Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)

Seriously, the PRT needs to start realising how badly they're underestimating Apeiron on an official level. Director Armstrong gets it, maybe Triumph is beginning to get it, but generally they're doing the three blind men and the elephant.

I think that when Triumph fully 'gets it', he's going to do something dumb, like I'm betting he makes a real attempt at taking out the Butcher.
He's low key terrified of what will happen when he dies, he's probably heard the Powers-Tinker theory and 'helped Weld with Case 53 stuff' about Apeiron already, and will likely be hearing about Dauntless' Arclance and Apeiron's offer to 2 of the previous Butchers soon, probably the first meeting with the rest of the Protectorate heroes to catch him up.
 
I think that when Triumph fully 'gets it', he's going to do something dumb, like I'm betting he makes a real attempt at taking out the Butcher.
He's low key terrified of what will happen when he dies, he's probably heard the Powers-Tinker theory and 'helped Weld with Case 53 stuff' about Apeiron already, and will likely be hearing about Dauntless' Arclance and Apeiron's offer to 2 of the previous Butchers soon, probably the first meeting with the rest of the Protectorate heroes to catch him up.

Problem there is Butcher is already too tough for him to kill plus is 1-3 days from launching their dumb scheme that will end with Joe disabling them possibly after jumping hosts a few times
 
As long as their thinker predictions says that Apeiron is in a reactive stance and hold to himself they won't panic too much. I think the moment when Apeiron can go annihilate Slaughterhouse 9 in a show force they will be at the end of their ropes but still holding on what they think is his rules.

The only reason he's waiting is to give the fig leaf of 'nah bruv i'm totally reacting to them approaching me' to try and mitigate the panic a bit.
 
The only reason he's waiting is to give the fig leaf of 'nah bruv i'm totally reacting to them approaching me' to try and mitigate the panic a bit.
Aperion and the Forge killing an S class threat, popping all the Grey Boy bubbles, fixing all of Bonesaw's living victims, healing thousands of people, and removing Jack's master effect on a world wide scale: Nah bro. You don't need to worry we're just reacting to them approaching us.
 
Y'know, I just had a thought. People previously were talking about how ape iron is pretty much a fey or God of a pantheon. How long do you think it'll be until people REALLY start to worship him? I know Joe obviously isn't all for it, but considering people were apparently maybe already doing it in the refugee camp, it seems like it's only a matter of time. What kind of religion would start? Ape iron is the chief God with the other members of the forge his fellow gods, and people like Chang, Lily, and Taylor are his mortal champions/demigods.
 
Honestly at the scale Joe is working at, the PRT isn't that exactly his major concern. He's concerned about everything, every organization, every parahuman's reaction to his reveal. He's not just concerned about the Triumvirate, but he's concerned about the CUI. He's concerned about the Elite. He's concerned about Gessellschaft.

He's concerned whether Phir Se would be driven into well intentioned panic and do something with his portals. He's concerned whether some hitherto parahuman unknown to the public would consider Apeiron revealing himself as unfettered to be so apocalyptic that they might as well go down burning everything around them. And yes, he's concerned if the PRT collapses on itself then there would be people crushed under the long unstable skyscraper that is parahuman regulations.

That's the scale of Joe's concerns, the scale of his standards. Every death or casualty that his reveal may indirectly cause that could otherwise have been prevented if he was more cautious, more perfect at how he could've done it is something that he refuses. You could even call it arrogance of the highest degree, but Joe is literally more and more godlike and near omnipotent as time goes by. Not only that, he has friends and allies that are ridiculously powerful in their own way. Logically speaking, if there's anyone who could manage it, it's them the Celestial Forge.
 
Honestly at the scale Joe is working at, the PRT isn't that exactly his major concern. He's concerned about everything, every organization, every parahuman's reaction to his reveal. He's not just concerned about the Triumvirate, but he's concerned about the CUI. He's concerned about the Elite. He's concerned about Gessellschaft.

He's concerned whether Phir Se would be driven into well intentioned panic and do something with his portals. He's concerned whether some hitherto parahuman unknown to the public would consider Apeiron revealing himself as unfettered to be so apocalyptic that they might as well go down burning everything around them. And yes, he's concerned if the PRT collapses on itself then there would be people crushed under the long unstable skyscraper that is parahuman regulations.

That's the scale of Joe's concerns, the scale of his standards. Every death or casualty that his reveal may indirectly cause that could otherwise have been prevented if he was more cautious, more perfect at how he could've done it is something that he refuses. You could even call it arrogance of the highest degree, but Joe is literally more and more godlike and near omnipotent as time goes by. Not only that, he has friends and allies that are ridiculously powerful in their own way. Logically speaking, if there's anyone who could manage it, it's them the Celestial Forge.
And for people who for sure will come running and saying that Joe can easily fix all of the above...

Yeah. He can. Easily. IF he basically declares himself God Emperor of Mankind. Which he very explicitly doesnt want to do.
 
And you get MS confinement! And you MS confinement! EVERYONE gets MS confinement.

But ya that conversation is going have the PRT sweating bricks lol thanks for the chapter.
 
I wonder what exactly Lily and Weld will say to the National Office. They have a partial confidentiality contract so the higher ups can't push for anything they do not talk about. However they can still extrapolate from information Lily and Weld will talk about.

I expect the teens to use director Armstrong as their point of contact in the PRT. Why ? Because they know he's on good term with Apeiron, and he's Weld guardian. Also he's a high ranking reasonable authority figure, which is relatively rare in Worm.
 
Huh. I wonder if Taylor is going to accidentally play into those rumours about her actually being fifty million bugs in a trench coat by trying to use her swarm to cover up any regeneration the nanites do for her?
Like, "oops Scrub vanished half an arm, quick let me get a bunch of flies over here to cover it so they don't see the glow, wait why is everyone running away?"
 
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Between the Endbringer-killer paper sword and the fire paperclip, the PRT is in for a shock when they re-estimate Apeiron's resource base. He's gone from "very well resourced but not to an extent that a few side contracts couldn't explain" to "can out-Tinker most Tinkers with the contents of a trash can". Any hope that he'd get knocked back to the Pouch Items era if he lost his resource base is gone.
 
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Between the Endbringer-killer paper sword and the fire paperclip, the PRT is in for a shock when they re-estimate Apeiron's resource base. He's gone from "very well resourced but not to an extent that a few side contracts couldn't explain" to "can out-Tinker most Tinkers with the contents of a trash can". Any hope that he'd get knocked back to the Pouch Items era if he lost his resource base is gone.

The PRT know Apeiron can do crafting incredibly fast since the Uber and Leet fight after the ABB financial raid. I don't think Lily's lily is going to change Apeiron assessment. He's still Tinker : yes, strategy : don't piss him off.

(Through the point is kind of moot anyway since the PRT can't find Apeiron's lab to destroy his resource)
 
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The PRT know Apeiron can do crafting incredibly fast since the Uber and Leet fight after the ABB financial raid. I don't think Lily's lily is going to change Apeiron assessment. He's still Tinker : yes, strategy : don't piss him off.

(Through the point is kind of moot anyway since the PRT can't find Apeiron's lab to destroy his resource)
They know he can work extremely fast and repurpose other tinkers' works, not that he can turn literal trash into god tier weapons. People assume Apeiron has limited resources; may be a lot of them but ALL tinkers are limited by their resource bases. People might realize that Apeiron doesnt give a shit about resources and can just work with whatever. Which removes yet another perceived limiter to his power.
 
They know he can work extremely fast and repurpose other tinkers' works, not that he can turn literal trash into god tier weapons. People assume Apeiron has limited resources; may be a lot of them but ALL tinkers are limited by their resource bases. People might realize that Apeiron doesnt give a shit about resources and can just work with whatever. Which removes yet another perceived limiter to his power.
Interestingly, I think he did mention that his high quality work is limited by resources. Lily and Weld may not realize that though.
 
Interestingly, I think he did mention that his high quality work is limited by resources. Lily and Weld may not realize that though.

The whole point of Lily's lily was to demonstrate what he could do with "trash", and that in comparison his healing tech was something that required significant resources. I'm pretty sure the teens got the message.

But whenever they will share that interesting trivia with the PRT is another matter entirely.
 
The whole point of Lily's lily was to demonstrate what he could do with "trash", and that in comparison his healing tech was something that required significant resources. I'm pretty sure the teens got the message.

But whenever they will share that interesting trivia with the PRT is another matter entirely.
Oh. Them actually explaining sounds unlikely. I also think that even with him explaining they probably still fail to grasp what he meant by limited resources. They definitely don't understand that his main limitation is spiritual energy and to replenish it he needs to talk to people.
 
Interestingly, I think he did mention that his high quality work is limited by resources. Lily and Weld may not realize that though.
Even if they did, he didn't say what sort of resources and I bet they won't guess "social interaction with pretty blondes" is a vital and carefully husbanded asset.

In other news, assuming The Plan goes off without a hitch, coil ends up in prison and the Undersiders disband, how are they going to rehabilitate Taylor's image into that of a hero?
Straight up rebrand? "What? No! This bug controlling cape with the terrifying mien is nothing to do with that other bug controlling cape with the equally but slight differently terrifying affect, don't be silly!" *sweats profusely*
Just roll with the cover story? "Ah yes, Aegis totally volunteered to be chopped to pieces on live television to sell Khepri's 'villain' persona to Coil *mumbles* even if it was retroactively… ahem, and of course we kept it off the books; we knew someone was leaking info to Coil, just not that it was Coil in his guise as Thomas Calvert."
 
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