pepperjack
A Variety of Cheese
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No question about it. Sometimes our greatest contributions are the things we barely considered.
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Mr. Tebbs
Not too sore, are you?
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Eh, I seem to recall a steamy hand holding scene in Catcher In The Rye. If it's good enough for classic literature..
Sempai noticed me!!
Amelia, Ch 349- Lily
TanaNari
Verified Dick
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Amelia, Ch 349- Lily
Newter always has a way of showing when he's in a bad mood, I had come to notice. Mainly by acting like he was in a really good mood. I'd known a few people like that in my life, and for the most part it helped just to pretend like nothing was wrong and let them come to you if they wanted to. Or, in my case, tracking him down to a higher end club here on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Him in civilian clothes, me in the underlayer of my armor. Plenty of people recognized me, and I even signed a couple autographs and had to beg off some 'offers' on my way to the back. Though that one redhead was pretty cute... maybe Sabah... no, Sabah's way too innocent for something like that.
I wasn't quite the gay rights status symbol here that I was in other parts of Europe. This area was already pretty accepting, and what issues it did still have would be solved with time, education, and other gentle pressures. My method of in your face challenges to the status quo would only make me look reactionary and possibly unhinged here. Sure, the first time we made a portal here, we followed the same protocol we demanded of every nation receiving a portal. Which was simply a very public photo op where I shook hands with whatever highest leader that nation had.
An event that was sometimes boring, little more than a rote service by a politician happy enough to be seen being seen with an international celebrity. Sometimes it filled me with pride as the leaders of nations gave sincere thanks for my efforts, both on the battlefield and otherwise. And sometimes I was rewarded with sadistic glee, as my armor's combat systems told me just how much some asshole was imagining my execution even as he was forced to play nice with me. After all, if they didn't play ball, I could simply refuse to cut open the doorway to another world. Sure, most backpedaled on their niceties the moment my back was turned, but the message was sent all the same. They were humiliated, and I walked away untouched.
"Hey, Newt, how's things?" I asked casually as I walked in. A couple girls were draped over each other, unconscious. The armor's auto-diagnostics let me know they were under the influence of his poison, and while I wasn't exactly happy about that, I ignored it as I always did. Newter certainly charged enough to send these people on mini vacations, so it's not like they didn't want it.
"You know me," he answered with a smile, taking a drink of whatever concoction he was trying today. "Livin' the sweet life." Cultural foods and drinks were his personal vice, along with the occasional female companion.
"So I see," I sat down across from him, sinking into the truly luxurious couch. I've never owned a bed as comfortable as this couch.
"Want a drink?" He asked.
"Trying to get me drunk?" I smirked.
"Hell no," he responded. "Your power's scary as balls enough when you're sober. There should be an international law against Endslayers getting drunk, especially so close to the next predicted attack. You can have some of what I'm having. It's called Jenever, and it took forever to find an alcohol free version."
"Sounds good," I agreed, taking a glass and holding it for him to pour, so I didn't risk contacting his secretions. My underarmor was able to protect against most poisons, but his was a power and broke a lot of rules, so cross contamination was a risk. I sipped it cautiously at first, and decided there wasn't anything I could compare it to. A weird pine flavor, plus a bunch of other stuff. It was good, but not something I'd miss if I never had it again.
"This is really good," I smiled politely as I swallowed more of the drink. "Glad you went through the effort of getting a version for us non-drinkers." Newter, for reasons he never shared with me, refused to drink alcoholic beverages. I had my speculations on why, maybe he his taste buds just didn't like the flavor... but my guess was it was specifically because he couldn't feel the effects of the alcohol and it was one more barrier between himself and normalcy. Pretending he was a teetotaler meant he could take ownership of the difference, make it a choice. And I played along because, well, he was right about keeping alcohol away from a power like mine. And if it made him feel better about his own condition, I was happy to do it.
"Took forever to find this stuff," he repeated. "You don't even know how many people I had to ask. One guy I looked like he was either going to cry or hit me. You'd think I was talking about jacking off with their national flag or something."
"Different cultures, different priorities," I shrugged. "So, Faultline said you stumbled across something from the neural regeneration tech."
"Ah, so that's why you're here," he sighed, looking less happy.
"Well, it is an important piece of tech and you've gone the longest using it," I stated. Gregor had quit months ago, for reasons he refused to speak of. "We do want to know if Cauldron was telling the truth about the Case 53s. Were you a volunteer?"
"In my case?" Newter looked down into his glass for a good minute. "Yeah. They were telling the truth. Or I think they were, I'm not absolutely certain and there are still a lot of gaps, memories I don't have back, and stuff I was never told in the first place. But, well... you know all those shitty alt reality stories where the Nazis win the Second World War? Well, turns out that's what happened to my home dimension."
"That... is pretty fucked up," I muttered. "Are we going to need to do something?" That is the kind of reality that Pantheon might be provoked into staging an interdimensional attack on. I'd certainly advocate us doing so.
"They lost the Third," he added to the story, more or less negating my question. "And by the time the fourth came around... well, there were no winners. Even in our version of America, thirteen year olds were being sent off to war. Looking at it with what I know now, I don't think our science ever got to the point where we realized what nuclear fallout meant for the world. Or maybe things were so bad that no one cared anymore."
"Fuck," I muttered. "That's just... fuck..." Cauldron certainly found a great place to harvest 'willing' test subjects in that world. They claimed that every test was done on volunteers, who knew and agreed to the risks. A planet torn by nuclear war would be full of people who'd agree to almost anything for the chance of a better future.
"So now... I don't know what to think," he sighed. "I had years to build up this... idea, y'know? About the people who turned me into a freak and stole my life from me. When I heard the name Cauldron, I finally had a name I could assign all of my hatred to. The source of all bad things in my life. The reason I had no parents, no history, not even a name... and now, well... I find out that I'd trade everything they stole from me just for the taste of Jenever." He lifted his glass and downed the rest of it. "Even like this I have a better life than anyone on my world could have hoped for.
"Which bothers you, I take it?" I prompted.
"Yeah, it bothers me," he agreed with an unhappy chuckle. "I feel let down, y'know? Disappointed. I sure as fuck ain't grateful to them for turning me into this." He gestured across his orange, amphibian like body. "And they did use me as a guinea pig so they could perfect a drug that granted powers, so it's not like they did it out of the kindness of their hearts. I owe them nothing."
Which they did as a desperate ploy to save the world from Scion, I added silently. At this moment, Faultline and her people were not aware of what Scion really was. Almost nobody had been told, only those who had the powers or resources to actually help prepare for that war.
"And I guess that's part of the problem," Newter continued. "I owe them nothing. I can't even do something crazy like swear eternal vengeance and hunt them down. They came along, did their thing, and left me to fend for myself just a little better off than how they found me."
I couldn't think of anything to say. The Empresses would be overjoyed at the news that our supposedly conditional alliance wasn't a metaphorical deal with the devil where we ignored horrible crimes just for something that was useful to us. They may be a group that fed off of human greed and suffering, but they weren't actively making the world a worse place. It was honestly a relief, but at the same time Newter was right, in a way it was disappointing. A let down, that the monolithic evil conspiracy wasn't quite as monolithic or evil as we had feared.
Oh well, we still had the Yangban.
"You got the answers you've been looking for, but they weren't nearly as cool as what you imagined it would be," I suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds about right," he agreed. "Speaking of boring answers, I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is... was... Joshua. Or Josh, to my friends.
"Welcome to life, Josh," I responded. "It makes for a shitty story when you have all that buildup only to be met with an unsatisfying conclusion, but reality doesn't care about the story, only what does or doesn't happen."
He shrugged noncommittally.
"Hey, look at it this way," I smiled. "It means you're free to figure out what you actually want to do with your life. Your past is as settled as it's going to get, and there's nothing forcing you to choose one future over another. You can do whatever you like. You can choose to do absolutely nothing if you want. You're even rich, now, so you don't have to worry about how you'll pay for it."
"Yeah," he smiled back, halfheartedly. "I just don't know what to do with myself."
"Well, for me it's always been about causes," I responded with a shrug. "I kill Endbringers, I have a hot girlfriend, I promote equal rights while daring evil sacks of shit to even try doing something about it. Then either gloat at them when they chicken out, or shoot them if they take me up on the offer. But that's just what makes me happy. You'll have to find your own passions."
"Guess that's my new goal in life, then," Josh agreed. "Figure out what I want to do with my life."
"Hey, I can drink to that," I agreed, lifting my empty glass, shaking it in the universal gesture for a refill. Then the alarms went off.
==============
A/N- Pantheon vs Nazi World, coming to an Omake near you... whenever someone else writes it...
I'll be honest, I didn't feel like there was enough speculation or anticipation from the cliffhanger earlier, so I opted to write this instead.
Actually, I'd wanted to have this scene for a while now, portions of it were even written out months ago (with Gregor being in the other side of the conversation) but I never had the "right moment" to work it into the story. And then it finally fell in my lap! Huzzah!
Newter always has a way of showing when he's in a bad mood, I had come to notice. Mainly by acting like he was in a really good mood. I'd known a few people like that in my life, and for the most part it helped just to pretend like nothing was wrong and let them come to you if they wanted to. Or, in my case, tracking him down to a higher end club here on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Him in civilian clothes, me in the underlayer of my armor. Plenty of people recognized me, and I even signed a couple autographs and had to beg off some 'offers' on my way to the back. Though that one redhead was pretty cute... maybe Sabah... no, Sabah's way too innocent for something like that.
I wasn't quite the gay rights status symbol here that I was in other parts of Europe. This area was already pretty accepting, and what issues it did still have would be solved with time, education, and other gentle pressures. My method of in your face challenges to the status quo would only make me look reactionary and possibly unhinged here. Sure, the first time we made a portal here, we followed the same protocol we demanded of every nation receiving a portal. Which was simply a very public photo op where I shook hands with whatever highest leader that nation had.
An event that was sometimes boring, little more than a rote service by a politician happy enough to be seen being seen with an international celebrity. Sometimes it filled me with pride as the leaders of nations gave sincere thanks for my efforts, both on the battlefield and otherwise. And sometimes I was rewarded with sadistic glee, as my armor's combat systems told me just how much some asshole was imagining my execution even as he was forced to play nice with me. After all, if they didn't play ball, I could simply refuse to cut open the doorway to another world. Sure, most backpedaled on their niceties the moment my back was turned, but the message was sent all the same. They were humiliated, and I walked away untouched.
"Hey, Newt, how's things?" I asked casually as I walked in. A couple girls were draped over each other, unconscious. The armor's auto-diagnostics let me know they were under the influence of his poison, and while I wasn't exactly happy about that, I ignored it as I always did. Newter certainly charged enough to send these people on mini vacations, so it's not like they didn't want it.
"You know me," he answered with a smile, taking a drink of whatever concoction he was trying today. "Livin' the sweet life." Cultural foods and drinks were his personal vice, along with the occasional female companion.
"So I see," I sat down across from him, sinking into the truly luxurious couch. I've never owned a bed as comfortable as this couch.
"Want a drink?" He asked.
"Trying to get me drunk?" I smirked.
"Hell no," he responded. "Your power's scary as balls enough when you're sober. There should be an international law against Endslayers getting drunk, especially so close to the next predicted attack. You can have some of what I'm having. It's called Jenever, and it took forever to find an alcohol free version."
"Sounds good," I agreed, taking a glass and holding it for him to pour, so I didn't risk contacting his secretions. My underarmor was able to protect against most poisons, but his was a power and broke a lot of rules, so cross contamination was a risk. I sipped it cautiously at first, and decided there wasn't anything I could compare it to. A weird pine flavor, plus a bunch of other stuff. It was good, but not something I'd miss if I never had it again.
"This is really good," I smiled politely as I swallowed more of the drink. "Glad you went through the effort of getting a version for us non-drinkers." Newter, for reasons he never shared with me, refused to drink alcoholic beverages. I had my speculations on why, maybe he his taste buds just didn't like the flavor... but my guess was it was specifically because he couldn't feel the effects of the alcohol and it was one more barrier between himself and normalcy. Pretending he was a teetotaler meant he could take ownership of the difference, make it a choice. And I played along because, well, he was right about keeping alcohol away from a power like mine. And if it made him feel better about his own condition, I was happy to do it.
"Took forever to find this stuff," he repeated. "You don't even know how many people I had to ask. One guy I looked like he was either going to cry or hit me. You'd think I was talking about jacking off with their national flag or something."
"Different cultures, different priorities," I shrugged. "So, Faultline said you stumbled across something from the neural regeneration tech."
"Ah, so that's why you're here," he sighed, looking less happy.
"Well, it is an important piece of tech and you've gone the longest using it," I stated. Gregor had quit months ago, for reasons he refused to speak of. "We do want to know if Cauldron was telling the truth about the Case 53s. Were you a volunteer?"
"In my case?" Newter looked down into his glass for a good minute. "Yeah. They were telling the truth. Or I think they were, I'm not absolutely certain and there are still a lot of gaps, memories I don't have back, and stuff I was never told in the first place. But, well... you know all those shitty alt reality stories where the Nazis win the Second World War? Well, turns out that's what happened to my home dimension."
"That... is pretty fucked up," I muttered. "Are we going to need to do something?" That is the kind of reality that Pantheon might be provoked into staging an interdimensional attack on. I'd certainly advocate us doing so.
"They lost the Third," he added to the story, more or less negating my question. "And by the time the fourth came around... well, there were no winners. Even in our version of America, thirteen year olds were being sent off to war. Looking at it with what I know now, I don't think our science ever got to the point where we realized what nuclear fallout meant for the world. Or maybe things were so bad that no one cared anymore."
"Fuck," I muttered. "That's just... fuck..." Cauldron certainly found a great place to harvest 'willing' test subjects in that world. They claimed that every test was done on volunteers, who knew and agreed to the risks. A planet torn by nuclear war would be full of people who'd agree to almost anything for the chance of a better future.
"So now... I don't know what to think," he sighed. "I had years to build up this... idea, y'know? About the people who turned me into a freak and stole my life from me. When I heard the name Cauldron, I finally had a name I could assign all of my hatred to. The source of all bad things in my life. The reason I had no parents, no history, not even a name... and now, well... I find out that I'd trade everything they stole from me just for the taste of Jenever." He lifted his glass and downed the rest of it. "Even like this I have a better life than anyone on my world could have hoped for.
"Which bothers you, I take it?" I prompted.
"Yeah, it bothers me," he agreed with an unhappy chuckle. "I feel let down, y'know? Disappointed. I sure as fuck ain't grateful to them for turning me into this." He gestured across his orange, amphibian like body. "And they did use me as a guinea pig so they could perfect a drug that granted powers, so it's not like they did it out of the kindness of their hearts. I owe them nothing."
Which they did as a desperate ploy to save the world from Scion, I added silently. At this moment, Faultline and her people were not aware of what Scion really was. Almost nobody had been told, only those who had the powers or resources to actually help prepare for that war.
"And I guess that's part of the problem," Newter continued. "I owe them nothing. I can't even do something crazy like swear eternal vengeance and hunt them down. They came along, did their thing, and left me to fend for myself just a little better off than how they found me."
I couldn't think of anything to say. The Empresses would be overjoyed at the news that our supposedly conditional alliance wasn't a metaphorical deal with the devil where we ignored horrible crimes just for something that was useful to us. They may be a group that fed off of human greed and suffering, but they weren't actively making the world a worse place. It was honestly a relief, but at the same time Newter was right, in a way it was disappointing. A let down, that the monolithic evil conspiracy wasn't quite as monolithic or evil as we had feared.
Oh well, we still had the Yangban.
"You got the answers you've been looking for, but they weren't nearly as cool as what you imagined it would be," I suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds about right," he agreed. "Speaking of boring answers, I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is... was... Joshua. Or Josh, to my friends.
"Welcome to life, Josh," I responded. "It makes for a shitty story when you have all that buildup only to be met with an unsatisfying conclusion, but reality doesn't care about the story, only what does or doesn't happen."
He shrugged noncommittally.
"Hey, look at it this way," I smiled. "It means you're free to figure out what you actually want to do with your life. Your past is as settled as it's going to get, and there's nothing forcing you to choose one future over another. You can do whatever you like. You can choose to do absolutely nothing if you want. You're even rich, now, so you don't have to worry about how you'll pay for it."
"Yeah," he smiled back, halfheartedly. "I just don't know what to do with myself."
"Well, for me it's always been about causes," I responded with a shrug. "I kill Endbringers, I have a hot girlfriend, I promote equal rights while daring evil sacks of shit to even try doing something about it. Then either gloat at them when they chicken out, or shoot them if they take me up on the offer. But that's just what makes me happy. You'll have to find your own passions."
"Guess that's my new goal in life, then," Josh agreed. "Figure out what I want to do with my life."
"Hey, I can drink to that," I agreed, lifting my empty glass, shaking it in the universal gesture for a refill. Then the alarms went off.
==============
A/N- Pantheon vs Nazi World, coming to an Omake near you... whenever someone else writes it...
I'll be honest, I didn't feel like there was enough speculation or anticipation from the cliffhanger earlier, so I opted to write this instead.
Actually, I'd wanted to have this scene for a while now, portions of it were even written out months ago (with Gregor being in the other side of the conversation) but I never had the "right moment" to work it into the story. And then it finally fell in my lap! Huzzah!
Last edited:
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And now for the ultimate question, can Newter really get laid now?
dasstan
:)
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what issues it did still have?
That's the spirit.
I am genuinely curious why Gregor stopped. What horrors did he uncover? Was he a horrible person in his past life? Who knows!
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Amelia, Ch 349- Lily
A/N- Pantheon vs Nazi World, coming to an Omake near you... whenever someone else writes it...
I'll be honest, I didn't feel like there was enough speculation or anticipation from the cliffhanger earlier, so I opted to write this instead.
Actually, I'd wanted to have this scene for a while now, portions of it were even written out months ago (with Gregor being in the other side of the conversation) but I never had the "right moment" to work it into the story. And then it finally fell in my lap! Huzzah!
But what if it's NOT the Nazis in that world... but the Draka!
That's right... I went there.
Daunmi
Shun the sun, night so nice
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You realize it works for all sides, yeah?
"Alright people, we need a backup plan."
"We're up against Zion."
"... Cthulhu it is then."
"Alright shards, we need a backup plan."
"We're up against Pantheon."
"... Cthulhu it is then."
Cthulhu, your one stop shop for problem solving when all else fails.
I don't know what either the third or fourth mean in this context.
Can someone who knows what history is teach this idiot?
Hooray for foreign countries!
Malfunctioning Hugbot
Spriggy Tomboy
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War, as in they won the second but lost a third war that provably had its roots in their winning the second world war in their reality.
So, more alternate history rather than historic history.
Deathwings
Questionable French Guy
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You've got nobody to blame but yourself.
GiftofLove
A Gift From The Heart
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Na, what people will remember is however you ruin it.
Like, way down the line when Lisa and Taylor are on different sides and she suffocates Alexandria with a million bugs right in front of Lisa.
Or an Endbringer kills Lisa and then showers Alexandria with her fingers as a pointed fuck you.
Ack
(Verified Ratbag) (Unverified Great Old One)
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I've wanted to write a Draka/Worm crossover for a while now.
Pantheon vs Draka ... well, sucks to be the Draka.
No, it really does.
pheonix89
Wanna be game dev
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No shit. They've done enough wonky shit to their genome that Riley and Amelia can cook up an anti-Draka bioweapon of fuck you without worrying about it hitting anyone else.
Gladiusone
Well worn.
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The Draka try to invade post Golden Morning, thinking they're really lucky to find a group of universes linked by permenant portals: easy, cheap dimensional travel, devastated worlds full of ferals who will jump at the chance to accept the Yoke, and some kind of super-ferals to fight! Lots of fun ... until Valkyrie shows up to rain on their parade.
pheonix89
Wanna be game dev
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Or they piss off Ziz. Or Contessa decides to go an aimbot murder-spree. Or Dragon Unchained decides to stress-test some new suits on them. Or Imp goes on a shanking spree. Or Legend goes on a few strafing runs. Or Riley and Amelia break out the biowar.
In short, there are a lot of capes who can wreck their shit and find the existence of the Draka highly offensive.
Godwinson
Making the rounds.
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And nothing of value was lost.
Daunmi
Shun the sun, night so nice
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Ack
(Verified Ratbag) (Unverified Great Old One)
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Hmm.
Given all the great alt!Taylor fics out there now ...
Imagine canon!Taylor doing a "Ghost of Christmas Past/Present/Future/WTF" and dropping in to each of the alternate realities for a visit, and seeing how they are getting along.
Given all the great alt!Taylor fics out there now ...
Imagine canon!Taylor doing a "Ghost of Christmas Past/Present/Future/WTF" and dropping in to each of the alternate realities for a visit, and seeing how they are getting along.
B.B. Rain
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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We already have that omake, and it was horrible.
Skitter visits Atonement, and while Tether tries to apologize to her, says it looks like the bullies were right, that the world would be better off without her.
Hexed999
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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I don't know about that - cannon fodder is useful.
pheonix89
Wanna be game dev
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Meh, the Draka don't have the firepower to anything but ablative meat shields vs Zion. Remember that he facetanked multiple planets worth of nukes because he couldn't be assed to defend against them.
dasstan
:)
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All this talk of Amelia derived fanfiction has me shivering with anticipation for the inevitable post-fic fics. Assuming that TanaNari opens his verse up to others, of course.
Like an Ack-style I, Panacea, except it's I, Taylor, and it ends on a horribly depressing note of Taylor dragging the poor SI to their death during the big Butcher fight.
Like an Ack-style I, Panacea, except it's I, Taylor, and it ends on a horribly depressing note of Taylor dragging the poor SI to their death during the big Butcher fight.
Fouredged
Experienced.
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I just had a cool idea I wanted to share. Taylor killed the Butcher right? What if she maintained the shard and simply cleaned the slate of voices by offing herself and then respawining. What if she is inheriting her own power each time she dies?
dasstan
:)
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I sort of understand what you're saying, but... what good does that do? The benefit of the Butcher is that it can stack buffs by using a limited connection to different shards. If it just keeps connecting to QA in the exact same way, there won't really be any power growth.
I mean, it'd definitely be interesting if this was the case and we end up with a Taylor clone that suddenly has memories of when it shouldn't have memories: the time between the backup being made, and the actual death. Maybe expressed as dreams?
Also, makes me wonder if the Butcher Shard would end up going the canon way of QA, with thinking that it is actually Taylor?
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Agreed...
Amusingly... the Draka or an expie of them was originally slated to show up in Goblin Queen for one of Shadow Stalker's interlude/arc but i decided against as too grim dark.
Amelia, Ch 350
TanaNari
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Amelia, Ch 350
We had to view the scene from orbit, using Dragon's satellites. Some kind of interference prevented our dimensional viewing tech from working in the affected zone. What we could see was a nearly half mile radius area of shimmering, rainbow light full of limbs and facial features writhing about and grasping the air and itself.
"It looks like the flesh mass interaction that happens when we use Cão's power on regenerating tissue," Emma stated. ConfusionWorrySuspicion. She glanced at us. "Right, sorry, that's one of the ones that I haven't flagged as a priority. Nothing interesting ever came of it, a junk reaction caused by forcing multiple mass-summoning powers to interact. Up until now, it didn't seem important."
"It appears to have to do with the mission I sent them on," Lisa stated. "They were simply supposed to attack a drug den, nothing critical."
"A mission you didn't bother telling me about before recruiting my people," Crystal growled at her. "Seriously, Lisa, what the shit?"
"And Sabah's in that mess," Lily added. "This is a Class S fuckup and you know it."
"Power interaction," Lisa responded. "No one can predict those."
"You figured out my interaction with Labyrinth easily enough," Lily accused.
"I predicted one power interaction! One! Out of how many we've seen so far?" Lisa exclaimed. "Yes, I can make an educated guess with enough information, but you may as well blame the weather man for for not predicting a meteor strike."
"And we're not already in there trying to fix things?" Lily argued. "Rescuing our team?"
"It appears to be stationary, and that thing's had plenty of time to do... whatever it is that it's going to do," Lisa responded. "If it was going to kill them, then they were already dead in the first minute or two. And if it's not trying to kill them, then they're in there somewhere and if we rush in guns blazing, we'll probably kill them. We have to be cautious on this. And if this is a power interaction, the last thing we want to do is throw more powers at it until something else breaks. Jacklight witnessed it from Avalon's side, and I wanted everyone here before we do anything more."
She nodded toward Chevalier and Dragon.
"She's right," I stated, looking at the assembled heroes. "Let's hear what Jacklight has to say." This had been downgraded to an anomalous event, instead of a potential Class S, but it was an anomaly that Pantheon had already been called in for. That put us and Chevalier equally in charge. AgreementSupport. "It doesn't seem to be causing more damage, just sitting there waiting.
"As you know, we were carrying out an operation to take out one of the Elite's bases," Jacklight responded, speaking in a very matter of fact way. "They were using some unknown ability to block your dimensional tech. Our assumption was a Tinker device."
ConcernThreat. She's right, we use our shunt tech for everything... this could be a serious problem.
"Was wondering when someone would get around to building countermeasures against us," Lisa responded, sounding not at all concerned. "Please go on."
"Citrine ordered Anima to attack the base with her summons while Citrine herself spent her efforts trying to work around the dimensional barricade. She succeeded, and I altered the area so that the effects of electricity were more potent than they should be by an order of magnitude. The intent being to short out the base's electronic devices, and improve the damage Anima's summons could do."
"So that's at least four high level reality altering shakers hitting a single area at once," Lisa responded. "Two of which were manipulating inter-dimensional physics. Think of it like Labyrinth cubed. Lily, you have to sit this one out. I don't think we want to rip a hole that size into the side of reality."
Lily's hands clenched in her suit, but she said nothing.
"We can send some of my constructs in," Taylor responded. "Endbringer tissue inhibits powers, so they shouldn't add to the power interaction. If anything, maybe they'll weaken... whatever it is that's fueling this. Drain away its power source."
"The version we create in the labs don't last very long," Emma volunteered. "It should wear off on its own. We'll want to study this as much as we possibly can, though. It's still acting like it's alive, which is something the lab versions have never done." She glanced over at one of the other Tinkers. "Elena, you're our expert on the subject. Take whomever you need, piggyback off the zerg senses until we're sure it's safe to send our more advanced scanning tech. I'm sure Dragon's willing to help however she can."
"Of course," Dragon agreed.
"So what exactly were you hoping to do with this, anyway?" Chevalier looked at us. "Some people might consider a foreign nation engaging in attacks on American citizens, even their criminal citizens, on American soil to be a political crisis."
Vicky glanced between us, and I wondered what would happen if this came to a blowup. Vicky said she'd have broken up with him if I didn't approve of their relationship, but this was a pretty big thing. Crystal didn't look happy about it, either.
"We didn't use any Avalon resources," I stated. "Pantheon was supporting the Ambassadors, and Crystal's team isn't part of Avalon."
"That excuse won't hold," Chevalier responded.
ProtectiveSupport. Taylor stepped up in front of me, and I was torn between wanting to defend myself, and loving her for doing it for me. "We both know it will. The Protectorate's being held together by bubble gum and prayers right now, and every day things fall apart a little more. You don't have the resources to press the issue with us."
"Is that what this is going to be?" He asked. "We can't stop you so we just sit back and watch as you walk all over us?"
AngerGuilt. "You've seen Dragon's projections just like we have," Taylor pressed, not letting Chevalier's jab stick. "Even without Dinah's predictions looming over us, civilization is collapsing piece by piece. The colony worlds aren't going to help more than merely staunching the blood loss. We had a goal, one which would have helped us to help everyone. You know what we're preparing for."
"That argument lets you get away with a lot of things, but it's not a blank check," Chevalier responded. "That... thing... out there can be seen from orbit. It's not going to be so easily covered up."
"That was an accident," I argued. "Impossible to predict, and not even related to the mission."
"Which brings up a question," Chevalier continued. "What were you doing out there in the first place? You didn't alert the PRT, or the Protectorate. You just walked in, did your thing, and were planning to walk out again without consequence?"
"Easier to ask forgiveness than permission?" Lisa quipped.
AnnoyanceConcern. "Minerva, you're not helping," Taylor spoke up. "He's right, we're supposed to be allies. We could have been upfront about this."
"Allies or not, we're also competing for resources," Lisa stated. "We're better at using those resources than the Protectorate's government controlled bureaucracy could ever hope to be. Everyone here knows that every time we hand over some asshole that we captured to the PRT, whether they recruit them or imprison them, it's a resource we could have used that's instead going to waste."
"This is not the time or place," Taylor insisted.
"Well, if you really must know, we were stealing resources from the Elite," Lisa responded, sighing. "Mostly drugs that we were going to destroy, and a good amount of Tinker tech, including some wetworks. Important tech that would synergize well with what we already have."
"You know you've pretty much blown any chance of pulling anything like this again in the future, right?" Chevalier emphasized. "You're already on thin ice, please tell me you understand that. Push much harder and you will start a war between America and Avalon."
"We'll be fine," Lisa responded. "We spent our tokens, now we'll lay low until the next Endbringer, which is coming up in a week or so anyway. After that the slate will more or less be wiped clean and we'll be back to the status quo. Political capital has a very short shelf life, so we're spending it while we have it."
"I've read your theories on how the Passengers deliberately push for conflict," Chevalier pressed. "Is that what's happening here?"
I looked at the others. We were being watched by a lot of people. How much things have changed, that I could even have a conversation like this. A year ago, even six months ago, I would have caved in. My Passenger was driving me to insanity because I defied it constantly. And now it was quite the opposite, I followed the impulses and came away feeling stronger, smarter, more confident than I could ever have imagined me being. ConcernSupportWorryFear. Was it true? Were we hunting for a fight? It would explain a lot.
"No," I finally stated. We'd established that. Taylor and I have our loophole. Our impulses had turned inward to keep our bond, and we were happy with that. "In the interest of honesty, there's a Tinker by the name of Synth that we were hoping to capture. Chemistry Tinker, we could have used him to create a new level of medical technology." And combine his expertise with our other Tinkers and create another series of upgrades for our power boosting stims and maybe even the Cauldron vials.
"All those points made, we're going to have to silence this event," Alexandria finally spoke. "I think we can all agree that we don't need the general public to have the conversation we're having right now.
"How do you expect to cover something like this?" Chevalier asked.
"We don't have to hide the event itself," she responded. "Admitting to an unexpectedly violent Power Interaction is fine. It may create more fear from normal people toward parahumans, which we'll need to work to fix. But the events leading up to this can't go public."
"Even that's not too big a hit," Lisa added. "Some of Crystal's team got into a fight with the Elite, they got some outside reinforcements. Not the first or last time for that. If you ignore the parts where it was an unprovoked attack and we were planning to abduct a super villain across interdimensional borders, it's all perfectly innocent."
IncredulityAnnoyance.
==============
A/N- I briefly considered having having Lily try to attack the glowing flesh garden and accidentally destroying LA and surrounding countryside by sucking it into a dimensional rift.
The I decided that sounded like too much work and wouldn't really add to the story. So, didn't happen.
We had to view the scene from orbit, using Dragon's satellites. Some kind of interference prevented our dimensional viewing tech from working in the affected zone. What we could see was a nearly half mile radius area of shimmering, rainbow light full of limbs and facial features writhing about and grasping the air and itself.
"It looks like the flesh mass interaction that happens when we use Cão's power on regenerating tissue," Emma stated. ConfusionWorrySuspicion. She glanced at us. "Right, sorry, that's one of the ones that I haven't flagged as a priority. Nothing interesting ever came of it, a junk reaction caused by forcing multiple mass-summoning powers to interact. Up until now, it didn't seem important."
"It appears to have to do with the mission I sent them on," Lisa stated. "They were simply supposed to attack a drug den, nothing critical."
"A mission you didn't bother telling me about before recruiting my people," Crystal growled at her. "Seriously, Lisa, what the shit?"
"And Sabah's in that mess," Lily added. "This is a Class S fuckup and you know it."
"Power interaction," Lisa responded. "No one can predict those."
"You figured out my interaction with Labyrinth easily enough," Lily accused.
"I predicted one power interaction! One! Out of how many we've seen so far?" Lisa exclaimed. "Yes, I can make an educated guess with enough information, but you may as well blame the weather man for for not predicting a meteor strike."
"And we're not already in there trying to fix things?" Lily argued. "Rescuing our team?"
"It appears to be stationary, and that thing's had plenty of time to do... whatever it is that it's going to do," Lisa responded. "If it was going to kill them, then they were already dead in the first minute or two. And if it's not trying to kill them, then they're in there somewhere and if we rush in guns blazing, we'll probably kill them. We have to be cautious on this. And if this is a power interaction, the last thing we want to do is throw more powers at it until something else breaks. Jacklight witnessed it from Avalon's side, and I wanted everyone here before we do anything more."
She nodded toward Chevalier and Dragon.
"She's right," I stated, looking at the assembled heroes. "Let's hear what Jacklight has to say." This had been downgraded to an anomalous event, instead of a potential Class S, but it was an anomaly that Pantheon had already been called in for. That put us and Chevalier equally in charge. AgreementSupport. "It doesn't seem to be causing more damage, just sitting there waiting.
"As you know, we were carrying out an operation to take out one of the Elite's bases," Jacklight responded, speaking in a very matter of fact way. "They were using some unknown ability to block your dimensional tech. Our assumption was a Tinker device."
ConcernThreat. She's right, we use our shunt tech for everything... this could be a serious problem.
"Was wondering when someone would get around to building countermeasures against us," Lisa responded, sounding not at all concerned. "Please go on."
"Citrine ordered Anima to attack the base with her summons while Citrine herself spent her efforts trying to work around the dimensional barricade. She succeeded, and I altered the area so that the effects of electricity were more potent than they should be by an order of magnitude. The intent being to short out the base's electronic devices, and improve the damage Anima's summons could do."
"So that's at least four high level reality altering shakers hitting a single area at once," Lisa responded. "Two of which were manipulating inter-dimensional physics. Think of it like Labyrinth cubed. Lily, you have to sit this one out. I don't think we want to rip a hole that size into the side of reality."
Lily's hands clenched in her suit, but she said nothing.
"We can send some of my constructs in," Taylor responded. "Endbringer tissue inhibits powers, so they shouldn't add to the power interaction. If anything, maybe they'll weaken... whatever it is that's fueling this. Drain away its power source."
"The version we create in the labs don't last very long," Emma volunteered. "It should wear off on its own. We'll want to study this as much as we possibly can, though. It's still acting like it's alive, which is something the lab versions have never done." She glanced over at one of the other Tinkers. "Elena, you're our expert on the subject. Take whomever you need, piggyback off the zerg senses until we're sure it's safe to send our more advanced scanning tech. I'm sure Dragon's willing to help however she can."
"Of course," Dragon agreed.
"So what exactly were you hoping to do with this, anyway?" Chevalier looked at us. "Some people might consider a foreign nation engaging in attacks on American citizens, even their criminal citizens, on American soil to be a political crisis."
Vicky glanced between us, and I wondered what would happen if this came to a blowup. Vicky said she'd have broken up with him if I didn't approve of their relationship, but this was a pretty big thing. Crystal didn't look happy about it, either.
"We didn't use any Avalon resources," I stated. "Pantheon was supporting the Ambassadors, and Crystal's team isn't part of Avalon."
"That excuse won't hold," Chevalier responded.
ProtectiveSupport. Taylor stepped up in front of me, and I was torn between wanting to defend myself, and loving her for doing it for me. "We both know it will. The Protectorate's being held together by bubble gum and prayers right now, and every day things fall apart a little more. You don't have the resources to press the issue with us."
"Is that what this is going to be?" He asked. "We can't stop you so we just sit back and watch as you walk all over us?"
AngerGuilt. "You've seen Dragon's projections just like we have," Taylor pressed, not letting Chevalier's jab stick. "Even without Dinah's predictions looming over us, civilization is collapsing piece by piece. The colony worlds aren't going to help more than merely staunching the blood loss. We had a goal, one which would have helped us to help everyone. You know what we're preparing for."
"That argument lets you get away with a lot of things, but it's not a blank check," Chevalier responded. "That... thing... out there can be seen from orbit. It's not going to be so easily covered up."
"That was an accident," I argued. "Impossible to predict, and not even related to the mission."
"Which brings up a question," Chevalier continued. "What were you doing out there in the first place? You didn't alert the PRT, or the Protectorate. You just walked in, did your thing, and were planning to walk out again without consequence?"
"Easier to ask forgiveness than permission?" Lisa quipped.
AnnoyanceConcern. "Minerva, you're not helping," Taylor spoke up. "He's right, we're supposed to be allies. We could have been upfront about this."
"Allies or not, we're also competing for resources," Lisa stated. "We're better at using those resources than the Protectorate's government controlled bureaucracy could ever hope to be. Everyone here knows that every time we hand over some asshole that we captured to the PRT, whether they recruit them or imprison them, it's a resource we could have used that's instead going to waste."
"This is not the time or place," Taylor insisted.
"Well, if you really must know, we were stealing resources from the Elite," Lisa responded, sighing. "Mostly drugs that we were going to destroy, and a good amount of Tinker tech, including some wetworks. Important tech that would synergize well with what we already have."
"You know you've pretty much blown any chance of pulling anything like this again in the future, right?" Chevalier emphasized. "You're already on thin ice, please tell me you understand that. Push much harder and you will start a war between America and Avalon."
"We'll be fine," Lisa responded. "We spent our tokens, now we'll lay low until the next Endbringer, which is coming up in a week or so anyway. After that the slate will more or less be wiped clean and we'll be back to the status quo. Political capital has a very short shelf life, so we're spending it while we have it."
"I've read your theories on how the Passengers deliberately push for conflict," Chevalier pressed. "Is that what's happening here?"
I looked at the others. We were being watched by a lot of people. How much things have changed, that I could even have a conversation like this. A year ago, even six months ago, I would have caved in. My Passenger was driving me to insanity because I defied it constantly. And now it was quite the opposite, I followed the impulses and came away feeling stronger, smarter, more confident than I could ever have imagined me being. ConcernSupportWorryFear. Was it true? Were we hunting for a fight? It would explain a lot.
"No," I finally stated. We'd established that. Taylor and I have our loophole. Our impulses had turned inward to keep our bond, and we were happy with that. "In the interest of honesty, there's a Tinker by the name of Synth that we were hoping to capture. Chemistry Tinker, we could have used him to create a new level of medical technology." And combine his expertise with our other Tinkers and create another series of upgrades for our power boosting stims and maybe even the Cauldron vials.
"All those points made, we're going to have to silence this event," Alexandria finally spoke. "I think we can all agree that we don't need the general public to have the conversation we're having right now.
"How do you expect to cover something like this?" Chevalier asked.
"We don't have to hide the event itself," she responded. "Admitting to an unexpectedly violent Power Interaction is fine. It may create more fear from normal people toward parahumans, which we'll need to work to fix. But the events leading up to this can't go public."
"Even that's not too big a hit," Lisa added. "Some of Crystal's team got into a fight with the Elite, they got some outside reinforcements. Not the first or last time for that. If you ignore the parts where it was an unprovoked attack and we were planning to abduct a super villain across interdimensional borders, it's all perfectly innocent."
IncredulityAnnoyance.
==============
A/N- I briefly considered having having Lily try to attack the glowing flesh garden and accidentally destroying LA and surrounding countryside by sucking it into a dimensional rift.
The I decided that sounded like too much work and wouldn't really add to the story. So, didn't happen.
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pepperjack
A Variety of Cheese
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Also it would be dumb, for the reasons pointed out in this chapter.
cosoco
Not too sore, are you?
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Newter, for reasons
dasstan
:)
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Jesus fuck, finally. I feel like I've been waiting all day for this update. I needed my fix! *scratches at elbow*
Italics.
ConcernThreatened? "Threat" reads funny.
Italics.
Anywho. Lots of interesting things in this chapter. Friction with the more idealistic characters, cynicism from the characters that frequently consult with an oracle. I hope they're able to salvage Synth from all this, along with the whoever from the Ambassadors got caught in the multicolored flesh garden. Lack of cares for the other people, since they have backups, and GL was on the Avalon side of things.
Coruscant Knave
'Twas love that did this to you.
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I'm going with "boom, called it!" until explicitly proven otherwise.
Man, totally forgot about the freaky flesh gardens. Which is weird, because this story is so short.