Remove ads

An Everdistant Horizon (Worm/Horizon Series)

Reader mode
TikiTau said:
Which will ALSO probably look bad as optics, because as she noted, she's not normally SUPPOSED to be doing this sort of thing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Want to bet the PRT has policies in place to stop Directors from being in close contact with unknown Thinkers? Who knows what classified secrets they can pull from the Director. If she went against standard policy to take control of the interrogation she might have actively wanted that information to be taken from her. Time to put her in containment while they investigate to figure out why she did it and change every security system she has knowledge of.
 
Fucking beautiful. A wonderful twist to a tinker fic. Her biggest detractors in public office just stubbed their toes on the steel plate of bureaucracy she's wrapped herself in. She got free advertising to people who matter in one of the most lucrative sectors of the economy and has completely established her bona fides to anyone else with access to that report. Gotta love a multitasker
 
MerrickZ said:
Fucking beautiful. A wonderful twist to a tinker fic. Her biggest detractors in public office just stubbed their toes on the steel plate of bureaucracy she's wrapped herself in. She got free advertising to people who matter in one of the most lucrative sectors of the economy and has completely established her bona fides to anyone else with access to that report. Gotta love a multitasker
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Only issue is that the other agency, CPS, can do a lot more here then the PRT could. Regardless of the cape identity thing.
 
Hooo boy, I was sure it was a master move like this (official report are faster than an unknown civilian letter to go to the important people), but it was really well done.

And I think by definition all Engineers are thinker, the Engineer literally take all existing parts and ideas, assemble them in a working solution. 👍
 
BigBadBen said:
Only issue is that the other agency, CPS, can do a lot more here then the PRT could. Regardless of the cape identity thing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
CPS, would make a mess, they'd only take custody of her to hand her off to some alphabet agency who would try to use her. CPS usually fucks things up, because they don't have enough people, they don't have enough vetted foster parents who aren't abusive and too likely to be used by people like Piggot to steal your kids and their ideas.

If you think CPS is a good thing, I missed the memo.:whistle::whistle::lol::lol::lol:
 
AlSmash said:
It had been some time since she had done an interrogation. It was something normally not done by a Director, who could delegate the job.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's not normally done because there will be laws against it which would mean that either Piggot has broken the law/rules or that the PRT itself are playing fast and loose with the rules.

Shadow Archon said:
I am with Taylor here wondering why'd they pick that? Because the seemingly obvious reasons for it, like Taylor suggested, are very antagonistic. The primary purpose of using her cape name in the interview was a form of legal manipulation, but it also gave vibes that Piggot was actively dehumanizing Taylor by refusing to use her name,
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Which should have Taylor/Danny suing the PRT for all that they're worth. It is highly insulting and dehumanising not to use the name that the person gave you in legal documents. Really, Taylor/Danny should be able to get a million or more out of the PRT because of this BS.

Shadowcub said:
If you think CPS is a good thing, I missed the memo.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Not that they're a Good Thing™ but that they will be able to cause serious problems - especially once they figure out how much Taylor has been working. Of course, it is known that para-humans are driven to work by their powers and that stopping them is detrimental to their health.

Still going to cause problems though.
 
CPS could have done a lot of damage had the mayor not been an idiot. Had Piggot's gambit worked they would have been the finishing move to force Taylor into the Wards. Instead they're the first breadcrumb to the corruption. While everything Piggot did could have potentially been justified, had Taylor not activated her trap card, explaining why CPS showed up in the middle of the raid will be difficult to explain away.
 
Shadowcub said:
I'm a Thinker.............fuck no Taylor you're a Engineer. Say engineer don't associate yourself with that tinker trash.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Allow me to posit a possible response (that simply would NOT leave my brain)...
Taylor "Alloy" Hebert said:
Hey look, director, I'm an engineer. That means I solve problems. Not problems like "hero or villain?", because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of cape-ology. I solve practical problems. For instance: how am I going to stop some big mean stabby puppy from tearing me a structurally superfluous be-hind? The answer? Use technology. And if that don't work? Use more tech. Like this... *pulls something from pocket, and it quickly unfolds into a mounted sentry gun that looks suspiciously familiar* ... heavy caliber tripod mounted lil' old number designed by me; built by me; and you best hope... not pointed at y'all.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
No no, that's easy to explain. Piggot is an ass, yes, but she's innocent in all of this. It was just the mean old mayor throwing around his political power and was forcing Piggot to do all of this. She's definitely not just throwing him under the bus or anything. Honest
 
Piggot had officially stepped on to something now she only has to look down to see if it is:
  1. A Dog Turd
  2. A Cow Pat
  3. A Dog Turd from one of Bitch's Dogs in full big boy mode
  4. Or A Landmine
She better pray that it is not the landmine because the others can at least be cleaned up.

Edit: I have since realised that since we are dealing with Accord I should of had a 5. A Dog Turd hidden in a Cow Pat which is under A Dog Turd from one of Bitch's Dogs in full big boy mode all of which is concealing a Landmine.
 
Last edited:
MultipleChoice said:
CPS could have done a lot of damage had the mayor not been an idiot. Had Piggot's gambit worked they would have been the finishing move to force Taylor into the Wards. Instead they're the first breadcrumb to the corruption. While everything Piggot did could have potentially been justified, had Taylor not activated her trap card, explaining why CPS showed up in the middle of the raid will be difficult to explain away.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Piggot was actually pretty upset that they were there as well. Not because of any moral reasons, but because they're a clue that there's a big conspiracy targeting the 15 year old crippled girl (all hot buttons). She already knows that she's skirting both the letter and spirit of the law, she doesn't want to get caught out that she's coordinating with the Mayor's office on this. I don't think her career would actually survive that.

The funniest thing is that Armsmaster actually tried to warn about this. He straight up told her it wasn't tinkertech, but she's so paranoid and arrogant that she didn't believe him and leveled a bunch of unreasonable punishments on him. When he tried to get help from somebody higher up, she doubled down on her stupidity.

The fact that there don't appear to be any real protections against what is essentially a separate organization being able to abuse another should raise some alarms. Granted, most directors probably aren't dumb enough to abuse their power so blatantly like this.
 
As much as I love sticking it to the man, or woman in this case, are we actually going to get to the tinkering and Horizen tech outside of prototypes and paragraph long explanations soon? This political football crap is boring because we deal with being hamstrung by idiots in power in real life enough that I personally don't give a shit for fictional political bullshit. You could have Taylor go scorched earth on every slime ball that gets in her way and I wouldn't bat an eye because I am here to watch an MC save the world, not get constantly badgered by complete idiots with complexes a mile wide...
 
Shadowcub said:
CPS, would make a mess, they'd only take custody of her to hand her off to some alphabet agency who would try to use her. CPS usually fucks things up, because they don't have enough people, they don't have enough vetted foster parents who aren't abusive and too likely to be used by people like Piggot to steal your kids and their ideas.

If you think CPS is a good thing, I missed the memo.:whistle::whistle::lol::lol::lol:
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I think you are forgetting something here. Taylor is legally identified as a cape, thanks to the PRT.

As a cape, the rules for children are different. CPS no longer has any jurisdiction here, as Taylor is a cape she is now under the Aegis of the Youth Guard. And per the canon, the Youth Guard is slow to act, but when they do act they tend to do disproportionate damage to the PRT.

So really, the Youth Guard would then be another shield for Taylor, and likely could be used against the PRT/Protectorate to keep them away from her. The Youth Guard is the third largest peripheral organization around the PRT, and can actively work with or against the PRT to achieve its goals. The organization's primary purpose is to ensure the safety and well-being of child parahumans, which includes but is not limited to the Wards.

The Youth Guard's operations can utilize both legal means and public sentiment. They can reach out with their legal arm to impose fines, leverage judicial rulings to constrain the PRT, force certain actions, or temporarily pull a Ward off the team. When legal means aren't available, they can use the media to apply pressure and influence public opinion. They could easily get a ear whispered into by Accord to start running smear campaigns against the Mayor's office and local PRT as they "attack a disabled child" and "bully new small businesses trying to open in the city." OMG the PR opportunities to tear down the PRT would be amazing for the Youth Guard. They could even slam the local government for overreach and conspiracy to force a child into effective slavery.
 
SIDoragon said:
I think you are forgetting something here. Taylor is legally identified as a cape, thanks to the PRT.

As a cape, the rules for children are different. CPS no longer has any jurisdiction here, as Taylor is a cape she is now under the Aegis of the Youth Guard. And per the canon, the Youth Guard is slow to act, but when they do act they tend to do disproportionate damage to the PRT.

So really, the Youth Guard would then be another shield for Taylor, and likely could be used against the PRT/Protectorate to keep them away from her. The Youth Guard is the third largest peripheral organization around the PRT, and can actively work with or against the PRT to achieve its goals. The organization's primary purpose is to ensure the safety and well-being of child parahumans, which includes but is not limited to the Wards.

The Youth Guard's operations can utilize both legal means and public sentiment. They can reach out with their legal arm to impose fines, leverage judicial rulings to constrain the PRT, force certain actions, or temporarily pull a Ward off the team. When legal means aren't available, they can use the media to apply pressure and influence public opinion. They could easily get a ear whispered into by Accord to start running smear campaigns against the Mayor's office and local PRT as they "attack a disabled child" and "bully new small businesses trying to open in the city." OMG the PR opportunities to tear down the PRT would be amazing for the Youth Guard. They could even slam the local government for overreach and conspiracy to force a child into effective slavery.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Unfortunately. CPS is going after Taylor Hebert, CEO of ZDT most likely. The fact she is a cape? Irrelevant to them. Since she's 15 years old, she's put some stupid long hours more then any minor is legally allowed to work. So it will be fun to see how things play out.
Edit
And she hasn't been back to school since the assault. So there's that angle that she is missing out on 'important social interactions with her age group' that they can bring up as well.
 
Last edited:
BigBadBen said:
Unfortunately. CPS is going after Taylor Hebert, CEO of ZDT most likely. The fact she is a cape? Irrelevant to them. Since she's 15 years old, she's put some stupid long hours more then any minor is legally allowed to work. So it will be fun to see how things play out.
Edit
And she hasn't been back to school since the assault. So there's that angle that she is missing out on 'important social interactions with her age group' that they can bring up as well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Doesn't matter. PRT labeled her a cape, and her status is out. CPS can't touch her.

But assuming they still try to push in, I would like to know on what grounds. As the Horizon company hasn't turned a profit yet, they don't fall under Federal law. A person only falls under the FLSA (Federal Labor Standards Act) when the enterprise they work for has recorded $500,000 in sales. So, since the company is new and hasn't even posted tax records yet (as they haven't existed long enough), no Federal law applys. CPS will have to use State Law.

But, and this is very important and I can't stress this enough, as I actually do have experience in this as I had to deal with these people as a child, CPS can only do something if the child says they are being hurt or there is a obvious and imminent chance for harm to come to the child. They will ask "are you abused, have they ever touched you, are you afraid of your father," and if the answer to any of those questions is "no" then they can't do anything. Legally, you need a victim in order to press charges of misconduct. If there is no victim, there is nothing to do. "No body, no crime."

If anyone in this city needs CPS, it would be Missy and Amy.

Edit:
I would love to see them try to attack her from the "you don't go to school" angle. Danny legally pulled her from school and the school signed the forms. If they disagreed and told her she had to go got school anyway, the first question would then be "how" since she is blind and her former school isn't equipped for people with disabilities (and if they are, it's where she was attacked and blinded - if they tried to send her back there they would be opening themselves up for a lawsuit for harassment and emotional distress) They could try to send her to another school that is equipped, but going to school isn't a requirement if you are already being homeschooled (and even if she wasn't I doubt she would have trouble with passing the GED...assuming they let her take it as she is a thinker). If they tried to force her to go to school, CPS and the city and the state would be opening themselves up for a massive lawsuit from all the other people in the city who don't go to public school. It would be hilarious to see them try.

Edit 2 - I just looked it up cause curious; New Hampshire has an average of 4000 homeschooled students. And it gets better because the state of NH allows for unschooling with parental consent. So her not going to school at all is legal
 
Last edited:
if CPS tried to forcibly send her back to Winslow, she could sue the pants off the city and the state for abuse of a minor
 
FFS. I need to get to answering you guys. I keep saying I will and I keep screwing the pooch and getting sidetracked. What I can offer right now is an update on the next chapter.

Currently, we are three of four scenes down. With two scenes (3700 words) written in the last 48 hours. What this means is that we are onto the last scene, which will probably be between 2-3K words.

I'm trying to build a daily schedule that balances work, gym, gaming, and writing. Because I'm back to full time work and boy oh boy does it suck life out of me. We'll see how that balances out once I get my feet down soundly.

Anyways, I promise to get a response to you guys soon. Even if it requires me to scrap two hours of rest in order to respond.

But I will say, this chapter, well, it has one big fuck yeah moment that I think you will enjoy. And then a scene where you will start questioning my sanity. So I better have my responses ready for you guys going wtf.

Have a good evening/morning/whatever time. I'm gonna try and scrape up 6 hours rest before my 10 hours shift this evening lol.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top