Just a Phase [Worm]

OK, so (assuming this is correct) only the parts that Piggot cares about have been shut down. Well, that is consistent with her behavior, at least. It doesn't fit the impression that I have of YG in general, but the YG in this fic seems better than that, already.

This is also a good point.

 

Have to wonder did Emma destroy the flute in this timeline and if she did does she still have its remains, because if she reaply wants to start making amends with Taylor that might be a good start to show that she is serious and not trying to do the whole fake apology thing again.

 

Returning the pieces would just be seen as another taunt.

 

Not if she cleans them up and reassembles them, but yeah Taylor would be the kinda girl to see an insult in that as well.

Edit: because I just remembered.

FirstSelector there is a new omake on page 25 you never thread marked.

 

Even if she has the pieces, and gets them cleaned and repaired, there remains the question of how to get the flute to Taylor. She can't go in person - I doubt her parents are going to take her to Boston for this, and I don't think she can just hop on a bus or train as a minor. She might try mailing it, but I doubt she has Taylor's mailing address, and the Boston PRT are probably well aware that there is nobody to send Taylor mail, so it is likely to be intercepted in the mailroom. I can't see a scenario where Emma is able to indicate she sent it, either on the return address or an enclosed note, and the package being allowed through. If she doesn't indicate she is the sender, what is Taylor to think about being sent a flute anonymously in ths mail?

 

Could be a tragic thing with Emma trying to show that she is serious about apologizing only to be continually blocked by the walls Taylor put up to defend herself from Emma. But for how she could go about it she could try and talk to Danny about returning it to Taylor if she doesn't know that Taylor is also not talking to him or try and get her parents to take it for her since the PRT won't let Emma near Taylor.

As for how Taylor would react to receiving the flute anonymously I imagine she would have mixed feelings since it is her mother's flute and only a few people would be aware of that fact.

 

Oooor it will be seen as yet more evidence that Emma can get away with whatever she wants. There is no good ending here.

 

And Emma’s dad would veto the idea because between the fact that Emma is forbidden by a federal law enforcement organization from contacting Taylor by any method under any circumstance short of an Endbringer Truce (and even there she would be allowed only minimal tactically relevant communication) and how giving her primary victim physical evidence of theft and destruction of private property would make it easier to finally force the PRT/Protectorate to act, therefore he would consider returning the flute, repaired or not, too much of a legal liability.

 

On subversive movie night choices from Taylor? I caught part of "The Sound of Music" last night, and think Taylor would really identify with Captain Von Trapp. He was a highly decorated officer of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Navy, who after WWI was retired because the part he lived in no longer had a coast line after Austria-Hungary was broken up.

In a post Anschluss Austria he is "offered" a commission in the German Navy. As he described the telegram? "To refuse them would be fatal for all of us. And joining them would be unthinkable."

Yeah, I can see Taylor sympathizing and maybe dropping a few more choice quotes he had against the Nazis in reference to being a Ward. Or just use Von Trapp's final rendition of "Edelweiss" or the Goodbye Song when the family makes their escape from the theater as ringtones on her phone.

 

Well Taylor can always go with another classic like the Shawshank Redemption, since the Boston Department unlike the ENE Department doesn't have a connection to a Nazi organization in the same city. Plus she can also relate to Andy since she committed no crime but is essentially locked up against her will anyways with her wardens wanting to take advantage of her abilities for their own profits.

 

Part of the reason is Von Trapp is offered his own sea command again, which should be and other consider an honor, and refuses because he considered the people offering it abhorrent. It was less an offer and more a pressganging with a polite veneer.

 

Another option for a movie could be stepping away from the press ganging topic. Instead Taylor could go with the movie Carrie which she relates to on a disturbing level and the pig's blood prank is a good representation of the locker prank if she really wants the other Wards to understand her perspective and to warn them on what she could have done in response.

 

I was picking movies with an eye towards expressing her feelings for Boston and "we aren't part of that, really!" attitude she is getting. Carrie is more her past with Brockton, Emma, and Sophia. And the message of going on a murderous spree when finally pushed too far is a bit more that she probably wants to imply. The Sound of Music, and the Great Escape? Is about getting away more than a roaring rampage of revenge.

And the Nazi thing isn't too far out, "Orders are Orders" seems to be the order of the day in Boston.

 

So is the Shawshank Redemption but without the Nazi connection, but similar in the fact that the antagonists are very corrupt.

 

Except in Shawshank? It wasn't till halfway in that we knew Andy didn't do it. Heck Andy couldn't be 100% sure he didn't shoot his wife and her lover in a drunk blackout. At least in the film till Tommy showed up.

And as far as anyone else knows? Andy is a double murderer. He was tried and convicted. And as Andy put it himself, "I had to come to prison to become a crook"

Where as my recommendations don't carry that baggage, and I think you underestimate the "only following orders" or maybe procedures. Get a young parahuman who doesn't want to join? "No problem, get her father to sign her up against her will!" She accuses two other Wards, one already on probation, of actions that could be termed a murder attempt, and one of them confesses it actually happened? "Run the girl out of town to another department." Get a transfer from a department, and she tells you this is a cover up for assaults and worse by two Wards in her home town on her? "Never mind that, you must become a Ward. Justice? Sign up and go on PR duties and we might do something... down the road... maybe."

 

True, I guess I was thinking more along the lines of Implacable with the movie options where Taylor was wrongfully convicted of a crime she didn't commit with a corrupt warden keeping her in prison despite knowing of her innocence.

They'll do something, once she proves herself more valuable then two experienced Wards so she better work hard to catch up. And on the off chance she does manage to do that she would have probably gotten over whatever was bothering her to begin with, and if she hasn't well time to move the goal posts.

 

"Real heroes don't seek vengeance or revenge, this is an unhealthy mindset, so we've scheduled you for a few months of mandatory therapy sessions."

 

Lol the PR Team scheduling anyone for therapy

 

"What about seeking justice."

 

"Justice? I don't see this thing called 'Justice' in our regulations. What is this 'justice' you speak of?"

 

"Then for what reason other than revenge or vengeance do we do things?"

 

“The Greater Good, of course!“
*others echoing* ”The Greater Good”

 

Nice, watching the PR Team and Wards get their noses rubbed in it was perfect.

They keep jumping on that rake and are surprised it keeps hitting them in the mouth.

 

Yeah, anti-bullying policies and seminars are nothing but empty, feel-good bullshit meant to gaslight the victims into silence.

The only way to stop bullying, anywhere, not just in schools, is violence. Turns out it's hard to be a bully when you get shoved down a flight of steps, or hit in the spine with a chair.

 

Yeah but then you get charged with things like assault and attempted murder which just makes the situation worse.

Basically the thought process went like this.

Weld: "Lets show Taylor that we care."

Other Wards: "Yeah!"

Taylor: "Wow you guys are out of touch."

 

Nahhh, schools hate getting cops involved the same as the rest of us. You get slapped with a suspention, eat the punishment and come back the victor.

Little shits never tried me again.

 

Unfortunately for Taylor if she tried that she would have only proved Sophia and Emma right, so better she screw them through their own system instead of stooping to their level.

 

It would be wonderfully ironic if Taylor used the school’s anti-bullying policy to get Lily to leave her alone, at least at school. “She just won’t take no I’m not interested for an answer, always pestering me despite my repeated and more blunt refusals.”

And Forks St. George’s. Either they live up to their policy and warn Lily to leave Taylor alone at school… or they bend to the Wards program and show themselves liars to Taylor by ‘trying to talk this issue out.’”

Armstrong’s meaning of “earliest convenience” is right the Fuck Now. Taylor’s definition is “half past never, or at least not till Jim rakes you over the coals first.”

Jim, “If you wanted to use Phase as your plain clothes sock puppet to start off the Q&A session, you should have briefed and practiced this with her ahead of time. Not put her on the spot and then complain about her unscripted but heartfelt response.”

I wonder how this blowup would be seen within the school, or elsewhere.

PHO
Sikan:
Brutal but realistic takedown of the anti-bullying pap. And is it me or does her accent not sound Bostonian? I mean, how bad does the situation have to be the transfer is from out of the city, and maybe state?

 

If you give a vague request expect a vague response is Taylor's main defense to Armstrong's orders.

As well as the fact that the action nearly put Phase's personal identity at risk since Weld made a point of singling her out in the crowd despite her not doing anything to catch his attention so obviously he knew her from somewhere.

You know I was gonna have Taylor mention that some of the people on PHO connect her to Winslow but I figured that would to soon due to the event only being a few minutes before hand perhaps in a few hours after they will start connecting the dots cus you know the online community is fast when it wants to be.