Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Still need to wait a few months to make that work out.

Wouldn't really hold up, since Lisa's (at least supposedly) upset by an ongoing problem, not a one shot thing.

Hers.

Yes.

 

THIS... This is... holy fucking SHIT what is this...


*Headdesk* Well, I now know what my supers setting looks like. And its title. Thank you.

Also, you should go post that over at SV so they can enjoy it, too. And put it into the general ideas threads to get even more reactions... it's an insanely fun idea...

 

Wow. People in Worm sit down, communicate, come to the root of the problem and solve it.

This has to be its own kind of superpower.

On a meta-note, I like how you avoided any of the doomsday scenarios people (myself included) were throwing out there because we couldn't see a peaceful resolution. Taylor and Amelia accept who they are, Lisa gets some degree of closure.

 

Here's some gossip i can imagine Zack posting to help cover up the drug bust fiasco to the public.

Extra extra read all about it

1. tensions RISED between the Founders of Pantheon and Avalon when Lisa told Taylor the horrible truth...That Amelia her loving fiance, has been fattening her up by increasing Taylor meals calories.because Amelia is all about that bass.the infighting has become so terrible that even Crystal has walked away in tears.
2. Accord has finally found true love... with Dragon but unfortunately she's just not that into him.but don't cry dear reader for our underdog thinker has a plan to win her heart.i even spoke with her noted colleague and fellow tinker Defiant saying "Get out of here" when we asked him his thoughts on the matter inside his lab.

 

That "made to love you" thing was so cheesy everyone in the vicinity will probably be constipated for a week.

One of those things that's absolutely beautiful to the people involved, not so much to an audience. Where's Zach when you need him?

Actually that's a good question. I don't remember hearing about him much recently.

 

Existentialism, meet your hard counter: Escalationism.

 

I actually thought it was all kinds of creepy.

 

While this is about as adorable as all Taylia interactions, I am a little worried.

I have success and power and prestige that I didn't have to go through the trouble of earning, because my creator did it for me.
And I even get to ignore all the guilt and regrets the original accumulated. After all, if I'm not her, then her sins aren't mine to regret. I'm an innocent.
You were created at the same time, our histories are just memories that aren't even ours, so we don't have to regret them at all, and we're not held to their promises.

And so Taylor is not bound to her predecessor's sins. And so Taylor is not bound to her predecessor's promises. And so Taylor owns a lot.

So what keeps her working on saving the world? What is her duty? What kind of duty is there, that actually binds her?

Lisa dun goofed in it, in forcing Taylor to adopt a "consistent view on her identity". Because the view taken is dangerous, as it implies lack of responsibility on part of the creature.

The memories have value.But in denying them, what would happen?

This Taylor has success and power and prestige she didn't have to go through the trouble of learning. Her memories grant her an intimate understanding of the price necessary to pay for such things. But disregarded, the lessons of weight of power are lost.
This Taylor can ignore the guilt and regrets of the original. Her memories however grant her a great deal of knowledge on what she would regret. But disregarding them is courting disaster.
And, this Taylor says she can consider herself not held to previous promises. But if she does not, how much chaos will be there?

And what would happen, if Lisa herself decides to go through the "Rebirth of the Innocence" process?

TL: DR - there is a damn good reason for not dwelling on existential angst and overthinking it.

 

It's almost like it's a fix fic.

Dark, ain't it?

... I think I threaded the needle nicely.

Taylor's not bound to prior Taylors, no. But the Empress(es) of Avalon are still bound to the promises made by their predecessors. Just like a country doesn't get to go "I know the President signed this peace treaty, but he's not President anymore, I am, and I'm just going to ignore it"... so Amelia and Taylor don't get to ignore Avalon's obligations...

I imagine not wanting her and everything she's ever known (plus an infinite number of copies of her planet) to burn is a good motivator. Enlightened Self Interest and all that jazz.

 

The first two of those apply to everyone alive.

You are not bound to your own sins or promises, except in so far as you bind yourself to them.

Voluntarily binding yourself by someone else's promises is hardly a novelty, either. Treaties, next-of-kin, legal precedence -- plus stuff like arranged marriages, familial blood-feuds, aristocratic feudalism, etc.

Her own choices. She wakes up and she wants to save the world.

Again, literally anyone alive can do this.

"I've re-invented myself!"

"I'm a new man because I got born again!"

"I'll declare bankruptcy, fuck all those financial promises!"

"I want a divorce, fuck all those romantic and familial promises! Well not literally, though, because divorce ends that specific familial fucking."

These are things people do. They wipe their slate clean (or pretend to do so), and try to make a fresh start. It's not new, it's not difficult, and human civilization has somehow survived so far.

 

Fucking. God damned. Brilliant.

...

Fucking. God damned. BRILLIANT.

 

I don't have an account there, and feel it might be unreasonable to make one for a single post.

You have my permission to copy this anywhere you want.

 

I......can't say I was happy with how that was resolved.

Lisa has fucked the team. Crystal quitting is only one point. It's like she has gone out of her way to set things up so that she is the only one with a reason to connect to Earth Bet from Earth Pantheon, due to her link with Rebecca. Aside from that, she is tweaking things so that it will come tumbling apart when she wants and the first block has just fallen.

The question is, why?

Wanting Taylor to admit she was a copy is a minor thing in my mind. It's a justification, not a reason.

It feels like there is more going on that I havent seen.

 

... actually, you know something?

Lisa was great at ignoring unpleasant reality when it came to Dinah being a kidnap victim and forcibly addicted to drugs by a true monster.

But now it matters? When the well-being of the whole Pantheon is at stake? She wants to force everyone who's ever been brought back to life to basically admit that they aren't really who their thoughts and memories tell them that they are? Can we say 'identity crisis'?

 

Wasn't Lisa working a long game plan so she didn't end up in the same?

As for the timing if Lisa didn't just snap from the pressure, then she may have just lanced some issues that could have festered for a while.

 

Dinah was a stranger to Lisa. She cares less about strangers than friends. That's pretty normal among humans.

You care about Dinah because you have the perspective of a reader.

 

I care about Dinah because it's fucked up. That's a pretty common sentiment among humans too. That said, what more could Lisa do? She was already trying to kill him. Double kill him?

 

When was the last time something unmistakably fix-y actually happened, that solved something from canon? (Not something you've introduced.) The most recent one I can think of was Saint's interludes, and that was nearly 150 chapters ago. Mind-jacking Moord Nag might count in the long run, but the surrounding context was darker than canon. I get that you're in uncharted territory, but it just doesn't feel like much of a fix fic anymore.

Maybe you could do another street-level arc again. Houston would be great for Purity POVs, or maybe Chicago if any of their canon Wards are still alive (I don't even remember).

 

one's

sentence. Hold

 

You'd think that, but going by the reactions of some of the other readers, it was super sweet.

Moving on... following Taylor's statements regarding who-she-is, I came to the realization that this is easily the most successful TINO fic I have ever read. And the only one that I know that has TINO acknowledge her TINO-ness.

 

The sad truth is it was Taylor that saved Lisa from herself in canon,she help her with the Fragile problem with Coil,helped to keep her alive and gave her a propose.now Taylor isn't going to a abandon her when it's clear she's truly in pain.

 

"Avalon's Royal Family spans three glorious generations!"

"But it isn't even a year old!"

"Three glorious, but violently short, generations!"

 

I really fail to see how this can be considered a fix-fic. Maybe if you're delusional or a sadist, sure.

 

I don't know what that is. And Google isn't helping.

 

Taylor In Name Only.

 

INO, In Name Only. Meaning using a character (The first letter being the same as the characters.) in a way that is wildly different from the source material. Usually used in a negative sense, it can be used to describe a well written work

 

Ah. Yeah, pretty much. A year of character development, most of it while under a mind altering influence, will do that.

Taylor-from-canon died during the Butcher arc. Both metaphorically and literally, as you see her without the Taylia bond when it happens. And people wonder why Lisa's upset.

 

So like, if I show you things that are fucked up, you'll expend effort on all of them?

Gosh I dunno, maybe give his brain to Bonesaw, forcing him to be a prisoner in his own body, who serves her loyally forever.

This story is built on the living bones and brain-tissue of fates worse than death.

But that's a tangent. The reality is that, in canon, Lisa was not sufficiently motivated to take action against Coil, until Taylor breached the subject. Lisa did not care about Dinah enough to move up her timetable; Taylor did.

 

Pretty sure that, in canon, she wasn't too happy about that either. She was happy to help Taylor rescue Dinah, but first they had to make sure they'd actually survive to do it. Hell, they even managed to convince the rest of the Undersiders to help.

Remember that 'caring' and 'doing something about it' are two different things. There's probably plenty of things you care about and don't do anything about, and I'm saying that without even knowing anything about you. It's what we're like as a species.

And Lisa did end up doing something about it, she just had to get into a position where she (1) could without being killed first and (2) could without being killed after.

Well...

They can do that now