Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

be happy about it.

I've been in a position where I didn't know where my next rent payment/meal was going to come from, and I can't agree with this. That kind of uncertainty is ten times worse than a loss of self-sufficiency.

 

here's a song that really matches this chapter,it matches a lot of Vicky mood and character arc,The Mamas and the Papa's "California Dreamin' as covered by Robot Koch & Delhia de France.because even this isn't a world worth dreamin' for...

Spoiler: California Dreamin'

All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray
I've been for a walk on a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A.
California dreamin' on such a winter's day
Stopped in to a church I passed along the way
Well I got down on my knees and I pretend to pray
You know the preacher liked the cold, he knows I'm gonna stay
California dreamin' on such a winter's day
All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray
I've been for a walk on a winter's day
If I didn't tell her I could leave today
California dreamin' on such a winter's day
On such a winter's day, on such a winter's day

 

I got the feeling Mark was applying his perspective as a Hero to his view on all of Avalon. And yeah, being a combat cape on Avalon will probably be pretty boring. If he isn't ready to retire, not much point in moving.

 

I think with the exception of Thinkers and Tinkers, Avalon isn't going to look that crash hot to parahumans. They've still got the whole 'conflict' thing urging them on, so for all we know New Wave just doesn't want to distance itself from potential fighting, even if they don't realize it.

Thinkers are fine. They can do their thing from pretty much anywhere (even in canon Lisa wanted to get off the front lines, and The Number Man was the same and he's much more capable of combat then Lisa is) and that still lets their powers stretch their limits (more so considering their extended lifespans from not getting killed in a fight).

Tinkers have it even better. Not only do they get a huge world to work in (fresh resources, once sourced/mined, along with lots of open space for... accidents), but Dragon is there, along with access to all of Pantheon's Tinkers/Thinkers and their work and the freedom of collaboration between them that Pantheon promotes and potential access to Endbringer materials if they play nice.

All the other classifications? Not so much.

Strangers will want to avoid it, what with the whole virtual omnipresence.
Masters won't be allowed to use their effects on people.
Shakers don't really have anywhere else to work thanks to Amy.
All the rest of the more direct cape types won't get any use out of their powers since there'll be very little crime, if any, and causing problems isn't something anyone most people will be dumb enough to do.

And that's just from shard influence.

People with powers are used to being the center of attention. If they go to Avalon, without a truly impressive powerset or something that lets them work alongside Pantheon, they'll be virtual nobodies.

It's not the same for regular people, of course.

 

What doesn't help is that self-sufficiency is an illusion anyway.

I'm not sure if that's a case of "different peoples different customs" or "the former sinner becoming the most fanatic preacher".

 

I agree with the general tone of your post, but I have to point out that the master classification is for anyone with minions, not just the people that control other people.

 

Let's not forget that Taylor is a Master. Being a Master is Taylor's ONLY power, all other abilities (such as the stranger and tinker ratings she could qualify for) are merely creative uses of her Master power.

Seems to me like that's at least one Master that'll enjoy life in Avalon.

 

Actually Taylor's primary power is her Thinker power of Unlimited Multitasking and her Master power is a secondary power to give her something to multitask with and targeted the most masterable thing that happened to be closest at the time of her trigger.

/pedantry

 

Technically she's also a Thinker what with the multitasking and all, but I get your point.

EDIT: Stranger'd

 

The vast majority of master effects in Worm are human based. Taylor is the only parahuman I can think of that controls something other then people. Obviously, that's not to say other types don't exist, it's just that I'm not aware of them.

At the same time, Masters of other types of creatures aren't needed by Pantheon (Amelia and Riley can stretch the definition of 'bug' pretty damn far) and human masters joining them is unlikely (massive trust issues) and probably a bad thing for them (everyone else finding out Pantheon has, and is enhancing, human capable masters waves too many red flags).

Well... if we go by the most recently stated PRT report:
"We should probably remove her Master rating entirely, as it's misleading. 'Insects' aren't so much animals being controlled, as they are part of the environment being manipulated. Upgrade her to Shaker seven, downgrade Master and Thinker to one."

She's actually more of a shaker then anything. Still, if it wasn't for the Taylia link, we really don't know what Taylor's thoughts on Avalon would be. Amelia can police it pretty much on her own.

Actually, that's something I'd be a little interested in; Seeing what sort of threat level the PRT is pegging them at these days. Something tells me their ratings are going to be confusing as fuck since most of their main strengths come from combining powers or enhancing things, so it's not the individual ratings that are going to change much (although the PRT should be kicking itself over not figuring out Lily's abilities better).

I am not asking for a power level debate! Stop typing.

Home is where the heart is. I doubt very much she cares about Avalon itself.

If you want to go into pointless specifics, at least do it right. Her bug control and multitasking are the same power, just different levels of access to it. She only has one shard after all, not counting Taylia.

/real pedantry

 

Dragon (post defiant), Nilbog, Crusader, Genesis, Bitch, Siberian, Mockshow... There're more, I'm sure, but it's hardly uncommon.

 

I'll give you Genesis, and I can't actually remember Mockshow, so that's my bad.

Dragon's not a master at all since every one of her is still her, Nilbog's things are in some way mutated humans (I'd actually rather argue that they're a little like Dragon but that's taking this into power mechanics debates so I wont), Crusader's ghosts (if you ignore the projection aspect) are copies of him (a human) with armor and weapons, Bitch isn't a master at all unless every dog trainer on earth is a parahuman, and Manton's Siberian projection is also human.

Regent and Heartbreaker (and pretty much all of his kids for that matter) all control people in some way.

Canary wasn't shown effecting animals, but that's just a lack of screen time more then anything. Still, she could effect people.

Valefur is an easy one.

Simurgh, depending on how you want to classify her mental fuckery.

Noelle/Echidna made human clones that she sort of controlled.

Victoria's aura wasn't shown to work on animals (I think).

Gallant's emotional blasts... I think they effected Rachel's dogs, but I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter because they also effected humans.

Aiden, at the end, definitely counts for you. That's three, possibly four, out of this whole list, counting Taylor.

 

You can hardly call Nilbog's creations mutated humans. They have as much in common with lizards as humans. It would be like calling apes mutated humans.

Don't forget Spawn, and that one of Taylor's kids who could control birds (QA bud), and that guy working with the people who thought they were wizards who could control birds and make them explode.

Technically Amelia could master a dog or something by changing it's brain to love her. She wouldn't but her power could do it.

Maybe Blasto? He used pheremones mostly but they might count as part of his power seeing as no non-tinker could make them.

 

No they aren't, what gave you that impression? Nilbog's monsters are created out of whole cloth, they aren't mutated anything. Sure, he had them drag off people, but that's because his monsters still need to eat.

 

PRT ratings rate how much of a threat, and are designed to allow PRT troops to properly respond to a threat by a given parahuman. You can have a weak power, but get a high rating if it's hard enough to deal with. Or, you know, rate a Master as a shaker if that means the PRT troops will use the correct kind of responses to fight them.

There's also the whole thing that if her Master rating is too high, everyone who comes into contact with her would have to go through Master/Stranger protocols, even if she can't Master humans....because that's how bureaucracy works.

This might be fanon, but I think it comes from WoG:

-Each insect that enters Taylor's range gets Mastered.
-When an insect is Mastered by Taylor it's tiny brain is added to Taylor's, kinda like computers networking together to share processing power. This acts more like a hive-mind than centralized thought (AKA thinking with only one brain).
-Since controlling a bug uses less than 100% of the bugs brain, there's a net gain in Tyalor's overall mental 'processing power' from each insect, granting effectively unlimited multitasking (since even with just a 'few' bugs around, Taylor still has mullions of extra brains to work with).

So in conclusion: Taylor has no Thinker power, simply a Master power that boosts her natural mental abilities as a side-effect.

As an aside, I'm personally of the opinion that Taylor first triggered in The Locker with just bug control; then second triggered a week or two later, while in the hospital, granting the brain-sharing/Thinker aspect. This explains why there was so much chaos with her power at first, then suddenly everything came into focus and she understood what was happening.

See above.

/Super-Special-Awesome pedantry (if you don't get the joke, go watch YuGi Oh Abridged)

 

Ok, I'll give you (both) Nilbog because I think I've misunderstood how he works (I would still argue that they're more other parts of him then separate entities, like Dragon, but there's no proof for it other then how they act). Aiden is that kid of Taylor's, so I already counted him. And yes, Spawn works, as well as that eloquently described 'wizard'. Taylor, Aiden, Nilbog, Spawn and 'wizard', plus Genesis and Mockshow (can you tell me who this is? I'm counting it, I'm just curious).

I really don't know about Amelia and Blasto. I want to say yes to them as well, it's just it doesn't feel right for some reason. On top of which I could just argue that they could also do the same to humans. Which means I'd count them for my side of this, so I'll avoid it.

So that's 7 I'm fully agreeing with that don't do humans, and 13 I pulled out of my god awful memory that are mainly (or completely) focused on people.

So it's not as massively skewed towards human masters as I thought. But I still don't see other masters going to Avalon.

Yes and now we're getting into a naming/labels argument.

Which isn't a bad idea when facing Taylor, since that would ensure everyone was checked for bugs (no pun intended at all here) when they got back to base.

Well, that's what I said, but you said it better. I'll be honest, I wasn't willing to put any effort into that.

Also, since you're saying it:

Was this something from canon or WoG? I can't remember it (not debating it, curious).

So in conclusion: Taylor has no Thinker or Master power, simply a Shaker power that connects her mind to the surrounding bugs to boost her natural mental abilities, giving her control over them and their senses as a side effect.

And that's why I don't want to go into a power mechanics debate. Because both canon and WoG are about as consistent as my bowel movements, and just as open to confusion. I'm not sure why I decided to use that, but it'll do.

 

Nillbog's creations suffered no ill effects, other than going into a rage, from Nilbog's death. That's pretty solid evidence they're separate creatures.

...Wow...That actually makes decent amount of sense; it would even fit in with most of canon. It's completely wrong, but I'm still majorly impressed.

And you managed to catch one of my "frequent edits to new posts" in your quote, lol.

Someone get this man some fiber, STAT!

 

Uggh, sorry. Completely overlooked that when I asked. Which proves it's the blind leading the blind.

He didn't die. In canon or this story. A puppet was destroyed. Having someone target the thing he was using to represent himself to the world would annoy him.

No no, I said I'm not arguing this. All his creatures react without prompting, as far as I can remember, implying that his 'mastery' over them is like Dragon's over her suits. She/he makes them, and they're linked to her/his mind as much as her/his real self is. His creatures got made when his puppet was destroyed because he was mad. However this isn't specified anywhere, so it's all just pointless for the topic at hand. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

 

I agree with this. If people don't need to worry about basic needs on Avalon they can focus on more interesting things such as art and science. I doubt the plethora of alternate Earths has removed the interest in space exploration and things like that.

 

Also, we live in a modern society. Self sufficiency is an illusion. We think we are self sufficient because we go to the store and buy our food. We don't think of the literal HUNDREDS of people it takes to get that food to the store, and that's just food. People don't SEE all those people, so they fall into the illusion of "I don't NEED your help, I can take care of myself". As far as that person is concerned, it doesn't matter if that food comes from underground farms of sprawling fields.

Yes, people need something to strive for, but we are really good at making something up. Maybe it's art, maybe sports, maybe a crazy nobility system. We in America chase arbitrary amounts of wealth beyond our ability to ever use it all. People will build the system they need to feel fulfilled.

I am personally of the opinion that filling as many rungs of the pyramid of needs as possible by default is a GOOD THING. It looks to me like Ames will fill most of the first and second rung by existing. This is a good thing. People will be, by default, happier than if she didn't. Some people may not think so, but those are the people struggling to climb the third run and have never really lost access to one of the lower rungs. The most acute and basic needs must be met before you can be satisfied with the completion of higher rungs. Your job cannot be satisfying if you have no food.

 

Awesome. I was afraid people were going to react to Mark's beliefs like they were the author's beliefs.

Or were going to think he was some kind of strawman for the author to tear down.

Neither of which would be true. I know plenty of people who'd have similar beliefs, and Mark strikes me as one of them.

Instead I get a lot of "I see where he's coming from, but disagree personally".

I'd say I managed to thread the needle perfectly here. Which is so very gratifying.

Sadly, this wasn't that kind of miserable feeling. This is the 'fuck it's cold and I'm tired and have a mild cold' type. Takes a better man than me to channel that one into the writing.

On the plus side, I'm feeling great today and am back to work.


*Studiously ignores power debate*

 

Then again, we are not exactly mentally healthy either. We feel social alienation, loneliness, we are constantly second-guessing our life choices, we turn to drugs, and to other obsessive petty bullshit (online arguing, relationship drama, reckless activity) to distract us, we know that we are irrelevant cogs in the machine and our jobs are meaningless, etc.

We can say that all things considered, modern western life is still better than the millenia of endless plague, war, starvation, and oppression before it, but on the other hand, our sense of dependency had taken it's own toil in turn.

I ultimately agree with Mark that humans need struggle, and that for Avalon, it will be a problem when most traditional struggles are gone. The point is not whether safety, freedom, and comfort are good things or bad things. Obviously, they are better than the alternatives. There is no competition, it's clear that we are obliged the world safer, freer, and more comfortable for ourselves, even knowing that it will have it's own dark side in the form of bringing great emotional upset. On the other hand, it's easy to sympathise with those whose life just got uprooted, with families that will fall apart with no need for a breadwinner, with the warriors who won't find satisfaction in arts or sports, or with the first generations of youth growing up in a world where they feel adrift and decadent, while the older ones hate them for not fitting their old morals.

Likewise, Mark's point wasn't that Avalon shouldn't be done, just that it's not for him.

 

Um... if a family only exists because it needs a breadwinner it's probably not that big a loss. If warriors can't find satisfaction with something else than slaughter and strife then they should visit a doctor and get some drugs to fix their madness. If youth feel bored you need to properly integrate them into society and not just put them in front of a TV.
Morales usually change with changing circumstances.

The only thing the whole thing is showing that there are apparently people who don't have enough creativity to figure out what to do with their lives if they have no existential problems.

Solution a) Get them some more education, somewhere through the process they'll probably figure out something what they want to do. b) Organise a proper Republic to integrate the population into the political life. (There is a reason why Aristoteles thought slaves were a necessity - how can people properly focus on governing/deciding for their polity if they're distracted by the daily toil?). c) Release a retrovirus to fix their defective brains that can only find challenge in stupidous manual labour or violent conflict. d) As always the young generations will find their place in the world. Even if they have to go against the morals of their elders. I think that's called the way of life.

 

You gain the super power of not giving a fuck about the cold? Your cape name would be the Drunk Canadian.

 

You should probably send your solution to the U.N. or something, because you literally just proposed a way to deal with all the ailments of modern culture.

Well, of course family life needs to be redefined for a post-patriarchal era, trauma victims need to get treatment, and youth needs to be integrated into society.

We know that. The way there, will still involve untold amounts of misery, depression, wrong personal decisions, and ineffective arrangements.

Simply telling whole societies that they just need to get educated, and integrate into how modern life works, is exactly the kind of thing that has wrecked communities all around the world, from colonial imperialism and industrial revolution era urbanisation, right up to it's modern variations in developing countries urbanisation and paternalistic integration policies towards cultural minorities.

 

You're aware that the main reason that this doesn't happen is because it's expensive? It's literally the only reason. Why doesn't get everyone to study 10 years? Because they need to work to generate money. Why doesn't every trauma victim gets proper treatment? Because it's expensive. Why don't they properly integrate youth into society? Because youth centers would cost money. It would take social workers to reach out to persons that are disfranchised for one reason or other. Which would cost money again.

Honestly, I don't even get why you bring the results of colonialism into this. It literally has nothing to do with a debate where people argue that a proper social state is the end of human civilisation. It's not. All those problems you point out here come from the fact that not enough money was spent on proper integration meassures, education and social security. It's not like there are no solutions for the problems it's quite simply that nobody wants to pay for it.

And here a character and apparently you are arguing that solving some of those problems by default is somehow the end of a meaningful existance. That's not even funny anymore. People are in no risk of starving, regardless of what they do. They don't need to worry about clothing and a place to stay. What ever will they do with their lives?

 

In canon, Taylor was talking to Nilbolg's meat puppet, and then had her swarm attack and kill Nilbolg's real body that was underground. So yes, Nilbolg died in canon. Or did I miss something?

 

Conga line. Massive, planet spanning conga line.

I'd have to go read it again, but he was alive and well at the end. Siberian grabbed him and pulled him up, and once Siberian grabs you and Bonesaw has her way with you... Well I guess he might have died. Bonesaw makes it hard to tell.

 

You did, he left with the nine and survived the golden morning.