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Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Reader mode
They way I see it Riley is only slightly responsible for her actions as Bonesaw. She was little more than Jack's hand-puppet from the day she triggered and most of what she did was under the instinct to do whatever it took to keep herself alive, which meant doing things that kept Jack amused and happy with her.

Emma consciously and knowingly chose to do what she did with the only reason being that it made her feel better. Yeah Sophia had a hand in it but far far less than the hold Jack had over Bonesaw.

They're both recovering but it's easier to forgive the abstract 'she did horrible things and once did horrible stuff to us directly' than the 'she actively tortured our best friend and leader for over a year and forced her to trigger in an act that Jack Slash would have given a B+ for creativity'. It also doesn't hurt that the entire group would be dead several times over if not for Riley's direct actions while Emma has a more background role in their success's thus far.
 
dasstan said:
I thought Emma and Dennis had a long distance 'I'll wait for you' sort of thing going on?
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What I got out of it was Emma telling Dennis that they should see other people, not insomuch as word-for-word, but it definitely had that 'let's just be friends' vibe to it.

Especially when he was like, 'join the Wards. I'm in the Wards. We can be in the Wards together,' and Emma was like, 'No thanks, I'd rather be on a team where everyone hates my guts than be in the Wards with you.'

Granted, not actually what she *said,* but that's probably what Dennis *heard.*
 
It's easy to forgive Riley, she was six years old when Jack Slash got his hands on her, there is no possible way anything she did with the SH9 could be held against her, either morally or legally.

She was twisted into a monster by an evil bastard, we can't really blame her for anything, not anymore than we blame Child Soldiers who are taken from their homes and force-fed drugs and propaganda in central Africa.

We might need to kill her, just like some Child Soldiers might need to be killed, in defence of others, but we still shouldn't blame her.

We should blame the people who twisted her.

I'm with Amelia on this one, Jack's death was way too quick and clean.
 
The line, "Who's a cute little abomination of nature. Yes you are." left me laughing so long that by the time I finished I fell in love with Riley. The girl is an apocalypse waiting to happen, and she lacks the morality to stop herself from becoming just that. She's just become so lovable that I ignore it.

Emma is truly repentant. She really is trying to make up for what she did. She is truly the lesser evil, but I have a more difficult forgiving her transgressions.

I guess it's just like with guys IRL, you'll tolerate more from a pretty girl with a great rack then you will from an ugly chick. That's just human nature.
 
Yeah, Riley should get some reprieve over her following orders/child soldier circumstances. Jack's careful maneuvering of her perspective made her believe not only that he was family, but also that he was invulnerable; that nothing she could do could possibly harm him. Even mutually assured destruction was (supposedly) off the table. Add to that the fact his passenger would tell him if she was even considering harming him under the cover of a surgical operation, and she had no chance.
This, I think, is grounds enough to keep her alive and out of prison. But we've seen that she hasn't quite shaken off her habits; Amelia's rules and supervision are what's keeping her to acceptable behaviour. For as long as that is the case, at least until she has recovered enough to self-regulate, other people can't be blamed for treating her cautiously or flinching in her presence. How long will this take?
Good question.

It's interesting to note the different sources of the character development that let Bonesaw turn back into Riley, here and in canon. Canon's Contessa intervention gave Riley the ability to see Jack for the monster he was, but she still didn't have the will to fight him. She had him completely at her mercy while he was in his stasis tube; not even his shard could have saved him in that situation. But she still let him live, and further enabled him to go on his little spree with the SH9000.
Unless Jack somehow comes back, we'll never know if Amelia's method was any better. Spooky, no?
 
Hmmm... how to say this...

Contessa's influence still had to be filtered through Riley's brain. Contessa never once told her that Jack shouldn't die. "Breadth and Depth," "Say goodbye," and "You'll build an override into the SH9000 for me" was the gist of it. From that, Riley came to the realization that she was fundamentally broken inside, that Jack was responsible, and that she was helping him set up to do the same to thousands more.

Again.

It says something about her mental state that she let him wake up at all, Path to Victory or no. That she was willing to perform plastic surgery on herself to hide her lesser betrayals from him, but do it without anesthesia because she wanted to punish herself for continuing to help him.

Edit: She lacked the perspective to try and take him down before this, but that chat with Contessa was a straight shot of perspective. Eh. I'm having trouble articulating the difference I'm seeing here; I'll come back if I think of a better wording.

Edit 2: Lets try this: If Riley isn't responsible for her actions while under Jack's influence, and you consider Contessa to be similarly disruptive to volition, then Riley isn't responsible for her redemption either and shouldn't be credited for it. This is a huge can of worms.
 
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Nice snip, I liked how all was handled from the way of making the reader know what and how Taylor knows what happenned to her previous iteration to the interactions with the families which were nice, we got to see the no longer depresed Flashbang as well as the effect of Victoria's out of her time state.

About Brian escaping it is not really that surprising given what he has through Crawler and the skills he pilfered from Victor and others, but I must say I am surprised that it does not worry people more than it does,especially given he wasn't alone in his escape which given his abilities might make him more of a problem than he already was.

About Emma: I think one of the key thing when talking about her is considering what she did, she turned against the person who was her best and only friend in the whole world without any kind of explanation and used all the things that friend told her during their friendship to torment her.
 
TanaNari said:
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."
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TanaNari said:
I pulled her tight against me. "Well, that's fine," I told her. "In case you had any doubts, I love you, too."
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Its freezing outside, but all I can feel is warm and fuzzy.

TanaNari said:
"Hello, Carol," he said with a practiced neutrality that he'd practiced an awful lot of late
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TanaNari said:
If Amelia's Dad noticed any of our discomfort, he pretended not to notice,
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These two lines caught my attention. Kind of awkwardly phrased.

Other than that the chapter looked good. I'm curious if Brian was the target of the breakout or if this really is just incredibly bad luck. Know Tana I give it 50/50 odds.
 
Amelia, Ch 179
  • Threadmarks
    • Amelia, Ch 179


    "By the way," Crystal said as she walked in. "Mom says thank you for the armor. And I say go to hell, I had to spend all freakin' yesterday teaching her how to use the equipment. You're not planning to recruit her, are you?"


    "Not really," I responded. "All we really did was give her one of your hand-me-downs. Do you think she'd accept if we offered her a spot on the team?"


    "Probably," Crystal responded. "I don't think she'd last long. Basement Bonesaws... I know I'm almost nineteen and could just move in here, but she'd still find a way to ground me for the rest of my life. Then there's all the other horrible stuff we do. If she found out the Nilbog plan, we-"


    Our phones' emergency alert went off simultaneously. Crystal, in her armor already, could read it through that interface before I could get to mine. She only had one word to say. "Endbringer."


    "A month early?" I asked. FearConfusionDetermination.


    "That or Dragon's tech is broken," Crystal defended.


    I had gotten up already and was running to my room. I needed my armor. Taylor had hers at home. I held still as the biosuit worked its way over my body, sealing itself. I'd need my second layer, of course, but I was now wearing the indispensable systems, at least.


    I didn't bother with stairs, simply forcing the floor of my bedroom to open, so I could drop into the next layer. "Everything important ready?" I asked Emma as I levitated down. Of course I knew not everything was ready. The early attack screwed up our plans.


    "Everything essential," Emma answered. "A lot of the Raptors are underdeveloped right now. They'll do what Taylor needs them to do, but they won't be as good. We also have to leave a lot of the new zerglings behind." Of course, since she and I were both suited, Taylor would hear every word we spoke.


    "Fuck," I muttered. "Will it be enough?" I found my Dryad, now upgraded with tinker tech to get a 'v3' tacked on. Still wasn't as good as any of the other named suits, but it was designed specifically with me in mind.


    "Twice the numbers we had last time," Emma informed. "Half of what we wanted. At least all the new armor systems are fully operational?" she offered.


    "That'll do," I replied.


    Riley rushed in, wearing her own set of bioarmor. Wasn't even close to the same capability as the rest of our, but it was meant for sensory tech and medical function, not a combat model. Clarice v16 was her combat model. Both designs were Emma's present to Riley, a joint project between her and Defiant. "The school knows," she announced. "I'm going to use Clarice fourteen to shunt everyone over. Faster that way, I can fix her later."


    Part of the standard protocol for Endbringer battles is that all schools were canceled during attacks, nationwide. It was good policy, for Wards to be able to participate, and also fairly redundant, since what were the possible odds that anyone would do anything productive anyway? I slipped into the pilot position of my armor. It wasn't a match for most of the other suits, but it was still my suit.


    "Got the newsfeeds," Taylor informed us over the communications. "Mexico City. Recent parahuman civil war seems to be the lure." One of the many, I thought darkly. "No prediction on which."


    "Makes sense," Crystal spoke. "After what happened in New Delhi, they probably don't trust the prediction software. "


    "I'm not so certain," Lisa replied.


    Riley, meanwhile, had rushed over to the armor storage bays, and had shunted over Singularity and the other armor systems for Zach and Theo, as well as her combat variant of Clarice. Then she climbed into my Dryad, into the compartment that was actually built for her this time.


    Most of our members had assembled on the other side of our personal world already. The zerg armies had assembled, pulling themselves out of their burrowed hibernation. Many were older models- we had functionally infinite raw material, so there was no need to recycle anything unless it was a failure to begin with.


    Taylor was the last one to arrive physically, looking splendid in her armor. Missy didn't ask, and we watched as space folded and bent before us. Not for the first time, I wished we had a way to shunt things without the hassle of containment fields. We could draw Endbringers here and kill them on our terms.


    Missy didn't wait for permission, she simply stepped forward. Her own power, plus all the tech in her suit, let her pinpoint exactly where we needed to go without outside help. Space bent and twisted itself to her whims, creating a distortion of light. The formation was so vast that electricity danced around the corners due to the stresses the air was being pushed through. Relatively minor, our sensors didn't even register it as a threat. Not that it mattered, the Gargants went through first, collecting as much power as they could and clearing the energy.


    We walked through, followed by the zergling armies.


    Chariot pulled out a device and planted it in the mass of Yggdrasil. Several teleports later, using the tech that Kid Win originally created, the area had its own control platform. We had learned our lesson from last time. If at all possible, we would stay on this side of the dimensional barrier. Riley sent over Clarice with our Shadowcats, for search and rescue.


    We were there ahead of schedule, if only by a few minutes. It was all locals. Zerg started shunting through, taking their positions. Capes were startled at first, but our reputations proceeded us, making it possible to warn them. Lisa's changeling shunted over to their control center. Taylor's shunted in with the flyers. Zach shunted in his brand new suicide-bomber Raptor. Supposedly, it was the most destructive weapon ever made by human hands. Our tinkers were stationed in the portable control system.


    The scenery around us flickered and shifted, providing the ghostly impression of a city abandoned by normal men. Only parahumans, and our biomonsters, existed here. It was illusory, a visual illusion created for our benefit, that we could see what was happening on Bet from the comfort and safety of our alternate dimension. The rest of us, waited and watched.


    "Behemoth, probably," Rey spoke to Emma. She probably asked about the Endbringer, I decided. "Way too far from the shore to be Leviathan."


    "I'll bet you money it's not Behemoth," Lisa responded.


    "What makes you think Leviathan would come here?" Rey asked.


    "I don't," Lisa answered. "I think we're about to see a fourth Endbringer." ApprehensionRealization. "Taylor, fan the Zerg out to as many locations as possible. I've started issuing commands to the locals to avoid engaging the Endbringer. When this fight starts, we're going to be relying upon you alone. Force the new Endbringer to show as many of its tricks as possible before committing actual people to the battle."


    CertaintyAnticipation. "I can do that," she agreed.


    A sonic boom announced the first Dragon battle suit arriving. Others, the bulkier and slower ones, would arrive eventually. Many carrying parahuman reinforcements. None would be in time to coordinate with the local. The Endbringer picked that moment to arrive. It came from nowhere, without warning or fanfare, one moment there was nothing and the next it stood in the midst of the defensive line.


    It was only about twelve feet tall, significantly shorter than the nearest Gargant. It was, however, the biggest Endbringer in total mass, as it was a quadruped. The beast was black, not merely a dark color, but a total absence of light. It was impossible to determine features, but it could have been a wolf, in the same way Behemoth was a parody of a body builder, and Simurgh a parody of a woman. Nine long, almost swordlike spines extended from its back and shoulders. Three tails extended from it, each possessing a nasty, scythelike blade at the end.


    A gargant slammed into its size, taking heavy damage as it impaled itself on a shoulder spike. The new Endbringer's scythe-tales wrapped around the gargant and flensed it, peeling flesh and external armor plating from Taylor's weapon. FocusDeterminationAnger.


    "Well, we know it has a nasty close range weapon. All the others have had something that let them hurt outside a close range kill radius, what should we expect from this one?"


    "Whatever features it has, it's likely to be safe from the weapons we used to destroy the Simurgh," Lisa spoke as we watched the holographic representation of the clash. Wow, that looks incredibly lifelike, I thought to myself.


    "What makes you think that?" Rey asked.


    "Because it's what I would do," she replied.

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

    A/N- *Looks at the likes in the most recent chapters.

    *Looks at the likes in the older chapters.

    You jerks are holding out on me.
     
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    • TanaNari said:
    yesterday teaching he
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    Isn't there a letter missing here ?

    Now there are are a bunch of interesting tidbits here(aside from the timeskip)first is Emma working alongside Defiant to make something for Riley, not only does this show Emma cares about Riley but it also shows defiant's willingness to work closely with the Pantheon Tinkers but also means that he might have learned a few thigs from Emma's tinkering and might have integrated said things into his gear plus there is Dragon too with whom Defiant must have shared his insights leading to her having more and this may well have ushered quite a bit of nifty tech.

    It is also interesting to see that Lady Photon got her own gear which must be a variant from her daughter's given the similarity in their abilities, I wonder what the differences between the two are.

    Also on tech I am curious to see what Riley cooked up in that time, speaking of Riley I wonder how she is feeling after the timeskip, same goes for Zach and Theo and did Zach get coopted by Victoria, I also hope things got a bit better for Lisa.

    Now the interesting thing is that there is a new(original at that)endbringer even when good ol' Ziz is not really dead and accotrding to Lisa it is immune to the Moira canon, I wonder what it's abilities are and how it will be called.
     
    Tananari sorry about not spamming your alert tab with likes for the old chapters, I'll try to correct that oversite this upcoming weekend ;p

    anyways... Nope I guess this post is just going to be asskissing, when I'm not so damned tired from "stuff" I'll sit down and give you some actual constructive feedback
     
    AyiosKat said:
    Well sorry for not reading 179 chapters of Amelia again. ;)
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    I thought the same, and then went... 'actually, I know I'll be re-reading it again at some point, so I'll like them then.'
    So you can expect another 150+ likes from me over the course of a couple of days sometime in the future Tananari :D

    Oh, and you should also know - this story is what made me come over to QQ (this is my first post on the forum).
     
    TanaNari said:
    "That or Dragon's tech is broken," Crystal defended.
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    I always envisioned the Endbringer prediction system as a network of sensitive sensors that picked up water currents or minor earthquakes, which combined with a prediction program based of past attack locations, gave Dragon the likely target. Do you have a different idea on how it works, or just that Pantheon is expecting a fakeout like in New Delhi?

    TanaNari said:
    "Got the newsfeeds," Taylor informed us over the communications. "New Mexico. Recent parahuman civil war seems to be the lure." One of the many, I thought darkly. "No prediction on which."
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    Is this supposed to be just Mexico? Because they seem very calm about a cape civil war breaking out in American territory.
     
    So a new Endbringer, what are we going to call this bugger, assuming it lives long enough to deserve a name that is :p
     
    Fenris?
    Typhon?
    Nidhogg is another possibility.

    Guess we just need to see what other abilities it might have.
     
    TanaNari said:
    Amelia, Ch 179


    "Probably," Crystal responded. "I don't think she'd last long. Basement Bonesaws... I know I'm almost nineteen and could just move in here, but she'd still find a way to ground me for the rest of my life. Then there's all the other horrible stuff we do. If she found out the Nilbog plan, we-"
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    ...

    They're going to recruit him, aren't they? God damn it, just...

    *Lowers face into hands.*

    *Softly weeps.*

    Three-Tailed Death Pig.
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    Well, that's different.

    So... completely black (absorbing all light somehow?) three scythe-tails... I got nothing. I'd say some kind of dynakinetic, but that's Behemoth's gig, and the scythes would be redundant. Something more specific?

    I guess... I'm happy about this? It's not like it can be worse than Khonsu... right?

    ...It's gonna be worse than Khonsu, isn't it?
     
    HorizonRunner said:
    ...

    They're going to recruit him, aren't they? God damn it, just...

    *Lowers face into hands.*

    *Softly weeps.*



    Well, that's different.

    So... completely black (absorbing all light somehow?) three scythe-tails... I got nothing. I'd say some kind of dynakinetic, but that's Behemoth's gig, and the scythes would be redundant. Something more specific?

    I guess... I'm happy about this? It's not like it can be worse than Khonsu... right?

    ...It's gonna be worse than Khonsu, isn't it?
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    Ehh they could be fighting Serious Tohu. So it's not the worst case situation but yeah they're probably in deep shit.
     
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