Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

[Diller]

That's not Taylor's fault. She still has no idea how things got when her original suicided.

Amelia and Lisa never ever wanted to talk about it as Taylor just went along with as she saw just how bad they reacted to the mere mention of it.
her. She would've talked to Lisa about it if Lisa had approached her but Lisa given her guilt, second trigger, and her power telling her that this isn't her best friend would never open to this Taylor voluntarily.

And Taylor was the only person she was close to in Panthenon.

Again there's a reason pretty much everyone agrees Lisa is a bitch in-universe. I love the girl but she does act like a total bitch pretty much all the time. Sometime it's necessary like with Riley. Often times it's not like this bullshit she just pulled off.

If Lisa was a nicer person then people would give her less of a hard time.

Lisa is punishing herself by acting this way. She still feels guilty about not noticing her brother was suicidal and acts the way she does to not get close to people and punish herself.

also Lisa is feeling lost because Taylor no longer needs her. Let's be real here, part if the reason she disliked Taylia was because it made her jealous. Taylor her best friend was now closer to someone who had been her enemy and tried to harm then her own best friend.

That was the reason she had that talk with Alexandria about family.


In fact now that I think about she never did tell Amelia why she was so jealous of Taylia did she?

TLDR This entire situation has been building up since the Butcher arc. Lisa should've had this discussion then but a combination of Lisa and Amy's unspoken agreement to never talk about what happened; Taylor not knowing the exact detail and not trying to get those details led to these emotions fostering up inside Lisa with no way to get out as the only person she might've talked to just suicides partially because of her actions and her powers constantly tell her the other Taylor is a clone.

 

[hellgodsrus]

I feel part of the issue is that Lisa isn't shifting her position at all. We've known she feels like this for a while, and it doesn't appear to have changed despite evidence to the contrary. Yeah, reasonable enough to be a big messy ball of emotion and have issues sorting through it, but I would have thought she'd have developed some more nuances than 'Taylor's deaaaaaaaaad', partly because she is actually quite smart without her power - not as smart as with it, but not bad.

In fact, here's the philosophical argument I've been rabbiting on about:

Spoiler: Spoiler for really lengthy philosophical discussion not everyone will be interested in and I've explained badly

Right. So the basic premise of Hofstader's theory of consciousness is that it is based both on past experience (shaded by current intent) and feedback from your surroundings (again, shaded by current intent) that thus further changes one's intent and adds to experiences, thus changing the consciousness and one's input that therefore changes the surroundings, etc. In essence this creates a fractal loop, like pointing a camera at a screen displaying the image it's about to take, or an Escher drawing, constantly updating and shifting with each rotation and interaction with surroundings. Further complicating this, everyone's individual loop contains elements of other people's loops - when you interact with someone, you build up an image of what you think their loop is like that then acts in your mind. When you find a character in a book sympathetic or know someone really well you have a very clear (maybe even accurate in comparison to their own iteration) version of their loop! If you don't know someone well, or haven't interacted with them in a while then their loop will naturally veer away from being akin to their iteration of the loop. Because this loop is essentially composed entirely of memories, a clone with all your original memories is you, and has equal primacy to you. The only time the clone would become not you is when its experiences would become different from yours - i.e., if someone cloned you, then let your clone live in a shed for a year then the clone would be a different person. If we ever develop cloning technology, a fun experiment might be to try locking you in a shed for a year afterwards, to see if your self loops end up similar (can we isolate the 'locked in a shed' effect on someone's personality?).

In essence, Lisa is saying that Taylor isn't herself because she had an interruption of consciousness and doesn't have all the memories Taylor had when she died. A relatively valid argument - she certainly isn't the Taylor who died, even ignoring her extra few months of memories. The issue is that's implying that somehow later iterations of Taylor should have primacy over the earlier copy of Taylor which is stupid. It'd be like me saying that somehow a first draft of a story is a less valid version of it than a final draft - sure, it's not the one I'm keeping, but in essence it still occurred, is still itself a story and an iteration of the overall theme of the narrative in question. The earlier copy is still a Taylor, no more valid or not valid than any other, just as Lisa would still be Lisa if you shot her full of drugs or locked her in a shed (or hit her on the head and gave her retrograde amnesia).

The very fact that Lisa stubbornly seems not to have considered arguments for her position (and there are arguments - none I find convincing, but there are arguments) and is just saying 'nuh-uh, that's what my power says' when she knows her power can be wrong is what I think we're mostly irritated about.

 

[EragonVsHarry]

Good stuff. Particularly liked the stuff with the link, and the whole 'Crystal quits!' thing, which I really should have seen coming.

Lisa...I'll reiterate. READ I AM A STRANGE LOOP. It solves your stupid problems. Seriously. Also, it's by Douglas Hofstader, author of Goedel Escher Bach and one of the finest mathematicians of our generation. It's excellent. Read it. Read it Lisa.

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I've actually read GEB, and with this recommendation i might go find that other book :3

 

[Beyogi]

Oh well, I guess the prophicied Pantheon breakup is happening. Only totally different than expected.

I'd guess Lisa will leave to Cauldron, the non-essential members might also pull a Crystal and the core crew will likely stay. I'm curious how they'll replace Lisa though. With Worm Shard drama fuckery I don't think this has a chance in hell to end without a blowup. Maybe Lisa will even get Taylor to third trigger when she gets Taylor to kill her.

Hm... how else could drama be maximised. Ah yes... this would be the perfect time for Eidolons secret to come out. Maybe Dragon decides to go killbot on him, obeying one of Avalon's laws that Accord fucked up thanks to power interaction.

 

[Publicola]

Amelia, Ch 330- Nelson
I spared a glance at the large birdlike creature next to him, electricity dancing from its eyes. With Victoria's help, as well as some insights from Minerva and a couple other Thinkers, I'd started learning how to understand the apparitions. They were a sort of mental translation of what my power was seeing about their powers. A hallucination, but one with a pattern. One caused because my human brain couldn't comprehend the actual concepts being shown, and simply gave me an approximation. Of the source of powers, the Passengers, and how they interacted with their hosts.
...
I'd been learning to read their responses, the subtle ways they responded and what that meant. In a way, it made me an effective empath, as long as I was smart about it. A way to read someone's subconscious, as long as they were a parahuman. This one was angry, longing to prove itself and redeem its prior humiliation.

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Holy crap. Holy CRAP. Am I the only one who saw what TanaNari was doing here? Nelson has the ability to perceive other cape's subconscious impulses and how they interact with their shards. Put this guy in front of Eidolon, and game over for the 'Endmakers.' I'm kinda appalled that everyone was so caught up in Taylia relationship angst that they seemed to miss this bit of foreshadowing.

Great fic, by the way. Absurdly long, but very well written and well worth the effort of reading. My tastes run to the "fix it" part, though not the "darkest" part, but this is definitely among my favorite fanfics. Thanks for writing.

 

[Swingline#57]

I'm kinda appalled that everyone was so caught up in Taylia relationship angst that they seemed to miss this bit of foreshadowing.

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It's not that we missed it, it's that it seems too easy (well, to me anyway).

 

[dasstan]

Holy crap. Holy CRAP. Am I the only one who saw what TanaNari was doing here? Nelson has the ability to perceive other cape's subconscious impulses and how they interact with their shards. Put this guy in front of Eidolon, and game over for the 'Endmakers.' I'm kinda appalled that everyone was so caught up in Taylia relationship angst that they seemed to miss this bit of foreshadowing.

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Assuming that Eidolon's shard doesn't look like some dadaist painting, the guy has been to Endbringer battles before. If it were as easy as seeing a connection between Eidolon's shard and the Endbringers, Chevalier probably would have noticed it.

 

[TanaNari]

Great fic, by the way. Absurdly long

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Thanks. And... yeah... this DID get away from me. I thought I'd be done with it a loooong time ago. Kinda glad I'm not, in a way, there's a LOT of growth I've achieved as a writer during this story, and I'm glad for it. This fic always was meant to be a "practice run" to improve my skills, and learn how to write for an online audience (very different animal than other types of publishing).

 

[Can'tthinkofaname]

Hmm. Did GU accidentally kill GL with her Hatchet Face ghost? That would suck, he was just getting fleshed out as a character. Or maybe he got sucked into the power interaction Garden of Eden thing and that's why this one was alive.

 

[Snake/Eater]

Hmm. Did GU accidentally kill GL with her Hatchet Face ghost? That would suck, he was just getting fleshed out as a character. Or maybe he got sucked into the power interaction Garden of Eden thing and that's why this one was alive.

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He is not dead...he's just upgraded to God.lol

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 355- Taylor

Alexandria leaned forward. "I'm sorry, you really don't have much choice in the matter. Nor do I for that matter."


"Fush off," Synth managed to utter with his newly regenerated tongue and mouth. We hadn't gotten around to his hands or feet yet, but we needed him to be able to talk. "Ah wanth mah lawer, I know mah riths."


"Actually, Synth, the right to a lawyer doesn't apply here," Dragon spoke next, from her spot leaning against the door. "You are not in America, you are currently being held on Avalon, which has a very different legal standard. Notably, it actually works. You have no right to remain silent, and while you have right to counsel, it's not quite the same sort of counsel as a lawyer."


Synth watched silently, put off by Dragon's dry, inhuman tone. Dragon's android body was perfected to the point of indistinguishable from human, complete with a vat grown organic layer atop the cybernetics inside. I wasn't certain why she'd go through that level of effort, when our changelings were exponentially better than human bodies, but we weren't going to tell her she couldn't.


"Avalon employs lie detection technology as an established legal precedent. There can be no question of guilt or innocence, merely of justification. If this goes to trial, you would confess why you committed the crimes you did and explain why you did them while monitored to ensure you're telling the truth. It is your right to have counsel to help you prepare your statement to better express yourself. Then the judge and jury determine the severity of your punishment based upon the statements of both you and your victims."


Alexandria slid a folder over to the man. "In your case, you're being charged with twelve counts of murder, two hundred and fifteen counts of kidnapping and human experimentation, over four hundred cases of murder and conspiracy to commit murder by use of powers, and one hundred and seventeen counts of the use of powers for conspiracy to commit sexual assault and rape."


Synth jumped out of his seat. "Rafe, I newer!" By the time he'd finished the sentence, he was already tumbling to the relatively soft floor of the Yggdrasil, screaming in pain. I wasn't feeling particularly sympathetic.


"The drugs you sold have been used in numerous cases of date rape and other similar crimes." Dragon's voice was carefully neutral, even mechanical. Intentionally so, for whatever psychological game the pair of them assumed would get to Synth. "You provided those drugs, and continued to provide them even knowing how your clients were using them. According to Avalon law, you would be provided to the territory which has the highest punishment you'd be eligible for. Then passed down to the nations with lesser crimes upon completion of a given sentence. Hold no illusions, you're guilty of capital offenses and you can provide no justification that a jury would accept. This means you are going to be the first legal execution on Avalon soil."


Alexandria drummed her fingers on the table. "I'm afraid it's true. While there are some questions of how this works from an international jurisdiction that might allow the USA to turn this into an extradition battle, that would require the President to want to save you. I don't suppose you have any ideas why he'd want to?"​

I drew my attention away from them, Dragon could handle everything. Alexandria was there so they could play 'you're already fucked' cop and 'I can't do shit for you' cop. Or something like that. A simple problem that would be handled simply. Worst case scenario, we'd invoke our military resource right to take him from whomever got to convict him. What I had in front of me was far, far more complicated.


Amelia broke the silence first, her voice sounding very much like her mother's. "So, I hear you don't think we're really us."


Lisa didn't pull her eyes away from me. "Don't be obtuse, of course you're really you. To claim otherwise would be absurd. What I said was that you're not really Amelia Lavere and Taylor Hebert. You have their faces, their names, even most of their memories. But you're not really them, you're replacement copies."


FrustrationAnger. "That doesn't stop us from being them," I spoke through the haze of emotion flooding our link. If I didn't have Amelia backing me up, I already would have punched my supposed best friend. "I still love my father, he still loves me. Then Crystal has her mother, and the list goes on." I tactfully left out the quagmire that was the Dallon household. There were other, perfectly valid, reasons that Amelia didn't consider Mark and Carol her parents.


"Because we should trust a bunch of people whose children are all died in various, horrible ways to accept the harsh truth when they have convenient copies right in front of them to support the illusion that their deaths never happened? I'm sorry, that doesn't work."


"Taylor's real," Amelia slammed her hands down onto the table. "I am real. She's the same girl I fell in love with."


"Your predecessor," Lisa corrected. "She's the copy of the copy of the girl you were copied from fell in love with."


I rubbed my eyes with my hand. "This 'we're not real' shit is getting old, Lisa. I'm pretty sure if someone killed me, they'd be guilty of murder."


"Of course that's murder!" Lisa exclaimed. "It's murder to kill any three month old!" She took a deep breath and looked at me. "I'm not saying you're not alive or not people, that would be preposterous. But you're not the same people. And don't give me that 'same memories, same person' bullshit, because that's all that is. Bullshit. If you grow a clone, wake her up, and then kill her right after, that's not a suicide. If you kill yourself and your clone gets woken up, then that's still a suicide even though you knew you'd have a replacement."


She took another breath, then continued. "Or what happens if you create a clone, then kill the original? Or for that matter the clone? In both cases, it's a murder. Kill them both, it's two different murders. What we did to Noelle was murder, and any court would convict us."


GuiltRegretAnger. Amelia sighed painfully. "Noelle wanted to die, if that was the only way to save herself from becoming a monster. And you're the one who lied to us and said it was a mind transfer device, not a copying machine."


Lisa shrugged. "Okay, I'll concede that point. It was an assisted suicide, and only Riley and I are guilty of any part of it that can be considered a crime. Doesn't change the fact that Noelle was killed after she had a fantasy copy built to replace her. The point remains, if you were given it to do over again knowing what you currently do, would you be able to do the same thing and then claim you had not just killed someone?"


ConcernDoubtPain. I reached over and placed my hand on Amelia's shoulder. "That doesn't mean I'm not Taylor, and she's not Amelia."


"That's a question for philosophers to debate," Lisa dismissed. "It doesn't change the reality. You may be a Taylor, but you're not the Taylor. Oh, and don't pull the whole 'interruption of consciousness, every time you sleep you functionally die' pedantry, either. No matter how you look at it, when Taylor died, she died. There may be powers out there that can change that, but the restoration tech is not one of them. You're a duplicate, and not even a complete duplicate."


I kept still, letting Amelia calm me while I calmed her in turn. We both needed it. I thought back at the notes I'd left myself, letting me know at least the basics of the events I wasn't expecting to remember. "So, I lost a few days, nothing that can't be done by a good blow to the head or alcohol or whatever Master/Stranger power comes out that does memory alterations, I'm sure someone out there can do it. They'd still be the same person."


She looked at my partner. "Come on, Amelia, I know you remember all that fear after Taylor's first death. Knowing what you got back wouldn't be the same person. Very close, but not the same. You remember what that Taylor said, right before she killed herself."


RageDisgustGuiltHate. "Thin. Fucking. Ice." Amelia spoke through gritted teeth.


Lisa didn't back down. Then again, why would I expect otherwise? She mouthed off to Jack Slash while within feet of the Siberian. "And how we were so desperately hoping our time line turned out worse, so we could delete it and keep one where Taylor lived."


Amelia slumped back. "Yes, I remember." PainRemorse.


Lisa pressed. "Go ahead and tell Taylor her own last words."


"She told me to take care of..." Amelia glanced at me. "You. That was her last wish. That I didn't hold you responsible for her mistakes."


"Don't forget that version of Taylor died as well. So, for that matter, did the original Amelia who was given that dying wish."


Amelia's head snapped back over to Lisa. "But that doesn't matter! She's still Taylor, I'm still Amelia, and you're still a bitch for putting us all in this position."


"If you think this Taylor's the original, how come you never talked to her about that? I should think her own death would be important. The actions that led up to it even moreso. If you love her so much, how are you able to justify lying to her like this?"


Amelia slumped down. "Fuck you. Fuck you so much for this."


I glanced over at Amelia. FearGuiltLoss. "Amelia?"


She looked at me, tears forming in eyes. "Your lost week, before you died to stop the Butcher. We spent it fighting. The bond was broken because... because you had your brain altered to... be attracted to me. Not even attracted to women. Just me. and it looked so fucking much like what I did to Vicky. And I flipped out and ended our bond and... and that's the only reason Dinah gave us an all clear to attack the Butcher, because she predicted you'd kill yourself to fix everything. I'm so sorry." She fell into her arms, weeping.


Every possible kind of fuck. I got out of my seat and moved over to Amelia, leaning over her and wrapping my arms around her. Then I looked up at Lisa. "Is this what you wanted?"


Her eyes met mine. "For my best friend's loved ones to cry for her loss? Not exactly the happiest moment of my life, but it's better than what I've been watching for the better part of a year, now."


"By your own logic, your best friend doesn't have any loved ones in this room."


Lisa flinched before I realized just how that statement could have been misunderstood. RealizationAgreementHate. Oh, fuck, there's more to this story. I held Amelia as I ran through the logic. Lisa wasn't the only one who had intuition. "Of course I'd have been pissed at you, too. Amelia broke our link, you were adamant about it being a bad idea. You probably said something, and knowing me... knowing what bitch I was before I had Amelia's love to give me something worth living for. I'm guessing whatever I said was unnecessarily cruel."


Amelia spoke up. "You said your friendship was over, and that the only reason she was still on the team was because she was too useful to get rid of."


And suddenly I regret not finding out about this earlier. "Well. Fuck. Is that what this is about, Lisa? That version of me says we're not friends, that extends to me, too? Because if that's the card you want to play, it sounds like utter bullshit to me. Just because she decided to be a bitch, I and the whole rest of the team have to suffer your acting like this?"


"Oh, so now you're willing to call yourself a different person?" Lisa glared at me. "The moment the original does something you don't agree with. Come on, Taylor, if you're going to be a hypocrite, at least be consistent about it."


I looked down at Amelia, still with her face buried in her arms. "Okay, fine, consistent it is. You've convinced me. I'm a copy. Not even that, I'm a copy of a copy. A backup plan created to carry on the legacy of the original when she couldn't. Born to be a replacement."


ConcernNegationLoss. Amelia looked up at me, to protest, but I put my thumb over her mouth. "And on the balance? I'm pretty okay with that. So I'm only a few months old? Whatever. I have success and power and prestige that I didn't have to go through the trouble of earning, because my creator did it for me." Or something like that, this situation's weird enough without us asking whether prior-Taylor counts as my parent, or Emma and Riley do. Don't know, don't care, don't matter. "I have control of two entire worlds and the single most powerful military force on a hundred and twenty different Earths all at my command, and the memories needed to know how to use them. And I even get to ignore all the guilt and regrets the original accumulated. After all, if I'm not her, then her sins aren't mine to regret. I'm an innocent."


I kneeled down in front of Amelia looking at her eyes. "And more than all of that, I have someone who loves me. I was literally born to love and be loved by you, Amelia, and I can't imagine anything that makes me happier. You were created at the same time, our histories are just memories that aren't even ours, so we don't have to regret them at all, and we're not held to their promises. The only thing that matters is our future, and I will spend mine with you." LoveHopeSafeRedemptionAgreement. I kissed her cheek. "If you'll give me a minute."


LoveAgreementPatienceLonging. I stood and walked around the table over to Lisa.


She looked at me, more confused than anything. I couldn't help but feel a little smug amusement that I completely knocked her off her game. "Hi, I'm Taylor," I said, holding out my hand. Lisa looked at me like I was insane, then slowly reached out and accepted the handshake. "I'm sorry for your loss, and being so insensitive about it for so long. I never met her, but I'd like to think I know her pretty well. My apologies, but she was kind of a bitch."


Lisa's smile was forced, but at least it was a smile. "She had her moments, good and bad."


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


A/N- Reporter: "Taylor, how did you not only defeat existential angst, but turn it into your bitch?"

Taylor: "Well, it's easy when you actively despise yourself. Past self. Sorry, I may have beaten angst, but I have yet to conquer the Elder God that is English tenses."


Also... this is a 2500 word chapter. Eeesh.

 

[Gendie07]

skitter fucks Existential Angst right in the ass

 

[Coruscant Knave]

Hurray! I think.

I drew my attention away from them, Dragon could handle everything. Alexandria was there so they could play 'you're already fucked' cop and 'I can't do shit for you' cop. Or something like that. A simple problem that would be handled simply. Worst case scenario, we'd invoke our military resource right to Missing Word?.

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Me thinks this line was the terrible victim of in-line editing.

 

[B.B. Rain]

...Okay, that's pretty smooth. Assuming Lisa isn't faking it like she apparently has been for the last few months, and is still callously planning to betray them the moment they're no longer necessary- I'm sorry, turning information over to Cauldron through Alexandria to design contingency plans to truly eliminate them post-Scion, in case they go too far.

 

[GiftofLove]

skitter fucks Existential Angst right in the ass

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Then she shoots it in the head to save the world.

(I regret nothing)

 

[gatewaewanderer]

... I doubt very much this is anywhere near over. I just no idea how the heck this is gonna be resolved. Says a heck-of-a-lot (of good things,) about TanaNari as an author that he could come up with something as insanely complex and mind-bending as the situations that Pantheon are in, the moral dilemmas and existential crises are pretty darn rare, if not entirely unique to the best of my knowledge. Also the kind of stuff that would almost certainly break most people, but of course Pantheon just picks themselves back up and, after some navel-gazing, heated debates, and plain 'ol fighting, they just keep on chugging along. Really makes you winder what the endgame is gonna look like, who's gonna be left standing and sh will fall by the wayside when everything is said and done.

 

[pepperjack]

The fact that this line of patter seems to be working for Taylor is further evidence for me that it doesn't fucking matter who's right here.

 

[Pathos]

Lisa didn't want to be right or wrong. Lisa didn't know what Lisa wanted.

What Lisa needed was for someone to finally show that they gave a fuck about her as a person and wanted her around not just for her powers. Regarding Talexandria (or whatever the hell we're calling it), it still depends largely upon her powers and brings back the memories of when her best friend told her that,

"[Taylor] said [their] friendship was over, and that the only reason she was still on the team was because she was too useful to get rid of."

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So, sort of a problem finding meaningful comfort/closure for her issues there.

Then along comes Taylor 3.0 giving her exactly what she secretly wants and needs. Great Victory had by all, now to break out the champagne and the new Endbringer.

 

[Mastigos2]

Lisa could fix this on her own.

Ask super-intuition: "What the fuck just happened? Why is everyone so pissed off at me?"
Answer: "You dun goofed."

Ask postcog: "Where did I go wrong?"
Answer: "Telling Taylor she isn't really Taylor."

She's even been using her own powers to analyse her own actions. Did she suddenly stop?

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You don't understand. Lisa's power says that clones really AREN'T their originators. And considering the way it feeds into her mind, that's going to continuously get shoved into her thoughts as plain and simple truth. It wasn't just her lashing out to distract people, but also her honest feelings about the situation. As in, she's grieving after repressing for months.

 

[dasstan]

Kind of curious what would happen if two Taylors were up and running at the same time. Would the shared swarm connection allow for what amounts to telepathy? As long as any two or more Taylors are alive, Taylor cannot be ended.

Would the same thing happen if you have two Amelia's that are both touching Yggdrasil? And what happens to the Taylia bond when there are a bunch of different Taylors sharing emotions with a bunch of different Amelias? Does Taylia just piddle itself with joy at the additional input?

Anywho~ the stuff in the chapter was wrapped up far too easily. No way it's over. Also, good for Defiant and Dragon. They can get their freak on, now.

 

[pepperjack]

Kind of curious what would happen if two Taylors were up and running at the same time.

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Only one of them would have powers, I should think.

I trust that someone will come along and correct me based on evidence from 200 chapters ago presently.

 

[dasstan]

Only one of them would have powers, I should think.

I trust that someone will come along and correct me based on evidence from 200 chapters ago presently.

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... Why on Earth would you think that you can't have multiple clones (with powers) running at the same time? Blah blah, Slaughterhouse 9000, etc.

 

[GiftofLove]

... Why on Earth would you think that you can't have multiple clones (with powers) running at the same time? Blah blah, Slaughterhouse 9000, etc.

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Plus Noelle.

 

[pepperjack]

... Why on Earth would you think that you can't have multiple clones (with powers) running at the same time? Blah blah, Slaughterhouse 9000, etc.

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I forgot about that again. I forget about that every time.

I guess I'm still hung up on Victoria triggering with different powers after being [verbed].

 

[jaelin910]

ran the chapter through spell check in word. may have missed a few and they're probably out of order but here's a few corrections.

"I'm afraid it's true. While there are some questions of how this works from an international jurisdiction that might allow the USA to turn this into an extradition battle, that would require the President to want to save you. I don't suppose you have any ideas why he'd want to?

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the comma in the middle feels slightly off... like it wants to actually close the sentence. also, you missed the end quotes

If you love her so much, how are you able to justify lying to her like this."

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being a question, a question mark would be appropriate here

Oh, and don't pull the whole 'interuption of consciousness, every time you sleep you functionally die' pedantics, either.

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interruption
also, 'pedantics' feels slightly wrong (though that might just be because spellcheck is saying it is)

"Noelle wanted to die, if that was the only way to save herself from becoming a montser.

Click to shrink...

monster

 

[Projectile]

I was hoping for a better argument from Lisa than "don't pull the whole 'interruption of consciousness...'", because I'm genuinely interested in philosophical crap, especially issues with identity. Lisa mentioned that they had already agreed that the revived people wouldn't be the same as the ones who died; does anyone remember where that was?

Anyway, I'll google identity and see what I can find. The second result (http://www.iep.utm.edu/person-i/#SH2a) is promising. It even asks, "what does a supernatural being have to do in order to resurrect you after you die?" Should be interesting.

Some of the explanations for identity are:
-Some fundamental quality such as a soul (Not touching this one)
-Continuity of consciousness (What Taylor tries to argue originally)
-Sameness of body (Maybe Lisa's take on things)
-Connected links of psychological traits such as personality and memory. I like this theory because it allows for the intuition that individuals don't become different people even after forgetting a lot. According to this, indirect links to past experiences are sufficient.
-And finally, there's the "You guys are way too worked up about this" theory, which claims that things such as survival are more important than the idea of identity. Maybe Pantheon could use some of this.

Anyway, the philosophical debate wasn't really solved in a satisfactory manner, but at least Taylor and Lisa are friends again/for the first time. So, yay, but we'll see how long it lasts. And if anyone has any other ideas on identity, I'd love to hear them.

 

[TanaNari]

Victoria triggering with different powers

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That may have something to do with the adorifying Trump Biotinker going out of her way to make sure Vicky couldn't get her powers back... and miscalculating...

Lisa mentioned that they had already agreed that the revived people wouldn't be the same as the ones who died; does anyone remember where that was?

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See the conclusion of the Butcher arc, and Taylor right before and right after her death.

 

[Ack]

I like it. Instead of arguing that she really is the original Taylor, and instead of (as I half expected her to) snapping back and saying "Well, you're blaming me for my predecessor's mistakes, which makes you just as big a hypocrite", Taylor took it and ran with it, and turned it around.

Kudos, Taylor. Kudos. "I was literally made to love you."

And maybe this time round they can get the "I'm actually attracted to you" fix put in without anyone going bat-shit crazy over it. Because the sexual tension has got to be fairly impressive by now (I don't care HOW much Amelia is willing to let her relationship with Taylor be platonic, when you're a teenager cuddling up to the person you're most attracted to in all the world, you WILL get sexually aroused. Hormones. They are a thing).

Also, typos:

If I didn't have Amelia backing me up, I already would have punched by supposed best friend.

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my

She fell into her arms, weeping.

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whose arms?

 

[Snake/Eater]

That may have something to do with the adorifying Trump Biotinker going out of her way to make sure Vicky couldn't get her powers back... and miscalculating...

Click to shrink...

since your in the mood to reveal tidbits of your story,heres a question for the class.

welcome to the classroom of the mind.
Snake/Eater:did Riley program Vicky to be nice to her or was Vicky genuinely forgiving of her past.

 

[Pathos]

since your in the mood to reveal tidbits of your story,heres a question for the class.

welcome to the classroom of the mind.
Snake/Eater:did Riley program Vicky to be nice to her or was Vicky genuinely forgiving of her past.

Click to shrink...