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Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)

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Prepare yourself for the next Denial-off!

Brian Laborn VS Taylor Hebert
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Will the be able to ignore everything around them? Will they look away from the obvious truths that defy their poorly thought out excuses? You will find out NEXT THURSDAY ON DENIAL-OFF!

Kind of a "eh" chapter, gave me the same plain bread with water feeling than the last one did. Sure, things happened, but it was still mostly set up for the real meat of it all: Brian having his tiny dumbass brain explode from knowing just how fucked everyone really is.

Still, a really well written chapter, it showed really well that Brian isn't quite looking at Aisha (and Joe for that matter) like a person but as the cross he needs to martyr himself on, denying any posibility of things becoming for the best because that would mean he is the one still stuck in a crappy situation (of his own making, mind you).

Not saying he doesn't truly care about Aisha, but he seems to deep into his own problems that he doesn't pay attention or is in denial about how much Aisha have changed, prefering to blame it all on the new Cape than think that maybe his lil sis have actually grown in the last month with everything that have happened.

It make Brian really come across as someone who... well, hate may be too much, but someone who rejects change brought outside his perview, even if it's for the better, because he can't take control of it.

No wonder Tay liked the guy in canon :V

The imagery of Aisha calling for everyone and everything's attention with her Semblance was great too, it almost makes me want to see it acted out or animated. It simple and it perfectly explained what happened, and it showed how much Aisha have grown in power when even the CHAIRS "looked" at her.

Joe seeing two siblings going on circles around each other, one because he refused to hear and the other because she was stalling, and simply cutting the middleman (poor middleman, he died so young) and getting to the point was a nice detail too.
 
Mesaphrom said:
Still, a really well written chapter, it showed really well that Brian isn't quite looking at Aisha (and Joe for that matter) like a person but as the cross he needs to martyr himself on, denying any posibility of things becoming for the best because that would mean he is the one still stuck in a crappy situation (of his own making, mind you).

Not saying he doesn't truly care about Aisha, but he seems to deep into his own problems that he doesn't pay attention or is in denial about how much Aisha have changed, prefering to blame it all on the new Cape than think that maybe his lil sis have actually grown in the last month with everything that have happened.
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In programming, we refer to this as an "X-Y Problem".

Brian wants to make sure that Aisha is safe. At some point, he decided that the way to do that was to keep her completely out of Cape Life.

Now, he is completely focussed on keeping her out of Cape Life, even when that isn't the best way to keep her safe.

In other words: he's so caught up on trying to "fix" his method, that he hasn't stopped to decide if a different method should be used to achieve his goal.
 
YuffieK said:
"Aisha, you can't be involved with all of this!"
"Brian, I am involved. You can argue as much as you want but I don't need you to protect me anymore, I can handle myself."
"You're THIRTEEN!"
"Chronologically."
Brian blinked. "What?"
"Fun fact about the Workshop, Time can be a little more... fluid in here."
Brian processed that for a moment. "That's... That's how... Joe manages his three-day-old TinkerTech bullshit, isn't it?"
"Used to be. He's kind of outgrown it already, but the rest of us can take advantage of it."
"How... How long have you been in here?"
"I've had about a decade's worth of experience since I met Joe. Sorry to burst your bubble, bro, but I'm the big sister now."
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I just realized that Aisha's dating life is gonna be hell for a while. She's at this point more mature than most adults, but she's barely a teenager. Her choices are between dating a pedophile, or basically being the pedophile, or just not making romantic experiences until she's like 20. None of these are good options.
 
Neko-tama said:
I just realized that Aisha's dating life is gonna be hell for a while. She's at this point more mature than most adults, but she's barely a teenager. Her choices are between dating a pedophile, or basically being the pedophile, or just not making romantic experiences until she's like 20. None of these are good options.
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I like to think of this as intelectually mature vs emotionally mature.

Aisha knows a lot, as in, a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT of things, but as it have been shown time an again she isn't all that much mature than her age would indicate.

Congrats, Aisha! You went from being as mature as an elementary schooler to be as mature as a highschool freshwoman! Meaning that you can understand what being mature means but it doesn't mean you are as mature as you think!

Chronocidal said:
In programming, we refer to this as an "X-Y Problem".

Brian wants to make sure that Aisha is safe. At some point, he decided that the way to do that was to keep her completely out of Cape Life.

Now, he is completely focussed on keeping her out of Cape Life, even when that isn't the best way to keep her safe.

In other words: he's so caught up on trying to "fix" his method, that he hasn't stopped to decide if a different method should be used to achieve his goal.
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Brian: I have to keep my sister away from Capes, so I will become a criminal Cape working for a guy that I don't even know how he looks like but gives me "clean" money and a "legal" job!
 
Brainstorm813 said:
Isn't this generally a pretty good option?
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No? Why would that be a good option? Maybe I'm just overly needy, but I require at least one romantic partner in my life for the sake of mental health. Besides that, your teens are a time of social, romantic, and sexual learning. Even if you're ace/aro, it's a time to figure out what it is exactly that you don't like.

Pretending like humans are, or should be innocent of the very concept of sexuality until some arbitrary age has always struck me as distasteful at best, and outright idiotic, and even unhealthy at worst. It leads to this weird relationship to our own bodies, and sexuality in general that I cannot abide. Like we should be ashamed of what we are under our clothes, and how we feel about others. Very unhealthy.

For context, I'm asexual, so if I think people are too uptight about this kind of thing, it should give you pause.
 
Dracovictorious said:
While Aisha's just sitting in the back thinking on her driving lessons and knowing she could do the best. And if I remember right, she's licensed to do so.
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I was thinking of this too, probably the funniest way for her to be reveal she is Lethe to Brian, using CF nonsense to have drivers license at 12.
HandleWithCare said:
Brian.exe has crashed...
Brian.exe is trying to load a previous safe point...
Brian.exe has crashed...
Brian.exe is trying to load a previous safe point...

Brian fell back on old behaviour but so did Aisha. Honestly, her smug behaviour came of as a bit dickish (though on brand for siblings). Brian was trying to protect her and the fact he didn't know he didn't have to was her fault, no one else's
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Honestly, I side with Brian here, from his perspective Joe basically just kidnapped Aisha for the crime of gaslighting him about "I know something you don't about Grue *tee hee*" and he is desperately trying to to get her out of there so he can clear the air with Joe.
 
I was sort of expecting an interlude this week, before getting to the real conversation. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was Brian. Hope your health improves LR!

One interlude I found myself contemplating this week: What would an Alena interlude look like? Her somewhat flighty, awkward brother suddenly stops following the script, coming across as competent and in control of his own life for the first time she can remember? And ALSO calling into question just how much of what she remembers is actually accurate? I imagine she's having a hard time with this, and she's only had what, 3 phone calls?
 
SiegfriedisOP said:
"We didn't know how bad Joe was doing till we realized him being ugly as fuck wasn't his normal state."
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It wasn't really that, or at least that wasn't the intent of the statement. You have to keep in mind that Joe was supposedly joining the gym after he went through a rough patch. Then, again since the time in this story is actually relatively short, he clearly cleaned himself up, started wearing better clothing, and was holding himself with more confidence. Even if Joe's appearance hadn't change, this would have been noted.

MinionNumberQ said:
He's a natural trigger, he basically lives and breathes paranoia and other mental problems.
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It's not so much that, rather than....
Up until a month ago he was the only sane person in his disfunctional family, had an insanely dangerous job and his closest "friend" was Tattletale.
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One of the thing that gets brushed over is how fast all this has changed, and Brian hasn't had time to really catch up with his family and see things. If there is one thing Brian was never good at, it was adapting on the fly - that's why he insisted the team work in a specific way and that their 'rep' was maintained in a certain way - it was a way to handle the team without everything blowing up at once, which he is not skilled at handling.
Mr_Rose said:
I wonder when Brian is going to finally process the combination of "the hot guy standing next to Aisha has a girlfriend" and "the hot guy next to Aisha is Joeperion" and realise "Apeiron has a girlfriend" is now information he has rattling around his head for Tattletale to pick up on?
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I mean, he's probably going to assume Survey or Garment.
Azzy_Rael said:
I think that the point would be that it would be both heavily out of character and socially styming for Aisha- unable to build connections outside of the Forge
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.... Does Aisha have any connections outside of the gym, Brian, or the team? It's never noted in canon as her having a lot of friends or anything. For all we know, Aisha is perfectly content with her friends on the team and the guys at the gym as 'big brothers but not really'.
 
I wonder if Aisha will bring up that Brian is technically indebted to her. And that she owns her own planet. And more importantly that she owns her own house in this shitty economy, making her a winner in life.
 
Mesaphrom said:
Meaning that you can understand what being mature means but it doesn't mean you are as mature as you think!
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I think she actually has the opposite problem to be honest. Aisha has internalized being called the troublemaker so much that at this point she thinks she is more immature than she actually is, to the point where she does act immature because she thinks it's expected of her.

Like, she is definitely far from perfect, but there are grown adults with less maturity than her. Aside from a few roadbumps, mostly from the time before or just after she had just met Joe, Aisha has been making remarkably mature and insightful decisions for someone her age, even discounting all the timey-wimey stuff.

Remember, Aisha had been pretty crucial to giving Joe peptalks over the course of the fic, the most crucial being when he was having an existential crisis over pulling things from fiction, followed by the talks they had over family and relationships. She was also the only reason why a lot of problems in regards to understanding humans got nixed in the bud, like keeping Delphine Mertens from being too hot or ensuring that Joe recognized just how messed up the shit Parian pulled could have been.

But in front of her family? Aisha is the troublemaker and is seen as the troublemaker so she acts like it, even when we know she could be mature about it if she tries. Just like how Joe has to struggle to keep himself from being a doormat to his family, Aisha has to struggle to both be taken seriously and to act seriously as well as opposed to trying to play things off.
 
Zanji117 said:
Brian really hit me as a bit of a control freak where everything has to be a certain way where he's in control and everything is going to plan
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While there are elements of that it's really more along the lines of the him having commitment issues if you are familiar with wildbow wog. For example he basically does a personal MMA combat style he came up with himself from trying out different ones and cherry picking bits to mix in before moving onto the next long before mastery and the reason he never considered joining the prt is that you can't easily quit once you do and even if you do they know your civ id and will hassle you. You may question then about the undersiders and Coil and the answer there is that Brian is an idiot who thinks he can walk away from them whenever he wants with no consequences beyond losing Coil's aid with Aisha.

Mesaphrom said:
It make Brian really come across as someone who... well, hate may be too much, but someone who rejects change brought outside his perview, even if it's for the better, because he can't take control of it.

No wonder Tay liked the guy in canon :V
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Ironically that very trait caused them a lot of friction because aside from Brian hating how she kept jockeying for command and calling the shots he hated working with her in the field. That's cause the dozen odd secondary powers Taylor has meant she got in the habit of flipping the board and turning everything into chaos because they meant she could keep track of it and be taking multiple actions to take advantage of it while everyone was get a grasp on the situation. However, Brian hated it and considered it a real headache because she didn't communicate so he was also often scrambling or left with no choice but to follow her orders.

For the Taylor side it's more just he's tall, muscled and was nice to her. Honestly speaking tho their canon relationship is pretty creepy because he had her mentally filed as teammate/little sister to the point Taylor filled Aisha's role in his 2nd trigger. However, that second trigger mentally broke him pretty much leaving him a clingy doormat unable to say no to people so when Taylor pushed for a relationship including sex he wasn't really in a position he could say no and while canon Aisha approved of it it honestly came off as kind of rapey to me.
 
Everyone's been quoting the closing paragraph of Aisha's speech, but did nobody pick up on the other zinger from this chapter?

LordRoustabout said:
"Even if you didn't know, I'd rather not have this dropped on me out of the blue."

"Yeah." Joe said with a nod. "I'm not exactly thrilled about it either."

"You seem to be taking it pretty well." Brian said.

"I've had some time to work through things." Joe explained.

"What, in the last thirty seconds?" Joe just gave Brian a flat look and suddenly he was a lot less interested in pursuing that question.
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Yep Brian, that's what I thought. Don't forget who you're dealing with.
 
SoulShdw said:
I mean, he's probably going to assume Survey or Garment.
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Except he learned this information from Vince, professional random bystander, talking about Joe the new guy/Aisha's latest project. Not, say, the national news media blathering about Garment's/Survey's mysterious paramour.
I figure anyone from the gym would make a bigger deal of "their" cape getting a boyfriend, especially "one of their own" while Survey is literally too hot to avoid comment (whether that's "lucky guy" or "why not me" or something else depending on the observer's relationship with Joe).
readerdreamer said:
But in front of her family? Aisha is the troublemaker and is seen as the troublemaker so she acts like it, even when we know she could be mature about it if she tries. Just like how Joe has to struggle to keep himself from being a doormat to his family, Aisha has to struggle to both be taken seriously and to act seriously as well as opposed to trying to play things off.
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Yup, habitual behaviour is hard to break but also remember her Kunoichi training; it's also possible that "old Aisha" is a role she's consciously playing to allay suspicion. Just doing it a bit too well because of what you said.
 
SoulShdw said:
Then, again since the time in this story is actually relatively short, he clearly cleaned himself up, started wearing better clothing, and was holding himself with more confidence
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Its Aphrodite and the perks.

Basically to rationalize Joe looking like a supermodel with perfect airbrush filter out of the Blue the people around him assume that he was so burdened with angst that he somehow looked plain.
 
LordRoustabout said:
He also wasn't in a state to drive, so that fell to Brian. Neither of them particularly appreciated Aisha's offer to drive, nor her insistence that she could "totally handle it". At least enduring Aisha's antics was a point of familiarity for the two of them, something Brian desperately needed right now.
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Reminder that Aisha has a legal driver's license because reasons. Honestly with the number of simulations she's probably done plus her superhuman reactions times and awareness she's probably way better than her brother and father.
LordRoustabout said:
As practical jokes went, this was the equivalent of juggling nuclear bombs, and she seemed just as oblivious to the stakes as always.
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Honestly she'd probably be safe juggling nuclear bombs.
LordRoustabout said:
"Please." Aisha said as she settled into one of the elaborate chairs. A chair near Joe, which put her facing Brian. "No one's going to notice."
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Subtle stranger effects for the win.
LordRoustabout said:
Brian nodded. "Right, but things with Aisha, they're different. You probably heard some stuff around the gym, but that's only the tip of the iceberg."
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Joe probably knows Aisha better than Brain does at this point. Literally years of time spent together in the computation core.
Arafell said:
Poor Brian. The Aisha in his memories is three-day-old Aisha.
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She's significantly older than him now if we count accelerated time.
KNM said:
Oh the hypocrisy of Brian worrying about Aisha getting caught up as a puppet by a cape lol
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LysanderArgent said:
Brian really annoys me.
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Brian's biggest enemy is himself honestly. In both this and in canon he seems determined to make terrible decision after terrible decision. Really any plan to help Aisha other than become a super villain would have been better.
HandleWithCare said:
Up until a month ago he was the only sane person in his disfunctional family, had an insanely dangerous job and his closest "friend" was Tattletale.

Being a paranoid control freak makes perfect sense
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Even worse. He thought he was the only sane man. Looking at his choices in canon... Those are not the choices of a sane man. So he's actually just delusional.
Brainstorm813 said:
Isn't this generally a pretty good option?
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Considering the vast majority of highschool relationships are disasters in various ways. Then thinking about how plenty of people get well into their twenties without having any romance and then easily slide into happy, healthy relationships I'd say the no relationships route is a good one. Really if you need a romantic relationship to be emotionally healthy you should work on emotional self regulation and having good relationships with your friends. Romantic relationships are a good thing, but they also aren't the end all be all of relationships.
 
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