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Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by TanaNari, Jan 10, 2015.

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  1. doomlord9

    doomlord9 Experienced.

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    When they were berating Missy about the pregnancy thing I could only think of was them explaining that the reason it can't be overused while pregnant is because overuse will make the user pregnant.

    Congratulations, it's a clone!

    Cold turkey caffeine withdrawal makes me weird.
     
  2. jaelin910

    jaelin910 habitual lurker

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    one thing that I'd like to point out here that gets brought up fairly often is that the idea of them running out of space is pretty unlikely. running out of matter/energy to consume, now that's an issue.
    if they continue growing and/or don't cap their population, they will run out of things to eat that aren't parts of an entity at which point each one of them will have to turn to either cannibalism or auto-cannibalism.

    whether canon or non-canon, avoiding running out of space to occupy and things to eat are both reasonably good ideas. (though, as I said, the latter should occur first)
     
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  3. Peanuckle

    Peanuckle Versed in the lewd.

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    :eek:

    You tease.
     
  4. Ack

    Ack (Verified Ratbag) (Unverified Great Old One)

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    Is Emma trying to give Missy a heart attack?

    First, she asks if Missy knew she's not supposed to take the stim drugs while pregnant. Then she asks if Missy's sure that she's not pregnant. Meanwhile, she would have known for a fact that Missy's not pregnant.

    Why didn't she just say, "Okay, you've read the warnings on the stim drugs, such as no more than one dose a day, right? Well, guess what."

    Actually, I can give an answer. Two, in fact.

    Watsonian: Emma wanted to give Missy a scare, and ensure she had her full attention. The flaw with that? Missy has just had a huge strain on her body. She's also one of the most team-oriented people there; all Emma had to do was point out how much she fucked up, and Missy would have gotten it. As she did.

    Doylist: TanaNari wanted to tease the hell out of us, so he/she had Emma harp on the non-existent pregnancy, then Riley get in on the act. Even though, in character, both Emma and Riley knew for a fact that Missy wasn't pregnant.

    Personally? I found it just a tad clunky. "Are you sure you're not pregnant?" Really? Emma knew already. So did Riley. Everyone knew.

    So basically, all of it up to the point where it's revealed that they're actually talking about overuse of the stims themselves ... one big troll post.

    Aside from the fact that "do not use while pregnant" is in the list of warnings ... why did Emma even bring up pregnancy anyway?
     
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  5. Snake/Eater

    Snake/Eater Myth Maker of the North

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    For this chapter i choose the two song that i think goes with this chapter,the first song is "Human" by the Civil Twilight.The second song is "Breathe Me" by Sia.
    Because when woman get pregnant they get this thing i call "baby brain" they start forgetting stuff and take stupid risks like drinking wine and other silly(dangerous) stuff.like what what Missy did...:rolleyes:
     
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  6. GiftofLove

    GiftofLove A Gift From The Heart

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    It was handled somewhat clunkily. Might have been better to let Missy draw the conclusion on her own.

    Emma: "Hey, did you read the warning labels?"

    Missy: "Um, yeah?"

    Emma: "Then can you tell me why we're all mad at you right now?"

    Missy: "....I am not pregnant!"

    Emma. "Lawl.
     
  7. Izicata

    Izicata AE ALTADOON GHARTOK PADHOME

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    This, basically, as well as the shards originally being intended for use on an Entity-sized scale, not a human scale; Vista's power, particularly so. It's probably one of the shards the Entities use to get around the Speed Limit of Light: instead of going faster, they'd warp space so the distance is shorter. There's very little light and very little matter that could be used to refuel in space, so Vista's shard has to have enough batteries to warp interstellar distances, possibly intergalactic distances, without significant refueling. It's also had a couple of decades before Vista triggered to recharge. It's not going to run out of power anytime soon, and the relatively tiny amount of space-warping Vista does with it is well within standard operational parameters.

    Compounding this is that the whole passenger damage plot point isn't actually necessary to force Vista to take a break. Even if all of the physiological damage she's done to herself was fixed, she still disobeyed a doctor's orders and caused unnecessary harm to herself. She's not psychologically fit for duty, and needs to take some time to de-stress and get her head back on straight. This passenger damage thing is just an inexplicable, pointless plot hole.
     
  8. Ack

    Ack (Verified Ratbag) (Unverified Great Old One)

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    I agree.
     
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  9. SirKaid

    SirKaid Know what you're doing yet?

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    Do keep in mind that the characters aren't infallible. While we might know that the shard isn't going to take the slightest bit of damage from literally anything Missy can do, the characters don't have the benefit of knowing everything canon and WoG have to say about space whale cells. It's entirely reasonable for them to theorize that overuse could damage the passenger and not just the connection.

    Alternatively, Emma and Riley know it's bullshit and are lying to Missy to keep her from killing herself to get out of having to take some extremely important time off.

    Alternatively x2, the whole "overuse" thing is a ruse formed from whole cloth to allow an excuse to shut off Missy's power and enforce a vacation before she works herself to death. The girl's already abusing military grade Tinkertech drugs in order to stay at the top of her game 24/7, she clearly needs to be sidelined for a while so that she can recover.

    I like that third one the most, personally, but they're all valid ideas.
     
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  10. Dreadis

    Dreadis No idea whats going on

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    Before we argue with what written to much more I would like to point out that even though they(and Cauldron) are the most knowledgeable about shards and budding outside of Zion they don't actually know how they work and are basically just throwing out sciency words. They might actually think Missy could damage her shard by doing things like she did, doesn't mean they are right, just that they think that.

    edit Seems Imp's shard has found a new host
     
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  11. cosoco

    cosoco Not too sore, are you?

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    Oh, that was just conservation of ninjutsu.
     
  12. aquinas

    aquinas I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Figured it was the clones not being perfect copies and not connecting quite right. You'll notice that Number Man didn't take / note a hit to lethality.
     
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  13. Snake/Eater

    Snake/Eater Myth Maker of the North

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    I think Wildbow said somewhere it was because the S9000's shards were immature..whatever that means...
     
  14. TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

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    Well, it was Lisa's idea. But yes. That is the figurative intent.

    Shock value. And subliminal reminder to Missy that her damaging herself hurts more than just her.

    Of course the Passenger's not going to be damaged. That would be impossible. Except maybe with Lily and some Tinker Bullshit! (tm).

    But Passengers have a tendency to "reward" their hosts if the host follows "proper protocol" (re: getting lots of data), because it's burning up less power trying to manipulate them- that's the whole point of the parahumans with the "deeper connection" to their shard being stronger- like Jack and Taylor... so what happens if a Passenger finds a host doing the opposite, and drawing way more power than is intended but not providing additional data?

    Of course... all the characters are going to observe is that the drug can potentially cause power loss that might become permanent, and repairing the damage on the parahuman side won't undo that side effect.
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2015
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  15. Snake/Eater

    Snake/Eater Myth Maker of the North

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    Missy needs to learn she doesn't need superpowers to be a badass,she has always had the secret ability every normal great person throughout history has...Money!
     
  16. Izicata

    Izicata AE ALTADOON GHARTOK PADHOME

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    Shards can't actually do that. Leet's passenger hated the fuck out of him and wanted to find a new host, but it couldn't just stop providing Leet the powers. It could only try to get him killed with faulty tinkertech. Maybe the drug could eventually produce power backfires or degradation, but not total power loss.
     
  17. TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

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    *reads chapter*

    Dunno where you got that idea from. But it wasn't said anywhere.
     
  18. Jackercracks

    Jackercracks At Two With Nature

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    Not a chance they're lying to her. No matter how much time off she needs, they wouldn't take her out of endbringer battles. She's just too useful for transport and such. They'd be destressing one person at the cost of potentially tens of thousands of lives.
    I don't see how Missy isn't giving data. Unless she's literally doing nothing between Endbringer battles she should still be getting into fights regularly enough. Even just combat training with team mates and recruits would do it. That precog-proof distance shield thing should be worth some data too, not to mention all the weird power interactions they've been creating, shards probably love that stuff. Only comparable shard I can think of is Doormaker, which worked perfectly right up until it used up all its juice and failed completely after making something like 300,000-50,000 portals in quick succession. I don't see that she's overusing her powers nearly that much, probably using a lot less power than Khepri/Gaea get through every day of the week for that matter.
     
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  19. GiftofLove

    GiftofLove A Gift From The Heart

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    You know I just realized they haven't even tested their theory after healing her. I've been hyped up about nothing.

    Embarrassing~
     
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  20. Izicata

    Izicata AE ALTADOON GHARTOK PADHOME

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    Breakdown, n.1.a. The act or process of failing to function or continue.
     
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  21. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 302- Amelia
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

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    Amelia, Ch 302- Amelia


    ConcernFocusWorry. "So we're missing one of our best for the next two Endbringer battles at least," Taylor sighed as we went back to our meeting room. It was true. Missy had one of the few universally effective weapons against the Endbringers, plus one of the most defensively powerful suits.


    Nothing short of Lily had been able to get through Singularity when it was powered. It might be one of the few setups that actually worked againt Scion. Which was why we had to scare her. Even if the 'pregnancy' thing might have been a little heavy handed for my tastes.


    Hopefully it'd also get Missy to think about putting herself on some kind of pill, too. She and Theo weren't doing anything like that yet, but it would happen eventually, and having her protected was just a good idea. Preferably have Emma do it. I didn't trust Riley to give her one that worked. My little sister had entered the 'babies are the best thing ever' phase, and we were all just praying she grew out of it soon.


    Hmm, maybe I should talk to Emma and ask if she could cook up birth control for boys and give that to Theo. Just to be double sure.


    "If we're lucky, it won't matter," Lisa responded. Oh, right, Endbringer planning. "With the last of originals destroyed, people are really starting to believe the idea that the others can be beaten for good. Villains that normally aren't interested in joining the fights are starting to take up the banner if only because they have to or lose face."


    "Because they know there's an army of disposable shock troops there to eat the attacks," Taylor argued. "What happens when we don't have those available?"


    "And? There still will be," Lisa replied. "Indies and heroes that normally mark the 'powers not applicable' box are asking Pantheon to give them the once over to see if there's some power combination they might be elligible for that lets them be the next Endslayers. People are actually excited about this. There's even an End the End movement online. It's becoming pretty popular."


    "Sounds like something Zach would come up with," Taylor quipped.


    "It should," Lisa replied. "He and Emma started it. I suspect Dragon helped. One of those benefits to not needing to sleep, ever, I guess."


    ShockImpressed. "Huh, one of these days, Zach's going to run out of ways to surprise me," Taylor remarked.


    "I hope not," I replied. "If he does, that means we've seen everything his mind can come up with. And I don't know if I can live with that thought. Now, how are we planning to handle the zerg transport?"


    "I'll get in contact with the Thanda tonight," Lisa informed. "It'll cost us a few mil, and require giving out some high end power suits, but the Thanda capes are already committed to the cause of fighting the Endbringers. It won't take much convincing to buy their help on this."


    "And putting us that much closer to a war with China," I added. ConcernAngerDisgust. We all knew the issues in India right now. China had moved into the 'unoccupied' northern corner of India, putting some of their own capes to use terraforming the land into something usable. Their claim that they were 'helping their neighbors' was believed by exactly no one, but it was appropriate lip service to let them get away with invading a territory that had an average of less than three people per hundred square miles. They didn't even want India, probably. Most of us were of the opinion they were more interested in having a 'forward base' that could let them snag a portal from the Middle East, when we built there.


    "They won't dare start it until the Endbringers are removed," Lisa dismissed. "And we already have the resources to end that war before it begins."


    I frowned. She's referring to Basilisk, probably. "You know I don't want to use that," I insisted.


    "It's half the reason Mashu exists," Lisa responded.


    "I'd rather go public with Bolla," Taylor countered.


    "Because the Cold War is totally something we want to emulate," Lisa's sarcasm was palpable. "I get the appeal of the whole Mutually Assured Destruction thing. Especially when it's very much not mutual. Fuck, if we weren't on a time limit, I'd even agree that it's the best plan. But you don't build a house of cards and expect it to hold when the fucking hurricane hits."


    "Instead we build weapons that make Nilbog and Sleeper look like rank amateurs?" I added.


    "Nilbog and Sleeper are rank amateurs compared to the two of you," Lisa retorted. "This the path you chose, Amelia," she stressed my name, turning it into a borderline pejorative. AnnoyanceDefensiveSupport. At least I know Taylor's on my side.


    "When China starts this war," Lisa continued. "And it is just a matter of 'when', it'll happen even if we do cave and give them a portal. Fuck, that might even embolden them and encourage them to be even more aggressive. We need to be able to end it in a single strike. Bolla could do it, but we both know Dragon will refuse to use it the way it needs to be used. And Basilisk is easily the least horrific weapon we have at our disposal that still works. Helps that it's scary as balls without being especially destructive."


    I sighed. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."


    "Sorry, but running off with Taylor to terraform your own desert paradise and live as hermits until the End of Days is no longer on the table," Lisa smirked at me. Oh, of course she'd find out about that.


    "It was never an option," Taylor replied. RegretLonging. "We have our responsibilities."


    "At least we got our payback on Piggot," I offered.


    "Oh, right, I knew I've been forgetting something," Lisa said. "After a few discreet inquaries, I managed to get some info on what happened to the former Director. They moved her to a facility in Maine. Nowhere particularly interesting, just another jail. The fun part is she's been on suicide watch ever since our invasion of Ellisburg. They've been censoring her media so she doesn't find out about Avalon, but I can't expect that'll work forever."


    AngerDisgustVindication. "Good," Taylor settled that conversation with a single word. I would have felt bad for the woman, but she napalmed a bunch of teenagers and murdered my sister. At least now I knew she was paying for it.


    "Yup," Lisa agreed. "I'm still not completely sold on the idea that success is the best revenge. But it's up there. It is definitely up there. And now that we're all thinking happy thoughts, we move on to the piece de resistance. The meeting with the Emperor."


    "Aren't we suppose to wait until after Lily's public unveiling before we do that?" I asked.


    "If all goes well, that happens in three hours," Lisa responded. "Noon, east coast time. Vickery's currently overseeing the final prepwork, and trying very hard to hide the fact that his career is set for life thanks to us, and he knows it."


    "You ever going to offer him a permanent job with us?" Taylor asked. "He's one of, like, three people on any planet that you seem to respect. I'm sure we need some kind of permanent press agent or embedded reporters or some such. May as well hire someone we know is competent."


    "He'll say no," Lisa responded. "In fact, he'd even be insulted by the suggestion. Vickery's one of those guys that wants to earn his own way. Oh, and don't kid yourself. If we fuck up, he'll be in line to write a story tearing us down faster than you can say 'easy Pulitzer'."


    "So much for gratitude," Taylor muttered.


    "That's just how he operates. Why I respect him, honestly," Lisa replied. "He's always been straight with me. If he sees a story, he'll go for it. He's not going to dick us over unless we do something that deserves it, but he's also not going to do us any special favors just because we're on friendly terms. The only reason he even agreed to this interview was to springboard Erin... umm, the woman doing the interview, into a career in talkshows and the like."


    "I guess I can live with that," Taylor agreed. "Now, about the chat with the Emperor?"


    "Alright, well, the first thing you have to remember is that the Imperial family has been ruling Japan in a more or less unbroken line, for well over two thousand years. Making it one of the longest lived governmental bodies in history. And I'm pretty sure every century or so they lube up another stick to shove up their own asses to join all the others."


    Oh god damn it, it's going to be one of those meetings.


    "And the fact of the matter is, unless something changes drastically soon, they will lose power before Twenty Twenty rolls around," Lisa continued. "It's been on that path since World War Two ended, but Kyushu really pushed the timeline forward. This is something they know, even if they're in a combination of denial and desperation. I've yet to talk to anyone other than advisors and servants. The two of you, and only the two of you, will be allowed to talk to the Emperor himself, and only over the viewscreens. Thanks to the risks of you using your powers to manipulate the Emperor."


    "But we can't-" Taylor started.


    "Yes you can," Lisa answered. "Amelia's power with your bugs to deliver a mind altering agent? Not that hard. As it stands, they'll have Thinkers and Tinkers pointed at the conversation, plus a five second delay, to make sure there's no attack through that medium. All while pretending very hard that they believe their Emperor immune to such attacks. Don't bother questioning it, because they won't."


    "Guess you don't stay in power for that long without a dose of paranoia," I concluded. We could live with those restrictions. If anything, it was more convenient for us. I wasn't looking forward to a trip to Japan without Missy to make it easy on us.


    "In addition, they're going to treat this a business transaction," Lisa continued. "From their perspective, Lily's functionally a piece of property, not a person. Or maybe it's that Lily's a person and they're gods. Whatever, point is, try not to get too pissed about this."


    "Wait!" I objective. "We're going to marry her into that?"


    "Oh, no, not at all," Lisa smirked. "We've got a much better idea."


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


    A/N- Exposition chapter. They're kinda needed every so often to show things happen in the background.

    Also: holy shit, it's been so long since Amelia had an Amelia chapter that I actually put her name in the chapter title!

    I'mma leave it there, just so my readers can discover if they noticed or not.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2015
  22. TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

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  23. Izicata

    Izicata AE ALTADOON GHARTOK PADHOME

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    The "damage" to the passenger is the same kind as the "damage" caused by cloning; increased power drain. If cloning can possibly result in total power loss, then the drug can also possibly result in total power loss. It may be less likely, or require being on the drug for an absurd amount of time, but if cloning can result in total power loss the drug could also result in total power loss.

    I mean, never mind that none of this is actually how it works. If you're going to have people in-story making wild untested assumptions, they should at least be consistent with their wild untested assumptions.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2015
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  24. TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

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    Grasping at straws, dude. That's all you're doing at this point.

    Word of God disagrees with your assessment. And that's what I'm running by. Canon and WoG, not your opinions. Don't like it? Too bad.

    They're seeing power reductions form overclocking the passenger. It makes sense that, taken to the final conclusion, that means power loss entirely (also shown to happen in canon).

    Of course, they don't know how much it'll take to cause that loss... but better to be cautious.
     
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  25. ProdigiousThunder

    ProdigiousThunder Know what you're doing yet?

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    I DID!

    I pay attention.
    As always enjoying the story TanaNari.
     
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  26. pepperjack

    pepperjack A Variety of Cheese

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    Yeah, I reflexively checked the name. In fact, until the Author's Note, I'd forgotten that Amelia chapters usually don't list it.
     
  27. Dreadis

    Dreadis No idea whats going on

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    Missing some italics here.
     
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  28. Izicata

    Izicata AE ALTADOON GHARTOK PADHOME

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    So they do think that the drug can cause total power loss if overused. Yes?
     
  29. Snake/Eater

    Snake/Eater Myth Maker of the North

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    by the way TanaNari, what are you going to call Vicky's Wormhole sword?
     
  30. GiftofLove

    GiftofLove A Gift From The Heart

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    Weirdly, shouldn't Missy have one of the strongest connections to her shard?
     
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