Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

[hellgodsrus]

You don't say. Teenagers being irrational morons ? That can't possibly be. /sarcasm

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Ah, my Humpty Dumpty problem strikes again. I'll clarify.

What I meant by irrational was 'I cannot derive the thought chain behind some of their actions'. Even if the thought chain is erroneous, or mistaken, or unbelievably fucked up, I'd still call that rational, as it's explicable. Teenagers are easily capable of explicable thought chains.

To give a canon example of a decision I disagree with, but think is 'rational': Jack Slash the murderhobo. He was trapped in a cellar by his dad, told his whole formative years were a lie, and was adopted by King who's modus operandi seems to be 'I punch things very hard'. Given this it's clear that he'd regard deception and trickery as a sign of power, and murdering people as a sign of power. Ergo, murderhobo. I mean, he's wrong. But I can see why he thought that way.

 

[Divabot]

Woulda been too small. I considered it, along with her reading a journal she'd written about her 'lost week' while getting info from others... but it would have been pure recap of no value, and a really short chapter. Easier to imply that she found out offscreen and was disgusted by it (see the Lisa intervention, when Amelia mentions Grue, and the wave of emotions off of Taylor), even if she didn't know all the details.

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FWIW, it wasn't clear to me either whether Taylor2 was fully up to date on what Taylor1 had done in the lost week, and I'd been waiting for it to come up in story.

 

[Deltawaves1]

Just reread an omake indicating the desperate need for adult supervision, makes me wonder where Sarah and danny are.

 

[TanaNari]

Fair enough. I guess I can do a chapter on it. I had her agree to finding out the "operational" details in her resurrection chapter.

I did show that Taylor had her lunch with Danny (and Amelia showed up toward the end of it), and that she was pissed and upset at Grue... but I can do a full chapter on this if you guys like. I just feel it'd be a boring chapter full of things the readers already knew, especially as they'd avoid telling her the really messy stuff... and thus not much of a chapter.

 

[Jiven]

I don't really feel this potential chapter is needed, and I argued for an explicative chapter on Coil way back at the beginning to the story.

 

[Nigel Burnelli Isaacs]

Same here I think it is clear enough as is

 

[TanaNari]

Eh, I think I'm doing it anyway... not just to clarify that, but now I really *DO* need a summary and cleanup chapter before the next Endbringer occurs (spoiler alert: next major event revolves around that). There's going to be a fair number of time skips... much as there was in canon... in the near future.

Or I'll use bits of it as filler for if the 'cooldown' chapter doesn't have enough material. Won't kill me to have another 'Taylor' chapter, one way or another.

 

[Faraway-R]

It saddens me that the little girl who mutilated her way across the country is getting a birthday party, but the girl who second-triggered over her friend's death has gotten nothing but abuse and death-threats.

Really, Lisa is just the buttmonkey of this story.

That said, Riley has been on a long redemption path, and it seems that despite slipbacks like with Dream, she's doing a good job of acting like a decent human being. Having easy test subjects from her big sister has to play a big part in that, of course.

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Timeline-wise, Riley still gets precedence on grounds of having a much longer period of really shitty life. Six years non-stop. Lisa had a much shorter one.

She still needs nice things. Problem is, it's kinda hard to find something she'll really appreciate.

Oh, and for hardline shippers, sadly shipping her with another asexual isn't going to solve the fundamental issue so much as sidestep it somewhat. She'd still be getting unwanted infodumps.

Makes one wonder if the only way Lisa can get laid in the story - is if Riley gives her a supply of parahuman-depowering drug.

 

[rooster]

I know I'm pretty stupid, but I've reread the chapter numer 174, and I honestly haven't found what got TanaNari tempbanned.

It flew over my head whatever that was. Can someone point it out to me please? Was it the implication that Riley will play surgery with Dream Girl? I'm pretty sure gory things have been posted on SpaceBattles in the past and were allowed.

I read TanaNari's post that it was Zach's line, but nope, can't see anything wrong there either.

 

[TanaNari]

I know I'm pretty stupid, but I've reread the chapter numer 174, and I honestly haven't found what got TanaNari tempbanned.

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It was Zach's line in 156 that did it.

This one:

"I guess that's fair," I relented. "Promise me that you're serious, though. I mean right after. The rest of us take care of dropping off the captives and looking good for the press. Meanwhile, you and Amelia will run off to that grotto she made and be elbow deep in each others' pants."

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Yeah. THAT is how they justify it.

 

[Alterego9]

There's going to be a fair number of time skips... much as there was in canon... in the near future.

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ConcernWorryDread

The time skips weren't exactly the finest idea of Worm either, I hope you can do better than that.

Preferably by skipping times that are supposed to be familiar and generic to the reader, rather than putting characters into a new alien situation, and then jumping forward a year to see it's long term results.

 

[Sheaman3773]

Yeah. THAT is how they justify it.

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They said that line just earned you some infraction points, and it was because you earned so many infraction points already that it tripped the automatic process of a 1-day temp-ban. Not that the comment was worth the temp-ban all on its own.

 

[daimahou]

Lisa is asexual? That's news to me.


In canon she has the drive but can't act on it because of her power.

 

[TanaNari]

They said that line just earned you some infraction points, and it was because you earned so many infraction points already that it tripped the automatic process of a 1-day temp-ban. Not that the comment was worth the temp-ban all on its own.

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"So many" is kind of a misnomer since I only had two, and both of them were for in-character smartass comments that got me 50 points a pop.

Either way, don't bring the drama here. I left because that was bullshit. Let them have the drama. Let me have my place to write.

 

[Alterego9]

Lisa is asexual? That's news to me.

In canon she has the drive but can't act on it because of her power.

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She never mentioned having the drive in canon. Probably she couldn't tell the difference herself, if even just thinking about sex is bringing squicky feelings for years, then eventually classical conditioning would take hold and you just associate sex with squick.

Presumably she is asexual in the same way as Amelia is gay: she may or may not have been born that way, but she was under power effects long enough that by now it's part of her on an instinctive level in either case.

 

[rooster]

Yeah. THAT is how they justify it.

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The sad part is that innuendo is a pretty mild thing. At 12 I was properly educated about functions of life and I did wayyyy worse things with friends at recess. And I mean games called "the fuck train". It's weird but some kids tend to do that. Especially when they want to feel grown up and use curse words, and all curse words in my native polish language are derivatives of 'whore', 'fuck' and 'cunt', and the adults tend to not watch themselves around kids at all.

Talk about values dissonance.

 

[HorizonRunner]

The sad part is that innuendo is a pretty mild thing. At 12 I was properly educated about functions of life and I did wayyyy worse things with friends at recess. And I mean games called "the fuck train". It's weird but some kids tend to do that. Especially when they want to feel grown up and use curse words, and all curse words in my native polish language are derivatives of 'whore', 'fuck' and 'cunt', and the adults tend to not watch themselves around kids at all.

Talk about values dissonance.

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I'm going to regret this... but...

The Fuck Train?

 

[rooster]

It was a game designed by elementary graders mind you.

It was essentially what is called in english the conga line, but we also made pretend sex noises.

The hilarious thing is that nobody realised how homosexual that game was at the time.

 

[TanaNari]

Preferably by skipping times that are supposed to be familiar and generic to the reader, rather than putting characters into a new alien situation, and then jumping forward a year to see it's long term results.

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Yeah, no, I KNOW better than to do that.

It hurt Worm. Badly.

It *destroyed* Young Justice.

And it's generally proven to never be a good idea in fiction unless you're specifically building the whole narrative around that specific concept.

Time skips are to be done between stories, not in the middle of them.

Plus I'll be skipping by a few weeks to a few months or so at a time, not two years.

The Fuck Train?

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Sure, why not? My story already has a literal fuckball of nopes as part of the narrative.

The hilarious thing is that nobody realised how homosexual that game was at the time.

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To be fair, I'm pretty sure no one did when they were in gradeschool.

 

[Alterego9]

Plus I'll be skipping by a few weeks to a few months or so at a time, not two years.

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Yeah, that's much better. I can't recall ever enjoying a time skip longer than a year that was put into put into a character driven story.

They inevitably come with this feeling of the reader losing the grip on the protagonists' identity, with a sense of "you can't go home again" style nostalgic regret. Which might be a valid literary theme, but not what most of these stories were going for.

 

[The Shadowmind]

Is Lisa wants to be hetero/homo/bi/pan/whatever/Cage/spaceworm/ sexual she could easily get Amelia or Riley to change it. The question is would she want to?
Hasn't Bonesaw already created a temporary power suppressant? If her power squicks her out, then having an hour long version of the suppressant along with a counter agent would deal with the short-term part of that issue.

 

[dasstan]

Is Lisa wants to be hetero/homo/bi/pan/whatever/Cage/spaceworm/ sexual she could easily get Amelia or Riley to change it. The question is would she want to?
Hasn't Bonesaw already created a temporary power suppressant? If her power squicks her out, then having an hour long version of the suppressant along with a counter agent would deal with the short-term part of that issue.

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I think a big issue is that there's nothing stopping her power from working off what she remembers of the event, so either way, the girl is going to get a buttload (hurrdurr!) of TMI.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 178- Taylor


"That was a nice thing you did for Riley," I said to Emma. It still bothered me, talking to her. Remembering our first few years of our life together. Then remembering the last few. Still, I had to admit she'd done everything possible to help the team. To help me. And I did promise her to at least try to be friends again.


"Thanks," she responded. "She deserved it, after everything she's done for the team."


I frowned. Riley was not what I would call my favorite person. For all she tried to make up for everything, she was still Bonesaw. She still vivisected Brian, which at least partially led to... to everything he'd done to his captives. I read the mission summary: parahuman batteries, deliberate Crawler based mutations. Over a dozen confirmed homocides.


Emma realized her mistake quickly enough. She always did know how to read me, I reminded myself. "Sorry, sometimes it's really easy to forget. Or hard to remember that she's the one who did... everything else she's done."


"I know," I replied. It really, really was.


"It is kinda... I don't know... encouraging?" Emma continued. "If someone like her can find forgiveness, and even friends and happiness. Do something good with her life. That means there's hope for almost everyone, doesn't it?"


"Maybe," I offered. I wasn't sure I believed it, but the idea was comforting.


....


AmusementWorry. "Jeez, Taylor, you weren't half this nervous when we were waiting for the Endbringer," Amelia teased.


"Endbringers are easy," I defended myself. "See it, and either run from it or do everything you can to kill it. Either you succeed or you fail, then end. This, on the other hand... I'm about to meet my future mother and father and sister in laws..."


"You're assuming I'm still going to accept your proposal," Amelia teased.


"MY proposal," I mock-scoffed. "You're the one who keeps checking out my backside. And my rack, now that I have one. Still don't know if I should thank Emma for that, or punch her in the face a third time."


"I could always fix that for you," Amelia pointed out. "Speaking of, I've yet to see you in that bikini."


"Oh, as if it would fit now," I countered.


AmusementDesire. "That is a selling point, actually" she replied in a rather sultry voice. I blushed.


"And then there's everyone else at this get together," I pointed out to her. "I get to meet my future aunt-in-law slash potential future step mother and future cousin-in-law slash teammate slash potential step sister. I still don't know how to process that."


"Crystal said she's pretty sure Sarah's never gonna get remarried," Amelia informed me. I shrugged. I didn't think dad would ever remarry, either.


"So, yeah, no matter how you look at this," I continued. "Definitely harder to handle than Enbringers. With them, the rules are simple- you win or they kill you." ConcernDismay. "Err... sorry, I keep forgetting that I, uh..." I didn't know what to say. Or at least, not how to say it. I died, I reminded myself again. Or she died and I'm the backup. It wasn't a thing either of us wanted to talk about. Easier for us to ignore that it happened.


She hugged me from behind, and I pushed back against her. "It's okay," she insisted, pushing her feelings into the link. "I love you." My heart jumped. NervousConcern. "Taylor? Are you okay? I shouldn't have said that, should I?"


"No!" I replied, turning to face her. "No. It was just a bit of a shock. I mean, I already knew. The link and all. It's just the first time you've actually said it." ApprehensionWorry. I blinked. Oh. "It... it's not, is it?" I asked.


"No, it's not," she reluctantly admitted.


I pulled her tight against me. "Well, that's fine," I told her. "In case you had any doubts, I love you, too."


"I know", she agreed. I thought about repeating the sexuality alteration... but, no. It didn't go well last time, and I didn't want to bring it up. My own notes left for me by my other self didn't say much on the subject, simply that it was 'a bad plan, don't do it'. That part of my life was quite literally over, and it was best simply to allow it to stay that way. I am happy like this.


....


Amelia and I arrived at the restaurant, driven by my dad.


"Thanks, Danny," Amelia said as we arrived.


"Not a problem, girls," my father said cheerfully. He had dressed in an actual suit for this. At some point, someone had decided to make this a particularly fancy get together, complete with getting a private room at a high end restaurant. The kind of place that we'd probably have to sign up on a waiting list for, normally. Luckily, we didn't have that problem. I preferred to imagine it had more to do with the owner being a long term friend of Carol's than anything else.


The greeter was all smiles, and led us to our section.


Carol and Vicky were already here, as well as Sarah and Crystal. Vicky gave me a rather unhappy look. Amelia glanced between us and simply sighed. AnnoyanceDismay. I put my hand on the small of her back and gave a slight rub. Despite the sheer irrationality of it, on any number of levels, I was still jealous of Victoria. She had looks on her side, and she was Amelia's first crush. It didn't help that she was flat out hostile toward me, not that I could fault her for it. What I did to her was pretty unforgivable.


Danny followed in behind us, and glanced across the room. "Hello, Carol," he said with a practiced neutrality that he'd been forced to use an awful lot of late, having to deal with the Mayor and other political types. He often complained that he spent more time talking to those assholes than his own people, these days.


"Good to see you again, Danny," she offered a winning smile. Amy's family has absurdly good genes, I decided for not the first time. "I'm afraid I probably made a poor impression the last time we spoke."


"It's fine," he answered. "I know what it's like to be in a difficult place."


"Hopefully I'll do better this time around," she offered.


Sarah was visibly relieved, as she walked forward to wrap her arm around Dad's. This wasn't the first time I'd seen them together, but it was the first time during an 'official' date. ConcernComfort, Amelia transmitted to me. I smiled, just letting myself be happy that Dad was happy.


"So, this is the famous and elusive Taylor," a man spoke cheerfully from behind me.


I knew he was coming, of course, and made the guess that it was Mark. I turned toward him. "Mister Dallon, I presume?"


"Please, don't call me that," he smiled broadly. "Makes me feel old. Besides, you're engaged to my daughter. You can call me Mark, or even Dad, whichever you prefer."


I don't know who was made least comfortable by that suggestion, but it probably wasn't me. ShockEmbarrassmentConcern. "I'll keep that in mind, Mark," I said after a moment. If Amelia's Dad noticed any of our discomfort, he pretended not to, instead opting to give Amelia a hug and then make his way over to Victoria. The rest of us simply looked at each other awkwardly.


....


The meal went well enough, and fortunately or no it was Mark that made things both more and less awkward. More by encouraging all of us to be more familiar with each other than most of us were willing to be, and less by at least breaking the ice. Eventually, it got the adults sharing stories about how the city 'use to be', back when the other half of us were in grade school. They made it sound a lot nicer than I believed possible.


This allowed Crystal and Victoria to talk with each other about their lives. Meanwhile, Amelia and I got to eat quietly, being the wallflowers that we naturally preferred to be. Sure, we were stronger now, and with the benefits of our bond to give us confidence, we could handle the spotlight. But we didn't like it the way most of the others in this room did. We chose to let the others have their fun.


'Taylor?' Lisa's voice spoke into her armor. 'Sorry to interrupt. Grue was broken out of containment, along with a handful of other captives.'


'Anything that we can do about it now?' I asked. Dammit, I thought. I knew that even, especially, those who are destined for the Birdcage needed a trial... but it left way too many chances for the criminal to escape. You're going to have a kill order next time we find you, aren't you Brian? I didn't know if I could handle killing someone I loved, once. Or thought I loved, at least. It was a childish crush with someone who wouldn't have been interested to begin with. Like Amelia and Victoria, I added. That made me feel a little better.


'Afraid not,' she answered. 'I'll probably go there tomorrow to help investigate some. We don't know that it was even Brian they were after, but he's one of the escapees.'


"Taylor?" Amelia asked. "Is something wrong?" I noted that the others had noticed that I'd gotten tense.


'Do you think he'll come back here?" I asked Lisa.


"Uh, sorta," I replied. "Work related, but nothing we have to worry about right now. Better to just not let it ruin dinner."


'Probably not,' Lisa answered. 'He has a specific vendetta against those he holds responsible for Aisha's death. We didn't cause that. Calvert might still be a target, but I highly doubt he'll try that again any time soon.'


'Understood,' I transmitted. Dammit, Brian. At least I already ate most of my food, because my appetite was ruined for the night.


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

A/N- Because , that's why. I did go out of my way to make it more clear about what Taylor would know from her lost week.

... And, yes, the next chapter is the start of the next Endbringer arc.

 

[evildice]

Hasn't Bonesaw already created a temporary power suppressant? If her power squicks her out, then having an hour long version of the suppressant along with a counter agent would deal with the short-term part of that issue.

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"This blue pill is like viagra for Thinkers!"

"Riley you are not allowed to know words like viagra."

 

[tEN]

Por que no los dos?

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Porque entonces el püca vengará la muerte injusta.

Personas adorables mullidas deben ser aliados.

 

[Cyclone]

AnnoyanceDismay.

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Italics missing.

 

[Slayer Anderson]

It's times like this that Emma almost resembles a human being, instead of, y'know, someone who's mentality is fucked up enough that she could say she triggered and most people who know anything about trigger events would believe her.

 

[rooster]

There's a point where the dislike for Emma crosses the line twice. Sure she deserves the dislike for how she used to be, but how much can you grovel to someone begging for forgiveness before you give up?

I've had both resolutions happen to me actually. In middle school I got in a fight with a guy and I was pretty upset about it so he sent me an email with apology. I told him to fuck off and he told me to fuck off right back. At least it turned out he was insincere.

Then in high school a guy fought with a lot, daily even, happened to be at the place I was playing basketball with my friend. Turns out my nemesis played basketball a lot. Like almost profesionally a lot. We ended up playing with him, the fact that I hated his fucking guts went unsaid, and eventually, out of freaking nowhere he apologized for giving me a hard time.
I actually expected him to not remember that he did that. I accepted his apology and now we're friends on facebook. Years of being my enemy, then one apology and now I don't mind being around the guy anymore.

The point I'm trying to make is that Bonesaw getting somewhat/kind of friends, and Emma getting none is blowing my mind. Emma is repeatedly showing remorse, in words if nothing else, but people's reaction to this is that "wow, sometimes I forget that you're not a person". Because she bullied someone. Fuck logic.

 

[Slayer Anderson]

*Heart-touching story snipped*

The point I'm trying to make is that Bonesaw getting somewhat/kind of friends, and Emma getting none is blowing my mind. Emma is repeatedly showing remorse, in words if nothing else, but people's reaction to this is that "wow, sometimes I forget that you're not a person". Because she bullied someone. Fuck logic.

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To be honest, my earlier post was *mostly* intended as a joke and critical reflection on the points you've just raised.

You'll notice that TanaNari's have Taylor react pretty much the same way towards Riley as towards Emma; ie, with lot of caution and suspicion about their motives and sincerity. However, because Riley is cute and huggable (and has a canonical heel-face-turn), many people will cut her slack at the first sign of remorse.

Emma, on the other hand, although her crimes are much less severe in scope and breadth, they're also of a more personal nature, inflicted on a character that we've spent many chapters sympathizing with. So, despite the fact that Emma is just a stupid teenager with a warped worldview and Riley is a nightmare that eldritch horrors cry themselves to sleep over, we focus on Emma.

There's also the fact that the human brain is more able to grasp tragedy on a smaller scale; that is, "one is a tragedy, a million is a statistic." I think that very much applies here.

Edit:

Also, that bit where Emma and Trevor are talking at the party last chapter has given me cause to hope that Emma will have a legitimate friend, if not a boyfriend fairly soon.

 

[GorgonEyed]

So, despite the fact that Emma is just a stupid teenager with a warped worldview and Riley is a nightmare that eldritch horrors cry themselves to sleep over, we focus on Emma.

There's also the fact that the human brain is more able to grasp tragedy on a smaller scale; that is, "one is a tragedy, a million is a statistic." I think that very much applies here.

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While I agree that Riley has more to answer for (potentially an insurmountable amount), she is also a minor with a warped worldview. Her worldview warping not only started at an earlier age but was also more severe than anything Emma ever went through. This doesn't excuse her actions, but it does dredge up additional sympathy. Combined with the tragedy/statistic disconnect, this can lead to some strange reactions, as you've noted.