Ending eats Master effects, though, so while that might be a rude surprise for Taylor it wouldn't actually defeat her or help the Master.
- Location
- Australia
Catching Taylor in a Master effect that will cause her to do something she doesn't want to do (or stop her from doing something she does want to do) is by definition a hostile act. By the shard, if not by the host.
If that happened? PtE would have words with the Master and their shard.
If she never, ever gets forced one way or the other, then ... it's not much of a Master effect.
ThrawnCA
Carbon-based biped
- Location
- Australia
That could be a curious ping on her danger sense, certainly. I guess an Abaddon shard won't necessarily care if she learns more about the Cycle.
I was thinking more of something that would nudge a person, not force them, maybe encourage them to think well of the cape, but not necessarily making you do something you otherwise wouldn't, more that you agree more quickly and easily.
- Location
- Australia
PtE would ensure that the nudging was obvious to her, as well as the origin, so she could make up her own mind what to do about it.
- Location
- Somewhere
There's no tricking or getting past PtE, just like the Butterfly shard.
If you decide to start planning around it in January and act in April... It's known since the very beginning and has already planned your downfall since Day 1.
This is 'Fuck you, you lose ironically' (Butteryfly is 'Fuck you, you lose embarrassingly.')
If you decide to start planning around it in January and act in April... It's known since the very beginning and has already planned your downfall since Day 1.
This is 'Fuck you, you lose ironically' (Butteryfly is 'Fuck you, you lose embarrassingly.')
Raxner
The most dangerous man in an empty room
- Location
- Israel
She has that kind of upper body strength?
Yeah, pretty sure that Taylor doesn't really exist anymore. At this point, it's just Path to Ending puppeting her body around and letting some residual traces of her personality think that "Taylor" is still here.
Sandy River DL
(Verified Destroyer Leader)
- Location
- Lake Michigan
- Pronouns
- Her/She
PrE isn't PtV. Salting her field of fucks but leaving her otherwise unaffected is far more beneficial to the Abbadon Shard's goals than subsuming her.
Raxner
The most dangerous man in an empty room
- Location
- Israel
How's that? And what goals does the shard have, other than playing a massive prank on the other two magical space whales?
Sandy River DL
(Verified Destroyer Leader)
- Location
- Lake Michigan
- Pronouns
- Her/She
Not prank. PtE's objective is to utterly destroy the Cycle, kill off Zion, and, as far as I can tell, preserve humanity as a 'fuck you'. Taylor Tayloring results in said goal being accomplished in a gloriously dramatic fashion, which the drama-loving Shard adores.
Raxner
The most dangerous man in an empty room
- Location
- Israel
Are you getting that interpretation from the text of the story, or just from the fact that Abaddon left Path to Ending, and that shard naturally wants to end stuff?
Crazael
Rehydrated Demon King
- Location
- Lost to the vagaries of time.
This is what we see of Abbadon's motives and thinking:
So PtE was some kind of "practical joke" by Abbadon. Why he chose to do that is... unclear.Start of Chapter One said:
- Location
- Australia
She is as fit and strong as a person of her height and body type can possibly be.
Yeah, she can heave a guy into the footwell of a 4x4.
In that, you are utterly incorrect.
I have made this clear several times, and you're evidently not reading the same story I am writing.
From the Informational I posted on SB:
It's a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B.
Abaddon has decided that the Thinker/Warrior format and the 'blow up worlds and kill everyone' concept is bullshit. So it formulated Path to Ending as a massive 'practical joke' on Scion and Eden, to undermine their efforts from within and to ultimately End their whole presence here. It's not necessarily intended to kill them; if they just packed up their tents and pissed off, it would also serve the same purpose. But it's very definitely intended to spoil their fun and do things Abaddon's way.
When Abaddon rocks back around a few centuries from now (once Taylor has passed on), it intends to harvest PtE, along with the other shards that have been smacked around by PtE, then move along.
Not really. Besides what @Ack said, her behavior is clearly motivated by Taylor's agenda and reasoning and not that of a space whale fragment. Cleaning up and revitalizing Brockton Bay, protecting her father and reconnecting with him, sparing the heroes, those are all the sort of choices Taylor would make not PtE. A more ruthless Taylor, but still Taylor.
ThrawnCA
Carbon-based biped
- Location
- Australia
Consider how Taylor's personality changes in Inheritance. By the time of the most recent chapters, she's a very different person from how she started. But has her personality been simply erased and replaced with the Butcher gestalt? Certainly not. She would be very different again if her own goals and preferences and values weren't a big part of the mix. She's much more ruthless and violent and vengeful than she was before inheriting, but she definitely isn't the murderhobo that the Chorus would have chosen to be.
Likewise, Atropos is very different from how Taylor used to be, but she is not very much like a pure copy of PtE would be.
Likewise, Atropos is very different from how Taylor used to be, but she is not very much like a pure copy of PtE would be.
BEFORE YOU POST A QUERY: SOME MISCONCEPTIONS (ie, STOP BEATING THE DEAD HORSES)
- Location
- Australia
1. PtE is not PtV
Path to Ending is about Ending stuff. You can't use it to "end my lack of ..." because that's getting stuff.
It doesn't share any of the blind spots of PtV. It can tell Taylor how to kill anyone or anything (so long as it can be killed in Earth Bet, somehow).
Yes, this includes the Triumvirate, Contessa, the Endbringers and Scion himself.
Usually, Paths are relatively simple affairs, of three to four words. "Path to killing Sophia." "Path to killing Emma's self-confidence". "Path to ending this conversation."
It's not an I Win button. It's a You Lose button.
Finally, if she's in a fight that's not part of a larger Path, any blow she strikes will automatically be lethal unless she deliberately pulls it.
2. Taylor Doesn't Give a Fuck Anymore
Taylor doesn't angst over trivial shit. She doesn't second-guess herself. She lives in the moment, knows where she's going, and has zero problems with utterly fucking up someone who wants to screw with her.
However, this does not mean that she doesn't care about her father (she does), Brockton Bay (she does) or improving herself. There's a thousand problems facing the city, and she's got one tool to fix it: murder.
Fortunately, she doesn't give a fuck anymore.
3. Taylor Can Beat Contessa
PtE is more focused than PtV, and is thus more powerful. The moment Contessa starts thinking that she wants to beat Taylor, even before she starts thinking about how she's going to do it, Taylor knows. While Contessa can Path Taylor so long as it's not hostile, the moment Taylor starts a Path against Contessa, it overrides Contessa's Path and leaves her in the dark.
Face to face, Taylor's reflexes will be faster and her blows more accurate.
Taylor will always beat Contessa.
4. Taylor Can't Benefit From the Paths (with two important exceptions)
Path to Ending will grant Taylor the resources needed to carry out her Paths, but those resources will usually be entirely used up on said Paths. Occasionally, it will arrange for extra things that she can keep and use, which will improve her ability to carry out Paths to End things (that's the first exception). The costume and the shears are two of these things.
It is not PtV under a different name. It can't be twisted to act like PtV. If someone with it said, "Path to ending my time of not ruling Brockton Bay", then it simply wouldn't activate, because that's getting stuff.
Also, while the Paths can't be run to enrich herself, make herself immortal, become President or anything like that, she can totally take a weekend job for pocket money on her own talents.
The second exception is as follows: if Ending an active situation or a person, or a thing, or a group, gives her a benefit stemming wholly from that absence (such as a sudden lack of bullying, local crime, etc) then that's fine. She's allowed to enjoy that benefit.
If this benefit is money, such as a bounty for killing someone, she can definitely take it. But given her current lack of fucks to give, she's far more likely to use it to go toward another Path that needs it.
5. Taylor is Not Being Puppetted
Taylor's relationship with Path to Ending is very much a two-way partnership. There's basically nothing in the physical world that the shard can accomplish on its own, but with Taylor there to help out, it can get a lot done.
Once Taylor decides that an Ending has to happen, PtE offers whatever options there are to achieve this. If Taylor has any particular ideas for the Path, these are incorporated. (The shard definitely has a sense for the dramatic; it's an incurable showoff and smartarse.) It's not above sneaking in little extra benefits because she's thought of a particularly good idea.
With the Path set, Taylor walks it, mostly under her own steam, prompted here and there by PtE. She's the director and actor in the movie; the shard is the producer, the personal assistant, and the guy running the stunt-wire harness. It cannot force her to take any action she does not want to; however, as mentioned above, she can pull back any action that was going to be lethal, and make it non-lethal.
She might not know all the details about why something works, or what something she is doing is needed for, but she always finds out. PtE doesn't give her a step-by-step blocked-out run-down of the action to come; it's more of a 'this is what we're using, this is the basic idea, and this is where we're going to end up', with the high points noted.
She's fully aware, she knows what she's doing, and she's definitely not just along for the ride. Also, she's enjoying herself immensely.
6. Taylor is Not a Good Person
This fic is not about Taylor accidentally doing some bad things, then coming good and using her power for the benefit of all.
Her power is about killing. People are going to die. Sometimes in quite elaborate ways.
Sometimes she will choose not to kill, but that will be mainly because she's decided it would be more convenient not to.
Even when she's not killing people, she will use her powers in ways that help further her life choices.
Don't expect her to join the Wards any time soon.
7. Why Taylor Does Not Fear the Butcher
The Butcher's shard is a part of the Shard Network, set up by Scion and Eden. All shards attached to it have agreed to play by the same set of rules. Path to Ending is not, and has not. However Taylor deals with the Butcher (Chapter 28), just remember that particular aspect of PtE.
Also, remember that PtE is, at heart, not a shard about causing conflict and gathering data. It's a shard about ending shit.
When Taylor kills the Butcher (see the link above), PtE disposes of both the personalities and the powers. It's not like she needs them to be any more effective than she already is, after all.
8. Taylor and the Law
As Atropos, Taylor has zero regard for the sanctity of the law. Her entire thought process regarding it is, "does this serve my purpose, or does it get in my way?"
If it serves her purpose, she will 'uphold' it (Note that this is an entirely selfish act. She is not a good person) just so long as it aligns with her overall aim--making BB into a prosperous, safe, nice place to live.
Laws are useful in that they provide a framework for other people to live by, so she doesn't have to micromanage every action of everyone around her. For the most part, if the population of Brockton Bay follows the law, the city will become a nicer, safer place.
this is why she's 'encouraged' the PRT and the BBPD to smarten up their acts, so they can do their damn jobs so she doesn't have to.
But if and when she (and her power) deem it necessary to break the law, she won't even hesitate.
9. Taylor Will Not Institute a Reign of Terror
There are some who seem to think Taylor is going to end up destroying everything she touches, because she's really good at killing or something.
This is not going to happen.
Taylor is working toward making Brockton Bay into a nice, safe, prosperous city. If something would be bad for the city, she Ends it. If something would be good for the city, she encourages it.
There will be no death squads. There will be no summary executions in the street. Innocents will not be forced to stay in Brockton Bay if they wish to leave.
She is fully aware of the intentions of everyone in the city who has any beef with her; if anyone does not, she has no problem with them.
It is good for the city if innocents are left in peace to go to work (and to have good, well-paying jobs), raise their kids and have a good life. She strongly discourages anything that might cause problems with that. More to the point, her power can locate anyone who intends to disrupt such things before they have a chance to do it.
Note that anyone getting on Taylor's radar gets at least one warning, usually two, before she takes extreme action.
If they're stupid enough to ignore even one warning, then ... well, there's a reason the Darwin Award people consider that suicide.
10. Taylor VS the Real Estate Market
Taylor is aware that the real estate business has laws that govern it, and that some of these laws are lax enough to allow predatory activity by landlords and property owners against their renters and buyers.
She doesn't care if it's legal or not. If it hampers the growth and overall prosperity of the city, she will come down on it like a ton of bricks.
There is a significant gap between 'enough profit to be worthwhile' and 'gouging mercilessly'. She's happy for people to survive and be prosperous. But when a few people are getting rich by screwing over a lot of other people, that's when she steps in.
Again, she doesn't care that such predatory practices are legal. Neither does she commit murder on a first offence.
And if someone's business model depends on such practice just to stay afloat, they need a new business model.
11. Why Didn't Atropos Tell Panacea to Heal Genesis?
[Part 51]
Okay.
Here's where Atropos is shown to be not actually a nice person.
She's not there to fix everyone's problems.
She's there to End very specific problems before they impact Brockton Bay.
Noelle was one such problem. Killing her would've been one option, but not killing her, getting that level of goodwill from the Travellers, and perhaps getting the Travellers (one or more) to assist in her efforts to bootstrap BB into a booming metropolis, was a more viable course of action.
Jess wasn't consulted as to whether she wanted her legs sorted out because she wasn't the potential danger to Brockton Bay that Noelle was.
Her power isn't out of control, and she can use it just fine as she is, so she's very much a lower-tier priority, way down the list of "what can I do if I want to get better optics for minimal cost?"
It's not that Atropos went, "Oh, her? She doesn't matter" so much as Atropos didn't even consider her situation to be an issue at the moment.
While part of the plan Atropos has for BB is to ensure that every applicable building has wheelchair accessibility, that's because this is good for BB as a whole, not just for Jess as a person. As she's intimated before, she doesn't care about the individual; she's there to fix the city.
Amy didn't do it because Atropos didn't ask her to, and neither did Jess.
Jess didn't ask because holy fucking hell, Atropos just showed up and got Panacea to make Noelle whole again.
Now, Atropos has given them the option to contact her again, and if someone mentions it, she can bring Amy (or Riley) around and get that sorted.
But it wasn't so much Atropos overlooking it, as Atropos not seeing it as something to worry about right then.
Path to Ending is about Ending stuff. You can't use it to "end my lack of ..." because that's getting stuff.
It doesn't share any of the blind spots of PtV. It can tell Taylor how to kill anyone or anything (so long as it can be killed in Earth Bet, somehow).
Yes, this includes the Triumvirate, Contessa, the Endbringers and Scion himself.
Usually, Paths are relatively simple affairs, of three to four words. "Path to killing Sophia." "Path to killing Emma's self-confidence". "Path to ending this conversation."
It's not an I Win button. It's a You Lose button.
Finally, if she's in a fight that's not part of a larger Path, any blow she strikes will automatically be lethal unless she deliberately pulls it.
2. Taylor Doesn't Give a Fuck Anymore
Taylor doesn't angst over trivial shit. She doesn't second-guess herself. She lives in the moment, knows where she's going, and has zero problems with utterly fucking up someone who wants to screw with her.
However, this does not mean that she doesn't care about her father (she does), Brockton Bay (she does) or improving herself. There's a thousand problems facing the city, and she's got one tool to fix it: murder.
Fortunately, she doesn't give a fuck anymore.
3. Taylor Can Beat Contessa
PtE is more focused than PtV, and is thus more powerful. The moment Contessa starts thinking that she wants to beat Taylor, even before she starts thinking about how she's going to do it, Taylor knows. While Contessa can Path Taylor so long as it's not hostile, the moment Taylor starts a Path against Contessa, it overrides Contessa's Path and leaves her in the dark.
Face to face, Taylor's reflexes will be faster and her blows more accurate.
Taylor will always beat Contessa.
4. Taylor Can't Benefit From the Paths (with two important exceptions)
Path to Ending will grant Taylor the resources needed to carry out her Paths, but those resources will usually be entirely used up on said Paths. Occasionally, it will arrange for extra things that she can keep and use, which will improve her ability to carry out Paths to End things (that's the first exception). The costume and the shears are two of these things.
It is not PtV under a different name. It can't be twisted to act like PtV. If someone with it said, "Path to ending my time of not ruling Brockton Bay", then it simply wouldn't activate, because that's getting stuff.
Also, while the Paths can't be run to enrich herself, make herself immortal, become President or anything like that, she can totally take a weekend job for pocket money on her own talents.
The second exception is as follows: if Ending an active situation or a person, or a thing, or a group, gives her a benefit stemming wholly from that absence (such as a sudden lack of bullying, local crime, etc) then that's fine. She's allowed to enjoy that benefit.
If this benefit is money, such as a bounty for killing someone, she can definitely take it. But given her current lack of fucks to give, she's far more likely to use it to go toward another Path that needs it.
5. Taylor is Not Being Puppetted
Taylor's relationship with Path to Ending is very much a two-way partnership. There's basically nothing in the physical world that the shard can accomplish on its own, but with Taylor there to help out, it can get a lot done.
Once Taylor decides that an Ending has to happen, PtE offers whatever options there are to achieve this. If Taylor has any particular ideas for the Path, these are incorporated. (The shard definitely has a sense for the dramatic; it's an incurable showoff and smartarse.) It's not above sneaking in little extra benefits because she's thought of a particularly good idea.
With the Path set, Taylor walks it, mostly under her own steam, prompted here and there by PtE. She's the director and actor in the movie; the shard is the producer, the personal assistant, and the guy running the stunt-wire harness. It cannot force her to take any action she does not want to; however, as mentioned above, she can pull back any action that was going to be lethal, and make it non-lethal.
She might not know all the details about why something works, or what something she is doing is needed for, but she always finds out. PtE doesn't give her a step-by-step blocked-out run-down of the action to come; it's more of a 'this is what we're using, this is the basic idea, and this is where we're going to end up', with the high points noted.
She's fully aware, she knows what she's doing, and she's definitely not just along for the ride. Also, she's enjoying herself immensely.
6. Taylor is Not a Good Person
This fic is not about Taylor accidentally doing some bad things, then coming good and using her power for the benefit of all.
Her power is about killing. People are going to die. Sometimes in quite elaborate ways.
Sometimes she will choose not to kill, but that will be mainly because she's decided it would be more convenient not to.
Even when she's not killing people, she will use her powers in ways that help further her life choices.
Don't expect her to join the Wards any time soon.
7. Why Taylor Does Not Fear the Butcher
The Butcher's shard is a part of the Shard Network, set up by Scion and Eden. All shards attached to it have agreed to play by the same set of rules. Path to Ending is not, and has not. However Taylor deals with the Butcher (Chapter 28), just remember that particular aspect of PtE.
Also, remember that PtE is, at heart, not a shard about causing conflict and gathering data. It's a shard about ending shit.
When Taylor kills the Butcher (see the link above), PtE disposes of both the personalities and the powers. It's not like she needs them to be any more effective than she already is, after all.
8. Taylor and the Law
As Atropos, Taylor has zero regard for the sanctity of the law. Her entire thought process regarding it is, "does this serve my purpose, or does it get in my way?"
If it serves her purpose, she will 'uphold' it (Note that this is an entirely selfish act. She is not a good person) just so long as it aligns with her overall aim--making BB into a prosperous, safe, nice place to live.
Laws are useful in that they provide a framework for other people to live by, so she doesn't have to micromanage every action of everyone around her. For the most part, if the population of Brockton Bay follows the law, the city will become a nicer, safer place.
this is why she's 'encouraged' the PRT and the BBPD to smarten up their acts, so they can do their damn jobs so she doesn't have to.
But if and when she (and her power) deem it necessary to break the law, she won't even hesitate.
9. Taylor Will Not Institute a Reign of Terror
There are some who seem to think Taylor is going to end up destroying everything she touches, because she's really good at killing or something.
This is not going to happen.
Taylor is working toward making Brockton Bay into a nice, safe, prosperous city. If something would be bad for the city, she Ends it. If something would be good for the city, she encourages it.
There will be no death squads. There will be no summary executions in the street. Innocents will not be forced to stay in Brockton Bay if they wish to leave.
She is fully aware of the intentions of everyone in the city who has any beef with her; if anyone does not, she has no problem with them.
It is good for the city if innocents are left in peace to go to work (and to have good, well-paying jobs), raise their kids and have a good life. She strongly discourages anything that might cause problems with that. More to the point, her power can locate anyone who intends to disrupt such things before they have a chance to do it.
Note that anyone getting on Taylor's radar gets at least one warning, usually two, before she takes extreme action.
If they're stupid enough to ignore even one warning, then ... well, there's a reason the Darwin Award people consider that suicide.
10. Taylor VS the Real Estate Market
Taylor is aware that the real estate business has laws that govern it, and that some of these laws are lax enough to allow predatory activity by landlords and property owners against their renters and buyers.
She doesn't care if it's legal or not. If it hampers the growth and overall prosperity of the city, she will come down on it like a ton of bricks.
There is a significant gap between 'enough profit to be worthwhile' and 'gouging mercilessly'. She's happy for people to survive and be prosperous. But when a few people are getting rich by screwing over a lot of other people, that's when she steps in.
Again, she doesn't care that such predatory practices are legal. Neither does she commit murder on a first offence.
And if someone's business model depends on such practice just to stay afloat, they need a new business model.
11. Why Didn't Atropos Tell Panacea to Heal Genesis?
[Part 51]
Okay.
Here's where Atropos is shown to be not actually a nice person.
She's not there to fix everyone's problems.
She's there to End very specific problems before they impact Brockton Bay.
Noelle was one such problem. Killing her would've been one option, but not killing her, getting that level of goodwill from the Travellers, and perhaps getting the Travellers (one or more) to assist in her efforts to bootstrap BB into a booming metropolis, was a more viable course of action.
Jess wasn't consulted as to whether she wanted her legs sorted out because she wasn't the potential danger to Brockton Bay that Noelle was.
Her power isn't out of control, and she can use it just fine as she is, so she's very much a lower-tier priority, way down the list of "what can I do if I want to get better optics for minimal cost?"
It's not that Atropos went, "Oh, her? She doesn't matter" so much as Atropos didn't even consider her situation to be an issue at the moment.
While part of the plan Atropos has for BB is to ensure that every applicable building has wheelchair accessibility, that's because this is good for BB as a whole, not just for Jess as a person. As she's intimated before, she doesn't care about the individual; she's there to fix the city.
Amy didn't do it because Atropos didn't ask her to, and neither did Jess.
Jess didn't ask because holy fucking hell, Atropos just showed up and got Panacea to make Noelle whole again.
Now, Atropos has given them the option to contact her again, and if someone mentions it, she can bring Amy (or Riley) around and get that sorted.
But it wasn't so much Atropos overlooking it, as Atropos not seeing it as something to worry about right then.
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- Location
- Philippines
So Atropos broke Heartbreaker's jaw with a heart shaped jawbreaker so hard both broke lol. Then she goes and stabbed HB's heart with the broken heart shaped jawbreaker. Man puns will be coming out of the woodworks
SanguisAnima
Σ Series Z10/0 Group A 4A-GELU Mk1
- Location
- nowhere important
Something like this?
"Heart Shaped Jawbreaker Breaks Jaw And Heart of Heartbreaker! Heartbroken Broken Free From Heartbreaker?"
ThrawnCA
Carbon-based biped
- Location
- Australia
Well, when you ignore that many warnings, you qualify for extra irony on your ironic death.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Steakthedog
Verified Pedant
I'm certain that's been posted in one of the threads before. And if this is the first time it's been posted I'd be very disappointed.
- Location
- Australia
It's gone up more than once, I think. Definitely not the first time.
girador
There are only four circles in this picture
- Location
- behind a screen
Just checked all 42 pages, as far as the SV thread is concerned this is genuinely the first time anyone has posted that video
- Location
- Australia
Almost certainly in SB then. Good luck searching all 279 pages.
Gone Lego
- Location
- Australia
After much effort (and way too much money spent on tiny plastic figures and accessories) I have finally assembled ...
Lego Atropos!
View: https://imgur.com/IyxDohU
Lego Atropos!
View: https://imgur.com/IyxDohU
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