An Imago of Rust and Crimson (Worm crossover)

[Ravraxas]

We will see about the "not horrifically overpowered" part. If this is really a Mage the Awakening crossover then Taylor is later rather than sooner going to edit the Endbringers out of reality or some such bullshit. Mages are haxxx. Note the three Xs.

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Unless she goes Archmaster(wich is supremely dificult and time consuming even before you get to seek your Threshold) she is most definetly not doing that. And even then the Imperial Rite necessary would require she defeat the Endbringers first to later make it that they had never existed to begin with. And latter she would have to face retribution (and the possibility of her work being undone) if only one of the participants of the Ascension War had any investiment in the Endbringers at all.

EDIT:

Talking about the social aspect of Archmastery reminds me: Supposing this is a Mage the Awakening crossover, Do you think any of the social conventions of Mages would apply?

In other words, do you think there is going to be a Mage society hidden from Sleepers and Parahumans? Would some mages act openly masquerading as Parahumans? would even more mages apart from Taylor exist? if not, why would Taylor be the only one?

 

[EarthScorpion]

Also, a quick look at The World's Worst Superhero, Florida Man!

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Florida Man, Florida Man,
Does whatever a florida man does.
Can he swing from a web?
Hold his beer, just watch this!

Look out! Here comes the Florida Man!

 

[Revlid]

Arcana get rather powerful at a rating of 4+.

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A little earlier than that, I think.

To summarize, for those of you unwilling to read through that link, if Taylor is a Mage, and if she is a Mastigos, then she can, as an absolute baseline and default, before applying free dots from chargen, do the following at basically no cost:
Percieve the emotional states of those surrounding her, plus anything else "aura sight" reveals.
Hold two trains of thought at once.
Detect the locations of all nearby minds.
Use Mage Sight to see exceptional mental powers such as ESP and read the emotional states that underly resonance.
Center herself, suppressing the effects of minor mental or social disorders such as ADHD or Asperger's syndrome.
Spot sympathetic connections between people, places, and things.
Track items in her immediate vicinity.
Perceive 360 degrees around herself.
Use Mage Sight to detect spacial manipulations and distortions.
Create accurate spacial maps of their entire surroundings.
See around corners.

 

[Racheakt]

A little earlier than that, I think.

To summarize, for those of you unwilling to read through that link, if Taylor is a Mage, and if she is a Mastigos, then she can, as an absolute baseline and default, before applying free dots from chargen, do the following at basically no cost:
Percieve the emotional states of those surrounding her, plus anything else "aura sight" reveals.
Hold two trains of thought at once.
Detect the locations of all nearby minds.
Use Mage Sight to see exceptional mental powers such as ESP and read the emotional states that underly resonance.
Center herself, suppressing the effects of minor mental or social disorders such as ADHD or Asperger's syndrome.
Spot sympathetic connections between people, places, and things.
Track items in her immediate vicinity.
Perceive 360 degrees around herself.
Use Mage Sight to detect spacial manipulations and distortions.
Create accurate spacial maps of their entire surroundings.
See around corners.

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Well, aside from the fact we don't actually know the crossover yet, none of those powers are actually broken. Even if she basically has that as her powerset (and I'm totally okay with that, by the way). That's still not drastically different than her existing powerset in canon.

Let's see:

Percieve the emotional states of those surrounding her, plus anything else "aura sight" reveals.
Hold two trains of thought at once. - Extreame multitasking, more apparent post-Leviathan.
Detect the locations of all nearby minds. - Detect all nearby bodies using insects. Insect clairvoyance.
Use Mage Sight to see exceptional mental powers such as ESP and read the emotional states that underly resonance.
Center herself, suppressing the effects of minor mental or social disorders such as ADHD or Asperger's syndrome.
Spot sympathetic connections between people, places, and things.
Track items in her immediate vicinity. - Insect clairvoyance, again.
Perceive 360 degrees around herself. - Insect Clairvoyance... Again.
Use Mage Sight to detect spacial manipulations and distortions. - Shown when encountering the custodian. Insect Clairvoyance.
Create accurate spacial maps of their entire surroundings. - She could probably do this if she wanted to
See around corners. - Insect Clairvoyance...

So, for all intents and purposes, if you are right, she's basically traded her offensive ablities with insects in, and exchanged them for more support and sensory abilities. Still not broken in an appreciable way. In fact, she probably still has the Administraitor shard, just with a more individual-person focus in her powerset. Administraition of the individual... Depending on how she developes her powers (and with three months away from the unhealthy school environ, pluse fewer distractions...) we could very well be seeing her significantly stronger when entering the cape scene.

 

[TheLastOne]

Well, aside from the fact we don't actually know the crossover yet, none of those powers are actually broken. Even if she basically has that as her powerset (and I'm totally okay with that, by the way). That's still not drastically different than her existing powerset in canon.

Let's see:

Percieve the emotional states of those surrounding her, plus anything else "aura sight" reveals.
Hold two trains of thought at once. - Extreame multitasking, more apparent post-Leviathan.
Detect the locations of all nearby minds. - Detect all nearby bodies using insects. Insect clairvoyance.
Use Mage Sight to see exceptional mental powers such as ESP and read the emotional states that underly resonance.
Center herself, suppressing the effects of minor mental or social disorders such as ADHD or Asperger's syndrome.
Spot sympathetic connections between people, places, and things.
Track items in her immediate vicinity. - Insect clairvoyance, again.
Perceive 360 degrees around herself. - Insect Clairvoyance... Again.
Use Mage Sight to detect spacial manipulations and distortions. - Shown when encountering the custodian. Insect Clairvoyance.
Create accurate spacial maps of their entire surroundings. - She could probably do this if she wanted to
See around corners. - Insect Clairvoyance...

So, for all intents and purposes, if you are right, she's basically traded her offensive ablities with insects in, and exchanged them for more support and sensory abilities. Still not broken in an appreciable way. In fact, she probably still has the Administraitor shard, just with a more individual-person focus in her powerset. Administraition of the individual... Depending on how she developes her powers (and with three months away from the unhealthy school environ, pluse fewer distractions...) we could very well be seeing her significantly stronger when entering the cape scene.

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Those are all low level tricks, with more and more powerful ones coming into her grasp as her Arcana increases. Killing or Mind Controling anyone whose full name you know isn't hugely hard at higher levels. Mass Mind Control, too - not on the same level as our lovely moon angel, but still seriously bad news.

 

[Racheakt]

Those are all low level tricks, with more and more powerful ones coming into her grasp as her Arcana increases. Killing or Mind Controling anyone whose full name you know isn't hugely hard at higher levels. Mass Mind Control, too - not on the same level as our lovely moon angel, but still seriously bad news.

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Well, yes.

But this is a fusion fic with Worm.

Even if you are right (and we don't know that yet) she'll probably be stuck with a certain set of abilities. Inventivness and imagination will provide the rest!

Besides- there are many kinds of mind control. What Tattletale pulls with the Saleswoman in her interlude could be called that, for example.

ES would never give Skitter (or whoever she ends up in this 'verse) an overpowered ability. He has professional pride, and most of Skitter's appeal derives from her useing 'weak' powers to lay the mighty low.

 

[Racheakt]

Mind gets incredibly scary at 5 dots. I mean, the Simurgh can drive you insane and set up cuasality bombs, but a Master of Mind can rip out your memories and personality and replace it with whatever he feels like. And if he has space 2 (not unusual for a Mastigos) he can do that to you no matter how far away from him you are, all he needs is a picture of you or some of your hair. It gets even easier when he knows your birth name.

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Fusion. Fic.

It'll be a blend of elements.

...

Also, this feels more like FEAR.

That is not a good thing, because that would make Taylor a very young (weak, powers not matured, ect) Alma Wade....

 

[Ravraxas]

Going by the fact that this is an ES fic and probably a Mage crossover, what are the chances that the Endbringers are actually ochemata of the Exarchs?

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Of the Exarchs? None. The Exarchs are kind of invested in the survival of humans, that and anything that manages to unite all of humanity to do something is bad in their book. They whant us obedient and divided after all. Them being the Ochemata of some Archmaster gone nuts or the Avatars of some hihg ranked spirit would actually fit better. No need to have the absolute haxx that are the Ascended into the plot.

 

[Ravraxas]

I saw this. I got the strong implication that this was basically either area effects or single orders at the two dot level. Didn't appear to have anything like the range and sensory versatility of Taylor's canon powerset.

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That is not how spell factors work. If she throws enought dice at it she could very well cast it with multiple comands in an area or even on a specific group she could percieve trough other Mind spells. Granted, it's unlikely she would have that many dice for some time specially if she doesn't have Rotes.

Strange 2ish? August Prince is Strange/Master 3. Looking at the text it's nothing like Cherish's "you feel like I am one of your closest loved ones while feeling intensely suicidal" stuff.

Quoting the text of the spell from Mage:


This is maybe close to Glory Girl's power of her fear/respect aura, which wildbow once stated was specifically not a Master classification. I might see this as Master 1.

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This is so because both the spell and the WoD in general asumme that people have enough control to recognize outside of context emotion as foreign and not act on them, partly due to game balance issues . This obviously is not the case in worm were aprently a single moment of soul-crushing despair is enough to drive anyone to suicide. The text of the spell even notes that you can make anyone feel whatever you like with any intensity, just that outside of context emotions are going to be dismissed. If you ask me I would say it is the same power. Any diference comes more from the lack of a need of power balance in a narrative in contrast to a game and from a diferent interpretation of the inner working of human beings.

If this stroy is even a Mage crossover we will see ES thougths on this matter.

This is, as I said, middle level Stranger stuff. It specifically makes you see nothing special about the person as a kind of psychic invisibility effect, but it doesn't look like something that would interfere with Master/Stranger protocols for the purpose.

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Its a somewhat weaker version of Nice Guy's power. Granted, you can't attack directly without dropping the spell, but think of all the bullshit you can pull indirectly and how terrifiying a tool for scape it is.

This spell's text:



This is good, but it's not great. Most Blasters will be throwing stuff that would effect it anyway, and bullets tend to be sprayed over an area. The main purpose of small arms fire is to restrict movement, not deal damage, and she would still have to worry enough about bullets or Blaster powers flying through the area to restrict her movement.

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No. That spell quite literaly gives protection against all those things. It helps you dodge by making the enemy sabotage himself by hesitating, making mistakes and shooting to places she is not. The bonus is the same no matter what is aplied against because Magic is inteligent, it doesn´t need micromagement, if it wold be more advantageous to Taylor that her enemies mistake for her some column a few paces from her than seeing her a stept to the left then that's exactly what will happen. Not only that, they will belive it. That is what the spell does.

This is, oh, Stranger 2, again? Weaker than August Prince's power not to be harmed by anyone in his range.

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Actually that is a Mind 3 effect. Considered broken by most, including me, but canonically posible and well inside the hypothetical capabilities of Taylor.

Psychic speech without carrying compulsions? As I said, useful but not terribly so.

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Most compulsion powers from mage don't require speech anyway. They begin to apear at Mind 3 if you were wondering.

Master 10 is Echidna. Cherish wouldn't be Master 10. Cherish is probably in the Master 7-9 at best, depending on how exactly the classification system works.

This is a level of emotional manipulation listed as equal of a single, intense moment of doubt. This just doesn't sound like what Cherish does. The text in the PDF does not claim that this kind of emotional manipulation is a powerful control effect. It's supposed to be something more subtle and manipulative.

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Mostly I think you are completely missing the point. Mages are powerful because of two facts:

1 They are absurdly versatile: you are comparing heavy specialists, powerful ones at that, with a novice generalist. Of course she isn't that powerful in any of their fields of expertise. Yet.

2 With preparation and experince regular diadvantages of being a generalist are rendered irrelevant: From Arcanum level 3 and onwards mages get exponentially more powerful. By the time Taylor hits Mind 5 she is going to be able to create minds and completely rewrite personalities. That is high end stuff even for the most broken parahumans.

 

[Biigoh]

So... if this was mage, and paradox happens because of consensual reality and capes can do bullshit stuff like shoot lasers and lightning... can't a mage disguise it as parahuman ability or tinker toy?

 

[OctarineShrike]

So... if this was mage, and paradox happens because of consensual reality and capes can do bullshit stuff like shoot lasers and lightning... can't a mage disguise it as parahuman ability or tinker toy?

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If this is Ascension, then yes. Awakening is more vague.

 

[Ravraxas]

I fully admit I am not that familiar with the Mage system and did not understand this. Still, it does not seem anything like the normal power set of Taylor in Worm in the aspects of control and multitasking.

What would she normally be capable of with a reasonable dice pool?

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As I said before: Magic is intelligent. While she can cast Multitasking upon herself, she wouldn't really need it. She casts, she gets a command by suscess and the beats (any lesser beast, not just insects) will carry it out in the most efficient manner (that they are capable of) guided by magic. There is little diference between intent and execution when it comes to Awakened Magic.

At Mind 2 she could summon all insects from a Radius of 2 meters by taking a penalty of -2, each sucesive -2 penalty augments the radius exponentially. At Mind 3 she could use Advanced Factors wich makes the minimun radius a 16 meter radius at a penalty of -2 and advances in the same way as regular factors.

So, for now she is better of using more formidable lifeforms.

If I understand how Mage works, they do not apply all of their powers all the time, and require preparation and attention to bring up any specific power, which is a limit. In some ways it is amazing by Worm standards, but she's unlikely to make particular effects as strong as high end Worm.

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Two words: Ritual Casting.

I'm not going to derail the thread with an extended explanation, but if a mage has enough time they can drow almost any spell in enough dice to break the world in half. In fact, most tables have houserules gainst making more than a certain numbrer of rolls in Extended Casting for exactly this reason. Althrough it can still get silly even with those restrictions in place if the caster is actually specialized in that particular spell.

Anyway, I don't think this is going to be a problem, ES is very good at keeping things grounded.

 

[Racheakt]

I'm thinking that, even if this is a Mage crossover (and still no verdict on that) Skitter (or whatever she ends up named this time around) will not be able to pick up completely new abilities like that. This is a blend, a fusion fic. She'll probably be able to develope whatever powers she gets, but only to an extent. And stuff outside what the passanger gives her is probably beyond her perview.

And, hey, it's a good thing. Skitter's winning grace was weak powers made awesome.

I'm thinking a bit of Tattletale (able to glean additional information on any given situation. Hidden motives laid bare, lie detection, empathy, ect)

A little Winter and Nyx (if the repeated theme of cold is any indicator. Probably not a physical force, because that is literaly Winter's power, but possibly one of the mental influences she can exert. A little more like Nyx that way. Unless, or course, this version didn't have Winter, so you could go that route... it's still a very useful power Skitter could really put to work. An illusionary [or real] bank of chilling fog, ect... Heh... illusionary bugs crawling down your throat?)
Some of Screamer (a form of telepathy, instead of Screamer's sonic-based powers? But still possessing several similar applications. And a crushing weapon in psychological warfare)

And some of Skitter's canon abilities (limited clairvoyance, for example. I imagine she might actually be able to press simple-minded creatures into her service, but that's a stretch. If she keeps that ability, it would be with a drawback, like she'd need to keep concentraiting on them for it to work- more micro managed)

Just those tools alone would be pleanty useful. Only drawback I can see is that they are all in a support-recon vein. Not that you can't get far with a skillset like that (just look at canon). But Skitter had some offensive capabilities. I'm guessing a greater focus on weapons this time around. Guns, grenades, knives, ect. Winter and Screamer had similar powers and got along quite well using mundane weapons.

...

Now, I can't see her ending up with the Undersiders this time. Well, not the same way. And, what do you know? Mage has a group tailor made for Taylor! The Mad (I'm starting to see how you guys made the connection so fast). I'm thinking Taylor busts out of the asylumn, and takes some of the inmates with her, forming a gang to keep them safe. Burnscar. Labyrinth. Garrote?

Any other takers? Who would be in that gang? I don't know of many parahumans stated to be institutionalized in canon.

...

Anyway, so that would make three gangs in Brockton under Coil's direct control. The Mad. The Travellers. The Undersiders.

 

[Racheakt]

1. True, true.

2. Well, 'bug-conrol-powers' aren't what most would classify as offensive ability against Superman Alexandria, but lookie there!

It's all in how you use what you have. I could see her useing her empathy to pull River Tam-type curbstomps!

3. Depends.

It might just be me, but it's kinda-sorta implied that both Labyrinth and Burnscar escaped because they triggered unexpectedly and decided they wanted to be gone. Specifically, it seems that Labyrinth escaped, and Burnscar triggered because she realized that Laby was gone. I mean, considering the kind of forthought and restraints seen in the parahuman mental hospital... that's the only logic that I can see.

More likely: The other possability is that the mental hospital is a front for Caulron and used to collect parahumans who triggered and haven't realized it yet for study. This idea is supported by Labyrinth's presence on a Cauldron-cape dominated team, as well as the circumstances implied in how they found her. Namely, Faultline attacking the hospital. Again, in breaking out Laby, Burnscar was left behind. Tragic.

But, yeah, different world. They totally coulda' not triggered yet. I still think they'd make for an excellant team dynamic. The Mad, yeah!

 

[FunkyEntropy]

Chapter 1.01 said: ↑

I mean, technically it could have been some supervillain ploy, but I was fairly sure that there was no villain called 'Gatemaster' who went around installing gates in high schools. At the very least, he'd have hit the news. I'd probably have heard of him. Or her.​

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​

​

Chapter 1.05 said: ↑

I found the remote, and turned on the television, browsing through the channels until I found a news channel. There was some kind of PRT news conference going on. Apparently some villain called the Gatemaker had escaped from custody, and questions were being asked. Boring.​

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​

​

​

*Snerk*

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I hereby request that we continue to receive updates on the trials, tribulations, exploits, and general shenanigans of Gatemaker. Just a one-off line every couple of chapters, nothing that requires a lot of wordcount.

 

[Racheakt]

personally i wasn't surprised by that at all. (the fact Taylor could take out Alexandria that is, it actually happening caught me off guard) We already knew that she needed air and a horde of bugs trying to get into your lungs is a very effective tactic. Heck if Taylor went absolutely amoral her power would be quite broken.

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Haha! Fo sho! I said most, not all, and yeah.

The point is, a number of freaky senory-type abilities could be used to give one an edge in close combat, if she gains enough control over them.

 

[Racheakt]

I hereby request that we continue to receive updates on the trials, tribulations, exploits, and general shenanigans of Gatemaker. Just a one-off line every couple of chapters, nothing that requires a lot of wordcount.

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Concurr'd.

 

[Racheakt]

I am pretty sure Labyrinth was busted out by Faultline, Burnscar most likely escaped in the confusion or something. And i am 100% sure that they were in a parahuman mental hospital because both of them were driven insane by their powers (Burnscar getting more unhinged the more fire is around, it was mentioned that they had Labyrinth change her cell regularily so she couldn't build up her power). Burnscar would be a perfectly normal girl when there isn't any fire near her.

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All we know is that she becomes very detached and apathetic when in her pyrokinetic state. And yes, changeing her cell, but that lead to the second bit of my musings, the rest of my post:

More likely: The other possability is that the mental hospital is a front for Caulron and used to collect parahumans who triggered and haven't realized it yet for study. This idea is supported by Labyrinth's presence on a Cauldron-cape dominated team, as well as the circumstances implied in how they found her. Namely, Faultline attacking the hospital. Again, in breaking out Laby, Burnscar was left behind. Tragic.

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Yeah, I know it dosen't answer all the questions. But it answers a question and that is: 'What motivated Faultline to attack that particular hospital.'

Faultline is known to do jobs for people, yeah, I know. The wiki says they ran into Elle while doing a job. But I want you to think about that: it was essentially a kidnapping. Faultline isn't known for doing kidnapping. She's a mercenary thief, and even if she was, Elle wasn't on the list, so to speak. That break's Faultline's usual rules- why would they take her if they weren't kidnappers and she wasn't a target? Cauldron. The implication being that this job was a raid for data on Cauldron, and that the hospital was a front. Mimi and Elle were test subjects, probably newly discovered parahumans, and being processed for transfer to Cauldron's headquarters.

Please consider the whole post next time.

 

[TheLastOne]

There are so many holes in that theory that i didn't bother to comment on it, sorry.

She could just have taken Elle because she was a really, really strong Parahuman. Shaker 12s don't grow on trees and Faultline knew who she was and why she was in the asylum. More importantly Faultline wasn't investigating Cauldron until later, when Gregor the Snail hired her to do it. And its breaking Cauldrons usual MO, which is to only do experiments on Parahumans in pocket dimensions. If Labyrinth or Burnscar were Cauldron test subjects noone would have ever found them. If they were of any interest they would have been collected and thrown through a portal at earliest convenience.

Since Labyrinth and Burnscar were in the Asylum for a sizable period of time (given that they got to know each other in there and became friends of sorts) its unlikely that Cauldron was involved with the Asylum.

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Though they did hire one of the doctors to do some spying for them. He thought it was for China though - he wasn't one of their agents.

 

[HioH]

sigh... once again, the power ratings are not an indication of STRENGTH but of how much a THREAT a parahumans ability is. I could have the ability to accelerate time for the entire Universe at once, but it wouldn't net me more than a 1 because it is not dangerous at all.

 

[Racheakt]

There are so many holes in that theory that i didn't bother to comment on it, sorry.

She could just have taken Elle because she was a really, really strong Parahuman. Shaker 12s don't grow on trees and Faultline knew who she was and why she was in the asylum. More importantly Faultline wasn't investigating Cauldron until later, when Gregor the Snail hired her to do it. And its breaking Cauldrons usual MO, which is to only do experiments on Parahumans in pocket dimensions. If Labyrinth or Burnscar were Cauldron test subjects noone would have ever found them. If they were of any interest they would have been collected and thrown through a portal at earliest convenience.

Since Labyrinth and Burnscar were in the Asylum for a sizable period of time (given that they got to know each other in there and became friends of sorts) its unlikely that Cauldron was involved with the Asylum.

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I didn't say it was perfect. In fact, I seem to remember specifically saying I thought it was imperfect... Let me check...

Yeah, I know it dosen't answer all the questions. But it answers a question and that is: 'What motivated Faultline to attack that particular hospital.'

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So, yeah. Cut me some slack, man.

Let me say it like this: Why would Faultline take extra risks? She kidnapps the kid, and how exactly does she get her to cooperate. It was a freaking mental hospital. Even if she knew one of the inmates happened to be a Shaker 12, she couldn't have known how stable she actually was, as that data is confidentail and kept on hardcopy only (as evidenced by the Ward's psychologist) and probably not available to her.

Thus, she knew that she had to get Labyrinth out right the hell now. Cauldron.

I did say, processing Burnscar and Labyrinth. They weren't experimenting on them yet, just holding on to them until they can let the Cauldron bigwigs know. Not all of their channles are instantanious, as evidenced by Coil being unable to simply call up his boss and get info on the S9. Instead, he is left to his own resources and has to arrage for classified data to be stollen from the PRT by the Undersiders. There are also other points. Your argument would have Pretender collected by Contessta alone. Cauldron is never implied to be a very large organization, only very powerful in the few capes they have. They simply can't be everywhere at once.

Though they did hire one of the doctors to do some spying for them. He thought it was for China though - he wasn't one of their agents.

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Exactly. And he passed on reports on the parahumans he discovered, and those reports went to Doctor Mother, and she had to read them, and then deploy one of her other agents, ect. It takes time to do so without attracting attention.


I thought this out man, it dosen't cover everything, but it makes sense. So, Chronic? Holes, yes? But it makes sense, and it isn't as patchwork as you seem to be implying.

 

[TheLastOne]

No, it's completely patchwork. They were simply in a dedicated cape asylum.

 

[NSMS]

Frankly, that Alexandria win was complete author cop out and bullshit of first order. Natural human reaction to seeing horde of bugs flying towards you is to close mouth and fall back. This is not question of arrogance. This is inbuilt human reaction based on an instinct. It is ultimately convention of the genre, so it is forgivable, but please do not call it smart use of powers, when it is author honking his horn.

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A few points:

• Alexandria is invulnerable, and has been for long enough to be completely used to that fact. She'd have considerably fewer qualms about flying into a horde of bugs than most people, and a significant number of her automatic defensive reactions will likely have degraded or been consciously suppressed.
• Entry into the throat via the nose is possible.
• A horde of bugs is one thing. A horde of bugs that you find yourself flying into at high speed and that are specifically trying to get into your mouth as fast as possible is quite another.
• A natural reaction to getting bugs (or anything you don't expect) in your mouth is to try and spit them out- not even due to danger, but just because it feels wrong. So all it takes is one or two bugs getting in, and she'd instinctively open her mouth.

So whilst it was unquestionably an unlikely and very lucky win, it's also perfectly plausible. I wouldn't class it as the author honking his horn, certainly.

 

[NSMS]

and my point is that while you can condition yourself to do so, you really cannot do so effectively especially against unknown or new threat which horde of bugs is. This is involuntary body response, not a something you can truly condition yourself against or lose.

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'Horde of bugs' specifically, maybe. But I guarantee you that Alexandria has gone up against similar things (flying swarms which most likely didn't try and climb down her throat) before she ran into Skitter, and a general degradation of the need to protect yourself would have set in.

The air passageway is there, but bugs would get stuck there, especially, if you throw them in sufficient amount to block passageways, thanks to the simple fact ,that they are too big.

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You'd be very surprised at what bugs can fit through. And don't forget, these are being driven by an outside very determined force- not simply wandering in. And Alexandria is hardly the first person Skitter's pulled that trick on.

This actually makes it more likely, again closing mouth is more likely, more surprised you are and she does have Superman package.

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Reduced time to react- having a particular reflex doesn't matter if what happens is fast enough to overcome it. Does Alexandria actually have any kind of reaction time enhancement?

It goes from improbable to not really possible swiftly.

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I'd class it as improbable, but certainly not impossible.

 

[Racheakt]

No, it's completely patchwork. They were simply in a dedicated cape asylum.

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All right... Fine, sure. Um, you wouldn't happen to know the name? I'm trying to gather the relevant information relatied to the Wormverse, but the asylumn Garrote is housed in was a different one (I think). And the name eludes me.

Look, it's never stated that the two facilities are separate, or always separate. In real life, hospitals like that have chronicly damaged patients and short-term patients segregated, but in the same building. I see no reason that parahuman patients would be exclusivly housed in different buildings. Yes, some require specialized holding cells, but not entire buildings. They could very well be kept in the same building, and as I have found no evidence that this is not the case, I fail to see how you are so certain.

It has holes, but I repeat, it is a serviceable theory. There is no reason for it to be impossible. A few reasons it might be unlikely, but nothing that would mean it has a zero percent chance. Hospitals (and prisons) get overcrowded from tme to time, patients/inmates get moved around. Patients that the hospital has leverage on (like Burnscar) could be moved as long as they keep the leverage in an accessable position. And as long as Labyrinth was available, Burnscar was contained. Labyrinth herself was not a threat as such.

And due to the nature of parahuman abilities I highly, highly doubt that a psyciatric hospital would lack specialized rooms for parahumans, at least for short-term stays.

So, guys, stop talking down to me here. There are reasons it could work.