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What Rebecca wants is for her to have authority over Gravtech and its products as Rebecca Costa-Brown, Chief Director of the PRT, not as Alexandria, defacto leader of Cauldron.
Alexandria isn't the defacto leader of Cauldron, Dr. Mother is.
I think that the law(s) preventing capes from getting any job that is better than a burger-flipper is another thing that Caulbron can be the responsible for.
That's the actual canon information we have about the law.
Wasn't there a WoG where Wildbow said that NEPEA-5 was enacted by Cauldron to bolster the number of parahumans in the Protectorate, by forcing Rogues to join; with the resulting number moving to Villainy instead being an acceptable consequence to them?
 
This counts as more "because we say so evidence" of course so it doesn't count.
To be clear: it doesn't count in terms of 'Rebecca is such an idiot/bigot/bullheaded ass for thinking this can't be the work of a normal human!'. It does count in term of 'they claim this is not in her jurisdiction and the president agrees with them, therefore it is her duty to back the fuck off whether she believes them or not'.


Wasn't there a WoG where Wildbow said that NEPEA-5 was enacted by Cauldron to bolster the number of parahumans in the Protectorate, by forcing Rogues to join; with the resulting number moving to Villainy instead being an acceptable consequence to them?
Not that I'm aware of. A number of member of Uppermost did turn to Villainy in response to NEPEA-5 - I didn't bother quoting that part, since this discussion is about the law, not the Elite - but AFAIK we have nothing on whether the law was Cauldron's work, what it's intended purpose was, or what limits it actually implemented.
 
TBH with the medical documents shown to Costa Brown containing Taylors results is probably been sanitised of her name or anything that could allow her to be identified by people running HUMINT for the opfor. If she wants the full information on anything to do with GravTec she is going to most likely need to be read into this and then have to sign a legal but load of paper work that make NDAs look tame in comparison thats assuming she does get read in.

Just because you have the clearance doesn't mean every door will open for you.
 
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Continuing in the same vein.

"Alright. Say Newton was a para human, What are you going to do? Are you going to say his theory of motions are illegal use of para human power? Are you going to charge him for exercising his power to discover calculus, and prevent every maths department from teaching it? Do you somehow intend to extend jurisdiction over every engineering firm using calculus?
My point it we have the same situation here. Someone discovered a more fundamental law of nature, and have taught it to plain jane physics students. They in turn understood it, and used it in practical engineering systems to make a flying thingajig. Your insistance in saying all these are parahuman things is hilarious in grasping at straw. You know, soon we will be teaching this new discovery in every high school physics class along with Newtons three law. You are welcome in planning the arrest of every school children for parahuman activity. You have much experience in that I am sure."
 
While RCB is clearly being an idiot here, let me point out that Cauldron as a whole hasn't done much by way of poking their nose into things yet.

Most likely because any reasonable person would realize having DARPA develop and manufacture tools that can help against Endbringers and Scion advances their goals without draining their resources. After all, to Cauldron an army division that uses new tech to take out an Endbringer but is wiped out in the process represents hundreds of saved Parahumans, and any useful human assistance against Scion improves their odds in the end.

Since it can be argued Cauldron lacks reasonable people, let's instead say they are willing to reap the benefits of DARPA's investment, and not risk slowing down their development cycle. No reason NOT to let the people charged with military R&D do the R&D you ultimately want done and will benefit from if you let them do it.

Besides, the only thing about Brockton Bay that matters to Cauldron is their experiment, and "Non-parahuman agency manages to regain control" is a valid if unexpected result. Most likely, they will choose to replicate the experiment elsewhere, and continue to monitor events in the Bay Area going forward for further insight.

In short, we have one proven idiot so far. We don't have proof that she has support from above, only that she is abusing her authority over those below her...
 
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Let's be real, if Cauldron briefed the President and the Joint chiefs on the threat of Scion and the existence of Contessa, a LOT of shit would get done much faster and better.
 
Let's be real, if Cauldron briefed the President and the Joint chiefs on the threat of Scion and the existence of Contessa, a LOT of shit would get done much faster and better.
But given that Cauldron et al are just the justification for a silly Superhero/Supervillain world, that won't happen. Or better, didn't happen in Worm.
 
But given that Cauldron et al are just the justification for a silly Superhero/Supervillain world, that won't happen. Or better, didn't happen in Worm.

There plan is like that of Mycenaean Greece to deal with a problem get some big boy hero's together and lead a glorious charge that usually ends up with most of the the people dead.

There is no thought behind it but given their big brains are Contessa whois from a bronze or iron age civilisation and the other Doctor Mother who is an art student turned voodoo doctor then its not surprising their solution isn't that good.
 
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My thought process run along the lines of "Wildbow wanted to write a Superhero/Supervillain story, and for the heroes/villains to be the protagonists there must be some reason why the 'normals' just allow all the atrocities, so - Cauldron. In a fantasy story it would have been 'a wizard did it'. And since he wasn't too much interested in the background, said background isn't exactly watertight."
 
Militaries against Endbringers has two issues against it. The first is firepower. The second is mobility. In a typical EB fight, they're extremely lucky to get one hour's advance warning before it hits, and if the fight isn't won within six hours, there generally isn't anything left of the battlefield to save. Most attacks likely aren't within six hour travel time of an army base, much less one with enough firepower to make a difference. And from a firepower perspective, a top end Mover shifting a couple dozen high end Blasters and Brutes makes more sense then their weight in tanks (one or two).
 
But given that Cauldron et al are just the justification for a silly Superhero/Supervillain world, that won't happen. Or better, didn't happen in Worm.

TBH, you need a certain kind of stupid in the water to achieve a world were literally thousands of people put spandex and go their merry ways to put other spandex people in jail, or hit them, or rob them etc.

After all, the violent crimes are a minority in the world in reality, not because it does less damage, but because is less dangerous to everyone, including the ones that are committing the crime themselves.

Entering in a house to steal when there is no one inside is a VERY OBVIOUS thing, in perspective.

So someone has to be quite insane to pull of a world like earth bet.

TL/DR: Comic worlds are wacky, yo!
 
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It wouldn't change the events seen in Canon worm if more than 5 people knew about Scion though, or if non-parahumans were working on more complete information about powers that cauldron could provide them.
Wildbows idea is that even Contessa couldn't keep the government from screwing up if they knew the truth, which is an incredibly shortsighted view about authorithy.
 
It wouldn't change the events seen in Canon worm if more than 5 people knew about Scion though, or if non-parahumans were working on more complete information about powers that cauldron could provide them.
Wildbows idea is that even Contessa couldn't keep the government from screwing up if they knew the truth, which is an incredibly shortsighted view about authorithy.
It does kind of ignore the amount of resources that could be brought to focus in on the problem doesn't it?
 
It does kind of ignore the amount of resources that could be brought to focus in on the problem doesn't it?
I'm not sure what you mean, because Worm gives no details of the actual state of the economy, the resources of the various parts of the government, and Cauldron has effectively whatever resources they want either way.
As is, the sheer time spent thinking on the problem is irresponsibly low for Cauldron unless they had a support staff the size of the Manhattan Project and the Moon Landing combined, over thirty years that would make for the absolute minimum i would want anyone with the fate of the world in their hands to work on it.

Edit: oh, i just realize your wording is probably agreement, not a counterargument.
I'll leave my comment up because i think it's interesting, even if slightly off-topic.
 
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I'm not sure what you mean, because Worm gives no details of the actual state of the economy, the resources of the various parts of the government, and Cauldron has effectively whatever resources they want either way.
As is, the sheer time spent thinking on the problem is irresponsibly low for Cauldron unless they had a support staff the size of the Manhattan Project and the Moon Landing combined, over thirty years that would make for the absolute minimum i would want anyone with the fate of the world in their hands to work on it.

Wasn't thinking in economic terms more like the amount of specialised manpower they could call up you know the more eyes looking at the problem the more possible solutions they have as well as the amount of kit that could be ordered and in general getting the people who matter moving in the right direction.

edit: Also getting everyone on the same page makes life easier when it comes to setting up possible fallbacks.
 
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Then again, in canon Cauldron stopped looking at the problem the instant a young (maybe teen) girl held aloft her magic shard and asked "How do you kill a powerful monster?"

The answer she got was "with an 'army' of untrained people with magic space whale granted powers".

(sorry for the He-Man reference)
 
What Id like to see is RCB continuing to make herself a nuisance even after receiving direct orders not to, and the military-industrial complex deciding to retire her; cue a certain redhead's team exposing the Chief Director's invulnerability to firearms and much centrifugation of faecal matter.
 
Am I the only one that don't want Taylor to contact her benefactors? It could go so wrong on so many levels. But even if they were entirely benevolent she should really let the goverment do that decision. It might be that I see shadows where there aren't any.
 
Okay, I've gotta ask. Out of all the people reading this story, am I the only one who looks at a premise where the teenaged supergenius' world-altering inventions are solely in the benevolent hands of the United States military and has, like, qualms about that? 'Cos I keep looking at that scenario and I can't help but think that it is not going to end well for anybody.

And then there's stuff like this:
What Id like to see is RCB continuing to make herself a nuisance even after receiving direct orders not to, and the military-industrial complex deciding to retire her; cue a certain redhead's team exposing the Chief Director's invulnerability to firearms and much centrifugation of faecal matter.
A month ago I might've just rolled my eyes at the ITGness of this but life comes at you fast and now a post about the military "retiring" a high-ranking member of the civilian government for daring to get up in their grill just makes me think Jesus Christ what the fuck, man?!

(I am so, so very tired...)
 
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