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Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Reader mode
TanaNari said:
She looked up, and I got a brief glimpse of her face. She looked more like thirteen than eight, now, though of course her true age was still somewhere in her thirties. "I felt that I was not getting due respect and it is time to let my appearance reflect my status better."
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I assume that everyone sees where this is going.

Interesting perspective from GU. It's one step short of identifying him as the Endmaker, but also one step short of telling him how to recharge himself. I wonder if he'll make both discoveries himself.
 
Someone need to punch Eidolon in the face.

Like TTGL tier 'Grit your focking teeth' therapist punch.

THE ONLY TO WIN THIS IS BY FUCKING BELIEVE IN YOURSELF THAT TRUST FULLY OF YOUR INNATE POWER DAMMIT.
 
Tananari your analysis of worm just goes in the most interesting directions. I was curious just what kind of thinker power David was using, especially consider that he neglects tinker and thinker abilities in canon but I didn't expect this. And now that He knows that the endbringers can never kill him so they can't be worthy opponents. In fact unless he goes and clones himself, he will never have a true equal. No wonder the Bringers are going berserk.
 
Very interesting insights.

So he didn't have the most powerful capabilities he could pull up; he had the weakest. He was doing his best to almost throw the fight. And Rainbow Dragonfly couldn't let that shit fly. "Come on Dadversary, you gotta make it look good at least!"

Typo:
Is there one in my repertoire?
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I found the perfect name for newest Endbringer on the Block....Iris(is the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. She is also known as one of the goddesses of the sea and the sky. Iris links the gods to humanity. She travels with the speed of wind from one end of the world to the other and into the depths of the sea and the underworld.)
 
TanaNari said:
... I think you need to reread that part.
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It may be that I read into it differently. The Simurgh showed what an Endbringer can do when they kick back a bit more and don't toy with people as much, but the Simurgh doesn't really come near to an Entity in terms of power.

"The Simurgh demonstrated what an Endbringer could do if it so desired (bad things! Horrifying destruction! No way to fight back!), and whatever the origins of the Endbringers, there was no doubt the Entities had all those abilities and almost infinitely more at their disposal (those bad things are nothing compared to this)."

But I can get what you were saying with the original statement too.
 
Not exactly. It was saying that the Simurgh was clearly a master manipulator. And if an Endbringer can do that, then an Entity can do it better. Made clear by the context the sentence has in the paragraph.


Did anyone else have trouble understanding that?
 
Considering the line immediately following it is
TanaNari said:
Whatever the origins of the Endbringers, there was no doubt the Entities had all those abilities and almost infinitely more at their disposal.
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not really.

But I'm a touch confused, because sephlington' s clarification reads like they got it but then closes with the implication that they think the correct meaning is an alternate meaning. /shrug.
 
Amelia, Ch 369- Taylor
  • Threadmarks
    • Amelia, Ch 369- Taylor


    "ENOUGH!"


    Everything stopped. Everyone. Eidolon used a Master power.


    It was a command, a plea, it was an addendum to the laws of nature. My powers didn't cease, my mind remained my own, and I could sense my bugs, whether natural or otherwise. But I couldn't do anything to use them. Every insect and zerg in my range had gone still, as if the idea of movement was impossible to them. Every person on Avalon with an insect on them, also unmoving. Even Dragon's machinery had gone completely still. I was able to watch the mostly dismantled Endbringer through hundreds of eyes. It, too had ceased struggling.


    ConfusionFearPanic. I focused on Amelia, on our connection. I still had the hyperalertness, she was still in contact. Maybe we could work our way through this command by working off of each other. First I focused on calming her, on confidence, on trying to explain that I had a plan. TrustHopeAgreement. I pushed emotions into Taylia, then tried to dim the link as much as it was in my power to do. Whether Amelia saw my plan or was just imitating me, I didn't know, but I felt a rush of anger and determination, the need for freedom underlying it all. Neither of us had moved any, but if we could just keep this up, maybe we could shake this power.


    Eidolon's voice made itself clear in our heads after a couple minutes of struggle. "I'm sorry. You are released." I stumbled for a second, then reached over to Amelia. We wrapped our arms around each other in relief. Everyone else had started moving as well, everywhere in my range of senses. As did all my insects. Strangely enough, my zerg were still frozen. Fortunately, so was the Endbringer.



    "All the Endbringer signals are vanishing," Dragon's automated voice managed to sound surprised. "Those that weren't in position have stopped their approach, those the others have retreated from interaction with humans. I am continuing to monitor the situation."


    Eidolon shunted over and, somehow, Alexandria was standing next to him when he appeared on our side. He's the one with answers. I hopped off our platform, followed right after by Amelia. A slow fall to where they stood. To our right, Chevalier and Victoria also approached, along with a number of others. To our left, our collection of Thinkers.


    Alexandria looked down at the Endbringer head that Eidolon still carried. "Uh... Eidolon? What the fuck is going on right now?"


    He hesitated for a moment while most of us just stood there or started gathering around. He, too, was looking at the decapitated but still very much alive Endbringer. "I was tired. I'm sick of the game so I'm ending it."


    ConfusionAnxietyFear. What is he rambling about?


    Evidently Alexandria was just as confused as we were. "Eidolon, what are you talking about?"


    Most of us were silently forming up in a semicircle around the two of them. We wanted whatever answers Eidolon had to give. Alexandria had, by accident or intent, became the mouthpiece for the whole group.


    At least, until Lisa had to stick her nose in it as always. "I think I can explain. But, umm, there are some people here who we might not to know some of the more important secrets involved in this mess. I can't give a good exposition without airing out some dirty laundry and I'm not so sure how my new employers" SuspicionDisgust. "would feel about me blabbing after, like, less than a full week on the job. They might not give me my first paycheck."


    Eidolon regarded Lisa for a minute. "It's fine, Crow. As long as you keep it solely to my secrets, I'll take full responsibility."


    There was a loud laugh from the back. "You're calling yourself Crow?! Oh, god, I'll never run out of jokes! Hey, Alexandria, do you enjoy apologizing a lot?" He paused for half a second. I felt a shift as a new bug was spontaneously born of the Yggdrasil. PermissionAnticipation.


    "Oh, come on! No one got that? No one at all? It's a reference to a folk saying about ea- gah!" There was a series of coughs and then a sound like a sack of flour dropped on the ground. "How do you even have grasshoppers out here?" SatisfactionAmusement.


    I couldn't help but smile, though I kept my voice as neutral as possible. "My apologies... Crow," I didn't mean to hesitate, but her new name was yet another reminder of everything that had changed between us. "Please continue."


    Lisa nodded. "Well, in the interest of both brevity and shock value, we're all familiar with how Cauldron proved it could walk in and out of the Birdcage with less effort than the average person needs to change their socks. And they hired the Faerie Queen as a consultant."


    Right, that clandestine meeting where Amelia met her biological father. I reached over and gripped my partner's hand.


    "Well, the part that no one here was supposed to know about but at least half of us already do, is that Eidolon is a member of Cauldron," Lisa paused for a beat. "The thing that no one here knows is that Eidolon likes sticking it in the crazy while I watch."


    ShockDisbelief. What?


    "Crow, when I said you could explain things, it was with the implied caveat that you wouldn't make up stuff that never happened."


    Lisa sighed theatrically. "Fiiine. The pair of them have regular consultations where Eidolon asks a bunch of questions Cauldron wants to know about the way powers work and all kinds of other stuff. A few days ago, she let it slip that Eidolon has a really special power that's fucking bullshit as hell. Apparently, he has a power that makes it so bad things can't happen to him unless he wants them to. At least when it comes to superpowers. Attacks that would actually hurt him will miss, he's immune to Thinkers because he wants a modicum of privacy in his life. Today he tested that theory by trying to throw a match with the Endbringer while it did the same to him. Long story short, this causes all the other Endbringers to break. And then he took control of them because bullshit."


    "Wait a second," Zach spoke up. I felt another grasshopper forming nearby. "You're saying he has actual plot armor as an actual superpower? Jesus Christ, you should have called yourself Mary Sue."


    Chevalier stepped forward. "As much as I have to thank you for stopping the Endbringers, is it safe that you're still carrying the head of one of them?"


    Eidolon paused for a second. "You have a point." The head simply vanished. "I told it to shunt over to... the same place I'm storing the others for now. Don't worry, they're in a place where they can't cause harm to anyone."


    ImpressedWorried. She's right, that Endbringer alone is fucking insane. Plus all the others. Dinah said something about one of the factions in the final battle not yet existing. We already confirmed it wasn't Dragon. We asked her a lot of questions about the risks that we'd free her and then she'd start her own faction or much worse. But now... fuck. It was Eidolon. It was Eidolon and Glaistig Uaine and fifteen fucking Endbringers. Compared to that, would even a fully actualized Dragon be able to compete?


    Chevalier waited a moment, and I couldn't help but note the body language as Victoria stepped forward, just a little in front of the man right before her spoke up. "You do realize I can't stay silent about this information, right? I'm obligated to inform the PRT of your involvement with Cauldron and Glaistig Uaine. For what it's worth, I'm sorry about it, and I'm sure no one will hold it against you, considering it resulted in the end of the Endbringer attacks."


    Oh god damn it. FearDefensive. No wonder Vicky took a combat stance. If this pisses Eidolon off, we're all fucked.


    Eidolon stood there, regarding the much taller man in silence. "No, that's fine. I expected there to be a backlash from the moment I selected the power I did. I killed a lot of people with it. I felt some of them die. Dragon, can you tell me what this cost?" His voice was hollow sounding, like he simply didn't care what happened next.


    He's right, this was a Master effect that hit every living thing on the world. That's a big fucking deal. "Go ahead, Dragon, answer the question."


    There was a momentary pause. "A definitive answer will take time. The emergency bands have thousands of car and other vehicle accidents. One commercial airliner crashed during takeoff. Numerous cases of interrupted medical procedures. A number of drownings at beaches or in pools. It will likely take weeks before all the numbers can be confirmed, but I'd estimate between twenty and thirty thousand lives based upon initial reports. We are fortunate that there were no significant accidents at nuclear power plants or weapons facilities."


    "In short, they'll want me to be put in the cage by the end of this. There won't be a lot of choice. Cooperate and go peacefully, or receive a kill order. Don't worry, I won't put up a fight, but I'd like to take care of a few things before I go. Get my house in order, as it were."


    Chevalier hesitated, glancing at the rest of us before speaking. "You can't believe they'd do that! You're a hero, and you just saved the world from the Endbringers."


    Lisa actually laughed. "Aren't the youth supposed to be the idealists and adults the cynics? This wasn't just the local area that got effected. Every man, woman and child, plus all their housepets and basically everything else, were caught by this. You remember how it felt, being paralyzed for a couple minutes, unable to even blink. Imagine how much worse that was for the people who couldn't figure out what happened or why. China's going to be screaming for fucking blood, villains will join that bandwagon once they change their pants. And even the hero groups are going to be pretty nervous about this."


    Chevalier stood there quietly, we all did. She was right, this was huge. We knew it covered all of Avalon and Bet. The colony worlds were functionally an extension of Bet, their being hit wouldn't change anything. But did it extend to Aleph? Or worse, Dallet or Gimmel? The other populated human worlds that we hadn't discovered yet? At least Aleph had talked with us enough to know the basics. There were worlds that were entirely defenseless. Who might thing this was an act of God in the literal sense. Civilizations have collapsed over smaller things than this.


    "But you don't have to worry about all that," Lisa added cheerfully. "I have a totally awesome plan that's going to fix all of this. It'll be perfect!"


    RegretDread. Oh god damn it.



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


    A/N- Check the chapter number.
     
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    • TanaNari said:
    Lisa actually laughed. "Aren't the youth supposed to be the idealists and adults the cynics? This wasn't just the local area that got effected. Every man, woman and child, plus all their housepets
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    I am a housplant and I vote.

    TanaNari said:
    Chevalier stood there quietly, we all did. She was right, this was huge. We knew it covered all of Avalon and Bet. The colony worlds were functionally an extension of Bet, their being hit wouldn't change anything. But did it extend to Aleph? Or worse, Dallet or Gimmel? The other populated human worlds that we hadn't discovered yet? At least Aleph had talked with us enough to know the basics. There were worlds that were entirely defenseless. Who might thing this was an act of God in the literal sense. Civilizations have collapsed over smaller things than this.
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    Meh, it was civilization ending because Endbringers, or civilization taking a 5-minute time-out because Eidolon.

    Not a bad trade, IMHO.

    Give the dude a high five, make some solemn speeches about the sacrifices blah blah, arrange for a week-long FUCK THE ENDBRINGERS party starting in two days once the mourning wears off, and it's a wrap.
     
    Well, I got it mostly right.

    It was Eidolon, he was realising that he was the Endmaker, and he was telling everyone to stop.

    Lisa's explanation? Fits the observable facts, but doesn't open up Eidolon to being the person who unleashed the Endbringers in the first place.

    Which would bring a backlash, about fifty times as bad. So I'm betting Eidolon and Lisa (at least) know the real deal, but they're going with this one as the lesser evil.

    Lisa even said it: "And then he took control of them because bullshit."

    In short, she gave the whole explanation, then ended it with the word 'bullshit'. Because that's what the explanation was.
     
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