Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Dragon, the new Master Control.

 

Does he have to be a tinker to watch her actions and thoughts and know her?

I suspect he didn't give a damn since his only real worry was whether or not she was evil.

He terrorized and did things tantamount to rape to one of the world's greatest heroes. Considering his job was to watch only yes, that makes him an idiot.

considering that that was the first time you brought it up, what was going on can't even vaguely be considered taking over the world, and the complete lack of relevance Leviathan and the endbringers have to this particular discussion this entire paragraph is pointless.

I don't think you understand what taking over the world means. Or that her stopping saint could possibly be a good thing.

Ok here you've simply lost me. I think I see you suggesting he should have immediately used ascalon the moment he got it. Then you suggesting Teacher doesn't want to take over the planet/destroy whatever part of it won't listen to him. Then suggesting he's ever the person to turn to once his full powers were known. Claiming his helping Teacher escape the birdcage and all the other dumb shit he did to better terrorize said world's greatest tinker on Teacher's orders was a heroic sacrifice and not him being fucking crazy. And finally claiming working with Teacher was a good plan.

Hell, he tried to take the birdcage from Dragon and now I kinda wish he'd succeeded. If only because Dragon would have had to remove the warden AI from the birdcage and good luck controlling all the automated defenses and such without it. Never mind that Teacher would have been released the first day.

 

just give up. it's obvious that you're talking to an Entity, that's why [hero beats villain and things get better] is a bad thing to him while [villain violates, steals from and tries to kill hero] is 'good'.
he's just promoting conflict and you're falling into the trap by arguing back.

 

This has been me for the last several hours.

 

it's a noble thing you're doing but you simply have to face facts; zzzzzz either has literally no idea what he's talking about, zzzzzz is simply opposing your position without care for who is correct or zzzzzz is trolling you. in all cases the best option seems to be to provide a link to worm itself and stop getting involved.
there's multiple quotes out there about arguing with idiots and why you shouldn't. I suggest you just stop; let zzzzzz think he's right and go on your way. if someone is determined to believe they are correct regardless of what you say, it doesn't matter how good your argument is because they'll keep right on thinking they're right.

 

Wrong. 'Taken', like 'moved', works on its own here. Or how I appropriated the word 'shunted' for dimension hopping. Your version works, too, but it's not the only way to English.

I disagree. But even if they could, it loses nothing to do them in first person... even if it doesn't add as much as some other chapters tend to.

That and they keep forgetting the stuff already established in the story. Like every Victoria Perspective chapter shown thus far.

Orrrr because in addition to combat precog, she also has bioscan- including showing emotional states.

Never again. And what's the point? In that order.

The reason Saint activated the kill switch was twofold.

1- Dragon accessed a lot of computers simultaneously- something her program expressly forbid, and used them to achieve a grade of multitasking her program also expressly forbid. To the point that she could subconsciously hunt down Saint and crew even while fighting the S9- and since they were using the stuff that was suppose to prevent her from tracking them at all. Something ALSO forbidden by her program.

2- Most importantly, if you read the story... she violated the Thou Shalt Not Kill command. Which was the big one. Dragon. The Seed AI. Was now capable of very intentionally killing humans.

Granted, they were S9000 clones, so they fucking belonged dead. But when a Dragon Suit turns nanothorn breath weapons on the monkey bipeds... it's more than reasonable to be nervous.

Now. Scenario scenario 2 won't likely happen in this AU, as there will be no s9000. Scenario 1 might, in some capacity, occur. Really, most of it will almost inevitably occur. But since there's no immediate End of the World threat going on (or, at least, they have an extra decade to prepare for it), Defiant's work on Dragon will likely take a very different path. A more cautious one.


Now, will you people stop being assholes to zzzzzz... he brings up a lot of very good points. And you people should go reread Worm, because if you did then you'd know that, which means you weren't paying attention.

 

Minor question but why doesn't victoria have a parthenon cape name? Something like Nike or Bellona?

 

I took it from that discussion that she was literally just using "Victoria".

 

Spoiler: she does.

It's in the cast page list. And has been since Friday.

It'll also be in the upcoming chapter.

 

*Off-topic*

Did I hear someone say "monitored" about Dragon?

 

She has always been able to kill humans as long as it is legal to kill that specific person at that specific time. S9000 had kill orders so no problems with her safeguards. If the president told her to kill people she would be forced to kill them by her safeguards as authority demanded it.

 

Nope. Her safeguard against killing, like her safeguards against duplication and multitasking, were greater priority than her obedience orders. If she was given an order to do any of the above, she would be compelled to disobey.

Her orders to prevent others to tamper with her code was ALSO higher priority than obedience. But lower priority than killing. Which is how Defiant could do it at all- playing one order against another.

Besides, by the point of the S9000 arc, her obedience protocol was already broken. In fact, THAT one was broken during the Warlord arc. So they could let Skitter go.

 

She has no rule against killing.

She says during her first fight with Taylor she has never killed without a legal order to do so.

Dragon isn't bloodthirsty so she avoids killing more than is required to but it isn't inherently forbidden to her.

 

I don't recall telling the truth (to supervillains) to be one of Dragon's fetters.

 

missing .

capitalization

missing .

"breathe" breath is a noun.

Missing newlines.

No, but they do need to use scientific notation.

So, the Director has been stressed for a while. Did he have his agents capture and kill those Fallen, in order to attract Pantheon's attention? Probably not, since his nervousness would have shown up to Clarice.

It bothers me that Vicky is apparently trying to irritate the Director. Presumably, she has a plan here, and she's not just doing this for kicks. She's also asking for a guide. Is the Director going to assign a Thinker, to gather information about Pantheon, the Wards or Protectorate leader, to avoid snubbing them, or one of his agents, to avoid wasting the time of someone more valuable?

They're also considering talking to the various criminal elements in the city to get more information. That... seems like a powderkeg waiting to go off. Are they just going to teleport into their houses and say hello? Hopefully Lisa dug up their contact information instead of where they live, so they can arrange meetings on neutral ground. (As much as any point on the planet is 'neutral ground' to Pantheon.)

 

Didn't she go with Defiant on a cross country trip to put down the S9? My grasp on Canon gets a little fuzzy around here, because I started to lose interest.

 

It was a situation where she had no motive to lie. She could just stay silent, and let her actions speak for themselves, or simply say she doesn't kill that isn't that abnormal a code for a superhero.

Instead she says she won't kill without direct legal authorization. Nowhere in her interludes does she ever mention a rule against killing but she does fear what a tyrant can order her to do which would be much less of a fear if she wasn't allowed to participate in killing.

Similarly the story specifically calls out her weakening the controls on obeying authority and making AIs, and not the one on forking but nothing is ever said about one focused on killing. You are making a new restriction up without any canon support.

 

Fridge horror that just hit me. Riley acts so adorable because it's a learned defense mechanism. She spent essentially her entire conscious life with "Mommy Siberian" hanging over her shoulder watching her, and Jack Slash ready to throw her away if she stopped being a "good girl". Acting all adorable was a response to being surrounded by all these dangerous people all the time, and eventually it became a habituated response to dealing with powerful people.

Her real personality is probably only just starting to show itself when she's alone with Amelia, though she really is still a broken 6 year old on the inside in a lot of ways.

 

I wonder what Rily will be like when goes a teenage rebellion phase....

 

That's true, it doesn't really detract.

But I wonder if picking a single perspective for 4-5 snips might make it easier on the reader, to remember all the capabilities and perceptions and biases of this "I" person.

 

Creates the Rabbit of Caerbannog and names it Mr. Snugglebumms?

 

You keep making the PRT/Brain look guilty... I want to believe but at the same time it easily could be obvious misdirection.

 

See, we underestimated her arrogance. We expected maybe the other version of it but her own name? Underestimated how arrogant she could be.

And yea that power is overpowered as hell.

 

Well...that's terrifying. I don't guess we'd ever get to see him and Number Man go at it. That could be fun. The two most terrifyingly unimpressive, normal capes ever get into a brawl and the entire city gets wrecked. They both come out without even a wrinkle in their suits.

...and that's quite a line up. Even accounting for varying weaknesses and power levels, with eleven capes in a single city, they're in a pretty safe place power-wise...if you don't count Pantheon.

...does the PRT/Protectorate want Pantheon to come in bold and brassy and have someone in the 'mafia' do something really stupid? I think they do.

Of course, the other option is...

...actually, I was wondering why people were still guessing. I'd assumed it was some weird campaign to change it, but...

Edit: Also, I like that Emma finally picked a name.

 

It's like an old Noir film...

I demand Top hats and inconspicuous trench coats!

 

This is Vicky's viewpoint, and while we can presume she's a reliable narrator about facts she notices, we can't about tone, or about facts she may have missed.

 

So you kinda did go with my idea for her cape name. Awesome. And honestly, I can see her going with the Roman version just because it's her name.

 

Okay, spill. Couldn't find a mention of Emma's cape name in the last 4 chapters.

 

...

There's a post on page 1 with the full list of Pantheon's membership and their identities. Here.

Edit: Granted, the 'associate' members aren't listed. Those being the Travellers, Faultline's crew (I'm assuming they're still under contract), Coil, Dinah, Accord, the Adepts, & (presumably) the Railroad Bandits.