Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

To be honest, I think the best thing to do if we're designing a healthy society from scratch that contains Parahumans is ritualised Roman-style duelling. Stick Colleseums up all over the place and codify the unwritten rules such that Parahuman disputes can be settled in the ring, mostly non-lethal with penalties to the loser. Conflict outside of the ring is treated mercilessly by Pantheon if it is within city limits. Birdcage, ejection back to earth bet, whatever. It doesn't really matter where they go so long as they don't get to stay. Shards get the conflict that they love, parahumans get renown as fighters and gain experience in combat, normal people get a great show from up in the seats, collateral damage is kept to a minimum, everyone wins. Pay the Parahumans for their fights, give them big fancy sponsorship deals and treat it like sports. Have group battles so thinkers and synergy powers can still contribute. Have Ultimate Tinker Tech Warzone on fridays and Royal Rumble on wednesdays. It's not perfect, but it means that Parahumans can all have their needs met without having to turn to crime or other silly things. I mean, seriously, there were what, 30-40 parahumans in canon brockton bay? A city of 400,000 was it? Make them all millionaires and it's still waaaaay cheaper than the cost of all the conflict they cause.

Democracy works on the fundamental assumption of equality. I'm not sure if it's still the best once that assumption no longer holds. The problem with trying to have normal humans in charge is that they don't stay in charge. The playing field is so massively unfair that they simply don't get a look in in any kind of long term thing.

Take the USA for example: basically controlled in all but name by two thinkers (Contessa & Number Man) and Cauldron. They still technically have a Democracy, but it's more or less irrelevant for matters relating to combat or really anything particularly important. They have the trappings of Democracy, but only for things like infrastructure and economy. International decisions, Endbringers, War, policy and anything else they happen to particularly want happen. The Parahumans currently hold an absolute veto and semi-absolute voting power, it's just not official. Remember that scene in Canon where everyone meets at Cauldron's place to discuss Khonsu, know who was absent? The president of the USA. He doesn't get a say in those decisions. Brockton Bay is another example. It was well on its way to being completely controlled by Calvert. One way or another, Parahumans will be the ones in the driving seat. Dream girl nearly managed it, there will be stranger powers out there that allow for a good attempt at assuming control once the prize is command of a planet. Cherish possibly could have done it even with the powers they have today. Cherish + Dream Girl I think could probably manage it.

I vote for AI government, anyways. Also, New Babylon and Pangea sound the best so far.

Edit: Oh cool the chapter came out while I was writing. I like the plan, could do with more Colosseums.

 

I will now partake in the newly established Avalonian Traditional Happy Dance.

I'll say I *mostly* called it, but got the para human involvement wrong.

Also, I may implode from poly-sci history squeeze, so you'll have to excuse me now.

 

The staged fights thing is an obvious and sensible idea. The only fic I can think of that's done that is Oracle.

 

TanaNari, if I made a PHO omake/interlude discussing Avalon, what are the chances of it being made canon? Would the chances decrease if there a few posters had the tag (Pantheon Loyalist) and came across as somewhat fanatical?

 

could they not offer that land on Earth Bet to one side and give the corresponding area of land on their world to the other?
and if they're determined to each be the one to get the land on Bet, have them draw lots or something.

 

Quite nicely, actually. Some of the bylaws cover using a being's physical or mental limitations as a means of coercion. And several that would most obviously cover, say, someone like Blasto making sapient slave labor. In effect, she's constitutionally obligated to disobey any command she believes should be disobeyed.

Probably pretty good, depending on your skill. But, recognized or not, Avalon won't be publicly known until after a few countries get portals of their own. By the time Avalon, or indeed ANY portal world, gets announced... the USA will have three (all to the same world, mind), Canada will have two, and several will dot Europe (order of priority based on population and need figured out by the UN). Other parts of the world pending.

... It's one of their stipulations, and a smart one for other countries to have. There's a lot of reasons to want to bail from Bet, and a lot of colony worlds that will become available soon. They didn't want to give Avalon too much of an advantage in moving a population.


Pantheon was okay with that for a couple reasons.

One: The whole "brand new earth" is kinda conspicuous consumption. This is the kinda shit that would start a fucking war or three if you can't point at other nations already having their own.

Two: it would take decades for any other country to migrate a suitable, sustainable, and technologically modern colony population.

Avalon gets "poke the ground, your house will grow there, and you can eat the walls if you really feel the desire to". So in terms of sheer capacity to sustain growth, they have no competition. They'll be able to establish modern industry while almost everyone else is at "log cabins and hunting buffalo".

Either way... ass/u/me it's a few months ahead of the current story.

"Low. This planet didn't have much of an ice age, so no Great Lakes."

 

Question. Have they built in oceans? Or is the whole planet covered by super tree?

 

How long (in and out of universe) until the public announcement is made? If it's the next chapter or so and before the start of December I'll post the thread and just go back and fix any continuity errors that may pop up. Otherwise I'll sit on it and either do a conspiracy thread or just wait until the public announcement is made. Either way there's plenty of public reaction/flame war material to work with.

 

The planet came with its own oceans. Although they're somewhat highly toxic to human life, still. Don't want to drink.

In universe? It'll be spring by the time the gateways go public. Out here? Dunno. Less than a week, probably. We've got the Nilbog chapter. A Faultline interlude. Another Endbringer.

 

In that case I'll hold off for a bit. Might do the conspiracy thread, try my hand at writing crazy.

 

It's easy. Be paranoid about something then stick to your guns no matter what contradicts it.

 

This may have been already discussed but wasn't there WOG that Scion would react badly to offworld travel? or was that just space and other dimensions are fine.

 

That seems interesting. There would be many edge cases though. You have to consider that most people are being manipulated into fighting in the first place. Is it valid to satisfy the shards like that instead of going after the root of the problem somehow? Consider people like Burnscar who get majorly mindfucked.

Normal humans would stay in charge because they're backed by parahumans that want them in charge.

This is in the short term of course. Doubtlessly technology will advance to the point where parahuman powers are more understood and they can be combated directly by normal humans with advanced technology. At that point the line between parahumans and humans becomes almost invisible. If you have an unequal society you'd begin to see break-downs at that point, assuming the parahuman leaders didn't actively suppress technological advancement.

It would be a bad idea to suppress that sort of advancement though, since it's what will deliver the solutions for killing the other Entities infesting the universe. They're a distant future problem but still something humanity will have to confront somewhere down the line.

 

solar energy surrounding the region.

 

Something I wanted to mention before but didn't want to clutter up the omake with was that I hope that they do a better job of not only protecting people's rights to practice religion but also protecting people's rights from other people practicing their religions. So sick of that crap.

Even if you get people who believe that the same location will be equally sacred or promised across realities, you'll never have a perfect split between the two on who's going and who's staying.

The best option would probably be to get the disenfranchised to move over, but you will not get everyone to accept that it's equivalent, even if you disregard the whole "more resources but not developed" aspects.

...I can't decide if that's a ridiculous loophole or just affording her the ability to disregard orders and receive consequences for it like everyone else.

Now that I type it up, the latter seems more likely.

Yes, there is a WoG to that effect.

It doesn't touch on dimensional travel, but since the shards were sent off so long ago, and aimed at the Bet dimension in particular...there might be a sharp drop in first-gen triggers.

As for Scion involvement, well. That could be quite interesting.

 

Well there are parahumans in other dimensions, like that one with the trump Empress that likes blue.

 

To be honest, a vast amount of the law is contract and tort law (since a lot of lawsuits are about "who should pay for this unexpected expense?"). Criminal law, in the usual course, is a minor consideration compared to it.

That being said, "who should pay" disputes are manageable on a "state" level, for the most part. Just be aware that "international" disputes over who owes who what are going to be a thing on Avalon, and between Earth Bet and Avalon. It's important, but it's probably something that can be partly put off since parahuman conflict means they need to deal with disincentives for criminal behavior first.

Just an issue to be aware of in future.

Thanks
Luc "First Post Here" French

 

I'm going to guess that at least some of those portals are going to have a railway set up to massively increase the number of people and quantity of supplies they can ship through by an exceptionally large amount. Probably a lot easier to deal with than any other kind of bulk-transport, and it can be scaled up relatively readily.

 

ftfy

Not...really? The Palestinians get one Earth, the Israelis get another. They literally never have to interact ever again, if they don't want to. The real problem is convincing them to abandon the battle on Earth Bet.

So, clearly, Pantheon needs to blow it up, while framing China. That way everyone gets behind the "China doesn't get a planet" plan.

 

they could have a reservation on avalon for former C.U.I. Citizens only with a mandate that they shall never govern themselves or seek political office.

 

Thread gets locked. Good thing because if you post in the locked thread it gets deleted and you get banned.

 

I imagine if a thread that contentious got made, it would simply be deleted and prevented from being remade. Rather than leaving all the speculation up there for the world to see.

This bit is what made me realize how different Avalon would be. America has stuff like the 5th amendment to stop this, but over there you'd have omnipresent law enforcement. Depending on how thorough the laws become, this could be a remarkable peacekeeping device or a hideous mark of tyranny. I mean, consider some of the laws that we just ignore or wave off, stuff where a cop would tell you to "just don't do it again" rather than haul you in. Whether this interview is good or bad depends entirely on the system interpreting the results.

I mean, imagine if everyone had to honestly answer whether or not they've pirated something. Piracy fines are pretty damn high, and while they've technically broken the law, the punishment would break them.

It's probably just an off-hand descriptor of what the nation would be like, but it sticks out to me as a major defining aspect. Even though I'm not a criminal, I don't think I'd want to live in a place where I had to go to government confession every week to assure them that I've been a good citizen.

 

Ekul?

Reverse for "Luke"? Is it a Skywalker reference?

EDIT:
Peanuckle I don't think it will be quite so bad.

There will probably be a questionnaire that covers felonies and similar life-threatening and/or traumatizing actions. Like terrorism. And it will probably have a "what's your intent with that" clause. Also, it's not the lie detectors that mete out punishment, it's the jury. So "I crossed an empty street to save a minute" is probably going to be a slap on the wrist.

Probably the first couple of questions I'd ask in that interview would be:
"Did you commit any serious crimes since your last interview?" - because riding the bus without paying the ticket is totally not a crime serious enough to ping on this.
"Did you plan, or commit, any act that caused significant harm to someone?"

 

The posters maybe, but I'd hope the PHO Moderators' spelling and typing was better than that ...

 

Possibly, I grabbed it from the list of canon users

 

It's more of a thing where my spelling and grammar is crap and the PHO generator doesn't have spell check. If you spot any spelling or grammar mistakes "Judge" made let me know and I'll fix them.

 

Not gonna lie.

Kinda bummed out that he named it Avalon.

Also can someone clear this up? Are Pantheon moving the Japanese to Avalon? Or are they essentially replacing Bet's Japan with Avalon's?

 

This is only tangentially related, but I can totally imagine Carol squeeing when Amelia makes her Attorney General of Avalon, only to find herself having to write a new set of contract and tort law from scratch. And watching Carol Dallon and Allen Barnes fight it out over the laws of either all of or some part of Avalon. Which made me wonder if legal battles are enough conflict for Alexandria, Lisa, or any other Thinkers. And now my headcanon is that Carol became a lawyer as an outlet for the conflict drive of her Shard. Except that it didn't work, since Victoria's powers don't seem to be a bud of Carol's, more similar to other members of New Wave.

 

They're inviting the Japanese people on Earth-Bet to take over Earth-Avalon's Japan. Since the Earth-Bet Japan is A) Missing an island, and B) A third world country.