Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)

Silently Watches · Dec 5, 2019

Elwyn said:
As for giving Lacey Barret Boost—getting her in place to use it is tricky. There was a WoG that it had only a few feet range, so she'd need to be up with the blasters to use it. Not so good for someone adverse to combat.

The initial cast range is a few feet. The buff is then on a timer before it wears off.

aceraptor · Dec 5, 2019

@Silently Watches If there are more interludes I'm looking forward to a view of the aftermath with PoV of the Protectorate or clean up crews/search and rescue as they navigate through the body parts strewn resort.

Silently Watches · Dec 5, 2019

aceraptor said:
@Silently Watches If there are more interludes I'm looking forward to a view of the aftermath with PoV of the Protectorate or clean up crews/search and rescue as they navigate through the body parts strewn resort.

I don't have any such interlude planned, but if anyone wanted to write it as an omake, I could certainly canonize it if it's good enough. *hint hint*

Frozenpredator · Dec 5, 2019

Cassiel proves herself best zizter. Loved the way she offered power to Laura.

landcollector · Dec 5, 2019

Silently Watches said:
You shoot her a crooked, cruel grin. "Setting up to make use of it."

My mental image of this is Smug Megumin face.

Silently Watches said:
"This is madness," Samantha says, stealing a length of pipe from one of the attacking hostages and hitting him upside the head with it.

"Madness? THIS! IS! EARTH BET!"
"CUT! DAMNIT TAYLOR!"
*everyone breaks into laughter*
"Sorry, Director Silently!"

Silently Watches said:
The sound of something exploding comes from right behind you, and you spin around to find a cape all in white with a long mask pierced through by javelins of ice. Purson, the Fallen's Master, stares at you as eyes flashing blue, then his head slumps in death.

«Telepathic intrusion ineffective.»

It is impossible to ignore what is right in front of you now. That is Laura. Laura is a mage.

Huuh. Wasn't expecting that, frankly. I wonder how Ziz convinced her.

Silently Watches said:
Non-lethal is not the same as non-crippling, and your stomach squirms when her bottom jaw shatters and rips itself off her face.

*winces* Unless she receives immediate surgical treatment she's probably going to bleed out on the ground in short order. We might need to relabel Non-Lethal to Less-Lethal at this point.

Silently Watches said:
Above you the ceiling shatters, and five capes in costume drop into the building. "Tampa Protectorate! Everyone down on the ground!"

You sigh and flop down on top of the – hopefully unconscious – Leviathan-themed flier.

Finally. The cavalry has arrived.

Hmm. Bet that's the majority, if not all, of the Tampa Protectorate. I wonder how long they were waiting outside?

Anyway, the siege is over. We'll have to see what the aftermath is. Now for the Interlude.

Silently Watches said:
This was the kind of group that was suicide for someone to fight all on their own. And Taylor expected her to hold them off by herself?

Uhh, no. We don't expect you to fight them stand-up Laura, considering we were doubting our own capabilities to take them all out, but doing something (like, even creating ice walls every so often to slow their advances for precious moments would be useful!) instead of hiding and saying "Nope, can't do anything." would be appreciated.

Silently Watches said:
Her? She had a team. If she revealed her powers in such a public display, it opened up all of Winter Hill to reprisals. Any dumb normie who took a picture or video and posted it to the Internet would be painting a target on her back for the Fallen to take a shot at, and that shot would come at Winter Hill's expense. They would know it, too. They would know that she was putting herself and her own interests, even if those interests were to protect other people, in front of the gang's. It would be seen as a betrayal.

Winter Hill did not treat traitors kindly. She had not yet had her powers when Malachite tried breaking off from the gang and taking part of their territory for himself, but she had heard what happened. They would not butcher her for this, of that much she could be sure, but they would still cast her out so any revenge was her own to deal with. The other members of Winter Hill were not her friends, she had been honest to Taylor about that, but they were still all she had. She did not like her chances if she was thrown out in the streets to watch her own back.

Hm. Once the Fallen are dealt with in a more lasting fashion, pencil in scattering Winter Hill to the four winds if they are going to be as dumb about this as Laura fears. As for Jotunn, if he chooses his gang over protecting his daughter then he is not worthy of the title of father; very misplaced priorities imo.

Also, very interesting in the way Ziz got through to Laura.

Silently Watches said:
…And she was so tired of being scared.

"Ah, fuck it. You know what? Let's do this." She stretched her hand out and let Cassiel land on her palm. After a moment, she frowned. "How, uh, how do we do this?"

*Queues up "I've No More Fucks To Give"*

Silently Watches said:
That was all the temptation she really needed. A wave of her hand launched the twenty pound weight at high speed to collide with the cape's face. Down he went, out cold and apparently covered in blood. Was he supposed to be that much of a wimp?

«Not in the slightest. He gave Taylor substantial difficulty due to his danger sense. I can only presume that due to us focusing my precognition like this, it created enough psychic interference that he could not predict from where the threat was to come.»

Goood. That annoying precog is finally dealt with.

Overall, an interesting arc conclusion and Interlude. Nice work!

Tzardok · Dec 5, 2019

Apropos omake: I've been trying to add to my own omake, because SW said it was too short, but I'm completely empty of ideas. Has anybody an idea how to build on it?

Valdimarian · Dec 5, 2019

Silently Watches said:
You can probably give up this whole 'disguising your identity' thing up as a bad job.

Oops. Another reason for not using Flare Shooters that we forgot about

Silently Watches said:
"This is madness," Samantha says, stealing a length of pipe from one of the attacking hostages and hitting him upside the head with it.

Madness? THIS IS... actually, yea, it's madness.

Silently Watches said:
Glass shatters above you, and you look up to see a figure wrapped in white fall out of an upstairs window and land on the ground. She rolls and springs back up to her feet before unrolling more of the fabric around her body.

Sheets, you realize with no little shock. This girl has covered herself completely in clean sheets and is using them as unusually effective weapons. The long lengths of cloth flick out with each movement of her hands, cracking like bullwhips and catching the attention of several hostages. They run at her only for the sheets to unfold themselves as though they were extensions of her body and wrap around their heads before clonking them together at speeds that make you wince.

What the hell Sabah?

Silently Watches said:
It is impossible to ignore what is right in front of you now. That is Laura. Laura is a mage.

Oh, or it's Laura with a Ziz unison to provide camouflage.

Silently Watches said:
Non-lethal is not the same as non-crippling, and your stomach squirms when her bottom jaw shatters and rips itself off her face.

Ouch, ew, and good riddance.

Silently Watches said:
"Be not afraid," the fairy said with another smirk, "for I come with glad tidings. You wish to fight against the Fallen. I can aid you in this endeavor."

Well... at least she's a 12 inch tall doll girl with white feathery wings instead of a 100 foot tall infinite series of flaming wheels within wheels or covered in 100 eyes and 100 wings.

Racoras said:
If Parian is still alive, someone or other (I can see Laura and Kayleigh watching anime... some of it) absolutely MUST get a Kyuubey plushie commisisoned to give to Cassiel.

..... Though Dragon probably has a full AI tasked to keeping Cassiel from ever watching that show, now I think of it. (Dragon absolutely watches anime.)

Can Dragon program another secondary form for Cassie?

Shaseyu · Dec 5, 2019

Silently Watches said:
but I really feel like we're going to need a vacation from our vacation."

Just don't take Kayleigh with you and everything will be fine.

Silently Watches said:
"Let's just give the beach a pass, okay? And between this and hearing that Disney apparently has its own black ops crew, I'm just writing Florida off entirely."

How about a ski resort in the Alps? I'm sure Cassiel will be happy to see Switzerland again.

Silently Watches said:
You can probably give up this whole 'disguising your identity' thing up as a bad job.

It was a silly idea from the beginning, yes.
A fight with several dozens of enemies to protect several hundreds of civilians is really bad time to deliberately limit yourself just to remain anonymous.

Admit it, Taylor. You just wanted to show off for Laura.

Now, the Protecorate is here and after this messy fight everybody will be shoved into the M/S quarantine.
Do you want to spend who knows how long in a boring cell? Or do you want to reveal you're Calamity Witch with certified Master Immunity and be free to help with investigation and whatnot?

Silently Watches said:
Warnings about making deals with devils ran through her head.

But Cassiel is an angel, not a devil, so surely all these warnings don't apply. 😇

Silently Watches said:
Cassiel
SYNCHRONIZATION
<...>
Cailleach: 96%

Okay, Laura, consider yourself adopted.
From now on you're Cassiel's little sis. Don't try to protest and claim you're older than her, nobody'll believe you.

Silently Watches said:
…OR you can use it on Lacey. Your choice.

I think about giving Lacey a Recursion Field.
Taylor's teleportation was locked behind it, I think it's the same for Lacey and as a support mage she should have a spell for forced teleportation we need to send an Endbringer into orbit.

ChaoticSky · Dec 5, 2019

I just want to point out that you nonlethal nancys cost us what would have been one of the most amazing kills in the worm fandom.

That is something you are going to have to live with for the rest of your lives.

Tassadar · Dec 5, 2019

Silently Watches said:
The initial cast range is a few feet. The buff is then on a timer before it wears off.

Would Lacey using an Barret Boost be enough for Lacy to get spells from combat?

Silently Watches · Dec 5, 2019

Tassadar said:
Would Lacey using an Barret Boost be enough for Lacy to get spells from combat?

Yeah. She would be involved in the combat at that point.

Silently Watches · Dec 5, 2019

Since we're getting more reviews of the chapter, I'd like to point out that all through that first half of 13.x, I really just wanted to reach into my head and give Laura a hug. Girl needs one desperately.

Byzantine · Dec 5, 2019

@Silently Watches: I mean... earlier nonlethal was shown to expressly be unable to damage teeth and bones even at ridiculous power levels. That's what cost Missy her arm and all.

...So... why did it pop someone's jaw off this time?

Dusk Star · Dec 5, 2019

UberJJK said:
Not exactly great results but not as bad as many, including myself, were fearing.

I think by the standards of everyone else in universe, this was fucking incredible.

Dusk Star · Dec 5, 2019

Byzantine said:
@Silently Watches: I mean... earlier nonlethal was shown to expressly be unable to damage teeth and bones even at ridiculous power levels. That's what cost Missy her arm and all.

...So... why did it pop someone's jaw off this time?

Because breaking those teeth would have been lethal, presumably. "Non-lethal" isn't an amount of force, it's a result.

Silently Watches · Dec 5, 2019

Byzantine said:
@Silently Watches: I mean... earlier nonlethal was shown to expressly be unable to damage teeth and bones even at ridiculous power levels. That's what cost Missy her arm and all.

...So... why did it pop someone's jaw off this time?

Path of least resistance and least damage. The explosion was supposed to be nonlethal, and ordinarily it would just be a diffuse blunt force, but when Taylor shoved it into someone's mouth and then accidentally blocked any other path for the majority of the force to be shunted out with a Barrier Jacket, well…

Magic is great and all, but at a certain point basic physics has to come in to play, too. It wasn't going to go past Taylor's Barrier Jacket, so the other options were a) down Empusa's esophagus or trachea, either way blowing her neck apart and killing her, or b) make the mouth wider by overstressing the jaw joints, which is awful but will actually leave her alive.

You can tell this was nonlethal, though, and that's the crazy part. Ose found out what it does when set to lethal, namely blow the whole freaking head apart like a melon.

Just because nonlethal won't kill you doesn't mean it can never seriously harm you no matter the circumstances.

globalwarmth · Dec 5, 2019

Love that Ziz recruited someone during a fallen raid. Just not the fallen

Silently Watches · Dec 5, 2019

Keep in mind that the vote IS OPEN. I'll always tell you if there's a moratorium. There isn't one right now.

aceraptor · Dec 5, 2019

[X] Reforge Armor

Racoras · Dec 5, 2019

[X] Reforge Armor

landcollector · Dec 5, 2019

Ah. In that case

[X] Lacey- Aerial Combat

Congrats Lacey, you no longer have to give a crap about Philly traffic to get to work.

Ada · Dec 5, 2019

[X] Lacey- Aerial Combat

Pullulus · Dec 5, 2019

[X] Lacey- Aerial Combat

Flight is always the right answer

Zarion · Dec 5, 2019

[X] Reforge Armor

Bear Templar · Dec 5, 2019

[X] Vampiric Ray
Also fine with reforge armour or Singularity... In fact I'm fine with all of them but I basically want to see the entire tree

Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)

Professional Stalker

Professional Stalker

Story-hoarding Dragon

The Overlord of Cakes & Toucans!

Professional Stalker

Professional Stalker

Professional Stalker

ruining the weather.

Professional Stalker