Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

[dasstan]

Shaper and Admin sitting around a tree, B-U-D-D-I-N-G~

....and that's all I got. I shall now wait for someone with more talent than me become unable to stop thinking about it until they finish the jingle.

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First comes
HIVE
Then comes ...

 

[CptTagon]

Concern over Case 53s. Hoping to gain access to Cauldron's records of creating them. Perhaps find their actual identities. Serious morale issues within Protectorate. Serious need for new members. Sees helping them as a means to recruit more of them, in addition to the obvious helping. Hoping to encourage Cauldron to provide more artificial capes to the Protectorate cause.

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This should probably be in italics.

 

[thatavidreader]

Alexandria's a lot more likeable. How did she become such a piece of garbage in canon despite her vast thinker powers?

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

Alexandria's a lot more likeable. How did she become such a piece of garbage in canon despite her vast thinker powers?

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Author fiat.

 

[doomlord9]

She was intentionally acting like a douchebag in canon in an attempt to make Taylor attack her and force her to return to being Skitter. She just underestimated the response Taylor could bring against her and overestimated her break point due to Taylor using her half of the proto-Taylia bond to push her emotions into her swarm.

 

[Snake/Eater]

she was trying to cause Taylor to have a nervous breakdown and provoke her into attacking Alexandria .....it worked. never could figure out why on earth that was her plan.

 

[tkioz]

I really want to see the Pantheon Christmas Dinner... Complete with Riley and Missy wearing paper hats from christmas poppers

 

[Hexed999]

she was trying to cause Taylor to have a nervous breakdown and provoke her into attacking Alexandria .....it worked. never could figure out why on earth that was her plan.

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Attacking Alexandria should've made joining Wards impossible. Life as Skitter or in the Birdcage would've been Taylor's only options. Since they needed Skitter to complete their experiment in Parahuman Feudal states this would've been ideal. She even gave Taylor a viable method of attack, not realizing that Taylor's control continued even while she was unconscious, died as a result. I suspect that Contessa's failure to warn Alexandria about this outcome was part of a plan to restore the public's faith in the Protectorate by giving the impression that the "rot" had been cleansed.

 

[GiftofLove]

So instead of QA thinking it's Taylor, it now thinks it's Taylia.

They accidentally a daughter?

 

[edale]

(and do they know Eden would have been female? I don't remember...)

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I think in the bit where they showed Eden's plans (the same bit that numbers the Endbringers at 20) Eden's human avatar was posing as a male hero....but my memory of that part is a bit fuzzy.

Show of hands- who'd like me to rewrite the last chapter from a Lisa perspective?

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I do, but don't delete the current one, make it an add-on (that's how I refer to the #.5 chapters in my head, not sure the technical term).

I like Lisa PoV but I also like new content.

Grumble, grumble.

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Have you SEEN how fast TanaNari writes? You won't miss out on your new content.

Hah! This means I'll be writing chapter 234.5

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Awesome!

Amelia, Ch 234.5- Lisa

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DAMN you're fast, I was at work for like 5 hours and you already had a discussion, and wrote a chapter add-on and all!

How dickish of you

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Dude...sometimes things are just TOO obvious to point out.

Question is, where is it going that doesn't exist?

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Hmmm....Maybe the City on the Edge of Forever, or Thirdspace, Or maybe it just went to have lunch at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

You were warned.

No, really. What? That's just absurd. The entities themselves aren't even that big.

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Entities are made of trillions of shards. Shards range in size from city block sized, to city sized. When concentrated all in one dimension, yeah, that's a lot of mass.

... But it's still not juggle all the planets in the solar system big, which is what Snake/Eater claimed about the Endbringers, let alone the Entities.

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Their bodies are roughly moon-to-planet sized, and extend into all universes.

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Yea....No. They're multi-dimensional, not omni-dimensional.

The entities work on bullshit Quantum fictional-physics but in reality a true piece of a entity should have knocked earth out of it's orbit.

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No they don't. That's complete fanon. At most, they extend to a couple dozen universes. They're small enough that the "main body" can rest (and be destroyed) on a single planet.

Or collide with a planet without shattering it into dust.

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OK.... *sigh*... If an Entity in it's full, undivided form where to try to exist all in one dimension, then yes, there would be a gravitational pull added to the solar system to significantly alter the paths of the planets therein. However, this will never happen, it is in fact against the very nature of the Entities as multi-dimensional beings. Their sheer mass would cause them to collapse upon themselves.

Remember Scion consumed/became/replaced an entire planet... AFTER shedding the VAST majority of itself as shards to imprint on humans (and the occasional AI).

The impression I got from the various visions and interludes was that the main core of the Entities that would have existed in Earth-Beta as Zion and Eden was less then 5% of the full entities size, having only kept the bare minimum to make themselves small enough to land on the planet without destroying it.

Also there's the fact that Eden was trying to land, it just failed. This was NOT a full-speed collision, this was just hitting the breaks a few seconds too late.

I hesitated for a single moment on the long term deal she'd made with Moord Nag. It went against what we understood of parahumans.

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So wait... The shard encouraged/allowed the deal, perhaps even supplying the idea to Amelia in the first place, instead of fostering conflict because it didn't want something to upset Amelia, and make her drop the Taylia bond? Or perhaps even to prevent the loss of the bond through Amelia's death?

... Some of which might be me "subtly" asking my readers how none of them thought of almost any of this stuff.

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Because we aren't Tattletale?

Shaper and Admin sitting around a tree, B-U-D-D-I-N-G~

....and that's all I got. I shall now wait for someone with more talent than me become unable to stop thinking about it until they finish the jingle.

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Shaper and Admin sitting in a tree, B-U-D-D-I-N-G~ First comes a bond;
then comes love;
then comes shardlings in a [multidimensional horror that would startle the likes of Cuthulu].

And the unable to stop thinking about it lasted like 30 seconds, lol.

 

[Snake/Eater]

So i was reading up on physics and i realized that Coil wasn't creating two parallel time lines he was able to get past Scion's block on close realities by taking over different Coils,it was a power that was never meant to be handed out because Eden died before she ether destroyed,keep or cripple it more.he is able to exist within his personal phase space,does that mean he can see passed taboo because his dead shard is more intacted.can it be synergism with another cap to get passed the sanction the entities put on close parallel realities.

 

[Gear]

So i was reading up on physics and i realized that Coil wasn't creating two parallel time lines he was able to get past Scion's block on close realities by taking over different Coils,it was a power that was never meant to be handed out because Eden died before she ether destroyed,keep or cripple it more.he is able to exist within his personal phase space,does that mean he can see passed taboo because his dead shard is more intacted.can it be synergism with another cap to get passed the sanction the entities put on close parallel realities.

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Not valid since TN is using the canon explanation of Coils power, which is he precogs two paths, one is chosen, then his powers lock his body into following the selected path, while making him think that he's reacting in real time. Timeline/dimensional shenanigans are fanon theories of Coils power.

 

[Peanuckle]

Well that was insightful. Learned a lot, especially about the Thanda peeps. I kinda glossed over them entirely.

Surprised to see how "honest" Cauldron is being, though I suppose that they really don't give a damn so long as Scion dies in the end. They're really operating on a Hail Mary attitude and Pantheon must be a breath of fresh air for them.

I wish we got more characterization of late-Worm Alexandria. Her interlude showed her to be an intelligent, moral individual who wanted to be a hero and protect people. But the weight of Scion and the Endbringers, coupled with the necessity of tolerating crime, eroded her morality until she went full "Greater Good." Like Contessa, I suspect she lost all respect for herself. Her interest in befriending Lisa (a person who can keep up with her that isn't Contessa) is a fun way to examine her character some more. Shipping jokes aside, I hope you do a good job handling that.

 

[evildice]

Not valid since TN is using the WoG explanation of Coils power, which is he precogs two paths, one is chosen, then his powers lock his body into following the selected path, while making him think that he's reacting in real time. Timeline/dimensional shenanigans are canon in-universe theories of Coils power.

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Fixed for accuracy regarding theory origin trivia.

Her interest in befriending Lisa (a person who can keep up with her that isn't Contessa) is a fun way to examine her character some more. Shipping jokes aside, I hope you do a good job handling that.

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I suspect Contessa can't "keep up" with Alexandria, and Contessa only responds in ways that tend to result in the right outcome rather than in ways which are novel or interesting to Alexandria.

But it's even worse than that: I bet Alexandria can tell when Contessa is on-script and when she's off it by her body language, so she can monitor her reactions moment by moment. If Alexandria isn't part of her current Paths, then I bet Contessa's reactions are just ... not there.

I wonder if Number Man can keep up with her. I doubt it, given his domain limitation.

So my new OT3 is the Smugly Snugly Three: Lisa x Alexandria x Vicky.

 

[Snake/Eater]

Not valid since TN is using the canon explanation of Coils power, which is he precogs two paths, one is chosen, then his powers lock his body into following the selected path, while making him think that he's reacting in real time. Timeline/dimensional shenanigans are fanon theories of Coils power.

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he's still able to get to pass the Sanction on close realities.but only in his personal phase space.it's less precoging and more multi-dimensional bullshit and time travel is still multi-dimensional bullshit with a better paint job.

 

[edale]

So i was reading up on physics and i realized that Coil wasn't creating two parallel time lines he was able to get past Scion's block on close realities by taking over different Coils,it was a power that was never meant to be handed out because Eden died before she ether destroyed,keep or cripple it more.he is able to exist within his personal phase space,does that mean he can see passed taboo because his dead shard is more intacted.can it be synergism with another cap to get passed the sanction the entities put on close parallel realities.

Click to shrink...

he's still able to get to pass the Sanction on close realities.but only in his personal phase space.it's less precoging and more multi-dimensional bullshit and time travel is still multi-dimensional bullshit with a better paint job.

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There is no such thing as parallel realities, as far as Coil's power is concerned.

Coils shard has perfect clairvoyance of the present. it knows where EVERYTHING is and what it's doing.

At the time of a "split" Coil's shard creates a simulation of the future of both paths of actions until the point that Coil "collapses" the alternate path. This is where the precog part of his powers lie, it's not truly seeing the future, it's perfectly simulating it. Not like Diana, whose power truly does see the future.

The shard then has Coil follow the path he was in when he collapsed the other, and slowly feeds the data from the simulation to Coil in real-time. This is why his power is "precognition of the present," or "horizontal precognition;" because he only learns the data from the simulation when it would have happened.

 

[Snake/Eater]

Was coil's power ever meant to fall in a humans hands if Eden had not been a bad driver and died.does it work on Endbringers as this is a thinker shard of Edens. And would it take in to account Scion. Okay everyone here's a thought exercise if his shard was alive and the host second triggered what would change.

 

[edale]

With all the time around Diana....probably the ability to see the simulated futures BEFORE they happen.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 236- Lily


"What the hell do you mean, marriage?" Sabah demanded. Well, that's about how I expected this to go.


"It's a political thing, only," I insisted.


"Political?" she sounded more than a little skeptical. "You're going to marry a prince. Couldn't they just, I dunno, adopt you? That's a thing they can do, isn't it? You shouldn't have to marry anyone." At least she's not too angry. I reached over and pulled her hands together, clasping them in mine.


"Doesn't work that way," I answered. "The royalty in Japan is patriarchal. Even if I were adopted, I'd lose the status pretty much as soon as I got married to anyone who wasn't part of the royal family. Besides, well, you know my family history. I'm not interested in having even more parents."


"But getting married to someone you've never even met?" she grumbled. "That's so much better."


"It's a marriage in name only," I insisted. "I won't be expected to do anything. It's not like I want to have a husband. I won't be in the succession path, so they won't expect me to produce an heir or anything. All I'd have to do is show up on parades every so often. "


"Do you even know who this guy is?" she asked.


"Not really," I admitted. "The Emperor was very clear that his nephew knew and accepted this whole arrangement. He'll never try to touch me, he'll never get in the way of..." I hesitated for just a heartbeat. For as long as Sabah and I had been together, we still weren't officially anything more than friends and coworkers who happened to have sex a lot. As opposed to our bosses, who are engaged and don't even kiss. I finally settled on a word. "Anything. As long as I don't object to him having lovers of his own. I don't have a problem with that."


"Can't you just, well, not?" she argued weakly. "They should be happy with what we're offering. A new, safe, place to live. A fresh start. A chance to rebuild. Why do you even need to be a part of their royal family?"


"It isn't just that they're being asked to abandon their homeland for a new, better one, Sabah," I sighed, sitting down on her couch, and bringing her to sit next to me. "They're being asked to give up their autonomy as a people. Their rights to govern their own county. Allowing outsiders to dictate the future of their country. They can't just do that without assurances that they can give to their people. That they'll be treated well. Being able to point to one of Pantheon's royalty and say 'she's one of us, too' will do that."


"And you're not already one of them?" she sighed.


"No," I answered. "I was born in the States. To them, I'm only a little different than any other westerner."


"By that standard, wouldn't anyone be able to marry in?" she asked.


"Probably not," I replied. "Besides, who else would it be? Our fearless leaders are too busy being very publicly engaged. And other than them, only us Endslayers are really famous and liked enough to be accepted. With me, at least they get someone who looks like them. Besides, can you imagine the freakout if we tried to marry off the cute little barely teenager to some guy in Japan? "


She smiled, trying to meet me halfway on the humor. We both ignored the other option. Her. Sabah made it abundantly clear that she would never get married under any circumstance, and I was okay with that. I didn't really want to, either, though I wasn't so opposed as Sabah was. If anything, that was part of the appeal here. I'd make my parents happy, there would be no obligations to my not-real-husband. Really, it was perfect. But Sabah didn't see it that way.


"You want this, don't you?" she asked. Accused, really.


"Maybe there was a time when I imagined being a princess," I admitted, shrugging a little. "Wait, is this about how I used to have a boyfriend? Trust me, I'm gay. Maybe it took me a little while to figure it out, but believe me. I'm not into guys."


"It just makes me feel uncomfortable," she argued.


"We need them, Sabah," I tried a different kind of appeal. "And they need us. This is my homeland and my heritage we're talking about here. This is a way for me to help them. Wouldn't you help yours, if there was a way?"


"My heritage would arrest us just for kissing," she informed me bitterly. "More fucking obligations and expectations and demands. This isn't any different."


I guess it's not. "I'll see if Lisa can come up with another idea," I offered halfheartedly. I considered arguing more, but there wasn't any point in it.


She pulled me into an embrace and kissed me softly. "Thank you," she murmured as her power started to work its way through my clothes.


I woke up slowly. When was it that I stopped getting surprised by waking up in my armor? I sat up and sucked on the straw built into the armor. It no longer had a taste to me. I got to my feet and relieved myself in the armor. That didn't bother me anymore, either. It did at first, but after a while I just sorta stopped caring. If anything, it was more sanitary than removing the armor enough to go to the bathroom in a corner of temporal prison. That, and all the people around me. True, they were outside the bubble and probably wouldn't realize it if I had. No one had gone very far since I had last gotten tired enough to sleep. Only a stream of energy blasts from Legend traveled quickly enough for me to notice.


I started firing as rapidly as my power would let me. I managed to work out a pattern, one I had a lot of practice with, starting at the left and working my way right. The bolts rushed after the fucker. I'd kill him and all the others. Sabah was right. They should be grateful that I want to be part of their royal family. I shouldn't need to marry into anything. If I was one of the world's favorite people after killing one of these fuckers, what would they think after I kill a second? Or a third?


Leviathan, especially. Kill that fucker and Japan would just make me the Emperor, and I could marry whoever the fuck I pleased after that. Yeah. That's the fucking key right there.


I activated the music player. Then turned it off again. Over two thousand songs and I'm sick of every fucking one of them.


I miss you, Sabah. First thing I'm doing when I get out of here? I'll tell you how much I love you. Wait, no, that's the third thing. First two are brushing my teeth and having an actual bath.


....


Arms feel wrong. Cold. Heavy.


"Atropos?" a woman's voice asked. A voice? I'm not in the bubble!


"Did... did I get him?" I asked, slurring the words some. It had been so long since I tried to speak that my mouth had trouble making the sounds correctly. Please tell me I got him. Tell me I didn't break first.


"You did more damage than anyone," she answered softly. "But... I'm sorry. This one's built differently than the others."


I opened my eyes to the unusually dim light of Pantheon's base. I'd gotten so accustomed to the glare of open sunlight in Khonsu's power. I looked a the woman. She was pretty, in a mousy sort of way. She had what my mom called a 'well travelled' face. I'd seen her before, but I couldn't quite remember from where. Then I glanced across the rest of her body. The blue, white and gold body armor gave it away. Rapture. Right, she was there during the fight.


Dammit. "I never had a chance of killing it, did I?" I couldn't help myself, I started to cry. I stayed in there for so long. Alone. I could see the world outside and I chose to stay trapped in there. It didn't even work.


"It doesn't seem like it," she answered, her voice was smooth, understanding. "You did a lot of damage, slowed him down. Because of your effort, I'm sure thousands were spared being killed by Khonsu. You're a hero, in every meaning of the word."


Khonsu? Oh, they must have named it. "Where's Sabah?" I asked.


"The other room," she answered. "We need to talk some before you can have guests."


"I want to see her now," I growled, sitting up. Only to find I was held down by something. What? No. "Let me up!"


"We have to make sure you're okay first," she kept her voice calm. I reached out with my power, and got nothing. Everything on or around me is alive. I can't use my power on anything.


"I'm fine," I insisted. "I just need to see my girlfriend. Let me fucking up!"


"Please, just be patient a little longer," she asked. "You've been without human contact for a long time. That has unpredictable effects on people. You could put yourself in danger."


"Don't give a fuck," I insisted.


"You could put her in danger," she added. "With your powers, you might even kill her on accident."


I started crying again. "I just want to see my girlfriend."


==============

A/N- Poor Lily.

 

[edale]

What, no flashbacks of her having conversations with the face she painted on a coconut?

You must clearly watch Castaway again.

And also... wasn't she going to ask for a toothbrush first?

 

[TanaNari]

Wow... not gonna lie, that comment makes me feel like this chapter utterly failed at what it was suppose to do and should be taken down.

 

[Prince Charon]

Wow... not gonna lie, that comment makes me feel like this chapter utterly failed at what it was suppose to do and should be taken down.

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Was it supposed to do anything other than make us feel very sorry for Lily, on top of very much respecting her dedication?

 

[TanaNari]

Well, there's also exposition on the whole royalty thing, exploring some of her relationship with Sabah, and various bits of setting up for future scenes and/or foreshadowing.

But yeah, that was basically the goal.

 

[Malfunctioning Hugbot]

I felt bad for clicking the like button.

Poor Lily.

 

[Coruscant Knave]

Well, there's also exposition on the whole royalty thing, exploring some of her relationship with Sabah, and various bits of setting up for future scenes and/or foreshadowing.

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The royalty stuff was interesting. I found myself agreeing with Sabah. What are they gonna do? Refuse a shiny new Japan just because things would have to be... basically exactly the same as they were before a water demon and a rage dragon tap danced an island into oblivion? Arguably better (not that I'd blame them for seeing it different - still, free new Japan!).

 

[edale]

Wow... not gonna lie, that comment makes me feel like this chapter utterly failed at what it was suppose to do and should be taken down.

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Sorry, operating on 56 hours without sleep atm. Was trying to insert a bit of humor after the heavy, serious stuff.

Well, that and I had just seen the last few episodes of Sword Art Online season 2 an hour or two before reading the chapter; So yea... kinda desensitized me to the emotional impact a bit. (There BETTER be a season 3, ending the series like that would SUCK, I know there's at least 1 more story in the graphical novels/mangas, so holding out hope...)

Though if there's nothing in the room that her power can affect, why exactly isn't it safe for Sabah to be in there with her?

 

[tEN]

Given that the royal family are such because they're descended from the gods, doesn't declaring Lily a Japanese goddes basically solve the problem? It seems like citizenship should sort this out sort of automatically. Heck, they could even declare her the goddess of lesbians. She's got the right name for it.

So i was reading up on physics and i realized that Coil wasn't creating two parallel time lines he was able to get past Scion's block on close realities by taking over different Coils,it was a power that was never meant to be handed out because Eden died before she ether destroyed,keep or cripple it more.he is able to exist within his personal phase space,does that mean he can see passed taboo because his dead shard is more intacted.can it be synergism with another cap to get passed the sanction the entities put on close parallel realities.

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Coil's spare timelines are fake as shit. You'd need some kind of power to make fake things real to get any kind of meaningful interaction out of his timelines.

 

[Stranger-12]

"With your powers, you might even kill her on accident."

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I believe the correct wording is "by accident".

 

[tEN]

I believe the correct wording is "by accident".

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Either can be correct, depending on regional drift.

 

[Student of Zelretch]

... Lily, just have Riley do the same to the royals as you did to Coil. They have them step down/ Elevate you to power.