Safe For Work Worm Ideas thread

[Prince Charon]

Reading random Star Wars fics shortly after having reread Birth By Night, had an idea only vaguely connected (in the sense that Vader is an important character), of Brian having a different trigger, and having a power that he likens to the Force, and decides to play up the Vader angle - it helps that he's tall, muscular, and has a deep voice, of course. He isn't necessarily cybered, but he uses a rather Vader-like costume, goes on about the Power of the Force, and so forth. Might have triggered on the Fourth of May.

Thinking that he's a Thinker/Tinker/Shaker, but it's possible that the Shaker (psychokinesis) power comes from implants or gadgets in his armour. Probably has a Blaster power as a side effect of the Shaker power (like Vader throwing things at Luke on Bespin), but he can probably build actual blasters for his team.


There's a naughty version in the NSFW Worm Ideas Thread.

 

[Adyen]

The first simply isn't a thing and why would the second work?

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I'm sure "some tinker" could make a super efficient metal detector. And the second would make it so that he can't use his power unless he wants to be pulled into the magnet.

 

[doomlord9]

This really just means that if there is a strong enough reason, the law is willing to bend the rules for those who has the power to pervert them. I'm still fine with what I wrote.

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Welcome to 'Rule of Law 101' and why people follow it.

Lets say someone breaks a law. Obviously they have the police sent after them. However they are personally too difficult for the police to handle. SWAT is sent out. SWAT can't handle it? The FBI and other national agencies get involved. Still too much? The military comes into play.

One way or another, you WILL comply, no matter how much force they have to use to do so. The only way to avoid it is to have pull with those who are able to put a wrench in the wheels(politics) or to make sure the costs will be too high to pursue you. Worm villains usually use the latter.

That's the idea of the law in a nutshell, people follow it because they can't stand up to the majority. Quantity has its own quality, and the might of the majority means they can and will enforce their will upon those who can't stop them.

In essence? Might makes right is the only rule that actually exists, in our world and Worm. Make it so they can't enforce their will upon you, and you're free to do whatever you want. Crooked politicians, you know the ones who MAKE the laws, bear this out all the time until they give enough leverage to one of their competitors who uses it to advance their own position, and the cycle continues.

Why yes, I am extremely cynical and have a very very low opinion of the human race, as well as the refusal to blind myself to how they really work to make myself feel better.

 

[vyor]

I'm sure "some tinker" could make a super efficient metal detector. And the second would make it so that he can't use his power unless he wants to be pulled into the magnet.

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...
The only cape that would work on is fucking hookwolf. Kaiser creates blades out of flat surfaces.

 

[The Halfa Wannabe]

In canon, this was Purity's response to being unmasked.

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Uh, yeah, as I recall that was about having her daughter taken.

 

[Prince Charon]

Uh, yeah, as I recall that was about having her daughter taken.

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To be fair, she was a Nazi, so that's a very plausible consequence of being unmasked (though to keep being fair, it seems likely that if they hadn't acted quickly to take her daughter, she'd have been very likely to lie low and flee the city with Aster and probably Theo).

EDIT: OK, idea - the timing of the release of the E88's identities is somewhat different, and Kayden does flee the city with Aster and Theo before Children's Services (or whomever it was) could get there. Purity is thus not involved in subsequent events, and Kaiser is distracted by the fact that his children and ex-wife (who also happens to be a damn useful cape) have vanished right when he least needs another distraction.

How does this effect events in Brockton Bay from that point on?

 

[Waerloga]

A somewhat standard "X character dies, prompting butterfly effects" story, with Taylor dying during the Bakuda incident, but instead of Danny triggering or something, he proceeds to systematically hunt down all of Brockton Bay's criminal element with nothing but anger and a sniper rifle, Punisher-style.
Might just write this myself, but I don't follow through on things, even when I'm motivated enough to start in the first place.

 

[Waerloga]

"So," said Director Piggot, "you're sure he's not a parahuman?"
"No, ma'am," said Miss Militia. "He was laying on a rooftop when I saw him. Looking down the sights of a sniper rifle." She could have listed the make and model from memory, if she had been asked, it was one she had used in the past. Whoever it was had done their research. "And you say he shot Kaiser?" The Director's voice was somewhat incredulous. After all, everyone knew that capes fought other capes. That was all there was to it. They kept the Protectorate around instead of locking them up to protect them from rouge parahumans and the Endbringers. Normal humans simply had to hope that they survived whatever cape fight they got caught up in. Not try to fight, and certainly not kill. "Yes, ma'am. I didn't get a chance to approach him, as he fired just as I saw him. I wanted to check on his victim, see if I could help them, and I assumed he wasn't a cape, because he wasn't using a power, or wearing a costume. I think I saw a mask, but it wasn't part of a costume, just a ski mask. I didn't retrieve Kaiser's body, as Cricket, Hookwolf, and Othala were on the scene, but he was shot through the skull. No way he could survive that."
Piggot sighed. "Well, god only knows what this means for the gang situation, especially so soon after the war against the ABB. The Empire will be out for blood, and this sniper will likely be dead by the end of the week. See if you can find him before then, will you?"

A/N- This is really short and really rough, but I'm a procrastinator, and I've found that precommiting via public posts and getting my ideas on paper both help with that. If I ever do get around to, y'know, writing this, the first chapter will probably have either Danny's POV with some exposition involving how he found out who Taylor was and such, or an E88 cape as Kaiser gets shot. My initial idea was to frame it from the perspective of everyone but Danny, and only switch to him for interludes (I had a cool idea for a Leviathan chapter from his POV that I won't spoil here), but I'm not sure that I can write multiple canon characters at all accurately, since most have a lot of characterization, whereas Danny has a relatively small amount, and his version of him is almost completely different anyhow. I'll probably edit this sometime to make it a little less flawed in whatever way I realize it is half an hour from posting, because I'm self-critical like that. These notes are going to be longer than the actual story at this rate, so I should probably stop.

 

[vyor]

You don't just get a sniper rifle, those are restricted weapons in the US. The purchase would be in a database somewhere.

 

[Waerloga]

Shows how much I know about US law. Personally, I blame the school system.
I don't know, it's Brockton Bay. Maybe he bought it from the Merchants or something? I'll address it in the longer version, if I ever get around to it.

 

[vyor]

Shows how much I know about US law. Personally, I blame the school system.
I don't know, it's Brockton Bay. Maybe he bought it from the Merchants or something? I'll address it in the longer version, if I ever get around to it.

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Ya, basically, every gun is restricted, how much restriction varies by state and local law. Being that it's a city, I'd expect the restrictions to be very tight in relation to other areas. I'd expect gun laws to be tighter as well, at least in relation to real world cities. Places like rural texas would likely see them further loosened.

Another issue is ammo, depending on what kind it fires(good on you for not mentioning it by the way, a lot of the time people do mention it and things get weird) it would either be really hard to get, or really easy to get.

He'd have to have bought it from 1 of three choices: coil, ABB, or E88, the merchants do not have the resources required to run guns. The E88 and ABB are out for obvious reasons. And coil wouldn't sell a gun like that to someone that didn't work for them.

 

[Waerloga]

Personally, the question of where characters like the Punisher get their weapons has always been part of suspension of disbelief, as he obviously wouldn't buy from criminals but he's also a wanted man and he often buys guns that even the military'd have a hard time requisitioning. But this is Worm, realism, at least within the realm of the world you're writing in, is key.
I'd say he either got it from a group that operates outside of the Bay, or a Bay gang that isn't considered by the Ubdersiders or PRT in canon because they 'just' run guns and don't have any capes, making them outside of the unwritten rules and therefore the police's job. Alternately, I could just gloss over it and say "just use suspension of disbelief" but that's no fun.

 

[vyor]

Personally, the question of where characters like the Punisher get their weapons has always been part of suspension of disbelief, as he obviously wouldn't buy from criminals but he's also a wanted man and he often buys guns that even the military'd have a hard time requisitioning.

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Generally he steals them or already owned them.

 

[Waerloga]

That's reasonable.
Any thought, perchance, on the actual content? Not that I don't appreciate the feedback in any case, and the opportunity to expand my knowledge, but what concerns me more is if the writing was serviceable.

 

[kamenhero25]

Generally he steals them or already owned them.

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The idea of Danny desperately raiding an E88 storehouse for weapons seems like it would make an interesting event to write out.

Any thought, perchance, on the actual content? Not that I don't appreciate the feedback in any case, and the opportunity to expand my knowledge, but what concerns me more is if the writing was serviceable.

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Eh, no offense but there's not really enough to judge yet.

 

[Waerloga]

1. That's a thought. Maybe I'll throw in a reference to that in the edited version.
2. Reasonable. I'll write something up tomorrow afternoon, if I remember and feel at all motivated.

 

[vyor]

The idea of Danny desperately raiding an E88 storehouse for weapons seems like it would make an interesting event to write out.

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It would be.

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

Personally, the question of where characters like the Punisher get their weapons has always been part of suspension of disbelief, as he obviously wouldn't buy from criminals but he's also a wanted man and he often buys guns that even the military'd have a hard time requisitioning. But this is Worm, realism, at least within the realm of the world you're writing in, is key.
I'd say he either got it from a group that operates outside of the Bay, or a Bay gang that isn't considered by the Ubdersiders or PRT in canon because they 'just' run guns and don't have any capes, making them outside of the unwritten rules and therefore the police's job. Alternately, I could just gloss over it and say "just use suspension of disbelief" but that's no fun.

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Brockton Bay is only about 60mi away from Boston, a city historically associated with the Irish Mob. There's no way that the ascendance of parahumans did anything to deescalate the Troubles.

Make Danny's vendor an rIRA lieutenant and tie that into the plot somehow. Maybe the vendor is related to GU or something.

 

[Waerloga]

Dang, now I really wanna write more. I should probably sleep instead, all things considered...
I can't really see GU involving herself in politics at all, to be honest. But I didn't even realize she was Irish, likely because I'm an ethnocentric American. Glaatig Uaine does sound super Celtic, now that I think about it.

 

[vyor]

Brockton Bay is only about 60mi away from Boston, a city historically associated with the Irish Mob. There's no way that the ascendance of parahumans did anything to deescalate the Troubles.

Make Danny's vendor an rIRA lieutenant and tie that into the plot somehow. Maybe the vendor is related to GU or something.

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Canonically, the rise of parahumans broke the backs of the mob.

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

Canonically, the rise of parahumans broke the backs of the mob.

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The Mob and the IRA/pIRA/rIRA are two (well, four) different organizations, but there was a lot of transatlantic trade between them. During Prohibition, booze went west while guns and money went east. During the Cold War, the pIRA got their guns from elsewhere and sold the surplus to American criminal groups in exchange for cash. The vendor here would've worked with the Mob at first, then switched to the parahuman gangs when they took over.

As for the pIRA itself, their Cause realistically wouldn't have changed. They would've simply transitioned from mundane leaders to powered ones.

 

[TanaNari]

rouge parahumans

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They... get their powers from makeup?

 

[Waerloga]

That word (and affect/effect) is the bane of my existence.

 

[Waerloga]

To an observer, it would have seemed that he was... not sane, but rational. Danny acted like he knew what he was doing. In reality, it was somewhat different. The depressed stupor he had been in for the first few weeks was gone, but he wasn´t quite capable of long-term thought. He would stop in the middle of something that made sense in situational context and wonder what he was doing. That was how he found himself outside of an E88 storehouse, wearing a mask and clutching a flare gun.

As the head of the Dockworkerś Association, Danny had always known one or two people in or involved with one of Brockton Bay´s many gangs. He´d never liked it, but it was simply a sad fact of the city´s economy. However, he´d been warned more than once of some places to avoid, the places where gangs hung out or kept contraband. The exact location, of course, they were never able to divulge, but Danny had figured it out fairly easily. So he spent a week preparing. Buying a weapon legally was, of course, right out. Anything that required entering his face into a database wasn´t safe for what he planned to do. Instead, he bought a new laptop, signed up for a new credit card, and made as many purchases as he could from sporting goods stores and hunting sites, without attracting too much attention. It was mostly innocuous, but he made sure to use a new location for each purchase. It wasn´t a good long-term plan by any means, but he hadn´t thought that far ahead.

In the end, he had a balaclava, a flare gun, a vest with pockets that he intended to fill with actual weapons, when he could find them, and a two-way radio. Not that there was anyone for him to talk to, these days. He was crouched outside of the warehouse, holding the flare gun and feeling confused. He shook his masked head and moved. Moving felt safer than stopping, now. Once he was in action he only had to worry about what he was going to do next, not what had happened before.
It took three attempts to break down the door, but he thought he had been fairly quiet, and it was a large warehouse. From three days of careful, discreet observation, he'd gathered that they moved shifts every hour, and only three guards were inside at any given time. Upon entering, he glanced around quick;y to make sure that no-one had seen him enter. He'd forced open the back door, but you never knew.
The warehouse was larger than Danny had expected, from the inside. It reminded him strangely of the warehouse area of an IKEA, with the long walls of boxes, though there were only three rows here. He crept inside, holding the gun ready. Peering cautiously around the corner of one of the long rows of boxes, he sighted the three guards, two sitting at a table at the other end of the building, and one leaning against the wall. All three were armed. Danny moved as silently as he could, his heart surprisingly still. None of this felt quite real, but not in the sense that he couldn't believe he was doing it. It was merely a sense of detachment, the same sense he'd had since he got the news.When he reached the last row of crates, Danny began to tiptoe down, pressed against the wall to conceal himself. The table where the two guards sat was on the other side of the building, and the man leaning against the wall was close to them, but he had a clear shot. Flare guns weren't traditionally used as weapons, or even design so, but they had enough power to put someone down. Planes had been crashed when hit by one, though he suspected that this particular model wouldn't have that much power. He raised it, stepped out from behind his cover, aimed for a tense half-second, and squeezed the trigger. There was a defining noise, and a searing bright light. With a last conscious thought before some lizard hindbrain kicked in, he remembered to get back behind cover. By the time his ears had stopped ringing, and his eyes had recovered, there were two men standing, automatic weapons hefted, one staring at the body of their dead comrade.

It wasn't Danny's first kill. Just after the bombings, Danny had been wandering the streets in a daze. He was on leave from work, and sitting at home brought back too many bad memories. So he had been walking, when he saw a mugging in progress. His anger at the deaths caused by gangs in the city aside, he would have likely moved on, had he not seen the tattoo on the arm of the gang member. E88 was fond of tattoos, but that one in particular he recognized. He'd turned men with that tattoo away from the Docks too many times. It signified that you were a full member of the Empire. And that meant you had killed a minority. So, taken by some primal anger that he hadn't known he possessed, he had wrenched the gun from the man's hand, shot him, and fled. It was about then when the plan had begun to solidify in his mind.

Now that Danny had a better look at the men he was going to kill, he noticed that they, too, were sporting the tattoo. He would have killed them irregardless, but it was somehow good to know that someone's death had been avenged by his actions. The next two were going to be harder, as they were better armed, and on guard now. Danny, taking care not to make a sound, crept back further up the aisle of boxes, and unsheathed his knife. Using it as a makeshift crowbar, he pried open a box on the lowest level of shelves, to find what looked like an automatic pistol. He dropped the flare gun, which was now empty, and riffled with his new weapon for a moment, making sure it was loaded and the safety was off. He moved position, to the middle row, and opened fire, spraying the men with bullets. He had been firing from a distance, with most of his body hidden by the shelf, so he was unsure of his accuracy, as he had to duck back behind cover as they retaliated. Danny pulled another crate off of a shelf, letting the contents spill across the floor. He didn't recognize any of it, and he didn't want to accidentally pull the pin on a grenade, so he simply fired again. This time, he had a split second before the bullets started flying. Both men had survived his initial assault, but one clutched a grazed shoulder. His second strike, conversely, hit his marks squarely in the chest.

Once he had assured that they wouldn't get back up, with the help of two more rounds to the head, he set to work finding things he could carry. He hadn't brought a bag, which seemed like a mistake in retrospect, so he took only what could be concealed in his vest or elsewhere. In the end, he had the contents of the thugs' wallets, several small firearms, and one automatic rifle, which he planned to carry by hiding it in his shirt. Thankfully, his car was nearby, or else he'd have to bring it all on a bus. He'd hoped there would be more cash, but keeping it near to grunts who likely only joined for the cash was probably a dumb move.
When Danny returned home, he didn't stop to rest. He took his spoils and brought them into the small portion of Taylor's room where he'd been hiding his gear. He sorted it carefully, stacking the clothes in one area and the weapons in another, After he was finished, he slid the armor out of its position, and examined it. It had been made to fit Taylor, but with a little cutting he could use the incredibly strong spider silk as body armor, to cover his most vulnerable areas. It was all he had left of his daughter, but if he used it to make him more effective at what he was doing, honoring her memory by cleansing her city, than it would be worth it.

The next day, Danny had a visitor. He was working on the armor when a knock came on his door. After he'd shot the mugger he'd asked Kurt, Lacey, and the rest to leave him alone, so it was likely someone from work, but he diligently hid the armor anyways. Better safe than sorry. When he opened the door, he saw someone he didn't expect to. A young woman, maybe seventeen, with blonde hair. Someone he recognized. It might have showed on his face, as she looked eminently surprised to see him, despite having knocked on his door. "Lisa?"

"Danny! Hi!" She had recovered from her shock at seeing him quickly, but she looked different than he had last seen her. She was wearing her hair differently, and looked like she hadn't seen a shower in a while. "Come in," he said, feeling slightly self-conscious at his appearance. He hadn't shaved in a while, and there were bags under his eyes, as well as callouses on his hands, which he suspected were from clutching the guns too tightly as he trained himself to shoot. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"Tea would be amazing, thanks," she said. She sat down on his couch, but didn't seem to relax. He put the tea on and came into the living room, sitting across from her. She looked like she was about to speak, but he cut her off. "I know who Taylor was. Since you're probably not a cross-dresser in costume, I'm going to assume you're the one they called Tattletale?" She seemed unsurpassed by his accusation, which surprised Danny somewhat. "Yes. After the... after what happened with Bakuda, everyone thought I was dead, and I preferred for it to stay that way. My former employer, Coil, wasn't the greatest of bosses, and I took the opportunity to escape when I saw it. Which brought me to here. I saw you on the news the other night, or at least what you did. It took me a while to figure out that it was you, but... I want to help."

"What makes you think you can help?"

"My power. I know things. But I also know people. You need a fence for the stuff you stole last night, and I can find you one." Danny considered the offer. Having a contact with the criminals would be useful, and Taylor had worked with her, even been friends with her. "Fine. But you need to tell me about her."
"What?"
"Tell me about who Taylor was, when she was being Skitter."
"She wanted to be a hero. When she started. She fought Lung, she beat the hell out of him." She ginned. "Rotted his crotch off with spider venom, if I recall correctly. But she wanted to be one of the good guys. The rest of the team thought she was like us, they invited her to join the team the next day. I think she wanted to sell us out, at first, be she ended up liking us. She was really good at her job."

A/N- This refused to end how I wanted it to, which sucks, but I'm mostly satisfied with it. I probably rushed the fight a bit but when you're working with limited resources in-story things tend to be less flashy and more... quick. Not to mention most actual gunfights end in under a minute, not drawn-out, movie stuff. with powers, it's different, and I promise any fights with capes will be longer. Feedback would be much appreciated.

 

[vyor]

Formating, the enter button is your friend. Better to have too many breaks than a wall of text!

 

[Waerloga]

I used it, but only once. I'll go and change that right away, still getting used to the formatting here.

 

[Waerloga]

Fixed that.

 

[Snake/Eater]

He works in the docking business, it's not impossible that a sniper rifle"fell off a truck" a few years ago.

 

[Prince Charon]

"Hi," said the little girl in the video, "most of you probably know me, but for those who don't, I'm Bonesaw. You probably heard by now that the rest of the Nine are dead, and that I killed them. I'm not asking for thanks, I did a... a lot of bad things after Uncl- after Jack Slash got to me; just give all the bounty money to charities for our victims, or something.

Anyway, I know I've got a kill order, so I'm going to disappear - or, I already have, since I'm setting this file to go out at a random time between three and ten days from now. I can change how I look, and I've got a machine that'll transfer another person's memories to my brain. There's about a fifty-fifty chance that it will just erase my real memories, so if you think you might be me, don't try to remember. Really. You're better off without them.

Well, bye-bye."

More than 750 people are believed to have triggered from watching that video, a testament to how bloody terrifying the S9 were.


Not specifying exactly when this happened, beyond 'some years after Riley became Bonesaw,' and 'some time before the S9,000, and probably before the S9's post-Leviathan visit to Brockton Bay.' Could serve as an alternate trigger even for someone (or several people), or just a background even to explain why you're not doing a Slaughterhouse Nine arc.

 

[vyor]

I doubt anyone would trigger from that.