Prince Charon
Just zis guy, you know?
IIRC, Doctor Mother was an art student. She needed to sign her work.
An Imago of Rust and Crimson (Worm crossover)
- Thread starter EarthScorpion
- Start date
Anzer'ke
Anarchism Ho!
Dude why did Cauldron do almost anything?
Because they needed to be super cartoon villain levels of evil regardless of the actual utility of their actions. Because grey morality, awoooooo!
And now you're legitimately completely off topic, especially since I haven't even confirmed whether or not they exist.
You get a like and a quote because this is so damn true.
I don't begrudge Cauldron their evil nearly as much as I begrudge them their incompetence.
THEY HAD CONTESSA! They were given the most ridiculous power possible, and half the time they used her to BEAT UP SOME PEOPLE?
They didn't even see the possibilities in some of the parahumans they made! Mantellum slipped by entirely because their testing procedures were worthless!
*coughs*
Sorry. Cauldron makes me rage a bit.
I'm going to assume that because Imago runs on Actual Sociology instead of bending over backwards a la Worm to justify comic book status quo, anything that exists in Worm that hasn't been shown yet is likely to either:
1. Not exist
2. Have similar low-level origins but drastically different behavior because of having to interact with the world
3. Be vaguely similar at a high level but actually entirely different in terms of how it came into existence
4. Essentially be a name reference that does a vaguely similar thing.
I always figured the brand was a result if the brainwashing process and not a signature; Cauldron took their name after it rather than the other way around.
But yeah, even if this fic feels like it's running on a bit more spite than I'd prefer, I'm doubtful Cauldron will be anything like canon
But yeah, even if this fic feels like it's running on a bit more spite than I'd prefer, I'm doubtful Cauldron will be anything like canon
This is a late post, and I've only read up to this chapter. But here is a perfect suggestion for Taylor's cape-name. The MetaPhysicist. And yes, I do mean the kind from Anarchy Online. Both descriptive, and slightly misleading.
Or just as reference to actual Metaphysicists.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
... I think you're a little late to the game here.
Edit: Also, that's just a... off name in general. I would expect it from something several shades more cartoony.
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Yeah, just read up to Namakarana 2.x - The Chariot, and..... Well I thought this story was going really well. But with this last chapter, I'm suddenly reminded of 'The Academy' from Serenity. I'm expecting the guys in suits to be wearing blue latex gloves, and kill everyone with even a little contact with , ah 
contagion and incorrect THOUGHTS??! with a small sonic weapon as they leave.
All the cyberpunk elements, serious ret-conning of cannon, and hamtastic clique writing, and 'happstance' events is really straining my SoD now. But, only one chapter is really like that, and so I'm holding out hope.
contagion and incorrect THOUGHTS??! with a small sonic weapon as they leave.All the cyberpunk elements, serious ret-conning of cannon, and hamtastic clique writing, and 'happstance' events is really straining my SoD now. But, only one chapter is really like that, and so I'm holding out hope.
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- Location
- Australia
Wait, I'm confused. Why do you read this fic again, then?
Additionally, I'm going to ask you to expand what you mean by "hamtastic clique writing" (seriously, what does that even mean?) and "'happstance' events" (by which you presumably mean 'happenstance'?).
And... how does this affect your suspension of disbelief? What does that have to do with anything?
Never has the
emoticon been more appropriate.Wait, I'm confused. Why do you read this fic again, then?
Additionally, I'm going to ask you to expand what you mean by "hamtastic clique writing" (seriously, what does that even mean?) and "'happstance' events" (by which you presumably mean 'happenstance'?).
And... how does this affect your suspension of disbelief? What does that have to do with anything?
Never has the
hamtastic clique writing - In this case, the suits are acting like they're the blue-gloved-men from Serenity/Firefly, which itself was at times clique. All the double-speak, overly paranoid, making happenstance fit their bias, casually insulting to present authority, pointing out 'facts' Piggot should have caught and throwing it in her face, etc. They're acting like every bad-guy government henchman who was evil, but presented themselves as doing
good.happenstance events - She 'happened' to pick symbols from 'slaughterhouse 9'. She 'happens' to actually have connections to a radical group, though not in the way these suits think or care. She happened to get a little obsessed about a sweat-shop, that causes so many political problems.
- Location
- Australia
As much as I want to reply to that, I can't. You're correlating two different problems with Scorp's writing- treating the symptoms of a problem as though it were the core problem- and the rest of your post is just...
You're disliking the themes and genre of the story, and then claiming that said themes and genre are straining your suspension of disbelief, which only detracts further from your complaint.
There's a very real problem to be noted with regards to Scorp's writing here, and I've been trying to figure out how to phrase it for him for a while. Guess I'll have to do that earlier than later now.
Agent Baker isn't talking to the press or someone's kid, what's with the pregnant pauses?
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
I thought the odd speech patterns were supposed to make him sound creepy and inhuman. Something that was a human being once, but now... Isn't quite.
Olive
Silent Princess
But then why'd Piggot treat it like a DHS agent? Or are DHS agents normally this poorly adapted? I can see the off language as a marker for the agents being mirrorshades types, but it feels heavy for that. My best guess after reading those lines was that the trail-offs were due to wanting to say things like "glorious" and "rapturous", but I really didn't come away with the impression that that was intended. More like, the shadowrun was laid on a little thick.
Edit: On further consideration, I think maybe the agents are just fine and it's Piggot's reaction to them that seems strange.
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Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
I figured that piggot isn't freaking the fluck out at the borderline uncanny valley things because piggot is not a civilian. Whether her taking this as well as she is counts as a good thing or not... Well...
i could be be off base here.
i could be be off base here.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Wait... It does? Don't they defect? We've got criminals joining the Protectorate and being rebranded, if nothing else.
What ES means, I think, is that criminals should be regularly coming upon situations where they personally benefit sufficiently by breaking the unwritten rules that they should be willing to do it anyway - that they screw over all the other masked criminals in the process shouldn't really matter, because fuck them.
Criminal solidarity isn't a thing.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
... Like Coil hiring detectives to out the entire E88? That got him no real blowback? I tend to see the 'unwritten rules' as one of those pretensions to honor criminals sometimes like to give themselves, while breaking every chance they can, but talking as if they don't.
They're less 'rules criminals obey' and more 'rules criminals try to appear to obey'. But I suppose we could have used more examples of that.
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- Location
- The end of all things
A better example would be what happened after the newbie villain Skitter was captured during her first bank robbery. Not wanting to go to jail for any longer than necessary, she made up a BS story about being an "undercover hero" and gave up the identities of the other Undersiders in return for receiving a relative slap on the wrist and a cushy government job.
As much as I want to reply to that, I can't. You're correlating two different problems with Scorp's writing- treating the symptoms of a problem as though it were the core problem- and the rest of your post is just...
You're disliking the themes and genre of the story, and then claiming that said themes and genre are straining your suspension of disbelief, which only detracts further from your complaint.
There's a very real problem to be noted with regards to Scorp's writing here, and I've been trying to figure out how to phrase it for him for a while. Guess I'll have to do that earlier than later now.
More accurate to say i'm critizing the sudden theme change of the story. Before the second interlude, this was a highly cynical but hopeful superhero story, and critique on society. After that interlude this is now becoming a bad story of a corrupt government trying to control how people think. "We don't tell people what to think, we just show them how." situation.
Bursting Eagerness Soul
Threadwalking Rating Machine
- Location
- Wisconsin
Based on one interlude that was basically worldbuilding, you are trying to assert that the usual content of the story is going to immediately change to something completely different?
Nononono. Taylor will still be running this as a newbie superhero story for a while. We are just seeing that the rest of the world is not as it was in canon Worm, which ought to be very predictable given that it's an nWoD fusion fic.
Think of it as the beginning of canon Worm. It's all street-level villaining. Then things like Leviathan and the S9 happen. We are just getting hints of the second part as part of the worlbuilding before it shows up as the main story.
EDIT: Give Earth Scorpion a chance, man. His writing is some of the best on the forum. Even if it did immediately switch to what you are assuming, I would trust him to make it work well.
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grommile
nasty-minded old cynic
- Location
- NERV-Mercia
- Pronouns
- Traditional/Animate
The world of Imago is a corrupt one, with strange and terrible things lurking in the cracks and hollows. Creepy inhuman government agents (or simulacra thereof) who presume to know how people should think are not really much of a theme change given that; indeed, they're pretty much standard window-dressing for corrupt modern settings with strange and terrible things lurking in the cracks and hollows.
(Oh, and: in a setting partially derived from either World of Darkness, memetic hazards are totally going to be a thing.)