Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)

[Crake]

Emma is even more irrelevant than she ended up becoming in canon. Taylor has so many bigger problems and on top of that low key flexes on both of her tormentors by being better at them in each of the respective spheres with which they regard with envy or admiration.

Mostly envy, in fact, because they are fairly flat characters. It's just a matter of scale.

Emma has always been a mean girl, but it went from maybe petty school yard intimidation and escalated into terrorism. She never really considers that her actions make her a bad person, and learning she was wrong just reveals she was as weak as she accused Taylor of being, since it's implies she dies like a punk, with no headstone, since the world ended.

Sophia evolves beyond thinking that there are people who can take punishment, not give any of it back, and grow stronger from it, 'survivors' as it were. But that doesn't make her a better person, and the ending of Worm reinforces that her philosophy having one whole dimension more than it did before does nothing more than highlight how pathetic she is, unsung, forgotten and promptly abandoned. I think it's implied this development doesn't happen that long after meeting Emma anyway, which proves that Emma couldn't grasp beyond that stupid, single note ideology.

And how I mentioned scale earlier? Who else lacks depth in Worm?

Jack Slash. He revels in the simplicity of his desires, and doesn't even pretend that anything he does serves any purpose beyond amusing himself. In the basement he couldn't see beyond himself because in his mind there was nothing outside that mattered anymore. And he triggered because everyone else was, in his mind, 'completely fine'. Which obviously they aren't and weren't already, but he couldn't stand people living their lives with him being the one ignored in a little bomb shelter. And his solipsistic point of view renders him incapable of imagining anyone else has valid experiences worth exploring, since he just puts on a little puppet show with whoever he interacts with.

Scale and agency is the only difference. Jack Slash has literal cheat codes and indulges without restraint in his desires. Sophia would do the same. Emma would do the same.

All three have another thing in common, because of their lack of nuance, none of them will have a large role to play in the story, because Joe is so beyond the former as to make the matter laughable, a dumb joke that ran out its welcome long before we read the punchline, and Taylor couldn't care fucking LESS about the Trio when she learned she had to be The Hero, save the girl, stop the bad guys. And that was before even finding out about the world ending.

She already assumes she's 'responsible' for 'saving' the city thanks to Joe failing to communicate with her. I would not be surprised if Taylor encounters Emma or Sophia, goes 'too busy, fuck off', then effortlessly carries on with her day thanks to being able to perfectly maneuver them into a situation where acting up gets them a black eye.

If we didn't already know Taylor wants to get back at them by exposing their bullying, anyway. So I understand why there was an Emma interlude. To remind you that plot thread wasn't dropped. But it's mostly a vehicle for the story to tip the first domino that coalesces into PRT ENE getting its Wards program shut down, and maybe a complete changing of the guard.

Which honestly, with all these other crisis actors, is just yet another 'first domino' event.

 

[Necratoid]

Batman is obsessed, Spider-man has a guilt/martyr complex, and the All Might tried to be the Symbol of Peace that lead to a slow society collapse in Japan when he retired. I know that we in the real world have issues whether it is about abortion, gun ownership, and so own. But atleast we do try to have law enforcement trained to actually help the people.

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No. You are wrong. Very wrong. Your very, blatantly wrong. On many shallow levels.

THe reason comic book characters are like that is because of the comic book code inflicted by the McCarthy Era hearings. Only Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman managed to survive that purge. Every other character was purged from publication. Hundred or thousands of characters purged from existence and what was left was Adam West's Batman. That state lasted over a decade until they started to chip away at it by adding in bits of realism.

Reed Richards was up for days on end and looked like he was... that was mind blowing at the time Spiderman was formed as the embodiment of 'Well, Well. Welll. If it isn't the consequences of my own actions.' Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy disappeared randomly and was eventually found strung out in an opium den. Being Speedy is still suffering. This was what broke the reviled comic code and has mad character's multi-dimensional ever since.

MHA is about a oppressive fascist, future Japan here virtually everyone has a quirk and they oppress those that don't have them as defective... while simultaneously having crazy restrictively laws and social mores about how much shame there is in using a quirk in public without being a a graduate of a government controlled schooling program. Also never got rid of their stigma against mental health help.

All Might managed to take what he learned abroad and propped up the system... Propped it up as it was destined to collapse on its own. Blaming All Might for the stupidity and hypocrisy of an entire nation is insanity on your end. your argument burns down to, he should have let it fail, because trying to make things better is wrong.

Batman is a terrible example of a useless response as Bruce Wayne is doing they rest of the real work. He is literally attacking the issues from all angles. Even the new Millenial version of Batman is doing this.

Spoiler

Okay, it was a movie about him learning the problems with his better thug only approach. Seriously, if you watch it its like seeing the reason Batman decided he needed to be omni-competant. Its hillarous at that level. By the end of the movie he starts doing charity work in costume to try and make up for inspiring the crazies who couldn't read his mind... and the charity work are the first time the wider media notices him.

I love that movie for taking this angle. I hope the sequels continue to show it like this. The Penguin and his bilingual bonus escape as a teaching moment alone...

---

As for your IRL topics.... Always a mess to bring up IRL things like that and your examples show your left wing, probably young, and it shows brightly. Note I'm not trying cause political fights here, only point out how shallow your being over all. On your IRL examples and your fictional ones are just as scatter shot.

The political side of the abortion issue is one of never defining the details of the issue and claiming moral superiority upfront. Best I can tell the far extremes, that people have actually taken, are the 1970s era Catholic Church's 'Birth control is premeditated homicide' and the political madman view of 'Still counts if done before the fifth birthday'. People have taken both views and the fact so very many, loud voices refuse to start off by defining their definition of the key term at the center of their screaming is telling of how much the details matter to them.

As a rule, it doesn't matter the issue. If handing out paper and pens to the audience and asking them to define the key terms used in the rousing speech gives you a giant wave of conflicting nonsense... you've encountered a political hack. Its a 'debate club special' if you can take a printed copy of their speech and cancel out most of it by treating it like a math equation.

You can see this in other hot button issues like the 'gun control' arguments as well. The alleged middle of the road 'solution' to gun violence is banning 'Assault Weapons'.

The key term 'Assault Weapons' is not a defined term or one used normally. Its a nonsense term with no definition. A prop. It shows how meaningless it is as solution to the 'gun' problem. The problem is not guns... particularly legal ones. The problem you need to solve is violence commit upon people. Death or serious injury is the problem to solve.

Its also mostly done with pistols and they always focus on the rifles. Though if the violence was done with poison, knives, bare fists, chairs, motor vehicales, or by pushing all the same people out of windows instead, going after those things would still be an exercise in missing the point. This is an old problem:

"Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty." -Henry Ford

In Worm the missing the alleged point, corrupt law thing is that NEPEA-5 Bill. It made more issues that is solved. Its also badly worded intentionally.

 

[Norr]

She nodded, but felt a creeping weariness. Something about the last handful of days, it felt draining as much as freeing. She just wasn't in the mode for planning the next move against Taylor. Probably because she had moved on, outgrown her. Proven strength, proven endurance. A proper predator. Maybe the time was coming where she wouldn't need to bother with Taylor any more?

Looking at Sophia's expression, it was clear that wasn't going to happen. Predators didn't just ignore prey because it was beneath them. Everything had their place in the world. Emma knew that, and knew how easily things could flip if you gave into weakness.

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I find this interesting. Emma doesn't really feel like bullying Taylor anymore, but she knows Sophia wont let her stop. I think if Emma was left to her own devices the bullying campain might have petered off on it's own, and perhaps far earlier than we might guess.

She knew about Sophia's problems with Grue, how the man could undermine her power with his darkness and went after her with some personal vendetta.

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Quite the reversal, since AFAIK it's Shadow stalker going after Grue and not the other way around. I wonder if this is Emmas suppostition of the situation or Sophia shifting blame again. I'm pretty sure she would feel immediate hostility towards anyone who could no-sell her power but be unable to admit she is anything but the apex predator she desperately need to think she is.

 

[dragon_cloud16]

No. You are wrong. Very wrong. Your very, blatantly wrong. On many shallow levels.

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Thank you for pointing this out. In all honesty, the whole thing about comic books is that I care personally more about story then about the business aspect. I will admit that my post was more about my views on such thing and how comics were written and influenced by business.

Just like how Skipper and Gilligan never got off their island or why they never killed of Jason Vorhees. They made money.

MHA is about a oppressive fascist, future Japan here virtually everyone has a quirk and they oppress those that don't have them as defective... while simultaneously having crazy restrictively laws and social mores about how much shame there is in using a quirk in public without being a a graduate of a government controlled schooling program. Also never got rid of their stigma against mental health help.

All Might managed to take what he learned abroad and propped up the system... Propped it up as it was destined to collapse on its own. Blaming All Might for the stupidity and hypocrisy of an entire nation is insanity on your end. your argument burns down to, he should have let it fail, because trying to make things better is wrong.

Click to shrink...

I was more worried about how society seemed to be at peace in MHA due to All Might with him focusing, on what we have been shown as a audiance, on the physical examples of being a hero. Rescuing and Combat while having that built around schooling. I know that it is a shonen genre series but still.

But you are right in how pretty much one of the biggest issues of that series is how everyone practically has some form of meta ability/Quirk while mistreating those without them all the while the government along with the villains have either a desire to control them or pretty much allow anarchy to rule.

Japan not doing anything about the mental health issues that are shown is a big issues but honestly how many people are getting the help that they need even in fiction?

Batman is a terrible example of a useless response as Bruce Wayne is doing they rest of the real work. He is literally attacking the issues from all angles. Even the new Millenial version of Batman is doing this.

Okay, it was a movie about him learning the problems with his better thug only approach. Seriously, if you watch it its like seeing the reason Batman decided he needed to be omni-competant. Its hilarious at that level. By the end of the movie he starts doing charity work in costume to try and make up for inspiring the crazies who couldn't read his mind... and the charity work are the first time the wider media notices him.

I love that movie for taking this angle. I hope the sequels continue to show it like this. The Penguin and his bilingual bonus escape as a teaching moment alone...

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Movie title please? Because that honestly does sound interesting to watch especially since practically all superhero movies tend to focus on the action along with what the heroes and villains do.

As for your IRL topics.... Always a mess to bring up IRL things like that and your examples show your left wing, probably young, and it shows brightly. Note I'm not trying cause political fights here, only point out how shallow your being over all. On your IRL examples and your fictional ones are just as scatter shot.

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I did not try to bring up any form of political beliefs in my post. If it did seem that way then I am sorry. Late night and about to go to sleep after working a night shift has shown that posting right before going to sleep is a bad idea. So Thank you for pointing that out.

And I do notice that point where you think I am mentioning such a action. The Boys on Amazon Prime was something that I had recently watched and that guy that can cause explosions must of popped into my half asleep mind when I type that out.

Good show but not something to binge at times.

I will admit to having my own opinions about certain topics that I will not go into outside of one point. I personally do not view myself as either the Right Wing or Left Wing. I will vote for whoever I believe will hopefully give me lube before making me bend over and screwing me over. Because no matter what both sides are going to get into arguments about their "beliefs" and we got to suffer the consequences.

I will agree to allowing people to own guns personally. Do I think someone that doesn't meet a certain age such as 18 should be able to buy a gun? To a extent yes and no. But I'm not going to go into a discussion about that on here. Although if someone has shown to be responsible enough than them owning a assault rifle is perfectly fine with me.

That and I know, and you probably along with everyone on this site, that it is pretty easy to buy a gun thanks to the forums and such. Don't really know how trust worthy they are but still.

Abortion, I do not want to talk about due to how much a hot topic that is.

In Worm the missing the alleged point, corrupt law thing is that NEPEA-5 Bill. It made more issues that is solved. Its also badly worded intentionally.

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That I can agree on completely. By making people that just wanted to use their powers to perform tasks in the business world and denying them that did nothing to help.

And does anybody know if NEPEA-5 was influenced by Cauldron?

 

[Leafy503]

Well I guess you could say Parian's plan failed successfully?

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I mean we've kinda knew that her little plan wouldn't work. Really from the outside perspective it was very generous of her to give Garment that coverage.

 

[Ayashi]

I don't know if it's ever explained, but it seems reasonable to guess that the electricity in the nervous system is far too weak to damage her.

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Because bioelectric potential in neurons is a bit different from electricity flowing out of your house's plugs. At the most basic, bioelectricity is a flow of ions rather than electrons.

 

[Gumiho]

I mean we've kinda knew that her little plan wouldn't work. Really from the outside perspective it was very generous of her to give Garment that coverage.

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I feel like its the opposite in this scenario. Like, yes Garment is what maybe two weeks 'old' in the fashion world, but her work is already spreading far across the east coast and shes extremely highly regarded in the fashion industry from what we can tell, despite having no known education. Shes just that good. Whereas Parian is the 'Doll girl'.

 

[Psiidmon]

Quite the reversal, since AFAIK it's Shadow stalker going after Grue and not the other way around. I wonder if this is Emmas suppostition of the situation or Sophia shifting blame again. I'm pretty sure she would feel immediate hostility towards anyone who could no-sell her power but be unable to admit she is anything but the apex predator she desperately need to think she is.

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Shadow Stalker lying about who the aggressor is (when trying to murder someone)? How out of character!

For real though I am quite excited to see the charity event with this extra complication of Emma sticking her nose in.

 

[Waynebat]

Thank you for pointing this out. In all honesty, the whole thing about comic books is that I care personally more about story then about the business aspect. I will admit that my post was more about my views on such thing and how comics were written and influenced by business.

Just like how Skipper and Gilligan never got off their island or why they never killed of Jason Vorhees. They made money.

I was more worried about how society seemed to be at peace in MHA due to All Might with him focusing, on what we have been shown as a audiance, on the physical examples of being a hero. Rescuing and Combat while having that built around schooling. I know that it is a shonen genre series but still.

But you are right in how pretty much one of the biggest issues of that series is how everyone practically has some form of meta ability/Quirk while mistreating those without them all the while the government along with the villains have either a desire to control them or pretty much allow anarchy to rule.

Japan not doing anything about the mental health issues that are shown is a big issues but honestly how many people are getting the help that they need even in fiction?

Movie title please? Because that honestly does sound interesting to watch especially since practically all superhero movies tend to focus on the action along with what the heroes and villains do.

I did not try to bring up any form of political beliefs in my post. If it did seem that way then I am sorry. Late night and about to go to sleep after working a night shift has shown that posting right before going to sleep is a bad idea. So Thank you for pointing that out.

And I do notice that point where you think I am mentioning such a action. The Boys on Amazon Prime was something that I had recently watched and that guy that can cause explosions must of popped into my half asleep mind when I type that out.

Good show but not something to binge at times.

I will admit to having my own opinions about certain topics that I will not go into outside of one point. I personally do not view myself as either the Right Wing or Left Wing. I will vote for whoever I believe will hopefully give me lube before making me bend over and screwing me over. Because no matter what both sides are going to get into arguments about their "beliefs" and we got to suffer the consequences.

I will agree to allowing people to own guns personally. Do I think someone that doesn't meet a certain age such as 18 should be able to buy a gun? To a extent yes and no. But I'm not going to go into a discussion about that on here. Although if someone has shown to be responsible enough than them owning a assault rifle is perfectly fine with me.

That and I know, and you probably along with everyone on this site, that it is pretty easy to buy a gun thanks to the forums and such. Don't really know how trust worthy they are but still.

Abortion, I do not want to talk about due to how much a hot topic that is.

That I can agree on completely. By making people that just wanted to use their powers to perform tasks in the business world and denying them that did nothing to help.

And does anybody know if NEPEA-5 was influenced by Cauldron?

Click to shrink...

The movies are The Batman, and The animated movie Batman vs Robin.

His philanthropy is not focused on much in the Batman vs Robin.
And he only engages in it near the end of Batman.

People are not making movies about Batman pretending to be drunk, and signing checks. Because it is boring, he does that stuff mostly off screen unless it is involved in the plot.

 

[dragon_cloud16]

The movies are The Batman3 S4, and The animated movie Batman vs Robin.

His philanthropy is not focused on much in the Batman vs Robin.
And he only engages in it near the end of Batman.

People are not making movies about Batman pretending to be drunk, and signing checks. Because it is boring, he does that stuff mostly off screen unless it is involved in the plot.

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Thank you! And you are right that while that is boring, it would expand on the expect of Bruce Wayne that made Wayne Industries a target in Batman Begins.

Just like how there is less focus on his detective skills when compared to his gadgets and combat skills. Yes, that kind of investigative stuff is less exciting then seeing Batman beating up crooks. But it also a aspect of him that is used to help protect the people of Gotham by letting him find the super villains of his Rogues Gallery.

 

[BagFullOfLizards]

Emma is even more irrelevant than she ended up becoming in canon. Taylor has so many bigger problems and on top of that low key flexes on both of her tormentors by being better at them in each of the respective spheres with which they regard with envy or admiration.

Mostly envy, in fact, because they are fairly flat characters. It's just a matter of scale.

Emma has always been a mean girl, but it went from maybe petty school yard intimidation and escalated into terrorism. She never really considers that her actions make her a bad person, and learning she was wrong just reveals she was as weak as she accused Taylor of being, since it's implies she dies like a punk, with no headstone, since the world ended.

Sophia evolves beyond thinking that there are people who can take punishment, not give any of it back, and grow stronger from it, 'survivors' as it were. But that doesn't make her a better person, and the ending of Worm reinforces that her philosophy having one whole dimension more than it did before does nothing more than highlight how pathetic she is, unsung, forgotten and promptly abandoned. I think it's implied this development doesn't happen that long after meeting Emma anyway, which proves that Emma couldn't grasp beyond that stupid, single note ideology.

And how I mentioned scale earlier? Who else lacks depth in Worm?

Jack Slash. He revels in the simplicity of his desires, and doesn't even pretend that anything he does serves any purpose beyond amusing himself. In the basement he couldn't see beyond himself because in his mind there was nothing outside that mattered anymore. And he triggered because everyone else was, in his mind, 'completely fine'. Which obviously they aren't and weren't already, but he couldn't stand people living their lives with him being the one ignored in a little bomb shelter. And his solipsistic point of view renders him incapable of imagining anyone else has valid experiences worth exploring, since he just puts on a little puppet show with whoever he interacts with.

Scale and agency is the only difference. Jack Slash has literal cheat codes and indulges without restraint in his desires. Sophia would do the same. Emma would do the same.

All three have another thing in common, because of their lack of nuance, none of them will have a large role to play in the story, because Joe is so beyond the former as to make the matter laughable, a dumb joke that ran out its welcome long before we read the punchline, and Taylor couldn't care fucking LESS about the Trio when she learned she had to be The Hero, save the girl, stop the bad guys. And that was before even finding out about the world ending.

She already assumes she's 'responsible' for 'saving' the city thanks to Joe failing to communicate with her. I would not be surprised if Taylor encounters Emma or Sophia, goes 'too busy, fuck off', then effortlessly carries on with her day thanks to being able to perfectly maneuver them into a situation where acting up gets them a black eye.

If we didn't already know Taylor wants to get back at them by exposing their bullying, anyway. So I understand why there was an Emma interlude. To remind you that plot thread wasn't dropped. But it's mostly a vehicle for the story to tip the first domino that coalesces into PRT ENE getting its Wards program shut down, and maybe a complete changing of the guard.

Which honestly, with all these other crisis actors, is just yet another 'first domino' event.

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The actual first domino was probably when the police chief threw the locker incident in Piggot's face. It was during the meeting she held to try to get a secret kill order on Apeiron. I've been waiting for that to trickle down and find the appropriate target.

 

[Psiidmon]

The actual first domino was probably when the police chief threw the locker incident in Piggot's face. It was during the meeting she held to try to get a secret kill order on Apeiron. I've been waiting for that to trickle down and find the appropriate target.

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Oh, which interlude was that? Very excited to read that now that we know the vultures are circling their unaware prey, lol

 

[Kris-71854]

I went to bed early as I didn't want to wait until midnight to read the new chapter. It was released before 10 pm my time. If I had stayed up, it wouldn't have been out until 11:45 pm or so. If I was off work for a holiday or just having extra time off? There wouldn't be a chapter his week.

I'm rather surprised that Emma wasn't crushing on Apeiron. Unlike Sophia, he took down the entire ABB and damn near all their mooks.

I could see Shadow Stalkers's phasing trick not work in the black-out field or worse disperse after entering, yet not let her reform. It could take her weeks or a month or two to reform. Everyone would think that she was dead until she showed up much later.

You can just feel how much of this was through Sophia's twisted logic POV. The Youth Guard will come down on her in 2-3 weeks if that long. They are in evidence collection mode. Sadly for Sophia, I can see all this local evidence is backed up offsite. You know in the case of another Ungodly Hour or worse. Either way, they'd have that evidence in the PRT/Youth Guard files being a time bomb just for her.

Sophia is such a bitch, that her family was thrilled to see her leave the house for a few days? Her mom was relieved she was out of the house. Her bro and sis? Utterly thrilled not to put up with her for even this brief time off.

Emma is the only one that properly sees Sophia as the person to worship. No one else could come close to the heroic greatness of Sophia.

Is it just me, or does it seem like an Open Secret that Emma was dating Shadow Stalker? Everyone at those charity events could tell they were together or at least had an Extra Special Relationship.

If Emma ends up with a Garment Gift Bag, she's going to need to keep it safe. I could see Sophia snatching it in jealously. I could also see her determined to buy all her comfy clothing at Garment's shop after that.

Bed Bath and Beyond via Garment-style fashion.

Sophia has no concept of relationships or who is hanging off whom. Flechette was the one doing the hanging and being flustered over it. Weld knew about that and was snickering at Sophia for how off her gossip was.

Emma and Sophia don't get it. It doesn't matter how fabulous Apeiron's gear was. If you don't have the ability to back it up, you'd just come off as a poser. Khepri hasn't. She's soared with the tools that Apeiron gave her.

Apeiron could make anyone look like an awesome team or cape. Actually being a team of A-S class threats that various thinkers could all verify for some of their ratings? That'd take more than mere clothing. (Dust infused clothing could make mook minions into B class threats.)

If Khepri's overreached, then she would have been caught by the Wards. That the Undersiders got away and took down the Wards in the process? It was more like the Wards were the ones overreaching there. Sophia's been posing and whining since then. It's more like she was irked that she wasn't invited along. Then again she didn't get the bad press so there is that.

Just because she missed a bad PR moment doesn't make her a better Ward than any of the others.

For irony, I could see Sophia being the only one coming off with a bad PR moment at Garment's Charity Auction, and it being live streamed all across the globe.

Emma is utterly jealous of Khepri's body and fame. She's likely always known that Taylor has a better body for professional modeling, but disliked thinking about it. She definitely wouldn't admit it to herself, much less ever let Taylor know.

Thinking about it, Emma is actually correct. The Undersiders' new equipment did have unearned glory! It was likely stuff Joe did in 5-15 minutes and likely would remake later on if ever asked. Heck, that wasn't even remotely his best stuff at the time. That was for his team and actual body builds.

It wasn't something a team had put together or earned through their own efforts. It was a gift from a much high-tier cape. I could see where the impression of Apeiron dressing kids up might come from.

The issue with that though? The Undersiders played it well and didn't crash and burn as they easily could have. They were allowed to sit with at the big boy table and not the kiddie table or shooed out.

I suddenly want Emma to be Parian's primary model while Taylor somehow ends up Garment's front liner. Aisha and Survey will be far too busy interacting with everyone from the fashion industry to rich folks. I want Theo to be Aisha's date/escort in a Garment Tux.

A head injury is likely good for a week off from school under normal times. During these times? Taylor could miss two weeks straight, and the school wouldn't care. She only needs a note saying alive, recovering, and send homework.

So would Survey be watching out for Taylor? She'd be on her watch so there is that. Survey could be scanning all the cell phone traffic and then some. If asked, she could easily monitor the trio and their usual others through both cell phones and actual drones.

It would take Joe like 5-15 minutes to design and set everything up. He doesn't have a clue that he needs to safeguard Taylor at school though. He doesn't really know about her bullying issue. If he had any idea, I can see him having Survey/Fleet monitor things. Fleet to fly the drones, while Survey watches things.

They should easily be able to arrange things to prevent Taylor from being bullied without Joe's being informed. Unless Sophia starts using cape powers, it wouldn't rise to that level of threat. A Very low-level background issue. Nothing that Joe needs to be informed of as they could take care of it themselves. If they need to ask questions about what they should do to the bullies, they could ask Aisha.

Then again Taylor seems to be wanting to use her watch to collect evidence of the bullying and that's all.

Emma can sense that Taylor has outgrown her and moved on from being her friend? Talk about needing super-powered common sense to see the obvious!

Sophia and Emma's hate towards Taylor makes it through her secret id of Khepri. They don't know why, but they know that they must utterly hate that girl. Likely as it has something to do as she comes off as utterly better than either of them in their chosen fields.

It comes down to how dare she be better than they are. She has to be a poser only achieving success due to Apeiron. Their self-esteem wouldn't put up with anything else.

Sophia is doomed. It isn't because of Joe either. It's because Aisha going to find out that Sophia is the one that shot her bro and made him bleed. She will be ever so pissed at that and will likely get creative at the payback.

 

[MDK]

God damn Emma really feels really bad about the whole Taylor Situation doesn't she?

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How did you come to this conclusion?
Seriously, I'm genuinely interested.

goddamn Highschool bullies.

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After their attempted murder via biological weapon they most certainly are not mere highschool bullies. Domestic terrorists is the term you are looking for.
And the Locker isn't too far of from the other shit the Joker normally pulls, so I find the comparison valid.

 

[Crake]

Apeiron has the Triumvirate effect. Appealing but unapproachable.

Except if you have brass, like Faultline.

 

[BagFullOfLizards]

Oh, which interlude was that? Very excited to read that now that we know the vultures are circling their unaware prey, lol

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It's back in chapter 55.1, when the mayor is thinking about the police chief blowing up at Piggot.

He had even dredged up grievances from before the current crisis, matters of jurisdiction, information access, accusations of perpetuating criminal elements to manage the balance of power between the gangs, just to make it clear this had been festering for a long time. He openly challenged her on the status of a particularly vile case that had been transferred to PRT jurisdiction for classified reasons, attempted murder of a minor at Winslow High back in January, with no updates, progress, or chain of evidence available.

That seemed to have taken her by surprise, and Piggot did not like being blindsided. Roy was willing to guess that the only person she currently held more ire for than the Commissioner was whoever had left a political timebomb like that case under her seat.

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I can't see this referring to anything except the locker incident. Piggot is out for blood and I've been looking forward to that shoe dropping for a while.

 

[Crake]

If Joe is coordinating the charity event, even if he tries playing low key, I don't doubt there will be 2.5 pictures being snapped in his general direction every second, so if he's wearing Garment's clothes + general Aphrodite blessing buffs, not completely hidden under illusion. It would be funny if he gets some attention on PHO / fashion sites as a underground model or diamond in the rough.

Though conversely, if he's a known face around Garment's scene, Parian will definitely encounter him, and upon learning he's not just there volunteering but actually knows Garment personally, the quiet freakout is gonna circle around her panic at the event going off as well as it did. If she has to collaborate with Garment more in the future, she also has to be around Joe more in the future. Can't avoid it.

Though how this spirals depends a lot on how Joe comes across. The Gym Bros seem to think he dropped a life of crime for a girl (suddenly has a sense of fashion? Better hair? Good skin? Confident stance?)

If rumors spin that he's dating Garment. That night just crush Flechette... but the conspicuously unattached Parian is nearby too.

 

[Graviator]

Oh, which interlude was that?

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Chapter 55.1 preamble:

He openly challenged her on the status of a particularly vile case that had been transferred to PRT jurisdiction for classified reasons, attempted murder of a minor at Winslow High back in January, with no updates, progress, or chain of evidence available.

That seemed to have taken her by surprise, and Piggot did not like being blindsided.

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For extra dominos, this challenge happened in front of the members of the state supreme court.

 

[jonas]

The main issue I've always seen with taking the Joker out though is that DC death is more a revolving for door evil than an ending. If jail is one of the best institutions of illegal trade craft learning what would hell be? How bad would Joker be after he came back?

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The only reason killing the Joker would be bad is "narrative convention dictates that he would come back" which boils down to "narrative convention" in other words: "we can't do that because it's a story",
Unless narrative convention is part of your story, such as with Practical Guide to Evil, that's bad storytelling.

Fuck, now I have to tie it back to discussion on this story to keep it on Topic.

It's one of the reasons interludes like this one isn't just filler, but serves a valid narrative role. It justifies Watsonian1 explanation for a story event.

The Doylist explanation for Sophia and Emma still being a problem is that "it'd be a bad story if Apeiron just appeared and solved all of Taylor's problems", while this interlude solves that problem by explaining why the investigation into Sophia's actions went haven't gone anywhere.

Tl:dr both the Joker and Sophia answer the question: why are you still in the story? With "there are more stories to be told about me", but Sophia has an in-story explanation as well, thanks to the new interlude

 

[Squamous Deity]

Because bioelectric potential in neurons is a bit different from electricity flowing out of your house's plugs. At the most basic, bioelectricity is a flow of ions rather than electrons.

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Oh yeah, damn. I've been doing so much biology stuff that I actually forgot about electrons.

 

[Utterly Depraved]

Ye Olde buffer overrun attack.

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That sounds weak in terms of hacking attempts; I would expect at least a Rowhammer attack.

She have a mother, an older brother (20 yo), and a young sister (4 yo). Whenever they cares about her... probably not actually. In the original Worm, she was jealous of Taylor because her father came to defend her against the school, while Sophia's mother didn't give a fuck about her.

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Probably something to the effect of her mother being a enabler for a abusive spouse while caring too little to gank their ass if they went after the kids.

As i remember her power also affects electronics, so setting up a little program that sends an alert whenever the fact "Celestial Forge membership is six" is True would be cheap and very simple to do.
Worst-case scenario Dragon can handle it.

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I believe that that took longer then it took to effect wetware which is why I recommended comparing biocomputers, like what Dragon has in her suits, against electronic data storage or even analogue data storage.

The lower the tier the more shit they talk.

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Chihuahua syndrome.

Obviously, she will use bees to ventilate and regulate the temperature of her moving hive.

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Stick the knife-handle to the wing of a dragon-fly.

This part is kind of jarring. Even more so when you consider how pampered by her parent(s) Emma is, so for her to be jealous about it should be a pretty high bar to pass.

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Not really; like they'd do a lot of shallow pampering but Danny would go to jail if someone fucked over his little girl; he's a union man in Brookton "where dreams go to die" Bay after all.

But can it run Doom?

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Aisha would totally get her hands on that signal and run Doom on the server sending it out just to mess with people.

Ooooh ho ho, I smell a network vulnerability as delicious as the Rowhammer is.

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Well now I don't feel special for knowing about Rowhammer. Oddly enough I'm feeling glad that other people know about it. Feelings are weird.

I like to imagine that their Lethe detection app is powered by someone sitting in a room alone with a button, and there's a big sign that says "if you don't remember what the button is for, push the button."

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...Yeah that would work. I feel kind of let down by it actually. It might still be possible to use that to hack something though.

Kiddie by Sophia's standards, you know, the 15 years old edgelord that goes around in black spandex, a black hood, and calls herself Shadow Stalker with a straight face while thinking ut's the toughest, coolest shit ever.

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Being fair though Cape Names are hard and can be a bit dumb. Like I don't hear anyone giving Oni-Lee shit for having the eastern equivalent of "Demon-Tim" as a Cape-Name.

Trust me, there really are people like that. A lot of people like that. It's not that different from the "I Am The Alpha!" stuff... which as it turned out was the lupine equivalent of a prison gang and wolves in the wild are nothing like that.

People will think anything that gives them comfort, makes things not their fault, or lets them do what they want to do without remorse. Not everyone, obviously, but it's still... a thing.

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Ironic that Alpha-Male/Female dynamic theory never got into beta-testing isn't it? I believe that the closest thing to it in the animal kingdom is actually Prides of lions.

You will be eaten by the Grue - says Aika, not inderstanding her brother doesn't understand the reference.

The whole "Alpha" stuff turns even more hilarious with the scientist that coined the term disproving it himself less than a year later when he realized the 'Alphas' were just mommy and daddy. Hell, he even tried to make people stop using the term, but by then it was already part of the human memetic memory, AKA pop culture.

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I really like that term "Memetic Memory"; it's very descriptive.

You used the word 'predator' seven times in one chapter. I get that it's a canon trait of Emma's internal monologue to refer to herself as such, but every time I hear it get used, all of my bones get set to attack mode.

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It is a very good description of the kind of person whos self-worth can't be maintained without finding others to look down on and have a pretense of being better then though; it's not like that's a trait exclusive to white supremacists or something.

Garment's event seems like it's going to be a complete cluster f of bad interactions. Garment and Survey are the ones handling the main bulk of the event with Joe only handling things on the physical side. Sabah, Joe, and Garment interaction is going to be a nightmare that might cause Sabah to Second Trigger. But also it's Joe's hands off stance and Garment's obliviousness that might cause other problems. Garment will most definitely not discriminate body types when choosing models so she will most likely end up with a lot of different models and outfits at the event. I imagine Survey will be keeping a comprehensive list of all the models that will be attending and participating in the event. Since Joe is being hands off he won't see the name Emma Barnes(with possible Sophia Hess as a plus one) on the list which means his passenger won't be able to warn him about it. The Undersider will most likely be attending the event in their civilian identities(Brian will definitely be there to keep an eye on Aisha). And Garment will definitely rope them into being models, heck Taylor might already be on the list cause Garment is peeved that Taylor hasn't been wearing her new clothes and will have her model some clothes so show how good they are. What happens when Emma and Sophia not only see Taylor as a model at the event but also see that Taylor is getting special attention from Garment. Things will go crazy. Another crazy thing that could happen is Aisha choosing this moment to tell Joe that Grue is her brother and also tell Brian she's a cape. I imagine that interaction will not go well either.

So we have 3 disasters waiting to happen all at the same event at possibly the same time. And that not even mentioning the outside interference that might happen with other capes that show up at the event. I think I'm looking forward to this Event more then I did for Somer's Rock.

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Well, I mean, I don't know about discrimination but she'd probably mostly stick to good examples or archetypes.

While this situation does offer a lot of the needed ingredients for her to second trigger, it's still lacking the mindset of personal loss. It was this kind of stress, alone against the world, then losing her father on top it that broke the camel's back, so a second trigger would require her to go through something similar. Maybe if something happens that took away her ability to do fashion at all or something would be enough, but maybe not. Might specifically require losing a person close to her rather than just something important. Second Triggers can be finicky and specific, similar but not exact mindsets/situations only act as a (usually) temporary power boost.

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She got a Shaker Trigger rather then a Master Trigger, though that's probably a bit overlapped from the former to the latter given her powers speciality for corpse parts, so it probably requires mostly just a hostile environment.

I agree honestly,the moment that Jack runs into joe he should just die, his plot armor power doesn't work against Joe. If he doesn't die the first time he runs into joe I'll be horribly disappointed. Plus it's not like he will try to avoid Joe because his "instincts" won't tell him not to. It would be hilarious if he just walked up to Joe and he just died like he doesn't even get a chance to run his mouth just all the confidence and the he no longer has a head/heart.

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You'd expect him to run into a normie with a gun and get offed that way if that were the case.

Parian is basically a fleshmancer; her power functions much better on dead skin than it does in other materials. If she could survive long enough contact with an endbringer, she might be able to strip it apart or even puppet it or something. The key being survive long enough... which is just not going to happen. Alternatively, make a massive flesh golem and battle kaiju style.

I'd imagine a second trigger would probably let it work on living skin too or something, letting her puppet others. Maybe even herself as a quasi brute power.

As for what would truly be enough for a second trigger, that's ultimately up to the author. Honeslty, with the way shards act around Joe, I wouldn't be too surprised if they bend/break the rules and accept a close enough.

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She might also start being able to apply her power to space-time membranes.

Excuse Me? Extremely low Tier?
Sophia is an arrogant bitch whose Predator and Prey Type of Thinking and overconfidence (she very likely views herself as a badass) will eventually result in her death.
No doubt about it.

But she is capable of becoming intangible; as in immune to pretty much anything except for Electricity and Multi-Dimensional Attacks (like Damsel of Distress, Flechette and Scions Sting?) which is an all-or-nothing defense as long as she can react fast enough.
Same with her attacks (if timed properly) I don't know if there is a WOG on the Endbringers Vulnerability to it, but outside of them and exceptions like Alexandria and adaptive regeneratives Shadow Stalker is basically immune to pretty much anything and capable of killing nigh anything while also being quite mobile for street level fights.

How is someone with those capabilities an extremely low tier ganker? Outside of Regent and the resident Tinkers basically no one uses Electricity in Brockton Bay.

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I believe that her Breaker State could even survive Damsels blasts actually; they rip pretty much anything apart and leave some things compressed into a rather interesting form of matter but Sophia turns into smoke and probably uses dimensional shenanigans to do so; it wouldn't be too surprising if she could come back from getting torn to pieces by that effect.

Her intangibility was canonically overcome by Bitch's dogs running her through a couple times. Her getting dispersed several times tired her out and forced her back into her normal form.

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So would that be similar to Gavels power? Except sort of in the opposite direction? Being immune to damage but in a very temporary way? Actually that's sort of like Victorias power isn't it?

Isn't Jack's whole experience as cape build from his overreliance on his fake intuition and charisma? While I wouldn't bet much on this kind of experience, I also did not deny Slash's ability for planing. I explicitly said that he would "concoct a plan". I just also believe that his plan will go so horrifyingly wrong from his overconfidence in his abilities and lack of information on Apeiron, that Jack will just end up killing himself accidentally with it. Kind like it happened with March, only with even more SCHADENFREUDE.

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It occurs to me that March would probably be close enough with her Clusters Shards to outright lie to Jacob through his Shard.

 

[readerdreamer]

The Doylist explanation for Sophia and Emma still being a problem is that "it'd be a bad story if Apeiron just appeared and solved all of Taylor's problems", while this interlude solves that problem by explaining why the investigation into Sophia's actions went haven't gone anywhere.

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There's also the fact that even if all the events in the fic haven't been happening, short of "Locker Girl" suddenly becoming a case of national importance the investigation would've still progressed under the glacial pace of bureaucracy. It's been more than a year for us, but in story it's been barely a month since the fic started. Given how uncooperative Piggot's administration tends to be, if we didn't know out of universe that Piggot's been rushing around trying to reduce the things she could be held responsible for as much as possible, Sophia's assumptions would actually have some weight in them.

 

[Ayashi]

There's also the fact that even if all the events in the fic haven't been happening, short of "Locker Girl" suddenly becoming a case of national importance the investigation would've still progressed under the glacial pace of bureaucracy. It's been more than a year for us, but in story it's been barely a month since the fic started. Given how uncooperative Piggot's administration tends to be, if we didn't know out of universe that Piggot's been rushing around trying to reduce the things she could be held responsible for as much as possible, Sophia's assumptions would actually have some weight in them.

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i find it somewhat amusing that in fics the bullying, and specifically the locker girl thing, almost always end up being written as more important than Sophia's literal murder attempts (and the presumably successful ones).

 

[Iridesce]

You'd expect him to run into a normie with a gun and get offed that way if that were the case.

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Honestly there's a lot of capes that you would expect to run into some rando with a gun and just die. Like most capes have no more gun resistance than anyone else, if they are smart the might have a bullet proof vest. I honestly think that contesta is probably running a path that has a side effect of lowering cape gun deaths because it is not high enough.

 

[NoisyMatchStar]

I know most people hate them, but I just pity these two girls instead. I mean, see how sad and pathetic they are.