasn't, which is...criminal.
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And as far as we can tell Taylor's PRT handler/guardian only met with her once, on her orientation day, maybe. Which won't say good things if she has to admit to how little contact she had with her alleged charge in front of a judge.
 
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Ina_Meishou said:
The list of laws the PRT and Protectorate are breaking in this story is massive
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The important thing to note is that the number of laws you are breaking is irrelevant if the DA doesn't decide to prosecute.

However, even if the DA in Boston were willing to take the PRT to task, they're not breaking nearly as many laws as you think. Basically everything that you bring up -- legal responsibility for care, contract law, compelled service, etc -- have been gutted when it comes to parahumans in this AU. The general populace is scared of capes and the damage they can cause (aided in part by the media), and politicians have been able to score easy points by passing laws rapidly that ensure normal people have authority over the freaks. This has led to the unintelligible tangle that Taylor is using to her advantage, but don't think for a moment that the PRT will get in trouble for any of this.

At least, they won't get in legal trouble.
 
FirstSelector said:
The important thing to note is that the number of laws you are breaking is irrelevant if the DA doesn't decide to prosecute.

However, even if the DA in Boston were willing to take the PRT to task, they're not breaking nearly as many laws as you think. Basically everything that you bring up -- legal responsibility for care, contract law, compelled service, etc -- have been gutted when it comes to parahumans in this AU. The general populace is scared of capes and the damage they can cause (aided in part by the media), and politicians have been able to score easy points by passing laws rapidly that ensure normal people have authority over the freaks. This has led to the unintelligible tangle that Taylor is using to her advantage, but don't think for a moment that the PRT will get in trouble for any of this.

At least, they won't get in legal trouble.
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You know what that might also explain Missy's situation as well since child care and abuse laws are different for parahumans, and the fact she is with the Wards means that those laws are being upheld by the organization she loves.
Nikas_Zekeval said:
And as far as we can tell Taylor's PRT handler/guardian only met with her once, on her orientation day, maybe. Which won't say good things if she has to admit to how little contact she had with her alleged charge in front of a judge.
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Wonder if her handler is getting some shit thrown at her due to being involved even if it is only on paper, since Phase is her responsibility and currently said responsibility isn't doing what the organization wants.
 
FirstSelector said:
The important thing to note is that the number of laws you are breaking is irrelevant if the DA doesn't decide to prosecute.

However, even if the DA in Boston were willing to take the PRT to task, they're not breaking nearly as many laws as you think. Basically everything that you bring up -- legal responsibility for care, contract law, compelled service, etc -- have been gutted when it comes to parahumans in this AU. The general populace is scared of capes and the damage they can cause (aided in part by the media), and politicians have been able to score easy points by passing laws rapidly that ensure normal people have authority over the freaks. This has led to the unintelligible tangle that Taylor is using to her advantage, but don't think for a moment that the PRT will get in trouble for any of this.

At least, they won't get in legal trouble.
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So much this.

The PRT would be breaking our laws, but Earth Bet is literally not a good place to live, double if you're a cape.

Even if she leaves the Protectorate when she turns 18, Wildbow basically said that outed Parahumans get as much privacy as felons on probation.

What they're doing may not be moral, Piggot may be incompetent, and what was done to Taylor is horrific and definitely breaks some laws. But what the PRT is up to is in all likelihood not illegal in-setting.
 
Taylor is literally being an idiot teenager... who is a MINOR, and refuses to cooperate with literally anyone who is actually trying to help her. She's not at fault for it because it's distinctly a reaction to having been hurt before and thinking that people are out to get her... but the fact is she is being an IDIOT and she's literally taking out her frustration and Self imposed loneliness on everyone else around her.

Fuck it she's playing special snowflake 'My pain is greater than everyone elses' in the middle of a group of teens who have all had their turn on the Trauma conga-line.


This fic's frustratingly true to who Taylor is and all her actual faults.

And the sad part is she's unlikely to stop being such a fucking idiot until after she gets someone either hurt or killed. PRT isn't perfect, it's not great most of the time but Armstrong is literally the most empathetic director and his crew are the most stable for a set of parahumans cause he does try so fucking hard to see to their needs even when they don't fully understand what they are. His attempts at trying to force her out of her shell are a bit wrong headed but at the same time, this is a man who's been working with superpowered troubled teens for a while... and Im pretty sure he's got a good idea of where shit can head if he doesn't at least keep trying to get through to her.


The system is imperfect and at times wrongheaded and dumb... but Taylor is being JUST as much wrongheaded, and dumb in a different and ultimately self damaging way.




Nice work with how believably accurate to her personality this story is.
 
Xicree said:
Taylor is literally being an idiot teenager... who is a MINOR, and refuses to cooperate with literally anyone who is actually trying to help her. She's not at fault for it because it's distinctly a reaction to having been hurt before and thinking that people are out to get her... but the fact is she is being an IDIOT and she's literally taking out her frustration and Self imposed loneliness on everyone else around her.

Fuck it she's playing special snowflake 'My pain is greater than everyone elses' in the middle of a group of teens who have all had their turn on the Trauma conga-line.
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Except their "help" comes with becoming a good little soldier, oh, and forget any justice for what was done to her. For example when Danny comes up to Boston, and gets Taylor slamming the door in his face? His talk with Armstrong and Gauss about helping and protecting Taylor to them is inexorably tied into Taylor becoming an active Ward.

Yes anyone who has power has trauma. I think you missed the part where Taylor's trauma is being among the Wards. Wards just like the ones who drove her to the breaking point, for shits and giggles as far as Taylor can tell. Wards that are not, as far as Taylor can see being punished for that when she reported them. Instead it was Taylor that was punished, bum rushed to a new city, away from anyone she can tell and under the thumb of the same organization who's alleged oversight led to her getting powers.

Frankly their efforts amount to trying to 'help' a claustrophobe by repeatedly locking them in a small dark closet and shouting through the door to "man up already" and "get over yourself".

The allegedly empathetic Boston Branch doesn't seem to get how they became complicit in Ampere's and Shadow Stalker's crimes and Piggot's coverup by accepting Taylor over her very vocal objections. Not helped by nearly all the alleged adults being patronizing when she flat out states she got powers because two Wards tried to kill her. It was either ignored (Armstrong, Gauss) or got her basically a pat on the head and "there there girly, I'm sure it wasn't that bad" (Nebula).

The reason she breaks down and cries when the Youth Guard Rep, Jim Reed, takes her latest complaint when Emma messaged her and actually does something effective? He was the first adult in her life that believed her and took her side in two years.

Not her father. Not anyone in the Protectorate or PRT in either Brockton Bay or Boston. So yeah, while I'm not happy her deliberately going out to hero? It would have been better thematically IMHO that she fell into it. Out on a run and something goes down, and she simply can't walk away like everyone else did to her.

But considering everything suspect from an organization that only screwed her over comprehensively from all levels? And who wouldn't give a rat's ass about her if she didn't have powers now? Yeah, Kamil needs to look in the mirror and honestly answer "Are we the baddies?" with yes before he has a prayer of reaching Taylor. As long has he denies that? Taylor is right to consider anything on offer as more than a trap.
 
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