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Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Reader mode
TanaNari said:
"Yeah, I get it," Vicky responded. I was saved from speculating just how much she did or didn't get, and what she might figure out if we kept talking about it, when she looked up over my head. "About time you got here."
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Alright. Crystal is too easy. She already denied inviting Chevy, which means him showing up anyway is on the table but unlikely. Did Vicky invite someone to hook up with Carol? No, she seemed a bit... adverse to the idea previously. Did she invite Lisa and Becky under the guise of being Taylor's sisters?






Probably just Crystal
 
Coruscant Knave said:
Alright. Crystal is too easy. She already denied inviting Chevy, which means him showing up anyway is on the table but unlikely. Did Vicky invite someone to hook up with Carol? No, she seemed a bit... adverse to the idea previously. Did she invite Lisa and Becky under the guise of being Taylor's sisters?
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At the risk of encouraging TanaNari, I'll venture "that's just what he wants you to think," and agree with the invisi-text that it's probably just Crystal.

Probably.
 
cosoco said:
Did Riley do something to Mark besides what happened in canon? I recall that she threatened to kill him unless Amy healed him, but was there something else?
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She didn't threaten to kill him, she all but lobotomized him

Bonesaw reached into her apron and retrieved a remote control. She pointed it at Mark, where he sat on the couch. A red dot appeared on his forehead.
"No!"
One of Bonesaw's mechanical contraptions leaped across the room, its scalpel legs impaling the suede cushions on either side of Mark. One leg, tipped with a syringe, thrust into Mark's right nostril. He hollered incoherently, tried to pull away, only for two mechanical legs to clutch his head and hold him firm.
Amy's screams joined his.
"I'm doing you a favor, really!" Bonesaw raised her voice to be heard over the screams. "You'll thank me!"
Amy rushed forward, hauled on the metal leg to pull it from Mark's nostril, pulled at the other legs to tear it from him and then hurled it away. Lighter than it looked.
"Now fix him or he'll probably die or be a vegetable," Bonesaw told her. "Unless you decide you're okay with that, in which case we're making progress."
 
TanaNari said:
Why does everyone think Taylor's the guy in this relationship? I'm not one who spends an hour combing her hair. At least she never pesters me about whether or not she looks good, we had our bond to take care of that.
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The "had" should be "have"; it's the only term in the past tense.
Coruscant Knave said:
Probably just Crystal
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Slayer Anderson said:
probably just Crystal
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This brings to mind the possibility she brought a date. Genius Loci just hanging out in her armour, being nothing more than a comforting presence, none of the parents ever finding out, and everyone else being all scandalized and incredulous that Crystal of all people would dare...

Damn my complete inability to write narratives, that could be a decent non-canon omake.
 
Amelia, Ch 339- Crystal
  • Threadmarks
    • Amelia, Ch 339- Crystal


    "Thanks again for the ride, Eric," I said after he popped into view on our staging platform. It's still so freakin' weird that he's using the same name as my brother. Seconds later half a dozen others manifested. My armor hid my expression of surprise, not that it mattered since Lisa was there in the mess.


    The others included two men and two women in very stylish dresses and suits. The Ambassadors, I recognized after a second. Plus a pair of men doing the half black and half white split down the middle suits as costumes. One had the black on the left, the other had white. No doubt at all that they were coordinating with each other on that one. Then there was a large man in a pretty generic gray jumpsuit and mask. I didn't know any of them, probably some of the new recruits. Pantheon was growing by leaps and bounds, lately. Trying to keep up with everything would require Thinker powers.


    "Oh, it's not a problem," Eric replied. "A week is plenty of notice."


    "Yeah, we'll be able to quit doing that to you soon enough," Lisa replied. "We have some of our best Tinkers working on teleport drives that'll let us move between places without needing to force you out of your girlfriend's bed at three in the morning."


    Eric sighed. "Know what? I don't even care. If voyeurism is how you get your rocks off, peep all you like."


    "Zach told you to say that, about two and a half weeks ago," Lisa claimed cheerfully.


    "So, what's this about, Lisa?" I asked, still looking at all the new people.


    "Oh, we're just killing a bunch of birds with one stone," she answered with a smug grin. "I had Accord draw up a plan to help stabilize the region, and I'll be discussing its implementation with the local PRT and Protectorate leaders. Brought some people along to run some raids on the more troublesome locations. And we've got a couple possible power interactions to test. Not really the fancy ones that need the labs, but still pretty important. So while you're off having a family vacation day, you can rest well knowing the city isn't going to burn down. Probably. I mean, it is still LA."


    "Oh," I replied dumbly. "Well, I put GL in charge for the time being. Boost is doing a hospital run, it's a great PR and he's volunteering for them whenever possible now that he's discovered nurses flirt back. And Sveta's in San Fran helping check the undersea damage. It's looking like they're going to have to demolish the whole Golden Gate Bridge."


    "Eh, they'll build a new one, call it Victory Monument Bridge or something and that'll be the end of that," Lisa dismissed. "This is more about infrastructure design and whatever else. Oh, and apparently Accord bullshitted up a way to solve Cali's drought problems. All it requires is us convincing politicians to do the job they were hired to do. So, expect that approximately never. Now hurry up before you're late to your family gathering."


    Oh, right. I glanced over at Eric. "Sorry about that," I said sheepishly.


    "Is cool," he dismissed as he tapped my arm, sending me to the opposite side of the country in a period of time too small to be calculated using conventional technology. How are we supposed to kill a thing whose species does stuff like this on a fucking interplanetary scale? I crushed those thoughts, we'd try our damnedest, and hope for the best. The alternative was unacceptable. Instead I looked at the gathering of my family, the people who meant the most to me. My reason to fight.


    Vicky spotted me first. "About time you got here."


    "Yeah, well, some of us have real jobs to worry about," I teased back. "So, why aren't you inside already."


    "Oh, that?" Vicky tilted her head toward Amy. "My brilliant sister here didn't think to make reservations. And now she'll have to go through the effort of growing us a new room to eat in."


    Reservations? I looked at the building for the first time. Wow, that's a lot of people. Guess they're doing pretty well for themselves. "I'm friends with the owners, I'll go in and talk to them. You guys wait here, okay?


    "Sure, leave us out in the cold and rain," Vicky fake pouted. "We're like the definition of free advertising right now."


    "Vicky, it isn't cold or rainy," Amy argued. "In fact, neither of those things ever even happen on Avalon. And if they did, you wouldn't even notice.


    I just ignored them and walked into the building. Siblings have to bicker, it's the law... god I miss Eric... The greeter was some kid I didn't recognize, but the nametag identified him as Dan.


    "Hey," I said with a smile. "I'm friends with Janet and Tyrone. I'll just see myself in."


    "Uh... yeah, sure," he stammered. Man, they do not train their newbies to handle this sorta thing, do they? At least they had a good layout that let me walk into the back without any difficulties. It wasn't quite that crowded. But there definitely wasn't room for a family of eight in here. Especially not when those eight were going to draw every last eye in the building until they left.


    One of the waitresses looked like she wanted to stop me when I opened the door to the kitchen area. She didn't actually say anything, but she probably would have if I'd given her a few more seconds to think about it.


    The kitchen itself wasn't exactly huge, but it was very modern. There were actual flames, which meant they were cooking with gas. Not a lot of places on Avalon had that yet. Then again, most places didn't even have electricity. Bioluminescent buildings took care of lighting, clean water, and waste disposal, and most colonies were still working hard to achieve industry of any sort. Modernization would be a long time in coming for every colony world, even if Avalon had an unfair head start.


    "Crystal!" Janet exclaimed the moment she saw me, which didn't take long. She rushed over and hugged me. "It's been way too long."


    "Work's been a hassle," I responded, squeezing her back after making sure the safeties were on and I wouldn't accidentally kill her. "Speaking of which, you guys seem to be doing really well for yourselves."


    "Ugh," she sighed, stepping back. "You know, I never realized this was going to be so much work. Training the new cooks is the worst part. Do you think we can talk to your cousin about maybe color coding the fruit better? I can't begin to tell you how many times we've had to throw out something because someone messed up the ingredients. Although Ty usually keeps it around to taste test later. Sometimes we get something usable out of it."


    "Why not ask her, yourself?" I suggested. "She's right outside. We were going to stop in for a meal, but you're kinda full at the moment."


    She looked like she was about to cry. "We keep having to turn people away. Ever since you moved your capital and portal, this has become the most expensive part of the city. We're trying to figure out how to make it work, but short of tearing down the building and adding a second and third story to this one, there's not a whole lot we can do except move somewhere cheaper or save up enough to buy the rest of the block. And that's not happening any time soon."


    "Funny you should mention that," I replied. "We were just talking having Amy grow you a bit more room. Say a couple private dining areas so I can have a nice meal with my family without needing to worry about passports?"



    "She can do that?" Janet asked. "Wait, what am I saying? Of course she can do that! She grew a freakin base out of that crater Leviathan left behind!"


    "Yeah, take a couple minutes to figure out where you want it."


    "Umm, the east facing of the building," she replied. "The house next door is mine and Ty's. You can pretty much just use the entire thing. Ooh! And maybe an open air cafe type thing on the roof! It's getting warmer, I bet that'll be really popular!"


    "Can do," I agreed. Amy loves using her powers for things like that. "I'll go let her know. You just let your customers know to get out of the way and enjoy the show."


    "Actually, they're probably not going to be too impressed about that one," Janet remarked. "I mean, the whole watching a building grow out of the ground thing was cool as hell the first fifty or so times, but now it's kinda become one of those things that is just part of living on Avalon."


    "I guess that makes sense," I sighed. Well, Amy never did like gawkers, so it's probably better this way. "Like all the quakes in Cali, eventually you just stop noticing them. Hey, if you manage to get a bit of a lull while we're here, you and Ty should totally come by and chat. I'll introduce you to the Empresses and you can meet my annoying younger cousin."


    "I wouldn't want to intrude."


    "Are you kidding?" I laughed. "After about twenty minutes of each others' company, everyone in that room is going to be praying for a distraction."


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


    A/N- Crystal's the smart one.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Of course she is. She's NOT a Thinker. Vicky is, so she's out, Taylia messes with two minds, and the rest are parents so that automatically puts them in the 'I know better than younger people' basket.
     
    TanaNari said:
    "Zach told you to say that, about two and a half weeks ago," Lisa claimed cheerfully.
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    I imagine Zach and Lisa have been playing this kind of game for a long, long time. I imagine that Zach even manages to take her by surprise every blue moon. No one but Becky Alexandria would notice it, but every so often, Zach sends a message by proxy that causes Lisa to have a split second mental hiccup before she smoothly covers it with a quip.

    ... I imagine Zach trolls her by creating a truly prodigious number of memes, too.
     
    Very nice.
     
    TanaNari, just how much of the information online about Pantheon was posted by Zack? I'm getting the feeling that it's quite a bit.
     
    Finbar said:
    I am still amused by the fact that Danny is the only unpowered person in the family
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    Which is kind of surprising, considering just how pregnant with data both QA and Shaper must be. Either that or they are spitting out buds like no one's business, and Earth-Avalon is going to have a surprise mass trigger event one of these days.
     
    dasstan said:
    Which is kind of surprising, considering just how pregnant with data both QA and Shaper must be. Either that or they are spitting out buds like no one's business, and Earth-Avalon is going to have a surprise mass trigger event one of these days.
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    "Can't bud, to busy fucking sharing data."
     
    Amelia, Ch 340
  • Threadmarks
    • Amelia, Ch 340


    "Y'know what's the most bullshit thing about your power, Ames?" Vicky commented from behind her menu. "It's not that you can kill every last thing on this planet in approximately two and a half heartbeats."


    ConcernAnnoyanceDefensive. Taylor was saved the need to speak up when Carol did first. "Victoria, could you please not talk like that at the table?"


    "Sorry," Vicky responded. "But I do have a point to get to here. I can usually sense how powers can be a threat to me." ConcernInterest. "Crystal and Aunt Sarah, my powers tell me to avoid being in your line of sight, because you're blasters. Mom, Dad, I know instinctively that you have breaker powers because my power tells me to expect not to fight you like you are now. Taylor... well, you don't register as much of a threat," AnnoyanceReluctantAcceptance. "Unless those zerg are nearby. Then you're suddenly scary beyond all reason. Amy, all my power tells me is that if you touch me, I lose. Even though I'm consciously aware you have a lot of other options."


    "That's actually pretty good to know," Taylor spoke up. "A tool we might be able to take advantage of in the future. Or a possible weakness of our Thinkers that we need to compensate for. Does your power have the same blind spot with, say, a Tinker surrounded by parts that can be converted to a weapon, but aren't quite to that stage, yet? What about a gun that's unloaded?"


    "I... actually don't know," Vicky admitted. "It's never come up before. Normal firearms aren't a threat to me to begin with."


    "We should probably test that," Taylor responded. "We have a bunch of new Tinkers and Thinkers, we should probably have everyone go through the testing process at least one more time, just to see what new details we might have missed the first time."


    ConfusedDefensive. Taylor just noticed Carol, Mark and Aunt Sarah watching us with knowing smiles. "What?"


    "Oh, nothing," Mark chuckled. "We old folks are just caught up with nostalgia. Sarah and Carol would sometimes spend all night talking about plans and what to do next. More than once, they went to bed so late that they were too tired in the morning to do any of the stuff they talked about. So they'd make the men take care of it, no matter how nonsensical they were. Sometimes we'd have to spend half an hour decoding scribbles written on the backs of napkins."


    "Oh, we weren't that bad, Mark," Aunt Sarah admonished. "We were just young and full of ideas. You had your share of bad ones, too. Remember how you used to draw arrows and circles with letters on them and call that a battle plan?"


    "Time honored approach, perfected over thousands of years of military engagements, and now harnessed to its highest potential by the NFL," he sounded almost as smug as Lisa. "I'm sure Danny would be able to read our old notes and know what I was talking about, right man?"


    "I'm more of a baseball guy, myself," Taylor's dad admitted. "Great American pastime and all that."


    "I can respect that," Mark agreed cheerfully, which brought back memories of him changing channels because 'baseball's almost as boring as golf'. "Speaking of pastimes, are you girls ever going to pick out any official sports for Avalon?"


    I glanced over at Taylor, but she didn't look to have any better answer than I did. "Umm, we really hadn't put any thought into that," I admitted. "We're kinda hoping that sort of thing will take care of itself on the local level."


    "Not everything has to be ordained by the highest office," Taylor agreed. "Besides, we're decades away from having the base needed to support professional sports teams. Right now, we're focusing our resources on development and infrastructure. Then we're going to put the vast majority of our resources into education. We want to lead the multiverse in terms of scientific and artistic accomplishments." DisgustHurtAnger. "And frankly, in my experience, too much emphasis on sports accomplishes the exact opposite of that."


    One of her tormentors was the track star at her school, I recalled. Danny looked concerned, but as usual didn't really know what to say to approach the issue. I reached over and gripped Taylor's hand, holding it as she calmed.


    Danny looked at me gratefully. I could almost feel bad about the idea that Danny felt more like a father to me than my biological or legal parents did. Danny actually accepted me and treated me with respect. Which was a whole lot more than Mark and Carol could claim. And he wasn't a murderous crime lord, which put him well above Marquis. Instead, I simply shared that glance with Danny, reassuring him that I would care for his daughter when he couldn't.


    "That's a good point," Carol spoke up. "I can't begin to express how much disappointment I have in school systems for diverting so much money and effort into sports instead of educating their children. I see the merits in physical exercise, but not at the cost of scholastic performance."


    "But that's a two way sword," Mark responded. "Not every child can be the valedictorian. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's part of the definition. Teamwork, and shared success are important parts of development for a child."


    "I'm not saying they're not," Carol argued back. "I didn't let Vicky slack on her grades just because she was in volleyball. I pushed her to keep her grades up, just like I did with Amy even though she didn't do sports."


    I couldn't argue that point. Carol definitely pushed me on my schoolwork. But Carol actually made the effort to help Vicky with hers. And when she got A's, she was praised for her efforts, rewarded for them. At best, I was told 'good work' and then forgotten. Now it was Taylor's turn to squeeze my hand and offer me reassurances. Why did I ever think this family gathering was a good idea?


    "Maybe you should think about emphasizing a skill based sport instead of a physical one?" Aunt Sarah spoke up. "There are plenty of options out there."


    "I vote for Pegasus racing," Vicky chimed in. "I mean, the way Avalon works, I'm willing to bet that everyone's going to want a flying horse eventually just for travel. They're fast enough to beat out most cars if you give them a chance to pick up speed, and I know they new ones are even able to successfully breed. And it's so uniquely Avalon that when you get around to having intolerably snooty people, they can be totally elitist about the whole thing and look down on all the less privileged worlds who don't learn to ride flying horses when they're ten."


    "Yeah," Crystal hurriedly agreed. "And the added benefit of teaching children responsibility by having them care for the animals when they're young. Especially since Avalon doesn't have its own native life to begin with."


    SurpriseAgreement. "That actually sounds really cool," Taylor admitted. "We may have to throw in some safety features, but they're already safer to ride than real horses. At least according to our team members who've had experience with both."


    "Of course, then we face the risk of people with more money being able to acquire the more desirable versions," Crystal added. "It's a pretty big industry. Really good racehorses are worth millions, and once we start down the path of breeding the animals, that could become a thing."


    "I can fix that easily enough," I volunteered. "Using the same seeding tech as we do for the zerg and M7s. We just have to distribute seed codes that anyone's allowed to use. Plug the things into the proper device and modify their genetics on the spot."


    "We should probably consider that anyway," Taylor responded. "The latest version of Macula just clocked in at almost three hundred miles an hour and his gravity field is strong enough to hurt someone who's not trained for it. We'll have to distribute obsolete versions of the animals for civilians to use."


    "Plus the risk of accidentally running into a flock of seagulls," I added, while looking straight at Vicky. She glowered and stuck her tongue out at me.


    "Maybe specific licenses and training courses to use better versions?" Crystal suggested. "There's always someone who will want access to the superspeed versions. But, yeah, putting the best stuff outside the reach of civilians is a really good way to keep things a bit more reasonable."


    "More than just horses, though," I added. "Dinah's gryphon is definitely a very different kind of animal than the pegasi, both in terms of performance and personality. We could probably draw up a list of other mythological animals. Miniature dragons, for example. Do sphynxes fly?"


    "How about those Mexican goat killers... the chupa-whatevers?" Vicky suggested.


    "Pretty sure those are just diseased dogs or coyotes or something," Crystal responded. "But that does sound like a good idea."


    "Might cut into our oil industry profits," Taylor responded. "We're looking into that as a way to keep us solvent as a nation in the long run."


    "Well, I can guarantee that none of the artificial animals will be able to survive without the Yggdrasil," I suggested. "They're dependent on it to provide food they can store and process correctly. Same thing we did with our modified bugs as a failsafe to prevent them from becoming an invasive species. No one can object to us leaving in that feature, right? And then we'll just make most of our profits selling to other countries. Aleph, Dalet, and Vav are all facing a fuel crisis. Once we start opening up communications and trade with those worlds, we're set for the foreseeable future.


    "To say nothing of the profitability of other designs," Crystal added. "Your entire planet is a living industrial base just waiting to be harvested."


    "We're leaving that mostly to civilian development," Taylor added. "We're trying to build a government that can pay for itself instead of drawing on taxation or owning all the civilian businesses."


    "You'll still have plenty of room for selling fuel on Avalon," Danny spoke up. "It seems to me these animals probably won't be capable of hauling freight or operating as industrial or construction equipment. That's a pretty significant base."


    "Well, we could," I admitted. "Antigravity makes actual weight fairly trivial. But no, we have no plans of building anything like that for the market."


    "Wait just a second," Vicky interupted. "Did we just casually discuss ruling the world by creating dozens of mythological animals, manipulating trillion dollar industries on four different worlds, and inventing a new sport, all within, like, ten to fifteen minutes?"


    SurpriseAwe. "Uh, yeah, I guess we did," Taylor responded.


    "Bitchin'."


    "Victoria!"


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


    A/N-
    For lack of a Zach, there dies the hope of pokemon battles as the official sport of Avalon.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • TanaNari said:
    "That's actually pretty good to know," Taylor spoke up. "A tool we might be able to take advantage of in the future. Or a possible weakness of our Thinkers that we need to compensate for. Does your power have the same blind spot with, say, a Tinker surrounded by parts that can be converted to a weapon, but aren't quite to that stage, yet? What about a gun that's unloaded?"
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    Aw, there's our Munchkin. Haven't seen much of you, lately. Who's a good little min-maxer? You are! What a smart gir--*stripped to the bone by a swarm of passing bugs*

    TanaNari said:
    and she she calmed.
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    TanaNari said:
    "Wait just a second," Vicky interupted. "Did we just casually discuss ruling the world by creating dozens of mythological animals, manipulating a trillion dollar industry, and inventing a new sport, all within, like, ten to fifteen minutes?"


    SurpriseAwe. "Uh, yeah, I guess we did," Taylor responded.


    "Bitchin'."
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    #Ordinary Imperial Family Dinner
     
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