Safe For Work Worm Ideas thread

[aoirann]

This is good, and I'd like to see more of it.

Click to shrink...

I do have some ideas for it, but it's going to be rather slice of life.

 

[Painfulldarksoul]

Always good to see more skittles.

 

[Chojomeka]

Yeessss, now this is my kind of skittles.

 

[Prince Charon]

Another idea: Due to a different Trigger Event (probably earlier - I have the vague thought of Taylor and a few others getting lost and falling into a cave at Nature Camp, and/or being attacked by criminals, but not necessarily the S9), QA grants a Thinker power that makes Taylor highly charismatic, and excel at strategy, tactics, logistics, and other aspects of Administration. A litter of kittens that she's had a few weeks to train should be taken seriously as a threat, even if Taylor herself is absent, unconscious, or dead. She is still a fairly dangerous combat Thinker when alone and outnumbered (she can see any flaws in your training, organization, or actions, and exploit them), or fighting one-on-one, but this Taylor truly shines when leading a group.

(Yes, the power is adapted from one of my earlier ideas, but it actually works fine on its own, and makes sense as a power granted by Queen Administrator.)

 

[aoirann]

Author's Note: Not Beta'd properly so probably not up to snuff as much as my previous snippet. My usual Beta is moving right now. But still gone over several times. Thanks to dragonkid11 and @Blackmarsh for their efforts. And Like last time I'm going on all of our sister sites with it.


"Hey. I just realized something." Lisa's voice came from a box, slightly muffled. The wooden box was painted cardinal red with a sky blue 1 on the door on the front. And was only a 18 inches by 18 inches by 18 inches. Said box was sitting on Taylor's bed with nothing underneath it but the mattress.


"Hold that thought." Taylor said picking up another box the same color and size from a stack of two other boxes. This one had a sky blue 2 painted on it. A quick few steps and the box joined the first box on the bed. Soon the other two boxes, labeled 3 and 4, had joined the first two on the bed. Taylor then sat on the foot of her bed, crossed her legs, and placed the 1 box on her lap. She faced the box towards her face, and opened the door. Inside, the disembodied head of Lisa sat on a metal divider, looking at Taylor


"As I was saying." Lisa continued, as if being a living head in a box was a mundane situation. "You never did say how you got the ability to do all this. You had no idea what a trigger event was when I explained it." She asked, the wooden box giving a slight echo to her voice. Taylor shrugged.


"As I said, I don't really know. I mean Dad and Mom," Lisa noted happily that there was only a slight hitch to her voice when she mentioned her mother, "had taped those old TV magical specials. They found them sort of interesting and then forgot about the tapes. I found them when I was younger." Taylor then got a sheepish look on her face.


"I actually wore out the tapes and the VCR I watched them so much." Taylor blushed. "And then I talked them into getting faster internet solely so I could watch videos online." She said sheepishly, obviously embarrassed. Lisa snorted.


"You're adorable Taylor." Lisa cheekily said. Taylor blushed even more.


"Anyway," Taylor said a bit rushed. "It just kinda happened. I mean one day I was cutting…. Something. I honestly can't remember what. And the knife slipped." Lisa sucked in a breath at that. She looked down at Lisa with a smile.


"Thanks for the concern Lisa. But I was fine. More than fine." Taylor started to explain.

-------------------------------------------------


"Wha?" Was all Taylor could say. She stared at it. She blinked. She moved her hand around. But it was still there. The knife had gone completely through her hand. And yet, she felt no pain. Saw no blood.


"Shock?" Taylor asked aloud. With trepidation she touched the knife. She felt it move in the wound, but still felt no pain. She looked into where the knife stabbed her and still found no blood. On either side.


That was when, going against all medical advice, she pulled the kitchen knife out of the wound. And blinked once more.There was no wound no. Just flawless unmarked skin. She went to put the knife back in and-


"Goddamnit!" Taylor swore as she dropped the knife onto the ground. She pressed her left hand onto the right to try to stop the trickle of blood coming out of the wound. That didn't make any sense! She did it before! The only thing different was that-


"I wonder." Taylor said picking up the knife again, ignoring the cut. "I was thinking about…." Taylor trailed off. She took a deep breath, focused her thoughts and press the knife into her good hand.


She slowly opened her eye to peak.


"I did it!" Taylor exclaimed. The knife had gone perfectly through her left hand. With no pain. No blood. And no damage. Taylor wiggled her fingers. They moved perfectly. She clenched and unclenched her hand. The only hinderance in that was the knife physically blocking her from clenching. No pain or restriction.


"I'm a Magician." Taylor said with complete awe.


------------------------------------------


"So I found that the feeling I got when watching magic and magicians? That was the key to me doing magic. When I focus on that feeling I just know what I can do." Taylor said with her eyes having a slightly far off look in them.


"I take it you tried to find if there were others?" Lisa asked, blowing some hair from her face. Taylor nodded.


"Yeah. No luck. All I found were Internet trolls, a few people who thought I was really in-character on the stage magic sites, some mentally ill people, Wiccans who I inadvertently insulted," Taylor got another sheepish look on her face "And Myrddin."


"Myrddin." Lisa said flatly.


"Myrddin." Taylor confirmed. "Actually came all the way up here thinking I was just another Parahuman who needed guidance. Did you know that he can actually get glimpses of a person's power?" Taylor asked Lisa.


"No actually….. That would explain a few things." Lisa said nodding to herself. Or at least trying to.


"Yeah. Once he got here and saw that I had no powers he seemed rather put out. But when I did knife trick he was so happy. He had me do it several times on myself and eventually on him to make sure. But once he did was actually hugged me." Taylor snorted.


"And then realized that a 30 something year old man enthusiastically hugging a 13 year old girl he's not related to might be a bad idea." Taylor said. Lisa giggled at the thought.


"He told me to nurture my magical talent. He said that I shouldn't join the Wards. If only because my talent was so fragile." Taylor recalled.


"Yeah I can't imagine PR letting you cut up villains into a whole bunch of pieces. You don't want to look like the fancier version of Jack Slash." Lisa snorted


"I would put them back! Eventually!" Taylor retorted. The two of them giggled at the thought.


"Okay. Enough chit chat. I want to see how I look like this." Lisa interrupted, motioning to the other boxes with her chin.


"Right." Taylor responded. She quickly shut the door to the head box, ignoring Lisa's mild protest. She gently placed the box back down on her bed, positioning it towards the other three. Leaning over she grasped the 2 box and positioned it facing the 1 box. A little wiggling and cursing resulted in her managing to grab the 3 box. Much flailing did not result in Taylor managing to reach the 4 box.


"stupid lousy" Taylor grumbled under her breath as she had to stand up to walk over to the 4 box. She placed it to the side of the 1 box a tad bit harder than necessary. A cry of "Careful!" from the 1 box was ignored. She flipped open the doors on boxes 2-4. And then finally reopened the door to box 1.


"Really?" Lisa asked as she glanced up at Taylor with an annoyed look on her face. "Did you have to close the door?"


"A Magician should always keep her audience in suspense! Even if her audience is only her assistant!" Taylor replied. Lisa sighed. And then looked back down.


"Even after all this it still feels surreal." Lisa commented. The reason for such a statement was obvious. Sitting in front of her was her own disembodied living torso in the box. Even if Taylor hadn't told her exactly what was going to happen she would have known it was her. If only due to the slightly tight tank top that said "Magician's assistant" she bought to tease Taylor. The subtle rising and falling of her chest would convince all but the most cynical that there was a possibility that it was real. An experimental wiggle showed that she could move the fingers that sat on the metal divider. A few seconds later the hand slowly moved towards the opening. And stopped as Lisa sucked in a harsh breath.


"Ow. I got a cramp in my shoulder. Can you make the box any bigger? I can't exactly move in it." Lisa complained as her hand dropped back down to the 'floor' of the box.


"I would but anything larger would make people people think that you're just hiding in the bottom when we perform. Besides you're not supposed to move out of it." Taylor patiently explained from off to the side. Lisa only sighed and turned her attention to the other two boxes. The third box contained her legs. She glanced at the dark pair of spandex shorts she was wearing and smirked. Taylor seemed somewhat distracted when she tried them on at the store. So of course she brought them. That was when a stray thought entered into her head.


"You know you could make a lot of money allowing women to see how their outfit looks on them without a mirror." Lisa idky commented. Taylor seemed a bit taken aback at that.


"I really doubt that there are too many women who would let me cut off their head solely so to see if their ass looks big in a dress." Taylor Said. Lisa watched her own shoulders shrug.


"You'd be surprised." She responded as she looked back to the last box. At a glance she could tell they were hers as she was the only one to wear over the ankle socks. Taylor liked to wear under the ankle sports socks while her father didn't wear them at all in the house. Savages.


"Ready to be restored?" Taylor asked. Before Lisa could say yes a thought over cane her. A mischievous thought. One that brought her "vulpine grin", as Taylor described it, to her face.


"Actually. I noticed something. Come closer." Lisa said, trying to keep her voice free of anything that would betray her intentions.


"What is it?" Taylor asked, confused.


"Well I can't exactly point it out. Just come closer to the box my head's in." Lisa ordered. As Taylor came closer, it was almost painful to keep the grin off her face. Not only had Taylor gotten closer she was exactly where she wanted her to be.


"What's so impor-" Was as far as Taylor got.


*Smoooooch* Lisa had planted a perfect kiss directly on the tip of Taylor's nose.


"UH! BWAH! LISA!" Taylor screamed out of embarrassment, her face turning bright red.


"LISA!" Taylor screamed again as she tried to smack Lisa for the kiss. This only resulted in her smacking her hands against the wooden box.


"GWAH!" Taylor intelligently screamed as she ran out of the room, her face somehow even brighter.


"Oh I'm going to be stuck like this for a while." Lisa commented to herself.


"Worth it." She decided.

 

[Dakkaface]

And was only a 18 inches by 18 inches by 18 inches.

Click to shrink...

This is a super awkward description. If all sides are the same, it's a cube. The dimensions of one face are the dimensions of all faces. 'An 18-inch cube' is a much easier way to say it, even if visually measuring something that length in inches is something I don't expect out of people who aren't wargamers or carpenters. 'A cube a foot and a half across' is probably best.

 

[aoirann]

This is a super awkward description. If all sides are the same, it's a cube. The dimensions of one face are the dimensions of all faces. 'An 18-inch cube' is a much easier way to say it, even if visually measuring something that length in inches is something I don't expect out of people who aren't wargamers or carpenters. 'A cube a foot and a half across' is probably best.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I spent a lot of time working on that. Still wasn't stastified with it but I spent 20 minute on a single sentence as is.

 

[TheDivineDemon]

Huh, a SFW section. We had this? Cool. Wont feel awkward posting this here then.

Non-Taylor Gamer/Worm story.

Player V Player 1.1
Game Start
-0-0-0-0-
Theo

Breakfast, as usual, was a quiet affair. Even though his cousins had come over for a visit they remained silent on their phones, tapping away at who knows what. His father, as was his habit, sipped on his morning coffee as he reviewed the various papers in front of him. Theo himself was picking at his food with a great interest. He didn't want to look up from his plate because if he did the unwanted evidence would be staring him in the face.

The evidence that he had either gone crazy or had finally come into his superpowers. He really hoped it was the former. Because if had gotten powers then he knew what would happen.

He knew what would be expected of him.

His eyes flickered to his father at that thought. He looked back down at his eggs a second later. The words were still there, floating above his father's head in bright green letters declaring his names and title for the world to see. For him to see.

<The Emperor>
Max Anders/Kaiser (The E88)
LVL ??

Theo knew enough about, played enough, video games to know that LVL meant level and that the question marks meant that his father was too strong for him. That was something he didn't need any power to tell him. Though he felt an unwanted ping of jealousy as he remembered his cousins' own titles.

<The Emperor's Guard>
Nessa Biermann/Menja (The E88)
LVL 43

<The Emperor's Guard>
Jessica Biermann/Fenja (The E88)
LVL 43

It bothered him, more than he would ever care to admit, was that his own title had nothing to do with his family's. What type of a title was <The Gamer>? Was his power taking a dig at itself? At him?

What was a gamer to royalty?

"Theo, stop clinking your silverware on the plate. It's distracting" His father didn't even look up from his papers when he said this but his tone was clear.

Theo put his fork down.

"Good. Now, how has school been? Did you catch up with your friends after winter break?" He sounded like he was curious, he even sounded like he cared. He didn't. Even if he didn't know his father he knew it was a lie, he knew the signs. The man's posture all but screamed what he really thought and he didn't even bother hiding it.

A bright blue box suddenly appeared, both startling him and blocking his vision.

Congratulations! You have created your first skill!

Cold Read (Passive/Active): Lvl 1 EXP: 19%
The human body can tell a story just as well as the mouth and it can tell no lies in front of your eyes

• Ability to detect lies increase by 3% Passively, 6% Actively
• Ability to detect mental state increased by 3% Passively, 6% Actively
• Ability to ascertain and piece together information about a person increased by 3% Passively, 6% Actively

'What in the world' he had to wonder, blankly staring at the words in front of him. What was this thing before him and why was it worded so strangely?

"Theo." His father was paying attention to him now, undivided as his eyes locked on him. That was never a good thing.

"Things have been fine." He said stiffly, sounding as polite as he could manage. He flinched again as another the sound binged once more and another screen appeared.

Calm Surface: LVL 1 Exp: 22%
Like a river, your surface is calm and unbroken despite the rapids underneath. Hopefully, the trickle down effect will calm your insides as well.

• Ability to stay calm under pressure increased by 5%

He carried on as if the blue box never appeared, "Midterm grades should be back in by Friday." His father hummed but that was all Theo could tell, the blue boxes were still in his way, still blocking his sight. Though if he went a little cross-eyed he found he could see through them. See through them and see his father studying him.

His father hummed, clearly disappointed over something. "If I remember correctly post break is usually when clubs start looking for new members again. Did any of them catch your eye?"

A few, "No sir." But none enough that he'd want to deal with the pressure that came with it. Not only would his father expect him to start taking over the group but he'd have to interact with other kids. He really wished he was better at that.

"I can't say I'm not disappointed." Theo waited for the other foot to drop, "But I also can't let this go on any longer. You're wasting your time playing games all day when you could be spending it doing something productive."

There was a pause, he was supposed to speak here. "Like what sir?" It was almost like reading a script.

"Like, for example, working at Medhall part-time. There are a number of internship positions available. It would give you an opportunity to see how the family business works from the inside." Which family business? The largest medical company in the Northeast? Or the largest gang of white supremacists in the country?

Both were just as likely.

"I'll be sure to apply."

"See that you do. This company will be yours someday." He didn't miss the look his cousins shared. Yeah, he had his doubts about that too. "Now finish your food. The driver will be here for you soon."

-0-0-0-0-
Emma

-Hey u hr yet-

The text was sent with a nervous and impatient energy, her eyes tracking towards the bathroom door hoping her friend would arrive soon. That morning had been a rollercoaster of emotions for her. Going from confused to excited to disappointed to excited all over again in the span of a few minutes. She NEEDED to share the news with someone, someone who would understand and be just as excited as her.

That person just needed to hurry up and get there.

She had all but started pacing when her phone gave off a distinctive ring. Eagerly she pressed in her password and read the message.

-Bus jst got hr. Where r u?-

-Second flr b rm-

-K BRT-

Sophia wasn't the first to get there, instead, a girl named Amanda Granger did. She was a little slip of a thing that she barely recalled, a friend of a friend that she wouldn't even remember the name of if it weren't for recent events. Still, she had to go.

Emma blocked her path, "Occupied, find another bathroom." The other girl opened her mouth as if she was really just about to argue with her. A raised eyebrow was enough to get her to shut up and take a step back.

Since Taylor's incident at the beginning of the semester, people have been more than a little antsy around her. It was irritating but it had its uses. Like when you wanted a bathroom to yourself.

"I'll just hold it."

"You do that."

As the girl turned to leave a bright blue screen popped up in front of Emma's face.

Intimidation (Active): LVL 1 EXP: 34%
Through body language, reputation and sly words you inspire fear. Use it to scare away lesser foes or to squeeze information from the weak.

• Increase fear and unease in a Target by 2%

'Tell me something I don't know power' Emma thought a bit snidely, feeling insulted that her skill only earned a 2%. She still didn't understand what all the numbers meant but she had clue. The higher they were the better they were and she deserved more than a 2.

The door opened a second time and Emma had to smile as a dark skinned girl entered the room. Her eyes automatically tracking to the words that were floating above her head.

<The Huntress>
Sophia Hess/Shadow Stalker (The Wards)
LVL 28

Her friend had the highest number out of anyone she had seen so far! Her dad only had a 12 next to his name and the highest after that had been the gym teacher at 18. But Sophia had blown them both clear out of the water. And there Emma was with a lousy 3 next to her name.

It must have been because Sophia was a hero. She'd get there soon.

"Okay Ems, I'm here. What's the big rush?" Emma's grin just got all the larger at the question but she didn't verbally answer. Instead, she grabbed the little swiss army knife from her pocket, freshly nicked from her family's junk drawer, and stabbed herself in the hand.

The level of your Physical Endurance has increased!

Sophia's reaction was almost hilarious.

"Emma! What the hell!" she screamed, grabbing at her hand in a sweet gesture to get the blade out of her. But she paused, leaning in to examine what she was seeing. "There's no blood. There should be blood."

Emma just kept smiling even as she pulled the blade out, showing her friend the blood free blade. "Not when you got powers."

Sophia's grip on her hand got even tighter, "Emma, what happened?"

"Nothing."

"Emma, what, happened." Sophia kept her gaze firmly on Emma's eyes. Was that worry there. "You don't just get powers over nothing. Something bad has to happen."

"Sophia," Emma snatched her hand away, "Nothing bad happened. I just woke up and, boom, powers."

"... That makes no sense. Did you have a nightmare or something?"

Emma could only shrug, feeling disappointed her big reveal wasn't getting the type of attention she wanted. "No clue. If I had one I don't remember it."

The other girl seemed to think this over, "Well, if Glory Girl can get powers from getting fouled I guess you can get one from a nightmare. So what can you do?"

Emma's smile returned. That was the type of attention she wanted! "Well, I haven't gotten it all figured out yet but…"

AN:
It's a bit rough but a decent enough start. This idea started when I randomly thought something about Gamer fics and games in general, thinking how much more fun a game was when you played against/with someone else. Not that these two would realize it at first.

Both are going to have very different playthroughs of what is essentially the same game and when they meet it's going to be interesting to see how they react.

Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?

Forgot to mention. No ID create or Gamer Mind here.

 

[marsolino]

I am considering writing a SI cyoa with a jailbroken Dauntless. Instead of charging objects the MC will be able to charge only himself with a charge every 24h. It would be slow getting results, but once you get going you keep getting stronger and stronger, after two years you can be as strong as the Triumvirate

 

[Valor]

I am considering writing a SI cyoa with a jailbroken Dauntless. Instead of charging objects the MC will be able to charge only himself with a charge every 24h. It would be slow getting results, but once you get going you keep getting stronger and stronger, after two years you can be as strong as the Triumvirate

Click to shrink...

Actually, Dauntless had four things he constantly charged. Boots, spear, armor and shield. If he charged those for around 3 years or so, he'd be near-Triumvirate strength. He had been around for some time when Leviathan killed him, after all. So if you pop up with a jailbroken shard of Dauntless' power, if your character focus on one thing only, he'd become a beast a lot quicker.

 

[ShadowStepper1300]

Actually, Dauntless had four things he constantly charged. Boots, spear, armor and shield. If he charged those for around 3 years or so, he'd be near-Triumvirate strength. He had been around for some time when Leviathan killed him, after all. So if you pop up with a jailbroken shard of Dauntless' power, if your character focus on one thing only, he'd become a beast a lot quicker.

Click to shrink...

I ran some numbers on Dauntless. He gets some visible effects when he hits 20 charges and a Triumvirate-level power upon hitting 20*20 (400) charges. By WoG, Dauntless rotates evenly between his objects. We also know that he would have become Triumvirate-tier by Golden Morning and that his armor wasn't visibly charged by the Leviathan fight on May 15, 2011 (meaning February 24, 2011 was the earliest he could have because begun charging it). If we make the following assumptions:

• That his average charge time is 24 hours (WoG is that it ranges between 20 and 30)
• That his boots, his spear, and his shield would all reach the 400th charge on or just before June 24, 2013
• That he began charging his armor on or around March 1, 2011

In that case, he would have triggered in early June of 2009.

 

[Prince Charon]

Due to TanaNari pointing to a section of Amelia, I did a little rereading and found something I said that I should have posted in the Ideas threads, but probably didn't:

I'm sort of imagining this wedding being described (by a precognitive troll) to the original Vicky. Something like: "A couple of years after your death fighting Crawler, an abomination partially created by Bonesaw and known to the world as Victoria Dallon will attend the wedding of two more such abominations who are supposed to be Skitter and your sister. The only one who really sees them for what they are is Tattletale, whom your abomination torments."

Click to shrink...

Of course, just telling her that would probably change how she behaves, especially if it's before the bank job when she has no idea who Skitter is (let's assume that in that case, the precog will tell her it's a name the Wards might give to 'the girl who controls bugs'), and has no opinion on Tattletale beyond 'Who?' or 'eh, she's a villain.' That would also change how Tt behaves, because she's going to know something is up with Vickie right away. How much else the precog trolls her with is also a factor, like whether he/she tells Vickie that the PRT betraying the Undersiders was a contributing factor in Vickie's fate.

Of course, there are other possible futures (fanfics) that a precog could use to troll someone with, including canon.

 

[Prince Charon]

Let's say that Labyrinth triggers with a slightly different power than canon: She's a Blaster (Trump), able to grant a temporary, faster acting, and usually less controllable version of her canon power to one or more people within line of sight. She also retains the ability to 'anchor' people, rendering her allies immune to the worlds created by the victims of her power. If more than one person has been hit by her power in an area, their zones will merge and interact strangely. If someone is hit by her power several times (with some time to recover in-between), they will begin learning to control the effects, so she could get some advantage by using it on her allies. Unlike her canon self, this version of Elle isn't particularly nuts, because her power doesn't affect her. Someone being subjected to her Labyrinth blasts for too long without a break would find their sanity slipping, though.

So, this Elle (who may or may not be called Labyrinth, though it's still a valid name) is probably never in the Parahuman Asylum, and doesn't meet Burnscar there (though since Faultline's Crew were not there for Elle, they might still attack, and Mimi might still escape). She may or may not still end up in Brockton Bay (the wiki doesn't say where she's from), but if she does, it would be fairly surprising if she still joined Faultline's Crew. Possible, but odd. Her joining the Wards or the Undersiders could be interesting (imagine her power interacting with Vista's).

 

[Prince Charon]

Army of Dorkness: Greg Veder triggers with the powers of Multiple Man, and goes out to try to be a hero. Sadly, he's still clueless, and more importantly, all his bodies are equally wimpy.

 

[Snake/Eater]

Army of Dorkness: Greg Veder triggers with the powers of Multiple Man, and goes out to try to be a hero. Sadly, he's still clueless, and more importantly, all his bodies are equally wimpy.

Click to shrink...

Is his Cape name.... dare I say it?

Canon Fodder

 

[lilo]

Just posted a lewd quest in NSFW Questing and Roleplay, Earth Tet Adventures.

The skinny of it: A young man bound for the Birdcage for his own safety is instead hurled into a parallel universe alongside two notorious villains, where he must take advantage of this second chance to start a new life.

This is my first quest - my first story, really - so suggestions and participation would be 100% appreciated!

 

[Prince Charon]

Kind of odd power swap thought: If Missy triggered with something pretty close to Taylor's canon power, and Taylor with something pretty close to Missy's, but around the same times as in canon (so Taylor triggers in early January, 2011, and Missy some time in 2008), how do they each handle it? Given how young Missy was when she triggered ('just shy of eleven,' according to her wiki page), and given that it happened in canon, I can see her still ending up in the Wards, but Taylor is another matter: her power here would be rather more effective with a group, but OTOH, she does seem to be more creative in general than Vista (though that could at least partly be the PRT making her softball her abilities), and Vista's power is fairly munchkinable (and Taylor is still Taylor).

Of course, powers do tend to affect personalities, and some of Taylor's actions leading up to canon were certainly influenced by the specific power she had (or aspects of it, like multitasking). For that matter, of Missy is in the Wards for a couple of years before Taylor triggers, she may have a different attitude to them... or not, since they might well make Missy call herself something like 'Princess Butterfly,' and stick to the 'pretty' bugs when in public. Missy being Missy, that would not go over well.

 

[OrchidMantis]

Apologies if this idea has already been done; I couldn't think of a good search term for it, and I don't have time to read through 51 pages of posts just to check. Anyway, I just got to Imp's interlude in the audiobook last night, and was struck by just how few small changes in canon it would have taken for the Undersiders to curb-stomp the Slaughterhouse Nine even faster and harder than Hope and friends (with a little under-the-table assistance from Contessa) did in Hope Comes to Brockton Bay.

First, somewhere along the line the Undersiders would have to have gotten hold of a sampling of Bakuda's ordnance. There are a few places in the story where that could have happened -- if the fight with Bakuda in Arc 4 had gone a little better for them, if they'd run across a stash of her stuff during the gang war in Arc 5, if they'd raided the arsenal as well as the databanks during their incursion into the PRT HQ in Arc 10, or if they'd managed to ally with the heroes and convince Miss Militia that they had a Stranger who could make effective use of the stuff against Crawler and/or Siberian (that last one's a stretch, but not impossible to sell in-story). Second, Imp would need to borrow the Bakuda grenades before going looking for the Nine.

So then we get a scenario where Imp strolls into the Nine's apartment, sticks a few Bakuda bombs (including crystallization and time-stopper, both of which are plausible Crawler-killers) under the couch where Burnscar and Shatterbird are sitting, and detonates them by remote control from the building lobby. Burnscar, Shatterbird, Bonesaw, and Crawler get turned into glass statues and frozen in time without ever knowing what hit them. On the way out, Aisha runs into Jack and Cherish, so she plants another bomb in the stairwell. Cherish goes into the mailroom to hide the dead detectives, so only Jack enters the stairwell and gets hit by the bomb effect (maybe a copy of the vibration bomb that liquefied Park Jihoo).

Cherish will still want to strike a deal, since she's afraid of being hunted down by the Siberian and/or Mannequin. With all the other members of the Nine in the building dead, she can just go with Imp to meet the other Undersiders, avoiding Bonesaw's wolf trap on the way out of the neighborhood.

With no Burnscar to drop in and take over his testing round, Mannequin then gets crunched by Grue with a sixty-pound chunk of rubble at the end of Snare 13.3. It might take a few hits, but his chest armor had already been cracked by Sirius chewing on it, so he probably wouldn't last long once Brian started pounding on him. That leaves only Siberian. Cherish will tell the Undersiders much sooner than in canon about her Achilles heel and point them in the right direction, because she expects Siberian to track her down and eat her alive if someone doesn't take out Manton first. With all six Undersiders and four Travelers hunting him, Manton probably doesn't stand a chance; Ballistic can nail him from a rooftop before he knows they're there, or Imp can stick a limpet mine on his truck (Coil could probably come up with one from his arsenal, or rig one up), or Grue and Sundancer can hide her sun under his darkness in a side alley and hit him with it as he drives by, or Trickster can swap him with a dummy that's just been thrown off the roof of a ten-story building -- between them, they have a lot of options for instantly lethal surprise attacks.

Amy might be a bit more amenable to accepting aid and hospitality from the Undersiders if they manage to save her from the Siberian before she loses any fingers, and wipe out the rest of the Nine into the bargain. (If Cherish is being really helpful, which she might in exchange for protection from her family, she could subtly tone down Amy's guilt and self-loathing while Taylor is talking to her, slowly enough that it feels natural. Cherie could have been the world's most successful psychotherapist if only she hadn't been so twisted by her upbringing. She'd also be motivated to get Amy cooperating with the group, because Amy's power could fix what she did to herself to pass Mannequin's test and alter her appearance to the point that she'd have a chance of evading both her brothers and people looking to carry out the kill order on her head.)

Dinah gave Coil a 9.5% chance of solving the Travelers' problem after Leviathan attacked, and he notes that it had been seven points higher prior to the Endbringer's arrival. I suspect that the possible futures in which Noelle was cured were the ones where the Undersiders succeeded in recruiting Amy, and the seven-point drop came from her antagonistic interaction with Skitter in the hospital after the fight. Even if Amy's power isn't the cure for Noelle, it might be able to alleviate the side-effects of Dinah's power, allowing her more leeway to use it without the crippling headaches. Then they might be able to have Dinah zero in on a possible future in which Noelle was cured and explain how it happens.

Getting Amy on their side also gives Taylor and Lisa options for beating Coil that his power can't defeat -- insect-borne bioweapons tailored just for him, with a long enough incubation period that they can be sure he's not running a timeline where he wasn't infected before they strike. He uses his power frequently enough that, if you can remember infecting him two days ago, you can be certain he's really infected in both his current timelines; if he'd been running an alternate timeline back then where you didn't infect him, and kept that one, you wouldn't have a memory of succeeding. Basically the way TanaNari had them take him down in Amelia, though it wouldn't have to be guinea worms; Amy could make something that would send him into a three-day coma, from which he then wakes up in PRT custody in both his timelines. If he wakes up at all -- as slippery as his power makes him, once the PRT finds out what it does, who he is, and what he did to Dinah, they might just issue a kill order and summarily execute him before he has the chance to attempt an escape.

So what does the government do when the "villain" group that just exterminated the Slaughterhouse Nine (and collected millions of dollars in bounties on them, most of which probably aren't conditional on the legal status of the person carrying out the kill order), then for an encore delivered Coil in chains to the PRT (revealing, to their consternation, that he was a traitor in their ranks) and brought Dinah Alcott home to her parents (freshly cured of her opiate addiction by Amy) says, "You know, we'd really rather be good guys if it's all the same to you; any chance of a pardon?" Probably in more formal terms than that, delivered via Quinn Calle or another high-priced lawyer. Between the bounties on the Nine and Lisa taking control of all Coil's legitimate business operations, they could pay back the money they stole in the bank job, cover the repairs to the building, and settle any lawsuits from people who got hurt during the robbery or the raid on the fundraiser out of petty cash.

 

[aoirann]

Apologies if this idea has already been done; I couldn't think of a good search term for it, and I don't have time to read through 51 pages of posts just to check. Anyway, I just got to Imp's interlude in the audiobook last night, and was struck by just how few small changes in canon it would have taken for the Undersiders to curb-stomp the Slaughterhouse Nine even faster and harder than Hope and friends (with a little under-the-table assistance from Contessa) did in Hope Comes to Brockton Bay.

First, somewhere along the line the Undersiders would have to have gotten hold of a sampling of Bakuda's ordnance. There are a few places in the story where that could have happened -- if the fight with Bakuda in Arc 4 had gone a little better for them, if they'd run across a stash of her stuff during the gang war in Arc 5, if they'd raided the arsenal as well as the databanks during their incursion into the PRT HQ in Arc 10, or if they'd managed to ally with the heroes and convince Miss Militia that they had a Stranger who could make effective use of the stuff against Crawler and/or Siberian (that last one's a stretch, but not impossible to sell in-story). Second, Imp would need to borrow the Bakuda grenades before going looking for the Nine.

So then we get a scenario where Imp strolls into the Nine's apartment, sticks a few Bakuda bombs (including crystallization and time-stopper, both of which are plausible Crawler-killers) under the couch where Burnscar and Shatterbird are sitting, and detonates them by remote control from the building lobby. Burnscar, Shatterbird, Bonesaw, and Crawler get turned into glass statues and frozen in time without ever knowing what hit them. On the way out, Aisha runs into Jack and Cherish, so she plants another bomb in the stairwell. Cherish goes into the mailroom to hide the dead detectives, so only Jack enters the stairwell and gets hit by the bomb effect (maybe a copy of the vibration bomb that liquefied Park Jihoo).

Cherish will still want to strike a deal, since she's afraid of being hunted down by the Siberian and/or Mannequin. With all the other members of the Nine in the building dead, she can just go with Imp to meet the other Undersiders, avoiding Bonesaw's wolf trap on the way out of the neighborhood.

With no Burnscar to drop in and take over his testing round, Mannequin then gets crunched by Grue with a sixty-pound chunk of rubble at the end of Snare 13.3. It might take a few hits, but his chest armor had already been cracked by Sirius chewing on it, so he probably wouldn't last long once Brian started pounding on him. That leaves only Siberian. Cherish will tell the Undersiders much sooner than in canon about her Achilles heel and point them in the right direction, because she expects Siberian to track her down and eat her alive if someone doesn't take out Manton first. With all six Undersiders and four Travelers hunting him, Manton probably doesn't stand a chance; Ballistic can nail him from a rooftop before he knows they're there, or Imp can stick a limpet mine on his truck (Coil could probably come up with one from his arsenal, or rig one up), or Grue and Sundancer can hide her sun under his darkness in a side alley and hit him with it as he drives by, or Trickster can swap him with a dummy that's just been thrown off the roof of a ten-story building -- between them, they have a lot of options for instantly lethal surprise attacks.

Amy might be a bit more amenable to accepting aid and hospitality from the Undersiders if they manage to save her from the Siberian before she loses any fingers, and wipe out the rest of the Nine into the bargain. (If Cherish is being really helpful, which she might in exchange for protection from her family, she could subtly tone down Amy's guilt and self-loathing while Taylor is talking to her, slowly enough that it feels natural. Cherie could have been the world's most successful psychotherapist if only she hadn't been so twisted by her upbringing. She'd also be motivated to get Amy cooperating with the group, because Amy's power could fix what she did to herself to pass Mannequin's test and alter her appearance to the point that she'd have a chance of evading both her brothers and people looking to carry out the kill order on her head.)

Dinah gave Coil a 9.5% chance of solving the Travelers' problem after Leviathan attacked, and he notes that it had been seven points higher prior to the Endbringer's arrival. I suspect that the possible futures in which Noelle was cured were the ones where the Undersiders succeeded in recruiting Amy, and the seven-point drop came from her antagonistic interaction with Skitter in the hospital after the fight. Even if Amy's power isn't the cure for Noelle, it might be able to alleviate the side-effects of Dinah's power, allowing her more leeway to use it without the crippling headaches. Then they might be able to have Dinah zero in on a possible future in which Noelle was cured and explain how it happens.

Getting Amy on their side also gives Taylor and Lisa options for beating Coil that his power can't defeat -- insect-borne bioweapons tailored just for him, with a long enough incubation period that they can be sure he's not running a timeline where he wasn't infected before they strike. He uses his power frequently enough that, if you can remember infecting him two days ago, you can be certain he's really infected in both his current timelines; if he'd been running an alternate timeline back then where you didn't infect him, and kept that one, you wouldn't have a memory of succeeding. Basically the way TanaNari had them take him down in Amelia, though it wouldn't have to be guinea worms; Amy could make something that would send him into a three-day coma, from which he then wakes up in PRT custody in both his timelines. If he wakes up at all -- as slippery as his power makes him, once the PRT finds out what it does, who he is, and what he did to Dinah, they might just issue a kill order and summarily execute him before he has the chance to attempt an escape.

So what does the government do when the "villain" group that just exterminated the Slaughterhouse Nine (and collected millions of dollars in bounties on them, most of which probably aren't conditional on the legal status of the person carrying out the kill order), then for an encore delivered Coil in chains to the PRT (revealing, to their consternation, that he was a traitor in their ranks) and brought Dinah Alcott home to her parents (freshly cured of her opiate addiction by Amy) says, "You know, we'd really rather be good guys if it's all the same to you; any chance of a pardon?" Probably in more formal terms than that, delivered via Quinn Calle or another high-priced lawyer. Between the bounties on the Nine and Lisa taking control of all Coil's legitimate business operations, they could pay back the money they stole in the bank job, cover the repairs to the building, and settle any lawsuits from people who got hurt during the robbery or the raid on the fundraiser out of petty cash.

Click to shrink...

You should probably share that on the SB worm idea thread. It'll get a lot more traffic than here. The SFW fiction and idea threads are pretty dead around here.

 

[macdjord]

Cherish goes into the mailroom to hide the dead detectives, so only Jack enters the stairwell and gets hit by the bomb effect (maybe a copy of the vibration bomb that liquefied Park Jihoo).

Click to shrink...

Problem: Jack would not get caught like that. His Communication power would warn him to get out of the way as soon as Imp decided to plant the bomb.

 

[Metallix666]

Problem: Jack would not get caught like that. His Communication power would warn him to get out of the way as soon as Imp decided to plant the bomb.

Click to shrink...

eh, it's arguable just how much influence his shard has. it's certainly subtle enough that Jacks not aware his power has that ability and I dont know if it was ever shown to trump Imps power.

It really comes down to 'what the author wants' I think.

 

[Prince Charon]

Shortly after Sarah Livesy arrives in Brockton Bay and starts calling herself 'Lisa', possibly even before she's on Coil's radar, she witnesses a girl being bullied outside a mall. As the bullies leave, the girl turns to stare at a building, and the Inference Engine tells its host that she's trying to work out if the building is tall enough to kill her instantly if she jumped off the roof, or if she'd suffer more, first. Lisa immediately decides to cheer the girl up, and they become friends.

It should not surprise the reader that the girl's name is Taylor Hebert.

Some time thereafter, Lisa disappears, having been kidnapped by Coil, and having decided to protect Taylor by cutting ties, without telling her anything that could make her depressed again.

Taylor, of course, isn't going to just accept her new best friend just mysteriously vanishing like that. Unfortunately, the police don't care about the disappearance of some random homeless girl, and somebody could be doing horrible things to Lisa RIGHT NOW and Taylor needs to sa-

DESTINATION

AGREEMENT

TRAJECTORY

AGREEMENT

-ve her.

... and now she can.

Not sure what power Taylor gets from this, but something Tinker-related should be possible. Whatever it is, it should be something she can munchkin into really scary crazy-awesome stuff.

Click to shrink...

Recently got a Like on this, and had an idea for this Taylor's power: Surveillance (and/or Drone) Tinker plus multitasking Thinker. It sounds like something pretty close to her canon power, but the results really don't need to be all that close.

 

[Prince Charon]

A small but potentially significant change: During the Bank Job, Amy isn't present. Maybe she arrives earlier, and is gone by the time it starts, maybe she gets there after it's over, maybe her plans were different and she didn't need to get money that day at all. She's not there. As a result, Vickie isn't there either, and the Wards arrive later, and only three or four of them, as Tattletale predicted (though Browbeat might be one of them, which would throw her off a little).

This also means that Amy doesn't get traumatized, and Vickie doesn't get her mortality shoved in her face, nor get hints that Amy has secrets even from her. Likewise, fewer of the Wards get traumatized, and the Undersiders don't get quite as much of a reputation boost, since they were the ones with greater numbers, here. Without Vickie, the Wards get in less trouble, since they aren't getting collectively punished for Dean being unable to prevent Glory Girl from playing Collateral Damage Barbie (which honestly isn't his job, and shouldn't be). Also, if Kid Win isn't there, he doesn't get in trouble for deploying the unauthorized and untested Alternator Cannon without permission - and thus can get in trouble for deploying it without permission later on, like when Lung escapes.

 

[Radek]

It´s a start at least, and could be worth reading. But you also hit an intersting point: how is Glory Girl supposed to convince the near full Wards roster to come running after her? Maybe those at Arcadia with her, and even that´s something of a strecth. Sophia was nowhere to be seen when that mess went down, and Missy would need to first be alerted via phone call and then make her excuses. We also have no idea what school Browbeat attends and how he got there.

 

[gigshare]

Prompt: Taylor triggers with the power to become completely unnoticeable(unknown to her it also works with shards) but as a side effect it gives her a major case of kleptomania, not wanting to become a villain she decides to sate her thieving needs by stealing hats from tourists. Meanwhile Contessa is investigating the disappearance of her beloved fedora.

 

[Fishyface]

Prompt: Taylor triggers with the power to become completely unnoticeable(unknown to her it also works with shards) but as a side effect it gives her a major case of kleptomania, not wanting to become a villain she decides to sate her thieving needs by stealing hats from tourists. Meanwhile Contessa is investigating the disappearance of her beloved fedora.

Click to shrink...

Once the tourists wise up and stop wearing hats she'll have to find something new to steal.

 

[Metallix666]

She's really not thinking clearly.

She could just start stealing important things from the gangs.

My understanding of kleptomania is that they are compelled to take things, but don't nessacerly have to keep them. As such, she could just take from the gangs and give to the police/prt.

 

[Thread Necromancer]

Edit: Added some punctuation and cleaned up some of the sentences.​

A Light in the Darkness​

I wake up with a gasp, my arms coming up as if to shield me from… something. Looking around I can see nothing but darkness. It is almost a void. Yet I can feel the ground underneath me. Where am I? Some sort of dark room? Maybe I can find a wall or something so that I can find the light switch. Standing up I begin to shuffle around, looking for a wall, hand ahead of me as to keep from hitting anything in front of me. Yet as I keep moving I can't feel anything around me. I keep walking for a few minutes yet don't seem to be getting anywhere. Was I in one of those boarded up warehouses by the docks? Most of them aren't that big that after a few minutes of walking I wouldn't hit a wall. Then again I was shuffling rather than walking so that could slow me down. Plus I haven't hit anything yet so it should be clear.

I take my first step and it goes farther than I thought. Panicking I try to reign myself back from the ledge but it is too late. I keep myself from falling face first as I fall over. I shriek as I fall from the ledge. Very suddenly I collide with the ground from my relatively short fall. I had had barely a second to begin shriek out before landing hard. Getting up I groan before gently rubbing my sore backside. It would seem that taking steps forward willy nilly was a rather big no no here. Back to shuffling along hoping to find out about hazards, hopefully before they become detrimental to my health.

Not long after the fall I begin to hear things in the darkness. At first it starts as a ringing in my ear. The kind that people hear from an old tube TV. I do my best to ignore the ringing yet as I walk it seems to increase and begin to shift from being just a ringing in my ear. It starts to become something more. Almost like music. Standing still for a moment I listen hard making no movement that could shift my clothing and making noise. Off in the distance… I can hear some sort of music. Perhaps someone is here?

Or could it be a cape? Maybe this whole thing is just the cause of some cape messing with me? Or could this be a dream? Though the pain back there felt real. Weren't people supposed to wake up from dreams when they were supposed to feel pain? Or maybe I was transported to some sort of limbo. Wasn't there a darkness villain in Brockton bay? Grue or something like that? Maybe he has been creating darkness everywhere and I have just been walking down the street. Actually that begs the question. What had I been doing before I had ended up here? If I had been asleep then I wouldn't have been able to move around like this. Unless his darkness also altered space. Though if it was like that wouldn't he be better than being just some c list villain that I actually could remember who or what he has done?

Off in the distance I see a light begin to shine. It is a light blue and is almost a singular point of light in the distance, like a star. Perhaps I was getting close to the music and this is where is was coming from. New hope fills me as I began to speed up towards the light and the music. Slowly, ever so slowly the light begins to get closer. No longer was it just the smallest dot that existed in this dark expanse but it was beginning to get closer that I could start to see something below it. Something almost like a tiny pedestal to hold its tiny light. I keep moving towards it yet the music in the distance does not increase but rather keeps to a steady barely perceivable string of notes. Maybe this was some sort of marker or something to help guide me out? I near the light passing large shadowed objects. The light is smaller than I expect. Just a tiny pinprick.

Suddenly there is a flash and I am blinded by the light. I try to open my eyes but it hurts to even look in the same direction as it. Looking away I open my eyes and for once I don't just see darkness. Instead, I see a car. Dad's car. But something is wrong. It is all bent and beaten up and on its side. The side that is right side up is crumpled in and around I can see bits and pieces have broken off and are in different positions all around in the air. Off to the right I see a truck with a crumpled front end and pieces of it also suspended in the air, just like with Dad's vehicle. It couldn't be anything other than a car crash. Though why is this here? Was this some sort of reflection of the outside, or some vision of the future?

"What is this?" I ask aloud, not truly looking for a response. What could the meaning of this be? Did Dad get into a car crash? But how? He barely has moved since Mom died. He has just been drinking and eating what little we can get into him. I can't lose Dad, not like Mom. I can't I just can't. Emma has turned against me, Mom is dead, I just can't lose Dad too!

Then something catches my eye. Emerging from the crumpled window is a small hand. It's too small and dainty to be one of Dads hands. Was that me in there? Was I crushed by the truck that collided with us? The bright shine of the light on the pedestal begins to dim as the few shadows that I could see on the scene grow longer and before the edges of the shadows begin to encroach slowly. They swallow up the scene back into its darkness. I turn to look at the light now. While still bright it is no longer the retina scorching sun from before. Now I can make out a figure by the light. The pedestal that I thought the light was on is actually a hand. A purple hand with long delicate looking fingers held the light just above it's palm. Following the path of the arm it lead to a creature far too alien to be just a normal human. It towers above me gazing down with black reflective eyes that seem like soulless pits. Its face had more in common with a squid or octopus than it did with a mammals. Tentacles formed a sort of beard thought I hesitate to say that it. This hesitance stems from how rather than giving off the impression of a wise old man, it creates a more sinister appearance for the being. The suit that the creature wears might have been sharp once yet it is ragged and torn. Along the suit there are rips and holes, stains ranging from a sickening yellow to foreboding red splotches.

This monstrous inhuman thing must be the cause of this, it has to be. Whether it was a cape or some eldritch horror from beyond space and time it was the only living being here. It lured me to it with song alluding to a happier place than this dark shadow realm. Then with light, like an angler fish, promising me salvation from the darkness but rather bringing me to my demise. For what else could this creature want other than to obtain its next meal. It slowly takes menacing steps forward towards me. Slowly it lifts it's hand into a pointed index finger. As I take steps back from the creature's approaching form I note that the music, far off in the distance, has stopped.

What could I do? Run? What good would that do me? I can't see in here and like before when I tried to do more than just shuffle I would just trip and this thing would catch me. I could try fighting, it didn't look that impressive. Despite its towering height it could be just skin and bones underneath. After all how much prey could be found here? Then again many capes didn't look that strong and yet they could bend steel, collapse buildings, and be hit with trucks yet make it out alright where any normal human would be crushed. I don't know what this parahuman can do. Maybe my best option is to run.

Yet the decision is taken from me as while taking steps back my foot catches on some debris. I find myself falling backwards as I flail my arms to try and grab onto something, anything, to rectify this fatal error. Yet my flailing result in nothing as I feel my head impact onto something behind me. My arms reach to my head to cover the wound and possibly protect myself from further injury. My eyes are closed for less than a second yet when I open them the squid headed monster has bent down over me. Its finger fully extended reaching out giving me no time to react.

Tap

The moment that the finger of the creature taps my head it recoils as the light wavers in its open palm. It is once more standing tall, gazing down at me with it's dark pits. Then as if some one had flicked a switch the light in its hand vanished and darkness envelopes me. I begin to hear the far off tune once more…

 

[Prince Charon]

Spooky.

 

[Radek]

I can´t make heads or tails of what I´m reading. Taylor meets a... thing of some kind, sees - or thinks she sees - the demise of her only remaining family, then something else happens. On its own this is unhelpful.