How did somebody who's practically invulnerable against ~99% of all Parahumans on Earth Bet manage to die by choking on bugs? That feels... very incongruous.
I always assumed that it was because all powers meant to have some sort of fatal flaw however obscure it is. So hosts would actually engage in battle instead of writing off enemy as unbeatable and running away. Running away cant produce much data after all.
How did somebody who's practically invulnerable against ~99% of all Parahumans on Earth Bet manage to die by choking on bugs? That feels... very incongruous.
Aside from the logical weakness that she still needs to breathe to live despite being Time-Locked?
Plot-induced stupidity? Idiot Ball? Wildbow wanted Taylor to kill Alexandria even if, from a certain point of view, wouldn't make sense for her to achieve that? Choose your pick.
How did somebody who's practically invulnerable against ~99% of all Parahumans on Earth Bet manage to die by choking on bugs? That feels... very incongruous.
Simple plot contrivance or literally done to give Taylor a cool moment against someone as strong as Alexandria for plot reasons. There's a reason why Alexandria chocking on bugs gets meme a lot despite the fact she could flown fast enough to get outside Taylor range or do what an average person does and noticed the literal bug swarm(which isn't invisible and tends to make noise) coming at her and at least cover her mouth and nose or the fact Alexandria didnt feel any spiders crawling on her body when in situation similar to her, I manage to noticed that in seconds or hear/see a swarm coming.
I haven't read the scene, but I theorise it was a mixture of overconfidence and the choking with bugs thing being unexpected.
I can imagine Alexandria could have assumed that the bugs were meant to be a distraction, after all she's fucking invincible invulnerable, so what are bugs going to do even if they're poisonous? Obviously she's trying to distract Alexandria from a trick she's trying to pull off by making her worry about the bugs, or perhaps she's trying to intimidate her somehow in a last ditch effort.
Taylor was offloading her emotions to her bug swarm at this point right? I'd imagine there's few -if any- human opponents that Alexandria has had to face who can bypass her cold reading thing
If there was a scene that was Mr Freeze vs another Superman exit like Alexandria, and Superman-lite had shown that he couldn't be hindered or damaged at all by ice, you wouldn't expect him to suddenly start attempting to clog Superman-lite's throat with ice would you?
Sorry, but I couldn't really get this recursive fic idea out of my head. I wanted to wait until I had a better idea of what Aisha's Semblance would turn out to be, as well as the rest of her power ups, but considering this is essentially just the prologue I thought I could just fold in those details later.
Stranded
March 4, 2011 (?)
It was painful how desolate this place was.
After the Celestial Forge went and overtook the world following the downfall of Zion, Aisha couldn't help but admit to herself that she had gotten too used to being surrounded by amazing things. She may have had been just a troubled preteen when she first met Apeiron, but after a decade of helping Joe, all of that seemed like forever ago. So standing here, in this secluded plot surrounded by nothing but poorly maintained graves was somehow even more of a shock than what got her in this situation in the first place.
Jozef Michael Duris
1990-2011
A loved son and friend
"The Matrix would be horrified, if they saw this." Morbid humor was a familiar companion, having been with her since her mother first brought in one of her boyfriends. And alone, in this familiar but different world, it was once again her only companion. "They would complain about the quality of the tombstone, the poor health of the grass, and the clear lack of upkeep. Man, I knew your family was filled with assholes, but it hasn't even been a month, hasn't it? Then why is your grave already in such a bad condition?"
With a single thought, Aisha activated her suit's cleaning function to wipe away all the dirt, and on a whim, she transmuted rocks into the shape of flowers on the base of the grave. Aisha could've probably stolen a real bouquet somewhere with her capabilities, but somehow... this felt like it was more appropriate. That in this timeline, in this world where Apeiron would never come to be, where Jozef Duris committed suicide somewhere in January instead of triggering on April Fools, someone would use powers to make flowers in his place.
Aisha's chest hurt. Seeing Brockton Bay back to how it had been, before the Uplift, had been bad enough. But this world didn't seem to have an issue in keeping up with the punches.
"You know, I almost wanted to ruin your family's lives when I found out what had happened." Aisha had been so close. She had been right there, in Duris family room watching Joe's parents live their lives almost without care that their only son had died just two months ago. If she hadn't caught her hand in time, her blade would've gone through Ms. Duris' face and none of them would've even realized what had happened until she was done. "If I hadn't seen your picture on the wall, I might have done something I would've regretted for the rest of my life. Just goes to show, even when you're gone, you're still looking after me right?"
Part of Aisha had wanted, for the longest time, to be out of Apeiron's shadow after a decade of being part of the Celestial Forge.
It wasn't even Joe's fault. He just was naturally better than everyone else, and the entire world knew it, so getting jealous of him was like a candle getting mad at the sun for daring to be brighter. And as Lethe, she couldn't even say that she didn't luck out in having the chance to be part of his chosen group - Aisha could still remember the short jealous looks sent to her by all kinds of people, powerful and smart people alike.
That was why Aisha created that machine, even if it took everything she had just to keep anyone from knowing about it. Well, anyone but Survey. While Joe had no problems giving privacy to his friends even when his powers let him know everything if he wanted, Survey had no such qualms and it was only with the potential data of dimension-traveling that Aisha had managed to convince Survey to keep it secret between them.
But of course, without the immeasurable sun, now everything looked a lot darker in stark contrast. And with the machine having broken on arrival and with none of the Celestial Forge's infinite resources to repair her dimensional transporter, Aisha was alone, stranded in this world with nothing but her equipment, her abilities, and her knowledge to fix the mess she had recklessly thrown herself into.
"I need to make my way back home. I need to be careful of the threats that you once defeated, now back in full power in your absence." No one will hear these oaths but Aisha, yet they remained as true as they could be. "And most of all, I need to prove that as Lethe, even without you, I can act in keeping with the ideals and the standards of the Celestial Forge."
Because as part of Apeiron's legacy, her actions deserved nothing less.
A minute later, the grave was left alone once more, with only beautiful stone flowers being the only proof that anything had happened here.
Aisha knew all too well that she wasn't the brightest.
True, her mind now contained literal centuries' worth of technological advancement and more space-age PhDs than she could ever care to list, but knowledge wasn't wisdom and her presence in this world was just another chapter in proving that. Normally, she had other people to rely on - Survey really spoiled her a lot in this aspect - but in this world while Aisha Laborn did exist, that name was for a snarky preteen who was probably off irritating one of her dad's coworkers over at the gym at the moment.
She had only managed to sneak a glance over her younger self for a moment before she had to turn away due to a flush of embarrassment and shame. If there was any question on whether Garment or not got to her after all these years, then her reaction to what her younger self was wearing was the final nail on that coffin. She had to even hold herself back from marching down to her younger self and shoving a new wardrobe into her arms - while Aisha's clothing skills weren't anywhere close to Garment's, after years of continued exposure she picked up a few things through osmosis.
Still, that neatly pointed out one big problem: as she was right now, 24 years old, she had no identity to speak of and if she kept calling herself "Aisha" then it could get difficult for her younger self very quickly if anyone ever connected the dots. And though technically, she was capable of interacting with people without a "civilian" identity, she had no idea how long she will have to stay in this world while she knew herself all too well. Interacting with other people only through a mask would drive her crazy, and as Lethe, she couldn't exactly ignore her own mental health like that, right?
So "Ashe Duris" was born. It was both similar enough to her real name that she would have no problems responding to it, and though technically picking out Duris as a surname may cause problems for her later on, she had done so out of respect for this world's Joe Duris, already lost so young, and as a snub to Joe's family by basically telling the world that she was more of a family to Joe than they ever were. And given the Duris' family's relative reclusiveness to only their own worlds, with Aisha's technical skills it had been surprisingly easy to forge a new identity as some forgotten uncle's son's cousin's adopted sister, complete with age-faked paperwork. And if she was all too informed on how to overcome standard anti-Stranger protocols in detecting fake identities, well that was just because it was in her purview as Lethe of the Celestial Forge.
Thus, with a new identity in hand, "Ashe" had a decision to make. What would she do from here, where would she establish her base in, and who would she have to work with in order to achieve her goals? Given the sheer amount of trouble she knew was ahead of her, she had to choose wisely. She had to pick a place where nobody would ever think to look her for, yet also familiar enough that she wouldn't be out of place. Similarly, given the sheer amount of people she needed to look out for at the moment, her younger self being the most obvious, she would also have to position herself close to be able to act at any moment.
For a moment, she struggled with herself over this. Again, her reliance on the Celestial Forge was showing because Ashe knew that if Survey was here, Survey would've had already provided a list of the top 10 options, complete with explanations and detail for each and Ashe could directly ask for pros and cons of each decision. But as her unresponsive watch would attest, Survey wasn't here because apparently not even a quantum entanglement communicator could keep contact with the kind of dimensional travel she had done.
(Suddenly all the jokes about Survey's data size had gotten a lot less funnier in retrospect.)
But then she saw the job poster and all her doubts fell away. Sure, this was probably far from the best option, and probably one of the worse ones, but if there was anything Ashe knew about her younger self, it was her wish to be noticed. Her wish to be accepted and trusted, and why Ashe was so loyal to the Celestial Forge after Joe accepted her even as she invited herself into his base for the first time and nearly broke Joe's anti-Simurgh countermeasures.
Really, who would give up the chance to make things easier for their younger self? Ashe certainly wouldn't, and so with a disposable cell phone printed straight from her armor's reserves, she dialed up her father's telephone number.
It took a few rings, but soon her parallel father's familiar voice picked up the call. "Hello, this is Laborn from the Brockton Bay's Boxing and Fitness Gym. How may I help you?"
Ashe had never been the kind of girl to rely on her father for anything, so it said a lot about her current state that she almost broke her cover and told her father everything right there. What if it was somehow Brian that picked up the call? Would she have actually done that? This was such a bad idea, she should probably apologize and say that she had just dialed a wrong number.
"Hello, this is Ashe Duris, a fresh Business and Administration graduate from Brockton University. I had heard that you had a job opening for a secretary position?"
Damn it.
"A fresh graduate." Her father's response was flat, which made sense considering he probably wanted someone with more work experience. "Are you sure you could even do the job? Because let me tell you, a boxing gym is hardly easy work, and if it weren't for the fact that I am already busy enough handling the gym members, I wouldn't have posted that job poster for anyone."
This was almost nostalgic, how long has it been since anyone underestimated her? "I could show you my qualifications, sir, but I would think that I could prove my capabilities more in the job than out of it."
If this was anyone else, Ashe knew, they would've already turned her down then and there. But this was her father, and though he may have not been there for most of her childhood, after the Celestial Forge turned everything around, after years of awkwardness she had finally managed to connect to him. She knew what kind of person he was looking for.
There was a snort through the phone call. "Well then, if you're so keen to prove yourself then why don't you join one of us in the ring? Of course, even someone as green and overconfident as you would probably-"
"If proving myself in a boxing match is a required skill, then I would be happy to do so." Ashe cheerfully channeled a bit of Survey into her tone and smiling at the sudden rush of coughing that came through from the other side. Really, her Dad should know better than to drink coffee in the middle of a conversation. "What time should I arrive tomorrow?"
Her father, after a long minute of silence, finally came through. "...7:30 in the morning tomorrow, sharp."
Five seconds later, Ashe heard him drop the call. Pulling away the disposable phone from her head, immediately a rush of regret over her impulsiveness filled her.
"This is such a bad idea, this is such a bad idea, this is such bad idea..." Ashe hissed as she smacked her palm over her forehead. She hadn't been able to stop herself the moment she heard her father question her skills. And here she thought she was finally over all of that. "But I don't want to disappoint him either, so I guess there's no going back now. It's not like they'll even manage to touch me anyhow... though that in itself may become a problem..."
Still, that was her "civilian" identity down. Now she just had to find a place to live in, and then figure out what she, as Lethe, was going to do in this gang-infested version of Brockton Bay...
That same night saw Lethe in full armor as she stood above one of the ABB's bases.
She knew that if she wanted to get anything done, she would need to be bold. As much as she admired Joe, she knew that she didn't have his patience nor his self-control to hold back until victory was guaranteed. Which made it so fortunate that she still had everything Joe had given her, from the entirety of her training, her equipment, and even her anti-precog charm that she knew was important to keep away the eye of that winged bitch in the sky.
Unlike Joe, she wouldn't have access to any resources until she actively sought them out. Unlike Joe, she couldn't just make herself better equipment, because even after everything he taught her, nothing she made could ever become better than even the most casual works of Apeiron. Unlike Joe, there was no point in waiting, and she knew if she was going to act, then she was going to act decisively and with enough temerity that few people would take the fight to her.
And so, she decided to make her opening debut in this world be the takedown of an entire gang.
Back in her world, with only her power and her recklessness, before Joe had even given her anything, she had managed to find the core of the new ABB's financial base. True, she didn't know what she found at the time and she ended up nearly dying in the process, but that achievement remained - even with just her power, Lethe could be a major threat to any of her enemies. There was a reason as to why people feared her name and called her the Celestial Forge's boogeyman.
Sure, she couldn't just reshape the world according to her whims like her teammates. Sure, she couldn't analyze her opponents in a microsecond and hash out counterplans the next moment. But the fact was, as far as most of the world was concerned, she didn't have to. Not when she could both figuratively and literally behead any enemy of the Celestial Forge without anyone even noticing.
Not that she had killed anyone yet. She never had to, and Lethe hoped that this situation wouldn't change that anytime soon.
In this world, where nobody even knew that she existed, with all of her training, equipment, and experience after years of involvement with the Celestial Forge's activities, her abilities were just completely overkill. Within the span of an hour, she had managed to track down not only the ABB base where Lung had resided, she had also managed to draw a giant transmutation circle around the entire thing without anyone noticing.
She watched as people stepped over and ignored portions of her transmutation circle, etched straight into stone. Her mental hand was over her power, the previously tempestuous force that was once a poisoned apple now tame as a kitten as she felt it shroud her existence and the circle's existence from the rest of the world. Like this, she knew that not even the Passengers in this dimension would be able to study her Alchemy at work, only the results after she was done.
She had had enough of her Alchemy skills stolen in her own world, thank you very much.
From her armor's subspace, she drew out her old friend and partner. When she grew older, her love for unicorns had mellowed out slowly, but Orudios was forever dear to her heart and she always took the time to get her out to graze and go on what Joe's clones called "enthusiastic walks." And as Orudios unfolded from her unicorn phone charm form into her familiar motorcycle, she gave her friend a comforting pat on the front.
"This world's different from where we came from, Orudios, so for a while I'm going to need to keep you in this form when we're out and about. Is that fine with you?" The satisfied hum from Zoid engine told her enough. "Alright, thank you Orudios. Now, let's get this party started, shall we?"
With a thought, she unshrouded herself with her power. Riding her motorcycle high and above in the sky, Lethe drove her around over a nonexistent track above the base before she pointed up, did a small flip, and came back straight down dead center over where she knew the ABB's meeting room was located. Mass effect fields wrapped around her and Orudios as they came down through the base's roof and three floors' worth of rooms before she crashed right into the middle of the ABB going through a meeting.
Members of the ABB gawked and stared at her in shock and fear as an unknown parahuman in power armor and a motorcycle landed right in front of their equally shocked leader.
Nobody could see her smile, but Lethe made sure that it carried through her tone. "Hello, you are Lung, correct? I am Lethe of the Celestial Forge, and as of tonight, I'll be dismantling the ABB's operations."
Lung, being an experienced cape, immediately threw a fireball at her instead of staring at her gall. Lethe let the flames harmlessly sweep through her frame as she got off and set Orudios on the panicking ABB troops. She knew that even without her guidance, her partner would be able to take care of them with as minimal trouble as possible, so she instead focused on the capes in the room.
Her scanners helpfully indicated the shock on Oni Lee's face through his mask when Lethe grabbed the hand holding his knife from her blind spot. Then, with a quick application of anesthetic and paralytic from her armor, she threw the quickly-unconscious cape over and behind her, just in time to see Lung charge straight towards her.
In that moment, Lethe remembered the strongest Lung had ever been. She remembered how he was like, towering over Brockton Bay like a dragon from hell in what had been called the Ungodly Hour. Back then, Joe had only realized too late what the effect of his power had on the capes surrounding him. It had only taken minutes for Lung to ramp up to the same level as he did against Leviathan, and then more past that.
But as she slapped Lung aside with the force Beria provided her, Lethe stared at the unconscious gang leader after he had gone through three walls.
"Well, that was a lot easier than I expected." Lethe hummed to herself as she turned to the ABB gangmembers frozen in fright around her.
Fortunately, Bakuda hadn't been recruited by Lung yet so there weren't any bombed civilians here, though Lethe confirmed with Beria that the tinker had already been taken into custody after she held her college hostage. Absentmindedly, she made a digital note on Beria to keep an eye on that as she rounded up Oni Lee and Lung in restraints, with Oni Lee blindfolded in case the man woke up somehow.
"Everyone, don't move." Lethe announced, largely pointlessly as at this point, Orudios had all the gang members grounded using mass effect fields. "I don't really know what the ABB has been doing or planning, but as you can all see, that ends now. I suggest not trying to resist or escape."
To punctuate her point, Lethe finally unleashed the building alchemical energy in the transmutation circle her power was still shrouding. She could literally hear the gang members lose their minds as her transmutation circle did quick work of the entire base, analyzing and deconstructing it in one breath until there was nothing but rubble surrounding them now.
Just in time too, as Beria indicated Velocity's arrival with Lethe having given the PRT just enough forewarning to witness her activities as it happened.
Lethe waved at the Protectorate member as he stared at the results of her short encounter.
"Hello, could you please call this in? I would like to report the takedown of the ABB's capes as an independent. I'll be tracking down the remnants of the gang later on, but for now, these two would need to be in containment."
And if Lethe took the ABB's coffers and most of their equipment in the process, well, nobody noticed. She needed the materials to construct her own workshop later on after all.
Lethe was lucky that she didn't need sleep as much as most people because it was while she was cleaning up and calling the PRT on the ABB's unpowered members in their other bases - she wouldn't let them resurge anytime soon, not at all - that Beria reminded her of her scheduled interview with the parallel version of her father.
Dropping the ABB lieutenant in her hands in front of a confused cop, Lethe immediately changed back into Ashe under cover of her power before she changed into a new pair of clothes more fitting for a gym in a nearby shop. And if she had to break into the shop to get said clothes, well that was only because the shop still wasn't open at 6 AM in the morning and Ashe made sure to leave the money on the counter with some extra for their trouble.
She couldn't help but miss Garment. It was ironic, given how much she initially had to be forced to wear her clothing, but while she still had some of her wardrobe on her, none of them were fit for the interview at the gym and she didn't exactly have enough time to make her own clothes at the moment.
Seven-thirty on the dot, she entered her father's gym and froze at who she saw.
"Is this the girl you were talking about last night?" Aisha Laborn turned at their father with an insolent look on her face, though at the moment Ashe had to hide her reaction away. To think, she made enough of an impression during her call that Dad brought her up around Aisha. "She doesn't seem like much."
Ashe very carefully did not let that get a rise out of her. She knew what her younger self was doing - already, at this age, she knew how to judge boundaries and test new people. She had done just that with Joe after all, and her estimates ended up being crushed once she actually got to know him and his identity as Apeiron.
The irony of how Aisha was testing another S-Class cape without knowing it did not go past Ashe.
"Don't worry, I'll prove myself soon." Ashe made an effort to not physically look down at her younger self, but it was close. Was she really that squishy at that age? No wonder Joe worried about her so much. Turning to her father Mr. Laborn, she asked him, "Will we be having the interview first, or do I first have to fight in the ring?"
If Ashe didn't know Mr. Laborn as well as she did, she wouldn't have recognized him being as gob-smacked. Ashe knew how she looked, and though part of her really didn't want to think of her father looking at her like she was just another woman instead of his daughter, she knew that she certainly didn't look like someone rated Brute 7. Joe was very good at hiding his improvements after all, and they only got better as she grew older.
Still, Mr. Laborn rallied quickly and cleared his throat, "I... didn't actually think that you would go for it. As long as you show me your qualifications, I'll let you get the job, don't worry."
Before Ashe could say anything in response to that, Aisha was already butting in, "Oh, come on Dad, can't you see that she's basically perking up to be in the ring? Are you saying that us girls can't fight?"
Mr. Laborn immediately began to look awkward at that. "Aisha, I'm not saying that she can't..."
"Then she totally could take Vince up for a short match!" Ashe could only watch with hidden horror and embarrassment as she saw her younger self needle their father, who looked entirely uncomfortable with dealing with the younger her. "Isn't that right, errr...?"
Realizing that Aisha was asking for her name, Ashe politely introduced herself to her younger self. "My name is Ashe. Ashe Duris."
"Great. Name's Aisha. We have pretty similar names, huh?" Ashe laughed to hell and back in the back of her mind at that. "Anyways, are you really up for that boxing match?"
Ashe smiled at her for that. "Would I be here if I wasn't? But no, it's Mr. Laborn gets to choose if I would really have to. He's my employer here, after all."
Mr. Laborn didn't quite meet her in the eyes. To someone observant, it was clear that he was still pretty embarrassed over Aisha, not that Ashe couldn't sympathize at this point. "Ah... Let's get to that interview first before any of that fighting business. You are here to be a secretary for the gym after all, not as a gym member. Not that I'm saying you can't be a gym member, just, well, being able to fight is not exactly necessary in doing paperwork."
From there, Ashe was led into the gym's office room and Aisha was quickly shooed away before Mr. Laborn gave her an interview. And while Ashe never had to actually work in a job like this since meeting Joe, she knew well enough from watching how Survey acted as Joe's secretary to score perfect points on the interview. Of course, that still left being able to do the job... but Ashe could just let Beria do most of the work while she used her power to conceal her armor in action. When he saw "her" work afterward, he certainly looked satisfied at the results.
An hour later saw Ashe shaking Mr. Laborn's hand as her job was finalized. From the gist of things, Ashe got the feeling that despite his initial misgivings over a fresh graduate taking the secretary job, nobody was trying to take the job in the first place and she knew him well enough to know he hated dealing with paperwork as opposed to doing his actual job as a coach. That also neatly explained why nobody acted as a secretary for the gym back in her world when she was at Aisha's age - nobody actually took the offer at the time.
When the two of them finally left the office, Aisha was already there, moving away the poor new guy she had been teasing to move on the fresher, bloodier waters. Ashe really couldn't believe that she was this embarrassing at this age... she needed to apologize to everyone she knew as soon as she got back home.
"So?" Aisha looked at them expectantly.
"I got the job, Aisha." Ashe responded first, mostly to save Mr. Laborn from the tiny storm her younger self was turning out to be. "We reached an agreement - I'll be here three times a week, at slightly higher than minimum wage."
Honestly the wage wasn't as important as just providing Ashe a reason to be around this place. Already, she was understanding why Joe saw it to be so important to maintain his relationships with other people even during everything that happened in Brockton Bay, all those years ago. Social interaction was important in and of itself if she wanted to remain sane in these circumstances.
Of course, Aisha wasn't helping Ashe with that at the moment, all of her past mistakes moving and acting right in front of her face.
"No, I meant the gym match!" Aisha grinned at her so slyly that Ashe had to keep down the urge to smack her face into the nearby wall. Ashe's face, not Aisha's, because Ashe could actually take it and her younger self just looked so squishy. "I already talked Vince around about it! Sure, it took a bit of effort, but he caved in and said that it was your choice!"
Ashe could see that no, neither Vince nor Mr. Laborn actually wanted to her to fight in the ring and they were basically begging her through their eyes to say no to Aisha for them. And though Ashe did feel rather sympathetic with their plight... to be honest, part of her just wanted to show off. She wanted to prove to this version of her father and this younger her that Aisha Laborn could indeed one day get stronger, even if none of them would ever know that it was actually her.
So, though this may be selfish of her... "I'll take that match then, if that's alright."
From the way Aisha's face rose and Vince's face fell at her response, Ashe knew that she won brownie points with her younger self while Vince deserved an apology later on. She really didn't want to put him out like this, but the sooner everyone here knew that they didn't have to treat her like something fragile and something more like Mrs. Gartenberg, then the better for everyone involved.
And sure enough, a counter, an uppercut, and one unconscious Vince later Ashe Duris got exactly what she wanted. The people in the gym stopped looking at her as an oddity and instead began to approach her like she was just another person there. True, she could make do without the flirting that also followed when she was going to be so busy, but one couldn't have everything.
(She still apologized about the fight with Vince in the end.)
To be continued.
So this is basically the brainchild of a week of just wondering how BCF Aisha would be like in canon Worm. Immediately I knew that unlike Joe, she wouldn't really hesitate on getting things done, especially if she was older like here in this omake. The problem I had was on what she was actually going to do, as my focus was more on the interpersonal interactions with the people she knew than actually dealing with the Worm plot.
Still going to continue this, and at the moment my plot seems to be pointing on Aisha first establishing herself as a powerhouse in Brockton Bay before going international. Logically speaking, she would most likely involve herself with Dragon (thus the Dragonslayers) and Leet, maybe even Bakuda, as a way to fix her way home, but she could easily go and dig up Professor Haywire's work just as well. And as for threats, I don't think she'll let Coil stay for too long given Grue is in danger while he's still around.
As for the bigger scale though? Like the Endbringers, the Passengers, and Zion? While Aisha might be willing to deal with other S-Class threats, she would be far more realistic with these particular threats and probably see them as more of "Once she gets Apeiron into this world" kind of thing as opposed as something to handle herself.
(And no, I haven't forgotten about the copy of the nanites inside Orudios. That's in the plot notes.)
To be fair, those are dependent on them getting the chance to use them, hypothetically speaking. I'm certainly not comparing Aisha to Gramps - Gramps is on a whole new level - but Legend does need to actively switch to his breaker state to recover, we all know how Alex dies in canon and Aisha does have a water sword thing, and Eidolon needs to know that he needs to pick the right power. As a stealth-based cape, Aisha could choose her battles and she could make sure that her first attack counts.
Honestly, I've wondered if there were supposed to be additional Shard shenanigans outside of their various parahumans' primary powers.
For example, I know that Jack Slash had the hidden Thinker/Master aspects from Broadcast but it seems like amidst the tens of thousands of the S9s desperate victims there must have been a lot of baseball bats, blades, bullets, Molotov cocktails, ramming by vehicles, and Home Alone-style improvised traps.
Similarly, Shadow Stalker seemed to have been amazingly successful as a vigilante with a basic on/off phasing ability. No one ever attacked her from behind? None of her victims ever played dead in order to get in an attack?
Skitter had the ability to shunt unwanted emotions to her swarm but she repeatedly demonstrated incredible resilience to trauma and injury. My memory might be flawed, but Taylor seemed to treat limb amputation like a nuisance because it threw off her balance. I know that Bakuda's pain bomb was supposed to have increased her pain-tolerance but blood loss and traumatic disruption of the nervous system should have still been serious issues.
As illustrated in Glory Girl's exposure to the Fragile One, the shards are only giving their hosts a tiny fraction of their true power and abilities like flight are something that every shard could easily provide. Is seems like recovery/recuperation time would be inconsistent with data acquisition.
Is there a WOG about additional general "buffs" that most parahumans typically received? Slight increase in durability or healing? Improved combat intuition or danger sense?
Sorry, but I couldn't really get this recursive fic idea out of my head. I wanted to wait until I had a better idea of what Aisha's Semblance would turn out to be, as well as the rest of her power ups, but considering this is essentially just the prologue I thought I could just fold in those details later.
Is there a WOG about additional general "buffs" that most parahumans typically received? Slight increase in durability or healing? Improved combat intuition or danger sense?
From my understanding, situations like with Jack Slash where a cape could go through their entire career not realizing a specific but subtle facet of their power isn't anything new. That's partly because the shards themselves are specifically testing interactions, partly because powers don't come with a manual. Taylor herself never quite realized her multitasking skills until around Tagg, for example, and it's actually the strongest element of her power.
But in this Triumvurate vs Lethe case, we know that the Triumvirate don't really have those things because as Cauldron capes, their strong powers are the result of their shards not really having been limited like in the case of conventional Triggers. So what they have is already most of what their shards could provide. Add to that Joe essentially also jailbreaking Aisha's power, which in canon was already so strong that it hid her from when Khepri, short of Jack Slash's plot armor, there's little chance they'll detect her unless Eidolon already has something up to counter Strangers.
Honestly, I've wondered if there were supposed to be additional Shard shenanigans outside of their various parahumans' primary powers.
Is there a WOG about additional general "buffs" that most parahumans typically received? Slight increase in durability or healing? Improved combat intuition or danger sense?
They get "necessary" secondary powers even though some like Taylor come out way ahead and get like half a dozen extra powers from it. It's supposed to be protection from your own power like people who have fire powers not getting burned by their own fire. However, it tends to spread beyond that aside from probably being the reason for the brute (strength, durability and regeneration) ratings subcategories being merged into one rating since strength needs durability or some form of self healing to handle it. There's also the masters especially of the same type such as emotional resisting each other thing.
However, the main thing is the secondary powers are wider than needed Sundancer for example for her protection from her own power has a temperature normalisation field where around her it's always the same temperature which does interfere in her life since she can't do things like have ice cream or a hot shower but it also means certain things like ice attacks won't work on her cause it'd get instantly heated and melt when it gets near her.
Honestly I enjoyed writing Ashe interact with Aisha the most. Just imagining the older Aisha be torn between wanting to spoil/protect her younger self and being absolutely embarrassed and ashamed of how she had been was delicious.
Logically speaking, she would most likely involve herself with Dragon (thus the Dragonslayers) and Leet, maybe even Bakuda, as a way to fix her way home, but she could easily go and dig up Professor Haywire's work just as well.
Lethe: "Listen, I have a way to solve all of your problems that exist or will exist. All you have to do is help me out with building a portal to another dimension."
Leet: "Are you trying to trick me into making a Hellgate? Because I will have you know, I played too much Doom to be tricked like this!"
Lethe: *visibly in contemplation*
Leet: "Fuck!"
Lethe: "What?"
Leet: "Listen, a joking question about Hellgate is not something ANYONE should be thinking over."
Lethe: "Well, it's not exactly Hell. Just my world have those portals to the place called "Nether" and... You know what, forget it. Literally."
Leet: "Wha-"*Gets smacked by Aisha's power and forgets about last few minutes*
Lethe: "Listen, I have a way to solve all of your problems that exist or will exist. All you have to do is help me out with building a portal to another dimension."
Leet: "Are you trying to trick me into making a Hellgate? Because I will have you know, I played too much Doom to be tricked like this!"
Lethe: *visibly in contemplation*
Leet: "Fuck!"
Lethe: "What?"
Leet: "Listen, a joking question about Hellgate is not something ANYONE should be thinking over."
Lethe: "Well, it's not exactly Hell. Just my world have those portals to the place called "Nether" and... You know what, forget it. Literally."
Leet: "Wha-"*Gets smacked by Aisha's power and forgets about last few minutes*
To be fair, those are dependent on them getting the chance to use them, hypothetically speaking. Legend does need to actively switch to his breaker state to recover... As a stealth-based cape, Aisha could choose her battles and she could make sure that her first attack counts.
No. Legend's Breaker state healing is limited, but not like that. See his interlude:
"If an opponent attacked and struck him, he instinctively transitioned into his energy form for a split second. In that state, he absorbed energy of a variety of kinds, including the kinetic energy that was transferred with a punch or with a bullet. His opponents were forced to whittle him down, each attack only a fraction as effective as it might otherwise be. Even then, a share of that small amount of damage was healed a second later as he used the absorbed energy to mend his body. Conversely, his enemies could try to hit him with enough speed and force that even a hundredth of a second of contact was sufficient to take him out of the fight. Leviathan and Behemoth had managed to land blows of that magnitude."
So it comes down to a speedblitz, not just a sneak attack.
"Legend was part of the perimeter around the Machine Army. He had taken a few too many hits from the Titans, and his 'recuperation' was floating in the sky near the portal, bombarding the area.
"She focused a camera in on one area. Machines with the rough dimensions of refrigerators and spidery mechanical legs were escorting others, bearing shimmering forcefields on their backs. When the lasers hit the forcefields, they reflected off.
"Which meant Legend had to change the orientation of his shots. Lasers turned at right angles, struck underbellies, severed legs. Machines picked up the immobilized deflector drones, raising them up as they would a palanquin. He shot those too."
Not only is there everything that Jozef would have taught her and made for her, there is also the powers he may (or may not) have granted her with the perk "Glory to the Legion", which potentially included any- or every- thing granted by the Percy Jackson jump. Then we consider whether or not he did any genetic alterations, for the Bloody Roar shapechange, for example, or Strike Witches magic.
Interesting to think about.
Well, I'm off to read Brockton Celestial Forge Reference.
Speaking of Fate, would Joe find Excalibur impressive?
"Wait... so it can go invisible, the scabbard heals, and it can fire out a giant blast of energy? That's it? There's no other features? Jeez, lady, you're overdo for an upgrade. The fairies taught me to build stuff as good as this at minimum."
Nah, in this case Excalibur was made to be as simple as possible. It was made to destroy an enemy (the White Titan, Sefar) who's special gimmick was breaking down and absorbing "civilization." Anything made from civilization (technology, techniques, etc) could be completely absorbed, recorded, and used to grow stronger and more powerful, whereas brute force was only partially absorbed. Sefar was kicking all the Gods' it faced assess, so Gaia stepped up (metaphorically), had the Fae forge Excalibur to be wielded by a human, and they killed Sefar with a huge-ass laserbeam basically. (Sefar attacking is also what made the Age of Gods start ending due to the damage it did.)
And yes, this does mean the crystallization of Humanity's hopes and dreams is a sword that fires lasers. I find it very fitting.
Also, technically Excalibur could be used as an extremely powerful catalyst for magic/magecraft (divine-level specifcally), but so far every wielder has focused more on other things in life and just used it as a sword.
But unfortunatly, there's something that killed my suspension of disbelief deader than Lung getting hit by a FTL bike.
You assumed that endgame!Aisha would be the same (or close to the same) as current !Aisha. Not only would endgame!Aisha would have much better gear (3 days old gear + heretical adaptation), but she would also have entirely new powers to boot. And we arn't talking "better numbers" here, but entirely new applications.
You assumed that endgame!Aisha would be the same (or close to the same) as current !Aisha. Not only would endgame!Aisha would have much better gear (3 days old gear + heretical adaptation), but she would also have entirely new powers to boot. And we arn't talking "better numbers" here, but entirely new applications.
Yeah, I know. But the thing is, Aisha doesn't really replace her equipment as much as she gets upgrades (so they still have the same names), and what Aisha did in this omake was effectively just the tip of the iceberg of her full capabilities. Note how she just essentially went in on a bike, slapped the capes silly, arrested the nonpowered members, and the Alchemy was just for emphasis on how she wasn't even on the same level as them by getting rid of the building like it was an afterthought. She didn't even use her power, any magic, or any more terrifying bullshit that Joe could've provided her. Just plain strength and alchemy.
Hence, why Lethe said herself that it was "overkill" - she was essentially sandbagging the entire thing like an Endbringer and still nobody could even compete with her. And the same would go for 99.9% of canon Worm, because while Worm has some pretty terrifying parallel world-ending threats, most of the story is still stuck at the city or country level while TYL!Lethe in this setting is operating on the world-level. And even then, she still considers herself the weakest of the Celestial Forge and the "stealthy" option. So yeah, after a decade, Aisha herself has kind of lost touch with what others consider powerful after working hand in hand with Apeiron and the rest. That was going to be the entire point.
Even then though, the Endbringers and Zion are still a threat to her. Not because of what they could do to her, per-se, but similar to Joe in-fic at the moment that her acting against them and vice-versa could lead to lots of collateral damage in the process, and so she'll be deferring that job to Apeiron when the time comes.
Even then though, the Endbringers and Zion are still a threat to her. Not because of what they could do to her, per-se, but similar to Joe in-fic at the moment that her acting against them and vice-versa could lead to lots of collateral damage in the process, and so she'll be deferring that job to Apeiron when the time comes.
While Zion is kind of nightmare you leave for Joe to deal with, I am pretty sure even current Lethe at the very least can hold her own against sandbagging Endis. Endgame Lethe absolutely can throw hands with Endis and come out on top. Though, yes, collateral damage would be a bitch. Still, valid option if everything else fails.
While Zion is kind of nightmare you leave for Joe to deal with, I am pretty sure even current Lethe at the very least can hold her own against sandbagging Endis. Endgame Lethe absolutely can throw hands with Endis and come out on top. Though, yes, collateral damage would be a bitch. Still, valid option if everything else fails.
The thing is, given how in this version of Aisha, my idea of how her power (her Stranger power + Ren + Beria assist) has grown involves Apeiron personally jailbreaking her shard. As in, he went to Shardspace, took over her Shard, and gave it Apeiron-level improvements. So this version of her can definitely hide basically everything even from the Shards and Zion, and that includes Sting attacks. So hypothetically, Endgame Aisha could just recruit the local Flechette and snipe down basically every major threat with almost no fear of retaliation.
The problem however is that this Aisha isn't exactly specced to counter the explosions that occur after killing any of the Endbringers, and even "almost" is not enough for dealing with Zion as far as this Aisha is concerned. If there is even a slightest chance that dealing with them would cause massive collateral damage, Aisha won't act because why should she when Apeiron can 100% cleanup that threat once she gets back home and brings him back with her? Hence why "everything but the Endbringers and Zion" because Aisha is working at Celestial Forge levels of standards.
Legend: makes the casualties speech
Lethe: No, we don't do that here. No casualties it is.
They're not alive, but they're so massive that LR has stated that even Joe with all of his perks can't use Alchemy to cheese them before they just escape.
With the shit Joe can do him intentionally upgrading and improving Aisha shard -Which he would do to the best of his abilities because it would help keep Aisha safe- would leave it many orders of magnitude stronger, literally would transform it into a Divine Artifact as a base and just thinking of how powerful shards already are? Just imagine how strong a shard that is now a Divine Artifact would be.
Insane, that's what it would be. Complete madness.
Possible overkill-Lethe: "I control in real time what everyone knows about me and no one is immune, even the other Shards. For example, for the next 5 minutes, they will not be sure if I am a duck in disguise, and I will make it so that it is the "most likely" initial hypothesis about me.
Oh, and good luck targeting me, if your power itself does not even realize that I exist."
... Yup. Scion is already dead, but he (ironically) does not know it yet.
The thing is, given how in this version of Aisha, my idea of how her power (her Stranger power + Ren + Beria assist) has grown involves Apeiron personally jailbreaking her shard. As in, he went to Shardspace, took over her Shard, and gave it Apeiron-level improvements. So this version of her can definitely hide basically everything even from the Shards and Zion, and that includes Sting attacks. So hypothetically, Endgame Aisha could just recruit the local Flechette and snipe down basically every major threat with almost no fear of retaliation.
The problem however is that this Aisha isn't exactly specced to counter the explosions that occur after killing any of the Endbringers, and even "almost" is not enough for dealing with Zion as far as this Aisha is concerned. If there is even a slightest chance that dealing with them would cause massive collateral damage, Aisha won't act because why should she when Apeiron can 100% cleanup that threat once she gets back home and brings him back with her? Hence why "everything but the Endbringers and Zion" because Aisha is working at Celestial Forge levels of standards.
Legend: makes the casualties speech
Lethe: No, we don't do that here. No casualties it is.
